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The Impression In London? MBS Means Business – OpEd

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By Faisal J. Abbas*

You can always count on the British to be skeptical; and before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s landmark visit to London, there was no shortage of skepticism about the seriousness of the Saudi reform plans.

However, the British are also known for their sense of fairness; which is why, as the crown prince heads back to Riyadh, the overwhelming impression he left behind in London is that MBS means business.

It is one thing to merely talk about reform, but when talk is accompanied by action of the type we saw in the British capital over the past few days, then there really is no room for doubt.

The number of agreements reached was remarkable — whether they were political, such as the agreement at 10 Downing Street to form a strategic council to improve relations between the two kingdoms; or business-related and trade-focused, such as allowing some UK companies to operate in Saudi Arabia without the need for a local partner.

Even more remarkable was the historic meeting between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Prince Mohammed, who is next in line to be the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah. The Archbishop has been extended an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia, and I think I speak for most Saudis when I say we do hope His Grace takes up the invitation soon, as we look forward to more openness, tolerance and acceptance.

What also showed that the “proof of the pudding is in the eating” was that the accompanying Saudi delegation comprised an impressive mix of ministers, business executives, scientists, artists, journalists and citizens from different walks of life.

Worth noting, too, was the presence of inspirational women such as Princess Reema bint Bandar, Shoura Council member Huda Al-Halisi, Saudi Gazette Editor-in-Chief Somayya Jabarti, and the award-winning scientist Dr. Nouf Al-Numair — who, coincidentally, received the British Council’s UK Alumni Award for social impact only last week. It was important for these fine women to be present for Riyadh to show that our gender-equality reforms stretch far beyond allowing women to drive.

Of course, this was not a road show, nor was it intended to be; however, even our closest allies — such as the UK and the US — are going to need some convincing for them to be fully on board and help us with the large-scale reforms our kingdom needs on all levels.

Britain will also require help, especially as it ventures into a new future after Brexit; MBS’s visit has shown that Riyadh is determined to show that its deeply rooted economic and trade ties will not be shaken by the UK’s departure from the European Union.

More importantly, Saudi Arabia has provided — and will continue to provide — vital intelligence that saves British lives every day, and the two kingdoms will remain allies in the fight against terror and extremists worldwide.

With much skepticism laid to rest, the British now realize they have a real partner in the new Saudi leadership, and have finally sampled a taste of the real change that is happening on the ground.

To have achieved so much in just two years, with oil at record low prices, regional conflicts and lots of doubt — this is Saudi Arabia’s “If you are going through hell, keep going,” Churchillian moment.

Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News.


Renegotiation To Extend South Korean Exemption After Trump Tariffs: South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement

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South Korea expressed regret over the United States’ decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on foreign steel products and said it will consider lodging a complaint with the World Trade Organisation if an exemption isn’t made.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu convened a meeting with local steel firms Friday.

Paik added that the government will seek concerted efforts with other countries affected by the U.S. steel duties.

With fifteen days left until the measure takes effect, Trump said America will remain open to modifying or removing the tariffs for individual nations, “as long as we can agree on a way to ensure that their products no longer threaten our security.”

Later on Friday, Seoul’s presidential office announced its top envoy to Washington Chung Eui-yong relayed the request for an exemption from the tariff on steel.

On a separate note from his main mission of briefing President Trump on North Korea’s invitation to hold dialogue, Chung met U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser Herbert McMaster on Thursday to bring up the steel trade issue.

Chung is said to have stressed the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

The U.S. officials reportedly said they will actively consider the request.

Original source

Robert Reich: America’s Shkreli Problem – OpEd

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On Friday, Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison. What if anything does Shkreli’s fall tell us about America?

Shkreli’s early life exemplified the rags-to-riches American success story. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in April 1983, to parents who immigrated from Albania and worked as janitors in New York apartment buildings. Shkreli attended New York’s Hunter College High School, a public school for intellectually gifted young people, and in 2005 received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Baruch College.

But a few years later, Shkreli turned toward shady deals. He started his own hedge fund, betting that the stock prices of certain biotech companies would drop. He used financial chat rooms on the Internet to savage the companies he bet against, causing their prices to drop and his bets to pay off.

In 2015, Shkreli founded and became CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals. Under his direction Turing spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a drug called Daraprim.

Developed in 1953, Daraprim is the only approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic disease that can cause birth defects in unborn babies, and lead to seizures, blindness, and death in cancer patients and people with AIDS. Daraprim is on the World Health Organization’s list of Essential Medicines.

Months after he bought the drug, Schkreli raised its price by over 5,000 percent, from $13.50 a pill to $750.00.

Shkreli was roundly criticized, but he was defiant: “No one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, a capitalist system and capitalist rules.” He said he wished he had raised the price even higher, and would buy another essential drug and raise its price, too.

In February 2016, Shkreli was called before a congressional committee to justify his price increase for Daraprim. He refused to answer any questions, pleading the Fifth Amendment. After the hearing Shkreli tweeted, “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.”

Shkreli was subsequently arrested in connection with an unrelated scheme to defraud his former hedge fund investors. In anticipation of his criminal trial, Shkreli boasted to the New Yorker magazine, “I think they’ll return a not-guilty verdict in two hours. There are going to be jurors who will be fans of mine. I walk down the streets of New York and people shake my hand. They say, ‘I want to be just like you.’”

During his trial, Shkreli strolled into a room filled with reporters and made light of a particular witness, for which the trial judge rebuked him. On his Facebook page he mocked the prosecutors, and he told news outlets they were a “junior varsity” team.

He retaliated against journalists who criticized him by purchasing internet domains associated with their names and then ridiculing them on the sites. “I wouldn’t call these people ‘journalists,’” he wrote in an email to Business Insider. He said on Facebook that if he were acquitted he’d be able to have sex with a female journalist he often posted about online.

After his conviction, Shkreli called the case “a witch hunt of epic proportions, and maybe they found one or two broomsticks.” As she imposed sentence last Friday, the judge cited Shkrili’s “egregious multitude of lies,” noting also that he “repeatedly minimized” his conduct.

I ask you: How different is Martin Shkreli from other figures who dominate American life today, even at the highest rungs?

Shkreli would do whatever it took to win, regardless of the effects of his behavior on anyone else. He was arrogant and boastful. He believed that the norms that other people live by didn’t apply to him. His attitude toward the law was that anything he wanted to do was okay unless it was clearly illegal – and even if illegal, it was okay if he could get away with it.

He showed contempt for anyone who got in his way – whether judges, prosecutors, members of Congress, or journalists. He scorned and derided them publicly. He remained unapologetic for what he did; presumably he’d do the same in a heartbeat. He was utterly shameless.

Sound familiar? America has a Shkreli problem.

Martin Shkleri will spend the next seven years of his life in prison. I can’t help but wonder what will happen the other unbridled narcissists now in positions of power in America, who also blatantly defy the common good.

West Coast Waters Returning To Normal But Salmon Catches Lagging

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Ocean conditions off most of the U.S. West Coast are returning roughly to average, after an extreme marine heat wave from about 2014 to 2016 disrupted the California Current Ecosystem and shifted many species beyond their traditional range, according to a new report from NOAA Fisheries’ two marine laboratories on the West Coast. Some warm waters remain off the Pacific Northwest, however.

The Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Northwest Fisheries Science Center presented their annual “California Current Ecosystem Status Report” to the Pacific Fishery Management Council at the Council’s meeting in Rohnert Park, Calif., on Friday, March 9. The California Current encompasses the entire West Coast marine ecosystem, and the report informs the Council about conditions and trends in the ecosystem that may affect marine species and fishing in the coming year.

“The report gives us an important glimpse at what the science is saying about the species and resources that we manage and rely on in terms of our West Coast economy,” said Phil Anderson of Westport, Wash., the Council Chair. “The point is that we want to be as informed as we can be when we make decisions that affect those species, and this report helps us do that.”

Unusually warm ocean temperatures, referred to as “the Blob,” encompassed much of the West Coast beginning about 2014, combining with an especially strong El Nino pattern in 2015. The warm conditions have now waned, although some after-effects remain.

  • Feeding conditions have improved for California sea lions and seabirds that experienced mass die-offs caused by shifts in their prey during the Blob.
  • Plankton species, the foundation of the marine food web, have shifted back slightly toward fat-rich, cool-water species that improve the growth and survival of salmon and other fish.
  • Recent research surveys have found fewer juvenile salmon, and consequently adult salmon returns will likely remain depressed for a few years until successive generations benefit from improving ocean conditions.
  • Reports of whale entanglements in fishing gear have remained very high for the fourth straight year, as whales followed prey to inshore areas and ran into fishing gear such as pots and traps.
  • Severe low-oxygen conditions in the ocean water spanned the Oregon Coast from July to September 2017, causing die-offs of crabs and other species.

Even as the effects of the Blob and El Nino dissipate, the central and southern parts of the West Coast face low snow pack and potential drought in 2018 that could put salmon at continued risk as they migrate back up rivers to spawn.

“Overall we’re seeing some positive signs, as the ocean returns to a cooler and generally more productive state,” said Toby Garfield, a research scientist and Acting Director of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. “We’re fortunate that we have the data from previous years to help us understand what the trends are, and how that matters to West Coast fishermen and communities.”

