If Merkel is forced out by her successor then German government will fall, coalition party warns – CNBC

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BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 07: German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the course of a special faction meeting, on February 07, 2018 in Berlin, Germany.

Florian Gaertner

The German government's smaller coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has said it could quit the alliance if Chancellor Angela Merkel is forced out of office by the new leader of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The politician seen as Merkel's successor as leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, announced on Monday that she would step down from the CDU chair, creating a leadership vacuum at the top of the party and setting in motion a new leadership contest that's set to take place by the summer.

Merkel was expected to remain chancellor of Germany until her term in office ends in 2021 but if one of her political rivals is elected to the CDU leadership, it could be difficult for her to see out the full term.

The secretary general of the SPD, which is in a coalition with the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said Wednesday that if Merkel is forced from the chancellorship, the party could pull out of the so-called "Grand Coalition." That could trigger a full general election, ahead of a vote scheduled to take place before October 2021.

"Angela Merkel is the incumbent chancellor. We went with her into this coalition. And with her we will also leave this coalition regularly for the next election date," SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said, according to Der Spiegel.

"We want to continue working together with the (Grand) Union in the federal government. This government is elected until autumn 2021," he said.

Klingbeil's comments come amid heightened uncertainty in the CDU over its future leader and whether he or she (although all the favorites for the job are men) will continue Merkel's more centrist approach to government or will take a more traditional, conservative position to try to counter a loss of voters to the right-wing Alternative for Germany party.

One of the favorites for the CDU leadership is Friedrich Merz, who is seen as a rival of Merkel. He is supported by party members that want a change from Merkel's centrism and were unhappy at some of her more liberal policies, such as her open-door policy during Europe's migrant crisis in 2015.

Armin Laschet, the premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Health Minister Jens Spahn are also main contenders for the role and are both seen as continuing Merkel's centrist stance.

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If Merkel is forced out by her successor then German government will fall, coalition party warns - CNBC

Greeces proposed floating wall shows the failure of EU migration policies – The Guardian

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Last week, Greece announced a pilot plan to install a floating wall in the Aegean Sea. A system of floating dams off the coast of Lesbos, spanning 1.7 miles and rising 50cm (20in) above the water, the barrier is intended to block the primary sea route to Greece from Turkey, and deter migrants from attempting the journey. But in a country with a maritime border roughly 500 nautical miles long, the floating barrier is primarily symbolic. Like Trumps wall, it will signal the intent to keep out migrants; and like Trumps wall it will fail to do so.

Europes refugee crisis no longer dominates headlines. According to the European commission, the reason is simple: the crisis is over, solved by a step change in migration management and border protection. The situation in Greece, however, tells a different story. Migrants still arrive at its shores, even if the rest of the world is hardly paying attention. Last year, 74,613 distress migrants fleeing conflict and destitution entered Greece, bringing the total number in the country to 112,000.

And with ongoing conflict and destitution in Syria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrivals show no sign of abating. Greece, a small country still recovering from a devastating economic crisis and with high levels of domestic unemployment, is not the migrants destination of choice. But with onward migration to wealthier countries blocked by an increasingly xenophobic European Union, the country has become the blocs primary buffer state, carrying the humanitarian burden for the whole of Europe.

The consequences in Greece are increasingly harsh. Close to 20,000 people are being held on Lesbos, an island of 86,000 people, crammed into a camp with a holding capacity less than 3,000. There, thousands spend months fending for themselves in flimsy tents erected in olive groves, uncertain about how and when their asylum claims will be determined, with inadequate access to medical care and education. Meanwhile a host community that provided a generous welcome in 2015 is increasingly dismayed by the failure of European migration policies, and the impact on their daily life, including the dramatic drop in their key source of revenue, tourism.

Migrants should have the option of safe channels, such as humanitarian visas, that afford orderly exit strategies

This situation is clearly untenable, with tension on the island leading to recent clashes and violence. But a wall wont be the solution. People fleeing war, persecution, violence, famine and poverty do not abandon their plans just because of new obstacles; they persevere, if necessary by more dangerous or costly means. Despite the 654-mile physical barrier between the US and Mexico, almost a million distress migrants arrived at the USs southern border last year.

Rather than putting up more barriers, the answer to the current situation is to address two of the key underlying problems: first, the factors that drive thousands to flee their home countries; and second, the lack of effective policies to manage humanitarian migration in a humane and efficient manner. These problems are not easy to fix and they are certainly not the responsibility of the Greek government. But as the situation in Greece so poignantly illustrates, the costs of ignoring them are unsustainable, in human, economic and political terms. The worlds richest regional union could do much better.

A starting point would be vigorous, multifaceted investment in migrants home countries to strengthen the rule of law and enhance economic and social development. Though complex and expensive, much could be achieved at a fraction of the what is already being spent on excluding migants and border control. Consider the EUs current plan to double migration spending and quadruple border control expenditure for the next seven years, dedicating a total of 34.9bn to border and migration management.

Change will take time, and people will always have reasons to flee, particularly as the climate crisis worsens: in 2018 alone, 764,000 people were displaced by drought. Migrants should have the option of safe channels, such as humanitarian visas, that afford orderly and regulated exit strategies. For those deemed not to qualify for these visas, well-staffed and efficient asylum procedures should be available. Delays are not natural, they reflect a political decision about the value of some lives over others. Europe demonstrated those priorities across centuries of colonial domination and exploitation; it is tragic to witness that legacy in action again today.

The EU, with its enormous human and technical resources, has the means to deliver on both these challenges it just needs political vision and leadership. Without them, we will continue to erect futile but costly walls, on land and sea.

Vasileia Digidiki and Jacqueline Bhabha teach at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

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Greeces proposed floating wall shows the failure of EU migration policies - The Guardian

Our Hearts Are Dead. After 9 Years of Civil War, Libyans Are Tired of Being Pawns in a Geopolitical Game of Chess – TIME

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The last time Libyas war had the worlds full attention, it was being fought mainly by Libyans.

For much of 2011, young revolutionaries in mismatched fatigues clamored on anti-aircraft guns, and the narrative driving events was the Arab Spring, an uprising that promised to place the power in the hands of citizens long subjugated by despots.

Though Libyans shaped the ebb and flow of battle, they were hardly alone, even then: circling high above were foreign warplanes from the NATO-led coalition that kept at bay fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. And contrary to some official denials, there were also boots on the ground in the form of foreign special operations forces and intelligence personnel, from France, Britain, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who discretely channeled weapons and training to fractious anti-Gaddafi groups. In such meddling, there were already signs of a proxy rivalry that would explode into open warfare years later.

A vehicle burned during fighting in northwestern Gharyan on June 28, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

Still, Libyans had a sense of owning their destiny, for better or for worse. After French fighter jets and a U.S. drone struck the dictators convoy in October 2011, it was a mob of his countrymen that dragged him from a drainage pipe and killed him. And in the months that followed, the Obama administration and its allies wanted to let the Libyans determine their own path after Gaddafi, avoiding the imperious occupations of Iraq and Afghanistana light-footprint approach that has since been criticized for enabling the strife that followed.

That conflict, which will enter its tenth year on Feb. 17, has recently morphed into an internationalized war where foreign governments openly provide the weapons, money and lately even the fighters. It is no longer framed, at least by some in the media, by high-minded goals like freedom, but by cynical outside interests, which have little to do with ordinary Libyans.

The U.S., now largely on the sidelines in Libya, nominally supports one side the Government of National Accord (GNA), a rickety administration that holds the capital and is beholden to corrupt militias. But President Donald Trump has also talked admiringly about the GNAs main enemy, a septuagenarian warlord who is on record saying Libya is not ripe for democracy.

This renegade would-be strongman, Khalifa Haftar, is backed by a raft of Arab monarchies and authoritarian statesthe Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordanplus France and, significantly, Russia, which last fall dispatched hundreds of contract fighters from the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group to boost Haftars assault on Tripoli. I was on the front when these fighters arrived, and I saw firsthand how their precision artillery strikes and lethal snipers eroded the morale of GNA fighters. For the first time since his offensive started, Haftar was slowly gaining territory. Faced with a potential collapse, the Tripoli government turned to Turkey, the one country backing it with more than rhetoric. Starting in late December, Turkey flew in more than 2,000 militiamen from Syria, hardened veterans of another regional civil war, along with air defense systems and artillery.

