-
US cuts Pakistan's aid in protest at jail for doctor who helped find Bin Laden
Senate committee votes to slash Pakistan's aid by $1m for each of the years Shakil Afridi, who ran fake CIA vaccine, is in prison
A US senate committee has voted to cut Pakistan's aid by $1m for each of the 33 years of a prison sentence given to a doctor for helping the CIA to track down Osama bin Laden.
The appropriations committee unanimously approved the $33m reduction as outrage grows in Washington over the conviction of Shakil Afridi for treason . The physician ran a fake vaccination programme in an attempt to collect Bin Laden's DNA in order to verify he was living in the Abbottabad compound where he was eventually killed a year ago.
The aid cut will not be immediately implemented as it comes out of next year's budget, but it will increase the pressure on the Pakistan government as Washington seeks to have Afridi's conviction quashed or his sentence substantially reduced.
The appropriations committee debate reflected the frustration at what many in Washington see as Pakistan's duplicity that has bubbled away for many years over the links between its intelligence service and the Taliban, and was accentuated when it was revealed that Bin Laden was living untouched in a garrison town.
"We need Pakistan. Pakistan needs us," said Senator Lindsey Graham, who helped write the legislation cutting aid. "But we don't need a Pakistan that is just double dealing."
Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced a repeatedly-heard sentiment on Capitol Hill since Afridi's conviction that it was outrageous to convict him of treason when he was helping not harming Pakistan by contributing to Bin Laden's demise.
"It was not a crime against Pakistan," she said. "It was an effort to locate and help bring to justice the world's No 1 terrorist."
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher demanded stronger action from the Obama administration. "Secretary Clinton will have to do more than voice protests over the Afridi case. Both the departments of state and defence need to take punitive actions against Pakistan.
"Carrots are not enough when dealing with an adversary. Sticks are needed to prove we are serious," he said.
Congressman Pete King, chairman of the House homeland security committee, has also blamed the Obama administration saying that it put Afridi "out there" by leaking details of his role in the raid to the media.
Administration officials say that information about the fake vaccination scheme, which was first reported in the Guardian, clearly came from the Pakistani authorities.
However, after Afridi's role was made public, US officials openly acknowledged it including the defence secretary, Leon Panetta – who was CIA director when Bin Laden was killed– who described the doctor as having been "very helpful" in gathering intelligence on the al-Qaida leader.
The Senate appropriations committee has already slashed foreign aid to Pakistan from the $2bn proposed by Barack Obama to just $800m from October 1, in part because of across-the-board budget cuts, but also because of frustration with Pakistan. The additional $33m reduction will come from military aid. But it is likely to be restored if Afridi is released. The US has given Pakistan more than $18bn in aid since the 9/11 attacks.
Pakistan has pushed back, saying that the US should respect its courts. A foreign office spokesman, Moazzam Ahmad Khan, said that the case would be decided not by pressure from Washington but in accordance with the country's laws. "We need to respect each other's legal process," he said.
There is evidence that Afridi may not have realised he was being used to hunt Bin Laden. A retired Pakistani army brigadier, Shaukat Qadir, who obtained access to intelligence reports about Afridi's interrogation said that he may not have known he was helping track down Bin Laden.
"Shakil [Afridi] had no idea of whom or what he was looking for. He was merely paid to follow instructions," Qadir wrote in a report. It is not clear if Afridi knew he was working for the CIA. Qadir's report may explain why Afridi did not immediately leave Pakistan after Bin Laden was killed.
Afridi, who was convicted by a tribal court in northwest Pakistan, is being held at the Central Prison in Peshawar where he is said by Pakistani officials to be "weak and depressed".
-
Amr Moussa calls on rival to quit race
Mohammed Morsi looks likely to go on to compete in run-off vote as Amr Moussa asks Mubarak's ex-PM to withdraw
Egypt's historic presidential election was on a knife edge early on Friday as first results pointed to a commanding performance by the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, who is now likely to go on to compete in a runoff vote next month.
Morsi's apparent lead was trumpeted by the well-organised Islamist movement soon after the polls closed on the second day of the two-day vote – the first time Egyptians have ever had a genuine choice of leader.
With fewer than 10% of the results declared, the overall outcome was still far too close to call. But the two leading contenders will fight a tense French-style second round on 16-17 June. If Morsi's position is confirmed, he will face either a rival independent Islamist or one of three other frontrunners.
Earlier, in a dramatic development, the former Arab League chief Amr Moussa moved to dominate the centre ground by calling on Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister and his chief rival for the "stability" vote, to pull out.
"We need to build on the revolution and not go back to the days before it," Moussa told al-Arabiya TV. "I am calling on Shafiq to withdraw from the presidential race. I want to put a stop to his campaign if he wants to return to the past."
Shafiq, derided by critics as a discredited fuloul (remnant) of the Mubarak era, insisted he would not withdraw. Both candidates have been targeting millions of Egyptians who want an experienced politician regardless of their role under Mubarak.
Daytime temperatures soared into the mid-30s as Egyptians voted in the most important election of the Arab spring. Excitement was palpable as state media provided blanket coverage of a largely peaceful process and urged citizens to do their duty.
"The People regains its free will" and "Egyptians in the queue for democracy" were among newspaper headlines as the country's 51m-strong electorate enjoyed the extraordinary novelty of choosing a new leader without knowing the result in advance. Former US president Jimmy Carter, leading a monitoring mission, praised the conduct of the vote.
State TV broadcast pictures of General Sami Enan, the armed forces chief of staff, visiting polling stations and repeating the military's pledge to hand over power to a civilian president by the end of June.
"We are confident that Egypt's next president will be Mohammed Morsi," said Essam al-Arian, a senior Brotherhood official. "These elections are being followed not only by Egyptians and Arabs, but the entire world is waiting with bated breath for the results." Moussa's campaign office also put Morsi in the lead.
Analysts say one likely permutation is a runoff between Morsi and Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, the Brotherhood renegade and independent Islamist. In the past few days, there has also been a surge of support for Hamdeen Sabbahi, the independent Nasserist candidate.
"The runoff will be very intense whatever the permutation is," said Hani Shukrallah, the veteran commentator on al-Ahram newspaper. "And whoever gets elected will be walking into a minefield."
Only isolated incidents of low-level violence were reported. But the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights recorded violations in the form of bribes being offered on behalf of Morsi, Shafiq, and Abul Fotouh. There were claims of votes being sold and, according to election monitors, a Morsi supporter distributed meat, sugar beans, lentils and oil to voters in Qena governorate.
Polling stations stayed open for an extra hour to boost turnout, apparently below the 60% mark achieved in parliamentary elections earlier this year. Counting was conducted at the stations in the presence of candidates' representatives, the media and NGOs to avoid the risk of fraud.
The result is only due to be announced officially next Tuesday, but Egyptian media was expecting to be able to report the outcome overnight based on computer data and statements by campaign representatives.
Voters admitted they faced tough choices. Hamada, a Cairo hairdresser, told al-Ahram he would vote for the "corrupt" Shafiq to protect his livelihood.
"We don't want an Islamic state, although we believe in the revolution. We need a force to counteract the Islamist-dominated parliament … we need someone to secure our jobs, to allow our wives to walk in the streets and help us raise our children safely.
"I know he's a thief, corrupt and a liar but who isn't? The two Brotherhood candidates [Morsi and Abul Fotouh]? Of course not! And Sabbahi won't reach the second round. I'll lose my job if an Islamist becomes president because my job will be forbidden. Our revolution has been stolen."
-
Iran nuclear programme talks salvaged
Last-ditch agreement reached in Baghdad to make another attempt at a compromise deal in Moscow next month
International talks over Iran's nuclear programme were salvaged from collapse in Baghdad with a last-ditch agreement to make another attempt at a compromise deal in Moscow next month.
After two days of intense talks in the Iraqi capital, Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said: "It is clear that we both want to make progress, and that there is some common ground. However, significant differences remain. Nonetheless, we do agree on the need for further discussion to expand that common ground."
The common ground seems limited, beyond the desire to keep talks going to forestall the threat of Israeli military action. Ashton pointed to Iran's "readiness to address the issue of 20% enrichment" – a particular concern for the international community as 20%-enriched uranium is easier to convert into weapons-grade material. But diplomats at the talks said Iran's lead negotiator, Saeed Jalili, did not explicitly offer to curb 20% enrichment.
"It wasn't easy," one diplomat said. "Jalili said he was prepared to talk about 20% enrichment but then he came up with a bunch of peripheral issues like relations with Bahrain, and events in Syria."
After the talks, Jalili told CNN that progress at Moscow would require that "measures that damage the confidence of Iranians should be avoided", an apparent reference to punitive measures such as sanctions.
Responding to the mixed outcome of the talks, the foreign secretary, William Hague, said Iran needed to take "urgent, concrete steps". He added: "If Iran fails to respond in a serious manner, they should be in no doubt that we will intensify the pressure from sanctions, including the embargo on oil imports already agreed, and will urge other nations to do the same."
The UK remained fully committed to a diplomatic solution to the nuclear impasse, he said, but added "we must see significant progress from Iran" in Moscow.
At the outset of the talks, a six-nation group of senior diplomats presented what they termed a confidence-building package, calling on Iran to stop 20% enrichment, ship all its 20% uranium out of the country and stop operations at its underground enrichment plant at Fordow.
In return, the group – the US, UK, Russia, France, Germany and China – offered nuclear fuel plates for a research reactor, help with nuclear safety at Iranian reactors and spare parts for Iran's commercial airliners.
Jalili verbally presented counter-proposals, but they were considerably more vague. First was what he termed "the operationalisation of the fatwa", a reference to supreme leader Ali Khamenei's reported religious edict outlawing the development of nuclear weapons, although it was not clear how this would be put into effect.
His second point was international recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium, and the third point dealt with regional issues like Bahrain and Syria.
Western diplomats argued that Iran's right to enrich uranium as part of a complete nuclear fuel cycle had been suspended until Tehran could convince the international community it had entirely peaceful intentions for its programme. The six-nation group argued that such issues would ultimately be addressed in a comprehensive settlement of the Iranian nuclear stand-off, but that the two sides should first carry out smaller, confidence-building steps.
Iranian state media reports criticised the package offered to Tehran on the grounds it did not include immediate relief from sanctions, but European diplomats claimed Jalili hardly mentioned sanctions inside the meeting "because he knew he would get no traction".
As evening fell on the second night of talks, Jalili's delegation was threatening to end the negotiations without agreement on a time and venue for a further round, which would have signalled a breach in the tenuous diplomatic process begun in Istanbul last month, and a ratcheting up in tensions in the Gulf once more.
Ashton, and the Russian and Chinese delegations held separate meetings with the Iranian negotiator in the late afternoon to persuade him to agree to a further round in Moscow on June 18. His agreement was only evident in the dying minutes of the last plenary meeting.
Western diplomats conceded that less had been achieved than had been hoped, but claimed that the Baghdad meeting had met the minimum goal set by the six-nation group, of marking the start of the first serious and detailed negotiations about Iran's nuclear programme since January 2011.
A US negotiator said: "We are getting to the things that matter … this is at least the beginning of a negotiation."
European diplomats said that the threshold for the Moscow talks would be substantially higher and that failure to reach a compromise there would have to be counted as a failure. "This cannot continue like this," one diplomat said. "The pace will get faster and the benchmark will get higher."
-
Egypt election 2012 day two - live
• Muslim Brotherhood candidate strong in early vote tally
• National suspense points to faith in integrity of count
• Turnout picked up after a slow start; claims of irregularities
8.31am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live. Polls have just opened for the second day of voting in Egypt's historic presidential elections. Once again we will be focusing most of our attention on the vote. Yesterday Egypt witnessed a taste of the kind of convulsions that many fear if the establishment candidate Ahmed Shafiq makes it to the run off - now considered a distinct possibility.
Here's a round of the latest developments:
Egypt
• Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, was attacked outside a polling station in Cairo, after casting his vote.
Protesters were filmed trying to beat Shafiq, in some cases with their shoes, as he was ushered into his car, Storyful reports.
• The Egyptian blogger Zeinobia says the voting experience was bitter sweet, because of her concerns about the likely outcome. After voting for Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh she wrote:
I should be happy and proud , well I am honest person and since early mornings the news coming from around the country showed a rise for Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Morsi [the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate] especially. I want the best for my country and I am terrified from the results. I do not want Ahmed Shafiq or Mohamed Morsi to become the first democratically elected in the country. It is too much for me.
She also compiled this Flickr slide show of the voting experience.
• The candidates least favoured by revolutionaries appear to be winning, according to Jadaliyya.
Informed sources, however, say the runoff is likely to feature two out of three frontrunners, namely, Morsi, [Amr] Moussa [former foreign minister] or Shafiq.
"Most probably, it will be Morsi and Moussa [in the runoff round], but those who underestimate Shafiq – and the volume and nature of support he is getting – could be in for a big surprise," said one official.
Recent reports, the same official said, put the Brotherhood's Mursi at the head of the race.
• Turnout was initially low but picked up by the evening when polling was extended to cope with the voting queues. Voters and election monitors said they were encouraged by the strong turnout, the enthusiasm among those casting ballots and the orderly way in which polling stations were run, the Washington Post reports.
• The state worked hard to try to ensure that the first day of voting went relatively smoothly and and fairly.
Security was tight, with machine-gun toting soldiers, red-bereted military policemen, Amn al-Markazi (central security services) officers in black uniforms and regular policemen in white and gold braid all deployed on the streets.
Judges overseeing polling stations were flown to remote areas by military aircraft. Monitors – including the former US president Jimmy Carter and his team – were on hand to ensure the process was free and fair, though Egyptian observers said some voters admitted to receiving cash and food gifts from the Shafiq and Morsi camps.
"It looks quite good," pronounced Radwa Darwish, of the Shayfeenkom election watchdog.
• Egypt's next president, whoever it turns out to be, will be in the strange position of not knowing what powers he will have, writes Ian Black.
Different presidential candidates would likely have different approaches. Amr Moussa, for example, has no natural power base and would therefore probably seek to reinforce the authority of the presidency – against the trend of revolutionary demands. But an Islamist winner would clearly find it easier to work with MPs. Overall expectations of change, many fear, could be dangerously high.
• The military probably does not need to engage in widespread rigging or fraud to remain autonomous and immune from civilian prosecution, says Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations, writing in Foreign Policy magazine.
A large segment of the population was never sold on the "revolution" -- as it is almost universally called here -- in the first place. Afraid of chaos, economic hardship, bloodshed, and religious zealotry, they sat out the 18-day uprising, watching state television. They have found little in the events of the past year to allay their fears. A few had a stake in the status quo. Far more, raised in an educational system that rewards verbatim regurgitation of authoritative sources, take their opinions from the broadcasts and pages of the state media. Moreover, as one senior Egyptian politician recently observed, an overlapping segment of the population can easily support the Islamists and the military.
