Twenty-one-year-old Beniamin Pieknyi, a Romanian, was walking in a London shopping mall when he was chased and stabbed to death by a group of assailants for no apparent reason last March. His grieving brother and sister, who had been living with him in the British capital, have returned to Romania since, saying London is a dangerous place where “terrible things can happen in the blink of an eye.”

Terrible things have indeed been happening in London. Hardly a day goes by without a report of a knifing on London’s streets.

The number of offenses involving a knife or bladed weapon recorded by the Metropolitan Police in the first three months of this year rose to 40,147, a seven-year record, prompting rising public alarm and angry accusations that city authorities and police have all but lost control, due to government-driven cuts in policing and the budgets of local social service departments.

The rise in violent crime in the last eight years in the capital has coincided with a 15 percent reduction in the number of police officers and 40 percent decline in neighborhood policing involving officers walking or driving a beat.

On Monday, London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, warned it could take a generation before the tide is turned on violent crime in the capital. His warning provoked an outcry with critics saying London doesn’t have a decade – if it wants to save lives, restore law and order as well as re-establish a reputation for safety.

As if to underline that, last week, five Londoners were fatally stabbed in separate attacks. The victims included a 16-year-old boy, an aspiring rapper and gang member, who died in front of his parents in the south London inner suburb of Tulse Hill. The killing marked the 119th violent death this year in the capital – 69 of which were the result of stabbings. The hosts of a popular morning TV show berated Khan on air while interviewing him, saying, “Sort it out, Mr. Mayor!”

Many of the stabbings are gang-related, and crime analysts fear the numbers are likely to increase because of a shift in the nature and structure of the drug gangs and markets they are vying to control. Until recently, street gangs were focused on geographical territory, but now they are more freewheeling and tied less to their own streets and boroughs as they seek to maximize profits. They have also become more secretive, business-focused as well as much more ruthless. They recruit aggressively, threatening youngsters, including at elementary schools, and intimidating them to join them.

“The gangs are in the schools, they are in the colleges; some people have to change schools just because there are gangs waiting outside,” said Byron Douglas-Letts, the brother of a stabbing victim. “Even if you don’t want to be part of it, you are part of it,” he told the BBC.

Douglas-Letts’ brother, Lewis Elwin, was stabbed to death in 2016 just a few streets away from Sadiq Khan’s home in the south London borough of Wandsworth. The mayor attended the funeral. Elwin had turned 20 when he was stabbed in the back near an elementary school in Tooting. Lewis Elwin staggered along the street before collapsing as horrified parents were picking up their children from the school. Medics fought to save him but he bled to death at the scene.

Just days before his murder, family members had warned Elwin that he was running with a dangerous crowd. “Lewis having his life cut short in this terrible manner devastated our family,” said Douglas-Letts. He says much more needs to be done to counter intimidatory and predatory recruiting by gangs.

So do others, who fear that violent gang culture is seeping into youth culture generally in the capital and other big cities in Britain, with youngsters seeing it as only natural to pack knives and resolve petty disputes with a knife thrust.

Half of the stabbing victims have been under age 24. Many, like Beniamin Pieknyi, weren’t members of gangs or involved in drug dealing. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, say police, victims of unprovoked attacks, ordinary people just going about their business, from shopping to enjoying a carefree night on the town.

 

Ann Oakes-Odger, founder of the campaigning group KnifeCrimes.Org, which she set up after her son Westley was stabbed to death, blames the legal system for being soft on crime. “At the moment, the people involved in crime seem to be laughing at the legal system.” She wants tougher sentencing for knife crimes, arguing they would act as a deterrent.

There’s mounting pressure, too, on the government from both police chiefs and law and order campaigners to expand police stop-and-search powers by lowering the level of suspicion an officer needs to frisk a suspect. They want to scrap the requirement that “reasonable grounds” are needed before a person can be stopped for a search. Britain’s interior minister, Sajid Javid, is said to be receptive to the idea.

But that has triggered the concern of rights organizations about police discrimination against minority ethnic communities, civil liberties and the poor role stop-and-search played in the past when police had wider powers in actually reducing violent crime.

