German Greens are preparing “the biggest climate package in history” – including a ministry for climate
The German Greens are preparing to take part in the next government and have presented their radical plans to combat the climate crisis, which they have described as the “task of the century”, according to party co-chair Annalena Baerbock.
Baerbock discussed the largest climate package the country has ever seen. At stake are, for example, the establishment of a kind of ideological surveillance, that being a special ministry for climate protection which would be able to oppose anti-climate proposals.
In addition, the party wants to take the path of redistribution as it intends, for example, to increase the minimum wage for low-income people who will be most affected by the green transformation, Die Welt reported.
According to Baerbock and another Green Co-chairman, Robert Habeck, the new ministry would have a veto power which would allow the office to prevent any laws that would not be in line with the Paris Agreement and climate protection.
“More than five years ago, Germany pledged to do everything in its power to bring the climate crisis under control and global warming not to exceed one and a half degrees. However, we will only achieve great goals if we also do something for them,“ the leaders of the Greens justified their efforts.
Baerbock then criticized the German federal government, which she said did not take climate protection seriously because it was not doing anything for it. The whole of the European Union has the same approach, according to Baerbock.
However, the European Commission recently presented a revolutionary New Green Deal climate plan, which includes, for example, the end of production of petrol and diesel cars, charging for emissions from transport or heating buildings, and increasing the share of renewables in energy consumption.
The Greens would like to significantly accelerate the expansion of renewable wind and solar energy. They plan to enforce the gradual decommissioning of coal from the energy sector by 2030. According to the program, large investments in railway transport, public transport, and cycling are also planned.
“We need more green and cheap electricity as soon as possible to reduce climate-damaging emissions, especially in the transport, industry, and heating sectors,” Baerbock said.
The Greens also want to create a special working group after the formation of the new government, which would discuss in a weekly basis the coordination of the climate efforts of individual ministries, in order to speed up the government’s approval process as much as possible.
Given that the green transformation will have the greatest impact on socially weaker households, the Greens want to set up a special fund for “everyone who finds the path to carbon neutrality not financially easy to manage”. People should use the money to buy heat pumps or cars without an internal combustion engine.
At the beginning of the year, the Greens jumped to first place in the pre-election polls and were already claiming the office of chancellor. In recent months, however, they have been behind the ruling Christian Democrats. The latest survey gives the CDU / CSU 26 percent and the Greens 20 percent. Elections to the Bundestag are to take place in Germany on September 26.
German women’s rights activist arrested in Iran and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment
The case of 67-year-old Nahid Taghavi gives one a shiver. The German-Iranian women’s rights activist was arrested in October 2020 during a home visit to Iran. There have been no diplomatic attempts by the German government so far, only one German MP (Hirte, Christian Democratic Union) publicly campaigned for her release. Now she has been sentenced to over ten years in prison.
Despite several reports by Amnesty International, not a single diplomatic effort was attempted by the German government regarding the Islamist state. The 67-year-old woman from Cologne, who has been drawing attention to the lack of women’s rights in Iran while on German soil for years, has now herself become a victim of the brutal Sharia justice system.
She was sentenced to 10 years for “membership in an illegal group” and 8 months for “propaganda against the regime”, according to the Revolutionary Court. Taghavi’s lawyer had only been given access to the files four days before the trial began and had not been able to speak to his client. The Iranian judiciary has not commented on the arrest or the charges to date. According to reports, she is currently serving time in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran and recently became infected with the Corona virus.
https://exxpress.at/deutsche-frauenrechtlerin-in-iran-festgehalten-und-zu-10-jahren-verurteilt/
Nicola Sturgeon’s Coalition of Chaos!
😞 Liberal To 😄 Conservative: Darren Grimes
Four reasons why Germans are refusing the jab
The vaccination campaign in Germany is unravelling, with some vaccination doses already expiring, because the number of those who still opt for a Corona jab is too low. Four responses show what actually drives those who have decided against the injection.
According to the latest survey by the Insa Institute, 19 percent were undecided, while 54 percent stated that they basically did not want the vaccination.
“I get a flu vaccination every year. With an active ingredient based on the new principle of action, however, I would rather wait two or three years and observe, because even the chairman of the German Medicines Commission said that little is known about long-term safety,” explained a young mother from Nuremberg.
