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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
February 16, 2024
https://archive.is/8QK5j
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hit back at international pressure regarding a peace deal and underlined his opposition to a Palestinian state, rejecting the latter prospect as a “huge reward” for Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack. In a social media statement, Netanyahu said Israel “outright rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. Such an arrangement will be reached only through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”
The Biden administration and a group of its Middle East partners are working on a long-term Israel-Palestinian peace plan that includes a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state, The Washington Post reported, which could be announced in the next several weeks. Netanyahu added that Israel continued to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and that doing do “would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace settlement.”
He made the comments after a call with President Biden, in which the U.S. leader reiterated his position that Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah should not go ahead without a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of civilians there. Israeli officials reacted negatively to news of the plan the United States is working on. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, wrote on social media in Hebrew that Israel “will never agree to this plan, which says that the Palestinians deserve a prize for the terrible massacre they carried out against us: a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right Israeli security minister, tweeted: “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen!” Former Israeli justice minister Gideon Sa’ar, in a speech in Berlin, warned against what he called a “dangerous plan taking shape for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.” The plan will make the conflict “intractable,” Sa’ar said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “The Palestinians will receive recognition in the state without paying the price of compromise.”
Netanyahu rejects international pressure on peace plan, Palestinian state
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/16/israel-hamas-war-news-gaza-palestine/#link-7ZRCO5WL65BP7OJ646II4ZGVRQhttps://archive.is/8QK5j
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hit back at international pressure regarding a peace deal and underlined his opposition to a Palestinian state, rejecting the latter prospect as a “huge reward” for Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack. In a social media statement, Netanyahu said Israel “outright rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. Such an arrangement will be reached only through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”
The Biden administration and a group of its Middle East partners are working on a long-term Israel-Palestinian peace plan that includes a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state, The Washington Post reported, which could be announced in the next several weeks. Netanyahu added that Israel continued to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and that doing do “would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace settlement.”
He made the comments after a call with President Biden, in which the U.S. leader reiterated his position that Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah should not go ahead without a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of civilians there. Israeli officials reacted negatively to news of the plan the United States is working on. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, wrote on social media in Hebrew that Israel “will never agree to this plan, which says that the Palestinians deserve a prize for the terrible massacre they carried out against us: a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right Israeli security minister, tweeted: “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen!” Former Israeli justice minister Gideon Sa’ar, in a speech in Berlin, warned against what he called a “dangerous plan taking shape for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.” The plan will make the conflict “intractable,” Sa’ar said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “The Palestinians will receive recognition in the state without paying the price of compromise.”
February 16, 2024
https://feps-europe.eu/event/preparing-ukraines-economy-for-a-war-of-attrition/
Throughout the history of military conflicts, nations with robust war economies were better positioned to weather the challenges of prolonged hostilities and emerge victorious. Effective state policies aimed at mobilizing economic resources and supporting key industries not only ensure the sustainability of military efforts but also contribute to broader national resilience whilst creating strategic advantage on the battlefield. Since the full-scale invasion commenced, the intricacies of Russia’s economic resilience in the face of unprecedented sanctions and its ability to sustain its military operations have remained focal points of discussion and analysis within the expert community.
Two years into Russia’s aggression, Ukraine’s economy has not fully transitioned into a wartime model. In the first months after the invasion, the Ukrainian central bank succeeded in preserving banking system stability and preventing currency collapse. However, beyond this shock therapy, one could argue that its policy has not been supportive enough of the country’s war effort. State policies in other domains have not been up to the challenge either. As a result, prioritizing and implementing strategic and smart state policies to manage the economy during wartime becomes imperative for Ukraine’s ability to navigate the war of attrition and ultimately triumph in the face of ongoing hostilities and ever-growing geopolitical and socio-economic challenges.
During this online webinar, FEPS will bring a panel of distinguished policy experts to discuss what a war economy entails, in general, and what policies can be recommended for Ukraine, considering its current challenging circumstances. We will analyse actions that have already been taken, challenges that have emerged and recommend the next steps that need to be implemented.
UPCOMING EVENT: Preparing Ukraine's economy for a war of attrition: Beyond the battlefield. 27 February - Online
https://feps-europe.eu/event/preparing-ukraines-economy-for-a-war-of-attrition/
Throughout the history of military conflicts, nations with robust war economies were better positioned to weather the challenges of prolonged hostilities and emerge victorious. Effective state policies aimed at mobilizing economic resources and supporting key industries not only ensure the sustainability of military efforts but also contribute to broader national resilience whilst creating strategic advantage on the battlefield. Since the full-scale invasion commenced, the intricacies of Russia’s economic resilience in the face of unprecedented sanctions and its ability to sustain its military operations have remained focal points of discussion and analysis within the expert community.
Two years into Russia’s aggression, Ukraine’s economy has not fully transitioned into a wartime model. In the first months after the invasion, the Ukrainian central bank succeeded in preserving banking system stability and preventing currency collapse. However, beyond this shock therapy, one could argue that its policy has not been supportive enough of the country’s war effort. State policies in other domains have not been up to the challenge either. As a result, prioritizing and implementing strategic and smart state policies to manage the economy during wartime becomes imperative for Ukraine’s ability to navigate the war of attrition and ultimately triumph in the face of ongoing hostilities and ever-growing geopolitical and socio-economic challenges.
During this online webinar, FEPS will bring a panel of distinguished policy experts to discuss what a war economy entails, in general, and what policies can be recommended for Ukraine, considering its current challenging circumstances. We will analyse actions that have already been taken, challenges that have emerged and recommend the next steps that need to be implemented.
February 16, 2024
Party triumphant as huge Conservative majorities overturned
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/by-election-results-live-wellingborough-kingswood-tory-labour-latest-news-snh3rnk09
https://archive.is/UTJq9
The Labour candidate Gen Kitchen celebrates after overturning a huge Tory majority in Wellingborough with a 28.5 per cent swing. The result represents the largest drop in Conservative vote share ever in a by-election
Labour has secured victory in two by-elections, taking Kingswood and Wellingborough from the Tories. Voting in the two constituencies in South Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire took place towards the end of a difficult week for both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. It was revealed on Thursday that Britain had entered a technical recession, providing bad news for Sunak’s government, while Starmer has been facing growing pressure over allegations of antisemitism within his party.
Newly-elected Labour MP Damien Egan with supporters after winning the Kingswood by-election
Labour wins two by-elections in bruising night for the Tories
Party triumphant as huge Conservative majorities overturned
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/by-election-results-live-wellingborough-kingswood-tory-labour-latest-news-snh3rnk09
https://archive.is/UTJq9
The Labour candidate Gen Kitchen celebrates after overturning a huge Tory majority in Wellingborough with a 28.5 per cent swing. The result represents the largest drop in Conservative vote share ever in a by-election
Labour has secured victory in two by-elections, taking Kingswood and Wellingborough from the Tories. Voting in the two constituencies in South Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire took place towards the end of a difficult week for both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. It was revealed on Thursday that Britain had entered a technical recession, providing bad news for Sunak’s government, while Starmer has been facing growing pressure over allegations of antisemitism within his party.
Newly-elected Labour MP Damien Egan with supporters after winning the Kingswood by-election
February 16, 2024
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-02-14-inflation-panic/
Inflation for all of 2023 was just 3.1 percent.
The Consumer Price Index for January was a bit higher than economists had forecast. To be precise, it was up 0.3 percent for the month, while the consensus prediction of economists was 0.2 percent. Stop the presses! But that blip was enough to cause the stock market to plummet, on expectations that the Federal Reserve will wait until much later in 2024 than expected to begin cutting rates. Could we please get a grip?
For starters, the supply-chain inflation of the pandemic era is over. Inflation for all of 2023 was just 3.1 percent. Getting it all the way down to the Fed's target of 2 percent could take a while longer. But 2 percent is an arbitrary benchmark. For long periods of time, the economy has done just fine with inflation of 3 percent or even more. It makes no sense to use high interest rates to keep the economy from realizing its full potential just to hit an unrealistic inflation target. There is also the weird and misleading role of “shelter” in the Consumer Price Index.
For January, the CPI recorded that shelter costs increased 0.6 percent in a month, bringing the annual increase in housing expenses for all of 2023 to 6 percent, or almost double that of the CPI as a whole. For January, the increase in shelter costs accounted for over two-thirds of the CPI's monthly rise. But if you unpack the CPI calculations for shelter, it is a poor guide to what's really happening in the economy. The index for owner-occupied housing is calculated by looking at the presumed rental value of occupying your own house. And in any given year, most people do not buy houses. Zillow's index, reflecting actual home sales, was up only 3.1 percent for 2023. That's a better reflection of what's actually happening in housing markets.
As for rents, they are rising because of a chronic shortage of affordable housing. That shortage is the result of inadequate housing policy. It’s a long-term problem. Sandbagging the economy with high interest rates will not cause more housing to materialize. On the contrary, high borrowing costs will make it more costly for builders to produce housing. The Fed and the commentators in the financial press are in a kind of conspiracy of ignorance that gives too much weight to misleading economic indicators of price increases. The real economy—which is to say us—pays the real price.
snip
Inflation Panic: Actual consumer prices are well behaved. Financial commentators and central bankers are not.
