Romania′s leftist Social Democrats make gains in local elections | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

Taking into account the votes of PSD allies ALDE and the National Union for Romania’s Progress, the social democrats secured well over 50 percent of the vote.The PSD’s candidate, former journalist Gabriela Firea, secured Bucharest’s mayoral seat. The party also picked up all six districts in the capital.Rumänien Kommunalwahlen 2016 Gabriele FireaPSD’s Gabriela Firea will take over the capital.A low turnout of 48 percent appears to have helped the PSD against the PNL, which is closely tied to President Klaus Iohannis. The results for the PNL were disappointing, coming only a year after they were ahead in the polls.Looking the other way on graftRomania’s largest city has been run by an interim mayor since former mayor Sorin Oprescu was arrested last year on suspicion of taking bribes in exchange for awarding municipal contracts.

Source: Romania′s leftist Social Democrats make gains in local elections | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

Steffen Seibert, spokesman to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said on Monday that the Bundestag – Germany’s lower house of parliament – “had reached a sovereign decision.””That must be respected,” he added.The comments from Berlin on Monday came in light of Turkey’s reaction last week to Germany’s decision to pass a resolution which refers to the mass deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey officially denies that the events that started in 1915 amounted to genocide. Ankara’s official line is that ethnic Armenians represented a fifth column backed by Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional – a key requirement in the legal definition of genocide.

Source: Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

General elections in Spain: Unidos Podemos leaves Socialists behind, takes second place in polls | In English | EL PAÍS

Unidos Podemos is in a similar position. Despite public perceptions that Podemos has blocked efforts to form a government, supporters of the coalition led by Pablo Iglesias and Alberto Garzón have rallied (78% say they will repeat their vote on June 26), giving it a 25.6% share of the vote according to Sunday’s Metroscopia poll (5.4% ahead of the PSOE).

Source: General elections in Spain: Unidos Podemos leaves Socialists behind, takes second place in polls | In English | EL PAÍS

The ECB’s Illusory Independence – Project Syndicate op-ed — Yanis Varoufakis

ATHENS – A commitment to the independence of central banks is a vital part of the creed that “serious” policymakers are expected to uphold (privatization, labor-market “flexibility,” and so on). But what are central banks meant to be independent of? The answer seems obvious: governments. In this sense, the European Central Bank is the quintessentially independent […]

via The ECB’s Illusory Independence – Project Syndicate op-ed — Yanis Varoufakis

PHOTOS: Nationalist Jewish-Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter | +972 Magazine

Ahead of the march Police order Palestinian shopkeepers to shutter their stalls and stores and Palestinians are cleared from the streets in order to prevent the ultra-nationalist participants from attacking them. Jewish participants have been known to vandalize shuttered stores, bang on the doors of homes, chant racist and violent slogans against Muslims and Palestinians, and even use physical violence against Palestinian passersby. This year, following two consecutive years in which the High Court of Justice ordered police to reign in Jewish participants verbal and physical violence against Palestinian residents, police kept closer reigns on the march. It was limited in time and although individual provocative acts still took place, police and ushers were reportedly more vigilant about maintaining order. A police spokesperson said officers arrested two Jewish minors for shouting racist slogans.

Source: PHOTOS: Nationalist Jewish-Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter | +972 Magazine

كل نكسة وفانوس الميدان يجمعنا

نادية حرحش

هناك سؤال ملح يضرب في رأسي . هل نحن في وضع انتفاضة / ميني انتفاضة/ هبة؟ يعني كل هذه المسميات التي انشغلنا في تسميتها قبل أشهر ليست ببعيدة.

قبل أيام كنت في غزة ، وأوقفني أحد الشباب في “خزاعة” . أراد أن يقول شيئا ما لم أعد أذكر، في ظل المآسي غير المنتهية هناك . لم يكن بإمكاني الا أن أرى ساقه المبتورة . سألته متى فقدها ،فقال :”انتفاضة القدس” . مع أن شكله لم يوح لي بأنه عاش الانتفاضة الثانية ، الا انني ظننت انني أخطأت في قراءة عمره . وبين حديث عابر عن الانتفاضات ، قال لي الشخص المصاحب له : ” هل تظني ان هناك افضل من الانتفاضة؟” كنت لوهلة قد نسيت اين انا ، في ظل كل تلك المشاعر المصاحبة للمآسي المختلفة . وكدت ابدأ نقاشا بيزنطيا عن جدوى الانتفاضات او عدم جدواها . ولا اذكر اللحظة تلك التي استوعبت فيها تماما ،بأن المقصود بانتفاضة القدس…

