The news that matter in Europe
The news that matter in Europe
The European Union on Saturday welcomed the announcement of the agreement to normalize relations between Sudan and Israel.
“This is a positive development that should contribute to the stabilization and the prosperity of the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea regions,” its spokesperson said in a statement.
Besides BCL and JCD, members of Islami Shasantantra Andolan and Ahle Hadis demonstrated on the campus in Dhaka demanding the accused student’s expulsion on Saturday.
They took out a procession and organised a human-chain demonstration called by Jagannath University Islamic Society, which came into being during similar protests against alleged defamation of Islam on social media by another student in April last year.
Al Imran Babu, who is heading the Society, said even members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Tabligh Jamaat and followers of Charmonoai Peer joined the demonstration along with general students.
Shahbaz Hossain, a BCL leader of the unit, said some activists of the organisation joined the demonstration because general students were enraged by the “Facebook post of the accused student”.
Another BCL leader, Syed Shakil, said they would announce fresh protests soon although there was no instruction on the issue from the central leadership.
Speaking to bdnews24.com, JCD leader Shahadat Hossain demanded legal action against the accused student and her expulsion.
bdnews24.com could not contact the student, who was a member of Bangladesh Council to Protect General Students’ Rights, a platform that spearheaded the anti-quota movement.
The organisation has suspended her and asked for her explanation within a week, said its leader Mahmudul Hasan Mishu.
Proctor Mostafa Kamal said they would discuss the issue at a meeting on Tuesday.
Pallabi Police Station OC Wazed Ali said the student filed a general diary alleging that her Facebook account had been hacked and the perpetrators had uploaded the post that stirred the protests.
“We will send the case to the cybercrime department on Sunday,” he said.
Express News Service
Postage stamps, letter boxes, old post offices… in fact, anything connected with the mail tells a story of its own. They tell you tales ranging from politics, history, technology, biography, genealogy, economics, geography, disaster and triumph.
Anil Dhir’s The Last Post is an ode to the romance of the post office tinged with nostalgia. He brings to us the human side of the thousands of people who have lived and worked within the system.
Our tradition of ‘mail-running’ dates back to the 15th century, when the Mughals ruled most of India. Down the ages, the job of a mail-runner was a risky one, and the ‘hirkara’, as he was called, had to protect life and limb with a staff, spear and bell.
At the hour of cow-dust, these khaki-clad runners assisted by torchbearers went through valleys, hills and forests accompanied by dug-dugiwallahs to chase away wild animals. So infested was the countryside with predators that the roads were almost impassable. ‘Day after day, for nearly a fortnight, some of the dak-people were carried off at one or the other passes.’
Today, in our cities perhaps, we take the postman for granted. It’s a courier’s world, zooming from house to house, on two-wheelers making deliveries. Elsewhere, without fuss, our man of letters continues to deliver mail to 90 percent of the countryside, just as he did a 100 years ago, when mail running was fraught with risks.
Record books have it that in the early days of our hill stations, mail totalled less than a 100 articles a week, which in June 1935 peaked to 1,31,562 articles: all managed by one post master and his two able assistants. An old colonel got a new orderly, whom he instructed to drop the mail ‘into the hole in the red box’ at the post office.
This the orderly did with regularity. Six weeks passed and urgent official letters remained unanswered, the colonel grew anxious. He dragged the servant by the ear (I believe you could do that in those days!) and that is how the twain arrived at the post office.
Adjoining the office was the post master’s drawing room—neat, clean, and with a fireplace three quarters draped in the summer months with a plush red curtain. Of course the letters had been posted, there they lay, behind the curtains—all 17 of them behind ‘the hole’.
I guess it’s about time for the post offices to reinvent themselves. Till they do so, they will hardly be capable of withstanding the new challenges thrown up by courier companies, mobiles, SMS and WhatsApp and email.
A good read for those who love history.
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<a href="/topic/meat" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/topic/meat" data-vars-event-id="c23">Meat</a>-free and plant-based products can still be labelled “sausages” or “burgers”, the European Parliament has ruled.
So-called veggie burgers, soy steaks and vegan sausages can <a href="/go/london/restaurants/vegan-hot-dog-bleeding-burger-moving-mountains-a4136821.html" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/go/london/restaurants/vegan-hot-dog-bleeding-burger-moving-mountains-a4136821.html" data-vars-event-id="c23" rel="nofollow">continue to be sold as such</a><a> </a> in restaurants and shops across the <a href="/topic/european-union" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/topic/european-union" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Union</a>, despite lobbying from farmers.
Europe’s largest farmers’ association, Copa-Cogeca, had supported a ban, arguing that labelling vegetarian substitutes with designations that brought meat to mind was misleading for consumers.
But a group of 13 organisations – including <a href="/topic/greenpeace" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/topic/greenpeace" data-vars-event-id="c23">Greenpeace</a> and <a href="/topic/wwf" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/topic/wwf" data-vars-event-id="c23">WWF</a> – urged the politicians to reject the proposed amendments, arguing that a ban would have not only exposed the <a href="/topic/eu" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/topic/eu" data-vars-event-id="c23">EU</a> “to ridicule”, but also damaged its environmental credibility.
They said promoting a shift towards a more plant-based diet is in line with the EU Commission’s ambition <a href="/news/world/hottest-year-on-record-2019-global-warming-report-a4420721.html" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4572829-/news/world/hottest-year-on-record-2019-global-warming-report-a4420721.html" data-vars-event-id="c23" rel="nofollow">to tackle global warming</a><a> </a>.
