Germany: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that it would send a bad signal to the world if a Brexit trade deal could not be reached, as an EU negotiating team stayed in London for additional talks.

With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."

Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020

Press distances themselves from Trump claims: Fox News, Other Murdoch Outlets Begin Diverging From Trump As Presidency Slips Away - by Joe Walsh

Fox News interrupted White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday to fact-check her untrue voter fraud allegations, the latest instance of Fox and other members of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire — once key allies of President Donald Trump — pushing back on Trump’s baseless refusal to accept defeat and priming viewers for a post-Trump future.

After McEnany baselessly suggested in a press conference Monday afternoon that President-elect Joe Biden’s supporters are willfully engaging in voter fraud, anchor Neil Cavuto cut her off and said she has no evidence, saying, “I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”

Read more at: Fox News, Other Murdoch Outlets Begin Diverging From Trump As Presidency Slips Away

USA: Joe Biden picks Janet Yellen for treasury chief

US President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, to be head of the Treasury Department in his administration, he confirmed in a statement on Monday.

If she is confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first female chief in the 232 years of the department's history.

Read more at: US: Joe Biden picks Janet Yellen for treasury chief | News | DW | 30.11.2020

USA: Biden urged to reject Big Tech's influence by 32 advocacy groups

Thirty-two groups including ones focused on antitrust, consumer advocacy and progressive issues sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden on Monday urging him to reject the influence of Big Tech companies on his administration.

Read more at Biden urged to reject Big Tech's influence by 32 advocacy groups | Reuters

USA: Liar Liar your pants are on fire: Trump Fox News Host Pulls Apart Election Lies Trump Spouted On Network Hours Earlier - by Josephine Harvey

Fox News host Eric Shawn on Sunday debunked election disinformation that President Donald Trump shared on the same network only hours earlier.

Trump unloaded a stream of baseless claims about a rigged election in his first televised interview since the election to his devout Fox News ally Maria Bartiromo, who encouraged the allegations and allowed them to go largely unchallenged.

But Fox weekend anchor Shawn pointed out on “America’s News Headquarters” that Trump’s campaign has failed to prove any of his accusations in court.

“In fact, your government, election officials, experts and others ― many of them Republican, including Trump appointed officials ― say that the president’s claims are false and unsubstantiated,” he told viewers.

< Read more at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-eric-shawn-debunks-trump_n_5fc415f8c5b63d1b770d1d0a?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMyaJZXgPtoSY5ZFnARuCUPF1dUUarLBK17pfOdwLbG6-5VrPx86ByiKH6JvYwDXOzRYZTLGv1_pKsqUkx_hyy5eNaozfxsnBr95uuSzY8p4HgcVsQDKseq3thI3q6pmex5JK2qL5HTqyT-sK4oLlk3nCP16eOHCjduNHlqm3WCw

EU: Poland could be expelled (exit) from EU over judicial reform clash: top Polish court

Poland could end up leaving the European Union because of plans by the ruling nationalists that would allow judges to be fired if they question the legitimacy of the government’s judicial reforms, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.

The court said the plans could contravene European law and exacerbate existing tensions between Brussels and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).

“Contradictions between Polish law and EU law ... will in all likelihood lead to an intervention by the EU institutions regarding an infringement of the EU treaties, and in the longer perspective (will lead to) the need to leave the European Union,” Poland’s Supreme Court said in a statement.

Read more at: Poland could exit EU over judicial reform clash: top Polish court | Reuters

The Netherlands: Unilever officially no longer Dutch company

For 91 years, the company structure was divided between the Netherlands and Great Britain, with two head offices in London and Rotterdam. The company also had two boards and two types of shares.

To simplify its structure, the company decided in 2018 to opt for one main office. Initially, the choice fell on Rotterdam, possibly partly due to the government's announcement to abolish the dividend tax. However, after opposition from influential shareholders, London became the final choice. In the end, the abolition of the dividend tax in the Netherlands was not passed.

The restructuring means that important strategic decisions will subsequently be made in London. This brings an end to the long Dutch history of the company, but in practice – at least in short term – there won't be much change.

Read more at: Unilever officially no longer Dutch company | NL Times

EU: France - Britain relations: New UK-France agreement to tackle migrant crossings after thousands make journey this year - by David Mercer

The UK and France have reached a new agreement to tackle migrants crossing the Channel with more officers patrolling beaches and "cutting edge" surveillance technology deployed, the Home Office has said.

Read more at: New UK-France agreement to tackle migrant crossings after thousands make journey this year | UK News | Sky News

The TPNW and the Netherlands: Dutch Government: "Only politics stands in the way of joining the TPNW "- by Susi Snyder

Last 2018 the Dutch parliament passed a motion calling on the government to provide a legal analysis as to whether or not the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was compatible with existing Dutch law.

On 30 January 2019, the government answered.

A letter sent by Dutch Foreign Minister S.A. Blok and Defence Minister A.Th.B. Bijleveld-Schouten responded that joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would not require any changes to existing Dutch legislation, however it would require additional implementation legislation. However, the conclusion of the legal analysis is that the need for implementing legislation does not stand in the way of possible signing and acceptance of the Convention by the Kingdom.

The letter took as its starting point that all international treaties that the Netherlands joins become part of the Dutch legal system. And that, if it’s possible, the implementation of any treaties joined by the Netherlands should be done within existing legislation and regulations.Bottom Line: no clarity - just words.

Read more at: » Dutch Government: Only politics stands in the way of joining the TPNW - PAX NoNukes

Middle East: Iran's supreme leader calls for 'definitive punishment' of scientist's killers

Iran’s supreme leader has called for the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of one of the country’s most senior scientists, who was identified by Israel as having headed a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the architect of Tehran’s nuclear strategy, was killed on Friday on a highway near the capital in a carefully planned assassination that has led to a serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

Iran later told the UN in a letter there were “serious indications of Israeli responsibility” and that it reserved the right to “take all necessary measures to defend its people”.

Read more at: Iran's supreme leader calls for 'definitive punishment' of scientist's killers | World news | The Guardian

A tale of two Presidents: How the legal troubles of a former French president could be a blueprint for Trump's

Tale of two countries: Donald Trump is reputed not to read much, and he certainly won't want to read about the trial of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former right-wing French president.

Like Trump, Sarkozy has always loved the limelight. The French media call him a bête de scène, a political beast who craves public attention, whether good or bad.

Like Trump, he was twice divorced and then remarried to a model, Carla Bruni, in his case while he was in office as president.

Read more at: How the legal troubles of a former French president could be a blueprint for Trump's | CBC News

EU: Poland hammered on women's rights in EU debate

The European Commission has urged Poland not to abandon a treaty against domestic violence, as Warsaw continues to drift further from EU norms.

"The Istanbul Convention is the gold standard in terms of policy in this area," equality commissioner Helena Dalli said in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday (25 November), referring to a 2011 international treaty.
Read more at: Poland hammered on women's rights in EU debate

USA - Democratic Nations: Are you on the list? Biden’s democracy summit spurs anxieties — and skepticism - " especially if they don't call a spade a spade" by Nahal Toosi

President-elect Joe Biden has promised to host a gathering of the world’s democracies next year, hoping to show that a post-Donald Trump America will be committed to democracy abroad and at home.

Biden’s pledge, though, has left many foreign officials pondering a thorny question: Will their country be invited?

t’s of special concern for nations such as Turkey, Hungary, Poland and the Philippines — all U.S. allies or partners with leaders who have taken notable steps away from democracy. Even a country like India, which boasts of being the world’s most populous democracy, may not make the cut given recent anti-democratic trends there. Then there’s the question of how weighted the event will be toward Western countries. Looming over it all will be the memory of Trump, who has yet to concede the Nov. 3 election and spent four years raising questions about the strength of America’s own democratic system.

Biden aides declined to comment on the record for this report, but they pointed to a spring essay by the president-elect in which he laid out some aspects of his “Summit for Democracy.” Biden wrote that the gathering “will bring together the world’s democracies to strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly confront nations that are backsliding, and forge a common agenda.”

Note EU-Digest - Hopefully the Biden Administration willcall "a spade a spade" when inviting participants to their "democratic Nations" meeting and exclude countries like Saudi-Arabia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Egypt and many others who don't make the grade of a Democratic nation. IKf not the meeting will be just a PR excercise.

read more at: Are you on the list? Biden’s democracy summit spurs anxieties — and skepticism - POLITICO

USA: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline - by James Traub

A few years ago I developed a moderately cheering theory about the effects of four years of U.S. President Donald Trump. The thought came to me while I was covering the French presidential elections in 2017. Very few French voters seemed to be attracted to Emmanuel Macron’s Anglo-American brand of liberalism, but they voted for him in overwhelming numbers against Marine Le Pen because they felt called to defend so-called republican values against her populist nativism. The French had a collective memory of their own brush with fascism during the Vichy era and the 1930s. So, too, the Spanish, who kept their own right wing firmly in check. Perhaps, I thought, Americans’ own problem was historical complacency; if so, Trump could provide a kind of homeopathic remedy which would inoculate them against the full-blown disease of authoritarianism without making them gravely ill.

