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London subway stabbings suspect charged with attempted murder - CNN.com - 0 views

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london subway suspect charged murder

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  • London subway stabbings suspect charged with attempted murder
  • A man who allegedly stabbed two people at a London subway station Saturday has been charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors called the attack an act of terror.
  • He spoke only to confirm details of his identity and say that he understood the charge before he was remanded in custody to appear at a preliminary hearing at London's Old Bailey on Friday.
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  • The Crown Prosecution Service argued that the attack constituted an act of terrorism under the UK's Terrorism Act.
  • Police were called Saturday evening by witnesses who said a man had stabbed people and was threatening others at the Tube station in Leytonstone.
  • Leaving the victim in a pool of blood, Mire waved his knife at others and attempted to attack some of them, said the document.
  • As he was led away, Mire shouted "This is for Syria, my Muslim brothers," and made similar statements when interviewed at the police station, according to the document. Mire's phone contained images and material relating to the war in Syria, it said.
  • Police said in the aftermath that they were investigating the attack as an act of terror, and have advised the public to "remain calm but alert and vigilant" in relation to any potential threat.
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'Mona Lisa': Hidden portraits 'found underneath' - CNN.com - 0 views

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lisa portraits cnn

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  • 'Mona Lisa': Hidden portraits 'found underneath'
  • he subtle smile of the "Mona Lisa" has enchanted the art world for more than 500 years. But does it belong to an entirely different woman?
  • French scientist Pascal Cotte says he has revealed three hidden paintings beneath the surface of Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece -- one of which is likely to be the real portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the woman thought to be the subject of the painting.
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  • "My scientific imagery technique (L.A.M.) takes us into the heart of the paint-layers of the world's most famous picture and reveals secrets that have remained hidden for 500 years," Cotte said in a statement. "The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonard
  • "There are considerable changes during the course of the making of the portrait -- as is the case with most of Leonardo's paintings. I prefer to see a fluid evolution from a relatively straightforward portrait of a Florentine women into a philosophical and poetic picture that has a universal dimension."
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Jubilee of Mercy: Pope Francis opens Holy Doors - CNN.com - 0 views

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jubilee mercy pope francis opens holy doors cnn com

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  • Pope opens the church's Holy Doors before 50,000 people in the Vatican
  • Rome (CNN)Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors of St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday, performing a ritual that has been part of the Catholic Church since the 1500s.
  • This iteration will be a Jubilee of Mercy. The last Jubilee Year was in 2000.
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  • The 88-year-old, rarely seen in public since his resignation in 2013, walked with a cane and the help of longtime aide.
  • Salvation is offered to every human, to every people, without exception, to each of us," Pope Francis said during the ceremony, according to Vatican Radio. "None of us can say, 'I am holy, I am perfect, I am already saved.'
  • Until 1975, the Holy Doors in Rome were enclosed by a cement wall that the pope broke down using a hammer. When cement fragments fell too close to Pope Paul VI during the opening of the Holy Door on Christmas Eve in 1974, this practice was abandoned, and now bronze doors have replaced the wall.
  • According to the Catholic Church, when you sin, you must go to confession and you are forgiven. But forgiveness only applies to the guilt of your sin; there may still be consequences of your sin that you may have to pay for in this life or after you die. An indulgence is a way to lessen that penalty.
  • To receive a full indulgence (called a plenary indulgence), you must:
  • Special sins
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Women Have Very Little Political Power Anywhere In The World - 0 views

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little power world

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  • Women Have Very Little Political Power Anywhere In The World
  • When Canada's new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced he had appointed women to half of his government's cabinet positions, many people asked him why.  "Because it's 2015," he replied. 
  • A new report on global gender equality by the World Economic Forum, the Geneva-based nonprofit most famous for its uber-elite economic conference in Davos, Switzerland, shows that while women are inching toward global parity in education, health, and to a lesser extent economic outcomes, they are still woefully underrepresented in national governments. 
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  • Of 145 countries in the index, only four (Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Nicaragua) are more than halfway toward equality at the parliamentary, ministerial, and head-of-state levels of government.
  • "Political power continues to be one of the great bastions of masculinity, almost anywhere you go in the world,"
  • Many of the top 20 countries on the list in terms of political empowerment -- including Rwanda, Bangladesh, and Costa Rica -- only got there through some sort of quota system that forces political parties to recruit and groom women for political office.
  • The United States comes in 72nd on the list, about halfway down.
  • The burden that the U.S. political system puts on candidates to fund and run campaigns on their own is unique.
  • Political races only last a few weeks, or a few months. Hillary Clinton announced her presidential campaign a full 19 months before the November 2016 election.
  • Add to that the difficulty of beating (mostly male) incumbents, sexism from the media, the contemporary view of congressional politics (the young women she knows mostly see "white men shouting at each other," said Shames), and a grueling campaign schedule likely to put off anyone with significant family responsibilities.
  • The question now is whether there is any political will to change it. Maybe we need quotas.
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Front National support is changing France's political landscape | World news | The Guar... - 0 views