NOAA Fisheries’ scientists compile the California Current Ecosystem Status Report from ocean surveys and other monitoring efforts along the West Coast. The tracking revealed “a climate system still in transition in 2017,” as surface ocean conditions return to near normal. Deeper water remained unusually warm, especially in the northern part of the California Current. Warm-water species, such as leaner plankton species often associated with subtropical waters, have lingered in these more-northern zones.

One of the largest and most extensive low-oxygen zones ever recorded off the West Coast prevailed off the Oregon Coast last summer, probably driven by low-oxygen water upwelled from the deep ocean, the report said.

While the cooling conditions off the West Coast began to support more cold-water plankton rich in the fatty acids that salmon need to grow, salmon may need more time to show the benefits, the report said. Juvenile salmon sampled off the Northwest Coast in 2017 were especially small and scarce, suggesting that poor feeding conditions off the Columbia River Estuary may remain.

Juvenile salmon that enter the ocean this year amid the gradually improving conditions will not return from the ocean to spawn in the Columbia and other rivers for another two years or more, so fishermen should not expect adult salmon numbers to improve much until then.

“These changes occur gradually, and the effects appear only with time,” said Chris Harvey, a fisheries biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and coauthor of the report. “The advantage of doing this monitoring and watching these indicators is that we can get a sense of what is likely to happen in the ecosystem and how that is likely to affect communities and economies that are closely tied to these waters.”

Revealed Genetic Timeline Of Early Pacific Settlers

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Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have helped put together the most comprehensive study ever conducted into the origins of people in Vanuatu – regarded as a geographic gateway from Asia to the Remote Pacific.

The new research, published across two separate research papers, uses a combination of DNA analyses of ancient skeletons and modern samples, as well as archaeological evidence, to put together a complete timeline of migration to the island nation.

The results confirm that Vanuatu’s first people were of the Lapita culture and arrived 3,000 years ago from South East Asia, followed by Papuan arrivals from the island of New Britain, in the Bismarck Archipelago just to the east of New Guinea and part of the nation of Papua New Guinea.

Dr Stuart Bedford of the ANU School of Culture History and Language said this was the first time researchers had been able to look at a full sequence of DNA samples from the Vanuatu islands.

“We’ve been able to track a complete genetic timeline at regular intervals starting with the first inhabitants right through to modern times,” Dr Bedford said.

“The very first generation of people into Vanuatu are primarily Asian, then very quickly you see a series of migrations of Papuan people from the Bismarck Archipelago who had been living in the region for around 50,000 years.

“That trend continues over the next 3,000 years right up until today as the genetic ancestry was mostly replaced by that of Papuan migrants. The people of Vanuatu today, like many peoples of the Pacific, can claim a dual heritage.”

Co Researcher Professor Matthew Spriggs of the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology said for the first time researchers could determine exactly where these Papuan migration groups came from.

“They came from New Britain, a Papuan island just east of New Guinea,” Professor Spriggs said.

“This makes sense. New Britain has some of the earliest known Lapita sites.

“So what we think happened is that Lapita people after arriving in New Britain moved fairly directly on to Vanuatu and encouraged some of the local populations already in place on New Britain to move there as well.”

Dr Bedford said the strength of the Lapita culture was evident in the continuity of the language.

“The Lapita people who originally came to Vanuatu from South East Asia spoke a form of Austronesian,” Dr Bedford said.

“That language persisted and over 120 descendant languages continue to be spoken today, making Vanuatu the most linguistically diverse place on Earth per capita.

“This is a unique case, where a population’s genetic ancestry was replaced but its languages continued.”

Trump Says North Korea Deal ‘Very Much In The Making’

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US President Donald Trump believes he is capable of reaching a deal with North Korea that will be a “very good one for the world,” he said, after agreeing to talks with Pyongyang following Kim Jong-un’s invitation for a meeting.

“The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World,” Trump tweeted on Friday evening, adding that the time and the place of the planned meeting is still to be determined.

Trump agreed to hold discussions with North Korea, provisionally expected sometime in May, after a South Korean delegation, which met with Kim on Monday, delivered his personal invitation for talks to the US president.

However, before any agreement can be reached between the adversaries or sanctions can be lifted, Washington will require Pyongyang to take “concrete and verifiable steps” towards denuclearization of the peninsula. “This meeting won’t take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.

Announcing the monumental breakthrough in the Korean stalemate at the White House on Thursday, South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong noted that Kim Jong-un is “committed to denuclearization,” and has “pledged” to refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests until talks with Trump take place. Surprisingly, according to the official, Kim also showed understanding towards the US-South Korean drills, which have greatly contributed to the ongoing tensions in the region.

While the North seems to be keen to engage in diplomacy, the US has yet to offer any concessions or promises. “The United States has made zero concessions, but North Korea has made some promises,” Sanders noted. “For the first time in a long time, the United States is actually having conversations from a position of strength, not a position of weakness like the one that North Korea finds itself in.”

“I think that the President is getting exactly what he wants. He is getting the opportunity to have the North Koreans actually denuclearize,” Sanders added.

The Korean peninsula has been divided since 1953, after an uneasy armistice suspended the bloody, three-year conflict between the Communist North and the US-allied South. In a historic move toward national reconciliation, last month North and South Korean athletes competed together at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

For months, the Trump administration has applied “maximum pressure” on North Korea to tackle the country’s ballistic missile and nuclear program. Amid the unprecedented level of sanctions which the US has unilaterally imposed, Washington has also continued to maintain military pressure on Pyongyang, sending in armadas to Korean waters and conducting flyovers near Korean airspace. The administration also made clear that, if diplomacy fails, it is ready to pursue a military option to force N. Korea to denuclearize.

How Nationalism Usurped Anti-Fascism In Balkan Sports – Analysis

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Balkan athletes were prepared to die fighting Nazism and fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, but some prominent sports figures now champion nationalism.

By Filip Rudic, Sven Milekic and Mladen Lakic

As the former Yugoslavia began to fall apart during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, many prominent athletes started to openly embrace nationalism.

It was a striking reversal for Yugoslav sports stars, given anti-fascist sportsmen who had taken a stand against Nazi-backed fascism before and during World War II were previously revered by Yugoslavs.

One such committed anti-fascist sportsman was Bozidar ‘Bosko’ Petrovic. In the mid-1930s, Bosko was playing for the Yugoslavia football club but he heard that Belgrade Sports Club, BSK, was to play a football match in France. He immediately cancelled his contract and joined BSK.

But the rising football star, who had also played for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s national team, did not have sports in mind when he decided to go to France in the December of 1936.

The Spanish Civil War had broken out that summer and Petrovic was more than just an athlete – he was vehemently anti-fascist and a trained pilot. As soon as he arrived in Paris, he said goodbye to his stunned teammates and crossed into Spain using a forged passport under the name of Fernando Garcia.

After he was killed in combat the following year, Petrovic’s image was used on the International Brigades’ recruitment posters, according to the Association of Retired Army Pilots and Paratroopers of Serbia.

Petrovic was one of many Yugoslav athletes who supported the fight against Europe’s rising far-right. But their successors in countries established after Yugoslavia’s dissolution seem to prefer rightist ideologies.

In 2013, Australian-born Croat football player Josip ‘Joe’ Simunic led some 20,000 fans in chanting the Croatian fascist Ustasa movement’s slogan, Za dom spremni (Ready for the Homeland).

He was not reprimanded by his manager or by the Croatian Football Federation and was only criticised locally by certain media outlets. Support for Simunic among the Croatian public was sharply divided.

FIFA gave Simunic a 10-game suspension, preventing him from attending the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The Croatian court fined him 660 euros, but only for causing public disorder rather than for hate speech.

The current mood in Croatian sports is in stark contrast with the historic actions of sprinter Boris Hanzekovic, who risked his life to support the then illegal anti-fascist Partisan movement in Zagreb after the Nazi-backed Ustasa came to power in 1941.

Hanzekovic, a former representative of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s national team and holder of many records, refused to join the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia’s national team.

For this and his links with the Partisans, Hanzekovic was arrested and sent to Jasenovac concentration camp in 1944, where he was shot dead during an attempted break-out.

Club managers’ influence

Sociologist and former director of Belgrade’s Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory Bozidar Jaksic says that the rise of nationalism among athletes is not only influenced by broader society, but also by the heads of sports clubs and associations.

“You can expect anything where people like [Partizan Football Club’s president] Milorad Vucelic are in charge,” Jaksic told BIRN.

During the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, Vucelic was a member of President Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party and general director of Serbia’s national broadcaster, RTS, which was then known for disseminating warmongering propaganda against other nations.

In 2012, power in Serbia was seized by the Progressive Party, which derived from Milosevic’s ultranationalist ally, the Serbian Radical Party. They forged a coalition with the Socialists, and have been governing Serbia since. Under their mandate, Vucelic steadily made his way back into public life, becoming president of the state-owned Partizan club in 2016.

The link between sports and politics in former Yugoslav states is strong, with hooligan groups causing nationalist incidents on a regular basis.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s nationalism became the dominant ideology of various fan groups, including those of the largest Serbian and Croatian clubs – Red Star and Partizan from Belgrade, Dinamo from Zagreb and Hajduk from Split.