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Bangladesh attacks kill wife of police officer and Christian | News | DW.COM | 05.06.2016

The first attack took place in the coastal city of Chittagong early Sunday morning when at least three men on a motorbike stabbed and shot the wife of an anti-terror police superintendent. Mahmuda Khanam was walking her son to a school bus stop when the assailants struck. “The attackers came on a motor-cycle. Her son said she was stabbed first. Then they pointed a pistol near her ear and shot several times,” Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Moktar Hossain told news agency AFP. Khanam was the wife of Babul Akter, a police official who led several high-profile operations against the banned Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group in recent months. No one immediately claimed responsibility on Sunday, but police said jihadists could be behind the murder. “We suspect JMB or local Islamist extremists for the attack. Akter led successful anti-militant raids in Chittagong in which several JMB men were arrested,” Hossain said.

Source: Bangladesh attacks kill wife of police officer and Christian | News | DW.COM | 05.06.2016

Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte urges public to kill criminals, offers bounties – (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) “Kill your enemy and claim he or she is a drug dealer – OK?”

“If they are there in your neighbourhood, feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun. You have my support,” he told his cheering followers. “If he fights and fights to the death, you can kill him. “I will give you a medal.” He stressed that drug addicts could not be rehabilitated and warned: “If you are involved in drugs, I will kill you. You son of a whore, I will really kill you.” Mr Duterte reiterated that his anti-crime campaign would be “a bloody war”, as he offered money for slain drug lords. “I will pay, for a drug lord: five million pesos ($145,000) if he is dead. If he is alive, only 4.999 million,” he laughed. Mr Duterte, who takes office on June 30 and is the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, also offered smaller amounts for lower-ranked figures involved in the drug trade. He did not say how a private citizen could identify suspects. Mr Duterte has previously been linked with vigilante “death squads” that have killed scores of people in Davao and has vowed to widen his campaign when he becomes president. Others have followed his lead with the elected mayor of the central city of Cebu, Tomas Osmena, admitting he paid more than $US3,000 ($4,000) to police officers for killing drug traffickers. Mr Duterte and other officials have previously brushed aside warnings from human rights groups about the dangers of such a policy.

Source: Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte urges public to kill criminals, offers bounties – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Gaza Diaries

“This experience of the last five days was one of the richest in my life. I walked around the streets, markets, and neighborhoods and was hosted by people in their houses. I haven’t felt for an instant a moment of fear. I never felt the need to wear less of more clothes. I never felt the need to speak in quieter tone or I wasn’t for instant feeling the need of coping a conversation or a discussion in mode that needed to be secretive or reserved.

In our different encounters in the workshops, meetings, lunches and dinners. I was relaxingly expressing and hearing the opinion of the people around me on the situation. The convenience or non-convenience of the situation. The anger on the authority whether Hamas or Fateh. People are no longer afraid to say what they feel. I was even able to hold discussion on my liberal women idea of man and woman relations. My critical views on religion. My criticism on politics. I was most of the time not in consensus with the others, especially when it came to my views on religion. But I haven’t felt for a moment that I need to be more reserved in expressing my opinion.

I have seen Gazans just like normal people, with an extra load of misery. A life that the sea and its shore can be the breathing out space of seizure that is so visible no one can miss seeing. That willingness to live. To live well. To live in the best way they can seems never to seize to amaze me.”

نادية حرحش

Hang on to day five))

img_3599

Day one

(stripped in emotions)

So many things are flashing in my mind to be written, and as usual I get distracted. I was excitingly telling my mother about my experience in Gaza, when ach time she stopped me saying: “ no body tried to shoot you? “ “ The Hamas didn’t harass you?” “You were able to walk in the streets on your own?” “They allowed you to walk without a hijab?”

Well… Gaza is definitely not Paris. Just to make it clear.

The amounts of miseries one can spot are indescribable. But the amount of life that is there is just, what life is.

I have spent five days, trying my best to see people. My first visit was more of limited to exposure. I was held with too many emotions, and worries, and stigma of phrases in my head like the ones…

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