So. Are you your body? And if so, how exactly does this work? Lets explore lots of confusing questions.
31 May 2016
Deutsche Welle: Polish apples feel the crunch
Two years on, some Polish producers would like to see the EU lift its sanctions on Russia, adding their voices to those of business interests in France and Austria, among other EU countries.
Poland's government is virulently anti-Russian, however, and is keen to bolster the impression that the potential for Russian aggression necessitates greater NATO presence on the alliance's eastern flank. It wants sanctions to stay in place, whether they hit Polish apple exporters or not. [...]
For a while, Polish apple producers managed to sell apples to Russia despite the sanctions, thanks to re-exports through third countries, Belarus in particular, and also via Crimea and Ukraine. The latter become a major export market for Polish exporters.
Some Russian wholesalers were reportedly still actively buying Polish apples as recently as April 2016 despite the sanctions. But not any more, it seems. Russia has now banned some imports of foodstuffs from Ukraine, and tougher customs control systems have been imposed on products from Belarus.
The Guardian: Why aren’t there more women in science? The industry structure is sexist
Findings such as these usually provoke a cry of “We need more women in science!” and organisations wheel out a spokesperson to explain that girls should be encouraged to study science at university. The Welsh government, for example, celebrated International Women’s Day this way.
But while this is a fantastic way to persuade science funding bodies to reach into their pockets, it just doesn’t fit with the evidence. The quiet truth is this: women are doing science. And not only “more women than ever before”, as the New Scientist puts it. In fact, in lots of scientific disciplines women outnumber men. [...]
European social science research shows that male and female scientists often have different types of partners: male scientists more frequently have a stay-at-home partner looking after the children, while female scientists are more likely to have another scientist as a spouse. So male scientists might not need family-friendly working practices to have a successful career but female scientists do. Hence the loss of women in the “leaky pipeline” of scientific careers. And that is to say nothing of the research that found scientists perceived job applicants to be less competent when they had female names.
A FiveThirtyEight Guide To Veepstakes Speculation
Do vice presidential candidates help a ticket win their home state? Not really. A new book by two political scientists — “The VP Advantage: How running mates influence home state voting in presidential elections” — finds that these effects are “conditional and rare” and uses American National Election Studies data to demonstrate that even famously strategic picks, such as John F. Kennedy’s selection of Lyndon Johnson in 1960, did little to influence election performance. This is all consistent with previous research,2 which points to an unsurprising conclusion: Presidential elections are about presidents, not vice-presidents, and that goes even for residents of the running mate’s home state. Beware stories claiming a vice-presidential nominee will put his or her home state in play. [...]
All but two Democratic candidates picked running mates who moved the ticket to the center. In 1988, for example, Michael Dukakis picked a running mate who was well to the right of his own positions, Lloyd Bentsen. These scores also suggest that Biden was much closer to the center than Obama. For Republicans, the opposite is true: Most vice-presidential candidates have been more conservative than the presidential candidate. [...]
There’s often a big gap between what we think matters and what factors seem to influence candidates’ choices, and how voters react to them. The research isn’t always consistent, but a few patterns are clear: Experience matters. Female running mates garner media attention, but not all of it is positive. Home-state advantage may exist, but only in certain cases and even then at the margins. And ideological balancing, along with other forms of ticket balancing, is a much smaller part of the modern VP selection process than many media accounts would suggest.
The Guardian: North Korea praises Trump and urges US voters to reject 'dull Hillary'
North Korean state media has praised US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing him as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted candidate” who could help unify the Korean peninsula.
An editorial in DPRK Today, an official media outlet, welcomed the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to hold direct talks with Kim Jong-un, saying he could help bring about Pyongyang’s “Yankee go home” policy. [...]
“This is very striking,” said Aidan Foster-Carter of the University of Leeds. “Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, or at least not the DPRK government in an official capacity. But it is certainly Pyongyang flying a kite, or testing the waters.
Los Angeles Times: Confederate flags have no place flying over national cemeteries
That practice is insupportable and an amendment to a congressional spending bill now moving through Congress would end it. The Republican-dominated House is to be commended for approving the measure even though a majority of Republicans voted against it. The ban should remain in the bill as it passes through the Senate, where it should be approved, and then it should be sent on to President Obama for his signature.
The U.S. government should not be flying the flag of the secessionists whose traitorous actions more than 150 years ago posed the most serious threat to the nation’s existence. But notably, the bill would not bar individuals from decorating their ancestors’ graves with small Confederate flags on the commemoration days. That's an objectionable practice, but it is a matter of free speech, protected by the 1st Amendment.
No region of the United States has a morally pure history. By the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788, six of the 13 original states had ended slavery within their borders. As admirable as that might have been, it also means the states had previously allowed, and profited from, the practice. And Northern states have their own legacies of racism and segregation, which in truth have been a stain on this nation from the first European encounters with Native Americans and which continued long after slavery was abolished nationwide.
The Telegraph: Polish firms employing North Korean 'slave labourers' benefit from EU aid
As many as 800 North Korean "slave labourers" are working in the shipbuilding and construction sectors in Poland, in some cases for companies that are receiving financial support from the European Union.
A report by academics from the Leiden Asia Centre, working with lawyers and human rights activists, claims the North Korean workers' salaries are paid to managers and repatriated to Pyongyang. [...]
North Koreans are employed by 32 companies in Poland and are required to put in more than 12 hours of work a day, six days a week.
But the complex network of companies that employ them and the paperwork they are issued with make it difficult for authorities to track all the North Korean workers, meaning it is possible that more workers have been "loaned on" to companies elsewhere in the EU.
Business Insider: Putin has turned Russia into a ticking time-bomb only he can defuse
The Financial Times reported that Putin dismissed eight senior law enforcement officials while promoting 12 others who are viewed as Putin loyalists.
The formation of a National Guard is arguably the strongest sign that Putin is increasingly desperate to secure his power and position. It will report directly to the government.
That means security for Putin and his increasingly large close cohort of loyalists, as he can strengthen his hold over any elites who might be seen as getting out of line. [...]
Political uncertainty almost always means the players never look far ahead. But if nobody is forming long-term strategies, the collapse of Russia’s political system, Petrov says, is “as inevitable as the collapse of a financial pyramid scheme”.
Putin is Russia, Russia is Putin.
He’s hugely popular, but has created a regime where he is the central point of power and surrounded himself with lackeys to sustain it.That means if Putin crumbles, everything crumbles.
Los Angeles Times: Russia's got a point: The U.S. broke a NATO promise
Leaders in Moscow, however, tell a different story. For them, Russia is the aggrieved party. They claim the United States has failed to uphold a promise that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe, a deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification. In this view, Russia is being forced to forestall NATO’s eastward march as a matter of self-defense.
The West has vigorously protested that no such deal was ever struck. However, hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise. Although what the documents reveal isn’t enough to make Putin a saint, it suggests that the diagnosis of Russian predation isn’t entirely fair. Europe’s stability may depend just as much on the West’s willingness to reassure Russia about NATO’s limits as on deterring Moscow’s adventurism.
Deutsche Welle: Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva: 'There will be positive change in Russia'
The Russian leadership is suffering from them because of the lack of new technologies. I don't know a whole lot about that, but the population is suffering greatly. Even in Moscow, which is still fairly well off, the choice of food products has gotten considerably worse, and prices are very high. (Ed.: Reacting to Western sanctions, Russia stopped the import of Western food items.) People have started to save, including on their food bills. I would like to see an end to this, but I understand that it is a political question.
You have been working for 50 years now to ensure that human rights are respected in Russia. How do you maintain your optimism?
As bad as the human rights situation might be currently, it's still better than during the Soviet era, when we had no rights at all. We may be lagging behind European states, but there have also been some positive changes. I've understood that if you want to achieve something good, you need to work not for 50 years, but for 100 years. There will be positive change in Russia, I'm optimistic about that.
30 May 2016
BBC4 Beyond Belief: How Islamic is the So-Called Islamic State?
In claiming responsibility for the Paris atrocities, the so-called Islamic State described the attacks as "a blessed battle whose causes of success were enabled by Allah". Last year, when the group's self-imposed Caliphate was declared, hundreds of Muslim leaders and scholars from across the world wrote an open letter to the self-professed Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, accusing him of heinous war crimes and a violation of the fundamental principles of Islam. So how Islamic is 'Islamic State'? Why have mainstream interpretations of Islam so far failed to provide an effective counter-narrative? What needs to happen for the group to be defeated?
William Crawley discusses the beliefs which underpin the so-called Islamic State in the light of the Paris terrorist attacks with Sheikh Dr Salah Al Ansari, an Imam, theologian and academic; Haras Rafiq, Managing Director of the anti-extremism think tank, the Quilliam Foundation; and Dr Katherine Brown, an expert in Islamic Studies at King's College London.
Reuters: 'Tourists go home': Spain tourism surge brings backlash
On the walls of the grand old houses of this Balearic port which attracts millions of foreigners every year, a new kind of graffiti has flourished: "Tourists go home".
Although still a minority protest, it points to tensions in Palma de Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain over rising numbers of visitors who are propelling the economy but also disrupting the lives of locals and straining services from transport to water. [...]
In some respects local authorities are leaning if not toward limiting tourism, at least toward controlling it.
Next year the smallest of the Balearics' four main islands, Formentera, could introduce taxes on cars entering the area, and the region is looking into capping accommodation for tourists, said Biel Barcelo, the local tourism minister.
The Guardian: Think TTIP is a threat to democracy? There’s another trade deal that’s already signed
But TTIP is not alone. Its smaller sister deal between the EU and Canada is called Ceta (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). Ceta is just as dangerous as TTIP; indeed it’s in the vanguard of TTIP-style deals, because it’s already been signed by the European commission and the Canadian government. It now awaits ratification over the next 12 months.
The one positive thing about Ceta is that it has already been signed and that means that we’re allowed to see it. Its 1,500 pages show us that it’s a threat to not only our food standards, but also the battle against climate change, our ability to regulate big banks to prevent another crash and our power to renationalise industries. [...]
David Cameron takes the most aggressive position on Ceta – not only supporting it entirely but pushing for provisional application in the UK. On this basis, Ceta could take effect in Britain early next year without a Westminster vote. In fact, even if the British parliament voted Ceta down, the corporate court system would still stay in effect for three years. Cameron’s Brexit rebels are not going to like that much.
The Guardian: However we vote, the elites will win the EU referendum
One of the reasons European integration has stalled is because the EU has adopted this neoliberal model of globalisation, shelving the higher social ideals of a united Europe. These are still wearily trotted out in the grudging rhetoric of a non-taxpaying corporation throwing a Christmas party in an orphanage, and are barely understood by their alleged proponents. With Germany posited as the creditor nation within this model, it is inevitable that its interests will differ from debtor ones, such as the UK and Greece. As integration has floundered, we are stuck with an unelected commission-rather-than-parliament-led EU, anathema for democrats.
Against this, the stentorian voices in favour of exit are even further to the right than their opponents. They too would destroy the few protections citizens still enjoy, only quicker. Whatever happens to the economy in the event of an exit (as with Scottish independence, the claims made by both sides range from fanciful to ludicrous), the UK would remain a debtor nation, only it would now go to China, instead of Germany, to negotiate its terms. Boris Johnson, positioning himself as a Poundstretcher Trump, would be advised to pop across the Atlantic and ask the real thing exactly how that’s working out for America.
For every creditor, there has to be a debtor. Perhaps, rather than considering the wisdom or otherwise of a European exit, we would be better served discussing why the UK has been designated a debtor nation in this global economic order. The problem is that neoliberalism has played its financialisation and privatisation hand. And, as a declining capitalism is no longer able to offer sustained high levels of economic growth, elites and their asset-to-debt-swapping practices have become more isolated and exposed for what they are: tools to exploit their citizens, reducing them to serfdom in the process.
Crux: Poland this summer won’t get the pope it wants, but the one it needs
Yet there are also signs of underlying weakness, including declines in seminary enrollment and recruitment to religious orders, and mounting frustration with perceived clericalism and indifference to laity. One recent study, for example, found that few of Poland’s more than 10,000 Catholic parishes actually have the pastoral and finance councils involving laity anticipated by canon law.
There’s also evidence that an increasing number of Poles are questioning Church teaching, with a survey last year by Warsaw’s Center for Public Opinion Research finding that three-quarters of Poles part company with the Church on homosexuality, contraception and extra-marital relationships.
Politically, the Church finds itself struggling to manage its relationship with the ruling Law and Justice party, which came to power in October 2015 with strong Catholic support, and which is still perceived as tightly allied with the Church.
Last month, for instance, one Polish priest publicly suggested that anyone who protests the government should be denied Communion.
Science Alert: Europe announces that all scientific papers should be free by 2020
This week was a revolutionary week in the sciences - not because we discovered a new fundamental particle or had a new breakthrough in quantum computing - but because some of the most prominent world leaders announced an initiative which asserts that European scientific papers should be made freely available to all by 2020.
This would legally only impact research supported by public and public-private funds, which are a vast portion of the papers produced annually; however, the goal is to make all science freely available. [...]
To that end, while a spokesperson for the Competitiveness Council admits the 2020 target "may not be an easy task", all are quick to stress the importance of the council’s new resolve. "This is not a law, but it’s a political orientation for the 28 governments. The important thing is that there is a consensus."
read the article
This would legally only impact research supported by public and public-private funds, which are a vast portion of the papers produced annually; however, the goal is to make all science freely available. [...]
To that end, while a spokesperson for the Competitiveness Council admits the 2020 target "may not be an easy task", all are quick to stress the importance of the council’s new resolve. "This is not a law, but it’s a political orientation for the 28 governments. The important thing is that there is a consensus."
read the article
BBC: The newlyweds with no country to call home
Based on data from 30 countries in 2010, Eurostat estimated one in 12 marriages in Europe were between people of different nationalities. In Switzerland, it was about one in five, compared with about one in 11 in the UK and hardly any at all in Romania. In Australia, nearly one in three marriages in 2014 was mixed. In Singapore, where the number of marriages in 2014 was the highest since 1997, transnational marriages accounted for 37% of those unions up from 23% in 2003. And the US Census Bureau revealed that in 2011, in 21% of married households in America, at least one of the spouses was born outside the US. [...]
Despite economic policies that encourage the globalisation that make transnational marriages inevitable, young couples like Han and Stuart, and people who’ve been married for years, have become unexpected victims of hardening attitudes towards migration.
“There has been increasing stress on ‘managed migration’ by governments to try to maximise economic benefits from migration, and control types of migration not seen as so beneficial,” Katharine Charsley, an academic at the University of Bristol, said by email. Spouses who migrate are selected as a matter of the heart, “rather than selected for their skills to fill shortage occupations by the state”.
29 May 2016
The Times of Israel: In Tel Aviv, thousands protest Israel’s ‘fascist’ incoming defense minister
An estimated 2,000 people poured into central Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick of Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman as Israel’s new defense minister in last week’s coalition shakeup. [...]
The rally, organized by the Joint (Arab) List, the left-wing Meretz party, and the left-wing Peace Now organization, was held under the headline “Building the opposition: A new way for Israel.” [...]
The marchers were joined by leftist members of the Knesset, including Meretz leader Zehava Galon and Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh. [...]
In an effort to allay concerns over his appointment, Liberman has promised to act in a “responsible” manner while in office. During a joint press conference Wednesday with Netanyahu, the new defense minister pledged his commitment to “peace and to a final status agreement, and to understanding between us and our neighbors.”
The Guardian view on disappearing Christianity: suppose it’s gone for ever? Editorial
This decline in self-identification probably has very little to do with belief. The people in the pews have always been heretics with only the vaguest notion of what official doctrines are, and still less of an allegiance to them. The difference is now that they are outside the pews, even if they still hold the same vague convictions about a life spirit or a benevolent purpose to the universe. [...]
Over the last 50 years “religion” has come to stand for the opposite of freedom and fairness. This is partly an outcome of the sexual revolution and of the long and ultimately futile resistance to it mounted by mainstream denominations. “The religious” now appear to young people as obscurantist bigots whose main purpose is to police sexuality, especially female sexuality, in the service of incomprehensible doctrines. Institutional resistance to the rights of women and of gay people was an exceptionally stupid strategy for institutions that depends on the labour of both. But the Church of England was so much a part of the old imperial state that life in post-imperial Britain was never going to be easy. [...]
Such an enormous change is bound to have implications for the rest of us. A post-Christian Europe will of course have a morality but it won’t be Christian morality. It will likely be less universalist. The idea that people have some rights just because they are human, and entirely irrespective of merit, certainly isn’t derived from observation of the world. It arose out of Christianity, no matter how much Christians have in practice resisted it. Although human rights have become embedded in our institutions at the same time as religious observance has been in decline, they could become vulnerable in an entirely post-Christian environment where the collective memory slips from the old moorings inherited from Christian ethics
Independent: Super-rich Swiss village opts for £200,000 fine instead of accepting 10 refugees
The residents of Switzerland’s alpine resort Oberwil-Lieli, where there are 300 millionaires among a population of 2,200, voted “no” in a referendum over whether to accept just 10 refugees.
Swiss government proposals had outlined a quota across its 26 counties in order deliver on promise to take 50,000 asylum seekers across the country, but Oberwil-Lieli voted by 52 per cent to 48 to reject the refugees. [...]
One resident of the village told MailOnline: “We do not want them here it is as simple as that.
“We have worked hard all our lives and have a lovely village that we do not want it spoiled. We are not suited to take in refugees. They would not fit in here.”
read the article
Swiss government proposals had outlined a quota across its 26 counties in order deliver on promise to take 50,000 asylum seekers across the country, but Oberwil-Lieli voted by 52 per cent to 48 to reject the refugees. [...]
One resident of the village told MailOnline: “We do not want them here it is as simple as that.
“We have worked hard all our lives and have a lovely village that we do not want it spoiled. We are not suited to take in refugees. They would not fit in here.”
read the article
Business Insider: Why some countries don't smile
He found that in countries like Germany, Switzerland, China, and Malaysia, smiling faces were rated as significantly more intelligent than non-smiling people. But in Japan, India, Iran, South Korea, and—you guessed it—Russia, the smiling faces were considered significantly less intelligent. Even after controlling for other factors, like the economy, there was a strong correlation between how unpredictable a society was and the likelihood they would consider smiling unintelligent. [...]
That’s certainly a satisfying explanation. But it’s worth noting that other studies have found there might be other factors, like how hierarchical or masculine a culture is, that play a greater role in emotional expression—which smiling is certainly a part of. And there’s evidence that some cultures don’t value happiness very highly, which would affect how often people there force themselves to break into a grin.
28 May 2016
Foreign Affairs: Algeria on the Brink?
The pressure comes at a bad time for Algeria’s ruling elites, who are struggling to work out what will happen when President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s rule comes to an end. Now 78, Bouteflika has ruled the country since 1999. But after suffering a stroke in 2013, he has rarely been seen in public, leading many to wonder what role he actually plays in managing daily affairs. When he does appear, wheelchair-bound and frail, he is the embodiment of the regime he represents: aged and aloof, part of a generation of 70-year-olds presiding over a country in which roughly 67 percent of the population is under 30. [...]
The dismantling of the DRS also fits within the government's narrative that Algeria has become a normal state; “A Civilian State” has become one of the ruling elite’s favorite slogans. But whether or not the Algerian regime is truly aiming for this goal is uncertain. The slogan rings hollow given that for the past 25 years, the internal security services have operated entirely unchecked. And so when the government claims that the security services need to be dismantled, many Algerians ask, why now? From helping to rig elections to supervising the activities of political parties and activists, the DRS has long wielded power in Algeria. This makes it unlikely that the government will simply discard it altogether. A “cleaned-up” version of the security services, one that the president and his allies can easily tame, is a more probable outcome.
BBC4 Thinking Allowed: 'Queer' wars, Nigerian beauty pageants
'Queer' Wars: The claim that LGBT rights are human rights meets fierce, sometimes deadly opposition in many parts of the world. Politicians and religious leaders invoke tradition to deflect such universal claims, accusing Western activists of neo colonial interference. Laurie Taylor talks to Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University, Melbourne, who has examined the international polarisation over sexual rights. He asks how best we can advocate for change in contexts where people face violence and imprisonment for their sexuality and gender. They're joined by Lama Abu- Odeh, Professor in Law at Georgetown University, Washington.
Also, Nigerian Beauty Pageants. Juliet Gilbert, Teaching Fellow in African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, reflects on the popularity of such spectacles in a country where crowned winners use pageantry as a 'platform' for success, hoping to overcome the double bind of gender and generation in a deeply religious and patriarchal society.
BBC4 Beyond Belief: Original Sin
The Catholic Church still affirms the doctrine of original sin. For more than 1,500 years the Church has maintained that the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden was passed on to every subsequent human being. This meant that every baby was born bad, with its inherent human nature corrupted and attracted to sin. This was not a marginal teaching; it has underpinned Christianity. Ernie Rea and guests discuss the religious, social and cultural legacy of the doctrine of original sin.
Buzzfeed: Britain To Offer Next-Of-Kin Letters To Same-Sex Couples Travelling Abroad
British same-sex married couples travelling abroad will be able to obtain an official letter from the UK government confirming their next-of-kin status in a world-first aimed at preventing LGBT citizens being denied their rights.
The trailblazing new policy – no other country currently offers this – was prompted by the sudden death four months ago of a British gay man on his honeymoon in Australia. His husband had to suffer the indignity of being told by the state authorities that the death certificate would read “never married” as same-sex marriage was not recognized.
The move will mean that anyone in a civil partnership or marriage will be able to present the document to hospital staff, police, funeral directors, donor organisations, or any officials they might encounter in the event of their spouse being taken ill or dying in a foreign country.
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Deutsche Welle: Islam classes will protect children from fundamentalists, bishop says
State-sponsored lessons in Islam could protect young Muslims from radical ideologies, the Evangelical Church's head bishop has said. The pontiff has called for all schools in Germany to teach the religion. [...]
Six out of 18 German states, including North-Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, currently offer lessons in Islam. Saarland has been experimenting with the idea in junior classes, according to Germany's Standing Conference of Education and Culture Ministers.
The Atlantic: The Voters Who Want Islam Out of Germany
The AfD’s founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, left the party last summer, condemning rising xenophobia. Many other founding members have likewise defected. So who are the new supporters that helped the party to its best-ever election performance a few months ago? Which people, specifically, want to kick Islam out of Germany? [...]
What all these voters seem to share, say the experts studying them, is intense concern about immigration and Islam—issues with extraordinary capabilities for generating strange bedfellows. “Suddenly the far-right is pro-Jewish because it’s anti-Muslim,” said Lenka Bustikova, a political scientist at Arizona State University who has studied far-right movements further east in Europe. “Suddenly with the [influx] of refugees you have this new twist: You are for Western gender rights because you think the Muslims are cavemen. It’s going to be interesting to watch.”
This dynamic may yet tear the party apart, whether at the leadership or at the voter level. Even the AfD’s recent headline-generating manifesto, Arzheimer pointed out, showed signs of a delicate balancing act. “They very carefully avoided anything that could be used against them in some form of formal process. … There is so much leeway in what they have written. ... It might appeal to hard-core rightwingers but also the famous ‘concerned citizens’—part of a catchphrase in Germany: ‘I’m not a racist but I’m very much concerned about [issues] A, B, C.’” But, he continued, if the AfD “give any reason for the public or media to portray them as yet another NPD I’m sure their support will collapse. Those voters, even if they’re worried about Muslims or immigrants, don’t want to be associated with thugs.”
The Huffington Post: The 11 Most Racist U.S. Presidents
Let’s imagine the unimaginable: Donald Trump was elected president in November. Yes, president of the United States. [...]
Let’s imagine that he did not moderate on his campaign pledges and he carried them out as president. Would a President Trump go down in the annals of American history as one of the most racist presidents ever?
He certainly would face a substantial amount of competition on the racist front. There have been many frightfully racist U.S. presidents in American history. Here are the 11 most racist U.S. presidents of all time.
Reuters: Putin says Romania, Poland may now be in Russia's cross-hairs
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned Romania and Poland they could find themselves in the sights of Russian rockets because they are hosting elements of a U.S. missile shield that Moscow considers a threat to its security.
Putin issued his starkest warning yet over the missile shield, saying that Moscow had stated repeatedly that it would have to take retaliatory steps but that Washington and its allies had ignored the warnings. [...]
Putin did not specify what actions Russia would take, but he insisted that it was not making the first step, only responding to moves by Washington. "We won't take any action until we see rockets in areas that neighbor us."
27 May 2016
The Guardian: US anti-extremism group asks Israel to curb rightwing Jewish activist
A US-based organisation that campaigns against antisemitism has taken the unusual step of calling on the Israeli government to act against an extreme rightwing Jewish activist with “abusive, racist, inflammatory and violent” opinions. [...]
Both the ADL and the IRAC say Gopstein and Lehava have encouraged “price tag” attacks on Palestinians and their property in response to moves by the Israeli authorities which the perpetrators view as hostile to settlers. [...]
In April, Gopstein was acquitted of assaulting two leftwing activists after a judge said he could have mistaken them for Palestinians.
Lehava was launched in 2009 with the aim of preventing relationships between Jewish women and Arab men.
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The Guardian: The rise of vegan teenagers: 'More people are into it because of Instagram'
Veganism is on the rise. In 2006, 150,000 people in the UK opted for a plant-based diet. Today, 542,000 do. That’s a 350% increase.
The movement is driven by the young – close to half of all vegans are aged 15-34 (42%), compared with just 14% who are over 65. When the Guardian asked people about being vegan, 67% of the 474 who replied were under 34, and more than one-sixth were teenagers. We heard from people as young as 14 espousing the purported virtues of quitting meat and dairy. [...]
So why are so many teens ditching meat and dairy? Here’s what they said.
The Guardian: Scotland has taken in more than a third of all UK's Syrian refugees
Scotland has welcomed more Syrian refugees than any other part of the UK since David Cameron said Britain would resettle 20,000 people, while only 33 people have been accepted by London local authorities, figures show. [...]
No refugees were accepted by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in which the constituency of the home secretary, Theresa May, is located, or by Watford borough council, home to the constituency of the Home Office minister responsible for resettling refugees, Richard Harrington. [...]
The Guardian has been trying since September to gain access to the figures. The Home Office refused a freedom of information (FoI) request asking to be told which local authorities had accepted Syrians on the VPR. Officials decided the information was exempt from disclosure under section(s) 36(2)c of the Freedom of Information Act. This provides that information can be withheld “where disclosure would otherwise prejudice, or would be likely otherwise to prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs”.
AdvertisementThe Guardian had challenged the refusal but had yet to hear back when the government released the information. The release came after the home affairs select committee submitted its own FoI asking for the statistics. After the Home Office missed a 20-day deadline to respond, the information commissioner’s office ordered it to release the information as soon as possible.
The Guardian: Swapping spit: what saliva can reveal about your romantic relationship
Instant Chemistry works like so: you and your partner sign up to receive a “relationship kit” containing two saliva receptacles, which you spit into and send back to the company. Instant Chemistry then extracts certain genetic information from the samples and, based on what they term “bio- and neuro-compatibility”, score how compatible you are. Seabrooke and Gonzalez, for example, ring in at a cool 86%. [...]
If you think this sounds bananas, you’re not alone. I emailed a few geneticists for commentary on the veracity of Instant Chemistry’s science, and received the following response: “I spent three minutes reading what this company is offering, and my impression is it is total delusion. I really cannot waste more time on this.” But Seabrooke and Gonzalez aren’t hacks – they met as medical students studying neuroscience and genetics. They were both fascinated by the science of compatibility and spent years trying to figure out why some people work well together, and other just don’t.
After you take Instant Chemistry’s test, you and your partner will receive a booklet explaining the findings. You’ll learn how likely it is that you and your partner will remain physically attracted to each other over time and you’ll get feedback from the resident good doctors on how to be a better listener. The total cost for the test and subsequent “love manual” is $199.
The Atlantic: What Is It Like When the President Becomes a Surrogate?
In fact, a case in which a president could campaign for his successor is extremely rare. There haven’t been that many two-term presidents over the last century, and they have tended to be so unpopular as to not be much use. What makes Obama unusual is that his popularity is relatively high, and on the rise.
The 1988 election was one such case. President Ronald Reagan did campaign for Vice President George W. Bush, vouching for him with key groups. But it was a complicated relationship: Bush was eager to show that he could get out from under Reagan’s wing and prove he was not a wimp. Reagan was somewhat tarnished by the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Gipper was already aged and likely suffering from symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, Reagan—like Obama with his former secretary of state this year—waited until well into the spring to formally endorse his former VP, rather than meddle in the GOP primary.
Los Angeles Times: Undercover police stings targeting gay men endure, despite fierce criticism
Undercover officers, critics contend, often exchange flirtatious signals and make arrests of men who think their advances are welcome, when no one else is nearby to be offended. They say that the stings can ensnare men who hadn't otherwise been seeking sex and that they rarely, if ever, target straight people.
Under state law, people who are convicted of indecent exposure must register as sex offenders and face possible jail time. Some have lost their jobs or committed suicide. [...]
Courts also have raised questions about the stings, invalidating a number of prosecutions in various parts of the state. In some cases, judges found no crime had occurred because the undercover officer conveyed sexual interest to the target and no one else was present to be offended by the lewd conduct. Last month, a Los Angeles County judge threw out the charges in one case stemming from Long Beach's 2014 operation, saying police were discriminating against gay men.
The Guardian: ‘I don’t want to go back with nothing’: the Brexit threat to Spain’s little Britain
The newcomers have got the hang of one Spanish cliche all right: mañana. But now their situation is starting to hit home – not because Spain does not want them, but because their compatriots could make their situation untenable. The referendum is creating great concern, some alarm, and in one or two cases near-panic. If Britain votes to leave, these Britons will very likely have to leave too, physically as well as politically. If Orihuela Costa were in the UK, its demographics – elderly, white, C1/C2s with a taste for bowls and golf – would make it a prime target for Ukip. Here the thinking is spectacularly different. [...]
The statistics are flaky, but the area is thought to have 50,000 dwellings, far more than the city itself. Nearly half of these would be holiday homes or buy-to-lets. The most authoritative estimate is that 30,000 people actually live along this 10-mile stretch of coast, of whom 80% are non-Spanish. And of those, perhaps two-thirds are British or Irish. [...]
But the majority were very aware where their interests lie. The glories of Spanish healthcare were often mentioned. Some talked about the fear that their UK pensions would be frozen (as is now normal for those living outside the EU) and that they would lose out on annual increases. Others touched on the most likely, most terrifying and most immediate double-whammy they would face: if Britain votes to leave, the pound will go down, making Spain more expensive, but British demand for their houses will disappear, making them effectively unsaleable.
The Huffington Post: Austria Is Just the Beginning of a More Polarized World
The fight for democracy itself is also being led from the right by the likes of Hofer, Trump and Le Pen in France. They argue for the purification of democracy from the evils being inflicted on it by certain minority groups. For them, democracy is the rule of the majority over the minority. Liberal democracies, on the other hand, as they have taken shape in the countries of the West, inversely derive their value, their functionality and their legitimacy by how well they treat minorities. [...]
Austria is a small country and, on today’s global political stage, insignificant — though anyone visiting Vienna immediately notices that it was once the seat of a great empire. This applies similarly to Paris and London. A return to former greatness, a mission evoked by Trump in the U.S., can be heard also in France, England and Austria with similar rhetorical fashion.
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The Guardian: World's scariest school run? Chinese children tackle 800m cliff to get to lessons
To attend class, backpack-carrying pupils from Atuler village in Sichuan province must take on an 800m rock face, scrambling down rickety ladders and clawing their way over bare rocks as they go.
Images of their terrifying and potentially deadly 90-minute descent went viral on the Chinese internet this week after they were published in a Beijing newspaper. [...]
But the perils were evident. Api Jiti told the Beijing News that “seven or eight” villagers had plunged to their deaths after losing their grip during the climb while many more had been injured.
26 May 2016
Reuters: Italy industry lobby backs PM Renzi on constitutional reform
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Thursday won the backing of the country's biggest employers' lobby for a constitutional reform on which the 41-year-old premier has staked his political future.
Renzi's allies in parliament passed a constitutional reform that effectively eliminates the Senate as a legislative body and removes some powers from Italy's regions in a bid to speed up lawmaking and make governments more stable.
By law there must be a referendum on the changes. Renzi has said if he loses the ballot, expected in October, he will stand down, potentially unleashing political chaos and market turbulence in the euro zone's third-largest economy.
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The Huffington Post: The LGBT Pride Rainbow Flag To Fly Above Houses Of Parliament For First Time
A parliamentary spokesperson said: “The Houses of Parliament will join the Pride in London celebrations by flying the LGBT rainbow flag from the top of Portcullis House for the entire Pride weekend.
“This is the very first time the rainbow flag has been flown from Parliament and we are delighted to mark the occasion in this way.”
Mashable: GPS maps show the wild adventures your cat goes on night
More than one dozen cats were fitted with GPS trackers to show the distance they roam from their homes. The end result was a series of maps, which provide fascinating insight into the travelling habits of felines.
The project started in mid-March with 25 cats enrolled, but by the time the project ended in mid-May, only 14 cats remained. This was due to some GPS trackers disappearing or felines struggling to wear the harness with the tracker attached.
Politico: Brussels struggles with its Poland problem
“I don’t really think that anybody has a strategy, or wants to get Poland out,” a European diplomat said. “Everybody is still expecting this government to come back to its senses.”
“Hoping” might be a more appropriate term, given the awkward diplomatic back-and-forth between Brussels and Warsaw in recent days. The dispute highlights the difficulty of maintaining EU solidarity without fueling rising populism and unease across the bloc over policies from Brussels ranging from migration to economic governance. [...]
