EFDbackup: March 06

Showing posts with label March 06. Show all posts

Monday, March 6, 2017

Pre-referendum tensions- now with Germany as President Erdoğan “makes Nazi jibe over Germany rally ban…

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Turkey’s Erdogan makes Nazi jibe over Germany rally ban

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Turkey’s president railed against blocks in Germany on his political campaigning for new powers.

Germany summons Turkish ambassador, seeks release of jailed journalist

EurActiv.com by Georgi Gotev

Berlin summoned Ankara’s ambassador yesterday (28 February) to protest the arrest in Turkey of a correspondent for a German newspaper, further fuelling tensions between the two NATO allies as demonstrations took place across German-speaking Europe.

Turkey: Die Welt’s Deniz Yucel held for ‘terror links’

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Deniz Yucel, who holds both Turkish and German passports, has been charged with spreading ‘terrorist propaganda’.

‘Assault on freedom of expression’: Die Welt journalist’s arrest in Turkey condemned

World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul

Opposition and rights groups attack arrest of Deniz Yücel as German foreign ministry summons Turkish ambassador to Berlin

Opposition officials and human rights groups have condemned the arrest in Turkey of a German newspaper correspondent as an “assault on freedom of expression” and attempt at intimidating foreign press in the country.

Turkey harshly slams Austria’s top diplomat over remarks on Erdoğan

Turkey has lashed out at Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz over his remarks on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s planned rally in the country on the eve of an April 16 referendum

Journalist for German newspaper arrested in Turkey

World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Reuters in Istanbul

Deniz Yücel jailed pending trial on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to violence

Turkish authorities have arrested a reporter for a prominent German newspaper on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to violence, according to a court witness.

Turkey coup: 136 diplomats and relatives seek Germany asylum

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Many Turks abroad are thought to have backed the coup plot against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Debate: Should AKP be allowed to seek votes in Germany?

euro|topics

Although his trip to Germany has not been confirmed, Turkish President Erdoğan may follow up the visit by Prime Minister Yıldırım by himself coming to Germany to campaign for his presidential system. There is no place in Germany for campaigning for an undemocratic Turkish constitutional reform, some commentators say. Others argue that you can’t uphold freedom of speech while denying Erdoğan a platform on German soil.

HDP applies to ECHR over arrests of its leaders

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Pro-Kurdish HDP files application at European Court of Human Rights over arrest of its leaders, Demirtas and Yuksekdag.

Iran-Turkey ties tense over exchange of words

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has denounced a statement from an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, who called on Turkey to not “test Iran’s patience.”

Germany raids apartments of four Turkish imams suspected of spying

German police on Feb. 15 raided the apartments of four imams suspected of conducting espionage on behalf of the Turkish government against followers of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, which Ankara accuses of organizing the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Debate: Turkey ahead of the constitutional referendum

euro|topics

The campaign for the referendum on April 16 is under way in Turkey. The parliament in Ankara gave the green light in mid-January for a constitutional amendment that could see the introduction of a presidential system in Turkey. With the help of votes from the far-right MHP, the ruling AKP achieved the majority it needed to hold a referendum on the reform. What would a presidential system mean for Turkey?

Debate: Searches at homes of Turkish imams in Germany

euro|topics

Police in Germany have carried out searches at the homes of four imams who are members of the Turkish-Islam Union in Germany (Ditib) on suspicions that they were spying on supporters of the Gülen movement and passing on the information to the Turkish Consulate General. Europe must not stand by and watch as democracy is dismantled in Turkey and must take a tougher line with the Ankara-controlled organisation, commentators demand.

Raid on imams stems from political competition in Germany: Top religious official

Accusations of espionage against Turkish imams in Germany stemmed from a “defamation campaign” that was tied to the political climate ahead of elections in the country, Turkey’s top religious official has said.

Turkey Punishes 2 Opposition Leaders as Crackdown Continues

NYT > Turkey by By PATRICK KINGSLEY

One leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party was sentenced to five months in jail, and the other was expelled from Parliament.

Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/2lSZvHC

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Sunday, March 6, 2016

A late tribute to Umberto Eco (and also to Harper Lee)…

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by Gökhan Tan

Archival Interview: Umberto Eco on Truth, Fiction, and the Holy Grail

“It was a beautiful story. Too bad no one will find out about it.”

“You surely don’t believe that you’re the only writer of stories in this world. Sooner or later, someone — a greater liar than Baudolino — will tell it.” — Umberto Eco, Baudolino

In Memoriam | Umberto Eco: Istanbul as Unity and Trinity

Mavi Boncuk

“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.” Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco is dead: Long live Umberto Eco

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Jealous novelists criticised his novels, but readers around the globe devoured his dazzling brilliance.

Umberto Eco RIP

Memex 1.1

Wonderful, sometimes exasperating, writer. I loved his newspaper columns and will always be grateful to him for How To Travel With A Salmon: and Other Essays. And for his wonderful 1994 essay on why the Mac is a Catholic machine, and the IBM PC a Protestant one. The NYT obit here

1984 photograph by Rob Bogaerts

Italian writer Umberto Eco dies at 84

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco, best known for his 1980s novel The Name of the Rose, dies at the age of 84.

Umberto Eco, literary giant, dead at 84

Mashable! by Chris Taylor

The novelist and cultural theorist Umberto Eco has died at his home, according to a statement his family gave to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. He was 84.

Who marries who, by profession

FlowingData » Visualization by Nathan Yau

People with certain professions tend to marry others with a given profession.Adam Pearce and Dorothy Gambrell for Bloomberg Business were curious.

When it comes to falling in love, it’s not just fate that brings people together—sometimes it’s their jobs. We scanned data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey—which covers 3.5 million households—to find out how people are pairing up.

Umberto Eco Dies at 84; Leaves Behind Advice to Aspiring Writers

Open Culture by Dan Colman

Umberto Eco, the Italian semiotician, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist — and, of course, author of Foucault’s Pendulum – has died at his home in Milan. He was 84.

Eco’s passing adds some poignancy to a video he recorded just last year, on behalf of The Louisiana Channel, a media outlet based, of all places, in Denmark. In the clip above, Eco gives some counsel to aspiring writers: Keep your ego in check, and your ambitions, realistic. Put in the time and the hard work, and don’t shoot for the Nobel Prize in Literature straight out of the gate. That, Eco says, kills every literary career. And remember that writing is “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” They’re truisms–you discover after spending decades as a writer–that turn out to be true. That confirmation is one of the gifts he leaves behind.

Umberto Eco, 1932-2016

Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

eco

Umberto Eco, the Italian philosopher, writer and semiotics professor, is dead at 84, reports the BBC.

Turkish authors mourn death of Umberto Eco

Turkish writers mourn Umberto Eco, Italy’s world-known author and philosopher, who died Feb. 19 at the age of 84.

What different novels look like with everything removed but punctuation

Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

Punctuation in Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (left) and in Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (right).

Adam J Calhoun wrote on Medium: “I wondered what did my favorite books look like without words. Can you tell them apart or are they all a-mush? In fact, they can be quite distinct. Take my all-time favorite book, Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. It is dense prose stuffed with parentheticals. When placed next to a novel with more simplified prose — Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy — it is a stark difference (see above).”

Harper Lee, author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ dies: City official

Harper Lee, who wrote one of America’s most enduring literary classics, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” about a child’s view of right and wrong and waited 55 years to publish a second book with the same characters from a very different point of view, has died at the age of 89

Everyone Still Reads ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’

FiveThirtyEight » Features by Hayley Munguia

On Friday, the mayor’s office in Monroeville, Alabama, announced that Harper Lee, author of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and its controversy-plagued 2015 sequel “Go Set A Watchman,” had died at age 89. A look at the numbers behind Lee’s greatest work bear out its prominent place in American culture.