Syria
• The UN's security council has been left redundant by its failure to take action against Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown against dissent in Syria, according to Amnesty International in its global human rights report. It criticised Russia and China for using their leverage on the council "to forestall effective action on Syria". Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty said:
There is a clear and compelling case for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation of crimes against humanity. The determination of some UN Security Council members to shield Syria at any cost leaves accountability for these crimes elusive and is a betrayal of the Syrian people.
• The opposition Syrian National Council has accepted the resignation of its controversial leader Burhan Ghalioun, (pictured) the Telegraph reports. In a statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Istanbul, the SNC said it had "decided to accept the resignation and to ask the council president to pursue his work until the election of a new president at a meeting on 9-10 June".
9.23am: the candidacy of former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq exposes deep divisions in Egypt, Ian Black says in an audio reports from Cairo.
People who support [Shafiq], and he does seem to be getting a lot of votes - although that is anecdotal - say he is a capable man with a track record of achieving things with a military background, and he's the sort of person we need to bring stability to this country across a broad front. His critics, and they are very vociferous, say this is the worst example of somebody who is a remnant - a feloul - of the old regime. And how could it be that after all the efforts and sacrifices of the revolution that Egypt could end up being ruled by somebody who remains so against it? People are very angry on this point.
Revolutionaries would rather vote for Islamist candidates, despite profound differences with them, than accept Ahmed Shafiq, Ian says.
If the run off turned out to between Shafiq, from the old regime, and Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood, you would have the most polarised possible confrontation that would reflect the deepest divisions in Egyptian society ... It is extraordinary that after everything that happened in the revolution there are still millions of people who hark back to the sort of stability that they associate to the Mubarak era. But there are vast numbers who want to see something new and different ...
A run off between Shafiq and Morsi would force people who supported the revolution to make very difficult decisions. Some of the people I spoke to yesterday, who were revolutionaries and liberals and hostile to Islamists, said they would rather vote for a Muslim Brotherhood president than someone who is such a blatant representative of the old regime.
9.57am: Upbeat voters feature in cheery Pinterest gallery by photojournalist Matthew Cassell.
Hannan Feteilha, 48, says:
I feel comfortable and happy that for the first time my vote is important. God willing, everything will be okay. I'm very optimistic. I voted for Amr Moussa.
Riham Mustafa, 20 says:
I thank God for the opportunity [to elect our president]. I thought the day would never come. I'm optimistic. I voted for Abul Fotouh but I'll be happy with the majority. We all need to work to make Egypt better.
10.07am: The election is exposing generational divides within families, according to blogger Big Pharaoh
Egyptians have taken to Twitter to express frustration at their parents' choices for president.
10.16am: A female member of Ahmed Shafiq's campaign team went into labour yesterday while observing at a polling station in Minya, Ahram Online reports.
Kamelia El-Sayed Ibrahim gave birth to a boy and named him Shafiq in honour of the would-be president.
10.21am: The presidential electoral commission has announced that it will hold a press conference tonight at 8pm central Cairo.
The results of the poll are not expected until next Tuesday. Reliable exit polls are not likely, but there may be indications from campaign organisers on how they think their respective candidates have fared.
Straws in the wind from day one point to success for the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Morsi.
Egyptian blogger Mostafa El-Hoshy has a post, with many health warnings, on the earlier exit polls ("very loose use of the word").
Here's the key sentence: "The early releases could be politically motivated (i.e. intended to influence the vote)."
10.45am: With polling stations operating separate queues for men and women, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) has been keeping an eye open for irregularities on the female side. Women voters are aware of their rights, it says, and in some cases they have taken "positive steps" to halt violations.
Campaigning is officially banned now that voting is under way but the ECWR reports a number of instances of illicit campaigning – most of them by supporters of Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq. Here are some examples:
• In Abdeen district (Cairo governorate) in front of El Wihda El Wataniya School, the electoral silence law was violated when the female supporters of candidate Ahmed Shafiq distributed publications.
• A severe violation took place when the mosques' microphones invited voters to vote for candidate Ahmed Shafiq in Borg Nour El Arab village – Sinbillaween – Daqahliya governorate.
• Muslim brotherhood women tried to convince the female voters that you will either vote for Dr Mursi or you will be an enemy of Islam in front of the "El Maahad El Namoozagy"/El Darasat district in Mansoura.
Among other reported irregularities:
• In El Giza governorate, El Tarbiya El Fikrya school's polling centre voting was suspended, as there were disputes between the central security forces and female voters.
• In a severe violation of the law, monaqaba women were allowed to vote in polling stations number 5 and 6 in El Thanawya Scondary school for girls and Arab El Attawlah in Sohag governorate without checking their faces before letting them vote.
• In El Manyal preparatory school for girls, one of the female voters found out that her dead husband is on the voters' list.
11.01am: The Egyptian comic actor Adel Iman, who starred in the film version of The Yacoubian Building and was jailed for insulting Islam earlier this year, has cast his vote according to AFP's Jailan Zayan.
11.43am: Clearer footage has emerged of Ahmed Shafiq being pelted with shoes outside a polling station in Cairo.
The former prime minister still appears to be polling well, according to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.
FJP representative in Dar al-Salaam told the Egyptian Independent: "The preliminary sorting of Wednesday was in favour of Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq".
12.13pm: The campaigns of both Mohammed Morsi and Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh claim their men are heading for the run-off, while Amr Moussa's people are looking glum, says Jack Shenker in an audio update from Cairo.
But Jack warns of the perils of reading too much into what the campaigns are saying at this stage.
First he relates what the tea leaves are currently showing:
Mohammed Morsi people's are saying that so far he is winning. We don't know what they are basing that on, apart from the fact that they do have probably the most organised get-out-the-vote system. But that does not mean they are necessarily keen to tell us the truth. They are currently saying that Morsi has the largest share of the vote, followed by Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh. Abul Fotouh's camp have also suggested that.
Amr Moussa's camp refuses to comment on its own internal polling ... people from the Moussa campaign are coming across as quite depressed and quite worried.
Now the health warning:
All of these estimates about how well the campaigns are doing - we have got to take them with a pinch of salt. First, we've still got seven or eight hours of polling today. Once the sun goes down turnout will pick up and we don't know which way it will fall. And the campaigns all have a vested interest in projecting the result one way or another. Amr Moussa, for example yesterday within the first couple of hours, put out a statement saying the Brotherhood were winning but that he was second, which was seen as a very tactical move to scare his base into thinking that the Brotherhood were about to storm to victory, and encourage them to come out and back Moussa in large numbers to prevent that happening.
We may not have to wait quite as long as we thought to find out which campaign is right. Counting will begin half an hour after polling closes, which could mean a result by Saturday or even Friday, Jack says.
As Jack mentioned here's the Shafiq-supporting barber, who like many sees no contradiction between backing the revolution and the former prime minister.
1.02pm: Finding your name on the voters' lists can be a bit tricky if you are called Mohammed.
1.18pm: Syria: While attention is focused on Egypt, we probably ought to note a less interesting event in Syria: the first meeting of the newly-elected parliament. Members were sworn in today (with the exception of a couple who arrived late and didn't bother to take the oath, according to Shakeeb al-Jabri who has been following the proceedings).
The MPs have now elected a Baathist speaker and deputy speaker:
We had been expecting President Assad to give one of his lengthy speeches to parliament, but it now seems that may not happen today.
1.30pm: We might be seeing some campaign trickery afoot as the vote gets closer, Abdel-Rahman Hussein says in an email from Cairo.
Various exit polls released by the campaigns are placing their candidates in a favourable light. And now, a statement by Amr Moussa released by the Moussa campaign Twitter feed in which he said, "I am waiting for the withdrawal of General Ahmed Shafiq" – an insinuation that Shafiq will pull out in favour of Moussa.
Already that piece of news has reverberated somewhat and some believe that Shafiq is about to do so. Only took twenty four hours for campaigns to get ... erm ... "sophisticated".
1.49pm: Former US president Jimmy Carter has expressed frustration with the Egyptian authorities after electoral monitors from his Carter Centre were limited to 30 minutes per polling station.
Speaking to CNN, he said: "We don't like it but we will do the best we can. We have never accepted this restriction before ... We don't like it but we had to comply or refuse to participate. I chose to participate."
1.58pm: Nobel laureate and reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei has told the Associated Press that who wins the election is less important than establishing national unity.
Whether Egyptians choose a reformist, an Islamist or a pragmatic leader, the key is to agree "on the basic common values that they're going to live under" – and for that to happen, basic needs such as food and health care in Egypt have to be met better.
"We have a long way to go," he said in Vienna before taking part in a panel discussing the Arab Spring.
2.11pm: A snapshot from a polling station in Arish, North Sinai governorate, via Egypt Independent:
Ahmad Mohamed Sabry [representing Shafiq's campaign] sits in a corner of the station alongside other candidate representatives.
"Everything has been normal so far. There are a lot of elderly who come to cast their vote and many of them are illiterate," Sabry said.
"But as you saw, the judge is the only person who helps them out by taking them to the side, asking them who they want to vote for and showing them on the list where their candidate is. The voters are the ones who cast their ballot even if they don't read and write."
A very old woman enters the polling station and is helped by the judge to the ballots. The judge asks her: "Who do you want to give your vote to, mother?"
"Shafiq," she says. And then he shows her and she casts her ballot.
2.15pm: One very determined voter ...
2.24pm: The political fight is becoming all too real in some areas as rival electoral teams come to blows in polling stations.
Ahram Online says that a member of the campaign of leftist/Nationalist Hamdeen Sabahy attacked a member of the team of the young reformist candidate Khaled Ali. They were rowing over electoral violations.
And in the Nile Delta one of Ahmed Shafiq's people slapped a member of Abdel Moneim Abul Fotuoh team, according to the Egypt Independent.
2.41pm: Following Amr Moussa's statement on Twitter that he is "waiting for the withdrawal of General Ahmed Shafiq" (see 1.30pm), Shafiq has resorted to Twitter to hit back. He says there is a "lack of truth" in the rumour about the withdrawal of one of the candidates (but without naming himself as the candidate concerned).
2.47pm: A run-off with three candidates rather than two? We've just had this note from Abdel-Rahman Hussein:
Here's an interesting tidbit from member of the presidential committee Hatem Begato. There could actually be a run-off comprising three candidates in specific instances.
For that to happen though, the top three would have to each get roughly a third of the votes, which doesn't seem too likely.
Additionally, this scenario may occur if the second and third placed candidates have the exact number of votes. Even more unlikely.
2.49pm: Why are Egypt's opinion polls so unreliable? Ashraf Khalil's answers will do nothing to quell conspiracy theories about the vote. Writing in Foreign Policy he says:
The infant Egyptian electoral polling industry isn't just contending with obstacles of technical sophistication and voter schizophrenia; it's also partially constrained by government interference. One of the under-reported aspects of Egypt's new polling craze is the quiet but crucial role played in the process by a relatively obscure government agency: The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, or Capmas - a wing of the Ministry of Planning, run by an Army general - vets all potential polling questions and has the right to ban prospective pollsters from asking certain questions ...
None of the pollsters interviewed for this article would comment formally on Capmas's role for fear of jeopardizing a crucial relationship. But the red lines seem to involve sensitive questions regarding perception of religion, the army, or the security services. Examples of questions banned by the Capma censors include asking how many times per day a respondent prayed, whether they had ever had any dealings with the police, and what they thought of US aid to the Egyptian military.
All in all, it's easy to feel a twinge of sympathy for those tasked with gauging the political winds in Egypt. This promises to be one of the most intensely scrutinized and dissected national votes in Egyptian history. And it's still an absolute black box.
3.04pm: For all their unreliability the polls before the election pointed to a surge in support for the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, Issandr El Amrani points out on his Arabist blog.
He includes this chart of the trend in Ahram's polling.
Amrani games out the likely run-off outcomes:
• Moussa v. Morsi (Moussa probably favored to win)
• Moussa v. Shafiq (Moussa wins big)
• Shafiq v. Morsi (Morsi favored but who knows, potential rigging and large-scale boycott)
Less likely are:
• Morsi v. Abul Fotouh (Aboul Fotouh wins in a landslide)
• Moussa v. Abul Fotouh (Abul Fotouh wins, unless MB does unthinkable and strikes a deal with Moussa as some speculate)
He concludes:
I do get the feeling that Morsi is poised to dominate in the first round only to lose in most situations in the second. We'll find out soon enough if I'm right.
3.12pm: Bombshell moment, writes Abdel-Rahman Hussein in his latest email dispatch.
Amr Moussa is giving a live interview to Al-Arabiya now. He confirmed that he asked Shafiq to withdraw from the race because he represents "a reproduction of the past" and the antics of his campaign, which is full to the brim of old regime stalwarts.
Moussa also attacked Shafiq's campaign for spreading rumours about his campaign and his chances. Moussa is apparently repositioning himself in the race as a more revolutionary candidate compared to Shafiq, his own ties to the old regime notwithstanding.
"I don't see violations that would annul these elections," he also says.
The Egypt Independent has more on the Twitter ding-dong between the two camps.
3.27pm: An al-Jazeera Arabic poll of 60,000 people points to a run off between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi and the leftist nationalist Hamdeen Sabahy.
But Abul Fotouh and Amr Moussa are very close behind.
The network's Jamal Elshayyal tweets:
According to @AJArabic poll of 60000 people across #Egypt @FjpartyOrg Morsi 25% Sanahi 22% @DrAboulfotoh 21% @amremoussa 19%
3.35pm: Births, marriages and deaths ... Following this morning's story about a woman going into labour at a polling station (and naming her baby son after candidate Shafiq), we now have a newly-wed couple heading to the polls before starting their married life.
More sadly, in Cairo's El-Zahar district a 72-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack while on his way to vote, Ahram Online reports.
3.54pm: Al-Jazeera's exit poll (see 3.27pm) is creating excitement and scepticism.
If correct it would 13% to all the remaining candidates including Shafiq.
4.05pm: The family of Khaled Said has voted for Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabahy, Ahram Online reports from Alexandria.
Said's death in 2010 at the hands of the police became a rallying point for activists before and during the uprising against the Mubarak regime. One of the slogans adopted was "We are all Khaled Said".
Ahram Online quotes Said's mother explaining the family's electoral choice:
Sabahy can return the rights of martyrs and injured of the revolution. He also has a chance of winning. Sabbahi is neither from the old regime nor from the Brotherhood; this is an important step towards change.
It feels strange voting for a president without a constitution; we should have listened to ElBaradei, and had the constitution before presidential elections.
4.12pm: Rania al-Malky, former editor in chief of the now defunct Daily News Egypt, can't see how a run off with three candidates could be possible (see 2.47pm).
4.33pm: More reports of irregularities. A supporter of Mohammed Mursi was seen distributing meat, sugar, beans, lentils and oil to voters today in Khuzam village (Qena governorate), according to the election monitoring organisation, Hurra Naziha Coalition.
The same group says a supporter of Ahmed Shafiq was arrested in Marsa Matrouh, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, and accused of distributing money to voters, Egypt Independent reports.
In Densha (Qena governorate), the authorities prevented 15 women wearing the niqab (full-face veil) from voting after they refused to let female inspectors check their faces, Ahram Online says.