However, nationalism spread among athletes as well, which was starkly evident during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Notorious war criminal Veselin Vlahovic, a professional boxer before the war, was sentenced by a Bosnian court to 42 years in prison for committing numerous war crimes, including murders, multiple rapes, and torture.

Dubbed the ‘Monster of Grbovica’, Vlahovic killed Goran Cengic, a former handball player from Sarajevo and member of Yugoslavia’s national team, who unsuccessfully tried to save his Bosniak neighbour from being executed by Vlahovic in 1992.

The Hague Tribunal and Bosnian courts have handed down more than 10 guilty verdicts against former professional athletes for war crimes, and local courtsare still prosecuting several football players and karate fighters accused of beating and torturing civilians and prisoners of war, according to the Bosnapress news website.

The war impacted Bosnian football clubs as well. In the town of Mostar in 1993, Bosnian-Croats evicted the local football club Velez, allowing the Croatian club Zrinjski to take over.

Velez players were prominently anti-fascist during World War II. Seventy-seven of the club’s players and officials died in the war and nine were decorated with the Order of the People’s Hero of Yugoslavia.

At the same time, the Bosnian-Croatian Zrinjski team played in the Nazi-backed Independent State of Croatia’s First football league.

Today, Zrinjski fan groups remain committed to far right politics and many recently paid tribute to the war criminal Slobodan Praljak, who committed suicide after his guilty verdict was confirmed during an appeal hearing at The Hague Tribunal in November 2017.

‘Peer pressure’

Athletes with right-wing views appear to remain comfortable in the post-1990s Balkan war atmosphere.

Basketball coach and former captain of Serbia’s national team, Milan Gurovic, has a tattoo of the World War II ultra-nationalist Serb Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic, which led to him being banned from entering Croatia in 2004.

The Chetniks were a Serbian nationalist movement that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. Mihailovic was executed in 1946 after being found guilty of collaboration and war crimes by the post-war Yugoslav authorities. The verdict was overturned by Belgrade’s Higher Court in 2015.

Another former Serbian national basketball player, Darko Milicic, a self-proclaimed nationalist who maintains that he does not hate anybody, sports tattoos of Chetnik leaders Nikola Kalabic and Momcilo Djujic.

In 2013, Milicic attended an event organised by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radicals’ Party and expressed support for their leader, Vojislav Seselj, who was at the time in custody while standing trial at the Hague Tribunal on charges of allegedly committing war crimes, for which he was later acquitted.

However, not all prominent active or former athletes promoted nationalist ideas from the 1990s onward.

Croatian light-heavyweight boxer and Olympic gold medallist Mate Parlov, considered to be one of the greatest Yugoslav sportsmen, gave his well-known opinion of nationalism in a 2004 interview: “How can I be a nationalist if I am the world champion?”

However, many inside the sports world say people who openly hold views such as Parlov’s are very much in the minority and that the climate in sports would deter many from making a stand against far-right nationalism.

Former Serb football player Ivan Ergic, whose career spanned from 1999 to 2011, says that “folkloric nationalism” is present among both players and fans.

“It is a mechanism for binding people together through collective euphoria,” Ergic, who played for the Serbian national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, told BIRN.

He believes that nationalism among players generally comes from a lack of political consciousness, as they start training early in life and get stuck in an atmosphere of “conformity”.

“When you are inside that collective, there is some peer pressure, and it’s very hard to stand out in any sense,” Ergic said.

Asked about what would happen to an athlete with anti-fascist views today, Ergic said that they would encounter “great problems” because “any form of dissent is difficult”.

Sociologist Jaksic said that such a player would be treated like the basketball player Alen Omic, a Bosniak, who was ‘welcomed’ to the Red Star Basketball team – part of the Red Star multi-sports club – by fans from his own club holding a banner with ethnic slurs against Bosniaks at a match against the Greek club Olympiacos.

“It is to be expected that any anti-fascist today would be denounced in this country,” Jaksic said.

This article was published in BIRN’s bi-weekly newspaper Belgrade Insight

Sri Lanka: Calls For Religious Leaders To Speak Out Against Division

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Sri Lanka’s Speaker Karu Jayasuriya condemned Thursday the recent communal clashes against Muslims in strongest terms and called on upon leaders of all religious sectors to speak out against those who attempt to divide Sri Lanka on sectarian grounds.

The Speaker in a statement said that the sudden surge of violence against Muslims in Kandy and elsewhere in Sri Lanka over the last several days was clearly not representative of any grassroots communal tensions.

“These citizens, equal under our law have lived in harmony with their neighbors of other faiths for centuries. Instead, these acts are very clearly the work of those whose political power and machinations are fueled and fortified by dividing and violating our people,” he said.

The Speaker also called upon the government, members of the House of Parliament, and the independent judiciary, to recall the sworn solemn duty – to protect the rights of all citizens enshrined in the Constitution.

“It is of paramount importance that we take all necessary measures to protect those citizens affected by violence and threats of violence. We must give them the sense of safety and security to which they are entitled as Sri Lankans,” he said.

Full text of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s statement:

Three years ago, the people of Sri Lanka, of every religious and ethnic affiliation, voted in unison with a resounding majority to expel the evils of racism, bigotry and xenophobic division from our country, to usher in a new era of plurality, peace and civility. My fellow patriotic Sri Lankans around the world swelled with pride as our country was elevated to the world stage, and held up as the ultimate example of a country that could reverse three decades of terrorist bloodshed into ethnic and communal harmony. These ideas that formed the platform of the January 8, 2015 revolution were not new ones for our people.

The Constitution of our motherland guarantees freedom, equality, and fundamental human rights to each and every one of our citizens. These protections enshrined by the Constitution are not entitlements, but in the words of our Supreme Law they are “the intangible heritage that guarantees the dignity and well-being of succeeding generations of the People of Sri Lanka and of all the People of the World.” Every single official elected or appointed to any office in the co-equal legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government swears an oath to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.”

The sudden surge of violence against Muslims in Kandy and elsewhere in Sri Lanka over the last several days was clearly not representative of any grassroots communal tensions. These citizens, equal under our law have lived in harmony with their neighbors of other faiths for centuries. Instead, these acts are very clearly the work of those whose political power and machinations are fueled and fortified by dividing and violating our people. The country saw a similar surge of violence against these same citizens in 2014.

I call upon leaders of all religious sectors to speak out against those who attempt to divide Sri Lanka on sectarian grounds, and to condemn in the strongest terms all those who resort to intimidation, thuggery and violence to incite religious or racial tensions among innocent citizens. We must stand together and speak with one powerful voice to drown out the menace of bigotry. On the road to peace, I ask our leaders to recall the words of the late Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, who said “Peace is not unity in similarity, but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.” We cannot make room for belligerence and brutality.

I call upon the government, members of the House of Parliament, and the independent judiciary, to recall our sworn solemn duty – to protect the rights of all our citizens enshrined in the Constitution. It is of paramount importance that we take all necessary measures to protect those citizens affected by violence and threats of violence. We must give them the sense of safety and security to which they are entitled as Sri Lankans. We must ensure that our justice system turns its attention to those whose racist machinations are aimed at dragging our country back into darkness just to further their own selfish political ends.

Today, the media is free to report independently on the ground reality. Today, we will not stand idly by. Today, the police and armed forces will not stand idly by while they terrorize innocent citizens of any ethnic or religious stripe. Today, it is their turn to be afraid, as the full might of the law descends on them and their co-conspirators.


Tokyo Tech’s Six-Legged Robots Get Closer To Nature

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A study led by researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has uncovered new ways of driving multi-legged robots by means of a two-level controller. The proposed controller uses a network of so-called non-linear oscillators that enables the generation of diverse gaits and postures, which are specified by only a few high-level parameters. The study inspires new research into how multi-legged robots can be controlled, including in the future using brain-computer interfaces.

In the natural world, many species can walk over slopes and irregular surfaces, reaching places inaccessible even to the most advanced rover robots. It remains a mystery how complex movements are handled so seamlessly by even the tiniest creatures.

What we do know is that even the simplest brains contain pattern-generator circuits (CPGs)[1], which are wired up specifically for generating walking patterns. Attempts to replicate such circuits artificially have so far had limited success, due poor flexibility.

Now, researchers in Japan and Italy propose a new approach to walking pattern generation, based on a hierarchical network of electronic oscillators arranged over two levels, which they have demonstrated using an ant-like hexapod robot. The achievement opens new avenues for the control of legged robots. Published in IEEE Access, the research is the result of collaboration between scientists from Tokyo Tech, in part funded by the World Research Hub Initiative, the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, Poland, and the University of Catania, Italy.

The biologically-inspired controller consists of two levels. At the top, it contains a CPG[1], responsible for controlling the overall sequence of leg movements, known as gait. At the bottom, it contains six local pattern generators (LPGs)[2], responsible for controlling the trajectories of the individual legs.

The lead author of the study, Ludovico Minati, who is also affiliated to the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, Poland and invited to Tokyo Tech’s Institute of Innovative Research (IIR) through the World Research Hub Initiative explains that insects can rapidly adapt their gait depending on a wide range of factors, but particularly their walking speed. Some gaits are observed frequently and are considered as canonical, but in reality, a near-infinite number of gaits are available, and different insects such as ants and cockroaches realize similar gaits in very different postures.

