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betabites · 4 years

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Ramblings on the Atlesian Military and Remnant Warfighters in General

I swear, I was just trying to get inside Winter's head for a fic, and things got out of hand. I have no idea if RWBY's writers know or care how the various military and paramilitary organizations of Remnant are structured. But I, woe to my creative process, have to figure this out, at least in broad strokes.

I'm basing all of this in what shows up in RWBY itself, and in the World of Remnant shorts. And while we don't have tons of details on military organization specifically, militaries reflect their parent culture, and we know a good amount about Remnant culture in general, and several Kingdoms in specific. And, RWBY being a show about awesome ladies kicking tremendous amounts of butt, we have a decent idea of military and paramilitary hardware.

Unlike Terra, Remnant suffers the constant threat of the Grimm. Which has implications for military actions. First of all, since Grimm are drawn to outpourings of negative emotions, anyone who wants to win a battle has to be prepared to win two in a row - first, against the actual enemy, and the second against the Grimm. Second, any long-term battlezone is going to be swarming with Grimm. If an army lays siege, they're going to have to be able to fight off both the Grimm and the defenders.

The bandit clan solution to this is lighting raids - get in, get the loot, get out before the Grimm (or local military) arrives. I'm not convinced that Remnant military operations look much different. Which explains why the Great War took place over so much of the world, as opposed to bogging down in a trench network outside Vale.

As far as the Great War specifically - Mantle and Mistral emphasized the society, Vale and Vacuo the individual. I'm imagining Mantle and Mistral just landing huge armies under tight command, and trying to perform a grand, sweeping, brilliant strategy, and it just keeps bogging down because field commanders have to keep calling back to command to ask for orders. Meanwhile smaller Vale & Vacuo forces, under independent commanders (many of whom are probably partisan guerrillas) are just tearing their opponents to pieces... to a point. Eventually, Mantle and Mistral forces are reduced to a point where they can be effectively coordinated, and they can defeat their smaller opponents in detail. Repeat a few times, with one side having an operational advantage, and the other a strategic advantage. By the end of the war, they've learned a lot from the other side, and everyone bets everything on one last gambit - trying to eliminate Vacuo.

Unlike Terra's Great War, Remnant's Great War doesn't end in humiliation and starvation for one faction. And (so far as we know) it also isn't followed by a world-wide plague and economic downturn. For whatever reason, the conflict post-Great War isn't socio-economic (capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, conservatism, anarchism), but human/Faunus. And while there is fighting, it doesn't reignite a global conflict. Probably because every Kingdom has Faunus populations, and they try (however poorly) to resolve the issue politically with the foundation of Menagerie.

An aside: this is a history that draws a lot from the US experience. The USA came out of the WW1 fairly well, and wasn't really a participant in the interwar 'political debate via street-fights' that resulted in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. They were insulated from the actual causes of WW2, and were brought in because of an incredibly ill-conceived sneak attack (Not that the US wasn't heavily economically involved earlier, via the lend-lease act, and alliances to Entente powers. But that's complicated, and the actual flashpoint for USA entry into the war is a lot easier to teach to young children). So it's not surprising that the Faunus Rights Revolution looks a lot like the Civil Rights Movement, because that's also taught heavily in US schools. With the founding of Menagerie paralleling some of the post-Great War map redrawing in the Middle East, or possibly one of the proposed 'carve out an African diaspora state' ideas.

And that's a lot of words on history - so what are the implications for modern Remnant? First of all, we only see the Atlesian military. Including their deployment in Vale itself. The degree to which this is, by Terran standards, utterly insane, is difficult to overstate. Sure, Ozpin expresses reservations to Ironwood, but I mean - this is like if a USMC rifle company camped out in Olympic Village. The Vytal Festival is a celebration of Remnant's unity, and the only way this is even slightly acceptable by anyone's standards is if the Atlas military is essentially, UN Peacekeepers.

We know that everyone uses Atlesian robots. Not just the Schnee Dust Company, but Atlas hosts what is either an advertisement or a meet-and-greet for their newest model of robots. Which means that Atlas robots, are, effectively, the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle round. Atlas tech, from their robots to CCTS, is a result and perpetrator of Kingdom unity. I suspect that everyone's military forces are based on Atlas patterns, if only because they're probably reliant on Atlas tech.

But first, the weird thing about Atlas. Their Huntress Academy feeds directly into their military. No one else does this. ...At least, not directly. See, Huntresses are licensed by governments. They're not government employees, but they are absolutely state sanctioned to fight the existential war against Grimm. And hunting contracts/bounty boards are almost certainly government-run. Private citizens can absolutely issue contracts (see Jaune's crossing-guard duties), but like a post office, there's no one other than the state that could effectively run a national bounty board. Which is why Lionheart was able to send so many of Mistral's Huntresses to their deaths - he had access, as a Mistral Council member.

Ultimately, Huntresses exist within a government frame-work, but so long as they're hunting Grimm, oversight seems minimal. But, of course, there are dangers other than Grimm. The governments are probably mostly willing to look the other way if a Huntress accepts a contract to deal with some bandits. But someone like Raven, or Ilia, or Tock? Folks with an active Aura who aren't fighting Grimm? Those are a problem. And Atlas' answer to them seems to be the Ace-Ops.

So what does Atlas do with all their military Huntresses? I suspect that they're being used much like Cordovin - anchor points defending Atlesian interests. Which probably includes SDC assets. That's the less idealistic reason for the CCTS - it allows Atlas to co-ordinate their far-flung forces. That it also acts as a show of goodwill is just gravy. Atlas' widely scattered forces also mean that they can reinforce any of the other Kingdoms in the event of a disaster.

Aside - look, all of the Kingdoms are the US in some aspect. Atlas is 'the World's Policeman,' and an exploration of national corruption, fears of a surveillance state, and economic stratification. Vale is how the US wants to be seen, 'the Nation that Won the War,' containing both metropolises and tiny towns, fiercely individualistic. Mistral may be wearing a silk robe, but it's still the US in character. More economic stratification, and a giant sweep of frontier. And mercy, does the US still want to think of itself in frontier terms. Vacuo, I don't think we have enough information to really comment on, but I'd suggest that it's an aspirational combination of more frontier and actual equality.

Getting to the actual military. We kind of have to go off of Atlas' alone here, because we haven't seen anyone else. In accordance with the 'lightning raid' idea, it seems to be heavily vehicular. And honestly? Without an active Aura, I'd want a foot of armor between me and the Grimm. We've seen gunships, armed transports, and mecha. The non-robotic infantry seem to be limited to pairs of guards, with no actual presence of true Huntresses within the ranks.

My theory is that Atlesians who don't qualify for Atlas Academy still serve in the military, but as rank-and-file members - which very likely includes the Air Corps. Their combat academies, unlike Signal, don't have students make their own weapon but instead provide something a lot more recognizable to us as a military academy - sure, there's range time, and plenty of unarmed combat, but also a lot more actual schooling. But fairly early on, the teachers put students on a particular track - so this person will graduate as a combat engineer, that one as a commander, this one as a logistics officer, and that one will actually attend Atlas Academy and receive personalized combat training, but in the meantime, they're going to be studying small unit tactics and intensified general combat training.

Ultimately, Atlas Academy just produces special operatives for the Atlesian military. Very, very useful special operatives, but no more vital than the Air Corps, ultimately. Huntresses are specialists, not an entire military.

I can theorize about the militaries of the other Kingdoms, but we've never seen them, so it probably wouldn't be very effective theorizing. But we do see some other state-controlled violent actors: Mistral and Vale police, and the Menagerie Militia.

The police, by and large, seem to either be your standard law enforcement (supplemented by the standard Atlesian robots), or something more like search-and-rescue, as per the Volume 4 finale. Their ability to wield force is theoretical, not something we've actually seen on screen (apart from some RWBY Chibi gags, which I'm comfortable calling non-canonical). Given the Grimm attraction to negative emotions, focusing law enforcement on de-escalation makes sense. I don't know if there would actually be a paramilitary branch of the police (a la SWAT) or whether that would just fall under military jurisdiction. It probably varies from Kingdom to Kingdom.

The Menagerie Militia is really interesting. Largely because Kali does liaise with Mistral Police, and turns the stand-off with the White Fang into, not a clash between two rival non-state actors (Taurus' White Fang and the Belladonnas' White Fang), but a multi-national anti-terrorist police action. The Mistral Police provide dramatic spotlights, implicit fire support, and, probably most importantly, legitimacy, and the Menagerie Militia operates as a unit against the individual White Fang members. I don't think we can really take the Militia as an example of anything but itself, though. It's in Mistral to deal a morale hit to the White Fang, and, if that doesn't prompt flight or surrender, to use minimal force to disarm their fellow Faunus. Despite the name, they're not really a militia, so much as a posse. They're engaged in police action, they're drawn from the common citizenry, and RWBY deals pretty heavily in Western tropes.