4.41pm: More from Abdel-Rahman Hussein on the public spat between former foreign minister Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, both of whom are candidates:
The right of response has been excercised by Shafiq in a phone call to al-Arabiya TV in which he denied that he was withdrawing from the race and attacked Moussa for insinuating anything of the sort.
Things are bit clearer now. Earlier today, someone claiming to be from the Shafiq campaign stated that Moussa's chances were extremely low and that there were rumours of his withdrawal – part of the tactics initiated by campaigns vying for the same votes, in this case the "stability" votes that are going to either Shafiq or Moussa.
On al-Arabiya, Shafiq was gruff and irritable as usual, but the highlight of the interview was Shafiq saying he had no reason to withdraw, upon which the presenter asked him whether being pelted by shoes yesterday might be a possible reason.
Shafiq was none too pleased and the interview ended shortly after, with Shafiq saying that if he spent any longer on the phone he would break the campaigning ban.
4.55pm: Voting is due to end at 9pm (Egyptian time) today but there is speculation that it could resume again tomorrow.
Turnout seems to have been low today – though it's thought that many voters could be waiting for temperatures to cool a bit before heading to the polls. This might lead to last-minute overcrowding at the polling stations – hence the possibility of extending the election for an extra day.
5.34pm: Here's a brief summary of today's developments in the Egyptian presidential election:
• It has been a day of conflicting reports in terms of how the various candidates are faring.
• The two "old regime" candidates, Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, kept voters entertained with a public Twitter-and-TV spat in which Moussa called on Shafiq to withdraw from the contest.
• From a safe distance in Vienna, Nobel laureate and reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei said that who wins the election is less important than establishing "the basic common values" that Egyptians will live under.
• There have been some claims of irregularities – most of them attributed to supporters of Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq.
1.16pm ET/6.16pm BST: This is Tom McCarthy in New York taking over live blog coverage of the election in Egypt. Just under two hours now until polls close.
1.51pm ET/6.51pm BST: The Twittersphere is filled with chatter about boycotting the runoff election next month if the "wrong" candidates end up making it through to the second round. Many voters vow for example that they will not particpate in a prospective contest between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and Mubarak intimate Ahmed Shafiq, arguing that neither represents a way forward for the country (the fact that the Brotherhood was outlawed under Mubarak notwithstanding).
At least one very high-profile figure, meanwhile, has boycotted the election's first round. Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, who many thought would run for president himself after his vocal support for the revolution, told an audience in Vienna, where he is speaking on a panel about the Arab Spring, that he had not voted.
Egyptian blogger and activist Tarek Nasr has written a widely circulated blog post explaining that he is boycotting the election because none of the candidates is a true revolutionary, the military regime is still in power and the vote, he says, is fixed:
Why are we suddenly realists? Toppling Hosni Mubarak and sending him and his cronies to jail was so far fetched pre #Jan25 I would suggest we could have never even dreamed of accomplishing it!
Why do we have to accept everything SCAF gives us as fact? Why?
When they present us with elections that are 100% flawed why do we have to agree to them and file it under "Democracy"?
When I have no clue what the powers of the president will be what am I voting for?
When a former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Mubarak's are running how can I be asked to vote and "accept the outcome"?
Reports of lackluster turnout persist, meanwhile, with most sources estimating 40-50 percent turnout – lower than the 75 percent turnout in some areas for the recent parliamentary elections.
2.00pm ET/7pm BST: Ian Black has written an analysis of who would win possible general election matchups.
The contest that would be hardest to predict, Black writes, is Moussa vs. Abul Fotouh. Morsi vs. Shafiq "is the nightmare scenario because many people hate both men."
If it's Moussa vs. Morsi:
Moussa, the former Egyptian foreign minister, is seen as the leading "stability" candidate, who has managed to put some distance between himself and the Mubarak regime. Morsi, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, commands the best organised political machine in the country. But in tactical voting in a second round, Moussa would win the support of the entire anti-Islamist camp – including those backing Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabbahi in the first round. Many would do anything to keep the Brotherhood out of power.
2.32pm ET/7.32pm BST: Family members of deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak are supporting Ahmed Shafiq, prime minister under Mubarak, in the presidential election, according to a report in the state-owned Al-Ahram media that quoted a Mubarak cousin.
Al-Ahram:
Mubarak's relative in the Nile Delta village of Kafr El-Meselha in Monufia governorate -- also the birthplace of the 84-year old ex-ruler -- told a visiting Ahram reporter that his extended family are all backing Shafiq in this week's presidential elections.
2.43pm ET/7.43pm BST: Mubarak's family may have gone for Shafiq. But the man himself – eligible to vote despite his detention because he is not a convict – did not vote, the presidential elections committee announces:
2.54pm ET/7.54pm BST: Two people have been reported killed and fifteen injured in the second day of presidential voting, according to Al-Jazeera English producer @amadakary.
A short time ago Egyptian blogger Bassem Sabry quoted a Shorouk News report saying two had died and 12 had been injured. The numbers were attributed to the Health Ministry. No further information was immediately available.
3.00pm ET/8pm BST: It's time – 9pm local – for the polls to close after a second day of voting in what is likely to be the first of two rounds of Egypt's presidential elections.
Who won?
3.02pm ET/8.02pm BST: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heralded the Egyptian presidential elections as a victory for human rights in a statement Thursday.
"Whatever the outcome of the election, the Egyptian people will keep striving to achieve their aspirations. And as they do, we will continue to support them," said Clinton. "We will support people everywhere who seek the same, men and women who want to speak, worship, associate, love the way they choose."
The statement was tied to the release of the State Department's annual human rights report. The controversial report, which criticizes the human rights records of countries around the world, has drawn fire from critics who say the United States is slow to acknowledge its own human rights abuses.
3.19pm ET/8.19pm BST: The next step.
Counting starts immediately. Results are expected on the weekend... or on Monday... or Tuesday...
3.28pm ET/8.28pm BST: Egypt Independent reports on an elections commissions press coference. Commissioner Farouk Sultan described the process of vote tabulation. Everyone in line to vote at 9pm would be allowed to vote. Officials at each voting station will then count the votes and announce the totals, Sultan said.
The votes will then be recorded on a stamped and signed copy by the president of the polling station. Copies will be made available to media and campaign representatives, and candidates will have the right to appeal the count.
Farouk also denied rumors that candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Mohamed Morsy had been disqualified from the race for their violations of anti-campaigning rules.
"The disqualifications are over," he said.
PEC officials also confirmed that a meeting will be held tomorrow to incorporate the overseas votes into the national results.
He said the process of counting would be conducted under the "rule of law."
"This procedure shall be conducted with the benefit of the public in mind," he said.
3.56pm ET/8.56pm BST: The people want automated vote-counting.
But in Eqypt they count by hand.
But it has this advantage: you can watch it live on TV, here.
4.03pm ET/9.03pm BST: Here's what the live television coverage of the vote counting in Egypt looks like. You can watch the live coverage here.
The scene below is reminiscent of a poker game, in that the ballot reader in the brown suit at left is running through the pile, declaring who received each vote and then dealing it to the candidate's representative.
The big pile, in front of the man in the pink shirt, is for Hamdeen Sabbahi, the Nasserite Socialist candidate.
You can tell it's in Cairo from all the car horns in the background.
Here's another tallying station:
4.11pm ET/9.11pm BST: There's a symbol next to each candidate's picture on the Egyptian presidential ballot.
The ballot below appears to have been cast for Amr Moussa, whose symbol is a sun. Other symbols on the ballot are a pyramid, a video camera, a car, a horse, a watch, a star, an umbrella, a ladder, an eagle, an axe, a tree and the scales of justice.
You can see a more straightforward image of the ballot here.
4.18pm ET/9.18pm BST: Who's winning? We're winning:
4.30pm ET/9.30pm BST: Various polling stations are pushing out various (incomplete) tallies. We're going to stick with the counting for a couple hours to see which way the race appears to be breaking, if trustworthy information emerges.
Most estimates put voter turnout at under 50 percent, meaning under 25 million voters. How long does it take to hand-count that many ballots?
4.47pm ET/9.47pm BST: Trying to handicap the election.
4.50pm ET/9.50pm BST: No hanging chads problem when you do it this way.
5.05pm ET/10.05pm BST: Abdel-Rahman Hussein has a dispatch from Cairo:
And the counting is underway at polling stations all over the country, rumours of a third day extension proving unfounded after all. At the poll station in Mohandiseen in which candidate Hamdeen Sabahy cast his vote yesterday, the counting process began over the one ballot box. A few late voters managed to make it before the 9pm deadline and then the presiding judge initiated the tabulation process. The box was opened and tipped over as the ballots were thrown all over the table. They were then bunched together and distributed to different people for the counting to begin.
Candidate representatives were in attendance and one rep for Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futoh said that his candidate wasn't doing as well as expected. The reason? "Sabahy". Sabahy has become the dark horse of the race, eating up votes that were expected to go to other candidates like Abul-Futoh and Amr Moussa. In Cairo at least, he seems to be polling well.
5.21pm ET/10.21pm BST: We're reaching out on Twitter for scenes from the night of counting votes – and watching it on TV:
5.40pm ET/10.40pm BST: Oren Kessler writes in Foreign Policy magazine about the Israeli view of the Egyptian elections. He finds "trepidation":
"The changes in Israeli-Egyptian ties will be wide and deep," says Yoram Meital, chair of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. "Egypt is about to make a number of revisions to its security and foreign policies that many in Israel, particularly our decision makers, view with trepidation."
5.47pm ET/10.47pm BST: Elijah Zarwan argues in an incisive piece – Foreign Policy magazine again – that Egypt's military regime is not threatened by the election, although there is the "anxiety of real suspense":
It is not quite a democracy -- Egypt remains a military dictatorship, albeit one in flux -- but it is a bumptious mirage of what Egyptian democracy might look like in 2016 or 2017, if there are free, peaceful elections at the end of this next president's term. Charges and recriminations will begin soon enough, and everything will look inevitable in hindsight. But the days ahead of the polls were memorable for their mix of resurgent hope, pride, and the anxiety of real suspense.
We commend to you the piece in its entirety.
5.52pm ET/10.52pm BST: Not this time:
6.20pm ET/11.20pm BST: Ian Black has a look at preliminary election results. He says patience may come in handy:
Results are starting to come in quite fast, but it is impossible to draw conclusions from one polling station out of 12,000 across the country. Look at this one from the Red Sea town of Hurghada, the Mohamed Tayeb School: Morsi (18%), Moussa (18%), Fotouh (18%), Shafiq (32%), Hamdeen (30%). A national outcome like that would be astonishing!
Egyptians like to say that they are a patient people. They will need to wait a few more hours....
6.26pm ET/11.26pm BST: Bassem Sabry, "An Arab Citizen," is a widely followed commentator on Egyptian current affairs. He picks up on reports since polls closed three and a half hours ago that the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi, performed strongly:
6.43pm ET/11.43pm BST: The American media is not paying much attention to the Egyptian election at the moment – there's no TV coverage and what news stories are out there are way below the fold – but if Morsi does make it through to the next round – as it appears he will – look for a flood of analysis on the rise of political Islam and the dangers of "regime change." It should start sometime tomorrow, and the Sunday Op-Ed sections will be bursting at the seams with "whither Egypt? whither the Middle East?" pieces.
6.50pm ET/11.50pm BST: The Muslim Brotherhood apparently likes what it's seeing of the initial results tallies. Many reports like this one:
6.56pm ET/11.56pm BST: Abdel-Rahman Hussein reports good news for the independent Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul-Futoh – but cautions that the tallying has just begun:
Abul Futoh is making a strong comeback. Latest results have him in second place now after Morsi. The Moussa, Shafik then Sabahy. Only a little under 400 poll stations have released results out of a total of over 13,000. This is going to be a long night of musical chairs.
7.04pm ET/12.04am BST: Everyone is watching the numbers come in, and no one knows how the election will come out. That seems to point to a basic faith among the electorate in the integrity of the election.
7.14pm ET/12.14pm BST: The insecurity of free elections.
The confusion of free elections.
The thrill of free elections.
7.34pm ET/12.34am BST: Updated results show Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, in the lead, with Ahmed Shafiq, the candidate closest to Mubarak, in second.
That's from 600 polling centers out of 13,000, meaning only 4.6% (click through for a photo of the results as broadcast on Egyptian TV).
7.50pm ET/12.50am BST: We're going to conclude our live blog coverage of the Egyptian presidential election for the day. Here's a summary of the latest developments:
• Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi appears poised to make it through to the second round of voting, according to initial vote tallies. Morsi turned in a stronger performance than many expected. About 5 percent of the polling stations have submitted results.
• Both Mubarak-associated candidate Ahmed Shafiq and independent Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh appear to have won enough votes to make them competitive for second place. Former foreign minister Amr Moussa seemed to be trailing.
• Dark horse candidate Hamdeen Sabahy, a Socialist Arab nationalist, racked up impressive tallies in several districts and appeared to have a narrow shot at competing for second place.
• There were reports of two deaths and upwards of a dozen injuries over the course of the second day of voting, but there were not widespread reports of serious unrest. No further information was available on the reported deaths.
• Egypt, and the world, are rapt. No one knows what the results will be. Before the voting, results were expected to be released on Tuesday, May 29, but with a great deal of excitement and suspense spurring on the process they may be in much sooner.
-
Bailout bill for Spanish lender Bankia continues to soar
Spain's fourth largest bank may need a cash injection of €15bn after suffering losses in 2008 property crash
The spiralling cost of bailing out Spain's fourth largest bank, Bankia, rose further on Thursday night after sources close to the bank said it would ask for more than €15bn (£12bn) from the government on Friday.
Bankia, partially nationalised by the government earlier this month, is the weak spot in Spain's fragile banking system where loan losses stemming from a 2008 property crash threaten to push the country into seeking international assistance.
"The help needed to clean up the bank will be more than €15bn," one source told Reuters. Other reports spoke of €14bn. Finance minister Luis De Guindos had told parliament on Wednesday that Bankia needed an injection of at least €9bn.
Two weeks ago, the bank received a €4.5bn loan that the state turned into a 45% shareholding in Bankia's parent company, BFA. That move gave the state control over BFA and Bankia, setting up a nationalised bank that some observers predict could absorb other troubled Spanish savings banks.
Spanish authorities have always claimed to be giving minimum figures for Bankia's needs, but the latest figures came amid reports of strong disagreements between the government and the bank about how much it would receive.
Bankia called off a board meeting on Wednesday after failing to reach agreement with the finance ministry.
The bank is a symbol of the increasingly fragility of Spain's banking system, which has failed to digest losses produced by a 2008 housing bust.
Spain's banking sector is now seen as the biggest threat to the euro currency after Greece.
Loans to property developers are the biggest problem, with Bankia and other former savings banks laden by toxic assets that include unsold housing developments and worthless building land. Many of those loans have been refinanced in order to save the banks from admitting to the losses.