Not being able to use familiar terms like steak and sausages could make the product more obscure to customers, it was argued.
<aside class="inline-block inline-related item-count-5 align-right"><h2 class="box-title">Read more</h2>
</aside>After the vote, the Swedish EU lawmaker Jytte Guteland said: "I'm going to celebrate with a vegan burger."
The European Consumer Organisation, an umbrella group bringing together consumers’ associations, praised the MEPs for their “common sense”.
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“Consumers are in no way confused by a soy steak or chickpea-based sausage, so long as it is clearly labelled as vegetarian or vegan,” the group said in a statement.
“Terms such as ‘burger’ or ‘steak’ on plant-based items simply make it much easier for consumers to know how to integrate these products within a meal.”
Together with Greenpeace, the group regretted that politicians accepted further restrictions on the naming of alternative products containing no dairy.
Terms like “almond milk” and “soy yoghurt” are already banned in <a class="wpil_keyword_link " href="https://www.europeantimes.news" title="Europe" data-wpil-keyword-link="linked">Europe</a> after the bloc’s top court ruled in 2017 that purely plant-based products cannot be marketed using terms such as milk, butter or cheese, which are reserved for animal products.
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EU environment ministers on Friday adopted a biodiversity strategy aimed at protecting ecosystems, a move deemed essential to tackling climate change and reducing the risk of future pandemics.
Meeting in Luxembourg, the 27 national ministers backed the EU Commission’s strategy of placing at least 30 percent of the EU’s land maritime areas under special protection.
The European governments now expect the EU commission — the bloc’s executive arm — to integrate the biodiversity policy objectives in relevant future legislative proposals.
A Monday report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) warned that more than 80 percent of the European Union’s natural habitats were in poor or bad condition.
The European Parliament also easily passed a massive farm subsidy bill on Friday, to the fury of environmental activists who say it fell well short of EU commitments to fight climate change.
“It’s five minutes to midnight on the climate emergency clock, but our governments are stalling,” said Greenpeace EU climate policy adviser Sebastian Mang. “Meanwhile, the gas industry, the industrial farming lobby, airlines and carmakers are shooting holes in the EU Green Deal, and our chance of a safe climate for people and nature is fading.”
Back in 2016, German Chancellor Angela Merkel greeted Donald Trump’s victory with an extraordinary warning: that she would work with the US president on the condition that he respect democratic values. Things did not improve from there.
Four years later, Trump’s abrasive foreign policy moves, often unveiled in all-caps tweets, have alienated not just Germany but much of Europe.
“The transatlantic relationship is practically on life support,” said Sudha David-Wilp, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Even if Democratic challenger Joe Biden wins the November 3 election, experts said there will be no magical healing of the EU-US rift.
Recent surveys by the Pew Research Center found that America’s image among Europeans has plummeted to record lows, with just 26 percent of Germans now holding a favourable view of the superpower.
From pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal to slapping tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, and defanging the World Trade Organization, Trump has dealt blow after blow to multilateralism, a much-valued European approach to global challenges.
He stunned allies by describing the European Union as a foe on trade, and “scared people” by cosying up to Russia, said Bruce Stokes, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a British think-tank.
Trump also regularly targeted European allies its failure to meet Nato’s defence spending targets.
Should Biden win, he “will see the need to revitalise relationships with allies,” said David-Wilp.
Expect the former vice president to make a trip to Europe early on, rejoin the climate pact and restart nuclear talks with Iran, experts say. But areas of friction will remain on military spending, Nord Stream 2, and Washington’s campaign against Chinese tech giant Huawei.
Faced with a Covid-19 battered economy, Biden will probably eschew Trump’s more protectionist tendencies but some sort of “America First” vision for sensitive industries will likely live on.
Should Trump be reelected, expect “a great sucking in of breath” across European capitals, Stokes said, and “another four years of a very rocky ride”.
But even under Trump 2.0, it is “entirely possible” for the US and EU to form a united front when it’s in their self-interest on issues such as the coronavirus or China policy, Stokes said.
Peter Beyer, Merkel’s transatlantic coordinator, recently told AFP that a “new Cold War” between Washington and Beijing had already begun, and that Europe should “stand shoulder-to-shoulder” with the US to face a rising China.
An unintended side effect of the Trump turbulence has been the growing realisation that Europe must speak and act more as one.
The bloc’s successful negotiation of a huge coronavirus stimulus package, spearheaded, suggests a new impetus for closer cooperation and a reinvigorated German-Franco partnership.
There are plenty of obstacles ahead for the 27-member club with its disparate interests.
“But if one wants to say the glass is half-full, the Trump presidency may have helped accelerate European unity,” Stokes said.
Urban farmer Rachel Rubenstein thinks the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down major cities, state and international borders, is a chance to rethink where we get our food from.
Local car parks, median strips and rooftops, golf courses and even public parks — they’re just some of the ideas she and her city farming friends are throwing around as potential places to grow food.
“I think that having food grown close to home is super important, because we have seen a lack of access to fresh food with the bushfires and then COVID,” Ms Rubenstein said.
In Melbourne’s inner-northern suburb of East Brunswick, she’s growing fresh organic produce such as carrots, radishes, spinach, broccoli, and citrus for Ceres — a not-for-profit community-run environment park and farm.
