September 7th , 2017 Edition.
On the overseas front we now see President Trump sulking in the White House frustrated with North Korea and the ongoing fiasco internally. It is interesting that the Secretaries of State and Defence are really seeming to operate independent of Trump.
Hurricane Harvey has turned out to be a calamity of quite epic proportions and it will be literally years before things are put right. The cost is estimated to be greater the $130 Billion to say nothing of the awful cost in lives and suffering.
I wonder will the scale and frequency of these hurricanes recently cause a change of mind about the reality of climate change – it should!
As late breaking news we have:
North Korea claims to have advanced hydrogen bomb
Published: September 3 2017 - 9:32AM
Seoul: North Korean scientists have built an advanced hydrogen bomb that can be mounted onto an inter-continental ballistic missile, state media says.
Pyongyang's official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said on Sunday leader Kim Jong Un was present at a factory as the nuclear weapon was loaded onto a missile.
The bomb has an explosive power that is adjustable up to "hundreds" of kilotons and can be detonated at high altitudes with its indigenously produced components allowing the country to build as many nuclear weapons as it wants, KCNA reported.
In January 2016, North Korea claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, its fourth test of an atomic device, but Western experts doubted it had the power of a hydrogen nuclear explosion.
-----
In Australia we are seeing even more extreme solutions being argued on virtually every front and the dysfunction rolls on. The LNP is accusing Labor of being socialist when they are the most interventionist Government ever seen in the operation of out increasingly non-market economy (think banks, electricity, gas etc.) Pots and kettles spring to mind!
Thursday Update:
Internationally the big news is that the situation in the DPRK seems to have eased a little and the is a monster hurricane (Irma) flattening all it passes over and heading for Florida. If is does a presently predicted it will be truly awful. In the Caribbean whole islands have essentially been flattened
In OZ the High Court has agreed to the Postal Survey and the Energy Mess rolls on.
Thursday Update:
Internationally the big news is that the situation in the DPRK seems to have eased a little and the is a monster hurricane (Irma) flattening all it passes over and heading for Florida. If is does a presently predicted it will be truly awful. In the Caribbean whole islands have essentially been flattened
In OZ the High Court has agreed to the Postal Survey and the Energy Mess rolls on.
-----
Here are a few other things I have noticed.
-----
National Budget Issues.
Malcolm Turnbull to announce millions in funding for Snowy Hydro 2.0 pet project
James Massola
Published: August 27 2017 - 6:07PM
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is set to announce millions in extra funding for his pet project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, after visiting the power station on Monday morning.
The money will be spent on meeting some of the cost of the $29 million feasibility study and will come from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
It represents a major new investment from the federal government, which has only committed $500,000 so far to the project, despite Mr Turnbull frequently championing Snowy Hydro 2.0 as a game-changer for the east coast electricity market.
-----
Renewable energy booming but could soon turn to bust, analysts warn
Nicole Hasham
Published: August 27 2017 - 11:29PM
Australia produced enough renewable energy to power 70 per cent of households last financial year, new data shows, but advocates warn the booming industry will flounder unless the Turnbull government commits to a clean energy target.
The government is sharply divided over whether to adopt the target, the central recommendation of Chief Scientist Alan Finkel's review of the national electricity market.
New data to be released on Monday shows Australia produced enough renewable energy to power 7.1 million homes, or 70 per cent of households, in the year to June.
-----
Housing affordability set to be a problem for at least 40 years
Published: August 29 2017 - 7:26AM
Housing affordability is likely to be an issue for at least 40 years, with the demand for new homes needing bold policy, a major new report says.
The report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, to be released on Tuesday, says policy needs to reflect the great Australian dream of owning a home is over for many people.
"What the CEDA report highlights is that ... the issue is far more complex and without changes now, could have longer-run consequences," CEDA chairman Rodney Maddock says in the report.
-----
Elder abuse on the rise in step with galloping property prices
Graham Hill
Published: August 29 2017 - 9:30AM
Spiralling house prices are fuelling rising levels of elder abuse in Australia. This wickedness can, however, be addressed if there is the political and public will to put a stronger legal safety net under vulnerable elderly people.
