INTL Europe: Politics, Economics and Military. January 2020

[Plain Jane]

Armed guards evacuate Macron as violent protest storms French theatre

FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron was evacuated from a Paris theatre last night after violent protesters broke into the venue in an attempt to confront the country’s embattled leader.

www.express.co.uk

Macron PANIC: Armed guards evacuate president as violent protesters storm French theatre
FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron was evacuated from a Paris theatre last night after violent protesters broke into the venue in an attempt to confront the country’s embattled leader.
By OLI SMITH
11:11, Sat, Jan 18, 2020 | UPDATED: 11:48, Sat, Jan 18, 2020

Furious protests against Emmanuel Macron escalated last night after a group of protesters managed to storm the theatre the French President was attending. The mob of anti-government protesters could be heard chanting anti-Macron slogans as they clashed with police at the venue. The level of violence prompted security forces to swiftly evacuate Mr Macron from the building, rushing him out to a black car under a hail of boos.

He has been attending the packed Paris theatre close to the Eurostar, reportedly with his wife Brigitte, when the protest took place.

Around 30 demonstrators tried to bulldoze their way inside to reach him.

While police tried to hold back the protesters, several managed to break into the building, amid chants of "Macron, resign!"

It is unclear what the protests would have done if they had reached the French President, amid soaring anger at his controversial pension reforms.

A presidential source confirmed the evacuation but claimed he later returned to the theatre to watch the play - a modernist drama called The Fly.

The source said Mr Macron "will continue to go to the theatre as he usually does and will ensure that political actions do not disturb the freedom of expression, the freedom of artists, and the freedom of creativity".

It is thought that the protest erupted when Taha Bouhafa, 22, a political activist, tweeted that he was sitting just behind the president at the theatre.

He filmed the French head of state before he urged people to rush in - a remark he was later believed to have been arrested for.

Mr Bouhafa tweeted: "I am currently at the Bouffes du Nord theatre (Metro station, La Chapelle) 3 rows behind the President of the Republic.

"Activists are around the corner and are calling on everyone to come in. Something is brewing. The evening may be hectic."

Richard Lioger, an MP in Macron's party, condemned the storming of the theatre as "an unacceptable attempt at intrusion".


The incident came on the 44th day of strikes aimed at defeating the French Government's plans to overhaul the country's pension system.

The weeks of strikes and protests have disrupted public transport, schools, hospitals, courthouses and even opera houses and the Eiffel tower.

The French prime minister said that the SNCF train authority and the RATP, which runs public transport, had lost more than a €1bn (£852m) since the start of the strike.

Mr Macron's plan is to replace the current system of 42 different pension regimes with a single, points-based system.

 

[Plain Jane]

This election may be worth watching because of the sentiments for uniting both Ireland and Northern Ireland, Brexit, health care issues, and the rise of gang violence which appears to homegrown.

Election 2020: Will Saturday polling day boost turnout?

Experts on voter behaviour caution that this switch may not have the desired effect

www.irishtimes.com

Election 2020: Will Saturday polling day boost turnout?
Experts on voter behaviour caution that this switch may not have the desired effect
about 8 hours ago
Brian Hutton

To the surprise of many Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declared February 8th as polling day, claiming it would be easier for families and younger voters working or studying away from home to cast their ballots.

The decision took Opposition parties and political observers by surprise. It also raised suspicions that Fine Gael scented electoral gains through a shift in the type of voters turning out on the day.

However, one of the world’s leading experts on voter behaviour, Canadian-based prof André Blais of the University of Montreal, has cast doubt on Varadkar’s hopes and expectations that switching to weekend voting increases turnout.

“I think the evidence on this is pretty ambiguous,” he said. “My own view, at this point of time, is that there isn’t much impact. Different studies have come up with different results and my own position is that it has very little effect.”

He added: “The main reason people decide to vote is really how interested they are in the election, whether they have a feeling of duty or not to vote. I think it is mostly about motivation.

“Also, when it is on a weekend, it has advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are people have more time. But disadvantages may include people planning other activities.”

However, Blais said it is possible that different polling days would affect the type of voter that turns out. “I haven’t seen hard evidence about this, but it might,” he said.

But Fianna Fáil smells a rat. Director of elections Dara Calleary suggested as much: “This Taoiseach doesn’t do anything unless there is an opinion poll and research carried out before he does it.”

However, a Varadkar spokesman insisted that no such research was conducted ahead of moving away from weekday voting for the first time in the history of the State – though the 1918 election also took place on a Saturday.

One effect of this could be a bigger vote for parties who tap into the growing politicisation of younger people

Varadkar “consulted widely on this matter with colleagues, advisers, and others”, he said.

• Fintan O’Toole: Ten big questions for incoming politicians
• Academic calls for election climate change debate among party leaders
• Varadkar insists Ireland a ‘safe country’ in wake of violence

Regardless of who or what informed the decision, the burning question is what, if anything, is the likely impact.
Deputy director of the National Youth Council of Ireland James Doorley has long campaigned for weekend voting and expects a spike in younger voters, particularly outside the main cities.
“A lot of young people who are studying in a university, training or doing an apprenticeship in another part of the country are more likely to be back home – particularly 18 to 25-year-olds who wouldn’t have changed their registration and whose vote is where they were brought up,” he said.
One effect of this could be a bigger vote for parties who tap into the growing politicisation of younger people over climate action, in particular, but also mental health, housing and homelessness, he added.
“Young people are very exercised by issues, not parties and labels and some of the stuff that happens in the Dáil,” he said. “Climate action is not the sole issue, but it is one where young people are impatient and frustrated that more isn’t being done.”
President of the Union of Students in Ireland Lorna Fitzpatrick agrees, but noted “a lot of students work over the weekend to try and pay their way through college, with the cost of living and second-highest fees in Europe and so on. Students are usually working where they are studying and not where they are registered to vote.”
Concerns have also been raised that thousands who believe they are registered to vote may not be on the electoral register.
Dr Adrian Kavanagh, a political geographer at Maynooth University, said the register is “always in a mess” and was an unknown quantity when it comes to predicting any shifts in voter behaviour with weekend voting.

“I think that confusion is going to mess things up,” he said.
Another big unknown will be the impact of the weather on the day.
“We are in the middle of winter. We don’t know what weather will be like at the start of February,” said Kavanagh. “We could find that turnout will be lower than 2016.”

I think you’d have to be cautious about saying it will lead to a big youth vote

Dr Theresa Reidy, a political scientist at University College Cork, said while Fine Gael “probably has the edge” over Fianna Fáil in attracting younger voters, it would be the likes of Green Party, in particular, who could reap the rewards of a surge in the youth vote.
Reidy also cautioned that a high turnout of younger voters in the marriage referendum wasn’t replicated in the general election nine months later, when turnout of the same age group “fell off fairly sharply”.
“While it is positive to hold the election at the weekend in the expectation or hope of engaging younger people, I think you’d have to be cautious about saying it will lead to a big youth vote,” said Reidy.
Another unknown factor is how parties will get their vote out during the day.
Calleary said without the traditional rhythms of weekday voting habits, no one really knows at what time of the day people will want to cast their ballot.
“And then there is the fact that the Ireland vs Wales rugby match is on. Will people try to vote before the match? There are also a lot of national league matches on around the country, so will travelling fans vote before they go? Like anything done for the first time, we won’t know until after it is done.”
But Jennifer Carroll-MacNeil, Fine Gael’s replacement candidate for Maria Bailey in Dún Laoghaire and who is married to former Irish rugby international Hugo MacNeil, isn’t worried about the big game getting in the way.

“People who want to vote will find time on their day to vote,” she said.

 

[northern watch]

EU cuts pre-accession aid to Turkey by 75%
In a letter seen by German media, the EU has unveiled cuts in aid to Turkey over illegal gas drilling off Cyprus' coast and military operations in Syria. But Brussels stopped short of ending democracy-promotion projects.

DW
January 18 2020

The EU has cut pre-accession aid to Turkey by 75%, according to a letter sent to the European Parliament by EU foreign affairs commissioner Josep Borrell and seen by the Essen-based Funke Media Group.

Turkey will now only receive €168 million ($186 million), of which €150 million will be spent on strengthening democracy and rule of law. The rest is earmarked for rural development.

Borrell justified the cut by saying it was in response to Turkey's decision to stage a military operation in northeastern Syria and conduct unauthorized gas drilling off the coast of Cyprus.

Stalled accession

Comprising part of a controversial multi-billion-euro package to block refugees from seeking sanctuary in Europe, Brussels agreed to fast-track accession talks for Turkey in 2016.

However, the accession process has stalled due to Turkey's growing authoritarianism spearheaded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The cut in aid, however, doesn't affect the €3.5 billion offered to Turkey as part of a larger EU deal to prevent refugees from reaching European shores.

'Unauthorized drilling'

The EU has already warned Turkey of possible repercussions over illegal gas drilling off the coast of Cyprus.

In November, the European Commission unveiled a sanctions regime to target "individuals or entities responsible for, or involved in, unauthorized drilling activities of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean."

Turkey, however, argues that it is drilling within its territorial rights — or those of Turkish Cypriots.

EU cuts pre-accession aid to Turkey by 75% | DW | 18.01.2020

 

[northern watch]

EU border chief says migrant entries from Turkey on the rise
The European Union's border agency Frontex says the number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey has jumped sharply, with more than 82,000 people, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, entering in 2019
By LORNE COOK Associated Press
17 January 2020

Migrants from Bangladesh push a trolley with collected plastic items as they pass in front the Bank of Greece headquarters in Athens, Thursday, January 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)The Associated Press

BRUSSELS -- The number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey rose significantly last year as people fleeing strife in Syria and Afghanistan flooded into the country and then set out for Greece, the head of the European Union’s border agency said Friday.

More than 82,000 migrants tried to enter Europe without authorization in 2019, an increase of 46% over the previous year, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in Brussels.

“This was mainly due to the situation in Syria, but also instability in Afghanistan, and changing policies towards Afghan nationals by Iranian and Pakistani authorities,” Leggeri told reporters. He refused to blame the Turkish coast guard, saying it is “working well” to intercept people who leave.

