Talking points
- In a first, water was discovered on a habitable planet
- Embarrassing documents and a Scottish court ruined BoJo's week
- Hong Kong's stock exchange offered to buy its opposite in London
- WeWork faced an enormous valuation cut ahead of its IPO
- India's Chandrayaan-2 became the second lunar crash in 2019
- Chinese scientists treated leukemia with gene-edited stem-cells
- Japan proposed dumping radioactive Fukushima water into the sea
- Weather displaced more people than war in the first half of 2019
- Grim figures were released in the wake of Dorian: 2,500 are missing
- The ECB delivered a huge stimulus package to shore up the Eurozone
Deep Dive
Halting talks between the United States of America and the Afghani Taliban have now broken down entirely. One can either ascribe blame for this to the militant group's bloody calculus, or to the unpredictable moods of the U.S. president. Either way, it does not bode well for the upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan.
The art of the peace deal
Up in Maryland high country lies Camp David – a mountainous retreat for America's senior-most leaders. Back in 1978 Jimmy Carter used its remote, tranquil surrounds to offset the heat between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to great effect. The resulting Camp David Accords signed between those two men helped stabilise a churning Middle East. Since then, numerous presidents have invited the leaders of fractious regimes to repose and ponder more peaceful futures in these wooded hills.
This week the world was surprised to learn that U.S. President Donald Trump had invited both his Afghani counterpart Ashraf Ghani, and the Taliban's negotiators, to the storied lodge for high-level talks about peace in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the President also announced (in the very same tweets ) that the Taliban had since been disinvited.
The framework remains, but the loss of face dealt to the Taliban will no doubt herald another ferocious exchange of hostilities . The Taliban, or at least its most belligerent elements, have been relentless in their attacks on Kabul since the start of the year. Last Thursday, one of those attacks in the Afghan capital killed a U.S. service member – prompting Trump to cancel the imminent Camp David summit. The Taliban bombings were characterised by some as a negotiating tactic, though there are other views as well. Some commentators contend that the Taliban, as a fluid, disparate and dynamic group, is dealing with its own internal disputes. It may be that the Taliban's leadership didn't want to appear soft, or that more aggressive elements within their ranks were trying to derail the talks.
So what exactly were the parties due to discuss? An in-principle agreement to what has been described as a peace deal, but was not in fact a peace deal. Rather, it was a framework for further negotiations through the establishment of guidelines, concessions and red-lines. War is fought by combatants, but peace is won by bureaucrats. And in this case the bureaucrats drew up a four-part framework that included the termination of any relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, negotiations between the Taliban and Kabul, a ceasefire, and the gradual withdrawal of American troops. Some of these are ambiguous, others are difficult to measure; but all are critical to finally ending a ruinous war . And now unfortunately they are a step further away from being realised.
The longest shadow
The September 11 terror attacks in America carry more semiotic weight in contemporary America than just about anything else. To invoke them is to touch the rawest nerve in the nation. 9/11 is the ne plus ultra of political symbols: an overwhelming loss, from which a sense of victimhood distilled into clarifying anger and unity. Many countries lean heavily on such moments (Australia's experience at Gallipoli comes to mind). They become objects of singular gravity around which all other politics must orbit.
And that is one reason why Trump's decision to host the Taliban just days out from the 9/11 anniversary sparked a visceral response from Americans. Despite the fact that the Taliban negotiators were trying to end a war in their own country – one which has killed an order of magnitude more people than the 9/11 attacks – it was seen as a grievous insult. It should also be noted, however, that at this point Trump has so thoroughly polarised America that many would be willing to oppose him, no matter what he did.
The forever war
If you live in America, this week you may have read some variation of the phrase, 'children born after 9/11 after now old enough to fight in the wars that 9/11 started'. It's a good line, but one that has lost its edge through overuse. Nonetheless, the statement is interesting because of the dead-eyed way in which it places American lives in the foreground. Hundreds of thousands of not-Americans have lost their lives in what used to be called America's "war on terror". It seems insensitive in the extreme to decry America's military interventions without even acknowledging the people who bore the trauma of them.
And that brings us to the idea of the 'forever war'. We don't mean to suggest that the conflict in Afghanistan will go on indefinitely. All conflicts end, even ones with repercussions that are felt decades or centuries later. But what we also find is that once a country swells to a certain size, and touches enough corners of the world, there will inevitably always be someone to fight. Every empire in history has learned that lesson.
In better news, this week U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton – a man whose driving impulse was to offer other people's blood at the sacrificial altar of American power – was fired. His departure made space for a counter-argument to the forever war: maybe, just maybe, although there will always be someone to fight, it doesn't mean one has to.
