Category Archives: Global Politics

Will Chinese company’s stake in Reddit normalise censorship? | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian

The creation of concentration camps for a million Uighurs in Xinjiang has not been enough to persuade any of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs receiving funds from Chinese companies to refuse the cash. Neither is it apparently enough of a deterrent to stop the US companies investing in China to stop their plans to enter the market. Trade tensions between the US and China revolve entirely around tariffs and not around human rights. Most troubling of all, against a background of demonstrably tightening censorship, internment camps and an extension of totalitarianism, the narrative of western companies is that their presence in China, and the presence of Chinese money in western companies, is helping ease those restrictions. All the evidence says this is not true.

Source: Will Chinese company’s stake in Reddit normalise censorship? | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian

Rome’s war of words with President Macron may prove self-defeating | World news | The Guardian

The danger is that the stream of insults pouring off the Italian party leaders’ Facebook pages has not just political but also economic consequences, with Italy coming off worse. Trump can insult with impunity since he heads a superpower. Italy, by contrast, is less powerful, and an alliance with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary is hardly a sufficient shelter. Already some businesses that co-operate across the Franco-Italian border are feeling uneasy. Alitalia is hoping for French capital to save the airline. Infrastructure plans such as the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link are in doubt. Italy, in recession and heading for only 0.2% growth this year, will need some allies in Europe and in Brussels. Its banking system remains undercapitalised. M5S is determined to show it is on the side of the people, and not the bankers, but translating that emotion into practical budgetary policy is proving difficult. Insults by contrast come easier, and cheaper.

Source: Rome’s war of words with President Macron may prove self-defeating | World news | The Guardian

Hindu nationalist leader Pooja Pandey arrested for shooting an effigy of Gandhi – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Pooja Pandey’s stunt with an air pistol was the latest in a string of her group’s attempts to glorify Nathuram Godse, the man who gunned the independence leader down in 1948.

Source: Hindu nationalist leader Pooja Pandey arrested for shooting an effigy of Gandhi – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Religious fanaticism at worst that has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with autocrats and neo-fascism.

Metropolitan Republican Club’s New President Provided Services To ‘Nazi-Friendly,’ Far Right German Political Party: Gothamist “Typical of full of themselves young GOPers who have real ego problems and wanna look cool and tough – but are just racists and fascists!

Reilly’s campaign to be president of the club was supported by far-right figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos—which concerns other New York Republicans. J.C. Polanco, a Republican party strategist, told NY1, “We’re going to be pushing voters away… Someone who has their endorsement should not be leading any Republican organization in New York City. Our party needs to get away from that and be inclusive.”

Source: Metropolitan Republican Club’s New President Provided Services To ‘Nazi-Friendly,’ Far Right German Political Party: Gothamist

Forget Donald Trump and his tweets — North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has a pattern and a plan – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

While our headlines obsess over the mercurial Donald Trump, recoiling at his tweets and deciphering his tortured syntax, we’d do better to focus on the North Korean leader, writes Stan Grant.

Source: Forget Donald Trump and his tweets — North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has a pattern and a plan – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

In rush to revamp Medicaid, Trump officials bend rules that protect patients – Los Angeles Times- Trump-“people on Medicaid are all losers and should have to work for their porridge and beg for some, please sir?” Oliver Twist workhouses!

The Trump administration is scaling back independent evaluation of its most controversial healthcare proposals, including moves to impose work requirements in Medicaid.

Source: In rush to revamp Medicaid, Trump officials bend rules that protect patients – Los Angeles Times

Trump Admin Says It’s Too Hard To Reunite Thousands Of Separated Families: Court Filing | HuffPost

On Friday, officials from the Trump administration said it would require too much effort to reunite the thousands of families it separated before implementing its “zero-tolerance” policy in April, according to a declaration filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit between the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last month, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services released a report stating that “thousands” more immigrant families had been separated than the government had previously disclosed. In the declaration submitted Friday, HHS officials said they don’t know the exact number of children who were taken from their parents before “zero tolerance” and that finding them would be too much of a “burden” since there was no formal tracking system in place.

Source: Trump Admin Says It’s Too Hard To Reunite Thousands Of Separated Families: Court Filing | HuffPost

Matteo Salvini mocks move to tackle racism in Italian football | World news | The Guardian

Italian football hooligans, knowns as ultras, tend to be well-organised, extremely violent and racist. Last year Daniele De Santis, a notorious ultra, was jailed for 16 years for the murder of a Napoli fan, Ciro Esposito, before the 2014 Italian Cup final game against Fiorentina.

Source: Matteo Salvini mocks move to tackle racism in Italian football | World news | The Guardian

Covington Catholic School’s Not So “Christian” Values – LA Progressive

The students say they were under assault by a gang of “Black Hebrew Israelites.”  The group is a well-established fringe religious movement, frequently engaged in street preaching around Washington D.C.  Their preaching is frequently profane, but is not known for violence.  The “gang” that assaulted the Covington Catholic School students numbered FOUR.  There were a couple of others, filming the preaching, as the group does, for posting on Youtube. The Covington Catholic School students being “assaulted” numbered about 50.  They were gathering at the Lincoln Memorial to get reloaded onto their school busses for the ride back to Kentucky, where the school is located.  Yes, 50 active, healthy young men under deadly “assault” by 4 street preachers holding scriptures and religious signs.“” Additionally, the four Black Hebrew Israelite preachers were on the sidewalk, below the Covington Catholic School students standing on the steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial.  The Native American marchers were also down on  the sidewalk level, below the students.  Until the students descended the steps for the purpose of blocking the way where the elderly Native American was walking, they wer

Source: Covington Catholic School’s Not So “Christian” Values – LA Progressive