A fighter loyal to the GNA inside a building partially burned during a fight on the Yarmouk front line in Tripoli on July 1, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

The range of foreign powers involved in the battle for Libya might make it seem from afar like an abstract game of geopolitical chess. Up close, its a deeply visceral war. One afternoon last summer at the front, I followed a group of government militiamen down the staircase of a shell-pocked villa, tracing a trail of dried bloodthe handiwork of a sniper. We passed through a shattered bedroom where an anti-tank round had punched through the walls. Everything was coated with dust; clothes spilled from an open closet. A woman had died here, the fighters said, along with her child. The intimacy of the violated scene was unsettling: on a dresser, someone had left a bottle of perfume and an open Quran.

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Its hard to overstate the impact of nine years of violence on the social fabric and psyche of a nation. In the past year alone, about 2,000 people have died, including hundreds of civilians, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN. Our hearts are dead, says a Libyan humanitarian worker whose daily work involves prying corpses from rubble and fishing drowned migrants from the sea. In Libya, the physical war is matched in intensity by battles on satellite TV and social media, where Libyan trolls and provocateurs are stirring up tensions between the countrys east, where Haftars rise began, and west, which includes Tripoli. Some wonder whether the country of 6 million will ever be whole again.

The fighters I meet show me their scarsgouges from shrapnel, a bullet hole, a missing limbfrom battles they list on their fingers. Over the years, a militia can become a fraternity and a culture.

A man stands near damaged belongings after an airstrike hit a detention center, killing 53 people and injuring about 130 people, near Tripoli on July 3, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

The fighters sacrifices have also bestowed a worrying sense of entitlement, one that often upstages Libyas elites at lofty international summits like the one Germany hosted on Jan 19. In Berlin, every major foreign meddler in Libyas war publicly pledged to build on a provisional truce. They also promised to finally abide by a U.N. arms embargo that has been widely ignored for almost a decade.

But after the meeting, the intervening states intensified their shipments of weapons to their Libyan proxies; the Emirates in particular stepped up their support to Haftar, in what appears to be a preparation for a renewed assault. Buoyed by this influx of arms, Haftars forces in recent weeks have shelled Tripolis airport and blockaded oil terminals, causing national output to drop by 75 percent, which only adds to the suffering of everyday Libyans who depend on this revenue.

Although U.N.-backed mediation attempts continue, the provocations are yet another blow to any hope that this deeply wounded society might heal. In an empty school one morning in the anti-Haftar western city of Misrata, I met a group of women, members of a charity, who cook meals for the frontline fighters and provide them with donated clothes. Rolling date paste in semolina dougha delicacy called magrooda middle-age psychologist in a polka-dot robe scoffed at the idea of a truce.

Clothes hang inside a school, which became a shelter for those fleeing their homes, on the front line in Tripoli.

Emanuele Satolli

The campaign on Tripoli that began last April was in a sense the latest round of a civil war that began before Gaddafis death. But its also the project of one man and his remarkable, almost film-worthy rise to the global stage.

Born in 1943, Haftar allied himself with a young captain named Muammar Gaddafi to topple the Libyan monarchy in 1969. He served Gaddafis regime until its ill-fated invasion of Chad in the 1980s, when, after a humiliating battlefield defeat, Haftar defected with some of his men to the opposition. His army of exiles received training from the CIA before being evacuated from Africa. Haftar settled in northern Virginia, where he lived for roughly 20 years before returning to Libya in 2011, proclaiming himself the man who could lead the rebels military campaignonly to be shunted aside.

His moment finally came in 2014, when he launched a war against jihadists, Islamists and political opponents in the violence-wracked city of Benghazi. The battle was long and bloody, with human rights abuses on both sides. One of Haftars officers was issued with a warrant for war crimes by the International Criminal Court; he remains under the generals protection. It also marked the start of Haftars military backing from the Emirates, Egypt, and France support that stems, in varying degrees, from ideological affinity with his anti-Islamist and anti-democratic leanings, and his counterterrorism aims. After victory came in 2017, he turned his gaze on Tripoli.

Haftar is a tall, mustachioed man who favors epauletted uniforms resplendent with medals, though for international meetings he dons a dark tailored suit. When I interviewed him in the summer of 2014, he exalted the moral supremacy of the military while disparaging civilian-led politics. Like all absolutists, he is a great simplifier, reducing Libyas economic and political problems to abstractions like terrorism and security. Like other nativists, he defines the nation in solipsistic terms, in opposition to its enemies, real and imagined.

Fighters loyal to the GNA sit under a makeshift tent on the international airport front line in Tripoli on July 4, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

When he launched his attack last year on Tripoli, he claimed to be cleansing the GNA of corrupt militias and radical Islamists. The pretext collapses under scrutiny. Theres no doubt the GNA was in the grips of predatory armed groups, but Haftars forces are themselves comprised of irregular militias who are also deeply corrupt.

As for his charge of a terrorist infestation in the capital, U.S. defense officials recently told me that is a vast exaggeration. At any rate, many Western diplomats say the GNA have been helpful counterterrorism partners. Some of the commanders fighting Haftar today received U.S. support during the months-long battle against ISIS in the Libyan city of Sirte in 2016.

Still, Haftar has attracted support from diverse swathes of Libyans who have grafted their grievances onto his campaign, despite deep reservations about his ambitions. Some just wanted him to restore order, whatever the cost. Some have since questioned his war and his autocratic vision. But breaking openly with the general is fraught with peril; many who have done so have disappeared.

An anti-Haftar poster in Tripoli on July 1, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

Haftars latest offensive has seen possibly one of the largest ever wartime deployments of armed drones, piloted on one side by personnel from the Emirates, and on the other by Turks. Emirati-supplied drones alone have conducted 850 strikes for Haftars side, often killing civilians. In late November I stumbled across a bombed-out biscuit factory where 10 workers, including several migrants, were killed. Scattered across the factory grounds were impact craters strewn with human remains.

The victims of the strike hold one answer to the question: Why should anyone in the West care about Libya? Among the injured workers were those from Niger and Bangladesh, migrants trying to earn enough money to buy a place on a smugglers boat to Italy, 290 miles across the Mediterranean. The movement of labor from the globes poorer south to its richer north may be a natural part of globalization, but anti-immigrant sentiments are remaking Western politics.

Gaddafi suppressed the flow of migrants in exchange for Italy paying reparations. But in the lawlessness since 2011, Libya has become the back door to Europe that Turkey was for Syrian refugees. Italy has once again tried to quarantine the flow of people in Libya, backing a deal under which Tripoli has paid off militias to do so, directly bolstering their power. The migrant crisisalong with the broader civil warhas been further abetted by a divided European Union, an ambivalent America, and active backing for Haftar by France, Russia, and regional Arab states.

The Tripoli war has been a strange, seemingly post-modern type of combat, waged until recently by all-seeing drones in the sky and hired guns on the ground. A war with very few warriors, the U.N. special representative for Libya, Ghassan Salame, called it in a speech, accurately enough. But its also a brutally human battle, fought by young Libyans who hurl insults at one another across the frontlines, desecrate corpses and mistreat prisoners, just as soldiers have always done. Here, when death comes, it comes quickly and sometimes from the air, for fighters and civilians alike.

The city feels on edge. Afternoon rains lash the fraying facades of the Italianate quarter; traffic builds up and power goes out for 16 or 20 hours at a time. Half-finished high-rises loom on the horizon. There are shortages of fuel and cash: residents queue for hours outside banks for a daily allotment of dinars, herded by militiamen in lizard-stripe fatigues. Archipelagos of garbage line the roads.

A woman on a road near the old city in Tripoli on July 5, 2019.

Emanuele Satolli

In a garage that serves as a studio, a 24-year-old street artist and muralist named Mohammed Shandoul flips through cell phone photos of his artwork. He got his start as an artist like so many others in the aftermath of Libyas 2011 revolution, when the streets of Tripoli saw an explosion of vivid graffiti. He was just 15 then, painting first on the ruins of Gaddafis bomb-shattered palace. And while hes since refined his style, won a prize, and even makes some money on his art, those heady, electric days seem a distant memory.

Shandoul wants to move his family to Tunis, where his art graces nightclub walls, but hes leery: the costs are too high and societal differences between Libya and Tunisia make adjusting hard for the older generation. His family is crowded into a small apartment, but others have it far worse. They live in makeshift shelters like classrooms or factory dorms, enduring daily humiliations like contaminated water and disrupted schooling, amid a war with no end in sight.

The artist paints mostly at night now, artillery booming in the distance. The resumption of fighting means that some of the militias that used to prowl the streets and harass him are otherwise occupied, deployed once again to the front.