The government has ordered the banks to set aside an extra €82bn against loans to developers. Some banks will be unable to cover the new provisions and the government already expects to inject up to €15bn to help them. But with lenders demanding ever higher interest rates for Spanish debt, the cost of refinancing might prove too much for the government.
Analysts believe a further €50bn-100bn is needed to protect Spanish banks against upcoming mortgage defaults and bad loans to small- and medium-sized businesses as the country heads back into a double dip recession.
Spain's recession, driven deeper by government austerity measures to cut the deficit, is expected to last well into next year, with 24% unemployment also set to grow.
The European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund will oversee an external audit of Spain's banks aimed at putting a definitive number on how much money is needed to shore up banks.
An increasing number of analysts believe Spain cannot do that alone, and that the European Stability Mechanism will eventually have to bail out Spain's banks.
-
Womad 2012: Femi Kuti joins Robert Plant and Jimmy Cliff at festival
Hugh Masekela and King of Rai among artists scheduled to perform at 30th anniversary of world music festival
The Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, whose funk interpretation of his father Fela's afrobeat has brought him to a new generation of fans, will be appearing at the world music festival Womad, it was announced on Thursday.
Also joining Robert Plant, Jimmy Cliff and Hugh Masekela on the bill will be Algerian singer Khaled, dubbed the King of Rai, and the blind singer-songwriter Gurrumul, an indigenous Australian.
Other highlights include Switzerland's Mama Rosin who offer a take on the bluegrass of the American south and Mercury-nominated jazz band the Portico Quartet. Womad, the brainchild of Peter Gabriel, will take place in Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, from 27-29 July, and will this year celebrate its 30th anniversary.
-
Israel offers compensation to Mavi Marmara flotilla raid victims
£4m paid to Jewish foundation in Turkey, which will distribute the money to the victims and their families
The Israeli government has offered £4m in compensation to the families of Turkish activists killed by Israeli commandos who stormed a ship taking part in an aid flotilla in May 2010, according to a lawyer representing the victims.
Ramzan Ariturk said the money would have been paid to a Jewish foundation in Turkey for distribution and would be followed by a statement of "regret" for the raid by the Israeli government on the Mavi Marmara, which was bound for the Gaza Strip.
The lawyer, one of several representing 465 victims and relatives of the dead and injured on board the Mavi Marmara, said that the Israeli government had made a proposal to him through an intermediary foreign ambassador in Ankara.
Turkey cooled diplomatic relations with Israel after nine of its citizens were shot dead by Israeli commandos who landed on the Mavi Marmara to prevent its passage to Gaza. Protesters on the ship repelled the first wave of lightly armed commandos, but then the Israeli soldiers used lethal force against the unarmed passengers to end their resistance.
Ariturk said he told the ambassador a month ago that he did not think the offer was appropriate or moral. "I also discussed the issue with the victims and their friends and they also stated that they could not accept this," he said.
He declined to disclose the nationality of the intermediary or the name of the Jewish organisation that would distribute the compensation but said the Turkish foreign ministry agreed with his decision, saying Israel should have contacted it directly.
According to sources in the Turkish foreign ministry who spoke to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Israel had not presented the offer to them directly. The source said that the principle of damages was accepted by Turkey but the obstacle was Israel's admission of guilt which Turkey insists upon.
"Israel is opposed to declaring publicly that it apologises and Turkey is not prepared to accept a wording of regret that does not include taking responsibility, that is required in an expression of apology," the sources said.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, declined to comment.
On Wednesday an Istanbul prosecutor submitted an indictment seeking life sentences for four former Israeli military commanders in connection with the raid, including the chief of general staff at the time.
The United Nations report on the raid last September concluded that Israel had used unreasonable force but that its blockade of Gaza was legal.
-
The other US-Afghan alliance in Chicago | Amy Goodman
While generals and heads of state congratulated themselves at the Nato summit, peace protesters enacted real reconciliation
General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, spoke Wednesday at the Pentagon, four stars on each shoulder, his chest bedecked with medals. Allen said the Nato summit in Chicago, which left him feeling "heartened", "was a powerful signal of international support for the Afghan-led process of reconciliation".
Unlike Allen, many decorated US military veterans left the streets of Chicago after the Nato summit without their medals. They marched on the paramilitarized convention center, where the generals and heads of state had gathered, and threw their medals at the high fence surrounding the summit. They were joined by women from Afghans for Peace, and an American mother whose son killed himself after his second deployment to Iraq.
Leading thousands of protesters in a peaceful march against Nato's wars, each veteran climbed to the makeshift stage outside the fenced summit, made a brief statement and threw his or her medals at the gate.
As Taps was played, veterans folded an American flag that had flown over Nato military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya, and handed it to Mary Kirkland. Her son, Derrick, joined the army in January 2007, since he was not earning enough to support his wife and child as a cook at an IHOP restaurant. During his second deployment, Mary told me, "he ended up putting a shotgun in his mouth over there in Iraq, and one of his buddies stopped him." He was transferred to Germany, and then back to his home base of Fort Lewis, Washington.
"He came back on a Monday after two failed suicide attempts in a three-week period. They kept him overnight at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis. He met with a psychiatrist the next day who deemed him to be low to moderate risk for suicide."
Five days later, on Friday 19 March 2010, he hanged himself. Said his mother:
"Derrick was not killed in action; he was killed because of failed mental health care at Fort Lewis."
On stage, Lance Corporal Scott Olsen declared:
"Today I have with me my Global War on Terror Medal, Operation Iraqi Freedom Medal, National Defense Medal and Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. These medals, once upon a time, made me feel good about what I was doing … I came back to reality, and I don't want these anymore."
Like the riot police flanking the stage, many on horseback, Olsen also wore a helmet. He is recovering from a fractured skull after being shot in the head at close range by a beanbag projectile. He wasn't wounded in Iraq, but by Oakland, California police at Occupy Oakland last fall, where he was protesting.
On stage with the veterans were three Afghan women, holding the flag of Afghanistan. Just before they marched, I asked one of them, Suraia Sahar, why she was there:
"I'm representing Afghans for Peace. And we're here to protest Nato and call on all Nato representatives to end this inhumane, illegal, barbaric war against our home country and our people … It's the first time an Afghan-led peace movement is working side by side with a veteran-led peace movement. And so, this is the beginning of something new, something better: reconciliation and peace."
The night before the protest and the summit, Allen threw out the first pitch at the "Crosstown Classic" baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs. Members of the teams joked that Allen could join them in the dugout, if he would only quit his day job. I dare say the members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War wish he would.
After the march and the return of the medals, I caught up with Derrick Kirkland's mourning mother as she embraced her new family: those who were protesting the wars that had taken the life of her son. I asked if she had any message for President Barack Obama and the Nato generals. This quiet, soft-spoken woman from Indiana didn't hesitate:
Honor the dead, heal the wounded, stop the wars.
• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column
© Amy Goodman 2012; distributed by King Features Syndicate
-
Facebook banker Morgan Stanley tries to calm brokers' fears after IPO
Bank to adjust thousands of share trades from last week's IPO to ensure no investor pays more than $43 a share
Facebook banker Morgan Stanley is preparing to adjust thousands of share trades from last Friday's messy initial public offering to ensure no investor pays more than $43 a share, according to reports.
The bank faces intense criticism of its handling of Facebook's IPO. Regulators are investigating whether the bank, and others, warned their top clients about analysts' fears that Facebook's growth was slipping while they pushed for investors to pay the highest price for the company's shares.
Morgan Stanley held a conference call with brokers on Thursday afternoon as it tried to mend relations. Andy Saperstein, head of the firm's Smith Barney unit, said the adjustments will likely be made on Friday.
Saperstein took no questions during the call, which lasted about 10 minutes, and made no apology, telling brokers to follow procedure and go directly to their service manager if they had any outstanding issues, two advisers told Reuters.
The shares were priced at $38 apiece, but briefly soared to $45 before losing all those gains and more. Shortly before the IPO Facebook moved the target range for its IPO from $25-35 to $35-38 before settling to launch the share sale at the top end of that range.
According to Reuters, the bank has now told brokers that no one will pay more than $43 for the shares that are now trading for $33.
The news comes as tension builds between Facebook, its bankers and Nasdaq, the stock market that is currently home to Facebook's shares.
Facebook management is reportedly unhappy with the IPO process and how it was handled by Nasdaq. The sale was delayed as the stock exchange struggled to cope with the volume of buyers and sellers. More than 571m Facebook shares were bought and sold last Friday, a record for Nasdaq, which now faced law suits and it's own regulatory inquiry.
Knight Capital Group, a broker, has estimated it lost $30-35m because of Nasdaq's delays.
So far Facebook has not commented on the IPO debacle. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg spoke to Harvard University students in her first public appearance since the IPO. But she refrained from addressing the controversy and told media she would not comment on the IPO.
Sandberg spoke about inequality in the workplace, a recurring theme for the COO.
"We need to acknowledge openly that gender remains at issue at the highest levels," she told students at Harvard Business School and their families.
After urging the graduates to use Facebook to stay in touch, she said: "We're public now, so could you please click on an ad or two while you're there."
-
Guardian diary
Stop the Games! The security staff can't get through the Olympic traffic jams. But the beach volleyball show will go on
• Don't panic, but the Olympics may have to be cancelled. The Diary has been given a top-level briefing by the head of Olympic security for G4S, which is providing 10,000 guards for the Games, and the news is not good. At its Games security hub at Canary Wharf, which remotely manages logistics and staffing for the Olympic Park, there is a Truman Show-style bank of giant TV screens providing a stream of the latest info. Two of them permanently display the Transport for London web page, which gives tube and bus info. Forget missile strikes by al-Qaida, G4S's No1 nightmare is the tube breaking down, as it has done repeatedly this week. If that happens, security staff can't get to the site, and, if staffing drops below specified levels, venues can't operate. Boris?
• More Olympics news. Transport for London today launched its planning tool on temporary road changes, which lets drivers check road closures during the Games. And it did it in the most shameless and chauvinistic way possible. TfL got the women's British beach volleyball team to set up their net in Parliament Square, guaranteeing gridlock as white van men overheated. Yes, we realise you were demonstrating Games-related traffic jams, but parading women in bikinis and sports bras is nothing but a cheap PR stunt. The Diary was trapped in the square for four hours and, frankly, it was a disgusting spectacle.
• Talking of Boris, which we vaguely were, two journalists with strong links to the London Evening Standard – former newsdesk hack Sam Lyon and current chief news correspondent Ross Lydall – are in the frame to replace the recently departed mayoral mouthpiece Guto Harri. Anyone would think there was an umbilical link between Boris and the Standard.
• Bob Geldof has given a fascinating interview to ShortList magazine. Q: Are you passionate about recycling? "No, I don't want to think about it at all. It's just a fucking pain in the arse, all these coloured bins and stuff. I don't have a choice, though. Down in London you get fucking hung, drawn and quartered in the fucking public square if you don't." Good points, thoughtfully made.
• Tony Blair may be set to re-enter frontline politics, but what about Gordon Brown? When, if ever, will he re-emerge? The ex-PM is said to be concentrating on being a good local MP in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. Yet the diligent Fife Free Press has recorded little about Brown since he attended Cowdenbeath FC's vital match against Forfar Athletic, which clinched its elevation to the first division. That was on 21 April. Fife MSP John Park, who is said to be close to Brown, believes he could be part of the "dream team" (along with Alex Ferguson) to beat the SNP in the independence referendum. "He's potentially more popular than Alex Salmond," says Park, who must be extremely close. As the Heathcliff of the heather broods, the silence becomes deafening.
• Was too much champagne taken at the Journalism Foundation gala evening, which we reported on yesterday? There is growing confusion over who got the replica of the ring jeweller Stephen Webster created for Elizabeth Taylor. The hammer went down on Hugh Grant's bid of £10,000, but it has now been claimed by the Hon Geraldine Harmsworth Maxwell, a friend of Independent owner Evgeny Lebedev. The Journalism Foundation is checking its sources, and the Diary hopes to keep this starry ring cycle going for at least a month.
• Back to Bob's aperçus. Q: How many foreign-language films are in your DVD collection? "I don't have a DVD collection. I snap it out of the thing, watch it and give it back to the rental store. But we have a lot of foreign language, because the missus is French. They're always about some 85-year-old shagging an 18-year-old." Holy Motors!
• Hugh Muir is back next week, thank God, and apparently he's planning a hibu-style rebranding of the Diary. There's sure to be controversy, but ignore the whingers, Hugh. Merci, large drink tonight!
Twitter: @StephenMossGdn
-
United Nations chief calls Rio summit negotiations 'painfully slow'
Ban Ki-moon and other United Nations officials think Rio+20 is unlikely to replicate breakthroughs of 1992 global summit
The United Nations chief, Ban Ki-moon, held out little hope on Thursday of an historic outcome at the Rio global development summit, now less than a month away, admitting negotiations had been "painfully slow".
The warning was the latest from United Nations officials and others involved in preparations that the summit, known as Rio+20, is unlikely to replicate the breakthrough achievements of the original environmental gathering in the city in 1992.
Ban, who has made sustainable development and climate change his signature issues as secretary-general, was candid about the difficulties of having world leaders engage with Rio.
"The negotiations have been painfully slow," he told a group of journalists at the United Nations foundation on Thursday.
The pace was so sluggish, in fact, that Ban prevailed on the international community to agree to an extra five days of talks, from 29 May to 2 June. The last-minute talks were aimed at getting at producing a face-saving outcome for a summit, which so far has failed to engage world leaders.
With Barack Obama focused on his re-election, and European leaders focused on the financial crisis, the advance work for Rio has been left to bureaucrats who do not have the political clout to make the kind of bold decisions that would allow a breakthrough.
Negotiations were bogged down on minor details and narrow national interests which, Ban said, had overwhelmed far more important issue of setting the world on the right track for sustainable growth.
At one point, the negotiating text ballooned to an impossibly unwieldy 6,000 pages Ban said. It was currently about 80 pages.
Other UN officials involved in Rio preparations have also rued the failure of world leaders to fully engage with the summit. But Ban added urgency to their concerns on Thursday.
"My message is that this is not the time to argue against any small, small items. Please do not lose (sight of the) bigger picture," Ban said. "This is not the end. Rio+20 is just the beginning of many processes so they should be flexible. They should rise above national interests or specific group interests."
He admitted the lack of urgency in the negotiations had drastically lowered expectations for Rio. "There is some scepticism about whether this conference will be a success," Ban said. But he added that he remained optimistic.
Ban's remarks mark the second time since mid-April in which he has tried to get world leaders to focus on the Rio+20 summit. For Obama, attendance at the summit would be politically toxic in an election year.
Nancy Sutley, a White House environmental advisor, on Wednesday said the administration had yet to decide which officials to send to Rio.
In his remarks, Ban said the summit had identified five main areas of concern including developing a global strategy for developing a green economy to putting in place the institutions that would encourage social development, such as improvements in health and education, along with economic growth.
But he indicated that the most progress could happen outside the government negotiations, with ten of thousands of business leaders, activists, and environmentalists descending on Rio to make their case for a greener and more equitable model of development.
