Governments around the world are increasingly using social media to manipulate elections and monitor their citizens, in a worrisome trend for democracy, a human rights watchdog said on Tuesday.
An annual report on online freedom by the nonprofit group Freedom House found evidence of "advanced social media surveillance programs" in at least 40 of 65 countries analyzed.
The report said global internet freedom declined for a ninth consecutive year, as authorities in some countries simply cut off internet access as part of their manipulation efforts, while others employed propaganda armies to distort information on social platforms.
"Many governments are finding that on social media, propaganda works better than censorship," said Mike Abramowitz, president of Freedom House.
"Authoritarians and populists around the globe are exploiting both human nature and computer algorithms to conquer the ballot box, running roughshod over rules designed to ensure free and fair elections."
Disinformation was the most commonly used tactic to undermine elections, according to the group.
"Populists and far-right leaders have grown adept not only at creating viral disinformation, but also at harnessing networks that disseminate it," said the watchdog"s 2019 "Freedom on the Net" report.
The researchers said that in 47 out of the 65 countries, individuals were arrested for political, social, or religious speech online and people were subjected to physical violence for their online activities in at least 31 countries.
China remained the world"s worst abuser of internet freedom for the fourth consecutive year as the government stepped up information controls amid protests in Hong Kong and ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the report said.
Online freedom declined in 33 of the 65 countries assessed, including the United States, the survey found.
US freedom declines
In the US, "law enforcement and immigration agencies expanded their surveillance of the public, eschewing oversight, transparency, and accountability mechanisms that might restrain their actions," Freedom House said.
"Officials increasingly monitored social media platforms and conducted warrantless searches of travelers" electronic devices to glean information about constitutionally protected activities such as peaceful protests and critical reporting."
The report said disinformation was rampant in the US, focusing on the November 2018 midterm elections, and that "both domestic and foreign actors manipulated content for political purposes, undermining the democratic process and stoking divisions in American society."
Freedom House said governments are relying more on artificial intelligence to monitor and censor people online.
"Once reserved for the world"s most powerful intelligence agencies, big-data spying tools are making their way around the world," said Adrian Shahbaz, Freedom House"s research director for technology and democracy.
"Advances in AI are driving a booming, unregulated market for social media surveillance. Even in countries with considerable safeguards for fundamental freedoms, there are already reports of abuse."
The biggest declines in internet freedom were in Sudan and Kazakhstan, followed by Brazil, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe, the report said. Improvements were measured in 16 countries, with Ethiopia recording the largest gains.
Despite the grim outlook, Abramowitz cited some positive examples of technology spurring democratic change, including in Lebanon, where people "are rallying their fellow citizens" for reforms.
But the report also noted that some governments "restricted access to specific apps and platforms used by the opposition to mobilize, or resorted to shutting down the internet altogether."
source : news24
The relative said he had located the burned-out, bullet-ridden SUV containing the remains of his nephew’s wife and her four children — twin 6-month old babies and two other children aged 8 and 10.
Authorities in Sonora state and the U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mexico’s federal Department of Security and Citizens’ Protection said security forces were reinforced with National Guard, army and state police troops in the area following “the reports about disappearance and aggression against several people.” The troops were searching for the missing community members, believed to include 11 children or more.
Another relative, Julian LeBaron, said on his Facebook page the dead woman was Rhonita Maria LeBaron.
The first relative said a convoy of three vehicles had set out Monday from La Mora, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Douglas, Arizona, but was attacked by cartel gunmen in a possible case of mistaken identity by gunmen. Many of the church’s members were born in Mexico and thus have dual citizenship.
While he said he found the first vehicle, the other two SUVs were missing along with their passengers.
Jhon LeBaron, another relative, posted on his Facebook page that his aunt and another woman were dead, which could bring the death toll to at least seven. He also posted that six of his aunt’s children had been left abandoned but alive on a roadside.
It would not be the first time that members of the break-away church had been attacked in northern Mexico, where their forebears settled — often in Chihuahua state — decades ago.
In 2009, Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who was related to those killed in Monday’s attack, was murdered in 2009 in neighboring Chihuahua state.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
source : washingtonpost
McDonald"s fired CEO Steve Easterbrook after the fast food giant"s board of directors found that he "demonstrated poor judgment" in a consensual relationship with an employee, the company announced Sunday.
The board voted Friday to oust Easterbrook after a review, concluding that he violated a policy against manager relationships with direct or indirect reports, according to the company. Easterbrook has been replaced by Chris Kempczinski, previously the president of McDonald"s USA.
Easterbrook called his recent relationship with an employee "a mistake" in an email to McDonald"s employees.
"Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on," he wrote.
Desiree Moore, a Chicago-based lawyer acting as a spokeswoman for Easterbrook, said he is "deeply grateful for his time at McDonald"s."
"He acknowledges his error in judgment and supports the company"s decision," Moore said, adding that Easterbrook will be not be commenting further.
Details of Easterbrook"s severance package will be disclosed by Tuesday in a federal filing, the company said.
