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Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen will take on a second term as head of the European Commission, multiple news outlets have reported citing anonymous sources in Brussels.
According to a reported deal between the three main blocs in the EU Parliament, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will become the new foreign policy commissioner, replacing Spain’s Josep Borrell, while former Portuguese PM Antonio Costa will preside over the European Council, previously chaired by Belgium’s Charles Michel. Six national leaders representing the three blocs reached the agreement in a video conference on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Polish PM Donald Tusk and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis took part for the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez spoke on behalf of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), and French President Emmanuel Macron and caretaker Dutch PM Mark Rutte spoke for Renew Europe. Euronews described the process as “a horse-trading game to ensure a political, geographical and gender balance.” While the three factions have enough votes to get the arrangement approved in the European Council, some leaders of EU member states have criticized it publicly. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban criticized the reported deal in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. “The deal that the EPP made with the leftists and the liberals runs against everything that the EU was based on,” he insisited. “Instead of inclusion, it sows the seeds of division. EU top officials should represent every member state, not just leftists and liberals!” According to Orban, the deal ignores the will of the people reflected in the results of recent EU parliamentary elections, in which the Socialists and the Liberals both lost ground. Instead of listening to voters, the EPP made a deal with the parties who lost, in order to “continue to support migration and send even more money and weapons to the Russia-Ukraine war,” Orban said last week. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has also voiced displeasure with EPP deal, but diplomats have told Euronews that von der Leyen might seek to win her support by giving Italy “a powerful post in the Commission.” EU national leaders are expected to approve the arrangement at Thursday’s summit in Brussels, though the appointments of von der Leyen and Kallas will still need approval from the European Parliament. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Julian Assange, the co-founder of WikiLeaks, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act for his role in collecting and publishing top-secret military and diplomatic documents from 2009 to 2011.
What does this verdict mean for media freedom around the world? While it’s certainly positive news that the US Department of Justice is apparently closing the book on the tragic Assange saga, it’s shocking that the administration of President Joe Biden demanded a guilty plea for the alleged crime of obtaining and publishing government secrets. After all, this is the crucial task that investigative journalists perform on a regular basis. “The plea deal won’t have the precedential effect of a court ruling, but it will still hang over the heads of national security reporters for years to come… It’s purely symbolic,” Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), said in a statement. “The administration could’ve easily just dropped the case but chose to instead legitimize the criminalization of routine journalistic conduct and encourage future administrations to follow suit.” Assange rose to international fame in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 on the grounds of political persecution and fears he might be extradited by the UK to the US. He remained in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London until April 2019, and then was imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison until June 2024, as the US government’s extradition effort was contested in the British courts. While a plea deal would avoid the worst-case scenario for media liberties, it cannot be ignored that Assange was incarcerated for five years for activities that journalists engage in every day. There is good reason why the US waged a massive smear campaign against Assange, who was blessed with courage rarely seen in journalism. As the late journalist John Pilger wrote of his beleaguered colleague, who viewed his work as a moral duty: “Assange shamed his persecutors. He produced scoop after scoop. He exposed the fraudulence of wars promoted by the media and the homicidal nature of America’s wars, the corruption of dictators, the evils of Guantanamo.” The question that must be asked now is: How long can Julian Assange continue with his crusade on behalf of truth? The sole purpose for WikiLeaks is the pursuit of justice. It is about achieving justice by letting the public know what is going on, letting the average person on the street know what those who have power over their lives are conspiring to do. To say this seldom-seen method of journalism is a courageous act is the greatest understatement. Case in point was the murder of 27-year-old Seth Rich, a former member of the Democratic National Committee who was shot and killed on the street in Washington, DC on July 10, 2016, just weeks before the presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In an interview with the Dutch news program Nieuwsuur, Assange insinuates that Rich was responsible for the leak of DNC emails to WikiLeaks, not the Russians, as the entire US media complex had been reporting. “There’s a 27-year-old, he works for the DNC, who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington,” Assange said. “I am suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that… We have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and our sources take serious risks and that’s why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity.” In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he was asked: “So in other words, let me be clear... Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?” “That’s correct,” Assange responded. To better appreciate the severity of the leak, the information found in the emails caused major harm to the Clinton campaign, and has been cited as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Trump. It’s worth pondering at this point in Assange’s life whether he will continue fighting the powers that be, or take a long and much-needed vacation from the dangerous world of truth-telling. Time will tell, but I’ve got a hunch that Julian Assange has only just begun to fight. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Italy drew 1-1 with Croatia and secured a place in the knockout round at Euro 2024 thanks to Mattia Zaccagni's goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
The draw clinches second place in Group B for Italy, the defending European champions. It put the Italians ahead of Croatia, who had led the match since Luka Modrić's 55th-minute goal. With the Italians pressing for a vital equalizer, Riccardo Calafiori's pass split the Croatia defence and found Zaccagni, who curled his shot past goalkeeper Dominik Livaković. Croatia had eyes on jumping over Italy and into second place in the group following Modrić's goal, which finished off a wild one-minute sequence in the match. Italy's Davide Frattesi was called for a handball in his own penalty box, which was confirmed following a VAR review. Up stepped Modrić, who tried to go to the bottom right corner, but instead saw his attempt denied by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Croatia retained possession, and Luka Sučić's cross into the Italian box was flicked on goal by Ante Budimir. That attempt was saved by Donnarumma, but Modrić was on the spot to put home the rebound. The goal made Modrić the oldest player to ever score at the Euros at 38 years and 289 days old. Ivica Vastić, who played for Austria from 1996-2008, was the previous record holder at 38 years and 257 days old when he scored against Poland at Euro 2008. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Scotland stuck with the broad shape and approach Steve Clarke has used pretty much non stop for years now. They spent a lot of time passing around the back with no real idea how to progress the ball into dangerous areas. 58% possession, four shots, all in the second half. It’s just crap. I mean look at those thick arrows between the centre backs and midfielders. That centre back Grant Hanley made the most passes? That goalkeeper Angus Gunn had the most xGChain? That the same player had the most progressive passing made and received, and that it was pint sized patient passing midfielder Billy Gilour? Or that Scott McKenna was the most central player in the passing network? The answer is that they are all awful. I can’t find any positives here. Scotland never had any idea how to generate anything resembling an attack. They instead relied on individuals, and these just aren’t a particularly impressive group of attackers in terms of quality. I genuinely felt Scotland played some reasonable stuff at the Euros three years ago, and were hard done by to get knocked out in the group stages. I do not think that this time. This was just dreadful, and one can’t reasonably complain about Scotland getting knocked out.
Hungary did not exactly play liquid football here, but it was enough. They got their goal from launching a quick counter after defending a corner, with the kinds of basic decisions about when to play the pass and where that Scotland got wrong all tournament. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Whistleblower Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, appears to be released unexpectedly. According to WikiLeaks, Assange left his prison in the United Kingdom yesterday morning and boarded a plane at London Stansted Airport. A deal appears to have been struck on his release: according to court documents, Assange will appear today in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands. This group of islands is territory of the United States and is located in the Pacific Ocean, about a five-hour flight from Australia. The deal states that Assange will plead guilty in the espionage case that the United States has against him. In exchange for this, he will probably be allowed to return to his home country Australia, according to court documents seen by news agencies Reuters and AP, among others. The deal still needs to be formally ratified. Assange is expected to be sentenced to the five years he has already spent in a high-security British prison as he fought to avoid extradition to the US. If the deal is approved, he will probably be released immediately. Assange faced a prison sentence of 175 years in the United States. In 2010, the Australian's platform published a video of American helicopter pilots in Iraq shooting down unarmed civilians. The platform also published the contents of hundreds of thousands of secret official messages from American diplomatic missions around the world. Assange was held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison for about five years. Before that, he hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years. When Ecuador revoked Assange's asylum status in 2019, he was arrested by British police. Stella Assange, the wife of Julian Assange who has been campaigning for his release for years, says in a video probably recorded yesterday that the period in which she has to visit Assange in prison "is now coming to an end". “I think Julian will be free by this time next week.” WikiLeaks representative Kristinn Hrafnsson also says in the same video that she is optimistic and "that things are moving very quickly now."