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front national support changing france landscape world news the guardian

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  • Front National support is changing France's political landscape
  • The far-right Front National (FN) won the first round of France’s regional elections on Sunday, taking 28% of the vote and topping the polls in six of the country’s 13 mainland regions.
  • As well as its size, Sunday’s result is striking because it signals a breakthrough in how the FN vote is spread across the country.
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  • he maps below compare the results with those in 2010’s regional elections: the Socialist party (PS) and its allies are marked in pink, the far left in red, the centre right (now Les Républicains, then the UMP) and allies in light blue, and the FN in dark blue:
  • The second round takes place on 13 December between candidates who won at least 10% of the vote in the first round (but less than the 50% required to have won in a single round)
  • Les Républicains and its allies had a disappointing election, winning 27% of the vote. While the PS took only 23%, the party did better than polls predicted.
  • In Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, the PS candidate, Jean-Pierre Masseret, who came third, has said he will not withdraw.
  • The two regions the FN could win are Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, where Marine Le Pen, won 40.5% of the vote, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, where her niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, gained 40.6%. The Socialists are expected to drop out of both races
  • The FN also stands a strong chance in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The party came first there with 32% of the vote in the first round, while the centre right (24%) and socialist vote (23%) is split and a formal alliance is improbable.
  • The numbers suggest Les Républicains will comfortably win control of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Pays de la Loire.
  • The Socialist party will almost certainly control Bretagne (Brittany), where the defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was comfortably ahead in the first round.
  • Le Pen’s party and France’s two mainstream political outfits will vote when faced with a runoff contest. This will be particularly interesting with a presidential election due in 2017.
  • However, FN support is clearly on the rise and it is not clear where its ceiling is. Between the previous regional vote in 2010 and the 2012 presidential election, support for the party nearly tripled in terms of votes won.
  • FN-controlled Hénin-Beaumont has a population of 26,000. Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie has one of nearly 6 million – a different ballgame. How the responsibility and scrutiny of government plays out for the FN will go a long way in determining the shape of French politics over the next two years and beyond.
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Paris attacks: police identify third Bataclan assailant | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

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paris attacks police assailant world news

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  • Paris attacks: police identify third Bataclan assailant
  • Aggad’s father. Saïd Mohamed Aggad, told Le Parisien: “He lied to us. He said he was going on holiday two years ago and he went to Syria. I thought he would die in Syria or Iraq, not come back here and do that,” Aggad added.
  • Most of the others were arrested in spring last year after returning to France but Aggad stayed on in Syria, the source said.
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  • Ninety people died in the Bataclan attacks on 13 November, the single highest death toll in attacks in the city that night that killed 130. The two other Bataclan attackers have been identified as Omar Ismaïl Mostefai, 29, and Samy Amimour, 28.
  • “What is important is that the investigation is progressing, that the accomplices are found out, that arrests happen,” he said.
  • A 23-year-old man from Strasbourg, eastern France, has been identified as the third attacker involved in the terrorist assault at the Bataclan music hall in Paris, police sources have said.
  • Aggad’s identity came to light after his mother received a text message in English 10 days ago announcing her son’s death “as a martyr” on 13 November, a typical way Isis notifies families of casualties.
  • Two members of the group that went to Syria with Aggad were killed. All the others, except Aggad, returned to France in February 2014 after a few weeks in Syria.
  • The Frenchman believed to have recruited them, Mourad Fares, is also under arrest. All are charged with terror-related offences and face trial.
  • All three Bataclan attackers were killed, two by detonating suicide vests and one who was shot by police.
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ISIS's Capital Still Hasn't Been Cut Off - The Daily Beast - 0 views

