BERLIN: The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which rails against immigration and Islam, is set to become the country’s first hard-right nationalist party to clear the five-percent hurdle and enter parliament in the post-war era.
Close to France’s National Front and the UK Independence Party, the AfD is an anti-establishment party that harnesses xenophobia and popular discontent about what it labels unaccountable political and media elites.
The AfD is dominated by white men, is strongest in Germany’s poorer ex-communist east, and has flirted with far-right groups, breaking a taboo in post-Holocaust Germany.
Its leaders have sparked outrage by saying German border guards should as a last resort open fire on illegal immigrants, calling Berlin’s Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame” and suggesting a Turkish-born German politician be “disposed of in Anatolia”.
The AfD is shunned as a radical fringe group by all mainstream parties, but its rise further fragments the political landscape and will complicate coalition-building efforts by the likely election winner, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The AfD was founded during the eurozone debt crisis in April 2013 when it labeled the single currency “a historic mistake” and campaigned against bailouts for crisis-hit southern economies.
It narrowly missed the five-percent hurdle for entry into parliament in elections four years ago but then notched up wins in several regional votes and, in 2014, won seven seats in the European Parliament.
The right-winger Frauke Petry in 2015 toppled the AfD’s founder, economics professor Bernd Lucke, who quit the party.
The mass influx to Germany of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants in mid-2015 revived the AfD’s flagging fortunes as it angrily attacked Merkel’s open-door policy.
Like the far-right PEGIDA protest movement, the AfD accused her of “treason” and linked her immigration policies to jihadist attacks in Europe and sexual attacks by North African migrants in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015-16.
After a series of regional election wins, it now sits on the opposition benches of 13 of Germany’s 16 state assemblies.
The AfD holds that “Islam does not belong to Germany,” a country with 4.5 million Muslims, and campaigns with slogans such as “bikinis not burkas”.
It wants more law and order and promotes traditional, conservative “family values”, urging ethnic German women to have more babies.
The AfD demands the rolling back of European integration and promotes pro-market economic policies, putting it at odds with the anti-globalization National Front of France.
It disputes man-made climate change and has called the VW diesel emissions scandal a “witchhunt”.
The party wants to “return power to citizens”, including through Swiss-style referendums.
In foreign policy, like some other European protest parties, it advocates closer ties with Russia.
Poll support has dropped back from a peak of 16 percent at the height of the migrant influx to 8-12 percent now.
“The refugee issue has lost some of its immediacy,” said political scientist Hans Virchow, adding that many voters had also been turned off by inflammatory comments on German wartime guilt by far-right AfD member Bjoern Hoecke.
After new bouts of party infighting, members voted against making Petry their top election candidate, and the AfD entered the race with an unlikely duo.
One top candidate is Alice Weidel, 38, a Goldman Sachs economist who with her partner, a Sri Lankan-born woman, has adopted two children.
The other is Alexander Gauland, 76, who has repeatedly sparked outrage with racist comments, once claiming that Germans would “not want as a neighbor” a football star with a Ghana-born father.
He also recently questioned Germany’s obligation to atone for its Nazi past.
At the international level, the AfD has established contacts with France’s Marine Le Pen, UKIP and Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, while voicing support for US President Donald Trump — a stance that could become a liability.
For now the Trump election and Brexit have “acted as a vaccine against the seemingly unstoppable rise of far-right populism in Europe,” argued Joerg Forbrig from the German Marshall Fund.
Germany: Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Merkel nationalist party rises
Germany: Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Merkel nationalist party rises
Trump names former wrestling executive as Education Secretary
Describing McMahon as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights,” Trump said in a statement: “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”
McMahon is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team ahead of his return to the White House in January. It is tasked with filling some 4,000 positions in the government.
Regarding McMahon’s experience in education, Trump cited her two-year stint on the Connecticut Board of Education and 16 years on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic school.
McMahon left WWE in 2009 to run in vain for US Senate, and has been a major donor to Trump.
Since 2021, she has chaired the Center For The American Worker at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
During the election campaign Trump promised to do away with the federal education department when he returns to the White House.
