Big Picture: JFK miniseries: right-wing character assassination?Read Article   

  Europe's race to the right The results of the European elections look certain to cement the centre right and far right's sway over politics in Europe Comments (33)



Tony Bunyan guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 16.00 BST Article history
EU institutions and governments regularly repeat the mantra that we all "share common values", as if the project has unchanging standards and principles, but do we?At the time of the 1999 European elections, when there were 15 EU member states, there were 12 social democratic governments and three on the centre right. Now there are 27 member states, with 20 governments on the centre right or far right and just seven on the so-called centre left (and that is including the UK government).This has a direct effect on what happens in the most powerful body on EU decision-making, the Council of the European Union. When national interior ministries send officials, police and immigration officers and ministers to the plethora of justice and home affairs working parties (pdf), the article 36 committee, the strategic committee on immigration, frontiers and asylum and numerous sub-groups, the options they will support reflect national policies.After 9/11, we have been told time and time again that terrorism could destroy our common values and democracies. But when Statewatch examined the proposed measures after the dreadful bombings in Madrid in March 2004, it produced a scoreboard (pdf) showing that 27 of the 57 measures put forward had little or nothing to…

 Save California's universitiesThe promise of affordable higher education is dying. The University of California's students and faculty demand answersComments (80) Judith Butler guardian.co.ukArticle historyUniversity of California Berkeley students and faculty protest against fee increases and budget cuts. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty It may seem that the thousands of people who converged on the University of California Berkeley's famous Sproul Plaza, home of the free speech movement, on 24 September were simply upset about money. Where has all the money gone? Who has taken it away?And perhaps there is no one to blame.The University of California finds itself with a shortfall of $1.15bn for the next two years, the result of an $813m cut in state funding and another $225m increase in costs for student enrolment. Everyone knows that the state government is dysfunctional, that public funding decreased by 40% between 1990 and 2005 and that this year alone brought another 20% reduction, accelerating the abandonment of the premiere public university by a California legislature fully paralysed by minority rule (a two-thirds majority is required for sealing any budgetary deal) and Proposition 13 (the 1978 ban on increasing property taxes that strangleholds any attempt to increase revenues for public services).It would seem like UC faces the same situation as other public services and institutions: layoffs, cutbacks, decreased services and the prospect of a seriously compromised education for undergraduates and graduates alike. So what's the problem?Mid-summer, when no one was around, UC president Mark Yudof invoked "emergency powers" to implement furloughs on staff and faculty, and sent word to campuses that drastic cuts had to be made in operating expenses. Claiming that the UC system has no…

 Barack Obama vows to combat al-Qaeda recruitment By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 08 Jan 2010President Barack Obama has vowed to combat al-Qaeda's recruitment of young lone recruits for terrorist missions, following the failed Christmas Day plane attack Photo: REUTERS  A senior aide said the effort would build on close co-operation with Britain on "counter-radicalisation", which had been under discussion before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who had studied at University College London, attempted to blow up a jet bound for Detroit. The 23-year-old was due to make his first appearance in court on Friday to face six charges, including one of the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction that carries a life sentence. Legal experts said that with so much evidence against Abdulmutallab, his lawyers are likely to submit a plea deal. "This is not a case of mistaken identity or a whodunnit. For the defence, it's damage control," said Joseph Niskar, a leading defence lawyer in Detroit. The FBI has said Abdulmutallab hid PETN explosives in his underwear which failed to ignite properly. Since the botched attack, security at airports in the US and around the world has tightened as the Obama administration acknowledged that intelligence officers had the information to have prevented the suspect from flying but failed to "connect the dots". Among several new measures, Mr Obama said he had asked intelligence agencies to focus al-Qaeda's effort to recruit individuals without known terrorist affiliations. "That's why I've directed my national security team to develop a strategy that addresses the unique challenges posed by lone recruits," he said at the White House on Thursday evening. Janet Napolitano, Secretary for Homeland Security, said the Americans had already been working with Britain on counter-radicalisation. "How do we identify someone before they become radicalised…