(Photo: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)More than 2,200 Liberty University students and staff attended Prayer March 2020, a seven-stop route that covered the United States in prayer.
The president and vice president of Liberty University’s student body are speaking out about a center created by former University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. and an ardent Donald Trump supporter, Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and talk-show host.
They say that the school’s Falkirk Center think tank has allowed politics to supersede the Gospel message and that it negatively impacts the university’s reputation, Christian Headlines reported Dec. 28.
The fight has brought the Gospel, Trumpist populism, and Christian belief into collision at the private evangelical Liberty University as student leaders have spoken up and said the Gospel comes first and not “conservatism” which Donald Trump espouses.
THE FALKIRK CENTER
Falwell’s think tank calls itself “The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty.” Its website says it “exists to uphold the Christian faith and defend America’s Constitution. We honor human dignity, individual liberty, limited government, and free markets.”
Falwell resigned as president and chancellor of Liberty in August when allegations of an extra marital affair surfaced and he is said to have used the university’s funds to set up the campus ‘think tank’ in 2019, Politico reported.
The university student body president Constance Schneider and student body vice president Joel Thomas commented on social media posts.
According to the school’s website, the two represent students in interactions with the university’s administration as leaders in the Student Government Association.
“Our job is to represent the students of our school. When an organization like @falkirk_center is attached to liberty, it impacts the reputation of not just our school, but our students as well,” Schneider wrote in a tweet.
“We have had dozens of conversations with students who are embarrassed to claim the name of our school due to the rhetoric that comes from this center.”
Schneider said, “I am concerned with the rhetoric, tone, content, and association the Falkirk Center has with Liberty University, specifically when it comes to our greater, crucial mission to further the kingdom of God,” Thomas tweeted.
“Freedom of speech and sharing of ideas are extremely important, yes … yet our priority must remain fixed on what truly matters: exalting the cross of Christ through the witness we bear.
CONSERVATIVE SUPERSEDING CHRISTIAN
“Conservative must never supersede Christian. If allowed to supersede, this can erode and shift our very identity and dilute and distract from the message of the Gospel we claim to champion. All other ground is sinking sand.”
Schneider @constansceider tweeted, “We have had dozens of conversations with students who are embarrassed to claim the name of our school due to the rhetoric that comes from this center.”
The matter has received national media attention.
Falkirk’s fellows include Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Point USA; Eric Metaxas, a Christian radio host; and Jenna Ellis, an attorney who has represented the Trump campaign in post-election lawsuits.
Politico had reported on Dec. 14, “After shocking many in the evangelical movement by endorsing Donald Trump over other Republicans for the 2016 presidential nomination, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. pumped millions of the nonprofit religious institution’s funds into Republican causes and efforts to promote the Trump administration, blurring the lines between education and politics.”.
“The culmination of his efforts was the creation of a university-funded campus “think tank” — which has produced no peer-reviewed academic work and bears little relation to study centers at other universities,” wrote Politico’s Maggie Severns.
“It ran pro-Trump ads, hired Trump allies including former adviser Sebastian Gorka and current Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to serve as fellows and, in recent weeks, has aggressively promoted Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.
“Liberty’s actions, detailed for the first time by POLITICO, suggest the university is pushing the boundaries of its status as a nonprofit organization under Section 501c (3) of the U.S. federal tax code.”
The code forbids spending money on political campaigns. Liberty’s actions also go well beyond the traditional role of a university as a politically neutral institution of higher learning.
“The apparatus of the university has turned more and more towards political ends and concerns,” said Marybeth Baggett, a Liberty graduate who taught at the school from 2003 until the early party of this year.
“Obviously, the school is conservative, yes. But I don’t feel like it was ever so agenda-driven as it was in the last four of five years,” she said, according to Politico.
Student leader Thomas tweeted, “I am concerned with the rhetoric, tone, content, and association the Falkirk Center has with Liberty University, specifically when it comes to our greater, crucial mission to further the kingdom of God.”
His tweet said, “Freedom of speech and sharing of ideas are extremely important, yes … yet our priority must remain fixed on what truly matters: exalting the cross of Christ through the witness we bear. Conservative must never supersede Christian.”
Liberty University, also known as LU, is a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded by Jerry Falwell and Elmer L. Towns in 1971.
(RNS) — 2020 has been a year of mourning of seemingly biblical proportions, including a mounting global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, nearing 2 million as the year closes out.
Losses in the religion world included people known for their contributions to preaching, civil rights or music.
The retired prelate was the first woman to be ordained and consecrated as a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Newly consecrated as the first woman bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Barbara Harris gives the benediction at the conclusion of a service in Boston on Feb. 11, 1989. Religion News Service file photo
Known for quoting the words “Hallelujah anyhow” from a gospel song, Harris served as the suffragan, or assisting, bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1989 until her retirement in 2002. She later was an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Washington.
The great-granddaughter of a woman born into slavery, Harris broke numerous stereotypes: Not only was she the first woman Anglican bishop, she was African American, divorced, and had not graduated from seminary.
“The temptation we have,” she said in her first sermon as bishop, “is to play it safe, don’t make waves.
“But if Jesus had played it safe, we would not be saved,” she continued, as noted in 1989 coverage in the Los Angeles Times. “If the Diocese of Massachusetts had played it safe, I would not be standing here clothed in rochet and chimere and wearing a pectoral cross.”
The preacher and close colleague of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his efforts to desegregate buses, protest apartheid and draw attention to the AIDS crisis in the U.S. and Africa.
In this Aug. 12, 2009, file photo, President Barack Obama presents a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The United Methodist minister served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for 20 years after co-founding it with King.
Lowery, who was dubbed the “dean of the civil rights movement” by the NAACP, gave the benediction at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, recalling the country’s racial challenges as the nation gained its first Black president. Several years later, Lowery criticized President George W. Bush for “weapons of misdirection” as they both were on the dais for Coretta Scott King’s funeral.
Obama presented Lowery with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August 2009. Asked if his work was mostly completed after his inaugural prayer and receipt of the medal, Lowery said no.
“Our work is never done,” he told Religion News Service in 2011. “A Christian’s work is never done. The spiritual says we’ve always got ‘one more river to cross.’”
The Christian evangelist and author of more than 20 books rose to prominence after Billy Graham invited him to appear at a 1983 international evangelism conference.
Ravi Zacharias speaks to students at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, in Oxford, England, in July 2018. Photo by Hazel Thompson/True Image Media
He founded a Georgia-based apologetics ministry in which he and, eventually, almost 100 other Christian evangelists spoke and trained others in how to answer questions about Christianity and the existence of God.
Shortly before Zacharias’ death, prominent evangelicals spoke of how he was one of their “heroes” and how their shelves included his books.
But in recent months an investigation by a law firm hired by his ministry has found what the firm called “significant, credible evidence that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years.”
In a Dec. 23 announcement about the interim investigation update, the board of directors of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries said “we share your compassion for any victims of this conduct, and we appreciate your prayers for them and also for Ravi’s family who have been devastated by this information.”
The longtime civil rights activist and ordained Baptist minister was known for preaching about getting in “good trouble.” He was often remembered for being beaten by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as he worked for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama join hands with Rep. John Lewis, center, as they lead the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches, in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 2015. Photo courtesy of The White House/Lawrence Jackson
He was also the youngest speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, speaking shortly before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Lewis later became a longtime U.S. congressman representing the state of Georgia.
As he coped with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Lewis urged attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast in February to “be a blessing to our fellow human beings.”
Lewis wrote in “March,” an award-winning graphic novel series, of how he preached to his chickens as a child on his family farm and later gave his first public sermon at age 15. He told RNS in 2016 he didn’t regret moving away from traditional ministry.
“I preach every day,” he said. “Every day, I’m preaching a sermon, telling people to get off their butts and do something.”
The social justice work of Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian began in 1947, when he nonviolently and successfully protested segregated lunch counters in Peoria, Illinois.
Two decades later, he stood almost nose to nose with Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of a Selma courthouse.
“You can turn your back on me but you cannot turn your back upon the idea of justice,” Vivian told Clark minutes before the sheriff punched the minister in the face. “You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand but you cannot beat down justice.”
Vivian served on the executive staff of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta and was the editor for a Baptist Sunday school publisher. In 2013, he was honored by Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The nun in the Dominican order was a proponent of nuclear disarmament who later was the inspiration for a character in the “Orange Is the New Black” series on Netflix.
Sister Ardeth Platte is shown outside of the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Connecticut, after being released from the prison on Dec. 22, 2005. (AP Photo/Douglas Healey)
She worked with Sister Carol Gilbert, her frequent collaborator and best friend, and served time in prison for her nonviolent civil disobedience as she opposed war and nuclear weapons. They recently had been working to gain support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In Michigan, Platte worked as a teacher and coordinator of Saginaw’s Home for Peace and Justice. Her story became the subject of a documentary about her and other nuns and the catalyst for the “Orange Is the New Black” character. She had practiced yoga with fellow prisoner Piper Kerman, author of the book on which the series was based, when they both served in a Connecticut prison.