Chaos is better for me, he tells me dryly.

Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya.

The author is grateful for the reporting assistance of Muath Mustapha

Contact us at editors@time.com.

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Our Hearts Are Dead. After 9 Years of Civil War, Libyans Are Tired of Being Pawns in a Geopolitical Game of Chess - TIME

90 migrants intercepted trying to reach UK – highest number in one day – Sky News

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Ninety migrants have been intercepted while trying to reach the UK, including women and children.

It is the biggest surge of migrants intercepted in the English Channel and Dover in any one day.

The Home Office said 15 of the 90 migrants claimed to be minors.

They arrived off the Kent coast on several boats and a large-scale search and rescue operation was launched by British and French patrol boats.

Witnesses said some were carried off on stretchers to waiting ambulances, while others wrapped in blankets were checked over by paramedics.

HM Coastguard told Sky News it responded to "a number of incidents" off the coast, along with Kent Police, Border Force and other agencies.

Footage from the scene showed people being escorted off the Home Office's patrol cutter Searcher.

Border Force said in the first incident, at around 2:15am, one of its vessels intercepted a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) which was carrying a group of five males who presented themselves as Senegalese, Malian and Guinean nationals.

The force said in the second incident, also at around 2:15am, one of its vessels intercepted an RHIB which was carrying a group of 21 males who presented themselves as Syrian, Yemeni and Egyptian nationals.

Border Force and partner agencies said dealt with a further six small boat incidents today.

In one incident, at around 7:40am, a vessel intercepted a boat which was carrying a group of 12 males and females who said they were from Iraq and Iran.

In another incident, also at around 7:40am, a Border Force vessel intercepted a boat that was carrying 16 men who also said they were from Iran and Iraq.

A boat intercepted an RHIB carrying 12 people around an hour later, with the nationalities of those on board yet to be established.

In another incident, at around 10:20am, an RNLI vessel intercepted a boat that was carrying a group of 14 people - 12 men and two women, who said they were Iranian and Iraqi nationals.

Kent Police officers detained five suspected illegal migrants in Dover town centre at around 11:20am, with no further details currently available.

Border Force officers detained a group five people at Shakespeare Beach and Samphire Hoe who said they were Iraqi and Yemeni nationals.

The Home Office said all of those found, apart from the group detained by Kent Police, were taken to Dover where they were medically assessed before being transferred to immigration officials to be interviewed.

Home Office director Tony Eastaugh said: "We have extra patrols on French beaches, drones, specialist vehicles and detection equipment which has been deployed to stop small boats leaving European shores.

"And it's working. Last year one hundred people smugglers were convicted for a total of 320 years."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency told Sky News while the interceptions were taking place: "HM Coastguard is co-ordinating a search and rescue response to a number of incidents off Kent this morning, working with Border Force, Kent Police and other partners.

"Border Force vessels Searcher, Speedwell and Alert have been sent, along with RNLI lifeboats from Dover and Littleston, a fixed wing aircraft and an HM Coastguard Search and Rescue Helicopter from Lydd.

"HM Coastguard is only concerned with preservation of life, rescuing those in trouble and bringing them safely back to shore, where they will be handed over to the relevant partner emergency services or authorities."

It comes after nearly 200 migrants risked their lives to try and cross the Channel to the UK in just one week last month - despite repeated warnings about the dangers of making the trip.

It is the world's busiest shipping lane, with between 500 and 600 vessels passing through the narrow strait every day.

In December, 69 migrants were intercepted attempting to cross the Channel in small boats, while Border Force officials in November intercepted four boats in one day carrying 39 Iranian migrants.

The government has previously described the surge in migrant crossings as a "major incident".

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90 migrants intercepted trying to reach UK - highest number in one day - Sky News

Esper: A Bigger NATO Role in Iraq, Mideast ‘Would Over Time Allow Us to Bring Some Forces Home’ – CNSNews.com

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addresses the press in Brussels ahead of the ministerial. (Photo: NATO)

(CNSNews.com) NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Wednesday will discuss a Trump administration push for more help from allies in Iraq, and in the wider Middle East region.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday the ministers would discuss the future of the NATO mission in Iraq, where both the alliance and the broader U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS suspended training missions amid escalated U.S.-Iraq-Iran tensions early last month.

Our aim is to resume that training as soon as possible, he said.

Beyond Iraq, Stoltenberg said, the ministers will consider what more NATO can do in the wider region to build long-term stability and security.

He underlined the need for greater NATO involvement, saying that violence and instability in the Middle East were driving the refugee and migrant crisis, and fueling the threat of terrorism.

Flying to Brussels for the meeting, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters that the U.S. wants NATO allies to do more to help in the Iraq training mission, saying that as allies deploy more forces, that would over time allow us to bring some forces home.

The U.S. has some 5,000 troops in Iraq, whose parliament has been calling for their withdrawal since the early January U.S. airstrike that killed Irans Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Asked what incentives the U.S. could offer NATO allies to commit more forces in Iraq, Esper said its not a case of offering incentives but of recognizing the shared interest of ensuring the continued defeat of ISIS.

Esper said the U.S. is also looking to NATO for more help in the broader Mideast region, for instance to help partners, including but not limited to the Saudis, whom he said need additional air defenses to deter Iranian bad behavior.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia blame Iran for a cruise missile and drone attack on Saudi oil infrastructure last September that temporarily knocked out half of the kingdoms oil production. The Iranian regime denies responsibility.

After that attack, Esper recalled on Tuesday, he had called at least a half dozen of our NATO partners who have compatible air defense systems, asking for help. And so I want to continue that dialogue in Brussels this week.

The U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS) is focused on great power competition with China and Russia, and in line with that Esper is reviewing ways to adjust the U.S. military footprint, assessing one theater of command at a time.

If NATO allies put more forces in in the Middle East, he explained, the U.S. will be able to reduce its forces, allowing troops to return to the U.S. to increase their readiness, or to redeploy elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region.

I want to implement the NDS, and the NDS means right-sizing our forces in every theater, he said. Esper acknowledged, however, that China and Russia are also in the Middle East, so it would not be a case of the U.S. completely moving out.

Train local forces, enabling them to fight terrorism themselves

In Brussels, Stoltenberg was asked whether he had a clear understanding of what President Trump actually wants NATO allies to do in Iraq and the Middle East.

He said Trump had sent two very clear messages from day one a call for greater NATO defense spending where Stoltenberg said the 29-member alliance was making significant progress and the need for NATO to do more fighting terrorism.

NATO allies and NATO already play a role in the region and in the fight against terrorism, but we can do more, he said. President Trump has expressed a clear wish for more support from NATO. We have a good dialogue among NATO allies and, of course, also with the countries concerned, for instance, Iraq, on how we can do this, how we can do more.

Stoltenberg said it was too early to announce any specific decisions, but we believe that one of the best weapons we have in the fight against terrorism is to train local forces, enabling them to fight terrorism themselves.

Other issues on the agenda for the NATO ministerial on Wednesday and Thursday include the training mission in Afghanistan, and arms control issues including concerns about Russias deployment of a nuclear-capable ground-launched cruise missile, the SSC-8. The deployment violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF Treaty) and prompted the U.S. to withdraw from it last year.

Stoltenberg stressed that NATO allies have stood united on Russias breach of the treaty.

The defense ministers will also meet with their Ukrainian counterpart to review defense reforms being undertaken by that country. The former Soviet republic has long aspired to join the transatlantic alliance, a move firmly opposed by Moscow.

After the two-day meeting in Brussels, Esper is scheduled to take part in an international security conference in Munich, Germany.

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Esper: A Bigger NATO Role in Iraq, Mideast 'Would Over Time Allow Us to Bring Some Forces Home' - CNSNews.com

Chairman of Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina stressed the Need for more efficient work of Border Police – Sarajevo Times

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Chairman of Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina Zoran Tegeltija stressed the need for more efficient work of countrys border police, in terms of the flow of people and goods, and to secure the so-called green border against illegal migrants.

Due to an inadequate earlier reaction, there are more migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina today than in Serbia, which is two to three times bigger than BiH.

Tegeltija stated that migrant crisis is a security and then a humanitarian issue. This is not only a problem of the BiHs Border Police, but of all security agencies, with the necessary coordination, and that he expects greater support from the international community in this regard.

It is necessary, he added, to reduce waiting at the border and to provide more technical equipment and staffing of the BiH Border Police, with the support of the Council of Ministers, Federal News Agency reports.