Actually, that's another side note. Standard fantasy settings owe a good bit to the influence of D&D nowadays - mostly indirectly, via various video game franchises. But the medievalism of D&D doesn't look much like actual medieval times, despite the kings. It does look a lot like Westerns, with weak governments relying on parties of roving miscreants to beat back the hordes of savages from the frontiers. I'm well aware of how problematic the last part is. RWBY tries to avoid those particular racist bits by making the threat to civilization be literal hate-seeking monsters. And then, try to show that Remnant culture is full of all kinds of people, with different material cultures and appearances, all more or less co-operating. And then they use the Faunus to try to talk about racism - not always well, but making a better attempt to engage with the material than most fantasy. I mean, Blake has passing privilege - she can pretend to be human, and struggles with that idea. A lot of fantasy is still stuck on Lovecraft and Howard, in terms of race.

To summarize - Atlas is our only model for a modern Remnant army, but we can make some pretty good guessing about them. They're heavily invested in vehicle combat and robotic infantry, because Huntresses are rare, and no one else wants to get into melee with a Grimm. Atlas is heavily invested in a top-down organization, but since the Great War, has been allowing local commanders more initiative. Atlesian military Huntresses are specialists, not necessarily commanders in their own right. Until recently, the Atlesian military has been serving as a sort of global reserve, deploying units to hot spots to assist local forces against the Grimm.

And Salem's finally deployed an army of her own.

#RWBY #Atlas #Huntresses #military history #Beta rambles #with digressions into how very American RWBY is from a historical perspective #how Kali is awesome #racism in D&D

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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 5 years

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More Panic Buying Stupidity

It’s hard not to run into someone who has been devastated by the panic buying pandemic. Just today, I heard about someone who had entirely run out of toilet paper, having to call his sister, who could only procure two boxes of man-sized tissues. All the stores were wiped clean.

As mentioned beforehand, panic buying is stupid on its face. Were it only stupid, though! In fact, it is outright dangerous and will imperil the lives of millions in this country unless people put a cap to their greed and selfishness.

Panic buying presumes that the country will face a shortage of toilet paper, soap, handwash, hand sanitiser, bread, and pasta as a result of coronavirus. This is pure nonsense. Coronavirus may affect shop assistants (who are being abused as I type this, trying to please greedy and aggressive customers), but as supermarkets have stated, there are *more* than enough food items and toiletries for everyone.

Have the panic mob forgotten that Britain’s supermarkets waste *hundreds* of millions of pounds worth of food and other products each year, because of surplus? Yet they believe that the coronavirus will imperil the food and toiletries supply.

Further stupidity can be found in the fact that hoarding toilet paper will not protect anyone from coronavirus. Firstly, there was no shortage of toilet paper (and other bathroom necessities) before panicking banshees raided the supermarket shelves. Secondly, coronavirus has no currently known impact on your digestive system. It is a respiratory disease.

Meanwhile, we have millions of vulnerable people, many of whom are more likely to contract coronavirus, who are unable to access crucial resources. While some pack entire shelves of toilet paper into their bags, others are running out and cannot afford to buy more. If they can, they discover empty shelves in every store-- even those further away.

I was lucky to get another packet of toilet roll yesterday, but only a 4-pack. I usually buy a 9 pack, which lasts a couple of weeks. Yesterday, the dazed shop assistants said that “people have gone mad”. So they have. Hoarding resources that will not protect them from the virus, as well as hoarding resources that other people also need to protect them from the virus, is not taking “precautions”.

Many panic buyers seem to think that hoarding bread and tomatoes will assist them during a potential lockdown. What they have failed to realise is that these products have a shelf life which will not last several potential months of quarantine. They also fail to realise that in countries experiencing a lockdown, shops are still open.

Why not? People will not suddenly stop needing groceries during a lockdown. This isn’t a nuclear apocalypse. We’re not at war. It will be necessary to continue to buy groceries during a potential lockdown. And for that to happen, we need stocks. All those who have hoarded will find much of their possessions useless. Even more ironically, by the time the danger has passed (and it will), they will be left with a giant, useless surplus of goods which could have gone to the needy.

A word on soap etc. hoarding. Panic buyers seem to think that if they can clear the shelves of soap, they will not contract coronavirus. Of course, their hoarding means that many go without soap, meaning that they are unable to practice the highly effective method of handwashing. Without this, they are more vulnerable to contracting coronavirus and more likely to spread this unknowingly to others.

Put simply, panic buying is endangering lives and making the potential number of infections *more* likely and the potential deaths *higher*. How people cannot see this is beyond me. If everyone bought a reasonable amount of soap, even a little extra, there would be *plenty* to go around. But never underestimate the power of greed, fear and stupidity in the midst of a crisis.

Another aspect of panic buying: if we face a potential lockdown in Britain, the last thing we need are empty shops. As mentioned earlier, we need access to groceries, toiletries, etc. during the height of the infections phase. Panic buyers, with their head full of alarming statistics and blaring media reports (but no common sense or compassion), have forgotten this (or are entirely unaware of this).

To survive coronavirus, we need a functioning economy. Essential shops must be open, and shop assistants kept in employment for as long as possible. This poses a risk (this can be mitigated using the lockdown methods of Italy and Spain), but will prevent the far more calamitous consequences of mass unemployment, increased dependency on welfare, and the health consequences associated with that.

Panic buying will inevitably lead to less shopping in the future, which will damage the economy. A shop assistant wisely explained to me yesterday that people won’t want to buy anything in a couple of months. So how is hoarding sensible? It isn’t. Anyone with a brain can see that unstable economies often suffer in the face of epidemics, let alone a pandemic such as this.

Supermarkets, dazed by the pestilence of greed (I have seen videos of fights over toilet paper in Australia) masquerading as “protection” and “precaution” (where does the NHS advice on coronavirus include hoarding 8 packets of toilet roll?), are now pleading with people not to stockpile resources.

Much of the damage has already been done, however. When people automatically assume that predictions and statistics are unchangeable, see rising death tolls, and accept any speculation on social media as fact, they will ignore practical solutions (such as the highly effective advice to wash your hands more often).

Panic will not save *anyone* from coronavirus. In fact, it will (and already does) make the situation far worse. We survive during a crisis by keeping a cool head, taking precautions, and if necessary, more severe measures to fight the problem. Hoarding, fighting, spreading nonsense, exaggerating predictions, speculating and other nonsense has never stopped the spread of a disease and never will.

I am embarrassed and disgusted by the wimpy greed shown by British people (as well as those in America and Australia). At the same time, I am encouraged by the large-scale condemnation of panic buying by sensible Britons (as well as other nationalities), as well as the courage and dignity being shown by the Italians, Spanish, South Koreans (and other nationalities). Where society isn’t run by greed and selfishness, people survive crises such as coronavirus.

Panic buyers should take note.

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warsofasoiaf · 7 years

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"The Balkans, then as now, has a lot of cultural tension that has eluded even the most intelligent and well-meaning efforts to address." I really like your history posts as well. Could you please elaborate on the Balkans? Why are they in such a state? Could they ever "improve" somehow? Are all Balkan Countries in the same situation?

Well, I’ll put it up front, if I believed that I had a tangible, achievable solution that could work, I wouldn’t be talking about it here. I’d be working for the State Department or trying to strike it big in the lottery to set up a foundation to build a Balkan peace. More to the point, even if I did have one, it’s not up to me to implement it. Lasting peace isn’t a brick house, it’s intricate glasswork. It can take a lifetime to design and build it and someone reckless or malicious can reduce it to powder in a few minutes.

The Balkans have had a long history of conflict. The Pechengs and Cumans raided it, the Byzantines had long, bloody wars with the Bulgars, the Ottomans conquered it and would squeeze and oppress the people in the 1800′s as the millet system began to collapse and the Empire began pushing Ottomanism and suppressing identity and class. Russia, Austria, and Hungary all meddled in the Balkans in the early modern period, and eventually at the Congress of Berlin, the Balkans were freed but there was plenty of tensions that were not very well achieved, and the Balkan Wars helped foster a spirit of nationalism.

Austria-Hungary made the Slavs second-class citizens, there was plenty of bloody fighting in WWI, Italy invaded in WWII, then the Soviets installed communist strongmen who clamped down hard on the people, and once the Soviet Union fell, the federated Yugoslavia felt it had no reason to stay together, and this has led to smaller states cropping up and declaring independence.

