Ukraine war: Country-by-country guide on how Russia's invasion has changed Europe

Russia's war has brought death, destruction and misery to Ukraine over the last six months. But how has the conflict changed the rest of Europe?

 Read more: Ukraine war: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/08/23/ukraine-war-country-by-country-guide-on-how-russias-invasion-has-changed-europe

Iceland - 4-day week: Why Iceland's 4-day workweek pilot was an 'overwhelming success'

People who work fewer hours per week are not only happier, but also more productive at their jobs according to a large-scale pilot program in Iceland.

Between 2015 and 2019, the Reykjavík City Council and Icelandic federal government teamed up with trade unions to test the pros and cons of a four-day workweek.

About 2,500 workers — more than one per cent of the country's workforce — worked between 35 and 36 hours a week, as opposed to the standard 40, with no reduction in pay.

Read more at: Why Iceland's 4-day workweek pilot was an 'overwhelming success' | CBC Radio

UFO's: No longer confined to the fringe, UFO theories move into the mainstream

UFOs are now serious business.

So serious, in fact, that they have been given a new name. No longer called UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects, a term often associated with people of questionable sanity, the mysterious objects that have been reported by the hundreds, are now the source of discussion in serious scientific circles and have been rebaptised with the more serious-sounding moniker Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs.

Last June, officials made public the existence of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, housed within the Office of Naval Intelligence. Six months later, the 2021 Intelligence Authorization Act asked the director of national intelligence work and the secretary of defence to put together a report detailing everything the government knows about UAPs.

Read more at: No longer confined to the fringe, UFO theories move into the mainstream

EU Economy: In the EU, GDP down by 0.4% and employment down by 0.3%

In the first quarter of 2021, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by 0.6% in the euro areaand by 0.4% in the EU,compared with the previous quarter, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. These declines follow falls in the fourth quarter of 2020(-0.7% in the euro areaand -0.5% in the EU) after a strong rebound in the third quarter of 2020 (+12.5% in the euro areaand +11.7% in the EU) and the sharpest decreases since the time series started in 1995 observed inthe second quarter of 2020 (-11.6% in the euro areaand -11.2% in the EU

Read more at: 2-18052021-AP-EN.pdf

NATO in a quandary as it awaits Joe Biden′s Afghanistan plans

A group in Washington co-chaired by retired General Joseph Dunford, who served both as commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the Biden team that it should immediately begin negotiating for an extension of the deadline. The Afghanistan Study Group's conclusions include that "withdrawal in May under current conditions will likely lead to a collapse of the Afghan state and a possible renewed civil war" in addition to a "reconstitution of the terrorist threat to the US homeland within 18 months to three years."

Read more at: NATO in a quandary as it awaits Joe Biden′s Afghanistan plans | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 16.02.2021

2020 Music Year in Review: Sheffield on How Fandom Went Underground - by Rob Sheffield

In 2020, being a music fan meant listening by yourself, more than ever, as the coronavirus ravaged the country and our lives. Being a fan in 2020 was crazy in ways that were totally new, because everything about pop life changed overnight. We didn’t get to hear “WAP” in the club or at a party. We didn’t rock out to our favorite new songs live. We didn’t get that shared public experience of music. Isolation became a major fact of life, and the music reflected that. For so many of us, music is key to how we connect to the outside world. But in 2020, music became the outside world, as public spaces were few and far between. It was a shared experience at a time when we really needed that.

Pop music got lustier and hornier all year as a direct response. Ariana Grande made a fantastic album called Positions, basically a grinding-at-the-club thirst trap. It really encapsulated the year in pop fandom — a sex-crazed fantasy lovingly crafted by, for, and about people who aren’t doing any of the wild and crazy things in the songs. Remember the Ariana who sang “Break Up With Your Boyfriend, I’m Bored”? So does she, and there was something heroic about keeping that spirit alive this year.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion dropped everyone’s favorite summer sex jam, “WAP,” announcing the presence of whores in the house. When “WAP” hit Number One, it replaced Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” — I love that: two songs about the same thing, as different musically as two songs could be, yet kindred spirits as two of the year’s filthiest hits in the least Hot Girl Summer of all time. Part of why “Watermelon Sugar” felt timely was the video Harry filmed on the beach in January, right before lockdown, with the intro: “This video is dedicated to touching.”

Read more at: 2020 Music Year in Review: Sheffield on How Fandom Went Underground - Rolling Stone

Britain-US relations: Biden threatens UK trade deal over Brexit shambles-by Andrew Rettman

Britain's US trade deal is in jeopardy if the UK endangers Northern Ireland peace over Brexit, US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said.

"We can't allow the [1998] Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit," Biden said on Wednesday (16 September).

Read more at: 
Biden threatens UK trade deal over Brexit shambles

EU relationship with Saudi Arabia - 7 reasons the EU shouldn't be allies with Saudi Arabia & 1 reason why it still is

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia continues to be one of  Europe's key international allies with ministers, Heads of State and even Royal families making every effort to keep the hard-line Middle East kingdom on Europe's side.

But while Europe has no problems with the US forcing them to impose tough sanctions on countries like Russia for their war with Ukraine, the EU often falls deadly silent amid claims of human rights abuses and war crimes by Saudi Arabia.

This attitude is remarkable for the EU, which claims to cherish human rights and always stands ready to protect it by all means possible. This while the Saudi royal family regularly face accusations of overseeing a brutal regime where political opponents are executed, all criticism is censored and women are second-class citizens.

A kingdom which has also faced claims it is the breeding ground of Islamist terror groups across the world.

Here are seven reasons why the EU shouldn't be friends with Saudi - and one multi-billion EURO reason why it still is…

Crime and Punishment : Documents show ISIS & Saudi Arabia prescribe near-identical punishments for crimes.

Death Penalty: A recent report by human rights charity Reprieve found 171 people are currently facing execution in Saudi Arabia.

Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of these were sentenced to death for non-violent offences, including the attendance of political protests.

Those found protesting against the kingdom's rulers are convicted of 'corrupting the Earth' - a charge which carries the death penalty.

Censorship:  The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights branded the public flooding a "cruel and inhuman punishment… prohibited under international human rights law".

Amnesty International has accused Saudi's hardline rulers of systematically wiping out almost all human rights activism in the country over the past few years, much of it under the disguise of 'counter-terror' laws.

Peaceful activists from one leading group are are said to have been rounded up, beaten and given long prison sentences in an effort to “wipe out all trace” of the organization.

It followed fears among the Saudi royal family that the 2011 'Arab Spring' uprisings could inspire a similar revolt against themselves.

Treatment of women : Apart from considering women inferior to men Saudi Arabia  is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.

War Crimes:  Since civil war broke out in Yemen this year, a Saudi-led coalition has carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels who overthrew the country's government.

Riyadh has frequently been accused of war crimes with hospitals, schools, markets, aid warehouses, charity offices and refugee camps all said to have been targeted by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.
 

By September more than 2,200 civilian deaths had been registered.

One report by Amnesty International documented the use of internationally-banned cluster bombs while the body of a one-year-old baby was found in wreckage with his dummy still in his mouth.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is currently considering legal action against the Government unless it stops allowing British-produced arms being sent to Saudi amid concerns of war crimes in Yemen.

 

Is Saudi Arabia inspiring fanatical extremism?: Since the 9/11 terror attacks in New York in 2001 - when 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers were found to be Saudi nationals - the kingdom has faced regular claims it is helping to breed Islamic extremism and terror groups across the world.
 

The fanatical 'Wahhabi' strain of Islam, which is centred in Saudi Arabia, is now said to be closest ideology to that of ISIS - with some claiming the views espoused by Saudi's Wahhabist clerics inspired the growth of the terror group.

Saudi has also faced accusations it has tried to export puritanical Wahhabism abroad over the last three decades, at a cost of  €100B

 

The cash is spent on building mosques or establishing madrassas - religious schools - in other Muslim nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and parts of Africa.

Are the Saudi's Funding ISIS ? : Saudi Arabia has strongly denied it has provided funding to ISIS, with officials pointing to new laws it has brought in to prevent money from the kingdom going to jihadist groups.

But their denials still haven't stopped accusations from some British politicians of a link between the financing of ISIS and Saudi Arabia.

Last month former British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown claimed ISIS was continuing to be funded by wealthy individuals from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He said: "I don't say the governments have been doing it, but their rich businessmen certainly have."
Saudi money and weapons for anti-regime forces have poured into Syria soon after the country plunged into civil war.

Why are so many EU states still ever so closely connected to Saudi Arabia?: It comes down to one simple answer - Arms Sales: (click here) EU arms sales contributed to a large extend in propping up Saudi Arabia's military and indirectly also contribute to increased  terrorism and violence in the Middle East.

 

British figures show that Saudi Arabia has twice as many British-made warplanes as the entire RAF, and these same Government figures show two-thirds of British-made arms go to the Middle East with Saudi by far the major buyer.

 

On a global scale the above picture becomes even more interwoven and complex when we include the US in this scenario. They are not only the closest Saudi Arabia ally, but the US is also the major exporter of arms to the Kingdom. 

Just recently the U.S. approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, despite widespread mounting evidence of the country’s mass atrocities and possible war crimes in neighboring Yemen.  

 

This sale included  over 10,000 bombs, munitions, and weapons parts produced by Boeing and Raytheon. of which 5,200 Paveway II “laser guided” and 12,000 “general purpose” bombs. “Bunker Busters,” designed to destroy concrete structures. 

 

Total US arms sales to the Saudi Kingdom last year are estimated to have been close or over $50billion.

 

As the Shakespearean saying goes: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". 

EU-Digest

NSA spying: Obama announces "limits" on surveillance program

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for ending the government's control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans, and he promises that "we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies."

The president said Friday he will end the program "as it currently exists." He called for extending some privacy protections to foreign citizens whose communications are scooped up by the U.S.

But Obama also said he believes critics of the program have been right to argue that without proper safeguards, the collection could be used to obtain more information about the private lives of Americans and open the door to more intrusive programs.

Obama warned, however, that "we cannot unilaterally disarm our intelligence agencies." He added, "We know that the intelligence services of other countries — including some who feign surprise over the Snowden disclosures — are constantly probing our government and private sector networks."

Key questions about the future of the surveillance apparatus remain. While Obama wants to strip the NSA of its ability to store the phone records, he offered no recommendation for where the data should be moved.

Instead, he gave the intelligence community and the attorney general 60 days to study options.
He also immediately ordered intelligence agencies to get a secretive court's permission before accessing such records.

Privacy advocates say moving the data outside the government's control could minimize the risk of unauthorized or overly broad searches by the NSA.

NSA spying: Obama announces questionable limits on surveillance program - World - CBC News

Russia: History Repeated Itself as Farce in 2012

Two hundred years ago this month, the miserable shreds of Napoleon's Grande Armee shuffled out of Russian territory, thanking their lucky stars they had made it safely home and vowing never, ever to try that again.

Those sentiments were shared by survivors of this year's re-enactment of the Battle of Borodino and the immense traffic jams that left thousands stranded on the battlefield.

It was a helpful reminder that history tends to repeat itself as farce rather than tragedy.

We got a new-old president, but were denied the thrill of a new era because he is as familiar and unexciting as the buckwheat served at your office canteen.

An aircraft vanished, a monastery was caught running brothels and the white ribbon — or was it a condom? — was briefly the must-have accessory on Moscow's streets.

The fad of the year was the political opposition as entertainment. Right up until summer the best fun in town — and the only place to be seen — was being chased around the boulevard ring by tired riot cops.

Read more: History Repeated Itself as Farce in 2012 | News | The Moscow Times