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Chairman of Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina stressed the Need for more efficient work of Border Police - Sarajevo Times

Even Swedens Best Regions Still Have Higher Unemployment than the UK – Breitbart

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According to Swedish unemployment statistics, the countrys region with the lowest unemployment is still much higher than the British average as unemployment figures continue to grow.

The figures, which were released Tuesday by the Swedish Public Employment Service in a press release, show that there are currently 380,000 people registered with the Employment Service at the end of January, up 30,000 from the same period in 2019.

The county of Uppsala has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 5.9 per cent, a figure which is much higher than the United Kingdom, where the average unemployment rate has remained at just 3.8 per cent, the lowest since 1975.

While many economists predicted that Brexit would lead to job losses and increased unemployment, the opposite has been true so far, with Sweden, a member of the European Union and one of the most welcoming countries for asylum seekers, seeing an increasing unemployment trend.

The Swedish regions ofBlekinge, Gvleborg, and Sdermanland have much higher unemployment rates than Uppsala at 10.2 per cent, far above the Eurozone average of 7.4 per cent as of December and approaching that of Spains 12.7 per cent.

The massive disparity between the unemployment rate of native Swedes and foreign-born residents continues in the new statistics with the native unemployment rate climbing to 4.2 per cent while the migrant rate is now 18.9 per cent.

Despite various programmes to help get migrants into the labour market, Sweden has struggled, with 90 per cent of the migrants who arrived in the country during the height of the 2015 migrant crisis remaining unemployed.

Earlier this month, the Employment Service released statistics showing that just one in 16 migrants enrolled in its establishment programme was able to find work that was not directly subsidised by Swedish taxpayers.

Staffan Johansson, Head of Unit at the Employment Service, claimed that the overall rate of 31 per cent employment for migrants in the programme could be somewhat explained by the poor economy in Sweden.

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Even Swedens Best Regions Still Have Higher Unemployment than the UK - Breitbart

Red Border: Jason Starr and Will Conrad Talk About Their Border Thriller [Interview] – Bleeding Cool News

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Red Border is one of AWA Studios launch titles. Crime novelist Jason Starr and artist Will Conrad create a visceral up-to-the-minute thriller about a middle-class Mexican couple on the run from the Cartel. Things do not get better when they reach the US border. In fact, things might be even worse.

AWA released a trailer and interview video for the book, but we also got our own exclusive interview with the creators.

You have a long career as a crime novelist. Whatmade you decide to write this story as a comic instead of your next novel?

Jason Starr: For me, the idea itself dictates whether it should be a comic or a novel. If its a visual story, if I can imagine the big Oh, shit moments, the set pieces for an artist to draw, the issue-ending cliffhangers, then it should be a comic. If it feels like a story where the internal world is more exciting, where I think its more interesting inside the characters heads, then Ill see it as a novel. For example, I cant imagine writing my psychological thrillers, such asCold Caller, Twisted City, orThe Followeras comics, because these books depend so much on the psychology of the characters. WithRed Border,the subject matter is so inherently visualthe desert, the border, the small Texas townand there are so many big visual moments and action sequences that I cant imagine it as anything other than a comic.

The Mexican border is a hot button issue these days. Why did you decide on middle-class characters on the run from the Cartel instead of poor migrants?

I lived in Mexico for a while in my twenties, with a middle class family in Guadalajara, and Ive always wanted to write about my experiences in some way, and in general I like to write about what I know best. Also, I thought this story would be more complex and provocative if the heroes were progressive, middle class Mexicans, who are caught between the drug war and the migrant crisis, who are idealists, who want a better future for Mexico, and who never expected to find themselves in this situationon the run from a cartel and having to try to cross the border. It raises a lot of class issues that are very real in Mexico right now, but that we dont hear enough about.

You wrote this series before the current blow-up about cultural appropriation regarding Jeanine Cummins novel American Dirt. This is not meant to be a gotcha question, but I wonder if you have any thoughts about that. Crime novelists have been able to write characters from other countries and cultural backgrounds all the time. Do you think this is as much about the divide between high-brow ie literary books and Low-brow ie crime and genre fiction?

Great question because, whileRed Borderhas much different themes thanAmerican Dirt, I can certainly see the comparison; there are some provocative issues inRed Borderthat I expect will stir some controversy. But, to answer the last part of your question first, Ive never really understood what highbrow vs lowbrow fiction really means. To me its all about whether a work delivers, if its well executed, if it conveys some truth to the reader, and I think there are certainly many great genre comics and novels that have more literary merit than whats generally considered highbrow. As for cultural appropriation, yes I have given this a lot of thought, and to me its all about empathy. Good writing is about understanding characters, about getting into their heads. Its not just replicating the way characters speak, its about understanding their attitudes and feelings and conveying this emotion to the reader. I could cite many of examples of writers, from Shakespeare to Elmore Leonard, who have pulled this off brilliantly. If a writer, doesnt pull it off, well thats just not good writinglets call it lowbrow. No subject or theme should ever be off limits to a writer, but if a writer doesnt write characters from varied cultures with empathy, the end result will come off as fake. In the end, its a matter of whether the work is truthful or not, if it resonates, if it sings.

Based on the first issue, I already get the impression that Red Border has a more complex political commentary and outlook. Was this conscious? Did you have discussions with the editors about that?

I didnt want to write an overtly political work, but the issues are definitely there. It takes place on the border right now and the issues cant possibly be any more current, but while some political and cultural debate takes place in the comic, I purposely dont take any side or point of view. I didnt write any of this from a liberal or conservative, or American or Mexican point of view. Its totally character-driven. Mainly, I wanted to write an exciting action-horror comic, with big twists, cliffhangers, and shocking moments. I wanted all of the political commentary to be in the subtext and I think the editors at AWA were totally on board with this.

How did you come to be the artist for Red Border?

Will Conrad: Well, Ive been itching to work on something creator owned for a while. When I got in touch with Axel, and we spoke about the what AWA was doing, he offered me the opportunity to do just that. He showed me some outlines, and when I saw the Red Border outline, I had no doubt that this was what I wanted to work on. I loved the outline, the theme and the mood the story could have, and I was sure it would be an instant classic. And also, the chance to work with Jason, which is a great bonus on itself.

Your art here is very realistic, very naturalistic to emphasise the non-fantasy element of the story. Did you have to think about the tone and approach as opposed to a Buffy or Marvel superhero comic?

That was the direction I envisioned for the story. Since its a story that so many people can relate to, I thought it would be best to keep it more realistic, so we could move away from the regular fantasy stile which I love doing but is not the right tone for our story. But despite that, it was not so difficult for me to do the adjustment. Im used to working with different styles depending on the language I think the story should have.

Was the naturalistic cinematic approach to the art, which feels crucial to the story, something you agreed upon with Jason and the editors?

In a way, I believe that was the reason they wanted me on the story. My storytelling style, even when working with superheroes, is to have a more cinematic approach. I always try to make sure the narrative is clear and compelling, and I believe that the best way to bring the reader into the story is making sure that the art doesnt fight with the script. So, whenever Im working on the pages, I make sure to share the layouts with the team, so that if they have an input, we can include that on the final art, and the story can be as great visually as it is well written.

Read the rest here:

Red Border: Jason Starr and Will Conrad Talk About Their Border Thriller [Interview] - Bleeding Cool News

Greece Wants Wall In the Sea to Stop Migrant Boats, Refugees Sent Back When Homeland Safe – Breitbart

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(AFP) Greece will only grant refugee protection for three years as it struggles to integrate foreigners, the conservative governments migration minister Notis Mitarachi said in remarks published Sunday.

Greece last year was the first EU port of entry for migrants and has struggled to manage the influx, with many kept in overcrowded camps on the Aegean Greek islands near the Turkish coast.

The asylum we grant has a duration of three years, it is not indefinite, Mitarachi told To Vima weekly.

If conditions change in a country [of origin], asylum may not be renewed, Mitarachi added.

It is difficult to integrate different populations, he said.

More than 36,000 asylum-seekers are currently crammed into camps on five islands, where the official capacity is for 6,200 people and in conditions repeatedly condemned by aid agencies.

Overpopulation in migrant camps on Lesbos and other islands near Turkey has led to an outpouring of anger in recent days among island residents and asylum-seekers.

Since the migration crisis erupted in 2015, mainly fuelled by the war in Syria, Greece has granted asylum to around 40,000 people, Mitarachi said.

Another 87,000 asylum applications are pending, he added.

Repatriation of asylum seekers whose applications are rejected are to be discussed in an overhaul of EU migration policy next month, the minister said.

Joint return operations will figure prominently in the new European Commission proposals expected in March and April, Mitarachi said.

The new government has introduced stricter asylum rules, and last month put out a call for a floating barrier in the Aegean to stop migrant boats.

The system criticised as unethical and impractical by rights groups and opposition parties could involve either barriers or nets, 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles) long, and would be used as an emergency measure by the Greek armed forces.

Mitarachi on Sunday said the barrier project would be given a tryout and implemented only if deemed effective.

Read the rest here:

Greece Wants Wall In the Sea to Stop Migrant Boats, Refugees Sent Back When Homeland Safe - Breitbart

Amy Klobuchar Vows to Resettle 500 Percent More Refugees, None in Her Neighborhood – Breitbart

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is vowing to increase the number of refugees resettled in the United States by more than 500 percent if elected president, almost none of whom would likely be resettled in her neighborhood.

This year, President Trump lowered the annual refugee resettlement cap to its lowest ever at about 18,000 total admissions. This is merely a numerical limit and not a goal to be reached by the State Department.

Klobuchar has vowed to increase refugee resettlement back to Obama levels, admitting at least 110,000 refugees in the U.S. in her first year in office.As president, Klobuchar would direct the State Department to restore the refugee admissions cap to at least its pre-Trump administration level, according to her campaign.

Returning to Obama-level refugee admissions would be a more than 500 percent increase in refugee resettlement to the U.S. compared to Trumps level of refugee resettlement.

Though thousands of American communities would be inundated with a refugee flow, Klobuchars neighborhood of Marcy-Holmes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, would likely have to absorb close to none of those refugees.

While Minneapolis has resettled thousands of refugees since 2009, almost none live in Marcy-Holmes, where Klobuchar owns a home with her husband.

Nearly 85 percent of all residents in Klobuchars neighborhood are native-born American citizens and of the less than ten percent of foreign-born residents, half arrived from China, India, Korea, Germany, Thailand, and Malaysia countries from where only five refugees have been resettled in Minnesota in the last decade and none of whom have been resettled in Minneapolis much less Klobuchars neighborhood.

In 2015, at the height of the migrant crisis spurred by conflict in Syria and Libya, Klobuchar pushed an effort to bring 65,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S., the overwhelming majority of which would have undergone lax vetting procedures.

Overall, less than 30 of the 17,564 Syrian refugees resettled in the last two years of the Obama administration arrived in Minneapolis. None were resettled in Klobuchars neighborhood.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at@JxhnBinder.

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Amy Klobuchar Vows to Resettle 500 Percent More Refugees, None in Her Neighborhood - Breitbart

Bear Lake Hill Climbs were a success | News-Examiner – The Herald Journal

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The Bear Lake Hill Climbs returned after a two-year break. The Hill climbs were located at the Price Ranch in Geneva ID. There was plenty of snow, and at the last minute, the weather turned cold enough that mud was not the problem it had been in the past.

There were over 500 entries with several racers running in more that one class. This years race wasnt the largest race they have had, but it turned out great. The snow was good, they were able to make a course that gave some challenges to the racers, and all turned out well.

The case was an RMSHA race. The Bear Lake Rim Riders hosted the competition. The King of the Hill was Keith Curtis from Dillion, MT. The Semi pro was won by Cole Thomas and Jadian Phaff was the Womens Queen. There were local racers and ones from as far away as British Columbia. The Hill Climbs has been a long-standing tradition in Bear Lake, but due to changing weather conditions, it was canceled for three years. With a little change in schedule and the help of the Bear Lake County Road and Bridge crew, the race was on again. Of course, that could still have not happened if it wasnt for the generous use of Carson Prices land. He has been a great supporter of these hill climbs.

RMSHA would like to thank the community for the beautiful way they turn out and the voluntaryism that makes events like this happen.

A big shout out to the Price Ranch, Bear Lake Road, and Bridge Crew, Bear Lake Rim Riders, Bear Lake Ambulance Service, State of Idaho DOT for the quick clean up of the avalanches and all the volunteers that helped make this a great event. Thank you to all involved for a successful event. The hill help did a great job of helping keep the riders safe.

Our excellent motels, Super 8, Clover Creek, and Rest Assured Inns, have clean, comfortable places for the riders to stay, and all of these things make for a great race day.

The Community can be proud of the job it does for this event.

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Bear Lake Hill Climbs were a success | News-Examiner - The Herald Journal

David French gives a talk on free speech – Daily Northwestern

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David French spoke about free speech on college campuses.

Owen Stidman/Daily Senior Staffer

David French spoke about free speech on college campuses.

Owen Stidman/Daily Senior Staffer

Owen Stidman/Daily Senior Staffer

David French spoke about free speech on college campuses.

David French spoke about the First Amendment clash on college campuses on Tuesday in Seabury Hall.

French was invited by Northwestern College Republicans. He is an attorney, an Iraq War veteran, and is currently the senior editor at the online political magazine, The Dispatch.

French spoke about the culture of enmity that is arising in the country, particularly on college campuses. He said people are clustering into like-minded enclaves, which leads to the growth of their common viewpoint.

I want people to understand that free speech is fundamentally part of our social compact, he said.

He added that the countrys population is becoming increasingly negatively polarized, as people join political parties due to hatred of the other side rather than support of their own. Despite the decrease in government censorship over the past 20 years, French said, people are more afraid to speak up than ever because the pressure to suppress ones views is coming from their peers as opposed to top-down censorship.

McCormick junior Zachary Kornbluth, secretary of public relations for College Republicans, created advertising for the event. He said in the wake of the Jeff Sessions event, the group thought it would be relevant to bring in a speaker who was knowledgeable on the topic of free speech.

(We hope students will gain) an appreciation of free speech, of hearing other peoples viewpoints, he said. He isnt a supporter of Trump and I know that can kind of be a lightning rod so that may help us get our message across.

In his talk, French said if people see someone being unjustly persecuted, they should stand with the person, even if they have different views. Acts of allyship will create bonds of fellowship that the country currently lacks. When people refuse to defend the rights of others, he said, free speech becomes a power, not a right.

Weinberg sophomore Elizabeth Sperti, a legal studies major, said she gained interesting legal perspectives on the First Amendment.

(I got) an interesting take on the political aspects of free speech and how it functioned on college campuses specifically, she said.

French welcomed questions from the audience and gave anecdotes from his experiences in college and law school, when he found himself in positions where others refused to hear his point of view.

He stressed that although lawyers have won many cases against censorship and speech codes at universities, people have lost a cultural appreciation for free speech.

Free speech has been indispensable in every positive social movement in the history of the United States, and remains indispensable to those who are interested in social change, French said. And that, very fundamentally its one way that a really diverse pluralistic society hangs together is by preserving our mutual civil liberties.

Email: ariannacarpati2023@u.northwestern.edu

Twitter: @ariannacarpati1

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Former Republican congressman Allen West addresses foreign policy

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David French gives a talk on free speech - Daily Northwestern

If China valued free speech, there would be no coronavirus crisis – The Guardian

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The death of the whistleblower Chinese doctor Li Wenliang has aroused strong emotions across China. Social media is awash with posts mourning the death of a martyr who tried to raise alarm over the coronavirus but was taken into a police station instead for spreading false rumours and disrupting social order.

Grief quickly turned into angry demands for free speech. The trending topic we want freedom of speech, which attracted millions of views, and links to Do You Hear the People Sing, a song popularised in recent Hong Kong protests, were quickly censored by police.

In an unusual move, the Communist partys powerful internal discipline enforcement agency swiftly announced it would dispatch investigators to Wuhan to look into questions raised by the masses associated with Li. The Chinese authorities are starkly aware that anger and raw emotions could easily boil over and spill on to the streets.

As in the past when health or safety scandals broke, it is likely the Chinese government will fire a few local officials to douse public anger. But this will only be an expedient measure that will not resolve the real problem its citizens lack of a right to free speech.

We might remember a similar health crisis 17 years ago when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic, which also originated from China, infected more than 8,000 and killed about 800 across 17 countries. In 2003 the authorities covered up the disease for months before another whistleblowing doctor, 72-year-old Jiang Yanyong, exposed the crisis. More recently Jiang, now 88, has had his contacts with the outside world cut off and movements restricted after he asked the authorities last year to reassess the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement. He is now confined to his home by the authorities.

Unfortunately, China does not appear to have learned lessons from the Sars epidemic.