Ceres has seen demand for its food boxes double since the pandemic began, as lockdowns forced people to shop more locally than ever before.
“Everything that I grow here on the farm is harvested straight away and goes straight to the grocery and the cafe on site,” Ms Rubenstein said.
“Just seeing how much I can grow in 250 square metres says something about how we can utilise space better in the city.”
Ceres grows vegetables across two sites in the inner city, but it’s not enough to fill demand with produce sourced from elsewhere to help fill the gap.
Farms like this are a rare sight in Australian cities, with space a major constraint.
Calls to take existing green spaces, such as public parks and golf courses, and adapt them to support things like agriculture are growing in urban centres.
Nick Verginis recently started a social media group called ‘Community to Unlock Northcote Golf Course’ in a bid to get his local fairway converted into a public park with possible room for agriculture too.
The golf club is across the river from Ceres.
“In lockdown people have been really hungry to get in touch with nature, using whatever space they have on their balconies or in their small gardens to grow their own produce,” he said.
“This [fairway] obviously would be a natural place to expand that [farm], so some local residents could have access to a plot of land.”
Converting sections of green spaces into farmland to create a local food bowl is already a reality in Western Sydney Parklands in New South Wales.
Five per cent of the 264-hectare park has been set aside for urban agriculture and 16 farms are already operating on it, selling at the farmgate or across Sydney.
Western Sydney Parklands is one of the largest urban parks in Australia — almost the same size as Sydney Harbour — and is one of the biggest urban farming projects in the country.
Sun Fresh Farms, run by Meng Sun and her mother Thou Chheav, has been leasing land off the Parkland for nine years to grow cucumbers, strawberries, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and broad beans.
Ms Sun said, even before the pandemic, the popularity of sourcing food from peri-urban farms like her family’s was taking off.
“All the locals come out on the weekends. It’s providing food for the local community and also it gives them a better understanding of where food and vegetables come from,” she said.
Unlike produce sold at larger supermarkets that was often picked before it ripened, Ms Sun said being able to buy fresh vine-ripe produce appealed to customers.
“We like to pick fresh and sell direct to the customers. Cut the middleman out so there’s not much heavy lifting involved, it is just straight to the farm gate,” she said.
Suellen Fitzgerald, the chief executive of Greater Sydney Parklands, said they were currently accepting applications for new farming projects so that the precinct could expand its food production.
“Many of our farmers have roadside stalls and during the pandemic have reported an up-swing in customers, with the community choosing to shop locally over traditional supermarkets,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
Rachel Carey, a lecturer in food systems at the University of Melbourne, said cities should increase their urban farming capacity as an “insurance policy” in the event of future natural disasters or pandemics that disrupt supply chains.
“Obviously urban agriculture is a much smaller part of our food supply system, but I think it does have an important role in future,” Dr Carey said.
“If we can keep some of this food production locally it acts as a bit of a buffer or an insurance policy against those future shocks and stresses.”
Dr Carey said cities were more conducive to agriculture than most people realised.
“Cities have access to really important waste streams, and also food waste that can be converted into compost and used back on farms,” she said.
“If we can keep some urban food production close by it enables us to develop what we call circular food economies, where we are taking those waste products and we’re reutilizing them back in food production to keep those important nutrients in the food supply.”
The other benefit was financial.
Dr Carey said buying food from local farmers helped to “keep that money circulating within our own economy rather than going outside to other areas”.
She believed Australian towns and cities should also consider the United Kingdom’s food allotment system, where local governments or town councils rented small parcels of land to individuals for them to grow their own crops on.
Major European cities such as Paris have also embraced urban farming amid the pandemic — the largest rooftop farm in Europe opened there in July.
The farm, which spans 4,000 square metres atop the Paris Exhibition Centre, supports a commercial operation as well as leases out small plots to locals who want to grow their own food.
There are plans to increase it to 14,000 square metres, almost the size of two football fields, and house 20 market gardeners.
From converting sections of golf courses or public parks into small farms, or median strips, car parks or rooftops, Dr Carey said the pandemic had shown the time was ripe to reconsider our urban food production methods.
“I see COVID-19 is a transformational moment that is going to lead to some rethinking about the way that we use our spaces in urban areas and in the city,” she said.
“So cities around the world are starting to look more to urban agriculture not just in terms of city soil-based farms, but also non-soil-based farms such as vertical farms and intensive glasshouse farming.”
Brazil is home to the world’s largest Catholic population, but the rise of Pentecostalism is drawing young Brazilians away from traditional pews, and toward charismatic, “club-like” mega-churches.
And according to Cristina Rocha, a Brazilian-born cultural anthropologist at Western Sydney University, Australia plays an important role in this trend.
Over the past two decades, Professor Rocha has been researching the intersections between migration and religion, exploring why so many Brazilians travel to Australia.
“More and more international students coming from Brazil have said, ‘I came here because of Hillsong,'” she says.
But Hillsong Church, which was established by husband and wife pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston in Sydney in 1983, isn’t the only drawcard.
Professor Rocha discovered that C3, Australia’s second-largest Pentecostal church, has also amassed a large Brazilian cohort.
“[Both churches] focus on youth culture,” she explains.
“[Followers] can be who they are, they can have tattoos and piercings, they can dance and listen to secular music. They can drink in moderation.”
