The Washington Post: Two decades before Aleppo, there was Srebrenica. “Never again,” the world promised.

Neither the representatives of Russia nor of the United States held back their views: To Russia, the resolution to recognize the killings of thousands of civilians as genocide was “politically motivated.” But for Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Russia's refusal to accept the resolution was “madness.”

These remarks were not part of a debate about Syria and the killings in Aleppo, however. They made headlines a year ago as the world commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, in which 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serbs, beginning on July 11, 1995. [...]

Although comparisons between Srebrenica and Aleppo have come from survivors of the former massacre themselves, experts point out one key difference: "News of the Srebrenica massacre was slow to trickle out," said Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. "Because of the internet and social media, we see in real time what is happening inside Aleppo."

Srebrenica nevertheless provides some indications of what might yet come in Syria: a decades-long continuation of hostilities in various ways and a refusal to fully acknowledge responsibility. Despite more evidence being found every year, Serbian denial of the full scale of the massacre is on the rise. [...]

The case of Srebrenica also puts a spotlight at the slow wheels of justice: As of last summer, only 14 individuals had been convicted of their involvement in the massacre. Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb political leader and commander of military forces, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March. But Karadzic and others are considered heroes by many Serbs, despite their proven crimes.

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The School of Life: Should We Laugh Or Should We Cry?

The Atlantic: The Problem With Obama's Faith in White America

In 2007, the very idea of a President Barack Obama was ridiculous to me. I was and am southern, god bless. I am black. I come from black people who are southerners even when they were New Yorkers for a spell. We are the black American story of enslavement, rural migration, urban displacement, resistance, boostrapping, mobility, and class fragility. In this milieu we, as a friend once described it, know our whites. To know our whites is to understand the psychology of white people and the elasticity of whiteness. It is to be intimate with some white persons but to critically withhold faith in white people categorically. It is to anticipate white people’s emotions and fears and grievances because their issues are singularly our problem. To know our whites is to survive without letting bitterness rot your soul. [...]

Back at home, the black people I know were positive that white people were crazy to think that he could win. My mother told me as much: “White people are crazy.” She, like me, knew her whites. I went home that night and told her that I had seen, not new whites, but white people doing what people do: coalescing around shared interests. Only their shared interests converged with my own. These white people were not new. They still had more money, more power than we had. They were as young as me but lived in million-dollar estates. They would still negotiate the daily experience of racial segregation in their neighborhoods and schools and jobs but they had, for a million reasons, chosen this black man as “their guy.” [...]

The other interpretation of liminality, or double-consciousness, that Obama is said to represent is more complicated. Not only does one trapped between two sets of social norms understand each better, but he is often blinded to the ways in which they are in conflict. Duality can breed insight but it can also breed delusions. The challenge of holding two sets of social selves, two ways of being and understanding the world at one time is to soften the edges so much that for the liminal, the edges no longer exist.

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Motherboard: This Japanese Company Wants to Sell You a Tiny Holographic Wife

Gatebox is new holographic home assistant that's similar to the Amazon Echo's Alexa, only more anthropomorphic—and creepier. Made by the Japanese company Vinclu Inc, the device is a transparent, voice-activated cylinder that displays a tiny holographic character named Azuma Hikari (presumably, other characters can be added later). Pre-orders for a limited production run of 300 units began today on Gatebox's website.

Hikari was created to be a "comforting character that is great for those living alone." The purpose of this cutesy anime character, blue hair, mini skirt, knee high socks and all, is to "do all she can just for the owner"—also referred to as "master." It seems designed specifically to appeal to lonely bachelors.

In this ad, Azuma wakes her master up in the morning, notifies him of the weather ("Take your umbrella"), and even coddles him with emotional support. During the day, while he's at work she texts him things like "Come home early" or "I can't wait to see you." When he finally gets home at the end of the day, she's already made sure all the lights are on and jumps up and down inside her little glass frame, exclaiming "Missed you, darling."

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Politico: Worker protection rules trigger East-West battle

The aim is to close loopholes in a two-decades-old law on “posted workers” that allow businesses to ship cheap labor from country to country to bypass stringent employment rules — so-called social dumping. According to the plans, posted workers should receive the same pay and benefits as local workers, with local employment rules kicking in after 24 months.

But while France and Germany are pushing hard for the changes, a number of mainly Central and Eastern European countries remain strongly opposed. In both the Council of the EU and the European Parliament — which must both agree on the changes before they become law — the same East-West splits have emerged. [...]

However, she wants the length of time workers can be treated as “posted” to be cut from 24 to 12 months, after which the employment regulations of the host country would kick in.

Not all MEPs are behind the changes, which are “motivated by public opinion, not facts,” said Martina Dlabajová, a Czech Liberal MEP. “Unfortunately, it is a false promise to workers who think their lives will be better. Instead, some of them might be out of work soon.”

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Business Insider: Spain is officially changing regulation to try and steal business from London post-Brexit

Spain is unleashing a range of new measures to make it easy for businesses to relocate from London to Madrid in a bid to take business away from Britain post-Brexit, says the country's financial regulator.

The measures include allowing companies to submit all their documents in English, fast-track authorisation for financial companies looking to relocate, as well as promising that the country will not impose any regulatory requirements beyond those set out by the European Union. [...]

Earlier this month, France's chief financial regulator said some international banks are already in the process of opening up new subsidiaries in Paris in the wake of Brexit.

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New York Magazine: Why the Christian Right Shares Trump’s Affection for Putin

It includes some pretty big names, like conservative Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown, and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer. In almost every case it has been his distinctive combination of homophobia and Islamophobia that has made Putin one of the Christian right’s favorite international figures. The cultural conservative preference for authoritarian Christian Slavs who are fighting Muslims has, as Beinart notes, carried over from the Serbs to their traditional sponsors in Moscow, and most especially to the former KGB officer who has revived Russia’s pre-communist tradition of militantly traditionalist Christianity.

Putin’s attacks on “gay propaganda” have been particularly heartwarming to Christian-right folk, probably because of echoes they hear of their own longtime warnings about a sinister “homosexual agenda” pervading U.S. politics and culture. Here’s Franklin Graham gushing about this during a trip to Russia: [...]

So there is a paradox at the center of Christian-right attitudes toward Putin’s Russia: His own conspicuous traditionalist Christianity, which makes him an ally against gay and Muslim agendas, makes him an enemy of conservative Evangelicals in his own country. Since Putin’s not likely to abandon his position favoring a near-monopoly for the Russian Orthodox Church, that makes him disappointing as a heartthrob for the Focus on Family crowd. But there’s still Donald Trump.

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The Guardian: Unhappy Russians nostalgic for Soviet-style rule: study

A quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, life satisfaction in Russia and other ex-Soviet states remains stubbornly low, with enthusiasm wavering for democracy and open market economics, according to a survey.

The study found that only 15% of Russians think their households have a better quality of life, compared with 30% in 2010 when respondents were last asked, and only 9% see their finances as better than four years ago.

Just over half the respondents from former Soviet states also thought a return to a more authoritarian system would be a plus in some circumstances, said the findings from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank said. [...]

They did find the “happiness gap” with western Europe had narrowed, thanks to improvements in central Asia, the Baltic states and central Europe, but also because of less satisfaction in parts of Europe, including Germany and Italy.

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The Atlantic: The Electoral College Is John Podesta's Last Hope

It’s the support for briefing the electors that sticks out. What is it that entitles electors to a briefing on classified material that other citizens cannot view? Electors don’t really have any particular qualifications in intelligence; for the most part, they are simply politically active people chosen by their state parties, or sometimes they are elected. In any case, they’re not elected to assess intelligence. They are elected for one purpose, which is to vote for whomever their state’s voters select. That points to a second question: What would the electors going to do with whatever information they glean from such a briefing? [...]

Democrats are understandably upset about an election in which, for the second time in five elections, their candidate won the popular vote and lost the electoral vote. There are some people who believe that the Electoral College ought to be abolished, a legitimate political goal. But the electors’ letter, and Podesta’s just-asking-questions endorsement of it, seems to be geared toward changing the rules in the middle of the game, in the hopes of convincing electors to change their votes in defiance of the intentions of voters as expressed in the existing system, and sometimes in defiance of laws that bind them.

The public deserves to know as much as it can about any interference in elections without endangering national security. But why should should electors learn that separately?

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