INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, Military - December 2023

[Plain Jane]

November's thread:

INTL - Europe: Politics, Economics, Military - November 2023

October's thread: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/latin-america-and-the-islands-politics-economics-military-october-2023.638618/ https://apnews.com/article/serbia-election-vucic-protests-opposition-f3ba791b80ccf0945ea52a3930ce24b8 Serbia’s president sets Dec. 17 for snap...

www.timebomb2000.com

Teenage suspects accused of plotting to blow up a small truck at a German Christmas market

Prosecutors say a 15-year-old boy and an alleged accomplice are accused of plotting to blow up a small truck at a Christmas market in western Germany in an attack modeled on the methods of the Islamic State group.

apnews.com

Tis the season...

Teenage suspects accused of plotting to blow up a small truck at a German Christmas market​

Updated 5:54 AM EST, November 30, 2023
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BERLIN (AP) — A 15-year-old boy and an alleged accomplice are accused of plotting to blow up a small truck at a Christmas market in western Germany in an attack modeled on the methods of the Islamic State group, prosecutors said Thursday.

The teenager was detained Tuesday in Burscheid, a town near Cologne, and a court in Leverkusen on Wednesday ordered him kept in custody pending a possible indictment. Another teenager was arrested in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.

Officials say the 15-year-old wrote in a chat group about attack plans. Prosecutors in Duesseldorf said Thursday that he and the other suspect are accused of agreeing to attack a Christmas market in Leverkusen, a city in the western Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state, at the beginning of December by using fuel to blow up a small truck.

The teenager claimed he had acquired gasoline for the plan, according to a statement from prosecutors. The two suspects allegedly planned to leave Germany together after the attack and join the Islamic State-Khorasan Province extremist group, an IS offshoot active in and around Afghanistan.

Investigators are evaluating evidence found at the 15-year-old’s home but did not find any stocks of fuel, prosecutors said. He is being investigated on suspicion of conspiring to commit murder and preparing a serious act of violence.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said before news of the arrests emerged Wednesday that the threat situation in the country has escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.

The agency pointed to the risk of a radicalization of lone assailants who use simple means to attack “soft targets,” adding that “the danger is real and higher than it has been for a long time.”

 

[Plain Jane]

NATO chief tells Turkey's Erdogan that 'the time has come' to let Sweden join the alliance

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has told Turkey’s president that “the time has come” to let Sweden into the military alliance.

apnews.com

NATO chief tells Turkey’s Erdogan that ‘the time has come’ to let Sweden join the alliance​

Updated 9:59 AM EST, December 1, 2023
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has told Turkey’s president that “the time has come” to let Sweden become a member of the military alliance.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries that have not yet formally approved Sweden’s accession bid.

Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that he urged Turkey to finalize the process as he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

“I met with President Erdogan this morning and I reiterated my message that the time has come to finalize the accession process for Sweden,” he said.

Turkey has delayed ratification for more than a year, accusing Sweden of not taking Turkey’s security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers to be security threats.



An apparent breakthrough happened at a NATO summit in July when Erdogan said he would submit accession documents to Parliament, but a debate on the matter in the foreign affairs committee was adjourned last month without a decision.

Stoltenberg couldn’t say when he expected the ratification process to be completed.

“I’m not able to give an exact date, but I welcome the fact that just a few weeks ago President Erdogan submitted the papers for ratification to the Turkish Parliament,” the NATO leader said. “My message in the meeting today was, of course, that now the time has come to ensure that the Parliament finalizes its deliberations and concludes the ratification of Sweden as a formal NATO member.”

Sweden and neighboring Finland decided to drop their long-standing policy of non-alignment and apply for NATO membership following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland joined NATO in April. New members must be approved by all existing members of the alliance.

 

[Plain Jane]

"Europeans Will Succumb To Islam" - Former Top German Spy Issues New Warning | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

"Europeans Will Succumb To Islam" - Former Top German Spy Issues New Warning​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, DEC 05, 2023 - 02:00 AM
Authored by John Cody via Remix,
Germany’s former top domestic spy chief, Hans-Georg Maaßen, said in a new interview that Europe is facing an unprecedented crisis due to mass immigration, that Islam is well poised to conquer Europe, and that Germany and Austria could do much to stop the crisis but are choosing not to.

“A completely different culture is approaching us. We are not at all prepared for this, as we’re incapable of resolving conflicts even by means of violence, like family clans do from the Arab states. These people resolve conflicts by violence, whereas people in Central Europe think that this can only be done through the courts,” said Maaßen, who served as president of the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) from 2012 until 2018, said in his interview with FPÖ TV.

“The Europeans will succumb to Islam. On the one hand, because they are unable to even see this conflict coming, and on the other, because they are incapable of resolving conflicts in a similar fashion,” he said, stating that “the end result will be the gradual destruction of our European cultures.”
Hans-Georg Maaßen served as Germany's top domestic intelligence chief from 2012 to 2018.

Maaßen described Europeans as living without a vision or mission, whereas other competing cultures have a clear idea of what they are and what their objectives are.

“We don’t know where we want to go. What should Germany or Austria look like in 2030? We are living only in the moment, and therefore we are losing out to others who have a religion or ideology, who know where they want to go. We lack a mission,” he continued. “Mostly Muslims come to us with a completely different awareness of culture, religion and family. In secular Europe, religion and family — if they are still important at all — are a matter for the individual, but in these cultures it is a matter for the clan.”

Population replacement by design​

Maaßen said that European politicians are actively allowing mass immigration because, according to him, “our politicians want a different population. The political left follows the course of the anti-German ideology. The more heterogeneous a population, the less able it is to articulate itself and have a democratic say. The more politics accepts immigrants from other countries as they see fit and grants them citizenship, the more politics selects the people of the state and influences the election results. These migrants then vote differently than the locals.”

Maaßen said during the interview that countries like Germany and Austria have the tools necessary to stop immigration, but they are making a conscious choice not to.


“Germany and Austria could start rejecting people at the borders from one day to the next — due to the third country regulation,” the former spy chief stated. “Furthermore, the state could deport or ensure voluntary departure for “hundreds of thousands of foreigners who do not want to integrate and who could commit crimes and continue to depend on social benefits from the state.”

One of the major sticking points for Western governments is that third nations have refused to take back foreign nationals, but Maaßen said there are a host of tools for dealing with these recalcitrant nations.



“It should also be possible to persuade third countries to take back their own nationals after deportation orders. If they don’t do it, you could ‘freeze their assets,’ prevent (their citizens) from traveling to Europe and other things. You have to persuade these states to behave in accordance with international law,” he said.

Maaßen doubts that Germany’s politicians are planning to take any serious measures against illegal immigration despite the growing risks, especially from violent cultures.

“Why aren’t migrants simply turned back at the borders?” asks Maaßen. He points to the latest “migration summit” in Germany, where he said he saw “showcase politics” or “dummy politics,” where the main points that were raised were more money for asylum seekers and faster asylum procedures. However, nobody asked the most crucial question: “Why are we letting these people into Germany and Europe in the first place?”

“Why don’t we force countries like Italy and Greece to finally do what they are supposed to do according to the European treaties, namely sensible border protection? Why do we let these people come to us, feed them and spend billions on them, while many locals, poor pensioners with a 920 euro pension after a full working life, have to collect bottles?”


As Remix News has previously reported, millions of German seniors are living in poverty, and increasingly, they are being removed from their own homes to make way for the record influx of migrants coming into the country.

Muslim majority by 2200?​

Maaßen’s warnings may be prescient, as Europe rapidly undergoes demographic change. Pew Research has already noted that Europe’s Muslim population may triple by 2050 to 76 million in a comprehensive report. However, over a longer timeframe, PSU Research Review predicts a Muslim majority by 2200, while in certain EU countries, such as Greece, Ireland, France, Belgium, and Britain, more than three quarters of the population will be Muslim.

(There is a video at the link but I couldn't get it to post.)

 

[Plain Jane]

Britain and Rwanda strike a new treaty in efforts to revive asylum plan blocked by UK courts

The interior ministers of Britain and Rwanda have signed a treaty that aims to revive a plan to send asylum-seekers to the East African country that has been blocked by U.K. courts.

apnews.com

WORLD NEWS

Britain and Rwanda strike a new treaty in efforts to revive asylum plan blocked by UK courts​

JILL LAWLESS
Updated 12:54 PM EST, December 5, 2023
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LONDON (AP) — The governments of Britain and Rwanda signed a treaty on Tuesday that aims to revive a plan to send asylum-seekers to the East African country that has been blocked by U.K. courts.

British Home Secretary James Cleverly said the legally binding agreement signed with Rwanda Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta would “address all the issues” raised by the U.K. Supreme Court when it ruled last month that the controversial policy was unlawful.

The court said the plan was illegal because Rwanda is not a safe country for refugees. Britain’s top court said asylum-seekers faced “a real risk of ill-treatment” and could be returned by Rwanda to the home countries they had fled.

The treaty includes a promise by Rwanda not to send asylum-seekers back to their home countries, even if their applications are refused.

“We feel very strongly that this treaty addresses all of the issues raised by their lordships in the Supreme Court and we have worked very closely with our Rwandan partners to ensure that it does so,” Cleverly said in Kigali, the Rwandan capital.



The Rwanda plan is central to the Conservative government’s self-imposed goal of stopping unauthorized asylum-seekers arriving on small boats across the English Channel.

Though Britain receives fewer asylum applications than countries such as Italy, France or Germany, thousands of migrants from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the English Channel. More than 27,300 have done that so far this year.

Britain and Rwanda struck a deal in April 2022 for some migrants who cross the Channel to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay. The U.K. government argues that the deportations will discourage others from making the risky sea crossing and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs.

Critics say it is both unethical and unworkable to send migrants to a country 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) away, with no chance of ever settling in the U.K.

Britain has already paid Rwanda at least 140 million pounds ($177 million) under the agreement, but no one has yet been sent there amid the legal challenges.

Cleverly said Rwanda had not received “any funding linked to the signing of this treaty,” but did not rule out paying more to help the African country meet its new commitments. The treaty says only that the sides shall make “financial arrangements in support of the relocation of individuals” under the deal.

For years, human rights groups have accused Rwanda’s government of cracking down on perceived dissent and keeping tight control on many aspects of life, from jailing critics to keeping homeless people off the streets of Kigali. The government denies it.

Biruta said Rwanda had been unfairly criticized “by international organizations, by the media, by courts.”

“It is not helpful for all of us to criticize a country like Rwanda which is contributing to a solution while we are not even addressing the root causes … which produce those refugees,” he told reporters in Kigali.

The British government says the new treaty will give it the basis to pass a law declaring Rwanda a safe destination.

That legislation is due to be published within days, but will likely take weeks to be approved by Parliament — and the Rwanda plan could still be subject to further legal challenges.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made “stop the boats” one of his key pledges ahead of a national election that is due next year. He hopes showing progress can help the party close a big polling gap with the Labour opposition.

Cleverly said he couldn’t guarantee any deportation flights to Rwanda before the next election. But, he said: “I can see no reason why that should not happen.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy Exits China's Silk Road Initiative Citing 'Lack Of Expected Results' | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Italy Exits China's Silk Road Initiative Citing 'Lack Of Expected Results'​

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, DEC 06, 2023 - 09:40 AM
The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has officially notified China about Italy's withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative. This move confirms the months-long speculations that Rome was planning to cease its involvement in Beijing's global infrastructure program, in which Chinese banks finance projects from highways, ports, railways, power plants, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Bloomberg quoted Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said BRI "has not produced the desired effects" and is no longer "a priority."
Tajani spoke at an event in Rome earlier today hosted by newswire Adnkronos. He said countries ex-BRI "have better results" in terms of economic growth.

Data from Bloomberg shows Italy's trade deficit with China exploded following the BRI deal, making the European country even more dependent on supplies from China.

Italy was the first Group of Seven (G7) countries to join the BRI in 2019. With its five-year memorandum of understanding up for renewal, Italy has chosen to withdraw from the deal.
Since Meloni took office last year, she has made it very clear that she is withdrawing from the BRI. She said joining was a "big mistake."


Recently, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto described Italy's decision to join the BRI as an "improvised and atrocious act."


A Reuters source said Beijing was handed the termination letter "in recent days."

"We have every intention of maintaining excellent relations with China even if we are no longer part of the Belt and Road Initiative," a second government source said.

"Other G7 nations have closer relations with China than we do, despite the fact they were never in (the BRI)," the source added.
This comes as Europe has been caught in the crossfire of worsening relations between Washington and Beijing.

Meanwhile, China's ambassador to Italy, Jia Guide, warned there would be "negative consequences" for the BRI exit.
Italy's withdrawal is another blow to Beijing as BRI countries grapple with debt distress

 

[Plain Jane]

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, 80, says he is better but remains hospitalized with COVID-19

Lech Walesa, Poland’s 80-year-old former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, says he is improving after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

apnews.com

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, 80, says he is better but remains hospitalized with COVID-19​

FILE - Lech Walesa former President of Poland, speaks after being awarded withthe “Golden Medal for services to reconciliation and understanding among peoples” in Berlin, Monday Sept. 26, 2022. Poland’s former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, 80-year-old Lech Walesa has been hospitalized with a bad case of COVID-19, an aide said Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP, file)
Read More

Updated 3:36 AM EST, December 7, 2023
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lech Walesa, Poland’s 80-year-old former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Thursday that he is improving after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

A post on Walesa’s Facebook page shows him lying on a hospital bed with his thumbs raised and a brief caption saying he believes he is going to pull through once again.

The former anti-communist dissident has faced multiple health scares in past years. He has diabetes and a heart condition that requires him to use a pacemaker.

Two days earlier, a photo posted on Facebook showed him on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on, with a caption saying “I have been hit by Covid.” His aide, Marek Kaczmar, told Polish media then that Walesa was seriously ill but was receiving good care in a hospital in Gdansk, the Baltic port city where he lives.

It’s Walesa’s second bout of COVID-19.

Starting in 1980, Walesa spearheaded Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement that nine years later led to the peaceful ouster of communism from Poland and inspired other countries to shed Moscow’s domination.

In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990-95 he served as democratic Poland’s first popularly elected president.

 

[Plain Jane]

Europe's EV Boom Faces Grid Challenges | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Europe's EV Boom Faces Grid Challenges​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, DEC 08, 2023 - 03:30 AM
Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

• Last week, the European Commission proposed an action plan to make sure “electricity grids will operate more efficiently and will be rolled out further and faster.”
• Range anxiety has been one of the hurdles to a faster adoption of electric vehicles.
• Toyota Europe’s chief operating officer Matt Harrison has recently said that Europe still needs work to do in charging infrastructure to reach the tipping point for significantly boosting the share of EVs.

Burdensome permitting processes and the need for extra grid connections and power capacity are slowing down the installation of EV charging stations across Europe, threatening the EU’s ambition to rely on transport electrification as a pillar of its net-zero target.



The EU adopted early this year legislation to make all new cars and vans registered in Europe zero-emission from 2035. The European Commission has also just proposed an action plan for grid investments across the bloc, aiming to upgrade grids, strengthen energy infrastructure, and allow faster access for renewables to the grids.

Despite the EU ambitions and the EU-wide legislation, local-level regulations and requirements to have a charging point hooked up to the grid sometimes takes years, and the delays have become longer in recent years, energy companies and industry associations tell Reuters.

“Although the work of installing a fast and ultra-fast charging point requires only two to three weeks of work, due to different administrative requirements in Spain, the complete process ... can last from one to two years,” Spanish energy firm Repsol told Reuters.

The red tape in Germany, Europe’s largest car market, is similarly burdensome, industry sources say.

EU Plan to Upgrade Electricity Grids​

Last week, the European Commission proposed an Action Plan to make sure “electricity grids will operate more efficiently and will be rolled out further and faster.”


A total of 40% of EU distribution grids are more than 40 years old. Cross-border transmission capacity is set to double by 2030, and this will need $633 billion (584 billion euros) in investments, the Commission said.

“Networks will have to accommodate a more digitalised, decentralised and flexible system with millions of rooftop solar panels, heat pumps and local energy communities sharing their resources, more offshore renewables coming online, more electric vehicles to charge, and growing hydrogen production needs,” the EC added.

Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy, said “Grids need to be an enabler, not a bottleneck in the clean energy transition. That way we can integrate the vast amounts of renewables, electric vehicles, heat pumps and electrolysers that are needed to decarbonise our economy.”

In response to the plan, renewable industry associations called for urgent actions.

“Serious action is needed asap to tackle the huge and growing queues of renewables that are waiting for a grid connection. The system operators in Europe need help here. Some of them have connection queues of hundreds of GW of wind and solar projects,” the WindEurope association said.

Rules for More Charging Stations ​

This summer, the European Parliament successfully negotiated that electric charging pools for cars with a minimum 400 kW output will have to be deployed at least every 60 kilometers (37 miles) along core TEN-T network routes by 2026, with the network’s power output increasing to 600 kW by 2028. For trucks and buses, charging stations have to be provided every 120 km (75 miles). These stations should be installed on half of main EU roads by 2028 and with a 1400kW to 2800 kW power output depending on the road. EU countries will also have to ensure that hydrogen refueling stations along the core TEN-T network will be deployed at least every 200 km (124 miles) by 2031.

Range anxiety has been one of the hurdles to a faster adoption of electric vehicles.

The EU now has the plans, but it’s up to individual member states to accelerate permitting, including for construction and access of charging stations to the grid.

“The time needed for connecting the EV recharging points to the grid can indeed be seen as a barrier to accelerate the uptake of EVs and needs to be tackled,” a spokesperson for the European Commission told Reuters in an email.

Municipalities are slow with permitting, while grid operators and power distributors don’t have uniform requirements for charging stations, which could delay the rollout, industry managers say.

“There is a clear need for more standardization,” Stefan van Dobschuetz, vice president of BP Pulse Europe, told Reuters.

BP Pulse, the EV charging business of BP, has an ambition to have more than 100,000 chargers installed worldwide by 2030 focused on ultra-fast charging.

ChargeUP, the industry association, has been calling for standardization and fast deployment of charging infrastructure across Europe.


The largest bottleneck charge point operators (CPOs) face across Europe today “is the amount of time it takes to establish a grid connection point, the complexity of the process to get one, and access to sufficient grid capacity,” the association says.

More than 20 CPOs across Europe have signed an open letter to propose five criteria benchmarking permitting processes that would harmonize and standardize the process of getting a grid connection in Europe.

Toyota Europe’s chief operating officer Matt Harrison has recently said that Europe still needs work to do in charging infrastructure to reach the tipping point for significantly boosting the share of EVs.

“The enablers are not really fully there yet, so I’m not surprised we’re having a bit of a wobble,” Harrison told Bloomberg in an interview this week.

“There are a lot of fundamentals that still need to be fixed before we start to move.”

 

[Plain Jane]

French Farmers Dump Manure On Govt Buildings To Protest Climate Hysteria | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

French Farmers Dump Manure On Govt Buildings To Protest Climate Hysteria​

BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, DEC 09, 2023 - 07:00 AM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,
French farmers are dumping vast quantities of manure on government buildings to protest against excessive environmental regulations that threaten their way of life.


The farmers are protesting against excessive regulations and climate hysteria technocracy that threatens to ruin their livelihoods, as well as an EU ban on glyphosate.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1732993702103036008

View: https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1732993702103036008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1732993702103036008%7Ctwgr%5E4d3c1fd1be6400259b43f6131450f43ae3cda565%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ffrench-farmers-dump-manure-govt-buildings-protest-climate-hysteria



Roads were also blockaded and vehicles set ablaze.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1731758190218383434

View: https://twitter.com/ElanderNews/status/1731758190218383434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1731758190218383434%7Ctwgr%5E4d3c1fd1be6400259b43f6131450f43ae3cda565%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ffrench-farmers-dump-manure-govt-buildings-protest-climate-hysteria


Hundreds of farmers also blocked roads near council buildings around Saint-Brieuc.

Hundreds of farmers also blocked roads near council buildings around Saint-Brieuc.


Farmers carrying signs that said “France, do you still want your farmers?” and “Without support, France is starving” sprayed manure on the offices of Brittany Regional Council in Rennes.


One organization leading the protests said the demonstrations will “remain complete as long as the government does not provide French agriculture with all the means allowing it to be fully involved in the food, energy and environmental issues of the future.”

The Netherlands has been rocked by similar protests in recent years against limits on nitrogen emissions that would have led to the shut down of thousands of farms.

That played a huge role in populist Geert Wilders soaring to victory in last month’s election.


(More tweets at the link)

 

[Plain Jane]

NATO Aspirant Sweden Signs Deal To Let US Military Use All Its Bases | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

NATO Aspirant Sweden Signs Deal To Let US Military Use All Its Bases​

BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, DEC 09, 2023 - 07:35 AM
Sweden is not even in NATO yet—amid the continuing holdup and objections from Turkey and Hungary—but that didn't stop the US and Sweden this week from brokering a deal to let American troops have wide use of Swedish military bases for the first time.

The newly inked Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) this week signals Stockholm finally and fully abandoning its its centuries-old policy of neutrality, given the Pentagon has confirmed that US forces can now "operate in Sweden, including the legal status of US military personnel, access to deployment areas (and) prepositioning of military materiel."


Defense Lloyd Austin and Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson held a signing ceremony on Tuesday, and hailed that the deal will "create better conditions for Sweden to be able to receive support from the United States in the event of a war or crisis."

At a moment Sweden is still waiting anxiously for its accession into NATO to be announced, the US State Department has said the DCA with Sweden will "apply seamlessly before and after Sweden’s accession to the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)."

All of this is a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, which led both Finland (who is NATO's newest member) and neighboring Sweden to drop their non-alignment policies. As the AP reviews:

Sweden’s strategically important Baltic Sea island of Gotland sits a little more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
The United States struck a similar deal with Sweden's western neighbor, NATO member Norway, in 2021 and is currently negotiating such an agreement with NATO members Finland and Denmark, two other Nordic countries.

From the start of the war in Ukraine, the Swedish prime minister's office has cited Russian aggression as making necessary a greater and broader readiness posture in case of a state of emergency, or even potential attack on the nation.


This has lately even included reintroducing conscription for Swedish civilians in the case of a national emergency.


As for the new DCA, Pentagon chief Austin said it "sends a strong signal that we remain committed to addressing security challenges together." All of this has caused Russia to enter a defensive posture regarding its Scandinavian borders, and in the region of the Baltic Sea.
(Tweets at the link)

 

[Melodi]

Just like I said over a year ago, if Turkey or another State tried to keep Sweden out of NATO, then individual countries (starting with the US, The UK, or Germany) would sign individual mutual defense packs with Sweden and simply go around the roadblock.

 

[northern watch]

Hundreds of Georgians march in support of country's candidacy for European Union membership​

Hundreds of people have marched in Georgia’s capital to support the Caucasus region country becoming a candidate for European Union membership

By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE Associated Press and ELISE MORTON Associated Press
December 9, 2023, 8:49 AM

TBILISI, Georgia -- Hundreds of people marched in Georgia's capital Saturday to support the Caucasus region country becoming a candidate for European Union membership.

The EU is expected to announce December 15 whether it has decided to grant Georgia candidate status, a crucial milestone for potential membership. The government was told last month that it should officially receive candidacy once it addresses specific shortcomings, including in the fight against corruption and election deficiencies.

Participants in the “Your Voice to EU” rally in Tbilisi marched from First Republic Square to Europe Square, where a huge EU flag was unfurled. Organizers said that each star on the flag was made in a different region of Georgia, symbolizing the Georgian people's unity in the aspiration for their country to join the 27-nation bloc.

The march was initiated by President Salome Zourabichvili and organized by civil society groups.

“This is a peaceful march, a demonstration of the people’s will and choice that has been reflected in many initiatives," Zourabichvili said at Saturday’s event. "This latest initiative, which we are all joining, loudly voices our main wish to the European Union – that we want Europe.”

Zourabichvili’s presence at pro-EU rallies, together with earlier statements against a proposed foreign agent law, indicate a growing divide between her and the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Zourabichvili does not belong to any political party, but Georgian Dream backed her candidacy in the 2018 presidential election. Since assuming office, she has increasingly disagreed with the ruling party's decisions and policies, especially on foreign affairs.

Opposition parties in recent years accused Georgian Dream of pursuing pro-Russia policies while claiming to be Western-oriented. Opponents charge that the party’s founder, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who amassed a fortune in Russia, has continued calling the shots in the former Soviet republic of 3.7 million people even though he currently doesn’t hold a government job.

The party has repeatedly denied any links to Russia or that it leans toward Moscow.

Huge protests in March saw Georgian Dream withdraw legislation that would have required media and nongovernmental organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign sources to register as “agents of foreign influence.”

Opponents argued the bill was inspired by a similar law that Russia uses to stifle dissent and silence critics. They also warned that the adoption of such a law in Georgia might prevent the country from one day joining the EU and NATO.

