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Tag: der

  • Indian ministers rebuke Der Spiegel for ‘racist’ cartoon mocking population size

    Indian ministers rebuke Der Spiegel for ‘racist’ cartoon mocking population size

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    A cartoon in the German magazine Der Spiegel poking fun at India as it becomes more populous than China has been castigated as “racist” by Indian ministers.

    The cartoon shows a rickety old Indian train packed with people and swarms of passengers atop it. On a parallel track, a sleek Chinese bullet train is seen with just two drivers, looking surprised at the sight of the Indian train.

    According to United Nations projections published on Monday, India has a population of 1,425,775,850, surpassing China for the first time.

    Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, tweeted: “Hi Germany, this is outrageously racist. Der Spiegel caricaturing India in this manner has no resemblance to reality. Purpose is to show India down and suck up to China.”

    Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister for electronics and information technology, also reacted angrily, tweeting: “Dear Cartoonist at @derspiegel… Notwithstanding your attempt at mocking India … it’s not smart to bet against India under PM @narendramodi ji…. In a few years India’s economy will be bigger than Germany’s.”

    Some Indians pointed out that it was true that during busy festivals when millions of Indians rush to go home, some trains do look like the one in the cartoon.

    Western criticism has always rankled Indian governments but under Narendra Modi, the resentment is much sharper.

    Any negative coverage, such as the recent BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which examined the prime minister’s role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots, is routinely dismissed as a malicious conspiracy to defame Modi and, by association, India.

    In 2021, Modi himself made the same claim during an election rally in Assam, complaining that Indian tea and yoga were being maligned by foreigners.

    “These days there are conspiracies against the nation. They are trying to malign the image of Indian tea worldwide. Some documents have revealed that such conspiracy is being hatched by forces sitting in a foreign land,” he said.

    Last week, Baijayant Panda, an MP and spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, wrote a column in the Hindustan Times accusing the western media of outright prejudice against India.

    Panda accused the media of ignoring India’s progress and, without naming it, singled out the New York Times for what he called its bias and routine India-bashing. He added: “What is peculiar is the abandonment of objectivity in the single-minded pursuit of a predetermined narrative.”

    In 2014, the New York Times published a cartoon mocking India’s feat in putting a robotic probe into orbit around Mars. It showed an Indian farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a room marked Elite Space Club. After protests, the newspaper published an apology.



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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Why Ursula von der Leyen matters to Biden

    Why Ursula von der Leyen matters to Biden

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    In late 2021 when Washington was warning of the looming threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the big European capitals of Paris and Berlin were too distracted to pay much attention.

    Then von der Leyen stepped in. In November 2021, she met Biden in the White House and he sounded the alarm. Within days, officials in Brussels and Washington were working closely together on a complex package of sanctions and export controls that would be ready to go when the invasion began.

    Once the war broke out, the close cooperation between the Commission and the Biden administration continued — the trans-Atlantic relationship seemingly back on track after the tumultuous Trump years.

    But things soon soured. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a huge legislative win for the U.S. president, infuriated officials in Europe, who were annoyed that climate provisions, particularly related to electric vehicles, were protectionist and disadvantaged European carmakers.

    Brussels found itself on the back foot, pouring huge diplomatic resources — belatedly — into trying to secure changes within the framework of the legislation.

    A few months on, there are signs that a deal of sorts is in the offing. Though no concrete result is expected today, the two leaders are expected to hail progress on the deal at Friday’s meeting and to kick-start talks on forming a global critical raw materials club — an effort to reduce the world’s dependency on China as a producer of raw materials for everything from cars to solar panels.

    Europe has other reasons to be confident. Despite all the naysayers, the EU has remained united in its response to the war in Ukraine, imposing 10 rounds of sanctions on Russia, even though the economic consequences are damaging at home.

    Similarly, on energy, the EU has weathered the winter energy crisis successfully despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to make Europe “freeze.” Gas prices have fallen, while Germany and other countries that were highly dependent on Russian supplies have rapidly diversified their energy sources, including with increased imports from the U.S.

    Von der Leyen may have plenty to feel confident about when she meets Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday. To Biden’s evident approval, she recently secured a breakthrough agreement on Brexit, putting relations with the U.K. on their best footing in years. And her leadership has helped keep the trans-Atlantic alliance together despite Putin’s efforts to divide the West.

