EMOTIONAL PLAGUE

GERMANY

Hamburg gunman: disturbed entrepreneur who penned apocalyptic book

Shooting at a Jehovah's Witness hall left eight people dead.

By AFP
Published March 11, 2023

Investigators are still seeking a motive for the attack on Thursday evening, which left eight other people wounded - Copyright AFP Daniel Reinhardt
Sebastian BRONST et Léa PERNELLE à Francfort

Details are emerging about the gunman who shot dead six Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany, painting a picture of a disturbed businessman who battled paranoia and penned an apocalypse-themed book.

Police identified the killer as Philipp F., a 35-year-old ex-member of the Christian group who targeted the congregation at a Hamburg meeting hall before turning the gun on himself.

Investigators are still seeking a motive for the attack on Thursday evening, which also left eight people wounded.

– Journey to hell –

On Amazon, Philipp F. was promoting his self-published book, “The Truth about God, Jesus Christ and Satan”, a mix of business management advice and fundamentalist prose.

It’s now been removed from the site, but German media said it details his three-year “personal journey to hell” and describes a “higher heavenly government” with 101 million spiritual beings.

Philipp F. says he was brought up in a strict evangelical family and reportedly had “prophetic dreams” in childhood.

The 292-page book presents the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine as divine punishments, and outlines fears of a third world war.

The writing expresses pro-Russian and misogynistic views, according to Der Spiegel newspaper.

– Troubled businessman –

The gunman’s professional website is packed with references to the Bible and Liverpool football club.

He backs the end of combustion engines and advocates for the “maximisation of happiness in the lives of humans and animals”.

It is full of prophecies, too — he foresees a “major shift in the architecture of the world we live in” and in the sky “where ghost people live”.

On his web page and LinkedIn account, Philipp F. presented himself as a successful businessman.

He offered consulting and general management services for 250,000 euros ($266,162) a day, justifying the princely sum with his self-professed ability to “generate added value of 2.5 million euros” for companies.

He also advertised his “holistic” approach encompassing “theology and law”.

The single entrepreneur lost his job in 2020 and described himself as a self-employed financial consultant, though his website does not mention any recent assignments.

Investigators say he appeared to be embroiled in disputes with several companies, filing criminal complaints including against a Bavarian firm where he was previously employed.

– Anger and warnings –

Police said the gunman left the religious community around a year and a half ago, “apparently not on good terms”.

By some accounts he chose to leave, but other witnesses said he was shunned. The Bild newspaper reports that he was excluded following the publication of his apocalyptic business book.

An anonymous tip-off was sent to the weapons control authority in January. It claimed that Philipp F. may have been suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness and had a “particular anger against religious members or against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer”.

Police visited him at his modest flat, in a grey building in the west of the Hanseatic city, but said they did not find anything of serious concern and left, saying he had been “cooperative”.

He was little known in his neighbourhood, according to German media.

Raids following the shooting uncovered 15 magazines loaded with 15 bullets each and four further packs of ammunition with about 200 rounds.

He was legally in possession of the weapon he used in the attack.

Hamburg shooting sparks debate on Germany's gun laws

March 11, 2023

Politicians have questioned why the gunman's weapon wasn't confiscated after concerns were raised about his psychological health. The shooting at a Jehovah's Witness hall left eight people dead.

VIDEO https://p.dw.com/p/4OYGe

A debate has erupted in Germany over the effectiveness of the country's gun control laws after this week's mass shooting at the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in the northern city of Hamburg.

On Thursday evening, Philipp F., a 35-year-old German citizen and a former member of the congregation, went on a shooting spree and killed eight people, including himself.

The police said the motive for the crime remains unknown.

Authorities had received an anonymous tipoff that the perpetrator might have psychological issues but the police gave him the all-clear during a surprise visit to his property.

Hamburg gunman was former Jehovah's Witness

What are politicians saying?

On Saturday, several German politicians demanded urgent reviews of restrictions on weapons ownership, including Marcel Emmerich, the interior affairs expert of the Greens Party in parliament.

"This terrible act has shown that legal gun owners can use their guns to do bad things in this society," Emmerich told public broadcaster NDR Info. "Fewer guns in private hands ensure more public safety."

At present, Germany requires only those under 25 to undergo medical or psychological assessments before being granted a gun license, which another Greens Party lawmaker, Irene Mihalic, told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) was "more than questionable."

"As firearms are dangerous to life in the wrong hands, all applicants should be required to provide such reports, regardless of age. Appropriate aptitude tests should also actually have to be repeated at regular intervals," she added.

Sebastian Hartmann, the interior spokesperson for the Social Democrats (SPD) in parliament, told the RND that any reform of gun-control legislation must strengthen the authority to confiscate weapons as well as improve the exchange of data about owners.

Other politicians were keen to avoid a knee-jerk reaction, saying that current legislation is already strong enough.

"Mentally ill persons are not allowed to possess firearms. It is good and right that the weapons law already unambiguously regulates this today," Konstantin Kuhle, deputy chair of the business-friendly FDP parliamentary group, told the German news agency DPA. Therefore, "hasty demands for legislative consequences" are "not necessary," he added.

In a separate interview with the Funke media group, Kuhle questioned why police refrained from revoking the weapons permit from the Hamburg shooter.

Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the GdP police union, said that the "perceived increasing number of [shooting] incidents" in Germany made it imperative to tighten laws speedily rather than conduct a systematic review that could take too long.

"Medical establishments must prioritize and quickly process documents related to weapons controls. Nowhere should there be delays due to staff shortages or long data protection processes," Kopelke added.

Draft law devised after Halle and Hanau shootings

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had already presented a draft of new gun control legislation in January, prompted by recent deadly shooting incidents in Germany.

The perpetrator of the 2020 Hanau shooting was a schizophrenic far-right extremist who was found to have legally owned several pistols. Eleven people were killed and five others were wounded in the rampage at a shisha bar, another bar and a kiosk.

The gunman behind the Halle shooting in October 2019 built his own firearms, some with plastic parts from a 3D printer. Two people were killed and two others injured near a synagogue.

The proposed reforms include a ban for private citizens on semi-automatic weapons, similar to military weapons or the AR-15 and its replicas.

The term "semi-automatic" refers to the loading process in which a bullet is fired when the trigger is pulled and the weapon is then automatically reloaded.

Such weapons are regularly used in mass shootings in the United States, while in Germany the number is still limited.

Faeser promises to fill 'gaps' in gun laws

Faeser told ARD's Tagesthemen (Daily Topics) program on Friday night that she wanted to revisit the proposals for possible "gaps."

In the future, when an application is made for a weapon possession card, it should be checked "whether someone is psychologically suitable," she said, adding that better coordination between authorities was necessary.

The proposed reforms would also abolish the age limit for medical or psychological tests, meaning all applicants for gun licenses would be required to undergo them at their own expense.

However, the murder weapon used in Hamburg, a semi-automatic pistol, would not fall under the ban.

The alleged perpetrator was registered as a sports shooter and legally owned the weapon.

mm/fb (AFP, dpa, EPD)

South Korea proposes a 69-hour workweek, up from an already long 52

"We might now see more overwork-related deaths if there's a 69-hour workweek."

Andrew Jeong

Mar 12 2023

CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES

President Yoon Suk Yeol's administration says some workers might ultimately have more free time under the new rules.

South Korea's conservative government has proposed increasing the legal cap on weekly work hours from 52 to 69, triggering backlash from the opposition and wage earners who fear the plan will ruin work-life balance in a country already well known for workaholism.

The opposition Democratic Party, which introduced the 52-hour workweek in 2018, said the new plan risks increasing unemployment as it could allow employers to lay off workers and ask those who stay to work longer hours.

South Koreans already toil more than many of their overseas counterparts. They work an average of 1915 hours per year, compared with 1791 hours for Americans and 1490 hours for the French, who have a 35-hour workweek, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD average is 1716 hours.