Russia-Georgia relations have been rocky and complicated since the Soviet Union’s collapse. The two countries fought a short war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions. Tbilisi had severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the issue of the regions’ status remains a key irritant even as bilateral relations have somewhat improved.

___ Morton reported from London.

Hundreds of Georgians march in support of country's candidacy for European Union membership

Hundreds of people have marched in Georgia’s capital to support the Caucasus region country becoming a candidate for European Union membership

abcnews.go.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Donald Tusk Returns As Polish PM, Vows To "Chase Away The Evil" Of Years Of Right-Populist Rule | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Donald Tusk Returns As Polish PM, Vows To "Chase Away The Evil" Of Years Of Right-Populist Rule​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, DEC 12, 2023 - 02:45 AM
Donald Tusk is returning to power as Poland's new prime minister after nearly a decade. He's now vowing to "chase away the darkness … chase away the evil" of the prior eight years of tumultuous national-conservative rule.

On Monday, Poland’s parliament voted to back his nomination as the next prime minister. It's being hailed as a major win for pro-EU centrists at a moment Eurocrats in Brussels have feared the growing influence of 'far right disruptors' from Hungary to Italy to the Netherlands. His detractors have denounced Tusk as a globalist who will sell out Poland's national sovereignty, culture, and traditional values.
Donald Tusk reacts to his victory in parliament on Monday, via AP.

This came on the heels of earlier Monday former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party having lost a crucial vote of confidence. The subsequent vote was 248 in favor of Tusk becoming prime minister, with 201 against.

"Thank you, Poland. This is a wonderful day, not for me, but for all those who have deeply believed over these years that things will get even better," Tusk said. "From tomorrow, we will be able to right the wrongs so that everyone, without exception, can feel at home," he pledged, and laid out that his three-way alliance (a coalition ranging from from left-wing to moderate conservative) which emerged with a clear mandate in October's elections would "fix everything together."

Given that he was European Council president from 2014-2019, following his first stint as Poland's prime minister from 2007-2014, he's expected to greatly improve Warsaw's relations with EU leadership in Brussels.

Political rivals and enemies of PiS have long charged the party during its tenure with eroding judicial independence and waging a propaganda campaign against immigrants and sexual minorities. However, PiS said it has charted an independent, sovereign path of progress putting Poles first and thwarting foreign interference.

Detractors blame years of stormy PiS rule for the European Union freezing tens of billions of Euros of EU funds over so-called rule of law issues. Tusk has vowed to see the funds flowing again.


Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), one among the pro-Tusk coalition, said of him: "He gave up the comfortable life he could have had after being president of the European Council and came back... to fight for the victory of democracy, decency and justice."


Poland's conservative and right-leaning parties see Tusk as a globalist who seeks to open up the borders of Poland, which they fear will further erode Polish culture and identity. Last month, we featured the following analysis:

The liberal-globalist opposition coalition’s victory in last month’s Polish elections, which its Foreign Minister earlier accused Germany of meddling in, will likely result in former Prime Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk’s return to the premiership. In that event, this German-aligned politician could voluntarily subordinate his country to Berlin, thus resulting in Poland ceding its envisaged regional sphere of influence to that country and becoming its largest-ever vassal indefinitely.
Tusk’s plans to improve ties with the de facto German-controlled EU are regarded by conservative-nationalists as a means to that end, particularly due to that body’s efforts to further erode Polish sovereignty. Although he claims to oppose changes to the EU Treaty, some doubt his sincerity and suspect that he slyly wants to prevent large-scale protests over this issue. If these two scenarios come to pass, then Poland’s sovereignty would be further reduced, including in the defense sphere.
Prior to last month’s elections, Germany and Poland were competing to build the EU’s largest military, but the aforesaid sequence of events could result in Warsaw throwing in the towel.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Ukraine issue, given the recent months of deteriorating Poland-Ukraine relations. Western allies had been alarmed at Warsaw very publicly shifting away from its initial enthusiastic support for Kiev.


Tusk has pledged not only to rapidly restore good relations with the European Union, but to revive strong support for neighboring Ukraine as well to defend against Russia.

He's expected to give his first major speech back in office as prime minister on Tuesday, after which he's expected to be formally sworn in by President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday.
(Tweets at the link)

 

[Plain Jane]

German Mayor Slams Der Spiegel's Call For Mainstream Parties To Cut Off AfD For The Sake Of Democracy | ZeroHedge

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

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German Mayor Slams Der Spiegel's Call For Mainstream Parties To Cut Off AfD For The Sake Of Democracy​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, DEC 12, 2023 - 02:00 AM
Via ReMix News,
German news outlet Der Spiegel is “losing touch with reality” after its political editor penned an article calling for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to have public funding it is entitled to cut off by other parties in order to “strengthen democracy,” a German mayor has claimed.



Boris Palmer, mayor of Tübingen and a former member of the German Green Party, accused Der Spiegel’s Ann-Katrin Müller of being irresponsible by backing proposals to stifle support for the AfD, which is soaring in popularity among the electorate, particularly in the eastern German states.

“The demand that AfD should be fought through targeted disadvantages, rules of procedure, withdrawal of party funding and, best of all, by a ban is truly dangerous,” Palmer wrote in a lengthy Facebook post.

Der Spiegel believed that by refusing to give the AfD the party funding to which it was entitled, it could prevent its looming election victories in Brandenburg, Thuringia, and Saxony next September.

The headline itself read: “Act before it’s too late!”

The paper called on the German traffic light coalition to turn off the money tap for the opposition party “soon.”

Palmer, once a member of the Greens, slammed the article and said it was effectively saying:

“The people are stupid. If they don’t want to vote properly, we’ll just change the rules until the result suits us,” and warned that such a move would shake the “foundations of the constitution.”

Instead, he called for Germany to “make policies that solve problems and take people seriously.” The 12 percent increase in citizens’ income, including for Ukrainian citizens, would “only cause outrage among many working people,” he warned.

Even today, low earners who work full-time are “left with only €300 to €500 more at the end of the month than what (Ukrainians) receive with their citizen’s allowance, housing benefit and other benefits,” he explained, claiming that work is no longer worthwhile and current policies “simply do not work in the long term.”

Palmer also cited the “disaster in schools,” migration policy, and inclusion legislation as examples of the German establishment not listening to the electorate.

The trains “no longer run when it snows” and if it doesn’t snow, “they don’t run either,” he wrote.

He also slammed the Constitutional Court for declaring “the most important budget funding null and void, and the government cannot find an answer.”

“And then you wonder why people turn away in horror?” he asked.

 

[Plain Jane]

Netherlands Raises Terror-Alert To 2nd-Highest As Officials Warn Of "Substantial" Risk Of Attack | ZeroHedge

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

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Netherlands Raises Terror-Alert To 2nd-Highest As Officials Warn Of "Substantial" Risk Of Attack​

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, DEC 13, 2023 - 05:00 AM
Authored by Thomas Brooke via ReMix News,
The Netherlands has raised its terror threat to its second-highest level with the country’s National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) warning of a “real chance” of a terrorist attack.

In its Terrorist Threat Assessment for the Netherlands report, NCTV announced the threat level had been upped from 3 to 4 which means the threat of attack is “substantial” – it is the highest threat level reached in the country for over four years.



The counter-terrorism agency warned that “the jihadist-inspired terrorist threat to the Netherlands is on the rise” and noted that Islamic extremist groups operating within Europe are “using the war in Gaza to urge sympathizers to carry out attacks in the West.”

“Individuals or small groups within the jihadist movement may feel inspired to commit acts of violence” as a result of increasing tensions in the Middle East that are now being felt among communities in the Netherlands and the wider European continent, its report stated.

NCTV acknowledged that several arrests were made by counter-terrorism police in the Netherlands this year of suspects “intending to carry out an attack with jihadist motives,” and sought to assure the public that these successful preventative measures showed that “European intelligence and security services are able to identify terrorism and thwart attacks”.

However, the report also noted that attacks had already slipped through the net so far this year in France, Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom which illustrate “the risks posed by radicalized individuals who are inspired by current events and terrorist organizations”.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1734328381141905858

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1734328381141905858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1734328381141905858%7Ctwgr%5Edbbb05f1a28abe3656fb863886b001e06f727e14%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fnetherlands-raises-terror-alert-2nd-highest-officials-warn-substantial-risk-attack

The move by the Dutch authorities followed remarks made by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson late last month who warned of a “huge risk” of terror attacks in the European Union during the Christmas season.


“With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union,” Johansson told reporters.

“We saw this recently in Paris,” she said, referring to the German-Filipino tourist stabbed to death near the Eiffel Tower on Dec. 2. The attack left two others injured and was conducted by an Islamist extremist French national of Iranian origin who had already been incarcerated for four years for planning an attack in the Parisian business hub of La Défense in the summer of 2016.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1730565656372748376

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1730565656372748376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1730565656372748376%7Ctwgr%5Edbbb05f1a28abe3656fb863886b001e06f727e14%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fnetherlands-raises-terror-alert-2nd-highest-officials-warn-substantial-risk-attack

“We saw it earlier as well,” Johansson continued, alluding to the shooting of Swedish nationals in Brussels, and the foiled attack planned by foreign nationals in Germany earlier this month who aimed to ram a truck into attendees of the Christmas markets in Cologne.

...

 

[Plain Jane]

Nigel Farage Now Far More Pupular Among UK Conservatives Than PM Sunak | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Nigel Farage Now Far More Pupular Among UK Conservatives Than PM Sunak​

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, DEC 14, 2023 - 03:30 AM
Nigel Farage’s decision to take part in reality TV show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here has proven to be a massive success, with a new poll showing he’s more popular amongst Conservative voters than the Prime Minister.

Farage entered the show knowing it was a re-branding opportunity for the British public to see the real him away from media spin and vilification.

Despite early attempts by ITV bosses to edit him out of the show, he eventually made it to the final, finishing in 3rd place.

As Thomas Brooke reports at ReMix News, the ex-UKIP and Brexit Party leader has seen his popularity among the conservative grassroots surge after a three-week stint in the Australian jungle on the hit U.K. reality TV show, storming ahead of the current Conservative leader who now has a net negative rating among voters for his own party.

The survey, conducted by the JL Partners polling agency, showed Farage’s popularity score had risen to +18 among voters who backed the Conservative Party in the last general election in 2019. A total of 46 percent viewed him positively, compared to 28 percent who held a negative view of the GB News presenter.

Farage’s score has soared from a net positive rating of +1 before the show, vindicating his decision to take part in the show which he believed was an opportunity to appeal to a wider audience ahead of a much-rumored return to frontline politics.

By comparison, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s popularity has plummeted to a net negative score of -3 among his own party’s voters and the U.K. leader has a score of -41 among the wider electorate compared to Farage’s -29.

Since leaving the Australian jungle, during which he was prohibited from communicating with the outside world and keeping up with current affairs, Farage has launched a full-scale attack on the governing Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal — the flagship policy of Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1734290115378176376

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1734290115378176376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1734290115378176376%7Ctwgr%5E2115706bcf85cdf08c9d30a21288eb06ce6fd433%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fnigel-farage-now-far-more-pupular-among-uk-conservatives-pm-sunak



“This government is in desperate trouble and headed for catastrophic defeat,” he said after touching down at London Heathrow airport.

“They’ve no idea what’s coming down the track towards them. And I think the last thing I heard before I went into the jungle was that Cameron was back… if it’s got that bad, they must be in real trouble.
“And I see that he’s just about managed to squeak through a vote on Rwanda. But I mean, it’s going to make no difference at all. No, they’re in dire, dire trouble. And all Labour have to do is, frankly, not tear each other apart, and play safe and the election is theirs I think,” he added.

Commenting on the polling, Farage said he was “absolutely astonished by it”.

“Amongst 2019 Conservative voters, my approval rating has risen 20 percent in my time in the jungle, putting me 21 percent ahead of Rishi.
“It’s all very flattering, a little bit bewildering. It’s going to take some time for me to really take it on board. But fascinating, right?” he said.

When asked about his prospects of becoming a future Tory MP, Farage said, “Never say never.”

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

French President Macron Humiliated After Shady Immigration Bill Stopped Cold | ZeroHedge

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French President Macron Humiliated After Shady Immigration Bill Stopped Cold​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, DEC 15, 2023 - 04:15 AM
The tide seems to be turning against open border immigration policies in Europe, with half measures and false solutions being rejected outright, even by French lawmakers.