What’s Changed in Harper Lee’s Hometown Since ‘Mockingbird’

FiveThirtyEight » Features by Anne Li

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it.”

That’s how Scout Finch describes the steadfastly Southern setting of Harper Lee’s beloved novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Maycomb is a fictional city, but it’sbased on Lee’s birthplace and childhood home of Monroeville, in Monroe County, Alabama, where Lee died on Friday.

Monroe County was the perfect model for the setting of the Depression-era novel. According to 1930 census data, farmers like the novel’s Cunningham family made up 74 percent of the county.¹⁸ Monroe was about half black, half white, but whites were better off by a variety of a measures. While Scout’s father Atticus read to her every night, 25.8 percent of the black population was illiterate. Only 3 percent of the white population couldn’t read.

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Cyberculture agenda: “World Leaders on Instagram 2016…

In case you missed, “Leaked Brexit summit text…”Facing facts about the EU referendum…

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Leaked Brexit summit text: Full annotated document

Brussels Blog by Alex Barker

We’ve got our hands on the final pre-summit draft of the UK’s “new settlement” deal, sent to member states by Donald Tusk, the summit’s host, in the early hours of this morning.

There are not many changes from Tusk’s first version, published two weeks ago. A lot of the political issues have been left to the summit of EU leaders this evening. We’ve annotated a version of the main text, which you can view here.We’ve also run through the decision setting up an emergency brake for non-euro countries, which is here. I’m afraid Tusk provided no track marks in these drafts, making it difficult to see where the changes were made, but we hopefully spotted all the main issues and revisions. There are two particularly interesting tweaks:

Cameron sets 23 June date for EU referendum

EurActiv.com by Daniela Vincenti

Britain will vote on its membership of the European Union on June 23, Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday (20 February) as he began the daunting challenge of persuading the country to stay in.

Facing facts about the EU referendum

Ideas on Europe by Jon Danzig

Key dates in Britain’s relationship with the EU

EurActiv.com by frederic.simon

Prime Minister David Cameron could agree a reform package at a summit in Brussels starting Thursday (18 February), paving the way for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union as early as June.

Hungary’s Teachers Are Mad As Hell and They’re Not Taking It Anymore

Global Voices Online by Sara Heltai

Sign reads, “Once there was a huge spectacle. They called it the school for sheep. Those got the highest accolades, who didn’t speak, but only bleat.” (Excerpt from a poem by Sándor Weöres.) Image: István Huszti / Index.hu. Used with permission.

The British are dangerously ill-informed about the EU referendum

open Democracy News Analysis – by Mike Berry

Research suggests that the UK media are failing to adequately inform the British public, ahead of the country’s referendum on EU membership. The BBC, in particular, has a duty to step up its game.

Before the end of 2017, perhaps as early as June of this year, voters in Britain will decide whether to remain part of the European Union. Whilst the majority of commentary so far has focused on the economic implications of Brexit, leaving the European Union would also have consequences for many other aspects of British life.

European Union Struggling With How to Keep Britain in the Fold

NYT > Turkey by By STEPHEN CASTLE and JAMES KANTER

The leaders of the 28 nations are meeting in Brussels to confront issues over Britain and the migrant crisis that challenge the longtime goal of “ever closer union.”

VIDEO: ‘The deal is a fair one’ – Juncker

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has described the UK/ EU reform deal as “fair for the UK and fair for the other 27 member states”.

VIDEO: Key points of Cameron’s EU deal

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

David Cameron says the EU reform deal has “delivered on the commitments” he made at the start of the process.

A hard-headed calculation to avoid Brexit

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Why Cameron’s EU peers went for a deal in the end

Debate: EU partners want to prevent Brexit

euro|topics

The leaders attending the EU summit on Thursday and Friday plan to reach a deal with Prime Minister David Cameron in the hope that this will keep the UK in the Union. The British will vote either this year or at the latest in 2017 on whether to stay in the EU or not. What would a Brexit mean for Europe?

