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European parliament leaders call for rejection of Donald Trump's likely EU ambassador Ted Malloch

The businessman and keen Brexiteer recently suggested he wants to bring down the bloc

The leaders of the European Parliament's main political parties have written to the European Union to reject the appointment of Donald Trump's likely pick of ambassador.

The parliament's conservative, socialist and liberal political parties have written to the European commission and the European council to describe Ted Malloch as hostile and malevolent.

The businessman and strident Brexiteer has indicated he is no fan of Brussels several times.

When asked during a recent BBC interview why he wanted to be US ambassador to the EU, he said: "I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union. So maybe there's another union that needs a little taming."

He also said Mr Trump dislikes the idea of EU integration, describing it as "supranational" and "unelected". He also suggested he believes the euro could soon collapse

In their letter, reported in The Guardian, Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right EPP and Guy Verhofstadt, liberal ALDE leader, accuse Mr Malloch of "outrageous malevolence" towards "the values that define" the EU.

Writing to European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk, they say Mr Malloch's statements about breaking up the EU "reveal outrageous malevolence regarding the values that define this European Union and, if pronounced by an official representative of the United States, they would have the potential to undermine seriously the transatlantic relationship that has, for the past 70 years, essentially contributed to peace, stability and prosperity on our continent.”

They add: “We are strongly convinced that persons seeing as their mission to disrupt or dissolve the European Union, should not be accredited as official representatives to the EU."

In a separate letter, Gianni Pittella, leader of the Socialists and Democrats group, writes: “We firmly believe that ignoring this unacceptable stance would undermine our future relationship with the US administration and could potentially contribute to the spread of populism and Euroscepticism across Europe."

Mr Malloch has reportedly already been interviewed for the job by Mr Trump.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/donald-trump-eu-ambassador-ted-malloch-european-parliament-reject-a7560466.html
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For Europe, There’s a New Threat in Town: The U.S.

The European Union is accustomed to crises. But it is probably safe to say that none of the 28 leaders who are gathering in Malta on Friday expected the crisis that has unexpectedly overtaken the agenda: the United States of America.

Like much of the world, the European Union is struggling to decipher a President Trump who seems every day to be picking a new fight with a new nation, whether friend or foe. Hopes among European leaders that Mr. Trump’s bombastic tone as a candidate would somehow smooth into a more temperate one as commander in chief are dissipating, replaced by a mounting sense of anxiety and puzzlement over how to proceed.

If many foreign leaders expected a Trump administration to push to renegotiate trade deals, or take a tough line on immigration, few anticipated that he would become an equal opportunity offender. He has insulted or humiliated Mexico, Britain, Germany and Iraq; engaged in a war of words with China and Iran; and turned a routine phone call with the prime minister of Australia, a staunch ally, into a minor diplomatic crisis.

With the possible exception of NATO, where he has softened his tone, Mr. Trump has expressed disdain for other multilateral institutions such as the European Union. His praise has been reserved for populists and strongmen, like Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and,

Mr. Trump is convinced that the United States has been played for a patsy by the rest of the world and is vowing to set things straight. “We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually,” he said on Thursday at a prayer breakfast. “It’s not going to happen anymore.”

Against this forbidding backdrop, some European leaders are urging their counterparts to recognize that Mr. Trump may represent a truly dire challenge, one that threatens to upend not only the 70-year European project of integration and security, but just about everything they stand for, including liberal democracy itself.

A European official, Donald Tusk, created a stir this week when he wrote a letter to 27 leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states suggesting that the Trump administration presented a threat on a par with a newly assertive China, an aggressive Russia and “wars, terror and anarchy in the Middle East and Africa.”

Intentionally, he left out Britain, because it has voted to leave the bloc and its prime minister, Theresa May, has rushed with what some Europeans consider unseemly rapidity to the side of Mr. Trump, who has derided the European Union and praised Britain’s withdrawal, or “Brexit,” saying, “I don’t think it matters much for the United States.”

In his letter, Mr. Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is the president of the European Council, made up of the national leaders, wrote of “worrying declarations” from the Trump team, adding: “Particularly the change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation, with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy.”

Stefano Stefanini, a former Italian ambassador working in Brussels, said that Mr. Tusk “is prone to exaggeration” and that he had a specific Polish fear of Mr. Trump’s apparent coziness with Mr. Putin.