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Prosecutors in Wuppertal on Monday said it was pursuing a blackmail investigation against at least two individuals accused of trying to extort money from the family of German F1 legend Michael Schumacher.
Last week, the German officials said two people had been arrested on suspicion of attempted blackmail "to the disadvantage of a celebrity." On Monday, Wuppertal prosecutors confirmed media reports the Schumacher family was targeted. According to prosecutors, the suspects told employees of the family that they possessed information the Schumachers would not want to be released in public. "They demanded a payment in the millions in order to prevent the publication of the data on the dark web," prosecutors said of the case on Monday. "As proof that they did indeed possess the files in question, the blackmailers sent individual files to the family." Investigators used "technical means" to ascertain that the blackmailers had been operating from the western German city of Wuppertal. Wuppertal's prosecutors took the case over from colleagues in Kassel when this became apparent, one day before the suspects were arrested. The suspects are 53- and 30-year men, father and son, who were already on bail for another crime. As of Monday, they were in investigative detention after being collared on June 19. "On the same day, eight properties were searched," prosecutors said, including the suspects' main residences, secondary residences, and the older man's workplace. They could face a fine or a jail sentence of up to 5 years if tried and convicted, but prosecutors said the "extensive investigations" were ongoing. Schumacher, until recently the most successful F1 driver of all time, suffered serious cranial injuries in a skiing accident in 2013. Although exact details on the 55-year-old's condition are not clear, he has made no public appearances since and does not appear likely to. His family has repeatedly appealed for privacy. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The Edmond de Rothschild Group is establishing a funding vehicle for infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia along with the local firm SNB Capital, as part of a deal in which the Swiss investment bank will set up offices in the country.
Saudi Arabia’s massive economic diversification programme has run into financial obstacles as it faces three years of budget deficits with oil below breakeven price and lower than expected foreign direct investment. “Edmond de Rothschild is seeking to establish a new infrastructure debt fund platform designed to play a crucial role in financing infrastructure projects across Saudi Arabia, in line with the country’s Vision 2030 programme,” the bank said in a statement, describing it as a joint venture with SNB Capital. Separately, Rothschild said it was setting up a joint venture with Watar Partners to offer services to Saudi family offices and institutional investors. A local office will open in the second half of 2024, for which Saudi nationals will be hired. The statement said the plans were awaiting regulatory approval and licensing. Foreign companies now need to establish regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia for access to any government contracts worth at least SAR1 million ($270,000). But foreign and local banks are also being pressed to step up to provide funding for the Public Investment Fund-owned giga-projects at the heart of the Saudi reforms. The Anglo-French Rothschild & Co said in February it had opened an office in the King Abdullah Financial District to offer advisory services including mergers and acquisitions, debt advisory and restructuring and private equity. Major banks in the government’s good graces stand to win contracts servicing bond issuances, as government entities and private banks raise debt. Saudi Arabia’s public debt is still relatively low, at 26.5 percent of GDP in 2023. Saudi Arabia’s Capital Markets Authority is considering scrapping a 5 percent withholding tax on interest payments to corporate bondholders to encourage more foreign investment. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Since debuting as Melaka state’s new tourism ambassador in June, Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing has created a stir, both online and in the Malaysian state capital’s historic streets.
The popular actress’ recent appearances at Melaka’s tourism and heritage sites, including strolling in Jonker Walk in the city’s Chinatown and sampling local fare, attracted hordes of starstruck fans and sparked a frenzy that sent searches for “Melaka” spiking on Chinese social media. Melaka is banking on Fan’s star power, Chinese consumers’ love for durians and Malaysia’s visa-free policy to attract more Chinese holidaymakers to the south-western state. One million Chinese tourists is the goal for Visit Melaka 2024, said state executive councillor for Tourism, Heritage, Arts and Culture Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman in May. In 2023, Malaysia welcomed about 20 million tourists, with almost 1.5 million of them from China. Of the 8.63 million visitors who flocked to Melaka in 2023, only 204,818 were from China, and most of them were day trippers. Fan is a household name in China, with 63 million followers on microblogging platform Weibo. She is known for her roles in the Chinese TV epic The Empress Of China and the movie X-Men: Days Of Future Past. The actress was included as the highest-paid celebrity in the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list from 2013 to 2017, and appeared on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2017. She disappeared from the public eye for several months in 2018 amid a tax evasion scandal, was fined more than 800 million yuan (S$150 million) and resurfaced later that year to publicly apologise for her actions. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has denied a rumour that the ruling Pheu Thai Party is planning to eradicate party-list MPs to prevent the Move Forward Party from winning the next election.
