Category Archives: Viva!

Trump and Modi are the mainstream faces of the global far-right | Cas Mudde

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The US and India are two of the most populous and powerful democracies in the world. And they are both represented by far-right leaders

Even by the standards of the Trump era, the “Howdy Modi!” meeting in Houston, Texas, this Sunday was weird. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, had invited Donald Trump to be his guest at a massive rally in the American heartland. And, unsurprisingly, giving his submissive behavior towards authoritarian leaders, the president had accepted, happily playing second fiddle to a foreign leader on US soil.

But beyond these remarkable details, the meeting was in many ways symptomatic of what I have called the fourth wave of postwar far-right politics in my new book, The Far Right Today. The fourth wave is characterized by extreme heterogeneity as well as mainstreaming and normalization, all of which were on display in Houston this weekend.

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‘Medication or housing’: why soaring insulin prices are killing Americans

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Price gouging and other barriers to accessing insulin are symptomatic of a broken healthcare system, and demonstrate the need of systemic reforms, diabetes advocates argue

Jada Renee Louis of Newport News, Virginia, died on 22 June 2019 about a week after requiring emergency hospital care for diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious complication caused by a lack of insulin, and a foot ulcer. She was 24. A type 1 diabetic, Louis, who did not have health insurance coverage, couldn’t afford the cost of her insulin doses and pay her rent. She chose to skip doses in order to pay her rent.

In 1922 Frederick Banting and Charles Best, the Canadian scientists who discovered insulin, sold their patent to the University of Toronto for $1, hoping it would be a cure for diabetes. Today a vial of insulin – which will last 28 days once opened – costs about $300 in the US.

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Bolsonaro targets the Catholic church over its ‘leftist agenda’ on the Amazon

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Gathering at the Vatican has triggered a political storm in Brazil as bishop denies undermining the government

The Prayer of Saint Francis welcomes worshippers to Adolfo Zon’s riverside cathedral in this far-flung Amazon outpost: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”

But when the 63-year-old bishop sets off from his Amazonian sanctuary this week and boards a plane for Rome, he will be travelling to the frontline of a smouldering political skirmish between a left-leaning, green-minded Argentinian pope and Brazil’s far-right, climate skeptic president, Jair Bolsonaro.

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The Trump-Ukraine scandal is a taste of how dirty the US elections will get | Richard Wolffe

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If you’re wondering what the next 14 months of the presidential election looks like, you are already looking at it

America has a grand tradition of the brazenly dumb criminal: the kind who is so desperately needy that he brags about his guilt.

Back in the earliest days of the new media known as newspapers, a certain Chicago mob boss rose to fame by calling a press conference to proclaim everyone else’s guilt, if not exactly his innocence.

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UK ministers accused of sealing Thomas Cook’s fate

Boris the Naught blows it!

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Offers from Spain and Turkey to save firm reportedly had no support from Westminster

The government has been accused of sealing Thomas Cook’s fate, as claims emerged that the Spanish and Turkish governments had offered to help save the stricken tour operator, only for the deal to disintegrate due to a lack of support in Westminster.

As recriminations flew, government-chartered aircraft began flying 150,000 stranded Thomas Cook customers back to the UK after the 178-year-old tour operator collapsed into liquidation in the early hours of Monday under the weight of its debts.

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Boris Johnson refuses to rule out suspending parliament again

Boris the First… and last?

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PM says adverse supreme court ruling would not stop him proroguing parliament again

Boris Johnson has refused to rule out suspending parliament again if the supreme court rules on Tuesday that he abused his powers as prime minister in doing so earlier this month.

The British prime minister, who is in New York for a UN summit, also indicated he would not feel obliged to resign if the justices rule he misled the Queen in his reasons for suspending parliament.

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Greta Thunberg’s Stirring UN Speech Is Not ‘Cute’ or ‘Badass’

Thunberg is not here to be palatable. She is not here to be adorable GIF-fodder, or to reassure apathetic elites that the future is in good hands. She is here to be taken seriously. The stakes are too high for her not to be. Her activism isn’t cute—it’s terrifying.

Source: Greta Thunberg’s Stirring UN Speech Is Not ‘Cute’ or ‘Badass’