Growing numbers of older people are being pressured by adult children to guarantee enormous loans. Legal aid commissions regularly deal with elderly parents who have gone guarantor without understanding they will be legally liable for the debt if the borrower defaults. This problem will only worsen unless we require lenders to ensure older Australians have independent legal and financial advice before these individuals offer their home to secure a loan or agree to be guarantor. As well, there should be a "cooling off" period within which guarantors can withdraw from the arrangement.
The pressure on older people can be immense. Adult children sometimes deny access to grandchildren if an elderly parent does not agree to be a guarantor or provide funds for a home deposit. Legal Aid family law divisions regularly provide advice to grandparents about gaining access to grandchildren. All too often, we hear of conversations that go like this: "Mum, if we can't get funds to complete our deposit, and get a guarantor for our loan, we'll have to move interstate. The other option is that we move in with you at your place. It's too big for you since Dad died."
-----
It's time to get banks back to nation-building basics
Stephen Anthony
Published: August 30 2017 - 12:15AM
Public confidence in Australia's banks has been steadily eroding since financial deregulation in 1983 to the point where now the brand of the Big Four banks, and especially the Commonwealth Bank, is at its nadir.
It appears Australia's banks are more satisfied with earning a fast buck than supporting real investment in projects and jobs for the betterment of all Australians.
Consider the loan book of major deposit-taking institutions: Around 60 per cent of new lending is for housing; around 80 per cent of all housing loans are for the purchase of existing property; around 60 per cent of all new loans are made to investors for negatively geared investments; and around 40 per cent of housing loans are interest only.
-----
A craven nation that prefers statues to agility
Mark Kenny
Published: August 29 2017 - 2:42PM
Australia is a nation scared. Scared to fully stake out its own flag. Scared to install an Australian as head of state. Nervous even about bringing into the daylight a more complete account of its own creation.
This is at odds with our strongly internalised ruggedness myth. And it is even more inconsistent with the legendary "fair go".
The selfless courage made sacred on the Western Front, Gallipoli, Changi and Long Tan, is strangely absent at the official level. And the giant-slaying competitiveness that has seen Australians punching above their weight in global sports – literally, in the cases of Lionel Rose and Anthony Mundine – went missing on the offer of republican sovereignty.
-----
Defeated by high legal costs: the terrible injustice most of us could face
Ross Gittins
Published: August 30 2017 - 2:24AM
It's one of the most glaring gaps between theory and practice in our community, a huge disconnect between our democracy and our economy. A terrible injustice most of us could face. Everyone knows about it, but it's rarely discussed. What is it?
The prohibitively high cost of justice. We're all supposed to be equal before the law, but you ain't anything like equal if they can afford a lawyer and you can't.
The president of the Law Council of Australia, Fiona McLeod, is running a campaign to highlight the plight of people who, in theory, should be receiving aid to help them with their legal problems but, in practice, often aren't.
-----
Turnbull government ignoring 'easiest way' to cut power prices, say electricity companies
James Massola
Published: August 28 2017 - 5:17PM
Electricity
generators have rebuked the Turnbull government for delaying the
introduction of a clean energy target, arguing a target will trigger new
investment and bring down power bills.
Mr
Turnbull will meet the bosses of some of Australia's biggest power
companies in Sydney on Wednesday for a second round of discussions about
skyrocketing rising power prices.
At
an earlier meeting in August, a deal was struck for millions of
Australians to be notified when their discount electricity plans expire,
which could save households more than $1000 a year, as well as some
other consumer protection measures.
-----
Give employees a say in our company boardrooms
Nick Dyrenfurth
Published: August 29 2017 - 11:45PM
In 2017, the Australian way of life – a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, equal opportunity for all and preventing excessive inequalities of wealth, status and power – is fraying. While we avoided the GFC's worst effects, inequality has risen to heights not seen since the early 1940s. Good, secure, well-paying jobs are being replaced by low-skill, low-wage insecure work. Less than half of Australian workers hold down full-time jobs; 23 per cent are employed casually. Underemployment has hit a record high of 8.6 per cent. Wage theft is rife. Company profits remain healthy – rising by 40 per cent in 2017 – yet wages growth is sluggish. The fruits of 26 years of continuous, record economic growth have not been shared equally, which is bad for working people, bad for the economy, and bad for democracy, encouraging extremist politics. In any case, our world-beating growth numbers belie a more fragile outlook. Productive investment is poor. Exports are less diversified than any time since the 1950s. Our economic institutions are not working in the interests of the majority.
