| | | | Fareed: Another Shooting Tragedy Seems Inevitable. So Does the Response | | "That there would be another shooting in America that cut more young lives tragically short was inevitable. So too was the speed with which some lawmakers have tried to shift the conversation to mental illness," Fareed says, following Wednesday's school shooting in Florida.
"But as I wrote just after last year's horrific shooting in Las Vegas, piously calling for better mental-health care is, more often than not, largely about trying to divert attention from the biggest issue: guns."
From the column: "It's also breathtakingly cynical because the politicians who use this rhetoric are typically the ones who also aim to cut funding for mental-health treatment. Every conversation about gun deaths should begin by recognizing one blindingly clear fact about this problem — the United States is on its own planet. The gun-related death rate in the United States is 10 times that of other advanced industrial countries. Places such as Japan and South Korea have close to zero gun-related deaths in a year. The United States has around 30,000."
"This disparity is the central fact that needs to be studied, explained and addressed. When seen in this light, it becomes obvious why focusing on mental health is a dodge. The rate of mental illness in the United States is not anywhere close to 40 times the rate in Britain. But the rate of gun deaths is 40 times higher. America does have more than 14 times as many guns as Britain per capita, and far fewer restrictions on their ownership and use. That's the obvious correlation staring us in the face, as we insist on talking about every other possible issue." - And when Congress did move on mental health and gun control? It was to loosen rules, not tighten them, notes Margaret Hartmann in New York Magazine. "In December 2016, the Obama administration finalized a rule that would have added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and those deemed unfit to handle their own finances to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The rule was written in response to the massacre in Newtown and the Obama administration predicted it would have added 75,000 people to the national database.
"Both the NRA and the ACLU said the law violated the Second Amendment rights of the mentally ill without due process, and Congress quickly voted to overturn the rule, mostly on party lines. President Trump signed the measure into law in February 2017, with no public signing ceremony."
| | MIA: Efforts to Stop Midterms Russian Meddling | | US intelligence chiefs were unanimous in stating this week that they believe that Russia will try to interfere in this year's midterm elections. So, "with the first primaries…less than a month away, you might expect federal officials to be wrapping up efforts to safeguard the vote against expected Russian interference," write Frank Bajak and Christina A. Cassidy for the Associated Press.
Nope.
"Federal efforts to help states button down elections systems have crawled, hamstrung in part by wariness of federal meddling. Just 14 states and three local election agencies have so far asked for detailed vulnerability assessments offered by the Department of Homeland Security — and only five of the two-week examinations are complete."
"And Congress is still sitting on three bipartisan bills that address election integrity issues, including funding to upgrade antiquated equipment."
| | Maximizing the Return on Innovation CONTENT BY  Globally, 40% of innovations have a positive impact on the bottom line. Published today, GE's Global Innovation Barometer examines the new ROI, Return on Innovation. What separates successful innovators from the rest of the pack? Find out. | | | A Fine Mess You've Left for Me | | | Cyril Ramaphosa is in as President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma is out. But as Ramaphosa takes the reins of one of Africa's largest economies, Jason Burke writes in The Guardian that he inherits a country that saw soaring unemployment and corruption during his predecessor's tenure.
"Twenty-three years after the end of the racist, repressive apartheid regime, South Africa remains a country with enormous resources and great wealth but also vast inequality and poverty," Burke writes.
"Though successive ANC governments have made huge efforts to build homes and supply basic services to millions of people, they have been unable to meet expectations. Many people live without electricity or sanitation. Schooling and healthcare are often rudimentary…Levels of violent crime are among the highest in the world, with poor South Africans suffering most."
"Then there is corruption – from the police officer demanding cash to ignore a minor driving offense, to the huge sums mentioned in allegations of graft leveled at senior public figures." | | Behind Olympic Smiles, Kim Regime Still Baring (Cyber) Teeth | | There has been plenty of praise for North Korea's charm offensive around the PyeongChang Games – and warnings that it will be back to its old tricks once the Olympic flame is extinguished. But in cyber space, at least, the mischief making didn't stop, writes Andy Greenberg for Wired.
"In fact, just as the Kim regime was making nice with South Korea ahead of the Olympics games last month, it also rekindled a brazen cybercrime campaign that has stolen millions of dollars from South Korean banks and bitcoin firms," Greenberg writes.
"If espionage and diplomacy go hand-in-hand, opportunistic theft and diplomacy don't mix as well. But despite its foreign policy goals, North Korea may have no choice but to continue its no-holds-barred cybercrime schemes, says Jim Lewis, a former State Department official and director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Technology and Public Policy Program. He argues that digital theft...[has] become an indispensable crutch for an economy crippled by sanctions and a near total lack of exportable products."
| | Conflict a Daily Reality for 1-in-6 Kids: Report | | The number of children living in conflict zones has soared over the past 25 years, with around one-in-six children living in such areas by 2016, according to a new report from aid group Save the Children (pdf).
"While the majority of the world's conflict-affected children live in Asia, the Middle East is where children are most likely to live in a conflict zone. In 2016, about 2 in 5 children in this region were living within 50 kilometers of a conflict event in their country, and children in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other warzones in the region are at high risk of all six grave violations. Africa is second, with 1 in 5 children affected by conflict," the report says.
| | Not Sure What to Give Up for Lent? Try This… | | Not sure what to give up for Lent? Chocolate? Carbs? Smoking? The Church of England has a suggestion: Plastics, Richard Pérez-Peña reports for The New York Times.
"Specifically, the church wants people to avoid the plastic consumer products and packaging that have become a major environmental problem, polluting oceans and rivers, fouling beaches, killing wildlife and clogging landfills," he writes.
"The church's 'Lent Plastic Challenge' arrives on a wave of anti-plastic sentiment and legislation in Britain and across Europe, as more people conclude that the first element of the motto 'reduce, reuse, recycle' should take precedence. In December, the European Union announced binding waste-reduction targets for member nations, with particular emphasis on plastics.
"Last month, a ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetic products took effect in Britain, and Prime Minister Theresa May's government committed Britain to a 25-year environmental plan that includes eliminating most plastic waste." | | | | | | |
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