| | | | Fareed: How America Has Broken Barriers of Decency | | The suspicious packages sent to public figures and the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last week marked a sad moment for America, Fareed argued in his Take from Sunday's show. "We seem to have crossed lines and broken barriers of decency."
"One of the most extraordinary features of modern American life has been the integration of its Jewish community. For over 2,500 years, Jews have been vilified and persecuted everywhere. And then came America and Israel, two places where Jews could breathe easily and live safely."
"In turn, in this country, Jews have been deeply patriotic and productive Americans, scaling the heights of achievement, but also becoming civic leaders, philanthropists and good citizens. And yet we have seen an unmistakable rise of anti-Semitism in recent years," Fareed says. "Now this."
"Historians sometimes remind us that we've seen ugly times before as a nation, and it's true. The Alien and Sedition Acts, the first Red Scare, the Japanese internment, McCarthyism -- all saw deeply divisive politics and incendiary rhetoric. But in all these cases, we look back on the period with shame, as we surely will this one."
Watch Fareed's full Take here. | | Europe's Anti-Semitic Currents | | Saturday's shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, which claimed 11 lives, has drawn comparisons with "anti-Semitic currents" running through Europe, writes James McAuley for The Washington Post. But in many ways, they are very different phenomena.
"[C]ontemporary European anti-Semitism is by no means the exclusive province of the political right. It has also seen a resurgence recently on the left, mostly via recycled caricatures that depict Jews as greedy capitalists or that present all Jews as colonial overlords of the Palestinians. Notably, Britain's Labour Party…has come under fire for not dealing more decisively with accusations of anti-Semitism among some members," McAuley writes.
"In general, it's difficult to ascribe a common narrative to all the anti-Semitic violence in Europe seen in recent years, and crimes have been perpetrated by people with various motivations. In France, in particular, where the vast majority of Europe's recent anti-Semitic killings have occurred, most suspects have come from immigrant backgrounds, and a number have been affiliated with Islamist terrorist networks." | | | Right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been declared the winner of Brazil's presidential election. That's likely to mean cozier ties with the United States, write Roberto Simon and Brian Winter for Foreign Affairs. And that might not work out so well for Brazil.
"Bolsonaro has made clear his intention not only to be one of Washington's strongest allies but to borrow much of his international agenda directly from Trump's playbook. He has promised to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council, move the Brazilian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, decisively counter China's economic advances, and consider a radical regime change policy in Venezuela," they write.
But "Bolsonaro's past statements and current policy proposals suggest that his presidency will pose a direct threat to democratic norms and institutions, the rule of law, social justice, and the improvement of security in Brazil. The past 30 years have been an era of progress for most of Latin America, thanks in large part to those values. Saluting the American flag cannot compensate for the real risk that Bolsonaro will abandon them." | | What Merkel Leaves Behind | | German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that she will not seek re-election in 2021. Germany's power has grown under her leadership, writes Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. But her "retreat is likely to make Germany more introverted and unstable and therefore less able to lead in Europe or internationally."
"It is also probable that any successor to Ms Merkel as leader of the [Christian Democratic Union] CDU will seek to move the party back towards the right, in response to the rise of the [Alternative for Germany] AfD. That could mean that Germany will take more 'egocentric' positions on issues such as refugees and eurozone reform. That, in turn, is likely to be bad news for the ambitious EU reforms proposed by France's president Emmanuel Macron and will also mean that the EU takes a tough line with heavily indebted Italy," Rachman writes.
"After a long period in which two centrist parties have dominated the political landscape, German politics is becoming more polarized and unpredictable. In that sense, Germany is completely in line with global trends."
| | Abe and Modi to the Rescue | | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Japan at the weekend for a summit with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. With traditional ally the United States increasingly unpredictable, it's up to the two leaders to try to bring calm to Asia's tempestuous waters, suggests Rupakjyoti Borah for the Nikkei Asian Review.
"Given the challenge presented to both capitals by the rise of China and Beijing's increasing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, Tokyo and New Delhi should be cooperating far more closely at the strategic level," Borah writes.
"While Washington seems increasingly ready to counter Chinese expansionism, including on the high seas, its capacity to wrong-foot its Asian allies makes it all the more important that leading regional powers, such as India and Japan, do more to promote economic and political stability for themselves and the neighborhood."
| | China Gives the World's
Billionaires a Leg Up | | The world's billionaires saw their wealth grow to around $8.9 trillion last year, the highest level in history, according to a new report. China is leading the charge.
"As the value of billionaires' assets grew by $1.4 trillion to $8.9 trillion in 2017, the greatest annual increase ever, just 332 new billionaires accounted for more than a third (38%) of the increase. Notably, 199 of them were self-made entrepreneurs, of whom 89 were from China," according to the latest edition of the Billionaires Report, produced by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"2017 itself was an exceptional year: reflected in China minting two new billionaires a week, and Asia as a whole creating more than three billionaires a week. For context, as recently as 2006, there were only 16 Chinese billionaires. There are already more billionaires in Asia than in the US most of them Chinese." | | | | | | |