Difficulties have been encountered when trying to condense so much complexity into artificial pattern generators. The proposed controller shows an extremely high level of versatility thanks to implementation based on field-programmable analog arrays (FPAAs)[3], which allow on-the-fly reconfiguration and tuning of all circuit parameters. It builds on years of previous research on non-linear and chaotic electronic networks, which has demonstrated their ability to replicate phenomena observed in biological brains, even when wired up in very simple configurations.

“Perhaps the most exciting moment in the research was when we observed the robot exhibit phenomena and gaits which we neither designed nor expected, and later found out also exist in biological insects,” says Minati. Such emergent phenomena arise particularly as the network is realized with analog components and allows a certain degree of self-organization, representing an approach that vastly differs to conventional engineering, where everything is designed a-priori and fixed. “This takes us so much closer to the way biology works,” he adds.

Yasuharu Koike, also based at the IIR, comments: “An important aspect of the controller is that it condenses so much complexity into only a small number of parameters. These can be considered high-level parameters, in that they explicitly set the gait, speed, posture, etc. Because they can be changed dynamically, in the future it should be easy to vary them in real-time using a brain-computer interface, allowing the control of complex kinematics otherwise impossible to dominate with current approaches.”

And Natsue Yoshimura, also based at the IIR, says: “As the controller responds gradually and embodies a biologically plausible approach to pattern generation, we think that it may be more seamless to drive compared to systems which decode discrete commands. This may have practical implications, and our lab has substantial know-how in this area.”

India Struggles To Maintain Peace In Kashmir

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By Amin Masoodi

Nearly 50 people have been injured over the past five days in clashes between anti-India protesters and security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, where four civilians and two suspected militants were allegedly killed by security forces last weekend, police said.

Meanwhile, protesters headed by senior separatist leaders took to the streets of Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s largest city, on Friday, demanding an end to civilian killings and shifting of inmates allegedly associated with rebel groups outside the state.

Shops and schools were shuttered and internet connectivity snapped in parts of the Himalayan territory, where a separatist insurgency has claimed more than 70,000 lives since the late 1980s.

“Unidentified miscreants set fire to a government office in Shopian late Wednesday evening after more than 10 protesters were injured in clashes with security personnel earlier that day,” a police official told BenarNews, explaining how the latest violence of cycle began.

Clashes also occurred in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday, prompting forces to use teargas shells to disperse protesters who were allegedly trying to prevent an operation to hunt down suspected militants hiding in the area, said the official who did not wish to be named.

“But we have the situation under control. We have barred internet in sensitive areas, including Shopian, since Monday to prevent protesters from organizing gatherings,” he added.

“Except a few sensitive areas of south Kashmir, the situation remained largely peaceful,” S.P Vaid, Indian Kashmir’s police chief, told BenarNews.

“Police exercised restraint in dealing with protesters in Srinagar. Restrictions were imposed to maintain law and order in some south Kashmir areas and there was routine security personnel deployment in major towns,” he added.

‘Disproportionate’

The Sunday evening shooting occurred when suspected militants traveling in two private vehicles opened fire at an Army mobile checkpoint on the outskirts of Shopian, about 55 km (34 miles) south of Srinagar, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, a military spokesman who is based there.

The soldiers retaliated and killed two suspected members of Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the gunfight that ensued, Army officials said, adding that four civilians in one of the two vehicles also died.

The Indian government’s special peace representative in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday demanded an end to killings of civilians and urged government forces to refrain from using excessive force.

“Civilian killings must end for peace to gather momentum in the region. The security forces must show restraint from using disproportionate force while discharging their duty,” government representative Dineshwar Sharma was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times.

Anger also is simmering over a recent government decision to shift imprisoned suspected militants and anti-India protesters to prisons outside the state, according to officials.

As many as 42 such prisoners have been shifted to jails outside the state since an alleged LeT commander escaped from police custody during an attack outside a hospital in Srinagar last month.

India and Pakistan have fought three full-blown wars over Kashmir, which is divided between the two sides by a de facto border known as the Line of Control.

Separatist leaders earlier this week filed a petition in court demanding an inquiry into why prisoners accused of militancy or being anti-India were being shifted to jails outside of the state.

“Some prison inmates who are serving life-terms have been shifted to the jails hundreds of miles from their homes. It is a clear violation of human rights guaranteed by the judicial pronouncements held by the country’s top court,” the petition said.

“The prisoners are being subjected to harassment and mental torture with an evil motive,” it added.

Artificial Intelligence: Commission Begins Work On Marrying Technology And Ethical Standards

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The European Commission is setting up a group on artificial intelligence to gather expert input and rally a broad alliance of diverse stakeholders.

The expert group will also draw up a proposal for guidelines on AI ethics, building on today’s statement by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies.

From better healthcare to safer transport and more sustainable farming, artificial intelligence (AI) can bring major benefits to our society and economy. And yet, questions related to the impact of AI on the future of work and existing legislation are raised. This calls for a wide, open and inclusive discussion on how to use and develop artificial intelligence both successfully and ethically sound.

Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said, “Step by step, we are setting up the right environment for Europe to make the most of what artificial intelligence can offer. Data, supercomputers and bold investment are essential for developing artificial intelligence, along with a broad public discussion combined with the respect of ethical principles for its take-up. As always with the use of technologies, trust is a must.”

Carlos Moedas, Commissioner in charge of Research, Science and Innovation, added: “Artificial intelligence has developed rapidly from a digital technology for insiders to a very dynamic key enabling technology with market creating potential. And yet, how do we back these technological changes with a firm ethical position? It bears down to the question, what society we want to live in. Today’s statement lays the groundwork for our reply.”

The Commission has opened applications to join an expert group in artificial intelligence which will be tasked to: advise the Commission on how to build a broad and diverse community of stakeholders in a “European AI Alliance”; support the implementation of the upcoming European initiative on artificial intelligence (April 2018); come forward by the end of the year with draft guidelines for the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence based on the EU’s fundamental rights. In doing so, it will consider issues such as fairness, safety, transparency, the future of work, democracy and more broadly the impact on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The guidelines will be drafted following a wide consultation and building on today’s statement by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), an independent advisory body to the European Commission.

According to Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel, “To reap all the benefits of artificial intelligence the technology must always be used in the citizens’ interest and respect the highest ethical standards, promote European values and uphold fundamental rights. That is why we are constantly in dialogue with key stakeholders, including researchers, providers, implementers and users of this technology. Our work to build a Digital Single Market is essential for encouraging the development and take-up of new technologies.”

The call for applications for an expert group in artificial intelligence will end on April 9 and the Commission aims to set this group up by May. This group will gather and build on the work done by other experts which is relevant to artificial intelligence, such as the high-level strategy group for industrial technologies (intermediate report) and the expert group on liability and new technologies. For the latter a call for applications was also launched today. This expert group will assist the Commission in analysing the challenges related to the existing liability framework.

The Commission will work closely with Member States, especially through the European platform of national initiatives to digitise industry (next forum event organised in France on March 27 and 28 ), with the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions as well as international organisations and fora (such as the G7). Artificial intelligence will be one of the key topics discussed as part of the Digital Day taking place in Brussels on April 10.

EU Warns UK Not To Seek Unilateral Exemptions From Trump’s Tariffs

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By Jorge Valero

(EurActiv) — The European Commission stressed on Friday (9 March) that Europeans will act “as a bloc” in the face of US steel and aluminium tariffs, after the UK announced that it would negotiate directly with Washington to find a way out for itself.

The Europeans were perplexed as to why they were not part of the exemptions offered by US President Donald Trump to a few allies.

Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen admitted to reporters on Friday that they did not know what criteria were used to be considered an ally by the unpredictable US president, given that European countries and the US are the bedrock of NATO.

But he stressed that if there is a “threat” against the European steel, the 28 member states would act as a “bloc”.

“We don’t want to see divisions between member states”, said Katainen, who oversees investment and jobs policies.

His comments came after UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox announced that he would travel to Washingon next week, where he will try to convince the US administration to be excluded from the punitive measures.

“We will be looking to see how we can maximise the UK’s case for exemption under these particular circumstances,” Fox said.

UK’s ‘illegal’ response

The Commission did not want to confirm whether they would take London to the EU court if it seeks a bilateral arrangement with Washington. But EU officials warned that the UK manoeuvring would be “illegal”.

The potential new fracture between the island and the continent came amid the growing tensions surrounding the EU-UK divorce process. The Irish border has become a toxic bone of contention between the two sides, while the transition period remains up in the air.

Brussels and London also disagree on the contours of the future relationship.

By offering bilateral exemptions, the US president upholds his stance against trade relations with blocs. He already offered a bilateral trade agreement to German Chancellor Angela Merkel last March.

Officials said that Trump had asked Merkel “ten times” whether he could sign a bilateral deal with Berlin, as she had to explain the basics of the EU trade policy.

All for one, one for all

The rift the US president may create between the UK and the rest of the member states could further complicate the Brexit talks at a very sensitive moment and jeopardise the political stability of the Union as a whole.

Is Trump using access to the attractive US market to divide the Europeans, as Russian President Vladimir Putin does with gas? “He would love to do that,” André Sapir, a senior fellow at Bruegel, told EURACTIV.

