EU & Europe

Photo: The German learning platform openHPI makes it possible to absorb up-to-date, comprehensibly conveyed university knowledge on information technology and innovation topics from any location at any time - in several languages. Credit: HPI

Free Online Learning Courses from A German Platform in Demand Worldwide

By Hans-Joachim Allgaier

POTSDAM, Germany (IDN) — A German learning portal that provides free basic digitization knowledge in several languages to Internet users around the world is heading for its one-millionth enrolment. German science patron, Prof. Hasso Plattner, co-founder of the software company SAP and founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, is behind the international project and fully finances the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 17 July 2021

More Than 220,000 Germans Leave Catholic Church in 2020

By Catholic News Agency (CNA)*

ROME (IDN) — More than 220,000 people left Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year.

The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019 when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was higher than the 2018 figure of 216,078, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

: Europe Editor; HUMAN RIGHTS; Religion; 15 July 2021

Photo: For a half century, the French nuclear bomb tests and their consequences have cast a shadow over Tahiti. Image: Bruno Barrilo/Heinui Le Caill

France Denies Covering-Up Deadly Nuclear Tests in French Polynesia

By Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

SUVA (IDN) — The French government has denied any cover-up over radiation levels in the Pacific following its nuclear testing in the region, as state-backed discussions took place in Paris about the legacy of the explosions, reports France 24.

A two-day meeting called by French President Emmanuel Macron was held following fresh allegations that the testing from 1966 to 1996 caused hidden atmospheric and ground radiation.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 July 2021

Photo: Banner Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium

Belgium to Return Plundered Artworks to DR Congo

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Belgium is the latest European country to promise to return artworks plundered from its former Congolese colony, as it seeks to confront its brutal colonial past.

Belgium’s Africa Museum has said up to 2,000 works, including statues, musical instruments and weapons, were acquired illegally during the colonial rule of a swathe of central Africa, mostly the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 July 2021

Image Source: Geneva Centre for Secuirty Policy

Sixteen States Urge the Nuclear-Weapon States to Take Decisive Steps Towards Disarmament

By Aar Jay Persius

BERLIN (IDN) — "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." On June 16, at their meeting in Geneva, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin re-affirmed this fundamental truth, famously coined by their predecessors, Reagan and Gorbachev, at the last peak of the cold war, write the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Germany (Heiko Maas), Spain (Arancha González Laya) and Sweden (Ann Linde) in an article published in the German newspaper Rheinische Post on July 5.

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 09 July 2021

Photo: Collage of pictures of Merkel, Putin and Marcon from Wikimedia Commons.

Europe Should Be Taking the Lead to Agree on Putin Summit

Merkel and Macron Ready to Talk Despite EU Refusal

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — That bar, the Red Star, on the far side of eastern Europe is closed. So why is the Black Star on this side of the street still open, and even extending its drinking hours?

Once the Warsaw Pact closed shop there was no good or honest reason for keeping NATO going. The threat that NATO was created to deter disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 29 June 2021

Photo credit: European Union | Mathias Eick

EU and the US Concerned About the Humanitarian Emergency in Tigray

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) — Together with the United Nations, the European Commission has urged "all parties to the conflict" in Ethiopia’s Tigray region to agree to "a ceasefire immediately to facilitate humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need in Tigray regardless of where they are and to stop violence against civilians".

Leading representatives of the two organizations had a virtual meeting on June 10 to discuss the situation seven months into the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 11 June 2021

Macron Admits Responsibility for Rwanda Genocide—Mali Has an Interim President—Lesotho Factory Workers Clash with Police

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — French President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame acknowledged that France bears partial responsibility for the Rwandan genocide, a historic confession that could mark a watershed moment in the fragile relations between the two countries.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 May 2021

Photo: Students demonstrating in Berlin on 15 March 2019 against the climate crisis. Source: Clean Energy Wire | Rachel Waldholz.

Germany's Constitutional Court Gives Teeth to Paris Climate Agreement

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann, PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN) — In September 2016, the German parliament unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement. The government then translated Germany’s commitments under the agreement into a Climate Protection Law, which was approved by the Bundestag in November 2019 with a wide majority, making Germany the first country in the world with a greenhouse gas neutrality plan.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 May 2021

Photo: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab hosts the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' Meeting in London, 3 to 5 May 2021. Credit: GOV.UK

Europe and the US Need to Talk About Sanctions Against Russia

Viewpoint by Agathe Demarais

The writer is Global Forecasting Director at The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU). This commentary* was published on the European Leadership Network (ELN) website on May 7.

LONDON (IDN) — Convening in London this week (May 3-5), the G7 foreign ministers expressed their interest in standing together in the face of a variety of challenges, including how to engage with Russia and China.

After four years of bombastic tweets and erratic declarations from Donald Trump, the first 100 days of the Biden presidency have shown that the new US president is more willing to work with European allies than his predecessor was. Yet this does not mean that all is well for the transatlantic alliance.