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France’s Marine Le Pen acquitted in hate-speech trial
after she tweeted Islamic State photos
4 May, 2021 13:46
FILE PHOTO. France's right-wing National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen (R) and MEP Gilbert Collard, Paris, France
© Reuters / Philippe Wojazer
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been acquitted in her trial for posting pictures of atrocities committed by the Islamic State terrorist group, including an image of a US journalist’s body.
The right-wing politician was alleged to have broken French hate-speech laws for uploading three particular images to her Twitter account in December 2015. She denied breaking the law.
La Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally (previously National Front), posted the pictures to ridicule a journalist’s comparison of her party to IS.
The pair’s exchange came just weeks after the 2015 Paris attacks, for which IS claimed responsibility, in which 130 people were killed.
One of the images featured the body of James Foley, a US journalist who was beheaded by an IS fighter in 2014. Le Pen claimed she was unaware of Foley’s identity and she later removed the image at the request of his family.
Le Pen’s National Rally colleague, MEP Gilbert Collard, who was on trial for posting an explicit image, was also acquitted.
He had also responded to the French journalist’s comparison, in his case by uploading a picture of a man with a smashed skull to his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The two politicians were charged in 2018 with distributing “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity” and that can be seen by minors. The offense is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of €75,000 ($90,000).
Le Pen previously said the case impinged on free speech, while Collard’s lawyer Jean-Marc Descoubes branded it a “political trial.”
Her acquittal comes as Le Pen campaigns for next year’s presidential election, in which she will likely face-off against the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron.
Recent polling shows Le Pen and Macron, to whom she lost in the 2017 election, are both projected to take 26% of the first-round vote.
Kamala Harris stirs critics by declaring ‘lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience’ as ‘root causes’ of migrant surge
4 May, 2021 17:55
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Vice President Kamala Harris again addressed the migrant surge at the US’ southern border, this time citing a ‘lack of climate adaptation’ and ‘resilience’ as some root causes of the problem. Her critics weren’t convinced.
Speaking at the Washington Conference on the Americas on Tuesday, Harris acknowledged the recent surge at the US-Mexico border, saying people are leaving their homes at “an alarming rate.”
“We want to help people find hope at home. And so we are focused on addressing both the acute factors and the root causes of migration. And I believe this is an important distinction. We must focus on both,” she said.
She added that “catastrophes” like “hurricanes, the drought, and the extreme food insecurity” are driving people to illegally cross the border. Then she turned to the “root causes” which she named as “corruption, violence, and poverty” as well as “the lack of economic opportunity, the lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience, the lack of good governance.”
Since being charged with heading the handling of the crisis at the border, Harris has faced criticism for her lack of physical trips and direct addresses on the matter. Conservatives were instantly skeptical of her effort to connect the current border crisis with climate change.
Is she aware that climate change affects the USA as well as Central America? And that, according to Democrats, Trump did nothing to change that.
While climate change continues to be a partisan debate, experts have pointed to events such as recent hurricanes like Eta and Iota in Mexico as pushing people to make the trip north, though it’s far from the only reason. Many critics have pointed to the current administration’s more relaxed rhetoric and policies on immigration as also driving the surge.
“It couldn't possibly be caused by the Biden admin stopping construction of the border wall or offering asylum to millions of illegal immigrants,” Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Alabama) tweeted in response to a video highlighting Harris’ climate comments.
This is exactly what happened when Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada in 2015. He opened the borders and migrants flooded in.
US Customs and Border Patrol reported encountering more than 170,000 migrants in March, an increase of 71% from the previous month. There has also been a record surge in unaccompanied minors being caught crossing the border in recent months.
Biden officials have continually blasted Trump-era policies at the border, and some have said the restrictive administration even created a “pent up demand” for migrants.
Biden administration adviser Roberta Jacobson admitted last month that the president’s “more humane policy” on illegal immigration may be driving more migrants to make the journey to the US.