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-02-14-inflation-panic/
Inflation for all of 2023 was just 3.1 percent.
The Consumer Price Index for January was a bit higher than economists had forecast. To be precise, it was up 0.3 percent for the month, while the consensus prediction of economists was 0.2 percent. Stop the presses! But that blip was enough to cause the stock market to plummet, on expectations that the Federal Reserve will wait until much later in 2024 than expected to begin cutting rates. Could we please get a grip?
For starters, the supply-chain inflation of the pandemic era is over. Inflation for all of 2023 was just 3.1 percent. Getting it all the way down to the Fed's target of 2 percent could take a while longer. But 2 percent is an arbitrary benchmark. For long periods of time, the economy has done just fine with inflation of 3 percent or even more. It makes no sense to use high interest rates to keep the economy from realizing its full potential just to hit an unrealistic inflation target. There is also the weird and misleading role of “shelter” in the Consumer Price Index.
For January, the CPI recorded that shelter costs increased 0.6 percent in a month, bringing the annual increase in housing expenses for all of 2023 to 6 percent, or almost double that of the CPI as a whole. For January, the increase in shelter costs accounted for over two-thirds of the CPI's monthly rise. But if you unpack the CPI calculations for shelter, it is a poor guide to what's really happening in the economy. The index for owner-occupied housing is calculated by looking at the presumed rental value of occupying your own house. And in any given year, most people do not buy houses. Zillow's index, reflecting actual home sales, was up only 3.1 percent for 2023. That's a better reflection of what's actually happening in housing markets.
As for rents, they are rising because of a chronic shortage of affordable housing. That shortage is the result of inadequate housing policy. It’s a long-term problem. Sandbagging the economy with high interest rates will not cause more housing to materialize. On the contrary, high borrowing costs will make it more costly for builders to produce housing. The Fed and the commentators in the financial press are in a kind of conspiracy of ignorance that gives too much weight to misleading economic indicators of price increases. The real economy—which is to say us—pays the real price.
snip
February 16, 2024
https://prospect.org/culture/2024-02-14-cultural-artifact-meets-the-moment/
It has been a joy and a privilege to observe a rich and lively debate take shape on the provocation I put on the table two weeks ago: Why is there so little great art on the forces that find the U.S. on the brink of right-wing dictatorship? The opinions I received helped refine my framing question. Only one of the most frequently cited counterexamples—the most recent season of the anthology series Fargo—depicts characters who recognizably live in America’s current political world. Almost every other suggestion came at the problem sidewise: from a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). Set in Germany, or some future Ireland. As allegory, or “magical realist fable.” And this is fine. After all, the models I cited for political art included both Franz Kafka and Arthur Miller’s deployment of 17th-century Massachusetts to allegorize how McCarthyism works. Despite many people’s misimpression, a billion-footed beast—Tom Wolfe’s 1989 name for the kind of sprawling, hyperrealist, Balzac-ish “social novel” he was frustrated American writers no longer wrote—is not what I was stalking.
https://twitter.com/rickperlstein/status/1752712630991536259
But.
So much admirable fiction concerning other aspects of our modern American polycrisis are explicit about the precise problem that animates them, be it pandemics, or opioids, or precarity. It feels maddeningly inadequate to me that when it comes to American right-wing authoritarianism, hardly anything out there actually names the thing. In an astute roundup of the year in TV, New Republic critic Phillip Maciak concluded that “endurance TV” shows like The Bear and I’m a Virgo “dared you to keep watching through brutal, unblinking set piece after brutal unblinking set piece.” So it is that much of the best culture in 2023 did a great job of reflecting what 2023 felt like. But why must culture flinch from addressing the politics that made it feel that way? Well, not all culture. Ultimately, I found that Americans are smart, patient, and curious enough to handle the truth. The best and most unflinching American novel I’ve read on how something like Trumpism functions, at the level of the human soul, happens to have sold something like a million copies. Its plot is set in motion when mysterious space aliens somehow encircle a small Maine town with an invisible, impenetrable, many-miles-high wall.
Drumrooooooolllllllllllllllllll …
Stephen King's 1,074-page masterpiece Under the Dome (2010) is about as profoundly political as one can imagine a product moving those million units and getting made into a TV miniseries could possibly be. Most remarkably, it is unflinchingly political, containing within its richness both a sophisticated theoretical understanding of how democracies get murdered, and a model for how to defend them from the thugs holding the knife to her throat. King began writing it, he explains in an author’s note, in 2007, the same year I began documenting in my own work the way an “astonishingly sizable population in America … doesn’t consider any Democratic president legitimate.” It was published in November 2009, just as it was becoming all too evident that this was the operative theory in both the Republican Party’s parliamentary and emergent paramilitary wings.