The politicization of vaccination is also a great cause for concern. “When politicians put open pressure on the Standing Vaccination Commission, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. And when prime ministers threaten that it has to be uncomfortable for the unvaccinated and that long-term deprivation of basic rights for a population group is openly discussed,” it begs the question of whether it is about politics or health,” she added.
Two Germans who have had previous illnesses, said they were against the jab. One is undergoing chemotherapy: “There are still no reliable tests on how vaccination can affect cells after a tumor,” she explained. The other stated that her son had obvious vaccination reactions after the shot, which also scared her.
A 34-year-old from Nuremberg said: “Both my girlfriend and I decided against a vaccination, mainly because we felt too little informed about the possible consequences. We want children soon, but we ask ourselves whether the vaccination can cause problems after all. I have not yet anyone in my circle of friends who have managed to become pregnant with the vaccination.”
His colleagues were also skeptical, the Nuremberg citizen said. “You meanwhile distrust politics, especially because the federal government has changed its assessments so often.” One example is the vaccination recommendations for vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which have been changed several times. On the subject of masks, a few politicians even used it as an excuse “to fill their own pockets”.
https://freewestmedia.com/2021/08/04/four-reasons-why-germans-are-refusing-the-jab/
Question of Afghan criminals causes rift within German government
In a recent interview, Armin Laschet, the CDU and CSU’s joint candidate for chancellor, surprised many observers by saying that Afghan criminals should have their asylum status revoked in the event that they commit offenses in Germany, and subsequently should be deported to their country of origin. The opinion comes only days after Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz shared the same opinion in light of the brutal rape and murder of a 13-year-old Austrian girl committed by four Afghans.
In an interview for the German newspaper Bild, Laschet said that the German government is paying close attention to developments in Afghanistan, where Islamist Taliban forces are gaining ever more ground after the withdrawal of NATO troops from the country. “The situation requires a continuous reevaluation and considerable action with regards to repatriations. However, our course is still unambiguous: those committing crimes in Germany would forfeit their right to remain in the country as our guests,” stated Laschet. He vowed not to make any exceptions because “criminals should continue to be consistently deported, even to Afghanistan.”
Germany is thus maintaining its policy of deportations towards criminally-minded Afghans, even though there is a civil war raging in their home country. This was confirmed in an interview by CSU Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer. In this interview, Seehofer said, “Germany is currently holding talks with Afghanistan so that deportations of criminals can continue. How can you answer for the fact that criminals can no longer be returned to their home country? We have to consider ways of increasing voluntary departures. If an inmate gets part of his sentence waived, he may leave voluntarily.”
In view of the various conventions prohibiting the deportation of people, innocent or guilty, into conflict zones, where they could come to harm, the German government had boxed itself into a corner not only with regards to the worsening security situation in Germany itself, in which Afghan migrants have a disproportionately large role when compared to their numbers within the population. The dispute is also causing a rift between the CDU and CSU on the one side, and the radical leftist social democrats, the SPD, on the other.
SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans criticized Seehofer for maintaining the policy of deportations to Afghanistan despite the country becoming a warzone. “This consideration is fully in line with a misanthropic line of populists. Foreign offenders are people, too. They deserve punishment, but no one has the right to send them to their deaths. Should that be a possibility, deportations must be stopped,” said Walter-Borjans.
Currently there are over 250,000 people of Afghan origin residing legally in Germany. According to some criminal statistics, Afghans are five times more likely to commit a criminal act than native Germans. However, in some categories, such as sexual assaults, they are 12.5 times more likely to commit an offense than the rest of society. However, this is only a fraction of the problem that Germany has been forced to endure with regards to migrant crimes, many of which are committed by repeat offenders. Around one-third of migrants who were suspected of committing a crime had previous convictions. As many as 700 of them had 21 or more previous convictions. Between 2016, a year after the migrant invasion began, and 2020, authorities counted as many as 2000 homicides in which at least one migrant was identified. This statistic does not include German citizens with migration backgrounds or dual citizens. The largest proportion of offenders in 2020 reportedly came from Syria (27,561 people), Afghanistan (14,750), and Iraq (9,835). Immigrants from these countries make up the largest proportion of asylum seekers in Germany, at 57.6 percent.
https://rmx.news/germany/question-of-afghan-criminals-causes-rift-within-german-government/
Switzerland: Muslim hate preacher Abu Ramadan charged with racial discrimination and fraud
The controversial Libyan preacher Abu Ramadan will have to answer to the regional court in Biel. The public prosecutor’s office has charged the 68-year-old with racial discrimination and fraud, as it announced on Wednesday.
