At The Local, Stockholm-based writer and photographer Lola Akinmade-Åkerström aims to give the world a deeper understanding of the hyped Swedish concept of lagom.

“When the officiant at the ceremony says ‘you may now kiss the groom’, Victor Hugo Prada will have to choose which of the two men standing with him he’ll kiss first: Manuel or Alejandro,” Sibylla Brodzinsky of the Guardian reports. “The ceremony, planned for Colombia in the coming months, will celebrate the first legalised union of three men in the country—and possibly the world.”

The Palestinian Authority is requesting that UNESCO recognise Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, as a Palestinian World Heritage Site, the Algemeiner reports.

To say that this is absurd is an understatement.

Stephen Hawking says that President Donald Trump’s stance on environmental issues could destroy Earth and leave it with similar conditions to Venus.

The country has not cut such a pathetic figure on the global stage since the Suez crisis in 1956, when America crushed Anthony Eden’s attempt to reassert British power in Egypt, The Economist’s Bagehot columnist writes.

Apparently, Jesus loves everybody, he just doesn’t love making cake for everybody.

“Police chief predicts ‘not just sit-in protests but massive assaults’ as Germany’s second largest city prepares for summit starting on Friday,” Philip Oltermann of the Guardian reports.

Those who oppose capitalism and want a totalitarian state without individual liberty are once again set on burning cars and intimidating people. And for what? To prevent world leaders from having a civilised discussion instead of war and conflict?

“Vatican police have broken up a gay orgy at the home of the secretary to one of Pope Francis’s key advisers,” Stephen White of the Mirror reports. “The flat belonged to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or Holy Office, which is in charge of tackling sexual abuse amongst the clergy.”

“And that’s what the Real Conversations of Grindr campaign is aiming to challenge, as their new video sees real people reading real conversations between HIV-positive and HIV-negative people on Grindr,” Daniel Megarry of Gay Times writes. “While the conversations start off light-hearted with some typical Grindr sex talk, the mood quickly swings once the app users begin to discover that the one they’re talking to is living with HIV.”

Stigma towards people living with HIV is extremely damaging.

From The Economist:

Exporters from the EU pay €1bn ($1.1bn) in export duties to Japan each year, and on agricultural products face average tariffs of 21%. JEEPA will slash Japanese tariffs on beef, pork and wine, eliminating 85% of the tariffs on agricultural food products going into Japan. European producers of Roquefort cheese or prosecco can cheer: their products become two of 205 protected “geographical indications”. Similarly, only feta from Greece will be sold under that name.

Tariffs on European exports of textiles and clothing will also be cut. When the deal enters into force, Japanese tariffs on shoes will drop from 30% to 21%, and then to zero after ten years. The Japanese have won concessions, too. Tariffs on Japanese cars going into the EU are currently 10%, but will be lowered over seven years. An assessment of the impact of the deal (before the final details were agreed on) suggested that almost half of the benefit to Japan would be from these lower tariffs. It found the deal could raise the EU’s exports to Japan by 34%, and Japan’s to the EU by 29%.

It’s Friday night again, שבת שלום.

Meanwhile, from the G20 summit in Hamburg, Bernd Riegert of Deutsche Welle reports:

Although “bring your daughter to work” days are common in the United States and other G20 nations, it usually doesn’t work like this. On Saturday, during a meeting of heads of states and governments, Ivanka Trump suddenly appeared, to fill in for her father, the US president, at the negotiating table. Donald Trump, it seemed, had better things to do. Though Ivanka has no official position, she’s “just wonderful,” in the words of her doting father. The president repeated that phrase over and over shortly after Ivanka stammered a few sentences at a World Bank podium discussion Saturday morning.

Riegert concludes:

The Trumps are making the United States unbearable. But the narcissistic clan takes it in stride. On Friday, for example, first lady Melania Trump popped in to pick up Donald for a concert while he was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin—just one more obscure footnote to the whole tragicomedy.

He writes in the Guardian:

As for the highest moment, that, in the eyes of the White House, came before the G20 got started. In a speech in Warsaw, Poland, the president was greeted by crowds—bused in from rural areas, an old trick in authoritarian regimes—chanting his name and even waving a Confederate battle flag. He appeared much more comfortable in this atmosphere than with the lukewarm handshakes of elected leaders.

Just want to say that the “Super Version” remix of the song on Pet Shop Boys’s Undertow EP is brilliant. The “Baba Stiltz” remix of Burn, not so much. Great lyrics, though. Now you know.

