French President Emmanuel Macron - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Germany will pay Namibia $1.3bn as it formally recognizes colonial-era genocide

Nadine Schmidt, George Engels, Stephanie Busari and David McKenzie, CNN — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 04:29:12 +0000

A memorial to the genocide of the Herero and Nama (1904-1907) committed by German colonial troops in the Namibian capital Windhoek. The inscription translates: “Your blood nourishes our freedom.”

(CNN) More than 100 years after the crimes committed by the German colonial power in what is now Namibia, Germany has formally recognized the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups as genocide.

Germany will support Namibia and the descendants of the victims with €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) for reconstruction and development and ask for forgiveness for the “crimes of German colonial rule,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Friday.

“Our goal was and is to find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and in particular the atrocities in the period from 1904 to 1908, without sparing or glossing over them. We will now also officially call these events what they were from today’s perspective: a genocide,” Maas said.

The Namibian government saw the formal acceptance of the atrocities as genocide as a key step in the process of reconciliation and reparation, Namibian presidential press secretary Alfredo Hengari told CNN on Friday.

“These are very positive developments in light of a very long process that has been accelerated over the past five years. People will never forget this genocide; they live with it. And this is an important process in terms of healing those wounds,” he said.

Victims group reject deal

However, victim groups have rejected the deal. Vekuii Rukoro, the Paramount Chief of Herero people, former attorney general, and member of parliament told CNN that they were not part of the discussion with the German government.

“Is this the kind of reparation that we are supposed to be excited about? This is just public relations. This is a sellout job by the Namibian government. The government has betrayed the cause of my people,” he said.

Rukoro said that Herero and Nama victim groups expect monetary reparations. He said reparations didn’t need to go to individual people, but should be in the form of a collective payment to the descendants of those killed and pushed off their land during the genocide.

German troops killed up to 80,000 of Herero and Nama people in what is now Namibia between 1904 and 1908 in response to an anti-colonial uprising.

He added that the German president is not welcome in the southern African country.

“The president of Germany isn’t welcome here as far as victim communities are concerned. He is persona non grata,” he said.

A bloody conflict

German troops killed up to 80,000 of Herero and Nama people in the southern African country between 1904 and 1908 in response to an anti-colonial uprising, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

According to historians, the bloody conflict happened when the Herero indigenous people revolted against colonial troops over land seizures. Germany, which today gives development aid to Namibia, offered its first formal apology for the conflict in 2004.

Both countries had been in talks since 2015 to negotiate compensation for the massacre by German colonial forces. Maas said in his statement that representatives of the Herero and Nama communities were “closely involved” in the negotiations on the Namibian side.

“The crimes of German colonial rule have long burdened relations with Namibia. There can be no closing of the book on the past. However, the recognition of guilt and our request for apology is an important step towards coming to terms with the crimes and shaping the future together,” Maas said.

German media is reporting that an official request for forgiveness will be made by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in the Namibian parliament.

“A decision on a possible trip by the Federal President will be made after the governments have reached a formal agreement and in close consultation with the Namibian side,” a spokesperson at the office of the Federal President told CNN.

The announcement comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron publicly acknowledged France’s “overwhelming responsibility” in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and said only the survivors could give “the gift of forgiveness.”

In 1994, around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis were killed by Hutu militias supported by the Rwandan government. France has been accused of failing to prevent the genocide and of supporting the Hutu regime, even after the massacres had started.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/africa/germany-recognizes-colonial-genocide-namibia-intl/index.html

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G7 ministers criticize US tariffs and warn of trade war

BBC — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 00:00:20 +0000

Getty Images: The EU is angry at the tariffs, which include 25% on steel

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has faced sharp criticism from angry finance ministers of other G7 nations over America’s imposition of new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

France’s Bruno Le Maire warned a trade war could begin in “a few days”.

Meanwhile US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Beijing to try to ease trade tensions.

Afterwards China warned that all trade talks with the US would be void if Washington introduced sanctions.

State news agency Xinhua said China was willing to increase imports from many countries including the US.

Mr Ross is seeking deals on agriculture and energy to narrow the yawning US trade deficit with China, days after Washington threatened to impose additional tariffs on $50bn (£37bn) of Chinese goods.

On Saturday President Trump insisted on Twitter that the US had been “ripped off by other countries for years on trade”.

He says steel tariffs will protect US steelmakers, which he says are vital to national security. Mr Trump has also complained about barriers US firms face in Europe and elsewhere.

“Time to get smart!” he added.

What happened at Whistler?

At a heated meeting in the Canadian ski resort, the EU and Canada threatened to retaliate.

But Mr Mnuchin denied that the US had abandoned leadership in the global economy and said he had passed on the other countries’ strong feelings to Mr Trump.

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EU leaders push back against Trump on Iran nuclear deal

AP via The Times of Israel — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 08:24:10 +0000

Bloc affirms support for pact despite US administrations refusal to certify compliance; IAEA head says inspections of sites continuing unabated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, Britain Prime minister Theresa May, center, and French President Emmanuel Macron talk as they arrive in Brussels, on October 19, 2017.(AFP/JOHN THYS)

BRUSSELS (AP) — The leaders of the 28 members of the European Union showed their support for the Iran nuclear agreement Thursday, despite US President Donald Trump’s opposition to it.

EU spokesman Preben Aaman tweeted that the EU leaders agreed at a summit Thursday to show their joint commitment to the international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

The EU leaders called the 2015 deal a pillar of efforts to reduce the global nuclear threat. Some fear that walking away from the deal could compromise chances of encouraging North Korea to negotiate on its nuclear program.

Trump “decertified” the deal Friday, angrily accusing Iran of violating it, and directed the US Congress to make it more stringent.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified eight times that Iran was living up to its commitments.

Earlier in the day, France reaffirmed its support for the nuke deal after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian met with IAEA head Yukiya Amano.

The deal “remains valid despite the decision of the president of the United States not to certify its implementation,” Le Drian said a meeting in Paris with Amano,

Amano said inspections in Iran were continuing.

“We didn’t have enough time yet to observe the attitude of Iran,” Amano said. “Yet I can tell you the Iranians are very careful and we continue our controls and inspections without any problem.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Yukiya Amano for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on October 19, 2017. (AP/Michel Euler)

Amano also met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who encouraged the IAEA to ensure strict adherence to the deal “in all its aspects.”

They also discussed the “serious and difficult” North Korea issue, according to Amano.

On Wednesday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called on the international community to join the US in adopting the Trump administration’s comprehensive approach to Iran addressing all aspects of its “destructive conduct” — not just the 2015 nuclear deal.

She told the Security Council that Iran “has repeatedly thumbed its nose” at council resolutions aimed at addressing Iranian support for terrorism and regional conflicts and has illegally supplied weapons to Yemen and Hezbollah militants in Syria and Lebanon.

United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, center, raises her hand as she votes yes to levy new sanctions on North Korea during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council concerning North Korea at UN headquarters, in New York City, September 11, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP)

“Worse, the regime continues to play this council,” Haley said. “Iran hides behind its assertion of technical compliance with the nuclear deal while it brazenly violates the other limits of its behavior, and we have allowed them to get away with it.”

“Judging Iran by the narrow confines of the nuclear deal misses the true nature of the threat,” Haley stressed. “Iran must be judged in totality of its aggressive, destabilizing and unlawful behavior. To do otherwise would be foolish.”

US President Donald Trump and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speak during a meeting on United Nations reform at the UN headquarters in New York, September 18, 2017. (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)

On Friday, Trump is scheduled to meet with UN head Antonio Guterres at the White House, where the Iran deal is expected to be on the agenda.

Guterres this week spoke out in defense of the nuclear deal, describing the 2015 agreement as “essential” and “something that needs to be preserved.”

