Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
Oct. 17
The Washington Post on the U.S. looking to the 91原创 Islands:
The Biden administration last month recognized the Cook Islands and Niue as 鈥� 鈥� and promised to open diplomatic relations. The United States opened in the Solomon Islands in January and another in Tonga in May. A U.S. Embassy for Vanuatu next year. Peace Corps volunteers are returning to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
On top of all that, the administration is seeking some for infrastructure development in the South 91原创, along with other new investments.
That鈥檚 an awful lot of sudden diplomatic attention to a remote grouping of 14 sparsely populated island nations whose combined economies are about . Tiny Niue has fewer than 2,000 people. The Solomon Islands is a relative giant with around 750,000 inhabitants.
What鈥檚 behind this sudden flurry of activity in a faraway, largely forgotten expanse of the 91原创 Ocean?
The obvious answer is China, which has been making its own recent moves to step up its with the 91原创 islands. China鈥檚 efforts appeared successful last year, when Beijing signed with the Solomon Islands. The announcement of that accord blindsided the United States, as well as its two key allies in the region, Australia and New Zealand, who feared China might be about to establish a military base in the area.
Despite the United States offering some ritualistic, mostly rhetorical nods to the islands鈥� strategic importance and their historical resonance 鈥� the bloody battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands marked a major engagement for U.S. forces during World War II 鈥� administrations of both parties in recent decades have treated the islands mostly with indifference.
When Secretary of State last year, it was the first such high-level visit to that island nation in 36 years. Blinken held a video meeting with other 91原创 island leaders. But he was outdone a few months later by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who 鈥� Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
Biden had hoped to be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the 91原创 islands last May, but he was forced to to deal with an unnecessary debt ceiling standoff in Washington. Chinese President Xi Jinping, facing no such domestic constraints, has made to the region, in 2014 and again in 2018.
China can boast of more than $2.7 billion of investment in 91原创 island nations, including projects from its Belt and Road Initiative. The country also assisted the region with vaccines and medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. But aside from the Solomon Islands, Beijing鈥檚 efforts appear to have stalled. The 91原创 islands a regional security pact with China. They actually prefer Washington鈥檚 embrace 鈥� if the United States would only pay them some attention.
The island nations could provide a potentially reliable bloc of votes in China鈥檚 favor in the U.N. General Assembly. Also, China is constantly on the lookout for new diplomatic allies in its ongoing competition with the self-ruled island of Taiwan. In 2019, two of the countries, the Solomon Islands and , from Taiwan to Beijing.
But the 91原创 island nations don鈥檛 want to be seen as anyone鈥檚 pawns on a strategic chessboard, including Washington鈥檚. Their top concern is dealing with the impacts of , because they are quite literally on the The low-lying islands are already experiencing rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges. Some are in .
So the Biden administration is correct in devoting a large portion of its to technology, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to build more rapid communications and early warning systems, and to improve disaster preparedness for typhoons, tsunamis and other severe weather events.
Predictably, China, through its state-controlled media outlets, has criticized the latest U.S. initiatives in the 91原创. 鈥淭his is entirely an act of hegemonism,鈥� the Communist Party-owned tabloid Global Times wrote in an unsigned .
But the administration鈥檚 efforts in the 91原创 are better late than not at all. The priorities seem right 鈥� infrastructure and combating the effects of climate change. A planned follow-up visit to the region next month by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will help convince 91原创 islanders that this newfound attention is more than fleeting.
The broader lesson should be that in the global competition with a more assertive China, neglect of any country or region is not an option. It鈥檚 a lesson that should be carried to Africa, South America and other too-often-ignored corners of the world.
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Oct. 14
The New York Times on Israel and its response to attacks by Hamas
Israel stands on the verge of invading Gaza in response to the terrorist attacks by Hamas that many, including Israel鈥檚 leaders, have compared to Sept. 11 not just because of the scale and savagery but also because the terrorists sought to destroy the tranquility of daily life. They killed the very young and the very old, the strong and the weak, civilians and soldiers; they took some 150 hostages, including children, and 鈥� all to send a message that no Israeli was safe.
Israel has a responsibility to its citizens to hold accountable the perpetrators of this violence, but as Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week, 鈥淗ow Israel does this matters.鈥�
Israel cannot win this war just by killing all the terrorists. It is determined to break the power of Hamas, and in that effort it deserves the support of the United States and the rest of the world. But it can succeed only by upholding the rules and norms of behavior that Hamas so wantonly ignores. What Israel is fighting to defend is a society that values human life and the rule of law. To do that, the means and the ends of its military response must be consistent.
Israel鈥檚 goal is to destroy Hamas; in doing that, it should not lose sight of its commitment to safeguard those who have not taken up arms.
The Israeli Army acknowledges and espouses an obligation not to target civilians for military purposes, and to avoid actions that inflict disproportionate harm on civilians, such as destroying an entire city block to kill fighters in a specific building that could be targeted more precisely. But this war is unfolding in an atmosphere of intense emotion, notably in the recent remarks by Israel鈥檚 defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who said that Israel was fighting 鈥渉uman animals.鈥�
Israel is preparing to send its young men and women into battle, where they will face an enemy that does not respect the same rules of warfare that they have committed to.
Hamas is known to hide its fighters among civilians, and an indifference to their suffering is central to its brand of terrorism. Hamas is using the people of Gaza as human shields against Israel鈥檚 bombing campaign, and as Gazans try to escape, Hamas still holds the hostages who were kidnapped last Saturday. The group them one by one with every airstrike that hits Gazans in their homes.
Israeli soldiers will look to their leaders to guide their actions and decisions on the battlefield to make sure that they, unlike Hamas, make .
Protecting civilians is also the most sensible way forward. Ending Hamas鈥檚 control over Gaza is an essential step, but a military victory will not mean much if young Gazans regroup under another extremist banner. Israel and its allies 鈥� and the Palestinians and their allies 鈥� have a shared interest in setting Gaza on a path to a different future. To do that, Palestinians first need to see that their lives and their safety are taken into account by Israel in its conduct of this war.
On Thursday, Israel announced that more than one million Palestinians had 24 hours to exit northern Gaza, prompting panic, confusion and immediate objections from the United Nations, which pleaded with Israeli officials to rescind the order. As , the order 鈥渁pplies to a territory that is already besieged, under aerial bombardment and without fuel, electricity, water and food.鈥�
Directing civilians to move out of targeted areas is a valuable way to minimize casualties, but it works only if those who are ordered to evacuate have somewhere to go, a safe route and means to get there and sufficient time to make the journey. The Israeli military widened that 24-hour window and clarified that Gazans would have time on Saturday to move south Mr. Blinken said Friday that the United States is working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to create safe zones, which could help to limit civilian casualties.
Hamas has a long history of exploiting the rules of war for its own purposes, and it is likely to take advantage of any arrangements such as these intended to protect civilians. But that does not absolve Israel of the responsibility to try.
Israel should also take steps to ensure the safety of journalists and humanitarian workers in the conflict zone. They perform a critical role in wartime by documenting what is happening. That documentation makes it possible for all participants in a conflict to be held accountable for their conduct, by the citizens of their own nations and by the rest of the world, as in Ukraine, where journalists have documented evidence of war crimes in Bucha. At least 11 United Nations workers and have already been killed in this war. Where journalists and aid organizations are not able to bear witness, there is no accountability.
The United States has offered firm support for Israel in its hour of agony. But friendship also requires speaking hard truths. Mr. Blinken and President Biden have spoken in general terms about the importance of minimizing civilian casualties; they should make clear to Israel that the relationship between the two nations is rooted in a , human rights and the rule of law.
In counseling restraint, the United States can point to the lessons of its own recent history. For two decades, America waged a global campaign against terrorism, all too often ignoring international law when those rules seemed inconvenient. In doing so, America weakened the world鈥檚 commitment to those rules and helped embolden a new generation of extremists.
Israel finds itself at war because of the depravity of Hamas. Further bloodshed now appears unavoidable, but the way Israel fights will begin to determine what happens next: Defeating Hamas will make Israel safer; showing disregard for the killing of civilians will not.
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Oct. 12
The Los Angeles Times on the U.S. economy:
The U.S. economy is in the early stages of an once-in-a-lifetime shift from an economy powered by fossil fuels. To prevent catastrophic climate change we have to switch quickly to electric vehicles and appliances fueled by renewable energy.
But it shouldn鈥檛 come at the expense of good-paying jobs 鈥� and it doesn鈥檛 have to.
Now that the electrification revolution is solidly underway 鈥� with and 鈥� bad-faith actors are trying to exploit workers鈥� anxieties about their role in a zero-emission future. That effort has been on display most recently in the autoworkers鈥� strike against the Big Three carmakers.
When former President Trump , he said electric vehicle mandates will kill the U.S. auto industry so what sort of contract autoworkers secure. 鈥淚n two years you鈥檙e all going to be out of business,鈥� he said, adding that 鈥測our jobs will be gone forever.鈥�
It took only a few days for the United Auto Workers to expose that lie with its that General Motors committed to put its battery manufacturing operations under the union鈥檚 national agreement.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom, and now we鈥檝e called their bluff,鈥� .
Workers have legitimate reasons to worry that as automakers shift to EVs they will shut down internal combustion engine and transmission plants and replace them with low-wage battery factory jobs. But the agreement with GM shows that is a choice, and that tackling climate change by shifting to a zero-emission economy does not have to mean leaving workers behind.
