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• By now you’ve heard of the vehicle attack in Barcelona on Thursday, which left at least 13 people dead and dozens more injured. You can read The Post‘s coverage of the attack in the next section of the newsletter, but it’s also worth looking back a couple of months to an article in Spain’s El País newspaper. In June, investigative reporter Jose María Irujo published a look at the threat posed to Spain by jihadist terror networks, which hadn’t struck Spain since 2004. The piece emphasized that integration was vital to avoiding the kinds of recurring attacks happening in France and Belgium, not just proactive policing: “It’s a combination of factors, says an analyst from the anti-terrorist fight. ‘Here we don’t have ghettos as they do in France. The integration of the Muslim population is greater, and there is an incipient second generation. The radicalization is not so great. If there were 100% integration, the phenomenon would not exist.’ Meanwhile, President Trump responded to the reports out of Barcelona in typical fashion: he tweeted a debunked story about a U.S. general who supposedly dipped his bullets in pig’s blood when fighting a Muslim insurgents in The Philippines (for more on the history behind these strange comments, read this story from last year by WorldViews’ own Ishaan Tharoor). As some people noted, the speed of Trump’s response was quite different to the incident in Charlottesville that has been characterized as terrorism by his own Attorney General. The tweet also came before the Islamic State had issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. • We’ve been talking to you a bit this week about the moves to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA. Talks officially began on Wednesday, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer set the tone with a forceful statementthat demanded major changes to the agreement. That might seem unsurprising given President Trump’s outspoken scorn for the deal, but journalists at the site of the negotations described Lighthizer’s talks as a major breach of protocol that took Mexican and Canadian officials aback. My colleagues Max Bearak and Amanda Erickson have undertaken the herculean task of breaking down the history of the deal and what might be in store. As for changes, they say the bottom line is this: “Political necessity has brought about this renegotiation, but whether it actually changes employment, wages and conditions for North American workers depends on how much Trump is willing to break with his Republican colleagues and their corporate backers.” • First it was The Mooch’s turn, now it’s Steve Bannon’s. The American Prospect, a liberal Washington-based magazine, scored an amazing and unexpected scoop when the White House chief strategist called out of the blue on Tuesday. He did so to praise the views of its co-founder, Robert Kuttner, on China, but the conversation certainly did not end there. Bannon ended up dishing on China and North Korea policy, his moves against various other administration members, his supposed disdain for “ethno-nationalists” like the ones that showed up Charlottesville and other subjects. The foreign policy revelations were embarrasing public admissions, and, like Scaramucci before him, Bannon claimed he hadn’t know the conversation was on the record. Either way, it’s worth a read. • Speaking of Trump and Twitter, my colleague Philip Bump has come up with a genius new idea: He created a Twitter account that retweets everyone Trump himself follows, letting you see exactly what’s flashing across the president’s phone. It’s a fascinating window into the information that Trump recieves and seemingly uses to form much of his own thoughts — and certainly his social media presence. The president only follows 45 accounts (no word if that’s a purposeful nod to his own place in history), but Bump says there’s one clear thread among all of them: They tweet extensively about Trump himself: “The Trump name is mentioned 389 times in August tweets from these users. His Twitter handle is mentioned 230 times. Fox News’s Twitter handle is mentioned 184 times. The word “president” comes up 164 times and the news of the month, Charlottesville, 120 times.” If you’re on Twitter, you can follow the account yourself here. |
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A woman cries after a vehicular attack on Las Ramblas in Barcelona on Aug. 17. (Pau Barrena/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) This again As terrorists struck across Europe over the past year, Spain was spared from large-scale tragedy. No one had attacked there since the 2004 bombings of the Madrid rail system that killed 192 people, but authorities had long braced for another hit. It came on Thursday evening. A driver swerved a van onto a pedestrian area in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, breaking the peace of a warm summer afternoon in a packed, touristy area of the city at the peak of vacation season. The assault killed 13 people at the time of writing — authorities say the death toll could rise further still — and injured over 100 more. A senior Catalan police official, Josep Lluis Trapero, told reporters they had arrested two people in connection with the attack — a Moroccan national and a Spanish citizen from the North African enclave of Melilla — but that the driver was still believed to be at large. Several hours after