EU leaders race to secure €3bn migrant deal with Turkish president

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Other EU leaders are racing to clinch a €3bn

(E2.4bn) deal with Turkey's strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoüan, to halt the

mass influx of migrants and refugees into Europe.

All 28 national EU leaders are expected to host Erdogan at a special summit in Brussels

within weeks to expedite a pact that would see Turkey patrolling the EU's southern

border with Greece and stemming the flow Of hundreds Of thousands Of refugees, mainly

from Syria.

In return, Ankara would get €3bn over two years and the EU would also probably agree to

resettle hundreds Of thousands Of refugees in Europe(41 directly from Turkey.

NO EU country, not even Germany, has committed to paying its share Of the €3bn bill

except Britain. In what appears to be a unique event in David Cameron's chequered

history of relations with the EU, the prime minister, while in the Maltese capital of

Valletta, offered €400m for the Turkey plan, the only financial pledge yet delivered. That

figure is roughly in line with a breakdown of expected national contributions by the

European commission and would make Britain the second biggest participant after

Germany


The prospect of a breakthrough with Turkey is tantalising for Merkel, for whom the

refugee crisis has posed the biggest problem in 10 years Of power. This week her finance

minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, likened the arrival of almost 800,000 newcomers in

Germany this year to an "avalanche" and appeared to blame the chancellor for the

situation by stating that "careless skiers can trigger avalanches".

Facing tumult within her governing coalition and her own party, Merkel looks like a

leader seeking relief in a hurry.


An emergency EU summit in Valletta heard from EU negotiators on Thursday that

Erdogan was demanding two quick moves by the Europeans to pave the way for a deal

€3bn over two years and a full summit. Senior EU sources said the message from Ankara

was that the price tag would rise if it was not accepted now.

Merkel wasted no time in agreeing, witnesses to the closed-door summit exchanges said.

She told her fellow EU leaders that she was ready to put money on the table and proposed

22 November as the summit date. She later said the date was not set because it had to be

agreed with Ankara, but that it would be around the end ofthe month. The French

president, Francois Hollande, echoed that view.


The summit would demonstrate the "very close cooperation" between the EU and Turkey

on the refugee crisis, said Merkel, although there has been minimal cooperation so far.

Turkey is home to 2.3 million Syrian war refugees and at least 500,000 Of them have

crossed into Greece this year before trekking through the Balkans heading for Germany.

Merkel has long been convinced that a deal with Erdoüan is the key to what she describes

as the biggest challenge of her career. But there is strong scepticism across the EU that

the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan is a reliable partner who will deliver, as well as

strong reservations about his record on civil and human rights.


Merkel emphasized that both sides had a "strong interest in sharing the burdens" set by

the refugees and said any deal would need to include a commitment from Ankara to take

back non-Turkish migrants who entered the EU via Turkey. In return the EU would speed

up moves to loosen visa requirements for 75 million Turks travelling in the EU, a key

demand Of Erdogan.


"This process can be accelerated," said the German chancellor.

Hollande said he wanted the EU budget, rather than national governments, to bear most

Of the costs Of the deal. Under commission plans, the EU budget would supply €5()()m and

the 28 governments €2.5bn.


Turkey would be expected to open its labour market to Syrian refugees and to improve

schooling for the estimated 900,000 Syrian children in Turkey. The EU funds would

facilitate this, Merkel said.

A main aim, she added, was to make "illegal migration" to Europe from Turkey "legal".

This suggests that the putative agreement would entail the EU taking a set number Of

refugees directly from Turkey every year. In Berlin's thinking, they would then be spread

fairly and on a permanent basis across the EU, a notion that is extremely divisive and

contentious.


There are various aspects Of the proposed Turkey deal that will run into trouble in the

EU. Turkey, for example, would need to be declared a "safe country of origin" for

refugees to be returned there. Merkel is pushing for that but Sweden opposes it.

And while any Turkey deal will not solve the EU's worst migration crisis, it should help

Merkel out of an extremely exposed political predicament at home, allowing her to argue

that she is creating order out Of chaos, establishing control and predictability over the

refugee flows, reducing their numbers and containing the crisis.

Her vulnerability was highlighted by Schäuble's incendiary remarks. "I don't know

whether we are at the stage where the avalanche has already reached the valley or

whether we're still at the top of the slope," he said.

"If we are still at the top, we Germans cannot cope with this alone You can trigger an

avalanche when a rather careless skier goes on the slope."