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capital daily beast

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  • ISIS’s Capital Still Hasn’t Been Cut Off
  • The distance from the Syrian city of Raqqa to Iraq’s Mosul is about 230 miles as the crow flies, and closer to 280 miles if one drives between the two “capitals” controlled by the self-declared Islamic State
  • As The Guardian reported in mid-November: “Although heavily targeted throughout the campaign, ISIS has kept a supply line between Raqqa and Mosul largely open. The highway, in particular, has been a major conduit for trade and the flow of fighters.”
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  • Hisham Abed (not his real name, for security reasons) says he and his 1980s-era Mercedes truck used to take the circuitous route described above. It took him just about six or seven hours to make the journey to Raqqa, and he liked the road because it was paved and relatively safe.
  • Mosul merchant Hassan Thanon (again, a pseudonym) complains that he can no longer communicate with the drivers of trucks carrying his stocks.
  • The new route out of Mosul heads south rather than west. Truckers drive on real roads to Tal Abtah, then take a dirt road for nearly 40 miles until they get to the Qayrawan (also known as Balij) subdistrict southwest of Mosul. There’s a paved road here, not far from the Sinjar Mountains, and from there the trucks cross into Syria.
  • And there are other adaptations: One driver has outfitted his truck like a mobile mechanic’s workshop, carrying tools and spare wheels so he can make repairs if they break down in the desert. He’s charging his colleagues high prices for his services.
  • “My truck was one of the first to travel this new route,” Abed said proudly, soon after he arrived back in Mosul after another tiring journey.
  • Transport costs have also increased by about 25 percent, Thanon said. “But we were only able to increase the prices of our goods a little bit because people living in Mosul can barely afford to buy anything anyway.”
  • Abed says he saw the results of one airstrike. Planes had hit a convoy of trucks carrying vegetables from Raqqa to Mosul; three trucks on the Syrian side of the border were burned out.
  • However, as Abed notes, there are no guarantees that this road will continue to be drivable.
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Muslims Around the World Have Overwhelmingly Negative Views of ISIS - NBC News - 0 views

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muslims world negative views nbc news

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  • Muslims Around the World Have Overwhelmingly Negative Views of ISIS
  • Donald Trump, the controversial 2016 Republican contender, on Monday called for a "complete" shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S. as a national security measure until our country's leaders "can figure out what is going on.
  • rump's ban would include tourists and Muslims hoping to enter the U.S. on visas, and comes as authorities uncover more details about the shooters in last week's rampage in San Bernardino, who they believe had been radicalized into following an extreme form of Islam.
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  • The one exception was Pakistan, where a majority — 62 percent — had no opinion about ISIS. Still, 28 percent said they had an unfavorable view of ISIS, and just nine percent said they had a favorable view.
  • In addition to Paris, the terror group has taken responsibility for a string of other recent attacks, including ones in Beirut and Baghdad.
  • In Lebanon, which was attacked by ISIS days before the survey was conducted, 99 percent of people had a very unfavorable view of the group. Israelis (97 percent) and Jordanians (94 percent) were also opposed to ISIS.
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The Assault on Climate Science - The New York Times - 0 views

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assault climate science new york new york times

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  • The Assault on Climate Science
  • State College, Pa. — WITH world leaders gathered in Paris to address climate change, most of the planet seems to have awakened to the reality that the Earth is warming and that we’re responsible.
  • Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
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  • Now he is using his committee chairmanship to go after the government’s own climate scientists, whose latest study is an inconvenience to his views.
  • The study found that the “rate of global warming during the last 15 years has been as fast as or faster than what was seen during the latter half of the 20th century.”
  • In fact, 2014 was the warmest year on record, and this year is likely to end up even warmer.
  • Fortunately, NOAA did not acquiesce to Mr. Smith’s outrageous demands. The agency pointed out that it had provided Mr. Smith’s committee with the scientific briefings, data and studies behind the Science article, as well as two thorough briefings by NOAA scientists
  • At the same time, as NOAA noted, the confidentiality of communications between scientists is “essential to frank discourse.” For that reason, the agency rejected his demand.
  • “implicitly questioning the integrity of the researchers conducting those studies can be viewed as a form of intimidation that could deter scientists from freely carrying out research on important national challenges.”
  • ut he added, ominously, that “this prioritization does not alleviate NOAA’s obligation to respond fully to the Committee’s subpoena.”
  • During his tenure as the committee’s chairman, he has attempted to slash funding for earth sciences research by the National Science Foundation.
  • He has threatened to replace the foundation’s vaunted scientific peer-review process with a system where congressmen like him help choose which scientific grants are funded.
  • And he recently started a congressional investigation into the finances of an environmental institute headed by a climate scientist who was a lead signatory of a letter suggesting that if fossil fuel companies knowingly misrepresented what they knew about climate change, they should be held accountable in the same way the tobacco industry was for hiding its knowledge about the health impacts of tobacco.
  • In 2005, Joe L. Barton, a Texas Republican who was chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sought all of my personal emails and notes because I had published a study with colleagues showing how the planet’s temperature had shot up after 1900.
  • Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, also weighed in against what he saw as “a kind of intimidation which threatens the relationship between science and public policy” that “must not be tolerated.”
  • While there is no doubt climate change is real and caused by humans, there is absolutely a debate to be had about the details of climate policy, and there are prominent Republicans participating constructively in that discourse. Let’s hear more from these sensible voices. And let’s end the McCarthy-like assault on science led by the Lamar Smiths of the world. Our nation is better than that.
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Killers Were Long Radicalized, F.B.I. Investigators Say - The New York Times - 0 views