King first conceived the idea in 1976, a similar such political moment when, despite the election of a Democratic president, America’s political structure of feeling was nonetheless drifting toward the political right. It takes place, we learn from an offhand reference to a bumper sticker on a Volvo—“faded but still readable: Obama ’12! YES WE STILL CAN”—some years after Barack Obama’s re-election, but while this “bastard” (as the villain of the piece puts it) and “pro-abortion son-of-a-buck” who “knew nothing about faith” is still president. The tyrant at its center owns the town’s biggest used-car lot, a shrewd political insight in itself: The local empire of auto dealerships has long been an epitome of “family capitalism,” the sturdiest institutional base for conservative politics in America. King, born in 1947, might even have been just politically precocious enough to have registered Adlai Stevenson’s joke, upon the inauguration of the first Republican president in 20 years, that “the car dealers have taken over from the New Dealers.”
snip
Stephen King's 'Under the Dome' nails how Trumpism functions at the most elemental of levels.
https://prospect.org/culture/2024-02-14-cultural-artifact-meets-the-moment/
It has been a joy and a privilege to observe a rich and lively debate take shape on the provocation I put on the table two weeks ago: Why is there so little great art on the forces that find the U.S. on the brink of right-wing dictatorship? The opinions I received helped refine my framing question. Only one of the most frequently cited counterexamples—the most recent season of the anthology series Fargo—depicts characters who recognizably live in America’s current political world. Almost every other suggestion came at the problem sidewise: from a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). Set in Germany, or some future Ireland. As allegory, or “magical realist fable.” And this is fine. After all, the models I cited for political art included both Franz Kafka and Arthur Miller’s deployment of 17th-century Massachusetts to allegorize how McCarthyism works. Despite many people’s misimpression, a billion-footed beast—Tom Wolfe’s 1989 name for the kind of sprawling, hyperrealist, Balzac-ish “social novel” he was frustrated American writers no longer wrote—is not what I was stalking.
https://twitter.com/rickperlstein/status/1752712630991536259
But.
So much admirable fiction concerning other aspects of our modern American polycrisis are explicit about the precise problem that animates them, be it pandemics, or opioids, or precarity. It feels maddeningly inadequate to me that when it comes to American right-wing authoritarianism, hardly anything out there actually names the thing. In an astute roundup of the year in TV, New Republic critic Phillip Maciak concluded that “endurance TV” shows like The Bear and I’m a Virgo “dared you to keep watching through brutal, unblinking set piece after brutal unblinking set piece.” So it is that much of the best culture in 2023 did a great job of reflecting what 2023 felt like. But why must culture flinch from addressing the politics that made it feel that way? Well, not all culture. Ultimately, I found that Americans are smart, patient, and curious enough to handle the truth. The best and most unflinching American novel I’ve read on how something like Trumpism functions, at the level of the human soul, happens to have sold something like a million copies. Its plot is set in motion when mysterious space aliens somehow encircle a small Maine town with an invisible, impenetrable, many-miles-high wall.
Drumrooooooolllllllllllllllllll …
Stephen King's 1,074-page masterpiece Under the Dome (2010) is about as profoundly political as one can imagine a product moving those million units and getting made into a TV miniseries could possibly be. Most remarkably, it is unflinchingly political, containing within its richness both a sophisticated theoretical understanding of how democracies get murdered, and a model for how to defend them from the thugs holding the knife to her throat. King began writing it, he explains in an author’s note, in 2007, the same year I began documenting in my own work the way an “astonishingly sizable population in America … doesn’t consider any Democratic president legitimate.” It was published in November 2009, just as it was becoming all too evident that this was the operative theory in both the Republican Party’s parliamentary and emergent paramilitary wings.
King first conceived the idea in 1976, a similar such political moment when, despite the election of a Democratic president, America’s political structure of feeling was nonetheless drifting toward the political right. It takes place, we learn from an offhand reference to a bumper sticker on a Volvo—“faded but still readable: Obama ’12! YES WE STILL CAN”—some years after Barack Obama’s re-election, but while this “bastard” (as the villain of the piece puts it) and “pro-abortion son-of-a-buck” who “knew nothing about faith” is still president. The tyrant at its center owns the town’s biggest used-car lot, a shrewd political insight in itself: The local empire of auto dealerships has long been an epitome of “family capitalism,” the sturdiest institutional base for conservative politics in America. King, born in 1947, might even have been just politically precocious enough to have registered Adlai Stevenson’s joke, upon the inauguration of the first Republican president in 20 years, that “the car dealers have taken over from the New Dealers.”
