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New York Times
18 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Europe's Bickering Pair Search for Unity in a World of Conflict
Few European leaders are as inherently distant as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and President Emmanuel Macron of France. Her political roots are in the nationalist right; his are in the globalist, technocratic center. They have regularly tilted at each other, and people in Ms. Meloni's entourage concede the two leaders do not share great chemistry. Yet on Tuesday Ms. Meloni and Mr. Macron are set to hold a bilateral meeting in Rome, the French leader's first official trip to Italy specifically to meet the Italian prime minister since she took office in 2022. Coming on the heels of public sniping between them last month, the visit highlights the acute pressure European leaders are under to seek to come together in pursuit of their shared goals. Despite their differences, both Mr. Macron and Ms. Meloni want to end a shooting war in Ukraine, avert a trade war with the United States and steady relations with a mercurial President Trump. 'At some point, the international situation made this dysfunction unworkable,' said Jean-Pierre Darnis, a professor of Italian politics and contemporary history at the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice. Still it remains to be seen whether a tête-à-tête and a dinner on Tuesday can take the chill out of relations between two leaders who, Claudio Cerasa, the editor of Italy's newspaper Il Foglio, wrote this week 'are made to misunderstand each other.' Ms. Meloni forged her political identity as an outsider, vigorously opposing the kind of liberal internationalism and perceived elitism embodied by Mr. Macron, who attended the right schools and worked as an investment banker. She grew up in a working-class neighborhood and came to lead a nationalist, anti-immigrant party with roots in Italy's fascist past. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
United News of India
27-05-2025
- Politics
- United News of India
Romanian right-wing-leader and presidential contender Calin Georgescu steps down from politics
Bucharest, May 27 (UNI) Calin Georgescu, the once-surging right-wing presidential contender in Romanian elections, has announced he is stepping down from politics, months after being barred from running in the controversial 2025 presidential election. In a video message shared on social media, Georgescu said, 'The presidential elections have come to an end. With this in mind, I have decided to end my active participation in the political process, as I believe this stage of the sovereignty movement has come to a close.' He added that his decision was not a resignation, but 'a responsible choice,' and that he now intends to focus on his family, according to Politico. Georgescu's brief rise stunned the Romanian political establishment. In November 2024, he garnered 22.9% of the vote in the first round, catapulting him from political obscurity to national prominence. However, the Constitutional Court later annulled the result, citing credible evidence of foreign interference—reportedly involving Russian-backed influence campaigns on social media platforms such as TikTok. The court barred Georgescu, a vocal critic of the EU and NATO, from running in the rescheduled May 2025 election citing national security concerns over alleged fascist ideologies. The annulment sparked protests at home and condemnation abroad. High-profile figures including US Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk accused Romanian authorities of suppressing the opposition. The presidency was eventually won in May 2025 by centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, who defeated George Simion, leader of the nationalist AUR party and a close political ally of Georgescu. Georgescu, who built a populist platform in Romania and was noted for both his nationalist stance, as well as his vocal criticism of the EU and NATO, had built a considerable voter base in the country, emerging as one of its most dominant political voices. Regarding his leave from politics, he said he has no plans to join another party or movement. But his message to supporters ended with a warning: 'If the rights of those who choose differently are violated, I'll return with a clear voice to defend democracy.' UNI ANV RN
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Embrace of White South Africans Takes Dark, Unnerving New Turn
When President Donald Trump welcomed dozens of white South Africans into the United States this week after granting them refugee status, reporters reasonably asked him to square this with his suspension of refugee resettlement from, well, every other country in the world. Trump denied any racial motive. 'Farmers are being killed,' he said. 'They happen to be white. Whether they are white or black makes no difference to me.' That's obvious nonsense, which some news accounts noted, albeit obliquely. As The New York Times politely put it, the decision to resettle 'white Afrikaners has raised questions about who the 'right' immigrants are, in Mr. Trump's view.' Indeed it does. But there's an even more glaring absurdity here that emerges if you compare the plight of these Afrikaners with that of another distinct population of refugees. I'm talking about the refugees from all over the world, likely in the thousands, who had already received approval to come here under President Joe Biden, but have seen their resettlement interrupted as it was happening, in an act of extraordinary cruelty from Trump and fascist sidekick Stephen Miller. They are now waiting abroad, in limbo, uncertain whether they will ever attain refuge in the United States. This particular contrast makes the whole saga even more vile. Here's why: In February, in a lawsuit brought on behalf of refugees granted protections under Biden, a court temporarily ruled against Trump and directed the government to continue resettling some of them. Trump officials have delayed acting on this for months. One of their excuses has been that the resettlement infrastructure has badly decayed on their watch (which is their own doing). Now contrast this with what happened to the Afrikaners. Trump issued an executive order on February 7th directing the government to resettle those suffering humanitarian hardships back at home. Now dozens of them have undergone the entire process—from originally applying to getting settled in the United States—in barely more than three months. How is this possible, if the resettlement bureaucracy is in shambles? Given that quick action, why can't the administration also resettle those other refugees already granted protections by the U.S. government? There is no begrudging the resettlement of any Afrikaners who genuinely face persecution, and some have attested to real suffering. Nonetheless, this whole process stinks from top to bottom. It likely has been infected by deep corruption, not just naked racism, and should be understood as such. First, it's not clear how these Afrikaners were designated a refugee class. Trump has claimed that 'white farmers are being brutally killed' in a 'genocide' while claiming their 'land is being confiscated.' But as the Times reports, crime data debunks the narrative of systematic racial killing in South Africa, and Trump is badly distorting the situation surrounding land ownership there, which remains dominated by whites. But even if you accept that some of these folks are suffering persecution, the whole process still looks deeply dubious. Several sources at non-governmental organizations tell me they've heard directly from administration officials that refugee resettlement agencies were prodded by top administration people to fast-track the resettlement of Afrikaners in particular. 'They have been under intense political pressure to pull out all the stops to get Afrikaners here as rapidly as possible,' one of the sources says. That dovetails with reporting by The Lever showing that the administration has aggressively recruited outside refugee organizations to assist in resettling Afrikaners, an odd posture for officials otherwise suspending refugee programs entirely. All this suggests that Trump and Miller were eager to mount the spectacle of resettling Afrikaners—and rushed to find willing subjects—while denying it to all other refugees. You can see this sordid game in their public theatrics. 'What's happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,' Miller said. 'This is race-based persecution.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, lamented the 'suffering' of 'Afrikaner refugees,' describing them as a 'long-persecuted minority group.' It's true that the refugee program is for people who face 'race-based persecution,' as well as persecution based on religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. But why do white South Africans merit resettlement on this basis while other persecuted groups do not? Consider the plight of those who have already gained refugee status but are now in limbo. A bunch of them represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project are suing the administration. Read the court papers and you'll see they're enduring a plight very much like the one Miller and Leavitt treat as so heart-rending when endured by white South Africans. One of them is 'Alyas,' a Yazidi religious minority who testified to seeing horrific violence and murder carried out against his people in Iraq. He finally gained refugee status just recently. He was set to travel to the U.S. in February after waiting for years, until this was abruptly suspended under Trump, leaving him, his wife and young son waiting, adrift. Many of the others describe similarly awful hardship, then their elation at winning the opportunity to come to the U.S.—and now their shock and sadness at having it snatched away at the last minute. The court has directed the administration to resume resettlement of at least 160 people who have won refugee status. Why won't officials do so? 'If the administration can process Afrikaners in three months,' says Yael Schacher, a director at Refugees International, 'it's inconceivable they can't process people who have already been vetted, having applied years ago.' It's unclear when Trump decided that white Afrikaners are suffering 'genocide.' But the Times reports that Trump has been privately saying since the 1990s that South Africa is a cautionary tale for the United States, which should avoid letting nonwhites become the majority. In 2018, after Tucker Carlson did a segment on South Africa, Trump tweeted that 'white farmers' face rampant discrimination, land seizures, and 'large scale killing.' Here Trump is trafficking in a kind of internationalized version of great replacement theory. It's an obsession, one that has long festered on the white nationalist far right, with the fate of supposedly embattled white populations around the world that must rally to each other's aid to avoid eventual extinction. South Africa's 'white farmers' have become a kind of totem for this cause, a symbol of this broader demographic 'plight.' It's hard to know how deeply bought into this Trump, Miller, and Leavitt truly are. But when they use smarmy, cooked-up emotional language describing white South Africans as a 'persecuted minority' class enduring terrible suffering, while rubbing our faces in their gleeful abandonment of genuinely persecuted minorities, they're sending a clear message: the only victims of mass persecution who count are white ones. They are inventing a special new category—white world-historical victimhood—while taunting us with their power to erase actual historical crimes and replace them with massive historical lies, simply by declaring it so. Let's get real: Trump and his fellow travelers are actively putting on the show of admitting white Afrikaners while simultaneously slamming the gates on all other refugees from elsewhere in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. The repugnant inconsistency of this is itself the intended message. Which is exactly why they are flaunting it for all of us to see—deliberately, aggressively, and proudly.
