276/2017 • 25, NOVEMBER 2017 WEEKEND ISSUE
DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Angela Merkelʼs German coalition crisis greatly exaggerated Uncertainty as opportunity for democracy
There has been a lot of talk about German democracy in crisis. But the government keeps ticking along, and politicians across nearly the whole spectrum say the situation is hardly as dire as some are making it out to be.
ʼNazi Grandmaʼ Holocaust denier may finally face jail
Iraqi army launches operation to clear IS remnants
A court in western Germany is considering the appeal of octogenarian Ursula Haverbeck, who has multiple convictions for Holocaust denial. Haverbeck has been handed several jail terms, but has so far avoided prison. A German court was due to make a decision on Thursday in the appeal of an 88-year-old woman convicted for incitement to racial hatred on multiple occasions. Ursula Haverbeck challenged two verdicts handed down by a court in the western town of Detmold, after she denied that the genocide of Jews between 1941 and 1945 had taken place.
The capture of Rawa last week signaled the fall of the final IS stronghold in Iraq, putting a decisive end to the terror groupʼs "caliphate" aspirations. Liberation forces are now pushing into the desert. Iraq launched an army operation to flush militants out of its border region with Syria, the military said on Thursday, as it pushes to entirely expel "Islamic State" (IS) from its lands. The Iraqi army, federal police and the Shiite paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi have begun "clearing" a large strip of desert in the west of the country, General Abdelamir Yarallah said in a statement.
Politicians donʼt get more veteran than the president of the Bundestag, 75year-old Wolfgang Schäuble. So itʼs interesting to recall what he told the German parliament on Tuesday in the wake ofthe breakdown in talks to form a new government coalition. "Dear colleagues we havean extraordinary situation," the elder statesman said. "Itʼs a test, but itʼs not a crisis of state." Angela Merkel may have failed for the moment to pave the way for a new German government. But that doesnʼt mean that Germany is without a government. On the contrary, Merkel continues to govern from the Chancellorʼs Office just as sheʼs done for the past 12 years. Officially Merkel is now a caretaker chancellor leading a caretaker government. But the German constitution gives the current government the same powers and duties as one sanctioned by an election. There is also no time limit. The same government cabinet members who have led Germany for the past four years will continue in their posts until a new government has been formed and they can be replaced. The situation may be uncertain, but many parliamentarians — including those from the centerright, pro-businessFree Democratic Party (FDP), which scuppered the coalition talks last weekend— think that the opacity of the current situation opens up new possibilities. "The hold of the big establishment parties is loosening somewhat," FDP member of the Bundestag Christoph Hoffmann told DW. "We now have more parties in parliament, and itʼs more difficult to arrive
at a stable coalition. We have to get used to that. But itʼs a chance for democracy and wonʼt weaken the parliament."Johannes Kahrs of the left-wing Social Democrats, who together with Merkelʼs conservatives formed the grand coalition that still runs Germany, seconds that sentiment. "We have a working government," Kahrs told DW. "We have a budget. We also have a debate right now about what to do with the results of the national election. But that should be part of any democracy." Practically speaking, the only thing the caretaker government isnʼt able to do is make decisions that would involve major changes in policy. Two major examples from Germanyʼs recent past, for instance, the end of compulsory military service and the phase-out of nuclear power, would be impossible right now. The constraints of a caretaker government became evident at the COP23 Climate Conference in Bonn last week. There more than 20 countries declared that they wanted to phase out coal as a source of power.German Environment Minister Barbara Hendrix would have loved to join them, but had to defer, saying that she didnʼt want to preempt the next governmentʼs policies. Thereʼs nothing in the German constitution that mandates this, but it is governmental practice. If the caretaker government has no choice but to take an important decision, it can still ask for the support of the new Bundestag, where conservatives and Social Democrats still have a healthy majority.
Police enter decommissioned Australian detention camp
FB to show users if they ʼlikedʼ alleged Russian propaganda
apua New Guinea police have moved in on the shuttered Australian-run Manus detention camp in an attempt to force hundreds of asylum seekers occupying it to leave. The camp long symbolized Canberraʼs strict asylum laws Authorities in Papua New Guinea are removing more than 300 asylum seekers from a squalid immigration camp on Manus island to another location Australia has paid PNG and the nearby island of Nauru to hold refugees as part of its controversial immigration policy.
The social media giant Facebook is working on a tool to let users know if they ʼlikedʼ any of the accounts allegedly pushing Russian propaganda. The company believes some 146 million Americans were exposed to such posts. The US-based company announced it would create a web page for its users to visit in order to find out if they liked or followed accounts with an alleged pro-Kremlin agenda. The tool would apply to accounts on both Facebook and Instagram, which has been owned by Facebook since 2012.