These attitudes, Professor Rocha says, are at odds with traditional Pentecostal churches back in Brazil.
“What Hillsong and C3 say is, ‘Once you’re here, the Holy Spirit will change your life. It’s not us — we’re just humans like you.'”
Professor Rocha says many Brazilians — both students and pastors — who study at the churches’ colleges or attend their conferences, are spreading this style of worship.
“There is a circulation of Brazilians coming here then going back [to Brazil],” she says.
“They bring these practices — the way Hillsong does church with lights in a dark room, and the clubbing experience — and the very informal way of relating the Bible to everyday events.”
C3 now has two branches in Brazil, while Hillsong has one in São Paulo, and Professor Rocha says several of the pastors received their training in Australia.
Decades before C3 and Hillsong set up their outposts in Brazil, Australians from other denominations were spreading the Word in South America.
One of these Australians was Father Paul Mahony, a Marist priest who arrived the capital Brasilia in 1985 and spent 18 years working in congregations throughout the country.
“We went to live and work with the poorest people we could find,” he recalls.
Although Brazil was — and still is — a majority Catholic country, Father Mahony says the priesthood requires a high school certificate, so many locals were not qualified to lead their own parishes.
He recalls being faced with a surprising level of violence. During his time in Brazil, homicide rates were some of the highest in the world.
“[In São Paulo] we had the largest cemetery in South America near our parish,” he says.
“In the time I was there, there’d be no child finishing primary school who didn’t personally know somebody who’d been murdered.”
For Brazilian-born Gabriela Cabral da Rocha Weiss, who is now studying social work in Australia, this prevalence of violence explains why so many Brazilians look to a higher power.
“Sometimes the only hope people have is religion, because there’s poverty, violence and inequality,” she says.
Ms Cabral da Rocha Weiss, however, is neither Catholic nor Pentecostal. She was raised in the minority religion known as Spiritism.
It was founded in 19th century by a French educator, who wrote under the pen name Allan Kardec, and gained a following in Brazil. According to the country’s 2010 Census, there were 3.8 million members.
“Spiritists believe in God and Jesus Christ,” she says.
“They believe that we incarnate multiple times to develop our moral[ity] and our intellect, and whatever you did in past incarnations will impact your future.”
Although Ms Cabral da Rocha Weiss no longer practises today, she appreciates the moral framework and comfort that religion offers many in Brazil.
But she says faith has become increasingly politicised, especially by the country’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who identifies as a Catholic, but has strong support from Evangelical and Pentecostal voters.
“I believe that religion mixed with politics — in a country where there’s no good education, everything’s so expensive, salaries are so low — can be a very dangerous mix, and it can be taken advantage of, like Bolsonaro is doing.”
While President Bolsonaro is popular amongst many religious voters, Professor Rocha says his leadership is dividing Christians, often within denominations.
“There has been a rift within all these major religions between the far-right conservative wings of these religions versus the progressives,” she says.
“We have seen the more conservative Opus Dei Catholics [working] with the very conservative Pentecostals, as much as we have seen progressive Pentecostals working together with progressive Catholics and Spiritists.”
Professor Rocha acknowledges that while Brazil’s religious demography has changed under the leadership of Bolsonaro, the transformation of faith is endemic to this country.
When the Portuguese colonisers arrived in Brazil in 1500, they brought Catholicism. Simultaneously, through the slave trade, religious practices from Africa also came to Brazil.
According to Professor Rocha, these religious traditions melded with the pre-existing spiritual practices of Indigenous Brazilians.
“Catholicism in Brazil is divided, even today, between Roman Catholicism — the hierarchical Church — and popular Catholicism, with the cult of the saints, the myriad miracles, healings and pilgrimages,” she says.
“This popular Catholicism is mixed with Indigenous religion, Shamanism, animism and African practices of veneration of ancestors, spirit incorporation, divination.
Stockholm: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has denounced the new farm bill adopted by the European Parliament as one that “fuels ecological destruction.”
Environmentalists say only 20 percent of planned spending under the massive farm subsidy bill passed Friday will go to climate-friendly policies.
“Eleven months after the European Parliament declared a climate emergency, the very same parliament voted to go ahead with an agricultural policy that – in summary – fuels ecological destruction with almost 400 billion euros,” Thunberg wrote in a Facebook post signed with four other activists.
In the budget proposal for 2021 to 2027 under discussion, 387 billion euros ($460 billion) is earmarked for agriculture, accounting for roughly one-third of all bloc spending for member states.
“Are we disappointed? No,” Thunberg and fellow activists wrote.
“Because that would mean we were expecting a miracle. Yet this day has once again shown the size of the gap that lies between current policies and where we would need to be, in order to be in line with the Paris Agreement,” they said.
The 2015 Paris agreement signed by the vast majority of world’s nations set out a path to reducing emissions and prevent out-of-control climate change.
Critics say 80 percent of aid is distributed to 20 percent of the most favoured beneficiaries under the farm bill.
The subsidies are prized by farming states, most notably France, Ireland and eastern European nations, where farmers enjoy strong political influence.
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Malta has filed a complaint before the Court of Justice of the European Union against new trucking rules which the government says will undermine the country’s competitiveness.
The new rules force trucking companies to provide a paid rest period of around 45 hours every three to four consecutive weeks, at “the employer’s establishment or to the drivers’ place of residence”.
