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Was Trump aiming at North Korea's Rocket Man or his friend next door? | US news | The Guardian

But was the North Korean dictator Trump’s true target, or was it really the man next door? Some experts suspect Trump’s incendiary ultimatum was in fact directed at Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose assistance he is seeking in the crusade against what he dubbed Kim’s “depraved regime”. Bonnie Glaser, director of the China power project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said: “The way Trump speaks about North Korea … suggests he believes that if he is very, very tough that he can somehow persuade other countries to do more against North Korea: that he can bully them into doing more.”

Was Trump aiming at North Korea's Rocket Man or his friend next door? | US news | The Guardian

t Kim Jong-un and the twisted and reckless “band of criminals” he said surrounded him. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” the US president warned during his bellicose debut at the UN general assembly. Donald Trump threatens to 'totally destroy' North Korea in UN speech Read more But was the North Korean dictator Trump’s true target, or was it really the man next door? Some experts suspect Trump’s incendiary ultimatum was in fact directed at Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose assistance he is seeking in the crusade against what he dubbed Kim’s “depraved regime”.

Donald Trump considering military parade for Fourth of July | US news | The Guardian

The president, who has recruited three current and retired generals for his senior leadership team, also noted that the US spends $700bn on the military. Washington already holds quite a few parades, including some with military participation that are held on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. But those patriotic processions typically involve marching bands and uniformed elements, not the grand display of military hardware that Trump envisions.

Trump Reversals Hint at Wall Street Wing’s Sway in White House - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump made three startling economic policy reversals on Wednesday, stepping away from pledges he made as a candidate and even policies he supported only days ago. The shifts confounded many of Mr. Trump’s supporters and suggested that the moderate financiers he brought from Wall Street are eclipsing the White House populist wing led by Stephen K. Bannon, the political strategist who is increasingly being sidelined by the president. In a series of interviews, Mr. Trump said he no longer wanted to label China a currency manipulator — a week after telling The Financial Times that the Chinese were the “world champions” of currency manipulation. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the president said he no longer wanted to eliminate the Export-Import Bank. And he said that he might consider reappointing Janet Yellen as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve when her term ends next year.

Trump Is a Chinese Agent - The New York Times

he big story everyone is chasing is whether President Trump is a Russian stooge. Wrong. That’s all a smoke screen. Trump is actually a Chinese agent. He is clearly out to make China great again. Just look at the facts. Trump took office promising to fix our trade imbalance with China, and what’s the first thing he did? He threw away a U.S.-designed free-trade deal with 11 other Pacific nations — a pact whose members make up 40 percent of global G.D.P. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was based largely on U.S. economic interests, benefiting our fastest-growing technologies and agribusinesses, and had more labor, environmental and human rights standards than any trade agreement ever. And it excluded China. It was our baby, shaping the future of trade in Asia. Imagine if Trump were negotiating with China now as not only the U.S. president but also as head of a 12-nation trading bloc based on our values and interests. That’s called l-e-v-e-r-a-g-e, and Trump just threw it away … because he promised to in the campaign — without, I’d bet, ever reading TPP. What a chump! I can still hear the clinking of champagne glasses in Beijing. Continue reading the main story Thomas L. Friedman Foreign affairs, globalization and technology. Why Is Trump Fighting ISIS in Syria? APR 12 President Trump’s Real-World Syria Lesson APR 5 Calling On a Few Good Men MAR 22 Donald, Have I Got a Deal for You MAR 15 Peanut Butter on the Trump Team’s Chins MAR 7 See More » Now more Asian nations are falling in line with China’s regional trading association — the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — which has no serious environmental, intellectual property, human trafficking or labor standards like TPP. A Peterson Institute study said TPP would “increase annual real incomes in the United States by $131 billion” by 2030, without changing total U.S. employment levels. Goodbye to that.

An Abdication on Human Rights - The New York Times

Across the world, American diplomats champion, and sometimes fund, nongovernment organizations that fight for human rights, often in authoritarian countries. Despotic leaders often go to great lengths to malign these groups and blunt their influence by limiting their ability to be seen and heard. Last Tuesday, the Trump administration borrowed from the despot playbook by boycotting hearings in Washington before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Participants heard from critics of the administration’s executive orders on immigration policy. Another session dealt with the plight of Japanese immigrants in Latin America who were forcibly taken to an American internment camp during World War II. A third featured experts who raised concerns about challenges to people seeking asylum in the United States.

E.P.A. Chief Doubts Consensus View of Climate Change - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Thursday that carbon dioxide was not a primary contributor to global warming, a statement at odds with the established scientific consensus on climate change. Asked his views on the role of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels, in increasing global warming, Mr. Pruitt said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so, no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.” “But we don’t know that yet,” he added. “We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.” Mr. Pruitt’s statement contradicts decades of research and analysis by international scientific institutions and federal agencies, including the E.P.A. His remarks on Thursday, which were more categorical than similar testimony before the Senate, may also put him in conflict with laws and regulations that the E.P.A. is charged with enforcing. Continue reading the main story RELATED COVERAGE E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics MARCH 7, 2017 RECENT COMMENTS Contractor March 10, 2017 When those selected to lead decide to lie, it is time to terminate them. go back to Russia with your friends. Patrick Sorensen March 10, 2017 What should we expect from a lifetime fossil fuel industry bootlicker? RHR March 10, 2017 "The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit since late 19th century". That is about 2 degrees F in 100... SEE ALL COMMENTS His statements appear to signal that the Trump administration intends not only to roll back President Barack Obama’s climate change policies, but also to wage a vigorous attack on their underlying legal and scientific basis. A report in 2013 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of about 2,000 international scientists that reviews and summarizes climate science, found it to be “extremely likely” that more than half the global warming that occurred from 1951 to 2010 was a consequence of human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.