I was wrong. The democratic catharsis that I hoped this election would produce did not happen and is not happening. I need not recite the evidence, as so many others have, including Foreign Policy’s editor, Jonathan Tepperman. It is enough to say that my medical metaphor got it backward: Trump exploited a preexisting condition of contempt for democratic norms and then made it vastly worse.

Read more at: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline

US Nuclear Weapons stored in Europe: The New Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Will Be an Early Trial for Biden - by Miles A. Pomper

With support from nearly half the world’s nations, a new United Nations treaty banning the possession and use of nuclear weapons will take effect early next year. The U.N. confirmed last month that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW, had been ratified by the required 50 countries. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this treaty.”

Many non-nuclear-armed states, as well as pro-disarmament activists and organizations like the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, have celebrated the agreement, which they see as a milestone in global efforts to prevent nuclear war. However, it has drawn strong opposition from nuclear-armed states, especially the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Trump administration has called on the treaty’s 84 signatories to back out of it. Its entry into force on Jan. 22, 2021, will pose a thorny diplomatic challenge for the incoming Biden administration.

Still, the treaty could pose a political problem in the future for NATO members and other countries that shelter under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, given the TPNW’s call not to support actions inconsistent with the treaty. That challenge is especially acute for the five NATO members that host an estimated 150 forward-deployed U.S nuclear weapons: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. German, Dutch and Belgian disarmament advocates, in particular, enjoy strong mainstream political support among center-left parties in all three countries. And 56 former world leaders, including many from NATO countries, argued recently in an open letter that the new nuclear ban treaty can “help end decades of paralysis in disarmament.”

Note EU-Digest: Five NATO members, including, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey still shelter large numbers of US Nuclear weapons on their soil. Hopefully the UN TPNW Treaty will force the disarmament of these weapons from these countries, which presently makes them a major target for massive destruction and death in case of war.

Read more at: The New Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Will Be an Early Trial for

EU versus US Data Giants: Europe vows to tame US data giants

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and the bloc's executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager have outlined plans on how Europe's individuals, businesses and governing bodies could better handle data.

The aim, Breton told a Brussels press briefing Wednesday, was a series of directives to help make Europe the world's "No 1 data continent" alongside the supremacy of the US and China.

Read more at: href="https://www.dw.com/en/europe-vows-to-tame-us-data-giants/a-55730324">Europe vows to tame US data giants | News | DW | 25.11.2020

Saudi Arabia: Human Rights Violations: Saudi activist's trial moved to specialized terrorism court following rare court appearance

The trial of Saudi activist Loujain Alhathloul has been transferred from Saudi Arabia's criminal court to a court specializing in terrorism charges, according to her family.

The move, which has been decried by human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, is the latest development in the case, which has been back in the spotlight following the G20 conference in Riyadh. The referral is a setback for efforts to push for her swift release and means she will face charges related to terrorism and national security.

Alhathloul, 31, earned a degree from the University of British Columbia and lived in Vancouver for five years before being arrested in May 2018 along with nine other prominent women's rights activists.

Anoter example of scandalous misbehavior re: human rights violations of Saudi Arabia.

Read more at: Saudi activist's trial moved to specialized terrorism court following rare court appearance | CBC News

USA: Au revoir 'America First': Biden team ditches Trump-style nationalism with foreign policy picks

Let's cast a gaze forward to the first few days of Joe Biden's presidency for a glimpse at how dramatic a departure we're about to witness from the "America First" era.

Read more at:Au revoir 'America First': Biden team ditches Trump-style nationalism with foreign policy picks | CBC News

EU - Disrespect rule of law by Poland and Hungary: The rule of law: a simple phrase with exacting demands – by Albena Azmanova and Kalypso Nicolaidis

That the European Union, in its moment of public healthcare emergency and acute economic plight, should find itself paralysed over such a seemingly abstract matter as the rule of law is one of the great paradoxes of our times. And yet this is exactly the conundrum plaguing approval of the EU’s seven-year budget and recovery fund, totalling €1.81 trillion, which Poland and Hungary have been blocking over rule-of-law conditionality for the funds’ disbursement.

Read more at: The rule of law: a simple phrase with exacting demands – Albena Azmanova and Kalypso Nicolaidis

EU Counter Measures To Be Taken- Article 7: Hungary and Poland maintain united front blocking EU COVID-19 recovery fund

The leaders of Hungary and Poland have vowed to maintain a united front and uphold their veto of the EU's budget and its massive pandemic relief fund.

They continue to oppose the mechanism that ties funding for countries to rule of law principles, arguing that the EU plan risks derailing the bloc.

" Note EU-Digest: Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union should be applied, which is a procedure in the treaties of the European Union (EU) to suspend certain rights from a member state and consequently stop all funding to these two countries within this legal framework".

Read more at: Hungary and Poland maintain united front blocking EU COVID-19 recovery fund | Euronews

Malware: Random pop ups? 5 telltale signs your computer is infected with malware—and how to fix it- by Kristine Solomon

Remember when you could surf the web without being barraged by one pop-up ad after another? Between ”Congratulations! You’ve won $1 million” and “Alert! Virus detected,” constant, unwanted pop-up advertisements have become a frustrating reality of our online experience—and most (though not all) are simply spam in disguise.

Read more at: Random pop ups? 5 telltale signs your computer is infected with malware—and how to fix it

USA: Trump pardons Michael Flynn, former national security adviser, in tweet

President Donald Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, taking direct aim in the final days of his administration at a Russia investigation that he has long insisted was motivated by political bias.

Read more at: Trump pardons Michael Flynn, former national security adviser, in tweet | PBS NewsHour

International travel -Vaccine Requirements: International travellers may need COVID-19 vaccines before they can board some airlines

International air travel could come booming back next year but with a new rule: travellers to certain countries must be vaccinated against the coronavirus before they can fly.

Encouraging news about vaccine development has given airlines and nations hope they may soon be able to revive suspended flight routes and dust off lucrative tourism plans. But countries in Asia and the Pacific, in particular, are determined not to let their hard-won gains against the virus evaporate.

Read more at: International travellers may need COVID-19 vaccines before they can board some airlines | CBC News

The Netherlands: Dutch flower industry hit hard by the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world’s largest flower auction on the outskirts of Amsterdam into chaos. As Europe remains in lockdown, no-one thinks of buying flowers and tons of them land in shredders. 

Read more at: Dutch flower industry hit hard by the pandemic | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 24.11.2020

UK economy to suffer 'largest fall in output for 300 years' as GDP down 11.3% in 2020, says Sunak

Debt would be 91.9% of GDP this year, rising to 97.5% in 2025-26, he said. In comparison, government debt in the eurozone stood at 95.1% of GDP in the second quarter of 2020, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.

The OBR said that if the UK trades with the EU under World Trade Organization (WTO) terms, as would happen should no trade deal be reached by the end of the transition period on December 31, the effect would "reduce real GDP by a further 2% in 2021". Bottom line, the economic picture for Britain looks quite bleak.

UK economy to suffer 'largest fall in output for 300 years' as GDP down 11.3% in 2020, says Sunak | Euronews

EU - Opinion on Hungary and Poland: The E.U. Puts Its Foot Down on the Rule of Law - editorial board

After years of passively watching nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland undermine democratic rule, the European Union finally drew the line this year and declared that disbursements from the E.U. budget and a special coronavirus relief fund would be contingent on each member’s adherence to the rule of law. Hungary and Poland have shamelessly retaliated by threatening to veto the Union’s next seven-year budget, emergency funds and all, unless the condition is scrapped.

The governments in Budapest and Warsaw couched their defiance with their usual plaints that the bloc was behaving like their former Soviet overlords. “This is not why we created the European Union, so that there would be a second Soviet Union,” declared Viktor Orban, the proudly illiberal prime minister of Hungary. But such posturing has long been discredited, especially as both right-wing governments have happily reaped huge subsidies from the European Union.

The cynical reactions of Mr. Orban and the right-wing Law and Justice government in Warsaw demonstrated how far they have strayed from the fundamental principles they signed on to when they joined the European Union. They make no bones about it: Hungarian and Polish officials recently met to set up a joint institute to combat the “suppression of opinions by liberal ideology.”

Mr. Orban in particular has systematically worked to curtail the independence of the judiciary, bring the press to heel and curb civil society. With Fidesz, his nationalist party, in full control of Parliament, he took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic in March to assume broad and open-ended emergency powers that effectively allow him to rule by decree for as long as he wants.

Note EU-Digest: "Hungary and Poland want all the benefits of the EU, but do not want to comply with the rules - it's hight time for the EU Commission to give them an ultimatum- live up to the rules of the EU or lose your membership"

Read more at: Opinion | The E.U. Puts Its Foot Down on the Rule of Law - The New York Times

USA: Enough cowardice: Democrats must forge ahead, without caring what the Trumpers say - by Bob Cesca

Carl Bernstein wrote this week that 21 Senate Republicans have "privately expressed their disdain for Trump." Underscore "privately." Bernstein name-dropped Sens. Rob Portman, Lamar Alexander, Ben Sasse, Roy Blunt, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, John Cornyn, John Thune, Mitt Romney, Mike Braun, Todd Young, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Chuck Grassley, Richard Burr, Pat Toomey, Martha McSally, Jerry Moran, Pat Roberts and Richard Shelby. Most of them have voted with Trump across the board, and only a few — Collins, Murkowski, Romney and Sasse, most notably — have dared to publicly criticize him. Why? Cowardice before the fury of the Red Hats.

