Photo-essay: Greeks slide deeper into poverty, by Alkis Konstantinidis  Retired teacher and volunteer Eva Agkisalaki clears tables at a soup kitchen run by the Orthodox church in Athens, Greece, February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Reports

Will 2017 bring surprises for European integration? by Lionel Page     Analysis

There can be little doubt that this year’s elections in Germany and France may determine the future of the European Union. For nearly a decade now, the EU has been facing unprecedented challenges that comprise an existential threat. But the tide could yet turn.

When Evidence Says No, But Doctors Say Yes, by David Epstein, ProPublica   Report

Greeks slide deeper into poverty, by Alkis Konstantinidis  Photo-essay

The global financial crisis and its fallout forced four euro zone countries to turn to international lenders. Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus all went through rescues and are back out, their economies growing again. But Greece, the first into a bailout in 2010, has needed three. Rescue funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund saved Greece from bankruptcy, but the austerity and reform policies the lenders attached as conditions have helped to turn recession into a depression.

Commentary:

Technology, not trade, real job-killer, by Tom Regan   Column

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but those jobs U.S. President Donald Trump promised aren’t coming back. And for others, there’s a very good chance that soon more people will be out of work. It won’t happen because of production going to China or Mexico, or and an immigrant or refugee taking jobs. It will be because of technology.

Under Trump, Is It Game Over for the Climate Fight? by Bill McKibben  Commentary

Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency is a stunning blow to hopes for avoiding the worst impacts of global warming. But a broad-based, grassroots movement committed to cutting emissions and promoting clean energy must continue and intensify – the stakes are simply too high to give up.

I Cover Hate. I Didn’t Expect It at My Family’s Jewish Cemetery, by Ariana Tobin  Essay

The American cemetery  Chesed Shel Emeth, where Ariana Tobin’s relatives are buried was vandalized in February 2017. As authorities investigate whether it was a hate crime, she relates it to the project she works on for ProPublica,  “Documenting Hate.”  It’s about confronting the ugliness and comforting the scared, she notes — but it’s also about giving real answers, using actual numbers and telling true stories when our children ask questions like, “What happened to the Jews?”

“America faces a far greater danger to democracy from right-wing Christianity than from any Islamist terrorist” writes Tom Regan. Above, US Vice President Mike Pence. Gage Skidmore

In case you missed them:

America: One Nation Under Allah/TOM REGAN

WASHINGTON DIARY: the women’s march/ CHERYL HAWKES   Column

Media literacy in a post-fact age/PENNEY KOME   Column

Churchill essay on aliens timely reminder of modern dangers/ELIZABETH TASKER   Analysis

Europe’s ‘multi-morbidity:’ John Keane with Claus Offe/JOHN KEANE   Analysis

Canada-EU Pact Touted as Model Trade Deal/PHILIP BLENKINSOP  Report

The Death of a Businessman, the Philippines’ Drug War/KAREN LEMA & MARTIN PETTY  Report

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Thank you for your interest and support. Facts and Opinions relies only on reader payments (to survive we require a minimum of .27 per piece, or $1 for a day site pass). Our boutique journalism is independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, ad-free and spam-free. We do not or solicit donations from partisan organizations or publish “native advertising” fake stories.  Details here, or contribute below. 

F&O’s CONTENTS page is updated each Saturday. Sign up for emailed announcements of new work on our free FRONTLINES blog; find evidence-based reporting in Reports; commentary, analysis and creative non-fiction in OPINION-FEATURES; and image galleries in PHOTO-ESSAYS. If you value journalism please support F&O, and tell others about us.

Adele holds the five Grammys she won including Record of the Year for “Hello” and Album of the Year for “25” during the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S. , February 12, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Reports:

The Death of a Businessman and the Philippines’ Drug War, by Karen Lema and Martin Petty

When Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte summoned his security chiefs to an urgent meeting one Sunday night last month, his mind was already made up. His military and law enforcement heads had no idea what was coming: a suspension of the police force’s leading role in his signature campaign, a merciless war on illegal drugs.

Adele Sweeps Grammy Awards, by By Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy

Adele won the top three Grammy awards on Sunday, taking home the statuettes for album, record and song of the year in a shock victory over Beyonce.

Commentary:

Media literacy in a post-fact age, by Penney Kome  Column

Fake news is as old as the Internet. From the 1990s, I remember spam, scams, and ghost ship “rolling” petitions that sailed the white-font-on-black-background PINE and LYNX seas – almost as soon as the first E-list was compiled.

