Biden budget proposal would raise taxes on large corporations, lower deficit over 10 years

BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/11/24 

President Biden will unveil his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year Monday, calling for tax increases for large corporations, and for billionaires to pay a minimum 25 percent tax rate.

The president’s budget proposal for fiscal 2025 would reduce the federal deficit by about $3 trillion over a 10-year period, the White House said, largely by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and businesses. The budget would also crack down on corporate profit sharing.

A White House official said the budget would cut taxes for millions of low- and middle-income families, and it includes proposals to lower the cost of child care, prescription drugs, housing and utilities.

The budget proposal will call for reforms to strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and it will contain several other White House priorities, including funding to combat climate change, for small businesses, for national paid leave and for cancer research.

The proposal will, in many ways, echo last year’s budget put forward by the White House, which would have also lowered the deficit by about $3 trillion, increased taxes on billionaires and increased the Medicare tax on individuals making more than $400,000 a year.

Budget requests typically do not become law, and Biden’s will be no exception, with the House controlled by Republicans and Democrats holding a narrow majority in the Senate.

But the request will serve as an important point in the debates this year on raising the debt ceiling and funding the government, and it will serve as a messaging tool for the White House as Biden seeks reelection.

The president, in his State of the Union address Thursday and subsequent campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Georgia over the weekend, touted his administration’s efforts to reduce deficits, scoffing at the idea that former President Trump would be able to rein in the national debt.

Biden has also committed to protecting Medicare and Social Security, which is a cornerstone of his pitch to voters, repeatedly vowing to veto any congressional proposals to cut those programs.

Trump, who will likely be Biden’s opponent in November, has said publicly he would not change Social Security and Medicare, though his budget proposals while he was in office included cuts to the programs.

Germany's domestic secret service battles far-right AfD

WHY DOES GERMANY STILL HAVE THE GESTAPO

Marcel Fürstenau

DW

March 10, 2024

Germany's domestic intelligence service is again facing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in court this week. Its job is to safeguard the democratic principles set out in the Basic Law.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV), Germany's domestic intelligence service, argues that the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is anti-constitutional. It therefore classified it as a "suspected case" in 2021.

The party took legal action against this at the Cologne Administrative Court, but was unsuccessful. The appeal subsequently lodged by the AfD will be heard by the Münster Higher Administrative Court on March 12 and 13, 2024.

The appeal proceedings draw attention to a state organization that acts as an early warning system to detect threats to democracy and is one of the most important intelligence agencies in Germany. It gathers intelligence while coordinating information gathered by the 16 state-level intelligence agencies.

Germany has several intelligence organizations that collect information for the federal and state governments. At a federal level, these include the Military Counterintelligence Service, or Militärischer Abschirmdienst (MAD), and the Federal Intelligence Service, or Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which is responsible for foreign intelligence.

The BfV has no executive power, but it collects and evaluates information on anti-democratic movements and individuals and espionage activities, which is then passed on to the government — specifically the Interior Ministry. The government can then trigger police action, if necessary, or even ban political organizations, a move that must be voted on in parliament.

The police forces in the 16 states are tasked with averting specific threats, while the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Police are responsible for border protection.

Right-wing extremism is considered the greatest danger

Around 4,300 people work at the BfV in its Cologne headquarters and its Berlin office, focusing on allfocusing on all forms of political and religious extremism. For several years, annual BfV reports have warned that right-wing extremism poses the biggest threat to German democracy, though its reports also include information on Islamist groups and left-wing extremists in the country.

While clandestine BfV operations are rarely reported on, the organization has occasionally made the headlines with high-profile scandals. Among the most notable of these was the failure to act on evidence about the far-right terrorist group the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a group of at least three neo-Nazis that carried out ten murders and several bombings and robberies between 1999 and 2007.

After the NSU's discovery in 2011, it emerged that the BfV and some of the state-level agencies had been surveilling its members for more than a decade but had failed to take action. A parliamentary inquiry into the NSU investigation concluded that there had been a "total failure" of state institutions. After this disaster, the BfV's structures and responsibilities were reformed several times.

Overseeing the secret service

A parliamentary supervisory committee monitors all the federal intelligence services. Each party represented in the Bundestag names its candidates, who then have to be approved by the whole parliament. This was long just a formality, but for two years now, candidates put forward by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have failed to get approval from the other parties.