Trucks will also have to return to the company’s headquarters every eight weeks, in a move designed to prevent haulage companies from trying to register in other EU countries to take advantage of lower taxes.
Maltese operators Attrans told Times of Malta the rules would cost the company between €500,000 and €1 million because of the need to buy more trucks and employ more people.
In a statement on Saturday the government said the two specific rules were not part of the original proposals presented by the European Commission but were only added towards the end of the legislative procedure, despite the objections of several member states, including Malta.
“These measures were therefore not subject to a proper impact assessment by the EU institutions. A KPMG study commissioned by the government shows that both these rules are expected to have a negative impact on Malta, making road haulage operations more costly, mainly as a result of Malta’s geographic position, and having also a negative impact on the environment,” the government said.
Malta is arguing that the measures violate the EU Treaty provisions and lead to distortion of the EU Single Market by including measures that serve to disrupt road haulage operations, increase costs for consumers and exports, and disproportionately and adversely affect Malta as a peripheral and island member state.
Malta is therefore requesting the Court of Justice to annual these measures.
The government said other member states have also initiated a similar annulment action on the measures, or are in the process of doing so.
Independent journalism costs money. Support Times of Malta for the price of a coffee.
Michael Gove today told Michel Barnier ‘the ball is in your court’ if the European Union wants trade talks with the UK to resume as he said the bloc had given Britain ‘no choice’ but to step up its preparations for a no deal split.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office said Brussels had shown in recent weeks it was ‘not serious’ about striking a deal because it had failed to compromise on key issues.
He said he still hoped a deal could be done in the coming weeks but stressed that for the UK to consider going back to the negotiating table the EU will have to drastically overhaul its approach.
He borrowed a term from Star Trek as he said the EU was trying to ‘keep us in their tractor beam’ and suggested Brussels had broken its word by failing to agree to a Canada-style free trade agreement.
His intervention came after Boris Johnson warned businesses to prepare for leaving the bloc without a trade deal when the standstill post-Brexit transition period ends in December after EU leaders refused to bow to his negotiating deadline.
Michael Gove today said the UK had ‘no choice’ but to prepare for leaving the EU without a trade deal
Mr Gove said the ‘ball is in his court’ as he was asked whether formal trade talks with Michel Barnier could resume
Mr Johnson had set a European Council meeting last Thursday as the deadline for agreeing the broad outline of a trade agreement.
But the two sides remain deadlocked in a number of crunch areas, including on post-Brexit fishing rights with French President Emmanuel Macron adamant he will not drop his hardline stance on keeping current levels of access to British waters.
The summit saw EU leaders agree to talks continuing but they gave no ground and said it was for the UK to make the next move, prompting a furious response from Mr Johnson who said Britain would now step up its preparations for a no deal divorce.
The UK has made clear it is willing to restart trade discussions but only if the EU completely changes its negotiating stance, with the two sides now locked in a high stakes game of brinkmanship.
Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, had been due to come to London next week but those talks have now been cancelled.
Mr Gove told Sky News: ‘Well, the ball is in his court. We have made clear that we need to see a change in approach from the European Union.
‘I know that he will be calling David Frost over the course of the next few days. Let’s see if the European Union appreciate the importance of reaching a deal and the importance of moving ground.’
Mr Gove had previously estimated there was a 66 per cent chance of a trade deal being agreed with the EU.
Asked what his new estimation was, he replied: ‘Less. I think it is less but I can’t be precise. One of the reasons why it is less is the position that has been taken in the last couple of weeks by European Union leaders.
‘What we have seen and what our negotiators have found is the European Union side have not been willing to produce the detailed legal text, they have not been willing to intensify the talks in a way that would indicate that they were actually serious about reaching an agreement.
‘At the same time they have also insisted both that we accept a level of control over our autonomy that an independent country can’t really accept and at the same time they are saying they should continue to have exactly the same access to for example our fishing waters and our fishing stocks as before and so that seems to me to be the behaviour of an organisation and an institution that is not serious about making the compromises necessary to secure a deal. I still hope we will get a deal though.’
Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Gove had said: ‘Unless the EU makes a fundamental change, we’ll leave on Australian-style terms trading on WTO rules.
‘It is not my preferred destination, and there will be turbulence en route.
‘I am not blasé about the challenges, but if the choice is between arrangements that tie our hands indefinitely, or where we can shape our own future, then that’s no choice at all.’
Australia has no comprehensive trade deal with the EU and it also does far less business with Brussels than the UK.
A no deal split would see the EU impose tariffs on UK goods, with business groups warning this would damage British firms at a time when they can least afford it because of the coronavirus crisis.
Mr Gove, who has long warned against a no deal split, said the UK will be ‘flexing every muscle to be match fit for January 1’ and that the Government will not be ‘squeezed or sandbagged into acquiescing to anyone else’s agenda’.
He suggested the EU had broken its word by failing to offer the UK a Canada-style agreement.
‘The terms on which Canada and the EU waive tariffs on each other’s goods is all we seek,’ he said.
Emmanuel Macron has stuck to his hardline stance on post-Brexit fishing rights – one of the crunch areas where talks remain deadlocked
‘That’s what the EU said it would offer us but at the eleventh hour it seems the bloc won’t take yes for an answer.’
He added: ‘The EU wants to keep us in their tractor beam. It’s independent life, Jim, but not as we know it.’
Mr Gove’s intervention comes after Government sources claimed the EU had treated trade talks more like ‘performance art’ than serious negotiations.
