Politico: Hungary’s ‘hipster patriots’ set sights on Orbán

The Hungarian prime minister’s grip on power remains firm ahead of an election set for April 2018. Among voters who say they’ve made up their mind already, his Fidesz party regularly tops 50 percent in the polls, around 30 points clear of the far-right Jobbik and even further ahead of the Socialist Party.

But the much smaller Momentum thinks it has identified a weakness in the Hungarian leadership: its love of sport. “Hungary spends more on professional sport than on higher education,” said Momentum’s leader, 28-year-old András Fekete-Győr.

Momentum made news in early 2017 when it attempted to force a referendum on Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. It collected around 266,000 signatures, more than double the number required to trigger a city-wide vote on the plan, by arguing that Hungary wasn’t rich enough to afford the games.

The government’s response was swift. Orbán pulled the bid, not wanting to risk a repeat of 2014 when a planned tax on internet use led to mass street protests and ended with the only major U-turn of his premiership. [...]

Fekete-Győr said he was happy to take his time and accept only the truly committed to the cause. He’s targeting the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian expats in Western Europe, and hoping his compatriots can be persuaded to back a non-traditional party. Momentum believes 80 percent of Hungarians living abroad would return home given the right conditions, without saying how it got to that figure. [...]

“When András Fekete-Győr says to the [Swiss newspaper] Neue Zürcher Zeitung that he supports ‘both gay marriage and border control’ [the border fence erected by Orbán to keep refugees out], he positions his party within the complex status quo — but with a ‘new,’ streamlined ‘hipster patriot’ foundation,” left-wing philosopher and commentator Gáspár Miklós Tamás wrote in a recent critique of the party.

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Politico: Are Europe’s eggs safe to eat?

Supermarkets took precautionary measures by withdrawing some cartons, and Aldi in Germany even stopped selling eggs outright. The chemical is completely banned for use on farm animals: Researchers link fipronil to a range of human health problems and point to a particular danger for children. [...]

“The German federal minister is denying the health threats and speaks of an average German consumption,” Meyer said. “If a child only eats as many eggs as Germans eat on average per month, then that would not be dangerous. But if the child eats … one egg a day, then there’s already a breach of the acute threat level for children regarding that poison — so you see I believe we have to state clearly that there is a possible threat to children’s health.”

The full scale of the problem is still unclear as results of Belgian and German tests are expected in the coming days. It also remains to be seen whether the scandal is limited to eggs, or whether fipronil will transpire to be a risk in cakes and pasta too, as well as chicken itself. [...]

The issue exploded into a major scandal this week. The NVWA closed 180 farms — which together produce some 40 million eggs a week — and said it had found one farm producing such high levels of fipronil that they posed an “acute danger to public health.” The Netherlands warned on Thursday that eggs from 59 producers should not be served to children.

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Motherboard: Young Iranians Are Using These Apps to Bypass Government Oppression

In a country where 60 percent of the 80 million population is under 30 years old, the mobile-savvy, VPN-using youth in Iran have been resisting government control. Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, has become a popular form of communication for political expression, for example. But young people are also up against internet censorship, moral policing and fundamental religious clerics. Even with a relatively more liberal leader like Rouhani, Facebook and Twitter are still banned. [...]

One app that sparked success upon its release was Gershad, which helps users protect themselves from the Gasht-e Ershad (guidance patrol), the so-called "morality police" of Iran. This de facto police force identifies and arrests anyone deemed to be inappropriately dressed, or in violation of Islamic cultural values, as reported by Iran Wire. Inevitably, women are more persecuted than men, as one of the main responsibilities of the morality police is to make sure women wear the hijab according to Islamic law. [...]

Sandoogh96, which translates to Vote17 (2017 is 1396 in the Iranian calendar), is an app that was launched just before the elections last May. The app is inspired by the infamous dating app Tinder, which allows users to swipe right on another user if they're interested, or swipe left if they're not. But instead of swiping right or left for a date, Sandoogh96 users swipe to find out which politician is more in line with their ideas. [...]

HamDam includes the usual ovulation and period tracking features, but contains additional information about reproductive and legal rights for Iranian women. This is especially important because sexual education in Iran is very limited to young, straight couples getting married, according to the HamDam project lead Soudeh Rad. [...]

In Iran, approximately 63 percent of all women are subject to verbal, sexual, or psychological abuse, and most women do not report this to the authorities for reasons varying from guilt, or fear of economic hardship. But technology is trying to come to the rescue: Toranj mimics Circle of 6 to suit Iran's context, and has information similar to that present in HamDam.

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Al Jazeera: Do black lives matter in France?

At first, officials claimed that Adama had succumbed to heart disease. Later, they said that the young man died as a result of a "serious infection" affecting multiple organs. They also claimed that he had been drinking and smoking cannabis before his arrest. Adama's relatives immediately denied these claims, and asked for further investigation into the cause of his death.

Ten months later, a new expert, who assessed the case at the Traore family's request, did not find any signs of heart disease or infection. Toxicology reports for cannabis and alcohol also came back negative. He concluded that Adama Traore's cause of death was asphyxiation. [...]

Adama Traore is not the first person to die in police custody in France and the Traore family is not the first French family to break down as a result of police actions. There are many families all over the country struggling to get justice for their loved ones who died in similar circumstances. [...]

In January 2017, an investigation by the Defenseur des Droits, an independent constitutional authority, revealed that young men "perceived as Arabs or blacks" are 20 times more likely to undergo an identity check in France than the rest of the population. The same report also showed that 95 percent of these identity checks did not lead to an arrest. [...]

Amnesty International had already sounded the alarm about police brutality in France in 2009 and 2011 and warned of the dangers of the restraint techniques used by police officers. The prone restraint - or face-down restraint - involved the detainee being pinned on a surface and physically prevented from moving out of this position. Research has suggested that restraining a person in this position can lead to asphyxia and the technique has been banned in countries such as Belgium and Switzerland, as well as Los Angeles and New York in the US. In France, this is still a lawful and acceptable restraint technique. 

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Katoikos: Aviation after Brexit: Feathers fly, planes stay grounded

Take the case of aviation. There are no WTO rules to govern aviation. Aviation is mostly governed privately, and in the EU it’s a responsibility of the European Single Sky and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Since our old bilateral agreements are so out of date, they do not provide for an adequate coverage of modern aviation technology and safety measures. Airlines and airports alike would simply not risk scheduling flights, without the necessary legal certainty. [...]

Obviously, this would be disastrous primarily for the British economy (and tourists), but it would also hurt Europe. Many of Europe’s regional airports currently direct their flights to or through London airports, like Stansted or Luton. In most cases, these airports already run a deficit. With their primary flight connections cut off, they might need to close down.

Ireland will be affected by this particularly hard. Its economy is still recovering from the harsh austerity that came with the 2008 financial crisis, which makes this situation especially tough for them. Last month, Kevin Toland from Dublin Airport asked members of the European Parliament to support Ireland in the harsh times ahead. 78% of air traffic to and from Ireland happens through the UK. 53.7% of overall EU traffic is between the UK and the EU27. Of that 39.2% is between the UK and Ireland. [...]

It is now also the only English speaking country left in the EU. Routing intercontinental flights through Dublin airport rather than Heathrow might kill two birds with one stone. The EU’s financial support of the necessary expansion of the airport would prop up Ireland’s economy and bring more tourism. And American airlines would have to accept the change if they want to continue flying into the European Union, just like traders will have to accept Paris and Frankfurt as their new destinations for Euro currency trading. It is likely that European airlines like Lufthansa wouldn’t mind more direct flights between other European cities and US cities either.

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IFLScience: Loneliness And Social Isolation Could Be Deadlier Than Obesity

New research says that this widespread social isolation is a major threat to public health, perhaps even deadlier than obesity. The issue is only set to get worse too because of a decreasing number of children per household, declines in marriage, and an aging population.

“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need — crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social isolation or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment,” Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, said in a statement. [...]

Using both of these studies, they concluded that social isolation, loneliness, or simply living alone had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death. They also found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death.

Everybody has felt lonely at some point in their life. However, chronic loneliness is a very different beast. Numerous other studies have shown a link between loneliness and physical health difficulties, from fragmented sleep and dementia to lower cardiovascular output and a weakened immune system. The mechanism is not exactly crystal clear, however, it is likely to be a combination of psychological factors taking their toll on physical health and the absence of a support network.

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IFLScience: Bees Are The First Insects Found To Understand The Concept Of Zero

For most of us, the idea of zero may seem like a fairly easy and unchallenging thing to get our head around. But in actual fact, the ability to accept the absence of something, which is what zero is after all, as a quantity is a hard fought accomplishment. Children will often learn other numbers before understanding the concept of zero, and even then it has been shown that they can find difficulty in identifying whether or not zero is higher or lower than one.

So it is little wonder that in the animal world, very few species are known to understand the concept of zero. Chimpanzees and some monkeys can be trained to comprehend the concept, but apart from these, very few animals are able to do it, and until now it wasn’t thought that any insect at all was capable of mastering the notion. [...]

To start with, the researchers set up two platforms with varying numbers of shapes on them. They then trained bees to associate the platform with the fewest number of shapes on it with a sweet reward, and the platform with the most number a horrible taste. After being certain the bees were responding to the number of shapes and nothing else, the researchers then tested the insects by offering them one platform with two or three shapes, and another with zero shapes. The insects most frequently chose the latter. [...]

This would imply that the insects’ ability to count is similar to that of humans and some primates, and is strangely advanced for the animal world, not just for insects. The reason why bees should have such highly developed cognitive capability in the realm of mathematics, however, is a little tricky to deduce.

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The Conversation: Don’t listen to the rich: inequality is bad for everyone

Our study of 21 OECD countries over more than a 100 years shows income inequality actually restricts people from earning more, educating themselves and becoming entrepreneurs. That flows on to businesses who in turn invest less in things like plant and equipment.

Inequality makes it harder for economies to benefit from innovation. However, if people have access to credit or the money to move up, it can offset this effect. [...]

From 1870 to 1977, inequality measured by the Gini coefficient fell by about 40%. During this time people actually got more innovative and productivity increased, incomes also increased. [...]

Inequality also means the market for new goods shrinks. One study shows that if incomes are more equal among people, people who are less well off, buy more. Having this larger market for new products, incentivises companies to create new things to sell.

If wealth is concentrated among only a small group of people, it actually increases demand for imported luxuries and handmade products. In contrast to this, distributed incomes means more mass produced goods are manufactured.

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Al Jazeera: Jordan's King Abdullah in rare visit to Palestine

Jordan's King Abdullah II has begun a rare visit to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, amid shared tensions with Israel over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. [...]

The king's West Bank visit, his first in five years, comes two weeks since a surge in violence in Jerusalem after Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound - Islam's third holiest site.

Jordan serves as the custodian of the site, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine. The western wall of the compound is sacred to Jews. [...]

"They say there is a habitual encroachment by Israeli forces on the Al-Aqsa compound. And they want to work closer together to deal with future crises, which they say are inevitable because of the way Israel is dealing with the issue.

"Moving forward, they are going to form a committee. They also said they will better coordinate and come up with a better plan when it comes to communications over the Al-Aqsa compound."

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