In 2017, Platte described herself to The Denver Post as someone dedicated to peace.
“I refuse to have an enemy,” she said. “I simply won’t.”
James Randi
The onetime magician and author was known for his investigation and disproving of faith healers.
James Randi in 2014. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons
Randi died at the age of 92 on Oct. 20.
The New York Times reported that the skeptic, known as the “Amazing Randi,” moved from seeking to break the records of illusionist Houdini to exposing falsehoods. It noted he was inquisitive from an early age as a boy attending Sunday school.
“They started to read to me from the Bible,” the newspaper said he recalled in 2016. “And I interrupted and said: ‘Excuse me, how do you know that’s true? It sounds strange.’”
In 1976, along with scientists such as Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, Randi founded the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, now known as the Center for Inquiry. The white-bearded and bespectacled man appeared on TV shows and spoke at atheist gatherings, including the 2016 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. The MacArthur Grant winner was honored by numerous scientific, atheist and magician organizations.
“To the skeptical movement, he was a hero,” said Center for Inquiry President Robyn Blumner at the time of Randi’s death. “To us, he was family.”
He was the lead vocalist for the group known for incorporating R&B, soul and rock with traditional Black gospel music. The five-time Grammy nominee joined his group in a 2015 performance for Obama at an event celebrating gospel music history.
An Ohio pastor who became a bishop of the Church of God in Christ in 2011, Allen performed “Blessing Me Again” with rapper Snoop Dogg at the 2018 Super Bowl Gospel Celebration.
Early in 2020, a Toledo radio station honored Allen during Black History Month.
“I’ve been singing over 60 years and it’s all been as far as I was concerned a ministry,” he told the station.
His efforts toward educating different faiths about each other was not without controversy.
“No one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth,” he wrote in his 2002 book, “The Dignity of Difference.” After complaints from some Orthodox groups, he used toned-down language in subsequent editions.
The onetime leader of the well-known Western Marble Arch Synagogue in Central London, Sacks went on to hold the role of chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013.
Prince Charles was among the international leaders who reacted to Sacks’ death: “With his passing, the Jewish community, our nation, and the entire world have lost a leader whose wisdom, scholarship and humanity were without equal.”
The conservative pastor and evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump was known for his efforts to foster racial reconciliation.
Bishop Harry Jackson of Maryland speaks at the unveiling of the “Justice Declaration,” a statement by Christian leaders on criminal justice, in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks
Ten years after a 2005 diagnosis of esophageal cancer, he told “The 700 Club” that at one point he was “24 hours away from dying” but he believed God still had work for him to do.
An author and co-author of several books, the Black pastor in the charismatic tradition was outspoken in his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. But Jackson advocated prison reform and economic development in his 2005 “Black Contract With America.”
He was among the dozens of evangelical leaders who urged the Trump administration to address criminal justice reform as an alternative to “tough on crime” language. At an April 10 Oval Office gathering on Good Friday, Trump called on Jackson to declare a blessing as clergy joined in an event two days before Easter.
“What I believe is that the whole left and right paradigm that politics has chosen to create for itself is fundamentally incorrect because the Bible has both what we call left and right issues,” Jackson told RNS in 2005.
More than one million people to benefit from access to life-saving services across the country
DAMASCUS, 29 December 2020 – The European Union has contributed €7.5 million towards UNICEF’s support for the most vulnerable children and families in Syria. This funding will help provide over one million conflict-affected people, mainly children and women, with access to protection, health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene services. This comes in addition to an earlier contribution of €1.5 million to support preparedness and response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic in both Northwest and East Syria.
“With the crisis in Syria approaching its tenth year, UNICEF remains committed to supporting the humanitarian needs of more than 5 million children in Syria,” said UNICEF Representative in Syria, Mr. Bo Viktor Nylund. “Our partnership with the European Union has been substantial to ensuring the most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities, are protected, reached with quality education, health and nutrition and have access to water and sanitation services.”
Since 2016, the European Union has provided more than €34 million in humanitarian funding for UNICEF’s support to children in Syria.
“After almost a decade of conflict, the most vulnerable children in Syria need our support more than ever,” said EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič. “Providing them with emergency assistance, protection and access to safe water and sanitation is essential, especially during the ongoing pandemic. But EU humanitarian aid also extends to ensuring Syrian children have access to an education, which represent the hope of a better and more inclusive future.”