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  • Killers Were Long Radicalized, F.B.I. Investigators Say
  • he couple who carried out the deadly attack that killed 14 people here last week had long been radicalized and had been practicing at a target range days before their murder spree, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday.
  • The authorities said they now had evidence that there was extensive planning for the attack. Mr. Bowdich said the couple honed their shooting skills at ranges across the Los Angeles region, including one near where the attack took place here in San Bernardino County.
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  • But in recent days a fuller picture of the couple has emerged as the F.B.I. and other American intelligence and law enforcement agencies have gained greater access to their electronics and phone records, and as more interviews have been conducted with family members, friends, co-workers and other associates. 
  • “At first it seemed very black and white to us that he changed radically when he met her,” said one of the officials who declined to be identified because of the continuing investigation. “But it’s become clear that he was that way before he met her.” 
  • He said that the F.B.I. had interviewed 400 people, and he asked for patience from the public as the agency seeks to untangle the origins and motivations of the attack on the Inland Regional Center, which also wounded 21 people
  • John Galletta, a firearms instructor at the range, confirmed that Mr. Farook had visited, but he did not say if he had been coming regularly. Mr. Galletta said he had not seen Mr. Farook’s wife at the range.
  • “Their teachings have a strong dose of ‘Muslims are destined to lead the world’ and ‘the corrupt West must be confronted.’ ”
  • Critics in Pakistan have long said that Al-Huda, which urges women to cover their faces and to study the Quran, spreads a more conservative strain of Islam. But it has never been directly linked to jihadist violence.
  • “She said she was leaving to get married,” said Ms. Qamar, who wore a black niqab that exposed only her eyes. “Had she completed our course, I’m sure nothing like this would have happened.”
  • “Quran for all; in every hand, every heart,” reads the slogan on the group’s website. Before leaving in May 2014, Ms. Malik had requested information about completing her studies by correspondence, Ms. Chaudhry added. “We sent her the documents by email, but never heard back,” she said.
  • The group also provides charitable services like education scholarships and a marriage bureau to help religious parents find suitable spouses for their children.
  • “Religious conservatism and piety are not the only thing institutions like Al-Huda spread,
  • Officials at the center said she enrolled in an 18-month course to study the Quran in 2013, just as she completed her degree at Bahauddin Zakariya. But she left before finishing the course, telling administrators she was getting married.
  • “Whatever Tashfeen Malik allegedly did is an individual act,” said Ms. Chaudhry, the spokeswoman. “We have nothing to do with it.”
  • John E. D’Angelo, the special assistant agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that Mr. Farook used his name to legally buy three of the guns seized after the attack. Two other weapons were bought by Enrique Marquez, a former neighbor of his family in Riverside.
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The U.S. is running out of bombs to drop on ISIS - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

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  • The U.S. is running out of bombs to drop on ISIS
  • The U.S. Air Force has fired off more than 20,000 missiles and bombs since the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS began 15 months ago
  • he Air Force is now "expending munitions faster than we can replenish them," Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in a statement.
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  • The official told CNN that the Air Force has requested additional funding for Hellfire missiles and is developing plans to ramp up weapons production to replenish its stocks more quickly.
  • "B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers. F-15Es are in the fight because they are able to employ a wide range of weapons and do so with great flexibility. We need the funding in place to ensure we're prepared for the long fight," Welsh said in the statement. "This is a critical need."
  • The Air Force's publication of the number of missiles and bombs dropped comes amid continued criticism from Republicans -- in particular those running for president -- who insist the Obama administration has been too timid in the fight against ISIS, with many on the right calling for the U.S. to loosen the rules of engagement and lead a more aggressive fight against the militant group.
  • American pilots have fired weapons in less than half of the nearly 18,000 sorties they have in the first 10 months of 2015, according the latest figures available.
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China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing - BBC News - 0 views