EU summit: What EU reporters make of Brexit talks

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

What EU reporters make of Brexit talks

The UK, EU and Brexit: Who wins and who loses?

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

We look at what the European Union will look like without Britain and how the UK will fare without the EU.

EU summit: High stakes and missed meals

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

How talks on a new deal for Britain in Europe unfolded

Cameron’s lose-lose strategy

EurActiv.com by Samuel Morgan

This will go down in history as the losers’ European Council. David Cameron has fashioned a lose-lose game plan in which both the UK and the EU will emerge weaker from his plebiscite politics, writes Denis MacShane.

VIDEO: Is Europe’s Schengen zone doomed?

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Laurence Peter looks at what the end of the Schengen zone could mean

Reporting on migration: How the media is shaping the conversation

Journalism.co.uk

What should be the role of news organisations and social media in making sure the refugee crisis is portrayed fairly and accurately?

Refugees vs economic migrants: Europe changes rhetoric

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Are European migration policies being driven by efforts to quickly classify new arrivals as either migrants or refugees?

DiEM25: ten years to save Europe?

open Democracy News Analysis – by Precarious Europe

Precarious Europe was in Berlin for the launch of Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, kicked off by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

VIDEO: Inside huge EU summit media centre

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

The BBC’s Ben Wright reports from the media centre of the European Council in Brussels, as talks on reform of the UK’s place in the EU enter a second day.

Debate: EU lifts sanctions against Belarus

euro|topics

The European Union will let most of its sanctions against Belarus expire on the grounds that ahead of Lukashenko’s re-election in 2015 the number of human rights abuses in the country decreased and political prisoners were freed. But is lifting the punitive measures the right solution?

Why Now Is the Time for a Unified Response to Europe’s Migrant Crisis

RAND: Commentary by RAND Staff

Some EU member states are re-instating temporary internal border controls in an attempt to control the flow of migrants. If the EU is to develop a coordinated plan to successfully manage the crisis, it needs to achieve a more balanced redistribution of migrants and establish more efficient processing of asylum applications.

Debate: The state of public broadcasters in Poland

euro|topics

Critics in Poland and abroad have accused the Polish government of turning the country’s public media into an instrument of propaganda through a series of restructuring measures. Is the accusation justified? Two Polish media outlets state their views.

Debate: Finland wants to curb family reunification

euro|topics

New legislation will require asylum seekers and Finns who want spouses living in non-EU countries to join them in Finland to provide proof of a net income of at least 1,700 euros per month in future. The Finish press criticises the draft law currently being put together by the government in Helsinki.

Migrants in Europe have become fair game

EurActiv.com by Georgi Gotev

As the European Union summit starts today (18 February) in Brussels, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, warns that it has become impossible in Europe to have a meaningful discussion about migrant rights, diversity, and integration.

Debate: Anti-Semitism in Europe

euro|topics

According to recent polls 57 percent of the Jews living in France are thinking about moving to another country. Statistics released by London’s Metropolitan Police also show that hate crimes against Jews were up 61 percent in 2015. How should Europe react to growing anti-Semitism?

Debate: London and EU partners haggle over reforms

euro|topics

The EU summit in Brussels is turning into a showdown on the Brexit issue. Will Prime Minister David Cameron manage to secure enough concessions from his EU partners to persuade his countrymen to stay in the EU?

Debate: Eastern Europe’s call for more borders

euro|topics

The Visegád states’ “plan B” continues to fuel debate on the eve of the EU summit. These countries want to shut down the Balkan route if Greece doesn’t manage to seal its EU external border. Who is isolating themselves here, the Eastern Europeans or Angela Merkel?

Anti-Muslim hatred from the margins to the mainstream

open Democracy News Analysis – by Joe Mulhall

Whatever local Muslim communities do to remind society that these extremists don’t represent them, there are media commentators, as well as right-wing politicians, constantly fostering a narrative of collective responsibility.