That is partly because the BfV now considers the AfD itself as "partly right-wing extremist," leading the other Bundestag parties to argue that AfD politicians should therefore not be supervising the work of the BfV.

Not only that, the AfD's youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) and its chapters in the eastern states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia have been found by intelligence services to be "proven right-wing extremist."

The scrutiny of the courts

The BfV has the power to surveil members of organizations suspected or proven to be extremist. Such a classification can, however, be challenged in the courts. The AfD has repeatedly taken legal action against what it considers to be politically motivated measures by the BfV. Their lawsuit against the classification in 2021, however, was dismissed by the Cologne Administrative Court a year later. This month, the AfD's appeal against this verdict will be heard by the next highest court in Münster.

Other parties and individual lawmakers have also taken legal action against BfV surveillance. In 2013, Bodo Ramelow, head of government in Thuringia and prominent member of the socialist Left Party, brought a successful appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court, which ruled that his surveillance was a disproportionate interference with his work as an elected representative.

In its ruling, Germany's highest court outlined the conditions under which elected members of parliament may be subject to surveillance: "If there are indications that the MP is abusing their mandate to fight against the free democratic basic order or is actively and aggressively combating it."

Whether this applies to AfD lawmakers may also have to be decided by the courts. The current vice-president of the Bundestag, Petra Pau (Left Party), is opposed to having the constitutionality of political parties assessed by the domestic intelligence agency. Pau herself was under surveillance for many years, and eventually won a court battle to gain access to her files.

She told DW in 2019 that she felt the AfD should not be subject to surveillance by the BfV. "I don't consider surveillance by the secret services to be the appropriate means of politically suppressing this openly racist and misanthropic party." We have criminal laws for this, said Pau.

The victims of the neo-Nazi NSU murder spree

From 2000 to 2007, the notorious National Socialist Underground (NSU) neo-Nazi cell killed 10 people in Germany. After five years, the trial of the group's sole surviving member has come to a close.

10 victims, 10 tragedies

Nine of the 10 victims were of foreign heritage, but they had all made Germany their home when they were killed. The 10th victim was a German police officer. Every one of them was shot in cold blood.

On September 9, 2000, the florist Enver Simsek, pictured with his wife, was shot eight times. The 38-year-old father of two sold flowers near a small parking lot in the southern city of Nuremberg. Simsek, who migrated from Turkey to Germany in 1986, is believed to be the first murder victim in the NSU series of racially motivated killings.

Also in Nuremberg, Turkish-born tailor Abdurrahim Ozudogru was shot on June 13, 2001 in his alteration shop. He was 49 years old with a daughter who was 19 at the time of his murder.

Later that month, on June 27, 2001 Suleyman Taskopru was shot dead in his father's fruit and vegetable shop in Hamburg. He was 31 years old and had a three-year-old daughter.

On August 29 of the same year, 38-year-old Habil Kilic, who was also a fruit and vegetable grocer, was killed in his shop in Munich. Like Taskopru, he was shot in the head. His wife and his 12-year-old daughter later left Germany. 

Mehmet Turgut lived in Hamburg, but was visiting a friend in the eastern German city of Rostock and helping out at a Doner kebab fast food restaurant when he was shot on February 25, 2004. He was killed by three bullets to the head.

Ismail Yasar was shot five times in his doner kebab restaurant in Nuremberg on June 9, 2005. A customer found him behind the counter. The 50-year-old had three children.

Just a few days later, on June 15, 2005, Theodoros Boulgarides was shot dead in Munich in his lock and key service shop. He was the only victim with Greek heritage. The 41-year-old father of two was the NSU's seventh murder victim.

On a busy street at noon on April 4, 2006 in the western city of Dortmund, Turkish-born Mehmet Kubasik was killed by several shots to the head in his small convenience store. The 39-year-old left behind a wife and three children.

In Kassel on April 6, 2006, Halit Yozgat was also shot in the head. He was killed in the internet cafe he ran with his father. Twenty-one years old, Turkish-born but with a German passport, Yozgat was taking night school classes to graduate from high school.