Express Tribune
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Senators laud armed forces' victory over India
Balls of flame rise from cannons fired at Peshawar's Karnal Sher Khan Stadium on Friday, marking the Day of Gratitude held to celebrate Pakistan's historic response to a series of Indian attacks. PHOTO: APP The senators on Friday lauded Pakistan's armed forces for giving a befitting response to enemy's aggression and condemned the "fascist and expansionist agenda" pursued by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The house, which met here with presiding officer Sherry Rehman in the chair, continued discussion on the ongoing tensions with India. During the session, Senator Dinesh Kumar, who belongs to the Hindu community, announced Rs5 million donation for the families of the martyrs. At the outset of the session, Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz from the PTI complained against the ruling party lawmakers. He said that the session had been called to discuss the Indian aggression, but some senators spoke against PTI leader. PML-N parliamentary leader Irfan Siddiqui, while responding to Faraz's objection, said that no one should talk about any leader. He told the house that on three occasions during the Thursday's session, he stopped the senators from speaking against anyone. "Yesterday, I told my party member that we cannot talk on May 9, let's talk only on May 10. It is not appropriate for us to insult leaders in the House," he said. Siddiqui said India was an enemy of democracy. "Modi has shown the Indian people's nefarious designs of attacking Pakistan." He praised the people for maintaining unity. "Pakistan's forces gave a befitting reply to the enemy and India is left wondering how its planes were shot down. The most positive aspect of India's aggression and Pakistan's glorious victory is that we and the opposition are on the same page." Participating in a debate Senator Ali Zafar said that the recent Indian aggression had once again proven that Pakistan remained resilient, united and fully capable of defending its sovereignty against any form of aggression. "China stood by us, and even neutral states began to question India's narrative and acknowledged Pakistan's responsible behaviour," he added. He proposed a joint parliamentary committee to monitor water issues and ensure national preparedness in future conflicts. Nasir Abbas said that Modi was a fascist leader and the 'butcher of Gujarat', whose politics were rooted in hatred and bigotry. "His failed attempts to crush the Kashmiri people and provoke regional conflict have backfired," he said. (WITH INPUT FROM APP)
Ya Biladi
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Honoring Moroccan heroes : 85th anniversary of the Battle of Gembloux in Belgium
Ceremonies commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Gembloux were held on Sunday in the towns of Gembloux and Chastre, Belgium, highlighting the heroism and sacrifices of Moroccan soldiers who fell in the line of duty for the liberation of Europe from Nazi and fascist oppression during World War II. A tribute was paid to these soldiers who died for freedom during these ceremonies, held at the site of the IV Army Corps obelisk in Gembloux, as well as at the French military necropolis in Chastre (40 km south of Brussels), where hundreds of Moroccan soldiers rest. The events were attended by numerous civilian and military figures, including the High Commissioner for Former Resistance Fighters and Former Members of the Liberation Army, Mustapha El Ktiri, Brigadier General Youssef El Mehdi, head of the Military History Directorate of the Royal Armed Forces, and the Moroccan ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, Mohamed Ameur, along with several members of the Moroccan community. In a statement to MAP, El Ktiri emphasized that the Battle of Gembloux is an epic that symbolizes the courage and heroism demonstrated by the valiant Moroccan soldiers, in response to the call of the late Mohammed V to support the Allies against fascism and Nazism and to defend the right of peoples to existence and freedom. For his part, Belgian State Minister André Flahaut highlighted the importance of remembering the sacrifices made for freedom in Europe and honoring the memory of soldiers who fell on the battlefield, especially the foreign soldiers who came from afar and sacrificed themselves to defend Belgium and Europe against the Nazi invasion. On May 14, 1940, soldiers of the Seventh Regiment of Moroccan Tirailleurs arrived at the front after two days of marching and immediately faced Nazi troops. The Moroccan Division bore the brunt of the German advance and resisted despite heavy losses. The French high command planned to order a retreat to avoid encirclement, but the Moroccan soldiers managed to push back the Nazis at the cost of hundreds of lives, whose remains now rest on the battlefield at Chastre.