Jennifer Jones, a member of the House of Lords and a prominent member of the Green Party, doesn’t believe expanding stop-and-search powers will have any effect in reducing knife crime.

She draws a comparison with the ineffectiveness of tough terrorism laws in the past. “It was only a few years ago,” she told the British newspaper The Guardian, “that we got rid of the open-ended Section 44 terrorism powers because it was found that year after year only one in a thousand searches led to an arrest for a terrorism-related crime, and that between 2000 and 2008 no one was convicted of a terrorism offense as a result of such a stop.”

Khan points to the success Glasgow has had in reducing knife crime by pursuing early intervention measures in schools, focusing on troubled youths and gang members and ensuring coordination among police, teachers, parents and social services. But that strategy is time-consuming and labor-intensive – and it was a decade before the strategy paid off.

It isn’t only in London where officials are looking for ways to reduce violent crime. Stabbing incidents have risen by a third elsewhere in Britain, especially in Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool, which have been hard hit. Even rural areas are seeing a jump, notably in north Wales and Norfolk, partly a consequence, say police, of city gangsters expanding into towns once the preserve of small-time dealers.

 
…

European banks and firms which engage in a special European Union initiative to protect trade with Iran will be at risk from newly reimposed U.S. sanctions, the U.S. special envoy for Iran warned on Thursday.

It is “no surprise” that EU efforts to establish a so-called Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for non-dollar trade with Iran were floundering over fear in EU capitals that hosting it would incur U.S. punishment, Special Representative Brian Hook said.

“European banks and European companies know that we will vigorously enforce sanctions against this brutal and violent regime,” he said in a telephone briefing with reporters.

“Any major European company will always choose the American market over the Iranian market.”

The SPV is seen as the lynchpin of European efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran from which U.S. President Donald Trump, who took office after the deal was sealed, withdrew in May.

Iran has warned it could scrap the agreement, which curbed its disputed program in exchange for sanctions relief, if the EU fails to preserve the deal’s economic benefits.

The SPV was conceived as a clearing house that could be used to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods in an effective barter arrangement circumventing U.S. sanctions, based on global use of the dollar for oil sales.

Brussels had wanted to have the SPV set up by this month, but no country has offered to host it, six diplomats told Reuters this week.

Their reluctance arises from fears that SPV reliance on local banks to smooth trade with Iran may trigger U.S. penalties, severing the lenders’ access to U.S. financial markets, diplomats said.

Criticizing EU efforts to bypass sanctions, Hook reiterated a warning that such an EU effort sent “the wrong signal, at the wrong time.”

However, he added that waivers from sanctions granted to eight of Iran’s biggest oil importers were to ensure the U.S. measures did not harm allies or raise oil prices.

“We have looked at these on a case by case basis, taking into account the unique needs of friends and partners, and also ensuring that as we impose sanctions on Iran’s oil sector that we do not lift the price of oil,” Hook said.
…

President Emmanuel Macron, hit by a slump in popularity, faces a nationwide protest this weekend over rising fuel taxes that threatens to gridlock France’s roads and show the depth of discontent with his reforms to reshape the

economy.

Dubbed the “yellow vest” movement, demonstrators are threatening to block motorways and access roads to some oil depots, including in Calais near the Channel Tunnel, a major passenger and freight link into Britain.

The protest is the latest confrontation between Macron and voters in the countryside and provincial cities which view the former investment banker as the representative of an urban elite out of touch with ordinary people.

In 18 months in power, Macron has stared down muscular trade unions and street demonstrations as he liberalized labor laws and overhauled the heavily indebted state rail operator SNCF, unflinching in his resolve to bring economic and social renewal.

He has tried to shrug off accusations he is a “president of the rich”, a tag milked by rivals after he scrapped a wealth tax. This time his administration — which appeared caught off guard by how fast the protest movement grew as word spread on social media – has sought to soothe poorer motorists.

“I hear the anger, and it’s a fundamental right in our society to be allowed to express it,” Macron said in a television interview late on Wednesday.

But he added the protest movement, embraced by Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party and receiving tentative support from other parties on the left and right, had been hijacked by opponents and their supporters bent on obstructing reforms without a clear vision of their own.

The price of diesel, the most commonly used car fuel in France, at the pump increased by 20 percent in the past year to an average of 1.49 euros ($1.68)/liter, according to website www.carbu.com.

The higher taxes, approved in late 2017, started biting as oil prices surged in October though they have eased off somewhat since.

“What do you do with the dough?”

Increases in taxes on gasoline and tobacco as well as an increase to a social welfare levy before other tax cuts came into force left many voters feeling Macron’s reforms had eroded their purchasing power.

Their anger is reflected in opinion polls showing support for Macron falling to new lows of 21 percent.

The government is standing firm on the fuel tax hikes but on Wednesday announced a 500 million euro plan to help motorists with the lowest incomes, seeking to take the sting out of the protest movement.

The diesel tax increases are designed to encourage drivers to switch to more environmentally-friendly automobile models, part of Macron’s “energy transition” plan.

But critics say that while the government hits people’s wallets, it lacks a clear vision on switching to greener energy sources, citing foot-dragging by Macron’s administration on reducing France’s reliance on nuclear power. Rural voters are also angered by a speed limit reduction on countryside roads.

“What do you do with the dough, aside from changing the crockery at the Elysee palace or building yourselves swimming pools?” exclaimed Brittany resident Jacline Mouraud in a Facebook post viewed more than six million times.

“If that’s what the money is used for, we might as well change, there’s no point in you staying on.”

($1 = 0.8853 euros)
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This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them. 

A priest in a white robe swung an incense burner, leading the way for thousands of marchers as they crammed into a winding cobblestone alley decorated with candy-colored streamers in Lisbon’s ancient Alfama neighborhood. 

Behind the priest, six men carried a life-sized statue of St. Anthony, Lisbon’s patron saint, born more than 800 years ago. The musky incense swirled together with the smoke from orange-hot charcoals grilling whole sardines a few streets away. 

The procession moved along, leaving behind just the smell of the sardines. 

In this city, June is the month to celebrate the saints. Almost every neighborhood throws a party, known as an arraial. 

Some are just a scattering of makeshift tables in alleyways. Others cover several blocks and are jammed with tourists and locals alike. The saints are quickly forgotten in the din of pumping pop music, brass bands, chattering families, indiscreet lovers and flirty teens. The sardines are not. They’re the star of every party. 

The fish are so popular here, fisheries managers estimate that the Portuguese collectively eat 13 sardines every second during a typical June — about 34 million fish for the month. 

But as climate change warms the seas and inland estuaries, sardines are getting harder to catch. Just a week before the festival, authorities postponed sardine fishing in some ports out of a fear that the diminishing population, vulnerable to changes in the Atlantic’s water temperatures, was being overfished. 

In the last few decades, the world’s oceans have undergone the most rapid warming on record. Currents have shifted. These changes are for the most part invisible. But this hidden climate change has had a disturbing impact on marine life — in effect, creating an epic underwater refugee crisis. 

Effect on communities

Drawing on decades of maritime temperature readings, fisheries records and other little-used data, Reuters has undertaken an extensive exploration of the disrupted deep. A team of reporters has discovered that from the waters off the East Coast of the United States to the shores of West Africa, marine creatures are fleeing for their lives, and the communities that depend on them are facing turbulence as a result. 

Here in Lisbon, the decline of the country’s most beloved fish tugs at the Portuguese soul. A nation on Europe’s western edge, Portugal has always turned toward the sea. For centuries, it has sent its people onto the sometimes treacherous oceans, from famous explorers like Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco da Gama to little-known fishermen who left weeping wives on the shore. 

The St. Anthony’s festival commemorates a 13th-century priest who, church doctrine says, once drew a bay full of fish to hear his sermon. It is the capital’s biggest, most joyous celebration of the year. 

At the bottom of the track where two bright yellow funicular trains begin and end an 800-foot vertiginous trip through the Bica neighborhood, a social club and a local cafe set up for the festival. Mostly locals were present, though a few German and French tourists have found their way to the party. 