There are a lot of ethnic groups in the region, and there are memories of bitter ethnic divides where every group can point to a long litany of terrible transgressions other groups have committed. There’s religious tension too, as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Muslims, and Jews are all well-mixed. Then you have the woes of crime, poverty, unemployment, and political corruption, and small things can stir old memories and flare up. Demagogues use the politics of fear and racism to stir up old prejudices into violence, even genocide.

Obviously, the situation changes not only from nation to nation, but from time to time and neighborhood to neighborhood. To say that this is a uniquely Balkan problem is as condescending as it is wrong, there have been plenty of race, religious, and ethic conflicts on every continent even in the modern day. And if there is a solution, it will take time to implement and it will be very difficult, no one who has thought long on this issue denies that it won’t be a challenge. But can it be done?

“Tolerance marks the respect with which these peoples of varying faiths mingle their commonlot. Here one sees the Bosnianpeasant of orthodox faith drop his contribution into the cup of a blind Mussulman who squats,playing his goussle, at the entrance of a mosque. Glancing at the peaceful little stalls whereChristians, Mussulmans, and Jews mingle in business, while each goes his own way to cathedral,mosque or synagogue, I wondered if tolerance is not one of the greatest of virtues.“-L.G. Hornby, Balkan Sketches

It’s not beyond possibility, so here’s hoping.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#history #balkans

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clubofinfo · 6 years

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Expert: End-of-year polls are always popular as a way to gauge significant social and political trends over the past year and predict where things are heading in the next. But a recent poll of European Jews – the largest such survey in the world – is being used to paint a deeply misleading picture of British society and an apparent problem of a new, left wing form of anti-semitism. The survey was conducted by the European Union’s agency on fundamental rights and was given great prominence in the liberal-left British daily the Guardian. The newspaper highlighted one area of life in which Britain scored worse with Jews than any of the other 12 member states surveyed. Some 84 per cent of Jews in the UK believe there is a major problem with anti-semitism in British politics. As a result, nearly a third say they have considered emigrating – presumably most of them to Israel, where the Law of Return offers an open-door policy to all Jews in the world. Britain scored only slightly better on indices other than politics. Some 75 per cent said they thought anti-semitism was generally a problem in the UK, up from 48 per cent in 2012. The average score in the 12 EU states with significant Jewish populations was 70 per cent. ‘Playing with fire’ Jeremy Corbyn, head of the UK’s opposition Labour party, has faced a barrage of criticism since he was elected leader more than three years ago for presiding over a supposedly endemic anti-semitism problem in his party. The Guardian has been at the forefront of framing Corbyn as either indifferent to, or actively assisting in, the supposed rise of anti-semitism in Labour. Now the paper has a senior European politician echoing its claims. Relating to the poll, Vera Jourova, the EU’s commissioner for justice, helpfully clarified what Britain’s terrible results in the political sphere signified. The paper quoted her on Corbyn: “I always use the phrase ‘Let’s not play with fire’, let’s be aware of what happened in the past. And let’s not make the same mistake of tolerating it. It is not enough just to be silent … I hope he [Corbyn] will pay attention to this survey.” Labour party problem? However, both Jourova’s warnings and an apparent perception among British Jews of an anti-semitism problem fuelled by Corbyn fly in the face of real-world evidence. Other surveys show that, when measured by objective criteria, the Labour party scores relatively well: the percentage of members holding anti-semitic views is substantially lower than in the ruling Conservative party and much the same as in Britain’s third party, the Liberal Democrats. For example, twice as many Conservatives as Labour party members believe typically anti-semitic stereotypes, such as that Jews chase money or that Jews are less loyal to Britain. Prejudices in decline Even more significantly, the percentage of Labour party members who hold such prejudices has fallen dramatically across the board since Corbyn became leader. That suggests that the new members who joined after Corbyn became leader – a massive influx has made his party the largest in Europe – are less likely to be anti-semitic than those who joined under previous Labour leaders. In other words, the evidence suggests very persuasively that Corbyn has been a force for eradicating, or at least diluting, existing and rather marginal anti-semitic views in the Labour party. More so even than the previous leader, Ed Miliband, who was himself Jewish. But all of this, yet again, went unremarked by the Guardian and other British media, which have been loudly declaiming a specific “anti-semitism problem” in Labour for three years without a shred of concrete evidence for it. Resurgent white nationalism There are good grounds for Jews to feel threatened in much of Europe at the moment, with the return of ugly ethnic nationalisms that many assumed had been purged after the Second World War. And Brexit – Britain’s planned exit from the European Union – does indeed appear to have unleashed or renewed nativist sentiment among a section of the UK population. But such prejudices dominate on the right, not the left. Certainly Corbyn, a lifelong and very prominent anti-racism activist, has not been stoking nativist attitudes. The unexplored assumption by the Guardian and the rest of the corporate media, as well as by Jourova, is that the rise in British Jews’ concerns about anti-semitism in politics refers exclusively to Corbyn rather than a very different problem: of a resurgent white nationalism on the right. But let’s assume that they are correct that the poll solely registers Jewish worries about Corbyn. A separate finding in the EU survey underscored how Jewish opinion on anti-semitism and Corbyn may be far less straightforward than Jourova’s presentation suggests – and how precisely the wrong conclusions are likely to be drawn from the results. Buried in the Guardian report was a starkly anomalous finding – from Hungary. Anti-Jewish sentiment Hungary is a country in which Jews and other minorities undoubtedly face a very pressing threat to their safety. Its ultra-nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, used the general election in April to whip up a frenzy of anti-Jewish sentiment. He placed the Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros at the centre of his anti-immigration campaign, suggesting that the philanthropist was secretly pulling the strings of the opposition party to flood the country with “foreigners”. In the run-up to the election, his government erected giant posters and billboards all over the country showing a chuckling George Soros next to the words: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” Raiding the larder of virtually every historic anti-semitic trope, Orban declared in an election speech: We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open, but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the world. All of this should be seen in the context of Orban’s recent praise for Miklos Horthy, a former Hungarian leader who was an ally of Hitler’s. Orban has called him an “exceptional statesman”. The Hungary anomaly So did Hungarian Jews express to EU pollsters heightened fears for their community’s safety? Strangely, they did not. In fact, the percentage who regarded anti-semitism as a problem in Hungary was only slightly above the EU average and far below the concerns expressed by French Jews. Not only that, but the proportion of Hungarian Jews fearful of anti-semitism has actually dropped over the past six years. Some 77 percent see anti-semitism as a problem today, compared to 89 percent in 2012, when the poll was last conducted. So, the survey’s results are more than a little confounding. On the one hand, at least according to the British media and the EU, British Jews are in a heightened state of fear about the UK Labour party, where the evidence suggests an already marginal problem of anti-semitism is actually in decline. And on the other, Hungarian Jews’ fears of anti-semitism are waning, even though the evidence suggests anti-semitism there is on the rise and government-sanctioned. Array of opponents There is, however, a way to explain this paradox – and it has nothing to do with anti-semitism. Corbyn’s socialist-lite agenda faces a devastating array of opponents that include British business; the entire spectrum of the UK corporate media, including its supposedly liberal components; and, significantly in this case, the ultra-nationalist government of Israel, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. The British establishment fears Corbyn poses a challenge to the further entrenchment of neoliberal orthodoxy they benefit from. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians loathe Corbyn because he has made support for the Palestinian people a key part of his platform, becoming the first European leader to prioritise a Palestinian right to justice over Israel’s right to maintain its 51-year belligerent occupation. Hungary’s Viktor Orban, by contrast, is beloved of big business, as well as the country’s mainstream media, and, again significantly, the Israeli government. Orban: Israel’s ‘true friend’ Rather than distancing himself from Orban and his Jew-baiting electioneering in Hungary, Netanyahu has actually sanctioned it. He has called Orban a “true friend of Israel”, thanked him for “defending Israel”, and joined the Hungarian leader in denouncing Soros. Netanyahu, like Orban, intensely dislikes Soros’s liberalism and his support for open borders. Netanyahu shares Orban’s fears that a flood of refugees will disrupt his efforts to make his state as ethnically pure as possible. Earlier this year, for example, Netanyahu claimed that Soros had funded human rights organisations to help African asylum seekers in Israel avoid a government programme to expel them. Netanyahu has many practical and ideological reasons to support not only Orban but the new breed of ultra-nationalist leaders emerging in states like Poland, Italy, France and elsewhere. Hostility to Muslims Nativism in European states is primarily directed against Muslim and Arab immigrants arriving from the Middle East and north Africa, though domestic Jews could well become collateral damage in any future purge of “foreigners”. Europe’s ultra-nationalist leaders are therefore more likely to sympathise with Israel and its own “Arab-Muslim problem”, especially since Netanyahu and the Israeli right have proved adept at falsely presenting the Palestinians as immigrants rather than the region’s native population. Netanyahu would also like to see Europe paralysed by political differences, so it is incapable of lobbying for a two-state solution, as it has been doing ineffectively for many years; it is unable to agree on funding human rights activism designed to protect Palestinian rights; and it is too weak to move towards the adoption of sanctions against Israel. But most importantly, Netanyahu and the Israeli right can identify with the anti-semitic view of “the Jew” shared by Europe’s hardline nationalists. Ethnic purity and the Other These far-right groups see Jews as outsiders, a discrete community that cannot be assimilated or exist peacefully among them, and one that has separate loyalties and should either be encouraged to leave or be sent elsewhere. Netanyahu agrees. He also believes Jews are different, that they are a distinct and separate people, that their primary loyalties are tribal, to their own kind, and not to other states, and that they can only ever really be at home and properly Jewish in Israel, their true home. Zsofia Kata Vincze, a professor of ethnology in Budapest, recently referred to the ideological affinity between Netanyahu’s Zionism and Orban’s Hungarian-Christian nativism: They found a common language very easily. They kept talking about mutual values, which are nationalism, exclusivism … Hungarian purity, Jewish purity … against the Others. Only ‘partial’ Jews In fact, Netanyahu’s views are widely shared in Israel. A few years ago the celebrated liberal Israeli author A B Yehoshua outraged American Jews by saying they could only ever be what he called “partial Jews” outside Israel. Speaking of the divide between them and Israeli Jews, he said: “In no way are we the same thing – we are total and they are partial.” He called the refusal of all Jews to live in Israel and become “complete Jews … a very deep failure of the Jewish people”. The high levels of racism among Israelis towards non-Jews is highlighted in every poll. According to one this month, more than half of Israeli Jews – or those willing to admit it – believed that “most Jews are better than most non-Jews because they were born Jews”. Only a fifth rejected the statement outright. Some 74 per cent were disturbed by hearing Arabic, the mother tongue of the fifth of the country’s population who are Palestinian citizens. And a further 88 per cent did not want their son to befriend an Arab girl. Anti-immigrant views A separate poll this month found that, apart from Greeks, Israelis hold the most anti-immigrant views of 27 countries surveyed – more so even than Hungarians. By immigrants, of course, Israelis mean non-Jews. They do not regard the millions of Jews who have arrived in Israel from Europe and the Americas over the past decades as immigrants. Instead they are viewed as olim, or those who “ascend” to Israel, supposedly returning to their biblically ordained home. It is this ideological affinity – between a European ultra-nationalism and the kind of Zionist ultra-nationalism dominant in Israel – that explains why the far-right in Europe venerates Israel while despising Jews, and why so many Israelis prefer an Orban to a Soros. And it also, of course, explains why Netanyahu and most Israelis detest Corbyn. Legacy of Europe’s racism Not only does Corbyn offer an inclusive domestic political agenda, unlike the Orbans of Europe, but worse he also refuses to shy away from confronting the legacy of European racism and colonialism. The chief historic victims of that racism in Europe were Jews. But today that same European racism is channeled both into fervent support for Israel as a supposedly “safe haven” for Jews and into a general indifference – aside from handwringing – towards the Palestinians who for decades have been displaced and oppressed by Israel. Corbyn represents a huge break with that tradition and is therefore a threat to Israel. That is why behind the scenes Israel has been seeking to redefine anti-semitism in a way that tars anti-racists like Corbyn and his supporters in the Labour party. The ‘ultimate’ anti-semitism I have documented before in Middle East Eye Israel’s role in stoking the supposed “anti-semitism crisis” in Labour and in cornering the party into adopting a new, convoluted definition of anti-semitism that for the first time makes criticism of Israel the benchmark of anti-semitic discourse. Last month Netanyahu made that conflation explicit in a video message to a conference in Vienna. While praising Orban, he averred: “Anti-semitism and anti-Zionism, anti-Israeli polices – the idea that the Jewish people don’t have the right for a state – that’s the ultimate anti-semitism of today.” But it is not just Netanyahu who is stoking the patently preposterous notion that anti-racists like Corbyn – those whose principles require that they reject Jewish privilege over Palestinians – are really secret Jew-haters. If that were the case, the criticisms of Corbyn might not have as much traction with British Jews as this month’s EU poll suggests. Media distortions The UK media have played a vital role in promoting a false image of Corbyn, as a survey by the Media Reform Coalition found in September when it analysed British coverage of the Labour party. The coalition, which is led by academics, concluded that there had been systematic “disinformation” from media outlets. Inaccurate and misleading reporting by the supposedly liberal Guardian was especially pronounced. “Two thirds of the news segments on television contained at least one reporting error or substantive distortion,” its researchers also discovered. These failures included “marked skews in sourcing, omission of essential context or right of reply, misquotation, and false assertions made either by journalists themselves or sources whose contentious claims were neither challenged nor countered.” Covert propaganda The group is reluctant to infer that these consistent media failures indicate an intention to smear Corbyn. But revelations this month provide reason to believe that powerful interests in the UK are prepared to use dirty tricks to keep the Labour leader out of power. According to hacked documents, a network of politicians, academics, journalists and military personnel in Britain and elsewhere have been engaged in covert propaganda to shore up pro-western narratives and smear dissidents through an organisation called ‘Integrity Initiative.’ In the UK, these operations have been overseen by an even more shadowy group called the Institute for Statecraft, with a fake address in Scotland. In fact, it is headquartered in London and staffed by former and possibly current military intelligence officers. The UK government has been forced to admit that the institute has received substantial payments from the foreign office and defence ministry, and from the British army. Much of what the Integrity Initiative is up to is unclear, but from public records – such as its Twitter history – it can be seen that it has repeatedly sought to damage Corbyn and his key advisers by implicating them in supposed Russian “disinformation” campaigns. ‘Fair or foul means’ It is worth recalling that shortly after Corbyn was elected Labour leader in summer 2015 an unnamed British army general was given a platform in the Establishment’s newspaper, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times, to denounce Corbyn. He warned that the army would use “whatever means possible, fair or foul” to prevent the Labour leader from becoming prime minister and being able to carry out his policies. Certainly, the fingerprints of the British establishment now look all too visible on some of the recent efforts to malign Corbyn in the media. Maybe not surprisingly, despite the huge implications of the story for British politics, it has been given only the barest reporting in that same media. At the time of writing, the Guardian had referred to the Integrity Initiative only in the most pro forma fashion – in the context of government denials of wrongdoing. Is it credible that those covertly trying to paint Corbyn as a “Kremlin stooge” are not also seeking to exploit Israeli covert efforts to vilify the Labour leader as someone who encourages anti-semitism in his own party? The real remedy There is a serious, if rarely explored ideological tension between Israeli-style Zionism and a progressive or liberal outlook, just as there is between Orbanism and liberalism. In a political climate where European nativists are on the rise, the stark choice facing Europe’s Jews is to double-down on their traditional left-liberal worldview or abandon it entirely and throw their hat in with Israel’s own nativists. Corbyn represents the first choice, Netanyahu’s hardline Zionism the second. Bombarded by disinformation campaigns, it looks like many British Jews are being misled into seeing Corbyn as a threat – of a confected “left wing anti-semitism” – rather than as the best hope of inoculating Britain against the resurgence of a very real menace of right wing anti-semitism. Jewish emigration to Israel will make matters far worse. It will pander to the prejudices of Europe’s white nationalists, weaken the European left, and bolster an equally ugly Jewish nationalism that requires the oppression of Palestinians. • First published in Middle East Eye http://clubof.info/

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addictionfreedom · 6 years

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Cocaine Plant Pictures

Contents

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clusterassets · 7 years

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New world news from Time: These Syrian Refugees Made It to Europe. But There Still Isn’t an Answer to the Crisis

Seven-year-old Syrian refugee Wael Alsaleh only just started second grade in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, and he still doesn’t understand much of what his peers say. But the minute his teacher announces, in Greek, that it’s time to color, he reaches for the paper and markers, and launches into his favorite image of a tall, colorful house surrounded by green grass, trees and a smiling sun. He’s probably drawn 50 of those houses since he started school in October, says his teacher, Maria Liberi. “It’s not complicated,” she says when asked to interpret his drawings. “I think he’s really longing for a home.”

Wael’s family has been on the move for the past five years, ever since his mother scooped him out of bed one night to escape a bombing raid on his village outside of Deir ez-Zor in 2012. They hopscotched through refugee camps and temporary shelters scattered across Syria, Turkey and Greece. Since August, the family of seven has been living in a three-bedroom apartment located across the street from the school and paid for by the United Nations’ refugee body, UNHCR. For the first time, Wael, a pensive introvert whose quiet calm visibly separates him from his more rambunctious siblings, can go to school. He has a lot of catching up to do, says his teacher, “but he’s bright and determined. Give him stability and he will do just fine.”

Stability is not in Wael’s future. After nearly two years of struggling to find a foothold in Europe, his parents have just found out that they will be granted asylum in Greece. But what should be cause for celebration is rapidly turning into trepidation. A lawyer has told them that once they get their papers, they will be treated like any other Greek resident. They will have to move out of their UNHCR-funded apartment, and they will no longer be eligible for the monthly €550 ($646) in asylum-seeker benefits that have sustained the family for the past several months. Wael’s father Minhel Alsaleh, 39, an illiterate farmer who can barely speak Greek, will have to find a job in a nation with a 21% unemployment rate. “We have no choice,” he says. “We will have to leave.” Leave for where? “Germany. Where there are jobs. We will become refugees again.”

The fact that a family of Syrian refugees who waited nearly two years to get asylum in Europe is now contemplating uprooting itself once again raises the urgent question of just how much progress the E.U. has made in managing the influx of migrants that have arrived on its shores since 2015. That year, Europe witnessed chaotic scenes of thousands of migrants coming ashore on beaches and massing at unsecured borders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, incensed by the images of starving migrants living in squalid camps on European soil, pledged that any Syrian who could make it to Germany could apply for asylum there, effectively reversing a long-standing E.U. regulation that refugees must claim asylum in the country of first arrival. The resulting surge of migrants crossing Eastern Europe strained border controls, prompting fears that Islamist militants could use the turmoil as cover to slip, unnoticed, into European capitals.

Lynsey Addario—Verbatim for TIME

The number of new arrivals did not itself pose an existential threat; even at its peak in 2015, when a million people landed on Greek and Italian shores, the desperate newcomers numbered less than half a percent of the E.U.’s population. But populist movements capitalized on the demographic panic, and anti-migrant rhetoric became their rallying cry. The crisis played into the Brexit vote in 2016 and coursed through elections in Holland, France and Germany this year. Even when Europe’s new nativists didn’t gain power in legislative elections, they succeeded in pushing centrist parties to the right. As a result, nationalistic causes are entering the mainstream, and threatening the very identity of an E.U. forged from the ashes of a war over competing nationalisms. “This crisis has, in its way, become Europe’s Sept. 11,” says Ivan Krastev, a Vienna-based political scientist and the author of After Europe, which explores the future of the union, “in that it has fundamentally altered how Europe’s citizens look at the world.”

The crisis is not over. Although the numbers of asylum seekers reaching Europe have slowed to a fraction of the 2015 arrivals through a combination of deterrence measures, detentions and deportations, more than 163,000 migrants and asylum seekers still arrived by sea in 2017. More than 3,000 died in the attempt. The E.U. as a whole has yet to come up with a solution. Over two years after the image of a drowned Syrian toddler on a Turkish beach ricocheted around the world as an indelible reminder of the cost of human desperation, migrants are still dying in the Mediterranean. Some 200,000 asylum seekers and migrants are still warehoused in abysmal conditions in Greece and Italy, awaiting resolution for their cases. If European leaders can’t overcome this seemingly intractable problem, the 28-nation bloc is likely to face an even greater crisis in the near future, says Gerald Knaus, founder of the Berlin-based European Stability Initiative, a policy-analysis organization. “If the E.U. cannot make a success of this, then all the other steps it is taking to manage migration are doomed.”

In early 2016, three families joined tens of thousands of others crossing the Aegean Sea in one of the biggest refugee movements in modern history. For the past 18 months, TIME has been following them as part of its Finding Home project, as each brought a new child into the world. At the time of their departure from the Turkish coast, the families had hopes of joining at least half a million other refugees from Syria who had found safety in northern Europe. Instead, they and 60,000 other migrants were trapped in Greece when E.U. leaders shut the land borders in an attempt to put a stop to the irregular flow of migrants northward.

The families were housed in Greek refugee camps, waiting to be sent to a secondary European country under the quota system introduced in September 2015. To alleviate the burden on Greece, a country already in dire economic straits, the E.U. planned to distribute the asylum seekers among member states, rather than enforce the historic rules that said migrants could apply for asylum only in the member state where they first set foot.

The “relocation program,” as it was called, was a stopgap measure that proved hugely unpopular, among both the refugees and the countries tasked with taking them in. Asylum seekers had no say in where they might be sent, and the application process took up to two years. Meanwhile, the migrants were in a constant state of upheaval as the Greek government shuttled them through a series of camps and temporary shelters in search of adequate housing.

As well as being unpopular, the program has been ineffective. By the time it formally concluded in September, only 21,531 asylum seekers had been relocated, even though 63,000 spaces had been promised by member states through the quota system. (A similar program for arrivals in Italy saw only 10,844 placements out of 35,000 spots.) “It would be a struggle to find anyone who would claim the E.U. relocation program is working on any level,” says Katy Long, a writer and researcher on migration issues and an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh. The E.U. blames issues of eligibility for the shortfall.

All three of the Finding Home families were eventually relocated, but the results differed wildly from the intended outcomes. Throughout the year, TIME has reported on their struggles to navigate Europe’s shambolic decisionmaking on refugee affairs.

The first of the three families, Nourelhuda Altallaa, 25, Yousef Alarsan, 27, and their infant daughter Rahaf, were relocated to Germany in July, but even after spending six months in temporary housing, they are still awaiting a final decision on whether they will be allowed to stay, and if so, for how long. After throwing open its doors to refugees in 2015, Germany is now seeing a political backlash. Merkel is struggling to form a coalition in the wake of elections that brought a populist far-right party–Alternative for Germany (AfD)–to Parliament for the first time in Germany’s postwar history, largely on the back of an anti-immigrant campaign. Talks have broken down over whether to put a cap on the number of refugees Germany will take in, and how long they will be able to stay. Even members of Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, are considering parts of the AfD’s call to repatriate Syrian refugees, saying the war in Syria is nearly over.

Wael’s family was at first assigned to Lithuania but ultimately rejected on unspecified security grounds–the only justification a reluctant E.U. member state has for refusing to take refugees it never wanted in the first place. Once rejected, Wael’s family had no choice but to apply for asylum in Greece, even though they knew they were unlikely to stay there.

A third family was granted asylum in Estonia, but it too fled for Germany in the hopes of finding a bigger community of Syrians, better opportunities and a more welcoming environment. There is no Europe-wide accounting of what is called secondary movement for relocated refugees, but in Estonia more than half of arrivals from Greece eventually left for elsewhere in the E.U. In Lithuania, it was two-thirds. In neighboring Latvia, all of them left.

The reasons are varied: refugees in remote areas or countries feel isolated; others want to join family elsewhere. The benefits on offer vary wildly, reflecting the local economy and attitudes toward integration. Secondary movement puts an unfair burden on popular destinations, like Germany and Sweden, while countries that resent the E.U. quota system do little to integrate their refugees and happily look the other way when they leave.

The problem lies in one of the foundational tenets of the E.U.: open borders. The Schengen Agreement, in place since 1995, allows for passport-free travel across 26 countries. As the E.U. expanded, so did the Schengen area, but many of the newer member states are suspicious of the bloc’s values, says Elizabeth Collett, founding director of Migration Policy Institute Europe, a Brussels-based research institute. These mainly Eastern European states have less capacity in their asylum systems and negative attitudes about immigration, and offer less help with integration.

The refugee crisis has driven a wedge between these smaller, newer states and the larger, mainly Western ones. Many of the former have only grudgingly accepted the quotas set by the E.U.; Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have refused to take in any refugees at all. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become one of the most outspoken critics of the E.U.-wide migrant policy, building a border fence and demanding that would-be migrants be processed in Africa or Turkey, rather than in Europe. In September, the E.U. Court of Justice ruled that the three countries would have to abide by the quota. Only Slovakia has acquiesced.

E.U. member states are now in the process of negotiating a more workable system. A new law, proposed by the body’s executive in May, aims to make it easier for migrants to enter legally, in order to discourage the use of smuggling routes. Meanwhile, it wants to strike deals with countries in the Middle East and Africa to take back failed asylum seekers and forge a more permanent quota system. Germany is a strong supporter of the proposal, largely because Merkel needs to demonstrate to her people that the country is not being unfairly burdened. French President Emmanuel Macron is also onboard. But the split between large and small still exists; countries like Hungary and Poland do not want their migration policies to be imposed from Brussels or Berlin, and instead want to toughen border controls.

Refugee advocates call for a more liberalized approach–a human response to what has been treated as a logistical challenge. To start with, says Collett, the application process should take into account the desires of the refugees themselves. But that will have to be accompanied by a much stronger education effort, so that applicants are better informed about the destination countries. At the same time, says Knaus, relocated refugees must be guaranteed roughly comparable living conditions wherever they go, including access to education, health care and a path to citizenship, which is not currently the case. “If I could keep my apartment and my benefits, I wouldn’t need to go to Germany,” says Alsaleh. “Greece has been very good to us, but without the benefits, it’s impossible to stay.”

