Sunday, May 19, 2019
Politik-Skandal in Österreich! Alle Infos
Hungary's Lone Fighter for Europe and the EU | Focus on Europe
Iran Crisis: Deal or War? | Quadriga Talk
Trump Backs Abortion in Cases of Rape or Incest, Contradicting Alabama Law
Donald Trump, in a series of late night posts on Twitter, has outlined a less restrictive view of abortion than that just passed by Alabama’s Republican state government.
Alabama now bans abortion except if there is a “serious health risk” to the mother, with no exceptions for rape and incest, but the president says he favours making an exception of cases of rape and incest.
“As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly pro-life, with the three exceptions – rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother – the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” Trump tweeted. » | Pádraig Collins | Sunday, May 19, 2019
Trump is pro-life? Really? So why all this war-mongering? Such hypocrisy! – Mark
On Contact: Threat of War with Iran w/Codepink's Medea Benjamin
Old Grudges, New Weapons… Is the US on the Brink of War with Iran?
For better or worse, America remains the world’s leading military superpower. In Washington last week, a familiar row erupted over how best that power should be used. Past targets have included Soviet Russia, al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Today the international bogeyman topping the White House’s to-do list is Iran.
Once again the US is in the process of deciding whether to go to war. As always, it is a tangled, messy and dishonest business. On one side, favouring punitive action, stand the Iran hawks. They include neoconservative retreads such as John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, who championed the 2003 Iraq invasion; Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director and Christian evangelical who heads the state department; and Mike Pence, the ascetic US vice-president.
On the other side, opposing escalation, stand Democratic party leaders in Congress and a clutch of presidential hopefuls; sceptical Pentagon generals and security agency officials who trust Bolton as far as they can toss an IED; a majority of Washington’s more important allies in the EU and Nato; and China and Russia, which oppose American global power-plays on principle. » | Simon Tisdall | Saturday, May 18, 2019
Don’t Lead Us to Disaster, Moderate Tories Warn Frontrunner Boris Johnson
Conservative leadership contenders will shepherd the party to disaster if they adopt the “comfort blanket of populism” in response to Nigel Farage, scores of Tory MPs will warn this week.
Eight cabinet ministers are among a group of 60 modernising MPs who will call on contenders for the leadership to “reject narrow nationalism” in their quest to replace Theresa May. The warning comes with Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, who have both said they are willing to back a no-deal Brexit, emerging as the favourites among Tory members. Johnson is the frontrunner. » | Michael Savage | Saturday, May 18, 2019
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Europe’s Far-right Leaders Unite with a Vow to ‘Change History’
Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini led a rally of his European far-right allies in front of Milan’s Gothic cathedral on Saturday. He pledged to change history after this week’s EU elections by making the populist alliance one of the largest groupings in the European parliament.
Flanked by France’s Marine Le Pen and leaders from nine other nationalist parties, Salvini began his speech to the packed Piazza del Duomo by quoting the British writer GK Chesterton: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.” He added that his group would remould Europe “not for our sake, but for our children”. » | Angela Giuffrida | Saturday, May 18, 2019
There’s So Much At Stake in the EU Elections. This Is about What Kind of Country We Want to Be
We are in the middle of a battle for Britain’s soul. On one side are those who want our country to continue to be forward looking, open to the world, tolerant, inclusive and progressive. On the other, those who want to pit our communities against each other, undo the social progress painstakingly made over decades, and who advocate a politics of division.
Across the globe, the far right is on the rise. They are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
Many are using the same methods from the old far-right playbook. Picking on minority communities and the marginalised in order to manufacture an enemy. Fabricating lies in order to stoke up fear. And promoting hatred of immigrants, sympathy for white nationalism, attacks on women’s reproductive rights and rolling back the progress made on LGBT rights.
Take Donald Trump who, as US president, said there were “very fine people on all sides” when white supremacists marched through the streets of Charlottesville. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, has embraced antisemitism and attacked LGBT rights and press freedom. Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister of Italy, has repeatedly attacked migrants. And Marine Le Pen finished second in the last French presidential election on an anti-immigration platform. Worryingly, similar nationalist and populist parties are gaining support in almost every European country. » | Sadiq Khan | Saturday, May 18, 2019
Labour Panic as Remain Voters Switch to Liberal Democrats
Senior Labour figures were engaged in a desperate battle to shore up the party’s support on Saturday night, amid warnings that its stance on Brexitwas helping to “detoxify the Lib Dems”.
With just days left before the European elections at which Nigel Farage’s Brexit party is expected to triumph, shadow cabinet ministers are among those concerned that Labour’s ambiguous position on Brexit has helped revive the Lib Dems. It comes as new polling seen by the Observer suggests Vince Cable’s party is running in first place in London and could even beat Labour overall.
One senior party figure warned: “If the consequence of Labour’s Brexit position and this European election is to essentially detoxify the Lib Dems, then that’s a real problem.” Clive Lewis, a shadow Treasury minister, said “lifelong Labour voters” would not back the party this week due to its Brexit stance. He added: “It feels like we’ve given [the Lib Dems] the political equivalent of resuscitation.” » | Michael Savage, Observer policy editor | Saturday, May 18, 2019
Sex Education: The Clash of LGBT and Religious Rights – BBC Newsnight
Tommy Robinson: Salvini Shows Far-right Agenda Attainable
Tommy Robinson has said Matteo Salvini, the anti-Islam Italian minister accused of targeting refugees, had shown what was attainable from pursuing far-right policies.
Speaking in a pub car park on the latest stage of his European election campaign, Robinson told supporters in the former mill town of Heywood in Lancashire that Italy’s interior minister had shown it was possible to make the transition from being classed as an “extremist” into “one of the most powerful men in Europe”.
About 300 supporters, many holding aloft pints, comprised one of the biggest crowds of Robinson’s campaign to become an MEP. » | Mark Townsend | Saturday, May 18, 2019
John Bolton: The Man Driving the US towards War … Any War
The US is now engaged in three major confrontations around the world that have the potential to degrade into war. And in the driving seat on all three fronts is John Bolton, one of the most fervent believers in American military power ever to work in the White House.
Donald Trump’s 70-year-old national security adviser has been a fixture in US foreign policy over the past four decades, and has spent that time, whether in or out of government, mostly arguing for the most hawkish position on any issue put in front of him.
“He actually believes when America leads, the world is a safer and better place – not just for us but for the world,” said Mark Groombridge, who worked for Bolton for more than 10 years.
In the Obama era, Bolton’s bristling walrus moustache was a near constant presence on television, almost always Fox News, from where he would vent scorn and spleen on the Democratic administration.
These days, Bolton looks considerably more cheerful, having reached the peak of the policymaking establishment that had once seemed out of his reach. » | Julian Borger in Washington | Friday, May 17, 2019
Iran Says 'There Will Be No War' as US Warns of Risk to Civilian Aircraft
Iran’s foreign minister said on Saturday “there will be no war” with the US, since “nobody in the region is suffering from a hallucination to think that he is able to confront Iran”.
Nonetheless, US diplomats warned commercial airliners flying over the Persian Gulf that they faced a risk of being “misidentified” amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The US has ordered bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Gulf over an unexplained perceived threat, raising tensions a year after Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal between world powers and the Islamic Republic.
In remarks quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency at the end of his trip to China, the foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, said the Islamic Republic was “not seeking war”, adding: “In fact, as the supreme leader said, there will be no war since we are not seeking war and nobody in the region is suffering from a hallucination to think that he is able to confront Iran.”
He added that though Trump has said he is not seeking war, “some that have sat around him” are pushing such a conflict. » | Associated Press in Washington | Saturday, May 18, 2019
CrossTalk: Bolton War Machine
Austria: Far-right Vice-Chancellor Strache Forced to Resign | DW News
German Neo-Nazi Party Runs for European Elections | DW News
Austria Minister Heinz-Christian Strache Resigns amid Video Scandal
The video appeared to show Mr Strache discussing government contracts with an alleged Russian investor in return for campaign support.
He also appeared to hint at a potentially illegal donation system for the far-right Freedom Party he leads.
Mr Strache said that transport minister Norbert Hofer will replace him.
He said he was leaving to avoid further damage to the government and claimed he had been the "victim of a targeted political attack" which had used illegal means. » | Saturday, May 18, 2019
Friday, May 17, 2019
As Rightwing Populism Spreads, Bigotry against the LGBT Community Is Growing
Ispent last week in Cuba, a time which overlapped with what should have been the country’s 12th annual Conga Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The march, however, organised by the government and the brainchild of Mariela Castro – daughter of Raul – was cancelled, owing to “new tensions in the international and regional context”.
This essentially translates into a fear that people taking to the streets at a time of heightened tension in the region might turn into general unrest. But there is also the unmentioned fact that religious communities in Cuba are increasingly pushing back against the otherwise repressive state’s attempts to improve LGBT+ rights. Earlier in the year proposed changes to the constitution to allow same-sex marriages were scrapped after pressure from evangelical churches and sections of the population. A spontaneous civilian-organised march to replace the cancelled conga resulted in multiple arrests.
LGBT+ discrimination still exists the world over – this can be insiduous, quotidian prejudice or extreme hatred. Homosexual sex and relationships are still illegal in 69 countries (including 35 Commonwealth countries), and can be penalised with life imprisonment, while some countries still have the death penalty on their statute books. But LGBT+ individuals had become used to good news stories: be it the ground-breaking vote for same-sex marriage in Ireland or Ana Brnabić becoming Serbia’s first openly gay prime minister).
Now, however, as rightwing populism spreads around the world, there is a noticeable rise in bigotry. The LGBT+ community is feeling besieged once again. » | Hannah Jane Parkinson | Friday, May 17, 2019
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