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Thread: What's hot in real world news?

  1. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nigel Hanrahan View Post
    This one is somewhat chess-related: the Government of Canada, among other things, has eliminated visa processing at the Canadian Embassy in Havana. So Cubans now have to fly to another country to get a visa to come to Canada - say, to play in a chess tournament.

    I guess that is effectively goodbye to all Cuban chess-players in Canadian tournaments.

    Not very friendly by Canada I would say.
    That is surprising. Any word of why they have done that? Justin Trudeau was very close to Fidel Castro. He wrote a glowing eulogy when he died.

  2. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir Drkulec View Post
    That is surprising. Any word of why they have done that? Justin Trudeau was very close to Fidel Castro. He wrote a glowing eulogy when he died.
    Looking at the reporting on this story and it's pretty clear this is a newish political animosity towards Cuba from Canada. The GoC has acted much as the US has done, and in the reporting they have even noted their co-ordination with the US.

    I've provided a link over at ChessTalk on this story although, so far, there are no replies.

    A mysterious illness,[at one point, embarrassingly for Canada and the US, attributed to the noise of crickets!] has been given as a reason for the reduction in staff, which has led to the reduction in services. I rather think this is planned meticulously; Canada has recently taken the lead, in the "Lima Group" for example, of noisily supporting US foreign policy in Venezuela - so I think the Cuba policy is simply one more plank in a rather large load.

    Trudeau Sr. once remarked that living next to the US is like sleeping with an elephant. "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."

    I like more the expression from the other neighbour to the US: "Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."

    In any case, this is clearly something the US wants done, just as arresting Huawei's CFO was.

    I don't see any advantage for Canada in all this whatsoever. So, yes, it is surprising.

    .................................................. ..............................

    supplemental: NSA official John Bolton recently spoke at the "Veterans' of the Bay of Pigs" in Florida where he praised the (failed) invasion of Cuba back in 1961. Apparently, the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.

    The Trump Administration Is Launching a New Round of Aggression Against Cuba

    So there you have it.
    Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; 05-15-2019 at 02:06 PM. Reason: Bolton article etc

  3. #83
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    Default Bank of Canada reports today on climate risks for the financial system

    This one should set the cat among the pigeons.

    Bank of Canada reports today on climate risks facing nation's financial system

    The Bank of Canada's latest financial system review report is being released today — and it's expected to be the first ever to explore the threat climate change poses to the country's financial system.

    The central bank's annual financial system review (FSR) analyzes the resilience of the country's financial system, cataloguing the main vulnerabilities and risks facing it. Critics have been urging the bank to examine the impact of climate change on financial stability for years now....

    "The importance of climate-related issues for financial stability and monetary policy (has) become increasingly clear," said Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz at the time. "This is particularly true for Canada, where resources play a vital role in our economy and where the natural environment is a defining feature of our national identity."
    I think the CBC is providing a live feed of the press conference.

  4. #84
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    Default Canada - Cuba - maybe it's tariffs and a bit of dirty work

    More on the Cuba dossier ...

    Canadian Foreign Minister C. Freeland was in Washington over the last few days trying to address ongoing tariff issues between the US and Canada. There was, so far, no success for Canada.

    The Minister is now off to Cuba. I think the idea is to put pressure on Cuba to distance itself from the Maduro government in Venezuela.

    Quote Originally Posted by Winnipeg Free Press
    Failure on Tariffs, Freeland off to Cuba ....

    "Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland came and went from Washington on Wednesday, shifting diplomatic gears and jetting to Havana on a day that saw early hope that the end of the Canada-U.S. tariff dispute was close fizzle in a puff of figurative smoke.

    "I think we are close to an understanding with Mexico and Canada," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had said in Congress, prior to Freeland's meeting with Trump trade czar Robert Lighthizer.

    Mnuchin was testifying before the U.S. Senate appropriations subcommittee, where he was asked why those two countries continue to face a 25-per-cent duty on steel and 10-per-cent levy on aluminum exports to the United States.

