Category Archives: Global Politics

‘I hope Merkel keeps us’: how Nujeen Mustafa travelled from Syria to Germany in a wheelchair | World news | The Guardian

A year ago, Nujeen completed a 3,500-mile journey from Syria to Germany in a cumbersome steel-frame wheelchair, an Odyssean adventure that involved dodging masked Isis fighters, navigating perilous Mediterranean waters and fending off packs of wild dogs. Now the wheelchair is folded up on the veranda and she sits on a faded beige sofa in the living room of the flat she shares with two sisters and four nieces, struggling with a crumbly German biscuit.Looking at this teenager, with her thick black-and-red spectacles, I cannot help thinking of her as a Harry Potter figure, exiled on a Westphalian Privet Drive. There are even some Dursley-esque neighbours who, Nujeen says, “aren’t such big fans of refugees”.When I suggest the comparison, she shakes her head. She likes the town she has ended up in, and the fact no one knows her here. “Harry Potter is such a lifeless book, there’s too little emotion and too much display of power,” she says, adding a barb that has a special sting coming from someone with her backstory: “It makes every boy in the world think they are the chosen one.”Nujeen Mustafa was born on New Year’s Day 1999 in Manbij in northern Syria, the youngest of a Kurdish family of 11 in a mostly Arab town. Though Muslim, she says her family were never “obsessed” by religion: she and her sisters and cousins were the only girls who didn’t cover their heads in their local high school.Her pride in her cultural identity as a Kurd is fierce, however, and shaped her view on her country’s descent into civil war. As the population divided into supporters and opponents of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, “the Kurds had their own side as they couldn’t trust anyone”, as Nujeen puts it in the memoir she has co-written with Sunday Times journalist Christina Lamb, who also co-authored Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography.

Source: ‘I hope Merkel keeps us’: how Nujeen Mustafa travelled from Syria to Germany in a wheelchair | World news | The Guardian

Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

In a sometimes bizarre 45-minute speech on Friday night, which opened with the unfurling of a new “Les Deplorables” battlefield flag backdrop, the Republican nominee went off-script to call for his opponent’s bodyguards to “disarm immediately” – adding, “Let’s see what happens to her.” “Take their guns away!” Trump demanded to loud cheers during a section of the speech in which he said his rival wanted to “destroy your second amendment” and he accused Clinton of “arrogance and entitlement”. In a statement, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook denounced Trump’s comments: “Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, has a pattern of inciting people to violence. Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of Commander in Chief.”“But we’ve seen again and again that no amount of failed resets can change who Donald Trump is.” The call to leave the Democratic nominee protected by unarmed secret service agents, first made by Trump in May, raised eyebrows as a reversion to the undisciplined candidate of the primaries rather than the more scripted one of recent weeks. Trump also suggested in August that if Clinton was elected president, “the second amendment people” might be able to stop her from appointing judges. That statement was widely interpreted as a veiled assassination threat as well at the time.

Source: Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

Donald Trump, Interrupted. He Calls Flint Pastor Who Cut In ‘a Nervous Mess.’ – The New York Times

“Everyone plays their games, it doesn’t bother me,” Mr. Trump said, claiming Pastor Timmons was shaking when she came up to him. He added: “She was so nervous, she was like a nervous mess. I figured something was up.” Some conservatives defended Mr. Trump on Thursday, pointing to a Facebook post in which she wrote that the visit was an opportunity to educate Republican candidate as evidence that she was planning to embarrass him. While that post does not appear on her Facebook page, Pastor Timmons did address the controversy there on Wednesday night. “Had he stuck to what his camp claimed he came to do, we would not have had a problem!” she wrote.

Source: Donald Trump, Interrupted. He Calls Flint Pastor Who Cut In ‘a Nervous Mess.’ – The New York Times

So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium – I am for her but for those who doubt – read this, please.

Hillary Clinton will provide some small, inadequate measure of assistance to the growing masses of victims even while she continues to pander to the very forces of their destruction. She’s oblivious to techno-capitalism’s looming dead end, because it contradicts the story of human infallibility, and she’s too cynical to believe that a post-capitalist future is possible. But she won’t (overtly) suppress dissent or work to attack, disrupt and destroy progressive people’s movements or to terrorize and ruin the lives of immigrants (at least, not as aggressively as Trump surely would with a helping hand from ALEC, the NRA, the KKK and legions of confused, scared, heavily-armed white men). That doesn’t give us much breathing room, but it’s something.I won’t belabor the Trump-Hitler comparison here, but read this if you harbor any doubts about the nature of Trump’s personality disorder and intentions. This is a nihilistic man punch drunk on ego and power, hungry for violence, all in for cutthroat competition, incapable of self-reflection, one hand on the nuclear button and the other on Mein Kampf, capable of the unthinkable. What he cannot create he will destroy — such is the nihilist’s endgame.That, in the end, is why I’ll vote for Hillary Clinton — because she isn’t Donald Trump. I will vote for Clinton* and, if she wins, I will not be excited or happy, not even a tiny bit.

Source: So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium

Giuliani defends Trump idea to take Middle East oil: ‘Anything is legal’ in war | US news | The Guardian

Last month, when a conservative radio host similarly said Trump meant the “founder” remark figuratively – that the Obama administration’s policies had created a vacuum in which Isis grew – Trump replied: “No, I meant that he’s the founder of Isis, I do.”He later said the comment was “sarcastic, but not that sarcastic”.

Source: Giuliani defends Trump idea to take Middle East oil: ‘Anything is legal’ in war | US news | The Guardian

Norway hairdresser on trial for refusing client in hijab – The Local

The 47-year-old hairdresser told the court she saw the hijab as a political symbol representing an ideology that frightens her, rather than as a religious symbol. “I see it as a totalitarian symbol. When I see a hijab, I don’t think of religion, but of totalitarian ideologies and regimes,” she told the judges, cited by daily VG. “A hijab is not religious, it’s political,” she added. Described by Norwegian media as a former activist in Islamophobic movements such as Pegida, Hodne recently told TV2 news channel that the headscarf was a symbol of “Islamic ideology” — which she called “evil” — just like “the swastika is that of Nazism”. She said that accepting a woman in hijab as a client would have meant she would have had to turn away male customers, since the woman would not have been able to expose her hair with men present.

Source: Norway hairdresser on trial for refusing client in hijab – The Local

Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals shot and found dead in a burning car | US news | The Guardian

More than 100 people gathered Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil at the site where Seals’ body was found, friends said. Activists who attended the vigil said they were furious to find that police had not taped off the crime scene, and that there were still bullet casings on the ground they thought police should have collected as evidence.“We were literally stepping on the ashes from his car and his body,” said Tamara “Bates” Dodd, a St Louis hip-hop artist and activist. “That was probably the thing that shook me up the most, seeing little kids walking past, not knowing what they’re standing on.”Local activists were also troubled by the parallels between Seals’ death and the 2014 murder of 20-year-old Deandre Joshua, who was shot and left in a burning car on the same night a grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death. In all, according to one activist’s count, five other men in the St Louis area have been shot and left in burning cars since 2014.“Many people are really worried. We don’t know if there’s some type of movement serial killer on the loose,” said Patricia Bynes, a protester and former Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson.

Source: Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals shot and found dead in a burning car | US news | The Guardian

Israel using “black ops” against BDS, says veteran analyst | The Electronic Intifada

Black ops

In Maariv, Melman sounds a somewhat skeptical note, pointing out that the fight against BDS may be more of an excuse for the ministry to maintain its budget after its original purpose, facing the “threat” from Iran, became irrelevant following last year’s nuclear agreement.But that does not mean it is not capable of damaging actions.Among the ministry’s activities are what Melman terms “special operations” or “black ops” which may include “defamation campaigns, harassment and threats to the lives of activists” as well as “infringing on and violating their privacy.”In this context Melman points to recent attacks on the websites of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) and other organizations supporting Palestinian rights.He also notes the death threats received by Nada Kiswanson, an attorney with the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, which is collecting evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza to submit to the International Criminal Court.These threats are being investigated by Dutch authorities, where the ICC is based.The well-connected Melman does not confirm long-standing suspicions of Israeli involvement, but hints strongly at an Israeli role.“Of course, no one has assumed responsibility for the incident against the Palestinian lawyer, and no one has addressed the BDS campaign’s claims that the Israeli intelligence is running a cyber war against it,” Melman states. “But it is no secret that at the ministry of strategic affairs, as well as Israeli intelligence agencies which are assisting in the struggle against the BDS and delegitimization movement, diverse means which may be applied are being discussed.”“It cannot be ruled out that these actions, if indeed taken by Israel, were a ‘shot across the bow,’” he adds.Melman also suggests that the efforts may have been curtailed by concerns at Israel’s justice ministry that “the passion for secret actions and operations in the strategic affairs ministry may eventually end up in mishaps which would harm Israel’s foreign relations.”As examples of such “mishaps,” Melman recalls “an elimination action, entry into buildings or the use of a false passport” – operations in which Israel “did not hesitate to violate the laws and sovereignty of foreign states, including its best friends.”In recent years, countries including Canada and New Zealand have protested over Israel’s use of their passports to provide cover for agents from the Mossad spying and assassination agency.

Source: Israel using “black ops” against BDS, says veteran analyst | The Electronic Intifada

AfD supporters attack activists, journalists in Munich – The Local – Wannabe Nazis Start a Fight and then Blame the Victims – One more Putsch Deflated!

A member of the press who was at the event told The Local that three men from the AfD party attacked demonstrators and journalists, with Ares “running madly into the crowd attacking everything in front of him.”The journalist said she did not see any left-wing demonstrators carrying weapons.All three men are reportedly linked to right-wing extremist groups and appear regularly at AfD events in Bavaria.Photographic evidence also shows one AfD supporter, reportedly Ares, aiming a kick at a journalist. Other media reports suggest a journalist was punched in the face.

Source: AfD supporters attack activists, journalists in Munich – The Local

Mothers wearing headscarves ′blocked′ from entering nursery school in Corsica | News | DW.COM | 06.09.2016 “Brave”, err, dumb Corsicans display bigotry as if it’s OK.

Two Muslim mothers wearing headscarves have been prevented by two other parents from entering a nursery school on the French island of Corsica. The incident comes amid simmering intercommunal tensions in France.

Source: Mothers wearing headscarves ′blocked′ from entering nursery school in Corsica | News | DW.COM | 06.09.2016