In the midst of the biggest political crisis of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron is enlisting the help of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in a sign that the right-wing ex-leader’s influence on Macron is on the rise.

In the space of three weeks, Macron, who has struggled to quell a month-long revolt against his reforms, has made two gestures towards Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012 on a hardline law-and-order platform.

Macron, 40, lunched with Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace on Nov. 30, an Elysee source said, just before the most violent weekend of demonstrations by “yellow vest” protesters who have caused havoc in some of the poshest districts of Paris.

Macron and Sarkozy discussed public order, as well as one of the tax measures Macron announced last week — a tax exemption for overtime work — which was a key plank of Sarkozy’s own program while he was president, Le Figaro reported.

Last Sunday Macron sent Sarkozy to Tbilisi to represent France at the swearing-in of Georgia’s new president, a move that caused a stir in French political circles.

Sources close to Sarkozy see it as a way for Macron to send a signal to right-wing voters in France who have been shocked by images of burning cars in up-market areas of Paris and Macron’s decision to try to buy off the protesters with costly handouts.

“Emmanuel Macron has understood the personal and political benefit he could draw from [Sarkozy],” said one source close to the 63-year-old former president, whose defeat in conservative primaries in 2016 marked his exit from the political stage.

“In a time of crisis, it’s a good idea to keep up relations with those you have points in common with,” the source said. ‘Cordial’ relations

An Elysee official said Macron and Sarkozy had a “cordial, and respectful” relationship, adding that the former president’s role during the 2008 Georgian crisis — when he mediated between Russia and Georgia — justified the honor.

But Francois Patriat, a senator and close ally of Macron, suggested the president also had a more immediate political goal in mind.

Only six months ahead of European elections, Macron is keen to undermine Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the conservative Republicans, the biggest opposition party, to which Sarkozy also belongs.

“By sending this signal, Macron is taking a pop at Wauquiez,” Patriat said.

Sarkozy has refrained from criticizing Macron publicly since his 2017 election, unlike another former president, Socialist Francois Hollande. Macron served as economy minister under Hollande and then ran for the presidency as an independent, all but dashing his boss’s hopes of winning a second mandate.

For Sarkozy, whose rivals suspect he still harbors political ambitions, Macron’s overtures are also useful.

“It’s a way for Sarkozy to appear at the center of the game, while stinging Wauquiez,” said Damien Abad, a senior official in the Republicans.
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The World Bank has approved a $750 million loan guarantee for Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said on Twitter on Tuesday, calling it proof of his nation’s “tangible progress on the reform path.”

The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other bodies support Ukraine with loan agreements conditional on Kiev passing reforms and tackling corruption. The IMF executive board was expected to meet later on Tuesday to approve a new stand-by loan deal for Ukraine worth $3.9 billion.
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Outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is urging the Palestinians to accept a peace deal, saying they have more to gain than Israel.

 

“It is time we faced a hard truth: both sides would benefit greatly from a peace agreement, but the Palestinians would benefit more, and the Israelis would risk more,” Haley said Tuesday at her final appearance at the monthly Security Council meeting on the Middle East issue.

 

“Israel is a thriving, strong, prosperous country,” Haley told fellow ambassadors.  “It has always wanted peace with its neighbors.  It has clearly demonstrated its willingness to make big sacrifices for peace, including giving up large areas of land, but Israel will not make a peace agreement at any price, and it shouldn’t,” she said.

Haley, an outspoken advocate for Israel said of the Palestinians: “Given my record, some may mistakenly conclude that I am unsympathetic to the Palestinian people – nothing could be further from the truth.”

 

The U.S. envoy described the Palestinians as a proud people, and like the Israelis, do not need to accept a peace agreement at any price.

“But the condition of the Palestinian people is very different,” she added.

 

Haley noted the poor state of the Palestinian economy, the lack of basic services, including health care and electricity, and the de facto rule of Hamas over the Gaza Strip.  

“Terrorists rule much of the territory, undermining the safety of all civilians,” Haley said.  “The Palestinian people are suffering terribly, while their leadership clings to 50-year old demands that have only become less and less realistic.”

 

A peace agreement, she said, would offer the Palestinians the possibility of a “massive improvement” in their living conditions and greater control over their political future.

 

US plan

The Trump administration has repeatedly delayed unveiling its much anticipated plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace and in the meantime has taken unilateral steps, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and dramatically cutting its funding to the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees.  Both moves have infuriated the Palestinian leadership and severely strained their relationship with Washington as an impartial peace broker.

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and his Special Envoy on the peace process, Jason Greenblatt, are tasked with putting a plan together to end one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

 

Haley, who is also a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, told council members she has seen the proposed plan and that it is “not just a few pages, containing unspecific and unimaginative guidelines,” but is longer with “much more thoughtful detail.”  But she did not elaborate on any of those details, only saying it would be different from all previous proposals.

“There are things in the plan that every party will like, and there are things that every party will not like,” she added.  She urged both sides to focus on what they do like and push negotiations forward.  “Ultimately, as always, the final decisions can only be made by the parties themselves, she said, noting it will be up to the Israelis and Palestinians to decide their own futures and what sacrifices they are willing to make.

International effort

 

Tensions have been high in recent days, with an increase in terrorist attacks, clashes and violence in the West Bank, and security measures and search operations in response from the Israeli side.  There have been casualties on both sides.  

The U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, lamented to the council in his briefing that the international community is nowhere closer to reviving efforts for a negotiated solution.

 

“Without a political horizon, all our collective and individual efforts merely contribute to managing the conflict rather than resolving it,” he said.  

 

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Jordan’s King Abdullah Tuesday in Amman.  The Jordanian news agency Petra reported the king stressed the need to break the stalemate in the peace process and launch serious and effective talks between the two sides.

 
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The European Union agreed Monday to a goal of cutting carbon emissions from cars by 37.5 percent in a decade, finally settling differences between vehicle-producing countries and environmentally-conscious lawmakers.

The 28-nation bloc has been divided for months over how strict to be on CO2 emissions from vehicles as part of its push to reduce greenhouse gases overall by 40 percent by 2030.

Germany, with the EU’s biggest auto sector worth some 423 billion euros ($480 billion) in 2017, had warned tough targets and the drive toward more electric cars could harm its industry and cost jobs.

Representatives of the European Parliament and the EU countries finally struck a compromise Monday, after nine hours of talks, to cut emissions from cars by 37.5 percent and vans by 31 percent by 2030 compared with 2021.

There was also agreement on an interim target of a 15 percent cut for both cars and vans by 2025.

“This is an important signal in our fight against climate change,” said current EU president Austria’s Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Koestinger.

But Brussels-based green lobbying group Transport & Environment expressed disappointment the deal was not even more ambitious.

“Europe is shifting up a gear in the race to produce zero-emission cars. The new law means by 2030 around a third of new cars will be electric or hydrogen-powered,” said its clean vehicles director, Greg Archer. “That’s progress, but it’s not fast enough to hit our climate goals.”

The compromise was tougher than the original EU executive proposal of an emissions decline of 30 percent compared to 2021.

Germany had endorsed that, but a push by several EU countries, including the Netherlands and France, raised the target for EU countries to 35 percent. The EU Parliament had wanted 40 percent, so in the end, they split the difference.

The German automobile association (VDA) said the new legislation would set high demands while doing little to promote or provide incentives for switching to electric vehicles.

EU countries were among nearly 200 that agreed Saturday to rules for implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord at a U.N. conference in Poland.

“Today’s successful outcome is even more important in view of this weekend’s conclusions … in Katowice. It clearly shows, once again, our unwavering commitment to the Paris Agreement,” EU Climate Commissioner Arias Canete said.

EU countries are separately considering the extent to which truck emissions should be cut, with a debate due Thursday.
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France agreed Monday to a new military framework with Burkina Faso that would speed engagement of its forces to fight Islamist militants in a northern border region of Burkina where there has been a spike in violence.

The arid Sahel region is suffering violence from militant groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State, highlighting the difficulty international partners face in restoring regional stability.

The northern region of Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has been especially hard hit, leaving the fragile West African state struggling to assert its authority since ex-Burkinabe president Blaise Compaore was ousted in 2014 at the hands of a popular uprising.

“There will be no extra [troop] involvement on the French side,” President Emmanuel Macron said at a news conference with Burkinabe counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kabore in Paris.

However, he said Paris was ready to send more trainers and military advisers as well as extra equipment.

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said the two sides had signed an agreement defining the legal framework for security cooperation, suggesting that French troops could provide help more quickly and easily to Burkinabe forces.

Paris will provide the local army with 34 pickup trucks.

France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened in Mali in 2013 to drive out Islamist militants who had occupied the north, and has since kept about 4,500 troops in the region as part of Barkhane counterterrorism operations. It has between 250 and 400 special forces based in Burkina. Led by France, Western powers have provided funding to a regional force made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania to combat jihadists.

But the so-called G5 force has been hobbled by delays in disbursing the money and poor coordination between the five countries while insecurity has escalated.
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The U.N. General Assembly voted nearly unanimously Monday to adopt a framework to strengthen the international response to the global refugee crisis.

The United States and Hungary were the only two nations that voted against the Global Compact on Refugees, while 181 countries voted in favor. The Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya abstained.

“It is a global commitment to step up and shoulder our responsibilities toward refugees, to find solutions that respect their human rights, to provide them with hope, and to recognize the legal responsibility to protect and support them,” said U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in welcoming the vote.

She urged all member states to begin implementing the framework as soon as possible.

Over the past 18 months, states in conjunction with the U.N. Refugee Agency negotiated the non-binding document, which aims to ease the pressure on refugee host countries and support conditions in countries for displaced citizens to return home.

There are more than 25 million refugees worldwide, and just 10 countries host 60 percent of them. Most host countries are middle- or low-income ones and the compact seeks to more equitably distribute burden-sharing and help make refugees more self-reliant.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi welcomed the adoption, saying it is the first time he has seen countries take such a comprehensive and broad approach to cooperating on the issue. But he had strong words for countries which have taken a hard line on migration and refugees.

“In this world of ours which often turns its back to people in need — that has shamefully politicized even the pain of exile, that has demonized and continues to demonize refugees and migrants, and sometimes even just foreigners — this compact, in synergy with the other compact on migration, can really represent tangibly a new commitment to international cooperation,” Grandi said.

United States

In November, the United States said it would vote against the compact over sovereignty concerns. It also quit negotiations on the global compact on migration.

The Trump administration has come in for harsh criticism for its treatment of migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico, its travel ban on persons from certain Muslim countries, and its decision to sharply cut the number of refugees it resettles. But it has remained the U.N. Refugee Agency’s largest single donor, contributing more than $1.45 billion in 2017.

“I think that there is a fundamental commitment of the U.S.,” Commissioner Grandi told reporters. “I would have hoped that they would support it [the compact] institutionally, but in substance, I think that support will continue to be there.”

‘Protection, compassion, solidarity’

He urged countries to keep their borders open and said both refugees and migrants deserve “protection and compassion and solidarity.” He noted that when given opportunities, refugees “can make a formidable contribution” to the societies hosting them.

“The compact aims at providing states and communities with the tools to maximize, to create those opportunities,” Grandi said.

On Wednesday, the General Assembly will vote to endorse the Global Compact on Migration, which was adopted at an international conference in Marrakesh last week.
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Russia used every major social media platform to target voters with misinformation to try to get Donald Trump elected president, according to a new report that was prepared for the U.S. Senate and seen by The Washington Post. 

The report says Russians working for a group called The Internet Research Agency (IRA) began experimenting with social media to influence local elections in 2009 and expanded its operations to U.S. elections in 2013 using Twitter.

It gradually added other popular social media sites to its campaign, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

For the 2016 presidential campaign, the report says Russians attempted to stir up conservative voters to back Trump by stressing such issues as gun rights and immigration.

At the same time, the Russian operatives sent black voters messages and other information aimed at confusing them about the electoral process, including misleading information on how to vote.

​Other groups, such as liberals, women, Muslims, Latinos, and veterans, were also targeted with similar messages either appealing to their politics or trying to discourage them from voting.

“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says according to The Washington Post. 

The newspaper says the report criticizes technology companies for what it calls their “belated and uncoordinated response” when the misinformation campaign was discovered and their delay in sharing information with investigators.

The report also warns that social media is morphing from what it says are tools for “sharing collective grievances and coordinating civic engagement,” including in the Middle East, to threats to democracy from “canny political consultants” and “politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike.”

The Post says Facebook and Google have not commented on the report. But Twitter says it has made “significant strides since the 2016 election to harden its digital defenses.”

The United States has already leveled criminal charges against Russia’s Internet Research Agency for interfering in the 2016 campaign. 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election and whether the president has tried to obstruct justice by trying to undermine the probe.

Trump denies there was any collusion and calls the Mueller probe a “witch hunt.”
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Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will warn MPs against supporting a second referendum, saying it would do “irreparable damage” to British politics.

“Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum,” she is expected to tell parliament, according to extracts from her speech released by Downing Street.

“Another vote … would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics,” she will say, adding that a second vote “would likely leave us no further forward.”

She will warn that another referendum would also “further divide our country at the very moment we should be working to unite it.”

Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in 2016 and is set to leave on March 29 next year, although May is struggling to get parliament to accept a divorce agreement she struck last month.

May has faced calls for a second referendum to resolve the impasse but has argued that this would betray the 2016 result and undermine public confidence in politics.

For ‘People’s Vote’

Campaigners for a referendum said May’s comments Monday showed that the idea is being taken seriously.

“A new public vote would be different from the referendum in 2016 because we now know more about what Brexit means,” said Margaret Beckett, an MP from the main opposition Labour Party and “People’s Vote” supporter.

“Any effort to force Brexit over the line without checking that it has the continued consent of the British people will only reinforce divisions,” she said.

Dozens of MPs from all the main parties also support a second referendum, as do former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair.

There have also been reports that government officials are considering giving the public a vote.

May has delayed a crucial vote by MPs on the draft Brexit deal until next month, leaving the political scene in limbo.

If parliament fails to approve the text, Britain will crash out of the European Union regardless — a prospect that experts warn could lead to serious trade disruption and trigger a financial crisis.

Against vote

But former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit campaigner, said anyone considering a second referendum was “out of their minds.”

“A second referendum would provoke instant, deep and ineradicable feelings of betrayal,” he wrote on Monday in his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.
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A fifth person died Sunday from gunshot wounds in last week’s Christmas market terror attack in Strasbourg.

The French prosecutor’s office said the victim was a Polish national.

His brother identified him in a Facebook message as Barto Pedro Orent-Niedzielski, a 36-year-old native of Katowice.

Four others died and 11 were wounded when a gunman identified as Cherif Chekatt opened fire last Tuesday in the world-famous Christmas market in central Strasbourg.

Witnesses tipped off police Friday that a suspect matching Chekatt’s description was spotted in the Strasbourg neighborhood where he grew up.

When police confronted him, he turned and opened fire. Officers shot back, killing Chekatt.

He had an extensive criminal record and was on a terror watch list.

Chekatt’s father told investigators his son was a follower of Islamic State and the terror group claimed him as one of its “soldiers.”

But French Interior Minister Christophe said he doubts Chekatt belonged to the terror group, calling its claim opportunistic.

The victims of the attack were honored and remembered Sunday night in Kleber Square, close to the Christmas market.

About 1,000 people held a moment of silence before spontaneously bursting into applause and a rendition of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”

Many of those in the crowd were in tears as they vowed not to give in to terror and hate.
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A memorial is being held at a square in the eastern French city of Strasbourg to remember the four people who were shot dead and the dozen who were wounded by a gunman several days ago.

The gathering Sunday morning was in Kleber Square by the city’s famed Christmas market, near where the gunman opened fire Tuesday evening.

French authorities launched a massive manhunt after the attack that ended Thursday night when the main suspect, Strasbourg-born Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in a shootout with police in the city neighborhood where he grew up.

 

French authorities are still investigating the Strasbourg Christmas market attack. Chekatt’s parents and his two brothers, who had been held by police for questioning for several days, were released on Saturday.

 

 

 
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As a hunger strike by jailed Catalan separatist politicians enters its third week and begins to take a toll on their health, they say their upcoming treason trial will allow them to peacefully promote their cause for independence from Spain.

In rare interviews in a prison north of Barcelona, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull, who has been in a medical ward since Friday, repeated calls for dialogue between Catalan’s regional government and Spain’s central authorities in Madrid. They also rejected any depiction of the secessionist movement in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia as violent.

Sanchez told The Associated Press that their trial, set to begin early next year, will be “a unique moment to denounce the attitude of the Kingdom of Spain contrary to the political and democratic rights in Catalonia.”

“We are not going to let this opportunity go to waste,” he added.

​Hearing Tuesday

Spain says the 22 defendants in the case are being prosecuted not for their ideas but for defying court orders by holding a banned independence referendum in Catalonia last year and making an illegal attempt to secede.

Some of them have been indicted on charges of rebellion or sedition and face decades in prison in what local media have dubbed “the trial of the century” in Spain’s Supreme Court. A preliminary hearing will be Tuesday, although the defendants are not expected in court until weeks later.

Catalonia’s banned independence referendum in October 2017, Spain’s violent crackdown to stop it and a subsequent declaration of independence by Catalan authorities led to an unprecedented seven-month takeover by central authorities of the region of 7.4 million people.

More than a year later, the shockwaves from the Catalan independence movement are still being felt across Spain. A political divide is growing between Catalan and Spanish nationalism, a development that has fueled the momentum of a far-right populist party that recently won a dozen seats in Andalusia’s regional parliament.

Four on hunger strike

Sanchez emerged wearing three layers of clothes despite normal heating in the modern prison managed by the Catalan government. His doctor says a permanent chill is the result of not ingesting calories and adds that the 54 year-old has lost more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) since he began fasting on Dec. 1.

Turull, a former candidate to become the region’s chief, was sent to the Lledoners prison infirmary Friday because his kidneys have been affected after he shed more than 13 pounds in two weeks. He tricks his body to ignore its hunger with nicotine.

Two more former Catalan cabinet members joined the strike Dec. 3, but other inmates from a competing separatist political group, including former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, have chosen not to join, again exposing different approaches within the independence movement.

Turull said his protest comes with “a sense of responsibility” and he is not looking to starve to death.

“Its end depends on how far our strength takes us and on achieving our goal of calling attention to Spain’s judicial problem,” the 52-year-old lawyer said.

Goal: European court

Their aim is to press Spain’s Constitutional Court to rule on appeals about their political rights and their prolonged pre-trial jailing. The strikers think the court is deliberately trying to block them from reaching the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where they hope to expose the judicial flaws they see at home.

The Spanish top court has recently begun to issue some rulings in a series of appeals and says that it’s working as fast as the judicial calendar allows it to in “dealing with the complexity of a case that affects fundamental rights and a careful analysis of criminal law.”

Central Spanish authorities see no reason for the hunger strike.

“Their arguments are false. They will have a fair trial because in Spain the judiciary is independent,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said recently, adding that his government rejects both taking politics to court and “politicizing justice.”

Sanchez, a Socialist, has tried a conciliatory tone, but his approach has not reduced tensions with the Catalan separatists. Hardening rhetoric against the nationalists has spread across Spain’s political spectrum and coincided with the ascent of Vox, a far-right party.

Far right strengthens

Turull, a longtime secessionist, says Spain’s far right is dragging other parties to its extremism and becoming “a machine of generating tensions” in Catalonia. He also says Sanchez should consider dialogue more than ever, including on the underlying issue of Catalan self-determination.

No prime minister in Spain has agreed to that in the past, arguing it goes against Spain’s constitution. With polls showing that Catalan society is evenly divided on the issue of independence, Sanchez instead defends more self-government in Catalonia as a solution, and says he would rather spend time talking about social and economic policies.
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