Despite the flourishing of social media, information is more tightly controlled in China than ever. In 2013, an internal Communist party edict known as Document No 9 ordered cadres to tackle seven supposedly subversive influences on society. These included western-inspired notions of press freedom, universal values of human rights, civil rights and civic participation. Even within the Communist party, cadres are threatened with disciplinary action for expressing opinions that differ from the leadership.

Compared with 17 years ago, Chinese citizens enjoy even fewer rights of speech and expression. A few days after 34-year-old Li posted a note in his medical school alumni social media group on 30 December, stating that seven workers from a local live-animal market had been diagnosed with an illness similar to Sars and were quarantined in his hospital, he was summoned by police. He was made to sign a humiliating statement saying he understood if he stayed stubborn and failed to repent and continue illegal activities, (he) will be disciplined by the law.

Chinas GDP per capita might have grown nearly eight times from 2003 but its citizens have not enjoyed more freedom and rights, which many predicted would come with rising economic achievements.

If Li had lived in a society where citizens could speak freely without fear of being punished for exposing problems the authorities would rather not see, and if his warning had been heeded and action swiftly taken, the virus could have been contained. Instead, it has already killed at least 724 and infected nearly 35,000 people, and the virus is still spreading.

Unless Chinese citizens freedom of speech and other basic rights are respected, such crises will only happen again. With a more globalised world, the magnitude may become even greater the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak is already comparable to the total Sars death toll.

Human rights in China may appear to have little to do with the rest of the world but as we have seen in this crisis, disaster could occur when China thwarts the freedoms of its citizens. Surely it is time the international community takes this issue more seriously.

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If China valued free speech, there would be no coronavirus crisis - The Guardian

The Coronavirus Whistleblower Died a Martyr for Free Speech in China – The Daily Beast

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HONG KONGOn Thursday night, Dr. Li Wenliangs heart stopped. Only 34 years old and normally in good health, Li had become a hero to millions of Chinese for his efforts in December to warn about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. And because of his popularityaware thathis death from the same sickness might spark nationwide acrimonythe physicians overseeing his treatment spent more than three hours trying to resuscitate him.

According to an individual who was in the room and later spoke to a local reporter, one of the doctors trying to keep Li alive ordered the others, Buy time for the organization [Chinas leadership] to respond.

In other words, authorities wouldnt allow Li to officially die. Even as his body gave out, the Chinese Communist Party manufactured a narrative of gallant attempts to keep him breathing. And they were right to be concerned, because Li is now viewed by the public not only as a victim of the raging epidemic he tried to stop, but as a martyr for free speech.

Under CCP rule, it is common to see people with talent, heart, and backbone ending up as targets. Eventually, they are pulverized, leaving the partys voice as the sole source of information dictating what happened. For a moment, Li managed to break that impasse.

In December, Li was treating a cluster of patients suffering from a virus apparently picked up at a meat and poultry market in Wuhan, a city in central China with a population greater than metropolitan Chicago. Li sent messages to a chat group of medical school alumni wondering if SARSthe Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2002 and 2003had returned.

He was arrested by police and accused of spreading rumors. They said to him, We hope that you will calm down and reflect well, and we solemnly warn you: If you are stubborn and maintain your own view, and show no remorse, and continue to conduct illegal activities, you will be punished according to the law.

It was all part of a cover-up that has spun out of control and led to the global spread of the deadly virus.

A healthy society should not have just one voice.

Dr. Li Wenliang, who died of the coronavirus he warned against

Officially known as 2019-nCoV, it is forcing ever more cities in China to shut down partially or completely and many people,confined to their homes, go online to connect with others. Mainly they used WeChat, the countrys most popular social network. On Thursday night and Friday morning, nearly every post made by private individuals on the platform was about Li.

Government authorities quickly issued censorship instructions to media outlets: Regarding the death of Doctor Li Wenliang of Wuhan Central Hospital, rigidly adhere to standard sources, they warned. It is strictly forbidden for reports to use contributions from self-media, and sites may not use pop-up alerts, comment, or sensationalize. Safely control the temperature of interactive sections, do not set up special topic sections, gradually withdraw the topic from Hot Search lists, and strictly manage harmful information.

But on Friday the outpouring of grief on WeChat feeds continued. In particular, one verse that poetically exalts self-sacrifice for the greater good is quoted frequently: He who holds firewood for the masses is the one who succumbs to the cold in blizzard and snow.

People in China are bitter, frustrated, exhausted. In Lis passing, they see the CCPs failure to protect Chinese citizens at a critical time. Locked in their homes with no end in sight, people might feel safe and adequately cared for, but the promise of caged comfort disintegrated as the nation faces a crisis.

After news broke that Li had died, two hashtags quickly became trending topics on Weibo, a Chinese social-media platform similar to Twitter. One demanded an apology from the Wuhan government on Lis behalf. The other was simpler: We want freedom of speech.

Both topics hit five-figure mentions before the Partys censors took them down. But rage seethed throughout the country, particularly in Wuhan. At around 6 a.m. Friday morning, another topic was trending on Weibo: We demand freedom of speech. Posts with that tag racked up 3 million views before censors erased them.

Meanwhile, Global Times, a nationalistic state-run media outlet that functions as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, called Li a whistleblower, appropriating his efforts to contain the virus at its early stages by placing upon him an official endorsement.

Little is known about the coronavirus that has, as of a little past noon Friday local time, infected more than 31,000 people and killed 637 patients. (Those are the official figures; virology experts and doctors in Hubei warn that the actual numbers run much higher.) What we do know is this: Its infectious, even flu-like in that regard. And we also know that its current footprintconcentrated in China but present on multiple continentsis the consequence of human greed and CCP apparatchiks overarching need to cling to power.

After Li was pronounced dead, medical workers visited the intensive-care unit where he was receiving treatment. Still wearing hazmat suits, goggles, and medical masks, they took turns stopping in front of the doorway to take deep bows, paying their last respects.

Lis death was unexpected. He was young and healthy, and people thought that perhaps because he was a doctor helping those who had been infected, perhaps because he was one of the first people to realize what was about to happen, that he would receive the best care possible. But that is not the case in China right now.

One doctor in Hubei with whom I spoke said more than two-thirds of his staff had been infected, but its unlikely theyll receive treatment any time soon. Even if hospitals all over the province werent already slammed, regulations say that all medical personnel who fall ill because of their constant exposure to sick people need to join the backlog like everyone else. There are simply too many people who need medical assistance.

Li, perhaps sensing that his condition was worsening each day, shared his thoughts in an interview in early February with Caixin, a Beijing-based publication that has a team of reporters who chose to remain in the infection zone when blockades and roadblocks were going up. A healthy society should not have just one voice, he told them.

Its a message that is being posted and reposted on WeChat and Weibo millions of times in China, unifying many voices that normally stay silent. When a nation thinks of him, 1.4 billion people recall that he did the right thing, and the government failed themand Liin ways that cannot be remedied.

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The Coronavirus Whistleblower Died a Martyr for Free Speech in China - The Daily Beast

UK has no idea how to handle harmful content. That’s bad for free speech – The Next Web

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Its a dark day for netizens around the UK: The government is considering implementing a new law that will practically make social media services like Facebook and Twitter responsible for moderating harmful content on their platforms, Reuters reports.

The country will impose a duty of care to ensure companies have systems in place to react to concerns over problematic content, the government explained. The measure is also expected to help improve the safety of online users, according to statements provided by government officials.

As the internet continues to grow and transform our lives it is essential that we get the balance right between a thriving, open and vibrant virtual world, and one in which users are protected from harm, Digital Minister Nicky Morgan and Interior Minister Priti Patel said.

At one point, the British government contemplated enlistingbroadcast and telecoms regulator Ofcom to oversee the new regime.

For what its worth, the government seems to have its heart at the right place. The new system aims to force tech giants to act on child exploitation, self-harming and terrorist content on the internet, but critics have pointed out that this could have knock-on effects, the FT writes.

The duty of care will effectively apply to any online platform which runs on user-generated content, like comments, status updates, and videos. Any failed attempt at curbing what the government considers harmful content will result in huge fines for the companies, with bosses potentially held personally accountable.

As a staunch supporter of free speech, this development worries me. It almost feels as if the UK government is offloading responsibility to social media platforms. This isnt our problem, its yours, is the sentiment Im getting here.

I hope Im wrong, but Im afraid the newly introduced duty of care will inevitably ramp up censorship across online platforms. Faced with the threat of hefty fines, platforms, whose primarygoal is to increase margins for shareholders, will have no option but to comply with any takedown requests citing harmful content.