snip
February 16, 2024
The European Union must stop giving ground on its climate vows—unless it wants to help the far right ride to victory.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-farmers-protests-the-far-right-and-the-fallout
Social substance but authoritarian style—the scene in Luxembourg Square in Brussels during a European Council meeting at the beginning of the month (PP Photos / shutterstock.com)
As Europe hurtles towards its crucial June elections, the continent is grappling with a catastrophic rise of the far right—which looks set to ride to power on the backs of raging farmers. Right-wingers have latched climate-crisis-denying movements on to the riotous farmers’ actions, seeking to win over a voter base running to nearly 10 million. The farmers are protesting against excessive costs and environmental policies they say are trapping them in the straitjackets of ‘bureaucracy’ and falling profits. Their objections are fertile ground for right-wingers to plant more seeds of power, as they rehearse their old rhetoric that state intervention is an abomination and that the ‘establishment’ does not represent the ‘common man’.
Gathering pace
The tie-in with the farmers is definitely helping the far right: votes, polls and trends show its jackbooted march into the political mainstream is gathering pace and solidifying in the corridors of power. A recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations reveals right-wing parties are leading in nine EU countries, climbing up the polls and threatening to expand their seats in the European Parliament. Giorgia Meloni—whose Fratelli d’Italia has neofascist roots—is prime minister of Italy and Spain’s far-right Vox has the backing of millions of voters. In Greece, the Spartans are on the rise, despite their links to the Nazi Golden Dawn party. The far right is also part of the current coalition in Finland and props up another in Sweden, while in Austria the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs—which has had close links to Vladimir Putin’s United Russia—is ahead in the polls. In Germany, the neo-Nazi-linked Alternative für Deutschland is so extreme it is facing calls for it to be outlawed—although this has encouraged its core supporters to be still more truculent. At the heart of them all is the ability cynically to co-opt discontent for their own means—and the farmers’ rage can be made to measure. Backing farmers’ rights was once the preserve of the left, supported by trade unions. Now that the far right has become so embedded, the toxic tie-in has even given rise to a ‘Farmers’ Defence Force’ in the Netherlands, backing the uprisings which have recently gripped Europe.
Disturbing parallels
The farmers’ fury culminated this month in chaotic tractor blockades clogging roads and vicious clashes with riot police, with hundreds of farm vehicles choking Brussels city centre and the European Parliament being pelted with eggs. The protests which brought havoc to the heart of EU democracy had disturbing parallels with the January 2021 storming of the Capitol in Washington DC by supporters of the former US president, Donald Trump, riled by his misinformation that the election he had lost to Joe Biden had been rigged. And right-wing populists around the world have offered their support for the farmers’ stand—from Trump to France’s Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile, conspiratorial Telegram groups claim farms are being shut to make space for asylum-seekers—a nightmarish illustration of how the right is using its unholy alliance with the farmers to push on its other traditional hot button of ‘immigration’. But most devastatingly, right-wingers are also using the bond to promote their attacks on the climate rules they hate. Part of the farmers’ rage is their feeling they are caught between apparently conflicting public demands for cheap food and EU-imposed climate-friendly processes.
Instead of facing down the protesters—and their far-right backers—the EU’s leaders have wilted, reversing decades of hard-won climate policy. As the farmers’ protests raged, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, caved by saying ‘administrative burdens’ on farming would be eased. Already, there has been a loosening of environmental regulations on fallow land, while France has paused a national policy on reduction of pesticide use. The overall European Green Deal vision for tackling climate change remains intact—supported by more than 24 laws passed over the last five years. But giving into the farmers on climate is now effectively giving ground to the far right—and giving it a springboard to attack wider climate policy. In Brussels, the European People’s Party is launching an assault on the Green Deal. Protests against rules to curb nitrogen emission in the Netherlands and the exploitation of farmers’ demonstrations by the AfD in Germany show the extent to which the far right is determined to dismantle environmental policies—which are designed to save the planet, not constrain farmers.
Falling incomes..............
snip
The farmers' protests, the far right and the fallout
The European Union must stop giving ground on its climate vows—unless it wants to help the far right ride to victory.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-farmers-protests-the-far-right-and-the-fallout
Social substance but authoritarian style—the scene in Luxembourg Square in Brussels during a European Council meeting at the beginning of the month (PP Photos / shutterstock.com)
As Europe hurtles towards its crucial June elections, the continent is grappling with a catastrophic rise of the far right—which looks set to ride to power on the backs of raging farmers. Right-wingers have latched climate-crisis-denying movements on to the riotous farmers’ actions, seeking to win over a voter base running to nearly 10 million. The farmers are protesting against excessive costs and environmental policies they say are trapping them in the straitjackets of ‘bureaucracy’ and falling profits. Their objections are fertile ground for right-wingers to plant more seeds of power, as they rehearse their old rhetoric that state intervention is an abomination and that the ‘establishment’ does not represent the ‘common man’.