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  • China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing
  • Schools in Beijing are closed and outdoor construction halted as the Chinese capital's first ever pollution "red alert" came into effect.
  • It is the first time China has declared a red alert under the four-tier alert system, which was adopted a little over two years ago, although pollution levels were far from the city's worst.
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  • John Sudworth, BBC News, Beijing: "Why red now?"
  • The World Health Organization recommends 25 micrograms per cubic metre as the maximum safe level.
  • the US Embassy's air pollution monitor in Beijing reported that the intensity of the tiny particles known as PM 2.5 was at 291 micrograms per cubic metre.
  • So why red now? Well, the lack of any previous red alerts has been met with increasingly loud howls of derision. What would it take, people wondered last week - as their children felt their way to the still open schools through the poisonous gloom - for the government to act?
  • The order will last until 12:00 on Thursday, when a cold front is expected to arrive and clear the smog.
  • China's air quality is a key factor in its push for a new global deal on climate change.
  • Around 58% of the increase in the country's primary energy consumption in 2013-14 came from non-fossil fuel sources.
  • A strong agreement here in Paris won't immediately solve China's air woes, but if it ultimately pushes down the price of renewables even further, it could play a part in solving the issue long term.
  • While the smog's effects have been worsened by weather conditions and the city's geography - bordered to the south and east by industrial areas that generate pollution and to the north and west by mountains that trap it - it has prompted increasing concern that China has prioritised economic growth at too high an environmental cost.
  • Activists said the level hit 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre in the north-east city of Shenyang last month, saying it was the worst seen in China.
  • In comparison, London's PM 2.5 average on 6 December was 8 micrograms per cubic metre, the Environmental Research Group at King's College said. It said more than 70 was reached during spring 2014 and 2015, and the highest was on bonfire night, 5 November 2006, at 112.
  • China still depends on coal for more than 60% of its power, despite major investment in renewable energy sources.
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95,000 Words, Many of Them Ominous, From Donald Trump's Tongue - The New York Times - 0 views