-----
Labor’s $1.6b fund will overcome WA’s rotten GST deal
Bill Shorten
Wednesday, 30 August 2017 12:05PM
I was in Perth at the weekend. It was my eighth trip to Western Australia since the election (not counting the outstanding holiday Chloe and I had in Broome). It doesn’t matter where I am when I visit — Mt Lawley or Rivervale, Freo or Carlisle — the number one issue people raise with me is the unfair deal WA is currently getting from GST payments.
You know what 34¢ in the dollar means in the real world.
It’s the train line that isn’t being extended, the road that isn’t being upgraded or the hospital beds that aren’t being added.
-----
- Updated Aug 29 2017 at 11:00 PM
Regulation is eroding 23pc of returns, banks say
The weight of regulation and taxes imposed on banks over the past 18 months is costing shareholders of the big four almost one quarter of their returns, according to the industry.
Banking insiders have calculated that the combination of the $6 billion bank tax, capital adequacy requirements, loan restrictions for investors and a raft of regulation imposed to stave off calls for a royal commission are the equivalent of a 3 percentage point decline in return on equity.
That fall from about 13 per cent to 10 per cent represents a 23 per cent drop on the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders' equity.
-----
- Aug 31 2017 at 9:35 AM
Dispute over Noble Group credit default swaps raises questions about new rules
by Karen Maley
Janet Yellen, the head of the US Federal Reserve, may already be ruing her stout defence of tougher post-crisis financial regulations.
At the US central bank's annual Jackson Hole retreat on the weekend, Yellen avoided any discussion of interest rates, and instead devoted her entire speech to chronicling the disastrous events of financial crisis, and to defending the range of regulatory responses – such as tougher capital rules for banks and requiring big US banks to undergo annual stress-tests – that have been introduced to make the financial system safer.
But her words have proved highly controversial. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal thundered that Yellen's speech "shows how political the world's central bankers have become".
-----
Trust in institutions eroded: Ken Henry
Clancy Yeates
Published: August 31 2017 - 12:15AM
The erosion of public trust in banks reflects a wider decline in sentiment towards large institutions, which will take a long time to rectify, National Australia Bank chairman Ken Henry says.
After the banking regulator this week acknowledged the community's trust in banks had suffered after a series of scandals, Dr Henry said he understood why people felt this way about banks, but argued the issue went beyond the financial sector.
"You know it's not just banks. Actually on comparisons across industries, banks are relatively well trusted, believe it or not, compared with entities operating in other sectors," Dr Henry said at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle lunch in Melbourne.
-----
Earnings season: more profit than loss for 'mum and dad' shareholders
John Collett
Published: August 29 2017 - 4:31PM
Qantas is the star performer of the "mum and dad" stocks this profit reporting season with its declaration of its second-highest ever profit.
Its share price had soared to about $5.30 at the end of July from about $3.20 a year earlier. After its profit result of last week, the flying kangaroo's share price jumped to more than $5.60.
Add the dividends and that's a total return for Qantas shareholders of more than 73 per cent – far and away the best performing of the widely held stocks.
-----
Scott Morrison puts $31bn price on Labor tax plans
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 31, 2017
Simon Benson
Scott Morrison has accused Labor of exploiting worries about low wage growth to justify its “socialist agenda” that he claimed would amount to a $31 billion extra annual tax burden on the economy and threaten Australia’s standard of living.
Delivering his annual Bloomberg address today in Sydney, the Treasurer will also flag a new policy direction to lift Australia’s national productivity by targeting the health and education of people as the new drivers of efficiency and growth.
Ahead of the release of the first of a five-yearly Productivity Commission report, Mr Morrison revealed the report had signalled that Australia needed to “shift the dial on our productivity agenda”.
-----
Scott Morrison puts big business on notice
- The Australian
- 5:01PM August 31, 2017
Michael Roddan
Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned big business the government will keep targeting highly regulated sectors that are taking advantage of consumers, telling the banking, financial and energy industries they are not operating in a “free market nirvana”.
“Complexity and inertia in highly regulated markets is big business profit’s best friend and often the consumer’s worst nightmare,” he said.