Four friends sat around a wobbly plastic table perched outside the G.D. Zip Zip social club. There was just enough room for others to walk past and get to the homemade grill where the sardines were being cooked. Three of the friends had sardine skeletons and heads heaped on their plates. They talked about the fish that’s as iconic in Portugal in the summer as a hamburger on the grill in America. 

This year, however, because of limits on fishing, the available fish were mostly frozen. 

“We listen to it all year round that maybe this year, we will not have sardines,” Helena Melo said. 

Fifteen feet up the hill, Jorge Rito, who has been cooking for the club every June for five years, wiped his watering eyes with the back of his hand. He’d just gotten another order and tossed a dozen whole sardines onto the grill in neat rows. 

As he flipped the silvery fish, each seven or eight inches long, a burst of smoke rose from the charcoal, and he wiped his eyes again. 

“Worried? Yes, of course,” he said, removing the fish from the grill and placing them onto a platter. “It is important for our finances, our economies, for us.” 

 

Youngest sardines vulnerable 

 

Just as the next generation of humans may pay the highest price for climate change, the youngest generation of sardines is at risk. 

Susana Garrido, a sardine researcher with the Portuguese Oceanic and Atmospheric Institute in Lisbon, said larval sardines are especially vulnerable to climate change when compared with other similar pelagic species, such as larval anchovies, which are capable of living in a wider range of temperatures. 

Deep seawater upwelling dominates the waters off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula and keeps the coastal waters cool. But small differences in temperature, especially when sardines are young, can have a significant impact on whether the fish larva dies or grows to maturity, Garrido said. 

Other researchers had tested how well adult sardines survived in a variety of conditions, and there was little evidence that environmental variables such as food abundance and water temperature affected the full-grown fish, she said. So she focused on the larval stage of the species. 

“We did a bunch of experiments varying salinity and all of these other variables, and they survived quite well,” she said. “It was when you change temperature that everything, yes, fell apart. So they have a very narrow range of temperatures where survival is good.” 

Garrido said a recently completed stock assessment showed that the larval sardine population was extremely low. 

“This is getting very serious,” she said. 

The Portuguese sardine population started to fall about a decade ago, even though there were plenty of adults at the time to sustain large catches. And around the same time, southerly species, such as chub and horse mackerel, slowly moved in. 

Chub mackerel, a subtropical species that was once found only in southern Portugal, is now caught all the way up the coast. 

“Probably as a consequence of warming, it is now invading the main spawning area of sardines,” Garrido said. 

Larger forces at work

Alexandra Silva, who works down the hall from Garrido, has been managing the Portuguese sardine stock assessment since the late 1990s — pivotal work that the organization uses to decide the size of the sardine catch. 

When she started, the northern population of the species was in trouble following a period of strong upwelling that brought unusually cold water to the surface. The southern stock, however, was relatively healthy. And in the early years of the century, the species recovered. 

It was not to last. These days, without large numbers of larvae growing to maturity, the population is near collapse all along the coast from Galicia in Spain to the southern end of the Portuguese coast. 

All officials can do is cut down on the fishing. But larger forces, especially climate change, are now affecting the stock in ways that fisheries managers cannot control, the two said. 

Regulators have tried. 

Starting in 2004, they blocked fishing during the spring, when sardines spawn. And for a while, that seemed to work. 

Between 2004 and 2011, the stock remained relatively healthy, with landings ranging from about 55,000 to 70,000 tons, even if the population seemed to be dipping. (From the 1930s to the 1960s, and as recently as the 1980s, fishermen landed more than 110,000 tons in a year.) 

In 2009, the Portuguese proudly announced that the Marine Stewardship Council, an independent monitoring body, had designated the species healthy and sustainable. That year, Portuguese fishermen landed 64,000 tons of the fish. By 2012, however, that number had dropped to 35,000 tons, and the country lost its sustainable certification.  

Since then, fisheries managers have restricted the number of days a week that fishermen can catch sardines, as well as the size of the catch. They’ve also restricted fishing to six months during a year. 

Last year, the catch was limited to about 14,000 tons. 

Further cuts ahead

Earlier this year, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, a forum of scientists that advises governments about fisheries management, warned that it would take at least 15 years to restore the stock at current fishing levels.  

After the report, European Union regulators permitted fishermen along the Iberian coast to continue at the current 16,100-ton level. But it also required Portugal, which gets the bulk of the quota, and Spain to submit a plan to restore the stock in October, which may well lead to further quota cuts. 

Fisheries manager Jorge Abrantes handles landings for Peniche, a sleepy fishing town about 60 miles north of Lisbon. He doesn’t think the fishing industry is the culprit. 

For example, Portuguese government stock assessments indicated that the sardine population had decreased by 10 percent to 25 percent in just a few months. Abrantes argued that the dip clearly wasn’t caused by fishermen pulling sardines from the sea, because no sardine nets were in the water during that period. Instead, he said, there are just not enough juvenile sardines to replenish the population. 

In Peniche, fishermen Erbes Martins and Joao Dias sat among piles of nets on a bright but chilly February morning. The two 75-year-old men would have preferred to be fishing for sardines. But the fish were spawning, so they were not allowed to catch them. 

Sure, there were other fish they could catch, but it wasn’t worth it, they say. 

 

Horse mackerel, or carapau in Portuguese, one of the southerly species that now thrive all along the coast, is abundant but doesn’t sell for much at market, Dias said. 

 

“We can’t fish for sardines in October, November, December, January, February, March — six months,” Dias said. “And carapau just doesn’t pay the bills.” 

He said the restrictions on fishing sardines were keeping a new generation from going to sea, because they can’t make enough money. 

 

“When we die,” he said, “no one is going to do the work.” 

‘I would miss this’ 

Lisbon’s Graca neighborhood sits at the highest point in the capital, its pastel homes looking down over the city’s six other hills. For the St. Anthony festival, two stages were set up for music, along with about 20 temporary food and drink stalls. 

 

Luis Diogo Sr., his wife, Rita, and their two children, Luis Jr. and Vera, came out to join the party. Luis Sr. looked across a picnic table at his son, who was well into his third plate of sardines. 

“This is a country between Spain and the sea, so we went to the sea very soon in our history,” he said. The talk turned to the present, and the dwindling catch of the city’s favorite seafood. 

Luis Jr. didn’t pay much attention to his father. He was too focused on his sardines. 

 

“I would miss this very much,” the 17-year-old said, wiping his lips clean after polishing off the last sardine on his plate. 
…

European Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Wednesday that the EU has a list of potential retaliation targets ready in case U.S. President Donald Trump imposes auto tariffs on EU member states.

Malmstrom told reporters after a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the two did not speak specifically about auto tariffs but focused instead on regulatory cooperation issues and ways to enable EU countries to import more American soybeans and liquefied natural gas.

Malmstrom did not specify the U.S. products on which the EU would levy retaliatory tariffs, as consultations would need to take place with member states. But she said the list could include “all kinds” of products.

“It could be cars, it could be agriculture, it could be industrial products, it could be everything. And we will do that, but hope we don’t have to get to that situation.”

Trump administration officials on Tuesday said the president’s trade team made no decisions on how to proceed with new recommendations from the Commerce Department on whether to impose tariffs on autos and auto parts to protect the U.S. industry on national security grounds. The contents of the recommendations have not been disclosed.

Malmstrom said that the EU is willing to negotiate a limited trade deal on industrial goods, including autos, that seeks to bring tariff rates to zero for both the United States and Europe, but the scope of these talks cannot be defined until early next year, when the USTR completes its consultation process with Congress and the EU receives a negotiating mandate from member states.

 
…

European cities are seeking greater recognition and support for their pioneering efforts to tackle climate change, both from national governments and the European Union, mayors leading the charge said on Wednesday.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau urged all political parties with candidates standing for the European Parliament next May to outline how they plan to help curb global warming.

“The elections should be an occasion for battling against climate change, and putting this important problem on the European agenda,” said Colau, speaking at a conference on smart cities in Barcelona.