Given how small the benefit would be for the UK (less than €1 billion), and the high political price that London would pay in the Brexit talks, Sapir did not believe that London would listen to the US’s siren call.

Instead, he said that Prime Minister Theresa May could use the US-UK´s “special relationship” to work for an exemption for the EU as a whole. That diplomatic victory could earn London brownie points in the context of the Brexit negotiations.

“That would make much more sense,” Sapir said.

Not trade negotiation

Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will discuss the tariffs with US Trade representative Robert Lighthizer on Saturday.

During the meeting, which had been scheduled previously, the EU would look at options to be excluded from the tariffs.

But the Europeans are not willing to offer concessions to Trump to win an exemption on a tariff they consider unfair.

“I hope that nobody will expect that we will give some concessions on trade issues,” Katainen said.

“This is not a trade negotiation,” he stressed.

The US Administration complained in the past of the tariffs US cars have to pay to access the European market. But EU officials recalled that it is balanced, given the better deal they get with trucks.

During the signatory ceremony on Thursday, Trump linked a potential pardon to better security cooperation. But Katainen argued that “NATO-related issues and trade are completely separated”.

“We are responsible for trade”, he added.

Act soon

EU leaders will discuss the US tariffs during the next European summit on 22-23 March. The summit will coincide with the entry into force of the restrictions (15 days after they were signed by Trump).

After they take effect, Europe will have 90 days to notify the World Trade Organisation whether it wants to activate “rebalancing measures” and the list of products to be punished with duties of 25%, even if the implementation comes at a later stage.

An EU official argued that the bloc could activate its countermeasures, which include popular US products like jeans or bourbon, before the WTO rules on the validity of the US case.

The Commission considers that Trump´s move is “pure protectionist” and has nothing to do with “national security” as he argued. Therefore, the Europeans have the right to “re-balance”.

“It is fully compatible with WTO rules”, the official added.

The Commission is increasingly worried about Trump’s charges against free trade and the global system.

“We must be cautious of what is going on in the world of trade,” Katainen warned.

He said that countries have to choose whether they want a rule-based trade system and world order or “the rule of the strong”.

The EU “cannot accept being bullied,” an official told EURACTIV.

Vatican-China Deal Long Way Off, If Done At All – OpEd

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By Father Michael Kelly, SJ*

Recent months have seen no end of news reports and commentaries by “experts” on the rumored forthcoming “deal” between the Vatican and Beijing on the regulation of the Catholic Church in China.

Never mind that no one even knows the facts of the “deal.” There are no documents available and no participant in the discussions is briefing anyone.

And never mind that some of the most read commentaries reflect little grasp of the particular moment China is at right now — quite different from any in all its history, including the last unhappy 180 years.

No event in a news report has any meaning without a description of the context in which it occurs. And a comment on something in religion is unintelligible if it lacks context; namely, its impact well beyond the confines of religious communities.

And never mind that there has been a lamentable lack of historical perspective to inform observations, predictions and conclusions.

Enthusiasts for a “deal” are projecting their hopes for a harmonious resumption of the sort of peaceful coexistence between the church and the state that, in Chinese history, really only ever existed in the period following the Opium Wars and the Unequal Treaties (from 1840s to the triumph of Mao Zedong and the People’s Liberation Army in 1949).

Pessimists who either don’t expect or don’t want any harmonious resumption of relations are also into projection, this time of their fears and griefs from having been brutalized by communists in the past with views fed by the now dated paradigm of the Cold War that ended in Europe in 1989.

Commentators have taken the liberty either to trot out their time-honored presuppositions about communists and apply them to present events in China or give full liberty to their unbridled optimism which is equally devoid of a factual basis from which to argue.

Let me declare where I’m coming from: I believe that, despite the best efforts of many, the odds of any agreement between Beijing and the Vatican are looking less and less likely. That is not for want of trying. Nor is it because Catholics in China have become less interested in reconciliation among themselves.

The reason I think it looks less likely is because the Chinese Government will back off.

Why? Because China is reverting to type — Imperial type for the conduct of its political and social life.

Pierre Ryckmans (d. 2014) is one of the most celebrated and controversial commentators on Maoist China. A world renown scholar of Chinese art and literature, Ryckmans was also the first to puncture the balloon of the enthusiasms of many, especially the Left in the 1960s and ’70s, for Mao’s China by exposing the horrors of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 76).

Condemned by China and its repeater stations around the world as just one more anti-communist, Ryckmans was vindicated in his evidence and exceeded in his judgements by Chinese citizens who experienced that lamentable period in China first hand.

His advice for observers and commentators on China was neatly summarized in 2016 by his biographer Philippe Paquet: “Knowing about the past is the best way to grasp the present (in China), especially in the case of a nation whose history stretches unbroken over several millennia.”

But let’s first look at what is happening politically in China right now. One of the signal weaknesses of too many assessments of the condition of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular in China is that their fates are viewed in isolation from what’s happening to everyone else in China, especially other religious believers — Daoists, Muslims and Buddhists especially.

The reality is that China has a command-and-control, micromanaging totalitarian government and every indication is that the Chinese Communist Party is going through one of its regular swings to extremism.

But it was ever thus! Today and since 1949, it’s been dressed up in the pseudo-modern vocabulary of Marxism Leninism, learnt from the Soviets in Russia. In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty had exactly the same mechanisms at work to control and micromanage workplaces, villages, towns and even families that Mao adopted (and at the same time used by his Nationalist enemy, Chiang Kai-shek), both learnt from V.I. Lenin.

Prior to the period 1842 – 1949, the way Christians and Catholics got access to China always had to be through the medium of friendship with Chinese leaders, where the outsiders brought something to the Chinese that they didn’t already have. It was on the basis of mutual respect and exchange — of equal relationships. It is the most successful strategy for engagement with China ever developed.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the presence of missionaries was carefully supervised, and usually made possible by the access that the Jesuit astronomers, philosophers and artists had at the Imperial Court to gain them access to some parts of the Middle Kingdom.

Xi Jinping’s elevation to emperor status was authorized at the 19th Party Congress last October. It’s all about making him the undisputed ‘el supremo’ and locking everyone into following the party line. The emperor is back on the throne and any take on China today needs to look back almost 140 years to see what lies ahead.

Too many — in the church and the media — look to the period after the Opium Wars and the Unequal Treaties as the “normal” that China today should approximate to. That’s when European powers exercised “gun boat diplomacy” and foreigners had uninterrupted access to China and its markets.

And Christian missionaries trailed on the coat tails of the Western powers, setting up mission stations, schools and universities, hospitals and welfare services. Because they were doing such good, why could the Chinese object, the missionaries asked.

But did they listen well enough to what the Chinese said and felt about these developments? No.

The underlying resentment of the what the Chinese call the century of humiliation climaxed with Mao’s announcement when he claimed victory in 1949 and declared: “China has stood up!” meaning stood up to the invaders. He then proceeded to expel them along with their missionaries.

The period of 1842-1949 is a-typical of Chinese history and resentment of that period remains in China to this day. It is fanciful to ignore it.

Which brings us to the Vatican-Beijing discussions. From the Vatican’s point of view, these discussions are about regularizing the church life of Catholics in China. The “deal” will be over the constantly discussed matter of episcopal appointments.

But there are other outstanding issues to be resolved: The different diocesan boundaries acknowledged by China and the Vatican; the ambiguous status of the Chinese bishops’ conference and another body set up by the government that seems to have authority over the bishops and other administrative issues.

Any “Let a hundred flowers bloom” period in China is over. When the Great Helmsman of the People, Mao Zedong, authorized that period and called for everyone and anyone to have a say about China’s future, he quickly followed it with the vicious Anti-Rightist Campaign to punish his enemies.

The closest thing to the lamentable Mao since his death in 1976 is Xi Jinping. The pattern is unfolding again. All that can be hoped is that Xi’s impact will not be as disastrous for China as Mao’s came to be.

The way forward in China for all Christians in this period will not be through deals and negotiated settlements. It is back to Imperial China.

For the church, the 16th and 17th centuries suggest a way forward: friendships, equal relationships and mutually beneficial engagements.

*Father Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of ucanews.com and based in Thailand.

Women Wearing Heavy Makeup Less Likely To Be Perceived As Leaders

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Women wearing heavy makeup are less likely to be thought of as good leaders, new research from Abertay University has found.

A study led by Dr Christopher Watkins of Abertay’s Division of Psychology, published today in Perception journal, revealed that the amount of makeup a woman is wearing can have a negative impact on perceptions of her leadership ability.

Study participants were asked to view a series of images featuring the same woman without cosmetics and with makeup applied for a “social night out”.

Computer software was used to manipulate the faces and the amount of makeup was also manipulated in the face images.

Each participant completed a face perception task where they judged sixteen face-pairs, indicating how much better a leader they felt their chosen face to be compared to the other face.

It was found that both men and women evaluated women more negatively as a leader if the image suggested she was wearing a lot of makeup.

Dr Watkins said: “This research follows previous work in this area, which suggests that wearing makeup enhances how dominant a woman looks.

“While the previous findings suggest that we are inclined to show some deference to a woman with a good looking face, our new research suggests that makeup does not enhance a woman’s dominance by benefitting how we evaluate her in a leadership role.

“This work is a good example of the diverse and interesting research ongoing within the Division of Psychology.”

