Obama heaps praise on Merkel in latest memoir

WHY MICHELLE ALLOWS GEORGE W TO SHOW HIS AFFECTION & SHARE HIS CANDY WITH HER 

In his book, A Promised Land, Obama calls Angela Merkel "reliable, honest, and intellectually precise." He said the chancellor was understandably skeptical of him at first, but the two grew to trust one another.


In a memoir to be released on Tuesday, former US President Barack Obama offered a slew of praise for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In his book, A Promised Land, Obama wrote that Merkel initially viewed him with skepticism — positing that this may have been because of his strong speeches and "exaggerated rhetoric."

He did not, however, resent that skepticism. "For a German head of government, an aversion to possible demagogy was probably a healthy attitude," he said.

Read more:Obama meets 'my friend Angela' in Berlin

Over the years, he found Merkel to be increasingly agreeable, he said, calling her "reliable, honest, intellectually precise and friendly in a natural way."

However, he criticized Germany's policy on Greece during the country's debt difficulties after the financial crash, when Merkel and then-Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) had held fast to austerity and reducing public borrowing as the answer to almost all economic difficulties.

"I noticed that they [Merkel and French former President Nicolas Sarkozy] rarely mentioned that German and French banks were some of Greece's biggest lenders, or that much of Greeks' accumulated debt had been racked up buying German and French exports — facts that might have made clear to voters why saving the Greeks from default amounted to saving their own banks and industries," Obama wrote.

Read more: Merkel receives Obama's final call to a foreign leader

Obama also criticized former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who he felt was "no real counterweight" to Merkel.

Unlike Merkel, Obama wrote, Sarkozy appeared too disorganized to construct a serious plan for economic reform, adding that Sarkozy's approach lacked "ideological consistency."



BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP: WILL BIDEN BECOME THE FOURTH US PRESIDENT OF ANGELA MERKEL'S TENURE?
Look me in the eye
Merkel's bond with Barack Obama stands in sharp contrast to her relationship with Trump. The chancellor and Obama seem to have become friends over the course of his two terms as US president. This picture was taken in November 2016, when Obama came to Berlin for a farewell visit — just a few days after Donald Trump was elected as his successor.

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'Strategic acumen and unwavering patience'

He additionally outlines Merkel's career in brief for readers, saying that while growing up in the former East Germany, Merkel initially "kept her head down." Over the course of her rise to the top of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, however, Obama writes that Merkel demonstrated what went on to shape her career as a whole: "organizational skills," "strategic acumen" and "unwavering patience."

Read more: US election: Merkel says Germany will stand 'side by side' with US on world issues

Prior to the book's release, Obama further praised Merkel in an interview with German broadcast group RTL. "I think very much of Angela Merkel. She has been an outstanding political leader, not only for Germany, but for Europe and the world," he said in the interview, conducted in Washington on Friday.

Obama also touched on President-elect Joe Biden's victory when talking to RTL: "This election has at least stopped the bleeding for now," he said, referring to the Trump presidency.

The first volume of Obama's memoir is 1,024 pages long, and is being published in 25 languages on Tuesday.

Read more:Merkel welcomes Obama under cloud of Trump

lc/msh (dpa, AFP)

"An ecological disaster"

Major fire at India's Baghjan oil field extinguished after 6 months

The Oil India well caught fire back in June and totally dousing the blazes took months. The Wildlife Institute of India believes that the fire will have a major impact on the environment of a nearby national park.


India's second largest oil company announced on Monday that it had doused a fire at a gas well at the Baghjan oil field in the state of Assam, after almost six months. Oil India said that it is abandoning all operations at the well.

"There is no pressure in the well now and the same will be observed for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure build up. Further operation to abandon the well is in progress," Oil India spokesman Tridiv Hazarika told news agency AFP.

The gas well in the Baghjan oilfield had an uncontrolled gas emission on May 27 during a maintenance operation. In June, the well caught fire, killing two firefighters, while an engineer died on the site in September following electrocution.

Oil India managed to douse the fire at the well head in August, but a flare pit near the well continued to burn.

The company brought in experts from Singapore, the US and Canada to contain the fire and the well was blocked off by a process called snubbing, in which the well was laced with a cement-laced chemical mud.

An Oil India firefighter oversees work near the oil well site after the blast

An ecological disaster

The Baghjan oil field borders the ecologically sensitive Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. While Oil India claimed that there was no major damage to the local ecology by the incident, according to the Wildlife Institute of India, the fire will have a long term impact on the environment, with pollutants leaching into the ground and contaminating the water.