Canada needs ranked, not proportional, voting, by Tom Regan   Column

Like many Canadians who had hoped that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would follow through on his campaign promise to reform the voting system in Canada, I found myself deeply disappointed by his sudden announcement, that he had abandoned plans for reform and was sticking with the first-past-the-post system. He was not wrong, however, in saying that proportional representation was the wrong system for Canada.

The terrifying mathematics of the Anthropocene, by Owen Gaffney and Will Steffen  Expert Witness

Powerful rhetoric is used to describe the Anthropocene and current human impact. As The Economist stated in 2011, humanity has “become a force of nature reshaping the planet on a geological scale”. We are like an asteroid strike. We have the impact of an ice age. But what does this really mean?

In Case You Missed Them:

Is Donald Trump a “Black Swan”? by Tom Regan   Column

China’s Waterways Reveal Our Superbug Future, by Michael Gillings.   Expert Witness

Russia’s Military Buildup Focuses on Arctic, by Andrew Osborn   Report

Canada’s Trudeau Avoids Poking U.S. “Grizzly Bear,” by  David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel

Notebook:

F&O aims to provide “boutique” journalism — explanatory, contextual, thoughtful — and a break from the frenzy of the internet. But the speed and complexity of breaking news globally has become overwhelming — even as informed citizenship has never been more critical. Here’s a suggestion for coping: avoid obsessing over distressing news, but do devote at least half an hour daily to a diverse range of quality sites that cover breaking news stories.  Support those sites by subscribing or donating, so they’ll be around when we need them. Some suggestions:

American politics remain the world’s biggest, most important issue. Here are some of the many  good outlets that provide  ethical, professional reporting of breaking news out of Washington: ProPublica; New York Times; Washington Post; Politico. For a broader perspective leave Washington — and the angry bubbles of America — for a daily scan of the global wire services: Reuters,  Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. A healthy media diet includes global outlets. Some examples are the South China Morning Post; BBC; Der Spiegel International; Al Jazeera and the Financial Times.

Findings from the Internet:

Paul Kennedy of the CBC interviews Wolfgang Streeck, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany, and author of a new book about the end of capitalism.   Go to CBC Radio’s Ideas program, here, or listen below:

From Streeck’s North American publisher, Penguin Random House:

How Will Capitalism End? The provocative political thinker asks if it will be with a bang or a whimper

After years of ill health, capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth has given way to stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the money economy has all but evaporated.

In How Will Capitalism End?, the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues that the world is about to change. The marriage between democracy and capitalism, ill-suited partners brought together in the shadow of World War Two, is coming to an end. The regulatory institutions that once restrained the financial sector’s excesses have collapsed and, after the final victory of capitalism at the end of the Cold War, there is no political agency capable of rolling back the liberalization of the markets.

Ours has become a world defined by declining growth, oligarchic rule, a shrinking public sphere, institutional corruption and international anarchy, and no cure to these ills is at hand.

Last but not least, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travels to Washington early Monday morning to meet American President Donald Trump. The relationship between the two countries remains one of the world’s most important in terms of trade and security, and is currently one of the most world’s fraught. You may be interested in this documentary, by Canada’s National Film Board, on the relationship between the two country’s leaders.
In Bed with an Elephant (59 minutes, 1986):

In Bed with an Elephant, Kent Martin, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Reader-Supported Facts and Opinions is employee-owned and ad-free. We survive on an honour system. Thanks for your interest — and support. Details.

“You are entitled to your opinion … you are not entitled to your own facts” –  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Russia’s Military Buildup Focuses on Arctic. Above, a Russian serviceman of the Northern Fleet’s Arctic mechanised infantry brigade participates in a military drill on riding reindeer and dog sleds near the settlement of Lovozero outside Murmansk, Russia January 23, 2017. Picture taken January 23, 2017. Lev Fedoseyev/Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via REUTERS

Is Donald Trump a “Black Swan”? by Tom Regan   Column

The definition of a black swan event —  impossible to predict yet with catastrophic ramifications — perfectly describes the rise of Donald Trump, from clown celebrity to the most powerful man in the world. And in that, there is hope.

China’s Waterways Reveal Our Superbug Future, by Michael Gillings.   Expert Witness

Somewhere on the planet, right now, there is a bacterial species quietly accumulating the genes that will turn it into the next superbug. There is still time to tackle antibiotic resistance.