McDonald"s has not shared further details of the relationship that led to the firing.
Easterbrook, a former head of the company"s U.K. operations, is divorced, according to The Sunday Times.
He joins a growing list of chief executives forced out over relationships with employees as more companies implement rules against dating subordinates in the #MeToo era.
"We are seeing substantially more interest" in these policies, Jonathan Segal, a Philadelphia-based employment lawyer, told The Washington Post last year, after Intel"s chief executive stepped down for breaking his company"s rules with a consensual relationship.
"I"m seeing more companies ask about them," Segal said. "I"m seeing more companies add them to their anti-harassment policies. I"ve seen more companies look at them in their codes of conduct."
Easterbrook became CEO in 2015 as McDonald"s struggled to keep its customers. After the chain announced a drop in U.S. sales as well as a 33 percent dip in global profits in the first quarter of that year, he promised a plan to "better address today"s consumer needs, expectations and the competitive marketplace."
McDonald"s shares rose under Easterbrook"s leadership, and the company retains its spot at the top of U.S. fast food sales, even as the industry faces challenges. Last year, Easterbrook - who is also on the board of Walmart - received $15.9 million in pay.
Easterbrook pushed McDonald"s forward from a tough time, said Jonathan Maze, the editor of Restaurant Business. He improved sales - still on the upswing this year - and restructured the company, speeding up decision-making and cutting hundreds of millions in overhead costs, Maze said.
He also embraced technology in the form of in-store kiosks, online-order delivery and, in March, a $300 million start-up acquisition meant to speed up McDonald"s drive-through services.
"He"s been pretty consequential," said Maze, who considers Easterbrook"s firing as part of a trend of companies taking relationship policy violations "a lot more seriously" than they used to.
Kempczinski became head of McDonald"s USA in 2016. Easterbrook told staff members that Kempczinski was "an important partner to me over the last four years and . . . the ideal person to take on the role of CEO."
McDonald"s, too, praised Kempczinski"s contributions.
"Chris was instrumental in the development of the Company"s strategic plan, which has enabled global growth and leadership, and has overseen the most comprehensive transformation of the U.S. business in McDonald"s history," Enrique Hernandez, chairman of the chain"s board of directors, said in a statement.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kempczinski, said he will continue Easterbrook"s investments in technology and looks forward to discussing franchisees" concerns.
"There isn"t going to be some radical, strategic shift," he told The Journal on Sunday. "The plan is working
NEW DELHI/AYODHYA, India (Reuters) - India’s Supreme Court on Saturday awarded a bitterly disputed religious site to Hindus, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the bloodiest riots in the history of independent India.
The ruling in the dispute between Hindu and Muslim groups paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya, a proposal long supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party.
Representatives of the Muslim group involved in the case criticised the judgment as unfair and said it was likely to seek a review of the verdict.
In 1992 a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site, triggering riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across the country.
Court battles over the ownership of the site followed.
Jubilant Hindus, who have long campaigned for a temple to be built on the ruins of the mosque, set off fire crackers in celebration in Ayodhya.
Thousands of paramilitary force members and police were deployed in Ayodhya and other sensitive areas across India and there were no immediate reports of unrest.
“This verdict shouldn’t be seen as a win or loss for anybody,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.
“May peace and harmony prevail!”
Still, the verdict is likely to be viewed as win for the Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its backers.
It comes months after Modi’s government stripped the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region of its special status as a state, delivering on yet another election promise to its largely Hindu support base.
Neelanjan Sircar, an assistant professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi, said the court ruling would benefit the BJP, which won re-election in May, but a slowing economy would ultimately take centre stage for voters.
“In the short term, there will be a boost for the BJP,” said Sircar. “These things don’t work forever . Ram Temple isn’t going to put food on the table.”
Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and say the site was holy for Hindus long before the Muslim Mughals, India’s most prominent Islamic rulers, built the Babri mosque there in 1528.
The five-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, reached a unanimous judgment to hand over the plot of just 2.77 acres (1.1 hectares), or about the size of a soccer field, to the Hindu group.
The court also directed that another plot of 5 acres (2 hectare) in Ayodhya be provided to the Muslim group that contested the case.
Modi’s party hailed the ruling as a “milestone.”
“I welcome the court decision and appeal to all religious groups to accept the decision,” Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also president of the BJP, said on Twitter.
The Sunni Muslim group involved in the case said it would likely file a review petition, which could trigger another protracted legal battle.
“This is not a justice,” said the group’s lawyer, Zafaryab Jilani.
Muslim organisations appealed for calm.
The Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - the parent organisation of Modi’s party - had already decided against any celebrations to avoid provoking sectarian violence between India’s majority Hindus and Muslims, who constitute 14% of its 1.3 billion people.
Restrictions were placed on gatherings in some places and internet services were suspended. Elsewhere, police monitored social media to curb rumours.
Streets in Ayodhya were largely deserted and security personnel patrolled the main road to Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ayodhya residents were glued to their televisions and mobile phones for news of the ruling, which delighted Hindus when it came.
“Everyone should come together to ensure that the construction work begins at the site without any delay,” roadside vendor Jitan Singh said over the chants of “Jai Shri Ram” (hail Lord Ram)
from fellow shop-keepers.
source : reuters
North Korea has lashed out against “reckless military moves” by South Korea and the US after they opted to go ahead with a joint aerial drill amid deteriorating relations with Pyongyang over stalled nuclear diplomacy talks.
In a separate jibe, the North called Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, an “idiot and villain” who should not even dream of setting foot in Pyongyang after he criticised one of their recent weapons tests.
The US and South Korea have cancelled or scaled back their regular joint military exercises since talks over the North’s nuclear and weapons programme began in 2018.
Last year’s “Vigilant Ace” airforce drill was cancelled to allow diplomacy with Pyongyang some breathing space. However, the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that a flying event would proceed in December on a reduced scope.
"The most important thing to us in the Korean theatre is maintaining readiness, being ready to "fight tonight,"" said US Joint Staff Vice Director Navy Rear Admiral William Byrne.
"A year ago, we canceled the exercise Vigilant Ace, and that was based on the environment on the peninsula at the time. This year, we are conducting a combined flying event."
North Korea, which views any joint military ventures as a rehearsal for invasion, reacted with fury, warning that the exercise would amount to “throwing a wet blanket over the spark” of nuclear negotiations that are “on the verge of extinction.”
Kwon Jong Gun, a roving ambassador for the North, said on Thursday that its patience was nearing the limit and that North Korea “will never remain an onlooker” to “the reckless military moves.”
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has set an end-of-year deadline for Washington to make progress on denuclearisation talks.
Nuclear proliferation experts have warned that failure to do so could see a return to hostilities and a revival of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.
Diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington has not recovered from the failure of the Hanoi summit in February when Kim and Donald Trump, the US president, walked away with no deal.
An attempt to kickstart working level negotiations in early October also ended without any progress or agreement for a future meeting, although Mark Lambert, the US envoy for North Korea did meet this week for five minutes with a senior regime official at a Moscow conference, reported Yonhap.
Pyongyang reserved some of its ire on Thursday for Japan’s Prime Minister Abe after he criticised its test of a “super-large multiple rocket launcher” on October 31. Japan believes the test likely involved ballistic missiles that violated UN sanctions.
"Abe is an idiot and villain as he is making a fuss as if a nuclear bomb was dropped on the land of Japan, taking issue with the DPRK"s [North Korea’s] test-fire of super-large multiple rocket launchers," the North"s KCNA state news agency said.
The statement, attributed to Song Il Ho, the North Korean ambassador for ties with Japan, put paid to Mr Abe’s stated ambition to meet Kim.
"Abe would be well-advised not to dream forever of crossing the threshold of Pyongyang as he hurled a torrent of abuse at the just measures of the DPRK for self-defence,” said the statement, according to Reuters.
source : news.yahoo
ongress has long weighed sanctions as a tool to block the Nord Stream II gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Unfortunately, it has mulled the question too long, and time has run out. With some 85% of the pipeline already laid, new congressional sanctions aimed at companies participating in the pipeline’s construction will not stop it. Instead, they will become a new bone of contention between the United States and Europe.
There is a smarter way for Congress to proceed, one that could avoid a U.S.-Europe spat while ensuring significant gas flows continue to transit through pipelines in Ukraine.
The giant Russian Gazprom parastatal company currently moves a large amount of gas through Ukraine to destinations located further west in Europe. In 2018, the volume totaled 87 billion cubic meters (BCM), shipped under a contract that expires at the end of 2019.
The Ukrainians would like to negotiate a new long-term contract, ideally, for 10 years. Russian negotiators, however, have proposed an agreement that would last only one year, anticipating completion in 2020 of Nord Stream II and a separate pipeline to Turkey. The two new pipelines will have a combined capacity of about 71 BCM, meaning that they could take most of the gas that now traverses pipelines through Ukraine.
These new pipelines reflect a decision taken by Moscow more than a decade ago to find ways to get gas to Europe that circumvent Ukraine. The Russian government and Gazprom seek to eliminate Gazprom’s dependence on Ukrainian pipelines as well as to end the transit fees that last year generated $3 billion in revenue for Kyiv.
As Russia has reduced its dependence on Ukraine for transiting gas, Kyiv stopped importing gas directly from Russia for Ukrainian use in 2015, instead bringing gas in from Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. That gas fills about one-third of Ukraine’s needs, with domestic production satisfying the remainder.
The European Union has sought to facilitate agreement between Kyiv and Moscow on a new contract on gas transit. A deal so far has eluded negotiators, given the wide difference in proposals for a new contract’s duration and Russia’s unreasonable demand that Ukraine drop a $2.7 billion judgment it won against Gazprom.7
That all raises questions as to what happens on January 1, 2020. Some suspect that, if there is no agreed contract, Gazprom might nevertheless continue to ship gas west via Ukrainian pipelines, daring Kyiv to stop the flow and incur the wrath of those European countries that depend on that gas.
