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Japan, U.S. confirm close coordination on currency after intervention– japantoday.com

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Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tuesday she agreed with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to closely coordinate on movements in the currency market during talks held after a recent intervention to stem the yen’s depreciation against the dollar.

The financial chiefs also discussed ways to respond to China’s export controls on critical minerals amid the economic powerhouse’s dominance and the growing cybersecurity threat posed by sophisticated artificial intelligence ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s two-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing from Thursday.

“We are in good coordination regarding recent currency movements” amid the Middle East conflict, Katayama told reporters after meeting Bessent at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo, noting that Japan’s stance has been “fully supported.”

Is the U.S. in a new era of political violence? Experts say it’s complicated– www.scientificamerican.com

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A cluster of high-profile political attacks in the U.S. spotlight the nation’s extreme divisions—but they don’t necessarily signal a broader uptick in politically inspired brutality, experts say.

Politicians, pundits and ordinary Americans are increasingly worried about political violence. The latest round of concern was sparked on April 25, when a 31-year-old man stormed the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where President Donald Trump was in attendance. Secret Service agents arrested the armed man before he could get to the ballroom where the event was being held. He has since been charged with attempted assassination of the president—which would represent the third serious attempt on Trump’s life since 2024. The man has pled not guilty to this and related charges.

Progress in talks with US but no deal yet: Greenland PM– www.channelnewsasia.com

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COPENHAGEN: Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the United States on the Danish autonomous territory are making progress but a deal has yet to be reached, Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday (May 12).

The mineral-rich Arctic island is coveted by US President Donald Trump.

“We are negotiating but we don’t have an agreement,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a speech to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.

“It’s difficult for me to be concrete about the conversations in the working group but we have taken some steps in the right direction,” he said.

How Russia and China’s Lawfare Threaten the Arctic– warontherocks.com

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What happens when the Arctic starts to look like the South China Sea?

Historically, a neutral region where cooperation prevailed, the Arctic is quickly becoming a contested space. This is no more evident than in the increasing scope and volume of Russian and Chinese lawfare affecting the region. Through excessive maritime regulations, coordinated challenges to Western continental shelf claims, and the use of shadow fleets to avoid accountability, Russia and China are increasingly coordinating their efforts to exert influence and challenge Western claims to Arctic resources and freedom of navigation. As these tactics continue to converge, the United States and its partners — Arctic and non-Arctic — should establish clear strategies to respond and counter or risk ceding control of this critical region to those who seek to reshape the law in their favor.

We May Have Some Trouble in South Carolina Over Redistricting– townhall.com

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South Carolina should be a state where redistricting is simple, like in Florida. The Louisiana vs. Callais decision limited the application of section II of the Voting Rights Act, which permits congressional apportionment based on race, to the point of erasure. The whole South can now be redrawn. Florida accomplished it in two days. Tennessee has followed suit, and last night, the Supreme Court gave Alabama the green light. So, what’s delaying the process in the Palmetto State? Three words: South Carolina Republicans.

 

6 people found dead in boxcar in Texas border town, police say– www.theblaze.com

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Texas police said they’re investigating the death of six people found in a boxcar by a Union Pacific employee at a rail yard on Sunday.

Police said they responded to a call of “multiple casualties” at about 3 p.m. A Webb County medical examiner said the dead included one woman and five men.

One of the other dead persons appears to be a teenager. Officials said they believe they are all from Mexico and Honduras.

The examiner identified the female victim as a Mexican national and one of the men as a Honduran national.

EU puts sanctions on Israeli settlers after Hungary drops Orban’s veto – The Washington Post– news.google.com

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  1. EU puts sanctions on Israeli settlers after Hungary drops Orban’s veto  The Washington Post
  2. EU diplomats agree to sanction Hamas leaders and Israeli settlers  NPR
  3. EU agrees sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlers, Hamas leaders  Al Jazeera
  4. EU announces sanctions against violent Israel settlers  The Guardian
  5. EU agrees sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence  BBC

On Redistricting, Will Virginia Democrats Surrender, or Get Creative?– www.thenation.com

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Democrats must stop conceding that the only answer for various racist voting laws is that Democrats just have to vote more and harder and better.

We try to keep despair out of these pages, tough as the times are. That’s why I didn’t write about Friday’s Virginia Supreme Court’s decision striking down new voter-approved congressional maps for extremely dubious reasons (read Virginia political expert Carolyn Fiddler’s awesome explanation of the ruling here).