Russia’s Military Buildup Focuses on Arctic, by Andrew Osborn   Report

Russia is again on the march in the Arctic and building new nuclear icebreakers. It is part of a push to firm Moscow’s hand in the High North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada, the United States, and Norway as well as newcomer China.

Canada’s Trudeau Avoids Poking U.S. “Grizzly Bear,” by  David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a low key approach to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to avoid clashes while indirectly signalling the two leaders’ differences to a domestic audience.

Findings: items we found interesting elsewhere on the internet:

A ‘Resistance’ Stands Against Trump. But What Will It Stand For?, by Beverly Gage, the New York Times Magazine. Excerpt:

Resistance evokes the struggle against totalitarianism, conveying personal defiance and official powerlessness at the same time. So what does it mean to apply that word in an ostensibly democratic system? If you’ve lost at the ballot box but aren’t seeking full-blown revolution, what are the most useful forms of political action? If “yes” seems impossible but “no” seems insufficient, what fills the space between?

Dark Arts, by George Monbiot, the Guardian. Excerpt:

“Soon after the Second World War, some of America’s richest people began setting up a network of thinktanks to promote their interests. These purport to offer dispassionate opinions on public affairs. But they are more like corporate lobbyists, working on behalf of those who founded and fund them. These are the organisations now running much of the Trump administration. … We have no hope of understanding what is coming until we understand how the dark money network operates.

Sorry, American journalists: Canada is no press freedom paradise, by Delphine Halgand and Tom Henheffer, the Hill

Press freedom in Canada faces threats from the state that are every bit as severe as those in the United States.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders noted the Canada recently dropped ten places in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.

Reader-Supported Facts and Opinions is employee-owned and ad-free. We survive on an honour system. Thanks for your interest and support. Details.

Inmates and the Mustang Border Patrol. Above, an agent near Jacumba, California, U.S.REUTERS/Mike Blake

Inmates and the Mustang Border Patrol, by Reuters Photo-essay

American prisoners participating in the Wild Horse Inmate Program train mustangs that will eventually be adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol, providing the agency with inexpensive but agile horses, and inmates with skills and insights they hope to one day carry with them from prison.

Tolkien’s imaginary languages Beat Esperanto for Impact, by  Philip Seargeant

JRR Tolkien began writing The Fall of Gondolin while on medical leave from the first world war, 100 years ago. It is the first story in what would become his legendarium – the mythology that underpins The Lord of the Rings. But behind the fiction was his interest in another epic act of creation: the construction of imaginary languages.

Chronic pain fuels opioid epidemic, by Penney Kome  Column

Of all the stories I’ve seen about the prescription opioid epidemic, only a few touch briefly and lightly on the major factor driving all the prescriptions — chronic pain — before they skip on to recommend better patient and physician education. In the U.S., having 40 per cent of the population in chronic pain is not a given, it’s a catastrophe.

Thailand’s Game of Thrones enters new era, by Jonathan Manthorpe   Column

While people in the United States grapple with having done exactly what the Founding Fathers railed against and have elected a cartoon version of George III, the entrenchment of authoritarian democracy is going much more smoothly in Thailand.

Canada doesn’t need Trump-lite, by Tom Regan   Column

Donald Trump-lite. It’s a scary idea. Anything that looks like a version of The Donald is bad news for any country. Yet this is what Canada faces with the upcoming candidacy of Kevin O’Leary for the leadership of the Conservative party in Canada. For, make no mistake, Kevin O’Leary is Donald Trump-lite.

Oceans Apart, UK and US United in Hate Crime Worry, by Patrick G. Lee, ProPublica  Report

A divisive vote, with jobs and immigrants the most combustible issues. An outcome that surprised the experts. A nation left on edge, with many anxious about intolerance and the violence that can stem from it. No, not just America today, but also the United Kingdom seven months ago.

The Russian government is not America’s friend, by Tom Regan  Column

Let’s be perfectly clear about this: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government are not America’s friends. They are not friends of democracy, nor are they really interested in promoting any sense of peace in the world – at least a balanced peace. Russia is primarily interested in undermining Western democracy as much as it can without firing a shot … at the west. (Countries like the Ukraine and maybe the Baltic states, that’s a different matter.)