South Korea's proposal comes as the four-day workweek gains traction from Britain to California.




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In a bid to sway public opinion, President Yoon Suk Yeol's administration says some workers might ultimately have more free time under the new rules, as the government would also introduce a cap on the number of working hours per month, quarter or year. There would also be restrictions on working more than three 60-plus-hour weeks in a row. This means four-day workweeks are a possibility, Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik said this week at a news conference.

The plan would let employees choose how long and when they work, the ministry said.

"The current work-hour system does not convey the increasingly diverse and sophisticated needs of employers and employees by restricting the choices of workers and firms alike," Lee said in a statement this week. "This does not fit global standards that stress the right to choose and the right to health."

The ministry also pointed to new requirements mandating a minimum 11-hour rest period between shifts. However, critics say that the new rule doesn't take into account commutes, and after-work emails and text messages..

The proposal has sparked a backlash from workers who fear it will give employers legal grounds to encourage gruelling hours on busy weeks.

"They say that the total hours we work every year will stay the same or come down," said one 34-year-old worker at a Samsung affiliate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised by their employer to speak publicly. "But there's always more work to do. We might now see more overwork-related deaths if there's a 69-hour workweek."

Minbyun, a lawyers' group that has close ties to the opposition, said in a statement this week that the plan doesn't address problems resulting from a long workweek, even if it caps hours on a quarterly or yearly basis.

The government is overlooking that work-related injuries and deaths "tend to increase when the workweek is not restricted to under 52 hours", the group said, citing South Korean labour laws that consider medical issues that occur after multiple 60-hour workweeks to be work-related.

The government is seeking to submit the plan to parliament for approval by July, according to the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency. But the Democratic Party holds a parliamentary majority, meaning it can block the proposed amendments.

Long work hours have been cited as a major reason that South Korea's fertility rate is the world's lowest, at 0.78, while its suicide rate is one of the world's highest at 24.1 per every 100,000 people, according to the OECD.

The World Health Organisation has linked long working hours to increased risk of stroke and heart disease. "Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard," a WHO official said in 2021.

For some workers, the proposal rings hollow.

"Working until 9 or 10pm is normal for me," said an employee at an LG affiliate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised by their employer to speak publicly. "The 52-hour thing didn't prevent me from working longer hours. So when I see headlines mentioning the 69-hour workweek, I can't relate. I'm working long hours anyway."

Deutsche Post Says It Agrees Wage Deal With Union to Avoid Strike

By Reuters
March 13, 2023

Postwoman Susann Krosse fetches her parcels from a distribution centre of German postal and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL in Ottendorf-Okrilla near Dresden, Germany, December 15, 2022. 

REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's Deutsche Post postal company said on Saturday it had agreed a wage deal with the Verdi trade union that would enable it to avoid an indefinite strike threatened by unionised workers.

The offer - which members still need to vote on - would give Deutsche Post's 160,000 employees in Germany a one-off payment of 3,000 euros over 15 months and raises monthly wages by 340 euros from April 1, 2024, the company said in a statement.

That means wages will rise in total by 11.5% on average, with salaries for workers in lower-paid brackets set to increase by more than 20%.

The deal could set a new precedent after unions in other sectors in Europe's largest economy such as the metal and electrical or chemical and pharmaceutical industries recently agreed wage hikes well below inflation.

Some 86% of members of the services sector trade union Verdi had voted on Thursday to reject a previous wage offer prompting a new round of negotiating.

Brisk inflation and widespread labour shortages are emboldening unions in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to demand double-digit wage hikes this year.

Verdi called earlier on Saturday for strikes on March 13 at the country's northern airports, including Berlin, which it said would likely cause longer queues for passengers and flight cancellations.

German consumer prices rose by 9.3% on the year in February.

(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Sarah Marsh)

Kim Johnson row: Starmer is ignoring Israel's slide into fascism

In slapping down an MP for decrying Israel's new government, the Labour leader has left British supporters of Palestinian rights politically homeless

British MP Kim Johnson called Israel's new government "fascist"

 (Screengrab: Parliament TV

COMMENT BY Jonathan Cook

What’s become all too clear over the past three years is that Labour leader Keir Starmer tolerates no criticism of Israel whatsoever - even when such criticism accords with international law, the verdict of the human rights community or just plain common sense.

Israel gets a free pass from Starmer’s opposition Labour Party, just as it gets one from the ruling Conservative Party. Any Briton who believes that Palestinians are entitled to a state, or should not have their lands stolen to build illegal, Jewish-only settlements, or should be free from Israel’s apartheid rule, or should not be killed by trigger-happy Israeli security forces, is politically homeless.

That was underscored on Wednesday when the Labour leader forced one of his MPs, Kim Johnson, to apologise after she referred to the election late last year of a “fascist Israeli government”. She did so while putting a question on Israel’s well-documented human rights violations to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the Commons.

Starmer’s office called Johnson’s remarks “completely unacceptable” and insisted she withdraw them. In her apology, the MP said the use of the term “fascist” was “particularly insensitive given the history of the state of Israel”.

In slapping down Johnson, is he suggesting that Israel has the only political system in the world incapable of putting fascists into power?

She also apologised for being “insensitive” by mentioning that Amnesty International and other major human rights groups had described Israel as an apartheid state - paradoxically, on the same day Amnesty issued a new statement underscoring that Israeli apartheid was a “cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity”.

Once again, only Israeli sensitivities count. Palestinian sensitivities - faced with the most nationalist, most racist, most inciteful government in Israel’s history - appear to be of no interest to Starmer’s Labour Party.

But worse than that, Starmer’s whole approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict has been exposed as toxic. In slapping down Johnson, is he suggesting that Israel has the only political system in the world incapable of putting fascists into power?

Sweden’s leaders can be deemed fascist; Italy’s leaders too. Only Israeli politicians are exempt from such condemnation, even as they pass racist laws and oppress and kill another people in ways no politician in Sweden or Italy would ever dare to do.

And the suggestion that Israel has a get-out-of-jail-free card on fascism because Germany committed a genocide against Jews - not Israel - conflates Israel with Jews around the globe. It is antisemitic to believe that Jews are responsible for the crimes committed by Israel, or that any criticism of Israel tars Jews too. The two issues are separate, as attested to by the fact that many Jews call Israel an apartheid state and its new government fascist.
'Fascism Is Us'

In fact, Starmer is barring his MPs from speaking about the new Israeli government in terms the Israeli media regularly uses. Recent headlines include: “Why Are Israel’s Streets So Quiet in the Face of a Fascist Takeover?”, “It’s Official Now: Fascism Is Us”, “The Fight Against Fascism Doesn’t End at the Green Line” and “Yes, Jews Can Support Fascists Too”.

Even more extraordinarily, Starmer has banned Labour MPs from describing Israeli government ministers in the very language those ministers use about themselves. Last month, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s new finance minister, was recorded privately characterising himself as a “fascist homophobe”.

Human rights groups have expressed grave concerns over the rapid escalation by the new Israeli government in physical, administrative and legislative assaults on Palestinian communities. They include not only a surge in violence, but “legalising” settlements, a wave of home demolitions, mass arrests, plans to revoke the “residency” of Palestinians, and the crushing of protests.
Far-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks at a rally on 26 October 2022 (AFP)

In truth, Johnson’s comment should not even be contentious. A former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak - of Israel’s Labor Party, with which Starmer’s party is formally aligned - warned seven years ago that Israel was rapidly sliding towards fascism. He did so long before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited the openly and virulently anti-Arab Religious Zionism bloc into his coalition.

Barak clearly saw where Israel was heading long before Religious Zionism’s lawmakers were sitting in government as the third-largest faction.

