Comments on the News: Oct 30, 2020- WTO Director-General Selection

 Two links pretty much cover this topic

1. Politico: Discord over next global trade chief threatens to blow up WTO

2. Reuters: EU arms itself against U.S. and others in trade disputes

Comments on the News: Oct 28, 2020 - Effects of Education Levels

 This starts with a chart about the change in proportion of (white) people with a college education in the US since the '70s.

My comments then consider BLS data on the effect of educational attainment levels on unemployment and income.

Then I talk about Mansfield and Mutz's research on the support for free trade.

I close with some discussion of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

So, a lot going on here.

Comments on the News: Oct 27, 2020 - US defense ties to India and Japan

 Two items in the news about the US strengthening defense ties with India and Japan. 

1. India signs defensive agreement with US following Himalayan standoff with China
   
   
2. Japan and China both claim these islands as their own. Now the US is showing Tokyo how it can help defend them

CNN also has a good background report on the conflict between India and Chin over Kashmir 

Here are my comments:

Comments on the News: Oct 26, 2020 - Chile's Constitution

Chile just had a referendum on its constitution. CNN reports that they have voted to rewrute it with a convention of elected delegates. An early column on CNN asks the question "Can a new constitution solve Chile's old problems?" For background on the protests that led to the refendum, go to CNN's Chile Protest page.

Here are my comments:

Comments on the News: Oct 23, 2020- China's Saber Rattling

China has been making some interesting statements about their security on the anniversary of their involvment in the Korea War. This CNN article about it has some even mire interesting links in it. Those lonks iniclude the following:

Lowy Institute Asia Power Index: Key Findings 2020

CNN report: Australia to join India, US, Japan in large naval exercises

The PLA statement on the war (If your browser will translate it)

However, I did not discuss in the video the most interesting thing I found. i.e., testimony (actually more of a conference paper) by Dennis Blasko about the PLA's internal criticism of its readiness. I think this is a must read for anyone interested in China's military.

Here are my video comments:

Comments on the News: Oct 22, 2020 - Protests in Nigeria

 Protests in Nigeria against police corruption turned deadly on Tuesday. CNN has an article explaining the background of the protests and Al Jazeera has this article about the violence. As always, the Freedom House country report on Nigeria is a useful reference.

I also mention Barry Weingast's Fundamental Political Dilemma of the State, which he discusses here and here

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Comments on the News: Oct 21,2020 - The Uighurs in Xinjiang

 

There are lots of articles on the Uighurs but many are behind paywalls. This article by Vox should be accessible. There is also this AP article from June.

Here is a report with secret video of the purported labor program. I have to admit that when recording my own video I forgot that this video was posted by the NYT (or maybe mistook another video for it). That is why I said I could not vouch for the source, which is absurd to say about the Times  (unless you are a conspiracy theorist).

Here are my comments