France is now in political crisis and far-left French President Emmanuel Macron has been humiliated after a long sought deal on immigration reform was immediately struck down in a surprise move by the National Assembly without even being debated. Traditionally, when a legislative effort of this magnitude fails so absolutely, the members of government involved in its drafting are expected to resign.

The government’s stunning defeat in parliament prompted opposition politicians to call for its dissolution. Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, told BFMTV on Tuesday he was “ready to serve as prime minister”.

The immigration bill was originally presented by Macron as a way to derail the expansive rise of right-wing movements within France, which are gaining power across Europe on the promise that they will stop mass migration and illegal migration policies put in place nearly a decade ago by EU bureaucrats. Conservative groups have gained considerable ground in the past few years as crimes by migrants receive more attention on the national and international stage.

While the EU vehemently denies that mass immigration leads to rising crime rates, concerted efforts to hide the statistics have been uncovered in the past. Specifically, authorities in multiple countries have removed migrant status from arrest reports, or made it easy for criminals to refuse to reveal their migrant status upon arrest. In some cases, crime among immigrants has been covered up by police and politicians, including organized rape gangs in nations like Sweden.

French statistics do not provide a breakdown of crimes based on race or ethnicity, nor do they reveal immigration backgrounds. So, when EU officials claim that “there is no link” between migrants and rising crime, this is a lie based on omission. They often hide such data as a means to obscure any relationship.

In contrast, Denmark's data includes such information and reveals that migrants and second-generation migrants with Danish citizenship actually have higher crime rates, including instances of murder and physical assault, according to their percentage of the population.

Germany’s federal police office, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), has recently revealed that mass immigration into the country is a significant contributing factor in the surge in violent crime. The number of crimes involving German citizens - which includes dual citizens who may have been born elsewhere, rose by 8 percent in 2023 compared to non-German suspects which increased by as much as 23 percent. Furthermore, cases involving foreign minors rose considerably by 37 percent.

Ironically, migrant activists argue that the practice of redacting migrant status in criminal reports helps hide police profiling against them; they claim that they are targeted and arrested at a much higher rate than white Europeans. In reality, migrants are simply much more likely to commit crimes.

In a rare admission by the Ministerial Statistical Department for Internal Security (SSMSI), they reported that 69% of violent robberies and other violent crimes, which include sexual assaults, occurring on public transport in the greater Paris region of Île-de-France were committed by individuals who are foreign nationals. More comprehensive reports like this are impossible to come by for the whole of France, but what happens in Paris is probably a reflection of most cities across the nation.

European politicians have sought to gaslight the public, telling them that the increase in crime they see around them on a daily basis is in their heads and that there is no migrant problem. The con game is failing, with more Europeans joining conservative efforts in response as the the only movement willing to acknowledge the problem.

Macron's immigration bill was supposed to assuage the concerns of the French citizenry, but much like Democrat sponsored immigration bills in the US, the legislation pretends to address open borders while actually making it easier for foreigners to illegally enter and operate within the country.

Both leftists and conservatives are claiming a “victory” in the wake of the bill's failure; leftists claim a win because the bill would have made it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes, which they argue would encourage “racial profiling." In addition, the bill would have theoretically added obstacles for migrants to relocate family members to France. Leftists applauded the bills failure, asserting that the act of debating immigration was in itself a display of racism.

Conservatives claim a win because the bill would have made it easier for migrants to get work visas, which they argue would only incentivize more illegal immigration. And, any migrants that do get expelled from the country through the new law could simply reenter within days.

Ultimately, the bill never addressed the greater issues of mass migrant movements or secure borders. Furthermore, the primary purpose of the legislation was to dilute the growth of conservative influence in French politics, so the defeat of the bill is a far more important win for the right wing. The French socialist establishment is now in a panic.


In 2022, France's “far-right” National Rally party scored a historic success in legislative elections, increasing its number of lawmakers almost tenfold and cementing the party's rise from fringe status to mainstream opposition.

 

[northern watch]

Finland, NATO's newest member, will sign a defense pact with the United States​

NATO’s newest member and Russia’s neighbor Finland is to sign a bilateral defense cooperation agreement next week with the United States in a deal that allows Washington to send troops into the Nordic country and to store weapons and equipment there
By JARI TANNER Associated Press
December 14, 2023, 10:06 AM

Closed Vaalimaa border check point between Finland and Russia is pictured in Virolahti, Finland, Wednesday Dec. 13, 2023. NATO’s newest member and Russia’s neighbor Finland is to sign a bilateral defense cooperation agreement next week with the United States in a deal that allows Washington to send troops into the Nordic country and to store weapons and equipment there. (Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP)

HELSINKI -- NATO’s newest member, Finland, which shares a border with Russia, is to sign a bilateral defense cooperation agreement next week with the United States in a deal that allows Washington to send troops into the Nordic country to bolster its defense and store weapons and military equipment there, among other things.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told a news conference in Helsinki on Thursday that Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen will sign the so-called Defense Cooperation Agreement, or DCA, in Washington on Monday, December 18.

The pact, which must still be approved by Finnish lawmakers, “is very significant for Finland’s defense and security,” Häkkänen said, stressing that the deal is judicially binding on both sides.

“It bears a very strong message in this time. The United States is committed to our defense also in a tough spot,” Häkkänen told reporters.

Finland joined NATO in April after decades of military non-alignment as a direct result of Russia’s assault on Ukraine that started in February 2022. The nation of 5.6 million shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia that makes up a significant part of NATO’s northeastern flank and acts as the European Union’s external border in the north.

Under the deal, Finland will allow U.S. soldiers access to 15 military areas and facilities covering the entire Nordic nation all the way from a key southern naval base and inland air bases to a vast remote army training area in Lapland, in the Arctic north.

American troops are allowed a permanent presence and regular exercises in Finland but there are no plans to establish permanent U.S. military bases in Finland, officials said.

Several NATO countries currently have similar bilateral defense agreements with the United States.

Last week, Finland’s close Nordic neighbor Sweden, which is on the brink of joining NATO, signed a comparable deal. Alliance member Denmark is expected to do so in the near future.

Finland, NATO's newest member, will sign a defense pact with the United States

NATO’s newest member and Russia’s neighbor Finland is to sign a bilateral defense cooperation agreement next week with the United States in a deal that allows Washington to send troops into the Nordic country and to store weapons and equipment there

abcnews.go.com

 

[northern watch]

Trump scares elites: Congress passes law banning US president from unilaterally withdrawing country from NATO​

Trump's advance in the polls is frightening...​

15/12/2023 - 02:46
War News 24 / 7



Congress approved a bill that prevents any U.S. president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without first receiving Senate approval or an act of Congress.

The measure, drafted by Senators Tim Kaine (Democrat) and Marco Rubio (Republican), was included in the annual national defense budget, which passed House on Thursday (14/12) and is expected to be ratified by President Joe Biden.

The provision underscores Congress' commitment to the NATO alliance targeted by former President Trump during his time in office.

Of course, under Biden, the US has changed course, as confirmed by the stance of US diplomacy on the war in Ukraine and the escalation in the Middle East.

"NATO has stood firm in response to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and growing challenges around the world," Senator Kain said in a statement, adding that the legislation "reaffirms U.S. support for this critical alliance that is fundamental to our national security. It also sends a strong message to rulers around the world that the free world remains united."

Republican Rubio said the measure served as a critical tool for congressional oversight.

"We must ensure that we protect our national interests and protect the security of our democratic allies," he said in a statement.

US in strategic dilemma over NATO's position​

Trump has invested deeply in the NATO alliance during his tenure, committing more troops and military resources to Europe as a show of strength against Putin's Russia.

He has also overseen the expansion of the alliance to include Finland and continued efforts to secure Sweden's full membership.

By contrast, Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, has sent mixed signals about the alliance before 2024.

Supporters of the former president argue that his harsh speeches and criticisms of the alliance served to inspire member states to meet their obligations to reach 2 percent of defense spending, easing the U.S. burden.

But Trump's critics argue that the former president's rhetoric weakens the unity and strength of the alliance's purpose.
As such, concerns that Trump will abandon the U.S. commitment to the alliance's mutual defense pact or withdraw the U.S. altogether have by no means abated.

Τρομάζει τις ελίτ ο Τραμπ: Το Κογκρέσο ψήφισε νόμο που απαγορεύει στον

Το Κογκρέσο ενέκρινε νομοσχέδιο το οποίο εμποδίζει οποιονδήποτε πρόεδρο των ΗΠΑ να αποσύρει τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες από το ΝΑΤΟ χωρίς

warnews247.gr

 

[northern watch]

Daily Jihad in France​

by Guy Millière
Gatestone Institute
December 15, 2023 at 5:00 am

• From the murder of Sébastien Sellam in 2003 to that of Mireille Knoll in 2018, all murders of Jews in France have been committed by radicalized Muslims.
• Shouting "we are coming to kill white people", they attacked, murdering Thomas Perotto, aged 17, who had his throat slit. Seventeen other people were wounded, some seriously. Criminologist Xavier Raufer, asked about the attack, replied that raids like that take place throughout the country every week.
• Although the prosecutor in charge of the case received multiple testimonies that the attackers said they were "coming to kill white people," authorities maintain that the motive for the attack is "unknown".
• 74% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 25 in France say they place Islamic sharia law above the laws of the French Republic.
• Television journalist Christian Malard, who had access to the results of confidential inquiries carried out for the French Ministry of the Interior, said they show that more than half of the imams in France proclaim the superiority of Islam over Western culture and the need to Islamize France, even if that means using force.
• The anti-Jewish atrocities by Hamas on October 7 reinforced a distrust of Islam, and for the first time in years, a majority of French people support Israel's fight in the ongoing war.

An Islamist shouting "Allahu Akbar" on December 2 stabbed a German tourist to death near the Eiffel Tower. The murderer, again shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", then attacked two more people, seriously wounding them. Pictured: Police forensic experts at the scene of the murder on December 2, 2023. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

Paris, December 2, 2023. 9 pm. A man shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("Allah is the greatest!") stabbed a German tourist walking along the Seine near the Eiffel Tower, an area considered safe. On the way to the hospital, the victim died. The murderer, again shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", attacked two more people, seriously wounding them, before the police arrested him. A government press release quickly mentioned that the killer was a French citizen, born in France, with the exceedingly French first name of Armand.

Then reality struck. Armand was indeed born in France in 1997, but his original first name was Iman (full name: Iman Rajabpour-Miyandoab) -- until 2003, when his Iranian parents, who had fled the Islamic Republic, became French citizens and changed his name to Armand. In 2015-2016, he proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and made contact on social networks with many Islamists who had perpetrated terror attacks in France in that time period, and he planned a terrorist attack in Paris.

Before he could execute his plan, in 2016, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released after four years, and placed on the state's list of particularly dangerous individuals. On the afternoon of December 2, 2023, he filmed a video in which he announced that he wanted to "avenge the Muslims" and kill infidels – exactly what he did a few hours later. Commenting on the attack, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin insisted that the murderer had been under "close monitoring" and "psychiatric treatment" and spoke of a "psychiatric failure".

The murder was widely reported. Many journalists noted that the murder of a tourist in Paris by an Islamist ex-convict could create panic among foreign visitors, and the fact that an Islamic extremist considered dangerous by the authorities was walking about free could cause even more concern, especially with the mention of "psychiatric treatment". Similarly, Kobili Traoré, who murdered Sarah Halimi in 2017 and was sent to a mental hospital, was recently declared not responsible for his actions and will soon be free.

What should cause concern in France, however, is the widespread rise in Islamic violence. Official statistics show that every day in France, there are on average 120 knife attacks, many of which result in death.

Although acts filled with Islamic hatred against non-Muslims are becoming more and more numerous, most are passed over in silence. Some, however, are so disgusting that the mainstream media cannot ignore them. The murder in Marseille, for instance, of Laura Paumier and Mauranne Harel, two young students slaughtered and disemboweled with a butcher's knife by an illegal immigrant, Ahmed Hanachi, in front of a horrified crowd in 2017, delivered a particular shock.

Similarly, again in Marseille, Mohamed L., a radicalized drug dealer, in 2022 slit the throat of Alban Gervaise, a military doctor, in front of his two young children while he was picking them up from school. Butchering a father in front of his children seemed particularly shocking and barbaric. On both occasions, the murderers were proudly shouting "Allahu Akbar".

Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, two police officers, were tortured and slaughtered in front of their young son at their home near Paris in 2016, by Larossi Abballa, an Islamist.

