Reuters (September 28)
“Along with the ongoing decimation of Iraq’s Sunni population,” the Kurdish referendum “means that in practice ‘Iraq’ no longer exists. In its place is a Shiite state dominated by Iran, the de facto new nation of Kurdistan, and a shrinking population of Sunnis tottering between annihilation or reservation-like existence, depending on whether the United States uses the last of its influence to sketch out red lines or abandons the people to fate.”00
Tags: Annihilation, Decimation, Influence, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Kurds, Referendum, Shiite, Sunni, U.S.
Washington Post (September 27)
Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have “escalated from a game of blind man’s bluff to a drag race of nuclear chicken,” with the fate of the Pacific resting on the whims of “Rocket Man” and President “Dotard.” This is how things go “in Toontown, where two of the planet’s most unstable state actors call each other names and spin the roulette wheel toward nukes and annihilation.” What else is there to do, but “pray that we and the planet survive the Dotard and the Rocket Man?”
Tags: Annihilation, Fate, North Korea, Nuclear chicken, Pacific, Pray, President Dotard, Rocket Man, Roulette, Survive, Tensions, U.S., Unstable, Whims
Bloomberg (September 27)
Shinzo Abe is taking a “momentous gamble.” Nothing less than “Japan’s economic future, and his own political legacy” will depend on the outcome of the October election.
Deutsche Welle (September 25)
“Sunday’s federal election proved quite a storm for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. Now, a day after these remarkable results, the skies over Berlin’s River Spree are cloudy, drizzly, and unpleasant. The sunny days are over.” The inclement forecast is largely due to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which proved unexpectedly strong, landing a third place finish. The AfD won 94 of the Bundestag’s 709 seats. Their victory marks the first time for a right-wing party to be represented in the Bundestag since the Nazi defeat in 1945.
Tags: AfD, Berlin, Bundestag, Election, Government, Merkel, Nazis, Results, Right wing, Storm
Los Angeles Times (September 25)
“It’s time for you to expel President Trump from the White House.” Republican “party loyalty, if unchecked, could mean the United States finds itself in another war. But this time, we could suffer irreparable harm in the form of a nuclear attack on our soil…. Republicans, now is the time to stand your ground against Trump. Protect our country by starting the process to remove Trump from office.”
Tags: Expel, Loyalty, Nuclear attack, Protect, Remove, Republicans, Trump, U.S., War
The Economist (September 23)
“Tensions over China’s industrial might now threaten the architecture of the global economy. America’s trade representative this week called China an ‘unprecedented’ threat that cannot be tamed by existing trade rules. The European Union, worried by a spate of Chinese acquisitions, is drafting stricter rules on foreign investment. And, all the while, China’s strategy for modernising its economy is adding further strain.”
Tags: Acquisitions, China, EU, Foreign investment, Global economy, Strain, Tension, Threat, Trade rules, U.S.
Bloomberg (September 22)
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s “preliminary recommendation is to let commercial fishing resume in the Pacific Remote Islands and in the nearby Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. Yet commercial tuna fishing is precisely what put these ecosystems under pressure. To thrive, the creatures need to be undisturbed, and this protection has to extend far enough to allow them to roam…. The Trump administration is wrong to be contemplating this backward step.”
Tags: Commercial fishing, Ecosystems, Pacific Remote Islands, Recommendation, Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, Trump, Tuna, Undisturbed, Wrong, Zinke
Dallas Morning News (September 21)
There’s “little solace amid the pileup of hurricane and earthquake devastation, not to mention the record-setting wildfires…. But the silver lining in this chaos is that time and time again, nature’s wrath is answered by steely human resolve…. Those of us lucky enough to be spared from this summer of destruction can do more than marvel at the responses of courage and resolve. Let us each lend a hand in whatever way we best can.”
Tags: Chaos, Courage, Destruction, Devastation, Earthquake, Human resolve, Hurricane, Nature, Pileup, Silver lining, Solace, Wildfires, Wrath
New York Times (September 20)
“The United Nations isn’t the venue one would expect for threatening war. Yet that’s what President Trump did in his first address to the General Assembly.” His “dark tone and focus seemed a significant deviation, not least his relentlessly bellicose approach to North Korea,” in front of a “world body whose main purpose is the peaceful resolution of disputes.”
Tags: Bellicose, Disputes, General Assembly, North Korea, Peaceful, Resolution, Threatening, Tone, Trump, UN, War
Chicago Tribune (September 19)
“Teenagers are increasingly delaying activities that had long been seen as rites of passage into adulthood…. The percentage of adolescents in the U.S. who have a driver’s license, who have tried alcohol, who date, and who work for pay has plummeted since 1976, with the most precipitous decreases in the past decade.” The larger story may be that youths have less interest in these actives “because in today’s society, they no longer need to.”
Tags: Adolescents, Adulthood, Alcohol, Dating, Delay, Drive:, Rites of passage, Teenagers, U.S., Work Society