The Catalan city adopted a climate plan this year, which the mayor said lays out a path to cut its planet-warming emissions 45 percent by 2030 and to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

The plan also aims to protect vulnerable citizens from intensifying heatwaves, rain storms and drought.

December’s U.N. climate talks in Poland are an opportunity for European cities to “remind their nations and the European Commission that we have to be leaders against climate change,” Colau added.

Georgios Kaminis, mayor of Athens — which is also feeling the effects of rising heat — said the EU should provide direct funding to cities to help them act on climate change.

That can be discussed as cities and the European Commission work out how to implement a U.N. plan for sustainable development of urban areas, he added.

Spanish climate law

At national level, Colau called on the Spanish government to support cities by boosting investment in infrastructure for public transport and cutting subsidies for diesel immediately.

The Socialist-led government on Tuesday published a draft document for a law on climate change and energy transition that it hopes to present to parliament by the end of the year.

The document proposes setting a timetable to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, in line with an overall goal of decarbonizing the economy, as well as a ban on sales of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2040.

Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the government wanted to work with cities, as it would be impossible for them to achieve emissions reductions and build resilience to climate change impacts alone.

But putting together their own plans would enable them to identify where cooperation with different institutions is needed, she said on the sidelines of the Barcelona conference.

The Spanish government wants to assist, and is working on reforms to help finance flow to the municipal level, she added.

Mayors stressed the urgency for all levels of government to move faster in line with a recent report from the U.N. climate science panel on ways the world can keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is also vice chair of the C40 network of cities acting on climate change, said 72 cities worldwide had pledged to develop plans by the end of 2020 to help meet the lower 1.5C warming goal in the Paris Agreement.

“We are strongly committed — the people of Milan strongly understand that if we go beyond 1.5C, it will be a disaster,” Sala said.

The Italian city is taking measures on a large scale to get people out of cars and onto public transport, such as building a fifth metro line connecting the airport to the city center, and changing its fleet of buses to run on electricity.

Athens, meanwhile, is rolling out ways to protect residents from heatwaves such as an app to alert them, and directing elderly people in poorer neighborhoods to green spaces and air-conditioned public buildings where they can cool down.

And Berlin’s governing mayor, Michael Muller, said the German city had been taking back control of energy, housing and transport in the city, after many operations were privatized in the 1990s, so that it can move them onto a cleaner path faster.

Colau noted that Barcelona is setting up its own power company to drive a shift towards 100 percent renewable sources.

“If a city can do this, what can a state do if they put the political will to it? It is time to be brave,” she said.
…

The European Union’s highest court has ruled that the taste of a food cannot be protected by copyright.

The European Court of Justice said Tuesday “the taste of a food product cannot be identified with precision of objectivity,” thus making it ineligible “for copyright protection.”

Dutch cheese maker Levola had argued that a rival company copied its herbed spread called Heksenkaas or witches’ cheese. The company claimed Heksenkaas was a work protected by copyright and asked the Dutch courts to insist that the rival firm cease production and sale of its cheese.

But the judges ruled that unlike books, movies, songs and the like, the taste of food depends on personal preferences and the context in which the food is consumed, “which are subjective and variable.”

“Accordingly, the court concludes that the taste of a food product cannot be classified as a ‘work,’ and consequently is not eligible for copyright protection under the directive,” the judges said.

This is not the first time the European Court of Justice had to settle disputes about food.

In July, it ruled Nestle could not trademark the four-finger shape of its KitKat chocolate bars.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Tuesday for an integrated European Union military, echoing language used by French President Emmanuel Macron last week that infuriated U.S. President Donald Trump.

Merkel told the European Parliament such an army would not undermine the U.S.-led military alliance NATO but would be complementary to it, remarks that were met with loud applause in the legislature though also with boos from nationalist members.

“The times when we could rely on others are over. This means we Europeans have to take our fate fully into our own hands,” Merkel said. “We should work on a vision of one day establishing a real European army.”

Macron’s call, which reflected a broad trend of EU thinking but is not universally accepted, was meant to show European willingness to meet U.S. demands that Europe do more for its own security and rely less on America’s security umbrella.

