The New Yorker‎: Casual Sex: Everyone Is Doing It

Up to eighty per cent of college students report engaging in sexual acts outside committed relationships—a figure that is usually cast as the result of increasingly lax social mores, a proliferation of alcohol-fuelled parties, and a potentially violent frat culture. Critics see the high rates of casual sex as an “epidemic” of sorts that is taking over society as a whole. Hookup culture, we hear, is demeaning women and wreaking havoc on our ability to establish stable, fulfilling relationships. [...]

The Casual Sex Project was born of Vrangalova’s frustration with this and other prevalent narratives about casual sex. “One thing that was bothering me is the lack of diversity in discussions of casual sex,” Vrangalova told me in the café. “It’s always portrayed as something college students do. And it’s almost always seen in a negative light, as something that harms women.” [...]

This last theory relates to another of Vrangalova’s findings—one that, she confesses, came as a surprise when she first encountered it. Not all of the casual-sex experiences recorded on the site were positive, even among what is surely a heavily biased sample. Women and younger participants are especially likely to report feelings of shame. (“I was on top of him at one point and he can’t have forced me to so I must have consented . . . I’m not sure,” an eighteen-year-old writes, reporting that the hookup was unsatisfying, and describing feeling “stressed, anxious, guilt and disgust” the day after.) There is an entire thread tagged “no orgasm,” which includes other occasionally disturbing and emotional tales. “My view has gotten a lot more balanced over time,” Vrangalova said. “I come from a very sex-positive perspective, surrounded by people who really benefitted from sexual exploration and experiences, for the most part. By studying it, I’ve learned to see both sides of the coin.”

Part of the negativity, to be sure, does originate in legitimate causes: casual sex increases the risk of pregnancy, disease, and, more often than in a committed relationship, physical coercion. But many negative casual-sex experiences come instead from a sense of social convention. “We’ve seen that both genders felt they were discriminated against because of sex,” Vrangalova told me. Men often feel judged by other men if they don’t have casual sex, and social expectations can detract from the experiences they do have, while women feel judged for engaging in casual experiences, rendering those they pursue less pleasurable.

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The Guardian: The global order is dying. But it’s an illusion to think Britain can survive without the EU

If there is a sense of flux in British politics this week, that is because all the forces are aligning towards two antagonistic projects: those who want to intensify the economic dislocation, and those who want to minimise it. I am in favour of minimising it, and there is a very clear vehicle through which to do so: the European Economic Area – the single market in which Norway and Iceland participate. In the battle to succeed Cameron, the first question for the Tory party (and Labour) should be: EEA or not?

An application to remain inside the EEA should be the touchstone of all those who want Britain to save globalisation while ditching neoliberalism. It keeps us in a single market; it forces us to define our new immigration policy inside the EU free-movement laws, not against them. We could fight for – and gain – considerable flexibility on which single market rules we follow, and for a timeout or partial opt-out from free movement. We might, of course, fail. But it is worth trying. [...]

In the 1930s, economic nationalism meant stealing what growth there was from a rival country, or empire, through aggressive state intervention and trade rivalry. But we have no model, and no case study, for what happens if you pursue economic nationalism when there is system-wide stagnation. That is, where there is a guaranteed negative sum at the end of the game.

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Bloomberg: Markets Were Rational, But U.K. Voters Weren't

Markets, which aren't ideological but do provide a daily reference of relative value, weren't buying it. The euro gained 9.4 percent in the second half of 2010 and advanced another 11.9 percent through 2015 when 19 countries accepted it as their national store of value. Last year, when another Greek government was back in the headlines reportedly on the verge of default and soon to exit the euro, the investor George Soros said Greece was going down the drain. During this time the yield on the benchmark Greek bond never got close to its 2012 low yield of 30 percent, instead fluctuating between 7 percent and 18 percent. Greek debt, protected by the shared European currency, proved to be the best investment globally from July through the end of 2015, Bloomberg data show. [...]

But Britons' vote to leave the EU is unlike any other event in modern times. Investors didn't imagine a majority of voters choosing a result that proved unprecedented in its immediate and devastating impact on the British pound. The scope of this misjudgment, derived from a combination of complacency and wishful thinking, was revealed in minutes. While sterling suffered its biggest one-day decline since 1980 on June 24, the 8.05 percent loss was almost twice that of Sept. 16, 1992, the so-called Black Wednesday, when the Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism against a tide of speculation led by Soros. The toll of Thursday's vote on the pound was more than double any of the eight worst days since 1981, and its almost 13 percent reversal in less than a week dwarfed any of the previous currency debacles, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Politico: France and Germany hatch a plan to save EU

So far, the ideas haven’t been endorsed by Angela Merkel’s chancellory, where officials urged caution. Merkel, whose center-right alliance governs in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, doesn’t believe such proposals can be rushed out or that they should be pushed without including all remaining EU members. Whether Europe’s Social Democrat leaders, who are meeting on Monday in Paris to coordinate their Brexit response, can push their agenda against Merkel’s resistance is doubtful.

The idea behind the Franco-German initiative is to focus cooperation on areas such as security, foreign policy, border control, the digital agenda, energy, transportation and eurozone governance, but shift other decision-making to national capitals. [...]

The overall goal is to try to play to the perceived EU strengths in foreign policy and security cooperation, giving it a more visible role on the global stage.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, touched on this new direction in the foreword to a new “Global Strategy” she will present this week to European leaders at a summit.

