Presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran meeting in Sochi Wednesday in an effort to come to common agreement with Assad who is also in Sochi

Erdogan and Putin in Sochi talking about Syria with President of Iran

The presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran are meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday for talks focused on war-ravaged Syria. The Kremlin has already said that the point of Syrian President Bashar Assad's surprise visit to Sochi on Monday was to get him to agree to possible agreements that the three leaders might reach on Wednesday.

Iran and Russia have been Assad's main backers while Turkey supports the opposition.

Pro-government forces over the weekend defeated the Islamic State group in its last major stronghold in Syria, leaving the militants to defend just strips of desert territory in the country and a besieged pocket outside the capital, Damascus

The Russian defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the chief of the General Staff of the three countries have met in Sochi and discussed "concrete steps to complete the elimination of the remaining IS and Nusra Front formations" in Syria. The three officials also agreed to improve coordination in a safety zone in the Idlib province in Syria's northwest.

Russia, Turkey and Iran earlier this year brokered truce between the government and the rebels in four areas in Syria including Idlib.

EU-Digest

Spain: Democracy À La Carte In Catalonia - by Manuel Serrano

We live in the era of fake news and alternative facts. Fascism has been so debased as a phrase that fascists nowadays are simply those with whom we disagree. They are the others. The bad and the undemocratic. Doesn’t matter if they are actual fascists or not. What matters is that we believe they are. In Catalonia, this distinction has already been made. And Carles Puigdemont is sparing no effort to convince Europeans that he is Democracy´s champion fighting against the heirs of Francoism.

There´s no mandate for independence. Not enough social support. No international recognition. There´s no plan. Just irresponsible politicians promising something they cannot deliver. But who can stop lies from making the headlines? Who will tell citizens that they have been fooled? As Bertolt Brecht said, when the truth is too weak to defend itself, it has to go on the attack. But that has become difficult in a Schrödinger-like Republic of Catalonia: a republic that exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. Where many people demand Democracy but show contempt for democratic norms. Where people demand their right of self-determination but overlook the political rights of those who don’t want to spend their days waving flags. A Republic that is not the next step towards a democratized and better European Union, but a step backward into nationalism and intolerance.

The Spanish state’s actions during the October 1 illegal referendum are inexcusable. Curtailing freedom of expression and freedom of assembly cannot be justified on the grounds of restoring the constitutional order. As Donald Tusk put it, Spain should favour force of argument, not an argument of force. Madrid, however, has done very little to quell unrest in Catalonia. And the judicialization of the crisis has hardly helped. However, it´s worth noting that despite the unacceptable events that unfolded on October 1, several fake news and out of context content spread throughout social media during the day. Made available by secessionists, ultra-nationalists, anti-globalisation groups and pro-Russian communications agencies, these posts gave the false impression that Spain is “just like Turkey”, and that a lot more than three people were seriously injured.

Regardless, the situation is deteriorating. Despite the call for regional elections on December 21, the imposition of direct rule and the detention on of eight members of the Puigdemont cabinet have made a bad situation worse. Article 155 had never been applied before, while the detentions are being described by many as an attack against freedom and democracy. However, we should emphasize that we are not talking about political prisoners: a quick read will tell us that they don’t qualify as such.

They have been detained because they ignored the law, took decisive steps to establish a parallel state and refused to comply with judicial rulings. We can disagree about the nature of the crime, and, certainly, about its punishment. But that doesn´t make them political prisoners: they were not arrested for believing in independence, but for violating the laws they promised to respect.

Puigdemont´s decision to leave the country can only be understood for what it is: an irresponsible choice made by an irresponsible politician. A decision that ended up affecting negatively his cabinet ministers. His claim that he wouldn’t have a fair trial in Spain is unfounded: the judicial power is independent. Despite the unfair coverage of the last weeks, is worth recalling that several politicians from all sides of the political spectrum have been detained for corruption, tax fraud and maladministration in the last decade.

Spain is by no means a perfect democracy. However, it isn’t a dictatorial state either. Comparisons with Francisco Franco´s regime are an insult to those who truly have been persecuted for what they believe in. The EU should monitor respect for fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in every member country, but their attention should also focus on Puigdemont and his government’s actions. It should pay closer attention to the rights of those who don’t need to wave flags to show they belong, those who have been singled out for rejecting the secessionist agenda and those who have been ignored by a Parliament that ought to represent all Catalans.

The EU should not condone the use of violence, but commentators and public intellectuals shouldn’t condone either the actions of individuals that bend the truth whenever it suits their agenda. Of a government that has polarized Catalans and reopened wounds that have been healing for forty years now. Forty-seven percent may be entitled to decide their future. But that doesn’t mean the other fifty-three percent are not entitled to the same fundamental and political rights.

Populists and demagogues’ communication styles are designed to confuse audiences and convince citizens that there are facts that matter, and facts that don’t. As Ken Wilber outlines in his book “Trump and a Post-Truth World”: in a no-truth culture, liars are the most truthful, since the truth becomes whatever you want it to become. Many politicians have realised that the battle for citizens´ hearts and minds is to be won by crafted narratives and Orwellian language.

It´s a fact that most Catalans rejected a unilateral move towards secession. And that most Catalans are not separatists. Why then, do many newspapers and commentators abroad assume that most Catalans want independence? Because the truth has become far less important than the narrative. That´s why it is more important than ever to reject clickbait journalism and easy answers. If we don’t, those speaking the loudest will get to determine which are the facts and values that matter. And those values won’t be pluralism, inclusiveness, and solidarity.

These are turbulent times to be Catalan, Spanish and European. But there´s room for positive strategies and common solutions: the point of departure should be a peaceful negotiation about Catalonia´s place in Spain. However, acknowledging that Constitutions can change doesn’t mean we should dismiss the laws that allow us to live together: mob rule and social media cannot replace democracy. The future of Spain (and Europe) lies in cooperation within federal structures, not in separation. But a negotiated solution will only be possible if Puigdemont and Rajoy understand that the first step towards being a democrat is to behave like one.

Read more: Democracy À La Carte In Catalonia

The US, Israel, Saudi plan to topple Iran? Israel has held secret talks with Saudi Arabia over Iran threat, says minister - by J.Heller, S.Kalin

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Sunday that Israel has had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over Iran, a first disclosure by a senior official from either country of long-rumoured secret dealings.

The Saudi government had no immediate response to Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz's remarks. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also did not respond immediately to a request to comment.

Both Saudi Arabia and Israel view Iran as a main threat to the Middle East and increased tension between Tehran and Riyadh has fuelled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together.

Saudi Arabia maintains that any relations with Israel hinge on Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

US President Donald Trump's peace envoys, seeking an Israeli-Palestinian agreement with regional support, have visited Saudi Arabia several times since he took office.

n an interview on Army Radio, Steinitz, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, did not characterise the contacts or give details when asked why Israel was “hiding its ties” with Saudi Arabia.

He replied: “We have ties that are indeed partly covert with many Muslim and Arab countries, and usually (we are) the party that is not ashamed.

“It's the other side that is interested in keeping the ties quiet. With us, usually, there is no problem, but we respect the other side's wish, when ties are developing, whether it's with Saudi Arabia or with other Arab countries or other Muslim countries, and there is much more... (but) we keep it secret.”

Last week, the Israeli military chief, Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot, told an Arabic language online newspaper that Israel was ready to share “intelligence information” with Saudi Arabia, saying their countries had a common interest in standing up to Iran.

Saudi Arabia has ratcheted up pressure on Iran, accusing Tehran of trying to expand its influence in Arab countries, often through proxies including the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group.

Ibish said that given the mutual threat perceptions shared by Israel and Gulf Arab countries, it is unlikely that covert ties aren't developing.

But he said Israeli officials have tended to exaggerate such interactions in a bid to “drive down the price they may have to pay, especially on Palestinian issues, to expand strategic relations and ties with Arab countries”.

In public remarks in September, Netanyahu pointed to covert relationships with Arab states, saying, without mentioning any by name, that cooperation exists “in various ways and different levels”.

Israel has held secret talks with Saudi Arabia over Iran threat, says minister | The Independent

Middle East: Transition in the Middle East: Transition to what?- by Dr. James M. Dorsey

Transition is the name of the game in the Middle East and North Africa. The question is transition to what?

Dominating the answer is an Arab autocratic push for a Saudi-led regional order that would be based on an upgraded 21st century version of autocracy designed to fortify absolute rule. To achieve that autocrats have embraced economic reform accompanied by necessary social change that would allow them to efficiently deliver public goods and services. It is an approach that rejects recognition of basic freedoms and political rights and is likely to produce more open and inclusive political systems that ensure that all segments of society have a stake.

At the core of the volatile and often brutal and bloody battle that could take up to a quarter of a century to play out is the determination of Arab autocrats to guarantee their survival at whatever cost. Geopolitics play a major role in Arabic autocratic ambition. To compensate for their inherent weakness and lack of the building blocks needed for sustainable regional dominance, Arab autocrats except for Egypt, the one Arab state with the potential of being a dominant, long-term regional player, need to contain first and foremost Iran, and to a lesser degree Turkey.

It is a geopolitical struggle, dominated by the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, that has enveloped the Middle East and North Africa for almost four decades and progressively undermined regional stability; fuelled the rise of extremism and jihadism; encouraged supremacist, intolerant and anti-pluralistic tendencies far beyond its borders in countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia; and turned it into the most volatile, repressive, and bloody part of the world.

Littered with the bodies of the dead and the dying, countries like Syria, Iraq and Yemen have been scarred for generations to come and are struggling to ensure territorial integrity against potential secessionist ethnic, regional and religious challenges. Possible US-backed Saudi efforts to destabilize Iran with attempts to stir ethnic unrest risk the Islamic republic and Pakistan becoming the next victims. Countries such as Lebanon teeter on the brink.

Restive populations meanwhile hang in the balance, hoping that their continued surrender of political rights in new social contracts unilaterally drafted by autocratic leaders will bring them greater economic opportunity. In some countries like Egypt expectations have been dashed, in others such as Saudi Arabia expectations are unrealistic and poorly, if at all, managed.

