EU could withhold aid in bid to stem migrant tide: Leaked documents

EU could withhold aid in bid to stem migrant tide: Leaked documents
Pressure has been building in Europe, especially in Sweden, which took the most refugees per capita of any EU state during the 2015 migrant crisis (AFP)
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Updated 26 January 2023

EU could withhold aid in bid to stem migrant tide: Leaked documents

EU could withhold aid in bid to stem migrant tide: Leaked documents
  • Swedish diplomat calls for ‘carrot and stick’ approach to stop people entering Europe
  • Brussels could apply economic, diplomatic pressure on non-compliant countries

London: The EU could adopt a “carrot and stick” approach to repatriating migrants to non-EU countries and stopping illegal immigration, applying economic and diplomatic pressures to other nations in a bid to stem the flow of people to Europe, leaked documents suggest.

EU countries received 159,410 people across the Mediterranean alone in 2022, according to the UN Refugee Agency, while 179,600 people were given notice to leave EU member states for their home countries. In total, just 33,600 did so.

Pressure has been building in Europe, especially in Sweden, which took the most refugees per capita of any EU state during the 2015 migrant crisis and which assumed the rotating EU presidency this month, to find a way to alter the one-way traffic of people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

A draft communique ahead of a meeting of the 27 EU leaders in Brussels next month, seen by The Guardian, suggested the EU could tie aid payments to the readiness of non-EU states to accept their citizens being sent home in future, with the bloc to assess ways of reducing illegal migration by “all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including development, trade, and visas as well as opportunities for legal migration.”

A meeting of interior ministers in Sweden’s capital Stockholm this week will also look at ways to reform Europe’s policies on migration, including focusing on other European, non-EU states that facilitate migration, with Serbia high on the agenda.

Serbia currently does not have visa requirements for many countries from which migrants travel, making it “a hub for illegal migration” to the EU, according to a cross-party group of Dutch lawmakers in December.

The intervention of the Dutch politicians aimed to persuade Brussels to apply pressure on the Balkan state, which is an EU membership candidate, to change its visa policy to fall in line with its EU neighbors or risk having its application rejected.

This week, the Dutch government called on the European Commission to use all tools at its disposal to dissuade migrants and return failed asylum seekers, including utilizing trade agreements and development aid.

Sweden’s Ambassador to the EU Lars Danielsson, meanwhile, called for a “carrot and stick” approach to migration in Europe.

Speaking to reporters recently, he said: “Haven’t we come to a time where we need to use both the carrots and the sticks a bit more efficiently than we have so far? The carrots are always easier, but we also need to look more carefully … at our sticks.”

However, there are fears that using development aid as a weapon to cajole other countries into complying with the EU’s wishes could have a detrimental effect on the countries that need aid most, and where many of the migrants the EU wishes to repatriate originate from because of poverty, instability, and other factors.

Evelien van Roemburg, head of Oxfam’s EU office, told The Guardian: “The EU’s obsessive focus on externalizing their migration responsibilities is not in line with their continued statements of equal partnership with non-EU countries. Instead, the EU bullies them into meeting their narrow-minded political objectives.

“Aid is meant to assist people to get out of poverty not to stop migration.”


Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski collision trial ends, jury deliberates

Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski collision trial ends, jury deliberates
Updated 10 min 45 sec ago

Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski collision trial ends, jury deliberates

Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski collision trial ends, jury deliberates
  • Attorneys for Paltrow and the 76-year-old man suing her have framed their clients as aggrieved victims in a yearslong legal battle
  • Paltrow has countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees

PARK CITY: A jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon in Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial over a 2016 ski collision at a Utah resort.
Attorneys for Paltrow and the 76-year-old man suing her described their clients in closing arguments as aggrieved victims participating in a yearslong legal battle to take a stand for truth. The eight-person jury is tasked with weighing dueling versions of who was the downhill skier, making the other side culpable according to a skier responsibility code.
During closing arguments, Paltrow’s attorneys asked jurors to disregard the opposing side’s emotional pleas for sympathy of Terry Sanderson over the state of his relationships. The retired optometrist has said the collision left him with a concussion and four broken ribs. Paltrow’s legal team said that for their client, it would’ve been easier to simply write a check, settle the lawsuit and put the crash behind her.
“But what would that teach her children?” attorney Steve Owens asked jurors Thursday.
Accompanying his remarks were high-resolution animations depicting Paltrow’s version of events, which have been shown throughout the trial in the Park City courtroom.
“It’s not about the money. It’s about ruining a very delicate time in a relationship where they were trying to get their kids together,” Owens said.
The 2016 family trip to Deer Valley Resort was the first time Paltrow and her then-boyfriend Brad Falchuk brought their kids together in an effort to join families.
During the second week of trial, Paltrow, Sanderson and members of the jury all nodded along as attorneys repeated familiar narratives, denounced some witnesses’ claims and elevated others.
Sanderson is suing Paltrow over the events of that trip, claiming she skied out of control and crashed into him, leaving him with four broken ribs and a concussion with symptoms that have lasted years beyond the collision.
After a judge dismissed his initial $3.1 million complaint, Sanderson amended and refiled the lawsuit seeking “more than $300,000” — a threshold that that provides the opportunity to introduce the most evidence and depose the most witnesses allowed in civil court. In closing arguments, his attorneys estimated damages as more than $3.2 million.
Paltrow has countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees, though her attorneys said in closing arguments that the crash had caused her far more damage.
Sanderson’s attorneys have cast doubt on Paltrow’s testimony and underscored the injuries that their client, Sanderson, has said changed the course of his life.
“He never returned home that night as the same man. Terry has tried to get off that mountain but he’s really still there,” attorney Robert Sykes said in his closing argument. “Part of Terry will forever be on that Bandana run.”
In a courtroom more packed Thursday than any other day of the trial, Sanderson’s attorneys delivered their arguments first. They argued it was unlikely that someone could ski between another skier’s two legs as Paltrow said. They also noted that she didn’t deny watching her kids skiing the moment of the crash.
Paltrow’s attorneys took a two-pronged approach, both arguing that the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer didn’t cause the accident and that its effects aren’t as bad as Sanderson claims. They’ve painted him as an “obsessed” man pushing “utter B.S.” claims against someone whose fame makes them vulnerable to unfair, frivolous lawsuits.
In their closing arguments, Sanderson’s team also noted how the man claiming to be the sole eyewitness testified to seeing Paltrow hit their client. Though they’ve tapped into themes including the power of fame throughout the trial, they said that the case ultimately wasn’t about celebrity, but simply damages.
Sanderson testified that he had continued to pursue damages seven years after the accident because the cascading events that followed — his post-concussion symptoms and the accusation that he sued to exploit Paltrow’s celebrity — added insult to injury.
“That’s the purpose: to make me regret this lawsuit. It’s the pain of trying to sue a celebrity,” he said on Wednesday in response to a question from his attorney about Paltrow’s team probing his personal life, medical records and extensive post-crash international travel itinerary.
Though both sides have marshaled significant resources to emerge victorious, the verdict could end up being remembered as an afterthought dwarfed by the worldwide attention the trial has attracted. The amount of money at stake pales in comparison to the typical legal costs of a multiyear lawsuit, private security detail and expert witness-heavy trial.
Among the most bombshell testimony has been from Paltrow and Sanderson. On Friday members of the jury were riveted when Paltrow said on the stand that she initially thought she was being “violated” when the collision began. Three days later Sanderson gave an entirely different account, saying she ran into him and sent him “absolutely flying.”
The trial has also shone a spotlight on Park City, known primarily as a ski resort that welcomes celebrities like Paltrow for each year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Local residents have increasingly filled the courtroom gallery throughout the trial. They’ve nodded along as lawyers and witnesses have referenced local landmarks like Montage Deer Valley, the ski-side hotel-spa where Paltrow got a massage after the collision. At times they have appeared captivated by Paltrow’s reactions to the proceedings, while at others they have mirrored the jury, whose endurance has been tested by hours of jargon-dense medical testimony.


