Europe – News Behind The News

Why Will 2016 Be A Scorcher?

Rachel Gascoigne / December 15, 2015December 17, 2015 / Africa, Europe, North America, South America, UK

A new global temperature forecast from the UK’s Met Office says that 2016 is likely to be even warmer than 2015.

This year has already been provisionally declared the warmest on record all due to a combination of global warming and a particularly strong El Nino.

El Nino is a naturally occurring weather pattern causes extremes such as scorching weather, droughts and flooding around the world. The weather episode sees the warm waters of the central Pacific expand eastwards towards North and South America – pulling colder water from the deep ocean and into the eastern Pacific.

Usually the wind blows strongly from east to west due to rotation of the Earth. This causes water to pile up in the western part of the Pacific.
In an El Nino, the winds that push the water get weaker, causing the warmer water to shift back towards the east. This then causes the east Pacific to get warmer.

Ocean temperature is linked to wind currents, so this change is temperature causes winds to grow weaker, and therefore the oceans grow warmer and warmer, meaning the El Nino grows too.

The phenomenon happens every two to seven years, usually peaking late in the calendar year, although the effects can persist well into the following spring – and it definitely will be in 2016.

El Nino usually just causes global temperatures to increase more than normal, however this year has seen active hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and in South East Asia, El Nino has been associated with a drought which helped increase wildfires in Indonesia and caused a dense haze in parts of the country. El Niño is also believed to have played a role in reducing the impact of this year’s monsoon in India.

Enhanced rainfall is expected between October and December in East Africa too.

The Met Office think that 2016 could see temperatures to rise 1.1C above pre-industrial levels, however last week in Paris, countries agreed that the world should pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5C.

Photos by: Wikipedia, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Who Are French Right-Wing Party National Front?

Joshua David Craddock Stoneham / December 14, 2015 / Europe

The anti-immigration party has been in the news this week, after predictions that they would take three regional elections in France. The result was unexpectedly poor however, with the party winning no regions. However they still have potential to influence French policy in the years to come. So who are the National Front?

The party was established in 1972 to unify the numerous nationalistic French movements, founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Although the group describes itself as neither right or left-wing, political commentators have defined it as right-wing, anti-immigration and eurosceptic. The party was strongly opposed to the introduction of the European Union

National Front has had a fair share of controversy over the years. The founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was often the spearhead of these controversies. Statements calling for the ghettoisation of AIDS sufferers in the 80’s,saying that the French football team had too many non-white players and referring to former French president Nicholas Sarkozy as ‘the foreigner’ in a 2007 election campaign. He has also been convicted of inciting racial hatred 6 time. In 1987, he made a statement that caused him to be fined over 2.7 million Francs when talking about the Holocaust. “I ask myself several questions. I’m not saying the gas chambers didn’t exist. I haven’t seen them myself. I haven’t particularly studied the question. But I believe it’s just a detail in the history of World War II.”

So with such a controversial leader, how did this party gain momentum in regional elections?

The key lies in the change of hands. Since 2011, the president of the party has been Marine Le Pen, the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Herself and her niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen have been targeting the eurosceptic and anti-immgration southern French regions.

Positioning themselves as a alternative to establishment politics, the leader and her niece have made their ideology more political and economic. Rather than focus more on issues of race and religions, they position themselves as more than simply a racist party.

Although they are against gay marriage, abortions, immigration and European politics, holding the other parties to account and using the Paris attacks along with the refugee crisis as talking points has made them appear more credible to some French citizens.

Results out yesterday show that National Front still have a long way to go, but as tensions over terrorism rise in France, so could too the power of the far-right.

Photos by David Oranje, videos From Vice, Financial Times and BBC

What Is The Stop The War Coalition?

Joshua David Craddock Stoneham / December 13, 2015December 13, 2015 / Europe, UK

Since his landslide election victory in September, Jeremy Corbyn seems constantly in tandem with the words Stop The War Coaltion in the British press. But who are the group, why are they controversial and is Corbyn right to stand by them?

The group

Stop The War Coalition was founded directly after 9/11 with the aim to stop war in the middle-east as a reaction to attacks on the World Trade Center. Since then, they have been campaigning against the War On Terror as well as, what they believe to be, unjust wars.In 2003, they joined forces with the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament, The Muslim Ascociation of Britain to hold the largest anti-war march in British history, campaigning against the invasion of Iraq.

Controversy

Following the recent Paris attacks, the group controversially posted an article titled “Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East”, for which they later apologised. The group has also been criticised by human rights activist Peter Tachell as ignoring the controversial regimes of Assad and Putin in their criticisms of what they call U.S imperialism. Many MPs such as Tristram Hunt and Caroline Lucas have critised the group, with Lucas leaving the group recently.

What’s Corbyn got to do with it?

Corbyn was the chair of the group since its 2011 and only recently stepped down after the results of the Labour leadership election. He said he would continue to support the group and has been an active member since the groups inception. He was present at the groups launch and spoke at the event.

Should he move away from the coalition?

His role in the group has been criticised by some Labour MPs and some have said that he should distance himself form the group. Although the group is known for being controversial, they represent Corbyn’s anti-war policy. As a group that denounced action in Iraq and said that military intervention would destabilise the region, they seem to compliment a Corbynistic military strategy. However the controversial claims and history of the group mean that their policy becomes Corbyns. As a face of the second biggest political party in the UK, Corbyn should weigh up whether Stop The War Coaltion is not only representative of him, but Labour as a whole.

Photos by Garry Knight

Elections In Spain: Continuity Or Change?

Eduardo Gonzalez / December 13, 2015December 16, 2015 / Europe

Next December 20 general elections will take place in Spain and all political parties are in the middle of the election campaign. According to surveys this appointment with polls will be very different to the traditional ones. The classical political bipartisanship between People’s Party (currently in power) and Spanish Workers Socialist Party (PSOE), that have ruled the nation since 1978, when democracy was established, has been totally knocked down by two new parties: Podemos (“We can”) and Ciudadanos (“Citizens”). Nonetheless, as polls indicate, People’s Party still would keep its first position, but it would has far fewer seats than in 2011 and in any case it would be enough to permit it governing solitary. Down below we go over the four candidates, their parties and their main proposals.

Mariano Rajoy (PP)

He is the current president and has a very long political career. During the last four years, Rajoy’s government has tried to combat economic crisis and unemployment, two main problems which have been blighting the nation since 2008. He has been repeatedly accused of undertake too many austerity measures, but according to results, economy its his best chance. He has already announced that his government is cutting taxes like IRPF (income taxes) if he wins. He has also said that he is expecting to create 500.000 new jobs every year until 2019. According to all surveys PP is going to take the first place in the race for Moncloa, but it will in no way able to govern alone.

The best: he represents stability and experience.

The worst: too many cases of corruption in his party.

Pedro Sanchez (PSOE)

After won primary elections inside his own party in 2014, Sanchez became on leader of the PSOE , before long bad results obtained by PSOE in the European elections. Since then he has not been able to manage situations and prevent the vote blood-letting caused by the new parties. In the last local elections, that have been celebrated this same year, its party obtained a poor results with almost 700.000 fewer votes than in 2011. This could be his last chance to achieve good results. Socialist leader has uploaded to his website a document with his main five proposals: “Repealing labour reform”, “a big deal for education an science”, “a minimum vital income to eradicate child poverty, “a national agreement to combat violence against women” and “a constitutional reform”.

Best: his program acts for dialogue and a new federal conception of the nation.

Worst: with rise of new parties, PSOE seems to have lost their place.

Albert Rivera (Cidadanos)

His party, together with Podemos, have changed the historical Spanish political statu quo. Citizens party was initially conceived as a Catalan civilian platform whose members wanted to make things happen. That was in 2005. Since then, his party has experienced an unstoppable growth not only in Catalonia, but even in the rest of the Peninsula Iberica. In the European Parliament election of 2014 his party obtained two seats, with just 500.ooo votes. This year, in the municipal elections its group was the great surprise obtaining almost 1.500.000 votes and positioning as the third force. That’s why many think that Citizens could be even the second force on next elections. Despite being Catalan, Rivera has always defended unity of the nation and he describes his party as social democratic and liberal-progressive. