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Europe
The Netherlands
18.10.2024 The Dutch government is considering a plan to send African asylum seekers, whose applications are rejected, to Uganda. Dutch Trade and Development Minister Klever announced that Uganda is open to discussing the possibility, though the plan is still in its early stages. Uganda’s Foreign Minister Oryem expressed skepticism, noting that Uganda already hosts 1.6 million refugees and questioned why the European countries deport refugees. The Netherlands, which received an average number of asylum applications compared to other EU countries, has been working on tightening its immigration policies under the current coalition government led by Geert Wilders. (Source: aa *)
* Anadolu Agency (Turkey)
North America
United States
(Friday, 18 October 2024) In his appearance on the PBD Podcast Mr Trump, who is running as the Republican candidate for the upcoming US Presidential Election has claimed he received a phone call on Thursday from Apple's chief executive Cook, in which the tech boss shared concerns about the European Union because the company was forced to pay after breaching EU rules. Mr Cook told him he was concerned about recent financial penalties issued by the EU, which ordered Apple to pay Ireland €13bn in unpaid taxes in September. The EU's highest court upheld an accusation by the bloc's legislative arm, the European Commission, that Ireland gave Apple illegal tax advantages. Mr Cook described the Commission's findings as 'political". The European Commission fined Apple €1.8bn several months earlier in March for allegedly breaking music streaming rules, in a win for rival service Spotify. According to Mr Trump, the Apple chief executive went on to make a remark about the EU using the money received via antitrust fines to run an "enterprise". Antitrust fines paid by firms which breach EU competition rules go towards the bloc's general budget and help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers, the Commission's website states. The bloc has set of rules and requirements that firms must comply with in order to offer digital products and services in the region. These include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and its Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act. Its two digital laws 'aim to rein in powerful "gatekeeper" tech companies, provide more choice for consumers and protect users of online platforms or services from illegal or harmful content'. Mr Trump said he told Mr Cook he would not let the EU take advantage of „our companies", but he needed to "get elected first". The former president has spent some of his campaign trying to woo prominent tech figures, with Tesla and X boss Musk among those backing Mr Trump. He also said he spoke to Google boss Pichai earlier this week, and claims to have had multiple calls with Meta boss Zuckerberg in August. Apple has said its own suite of generative AI features will not be coming to iPhones in the EU when they become immediately available elsewhere. (Source: bbc *)
* The British Broadcasting Corporation public service broadcaster headquartered in London, England.
October 18, 2024, Friday // 11:18 Republican presidential candidate Trump has accused President Zelensky of playing a role in initiating the ongoing war in Ukraine. Trump asserted that Zelensky not only failed to prevent the war but actually contributed to its onset, despite the reality of Russia's invasion. "It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to help him, because I have a lot of sympathy for these people. But he should never have allowed the war to begin," Trump stated. (Source: novinite *)
* Novinite, a Bulgarian English-language news provider based in Sofia.
5:47 PM CEST, October 18, 2024 Swann, 46, was a longtime TV journalist before he was fired from an Atlanta station in 2018 after promoting the debunked 'Pizzagate' that alleged Democrats were abducting children to serve as sex slaves. He has since become a social media star who portrays himself as someone daring to ask uncomfortable questions on tough topics - revolving around unfounded claims such as the coronavirus vaccine was a money-making ploy by big pharmaceutical companies, and Israel was a 'participant' in the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. Swann’s videos were embedded in X posts garnered tens of millions of views. Swann joined Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, in a lawsuit pending against several news organizations, including the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by 'taking action to identify misinformation', including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Swann worked for Russia’s state-owned media empire for years. He filed paperwork with the Justice Department two years ago to register one of his companies as working for Russian state media. Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, individuals must register with the Justice Department when they seek to influence U.S. policy and public opinion on behalf of foreign governments. Not doing so can result in criminal charges. Swann’s company, Rebel Media Productions, first registered with the Justice Department in August 2022, saying it worked for RT’s parent company and related entities. The disclosures show Rebel Media Productions was paid more than $6 million in less than two years by RT-related entities. The Justice Department has said RT has links to Russian intelligence agencies, while the U.S. State Department recently unveiled new sanctions on Russian state media. The sanctions target RT’s parent organization, TV Novosti, which Swann contracted with for his Russia-related work. In February, Swann stopped reporting Rebel Media’s work for Russia to the Justice Department, even as his company kept producing RT shows. Swann, a self-described independent journalist launched in April a 12-part video series titled 'Zelenskyy Unmasked.” He promised it would reveal dark truths about President Zelenskyy wich quickly caught the attention of conservative social media influencers who hyped the project to their millions of followers. The Zelenskyy series echoed Russian state media’s messaging that the Ukrainian president is a would-be autocrat who has duped the West into supporting a conflict that Russia will inevitably win. “Curious about the billions of dollars and weapons Congress sent Ukraine?' Trump Jr. posted on X, Truth Social and Threads. In a July interview with the AP, Swann said he owns and is operating two companies - one that generates content for Russian media and another company, Truth in Media, that produces independent journalism, like 'Zelenskyy Unmasked,” for U.S. audiences. Truth in Media, Swann said, isn’t profitable and is funded by wealthy U.S. individuals whom he refused to name. Swann’s shows for U.S. audiences and RT also have similar themes. Truth in Media began teasing the 'Zelenskyy Unmasked” videos earlier this year on its website, writing the “explosive” 12-part series would answer 'who is really benefitting from the $100 billion the U.S. has sent Ukraine.' Many of the guests interviewed in 'Zelenskyy Unmasked” have been RT contributors and guests on its programs. That includes RT contributor Reade, who briefly moved to Moscow after accusing President Biden of assaulting her in the 1990s; former Ukrainian diplomat Telizhenko, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on allegations he had close ties to a 'Russia-linked foreign influence network'; Bentley, an American citizen known to have fought with Kremlin-backed separatists and worked for Russian state media, who died earlier this year in Ukraine and Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector sympathetic to Russia whose upstate New York home was raided in August by the FBI. A core group of influencers played a significant role in helping promote the series, shared by at least 9,300 other unique X accounts that have 33 million total followers, according to an AP analysis of 'Zelenskyy Unmasked” X data created by Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship. When Truth In Media promoted the third episode in the series, it tweeted, 'The list of rich and powerful people profiting off the war in Ukraine includes President Biden and his son, but they’re far from the only ones.' Swann said Truth in Media hired Urban Legend to help with marketing, but didn’t know the details of its work. The Urban Legend company said that it had been unaware of Swann’s ties to RT and would no longer work with Truth in Media. In response to the recent sanctions, Swann said his company last month severed all ties to RT. “While we disagree with the censorship of our journalists, who were doing quality work on behalf of our client, we have and will continue to respect the rule of law,” Swann said in a statement. The Justice Department declined to comment. (Source: apnews *)
* Associated Press
Globalization
October 18, 2024 10:22 am (EST) Established in 2009, BRICS was founded on the premise that international institutions were overly dominated by Western powers and had ceased to serve developing countries. BRICS countries seek to build an alternative to what they see as the dominance of the Western viewpoint in major multilateral groupings, such as the World Bank, the Group of Seven (G7), and the UN Security Council. The coalition is not a formal organization, but rather a loose bloc of non-Western economies that coordinate economic and diplomatic efforts around the shared goal. The bloc has sought to coordinate its members’ economic and diplomatic policies, found new financial institutions, and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar. The term was originally coined by Sachs economist O’Neill in a 2001 research paper in which he argued that the growth of what was then the “BRIC” countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) was poised to challenge the dominant G7 wealthy economies. Russia hosted the first official BRIC summit in 2009, and South Africa joined a year later by invitation from China, forming the five-country grouping that would persist for more than a decade. At the 2023 BRICS summit, invitations extended to six newcomers: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All accepted except Argentina, after its newly elected President Milei pledged to turn the country in a pro-West direction, saying that it would not “ally with communists.” Saudi Arabia has reportedly accepted the membership, but has delayed officially joining without giving detailed further explanation. The countries that comprise BRICS are an informal grouping of emerging economies hoping to increase their sway in the global order. The BRICS group has become a major political force in the last two decades, building on its desire to create a counterweight to Western influence in global institutions. The ten BRICS countries now comprise more than a quarter of the global economy and almost half of the world’s population. The group is poised to exert influence over the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the shape of the global economic system, the competition between China and the West, and efforts to transition to clean energy. The BRICS heads of state convene annually, with each country taking a one-year chairmanship to set priorities and host a summit. The bloc relies on consensus-based decision-making and is largely informal: it has no defining charter, secretariat, or common funds. Some analysts warn that the bloc could undermine the Western-led international order. The group aims both to push for reform of existing institutions, such as expanding the UN Security Council, and to form negotiating blocs within those institutions. The group emphasizes economic coordination on issues such as tariff policy, export restrictions of critical resources, and investment. In global transactions, which exposes them to Western sanctions, BRICS leaders have long advocated for de-dollarization in favor of increased trade in local currencies or even a potential common BRICS currency. The group’s New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) are meant to mimic the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), to invigorate South-South cooperation and reduce dependence on traditional funding sources. Many countries of the Global South believe the World Bank and the IMF are failing to meet the needs of poorer nations, especially in areas such as climate financing. The CRA, a common fund among the BRICS central banks offers support during a currency crisis, limited to BRICS countries. In 2021 the NDB - more than five times smaller than the World Bank - opened to private projects in other emerging-market countries. The NDB offers loans, guarantees, and other financial mechanisms to support private projects that contribute to sustainable development and building out infrastructure. It is intended to offer more flexibility, greater equality among shareholders, and easier access to funds than the World Bank. Its lending focuses on clean energy, transportation, sanitation, and social development. It has sought to devote 40 percent of its projects to tackling climate change. To date, the bank has approved more than $32 billion for ninety-six projects since operations began in 2016. The BRICS countries have sought to reduce the primacy of the U.S. dollar in international trade for more than a decade, primarily by increasing the use of their own currencies for trading, especially China’s renminbi. There is also a push to introduce a new, BRICS-wide currency, of which Brazil’s President Lula da Silva is a major proponent. Other monetary proposals laid out at the 2023 summit included founding a new cryptocurrency or using a combined basket of BRICS currencies. A BRICS currency would require major political compromises, including a banking union, a fiscal union, and general macroeconomic convergence. The dollar, the world’s principal reserve currency, is still used in more than 80 percent of global trade. The BRICS countries face increasing internal tensions and rivalry among members. China and India over their decades-old border dispute as well as competition for economic and geopolitical leadership of the Global South, India’s growing rivalry with China further fueled the desire not to prop up China’s power with a larger group in Beijing’s orbit. China’s economic slump threatens the group’s dynamism. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also deepened fissures. An International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for Putin’s arrest over war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces in Ukraine complicated the 2023 BRICS forum in South Africa., forcing Putin to stay home. Some analysts argue the sanctions on oil and other necessities are in fact pushing the BRICS countries closer together. In the past decade, Brazil and South Africa have faced collapsing state capacity, yearslong recessions, chronic corruption, and crumbling infrastructure. Other major dividing lines include rivalries between Saudi Arabia and Iran and between Egypt and Ethiopia. The addition of Egypt and Ethiopia will amplify voices from the African continent. China and Russia have favored expansion, while Brazil and India were more hesitant. Egypt had close commercial ties with China and India, and political ties with Russia. China has long courted Ethiopia, the third-biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, with billions of dollars of investment to make the country a hub of its Belt and Road Initiative. The addition of Saudi Arabia and the UAE would bring in the two biggest economies in the Arab world and the second and eighth top oil producers globally. They also play mediation roles in other regions, with Saudi Arabia leading ongoing peace talks for Sudan’s civil war and the war in Ukraine, the UAE hosting India-Pakistan stability talks, and both countries considering normalizing relations with Israel for the first time in decades. Both countries are hoping that BRICS membership will help them focus on economic development.The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in which they have at times supported opposing sides of conflicts, could carry into BRICS. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are major security partners of the United States, Iran and Russia are staunch adversaries of U.S. influence, while China sees itself as locked in economic and geopolitical competition with the United States. Brazil, India, South Africa have had warmer relations with the U.S. Western countries have largely downplayed the group’s growth. White House National Security Advisor Sullivan said that Washington doesn’t see BRICS as a geopolitical rival, some European policymakers have cautioned that the anti-West sentiment is growing more confrontational. They see the expansion as the result of a lackluster Western response to low-income countries’ needs. They say Western countries need to begin reforming financial institutions in earnest. Other analysts say the BRICS de-dollarization efforts could eventually undermine the strength of the dollar and thus the health of the U.S. economy. Russia holds the rotating BRICS presidency this year and has set out to use its time as chair to focus on establishing a more “fair world order” and steering the pivot to local currencies and payment systems at its October summit in Kazan. Analysts expect Putin will use the Russia-led BRICS meeting to attempt to show Russia has not been isolated by Western pressure. 2024 priorities include integrating new members and establishing a new category of BRICS partner countries that will likely fall short of a full membership. Current members have indicated they seek to bring in more members and partner countries to gain access to other regional trade blocs. More than forty countries have expressed interest in joining, At least twenty reportedly applied to join after the 2023 summit expansion. (Source: cfr *)
* Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations.
by Ferragamo
.4 10 30 09:49