The 2020 multi-donor humanitarian action, supported by the European Union, will help UNICEF reach:
310,000 people with emergency water and sanitation services, and 80,000 with access to lifesaving emergency WASH facilities and services.
50,000 children and mothers with life-saving curative and preventive nutrition services, and 80,000 children as well as women of childbearing age with primary health care consultations.
7,000 children through access to education and learning materials.
About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.
For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org.
On December 7, the Council of the European Union (EU) concluded that it’s time for a label on animal welfare, setting up what could become an epic trade dispute between Brussels and much of the world.
Brussels has a long history of legislating minimum animal welfare standards. Europe has a mandatory label on table eggs, and a patchwork of voluntary labels on meat products. Animal welfare is also a part of Europe’s organic farming rules. Now Brussels wants an EU-wide label to help consumers identify, and reward, farmers who invest more in animal husbandry.
What would such a label look like? Consider France’s Étiquette Bien-Être Animal, a label adopted by Carrefour and other retailers. It assigns a letter A (“superior”) through E (“minimal”) based on 230 criteria. These criteria build upon the EU’s “Five Freedoms” for farm-kept animals, including that they be raised without hunger or distress. Since 2018, there has also been talk of considering the animal’s emotional state. All told, the label’s creators say that it clearly conveys the information that consumers want, all in an intuitive way. An EU-wide label will be marketed in much the same way.
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Farmers exporting to Europe will see things differently. They’ll argue that an EU-wide label is a “disguised” restriction on trade. They’ll say the record-keeping and verification requirements are onerous and disproportionate to the amount of information on the label. They’ll insist that the criteria vetted by the label are based on how European farmers do things, not science. And they’ll claim that the letters, numbers or colors on the label will be mistaken for a quality or health standard. What’s more, they’ll probably be right.
Mere conjecture? Not really. All of these arguments have been made countless times in trade disputes over labels, often with success. For example, in United States — Certain Country of Origin Labelling, the World Trade Organization (WTO) found the record-keeping and verification costs to be far in excess of what consumers could learn from the label. Few consumers understood what the letters meant, and most, if not all, mistook them for quality rankings. Moreover, there was no evidence consumers were willing to pay for this information, even if they fully understood the label.
The U.S. country of origin label was mandatory. Imagine that, instead, the EU makes its label voluntary. That’s where things get really interesting.
Back in 2012, the WTO convened a meeting on how to define voluntary standards in the case of health standards. This was no easy feat. But many developing countries had an example in mind: GlobalGAP. GlobalGAP, originally called EUREGAP, was launched in 1997 to incentivize “good agricultural practice,” including animal husbandry. The key was that retailers would take the lead, not governments. Compliance with GlobalGAP is necessary to get shelf space in many retailers around the world. The presented developing countries with a problem: the WTO has a lesser grasp of voluntary, as opposed to mandatory, standards. Brazil wasn’t buying it.
Brazil argued there is nothing voluntary about GlobalGAP. It’s de facto mandatory. How so? Brazil explained that retailers who adopted GlobalGAP represent too much market share to treat it as voluntary. In other words, GlobalGAP has the effect of being mandatory because it is virtually impossible to get shelf space from a retailer for food that is not compliant. An EU-wide animal welfare label, even if voluntary, will be open to the same charge.
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There will be fights over an EU-wide label within Europe as well. The Council’s decision is breathtaking in its scope and, not surprisingly, anticipates frictions. For example, there’s the call not to punish countries with higher animal husbandry standards, but also a plea to write criteria that are “achievable by all” EU members. The Council expects that the label will cover all livestock at each stage of its life, transport and slaughter, yet also wants different geographical and climatic conditions across Europe to be taken into consideration. Finally, the Council wants the label to account for rules on organic farming, its “interplay” with national labels and the financial cost of doing all this.
To manage these and other frictions, look for a variety of exceptions to bridge intra-EU differences. Because these derogations are likely to be available to domestic farmers, but not foreign ones, they’ll be the low hanging fruit if (when?) the EU-wide label is challenged at the WTO.
Animal welfare is an important and legitimate public policy goal. The trick is to pursue it without creating a disguised restriction on trade. Has the EU Council asked for the impossible?
Marc L. Busch is the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and host of the podcast TradeCraft.
Blaming the victims is never a good look. As Britain finally leaves the European Union, more than 1,600 days days after the Brexit referendum of 2016, we should try to remember that 48 per cent of the turkeys didn’t vote for Christmas.
Brexit was not exactly a national act of self-harm; it was really an attack by the nostalgic and nationalist old on the young. 60 per cent of British over-65s voted to leave the EU, but 61 per cent of the under-35s voted to remain. Having had four years to think it over, most British now think it was a mistake – by a 48-39 majority, according to a YouGov poll in October.
Too late. Boris Johnson is prime minister and he dares not anger the English ultra-nationalists on the right of his own Conservative party. After months of the amateur dramatics that accompany any Johnson decision, on Christmas Day the United Kingdom concluded a pathetically thin ‘free trade’ deal that reflects the real balance of power between the EU and the UK.
Johnson will smear lipstick all over this pig of a deal and declare it a triumph. Those who want to believe it will do so, and the only early evidence of the huge defeat that it really is will be some delays at the ports as customs officers learn their new jobs. The real bill will come in later and almost invisibly, in lost trade, investment and opportunities.
The last official British government estimate was that fifteen years from now the British economy will be between five per cent and seven per cent smaller than it would have been as an EU member (but still a bit bigger than it is now).
That’s not the raw material for a counter-revolution – and besides, any projection about the economic situation in 2035 is really pure guesstimate. One Covid more or less could make just as much difference as Brexit.
All one can say is that the British economy will not “prosper mightily” outside the EU, as Johnson promised, but it won’t collapse either. And then, in due course, the younger, pro-EU Brits will become the majority thanks to the magic of generational turnover. But until then, if Britain comes knocking at the EU’s door asking to be allowed back in, Brussels should say ‘no.’
What really happens on 31 December is that the European Union is finally freed to develop in the way that its other major members clearly want. The goal of ‘ever closer union,’ anathema to English exceptionalists, is back on the agenda.
There is ambivalence in every member country about the idea of creating a semi-federal European super-state, but in a world where democracy and the rule of law are under siege most people can see the need to strengthen the European Union. Last July the EU’s leaders took a huge step in that direction: for the first time they agreed to borrow collectively on the financial markets.
France and Germany were all for it, and Italy and Spain needed the money to finance a trillion-euro aid programme to help them through the coronavirus crisis. Those four countries now contain more than half the EU’s population, and they outvoted the ‘frugal four’ (the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark) that opposed taking on debt to support ‘feckless’ Mediterranean members.
If Britain had still been a member, it would have vetoed the measure because it infringed on the UK’s sacred ‘sovereignty.’ French President Charles de Gaulle, who vetoed British membership applications twice in the 1960s, was right: England does not have a ‘European vocation’, and it should not be allowed in.
The financial precedent that was set in July opens the door to a future EU that acts much more like a state. Even a common defence budget is now within reach – not something vital in military terms, but a European army would be a hugely important symbol of unity.
The United States may be back soon, but the world could certainly use a second powerful advocate for democracy and the rule of law. Brexit may be giving us just that by freeing the EU to move on, and we should be grateful.
Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work).’
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The Council has today adopted, by written procedure, the decision on the signing of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and its provisional application as of 1 January 2021, pending the consent of the European Parliament and conclusion by the Council decision next year.
The agreement will now be signed by the two parties on 30 December 2020. European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will sign in Brussels on behalf of the European Union while Prime Minister Boris Johnson will sign in London on behalf of the United Kingdom.
After the formal signing, the decision adopted today on the signature and provisional application and the agreement itself will be published in the Official Journal of the EU in all languages and will be provisionally applied from 1 January 2021.
Next year, the Council will adopt the decision on the conclusion of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, once the European Parliament has given its consent and once all procedures necessary for the entry into force have been completed.
Background
On 23 June 2016, UK citizens voted to leave the EU. On 29 March 2017, the UK formally notified the European Council of its intention to leave the EU. On 17 October 2019, the European Council (Article 50) endorsed the Withdrawal Agreement as agreed by the negotiators of both sides. It also endorsed the revised Political Declaration on the framework of the future EU-UK relationship.
The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020 at midnight (CET) and the withdrawal agreement entered into force on 1 February 2020.
Negotiations on the future partnership between the EU and the UK started on 2 March 2020.
In June 2020, the UK decided not to seek an extension to the transition period. The transition period will therefore end on 31 December 2020.
The Madhya Pradesh government Tuesday approved the Freedom to Religion Bill 2020 as an ordinance in a special cabinet session, after which it was sent to the Governor for her nod.
The state government has taken the ordinance route much like the Uttar Pradesh government to clear its stringent law prohibiting forced religious conversion under its Freedom to Religion Bill 2020. This comes after the three-day session of the assembly was cancelled owing to high cases of COVID-19 being reported.