-
Romney campaigns on education in Pennsylvania - US politics live
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes his campaign to a charter school in Philadelphia
4.23pm: And finally, via BuzzFeed Politics (and everyone else in the universe):
Worst. Fundraising. Ever.
3.16pm: So Mitt Romney rocked up to a charter school in Philadelphia for a photo op – excuse me, campaigning stop. The welcome wasn't very friendly but that doesn't matter:
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Democrat, held a press conference on the corner, bashing Romney's record on education while he was governor of Massachusetts.
"I don't know why this guy's here," said Nutter. "[He] has suddenly somehow found West Philadelphia, somehow now wants to talk about education."
Nutter, speaking in front of a 2012 Obama sign, pushed the message the Romney is out of touch with regular voters.
"It's nice that he decided this late in his time to see what a city like Philadelphia is about. It's May. The election's in November," Nutter said. "I'm not sure what he's going to learn here today. I don't know that a one-day experience in the heart of West Philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the United States of America.
2.20pm: On the subject of polls, clever person Alan Abramowitz over at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball warns us once again to get hung up about presidential opinion polling in May:
[I]t appears likely that we are headed for a very close election in November.... However, the final outcome will depend on the actual performance of the economy and the public's evaluation of the president's job performance in the months ahead. Those interested in assessing where the presidential race stands should focus on these two indicators rather than the day-to-day events of the campaign, which tend to dominate media coverage of the election.
2.10pm: An NBC News Marist poll of three key states – Ohio, Florida and Virginia – show Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by shrinking margins: 48%-44% in Florida and Virginia, 48%-42% in Ohio. While it's way too early in the campaign to give much weight to those numbers at all, there is some interesting detail below the headline figures:
Obama's approval rating among registered voters is 49% in Ohio and Virginia and 48% in Florida – essentially matching his head-to-head percentages against Romney.
But what's hurting the president – and helping Romney – is a sense that the country is on wrong track.
Nearly six in 10 respondents in all three states (55% in Ohio, 57% in Florida, and 58% in Virginia) agree with that pessimistic sentiment.
1.42pm: Barack Obama spoke at a fundraising event in Redwood City, California, last night, and laid into Romney's main policy plank – his own business experience:
Governor Romney, well, he is saying, well, my 25 years in private sector gives me a special understanding of how our economy works. Well, if that's true, why is he peddling the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of collapse? Most good business people I know, if something doesn't work, they do something different. So he must either think that there's going to be a different result, or he's hoping you don't remember what happened the last time we tried it his way.
1.27pm: Kasie Hunt of the Associated Press looks at the Romney campaign's vice presidential search party:
The process is so secret because it's so sensitive. A vice presidential vetting is possibly the most intense background check in politics. Everything is fair game: voting records and the political past, to be sure, but also personal issues.
"You're sitting down with someone and asked if they've ever had a marital problem, if their spouse has ever cheated on them, if they've ever sought mental health counseling – that's just the beginning," said Sara Fagen, who worked for former President George W Bush and for Romney's 2008 campaign.
1.17pm: Here's a hard-hitting ad aimed at Hispanic voters – this is the English language version – and bashing Mitt Romney:
The ad is funded by a new liberal super pac named Pac+ and attempts to tie Romney to his fellow Republicans in Arizona, governor Jan Brewer and notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio:
The Pac+ ad, which features Latino characters literally falling under a shadow cast by Romney, Arpaio and Brewer, is set to run for several weeks in both English and Spanish in Arizona's three major TV markets, Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma.
12.44pm: If you – like so many other people, including Margaret Thatcher (we baselessly speculate) – were bidding on a precious, precious vial of Ronald Reagan's blood, you will have been crushed to learn that the auction has been cancelled:
The PFC Auction house said in a statement that the seller had withdrawn the item, which was linked to the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, and plans instead to donate it to the former president's foundation.
The statement said the seller, who has remained anonymous, had obtained the vial at a US auction earlier this year.
The decision not to sell the controversial item was praised by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in California, which had earlier announced plans to try to stop the sale through legal means.
The foundation should cast the vial into the fires of Mount Doom, in order to avoid it – such as Dick Cheney, Lord of the Nazgûl.
12.29pm: More polls out of Wisconsin, where Republican governor Scott Walker looks likely to survive his recall election next month:
A new Reason-Rupe poll in Wisconsin finds Gov. Scott Walker (R) eight points ahead of challenger Tom Barrett (D) in the recall race, 50% to 42%.
A new St. Norbert College poll finds Walker leading by five points, 50% to 45%.
A new We Ask America poll shows Walker leading by 12 points, 54% to 42%
12.05pm: CNN was also present for Mitt Romney's attempt to explain that large class sizes are just fine:
Romney was pressed on his stance by a music teacher at the charter school who questioned the research Romney cited.
"I can't think of any teacher in the whole time I've been teaching, for 10 years, 13 years, who would say that more students would benefit them," the man said. "And I can't think of a parent who would say 'I would like my student to be in a classroom with a lot of kids with only one teacher.' So I'm kind of wondering where this research comes from."
Another teacher participating in the roundtable said unequivocally that he had too many students in his classroom.
"It's too large," the second teacher said. "It varies between classes, anywhere between 20 and 28. You can give more personalized attention to each student if you have a smaller class size."
Romney responded by naming a study from the McKinsey Global Institute, which is associated with the management consultancy McKinsey and Co.
11.48am: So Mitt Romney's first presidential campaign venture into Democratic turf – inner city Philadelphia – hasn't gone so well, with some push-back against his exciting (meaning: vouchers) education policy.
Romney visited a West Philadelphia charter school this morning, to discuss a subject that he yesterday described as the "civil rights issue of our era – a line taken from the George W Bush Big Book of Campaigning.
But before a school largely made up of African Americans – who might have some thoughts on civil rights issues – Romney repeated his declaration but couldn't explain his view that class sizes aren't a major factor in educational success.
According to AP at the scene:
Local African-American leaders also said his push for more two-parent families isn't realistic in their community.
The charter school's founder also said he's not sure whether Romney understands the needs of the African-American community.
11.32am: One final twist to the nuttiness of Arizona's secretary of state demanding proof of President Obama's birth in Hawaii, via the Boston Herald:
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has apologized for any embarrassment he caused his state when he revived a widely discredited conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama's birthplace by requesting verification that the president was born in Hawaii.
The apology came on the same day that Hawaii officials finally responded to Bennett's request for "verification in lieu of" the birth certificate, which he said last week could be a precondition for placing Obama's name on the Arizona ballot.
"If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent," Bennett said Tuesday in an interview with a local radio station.
Who says the era of shame is over?
11.16am: In an interview with Time, Mitt Romney rolls out the guts of his presidential argument:
The fact is that I spent twenty five years in the private sector. And that obviously teaches you something that you don't learn if you haven't spent any time in the private sector. If you were to say to me, tell me what you learned from your schooling that would help you be a President, it's like, how do I begin going through a list like that? You learn through life's experience. The President's experience has been exclusively in politics and as a community organizer. Both of those are fine areas of endeavor, but right now we have an economy in trouble, and someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer.
By those lights, Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower must have been rubbish presidents?
11am: Mitt Romney's presidential campaign went into new territory today: urban Pennsylvania, to outline his plans on education reform, but ran into unexpected criticism.
Both presidential candidates are spending most of their time at fundraising events, as the Memorial Day long weekend looms, but both Obama and Romney make campaign appearances today – with Obama making a return to Iowa to talk about clean energy production.
In other news:
• The Romney campaign issued another new ad describing "Day One" of a Romney presidency, promising that in his first day in the Oval Office, Romney will announce deficit reductions, stand up to China on trade and repeal what it calls "job-killing regulations that are costing the economy billions".
• An auction purporting to sell a vial of Ronald Reagan's blood has been cancelled and the vial will be donated to Reagan's presidential foundation, according to the organisers.
• The "birther" presidential election controversy in Arizona is at an end, after Arizona's secretary of state said that Hawaii's verification of President Barack Obama's birth records meets "necessary requirements" to appear on Arizona's presidential ballot.
-
Free Men – review
Free Men takes the form of a semi-fictionalised thriller about the role of North Africans in the French Resistance
There are gaps to be filled in second-world-war history, and this is one: the role of North Africans in the French Resistance. Free Men takes the form of a semi-fictionalised thriller, headed by Tahar Rahim (pictured), who so impressed in A Prophet. He's more profiteer here: an immigrant wheeler-dealer in occupied Paris, forced by the authorities to spy on the city's mosque. Headed by a magnificently hangdog Lonsdale, the mosque is suspected of issuing false papers identifying Jews as Muslims. The realities of war and his own ethnic identity induce a change of heart in Rahim, though it's often difficult to remember there's a war on, the period is so sketchily evoked. The tension doesn't grip as it should, but it's a worthwhile reminder of a moment of Muslim-Jewish co-operation.
Rating: 3/5
-
Sadly Barack Obama, like Mitt Romney, is an apologist for the 1% | Mehdi Hasan
It may be to a lesser extend than the Republican candidate, but the US president is a frontman for financial interests
Poor Mitt Romney. Despite defeating a weird and wacky line-up of candidates in a gruelling Republican primary race, and despite selling himself as "the CEO president", he can't seem to shake off his image as a slash-and-burn private equity boss, a modern-day incarnation of Gordon Gekko.
It hasn't escaped his opponents' attention. In 2008, Romney's then rival for the nomination, Mike Huckabee, mocked him for looking like "the guy who laid you off". Last year, during his own brief and bizarre bid for the presidency, the billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump ridiculed Romney as "a funds guy" who would "buy companies … close companies [and] get rid of the jobs". And, last week, Team Obama released a campaign ad attacking Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, and referring to the Republican candidate as a "vampire".
In a show of co-ordinated faux outrage, Republicans have since called on the president to disown such attack ads. But drawing attention to Romney's record as a corporate raider is fair game. As co-founder and chief executive of Bain Capital, Romney did make hundreds of millions of dollars from private equity deals, and did lay off hundreds of workers in the process.
Banks such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have poured tens of thousands of dollars into Romney's campaign coffers. Key members of his fundraising team include the hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer and three JP Morgan executives. Is it any wonder, then, that Romney responded to the recent news of JP Morgan Chase's $2bn trading blunder by blaming the "market" and saying he didn't "want to punish companies"?
The Republican nominee is a shill for big business and, in particular, big finance. But – and here's where it gets tricky for the Democrats and depressing for the rest of us – so is President Obama. Yes, I know, it's to a lesser extent than Romney, but the fact is that Obama has been a shameless apologist for Wall Street.
Take the case of JPMorgan Chase. Official records show that the bank's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, a major Obama donor, has made at least 18 visits to the White House since the start of 2009, meeting the president himself on at least three separate occasions. So should we have been surprised when Obama heaped praise upon the bank and its now-disgraced boss, in an interview with ABC last week? "JP Morgan is one of the best-managed banks there is," he said. "Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we've got, and they still lost $2bn and counting."
Like Romney, Obama ascribed the JPMorgan debacle to a failure of the free market, rather than to the recklessness and greed of its bosses, prompting the influential economist Robert Reich, who served as labour secretary under Bill Clinton, to respond: "Bain Capital and JP Morgan are parts of the same problem. The president should be leading the charge against both."
He won't – and it is worth noting that, despite the drop in financial support for him from the financial sector, the president and his party still managed to secure $152,000 from employees of – wait for it – Bain Capital. Such is his love affair with the guys who work on Wall Street – "very savvy businessmen", to borrow a stomach-churning line from Obama – that each of the three men who has filled the role of White House chief of staff during the president's first term has been an investment banker.
Perhaps the most shocking moment in the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job is when director Charles Ferguson – extracts from his book of the same name have appeared in this week's Guardian – draws the viewer's attention to the revolving door between the White House and Wall Street, including Obama's appointment of Mark Patterson, a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, to be chief of staff to the treasury secretary, Tim Geithner; of Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs executive, to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; of Mary Schapiro, the former chief executive of Finra, the investment-banking industry's self-regulation body, to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is government of the bankers, by the bankers, for the bankers.
In his defence, Obama's supporters point to his overhaul of US financial regulation in 2010. But those reforms have since been denounced as weak and ineffective; they did little to regulate credit-rating agencies, restrict financial lobbyists or curb bank bonuses. The Obama administration has also refused to go after banks and bankers in the courts. As Yale University's Bruce Judson pointed out in October 2011, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests: "So the tally to date: 2,511 people arrested for disturbing the peace and related activities; no arrests for any of the financiers who broke the law and plunged millions into untold misery."
Upon taking office, Obama spoke grandly of the need "to change Wall Street's culture". It hasn't changed at all. Banks are still too big to fail (and, for that matter, jail) and bonuses continue to rise uncontrollably.
The choice in November may not be, in the immortal words of the Rev Jesse Jackson, a choice between "Republican" and "Republican lite". That would be to ignore the sheer extremism of the modern Republican party on a whole host of issues, from healthcare reform to the Israeli occupation. However, it will be a choice between a pair of frontmen for financial interests, two nominees of the 1%. The inconvenient truth is that, whichever candidate is elected in November, Wall Street wins.
• Follow Comment is Free on Twitter @commentisfree
-
Paul Fussell, the critic who fought the cant of military sacrifice | Nicolaus Mills
His classic study, The Great War and Modern Memory, was rooted in his own bitter experience of loss and waste in combat
Paul Fussell, who died on Wednesday at the age of 88, was the classic public intellectual who wrote on everything from poetic meter to the role of class in American society. Like the late Christopher Hitchens, Fussell had the intellectual confidence to tackle any subject that interested him.
But what made Fussell more than just a versatile and gifted academic (he had a long and distinguished teaching career at Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania) was his writing on war. His insight into the first world war, achieved in his breakthrough 1975 study, The Great War and Modern Memory – which received the National Book Award for Arts and Letters – was brought full circle by his own combat experience in the second world war. He was wounded and awarded the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
The Great War and Modern Memory made Fussell's critical reputation. At its emotional core is the British experience on the western front and Fussell's own anger at how the language of the first world war seduced so many young men into needlessly sacrificing their lives.
For Fussell, the murderous idealism of the Great War was summed up in a newspaper notice a young volunteer published two days before the declaration of war. "PAULINE", the notice read, "I will dash into the great venture with all that pride and spirit an ancient race has given me."
Fussell believed such idealism, naive as it may appear to us now, had to be taken seriously. In his eyes, pronouncements like this summed up centuries of misplaced faith in the power of personal action and Christian sacrifice.
In The Great War and Modern Memory, the answer to such murderous idealism is countered by the reaction to the trench warfare felt by such British writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Robert Graves. Particularly revealing is Fussell's analysis of Graves's celebrated first world war memoir, Goodbye to All That.
Fussell treats Graves's book not as a gritty documentary (an English version of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms) but as deliberate farce in which the British army – with its emphasis on rank and top-down orders – becomes a death trap for its most dutiful soldiers. Fussell admires Graves because he harkens back to the satirical tradition of Ben Johnson and looks forward to that of Joseph Heller in Catch-22.
