*The Best Political Loser | Everyone Hates Macron | Mission Improbable

“Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.” – Mario Puzo

“A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults” – Ibid.

You Sacrebleu It, Macron: After a year and a half in office, the bloom is off the rose for France’s President Emmanuel Macron. His countrymen had been willing to give the confident young man, with his optimistic promises of sweeping change for the betterment of all, a chance. But despite 18 months of reforms and pro-free-trade, pro-European policies, the unemployment rate hasn’t budged below 9 percent, and the economy is growing at a meager 1.7 percent. A recent poll showed Macron’s approval rating had dipped precariously to only 19 percent; 60 percent found his achievements “negative.” Ordinary French people believe that so far their lives haven’t improved, and they’ve become outspokenly critical, perhaps indicating a broader danger for liberal democracy in Europe vis-a-vis active forces of nativism.

Macron’s defenders say it is too soon to pass judgment, that his agenda is for the long haul. They point to tenuous signals that the president’s program is having an effect: 40 percent more youth enrolled in apprenticeships, 15 percent less disputes before labor tribunals, 17.6 billion invested in job training programs. One spokesman said “All our policies are geared toward emancipation, so that no matter where you start, you will have the same chance as anybody else. We want people to leave poverty, not live better in poverty.” To those without Macron’s privileged background, such words may seem to ring hollow.

Rwandan Strep Crisis: Strep throat goes undiagnosed in impoverished Rwanda. Without treatment, it can lead to rheumatic fever and heart disease, and become a long, slow death for thousands. The country of 12 million has only five cardiologists and no heart surgeons or hospitals equipped to perform heart operations. Team Heart’s health professionals, using their own money and vacation time, volunteer to travel once a year to Kigali to perform life saving heart surgery on a few of the many that show up for care. (NYT)

You Miss All The Shots You Don’t Take: If at first you don’t get elected, try, try again. That’s perennial Canadian candidate John Turmel’s policy. He’s entered and lost 95 political contests, more than anybody else in the world, but he doesn’t feel sorry for himself. He considers elections the best low-cost means of disseminating ideas, and he has some doozies. (Guardian)

– “#NotHim: Brazilian Women Take Aim at Presidential Candidate:Brazilian women may not have galvanized behind any one candidate in the coming presidential election, but a growing number have taken to social media to make clear who they will not vote for: the far-right front-runner Jair Bolsonaro.” (NYT)

– “Hong Kong bans pro-independence party as China tightens grip: Hong Kong National Party banned in the interests of ‘national safety’” (Guardian)

– “Hong Kong Is Bound Tighter to China (by Bridge and Bullet Train): On Sunday, Hong Kong gets a high-speed rail connection to Guangzhou and other cities in mainland China. Not everyone is thrilled.” (NYT)

Russia Sends a Gift That Sends “Gifts”: The downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian government forces last week complicates a carefully-crafted working relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin blames Israel for the shoot-down, which was one of the deadliest incidents for regular Russian service members in the Syrian war. Until that incident Russia had been cooperating with Israel by agreeing not to provide Syria with an advanced air defense system. Syria’s antiquated air defenses enabled Israeli warplanes to fly missions relatively easily through Syrian airspace; officials recently admitted in the past two years more than 200 bombing strikes against Iranian targets had been conducted by Israel inside Syria.

Moscow now says it will send Russia’s powerful S-300 ground-to-air missile defense systems to Syria in the next two weeks. Additionally it will jam military aircraft communications in the airspace next to Syria over the Mediterranean Sea. Russian officials suggested the immediate goal was to protect its aircraft from accidental shoot-downs, but the practical effect would be to shift the military balance in Syria toward President Bashar al-Assad, Iran and its allied militia, Hezbollah. Russian cooperation is seen by Israel as key to protecting the latter’s interests in Syria, by preventing a build-up of Iranian-linked bases and infrastructure. Transfer of the S-300 defense system to Syria could definitely thwart Israel’s efforts to contain Iranian influence. In a phone call Monday, Netanyahu reiterated his condolences to Putin over the deaths of the Russian soldiers, and the leaders agreed to continue dialogue.

Someone Got The Kremlin Wet: Some European countries are taking a more confrontational approach to counterespionage. Britain arrested two Russian men earlier this month, charging them with poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter, and Estonia arrested a military officer and his father, both Russian-Estonian citizens, charging them with having spied for the Kremlin for years. Then on Friday Norwegian authorities arrested a Russian man suspected of unlawfully gathering information during an inter-parliamentary seminar on digitization held in Norway this month. (WaPo)

Additional Read: “Russian passport leak after Salisbury may reveal spy methods: Novichok suspects named on list of suspected agents with similar passport numbers” (Guardian)

Mission Improbable: Newly-confirmed CIA Director Gina Haspel spoke at the University of Louisville Monday, laying out her plans to redirect the agency’s focus to nations that challenge or threaten the United States. It marks a return to the spy agency’s original espionage mission, before the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it was transformed into a paramilitary organization conducting lethal operations against terrorists around the world. During the past 17 years the agency had become mired in controversy over its detention and interrogation techniques. Haspel herself, during her confirmation process, was grilled by senators on her role in the CIA’s brutal treatment of detainees. (WaPo)

You’re Maybe Possibly Fired: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein twice denied a story appearing last Friday in the New York Times alleging in the spring of 2017 he had discussed secretly recording President Trump and utilizing the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power. Monday White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Rosenstein and Trump “had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories,”adding that Rosenstein is scheduled to return Thursday for an in-person conversation with the president. Trump is currently in New York City for the UN General Assembly meeting. (NPR)

Sliver Linings: According to new FBI data, violent crime and murder in the US decreased ever so slightly in 2017 after two years of increases. Last year’s murder rate was 5.3 per 100,000 residents, down from 5.4 the year before. It remains half what it was during the violent crime wave of the early 1990s, but it’s still more than the record low violence levels of the middle years of the Obama presidency. Nearly 3,000 more Americans were murdered in 2017 than in 2013, with guns accounting for about 73 percent of the deaths. (Guardian)

This Land Is My Land, This Land Is My Land: The Trump administration announced Saturday that they plan to propose a rule that will require “those seeking to immigrate to the United States must show they can support themselves financially,” This new law would negatively impact immigrants who are labeled as a “public charge” AKA anyone who would need taxpayer funded programs like Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Section 8 housing. Trump’s administration says the goal of this new rule is to protect taxpayers but some pro-immigrant advocates claim it is strictly to limit the number of immigrants in the country. (NPR)

– “Hospital ER reports 161 percent spike in visits involving electric scooters: As injured electric-scooter riders pour into emergency departments across the country, doctors have scrambled to document a trend that many view as a growing public safety crisis.” (WaPo)

– “Worry Less About Crumbling Roads, More About Crumbling Libraries:America’s social infrastructure is falling apart, and it’s hurting democracy.” (Atlantic)

– “After Years of Abusive E-mails, the Creator of Linux Steps Aside: The e-mails of the celebrated programmer Linus Torvalds land like thunderbolts from on high onto public lists, full of invective, insults, and demeaning language.” (New Yorker)

– “A Bunch Of Cocaine: Boxes Of Donated Bananas Contained $17.8 Million Worth Of Drugs” And 210% of your daily potassium intake. (NPR)

– “Uninformed Consent: Companies want access to more and more of your personal data — from where you are to what’s in your DNA. Can they unlock its value without triggering a privacy backlash?” (HBR)

– “19-Year-Old Survives 49 Days At Sea After Floating Hut Drifts To Guam:Aldi Novel Adilang’s floating fishing hut was spotted by a passing cargo ship, the MV Arpeggio, after drifting at sea for more than a month.” (NPR)

– “The making of the NRA’s Dana Loesch: How an early marriage, Bill Clinton’s antics, and 9/11 transformed a sweet young woman into a sleek, insult-hurling media star who calls the rest of the media ‘rat bastards.’” From the people who brought you: guns. (STLMAG)

– “How to Buy Your Way Into Leonardo DiCaprio’s Inner Circle (Exclusive Book Excerpt)” It only costs the purchase of 982 copies of “The Revenant” on Blu-Ray. (Hollywood Reporter)

– “Mosquitoes Genetically Modified To Crash Species That Spreads Malaria: For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that a controversial new kind of genetic engineering can rapidly spread a self-destructive genetic modification through a complex species.”

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