Category Archives: Global Politics

Jihadi US couple deal blow to fiancee visa – Times of India

“Somebody entered the US through the K-1 visa program and proceeded to carry out an act of terrorism on American soil. That program is at a minimum worth a very close look,”‘ White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.The United States issued around 35,000 fiance/fiancee visas in 2014 and slightly fewer in 2013. Among those who slipped into the country through the normal vetting process was Pakistani terrorist Tashfeen Malik.

Source: Jihadi US couple deal blow to fiancee visa – Times of India

Statue to Hungarian fascist sparks outcry | News | DW.COM | 13.12.2015

Around 300 protesters gathered Sunday in the city of Szekesfehervar where a life-size bronze statue of Balint Homan is slated to be unveiled at the end of the month.Homan was a civic leader and academic widely seen as an architect of anti-Jewish laws in the 1930s. He also called for the deportation of Jews from Hungary in 1944, while part of a fascist Hungarian government propped up by Nazi Germany.The prospect of paying tribute to Homan with a statue has led to widespread outcry inside Hungary and among international diplomats.”An openly anti-Semitic, fascist politician should never get a statue anywhere in this country,” Andras Heisler, head of Hungary’s largest Jewish group, the Federation of Jewish Hungarian Communities (Mazsihisz), told the crowd at the protest

Source: Statue to Hungarian fascist sparks outcry | News | DW.COM | 13.12.2015

Exit Polls in France Show National Front Losing Regional Elections – The New York Times

A week after the National Front came out on top in the first round of voting, France sent a far different message, with the party losing even in a northern region where its charismatic leader, Marine Le Pen, had been widely expected to win.

Source: Exit Polls in France Show National Front Losing Regional Elections – The New York Times

Humans of New York

“This is a photo of me right before the war came. Maybe my parents knew the war was coming, but they didn’t tell me. I wouldn’t have understood. I didn’t even know the meaning of war. Bombs started falling all around us. We lived very near one of Saddam’s castles. My mother told us: ‘It will be very loud, but nothing bad will happen to us. We will all be here together.’ Many houses in our neighborhood were destroyed, but I’d close my ears and sing songs whenever the bombs came close. In the cartoon shows, the good always wins, so I thought that we were good and nothing would happen to us. Then one day I heard a big sound and I saw that my best friend Miriam’s house had been destroyed. We walked to school together every day. I went to see if she was OK and I saw Miriam on the ground. She didn’t have any legs and she was screaming and I can still hear that sound now. They pulled me away but I saw everything. I don’t think it was good for a child to see this.”

(Gaziantep, Turkey)

Source: Humans of New York

ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

For IS, social media is prominent in formulating recruitment strategies.According to theconversation.com, Facebook is a key platform to gather young fans, supporters and recruits to incite them to acts of violence by the means of propaganda and the use of Islamic grievance.When it comes to real-time orchestrating of terror strikes, IS network works with encrypted messaging applications — including Kik, Surespot, Wickr and Telegram — that are very difficult to hack.

Source: ISIS launches app to spread terror agenda – Times of India

Attacks on Stop the War coalition harden Jeremy Corbyn’s resolve to stand by his old allies | Politics | The Guardian

This was a pretty clear message about the Labour leader’s allegiances – although he then went one step further. In a 15-minute speech, in which he acknowledged Stop the War’s faults, and joked about the abuse he had received in recent weeks, Corbyn insisted to cheers from the 200 people eating meze: “The antiwar movement has been a vital force at the heart of our democracy. Branding it as somehow illegitimate is an attempt to close down democratic debate and campaigning.”

{true that!}

Source: Attacks on Stop the War coalition harden Jeremy Corbyn’s resolve to stand by his old allies | Politics | The Guardian

Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

My story is nuanced. I have tried to distinguish between proximate cause, and ultimate cause. The ultimate cause of fascism is the right — but the proximate cause is the left. More simply, the origins of fascism are in the right’s extremism — but it is the left’s self-imposed irrelevance that allowed it to rise, and perhaps propelled it. You may disagree with my story, and you are welcome. It is just one synthesis among many. And yet, I caution you against the oppositional extremism that so defines our age. To fully account for fascism’s rise, because it is the most poisonous alloy of both, we must speak openly and honestly about the failures of both the left and right.For in the story of the rise of New Fascism, we see precisely the same elements at work as in Eternal Fascism. The pie shrinks. Leaders and institutions squabble — while the pie keeps shrinking. And then, the critical moment. The center breaks. The demagogue is free to sing his song of darkness. Night falls. And the golden age of the volk, the long march to the promised land, through the valleys of blood and despair, begins.I have written too much. I am tired now, as are you. So let us stop here to pause and reflect. Fascism, the poisonous admixture of the worst of both left and right, is a cancer that may infect the body politic at anytime that body is dulled and slowed, rendered infirm and frail, by stagnation. And the obligation of all reasonable people is to fight it. Not just because it destroys, and calls destruction glorious destiny, nor because it kills, and calls murder noble justice. But because in its glorification of destruction is the end of all that civilization can be said to stand for. Not just the fabric of our societies, but the possibility of our humanity.

Source: Why Fascism is Rising Again (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

The circumstances are different — Roosevelt rounded up citizens; Mr. Trump wants to bar Muslim visitors — but the motivation is the same, she said: “It is fear of the unknown that would drive people to fear-mongering and then outright bigotry.”Ms. Matsui’s husband, Robert T. Matsui, who spent 26 years in Congress and was succeeded by his wife after he died in 2005, was a sponsor of the 1988 redress legislation. He was 6 months old when his family was uprooted from Sacramento, limited to one suitcase a person, and shipped north to the Tule Lake segregation center on the border with Oregon, one of the 10 internment camps.As the House was about to give final approval to the apology and reparations in August 1988, Mr. Matsui said in a speech from the House floor that the acknowledgment of wrongdoing “demonstrates the true character of America in a way that the whole world can recognize.”The votes in the House and the Senate were bipartisan, though more than half of Republicans in the House and nearly half in the Senate opposed the measure, despite Reagan’s endorsement. Opponents objected to the cost and the precedent of paying reparations, and to second-guessing decades-old actions taken during wartime.The opponents included some Republicans still in Congress or prominent in national politics, among them Mitch McConnell, now the Senate majority leader; Senator John McCain of Arizona; and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio, who was a member of the House and is now running for president.

Source: Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

Syria’s Most Vulnerable Live a Hard Life in Jordan’s Refugee Camps · Global Voices

I had also wondered why some families would choose to leave the established gated refugee camps set up by the Jordanian government and UNHCR, and opt to live in the informal tented settlements with barely any support. I learned that life in the gated camps wasn’t much of a life either. They were overcrowded, offered only limited job opportunities and were generally not safe. Those living in them often feel trapped, unsafe and desperate—though by moving outside the camps they were mere exchanging one set of hardships for another.As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, and as the situation deteriorates and becomes more desperate for Syrian refugees, their hope of returning to Syria is starting to fade. After my time among Syrians who have sought refuge in Jordan, I understood why some choose to risk everything and cross hazardous waters to find better living conditions in Europe. The driving force is job opportunities and an extra income that they could send to their relatives back in Syria, and, moreover, the hope of a securing a better future for their children.

Source: Syria’s Most Vulnerable Live a Hard Life in Jordan’s Refugee Camps · Global Voices

Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada

The Israeli army attacked the Palestine Technical University in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem twice this week.Nine Palestinians were shot Thursday as Israeli soldiers tried to suppress a protest on the campus. On Monday, five students had to be hospitalized for gunshot wounds.Known as Kadoorie, the university has been subject to a series of such attacks since early October, when students began organizing marches against the Israeli occupation.Live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas have all been fired by Israel during the attacks.Twenty students have been detained so far, the International Solidarity Movement stated last week.None of the students has been released.Military campThe university is located next to the massive wall that Israel is building in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, Israel confiscated 200 dunums (50 acres) from Kadoorie to build the wall and another 23 dunums (5.5 acres) for a military training camp within the campus.Israel has also established a military checkpoint at the university’s entrance. The attacks have been so severe that the university has had to close on occasions.Students have also reported that Israeli soldiers have pointed their guns directly at them, giving the impression that the soldiers were about to open fire.When a number of students responded to such threatening behavior in October by throwing stones and fireworks at the military training area, the Israeli soldiers fired large quantities of tear gas into the university.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw1rIhIC5s

Source: Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada