Written by John Lounsbury
Early Bird Headlines 10 October 2015
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
Global
Nobel Peace Prize boosts struggling Tunisian democracy (Associated Press) Four civil society groups – the main labor union, the bar association, the employers’ association and the human rights league – have received the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Working together following the 2011 Arab Spring overthrow of the Tunisian government, they got the Islamists to agree to resign in favor of a caretaker government that would organize new elections, while the angry opposition returned to the table to complete the country’s constitution. The group, known as the National Dialogue Quartet, led patient negotiating efforts, which carried Tunisia through an extended constitutional crisis and laid the groundwork for the only democracy, although still challenged by terrorist activities, that remains in any of the Arab Spring countries.
What Drives Inequality (Jon D. Wisman)
By examining three broad distributional changes in modern times, this article demonstrates the dynamics by which inequality is a political phenomenon through and through. It places special emphasis on the role played by ideology – politics’ most powerful instrument – in making inequality appear as necessary.
U.S.
Inflation Test After Worst Week Since June (Bloomberg) Data due Oct. 15 are forecast to show U.S. consumer prices fell for a second straight month in September. A decline may cast further doubt on Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates this year and undermine the U.S. currency, which fell the most in four months this week, paring a 2015 advance. Econintersect: The strength in the dollar has been predicated on the Fed raising interest rates and that is more uncertain than ever. If consumer prices weaken again in the report for September there is a perverse effect of a weaker dollar buying more. It could be argued that a weaker dollar is buying more, which is normally the case for a stronger dollar. The perversity of deflation is that all our thinking based on entrenched inflation is turned on its head.
Texas figuring out how to handle campus carry law (CNN) The bill many know as the “campus carry” law is scheduled to go into effect August 1, 2016, the 50-year anniversary of the UT Tower sniper shooting, one of the first mass murders on a college campus in America.
Two die in two US university shootings (BBC News) Two people have died after two separate university shootings in Texas and Arizona, just hours apart. One person was killed and three injured in the first shooting at Northern Arizona University early on Friday, which involved fraternity members. Later that morning a shooting at a student complex near Texas Southern University left one person dead. The attacks came as President Barack Obama visited families of victims of a college shooting in Oregon. See next article.
Strong emotions as Obama visits grieving Oregon town (Associated Press) Gun-rights activists and others gave voice to strong emotions on Friday when President Barack Obama came to meet privately with grieving families whose loved ones were killed on a college campus in Roseburg, Oregon. Many residents were angry over the call for more gun restrictions the president made soon after last week’s shooting. However, there were also Obama supporters among the people waiting behind a security fence near the airport to catch a glimpse of the president. The video at the AP site has been taken down. The following is from NBC News:
Syria
Syrian Kurdish leader: Moscow wants to work with us (Al Monitor) A Syrian Kurdish leader in Washington this week seeking greater US military support says that Russia has also offered to collaborate with Syrian Kurds in its current offensive against Muslim terrorist groups. Russia’s stunning intervention in Syria appears to have given the PYD a new card to play with the Obama administration. This was probably part of the consideration behind the 09 October announcement by the White House and Pentagon that the U.S. will supply arms, equipment and air support to Syrian Arab and Kurdish groups already fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the ground in Syria.
Iranian general killed in Syria came back for special operation (Al Monitor) Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed in Syria. Hamedani is perhaps the highest ranking Iranian general to be killed in Syria’s four-year-long civil war. He played significant roles in major events of the Islamic Republic, from the Iran-Iraq war and the 2009 post-election protests to Iran’s increasing involvement in propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. For more on Gen. Hamedani, see Public Relations Department of the Army announced the martyrdom of Commander Brigadier General Hossein Hamadan (sepahnews.com).
Russia’s Syria strikes hold both strategic and symbolic importance (Al Monitor) Russia’s military deployment in Syria and ensuing strikes against rebel positions have made large swaths of territory off-limits to rebels. These areas include not only the Latakia region – known as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite bastion – but southern Syria as well, where experts and fighters told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the rebels’ advance toward Damascus has been purposely stalled by external players. Russia has been building up its forces since July in the coastal region of Latakia. As 2,000 men were deployed starting in late September to a new air base near Latakia, the Russian air force took over Syrian skies, bombing Idlib, Homs and Hama – areas essentially under rebel control – as well as the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. The Russian intervention has reversed the weakening of al-Assad’s position that had been underway in previous months.
India
Modi’s Sacred Cows (Foreign Policy) India’s prime minister has spoken out against the killing of cows. Why hasn’t he spoken out against the killing of Muslims?
China
China completes construction of lighthouses in disputed South China Sea (Reuters) China has completed the construction of two lighthouses in the disputed South China Sea, the official Xinhua news agency reported, as tensions in the region mount over Beijing’s maritime ambitions. A completion ceremony was held for the lighthouses on Cuateron Reef and Johnson South Reef in the Spratly islands, Xinhua said late on Friday. The United States and the Philippines have opposed the construction. China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. China said on Friday it would not stand for violations of its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation, as the United States considers sailing warships to waters inside the 12-nautical-mile zones around islands it has built in the Spratly chain.
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