The G 7 Meeting
President Donald Trump said Saturday that his relationships with other Western leaders are perfect, but an acrimonious end to the G7 summit showed how the transatlantic alliance has never been so split.
Children in East Baltimore.
Credit: Patrick Semansk/AP
On June 1, Phillip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, released a report on the United States. It outlined his searing critique of the Trump administration’s policies, arguing that they are deepening entrenched inequality and increasing misery.
Alston painted a grim picture of the country’s current circumstances and its likely trajectory, not only for those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder but for American society itself.
The report presents a withering appraisal of American exceptionalism. As Alston observes, “the United States is alone among developed countries in insisting that, while human rights are of fundamental importance, they do not include rights that guard against dying of hunger, dying from a lack of access to healthcare or growing up in a context of total deprivation.”
The high rates of child and youth poverty are particularly alarming, since they “perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty very effectively, and ensure that the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion”.
While […]
The newsprint tariffs are being collected, but they are not finalized yet. The Commerce Department is set to finalize its decision by August.
Credit: Maurico Palos/Bloomberg
A dozen House lawmakers have introduced legislation to remove President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian newsprint so a study can be done on how much those tariffs are crushing local newspapers around the country.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., is a response to the 22 percent tariff that the Trump administration has imposed on some Canadian newsprint since the beginning of this year. Noem said that tariff has led to rising costs for local newspapers, and are a threat to their survival.
“In recent years, new tariffs on Canadian newsprint have increased paper prices by 20 to 30 percent,” Noem said in a statement. “That’s significant. A paper that services around 20,000 customers, for instance, could see paper costs rise by about a quarter-million dollars annually, threatening the newspaper’s survival.”
Local papers have been complaining this year about rising costs, and Noem and her […]
Pastors from the Las Vegas area pray with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during the election campaign in 2016.
Credit: Evan Vucci/AP
MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski accused President Trump on Thursday of complaining that he can’t watch porn in the White House.
Brzezinski, who has been in a vicious feud with Trump for most of his presidency, made the extraordinary charge while appearing on “MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle,” citing “someone who spoke” to Trump about his life in the White House.
The comments came up after Ruhle interviewed Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, over remarks by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani about his client. Giuliani attacked the credibility of Daniels, saying that “if you’re going to sell your body for money, you just don’t have a reputation.”
“The hypocrisy is astounding,” Brzezinski said of Giuliani’s remarks about Daniels, who says that she slept with Trump and was paid to keep quiet.
“Because I know someone who spoke to Donald Trump recently about life in the White House,” Brzezinski continued, “and Donald Trump’s […]
Suicide rates have increased in nearly every state over the past two decades, and half of the states have seen suicide rates go up more than 30 percent. (emphasis added)
Suicide is a major public health issue, accounting for nearly 45,000 deaths in 2016 alone. That is why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta decided to take a comprehensive look at suicides from 1999 to 2016.
“Suicide in this country really is a problem that is impacted by so many factors. It’s not just a mental health concern,” says Deborah Stone, a behavioral scientist at the CDC and the lead author of the new study. “There are many different circumstances and factors that contribute to suicide. And so that’s one of the things that this study really shows us. It points to the need for a comprehensive approach to prevention.”
She and her colleagues collected data on suicides from every state. In addition, to better understand the circumstances surrounding suicide, they turned to more detailed information collected by 27 states on suicides that occurred in 2015.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