The successful and brutal Saudi and UAE-led counterrevolution has killed hopes and popular energy that exploded onto the streets of the Arab cities during the revolts of 2011 and produced tyrants and mayhem. For now, it has all but erased popular will to risk challenging autocratic rule that has failed to deliver or that has created expectations that may prove difficult to meet.

That is not to say that like in the period prior to the 2011 revolts, popular anger and frustration is not simmering. Like in the walk-up to the uprisings, popular sentiment remains ignored or unrecognized by officials, scholars and pundits, who, if it explodes are likely to be caught by surprise. No one knows whether it will explode and, if so, in what form and what might spark an explosion.

It was the self-immolation of a fruit vendor in Tunisia in late 2010 that set the Middle East and North Africa alight. While history may not repeat itself literally, events six years later in the Rif, a rebellious region of northern Morocco, sparked by the death of Mouchine Frikri, an unemployed street merchant, suggest the writing may be on the wall.

Mr. Fikri was crushed to death in a trash compactor while trying to retrieve fish confiscated by the authorities. A year of protests since Mr. Fikri's death suggests that the effectiveness of King Mohammed VI's constitutional reforms in an initially successful bid to co-opt the demonstrators as well his support for the Rif's indigenous Berber culture and promises of state investment that would turn the region into a manufacturing hub have either run their course or fallen short.

Nasser Zefzafi, a 39-year-old unemployed man with an understanding of the power of social media, has despite the government's use of security forces, succeeded with online videos and fiery speeches denouncing corruption and dictatorship, to not only keep the protests alive but also encourage their intermittent spread to other parts of the country. The Moroccan capital of Rabat witnessed in June its largest anti-government protest since the 2011 revolts.

"Regimes have closed off channels for political expression, and responded to popular protests with increasing brutality. The governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and, to some extent, Morocco, epitomize Arab regimes' seeming inability to escape the autocracy trap – even as current circumstances suggest that another popular awakening is imminent," said Moroccan-born former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

Mr. Ben-Ami's timeline may be optimistic, but the underlying message remains valid. Regime survival-driven, government-controlled economic reform that seeks to ensure that private enterprise remains dependent on the public sector, limited social reforms, exclusionary rather than inclusionary policies, and rejection of political change may buy time, but ultimately will not do the trick.

Autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa are, for now, riding high buffeted by the ability to divert public attention with promises of economic change, the spectre of Iran as a foreign threat, US support for regional autocrats and containment of Iran, and the fuelling of ethnic and sectarian tension.

At best, that buys Arab autocrats time. The risk is festering and new wounds that are likely to come to haunt them. Four decades of global Saudi propagation of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservativism to counter what initially was Iranian revolutionary zeal but later transformed into Iranian strategy in a long-standing covert war has turned Arab Shiites and their militias into potent political and military forces. The spectre of the Houthis organizing themselves on the border of Saudi Arabia on the model of Lebanon's Hezbollah is but the latest example.

Autocratic self-preservation and the Saudi-Iranian rivalry, coupled with disastrous US policies, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, have wracked countries across the region and fostered a generation of Syrians and Yemenis that is likely to be consumed by anger and frustration with their human suffering and what is likely to be a slow rebuilding of their shattered countries, whose existence in their current form and borders is at best uncertain.

In short, transition, in the Middle East and North Africa has deteriorated into a battle for retention of political control. It constitutes a struggle for the future of a region that with near certainty will produce more conflict as well as black swans that could create even more havoc long before it yields sustainable solutions that ensure equitable economic development and transparent and accountable rule of law.


Transition in the Middle East: Transition to what?

USA: Military Takeover ? Trump’s recklessness is magnifying the military’s political power — by Ezra Klei

“This should calm some nerves,” wrote Peter Daou, the former Hillary Clinton staffer and founder of Verrit. Daou was referring to a CNN report in which Gen. John Hyten, head of the US Strategic Command, warned that he would resist any illegal orders from President Donald Trump — or any president — to launch nuclear weapons. "He'll tell me what to do, and if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen?” said Hyten on Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum. “I'm gonna say, 'Mr. President, that's illegal.’”

The comments follow a hearing held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday on the president’s authority to order the use of nuclear weapons, the first time a congressional committee has investigated the question in more than four decades. 

At that hearing, retired Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, Hyten’s predecessor under President Barack Obama, told the committee that Trump can’t simply launch nuclear weapons at whomever he wants, whenever he wants. “The legal principles of military necessity, distinction, and proportionality also apply to nuclear plans, operations, and decisions,” he said. “Legal advisers are deeply involved with commanders at all steps.”

It is comforting to know that Trump cannot order a nuclear holocaust as easily as he can launch a tweetstorm. But behind these hearings and headlines lurks the unnerving way in which many have come to see the military as the last, best bulwark against our erratic commander-in-chief. 

This is, in part, because the military appears to be one of the few institutions that Trump respects. He is contemptuous toward career politicians, toward executive agencies, toward judges, toward the civil service. But he admires military men, and at least occasionally listens to them. 

John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, is a retired four-star general, as is Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster is an active duty three-star general in the Army. And their supposed steadying presence has been a source of comfort to Trump’s many skeptics. 

Mattis and Kelly "help separate our country from chaos,” says Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Corker. They “see the world similarly and privately express a sense of duty to help steer Trump,” reports Axios’s Mike Allen. The AP reported that they formed an early pact “that one of them should remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House."

In conversations around Washington, I have often heard a confidence that if Trump tries to do something truly dangerous on the international stage, like strike North Korea after being offended by a comment from Kim Jong Un, the military will quietly beat back the order, drowning the president’s intention in bureaucracy and complexity and rallying allies on Capitol Hill to intercede.

Read more: Trump’s recklessness is magnifying the military’s political power — and independence - Vox

EU Parliament warns Poland on not fearing off rule of law

In the vote, the Parliament decided by 438 votes to 152 to prepare a formal request that the Council activate the preventive mechanism provided for in Article 7.1.of the Treaty. If the risk persists and the Polish authorities refuse to comply with the EU recommendations, the procedure might lead to the suspension of Poland's voting rights in the Council.

Specific concerns were voiced about the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and fundamental rights.

The resolution calls on the Polish authorities to uphold the common European values listed in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and in the Polish Constitution. It urges Poland:

    not to proceed the new laws unless they fully guarantee the independence of the judiciary to implement all EU Commission and Venice Commission recommendations in full,
    to comply with the EU Court of Justice order to "immediately suspend large-scale logging" in the ancient Bialowieza forest,
    to respect the right of freedom of assembly,
    to strongly condemn the "xenophobic and fascist march that took place in Warsaw" on Saturday,11    November 2017, and
    to take a firm stand on women's rights, by providing free and accessible contraception without discrimination and making emergency contraception available without medical prescription.

Under Parliament's Rules of Procedure (Rule 83), its Civil Liberties Committee now needs to draw up a "reasoned proposal", the document required to call on the Council to trigger the rule of law mechanism in response to a "clear risk of a serious breach" of European values by the Polish authorities.

This is only the second time that the European Parliament has taken formal steps to call on the Council to start the Article 7 procedure. The first was taken in May 2017 with respect to Hungary. The procedure is still under way.

The dialogue between the Commission and the Polish authorities is conducted under the "rule of law" procedure initiated in January 2016.

Read more: EU Parliament warns Poland on rule of law — EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics

Islam: France to ‘prevent’ Muslim Public street prayers in Paris suburb

France’s interior minister announced on November 19 that Muslims will no longer be allowed to pray in a street north of Paris.

“They will not have prayers on the street, we will prevent street praying,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Questions Politics (Franceinfo, France Inter, Le Monde).

As reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), prayers in the street have taken place every Friday in the multiethnic suburb of Clichy-la-Garenne since March to protest the closure of a popular local mosque that had operated in a government building but since been turned into a library.

In response, worshippers accused the authorities of not offering suitable land to build a new mosque and the interior minister acknowledged the need for an alternative: “Muslims must have a place of worship to pray.”

A local Muslim association has said it intends to hold prayers in the city centre next Friday.

According to AFP, the row about prayer space saw around 100 local French politicians attempt to block worshippers on November 10, disrupting the crowd by singing the French national anthem.

The rightwing mayor of Clichy, Remi Muzeau, has argued that another mosque already exists north of the town, but mosque leaders have dismissed that idea as unviable, arguing it is too small and has poor transport links.

Read more: France to ‘prevent’ Muslim street prayers in Paris suburb

Germany: German coalition talks collapse- by Peter Teffer

The liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) pulled out of coalition talks in Germany on Sunday (19 November), leading to an uncertain political future for the EU's largest member state.

The move is a blow to Angela Merkel, leader of the centre-right CDU and chancellor of Germany since 2005, who was expected to lead the coalition government for a fourth time.

But talks between CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU, the Greens, and FDP, progressed slowly and missed a self-imposed deadline last Thursday.

FDP's leader Christian Lindner said on Sunday that after weeks of talks, there were still many open issues and conflicting goals, but "no common basis for trust".

"It is better not to rule than to rule wrongly," said Lindner around midnight on Sunday.

Read more: German coalition talks collapse

EU: Ireland is caught between Brexiteers and Brussels - by Joe McCarth

In a letter to the Guardian Joe McCarthy writes "Rafael Behr’s brilliant evisceration of the UK government’s shambolic handling of Brexit makes for depressing reading from the Dublin side of the Irish Sea (As Tories slug it out, does anyone care about Ireland?, 15 November). However, the suspicion remains here that the problem is not just with London but with Brussels too.

Brexit was initially met with anger by most Irish people but the upset receded as everyday life got in the way. Now it is back, and the island of Ireland is staring down the barrel of a hard border. These are glum and worrying times. Ireland is caught between undoubtedly ignorant rightwing Eurosceptic British politicians and the mammoth Brussels bureaucracy.