In a blistering attack, insiders accused EU negotiators led by Mr Barnier of using the meetings to ‘shore up their domestic position’ – with particular criticism levelled at French President Emmanuel Macron.
‘There are signs that EU leaders, worried about the prospect of populist politicians such as Marine Le Pen, have decided that they would put domestic politics ahead of agreeing a free-trade agreement with the UK,’ said one source close to the talks.
The Government is today launching a public information campaign to encourage businesses to prepare for Britain’s departure on January 1.
A TV advert with the slogan ‘Time is running out’ will air tonight on ITV.
Mermaid Fountain, Rose Garden, Vatican Gardens, photo by Nik Barlo jr © Musei Vaticani
“The Creator does not abandon us;
He never forsakes His loving plan or repents of having created us.
Humanity still has the ability to work together
in building our common home.”
(Pope Francis, Laudato si’, 13)
Under the direction of Paolo Ondarza
#SeasonOfCreation
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The European Union deplores the strikes on the Azerbaijani city of Ganja during the night of 16-17 October resulting in civilian loss of life and serious injury, says a statement by the organization on the strikes on the city of Ganja.
“All targeting of civilians and civilian installations by either party must stop.
The ceasefire of 10 October must be fully respected without delay,” the statement adds.
AZERTAG.AZ :European Union deplores strikes on Ganja resulting in civilian loss of life and serious injury
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<span itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
<meta itemprop="url" content="https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/10/kangana-rangoli-new.jpg"/><meta itemprop="width" content="1200"/><meta itemprop="height" content="667"/></span><span class="custom-caption"> <span class="ie-custom-caption">Actor Kangana Ranaut with her sister Rangoli Chandel. [Instagram/Rangoli Chandel]</span></span>POLICE REGISTERED an FIR against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel at Bandra on Saturday afternoon, based on a private complaint filed before a metropolitan court.
The women were booked under sections pertaining to committing malicious or deliberate acts with the intention of outraging religious feelings of citizens, sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language and common intention of the Indian Penal Code.
According to police, the FIR states that through their tweets, the sisters tried to “malign the Indian Constitution and image of the Maharashtra government, hurt sentiments of Muslims and tried to create division between Hindus and Muslims”.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Abhishek Trimukhe said the investigating officer would begin gathering evidence and verify the allegations made in the complaint.
The complaint filed before the court stated that Ranaut was “creating divisions between communities and spreading communal hatred”. The court had ordered an FIR to be registered against the sisters on Friday.
“On prima facie perusal of complaint and submissions… I found the cognizable offence has been committed by the accused. Total allegations are based upon comment on electronic media, Twitter and interviews. The accused used social media like Twitter. Thorough investigation is necessary by the expert… search and seizure is necessary in this case,” Metropolitan Magistrate Jaydeo Khule said in his order. He had directed the concerned police station to investigate the complaint.
The complaint was filed by Munawwar Ali Sayyed, a casting director and fitness trainer. In his complaint, he stated that he had worked with well-known film directors and had, for the past few months, been observing on social media that Ranaut “is continuously defaming Bollywood film industry and is portraying people working in Bollywood films as a hub of nepotism, favouritism, drug addicts, communally-biased people, murderers, etc” through her tweets and television interviews. “…(this) is creating a very bad image of Bollywood in the minds of people and even creating a communal divide and rift between people of two communities and in the mind of common man”.
He also stated that a rift was being created between artistes of different religions. The complaint referred to various tweets by Ranaut over the past few months, including a tweet where she referred to Mumbai as POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir).
The complainant also stated, “Police investigation is necessary to ascertain the real motive behind such hate tweets, and who are the people backing such hatred to create communal tension and sentiments.”
Lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee, representing Ranaut, said, “This shall be dealt with on merits as per procedure of law. Right of speech and expression should not be construed as promoting communal disharmony.”
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KINSHASA, Democratic Republic Of The Congo — Construction of the national Bahá’í House of Worship in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was inaugurated on Sunday with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the future temple and broadcast on national television. Situated on the outskirts of Kinshasa, the site was host to government officials, representatives of religious communities, and traditional chiefs. At the same time, celebrations were held across the vast country as countless people joined in prayer to mark this important milestone.
The National Spiritual Assembly, in a letter written for the occasion, says that the House of Worship embodies the essential elements of the Bahá’í concept of worship and service, “both so vital to the regeneration of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, the potency, and the unique position of the House of Worship as one of the most outstanding institutions conceived by Bahá’u’lláh. … The ceremony today has great significance, comparable to the sowing of a seed in the soil in the hope of seeing it grow and, before long, produce the most valuable fruits.”
The arrival of this long-awaited moment and what it represents has stirred communities throughout the country. Bashilwango Mbaleeko, secretary of the Regional Bahá’í Council of South Kivu, explains that although people throughout the vast country of the DRC are physically distant from the site, the spirit of oneness already emanating from that spot is fueling their efforts to serve their society with greater intensity. “Every step of progress has been celebrated across South Kivu and the country. We see the rise of this edifice as an outcome of decades of efforts toward social transformation.”