Though sanctions in the form of cuts to Polish subsidies as part of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy or any structural funds are unlikely to take place, the Commission could carry out “a very deep scrutiny of the way the funds are asked and used,” a European diplomat said.
“It would be very easy for the Commission to act this way, it would not require any formal decision and at that point for Warsaw it would be very hard to continue being a successful recipient of these funds,” the diplomat said. “That’s the only fear of the [Polish government], an economic retaliation which, according to them, will take form in this way.”
The Guardian: What happened to the 12 Syrian refugees rescued by the pope?
When Pope Francis saved a dozen refugees from a Lesbos detention centre and took them to Rome it was ‘like a miracle’, one of them said. A month on, what is their new life like? [...]
The three families have been in Rome for one month, and I speak to two of them. Contrary to some reports, none has spent a night inside the Vatican and live, instead, in a refuge run by Sant’Egidio, a few streets from the school. How are they settling? “Well, actually, it’s been OK,” says Suhila. They eat eastern food – aubergine for lunch – they have found the mosque, pray at home, take the kids to school each day, “and the weather is similar to the weather in our country”. Quds has made friends with the Italian daughter of one of the volunteers. “We have started to feel ourselves adjusting. The world is smiling at us.”
AP: Swiss region: Muslim boys must shake female teachers' hands
A public school in the northeastern Therwil municipality had sought the regional school board's advice after accepting the boys' belief that they should only willingly touch the women whom they will eventually marry. The school had temporarily exempted the teens from shaking hands with teachers.
The boys' refusal set off a debate in Switzerland, which has a tradition of handshake greetings. Like elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland has at times struggled to strike the right cultural balance amid a recent influx of Muslims and other newcomers. [...]
The Central Islamic Council of Switzerland accused the authorities of "grossly overstepping their competency," saying such measures won't help integration but rather contribute to a feeling of alienation among Muslims. The council said it would take legal action against any effort to apply the sanctions, and ignore any fines.
BBC: Fifth of UK couples close to break-up
Researchers looked at data from the Understanding Society survey of 20,980 people which asked people how often they argued, how frequently they considered divorce and regretted the relationship, and the extent of their unhappiness.
They said their findings suggested 2.87 million people, which equates to 18% of married or cohabiting couples, were living in "distressed" relationships, where the strains were deemed to be "clinically significant" by counsellors.
The number of "distressed" relationships reached a high in 2011 and 2012 but have not yet returned to pre-recession levels, the data showed. [...]
The Guardian: Mikheil Saakashvili: 'Ukraine's government has no vision for reform'
For Saakashvili, the crunch time has now approached to determine whether Poroshenko is part of the problem, or part of the solution. Last month, he held a press conference in which he blasted the president for not fulfilling a single promise made since he took office after the 2014 revolution.
“For a long time, Poroshenko has been very flexible,” Saakashvili told the Guardian, speaking in his rapid, lightly accented English, learned while studying in the US. “If you were a reformer he spoke reform language. If you were someone old-fashioned, he said OK, we can find a way to deal with you. Now he’s brought in a government which has not got any vision of reforms at all.” [...]
Critics say Saakashvili’s recent foray into the national arena is born of his outsized ambition, and a desire one day to become prime minister of the country. Instead of focusing on improving Odessa, they say, he has taken to criticising the government, and taking an “anti-corruption roadshow” around the country. He is expected to set up a political party of his own, though the lack of early elections has stymied this for now. He insists, however, that his focus on national politics is a necessary extension of his work in Odessa.
The Independent: Sweden phases out fossil fuels in attempt to run completely off renewable energy
In 2015, Sweden's prime minister announced his country will work towards becoming "one of the first fossil fuel-free welfare states of the world," in a speech to the UN General Assembly.
Between 2013 and 2014, 51.1 per cent of Sweden's energy needs were met by renewables, according to data from Eurostat and the Renewable Energy Directive. [...]
Latvia was the second most green country, with a RES of 37 per cent, followed by Finland, which had a RES of 36.8 per cent and Austria, with an RES of 32.9 per cent.
25 May 2016
Deutsche Welle: Israeli police were filmed beating Arab supermarket worker in Tel Aviv
"My ID is inside, who are you?" Krispin described the man as asking, adding that "he didn't even finish the sentence when they started to beat him to death, punches you have never seen in your life, teeth are flying in the air, the Arab guy is crushed.
"Krispin claimed that "an elderly lady asked them why they are doing this, but the officers replied 'get away from here before we will finish you too.' With witnesses around," he noted, "more police came and joined the two attackers. I don't know if the Arab is dead or alive, they pushed what's left of him into a police vehicle - not an ambulance - and disappeared."
Krispin's post went viral with more than 1,600 shares and thousands of comments and reactions, while other eye witnesses have posted more and more pictures from the fray to social media.
"This is not a brawl - this is lynching" one Twitter user wrote under the security camera video which was circulating on Israeli media. "Unbelievable. Israel [is now] a generation of violent punks - some of them are in the police, some are in the army," another user responded.
International Business Times: What working undercover in a factory taught me about EU migration
In a growing economy there is never a finite number of jobs anyway; but the notion that migrants were stopping locals from getting jobs was, in Rugeley at least, a fiction. This goes back to point 1. There was no local clamour for these jobs. There were almost no English people at the various open inductions I attended and ones I did work with quit within a month. [...]
As things stand, the British working class is slowly being replaced by a foreign-born labour force. In a superficial sense this is neither here nor there; but if the people who toil in British factories have no say over the political direction of the country they live and work in, it will invariably create a distorted politics in which the only voters are middle class voters. Universal suffrage will, in practice, no longer exist.
You can of course infer from all of this what you will. As I say, I don't think that reining in free movement is the answer. But I do wish that liberals would show a proper interest in the impact immigration has on industrial relations, rather than simply playing a parlour game of reeling off the calculations of effete academics cocooned in offices at progressive think-tanks in London.
AP: China: Taiwan's female leader 'extreme' because she's single
Tsai, Taiwan's first female president, has been criticized by Beijing for refusing to explicitly endorse the "one-China principle" that defines Taiwan as part of China. But previous criticisms were not in such personal terms.
"Analyzed from the human angle, as a single female politician, she lacks the emotional encumbrance of love, the constraints of family or the worries of children," said the piece, written by Wang Weixing, an analyst with China's People's Liberation Army and board member of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, the semiofficial body in charge of contacts with Taiwan.
The Guardian: People of no religion outnumber Christians in England and Wales
The proportion of the population who identify as having no religion – referred to as “nones” – reached 48.5% in 2014, almost double the figure of 25% in the 2011 census. Those who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations – made up 43.8% of the population. [...]
The report did not examine data from Scotland or Northern Ireland. Last month a Scottish Social Attitudes survey found that 52% of the population said they were not religious, compared with 40% in 1999.
