>The price of a barrel of crude oil dropped to yet another six-year low Friday, closing down $1.30 at $35.47 US, and taking the Canadian dollar down with it.
>Crude prices are now only about $2 away from their recession low, when a barrel of WTI bottomed out at $33.98 in February 2009. They're down 33 per cent since the beginning of the year.
>The catalyst in what has been a constant tide of bleak outlooks for oil was a report on Friday from the International Energy Agency that growth in demand will ease next year to 1.2 million barrels per day, from 1.8 million barrels a day this year.
>The IEA expects oversupply to continue at least until late next year, suggesting prices will struggle to recover. That's a bad sign for oil prices that have lost more than two--thirds of their value in a little over a year.
>The Canadian dollar was also dragged down in the process, closing at $72.60 on Friday, off two-thirds of a cent.
>The loonie has repeatedly broken a series of 11-year lows this month on its downward slide. Friday's low is the lowest point for Canada's dollar since May 2004, when the currency went as low as 71 cents.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loonie-oil-markets-1.3360802
Besides low oil prices what does this mean for the rest of the world?
Honest question, is this good or bad?
>>8606
Bad if you live Canada, but due to the amount of crosstrade between Canada and the US, it isn't exactly great news for the US either.
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/15/chinas_plainclothes_officers_a_force_against_dissent/
>BEIJING (AP) — The tough guys wore smiley face stickers, but they weren’t there to spread good cheer.
>Scenes of pushing, shouting and shoving outside a Beijing courthouse this week were orchestrated by plainclothes security officers identified by a sticker familiar around the world — the yellow decal identified since the 1970s with the slogan “Have a Nice Day.”
>Dozens of journalists were pushed around, including one who was slammed to the ground. At least five protesters were assaulted and taken away in vehicles, while diplomats from the European Union and the United States were interrupted, cursed at and jostled while attempting to read out statements criticizing Beijing’s actions.
>criticizing Beijing
They had it coming.
>>9007
>Their attempts to intimidate journalists, foreign diplomats and a small cohort of human rights advocates outside the trial of a well-known activist lawyer are all-too familiar to China’s beleaguered dissident community.
Isn't intimidating or harassing foreign diplomats illegal?
>>9776
Yes, but this is China. The rule of law only applies if it suits them.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/12/13/donald_trump_hillary_clinton_has_killed_hundreds_of_thousands_of_people.html
>killed hundreds of thousands of people
He's right
>with her stupidity
No. Mission accomplished. It was the plan to destroy these countries.
>>8571
But was it her plan, or was she somebody else's marionette?
>>8572
We'll never know for sure because the old hag 'cleaned' her email server before turning it in
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/12/jf-micheal-moore-just-unleashed-an-army-on-trumps-social-media/
Micheal Moore Just Unleashed An Army On Trump’s Social Media
Author: Joe Fletcher December 12, 2015 2:01 pm
People are starting to get fed up with Donald Trump’s hate speech. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is so angry about Trump’s seemingly endless diatribe against the marginalized people of the world that he has started recruiting an army of Facebook users to get the Republican presidential primary front runner’s posts taken down from the site.
Moore posted his call to action on his own Facebook page, citing Facebook’s terms of service that state one must not post content that is hate speech. He then gives instructions on how to report Trump’s posts for violating Facebook’s community guidelines.
>>8468
Ehh he's probably just trying to get publicity for his upcoming movie.
>>8469
Movie's been stumped because the MPAA gave it an R-Rating and he's refusing to accept it.
>>8470
He does it on purpose to seem edgy. The Cannes Film Festival guys eat that shit up. Fahrenheit 9/11 was rated R and nobody cared.
"ISIL is going to lose," he said, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Press conference video.
Watch the full video here !
http://alb-news24.com/obama-against-isis-latest-news/
>>8749
Woah bro
>>8749
>says "we salute our troops"
>doesn't salute
Biden's got his serious face on.
A Canadian transgender father left behind a wife and seven children to begin a new life as a six-year-old girl.
Stefonknee (pronounced ‘Stephanie’) Wolschtt, 46, had been married for 23 years when she realised she was transgender.
She's now living with an adoptive family, and says she does not “want to be an adult right now”.