But Mr. Tusk “has some justification,” Mr. Stefanini said, because he is also reacting to a complacent Brussels establishment “that he believes is shrugging off Brexit, Trump and right-wing populism and believes it’s business as usual.”

Others say Mr. Tusk is adapting realistically to a series of new dangers posed by the new administration in Washington. Mr. Trump’s open protectionism, his contempt for the European Union and his ambivalence toward NATO are serious and damaging, which Mr. Tusk understands, said Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Trump is the first American president since the E.U. was created not to be in favor of deeper European integration,” Mr. Leonard said. “Not only that, but he’s against it and sees the destruction of the European Union as in America’s interest.”

Worse, he said: “Europeans see Trump as the biggest threat to global order and the European ideal of how the world should be organized. The U.S. has been a crucial part of the ballast meant to be upholding the global order in the face of these other challenges Tusk mentions, from Russia and China to Islamic radicalism.”

“But rather than acting as a check on these forces, Trump seems to be amplifying them, and that’s pretty terrifying,” Mr. Leonard continued. “It’s like you suddenly discover that the medicine you’ve been taking is making you sicker than the illness itself.”

For his part, Mr. Trump described his confrontational diplomatic style as a necessity. “The world is in trouble, but we’re going to straighten it out, O.K.?” he said at the prayer breakfast on Thursday. “That’s what I do — I fix things.”

He added: “Believe me, when you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it.”

There have been other moments when Europeans judged American policies as harmful, including the Iraq war and the assaults on multilateralism early in the first term of President George W. Bush. “But Trump’s attacks are of a different scale and come when there’s a lot of indigenous turmoil anyway,” Mr. Leonard said. “He seems to be linking up with some of the scariest and darkest forces within European societies,” which all want the European Union to fail, he said.

Mr. Trump’s views about Europe and his reluctance to commit to summit meetings with the European Union or even with NATO are deeply troubling for Europeans, said Leslie Vinjamuri, a professor of international relations at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

“America’s strategy towards Europe has always been highly consequential, but up until now that strategy has been aimed at bolstering Europe,” she said. The United States has provided “that overarching protection and alliance that underpins the whole thing and makes it work,” she said. “But dealing with Russia and China is suddenly a whole different calculus if you don’t have America behind you.”

Then there is Germany and the euro. Traditionally, Europeans view Germany as the bulwark of the European Union, its largest, richest and most influential country, but uncomfortable with open leadership. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, up for re-election this autumn, is viewed as practical, pragmatic and devoted to the European project, and Germans see the euro as a political sacrifice they made of the revered deutsche mark to please the French.

So they deeply resent Mr. Trump’s attacks on Ms. Merkel for her refugee policy and his statements that the European Union itself is a “vehicle” for German self-interest. Ms. Merkel was angry over comments by Peter Navarro, the director of Mr. Trump’s new National Trade Council, that Germany was manipulating a “grossly undervalued” euro to gain trade advantages over other Europeans and the United States.

While Germany depends heavily on exports, annoying some of its neighbors, the value of the euro is the same for all that use it, and Ms. Merkel made clear that its value was up to the European Central Bank, not Berlin. But a protectionist America that opposes free trade is certainly unhelpful to Germany.

Added to that are the comments by Ted Malloch, who has been advertising himself as Mr. Trump’s top choice to succeed Anthony L. Gardner as ambassador to the European Union. Mr. Malloch, a strong supporter of Britain leaving the bloc, has publicly said that Mr. Trump “doesn’t like an organization that is supranational, that is unelected, where the bureaucrats run amok, and is not frankly a proper democracy.”

Mr. Malloch has also referred to Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, as “a very adequate mayor of some city in Luxembourg,” predicted that the euro would collapse and compared the bloc to the Soviet Union. “I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union,” he said on British television. “So maybe there’s another union that needs a little taming.”

Mr. Malloch may not get nominated, and if he does, the bloc may not accept his posting, Mr. Gardner said.

Mr. Trump is “getting advice that is a caricature of the E.U. as a dysfunctional entity, not delivering and wholly inaccurate, despite all the challenges,” Mr. Gardner said, citing joint European-American efforts in counterterrorism, trade, sanctions, security, digital privacy and policing. “Even Mrs. May has said Britain sees a cohesive E.U. in British interests. She doesn’t want to see a disintegrating E.U. on its doorstep and nor do we. Hopefully that will be heard by others in the administration.”

Mr. Tusk, he said, has a point, trying to dissuade other European Union nations, like Hungary and Poland, from rushing to Washington to try to make separate deals, which would be illegal, with the Trump administration. China and Russia, too, have always tried to ignore the European Union and deal bilaterally with member states, something Mr. Trump seems to be encouraging.

The French, who are being tough on a British withdrawal and are deeply disconcerted by Mr. Trump, see him as a bigger threat to European cohesion, said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform. “They see the three great world powers — Russia, China and now the U.S. — wanting to destroy the E.U.,” he said.

One impact of Mr. Trump that Mr. Tusk is clearly hoping for, Mr. Grant said, is “to reinforce a feeling of solidarity among mainstream European politicians.”

Another result, said François Heisbourg, a senior adviser with the French Foundation for Strategic Research, may be a more serious European effort at forming its own defense capacity, which may not be in the interests of NATO or the United States.

The American commitment to NATO and the European Union has been unconditional since their creation, Mr. Heisbourg said. “But Trump sees alliances as transactional, and once you state that, countries like Poland, Hungary and Japan start to hedge their bets.”

But Mr. Heisbourg also notes the impact of Mr. Trump’s dark view of the world as a helpless America being taken to the cleaners by its allies. “In the Trump world there are no sunny uplands, just darkness and hatred,” he said. “And in a continent that has had its share of hatred, this resonates.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/world/europe/trump-european-union.html

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3 minutes ago, Pud Whacker said:

now that BREXIT has settled, you all are preoccupied with American politics and wanting to see it fail. Wait until Le Pen comes to town. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/02/french-journalist-thrown-out-of-marine-le-pen-press-conference

Whereas you have NO OPINION on what your own administration is doing. Too busy posting right wing memes in an attempt to appear edgy when really you just look like all the other toothless hicks across social media Makin' 'Merica Great Again.. Oh wait, you cared about the fact that LGBT 'workers rights' weren't going to be affected. LOL. 

Brexit is nowhere near settled, even if the USA are the first ones to run looking for a trade deal in return for Don getting to meet the queen. And yeah, le pen is probably your kinda gal.

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47 minutes ago, Pud Whacker said:

now that BREXIT has settled, you all are preoccupied with American politics and wanting to see it fail. Wait until Le Pen comes to town. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/02/french-journalist-thrown-out-of-marine-le-pen-press-conference

 

Pud I don't think Brexit has settled at all, the traumas inherent to Brexit are just starting. Many issues about Brexit are the same that come out of the conversation on Trump

I do not wish to see American politics fail but there is undoubtedly a natural concern everywhere in the world about US choices since those choices have dominated and conditioned the world since the end of WW2. We are going towards another global conflict and contrary to what most people think it is a resource and geopolitical one to begin with, where they purposely use a Islam vs Judeo-Christian civilisation clash (of their own engineering) as an asset to start proceedings

It is not about European countries vs North American countries, Christians vs Muslims, etc  if we go along nuclear war propaganda all humanity stands to lose from it

Hearing Trump say things like "we have been taken for granted for too long, nobody will profit off America for very much longer" is a gross distortion of the reality of things, i.e the power that the United States wield globally and the consequent arbitrary militarisation enacted to this day, a power that's been increasingly shifting from Western elites to Eastern World elites over the past 20 years, hence why the whole Middle Eastern issue becomes an asset to those that are afraid of losing their primacy in the global geopolitical chessboard

 

Blocking entry into the United States to citizens of those seven predominantly Muslim countries won't solve a thing, it is in fact a deliberate attempt to inflame the situation, furthermore the irony of leaving Saudi Arabia out (among others) who is the sole biggest contributor to terrorism worldwide is a joke and once again belies the fact that terrorism is a tool for a much broader game in the region, a game that is called selective democracy exportation, not that democracy can be actually exported by dropping bombs, ever, whether it is Obama doing it, a Republican or a "political outsider/ anti-establishment" type of figure. 

Another thing, he said he would drain the swamp and yet once again you see Goldman Sachs names popping up in his cabinet

Same thing about the rethoric on Mexico: why are wealthy US families that have a huge level of control on drugs trafficking globally are never mentioned, why always defenseless countries have to be attacked for the games and ploys of mega rich people living in the US or more generally in the West? The rethoric of "they bring drugs and crime" is a faulty, approximative, ill-informed one to begin with and only serves to appease the masses that want to look for a quick scapegoat when the fraudsters are sitting in their very own quarters

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Guest Pud Whacker
38 minutes ago, Kim said:

Whereas you have NO OPINION on what your own administration is doing. Too busy posting right wing memes in an attempt to appear edgy when really you just look like all the other toothless hicks across social media Makin' 'Merica Great Again.. Oh wait, you cared about the fact that LGBT 'workers rights' weren't going to be affected. LOL. 

