The Left was never going to succeed in removing Bibi from power. But Israel’s right-wing voters might.
The Center-Left constituency in Israel was never going to overthrow Benjamin Netanyahu, no matter how much they shouted and how long they kept up their weekly nationwide demonstrations. They’d already had three chances at the polls in just the past year, and still Bibi remained on top.
A firm majority of Israelis are right-wing. This is evidenced by repeated election results in which the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox blocs consistently come out with far more mandates than the Left. Similarly, public opinion polls regularly show that most Israelis want a right-wing government.
Gideon Sa’ar tried and failed for years to challenge Netanyahu’s leadership from within the Likud. Now that he’s left the party, he might finally succeed.
But that doesn’t mean everyone wants Netanyahu, even on the Right.
The Chinese economy is set to overtake the U.S. faster than previously anticipated after weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than the West, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The world’s biggest and second-biggest economies are on course to trade places in dollar terms in 2028, five years earlier than expected a year ago, it said on Saturday.
In its World Economic League Table, the consultancy also calculated that China could become a high-income economy as soon as 2023. Further cementing Asia’s growing might, India is set to move up the rankings to become the No. 3 economy at the end of the decade.
The Chinese economy is set to overtake the U.S. faster than previously anticipated after weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than the West, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The world’s biggest and second-biggest economies are on course to trade places in dollar terms in 2028, five years earlier than expected a year ago, it said on Saturday.
In its World Economic League Table, the consultancy also calculated that China could become a high-income economy as soon as 2023. Further cementing Asia’s growing might, India is set to move up the rankings to become the No. 3 economy at the end of the decade. Read More
Aircraft and fighter jets attacked targets belonging to the Hamas Islamic organization in the Gaza Strip, the IDF Spokesman said. The planes attacked a weapons production site, underground infrastructure, and a military position.
The attack was carried out in response to rocket fire from the south earlier on Friday evening, when air defense fighters intercepted two launches aimed at Ashkelon.
The IDF said “the IDF takes all terror activity against Israel very seriously and is prepared and willing to act as resolutely as necessary, against attempts to harm Israeli citizens and its sovereignty. The Hamas terror organization bears responsibility for what happens in and out of the Gaza Strip, and it will bear the consequences of the terror acts against the citizens of Israel. Read More
Four years after voting to leave the 27-nation European Union, Britain clinched a Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Dec. 24. Next Thursday, the UK is set to exit EU trading rules, a year after officially leave the bloc, thereby marking a historic global shift. At stake is around $900 billion in annual trade – half in goods, the rest in services, the lion’s share of Britain’s economy.
At a Downing Street press conference, British PM Boris Johnson announced: “We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny.” The text of the agreement has yet to be released, but the PM claimed it was a “good deal for the whole of Europe.”
The statement issued by his government said: “The deal … guarantees that we are no longer in the lunar pull of the EU, we are not bound by EU rules, there is no role for the European Court of Justice and all of our key red lines about returning sovereignty have been achieved. It means that we will have full political and economic independence on 1st January 2021.”
Britain’s exit from the European union, mandated by a narrow majority of 52 to 48, in a nation referendum on June 23, 2016, proclaimed UK independence while also trashing the political careers of two of Johnson’s Conservative predecessors along the tortuous journey to a deal: David Cameron stepped down after losing his campaign to halt Brexit; Theresa May lost three parliament votes against the exit plan she negotiated with Brussels before giving up and leaving. Meanwhile, the British economy sank into suspended chaos and limped from crisis to crisis.
In this sense, the deal is a huge relief. Read More
California’s proposed wealth tax, Bill 2028, would apply for a decade to anyone who spends 60 days in the state in a single year.
Here are the details.
A 0.4% tax on residents with a worldwide net worth in excess of $30,000,000 ($15,000,000 for a married taxpayer filing separately).
The proposed tax would apply to residents, part-year residents, and temporary residents.
Temporary residents are defined as those who stay in the state more than 60 days during the calendar year. For part-year and temporary residents, the tax would apply proportionally based on the number of days they are in the state during the year.
10-year lookback provision : The portion of a taxpayer’s wealth subject to the wealth tax is multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which shall be years in residence in California over the 10 preceding years with 10 years being the denominator. Read More
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; the largest source of marine debris; the worst perpetrators of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; and the world’s largest consumer of trafficked wildlife and timber products. While the Chinese people have suffered the worst environmental impacts of its actions, Beijing also threatens the global economy and global health by unsustainably exploiting natural resources and exporting its willful disregard for the environment through its One Belt One Road initiative. Tragically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) represses civil society and a free press, slowing changes that would benefit its citizens and people all over the world.”
China dumps millions of tons of plastic waste into the oceans every year. It pumps more mercury into the atmosphere than any other nation on earth. It does not simply lead the world in greenhouse gas emissions; its emissions are rising. It produces twice the CO2 emissions of the United States and one-third of all such emissions for the planet.
Ninety percent of all ocean plastic is carried by only 10 rivers. Eight of those are in Asia. The Yangtze in China is by far the worst. Three hundred and thirty-three metric tons of plastic wash out of the Yangtze alone every year. In fact, China is responsible for almost thirty percent of all the plastic ending up in our oceans and contributes the lion’s share of the refuse in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a tangle of plastic twice the size of Texas floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
China is, in short, an environmental toxic waste dump.
Gina McCarthy is Biden’s choice to be “Climate Czar.” McCarthy was Obama’s EPA chief. Most recently she has served as the CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Under McCarthy’s leadership, the NRDC filed over 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, at one point bragging that it was filing a new lawsuit roughly every ten days. Read More
Media organizations and Jewish groups were among those reacting furiously to the decision of a Pakistani court to immediately release four men accused of orchestrating the 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Pearl, a 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was seized by terrorists connected to Al Qaeda.
Media organizations and Jewish groups were among those reacting furiously on Thursday to the decision of a Pakistani court to immediately release four men accused of orchestrating the 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Pearl, a 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was seized by terrorists connected to Al Qaeda. Read More
The Christmas morning bombing in Nashville left a wake of destruction that was captured in dramatic photos and videos that made downtown Music City look more like Baghdad or Beirut.
Cellphone footage shot shortly after the massive blast caught victims wailing in panic and screaming for help as flames consumed vehicles parked along North Second Avenue and black smoke filled the sky.
Other shots revealed gaping holes that were once storefronts in historic brick buildings, with broken glass, charred tree limbs and rubble littering the street.
The explosion, which could be felt for blocks, rocked the city just as dawn was breaking around 6:30 a.m. Read More