    A potential clash is looming over China policy. The U.S. wants Europeans to take the threat of China much more seriously. But the EU has a lot at stake and is itself deeply divided over how to handle Beijing. For the moment, Friday’s meeting looks likely to be von der Leyen’s moment in the sun.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Von der Leyen brings charm offensive to Canada

    Von der Leyen brings charm offensive to Canada

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    “I am a European of German nationality. It was German Nazism and fascism that brought death and destruction upon Europe and the world, but Allied Forces brought liberty back to all of us,” she said. “We owe our democracy also to you, the people of Canada.”

    Defense and national security are the throughlines connecting events on von der Leyen’s Canadian itinerary.

    She was welcomed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kingston, Ontario, at a Canadian Forces base two hours from the capital. The leaders toured a lithium recycling firm in the city, one with Canadian and European footprints, before returning to Ottawa for a dinner at the Canadian War Museum in a room flanked by tanks.

    Her speech heaved heavy flattery on her Canadian hosts, praising Trudeau for his gender-balanced Cabinet before drawing her audience’s focus to her own initiatives. Before the end of her five-year term next year, she declared, “50 percent of all managers of the European Commission will be women.”

    Von der Leyen praised Canada earlier in the day for doing “more than its fair share” and “going way beyond what is necessary” to support Ukraine, “compared to others.” She did not name names.

    Ottawa announced Tuesday plans to ratchet up support for Ukraine by extending its engineer training in Poland. Combat medical trainers will also be sent to train forces.

    In addition to the seven electrical transformers that Canada will donate to repair Ukraine’s damaged power grid, the government has pledged to give C$3 million to fund de-mining efforts in the country.

    Von der Leyen will head to Washington Wednesday after a meeting with Governor General Mary Simon.

    Her Ottawa visit and address is a pre-show to U.S. President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Canada in March, his first official trip since entering the White House.

    Defense, clean energy and trade are overlapping themes expected to be addressed during Biden’s visit, which official dates have yet to be announced.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Von der Leyen, Trudeau tout ‘green alliance’ before Biden visits

    Von der Leyen, Trudeau tout ‘green alliance’ before Biden visits

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    “It’s to create good and well paying jobs, to promote growth, to boost our energy and climate cooperation across the board,” von der Leyen told reporters in Kingston, Ontario on Tuesday.

    “China produces 98 percent of Europe’s supplies of rare earths,” she said. “Europe needs to de-risk this dependency.”

    Canada is a minerals-rich country and major global producer of potash, palladium, niobium and uranium. The slow pace of regulatory hurdles, historically, hasn’t been a selling point for investors to bankroll Canadian projects.

    Talks are also underway for a memorandum of understanding on hydrogen. Von der Leyen said Europe is facing a time crunch in its bid to import 10 million tons of the fuel by 2030.

    Interest in sourcing hydrogen from Canada follows an agreement with Germany last year to begin exporting the fuel in 2025. Trudeau has previously said the ambitious goal is “doable,” despite the lack of export facilities in Atlantic Canada.

    The green deal pledge comes on the eve of von der Leyen’s arrival in Washington to meet with President Joe Biden. There, her tall task will be to convince Biden to extend the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) tax breaks to the European Union’s electric vehicle industry.

    Von der Leyen’s visit is her first to Canada since her election as president in 2019. Her five-year term will end next year with Europe’s elections. Biden, in turn, is expected to visit Canada later this month for his first in-person visit since taking office.

    More details about the EU-Canada green alliance are expected later this year at the High Level Dialogue on Climate.

    Partnering with Canada, a beneficiary of the IRA’s North American content rules for EVs, is one step to advance trade links as wealthy countries look to decarbonize and develop industries to displace reliance on Russia and China.

    The impact of the IRA has also been the subject of study by a parliamentary committee in Ottawa where concerns about its massive $369-billion package for clean tech has fueled concerns about protectionism and fears that investments will be pulled away from western allies.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Von der Leyen and Sunak present the agreement that aims to resolve the tension in the Irish Protocol

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    Inigo Gurruchaga

    The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will meet this Monday with the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to fulfill the final stretch of an agreement on the application of the Irish Protocol, which has blocked relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union after Brexit and has caused the collapse of home rule in Northern Ireland.

    Von der Leyemn will arrive at the Prime Minister’s residence, at 10 Downing Street, “at lunchtime” and both will leave for Windsor Castle to sign it and appear at a press conference. The agreement is likely to be signed in the presence of King Carlos III. Later, Sunak will present a statement in the House of Commons, which will be followed by a debate.

    The Ireland and Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Withdrawal Agreement of the United Kingdom from the Union signed by the two parties on January 24, 2020. It contains the legislative procedures that prevent the creation of a border between the two Irelands, making it possible that Northern Ireland remains in the common market at the same time as it remains in the British internal market.