Michele Kiesewetter, a 22-year-old police officer, was shot dead on April 25, 2007 in the southwestern city of Heilbronn. She was the NSU's 10th and final murder victim.



This article was originally written in German.

France's Macron announces plans for assisted dying bill

French President Emmanuel Macron said he would propose legislation in May for adults to "ask to be helped to die" when they are faced with terminal illnesses.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for a bill to legalize medical assistance in dying for adults diagnosed with an incurable disease and facing imminent death.

Macron told newspapers La Croix and Liberation that the new legislation to legalize "aid in dying" under certain conditions would only apply to those above 18 years of age.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on X on Monday that the bill would be put forward in parliament on May 27. "Death can no longer be a taboo issue and subject to silence," he wrote in French.



Proposed law to give people humane options in death

The legislation is meant to offer "a possible path, in a determined situation, with precise criteria, where the medical decision is playing its role," Macron said. He gave the example of people with terminal cancer, some of whom had traveled elsewhere to seek assistance in dying.

The bill will apply to adults who are fully capable of making decisions and to those facing "intractable" physical or psychological pain and death in "short or middle-term," Macron said.

Minors and patients suffering from psychiatric or neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's will not be eligible.

Macron was clear the legislation will refer to "aid in dying ... because it's simple and humane" rather than terms like euthanasia or medically-assisted suicide.

The proposed draft law follows a report last year that indicated most French nationals support legalizing end-of-life options.

Pushback against the bill

The plan has already faced some criticism in France.

The associations for palliative care, cancer support and specialist nurses said in a joint statement that Macron "has with great violence announced a system far removed from patients' needs and health workers' daily reality, which could have grave consequences on the care relationship."

They said the government was saving money with the plan and called for greater resources to be alloted to palliative care so people could "die with dignity."

How will the proposed process work?

Under the new legislation, only people above 18 can ask for life-ending medication and those who seek to enter the process will need to reconfirm their choice after 48 hours.

They should then receive an answer from a medical team within two weeks, Macron said. A doctor will then deliver a prescription, which will be valid for three months, for the life-ending medication.

People can either choose to administer the medication themselves at home or, if they are not able to do so, ask for help at a nursing home or a health care facility.

Falling space debris: How high is the risk I'll get hit?

Zulfikar Abbany | Julia Vergin | Katja Sterzik03/08/2024March 8, 2024

An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.



Heads up! First we pollute the world, then we pollute space?I

NASA/Zoonar/picture alliance

It was an ordinary afternoon, March 7, 2024, until residents in Germany received a warning from the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance — abbreviated in German as BBK. It warned that fragments of space debris were expected to fly over Germany the following days, March 8-9.

Details were sparse from both the BKK and the European Space Agency.

Authorities expected a palette of nine batteries to reenter the Earth's atmosphere on an uncontrolled trajectory.

The total mass was to be in the region of 2.6 metric tons — the equivalent of 2,600 kilograms (about 5,730 pounds), or, as some have said, the size of a large car.

Most of the battery was expected to burn up on reentry, which is normal. However, it's equally normal for some of these larger bits of space debris to survive and land — usually in the ocean.

And that's exactly what happened on Friday evening. The German military's space monitoring center said the bulk of the debris must have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean a little after 8 p.m. (1900 GMT/UTC). Around an hour earlier, people in some parts of central Germany could see a "bright trail" in the sky that was the falling debris, the agency said.

What's the risk of an uncontrolled reentry to Earth?

The ISS battery pack had a "natural" trajectory between -51.6 degrees south and 51.6 degrees north. Natural trajectory means "uncontrolled" — it is not guided by computers or humans on Earth.

Batteries cannot be navigated like satellites and other spacecraft, so they can only reenter Earth uncontrolled. This made it difficult to predict how the batteries would break up and where they would fall.

But even before most of the debris splashed down in the Atlantic, ESA assured that no one would likely be harmed. "While some parts may reach the ground, the casualty risk — the likelihood of a person being hit — is very low."

In an email to DW, Germany's BBK reiterated ESA's risk assessment, adding only that they could not provide further advice to residents or suggest any protective measures that people could take before the "event" had happened.

The BBK confirmed that the IIS battery pack would fly over Germany more than once before its reentry into the atmosphere. Germany's space monitoring center confirmed this to be the case in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

In fact, its trajectory took it over most of Europe, Latin America, northeastern Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and Australia.

So, should you have worried when the official line is "no" and the risk to human life is considered low?

How much space junk falls to Earth every year?

According to ESA, space junk reenters the Earth's atmosphere via uncontrolled trajectories almost every week.

Since the 1960s, the number of space debris events has risen steadily, but in the past few years, the increase has been exponential: ESA's data from December 2023 shows that almost 2,500 bits of space debris fell to Earth in the year before.

In 2023, the number was down again to about 1,500 objects. But given that between the years 1960 and 2000, the so-called "object count" averaged at about 500 bits of debris per annum, we have seen quite a jump.
What kinds of space debris fall to Earth?

About 44 tons or 44,000 kilograms of meteoritic material fall on Earth each day, but about 95% of it burns up.

Most of the space debris that falls to Earth is what's called payload fragmentation debris, objects that have fragmented or been unintentionally released from a spacecraft when an object explodes or collides with another object.

Other common space debris includes rocket mission-related objects, "space objects intentionally released as space debris" after having served their purpose. That includes spent batteries. The ISS battery pack was intentionally released from the space station three years before its reentry in 2024.

Is space debris toxic?

If a satellite falls to Earth, its structure is unlikely to be toxic. But it may contain toxic elements within it. It also depends on where space debris falls.

In a 2021 interview, space debris expert and author of Dr Space Junk vs the Universe, Alice Gorman, told DW: "Some spacecraft fuels are toxic — hydrazine, for example. There are metals like beryllium and magnesium, they are usually in alloy form, but beryllium is pretty nasty no matter what."

Some experts are concerned about the effects of these toxic elements, especially as most space debris lands in the ocean. But the effects are not widely researched, said Gorman.

"Salt water can corrode things easily, but we have a million shipwrecks across the world, and shipwrecks generally become habitats [for marine life]," she said. "And the priority really should be what's in orbit. That's by far the bigger risk."
So, how big is the risk of getting hit by space debris?

Experts have estimated that you're 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have a bit of space debris fall on your head.

And you're 1.5 million times more likely to die in an accident at home.

You're three times more likely to be hit by a meteorite than space debris, and how often does space rock land on the planet? So, statistically, you should be okay.

This piece was updated to include the space debris crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.

Germany: Protest against Tesla plans to expand 'Gigafactory'

The demonstrations just added to the automaker's headache over plans to expand its assembly plant near Berlin. It had already shut its plant for several days due to apparent sabotage.



Protesters in Grünheide say 'no thanks' to Tesla's factory expansion plans

Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of environmental activists protested Sunday against the expansion of electric carmaker Tesla's factory outside of Berlin.

The demonstration in Grünheide, on the outskirts of the German capital, comes only days after a suspected arson attack on the power supply halted production at the Tesla Gigafactory.

Tesla's proposal to expand the electric vehicle factory, including constructing a freight station, warehouses, and a company kindergarten, has encountered resistance from people who fear it will contaminate drinking water.

Part of the planned area of expansion is in a water protection area.

Counter-protesters showed their solidarity with Tesla

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP

Local residents who support the expansion and view it as an essential part of the area's future development also staged a smaller counter-demonstration.
Tesla's plant to restart next week

Meanwhile, the head of Tesla's works council told several hundred workers at the production site on Friday, "We will restart the factory next week."

An investigation was underway after activists calling themselves the Volcano Group said they sabotaged production on Tuesday.

An electricity pylon near the plant caught fire, causing power outages in the factory and nearby towns.

Meanwhile, Germany's Federal Network Agency, responsible for regulating energy and telecommunications infrastructure, joined calls for greater security for energy grids.

"The incident emphasizes the need for resilient energy supply structures in Germany," a spokeswoman for the Network Agency told dpa.

"The legislator is currently working on the requirements for the security of critical infrastructure, including against physical threats. The aim is to further raise the level of security," she said.

Protesters in the forest

In February, most Grünheide residents voted against the expansion plans in a nonbinding poll. To make room for the site additions, about 100 hectares of forest would have to be cleared.

Tesla had announced further talks on the issue. The facility is the only factory run by billionaire Elon Musk's electric vehicle company in Europe.