European Union officials have suggested a 10-year contract with a provision requiring that 60 BCM of gas be shipped each year via Ukraine. While making clear her support for Nord Stream II, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed support for Ukraine continuing to transit significant volumes of Russian gas.
Nord Stream II has concerned Congress, which fears the pipeline would deepen Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and would allow Gazprom to reduce the gas it ships via Ukraine, perhaps to a trickle. Committees in both houses of Congress have developed legislation to sanction companies involved in constructing the pipeline, particularly those owning the ships that are laying the pipes. However, given that the pipeline is almost complete and Congress has not yet passed the legislation, those sanctions could end up punishing European companies — but not actually stopping the pipeline.
It will prove difficult for Congress to make Europe cut its dependence on Russian gas. In any case, Nord Stream II is less about how much gas Europe buys from Russia than about how Russia ships that gas to European markets.
On the latter question, Congress could help protect gas transit through Ukraine. It could amend the legislation, perhaps by adding provisions to provide for waiving the Nord Stream II-related sanctions if a long-term gas transit contract were agreed on between Kyiv and Moscow, a contract that entailed a significant flow of gas through Ukraine. That would give EU negotiators and Merkel an additional incentive to broker an agreement sustaining significant gas transit revenues for Kyiv.
Clearly, Congress’s preferred solution is to block Nord Stream II. That now seems all but impossible. Congress still has a chance to facilitate a second-best outcome, one that would ensure that Ukraine could continue to take advantage of — and profit from — its position as a transit country for Russian gas while avoiding creation of a new area of disagreement with Europe. Congressshould amend its legislation accordingly.
source : brookings
The former First Lady and wife to ex-US President Barack Obama shared some images of herself meeting veterans and their families during her husband"s time in office. Veterans Day is national holiday in the US to honour military personnel who have served in the country’s armed forces. The caption with Michelle’s photos read: “Whenever I"m looking for a source of strength and courage, I think about our veterans and their families—they inspire me every day.
“On Veterans Day, let"s make sure we all give a little something back to those who have given so much to our nation.”
The former First Lady’s post gained a lot of attention from adorning fans.
Many praised Michelle and her work with veterans and their families during her time in the White House.
One person wrote on Twitter: “I love Michelle Obama, she truly cares about our military and their families.”
Another Twitter user posted: “You are an amazing woman in every sense of the word. We miss our Mom-in-Chief, not to mention the guy you brought with you to the White House.”
Robert D’Angelo tweeted: “Your words and deeds always inspire me to do better. More importantly, reminding us on this day always give thanks to our veterans for their bravery and service.”
Many used her post as a way to take a swipe at the Trump administration.
Mannig Lomis posted on social media: “You and your family brought so much good to our nation.
“It is so hard to grasp how much bad has replaced that. Our nation loves you and all you gave to us.”
Another Twitter user said: “Amazing what someone with true integrity and respect for Veterans can do on this day.
“They are barely even trying and yet set a much better example than teleprompter Trump.”
One Twitter user thanked Michelle for her “continued leadership and support” of the country.
The added: “We were so lucky to have the Obamas, we will never recover from the dumpster fire in office.”
Some Twitter users called for Michelle to run for President herself.
One person tweeted her saying: “Please please please run for pres one day! Love you so much Mrs President!”
Another wrote: “Please run for President and really make a difference for our vets and America. We really need you now!”
Myriam posted on twitter: “Please enter the Dem race.”
Despite the praise, Michelle’s post was also met with backlash.
One Twitter user replied to the former First Lady saying “no one cares what you think!”.
Another claimed her post was “baloney” and accused Michelle of really hating America.
Some also highlighted allegations from 2012 that Michelle complained about the length of time it took to fold a flag during a 9/11 memorial service.
One person wrote on Twitter: “Oh, you mean like when you said to your husband ‘all this for a damn flag’.”
Another added: “You literally were caught on camera saying ‘all this for a flag?’ Shut your face!
source : express.co
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The latest on the political crisis in Bolivia (all times local):
11:55 p.m.
The United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned about the situation in Bolivia, where Evo Morales resigned the presidency Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed election.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric says in a Spanish-language statement that Guterres “urges all relevant parties to refrain from violence, reduce tensions and exercise maximum restraint.”
Three Bolivians have been killed and more than 100 injured during clashes among opponents and supporters of Morales since the Oct. 20 election, which he claimed to have won.
The statement adds that Guterres urges Bolivians “to commit to seek a peaceful solution to the current crisis and to ensure transparent and credible elections.”
Morales resigned soon after the release of an Organization of American States audit that reported irregularities in the vote count.
___
10:40 p.m.
Bolivia’s Evo Morales claims authorities are seeking to arrest him now that he has given up the presidency under pressure after weeks of social unrest over the country’s disputed election.
But a police commander said Sunday night no warrant has been issued for Morales, whose whereabouts are unknown.
