After wrapping up thousands of town hall meetings, France starts a new chapter of its “great debate,” aimed to address longstanding public grievances and offer solutions to the yellow vest protest movement.
But the broader crisis lingers, seen with upsurge of violence in Paris Saturday, where about 10,000 yellow vests marked their 18th straight week of protests.
Demonstrators smashed and looted businesses on the iconic Champs Elysees and hurled cobble stones at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Others participated in a peaceful climate march that brought together tens of thousand of people—underscoring the diffuse, unorganized complexity of the leaderless protest movement.
Eight weeks of citizen debates, launched in January by an embattled President Emmanuel Macron, have received mixed reviews. Some consider them a groundbreaking experiment in participative democracy. Others dismiss them as a public relations stunt.
The bigger question is whether and how Macron’s centrist government plans to transform the public feedback into tangible policy change that can address pent-up resentments and find an exit to the unrest.
“The problems start now” said analyst Jean Petaux of Sciences-Po Bordeaux University. “To totally finish with the yellow vests, the government has to address at least part of their demands, which are very disparate. And give the sense it is offering credible solutions.”
For Macron, the immediate takeaways have been largely positive. Up to half-a-million French participated in 10,000 town-hall-style meetings nationwide that tackled pre-set topics, ranging from taxes and pubic services, to democracy and the environment. Organizers also received more than 1.4 million online comments outlining other issues of public concern, including jobs and immigration.
“People are learning that politics and how to change a system is a very difficult process,” said Bernard Reber, an expert on participative citizenship at the Paris-based National Center for Scientific Research, citing one early achievement.
A mixed review
The debates have also given the president and his government some breathing room — time that will last through the current “phase two,” which ends in April. Citizens are being randomly selected to participate in regional meetings aimed to prioritize the myriad demands.
Surveys show the majority of French have broadly given the national debates a thumbs up. More than eight in 10 respondents said the meetings gave citizens an opportunity to express themselves, while smaller majorities said they addressed their personal problems and those aired by the yellow vests, according to a Harris Interactive-Agence Epoka poll published this week, echoing others.
But many appear skeptical that all the talking will amount to much. Another survey found roughly two-thirds doubt the government will ultimately take the public feedback into account.
France’s leading Le Monde newspaper, however, gave the effort a careful, initial thumbs up. Critics who dismissed the debates as a diversion “were misguided,” it wrote in an editorial, while the yellow vests “were eclipsed and marginalize by this exercise in democracy.”
“Macron has not yet won,” it added, “he needs to show he hasn’t just listened but heard the country.”
Government members insist that will happen.
“The idea we have to do things differently is obvious,” Territorial Collectives Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who helped to organizing the debates, told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. “We may beef up certain themes, accelerate or correct others.”
But Prime Minister Edouard Philippe offered a more cautionary note, those expecting a flurry of government measures emerging from the debates were misguided.
The months of yellow vest protests have slowed Macron’s reformist agenda. The protest movement, named after the fluorescent jackets French keep in their cars, has morphed well beyond its initial opposition to a planned fuel tax hike, to embrace a hodgepodge of grievances of a largely rural and working class France left behind.
The French president took an initial step back by repealing the fuel tax increase. Then in December, he went further, announcing billions of dollars of aid for the most vulnerable and laying out plans the debates. Yellow vests dismissed the announcements as insufficient, the most extreme calling for Macron’s resignation.
“Emmanuel Macron now has to show that his statements — that there is a before and and after the yellow vests — are translated into acts,” says analyst Petaux. “Otherwise, it’s just talk.”
The next step?
So far, there are at least stylistic changes. Often dismissed as arrogant and aloof, Macron has rolled up his sleeves — literally — and participated in roughly a dozen public debates, in a style reminiscent of his presidential campaign.
Political opponents grumble the French leader has hogged media coverage ahead of May European Parliament elections. And indeed, polls show Macron’s approval rating jumped eight points by early March, to reach 28 percent, and his Republic on the March party inching up to overtake the far-right opposition National Rally.
Still, some observers note the debates ultimately involved only a small slice of the population — including many elderly, with time on their hands. “The great majority of French stayed home,” said analyst Petaux. “It’s not that they were sidelined. It’s that they don’t care. They have other things to do.”
