'My Friends Call Me Czechia'
Camila Domonoske, NPR
Camila Domonoske, NPR
Matthew Harries, Survival
The long, slow and now sudden fall of the European centre-left is especially evident in Britain, where the forces of anti-establishment feeling which define much of Western politics are strong; and the topic of the European Union is the open sore of Britain’s party of government. Were the referendum simply an exercise in calculating risk and material interest, it would be no contest, and we can still count on powerful forces mobilising in favour of Britain remaining part of the EU, not least the City of London. Читать дальше...
Martin Kettle, Guardian
All of which adds up to the extraordinary truth that, for once, Cameron desperately needed Corbyn to rise to the occasion. Labour votes will be crucial on 23 June, and until now Corbyn has allowed the idea to get around that he is not massively bothered by the outcome of the referendum. That made Thursday a speak-for-England moment for a Labour leader who is an instinctive sectarian – yet it was one that he seized.
Tim Stanley, Telegraph
So, we finally know the identity of that celebrity threesome. Yesterday David Cameron, Paddy Ashdown and Neil Kinnock manned the phones for the In campaign – a perfect example of the strange bedfellows that politics makes. If any of these gets through to your house, keep them on the line for an hour at least. Bleed them for every penny...
K. Brown, Diplomat
The 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution will pass in silence if China’s leaders have their way.
George Friedman, Geo. Futures
In traveling to Europe this week, I am going to a place that is experiencing both an influx of Muslim refugees at the same time that it is experiencing terrorist acts by Muslims. In one sense, this is a very old story. Muslims invaded Europe in the 8th century, seizing Spain and penetrating France. Muslims also invaded Europe from the southeast, penetrating as far as Vienna in the 17th century. Europe invaded Muslim lands during the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries. Читать дальше...
Romana Ramzan, National
When some people in the West think of Islam in the post-September 11 era, they often equate it with violence, fanaticism, extremism and intolerance.
Anna Sauerbrey, NY Times
BERLIN — THOUGH it’s a fact often overlooked by the rest of the world, Germany is a funny place — seriously. Long before Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee redefined topical American humor, comedians here perfected the art of sharp political satire.
George Eaton, NS
In advance of his visit to the UK next week, the Brexiters have a new target in their sights: Barack Obama. Nigel Farage has described him as "the most anti-British American president there has ever been" (James Madison, who declared war on the UK in 1812, may contest that), adding that he hopes he will be replaced by someone "rather more sensible when it comes to trading relationships with this country". Boris Johnson has denounced Obama as "plainly hypocritical".
Eliot Cohen, The American Interest
The defenders of Westerplatte, utterly outgunned and doomed, could not have known that their resistance would go down in Polish history. Yet what they did, and what the defenders of Warsaw did in 1939, and what many other Poles did in later years, kept Poland’s soul alive and whole. When the time came in the 1980s for the dockworkers of what was then Gdansk to rise up against a Soviet puppet government, they could draw on a faith and a courage that had survived the decades—in part because of that record.
Sarah Peacey, The Conversation
The question of whether warfare is encoded in our genes, or appeared as a result of civilisation, has long fascinated anyone trying to get to grips with human society. Might a willingness to fight neighbouring groups have provided our ancestors with an evolutionary advantage? With conflicts raging across the globe, these questions have implications for understanding our past, and perhaps our future as well.
Nick Hallett, Breitbart
“I am not aware of such shortages, I don’t see them. I am aware of the rigidities of European labour markets. We all know that there are 23 million unemployed in Europe… Any reasonably thinking person must admit that in absolute terms, the available labour force reservoir in Europe is sufficient.”
Stephen Harding, Daily Beast
Peter Ashmun Ames was a Pennsylvania kid who joined MI5 because he couldn’t find a job. His career as a spy didn’t last long, as the IRA was hunting men like him.
Adam Gopnik, NYorker
The Great Carbonara Crisis—or Carbonaragate, as it’s come to be known—has arrived at an oddly opportune moment for my family. We have just come back from a sort of impromptu carciofi and carbonara festival in Rome. I was there for the publication of an Italian translation of a Canadian book and, while officially pretending to be caught up in Gibbonian gloom, the truth is that we were enjoying dinner after delicious dinner at a variety of Roman trattorias, where the menu unvaryingly... Читать дальше...
David Petraeus, WaPo
The formulation of sound national policy requires finding the right overarching concepts. Getting the “big ideas” right is particularly important when major developments appear to have invalidated the concepts upon which previous policy and strategy were based — which now appears to be the case in the wake of the Arab Spring.