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.

read the article 

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.

read the article 

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.

read the article 

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.

read the article 

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.

listen to the podcast

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.

listen to the podcast

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?

listen to the podcast

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.”

read the article 

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.

read the article