The EU agreed in 2016 to give Turkey up to 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in Syrian refugee aid money and other incentives to persuade the government in Ankara to stop migrants leaving for Greece. But since last summer, Greece's eastern islands have struggled to ease severe overcrowding at refugee camps where outbreaks of violence frequently occur.

On the Greek island of Lesbos, protests broke out Friday in front of the country's largest refugee camp after an asylum seeker died of stab wounds. Several dozen migrants set fire to trash bins and blocked traffic outside the camp before riot police were called in to disperse them.

Authorities said the 20-year-old man from Yemen died while being taken to a hospital by ambulance late Thursday following a clash at the Moria camp on Lesbos. A 27-year-old Afghan migrant was arrested in connection with the incident and was being questioned, police said.

Overcrowding at Moria has steadily worsened over the past year as the number of arrivals of migrants and refugees using clandestine routes from Turkey to the Greek islands remains high.

Frontex said the number of arrivals last year was the highest since the EU-Turkey deal came into force.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his country cannot shoulder the burden of hosting 3.6 million Syrian refugees alone and has in the past threatened to “open the gates” for migrants to head for Europe. He is seeking more EU money and the Europeans appear likely to acquiesce.

Ankara also sought EU political and financial help in setting up a safe area in northern Syria, where people fleeing the conflict could take refuge or be sent to from Turkey, but the Europeans are reluctant to get involved.

———

Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed.

EU border chief says migrant entries from Turkey on the rise

 

[northern watch]

German Growth Falls to Six-Year Low, Hit by Manufacturing Recession; International trade disputes and China's slowdown have weighed on Germany's flagship auto industry
Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 7:51 AM ET
By Tom Fairless
Wall Street Journal

FRANKFURT—Economic growth in Germany slumped to a six-year low in 2019, underscoring the vulnerability of Europe's export powerhouse to tensions in the global economy.

A recession in Germany's outsize manufacturing sector, especially its automotive industry, was the main factor behind the tepid performance, the federal statistics agency said Wednesday. Global trade conflicts , a slowdown in China and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit all weighed on Europe's largest economy.

Germany is the first major economy to report full-year growth figures for 2019. The World Bank last week estimated that the global economy expanded by just 2.4% as the decade drew to a close, the weakest growth rate since the financial crisis, and down from 3% in 2018.

China, the world's second-largest economy, is due to release its growth figures for 2019 on Friday, and is expected to record a deceleration.

The German economy grew by 0.6% last year, the slowest rate since 2013 , at the height of the eurozone's debt crisis. Output in the manufacturing sector excluding construction, which accounts for around a quarter of the overall economy, fell by 3.6%. Private consumption rose robustly, helping support growth.

Official German growth data for the last three months of 2019 will be published in February. Tanja Mucha, a federal statistics agency official, said the economy probably grew slightly in that quarter.

International trade disputes and the China slowdown have weighed heavily on Germany's flagship auto manufacturers and midsize engineering firms. Together with sweeping changes in the auto industry, those tensions have driven German manufacturing into recession. The slowdown appears to be leveling off, but there are few signs of a rebound.

Germany is among the most open economies in the West and is highly reliant on trade after decades of wage moderation, rising taxation, government belt-tightening and corporate cash hoarding have weighed on domestic demand.

Many German companies have been laying off staff, raising concerns that the manufacturing slowdown could start to affect private consumption.

Brose Group , an auto parts producer, said in October it would reduce its German workforce by around 2,000 by late 2022. It blamed the declining auto market, especially in China. Continental AG , a giant auto parts manufacturer, announced plant closures in Germany in November as part of a sweeping restructuring plan.

German car production fell to its lowest level in almost a quarter of a century last year, according to the VDA auto lobby group. Weakness in the auto sector likely trimmed German growth by 0.75 percentage points in 2019, according to the Ifo economic think tank.

Germany's slowdown helped trigger an aggressive response in September from the European Central Bank , which cut interest rates and launched an open-ended bond-buying program to shore up growth.

Other major central banks, including the Federal Reserve , also loosened policy last year as global trade growth fell to its lowest level since the financial crisis.

Germany's government has rejected requests for it to prop up its economy through debt-financed spending, despite being paid by investors to borrow money.

This week, the finance ministry reported a larger-than-expected budget surplus for 2019, its sixth surplus in a row. Together with social security funds, the nation recorded a total budget surplus worth around 1.5% of gross domestic product, said Joerg Kraemer , chief economist at Commerzbank.

German businesses are calling for greater investment in digital and transport infrastructure as a way to boost productivity and confidence. In a nod to such demands, the government this week announced an €86 billion ($96 billion) rail investment program.

Still, politicians are constrained by a constitutional debt brake that outlaws budget deficits over the economic cycle. Economists also argue that a surplus makes sense for an aging country like Germany and will fade over time.

Meanwhile, Europe remains vulnerable to renewed flare-ups in economic tensions involving the U.S., notwithstanding the latest trade deal with China, as well as rising geopolitical stress involving Iran, Brexit negotiations and strikes in France.

German exports fell 2.3% on the year in November, hurt by a fall in exports to China.

"As German machine builders we feel that huge uncertainty exists in China," Carl Martin Welcker, president of Germany's Mechanical Engineering Industry Association, said in December.

Germany's unemployment rate edged up to 4.9% last month, while job openings fell and more firms reduced working hours to save jobs, according to the Federal Employment Agency.

The auto workforce in Germany has shrunk by 1.3% since the start of 2019, after adjusting for seasonal variations, Ifo said. Some 14% of auto companies say they have shortened working hours to avoid layoffs.

With Chinese economic expansion unlikely to return to earlier rates, German growth "will remain close to zero for now," said Marco Wagner , an economist at Commerzbank.

Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com

Stubborn German Slowdown Ominous for European Economy

 

[Plain Jane]

Moscow protest over Putin's political shake-up fails to gain traction

Over 1,000 people marched through Moscow on Sunday in an event a Kremlin critic tried to turn into a protest against a constitutional shake-up by President Vladimir Putin, but many demonstrators chose to voice dissent about other issues instead.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 19, 2020 / 2:16 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Moscow protest over Putin's political shake-up fails to gain traction


3 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Over 1,000 people marched through Moscow on Sunday in an event a Kremlin critic tried to turn into a protest against a constitutional shake-up by President Vladimir Putin, but many demonstrators chose to voice dissent about other issues instead.

Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow city councillor, had urged people to take to the streets to speak out against Putin’s proposed political changes by joining an authorized rally already due to be held to mark the murder of a journalist, Anastasia Baburova, and a lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, 11 years ago.

But many protesters did not heed her call and Sunday’s event saw a smaller turnout than many previous opposition protests last summer, which at their peak drew around 60,000 people.

Sunday’s protest was also made up of diverse groups with different political demands, including anti-fascists, women’s rights campaigners, leftists and students, meaning the anti-Putin protest component was diluted.

Putin’s proposed reforms, which triggered the resignation of the prime minister and government last week, are widely seen as giving Putin, 67, scope to extend his grip on power once he leaves the presidency in 2024. [nL8N29L2M9]

The changes would create new centers of power outside the presidency, and critics say that means Putin could be pulling the strings from behind the scenes for years to come.

Putin’s plan has divided the anti-Kremlin opposition however, with some calling it “an anti-constitutional coup” and others, like prominent opposition politician Alexei Navalny, dismissing it as unimportant in the scheme of things and therefore not worth protesting over.

Galyamina, the Moscow city councillor, marched on Sunday holding copies of Russia’s constitution which she said was imperiled by Putin’s reforms.

Putin leave office!,” Galyamina and others shouted, saying his plan amounted to repressing the Russian people.
On Saturday, some Russians took turns to hold one-person pickets outside the presidential administration to express their disagreement with Putin’s constitutional reforms.
The TASS news agency has also reported that authorities in Moscow have authorized a protest of up to 10,000 people against Putin’s reforms on Feb. 1. It is unclear who the organizers are.
Reporting by Mikhail Antonov, Dmitry Madorsky, Dmitry Turlyun and Maxim Rodionov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS

 

[Plain Jane]

Kiev wants to speak to Germany, France about shooting in east Ukraine

Ukraine wants to speak to Germany and France about an increase in shooting in the east of the country, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Monday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 20, 2020 / 10:08 AM / UPDATED 19 MINUTES AGO
Kiev wants to speak to Germany, France about shooting in east Ukraine


2 MIN READ

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine wants to speak to Germany and France about an increase in shooting in the east of the country, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Monday.


People attend a memorial service for Ukrainian servicemen which were killed defending the Donetsk airport in the fighting in eastern Ukraine in Mikhailovsky Zlatoverkhy Cathedral (St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral) in central Kiev January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded at the weekend in the eastern Donbass region, where fighting between Russia-backed separatist fighters and Ukraine’s armed forces began in 2014.
The separatists did not immediately comment on the latest incident but each side blames the other for recent violence.
France and Germany have been trying to broker an end to the conflict at talks with Russia and Ukraine in what is known as the Normandy format. They hope to build on a ceasefire agreement that was reached in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, but has failed to end the conflict.

Although the intensity of fighting has dropped, shelling and shooting continues on the contact line between the separatists and Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom wait in trenches now tipped in places by ice and snow.
“As for the Minsk process and intensification of shooting attacks - we are concerned about it, no doubts,” Prystaiko told a joint news conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
He said Kiev had discussed the latest violence with the head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“I think there will be a reaction from the Ukrainian side to such shooting attacks. We will try to contact our Normandy partners urgently because, like you, we see that agreements do not work,” Prystaiko said.


More than 13,000 people have been killed in the fighting since 2014.

At a four-way summit with the leaders of France and Germany last month the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, agreed to commit to the full and comprehensive implementation of a ceasefire.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS

 

[Plain Jane]

Russia gets new government in what Putin calls "major renewal"

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new government on Tuesday which he described as a break with the past, bringing in some fresh faces but retaining many senior ministers.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 21, 2020 / 12:24 PM / UPDATED 38 MINUTES AGO
Russia gets new government in what Putin calls major renewal

Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Maria Kiselyova
4 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin approved a new Russian government on Tuesday which he called a break with the past and included a new economy minister and first deputy prime minister, but many senior ministers stayed on.

The government was formed less than a week after Putin unveiled a sweeping shake-up of the political system, which led to the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister with his entire government.

Putin went on to pick 53-year-old former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin, who has almost no political profile, as his new prime minister.