    The document lists the regulations and directives that must apply to goods that are produced in Northern Ireland or arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, so that non-compliant goods do not enter the Republic of Ireland. community rules. It also establishes the supremacy of the Court of Justice of the EU to resolve disputes.

    The then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, celebrated the signing of the Protocol and assured, despite the contrary opinion of other politicians and experts, that it would not lead to the establishment of customs controls. The reality is that border requirements have become a source of complaints about the cost of the bureaucratic burden, leading to the temporary non-application of some controls.

    For the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which was the majority in the province until the May 2022 elections, the Protocol weakens its position in the United Kingdom. And the obligation to apply without voice or vote the modifications of regulations and directives decided by the EU, and the role of the community court, are in his opinion a loss of sovereignty and a democratic deficit.

    Seal

    The DUP boycotts the autonomous institutions created in 1998 as an essential element of the peace agreement to protest the maintenance of the Protocol. The radical ‘brexiters’ deputies and Johnson himself demand that Sunak complete the processing of a bill from the former prime minister, which would give the British government the power to unilaterally annul the agreed obligations.

    This context of British politics calls into question the viability of Sunak’s commitment, which seems determined to sign an agreement with Von der Leyen that does not modify the Protocol – Brussels’ persistent position – but would soften aspects of its application. The benefit would be the opening of negotiations on British participation in the Horizon scientific collaboration program, access to the financial market and other blocked issues.

    The conservative leader, who took over as head of government in October – the third prime minister in four months – undertakes the biggest challenge of his tenure. Regarded as a meticulous and hard-working politician, he is portrayed by the Labor opposition as weak in the face of a scrambled parliamentary caucus and a party angry at him for his part in ousting Johnson.

    He is now criticized for not having informed the unionists about the details of the negotiation until two weeks ago and for keeping secret the progress of his pacts with Brussels. He seems determined to “get Brexit done” and to challenge his critics. The polls say that Sunak, before sealing this inherited mess with his authority, is twenty points behind Labor in voting intentions.

    #Von #der #Leyen #Sunak #present #agreement #aims #resolve #tension #Irish #Protocol

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    ( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )

  • Sunak to meet Von der Leyen amid hopes of Northern Ireland protocol deal

    Sunak to meet Von der Leyen amid hopes of Northern Ireland protocol deal

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    Rishi Sunak is to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, over the weekend, raising hopes of an imminent deal to end the protracted Northern Ireland protocol dispute.

    They are expected to meet on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich that will also be attended by EU leaders including the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

    Talks to solve the dispute over the Brexit trading arrangements have intensified over the past week and it is thought an agreement in principle is at the closing stages.

    UK sources say an announcement has been pencilled in for next week, possibly Tuesday, if the remaining issues can be resolved.

    If loose ends cannot be tied up over the weekend, the schedule will be moved back. Sources say both sides are keen to present a “voluntary agreement” and avoid slipping back into the era of threats and counter-threats.

    A breakthrough has already been made on reducing checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, with a “green lane” involving no customs declarations being proposed for food and farm produce destined for Northern Irish supermarkets, corner shops, hospitals, schools and prisons and other public settings.

    Negotiators have agreed that products for retail should go through this “green” lane, with discussions continuing on how to deal with wholesalers who supply to independent shops and hospitality.

    Talks are also continuing on how to deal with “intermediary” goods, including components which may end up in finished products destined for sale in the EU’s single market.

    A new path has also been agreed in principle on governance and the role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in dispute resolution, a source of considerable political problems for Sunak with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and hardline Brexiters in the European Research Group (ERG) of MPs.

    It is thought this path includes the creation of a new arbitration panel and the involvement of Northern Ireland courts in devolved matters, including food and agriculture health standards.

    One of Sunak’s biggest challenges is how to quell any potential rebellion headed by the ERG, which wants the protocol scrapped altogether and folded into the wider trade and cooperation agreement with the EU.

    The Irish former foreign minister Simon Coveney has said the best deal is a “nil-all draw” where nobody has won and nobody has lost.

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    Insiders say they hope the creation of the panel will address ERG concerns, particularly as this was mooted in a confidential paper by the group’s former chair, the Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker.

    It is also notable that the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, another former leader of the ERG, has been involved in the negotiations from the start, accompanying the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, in all talks with the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

    The panel would involve legal representatives from the EU and the UK, and include a mechanism to give the ECJ a role in advising on matters of EU law.

    It is not known if the key question over the continued application of EU law in Northern Ireland will be resolved to the satisfaction of the ERG or the DUP. The DUP has set out seven tests for agreeing to any new deal, including an assurance of “no new regulatory borders” between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )