Headlines NEWS Why Trump and his team want to wipe out the EU | Natalie Nougayrède The Trump administration not only dislikes the European Union, it is out to destroy it. The trip by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to Europe last week was episode three of the onslaught, designed to play on east-west divisions within the EU. Episode one was Donald Trump’s 2017 Warsaw speech, infused with nativist nationalism. Europe is trying to put up a resistance. Pompeo has done two significant things. Some of it smacked of 2003 when, in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, coined the terms “old Europe” (bad) and “new Europe” (good). Bolton goes further: he identifies the EU as a threat to US interests (last year Trump called it “a foe”). Never mind that Trump has arguably done more to bolster anti-American sentiment in Europe than any other US leader. Beware of thinking Bolton’s 2000 writings are outdated. Pompeo’s talk of freedom, above all, echoed Bolton’s thinking. • Natalie Nougayrède is a Guardian columnist
The Excerpt Mill MORE INTELLIGENT Angela Merkel criticises US isolationism, urging 'win-win solutions' Angela Merkel has turned her fire on America’s “home alone” policies, saying multilateral bodies cannot simply be smashed up, and warned the US president, Donald Trump, that Europe must not be excluded from discussions on future nuclear disarmament, Syria or trade. Warning of a collapse of the international order into tiny parts, the German chancellor said: “We cannot just smash it. We need to cooperate.” Merkel quoted the US Republican senator Lindsey Graham as saying: “Multilateralism may be complicated, but it’s better than simply staying at home alone.” “Now that we see great pressure on the classic order we are used to, the question now is: do we fall apart into pieces of a puzzle and think everyone can solve the question best for himself alone?” She was speaking at the Munich security conference on Saturday, immediately before the US vice-president Mike Pence, who insisted: “America first never meant America alone.”
EMOTION John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt · The Israel Lobby: the Israel Lobby · LRB 23 March 2006 For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing that given to any other state. Other recipients get their money in quarterly installments, but Israel receives its entire appropriation at the beginning of each fiscal year and can thus earn interest on it. Washington also provides Israel with consistent diplomatic support. 10 March
INTJ Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong | Jason Hickel Last week, as world leaders and business elites arrived in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates tweeted an infographic to his 46 million followers showing that the world has been getting better and better. “This is one of my favourite infographics,” he wrote. “A lot of people underestimate just how much life has improved over the past two centuries.” Of the six graphs – developed by Max Roser of Our World in Data – the first has attracted the most attention by far. It’s a powerful narrative. Bill Gates (@BillGates)This is one of my favorite infographics. There are a number of problems with this graph, though. What Roser’s numbers actually reveal is that the world went from a situation where most of humanity had no need of money at all to one where today most of humanity struggles to survive on extremely small amounts of money. In other words, Roser’s graph illustrates a story of coerced proletarianisation. But that’s not all that’s wrong here.
LOVE Why the media fails to cover Palestine with accuracy and empathy | Israeli–Palestinian conflict Glasgow, Scotland - Often dubbed an open-air prison on account of Israel's and Egypt's ongoing air, land and sea blockade of the coastal enclave, Gaza is, according to Amnesty International and several other rights groups, on the brink of a humanitarian disaster. In February, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, highlighted the crisis, saying that the near two million Palestinians of the besieged strip "remain mired in increasing poverty and unemployment, with limited access to adequate health, education, water and electricity". But the mainstream media does not always succeed in telling Palestine's contemporary story with accuracy and empathy. On Thursday, in the Scottish city of Glasgow, experts discussed the media's role in covering one of the most pressing and divisive issues in international politics. She was based in Jerusalem in the 1990s. Today, similar concerns remain. Reporting fatigue also contributes to poor media coverage.