The study was carried out by Abertay graduates Esther James and Shauny Jenkins and used a measurement scale common in face perception research, which calculates the first-impressions of the participant group as a whole, working out an average verdict.

Dr Watkins has carried out previous high-profile studies including work looking at how women remember the faces potential love rivals and the role of traits related to dominance in our choice of allies, colleagues and friends.

Agricultural Sustainability Project Reached 20.9 Million Smallholder Farmers Across China

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Smallholder farmers who cultivate perhaps only a few hectares of land dominate the agricultural landscape in places like China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa. Increasing their efficiency while reducing their environmental impact are critical steps to ensuring a sustainable food source for the world’s growing population.

Yet sharing best practices with smallholder farmers, who often have limited resources to invest in their livelihoods and who number in the hundreds of millions in China alone, is a daunting prospect.

In a report in the journal Nature, the University of Pennsylvania’s Zhengxia Dou, professor of agricultural systems in the School of Veterinary Medicine, teamed with colleagues from China Agricultural University and other institutions in sharing the successful implementation of a long-term, broad-scale intervention that both improved yields and reduced fertilizer application across China.

effort, enacted over 10 years, engaged nearly 21 million farmers and increased yield on average more than 10 percent and lowered fertilizer use between 15 and 18 percent. Overall, the actions netted an increase in grain output with a decrease in fertilizer input and savings totaling $12.2 billion.

“The extent of the improvement in terms of yield increase and fertilizer decrease was great,” said Dou. “But it was not a surprise as similar results had been attained before. It was the scale of it all, approaching it with an all-out effort and multi-tiered partnerships among scientists, extension agents, agribusinesses, and farmers, achieving a snowball effect. That, to me, is the most impressive takeaway.”

The first author of the study was Zhenling Cui and the project leader and corresponding author on the study was Fusuo Zhang, both with China Agricultural University.

The project began with the recognition that prevailing agricultural practices of China’s vast numbers of smallholder farmers do not meet requirements for sustainable productivity. Globally, food production must increase by 60 to 110 percent over 2005 levels by 2050 in order to meet demand. At the same time, the impact of climate change and environmental degradation makes farming more difficult.

To determine the best ways of meeting sustainable productivity demand, researchers in the current study conducted more than 13,000 field trials testing what they call an integrated soil-crop system management program, or ISSM, a model that helps determine which crop variety, planting date and density, fertilizer use, and other strategies will work best in a given climate and soil type. The tests were done with maize, rice, and wheat.

After determining that the model could help guide agricultural efforts across China’s major farming zones and achieve yield improvements and fertilizer reductions, the researchers organized a massive campaign to work with farmers across China. The campaign engaged more than 1,000 scientists and graduate students, 65,000 agricultural extension agents, and 130,000 agribusiness personnel to reach 20.9 million smallholder farmers in 452 counties in China.

“The collaborating scientists trained local technicians, and the technicians worked with the farmers closely to develop their management practices based on what made sense in the region,” Dou said.

Agribusiness was a key partner in the effort, helping design fertilizer products that matched the needs of the farmers.

“This was a massive, nation-wide, multi-layered collaboration,” Dou said.

To gain a deeper understanding of the current performance of Chinese farmers, the researchers conducted a survey of 8.6 million farmers from 1,944 counties across the nation. They found room for improvement, as most had yields at least 10 percent, and some as much as 50 percent, lower than the ISSM would predict.

Dou believes the experiences and lessons gained through this nation-wide project can be applicable elsewhere, particularly in Asia. India, for example, is another country where yields are relatively low and fertilizer use high. In sub-Saharan Africa, both yield and fertilizer input is low, yet the lessons “in how to work with smallholder farmers, how to earn their trust and engage them,” Dou said, would still hold true.


Running On Renewables: How Sure Can We Be About The Future?

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A variety of models predict the role renewables will play in 2050, but some may be over-optimistic, and should be used with caution, say researchers.

The proportion of UK energy supplied by renewable energies is increasing every year; in 2017 wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectricity produced as much energy as was needed to power the whole of Britain in 1958.

However, how much the proportion will rise by 2050 is an area of great debate. Now, researchers at Imperial College London have urged caution when basing future energy decisions on over-optimistic models that predict that the entire system could be run on renewables by the middle of this century.

Mathematical models are used to provide future estimates by taking into account factors such as the development and adoption of new technologies to predict how much of our energy demand can be met by certain energy mixes in 2050.

These models can then be used to produce ‘pathways’ that should ensure these targets are met – such as through identifying policies that support certain types of technologies.

However the models are only as good as the data and underlying physics they are based on, and some might not always reflect ‘real-world’ challenges. For example, some models do not consider power transmission, energy storage, or system operability requirements.

Now, in a paper published today in the journal Joule, Imperial researchers have shown that studies that predict whole systems can run on near-100% renewable power by 2050 may be flawed as they do not sufficiently account for reliability of the supply.

Using data for the UK, the team tested a model for 100% power generation using only wind, water and solar (WWS) power by 2050. They found that the lack of firm and dispatchable ‘backup’ energy systems – such as nuclear or power plants equipped with carbon capture systems – means the power supply would fail often enough that the system would be deemed inoperable.

The team found that even if they added a small amount of backup nuclear and biomass energy, creating a 77% WWS system, around 9% of the annual UK demand could remain unmet, leading to considerable power outages and economic damage.

Lead author Clara Heuberger, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: “Mathematical models that neglect operability issues can mislead decision makers and the public, potentially delaying the actual transition to a low carbon economy. Research that proposes ‘optimal’ pathways for renewables must be upfront about their limitations if policymakers are to make truly informed decisions.”

Co-author Dr Niall Mac Dowell, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: “A speedy transition to a decarbonised energy system is vital if the ambitions of the 2015 Paris Agreement are to be realised.

“However, the focus should be on maximising the rate of decarbonisation, rather than the deployment of a particular technology, or focusing exclusively on renewable power. Nuclear, sustainable bioenergy, low-carbon hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage are vital elements of a portfolio of technologies that can deliver this low carbon future in an economically viable and reliable manner.

“Finally, these system transitions must be socially viable. If a specific scenario relies on a combination of hypothetical and potentially socially challenging adaptation measures, in addition to disruptive technology breakthroughs, this begins to feel like wishful thinking.”

Call For China To Allow UN Rights Experts Into Tibet

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The Chinese government’s repression of political dissent in Tibetan areas warrants fact-finding visits by United Nations human rights experts, Human Rights Watch said, releasing a new compilation of cases and sentences against Tibetans.

On February 21, 2018, six UN experts called for the release of Tibetan language rights advocate Tashi Wangchuk, who awaits sentencing on baseless charges of “inciting separatism.” The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported that, in January, veteran dissident Tsegon Gyal was sentenced to three years in prison, also for “inciting separatism,” charges that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last year said had “no legal basis.” These cases fit a larger pattern of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, followed by closed trials resulting in long sentences, Human Rights Watch said.

“The harsh sentences handed down to peaceful Tibetan dissidents fly in the face of Chinese government claims to merely be enforcing the law,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “China should invite UN rights experts to assess the imprisonment of Tibetans denied access to family and counsel, mistreated in custody and unjustly convicted.”

It is difficult to assess how many Tibetans are, or have been, imprisoned in recent years for dissenting views or to learn the details of their cases: information about sentences from Tibetan areas is tightly restricted, and people who report detentions and prosecutions abroad are themselves at risk of arrest.

One of the few remaining sources are reports that appear in Tibetan exile media when prisoners are released. While such reports appear years after the arrests that led to imprisonment, they set forth basic facts about the cases, and thus provide a basis for identifying trends. The analysis that follows is based on Human Rights Watch review of such reports since 2016. These 30 cases are consistent with the patterns of a 2016 Human Rights Watch report on patterns of detentions and prosecutions in Tibet.

One cluster of cases reflects the Chinese government’s response to the wave of self-immolation protests in 2011-12, in which dozens of Tibetans attempted public suicides to draw attention to the denial of basic freedoms. In these 10 cases, courts handed down sentences ranging from three to seven years in prison for alleged involvement in self-immolation protests. Their offenses, where known, include attempting to prevent security forces from seizing the remains of protesters, and consoling bereaved relatives. Some were relatives and associates, accused of inciting the protests. Three of the 10 were reportedly released in poor health due to alleged mistreatment in custody. Another three were monks from Kirti monastery in Sichuan province, who were detained as they attempted self-immolations and subsequently given five-year prison sentences, despite Premier Wen Jiabao’s 2012 reassurance that the central government regarded them as “innocent.”

Another cluster of cases consist of four monks and two laymen, detained for their involvement in the widespread peaceful protests in March and April 2008. Among them, monk Labrang Jigme served three successive incarcerations since 2008 and frequent hospitalization following alleged torture in custody. Choktrin Gyatso was the only one of three monks at Tsang monastery in Gepasumdo county to complete their nine-year prison sentences; two colleagues were released early in poor health due to alleged mistreatment in custody. Layman Jampal was released early from a 13-year sentence due to poor health.

Six of those released are popular singers, who had been sentenced to four to six years in prison for performing songs considered to promote Tibetan nationalism, though the exact charges against them are not known.