However, on Twitter on November 9, Trump accused Macron of seeking to develop the EU’s own military to defend itself from the United States, which EU and French officials said was a misunderstanding.

On Tuesday Trump took aim at Macron again, blasting France over its near-defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and Macron’s approval ratings.

In his remarks on November 6, Macron had been referring to computer hackers who could attack Europe from anywhere, including from inside the United States, officials said.

First proposed in the 1950s and taken up four years ago by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as a response to fraying EU unity, an EU armed forces is seen as strengthening the global power of the bloc, which is an economic giant but a geopolitical minnow.

With Britain’s pending departure from the EU, there may be more momentum for remaining member states to find common ground on defense, although there remain divisions.

Supporters of a European defense union say the EU has struggled in military and humanitarian missions in the Balkans, Libya and Africa, and that it was caught off guard by Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“No place for nationalism”

Merkel’s address comes at a time when the EU is searching for answers to a U.S. president who views the EU with contempt, to the rise of illiberal democracies and nationalist parties within its borders, and to Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

She made appeals for tolerance and solidarity, saying “nationalism and egotism should no longer have a place in Europe” to a sustained applause.

As a deadline looms for Italy’s euroskeptic government to re-submit budget plans to the European Union, Merkel said the euro zone would only work if all member states meet their treaty responsibilities.

“Our common currency can only function if every individual member fulfils their responsibility for sustainable finances,” Merkel said, adding that otherwise the strength and the stability of the euro zone were at risk.

“We want to extend a hand to Italy,” she later said. “But Italy also agreed to all sorts of rules and it can’t just tear them up.”

Merkel dominated European politics for over a decade, but she is now a diminished force, weakened by the fragility of her coalition and the rise of the far-right in Germany. She announced in late October that she would step down as leader of her party, though remain chancellor.

Her foot-dragging over far-reaching reforms to the eurozone has frustrated the energetic Macron. In the summer, they agreed to a budget for the single currency area but failed to deliver any big-bang reforms. Few concrete steps have been taken since.

On Tuesday, she kept her vision for deeper monetary cooperation vague: “We need to develop our monetary policy better. We’re working on a banking union,” she said. “We have to look at responsibility and control, a banking union and then later a European insurance system.”

Merkel also trained her sights on Poland and Hungary, two countries whose leaders other member states worry are undercutting democratic institutions.

The European Parliament in September voted to sanction Hungary for flouting EU rules on democracy, civil rights and corruption, while concerns have grown in the EU over Warsaw’s accelerated judicial overhaul.

“Solidarity is always linked to commitments of the community, and the principles based on rule of law,” Merkel said.
…

NATO is developing new high-tech tools, such as the ability to 3-D-print parts for weapons and deliver them by drone, as it scrambles to retain a competitive edge over Russia, China and other would-be battlefield adversaries. 

Gen. Andre Lanata, who took over as head of the NATO transformation command in September, told a conference in Berlin that his command demonstrated over 21 “disruptive” projects during military exercises in Norway this month. 

He urged startups as well as traditional arms manufacturers to work with the Atlantic alliance to boost innovation, as rapid and easy access to emerging technologies was helping adversaries narrow NATO’s long-standing advantage. 

Lanata’s command hosted its third “innovation challenge” in tandem with the conference this week, where 10 startups and smaller firms presented ideas for defeating swarms of drones on the ground and in the air. 

Winner from Belgium

Belgian firm ALX Systems, which builds civilian surveillance drones, won this year’s challenge.

Its CEO, Geoffrey Mormal, said small companies like his often struggled with cumbersome weapons procurement processes. 

“It’s a very hot topic, so perhaps it will help to enable quicker decisions,” he told Reuters. 

Lanata said NATO was focused on areas such as artificial intelligence, connectivity, quantum computing, big data and hypervelocity, but also wants to learn from DHL and others how to improve the logistics of moving weapons and troops. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said increasing military spending by NATO members would help tackle some of the challenges, but efforts were also needed to reduce widespread duplication and fragmentation in the European defense sector. 

Participants also met behind closed doors with chief executives from 12 of the 15 biggest arms makers in Europe. 
…