But analyst Reber, who attended roughly 30 of the town hall meetings, believes the debates should not be underestimated. “They’ve been unprecedented in every sense,” he said.
A few months ago, he said, many would have dismissed the idea that French would show up and hash out often deeply divisive issues. “But that’s not been the case,” Reber added. “People mobilized — and stayed for a long time. I don’t know many countries in the world that allow citizens to participate in hours-long debates.”
Macron is expected to announce the after-debate roadmap next month. So far, the French president has given little indication of his long-term exit strategy. Some believe he doesn’t yet have one.
“I’m not sure the government has a clear idea of what it’s going to do with this mass of information” Reber said. “But it has all kinds of options.
A referendum may be the most obvious path, many analysts say. But it carries risks — not only in terms timing, notably whether to schedule such a vote during May European Parliament elections — but also the chance French may vote against it.
The next steps for the yellow vests are also unclear. A number of analysts believe the movement will slowly die out.
Some diehards will likely continue and harden the protests, Petaux believes, while another group will be absorbed into existing politics parties — mostly on the far right and far left.
A third “will relive the nostalgia of the Republic of roundabouts,” he said, remembering the solidarity and friendships struck during the protests.
…
«Росія спробувала порушити кордони, вдавшись до військової сили. Той, хто так діє, руйнує довіру і ставить під сумнів основні правила мирного співіснування»
…
The White House on Sunday rejected any attempt to link President Donald Trump to the white supremacist accused of gunning down 50 people at two New Zealand mosques.
“The president is not a white supremacist,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the “Fox News Sunday” show. “I’m not sure how many times we have to say that. Let’s take what happened in New Zealand [Friday] for what it is: a terrible evil tragic act.”
Alleged gunman Brenton Harris Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, said in a 74-page manifesto he released shortly before the massacre unfolded at mosques in Christchurch that he viewed Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” but did not support his policies.
The statement renewed criticism that Trump has not voiced strong enough condemnation of white nationalists.
Asked Friday after the mosque attacks whether he sees an increase in white nationalism, Trump said, “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.” He said he had not seen the manifesto.
Mulvaney said, “I don’t think it’s fair to cast this person as a supporter of Donald Trump any more than it is to look at his eco-terrorist passages in that manifesto and align him with [Democratic House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi or Ms. Ocasio-Cortez,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman.
“This was a disturbed individual, an evil person,” he said.
Scott Brown, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, told CNN that he gave no credence to Tarrant’s comments about Trump in the manifesto, saying the accused gunman “is rotten to the core.” Brown said he hopes Tarrant is convicted “as quickly as he can be” and the key to his prison cell thrown away.
Trump was widely attacked in the aftermath of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 when he equated white supremacists with counter-protesters, saying “both sides” were to blame and that there were “fine people” on both sides of the protest.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of numerous Democrats seeking the party’s presidential nomination to oppose Trump in the 2020 election, said on Twitter after the New Zealand attack, “Time and time again, this president has embraced and emboldened white supremacists and instead of condemning racist terrorists, he covers for them. This isn’t normal or acceptable.”
your ad here
British Prime Minister Theresa May warned Sunday that it would be “a potent symbol of Parliament’s collective political failure” if a Brexit delay meant that the U.K. has to take part in May’s European elections — almost three years after Britons voted to leave the bloc.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, May also cautioned that if lawmakers failed to back her deal before Thursday’s European Council summit, “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever.”
“If the proposal were to go back to square one and negotiate a new deal, that would mean a much longer extension… The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about,” she wrote.
May is expected to try to win Parliament’s approval of her withdrawal agreement for the third time this week. After months of political deadlock, lawmakers voted on Thursday to seek to postpone Brexit.
That will likely avert a chaotic withdrawal on the scheduled exit date of March 29 — though power to approve or reject an extension lies with the EU. The European Commission has said the bloc would consider any request, “taking into account the reasons for and duration of a possible extension.”
By law, Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, with or without a deal, unless it cancels Brexit or secures a delay.
May is trying to persuade opponents in her Conservative Party and its parliamentary allies to support the withdrawal agreement, which Parliament has already resoundingly defeated twice.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Sunday his party is against May’s deal — but indicated that it would back an amendment that supports the deal on condition it is put to a new referendum.
Corbyn has written to lawmakers across the political spectrum inviting them for talks to find a cross-party compromise.