Putin’s wider shake-up, which envisages changing the constitution, is seen as preparing the ground for 2024, when Putin, now 67, is obliged to leave the presidency after occupying the Kremlin or the prime minister’s job continuously since 1999.

Critics have long accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of plotting to stay on in some capacity after his term ends so that he can wield power over the world’s largest nation - and one of its two biggest nuclear powers.
The new government could be intended to reboot the government’s flagging image and shift attention to Putin’s drive to lift falling real incomes and drive ahead with big national infrastructure projects which he hopes will catapult his country into a new economic league.
“The most important task is to increase the welfare of our citizens and strengthen our statehood and the position of our country in the world. All these are absolutely attainable goals,” Putin told the new government.
“We have achieved a very balanced government. We have enough people who worked in the previous government, as well as a major renewal.”

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov all kept their jobs in the government.
Putin named Andrei Belousov, his economy advisor since 2013, as Russia’s new first deputy prime minister, replacing Anton Siluanov who had held the role since May 2018.
Belousov, 60, in 2018 proposed making major metals and mining companies pay a windfall tax, sending their share prices lower, although that proposal was subsequently watered down.
Belousov made headlines last year when he confirmed his friendship with businessman Artem Avetisyan, whose legal battle with private equity fund Baring Vostok has rattled the business community.
That case, which saw the arrest last year of Baring Vostok investor Michael Calvey, a U.S. national, and other executives has hurt the investment climate and stymied economic growth, Kremlin critics say.

Putin also approved 40-year-old Maxim Reshetnikov, a former regional governor, as economy minister, replacing Maxim Oreshkin who spent just over three years in the role.
Reshetnikov has previously worked in the Moscow mayor’s office and from 2012-17 headed the Moscow government’s department for economic policy and the development of the capital.
Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Andrey Ostroukh, Alexander Marrow, Tom Balmforth, Polina Devitt and Maria Tsvetkova, Writing by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Timothy Heritage
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS

 

[northern watch]

Populist MEP Predicts Denmark to Leave the EU By 2030
FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson Breitbart.com / Europe
21 January 2020

Populist Danish People’s Party (DF) member of the European Parliament Morten Messerschmidt has predicted that his country will leave the European Union within the next decade due to the success of Brexit.

Morten Messerschmidt MEP, who was formerly an MP in the Danish parliament, said that he believed Brexit will be a success for the UK and that it could lead to further referendums on EU membership in various member states over the next ten years, Danish tabloid B.T. reports.

“I think Brexit will be a great success and that many people around the continent will enviously look at how the British have disengaged – that they have regained power on border control, foreigners, social policy, etc., and it has not hit them financially,” Messerschmidt said and added, “And then I think more countries will demand referendums and opt-out.”

He went on to add that many people in Brussels, the heart of the EU, fear that Brexit will be a success for the UK but said it “may be some time before the dust settles. That’s also why I give it time and say 10 years. At that time, I think there have been referendums in several of the countries.”

He went on to dismiss project fear scaremongering over potential shortages of food and medicines following Brexit saying, “Every time a country threatens to say no to the EU, you hear that the world will collapse. It just hasn’t happened yet. The British have survived and defeated Napoleon, Emperor Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler. So I think they can handle the little challenge of signing out of the EU.”

Members of the DF have long expressed a desire for their country to leave the European Union and already spoke of the idea prior to the UK Brexit referendum in 2016.

Denmark, as a whole, has been sceptical of aspects of the European Union, including the free movement Schengen agreement. Last year the country enacted temporary border controls during the height of the migrant crisis permanent due to continued security threats from mass migration.

Denmark: Populist MEP Predicts Denmark to Leave the EU By 2030

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Syrian Fighters Abandon Libyan War, Flee Towards Italy: Report

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/22/2020 - 03:30
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Via AlMasdarNews.com,
Some Syrian fighters that went to fight in Libya have since abandoned the war and fled to Italy, opposition media sites claimed, as cited by Al-Watan.
According to the reports, at least 17 of the Syrian fighters have already arrived in Italy after spending a short period of time inside Libya.
Image via AMN



The reports said that the Syrian fighters intentionally accepted the deployment to Libya in order to later escape into Italy.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), some 2,400 Syrian fighters have already traveled to Libya thus far.
Another 1,200 fighters from a number of factions in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are expected to make their way to Libya in the coming weeks. Middle East-based reporter for The Investigative Journal Lindsey Snell was told by a Libyan National Army (LNA) source:

“The mercenaries don’t believe that they will be returning to Turkey or Syria, so trying to get to Europe is the most logical option for them,” the source said.

And now, according to the LNA source, it appears that one escaped ISIS member managed to join a Turkish-backed militant faction bound for Libya and attempt to make his way to Europe," The Investigative Journal reported further.

Last month, Bloomberg News released a story about Turkey offering contracts to Syrian fighters in order to help the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA).

Since then, several fighters have been seen inside of Libya, most notably near the capital city of Tripoli.

 

[Plain Jane]

Greek islanders strongly protest overcrowded refugee camps

Thousands of residents and business owners are protesting on the Greek islands hardest hit by migration, demanding that the government ease the severe overcrowding in refugee camps.

apnews.com

Greek islanders protest overcrowded refugee camps
23 minutes ago


ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Local residents, business owners and officials have launched a day of protest on the Greek islands hardest hit by migration, demanding that the Greek government ease the severe overcrowding at refugee camps.

Most stores were closed and public services were halted Wednesday on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos, where the camps in some cases have more than 10 times the number of people they were built for.

Public protests are planned on all three islands and their regional governors and mayors plan to travel to Athens on Thursday to present their demands to the government.

Nearly 75,000 people crossed illegally to European Union member Greece from Turkey in 2019, according to the U.N. refugee agency, an increase of nearly 50% from the previous year.

Island authorities are urging the Greek government to step up migrant transfers to the Greek mainland and are seeking further information on its plans to build additional facilities that would be used to detain migrants listed for deportation.

 

[Plain Jane]

TERRORISM - Sweden Has 'Lost Control' After Bombings Spike 60% In 2019, Says MP

...that really is a lot of extra bombings. And it really wasn't much of a problem before 2015. Wonder why...? But then, this disingenuous shishkebab has been known to wonder such things facetiously before. :D Fair use cited so on and so forth...

xf.timebomb2000.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy's Di Maio quits as 5-Star leader in blow to government

Luigi Di Maio stepped down on Wednesday as leader of Italy's co-governing 5-Star movement, as it seeks to stem a wave of defections that threatens the government's parliamentary majority.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 22, 2020 / 2:00 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Italy's Di Maio to quit as 5-Star leader: source

Elvira Pollina
2 MIN READ

ROME (Reuters) - Luigi di Maio will step down as leader of Italy’s co-governing 5-Star movement on Wednesday, a senior party source said, as it seeks to stem a wave of defections that threatens the government’s majority in the upper parliamentary house.

Di Maio, who is also foreign minister, is expected to announce his resignation during the afternoon at a party meeting, several newspapers reported.

Di Maio and his spokesman declined to comment.

While his resignation is not expected to bring down the government, it would underscore deep divisions within 5-Star. The populist party, the largest in the ruling coalition, has been hit by rising defections and plummeting poll ratings.

Italian government bond yields jumped 5-8 bps across the yield curve on the resignation reports.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would respect any decision his foreign minister made. “I am sure he would take such an initiative with great responsibility,” Conte told Italian radio RTL 102.5, declining to comment further.

The 5-Star won 33% of the vote in a national election in 2018, but since then its popularity has fallen sharply and recent polls put it at around 15%.

It initially formed a coalition with the far-right League, switching to an alliance with the left-wing Democratic Party (PD) last September after League leader Matteo Salvini walked out of government.

Di Maio was skeptical about joining the PD in government but, with many of the party’s lawmakers opposed to fresh elections, was reluctantly persuaded to sign up by 5-Star founder Beppe Grillo.

Tensions within the party have been fueled further by a perception that Di Maio has failed to share power outside his inner circle of advisers.

Since the election, more than 30 lower house and senate lawmakers have left 5-Star’s parliamentary grouping, some defecting and some being ejected.

That exodus has left the government with only a wafer-thin majority in the upper house Senate.

Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, writing by Giulia Segreti and Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by John Stonestreet
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

French Intellectual Sentenced To 2 Months Jail After Calling Mass Immigration An "Invasion"

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/22/2020 - 05:00
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Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
French intellectual Renaud Camus has been given a 2 month suspended prison sentence for saying that mass immigration into Europe represents an “invasion.”

Camus will only avoid jail by paying 1800 euros to two “anti-racist” organizations, SOS Racisme and the LICRA (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism).



The writer, who is the author of Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), was charged with “public incitement to hate or violence on the basis of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.”
The conviction stems from a November 2017 speech in Colombey-les-deux Eglises to the National Council of European Resistance in which Camus declared, “Immigration has become an invasion.”

“The irreversible colonization is demographic colonization, by the replacement of the population,” said the author, adding,
“The ethnic substitution, the great replacement, is the most important event in the history of our nation since it has existed; as with other people, if the story continues, it will not be that of France.”

Camus also called for a “national consensus of resistance” to oppose Islamization in “the struggle for the salvation of our common civilization, Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, Greek-Latin, Judeo-Christian.”

The part of Camus’ speech that specifically garnered the attention of judges was when he talked about European people being replaced.

Camus said mass immigration “is the substitution, the tendency to substitute everything with its emulator, normalized, standardized, interchangeable: The original with its copy, the authentic with its imitation, the true with the false, the mothers with surrogate mothers, the culture with free time and entertainment.”

France suffers Islamic terror attacks on such a routine basis that it’s barely even an important news story anymore. Many of those terrorists are radicalized by mosques that escape any police scrutiny, but Camus must be punished for his crime of opinion.

And there you have it. Free speech is now a crime in France.

 

[Plain Jane]

Britain's Brexit bill passes final hurdle in Parliament

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Brexit bill passed its final hurdle in Parliament on Wednesday after the House of Lords abandoned attempts to amend it, leaving the U.K. on course to leave the European Union next week.

apnews.com

UK lawmakers remove child-migrants promise from Brexit bill
2 hours ago


LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers have overturned changes to the government’s flagship Brexit bill made by Parliament’s House of Lords, removing a promise to reunite child refugees with their families in the U.K.