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  • 95,000 Words, Many of Them Ominous, From Donald Trump’s Tongue
  • On Thursday evening, his message was equally ominous, as he suggested a link between the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., and President Obama’s failure to say “radical Islamic terrorism.”
  • The dark power of words has become the defining feature of Mr. Trump’s bid for the White House to a degree rarely seen in modern politics, as he forgoes the usual campaign trappings — policy, endorsements, commercials, donations — and instead relies on potent language to connect with, and often stoke, the fears and grievances of Americans.
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  • Mr. Trump’s breezy stage presence makes him all the more effective because he is not as off-putting as those raging men of the past, these experts say.
  • The most striking hallmark was Mr. Trump’s constant repetition of divisive phrases, harsh words and violent imagery that American presidents rarely use, based on a quantitative comparison of his remarks and the news conferences of recent presidents, Democratic and Republican
  • He has a particular habit of saying “you” and “we” as he inveighs against a dangerous “them” or unnamed other — usually outsiders like illegal immigrants (“they’re pouring in”), Syrian migrants (“young, strong men”) and Mexicans, but also leaders of both political parties.
  • “You know what, darling? You’re not going to be scared anymore. They’re going to be scared. You’re not going to be scared,”
  • And as much as he likes the word “attack,” the Times analysis shows, he often uses it to portray himself as the victim of cable news channels and newspapers that, he says, do not show the size of his crowds.
  • “ ‘We vs. them’ creates a threatening dynamic, where ‘they’ are evil or crazy or ignorant and ‘we’ need a candidate who sees the threat and can alleviate it,” said Matt Motyl, a political psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who is studying how the 2016 presidential candidates speak
  • In another pattern, Mr. Trump tends to attack a person rather than an idea or a situation, like calling political opponents “stupid” (at least 30 times), “horrible” (14 times), “weak” (13 times) and other names, and criticizing foreign leaders, journalists and so-called anchor babies. He bragged on Thursday about psyching out Jeb Bush by repeatedly calling him “low-energy,” but he spends far less time contrasting Mr. Bush’s policies with his own proposals, which are scant.
  • The specter of violence looms over much of his speech, which is infused with words like kill, destroy and fight. For a man who speaks off the cuff, he always remembers to bring up the Islamic State’s “chopping off heads.”
  • Mr. Trump said, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”
  • And Mr. Trump uses rhetoric to erode people’s trust in facts, numbers, nuance, government and the news media, according to specialists in political rhetoric. “Nobody knows,” he likes to declare, where illegal immigrants are coming from or the rate of increase of health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act, even though government agencies collect and publish this information
  • describing the Sept. 11 terrorists as “animals” who sent their families back to the Middle East. “We never went after them. We never did anything. We have to attack much stronger. We have to be more vigilant. We have to be much tougher. We have to be much smarter, or it’s never, ever going to end.”
  • This pattern of elevating emotional appeals over rational ones is a rhetorical style that historians, psychologists and political scientists placed in the tradition of political figures like Goldwater, George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy, Huey Long and Pat Buchanan, who used fiery language to try to win favor with struggling or scared Americans.
  • “His entire campaign is run like a demagogue’s — his language of division, his cult of personality, his manner of categorizing and maligning people with a broad brush,” said Jennifer Mercieca, an expert in American political discourse at Texas A&M University
  • “And then there are the winners, most especially himself, with his repeated references to his wealth and success and intelligence,” said Ms. Mercieca, noting a particular remark of Mr. Trump’s on Monday in Macon, Ga.
  • Historically, demagogues have flourished when they tapped into the grievances of citizens and then identified and maligned outside foes, as McCarthy did with attacking Communists, Wallace with pro-integration northerners and Mr. Buchanan with cultural liberals.
  • be it “segregation forever” or accusatory questions over the Communist Party — to persuade Americans to pin their anxieties about national security, jobs, racial diversity and social trends on enemy forces.
  • A significant difference between Mr. Trump and 20th-century American demagogues is that many of them, especially McCarthy and Wallace, were charmless public speakers.
  • For some historians, this only makes him more effective, because demagogy is more palatable when it is leavened with a smile and joke. Highlighting that informality, one of his most frequently used words is “guy” — which he said 91 times last week and has used to describe President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a stranger cheering him on at a rally and a celebrity friend.
  • In the 1980s, it was with advertisements condemning the young men, four of them black and one Latino, accused of marauding through Central Park and raping a jogger. Just over a decade ago, it was the controversy during the first season of his reality show “The Apprentice,” in which he played a boardroom billionaire who fired people.
  • Mr. Trump has said he will tear into anyone who tries to take him on, and he presents himself as someone who is always right in his opinions — even prophetic, a visionary.
  • “I said, ‘We better be careful, that’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be a big thing,’ and it certainly is a big thing,” Mr. Trump has said of what he wrote about the Al Qaeda leader in 2000.
  • It is the sort of trust-me-and-only-me rhetoric that, according to historians, demagogues have used to insist that they have unique qualities that can lead the country through turmoil. Mr. Trump often makes that point when he criticizes his Republican rivals, though he also pretends that he is not criticizing them.
  • So I refuse to say that they’re weak generally, O.K.? Some of them are fine people. But they are weak.”
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Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed, annotated and fact-checked - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-ed-annotated-and-fact-checked

putin new york new york times politics history crisis culture

shared by redavistinnell on 23 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Vladimir Putin’s New York Times op-ed, annotated and fact-checked
  • It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.
  • Putin here is implicitly defending Russia's right to use its veto to block the United Nations from any action on Syria, including simple press releases condemning the use of chemical weapons.
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  • After World War II, getting the world's five remaining great powers (the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and the Soviet Union) to consent to this newfangled United Nations system required granting them veto power so they'd be comfortable with it
  • Putin has also been supplying Assad with heavy weapons. It's a bit rich for him to decry violence or outside involvement at this point.
  • Many of his points are defensible and have been made by American analysts, such as the risk to U.S.-Iran negotiations and the fear that strikes would exacerbate extremism
  • But what rankles many analysts about this paragraph is that it ignores Putin's own role in enabling the already quite awful violence, as well as the extremism it's inspired.
  • If the United Nations can survive the unilateral Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. intervention in Vietnam, among many other wars large and small, it will survive cruise missile strikes on Syria.
  • There is no one in the world better positioned than Vladimir Putin to force Assad to the negotiating table. Instead, Putin has shown every indication that he wishes for Assad to defeat the rebels totally and outright, as his father Hafez al-Assad did in 1982 when he crushed an uprising in Hama.
  • Still, the concern about Syria breeding extremist violence is likely an earnest one for Putin, who surely knows that some Chechens have been fighting in Syria and could very plausibly cause trouble back home in Russia.
  • Russia has blocked the United Nations from simply condemning Assad's attacks on civilians or the use of chemical weapons in Syria, much less taking action to punish or stop those crimes.
  • and a real dilemma for Obama, given that he is attempting to portray strikes against Syria as meant to uphold international law against the use of chemical weapons.
  • An investigation by Human Rights Watch pointed to the Assad regime as responsible. The United Nations investigation, while not permitted to formally assign blame, is expected to amass lots of evidence indicating Assad regime responsibility -- a story that broke mere minutes after Putin's op-ed went online.
  • utin knows the memory of Iraq is weighing heavily on the United States right now and wants to r
  • emind us why. Russia, for its part, vehemently opposes Western intervention in foreign countries, which it sees as a continuation of Western imperialism and an indirect threat to Russia itself.
  • Let's follow through on the Russian plan to have Syria give up its chemical weapons in exchange for the United States not attacking. And Obama is clearly interested.
  • "American exceptionalism" is a complicated idea but it basically boils down to a combination of simple nationalism and a belief that the United States can and should play a special role in shaping the world.
  • Putin's Russia has obviously lost the ability to play the role of a superpower, but he still cultivates a sense of nationalism and national greatness.
  • It's a reminder to American readers that Russia is a predominantly Christian nation. And it could also be, as World Politics Review editor Matt Peterson pointed out to me, an implicit argument for sovereignty, that all nations are equal and so no one country should go interfering with another.
redavistinnell