“I can’t deny I was married. I can’t deny I have children. But I’ve moved forward now and I’ve gone back to being a child,” she said in a video series by The Transgender Project, published by Daily Xtra.
Ms Wolschtt said her wife could not accept her as a transgender woman. She was told to either “stop being trans or leave”.
“To me, ‘stop being trans’ isn’t something I could do,” she says. “It would be like telling me to stop being 6ft 2 or leave.”
Feeling rejected by her family, Ms Wolschtt left and now lives with her adoptive family, who she says are “totally comfortable with me being a little girl”.
She explains how her new parents’ youngest granddaughter wanted a little sister and decided Ms Wolschtt should be younger than her.
“We have a great time. We colour, we do kid’s stuff,” she says.
“It’s called play therapy. No medication, no suicide thoughts. And I just get to play.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stefonknee-wolschtt-transgender-father-leaves-family-in-toronto-to-start-new-life-as-a-six-year-old-a6769051.html
>>8417
well this is awfully amusing
>>8417
>hurr durr i have responsibilities
>i hate responsibilities
>im a six year old grill
>i have no responsibilities now
>hooray
I dont want to live in this world anymore.
>>8417
How did things in western society get this bad within the last 10 years?
Source: http://nyti.ms/21X15IW
Negotiations went down to the line, but 195 countries have now committed themselves to limit emissions.
Scientific consensus is that the current agreement will only accomplish half of greenhouse gas emissions cuts necessary to prevent a catastrophe.
What's remarkable about the deal is that developing nations have also signed on to the cuts.
It's a good day to own clean energy stock.
>>8392
At what point is it catastrophe? How much damage needs to be done? Because it's already impossible to stop the submerging of some island nations, and I imagine it's already too late to stop some damage to the food chain.
Also, fuck India and their insistence they're allowed to massively increase greenhouse gas output just because other countries did in the past. At least they'll be some of the worst hit from the fallout.
>>8401
I think the catastrophe the scientists referenced in the article are referring to would be a "Day After Tomorrow- Scenario". I think a temperature hike exceeded 2° C would do that.
>>8404
You're aware that a work of fiction, right?
>A survey carried out by YouGov for Metroxpress shows most Danes were satisfied with the Christmas gifts they received from their employer last year.
>However, more than a third were at best indifferent if not downright unhappy about the employer’s choice of saying ‘thank you’.
>According to a lifestyle expert Henrik Byager, who advises companies on employee gifts, the purpose of Christmas gifts is to show that companies appreciate their employees.
>Too small, too wrong
>“Two things can go wrong: either the gift is too small and will therefore be perceived as an insult, or it completely misses the mark,” Byager told Metroxpress.
>“Then there is of course the type of employee generally dissatisfied with his wages and working conditions, who won’t cheer up even for a Christmas present.”
>The most important thing, however, is that everybody gets the same, noted Byager.
http://cphpost.dk/news/business/every-third-dane-dissatisfied-with-company-christmas-present.html
Why would your employer give you a Christmas gift. Are you expected to give them one back?
>>8598
Is Black Pete big in Denmark like it is in The Netherlands?
>>8598
>Every third Dane dissatisfied with company Christmas present
This is like the one thing all of us needed to know.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35088276
France's far-right National Front (FN) has failed to win a single region in the second round of municipal polls.
The party was beaten into third place, despite leading in six of 13 regions in the first round of voting a week ago.
The centre-right Republicans finished ahead of President Francois Hollande's governing Socialist Party.
FN leader Marine Le Pen said that mainstream parties had colluded to keep it from power and vowed to keep on fighting.
"Nothing can stop us now," she told supporters. "By tripling our number of councillors, we will be the main opposition force in most of the regions of France."
Ms Le Pen said the party had been "disenfranchised in the most indecent of ways by a campaign of lies and disinformation".
She had stood as a regional presidential candidate in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, while her niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was the FN's candidate in the race in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, in the south.
After both led with more than 40% of the vote in the first round on 6 December, the Socialist candidates in those regions pulled out so their voters could support Republican candidates in the second round.
The FN actually increased its votes in the second round to more than 6.8 million, from 6.02 million on 6 December as more people voted, according to the ministry of the interior (In French). But the FN share of the vote went down slightly from 27.73% to 27.36%.
