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Global Pulse: What unites the United States, Spain mulls ‘nuclear option’ against Catalonia

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What unites the United States

What is the one thing that unites Americans on the Left and the Right? The answer, unfortunately, is disgruntlement, writes Michael Gerson in The Washington Post. “Our politics seems deeply divided between those who think the country is going to hell in a handcart and those who believe the country is going to hell in a handbasket.”

“Representatives of both ideologies — in their most potent and confident versions — are now making fundamental critiques of American society. They are united in their belief that the United States is dominated by corrupt, self-serving elites. They are united in their call for radical rather than incremental change. While disagreeing deeply about the cause, they see America as careening off course. Little wonder that Americans consistently say their country is on the wrong track by a margin of more than 2-to-1. Disgruntlement is our nation’s common ground,” he concludes.

Spain mulls ‘nuclear option’ against Catalan separatists

From a straight breakup to a symbolic declaration to a suspended secession, separatist organisations in Spain have of late toyed with a range of ways to secede. No matter which way they choose, Madrid is likely to throw the “heaviest constitutional book” at them, writes Dieggo Torres in POLITICO.

“Whichever path to secession the Catalan leader takes, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to react to any declaration from Barcelona with one of his own: To invoke Article 155 of the constitution, which allows ‘all measures necessary to compel’ a region to meet its obligations to the central government.”

The invocation of Article 155 is extraordinary. Not only has it never been used before, but it is also widely seen as the “nuclear option” to bring a rebel administration to heel. As a former Spanish minister said, “Pro-independence [politicians] have gone too far. The state needs to act with all the strength that the constitution allows.”

Trump’s making Iran look great

Trump has obviously got Iran all wrong. And in his fixation with ending the deal, he is giving away all the moral high ground that could be America’s to Iran on a platter, writes Wendy R. Sherman in The New York Times.

“The Trump administration is right that Iranian behavior destabilizes the region, but wrong when it says that such behavior contradicts the “spirit” of the agreement and that he is therefore justified in refusing to certify Iran’s compliance. In fact, Iran’s troubling foreign policy is precisely why the deal was necessary in the first place: An Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be far more threatening to regional and global security.”

“If President Trump undermines the nuclear deal, the repercussions for American foreign policy will be disastrous: It will drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, weakening the critical trans-Atlantic relationship and increasing the influence of Iran, Russia and China.”

And finally, “unjustified unilateral American action will give the Iranians the moral high ground, allowing them to rightly say that it was the United States, not them, who killed the deal,” Sherman writes.

Why we love fake news

What is it about “fake news” that draws readers to it? Ignorance? Apathy? Indifference? Whatever may be the pull, the lack of a distinction between news and comment, is to blame, writes Roy Greenslade in The Guardian.

“Having accepted that news is ideologically determined, they (people) prefer to trade in views – and they do so without apparently realising that news-as-comment is one step away from fake news.”

“There is a bleak paradox here. In seeking to combat the hated mainstream media output, which they regard as a form of fake news, they have become ready recipients of fake news themselves,” he writes.

“Once all news is identified as fake, then its fakeness becomes a matter of degree. This is the gateway to a perilous path leading to the triumph of Trumpism. Even facts can be adduced to be fake.”

The albatross around Pakistani government’s neck

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has in recent days emphatically asserted that only the state has the legitimate right to issue a call to arms. He has also unequivocally condemned those who have threatened to declare jihad inside the country. While coming from Pakistan, it is a much welcome assertion, it is not without its loopholes, editorialises Dawn.

“It (the formulation that the interior minister has chosen) does not acknowledge the role that the state itself has played in encouraging jihad among sections of the population and in regional conflicts.”

“Are the elements urging violence today not a reflection of a state that unthinkingly and for long embraced ideas that are inimical to a modern, constitutional, democratic state?”

“Second, there is a fresh danger in the very idea that only the state can declare a certain kind of religiously mandated violence.”

“Where are these notions of a certain kind of religious edict being the exclusive domain of the state or necessary in any circumstances at all coming from? Instead of debating who has the authority to declare and wage jihad, the state ought to be working to ensure the total elimination of all non-state actors and militias.”

 

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