The Turnbull Government this week ordered energy retailers to explain to customers how to save on their bills, where around 30 per cent of the cost is captured by retailers. That followed a surprise announcement by the banking regulator, APRA, that it would be launching an extensive six-month investigation into the nation’s largest lender, Commonwealth Bank, following allegations it flouted anti-money laundering laws and a string of other high-profile scandals.
-----
Government claims cashless welfare card a success, third trial site to be named
Amy Remeikis
Published: September 1 2017 - 10:38AM
The government will push ahead with a third trial site for its cashless welfare card, despite opposition, after a final evaluation of the policy found it had "considerable positive impact" in its original trials.
The trials, which quarantine 80 per cent of welfare payments for essential services, has received a mixed response, with critics arguing it is dehumanising and forces problems underground.
But in releasing the final evaluation of the first two trials, held in Ceduna in South Australia and East Kimberly in Western Australia, Human Resources Minister Alan Tudge said the research showed a reduction in drinking and gambling among those involved in the trial, with "some evidence that there has been a consequential reduction in violence and harm".
-----
Three charts that show why world's economic optimism hasn't spread to Australia
Garfield Clinton Reynolds
Published: September 1 2017 - 12:28PM
The global optimism about economic growth - spurred by improved momentum in the US, Europe and China - is struggling to be felt in Australia.
The only thing rising in August across local assets has been government bond yields -- whose advance slowed -- as economic data reinforced the divide between ebullient businesses and downbeat consumers.
Construction and capital expenditure jumped, but home prices, mortgages and retail sales sagged and wages stagnated.
-----
Protect yourself in a frenzied property market
Mark Bouris
Published: August 31 2017 - 4:54PM
When a market is in trouble, people get scared and sell their shares or make a run on the bank. And when a market is hot, everyone wants to own the asset.
But when things get really hot, you have fear and greed together – the desire for the asset and the fear of being the one who doesn't own the asset.
It's a frenzy and it's happening right now in some parts of the real estate market.
-----
http://www.smh.com.au/business/motley-fool/why-our-leaders-lie-and-we-dont-care-20170901-gy961k.html
Why our leaders lie, and we don't care
Scott Phillips
Published: September 3 2017 - 1:29AM
Times have been good recently for Canberra's cabbies. And the airport cafes have done a roaring trade. The cause? A seemingly endless line of CEOs and their aides being summoned to the nation's capital.
The Prime Minister and Treasurer have taken a lead from the past RBA governor, Glenn Stevens -- the man widely assumed to have the best jawbone muscles in the country. Stevens made an artform out of 'jawboning': trying to preempt moves in the Aussie dollar by threatening to move interest rates.
It was the Clayton's interest rate move: Stevens hoped that by floating the possibility of a rate reduction, he could avoid having to do it. In other words, the rate cut you have when you don't have a rate cut. The jawbone probably wasn't as effective as Stevens hoped, but it likely had some effect.
-----
Australia and East Timor strike 'landmark' deal to end Greater Sunrise dispute
Lindsay Murdoch
Published: September 2 2017 - 4:50PM
Bangkok: Australia and East Timor have reached agreement on developing billions of dollars of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, ending years of bitter disagreement.
A deal has been reached on a maritime boundary as well as sharing arrangements for the $US50 billion Greater Sunrise oil and gas field.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hailed the agreement struck in confidential talks at The Hague as a "landmark day" in relations between the two countries.
-----
Health Budget Issues.
'Do I really need that diagnosis?'
Ray Moynihan
Published: August 27 2017 - 8:00AM
Receiving a diagnosis of a dreaded disease is surely one of the saddest things that can ever happen to us. But what if some of those diagnoses were unnecessary?
Growing evidence suggests doctors are diagnosing many diseases far too frequently, and this problem of "over-diagnosis" is leading to much overtreatment – even threatening the sustainability of our health system.
Don't take my word for it. This month a group of extremely influential Australian healthcare organisations – including health professionals, consumers and policy-makers – endorsed a call to action to address the problem.
-----
Bupa’s Crombie says AMA has head in sand over fees, feedback
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 28, 2017
Sarah-Jane Tasker
Bupa’s Australian health insurance boss, Dwayne Crombie, has dismissed concerns about increased transparency around doctors’ fees and performance, arguing it was patients driving the push, not insurers.