Fussell's own second world war experience as a second lieutenant, who carried a leather-bound New Testament into battle because he thought it might slow down shell fragments, came very close to duplicating the experience of Graves. Fussell, too, was wounded in battle and, like Graves, he took no pride in the suffering he endured. On a night-time mission that should have never been undertaken, Fussell was struck by German fire that killed the two men next to him.
Fussell's response to his injuries and those he saw in the fighting leading up to Germany's surrender was not satirical, however. On hearing the news of his friends' deaths, Fussell was overcome by a "black fury" that, as he goes on to say, "has never entirely dissipated".
For Fussell, who was 20 at the time he entered the army, the result was a life-changing experience. He was, he knew, lucky not to have been killed. What his time with the infantry showed him was that as far as his commanders were concerned, he was expendable.
Fussell's postwar military experience (he was not discharged until 1946) only deepened his hatred of the army and large institutions in general. "I am entirely serious when I assert that if I have ever developed into a passable literary scholar, editor, and critic, the credit belongs to the United States Army," Fussell observes midway through his 1996 memoir Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic.
But Fussell's observation is not merely ironic. It also explains the passion that lies at the center of his best work. All too often, Fussell was described as sardonic when, in fact, he was a deeply caring critic who wanted the world he lived in after second world war to avoid the wartime chaos and violence he saw firsthand before he ever entered college.
In no place in his writing is the pleasure Fussell took in basic decency on greater display than in his much-overlooked 1982 essay, The Boy Scout Handbook. Fussell begins his essay by lamenting that the famed critics of his generation never turned their attention to The Official Boy Scout Handbook. They should have, he argues, and to demonstrate that he is perfectly serious, Fussell goes through the Handbook, with meticulous care before concluding that it is a "compendia of good sense".
At no point in The Boy Scout Handbook is there ever a hint by Fussell that ordinary life demands less attention than high poetry. Instead, he concludes his praise of the Handbook by reminding us: "The generously low price of $3.50 is enticing, and so is the place on the back cover where you're invited to inscribe your name."
-
Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests
More than 500 people were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday night as protestors defied controversial new law Bill 78
• Collected commentary on the protests from around the web
Protests that began in opposition to tuition fees in Canada have exploded into a political crisis with the mass arrest of hundreds of demonstrators amid a backlash against draconian emergency laws.
More than 500 people were arrested in a demonstration in Montreal on Wednesday night as protesters defied a controversial new law – Bill 78 – that places restrictions on the right to demonstrate. In Quebec City, police arrested 176 people under the provisions of the new law.
Demonstrators have been gathering in Montreal for just over 100 days to oppose tuition increases by the Quebec provincial government. On Tuesday, about 100 people were arrested after organisers say 300,000 people took the streets.
But what began as a protest against university fee increases has expanded to a wider movement to oppose Bill 78, which was rushed through by legislators in Quebec in response to the demonstrations. The bill imposes severe restrictions on protests, making it illegal for protesters to gather without having given police eight hours' notice and securing a permit.
On Wednesday night, police in Montreal used kettling techniques – officers surrounding groups of protesters and not allowing them in or out of the resulting circle – before conducting a mass arrest.
Police immediately declared Wednesday's protest illegal, but allowed it to continue for about four hours before surrounding protesters and making arrests.
Martine Desjardins, who represents more than 125,000 students in her role as president of the federation of university students in Quebec, said protesters had been "peaceful" on Wednesday's march.
"It makes a lot of people angry," she said. "We fear that tonight, because there will be more demonstrations going on, people will become a bit more violent, because as you saw yesterday, when you are peaceful, you get arrested."
Police arrested 518 people at the demonstration, the largest number detained in a single night so far. Montreal police constable Daniel Fortier, who told reporters rocks were thrown at police, said most of those arrested would face municipal bylaw infractions for being at an illegal assembly.
"I was so so scared," said Magdalena, one of those arrested, who asked that her last name not be given. She told the Guardian that she had been taking part in the protests since February, and that Wednesday night's action had actually seemed particularly peaceful.
"This was one of the most jovial I've taken part in," she said. "We were commenting how in good spirits we were, how everyone seemed in such great energy. There were families, children, women with strollers, which you don't necessarily see at the night protests as much," she said.
Protesters were allowed to walk freely and briskly through Montreal, she added, but that changed when they came to certain intersection, the pace of the march slowing dramatically. "We didn't think anything of it," Magdalena said. "All of a sudden you just smelled tear gas and could see smoke, and people were running."
Magdalena said people from the front of the march came running back past her and her friend, who had been strolling with their bicycles. "We turned around and there was already a line of cops behind us. We tried to go on the other side but then there was cops there too.
Police officers then tightened their ring around the "hundreds" of protesters, she said, not allowing anyone in or out. Magdalena said this situation continued for an hour, before everyone in the group was read their rights. After that, it was another "hour or two" before she was detained with plastic handcuffs and led to a city bus. She said they were then kept on the bus for "hours and hours" and were not allowed to go to the toilet. "I have some medical problems, and I wasn't feeling well. I really needed some water and I needed some sugar, and they were really awful, they said they didn't care," she said.
Magdalena said she was eventually charged with being part of an unlawful assembly, and given a ticket for $634, which she said she planned to contest.
Protesters have vowed to continue the nightly protests that began on 14 February when Quebec's liberal provincial government announced it would introduce tuition fee increases over a five-year period. The Quebec government's department of education, leisure and sport says fees would go up by $325 (£200) per year for five years from autumn 2012, a total increase of $1,625.
The protests have resulted in a backlash against the Quebec prime minister, Jean Charest, who has refused to back down over the tuition fee increase, and the new law.
Students have been boycotting classes over the past three months, arguing that the increases would lead to an increased dropout rate and more debt.
In response to the protests, the provincial government rushed through Bill 78 on 18 May. As well as the restrictions on protests, it suspends the current academic term and provides for when and how classes are to resume.
Some student organisers said that the introduction of the bill, far from cowing the demonstrations, had actually brought more support for their cause.
'This draconian law has revolted me'
Mathieu Murphy-Perron, who has been helping to organise demonstrations against tuition fees since last year, said: "I would say that I've seen more individuals come out and say: 'You know what? I was neutral on the question of tuition fees, but to bring this draconian law has revolted me and I will take to the streets with you.
"There have been more and more people who recognise that Bill 78 is a breach of the right of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and they're not going to have it."
Some legal experts argue that the bill contravenes Canada's charter of rights and freedoms. Montreal constitutional lawyer Julius Grey told the Vancouver Sun that Bill 78 was "flagrantly unconstitutional". Opposition has come from the Quebec Bar Association and the Quebec human rights commission.
In an appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live in the US on Saturday night, the Grammy award-winning band Arcade Fire, who come from Montreal, wore symbolic red squares of cloth on their chests during their performance, in support of the protests.
Murphy-Perron said the red-hued, four sided shapes were visible "everywhere you go" in Montreal, adding that they show the "inter-generational aspect of this struggle".
"You see red squares on buildings, on homes, on children, on teenagers, on students, on bluehairs, you see them everywhere."
Desjardins said that she and other student representatives will meet with the government next week in Montreal or Quebec City to discuss tuition fees – the fourth meeting since strikes began.
In the meantime the daily marches would continue, she said, adding that protesters were also planning a protest in Ottawa, around 150 miles west of Montreal, on 29 May. Ottawa is in a different province from Montreal, and so safe from the clutches of Bill 78 – introduced only in Quebec.
"It's something to ridicule the bill," she said. "If we are restricted to have a demonstration in Montreal, or in the province, we are going to go outside the province, to Ontario, and have a big demonstration there."
-
Bradley Manning military trial: group petitions for a more open court
Coalition says WikiLeaks suspect's trial is being conducted amid far more secrecy than the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo
The military trial of the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is being conducted amid far more secrecy than even the prosecution of the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo, a coalition of lawyers and media outlets protest.
Led by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, the coalition has petitioned the Army court of criminal appeals calling for the court-martial against Manning to be opened up to the press and public. The group complains that the way the trial is being handled by the trial judge Colonel Denise Lind is a violation of the First Amendment of the constitution that requires public access unless the government can specifically demonstrate the need for secrecy.
The petition lists the many ways in which the public are being kept in the dark over the prosecution of Bradley Manning, who faces 22 charges related to the leaking of a vast trove of US state secrets to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He was arrested in May 2010 at a military base outside Baghdad where he was working as an intelligence analyst on suspicion of passing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables as well as warlogs from Iraq and Afghanistan to the site.
The army has allowed the publication of not one single motion submitted by the prosecution to the court-martial, nor any prosecution replies to defence motions, not even in redacted form. None of the orders issued by the court have been made public, and no transcripts have been provided of any of the proceedings – not even those that were fully open to the press.
The petitioners include Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, as well as news outlets and individuals such as the Nation, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald. They say that the lack of openness is all the more serious given the gravity of the charges and the high-profile nature of the court martial which they liken to the trial of Lt William Calley for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the legal tussle over the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Members of the Bradley Manning support network who have attended each of his pre-trial hearings have castigated the "outrageous obfuscations" of the Obama administration over the trial. "Why has the administration spent two years trying to hide basic facts from the defense, the press and the American people?" said Jeff Paterson, a co-founder of the network.
The only documents that have emerged from the proceedings so far are those that have been published by Manning's defence lawyer, David Coombs, on his blog. Coombs has consistently protested about the lack of transparency in the conduct of the court-martial.
In a new post to his blog, Coombs has published the latest set of defence motions ahead of a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade military base in Maryland scheduled for 6 June. In one of the motions, Coombs complains that over the past two years Manning has been denied the opportunity to take part in his own defence in any meaningful way. He has had no chance to review some 7,000 documents handed to the defence team by the army because no arrangement has been made to allow him secure access to the files from his location in custody.
The only accessible documents are stored in Rhode Island and Maryland, far from where he is being held in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Another motion that will be put to the June hearing calls on the judge to dismiss many of the most serious charges against Manning on the grounds that the language used in them is unconstitutionally vague. The defence objects to phrases such as "to the injury of the US or to the advantage of any foreign nation" which it says are problematically broad in scope.
-
Iranian nuclear talks: stuck in a sandstorm | Editorial
With a sandstorm swirling around them and closing the airport, the six-party talks with Iran in Baghdad had every incentive to get a peace process worth talking about back on track
With a sandstorm swirling around them and closing the airport, the six-party talks with Iran in Baghdad had every incentive to get a peace process worth talking about back on track. In an election year, Barack Obama has no conceivable political interest in sliding into another Gulf war, which is what a bombing campaign started by Israel would unleash. And Iran has every interest in avoiding the oil sanctions that are about to start in earnest in June and July. Both sides are more than aware that the clock is ticking. And yet two days after they began, the talks ended with an agreement to meet in Moscow in a month's time but precious little else.
The Iranian negotiators talked extensively about their rights to a full fuel cycle under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) but not about specifics. A full nuclear fuel cycle can be achieved with levels of enrichment well below the danger level of 20%, which is what their centrifuges buried under a mountain in Fordow are designed to achieve. The US and European members of the six-party talks refused for their part to offer Iran a real incentive for abandoning enrichment to 20%, a short technical hop to highly enriched uranium that can be weaponised. Dangling modest relief from technology restrictions, such as aircraft parts, fall well short of the bargaining price. And whatever Iran agrees to, foreign financial firms who continue to deal with Iran's central bank after 28 June will be blocked from US markets, and an EU embargo on Iranian crude starts shortly after on 1 July. So where is the incentive for Iran to trade?
This is the problem with the sanctions. They have to be liftable and or least delayable. Given all the problems surrounding oil tankers and their insurance, a six-month delay is not too difficult to achieve. Sanctions relief has to be part of the negotiations if they are to work as a lever, rather than as a spanner in the works.
The hope that something can be salvaged in Moscow was still there in the closing statement by Cathy Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, but she did not disguise the fact that significant problems remained. Although the two sides were at last talking about the substance of the issue – Iran's nuclear programme – the process was still bumping along the bottom.
Both sides have decisions to make. Iran has to address concerns by the IAEA over the extent to which it conducted research on weaponisation. If progress is achieved, the conditions could be laid for a breakthrough in Moscow. But the US and the EU have also got to be mindful of Iranian psychology. The regime needs a deal they can present as a victory, not a national humiliation. If the ending of medium-enriched uranium is the goal, it is one worth spending time on. It will not be achieved by Iran looking down the barrel of a gun.
• Comments will be opened on this editorial in the morning
-
Europe must take a leap out of the quagmire | Christine Ockrent
There is no Merkellande or Frangela, but François Hollande has shown good political acumen on the eurozone crisis
It may be an effect of belated spring sunshine, but there are reasons to feel optimistic about Europe again. Whatever the short-term reactions of the markets, there is a fact about the European Union that some experts seem to forget each time there is a crisis: the EU is a political process, not a financial transaction or a business takeover.
In the course of the past 50 years, how many fatal predictions have been proved wrong? How many frog-leaps – forwards, backwards and sideways – have avoided collective dead ends? Frogs are not only and necessarily French. The informal dinner in Brussels on Wednesday showed that many European leaders are now convinced a political compromise has to be found to stimulate growth and save Greece, the eurozone and, indeed, the whole single market, so crucial to our economies.
Of course, it comes terribly late and has proved immensely costly in social as well as in financial terms. A huge price has already been paid for the Maastricht treaty being incomplete, and for a monetary union having been forged without the necessary economic and political tools. Angela Merkel is right to insist, together with her Finnish and Dutch counterparts, on the need for austerity measures and more Protestant rigour. But they should remember that Germany has not always respected the criteriafor its own deficits, that on the contrary Spain has, and that there is little sense in dying in perfectly starched sheets but in intense pain.
Credit should be paid at this stage to François Hollande's political acumen. Not only was he somehow fortunate in the timing of the French election and the evolution of the euro crisis – luck being crucial for politicians – but his decision to emphasise the need for growth has awarded him champion status, giving hope to the Irish as well as the Spaniards, and even the Greeks.
During his campaign, he stressed again and again his determination to renegotiate the fiscal compact. Typically, "Mr Normal" did not mention it once during his first press conference in Brussels. This sketches the kind of compromise that could be found with Berlin if Merkel, who has already agreed to project bonds and other marginal measures for economic stimulus, becomes more flexible on the major issue: eurobonds and the mutualisation of public debts. In this matter, the French president is playing hand in hand with Germany's opposition Social Democratic party, which supports the idea, and which could possibly become part of a new coalition after the general election Merkel has to face next year.
For once, the Brussels ballet was interesting to watch the other night. Hollande arrived at his first European meeting with the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti – not quite your typical leftist economist – after having cajoled Spain's conservative Mariano Rajoy at the Elysée earlier in the day. There was no Franco-German Merkozy-style pre-summit reunion, no suggestion of Frangela or Merkellande in the making – the words don't sound right, anyway. In spite of the stern German dismissal of the idea, Hollande kept pushing for eurobonds. He was supported by a majority of his colleagues, according to the Italian prime minister. For a premiere, it was good political showmanship.
