Political Critique: The Transnistrian challenge: why tensions are escalating between Russia and Moldova

The situation also has relevance for Ukraine. From the perspective of the pro-Western government in Kyiv, Transnistria, as a Russian military stronghold, poses a threat to Ukrainian national security. Ukraine fears that Russia may try to use the Transnistrian territory to destabilise the security situation in the Odessa Oblast, where there is a significant concentration of Russian-speakers. Kyiv has therefore aimed to isolate Transnistria, weaken it economically and politically, and undermine the Russian political and military presence in the region. This strategy has been undertaken in cooperation with Moldova’s pro-Western government. For example, Ukraine and Moldova have established mutual control of the border between Transnistria and Ukraine, allowing Moldovan officials to also control the movement of people and supplies into Transnistria through the Ukrainian border.

From the Moldovan perspective, Transnistria is not just a separatist region, but also a security and political challenge for the country’s pro-Western government. The Moldovan Parliament and government are currently controlled by a pro-Western coalition. However, in the presidential election in November 2016, the pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon emerged victorious, defeating the pro-Western candidate, Maia Sandu from the Action and Solidarity Party (a newly founded, centre-right and pro-Western party), by a narrow margin. [...]

However, the relative popularity of a pro-Russian candidate should not have come as a surprise. It reflected disappointment with the ruling elite following poor implementation of reforms and a variety of corruption scandals, rather than a belief in the ability of Russia to offer an alternative model for economic or socio-political development. Russia itself is experiencing economic stagnation due to its ineffective, energy oriented economy, as well as Western sanctions. It is unable to implement the necessary reforms which would create the conditions for economic modernisation and improvement of the socio-economic conditions in Russia, far less in Moldova. [...]

The key question is how long Russia will continue to support Transnistria, and to what extent. After the seizure of Crimea, the strategic importance of Transnistria has decreased. Moreover, the de-facto blockade of Transnistria by Moldova and Ukraine makes the Russian presence in Transnistria more complicated and expensive. This is especially the case given Russia’s current economic stagnation: the Russian government has recently been forced to close hospitals around the country and cut subsidies for social programmes. Moreover, Russia is investing significant resources in Crimea, and funding additional military operations abroad.

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America Magazine: How the Vatican is encouraging dialogue between Russia and the West

President Vladimir Putin has visited the Vatican five times and has already had two private conversations with Pope Francis, in 2013 and 2015. He is expected to meet him again next January, when he comes for the opening of a Russian art exhibition in the Vatican. Moreover, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has met his Vatican counterparts on several occasions and engaged in what sources say were “substantial, constructive discussions.” [...]

This developing friendship has been matched by an ever-improving relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church, with its 150 million members, and the Holy See. Pope Francis has played a huge role in this with his approach to the Orthodox Church and his willingness to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. Relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See have been encouraged by President Putin, who has embraced the Orthodox faith not only at a personal level but also as part of his effort to consolidate his power at home. Last year, Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis met in Havana in February; a month later, the pope appointed one of the Holy See’s top diplomats, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, as nuncio to Russia. [...]

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, visited Russia from Aug. 20 to 24, upon an invitation from Russian state and church authorities. (This was the first visit by a secretary of state since 1999, and the most significant since Cardinal Agostino Casaroli’s 1990 visit following the collapse of the Soviet Union.) Cardinal Parolin had what he defined as “important and constructive encounters” with President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion, president of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and the number-two official in that patriarchate.

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Haaretz: As Violence Intensifies, Israel Continues to Arm Myanmar’s Military Junta

On Thursday, the bodies of 26 refugees, including 12 children, were removed from the Naf River, which runs along the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Of the refugees who managed to reach Bangladesh, many had been shot. There were also reports of rapes, shootings and fatal beatings directed at the Rohingya minority, which is denied human rights in Myanmar. The country’s army has been in the middle of a military campaign since October that intensified following the recent killing of 12 Myanmar soldiers by Muslim rebels. [...]

Militia members continue to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of human rights around the country, particularly against minority groups that are not even accorded citizenship. Since Myanmar’s military launched operations in Rakhine last October, a number of sources have described scenes of slaughter of civilians, unexplained disappearances, and the rape of women and girls, as well as entire villages going up in flames. The military has continued to commit war crimes and violations of international law up to the present. [...]

Lieberman statement was incorrect. The United States and the European Union have imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar. It’s unclear whether the cause was ignorance, and Lieberman is not fully informed about Israel’s arms exports (even though he must approve them), or an attempt at whitewashing.

In terms of history, as well, Lieberman’s claim is incorrect. Israel supported war crimes in Argentina, for example, even when the country was under a U.S. embargo, and it armed the Serbian forces committing massacres in Bosnia despite a United Nations embargo.

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SciShow Psych: Why Are We Loyal to Certain Brands?