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Business Insider: The Brexit may not even ever happen

Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, spent Friday morning distancing himself from the "Leave" campaign's promise that Britain's EU funds would be redirected to the National Health Service; and Tory European Parliament member Daniel Hannan admitted that renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU wouldn't actually decrease immigration. [...]

The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU can't happen until the country sends the EU an "Article 50 notification," a formal announcement that it intends to withdraw. That notification starts a two-year countdown during which Britain and Europe negotiate the terms of their separation. At the end of two years, regardless of the state of those negotiations, Britain's out.

So who sends the notification, and when? Neither the EU charter nor the Brexit referendum specifies. (The vote was nonbinding, although both sides assured voters their decision would be implemented.) Prime Minister David Cameron could plausibly have done it on Friday, but he didn't. Such a step, he said, should be taken by his successor (probably Johnson). [...]

Perhaps Johnson-or pro-"Remain" Tory MP Theresa May, or whoever else succeeds Cameron-will make a point of delivering the notification on his or her first day in office. And if the "Leave" crowd is still riding high, that's what will happen. But that doesn't seem to be the way things are going-which is why, even after a referendum that has paused global markets and unseated a prime minister, there's a strong chance that there will never be a Brexit.

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Daily Dot: The top six plot twists in British politics after the Brexit referendum

People have been comparing the post-referendum fallout to Game of Thrones, a clichéd but worryingly accurate parallel. This story has everything: feuding aristocrats, racism, international rivalries, and the collapse of a once-great empire. It's also unfolding very fast, so here's a quick guide to the key events from this weekend.  [...]

On the day after the referendum, leaders of the Leave campaign quickly began to sidestep their promises about transferring that mythical £350 million to the NHS. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage described it as "a mistake," while the prominent Conservative politician Iain Duncan Smith said the figure was "an extrapolation." [...]

This one is more of an outlier than Scottish independence, not least because of the political complexities in the region. Aside from the fact that people in Northern Ireland were more likely to vote Remain in the referendum, it's the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with Europe. Would the Republic of Ireland (which is part of the EU, and uses the Euro) have to set up border checkpoints between itself and Northern Ireland? Could the two halves of Ireland potentially reunify into a single state? Basically, nobody knows. But over the past few days, a lot of U.K. citizens have started thinking about applying for Irish passports, just in case.

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Deutsche Welle: Scotland to do 'whatever it takes' to stay in EU

"What's going to happen with the UK is that there are going to be deeply damaging and painful consequences ... [of Britain leaving the EU] I want to try and protect Scotland from that," Sturgeon said Sunday.

Asked whether she would consider requesting the Scottish parliament to block its consent for the move, she told the BBC: "Of course." [...]

But one analyst has suggested that Scotland could declare independence before Britain's departure from the EU is finalized.

It could then define itself as a "successor state" and effectively inherit Britain's EU membership, including the budget rebate, said Andrew Scott, a professor of European Union studies at the University of Edinburgh.

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Deutsche Welle: 'Apart from Erdogan, there is a great, modern Turkey'

Can Dundar: I'll summarize what I said with a few items: One, the agreement that you forged with Turkey is a shameful agreement and Europe will be ashamed of this down the road. Two, this agreement is not working anymore. You aren't granting visa exemption, Turkey is not moving towards changing (terror) laws, and, as far as I can see, Europe does not have a plan B. Three, Turkey does not exclusively consist of Erdogan - you are making this mistake. In fact, apart from Erdogan, there is a great, modern Turkey that believes in Western values, democracy, the rule of law and press freedom, and you are disregarding it. This is the Turkey that needs to be supported and that Europe needs. [...]

There are lots of problems, but Erdogan is at the outset of all of these problems. On multiple levels, we have never faced such an oppressive leader in our history. We are facing a leader who disregards the law, does not attach importance to democracy and has nearly exported this understanding to Europe. Turkey's sole problem is not Erdogan, but its biggest problem is Erdogan.

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The Guardian: Pope Francis says Christians should apologise to gay people

“I think that the Church not only should apologise … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologise to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologise for having blessed so many weapons.” [...]

The pope did not elaborate on what he meant by seeking forgiveness for the Church “having blessed so many weapons”, but it appeared to be a reference to some religious leaders who actively backed wars in the past.

In other parts of the conversation, Francis said he hoped the European Union would be able to give itself another form after the United Kingdom’s decision to leave. [...]

Francis said he had heard that when some Church officials had gone to Benedict to complain that Francis was too liberal, Benedict “sent them packing”.

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Quartz: The simple reason so many US businesses openly support LGBT rights

The “competitive edge” pertains both to commodities and labor. Reflecting upon the hundreds of businesses that supported the marriage equality movement, Todd Sears, the founder of Out Leadership, explains how company cohesion and sustainability is linked to employee equality. “Businesses that had already adopted policies that treated every employee equally [prior to marriage equality in 2015] saw the negative effects of a state-based patchwork policy on marriage equality,” he said. “It complicated their strategies and made it more difficult to locate talent in states that lacked protections for married LGBT couples.” [...]

“We’re already seeing that businesses are standing up for equality when it comes to the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts and other discriminatory legislation that are rapidly proliferating in states around the country,” Todd observes. “In Indiana, opposition from the business community forced the government to back down from the RFRA they passed last year; in Georgia, Governor Deal listened to the voice of business and vetoed the bill that came before him.” [...]

Importantly, allies are also incredibly attentive to corporate treatment of the LGBT community. The Center for Talent Innovation’s 2016 report, Out in the World: Securing LGBT Rights in the Global Marketplace, found that “71% of LGBT individuals and 82% of allies say they are more likely to purchase a good or service from a company that supports LGBT equality.”

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