As the bill went through its final stages before becoming law, the House of Commons on Wednesday removed five amendments inserted into the Withdrawal Agreement Bill by the unelected upper chamber.

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on Jan. 31.

The Lords voted Tuesday to demand that post-Brexit Britain continues to let unaccompanied migrant children in EU countries join relatives living in the U.K. The promise was made in 2018 by former British Prime Minister Theresa May, but it was removed from the Brexit legislation after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won a big parliamentary majorityin an election last month.

Johnson’s government says it intends to continue resettling child migrants in Britain after the country leaves the EU but argues that the issue does not belong in the EU withdrawal bill, which sets out the terms of Britain’s departure from the 28-nation bloc.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said an agreement on taking in the children “is ultimately a matter which must be negotiated with the EU, and the government is committed to seeking the best possible outcome in those negotiations.”

But Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper accused Johnson’s Conservative government of planning to “betray the commitments that have been made to the most vulnerable children of all.”

The House of Commons also stripped out changes made by the Lords to bolster the rights of EU citizens in Britain, protect the powers of U.K. courts and ensure a say for Scotland and Wales in post-Brexit legal changes.

The wrangling won’t stop the Brexit bill from becoming law within days, because the House of Commons can override the unelected Lords.

Members of the Lords acknowledged Wednesday that they would have to give way.

“We are at the end of a very long road,” said Martin Callanan, a Brexit minister in the Lords.

The EU parliament also must approve the Brexit divorce deal before Jan. 31. A vote by the European Parliament is expected next week.

___

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and British politics at https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

 

[Plain Jane]

Zurich police use tear gas, water cannons on World Economic Forum protesters

Swiss police on Wednesday used water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas to subdue demonstrators in Zurich who ignited fireworks and threw bottles as part of a protest targeting the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos.

www.reuters.com

15
JANUARY 22, 2020 / 5:50 PM / UPDATED 10 HOURS AGO
Zurich police use tear gas, water cannons on World Economic Forum protesters

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss police on Wednesday used water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas to subdue demonstrators in Zurich who ignited fireworks and threw bottles as part of a protest targeting the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos.

Three people were arrested, one passerby was injured by fireworks and a policeman was hospitalized with unspecified injuries, Zurich police said in a news release after the demonstration broke up mid-evening.

Several hundred people marched in the permitted demonstration entitled “Zurich against WEF” in the streets near the Swiss banking capital’s downtown.

In addition to opposition to the annual confab of global business and political leaders in Davos, about 150 km (93 miles) from Zurich, that included a visit from U.S. President Donald Trump, demonstrators called for swifter action on climate change.

Some demonstrators marched with banners proclaiming “Stop the Climate Crisis,” while others ignited boxes in the middle of the street, and windows of surrounding shops were smeared with slogans including “Smash WEF.”
Despite organizers calls for non-violence, police said, some of those marching ignited fireworks near crowds, including onlookers, and caused property damage in the “thousands of Swiss francs”.
“Even after the end of the official event at around 20:30 Central European Time (19:30 GMT), several groups of violent people remained at the scene to keep officers busy,” police said.
Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Bill Berkrot
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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[Plain Jane]

Norway PM shakes up Cabinet after right-wing party exit

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Friday announced the biggest shake-up of her Cabinet since she took office in 2013, replacing or repositioning two-thirds of ministers in the hope of reviving the Conservative-led coalition's prospects.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 24, 2020 / 5:31 AM / UPDATED 6 MINUTES AGO
Norway PM shakes up cabinet after right-wing party exit

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Friday announced her biggest cabinet reshuffle since taking power in 2013, replacing or repositioning two-thirds of ministers in the hope of reviving the Conservative-led coalition’s prospects.

Solberg this week lost her majority in parliament following the shock exit from government by the right-wing Progress Party over a decision to bring a woman suspected of Islamic State affiliation home to Norway from Syria.

While Progress vowed to still back Solberg as prime minister, opinion polls point to an overwhelming lead for Norway’s center-left opposition parties ahead of a general election in 2021.

The overall size of the cabinet was cut to 20 from 22, and 13 out of the 20 posts would see a new appointee, either from inside or outside the current government lineup, including those of finance, oil and energy, justice and transport.

Veteran Conservative Party lawmaker Jan Tore Sanner was appointed finance minister, moving from the education ministry, putting him in charge of fiscal policy and of overseeing the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with $1.1 trillion in assets.

Meanwhile, 33-year-old Tina Bru, a rising star among the Conservatives, will take charge of the oil and energy portfolio, charting the course for western Europe’s largest petroleum industry at a time of rising concern over climate change.

Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Putin proposes 2020 summit with leaders of Russia, France, China, U.S. and UK

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday proposed holding a summit between the leaders of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain in 2020 to discuss the conflict in Libya and other global problems.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 23, 2020 / 8:39 AM / UPDATED 21 HOURS AGO
Putin proposes 2020 summit with leaders of Russia, France, China, U.S. and UK

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday proposed holding a summit between the leaders of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain in 2020 to discuss the conflict in Libya and other global problems.

Putin, who was speaking during a trip to Israel, said Moscow was ready for a “serious conversation” with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, that there was much to discuss and that the summit could happen anywhere in the world.

"In any country, at any point of the world that is convenient for our colleagues. Russia is ready for this kind of serious conversation,” he said.

“There are many tasks before us. We discussed one of them very recently in Berlin...That is Libya. And we need to return to this problem at the Security Council and adopt the corresponding resolution,” he said.

Putin, who was in Israel on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, said holding such a summit would be an important symbolic step ahead of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
“We discussed (this) with several colleagues and as far as I understand in general we saw a positive reaction to holding a meeting of the heads of the permanent members of the UN Security Council...” he said.
Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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[Plain Jane]

Top EU officials sign Brexit deal in closed door ceremony

BRUSSELS (AP) — The leaders of two of the European Union’s main institutions on Friday signed the divorce agreement governing Britain’s departure from the bloc next week, sealing the penultimate step in Brexit at a ceremony held without media access.

apnews.com

Top EU officials sign Brexit deal in closed door ceremony
today


BRUSSELS (AP) — The leaders of two of the European Union’s main institutions on Friday signed the divorce agreement governing Britain’s departure from the bloc next week, sealing the penultimate step in Brexit at a ceremony held without media access.

European Council President Charles Michel tweeted photos of the overnight signing with the president of the EU’s powerful executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the presence of their Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Full Coverage: Brexit
Both institutions rejected repeated media demands for access to what is a small but legally significant step marking the first time a member state has ever left the world’s biggest trading bloc. Time stamps on the official photos show that the ceremony took place at around 2 a.m. local time (0100 GMT).

Charles Michel and I have just signed the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, opening the way for its ratification by the European Parliament,” Von der Leyen tweeted about six hours after the signing.

“Things will inevitably change but our friendship will remain. We start a new chapter as partners and allies,” Michel tweeted in reference to ties with Britain, also hours after the signing ceremony, adding: “I can’t wait to write this new page together.”

After the signing, U.K. and EU officials took the document to London, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson put his own signature on it — also without journalists present.

Britain’s delayed and disputed Brexit bill became law in the country on Thursday, removing the last U.K. obstacle for it to leave on Jan. 31, more than 3 1/2 years after voters narrowly opted to do so in a June 2016 referendum.

The EU Parliament is expected to ratify the Brexit divorce deal next Wednesday just days before the deadline. It appears a formality after the assembly’s influential constitutional affairs committee voted in favor by a large margin on Thursday.

 

[Plain Jane]

Furor in Spain over minister's airport meeting with Maduro aide

Opposition parties rebuked Spain's government on Friday over an encounter at Madrid's international airport between a minister and a senior aide to Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro subject to a European Union (EU) travel ban.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 24, 2020 / 12:59 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Furor in Spain over minister's airport meeting with Maduro aide

Belén Carreño, Ashifa Kassam
4 MIN READ

MADRID (Reuters) - Opposition parties rebuked Spain’s government on Friday over an encounter at Madrid’s international airport between a minister and a senior aide to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro subject to a European Union (EU) travel ban.

Spain, along with most EU nations, does not view Maduro’s leftist government as legitimate, instead recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela.
However Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos said he met Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, briefly at the airport after midnight on Monday.
“I said ‘Hello’ to her on behalf of the Minister of Tourism and that’s it, nothing more,” he told reporters on Friday evening. He said he reminded Rodriguez that “she could not enter Spanish territory”.
“There was no meeting and no stepping onto Spanish territory,” Abalos said.
A Transport Ministry source earlier told Reuters “it was a greeting forced by circumstance” on the airport tarmac, adding that Abalos was there to meet Venezuelan Tourism Minister Felix Plasencia, a friend and Spanish citizen traveling on the same plane as Rodriguez.

“The transport minister had no formal contact with the Venezuelan vice-president and his intention in heading to the airport was not to meet with her,” the source added.
That did not, however, stop a shower of criticism.
“If this is confirmed, Abalos cannot continue to lead the ministry for even one more day,” Pablo Casado, leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), told reporters. “Spain’s image and compliance with EU resolutions is very important.”
The 28-nation bloc slapped travel bans and asset freezes on Rodriguez and other officials in mid-2018.
Tourism minister Plasencia is not on the list.

SANCTIONS
According to Spanish news site VozPopuli, a flight carrying Rodriguez left Caracas on Sunday, landing in Madrid’s Barajas airport nine hours later. After some 14 hours in Madrid, it went on to Istanbul’s Ataturk airport.

Venezuela and Turkey are allies.

Two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Rodriguez was confined to an area of the airport not considered Spanish soil. A spokeswoman for the EU’s executive Commission said it was up to individual nations to interpret how sanctions apply to airport areas prior to passport controls.

Critics were not placated.

“Did Abalos meet with the vice-president of the Maduro totalitarian regime? With someone banned from entering the European Union as a high-ranking official of that tyranny?” the center-right Ciudadanos party’s spokesman Edmundo Bal tweeted, demanding that Abalos give an explanation to parliament.

Abalos is a senior member of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’ Socialist party that rules in coalition with junior party Unidas Podemos, a far-left movement which has supported Venezuela’s leftist ruling party in the past.

The controversy came days ahead of a planned visit to Spain by Venezuela’s opposition leader Guaido.