Dr Crombie, who is Bupa’s managing director of its Australian private health insurance arm, told The Australian that Michael Gannon, the head of the Australian Medical Association, was putting his “head in the sand” around the issue of transparency.
“I think Michael Gannon and the AMA need to get real. Consumers will give feedback — they’re giving feedback now in a completely unmoderated fashion. It’s time to listen to the feedback, not try and pretend that you’re immune from it,” he said.
-----
Health funds must pass on reform savings
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 29, 2017
Sean Parnell
Health funds will be made more accountable for any efficiencies arising from federal government reforms to ensure the savings are passed on to members already struggling with high premiums.
The Department of Health last week advised health funds that the process and paperwork for their annual applications to increase premiums had changed.
Insurers have until November 10 to make applications for increases to take effect on April 1 next year. The department, in consultation with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, will make recommendations to Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Amid ongoing discussion of possible reforms to bring down costs in the private health sector, the department provided health funds with application forms it noted had undergone “significant changes” since the last round.
-----
ACCC’s Medibank case thrown out of court
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 31, 2017
Sean Parnell
The consumer watchdog has suffered a major blow in its efforts to defend the rights of private health insurance members with a Federal Court judge yesterday dismissing its high-profile case against Medibank.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission had accused Medibank, the formerly government-owned fund and market leader with 3.9 million members, of making false, misleading or deceptive representations and engaging in unconscionable conduct.
It was somewhat of a test case centred on Medibank’s decision to limit benefits payable for in-hospital pathology and radiology services, and came amid federal government efforts to make the industry more transparent and easier for consumers to navigate.
-----
Health Department forced to adjudicate on skin surgery dispute
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 31, 2017
Sean Parnell
The health department has been forced to intervene in a dispute between health funds, doctors and private hospitals over skin procedures that left some members with unexpected bills.
The Department of Health, in consultation with the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, last year altered the item numbers relating to skin lesion procedures listed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule and for which insurance funding also applies.
But three of the items were subsequently listed as having to be done in a doctor’s rooms unless there was a clinical need for a hospital visit. This exacerbated long-running tensions between doctors and insurers, amid allegations of health funds inappropriately rejecting certificates given as evidence of clinical need, and doctors rebranding their rooms as day surgeries to attract more funding.
-----
Ramsey chief Craig McNally warns of ‘two-tiered Medicare’
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 31, 2017
Sarah-Jane Tasker
Ramsay Health Care managing director Craig McNally has warned it is a “political imperative” that both the Liberal and Labor parties put the brakes on public hospitals targeting private paying patients.
He has argued that neither side of politics would want a run-up to the next election with a perception that there was a two-tiered Medicare system, with private patients getting quicker access in public hospitals — a fact he says is backed by data.
“We have seen Health Minister Greg Hunt’s position on what elements he could tweak and he has that negotiation to have with states to resolve that,” Mr McNally said.
-----
Pressure on Hunt after Federal Court’s health fund ruling
- The Australian
- 12:00AM September 1, 2017
Sean Parnell
Health Minister Greg Hunt is under pressure to deliver on long-promised reforms to the complex and confusing private health insurance market after a Federal Court judge found Medibank members were not entitled to better information about policy inclusions.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission had accused Medibank of making false, misleading or deceptive representations and engaging in unconscionable conduct. The case centred on the information given — or not given — to members after the fund decided to limit benefits payable for in-hospital pathology and radiology services.
But judge David O’Callaghan dismissed the case on Wednesday, giving a legal interpretation of common insurance terms, including that “the word ‘cover’ cannot be read to mean ‘entirely cover’ ”.
-----
Is private health insurance worth it?
Georgina Dent
Published: September 3 2017 - 12:15AM
At the beginning of last year, my husband needed to have his wisdom teeth taken out. He had the rumblings of an infection and having the offending teeth removed – along with a course of antibiotics – was deemed the necessary course of action, so we booked it in.
As lifetime holders of private health insurance, we didn't give any thought to the medical bills that would be associated with the procedure. We have top hospital cover so assumed we would be covered. We weren't.
When the doctor's rooms rang a few days after the procedure to inform my husband our health fund had declined to pay the bill, we both thought there had been an error. There hadn't.
-----
International Issues.
- Aug 29 2017 at 10:30 AM
Kim Jong Un's theory of nuclear victory
by Thomas Wright
Why is Kim Jong Un pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles that would give him the capability of hitting the mainland United States with nuclear weapons?
