German Merz defends migration crackdown
BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday defended his government's migration crackdown as vital to "protect public safety", a day after a court ruled one of its flagship policies was illegal. The Berlin court said on Monday that German border officials cannot turn away asylum seekers before it is determined which country should process their cases under EU rules.
The court decision could "limit our room for manoeuvre a little", he acknowledged in a speech to a gathering of local government officials in Berlin. But he insisted the ruling was "preliminary", adding: "We know that we can continue with pushbacks".
"We will do it to protect public safety and order in our country and to prevent cities and municipalities from becoming overwhelmed". He said the policy, which has caused tensions with some of Germany's neighbours, would be carried out "within the framework of existing European law". The measures were temporary until security at the European Union's external borders "is significantly improved", he stressed. — AFP
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Times of Oman
14 hours ago
- Times of Oman
India accelerates EU trade deal push with three high-level meetings in five weeks
Brescia [Italy]: India is fast-tracking negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union, with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal holding three crucial meetings with EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic within just 35 days. Speaking to reporters during his two-day visit to Italy, Goyal emphasised the unprecedented pace of discussions as evidence of both sides' commitment to concluding the long-awaited trade pact. "We have held three meetings in 35 days. It shows our shared commitment to the FTA... we are trying to do it faster," Goyal said Thursday, highlighting India's determination to expedite the negotiation process. The rapid-fire diplomatic engagement included meetings on May 1 and May 23 in Brussels, followed by a third round of talks that concluded June 2 in Paris. This intensive schedule reflects the urgency both sides attach to finalising the agreement. India brings significant momentum to these talks, having recently concluded similar agreements with the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA)--comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland--and the United Kingdom. The current EU negotiations represent the resumption of talks that stalled for over eight years. India and the 27-member European Union bloc restarted comprehensive FTA discussions in June 2022, alongside negotiations for an investment protection agreement and a geographical indications pact. The political commitment reached its peak in February when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to seal the trade deal by year-end, setting an ambitious timeline for conclusion. "We are making rapid progress on the very vibrant FTA, which would open opportunities for businesses on both sides," Goyal said, describing the potential agreement as "very strong and mutually beneficial." However, the minister acknowledged that current India-Italy bilateral trade remains "low and sub-optimal" at approximately $15 billion in goods, despite enormous untapped potential between the two economies. Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani echoed the sentiment for enhanced economic cooperation, describing India and Italy as "natural partners." He emphasised Italy's focus on boosting exports to India while actively seeking Indian investments in Italian markets. "Our goal is to reduce trade barriers," Tajani said, addressing broader concerns about global trade tensions. When questioned about US tariffs on steel and aluminium, he maintained that "duties are never positive" and reiterated the importance of reducing trade barriers. The accelerated pace of India-EU negotiations comes at a critical time for global trade relationships, with both sides seeking to diversify economic partnerships and reduce dependence on other major trading blocs. Success in these talks could establish a template for India's engagement with other European partners and significantly reshape trade flows between Asia and Europe.
Observer
a day ago
- Observer
Is Europe facing civil war?
Whether the debate is occasioned by a polemical book or a movie like last year's 'Civil War', I consistently take the negative on the question of whether the United States is headed for a genuine civil war. In those debates, it's usually liberals warning that populism or Trumpism is steering the United States towards the abyss. But with European politics the pattern is different: In France and Britain; and among American observers of the continent, a preoccupation with looming civil war tends to be more common among conservatives. For years, figures associated with the French right and French military have warned of an impending civil conflict driven by the country's failure to assimilate immigrants from the Muslim world. (The great reactionary novelist Michel Houellebecq's 'Submission' famously imagines this war being averted by the sudden conversion of French elites to Islam.) Lately there has been a similar discussion around Britain touched off by an essay by military historian David Betz that argues that multicultural Britain is in danger of tearing itself apart and lately taken up by political strategist, Brexit-campaign architect and former Boris Johnson adviser Dominic Cummings in an essay warning that British elites are increasingly fearful of organised violence from nativists and radicalised immigrants alike. When I've written skeptically about scenarios for a US civil war, I've tended to stress several realities: the absence of a clear geographical division between our contending factions; the diminishment, not exacerbation, of racial and ethnic polarisation in the Trump era; the fact that we're rich, aging and comfortable, not poor, young and desperate, giving even groups that hate each other a stake in the system and elites strong reasons to sustain it; the absence of enthusiasm for organised communal violence as opposed to lone-wolf forays. Does the European landscape look different? On some fronts, maybe. Tensions between natives and new arrivals are common on both sides of the Atlantic, but ethnic and religious differences arguably loom larger in Europe than they do in the US: There is more intense cultural separatism in immigrant communities in suburban Paris or Marseilles than in Los Angeles or Chicago, more simmering discontent that easily turns to riots. At the same time, British and French elites have been more successful than American elites at keeping populist forces out of power, but their tools — not just the exclusion of populists from government, but an increasingly authoritarian throttling of free speech — have markedly diminished their own legitimacy among discontented natives. This means that neither underassimilated immigrants nor working-class whites feel especially invested in the system, making multiple forms of political violence more plausible: pitting immigrant or native rebels against the government, or pitting immigrants against natives with the government trying to suppress the conflict, or, finally, pitting different immigrant groups against one another. (English cities have already played host to bursts of Muslim-Hindu violence.) Then, too, Western Europe's economies have grown more sluggishly than America's for the last decade, reducing ordinary people's stake in the current order and encouraging alienation and resistance. Finally, there are arguably geographic concentrations of discontent — in the north of England, or in immigrant-dominated cities that Betz warns could become ungovernable — that don't exist in quite the same way in the US. All of this adds up, I would say, to a useful corrective to the progressive tendency to regard America in the Trump era as a great outlier, uniquely divided and deranged and threatened by factional strife, while liberal politics continues more or less as usual among our respectable and stable European allies. Not so: There are clearly ways in which Europe's problems and divides are deeper than our own, with economic and demographic trends that portend darker possibilities and the establishment attempt to keep populist forces at bay may end up remembered as accelerating liberal Europe's downfall. Yet many of the reasons to doubt the imminence of civil war in America still apply to Western Europe. The continent is more stagnant than the US but still rich, comfortable and aged; there's enthusiasm for rioting but rather less for organised violence; and for all the palpable disillusionment, it is hard to glimpse any elite faction yet emerging — right or left, nativist or 'Islamo-Gauchiste' — that would see violent revolution as an obvious means to its ambitions. Meanwhile, there are distinctive European conditions that make civil war less likely there than in the US: Smaller nations with more centralised political systems generally find it easier to police dissent and there's no Second Amendment or American-style gun culture to challenge the European state's monopoly on force. Ultimately, I agree with British writer Aris Roussinos, a pessimist but not a catastrophist, when he writes that the most likely near-future scenarios involve increasing 'outbursts of violent disorder' but not the kind of collapse of central government authority, complete with ethnic cleansing and refugee flows, that the language of 'civil war' implies. And that imprecision matters: As I've suggested before, if you use a civil-war framing to describe a world where rioting is more commonplace and assassination attempts and random forms of terrorism make a comeback, you're describing realities that big diverse societies often have to live with, using terms that misleadingly or hysterically evoke Antietam or Guernica. I don't think America in the 1960s and 1970s experienced a civil war, even though those were certainly chaotic decades. I don't think modern France, with its long tradition of student protests and urban riots, has existed in a perpetual state of civil war. And as we face a future that's clearly more destabilised than the post-Cold War era, it still behooves us to be realistic about the most plausible scenarios: We are still far more likely to be navigating a more chaotic landscape together, as fellow citizens, than shooting at one another across a sectional divide. — The New York Times
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
Million-plus pilgrims begin haj under blazing sun
More than a million pilgrims joined Islam's most important rite under a beating sun on Wednesday, as the Haj kicked off with the Saudi hosts scrambling to avoid last year's 1,000-plus deaths in sweltering heat. With temperatures expected to top 40 degrees Celsius, robed pilgrims slowly circled the Kaaba — the black cube at the heart of Mecca's Grand Mosque which is Islam's holiest site. State media reported that others had begun arriving in the sprawling tent city of Mina on Mecca's outskirts where they will stay overnight before the Haj's high-point on Thursday — on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is believed to have delivered his final sermon. About 1.4 million pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam. Authorities have ratcheted up heat protection measures such as extra shade to avoid a repeat of last year, when 1,301 people died as temperatures hit 51.8C. On Wednesday, pilgrims performed the 'Tawaf' — walking seven times around the Kaaba. Before entering Mecca, pilgrims must first enter a state of purity, called 'Ihram', which requires special dress and behaviour. Men don a seamless shroud-like white garment that emphasises unity among believers, regardless of their social status or nationality. Women, in turn, wear loose dresses, also white, exposing just their faces and hands. Pilgrims arriving on buses had begun already trickling into Mina on Tuesday afternoon, greeted by staff offering them coffee and dates. 'I am so happy, it's such an amazing feeling,' said Reem al Shogre, a 35-year-old Saudi performing the pilgrimage for the first time. Artificial intelligence Following last year's lethal heatwave, authorities have mobilised more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials to improve protection. Shaded areas have been enlarged by 50,000 square metres, thousands of additional medics will be on standby and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed, Hajj Minister Tawfiq al Rabiah said last week. Artificial intelligence technology will help process the deluge of data, including video from a new fleet of drones, to better manage the massive crowds. Authorities said most of the deaths last year were among unregistered pilgrims who lacked access to air-conditioned tents and buses. This year, they have cracked down on the unregistered, using frequent raids, drone surveillance and a barrage of text alerts. Haj permits are allocated to countries on a quota basis and distributed to individuals. But even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs prompt many to attempt the Haj without a permit, even though they risk arrest and deportation if caught. Large crowds at the Haj have proved hazardous in the past, most notably in 2015 when a stampede during the 'stoning the devil' ritual in Mina killed up to 2,300 people in the deadliest haj disaster. — AFP