A group of environmental activists, who protested the expansion and even occupied the forest near the factory two weeks ago, have distanced themselves from the arson attack.

Police said Sunday that they were watching the forest protesters closely.

lo/mm (dpa, Reuters)

Climate risks could be 'catastrophic' in Europe, EU warns

8 hours ag

Europe is the world's "fastest-warming continent," a new report has found. But it is underprepared to face the mounting threat caused by climate change.

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) warned on Monday that Europe could suffer "catastrophic" consequences of climate change if it fails to take urgent action.

In its first Europe-wide analysis of climate-related risks, the EEA listed 36 threats related to climate in Europe, 21 of which demand immediate action, while eight were described as "particularly urgent."

The dangers include fires, water shortages and their effects on agricultural production, while low-lying coastal regions face threats of flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusion, the report said.

Why should Europe worry?

Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global rate, the EEA said. Even if countries manage to slow warming, global temperatures are already more than 1 degrees Celsius higher than in pre-industrial times.

EEA director Leena Yla-Mononen said that in the summer of 2022, between 60,000 and 70,000 premature deaths in Europe were caused by heat.

The agency said that areas in southern Europe are most at risk. However, that doesn't mean northern Europe is spared from the negative impact, as demonstrated by flooding in Germany and forest fires in Sweden in recent years.

At the top of the list in the analysis were risks to ecosystems, mainly relating to coastal and marine areas.

Extreme heat and drought are a growing risk to Europe

PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images

Report should be 'final wake-up call'

Without more urgent action, the EEA said most of the 36 climate risks facing Europe could hit "critical or catastrophic levels" this century. That includes risks to health, crop production and infrastructure.

In a pessimistic scenario, it warned that hundreds of thousands of people could die from heat waves and "economic losses from coastal floods alone could exceed 1 trillion euros per year" by the end of the century.

"It should be the wake-up call. The final wake-up call," Yla-Mononen said.

Scientists say that greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, need to be drastically reduced to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The European Commission will publish its response to the report on Tuesday.

Germany's RAF terrorism — an unresolved story

Christoph Strack

DW

03/10/2024

Left-wing terrorism once shook the Federal Republic of Germany. The Red Army Faction emerged from the radicalized student protest movement in the 1960s and '70s.

In public places across West Germany, authorities put up photos of the most wanted RAF terrorists

 Polizei/dpa/picture-alliance

EACH OF THESE MEMBERS OF THE RAF WERE KILLED BY THE STATE WHILE IN PRISON, CLAIMED TO BE SUICIDES

Even today, talk of the Red Army Faction (RAF) often provokes a heated debate in Germany. The crimes of the RAF, said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) at the end of February, are "today still unmatched as examples of the dangers of left-wing extremism and left-wing terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany."

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the terrorist organization announced its dissolution. Nonetheless, there are those who are still grieving, victims who are still injured, RAF members who are still on the run — and many unanswered questions. At the end of February 2024, after many years without success, special police units began once again publicly tracking down the last prominent suspects involved in RAF terrorism.

For those who lived through it, the "German Autumn" (Deutscher Herbst) was in the fall of 1977. That was when the RAF emerged as a far-left terrorist organization.

In 1968, two arson attacks on Frankfurt department stores, using tactics typical of left-wing urban guerrillas, had already occurred. Andreas Baader was convicted and imprisoned for his involvement. His escape from prison in 1970 marked the birth of the RAF. The most prominent members of the first generation of the RAF were Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin. In these early years, the group was known as the "Baader-Meinhof Group" after its two most recognizable founders.

In 1977, RAF members kidnapped and later killed business leader Hanns Martin Schleyer

Image: AP

Notorious personalities and lesser-known victims

The group carried out numerous attacks in Germany up into the 1990s. Thirty-five people were killed. Some of the victims were major figures in West Germany.

In 1977 alone, the year of terror, they murdered Siegfried Buback, the country's chief prosecutor, and shortly afterward, the head of the Dresdner Bank, Jürgen Ponto. Then "second generation" RAF members kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer, the head of then-West Germany's national employer association and a former SS officer — the SS (Schutzstaffel) was a major paramilitary organization in Nazi Germany. The kidnapping was intended to force the release of imprisoned RAF leaders. When this attempt failed, RAF leaders Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe committed suicide in prison on October 17. Hanns Martin Schleyer was murdered 44 days after his abduction.

The names of the RAF's prominent victims are well known in Germany, but the lesser-known victims include company car drivers, bodyguards and ordinary police officers. Germany was in a state of near paralysis in the autumn of 1977. Frequent vehicle inspections at highway exits and heavily armed police officers at key locations were commonplace. As in several other European countries, a growing fear of terrorism was sweeping the country.

RAF members of the second and third generation continued carrying out crimes until the end of the 1990s. They repeatedly targeted US troop facilities in Germany. Then, in the spring of 1998, the RAF announced in a lengthy letter that it was disbanding.

The manhunt continues, questions remain unanswered

The search for the perpetrators went on, though. Most of the crimes committed between 1970 and 1998 have still not been solved. This is also due to the fact that those RAF members who were arrested and stood trial have, for the most part, not made any incriminating statements about accomplices or connections within the organization. One thing is clear: the RAF and the trail of blood it left across the Federal Republic of Germany are still not a thing of the past.

One of the unanswered questions is the role played by the domestic secret service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in the student protest movement's descent into terror in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

According to the Hamburg political scientist Wolfgang Kraushaar, the secret service agent Peter Urbach (1941-2011) is a key figure here. In an interview with DW in 2018, Kraushaar explained: "Urbach played an important — though still inconclusive — role in the transformation of that small but hardened nucleus of the protest scene into militant groups and ultimately into networks, out of which terrorism then took shape."

In Kraushaar's eyes, Urbach was an agent provocateur who supplied left-wing extremist protesters with Molotov cocktails and firearms and incited the extra-parliamentary opposition. Speculation about the role of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution looms in the background of each new arrest and search for clues.

This is what is behind Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser's statement following the arrest of suspected "third-generation RAF" terrorist Daniela Klette at the end of February. She said that a further criminal investigation into the crimes was now possible. "We also owe it to the relatives of the RAF victims to provide answers."

As head of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which oversees Germany's security agencies, Faeser is the 15th politician to have had more or less frequent dealings with the RAF. When the 53-year-old SPD politician was born, the Federal Criminal Police Office was already searching for the Baader-Meinhof group. It is quite likely that Faeser will not be the last minister tasked with investigating past and future left-wing terrorism.

This article was originally written in German.

Editorial

Le Monde

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed refuses to acknowledge the serious food crisis affecting Tigray, in the north of the country.

Published today at 3:45 pm (Paris) 

That human beings should die massively of hunger in 2024 is scandalous. But that famine should be tolerated, or even used as a political weapon by a government, leaves one speechless. Ethiopia's recent history includes at least two such episodes: in 1973-1974 (between 50,000 and 200,000 deaths), when the tragedy precipitated the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, and in 1983-1984 (between 300,000 and 1 million deaths according to estimates), when famine was used by dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to justify forced displacement and crush rebellions. The terrible situation prevailing today in the northern Tigray region, where local authorities have declared a state of famine − a situation not recognized by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed − can only evoke these sinister precedents.

The articles published by Le Monde bear witness to this. The atrociously murderous − 600,000 dead, according to the African Union − and destructive war that pitted the Ethiopian federal army against the insurgents of the Tigray People's Liberation Front between 2020 and 2022 may have ended militarily in favor of the Ethiopian troops. But it has been prolonged by a terrible food crisis, with abandoned farms, dead cattle and crops at a standstill. Drought and then the destructive rains that followed the armed conflict condemned over 90% of Tigray's 6 million inhabitants to malnutrition. Just as the United Nations was about to recognize the state of famine, the World Food Program suspended its food distributions between March and December 2023 due to a huge aid diversion scandal. In the meantime, famine has set in and the death toll is rising.