Slideshow (2 Images)
Sanchez does not have plans to meet him, which has angered right-wing opposition parties but been welcomed by Podemos.

Guaido this week met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and attended the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He also saw French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday. Spanish right-wing parties plan to rally for Guaido’s visit.

Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rodriguez’ stopover in Spain.

Reporting by Belén Carreño, Emma Pinedo, Ashifa Kassam and Jessica Jones in Madrid; Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris, Vivian Sequera in Caracas; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Cyprus accused of blocking new Russia sanctions amid Turkey spat

Cyprus is blocking new European Union sanctions against several officials from Russia-annexed Crimea in a bid to secure EU backing for tougher action against Turkey in a separate row over drilling for hydrocarbons, three diplomatic sources said.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 24, 2020 / 1:19 PM / UPDATED 17 HOURS AGO
Cyprus accused of blocking new Russia sanctions amid Turkey spat

Gabriela Baczynska
3 MIN READ

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Cyprus is blocking new European Union sanctions against several officials from Russia-annexed Crimea in a bid to secure EU backing for tougher action against Turkey in a separate row over drilling for hydrocarbons, three diplomatic sources said.
Nicosia denied linking the two issues and said it needed time to review the proposed measures against the Crimean officials.
Cyprus, backed by the EU, accuses Turkey of drilling illegally for oil and gas in its territorial waters. The EU has prepared the ground for travel bans and asset freezes but has postponed saying which Turkish officials they would target in order to give Ankara time to change tack.
The EU has also agreed to blacklist more officials in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, but the sanctions require unanimous support from all 28 member states and Cyprus has recently blocked the process at the technical level, the sources said.
“The way Cyprus is hijacking the Russia listings has deeply irritated its friends and partners around the table. It is all the more surprising since Cyprus has enjoyed unparalleled solidarity from its EU partners over the last few months (in the dispute with Turkey),” said one EU diplomat.
A second diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Poland and Germany were among those pushing Cyprus to stop blocking the new Crimea measures.
“The Cypriots want to have sanctions on Turkey for drilling and have been frustrated that it is taking time,” said the second diplomat. “This is why they are meddling with the Crimea listings.”

NO CONNECTION”
Cyprus’ foreign ministry rejected the criticism.
“There is no connection made between the two sanctions regimes. We are in the process of reviewing the information provided with regard to the Ukraine sanctions,” Cypriot foreign ministry spokesman, Demetris Samuel told Reuters.
On Turkey, Samuel added: “Our aim is to see the (EU decisions) implemented. We feel that it is important... to expedite and finalize this work with regards to the listings.”
A third EU diplomat said he still hoped the list of sanctioned Crimean officials would be approved “early next week”, or the matter would have to go before EU ambassadors.
“Everything depends on Cyprus and whether they will drop their objections,” he said.
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If sanctions are imposed, the asset freezes and travel bans are likely to target the Turkish military and captains of the drilling ships, rather than senior Turkish officials, diplomats said. The decision aims to punish Ankara for violating Cyprus’ maritime economic zone by drilling off the divided island.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 after a Turkish invasion triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Several peacemaking efforts have failed and the discovery of offshore resources has complicated the negotiations.
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Gareth Jones
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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[Plain Jane]

European firms call for tougher EU approach to China

European companies called on European Union policy-makers on Thursday to toughen their approach to China to secure a level playing field for European businesses.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 16, 2020 / 10:40 AM / 9 DAYS AGO
European firms call for tougher EU approach to China

Jan Strupczewski
3 MIN READ

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European companies called on European Union policy-makers on Thursday to toughen their approach to China to secure a level playing field for European businesses.
BusinessEurope, an organisation grouping business federations from 35 countries, said China was the most restrictive of the EU’s major trading partners — with numerous barriers to investment, strict requirements for joint ventures and its procurement market closed to EU firms.
“The EU must reconsider its modus operandi towards China and put more emphasis on reciprocity and conditionality,” BusinessEurope said in a report addressed to the European Commission and EU governments.
It underlined the disparity in market access between Chinese and foreign firms, financing advantages for Chinese firms in strategic sectors, cheap land and energy, and Beijing’s support for some Chinese industries.
The EU is China’s biggest trading partner, and China is the EU’s second biggest. Business Europe urged the EU to speak with one voice on China and share knowledge on the country, and suggested making China policies their top priority.
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There was no immediate comment on the report from China.
BusinessEurope head Marcus Beyrer told reporters that it was in China’s interest to rebalance the relationship with Europe because a continuation would change the architecture of the global economy to the detriment of export-oriented China.
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It was also a bad idea for China to fight trade wars on two fronts, Beyrer said, given Beijing was already in a trade conflict with the United States.
The United States and China signed an initial trade deal on Wednesday that will roll back some tariffs and boost Chinese purchases of U.S. products, defusing an 18-month row between the world’s two largest economies but leaving a number of sore spots unresolved.

Beijing and Washington touted the “Phase 1” agreement as a step forward after months of start-and-stop talks, and investors greeted the news with relief. Even so, there was skepticism the U.S.-China trade relationship was now firmly on the mend.

Editing by Timothy Heritage
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Third poll shows Irish PM's party behind in election race

The party of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is trailing its main rival ahead of a general election on Feb. 8, a third consecutive poll showed on Sunday, with data indicating few voters trust it on the key issues of housing and health.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 26, 2020 / 3:55 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Third poll shows Irish PM's party behind in election race

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The party of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is trailing its main rival ahead of a general election on Feb. 8, a third consecutive poll showed on Sunday, with data indicating few voters trust it on the key issues of housing and health.

The Sunday Business Post/Red C poll showed support for Varadkar’s Fine Gael party had fallen seven percentage points to 23% since its last poll in November while fellow center-right rival Fianna Fail was up two points to 26%.

It is the first time Varadkar’s party has fallen behind its rival in the Red C poll series since he came to power in 2017. The two other major polls published since the start of the campaign showed the party trailing by 12 and 2 points respectively.

While Fine Gael has been praised for its handling of Brexit negotiations and overseeing years of strong economic growth, the poll indicated few voters trust the party on the issues of housing and health which have dominated the campaign so far.

The poll showed just 12% felt Fine Gael was the best party equipped to handle Ireland’s housing crisis over the next five years, half the level of those who chose Fianna Fail.

The poll showed left-wing Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein was up eight points to 19% in the poll, while the Green Party was up one point to 8%.

With no party close to the support required for a majority, at least two parties will likely need to cooperate to form a government.

The survey of 1,000 prospective voters was conducted between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22.

Reporting by Conor Humphries, Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Turkey searches for last people missing from quake that killed at least 38

A woman and her young child were pulled out alive from under a collapsed building before Turkey began winding down its rescue operation on Sunday following an earthquake that killed at least 38 people.

www.reuters.com

ENVIRONMENT
JANUARY 26, 2020 / 3:26 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Dozens pulled from rubble as Turkey quake toll hits 35

Umit Ozdal
3 MIN READ

ELAZIG, Turkey (Reuters) - Rescue teams working through the night pulled 45 people from collapsed buildings, Turkey’s disaster authority said on Sunday, as the death toll from a powerful earthquake in the country’s east rose to 35.

Rescuers operating in sub-zero temperatures used drills, mechanical diggers and their bare hands to continue the search for survivors at three sites in Elazig province, where the magnitude 6.8 quake struck on Friday evening.

It killed 31 people there and four in the neighboring province of Malatya, and was followed by more than 700 aftershocks, Disaster and Emergency Authority AFAD said on Sunday. More than 1,600 sustained injuries.

Broadcast footage showed a 35-year-old woman and her infant daughter emerging from rubble in the Mustafa Pasa district of Elazig, some 550 km (340 miles) east of the capital Ankara.

Rescuers who heard their screams took several hours to reach them in temperatures as low as -4 degrees Celsius (24.8°F), state media said. The woman’s husband was among those who died.

AFAD said search and rescue operations were still underway at three different sites in Elazig.

Other provinces sent thousands of emergency workers to support rescue efforts, which were also supplemented by hundreds of volunteers, officials said. Tents, beds and blankets were provided to shelter those displaced by the quake.

AFAD urged residents not to return to damaged buildings because of the potential risk of collapse. It said officials had identified 645 heavily damaged and 76 collapsed buildings in the two provinces.

President Tayyip Erdogan said steel-framed houses would be rapidly built in the region to provide housing for displaced residents. Speaking on Saturday during a visit to Elazig and Malatya, he called the quake a test for Turkey.

The country has a history of powerful earthquakes. More than 17,000 people were killed in August 1999 when a 7.6 magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul.

In 2011 a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.

Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by John Stonestreet
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Paris cancels Lunar New Year parade over coronavirus

Paris-based Chinese associations have canceled a Lunar New Year parade following the coronavirus epidemic, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 26, 2020 / 5:33 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Paris cancels Lunar New Year parade over coronavirus


1 MIN READ


PARIS (Reuters) - Paris-based Chinese associations have cancelled a Lunar New Year parade following the coronavirus epidemic, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday.


“I have met with the Chinese community in Paris. They are very emotional and concerned and they have decided to cancel the parade that was scheduled for this afternoon at Place de la Republique,” Hidalgo said on Europe 1 radio.

They are really not in a mood to party now,” she added.

The city of Bordeaux in southwest France on Saturday also cancelled planned Chinese New Year festivities in order to limit infection risk and as a gesture of support to the victims in China, its mayor said.

On Sunday, China said the death toll from the virus has risen to 56 and that 1,975 people have been infected. In France, three people have been infected, all Chinese nationals. Two are in hospital in Paris, one in Bordeaux.

Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Toby Chopra
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy's regional voters thwart hopes of right-wing forces

ROME (AP) — Italian voters have thwarted right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini's hopes of turning an election in a key northern region into a springboard for regaining national power....

apnews.com

Italy’s regional voters thwart hopes of right-wing forces
43 minutes ago


ROME (AP) — Italian voters have thwarted right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini’s hopes of turning an election in a key northern region into a springboard for regaining national power.

Nearly complete results Monday of Sunday’s election for the governorship of the prosperous Emilia-Romagna region had his League party candidate winning only 43.7 % support to the 51.4% garnered by the incumbent governor from the center-left Democrats.