Boston auction of signed Zelensky painting to help Ukraine

Boston auction of signed Zelensky painting to help Ukraine
Updated 15 min 42 sec ago

Boston auction of signed Zelensky painting to help Ukraine

Boston auction of signed Zelensky painting to help Ukraine
  • Bidding on the painting by American artist Oleg Jones starts at $50,000

BOSTON: An original painting of Volodymyr Zelensky signed by the Ukrainian president is being sold at auction, and proceeds from the sale will be used to benefit the nation’s people suffering during its war with Russia.
Bidding on the 40-by-24-inch (101.5-by-61-centimeter) painting by American artist Oleg Jones starts at $50,000, and the goal is to sell it for at least $100,000, Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of auctioneer RR Auction in Boston, said Thursday.
The painting features an image of Zelensky against the background of Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag. Several raised stars in the upper left of the piece form a heart around the gold trident from the nation’s coat of arms.
The acrylic paints are coated in resin sprinkled with glass dust, giving it a sparkling effect.
It is signed, in English, “Zelensky, Glory to Ukraine.” It’s also signed by the artist.
The auction, which concludes April 12, includes photos of the president signing it in his office.
The proceeds of the auction will benefit the Kyiv-based Dmytro Kasyanenko International Charitable Foundation via US-based The Power of A Dream Foundation and will used for the purchase of medical equipment, tools and medicine for the Ukrainian people, RR Auction said.
“The need for funding these agencies is so great that Zelensky took the time to sign this painting amid the incredible stress his country is facing,” Livingston said.
A baseball signed by Zelensky sold at auction in May for $50,000, much of which went to provide humanitarian aid for Ukraine.


Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings
Updated 30 March 2023

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings
  • The Mass Casualty Commission says the RCMP missed red flags in the years leading up to the Nova Scotia rampage on April 18-19, 2020
  • The assailant, Gabriel Wortman, was killed by two Mounties at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 13 hours into his rampage

TRURO, Canada: A public inquiry has found widespread failures in how Canada’s federal police force responded to the country’s worst mass shooting and recommends that the government rethink the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s central role in the country’s policing.
In a seven-volume report released Thursday, the Mass Casualty Commission also says the RCMP missed red flags in the years leading up to the Nova Scotia rampage on April 18-19, 2020, which left 22 people slain by a denture maker disguised as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police vehicle.
The assailant, Gabriel Wortman, was killed by two Mounties at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 13 hours into his rampage. Disguised as a police officer, Wortman shot people in their homes and set fires in a killing spree that included 16 crime scenes in five rural communities across the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history and said he hopes the report is one of the many steps toward ensuring a tragedy like that never happens again. Trudeau attended the report’s release in Nova Scotia and said his government will examine it closely. “There is no question that there needs to be changes and there will be,” Trudeau said.
Among other things, the commission says the national police force is badly disorganized. Its review of the RCMP’s 5,000 pages of policies and procedures found the force’s own members were unclear on proper responses to critical incidents and communication with the public.
The report delves deeply into the causes of the mass shooting. These include the killer’s violence toward his spouse and the failure of police to act on it, and “implicit biases” that seemed to blind officers and community members to the danger a white, male professional posed.
In response, the commissioners call for a future RCMP where the current 26-week model of training is scrapped — as it’s no longer sufficient for the complex demands of policing. The academy would be replaced with a three-year, degree-based model of education, as exists in Finland.
The document begins with an account of the police errors in the years before the killings, and the events of April 18 and 19.
The report’s summary says that soon after the shooting started in Portapique, Nova Scotia, RCMP commanders disregarded witness accounts, and senior Mounties wrongly assumed residents were mistaken when they reported seeing the killer driving a fully marked RCMP cruiser.
“Important community sources of information were ignored,” it says.
In addition, the report says police failed to promptly send out alerts to the public with a description of the killer until it was too late for some of his victims.
Having laid out a litany of shortcomings, the inquiry calls for a fresh external review of the police force. It says the federal minister of public safety should then establish priorities for the RCMP, “retaining the tasks that are suitable to a federal policing agency, and identifying what responsibilities are better reassigned to other agencies.”
“This may entail a reconfiguration of policing in Canada and a new approach to federal financial support for provincial and municipal policing services,” the report says.
Michael Duheme, the interim RCMP commissioner, said he hasn’t had time to go through the recommendations despite the RCMP getting a copy of the report on Wednesday.
Duheme said he was “deeply sorry” for the pain and suffering endured by families of the victims. “I can’t even imagine what you have endured,” he said, adding that the RCMP “must learn and we are committed to do just that.”
Dennis Daley, the head of the RCMP in Nova Scotia, said to the families that he knows that the response “wasn’t what you needed to be. And for that I am deeply sorry.”
The victims in Canada’s worst mass shooting included an RCMP officer, a teacher, health-care workers, retirees, neighbors of the shooter and two correctional officers killed in their home. The rampage started when Wortman attacked his spouse.
“Nothing will bring my brother back or any of the other people in this horrible ordeal,” said Scott McLeod, the brother of victim Sean McLeod. “If this report makes a positive change nationwide it will be appreciated, I know, by families.”
The report details Wortman ‘s history of domestic violence in his relationships with women, including his spouse Lisa Banfield. In particular, the report notes the experience of Brenda Forbes, a neighbor in Portapique who informed the RCMP of Wortman’s violence toward Banfield. He never faced any consequences, but she dealt with years of stalking, harassment and threats from Wortman, prompting her to leave the province.
Jessica Zita, lawyer for Banfield, read a statement from her client in which she says she hopes there will be meaningful changes from the recommendations especially those involving domestic violence.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before the Nova Scotia rampage, that had been the country’s worst,


Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale

Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale
Updated 30 March 2023

Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale

Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale
  • The Duke of Sussex made a late arrival and early departure for the finale of a four-day High Court hearing on his invasion of privacy case
  • The publisher denied the allegations and has argued that lawsuits based on alleged incidents dating as far back as 1993 should be thrown out

LONDON: A London judge said Thursday he would rule as soon as possible on whether to throw out or limit a phone hacking lawsuit brought by Prince Harry, Elton John and other well-known figures against a British tabloid publisher.
The Duke of Sussex made a late arrival and early departure for the finale of a four-day High Court hearing on his invasion of privacy case against the company that publishes The Daily Mail. His surprise appearance during three days of the legal wrangling indicates the lawsuit’s importance in the prince’s broader battle against the British press.
Harry, John, and actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are among a group of seven people suing Associated Newspapers Ltd. for allegedly paying private investigators to illegally bug homes and cars and to record phone conversations.
The publisher denied the allegations and has argued that lawsuits based on alleged incidents dating as far back as 1993 should be thrown out because the cases were not filed within a six-year limitation period.
Attorney David Sherborne, who represents Harry and the other famous claimants, argued that the deadline for filing the lawsuits should be extended because the alleged snooping was covert and the publisher concealed evidence of it through denials “likely to lead the claimants off the scent.”
The claimants said they were unaware of phone hacking done for Associated Newspapers until private investigators, including Gavin Burrows, came forward in the last couple of years to disclose the covert work they allegedly did.
Burrows, who said in a 2021 witness statement that he came forward to “do the right thing” and help the people he targeted, has since issued another sworn statement saying he had not been commissioned by Associated Newspapers to do unlawful work.
In his earlier admission, however, he described how much he charged for different jobs and how Harry, John and his husband, David Furnish, and Hurley and Frost were “just a small handful of my targets.”
He said he “must have done hundreds of jobs” between 2000 and 2005 for a Mail on Sunday journalist whose name is redacted.
In one section cited by Sherborne, Burrows described tapping Hurley’s home phone, hacking her voicemail and digging up travel and medical details on her when she was pregnant. Burrows said that John didn’t have a mobile phone but he got a lot of information about the singer from Hurley’s phone because she was close friends with him, and through the phone of John’s gardener.
“I hacked, tapped and bugged Liz a number of times,” Burrows said in his earlier statement. “She (like Hugh Grant) was a huge earner for me. I could get an itemized phone bill for Liz and Hugh and sell each one for 5,000 pounds (about $6,185), much more than the average price on my menu.”
Until she read Burrows statement, Hurley did not know who had been the source of the information about her, Sherborne said.
“That’s the trigger. That’s when the scales fall from her eyes,” Sherborne said.
Attorney Adrian Beltrami said the claims had been brought “far too late” and should be tossed out. He argued that a national scandal on phone hacking by journalists at other papers a decade ago could have inspired the claimants to look into articles written about them and file their lawsuits alleging wrongdoing within the time limits.
Justice Matthew Nicklin said there was a difference between applying time limits to discovery of the alleged unlawful information gathering and the articles that resulted from some of those acts.
“It’s clear what the claimants are not entitled to pursue because of limitation,” Nicklin said. “But what they are entitled to pursue is slightly more nuanced than simply striking out reference to the articles.”
Attorney Steven Heffer, who is not involved in the case, said the defense is unlikely to prevail at this stage if they concealed the unlawful activity.
“Other newspaper groups emphatically denied phone hacking or any unlawful information gathering, but have had to pay millions in damages and costs,” Heffer said.
The publisher is also seeking to have evidence of payments to investigators barred from being used by claimants because it was protected by confidentiality rules when it was turned over by the publisher to a government inquiry into media law breaking.
Sherborne argued the evidence is in the public domain.
Attorney Michael Gardner, who also is not involved in the litigation, said Harry and the other claimants face an uphill battle on several fronts.
“First, the events in question took place so long ago that they may now be statute barred,” Gardner said. “Secondly, the evidence they are relying on includes material that may be inadmissible. Thirdly, a key witness in the case appears to have signed two completely contradictory statements.”


