Germany to Extend Border Controls to Combat Illegal Migration
External border controls will continue around Germany until the number of illegal migrants drops significantly, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated on Monday during a meeting with Federal Police Chief Dieter Romann in Rostock.
Although numbers have started to decline, they remain higher than in previous years.
“I am not willing to accept these figures,” Faeser emphasized. The German interior ministry is reportedly frustrated by the uneven distribution of refugees across Europe, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Faeser pointed out that only a few countries are shouldering the bulk of the migration burden.
She also confirmed that existing controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland will remain in place until the implementation of the Common European Asylum System which was approved this spring. However, this process will take several more months, with the earliest end to the checks expected in June 2025.
Despite a record influx of nearly 128,000 illegal migrants last year, this year’s numbers have dropped, with 53,000 illegal entries reported so far — a 16 percent decrease compared to the same period last year. German authorities attribute this decline in part to the reintroduced border controls.
The Federal Police report that most illegal entries occur via Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland.
The stationary checks on the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland were initially introduced on Oct. 16, following the earlier reinstatement of controls at the Austrian border. The decision came as German authorities noticed a rising influx of refugees and increased human smuggling activities along these routes.
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Italian State Media Reporter Apologizes Over Nazi SS Broadcast
The Italian journalist who recently interviewed a Ukrainian soldier wearing Nazi insignia has apologized.
Ilario Piagnerelli, a reporter with the Italian state broadcaster Rai News 24, said he “deeply regrets” the interview but called the uproar on social media a tool of pro-Russian propaganda.
In an extract from a report circulating online, Piagnerelli can be seen talking to a man wearing a khaki cap adorned with the insignia of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ SS division, a unit that was convicted of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II. The video is watermarked ‘Rai News 24’. As of Monday morning, however, the footage was no longer visible on Piagnerelli’s X account.
Sono cresciuto con un nonno partigiano, di quelli veri, che oggi non avrebbero dubbi nel distinguere tra invaso e invasore, tra chi resiste e chi occupa. Sono stato educato ai valori della Costituzione.
— Ilario Piagnerelli (@ilario82) August 19, 2024
Mi rammarico profondamente di aver dato voce, anche se per pochi secondi, a… pic.twitter.com/lBhBTtlax6
“I deeply regret having given voice, even if only for a few seconds, to a Ukrainian soldier who I only noticed wearing a patch with a Nazi symbol after the report aired,” Piagnerelli wrote on X on Monday.
“I grew up with a partisan grandfather, one of the real ones, who today would have no doubts in distinguishing between invader and invaded, between those who resist and those who occupy. I was educated in the values of the Constitution.”
Piagnerelli further talked about an alleged “network of pro-invasion profiles linked to Moscow in Italy, which dedicates its resources to discrediting my work and that of other correspondents. They pretend to be shocked, but they have found in that image a formidable argument for anti-Ukrainian propaganda,” the reporter argued.
Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Rai of “sinking to a new low,” with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying that “the Western media continue to engage in the deliberate rehabilitation of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and a revision of the Nuremberg Tribunal verdicts.”
Piagnerelli had already “distinguished himself with stories about Bucha and a dead neo-Nazi from Pravy Sektor [Right Sector],” Zakharova claimed, but has now “sunk to new depths …”
“It is possible that next time Piagnerelli will film a Ukronazi with the symbols of the SS division ‘Reichsfuhrer SS,’”Zakharova stated, referring to a unit notorious for carrying out what is claimed to be the worst World War II massacre in Western Europe.
Over the weekend, Rai recalled two of its reporters back to Italy after Moscow launched a criminal probe into their illegal presence in Russia’s Kursk Region. On Wednesday, the broadcaster aired a TV report on the Ukrainian cross-border assault into the region in which a crew of journalists embedded with Kiev’s forces drove deep into Russian territory.
Report: Biden Administration Rushes Digital ID Plans
The Biden administration is working to expedite widespread adoption of digital IDs, including driver’s licenses, a draft executive order indicates.
Digital IDs are a contentious concept primarily because of the concentration of – eventually – the entirety of people’s sensitive private information in centralized databases controlled by the government, and on people’s phones, “client-side.”
That in turn brings up the issues of technical security, but also privacy, and the potential for dystopian-style mass surveillance.
Proponents, on the other hand, like to focus on the “convenience” that such a shift from physical to digital personal documents is promised to bring.
In the US, some states have started this process via digital driver’s licenses, and the executive order is urging (“strongly encouraging”) both federal and state authorities to accelerate this, as well as other types of digital ID.
Where this policy seems to be converging to is coming up, at long last, with a functional way to carry out online identity verification. Namely, digital ID would be combined with biometric data obtained through facial recognition, and other forms of biometrics harvesting.
Centralization of data – opponents say to better control it, even if that makes it less secure – is a key component of these schemes, and so the Biden executive order speaks about making it obligatory for federal agencies to join “a single government-run identity system, Login.gov,” reports say.
It is also noted that Biden initially mentioned such an executive order was coming during his 2022 State of the Union speech, but the wording reportedly became a cause of contention.
Now, that seems to have been resolved, and the only question for the administration is when Biden should sign the order, the same sources who saw the text, report.
At the same time, as states are launching their own (partial) digital ID programs, an increasing number are looking for ways to introduce online age verification and are enacting laws to this effect.
A federal-level digital ID scheme would help in these efforts to solve the “problem” of online anonymity – and in the process forever change the internet as we know it.
Ukrainian MPs Pave Way for Banning Largest Christian Church
The Ukrainian parliament has approved a law that would allow authorities to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which Kiev has repeatedly accused of having ties to Russia, according to an MP. The legislation also outright bans the Russian Orthodox Church and all affiliated religious institutions.
In a series of Telegram posts on Tuesday, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said the parliament had passed a law banning certain religious organizations on the territory of Ukraine, particularly those linked to Russia.
“Among the people, it [is called] the law banning the Moscow Church,” he said. The law was approved by 265 deputies, with 29 voting against, and four abstaining.
The law, which will take effect in 30 days, bans the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and all affiliated religious organizations. However, it contains a caveat that gives the UOC nine months to sever all ties with the ROC.
While the UOC declared full autonomy from the Moscow Patriarchate several weeks after the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, Kiev continued to accuse its clergy of having ties to Russia, often raiding churches and making arrests.
Freedom Convoy Trial Resumes, Leaders Still Face Possible 10-year Jail Sentence
OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – After a five-month hiatus, the trial for two Freedom Convoy leaders resumed in an Ottawa courthouse last week for closing arguments.
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, who is overseeing the trial, adjourned the court proceedings in March to allow the government to prepare legal arguments to back its claim that leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich were “co-conspirators” as well as to give the defense time to prepare its case that the two are innocent.
Lich and Barber face multiple charges from the 2022 protests, including mischief, counseling mischief, counseling intimidation, and obstructing police for taking part in and organizing the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy. In Canada, anyone charged with mischief could face a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years.
The court sat for three days last week from August 13 to August 15. Thus far, the government has asserted “that the absence of violence or peaceful nature of the protest didn’t make it lawful, emphasizing that the onus was on the Crown to prove the protest’s unlawfulness.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews at the time, despite the non-violent nature of the protest and the charges, Lich was jailed for weeks before she was granted bail.
The Democracy Fund (TDF), which is crowdfunding Lich’s legal costs, noted in a legal update for Day 39 of the trial that it expected the Crown would try to prove the leaders were “co-conspirators,” meaning that accusations placed against one leader automatically apply to the other.
However, this did not occur. Instead, the Counsel submitted legal briefs and then went straight to closing arguments.
The government’s “Carter application” asks that the judge consider “Barber’s statements and actions to establish the guilt of Lich, and vice versa.”
A “Carter application” requires that the government prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that there was a “conspiracy or plan in place and that Lich was a party to it based on direct evidence.” The defense is asking the judge to dismiss the application.
Lawyers for the Crown claimed to the court that Lich and Barber were the primary leaders as well as organizers of the protest, and thus fully represented the Freedom Convoy. However, Perkins-McVey did not fully concur with this statement as she noted that the evidence presented to her shows that both Lich and Barber were, as noted by the TDF, “one moderate group among many groups in the convoy.”
The Crown then claimed that the Freedom Convoy had one sole purpose, which was to end COVID jab mandates, adding that Lich and Barber had a broad reach on social media. However, Perkins-McVey stated that this was not 100 percent clear and that it was possible protesters involved in the Freedom Convoy were there for various reasons.
The Crown then claimed that the leaders’ use of plural pronouns “we” and “our” in their communications seemed to show that there was a common purpose or theme of the protests, that being to end the COVID jab mandates, however, the court again said there could be other reasons as well.
The government has held steadfast to the notion in trying to prove that Lich and Barber somehow influenced the protesters’ actions through their words as part of a co-conspiracy. This claim has been rejected by the defense as weak.
The reality is that Lich and Barber collaborated with police on many occasions so that the protests were within the law. Lawrence Greenspon, Lich’s counsel, and Diane Magas, Barber’s attorney, have said they will argue against the Carter application.
Day 40 of the trial for Lich and Barber, as per the TDF, saw the Crown during its last day of closing arguments try and show a connection “between the defendants in furtherance of an offence” via a list of statements “of each defendant that the Crown maintains should be admissible against the other.”
As per the TDF, “Counsel then highlighted comments by Lich,” one of which was to “make sure that we get the money to the truckers” as well as “we plan to be here for the long haul,” and “we have no intention to stay one day longer than necessary.”
Perkins-McVey then suggested to the Crown that in her view she did not hear any evidence that Lich and Barber had promoted a way of acting that would be connected to the offense of mischief or obstruction. Despite this, the Crown, as per the TDF, “responded that there is evidence of statements that establish participation in general mischief and obstruction of the protesters.”
On Day 41 of court proceedings, Magas made it a point to remind the court that it is the Crown’s responsibility to “prove the elements of the offenses beyond a reasonable doubt — closer to absolute certainty than a balance of probabilities,” as per the TDF.
Magas noted that the court must find “both guilty mind (mens rea) and guilty conduct (actus reus),” and that it is “interesting” the Crown had the opinion that Barber would “go home” after his and other’s bank accounts were frozen.
“So, for the Crown to say, ‘just go home’ … they took the money for truckers to go home,” Magas said.
Additionally, Magas contested the Crown’s reasoning in relation to an obstruction charge after a Crown lawyer claimed the charge should stay as Lich and Barber “metaphorically stood shoulder to shoulder” with all the protesters.
Magas said that “there is no actus reus of metaphorically standing together for a principal.” According to Perkins-McVey, it would only qualify as obstruction if they specifically told the protesters to do so.
Also, as noted by the TDF, Magas made it a point that Barber was “compliant during his arrest.”
“This, she said, showed that he was leading by example: He was demonstrating the importance of not resisting police and remaining compliant,” the TDF noted.
After adjourning, the court will meet again this week. Perkins-McVey has up to six months to make her final decision once all the closing arguments have been considered.
Besides the ongoing trial, Lich and Barber and a host of others recently filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Trudeau government for its use of the Emergencies Act (EA) to quash the Freedom Convoy in 2022.
In early 2022, thousands of Canadians from coast to coast came to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government enacted the Emergencies Act on February 14. Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23.
The EA controversially allowed the government to freeze the bank accounts of protesters, conscript tow truck drivers, and arrest people for participating in assemblies the government deemed illegal.
During the clear-out of protesters after the EA was put in place, an elderly lady was trampled by a police horse and one conservative female reporter was beaten by police and shot with a tear gas canister.