Discrimination on the basis of religion is specifically prohibited under European law—which is one of the reasons people fleeing sectarian conflicts in places like Syria seek asylum there in the first place.
Quartz: These European countries are willing to accept some migrants—but only if they’re Christian, August 30, 2015
Which Germany will prevail? The Germany of racist chants from the roadside? The Germany of rioters and drunken rock-throwers? "Dark Germany," as President Joachim Gauck calls it? Or will it be the new, bright Germany, represented by the young policeman with his roots in Afghanistan? Will Western Europe ultimately prefer to allow the refugees to die in trucks rather than to open the door to the desperate? Or will Germany rejoice in helping and in allowing the refugees to take part in the unbelievable prosperity that the republic has enjoyed in recent decades?
Spiegel Online: Dark Germany, Bright Germany: Which Side Will Prevail Under Strain of Refugees?August 31, 2015
10 years after Katrina: How New Orleans's Black Middle Class was affected by the disaster, and a detailed portrait of the city now.
The Guardian on how the Chinese slow-down is affecting emerging markets, and why it is still freaking everyone out, even though it was expected.
Does advocating for divestment work? "Divestment is not a strategy in itself, but a useful tactic for driving home the message of the broader campaign: In the case of climate change, the message is how the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels, and relatively fast, if it hopes to combat global warming."
Vox on the historical reason of why American public transport is a disaster: it's not just suburban sprawl.
Al Jazeera on the ties between Hollywood and the Pentagon.
Suid coined the phrase “mutual exploitation” when he first stumbled onto the U.S. military-Hollywood connection. “I was teaching the history of the Vietnam War, and I couldn’t explain how we got into Vietnam. I could give the facts, the dates, but I couldn’t explain why,” he recalled. “And when I was getting my film degrees it suddenly occurred to me that people in the U.S. had never seen the U.S. lose a war, and when [President] Johnson said we can go into Vietnam and win, they believed him because they’d seen 50 years of war movies that were positive.”
Al Jazeera: Hollywood and the Pentagon: A relationship of mutual exploitation, July 29, 2015The Best Parts of the new Joan Didion biography.
The End of the Internet Dream.
