Oh yes, it's Saturday again, and it's my privilege to bring you a roundup of what happened this week and where it's all going next. |
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The Alps are seen at sunrise behind the city of Zürich, November 17, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann |
- An unnerving week: Janet Yellen says everything is fine. Policymakers in Europe say the continent's banks are well capitalized. And yet, stock, bond and foreign-exchange markets continue a collective freakout over the health of the financial system, while Wall Street seeks more aggressive action from Washington to shore up the industry.
- Dare we ask what's next? Deutsche Bank is the latest financial institution to suffer a crisis of confidence. The Federal Reserve sees a credit crunch coming. Do they see financial stress worsening? That would be a hard "no." Keep an eye on commercial real estate.
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- Fire and rain: The former president warned of "death & destruction" if he faces criminal charges over hush-money payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump also is planning a presidential campaign rally in Waco, Texas, 30 years after a raid there on the Branch Davidian religious set by federal agents resulted in 86 deaths. A spokesman said location was the reason, while some right-wing extremists see the incident as a seminal moment of government overreach.
- Conservative takes: While Trump presumably would use any indictment to stoke anger among supporters, the tactic might not work. Far-right activists treated his recent incitement to protest as a government trap, and some Republicans in early-primary state New Hampshire say they're done with Trump.
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- Lines on the map: Ukrainian military reports described heavy fighting along the front, but the Russian offensive has so far yielded scant gains despite thousands of troops killed on both sides in the bloodiest fighting of the war.
- Spring: The big questions remain: How long can Russia sustain its offensive, and can Ukraine reverse the momentum with a counteroffensive. What will China do after Xi Jinping met "dear friend" Vladimir Putin? Experts analyzed their body language. Putin slouched and twitched, Xi was the alpha male, they say.
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- Pushback: Gali Baharav-Miara said the prime minister ignored a conflict of interest by getting directly involved in his government's plan to overhaul the judiciary. The effort has caused mass protests and a deep split in Israeli society, but Netanyahu said he would press ahead.
- West Bank: The Knesset repealed parts of a law on evacuated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that would allow Israelis to return to four locations. This comes after Israel's finance minister said there is "no such thing" as Palestinian people.
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- Five hours in the chair: The social-video company's chief spent part of his day getting braised by members of a congressional committee who wish they knew whether the Chinese-owned app is a threat to national security. Nobody seems all that satisfied with what they heard.
- Are they going to ban it or not? It's unlikely that it will happen any time soon, but advertisers and the platform's stars aren't thrilled.
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Before I forget... The U.S. and Canada agreed to make life harder on asylum seekers at the border, India's Congress Party scion Rahul Gandhi faces a two-year jail term and was stripped of his seat in parliament for indirectly insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Emmanuel Macron's pension-reform plans turned up the temperature on the smoking cauldron of rage that is France and kept King Charles away from quality time at Versailles and in Bordeaux. It's a miserable time to be LGBTQ+ in Uganda and other African countries, being young and Portuguese means you can't afford your dreams, and being young and Gazan means leaving home to get a job and live a decent life. Finally, China's search engine Baidu has an AI chatbot that writes poems but won't discuss Xi Jinping, free shipping in retail is proving to be as real as a free lunch, and scientists made new discoveries about two amazing wonders: Ludwig van Beethoven and a comet that recently visited our neighborhood. |
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