Fast Takes: Brazilian presidents lousy Beijing bet, Israels not the problem and more

Latin beat: Lula’s Lousy Beijing Bet“Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has intensified his confrontation with the US and his reliance on Communist China — a strategy that could seriously jeopardize Brazil’s economy, security, and sovereignty,” warns Arturo McFields at The Hill.The leftist leader’s embrace of “panda bonds” and “yuan as currency” will limit Brazil’s “financial freedom to sell to countries other than the communist power.” Joint space-related ventures will enable Beijing to “improve military capabilities” in a US sphere of influence.

Lula’s China ploy is high- risk: Tying Brazil’s “telecommunications, space security, trade and now bonds” to Beijing’s “economic fluctuations” will “leave Brazilian finances vulnerable.” Upshot: “Confrontation with the US is both futile and unnecessary, but dependency on Beijing puts Brazil’s economy at risk and endangers the security of the Americas.”Mideast watch: Israel’s Not the ProblemSam Harris won’t debate his support for Israel, the podcaster explains at his Substack, because no Jewish state’s “failings” come close to altering the facts that “the ethical difference between Israel and her enemies remains vast,” “militant Islam is 10 times worse than you think” and “the global preoccupation with the Jewish state” is “contemptible.” The world’s obsession with Israel, “and the double standards to which its people are held,” are core to the “shape-shifting moral affliction” of antsemitism.That matters, because antisemites “bring censorship, political repression, conspiracy thinking,” dehumanization and scapegoating.

Decrying antisemitism isn’t “special pleading” but “a defense of the moral and institutional architecture” that free societies require.Culture critic: The Paradox of ColorblindnessThey’re welcome but “incomplete”: “Two recent Supreme Court decisions — on affirmative action and on vot...