Read mre at: Enough cowardice: Democrats must forge ahead, without caring what the Trumpers say | Salon.com

USA: Joe Biden: The Last of the 1968 Generation - by Denis MacShane

Biden (like Trump) is a life-long teetotaler. Irish families set great store by “signing the pledge” not to drink alcohol. Unusual for a young adult in the 1960s, Biden has kept off the booze all his life.

Joe Biden is the last top politician of the 1968 generation. That generation’s impact on politics in many countries has been remarkable and he is the politician America needs more than ever now to pacify a troubled America.

Read more at: Joe Biden: The Last of the 1968 Generation - The Globalist

Germany: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents

rom November 23, landlords in the German capital must lower excessively high rents — that is, if they exceed a standardized limit by more than 20% — or face heavy fines. The German constitutional court dismissed the landlord associations' attempts to halt the imminent reductions at the end of October.

Read more at: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 23.11.2020

Germany, France and Britain to discuss Iran nuclear on Monday - in Berlin

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is meeting his French and British counterparts in Berlin on Monday for talks focussing on the nuclear deal with Iran, a German foreign office spokeswoman said, adding Iran was violating the agreement systematically.

"Together with our partners, we strongly call on Iran to stop violating the deal and return to fulfilling all its nuclear obligations completely," the spokeswoman said.

Read more at: Germany, France and Britain to discuss Iran nuclear on Monday - Germany

Wake-Up America: Time is running out to get your act together - by RM

Many people around the world are amazed and appalled to see, how an overwhelming number of American citizens, including many Republican politicians, are presenly sitting on their hands and letting a vindictive, egoistic, narcissist Trump and his henchmen, Pence, Giuliani, Barr, Pompeo, McConnell, Graham, and others, the freedom to destroy the basic pillars of Democracy on which America was built.Wake-up America!

Read more at: http://www.eu-digest.blogspot.com

Scotland: UK PM Johnson reportedly brands powers for Scotland a ‘disaster’

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has inflamed Scottish discontent with his Conservative government by reportedly saying giving governing powers to Scotland had been a “disaster”.

British media reported Johnson made the remarks during a video meeting with Conservative Party legislators on Monday evening, in which he also said Scottish devolution had been former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “biggest mistake"

Read more at: UK PM Johnson reportedly brands powers for Scotland a ‘disaster’ | United Kingdom | Al Jazeera

EU: We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him - by Guy Verhofstadt

By vetoing the EU's recovery financing, Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński are putting at risk the lives of all Europeans threatened by a needlessly prolongued Covid-19 crisis, as well as the livelihood of everyone whose job or business is harmed as a result, only because they want the EU to continue to fund their increasingly corrupt power grab. We must not let them.

Luckily, the EU Treaties provide other options. We need to call their bluff and we need to do it now.

Financing the recovery through enhanced cooperation of the 25 other member states is the way to do it.

Read moe at: We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him

USA: Is American democracy suffering from an overload of politics? - by Evan Dyer

The polls tell us that roughly a third of all U.S. citizens believe — wrongly — that U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's victory was achieved through fraud.

That finding is more alarming than surprising. Trust in the federal government dipped below 30 per cent among Americans at the beginning of this century and has only declined since then.

Canadians, meanwhile, have much more trust in their governments and public institutions. So what explains the difference?

Read more at:" Is American democracy suffering from an overload of politics? | CBC News

Global Economy: G20 Summit kicks off in Saudi Arabia

In his opening speech, Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz focused on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on international economies. This as many human rights groups around protested Saudi Arabia's very poor human rights record.

Read more at: G20 Summit kicks off in Saudi Arabia

USA: Retiring Federal Prosecutor Goes Public With Harsh Criticism Of AG William Barr - by Amita Sharma

"I was hoping when (Barr) selectively quoted from the Mueller report, it was a mistake. He wasn’t trying to mislead the American people. However, it became clear when I saw what happened in the (Paul) Manafort case, the (Michael) Flynn case, the (Roger) Stone case, the imposition of the president’s will through him in the normal course of justice, this became too much. And it just continued from there. There were countless instances that career prosecutors got very upset about".

Read more at:Retiring Federal Prosecutor Goes Public With Harsh Criticism Of AG William Barr | KPBS

The Netherlands: could require travelers to show coronavirus test results at border

Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health wants to oblige travelers arriving in the Netherlands to prove that they tested negative for the coronavirus no more than 48 hours prior to arrival, he said in a letter to parliament.

Due to the rules around free travel in the European Union and Schengen area, a legislative amendment is needed to require that travelers from these areas show their test results at the Dutch border. De Jonge expects that this requirement will therefore only be implemented for them in the spring at the earliest. For non-European travelers exempted from the entry EU ban, a test statement can be requested from mid-December, he said.

Read more at: Netherlands could require travelers to show coronavirus test results at border | NL Times

USA: Made By Putin? A 21st Century Slow-Burn US Civil War - by Alexei Bayer and Stephan Richter

Periods of leadership vacuum are by their very nature notoriously dangerous. In mature democracies — and the United States certainly considers itself as one — this shouldn’t be so. But it is.

Read more at: Made By Putin? A 21st Century Slow-Burn US Civil War - The Globalist

Global Financial System: Reforming Global Financial Governance - by Luis Ubinas

It has been quite a four years. We have lived through collapsing financial markets, the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and now this tepid recovery and euro zone crisis.

Read more at: Reforming Global Financial Governance - The Globalist

EU - former Eastern bloc Nations: ‘Work, family, fatherland’: populist social policies in central and eastern Europe – by Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugaric

The rise of authoritarian populists in Hungary and Poland has shocked the European Union, forcing it to contemplate new procedures to ensure compliance with the rule of law. But these regimes have an enduring electoral appeal to many voters, including those naturally inclined to the left. Why?

Our research shows that central and east European populists have developed a new approach to social policy, based on past conservative models, which can be encapsulated in the old Vichy slogan, ‘work, family, fatherland’. Developed in Hungary and Poland, it is now spreading across Europe. Hungary, Poland, populistsBojan Bugaric

Responding to decades of neoliberal economic policies, these populist parties advance a nationalist programme. This seeks to build up domestic as against foreign capital, and support indigenous versus migrant workers, addressing native population loss through ‘pro-family’ measures. The pitch is to protect ‘ordinary people’ from ‘liberal elites’, while growing the economy through economic self-rule and a conservative developmental state.

Read more at: ‘Work, family, fatherland’: populist social policies in central and eastern Europe – Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugaric

Coronavirus: In Miami, a sign of widespread transmission: More non-COVID patients have the virus - by Ben Conarck

Over the last week, 898 patients at Miami’s public hospitals tested positive for the novel coronavirus, but more than half of them — 471 — were admitted for other reasons, largely to emergency rooms, without typical COVID-19 symptoms.

Public health experts say it’s yet another indicator of increasingly widespread transmission of the virus in Miami-Dade County, as the virus ramps up across the country. Vicky Perez, a nurse and the director of critical care at Jackson North Medical Center, said she’s seen it in growing numbers: Patients who show up for anything from a car accident to abdominal pain are later testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

“They’re in the community. They’re working. They’re going to restaurants, and they don’t know they have it,” Perez said. “That’s why it’s so important to wear a mask, stay six feet apart, and don’t go out unless we have to.”

Read more at: In Miami, a sign of widespread transmission: More non-COVID patients have the virus

China-Brazil relations: First doses of China's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Brazil

The first 120,000 doses of CoronaVac, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech that is being tested in Brazil, arrived at São Paulo's international airport on Thursday morning, the state government said.

Read more at: First doses of China's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Brazil

EU: - Dispute with Hungary, Poland Slovenia: Hungary and Poland unfazed by EU outcry over budget block

Hungary and Poland have dug their heels in on blocking the €1.8 trillion EU budget and coronavirus recovery package, over their objection to linking EU funds to the respect of the rule of law - despite calls from other EU capitals to rethink.

Ahead of a videoconference of EU leaders on Thursday evening, Warsaw and Budapest received backing from Slovenia's prime minister. br>
Read more at: Hungary and Poland unfazed by EU outcry over budget block

Canada: Trudeau Government unveils new net-zero emissions plan to meet climate change targets - by John Paul Tasker

Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson tabled new legislation today that would force current and future federal governments to set binding climate targets to get Canada to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Reaching "net-zero" by 2050 would mean that emissions produced 30 years from now would be fully absorbed through actions that scrub carbon from the atmosphere — such as planting trees — or technology, such as carbon-capture and storage systems. The Liberals have promised to plant two billion trees.

Read more at: Trudeau unveils new net-zero emissions plan to meet climate change targets | CBC News

The Future of infuential US Christianity : Andy Stanley on Evangelicals After Trump - by Emma Green

Andy Stanley’s evangelical megachurch was empty on Election Night, with only a few cars in the Disney World–style parking lot out front. North Point Community Church and its nine satellites in the Atlanta area have been mostly closed since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. When Stanley decided to cancel in-person worship until at least early 2021, dozens of families were so unhappy that they decided to quit his church. “Never once did I hear, ‘We’re upset because we miss coming to church,’” he told me, leaning back in a heather-gray wingback chair. The vibe of his church offices is tasteful and inoffensive, as if his decorator was trying to channel that magic Fixer Upper quality of looking distinctive while appealing to almost everyone. “What I heard was, ‘We’re upset because you bought into a political agenda. We’re upset because you believe the Democrats’ narrative.’”

