“Part of Javier Milei’s victory could be attributed to his ability to capitalize on the population’s widespread dissatisfaction with the ruling coalition. The deep economic deterioration that Argentina has experienced in the last four years (including rising inflation and poverty rates), together with a certain aspect of general fatigue with the political establishment, particularly with Kirchnerism, allowed for the inexperienced Milei to quickly penetrate and take advantage of more traditional opposition proposals, mainly those of the Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) coalition.While Milei’s strong anti-establishment narrative was key to his meteoric rise to the presidency, leading up to the runoff, the libertarian leader toned down the intensity of his speech following the general election results, opting instead for a more conciliatory approach. This was reflected in his reconciliation with the JxC’s presidential candidate, Patricia Bullrich. Her support, along with that of former President Mauricio Macri, played a key role in the final sprint of the campaign, mobilizing resources and securing many JxC votes for Milei, which were key to yesterday’s victory. Meanwhile, Sergio Massa was unable to overcome the current unfavorable economic context. His campaign strategy, focused on presenting himself as a moderate candidate while attempting to portray the uncertainty surrounding a possible Milei presidency, did not pay off and culminated in a more resounding defeat than what was widely expected.” (Americas Quarterly)
“With presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) scheduled for December, concerns about pre-election human rights violations are already being raised in Washington. Given the alleged role the United States played in anointing the election victor in 2019, many expect the U.S. to be influential again, even if its original decision to recognize Félix Tshisekedi tipped the scales of that contested election. Many are hoping U.S. influence will result in an election period more respectful of human rights. In the five years since Tshisekedi was declared the winner, much-anticipated human rights reforms have not materialized. Still, the U.S. has an opportunity, and obligation, to center human rights in its relationship with the DRC, especially amid increasing human rights violations in the pre-election period. Failure to do so would expose the hard reality that the Biden administration continues to fail at following through on its human rights agenda. Since Tshisekedi assumed the presidency, the U.S.’s working relationship with the DRC has warmed. Almost immediately upon taking office, President Tshisekedi visited Washington and quickly joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. He further solidified his position as a strong ally by voting with the U.S. in the U.N. General Assembly. In return, the U.S. increased its bilateral aid to the DRC, resumed military cooperation, and explored new opportunities for U.S. investment, including in the mining sector. Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and acting Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland have proffered coveted visits to Tshisekedi, demonstrating a strong and privileged relationship. The upcoming elections present an urgent opportunity for the U.S. to demonstrate a commitment to human rights by pushing their protection in the pre-election period and setting policy priorities that will benefit people living in the DRC regardless of the election outcome. The Congolese people should have a government committed to protecting their rights, after years of violence, abuses, impunity, and plunder of resources at the expense of human rights protections.” (Kate Hixon and Jean-Mobert Senga/Responsible Statecraft)
“Children in Saudi Arabia are committed to learning Chinese. The Ministry of Education has instructed all public and private secondary schools to teach Mandarin for at least two lessons per week. Teaching may soon be expanded to encompass universities and primary schools. The language classes have been mandated by Saudi Arabia’s powerful de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pursuing a vision to build a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ with China. In August 2023, Saudi Arabia was invited to join the informal BRICS pact, which includes China, Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa. The Crown Prince’s vision for Saudi Arabia encompasses all parts of the economy but places a special emphasis on diversifying the economy away from oil. The Chinese claim they are ideally placed to help realize this goal, emphasizing opportunities in infrastructure, and the transition to green energy. In the first half of 2022, Saudi Arabia received $5.5 billion in investment and contracts through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, more than any other country, according to the Economist … China directly competes for influence in the Middle East with the United States. While the Trump and Biden administrations have been enthusiastically pro-Israel, China has been associated with the Palestinian cause. However, according to Galia Lavi, researcher and deputy director of the Israel-China Policy Centre in Tel Aviv, there are limits to Beijing’s commitment. ‘China has put itself in a difficult spot,’ Lavi said. ‘Over the years, it has offered the Palestinians little genuine assistance. China has no investments in the Palestinian Authority areas, trade is very low, and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians falls considerably behind aid from other countries.’” (Duncan Bartlett/The Diplomat)
“Joseph Boakai, the veteran politician who narrowly won Liberia’s presidential election, is set to focus on kickstarting an economy in the doldrums. It’s one of many challenges he will face when he takes office in the West African country. The economy grew 4.8% last year but double digit food inflation is taking its toll on Liberians. More than half of the country’s 5 million people are estimated to be poor, according to the World Bank. Three in four Liberians often did not have enough money for food in the past year, a poll by Gallup found. Most Liberians surveyed reported feeling that their standard of living is falling. Boakai will prioritize ‘resuscitating’ Liberia’s economy, his spokesman Amara Konneh told Semafor Africa. The president-elect’s strategy will be to encourage the private sector to ‘do business and also pay their taxes which will create the fiscal space to deliver basic services in health, water, and sanitation,’ said Konneh.” (Alexis Akwagyiram/semafor)
“JFK was president at a time when Washington, DC, and specifically, the tony enclave of Georgetown, was a world of secrets, sex and paranoia. The nuclear age was still young, the Soviets and Americans were engaged in a terrifying race to build more horrifying weapons of mass destruction. And the men of the CIA, almost all blue-bloods who had served in World War II, were hard smoking, martini-sipping basket cases of PTSD. The cold warriors, possessed of atomic-era ‘ballsiness’ and wearing their machismo like World War II officers’ epaulets, were consumed with power. They styled themselves after James Bond or the Rat Pack, men adorned with numbers of women. And they lived in a Washington unknown to us today: where spies, journalists and government officials drank and dined together and kept each other’s secrets.” (Nina Burleigh/American Political Freakshow)
“‘Nikki Haley is certainly locking up a lot of the Never Trumpers,’ said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican operative who has worked on several presidential campaigns and is unaffiliated this cycle. ‘She also has real room to grow.’ Donors getting ready to host Haley in New York on Dec. 4 include two people close to Paul Singer, the hedge fund billionaire who has been critical of Trump. Greg Wendt, a former Scott supporter who has donated to moderate, anti-Trump Republicans such as John Kasich and John McCain, is now expressing interest in Haley, according to a New York City-based Republican fundraiser granted anonymity to speak freely about private conversations. And Doug Gross, a Republican operative who was the Iowa GOP nominee for governor in 2002, told POLITICO he plans to caucus for Haley after surveying the field for months in search of an alternative to Trump. ‘Never Trumpers and ‘Anybody but Trumpers’ are really consolidating around her from a financial standpoint,’ said Gross, who was chief of staff to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. Haley is benefiting from this recent surge of support. She is now polling ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire, the first primary state, and in her home state of South Carolina. One recent survey showed her running neck and neck with DeSantis in Iowa.” (Sally Goldenberg, Natalie Ellison and Meredith McGraw/Politico)
“‘Almost every time I’ve done something difficult, I’ve had those moments. Rock climbing or kayaking a very difficult stretch of white water, you get to a point where you say, What on earth did I get myself into? Get me out of here,’ he said. ‘I haven’t had one moment. I’m pretty much free of anxieties. I feel peaceful.’ Good — for him. (Robert) Kennedy’s chill disposition is now the rest of the political world’s simmering panic attack. Since announcing in October that he would end his campaign for the Democratic nomination to officially become a problem for both major parties as an independent, fear — and denial — is what Kennedy seems to inspire among the staid Washington Establishment supporting the incumbent president and the gangland anti-Establishment Establishment supporting the former president. Officials from both party apparatuses are certainly looking at metrics that confirm Kennedy is turning the presidential election upside down. At this point, all that’s clear is that no one has any idea what will happen between now and November 2024 or how to respond to the threat Kennedy poses to the Biden-Trump binary. As it is, Kennedy is in some cases polling not far behind either likely major-party nominee and in all cases polling well enough that, were the election held today, his presence in the race would define what the next chapter of American history looks like. As he put it, ‘My intention is to spoil it for both of them.’” (Olivia Nuzzi/NYMag)
“Writing was a compulsion for investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Known for her candid and witty prose, she earned a loyal following in Malta, a small archipelago nation fifty miles south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. Daphne’s work also made her no small number of enemies. Paul Caruana Galizia, her son, recalls witnessing jeering graffiti scrawled on the side of the road in retaliation for his mother’s writing. His family’s house was set on fire. Their dog was killed. Publicly, Daphne refused to be affected, writing with ever more force and conviction. Privately, her family saw the toll that the constant intimidation took on her physical and mental health. In 2017, Daphne was investigating an elaborate kickback scheme involving private business and the government when two assassins planted a bomb underneath her gray Peugeot. It exploded as she drove to the bank. She was fifty-three years old. Daphne’s death was seismic for Malta, socially and politically. Protesters took to the streets, demanding that those responsible for the murder face justice; eventually, the prime minister was forced to resign.” (CJR/Yona TR Golding)
“DO AUTHORS STILL ASPIRE to writing the Great American Novel? Certainly critics still enjoy debating which books might merit that heavy mantle. In the last year Michael Gorra (in The Daily Beast), Maria Konnikova (in Slate), Julia Ingalls (in Salon), and other arbiters of literary taste have weighed in on the subject. And if no agreement is in sight on which book deserves the title, fans of American fiction at least have some worthy candidates. Many of the most likely aspirants to the throne have a quirk or flaw that threatens to disqualify them from consideration. Even as Michael Gorra makes a case for Henry James’s A Portrait of a Lady as the Great American Novel, he needs to point out that the book is set in Europe. I agree that James may be the best American novelist, although I prefer his later works The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and (my favorite American novel) The Ambassadors — but these also take place mostly in the Old World. My backup choice is Moby-Dick, but it too transpires beyond US national limits. The same geographical concern plagues Hemingway’s candidacy. On the other hand, The Great Gatsby is brilliant and entirely based on native soil, but clocking in at under 50,000 words it’s far too short for such a lofty title as Great American Novel. What’s left? Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece … well, at least until Twain fumbled the ending. Faulkner’s too dark, Pynchon’s too hard. On and on the faultfinding goes. Then we come to John Dos Passos’s entry in the race, a series of three novels originally published separately — The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936) — but eventually combined into a single imposing 1,200 page edition entitled U.S.A. Seventy-five years ago …” (Ted Gioia/LARB)
“Actors Susan Sarandon and Melissa Barrera are both facing professional repercussions for their separate remarks regarding the Israel-Hamas war. Sarandon, an Academy Award–winning performer who has worked in Hollywood for more than five decades, was dropped by United Talent Agency over comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally last week, a rep for the agency confirmed to Deadline on Tuesday. ‘There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence,’ Sarandon can be seen saying at the New York City demonstration in a video published by the New York Post. These comments were criticized on social media, including by Aviva Klompas, a former speechwriter for Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, who said on X (formerly Twitter) that she had understood Sarandon’s statement to mean that Jews ‘have it coming—that we don’t deserve to live free from harassment and assault.’ Sarandon said at the rally that condemning Israel should not be characterized as antisemitic. ‘There’s a terrible thing that’s happened where antisemitism has been confused with speaking up against Israel,’ she said, as reported by The New York Times. ‘I am against antisemitism. I am against Islamophobia.’ Vanity Fair has reached out to a representative for Sarandon for comment.” (Savannah Walsh/VF)
“If it seems like the music industry is facing a moment of reckoning — this month lawsuits were filed against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, music mogul L.A. Reid and ex-Grammys CEO Neil Portnow — it might be, but it’s likely that these cases are making headlines all at once because a New York law that suspends time constraints on claims involving alleged sex offenses is about to expire. All three of those high-profile cases were filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which opened a one-year lookback period during which civil claims that would have otherwise been barred by the statute of limitations could be filed. The window opened on Nov. 24, 2022 — E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against former president Donald Trump was amended almost immediately to include a sexual abuse claim — and it closes at midnight on Thursday. Gibson Dunn litigator Brian Ascher previously told The Hollywood Reporter that courts ‘tend to get a bunch right away and then a lot right at the end of the period.’ That seems to be the case in New York, and mirrors what happened in late 2022 in California, as a crush of cases were filed before the end of a three-year window that allowed child sexual assault survivors to sue their abusers. According to New York state courts’ data, there have been about 2,700 cases filed under the ASA so far.” (THR)
“It's said that a dog is a man's best friend, but the wild dingo is much maligned in Australia. This may not always have been the case though, with new research led by experts at The Australian National University and The University of Western Australia suggesting that dingoes were buried—and even domesticated—by First Nations people prior to European colonization. The researchers examined remains at the Curracurrang archaeological site, south of Sydney, where radiocarbon dating of dingo bones revealed the animals were buried alongside humans as far back as 2,000 years ago. The care taken to bury the animals suggests a closer relationship between humans and dingoes than many previously realized, according to lead researcher Dr. Loukas Koungoulos. ‘Not all camp dingoes were given burial rites, but in all areas in which the burials are recorded, the process and methods of disposal are identical or almost identical to those associated with human rites in the same area,’ Dr. Koungoulos said. ‘This reflects the close bond between people and dingoes and their almost-human status.’” (Phys.org)
“It is definitely amusing to see Larry Summers flail away at recalibrating his opinions in real time. For years, in full public view, Summers insisted that high public spending was “the least responsible economic policy in 40 years,” and that the only way to keep the economy safe from crushing inflation was to increase unemployment significantly. With last week’s report on the Consumer Price Index, we have essentially returned to Federal Reserve benchmarks on inflation on a trend basis. And this was done without a meaningful rise in unemployment; while the headline rate has skipped up half a percentage point from 3.4 to 3.9 percent, most of that is due to higher labor force participation, and it’s certainly nowhere near what Summers claimed was vital. As a result, Summers has attempted to erase history. He now says that ‘transitory factors’ like supply bottlenecks were pushing up inflation, and now that they have eased, inflation is coming down. I appreciate Summers’s obvious study of the Prospect’s special issue on supply chains, but this is manifestly not what he was saying as recently as a few months ago. His entire public commentary was set up in opposition to anyone who would raise the possibility of ‘transitory factors’ and supply chain crunches as the source of inflation. If we could merely focus on Summers’s desperate, gaslighting attempt to get on the right side of the data, we could have a good laugh and move on. But unfortunately, we can’t.” (David Dayen/TAP)