Brexit is nowhere near settled, even if the USA are the first ones to run looking for a trade deal in return for Don getting to meet the queen. And yeah, le pen is probably your kinda gal.

 I am an American, born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I voted for Hillary Clinton. I'm a registered Democrat and I will die a registered Democrat and will always vote Democrat. I don't care what is Scot thinks of me or my country. 

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I don't care who or what you vote for. And your faux patriotism flies in the face of logic as you sit there on your fence while your country and it's democracy becomes the laughing stock of the world.

And your own dear mother was/is a Scot was she not? First generation immigrant? I guess the similarities with Trump run deep indeed. So was his.

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Guest Pud Whacker
5 minutes ago, Kim said:

I don't care who or what you vote for. And your faux patriotism flies in the face of logic as you sit there on your fence while your country and it's democracy becomes the laughing stock of the world.

And your own dear mother was/is a Scot was she not? First generation immigrant? I guess the similarities with Trump run deep indeed. So was his.

 No. On both my parents side it's two generations of California. That is a planet unto itself that you will NEVER understand.

P. S. She had a wicked sense of humor even in the face of death. Exclusive to the Californian that sits on a fence while the rest of the nothing world is "laughing" at. 

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6 minutes ago, Pud Whacker said:

 No. On both my parents side it's two generations of California. That is a planet unto itself that you will NEVER understand.

P. S. She had a wicked sense of humor even in the face of death. Exclusive to the Californian that sits on a fence while the rest of the nothing world is "laughing" at. 

Hmm I must have IMAGINED you going on about your Scottish Mother who would never shut up.

Yeah it's my lifetimes ambition to understand the great and wondrous mystery that is...California. 

Why don't you answer some of XXL's points btw?

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Guest Pud Whacker
1 hour ago, Kim said:

Hmm I must have IMAGINED you going on about your Scottish Mother who would never shut up.

Yeah it's my lifetimes ambition to understand the great and wondrous mystery that is...California. 

Why don't you answer some of XXL's points btw?

 None of your business. However, I'll give you a clue: it's part of the mystery of California. 

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1 hour ago, Pud Whacker said:

 No. On both my parents side it's two generations of California. That is a planet unto itself that you will NEVER understand.

 

1 hour ago, Kim said:

Yeah it's my lifetimes ambition to understand the great and wondrous mystery that is...California. 

 

:lmao::rotfl: I screamed!

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The EU is the greatest thing to happen to Europe since the Roman Empire. Too bad ppl are stupid to appreciate what they have till they lose it. Having Le Penn chosen would be the end of EU. I hope the French do not follow in the steps of the Americans and Brits. The refugees are problem which can be only solved if the southern eu border is collectively protected by all of eu. All else is short sided policy that won't last. Hope EU survives and becomes stronger. It has really unified a quite dusunified continent. The USA policy towards EU is mind boggling and it feels like it is not dictated by American interests.

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Indeed @elijah, only stupid people get carried away with the propaganda and don't see that despite the current wrong economic policies,  there's a big chunk of institutions in the EU working for a better place.  THE ONLY area in the world where that's happening at the moment. 

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7 hours ago, elijah said:

The USA policy towards EU is mind boggling and it feels like it is not dictated by American interests.

Everything the US does is always dictated by american interests only. The US doesn't want a powerful indepedent EU to challenge the american world dominance, it only wants a submissive vassal to keep the american interests secured and it has been like this ever since the cold war with NATO. 

If the EU collapses the US would be the first to quickly adapt its policy and seal new "deals" with european nations to keep their obedience in check.

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12 hours ago, elijah said:

The EU is the greatest thing to happen to Europe since the Roman Empire. Too bad ppl are stupid to appreciate what they have till they lose it. Having Le Penn chosen would be the end of EU. I hope the French do not follow in the steps of the Americans and Brits. The refugees are problem which can be only solved if the southern eu border is collectively protected by all of eu. All else is short sided policy that won't last. Hope EU survives and becomes stronger. It has really unified a quite dusunified continent. The USA policy towards EU is mind boggling and it feels like it is not dictated by American interests.

Couldn't agree more.