In a tweet, Morales said: “I report to the world and Bolivian people that a police officer publicly
The most significant hopes and gains unlocked by the Berlin Wall’s fall, which was 30 years ago Saturday, are all at risk.
They included a historic expansion of democracies and open markets, a wave of globalization that created the greatest prosperity and largest global middle class the world has ever seen, and the enlargement the European Union, to 28 from 12 members, and NATO, to 29 from 16 – deepening ties among the world’s leading democracies.
That all brought with it the hope of what then-President George H.W. Bush called in 1989 “A Europe Whole and Free,” in which Russia could find its proper and peaceful place. Bush went even further in September 1990, after the UN Security Council had blessed the U.S.-led coalition’s war to free Kuwait from Iraqi invasion, envisioning a New World Order, “an era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony.”
The idea had been hatched a month earlier by President Bush and General Brent Scowcroft, his national security adviser, while fishing near the president’s vacation home at Kennebunkport, Maine. They came home with three bluefish and an audacious vision that the Cold War’s end and the Persian Gulf Crisis presented a unique chance to build a global system against aggression “out of the collapse of the US-Soviet antagonisms,” in the words of General Scowcroft.
Reflecting on those heady days, Scowcroft recently told me that he felt everything he had worked for in his life was now at risk. If U.S. and European leaders don’t recover the common purpose they shared at that time – and there is yet little sign they will – this weekend’s Berlin Wall anniversary is more a moment for concern than celebration.
“Look at what is happening in the world,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a freshly published interview in the Economist. “Things that were unthinkable five years ago. To be wearing ourselves out over Brexit, to have Europe finding it so difficult to move forward, to have an American ally turning its back on us so quickly on strategic issues; nobody would have believed this possible.”
This weekend’s 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall provides a good moment to reflect on four reasons that event – one of freedom’s greatest historic triumphs – has failed to deliver on its full potential. Understanding that, might unlock a better path forward.
Another thirtieth anniversary this year, the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989, might have had even more lasting consequences.
The regime’s attack on the pro-democracy movement, at a time when the Communist Party could have chosen greater liberalization over repression, ensured that the most important rising power of this century would be increasingly authoritarian in nature.
The lesson Beijing took from the Cold War’s end was that the Soviet Union had failed because it had liberalized its economy too little and its politics too much – a fatal combination. Economic liberalization and a growing Chinese middle class failed to bring with it the Western-style democratic freedoms that some thought would follow.
That doesn’t mean a New World Order can’t still be built with Beijing, but it will take considerable vision and patience to knit the two most important countries of our times together simultaneously, as strategic competitors and collaborators.
There’s a lot of finger pointing still about “who lost Russia” after the Cold War, whether it was Westerners who didn’t offer enough of an embrace or Russians who missed the opportunity.
Wherever you stand in that debate, the U.S. and its European allies failed to appreciate the potential or staying power of Putin, who has made it his life’s purpose to redress what he considered the biggest disaster of the 20th century, Soviet collapse.
At the same time, the enlargement of the European Union and NATO left behind a “gray zone” of 14 countries like Ukraine that were no longer in the Soviet bloc or Warsaw Pact but hadn’t been integrated into Western institutions.
French leader Macron has argued that it would be a huge mistake not to work to find more common ground with Russia. The difficulty is how to do so without selling out the democratic, sovereign hopes of Russia’s neighbors.
Bill Emmott argues in Project Syndicate this week that the European Union’s biggest problem “is not Euroskepticism but indifference.”
He’s partially right: some 72% of French respondents in an opinion poll based on interviews with over 12,000 respondents across the 28 EU countries don’t think they would miss the EU as well as 67% of Italians and 60% of Germans.
That said, the EU also suffers from not having addressed design flaws that hobble it even as it has grown to its current size of 28 member states with 513 million citizens and a GDP of $18.756 trillion.
They include a monetary union without a fiscal union, immigration policies that allowed free movement inside the so-called Schengen Zone but too-porous external borders, and a failure to envision a world where the U.S. is losing interest, Russia remains a problem, and China is remaking global politics and economics.
Europe is “on the edge of a precipice,” Macron told the Economist. “If we don’t wake up … there’s a considerable risk that in the long run we will disappear geopolitically, or at least we will no longer be in control of our destiny. I believe that very deeply,” he stated.
The Berlin Wall’s fall in 1989 – taken together with Soviet collapse and the Cold War’s end – marked an inflection point of history for U.S. leadership globally that one can compare to 1919, the end of World War I, and 1945, the end of World War II, in its potential historic consequences.
U.S. and European leaders failed after 1919 to prevent the rise of European fascism, and then the Holocaust and World War II. The US got it more right than wrong in 1945 after World War II, creating the institutions and principles that paved the way for one of the world’s most sustained periods of relative peace and prosperity.
In his 1989 “A Europe Whole and Free”, President H.W. Bush underscored how “too many in the West, Americans and Europeans alike, seem[ed] to have forgotten the lessons of our common heritage and how the world we know came to be. And that should not be, and that cannot be.”
Thirty years later, the jury is still out on what the post-Cold War period will bring, but none of the post-Cold War presidencies – from President Bill Clinton to President Donald Trump – have yet recognized the stakes or laid out a strategy commensurate to the risks
source : cnbc
Colin Kaepernick will finally get a chance Saturday to show his stuff again to NFL teams — after nearly a three-year wait.
CAIRO (AP) — One Egyptian woman is taking on the country’s inheritance laws that mean female heirs inherit half that of men.
Since her father"s death last year, Huda Nasrallah, a Christian, has stood before three different judges to demand an equal share of the property left to her two brothers by their father. Yet courts have twice issued rulings against her, basing them on Islamic inheritance laws that favor male heirs.
Nasrallah, a 40-year-old Christian human rights lawyer, is now challenging the rulings in a higher court. A final verdict is expected to be handed down later this month. She has formulated her case around Christian doctrine which dictates that heirs, regardless of their , receive equal shares.
"It is not really about inheritance, my father did not leave us millions of Egyptian pounds," she said. "I have the right to ask to be treated equally as my brothers.”
Calls for equal inheritance rights began to reverberate across the Arab world after the Tunisian government had proposed a bill to this effect last year. Muslim feminists hailed the bill.
But there has been a blacklash from elsewhere in the Arab world. Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni religious institution in the Muslim world, vehemently dismissed the proposal as contradictory to Islamic law and destabilizing to Muslim societies. But there is hope that Tunisia could have broken the taboo on the topic for the region.
Nasrallah belongs to Egypt"s estimated ten million Coptic Christians, who live in a predominantly Muslim society governed by a constitution in which Islamic Shariah is the main source of legislation. Christians face restrictions in inter-religious marriages and church building, and are banned from proselytizing to Muslims.
Egypt’s legal system grants the Coptic church full authority over personal status matters of Copts, namely marriage and divorce. But the church does not have the same powers over its followers’ inheritance rights.
One of the oldest Christian communities in the world, the Egyptian Coptic church is also deeply conservative on social matters, banning divorce except in cases of adultery or conversion to Islam.
Nasrallah says she is making her case on religious grounds because she believes the court is more likely to respect existing structures within the society. She says she is trying to capitalize on a rare Christian doctrine that respects gender equality.
Karima Kamal, a Coptic female columnist at the privately-owned al-Masry al-Youm daily, says that Nasrallah"s case highlights the double discrimination that Coptic women can face in a society where religion is printed on government-issued identification cards.
"You should not implement the rules of one faith on people of another faith," she says.
In early December 2018, Nasrallah"s father, a former state clerk, died, leaving behind a four-story apartment building in a Cairo low-income neighborhood and a bank deposit. When she and her brothers filed their request for inheritance at a local court, Nasrallah invoked a church-sanctioned Coptic bylaw that calls for equal distribution of inheritance. She says she was encouraged by a 2016 ruling that a Cairo court handed down in favor of a Coptic woman who challenged Islamic inheritance laws.
Nasrallah"s brothers also testified that they would like their father"s inheritance to be divided fairly between them, but the court has twice ignored their testimony.
Many Coptic men prefer to benefit from the Islamic laws, Nasrallah said, using the excuse that it"s out of their hands.
“The issue of inheritance goes beyond religious rules. It has to do with the nature of the society we are living in and Egypt’s misogynistic judicial system,” said Hind Ahmed Zaki, a political science assistant professor with Connecticut University.
She says the state fears that if they grant equal property rights to Christian women, Muslim women will soon ask for the same.
Girgis Bebawy, a Coptic lawyer, has represented dozens of Copts in similar cases over the last two years, though he has yet to win a single one. He"s hoping that the latest case, which is currently before Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, could end differently.
"It"s religious intolerance," he says.
Many Coptic families decide to settle inheritance matters outside the legal system, but Nasrallah says that as a lawyer, she hopes her case could set a precedent for others.
source : news.yahoo
As investors await further developments in U.S.-China trade deal, an economics expert told CNBC Wednesday that the signing of a phase one trade deal between won’t be a real victory for either side.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe,” Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at London School of Economics, described the phase one agreement as a “face deal” that would allow both sides to say they’ve made some progress.
“It’s kind of a big gift for President Trump because we’ve seen the stock markets really,” she said. “But the phase one deal’s really about the resolvable negotiable stuff in the first place — the more difficult non-negotiable items are put back, delayed, and we don’t really know what’s going to come out of that. So unless old tariffs can be rolled back for China it can’t really be seen as avictory for them, or much for the U.S. because the more intractable problems are still there.”
She added that even some of the more difficult issues that had been negotiated in the deal — like those surrounding intellectual property and the opening up of Chinese markets — didn’t mark a huge breakthrough.
“That’s what the Chinese want to do anyway, it’s consistent with their longer-term goals,” Jin explained. “There’s so much of a focus on technology and innovation these days coming from the government, coming from the private sector, (intellectual property) protection is absolutely critical.”
According to Jin, however, even if China agrees to make concessions around certain laws or regulations, it may still take a while for tangible change to be delivered.
“There’s a difference between what’s written in the law and actual enforcement. Lots of things are written in the law, the legal system is quite comprehensive, the patent protection mechanism is there, it’s really about enforcement,” she said.
“Enforcement is tricky because it involves a lot of local government, local private firms, that the central government doesn’t have a complete control over. They are taking substantive steps to make sure that enforcement will also take place, but that will take time,” Jin added.
“If we’re talking about wanting the Chinese to change their developed model, reducing the state influence, I think that’s more of a no-go area. And by the way, it’s a false dichotomy to separate the state and the private — they are collaborating, merging, working together on all fronts and that is not going to change.”
Investors around the world have been eagerly awaiting the signing of a trade agreement since Trump said in October that the U.S. had come to a “very substantial phase one deal” with China.
While markets have experienced volatility on the back of news related to the deal, sentiment has been lifted in recent days. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. and China were in the “final throes” of negotiations, while China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that both sides had discussed “resolving core issues” on Tuesday.
Some analysts weighing in on the phase one deal have agreed with Jin that the signing of the deal would largely be a political win.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Friday, Stephen Roach, senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, slammed the deal as “hollow” and “flawed,” adding that it was “politically expedient” and would fail to address the structural issues that sparked the trade conflict.
“China has politics the same as the U.S. has politics,” Steve Okun, senior advisor at consultancy McLarty Associates, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday. “Xi has to worry about his internal politics, he has to worry about his standing within the party.”
Lu Yu of Allianz Global Investors also told CNBC recently that the phase one deal would not be a significant breakthrough in the conflict, describing it as simply a “pause” in the trade war, while former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told CNBC earlier this month the deal would not mark the beginning of “some kind of economic nirvana.”
Others, however, have been more optimistic on the economic implications of a preliminary deal being finalized.
King Lip of Baker Avenue Asset Management told CNBC he was optimistic the phase one deal would be “a positive for both sides” economically.
CLEVELAND - Questions about whether an Ohio mayor intervened on behalf of his grandson in the hours after a fatal shooting have prompted the victim’s mother to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the mayor and the city’s police chief.
Andrea Parra sued Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams earlier this month in state court. The lawsuit said the two suspects in the slaying of 30-year-old Antonio Parra this summer were members of a gang connected to Jackson’s 22-year-old grandson, Frank Q. Jackson.
A county prosecutor has said Frank Q. Jackson is a suspect in the slaying.
According to the complaint, Antonio Parra called his mother Aug. 28 to say he had been hired at a popular Cleveland restaurant. Andrea Parra saw the job as an important step in her son getting his life in order after years of scrapes with the law.
Later that day, Antonio Parra was shot multiple times by two men wearing black hooded sweatshirts as he stood on a sidewalk. Andrea Parra’s attorney, Peter Patta, said it appears Antonio Parra was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I know from the bottom of my heart that he wasn’t caught up in any gang activity,” Andrea Parra said in a statement.
The lawsuit, citing media reports, said the assailants drove off in a car registered to Frank Q. Jackson. Officers went to the mayor’s home after the slaying where they questioned and arrested a juvenile. The mayor told officers his grandson would not answer questions and asked them to turn off their body cameras, the lawsuit said.
An attorney for Frank Q. Jackson told detectives the next day that his client would not answer questions, the lawsuit said.
Good morning. European markets are tipped to open the month in the green following better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing results for November which gave Asian stocks a boost overnight.
The Caixin manufacturing survey for November came in at 51.8, its best reading since January 2017.
Meanwhile, the pound tread water over the weekend to stay above $1.292 despite polls predicting that the gap between the Labour Party and the Conservatives is narrowing as the general election nears.
1) High-Speed 2 officials are ploughing ahead with preparations for a £270m station in Birmingham despite the cloud hanging over the future of the rail link. Read why here
2) There have been few elections where the voice of business has seemed so peripheral. It feels as if the needs and interests of UK companies both large and small have been largely ignored by all of the major political parties. Starting today, we begin an eight part series featuring the voice of business from all of the UK"s regions and spanning all of the nation"s biggest industries. Today, Lucy Burton tests the temperature in the City of London.
3) The Lib Dems want to take a leaf out of California’s book and legalise cannabis. But can it work in Britain? Tech reporter Laurence Dodds looks at what we can learn from the Americans.
4) Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal has given a temporary lift to the nation’s manufacturers but the sector is still facing an “uphill battle” next year, industry body Make UK has warned. Here’s why
5) A fleet of electric scooters and bikes backed by Ford is preparing to take to the streets in a dozen European cities in the latest phase of the car maker’s survival plan for the Uber era.
Financial markets started December with a risk-on mood in Asia following a better-than-expected reading on Chinese manufacturing that added to evidence the global economy is turning a corner.
Japanese stocks led equity gains across the region, while S&P 500 Index futures edged up. Ten-year Treasury yields climbed to 1.81pc, and their Japanese counterparts ticked up closer toward zero.
Sentiment could still be kept somewhat in check by the continuing lack of closure on a US-China trade deal. China’s Global Times underscored that its government wants tariffs to be rolled back as part of “phase one.”
The so-called official China manufacturing purchasing-manager index exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey, and suggested an acceleration in activity in November. A private gauge released Monday also showed an increase.
v The reporting wind-down heading into the Christmas period continues this week, but there are still a handful of interesting companies reporting.
source : https://news.yahoo.com/markets-live-latest-news-pound-072758084.html
LEEDS, England — The campaign office is deliberately inconspicuous — tucked above a salon through an unmarked doorway in a 1970s-era shopping center. There are no campaign posters in the windows. Two cameras are trained on the entrance. The door frame was recently reinforced.
They are necessary precautions, said Rachel Reeves, the Labour candidate who has represented this area of Leeds in Parliament since 2010 and uses the space as both her constituency office and now as her campaign headquarters.
The death threats, abuse on social media and graffiti calling for “traitor” lawmakers to be hanged have changed her approach ahead of Britain’s upcoming general election.This is the new reality, she and other lawmakers say, in a campaign environment that has become remarkably nasty, particularly for women, who face a torrent of abuse and threats often laced with misogyny. And it is happening across the political spectrum.
“I do think it’s a very different atmosphere and environment now compared to the first two times I stood,” Ms. Reeves said. “People are a lot angrier and there’s a lot more polarization, particularly around the Brexit issue.”
source : https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/world/europe/britain-election-women-threats.html
سوالات آيين نامه رانندگي در هر کشوري تفاوت هاي بسيار زيادي دارد .
براي مثال رانندگي در کشور ايران با رانندگي در تمام کشور هاي ديگر متفاوت است . بياييد يک مثال بزنيم .
هزينه جريمه رانندگي در کشور ( آمريکا _ کنادا _ استراليا ) و مقايسه با جريمه رانندگي در کشور ايران .
در آمريکا :
در کشور آمريکا براي مثال اگر شما بخواهيد سرعت زياد را تجربه کنيد , علاوه بر اينکه خودروي شما توقيف ميشود , جريمه بسيار سنگيني براي شما ثبت ميشود که البته بايد جريمه ها را در دادگاه توجيه و پرداخت کنيد , پس اگر اهل سرعت بسيار زياد و لايي کشي هستيد به فيلم هاي هاليودي نگاه نکنيد چون اصلا و ابدا در آمريکا جاي ويراژ دادن نيست .
اگر خودروي شما در آمريکا دچار نقص فني باشد براي مثال روغن ريزي داشته باشد و ندانيد و در حين حرکت روغن خودروي شما بر روي زمين بريزد از همان لحظه بايد بدانيد که حقوق يک ماه خود را به زودي از دست خواهيد داد زيرا جريمه به شدت سنگيني دارد مثلا يک چيز حدود 3000 دلار .
زياده نه ؟ حالا برويم به سراغ جريمه رانندگي در کشور کانادا : در کشور بزرگ کانادا جريمه و هزينه آن دقيقا مانند آمريکا بسيار سنگين است فکر کنم حالا بتوانيد متوجه شويد که چرا انقدر رانندگي با نظمي دارند
حالا بياييد برويم به سراغ جريمه هاي ديگر , براي مثال اگر شما در حين رانندگي زباله اي بيرون بياندازيد و يا با سرعت بالا حرکت کنيد و يا بدتر از همه حرکات بسيار خطرناک با خودرو انجام دهيد علاه بر خوابيدن خودرو شما به مدت 30 روز خود شما هم به مدت 10 روز به زندان ايالتي رفته و جريمه اي برابر با 2000 دلار را تجربه خواهيد کرد .
رانندگي در کشور استراليا :
جريمه رانندگي در استراليا به اين صورت است که اول اصلا بگذاريد بگوييم که آيا رانندگي در هر ايالت متفاوت است و يا خير ؟
بله پس اگر اين سوال را شنيده ايد درست حدس زده ايد , در ابتدا بايد بگوييم اگر ميخواهيد به سوالات آيين نامه رانندگي را دانلود کنيد بايد بگويم امکانش را براي شما فراهم کرده ايم .
در کشور استراليا رانندگي و گواهينامه رانندگي در هر ايالت به بسيار متفائت است که براي دانستن اين اطلاعات پيشنهاد ميدهم به لينک بالا رجوع کنيد .
پس تا الان متوجه شده ايد که جريمه رانندگي در کشور ايران بسيار پايين تر از تمام کشور هاست , کاش که ميشد به جاي گران شدن بنزين , جريمه هاي رانندگي گرانتر ميشد تا ديگر کسي رانندگي پرخالشگرانه را در خيابان هاي ايران انجام ندهد .
متاسفانه رانندگي در ايران بسيار بي نظم است زيرا جريمه هاي رانندگي اصلا سنگين نيستند .
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