He also told Sky News that he may propose another no-confidence vote in the government if May’s deal is voted down again.
…
Оприлюднені в засобах масової інформації матеріали здебільшого стосуються кримінальних проваджень, за якими до відповідальності притягли 15 осіб, повідомило Національне антикорупційне бюро України.
У відомстві зазначили, що мова йде про 87 сторінок, які Генеральна прокуратура передала до НАБУ навесні 2017 року.
Згідно з повідомленням, у першому випадку до кримінальної відповідальності притягуються службові особи та неформальні куратори ТОВ «Енергія-Новий Розділ» і ТОВ «Енергія-Новояворівськ», бенефіціарами яких є два народні депутати – Ярослав та Богдан Дубневичі. У цьому провадженні досудове розслідування завершене, встановлена сума збитків сягає 1,4 мільярда гривень. НАБУ вказує, що арешт накладений на дві теплоелектроцентралі.
Друге провадження стосується одного з епізодів заволодіння коштами «Укрзалізниці». Провадження стосовно двох осіб направили до суду у вересні 2018 року. Тоді НАБУ повідомляло, що йдеться про розтрати на суму 26,7 мільйона гривень.
Документи зі скриншотами листувань 15 березня оприлюднили журналісти видання «Цензор.НЕТ». Вони заявили, що частину з цих листувань використали журналісти проекту Bihus.Info, які 11 березня оприлюднили четверту частину свого розслідування щодо корупції в сфері оборони. Згідно з матеріалом, українські правоохоронці отримували тисячі доларів хабарів, щоб закрити кримінальні провадження.
У попередніх частинах розслідування журналістів про суми «відкатів» і схеми розкрадання мільйонів в оборонній сфері йшлося про причетність до цього звільненого нині заступника секретаря Ради нацбезпеки і оборони Олега Гладковського, його сина Ігоря й чиновників оборонних підприємств України. Всі фігуранти розслідування звинувачення відкинули.
Президент України Петро Порошенко, чиїм соратником називають Гладковського, заявив, що в разі підтвердження даних журналістського розслідування винні мають бути покарані.
…
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has launched her campaign to win the Democratic Party nomination to oppose President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
She formally launched her bid Sunday morning, not with a big speech, but instead with a video that poses the question, “WIll brave win?”
“We need a leader who makes big, bold, brave choices,” Gillibrand says in the video. “Someone who isn’t afraid of progress.”
The lawmaker is set to deliver her first major speech next week in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City.
She gave an indication in the video of the issues she will focus on during her campaign. “We launched ourselves into space and landed on the moon. If we can do that, we can definitely achieve universal health care,”she said. “We can provide paid family leave for all, end gun violence, pass a Green New Deal, get money out of politics and take back our democracy.”
She joins a large group of presidential hopefuls that includes, among many others, some of her fellow female lawmakers: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kamala Harris of California, along with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate in 2009. She filled the New York Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, but since then has won three elections to retain the seat.
…
Євросоюз підтримує український суверенітет і територіальну цілісність – верховний представник Європейського союзу із зовнішньої політики
…
As rising nationalism and the crisis surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union intensify divisions on the continent, a new exhibit in the French capital looks instead at a powerful unifier: Music.
The music the came with the postwar colonial migrations helped turn two of Europe’s most important hubs, London and Paris, into multicultural melting pots.
Rhythm and blues, reggae, rai and rock ’n’ roll — Europe and other Western regions got world music long before the term was invented. Even the Beatles were much more than a British brand — borrowing from Asia and sometimes West Africa.
How it blended into popular culture today is a central theme of a new exhibit that examines three decades of post-war migration to Paris and London — through music.
France and Britain needed extra manpower to fuel their fast-growing economies. They got it from former colonies that had just achieved independence. For immigrants in Paris, it was a tough beginning.
“Immigrants lived in special areas, what we call foyers,” said Stephane Malfettes. “There were a lot of strikes in the foyers de travelers. They were working in factories during the day — sharing the life of everybody — but at the end of the day, they vanished in their foyers.”
WATCH: Post-Colonial Migration to London, Paris Traced Via Music
Malfettes is the curator of the exhibit that opened this week at the Paris Museum of Immigration History. He says the immigrants were initially sidelined from France’s mainstream musical scene, as well. Things changed in the 1970s.
“The music became a very strong protest in the public space as an instrument of revolt and protest,” he said.
Across the English Channel, migrants in London also faced racism. But Martin Evans, another exhibit curator, said they were introducing the city to ska and reggae from Jamaica, music from East Africa, and calypso from Trinidad and Tobago.
“They become profoundly London,” Evans said. “And in a sense, I think that’s a measure of how much this migration has transformed London by the end of the 1980s.”
The parents of British musician and filmmaker Don Letts immigrated to Britain from Jamaica as part of the so-called Windrush generation. He says they wanted to integrate by denying their roots. It didn’t work.
“Ironically, it was their culture, particularly their music, that would capture the imagination of the white working-class kids,” he said. “And it was our culture that would actually help us to integrate with society.”
Letts says the cultural exchange went both ways.
“I was inspired by a lot of things that I grew up with. I grew up digging the Stones, the Beatles, Bowie, Roxy Music and all the rest of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paris by the 1980s had become a hub for African music — singers like Papa Wemba, Khaled, Youssou Ndour and Salif Keita. Music producer Martin Meissonnier was among their earliest fans — and producer for some of the biggest artists.
“Out of pleasure I was discovering all these new musics, and I thought it was a gold mine. It was fascinating. It was all these incredible bands,” Meissonnier said.
The musical fusion has left a powerful imprint on today’s artists. And it has changed not only how we think about music, but about each other.
…
As rising nationalism and the crisis surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union intensify divisions on the continent, a new exhibit in Paris looks instead at a powerful unifier. Music arriving with postwar colonial migrations helped turn two of Europe’s most important hubs, London and Paris, into multicultural melting pots. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA.
…
Наймолодшій жертві теракту в мечетях новозеландського міста Крайстчерч було три роки, найстаршому – 77.
У списку жертв імена 44 чоловіків та жінок.
Прем’єр-міністр Нової Зеландії Джасінда Ардерн сказала, що цей документ «неофіційний», оскільки ідентифікація жертв продовжується.
15 березня сталися напади на мечеть Аль-Нур у центральній частині міста Крайстчерч і на мечеть у передмісті. Унаслідок теракту загинули 50 людей, близько 40 отримали поранення, багато із них перебувають у тяжкому стані. Цей напад називають найкривавішим в історії Нової Зеландії.
Поліція заявила про затримання чотирьох людей. Серед них – австралієць Брентон Гаррісон Таррант. 16 березня йому висунули офіційне обвинувачення в убивстві й заарештували до 5 квітня без права застави.
…
Brazil is considering granting an import quota of 750,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat per year without tariffs in exchange for other trade concessions, according to a Brazilian official with knowledge of the negotiations ahead of President Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to Washington.
That is about 10 percent of Brazilian annual wheat imports and is part of a two-decade-old commitment to import 750,000 metric tons of wheat a year free of tariffs that Brazil made — but never kept — during the World Trade Organization’s Uruguay Round of talks on agriculture.
Bolsonaro is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday and meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
Farm state senators have asked that wheat sales be on the agenda, in a letter to Trump seen by Reuters. They estimate such a quota would increase U.S. wheat sales by between $75 million and $120 million a year.
Brazil buys most of its imported wheat from Argentina, and some from Uruguay and Paraguay, without paying tariffs because they are all members of the Mercosur South American customs union. Imports from other countries pay a 10 percent tariff.
The Brazilian official, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely, said the wheat quota could be sealed during a meeting between Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Teresa Cristina Dias and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday.
In return, the Brazilian government is hoping to see movement toward the reopening of the U.S. market to fresh beef imports from Brazil that was shut down after a meatpacking industry scandal involving bribed inspectors.
Brazil is also seeking U.S. market access for its exports of limes that are facing phytosanitary certification hurdles.
The world’s largest sugar producer also wants tariff-free access to the U.S. market. But Washington is not expected to budge on that issue until Brazil lifts a tariff it slapped on ethanol imports when they exceed 150 million liters in a quarter.
That is a major demand by U.S. biofuels producers, who are the main suppliers of ethanol imported by Brazil.
…
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that frequent U.S. comments about oil prices had created market tensions, the ministry’s news website SHANA reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made the U.S. economy one of his top issues, has repeatedly tweeted about oil prices and the Organization of the Petroleum Producing Countries. He has expressed concern about higher prices, including last month and ahead of OPEC’s meeting in December.
“Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They [have] caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now, and they are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will be more tense,” SHANA quoted Zanganeh as saying.
U.S. crude futures briefly hit a 2019 high on Friday but later retreated along with benchmark Brent oil as worries about the global economy and robust U.S. production put a brake on prices.
OPEC and its allies including Russia, an alliance known as OPEC+, agreed last year to cut production, partly in response to increased U.S. shale output.
Washington granted waivers to eight major buyers of Iranian oil after the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector in November, after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“We do not know whether U.S. waivers would be extended or not. We will do our job but they [the U.S.] say something new every single day,” Zanganeh said.
South Pars
Zanganeh was speaking at a news conference ahead of the planned inauguration on Sunday of four development phases at South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, by President Hassan Rouhani.
He said Iran had invested $11 billion to complete the phases 13 and 22-24 of the giant field, which Tehran shares with Qatar, and expected to operate 27 phases by next March, SHANA reported.
France’s Total and China National Petroleum Corp suspended investment in phase 11 of South Pars last year after the United States threatened to impose sanctions on companies that do business in Iran.
But Zanganeh said talks with CNPC were continuing.
“Negotiations are ongoing. A senior delegation from China is due to come to Iran for talks. They have promised to come to Iran soon,” said Zanganeh, according to the semiofficial news agency ISNA.
…
Президент України Петро Порошенко призначив тимчасовим виконувачем обов’язків голови Служби зовнішньої розвідки першого заступника голови відомства Андрія Алексєєнка. Відповідний указ розміщений в суботу на сайті президента.
«Першому заступнику голови Служби зовнішньої розвідки України Алєксєєнку Андрію Вікторовичу тимчасово виконувати обов’язки голови Служби зовнішньої розвідки України», – йдеться в повідомленні.
Напередодні у Службі зовнішньої розвідки України заявили, «робочу координацію» відомства забезпечує Андрій Алєксєєнко після того, як указом президента від 13 березня Єгор Божко був звільнений з посади голови Служби зовнішньої розвідки України.
38-річний кадровий дипломат Єгор Божок був призначений на цю посаду у вересні 2017 року, після трьох років роботи виконувачем обов’язків голови місії України при НАТО.
Служба зовнішньої розвідки – державний орган, який здійснює розвідувальну діяльність у політичній, економічній, військово-технічній, науково-технічній, інформаційній та екологічній сферах.
your ad hereУ Міністерстві закордонних справ Чехії заявили, що продовжують вважати анексований Росією Крим частиною української території. Про це йдеться у заяві чеських дипломатів до 5-річчя незаконної анексії півострова.
«Чеська республіка, так само, як увесь Європейський союз і цілковита більшість країн світу вважає Кримський півострів складовою частиною України. Використання військової сили сильнішим сусідом, щоб захопити частину території сусідньої держави у своїй історії пережили і ми, через те анексію Криму не визнаємо», – йдеться у заяві.
Крім того, в МЗС Чехії засудили мілітаризацію території Криму і перешкоди з боку Росії для вільного судноплавства поблизу.
«Мілітаризація кримських теренів і порушення вільного плавання в Керченській протоці й Азовському морі Росією є дальшим грубим порушуванням міжнародного права, стабільності і безпеки в Європі», – вказано у повідомленні.
Чеське дипломатичне відомство закликає Росію дотримуватись міжнародних зобов’язань в сфері прав людини і «негайно звільнити Олега Сенцова та інших незаконно затриманих українських громадян, включно із моряками, захопленими під час атаки на українські кораблі в листопаді 2018 року».
На території Криму і Севастополя 16 березня 2014 року відбувся невизнаний світом «референдум» про статус півострова, за результатами якого Росія включила Крим до свого складу. Ні Україна, ні Європейський союз, ні США не визнали результати голосування на «референдумі». Президент Росії Володимир Путін 18 березня оголосив про «приєднання» Криму до Росії.
Міжнародні організації визнали окупацію і анексію Криму незаконними і засудили дії Росії. Країни Заходу ввели економічні санкції. Росія заперечує анексію півострова і називає це «відновленням історичної справедливості». Верховна Рада України офіційно оголосила датою початку тимчасової окупації Криму і Севастополя Росією 20 лютого 2014 року.
…