TheNewsGuru

Tag: Germany

  • German’s unification architect, Helmut Kohl dies at 87

    Germany’s former chancellor, Helmut Kohl has died at the age of 87.

    Kohl, described as the father of German reunification and an architect of European integration, died in his house in Ludwigshafen.

    Kohl served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany 1982–90 and of the reunited Germany 1990–98) and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998.

    From 1969 to 1976, he was Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate. His 16-year tenure was the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, and by far the longest of any democratically elected Chancellor.

    Kohl oversaw the end of the Cold War and is widely regarded as the mastermind of German reunification.

    He is also considered to be the architect of the Maastricht Treaty together with French President François Mitterrand, who both established the European Union (EU) and the euro currency. Germany’s longest serving post-war leader left active politics in 2002.

    Kohl was survived by his wife Maike Richter and his two children Walter Kohl and Peter Kohl.

  • Social media firms have increased removal of Hate Speech, says EU

    Social media firms have increased removal of Hate Speech, says EU

    Social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube have stepped up both the speed and number of removals of hate speech on their platforms in response to pressure from the European Union to do more to tackle the issue, according to the results of an EU evaluation.

    Facebook won particular praise for reviewing most complaints within a 24-hour target timeframe set down in a code of conduct agreed in December by the European Commission, Facebook, Microsoft , Twitter and YouTube.

    Calling the results “encouraging” for the Commission’s push for self-regulation, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said the proportion of offending items taken down had doubled and action was being taken more quickly than when the EU checked six months ago.

    “This … shows that a self-regulatory approach can work, if all actors do their part. At the same time, companies … need to make further progress to deliver on all the commitments,” Jourova said in a statement, adding that firms should provide more feedback to people who brought abuses to their attention.

    Facebook scored highly on this, Twitter and YouTube less so.

    The voluntary code of conduct obliges firms to take action in Europe within 24 hours, following rising concerns about the proliferation of racist and xenophobic content on social media triggered by the refugee crisis and attacks in Western Europe.

    This included removing or disabling access to the content if necessary, better cooperation with civil society organizations and the promotion of “counter-narratives” to hate speech.

    Facebook assessed notifications of hateful content in less than 24 hours in 58 percent of cases, up from 50 percent in December, according to the report.

    Twitter also sped up its dealing with notifications, reviewing 39 percent of them in less than 24 hours, as opposed to 23.5 percent in December, when the Commission first reviewed the companies’ progress and warned them they were being too slow.

    YouTube, on the other hand, slowed down, reviewing 42.6 percent of notifications in less than 24 hours, down from 60.8 percent in December, the results showed.

    “IT companies have all been improving time and response to notifications on manifest illegal hate speech,” Jourova said at a meeting of the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance on Wednesday.

    “There are differences among the companies … but we can objectively say that all have improved.”

    All the companies significantly increased the number of removals. Overall, content was removed in 59.2 percent of cases, more than double the rate in December which was 28.2 percent.

    The proliferation of hate speech on social media has increased pressure on the companies to remove the content swiftly as they face the prospect of legislation at both EU and national level.

    Last week EU ministers approved plans to force social networks to take measures to block videos with hateful content while the German government approved a plan in April to fine companies up to EUR 50 million if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly.

    The most common ground of hate speech the Commission identified was xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees, together with anti-Muslim hatred, followed by ethnic origin.

    The spread of fake news and racist content has taken on more urgency in Germany after the arrival of about a million migrants over the last two years.

  • Germany-US bilateral relations fading away

    Germany’s foreign minister launched a scathing criticism of Donald Trump on Monday, claiming the U.S. President’s actions have “weakened” the West and accusing the U.S. government of standing “against the interests of the European Union.”

    Just 24 hours after German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Europe could no longer completely rely on traditional allies such as the U.S. and Britain, the country’s top diplomat, Sigmar Gabriel, went a step further.

    ImageFile: Germany-US bilateral relations fading away
    Donald Trump and Angela Merkel: Managing U.S.-Germany relationship

    “Anyone who accelerates climate change by weakening environmental protection, who sells more weapons in conflict zones and who does not want to politically resolve religious conflicts is putting peace in Europe at risk,” Gabriel said.

    “The short-sighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union. The West has become smaller, at least it has become weaker.”

    Germany and other European nations were unimpressed with Trump’s performance at both the NATO and G7 summits last week, where he refused to endorse NATO’s collective defense principle or the Paris climate agreement.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the third Berlin roundtable discussion on refugees and migration, Gabriel called on Europe to stand up to the current U.S. administration and not shy away from offering criticism.

    “The Trump administration wants to terminate climate agreements wants to enforce military action in crisis regions and won’t allow people from certain religious circles to enter the U.S.,” Gabriel added.

    “If the Europeans are not resolutely opposing to this right now, the migration flow to Europe will continue to grow. Those who do not oppose this U.S. policy are guilty.”

     

     

    CNN

     

  • Merkel: Europe ‘can no longer rely on allies’ after Trump and Brexit

    Europe can no longer “completely depend” on the US and UK following the election of President Trump and Brexit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

    ImageFile: Merkel: Europe ‘can no longer rely on allies’ after Trump and Brexit
    German Chancellor, Angela Merkel

    Mrs Merkel said she wanted friendly relations with both countries as well as Russia but Europe now had to “fight for its own destiny”.

    It follows the G7’s failure to commit to the 2015 Paris climate deal, talks Mrs Merkel said were “very difficult”.

    President Trump has said he will make a decision in the coming week.

    “The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days,” Mrs Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.

    The BBC’s Damien McGuinness, in Berlin, says the comments are a sign of growing assertiveness within the EU.

    The relationship between Berlin and new French President Emmanuel Macron had to be a priority, Mrs Merkel said.

    Earlier the German leader had described the “six against one” discussion about the Paris Accord during the G7 summit in Sicily as “very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory”.

    Mr Trump said he would abandon the Paris deal – the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement requiring countries to cut carbon emission – during his election campaign and has also expressed doubts about climate change.

    Speaking in Brussels last week, Mr Trump also told Nato members to spend more money on defence and did not re-state his administration’s commitment to Nato’s mutual security guarantees.

    BBC Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the mere fact that this is even in question shows just how uneasy the relationship is between Mr Trump and the organisation of which his country is the leading member.

    While in Belgium Mr Trump also reportedly described German trade practices as “bad, very bad”, complaining that Europe’s largest economy sells too many cars to the US.

    The US president has described his visit to Europe as a “great success for America” with “big results”.

    Polls in Germany say Mrs Merkel is on course to be re-elected for a fourth term as German chancellor at elections in September.

     

     

    BBC

     

  • Trump 100 days in office: 10 tweets that have defined his Presidency

    Trump 100 days in office: 10 tweets that have defined his Presidency

    Since entering office, President Donald Trump has used Twitter to issue declarations on everything from America’s geopolitical rivals to his personal feuds with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    As Trump prepares to mark 100 days in office this weekend, AFP looks back at 10 Tweets that have characterized the opening phase of his presidency:

    “We will follow two simple rules: BUY AMERICAN & HIRE AMERICAN” — setting out his governing mantra on January 20 after his inauguration.

    “We must keep ‘evil’ out of our country!” — justifying his ban on travellers from a group of mainly Muslim countries, on February 3.

    “What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?” — reacting after the ban was subsequently blocked.

    Friend or foe?

    “North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help!” — voicing frustration with both Pyongyang and Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear program on March 17.

    “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!” — Trump has an apparent change of heart towards Beijing on April 16.

    “Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” — Trump takes aim at German leader Angela Merkel, a traditional US ally, after a frosty summit in Washington on March 18.

    The other guy

    “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” – Trump accuses his predecessor Barack Obama on March 4 of wiretapping his Manhattan skyscraper during the elections.

    “Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it” — defending his performance on February 18 after his first four weeks in office

    Enemies of the people

    “The FAKE NEWS media (@nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” — letting rip at some of the biggest names in the US media landscape on February 17.

    Hasta la Vista

    “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show” –– Trump reacts on March 4 to the departure of the “Terminator” star, an outspoken critic of the president and his successor as host of the former reality TV show.

     

     

    AFP

  • Tension as Germany deports ISIS suspect to Nigeria

    Tension as Germany deports ISIS suspect to Nigeria

    Germany has deported to Nigeria, an alleged Islamic extremist, an ISIS suspect, deemed dangerous by authorities.

    He is a German citizen, not Nigerian.

    The German news agency, dpa, reports that the 22-year-old man who was born in Germany and who hadn’t committed a crime, arrived in Lagos Thursday.

    The unidentified man was one of the two individuals detained in February in Goettingen during an investigation of suspected attack plans.

    His partner is a 27-year-old Algerian. Both of them lived with their parents in Göttingen.

    When the two men were picked up, investigators found two weapons, at least one of them a firearm, that had been altered to fire live ammunition.

    Also found on them were ammunition, flags of the Islamic State group and a machete.

    The man deported to Nigeria is banned from entering Germany for life.

    Following attacks by Islamic extremists last year, German authorities vowed to step up deportations of foreigners deemed to be threats.