Andrew Johnson

America: Andrew Johnson Rides Again, by Jim McNiven  Column

Mark Twain liked to say that ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often does rhyme’. Every hundred and fifty years, I suppose, history has to start to rhyme in the United States. In 1865, a popular President was succeeded by a President who had no clear mandate, who was blustery and not a part of the then Establishment.

Human Rights: There’s an App for that, by Jonathan Manthorpe   Column

An air quality monitor atop the United States Embassy in China  confirmed for the Chinese people what they instinctively knew:  their government lies to them. It has instigated a middle class protest that has the ruling Communist Party scurrying to respond on air pollution.

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Facts and Opinions is a boutique journal of reporting and analysis in words and images, without borders. Independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, F&O is funded by our readers. It is ad-free and spam-free, and does not solicit donations from partisan organizations. To continue we require a minimum payment of .27 for one story, or a sustaining donation. Details here; donate below. Thanks for your interest and support.

F&O’s CONTENTS page is updated each Saturday. Sign up for emailed announcements of new work on our free FRONTLINES blog; find evidence-based reporting in Reports; commentary, analysis and creative non-fiction in OPINION-FEATURES; and image galleries in PHOTO-ESSAYS. If you value journalism please support F&O, and tell others about us.

Terrorism is Germany’s biggest threat, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her New Year’s address, as she urged Europeans to tackle problems together. REUTERS/Markus Schreiber

Trump’s Hot Air Far From Greatest Climate Threat, by Andrew Revkin, ProPublica  Report

The real risk for climate change in a Donald Trump presidency, according to close to a dozen experts interviewed for this story, lies less in impacts on specific policies like Obama’s Clean Power Plan and more in the realm of shifts in America’s position in international affairs.

Extremist terrorism Germany’s biggest threat: Merkel  Reuters Report

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to improve security from extremist terrorists in her New Year’s address, urged Germans to forsake populism and to lead the effort to solve European Union challenges. Merkel is seen as a liberal anchor of stability and reason in a year that saw the Donald Trump elected as U.S. president, Britain vote to leave the EU and U.S-Russia relations deteriorate to Cold War levels.

After looking into Trump’s soul, Japan’s Abe seeks new allies, by Jonathan Manthorpe  Column

There would be a delicious irony if Japan were driven out of the arms of Donald Trump, and into the arms of  Vladimir Putin because of Shinzo Abe’s suspicions about the reliability of the man who U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously believe was helped into the Oval Office by Putin’s spy agencies.

In case you missed them:

