(old article we missed) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was booed on Friday during his first October 12 military parade since he took office in June. When the convoy of official cars in which the politician was traveling made its way down the Castellana boulevard in central Madrid, thousands of people began to jeer and whistle at him. Source El Pais
Social Policy
China and the Netherlands on Monday pledged to jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade by carrying out more open and pragmatic cooperation, against the backdrop of a complicated international situation with increasing uncertainties. Source: Xinhuanet
The interior minister has ordered migrants in Riace be redistributed across Italy after its mayor was arrested. The mayor’s vision was hailed across the globe as a model for reviving towns and integrating refugees. Source: Deutsche Welle
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on July 31 said in a Tweet that the new Italian government may be in violation of international law for the repatriation of migrants from Libya, due to the level of instability in the war-torn North African nation. Source: New Europe
France’s parliament signed into law a controversial asylum and immigration bill on Wednesday (1 August), despite opposition on the left which decried an effort to limit arrivals while the far right saw the measure as not going far enough. Source: Euractiv
Just under a quarter of residents of the Bundesrepublik have foreign roots, up 4.4 percent year-on-year, government statistics show. The figures released by destatis on Wednesday show that roughly 19.3 million of Germany’s population had a migrant background in 2017. The number was a record high. Source: The Local
Denmark’s controversial ban on the Islamic full-face veil in public spaces came into force on Wednesday as women protested the new measure which fines anyone wearing the garment. Source: The Local
The ambassador was summoned on Monday after the “unacceptable and groundless” comments by Di Maio on Sunday, a source in the cabinet of France’s Europe Minister Natalie Loiseau told AFP on condition of anonymity. Source: France24
Russia has recognized the existence of a cruise missile system that has prompted Washington to say it will quit the 1987 INF disarmament treaty, but has denied that it violates the pact, U.S. officials and NATO diplomats said on Monday. Source: Reuters
Turkey is ready to take over security in Syria’s Manbij, where four U.S. citizens died in an Islamic State-claimed bombing last week, President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Sunday, the Turkish presidency said. Source: CNBC
The German government on Monday imposed sanctions against Iranian airline Mahan Air in connection to Iran’s illegal activities in Europe, including the discovery of a spy working as a translator for the country’s armed forces . Source: Deutsche Welle
China’s birth rate last year fell to its lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 70 years ago, official data showed on Monday, with looser population controls failing to encourage couples to have more babies. Source: Reuters
The US has announced a new missile defense policy aimed at addressing the challenges posed by Russia and China, which seeks to displace America in the Indo-Pacific region and has adopted an assertive posture in disputes over territorial boundaries with its neighbours. Source: Economic Times
The Dutch journalist who was expelled from Turkey is suspected of forgery, sources report to Nieuwsuur. Ans Boersma would have falsified her ex-boyfriend’s papers, a Syrian who was recently arrested in the Netherlands for being a member of the terror organization Jabhat al-Nusra. Source: NOS
Vladimir Putin has said that Russia finds the Kosovo authorities’ decision to create their own army regrettable and sees it as another risk of destabilization of the situation in the Balkans.
“Regrettably, Kosovo’s authorities took a series of provocative steps lately, thus greatly aggravating the situation. In the first place I have in mind their decision of December 14 to form a so-called army in Kosovo,” Putin told a news conference. “It goes without saying that this is a direct violation of the UN resolution, which does not allow for the creation of any paramilitary forces except for the international UN contingent.”
“Such irresponsible steps by Kosovo’s authorities may cause destabilization in the Balkans,” he warned. Source: Tass
At a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkish President Erdogan and his Croatian counterpart both agreed that the 1995 agreement which ended the 1992-5 war in Bosnia is not working. Erdogan called on Wednesday for the revision of Bosnia’s 1995 Dayton Agreement in Ankara alongside Croatian President Grabar-Kitarovic who was paying an official visit. Source: Balkan Insight
According to a recent report, the use of the word “family” caused many Google employees to freak out, arguing that the term was homophobic. Source: Breitbart
The pages were linked to employees of Moscow-based Sputnik, Facebook said. In a statement, a spokesperson for Sputnik said Facebook’s decision was “practically censorship.” Source: Bloomberg
he International Monetary Fund said Monday that Italy’s financial situation was among the main risk factors for the global economy. “In Europe the Brexit cliffhanger continues, and the costly spillovers between sovereign and financial risk in Italy remain a threat,” the IMF said in an update of its World Economic Outlook. Source: Ansa
Talks held near the Swedish capital Stockholm on Monday that included representatives from North and South Korea and the United States were constructive, Sweden’s foreign ministry said.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
The bankruptcy of Yukos Oil in Russia will not be recognized in the Netherlands, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled on Friday, upholding a decision in 2017 by a lower appeals court. Source: The Moscow Times
The German government is debating whether to follow the United States and allies such as Australia in restricting China’s Huawei Technologies from accessing its next-generation mobile networks on national-security grounds.
Some Western countries have barred Huawei from their markets after US officials briefed allies that Huawei is at the beck and call of the Chinese state, warning that its network equipment may contain “back doors” that could open them up to cyberespionage. Huawei says such concerns are unfounded. Source: The Irish Time
- The bipartisan bills target firms supposedly in breach of US sanctions, and specifically cite Huawei and ZTE
- Republican Senator Tom Cotton branded Huawei ‘an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party’
The measures would require the US president to ban the export of US components to any Chinese telecommunications company that violates US sanctions or export control laws. Source: South China Morrning Post
Germany and China are working on ways to improve market access for each other’s banks and insurers, the German finance minister said on Thursday, and he welcomed plans by China and the United States to ease trade tensions through talks. Source: Euronews
Nokia is to cut another 350 jobs as part of efforts to achieve annual savings of €700 million by the end of next year. Source: TechRadar
The workforce in 2040 is projected to be 20 percent smaller than in 2017 due to overall population decline if the economy sees no growth and women and the elderly continue to have difficulty landing jobs, according to government study released Tuesday. Source: Japan Times
In 2018, Chinese FDI in the United States fell to just $4.8 billion — a massive decline from $29 billion in 2017 and $46 billion in 2016, according to independent researcher the Rhodium Group. Source: CNBC
German gross domestic product grew 1.5 percent in 2018, compared with 2.2 percent in 2017, the latest data from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) showed. Source: CNBC
Angela Merkel’s replacement as leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats has criticised the country’s leading environmental organisations for leading “crusades” against diesel cars, as she attempts to put distance between herself and her predecessor. Source: The Guardian