Gathering pace
The tie-in with the farmers is definitely helping the far right: votes, polls and trends show its jackbooted march into the political mainstream is gathering pace and solidifying in the corridors of power. A recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations reveals right-wing parties are leading in nine EU countries, climbing up the polls and threatening to expand their seats in the European Parliament. Giorgia Meloni—whose Fratelli d’Italia has neofascist roots—is prime minister of Italy and Spain’s far-right Vox has the backing of millions of voters. In Greece, the Spartans are on the rise, despite their links to the Nazi Golden Dawn party. The far right is also part of the current coalition in Finland and props up another in Sweden, while in Austria the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs—which has had close links to Vladimir Putin’s United Russia—is ahead in the polls. In Germany, the neo-Nazi-linked Alternative für Deutschland is so extreme it is facing calls for it to be outlawed—although this has encouraged its core supporters to be still more truculent. At the heart of them all is the ability cynically to co-opt discontent for their own means—and the farmers’ rage can be made to measure. Backing farmers’ rights was once the preserve of the left, supported by trade unions. Now that the far right has become so embedded, the toxic tie-in has even given rise to a ‘Farmers’ Defence Force’ in the Netherlands, backing the uprisings which have recently gripped Europe.
Disturbing parallels
The farmers’ fury culminated this month in chaotic tractor blockades clogging roads and vicious clashes with riot police, with hundreds of farm vehicles choking Brussels city centre and the European Parliament being pelted with eggs. The protests which brought havoc to the heart of EU democracy had disturbing parallels with the January 2021 storming of the Capitol in Washington DC by supporters of the former US president, Donald Trump, riled by his misinformation that the election he had lost to Joe Biden had been rigged. And right-wing populists around the world have offered their support for the farmers’ stand—from Trump to France’s Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile, conspiratorial Telegram groups claim farms are being shut to make space for asylum-seekers—a nightmarish illustration of how the right is using its unholy alliance with the farmers to push on its other traditional hot button of ‘immigration’. But most devastatingly, right-wingers are also using the bond to promote their attacks on the climate rules they hate. Part of the farmers’ rage is their feeling they are caught between apparently conflicting public demands for cheap food and EU-imposed climate-friendly processes.
Instead of facing down the protesters—and their far-right backers—the EU’s leaders have wilted, reversing decades of hard-won climate policy. As the farmers’ protests raged, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, caved by saying ‘administrative burdens’ on farming would be eased. Already, there has been a loosening of environmental regulations on fallow land, while France has paused a national policy on reduction of pesticide use. The overall European Green Deal vision for tackling climate change remains intact—supported by more than 24 laws passed over the last five years. But giving into the farmers on climate is now effectively giving ground to the far right—and giving it a springboard to attack wider climate policy. In Brussels, the European People’s Party is launching an assault on the Green Deal. Protests against rules to curb nitrogen emission in the Netherlands and the exploitation of farmers’ demonstrations by the AfD in Germany show the extent to which the far right is determined to dismantle environmental policies—which are designed to save the planet, not constrain farmers.
Falling incomes..............
snip
February 15, 2024
The stars talk for the first time about playing the unlikeliest of friends, Glinda and Elphaba. With the teaser dropping during the Super Bowl, Wicked is looking pretty…wonderful.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/wicked-part-one-exclusive-ariana-grande-and-cynthia-erivo
https://archive.is/RjpYb
We’re certainly not in Kansas anymore. The first official teaser for Wicked, starring Grammy-, Tony-, and Emmy-winning actor Cynthia Erivo and Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande, has been unveiled, revealing director Jon M. Chu’s Oz for the very first time. Now, VF has an exclusive portrait of Erivo and Grande in character as Elphaba and Glinda, the witches whose friendship-turned-rivalry fuels the story, as well as the first interviews with the cast and filmmakers. Grande and Erivo tell VF they’ve become inseparable friends while making the movie—matching Wicked tattoos and all—and sound thrilled to be together again so soon after the shoot wrapped in January. “I actually told my mom I was really relieved we don’t have to miss each other that long,” says Grande.
As for Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship, Grande says it’s defined by “a really selfless love and friendship. They’re both each other’s first real friend, a person who accepts them for everything that they are.” Erivo seconds that: “Once they figure out that they’re actually different sides of the same coin, they see each other clearly.” She hopes Wicked can teach an important lesson: “We are all different and the same, and the differences that we have actually make us really special. Hopefully we use those differences to introduce ourselves to one another. We aren’t pushing people away because they’re different, but we’re opening up because they’re special.”