It will be the UN chief’s first full formal meeting with Trump at the White House after a brief encounter with the US president in April.

AFP contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-leaders-push-back-against-trump-on-iran-nuclear-deal/

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Refugee issue looms as Merkel starts coalition talks

Frank Zeller — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 04:22:23 +0000

Two weeks after winning German elections with a reduced majority, Chancellor Angela Merkel takes a first step Sunday on a rocky road towards forming a government by trying to get her own conservative house in order.

Her meeting from 1000 GMT with Bavarian sister party CSU kicks off weeks of exploratory coalition talks involving four parties, which will fight for ministerial posts and issues from EU relations to climate policy.

The trickiest questions centre on refugees after Merkel allowed in more than one million asylum seekers in the past two years — the decision that drove the shock rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

CSU leader Horst Seehofer, a harsh critic of Merkel’s open-door policy, has revived his calls to cap refugee numbers at 200,000 a year — a demand Merkel has consistently rejected as unconstitutional.

Seehofer is in no mood to budge after his party too took a drubbing and lost many votes to the AfD, which ran on populist slogans such as “Stop Islamisation”.

He has vowed to close the party’s exposed “right flank” with a tough stance on migrants and law and order, as he fights challengers snapping at his heels ahead of state elections next year.

Merkel’s CDU too is nervous ahead of a Lower Saxony state poll next week, where it is running neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats (SPD), who are badly in need of a win after their bruising defeat in the September 24 election.

In a speech in the eastern city of Dresden on Saturday, Merkel said that the negotiations would be “difficult”, but added: “I hope the coalition will fall into place.”

– Odd bedfellows –

The emergence of the AfD party, which scored 12.6 percent, has stunned Germany by breaking a long-standing taboo on hard-right parties sitting in the Bundestag.

Its success came at the expense of the mainstream parties, making it harder for Merkel to form a working majority.

Her best shot now — if she wants to avoid fresh elections that could further boost the AfD — is an alliance with two other parties that make for odd bedfellows, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the left-leaning Greens.

Such a power pact — dubbed a “Jamaica coalition” because the party colours black (CDU/CSU), yellow (FDP) and green match those of the Caribbean nation’s flag — would be a first at the national level in Germany.

In the talks to come, all players must give a little to reach a compromise — but not too much, to avoid charges from their own party bases that they are selling out in a grab for power.

The smaller parties will seek to avoid the dark fate of Merkel’s previous junior coalition partners: both the FDP and SPD have suffered stunning losses after governing in the chancellor’s shadow.

– ‘Sister parties’ –

Until the high-stakes poker games between party chiefs result in a working government, Merkel will be restrained on the global stage and in Europe, where French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for ambitious reforms.

EU and euro politics, in turn, are shaping up as another divisive issue.

Merkel and the Greens have cautiously welcomed Macron’s plans, but FDP chief Christian Lindner, who is eyeing the powerful finance minister’s post, has assumed a far more sceptical tone.

He rejects any kind of “transfer union” — code for German taxpayers’ money flowing to weaker economies — and said Europe must grow through “solidarity and competitiveness, not a failed policy of redistribution”.

Lindner has praised, however, Seehofer’s tougher stance on migration, declaring that refugee numbers “must be reduced”.

The Greens, for their part, reject an upper limit, want to stop deportations of rejected asylum seekers to war-torn Afghanistan, and favour steps to help Syrian refugees bring their families.

Even if these issues are somehow resolved, the Greens will also push other core demands unpopular with the pro-business parties — including setting target dates to phase out coal plants and fossil fuel vehicles.

For now, these talks are down the road, expected to start after the October 15 Lower Saxony vote.

First of all, said CSU lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt, the CDU and CSU must establish whether they are “still sister parties”.

Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/refugee-issue-looms-as-merkel-starts-coalition-talks/article/504488

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Macron: Europe is too slow, blind to dangers of nationalism

Sylvie Corbet — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 23:51:49 +0000

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron make a toast during a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP)

PARIS

Calling Europe slow, weak and ineffective, French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said the EU should embrace a joint budget, shared military force and harmonized taxes to stay globally relevant.

With Brexit looming, Macron warned the rest of Europe against the dangers of anti-immigrant nationalism and fragmentation, saying it goes against the principles of a shared Europe born from the tragedy of world wars.

“We thought the past would not come back … we thought we had learned the lessons,” Macron told a crowd of European students at the Sorbonne university Tuesday.

After a far-right party entered the German parliament for the first time in 60 years, Macron said this isolationist attitude has resurfaced “because of blindness … because we forgot to defend Europe.”

“The Europe that we know is too slow, too weak, too ineffective,” he said.

To change that, he proposed a joint budget for European countries sharing the euro currency that would allow investment in European projects and help stabilize the eurozone in case of economic crisis. This budget would at some point need to come from national budgets of countries sharing the euro currency, for instance using domestic taxes on businesses.

Macron said the only way to make Europe strong in a globalized world is to reshape “a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”

While re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled openness to some of Macron’s ideas, one potential ally in her new government is deeply skeptical about a eurozone budget. Macron’s office says he wants his Europe strategy to play a role in Germany’s coalition-building talks.

To reduce inequalities across the EU, Macron also suggested greater harmonization of EU tax policies — notably on corporate taxes, and taxing internet giants where they make money and not where they are registered.

Macron is also proposing that every EU country guarantee a minimum wage and payroll charges.

Macron said, “I believe deeply in this innovation economy,” but insisted that “we must have this debate” about making taxation more fair.

Macron also proposed a shared European military intervention force and defense budget. He suggested the creation of a European intelligence academy to better fight terrorism, and a joint civil protection force.

He wants to open the French military to European soldiers and proposed other EU member states do the same on a voluntary basis.

To deal with Europe’s migration flux, Macron wants a European asylum agency and standard EU identity documents.

Macron’s policies have met resistance at home, and riot police held back a few dozen protesters outside the Sorbonne.

Macron doesn’t want to wait for Britain to leave the EU in 2019 to tie European economies closer together.

He’s well-placed to kickstart those efforts: at just 39, he came of age under the EU, and won a strong electoral mandate this year. And he’s already held one-on-one meetings with 22 of the union’s 27 other leaders to market his EU strategy.

Macron recalled he won the presidential election on a pro-European platform, against anti-European, anti-immigration far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

His biggest challenge may be the German political calendar. The outgoing government there goes into caretaker status in a few weeks and is not going to be taking any major decisions on the future of Europe, and it may take months for Merkel to form a viable coalition.

The pro-business Free Democrats, a key potential partner for Merkel, is against a joint budget because the party says that would result in automatic, uncontrolled money transfers from Germany to struggling eurozone partners.

Answering a question about Germany’s potential reluctance to a joint budget, Macron said he is open to discussion and insisted this budget would not be based on an automatic, uncontrolled transfer of money, but rather on common projects that would be democratically approved and financed.

Merkel herself said Monday she wouldn’t rule anything out and that she is in touch with Macron about his plans. “What is important to me above all is that we could use more Europe, but that must lead to more competitiveness, more jobs, simply more clout for the European Union,” she told reporters in Berlin.

Macron plans to discuss his proposals with all leaders of EU member states that are interested in the integration process by the end of the year.

He then wants “transparent, free” debates involving all citizens to be organized in all EU countries early next year, with the aim of combating euroskepticism by giving a voice to Europeans, instead of imposing decisions.