Lavoisier Mutombo Tshiongo, the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the DRC, says that the presence of diverse people at the event signifies the unifying role of a House of Worship. “This is not only a Bahá’í place of worship, it is a House of Worship for everyone to offer prayers to their Creator. This temple will be the embodiment of unity and represents a new milestone in the development of Congolese society. In one of His writings, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said that raising up such places of worship will allow people ‘to gather together, and, harmoniously attuned one to another, engage in prayer; with the result that out of this coming together, unity and affection shall grow and flourish in the human heart.’”
The immense impact of prayer on the patterns of community life was discussed by traditional chiefs in the Western Kasai region who had gathered on Friday to reflect on the House of Worship. Chief Bope Ngokadi of Mpempe village said, “We see in the Bahá’í devotional gatherings the involvement of diverse people; we are all walking together in unity. Praying has brought a positive impact, the village has changed. I have changed.
“People who were always in conflict and not talking together are now together in harmony. The power of the Word of God is immense. This is what has united those who were in conflict.
“Even as the chief of this locality I was not always united with other officials, but we have become so through devotional gatherings. This is what has allowed us to live as one community. This is what the House of Worship represents.”
The groundbreaking ceremony coincided with the Bahá’í Holy Day celebrating the Birth of the Báb. Current health guidelines allowed for a beautiful gathering to take place with the necessary protective measures. The ceremony, which was broadcast online through a live stream and covered on national TV news channels, culminated with the laying of a symbolic first stone on the spot where the new edifice will rise.
Plans to build a national House of Worship were announced in 2012. Since then the Bahá’ís of the DRC have been identifying architects and a suitable site for this unique structure.
This House of Worship is one of several Bahá’í temples under construction around the world, each with a unique design that reflects the unifying roles of worship and service. The design of the House of Worship in Kinshasa is inspired by traditional artworks, structures and natural features of the DRC. The image of the Congo River, whose tributaries gather rain from every part of the country into one great stream, symbolizes a coming together and uniting of the world and is expressed through the patterns that will adorn the outside of the dome in a style reminiscent of the artwork of various Congolese peoples.
(June 2010)
In June 2005, a fortnight after the birthdays of my mom and Gilda Cordero Fernando (they are the same age, both born in 1930, my mom on June 7 and Tita Gilda on June 4), I came across an engaging online news story. The item from the San Francisco Chronicle was titled: “Book returned to library 78 years later.”
It was about a borrowed book, Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim,” that was due Aug. 29, 1927, but was only returned in 2005 by the nephew of a deceased aunt who forgot to return it to an Oakland public library. In short, it took almost eight decades for the book to be returned to the library’s shelf.
This story reminded me of my sister Nor‘s recollection that I, at around age 10, borrowed a book from our grade school library that I never returned. And this was more than 40 years ago.
The book’s title: “The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker,” a collection of short stories, published in 1962. The book’s author: Gilda Cordero Fernando.
I cannot recall if GCF’s stories were required reading in grade school. But having borrowed the book and kept it, I must have liked its content. The book is now missing and is probably sitting on the shelf of a relative or a friend. But if I had to pay the compounded fine, the amount would be a princely sum, perhaps equivalent to the price of all of GCF’s publications.
Nor, who was then Grade 3 at Institucion Teresiana, stumbled upon the book, noticed that it was overdue, and read it. This was the beginning of her fascination with GCF’s works.
Nor said she developed her early love for reading, partly from her curiosity about the books that I borrowed, including the Hardy Boys series and a book on American basketball, which perhaps I did not return to the library either. In hindsight, Nor said that I already had signs of having an attention deficit disorder (ADD) during childhood, which might explain why I forgot to return the books. Simply said, there was no malice on my part in not returning books.
But was having ADD the reason that I didn’t return GCF’s book? Or was it because the book reminded me of Mol, GCF’s second son, who was my classmate and pal? “Pal”—that was how we classmates addressed one another in grade school. When we reached high school, this address metamorphosed into “Pare” or the hippie expression “Hey, man.”
In high school, Mol got a failing grade in Filipino and thus had to repeat third year. It’s impossible for a Pinoy who looks very indio and who speaks the native tongue naturally to get a failing mark in Filipino. Mol’s crime was that he uttered a rather vivid but vulgar and disparaging description of an old maid who taught Filipino. The mischievous remark eventually reached the teacher.
I narrated to Tita Gilda this version of why Mol flunked a subject that no one should fail. This was after she received the Gawad Tanglaw award from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2008. In jest, I told her that she could have included in her speech of acceptance a reminder of the nasty experience that her second son went through.
The unreturned but lost book now serves as a remembrance of my connection with GCF and her children. I also became close to her oldest son Bey (may he rest in peace)—we were together in the halcyon days of martial law student activism. Upon early retirement from law practice, he appointed himself the chef of the well-liked Crescent Moon, which we frequented.
And there’s Wendy, GCF’s only daughter—the creative architect and artist, whom I met through my mom and aunt. Wendy is known for her finely crafted paper lamps. Our home—the different rooms and the garden—has become a showcase of Wendy’s wonderful lamps.
Through the years, we have collected all sorts of things associated with Tita Gilda—Wendy’s lamps, ceramic pieces done by Bey’s wife Lanelle (including a set of blue pottery consisting of miniature native jars, which Bey encouraged me to get from Lanelle’s shop), GCF’s books, of course, as well as clippings of her newspaper essays, and a GCF painting titled “Aimez Vous Brahms? “
The subject of the painting is a pleasingly plump woman, seated comfortably with her legs crossed, seemingly caught in a reverie but actually listening intently to recorded music.