In Northern Ireland, which has long been the most religious part of the UK, 7% said in the 2011 census that they belonged to a non-Christian religion or no religion. [...]
A spokesperson for the Church of England said: “The increase in those identifying as ‘no faith’ reflects a growing plurality in society rather than any increase in secularism or humanism. We do not have an increasingly secular society as much as a more agnostic one.
BBC4: Clinging On: The Decline of the Middle Classes
Is the middle-class in terminal decline? Writer David Boyle, author of Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes?, explores the split between a small rich elite and those who are argued to be clinging on to a deteriorating lifestyle and falling expectations.
The salaries of financial service workers based in London are soaring away from those in more traditional professions. At the same time, house prices are rising and so-called 'cling-ons' are being forced out to the peripheries of London and beyond. Many of those who might have aspired to private education for their children find the fees are beyond them.
But does it matter? According to the eminent American political scientist Francis Fukuyama, it definitely does - democracy is dependent on a healthy middle class and without it there is a real threat of instability, with demonstrators taking to the streets even in Britain and America.
David Boyle also talks to the distinguished Oxford sociologist John Goldthorpe, who worries that there is no room at the top for today's aspiring young. Deputy Editor Gavanndra Hodge explains why even Tatler decided to print a guide to state schools. And the programme visits Liverpool College, the great Victorian public school, which decided to cross the great divide and become an academy within the state system.
Middle class professionals describe problems buying a house on two doctors' salaries, finding a job as a solicitor and raising the money to pay school fees, and even how an architect's life can be a tough one.
Are the professions themselves under threat from technology undermining traditional ways of working? One GP worries that the discretion he once enjoyed is being destroyed by the computer.
BBC4: How Iraq Changed the World
Writer and broadcaster John Kampfner talks to Tony Blair, the former French foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin and others about the global consequences of war in Iraq.
How has the world changed since the fall of Saddam Hussein ten years ago? What effect did the war have on the balance of power, the respect for international institutions and the global standing of the United States and Britain?
George W. Bush described the war as 'a central commitment in the war on terror' but some say that, if anything, it has promoted terrorists and their cause. And then there's liberal interventionism. Have we created a tyrant's charter?
Leading thinkers from Britain, the United States, China and Russia discuss the impact of the war that has dominated our headlines and reshaped our history.
BBC4 Beyond Belief: Saudi Arabia
The UK's ties with Saudi Arabia have come under growing strain in recent months over how to balance human rights concerns with the government's desire to promote a crucial trade and investment relationship. The Arab state sits on more than a quarter of the world's known oil reserves, making it one of the richest countries in the Middle East and a vital strategic partner to many Western nations. It is also home to the birthplace of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad and the cradle of Islam. Its rulers espouse a strict version of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. The Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law includes harsh punishments such as public beheadings and restrictions on women. How did Wahhabism gain so much influence in the country? What, in turn, has been its effect on the stability of the region and the wider world?
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The Guardian: Vote to leave EU will 'condemn Britain to irrelevance', say historians
In a letter to the Guardian, the academics and writers argue that the referendum offers a chance to underscore the “irreplaceable role” Britain has played, and should continue to play, in Europe’s history.
“As historians of Britain and of Europe, we believe that Britain has had in the past, and will have in the future, an irreplaceable role to play in Europe,” the letter says.
“On 23 June, we face a choice: to cast ourselves adrift, condemning ourselves to irrelevance and Europe to division and weakness; or to reaffirm our commitment to the EU and stiffen the cohesion of our continent in a dangerous world.”
Reuters: Saudi Arabia's rulers adapt message for social media age
One recent showcase for this was the launch of 31-year-old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform plans, which used Twitter alongside traditional media to build anticipation and introduce hash tags - key discussion phrases.
"A strong and determined country with a connection between the government and the citizen," one of the slogans read.
Some 190,000 Twitter users in Saudi Arabia actively took part in the ensuing debate over Vision 2030, generating more than 860,000 messages according to France-based social media monitor Semiocast.
This meant the discussion reached 46 percent of the 7.4 million active Twitter users in the kingdom, Semiocast said, describing this level of outreach in a state-sponsored debate as exceptional.
24 May 2016
The Atlantic: Will Bernie Sanders Hurt His Own Cause?
In the short-term, accusing party elites of unfairly intervening in the political process might have a political payoff. It will likely motivate die-hard Sanders supporters to volunteer or donate money. And it could help Sanders gain leverage in the lead up to the Democratic National Convention. Fearful of the party being torn apart, party leaders may be more deferential to Sanders’s demands in the hope that he will ultimately help broker peace. There are already indications that the senator is starting to get his way. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Sanders has been “given unprecedented say over the Democratic Party platform,” noting that party officials have permitted him to name five people to the “15-member committee that writes the platform.”
But in the long-term, the same strategy could undermine Sanders’s goal of creating a lasting political movement. If the campaign suggests the primary election has not proceeded fairly, its supporters may give up on the idea that political reform is even possible. The Boston College political science professor David Hopkins describes the risk this way: “Complaints about a rigged system may breed more apathy and cynicism than motivation to remain productively active in party politics,” he wrote in an analysis of the Nevada convention. “If the lesson drawn by Sanders and his supporters from the 2016 nomination race is ‘the fix is in’ rather than ‘good start—let’s get ’em next time,’ it will be harder to sustain momentum for their agenda within the Democratic Party and the electoral arena more broadly past the end of this campaign.”
AP: US military trains eclectic group of anti-IS fighters
The U.S. has organized the fighters into an umbrella group it calls the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. It is comprised mostly of Syrian Kurds, numbering at least 25,000 fighters, with a smaller element of Syrian Arabs numbering perhaps 5,000 to 6,000.
One U.S. adviser here estimated the SDF will need perhaps 6,000 to 10,000 fighters for a Raqqa offensive. The U.S. strategy relies on training, organizing and advising local fighters for such combat, rather than committing American forces.
That has proven to be a slow approach, subject to much criticism in Congress. It is based on a belief that the locals are best able to sustain a lasting defeat of the militant group.
The Telegraph: Exodus: churches lose 11 worshippers for every new member
Overall it shows that only 56 per cent of people brought up Roman Catholic in England and Wales, still describe themselves as Catholic, compared to 52 per cent of those raised as Anglicans and only 34 per cent of those from a Methodist background or 29 per cent of Baptists.
However many of those who no longer said they were Baptists has switched to another Christian church and only a third said they had no “no religion” compared to 38 per cent of cradle Catholics, 41 per cent of cradle Anglicans and 44 per cent of those with a Methodist upbringing.
When data on those who still identify with a church was analysed it showed that 92 per cent of Catholics were raised in that tradition, with a small number of transfers from other churches – mainly former Anglicans. Only 1.3 per cent counted as converts either from a non-religious background or another faith altogether.
Salon: A new level of homophobia in Kansas: Christian high school says it reserves right to expel students with gay family members
In other words, Trinity Academy asserts its right to deny admission to or expel a student solely on the grounds that the child lives with a family member who doesn’t identify as heterosexual (or simply “promotes” such a lifestyle).