Coming after the Supreme Court (of the United States) decision invalidating Louisiana’s congressional maps for taking race into account, the Bayou State’s immediately postponing upcoming elections as a result, and Tennessee’s swift move to use the SCOTUS ruling to wipe a majority-Black congressional district literally off the political map, last week was the worst for voting rights since the court’s 2013 Shelby v. Holder ruling struck down two vital sections of the Voting Rights Act. I admit to not seeing much light down this tunnel that afternoon.

Huge blast blows 10 houses to rubble killing one and leaving several injured– www.thesun.co.uk

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A DEVASTATING explosion has destroyed 10 homes in Brazil, killing one person and injuring several others.

The blast happened in the early hours of Monday morning in western São Paulo.

An explosion in São Paulo killed one and injured several more Credit: Reproduction/Globonews
It is thought the blast was caused when a nearby gas pipeline was damaged Credit: AFP

Authorities said a 45-year-old man was found dead, while three other people were rescued from beneath the rubble.

Germany’s Nuclear Confession Is a Crack in Net‑Zero Pretense – PJ Media– pjmedia.com

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the nuclear phaseout a “serious strategic mistake” that left Germany short of firm power that turned the Energiewende into the most expensive energy transition on the planet. This is an early marker for a developing worldwide retreat from policies that sidelined nuclear power and demonized coal, oil, and natural gas.

 

Capitalism’s Long Revolution | The Nation– www.thenation.com

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No one agrees on when, where, or how capitalism began, or whether it had a beginning at all, but everyone agrees that capitalism, the word, first appeared in the 19th century. Capital and capitalist slipped into use, unnoticed and unremarked, in the 13th and 17th centuries. Capitalism burst through the barricades of political argument in the 1830s, announcing immediately the hostility of its user. “Long live capital!” cried the French socialist Louis Blanc in 1839. “Long may we go on to attack capitalism, its mortal enemy, with even more intensity.” As much as the word named something, so did it identify its speaker—as a worker, a radical, a hater.

If capital was viewed as a thing and capitalists as people, capitalism was something else. Blanc described it as an act, the taking of collective wealth and turning it into individual or private profit. Proudhon claimed it was a citadel, casting medieval and military shadows across the land. Despite his obvious interest and extensive writing on the subject, Marx steered clear of the term.

A 160-million-year-old ‘technicolour’ dinosaur fossil discovered in China with four wings and bird-like feathers |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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For years, the evolution of flight seemed fairly straightforward. Dinosaurs developed feathers, with some learning to glide, and eventually, birds appeared and mastered the skies. Now, a strange fossil from China is making scientists rethink that neat timeline. The feathered dinosaur Anchiornis huxleyi reportedly had four wings, colourful feathers, and a surprisingly messy moulting pattern that suggests it may not have been capable of proper flight at all.Experts say it hints that some dinosaurs could have evolved flight-related features and later lost the ability entirely. A bit like modern ostriches or penguins. The fossil has even been described as the first real “technicolour” dinosaur discovery because traces of its original feather patterns were preserved in remarkable detail.

China develops AI-powered technology that converts dirty wastewater into valuable fertiliser |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Chinese researchers have made a significant advancement in circular resource recovery by creating a new way to turn nitrate-laden wastewater into valuable ammonia for fertilisers. They used artificial intelligence to find a super-effective dual-atom catalyst, which led them to a process that tackles two major global issues: water pollution and the heavy energy use of traditional industrial ammonia production. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, show that this method achieves almost three times the conversion efficiency of earlier technologies. By converting runoff from farms and factories, this approach provides an eco-friendly solution to lessen environmental ‘dead zones’ and cuts down on the agricultural sector’s dependence on energy-heavy chemical methods.

Canadian Doc Offered to Euthanize Woman with Back Pain, Before Diagnosing Her – Now She’s All Better– www.cbn.com

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Canadian citizens are expressing outrage after a woman who was seeking medical attention for back pain was offered euthanasia before she was ever diagnosed. Now, a member of Parliament is citing the story of Miriam Lancaster as proof that Canada needs to stop expanding its euthanasia program.

Miriam told her story in a social media video as well as in a post on The Free Press called, “Never Kill Yourself: When I went to the doctor in Vancouver with back pain, she offered me assisted suicide; instead, I recovered—and went to Cuba!”

It started a year ago when Miriam woke up with back pain and went to the hospital. Before testing her or diagnosing her condition, the hospital staff immediately offered to help her kill herself.

