The idea of an American troop withdrawal fills Afghan women with dread, as they see Westerners as their only protectors not just from the Taliban, but also the “Taliban mentality” among other men.
Category Archives: Viva!
Why incels are a ‘real and present threat’ for Canadians

Criminologists and sociologists are sounding the alarm over extreme and violent internet subcultures that include incels, saying the threat they pose isn’t being taken seriously enough.
I believe in Tory values, but the party is becoming repellent | Matthew d’Ancona

I am proudly centre-right, but Brexit has summoned the very worst demons that lurk in the party’s psyche
I have had it up to here with the Conservative party. Not, perhaps, an unusual sentiment to find expressed in the Guardian. But, as a centre-right columnist, I do not start from the proposition that all Tories are inherently evil champions of “neoliberalism” (whatever that means), intent on maximising suffering and despair. I don’t express this contempt for the party blithely or to prove a point. This is not an exercise in rhetoric. I mean it.
By way of explanation: I used to edit the Spectator. I am proud to chair a centre-right thinktank, Bright Blue. I wrote a book about the Conservative-led coalition. And if you think that’s bad, I was one of the few people in the world who applauded aspects of Theresa May’s 2017 manifesto (that’s a really select club).
Two bombs explode at Philippines cathedral, killing at least 27 people
Too often, religions are used and abused by each other not as a means to advance good will but just to empower faux-religious fanatics who want to be dictators!

First blast in or near church on island of Jolo during Sunday mass, followed by second outside compound
Two bombs have exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 27 people and wounding 77, security officials have said.
The country’s national police chief said the first bomb went off in or near Jolo cathedral during a mass on Sunday, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.
The Observer view on why Venezuela needs consensus, not conflict | Observer editorial
And for sure, Venezuela does not need former colonialists setting her future!

The implicit threat of military intervention on behalf of Juan Guaidó’s opposition raises fears of a cold war proxy conflict
Nicolás Maduro was re-elected Venezuela’s president last May by fraudulent means, as regional governments and independent observers noted at the time, and his leadership lacks legitimate authority. Maduro, in office if not in power since 2013, has proved himself an incompetent and unimpressive successor to the late socialist president, Hugo Chávez, on whose name and reputation he shamelessly trades.
Maduro has disastrously mismanaged Venezuela’s potentially wealthy economy, overseeing severe shortages of food and medicine and hyperinflation. His authoritarian rule, enforced by violence, has exacerbated social divisions, undermined democratic institutions and free media, caused millions to flee abroad and alienated neighbouring countries.
For the poor, it’s not Europe that’s the problem. It’s austerity
false austerity designed to bail out the already grossly rich!

Brexit is a solution to what wealthy Leavers perceive to be their problems. It will not remedy the discontents of the many
As the Brexit farce proceeds, it is worth remembering that before David Cameron made his catastrophic error of calling a referendum, the EU was way down the list of British people’s concerns in almost every opinion poll. Indeed, not even in the first 11.
The central point is that Brexit became the focus for all manner of discontents, many of them understandable. But leaving the EU would indubitably not be the answer to them, and would be guaranteed not to make the discontents into “glorious summer”.
Britons don’t grasp the EU’s essential motivation – a quest for the quiet life | Jeremy Cliffe

We must learn to understand that the union is all about protecting the safety and prosperity of its citizens
What does the EU want? This simple question has foxed Brits throughout the Brexit talks. It is alleged that Brussels is desperate to retain Britain; that it yearns to get rid of it; that German car-makers and friendly states such as the Netherlands will force Angela Merkel to let Britain cherrypick the best of membership; that Europeans want to ruin Britain, sending it on its way with a punishment beating pour encourager les autres. None of this contradictory speculation has turned out to be right, and Britain’s negotiating efforts have been the poorer for it.
European mainlanders can be hard to read. The Friday before last, prominent Germans including Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Angela Merkel’s heir presumptive, wrote a saccharine letter to the Times urging Britain to stay. On Monday the Polish foreign minister broke EU ranks to suggest that the Irish backstop be limited, to get Theresa May’s deal over the line. Yet on Wednesday Merkel seemingly contradicted her own colleagues, opining fatalistically that Britain, an island, had always had “patchy” relations with the EU and suggesting that its exit is inevitable. The day after, an exasperated Emmanuel Macron told a crowd near Lyon that Brexit has “torn British society apart” and “cannot be delivered”, his tone so critical that it moved a Spectator writer to ask why the French president “hates Britain so much”. The motivations and instincts of our continental partners sometimes baffle us Brits.
Polish far-right trial raises spectre of ‘false flag’ tactics

German journalist with links to Russia allegedly organised arson attack in Ukraine to stoke tensions, court told
The plot allegedly involved three Polish extremists and a German journalist with ties to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, as well as to a number of Kremlin-friendly Russian news outlets.
Their alleged task was to carry out a “false flag” operation in western Ukraine: burn down a Hungarian cultural centre, and make it look as though Ukrainian nationalists were responsible. The main beneficiary of the ensuing recriminations would be Russia.
‘These people aren’t cattle’: anger over evictions at Italian refugee centre

Interior ministry claims no one was ‘forced out’ as many await outcome of asylum requests
On Wednesday night last week, Nicholas Hada slept at Rome’s Termini train station, along with about 10 others hastily evicted from a refugee reception centre in a town close to the Italian capital earlier in the day.
Originally from Guinea, he returned to the centre in Castelnuovo di Porto, the second-largest of its kind in Italy, the following morning to collect the belongings he had left behind, fearing they would be stolen in the train station.
The Infiltrators review – angry and impressive immigration docudrama

In this smart hybrid, features the true stories of three undocumented Americans who went undercover at a detention facility
The first stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner, the United States of America’s national anthem, memorably ends with the phrase “the home of the brave”. I’ve seen no braver Americans depicted on screen than Marco Saavedra, Viridiana Martinez and Mohammad Abdollahi, young, undocumented “illegals” raised in the US who risked deportation to infiltrate an immigration detention facility with the hope of helping keep families together.
Related: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind review – Chiwetel Ejiofor’s charming directorial debut
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