"The toxins released are known to have long-term persistence in soils and sediments, which will not only affect current life conditions, but due to sustained release over a long period, pose a serious health risk for a longer term," said the institute.

Flouting of regulations

Oil India's problems were further compounded this month when a panel from the Indian government's National Green Tribunal (NGT) said that the company was operating the well at Baghjan without official permissions and had not carried out a biodiversity impact assessment for the well. The panel recommended legal action against Oil and its officials.

However, the company has claimed that it had secured all environment and industrial clearances to operate the oilfield and its 26 oil wells.

Oil India lost millions of rupees in revenue owing to the fire, the company's managing director, Sushil Chandra Mishra, said in September.

French police clear more than 2,000 people from makeshift migrant camp near Paris

Issued on: 17/11/2020 
Migrants were evacuated from a makeshift camp in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis in the early hours of November 17, 2020. © Christophe Archambault, AFP

VIDEO https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201117-french-police-clear-more-than-2-000-people-from-makeshift-migrant-camp-near-paris
Text by:FRANCE 24

French police forcibly evacuated more than 2,000 migrants from a makeshift camp in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis near the Stade de France in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The dismantling of the migrant camp was denounced by human rights associations as part of an "endless and destructive cycle".

The forced evacuations will see the migrants moved to various reception centres and sometimes gymnasiums in the Île-de-France (greater Paris) region. From around 4:30am local time, migrants began queueing to board buses along with their belongings.

According to the organisation France Terre Asile, about 2,400 migrants were living in the camp, which has been expanding since August.

"These camps are not acceptable," declared the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, at a press briefing. "This operation aims to ensure that people with the right to be here are given shelter and those who do not have that right do not remain on French territory."

In all, 70 buses were used to transport migrants to 26 accommodation centres.

The situation of migrants has been further complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In early October, Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) published a survey on exposure levels among the most vulnerable. Of more than 800 people tested by the NGO at different centres around Île-de-France, 10 emergency accommodation centres had a Covid-19 positive rate of between 23 and 62 percent.

In a press release published Tuesday, around 30 migrant advocate organisations signed an open letter denouncing the "endless and destructive cycle" of forced evacuations.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

French police clear makeshift migrant camp in Paris

A illegal encampment housing some 2,000 asylum-seekers from conflict zones like Somalia and Aghanistan was cleared by police. Migrant advocates worry the camp's inhabitants will end up back on the street.


French authorities cleared up a large migrant camp in the north part of Paris on Tuesday. The illegal encampment was next door to the French national sports stadium, the Stade de France, in the suburb of Saint Denis. 

Police said they were motivated by safety reasons, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. NGOs assisting the migrants at the camp said some 2,000 people were living there, including families with children. 

The figure was confirmed by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who said the inhabitants were living in "miserable conditions." 

The evicted migrants were predominantly asylum seekers from conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Somalia, and Sudan. 

Police arrived before dawn at the camp, which was composed of a mix of tents and improvised shelters made out of plastic sheeting and cardboard boxes. 

Authorities ordered the migrants onto buses, which resulted in a crush as many tried to board at the same time. The Reuters news agency reported that police had deployed tear gas to restore order and disperse crowds. 


French authorities routinely cleared out camps around Paris

Local authorities pledged that new accommodations would be found for the migrants. Philippe Caro, a volunteer with an association called Solidarite migrants Wilson, which helps people at the camp, said the accommodation being offered was often inadequate. 

"In spite of everything, there are going to be people left out on the street," Caro said.

French police have cleared dozens of camps in recent years around Paris. But amid a lack of housing opportunities for asylum-seekers, new makeshift settlements keep reappearing. 

Critics of the French migration policy say the evictions are purely symbolic political move, to show that the state cracking down on migrants, but without actually addressing deeper issues. 

jcg/dj (dpa, Reuters)

Thailand: Dozens injured in violent protests

Pro-democracy activists and security forces have clashed once again in Bangkok, with police using tear gas and water cannons laced with irritating chemicals to stop protesters from entering the country's parliament.


Student-led pro-democracy protesters in Thailand clashed with police, who sought to keep them from entering the parliament premises on Tuesday.

At least 40 people were wounded, including five who were reportedly shot, according to emergency services. It was unclear who fired the shots and whether they were live rounds or rubber bullets.

"We tried to avoid clashes," Piya Tavichai, the deputy head of Bangkok police, told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that the police had tried to separate student protesters and the yellow-shirted royalist counter-protesters.

According to eyewitnesses, some people were injured during a brawl between pro-democracy protesters and stone-throwing royalists who oppose constitutional changes.

Read more: Thailand revokes emergency decree, protesters demand Prayuth resignation

Protesters in Thailand defy government order

Worst clashes in months

Tuesday's violence was the worst in months, as the Southeast Asian country's movement against the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha continues to gain strength.

Demonstrators have also been displaying their displeasure with Prayuth's government as they believe the party has an unfair grip on power.

The prime minister's parliamentary majority stems from the fact his junta picked the entire upper house before an election last year that opponents say was designed to keep him in power.

The protests, which began in July to demand former junta leader Prayuth's removal, have since manifested themselves to also call for reforms of Thailand's powerful monarchy.
Constitutional amendments or an attempt to buy time?

Thai lawmakers were scheduled to vote on seven proposed constitutional reforms during a two-day joint session of the elected House and appointed Senate. They adjourned a previous session without voting on proposed amendments, leading the pro-democracy protesters to accuse the government of acting in bad faith.

Read more: Thai parliament opens special session as protests continue

The protesters say the constitution, written and enacted under military rule, is undemocratic.

Experts say the parliamentary session is an effort by the government to take the initiative away from the pro-democracy movement, which also wants Prayuth and his government to step down.

Parliament is likely to establish a drafting committee to write a new charter. This would allow the government to say it is willing to meet the protesters' demands at least halfway, while buying time with a process that could extend over many months.

Read more: 

Pandemic and protests: Thailand's double whammy

Thai king's time in Bavaria draws growing scrutiny

shs/rs (dpa, Reuters, AP, AFP)

Thai police fire water cannon at parliament protest, at least 41 hurt

At least 41 people were hurt during protests in Thailand's capital Bangkok on Tuesday, including five with gunshot wounds, the city's Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said. It did not give a full breakdown of the injuries, but earlier said that 12 people had suffered from teargas fired by police.

German state minister resigns over gun purchase from right-wing extremist

Veteran German politician Lorenz Caffier stepped down after buying a pistol from a member of a far-right survivalist group. Caffier flatly denied any far-right links, but said the purchase itself was "not a mistake."


A controversial gun purchase prompted the resignation of the interior minister of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Tuesday.

The minister, Lorenz Caffier, bought a hunting pistol from the arms dealer in 2018. It later came to light that the dealer was a member of the Nordkreuz (Northern Cross) group, an extreme-right survivalist network made up of people stockpiling for the collapse of the German state.

"I bought a firearm from someone whom I should not have bought it from, in hindsight. Although it was not the purchase that was a mistake, but how I handled it. I apologize for that," Caffier said in a statement.

The arms dealer's affiliation with the group only came to light in 2019, but the dealer's name was already known to authorities in 2017. The name came to light during the questioning of a witness associated with the Nordkreuz Group, and the information was then forwarded to authorities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Read more: 

Groups stand up to far-right in eastern Germany

How racist is Germany's police force?

As the state interior minister, Caffier oversaw the police and intelligence agencies conducting an investigation into the extreme-right group.

In his statement Tuesday, Caffier flatly denied any links to right-wing extremists and condemned "unrestrained reporting" into the case. He said he was resigning to "protect my family, the people around me and my staff" and to "avert damage from the government."
Who is Lorenz Caffier?

Caffier, 65, had served as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania interior minister for 14 years and was the oldest sitting politician in that position. He also served as the leader of the center-right CDU party in the northeastern German state from 2009 to 2017.

He had also played a key role in a proposed ban of the extreme-right NPD party, a measure that was not implemented.

Migratory species live fast, die young: study



Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 
  

Migration can take place in the skies, underwater, or across different landscape. 

SEBASTIEN BERDA AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Migratory birds and mammals that expend lots of energy travelling long distances to chase food or find a choice nesting spot tend to live fast and die young, scientists reported Tuesday.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers found that migratory animals have a shorter lifespan than their homebody counterparts.

But they compensate by having more offspring in less time.

Analysing over 700 birds and 540 mammal species, the study determined that from an evolutionary standpoint, neither strategy is "better" than the other.

"These are just two different ways of solving life's problems," said UK Exeter University professor Stuart Bearhop, an author of the study.

"One way is to live fast and die young, the other way is to live slow" and produce offspring over a longer lifetime.

It balances out, otherwise one group -- migratory or non-migratory species -- would dominate over the other.

"An animal that has a shorter life but produces more offspring ultimately leaves as many copies of itself to reproduce as an animal that has a slower life and produces less offspring," Bearhop said by phone.

Some species can swing both ways.