The murder of Fabienne Broly Verhaeghe, a 68-year-old nurse, in Lille on October 18, 2023, also reached a level of savagery difficult to imagine: Mohamed B., a 17-year-old illegal immigrant born in the Ivory Coast, broke into her apartment, then raped, scalped and disemboweled her, and cut off her hands.

On October 16, 2020, the beheading of Samuel Paty near the high school where he taught, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, led President Emmanuel Macron to promise actions that would allow teachers to work in complete safety. Nothing was done. Another teacher, Dominique Bernard, had his throat slit where he taught, in Arras, on October 13, 2023. The murderer, Mohammed Mogouchkov was a 20 years old Ingush refugee subject to an expulsion procedure.

Anti-Semitic attacks in France are also becoming ever more frequent, and have exploded since the atrocious attacks in Israel on October 7 by the terrorist group Hamas. In 2022, there were 436 anti-Semitic acts officially recorded in France.

In the few weeks between October 7 and December 1, 2023, there were 1,518 anti-Semitic acts recorded, many of them physical assaults. From examining the police reports, done by the French National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, BNVCA, it is sadly clear that all of them apparently came from Islamic anti-Semites. From the murder of Sébastien Sellam in 2003 to that of Mireille Knoll in 2018, all murders of Jews in France have been committed by radicalized Muslims.

Jews throughout France can no longer wear skullcaps or a Star of David on the street. They remove their names from their mailboxes. "For the first time since 1945," said French author Elisabeth Badinter, "many French Jews are afraid to the point of hiding."

Ethnic Muslim gangs raid shopping centers and parties in rural villages. Most of these assaults are also never mentioned in the media. One, however, recently attracted attention: at a party on November 19 in the town hall of Crépol, a village of five hundred people, members of a Muslim gang armed with long butcher knives came from the neighboring town, Romans-sur-Isère. Shouting "we are coming to kill white people", they attacked, murdering Thomas Perotto, aged 17, who had his throat slit. Seventeen other people were wounded, some seriously. Criminologist Xavier Raufer, asked about the attack, replied that raids like that take place throughout the country every week.

The government concealed the names of the attackers and clearly did everything it could to hide what had happened. A conservative journalist, Damien Rieu, obtained and disclosed them. Although the prosecutor in charge of the case received multiple testimonies that the attackers said they were "coming to kill white people," authorities maintain that the motive for the attack is "unknown".

On November 25, a group of young "right-wing" French people who had planned to demonstrate in Romans-sur-Isère were arrested by the police upon their arrival and taken before a judge. He accused them of an "intentional racist attack" and immediately sentenced them to six-to-ten months in prison. They had not attacked anyone. The banner they brought said only: "Justice for Thomas". The sole victim of violence on that day was one of the French demonstrators who managed to elude the police. He was chased down in the town and later found naked and unconscious, his body lacerated, in the lobby of a building.

On November 29, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne proclaimed that the young people sent to prison deserved it and that they had embodied a "serious threat to democracy" in France: the "ultra-right". The "ultra-right," she added, cryptically, was even more dangerous than the "extreme right." Not a word, however, about Islamic violence.

End of Part 1

 

[northern watch]

Part 2 of 2

The French government is clearly aware that Islamic "no-go zones" are growing and that riots can break out at any moment. In June 2023, a police traffic stop gone wrong led to the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17 year old Muslim criminal, and resulted in three weeks of riots and destruction that spread to many towns. Although French authorities banned pro-Hamas demonstrations planned for October and November, they took place anyway, complete with anti-Jewish and anti-French chants. The police were ordered not to intervene.

The French mainstream media has spoken extensively about the "extreme danger posed by the ultra-right." Again, not a word about Islamic violence.

Some commentators and political leaders, have spoken out all the same. Columnist Ivan Rioufol wrote:

"The racial outbreak which, in France, accompanied the satanic carnage of Hamas against Israeli civilians, revealed the state of tearing of the nation, close to rupture. Two irreconcilable Frances are already confronting each other in broad daylight: French France and Islamized France."

Éric Zemmour, president of the Reconquest Party, wrote:

"Two peoples live in France, one of whom must constantly flee the attacks of an increasingly violent faction of the other, not only the attacks perpetrated with shouts of Allah Akbar, but this real daily jihad that the French suffer."

Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally, said:

"[M]any French people now feel it: no one is safe anywhere anymore. A new threshold has been crossed. We are witnessing organized attacks emanating from a certain number of criminogenic suburbs in which there are armed 'militias' carrying out raids."

While the influence of fundamentalist Islam is less marked among older Muslims, 74% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 25 in France say they place Islamic sharia law above the laws of the French Republic.

Television journalist Christian Malard, who had access to the results of confidential inquiries carried out for the French Ministry of the Interior, said they show that more than half of the imams in France proclaim the superiority of Islam over Western culture and the need to Islamize France, even if that means using force. Malard added that the main French Muslim organization, "Muslims of France," which is the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood -- a movement banned in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt -- has a monopoly on training imams in France and has been infiltrating French universities, sports clubs and political parties.

"Left-wing" politicians and journalists, who try to demonize "far-right" parties by accusing them of anti-Semitism, are having trouble making the label stick. Zemmour is a Jew who strongly supports Israel. Le Pen's party also supports Israel and denounces anti-Semitism without the slightest ambiguity. Accusing the Reconquest and the National Rally parties of "Islamophobia" no longer has any impact; Islamic violence spreading in France has convinced an increasing number of French people that it is legitimate to be afraid of Islam.

According to recent surveys, 78% of French people think that Islamism constitutes a mortal threat to France. 91% say they are worried or very worried about the sharp rise in violence in the country. The anti-Jewish atrocities by Hamas on October 7 reinforced a distrust of Islam, and for the first time in years, a majority of French people support Israel's fight in the ongoing war.

The main anti-Semitic party in France now is a leftist one, Rebellious France. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has accused Israel -- not Hamas -- of genocide, and has claimed that Hamas is a "resistance" movement. He concluded one of his recent meetings with, "Long live Gaza" and "Eternal glory to those who resist".

If a presidential election were to take place in France today, Zemmour would receive more votes than he did in 2022, and Le Pen would top the first round of voting, receiving between 31% -33% of the votes, far more than in 2022. Whoever her opponent would be in the second round, she would easily win it.

An election victory for Le Pen would confirm that a huge change could still take shape within Europe. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni won the Italian legislative elections on September 25, 2022 by denouncing the Islamization of Europe, and became prime minister. On November 22, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' party won the most seats in legislative elections.

Daily Jihad in France

From the murder of Sébastien Sellam in 2003 to that of Mireille Knoll in 2018, all murders of Jews in France have been committed by radicalized Muslims. Shouting "we are coming to kill white people", they attacked, murdering Thomas Perotto, aged 17, who

www.gatestoneinstitute.org

 

[Plain Jane]

A cardinal and 9 others will learn their fate in a Vatican financial trial after 2 years of hearings

A once-powerful cardinal and nine other people are to learn their fates when a Vatican tribunal hands down verdicts in a complicated financial trial that has aired the tiny city state's dirty laundry.

apnews.com

A cardinal and 9 others will learn their fate in a Vatican financial trial after 2 years of hearings​

NICOLE WINFIELD
Updated 12:14 AM EST, December 16, 2023
Share
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A once-powerful cardinal and nine other people are to learn their fate Saturday when a Vatican tribunal hands down verdicts in a complicated financial trial that has aired the tiny city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Judge Giuseppe Pignatone will read out the verdicts of the three-judge panel in the converted courtroom in the Vatican Museums, where prosecutors and defense attorneys have sparred for 2½ years over the details of a money-losing investment in a luxury London property.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first-ever cardinal to be prosecuted in the Vatican’s criminal court, is accused of embezzlement-related charges in two tangents of the London deal and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Unlike most defendants, Becciu attended nearly all of the 86 hearings, saying Pope Francis clearly wanted him to face court judgment after Francis himself forced his resignation and removed his privileges as a cardinal before he was even charged.

The trial has raised questions about the rule of law in the city state and Francis’ power as absolute monarch, given that he wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial authority and has exercised it in ways the defense says jeopardized a fair trial.



The defense attorneys, while praising Pignatone’s even-handedness and saying they were able to present their arguments, lamented the Vatican’s outdated procedural norms that give prosecutors enormous leeway to withhold evidence and otherwise pursue their investigation nearly unimpeded.

In addition to Becciu, prosecutors charged nine others with a host of alleged financial crimes stemming from the secretariat of state’s 350 million euro investment in developing a former Harrod’s warehouse into luxury apartments. Prosecutors allege Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros to cede control of the building.

Prosecutors are seeking convictions for nearly 50 different charges of fraud, embezzlement, money-laundering, corruption, abuse of office and extortion. They are seeking prison terms from three to 13 years and damages of over 400 million euros to try to recover the estimated 200 million euros they say the Holy See lost in the bad deals.

The trial was initially seen as a sign of Francis’ financial reforms and willingness to crack down on alleged financial misdeeds in the Vatican. But it had something of a reputational boomerang for the Holy See, with revelations of vendettas, espionage and even ransom payments to Islamic militants.

The secretariat of state, for example, is seeking damages for a marketing campaign to try to repair the reputational harm it says it incurred. Even the Vatican communications department said the trial itself had been a “stress test” for the legal system.

Much of the London case rested on the passage of the property from one London broker to another in late 2018. Prosecutors allege the second broker, Gianluigi Torzi, hoodwinked the Vatican by maneuvering to secure full control of the building that he relinquished only when the Vatican paid him off 15 million euros.

For Vatican prosecutors, that amounted to extortion. For the defense — and a British judge who rejected Vatican requests to seize Torzi’s assets — it was a negotiated exit from a legally binding contract.

The two former managers of the Vatican’s financial watchdog, Rene Bruelhart and Tommaso Di Ruzza, are accused of abuse of office for not blocking the payment to Torzi and for not reporting it all to Vatican prosecutors.

They argued that Francis himself had asked them to help the secretariat of state wrest control of the property from Torzi once the Vatican realized it didn’t actually own the building.

They cited written testimony from the Vatican chief of staff, Monsignor Edgar Pena Parra, who said Vatican lawyers had advised against suing Torzi since their case was so weak. The Vatican chose to negotiate a payout with Torzi because that option was considered best in terms of cost, risk and outcome.

“It also appeared to be purely aligned with the will of the superior,” he said, referring to Francis, who he said wanted to “turn the page and start over.”

The original London investigation spawned two other tangents that involved the star defendant, Becciu, once one of Francis’ top advisers and himself considered a papal contender.

Prosecutors accused Becciu of embezzlement for sending 125,000 euros in Vatican money to a Sardinian charity run by his brother. Becciu argued that the local bishop requested the money for a bakery to employ at-risk youths and that the money remained in the diocesan coffers.

Becciu was also accused of paying a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna, for her intelligence services. Prosecutors traced some 575,000 euros in wire transfers from the Vatican to a Slovenian front company owned by Marogna.

Becciu said he thought the money was going to pay a British security firm to negotiate the release of Gloria Narvaez, a Colombian nun taken hostage by Islamic militants in Mali in 2017.

He said Francis authorized up to 1 million euros, an astonishing admission that the Vatican was willing to make ransom payment to free a nun.

Marogna, who is also on trial, denied wrongdoing.

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

This story is huge in UK.

Teenager Alex Batty returns to Britain after being missing for 6 years and then turning up in France

British teenager Alex Batty has come back to the U.K, six years after he left home on what was meant to be a two-week family vacation in Spain.

apnews.com

Teenager Alex Batty returns to Britain after being missing for 6 years and then turning up in France​

This undated photo issued by Greater Manchester Police on Thursday Dec. 14, 2023 shows missing British schoolboy Alex Batty who was believed to have been abducted by his mother six years ago and has been found in France. Batty, who went missing six years ago on a family holiday in Spain has been found in southwestern France, French media reported on Thursday Dec. 14, 2023. (Greater Manchester Police via AP)
Read More

BY JILL LAWLESS
Updated 5:26 PM EST, December 16, 2023
Share
LONDON (AP) — British teenager Alex Batty flew back to the U.K. on Saturday, six years after he left home on what was meant to be a two-week family vacation in Spain.
Batty never returned from that holiday to his grandmother and guardian in Oldham, near Manchester. Her frantic appeals found no trace of him – until he turned up this week, walking along a road in southern France in the middle of the night.
Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle of Greater Manchester Police said Batty had arrived in England on a flight from Toulouse.

He said police “are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance” and whether there should be a criminal investigation.