While Turkey dominated the emergency EU session, the meeting was preceded by two

days of tense summitry with more than 30 African leaders161 where the EU offered almost

€2bn in return for African help in the deportation of unwanted migrants from Europe.

Europe's €1.8bn fund to tackle migration crisis


African leaders complained that the amount of money was inadequate and "just a start"

following two days of fierce negotiations that continued for 21 hours until 5am on

Wednesday before the various parties could agree on a compromise package that was

described by participants as "lowest common denominator".

"There was very little trust between the sides," diplomats reported. "There was a lot of

tension over the way that the EU handled this."


Even if implemented, the accords will have little quick appreciable impact on the current

crisis. The summit was called six months ago when the focus of the refugee movements

was across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Since then, the Mediterranean route,

which many Africans used, has been supplanted by the mass arrivals of Syrians and Iraqis

in Europe via Turkey and the Balkans.

The Europeans sought to use the Valletta summit to cajole African governments into

cooperating on receiving migrants sent back from Europe, while African leaders tried to

use the meetings to force the Europeans to open up more legal channels for their people

moving to Europe.

"For the Africans the summit has been a huge opportunity to push their priorities,"

Helen Clark, the former New Zealand prime minister who heads the UN Development

Programme, told the Guardian.

"One of the most important points here is to push for legal migration. There's a nod

towards that. People end up in the European labour market anyway."

Citation: Traynor, Ian. "EU leaders race to secure €3bn migrant deal with Turkish president." 12 Nov. 2015. Guardian News and Media Limited. 13 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/eu-leaders-race-to-secure-3bn-migrant-deal-with-turkey-president>

Response: Angela Merkel as well as other EU leaders are becoming desperate trying to find a solution to the migrant problem. They are now trying to implement the new  €3bn deal. In doing this they are trying to use Turkey to patrol the EU's southern borders in an attempt to stem the constant flow of Syrian migrants. The EU is also coming to the realization that Germany cannot withstand the economic pressure that 800,000 new bodies in Germany brings. Germany cannot house, feed, and educate 800,000 migrants without some financial help. The EU is also trying to bring in African leaders to help carry the migrant burden and deport some migrants, however, the African leaders have their own political agenda to follow and are pushing for their political priorities in exchange for helping the EU with the migrant problem. I though this article was lacking in bias and presented solid facts and evidence. 

Rising temperatures could drive 100m into extreme poverty, World Bank warns

Rising temperatures could drive 100m into extreme poverty, World Bank warns:

Efforts to curb climate change must be twinned with programs to cut poverty, warns a

study of the threat posed by global warming to food security.

The world must pair efforts to stabilize climate change with programs to eliminate

poverty if vulnerable people are to be kept from falling back into hardship as rising

temperatures wreak havoc on food security and livelihoods, a report has said.

As many as 100 million people could slide into extreme poverty because of rising

temperatures, which are caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank report

said. The bank's most recent estimate I puts the number of people living in extreme

poverty this year at 702 million, or 9.6% Of the world's population.

Climate change has led to crop failures, natural disasters, higher food prices and the

spread of waterborne diseases, creating poverty and pushing people at risk into

destitution, according to Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts Of Climate Change on

Poverty, released on Sunday.




Efforts to stabilise climate change should incorporate strategies to eradicate poverty,

said Stéphane Hallegatte, a senior economist at the World Bank's climate change group

and co-author Of the report. "The policies, the investments, the financing, all Of that

should be integrated. Otherwise, we're just less efficient."

Poor people need social safety nets and universal healthcare to sustainably eradicate

poverty, according to the report. Programs to lessen the impacts of climate change

should not create new vulnerabilities and they should inform development policies by

taking into account future climate conditions.




"When we build infrastructure, for instance, (we need to make sure it's in a safe place

today but also in a safe place with sea level rise and the change in rainfall and so on,"

said Hallegatte. He added that the world needs to take urgent action to reduce the impacts of climate

change if the sustainable development goal on eradicating extreme poverty is to be met.

"We really want to reduce poverty before people get affected by even bigger climate

impacts. It's easier to get people out Of extreme poverty now rather than doing it later,"

said Hallegatte.




Without proper planning, efforts to stabilise the impacts of climate change can undo

decades of progress in lifting vulnerable people out of poverty, the study warned.

Environmental taxes, designed to reduce emissions, can raise the cost Of fuel and food,

which hit poor people hardest. "These same policies can be designed to protect, and even benefit, poor people - for instance, by using fiscal resources from environmental taxes to improve social

protection," the report said.