Read more Subscribers only Famine in Ethiopia's Tigray has become a political battle

Ahmed's government denies the situation. Acknowledging the famine would awaken the ghosts of the past and contradict the rhetoric that presents the country as the future grain supplier of Africa. But the authorities in Addis Ababa are accused of abandoning the Tigrayans to their fate in order to complete the region's kneecapping. It has to be said that Abiy, hailed as a liberal reformer when he came to power in 2018, to the point of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, has above all demonstrated his ability to fan the flames of the many conflicts that pit the ethnolinguistic communities of this diverse country against each other, in Tigray, but also in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

Loss of territorial control

In this country of 120 million inhabitants with considerable economic and human potential, the only one in Africa never to have been colonized, Abiy the modernizer has turned into an autocrat. The messianic overtones of this convert to Pentecostalism can no longer hide the reality: the loss of control not only of the territory he claimed to unify but also of the economy, plagued by the black market. Nationalist and warmongering rhetoric, such as the demand for access to the Red Sea, is compounded by the repression of opponents and journalists.

The famine raging in Tigray, and Ahmed's denial of it, is yet another symptom of a drift against which the international community should be mobilizing. In Ethiopia, as elsewhere, the repeating of historical tragedies is not inevitable. In this vast country, which needs to reconcile all its demographic groups, no lasting peace can be built by humiliating one part of the population, let alone by turning a blind eye to the flagrant humanitarian tragedy it is suffering.

UK's David Cameron opposes sending troops to Ukraine, even for training

Cameron said training missions are best carried out abroad, as British troops have done so far.


Le Monde with AP and AFP
Published on March 9, 2024

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he opposes sending Western troops to Ukraine, even for training missions, in an interview with German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung published on Saturday, March 9. Cameron said training missions are best carried out abroad, noting that Britain has trained 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers that way. Placing foreign soldiers in Ukraine would provide targets for Russia, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron set off a stir among his allies on February 26 when he did not exclude sending Western troops to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia's invasion. Britain later confirmed that it had sent small units to Ukraine to help with medical training, but a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country does not foresee large-scale deployments.

On Friday, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said there were no plans for the moment to send combat troops, but that Ukraine's allies could consider specific training or de-mining missions.

In his interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Cameron said Ukraine needed more long-range weapons and that he was willing to work with Berlin to lift its reticence to supplying German-made Taurus cruise missiles.

Cameron wouldn't directly address suggestions that Berlin provide Britain with Taurus missiles to free up the UK to send more British-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. Berlin has refused to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine, fearful that its 500-kilometre (310-mile) range would be used to hit targets deep into Russian territory.

Since last May, France and Britain have supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadows – called Scalp in French and with a 250-kilometer range – while the United States has sent ATACMS, which have a range of 165 kilometers.

'Not unthinkable,' says Polish FM

Poland's foreign minister said Friday the presence of NATO forces "is not unthinkable" and that he appreciates the French president for not ruling out that idea. Radek Sikorski made the observation during a discussion marking the 25th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO in the Polish parliament Friday, and the Foreign Ministry tweeted the comments later in English.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk was among those European leaders who initially ruled out sending troops to Ukraine after Macron's remarks, saying: "Poland does not plan to send its troops to the territory of Ukraine."

But less than two weeks later Sikorski struck a different tone. "The presence of #NATO forces in Ukraine is not unthinkable," he said, according to the Foreign Ministry's tweet. He said he appreciated Macron's initiative "because it is about Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin."


Le Monde with AP and AFP

Ukraine updates: Poland won't rule out NATO force in Ukraine

Poland's foreign minister says the presence of NATO forces in Ukraine is "not unthinkable." Meanwhile, nearly 50 Ukrainian combat drones have been shot down in Russia, according to Russian officials. DW has more.


Published 03/09/2024

Sikorski says NATO troops in Ukraine 'not unthinkable'

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has reacted positively to French President Emmanuel Macron's recent comments that Western troops could deploy in Ukraine.

"The presence of NATO forces in Ukraine is not unthinkable," Sikorski wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday evening, more than a week after the French leader's remarks at a meeting of European leaders caused a stir.

"I appreciate French President Emmanuel Macron's initiative because it is about Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin," he added.

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron said the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine could not be ruled out. The comment broke a taboo among allies and prompted an outcry from other leaders.

French officials later sought to clarify Macron's remarks and tamp down the backlash, while stressing the need to signal Russia that it cannot win its war in Ukraine.

Sikorski's position contrasts with that of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who made clear during a visit to Prague last week that Poland has no intention of sending troops to Ukraine. Tusk said the focus should be on providing maximum support to Ukraine in its military efforts against Russian aggression.

Poland has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

 

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