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Magyarország
2019. XII. 16. Milton Ház néven saját színházat épít az EMIH nevű, Köves vezette Fidesz-közeli zsidó kisegyház a Józsefvárosban, a városháza szomszédjában, a Baross utca 66. alatt található épület, vagyis, az egykori kerületi kommunista pártház átalakításával. A színházépületben lesz kortárs galéria, könyvtár és több kisebb előadóterem is; a lényeg a több mint 200 főt befogadó, korszerű színházterem lesz. A fedezetet, pontosan 1 milliárd 819 millió forintot, az előadó-művészeti szervezetek többlettámogatására szolgáló alapból kapták. Összehasonlításképpen: a 11 fővárosi kőszínház teljes éves állami támogatása idén 3,5 milliárd forint. (Forrás: 444)
Great Britain
16th December 2019 Johnson is a very different figure from Trump. But they have certain crucial characteristics in common, most obviously: mendacity, ruthlessness, and, it is becoming increasingly apparent, vindictiveness. Both men can be genial when things are going their way – but neither responds well to opposition, and each has a well-developed instinct for scapegoating when things go wrong. And things will certainly go wrong for Boris. The great “Get Brexit Done” lie may have helped him back to Downing Street, but it left untouched the insoluble conundrum at the heart of Brexit – the fact that we can maintain the close economic relationship with the European Union on which Britain’s prosperity depends; or we can go for the sort of low-cost, low-regulation “Singapore-on-Thames” that Johnson’s financiers (oligarchs, hedge funds, expatriate media barons) demand; but we cannot have both. Looking ahead to negotiations on the “comprehensive free trade agreement” with the EU that Boris has sworn to deliver by next year’s end, it is hard to see any outcome other than breakdown or capitulation. It will be tough to spin either as a success. So, too, with the terms of the US trade deal that American healthcare and agricultural interests will then force on us. And so, too, with the looming disintegration of our once-United Kingdom, as Scotland’s comprehensive rejection of both Brexit and Johnson precipitates Britain’s own Catalonia-style crisis. The great “Get Brexit Done” lie left untouched the insoluble conundrum at the heart of Brexit. The voters who put their faith in Johnson as the unlikely champion of the working class will find that the bulk of public services continue to deteriorate, and the holes in the welfare safety net will become ever harder to overlook. What is new, is the proposal for a Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission. There are no details, of course, on how it will be selected or operate, but among other things, it will target the judiciary, and even the Royal Prerogative. So the Supreme Court, which had the temerity to judge illegal Johnson’s autumn attempt to shut down parliament, will have its wings clipped. Two further pillars of Britain’s traditional political dispensation that are to pay the price for insufficient enthusiasm for Johnson. The Svengali-like Dominic Cummings is to drive a “radical reform” of the civil service, “including a review of processes for hiring and firing officials”; so Britain’s widely admired public administration, with its 150-year tradition of political impartiality and “speaking truth unto power”, is to get its comeuppance. And so too the BBC. The political culture of Britain as we have known it for generations is earmarked for demolition. (Source: TheEuropeanCouncilonForeignRelations)
Dec 13, 2019 The test will come if there is a new financial crisis or if interest rates rise. The conservative movement in the West now has become markedly more populist and nationalist, and appeals to a distinctly more working-class constituency. And rewriting the rules that have governed the global economy matters more. Both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Trump won by successfully appealing to blue-collar voters in postindustrial regions who had traditionally backed their political opponents to the left. Both had the advantage of running against distinctly unpopular opponents. Mr. Johnson’s Conservative parliamentary slate took dozens of seats that actually hadn’t voted conservative in decades, or had never voted conservative before. Brexit was the symbol of grievances in Britain; in the U.S., trade relations with China and Mexico were the symbols Mr. Trump used. One important motivating factor was the concern of many voters that, under EU rules, too many immigrants were coming from Europe and putting pressure on public services. (Mr. Trump also used public unease over immigrants from Latin America to his advantage, often casting them as criminals and purveyors of drugs). Mr. Johnson promised more spending on the nation’s public-health services, schools, policing and infrastructure. He said his government planned to unite the country and “level up” the less-advantaged. Mr. Johnson said in the election campaign he would use the new freedom the U.K. would gain by leaving the EU to bail out failing companies. Mr. Johnson was stealing the traditional clothes of the left-wing Labour Party. Labour promised to spend hundreds of billions of pounds more than the Conservatives and to nationalize large numbers of industries, but the scale of its spending promises raised questions about their financial credibility. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)
13 December 2019 No ifs, no buts, no maybes. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged today to heal Britain’s divisions over Brexit after his gamble on early elections rewarded him with a commanding majority in Parliament and a new mandate to take his country out of the European Union at the end of January. Johnson’s promise to “get Brexit done” and widespread unease with the leadership style and socialist policies of opposition leader Corbyn combined to give the ruling Conservative Party 365 seats in the House of Commons, its best performance since party icon Margaret Thatcher’s last victory in 1987. Corbyn’s - who spent his entire career as a backbench gadfly until unexpectedly winning a party leadership election in 2015 - Labour Party slumped to 203 seats, 59 fewer than it won two years ago. Johnson owes his success, in part, to traditionally Labour-voting working class constituencies in northern England that backed the Conservatives because of the party’s promise to deliver Brexit. During the 2016 referendum, many of those communities voted to leave the EU because of concerns that immigrants were taking their jobs and neglect by the central government in London. Early in the campaign, pundits said the election would turn on these voters, who were dubbed the “Workington man” after the onetime steel-making community in northwestern England. It is easier for the right to move left on economics than it is for the left to move right on identity and culture. Conversely, some traditionally Conservative-supporting communities in southeastern England flipped to Labour as the pro-EU sentiments of middle class voters outweighed other issues. The next flashpoint for U.K. politics may be Scotland, where the Scottish National Party won 48 of the 59 seats. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon delivered the landslide victory with a campaign focused on demands for a second referendum on Scottish independence. (Source: AP)
Russia
December 18, 2019 The situation in the world remains unstable, and its development is becoming more and more dynamic. Putin’s general staff chief Gerasimov has said he believes the West are preparing for a “large-scale military conflict” amid a renewed NATO buildup in Europe. He pointed out NATO’s summit in London wanted faster deployment to the “eastern flank”. “In the Baltic countries and Poland, the Black and Baltic seas, military activity is intensifying, the intensity of the bloc’s military exercises is rising. “Their scenarios point to NATO’s targeted preparation for engaging its forces in a large-scale military conflict” - the general said. He said that a large-scale war could easily spiral out of a small conflict. “The reduction of risks of dangerous military incidents should remain the most important area in the dialogue between Russia with the US and NATO". Russia’s top diplomat Zakharova accused NATO of stoking tensions with Moscow. US Major General Seguin said the alliance has to “reorientate” amid the threat from Russia. He confirmed the US is to send 20,000 troops to Europe next April and May in its biggest military exercises on European soil since the Cold War. US troops will win forces from 18 NATO allies to mass around 37,000 troops along the eastern flank. (Source: Express)
12 December 2019 Russia's only aircraft carrier caught fire today while undergoing a refit in an Arctic shipyard. The Admiral Kuznetsov, which is not nuclear powered, became fully operational in 1995 and is the flagship of the Russian navy. The repairs were expected to be completed by the end of 2020, with the carrier resuming active service in 2021. The vessel was deployed to the Mediterranean in 2016 and early 2017 to strike targets in Syria and help Moscow ally President Assad recapture rebel-held areas in the war-torn country. The ship led a naval group off the Syrian coast, with fighters from the carrier hitting more than 1,200 targets during its mission. It also stopped off the coast of Libya in January 2017 and took on board military strongman Haftar, who Russia has reportedly backed in the country's long-running civil conflict. The USSR had five aircraft carriers at the height of its power. (Source: AlAraby.uk)
Sweden
15 December 2019 "World leaders are still trying to run away from their responsibilities, but we have to make sure they cannot do that." "We will make sure that we put them against the wall, and they will have to do their job to protect our futures," she said. Thunberg has apologised for saying world leaders should be "put against the wall" in a speech. (Source: BBC)
Európai Unió European Union
2019. december 14. szombat Közel kétszer annyi magyar gyerek él másik EU-s országban, mint öt éve. Tavaly 53 ezren voltak. A pontos magyar adat: 2014-ben 27 780-an, míg tavaly már 53 018-an voltak. A növekedés egyenletes, ezen gyermekek száma 5-8 ezer fővel gyarapodott minden évben. A 20 milliós Románia esetében viszont majdnem 600 ezer román gyerek hagyta már ott a szülőföldjét; számuk az elmúlt öt évben több mint 130 ezerrel nőtt. Összességében EU-s szinten közel félmillióval nőtt öt év alatt a más uniós államban élő 19 év alattiak száma. A legnagyobb arányban, közel duplájára vagy azt meghaladóan Lettországban, Litvániában, Horvátországban, Szlovéniában, Magyarországon és Máltán nőtt azon gyerekek száma, akik nem saját országukban élnek az EU-ban. Körülbelül 1,8 millióan vannak, a legnagyobb arányban román és lengyel állampolgárságúak - a belső vándorlásban részt vevő gyermekek 45 százaléka lengyel vagy román. Az EU-n belüli migrációban érintett gyermekek létszáma körülbelül 32 százalékkal nőtt 2014 és 2018 között; összesen a gyermekek közel 7 százaléka nem a saját országában él, ez 6,6 millió gyermeket jelent. Az Unión belül a külföldi gyerekek többsége EU-n kívülről származik: Afganisztántól Albániáig - 4,75 millióan valamelyik EU-n kívüli ország állampolgárai, a legtöbben Afganisztánból, Szíriából vagy Irakból (hárman együtt 60 százalék), Marokkóból, Törökországból, és Albániából származnak. Az albánokkal együtt a balkáni migráns gyerekek az összes érintett 15 százalékát teszik ki. Németországban él az összes harmadik országbeli gyermekek közel negyede, ez a szám az elmúlt öt év alatt 623 ezerről közel félmillióval emelkedett. Jelentős a növekedés Franciaországban, Svédországban, Ausztriában és Hollandiában is. Bár frontországnak tartjuk Spanyolországot és Olaszországot, ebben a két országban csökkent az EU-n kívüli gyerekek aránya, míg a szintén frontország görögöknél kis mértékben nőtt. Magyarországon öt év alatt 9873-ról 14 353-ra nőtt az EU-n kívülről származó gyerekek aránya. 2018-ban a harmadik országokból bevándorló gyermekek száma az EU-ban 3 százalékkal nőtt. Az EU-n kívüli fiatalkorú migránsok létszáma 17 százalékkal emelkedett a 2015-2016-os nagy beáramlás ellenére. Az EU teljes népessége ugyanazon korcsoportban és időszakban változatlan maradt. Több mint száz oldalas jelentésben összegezte az Európai Bizottság kutatóközpontja azokat az adatokat és a hozzájuk tartozó elemzéseket, amelyek a migrációban élő gyermekekről szólnak. A jelentés azt is megállapítja, hogy 2018-ban a kísérő nélküli migráns gyermekek 75 százalékát 16 és 17 évesek tették ki, szinte mindegyikük (90 százalék) férfi. Jelenleg az életkor meghatározására nincs egységes módszer, amely teljes mértékben megfelelne az uniós jognak és a tagállamok jogrendjének. Ha a határőrizeti hatóságoknak kétségeik vannak egy személy életkorával kapcsolatban, amikor az érintett menedékjogot kér, orvosi életkori értékelést lehet használni. Az Európai Menekültügyi Támogatási Hivatal (EASO) adott ki e tekintetben számos iránymutatást. (Forrás: EuropeanDataJournalism / Index)
12/12/19 Presiding over the Conference on the Future of Europe - the battle over control of the conference. At a summit in Brussels today, leaders of the EU's member countries signaled backing for a conference that would start next year and end in 2022. “The European Council recalls that priority should be given to implementing the Strategic Agenda agreed in June, and to delivering concrete results for the benefit of our citizens,” they declared in written conclusions. Some EU diplomats and officials are skeptical about devoting large amounts of time and energy to a project that could easily be seen as a navel-gazing exercise. They are also wary of any talk of changing the EU’s governing treaties - a notoriously difficult task that requires the approval of all member countries, in some cases via referendum. France and Germany found enough common ground to present a brief blueprint last month for a two-year conference which would look at both political structures and policy. The conference could be "chaired by a senior European personality," advised by "a small Steering Group." The candidate must come with ideas on where we go next. The EU chamber has set up a working group on the conference and all MEPs are set to vote on a resolution on the subject as early as next month. The Constitutional Affairs Committee has been tasked with leading the legislative work on the conference. It's clear the Parliament thinks the President it should be someone from its ranks. Verhofstadt, the liberal MEP and former Belgian prime minister emerged as an early front-runner for the prestigious post as a kind of compensation for stepping down as leader of the liberal ALDE group in the Parliament. That move allowed the group to morph into Renew Europe - a new bloc including Macron's La République En Marche party and led by Cioloş, a former Romanian prime minister. Members of other political groups in the Parliament argue Verhofstadt would be a poor choice because of his support for much greater European integration. Parliament officials say current Parliament President Sassoli is interested in the role and that his predecessor and fellow Italian, Tajani, also seems to be angling for the job - even though his office denies such an ambition. The Commission also envisions the conference lasting two years from next year and has appointed Šuica, the Croatian commissioner for democracy and demography, as its point person. The Parliament's Conference of Presidents of senior MEPs will meet on December 19 to finalize preliminary work on the conference - and perhaps even try to agree on its future leadership. (Source: Politico)