“I say it all the time. I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” he said in September during a rally in Wisconsin.
At the Republican convention in Milwaukee, McMahon said she was “privileged to call Donald Trump a colleague and a boss,” as well as “a friend.”
Her ties with Trump go back to her years in the professional wrestling industry — she said she first met him as chief executive at WWE.
At the culmination of a staged feud, Trump once body-slammed her husband, legendary wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.
In 2017, she was confirmed as the head of the Small Business Administration, which is responsible for supporting America’s millions of small businesses, which employ around half the country’s private-sector workforce.
In nominating her, Trump pointed to her experience in business, helping to grow the WWE.
After leaving the administration, she served as chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC, or political action committee.
Children’s wellbeing ‘under threat’ in 2050, warns UNICEF
- The unchecked proliferation of new technologies poses threats to children and their personal data, making them vulnerable to online predators
UNITED NATIONS, United States: Demographic shifts, worsening climate change and rapid technological transformation risk creating a bleak future for youth in the mid-21st century, the United Nations agency for children warned Tuesday in an annual report.
“Children are experiencing a myriad of crises, from climate shocks to online dangers, and these are set to intensify in the years to come,” Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, wrote in a statement marking the release of the agency’s annual report.
“Decades of progress, particularly for girls, are under threat.”
This year, UNICEF uses its report to project forward to 2050 identifying three “major trends” that in addition to unpredictable conflicts pose threats to children unless policymakers make changes.
The first risk is demographic change, with the number of children expected to remain similar to current figures of 2.3 billion, but they will represent a smaller share of the larger and aging global population of around 10 billion.
While the proportion of children will decline across all regions, their numbers will explode in some of the poorest areas, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
This offers the potential to boost economic growth, but only if the new young population has access to quality education, health care, and jobs, UNICEF notes.
In some developed countries, children could make up less than 10 percent of the population by 2050, raising concerns about their “visibility” and rights in societies focused on aging populations.
The second threat is climate change.
If current greenhouse gas emission trends continue, by 2050 children could face eight times more heatwaves than in 2000, three times more extreme flooding, and 1.7 times more wildfires, UNICEF projects.
New technology, particularly artificial intelligence, has the potential to power new innovation and progress but could also widen existing inequalities between rich and poor countries.
An estimated 95 percent of people in developed nations have Internet access, compared to just 26 percent in the least developed, often due to a lack of electricity, connectivity, or devices.
“Failure to remove barriers for children in these countries, especially for those living in the poorest households, means letting an already disadvantaged generation fall even further behind,” according to UNICEF.
Being connected also carries risks. The unchecked proliferation of new technologies poses threats to children and their personal data, making them vulnerable to online predators.
“Children of the future face many risks, but what we wanted to demonstrate is that the solutions are in the hands of todays decision-makers,” Cecile Aptel, deputy director of UNICEF’s research division, told AFP.
Australia, Turkiye in 2026 UN climate summit hosting standoff
- The COP summit is the centerpiece of global climate diplomacy, where nearly 200 countries gather to negotiate joint plans and funding to avert the worst impacts of rising temperatures
BAKU: Australia and Turkiye are in a standoff over which country is better suited to host United Nations climate change talks in 2026, with neither willing to give up on their bid.
Both countries have been in the running since 2022, but matters have come to a head at this year’s COP29 summit being held this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Australia’s climate minister made a last-minute stop in Turkiye on Friday, his office confirmed, hoping to reach a deal on the Australian bid. However, Turkish officials declined to drop their bid and the two remain in talks.
The host has a central role in brokering compromises at the annual summit and steering the final phase of negotiations. This can deliver both diplomatic prestige and a global platform to promote the country’s green industries.
The COP summit is the centerpiece of global climate diplomacy, where nearly 200 countries gather to negotiate joint plans and funding to avert the worst impacts of rising temperatures.
Every country has a shot at hosting, if they want to, as a member of one of five regional groups to take it in turns.
That system has drawn criticism as fossil fuel producers including the United Arab Emirates have played host — raising concerns among campaigners over whether countries which are deeply invested in polluting industries can be honest brokers of climate talks.
Fatma Varank, Turkiye’s deputy environment minister, told Reuters that the country’s Mediterranean location would help reduce emissions from flights bringing delegates to the conference, and highlighted its smaller oil and gas industry compared with Australia.
Australia is among the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels.
“We don’t deny the fact that we have traditionally been a fossil fuel exporter, but we’re in the middle of a transition to changing to export renewable energy,” Australia’s climate minister Chris Bowen told Reuters at COP29.
“We have a story to tell,” he said, explaining that Australia was pitching a ‘Pacific COP’ to elevate issues affecting the region’s vulnerable island states.
Turkiye, which has a small oil and gas industry, gets around 80 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and was Europe’s second-largest producer of coal-fired electricity in 2023.
It offered to host the COP26 talks in 2021 but withdrew its bid, allowing Britain to preside over the summit. Varank said Turkiye was reluctant to step aside again.
Whoever wins would need unanimous backing from the 28 countries in the UN’s Western Europe and Others regional group. There is no firm deadline, although hosts are often confirmed years in advance to give them time to prepare.
Members including Germany, Canada and Britain have publicly backed Australia. Pacific leaders have backed Australia on the condition that it elevates the climate issues they suffer such as coastal erosion and rising seas.
Fiji’s climate secretary Sivendra Michael told Reuters the country backed Australia’s bid.
“But we are also cautiously reminding them of the national efforts that they need to make to transition away from fossil fuels,” Michael said.
Turkiye declined to say which members of the regional group had offered it support.
Ukraine, Middle East conflicts eating into US air defense stocks, US admiral says
- Paparo said the expenditure of US air defenses “imposes costs on the readiness” of the United States to respond in the Asia-Pacific, particularly given that China is the most capable adversary in the world
WASHINGTON: Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are eating into US stockpiles of air defenses, the top US admiral overseeing American forces in the Asia-Pacific region said on Tuesday.
The admission by Admiral Sam Paparo could draw the attention of members of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, who are more skeptical of the war in Ukraine and who argue that President Joe Biden has failed to prepare for a potential conflict with China.
“With some of the Patriots that have been employed, some of the air-to-air missiles that have been employed, it’s now eating into stocks and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said during an event.
Paparo said the expenditure of US air defenses “imposes costs on the readiness” of the United States to respond in the Asia-Pacific, particularly given that China is the most capable adversary in the world.
Biden’s administration has been steadily arming Ukraine and Israel with its most sophisticated air defenses. The US Navy has been directly defending shipping in the Red Sea in the face of missile and drone attacks from Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In the case of Ukraine, Biden has given Kyiv a full array of defenses, including Patriot missiles and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile systems.
The United States last month deployed to Israel a THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, and about 100 US troops to operate it. The THAAD is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems.
Progressive senators call to block US arms sales to Israel
- The Vermont representative told reporters that “what is happening in Gaza today is unspeakable,” pointing in particular to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in the Palestinian territory, as well as large-scale destruction of buildings
- The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the death toll from the ongoing war has reached 43,972 people, the majority civilians
WASHINGTON: A handful of left-leaning senators on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to halt arms sales to Israel, accusing the United States of playing a key role in the “atrocities” of the war in Gaza.
The four senators gave the media conference ahead of a Wednesday vote on resolutions condemning the US weapons sales — measures that are expected to fail given the large number of lawmakers who support Israel, a historic American ally.
The resolutions were put forth by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, alongside several other Democrats.
The Vermont representative told reporters that “what is happening in Gaza today is unspeakable,” pointing in particular to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in the Palestinian territory, as well as large-scale destruction of buildings and infrastructure.
“What makes it even more painful is that much of what is happening there has been done with US weapons and with American taxpayer support,” he said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the death toll from the ongoing war has reached 43,972 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
The war began first began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The administration of President Joe Biden has steadfastly backed Israel while counseling restraint for more than a year.
“The United States of America is complicit in these atrocities,” Sanders said. “That complicity must end and that is what these resolutions are about.”
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, also speaking at the media conference, questioned whether America’s foreign policy and commitment to Israel had forced the United States to “be blind to the suffering before our very eyes?“
