Vox Sentences: Angela Merkel vs. the neo-Nazis

Angela Merkel welcomes asylum seekers while neo-Nazis burn their shelters; Guatemala's president's administration is collapsing; and Jeb Bush struggles on immigration.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

Will Europe turn against refugees, or welcome them?

Supporters of the Pegida movement flip off hecklers as they march past the Chancellery on Monday in Berlin. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

• The German government has decided to help Syrian refugees by suspending EU regulations to allow them to apply for asylum in Germany — even if they originally entered the EU via Greece or Italy. (Under the standard regulations, asylum seekers can only apply in the first EU country they enter.)

  [The Independent / Allan Hall and John Lichfield]

• Greece and Italy are overwhelmed by refugees, mostly from Syria, but also from Afghanistan and Iraq (as well as economic migrants, because people don't separate themselves out into parcels just because immigration law does). Thousands are in Macedonia, which isn't in the EU, waiting to enter Greece, which is.

  [CNN / Arwa Damon, Gul Tuysuz, and Laura Smith-Spark]

• Germany, as a rich country, is stepping in to save the poorer countries of Italy and Greece, in the hope of inspiring other rich EU members to do the same. Angela Merkel isn't being altruistic; she's trying to preserve the EU by proving rich countries will pitch in when others are struggling.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Merkel met with French President François Hollande earlier this week, and the two released a joint statement calling for better standardized asylum policies across the EU.

  [Newsweek / Felicity Capon]

• France and Germany want other countries to follow Germany's lead. But most of Europe is in the midst of an anti-immigrant backlash. In some countries, the government is part of that backlash: Britain is considering a bill that would give anyone found working illegally a six-month prison sentence.

  [The Guardian]

• In other countries, the backlash comes in the form of increased support for far-right opposition parties like the Sweden Democrats Party, which is leading the polls for the first time in its history (and whose early party leader Gustaf Ekström was a former SS man).

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias ]

• In Germany itself, the backlash is simply violent. Neo-Nazis — actual, "heil Hitler"–chanting neo-Nazis — injured 31 police officers over the weekend in a protest that was intended to prevent a government shelter for asylum seekers from opening. (It opened anyway.)

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• The Social Democratic Party in Germany has fielded bomb threats after its officers visited the shelter where the protests took place. And a school gym that was intended to serve as a temporary shelter for asylum seekers has burned down in what investigators believe was an arson.

  [BBC]

"Corruption is the principal source of financing for political parties"

Protesters demanding Guatemalan President Otto Perez's resignation march in Guatemala City on Saturday. (Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images)

• The administration of Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina is collapsing due to a massive corruption scandal. Five of Perez Molina's Cabinet officials (out of 13) have resigned since Friday, and protesters are blocking roads in Guatemala City, calling for Perez Molina to step down.

  [Associated Press]

• Perez Molina's former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, is standing trial for her involvement in a customs-fraud scheme that allowed shady businesses to skip out on customs fees in exchange for bribes. (Half of the bribes went to Baldetti herself.)

  [BBC]

• The scandal's become known as "La Linea," after the phone hotline businesses could call to get the hookup.

  [InSight Crime / David Gagne]

• President Perez Molina insists he had nothing to do with La Linea. Guatemala's attorney general disagrees: On Friday, he called for impeachment proceedings.

  [Telesur ]

• The AG is backed by a UN-sponsored independent group that's been investigating Guatemalan corruption for months. Their conclusion, from a press conference in July: "Corruption is the principal source of financing for political parties."

  [Reuters via the Guardian]

• 25 percent of party revenue comes from the corrupt rich, the UN group found; another 25 percent comes from drug traffickers.

  [InSight Crime / Arron Daugherty]

• All of this is happening during the runup to a presidential election on September 6. Perez Molina himself isn't on the ballot, but his presumed successor's running mate has also been implicated in the La Linea scandal.

  [Reuters]

Jeb Bush sinks (like an) anchor

(Andy Cross/the Denver Post via Getty Images)

• Jeb Bush is finally attacking Donald Trump on immigration.

  [Jeb Bush]

• But Bush keeps tripping up. First, he came under fire for using the phrase "anchor babies," which Trump and others use as a derogatory reference to kids born in the US to unauthorized immigrants.

  [Slate / Josh Voorhees]

• In a former life, Jeb Bush chaired a group that sent out a memo warning Republicans not to say "anchor babies" because it is offensive to Latinos.

  [The Hill / Cameron Joseph]

• On Monday, Bush attempted to backpedal — kind of. He didn't apologize for using the phrase. But he said he was referring to "Asians" — in other words, the (mostly Chinese) parents-to-be who participate in the booming "birth tourism" industry. (Rolling Stone followed one of these families for a feature this month, which is quite good.)

  [Rolling Stone / Benjamin Carlson]

• Of course, by spelling out that he meant Asians instead, Bush was playing into the age-old trope that Asian Americans aren't quite American enough. At its best, this leads to Asian Americans getting asked all the time "but where are you REALLY from?"; at worst, it leads to the Japanese internment camps.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• What makes this especially awkward is that Jeb Bush himself has been particularly aware that Asian-American voters are a key constituency for the GOP.

  [MSNBC / Traci G. Lee]

• In all, not the most successful border visit for Bush. The New York Times has a lot of fun with their review: "The grim, adobe-and-stucco backdrop was like a Spanish colonial dungeon; it looked as if the grim-faced Mr. Bush had come to announce the arrest of Zorro."

  [The New York Times / Editorial]

MISCELLANEOUS

"The term 'fuckboy' began, like all great things in our society, with Cam'Ron." [Slate / Jacob Brogan]

• Worrying about the second-order effects of self-driving cars: If automated taxis get cheap enough to displace public transit, what happens to subways?

  [Benedict Evans]

• There is an OPEC for maple syrup, and they are not to be fucked with.

  [NYT / Ian Austen]

• Justin Bieber, Skrillex, and Diplo explain — in considerable detail — how hit pop songs are made in 2015.

  [NYT / Taige Jensen, Graham Roberts, Alicia Desantis and Yuliya Parshina-Kottas]

• Looks like Times Square is returning to its roots as a weird debaucherous outdoor sex palace.

  [Slate / Ben Mathis-Lilley]

VERBATIM

"We know his goal is to make America great again. It’s on his hat." [Anonymous Donald Trump supporter via Time / Sam Frizell]

• "Dominic Deville rents himself out as an 'evil birthday clown' who leaves scary notes for your children, warning them that they're being watched and that they'll soon be attacked. At the end of a terrifying week, your child will indeed be attacked. Deville, wearing a freaky clown mask, will smash a cake into your child's face."

  [Huffington Post / Andy Campbell]

• "'All my life I believed that I was circumcised,' [Patrick Stewart] said. His wife begged to differ; when he asked his physician in Los Angeles recently to resolve the issue, the doctor sided with her."

  [NYT / Robert Ito]

• "Imagine a world in which the leadership of the NAACP was all-white; now consider that not a single autistic person serves on the board of Autism Speaks."

  [LA Times / Steve Silberman]

• "Literary Magazines for Socialists Funded by the CIA, Ranked."

  [The Awl / Patrick Iber]

WATCH THIS

(Vox/Estelle Caswell)

• This is the world's deadliest border.

  [YouTube / Estelle Caswell and Dara Lind]

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