Thanks to France's use of runoff elections, I don't think there's any chance for FN to have significant power. There's no way they're ever going to get a clear majority of voters, and they're controversial enough that if people see that they might win major elections, they'll actually vote to make sure that doesn't happen.
>>8735
Extremist parties gain power in times of crisis.
FN losing isn't a sign of common sense, it's a sign that things aren't bad enough yet for people to throw stability out of the window.
>>8740
Oh, I'm not saying it's necessarily common sense, and they definitely don't have the crisis necessary to gain support for their extreme positions. But the election system makes it hard for them to win any election, even despite gaining popularity. Though it probably makes any initial gain in voters easier because people aren't as worried about voting for fringe parties in the initial election. I just can't see enough people swinging to FN unless the Republicans massively fucked up, but even then that's assuming all the voters who abandon them would switch to FN, over a different party.
A Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of the Church of Greece is under fire for comments he posted publicly on his blog, lashing out against gays, muslims, jews and atheists. In an angry rant he encouraged his readers and followers to “spit on them” and “blacken them” with violence, stating that they are not humans.
Ambrosios is the Metropolitan of Kalavryta and Aigialeia— a region in north central Peloponnese and ranks as the 8th in order of hierarchy and influence in the Church’s synod, or governing body. Numerous politicians, media and public figures have called for condemnation of the bishop’s comments.
His vitriolic blog post (in Greek) followed legislation set forth by the ruling government to extend domestic partnership status to same-sex couples, granting them similar rights to those who are married.
Justice Ministry’s general secretary for human rights, Costas Papaioannou said “The state recognizes that there are other forms of family life than that which we know as marriage,” to Kathimerini’s English language edition, adding that the European Court of Justice shares this stance. Adding that that laws should adapt to the existing state of affairs, noting that the fact there are children being raised by gay couples is “a very significant social fact.” The revised bill aims to give gay couples in Greece the same tax status and inheritance rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
One cartoonist in a Greek newspaper depicted the bishop blessing a thug with a Golden Dawn (Greek Neo Nazi) tattoo for beating and spitting on those who support civil unions in Greece.
http://www.pappaspost.com/greek-orthodox-metropolitan-lashes-out-against-gays-spit-on-them-beat-them-up-they-are-not-human/
Thoughts?
>>8323
why is this wizard so angry
>>8346
His country is going down the drains. Hating Germany for it is too mainstream and not a very Christian thing to do.
So he's focusing all his hatred on other villains.
>>8323
>blacken them
Fucks sake even Orthodoxy has fallen to the bbc menace.
France is waging war against wasting food. Supermarkets, restaurants, and individuals are all being targeted in order to try to reduce how much food is thrown away each year.
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/12/10/les-deputes-unanimes-pour-lutter-contre-le-gaspillage-alimentaire_4828389_3244.html
« Jeter une baguette de pain, c’est laisser se vider une baignoire entière, jeter un kilo de viande de bœuf, c’est 15 000 litres d’eau gaspillés »
(i.e. throwing away a kilo of beef is wasting 15,000 litres)
>Les produits sous marque de distributeur qui seraient retournés au fournisseur pourront être donnés, alors qu’ils sont obligatoirement détruits actuellement. La lutte contre le gaspillage alimentaire fera en outre partie de l’éducation à l’alimentation durant le parcours scolaire.
>teaching in school, not allowing supermarkets to just throw food away (but forcing to allow charities to get it), or using it for composting/biodiesel.
thoughts? I think this is a good move.
>>8317
>I think this is a good move.
It's an anti-scarcity move, and as such it's a socialist move. The free market supporters won't like it.
>>8317
Two different problems here.
1) I don't understand at all why giving away unsold food is not already an obligation (if still consumable), let alone forbidden.
2) The water included in 1kg of beef is certainly not "wasted". The whole "litters in ..." measure was created as an index for studying water scarcity on a global scale, not water use. Even though producing meat requires very large quantity of water, you wouldn't say rain or river water to be wasted if not utilized; you just cannot waste rain water when it's raining of rivers when it's flowing (because unlike oil, it's renewable).
So, from a strictly ecological standpoint, this is ridiculous if not retarded; but socially and politically, I really don't get what they are waiting for authorizing it.
Is France the first country to come up with this?
>>8358
I'll never get that first point in the US.
