SPOTLIGHT: WORLD, MEET MR. TRUMP (AGAIN)
Every four years, people around the world get a glance at those odd political spectacles, typically hosted in some mid-sized American city they’ll never visit. The U.S. national party conventions tend to get slightly bemused coverage abroad: candidates’ family values on full display, gray-haired delegates dancing to Dixie bands and far too many balloons for something as serious as choosing what’s still sometimes called the leader du monde libre.
This week, the circus became frighteningly real for that free world. The Republican Party officially nominated Donald Trump yesterday as its presidential candidate. The nominee’s children painted a picture of their billionaire father as a champion for the working man, and Trump himself offered a rather tame (and scripted!) few words by video conference. But amid all the staging and self-congratulation, we should not forget that in the past 12 months, Trump has called for a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the U.S., described Mexicans as “rapists” and called Belgium a city. And more.
But now a new phase has begun in what has been an ever eventful American campaign season amid an ever troubling world. Will Trump, who makes his acceptance speech tomorrow night, try to reassure undecided voters with a more statesman-like approach? Or will he double down on the fear-mongering and vitriol in attacking his Democratic party opponent Hillary Clinton? A world that does indeed still look to America for leadership — and entertainment — will certainly be watching.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR TODAY
- $130 billion mega merger between chemical giants Dow and DuPont.
- New UK PM Theresa May to face Parliament for first time. May will then head to Berlin to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
- Day 3 of Republican Convention. Scheduled speakers include Ted Cruz and Trump’s vice-presidential running mate Mike Pence.
BRAZILIAN GROUP BACKS ISIS BEFORE RIO OLYMPICS
An extremist Brazilian group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group, local newspaper O Globo reported, citing SITE Intelligence Group that monitors the Internet for terrorist activities. “If the French police failed to stop the attacks in France, the training given to the Brazilian police will not be of any use,” the extremist group — which apparently calls itself Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil — wrote on the Telegram messaging app, the paper noted. The declaration comes ahead of the Aug. 5 opening of the Rio Olympics.
TURKEY TARGETS MORE THAN 50,000 IN PURGE
Turkish leaders vowed to root out the allies of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom they hold responsible for a failed coup in the country last weekend. Authorities suspended or detained 50,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers since the attempted military takeover, widening a purge that now includes schools, universities and the intelligence agency.
— ON THIS DAY
Man set foot on the Moon for the first time 47 years ago today. That, and more, in your 57-second shot of History!
PRETTY WOMAN DIRECTOR DIES
Director, producer and writer Garry Marshall, known for movies such as Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries died yesterday from complications of pneumonia after a stroke. He was 81. He was also behind such hit television sitcoms as The Odd Couple and Happy Days.
— WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
France is not only a target for ISIS. The country must also admit that terrorism profits from its internal fractures, Richard Werly writes for Le Temps, in the wake of the Nice attack: “The brutal truth is that 230 people have been killed by terrorists since January 2015. And that shows an increasingly disturbing reality, after six months of living in a state of emergency: If France is indeed a priority target for ISIS, because of its military commitments in Africa and the Middle East, it is also a victim of the fractures and blindness within its own society. The first fracture is the abandonment of too many neighborhoods where Muslim youth are prey to Islamist recruiters. … The second fracture is around security and politics. Like it or not, Marine Le Pen is right in saying that in other countries, the Interior Minister would have offered his resignation after such a string of tragedies.”
Read the full article, France’s Twin Threat From Within: Angry Youth, Cynical Politics.
ROGER AILES NEGOTIATING FOX NEWS EXIT
Roger Ailes, 76, the man who built Fox News from scratch 20 years ago into the leading cable news network for conservative politics, is negotiating his exit from the company as chairman, The New York Times reported. The move follows sexual assault lawsuit against Ailes by Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson.
EXTRA!
There are still many unanswered questions two days after a teenager claiming to belong to ISIS attacked passengers on a commuter train with an axe in southern Germany, seriously injuring at least four. Check German daily Die Tageszeitung‘s enigmatic front page today, here on Le Blog.
VERBATIM
“Today we received information that some users of the Pokémon Go app in Bosnia were going to places which are a risk for (unexploded) mines, in search of a Pokémon,” the charity Posavina bez mina said on its Facebook page, referring to the wildly successful augmented reality game. “Citizens are urged not to do so, to respect demarcation signs of dangerous minefields and not to go into unknown areas.” Mines were planted during the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995.
MY GRAND-PERE’S WORLD
A Mormon State — Salt Lake City, 1994
MORE STORIES, EXCLUSIVELY IN ENGLISH BY WORLDCRUNCH
- Iranian Daily: Erdogan Has Launched “Full-Blown Coup” Of His Own — Jomhouri-e Eslami
- Oldest Tunnel Through Alps Reopens, No Cars Allowed — La Stampa
- Turkey’s Failed Coup And The Rise Of A “Lynching Culture” — Hürriyet
WORLD’S SADDEST POLAR BEAR
Nearly 300,000 people in China have signed a petition to close an aquarium that houses the world’s saddest polar bear named Pizza. Despite the bear’s mournful expression, the deputy manager of the theme park where the doleful creature is on display, says “the polar bear in the aquarium is very happy.”
