The United States Department of Education has ordered a school district in Illinois to allow a boy to be able to shower with girls:

A reader from Canada sent me a link to the following:

November 3, 2015

Two kinds of genetically modified pigs are on their way to becoming pork on our dinner plates. If they do, they’ll be some of the very first genetically modified animals to enter our 

A reader sent a link to the following:

November 1, 2015

The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea say they have “completely restored” trade and security ties, at their first meeting in three years.

The South China Sea has been in the news as China has made claims that other nations do not accept:

The Senate of the USA has now passed a budget deal with an increase to debt which is expected to last until after Barack Obama’s second term in office ends:

About three years ago, I reported that there was a possibility that China may change its “one-child” policy (see China May Change its ‘One-Child’ Policy), and it has:

BEIJING—

After 35 years of limiting most couples to having just one child, China’s Communist Party on Thursday announced that it will change existing laws to allow all families to have two children without penalty.

The Islamic State has been continuing its horror:

October 27, 2015

The Islamic State executed three detainees in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra by strapping them to pillars and then blowing them up along with the antiquities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

In the USA, a tentative ‘budget’ deal has been proposed to attempt to prevent a partial shutdown of aspects of the federal government:

October 27, 2015

Congressional leaders have reached a tentative deal with the Obama administration on a government spending plan that could avoid another contentious budget standoff between the White House and hardline conservative Republicans.

Russia has made what is called a small ‘Asia pivot’ according to Western sources:

October 26, 2015

SEOUL—Russia’s plan to build a military base on the disputed Kuril Islands, that were seized from Japan at the end of World War II, is a small part of Moscow’s own “Asia pivot” to increase and protect trade with the vibrant economies in the Pacific region.

A reader sent me the following information:

The TPP, TiSA and TTIP ‘agreements’ are in actuality treaties in all but name. Calling them agreements rather than a treaty lowers the constitutional requirement of passing by two-thirds for such and allows it to pass with a simple majority.