Just about every single restaurant and business throws out their old food for the day instead of doing literally anything else with it.
Why do they do this? Its seriously shameful
The smiling, head-bobbing, saluting women of the Moranbong Band possess all the hallmarks of your typical K-pop group. Clad in mini-skirts and high heels, they perform under flashing lights on dramatic, larger-than-life sets. They infuse Western pop flavor with a Korean twist.
But the Moranbong ladies have a special honor that has been bestowed on none of the world’s most recognizable K-pop sensations, from Big Bang to Girls’ Generation. They exist in their own league, really, having each been hand-picked by North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
Started in 2012, the girl group is an incarnation of former leader Kim Jong-il’s Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble. According to the North Korean state news agency KCNA, “Since its birth the Band has creditably (sic) played its role as the first standard-bearer on the ideological and cultural front, arousing all the service personnel and people to the building of a thriving nation. . . .”
Moranbong will arrive in Beijing this weekend for “friendship performances” meant to bolster liaisons with China, a longstanding North Korean ally that has had strained relations with the authoritarian state since Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.
The “worldwide stylish band,” in the words of KCNA, travels to Beijing at an opportune time: this week, the UN Security Council, of which China is a veto-wielding permanent member, is slated to address allegations of North Korea’s human rights abuses.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/north-koreas-latest-weapon-kim-jong-uns-hand-picked-girl-band
Somehow not surprised.
>>8226
They don't look forced at all.
Did I just get infected by a North Korean psychic virus by watching the video?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/world/middleeast/iraqi-campaign-to-retake-ramadi-from-isis-makes-gains.html?_r=0
Iraqi Army and Sunni Tribal fighters with Coalition air-cover are in the process of taking Ramadi back for the IS Group.
The offensive has been going for a few days and it will continue for some time, but Daesh is running scared from the A-10 Warthogs and moral is high.
>>8289
Further background:
City of 200k people on the far South East flank of Daesh teritory
Follows the liberation of Sinjar with Kurdish forces.
First real test of US re-trained Arab ground forces.
Daesh has rigged IED's all over the city and they are retreating with human shields.
I'm really curious about that home-made rocket pictured in the article- it's so hilariously stupid that I want to see IS try to use it.
These are the people that defeated the trillion-dollar industry of the US military.
>>8331
>home-made rocket
I remember first seeing them in articles about Syria a few years ago. They're more of a mortar than a rocket. They are shit accurate, but they can be filled with shrapnel.
In addition to these anti-personnel projectiles one of the current Daesh favorites is a highly armored kamakazi truck. They often come in groups and are able to plow through checkpoints and into specific targets like a poor man's precision guided bomb.
But, lets keep things in perspective. A-10 Warthogs and Apache helicopters hard counter both of these.
On Friday, December 11, a fight broke out on the floor of the Ukrainian parliament. Oleg Barna, a deputy in President Poroshenko's bloc approached the speaker's podium, where Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was delivering an address. Handing him a bouquet of roses, Barna started shoving Yatsenyuk, then tried to carry him away, even grabbing him between the legs and lifting him into the air. Immediately, several other deputies intervened and a mass brawl began. Neither Yatsenyuk nor his roses took part.
Barna was responding to Yatsenyuk telling members of Poroshenko's bloc that they are welcome to direct questions about Ukraine's energy sector to "their own minister," Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
Commenting later on the incident, Yatsenyuk said, "Everything is fine, but there are a lot of morons here." The head of the Poroshenko bloc has apologized for Barna's behavior and excluded him from the faction.
Barna's awkward assault on Ukraine's prime minister has already inspired a myriad of edited photos online, many exploiting the homoeroticism of one man grabbing another in so nether a region.
https://meduza.io/en/lion/2015/12/11/democracy-by-the-balls-a-fight-breaks-out-on-the-floor-of-the-ukrainian-parliament
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gDF7ib66yY
Russian politics are cool!
>give roses
>acquire husbando
>>8241
A nuuuuu cheeki breeki iv danka
http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_32012.shtml?wap=0
Well how about that. The video is pretty funny to be honest family.
I just had to do this, almost loopable
webm(dot)host(slash)c6205
>>8202
This is the worst board on 4chan. Obvious shitboards like /b/, /s4s/, & /mlp/ included.
>>8222
And you're part of it you fucking faggot