The three-day assembly session was cancelled by a joint committee of all leaders on Sunday night after about 60 people including officials, employees and five MLAs had tested positive for COVID-19.
Claiming to curb religious conversions using misrepresentation, allurement, force, threat, undue influence, coercion, marriage or any other “fraudulent means”, the MP Bill stipulates jail terms of one to five years, with a fine of Rs 25,000, in such cases. The penalty in case of a person using “misrepresentation” or “impersonation” for religious conversion will be higher, including a jail term of 3-10 years and a fine of Rs 50,000.
In contrast, the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, passed last month, says religious conversion using any of the above means, including misrepresentation and impersonation, would entail a jail term of one to five years and a fine of Rs 15,000.
In a significant departure from the UP ordinance though on registration of FIRs in such cases, the MP Bill says these can be dealt with only by police personnel not less than the rank of a sub-inspector, and that solely parents and siblings of the affected individual can file a complaint directly. In case a guardian or a custodian wants to register an offence, they must approach a Sessions Court authorised to deal in these matters and get a court order.
The other big departure between the MP Bill and UP law is the provision for maintenance to women and rights to the property to children in the marriage under question in the legislation planned by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. The matter of maintenance will be dealt with as per Section 125 of the CrPC.
In both states, marriages proved to have been undertaken for the sole purpose of a religious conversion or conducted without appropriate notice to the district administration can be declared null and void by family courts.
Return to one’s original religion — as in the religion one is born into or that practiced by one’s father — will not be counted as a conversion.
While both UP law and MP Bill envisage a jail term of two to ten years in case a person being converted is a minor, or belongs to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the MP legislation talks of a penalty of Rs 50,000 against Rs 25,000 in UP.
Both the legislations talk of three to five years of prison terms for religious organisations or individuals seen as carrying out mass conversions, but again the penalty in MP is higher (Rs 1 lakh) than UP (Rs 50,000).
In both states, organisations or priests carrying out conversions have to inform the district administration about 60 days before the date of conversion, failing which the organisation can have its registration cancelled and the priest or facilitator face a jail term. But the MP Bill stipulates a higher penalty again (of Rs 50,000, and 3-5 years’ jail term) in such cases, compared to one year extended up to five years and Rs 25,000 in UP.
London (AP) – Until now, the vast majority of British and European Union citizens have not felt the reality of Brexit. Although the UK leaves the European Union on January 31, it follows the bloc rules until the end of this year as part of a transition period for the new economic relationship.
This is all about to change.
On January 1, Britain embarked on its new, more distant relationship with the European Union after nearly five decades of close economic, cultural and social integration.
The change in Britain’s economy and people is the most dramatic since World War II, and certainly more than what happened when the country joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973.
“It’s a much bigger shock to our economic system and it will happen immediately,” said Anand Menon, UK director at a changing European think tank and professor of European policy and foreign affairs at Kings College London.
“Suddenly you wake up in a new world at the beginning of January.”
Here are some of the changes to movement that people will start feeling overnight.
What will change?
Although the coronavirus pandemic has led to a collapse in the number of travelers between Britain and the European Union, the end of freedom of movement from January 1 will be the most realistic outcome of Brexit yet.
Under the divorce agreement that the two sides agreed to on December 24, nearly a million British citizens legally residing in the European Union would have the same rights they now enjoy. The same applies to the more than 3 million European Union citizens living in the United Kingdom
But British citizens will no longer have the automatic right to live and work in the European Union, and vice versa. People wishing to cross borders to settle will have to follow immigration rules and face other routine procedures such as ensuring that their qualifications are recognized.
The exception is people traveling between the United Kingdom and Ireland, where there is a separate common travel area.
For many in the European Union, the freedom to travel, study and live anywhere in the bloc of 27 countries is among the most attractive aspects of European integration.
However, some in Britain and other parts of Western Europe have become more skeptical of freedom of movement after many ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe joined the European Union in 2004 and many of their citizens moved to the United Kingdom and other wealthier countries for work. Concerns about immigration were a major factor in Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016. On January 1, the consequences of this decision will be felt for British citizens and Europeans alike.
What are the new travel rules?
Although holiday travel will remain visa-free, British citizens will only be allowed to spend 90 days out of every 180 in the European Union, while the UK will allow European citizens to stay for up to six consecutive months.
For retired British citizens who used to spend more than three months in their second homes on Spain’s sunny Costa del Sol, the change could come as a shock. British travelers in Europe will also have to leave at least six months in their passports and purchase their travel insurance. The British will no longer be issued with the European Health Insurance Card, which guarantees access to medical care across the bloc, but the UK says it is creating an alternative system so that UK visitors to the bloc and EU citizens visiting Britain still enjoy medical coverage.