Yet the Brussels meeting has not brought any tangible results. The eurozone crisis has not been solved. It keeps ravaging our globalised economies, threatening Obama's re-election prospects, and it helps populisme to develop in our democracies. In those countries that haven't been as determined as Schröder's Germany a decade ago, structural reforms are inescapable.
France has not yet experienced painful austerity, but the French are convinced they are doing so. Their new president and his government will face a legislative election on 17 June. On the same day, the Greeks will vote again to decide whether or not they agree to more European help and harsh conditions, assuming a possible government coalition emerges. Had the previous – and courageous – Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, been supported last November, when he proposed a referendum, the situation would be less catastrophic. It was another example of European leaders' short-sightedness in their handling of the crisis. It is high time the union got out of the quagmire, even if it moves like a frog.
• Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree
-
A week in radio: Victoria Derbyshire visits an abortion clinic
Derbyshire pressed home tricky questions in following what happens in an average day at the clinic
When radio broaches the issue of abortion, it's mostly, inevitably, about strongly held views on either side of the debate. Think Moral Maze, if you can bear to. So it was extraordinary to hear a markedly different approach this week, as Victoria Derbyshire (5 Live, Wednesday) presented her programme from an abortion clinic "on the outskirts of a British city".
The location and clinic couldn't be named, for fear of reprisals. But beyond this cloak of anonymity Derbyshire eschewed moral arguments in favour of a cooler look at what happens in the average day at such a clinic, and in the lives of women who end up there for a termination. She spoke to staff and to women who had recently had abortions as she moved through the different rooms in the building, tracing the journey every woman treated there takes, from reception to recovery.
It was a revelatory listen. Whatever your thoughts on the subject – and Derbyshire pressed home some tricky questions for staff there, while the programme included a priest who described the clinic as a "killing factory" – it brought to radio a hidden world. Tellingly, not one surgeon would speak to the programme, even anonymously via email, despite the procedures they perform being legal.
Instead we heard from Karen – an immensely compassionate-sounding woman, who looks after women coming to the clinic and does referrals from initial interviews – and two women who had had abortions in recent months. "I'm a grown woman who can make my own decisions," said one, referring to protesters targeting her outside the clinic. "I'm feeling guilty because I don't feel guilty," said the other, a single parent with clinical depression who got pregnant after a one-night stand.
Bits of it were hard to listen to, not least the detailed description of a surgical procedure and discussions about the point at which a foetus might feel pain. But this was a remarkably well-judged programme: calm and careful in its tone and language as it portrayed a facet of life many know, but rarely talk about.
-
What really lies behind the 'war on women' | Naomi Wolf
It would be a mistake to see these attacks as simply a backlash against women. This is about empire struggling for social control
Are women suddenly running rampant in the streets by the millions, threatening society in unexpected ways?
You would surely think so by looking at the pattern that is visible across the nation: state by state, a well-funded legislative war on women is being unleashed. Many of these new proposed bills, or recently passed state laws, attack in novel ways women's rights to ownership of their bodies and their basic life choices, which second-wave feminists thought long won.
Planned Parenthood appears to be target No 1: Maine, Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, North Carolina and Kansas have all either had bills to defund Planned Parenthood successfully passed or else bills introduced to begin the process of defunding.
Target No 2 is abortion rights. Since 2011, 92 new laws against abortion took effect, in 11 states: some states, such as Tennessee, are passing creative new restrictions on abortion rights. On 12 April, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a new law banning abortions later than 18 weeks after fertilization, and imposing new regulations making abortion more difficult to obtain.
Other bills impose waiting periods for women after they have sought medical help – so that they are forced to "think it over" in a manner, and for a period, mandated by the state. A law in Utah requires women to wait 72 hours after receiving medical counselling, for instance, before having an abortion. A similar law is passed in South Dakota.
Finally, some bills – in a way that defies the US constitution – limit or criminalize certain kinds of speech to pregnant women: a law in Kansas would allow medical professionals to refuse giving abortion-seeking women information about clinics and doctors.
But women who want abortions aren't just facing a closing window of time to get the procedure done, or a mandated wait to extend an already agonizing decision period, or a longer journey to find an abortion provider. They and their medical teams are also increasingly likely to risk facing criminal charges – or even violence. A bill that was under consideration in South Dakota last year would have recast killing an abortion provider as "justifiable homicide". It was later shelved.
What is this flurry of legislation about? Is it about the sanctity of life?
I would love to believe that – and some grassroots opposition to abortion rights does, indeed, I have argued elsewhere, arise from a genuinely feminist perspective on social conditions that treat women as disposable sexual objects, and women's fertility as without value, or as an inconvenience to a consumer sexual culture; and these give desperate pregnant women no options at all except termination. Feminists for Life is an organization that I respect a great deal – though I don't agree with their policy goals – for creating a seamless pro-life feminist analysis of this kind.
But the groups and representatives that are wallpapering state legislatures with identikit legislation to penalize women's sexual and reproductive rights are the same bloc that gleefully kill food stamp programs used by the same desperate women if they choose to bear the child. This is the same constituency that happily supports sending moms of small children who are in the military into harm's way in corporate wars of choice. So what is this push deriving from?
I had an "Aha" moment recently in Oxford. I was speaking about the British Contagious Diseases Acts – legislation passed in the 1860s that caused thousands of women be arrested and locked up for up to eight months at a time for looking as if they might have had sex. A graduate student asked me, perceptively, if I had looked at this issue in relation to issues of empire at that time, and another student noted in response that imperial British forces had, at around the same time, set up a complex and expansive equivalent of "lock hospitals" to incarcerate and manage prostitutes in colonised regions.
It was a moment of realisation for me because, indeed, that is what empire does; and that is what empire is doing now: systems of control are practiced and, in a sense, perfected "elsewhere" on "the other"; and then, they are too temptingly effective to gatekeepers not to bring them home to use, at length, on their own populations.
Some have argued that this present "war on women" is a war against progressivism – or a war against feminism, in particular. I would say, looking at the big picture, that it is more serious than that – not that those options are not plenty serious enough. I would say that the call for transvaginal probes, for gagging medical providers, for sending the state to shake a finger for an extra 72 hours at a distressed woman and stand between her and the discussion she is having with her inner-most and private conscience, is all part of the larger crackdown we see on privacy, private space, freedom and personal choice.
It is on the same spectrum of control: the will to gag Bradley Manning or Julian Assange also seek to gag a medical provider in South Dakota. The same impulse to peer into personal emails and listen to private phone calls that has led the NSA to pour billions into surveillance stations in Utah, is the same impulse of panopticon state control that wants to get between the sheets of men and women in consensual sexual decision-making, and monitor or restrict their access to condoms and contraception. And it is the same Big Brother impulse for control that maintains that what a woman does with her own care-provider is a function of state management.
In other words, women have always had their sexuality managed, surveilled, and controlled by governments; this has been called "gender". I have said here before that getting granular with people's sexual privacy is one of the standard forms of traumatizing state control which closing societies reach for.
But in fact, the bigger crackdown shows us that it is merely the genderized manifestation of state control. This impulse to mediate and regulate personal choices has been inflamed, I would argue, not by women being particularly uppity – but by people being uppity. The awakening of protesting and demanding behavior of Occupy communities and of Ron Paul supporters, of the unions in Wisconsin, and the students in Montreal, and the rebellious Greeks in Athens, has made the gatekeepers seek every kind of method of control available to them.
So, identical bills have been proposed in Albany, New York to criminalize anonymous postings online – to "protect business people and government officials" from criticism. And the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act has language legalizing the directing of propaganda at United States citizens. And so on.
Dusting off the same old panoply of woman- and sex-controlling initiatives – with updated and technological twists – is simply a useful extension of the general arsenal of control whose purpose is to manage and subdue what is generally an increasingly insubordinate population. We can see this backlash through a feminist lens. But we miss an important insight if we restrict our vision to the feminist lens alone.
-
Some prisoners have earned the right to vote, so let them | Jonathan Aitken
Giving only prisoners released on temporary licence the vote may placate MPs and avert a costly clash with Europe
The latest round of the row on votes for prisoners is much ado about nothing for the inmates of Britain's jails. The vast majority of prisoners do not even want to vote. But on Tuesday the European court of human rights upheld its original ruling that the blanket ban was illegal and gave the UK a six-month ultimatum to act. So this will soon become a great to-do for the inmates of HMP Westminster.
The parliamentary mood and arithmetic has been clear ever since the Commons debate in February 2011. By an all-party majority of 212 it was resolved that the issue of votes for prisoners should be decided by our domestic legislators and not by the European court of human rights. That sound and popular decision would, at an informed guess, be supported by at least 75% of Her Majesty's past and present guests, including this one. That's because life on the wing is realistic not idealistic. In con circles as well as Conservative circles, it is accepted that a jail sentence loses you all sorts of rights, starting with the right to freedom. If any of them could be restored, voting would be way down the list. The right to send emails would be one far higher priority.
At present, the government appears to be set on having a head-on collision with the European court – great fun for Eurosceptics and great fees for human rights lawyers and lobbyists. But let's look at one alternative solution which would still leave our parliament firmly in control. I call it the encouragement of rehabilitation option.
In our jail population of 89,000 there are about 1,800 prisoners who each day are released on temporary licence (ROTL) for employment in the community. They have earned their status by good behaviour and achieving such low-risk assessments that they are considered safe and responsible enough to be sent out to work in local jobs as preparation for their re-entry into society. It would be a small and quite sensible step in their journey of rehabilitation for these inmates to be allowed the vote during this final period, usually about two years, before release.
Although this will not please those who want to stick to the established UK practice that all prisoners lose their voting rights as long as they are behind bars, there is a case for differentiating ROTL inmates, as they are already being treated differently by the prison service for rehabilitation reasons. Adding the right to vote to the right to day release seems a small and temporary concession that would also be in tune with the government's general strategy of encouraging rehabilitation.
The signs from Strasbourg are that the European court will accept that parliament can decide how much or how little voting rights can be restored to prisoners provided there is some movement from the present impasse. If so, a parliamentary bill to allow ROTL prisoners the vote seems preferable to the disproportionate financial bill of a prolonged battle with the European court.
• Follow Comment is Free on Twitter @commentisfree
-
Country diary: Heathland, West Sussex: The shy, retiring nature of a chirruping cricket
Heathland, West Sussex: Male insects raise and rub their forewings on warm, early summer evenings to produce a soothing love song
Finally, it is a still, warm evening. I follow the footpath across the soft, grey sand of the heathland. Scattered trees glisten and a square of rape on the South Downs glows bright yellow in the sun. This is just one of a number of patches of heath in the shadow of the downs andfor one insect the most important. The air all around is thick – almost oppressive – with the high-pitched chirruping of the field cricket.
By 1988 it was believed that just 100 of these insects remained in Britain, and they were on this one small area of heathland. The decline had been caused by the fragmentation and disappearance of light chalky or sandy heaths with the short, grazed grass preferred by the fieldcrickets. Today, through breeding and translocation programmes, this colony is providing crickets for reintroductions at suitable habitats elsewhere in Sussex and Surrey. Lookingclosely at the ground, among the uncurling ferns and low, cropped heather, I find the round entrances to the crickets' burrows in thesandy soil.
The pioneering nature writer Gilbert White described the field cricket in one of his letters of 1779, remarking on its shy and retiring nature. Sure enough, finding one proves difficult. As I home in carefully on the source of one chirrup, the cricket senses the vibrations of my approaching footsteps and scurries down into its burrow. Then I find one, a male, sitting still, sunbathing in the grass. It is about 20mm long and black, with a large, round head. The small forewings – the field cricket has only vestigial hind wings and cannot fly – have a golden-brown band at their base. The wings and abdomen are intricately patterned, resembling tiny beaten bronze panels. The male insect raises and rubs these wings on warm, early summer evenings, to produce its soothing love song. I leave the crickets to their trilling., thinking of Gilbert White's description: 'Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous."
-
Theresa May records video in support of gay marriage – video
Home secretary becomes most senior politician to take part in Out4Marriage campaign
-
Zuma portrait court case reopens South Africa's wounds from apartheid era
To its supporters, the painting is about free expression but to the ANC, it is a violation of the president's dignity – and racist
One of the most heated debates in South Africa's recent political history reached a moment of farce today when three high court judges were asked to adjudicate on whether to ban a portrait of the president with his penis exposed.
The work, The Spear, by Brett Murray, unleashed a brouhaha that has hogged headlines for more than a week in South Africa and earned that inexhaustible accolade "painting-gate". It was not that it showed President Jacob Zuma in a pose mimicking Soviet-era propaganda portrayals of Lenin – chest thrust out, arm aloft, coat-tail flowing in the wind – that riled the ruling African National Congress (ANC). It was, rather, the addition of his genitalia.
The ANC sounded the klaxons and leapt to battle stations, denouncing the painting as rude, disgusting and racist. Today it took the matter to a regional high court in Johannesburg, arguing that the image violated Zuma's constitutional right to dignity. It also demanded that the City Press newspaper remove a photo of The Spear from its website.
Zuma, 70, is a Zulu polygamist who has married six times, and has four current wives and 21 children. He has admitted fathering one child out of wedlock in 2010 and once stood trial for and was acquitted of rape. In an affidavit, he stated: "The portrait depicts me in a manner that suggests I am a philanderer, a womaniser and one with no respect."
The gallery and the artist, Brett Murray, counter that freedom of expression, also protected by the constitution, is at stake.
The hearing was broadcast live on national television. ANC leaders were present, along with several of Zuma's children, who have joined their father in the legal challenge.
Arguments
Outside the courthouse, hundreds of ANC supporters danced and sang, following a call by the party for "all South Africans to defend the president".
As arguments began, the judges closely questioned Zuma's lawyer, Gcina Malindi, on points of law, race, art and the limits of their ability to control publication on the internet. Malindi argued that the court should hear not just the opinions of a "super class" of art experts but how the painting was likely to be seen by the country's black majority, denied education under the apartheid system.
Malindi, who is black, said that many black people still lived in poverty after the end of apartheid in 1994. He then broke down in tears when a judge asked him how the court could halt viewing of an image widely distributed on the internet. His colleagues rushed to put their arms around his shoulders.
Jackson Mthembu, an ANC spokesman, described Malindi as a leading member of the movement who had been tortured for his anti-apartheid activities. "That's why this is emotional," he said.
The painting went on show at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg earlier this month and came to the ANC's attention a week later, after local media reported its had been sold to an anonymous buyer. It would probably have gone unnoticed but for the ANC's declaration of war.
The ANC, which in the past has been criticised for remaining silent in the face of corruption, its own people dying from Aids, and human rights violations in Zimbabwe, whipped up opposition to The Spear, putting a logo on its website homepage that says: "President Zuma has a right to human dignity and privacy."
The name of the painting also evokes the old armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (which translates as "Spear of the Nation") as well as cruder analogies.