This painting reveals how funny and honest GCF is. In her annotation of the painting, Tita Gilda wrote: “That’s a musical composition based on a classical piece. I didn’t know how to draw a gramophone so I just let her hear it.”
But of all things related to Gilda, her “The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker” is what I cherish most.
Nowadays, I do have a different appreciation of this book. I connect it to my economics training. GCF’s title is uncannily similar to Adam Smith’s most famous statement, a quotation that every economist knows by heart: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”
So, did GCF pick up the butcher and the baker from reading “The Wealth of Nations?” (But why not keep the alliteration by maintaining the brewer? Why substitute the brewer with the candlestick maker?)
My peer, Guy Estrada Claudio, answered my question: “Methinks the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker come from a traditional nursery rhyme. So maybe Adam Smith must need to explain why the brewer.” Amazing, economics, the queen of the social sciences, is founded on a nursery rhyme!
Guy likewise pointed out that “these nursery rhymes, being a mother-and-child sort of thing, are a good foundational paradigm.”
Voila! Guy’s insight explains why GCF’s book mattered to me—it symbolized some sort of attachment between mother and child. I saw my mom in her—beauty and brains.
Much later in life, before I got married, I joined a meeting for a cause, which was likewise attended by my late Tita Paula Malay and GCF. We were seated at the same table for lunch. I cannot recall what the meeting was all about, but I cannot forget that lunch. It was not about the culinary experience. It was about GCF serving food to me. She even scooped out the meat of the alimango for me and placed it on my plate. Wow, what tender loving care! I was thrilled by her attention.
It’s fun and exciting to be in Tita Gilda’s company. My affection for her—which began with my liking for “The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker”—has only grown through the years. —CONTRIBUTED
The author wrote this as a tribute to Gilda Cordero Fernando on her 80th birthday 10 years ago. “She loved it,” according to her daughter Wendy. GCF died on Aug. 27.
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Democrats should make Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s religion an issue, and instead of the court being “packed, with Catholics” there should be a “healthier balance” of religious beliefs on the court.
Maher said, “Democrats have to stop talking about packing the Supreme Court. Because it’s already packed, with Catholics…and once Mitch McConnell and company are done Fed-Exing Amy Coney Barrett to the bench, seven of the nine justices will be Catholic. And look, I have nothing against Catholics, except my entire upbringing. But they are only 20% of the population. If seven out of nine justices were Jews or Muslims or Buddhists would that be okay? And if faith is this super important element of life, as Barrett and her Republican supporters say it is, shouldn’t we have a healthier balance on our highest court?”
He concluded, “Chuck Schumer said Democrats won’t make Barrett’s religion an issue, but they should. Because being nuts is relevant.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
The Bureau of the European Parliament has approved a “Daphne Caruana Galizia’ prize for “outstanding journalism work” in honour of the murdered Maltese journalist, killed in a car bomb on October 16, 2017, in an attack that Maltese police have said was intended to silence her work on unveiling corruption and money-laundering in her country, New Europe reports.
The €20,000 prize will be awarded on a yearly basis as of October 2021 to journalists or team of journalists for their outstanding journalism work based on the principles and values of the European Union, and the candidates will be judged by a panel of independent journalists.
“The Daphne Caruana Galizia prize will strengthen investigative and courageous journalism and press freedom. The importance of investigative journalism has been demonstrated by Daphne and many others through revelations about various tax and corruption stories in recent years,” said Sven Giegold, MEP of the Greens/EFA group, who attended the Parliament’s missions to Malta over recent years.
Caruana-Galizia’s brutal assassination prompted an outcry over the authorities’ handling of the case, eventually forcing Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat to step down and businessman Yorgen Fenech to be arrested in 2019. One of her revelations pointed the finger at Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and two of his closest aides, connecting offshore companies linked to the three men with the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan.
By James Blears
Retired General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, was Minister of Defense for the entire Administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto from 2012- 2018. He was arrested on a warrant from the Drugs Enforcement Agency-the DEA, accused of facilitating tons of shipments of heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and marijuana into the United States, even organizing ships to do this. Mexico`s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was told of this by Christopher Landau, who`s the US Ambassador in Mexico.
Cienfuegos aged 72, who`s retired from active service, is nicknamed: “The Godfather.” He was presented with an award from the Pentagon two years ago, before his treachery was discovered and now revealed. It`s alleged he aided and abetted a cartel known as H2, which is an offshoot of the Beltran Levya drug cartel, protecting it and advising it of US operations directed against it. He`s also accused of introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt officials. He now faces four charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. Former President Pena Nieto denies any knowledge or involvement in these activities. The General`s communications were intercepted by US Intelligence. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, says investigations are underway into possible links to former Security Minister Genero Garcia Luna, who served the 2006-2012 Administration of President Felipe Calderon, as Security Minister. Garcia Luna was arrested last year in Texas, and is on trial in New York accused of accepting millions in bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel, once led by Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, who now serving a life sentence in a US maximum security prison. He denies all the charges against him. Calderon denies any knowledge of Garcia Luna`s alleged legion of crimes.
President Lopez Obarador is publically supporting his current Minister of Defense, who was not proposed or nominated by General Cienfuegos.
It`s an appalling blow to Mexico and the United States, that someone who was supposed to be leading the war against drugs, was allegedly involved in supporting the narcos. The ultimate betrayal.