CHINA - China's central bank has put the Russian ruble into circulation in Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province, launching a pilot two-currency (ruble and yuan) program. The ruble is being introduced in place of the US dollar. The announcement was made on Saturday by Jin Mei, deputy secretary for monetary policy at the opening ceremony of a trade exposition in Suifenhe, reported state-run Xinhua news agency. The newly-adopted initiative is to promote bilateral trade relations and boost tourism, enabling Russians traveling to the Chinese region to pay for their expenses directly in rubles. This year’s six month Russia-China financial results look promising with yuan-denominated payments reaching the value of $1.32 billion, added Mei. Wu Qinglan, executive vice-mayor of the Chinese city, believes the program guarantees a long-term outlook.
EUROPE - The German Chancellor said for the first time that the Schengen zone, which allows passport-free travel across mainland Europe, cannot continue in its current form unless other EU countries accept their share of migrants. Mrs Merkel said that while she did not want freedom of movement rules to be tightened, the issue would arise if responsibility for accepting migrants was not shared. Her comments echo those made by Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, who also raised the prospect of border controls earlier this month. And they signal that European leaders are beginning to question whether the EU can continue to exist with open borders as it struggles to cope with the hundreds of thousands of migrants coming into the continent from Africa and the Middle East.
BULGARIA - Five men have been arrested as they attempted to cross the Bulgarian-Macedonian border with decapitation videos and Islamic State propaganda on their phones. The terrorist suspects had been posing as refugees. Bulgarian authorities near the Gyueshevo border checkpoint detained the five men, aged between 20 and 24, late on Wednesday, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA TV reported.
ISRAEL - Yehuda Glick commends new minister of internal security, hints that he favors Jewish ascent to Temple Mount. Yehuda Glick, Chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Fund, told Arutz Sheva Tuesday that he was shocked to learn that a sign in Hebrew had been placed at the entrance to the Temple Mount, stating that visits and tours of the Mount have to be coordinated in advance. After contacts with the police, the sign was removed.
RUSSIA - Russian scientists have begun their quest to clone pre-historic animals, including but not limited to a woolly mammoth, hoping that Siberian permafrost will give them a competitive advantage and the good possibly of finding undamaged DNA samples to resurrect the ancient species.
GERMANY - The German government is firmly committed to promoting the German arms industry. According to a "strategy paper" recently adopted by the cabinet, the government is planning to "increase investments" in the development of "defense-related technologies."
UK - Lack of sleep is the most important factor in determining whether someone will catch a cold, new research has found. Sleepers who managed fewer than six hours of slumber each night are four times more likely to get ill than those who manage at least seven. It is the first study to categorically connect people's natural sleeping habits with their risk of picking up a virus. Sleep was found to be a more important factor in catching a cold than stress, smoking, education, or income, all of which are known to impact on overall health. Researcher Professor Derk-Jan Dijk, who leads a sleep and physiology unit at Surrey, said sleep was a fundamental ‘pillar of health’ alongside diet and exercise. Professor Dijk, said: “Insufficient sleep, defined as inadequate or mis-timed sleep, is increasingly recognised as contributing to a wide range of health problems.”
EUROPE - European bosses are threatening to scrap free movement within its nations and bring back border controls as the migrant crisis deepens across the continent. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the Schengen zone, which allows people to move across 26 European countries without the need for passports checks, could not continue unless all nations take in a share of immigrants.
UK - Only European migrants with jobs lined up should be allowed in to the UK, Theresa May has said, as she blamed Europe's "system of no borders" for the recent migration crisis. The Home Secretary said the principle of free movement within the EU has allowed jobless citizens to move countries in search of work and benefits, putting pressure on public services and infrastructure. She added that the events of this summer, which has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees risking their lives to reach Europe, should act as a "wake-up call" to EU leaders. Earlier this week official data showed net migration in to Britain had reached a record high, hitting 330,000 in the year to March. Mrs May said the figure was "far too high" and "simply unsustainable".
EUROPE - The Czech Republic should defend its borders, using the army to expel “illegal immigrants” because the European Union isn’t curbing the influx of refugees into the bloc, President Milos Zeman said. Zeman’s comments echoed those of other politicians calling for the EU to take action to stem the flood of people into the region from Syria and other conflict areas as they travel through Greece and the Balkan states to western Europe. “Of course I would wish for the EU to strengthen its borders, but I don’t see any real action,” Zeman told reporters in Prague Castle on Monday. “Therefore I believe the Czech Republic should take of its borders alone and expel illegal immigrants from the borders, including with the use of the army.”
CHINA - It is never possible to be sure that we aren’t about to face disaster. Some people seem to have made a living by foreseeing trouble ahead. The American stock market has “forecast” something like 10 of what turned out to be the past two recessions. And there is no reason why the Chinese stock market shouldn’t follow the same pattern.
USA - The unreal, unhealthy world kids can see online that parents may never have heard of. No wonder Steve Jobs was low tech at home.
USA - It didn’t take long. Within weeks of the US Supreme Court decision to legalise same-sex marriage, polygamous families have sued to have their own relationships recognised as marriages. Kody Brown and his four wives are the stars of Sister Wives, the reality TV show about the day-to-day life of a polygamous family. The Browns used to live in Utah, where the government prosecutes openly polygamous spouses, so they have moved over the border. Nevada has a more relaxed approach to these issues. The Browns are on a roll. In December 2013 they won a legal victory when a Federal district court overturned parts of a Utah statute banning polygamous marriages. But the Utah Attorney-General has appealed. He claims that women and children in polygamous relationships are often abused and that courts have consistently reprehended polygamy.
USA - As is typical of our time, over the past few months, many newscasters have used the words apocalypse or apocalyptic to evoke the negative implications of events as diverse as the threat of Grexit, music streaming wars, an asteroid threat, the American housing market, the migrant crisis, the continuing war in Syria and the negative state of the world more generally. Not to mention the flurry of posts which have appeared about upcoming instalments in the highly successful X-Men franchise, X Men: Apocalypse or our obsession with zombies.
UK - Women who walk around drunk and provocatively dressed should expect to be sexually assaulted, Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of the Pretenders, has suggested. The former chart topper claimed in a Sunday newspaper interview that scantily clad women were likely to “entice a rapist” and that it is their “fault” if they are attacked. She discloses in a new memoir how she was abducted and sexually assaulted by a motorcycle gang in Ohio in the early 1970s – but concludes it was “all my doing” because of the way she was dressed and the fact that she was under the influence of drugs. “If I'm walking around and I'm very modestly dressed and I'm keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I'd say that's his fault. But if I'm being very lairy and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who's already unhinged — don't do that.”