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Interpret multicollinearity tests from the mctest package in R

Jair Bolsonaro secured 55% of votes and defeated leftist rival Fernando Haddad to become the President of Brazil.

This piece, placing the Bolsonaro victory in context, highlights how predicting the future is a fool’s errand. The global landscape today is hardly what we would have anticipated nearly two decades ago. BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia India and China) are not the new global…

Japanese Prime Minister suspicious that South Korean President is spinning the North Korean peace talks for domestic political reasons. Is he right?

When historic moments are unfolding at a fast pace, it is easy to get caught up in the lofty rhetoric and grand gestures.

When it seems like the recent events on the Korean peninsula could light a path to potential peace and denuclearisation, we can easily forget the constant in politics: domestic political calculus .

However, it is at times like these, that we cannot forget how more humdrum…

  https://iwastesomuchtime.com/AcuteSalonLong

All four of South Korea’s living former presidents are either being tried or punished for corruption.‬

Just wow.

Is proclivity for corruption a characteristically Korean trait? That would be far too reductive and such claims often whiff of racism.

This startling fact above living former Presidents is the best advocate for changing the Korean Constitution and allow two four year terms (like the US) rather than one single five year stint.

The single-term limit was intended to stymie an aspiring…

Waving Israeli flags at South Korean political rallies?

Poster at Daegu pro-Park rally with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Star of David Flag

Last Friday 6 April 2018, former President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye (pictured in blurredhandcuffs) was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined $16.8 million on charges of criminal corruption and collusion with her close confidant, Choi Soon-sil, to take bribes from Korean conglomerates including…

US President Donald Trump called Haiti a shithole and allegedly claimed Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS” (according to a New York Times article in 2017).

Follow the link to watch this really interesting video about the Haitian people and the colonial roots that led to their current struggles.

But the video highlights the many ways that Haitians blazed the trail. On January 1st 1804,…

http://amp.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2018/01/the_problem_with_south_korea_yes_south_korea.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_ru&__twitter_impression=true

Most disarming thing I’ve read today: White House May Share Nuclear Power Technology With Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia needs approval from the U.S. in order to receive sensitive American technology. Past negotiations broke down because the Saudi government wouldn’t commit to certain safeguards against eventually using the technology for weapons.

Because what the Middle East needs is the potential for a nuclear capable Saudi Arabia.

And of course Mike Pence is involved in some capacity.

  Read the Pro…

China sending Special Envoy to North Korea… but still no meeting between Kim and Xi

Beijing announced it will send Song Tao, a special envoy of China’s President Xi Jinping, to North Korea on November 17. A Chinese spokesperson Geng Shuang said that Song’s is travelling to North Korea to give a briefing on the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

(more…)

Russia’s alternative vision for Asia: accommodating a nuclear North Korea?

Russia and North Korea share a short border but a long history.

When the United States and the Soviet Union drew the seemingly innocuous line dividing the Korean peninsula in 1953, it was regarded as a temporary administrative division for processing Japanese forces after World War II.

However, since then, Russia (and its Soviet Union predecessor) have been ensnared in the fate of the hermit…

Seoul-Beijing detente on THAAD is win-win for China: 38 North [LINK]

ANDRAY ABRAHAMIAN and DAEKWON SON, writing in their 7th November piece for 38north.org, discussed some potential corollaries of the the recent de-escalation between China and South Korea over the contentious THAAD issue.

They contend that this recent development is a “win-win” for China, arguing that:

While the timing was unexpected, Beijing stands to benefit from a compromise on this issue at…

Facebook and Twitter: Threats to our democracy?

In early November 2017, legal representatives of Twitter, Facebook and Google faced questioning before Congress concerning the accusation that Russia exploited their websites to interfere with the 2016 US Presidential election.

Facebook, Google and Twitter executives testifying before US Congress, Wednesday 1st November 2017. Source: https://www.recode.net/2017/11/1/16588374/live-updates-facebook…

Foreign Affairs on the ball again. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2017-07-19/capitalism-did-not-win-cold-war

#Moon willing to meet North Korea leader at any time under right conditions [LINK] #Korea

6 July, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Pyongyang to return to the dialogue table, noting it may be facing the last and best chance to do so. It was a stark message to convey: South Korea is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at any time and any place under right circumstances.

“I make this clear here and now. We do not want North Korea’s collapse, nor will we seek…