What else can they do? Spend an unholy amount of time and money in legal fees defending a users right to express their opinion, and still risk having the government label that opinion harmful content (at which point it wont be the userliable for their words, but the company)? No company is going to take that risk and I cant say I blame them for that.

The UK has had a complicated relationship with free speech in recent times. Back in 2016, Mark Meechan, more commonly known as Count Dankula, got in trouble with the law after releasing a satirical video in which he trained a dog to throw a Nazi salute. In the video, he also used language, which many deemed offensive.

In 2018, Meechan was arrested and convicted of being grossly offensive under the Communications Act 2003. He was also ordered to pay a fine of800 (about $1,040). He refused to pay the fine, and instead donated the amount tothe Glasgow Childrens Hospital Charity. Still, the money was eventually seized from his account by an arrestment order.

Meechan is hardly the only Briton whos had to deal with the authorities for stuff he said online.

In 2019, 74-year-old Margaret Nelson was woken up by an unexpected call from Suffolk Police, asking her to explain a series of tweets she had recently posted. Apparently, some of the messages one of which read Gender is B.S. had upset transgender people, the officer said over the phone. Then they asked Nelson to tone it down, and delete the tweets.

Nelson refused. Im not going to keep quiet just because some people might get a bit upset, Nelson told The Spectator. Im 74. I dont give a fuck any more.

Eventually, Suffolk Police were forced to issue an apology to Nelson, admitting it mightve been a lapse of judgement to follow up on the complaints in the first place. We accept we made a misjudgement in following up a complaint regarding the blog, Suffolk Police told The Spectator. As a result of this we will be reviewing our procedures for dealing with such matters.

Maya Forstater wasnt as fortunate as Nelson. The 45-year-old tax expert lost her role at a think tank after tweeting out her views on gender and biological sex, which many deemed offensive and exclusionary. My belief [] is that sex is a biological fact, and is immutable, Forstater had said.

A judge didnt see things this way, though. I conclude from [] the totality of the evidence, that [Forstater] is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment, a 26-page judgement read. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.

For the record, Forstater is not alone in her views. Many feminists share her concerns, including JK Rowling, author ofHarry Potter and a self-proclaimed progressive, who came to the defense of Forstater. She was also promptly canceled for expressing her support for the tax expert.

Let me make one thing clear: Theres no denying the examples Ive outlined are deeply controversial.

I firmly believe society should vigorously question such opinions. I also know not every opinion will stand up to careful scrutiny. Nor should it. While I draw the line at calls to action (especially ones calling for violence), what I do believe, however, is that the government has no place in telling people what opinions they should hold even if theyre wrong. (

The UK government, though, seems to think its found a workaround a particularly vicious one. By putting the onus on the companies that manage these platforms, it effectively pulls itself out of the equation. It lifts its hands from all responsibility of defining what constitutes harmful content, which is a particularly divisive topic these days.

Instead, its asking the companies decide what language is appropriate and not.

This move wont make these platforms any safer or welcoming. Itll simply lead to more censorship, both to people you and I agree and disagree with. Itll also divide us even further.

This is no solution. Its just another problem.

Read next: Oh great, the EU has ditched its facial recognition ban

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UK has no idea how to handle harmful content. That's bad for free speech - The Next Web

Privacy groups warn of threat to free speech from online harms regulation – The Irish News

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Privacy campaigners have labelled the Governments planned online harms regulation a threat to free speech.

Organisations including the Open Rights Group and Article 19 have criticised plans to introduce a statutory duty of care for internet companies, enforced by a regulator.

They argue that the increased monitoring of content posted online will lead to greater surveillance and censorship.

The Governments proposals said the regulator set to be Ofcom would have the responsibility of making sure online companies have the systems and processes in place to fulfil the duty of care to keep people using their platforms safe.

Platforms will need to ensure that illegal content is removed quickly and minimise the risk of it appearing, with particularly strong action needed on terrorist content and online child sexual abuse, and will be required to explicitly state what content and behaviour is acceptable on their sites and enforce those rules.

However, Quinn McKew, acting executive director of Article 19, said the plans would hand censorship tools to firms who want to protect themselves from punishment.

The Governments proposals to impose a duty of care on social media companies will delegate censorship powers to private companies, and could require the bulk surveillance of our communications through upload filers, she said.

While its still unclear what a duty of care will actually mean in practice, it will almost inevitably result in the removal of legitimate expression.

In the face of possible fines and personal prosecutions, companies will err on the side of caution and use algorithms to remove content at scale.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, agreed that the current proposals did not protect free speech.

This is a dangerous proposal that could cause vast restrictions on free speech, he said.

Private companies would be deciding what is legal or illegal, and will always remove more than they need, rather than less.

Instead, the Government should seek to ensure that companies have sufficient independent scrutiny of their actions. This is known as co-regulation, and could be supervised by Ofcom.

The Open Rights Group also said it felt that the duty of care concept remained too vague and needed clearer definition.

The Governments full response to the online harms consultation is due to be published in the spring.

The rest is here:

Privacy groups warn of threat to free speech from online harms regulation - The Irish News

A North Carolina Professor Gave Up His Free Speech Rights To Resolve a Case Involving a Controversial Sheriff – The Appeal

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On May 20, 2017, Rann Bar-On, a mathematics professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, joined a group of counter-protesters in nearby Graham to oppose a Confederate Memorial Day Celebration, held on the steps of the historic Alamance County courthouse.

The event, which drew roughly 100 supporters, was planned by Alamance County Taking Back Alamance Countyan organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center once labeled a neo-Confederate hate group.

Prior to the start of the event, Bar-On climbed the courthouse steps where organizers had raised flags bearing Confederate and Dominionist symbols, he said.

I went in and detached the zip ties that connected the poles to the courthouse steps, Bar-On recalled. I picked up a flagpole and began to remove a Confederate flag from it. And at that point I heard, Thats enough now!

Sheriff Terry Johnson then attempted to wrestle the flagpole from Bar-Ons grip, according to news reports. Amid the scuffle, Johnson alleged, Bar-On swung the pole and struck the sheriff in the shin, breaking the skin and leaving a bruise. Bar-On maintains he did not swing the pole at Johnson. A deputy arrested and booked Bar-On into the county jail.

The Alamance County district attorneys office charged Bar-On with misdemeanor injury to personal property and felony assault on a law enforcement officer. He was released on bail on the day of the incident and pleaded not guilty in court two days later.

Last fall, just before the case was set to go to trial, the DAs office approached Bar-Ons attorney with an offer: If he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on a law enforcement officera downgraded offensehe would receive 15 days in jail, pay a fine, and serve two years on supervised probation. But during the probation, Bar-On would also be prohibited from attending or participating in protests or rallies in Alamance County.

A felony conviction for Bar-On, who is from Israel, would have jeopardized his status as a noncitizen legal resident, and thus his job and livelihood. ICE could have grounds to detain him for deportation, Bar-On said.

A felony conviction for an American citizen is bad, but its not life-ending, Bar-On told The Appeal. But for an immigrant, it could upend your life.

He officially took the deal on Nov. 4. Presiding Judge Andrew Hanford agreed to delay Bar-Ons incarceration until he finished teaching his Duke courses for the fall semester, according to Bar-On. On Dec. 18, Bar-On returned to Alamance County for the 15-day jail sentence, which stretched over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

In an email to The Appeal, Johnson wrote that Bar-On did not have to enter a plea to this deal and, believe me, it was a deal.

Pat Nadolski, who was Alamance County DA when Bar-On was indicted, told The Appeal he left the office before the plea deal was negotiated. Sean Boone, the current DA whose office brokered the deal, did not respond to requests for comment.

The probation condition prohibiting Bar-On from protests and rallies in Alamance County for two years is unusualand it appears to restrict his First Amendment rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble.

I think its suspicious that they would insist on that as part of the probation, said Scott Holmes, Bar-Ons attorney. Its kind of instinctually problematic because they shouldnt have a problem with the lawful exercise of your First Amendment rights, he said.

Imposing such a condition is rare but not illegal under a plea bargain, said Charlotte-based criminal defense attorney Mark Simmons.

I understand that this case had some unique facts but, if the state were to regularly make plea offers prohibiting the right to protest, wed be entering a scary time, he said.

Jillian Johnson, Durhams mayor pro tempore, was among more than a dozen colleagues and elected officials who submitted letters of support before Bar-Ons November hearing.