Egypt
December 20, 2019 Miss Intercontinental 2019 Winner Fanni Mikó of Hungary /video/ (Source: YouTube): https://tinyurl.com/r6ndghg
6 739 views
India
December 12, 2019 The Citizenship Amendment Bill (Cab), wanted by the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi, was approved yesterday. Delhi fears that India will become the "refuge" of all the persecuted minorities in three neighboring countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - except for Muslims a population of nearly 200 million in India. The CAB modifies the legislation on citizenship dating back to 1955 so as to include Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsi "victims" in those States. Yesterday massive protests erupted in various cities and the army was sent to Tripura to contain hundreds of thousands of protesters. It will be even worse if the government keeps its promise to draw up a national register for all citizens by 2024. (Source: AsiaNews.it)
United States
(December 18, 2019) / December 10, 2019 Impeaching Trump, President of the United States 'for high crimes and misdemeanors' in the House of Representatives. H. RES. 755 [Report No. 116–346]. Mr. Nadler submitted the resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary in December 15, 2019 (Source: Congress): https://tinyurl.com/u8azoee
12/18/2019 The House of Representatives is set to impeach an elected President accused of violating the nation's trust and his oath to preserve, protect and defend bedrock constitutional values. The 45th President will be charged by the House Democratic majority with two articles of impeachment, namely abusing his power and obstructing Congress in a scheme to lure Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election. Trump is accused of withholding $400 million in military aid and the prospect of an Oval Office visit from new Ukrainian President Zelensky to coerce him into announcing an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings in the country. After this scheme came to light, and numerous public servants with knowledge of key events surfaced to testify in committee investigations about the President's actions, President Trump directed the wholesale, categorical and indiscriminate obstruction of this congressional impeachment investigation. Trump raged into his day of historic shame unrepentant - after saying he takes "zero" responsibility for impeachment - and feeling persecuted. "You are the ones obstructing justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political and partisan gain," Trump wrote, accusing Democrats of the very offenses of which he is accused. The impeachment crisis is also a symptom; it has exposed a political culture in which the facts - in this case, of the President's actions - are no longer sacrosanct and that has been laced with a fog of misinformation by his allies. 46% believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 49% do not. Trump's defiance is a sign that once acquitted by the Senate, he is likely to become even more unchained and to treat his escape as vindication. (Source: CNN)
December 16, 2019 From 2008 to 2015, under the previous tax code, corporations paid on average an effective rate of about 21 percent. In the first year Trump’s tax law was in effect, the actual amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes - their so-called effective rate - was an average of 11.3 percent, likely its lowest level in more than three decades. The 2017 GOP tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that due to deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes. 99% of biggest firms paid no federal tax at all. An explosion is in the federal deficit, which this year rose to close to $1 trillion. Globally, countries have struggled to tax corporations as multinational firms have grown increasingly effective at shifting their profits to foreign tax havens. A 2018 study found that in the past three decades, the average corporate tax rate globally plummeted from about 49 percent in 1985 to 24 percent in 2018. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)
December 15, 2019 U.S. secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials suspected of spying in September after drove to a military base near Norfolk in Virginia. The base includes Special Operations forces. In recent months, Chinese officials with diplomatic passports have become bolder about showing up unannounced at research or government facilities. The American government is now taking a harder line against suspected espionage by China. On Oct. 16, weeks after the intrusion at the base, the State Department announced sharp restrictions on the activities of Chinese diplomats, requiring them to provide notice before meeting with local or state officials or visiting educational and research institutions. The rule, which applied to all Chinese Missions in the United States and its territories, was a response to Chinese regulations imposed years ago requiring American diplomats to seek permission