• Foreign banks in Britain pay fraction of tax rate, by Tom Bergin
• Battle Ends, Bloody Syrian War Grinds On, by Laila Bassam, Angus McDowall and Stephanie Nebehay  Report
• Earth on the Docket: Americans join wave of climate litigation, By Mary Wood, Charles W. Woodward, IV, and Michael C. Blumm  Expert Witness
• Our Time to Rebel, by Tom Regan, Summoning Orenda   Column
• Britain’s tortuous road to “hard” Brexit , by Jonathan Manthorpe, International Affairs Column
• A Tale of Two Crashes, and Their Aftermaths, by Jim McNiven, Thoughtlines   Column
• Scandinavia Tackles Fairy Tale Gendering, by Gabrielle Richard, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)
• Have I Inherited the Trauma of China’s Cultural Revolution? by Shayla Love  Magazine

 ~~~

Facts and Opinions is a boutique journal of reporting and analysis in words and images, without borders. Independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, F&O is funded by our readers. It is ad-free and spam-free, and does not solicit donations from partisan organizations. To continue we require a minimum payment of .27 for one story, or a sustaining donation. Details here; donate below. Thanks for your interest and support.

F&O’s CONTENTS page is updated each Saturday. Sign up for emailed announcements of new work on our free FRONTLINES blog; find evidence-based reporting in Reports; commentary, analysis and creative non-fiction in OPINION-FEATURES; and image galleries in PHOTO-ESSAYS. If you value journalism please support F&O, and tell others about us.

Foreign banks in Britain pay fraction of tax rate, by Tom Bergin

A man walks into the JP Morgan headquarters at Canary Wharf in London May 11, 2012. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo

Some of the biggest foreign investment and commercial banks operating in Britain paid an average tax rate of just 6 percent on the billions of dollars of profits they made in the country last year, a Reuters analysis of regulatory filings shows. That is less than a third of Britain’s corporate rate of 20 percent. There is however nothing illegal about this.

Battle Ends, Bloody Syrian War Grinds On, by Laila Bassam, Angus McDowall and Stephanie Nebehay  Report

Rebel resistance in the Syrian city of Aleppo ended in December after years of fighting and months of bitter siege and bombardment. The battle was one of the worst of a civil war that has drawn in global and regional powers, and ended with victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military coalition of Russia, Iran and regional Shi’ite militias. The larger Syrian war, however, endures.

Commentary:

Earth on the Docket: Americans join wave of climate litigation, By Mary Wood, Charles W. Woodward, IV, and Michael C. Blumm  Expert Witness

Two days after America’s presidential election a court in Oregon issued a path-breaking decision in Juliana v. U.S. declaring that youth – indeed, all citizens – hold constitutional rights to a stable climate system. The case is part of a wave of atmospheric trust litigation in several countries.

Our Time to Rebel, by Tom Regan, Summoning Orenda   Column

It’s our turn, as American Democrats. This will be a ‘take no prisoners’ fight. Donald Trump and his minions have already shown that they will lie, obscure the truth, manipulate and deny facts, and threaten all who oppose them. And then there are the attacks and threats to be launched by his slavish, zombie-like, mainly-white-supremacist alt-Reich followers.  There are several ways to participate in this peaceful ‘rebellion.’

Britain’s tortuous road to “hard” Brexit , by Jonathan Manthorpe, International Affairs Column

It is becoming clearer just how wrenching a process it will be for Britain to leave the European Union, and beyond doubt that Britain is headed for a “hard” Brexit.

A Tale of Two Crashes, and Their Aftermaths, by Jim McNiven, Thoughtlines   Column

There are a lot of rough parallels between events in history that suggest that what one generation learns is forgotten over time. One of these is between the political/financial events in the United States between 1830-1850 and 2000-2020.

Arts:

Scandinavia Tackles Fairy Tale Gendering, by Gabrielle Richard, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)

In Stockholm’s Nicolaigarden pre-school, the teachers do not read Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the students. Rather, its library holds children’s books that show different types of heroes and a diversity of family models (including those with single parents, adoptive children, and same-sex parents).

Magazine:

Have I Inherited the Trauma of China’s Cultural Revolution? by Shayla Love  Magazine

Shayla Love’s mother and grandparents lived through China’s Cultural Revolution – now, in a tale that traces its lineage from Chairman Mao’s brutality to scientific research on epigentics, she seeks to know the biological traces of their trauma she carries within her today.

Findings:

The launch of a massive fund chaired by Bill Gates, to invest in a carbonless future and provide “reliable, affordable energy for the world.”   The Breakthrough Energy Coalition pledged to to invest more than $1 billion in emerging energy breakthroughs “to deliver affordable and reliable energy with the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero.” You can read the press release here.  The fund predicts increased demand for energy, but “to get there, we need different tools than the ones that have served us in the past. Breakthrough Energy is committed to investing in new technologies to find better, more efficient and cheaper energy sources. The global energy market is massive, and finding a way to open it up is an investment opportunity worth getting right.”

China and the United States engaged in brinkmanship this week over China’s seizure of a research drone in international waters claimed by China. China agreed to return the drone. Read the New York Times report here.

This year broke all records for the numbers of  migrants and refugees on the move, and also for deaths,  on average 20 each day, said a report by the International Organization for Migration. More than half of the deaths, about 7,189, were in the Mediterranean, it said. Read the IOM press release here.  Meanwhile Germany’s Parliament, responding to the political backlash to migrants in Europe, demanded the country make more effort to integrate newcomers culturally. (Read the Reuters report here.)

For something entirely different, take a break from the world-wearying news.

Alan Watts & David Lindberg – Why Your Life Is Not A Journey from David Lindberg on Vimeo.

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Facts and Opinions is a boutique journal of reporting and analysis in words and images, without borders. Independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, F&O is funded by our readers. It is ad-free and spam-free, and does not solicit donations from partisan organizations. To continue we require a minimum payment of .27 for one story, or a sustaining donation. Details here; donate below. Thanks for your interest and support.

F&O’s CONTENTS page is updated each Saturday. Sign up for emailed announcements of new work on our free FRONTLINES blog; find evidence-based reporting in Reports; commentary, analysis and creative non-fiction in OPINION-FEATURES; and image galleries in PHOTO-ESSAYS. If you value journalism please support F&O, and tell others about us.