That may sound costly, but the E.U., through its partners in Greece, Germany and Estonia, spent an average of €800 ($938) per month for each of the Finding Home families to cover shelter, relocation travel, health care, meals and living stipends as their asylum claims were processed. A more streamlined system could free up funds to support successful applicants like Alsaleh long enough for him to stand on his own feet in Greece.

If the E.U. is to build an asylum system that works, it will need to be built to last. The surge in migrants over the past three years is not a trend, analysts say, but a preview of what is to come as regional conflicts evolve and climate change starts driving people from the Middle East and northern Africa. The International Organization for Migration warns that climate change will cause a “substantial rise in the scale of migration and displacement.”

First, Europe must examine its standards for what constitutes a refugee. Right now, Syrians are widely considered to be refugees and are accorded some degree of protection. But those fleeing Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for most of the past 37 years, are increasingly considered to be economic migrants, and Germany is already sending some back. The urgency of the 2015 crisis has blurred the lines between migrant and refugee, says Krastev, the political scientist. As the nature of conflict changes, Europe may have to rethink its definitions, and response. “We are living in a world in which potentially there are hundreds of millions of people who could defend the fact that they are refugees–from war, yes, but also from sexual violence, from climate change, from anti-homosexual persecution, from religious crackdowns,” he says. “How are we going to treat the first climate-change refugees that show up in Europe? As refugees? As labor migrants?”

It must also think long-term. Asylum is considered a temporary refuge from danger, even though instability in many regions of the world can last for decades. Yet many countries are moving in the opposite direction. When refugees from Syria first started arriving in Sweden and Germany, both countries offered full refugee status, which includes the right to permanent residency and a path to citizenship. Now, because of political pressures, Germany offers only so-called subsidiary protection to Syrian refugees–which lasts up to three years and denies many the right to bring over close family members. This may become even less liberal as Merkel seeks to build a coalition between political parties that differ on refugee integration. Even members of her own party have suggested that some Syrian refugees might be able to return home in 2018, citing a pending peace deal negotiated by Russia and Iran.

Altallaa and Alarsan, who were relocated to Germany, say they intend to return home as soon as the war ends. But that statement belies the realities of a shattered country that will take years to rebuild, even under the best circumstances. If European governments want to reverse the flow of refugees, they will have to make it easier for them to go home. And one of the best ways to do that is to offer them long-term residency in the country of asylum, says migration expert Long. It may seem paradoxical, but her research shows that refugees are much more willing to risk returning home to rebuild when they know they have a fallback if war breaks out again. “Giving a refugee permanent status somewhere else actually makes them far more likely to return home in the first months and years of a peace process, because they know they have an exit route,” she says. “They won’t have to get back on a smuggler’s boat if things go wrong.”

Even as E.U. leaders struggle to define a comprehensive policy, the crisis continues to cast a shadow on the continent. Populist politicians across the board are calling for a fresh crackdown on migration. Hungary’s Orban, inspired by Australia’s draconian policy, wants to withhold asylum from any migrant caught illegally entering Europe. This vision of Fortress Europe is gaining currency, and if far-right parties perform well in Italy’s elections next year, it could spread there too. This can be effective, to judge by the declining numbers of arrivals. But at what cost? At least some of the reduction is attributable to a dubious E.U. deal with Libyan mercenaries to prevent would-be migrants from departing the North African coast on smugglers’ boats. Instead, they end up in detention centers where they are abused, tortured, held for ransom and even sold as slaves.

The debate over how to handle migration isn’t going to end Europe, but it will define it. Stricter policies could mean more dead bodies washing up on Europe’s beaches. More liberal ones, if managed badly, could further embolden far-right agendas. “This really is a battle over the soul of Europe,” says Knaus. “If we can show that it is possible to not only reduce arrivals but to reduce the number of deaths in the Mediterranean, while also treating those who arrive decently and allowing them to successfully integrate into society, we can achieve so much more for Europe as a whole.”

Not just for Europe, but for the lives of those who come seeking refuge and a new life free from fear, from tyranny and from war. The refugee crisis may be a political challenge, but it is one that plays out on a human scale. Wael did not choose to leave his home in Syria, and his parents would not take him out of the only school he has ever known if they felt they had a choice. Like the other children TIME has been following over the past year and a half, Wael is a member of Europe’s Generation Refugee. One that, by accident of history or confluence of world events, will only grow in the years and decades to come. What they experience now may, in the end, shape Europe’s future.

–With reporting by IRENE LIOUMI and ABEER ALBADAWI/THESSALONIKI; LAMIS ALJASEM/VERL; and BILLY PERRIGO/LONDON

Reporting for this project is supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Merck for Mothers (known as MSD for Mothers outside of the U.S. and Canada)

Experience our Finding Home multimedia package at time.com/finding-home

This appears in the December 25, 2017 issue of TIME. December 18, 2017 at 09:43PM ClusterAssets Inc., https://ClusterAssets.wordpress.com https://ClusterAssets.tk

#Time #world #news #ClusterAssets #ClusterAsset #Cluster Asset Inc.#ClusterAssets Inc.

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flyinghigh716 · 7 years

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No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 ($0.99 Kindle), by Graham Bowley [HarperCollins]

No Way Down is both a gripping read and a clear-eyed investigation of the hubris, politics, and bad luck that brought on one of the worst disasters in modern mountaineering history. - Michael Kodas, author of High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed

Graham Bowley's No Way Down does a great job of putting you on the mountain. It is a refreshingly unadorned account of the true brutality of climbing K2, where heroes emerge and egos are stripped down, and the only thing achieving immortality is the cold ruthless mountain. - Norman Ollestad, author of Crazy for the Storm

In the tradition of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, No Way Down by New York Times reporter Graham Bowley is the harrowing account of the worst mountain climbing disaster on K2, second to Everest in height but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day.

Open Road One Day Deals & Promos

Kimberly's Flight: The Story of Captain Kimberly Hampton, America's First Woman Combat Pilot Killed in Battle ($2.99 Kindle), by Anna Simon and Ann Hampton

US Army Captain Kimberly N. Hampton was living her dream: flying armed helicopters in combat and commanding D Troop, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry, the armed reconnaissance aviation squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division. An all-American girl from a small Southern mill town, Hampton was a top scholar, student body president, ROTC battalion commander, and highly ranked college tennis player. In 1998, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army. Driven by determination and ambition, Hampton rapidly rose through the ranks in the almost all-male bastion of military aviation to command a combat aviation troop.

On January 2, 2004, Captain Hampton was flying an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter above Fallujah, Iraq, in support of a raid on an illicit weapons marketplace, searching for an elusive sniper on the rooftops below. A little past noon, her helicopter was wracked by an explosion. A heat-seeking surface-to-air missile had knocked off the helicopter's tail boom. The helicopter crashed, killing Hampton.

Kimberly's Flight is the story of Captain Hampton's exemplary life. This story is told through nearly fifty interviews and her own e-mails to family and friends, and is entwined with her mother's narrative of loving and losing a child.

More Daily Deals

Horrorstor ($1.99 Kindle), by Grady Hendrix [Quirk Books] Shelf Awareness for Readers Starred Review

Praise for the author: National treasure Grady Hendrix follows his classic account of a haunted IKEA-like furniture showroom, Horrorstr (2014), with a nostalgia-soaked ghost story, My Best Friend's Exorcism.-The Wall Street Journal

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstr comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk's labyrinthine showroom. It's a treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.-Kirkus Reviews.

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they'll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

More Bargain Picks

A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler ($1.99 Kindle), by Jason Roberts [HarperCollins] Publishers Weekly Starred Review

He was known simply as the Blind Traveler - a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in Af-rica, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon, and helped chart the Australian outback. James Holman (1786-1857) became one of the greatest wonders of the world he so sagaciously explored, triumphing not only over blindness but crippling pain, poverty, and the interference of well-meaning authorities (his greatest feat, a circumnavigation of the globe, had to be launched in secret). Once a celebrity, a bestselling author, and an inspiration to Charles Darwin and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the charismatic, witty Holman outlived his fame, dying in an obscurity that has endured - until now.

A Sense of the World is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one of history's most epic lives. Drawing on meticulous research, Jason Roberts ushers us into the Blind Traveler's uniquely vivid sensory realm, then sweeps us away on an extraordinary journey across the known world during the Age of Exploration. Rich with suspense, humor, international intrigue, and unforgettable characters, this is a story to awaken our own senses of awe and wonder.

The Scribe of Siena: A Novel ($1.99 Kindle), by Melodie Winawer [Simon and Schuster] Library Journal Starred Review; Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Equal parts transporting love story and gripping historical conspiracy, debut author Melodie Winawer takes readers deep into medieval Italy, where the past and present blur and a twenty-first century woman will discover a plot to destroy Siena.

Accomplished neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato knows that her deep empathy for her patients is starting to impede her work. So when her beloved brother passes away, she welcomes the unexpected trip to the Tuscan city of Siena to resolve his estate, even as she wrestles with grief. But as she delves deeper into her brother's affairs, she discovers intrigue she never imagined-a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city.

After uncovering the journal and paintings of Gabriele Accorsi, the fourteenth-century artist at the heart of the plot, Beatrice finds a startling image of her own face and is suddenly transported to the year 1347. She awakens in a Siena unfamiliar to her, one that will soon be hit by the Plague.

Yet when Beatrice meets Accorsi, something unexpected happens: she falls in love-not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena's very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs.

The Scribe of Siena is the captivating story of a brilliant woman's passionate affair with a time and a place that captures her in an impossibly romantic and dangerous trap-testing the strength of fate and the bonds of love.

Will remind historical fiction readers of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl EarringLovers of meticulously researched historical fiction and time-travel narratives will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena (Library Journal, starred review).

Winawer's debut is a detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable loveWinawer has created a prodigious, vibrant tale of past and present that transports readers and fills in the historical gaps. This is a marvelous work of research and invention (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

May be price matched at eBooks.com, iTunes or Kobo for those needing EPUB.

Please see this post in regards to backing up your books purchased from B&N and this post if you are having problems with the new web design.

All prices current at the time the post is written. Most bargain books remain at their listed price until midnight (each store operates on it's own timezone and schedule), but prices can change at any moment. I have seen prices change within the hour or even minutes after posting.

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studentofrhetoric-blog · 7 years

Text

Part 3, Monday, April 10th, 2017

International News:

--- "The first freight train to run from Britain to China departed on Monday, carrying goods like vitamins, baby products and pharmaceuticals as Britain seeks to burnish its global trading credentials for when it leaves the European Union. The 7,500-mile (12,000 km) journey from eastern England to eastern China will take three weeks, around half the time needed for the equivalent journey by boat. The first freight train from China arrived in Britain in January. The bright red train left a depot at Stanford-Le-Hope in Essex for Barking in east London, hauling dozens of containers. From Barking, it will pass through the Channel Tunnel into France and on to Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before ending up in Yiwu in China."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-china-train-idUSKBN17C0PK?il=0

--- "The U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base last week damaged or destroyed 20 percent of Syria's operational aircraft, as well as fuel and ammunition sites and air defense capabilities, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday. "The Syrian government has lost the ability to refuel or re-arm aircraft at Shayrat airfield and at this point, use of the runway is of idle military interest," Mattis said in a statement."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-mattis-idUSKBN17C28B?il=0

--- "At least 16 people were killed in the South Sudanese town of Wau on Monday, said the United Nations, as witnesses said ethnic militiamen went house to house searching for people from other groups. Streets were deserted as families hid inside, residents told Reuters by phone. Some reported seeing killings. Witnesses said the militia members were aligned with the government in the country's ethnically charged civil war. They accused army soldiers of blocking the main road to a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said two U.N. peacekeeping patrols had been sent to the area on Monday and more were expected to patrol on Tuesday. The U.N. peacekeeping mission is known as UNMISS. "They saw 16 bodies of civilians in a hospital and at least 10 others were injured," Dujarric told reporters in New York."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-violence-idUSKBN17C0SO?il=0

--- Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected Islamic State militants in a shootout on Monday as they were meeting to plan attacks on minority Christians, the Interior Ministry said. The incident in the southern city of Assiut occurred a day after Egypt's cabinet approved a three-month state of emergency in the wake of Islamic State attacks on two Christian Coptic churches that killed at least 44 people. The seven militants were killed after they opened fire on security forces who approached them as they were meeting to plot further attacks on Christians, the ministry said in a statement. Assiut has a significant Christian population. Ammunition, weapons, a motorcycle and Islamic State books and publications were found at the scene, the statement said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-security-idUSKBN17C2EA?il=0

--- "Niger security forces killed 57 members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram who attacked a village in the southeastern Diffa region overnight, the defense ministry said in a statement on Monday. Fifteen soldiers and two civilians were wounded during the attack by heavily armed men in Gueskerou village, which is around 30 km (22 miles) northeast of Diffa town, it said. "Among the enemy there were 57 terrorists killed, a Toyota pick-up recovered along with a 60 mm mortar, two RPG 7s (rocket propelled grenade launchers), five machine guns, 20 AK-47s and a lot of ammunition," the statement said. The report could not be independently confirmed."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security-idUSKBN17C29B?il=0

--- "Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations met in Italy on Monday, looking to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad...U.S. President Donald Trump had previously appeared disinclined to intervene against the Syrian leader and the attack raised expectations that he might now be ready to adopt a tougher-than-expected stance with Russia, Assad's main backer. Calling the strike a "game changer", British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said support for the Syrian president "was toxifying the reputation of Russia" and suggested sanctions could be imposed on Moscow if it refused to change course. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to travel to Moscow on Tuesday at the end of the two-day gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca with his Italian, German, French, British, Japanese and Canadian counterparts. "What we're trying to do is to give Rex Tillerson the clearest possible mandate from us as the West, the U.K., all our allies here, to say to the Russians 'this is your choice: stick with that guy, stick with that tyrant, or work with us to find a better solution'," Johnson said after meeting Tillerson. "Returning to pseudo-attempts to resolve the crisis by repeating mantras that Assad must step down cannot help sort things out," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Monday. Johnson said he was keen to seen further sanctions imposed on both Syrian and Russian "military figures". Speaking to reporters in France, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was also ready to stiffen sanctions on Moscow."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-foreign-idUSKBN17C003?il=0

--- "U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week will be an early test of whether the Trump administration can use any momentum generated by a missile attack on a Syrian air base to craft and execute a strategy to end the Syrian war. Even before Trump ordered last week's strike in retaliation for a nerve gas attack, Tillerson's visit was certain to be dominated by thorny issues, including Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, an apparent violation of an important arms control treaty, and seeing what cooperation, if any, is possible in the fight against Islamic State. Now, Tillerson, a former oil executive with no diplomatic experience, is charged with avoiding a major U.S. confrontation with Russia while exacting some concessions from Moscow. Those include getting rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's remaining chemical weapons and pressing Assad to negotiate Syria's future. The Kremlin said on Monday Tillerson was not scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit, a move that could point to tensions. It may also suggest that Tillerson will instead follow strict diplomatic protocol and only meet his direct counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The State Department said last week a meeting had not been confirmed with Putin, who met with Tillerson when the Texan headed Exxon Mobil."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-tillerson-idUSKBN17C0D4?il=0

Domestic & International News:

--- "The Trump administration must decide by the end of this month whether to grant Belarus continued relief from U.S. economic sanctions despite a stiff government crackdown on street demonstrations last month. The renewal decision is considered a low-level priority for the administration, which is facing bigger questions about U.S. relations with Russia and China, and with most major diplomatic positions still unfilled. But whether the United States renews the sanctions relief or instead returns to blacklisting nine major Belarus companies is an early test for the Trump administration on the importance it puts on human rights versus efforts to coax countries in Russia's orbit to turn to the West. The sanctions waivers, which began in 2015 and were extended twice last year, were tied to domestic political reforms and intended to encourage Belarus, which has long historical ties to Russia, to move closer to the European Union and the United States. Now, however, U.S. officials are alarmed by the arrests of hundreds of people last month during an attempt to hold a street protest in the capital Minsk, and concerned if continuing sanctions relief could be seen as ignoring the crackdown. Belarus authorities last month raided a human rights group's offices and used violence against peaceful protesters, rights groups say...The decision must be taken by the end of April. If the administration makes no decision, the sanctions will be re-imposed."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-belarus-sanctions-idUSKBN17C29P?il=0

--- "The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Monday he is proposing to end a 2013 regulatory proceeding that had sought to lift the ban on mobile phones on U.S. airlines. The FCC said in 2013 that it would consider allowing air travelers to make mobile phone calls but never finalized it. "I stand with airline pilots, flight attendants, and America’s flying public against the FCC’s ill-conceived 2013 plan to allow people to make cellphone calls on planes. I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. Pai needs the backing of the two other commissioners for the 2013 proposal to be formally abandoned."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fcc-airplane-idUSKBN17C283?il=0

--- "British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke on Monday to U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed that "a window of opportunity" exists to persuade Russia to break ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, May's office said. A spokeswoman for the prime minister said Trump had thanked May for her support following last week's U.S. military action in Syria against the Assad regime. The White House later on Monday said Trump had spoken with May and separately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone about the U.S. attack and thanked them for their support. It said in a statement that May and Merkel expressed support for the U.S. action and agreed with Trump on the importance of holding Assad accountable."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-britain-idUSKBN17C2I8?il=0

--- "A group of U.S. lawmakers said on Monday they had requested more information from President Donald Trump's administration about the potential sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, expressing concern about civilian casualties in Riyadh's campaign in Yemen that delayed the deal last year. Thirty mostly Democratic lawmakers signed the letter to U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, citing expectations that the administration plans to go ahead with the sale. "As you know, the previous administration made the decision in December 2016 to halt a planned sale of precision-guided munitions (PGM) to Saudi Arabia due to concerns over widespread civilian casualties and significant deficiencies in RSAF's (the Saudi Air Force's) targeting capabilities," the letter, dated Friday but released on Monday, said. "According to recent reports, however, the State Department has now reversed course and removed the suspension on these PGM sales," they said in the letter, led by Representative Ted Lieu, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The State and Defense Departments do not comment on planned arms sales before formal notification is sent to Congress."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudiarabia-arms-idUSKBN17C2N4?il=0

--- "China was the world's top executioner last year, while the United States put to death fewer people than it has in more than two decades, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday. More than 90 percent of the world's executions took place in five countries - China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. More than 3,000 people in 55 countries were condemned to death last year, marking a 56 percent surge from 2015. China is believed to have executed "thousands" of people, more than the combined figure of at least 1,023 executions in 23 other countries last year, the rights group said. "China now wants to assume a global leadership role. In respect to death penalty it is leading in the worst possible way," said Amnesty International's regional director for East Asia, Nicholas Bequelin...For the first time in a decade, the United States dropped out of the world's top five executioners, recording 20 death sentences carried out last year, the fewest since 1991, putting it in seventh place after Egypt. Most U.S. executions took place in the states of Georgia and Texas, while 19 states have abolished the death penalty. The number of death sentences in the United States, at 32, was also the lowest since 1973."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-executions-idUSKBN17C2K6?il=0

--- "U.S. trade negotiators will try to hammer out deals with China over the next 100 days to resume imports of American beef and to allow U.S. access to China's closed services sector, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Monday. Spicer said that U.S and Chinese officials were still at the early stages of "fleshing out" a pledge by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to develop 100-day plan to help reduce China's massive trade surplus with the United States that was made at their first meeting in Florida last week. Asked in a press briefing whether China had offered concessions on beef and financial services access, as reported by the Financial Times, Spicer said these sectors were among topics that U.S.-China talks would cover."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-trade-idUSKBN17C2IV?il=0

--- "President Donald Trump's administration is pushing forward with plans to sell up to a dozen aircraft to Nigeria's air force for the fight against the extremist group Boko Haram, sources said on Monday, in a deal that could be worth up to $600 million. The Super Tucano A-29 aircraft, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazil's Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada. Former President Barack Obama's administration originally agreed on the sale, but delayed it after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force's bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians. The Trump administration wants to push ahead to boost Nigeria's efforts to fight Boko Haram and bolster hiring in the United States by defense firms. "We've been told that the administration is going to go forward with that transaction," a congressional aide said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-usa-aircraft-sales-idUSKBN17C2C5?il=0

Domestic News:

--- "U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with about 20 chief executives on Tuesday as he works to gain support for a $1 trillion infrastructure program, tax reform and other administration priorities, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer. Trump will meet with the heads of General Motors Co (GM.N), International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), a government official briefed on the matter said. Trump has pledged to unlock $1 trillion in private and public infrastructure investments to fix bridges, improve the electrical grid and broadband internet, modernize airports and potentially rebuild hospitals for veterans. Nearly three months after his inauguration, Trump will again seek the advice and funds of the private sector for his "national rebuilding" program. Trump also wants to streamline the income tax system, cut federal regulations, reduce corporate income tax and add new taxes to prod companies to keep or move production to the United States. He has held numerous sessions with CEOs since taking office. The chief executives are part of Trump's "Strategy and Policy Forum" that was created in December and last met with the president on Feb. 3. The business leaders from a variety of sectors will also meet in small groups with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, Spicer said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-business-idUSKBN17C1Q8?il=0

--- "A Texas law that requires voters to show identification before casting ballots was enacted with the intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters, a U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos came after an appeals court last year said the 2011 law had an outsized impact on minority voters. The court sent the case back to Ramos to determine if lawmakers intentionally wrote the legislation to be discriminatory. Ramos said in a 10-page decision that evidence "establishes that a discriminatory purpose was at least one of the substantial or motivating factors behind passage" of the measure. "The terms of the bill were unduly strict," she added. Spokesmen for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Jr. and Governor Greg Abbott, both Republicans, could not be reached for comment. In January, after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, Paxton said it was a common sense law to prevent voter fraud. The ruling on voter ID comes about a month after two federal judges ruled that Texas lawmakers drew up three U.S. congressional districts to undermine the influence of Hispanic voters."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-texas-idUSKBN17D059?il=0

--- "Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resigned on Monday after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors related to campaign finance violations and linked to his relationship with a former adviser, ending a year-long scandal that has enveloped the state's government. The guilty pleas were part of an agreement with prosecutors that called for him to step down, said Ellen Brooks, special prosecutor appointed by the state Attorney General Steve Marshall to investigate Bentley. "I have decided it is time for me to step down as Alabama governor," said Bentley at a news conference in the state capital of Montgomery, adding that his service "was a calling that God placed on my life." He said he would work with his replacement, Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, who was sworn in as governor about an hour after his resignation..."The Ivey administration will be open, it will be transparent, and it will be honest," Ivey said during a short speech after her swearing in by the minister at her Montgomery Baptist church. "What we have done today is to put an end to this administration," Brooks told reporters. "It states to all of us that no one is above the law, even the governor."...[Bentley] was charged with misuse of campaign funds and failure to file campaign financial reports on a timely basis. After his guilty pleas, an Alabama judge ordered Bentley to serve one year of unsupervised probation, make restitution and give up his retirement benefits from the state. He also agreed not to run for another political office, Brooks said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alabama-governor-resignation-idUSKBN17C2FT?il=0

--- "A coalition of nonprofit groups on Monday sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain logs of visitors to President Donald Trump's homes. The lawsuit accused the Secret Service, which maintains the logs, of violating the law by ignoring several requests for lists of visitors to the White House, Trump Tower in Manhattan, and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Monday's complaint was filed in Manhattan federal court by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the National Security Archive, and archive researcher Kate Doyle. The plaintiffs had requested the logs under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Similar litigation by CREW in 2009 prompted the Obama administration to disclose White House visitor logs on a delayed basis, and according to the complaint led to the release of 5.99 million records. A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service, said the department does not discuss pending litigation. The lawsuit was reported earlier by the Washington Post. The website where White House visitor logs were available went dark after Trump became president."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-foia-idUSKBN17C2J3?il=0

--- "The Federal Reserve's plans to raise U.S. interest rates gradually are aimed at sustaining full employment and near-2-percent inflation without letting the economy overheat, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday. "I think we have a healthy economy now," Yellen said at an event at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy in Ann Arbor. Unemployment, at 4.5 percent, is now a little bit below the jobless rate that most Fed officials think signals full employment, and inflation is "reasonably close" to the Fed's 2-percent goal, she said. With the economy expected to continue to grow at a moderate pace, she said, the Fed is now shifting its focus. "Whereas before we had our foot pressed down on the gas pedal trying to give the economy all the oomph we possibly could, now allowing the economy to kind of coast and remain on an even keel -- to give it some gas but not so much that we are pressing down hard on the accelerator -- that’s a better stance of monetary policy," she said. "We want to be ahead of the curve and not behind it." In the U.S. Treasury bond market, yields were little changed after Yellen's remarks. The Fed raised rates in March for only the third time since the Great Recession, and most Fed officials expect the central bank to raise rates at least two more times this year."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-yellen-idUSKBN17C2EO?il=0

--- "The Federal Reserve's ability to conduct monetary policy free of short-term political pressures is under "some threat" from two bills making their way through the U.S. Congress, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday. Central bank independence is "very important and results in better decision-making that’s focused on the long-term needs and health of the economy," Yellen said at an event at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy in Ann Arbor. Of the legislation under consideration, the one that goes the furthest to curtail the Fed's independence would require the central bank to follow a simple rule for setting interest rates and to justify any deviation from that rule, she said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-yellen-independence-idUSKBN17C2H6?il=0

#international affairs #domestic affairs #source: reuters

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