“There was a hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent-up demand, so I don't know if I would call that a coincidence,” she said at a White House briefing. “But the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision.”
It probably would never have happened if America had a more humane policy toward Latin America in the previous century instead of raping them of their natural resources, leaving them in abject poverty, and teaching them that corruption means control.
World sees US as significantly greater threat to democracy
than Russia & China – survey
5 May, 2021 17:01
© Reuters / Hannah McKay
A poll taken in 53 countries has found that 44% of people around the world consider the United States to be a threat to their democracy – significantly less more than those who believe the same about China and Russia.
Out of the 53,000 people polled across 53 countries, more respondents (44%) considered US influence on their country to be a “threat to democracy” than those who didn’t (26%). Meanwhile, only 38% considered Chinese influence a threat to democracy.
Fear of Russian influence was the lowest of the three, with only 28% considering Russia to be a threat to their democracy.
Asian countries were high among those that feared US influence, with Pakistan fearing Washington the most. Japanese respondents also consider the US to be a greater concern than China – while Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Greece, Israel, Australia, Ukraine, and Switzerland were also among the top half.
The survey was conducted by Latana in partnership with the Alliance of Democracies, which was founded in Denmark by former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen – a detail some on social media found interesting, given that the results inconveniently showed higher levels of fear regarding the US than Russia and China.
While people in European countries expressed lower levels of fear when it comes to US influence, they still expressed more fear about it than they did about influence from Moscow or Beijing.
Meanwhile, 64% of the world also considered economic inequality to be a threat to democracy, along with “limits on free speech” at 53%, “unfair or fraudulent elections” at 49%, and the power of Big Tech companies – most of which are based in the United States – at 48%.
Regarding the US’ “role in world affairs,” people in Russia, China, and Europe were most critical, while Latin America and Asia were more positive.
That's hard to fathom when you know what the USA did to Latin America in the last century.
The report also showed that concerns over US influence on other democracies has increased since last year – up 20% in Germany alone and 16% in China.
The Alliance of Democracies boasts that it is funded by “several democratic governments,” including Canada. It has also received money from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, the George W. Bush Institute, the Atlantic Council and the George Soros-funded National Democratic Institute.
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It's funny, not funny, that Trudeau was the first world leader to drop the term 'global reset' in the media! Now, the UN is talking about a global reset in the area of fighting pandemics. Canada had such a center from very early in this century until Trudeau defunded it in his first term as Prime Minister.
'Global reset' needed to fight future pandemics, as creation of WHO research hub announced
5 May, 2021 14:26
German Health Minister Jens Spahn in Berlin, Germany, April 29, 2021 © Reuters / John Macdougall
A "global reset" is needed to fight future pandemics, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn told a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on Wednesday as the UN agency announced the creation of a new research hub in Berlin.
Spahn highlighted the findings of a review into the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which will be officially announced at the WHO's World Health Assembly later this month.
The authors of the report will call for "nothing less than a global reset in pandemic preparedness" and say that the world needs to focus on the "next crisis," Spahn said.
Spahn said that the world is "insufficiently prepared" for potential pandemic risks, including the extension of diseases to previously unaffected populations and the transmission of diseases from animals to people.
Not to mention the creation of diseases in virology labs, and the likelihood of hybrid warfare using viruses.
The minister appeared alongside WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who announced the creation of a new pandemic and health research hub in Berlin.
Set to open this year, the WHO hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence will produce information to inform the policies of governments and other health authorities, Merkel said.
Ghebreyesus told the briefing that the pandemic has "exposed gaps" in global intelligence systems and said there will be "more viruses that will emerge with the potential of sparking epidemics or pandemics."
He said the potential risks will be addressed by the global center in Berlin, which aims to collect, analyze and disseminate health data around the world in real-time.
Which is exactly what the Canadian centre did until it was dissolved in time for the 2019 pandemic.
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