What about pets?
For British citizens who used to take their dogs or cats or ferrets on vacation in Europe every summer, the situation will be further complicated because Britain will not be part of the pet passport scheme in the European Union – although the agreement avoids the cumbersome procedures that take months to some. Feared. Pet owners in the UK will need to obtain a microchip and vaccination against rabies at least 21 days before travel, and will need to obtain an animal health certificate from a veterinarian at least 10 days before departure.
Will driving be difficult?
The deal means that British drivers will not need an International Driving Permit once they cross the canal. British motorists can travel in the European Union on their licenses and insurance in the UK, as long as they carry proof that they are insured in the form of a “green card”.
what about work?
The end of freedom of movement will have a major impact on employment on all sides of the labor market.
A newly graduated British citizen on vacation in the Greek islands, for example, will not be able to walk to a beach bar and search for part-time work without the necessary visa. The same goes for European citizens who arrive in the UK, and will not be able to come to a sandwich shop like Pret a Manger and look for work without the necessary documents.
Large companies will also find it much more difficult and costly to hire people from the other side. The deal includes provisions to allow contractors and business travelers to take short-term business trips without visas.
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In early 2020, Croatia’s EU presidency managed to renew its policy of integrating the Western Balkans. This happened after the acceptance of the French conditions for the negotiations to be reversible, with the candidate countries meeting the standards for the rule of law from the very beginning. The European Commission announced as a priority the start of membership talks with the Republic of Northern Macedonia and Albania. Bulgaria welcomed this and linked the process to the achievement of tangible results by North Macedonia on the implementation of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation between the two countries from 2017. It was stated that Albania wwas to monitor the rights of the Bulgarian national minority in the country.
The German presidency called for negotiations with the Republic of North Macedonia to begin by the end of 2020. The EU warned in June that it would not mediate the dialogue between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, that good neighbourly relations and regional co-operation remained essential elements of the enlargement process. There were high hopes that the joint Bulgarian-Macedonian presidency of the Berlin Process would create a positive atmosphere for resolving the case. ()
Yet the forum’s leadership meeting in Sofia in November ended with the signing of a declaration on the creation of a Common Regional Market in the Western Balkans and a Declaration on the Green Agenda. A breakthrough in Bulgarian-Macedonian relations was not achieved and in December Bulgaria vetoed the technical beginning of North Macedonia’s EU integration. More on the conclusions of the European integration of the Western Balkans in 2020 in the interview with Assoc. Prof. Spas Tashev*:
“Candidate countries must also meet certain membership criteria. It is obvious that they are quite far from meeting them”, comments the researcher and expert on the Balkan region in an interview with Radio Bulgaria. “Even Serbia which has been negotiating with the EU for more than 8 years does not open new chapters. Others, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo are even further behind. We need to prepare for a long process, first to prepare for the start of negotiations, and then for conducting the negotiations themselves”.
In the outgoing year, under the pretext that elections were to take place in the Republic of North Macedonia, the Joint Commission on Historical Affairs
<p>from the side of North Macedonia came out with the argument that it was waiting for a mandate to continue the negotiations. One year was lost. The upcoming elections in Bulgaria are yet another straw that might be grabbed by Skopje to postpone the resumption of talks. It is a fact that there are still violations of the human rights of the citizens in the Republic of North Macedonia, who, despite the repressions, have preserved their Bulgarian self-consciousness. I think that when these facts reach our partners, they will think twice whether they will lightly support Skopje."</p> <p><b>Is there a useful move?</b> Bulgaria should look for an ally in the presentation of its thesis on the case with the European integration of North Macedonia and in the first place these are the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia, according to Assoc. Prof. Tashev:</p> <p>"I have lived in Skopje for 4 years. There is a multi-layered self-consciousness in North Macedonia, even an identity crisis. Many people are wondering what the messages from Bulgaria are, which will be, if not well received, then at least received with interest. <b>In any case, Bulgaria must strengthen its work among the Bulgarian community in the Republic of North Macedonia and the descendants of the old Bulgarian-Macedonian emigration to the United States and Canada</b>. It should also promote the creation of objective, civil society-controlled media in the country without fake news”.</p> <p><b><i>In negotiations with the EU, Albania is bound to the Republic of North Macedonia. Can this change?</i></b></p> <p>"I think the first signal came from Sofia, when our authorities said that Albania was meeting the criteria whereas Skopje had not met them, which is why we are saying yes to Albania, and we are saying 'no' to North Macedonia start negotiations. Attention must be paid to the Albanian factor in the Balkans, which is not united. There is a great difference in political influence from Tirana and from former Yugoslavia. The key to stability in the region is the integration of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania /i.e. of the countries of the European Corridor 8, but with mutual respect for our common interests."