CZYTANIE 3 EN [#17]

A Russian fighter jet zoomed within just 10 feet of a U.S. Navy spy plane which was on routine patrol in international airspace, US defense officials said. The Russian defense ministry accused the Navy plane of flying with its transponder—which emits an identifying signal—turned off. A U.S. defense official would neither confirm nor deny the accusation, but said that, “It is not a requirement for a military aircraft to have its transponder turned on.”

1. We learn from the news item that the Russians …

Facebook is now one of the most important distributors of online news. Until now the assumption had been that these were selected via an impartial algorithm, but last week Facebook had to admit that stories were actually chosen and edited by a team of journalists following editorial guidelines. However, it strenuously denied the subsequent report by a tech website that claimed the curators of the news were given instructions to suppress conservative topics. This week Zuckerberg invited several influential politicians to his headquarters in hope of reassuring them that these claims were groundless.

2. The selection of news published on Facebook is made …

The first of 8,000 Cubans stuck on Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua have resumed their journey to the United States. Those people were stranded because in November, Nicaragua, a friend of the Cuban government, had blocked the migrants' progress. However, under a new agreement, 180 migrants were flown to El Salvador and will proceed north by bus.

3. We learn that new Cuban migrants have now been …

Polio is now all but eradicated worldwide, apart from in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The reason the virus is still endemic in these places is that Islamist gunmen have prevented health workers from administering the vaccine claiming that it is some nefarious US plot to make Muslims infertile, or spread Aids. “No fewer than 89 people were murdered for the crime of trying to immunize children in Pakistan in 2014.” These conspiracy theories are now the only thing standing in the way of the target to vanquish polio forever by 2019.

4. Polio hasn’t been eliminated because of …

Barack Obama used the last state-of-the-union speech of his presidency to lament the rise of political bickering and to call on his successor to put an end to it in order to build a "clear-eyed, big-hearted" America. He also defended his domestic record, pointing to the 14 million jobs that have been created since he took office in 2009 at the outset of the financial crisis.

5. In his speech, Barack Obama asked the next president to …

It’s all due to inequality. That’s the received wisdom. Yet income inequality isn’t increasing. Since the market crash of 2008, it has actually fallen in Britain. What then explains the public discontent? The answer is that people are fed up with stagnant pay rates. “The problem is not that incomes are too unequal - it is that they are too low.” Young Britons in their 20s are earning 7% less than their counterparts did before the recession, yet they are facing higher housing costs as a result of the inadequate supply of homes. Our priority today is thus to get the economy moving.

6. According to the author, the main problem is …

In Florida it has long been common practice that juries are permitted to advise a judge about whether murderers should be sent to death row or not. A recent decision by the Supreme Court, however, has overturned Florida's system. It ruled that under the constitution the jury itself must impose the death penalty.

7. According to the new ruling, the death penalty is in the domain of …

The Czech Republic has announced that in the future the English version of its name should be “Czechia”. The foreign ministry explained that the new one-word name was more flexible and easy to use. He suggested that it should be used at sporting events and in marketing material. However, the country will continue to be formally known as the Czech Republic. Supporters of the rebranding say that the use of “Czechia” traces back to the 19th century. But critics say it may be confused with Chechnya, and that it doesn’t represent the whole of the country but only Bohemia - known as Cechy in their native language.

8. The name of the Czech Republic is to be changed for …

The recent arrest by the Iranian Coastguard of ten American sailors, who had strayed into its waters in two boats, could have put the fragile nuclear negotiations in jeopardy. Luckily, they were rapidly released, thus averting any threat to the deal between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear weapons. The UN is expected soon to certify that Iran has dismantled its nuke programme, leading to a relaxation of sanctions.

9. The incident in Iranian waters …

Weeks after successfully unlocking an iPhone belonging to one of the Islamists behind last year’s attack in San Bernardino - without the help of Apple - the FBI has asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to force the tech giant to unlock another phone, this one belonging to a convicted drug dealer from New York. It had appeared that the legal wrangling between the FBI and Apple was over, after the agency reportedly found an Israeli cybersecurity firm that was able to unlock the phone by exploiting a previously unknown security flaw. But according to The Washington Post, that flaw is only present in iPhone 5c models: the model in the drug case is a 5s, hence the return to court.