In the Gospels, Jesus calls on his followers to go out, teach his message, and baptize people. Stanley has organized his life around this imperative, called “the Great Commission.” The question for evangelicals, now, is whether the undeniable association between Trump and their version of Christianity will make that work harder. “Has this group of people who have somehow become ‘evangelical leaders’” aligned with Trump “hurt the Church’s ability to reach people outside the Church? Absolutely,” Stanley said. But he’s not overly worried: A year or two from now, he said, “all that goes away.” New leaders will rise up. The Trump era of evangelical history will fade. Stanley chuckled. “And this will just be, for a lot of people, a bad dream.”

Not everyone believes that recovering from the Trump era will be so simple for the Church, however. “We Christians have a lot of ground to make up now against those evangelical Trump followers whose devotion to him bordered on the idolatrous,” Mark Galli, the former editor in chief of Christianity Today, told me. Read more at: Andy Stanley on Evangelicals After Trump - The Atlantic

USA: Rank-And-File Republicans Send Unequivocal Message To Donald Trump, GOP Enablers - by Lee Moran

These rank-and-file Republicans are done with President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election.

In a series of videos released on YouTube by the Republican Voters Against Trump group on Wednesday, anti-Trump Republicans from across the country urge the outgoing president to stop spreading falsehoods about mass voter fraud and to concede his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.

Many of the disaffected GOPers say the coronavirus pandemic shows it’s imperative that Trump cooperate in a smooth transition to the Biden administration ― and they called out prominent Republicans for failing to stand up to Trump’s poor-loser defiance.

Read more at: Rank-And-File Republicans Send Unequivocal Message To Donald Trump, GOP Enablers

USA: In a tweet, vindictive Trump fires cybersecurity chief who dismissed his claims of fraud in US election

Trump fired Christopher Krebs in a tweet, saying his recent statement defending the security of the election was “highly inaccurate.”

Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had offered a stream of statements and tweets over the past week attesting to the integrity of the election, directly contradicting Trump’s false assertions of widespread fraud without mentioning the president by name.

Read more at: In a tweet, Trump fires cybersecurity chief who dismissed claims of fraud in US election

Hungary says it blocked EU budget over migration 'blackmail' - "which is total nonsense by Orban who destroyed Democracy in his country" said a European parliamentarian

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Wednesday his country vetoed the EU's budget over plans to tie funding to respect for the rule of law, as it amounted to "blackmailing" countries that oppose migration.

Read more at: Hungary says it blocked EU budget over migration 'blackmail'

EU Economy: Battered Europe needs a full fiscal union to drive its economic recovery - by David Brown

A fully integrated European fiscal policy could be a catalyst for much-needed change. Europe needs to find a much fairer way to distribute productive capacity, wealth creation and prosperity throughout the single market. European policy must turn the tide on years of austerity and recommit to much stronger growth and job creation for the future.urope must also open its doors to faster export-led growth, especially with major trading partners like China, India and Russia.

Read more at: Battered Europe needs a full fiscal union to drive its economic recovery | South China Morning Post

EU SURE Program: Commission disburses €14 billion under SURE to 9 countries

The European Commission has disbursed €14 billion to nine EU countries in the second instalment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument. As part of today's operations, Croatia has received €510 million, Cyprus €250 million, Greece €2 billion, Italy an additional €6.5 billion, Latvia €120 million, Lithuania €300 million, Malta €120 million, Slovenia €200 million and Spain an additional €4 billion.

Read more at: Commission disburses €14 billion under SURE to 9 countrie

Social Media Chiefs grilled again: Facebook, Twitter and Google face questions from US senators

The chief executives of Facebook, Twitter, and Google faced more than three and a half hours of questions from US senators on Wednesday.

Read more at: Facebook, Twitter and Google face questions from US senators - BBC News

Turkey: How Turkey’s use of military power furthers Erdoğan’s ambitions - by Scott Peterson

The cease-fire agreement ending six weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh was greeted in Turkey as a “sacred success” for “brotherly Azerbaijan” in its fight with Armenia.

For Turkey, the outcome was also the latest successful example of its assertive and game-changing use of military hard power, which has so far redrawn geopolitical realities from Libya and Syria to the southern Caucasus.

Read more at: How Turkey’s use of military power furthers Erdoğan’s ambitions

USA - Donald Trump: Lock him up! If Trump refuses to leave the scene after his defeat, there's an obvious solution - by Amanda Marcotte

Trump's desperation to keep his name in the headlines — and to keep money and adoration flowing from his gullible supporters — is bad news. While it's true that Trump's divisiveness and authoritarianism is a symptom of the country's increasingly toxic culture war, and not the principal cause, it's also true that he's throwing gasoline on the fire and making things worse. By keeping up a constant stream of lies and conspiracy theories, Trump is training nearly half the country to believe that lying in the service of MAGA is no sin. He's helping to radicalize conservatives who might otherwise have had some attachment to reality and common sense, and creating permission for the right to be openly anti-democratic and bigoted in ways it largely shied away from before.

No, in order to heal the nation, Trump needs to be prosecuted. Biden will have to swallow the unpleasant pill of weathering bad-faith accusations and negative media commentary, by both hiring people who have the guts to do it and letting them loose to do their job. Unity cannot be achieved by letting bad people get away with crimes. We need a reckoning, and real justice, before the process of healing can begin.

Read more: Lock him up! If Trump refuses to leave the scene after his defeat, there's an obvious solution | Salon.com

US Economy - the great divide between Wall Street and Main Street: as thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’

Thousands of families lined up in Dallas on Saturday for a giveaway hosted by the North Texas Food Bank, and the organization called it its largest ever.

Organizers said the NTFB gave away over 7,000 turkeys and around 600,000 pounds of food in Fair Park to those families in need as the holidays approach and the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Saturday’s event was also the NTFB’s fifth food giveaway in Fair Park since the pandemic began in March.

Note EU-Digest: US Economy: Wall Street versus Main street - total disparity - the recent Wall Street bounce can be better described as the US Economy's "Dead Cat bounce" , before "the walls from Jericho came tumbling down ".

Read more at: Thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’ – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Crises in the EU caused by Hungary and Poland: EU budget blocked by Hungary and Poland over rule of law issue

Ambassadors of the 27 member states meeting in Brussels were unable to endorse the budget becauseHungary and Poland vetoed it.

Note EU-Diges;: Right wing nationalist Polish and Hungarian governments, which have done away with the independent status of their legal systems,and politicized it, must not be allowed to call the shots in the EU, and do not deserve to be members of the E.U if they do not comply with the rule of the majority. Hopefully the EU Commission will not sit on their hands ,and take immediate action, including, in the worst case scenario, expulsion of these countries from EU.

Read more at: EU budget blocked by Hungary and Poland over rule of law issue - BBC News

Canada- China Relations : Bob Rae calls on UN to investigate evidence of genocide against China's Muslim Uighur minority

Canada's ambassador to the United Nations says he's called on the organization's Human Rights Council to investigate whether China's persecution of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province should be considered an act of genocide.

Beijing lashes back, calling Rae 'ignorant'

Read more at: Bob Rae calls on UN to investigate evidence of genocide against China's Uighur minority | CBC News

US after Trump: You’re fired! What now, America? – Lito Monico C. Lorenzana

American pundits are almost unanimous in their take that these elections were the most contentious and polarizing in the past 50 years since the height of the unpopular Vietnam war where President Lyndon Johnson, repudiated by his Democratic party, decided not to seek a second term in 1968.

Read more at: You’re fired! What now, America? – The Manila Times

EU-US relations: France′s Macron calls for European independence ahead of Pompeo meeting

Macron called the UN Security Council "no longer useful" and touted building "European autonomy." He then hosted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after acknowledging Joe Biden's victory in the polls.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the UN Security Council and called on European nations to show greater independence, ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in an interview with the Paris magazine Le Grand Continent.

Read more at: France′s Macron calls for European independence ahead of Pompeo meeting | News | DW | 16.11.2020

EU - Poland Nationalism: The rise of right-wing nationalism: from Poland to Polanyi – by Karin Pettersson

The introductory chapter in Anne Applebaum’s book Twilight of Democracy describes a new year’s party Applebaum and her husband organised in 1999. It took place in their house in the Polish countryside and gathered many of the country’s leading liberals and conservatives. The spirits were high, the future was bright—a highway towards freedom and open markets.

Two decades later, that dream has shrivelled like a dried apple. Poland is ruled by the right-wing nationalists of the Law and Justice Party and liberals of the Applebaum brand are their anathema. Half of the friends at the 1999 party no longer talk to her or her husband. The book is a melancholic ode to a lost world and an attempt to understand what happened to it.

Read more at: The rise of right-wing nationalism: from Poland to Polanyi – Karin Pettersson

US Pres. Elections: Judges appear increasingly frustrated with Trump's legal claims about 2020 election

"Judge after judge after judge has asked, in essence, 'Where is the beef?'" said Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia and a frequent Trump critic, in a call with reporters Friday.