Given Israel’s relentless lurch rightwards over the past 15 years, Israeli pundits have struggled to find new ways to describe Israeli governments’ ever-greater Jewish supremacism. There are only so many “ultras” and “fars” that can proceed “nationalist” and “right”, before the only word left is fascist.

Even a former senior official at AIPAC, Israel’s main lobby group in Washington, pronounced Religious Zionism’s politicians “fascistic forces” - and he did so in the Netanyahu-friendly newspaper the Jerusalem Post.

Inciting racism

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a settler leader and key player in the Religious Zionism alliance, leads its most extreme component party, Jewish Power, whose ideological wellspring, Kach, was outlawed by the Israeli parliament back in the late 1980s.

Ben-Gvir’s mentor, Rabbi Meir Kahane, established Kach on a platform calling for the annexation of the occupied territories; mass expulsions of Palestinians; and the outlawing of marriage - and all sexual contact - between Jews and non-Jews, with prison sentences of up to 50 years. He was committed to the use of specifically Jewish violence to effect such changes.

Meet the ministers who make up Israel's most right-wing government everRead More »

So extreme were Kahane’s views that the US classified Kach as a terrorist organisation in 1997. That designation was only lifted last year, apparently because Kach was viewed as “inactive”.

But if it is inactive, it is only because the adherents of its ideology have changed their branding. As one US scholar, William Lafi Youmans, told Al Jazeera: “Rather than removing the designation, the State Department should have updated and expanded it.” Ben-Gvir himself was convicted in 2007 of supporting a terrorist organisation and inciting racism.

Given the rapid rise of the Kahanists in Israeli politics, under a different label, there must at least be a suspicion that the move by US authorities was designed to avoid an embarrassing confrontation with the very Israeli government we have now.

Ben-Gvir is now the police minister, with unprecedented powers over the paramilitary wing of the police operating inside both Israel and the occupied territories.
Proceeds of crime

Starmer’s reaction to Johnson’s “fascist” remark is part of a pattern of behaviour since his election as Labour leader that neuters any criticism of Israel and smothers any solidarity with Palestinians.

In 2020, he reprimanded one of his MPs, Stephen Kinnock, for criticising Israel over its illegal settlements. Kinnock, who was at that time standing down as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Palestine, had called for a ban on settlement goods. He noted: “Profiting from these products is tantamount to profiting from the proceeds of crime.”

Starmer was reported to have been “infuriated” by the speech and gave Kinnock a “dressing down”. But the MP was expressing a view that fully accords with international law and has supposedly been the consensus among the international community for decades.


Israel's ever-greater extremism has been made possible precisely because it faces no opposition in the West

Jewish settlements constitute a war crime because they require the forcible transfer of the population of the occupying power into Palestinian territory. To support these settlements, Israel has to steal Palestinian land and resources, institute a system of apartheid between the two populations, and use violence to crush resistance. Settlement goods are sustained by the proceeds of those crimes.

Kinnock was entirely right to make his comment. Even the pro-Israel, disunited European Union - backed by the European Court of Justice - has agreed that settlement products must be labelled so shoppers can avoid them.

A year later, Starmer was at it again. This time, he declared opposition to Zionism, Israel’s official ideology, as antisemitic. He espoused a preposterous political position - one that effectively applies this label to the main western human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as Israeli rights groups, such as B’Tselem. They have all classed Israel as an apartheid state, a position supported by every anti-Zionist Palestinian and those in solidarity with their struggle for statehood and the right to live in dignity.

Neither Starmer’s office nor Johnson had responded to Middle East Eye’s request for comment by the time of publication.
A blind eye

Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, a stalwart of Labour Friends of Israel, has added her voice to this week’s row, calling Johnson’s remarks an “insult” to the legacy of Dame Louise Ellman, who was Johnson’s predecessor as Liverpool Riverside MP. Ellman stepped down in 2019, saying it was over the party’s handling of allegations of antisemitism under Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

But it should not be “insulting” to Hodge, Ellman or other Labour Friends of Israel that a Labour MP pointed out a simple fact: that a fascist party is at the heart of the new Israeli government. Rather, if they care so much about Israel, they should be angry that fascists are in power. They ought to be at the forefront of those speaking out against Israel’s descent into fascism.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is pictured in Bolton, England, in 2019 (AFP)

But here we get to the rub. Israel’s ever-greater extremism has been made possible precisely because it faces no opposition in the West. Israel apologists dominate the left and right in western capitals.

Labour “friends” have consistently turned a blind eye to the oppression of Palestinians. However much the situation worsens, they keep quiet - and impose that silence on others by accusing them of being antisemites or “insensitive” if, like Johnson, they dare to speak out.

Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor, understood this danger only too well. An Israel that could not be criticised was one that would dial up the suffering of Palestinians with impunity, and one that could be armed by Britain with little scrutiny. The relentless campaign to vilify Corbyn as an antisemite, and to oust him as leader, cleared the way for Starmer’s current targeting of party members, including Jews, who fear where Israel is heading.

Israel won’t move away from apartheid or fascism when there is no political, diplomatic or financial price to pay for oppressing and ethnically cleansing Palestinians. It will simply rush down that road even faster.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net

Oregon bill would make it easier for homeowners to remove racist language from deeds and property documents

Aaron McDade
Mar 11, 2023,

Oregon lawmakers want to make it easier to remove racist language from house deeds. VisualField via Getty Images

A bill in Oregon's state legislature would make it easier to remove racist language from house deeds.

A 2018 version of the bill that was passed has been criticized for not fully removing the language.

Residents who testified in support of the bill said they feel uncomfortable signing documents with racist language.

A bill introduced last month in Oregon's state legislature would make it easier for homeowners to remove racist and discriminatory language in deeds, many of which date back over 100 years.

The legislation was introduced last month, and a public hearing was held on the bill this week. It's the second attempt at a bill with this intended purpose, as a 2018 version that passed was criticized for being inefficient and not getting rid of the language entirely, KPVI reported.

The new bill would create an archive for old versions of the property documents, allowing them to be entirely replaced with new versions that don't have the offensive language, KVAL reported.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that the offensive clauses were used by developers in the early 1900s to exclude people of color from their neighborhoods.

"No Negros, Chinese, or Japanese shall own or occupy property in this neighborhood unless they are a worker or a servant," one clause read in a deed discovered by a real estate agent in 2018, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

While the language can no longer legally be enforced due to the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, residents who provided testimony for this week's hearing said they are not comfortable signing documents with the language.

"The distinction I would make, is that the racially restrictive language that remains in these documents is not only an ongoing racial scar but a legal document that requires I sign if I am to purchase my home," Oregon resident Gerrit Koepping wrote in his testimony.

He continued: "I am affixing my name to a statement of horrific racism. Not only am I doing so, but so are the people who purchase my home from me and the people who purchase their home from them. This language of racial hatred will last forever."


Koepping told The Oregonian that he and his wife were stunned to find a clause forbidding people of color from owning property in their neighborhood while signing documents for the house they bought in 2018.

The sponsor of the bill Rep. Daniel Nguyen, said at the hearing that the legislation is not a legal requirement that every racist clause must be found and removed, but it is an option for homeowners who wish to remove the language from documents associated with their home, KPVI reported.

FASCIST PROTEST

Thousands of demonstrators protest ruling 5-party coalition gov't in Czechia
Protesters demand resignation of government

Askin Kiyagan |12.03.2023


PRAGUE

In an anti-government demonstration held in Prague on Saturday, thousands of people urged peaceful solutions for the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The demonstrators gathered in Wenceslas, a prominent square of the capital, to protest against the five-party coalition government.

The demonstration, under the slogan of "Czechia against Poverty", was organized by various non-governmental organizations, especially right-wing anti-government parties.

Calling on the government to resign, the demonstrators demanded an end to the pressure on social media and the implementation of regulations that would ensure fair and objective reporting.

The demonstrators also called for a peace conference in Czechia to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine, and demanded that the arms support to Kyiv be terminated.

They also said the country's largest energy company, CEZ, which is 70% state-owned, should be nationalized due to the energy crisis.

Thousands join anti-government protest in Prague

By AFP
March 11, 2023

Thousands attended the "Czechia against poverty" protest in central Prague - Copyright AFP Aris Messinis

Thousands took to the streets of Prague on Saturday in protest against the Czech government, high inflation and demanding an end to the country’s military support for Ukraine.

The Czech Republic has been battling record inflation levels for a year mainly because of a spike in energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine.

In February, annual inflation in the EU and NATO member state of 10.5 million people reached 16.7 percent.

Saturday’s “Czechia against poverty” rally was organised by a new political party.

“We have gathered here today to take a stand against this poverty,” Jindrich Rajchl, a lawyer leading the non-parliamentary PRO party, told the crowd in central Wenceslas Square.

The protesters called on the centre-right government of Petr Fiala to resign, while Rajchl said he wanted leaders who “care about the interests of Czech citizens first”.

Critics accuse Fiala’s government of caring more about Ukraine with substantial military and humanitarian aid sent to the war-torn country since the invasion started in February 2022.

Protesters also slammed NATO, with Czech media reporting a protester with a loudspeaker called on the crowd to tear down a Ukrainian flag from the National Museum building at the top of Wenceslas Square.

 

Meta to End News Access for Canadians if Online News Act Becomes Law

By Reuters

|

March 13, 2023, 

Meta to End News Access for Canadians if Online News Act Becomes Law

More

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves HermanREUTERS

(Reuters) -Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc said on Saturday that it would end availability of news content for Canadians on its platforms if the country's Online News Act passes in its current form.

The "Online News Act," or House of Commons bill C-18, introduced in April last year laid out rules to force platforms like Meta and Alphabet Inc's Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.

"A legislative framework that compels us to pay for links or content that we do not post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor workable," a Meta spokesperson said as reason to suspend news access in the country.

Meta's move comes after Google last month started testing limited news censorship as a potential response to the bill.

Canada's news media industry has asked the government for more regulation of tech companies to allow the industry to recoup financial losses it has suffered in the years as tech giants like Google and Meta steadily gain greater market share of advertising.

In a statement on Sunday, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said it was disappointing to see Facebook resorting to threats instead of working with the Canadian government in good faith, and the C-18 bill had nothing to do with how Facebook makes news available to Canadians.

"All we're asking Facebook to do is negotiate fair deals with news outlets when they profit from their work," Rodriguez said. "This is part of a disappointing trend this week that tech giants would rather pull news than pay their fair share."

Facebook last year raised concerns about the legislation and warned it might be forced to block news-sharing on its platform.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Lavanya Ahire in Bengaluru, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker)

Visentini sacked as trade union chief after Qatar-scandal cash revelations

ITUC to hold election for new general secretary ‘as soon as is practicable.’

Luca Visentini acknowledged accepting around €50,000 from NGO Fight Impunity for his ITUC leadership campaign | Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE

BY SAMUEL STOLTON
MARCH 11, 2023 

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) sacked leader Luca Visentini, concluding that he no longer had the organization’s confidence after accepting thousands of euros from an NGO at the center of the Qatar influence-buying scandal.

The ITUC said in a statement on Saturday that its General Council decided to organize an extraordinary meeting to elect a new general secretary to succeed Visentini “as soon as is practicable.”

The confederation also pledged to consider amendments to its constitution “on the financing of campaigns for ITUC leadership elections, and on financial compliance.”


“The events of the past few months have caused significant damage to the ITUC’s reputation,” ITUC President Akiko Gono said in the statement. “Important lessons have been learned and the General Council reiterated the ITUC’s absolute opposition to corruption in any form.”

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In December, Visentini was one of the first people to be detained by Belgian authorities as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery between Qatar and senior EU officials and Brussels organizations.

He subsequently acknowledged accepting around €50,000 from ex-MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri’s NGO Fight Impunity for his ITUC leadership campaign, but Visentini denied knowledge of any “irregular” activities. Visentini and his ITUC predecessor, Sharan Burrow, have previously drawn attention for their positive statements about Qatari labor reforms ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Visentini was released without charge on December 11, with strict travel restrictions. His leadership of the international trade union was suspended on December 21, pending Saturday’s decision.

In a statement to POLITICO on Saturday, Visentini said that he “deeply regrets” the ITUC’s decision. “I reiterate that I’m innocent of the accusations of corruption and money laundering that were leveled at me,” he said.

“The donation I received was given to the ITUC to help trade unions in need, I believed that this money came from a reliable source, and it was used by the ITUC in an impartial manner and according to existing internal rules,” he said.


As part of a wider crackdown in the ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of bribery between the state of Qatar and EU officials, the Belgian authorities have charged several individuals. These include Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili and her partner, parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi, Pier Antonio Panzeri — former MEP and founder of non-profit group Fight Impunity — and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, secretary-general of campaign group No Peace Without Justice. Giorgi and Figà-Talamanca have since been released from jail.

Two more MEPs, Belgian Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino, were also arrested in February, as well as Panzeri’s accountant Monica Bellini in January, in connection with the Qatargate probe.

Climate Change Hits Women in South Africa’s Coal Region, Report Says 

A report by Southern Africa Resource Watch says women are more impacted than men by climate change in the coal-producing region of South Africa, one of the world’s biggest coal exporters. Mpumalanga province sees heavy pollution from coal mining and power stations as well as severe flooding.

FORDISM IS CAPITALI$M

Iran Signs $450M Deal to Export Cars to Russia

By Nigar Bayramli 

Saipa, Iran’s second-largest carmaker, has secured a contract worth $450 million to export 45,000 cars to Russia. / Trend News Agency

  

Saipa, Iran’s second-largest carmaker, has secured a contract worth $450 million to export 45,000 cars to Russia. 

According to the Mehr news agency, on February 22, Saipa's CEO Mohammad Ali Teymouri and a group of Russian businessmen signed a contract in a ceremony held in Tehran. The vehicles are set to be transported in several shipments.

As per Teymouri's statement, Iranian and Russian car manufacturers are considering joint manufacturing projects in Iran, and such initiatives will likely result in a substantial rise in exports of cars and automobile components from Iran to Russia.

The signing of the $450 million contract between Saipa and Russian businessmen in Tehran comes about six months after Iranian car manufacturers participated in the MIMS Automobility Moscow 2022 event. During the event, the Iranian carmakers had initial negotiations with Russian trade partners, resulting in a preliminary agreement for the export of cars to Russia.

According to Alireza Peymanpak, the head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the value of the Russian car market is approximately $20 billion. The withdrawal of other car companies from Russia, in response to the imposition of Western sanctions, has opened up opportunities for Iranian carmakers to secure a substantial portion of this market, providing them with a competitive advantage, he added.

Peymanpak further said the sale was “a first step towards the presence of our carmakers in Russia, towards joint production and towards the production of new models jointly developed in cooperation with large Russian carmakers.”

Ali Teymouri, the CEO of Saipa, has stated that technical teams from the company will be dispatched to Russia to aid in the restarting of production at two car factories that ceased operations due to sanctions.

In August 2022, Mehdi Khatibi, the chief of Iran’s leading automaker Iran Khodro (IKCO), announced that his company was seeking to sell more cars to Russia when both countries are struggling with West-imposed sanctions. Khatibi stated that within the next two years, Russia is expected to become Iran Khodro's primary market. Additionally, he mentioned that the company is planning to export its Tara cars to Russia in the near future.

Russian car manufacturers faced many restrictions due to tough sanctions imposed by European countries and the US following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“Under such conditions, Iranian car manufacturers managed to use this opportunity and gain a share of this large market by exporting their products to Russia,” Iran’s Gadget News website said in a report.

 February 23, 2023