Reuters: Netanyahu rebukes Israeli general over Holocaust speech

In a speech on Wednesday on the eve of Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, Major-General Yair Golan evoked a dark time in the history of the Jewish people in calling on Israelis to engage in soul-searching.

"If there's something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance it's the recognition of the nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then – 70, 80 and 90 years ago – and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016," he said.

Golan's comments were widely interpreted as comparing behavior of some in Israel with that of the Nazis, who killed six million Jews in the Holocaust of World War Two. In his speech the general made reference to a soldier who shot and killed a wounded Palestinian assailant, who was lying on the ground, in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, in March.

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The Guardian: Clinton-Trump election could 'scramble' traditional electoral map, experts say

The Clinton camp is preparing for a competitive race, drawing up a battleground map that starts where the current president left off. The priorities are the battleground states that twice helped elect Obama: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire. [...]

“Clinton’s numbers are atrocious,” said Amy Walters, national editor of the Cook Political Report, which released its 2016 electoral ratings this week. “Her overall approval ratings are terrible. But for the fact that Trump is in worse shape than she is, she would be in a very different position.”

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Harvard IOP Spring 2016 Poll: Clinton in commanding lead over Trump among young voters

Among Likely Voters, Clinton Leads Trump by 36 Points; Trump Underperforming Among Young Republicans. Among likely voters, Clinton maintains the same 61% that a “generic Democrat” receives, while Donald Trump receives 25%, 8 percentage points lower than the current “generic Republican” White House preference. Among young Democrats, Clinton leads Trump by 78 points (83%: Clinton; 5%: Trump), but among Republicans, Trump leads by only 44 points (57%: Trump; 13%: Clinton). Among Independents, Clinton has a 23-point lead (43%: Clinton; 20%: Trump), with 36% undecided. Clinton leads significantly with both men and women. Among men, it’s 47% for Clinton, 29% supporting Trump; and the lead expands among women, with 57% for Clinton and 15% for Trump. Clinton has a narrow 6-point lead among 18- to 29-year-old whites (38%: Clinton; 32%: Trump), but polls into the 70s with both the black and Hispanic communities. Among African Americans, Clinton leads Trump 76% to 5%, and among Hispanics, she has a similar-sized lead at 71% to Trump’s 9%.

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The New York Times: Saudi King Shakes Up Government as Economic Plan Moves Forward

The plan, known as Saudi Vision 2030, is intended as a guide for the country’s development. It aims in part to reduce Saudi Arabia’s heavy dependence on oil, diversify its economy and improve the quality of life for Saudi citizens. [...]

Many Saudis have lauded Saudi Vision 2030 as a powerful statement of purpose from a royal family that has often failed to communicate its plans or do much to prepare for the future. But many analysts and economists have questioned the ability of Saudi Arabia’s bloated and often ineffective bureaucracy to meet the plan’s aggressive targets. [...]

Many people among Saudi Arabia’s large youth population — more than two-thirds of the country’s 20 million citizens are under 30 — speculated on social media about the duties of the newly created General Commission for Entertainment. It is a surprising body in a hyperconservative country where public movie theaters are banned and many people spend their vacations and weekends abroad.

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The Guardian: Australians must fight back against the anti-gay crusade

I’m not saying we are anywhere near the level of a witch hunt, an anti-Semitic pogrom or ethnic cleansing. There has been no physical violence (yet), and most Australians are either disengaged from the far right’s moral panic or disdainful of it.

But what we have seen raises serious questions about how easy it is for anti-gay forces to undermine even the most modest gains of the LGBTI community, and how weak some of our national leaders and institutions are in resisting this. [...]

Australian democracy, indeed our national identity, was born in the 19th century movement against convict transportation. To achieve its aims, that movement sought to discredit the convict system by associating it with homosexuality. [...]

They stirred up such fear and loathing of homosexuality in Australian society that, at its climax in the late 1840s, disdain towards homosexuality ran deeper than in any other comparable 19th century society. Hughes believed Australia was born in homophobia.

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