Now, 17, Alex told French officials he had been living a nomadic lifestyle in Spain, Morocco and France with his mother and grandfather as part of a “spiritual community.” He said the family moved from place to place, grew their own food, meditated and contemplated reincarnation and other esoteric subjects.



When his mother said she wanted to move the family to Finland, Alex decided to leave, French prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters on Friday.

He was spotted by a delivery driver walking alone in the rain and dark with a flashlight, a rucksack and his skateboard. The driver, Fabien Accidini, offered him a lift, and Alex told him about his life and how he had walked for four days, traveling by night, through the remote and rugged Pyrenees.

Accidini said the boy told him “that he had been kidnapped by his mother” years ago. He added “that he’d been in France for the past two years in a spiritual community that was a bit strange with his mother who is also a bit strange.”


“He’d had enough. He said, ‘I am 17. I need a future.’ He didn’t see a future for him there.”

Alex’s mother Melanie Batty is wanted by British police in connection with the boy’s disappearance. French officials say she may be in Finland, and Alex’s grandfather, David Batty, is believed to have died about six months ago.

The tale has generated intense interest in Britain, with a photo of a blond, 11-year-old Alex splashed across newspapers and news websites. The teenager’s grandmother, Susan Caruana, appealed for the family to be given time and space.

“I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,” she said in a statement issued through British police.

“The main thing is that he’s safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child. I would ask that our family are given privacy as we welcome Alex back, so we can make this process as comforting as possible.”

Boyle, the British police officer, said detectives would be speaking to Alex “at a pace that feels comfortable to him.”

“No matter what, we understand that this may be an overwhelming process,” he said. “He may now be six years older than when he went missing, but he is still a young person.”

 

[northern watch]

War Council in Germany: State of emergency and Europe's preparation for war with Russia – Statements by Scholz and Pistorius​

Scares the size and capability of the Russian Army​

17/12/2023 - 13:14
War News 24 / 7



German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed to the Bundestag that Europe must immediately rearm at short notice as war with Russia approaches.

These statements were made after a meeting of a war council attended by all services of the German state.

Social Democrat German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed that it has been agreed to declare a state of emergency in Germany in the event of Ukraine's defeat.

Germany: State of emergency and deep war with Russia​

Today German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius came back saying:

"Europe has 5-8 years to rearm, after which it will most likely face war with Russia."

We have five to eight years to catch up in terms of the military, industry and society," Boris Pistorius said.

According to him, the United States will likely reduce its military presence on the continent in the near future.

On December 14, the German Chancellor's office admitted that in the event of a military collapse in Kiev, Berlin would have to declare a state of emergency in the country.

The German Chancellor told the Bundestag:

"We agreed that we will support Ukraine as long as it takes. This includes EUR 8 billion in aid. EUR 6 billion for armament programmes, financial aid and more than EUR 6 billion. euros to support Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

There is something else.

If the situation worsens as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, for example, because the situation on the front will deteriorate, because other supporters will reduce their aid to Ukraine or because the threat to Germany and Europe will continue to grow, we will have to respond.

We have already agreed that the decision in such a situation will be taken by the Bundestag. We will also activate Article 115 of the Basic Law, which allows the declaration of emergency."

They are now afraid of the Russian army... – What they say to Moscow​

According to Moscow, such a serious statement by the German defense minister can be explained by two factors.
The first is the fear now aroused by the Russian military, which, after almost two years of war in Ukraine, has become stronger and more technologically advanced.

In addition, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have gained a lot of experience in conducting combat operations that no other army in the world has at the moment.

The second factor that undoubtedly pushes Germany and other EU countries to prepare for war is the realization of their guilt for what is happening in Ukraine: they believe that sooner or later the Russians will come for them.

German analysts agree...​

Russia will need six years to prepare its military for a direct conflict with NATO. This is the conclusion reached by the German Foreign Policy Society (DGAP).

German analysts said that if the conflict in Ukraine freezes or Moscow wins, then Russia will need six years to prepare for a direct conflict with NATO.

During this period, Russian industry, already transferred to a war base, will be able to produce as many weapons as will be enough for a war with all the countries of the alliance.

As two German analysts, Christian Mölling and Torben Schütz, have said, Europe has very little time to prevent another war.

Even after nearly two years of war in Ukraine, Russia's military potential is greater despite the losses suffered.

Europe, and Germany in particular, has little time to rearm the Baltic states so that their deterrent potential exceeds Russia's attack capabilities.

"The window for a possible Russian attack will open as soon as Russia has the impression that an attack, for example in the Baltics, can be successful (...) Moscow will be able to rapidly increase its military capabilities, and a military conflict could become the cause of a large-scale conflict between Russia and NATO with the Baltic states," German analysts said.

Πολεμικό συμβούλιο στη Γερμανία: Κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης και ετοιμασία της Ευρώπης για πόλεμο με Ρωσία - Δηλώσεις Σολτς και Πιστόριους (vid) - WarNews247

Ο Υπουργός Άμυνας της Γερμανίας, Μπόρις Πιστόριους, και ο Γερμανός Καγκελάριος Όλαφ Σολτς αποκάλυψαν στη Bundestag πως η Ευρώπη πρέπει

warnews247.gr

 

[northern watch]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1735006169092051374

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1735006169092051374


RT: 0.38 minutes

 

[Plain Jane]

EU-China Summit Goes Nowhere And Frustrates Beijing's Plans | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

EU-China Summit Goes Nowhere And Frustrates Beijing's Plans​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, DEC 19, 2023 - 02:00 AM
Authored by Milton Ezrati via The Epoch Times,
China and the European Union (EU) recently held their first in-person summit since 2019. The tone in 2023 certainly points to the difference four years can make.



In place of the friendliness and calls for cooperation that emerged in 2019, recent meetings contained much tension and accusations. If Beijing had hoped to drive a wedge between Washington and Brussels at this summit, it failed. On the contrary, the meetings showed that Europe is pretty much in line with Washington’s approach to China.

Any memories of the earlier gathering reveal how much things have changed. Four years ago, the meetings, replete with smiling photo opportunities, produced a 3,000-word joint statement full of promises for Sino–European cooperation on matters like steel overcapacity. There was also talk of the joint development of 5G and efforts to ease tensions in the South and East China Seas.

In 2019, Brussels and Beijing both intoned support for the Minsk Accords to negotiate the differences between Russia and Ukraine and, more generally, to work together to secure human rights around the world, including in the Xinjiang region of China. Especially since just before the 2019 summit, the EU had designated China as a “systemic rival,” the friendly nature of that summit was taken as a strong signal of continued amity and cooperation.

Compared with the tone of this recent summit, the language from 2019 sounds as if it comes from a different world. This year had none of the smiling photo opportunities of all participants. The gathering was much smaller than in the past, consisting of only four key players: China's top leader, Xi Jinping, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, EU European Council President Charles Michel, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. While Xi referred to the EU as a “key partner” in trade and technological cooperation and asserted that the parties had no need to view each other as “rivals,” the Europeans pressed a considerable list of troubling economic and diplomatic issues.

Even before the meetings began, the EU had already sanctioned China over alleged abuses in Xinjiang and further announced an investigation into Beijing’s subsidies for electric vehicle production, something that could lead to the imposition of tariffs. Germany, the biggest economy in the EU by far, had moved toward expelling the Chinese company Huawei from its 5G network.

At the summit, Ms. von der Leyen dwelt on how Europe’s trade deficit with China has doubled in just the last two years to the equivalent of $400 billion. She blamed the flood of red ink on Beijing’s practices of limiting market access to foreign companies, giving preferential treatment to domestic operations, and, in some cases, how overcapacities in China have undercut European companies. She sounded almost a perfect echo of Washington’s complaints in 2018, when the Trump administration began to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, and still complains of today. Like Washington, she spoke of Europe’s need to de-emphasize China trade, though she used the word “de-risk,” whereas Washington used the word “de-couple.”

Rather than promote amity, the Europeans went beyond trade to more sensitive diplomatic matters. Both Mr. Michel and Ms. von der Leyen pressed Xi to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring a quick diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. They each warned of “irreparable damage to EU–China ties” should Beijing arm Russia in that conflict or help Russia evade sanctions. They brought up human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and warned the two Chinese leaders against using force with Taiwan. Xi spoke of cooperation between his Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Europe’s parallel plan, called Global Gateway. The Europeans remained cool, no doubt, because their plan was put into effect precisely as an alternative to China’s BRI.

If Beijing had hoped to blunt Washington’s strident approach to China by creating a friendlier Europe, it failed. The Europeans showed themselves as suspicious of Beijing’s ambitions as Washington. They echoed many of Washington's trade and investment complaints and accusations and used even stronger language about human rights and Taiwan. The summit failed to reveal Western division, as Beijing no doubt hoped it would, and instead produced an image of common Western hostility, if not unity.

 

[northern watch]

"Civil War" in the Turkish army: Wild incidents and clashes between Islamists and Kemalists​

Allegations of "Captains' Junta" in the Turkish army​

19/12/2023 - 23:08
War News 24 / 7



Fierce incidents and clashes in the ranks of the Turkish army seem to be increasing.

Now what until recently was categorically denied by political and military leadership in the neighboring country, due to the multitude of such events, they are now forced to admit publicly.

It began with the serious incidents between Kemalist and Islamist soldiers at the Infantry School of the Turkish armed forces.

After 1 month, ministers of the Erdogan government, as well as the pro-government press, were forced to admit that the incidents were true.

In fact, in order to maintain order, the military guard had to intervene.

According to SKAI correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostides, the reason was the refusal of military to... honor Kemal Atatürk, reigniting more than a century of conflict in Turkey.

Allegations of "Captains' Junta" in the army​

The Yeni Safak newspaper speaks of a "captains' junta" after tensions reportedly erupted inside the Turkish army's infantry school in the city of Tuzla, east of Istanbul.

The pro-government Turkish newspaper published on Tuesday conversations on the WhatsApp app of a group of young hardline Kemalist officers at the school, who allegedly operated in an orderly manner, lobbying and making threats against religious officers.

The opposition Kemalist press, for its part, speaks of the existence of Islamist cells at the school, controlled by religious brotherhoods, communicating with each other through a group they created on WhatsApp and gathering in houses on weekends.

Tensions at the Infantry School surfaced when the two groups clashed on the anniversary of Kemal Ataturk's death on November 10 because, according to reports, religious student captains of the school refused to pin a photograph of the founder of the Turkish Republic to the lapel, prompting Kemalist captains to turn against them.

Defense Minister Yasar Guler also addressed the issue on Saturday at a press conference for his ministry's annual report, saying one of the student officers did not wear the photo he should have on his lapel on the grounds that he "didn't have a pin" to put it on.

As he said, there was an argument and the case was referred to both the Justice and the Disciplinary Board. Administrators found responsible have also been suspended.

The newspaper Yeni Safak links the group of captains to the chairman of the Victory Party, Umit Ozdag, who from the first moment publicly supported the young officers with posts on social media.

An extreme nationalist, Ozdag had supported Kemal Kilicdaroglu's candidacy in the presidential elections and had imposed his position on the opposition candidate to expel all refugees and irregular migrants from the country.

«Εμφύλιος» στον τουρκικό στρατό: Άγρια επεισόδια και συμπλοκές μεταξύ ισλαμιστών και κεμαλιστών (vid) - WarNews247

Τα άγρια επεισόδια και οι συμπλοκές στις τάξεις του τουρκικού στρατού φαίνεται πως πληθαίνουν. Πλέον αυτό που μέχρι πρόσφατα αρνούνταν

warnews247.gr

 

[northern watch]

"Civil War" in the Turkish army: Wild incidents and clashes between Islamists and Kemalists​

Allegations of "Captains' Junta" in the Turkish army​

19/12/2023 - 23:08
War News 24 / 7



Fierce incidents and clashes in the ranks of the Turkish army seem to be increasing.

Now what until recently was categorically denied by political and military leadership in the neighboring country, due to the multitude of such events, they are now forced to admit publicly.

It began with the serious incidents between Kemalist and Islamist soldiers at the Infantry School of the Turkish armed forces.

After 1 month, ministers of the Erdogan government, as well as the pro-government press, were forced to admit that the incidents were true.

In fact, in order to maintain order, the military guard had to intervene.

According to SKAI correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostides, the reason was the refusal of military to... honor Kemal Atatürk, reigniting more than a century of conflict in Turkey.

Allegations of "Captains' Junta" in the army​

The Yeni Safak newspaper speaks of a "captains' junta" after tensions reportedly erupted inside the Turkish army's infantry school in the city of Tuzla, east of Istanbul.

