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David Fickling
@davidfickling
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
I wish I could say the death of Alan Kurdi caused European attitudes and policies to become more welcoming to refugees, but I'm not sure that it did.
Of course it's an impossible hypothetical. Maybe things would have been *even worse* without that photo.

But to the extent that policies have changed since, many have grown tougher (Germany's were already in place at the time):

bbc.com/news/blogs-tre…
Here in Australia then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott -- really! -- announced a special Syrian refugee program which was pretty clearly in response to the photo. I think it influenced the Canadian election, too. But in Europe ... not so much.

abc.net.au/news/2015-09-0…
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
This can't be the same Singapore that gets 97% of its electricity from fossil fuels
As Richard says, Singapore's nearly 100% gas energy mix is probably the only one that makes sense for a tiny dense island state with poor insolation, little territorial water and tricky relations with its neighbour...
But London, Paris, Copenhagen, Sao Paulo, and probably Houston are all "greener" if you're talking power sector emissions.

Singapore may be a bit better on the transport fuel front, but bear in mind a key part of the economy is one of the world's biggest oil refineries.
Read 4 tweets
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
Weird how the odds on Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren improve so much when people see them speak rather than only hearing about them through the filter of horserace narratives.

Trying to work out if there's some common factor here not shared by Biden/Sanders/Beto? 🤔
They both show a lot more variation in their clothing choices than the suits/jeans/shirts uniform of the other candidates. Maybe that's it?
Somewhat higher-pitched voices too. Maybe that's connected to this somehow.
Read 3 tweets
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
Gather round, #gold bugs, while I tell the story of how a $13 trillion pile of negative-yield sovereign debt explains the recent surge in bullion prices (thread):

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
The very idea of negative-yield debt feels a bit Through-The-Looking-Glass. You're supposed to *earn* money from lending cash, not *spend* money for the privilege of doing so.

And yet from zero five years ago, negative-yield debt now accounts for almost 40% of government bonds:
The value has risen particularly fast in the past month -- roughly $2 trillion, of which $1 trillion has happened since the start of last week.
Read 20 tweets

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Pasquale "Pat" Scopelliti⭐️⭐️⭐️⚔️
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John Minford, #SunTzu 6: 28 "According to my assessment, the troops of Yue are many, but that will avail them little in the struggle. So I say victory is still possible."
Sometimes, we use a specific example to illustrate a general principle. Yue is an example of having more soldiers than we do. It is a phenomenal story, filled with twists and turns and unexpected outcomes. We need to - and will - follow it out in detail. It's exciting!
In order to capture the flow of the moment, we turn, now, the Lionel Giles. First, I'll share his translation of this verse. And then, second, his own comments in explanation. After that, I'll disagree with him just a little and take it from there. Here we go!
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The greatest threats facing this planet are greed, lack of common sense, and arrogance of ignorance. We are facing an assortment of unparalleled threats - medical, climactic, financial - but those who profit from us endlessly divert with irrational nonsense to fuel rage of the...
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Tarana
@TaranaBurke
So now he’s making jokes? This is disrespectful and inexcusable. People have been asking me all week if what @LucyFlores experienced was worth coming forward about. My answer is YES. I support her wholeheartedly. And here is why:

washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politi…
What she experienced, in her own words, made her feel embarrassed, shocked and confused - at the hands of the VP of the United States. She described her deep discomfort with this level of intimacy and most important she described how *powerless* it made her feel.
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Sally Hayden
@sallyhayd
It seems an independent auditor came to Abu Salim today looking into UN activities. The guards told detainees in advance not to mention that they haven't been fed for months (some of their families are sending them money to buy food with instead, which guards take a cut from).
Messages today from Qasr bin Ghashir dc, southern Tripoli, today, where they’re asking for evacuation & any organisation that can help them.
Sorry for my confusion, the teenager above was being held in Qasr bin Ghashir, but has now been moved to the UNHCR facility in Tripoli for evacuation. He's asking for help for those he left behind.
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Thangam Debbonaire
@ThangamMP
Anyone who missed the piece earlier on @BBCr4today about #refugees on #lesbos please know there are many thousands of people crammed in appalling conditions into a camp intended for 2000, violence, little sanitation, NGOs reporting conditions to authorities but nothing changes.
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One in four of the population of Lebanon is a Syrian #refugee. They are not in camps but living in limbo. 6 million people inside #Syria are Internally Displaced People (IDPs), forced to flee because of the conflict. 6 million more Syrians are refugees outside Syria
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Sally Hayden
@sallyhayd
For the last 24 hours I've been texting & calling with refugees in Libya. 500 are apparently stuck in a Tripoli prison w/o food & water after heavy fighting broke out two days ago. They say their guards ran away, leaving them alone.
These refugees are men, women & children. They tried to cross the Mediterranean earlier this year, but were found by Italian boats, who turned them over to the EU-backed Libyan coastguard, who put them in prison. The conditions were already terrible before the fighting started.
Oh the phone earlier I could hear children crying & what sounded like bombing in the distance. The refugees say everyone's incredibly frightened. "We hear machine guns, tanks, big bombs, last night from the roof it was all fire."
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