    Freeland had no new developments to report as she emerged in the morning from the headquarters of the United States Trade Representative. She said she had a "good meeting" with Lighthizer.

    "And we made the case, as we have been doing for some time, that the best outcome for both Canadians and Americans would be to lift those tariffs and to have free trade between our two countries," Freeland said.

    Freeland met later with the influential Republican chair of the Senate finance committee, Chuck Grassley, who had said earlier this week that the tariffs might soon be lifted.

    After that, she expressed optimism over incremental progress, though she refused to speculate publicly on whether a resolution of Canada's trade dispute with the U.S. is close at hand.

    "One meeting closer to achieving a great outcome," Freeland said. And then: "OK, I think we need to leave for Cuba soon."

    Freeland will be pressing Cuba's foreign minister over his country's steadfast support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro....

    President Donald Trump imposed the tariffs during contentious continental trade talks by using a section of U.S. law that allows the president to tax imports on national-security grounds. The three countries' negotiators ultimately reached a new deal that the Americans call the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement....

    Freeland's visit comes after what she described as "a couple of good conversations" between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in telephone calls on consecutive days late last week.

    She, Trudeau and others in the Canadian government have derided the tariffs as absurd, illegal and insulting....
    quid pro quo, anyone? Perhaps Canada is hoping for a solution to the tariff issues by doing Uncle Sam's dirty work in Cuba.

    The other thing here of note is that with US President Trump's recent escalated animosity towards Cuba (remember those Florida votes in 2020!), Canada could wind up targeted by a revived Helms-Burton law. This applies US law to other countries such that

    After the brief Obama "thaw" with Cuba, the US has decided to resume the old practice of economic siege and provocation. This includes invoking Title III of the illegal Helms-Burton Act to threaten any 3rd party, such as Canada, that does business with the revolutionary country that refuses to bend the knee to the Monroe Doctrine.
    So, a mixed bag? Is Canada afraid of getting whacked by US sabre-rattling and [illegal] extra-territorial application of their domestic law? Or maybe some tariff settlement if they do the US dirty work?

    Or maybe a bit of both?

  5. #85
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    Here's the wiki re: yesterday's 2019 Newfoundland and Labrador general election, resulting from an unnecessarily early election call by Liberal premier Dwight Ball, who had a majority government, but who now has been reduced to a minority (barring some sort of deal involving a floor crossing); at least the NDP could not have won, as they had only 14 candidates thanks to some sort of act of self-destruction since 2011; people who lived in Ontario when Liberal premier David Peterson pulled a similar early election call trick will recall the bitter cost to Ontario when Bob Rae's NDP was elected to a surprise majority then (relatively nothing compared to what was to follow under Liberal administrations headed by Dalton McGuinty and then Kathleen Wynn, of course):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_N...neral_election
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  6. #86
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Pacey View Post
    Here's the results of the latest Israeli election. It looks like Bibi Netanyahu will stay as Prime Minister, the way the political horse trading is expected to go down. For those into Biblical prophecy watching, it thus seems that any deal to divide the city of Jerusalem as part of a seven year peace pact is very unlikely for the time being, as Bibi is if nothing else a hardliner. However, this might change surprisingly quickly, e.g. if Bibi is convicted of corruption charges and is forced to step down, at some point:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_I...ative_election
    Here's a link re: efforts to form an Israeli government fail, fresh 2019 general election to come:

    https://globalnews.ca/news/5332766/i...cond-election/
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  7. #87
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    Here's a link re: currently ongoing cyber attack against Baltimore:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48371476
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  8. #88
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    Here's the wiki re: SpaceX:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  9. #89
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    Fwiw, here's the wiki re: Brexit (what a mess, meaning the topic at hand):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  10. #90
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    Here's the wiki re: WWII; not exactly hot news, but that war arguably still affects the world in a big way:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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