Jamyang Kunkhyen and senior monk Atruk Lopo – relatives of Ronggye Adrak, who spoke out against the Chinese government at a public event in Litang in 2007, – were sentenced to 10 years in prison for sharing information about the case. Veteran dissident Sonam Gyalpo was rearrested in 2005 for possession of photos of the Dalai Lama and related literature, and sentenced to 12 years.

Tsegon Gyal, a former police forensic analyst and crime journalist, was originally sentenced to 16 years in prison in 1993 for allegedly forming an underground political organization, although the Qinghai province Higher People’s Court later reduced his sentence to six years. The grounds for his detention in December 2016 and conviction for “separatism” are not clear, but are apparently related to a social media post in which he criticized the government’s “nationality unity” policies.

UN scrutiny of China’s human rights record, including China’s 2008 and 2013 Universal Periodic Reviews, as well as its 2015 review under the Convention against Torture, were critical of restrictions on Tibetans’ civil, cultural, economic, and political rights. In February 2017, six UN special rapporteurs formally expressed concern to the Chinese government about the mass expulsion in late 2016 of monks and nuns, and the demolition of living quarters at the Larung Gar monastery in Kandze, Sichuan province.

Chinese authorities should cease prosecuting people for peaceful dissent, including under abusive charges such as “endangering state security” and “separatism,” Human Rights Watch said. The government should grant access to Tibetan areas for UN rights experts to document alleged rights violations and report publicly on possible accountability measures.

“The situation in Tibet will continue to deteriorate, so long as Chinese authorities prevent Tibetans from exercising their basic rights,” Richardson said. “China could show the world they are serious about addressing these rampant abuses by admitting UN rights experts into Tibetan areas.”

Some Concerns Raised About Blood Being Stored Longer

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Human blood from donors can be stored for use up to 42 days, and it is a mainstay therapy in transfusion medicine. However, recent studies looking back at patient records have shown that transfusion with older, stored blood is associated with adverse effects.

For severely injured patients who have massive bleeding and receive many transfusion units, older blood was associated with dysfunction in blood flow, increased injury and inflammation in critical end organs, and lung infection.

In a collaborative study using a mouse model, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers from the departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Biostatistics, Emergency Medicine, Pathology, and Surgery have found mechanistic links between older stored red blood cell transfusions and subsequent bacterial pneumonia.

This may reveal new approaches to improve safety of stored red blood cell transfusions.

The key player is free heme, a breakdown product from degraded red blood cells. Heme is part of the oxygen-binding hemoglobin pigment that gives blood cells their red color and carries oxygen through the body from the lungs. While in the red blood cell, heme is relatively safe; but once outside the confines of the red cells, free heme is toxic and can cause tissue injury. During storage and upon transfusion, stored red blood cells lyse open, releasing free heme.

An adverse role for heme suggests that finding ways to limit heme exposure or prevent heme toxicity may improve safety of stored red blood cell transfusions, say UAB researchers Rakesh Patel, Ph.D., and Jean-Francois Pittet, M.D.

Patel is a professor of pathology and director of the Center for Free Radical Biology, and Pittet is a professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at the UAB School of Medicine.

In a study led by Patel and Pittet and published in the journal PLOS Medicine, mice were resuscitated after trauma and hemorrhage, using either fresh or two-week-old stored blood. Two days later, they were challenged by instilling the lungs with the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A two-week storage of mouse blood approximates storage of human red blood cells for 42 days.

Compared to fresh blood, resuscitation with the stored blood significantly increased bacterial lung injury, as shown by higher mortality, and increases in fluid accumulation and bacterial numbers in the lungs.

A connection between free heme and infection susceptibility and severity was shown two ways. First, Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced mortality was completely prevented by the addition of hemopexin, a scavenging protein in humans that removes free heme from the blood.

Second, adding an inhibitor of a cell surface receptor called toll-like receptor 4, or genetically removing that receptor from mice, also prevented the bacteria-induced mortality. Free heme — which is known to induce inflammatory injury to major organs in diseases like sickle cell or sepsis — acts, in part, by activating the toll-like receptor 4.

The researchers also found that transfusion with stored blood induced release of the inflammation mediator HMGB1, part of the body’s immune response.

In tissue culture experiments, Patel, Pittet and colleagues found that addition of free heme increased permeability in a sheet of endothelial cells, and free heme inhibited macrophages from ingesting Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Macrophages are immune cells that remove infection by ingesting and destroying bacteria.

Finally, in a 16-month study, the researchers found that human trauma-hemorrhage patients who received large amounts of transfused blood were also receiving amounts of free heme sufficient to overwhelm the normal amounts of hemopexin found in a person’s blood.

“We recognize that many challenges and questions remain and view our data as hypothesis-generating,” Patel, Pittet and colleagues said. “Clinically, our findings underscore the need to establish whether the storage age of transfused red blood cells correlates with increasing levels of free heme after transfusion, and whether low ratios of hemopexin to free heme will identify patients at greater risk for adverse outcomes after massive transfusions.”

A Great Turnaround On The Korean Peninsula – Analysis

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By Wang Li and Petro Shevchenko*

On March 8, the whole world was stunned by a breaking news that “Kim Jung-un invites Trump to meet”, which was followed by a confirmed message that “Donald Trump has agreed to meet Kim Jong Un by May”. What a mystery!

However, if people look carefully into what have happened on the Korean Peninsula since the beginning of 2018 or even before, the détente has loomed and grown steadily. True, it is still too early to conclude which country has been acting as the pivot during the whole issue, but one thing is clear that for a long time, China working with Russia and the international society has consistently called for a peaceful resolution to the DPRK nuclear crisis through talk rather than coercion; and therefore has sincerely proposed a “suspension–to-suspension” approach, urging the DPRK to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale US-ROK military exercises. Even though this position has been questioned by some criticism including Trump’s own words that “if China decides to help, that would be great. Otherwise, we will solve the problem without them”, China has never retreated from its bottom-line and also never be shaken in belief that the core of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is about security, and the settlement of which hinges on direct talks between the U.S. and DPRK, if the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is to be resolved by peace.

As the Korean nuclear issue has involved six powers directly, from the global powers to the regional powers, and from the ruling powers and the rising powers, leaders of those countries have obligations not to avoid reality. They actually control whether there will be nuclear war or peace with North Korea. Kim Jong Un is one such leader, along with his top military officers. Donald Trump is another, along with the chain of command under him. Xi Jinping is surely the key figure since he has reiterated China has firmly adhered to the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and no war or chaos would be allowed on the Peninsula as well. Due to all these, it is better to see that the turnaround on Thursday has come from a process, even prior to the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympic game. That is the nature of diplomacy with an emphasis on prudence, continuity and patience as well.

On March 6, during the meeting between Kim Jong-un and envoys from the ROK, both sides agreed to advance the latest step of an Olympics-driven rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula and an inter-Korean summit of the two leaders would be held in late April, the first such a summit since 2007. Clearly, President Moon has sought to use the PyeongChang Games to open dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang with a view that the U.S. should lower the threshold for dialogue and the DPRK should show its will to abandon its nuclear drive. Once again, this is in effect China’s position on the Korean issues from the very beginning. However, despite so far the dialogues between the Koreans have revealed an in-depth views on the issues for easing the acute military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and activating the dialogue, contact and cooperation, the key player on the Korean issue has been the United States rather than others including China and ROK.

As the solo superpower in the world affairs since the 1990s, the United States has become arrogant and to certain extent they are even aggressively indifferent and uncertain about how to shape a foreign policy to guide this power. The leaders of the White House have been mistaken in belief that a power to destroy means a power to lead and control, as a result, they have involved into more conflicts globally than any countries today. As the most powerful country in the world, the U.S. has caused much more hatred and concerns over the regional and global security issues. In response to the détente between two Koreas, the United States still plans to press ahead with potentially provocative joint military exercises with the ROK, as a senior administration official said on Tuesday, despite a possible diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang, it is only natural that “our routine defensive exercises will resume.” In contrast, it is reported that “Kim Jong Un understands that routine US-ROK military exercises must continue, while he agreed that there would be no additional nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches by DPRK as long as the talks are held to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and normalize the countries’ bilateral ties.”

President Trump did hail “positive” intra-Korean talks. He even said that “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in January. Yet, VP Mike Pence and strong conservative groups have argued the United States would continue to apply “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang and that all options were “on the table” until the U.S. sees evidence that the DPRK is taking steps toward denuclearization. The arrogance and ambiguity demonstrated by the United States are incompatible with the nature of diplomacy that highlights the reconciliation, consultation and in particular all respective parties’ legitimate concerns. Now given that Kim Jung-un would like to meet Trump without condition, the United States should act more modestly and make all efforts once again to play the role of the peacemaker.

For sure, this is also not a smooth way because the right-wing and the cold-war mentality groups in the United States are very reluctant to share their interests and the ruling status with the others of the world. On the one hand, they argue that “Trump is a deal maker and probably believes he can single-handedly convince Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons. A Trump meeting with Kim presents both risks an opportunities.” On the other hand, they believe that “Kim Jong Un’s desire to talk shows sanctions the U.S. administration has implemented are starting to work.”Therefore, the U.S. can pursue more diplomacy, but also keep applying pressure ounce-by-ounce. Given that DPRK has repeatedly used talks and empty promises to extract concessions and buy time, the U.S., Japan and South Korea in particular must insist upon that all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain. As Trump said after the latest missile test by DPRK, “this situation will be handled.”