Worldlywise
The gig is up
California's state legislature has passed Assembly Bill 5 and sent it to the governor for his assent and signature. The length of the bill – 6,700 words – reflects the fierceness of the debate. In short, Assembly Bill 5 is a wholesale overhaul of California's workplace laws to reclassify contractors as employees. It offers new pay grades, protections, and rights, to some of the state's least-protected workers. At other moments in history this would likely be seen as an unimpeachable good. But it's 2019, and if this legislation passes it will drive a stake through the heart of the gig economy .
The simple fact is that ride-sharing disruptors like Uber and Lyft, their negative margins offset by venture investment, are entirely reliant on the categorisation of contractors. By classifying each of their drivers as such – rather than as employees – they've saved themselves veritable fortunes. But a contractor is a self-contained unit, working with limited legal protections, few recourses to leave, and no long-term security. It's becoming abundantly clear that losing these workplace rights is not always worth the flexibility that the gig economy affords.
After spending tens of millions lobbying against the ruling, and losing, Uber has announced that it rejects the bill. But, until it perfects self-driving car technology and fires all its drivers, the ride-sharing giant is stuck with humans, and all their frailties, aspirations and (newly won) protections.
Independence demanded, denied, and won
Like Vietnam and China before it, the Philippines is now racing to stop the spread of African swine fever. At least seven pig herds in villages near Manila have been killed off by the fast-working disease. Lab tests have confirmed as much, sending the government into crisis mode. A total of 7,000 pigs were killed immediately to halt the advance – we'll know in the next few weeks whether the disease rears up elsewhere. While highly communicable and extremely deadly to pigs – Vietnam has lost 4 million of them – the disease is harmless to humans. However, humans can carry it on their shoes and belongings, making containment virtually impossible.
Staying in the Philippines, we'll touch on some good news. The value that some news organisations place on shock, violence, upheaval and disaster can translate into a fairly alarming news diet for their readers. For instance, most of what you've heard about Filipino muslims on the island of Mindanao likely pertains to the disastrous year-long occupation and destruction of Marawi by Islamist fighters. In our own small way, we try to provide a less drastic view of the world's news (the Good News section being an obvious example). And in January of this year, the Muslim-majority region of Mindanao voted in a plebiscite for limited autonomy.
We're pleased to report that the region is tentatively growing into its new-found freedom and identity ; violence has subsided across Mindanao, and the government is working hard to form new institutions that represent the specific cultural and religious beliefs of their people.
The Best of Times
A life worth living
Hassan Ali Salem nearly drowned when crossing from Egypt to Italy in 2004. Fifteen years on, he has returned to the Mediterranean to work on the Ocean Viking , the largest charity rescue ship operating between the northern and southern shores of that sea. Today he is the one pulling drowning migrants from the waters. An icon.
Scientists built artificial leaves that turn sunlight into medicine
The Worst of Times
Hurricane Dorian
Hurricane Maria taught us to ignore early death tolls from hurricanes. Almost a year after that Category-5 monster, the Puerto Rican government revised its body count upwards from 64 to 2,975. We know that a similar number, 2,500, are currently missing in the Bahamas. This will be a very sombre few months.
The eleventh hour
Like many Tehran residents, Sahar Khodayari loved Esteghlal Football Club. However, since women are banned from attending men's sporting events in Iran, she was denied the most crucial aspect of being a fan. In March she tried to enter Azadi stadium disguised as a man – but she was found out and arrested. Facing a possible two-year sentence, Sahar self-immolated in front of the court last week. This week she passed away, a martyr to the simplest of causes: equality in the stands of a sporting arena.
Weekend Reading
Quote of the week
"The thing is, I don't want to die in my office. I want to die on the beach."
– This week Jack Ma stepped down from Alibaba in order to stay true to his death wish. His journey from an impoverished teacher earning $15 a month to a captain of industry with a net worth of $40b has been nothing short of meteoric. Enjoy the beach, Jack.
Headline of the week
'If aliens call, do not hold a referendum on what to do next, say Britons." – The Guardian
Special mention
We were left without a fraction of a doubt when discussing who deserved our special mention this week: the scholars of the World Civilisations Research Association. These deep thinkers espoused a radical new history of Western linguistics, by claiming that English is merely a dialect of Mandarin. They also called Shakespeare an "illiterate actor" for good measure.
Some choice long-reads
- Businessweek surveys the workers of Wisconsin and finds that the next recession is already here,
- The Economist tests how much ballast the European Union single market has left in the tank, and
- Rolling Stone remembers the the sinister majesty of Black Sabbath.
Tom Wharton