The pro-government Turkish newspaper published on Tuesday conversations on the WhatsApp app of a group of young hardline Kemalist officers at the school, who allegedly operated in an orderly manner, lobbying and making threats against religious officers.

The opposition Kemalist press, for its part, speaks of the existence of Islamist cells at the school, controlled by religious brotherhoods, communicating with each other through a group they created on WhatsApp and gathering in houses on weekends.

Tensions at the Infantry School surfaced when the two groups clashed on the anniversary of Kemal Ataturk's death on November 10 because, according to reports, religious student captains of the school refused to pin a photograph of the founder of the Turkish Republic to the lapel, prompting Kemalist captains to turn against them.

Defense Minister Yasar Guler also addressed the issue on Saturday at a press conference for his ministry's annual report, saying one of the student officers did not wear the photo he should have on his lapel on the grounds that he "didn't have a pin" to put it on.

As he said, there was an argument and the case was referred to both the Justice and the Disciplinary Board. Administrators found responsible have also been suspended.

The newspaper Yeni Safak links the group of captains to the chairman of the Victory Party, Umit Ozdag, who from the first moment publicly supported the young officers with posts on social media.

An extreme nationalist, Ozdag had supported Kemal Kilicdaroglu's candidacy in the presidential elections and had imposed his position on the opposition candidate to expel all refugees and irregular migrants from the country.

«Εμφύλιος» στον τουρκικό στρατό: Άγρια επεισόδια και συμπλοκές μεταξύ ισλαμιστών και κεμαλιστών (vid) - WarNews247

Τα άγρια επεισόδια και οι συμπλοκές στις τάξεις του τουρκικού στρατού φαίνεται πως πληθαίνουν. Πλέον αυτό που μέχρι πρόσφατα αρνούνταν

warnews247.gr

If this is true, then in my opinion, it is a major development

 

[Plain Jane]

Looks like the French found a compromise on the immigration bill from post 17.

The French parliament approves a divisive immigration bill, prompting a heated debate

The French parliament has approved a divisive immigration bill intended to strengthen France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable.

apnews.com

The French parliament approves a divisive immigration bill, prompting a heated debate​

3 of 3 |
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen listens as French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin delivers a speech at the French National Assembly in Paris, Monday, dec. 11, 2023. A divisive migration bill that would speed up deportations reaches the lower house of French parliament. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Read More

Updated 4:29 AM EST, December 20, 2023

PARIS (AP) — The French parliament approved a divisive immigration bill intended to strengthen France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable, prompting a heated debate after the far-right decided to back the measure.

The bill passed the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, with a 349-186 vote late Tuesday. It had previously been voted by the Senate.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the text of the bill includes “useful, efficient provisions that were expected by our citizens.”

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who championed the bill, said the government wants “greater firmness against foreign offenders.”

“Who here can say that we must allow criminals, people on our land, who attacks us, attack our professors and who attack our police forces and who attack the youth on the cafe terraces, without reacting?” he said in a speech at the National Assembly.



The bill still needs to be officially enacted into law.

The vote comes after parliament members from French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist majority and the conservative party The Republicans found a compromise to allow the text to make its way through the complex legislative process.

Macron’s government doesn’t have a majority in parliament.

The conservatives, who pushed for a hard-line approach, said the compromise text features provisions to reduce the number of migrants coming to France, notably by limiting foreigners’ access to social benefits.

Many saw the negotiations as a sign of a shift to the right by Macron’s government.

Leftist politicians accused the centrists of pushing the law through with the support of the far-right.

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally group at the National Assembly, described the legislation as an ”ideological victory” for her party.

In response to criticism, Borne said there was enough votes from Macron’s centrist allies and from the conservatives for the bill to be approved without the backing of the National Rally.

Advocacy organizations have criticized the bill as a threat to the rights of migrants.

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

ALERT - Shooting reported at university in central Prague, Czech Republic. Multiple killed and injured.

Faytuks News Δ @Faytuks BREAKING: Shooting reported at university in central Prague, Czech Republic. Multiple killed and injured. View: https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1737847533265928285?s=20

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[Plain Jane]

"It's Like Martial Law" – Poland's Pro-EU Govt Seizes Public News Channels In Massive Police Raid | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

"It's Like Martial Law" – Poland's Pro-EU Govt Seizes Public News Channels In Massive Police Raid​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, DEC 22, 2023 - 05:00 AM
Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via ReMix News,
Poland’s public television news stations went off the air yesterday as police conducted massive raids to seize public news station TVP, with fears becoming realized that Prime Minister Donald Tusk would move quickly to crack down on press freedoms once he assumed power.


A group of senior Law and Justice (PiS) politicians, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, arrived at the headquarters of state-run TV broadcaster TVP on Wednesday afternoon as the new pro-EU government moved to seize control of state-run press in dramatic authoritarian fashion.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1737470199333351671

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1737470199333351671?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1737470199333351671%7Ctwgr%5E0f657ab8bb0183ad7fdc85f829e76a019970b609%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fits-martial-law-polands-pro-eu-govt-seizes-public-news-channels-massive-police-raid


Both Morawiecki and Kaczyński said the government’s decision to replace public media chiefs resembled a “coup d’état” and an illegal “takeover by force.”

Kaczyński told reporters that the Law and Justice (PiS) party stood in defense of democracy and a “pluralistic media.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1737586152578642224

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1737586152578642224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1737586152578642224%7Ctwgr%5E0f657ab8bb0183ad7fdc85f829e76a019970b609%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fits-martial-law-polands-pro-eu-govt-seizes-public-news-channels-massive-police-raid

PiS politicians compared the action to the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981 in the sense that the government then also shut down TV programs and dismissed scores of journalists.

There was outrage too at an incident in which a female MP from PiS was assaulted by one of the bodyguards who assisted the new chairman of the TVP Board in taking over an office at TVP.

Former Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek said that “this is the most brutal taking of power ever in the EU, with the government using force, assaulting MPs and shutting down media they do not like.”

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz told the left-liberal Gazeta Wyborcza paper that the protest “will achieve nothing.”

Earlier in the day, the government informed that the culture minister had relieved the CEOs of TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency (PAP) of their duties, and also dismissed the boards of directors of these outlets. Sienkiewicz has appointed new boards of directors for TVP, Polish Radio and PAP, which in turn have appointed new executive boards, the Ministry of Culture added in its statement.

It also said that the “necessity and justification” for the move flowed from Tuesday’s resolution by the Polish parliament, which called on the government to “restore the impartiality and credibility of public media.”

Protests continued outside TVP’s headquarters in Warsaw throughout Wednesday.



The journalists stopped from having their programs broadcast have been hosted by the independent channel TV Republika, and they are planning to start broadcasting from there starting Thursday.

(More tweets at the link)

 

[Plain Jane]

Spain's leader lauds mended relations with Catalonia. Separatists say it's time to vote on secession

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has visited Barcelona in an effort to show that his pledge to push through an amnesty for Catalonia’s separatists is paying dividends with the leaders of the politically restive region.

apnews.com

Spain’s leader lauds mended relations with Catalonia. Separatists say it’s time to vote on secession​

BY JOSEPH WILSON
Updated 10:26 AM EST, December 21, 2023
Share
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Barcelona on Thursday in an effort to show that his pledge to push through an amnesty for Catalonia’s separatists was paying dividends with the leaders of the politically restive region.

After meeting with Catalan regional president, Pere Aragonès, in the medieval palace housing Catalonia’s government, the two emerged with a handful of deals that Sánchez said would “affect the daily lives of Catalans.”

Sánchez has been harshly criticized by Spain’s conservative opposition for his decision to grant an amnesty that, once it is passed by Parliament next year, would sweep away the legal troubles of potentially hundreds of people involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid.

That amnesty deal was critical to Sánchez winning the parliamentary support of Catalan separatists parties that he needed to form a new government last month, following inconclusive national elections in July.

Sánchez underscored on Thursday how his policy for Catalonia since he took power in 2018 had greatly eased tensions between Madrid and Barcelona. He also focused on the “bread and butter” deals that he struck with Aragonès. They included a commitment to push for new tech industries in Catalonia, the transfer of the management of local rail services to the region, and a proposed bill to defend Spain’s minority languages such as the Catalan language.

“Catalonia must make up for lost time in order to face the huge challenges ahead,” Sánchez said, specifically mentioning the record drought Catalonia is suffering.

Aragonès instead put the accent on their agreement to meet again in the first three months of next year to specifically discuss the separatists’ long-held goal of holding an authorized referendum on self-determination.

“All of this is possible because the amnesty has opened up a new phase in the resolution of the political conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish state,” Aragonès said about his renewed push for a vote on independence.


Aragonès recognized that Sánchez’s position is a firm “No” to considering any ballot that could break Spain in two.

“What we need to do in the next four years is work toward an agreement to reinforce the self-government of Catalonia,” Sánchez had said in a separate press conference.

But, Aragonès noted, Sánchez had also said that the amnesty for the Catalans was impossible — until he needed to concede one to stay in power on a new four-year term.

The political leverage wielded by the Catalan separatists comes while their popular support appears to be waning. They performed poorly in the July elections while Sánchez’s Socialists won the most votes in northeast Catalonia, and the massive streets protests for independence common just a few years ago have shrunk as the movement’s leaders scuffle.

Prior to their meeting, both leaders attended the presentation of a new supercomputer, the MareNostrum 5, at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. For Sánchez that was another welcomed example of the normalization of institutional relations that were shattered by their predecessors.

*********

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WAR - Gunman who shot Spanish Right-wing politician in face may be linked to Iranian regime

Gunman who shot Spanish Right-wing politician in face may be linked to Iranian regime Police believe the shooting of Alejo Vidal-Quadras, 78, may have been an attempted assassination on the orders of Tehran MADRID (AP) — Veteran Spanish right-wing politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras was...

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[Plain Jane]

Armenia Considers Departure From Russia-Led Military Bloc | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Armenia Considers Departure From Russia-Led Military Bloc​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, DEC 26, 2023 - 05:35 AM
Authored by EurasiaNet's Arshaluis Mgdesyan via OilPrice.com,

• Armenia's dissatisfaction with the CSTO stems from the organization's inaction during Azerbaijani incursions and increased cooperation with the EU.
• The Armenian government explores various options, including Euro-integration and adopting a non-bloc status, amidst debates about expelling Russian military bases.
• Analysts suggest that Armenia's departure from the CSTO could be a logical outcome, potentially opening avenues for diverse defense and military-industrial collaborations with other countries.

Armenia's possible exit from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is being discussed more and more actively as differences grow between Yerevan and Moscow.



Many in Armenia are wondering what the point is of remaining in a military alliance that has demonstrated its unwillingness to protect the country.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly denied claims, including by Russian officials, of an imminent change in Armenia's foreign policy vector, but that has not stopped speculation as to how the country might leave the CSTO and what would come next. Representatives of the authorities are themselves musing about this prospect.

"There is of course the idea of Euro-integration in Armenia, but there is also the idea of becoming a country with non-bloc status, so there's a wide range of options. We are listening to civil society and trying to figure out what the best tools are for ensuring Armenia's security and development," Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said at a forum in Brussels on November 10 titled, The Strategic Future of Armenia: Armenia-Europe.

Fifteen Armenian public organizations recently released a statement criticizing Russia for, as they put it, interfering in Armenia's internal affairs. The statement demands that the Armenian government expel Russia's 102nd military base, ban Russian broadcast media, and begin the process of ending the country's membership in the CSTO.

Growing dissatisfaction with Russia​

The CSTO, which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Belarus, is one of the main causes of the growing Armenian resentment toward Russia.

The bloc, which is, theoretically, bound to come to the aid of a member state when it is attacked, took practically no action in September last year when Azerbaijani troops invaded border areas and took up positions on strategic heights inside Armenia.

Since then, Armenia's approach to the CSTO, and to Russia, has been increasingly confrontational. Yerevan has reduced its participation in the bloc to an absolute minimum. Over the past year, it has snubbed CSTO meetings at practically every level and has reassigned its representative in the organization to other work and left his post vacant.

At the same time, Armenia has welcomed more intensive cooperation with the EU, which at the start of this year deployed a civilian monitoring mission to the Azerbaijani border with the aim of supporting stability there.

This step elicited a sharply negative reaction from the Russian authorities, who claimed the mission's purpose was to "confront Russia geopolitically" in the South Caucasus region.

Such rhetoric from Moscow has done nothing to stop the growing cooperation between Yerevan and Brussels, including in the military sphere.

At the summit of EU foreign ministers on December 11, it was announced that the EU would review the possibility of rendering military aid to Armenia through the European Peace Fund.

It was also announced that the EU mission in Armenia would increase the number of its monitors from 138 to 209.


Another sore spot for Armenia is Russia's alleged failure to deliver weapons that Yerevan says it paid millions of dollars for.

The Armenian authorities have no plans to sue Russia and instead seek to solve the matter in an "atmosphere of partnership," Deputy Defence Minister Hrachya Sargsyan told a briefing on December 4.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently proposed resolving the dispute through Russia canceling part of Yerevan's overall debt to Moscow. That total debt amounts to about $280 million, according to the Armenian Finance Ministry's latest calculations. (Armenia has not released precise figures on how much money Russia owes it for undelivered weapons.)

Scenarios for leaving the CSTO​

Most of the analysts Eurasianet spoke to see Armenia exiting the CSTO as a logical possible outcome of the current strained relations between Armenia and Russia.

The head of the Research Center on Security Policy in Yerevan, Areg Kochinyan, says that Armenia could withdraw from the CSTO after approving a national security strategy that stipulates "non-bloc status" for the country. A new national security strategy is currently being drafted, and it's unknown now whether it will contain such a provision.

If the national security strategy were amended so, "It would mean that Armenia has decided not to participate in any military bloc or alliance and therefore it would have to leave the CSTO. But at the same time it would mean that the country would not seek to become part of any other collective defense bloc," Kochinyan told Eurasianet. "I think this position would be more acceptable for Russia and the other regional powers, Iran and Turkey."

Yerevan-based political analyst David Arutyunov doesn't find it difficult to imagine Armenia leaving the CSTO.

"In the context of the whole scope of Armenia's close relations with Russia, including in the economic sphere and the presence of the Russian military base here, leaving the CSTO is a relatively easy matter," Arutyunov told Eurasianet, adding that another crisis could provide the final impetus for quitting the bloc.

He said the Armenian authorities have deftly managed to achieve domestic political aims by directing public discontent over the country's security problems towards Russia and the CSTO.

"If something like the crisis of September 2022 happens again and causes internal political ructions in Armenia, it's possible that the Armenian government will resort to leaving the CSTO" in a bid to deflect criticism.

What might Armenia's "non-bloc status" mean? ​

Areg Kochinyan, of the Research Center on Security Policy, believes that a "non-bloc status" could open up opportunities for expanding Armenia's defense and military-industrial cooperation with various countries.

"We're talking not just about the West, but also other countries like India, that produce weapons. Armenia can enhance its relations with them even to the level of strategic partnership," he said.

David Arutyunov believes that it's too early to speak about any real prospect of Armenia being outside of any military-political alliances.

"For now all this talk is theoretical. There are no real discussions on realizing this in practice. And even so, the talk pertains to the CSTO specifically, while bilateral relations with Russia will remain in any case - alongside contacts with the West," Arutyunov said.

The head of the Armenian Institute for Resilience and Statecraft, Gevorg Melikyan, is doubtful that the Armenian authorities really intend to leave the CSTO and declare non-bloc status.

"I don't see any such clear policy or strategy. For now, it's a matter of the Armenian government's desire to make an impression on Western partners to extract some kind of security guarantees. Since there are none [such guarantees], the Armenian government will try to convince Western partners to treat Armenia like they would treat any other anti-Russian country and not accuse it of maintaining contacts with Russia in the security sphere because it remains in the CSTO," Melikyan told Eurasianet.

 

[northern watch]

War in Ukraine sparks German rethink on defense, security​

Frank Hofmann
DW
16 hours ago16 hours ago

From an initial pledge of 5,000 helmets for Ukrainian troops at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Germany is now delivering cutting-edge military technology — and will likely keep doing so in the new year.


Germany has become Ukraine's second biggest supplier of aidImage: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS/AFP

The experts agree: Armed conflict elsewhere will continue to shape life in Germany in the coming year. Questions of war and peace will influence more and more political decisions because, ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the possibility that Russia could attack NATO territory has grown more likely.

Take road construction — just one example among many, as political scientist Christian Mölling told DW. Roads and bridges in Germany, he said, would have to be upgraded because many current roadways and bridges are not designed to support the weight of tanks and other heavy military equipment.

Mölling, director of the Center for Security and Defense at the German Council on Foreign Relations, recently presented a report that rang alarm bells among Berlin's political elite. The report demonstrated that, in the worst case, NATO countries only have five years to rearm, or else the alliance would no longer have the military power to deter a potential Russian aggression.

Germany is having to rearm as a new geopolitical situation takes hold in EuropeImage: Martin Meissner/AP Photo/picture alliance

Germany entering a new era​

Germany is rapidly entering a new era. For three decades following the fall of the Iron Curtain, Germans trusted that the end of the Cold War had also banished the threat of a major armed conflict. Those days are over, now that Ukraine is experiencing war on its own soil.

Political considerations that Germany forgot after the fall of the Berlin Wall are now back on the agenda. "A comprehensive defense policy demands especially that civilian infrastructure and society itself be made resilient enough to withstand a war," said Mölling. That could lend military significance to the municipal planning of a new road bridge, especially if the bridge in question would play a strategic role in a war situation.

Mölling sees an opportunity in the looming effort. He argues that, to restore its overall defense, Germany must "suspend certain regulations for a period of time. In the paper we characterized it as: More investment, less regulation."

Germany's problem with the 'Zeitenwende'​

Yet people in Germany have a problem coping with the new realities. It has been nearly two years since Chancellor Olaf Scholz's historic speech in parliament announcing "a turning of the times," or "Zeitenwende," a term meant to underscore that military policy and Germany's defense capabilities had again become a priority, as they were when the Berlin Wall was still standing.

Most German security analysts and defense experts, including Mölling, have said Ukraine is defending the rest of Europe's freedom, and even more. If Russia defeats Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue to wage war and eventually attack NATO itself, they said.

Scholz's Zeitenwende speech to the Bundestag in 2022 requires more than just a military upgradeImage: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

But when they were asked about where Germany should cut spending in these times of nearly empty state coffers, 54% of Germans surveyed in an ARD-Deutschlandtrend poll replied aid for Ukraine. In another opinion poll, however, conducted by public broadcaster ZDF, more than 70% said Ukraine should continue to receive weapons, or even greater amounts of military equipment.

Mölling sees this contradiction reflected in government policy. "Many people, not least in Germany, fail to understand that in defense matters, you cannot push a button and then have tanks rolling off assembly lines the next day," he said.

"It simply takes a long, long time before these kinds of production capacities are established. Germany's government and governments across Europe can justifiably be accused of not having seen the signs of the times and begun producing much more," he added. "Not because Ukraine needs it, but because we do, too."

Preparing for Trump​

These realities have gained even more urgency when factoring in the possibility of a US presidential comeback for Donald Trump, who, some fear, could pull the US out of NATO altogether.

"We must prepare now," and not just once it happens, Moritz Schularick, director of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, told DW. The think tank publishes a "Ukraine Support Tracker" of international military and financial aid to Ukraine, a recent update of which showed that Germany is now the second-most important arms provider to Ukraine after the US.

Yet Germany's military production capacity has not risen significantly, as Mölling pointed out. "We are only plugging gaps. We have not begun to build up the production capacities we will need to meet the deadlines set down in our paper," he said.

This article was originally written in German.

War in Ukraine sparks German rethink on defense, security – DW – 12/27/2023

From an initial pledge of 5,000 helmets for Ukrainian troops at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Germany is now delivering cutting-edge military technology — and will likely keep doing so in the new year.

www.dw.com

 

[northern watch]

"It's Like Martial Law" – Poland's Pro-EU Govt Seizes Public News Channels In Massive Police Raid | ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

"It's Like Martial Law" – Poland's Pro-EU Govt Seizes Public News Channels In Massive Police Raid​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, DEC 22, 2023 - 05:00 AM
Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via ReMix News,
Poland’s public television news stations went off the air yesterday as police conducted massive raids to seize public news station TVP, with fears becoming realized that Prime Minister Donald Tusk would move quickly to crack down on press freedoms once he assumed power.


A group of senior Law and Justice (PiS) politicians, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, arrived at the headquarters of state-run TV broadcaster TVP on Wednesday afternoon as the new pro-EU government moved to seize control of state-run press in dramatic authoritarian fashion.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1737470199333351671

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1737470199333351671?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1737470199333351671%7Ctwgr%5E0f657ab8bb0183ad7fdc85f829e76a019970b609%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fits-martial-law-polands-pro-eu-govt-seizes-public-news-channels-massive-police-raid


Both Morawiecki and Kaczyński said the government’s decision to replace public media chiefs resembled a “coup d’état” and an illegal “takeover by force.”

Kaczyński told reporters that the Law and Justice (PiS) party stood in defense of democracy and a “pluralistic media.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1737586152578642224

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1737586152578642224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1737586152578642224%7Ctwgr%5E0f657ab8bb0183ad7fdc85f829e76a019970b609%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fits-martial-law-polands-pro-eu-govt-seizes-public-news-channels-massive-police-raid

PiS politicians compared the action to the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981 in the sense that the government then also shut down TV programs and dismissed scores of journalists.

There was outrage too at an incident in which a female MP from PiS was assaulted by one of the bodyguards who assisted the new chairman of the TVP Board in taking over an office at TVP.

Former Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek said that “this is the most brutal taking of power ever in the EU, with the government using force, assaulting MPs and shutting down media they do not like.”

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz told the left-liberal Gazeta Wyborcza paper that the protest “will achieve nothing.”

Earlier in the day, the government informed that the culture minister had relieved the CEOs of TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency (PAP) of their duties, and also dismissed the boards of directors of these outlets. Sienkiewicz has appointed new boards of directors for TVP, Polish Radio and PAP, which in turn have appointed new executive boards, the Ministry of Culture added in its statement.

It also said that the “necessity and justification” for the move flowed from Tuesday’s resolution by the Polish parliament, which called on the government to “restore the impartiality and credibility of public media.”

Protests continued outside TVP’s headquarters in Warsaw throughout Wednesday.



The journalists stopped from having their programs broadcast have been hosted by the independent channel TV Republika, and they are planning to start broadcasting from there starting Thursday.

(More tweets at the link)

"It's Like Martial Law" – Poland's Pro-EU Govt Seizes Public News Channels In Massive Police Raid​

Well that did not take long to happen​

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

Polish president tangles with new government in battle over control of state media​

Poland’s political battle over state media continues
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press
December 27, 2023, 8:27 AM

Poland's new Prime Minister Donald Tusk tells during a news conference that his pro-European Union government is urgently preparing a new spending bill to secure raises for teachers and re-dedicate some 3 billion zlotys ($762 million), originally meant for state media, to children's health, after President Andrzej Duda, allied with the opposition party, vetoed the previous bill that earmarked funds for state media, in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday Dec. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's political battle over state media continued on Wednesday as the new pro-European Union government put them in a state of liquidation in response to the president's rejection of funding for them.

New Prime Minister Donald Tusk seeks to free the media from political control. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous conservative government, vetoed the new government’s bill that provided 3 billion zlotys ($762 million) for the public media. Duda proposed a new bill that strips that funding out.

Liquidation gives the state TV, radio and news agency and their employees more protection from the political dispute, securing their jobs despite the lack of funding and allowing for restructuring. The new government said the lengthy liquidation process can be revoked as needed.

Poland's state-owned media have become the first battleground between the coalition government of Tusk, a former top EU figure, and the conservative Law and Justice party, which held power for eight years until December 13. Its members and allies retain a presence at state TV, radio and news agency headquarters.

Duda remains in office for another year and a half, and his veto is an early sign of difficulties Tusk is likely to face. Some observers say Law and Justice seeks to maintain control of state media and push its message ahead of local administration and European Parliament elections next year in hopes of regaining some power.

Tusk said his Cabinet would submit a new bill that takes Duda's views into consideration and shifts the funding in question from state media to children's health care. He also said untangling the former ruling party's grip on state media would take time.

“We are sure that our actions are in line with the law,” Tusk told a news conference.

Tusk won power on promises to restore national unity and democratic norms, including through the reform of public media. His government holds 248 seats in the 460-member lower house, or Sejm. Its next session is January 10-11.

Public media in Poland is funded by taxpayers and is required by the constitution to be free of political bias. But critics have accused Law and Justice of using media as a propaganda mouthpiece that has divided the nation by spreading disinformation, xenophobic and homophobic content and seeking to discredit Tusk and other pro-EU politicians.

Polish president tangles with new government in battle over control of state media

Poland’s political battle over state media continues

abcnews.go.com