 

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Swedish deputy PM mocks Trump with all-female photo

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Stockholm (AFP) - Sweden's deputy prime minister, Isabella Lovin, on Friday published a photograph of herself signing a climate bill surrounded by her closest female colleagues, mocking a photo of US President Donald Trump.

In the photo, Lovin, who also serves as environment and development aid minister, is seated at a desk as she signs the bill under the watchful eye of seven female colleagues, including one who is visibly pregnant.

The shot parodies a photo taken of Donald Trump on January 23 in the White House, as he signs a decree barring US federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion, as his all-male colleagues look on.

Sweden, a pioneer in women's rights, is known for its high level of women in the workplace, including in parliament and government.

"We are a feminist government, which shows in this photo. Ultimately it is up to the observer to interpret the photo," the Swedish minister wrote in a comment to AFP.

The climate bill she is signing in the photo aims to make Sweden carbon neutral by 2045 and "marks a new era in Swedish climate politics," Lovin wrote.

"There is a global demand for climate leadership. I want to show that Sweden is ready to take that leadership," she added.

The Trump photo elicited an avalanche of comments, many of them remarking that no woman was present for a decision concerning women.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/swedish-deputy-pm-mocks-trump-female-photo-154037126.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&utm_content=buffer179c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Härlig jobb!
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8 minutes ago, pjcowley said:

Swedish deputy PM mocks Trump with all-female photo

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Stockholm (AFP) - Sweden's deputy prime minister, Isabella Lovin, on Friday published a photograph of herself signing a climate bill surrounded by her closest female colleagues, mocking a photo of US President Donald Trump.

In the photo, Lovin, who also serves as environment and development aid minister, is seated at a desk as she signs the bill under the watchful eye of seven female colleagues, including one who is visibly pregnant.

The shot parodies a photo taken of Donald Trump on January 23 in the White House, as he signs a decree barring US federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion, as his all-male colleagues look on.

Sweden, a pioneer in women's rights, is known for its high level of women in the workplace, including in parliament and government.

"We are a feminist government, which shows in this photo. Ultimately it is up to the observer to interpret the photo," the Swedish minister wrote in a comment to AFP.

The climate bill she is signing in the photo aims to make Sweden carbon neutral by 2045 and "marks a new era in Swedish climate politics," Lovin wrote.

"There is a global demand for climate leadership. I want to show that Sweden is ready to take that leadership," she added.

The Trump photo elicited an avalanche of comments, many of them remarking that no woman was present for a decision concerning women.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/swedish-deputy-pm-mocks-trump-female-photo-154037126.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&utm_content=buffer179c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 


Härlig jobb!

Swedes and Sweden are the best!

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Italy to set up task force to lure banks and businesses from the City to Milan

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Italy is to set up a task force to lure businesses and investors from the City to Milan in the wake of Brexit, the country’s foreign minister announced.

Angelino Alfano said the government would aggressively promote Italy’s financial capital as a viable alternative to London.

“We’re going to set up a task force. The government is on Milan’s side in the post-Brexit game,” the minister said at a conference in Rome. “Who says that businesses that leave London should all go to Frankfurt? We need to be able to attract to Milan businesses that decide to leave London.”

Brexit offered many opportunities for Italy, “and we need to work to make Milan a highly-competitive city in the post-Brexit era,” Mr Alfano said.

The capital of the wealthy Lombardy region, Milan is home to Italy’s main stock exchange, has two airports and boasts Bocconi University, one of Europe’s most acclaimed for business studies and finance. The city’s profile was boosted last year by the success of the Expo world fair, which attracted 20 million visitors, and its fashion and food are big draws for foreigners.

But Milan’s ambitions to lure away firms from the City face numerous obstacles, from language to labour laws. Italy has one of the lowest levels of English language proficiency of any country in the EU – only 34pc of Italians have a working knowledge of English, according to a study by the European Commission - and firms looking to leave the UK might instead opt for Dublin rather than Milan.

High social security costs mean that employees in Milan are more costly than those in London and rigid labour laws make it harder to make workers redundant.

Italy’s legal system is also notoriously slow and inefficient, with court cases dragging on for years and even decades. In the latest annual Ease of Doing Business Survey by the World Bank, Italy ranked 50th out of 190 countries, placing it behind Serbia, Belarus, Moldova and Armenia. Britain ranked seventh.

The survey measures how easy or hard it is to start a business, register property, obtain credit, pay taxes, enforce contracts and resolve insolvency, among other factors.