The Democrats are in Italy’s national coalition government led by Premier Giuseppe Conte.

But the big loser in that regional vote was the populist 5-Star Movement, which is Conte’s main coalition partner. The 5-Stars, who are the largest party in Italy’s national Parliament, tanked at some 3.5% of the vote. Their poor showing, the latest slump in fortunes since their triumph in the 2018 national election, could likely worsen infighting in the 5-Stars and weaken their clout in Conte’s government.

In southern Calabria, the only other Italian region voting Sunday, a center-right candidate triumphed on a ticket that was backed by Salvini’s anti-migrant League party, the far-right Brothers of Italy party and the conservatives of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.

Salvini on Monday sought to put a positive spin on his candidate’s defeat in Emilia-Romagna, saying he did remarkably well in a region that for decades has been a stronghold of the left. Salvini himself had campaigned incessantly there, practically eclipsing his candidate’s visibility.

 

[Plain Jane]

Catalan leader stripped of lawmaker rights, protesters scuffle with police

Catalonia's parliament stripped the head of the region's pro-independence government of his rights as a regional lawmaker on Monday, angering supporters who scuffled with police outside the assembly.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 27, 2020 / 2:41 PM / UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO
Catalan leader stripped of lawmaker rights, protesters scuffle with police

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia’s parliament stripped the head of the region’s pro-independence government of his rights as a regional lawmaker on Monday, angering supporters who scuffled with police outside the assembly.

The parliament’s speaker, Roger Torrent, said the assembly in Barcelona had to comply with a Spanish court ruling against regional leader Quim Torra to ensure future votes are not deemed invalid, but said he would seek ways to overturn the decision.

Torra will now be unable to vote in parliament but will remain head of the Catalan government, despite opposition parties’ demands that he be removed from the post, Torrent said.

Catalonia unilaterally declared independence in 2017 following a referendum, prompting the Spanish government to impose direct rule from Madrid and call a new election, in which pro-independence parties won a majority in parliament.

Torra was later handed an 18-month ban from public office for refusing to remove symbols supporting jailed Catalan activists from government buildings during an electoral campaign, and the electoral board stripped Torra of his seat in the Catalan parliament. That decision was upheld by Spain’s Supreme Court last week.

There was no word of any arrests of injuries in the scuffles that broke out with police on Monday when several hundred people, some of them waving Catalan flags, protested against the decision to strip Torra of his rights as a lawmaker.


Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, is due to attend a meeting in Barcelona next week to set the agenda for negotiations to address Catalonia’s independence drive.

Separatist left-wing party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) was instrumental in facilitating Sanchez’s confirmation as premier this month after a long political stalemate.

Torra’s center-right Junts per Catalunya and ERC, who have a coalition government in the region, have been at odds over the issue of whether to remove Torra from power, raising the prospect of a snap regional election that would increase political uncertainty in Spain.

Reporting by Joan Faus, writing by Joan Faus, Emma Pinedo and Ashifa Kassam, Editing by Andrei Khalip and Timothy Heritage
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Police clear out migrants from northern Paris site

French police moved migrants out from Paris' biggest remaining makeshift camp on Tuesday as the government faced pressure to show it is taking a tough stance on illegal immigration.

www.reuters.com

WORLD NEWS
JANUARY 28, 2020 / 1:21 AM / UPDATED 30 MINUTES AGO
Police clear out migrants from northern Paris site

PARIS (Reuters) - French police moved migrants out from Paris’ biggest remaining makeshift camp on Tuesday as the government faced pressure to show it is taking a tough stance on illegal immigration.

Police cleared out the migrants from the camp site in northern Paris’ Porte d’Aubervilliers, which had housed more than 1,000 people often living in squalid conditions beside the busy and noisy Peripherique ringroad.

Those who were moved out were then taken on buses to transport them to new accommodation. Police faced no resistance during the operation.

The migrants appeared to be mainly from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, many of them fleeing countries blighted by wars and poverty.

Since the closure of a huge migrant camp in Calais in 2016, many refugees have moved to Paris. Authorities have repeatedly dismantled illegal campsites only to see them pop up again in different areas a few months later.

The Aubervilliers site sprung up just two months after police had carried out a similar operation at two huge migrant tent camps in nearby sites in northern Paris.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo was present as authorities moved in during the early hours of Tuesday to dismantle the Aubervilliers site. Rubbish, debris and discarded items such as bicycles could be seen next to the ramshackle, shantytown-style tents.

Last November, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the French government would step up plans to clamp down on illegal immigration by clearing out migrant tent camps, imposing quotas for migrant workers and denying newly arrived asylum seekers access to non-urgent healthcare.

Opinion polls show that illegal immigration remains a big concern for many French voters, propping up support for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is likely to be President Emmanuel Macron’s main opponent in the next election in 2002.

Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Manuel Ausloos and Gonzalo Fuentes; Editing by Tom Hogue and Angus MacSwan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Chinese embassy wants Danish paper to apologize for coronavirus cartoon

China's embassy in Denmark has demanded an apology from daily Jyllands-Posten after it published a cartoon of the Chinese flag with its five yellow stars represented by coronavirus particles.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 28, 2020 / 5:31 AM / UPDATED 35 MINUTES AGO
Chinese embassy wants Danish paper to apologize for coronavirus cartoon


2 MIN READ
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - China’s embassy in Denmark has demanded an apology from daily Jyllands-Posten after it published a cartoon of the Chinese flag with its five yellow stars represented by coronavirus particles.
In a statement, the embassy said Jyllands-Posten and Danish artist Niels Bo Bojesen should apologize to the Chinese people for publishing the image, captioned “Coronavirus”, in Monday’s edition of the paper.
“Without any sympathy and empathy, it has crossed the bottom line of civilized society and the ethical boundary of free speech and offends human conscience,” the embassy said on Tuesday.

In 2005, Jyllands-Posten published satirical drawings of the Prophet Mohammad that caused outrage across the Muslim world.
Editor-in-chief Jacob Nybroe said the paper had not intended to make fun of the situation in China, where the new coronavirus has killed 106 people and infected thousands, but refused to apologize, local newswire Ritzau reported.

“We cannot apologize for something that we don’t believe is wrong,” Nybroe told Ritzau. “We have no intention of demeaning or mocking the situation in China and we don’t think the drawing does that.”
Danish politicians from across the spectrum said China should not pressure the paper. “Full support for Jyllands-Posten,” tweeted Conservative Party leader Soren Pape Poulsen.
Reporting by Andreas Mortensen; Editing by Catherine Evans
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

In snub to US, Britain will allow Huawei in 5G networks

Britain has decided to let Huawei have a limited role in supplying new high-speed mobile gear to wireless carriers.

apnews.com

In snub to US, Britain will allow Huawei in 5G networks


KELVIN CHAN and DANICA KIRKA


LONDON (AP) — Britain decided Tuesday to let Chinese tech giant Huawei have a limited role supplying new high-speed network equipment to wireless carriers, ignoring the U.S. government’s warnings that it would sever intelligence sharing if the company was not banned.

Britain’s decision is the first by a major U.S. ally in Europe, and follows intense lobbying from the Trump administration as the U.S. vies with China for technological dominance.

It sets up a diplomatic clash with the Americans, who claim that British sovereignty is at risk because the company could give the Chinese government access to data, an allegation Huawei denies.

We would never take decisions that threaten our national security or the security of our Five Eyes partners,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, referring to a security arrangement in which Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, share intelligence. “We know more about Huawei and the risks that it poses than any other country in the world.″

The decision was awkward for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who risks the fury of one of Britain’s closest allies at just the moment it needs the Trump’s administration to quickly strike a trade deal after Brexit. Britain officially leaves the European Union at the end of the week, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to pay a two-day visit starting Wednesday to meet with Johnson and Raab to reaffirm the tran-Atlantic relationship.

A senior Trump administration official said the U.S. is disappointed by the decision, adding that the U.S. government would work with the U.K. on a “way forward” that leads to the exclusion of “untrusted vendor components” from 5G networks. The official was not authorized to comment on the sensitive diplomacy between longstanding allies and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In its decision, the British government said it was excluding “high risk” companies from supplying the sensitive “core” parts of the new fifth-generation, or 5G, networks. The core is the brain that keeps track, among other things, of smartphones connecting to networks and helps manage data traffic.

But Britain will allow high risk suppliers to provide up to 35% of a carrier’s less risky radio network, based on factors including the amount of data traffic and the number of base stations.

The announcement did not mention any companies by name but said “high risk vendors are those who pose greater security and resilience risks to U.K. telecoms networks” - a clear reference to Huawei.

Huawei said it was reassured by the “evidence-based decision,” portraying it as a victory. Executives said 35% of a market would be a good result for most companies.

“We need to have strong competition to make sure the consumer can enjoy the best possible technologies,” Vice President Victor Zhang said on a conference call with reporters.

By giving Huawei limited access, Johnson’s government is attempting to thread a path between the U.S. and China, analysts said.

“In truth the U.K. had little room to manoeuvre,” said Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs, a cyber intelligence company. The decision “seeks to carve an acceptable middle ground that will keep various contending forces happy,” she said, noting that British wireless carries have already been using Huawei gear for 15 years.

The 5G technology is expected to drive the next wave of innovation, transmitting massive amounts of data from more objects and locations. It would, for example, help make possible self-driving cars or remote surgery.

Huawei is the top global supplier of mobile networks, and it’s considered a cost-effective and high-quality alternative to its main rivals, Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson.

The United States says that China’s communist leaders could, under a 2017 national intelligence law, compel Huawei to carry out cyberespionage. The U.S. has threatened repeatedly to cut off intelligence sharing with allies that use Huawei.

“Here’s the sad truth: our special relationship is less special now that the U.K. has embraced the surveillance state commies at Huawei,″ said U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “During the Cold War, Margaret Thatcher never contracted with the KGB to save a few pennies.″

With 5G, U.S. officials also worry that because the “core” will run extensively on software, it could be nearly impossible to spot an accidental vulnerability or a malicious “backdoor” among millions of lines of computer code. Huawei denies the allegations, saying there’s never been any evidence it is responsible for a breach.

For Britain, the 5G infrastructure program is considered critical as it leaves the EU and aims to position its economy to benefit from technological innovation.

The government said Tuesday it is taking some steps that will allow it “to mitigate the potential risk posed by the supply chain and to combat the range of threats, whether cyber criminals, or state sponsored attacks.″ The plans include encouraging smaller suppliers such as South Korea’s Samsung and Japan’s NEC to enter the British market.

The government will draft legislation to make the security requirements mandatory. In the meantime, cybersecurity officials will advise wireless carriers, some of whom have already installed Huawei 5G-capable gear that exceeds the 35% cap, on how to comply.

Mobile phone companies said they were analyzing the decision. Vodafone, which uses Huawei for parts of its radio network but not in its core, said that using multiple suppliers “is the best way to safeguard the delivery of services to all mobile customers.”

___

Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.

 

[jward]

Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) Tweeted:
#Breaking: Just in - Meanwhile happening now in #Paris in #France, firefighters are clashing with riot police and tear gas being used against them, in protests against the governments decision to reform the social pension funds of the people in France. Sotiri Dimpinoudis on Twitter

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1222163384180727814

View: https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1222163384180727814?s=20

 

[Plain Jane]

The tragedy in the above post and this one is that the police themselves are under huge duress. The numbers that were killed while on duty and suicides were through the roof last year.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

French Firefighters Set Selves Ablaze, Spar With Riot Cops As Yellow Vest Chaos Resumes

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 - 04:15
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French firefighters have joined the mass anti-government protests raging across the country, with some setting themselves on fire and fighting with riot cops while arguing for a pay raise of 25%.

Fabien Rives@Fabien_Rives
https://twitter.com/Fabien_Rives/status/1222151526937960449

Des pompiers s'immolent symboliquement avenue de la République #greve28janvier #grevepompiers



967
8:36 AM - Jan 28, 2020
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Jonathan Moadab@MoadabJ
https://twitter.com/MoadabJ/status/1222153364647174144

Tensions en cours. Les #pompiers matraqués par la police #greve28janvier



9,628
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10.1K people are talking about this

Fire brigade unions are demanding better pay and conditions and organised the demonstration in the capital’s Place de la Republique to bring attention to their cause today.
They want a pay rise of 25% arguing their work is made increasingly difficult due to staff cuts and attacks against them.
Paris police said firefighters who tried to break down or scale fencing near the Nation area of the city were dispersed by water cannon.
Firefighters previously demonstrated in October – marked by clashes with the police – calling for better pay, guarantees of their pension benefits and greater respect for their profession. -Metro.uk

Jonathan Moadab@MoadabJ
https://twitter.com/MoadabJ/status/1222191225761140736

De plus en plus de blessés. Un #PompiersEnColere a réussi a subtiliser un bouclier de policier #pompiers #greve28janvier



562
11:14 AM - Jan 28, 2020
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More photos at link.
https://twitter.com/MoadabJ/status/1222191225761140736

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Then & Now: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 - 02:45
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During the 1990s, Portugal was devastated by a drug crisis where one in every 100 people became addicted to heroin and the rate of HIV infection soared to become the highest in the European Union.
But, as Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, Portugal's radical move to put an end to the carnage should prove an example to other countries dealing with similar problems, especially the United States where opioids have killed more people than the totality of American military casualties in Vietnam, both Iraq wars and Afghanistan combined.
That move was decriminalizing the consumption of all drugs and Portugal became the first country to do it.
The policy saw the status of using or possessing drugs for personal use remain illegal. However, offenses were changed from being criminal in nature which involved prison as a possible punishment to being administrative if the amount possessed was no more than a ten-day supply. Needle exchange programs have also been in place since 1993 and today, all drug users can exchange syringes at pharmacy counters across Portugal. Drug treatment was also expanded and improved with successful results.

Finding historical data highlighting the severity of the addiction problem during the late 1990s is difficult but some important numbers do exist which help to show just how remarkable Portugal's recovery has been. The following infographic pulls data together from several sources to illustrate some key developments.




find more infographics at Statista

Back in 1999, Portugal experienced 369 overdose deaths and in 2016, the number was just 30. The number of new HIV diagnoses due to injecting has plummeted from 907 in 2000 to 18 in 2017. The new laws have also had an impact on incarceration with the number of people behind bars for drug offences falling from 3,863 in 1999 to 1,140 in 2017.

 

[Plain Jane]

Tears and cheers as EU lawmakers give final nod to Brexit

The European Parliament gave final approval to Britain's divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, paving the way for the country to quit the bloc on Friday after nearly half a century and delivering a major setback for European integration.

www.reuters.com

BREXIT
JANUARY 29, 2020 / 6:46 AM / UPDATED 17 MINUTES AGO
Britain hands in Brexit file as British EU lawmakers say 'au revoir'

Christian Levaux, Yves Herman
3 MIN READ

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain’s ambassador to the European Union passed documents formalising Brexit to a senior EU official on Wednesday, hours before European lawmakers are due to sign off on a deal that will see Britain finally quit the bloc on Friday.

Three-and-a-half years after Britons voted to leave, a smiling Tim Barrow handed over a dark blue leather file embossed with the emblem of the United Kingdom, against a backdrop of British and EU flags at the bloc’s Brussels headquarters.

The European Parliament is due to give its final consent to the EU-UK Brexit deal at 1700 GMT, after which lawmakers will throw an “Au Revoir” party for their 73 departing colleagues.

After protracted and often tortuous divorce talks, the UK will leave the club it joined in 1973 at midnight Brussels time (2300 GMT) on Friday, when British flags will be removed from EU offices and the EU flag lowered on the British premises there.

On his last working day as a member of the European Parliament, leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage told reporters there was “no going back” once the UK leaves.

“The UK didn’t fit, we’d be better off out,” he said, describing euroscepticism as a settled view in the UK, where the 2016 referendum was won by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin.

While Farage was beaming, his compatriot Jude Kirton-Darling, a socialist member of the Parliament, held back tears.

“It’s probably the saddest day of my life so far. Brexit is something that attacks the very foundation of our identity,” said Kirton-Darling, who plans to stay in Brussels with her Belgian husband.


She wore a red-and-blue scarf with EU and British flags on it and a caption reading “Always United”.

Barrow will become Britain’s foreign ambassador to the EU and the UK’s Permanent Representation, or UKRep, will become a foreign mission — already dubbed “UKmissEU” by some.

With just 11 months left of a status-quo transition period designed to smooth the Brexit process, fresh negotiations will begin soon on a new relationship — covering everything from trade to security — between the two sides.

Additional reporting by Jakub Riha, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Catherine Evans
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Supreme Ruler Putin? Kremlin non-committal on proposed new job description

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin had no view on a proposal that would see his job description change to Supreme Ruler from head of state after a government commission said it was considering the idea.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 29, 2020 / 9:33 AM / UPDATED 40 MINUTES AGO
Supreme Ruler Putin? Kremlin non-committal on proposed new job description

Tom Balmforth, Andrew Osborn
3 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin had no view on a proposal that would see his job description change to Supreme Ruler from head of state after a government commission said it was considering the idea.

The title change is one of an array of possible alterations to the Russian constitution put forward by members of a government commission set up after Putin earlier this month said he wanted to change the Russian basic law.

Putin, 67, proposed his own constitutional changes, which were widely seen as giving him scope to retain influence once his current presidential term expires in 2024, though he has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

The overhaul, which triggered a change in government, also cemented Putin’s control of the transition process and was seen by some as an attempt to reduce intra-clan infighting between now and 2024, while allowing Putin to show he is responding to public discontent after years of belt-tightening.

The State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, has already given its backing to his reforms in a preliminary vote. The government commission is considering further possible changes.

“There are... some very curious proposals among those put forward. For instance, they proposed renaming the position of head of state to ‘Supreme leader’,” Pavel Krasheninnikov, the government commission’s co-chair, told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government newspaper.

When asked about the idea on Wednesday, the Kremlin was non-committal, calling it a “new initiative” and one of various proposals that may or may not be implemented.

“Right now all this is at the discussion stage,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “President Putin has no view on this.”


Other proposals include formally recognizing Russia’s status as a “victorious power” in World War Two and recognizing Orthodox Christianity as the country’s main religion, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

“Naturally some (of the proposals) will be eliminated, some will be accepted and from this the commission’s sought-after result will appear,” Peskov told reporters.

Russia’s TASS news agency said Vladimir Zhironovsky, leader of the nationalist pro-Kremlin LDPR party, had suggested the president be known as the Supreme Leader many times in order to move away from job titles derived from foreign languages.

Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Melodi]

As I've suspected for years, that if he lived long enough Putin would either declare himself Tsar or give himself a similar title - the other choice would be to find a puppet Romanov and pretend it is a constitutional monarchy while Putin essentially plays Shogun.

 

[Plain Jane]

Dutch court throws out case against Israeli military chiefs

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court threw out a civil case Wednesday brought by a Dutch-Palestinian man seeking damages from two former Israeli military commanders for their roles in a 2014 airstrike on a Gaza house that killed six members of his family.

apnews.com

Dutch court throws out case against Israeli military chiefs
By MIKE CORDER

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court threw out a civil case Wednesday brought by a Dutch-Palestinian man seeking damages from two former Israeli military commanders for their roles in a 2014 airstrike on a Gaza house that killed six members of his family.

The Hague District Court ruled that the case filed by Ismail Zeyada can’t proceed because the commanders, including high profile former military chief Benny Gantz, have immunity.

Zeyada was attempting to sue Gantz, who is now a prominent Israeli politician, and former Israeli air force commander Amir Eshel. Neither Gantz nor Eshel was in court for the decision.

Zeyada, who lives in the Netherlands, brought the case in The Hague because he argued he can’t successfully hold Israeli military leaders accountable in Israeli courts.

But presiding judge Larisa Alwin said the court can’t hear the case because the commanders “enjoy functional immunity from jurisdiction” as their actions were part of a state-sanctioned military operation.

Zeyada said he and his lawyers would study the ruling with a view to appealing.

“I owe it to all the Palestinians who have suffered and continue to suffer the same fate, to continue this struggle to achieve what is denied to them: Access to independent justice and accountability for the unspeakable crimes committed against them,” he told reporters outside the courtroom.

The court agreed with the arguments of Dutch lawyers representing the men who said last year they should reject the case for lack of jurisdiction because the commanders have immunity because their actions in the 2014 Gaza conflict were part of an Israeli military operation and that Zeyada was free to sue them in Israel.

