Three women now head the three branches of the Israeli government: – Tzipi Livni as Prime Minister – Dorit Beinish as Chief Justice - Dalya Itzik as Speaker of the Knesset. No doubt this is the easiest way for Israel to become just a “normal” Middle Eastern country: all of its neighbors have governments stuffed to the gills with powerful women, right?  (Luckily, Israel does have Shimon Peres in the ceremonial role of President, with which to fool some of those governments into thinking that men are in charge.)

Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released on Wednesday. The Washington-based Pew Research Center’s global attitude survey found that most Muslims in countries where they are in the majority worry about the rise of Islamic extremism at home and abroad. Large numbers of respondents in several Muslim countries also identified struggles within their countries between people who want to modernize the society and those dedicated to maintaining fundamentalist practices of Islam. Regarding respondents’ attitudes toward Jews, Britain was the survey’s only European country to report no significant increase in anti-Jewish attitudes. Just under one in 10 British respondents held those views. Similar numbers of Americans reported negative views of Jews during those same years.

During the Cold War, Moscow’s leverage depended on its military might. Today, vast reserves of oil and gas, lying between the hungry markets of Europe and East Asia, have taken over that role. The importance that Russia attaches to hydrocarbon diplomacy was underlined yesterday by President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for a formal demarcation of the territory that it claims under the Arctic Ocean. Its aggressive policy towards a region whose melting icecap offers access to possibly huge energy and mineral deposits was dramatically illustrated last year by the planting of a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole. The front line of the confrontation between Russia and the West has shifted from the North German Plain to …

Mein guter Freund Robert Matthews hat einen gepfefferten Kommentar verfasst zu den totalitären Machenschaften der wissenschaftlichen Fundamentalisten in der Royal Society: The hard-line zealots of the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious scientific institution, finally did for Michael Reiss yesterday. Reiss was the Society’s director of education. He is an evolutionary biologist - and a minister in the Church of England. Last week he went public with his belief that science teachers shouldn’t simply dismiss questions from pupils about creationism, but explain why it’s not compatible with science. Reiss made clear that he did not believe in creationism himself, nor believed it should be given equal billing with evolution. It made no difference: within hours, the Royal Society zealots mounted a full-scale character assassination and last night Reiss agreed to step down. The zealots’ point-man was Richard ‘Mad Mullah’ Dawkins, who compared having “a clergyman” directing education at the Royal Society …

Lights could go out in Britain within years caused by government failures to secure energy supplies, an expert warned yesterday. Repeated blackouts could lead to anarchy as society “crumbled”, Professor Ian Fells said in a report for a UK industrialist. Britain will lose one-third of its generating capacity within a decade as ageing nuclear and coal power stations are shut down, he said. Professor Fells said: “It will be a close run thing to provide electricity to keep the lights on through the next decade. “Electricity is the lifeblood of civilisation and without it we spiral down into anarchy and chaos.” Den Bericht von Professor Ian Fells and Candida Whitmill (’A pragmatic energy policy for the UK) kann man hier finden: Executive Summary

The EU parliament’s legal affairs committee, which met on September 9th, has ruled that a regulation forcing car makers to cut average CO2 emissions is illegal.

My reaction to Lehman Brothers’ declaring of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the refusal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and others to take extraordinary Bear Stearns-like measures for the government to prop the firm up can be summed up in three words: It’s about time! Business failure is not only a permissible outcome of capitalism, it’s a necessary one. As the great economist Joseph Schumpeter has written, the process of “creative destruction” is essential for the market to function. For innovation to flourish and the standard of living of the populace to improve, the market must be free to reward success and punish failure.

Germany must push for change in how European countries share the financial burdens of tighter carbon trading rules after 2012, or face prohibitive rises in carbon avoidance costs, energy users’ group VIK said on Monday. “Germany’s carbon trading position has to become top of the political agenda as we get closer to elections in 2009, the ball is in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s court to avert disaster,” said Alfred Richmann, managing director of the Essen-based group. Richmann’s remarks came days after the European Parliament’s industry committee endorsed plans for CO2 emitters to buy permits for their greenhouse gas emissions from 2013 at auction, while ignoring German pleas for a raft of exemptions. VIK has calculated that the auctions will bring the government 15 billion euros ($21 billion) of additional annual income which would have to be borne by consumers in the sectors it represents, including steel, paper, aluminum and cement.