“Trinity would not and has not denied admission to a student simply because they have a sibling who is gay,” the school said in a statement provided to KSN News, which begs the question: then why indicate that the school might do so in official documentation?
Business Insider: For Allah, China and Marx: theological mix for young imams
Religious groups must follow the leadership of the Communist Party, President Xi Jinping told a government conference in April."
We should guide and educate the religious circle and their followers with the socialist core values," he said, according to official news agency Xinhua. [....]
Now there are eight state-run Islamic institutes around the country, teaching young Muslims a version of Islam seen through a prism of Communist rhetoric and the Party-State system.
Time: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Socialism in America
This promising beginning, however, abruptly came to an end. Socialist Party criticism of World War I led to a ferocious government crackdown on the party, including raids on its offices, censorship of its newspapers, and imprisonment of its leaders, including Debs. In addition, when Bolshevik revolutionaries seized power in Russia and established the Soviet Union, they denounced democratic socialist parties and established rival Communist parties under Soviet control to spark revolutions. In the United States, the Socialists fiercely rejected this Communist model. But the advent of Communism sharply divided the American Left and, worse yet, confused many Americans about the differences between Socialists and Communists. Although the Socialist Party lingered on during the 1920s and 1930s, many individual Socialists simply moved into the Democratic Party, particularly after its New Deal programs began to steal the Socialist thunder. [...]
And, then, remarkably, democratic socialism began to revive. Of course, it had never entirely disappeared, and occasional polls found small-scale support for it. But, in December 2011, a startling 31 percent of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center said that they had a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” with young people, Blacks, and Hispanics showing the greatest enthusiasm. In November 2012, a Gallup survey found that 39 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to “socialism,” including 53 percent of Democrats.
Why the rising tide of support for socialism in recent years? One key factor was certainly a popular backlash against the growing economic instability and inequality in America fostered by brazen corporate greed, exploitation, and control of public policy. In addition, college-educated young people―saddled with enormous tuition debt, often under-employed, and with little recollection of the Soviet nightmare―began to discover the great untold political story of the postwar years, the remarkable success of European social democracy.
Middle East Eye: Top Muslim cleric and Pope embrace in historic Vatican meeting
Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses.
The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world's Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement in relations between figureheads of the two faiths since Francis took office in 2013. [...]
The pope presented the imam with a copy of his recent encyclical, Laudato Si', a letter to the faithful in which he urges the world to wake up to the threat posed by climate change and also calls for a rebalancing of the economic relationship between the industrialised and developing worlds. [...]
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The Guardian: Rightwing violence surges in Germany
The interior ministry reported a large increase in the broader category of “hate crimes”, offences of a racist or antisemitic nature or targeting people because of their religion. They rose 77% to 10,373 from 5,858 the previous year. [...]
De Maizière noted that the number of leftwing violent crimes was even higher than those on the right, rising 34.9% to 2,246 incidents, largely directed against the police. [...]
De Maizière said by far the largest category of crimes committed by foreigners in 2015 were crimes that can only be committed by migrants, such as illegal entry to the country or failure to register with authorities. The number of those offences more than doubled to 402,741 from 156,396 and “distort the picture of security in our country”, accounting largely for a 4.1% increase overall in all offences recorded by police last year, he said. Excluding those offences exclusively concerning foreigners, the overall number was barely changed at slightly over 5.9 million, he said. [...]
The highest number of foreigners involved in crimes were nationals from Turkey, accounting for 13.3% of the total, Romania at 9.4%, Poland at 8%, Serbia at 4.8% and Italy 4.3%.
The Guardian: Vote Leave’s campaign of fear will cause lasting divisions
But Gove and Johnson treat facts with Trump-scale disdain. Instead, reaching into dark-hearted fear, they claim Turks, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs and Montenegrins are poised to invade. [...]
It really doesn’t matter that it isn’t true. For their campaign, facts get in the way – they are contemptuously judging that their supporters won’t know the difference. Besides, the likes of Iain Duncan Smith have form on ignoring evidence, repeating untruths about migrants on benefits despite rebukes from the UK Statistics Authority. [...]
Even the most effortlessly privileged can pose as representatives of the underdog if they stir anti-migrant anxiety. Public schoolboys Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage can pose as men of the people, just as billionaire Donald Trump pretends to champion the common man, just as classical scholar Enoch Powell did – and as Sir Oswald Mosley postured in the 1930s. Racism can bestow street cred on the most unlikely leaders if they stoop into the political gutter to conquer.
23 May 2016
FiveThirtyEight: Trump’s Scorning Of Data May Not Hurt Him, But It’ll Hurt The GOP
Data doesn’t win elections; candidates do. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump bet on that idea last week when he announced his plan to rely on his personality and rallies in the general election instead of collecting data on voters. Trump has a point: The effect of “big data” and improved analytics on elections is often overhyped. Even David Plouffe — the architect of President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, the most data-savvy in history — agreed that Obama’s “data processing machine” was not responsible for his wins.
But Republicans are worried, and for good reason: Trump’s assumption that the sole value of data is to win more votes is too narrow. His decision to limit the role of data probably won’t be the deciding factor in the 2016 election, but data organization and access are an investment in the future of the party. A presidential campaign presents a rare opportunity to cultivate the next generation of talent and collect a ton of new data on voters, and Trump’s refusal to do so means that Republicans may need to wait until 2020 or beyond to even the playing field with Democrats. [...]
Democrats now hold a substantial expertise advantage in digital data-driven campaigning, and the GOP admitted as much in their 2012 election post-mortem. John McCain hired only 15 data staffers in 2008, compared with Obama’s 131. To his credit, Mitt Romney increased the number of data hires to 87 in 2012. (Obama had 342). In 2016, Republicans were positioned to build on this effort and narrow the analysis gap between the parties, pivoting off of two consecutive losses into an innovative data strategy — just like in 1964 and 2004.
The Jerusalem Post: Israelis, fearful for economic future, want Scandinavian-style government, survey shows
On one hand, most Israelis say their financial situation is good and getting better. On the other hand, they’re worried they won’t be able to provide for their children.
On one hand, they want significantly more government spending in a wide range of public services. On the other hand, they say they pay too many taxes. [...]
Recent data, in some ways, depict an unequal economy. According to a report by Israel’s Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, Israelis spend more on consumer goods in comparison to the residents of other OECD countries — particularly food. Only three countries in the OECD have greater income inequality, defined by the group as the difference in income between the richest 10 percent and the poorest 10 percent. More than one-fifth of Israelis live under the poverty line. [...]
Israeli Jews in particular, according to the survey, look to the government to better their lives. Nearly 60 percent of Jews prefer a “Scandinavian model” economy, with high taxes and a robust welfare state, over an “American model” with lower taxes and fewer government services. Nearly half of Jews (45 percent) say they want more government involvement in the economy.
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