the incident, the Islamic State claimed responsibility. The attack, which took place over a few terror-filled minutes just before 6:00 p.m. local time, set off a wave of panic and confusion as authorities sought to track down the perpetrator and fearful civilians hid for hours in barricaded shops, restaurants and churches. Witnesses described chaos as the white delivery van suddenly swung off a street onto the wide pedestrian mall that draws strolling tourists and residents to its bars, cafes and shops. As people started to run away, the driver swerved the vehicle from left to right, in an apparent bid to inflict maximum damage. When the van came to a halt, its front was smashed and crumpled inward from the impact of the people it hit. People were sprawled on the sidewalk, some not moving. Hats, handbags and other items were strewn nearby. Some people ran screaming from the scene. “There was a really loud kind of crashing noise. I didn’t stop to look back,” said witness Ethan Spieby to the BBC. Hours after the attack, he said he was holed up in a church with about 80 tourists and locals. Early Friday, police said they thwarted what they thought was an attempt at a second, connected attack, in the Catalan town of Cambrils, 60 miles southwest of Barcelona, by fatally shooting four suspects, and police were checking the bodies for what they believed were explosive belts. A fifth suspect later died of his injuries. Catalan authorities said they would stand firm in the face of terrorism. “Catalonia will always prevail in the face of terrorism,” said Carles Puigdemont, the president of the Catalan regional government. “We will always stand for democracy and freedom. We will always be united.”— William Booth, Michael Birnbaum and William Branigin
Supporters of President Uhuru Kenyatta cheer in Nairobi after he was declared the winner of Kenya’s presidential election on Aug. 11. (Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency) The big question Ahead of Kenya’s elections last week, Nairobi was transformed into a relative ghost town. The epic traffic jams vanished. Businesses closed. Those who could afford bus or plane tickets fled to more peaceful cities, or left Kenya entirely. Nairobians feared the result, whatever it was, could spark violence of the kind seen after the 2007 election, when hundreds were killed in post-election clashes. So far, there have been protests and a number of deaths — but a major upheaval hasn’t come to pass. So we asked Post Africa bureau chief Kevin Sieff: Does it look like Kenya has avoided widespread violence? “It’s been nine days since the election. Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta has won, and his longtime opponent Raila Odinga is contesting the results in court. More than 20 people were killed in post-election clashes with the police. But the most extreme fears of Kenyans never materialized. “So has Kenya’s democracy matured enough that even a disputed election doesn’t result in countrywide ethnic violence? “More likely, Kenya avoided a more dramatic descent for two reasons. First, Kenyatta’s control of the security forces is absolute, and police had prepared for months to quell post-election demonstrations.Second, Odinga’s supporters — and Kenya’s opposition more broadly — have grown accustomed to losing national elections. “To much of the opposition, each loss has cast more doubt on the country’s democratic process — and underscored the futility of fighting against the existing political establishment, led by Kenyatta’s Kikuyu tribe. The avenues to power for Odinga’s tribe, the Luo, are increasingly difficult to identify. “The lack of more deadly violence should not be read as a testament to Kenyan democracy. The tribal tensions that lie just beneath the surface of the country’s politics are as alive as ever. Odinga was unable or unwilling to mobilize a violent response to his loss, but roughly half of Kenyans still feel spurned by the central government over tribal loyalties. That will not only make it difficult for Kenyatta to improve public faith in his government; it also deepens a rift that runs through East Africa’s most important nation, a vibrant democracy that could hardly be less inclusive.” |
Steve Bannon’s gobsmacking interview did contain at least one bit of truth, according to The Post: There’s no way to stop North Korea’s nuclear program now. But what about the future? Project Syndicate takes a look at what it would take to make the Koreas one nation again. Speaking of unifications, the Independent argues that it’s time to bring Ireland back together to mitigate the effect of Brexit. And, in the New York Times, an outspoken and influential Trump backer says farewell to that allegiance.
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It doesn’t seem like there is a scandal that can shake the faith of President Trump’s base, a large portion of which resides in rural America. Mother Jones reports how that faith is deeply alienating to the minorities living in those communities. Meanwhile, Eater explains how the craft brewery boom leaves out the contributions of people of color, while NPR shows where Muslim Americans are going to deal with the fear of rising animosity: summer camp.
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Five days after white supremacist groups marched through the University of Virginia with torches,
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This bird really loves precussion. |