Blackcaps -- olive-grey warblers with distinctive splashes of black or brown on their heads -- can be either resident or migratory.

- Climate change -

The ones that wander afield typically live a shorter life, reach maturity at a younger age and produce more chicks.

Migration can take place in the skies, underwater, or across different landscape.

Climate change could tilt the evolutionary tables against migratory species, which have "to cope with changes in multiple locations, as opposed to just one for residents," said Bearhop, who teaches Animal Ecology.

They travel between their breeding and non-breeding sites in accordance with the seasons, and depend on predictable weather patterns such as winds and ocean currents.

But global warming is disrupting these patterns, through rising temperatures, modified rainfall, and shifts in vegetation.

The Blue Whale travels between tropical calving grounds in winter and high latitude feeding grounds in summer.

As sea temperatures rise, the abundance and distribution of their food -- plankton, fish and squid -- changes, weakening females and increasing the intervals between the birth of offspring, earlier research has shown.

- Size matters -

"Climate change isn't happening evenly and its effects are already showing to be much worse at higher latitudes," Bearhop said.

The Arctic, favoured by migratory birds, is one such area.

Scientists expect to see differences in reproductive and survival rates due to climate change.

The study also found that size matters.

"Migrant flyers such birds and bats tend to have smaller body sizes than residents, whereas in migrant walkers and swimmers -- all mammals except bats -- it tends to be larger," the authors said.

Only larger walkers and swimmers can store enough energy to complete long-distance migrations.

Larger birds face energetic problems when forced to use flapping flight, the authors added.

"That's why there are no migratory mice, for example," Bearhop said. "They simply cannot cover the ground in an efficient way."

© 2020 AFP

Greenland's largest glaciers likely to melt faster than feared: study

Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 

Over the last two decades, the world's ice sheets atop Greenland and Antarctica have become the single largest source of sea level rise

Jonathan NACKSTRAND AFP

Paris (AFP)

The three largest glaciers in Greenland -- which hold enough frozen water to lift global sea levels some 1.3 metres -- could melt faster than even the worst-case warming predictions, research published Tuesday showed.

Until 2000, the main driver of sea level rise was melting glaciers and the expansion of ocean water as it warms.

But over the last two decades, the world's ice sheets atop Greenland and Antarctica have become the single largest source of sea level rise.

A team of researchers based in Denmark and Britain used historical images and a host of other data to estimate how much ice had been lost from Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae, Kangerlussuaq Glacier and Helheim Glaciers in the 20th century.

They found that Jakobshavn Isbrae lost more than 1.5 trillion tonnes of ice between 1880-2012, while Kangerlussuaq and Helheim lost 1.4 trillion and 31 billion tonnes from 1900–2012, respectively.

The ice melt has already contributed more than eight millimetres to global sea levels, the researchers wrote.

Shfaqat Abbas Khan, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, said using photographs taken before the satellite era was another tool to help recreate the last century's ice loss.

"Historical measurements over the 19th and 20th century may hide important information that can significantly improve our future projections," he told AFP.

The UN's climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, has forecast sea level rise from all sources of between 30-110 centimetres by 2100, depending on emissions.

Under the IPCC's high emissions pathway, known as RCP8.5, nothing is done to curb carbon pollution throughout the 21st century, leading to a climate more than 3C hotter than pre-Industrial levels.

Models ran under RCP8.5 for the three glaciers featured in Tuesday's study predict a sea-level rise of 9.1–14.9mm by 2100.

But the paper, published in Nature Communications, pointed out that the high-emissions pathway temperature increase was more than four times larger than during the 20th Century, when the three glaciers already added 8mm to seas.

"The worst-case scenario is underestimated. Ice loss may be anywhere from three or four times larger than previous predicted for the thee glaciers considered in this study," said Khan.

A Nature study published in September found that if greenhouse gas emissions continued unabated, ice sheets in Greenland will shed some 36 trillion tonnes this century, enough to lift the global waterline some 10 centimetres.

© 2020 AFP

Report names and shames countries cosy with Big Tobacco

Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 

Tobacco claims some eight million lives each year from cancer and other lung diseases, a million in China alone 

PRAKASH SINGH AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

The global tobacco industry has aggressively lobbied governments during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand markets and blunt measures designed to curb their business, a report from watchdog groups aligned with the World Health Organization claimed on Tuesday.

A ranking of 57 countries based on their willingness to keep Big Tobacco at bay puts Japan and Indonesia at the bottom of the list, with Romania, China and Lebanon among the 10 worst offenders.

The United States is the lowest-ranked Western nation, with Malaysia, Spain, Germany and India also seen as too accommodating, said the report by non-profit groups based in France, England and Thailand.

"The tobacco industry has a well-documented history of deception and of capitalising on humanitarian crises, and it is using the pandemic to attempt to improve its deteriorating public image," commented Adriana Blanco Marquizo, head of the secretariat for the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Tobacco claims some eight million lives each year from cancer and other lung diseases, a million in China alone.

In several countries, stringent tobacco control measures were defeated or diluted.

Philip Morris International (PMI), for example, "lobbied for the promotion and sale of its heated tobacco product in a dozen countries", resulting in the lifting of bans, lower taxes, and a voice in government-led deliberations on regulating tobacco products, the report found.

Taxes on these new nicotine delivery devices are now lower than cigarettes in France, Germany and Japan.

Costa Rica, Zambia and Bangladesh also eased the tax burden for tobacco firms.

Big Tobacco has a long track record of suing to block plain packaging for cigarettes, sponsoring cultural events or sports teams, and challenging the legality of smoke-free zones.

- $850 billion industry -

During the pandemic, tobacco firms have been handing out personal protective equipment, ventilators and hand sanitisers in countries across the world.

"While publicising its charitable acts to resuscitate its image as being part of the solution, the industry was simultaneously lobbying governments not to impose restrictions on its business," the report said.

In Kenya, the government listed tobacco products as "essential products" during the pandemic, and in Jordan cigarettes were delivered with bread and other foods directly to neighbourhoods.

By contrast, India and South Africa banned the sale of tobacco products during the pandemic.

More broadly, the countries seen as least susceptible to the influence of tobacco interests included France, Uganda, Britain, New Zealand and Iran.

Peru, The Netherlands, Kenya and Ethiopia also got good marks.

The report, releasee by the STOP partnership, was put together after former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the researchers a three-year grant of $20 million to track how the industry markets its wares worldwide, especially in developing countries.

"This is the only product I know of where if you use it as advertised, it will kill you," Bloomberg told AFP in 2018, when he awarded the grant.

More than 80 percent of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.

Smoking has plateaued in most rich nations, but in the developing world the total number of tobacco users -- overwhelmingly men, especially the young -- continues to climb.

The global tobacco market size was valued at nearly $850 billion in 2019.

The groups collaborating on the report included the Tobacco Research Group at the University of Bath, the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

© 2020 AFP

Armenia looks to protect cultural artefacts amid conflict with Azerbaijan

Issued on: 17/11/2020 -

Armenian historians have secured hundreds of ancient manuscripts from Nagorno-Karabakh. © FRANCE 24 screengrab
Text by:FRANCE 

Video by:Luke SHRAGO|Romeo LANGLOIS|Mohamed FARHAT

Ever since rockets started falling over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a team of historians has worked to bring hundreds of ancient Armenian manuscripts to safety for fear they might be destroyed by artillery or vandalism.

Behind a thick vault door at the Matenadaran-Gandzasar cultural centre in Armenia’s capital Yerevan, troves of Armenian manuscripts – some dating as far back as the 13th century – can be found. They have been moved there from their sister complex in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenia’s reignited conflict with Azerbaijan threatens their existence.

“We saw the rocket fire fall on the Gandzasar cathedral in Shusha, since the Matendaran is located next to the monastery complex of Gandzasar. For reasons of security, we decided to temporarily move everything to the Matendaran in Yerevan,” explains Aram Torosyam, director of the centre.

But he is not just worried about rocket fire. “The manuscripts were removed, given how the destruction of monuments is an ongoing phenomenon for these terrorists – Azerbaijani, Turkish groups, they have this tendency to destroy monuments.”

The manuscripts are an important part of Armenia’s cultural heritage, many documenting its deep and often troubled relationship with its neighbours.

Burkina Faso: Thousands of internally displaced face disenfranchisement from presidential vote

Thousands of people in Burkina Faso remain internally displaced after having fled the unrest that prevails in some regions of the country. These Burkinabes are now at risk of being disenfranchised in the November 22 presidential election, in which national security is likely to be a primary issue.

Thousands of Burkinabes have fled villages targeted by terrorist attacks, often leaving behind their papers and other important belongings.

The independent electoral commission has admitted that nationwide voting will not be able to take place due to the tenuous security situation, with the residents of nearly 1,600 villages unable to be registered.

About a third of Burkina Faso citizens face being excluded from the vote, one civil society activist told FRANCE 24.

Click on the video player to watch the full FRANCE 24 report