Al Jazeera: Giulio Regeni murder: 'It's not yet the time to grieve'

But the Egyptian authorities knew that body was Regeni's when they called Ambassador Maurizio Massari to tell him of their finding. How they could have been so certain of Giulio's identity, before anyone had yet identified him, is just one of the many questions that - for the past year - the Egyptian police forces have dodged.

The initial reluctance of the Egyptian authorities to cooperate and the invention of a series of implausible stories about Regeni's involvement in a car accident, in a homosexual spat and later in a case of drug trafficking spurred a diplomatic crisis with Italy that lasts to this day.

Confronted by the Italian investigators and the insisting demands of the Italian government for more cooperation, the Egyptian authorities decided to follow a different strategy. They would ration the information to be shared with the Italians, dilute their response in an effort to buy time and cover up an embarrassing case that had taken the shape of a state-sponsored murder. [...]

Never before had one of them been kidnapped, brutally tortured and killed. Why would the Egyptian intelligence services decide to arrest a student from one of the world's most renowned universities, torture him for seven consecutive days, as the autopsy later revealed, and take the risk of prompting a diplomatic crisis with Italy and the UK?

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Political Critique: The Victim’s of Russia’s Ultra-Conservatism Are the Russian People Themselves

Furthermore, this posturing plays to an image the Kremlin projects to audiences at home and abroad. On the global stage, this shows Russia turning its back on international human rights norms. On the domestic front, it plays into a narrative of so-called “traditional values.” [...]

Best known for being the lead author of the 2014 anti-gay law against so-called “gay propaganda”, Mizulina has also placed herself in the spotlight with such outlandish proposals as prohibiting women access to university education prior to giving birth and reducing access to contraception. Mizulina was also the lead author of the law banning the adoption of Russian children by American parents. This was Russia’s retaliation to US sanctions imposed against Russian officials involved in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison after attempting to expose high-level government-sanctioned fraud. [...]

Conservative estimates establish that within the global pandemic of violence against women, 12-15% of women suffer from domestic violence. This translates into at least 8.5 million women across Russia who experience domestic violence. [...]

Given the gravity of this development, on 16 January 2017, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbøjrn Jagland addressed a letter directly to the heads of both chambers of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council and the State Duma. In an unusual move reserved for the most serious and urgent situations, the Secretary General criticised the proposed legal amendment after it had passed the Duma’s first reading, calling it a “sign of regression.”

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My Modern Met: 13 Most Beautiful Opera Houses Around the World

The beauty of opera is only matched by the places in which it’s performed. These grandiose settings fuse fine art with architecture into one stunning cultural center. For centuries, these places have been at the height of society, showcasing the talents of countless performers and musicians. When not filled with people, however, the opera houses stand on their own as breathtaking institutions. As photography demonstrates, the design—including ornamental gilding, balustrades, and chandeliers—is even more stunning when the seats and stage are completely empty.

Many of the opera houses seen here were built long ago. The Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, Germany was constructed between 1746 and 1750. Boasting a hand-painted wooden roof, the well-preserved Baroque design is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other halls, like the contemporary Harbin Opera House in Harbin, China, have a modern spin. Created by the Beijing-based studio MAD, it strays from tradition and features one undulating form that wraps around two concert halls and a public plaza. Although it has a minimalist feel, Harbin’s interior still takes a cue from older opera houses with balconies that seemingly ripple in and out of the space.

As times continue to change, so does the function of these iconic spaces. Often, they host a variety of shows (aside from operas), and their historic decor provides a beautiful juxtaposition between the past and present.

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CityLab: What Defines National Identity?

When it comes to national identity, neither religion nor where you were born is necessarily very important. That’s the striking message from a newly published cross-national survey by the Pew Research Center. Polling over 14,000 people in 14 countries, researchers found that people overwhelmingly considered faith and birthplace to be secondary factors in forging a common national identity. Emphasizing the importance of language and customs over religion or place of birth, the report also reveals some significant generational shifts in attitudes governing what makes people belong to a nation. [...]

Across all countries, younger people were far more likely to consider religion less important to national identity. In only two countries did the gap between older and younger citizens’ views on the relative identitarian significance of religion measure 10 percent or less. One was Poland—where the Catholic church has historically acted as a repository for nationalist aspirations repressed in other political arenas—and the other was France. France likely shows little difference in opinion between age groups because its strong tradition of official secularism means that the yoking together of Catholicism and national identity is singularly rare, even among the elderly. [...]

If many people many people are abandoning the idea of religion as the cement of national identity, they are not necessarily replacing it with an emphasis on where people are born. Figures on the importance of birthplace in national identity reveal a complex picture. While in Europe, only Hungary and Greece show a majority of respondents stating that birthplace is very important, more Europeans consider it very or somewhat important than not significant.

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Al Jazeera: Trump aide mocked after 'Bowling Green massacre' lie

Kellyane Conway, a key adviser to US President Donald Trump, has come under fire after defending an order barring entry to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries by blaming two Iraqi refugees for a "massacre" that never occurred.

Conway on Thursday night told the US news channel MSNBC that the media had failed to cover the "Bowling Green Massacre", which she claimed was the reason that former president Barack Obama's administration stopped accepting refugees for six months in 2011.  [...]

Conway had previously coined the phrase "alternative facts" when justifying the White House's unsubstantiated claim that Trump's inauguration ceremony had the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, both in person and around the globe".

Later on Friday, Conway tweeted that she meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists", but Twitter users were quick to point out that those words would not fit properly in her statement.

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Politico: Tusk calls on EU countries to renew their wedding vows

The document, which will be circulated Friday afternoon at a summit of the 27 EU leaders minus the U.K., suggests using the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome — which laid the ground for an “ever closer union” — as an occasion to think beyond Brexit. The anniversary of the Treaty of Rome will be celebrated in that city on March 25.

The document was prepared by Tusk’s office in cooperation with Malta, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Italy, which is organizing the event. [...]

The document reveals how they believe the EU can navigate one of the most treacherous stretches in its history, with the U.K. set to trigger formal exit negotiations in March, under rhetorical fire from Washington and beset by challenges such as how to handle the migrant crisis, terrorism threats, the ongoing fiscal trouble in Greece and a more militarily assertive Russia.

Among other things, the document calls for leaders to reflect on “greater unity in foreign policy and more investments in our defense” and “further deepening the Economic and Monetary Union.”

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The Guardian: Donald Trump is making China great again

The one scenario not discussed was that the US would tear up its own rules, leaving the field open to China to consolidate its dominance of the Asia Pacific and extend its global influence. Nobody even imagined such a far-fetched possibility. Donald Trump’s actions seem to have surprised Beijing as much as they have dismayed America’s allies. Now the challenge for China is how to reap the benefits and contain the inevitable damage.

In terms of international diplomacy, things are going well. It’s hard to imagine Trump quoting Thucydides, or Stephen Hawkins or Herman Hesse, or cramming references to Pandora’s box, the Peace of Westphalia and the sword of Damocles into a 58-minute plea for peace and international cooperation. Such a carefully crafted speech might have been delivered by previous US presidents, since it paid fulsome homage to the core values the US has promoted since 1945. But this was delivered by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist party and president of the China, to an audience at the United Nations in Geneva in January. China’s proposition to the world, Xi said, was to “build a community of shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win development”. [...]

There will be few winners in a world of escalating tensions and disruption. China would not have picked this moment for a fight with the US. But if it can consolidate its own economic arrangements in the region and beyond, using its economic muscle to its diplomatic and political advantage while escaping the burden of censure that its internal repression has provoked to date, it will be a huge win for China.

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