Part of the answer is survival—the United States will not launch a preventive war against North Korea if Pyongyang could retaliate with nuclear weapons. But if that were the only reason, the situation would not be so dire.
After all, deterrence worked in the Cold War. Once Kim gets his ICBMs, both sides would be cautious, or so the argument goes.
-----
Australia ready to support Japan following North Korean missile launch: Julie Bishop
Amy Remeikis, Stephanie Peatling
Published: August 29 2017 - 10:57AM
Australia stands ready to support Japan "at any time", as leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the "illegal, provocative and threatening" behaviour of North Korea after it fired a missile over Japan.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia was focussed on de-escalating tensions, which had increased following the succession of Kim Jong-un to North Korea's leadership.
Ms Bishop said China was playing " a significant role" in persuading Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons program by participating in the toughest sanctions ever placed on the regime.
-----
Once again, Donald Trump demonstrates his taste for racist brutality
Nicole Hemmer
Published: August 28 2017 - 11:45PM
There are clarifying moments in every presidency, choices that define the administration's values and goals in ways mere rhetoric never can. For Donald Trump, one such moment occurred on Friday, when he issued a pardon to Joe Arpaio, the notorious Arizona sheriff convicted of contempt after refusing to follow a court order to stop racial profiling.
The Arpaio pardon is clarifying not because it will change the course of Trump's presidency, but because it succinctly sums up the Trump doctrine for domestic and international policy: not more effective, just more cruel.
Cruelty is the defining feature of the two law enforcement officers Trump holds up as heroes, Joe Arpaio and David Clarke. Both men came to national fame as regulars on Fox News, and both appeared at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump. Conservative media mainstays and Trump loyalists, Arpaio and Clarke have the perfect resumes to win plaudits from the President.
-----
South Korea’s show of force over missile
UPDATED: South Korea has responded to the North’s missile launch with an aggressive show of force, conducting a live-fire drill on its eastern coast.
Seoul’s presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun said four F-15 fighters dropped eight MK-84 bombs that accurately hit targets at a military field near the eastern coast.
The South Korean Air Force said a MK-84 bomb has an explosive yield of a ton. The exercise was aimed at sharpening the military’s ability to completely destroy “the enemy’s leadership”, the Air Force told news agency Yonhap.
-----
Kim Jong-un: missile test a `prelude' to containing Guam
Shinhye Kang
Published: August 30 2017 - 9:58AM
Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the test-firing of a missile over Japan on Tuesday was a "meaningful prelude" to containing the American territory of Guam, adding he will continue to watch the response of the US before deciding on further action.
Kim guided the firing of the intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket and urged his military to conduct more such launches into the Pacific Ocean in the future, according to a statement from the official Korean Central News Agency.
The missile firing was part of "muscle-flexing" to protest annual military exercises being held between the US and South Korea, KCNA said. North Korea had threatened earlier this month to launch missiles over Japan toward Guam, which prompted threats of retaliation from American military officials.
-----
- Aug 31 2017 at 9:33 AM
Winter is coming in Donald Trump's Washington
by Edward Luce
It is often tempting to think Donald Trump can do no worse. Yet he keeps finding that extra mile.
America's president began the holiday season with a threat of nuclear strikes on North Korea. This week Pyongyang launched its most ominous missile test in years. In between, Mr Trump gave a rocket boost to the Ku Klux Klan and pardoned America's most racist sheriff in memory.
Thankfully August is ending. Alas, September is likely to be worse. Then comes October. Nobody - least of all Mr Trump - can halt the disintegration of what we still politely call his administration.
-----
How the pardon power could end Donald Trump's presidency
Philip Allen Lacovara
Published: August 31 2017 - 11:14AM
Washington: US President Donald Trump's pardon of former Arizona sheriff and civil rights abuser Joe Arpaio raises the question of whether the President may act with impunity to pardon individuals caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia.
Based on my experience studying the pardon power during the Watergate investigation, I believe the answer is no.
Almost certainly, a presidential decision to preemptively pardon any of those caught up in Mueller's investigation, whether former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn or Donald Trump jnr, would be effective and would spare those pardoned from prosecution, at least on the federal level.
-----
Signs of maturity as India and China diffuse border tensions
Mihir Sharma
Published: August 30 2017 - 4:25PM
Delhi: As summer reached the high Himalayas in June, one corner of the mountains turned hotter than expected.
On a small plateau called Doklam, close to where the India-China border meets the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, two of the largest armies in the world faced off against each other. Chinese soldiers, convinced they were on Chinese territory, had brought equipment to extend a road; Indian soldiers, who viewed the land as disputed, blocked the earth-movers.
For three months, the armies camped just metres away from each other, the Indians on the higher ground and the Chinese in a little valley. Neither government seemed to know how to back down.
-----
France unveils contentious labour overhaul in big test for Emmanuel Macron
Aurelien Breeden
Published: September 1 2017 - 1:22AM
Paris: The French government announced on Thursday a plan to overhaul the labour code, a highly awaited and contentious effort to loosen regulations and stimulate the economy that has been met with opposition from unions and left-wing parties who say the changes go too far in repealing workers' rights.
The labour overhaul was one of Emmanuel Macron's major promises during his campaign, and it represents one of the first big tests of his pledge as president to reshape France's social and economic landscape, a move that was being closely watched by the country's European partners and by investors abroad.
Mr Macron, who has slipped significantly in the polls the summer, is trying to avoid the intense backlash that led to street protests when his predecessor, François Hollande, introduced changes.
-----
US bombers drill over Korean peninsula
Jack Kim and Kaori Kaneko
Published: September 1 2017 - 10:05AM
Seoul: South Korean and Japanese jets have joined exercises with two US B-1B bombers above and near the Korean peninsula on Thursday, two days after North Korea sharply raised tension by firing a missile over Japan.
The drills, involving four US stealth F-35B jets as well as South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, came at the end of annual US-South Korea military exercises focused mainly on computer simulations.
"North Korea's actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilising actions will be met accordingly," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces Commander, who made an unscheduled visit to Japan.
-----
Turnbull comments show Australia a 'second class citizen' says Chinese newspaper
Kirsty Needham
Published: September 1 2017 - 2:08PM
Beijing: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's call for China to cut off its oil pipeline to North Korea has prompted a fierce rebuke from a high-circulating Chinese newspaper, which accused him of going beyond even Donald Trump.
The Global Times, which sells more than one million copies, devoted an editorial to Mr Turnbull's "indiscreet" and "absurd" comments, and saying Australia was a "second class citizen of the West".
"Although President Trump has complained about China in contradictory statements, he has so far never publicly asked China to cut North Korea's oil supply," the Global Times wrote.
-----
North Korea and United States on brink of war, warns Vladimir Putin
Andrew Osborn and Dmitry Solovyov
Published: September 2 2017 - 12:04PM
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the standoff between North Korea and the United States is close to spilling into a large-scale conflict, and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile programme.
Mr Putin, due to attend a summit of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in China next week, said the only way to de-escalate tensions was via talks, and Sergei Lavrov, his foreign minister, said Washington – not Pyongyang – should take the initiative.
"It is essential to resolve the region's problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions (for such talks)," Mr Putin, whose country shares a border with North Korea, wrote on the Kremlin's website.
-----
Trump says he will not talk to North Korea. Experts fear he will
Mark Landler
Published: September 2 2017 - 12:30AM
Washington: US President Donald Trump this week vowed that he would not talk to Kim Jong-un, cooling off what has become his on-again, off-again cultivation of North Korea's rogue dictator.
The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2017
But if Trump's tweet, in which he said, "talking is not the answer!" seemed to reignite tensions with North Korea, it also revealed a paradox in how Asia experts view the crisis. Some fear less that Trump is going to start a war with Kim than that he is going to stumble into a risky, unpredictable dialogue with him.
-----
North Korea crisis: Malcolm Turnbull treads a careful path through US confusion
Mark Kenny
Published: September 1 2017 - 4:08PM
It is tempting to explain America's mixed messaging towards North Korea as the old "good cop, bad cop" routine. If only it were that simple. Or rather, that complicated.
Instead, the world awaits the reactions of two men in Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, whose hair styles are way-too-interesting, and their behaviour no less adventurous.
Modest pelts such as Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, provide some comfort to a nervous world as they act to curb Donald Trump's freewheeling bravado.
-----
I look forward to comments on all this!
-----
David.