Financial Times: Three reasons why North Korea's crisis is deepening | Opinion

Politico: Russia may crash out of Council of Europe, says rights chief

In 2014, Russia’s voting rights in the Council of Europe were revoked after the illegal annexation of Crimea. If things don’t change, the election of a raft of new judges and top officials during the next two years would take place without Russian votes.

Moscow could crash out of the group if Russia keeps being excluded from the election of key personnel — destroying a judicial bridge that has linked Europe to Russia since Moscow joined the Council in 1996. [...]

“We have to think of the following: Will Europe be better off, safer, with Russia on its own, without being part of the judicial system of Europe?” he said. “For me this is a very urgent question.”

Jagland, who had just come out of his first sit-down meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, said the Russia issue was part of a broader problem of countries that question human rights rulings. [...]

A crackdown against suspected plotters in an aborted coup led to thousands of people being jailed or losing their jobs. While many were based on solid grounds — the coup attempt was “very brutal,” Jagland said — there are serious concerns that Turkey had “cast its net too wide.”

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Political Critique: The Five Star Movement is at war with housing activists in Rome

Virginia Raggi, mayor of Rome, has declared war on the movement for housing rights. At the end of August the Five Star Movement found a clear enemy, and to confront it they chose the hard-line. First they evicted an occupation at via Quintavalle, at Cinecittà. Then another at piazza Indipendenza in the very centre of the Rome, just next to Termini station. Today it is only the social movements and those participating in them who remain, erecting barricades in the attempt to defend the last migrants, fighting the battle against poverty and racism. [...]

And then another seemingly banal but in fact vitally important question posed by the movement for housing is: do single homeless people, men or women, have rights in the eyes of the local government? These questions need to be brought into the public debate. Speaking only of ‘fragility’ serves to fragment and divide the last bastions of struggle that continue to ask for serious definitive and systemic solutions; that push to escape the logic of ‘emergency.’ [...]

Today proposing real housing policy alongside measures tackling low income is not only difficult but politically inconvenient. Imagine an electoral campaign with social housing, minimum income, social inclusion, refugee accommodation at the centre proposed by a movement that comes from the web and, in particular, from social networks. Its electoral base would be immediately trashed by those who, on TV and other corners of the internet, wearing questionable hoodies, work to weaponise populism.

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Al Jazeera: Analysis: Does team Trump have an Africa plan?

Nearly eight months into his presidency, Trump has yet to nominate an assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Other jobs lower down in the State Department, Pentagon and White House are vacant; there is no US ambassador in either South Africa or Congo. [...]

"It was a massive and unprecedented decision by the court and, right or wrong, it's made a volatile situation in Kenya even worse. It's a moment like this that you really want high-level officers calling from the White House, and that's not necessarily happening," Felbab-Brown said. [...]

Cuts are already having real-world consequences. In July, Trump pushed back a deadline on whether to lift US sanctions against Sudan by three months, amid divisions in his administration and a lack of staff in key posts, including in the National Security Council.

Trump's lack of enthusiasm for Africa was on display at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, that same month. It was closed-door talks on African development that Trump famously stepped away from, giving up his chair to his daughter, Ivanka. [...]

US exports to sub-Saharan Africa have doubled to $21.81bn from $10.96bn in 2000, according to US Commerce Department data, but they were dwarfed by China's $102bn in exports to the region in 2015. 

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JSTOR Daily: Beyoncé, the Virgin Mary, and the Power of Imagery

Beyoncé and her photographers appear to present her as the Virgin Mary, using recognizable compositions, such as her veiled face and the flower mandorla enveloping her, in both Erizku’s and Poole’s images. The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber wrote, “Beyoncé is continuing in her long dialogue with the high-art world,” noting such varied influences as the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Renaissance Madonnas, Dutch flower paintings, and Kehinde Wiley. Part of the power in such imagery, he argues, is that “it’s recent and yet classical.”

Both photos nod to the ways in which women in positions of power have been represented throughout history. Historian Linda B. Hall has analyzed “images of women and power,” exploring how artists have used the image of the Virgin Mary to emphasize power, suffering, dedication, and endurance while also instilling a sense of maternal wonder. [...]

Hall analyzes the continued relevance and far-reaching reverence for images of the Virgin Mary throughout Spain, Latin America, and the United States. She notes, “In the case of the Virgin Mary, as time passes, the reverence that began centuries ago is constantly renewed and changed by religious leaders, by artists, and through popular reverence.” Historically speaking, Beyoncé’s imagery seems to borrow elements most heavily from those of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image first appeared on the cloak, or tilma, of Juan Diego in 1531, after the Virgin Mary’s fourth visit to him. About a century after her image was emblazoned on his cloak, artistic renderings of Our Lady of Guadalupe, complete with the flower mandorla and blue robe of stars, began appearing in print.

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