He said EU leaders should be ready to propose a detailed, agreed roadmap to reform Europe by 2019, when elections for the European parliament are to be held.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/world/macron-seeks-to-kick-start-stalled-europe-brexit-or-no

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France ‘may be the next GREAT WORLD POWER’ if it stands up to Germany in the EU

Mark Chandler — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 17:32:20 +0000

Michael Ivanovich of economic research firm MSI Global made the call over German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU’s apparent reluctance to back French President Emmanuel Macron’ proposed reforms.

The French President wants to set up a eurozone budget to boost solidarity between member states and make the eurozone “as powerful as the United States and China”.

Mr Macron is also pushing for further legislative and executive control over the euro area.

But, writing for CNBC, Mr Ivanovich warned the French President faces a series of tough choices over continental reform.

With Mrs Merkel poised to stay in power after Germany’s upcoming election, Berlin’s resistance to France’s planned reforms are unlikely to change.

He wrote: “If he caves in to pressure from Berlin and Brussels and abandons his reform proposals, he will be mercilessly steamrolled by Germans, like his predecessors, and will expose himself as a weakling to ferocious attacks at home.”

But he said: “Macron’s best bet could be to stand up and stick to his Eurozone reform proposals.

“Stand up indeed, because he got it right: An appropriate legislative and executive authority he is proposing is an absolute essential condition to frame sovereignty transfers for a common euro area fiscal policy.

GETTY-EPA-REUTERS

Emmanuel Macron wants to reform the EU

“That would create a quasi-federal institutional environment to prevent policy domination by any single member country.”

He went on: “The French plan looks to me well thought out to accommodate that next phase of the European project.

“Paris should have no trouble winning the day against the vague, inept and sloganeering integration rhetoric put forward by an apparently German-sponsored EU proposal presented last week.”

And he concluded: “France has a chance to make a crucially important contribution — if it stands up firmly for itself and the rest of Europe.”

The crunch comes as Mr Macron faces mass protests over his labour reform plans and a plummeting approval rating just months into the job.

Mr Macron made deepening EU integration a key part of his election campaign and wants eurozone countries to create a common budget worth “several points of the eurozone’s GDP”

The French President wants a large, separate euro zone budget financed from a special tax, a finance minister specifically for the euro zone and a separate euro zone parliament to which the minister would be accountable.

Mrs Merkel appeared to support the Commission’s idea of a pan-European finance minister, but noted the terms used were still undefined and said she did not see big differences between the Commission and French ideas.

She also backed financial support for EU countries that implement reforms – one of the possible uses of the euro zone budget – but shunned the French idea of financing this with a special tax.

Mrs Merkel said: ”I don’t see for the moment a convincing case for a European tax.

French anti-riot police force CRS officers clash with demonstrators during a protest called by several French unions against the labour law reform in Lyon, on September 12, 2017 Nor is there agreement on whether all the changes to the eurozone should be done through a separate treaty between governments, or by changing the European Union treaty.

The difference is more than just a technicality, because an intergovernmental treaty would be faster, involve only euro zone governments and leave all powers with these governments.

Changes through the EU treaty would require more time and mean non-euro zone countries and the European Parliament would have to agree, too. The powers of the new euro zone institutions would be shared with EU institutions, which are sometimes mistrusted by some national governments.

Mr Macron is to present his views on the future shape of the eurozone on September 26.

Eurozone ministers agree that a budget for the single currency area would help counter external shocks which hit just one or a few euro countries. But there is no agreement on its size or what it should be spent on.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/855611/France-Germany-Emmanuela-Macron-Angela-Merkel-EU-reform

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French President Emmanuel Macron - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Germany will pay Namibia $1.3bn as it formally recognizes colonial-era genocide

Victims group reject deal

A bloody conflict

G7 ministers criticize US tariffs and warn of trade war

What happened at Whistler?

What are the tariffs?

What has the response been?

EU leaders push back against Trump on Iran nuclear deal

Refugee issue looms as Merkel starts coalition talks

Macron: Europe is too slow, blind to dangers of nationalism

France ‘may be the next GREAT WORLD POWER’ if it stands up to Germany in the EU