At hearings last year, Zeyada rejected the idea that he has access to justice in Israel as “farcical as well as vicious.”

Israel’s Justice Ministry had asked the court to dismiss the allegations, saying that an internal Israeli military investigation determined the airstrike had killed four militants hiding in the house. It said the attack was permissible under international law, and argued the Dutch court doesn’t have jurisdiction. Gaza’s Hamas rulers themselves have said that two militants were in the building.

At a hearing last year, Zeyada detailed his loss to the judges.

“My mother, Muftia Zeyada, who was 70 years old at the time of her death. My eldest brother Jamil and his precious wife Bayan. Their 12-year-old son Shaban. My two other brothers, Youssef and Omar,” he told judges.

Zeyada said Wednesday he felt “deep sorrow and disappointment, because effectively this decision denies me access to justice. I have no access to justice. I’m a Dutch citizen who I’ve been a victim of a horrendous crime and here a Dutch court tells me no access to justice.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Greece wants floating fence to keep migrants out

Greece wants to install a floating barrier in the Aegean Sea to deter migrants arriving at its islands' shores through Turkey, government officials said on Thursday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
JANUARY 30, 2020 / 3:58 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Greece wants floating fence to keep migrants out


2 MIN READ

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece wants to install a floating barrier in the Aegean Sea to deter migrants arriving at its islands’ shores through Turkey, government officials said on Thursday.

Greece served as gateway to the European Union for more than one million Syrian refugees and other migrants in recent years. While an agreement with Turkey sharply reduced the number attempting the voyage since 2016, Greek islands still struggle with overcrowded camps operating far beyond their capacity.

The 2.7 kilometer long (1.68 miles) net-like barrier that Greece wants to buy will be set up in the sea off the island of Lesbos, where the overcrowded Moria camp operates.

It will rise 50 cm above sea level and carry light marks that will make it visible at night, a government document inviting vendors to submit offers said, adding that it was “aimed at containing the increasing inflows of migrants”.


“The invitation for floating barriers is in the right direction... We will see what the result, what its effect as a deterrent will be in practice,” Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos told Skai Radio.

“It will be a natural barrier. If it works like the one in Evros, I believe it can be effective,” he said, referring to a cement and barbed-wire fence that Greece set up in 2012 along its northern border with Turkey to stop a rise in migrants crossing there.

Last year, 59,726 migrants and refugees reached Greece’s shores according to the UN agency UNHCR. Nearly 80% of them arrived on Chios, Samos and Lesbos.

A defense ministry official told Reuters the barrier will be installed at the north of Lesbos, where migrants usually attempt to cross over due to the short distance from Turkey.

If the floating fence is effective, more parts may be added and it could reach 13-15 kilometers, the official said.

“We need to test it to see if it can bring the results we want,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told ANT1 TV.

Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Peter Graff
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Europe evacuates citizens from China, Russia shuts border

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — European countries stepped up efforts Thursday to contain the virus sweeping through central China, sending a chartered airliner there to evacuate hundreds of European citizens, scrapping more commercial flights to Chinese destinations and keeping some 7,000 people on a cruis

apnews.com

Europe evacuates citizens from China, Russia shuts border
By BARRY HATTON33 minutes ago


LISBON, Portugal (AP) — European countries stepped up efforts Thursday to contain the virus sweeping through central China, sending a chartered airliner there to evacuate hundreds of European citizens, scrapping more commercial flights to Chinese destinations and keeping some 7,000 people on a cruise ship while one possibly infected passenger got tested.

Signaling intensifying international concern, the World Health Organization in Geneva declared the viral outbreak that has sickened more than 7,800 people and caused 170 deaths in China as a global emergency, while Russia closed its long border with the Asian giant.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued a decree ordering the temporary closure of the border, which extends for 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles). In addition, all train traffic between Russia and China was halted except for one train connecting Moscow and Beijing.

A passenger airliner enlisted for the evacuation took off Thursday morning from a former Portuguese military airport southeast of Lisbon carrying only the pilots and crew.

Capt. Antonios Efthymiou said the flight would stop in Paris to pick up a team of doctors and extra crew members before heading to Hanoi and then China. Efthymiou told Portuguese media it would bring back about 350 Europeans. He said the crew would take special medical precautions but did not elaborate.

Britain said its delayed repatriation flight for 200 U.K. citizens in Wuhan would leave ther Friday, with the returning Britons quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. The U.K.-government chartered plane had been due to return earlier but it was delayed because permissions form the Chinese government had not come through.

China so far has reported nearly 200 deaths and about 8,000 confirmed cases of the virus on its mainland. Outside China, there are more than 80 infected people in 19 countries. Those include 13 confirmed cases in Europe so far: five in France, five in Germany, two in Italy and one in Finland.

A scare over a 54-year-old woman with flu-like symptoms led Italian authorities to keep 6,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members on the cruise ship docked north of Rome. The Costa Crociere cruise line said the woman and her partner, who had no symptoms, were put into isolation Wednesday.

The passengers were allowed to disembark on Thursday after tests for the new virus from China came back negative, Italian coast guard Capt. Stefano Varone said. The ship was sailing from Mallorca, Spain, to Civitavecchia on a weeklong Mediterranean cruise.

While those tests came back negative, two Chinese tourists visiting Rome tested positive for the virus, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Thursday, adding that Italy had barred flights coming from and going to China.

Germany confirmed a fifth case there, all involving employees at Munich-based auto parts maker Webasto, which has facilities in Wuhan. Officials think the virus was transmitted by a Chinese employee who visited Germany for training earlier this month and tested positive on her return to China.

The Czech Republic announced it was stopping issuing visas to Chinese citizens due to the outbreak. More than 600,000 Chinese tourists are estimated to have visited the Czech Republic last year, especially its old-world capital city of Prague.

On the retail front, Swedish furniture and home goods retailer IKEA announced all its stores in mainland China would remain closed to protect customers and staff from the outbreak. The stores are a favorite haunt of Chinese city dwellers, both for shopping and for just hanging out.

More European airlines announced halts in service to China, all citing efforts “to protect the health and security of customers and staff.”

Air France suspended all its regular passenger flights to and from China until Feb. 9. The French carrier had already suspended flights to Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, and reduced traffic to Beijing and Shanghai. Air France said it will run special flights starting Thursday to bring back some customers and employees from Beijing and Shanghai.

Scandinavian Airlines announced it was halting all its flights to Beijing and Shanghai beginning Friday and running through Feb. 9th. SAS has 12 regular weekly flights from Scandinavia to China.

Spain’s Iberia national airline halted the three return flights a week it runs between Madrid and Shanghai due to the virus, a move it said would continue through February.

Finnish national airline Finnair said it has stopped accepting new bookings on its flights to mainland China.

Those announcements followed earlier moves to halt or reduce flights to China by other European airlines, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and KLM, which after the weekend is adding Beijing and Shanghai to its list of suspended Chinese destinations.

The virus comes from the coronavirus family, which includes the common cold but also more severe illnesses, such as SARS and MERS.

European passengers escaping Wuhan by air are expected to reach France on Friday. Then they will be quarantined for 14 days, but as compensation they will be put up at a southern vacation resort with a view of the Mediterranean Sea.

In contrast, American evacuees from China are being kept at a military facility.

The French resort is in the small town of Carry-le-Rouet. Its mayor protested the move, fearing it could keep people away from a local sea urchin culinary festival this weekend, town hall communications director Peggy Molina said. But the French government simply requisitioned the resort, she said.

Underlining EU nations’ hasty preparations to respond to the virus, Molina said the town hall was told only Thursday that it would be hosting evacuees starting Friday.

—-

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Karel Janicek in Prague, Gianfranco Stara in Civitavecchia, Angela Charlton and Elaine Ganley in Paris and Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed to this report.

 

[Plain Jane]

Spain to open Catalonia talks before regional election, reversing earlier position

Spain's government said on Thursday it will begin talks on resolving the Catalan political conflict before elections are held in the region, walking back an earlier decision to postpone the negotiations until after the polls.

www.reuters.com

WORLD NEWS
JANUARY 30, 2020 / 7:14 AM / UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO
Spain to open Catalonia talks before regional election, reversing earlier position


3 MIN READ

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s government said on Thursday it will begin talks on resolving the Catalan political conflict before elections are held in the region, walking back an earlier decision to postpone the negotiations until after the polls.


FILE PHOTO: Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks at a news conference after the first cabinet meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, January 14, 2020. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
The talks were a precondition for left-wing separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) to facilitate Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent investiture.
His decision to delay the negotiations drew sharp criticism from Catalan politicians, including a top ERC official who referred to it as an “absolute irresponsibility”.
Catalonia has been a dominant theme in Spanish politics since the region unilaterally declared independence in October 2017 following a referendum deemed illegal by courts, prompting Spain’s biggest political crisis in decades.
ERC’s support is crucial for the government’s budget proposal to be approved by the Spanish parliament, and the party has previously said its support for the bill would depend on the evolution of the negotiations.

“We asked for the agreement to be fulfilled and it will be done,” an ERC source with knowledge of the situation said, adding that Sanchez had met with ERC spokesman Gabriel Rufian on Thursday.
In a statement, the Spanish government said it wanted to reaffirm its commitment to the talks even though the current conditions were not ideal to begin negotiating.
“Throughout the day we have heard our willingness to talk and our commitment to the agreements be called into question,” the government said.
The reversal came a day after the pro-independence head of Catalonia’s regional government Quim Torra said he planned to call a snap local election, pending the approval of the region’s budget. The ballot is expected to be in late May at the earliest.
Torra’s Junts per Catalunya party and ERC, who are partners in the region’s ruling coalition, have been at odds lately.

The Catalan government did not address the postponement directly in a statement released after the announcement, but said Torra would seek to prepare for such talks at a meeting with Sanchez set for Feb. 6. The two would discuss the right of self-determination and an amnesty for the jailed and self-exiled Catalan separatist leaders.

“We are convinced that Prime Minister Sanchez will not close any door to dialogue in that meeting, nor exclude any topic,” it said, referring to next week’s meeting.

Reporting by Inti Landauro and Joan Faus; Writing by Nathan Allen, Ashifa Kassam and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Alex Richardson and Catherine Evans
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