I could love you
if I try

A resident in Hamburg sent me this video showing how Leftist thugs burn cars, attack small businesses, smash windows, and hurl firebombs into flats. They call it a protest against the G20 summit, big corporations, and capitalism, but what they do is terrorising working people.

The video has appeared on social media, and I’m not sure if the person who sent it to me is the copyright holder. If you own this video, please let me know. However, I think it’s important that people get a real idea about who these “protesters” are.

“Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have enlisted two dozen religious leaders from a wide range of denominations, to participate in a study in which they will be given two powerful doses of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms,” Hannah Devlin of the Guardian reports.

Wow, I can see Jeebus!

I admit that the only reason I post this is because I was inspired by The Local’s headline. It’s not that often one gets a chance to use “troll” and “penis” in the same sentence.

“A court document from a federal court case between The Milton Hershey School and student Adam Dobson reveal that Dobson said he was subjected to “gay cure” therapy,” Meka Beresford of Pink News reports.

“The two concepts are closely related but not quite the same,” The Economist writes.

This is an interesting topic, perhaps not analysed too deeply in the linked article. In a Jewish context, nation is the Jew collectively, whereas Israeli is a citizenship. The two are often indistinguishable for many so-called anti-Zionists, which is why they burn Jewish shops and attack synagogues in Europe. To make it more complex, all Jewish nationals are eligible for Israeli citizenship, but not all Israeli citizens are eligible for Jewish nationality.

She has up until now been my favourite pop-commie, but someone who writes this in a preface simple can’t be taken seriously:

I have documented a range of trends: the rise of Superbrands, the expanding power of private wealth over the political system, the global imposition of neoliberalism, often using racism and fear of the other as a potent tool…

To say that neoliberalism is using racism and fear is like saying that communism embraces individualism or that a rectangle has the shape of a cylinder. These are antithesis and simply not true.

This is horrific news. The names make it even more real. It’s not just numbers, it’s innocent people being killed for their sexual orientation.

1. Abdulmezhidov Adam Isayevich (born on 27 May 1987)
2. Abumuslimov Apti Hasanovich (born on 1 June 1989)
3. Abdulkerimov Said-Ramzan Ramzanovich (born on 25 March 1990)
4. Alimkhanov Islam Alievich (born on 6 July 1998)
5. Abubakarov Adam Dzhabrailovich (born on 5 May 1995)
6. Bergaev Ismail Shadidovich (born on 19 August 1998)
7. Dasaev Adam Ilyasovich (born on 16 June 1988)
8. Jabaev Zelimkhan Khizirovich (born on 18 December 1993)
9. Ilyasov Adam Khuseinovich (born on 22 September 1997)
10. Lugaev Rizvan Said-Khamzatovich (born on 13 September 1987)
11. Malikov Rizvan Agdanovich (born on 1 June 1990)
12. Muskiev Mohma Turpalovich (born on 19 July 1988)
13. Mussanov Temirlan Ahmadovich (born on 28 April 1986)
14. Ozdiev Usman Vakhaevich (born on 24 December 1989)
15. Rashidov Doku Ibrahimović (born on 30 May 1995)
16. Syriev Magomed Musayevich (born on 23 February 1993)
17. Soltamanov Ismail Ezer-Aliyevich (born on 30 March 1994)
18. Suleimanov Magomed Arbeevich (born on 3 January 1987)
19. Tuchaev Ahmed Ramzanovich (born on 23 February 1987)
20. Khabuev Khamzat Slaudinovich (born on 14 February 1993)
21. Hakimov Alvi Aslambekovich (born on 16 November 1992)
22. Khamidov Shamil Ahmedovich (born on 14 November 1986)
23. Tsikmaev Ayub Sultanovich (born on 4 April 1984)
24. Shapiev Muslim Isayevich (born on 28 November 1989)
25. Eskarbiev Saikhan Vahamsoltovich (born on 23 May 1992)
26. Yusupov Sakhab Isayevich (born on 19 January 1990)
27. Yusupov Shamkhan Shaykhovich (born on 17 June 1988)

Read more about it at Pink News.

“In what is seen as a cultural taboo for many traditional Muslims, Mr Choudhury is one of only a few openly-gay Muslim men and says he was bullied and ostracised from his community for being homosexual growing up,” Doug Wootton of Express & Star reports. “He is now looking forward to a happy life with Mr Rogan, who he first met while crying on a bench in Darlaston.”

Are you a gay man longing to become a father? On 12 August 2017, a conference focusing on best practice in surrogacy will be held in Stockholm. This link goes to an advertisement, but I link because I’m all in favour of men’s right to become fathers through surrogacy.

On Sweden’s media aftermath of last week’s riots at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Lars Anders Johansson writes (my translation) at Smedjan:

When you write about the organised Nazis, hate and threats come from anonymous email addresses and secret phone numbers. When criticising the anti-democratic left, parliamentarians and editorial writers emerge to trivialise.*

*När man skriver om de organiserade nazisterna kommer hatet och hoten från anonyma mejladresser och hemliga telefonnummer. När man kritiserar den antidemokratiska vänstern är det i stället riksdagsledamöter och ledarskribenter som rycker ut för att trivialisera.

But the answer is pretty much “I know nothing, I’m from Moscow”.

John Micklethwait of Bloomberg writes:

Now Brussels is reborn. Two events have changed everything. The first, ironically, was Brexit. Far from killing the EU, Brexit has helped reunite it. The second was the election of Emmanuel Macron in May this year, which has given the European project a purpose—or the promise of one.

For all the public talk of sorrow, Brussels can barely contain its glee at Britain’s spectacular reversal of fortune. The nation that had been Brussels’ main critic and the most adept earner of opt-outs from EU projects hasn’t so much shot itself in the foot as machine-gunned both legs repeatedly. Farage’s triumphant speech looks as premature as George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner after the invasion of Iraq.

On a wall a few metres from my workplace, in Ängelholmsgatan at Möllevången in central Malmö, someone has painted this message: “476 police officers wounded—G20, we won!”

Emma Löfgren has written an interesting article on the topic for The Local.

“In addition to being forbidden fruit, these books also marked a period in time that was finite: the golden era of narrative porn,” lise Carter of Rolling Stone writes.

Hm, what is Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels if not narrative pornography?

“The US president paid the compliment to France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, as the two couples chatted in Paris,” BBC reports.

Slimeball.

It’s Friday night again, time for rest, שבת שלום.

The Economist explains:

The EU, with about 33,000 civil servants, is dwarfed by the British government, which employs over 400,000. The complaint might be that not only junior EU officials, but many senior ones are appointed rather than elected; yet this, too, is true of all governments. British papers that disparage the “unelected” Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, would struggle to find a country that has an elected trade representative.

“A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer attended a meeting with President Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, the lobbyist said Friday, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump team’s evolving explanations about the June 2016 session,” Desmond Butler and Chad Day of the Associated Press reports.

The plot thickens.

“Teen Vogue have published an in-depth guide to anal sex,” Joshua Haigh of the Attitude reports.

Homophobic activist Jennifer Hartline of magazine the Stream is not happy. In an angry article, she writes, “It is glorifying as good, normal and healthy, the harmful practice of homosexual sex.”

Harmful? Oh, please! The sole purpose of Teen Vogue’s article is to prevent the harmful and promote good health. Judge for yourselves.

“Jenner has once again confirmed that she is considering a political career after she suggested that she was ‘looking into’ becoming a politician in order to fight President Trump’s anti-trans agenda,” Meka Beresford Pink News reports.

Copenhagen Airport is still Scandinavia’s busiest airport with some 14 million passengers in the first six months of the year, up 2.3 per cent on the same period last year, The Local reports.

I’m proud to live in Greater Copenhagen!

“As Venezuela falls further into a humanitarian disaster of economic collapse and political repression, more of its citizens are fleeing a country which once served as a haven for economic migrants and political refugees from around the world,” Sibylla Brodzinsky, Dom Phillips, Dan Collyns, and Uki Goñi of the Guardian report.

Widespread poverty, no food, and empty shelves. Haven’t we seen it before? I guess it will only take a year or so until someone blames this on “neo-liberal” shock doctrine.

“According to the analysis of data from 111 different countries by Stanford University researchers, Swedes take over 6,000 steps per day on average, while Brits take around 5,500 and Americans less than 5,000,” The Local reports. “At the bottom of the scale was Indonesia with 3,500 steps per day, and the average for all countries was 4,961 steps per day.”

I contribute about 100 steps to this. I’m not made for physical activity.

Donald Trump is the first president in nearly 150 years to go without a pet to keep him company in the White House, The Economist writes.

“A Muslim school in Sweden that separated pupils by gender on a school bus did not break anti-discrimination laws in doing so, the country’s Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) has judged,” Lee Roden of The Local reports. “But the same could not be said about gender segregated sports lessons.”

Private schools should be allowed to as they wish, but gender segregation I sooo stupid. Gender fluctuates and not nearly as simple popular belief makes it out to be.

New research from Lund University suggests having one less child saves about 58.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emission annually.

Yet another argument in favour of a completely robotic existence.

“As long as the government stays in denial about Brexit’s drawbacks, the country is on course for disaster,” The Economist writes.

