| | | | America's Tragedy: A School Shooting a Week | | | "We're only 20 weeks into 2018, and there have already been 22 school shootings where someone was hurt or killed. That averages out to more than 1 shooting a week," CNN reports, following a shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday that left at least 10 people dead. | | We're in the "Age of Bibi" | | | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't usually included in the list of global strongmen. But his political longevity—and his regular defiance of the United States—suggests his skills rival the best of them, writes Anshel Pfeffer in The New York Times.
"Netanyahu is the toast of the new wave of right-wing, populist and autocrat-like (if not outright autocratic) leaders. They see in him a kindred spirit, even a mentor. He is the leader of a small country who has taken on American presidents and outlasted them. He has successfully defied the Western liberal human rights agenda, focusing instead on trade and security. Israel's success as a regional economic and military power is proof in their eyes that the illiberal approach can prevail." - On GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN: The opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem this week was met with protests—and a show of force from Israel. Joining Fareed to discuss the prospects for peace in the Middle East will be New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and Hanan Ashrawi, a long-time Palestinian activist and official.
| | Memo to Pompeo: It's Too Soon to Talk About This | | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to give a speech on Iran on Monday that will outline US plans for a coalition aimed at the country's "destabilizing activities." Don't be surprised if the coalition is a little on the small side, writes Daniel Larison for The American Conservative. You can't spit in your allies' faces over the Iran deal and expect them to line up behind you a couple of weeks later.
"It is absurd to toss aside a carefully-negotiated, multilateral agreement and then expect the same governments that you just insulted and betrayed to support your agenda. The US was able to build a broad international consensus on the nuclear issue because most governments agreed in principle that preventing nuclear proliferation was a priority. There is no similar international consensus on other issues, and there isn't likely to be one," Larison writes.
"If the US had wanted our allies' assistance on other matters, it should have paid attention to their concerns and preferences before reneging on the deal. Making requests so soon after spitting in their faces isn't just incompetent diplomacy, but practically invites reprisals. Pompeo should be working on repairing the damage that reneging on the deal has caused to relations with several of our major allies."
| | The Next Big Populist Threat to Europe? | | More than two months after Italians went to the polls and the country finally looks set to confirm a new government. But the expected coalition "sets a perilous precedent for Brussels: it marks the first time a founding member of the EU has been led by populist, anti-EU forces," The Guardian's Jon Henley writes.
"Fed up with the country's long, seemingly irreversible economic decline, persistent high unemployment, and a refugee and migrant crisis, Italy's voters turned on the political center that has governed (or failed to govern) Italy since the 1980s," Henley writes.
"Europe's, and especially the eurozone's, biggest fear is that Italy plunges into the kind of economic meltdown that eventually came very close to catapulting Greece[…]out of the single currency in 2015.
"The parallel is far from perfect, and neither M5S [Five Star Movement] nor the League seem to be spoiling for the kind of fight that Syriza once sought. But the EU could most certainly do without a Greek-style crisis on an Italian scale."
| | Fareed: The Professionals America Needs to Treat Far Better | | | Teachers play an integral part in a country's success. But in America, they are underpaid, underappreciated and increasingly hard to recruit, Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column.
"We have all heard about stagnant middle-class wages. But the average pay for a teacher in the United States, adjusted for inflation, has actually declined over the past 15 years, while their health-care costs have risen substantially. The Economist reports that teachers earn 60 percent of what a professional with comparable education does," Fareed writes.
"Yes, education is a very complicated subject. Simply spending more money does not guarantee results—although there are studies that indicate a significant correlation between teacher pay and student achievement. Yes, the education bureaucracy is rigid and often corrupt. But all of this masks the central problem: Over the past 30 years, as part of the assault on government, bureaucrats and the public sector in general, being a teacher in America has become a thankless job. And yet, teaching is the one profession that makes all other professions possible." | | How Maduro Will Win – and Lose – on Sunday | | Nicólas Maduro appears almost certain to be reelected president in Venezuela's election Sunday. But the humanitarian crisis will continue—and that means Maduro will merely be prolonging his agony, writes Andres Oppenheimer in the Miami Herald.
True, "Maduro is benefitting from the mass exodus of 3 million Venezuelans in recent years. Like in Cuba before, the Venezuelan exodus is helping Maduro get rid of middle-class government critics," Oppenheimer writes.
But, "Venezuela's inflation will reach nearly 14,000 this year, by far the highest in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. The minimum wage has plummeted to $3.6 dollars a month…in the black market rate that Venezuelans use for their daily purchases.
"Unlike Cuba in the 1960's, Maduro doesn't have a former Soviet Union to bankroll him. China has reportedly already said it won't extend its new grace periods on Venezuela's debts." | | | | | | |