    The two men, according to www.dw.com were arrested after having been under surveillance for some time.

    After their arrest, the German interior ministry requested their expulsion after classifying them as a threat to national security.

    Their deportation has no precedence in German history.

    “We are sending a clear warning to all fanatics nationwide that we will not give them a centimeter of space to carry out their despicable plans,” said Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius, following the court ruling authorising the deportation

    “They will face the full force of the law regardless of whether they were born here or not,” he added.

    In the case of the Algerian, the court made his deportation conditional on assurances from the Algerian government that he would not be tortured or subjected to any inhuman treatment.

  • Germany elects Frank-Walter Steinmeier as President

    Germany elects Frank-Walter Steinmeier as President

     

    Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s former foreign minister, has been elected as the country’s new president, the 12th person to hold the largely ceremonial post in the post-war era.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Steinmeier on Sunday won 931 out of 1,239 valid votes cast by the members of the Federal Assembly, which is made up of 630 federal members of parliament and an equal number of delegates from 16 states.

    “Let’s be brave, because then we don’t have to be afraid of the future,” Steinmeier said in his acceptance speech.

    He said the world faces “rough times,” but that Germany, as a functioning democracy, had the responsibility to fight for stability.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Steinmeier and said she was convinced he would be an excellent president who would have the support of the vast majority of the people.

    “This is a good day for Germany,” Merkel said.

    A seasoned Social Democrat politician who had served as foreign minister until last month, Steinmeier had the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “grand coalition” of centre-right and centre-left parties.

    “I would like, as federal president, to be something of a counterweight to the current tendency towards boundless simplification,” Steinmeier, 61, said before the election.

    While on a tour of Germany to promote his candidacy, Steinmeier emphasised mutual respect, strengthening democracy, taking a broader view, tolerance and solidarity as the ideas that will inform his presidency.

    His predecessor, Joachim Gauck, steps down on March 18.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the German president has little executive power, but is considered an important moral authority and symbol of the country as its host for visiting dignitaries.

     

  • France, Germany gang up against Trump

    France and Germany have formed a united front against President Donald Trump following the announcement of travel ban by his government. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel says the German leader believes the Trump’s travel ban on people from some Muslim-majority countries is wrong.

    After meeting on Saturday, the foreign ministers of both nations, Jean-Marc Ayrault and Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel, said they hope to meet with the Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson. Ayrault said Trump’s order on Friday that banning refugees “can only worry us.”

    “We have signed international obligations, so welcoming refugees fleeing war and oppression forms part of our duties,” the French minister said.

    “There are many other issues that worry us,” he added. “That is why Sigmar and I also discussed what we are going to do. When our colleague, Tillerson, is officially appointed, we will both contact him.” Gabriel said offering refuge to the persecuted are western values that Europe and the United States share.

    “Love thy neighbor is part of this tradition, the act of helping others,” he said. “This unites us, we Westerners. “I think that this remains a common foundation that we share with the United States, one we aim to promote.”

    Trump said the ban was necessary in preventing “radical Islamic terrorists” from entering the U.S. Merkel and Trump spoke on Saturday for the first time since his inauguration but there was no mention of the travel ban or refugees was mentioned in their joint U.S.-German statement following the call.

    Germany’s DPA news agency quoted Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert saying that “she is convinced that even the necessary, resolute fight against terrorism doesn’t justify putting people of a particular origin or particular faith under general suspicion.”

  • Germany says IMF plans to stay involved in Greek bailout talks

    The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reassured German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that IMF plans to remain constructively engaged in talks about aid for Greece, his spokesman said on Friday.

    The spokesman told newsmen at a regular government news conference during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    “The IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde spoke with Schaeuble about the Greek bailout programme and told him that the IMF was aiming to continue its participation,’’ he said.

    Schaeuble, however, denied a report in Bild newspaper that Berlin was preparing for a deal without the global lender, which has said it will join the deal only if it includes significant debt relief.

     

  • Germany to announce migration figures for 2016

    Germany’s Interior Ministry is set to announce the number of refugees and migrants who arrived in the country in 2016, after 2015 marked a record year for arrivals.

    The 2016 data will set the stage for the general election later this year, in which migration and the integration of newcomers are expected to be key campaign themes.

    The ministry initially said that 1.1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 but later revised that estimate down to 890,000.

    Report says migration to Germany is expected to have fallen in 2016.

    Chancellor Angela Merkel, who at the height of Europe’s migration crisis in September 2015 decided to open Germany’s borders to refugees and migrants stranded in Hungary, has since toughened the government’s stance.