9 MAY

No deal

President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of its nuclear deal with Iran, going against advice from European allies and signalling the reinstatement of economic sanctions that were waived when the deal was signed in 2015.

After months of threatening that he would abandon what he called "the worst deal ever made", Trump confirmed the move Tuesday. A signature foreign policy achievement of Barack Obama, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action offered the curbing of Iran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions that had been imposed by the United Nations, United States and European Union. 

In response, Iran said it was preparing to restart uranium enrichment, key for making both nuclear energy and weapons. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said: "The US has announced that it doesn't respect its commitments... I have ordered the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran to be ready for action if needed, so that if necessary we can resume our enrichment on an industrial level without any limitations."

NEWS WRAP

Sinking 'ship?

• Votes are being counted in a crucial West Virginia Senate primary where the president and his son, Donald Jr., have urged voters to avoid selecting leading candidate Don Blankenship. Blakenship, a former coal baron who has released a series of bizarre ads attacking the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has been involved in a long line of scandals, including a stint in jail in connection to a mine explosion that killed 29 people in 2010. Trump has tweeted his concern that Blankenship couldn't win against the Democratic candidate, signaling Republican anxiety over the prospect of forfeiting yet another red-state Senate race. READ MORE HERE.
   

• New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has resigned amid four separate physical assault allegations. Previously lauded as a champion of women's rights, Schneiderman announced his resignation just three hours after a New Yorker article detailed the allegations. In a statement, he said he "strongly contests" the accusations. Schneiderman previously made headlines when he launched an investigation into the past handling of criminal complaints against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. READ MORE HERE.
   
• China has deployed missiles in the South China Sea, drawing the concern of the United States and Australia. China insists the long-range, anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles installed on the Spratly Islands are purely "defensive". The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to Ashley Townshend about the legitimacy of this claim and the implications for the region. READ MORE HERE.
   
• Rudy Giuliani has continued to front the media in spectacular fashion in his second week as a member of President Trump's legal team. The former New York mayor told ABC that the president would not have to comply if issued with a subpoena by the Mueller investigation. "He’s the president of the United States. We can assert the same privileges other presidents have,” he said. Giuliani previously landed the president in hot water when he claimed Trump had reimbursed lawyer Michael Cohen for the money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. READ MORE HERE.
   
• Senator John McCain has been spending time with friends and family on his Arizona ranch as treatment for aggressive brain cancer takes its toll. The 81-year-old Republican senator will publish a book this month on his life in politics and view of the current political landscape. In what he admits will be his last book, Senator McCain reveals his regret about not selecting former Senator Joseph I. Lieberman as his running mate in 2008, and opting instead for Sarah Palin. It's been widely reported that McCain's family have requested that President Trump not attend his funeral if he is to pass away. READ MORE HERE. 
   
• Is the real Richard Nixon to be heard on the infamous White House tapes, threatening, bullying, and unrestrained in his criminal proclivities? Or are there other dimensions to the 37th president of the United States, as suggested in Paul A. Farrell's new biography: Richard Nixon: The Life. Stephen Loosley reviewed the book for The Australian last week and says that it is a surprisingly fresh and revealing portrait of the man that demonstrated the destructive power a president can wield. READ MORE HERE.

Children deserve every opportunity to enjoy their innocence.

First Lady Melania Trump
(Launching her 'Be Best' program for children's wellbeing)
7 May 2018

ANALYSIS

Kanye West: No one man should have all that power

Tara Colley
Lecturer, American Studies

In the fortnight since Kanye West reactivated his Twitter and shared a photo of himself in a “Make America Great Again” hat, a storm of media commentary, tweets and public debate has raged. One popular publication describes the stakes in the saga in no lesser terms than “the war for Kanye’s political soul”. But why should Kanye and his politics matter to us? Perhaps it is that President Trump’s rise to power has impressed on us, as it has Kanye, the untapped potential of rogue celebrity. 

Kanye is fully cognisant of the way he has become a lightning rod for controversy – a phenomenon he attributes somewhat reluctantly to the veiled racism of the mainstream media. “If it’s a white publication and they use the word rapper, they’re not saying that in a complimentary way.” The same impulse that drove Kanye in 2005 to claim that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” is what drives his support not for Trump but for the idea that Trump can happen.

Kanye doesn’t think white people aren’t racist anymore, but he does think black America has won the right to an identity not defined by it. His desire for a black child to see Michael Jordan rather than Harriet Tubman on their currency is the desire to imbue his people with confidence, a desire to be released from the control of history. To Kanye, the old guard of politics represent control – capitulation to a cynicism that came with experience and knowledge of the system. “I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Kanye remarks of the improbable Trump victory. In the wake of a personal battle with mental health and addiction issues – he became addicted to the opioids he was prescribed to treat his mental health problems – a world in which he, and everyone else, is less controlled sounds a lot like freedom. 

What is significant about Kanye’s recent flurry of tweets and soundbites is how they manifest his fervent belief in the power of celebrity. This is not the power traditionally brandished by the rapper as kingpin or outlaw – the fabled ‘badman’ of African diasporic folklore. Nor is it the power we routinely associate with celebrity – the influence and status that comes with being popular, in the sense of being well-liked.

Trump’s ascent to the most powerful office in the world demonstrates the arguably unprecedented power of celebrity in the social media age. This is why, as Kanye tweeted last week, it was not Obama but Trump who made Kanye think he – an “outsider” – could be president. “A black man can’t be imperfect in the public eye,” Kanye argues, “and that’s a form of control.” An imperfect black president – someone more like Trump than Obama – would prove that America was capable of overcoming race. Kanye, who uses Twitter as a stream of consciousness (and surely recognises an unfiltered ally in the Twitter activity of the POTUS) is, in his words, “fighting the simulation”. For a black celebrity in America to speak without filter is, he argues, nothing short of courageous.

At one point in their recent lengthy interview, radio host Charlamagne tha God responds to one of Kanye’s statements with awe. “That was a bar!” he claims, a gesture of respect towards a much-celebrated, if oft-confounding, rapper. “Yeah…that was a tweet!” Kanye replies, cementing his focus, at least for now, in the radical communicative potential not of rap, but of Twitter.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Wednesday, 9 May: US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the nomination of Gina Haspel to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
   

• Thursday, 10 May: US Labor Department releases April inflation figures.
   

• 10-11 May: Former US presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Melbourne and Sydney for a speaking tour.
   

• Saturday, 12 May: Iraq parliamentary elections.

EVENT

Walter V Robinson: Spotlight on the resurgence of American investigative reporting

VIDEO

Boris Johnson makes the case for the Iran nuclear deal on 'Fox and Friends'

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#Iran

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University of Sydney NSW 2006

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