It's not Olympics but Polympics
By Oh Young-jin
Different from the case of NBC, the U.S. main Olympic broadcaster which mistook the host city, PyeongChang, as being in North Korea, there is a conspicuous reason that the quadrennial event in the South Korean city is not what is expected of a typical Olympics.
It deserves to be called "Polympics" with a capital P standing for politics of a complicated brand ― with fierce, divisive, unifying and confusing elements ― which may reset the existing order on the Korean Peninsula and affect the global one, as well.
The fierce element was made in plain sight when South Korea put all it had on the line and persuaded the United States and by extension Japan to delay the annual ROK-U.S. military drills that would have occurred during the Olympics. U.S. President Donald Trump reluctantly conceded to the combination of pleas and threats by President Moon Jae-in to delay the drills until after the PyeongChang Games.
By Oh Young-jin
Different from the case of NBC, the U.S. main Olympic broadcaster which mistook the host city, PyeongChang, as being in North Korea, there is a conspicuous reason that the quadrennial event in the South Korean city is not what is expected of a typical Olympics.
It deserves to be called "Polympics" with a capital P standing for politics of a complicated brand ― with fierce, divisive, unifying and confusing elements ― which may reset the existing order on the Korean Peninsula and affect the global one, as well.
The fierce element was made in plain sight when South Korea put all it had on the line and persuaded the United States and by extension Japan to delay the annual ROK-U.S. military drills that would have occurred during the Olympics. U.S. President Donald Trump reluctantly conceded to the combination of pleas and threats by President Moon Jae-in to delay the drills until after the PyeongChang Games.
Disconnect between US and South Korea grows amid rapprochement with North
A thawing of tensions between the two Koreas exposes cracks in the alliance between Seoul and Washington
South Korea has announced it will press ahead with improving ties with North Korea, arranging family reunions between those divided by the Korean war and seeking to cool military tensions, despite the US committing to a policy of “maximum pressure” on Kim Jong-un.
The announcement from Seoul’s unification ministry comes a day after a high-level North Korean delegation – including Kim’s sister – concluded a visit to the South that culminated in an invitation from Kim Jong-un for his counterpart Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang.
The deepening rapprochement between the two neighbours – still technically at war – has exposed a disconnect in policy between Seoul and Washington, a split Pyongyang has been trying to encourage since the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict.
Propaganda machines on full speed in northern Syria conflict
While the fighting between the Turkish and Syrian Kurdish camps rages in northern Syria, a war of words and videos online is being waged for hearts and minds.
The war between the Turkish military and Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria is being fought with ferocity on all fronts.
In the hills and valleys of Afrin, the Turkish military and their rebel allies are locked in a deadly fight against a US-supported alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters. Away from the gunfire and bombardments of the frontline though, both sides are waging a no-holds-barred propaganda war to win hearts and minds.
Weinstein Company sale in jeopardy after New York attorney general suesNew York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his former company, a move that complicates the sale of the disgraced mogul's film studio.
Schneiderman said Sunday that a four-month investigation into sexual harassment found "vicious and exploitative mistreatment of company employees." The suit cites what it calls "egregious" violations of state civil and human rights laws.
The suit also names Weinstein's brother Bob, with whom he co-founded The Weinstein Company. It was once one of Hollywood's most powerful film studios.
Myanmar: Security forces face 'action' over killings
Members of Myanmar's security forces will face legal action over the hacking and shooting deaths of Rohingya Muslims in restive Rakhine state, a government spokesman said.
The killings of 10 Rohingya men occurred in the village of Inn Din in September last year and the bodies were buried in a mass grave after they were hacked to death or shot and killed by Buddhist neighbours and Myanmar soldiers.
"Action according to the law" will be taken against seven soldiers, three policemen, and six villagers as part of an army investigation, said government spokesman Zaw Htay on Sunday.
FROM SCHOOL SUSPENSION TO IMMIGRATION DETENTION
For Immigrant Students on Long Island, Trump’s War on Gangs Means the Wrong T-Shirt Could Get You Deported
ONE DAY LAST spring, Dennis was walking to his 10th-grade English class at Hempstead High School on Long Island when he felt someone run up behind him. Three boys he had seen around school but didn’t know started shouting at him. They called him “chavala” — a common Central American slang word that some say can also describe enemies of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a gang born in Los Angeles in the 1980s that has become a vehicle for the Trump administration’s war on Central American immigrants.
Dennis, who was 17 at the time, said he wasn’t sure whether the word was gang slang or why anyone would call him that. “Maybe I talked to someone who was against them,” he told me in Spanish during a recent interview.
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