Indonesian Buddhists step out to support Muslims in Ramadan fast 

Indonesian Buddhists step out to support Muslims in Ramadan fast 
Updated 30 March 2023

Indonesian Buddhists step out to support Muslims in Ramadan fast 

Indonesian Buddhists step out to support Muslims in Ramadan fast 
  • Buddhism has about 2 million followers in Muslim-majority Indonesia 
  • Temples offer snacks to break the fast, some cook iftar meals 

JAKARTA: As millions of people in Muslim-majority Indonesia are observing the fasting month of Ramadan, members of the Buddhist community have been extending their support and preparing iftar meals for those breaking their fast at dusk. 

Muslims comprise nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 277 million population, but the multifaith nation officially recognizes six religions, including Buddhism, which has an estimated 2 million followers. Since Ramadan began last week, many Buddhist temples across the country have been extending support to their Muslim neighbors. 

In Cirebon, West Java province, members of the Dewi Welas Asih Temple congregation have come together to prepare iftar meals throughout the fasting month. 

They hand out meal boxes around 4 p.m., right before sunset, hoping to reach the people who need their support the most. Each box consists of rice, sauteed vegetables, fried eggs and either chicken or beef, all home-cooked. 

“It doesn’t matter what religion you have, if there is one good moment to do good deeds, all of us here at the Dewi Welas Asih Temple believe that it’s very wise, right, and honorable to give back, even if it’s not on your own religious holiday,” Yulia Hiyanto, who has been organizing the temple’s iftar activities, told Arab News. 

“When we are able to give back and it is accepted with a smile…my heart feels something that can neither be described nor bought, and I hear this from other friends too, this feeling of utmost happiness.” 

In a similar spirit, the youth of the Dhanagun Temple in Bogor, also in West Java, are dedicating their Sundays throughout Ramadan month to reach out as many people as they can across the city and hand out snacks commonly eaten in Indonesia to break the fast. 

“It is our hope that our program can help people in need, especially Muslims in Bogor, who are now fasting,” said Hansen, the temple’s youth leader. 

“Ramadan is a good month, a month filled with love…That is why we want to join in sharing kindness and love.”