Europe will let us down if it feels it is absolutely necessary to do so for its own prosperity and survival. In 2011, the European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet warned the Irish finance minister Michael Noonan that a “bomb would go off” in Dublin if Ireland dared to burn bondholders.

 The Irish people have been solely carrying the massive debt burden of our banking collapse ever since – including, scandalously, the huge losses of international speculative investors.

When push comes to shove, will Ireland be a sacrificial lamb for Brussels in the Brexit negotiations as it was during the banking crisis in 2011? Quite possibly yes. The only difference this time, it seems, is that we might be sacrificed primarily for long-term political, rather than financial, stability in the wider European Union “family”."

Read more: Ireland is caught between Brexiteers and Brussels | Letters | World news | The Guardian

The Rich and Poor Gap: Societies Are Headed Toward Revolution, Suggests Inequality Study

There’s a common thread tying together the most disruptive revolutions of human history, and it has some scientists worried about the United States. In those revolutions, conflict largely boiled down to pervasive economic inequality. On Wednesday, a study in Nature, showing how and when those first divisions between rich and poor began, suggests not only that history has always repeated itself but also that it’s bound to do so again — and perhaps sooner than we think.

In the largest study of its kind, a team of scientists from Washington State University and 13 other institutions examined the factors leading to economic inequality throughout all of human history and noticed some worrying trends. Using a well-established score of inequality called the Gini coefficient, which gives perfect, egalitarian societies a score of 0 and high-inequality societies a 1, they showed that civilization tends to move toward inequality as some people gain the means to make others relatively poor — and employ it. Coupled with what researchers already know about inequality leading to social instability, the study does not bode well for the state of the world today.

“We could be concerned in the United States, that if Ginis get too high, we could be inviting revolution, or we could be inviting state collapse. There’s only a few things that are going to decrease our Ginis dramatically,” said Tim Kohler, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a professor of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology in a statement.

Currently, the United States Gini score is around .81, one of the highest in the world, according to the 2016 Allianz Global Wealth Report.

Kohler and his team had their work cut out for them, as studying inequality before the age of global wealth reports is not a straightforward task. It’s one thing to measure modern day economic inequality using measures of individual net worth, but those kind of metrics aren’t available for, say, hunter-gatherers chasing buffalo during the Paleolithic. To surmount this obstacle, the researchers decided to use house size as a catch-all proxy for wealth, then examined the makeup of societies from prehistoric times to modern day using data from 63 archaeological digs

Overall, they found that human societies started off fairly equal, with the hunter-gatherer societies consistently getting Gini scores around .17. The divide between rich and poor really began once humans started to domesticate plants and animals and switch to farming-based societies. Learning to till the land meant introducing the concept of land ownership, and inevitably, some people ended up as landless peasants. Furthermore, because these societies no longer lived as nomads, it became easier to accumulate wealth (like land) and pass it down from generation to generation.

The Gini scores got higher as farming societies got bigger. The small scale “horticultural” farmers had a median Gini of .27, and larger-scale “agricultural” societies moved up to .35. This pattern continued until, oddly, humans moved into the New World — the Americas. Then, over time, the researchers saw that Gini scores kept rising in Old World Eurasia but actually hit a plateau in the Americas. The researchers think this plateau happened because there were fewer draft animals, like horse and water buffalo, in the New World, making it harder for new agricultural societies to expand and cultivate more land.

Overall, the highest-ever historical Gini the researchers found was that of the ancient Old World (think Patrician Rome), which got a score of .59. While the degrees of inequality experienced by historical societies are quite high, the researchers note, they’re nowhere near as high as the Gini scores we’re seeing now.  

A global report from Credit Suisse showed that modern humans are continuing the trends set by our predecessors: Now, the report showed, half of the world’s wealth really does belong to a super-rich one percent, and the gap is only growing. Historically, Kohler says in his statement, there’s only so much inequality a society can sustain before it reaches a tipping point. Among the many known effects of inequality on a society are social unrest, a decrease in health, increased violence, and decreased solidarity. Unfortunately, Kohler points out, humans have never been especially good at decreasing inequality peacefully — historically, the only effective methods for doing so are plague, massive warfare, or revolution.

Read more: Societies Are Headed Toward Revolution, Suggests Inequality Study | Inverse

USA: Americans remain downbeat, 34% U.S. heading in right directio - by John Whitefoo

Just 34% of American voters think the U.S. is heading in the right direction. This is a slight two-point increase from the 32% who said the same thing in the last week of October.

During much of the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency, the number of Americans who though the country was going in the right direction was in the mid- to upper-20s. In the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, it climbed to the mid- to upper-40s.

Meanwhile, 60% of American voters think the U.S. is heading down the wrong track; that’s two points lower from the end of October.

Among American voters who “strongly approve” of the job Trump is doing, 81% think the country is going in the right direction. At the other end of the spectrum, 97% of American voters who “strongly disapprove” of the president’s job performance say the U.S. is on the wrong track.

Last year at this point, 30% of voters said the nation was heading in the right direction, while 63% said it was derailing and running down the wrong track.

Before Trump won the White House, Democrats were, as one would expect, more likely than Republicans and independent voters to think the U.S. was heading in the right direction.

Fast-forward to today, and a whopping 82% of Democrats think the nation is heading down the wrong path. Compare that to 52% of Republicans who believe the U.S. is heading in the right direction.

Republicans might be getting more pessimistic; that’s actually down seven points (from 59%) from the end of October.

Read more: Americans remain downbeat, 34% U.S. heading in right direction

Electric Vehicles: Tesla unveils electric Semi truck, new Roadster

American automaker Tesla unveiled a new electric semitractor-trailer simply called the Semi, and a roadster at an event in Hawthorn, California, U.S., on Nov. 16. CEO Elon Musk stated that production for the Semi would commence in 2019 and customers can put down a $5,000 deposit for the electric truck.

Read more: Tesla unveils electric Semi truck, new Roadster

Social Media - the monster called Facebook: Instagram, WhatsApp and 13 other companies Facebook has - by Gabrielle Olya

Since Facebook launched in 2004, it has grown to become the biggest social networking site on the planet. With 2.1 billion users, Facebook's stock is worth $180 a share, and the company has a valuation of over $500 billion. Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant has grown dramatically, in part because of the strategic shopping it has done along the way.

Over the years, Facebook has completed 65 mergers and acquisitions involving everything from facial-recognition technology companies to other major social networking platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Although many of Facebook's acquisitions have been for undisclosed amounts, the prices that have been revealed range from $200,000 all the way up to $22 billion.

Read more: Instagram, WhatsApp and 13 other companies Facebook has acquired

Spain-Catalonia: Puigdemont, the doomed architect (who is now also wasting Belgian Taxpayers money) – by Jorge Valer

For some, ousted "president" Carles Puigdemont is the architect of a new independent Catalan Republic.

For others, he is just a coward who led his citizens to chaos and ruin, and fled to Belgium. Today, he got his day in court.

At two o’clock, Puigdemont rolled up to the scaffolding-enshrined Justice Palace in Brussels to put his fate in a Belgian judge’s hands.

But history tells us that builders have a dubious reputation in the neighbourhood. The land exportation required to construct the Justice Palace, arguably the largest building of the 19th century, was so massive that ‘architect’ one of the worst insults you could hear in Brussels at that time.

The Belgian judge would not rule on Puigdemont’s skills and vision as a builder of a new nation. But whether he should be sent back to Spain to face trial on five charges, including rebellion and sedition, as the Spanish authorities requested.

The first hearing concluded with little progress. The judge scheduled another session for 4 December to decide whether Puigdemont and the four member of his dismissed government who escaped with  him should be extradited to Spain.

One charge, corruption, was dismissed, which was seen as a victory by the defence, given that it would have triggered an automatic repatriation to Spain.

The decision could come in mid-December but the two-appeal system in Belgium would postpone the final verdict to early next year.

The defence argued that Puigdemont cannot return to Spain because his fundamental rights would not be respected. But the European Arrest Warrant would make it very hard for the Catalan and his former team to escape extradition.

Still, the Belgian prosecutor did his homework and asked his Spanish colleagues last week how the sacked Catalan government’s rights would be ensured.

He reminded them that the principle of “mutual trust”, the bedrock of the EAW, is not enough for a Belgian judge to comply with Madrid’s request.

Note EU-Digest: The fact of the matter is that Mr. Puigdemont did not comply with the constitutional law of Spain, caused public unrest, hurt the Spanish economy in doing so, and now, not only wasting the Spanish taxpayers money for the trouble he created - but in addition also that of the Belgian taxpayer, who have in fact been saddled up paying for Puigdemont's court case, and consequently, thereby also financing his Catalonia "pipe dream" propaganda from Belgium. It is high time for Belgium to stop this nonsense and waste of money. Mr. Puidemont and his cohorts should be extradited to Spain as soon as possible, where they can be prosecuted under Spanish law - as they should.     

Read more: The Brief: Puigdemont, the doomed architect – EURACTIV.com

Climate Control: Germany slams Dutch call for more ambitious EU climate goal

Germany's outgoing environment minister said on Friday (17 November) that a Dutch proposal to increase the EU's emissions reduction target to 55 percent was "unrealistic".

"I don't think that the European Union will be capable of achieving this," minister Barbara Hendricks told this website at a press conference in Bonn, on the final day of international climate talks.

She spoke a day after newly-appointed Dutch minister for economic affairs and climate, Eric Wiebes, came to Bonn to find support for an increased climate ambition within the bloc.

In October 2014, EU leaders agreed that the EU should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

Wiebes wants to raise that reduction target to 55 percent, the same figure which Germany has set for itself.

"Germany wants to reduce by 55 percent and I'm quite convinced that we'll be able to achieve this," said Hendricks.

But she said "all of the EU" would not be able to do the same.
"We could be more ambitious, going a bit beyond the 40 percent already agreed, but I think 55 percent will not be realistic."

Read more: Germany slams Dutch call for more ambitious EU climate goal

Brexit: How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again) — by Nick Clegg

There is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit – except that it will be deeply damaging if it happens. Extricating Britain from Europe will be the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War.

And as negotiations with the EU expose the promises of the Brexit campaign to have been hollow, even some Brexit-voters now wish to exercise their democratic right to change their mind, seeing that the most pragmatic option is to … stop. It would certainly be the best thing for Britain. But how can it be done?

Haven't the people spoken? No. In this indispensable handbook, Nick Clegg categorically debunks the various myths that have been used to force Brexit on Britain, not by 'the people' but by a small, extremely rich, self-serving elite, and explains precisely how this historic mistake can be reversed – and what you can do to make sure that it is.

This indispensable handbook offers readers of every political allegiance non-partisan ways to pull together in response to the greatest crisis in a generation, reunite our country and prevent national decline.

Get this booklet now online..

Robots: Meet the sex robots: Artificial intelligence wrapped in a sex doll - by Angus Walker

“Hi my name is Samantha, I love you, a lot!” For an opening line that’s a little forward, but that’s what the sex robot I met in a workshop at the Barcelona home of sex tech engineer Dr Sergi Santos said when I first "met" her.

“I’m basically the Robin Hood of sex because I give to the poor. Men need sex and I just give it to them,” Dr Sergi told me as he showed his latest creations.

Samantha is a life-like doll made of a material that feels like skin, she’s anatomically correct, if not a little enhanced in some areas. It seems customers want their sex robots to have, shall we say, exaggerated figures.

Dr Sergi has also put sensors under the skin so she reacts to touch. Stroke her gently on the arm and she’ll suggest getting intimate. The real development, according to Dr Sergi, is concealed in the back of her head, under a wig.

Artificial intelligence which allows the robot to talk to their owner. To be honest, conversation can be a little stilted with some awkward silences between me asking a question and getting a reply.

“It’s because she doesn’t know you,” Dr Sergi explains. He claims that the technology he’s putting into sex dolls allows them to "learn" what the customers want and like, ultimately build a relationship.

The robots are still pretty basic, they don’t have facial expressions, their mouths don’t move when they speak. What Dr Sergi has done is essentially put the same type of technology which brought us Siri and Amazon’s Alexa into a sex doll.

Read more: Meet the sex robots: Artificial intelligence wrapped in a sex doll - ITV News

European Social Rights: EU to proclaim 'pillar' of social rights in Gothenburg- by Nikolaj Nielsen

European leaders are meeting in Sweden to discuss social issues as part of an effort to boost jobs and growth.

The half-day summit on Friday (17 November) in Gothenburg will bring together heads of state and government, as well as the EU institutions.

Billed as an event to "strengthen the EU's social dimension", the leaders will discuss, among other things, the future of education and culture.

The European Parliament, the EU Council representing member states, and the European Commission will also proclaim a European Pillar of Social Rights, whose first preamble calls for a Europe with full employment, balanced economic growth, social progress, and a quality environment.

In a statement on Thursday, Sweden's prime minister Stefan Loefven said the event would broadly focus on how to improve people's lives.

 Read more: EU to proclaim 'pillar' of social rights in Gothenburg

US Stock Market: Investors flee junk bonds in troubling signal for stock market - Jeff Cox

udging from the flow of money out of high-yield bonds, investors are getting increasingly leery of a market that continues to hover around record levels, despite a handful of rough trading sessions in November and a rocky start Friday.

Funds that track junk bonds saw $6.8 billion of outflows over the past week through Wednesday, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. That's the third-highest on record.

The sector is considered a key proxy for the stock market, with performance that has followed almost a perfect correlation with the S&P 500 in terms of direction. Bonds are normally thought as a safe-haven trade that benefits when stocks weaken, but high-yield represents a risk similar to equities.

The correlation in 2017 has varied: September was the high for the year at 76 percent, while June was just 42.4 percent, according to DataTrek Research. (100 percent would mean the assets move exactly in tandem.)

Read more: Investors flee junk bonds in troubling signal for stock market

Fake da Vinci? - "A Glaring Example of how Decadent Our Western Values have become" - As Someone Spent $450 milliom on a Possibly fake da Vinci Painting

“Salvator Mun"

Rhett Jones reports in Gizmodo that  on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, auction records were shattered when an anonymous buyer spent $450.3 million to be the proud owner of a “long lost” painting “by” Leonardo da Vinci. The thing is, it may not have even been painted by Leonardo, it’s in terrible shape, it’s not especially good, but in the financial world of art, none of that matters.

Christie’s auction house has been hyping the emergence of Salvator Mundi (“Savior of the World”) as “the greatest and most unexpected artistic rediscovery of the 21st century.” It’s believed to be the only Leonardo in private hands. According to Artnet, it was once part of the collection of King Charles I and has since bounced around less prestigious homes. In 1958, it was auctioned at Sotheby’s London for £45 and attributed to Boltraffio, a painter who worked in Leonardo da Vinci’s studio. It was then picked up at an estate sale for around $10,000 back in 2005. In the last decade, researchers and authenticators have studied its history and deemed it an authentic Leonardo.

The opening bid was set at $100 million and Christie’s reportedly wondered aloud if some collector could conceivably drop $2 billion on it. If the auction house truly thought that was a possibility, I guess they were a little disappointed by the final hammer price. But that $450.3 million is by far the highest price paid for a painting at auction. The previous record holder was Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger, which sold for $179,364,992 in 2015. The Guardian claims Salvator Mundi is also the highest priced artwork ever sold privately, but that record is a lot harder to definitively establish because artworks change hands without public records all the time.

Not everyone, however, is sure that this record-breaking painting is by Leonardo da Vinci. Authentication is a subjective trade, and a buyer’s confidence in an authenticator’s assessment is mostly based on that authenticator’s reputation. In the case of Salvator Mundi, it was being restored by Dianne Dwyer Modestini, a professor of paintings conservation at New York University, in 2007 when she started having a feeling that something was different about this piece. She was commissioned to clean up what she thought was a copy of the famous Florentine’s work but began to see details that were very Leonardo-like. A subsequent X-ray revealed traces of changes being made to the composition over time. Someone making a copy wouldn’t be making these drastic changes. Since then, many top scholars have concluded that it is, in fact, a Leonardo based on numerous factors including the technique, materials, and outside historical data.

Other experts have their doubts. Charles Hope, an emeritus professor at the Warburg Institute at the University of London, wrote in the New York Review of Books, “even making allowances for its extremely poor state of preservation, it is a curiously unimpressive composition and it is hard to believe that Leonardo himself was responsible for anything so dull.”

Most critics seem to agree that the painting is far below Leonardo da Vinci’s typical standards, especially considering that Salvator Mundi has been dated to 1500. That would place its composition directly between The Last Supper (1498) and the Mona Lisa (1502). Jerry Saltz, art critic for New York Magazine, wrote:
 The painting is absolutely dead. Its surface is inert, varnished, lurid, scrubbed over, and repainted so many times that it looks simultaneously new and old.

Experts estimate that there are only 15 to 20 existing da Vinci paintings. Not a single one of them pictures a person straight on like this one. There is also not a single painting picturing an individual Jesus either. All of his paintings, even single portraits, depict figures in far more complex poses. Even the figure that comes remotely close to this painting, Saint John the Baptist, also from 1500, gives us a turning, young, randy-looking man with hair utterly different from and much more developed in terms of painting than the few curls Christie’s is raving about in their picture.

Writing for the New York Times, art critic Jason Farago agrees that this is not the “Male Mona Lisa” it’s been advertised to be.

Authentication is a serious but subjective business. I’m not the man to affirm or reject its attribution; it is accepted as a Leonardo by many serious scholars, though not all. I can say, however, what I felt I was looking at when I took my place among the crowds who’d queued an hour or more to behold and endlessly photograph “Salvator Mundi”: a proficient but not especially distinguished religious picture from turn-of-the-16th-century Lombardy, put through a wringer of restorations.

Most assessments repeat similar criticisms: the composition is totally wrong; the details don’t say Leonardo; if it came from his studio, it was probably done by an assistant; and, on top of it all, the thing is a shadow of its former self because it’s been so heavily repainted. One expert cracked a joke to Saltz at the viewing: “Why is a Leonardo in a Modern and Contemporary auction? Because 90 percent of it was painted in the last 50 years.”
So why would this subpar and possibly misattributed Leonardo fetch so much money? Because quality and authenticity don’t really matter in art sales as long as a few top gatekeepers can get on the same page about the value of a work. As art critic Blake Gopnik told Marketplace:

I’m not saying that this isn’t Leonardo. I’m also not saying that it is a Leonardo. I’m actually saying that it’s a kind of incoherent question to ask. It’s kind of like asking, “Is the moon Jewish, or is the sun gay?” Pictures, even today (let alone in the 16th century), can be all sorts of things between being by a great master and being by some assortment of assistance.

Art brings in huge prices because it carries cultural cachet, looks good in your home, offers access to high society, and above all, is a very convenient way to park some money. High-priced art is often used for money laundering, but even in legitimate circumstances, it’s just another way to diversify the ways in which your money is being stored if you’re an extremely rich person. And hey, it goes up in value all the time.

Speaking of extremely rich people, who paid for this? We don’t know, and if the buyer doesn’t want to say, we may never know. Liu Yiqian, a Chinese billionaire, was rumored to be the buyer, but he told The New York Times it wasn’t him. Another possibility is Bill Gates. He did pay $30 million for Leonardo’s journals back in 1994.

But that’s the story with this piece. We don’t know for sure that it’s authentic, we don’t know that it’s any good, and we don’t know who bought it. We just know that some people decided it was worth a buttload of money. And so it is.

Note EU-Digest: This report really shines a direct light on how decadent our so-called "Western Values" have become, when someone can spent close to half a billion dollars on a possibly fake da Vinci painting,  and  this while millions of children are dying as a result of famine, wars and other calamities, many of which the direct results of those same "Western Values". 

Read more: Someone Spent Almost Half a Billion Dollars on a Possibly Inauthentic da Vinci Painting