Democracy and government

U.S. envoy dispatched following settlement row and escalating violence in the West Bank. Tight race as Iraqis await final election results. FARC kidnaps five in Colombia. Influential Nepalese peace broker dies at 86. All this and more in today’s security briefing.

“I'd prefer, rather than going to a detention centre ... to be in prison for the rest of my life,” said Cecilia. Debora Singer works with women seeking asylum in the UK and argues that it is high time that the gender sensitive culture developed for women in the criminal justice system is transferred into the asylum system.

A constitution for the UK may be emerging, typically in the form of an official manual. But what if “We the people” were to begin from the popular end of the debate? Andrew Blick reviews a brave book that seeks to initiate that debate.

The Home Office minister is in la la land over child detention.

The votes are in and the Iraqi coalitions have entered a complex process of deal making and realignment. Little can be predicted with any certainty, but the Kurdish parties look set to regain their place as kingmakers in Baghdad.

The UK's leading left-wing weekly runs a major essay calling for a realignment from below

My name is Denny de la Haye, and I'm running for Parliament in Hackney South and Shoreditch. My manifesto is a little unusual... I'm proposing that instead of having my own policies, I will hold online polls to determine how I should vote in Parliament.

‘Red Shirts’ continue symbolic blood protest in Bangkok. Israel lifts West Bank closure. North Korea has 1,000 missiles, says South Korea. Erdogan warns that Turkey might deport up to 100,000 Armenians. Yemen rebels free 178 soldiers and civilians. Fresh clashes erupt near the central Nigerian city of Jos. All this and more in today’s security briefing.

Win a T-shirt from Philosophy football.

Government policy of 'managed migration' has backfired and produced public mistrust related to a vicious circle, of the assurance of control and the reality of failure. With the major parties set to continue this system, Ruth Grove White argues that there is ample scope to challenge the principles behind managed migration. We just need to be brave enough to make the case.

"I may able to give my children whatever they may need and ask for but the sacrifices in exchange of all these is far cruel, I was not there to take care of them when they were sick, I never see them grow.....migrant or second class citizen I may be, I am one of the migrants who cry for any injustices and abuse in job, labour law and fellow mankind."

At what point do the rights of migrant domestic workers as human beings and as workers start to take precedence over their status as migrants?

Migration has opened up the chance for us to see new places and experience new things, but not everyone has the same freedoms to move where they want when they want - with some facing quite stark penalties for their border crossings.

The Lib Dem leaders are starting to make sense in the face of the coming UK election

Chinese J-8 attack jets delivered in Venezuela. Sri Lankan general goes on military trial while supporters protest. Nigerian militants attack city with car bombs. South African youth leader found guilty of hate speech. All this and much more, in today’s security briefing.

On previous occasions of decline, social democracy has bounced back in Europe, but this time the record includes ideological and cultural meltdown. What would it take to survive the current crisis?