02 Jan
A Foreign Perspective, News and Analyses
English Online International Newspapers
Nearly all of these are English-edition daily newspapers. These sites have interesting editorials and essays, and many have links to other good news sources. We try to limit this list to those sites which are regularly updated, reliable, with a high percentage of “up” time.
Recommended:
Irish Examiner>>
France 24>>
Spiegel>>
The Age>>
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Bushfire-ravaged communities return to ruins – in pictures
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Homes turned to rubble, dead livestock and burnt-out primary schools confront locals returning home after massive blazes swept through parts of New South Wales and Victoria
Christmas decorations line a property fence in Cobargo, southern New South Wales.
Photograph: Sean Davey/AAP
A burnt-out house at Deptford Road in Clifton Creek in Victoria.
Photograph: Joe Armao/Pool/The Age News
A warm welcome? The wildlife visitors warning of climate disaster
A cattle egret in Stiffkey flood meadows, Norfolk. Photograph: Christopher Cook/Alamy
Mediterranean egrets balancing on the backs of cows, multicoloured moths the size of a human hand, and impossibly exotic bee-eaters hawking for insects under English skies. All are here as a direct consequence of the climate crisis, which has allowed continental European species to extend their ranges northwards, and then make the leap across the Channel to gain a foothold in southern Britain.
Whenever I take a walk along the disused railway line across the Avalon marshes, near my Somerset home, I can’t help noticing these new arrivals. Tall and elegant, great white egrets first arrived here from France just a few years ago; now I encounter them every time I visit. Down the road, at the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Catcott Lows, flocks of cattle egrets – the same species we see in wildlife films from Africa – gather to feed, perched appropriately on the backs of cattle. Elsewhere on the marshes, secretive night herons and little bitterns have also bred in recent years.
A great egret takes off from the Greylake RSPB reserve on the Somerset Levels. Photograph: Mike Read/Alamy
When I moved to Somerset with my young family just over a dozen years ago, all these species were so rare they would have attracted a crowd of eager twitchers. Today, everyone – including my own teenagers – takes them for granted.
Going back to my own childhood, the now ubiquitous little egret – that Persil-white apparition featuring at a wetland near you – was incredibly scarce. When, at the age of 10, I stumbled across one on Brownsea Island in Dorset, it was the highlight of my birding life for many years afterwards.
And it’s not just birds. When it comes to unexpected new arrivals, butterfly and moth enthusiasts have enjoyed a bumper year. First came the news in August that an invasion of long-tailed blue butterflies was occurring all the way along the south coast, from Cornwall to Kent. This unusual looking butterfly – which really does have a tiny “tail” protruding from the back of each wing – was turning up in the most unexpected places: Sussex butterfly expert Neil Hulme even found one laying eggs on pea plants in a pub garden. Thanks to Hulme’s guidance, even I managed to catch up with them, in the equally unlikely setting of a patch of waste ground next to Brighton racecourse.
Meanwhile, that group of nocturnal activists known as “moth trappers”, of which I am one, have been attracting some real beauties to their light traps. The greatest prize this summer has been the wonderfully named Clifden nonpareil – literally meaning “beyond compare”.
One of our largest and most spectacular moths, with a 12cm wingspan and a bright blue flash on its underwings, it was once considered extinct in Britain. Yet this summer, after an absence of many years, the Clifden nonpareil has been turning up in moth traps all over southern England and Wales.
Its day-flying counterpart, the hummingbird hawkmoth, has also had a good year, as has one of our most mysterious and sought-after species, the death’s-head hawkmoth.
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World Politics
United States
In obsessively pursuing white, middle-class midwestern voters, Democratic leaders are setting their party up for disaster
• Julián Castro drops out of 2020 race, plus the rest of the day in US politics – live
Democrats are not going to win over enough ‘moderate Republicans’ to defeat Trump. Nor will suburban white mothers do the trick. The only way to win in 2020 is by mobilizing new voters and former non-voters. Photograph: Joshua Lott/Getty Images
Let’s start the new year with a reality check. Remember that dad, uncle or neighbor, who told you over Christmas how much he dislikes Trump’s rude language and that he might vote for the Democrats, if only they nominate a “moderate” candidate and not a “socialist”?
Well, he is going to vote for Trump.
This election year will be (again) filled with columns and op-eds from #NeverTrump Republicans giving (unsolicited) advice to the Democratic party. They will argue that the Democratic party can win the presidential elections, but only if they nominate a “moderate” Democrat, who can win over the many Republicans they know that are appalled by Trump. But you can forget about these Max Boots, Jennifer Rubins, and (particularly) Bret Stephenses. These pet conservatives of the liberal media represent no relevant electoral base.
You can also ignore the reports from “non-partisan” thinktanks – like the Niskanen Center – which show that many Republicans are much more “centrist” than Trump and his Republican party. Polarization in the US is not about party policy but about party identification. In particular it is about negative party identification – and most of these “centrist” Republicans despise or distrust the Democratic party, irrespective of whether it is led by Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.
Moreover, as long as the US economy is doing well – however shallow the foundations of that prosperity – these people are going to go with Trump, who has provided them with lower taxes and a booming stock market.
By focusing so much resource and strategy on pursuing the “Midwestern voter” (ie, centrist, middle-class whites), Democratic leaders are setting their party up for potentially disastrous failure. Trump is no longer the risky outsider he was in 2016. He is a known quantity; he may not be especially liked, but for many voters he has delivered where it matters: the pocketbook.
Democrats are not going to win over enough “moderate Republicans” to defeat Trump. Nor will suburban white mothers do the trick. The only way to win in 2020 is by mobilizing (potential) new voters and (recent) non-voters. Fortunately, there are more than enough of them. Almost half of Americans do not vote.
However, new voters and non-voters are disproportionately non-white and non-suburban. Many of them are not even registered, or – thanks to Republican purges of voting rolls – no longer registered. This is particularly relevant to African Americans, who – contrary to popular perception – actually have rather high voter turnout, higher than other minorities, but are disproportionately affected by voter suppression (including incarceration).
Despite the efforts of some organizations, most notably Stacey Abrams’ new group Fair Fight, Democrats devote most of their time to reaching already registered voters, rather than registering new voters. Imagine how much the millions of dollars of Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer could have achieved had they spent that money on registering new voters rather than vanity campaigns.
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