The fact that a sheriff, who is a known racist, spent the amount of public resources that he did pursuing these completely ludicrous, excessive charges against an anti-racist activist I think is a strong cautionary tale, said Johnson. In places like North Carolina, we are still, in a lot of ways, back in the pre-Civil War era with regards to the power and the attitudes that local sheriffs have.

In 2012, the Department of Justices Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration sued Johnsons office, after an investigation concluded that the sheriff and his deputies had engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing against Latinos.

Sheriff Johnson has directed his supervisory officers to tell their subordinates, If you see a Mexican, dont write a citation, arrest him, the Justice Departments report states. Johnson also allegedly blamed Latinx people, who were 11 percent of the county population in 2010, for the local illegal drug trade, and referred to them as taco eaters in conversations with staff. Johnsons deputies were between four and 10 times more likely to stop Latinx drivers than non-Latinx drivers, according to the report.

The department agreed to settle its lawsuit in 2016, after Johnson promised to institute reforms like a bias-free policing policy.

In 2012, the Obama administration canceled its contract with Alamance County under ICEs 287(g) programwhich allows state and local law enforcement agencies to act as immigration enforcement agentsafter it discovered that the sheriff had justified holding immigrants in the county jail for immigration status checks on the false pretense that ICE had ordered arrestees detained. In 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions invited Alamance County back into the 287(g) program, but Johnson decided against doing so, amid protests from immigrant rights groups in North Carolina.

Nadolski, the former Alamance County DA, drew criticism in 2018 from the areas Black civil rights advocates after he prosecuted a dozen, mostly Black formerly incarcerated residents who voted in the 2016 presidential election. They were barred from casting ballots until they completed their terms of parole or probation. Nadolski has denied the cases were motivated by race.

In a 2018 interview with Mic, Johnson, when asked whether he is biased against Latinx people, declared, Terry Johnson aint got a racist bone in his body! Johnson and Nadolski were pictured together on a campaign billboard, when the two sought re-election in 2018, raising a concern about impartial justice for Bar-On, his attorney said.

Theres a law enforcement bias, in general, Holmes, the attorney, told The Appeal, but in particular in Graham, for protecting those kinds of [pro-Confederate] demonstrators and a prejudice against anti-racism.

Bar-On, whose wife gave birth to their child after his arrest, told The Appeal he was grateful to have resolved the case, despite the ban from protesting.

This is the first time since my kid was born that we dont have this potential incarceration and even more severe consequences hanging over our head, he said.

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A North Carolina Professor Gave Up His Free Speech Rights To Resolve a Case Involving a Controversial Sheriff - The Appeal

The Thom Hartmann Program Trump’s Budget Is Great For The Rich Trump’s Budget Is Great For – Free Speech TV

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How wonderful is Trumps budget for the US? Amazing, if you believe Grover Norquist. Cuts to social security, Medicare and so much more. Needless to say, Trumps budget is a disaster for us all, except the 1% of course. Grover Norquist, Founder & President Americans For Tax Reform, joins Thom Hartmann to defend and praise it, and explain what poor people are doing wrong .

The Thom Hartmann Program covers diverse topics including immigration reform, government intrusion, privacy, foreign policy, and domestic issues. More people listen to or watch the TH program than any other progressive talk show in the world! Join them.

The Thom Hartmann Program is on Free Speech TV every weekday from 12-3 pm EST.

Missed an episode? Check out TH on FSTV VOD anytime or visit the show page for the latest clips.

#FreeSpeechTV is one of the last standing national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change.

#FSTV is available on Dish, DirectTV, AppleTV, Roku, Sling and online at freespeech.org

Americans for Tax Reform Budget Donald Trump Grover Norquist The Thom Hartmann Program Thom Hartmann Trump's Budget

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The Thom Hartmann Program Trump's Budget Is Great For The Rich Trump's Budget Is Great For - Free Speech TV

Edmonton library trustee says she was forced to resign in dispute over free speech, tweets – Edmonton Journal

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Jill Scheyk was an Edmonton Public Library trustee, but has resigned after she says she was forced out by the board over tweets on February 12, 2020. Shaughn Butts / Postmedia

An Edmonton Public Library trustee who resigned this week says she was forced out because of a dispute over tweets and what she deemed a transphobic article shared by the CEO.

Jill Scheyk stepped down Monday, after receiving a letter last month from an EPL board committee asking her to resign. It said she publicly presented a negative and biased opinion on the EPLs stance on hosting controversial speakers, for sharing an internal memo of talking points, and for representing the board without permission.

While Scheyk understands the library is limited in how it can restrict groups using its space, she said the EPL needs to find a way to support marginalized groups and free speech.

What I really want to see going forward is just an acknowledgment that it can be a fulsome approach, and that it doesnt have to be one or the other, like you get free speech or you get a welcoming environment, and its a zero sum game, she said on Wednesday.

Scheyks November 2019 tweets that raised concerns with the board followed online backlash directed at EPL CEO Pilar Martinez in October. In a tweet, Martinez praised Torontos head librarian for allowing a Meghan Murphy event to go ahead despiteprotests,and shareda National Post column that called the demonstrations a nauseating spectacle.

Murphy, an activist, has criticized transgender rights. She gave a talk at a Toronto library titled Gender Identity: What Does It Mean For Society, The Law and Women?

My attempts to highlight the issue of transphobia in that language went unheeded by leadership, Scheyk wrote in her open resignation letter posted on Twitter Monday. The trans community is actively fighting for their lives and human rights, and for the head of a public institution to degrade them casually is a slap in the face to people who are still in clear and present danger.

The tweets also led to an exchange of letters and meetings between Scheyk and trustees from November to January.

Scheyk, who was an EPL board member since May 2015, maintains Martinez needs to apologize for sharing the article that sparked the dispute.

Martinez told Postmedia on Wednesday she shared that article because it showed how libraries have a history of supporting freedom of speech, as well as for supporting LGBTQ rights, and the EPL is committed to both.

Censorship is not the answer to our social problems, in fact, traditionally and historically it has hurt minority groups more than any other groups, she said. We are a public library, key word being public. We are for everyone. We cant pick and choose, because today it could be Meghan Murphy, tomorrow it could be you.

She said there have been more complaints for their LGBTQ programming than for any other type of programming.

If we were not to uphold that fundamental value of public space and intellectual freedom, than we would be cancelling those programs as well.

The EPL held a round table discussion about their meeting room policy on Tuesday. Fern Snart, chair of the EPL board of trustees, wouldnt say what the 14 participants talked about or whether the library was planning on changing any of its policies or programs, but she said the discussion was productive.

People left smiling, not that everyone agreed or was pleased I think people left feeling heard, she said. Were continuing to look ahead, were continuing to ask how can we respond to the appropriate mandate of freedom of speech and absolutely desired mandate of welcome and meaningful inclusion and care for all of the communities we serve.

lboothby@postmedia.com

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Edmonton library trustee says she was forced to resign in dispute over free speech, tweets - Edmonton Journal

OPINION: The importance of free speech – Argonaut

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Over 200 years ago the first amendment was ratified, allowing everyone to speaktheir mind freely, regardless of what beliefs they hold. As a student newspaper,we have a deep respect for the first amendment it allows us to do our job.

The first amendment is as important today as it was before it was ratified. Weneed to protect all speech regardless if its far-right or far-left.

This week conservative Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson lectured on campus for an event called The Lost Virtue of Sexism. Many believe that Wilson and groups who hold the same beliefs should not be allowed to lecture on our campus due to their controversial rhetoric towards women and the LGBTQA community.

As a public institution, UI should not take a stance on what a particular organization can or cannot say. Although these beliefs are controversial, CRFs right to speak and choose to bring controversial speakers such as Wilson should not be taken from them.

Regulating one organizations right to speech opens up a door that needs to remain closed, giving the possibility of regulating any group deemed too far left or right.

But the most important part of free speech is that the other side also has it, protestors and those who do not agree with Christ Church can vocalize their feelings back. Which students made sure to do at Tuesdays event.

Dont forget that the first amendment while tricky is important because no matter your beliefs you can always speak up for them and defend your side.

And while Wilsons lectures and appearances on campus are extremely offensive to many different groups the university cannot and should not silence him. Instead of fighting to force Wilson off campus we should put efforts into supporting the groups affected by this controversial rhetoric.

*This editorial has been edited to reflect particular UI student groups correct stance on Christ Church and CRF.

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OPINION: The importance of free speech - Argonaut