The man allegedly incited hatred against people on the basis of their religion or ethnicity at the Ar’Rahman Mosque in Biel on July 7, 2017. The legal proceedings were triggered by a criminal complaint.
The investigation took a long time. First, an expert had to translate the sermon from Arabic into German. Then the public prosecutor’s office obtained an expert opinion on the interpretation of what was said.
According to the findings of the public prosecutor’s office, Abu Ramadan “repeatedly expressed the wish that certain persons or groups of persons of certain ethnicities or religions should be annihilated”. He had thus incited hatred and was guilty of racial discrimination.
The case had become known due to media reports. The preacher had targeted Jews, Christians, Hindus, Russians and Shiites. He has since stopped his activities in the mosque at the request of the supporting association.
Abu Ramadan is also accused of unlawfully taking social assistance. These investigations were also “extremely time-consuming”, according to the public prosecutor’s office. The accused did not cooperate with the investigation and in particular did not answer questions about his income.
Abu Ramadan’s municipality of residence, Nidau near Biel, had filed a complaint for alleged social welfare fraud. The Libyan had declared to the municipality that he had no income and no assets.
However, according to the findings of the public prosecutor’s office, the man organised pilgrimages and partly earned a concrete income. In part, however, he had also waived to receive the money. From the prosecution’s point of view, the suspicion of unlawful receipt of social welfare benefits was substantiated.
Abu Ramadan has always denied the accusations. He has since lost his former refugee and asylum status and now lives in Switzerland thanks to a C permit. If convicted, he faces deportation.
All studies prove it: Anti-Semitism in Europe is particularly prevalent among Muslims
No matter which European country: hostility towards Jews is not a marginal phenomenon, anti-Semitic stereotypes are becoming increasingly widespread. Political scientist Nina Scholz has compared all recent studies. She devotes a separate section to anti-Semitism among Muslims, because the values here were significantly higher across the board.
The fact that anti-Semitism in Europe has risen dramatically is reported by all Jews throughout Europe. The other Europeans share their opinion, and in some cases they back it up with their own anti-Semitic prejudices. This is one of the central findings of political scientist Nina Scholz’s research on the most important anti-Semitism studies.
On behalf of the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF), she examined nine studies and a report by the Jewish Community Vienna on anti-Semitic incidents that were carried out in Germany, Austria and the EU from 2017 to 2020. A separate section is dedicated to anti-Semitism in Muslim communities, partly because the ÖIF requested it and partly because typical anti-Semitic images of the enemy are much more pronounced there.
Most studies confirm the findings of the others. 89 per cent of Jews in Europe have suffered anti-Semitism on the internet, followed by hostility on the street or in squares (73 per cent), in the media (71 per cent) and in politics (70 per cent). . 35 percent of all Jews in Europe have heard the accusation o misusing the Holocaust for their own purposes, 36 percent of all Austrians actually think that Jews do that.
The claim “Jews have too much power” has been heard by 43 percent of all Jews surveyed in Europe. In Austria, 39 per cent agreed with the statement: “Jews dominate the international business world”, according to a study commissioned by the Austrian Parliamentary Directorate and based on 2128 interviews. Among Turkish- and Arabic-speaking interviewees, the figures were 63 and 64 per cent respectively.
The excessive power of the Jews is an essential component of all anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Its prevalence varies depending on the group of people. In a youth study, “only” 15 per cent of all young people without a migration background agreed with the statement; among migrant young people, the figure was significantly higher. An Austrian study among Muslim groups showed: 62 percent of all Syrians, 61 percent of all Austro-Turks (among the second generation still 46 percent), 55 percent of people from Iraq and Afghanistan think that Jews have too much power. The approval was significantly lower among Muslims with a Bosnian (26 percent) and Iranian migration background (18 percent).
“This significantly higher approval of anti-Semitic statements by people who themselves or whose ancestors immigrated from a majority Muslim country applies to all studies,” Scholz notes. A worldwide survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League showed similar results for Austria and significantly higher approval of the allegedly too great power of Jews in Muslim countries – about 69 percent in Turkey, 56 percent in Iran.
89 percent of Jews in the EU witnessed an increase in anti-Semitism between 2013 and 2018, 63 percent of them a strong increase, 26 percent a weak increase. In Austria, the figure is also high, but significantly lower: 33 per cent of Austrian Jews see a strong increase, 42 per cent a weak one. This was the result of a 2018 survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA study for short) among 16,395 Jews in twelve EU survey countries. Jews in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands see anti-Semitism as the biggest problem.
The cross-section of the European population shares this assessment, albeit to a lesser extent. 50 percent – that is, every second European – also considers anti-Semitism to be a problem, 15 percent of them a major problem. 36 percent have also noticed an increase in anti-Semitism. At the same time, however, 77 per cent say they have no Jewish friends or acquaintances, which is why they are less directly affected by this problem. These results were revealed in 2018 by the Eurobarometer study commissioned by the EU Commission, which directly relates to the findings of the FRA study presented earlier. It surveyed 27,643 people in 28 EU Member States.
All study results show a particularly strong increase in anti-Semitism on the internet. A study of the comment sections of German online quality media showed: in 2007, 7.51 percent were still anti-Semitic. By 2017, the proportion had risen to 30.18 per cent. The choice of words in particular shows an increasing radicalisation. Israel-related anti-Semitism is the second most common variant. It can be clearly distinguished from legitimate criticism of Israel by demonisation, delegitimisation and double standards. It likes to use terms of anti-Semitism to refer to Israel (“plague”, “cancer”, etc.).
“All studies of recent years show that anti-Semitic attitudes are widespread in society far beyond extremist political fringes,” Scholz underlines. The permanent crisis in which Europe has found itself since the financial crisis of 2008 could play a role in this. After all, for a millennium and a half, hostility towards Jews in Europe has been particularly effective in crisis situations and times of upheaval, as the Austrian cultural historian Friedrich Heer noted as early as 1967.
Scholz also notes that wherever Muslims or people from Islamic countries or their children are surveyed, their answers are “characterised by significantly higher levels of anti-Semitism”.
https://exxpress.at/saemtliche-studien-belegen-antisemitismus-ist-in-europa-massiv-gestiegen/
Countries with highest vaccination rates have highest infection rates
By John M. Contino
A series of graphs compiled by Twitter user @holmenkollin (Corona Realism) document that “the most-vaccinated countries in the world are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, while the least-vaccinated countries are not.”
Iceland, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus, for example, have vaccination rates of 90-98% and are experiencing surging virus cases. European countries with high vaccination rates are experiencing increasing infection rates, while those graphs show minimal infection rates among the countries with the lowest vaccination rates.
In Israel, where COVID cases are spiking despite a vaccination rate of 80%, the government is launching a campaign to inoculate its population with a third jab. The vaccines’ effectiveness may very well be wearing off after a few months, but doubling down on booster shots may prove counterproductive if something else is at work.
Some doctors have been warning that vaccine-induced antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) may contribute to long-term adverse effects that would begin to manifest themselves 3 -12 months after vaccination. That prediction is based upon animal studies over recent years from SARS-CoV vaccine trials, where the vaccinated animals became extremely sick after being exposed to coronaviruses later, in the wild. ADE is based upon the idea that the antibodies generated from the vaccines are “suboptimal” compared to those produced from natural immunity, and that ADE subsequently enhances viral infection and replication in the body’s host cells. Various government funded studies relating to ADE document the historical difficulties developing vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. It remains an open question as to whether or not the mRNA vaccines will, or are starting to react, in a similar fashion on humans.
Natural immunity is given short shrift by the CDC; we have no idea how many Americans carry antibodies from previous infections, either symptomatic or not. A Wall Street Journal article titled “Maybe With Delta the CDC Will Learn to Count“ reports that “92% of Brits now show evidence of antibodies.”
Britain has seen its Delta surge wane rather quickly. And unlike the U.S., it is not flopping around in the half-dark about what’s going on. Thanks to biweekly blood-sample surveys, the U.K. government knows how many people have antibodies from vaccination and/or infection. Thanks to surveys and modeling it also has a good idea how many are currently infected, invariably a multiple of those who get a positive test.
Joe Biden says that “in all probability” we can look forward to more guidelines and restrictions. Unless the government and the CDC start treating the American people with more honesty and transparency, they may discover that the reservoir of good will the country displayed during last year’s lockdowns has been greatly depleted.