Read more at: Judges appear increasingly frustrated with Trump's legal claims about 2020 election

The US Political Scene: If Democrats can't stop acting like losers when they win, America is doomed - by David Masciotra

Anyone treating the ignorance, bigotry and delusion of 72 million Americans as revelatory hasn't spent much time reading about American history, or even paying attention to cable news over the past four years. The poisons of racism and paranoia have stormed through the veins of politics since the nation's inception, and despite occasional signs of detoxification, the body politic will never eradicate their influence. Richard Hofstadter, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, first analyzed the "paranoid style in American politics" in 1959, identifying it as not exclusively but predominantly a right-wing characteristic.

If Democrats can't stop acting like losers when they win, America is doomed | Salon.com

EU-US relations will never be the same again, says ex-Trump aide

Mick Mulvaney, now the US special envoy to Northern Ireland, said even a Joe Biden presidency would not reset EU-US relations

Generally, the natural reaction is correct in that things will warm [between the EU and US under a Biden presidency] but they’re unlikely to go back all the way to what they were before the Trump administration," said Mulvaney.

"I think it’s unreasonable to assume that they [EU relations] will go back to the way things were, say under Obama or George W. Bush or Clinton.

Read more at: EU-US relations will never be the same again, says ex-Trump aide | Euronews

Freedom of expression: Environmental justice reporters face deadly threats, intimidation

In many parts of the world, journalists who report acts of environmental destruction risk threats, violence and even murder. These crimes, which frequently target Indigenous reporters, often go unpunished.

Environmental journalists in Europe also face intimidation and harassment, said RSF spokesperson Christoph Dreyer, pointing to cases connected to the destruction of the Hambach Forest in northwestern Germany or unsustainable agriculture practices in Brittany, France. But most of these attacks, more than 65%, are recorded in Asia and the Americas.

read more at: Environmental justice reporters face deadly threats, intimidation | Environment| All topics from climate change to conservation | DW | 13.11.2020

Famine Expected in 2021: Nobel-winning UN agency warns of 'famines of biblical proportions' in 2021

The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars “we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.”

Read more at: Nobel-winning UN agency warns of 'famines of biblical proportions' in 2021 | Euronews

The Netherlands: Dutch PM Rutte to seek fourth term

Liberal Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has confirmed he will seek a fourth term in office, wanting to continue steering the Netherlands through the coronavirus pandemic.

Dutch elections are set for March 17 next year.

Read more at: Dutch PM Rutte to seek fourth term | Macau Business

American Global dominance coming to an end: It’s time the world looks beyond Pax Americana - by Tee Ngugi

Since World War II, America has been the premier military and economic power. Western Europe, faced with the ‘Russian threat’, worried whether the incoming US administration would still commit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military framework.

The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.

Read more at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/oped/comment/it-s-time-the-world-looks-beyond-pax-americana-3020104

EU: Coronavirus: Italy reaches new record high of nearly 41,000 daily cases

Italy recorded a high of nearly 41,000 daily cases as hospitalisations and deaths rise in the country

Officials in many EU countries are warning that it is so far too early to lift restrictions, with many saying that there are still many months ahead of living with the virus.

Read more at: Coronavirus: Italy reaches new record high of nearly 41,000 daily cases | Euronews

USA - Black Lives Matter Won the Election, But They Don't See Biden as a Savior

Black votes were crucial in flipping key battleground states—Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—that clinched the presidency for Biden. In fact, it was mail-in ballots cast in Philadelphia, a city that has seen many protests over police brutality and racial injustice over the course of the year, that pushed Biden over the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

Read more at: Black Lives Matter Won the Election, But They Don't See Biden as a Savior

African Continent: Coronavirus - updated figures : Africa sees average 8% rise in new virus cases but doing better than US or EU in combatting the virus

Africa’s top public health official says the continent has seen an average 8 percent rise in new coronavirus cases over the past month as infections creep up again in parts of the continent of 1.3 billion people.

John Nkengasong says “we expected it to happen” and warns that when the virus comes back for a second wave, “it seems to come back with a lot of full force.”

The African continent is approaching 2 million confirmed cases, with just over 1.9 million now including more than 45,000 deaths.

Note EU-Digest - however with a population of 1.3 billion people on the African countinent and a total of 4500 deaths, Africa is doing far better at combatting the coronavirus than either the US or the EU.

Read more at: https://egyptindependent.com/the-latest-africa-sees-average-8-rise-in-new-virus-cases/

The Origins of the EU: How the CIA Created the EU - by Eric Zuesse

The details are supplied in an exhaustive 1,000-page biography of Jean Monnet by Éric Roussel, which was published only in France in 1996, and which seems to have been successfully suppressed. It has never been translated, and has no reviews even at Amazon. However, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of UK’s Telegraph newspaper has provided some of the core information from it. Furthermore, Richard J. Aldrich’s 2003 The Hidden Hand also provides key details, such as by Aldrich’s saying, on page 366, about the American Committee for a United Europe: ACUE, more than any other American front organization of the Cold War, was a direct creature of the leading lights of the CIA. Indeed, it was so replete with famous CIA figures that its ‘front’ was very thin. Its early years seemed to have formed something of a laboratory for figures such as [Bill] Donovan, [Allen] Dulles, [Walter] Bedell Smith and [Tom] Braden, before they moved on to other projects in the mid-1950s. Over its first three years of operations, 1949-51, ACUE received $384,650, the majority being dispersed to Europe. This was a large sum, but from 1952 ACUE began to spend such sums annually. The total budget for the period 1949-60 amounted to approximately $4 million. As the quantity of money flowing across the Atlantic began to increase, ACUE opened a local Paris office to monitor more closely groups that had received grants. By 1956, the flood of increased funding was prompting fears among the Directors of ACUE that its work would be publicly exposed.

The emerging European Economic Community (EEC) and the growing Western intelligence community overlapped to a considerable degree. This is underlined by the creation of the Bilderberg Group, an informal and secretive transatlantic council of key decision-makers [representatives of the billionaires who controlled U.S. and U.S.-allied international corporations]. Bilderberg was founded by Joseph Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1952 in response to the rise of anti-Americanism in Europe. … Retinger secured support from Averell Harriman, David Rockefeller and Walter Bedell Smith. The formation of the American wing of Bilderberg was entrusted to Eisenhower’s psychological warfare chief, C.D. Jackson, and the funding for the first meeting, held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Holland in 1954, was provided by the CIA.

Funds for these CIA operations came not only from the U.S. Treasury but from private sources, America’s super-rich, and, also from organized gangsters, as was revealed in the 1998 classic by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. This off-the-books funding comes from narcotics kingpins throughout the world, as protection-money, which is essential to keep them in business. So, the EU was financially fueled from all of these sources, and, basically, was a bribing-operation (to end up getting the ‘right’ people into the EU’s Parliament, etc.), in addition to be receiving funds from what might be considered idealistic philanthropic donors (because the dream of a united Europe had long preceded the grubby version of it that the CIA created for Europeans). The EU was a Cold War operation, from the very start. Though the Cold War was allegedly ideological, it was actually the result of a decision that U.S. President Harry S. Truman made on 26 July 1945, for the post-WW-II U.S. to achieve, ultimately, the world’s first all-encompassing global empire. The EU was designed to serve the political aspects of that, and NATO the military aspects, for America’s European ‘allies’ (America’s European vassal nations). The aim was for the Soviet Union (subsequently only Russia) to become surrounded by enemies, so that, in the final analysis, the U.S. and its ‘allies’ would be offering the U.S.S.R. “a deal they can’t refuse.” This deal (quite fitting to come from an international gangland operation such as America’s Deep State) would be inclusion in the U.S. empire, on terms that are set solely by the U.S. Government — either this, or else conquest. Then, the same thing would be done to China.

Pritchard issued two important articles about this, the first being his 19 September 2000 “Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs”: DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. … One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.

The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington. They include files released by the US National Archives. Washington’s main tool for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee for a United Europe, created in 1948. The chairman was Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then.

The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA’s first director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE financed the European Movement, the most important federalist organisation in the post-war years. In 1958, for example, it provided 53.5 per cent of the movement’s funds.

The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington. The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments into a special account. When the head of the European Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was quickly reprimanded.

The leaders of the European Movement — Retinger, the visionary Robert Schuman and the former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak — were all treated as hired hands by their American sponsors. The US role was handled as a covert operation. ACUE’s funding came from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as well as business groups with close ties to the US government.

Read the complete report at: How the CIA Created the EU - Modern Diplomacy

Middle East - The Red Sea Region: ‘A vital artery for the world economy’ - note EU-Digest - "but also more than that" - by Alex de Waal

From the Suez Canal that links it to the Mediterranean, to the straits of the Bab al Mandab that connect it to the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea is a vital artery for the world economy. Upwards of 10% of seaborne cargo sails through its waters every year including the majority of Asian trade with Europe.

For any navy aspiring to transoceanic reach, the Red Sea is a crucial chokepoint, and it is no accident that China chose to establish its first overseas naval facility at Djibouti. Fifteen years ago, the upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean led to an international maritime police operation.