Ethiopia's social protection and Rwanda's health coverage have boosted long-term

poverty reduction efforts in both countries, making it less likely that poor people will fall

back into poverty as a result of climate change.

"In most cases, what we want is a package of policies - the climate polices themselves

and additional policies to smooth the transition and to support poor people in the

transition," said Hallegatte.



Hallegatte is optimistic that world leaders will take urgent action to stabilise climate

change, which he says will boost efforts to eradicate poverty.

This year, a series Of high-profile meetings took place, creating a sense Of gathering

momentum around the battle against global warming. A key step was the adoption of the

global goals — which set a 2030 deadline for the eradication of poverty in all its forms and

sought to galvanize action to combat climate change and its impacts — at the UN general

assembly in September.



Other milestones have included the Addis conference on financing for development

and the Sendai conference on disaster risk reduction(51 while next month world leaders

will convene in Paris for the 21st session of the conference of the parties to the UN's

Framework Convention on Climate Change..

"You can see there is a convergence — these conferences have been designed as a package

and you can feel the urgency," Hallegatte said.


But many challenges remain. According to the report, the world needs to find $1 tn

(E645bn) more each year to boost key infrastructure if the goals are to be met. Climate

summits have in the past been thwarted by the US and China, which have been reluctant

to sacrifice economic growth for reduced emissions.

Expectations for next month's climate summit have been buoyed by fruitful talks held

last year in Beijing, where China pledged to bring its emissions to a peak "around 2030",

and the US said it would cut its emissions by 26-28% of their 2005 level by 2025171.

Hallegatte said. "Now there is the implementation, and that's really the challenge — to

translate this willingness to act into something that makes a difference on the ground.

Response: The author of this article is desiring action, he is calling out to the masses to stand up for the poor. There is a strong liberal or democratic bias. In my own personal opinion I would agree with the author in that action does need to be taken to farther help those whose lives depend on the weather forecast. However, I think the biggest help would be education of proper farming techniques using programs such as farming God's way, and the education of water preservation. I also agree with Hallegatte when she wisely states that the implementation of this project will be much more difficult than the willingness to help. Overall, I though the author, who was slightly biased, did a decent job presenting the information as well as giving concrete facts and statements, not just opinions.

Citation: Gates, Bill; Melinda Gates. "Rising temperatures could drive 100m into extreme poverty, World Bank warns." 9 Nov. 2015. Guardian News and Media Limited. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/nov/08/world-bank-climate-change-poverty-shock-waves>

Syrian troops launch ground offensive backed by Russian airstrikes

Syrian troops launch ground offensive backed by Russian airstrikes

Russia also launches rockets from warships in Caspian Sea for first time
Russia launches missiles towards Syria from the Caspian Sea
Ground troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad have launched a major offensive in central Syria backed by Russian airstrikes in an escalation
in Moscow's week-long campaign, which has so far been restricted to bombing runs to soften up rebel positions near major loyalist
strongholds.

Russian warships also fired missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea for the first time. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said four warships launched 26 rockets at Islamic State131 targets. The missiles would have passed Over Iran and Iraq to reach their targets, covering what Shoigu described as a distance of almost 900 miles. Syrian activists said Russian fighter jets bombed a series Of towns held by the opposition in the countryside Of Hama, in concert With a push by regime troops and armoured vehicles and the deployrnent of Russian helicopters141, in what was described as the fiercest combat in months.

The Syrian Obsewatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with wide contacts inside Syria, said Russian fighter jets had launched at
least 37 strikes on Wednesday. The SOHR said the Russians bombed targets in the province of Idlib, most of which is held by a coalition
of rebels known as laysh al-Fateh, which includes the al-Qaida wing in SyrialSl.
'fre Syrian push on the ground is the first time President Assad's forces have coordinated with the Russian airforce in an attempt to
seize lost territory from opposition forces, ushering in some of the fiercest fighting in months in the civil war, which has now lasted four and a half years and killed more than a quarter of a million people_ fre assault mirrors the US Strategy in northern Syria, where coalition planes bombed Isis positions to pave the way for their allies on the ground to advance against the militants. It also poses the question of how much territory the regime's army, exhausted and depleted by the conflict, can seize from the rebels.

Most of the fighting appeared to be concentrated in Hama, a central province with a majority Sunni capital that has remained in the hands ofthe regime since the Start of the war. It is key to Assad's strategy of cementing control over major population centres in a strip of territory from Latakia in the north, through to Hams, Hama and Damascus. Rebels recently attempted to wrest control of the strategic al-Ghab plain in Hama's countryside, drawing closer to Assad's coastal strongholds, and the Russian strategy seems primarily aimed at securing this territory from further incursions. laysh al-Fateh conquered most of Idlib in a spring offensive, forcing the regime to abandon the province. Russian airstrikes have repeatedly targeted the province over the past week, though there is no known Isis presence in the area.