The case is being fought over a work that essentially no longer exists. On Tuesday the painting was defaced by a white businessman – peacefully taken into custody by security guards – and a black taxi driver, who was head-butted and body-slammed by a guard. The businessman claims he was making an artistic statement of his own, critiquing both the ANC and Murray, while the taxi driver has laid an assault charge against the guard.
The Spear saga has pushed all the buttons that inflame emotions and headlines in South Africa's national discourse. The ANC, backed by trade unions, the Young Communist League and some black commentators, has invoked the rhetoric of the anti-apartheid movement, saying the work symbolises lingering racial oppression – still a defining prism for much public debate here.
Forgive
Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary-general, told Reuters last week: "From where I am sitting, that picture is racist. It is disrespectful. It is crude and it is rude. The more black South Africans forgive and forget, the more they get a kick in the teeth."
Murray is far from the first white person to criticise the ANC and be labelled a racist. He is from Cape Town, often seen as the country's last bastion of white privilege. But on Wednesday the Times of South Africa devoted its front page to photos of the young Murray wearing an ANC T-shirt and examples of his work that used to lampoon the white minority regime, under the sarcastic headline: "Murray, the 'racist'".
Murray's defenders say a painting of Nelson Mandela with his penis exposed is unlikely. Respect is earned, they say, and Zuma has not done so, sexually or politically. Two black commentators, Mondli Makhanya and Justice Malala, have argued that say Zuma has defined himself by his sexual lifestyle. Malala wrote in the Guardian: "He has done more to provide fodder for racist stereotypes than any black South African has done."
Politically, there is a widespread perception that Zuma is treading water and needs a headline-grabbing diversion from South Africa's real crises: corruption, the failure to deliver services, and growing inequality. The ANC is said to be riven by factions and insecurities, and in need of a common enemy to rally against.
Sipho Hlongwane, a columnist for the Daily Maverick, argued: "As things stand, they have reason to thank the artist for giving them a unique opportunity to further secure their core voting constituency from the further encroachment by the liberal infidels."
The judges called a recess after the emotional display by Zuma's lawyeron Thursday. After a break of more than two hours, they and agreed to resume at a later date. As the febrile arguments raged on the internet, some observers may have been tempted it was tempting to paraphrase Henry Kissinger: the politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
-
Etan Patz: police arrest suspect who confessed to killing
Pedro Hernandez reportedly told police that he strangled Etan Patz and stuffed him in a box, which he discarded in New York
One of America's most notable missing child cases, the disappearance in 1979 of six-year-old New Yorker Etan Patz, appears to have reached a breakthrough after police arrested a suspect.
Patz went missing just blocks from his parent's home in downtown Manhattan in 1979 as he made his first ever unaccompanied walk to the school bus. His case became a national cause célèbre, and his face was one of the first to appear on milk cartons in an effort to find out what happened to him.
Now a New Jersey man, Pedro Hernandez, has been arrested after apparently implicating himself in the child's killing. "An individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago," New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.
The break in the case came one month after the FBI and NYPD officers conducted a four-day excavation of a basement in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood, near where Patz lived and was last seen. At the time, police said no obvious human remains were found and it remained a missing person case.
Hernandez, who is believed to be in his mid-60s, worked at a shop near to where Patz lived, authorities said.
He told investigators that he suffocated the boy, then put the body in a box, walked down a Manhattan street and dumped the box in an alley, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorised to discuss the investigation and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Although this is the first arrest in the case investigators cautioned they are still trying to confirm Hernandez's account and have little to go on other than his word. No body has been found.
"Let me caution you that there's still a lot of investigating to do," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after the boy vanished, was picked up there late Wednesday and was being questioned Thursday at the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The New York Post said Hernandez had told family members, and a "spiritual adviser", about once killing a child and one relative eventually contacted police in April after hearing about the new Soho dig.
Although Etan was formally declared dead in 2001, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance re-opened the case in 2010 and investigators tore apart the basement in April looking for clothing and human remains after a cadaver-sniffing dog sensed something at the site.
The floor was in a basement once used as a workshop by a handyman, Othniel Miller, now 75, who had paid the boy to help him with chores. Miller was questioned by police but was not charged with a crime. Police later said the search found "no obvious human remains."
Long targeted as a suspect in the case was Jose Antonio Ramos, a friend of Patz's babysitter who was later convicted of child molestation in a separate case in Pennsylvania. He is due to be released from prison in November.
Ramos, whose girlfriend babysat Etan, was declared responsible for Etan's death in 2004 in a New York civil case brought by the Patz family.
Etan's parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, became outspoken advocates for missing children, bringing the issue to major national attention. Four years after their child went missing President Ronald Reagan declared 25 May – the day on which Etan disappeared – as national missing children's day.
-
Azerbaijani police break up opposition rally in runup to Eurovision
Officers arrest more than 30 protesters in Baku as human rights groups condemn government's authoritarianism
Police have broken up an opposition rally in the Azerbaijani capital and detained dozens of activists two days before the country is due to host the final of the Eurovision song contest.
Officers, including some in plain clothes, grabbed more than 30 protesters and pushed them into waiting police vans on Thursday . They were later released.
A similar rally was broken up on Monday after 100 people gathered in Baku to protest against the government.
The detentions will serve to further highlight Azerbaijan's poor human rights record as the oil-rich country seeks to present its best face for millions of Eurovision fans ahead of the final. Human rights groups have decried the government's failure to ensure freedom of assembly and free speech.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the breaking-up of the two rallies "sent an ominous message about the government's commitment to fundamental freedoms".
"The Azerbaijani authorities have gone to great lengths to prepare and polish Baku ahead of Eurovision, but police roughing up peaceful protesters casts a very dark shadow on all the festivities," said Giorgi Gogia, of Human Rights Watch.
On Thursday, members of the European parliament adopted a resolution calling for an "immediate stop to all actions aimed at suppressing the freedom of expression and assembly" in Azerbaijan. The resolution called for the release of six jailed journalists, condemned the beating of reporter IdrakAbbassov and decried the "campaign of blackmail and intimidation" against investigative journalist Khadija Ismailova.
Among the protesters detained on Thursday were two women holding signs reading: "We want public TV, not Ilham TV", news agencies reported from Baku. The protesters were referring to the far-reaching control exercised by the authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev, over the country's media.
Human rights activists and opposition protesters have seized upon the song contest to highlight the lack of democracy in Azerbaijan. Azeri officials have accused "outside forces" of orchestrating a campaign against the Aliyev government and on Thursday decried the "politicisation" of Eurovision.
Ali Hasanov, a senior aide to Aliyev, urged the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to intervene after Sweden's entrant, Loreen, met human rights groups on Wednesday. "The European Broadcasting Union must intervene in this issue and stop these politicised actions," Hasanov told Trend, a local news agency. He also accused Loreen of meeting with "anti-Azerbaijani groups".
Human Rights Watch urged the EBU to "speak up publicly and make it clear that it expects Azerbaijan to uphold the same free expression protections for everyone, without exception."
-
Google faced with a million requests a month to remove copyright searches
Figures from Google's transparency report reveal huge increase on 2009 as growth comes from rise in 'enforcement vendors'
Google is receiving more than a million requests a month from copyright owners seeking to pull their content from the company's search results, the web giant has revealed. The number requests has grown so fast that it now often tops 250,000 a week, more than Google received for all of 2009.
The figures, disclosed in Google's transparency report, reveal that in the past month alone Google received 1.2m requests on behalf of 1,000 copyright owners targeting 23,000 websites.
Fred von Lohmann, Google's senior copyright counsel, said copyright infringement was the main reason Google had removed links from search terms. He said company had received a total of 3.3m requests for removals on copyright grounds last year, and was on course to quadruple that number this year. The company complies with 97% of requests.
The dramatic increase follows controversial and unsuccessful attempts to tighten up online copyright law earlier this year. The Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) was backed by many of the world's biggest media companies and had cross party political support. But it was brought down by a global backlash from online activists.
Lohmann said the dramatic rise had come with the growth of "enforcement vendors", which police the internet looking for copyright violations. The largest submitter of requests for removals was Marketly, which serves the software industry, followed by Degban, which works with pornographers.
Filestube.com, a search site dedicated to finding downloadable files such as audio, video and documents, was the most targeted website. It was followed by torrentz.eu, a file sharing site. Marketly was by far the largest reporting organisation, making close to 2.2m requests since June 2011. It was followed by NBC Universal, which made 985,905 requests over the same period.
In a blogpost, von Lohmann wrote: "Fighting online piracy is very important, and we don't want our search results to direct people to materials that violate copyright laws. So we've always responded to copyright removal requests that meet the standards set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). At the same time, we want to be transparent about the process so that users and researchers alike understand what kinds of materials have been removed from our search results and why."
Lohmann also suggested that copyright holders were abusing their powers. "For example, we recently rejected two requests from an organization representing a major entertainment company, asking us to remove a search result that linked to a major newspaper's review of a TV show. The requests mistakenly claimed copyright violations of the show, even though there was no infringing content. We've also seen baseless copyright removal requests being used for anticompetitive purposes, or to remove content unfavorable to a particular person or company from our search results."
Holmes Wlison, co-founder of digital rights lobbyist Fight for the Future, said the figures were a prime example of what was wrong with current copyright law. "The state of copyright law is out of control. It just can't cope with the way we live out lives today," he said.
Wilson pointed to the case of Stephanie Lenz, a woman locked in a legal battle with Universal after publishing a video of her baby dancing to Prince's Let's Go Crazy, and to more recent news that the Beastie Boys were being sued over a sample allegedly in their 1989 hit Paul's Boutique. The suit was filed a day after founder member Adam Yauch (MCA) died of cancer.
"The suit was filed decades after the album came out and the sample was so unrecognizable it had to be identified using software. It's just crazy," said Holmes.
-
Police urge Greeks to keep money in bank
Scale of withdrawals from Greek banks has led to speculation that eurozone-wide guarantee is need to maintain confidence
Police are urging Greeks to keep their money in bank accounts rather than putting it at risk of theft, amid further uncertainty about whether the austerity-struck country will remain in the eurozone.
Greece's banks are likely to be shored up on Friday or Monday with €18bn (£14bn) of bailout funds they have been due to receive for weeks but which were held up by political uncertainty caused by inconclusive elections. Greece goes to the polls again on June 17, further stoking fears about its future within the euro.
The scale of withdrawals from Greek banks – almost 25% of deposits have been taken out in the past two years – and fears that other countries may suffer mass withdrawals has led to speculation that a eurozone-wide guarantee is needed to maintain confidence in the banking system.
Greece's national police spokesman, Thanassis Kokkalakis, told Reuters: "Many people have withdrawn their money from the banks fearing a financial crash, and they either carry it on them, find a hideout at home or in storage rooms.
"We urge people to trust the banking system, leave their money there, or at least in a safe place, not hide it at home, where they must anyway take the basic security measures."
The injection of fresh funds into the Greek banks is expected to allow the European Central Bank to start dealing with those unnamed institutions to which it stopped providing direct funding because they did not have enough capital.
Deposits in other eurozone countries are holding up, with those in Spain and Italy down only 3% and 2% respectively.
The Spanish government is propping up its banks, putting €9bn into Bankia, the fourth largest bank, and bringing in independent valuators – including US management consultants Oliver Wyman – for the property loans sitting inside Spain's banks. Spain already had a restructuring fund for its banks – known as FROB – which will provide the resources for the recapitalisation of Bankia.
Savings across the EU – including in Britain – are guaranteed up to €100,000 by national banking systems, which should prevent the need for any deposits to be withdrawn. There are suggestions that this burden should be shared across the eurozone.
Simon Ward, chief executive at global investment management group Henderson, pointed out that sharing out the bill might prove politically difficult.
"Germany would end up bearing the risk and I don't think that's politically acceptable," he said.
The ECB, Ward said, could do more to restore confidence in the stalling eurozone economies by embarking on quantitative easing. "We need to move to full QE that would stabilise the economies … boost confidence and slow the deposit flight. But we might not have time for that."
-
Paperboy director Lee Daniels delivers lesson in race relations
Oscar winner draws on direct family experience to put civil rights movement at centre of adaptation of Pete Dexter novel
Directors draw on many sources to draw truthful performances from their actors. But in depicting a prisoner on death row, not everyone has a brother serving a jail sentence for murder to tap for research.
But Lee Daniels, speaking before the Cannes premiere of his latest film, said he had personal experience of every one of the characters in his 1960s-set, Florida-noir story.
In The Paperboy, an adaptation of Pete Dexter's novel, two investigative reporters, played by David Oyelowo and Matthew McConaughey, are enlisted by Charlotte (Nicole Kidman) to investigate the conviction of a murderer, played by John Cusack, with whom she has fallen in love by letter.
"I know John's character because my brother's in jail for murder. And he has women that write [to] him. Whenever John gave me something that wasn't true, I knew," said Daniels.
Of McConaughey's character, who is secretly gay, he said, "I can't tell you how many men I've been with in the 1980s, 1990s, that were white men I could be intimate with but would publicly shun me, that would not be seen with a black man in public. And they hated themselves for it."
Of Kidman's character, he said: "I know this woman too: the woman that plays [the non-speaking role of Nicole's] best friend in the movie is my sister. She wrote to many men in prison."
Singer Macy Gray plays Anita, the home help of the Jansen brothers Ward and Jack – played by McConaughey and Zac Efron. Gray's character "was my family," said the director.
Daniels is something of a Cannes favourite: when his film Precious premiered here in 2009, before winning two Oscars, he was greeted with a standing ovation for his unblinking portrayal of an African American girl's struggles to find her own path amid a tough Harlem background.
For his next film – his first to play in competition for the Palme d'Or – he has also tackled race politics. His adaptation takes the civil rights movement of the 1960s – a struggle that lurks deep in the background of the original novel – and brings it centre stage.
It was partly, he said, because the issue of race relations had been "festering in me". And it was partly because "there aren't enough roles for black actors in the world". Daniels had planned to make a film called Selma, about the civil liberties march in 1965, but that project fell through at the last moment.
"That is part of the reason why I brought the race relations into this piece right here because it was festering in me. I kept going back to race because I couldn't shake Selma," said Daniels, who made his name as a producer of such titles as the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball before moving towards directing.
He made the radical decision to make one of the lead characters – Oyelowo's Yardley Acheman – black. He also expanded the role played by Gray, transforming the shadowy figure of the novel into a crucial narrating voice.
"I watched a movie called The Help," said Daniels. "Though I liked it, all my family was help, 90% of them. They … told me stories about working with very wealthy or rich white people.
"They loved the people they worked for, and there was a truth to Anita that I wanted to portray. And that's why I expanded [Gray's] role."
Gray added: "There are a lot less roles around for African Americans. But it's not always about race for [Daniels]. He's just so out of the box and so ready to try anything – to take a white character and make him black and see what happens, or vice versa."
Daniels' next project is The Butler, about long-serving White House butlerEugene Allen. Speaking at Cannes, he confirmed that Cusack would play Richard Nixon and McConaughey JohnFKennedy.
Nachrichten 