How the ISIS fight went global - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics history crisis culture policy cnn com

shared by redavistinnell on 17 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • How the ISIS fight went global
  • Just one day before multiple machine gun and bomb attacks in the French capital left almost 500 people from all walks of life dead or wounded, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the U.S. strategy against the jihadist group has "contained" it but not yet succeeded in its effort to "decapitate" the group's leadership.
  • Two suicide bombers detonated devices in the port city on Thursday, claiming the lives of at least 43 and wounding another 239.
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  • Lebanese intelligence believes the bombers could be part of a cell dispatched to Beirut by ISIS leadership, the source said, but investigators are still working to verify the surviving suspect's claim
  • Last month at least 95 people were killed in twin bombings in Turkey's capital, Ankara, ripping through a peace rally near the city's main train station
  • The attack may have been retaliation for a recent change in Turkey's stance toward confronting the ISIS threat -- shortly before the attacks it had allowed the U.S. to launch strikes on ISIS from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
  • Russia's recent, increased involvement in the fight against ISIS has seemingly escalated the terror group's responses.
  • Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, in which all 224 people on board were killed, the recent attacks in Lebanon and France suggest that the jihadists are lashing out.
  • A revelation Sunday that at least one of the Paris terrorists who killed more than 120 people on Friday entered Europe under cover as a refugee appears likely to fire up the security debate over what to do with them
  • Eventually, he made his way to Paris, where he was one of three men who blew themselves up at the Stade de France.
  • Seven people have been arrested in relation to the attacks in the raids, he said.
  • The authorities there have been making headway, however. At the beginning of the year a terror cell on the brink of carrying out an attack was the target of a raid which left two suspects dead and a third injured and apprehended.
  • Abu Nabil, an Iraqi national and longtime al Qaeda operative, was taken out in an airstrike authorized and initiated prior to the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said.
  • he infamous masked British executioner, who has apparently appeared in a number of gruesome videos in which ISIS captives were decapitated, was very likely killed in a drone strike earlier in the month.
  • Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of this weekend's G20 summit in Turkey and reportedly reached an informal agreement that there was a necessity for a ceasefire and transitional government in Syria to effectively combat the threat.
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Migrant crisis: Monthly record of 218,000 reach EU by sea - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-34700104

crisis monthly record reach sea bbc news

shared by redavistinnell on 02 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Migrant crisis: Monthly record of 218,000 reach EU by sea
  • According to the UN, 744,175 have arrived on Europe's shores, the vast majority on Greek islands such as Lesbos and Samos
  • This year alone, 3,440 have drowned or have been declared missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, the UN agency says. The International Organization for Migration says more than 400 people died while travelling to Greece.
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  • The number reaching Greece was 210,265, and for Italy it was 8,129, according to the UNHCR.
  • Germany expects at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year - some estimates put it as high as 1.5 million. That is at least four times the number who arrived last year.
  • Her Christian Social Union (CSU) ally Horst Seehofer is pushing for transit zones to be set up to process arrivals near the country's borders. Mrs Merkel's CDU party backs the idea, however Social Democrat leader Sigmar Gabriel is opposed to the zones amid concerns that they might resemble detention camps.
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Investigators searching for cause of deadly explosion inside World War II-era tank | Fo... - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...rld-war-ii-era-tank-police-say

investigators searching explosion inside tank

shared by redavistinnell on 28 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Investigators searching for cause of deadly explosion inside World War II-era tank
  • The blast occurred Tuesday afternoon at a public gun range east of Bend.
  • There was no word on what caused the explosion, but Nelson says video was being shot around when the blast occurred that could help investigators learn more about what happened.
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  • Detectives from the sheriff's office and the Oregon State Police Arson and Explosives Section are investigating.
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South China Sea: Beijing 'not frightened to fight a war' after US move | World news | T... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...war-south-china-sea-uss-lassen

south china sea beijing fight war world world news

shared by redavistinnell on 28 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • South China Sea: Beijing 'not frightened to fight a war' after US move
  • Twenty-four hours after Washington challenged Beijing’s territorial claims in the region by deploying a warship to waters around the disputed Spratly archipelago, the notoriously nationalistic Global Times accused the Pentagon of provoking China.
  • The People’s Liberation Army Daily, China’s leading military newspaper, used a front-page editorial to accuse the US of sowing chaos in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
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  • Tuesday’s manoeuvre, which saw the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen sail close to artificial Chinese islands, came after Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping failed to find common ground over the issue during recent talks at the White House.
  • “The United States has been very irresponsible,” defense ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
  • Lu Kang, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said China would “resolutely respond” to any deliberate provocations but declined to be drawn on any potential military response.
  • China’s military buildup in the South China Sea – including the construction of a 3km runway capable of supporting fighter jets and transport planes – has become a major source of tension between Beijing and Washi
  • Washington hoped Tuesday’s mission would encourage Beijing to step back from its controversial island building campaign, which China claims is for civilian purposes but critics believe is an attempt to use military power to cement its grip over the region.
  • Townshend said the US mission may have temporarily strengthened Washington’s hand. “[But] there’s an element of you win the battle but you lose the war if actually these freedom of navigation missions make China more determined to militarise these islands,” he added. “These islands are not going away – unless global warming takes them out.”
redavistinnell

The Death Penalty Election: A Louisiana Parish Is Ground Zero for the Capital Punishmen... - 0 views

www.thedailybeast.com/...capital-punishment-debate.html

death penalty election louisiana parish ground capital punishment

shared by redavistinnell on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • The Death Penalty Election: A Louisiana Parish Is Ground Zero for the Capital Punishment Debate
  • For a county of around 250,000 residents, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, has attracted an outsize share of attention of late: long-form articles in The New Yorker and the New York Times, a Super-PAC funded by billionaire George Soros, and Saturday’s closely watched election for the office of district attorney, now headed for a runoff.
  • “Our community does not need any more controversy,” Cox told the Shreveport Times, when he decided not to run.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • There’s the murder conviction of Rodricus Crawford, which Cox secured despite thin evidence and racist appeals to the all-white jury.
  • Then there’s the case of Glen Ford, another black man sent to death row by Caddo Parish. He spent 30 years on death row, much of it in solitary confinement, before a court declared him innocent in 2014. Ford died of lung cancer within a year of being released
  • At the same time, it’s possible that Cox didn’t run for office because he has his sights set higher.
  • He’s justified the death penalty as an expression of “revenge;” he’s said “we need to kill more people;” he’s said of racism, “I don’t get this discrimination business, I really don’t.” And he has a portrait of a Confederate general turned Ku Klux Klan leader hanging in his office.
  • “George Soros reflects an anti-American sentiment that does not reflect the values of Caddo Parish,” said the Republican chairman, Louis Avallone.
  •  “My campaign knows nothing about where the funding for this PAC comes from,” he said. “Just like my campaign cannot force a PAC to stop a negative ad, my campaign cannot stop a positive ad.”
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Canada election: Liberals sweep to power - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-us-canada-34578213

canada election liberals sweep power bbc news

shared by redavistinnell on 20 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Canada election: Liberals sweep to power
  • The centrist Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, started the campaign in third place but in a stunning turnaround now command a majority.
  • During the 11-week election campaign, the Liberal Party said it would:
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • And yet shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Justin Trudeau took the stage at Liberal headquarters as prime minister elect.
  • Speaking after the polls closed, he said he had congratulated Mr Trudeau, and that the Conservatives would accept the results "without hesitation".
  • The NDP is on course to win 44 seats, less than half the number they held in the outgoing parliament.
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