Quartz: How a belittled, 68-year-old British socialist did the impossible: Get the youth to turn out and vote

Over the last two decades, youth turnout fell from 66% in 1992 to around 40% in the 2015 general election. By contrast, Brits aged 65 have always voted in droves (turnout averages around 75%). The UK has had the largest gap in voter turnout between the old and the young in the OECD.

Corbyn’s bold manifesto promised to ban unpaid internships and cap rents so they would only rise with inflation. He would make universities free again—they were no tuition fees in England and Wales for higher education before 1997—and even hinted at plans to wipe out some student debt.

For campaigners on the ground, it was obvious Corbyn had tapped into the despair that many young people felt in the country. Over the last seven years, tuition fees had tripled; government grants to help the poorest attending universities were axed; under-25s lost their entitlement to housing benefits; the young were squeezed by a spiraling housing market; and job prospects have deteriorating “alarmingly,” according to Britain’s biggest trade union. [...]

In the end, over a million young voters aged up to 25 registered to vote in the run up to the June 8 election. More under-25s have registered to vote than at the same period in the run-up to the Brexit referendum last year and the last general election in 2015.

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The New York Times: How the Saudi-Qatar Rivalry, Now Combusting, Reshaped the Middle East

When Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the crown prince of Qatar, took power in a bloodless coup in 1995, he seized a barely independent nation about the size of Connecticut, with one-seventh its population. It had been dominated since independence in 1971 by its far larger and more powerful neighbor, Saudi Arabia. [...]

Few countries have ever grown from client state to regional power. Qatar managed it in just a few years. [...]

Then, in the 1990s, technological and economic developments created a global market for liquefied natural gas, which can be loaded onto ships, bypassing pipelines that would run through Saudi territory. Qatar controls some of the world’s largest gas reserves, so its economy expanded from $8.1 billion in 1995 to an astonishing $210 billion in 2014. [...]

“It takes until 2008 for Saudi Arabia to really digest the notion that Qatar is a fully independent state,” said David B. Roberts, a professor at King’s College London. [...]

For all its rising influence, Qatar had never been able to crack Saudi regional dominance. Now, with Saudi-aligned autocrats under threat, it saw opportunity.

It backed antigovernment movements, both secular and Islamist, with Al Jazeera airtime, diplomatic support and, later, money and sometimes weapons, hoping to install friendly new governments. When Islamists showed the most promise, Qatar threw its support behind them. [...]

Aaron Stein, an analyst at the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington, said Turkey had recently patched up relations with Saudi Arabia, seeking a middle ground, “but there are limits to that.”

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BBC4 Analysis: Germany - Anxious Giant

With angst over European security growing, why is Germany such a reluctant military power? Chris Bowlby discovers how German pacifism has grown since World War Two. The German army, the Bundeswehr, is meant to be a model citizen's army but is poorly funded and treated with suspicion by the population. Some now say the world of Trump, Putin and Brexit demands major change in German thinking, much more spending and Bundeswehr deployments abroad. But most Germans disagree. Could Germany in fact be trying historically something really new - becoming a major power without fighting wars?

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Haaretz: Israeli LGBTQs Aren't Putting Up With Discrimination in the Startup Nation

Last Friday 200,000 people participated in the Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv. Among the marchers were families with children, high school students and retirees, and gay pride flags could be seen in every corner of the city. But Margaliot admits that this demonstration of strength doesn’t necessarily represent the feeling of workers who belong to the community. He said that there was a long period in his professional life when he didn’t feel entirely comfortable announcing his lifestyle in the workplace. [...]

When asked why it’s important, Margaliot replies simply: “In the workplace, all over the world and in Israel in particular, people also talk about their private lives. As opposed to other populations such as women, the ultra-Orthodox or Arabs, it’s not always easy to tell who’s LGBT. People around you automatically assume that you’re straight. If an employee is asked what he did over the weekend and begins to think how not to tell that he was in a guest house with his male partner, he finds himself hiding and lying. I also had many years when I found ways to lie in order to bypass the subject – like talking about the children without mentioning my partner. As an employer, I don’t want the employees to waste resources on lies and inventions, and want them to feel comfortable being who they are in the workplace.” [...]

A survey conducted by the Economy Ministry in 2014 indicated that members of the LGBT community have reason to fear exposure in the workplace: 60-70 percent of transgender people reported discrimination in the process of hiring and in promotions; 18-20 percent of other members of the community reported a feeling of discrimination. Grembek and Seeff claim that often these are not deliberate processes, but rather old-fashioned views that the employers have difficulty leaving behind.

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Haaretz: Gaza Power Crisis Explained: Why Israel and Hamas Are Heading for a Face-off Neither Side Wants

The decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to ratchet up the economic pressure on the Hamas government in the Strip is the primary reason for the new tensions. Ten years after senior Fatah officials were booted out of Gaza, with the Hamas leadership refusing to recognize any sign of PA authority in the Strip, it seems that Abbas is tired of funding his political rivals. The sanctions on Gaza included lopping a third off the salaries of PA employees in the Strip, reducing the financial support for released prisoners and serious disruptions in the electricity supply. [...]

Military officials told cabinet ministers that it’s important to maintain the accommodations that prevent a new military conflict in Gaza. They stressed that further disruption to the electricity supply in the territory could accelerate an escalation. The Israeli government must presumably weigh the fact that the sums at issue, tens of millions of shekels a month, are lower than the economic cost of a single day of combat in Gaza, without even considering the expected casualties.

The crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is also affecting the mood in Gaza. In the past, when Hamas needed financial help, Qatar stepped up to the plate, with Egyptian support. Now however, Qatar is confronting an embargo imposed by the Saudis with Cairo’s clear support. These developments could push Hamas back into the arms of Iran. [...]

Last week the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was forced to announce that it had discovered a Hamas tunnel under one of its schools in Gaza. The announcement reinforced an old Israeli claim, which was also proved during Operation Protective Edge, that Hamas exploits humanitarian sites for military purposes. At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations to reconsider the continued existence of the agency, which is devoted to supporting long-time Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

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The School of Life: Emil Cioran

Politico: Europe turned upside down by political upheavals

The eurozone economy, which until recently seemed doomed to sluggishness despite the European Central Bank’s injections of hundreds of billions of euros, is suddenly expanding faster than either Britain or the United States. [...]

Part of the changed mood can be ascribed to the disruptive impact of Donald Trump. His nationalist, protectionist U.S. presidency has given the EU a new sense of purpose as a global leader in open trade and the fight against climate change — and new responsibility for its security and the stability of its neighborhood.

And some of it can be attributed to natural swings of the political pendulum and the economic cycle. France’s economy was never as dead as it sometimes looked. Britain’s Euroskeptic campaigners always overestimated their country’s economic performance and its ability to prosper without guaranteed access to the EU single market for its goods and services.

The Brexit shock focused voters’ minds around the Continent on what they stood to lose if the EU fell apart, helping turn the tide against anti-European populists in Austria, the Netherlands and France. Whether it will eventually pull the Poles and Hungarians back from Euroskeptic nationalism remains to be seen. [...]

A cross-party majority may exist arithmetically for a softer Brexit — with continued membership in the Customs Union and perhaps in the European Free Trade Association that includes Switzerland and Iceland — but no such majority looks politically plausible in this new parliament.

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The New York Times: How Britain Voted

Instead, the Labour Party performed much better than expected in Wales and in England, especially London. In Scotland, the Conservatives made gains, but so did Labour. A key outcome may be that in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, a potential ally of the Conservatives, gained seats.

There were doubts that younger voters would cast their ballots for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. But this year there was a spike in young people registering to vote — more than one million people under 25 applied — and turnout in constituencies with younger voters rose significantly, benefitting Labour. [...]

Recent elections in Britain have seen a decrease in the overall share of the vote going to the Conservative and Labour parties, but the results of this election suggest that the country is shifting back toward a two-party system.

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openDemocracy: So, who are the DUP?

Theresa May's new partners in government have strong historical links with Loyalist paramilitary groups. Specifically, the terrorist group Ulster Resistance was founded by a collection of people who went on to be prominent DUP politicians. Peter Robinson, for example, who was DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister until last year, was an active member of Ulster Resistance. One of the things the group did was collaborate with other terrorist organisations such as the Ulster Volunteer Force to smuggle arms into the UK, including RPG rocket launchers.

Of course, Northern Ireland has moved towards peace, and the DUP, like their opponents in Sinn Fein, have rescinded violence. As part of that normalisation, the fact that parties which include people who have abandoned civil war can be brought into the democratic process is a good thing. But for the Tories to end an election campaign which they spent attacking Corbyn for his alleged links to former Northern Irish terrorists by going into coalition with a party founded by former Northern Irish terrorists would be a deep irony. [...]

The DUP also fights hard against women’s right to choose to have an abortion, making them the biggest pro-forced pregnancy party in the UK. The results in Northern Ireland are utterly grim for the many women each year who need an abortion. [...]

The DUP have fought to stop equal marriage, making Northern Ireland the only part of this archipelago without equal relationship rights. Last year, DUP MP Sammy Wilson was caught up in a scandal when a member of the public said that Northern Ireland ought to “get the ethnics out”, and he appeared to reply “you are absolutely right”. 

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