to travel outside their host cities or to visit certain institutions. Demolition of the C.I.A.’s network of informants in China was one of the biggest counterintelligence coups against the United States in decades. From 2010 to 2012, Chinese officers killed at least a dozen informants and imprisoned others. Chinese intelligence officers use LinkedIn to recruit current or former employees of foreign governments. Chinese citizens have been caught not just wandering on to government installations but also improperly entering university laboratories and even crossing farmland to pilfer specially bred seeds. The F.B.I. and the National Institutes of Health are trying to root out scientists in the United States who they say are stealing biomedical research for other nations, China in particular. The F.B.I. has also warned research institutions about risks posed by Chinese students and scholars. (Source: msn)
December 13, 2019 One of his best weeks yet. The list of accomplishments this week: An agreement on a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal; a new budget including more than $1.3 billion for a border wall and blocks a government shutdown; House approval of the U.S. Space Force, a brand-new branch of the military; Government family leave that will be a model for a proposal for the public; tentative agreement on trade with China; approval of Trump's 50th federal appeals judge; confirmation of a new Food and Drug Administration chief; the signing of a pro-Israel anti-Semitism executive order; Wall Street hit another record; Pelosi conceded that on impeachment, 'It’s been going on 22 months - two and a half years, actually.' A growing number of democrats are realizing daily that what they're doing is seen by the public as trivial and senseless. Democrats in states and districts the president won are at serious risk if they vote for impeachment. So they are rushing to vote for the president’s popular positions. If public anger at impeachment continues to grow, worried Democrats might get in line to pass more of his agenda to give them protection in their reelections next year. By next summer, the impeachment may be seen as mean-spirited and partisan, and the string of victories will add to Trump's incredible list of victories going into reelection season. He is the master magician, waving one hand to distract, while with the other hand, he makes the trick work. In this case, the Democrats provided this unwanted distraction, but he clearly seized on the moment. (Source: TheWashingtonExaminer)
12 Dec 2019 The sanctuary state of California is home to at least 1.2 million anchor babies under the age of 18. Every year, 39,000 anchor babies are born to foreign students and foreign visa workers, as well as 33,000 anchor babies born to foreign tourists. This indicates that about 72,000 anchor babies are born to foreigners who are legally temporarily in the U.S. These U.S.-born children - in addition to the 300,000 anchor babies born to illegal aliens every year - are immediately rewarded American citizenship simply because their foreign parents delivered them in the parameters of the nation’s borders. Today, there are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S., exceeding the annual roughly four million American babies born every year and costing American taxpayers about $2.4 billion every year to subsidize hospital costs. In total, there are now an unprecedented 62 million immigrants and their U.S.-born children living across the country. As of 2017, there were 17.1 million U.S.-born minor children of immigrants in the country. (Source: Breitbart)
Globalization
December 20, 2019 Diachenko, an independent security consultant in Kyiv reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users - nearly all U.S.-based - on the open internet. All the records had time stamps from January to June 2019 but it is unclear who generated them. The data was collected illegally, most likely by criminals in Vietnam who may have “scraped” it from public Facebook pages or by somehow obtaining privileged access to the service. Scraping is automated data-harvesting done by bots. In September, the news site TechCrunch reported that Facebook IDs and phone numbers for more than 400 million users were similarly found exposed online by a researcher. In March, Facebook disclosed that it had left hundreds of millions of user passwords readable by its employees on internal severs for years after a security researcher exposed the lapse. (Source: AP)
Earth
(December 13, 2019) The updated World Magnetic Model - a joint product of the United States’ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the United Kingdom’s Defence Geographic Centre (DGC) - used by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.K. Ministry of Defence, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), for navigation, attitude and heading referencing systems using the geomagnetic field. It is also used widely in civilian navigation and heading systems. The model is produced at 5-year intervals, with the current model expiring on December 31, 2024. (Source: NOAA): https://tinyurl.com/qqeznlm
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