Note EU-Digest: Armageddon as predicted in the Bible, could well take place in this area.Professor Tom Meyer, who memorised more than 20 books from the Bible, said: "The Rapture, which is the first event that kicks-off the beginning of the end, has no signs that precede it. The truth is that Christ also gave a chronological order of end times events, or signs of the times, for the seven-year tribulation, also called the 70th week of Daniel, but these events do not begin until sometime after the Rapture of Christians."

Read more at: The Red Sea: ‘A vital artery for the world economy’

USA: The Right Way to Investigate Trump Once He Leaves Office - by R. Mariotti

This was always going to be a dilemma for Trump’s successor. After an openly self-dealing president like Trump, the nation needs to see that no American is above the law, and that there will be consequences for anyone—even a former president—who enriches himself at the nation’s expense or abuses his power.

But any prosecution of Trump, no matter how fair, will draw criticism from Trump’s supporters in an already-divided nation. Even non-partisan observers have reason to be concerned by the spectacle of the administration of a new president prosecuting the president who just left office. It’s essential for any stable democracy that elected leaders don’t use their new powers to punish their opponents after they’ve lost. No president has ever done it.

Read more at: The Right Way to Investigate Trump Once He Leaves Office - POLITICO

Britain: Coronavirus: UK records highest daily number of coronavirus cases - by George Parker, Jim Pickard and Alice Hancock

The UK has recorded its highest ever daily number of coronavirus cases and the largest number of deaths since July 1, increasing strains within the Conservative party over how to respond to the resurgence of Covid-19.

Boris Johnson is under pressure from some Tory MPs to take a more “proportionate” approach to new coronavirus restrictions, amid claims that his scientific advisers are engaged in “project fear”.

Read more at: UK records highest daily number of coronavirus cases | Financial Times

'Meteor hurling towards earth - impact 2068: God of chaos' asteroid is speeding up as it heads towards Earth

"The new observations we obtained with the Subaru telescope earlier this year were good enough to reveal the Yarkovsky acceleration of Apophis," astronomer Dave Tholen said in a press release.

"They show that the asteroid is drifting away from a purely gravitational orbit by about 170 metres per year, which is enough to keep the 2068 impact scenario in play."

Read more at: 'God of chaos' asteroid is speeding up as it heads towards Earth

History - repeating itself?: Can History Predict the Future? - by Graeme Wood

The fundamental problems, he says, are a dark triad of social maladies: a bloated elite class, with too few elite jobs to go around; declining living standards among the general population; and a government that can’t cover its financial positions. His models, which track these factors in other societies across history, are too complicated to explain in a nontechnical publication. But they’ve succeeded in impressing writers for nontechnical publications, and have won him comparisons to other authors of “megahistories,” such as Jared Diamond and Yuval Noah Harari. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat had once found Turchin’s historical model­ing unpersuasive, but 2020 made him a believer: “At this point,” Douthat recently admitted on a podcast, “I feel like you have to pay a little more attention to him.”

Read more at:Can History Predict the Future? - The Atlantic

The Netherlands Railway System: NS asks travellers in the Netherlands to register their train journeys to limit crowds

Using Treinwijzer, a new feature on the Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS) app, the railway company is asking all travellers to register their planned journeys in advance, so they can more easily track busyness and limit crowds.

According to the rail company, this new system is designed to help NS travellers plan their journeys, keeping in mind the realities of the ongoing coronavirus crisis and helping them to avoid busy services. In a press release, they say: “Travellers can... gain more insight into the expected crowds in the train and receive an alert if their train seems to be getting busier or is cancelled.”

NS also hopes that this new system will reassure people across the Netherlands that they can indeed travel safely by train: “We know from research that there are now travellers who choose a different mode of transport for fear of crowds, although travelling by train can be done safely and comfortably" The Treinwijzer function in the NS app is available from Wednesday, November 11, and NS are encouraging all train travellers to make use of it as much as possible - but they do note that registering your trip is not mandatory, merely recommended.

Read more at: NS asks travellers in the Netherlands to register their train journeys to limit crowds

USA: Krugman: Is America becoming a failed state?

OP obstruction did a lot of damage even during the Obama years. Republicans used hardball tactics, including threats to cause a default on the national debt, to force a premature withdrawal of fiscal support that slowed the pace of economic recovery. I’ve estimated that without this de facto sabotage, the unemployment rate in 2014 might have been about 2 percentage points lower than it actually was.

Most immediately, the coronavirus is running wild, with new cases exceeding 100,000 a day and rising rapidly. This is going to hit the economy hard, even if state and local governments don’t impose new lockdowns.

Read more at: Krugman: Is America becoming a failed state?

EU - Can Next Generation EU guarantee fair, inclusive recovery? – by Francesco Corti, Christian Morabito, Lorenza Antonucci and Michel Vandenbroeck

In mid-October European Union member states presented the draft national plans for reform and investment they intend to implement in the next four years, to secure financial support from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The success of the RRF in building a recovery that is more sustainable, resilient and fairer—as in the ambitions of the European Commission—thus largely depends on the effectiveness of the mix of policy instruments adopted at national level. The commission is in charge of assessing these plans, checking whether they are in line with the priorities set in the country-specific recommendations within the European Semester, and will later monitor their implementation.

Read more at Can Next Generation EU guarantee fair, inclusive recovery? – Francesco Corti, Christian Morabito, Lorenza Antonucci and Michel Vandenbroeck

EU: Budget deal struck, with Hungary threat still hanging - by Eszter Zalan

After what negotiators described as "tough" and "long" talks, MEPs and diplomats from the German EU presidency struck a deal on Tuesday (10 November) on the long-term EU budget and the coronavirus recovery package.

Momentum on the budget talks picked up after the European Parliament and the EU presidency agreed on how to link EU funds to the respect of rule of law in separate talks last week.

Read more at: Budget deal struck, with Hungary threat still hanging

The Netherlands: Protestant church's declaration of guilt towards the Jews is a historic step

The Dutch Protestant Church is to admit that it helped to ‘sow the seeds’ of anti-Semitism and failed to protect the country’s Jewish population before, during and after the Second World War.

On Sunday, November 8, René de Reuver, the church’s official scribe, will read out a ‘declaration of guilt’ in the Rav Aron Schuster Synagogue in Amsterdam as part of the commemoration of Kristallnacht, the ‘night of broken glass’ in 1938 seen as the moment when the Nazis’ oppression of the Jews tipped over into outright persecution.

Read more at: Protestant church's declaration of guilt towards the Jews is a historic step - DutchNews.nl

Tech Industry: Industry Insiders Don’t Use Their Products Like We Do. That Should Worry Us - by Eleanor Cummins

Apple founder Steve Jobs didn't let his kids use the iPad, or really any product their dad invented, according to a 2014 report from Nick Bilton in The New York Times.

"They haven't used it," Jobs told Bilton. "We limit how much technology our kids use at home." Every night, the family had a phone-free dinner together, according to Walter Isaacson, author of the definitive biography Steve Jobs. "The kids did not seem addicted at all to devices," Isaacson told Bilton.

Read more at: Industry Insiders Don’t Use Their Products Like We Do. That Should Worry Us.

USA - Presidential elections: Can Trump really stage a coup? Experts weigh in on whether it's possible - Nicole Karlis

For the first time in history, an incumbent president is refusing to concede after clearly and indisputably losing a presidential election. That's making observers, citizens, and experts nervous that Trump may be preparing to stage a coup of some sort, or perhaps call again on his supporters to commit violence to sustain his rule.

Read more at: Can Trump really stage a coup? Experts weigh in on whether it's possible

The American Dream: Americans must wake up from the illusion they live in a democracy - by Hamid Dabashi

The US is a failed experiment. It is a political culture that is not compatible with democracy, for Americans, both conservative and liberal, are trapped in a vicious cycle exacerbating the worst in their respective characters.

I look at Mike Pompeo, the repugnant evangelical crusader who is now the US secretary of state - the country’s “top diplomat,” as they say, the face and figure that represents it around the world - and I think he is worse in his fanaticism, and infinitely more dangerous in his zealotry, than Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi put together.

And Pompeo did not fall from the sky: he and the entire cabinet that President Donald Trump selected and enabled are definitive to US politics.

Read more: Americans must wake up from the illusion they live in a democracy | Middle East Eye

A US Coup d'etat ?: Trump Is Trying to Overturn the Election, but I’m Not Panicking—Yet - by Elie Mystal

Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States. He will be inaugurated on January 20 and take power at noon that day. There is nothing, legally, that Trump can do to stop that.

What Trump and his feckless Republican Party might do illegally to try to overturn the results of the election and prevent Biden from taking power is a different matter. Trump has evidently intimidated the administrator of the General Services Administration into refusing to acknowledge Biden’s victory and thus prevent his team from starting the transition process. Only a smattering of Republicans have acknowledged that Biden won, and most of those who have, like George W. Bush, no longer hold any political power. Trump has already filed a raft of baseless lawsuits. His people are drumming up talk of some kind of Electoral College devilry to overthrow the popular will. And Trump fired the Secretary of Defense, Mike Esper, yesterday, which seems like the kind of thing one does before one launches a coup d’état.

Read more at: Trump Is Trying to Overturn the Election, but I’m Not Panicking—Yet | The Nation

US Presidential elections: Reality TV presidency cancelled after 4-year run - by Demetri Sevastopulo

Domestically, he failed to achieve some of his biggest priorities — building the wall and a big infrastructure bill. But he put three conservative judges on the Supreme Court, and ushered through a huge tax cut.

At the G7 in Canada, Mr Trump threw a couple of pieces of candy across the table, saying: “Here, Angela. Don't say I never give you anything.”

Although he frequently praised his “good friend” Chinese president Xi Jinping until the coronavirus arrived in the US, he launched a trade war with China before signing a piecemeal deal that produced very little.

One former official said Mr Trump wanted to call the legislation, “The Cut, Cut, Cut Bill”, and told Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, that Republicans on Capitol Hill always gave their legislation such boring names.

In another example of the Teflon-nature of his presidency until this weekend, Mr Trump was impeached in the House over his attempts to get Ukraine to meddle in the US election by digging up dirt on Mr Biden — but was acquitted in a Senate trial.

Mr Trump was only the third president to be impeached in the House, after Bill Clinton in 1998, and Andrew Johnson 130 years before that.

Read more at: Reality TV presidency cancelled after 4-year run | Financial Times

USA: Will Donald Trump cause a civil war? by Elizabeth Drew

Note EU-Digest: "The political situation has become extremely dangerous and critical in the USA, as Trump and his cronies set his illegal planned "coup" in action. The guard rails of US democracy are coming down. US diplomats around the world are in despair not knowing how to respond to local government officials questions as to the present political chaos in America."

Trump’s disinclination — and perhaps inability — to reach beyond his right-wing base, which is insufficient to elect him, also calls into question his political acumen, and is one of many reasons to doubt his basic intelligence (an issue on which he is quite sensitive). But one thing about the president is now clearer than ever: In order to perpetuate his hold on power, Trump is testing the constitution in unprecedented ways.

Read more at Will Donald Trump cause a civil war? | The Japan Times

EU Economy: Key features of the Commission’s Autumn 2020 forecast

The European economy remains firmly in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since September, the number of new infections has been on the rise again in most European member states. By the time the books were closed on our autumn forecast on 22 October, a second wave of the pandemic was in full swing across much of Europe. With infections spreading and hospitals under pressure once more, governments are left with little choice but to put in place new restrictions to curb the rapidly rising epidemiological trend and bring it back to more tolerable levels. But the economy is still suffering from the deep contraction in the first half of the year and authorities are striving to keep the scope and duration of the restrictions to social life and economic activity as limited as possible.

Read complete report at: Key features of the Commission’s Autumn 2020 forecast | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal

USA - former president Trump: Trump faces several legal challenges when he leaves office

There has been much speculation that even if he concedes he lost last week's election, U.S. President Donald Trump is interested in remaining a force in Republican politics by acquiring a stake in a media company or running as a candidate again.

But Trump's time outside of office could be consumed by meetings with lawyers and possibly depositions under oath or testimony at trial. Come late January, he loses protections the U.S. legal system affords to a sitting president, former prosecutors say.

Read more at: Trump faces several legal challenges when he leaves office | CBC News

Coronavirus vaccine : Our COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer - by Alice Tidey

A potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been found to be more than 90% effective.

The vaccine has been tested on more than 43,500 participants during Phase 3 — the final stage of development when it is given to thousands to test its efficacy and safety.

Analysis carried out evaluated that 94 trial participants had been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.

"Today is a great day for science and humanity," Pfizer Chairman and CEO, Dr Albert Bourla, said in a statement.

Read more at: Coronavirus: Our COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer | Euronews

Technology: The Dictatorship of Data

Google’s deference to data has been taken to extremes. To determine the best color of a toolbar on the website, Marissa Mayer, when she was one of Google’s top executives before going to Yahoo, once ordered staff to test 41 gradations of blue to see which ones people used more. In 2009, Google’s top designer, Douglas Bowman, quit in a huff because he couldn’t stand the constant quantification of everything. “I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that,” he wrote on a blog announcing his resignation. “When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. That data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company.”

This is the dictatorship of data. And it recalls the thinking that led the United States to escalate the Vietnam War partly on the basis of body counts, rather than basing decisions on more meaningful metrics. “It is true enough that not every conceivable complex human situation can be fully reduced to the lines on a graph, or to percentage points on a chart, or to figures on a balance sheet,” said McNamara in a speech in 1967, as domestic protests were growing. “But all reality can be reasoned about. And not to quantify what can be quantified is only to be content with something less than the full range of reason.” If only the right data were used in the right way, not respected for data’s sake.

Read more at: The Dictatorship of Data

US Elections: Trump's Turkish Ally Erdogan and other populists/authoritarian leaders around the world Stay Mum on Biden Victory

Erdogan, along with the leaders of Russia, Israel, Iran, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and China, offered no initial congratulations to the president-elect.

Read more at: Trump's Turkish Ally Erdogan Stays Mum on Biden Victory | Greek Reporter Europe

Most world leaders express hope, relief after Biden win - by D. Billerand and J. LeicesterL

World leaders swiftly congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on his victory Saturday, cheering it as an opportunity to fortify global democracy and celebrating the significance of Americans having their first woman vice president.

Although U.S. President Donald Trump did not concede defeat, relief was a common theme expressed in many parts of the world to the news that his reelection bid had failed. Read more at: Most world leaders express hope, relief after Biden win

EU: How are European leaders reacting to Biden win? — by Annalisa Merelli

Joe Biden is officially the president-elect of the United States, and Kamala Harris will be vice president.

Other world leaders are beginning to react, and liberal representatives and heads of state are promptly congratulating the winners. The leaders of Europe’s various far-right parties, who had seen Donald Trump as one of theirs and expressed their support for him, have yet to comment.

Read more at: How are European leaders reacting to Biden win? — Quartz

Canada-US Relations: Joe Biden wins U.S. presidential election as President Donald Trump contests some results

Democrat Joe Biden wins White House after securing Pennsylvania, Nevada.Kamala Harris to become first Black, South Asian woman elected vice-president.

In Canada special coverage of U.S. election results will begin on CBC News Network at 7 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET on CBC Radio.

Read more at: Joe Biden wins U.S. presidential election as President Donald Trump contests some results | CBC News

USA - Live: Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania - by Lauren Chadwick

Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States after being projected to win the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He is also projected to win the state of Nevada.

Read more at: Live | Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania | Euronews

The US Presidential election: What happens if a president refuses to concede?- by Kira Bindrim

The modern US presidential concession call, in which the losing candidate reaches out to the winner to say “Hey, it’s yours, good luck,” started in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan sent William McKinley a well-wishing telegram. More recently, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump on election night 2016 to congratulate him and offer her support. In a rambling press conference last night, Trump made baseless claims of corruption and fraud.

The modern US presidential concession call, in which the losing candidate reaches out to the winner to say “Hey, it’s yours, good luck,” started in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan sent William McKinley a well-wishing telegram. More recently, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump on election night 2016 to congratulate him and offer her support. (“He was so shocked,” Clinton told Howard Stern in December. “He was more shocked than me I think.”)

But as the 2020 election grinds to a nail-biting close, Trump has made clear that he wouldn’t consider a victory for Joe Biden legitimate. In a rambling press conference last night, Trump made baseless claims of corruption and fraud. “If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” he said. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” Whether Trump would ever give Biden a congratulatory or concessionary phone call is very much an open question.

Read more at: What happens if a president refuses to concede?

EU: Leaders call for Europe to forge own path amid U.S. election 'chaos' - by Toni Waterman

With the U.S. presidential election nail-bitingly closer than many expected, Europe has been left on tenterhooks waiting to know who it will be dealing with over the next four years.

Read more at: Leaders call for Europe to forge own path amid U.S. election 'chaos' - CGTN

Brexit: Irish Vice PM Leo Varadkar: "A Biden win could spur better Brexit deal for EU - and spell dark clouds for Boris Johnson– by Shawn Pogatchnik

A President-elect Biden could help the EU to clinch a better Brexit deal with Britain, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has told his party’s lawmakers.

Two lawmakers from Varadkar’s Fine Gael have said the deputy prime minister expressed hopes of a Biden victory at a parliamentary meeting of the party’s lawmakers Wednesday night.

They said Varadkar described Biden as “a genuine friend to Ireland,” citing his Irish roots and keen interest in defending the U.S.-brokered 1998 Good Friday peace accord for Northern Ireland. They said Varadkar described President Donald Trump’s interest in Ireland as confined primarily to the fortunes of his Doonbeg golf resort on Ireland’s Atlantic coast.

Read more at: Leo Varadkar: A Biden win could spur better Brexit deal for EU – POLITICO

US Presidential Elections: As Biden gains ground, Trump again accuses Democrats, without evidence, of trying to 'steal' election

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gained more ground on President Donald Trump in the battleground states of Georgia and Pennsylvania on Friday, edging closer to the White House hours after Trump falsely claimed the election was being "stolen" from him.

Read more at: As Biden gains ground, Trump again accuses Democrats, without evidence, of trying to 'steal' election | CBC News

US elections are not all you can read about: Five key European news stories you may have missed while all eyes were stateside

While our collective attention has been gripped by the unusually tight race to see who will prevail in the US presidential election between President Donald Trump and challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, the world has continued to turn and with it, a lot of important news stories have broken that have by and large flown under the radar.