Sunday’s denial came after Thai Sang Thai Party leader Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan claimed that Pheu Thai was trying to increase constituency MP seats from 350 to 500 and remove all 150 party-list MP seats. Sudarat, a former Pheu Thai chief strategist, said the information came from a friend within Pheu Thai. Srettha dismissed the accusation as “political games”, saying ministers had not discussed or worked on amending the Constitution to eradicate party-list MPs as this would need to be done through the parliamentary system. He said any move to amend the Constitution would first have to be discussed by Pheu Thai members as it would be an important issue. “Confusion is normal in politics, but I think we should focus on solving the problems of the people,” he said. “It’s just a made-up story,” he said of Sudarat’s allegation. Move Forward won most seats at the 2019 election but was condemned to opposition after junta-appointed senators voted against its prime ministerial candidate, Pita Limjaroenrat. Pheu Thai then formed a government coalition with parties from the previous administration. Former Move Forward leader Pita said his party was not worried about changes to the Constitution. He said however that any amendment should benefit people, ensure fairness among political parties and remove sources of political conflict. He expressed confidence that Move Forward would win the next election despite what he said was an unfair political system. “We should not amend [the Constitution] to benefit politicians but rather to restore the people’s power in the long term,” he said. Constituency MP seats should be increased from 350 to 400, and party-list seats should be reduced from 150 to 100, Pita added. He also proposed improving the criteria used to calculate the number of party-list MPs. Move Forward is currently threatened with dissolution in a court case stemming from its push to amend Article 112, or the lese majeste law. The Constitutional Court will hear the case from July 3 and rule on whether the push amounts to an attempt to undermine constitutional monarchy. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Ukrainians must Work6/24/2024 The German government should offer Ukrainian refugees job opportunities and deport those who refuse to integrate, a senior MP from the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) has said.
The time has come for Berlin to review its social welfare policies and demand “stronger cooperation obligations for asylum seekers when it comes to taking up work,” Alexander Dobrindt, the chairman of the CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told Bild on Saturday. “More than two years after the start of the war, the principle must now apply: take up work in Germany or return to safe areas of western Ukraine,” Dobrindt said. “There must be an offer of work and this must be part of an integration effort.” According to Eurostat, around 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees were residing in Germany as of March 2024, and at least 250,000 were believed to be men aged 18 to 60, according to media reports. Unlike refugees from other countries, Ukrainians in Germany are entitled to a ‘citizen’s benefit’ of €563 ($610) a month – a level of support markedly higher than in other EU member states. Deutsche Welle reported earlier this year that the employment rate among Ukrainian refugees in Germany stands at only 20%, apparently among the lowest compared to other host nations. Several regional interior ministers recently called on the federal government to abolish what they describe as generous financial handouts to Ukrainian refugees – claiming that benefits are making it more difficult for Kiev to recruit new soldiers for the conflict with Russia. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann argued last week that Berlin should be incentivizing draft-eligible Ukrainian men to return home. His counterpart from Baden-Wuerttemberg, Thomas Strobl, suggested that the handouts may be impeding the “Ukrainians’ defensive fight” by sending the wrong message to able-bodied Ukrainian men. The interior minister of Brandenburg, Michael Stuebgen, and his counterpart from Hesse, Roman Poseck, have expressed similar opinions in recent weeks. Ukraine has struggled to find new recruits as its armed forces have been suffering heavy casualties. This spring, Kiev tightened its mobilization rules and lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. Draft efforts have been marred by widespread dodging and allegations of corruption. Kiev has sought to bring draft dodgers back to the country by denying them consular services abroad and the ability to update their ID papers outside of Ukraine. Some senior officials have also said they want Western countries to send draft dodgers back home. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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