The Guardian: With UK sidelined, Macron forges unlikely alliance with Trump

Macron’s surprise invitation to Trump to attend the Bastille Day celebrations has lured the travel-weary president back on to Air Force One only three days after he left Europe and the G20 in Hamburg.

Formally their talks are due to focus on Syria and counter-terrorism, but the true value of the meeting lies in the symbolism. For the British it is a lesson that respect and alliances with America need not only be built through submission.

The deeper worry for the UK must be that Trump warms to Macron’s energy, and finds the British, preoccupied by the intricacies of Brexit and led by a “loser” who wasted her parliamentary majority, comparatively less appealing. His state visit to the UK – stalled at least until next year – is in danger of becoming a symbol of an ailing special relationship. [...]

Equally, after the Manchester terrorist attack in May, Macron walked from the Élysée to sign a condolences book. A letter of gratitude for the gesture from the British embassy received a handwritten reply from Macron to the effect “it is what should be expected”. Gallic charm and symbolism have their virtues.

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The Guardian: Allies of Pope Francis say US evangelical Christians are 'not far' from extremists

The article in La Civiltà Cattolica, which is vetted by the Vatican before publication, lays out a scathing critique of “evangelical fundamentalism” in the US, arguing that, on issues ranging from climate change to “migrants and Muslims”, proponents of the ideology have adopted a twisted reading of scripture and the Old Testament that promotes conflict and war above all else.

The piece was published just days after evangelical leaders met US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House and “laid hands” on him in prayer following discussions about religious freedom, support for Israel and healthcare reform. [...]

It claims that fake religious arguments are being used to demonise segments of the population – particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims – and to promote the US as a nation that is blessed by God, without ever taking into account the “bond between capital and profits and arms sales”. [...]

It also criticizes conservative American Catholics who have aligned themselves with fundamentalist Protestants on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, saying that what really united the groups was a “nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state”.

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The Huffington Post: Muslim Photographer's Ambitious Project Seeks To Showcase Islam's Diversity

Since the fall of 2015, Carlos Khalil Guzman has been using his free time and his own funds to travel across the country to interview an array of Muslims. In the series, titled “Muslims of America,” Guzman is attempting to capture portraits of Muslims from all 50 states in the country. The series includes people of different sects of Islam, ethnicities and backgrounds ― from Native American Muslims to Syrian refugees to queer Muslims.

Frustrated by a lack of diversity and representation of Muslims in the mainstream media, Guzman said he decided to create a project that would help people learn about the many ways American Muslims practice their faith. [...]

Along with the photos, Guzman is also asking each of his subjects to tell him their favorite saying of the prophet, or a verse from the Quran. The subjects are then asked to explain why that piece of scripture is important to them.

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Maps on the Web: Map showing different languages spoken in Russia

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The Guardian: Theresa May’s biggest mistake? Tying herself to a sinking Donald Trump

She tied herself to Trump when he had been president for a single week, rushing to Washington to win the race to be his first foreign visitor. She held his hand and offered him the shiniest bauble in the UK prime minister’s gift bag: an invitation for a state visit. While Trump’s predecessors had had to wait years for the offer of a royal red carpet (rather than just a regular working trip), and some never got one at all, May bowed early.

That looked embarrassingly eager at the time, especially when, just a few hours after he had stood with May, Trump turned himself into a global pariah with his travel ban targeting seven mainly Muslim countries. Angela Merkel had made future ties conditional on Trump’s adherence to basic international norms, such as human rights. May, by contrast, was supine in her neediness.

And that mortifying posture has continued. When Germany, France and Italy issued a joint condemnation of Trump’s break from the Paris agreement on climate change, May pointedly refused to sign. The PM promised instead that she would raise the subject when she sat down for formal talks with Trump at last week’s G20 meeting in Hamburg – only to admit afterwards that she had done no such thing. There wasn’t enough time, Downing Street said, even though the Trump-May session overran by 20 minutes. (Officials said the pair discussed the issue informally, after the meeting.)

It was also at the G20 that May once again stood at Trump’s metaphorical side, defending his decision to have his daughter Ivanka take the US seat at the talks, putting this unelected designer of handbags between May and President Xi of China. To most observers that looked like an act of regal presumption, Trump confirming that he sees the US presidency as a throne stamped “Property of the Trump Family”. Not May, though: she thought it “entirely reasonable”.

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