10. The Israeli cybersecurity firm …

Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennanda party became the biggest force in parliament after lawmakers in President Beji Caid Essebsi's secular party resigned over the role of his son in the party. The secular party Nidaa Tounes has been in coalition with Ennanda since 2014.

11. Due to the latest political developments in Tunisia …

In Beijing’s Wangjing district, home to a large ethnic Korean population, private academies have sprung up to teach ethnic Koreans, who are Chinese citizens, how to pass as North Korean defectors. Instructors tell them about the brutality of life in the dictatorship’s labour camps, help them fabricate stories of their escape and forge the necessary documents. The goal is to gain asylum in Europe and rake in hundreds of Euros, plus free healthcare and other benefits. Lately, though, European governments have started to get wise to the scam, and are scrutinizing North Korean asylum seekers more stringently.

12. Academies in Beijing have been established to …

Pakistan said that it had arrested several Islamist militants from Jaish-e-Mohammad, believed by India to be responsible for a recent deadly assault on an air base in the Indian state of Punjab, in which seven troops were killed. India may view the arrests as a conciliatory gesture by Pakistan to revive fledgling peace talks between the two countries.

13. The writer suggests that …

Peace at Last

It has been a long time coming, but after 52 years of fighting, almost four years of peace negotiations and three months after a final deadline, the Colombian state and the Marxist guerrillas of the so-called Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have agreed to a bilateral and definitive ceasefire. That is cause for celebration for Colombia and for the region. But the peace deal is controversial; putting it into practice will be tricky, primarily due to the unpopularity of the government of Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president.

On June 23rd Mr Santos flew to Havana, the site of the talks, for a ceremony with the FARC’s leader, Rodrigo Londoño (aka “Timochenko”). The ceremony took place in the presence of Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, and five Latin American presidents. In practice, the two sides all but stopped firing a year ago, when the FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire and the government halted offensive actions. Nevertheless, the government’s formal declaration of a ceasefire is historic and many will be watching the ceremony.

This was all possible thanks to consensus being reached regarding the FARC’s demobilisation. This involves the group’s 6,800 troops and 8,500 militia assembling at 23 fixed points around the country. The negotiators have now reached agreement on all five of the points on their original agenda and Mr Santos hopes the final accord can be signed in July. In the following six months they will disarm, under international supervision. This though is no longer a key part of the peace deal as both sides are now saying, in effect, that there is no going back. The FARC have also accepted the government’s plan to ratify the peace deal in a referendum in October.

For Colombians, the agreement involves “swallowing toads”, in a local metaphor. The FARC claim to have fought a just war against unequal land ownership. In that cause the country suffered bombings, fire-fights, murders, kidnapping and extortion. Many people find it hard to accept that FARC leaders accused of crimes against humanity will not go to jail provided they confess; instead they will only face a special tribunal and restrictions on their liberty for up to eight years. Many other points in the agreement involve the government saying it will do things it should do anyway, such as fostering rural development and adopting better ways to fight drug-trafficking and criminal gangs.

There may indeed be legitimate grounds for worry. Nobody knows how much money the FARC has invested from its criminal businesses. Many distrust the sincerity of the FARC’s conversion to democracy. Additionally, because the peace negotiations have taken so long and missed so many deadlines, Colombians have no love for Mr Santos. In a recent poll his approval rating was just 20%, lower than that of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

In the eyes of Colombians, the credibility of the agreement will depend on the integrity of the special tribunal and effective verification of disarmament. Just as important will be the government’s ability to flood the areas of FARC influence with quick-starting development projects to employ the guerrilla rank and file, and to impose security, justice and effective administration. There are further reasons for alarm. A smaller guerilla group, the ELN, shows no serious interest in peace; it may recruit FARC renegades and will have to be fought. Further to this, criminal gangs whose leaders emerged from right-wing paramilitary groups, which demobilised a decade ago, are growing in strength.

Unfortunately, the peace agreement comes when Colombia is facing a sharp economic adjustment. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the economy to grow by only 2.5% this year, compared with 4.4% last year. To fill a hole in government revenues caused by the oil slump, Mr Santos is preparing to raise taxes later this year. His opponents bridle at the notion of paying taxes to help the FARC. But as Mr Santos says, war is more expensive than peace. That Colombia’s conflict has long been an anachronism does not make it any easier to end. Peace with the FARC will improve the lives of Colombians, especially those in remote rural areas. However late in the day, it is a big prize.