</p> <p><b><i>Does the lack of reforms or the Kosovo issue determine the course of Serbia’s European integration?</i></b></p> <p>"The Kosovo issue is like a millstone around the neck of Serbian politicians," says Assoc. Prof. Tashev. “It will be very difficult for Serbs to break their emotional strands with Kosovo. From this point of view, the processes in Serbia and Macedonia, as successor states to the post-Yugoslav space, are similar. In both countries, we have seen political elites say they want EU membership, but in practice they were working in a completely different direction”.</p> <p><b><i>What is the worst-case scenario for the Western Balkans in 2021?</i></b></p> <p>"The worst-case scenario is a passive Bulgarian policy that runs after the events and does not generate political knowledge," the analyst concludes. "The goal of the Bulgarian foreign policy should not be to isolate North Macedonia from such a negotiating integration process, but rather to create such conditions under which the negotiation process could start while Bulgaria’s national interests are also achieved."</p> <p><i>* Assoc. Dr. Spas Tashev graduated from the Diplomatic Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of National and World Economy. He is the founder and first director of the Bulgarian Cultural Information Center in Skopje and a former deputy chairman of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. He has a doctorate in statistics and demographics from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He has defended a dissertation on "Demographic perspectives of Bulgaria and immigration policy." He has participated in the updates of the Strategy for Demographic Development of Bulgaria. He is the author of a number of books and scientific articles.</i></p> <p>English Rossitsa Petcova
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€340 million to accelerate the construction works on Corridor Vc and boost socioeconomic recovery in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The EIB has committed more than €1 billion for the construction of Corridor Vc.
Modern motorway will improve road safety, functionality and mobility for 1.5 million people.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has unlocked €340 million for the construction of the 36-kilometre section of road between Poprikuše and Medakovo on Corridor Vc, key connectivity infrastructure in the country that is also supported by European Union grants and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). This investment creates new employment and business opportunities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and contributes to regional integration.
With €340 million of new financing allocated to Corridor Vc, the EIB continues to support this pivotal route on the pan-European network connecting the port of Ploče in Croatia with Hungary via Bosnia and Herzegovina. To date, the EU bank has provided €1 billion for the construction of a 155-kilometre motorway along the Bosnia and Herzegovina section of the corridor. This modern transport network is expected to ease commuting for 1.5 million people, contribute to road safety and promote regional cooperation.
As part of exceptional measures adopted in response to COVID-19, the EIB will increase its financing to cover 90% of the total costs to advance project implementation.
EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova, who is responsible for the Western Balkans, said:“The EIB provides continuous support for the development of modern motorways on Corridor Vc in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Modern, safer roads and better transport connections are vital for economic development, fluent trade and regional cohesion and can help attract new foreign investments. This transaction will help create new job opportunities and support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s post-COVID-19 recovery and integration with the regional and EU market.”
Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador Johann Sattler said: “I am glad that a new section of Corridor Vc is now financially secured thanks to the efforts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EIB, the investment bank of the European Union. The EIB’s investment will help to bring us closer to the objective of the Western Balkans Economic Investment Plan to complete 75% of Corridor Vc by 2024. As the largest donor for Corridor Vc, the European Union has allocated over €200 million for the construction of 11 sub-sections of Corridor Vc in Bosnia and Herzegovina to complement the EIB loans. As a result, BiH citizens will be better connected not only within the country but to the rest of Europe as well.”
The Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina Vjekoslav Bevanda emphasised the importance of this agreement for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its state and regional significance in terms of development of modern infrastructure, increased safety and motorway capacity. “Each project related to construction of the motorway on Corridor Vc is of great importance and each kilometre represents a step closer to Europe for us. This is why this agreement, in addition to its financial value, will have a positive impact for the public, who will have access to 35 kilometres of new motorway on the Poprikuše-Medakovo section,” said Minister Bevanda.
The EIB is one of the leading international financiers in the Western Balkans. Since 2009, the Bank has financed projects totalling over €8 billion in the region.
The Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) provides financing and technical assistance to strategic investments in the energy, environment, social, transport, and digital infrastructure sectors. It also supports private sector development initiatives.