The SOHR said Russian planes also bombed targets on the outskirts Of the historic city or Palmyra, Which was seized by Isis in May161,
and the town of Qaryatain, which was also seized by the militants this summer and whose Christian residents have either been taken
hostage or fled. Syrian state TV said airstrikes also hit Isis positions in northern Aleppo
It is unc ear if the Assad regime Wi I be able to score major ground advances against the rebels following years Of vicious warfare that
has sapped his armed forces, and amid widespread dereliction of duty among its conscripts, while facing rebels "ho are united by their
anger at the Russian intervention.


"Russia is primarily targeting opposition fighters, and this could end any future peace process in Syria and strengthen the role of
Islamic State and the extreme factions that do not want peace, Whether they support or oppose the regime," said the SOHRs director,
Rami Abdul Rahman. fre latest airstrikes and ground assault come amid heightened tensions between Russia and Natofil, after Russian fighter planes penetrated Turkish airspace over the weekend, sparking protests and condemnation from the alliance with pledges to respond to future Incurs lons.The Russian ministry of defence said it was continuing to consult with Turkey to ensure there would be no repetition of the incident.

The Russian president, Vladimir putin, said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria, ordering Shoigu to
continue cooperation with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on the crisis.
However, the US defense Secretary, Ash Carter, said the United States would not cooperate militarily with Russia, although it was
willing to hold discussions to secure the safety of its own pilots bombing Isis targets. Calling Moscow's strategy "tragically flawed", he
renewed accusations that the strikes were not focused on Isis.
The head of the Iraqi parliament's defense and security committee said Iraq may request Russian airstrikes against Isis on its soil soon,
and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than the US in the war against the group.
Speaking in Brussels, the US ambassador to Natoll Il, Douglas Lute, said on Wednesday that Russia's buildup in Syria now included a "considerable and growing- naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of ground troops backed by Moscow's most modern
tanks. On the eve of a meeting of Nato defense ministers set to be dominated by the intervention, Lute said the Kremlin seemed to be intent
on forging a new counter-coalition to the western-Gulf axis, bringing together the Russians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Hezbollah behind
Assad.


Moscow had managed a "quite impressive" military deployment over the past week to its Syrian naval base in Tartus and its army base in Latakia, Lute said is a considerable and growing Russia naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, more than 10 ships now, which is a bit out of the ordinary," he told a news briefing.
recent Russian reinforcements over the last week or so feature a battalion-size ground force There is artillery, there are long- range rocket capabilities, there are air defence capabilities," Lute said. A battalion is typically made up of about soldiers.
A senior Turkish official said 18 Russian warships had passed through the Bosphorus strait at Istanbul en route to Moscow's Syrian
base, amid conflicting reports Of Russian ground forces also being deployed.
Nato diplomats doubted the Russians were preparing any ground operations, but were sure that they were training and equipping Assad ground forces and were active on the ground beyond their milltary bases.

Iranians are on the ground, but not the Russians yet," said the 'ntrkish official.
The Turkish official and Nato diplomats said the Russians had also deployed air-to-air fighter aircraft which would not be used for bombing anti-Assad forces, but would engage in dogfights.
Francois Hollande, the French president, said failure to act in Syria risks stoking "total war" in the Middle East. "What happens in Syria concerns Europe, what happens there will determine the balance of the whole region for a long time," he said in a speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg.





 Response: The author of this article seems to be slightly biased against Russia, and for the United States. The author clearly reports of the U.S defense attorney, Ash Carter, and his opinion of Moscow's strategy calling it "tragically flawed". The author also talks about Russia bombing territory where ISIS isn't present, or at least known to be present, and in my own opinion this would be pointless and incredibly unhelpful. This article also clearly depicts the constant power struggle between Russia and the United States. It reports that the U.S refuses to stand by Russia in a military sense and it also is a clear display of the United State's readiness to disagree with and argue with Russia's military strategies. Overall, while the author had some bias it was kept relatively hidden and the facts were clearly presented in an organized way.

Citation: Shaheen, Kareem. "Syrian troops launch ground offensive backed by Russian airstrikes." 7 Oct. 2015. Guardian News and Media Limited. 3 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/07/russian-jets-pound-syrian-provinces-in-fresh-wave-of-attacks-says-watchdog>