China is not only the closest neighbor of the DPRK, but also the largest trading partner of the ROK. Moreover, on the recent ease of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it is self-evident that China’s “suspension-for-suspension” proposal has worked. As Chinese FM Wang Yi stated that “China’s proposal has proven to be a right prescription for the problem as it has created the basic conditions needed for improving inter-Korea relations.”In order to move forward dialogues on the Korean nuclear issue, China has urged that a denuclearized Korean Peninsula serves the interests of all parties, including China and other members of the international community. Yet, to that end, all relevant parties should “demonstrate their seriousness about resolving the issue” and bring the situation back to the track of peaceful dialogue. Both history and common sense teach us that peace comes out of diplomacy rather than by force.

*About the authors:
Wang Li
is Professor of International Relations and Diplomacy at the School of International and Public Affairs, Jilin University China.

Petro Shevchenko (from Ukraine) is MA research fellow in Diplomacy, Jilin University

Source:
This article was published by Modern Diplomacy

Trump’s Travesty Of Protectionism – OpEd

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Trump’s series of threats this week was a one-two punch. First, he threatened to impose national security tariffs on steel and aluminum, primarily against Canada and Mexico (along with Korea and Japan). Then, he suggested an alternative: He would exempt these countries if they agree to certain U.S. demands.

But these demands make so little economic sense that they should be viewed as an exercise in what academia used to call power politics. Or in Trump’s world, Us versus Them, a zero-sum game in which he has to show that America wins, they lose.

It won’t work. Trump’s diplomatic ploy with Mexico is to say that he’ll be willing to exempt them from the steel and aluminum tariffs if they agree to (1) build the wall that he promised to make them build, and (2) give other special favors to the United States. He can then go to American voters and say, “See, we won; Mexico lost.”

This is unlikely to elicit a Mexican surrender. Its president already has said that building a wall makes no sense, and cancelled the planned diplomatic visit to Washington last week. Giving in to Trump’s election promise to American voters (or more to the point, indulging in his own ego trip about the wall) would be political suicide. Trump would crow that he made Mexico bow to his bidding.

Matters aren’t much better in Canada. While some Pennsylvania and Ohio steel companies probably will try to make Trump look good by hiring back a few hundred workers if and when the tariffs are announced, Canada and other suppliers would have to be laid off. Canadian resentment already has been building up for decades, ever since the auto agreement of the 1960s and ‘70s that favored U.S. suppliers.

But the real economic problem comes from within the United States itself. If new steel workers are hired, they may be laid off in a few months. Most important is the bigger economy-wide picture: The Chamber of Commerce and other groups have calculated that the loss of jobs in steel- and aluminum-using industries will far outnumber the new hiring of steel and aluminum workers.

NPR on Wednesday had a maker of beer kegs explain that if the cost of steel goes up, he can’t afford to match the prices of foreign keg manufacturers who buy their raw materials cheaper – and do NOT have tariffs raised on higher manufactures.

There are many good arguments for protectionism. These arguments are in fact much better than the free-trade patter talk used to indoctrinate college economics students. Of all the branches of today’s mainstream economics, free-trade theory is the most unrealistic. If it were realistic, Britain, the United States and Germany never would have risen to world industrial powers. (I review the fallacies of free-trade theory in Trade, Development and Foreign Debt.)

Economic history provides a long and excellent successful pedigree of good arguments for protective tariffs. Britain created its empire by protectionism, stifling manufactures in the United States as long as it pursued free trade. After the Civil War ended, America built up its industry and agriculture by protectionism, as did Germany and France. (I discuss the strategy in America’s Protectionist Takeoff: 1815-1914.)

But as each of these nations became world leaders, they sought to pull up the ladder and prevent other countries from protecting their own industry and agriculture. So they changed to “free trade imperialism.” The aim of industrial leaders is to convince other countries not to regulate or plan their own markets, but to let the United States engineer an asymmetrical trade policy whose aim is to make other countries dependent on its food exports and monopoly exports, while opening their markets to U.S. companies.

Since the 1920s the protectionist economies that came to support free trade have rewritten of history to white out how they got rich. The strategy of protectionism has been forgotten. Trump’s so-called protective tariffs against steel and aluminum are the antithesis to every principle of protectionism. That is why they are so self-destructive.

A really nationalistic trade strategy is to buy raw materials cheaply, and sell finished manufactured goods at a high value-added price.

The idea of industrial protectionism, from British free trade in the 19th century to U.S. trade strategy in the 20th century, was to obtain raw materials in the cheapest places – by making other countries compete to supply them – and protect your high-technology manufactures where the major capital investment, profits and monopoly rents are.

Trump is doing the reverse: He’s increasing the cost of steel and aluminum raw materials inputs. This will squeeze the profits of industrial companies using steel and aluminum – without protecting their markets.

In fact, other countries are now able to legally raise their tariffs to protect their highest-technology sectors that might be most threatened by U.S. exports. Harley Davidson motorcycles have been singled out. They also can block U.S. monopoly exports, such as bourbon and Levi blue jeans, or pharmaceuticals. Or, China can block whatever U.S. technology it decides it wants to compete with.

Trump’s tariff threats caused short-term aluminum prices to jump by 40 percent, and steel prices by about 33 percent. This raises the price of these materials to U.S. manufacturers, squeezing their profits. Foreign manufacturers will not have their materials prices increased, and so can out-compete with U.S. steel- or aluminum-using rivals. The global oversupply in fact may make the price of steel and aluminum decline in foreign markets. So foreign industry will gain a cost advantage.

On top of that, foreign countries can legally raise tariffs in their own markets – for whatever industries they deem will best gain from this advantage.

Trump’s tariffs will not induce new capital investment in steel or aluminum

America’s logic behind protective tariffs after the Civil War ended the Southern free-trade policies was that tariff protection would create a price umbrella enabling U.S. manufacturers to invest in plant and equipment. Britain already had made these sunk costs, so the United States had to include the cost of capital in its revenue.

That’s how America built up its steel industry, chemical industry and other manufacturing industry.

But no steel or aluminum company is likely to invest more or hire more U.S. labor as a result of higher tariff revenues. These companies may raise their prices, but neither investment nor trickle-down effects are likely.

For one thing, aluminum is made out of electricity, and America is a high-cost producer. Alcan – America’s largest supplier – has a rip-off deal with Iceland getting electricity almost for nothing.

For steel, it takes a long time to build a modern steel mill. No company will do this without an assured market. Trump’s tariff increases do not guarantee that.

America’s policy of breaking international agreements (we’re the “indispensable nation”)

Few companies, labor groups or banks in New York City have been willing to trust Mr. Trump in recent years. He should have called his book “The Art of BREAKING THE deal.” That’s how he made his money. He would sign an agreement with suppliers to his hotels or other buildings, and then offer only 80 cents (or less) on the dollar. He’d tell them, in effect: “You want to sue? That will cost you $50,000 to get into court, and then wait three or four years, by which time we’ll have made enough money to pay you on the cheap.”

Bank lenders had as much trouble getting paid as did Trump’s hapless suppliers. He made his fortune this way – so successfully that he seems to believe that he can use the same strategy in international diplomacy, just as he’s threatening to break the Iran agreement.

Will this work? Or are foreign economies coming to view the United States as “not agreement-capable”? In fact, will U.S. companies themselves believe that agreements signed today will still be honored tomorrow?

Trump’s national security ploy to bypass Congressional authority over trade policy

This is not the first time the United States has raised tariffs unilaterally. George W. Bush did it. And my 1979 book, Global Fracture, describes U.S. protectionism in the 1970s against other countries. America did it again and again.

But Trump has introduced some new twists. First of all, former U.S. protectionism had Congressional backing. But Trump has bypassed Congress, no doubt aware that steel-using and aluminum-using industries can mobilize Congressional support against Trump.

So Trump has used the one play available to the Executive Branch: the National Security umbrella. In a great mind-expansion exercise he claims that it would be a loss of national security to depend on neighboring Canada, Mexico, or allies such as South Korea and Japan for steel and aluminum. If he can convince a kangaroo trade court, this loophole is indeed allowed under WTO rules (GATT Article XXI). The idea was to apply to times of war or other great crisis. But U.S. steel and aluminum production has been steady for over a decade, and there seems to be no military or economic crisis affecting national security.

Suppose Trump gets away with it. Other countries can play this “national security” game. Any economic activity can be deemed national security, because every economy is an overall system, with every given part affecting all the others. So Trump has opened the door for overall asymmetrical jockeying for position. The most likely arena may be high-technology and military-related sectors.

Back in the 1980s this was called “Uncle Sucker” patter talk – acting as if the United States was the exploited party, not the exploiting actor in international trade and investment. Ultimately at issue is how much policy asymmetry the rest of the world is willing to tolerate. Can the United States still push other countries around as it has done for so many years? How far can America push its one-sided agreements before other countries break away?

Each foreign country threatened with loss of steel or aluminum exports has a more high-tech industry that it would like to protect against U.S. competition. The response is likely to be asymmetrical.

And here at home, how long will higher manufacturing industries back Mr. Trump and his policy that makes a travesty of “smart” protectionism?

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