I can’t help but feeling somewhat sorry for the British. In 2016, about 44% of Britain’s exports in goods and services goes to other countries in the EU. That’s £240 billion out of £550 billion total exports! And still, the Brexiters fooled people into believing that everything would be so much better without EU membership. The National Health Service and the working class would gain the most from it. Now, when reality kicks in, they face austerity instead. Sad!

It’s my favourite time of the week, the hours before Shabbat. I actually enjoy these hours more than Shabbat itself. I guess it’s because I think of all the rest I’ll get.

“Charles Manson, who himself did not kill anyone, is the personification of evil for many of us because of his psychological success at exploiting the vulnerabilities of young people and seducing them to murder,” Bruce E. Levine is a practicing clinical psychologist’s article in Raw Story. “What should we call Ayn Rand’s psychological ability to exploit the vulnerabilities of millions of young people so as to influence them not to care about anyone besides themselves?”

And what should we call those who preach that the only life we have should be sacrificed for the better good of others?

Caroline Houck of Defense One writes:

On a dusty beach in far western Africa, a group of men hop out of a pickup truck. They quickly assemble a small commercial drone and send it winging northwest across the Atlantic Ocean. A bit more than a day later, it will make landfall over the southeastern U.S. coast—its explosive payload still intact.

Advances in batteries and solar power could make this a reality, warns Owen West, whom President Donald Trump has tapped to oversee the Pentagon’s special operations and low-intensity conflicts.

“In about five years, drones will be able to be launched from Africa which can reach our shores, because they’ll have permanent power by the sun,” West told lawmakers last week during his confirmation hearing.

“A nine-year-old child living in South Africa has been ‘virtually cured’ of HIV, becoming the third child in the world to officially be in remission,” Meka Beresford of Pink News reports. “The child, who has not been identified, was given treatment as soon as they were born as they were infected with the virus at birth.”

Ramin Skibba of FiveThirtyEight has written an interesting article about the hunt for life in space.

“Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years,” BBC News reports.

So, people think it’s global warming that will kill us, but in fact it’s a lack sperm.

Transphobia is not only a problem for the loony right wing.

“In this climate, who would challenge someone with a beard exposing their penis in a women’s changing room?” Helen Lewis, the deputy editor of the New Statesman, writes in The Times.

Read more about it at Pink News.

The Economist writes:

Five years ago, Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, pledged to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. At the time, many people were predicting that the euro zone would break up. But Mr Draghi pulled off the trick; no countries have left the single currency. Borrowing costs have come down and even Greece has been able to tap the markets.

“The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a Russian law banning what it describes as the promotion of homosexuality to minors breached European treaty rules, but Moscow said it would appeal what it called an unjust decision,” Gilbert Reilhac and Andrew Osborn of Reuters wrote on 20 June. “Under the legislation, any event or act regarded by the authorities as an attempt to promote homosexuality to minors is illegal and punishable by a fine.”

Helena Smith of the Guardian writes:

Athens, like most urban centres, has been hardest hit by a crisis that has seen the country’s economic output contract by a devastating 26%. A study by the DiaNeosis thinktank found that 15% of the population, or 1,647,703 people, in 2015 earned below the extreme poverty threshold. In 2009 that number did not exceed 2.2%. The net wealth of Greek households fell by a precipitous 40% in the same period, according to the Bank of Greece. Unemployment, austerity’s most pernicious effect, hovers around 22%, by far the highest in the EU, despite a 5% drop in the last two years.

“Chris Sevier, who identifies as a ‘machinist’ has claimed that he married his laptop bride in New Mexico,” Meka Beresford Pink News reports. “Now, he is pursuing a court case against the Colorado bakers, Masterpiece Cakeshop because they won’t bake him a cake.”

Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times has written an interesting article on London.

A favourite aphorism by Voltaire.

“A survey from June 2016 counted around 40 websites in the Czech Republic that regularly published pro-Russian and/or conspiracy narratives,” Ondrej Houska of the EU Observer reports. “The most successful of them, Parlamentni listy (Parliamentary Letters), has more than 600,000 monthly readers—in a country of 10 million people.”

The 90-year-old Joy Gibson’s tips for students:

• Don’t waste time on “mickey mouse” degrees like “golf course management”—study a proper subject or don’t bother at all
• Join a society if you have a particular talent, but allow yourself don’t get “swamped” by extra-curricular activities as you need to concentrate of your studies
• Think about what you want to do after university, and how you will earn enough money to pay off your student debts
• Have a set time of the day and place to work where you will not be distracted
• Make good notes, and make sure they are assembled in an orderly fashion before you start writing