Circumstances: Looking at the Newspapers, 1/28/19 (International)

Nikkei Asian Review, "Asia shares blame for its export slump"

A moment of reckoning for Asia's exporters is a time for somber reflection and for bold action. Since Jan. 1, the region's advanced economies reported export drops thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. First came news that December overseas shipments by South Korea fell 1.2% from a year earlier. Then it was Taiwan down 3%, Singapore down 8.5%, and now the biggest collateral-damage victim -- Japan down 3.8%. To no surprise, China also had a rough December. Exports slid 4.4%, the steepest decline in more than two years. Asia's biggest economy is, of course, the main target of Trump's protectionist jihad. But as China's neighbors sustain blows, they must accept some of the blame for their difficulties -- and make urgent adjustments. [link]

Vatican Insider, "Pope Francis’ 'Montini-inspired realism'"

The "criterion" of Christianity is not abstract "beautiful words", or "fantasies" of "false prophets", but it is "concreteness". Pope Francis said this today, in the homily delivered during the morning mass celebrated at Casa Santa Marta. A few hours later, this criterion was also the basis for the traditional speech delivered at the beginning of each year by the Pope before the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. The red thread that runs throughout the entire papal intervention, anticipated every year as a tool to decipher Vatican geopolitics, is that of realism, condensed in the formula of multipolarity and "multilateral diplomacy" as the most appropriate instruments for reducing conflicts and alleviating the real suffering of peoples. The Bishop of Rome, from the very beginning of his speech, made it clear that the Church is interested in material and social emergencies that affect the entire human family only by "fidelity to the spiritual mission ", with no intention of “interfering in the life of States", and with the sole "desire to be at the service of every human being”. A concern that "leads the Church everywhere to work for the growth of peaceful and reconciled societies”. The Pope did not elaborate new geopolitical theories. He moved in the "realist" wake of his predecessor Paul VI, using the 1965 speech of the Pontiff from Brescia to the UN as a compass to orient himself in front of the current state of the world. [link]

BBC News, "Harlow Star and three other newspapers to close in print"

Four local newspapers are to close their print editions because of an "unsustainable" decline in advertising. The news affects the Harlow Star, Herts and Essex Observer, the Buckinghamshire Advertiser, and the Buckinghamshire Examiner. Readers have described the closure as "tragic news" and "awful". Owner Reach plc said it announced the decision with "great sadness" but would continue to cover stories online. It said there would be no editorial redundancies, and that next week's print editions would be the last. Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, said it was "tragic news" for the town. [link]

The New York Times "Saving NATO"

The idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO is surreal. The alliance, now numbering 29 countries, has been the foundation of trans-Atlantic stability and prosperity for seven decades. It continues to keep a predatory Russia at bay and diminish the danger that American soldiers might once again have to fight on European soil. Yet in Donald Trump’s go-it-alone presidency, the possibility of America’s withdrawal has become such a concern that Congress is taking steps to prevent it. The Democratic-led House on Jan. 22 voted 357-22 for a bipartisan bill that would tie Mr. Trump’s hands by refusing him any federal money to pay the costs of leaving the alliance. [link]

Asia Times, "Creating a global lost generation"

Halfway through 2018, US network MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski hurled a mother-to-mother dagger at Ivanka Trump. How, during the very weeks when the headlines were filled with grim news of child separations and suffering at the US-Mexico border, she asked, could the first daughter and presidential adviser be so tone-deaf as to show herself hugging her two-year-old son? Similarly, six months earlier, she had been photographed posing with her six-year-old daughter in the glossiest of photos. America had, in other words, found its very own Marie Antoinette, gloating while others suffered. “I wish,” Brzezinski tweeted at Ivanka, “you would speak for all mothers and take a stand for all mothers and children.” [link]