“In the current cost-conscious environment, I think companies will be concerned at how much more it costs to set up a business in Milan and how much harder it is to get rid of people if needed,” said a British corporate lawyer familiar with both Italy and the City. "Italy’s labour laws make it difficult to fire employees. I think Dublin is a much more attractive proposition.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/01/italy-set-task-force-lure-banks-businesses-city-milan/

 

Typical English corporate mentality: get rid of staff, no matter what. Fuck you.

Want efficient labor force able to fluently speak English? Then lure in the thousand Italians living in Brexit Britain.

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8 hours ago, spazz said:

Sweden faces major problems from immigration 

i saw some vids about swedes complaining from street sexual harassment coming from arab immigrants in Christmas.

And you saw that where? On Russia Today?

I'm seriously getting tired of foreign media and foreign people spreading false information about the situation in those countries that took the most refugees. YES, there were incidents of sexual assaults by refugees, YES there were incidents of physical attacks by refugees, YES there were incidents of theft by refugees ... BUT ... and let me tell you this, as a citizen of a country that has let in more than a million refugees in the last two years, there is NO mass rape going on, as people always claim. All the crimes that were committed did not even change the crime statistics of my country. Not one bit. Percentage wise the number of crimes committed by my very own citizens is way higher than by refugees. You don't believe me? It's public record, everyone can look for the information if they care.

It's time for people to open their eyes and question the motives of those who spread the false information instead of forwarding those "alternative facts" to everyone who wants to hear them or not. And you have stated the perfect example: the story is not even about the crime itself, it's a religious thing. Arabs (=Muslims) doing evil things on Christmas (= Christians).

 

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2 hours ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

And you saw that where? On Russia Today?

I'm seriously getting tired of foreign media and foreign people spreading false information about the situation in those countries that took the most refugees. YES, there were incidents of sexual assaults by refugees, YES there were incidents of physical attacks by refugees, YES there were incidents of theft by refugees ... BUT ... and let me tell you this, as a citizen of a country that has let in more than a million refugees in the last two years, there is NO mass rape going on, as people always claim. All the crimes that were committed did not even change the crime statistics of my country. Not one bit. Percentage wise the number of crimes committed by my very own citizens is way higher than by refugees. You don't believe me? It's public record, everyone can look for the information if they care.

It's time for people to open their eyes and question the motives of those who spread the false information instead of forwarding those "alternative facts" to everyone who wants to hear them or not. And you have stated the perfect example: the story is not even about the crime itself, it's a religious thing. Arabs (=Muslims) doing evil things on Christmas (= Christians).

 

I applaud you and Germany for proving you are one people WITH HEART once again. But its high time to be fair and say that Merkel made mistake inviting all those people to Germany. I think everyone accept it nowadays. OF course when you are a refugee fleeing war you need safe place to stay but it doesn't mean that the first country you enter in like Turkey (on the road to Europe) isn't safe. It is accepted as such and it has culture much more similar to Syrian one than say Germany or Norway. And really the countries of the middle east have done almost 0 for the refugees (with the huge exception of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan) and obviously the cultural shock for them there would ve been much smaller and vice versa. Not to mention that a lot of ppl are using the grave situation pretending to be refugees and have entered EU. To not accept we have a problem is a way to invite the nationalists to power, smth that serves outside interests and not the interests of the European country itself and EU in general. What EU needs is to immediately do all to guard its borders (collectively) and return all that couldn't get refugee status where they come from (collectively).

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Le Louvre terror attack: Suspect identified as Egyptian Abdullah Reda al-Hamany

29-year-old arrived in France on one-month tourist visa issued in Dubai

A man who attacked soldiers with a machete near the Louvre art gallery in Paris has been identified as Egyptian national Abdullah Reda al-Hamamy. 

The 29-year-old was shot and wounded by police after he launched an attack on a soldier who was guarding the entrance to the Carrousel du Louvre shopping centre. The four-man police patrol has told him he could not enter with his bags.

Michel Cadot, the head of Paris police, said the man was shouting "Allahu Akbar" and injured the soldier's scalp before being shot at

He confirmed that the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident but they were still trying to determine whether he was acting alone or under instruction.

Al-Hamamy is said to be in a life-threatening condition in hospital following the incident at 10am local time (9am GMT).

He said: “We are dealing with an attack from an individual who was clearly aggressive and represented a direct threat, and whose comments lead us to believe that he wished to carry out a terrorist incident. 

“There was also a second individual who was behaving suspiciously, who has also been detained, but for now there does not appear to be a link between that individual and the attack."

In a press conference on Friday evening, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the man was an Egyptian national who had entered the country on a one-month tourist visa issued in Dubai on 26 January. 

This was later confirmed by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior in Cairo.

One witness, Olivier Majewski, described leaving his scooter in the parking area beneath Le Louvre after he saw around 30 people fleeing the scene shouting that "there had been a terror attack". 

He said he then hid for 15 minutes before going upstairs and people were "panicking" around him.

Hundreds of people were evacuated and around 250 people inside were held in "safe areas" by police who moved tourists away from the windows and pulled shutters down.

Following the attack on Friday morning US President Donald Trump cited it as justification for his controversial ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US – but neither Egypt or Dubai are on Mr Trump's list of banned countries. 

Nor is there any evidence the man had claimed or intended to claim asylum in France. 

It comes as the country is on high alert following a succession of terror attacks over the past two years. 

Last month, the Louvre reported a two million drop in visitors, resulting in a lost of almost €10m (£8.6m), which it said was due to increased anxiety about terrorism.

Although the number of French and American visitors has remained stable 2016 saw 61 per cent fewer Japanese visitors, 53 per cent fewer Russians, 47 per cent fewer Brazilians, and 31 per cent fewer Chinese people. 

Twelve people were killed at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 and 130 people were killed in a string of coordinated attacks around the city in November that year. 

A further 84 people were killed by a driver who rammed his lorry into the Bastille Day crowds in Nice in July 2016, killing 84 people.

The far-right political party, Front National (FN), looks set to make it into the second round of the presidential run-off in April after the party played on fears about Muslim refugees arriving in the country from Syria and Iraq. 

FN leader Marine Le Pen has denounced the country's "crazy immigration policies" and said France "must deport illegals back where they came from and control our national borders, if not the camps will reconstruct themselves".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/louvre-terror-attack-paris-abdullah-reda-al-hamamy-egyptian-tourist-visa-dubai-donald-trump-muslim-a7562361.html

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EU leaders to push migration issue outside of Europe

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EU leaders have endorsed on Friday (3 February) an Italian agreement signed the day before with Libya, aimed at stopping the flow of migrants into Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.

Italy already on Thursday pledged money, training and equipment to help the UN-backed Libyan government curb migration in a memorandum of understanding that Libyan prime minister Fayez al-Seraj signed in Rome with Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni.

The deal, reminiscent of earlier accords to stop migration between Italy and then Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, comes amid EU efforts to stem the flow of migrants on the central Mediterranean route, which has become the main point of entry to Europe, since countries closed the Western Balkan route for migrants last year.

At the summit in Malta, EU leaders also pledged more training and aid, especially to the national coast guard in the hope that they would be able to pick up migrants from the sea and take them back to Libya. Currently EU rescue missions take the saved migrants to Europe.

The EU pledged that Libya's UN-backed government will receive €200 million, including funding to reinforce the coastguard.

It also has become clear that EU leaders are moving toward shifting the migration crisis back to the country of origin and transit by providing more aid and refugee centres that are closer to the countries of origin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Valletta in her press conference that leaders have put the emphasis on partnerships with countries bordering the EU.

She said the EU aims to do deals with Jordan and Lebanon, similar to the one concluded with Turkey last year in an effort to curb migration.

EU leaders also underlined the need to involve the International Organization for Migration and UNHCR in these programs for their expertise.

She said however that the reform of the EU's asylum system, one of the most sensitive issues among EU countries now was not discussed, they will come back to it in March.

"For refugees, it will be best to stay safe close to their countries," Merkel said, saying people should not cross illegally and put their lives in the hands of smugglers.

"The EU has to tackle the root causes by creating safe havens close to the country of origin," she added.

Human rights watchdog, Oxfam International, on Friday objected that the Italian deal does not ask for human rights guarantees from the Libyan authorities.

“EU leaders in Malta say they are committed to human rights and international law, but Italy has struck a dodgy deal with Libya with no safeguards for these principles," Oxfam's deputy director Natalia Alonso, said in a statement.

"The fact that all EU governments have welcomed the Libya deal, which makes no attempt to increase Libya’s commitments to people’s rights whilst shutting off the route to Europe, shows their duplicity,” she added.

https://euobserver.com/migration/136792

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