| | | | Guess Whose Halo Is Slipping? | | Sweden has long been seen as a "moral superpower," not least for its traditionally welcoming approach to immigrants, writes Steven Erlanger for The New York Times. But as anti-immigration populists threaten to make gains in the general election this Sunday, the country's halo appears to be slipping.
"The migrant wave of 2015 flowed mostly to Germany and Sweden, regarded as Europe's most welcoming nations…If the panic in Sweden has been less than in Germany, the political impact has been similar: the rise of a far-right, anti-immigrant, nationalist party…that is upending old certainties," Erlanger writes.
"As in Germany, stiffer border controls were quickly introduced in Sweden and the numbers of new immigrants fell steeply, to about 23,000 this year. But the political damage had been done, and despite a thriving economy and low unemployment, the Sweden Democrats argue that immigration should stop and that resources should go to refurbishing the welfare state strained by an aging population, gang violence and the challenge of taking on migrants."
| | Team Trump's Mexican Folly | | | Stock markets breathed a sigh of relief last week on news that Mexico and the United States had agreed changes to NAFTA. That's premature, The Economist argues. The proposed quotas on car components aren't just bad for Mexico, they're bad for the international order, too. "The result will be lower productivity, higher prices for consumers and a less competitive carmaking industry in North America, which competes as an integrated whole with producers in Europe and Asia. Uncertainty will not disappear. The deal could be rewritten again after six years, thanks to an unspecified review process," The Economist says. "Trump's attitude to trade is uniquely reckless. He has bullied his way to what he sees—wrongly—as a better deal with Mexico; he is intent on doing the same to Canada. He is using the ludicrous pretext of national security to justify his threats of car-import tariffs, in order to circumvent the rules of the World Trade Organization. North America's economies can withstand this folly. But the rules-based system of global trade, which relies on goodwill between countries, may prove to be more fragile." | | Saudi Arabia's Ticking Time Bomb? | | | The recent arrest of "one of Saudi Arabia's most influential conservative clerics," is a sign of potential trouble ahead for Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as he seeks to soften the Kingdom's image, writes Victoria Mackay in The New Statesman. As long as King Salman is around, the lid will likely largely be kept on dissent. After that, all bets could be off. "There can be no doubt that the lifting of the ban on women driving in the kingdom, the reopening of cinemas and the greater prevalence of mixed gender activities have been welcomed by the Saudi young, deprived of the freedoms they see on the internet," Mackay writes. "However, MBS's reform agenda has reignited the feud between Salafist clerics leading the defense against creeping Westernization and the ruling family they accuse of betraying Islam." | | What's in a Name? A Dangerous Distraction | | The question of whether genocide is being committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar has generated furious debate. It might also be beside the point – and a dangerous distraction, suggests Charles Petrie in The Guardian.
"Defining an act as genocide involves legal substantiations that are often difficult to make or satisfy. All the more so in this case, where the United Nations Commission of Experts were never permitted to enter Myanmar," Petrie writes.
"We could possibly reach an answer to the question of whether genocide is being committed. But at what cost? Will naming it so then risk fracturing international commitment to act and undermine a more robust response? War crimes and crimes against humanity are sufficiently grave offenses to justify international action. However we refer to them, immense crimes have been and are being committed in Myanmar. It is time for the world to stop debating how to categorize them and focus on finding the necessary resolve to act."
| | | Plastic straws have been making the headlines, but there's another type of human trash that is clogging up the world's oceans, notes John Walsh in Business Insider: Cigarette butts. "Most of the roughly 5.5 trillion cigarettes manufactured globally every year contain a plastic-based filter, made of cellulose acetate, according to the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project," Walsh says. "Those filters can take decades to decompose after the cigarette butt has been discarded. As the plastics break down the chemicals can be consumed by wildlife. According to environmental researchers cited by NBC News, scientists have found traces of these chemicals in roughly 70% of seabirds and approximately 30% of sea turtles." | | | US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Pakistan on Wednesday, days after the United States confirmed it was cutting $300 million in military assistance to the country. Per Reuters: "Adopting a tougher line with an ally that US President Donald Trump considers unreliable, the United States halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds due to Islamabad's perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil." Pompeo will follow his Pakistan trip with a meeting with his Indian counterpart on Thursday. He'll be joined by Defense Secretary James Mattis as the Trump administration looks "to discuss ways to ramp up joint military exercises, sell more sophisticated US military hardware to India, coordinate development assistance in Asia and boost economic ties," The Wall Street Journal reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping is sending a top ally to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of North Korea's founding this weekend, Christopher Bodeen writes for the Associated Press. The trip will come as "China has already distanced itself somewhat from its significant cooperation with the US on North Korea. After supporting tough UN sanctions and scaling back trade with the North after it ramped up nuclear and missile tests last year, Beijing has eased the pressure on its neighbor slightly." | | | | | | |
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