FiveThirtyEight: What Makes A GOP Leader Resist Trump?

Sixty, to be exact. By my count, that is the number of Republican governors, U.S. senators and U.S. representatives whose public position is that they outright oppose Trump or that they are not yet ready to commit one way or the other. Thirteen are in the #NeverTrump club (four senators, one governor and eight House members), and 47 are in the “maybe later/maybe never” camp, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz and, until recently, Ryan. [...]

This analysis provides some support for the hypothesis that Republicans who are not currently in office or are not looking to get elected have an easier time resisting the pressure to unite around their party’s presumptive nominee. Republicans who are facing voters this year are more likely to be supporting Trump. Within that group, 83 percent have fallen in line behind their party’s presumptive nominee, compared with 76 percent of those who are retiring or who are not up for re-election until 2018 or 2020. In fact, three of the 20 House Republicans who are retiring from Congress are outright opposing Trump (Reps. Reid Ribble, Scott Rigell and Richard Hanna), compared with five among all other 226 House Republicans. And after all, the highest-profile Republicans to oppose Trump for now — George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Romney — get to watch from the sidelines. [....]

That speaks to the difficulty of capturing what motivates opposition to Trump through a conventional centrism/conservatism binary. Among openly anti-Trump Republicans are some with the lowest DW-Nominate scores, such as Rep. Bob Dold of Illinois, and some with the highest, such as Huelskamp and Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan.

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BBC4 Beyond Belief: Belgium

Belgium is steeped in Catholic history, having been part of the French Empire until 1815 and eventually gaining independence from the largely Protestant Netherlands in 1830. The State subsidises all officially-recognised religions, paying the salaries of teachers of religion in state schools, stipends and pensions for Catholic clergy and for the renovation of church buildings. Yet it's thought Belgians practice their faith less than in most other European countries, and over many decades, there has been a fierce political debate about how much funding should go towards religious institutions. Muslim immigration in the 1960s changed the country's religious landscape. Following the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the Brussels district of Molenbeek has been accused of being a breeding ground for violent Jihadists. Ernie Rea and guests discuss how religion has shaped Belgium and the role it has to play in its future.

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National Public Radio: Denmark's 'Martyr Museum' Places Socrates And Suicide Bombers Side-By-Side

"Since 9/11, the word 'martyr' has been popping up in our minds more and more. It would have been in many ways strange if we were not discussing our own time when we did this show," Grimbäck says.

The show does not endorse such actions, but seeks to explore the many definitions of the word "martyr," says fellow artist Ida Grarup.

"To see the world through these terrorist eyes for a couple of minutes is not the same as sympathizing or understanding them," Grarup says. [...]

"A lot of Danes feel like freedom of speech is a very big thing, and they like to talk about it. But when it's something that they don't necessarily agree with, then it's not freedom of speech, it's just wrong," says sociology student Tea Ingemann Olsen, who traveled two hours to see the Martyr Museum.

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Reuters: Start talking up immigration in EU debate, Scottish minister says

Those campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union need to start talking about the benefits of immigration instead of dodging the issue, says the leader of the Scottish National Party's "In" campaign who is a son of immigrants.

"Immigration is a two-way street, and the Brits benefit from it," Humza Yousaf, also Scottish transport minister, told Reuters in an interview. [...]

Yousaf cited the election of Sadiq Khan, another Briton of Pakistani origin, as mayor of London last month as proof that some voters are more sophisticated than politicians perhaps give them credit for.

"It's a great symbol for the UK´s capital city to be led by someone not just from an immigrant background but someone of Islamic faith, when everything in Europe indicates that people are turning more hostile towards Muslims," he said, decrying an election campaign which attempted to link Khan to Islamists.

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The New York Times: Will the Vatican Discipline Offending Bishops?

Victims and their advocates are understandably skeptical about Pope Francis’ latest plan for disciplining bishops who schemed for years to protect abusive priests in the church’s devastating pedophilia scandal.

The pope dropped last year’s plan to create a special tribunal to investigate offending bishops. Instead, last week, he handed the task to existing Vatican agencies, accompanied by a personal order to investigate and remove diocesan leaders found guilty of engaging in cover-ups. [...]

In the United States alone, where more than 700 priests were eventually dismissed, no bishops were punished by Rome as the scandal unfolded. This despite an investigation by lay leaders who warned “there must be consequences” for those who provided refuge for priests accused of raping schoolchildren, which often meant that the accused priests were shifted from parish to parish.

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