The federal subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate law President Biden signed last year, are understandably fueling uncertainty about autoworkers鈥� place in an electric future. The law鈥檚 incentives have spurred a flood of new clean-energy projects, including plans for private investment of more than $80 billion in electric vehicle plants and battery factories, most of them in the emerging an area stretching from Michigan to Georgia.
It鈥檚 a historic opportunity to bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs while tackling the existential threat of climate change. But as the auto industry restructures, it must do so in a way that鈥檚 fair to workers and produces vehicles that are affordable to consumers.
So far, red states with lower wages and less union representation have the most new clean-energy projects. That makes it all the more important that automakers offer livable wages and labor protections and do right by the workers who are building the future. That won鈥檛 be accomplished by emulating Tesla. It may produce some of the nation鈥檚 top-selling electric vehicles, but its nonunionized factories and have a history of complaints about difficult and unsafe working conditions.
Some workers may fear that vehicle electrification will leave them behind. But there is no evidence that it will cause a broad swath of blue-collar jobs to disappear or become 鈥渓ower paid, less skilled or less desirable,鈥� said Sanya Carley, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied and . 鈥淚t鈥檚 a false dichotomy to say that we need to pursue decarbonization or equity. We can do both at the same time.鈥�
Contrast that with Trump鈥檚 opportunistic defeatism, which only plays into the hands of oil and gas companies that stand to profit from any delay in phasing out their polluting products.
Fortunately, Biden understands that the energy transition does not have to come at the expense of good-paying, middle-class jobs. Many of the Inflation Reduction Act鈥檚 tax incentives for clean energy projects are . Biden has and wants more union-led training and apprenticeship programs to make sure that workers displaced by the shift are first in line for electric vehicle and battery manufacturing jobs.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to leave nobody behind,鈥� Biden
Biden and other leaders have a lot of work ahead to deliver on that promise, but it鈥檚 right to demand that good-paying jobs are a nonnegotiable part of our zero-emission future.
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Oct. 15
The Wall Street Journal on an antitrust reckoning for realtors:
As powerful lobbies go, few have more clout than the Realtors. But the cartel faces a major legal challenge on Monday when a federal jury trial begins in a class action against its rules that raise the cost of buying and selling homes (Burnett v. National Association of Realtors).
The National Association of Realtors requires its 1.5 million or so members to comply with numerous rules that inflate their pay. Missouri home sellers are arguing in the lawsuit that a rule requiring them to make a blanket offer of compensation to any potential buyer鈥檚 broker violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The Realtors require this offer if a seller wants the home listed on an affiliated multiple-listing service, which is a database of homes for sale that serves the same purpose as a stock exchange. While innovation and competition have slashed stockbroker commissions, the commission on home sales has stayed basically flat for decades at 6%, split evenly between the buyer and seller agents.
In other developed countries, buyer brokers are far less common and get paid by their clients, on average about 1.5%. This makes sense since the buyer broker is supposed to negotiate for his client against the seller. Having the seller pay the buyer broker creates a conflict of interest. It also prevents a buyer from paying his broker based on performance.
That means there鈥檚 little incentive for buyer brokers to negotiate better deals for clients, especially since they earn bigger commissions on higher-priced homes. The Realtors claim in defense that their code of ethics requires agents to 鈥減rotect and promote the interests of the client.鈥� But buyers might not know they are getting a raw deal.
It鈥檚 clear from the evidence presented by the plaintiffs that the Realtors鈥� primary interest is ensuring buyer brokers make a 3% commission no matter what. Brokerage firms train agents to set overall commission rates at 6%, split evenly between the buyer and seller agents. 鈥淥nce you start cutting commissions, you can never stop,鈥� one firm鈥檚 training document said. 鈥淐harge everyone the same and let them know it.鈥� Ninety percent of transactions offer buyer agent commissions of exactly 3%.
The Realtors deny that buyer brokers 鈥渟teer鈥� their clients away from homes that offer lower commissions, but a study published last week provides contrary evidence. Lower commission listings receive fewer page views on real-estate listing 鈥檚 website and take significantly longer to sell because brokers are less likely to forward them to clients.
The Realtors also claim their rules benefit consumers by giving them 鈥渁ccess to the largest database of properties available鈥� and reducing out-of-pocket costs. But commissions get baked into home prices. If not for the Realtors鈥� rule, many buyers wouldn鈥檛 use brokers or would negotiate lower commissions. Home prices would likely fall.
Sellers could decide they want to pay the buyer broker. But the Realtors鈥� requirement that they do so looks like a quintessential trade practice that the Sherman Act prohibits. The rule鈥檚 harmful effects are compounded by other anti-competitive Realtor rules, such as one that requires members who list properties in an alternative database to list them as well on a multiple-listing service (MLS).
This rule is being challenged under the Sherman Act in two other lawsuits. In one case, the real-estate start-up PLS.com sought to provide brokers an alternative platform to 鈥減ocket list鈥� homes. Pocket-listing is when seller agents distribute information about homes to a small network of buyers outside an MLS. It鈥檚 similar to trading stocks over the counter.
Some sellers prefer not to list their homes on an MLS because they don鈥檛 wish to share all of the information that the Realtors鈥� databases require. Sellers that pocket-list also don鈥檛 have to pay a commission to the buyer broker. As demand for pocket listings soared last decade, PLS.com gained 20,000 members and started to threaten the MLSs.
The Realtors鈥� response? Require agents who post listings on PLS.com to also publish those listing on an MLS. Agents who don鈥檛 comply face penalties, including fines and suspension from the MLS. After the Realtors adopted this policy, agents dropped their listings from PLS in part because home sellers didn鈥檛 want their information shared on the MLS.
A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel last year overruled a lower court鈥檚 dismissal of PLS.com鈥檚 lawsuit against the Realtors. Its policy 鈥渟hares all the hallmarks of a group boycott鈥� and impaired PLS.com鈥檚 ability to compete 鈥渙n almost any dimension鈥� by requiring seller brokers to supply MLSs 鈥渆ven if PLS鈥檚 product is better on the merits,鈥� wrote Judge Milan Smith.
We鈥檙e no fans of most antitrust suits, but the evidence is strong that Realtors鈥� practices are classic antitrust violations that harm consumers. The Realtors may own the U.S. Congress, but perhaps independent courts won鈥檛 be so intimidated.
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Oct. 17
The Guardian on the U.S. pivoting toward the Middle East:
In the wake of the carnage wrought by Hamas in southern , killing at least 1,300 people; with bombs still raining upon Gaza, having killed at least 3,000; and with 199 children and adults still held hostage, the horror is increased by the prospect of this violence begetting more.
The US hopes in the eastern Mediterranean, non-stop shuttle diplomacy by the secretary of state and a presidential visit to Israel will see off the twin spectres of even greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza and regional catastrophe drawing in Hezbollah in Lebanon and perhaps others. Officially, Joe Biden鈥檚 visit to Israel on Wednesday will demonstrate that the US stands with Israel. It may offer Benjamin Netanyahu, disgraced in the eyes of his nation, a political lifeline. But if it is a warning to Hezbollah and Iran, it is also being used to rein in Mr Netanyahu. The US reportedly only after Israel agreed to move on humanitarian aid and safe areas for civilians to avoid the bombing.
But the that the two countries will 鈥渄evelop a plan鈥� for delivery is noticeably modest. Even if implemented, it might not hold. Though Israel told the US it would restore the water supply to southern Gaza on Monday, those on the ground report only tiny quantities getting through. And while , delivering food and medicines is hard to do and of limited use while air strikes continue.
More critical may be the fact that the US, with its own disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq , is pressing Israel to think hard about its . President Biden warned publicly on Sunday that occupying Gaza would be a mistake. At that point, a ground incursion was regarded as imminent. But his visit has pressed pause, and on Tuesday, the IDF spokesperson Richard Hecht : 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different.鈥�
What happens in Gaza is likely to determine what happens in the north. On Monday, Israel gave an unprecedented order for residents close to the Lebanon border to evacuate south. The area has already seen rocket and missile attacks and border skirmishes. Hezbollah and Israel have since the 2006 war, for which Lebanese civilians mostly paid, though the militant group has built up its fire power and tested the boundaries. But Hezbollah has indicated that it has : the forcible displacement of large numbers of Palestinians outside Gaza 鈥� though Egypt has made it clear it does not want them 鈥� and a ground invasion aiming to destroy Hamas: Israel鈥檚 stated intention. Behind Hezbollah stands Iran; its foreign minister has of 鈥渕ultiple fronts鈥� opening against Israel if it continues to kill civilians in Gaza.
Iran does not want to lose , its main proxy force. But nor does it want to see Hamas wiped out. If that looks likely, experts suggest that it would probably also ask Iraqi militias to deploy to Syria or Lebanon. Washington has sent clear warnings to Tehran to stay out of it, while also indicating that it is not looking for a fight. The danger is that while neither the US nor Iran want to be drawn in further, the dynamics on the ground have their own momentum.
The unendurable violence witnessed this month in part has its roots in the belief of the US and other governments that the conflict at the heart of the Middle East was unsolvable but manageable, and could be sidelined. Many at the time that was wrong. It appears all the more impossible to manage now 鈥� and yet that is precisely why the US and others must attempt to do so.
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The Associated Press