For Chu, Wicked is more than a megahit Broadway musical. “This is the American fairy tale,” he tells Vanity Fair. “We are in a time where we are reassessing the story of life in America. What is truth? What is a happy ending? Is the yellow brick road the road to follow? Is someone really there on the other end who’s going to give you your heart’s desire?” The first installment of Wicked seeks to answer those questions and more. Book writer Winnie Holzman and composer Stephen Schwartz, who adapted the Broadway show from Gregory Maguire’s novel, collaborated with Chu and Wicked producer Marc Platt to adapt the stage production for the screen. The result was apparently so splendiferous that the team felt Wicked needed to be not one but two feature films. Part one takes flight on November 27 this year. The second hits theaters November 26, 2025.
“We didn’t want to end up making one four-hour movie and then cutting out songs. We want to satisfy the fans of the musical,” says Platt. “Film allows you to create a place and a time—a university like Shiz, an extraordinary Emerald City governor’s mansion. There’s so much more to explore.” Finally, we now have a glimpse at those worlds, inspired by L. Frank Baum’s classic novel and Joe Mantello’s stage version. Chu’s film realizes the hallowed halls of Shiz University and the viridescent streets of Emerald City in the most opulent way possible. “Wicked on the biggest screen had the opportunity to be the grandest, most spectacular, epic musical experience of all time,” Chu said. “It was just like, ‘Let’s put everything into this.’” The glittering cast also includes Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Fellow Travelers star Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, newcomer Marissa Bode as Nessarose, and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz.
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'Wicked' First Look: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Costume
The stars talk for the first time about playing the unlikeliest of friends, Glinda and Elphaba. With the teaser dropping during the Super Bowl, Wicked is looking pretty…wonderful.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/wicked-part-one-exclusive-ariana-grande-and-cynthia-erivo
https://archive.is/RjpYb
We’re certainly not in Kansas anymore. The first official teaser for Wicked, starring Grammy-, Tony-, and Emmy-winning actor Cynthia Erivo and Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande, has been unveiled, revealing director Jon M. Chu’s Oz for the very first time. Now, VF has an exclusive portrait of Erivo and Grande in character as Elphaba and Glinda, the witches whose friendship-turned-rivalry fuels the story, as well as the first interviews with the cast and filmmakers. Grande and Erivo tell VF they’ve become inseparable friends while making the movie—matching Wicked tattoos and all—and sound thrilled to be together again so soon after the shoot wrapped in January. “I actually told my mom I was really relieved we don’t have to miss each other that long,” says Grande.
As for Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship, Grande says it’s defined by “a really selfless love and friendship. They’re both each other’s first real friend, a person who accepts them for everything that they are.” Erivo seconds that: “Once they figure out that they’re actually different sides of the same coin, they see each other clearly.” She hopes Wicked can teach an important lesson: “We are all different and the same, and the differences that we have actually make us really special. Hopefully we use those differences to introduce ourselves to one another. We aren’t pushing people away because they’re different, but we’re opening up because they’re special.”
For Chu, Wicked is more than a megahit Broadway musical. “This is the American fairy tale,” he tells Vanity Fair. “We are in a time where we are reassessing the story of life in America. What is truth? What is a happy ending? Is the yellow brick road the road to follow? Is someone really there on the other end who’s going to give you your heart’s desire?” The first installment of Wicked seeks to answer those questions and more. Book writer Winnie Holzman and composer Stephen Schwartz, who adapted the Broadway show from Gregory Maguire’s novel, collaborated with Chu and Wicked producer Marc Platt to adapt the stage production for the screen. The result was apparently so splendiferous that the team felt Wicked needed to be not one but two feature films. Part one takes flight on November 27 this year. The second hits theaters November 26, 2025.
“We didn’t want to end up making one four-hour movie and then cutting out songs. We want to satisfy the fans of the musical,” says Platt. “Film allows you to create a place and a time—a university like Shiz, an extraordinary Emerald City governor’s mansion. There’s so much more to explore.” Finally, we now have a glimpse at those worlds, inspired by L. Frank Baum’s classic novel and Joe Mantello’s stage version. Chu’s film realizes the hallowed halls of Shiz University and the viridescent streets of Emerald City in the most opulent way possible. “Wicked on the biggest screen had the opportunity to be the grandest, most spectacular, epic musical experience of all time,” Chu said. “It was just like, ‘Let’s put everything into this.’” The glittering cast also includes Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Fellow Travelers star Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, newcomer Marissa Bode as Nessarose, and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz.