Here are the five biggest stories in European which may have missed your attention during coverage of the race for the White House. Click on link below

Read more at: US election: Five key European news stories you may have missed while all eyes were stateside | Euronews

TURKISH Relations with the West: Tensions rise as Turkey and the West drift apart - by Mohammed Ayoob

urkey is slowly but surely drifting away from the West. The recent spat between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron is the latest example of this widening gulf.

Macron had declaimed a few weeks ago that ‘Islam was in crisis all over the world’ and had declared a war on ‘Islamist separatism’, saying that he wanted to reform Islam in France to correspond with French values. He escalated his rhetoric criticising Islam in the aftermath of the beheading of a French teacher by a Muslim radical for showing cartoons denigrating the prophet Muhammad. Erdogan reacted to Macron’s statement by remarking, ‘What is the problem of this person called Macron with Muslims and Islam? Macron needs treatment on a mental level.’ France has withdrawn its ambassador from Ankara in response to Erdogan’s statement.

The Turks sum up the main reason for their exclusion from the EU in one word: Islam. Statements made over the years by important European leaders, such as French presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Nicolas Sarkozy, that emphasise the essential Christian nature of Europe as a reason to justify the denial of membership to Turkey have augmented the Turkish perception. The EU has used Turkey’s failure to fully meet its democratic standards as the reason to deny it membership. It is ironic, however, that by putting hurdles in Turkey’s path at a time when it was seriously attempting to meet these standards, the EU has encouraged the rise of authoritarianism and jingoism in Turkey and its turn towards a neo-Ottoman foreign policy that often clashes with Western interests.

ead more at: Tensions rise as Turkey and the West drift apart | The Strategist

USA - the Electorial College under scrutiny: If the Electoral College can't be abolished, can it be reformed?

When the results of the popular and electoral votes match, as they did for every presidential, election from 1892 to 1996, the electoral college feels like an anachronistic quirk of the system, the constitutional equivalent of a powdered wig or quilled pen. But when they are in opposition and the loser of the popular vote wins the election, as in 2000 and 2016, it feels much more threatening to the principles of democracy, which—in theory—is organized around majority rule.

read more at: If the Electoral College can't be abolished, can it be reformed? — Quartz

USA: Win or lose, Trump was the mirror America needed

A day after Election Day 2020, the presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is still too close to call. As states continue to count ballots, the potential for recounts and litigation to affect the final outcome remains. Viable routes to victory remain for both candidates, even in the midst of several colossal failures that should have resulted in a trouncing of the incumbent Trump.

Read more: Win or lose, Trump was the mirror America needed

US Presidential Elections: Georgia's most populous county stopped counting ballots at 10:30 p.m. - by Jeva Lange

It's bedtime in Georgia! In Fulton County — the state's most populous county, which includes Atlanta — officials said they would stop counting mail-in ballots at 10:30 p.m., with the plan of resuming in the morning, NBC News reports. Hey, that's fine, it's not like we're in the middle of an incredibly contentious election or anything!

The count in Fulton County had already been delayed earlier in the evening, after a pipe burst near a room where some of the ballots were being held. Because the region is home to a tenth of all Georgians, the further hold-up will affect when the whole state is able to report its final tally. Trump leads in the Peach State as of 11 p.m. ET with 63 percent reporting, although his margin is expected to narrow or potentially flip, since mail-in ballots are projected to skew blue, especially in Atlanta.

Read more at: Georgia's most populous county stopped counting ballots at 10:30 p.m.

Hungary: EU commission warns Hungary on 'foreign-funded' NGO law - by Eszter Zalan

The EU Commission has told Hungary to bring its domestic legislation on civil organisations into line with EU rules, after a Hungarian law on foreign-funded NGOs was struck down by the EU's top court in June.

Despite the ruling, civil organisations say Hungary continues to apply the legislation deemed as breaking EU rules.

"The EU Commission on 29 October sent a second letter to urge them [Hungarian authorities] to inform the commission of the measures taken, to ensure that the law is not applied, and to share also the draft modifications to the existing law and provide a clear timeline when they would adopt the necessary legal modifications," commission spokesman Chirstian Wigand said on Tuesday (3 November).

Hungary now has one month to respond.

Read more at: EU commission warns Hungary on 'foreign-funded' NGO law

EU-US Relations: EU plots course as US awaits election winner

With key states still up for grabs, the US presidential election is anything but decided. Foreign policy experts point out that, no matter the outcome, the European Union must be willing go its own way.

Read more at: EU plots course as US awaits election winner | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 04.11.2020

Global Reactions US Presidential Elections: Election cliffhanger transfixes world, fuels fears in Europe for fate of U.S. democracy

People around the world were transfixed by America’s cliffhanger vote count Wednesday, with the presidential election still too close to call. President Trump’s premature victory claim and false allegations of voter fraud were met with expressions of shock and fear over the state of U.S. democracy, along with disparagement on the part of U.S. adversaries.

Read more at: Election cliffhanger transfixes world, fuels fears in Europe for fate of U.S. democracy - The Washington Post

US Election 2020 - final results will be days off: Tighter than expected vote may take days to resolve

Mr Trump, a Republican, claimed to have won and vowed to launch a Supreme Court challenge, baselessly alleging fraud, while Mr Biden, a Democrat, said he was "on track" to victory.

Read more at: US Election 2020: Tighter than expected vote may take days to resolve - BBC News

USA in Turmoil: The U.S. could split up, Gundlach says. - here's how he'd invest for that.- by Andrea Riquier

"Donald Trump is most likely to win re-election, but no matter the outcome of the presidential race, the U.S. could find itself broken into more than one country as unrest and acrimony grip the electorate, noted investor Jeffrey Gundlach said Monday" said Jeffrey Gundlach

Read more at: The U.S. could split up, Gundlach says. Here's how he'd invest for that. - MarketWatch

Mali - France relations: 50 Islamic terrorists aligned to Al-Qaeda killed in French airstrike in Mali

Coming as a significant blow to the dreaded Islamic terrorist organisation, over 50 Al-Qaeda linked terrorists have been killed in a French airstrike in Mali. The operation is said to have taken place on October 30 (Friday). The French Army has confiscated arms and ammunitions. Almost 30 motorcycles were destroyed in the offensive.

Read more at: 50 Islamic terrorists aligned to Al-Qaeda killed in French airstrike in Mali

Austria: Islamic State group claims responsibility for Vienna terrorist attack, without providing evidence

The ISisterrorist group group's statement was accompanied by a picture of a bearded man, named "Abu Dagnah Al-Albany", saying he attacked crowds in central Vienna on Monday with a gun and a machine gun, before he was killed himself by Austrian police.

Read more at: Islamic State group claims responsibility for Vienna terrorist attack, without providing evidence

France: ‘Islam is being hyper-politicised in France, but Muslims are not part of the debate’

On October 2, the day President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his plan to fight “Islamist separatism” in France, the mayor of the Paris suburb of Trappes, 35-year-old Ali Rabeh, was invited by French broadcaster CNews to discuss Macron’s proposed measures to root out radical Islam from the country’s deprived banlieues.

Read more at: ‘Islam is being hyper-politicised in France, but Muslims are not part of the debate’

Brexit negotiations: Britain snubs EU deadline over bill breaking Brexit deal

To date, the EU has received no reply from the UK,” spokesman Daniel Ferrie told journalists, three days after a deadline for London to reply to Brussels had passed.

“We are therefore considering the next steps, including issuing a reasoned opinion,” the next stage in the EU’s legal action launched against Britain a month ago, Ferrie said.

Read more at: Britain snubs EU deadline over bill breaking Brexit deal

US Elections: As Voting Ends, Battle Intensifies Over Which Ballots Will Count

With the election coming to a close, the Trump and Biden campaigns, voting rights organizations and conservative groups are raising money and dispatching armies of lawyers for what could become a state-by-state, county-by-county legal battle over which ballots will ultimately be counted.

Read more at: As Voting Ends, Battle Intensifies Over Which Ballots Will Count

EU-US Relations: EU ‘troublemakers’ back Trump over Biden in US election

Divergences on the managing of the rise of China or Europe’s need to do more for its own security are likely to remain, whoever is the next man in the White House. What would change is the tone as Biden, a convinced transatlanticist, believes the US can only play this role in dialogue with its partners.

Under Trump, Washington and Europe clashed on a number of issues, ranging from foreign policy or trade to environment, digital, and agriculture. Washington and Brussels even disagreed over how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EU is waiting for the results of the elections to impose $4 billion in compensatory tariffs on US exports, in response to Washington subsidies to Boeing. Brussels wants to try to find a negotiated solution and cancel US tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of European products, an option that could be on the cards if Biden is the winner.

Tensions, however, are expected to continue if Trump remains in the White House. The new EU Trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, expressed his willingness to find a fresh start with his administration when he took over in October. But he also warned that there is no room for more piecemeal agreements like the lobster deal to facilitate the bilateral trade.

Read more at: EU ‘troublemakers’ back Trump over Biden in US election – EURACTIV.com

US Presidential Elections: Pennsylvania: Biden 49%, Trump 45%

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone and online survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania finds Biden leading Trump 49% to 45%. Two weeks ago, Biden had a 50% to 45% lead. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, while four percent (4%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Read more at: Pennsylvania: Biden 49%, Trump 45% - Rasmussen Reports®