Key swing state’s must-win Senate race is now a mud-slinging showdown over ICE, Israel and dark money– www.independent.co.uk

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Bahrain Arrests 41 Suspected Iranian Military-Linked Operatives Amid Escalating Crackdown– slaynews.com

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The government of Bahrain announced Saturday that security authorities arrested 41 individuals allegedly tied to a network linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), marking one of the kingdom’s largest recent crackdowns on suspected Iranian influence operations.

According to a statement from Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, the detainees were identified as central members of the organization’s “main structure” operating inside the country.

Authorities said the arrests followed intelligence operations and investigations conducted alongside public prosecutors into alleged espionage activities involving foreign entities and support for Iranian aggression.

Britain’s Starmer fights for his job as calls for his ouster grow after local election losses– japantoday.com

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is fighting for his job after devastating local election results for his Labour Party spurred dozens of lawmakers to call for his resignation.

Starmer plans to use a speech on Monday to argue that he can change tack and revive his government’s fortunes. But his position is fragile as rivals weigh their options. One lawmaker, Catherine West, said she will try to trigger a leadership contest if she doesn’t like what she hears in the speech.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, often seen as a potential challenger, said the party “needs to change,” though she did not explicitly call for Starmer to go.

Donald Trump Heads To China With Xi Jinping Holding The Upper Hand– www.ndtv.com

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US President Donald Trump will arrive in China from May 13 to May 15 for a closely watched state visit that could shape the next phase of relations between Washington and Beijing. The trip marks the first visit by a sitting American president to China in nearly a decade and the first since Trump’s own 2017 visit during his first term.

Despite years of harsh rhetoric on China, Trump has continued to publicly praise Chinese President Xi Jinping. Just last week, he described Xi as a “good man” and a “smart man” with whom he has “a very good relationship”.

But behind the warm language lies mounting pressure. The summit comes at a moment when Washington is struggling to convert its military and economic power into diplomatic outcomes, particularly in the Middle East.

The Trump-Xi Summit Could Be a Positive Paradigm Shift • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org

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When Donald Trump visits Beijing this week, the focus of think tankers and pundits will largely be on what the policy outcomes will be, and there is a tendency to lean towards the negative. Will China deepen the trade war? Will Trump bristle at Xi’s stance on the war against Iran?

But for the trajectory of the relationship between China and the United States, the summit could play a constructive role, facilitating a peaceful recognition of the shift in power dynamics between the two countries and globally. Perceptions in both countries of one another, and of the role each seeks to play in the world, will be shaped by the art of the summitry and what the meeting between the two leaders conveys.

Historically, high-profile summits have proven to be important turning points in U.S. foreign policy by mediating enduring tensions in bilateral relations. The 1959 US-Soviet summit humanized the Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev in the eyes of some Americans. The 1972 Nixon visit to China allowed pro-rapprochement sentiment to emerge and circulate in American public discourse, contributing to ongoing discussions and debates on diplomatic normalization for years following the summit. The 1985-87 US-Soviet summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were crucial for transforming bilateral distrust into trust.

Confident in China’s power, Xi is ready to host an unpredictable Trump – The Washington Post– news.google.com

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  1. Confident in China’s power, Xi is ready to host an unpredictable Trump  The Washington Post
  2. As Trump Heads to Beijing, China Is ‘Locked and Loaded’ for a Fight  The New York Times
  3. US standoff with Iran deepens and strait remains closed after Trump rejects latest proposal  AP News
  4. Trump and China’s Xi set for talks spanning Iran, nuclear, trade and AI  Reuters
  5. Iran, China and AI collide in Trump’s legacy-defining week  Axios

 

Fears of an AI breakthrough force the U.S. and China to talk– www.latimes.com

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CHONGQING, China — Three years ago, in the idyllic town of Woodside south of San Francisco, the United States and China held their first high-level talks on the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. President Xi Jinping and his longtime foreign minister appeared serious in their conviction that a channel should be a established between Beijing and Washington — a red phone for AI in case of emergencies.

They authorized a diplomatic effort that would begin in 2024 in Switzerland, only months before the U.S. presidential election. A large U.S. delegation arrived with high hopes that were abruptly dashed, according to four sources who attended the talks. The Chinese contingent dismissed American concerns over runaway AI as academic, almost theoretical, quickly turning the conversation to export controls seen in Beijing as yet another U.S. effort to hold China back.