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February 15, 2024
Vegansk snickerskaka (Swedish Vegan Carpenter Cake)
https://www.mathem.se/recept/vegansk-snickerskaka
February 14, 2024
Credits:
Written and Directed by Martin Falck
Produced by Bacon Production
Director Of Photography Karolina Pajak FSF
Production & Costume Designer Ylva Norlin
Editor Linus Johansson
Movement Direction Agnieszka Dlugoszewska
Cast:
Fever Ray as Main
Irene Andersen as The Nurse
Fever Ray - 'Shiver' (Official Music Video) ...........just dropped a few hours ago
Credits:
Written and Directed by Martin Falck
Produced by Bacon Production
Director Of Photography Karolina Pajak FSF
Production & Costume Designer Ylva Norlin
Editor Linus Johansson
Movement Direction Agnieszka Dlugoszewska
Cast:
Fever Ray as Main
Irene Andersen as The Nurse
February 14, 2024
Overall prices cooled slightly from a year earlier, but the report included worrying signs for the Federal Reserve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/business/cpi-inflation-january.html
https://archive.is/RbSeG
Inflation cooled less than expected in January and showed worrying staying power after volatile food and fuel costs were stripped out — a reminder that bringing price increases under control remains a fraught, bumpy process. The overall Consumer Price Index was up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, which was down from 3.4 percent in December but more than the 2.9 percent that economists had forecast. That figure is down from the latest peak of 9.1 percent in the summer of 2022.
But after stripping out food and fuel, which bounce around in price from month to month, “core” prices held roughly steady on an annual basis, climbing 3.9 percent from a year earlier. The measure jumped by the most in eight months on a monthly basis. American consumers, the White House and Federal Reserve officials had welcomed a recent moderation in inflation. Central bankers in particular are likely to take the fresh report as a reminder that they need to remain cautious. Policymakers have been careful to avoid declaring victory over inflation, insisting that they needed more evidence that it was coming down sustainably.
Investors sharply pared back chances for an imminent Fed rate cut in reaction the data, betting that central bankers will not lower interest rates at their next meeting in March and sharply dialing back the odds that the Fed will do so even at its meeting in May. Stock markets tumbled — closing down 1.4 percent — as traders revised their forecasts for Fed actions. Fed policymakers have raised interest rates to about 5.3 percent, up from near zero in early 2022, in a bid to cool consumer and business demand and force companies to stop raising prices so quickly.
Because inflation has been coming down notably in recent months, they have paused their rate increases and are contemplating when and how much to lower borrowing costs. But they want to avoid cutting rates before inflation is fully snuffed out, because they worry that doing so could allow rapid price increases to become a more permanent feature of the American economy. “They were right to be patient, because this is the kind of number that is going to cast doubt on whether there really is a lot of deceleration in store for inflation,” said Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights. “This is definitely a spooky number.”
snip
Inflation Was Higher Than Expected in January, a Worrying Sign for the Fed
A Key Inflation Gauge Came In Hotter Than Expected Last MonthOverall prices cooled slightly from a year earlier, but the report included worrying signs for the Federal Reserve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/business/cpi-inflation-january.html
https://archive.is/RbSeG
Inflation cooled less than expected in January and showed worrying staying power after volatile food and fuel costs were stripped out — a reminder that bringing price increases under control remains a fraught, bumpy process. The overall Consumer Price Index was up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, which was down from 3.4 percent in December but more than the 2.9 percent that economists had forecast. That figure is down from the latest peak of 9.1 percent in the summer of 2022.
But after stripping out food and fuel, which bounce around in price from month to month, “core” prices held roughly steady on an annual basis, climbing 3.9 percent from a year earlier. The measure jumped by the most in eight months on a monthly basis. American consumers, the White House and Federal Reserve officials had welcomed a recent moderation in inflation. Central bankers in particular are likely to take the fresh report as a reminder that they need to remain cautious. Policymakers have been careful to avoid declaring victory over inflation, insisting that they needed more evidence that it was coming down sustainably.
Investors sharply pared back chances for an imminent Fed rate cut in reaction the data, betting that central bankers will not lower interest rates at their next meeting in March and sharply dialing back the odds that the Fed will do so even at its meeting in May. Stock markets tumbled — closing down 1.4 percent — as traders revised their forecasts for Fed actions. Fed policymakers have raised interest rates to about 5.3 percent, up from near zero in early 2022, in a bid to cool consumer and business demand and force companies to stop raising prices so quickly.
Because inflation has been coming down notably in recent months, they have paused their rate increases and are contemplating when and how much to lower borrowing costs. But they want to avoid cutting rates before inflation is fully snuffed out, because they worry that doing so could allow rapid price increases to become a more permanent feature of the American economy. “They were right to be patient, because this is the kind of number that is going to cast doubt on whether there really is a lot of deceleration in store for inflation,” said Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights. “This is definitely a spooky number.”
snip
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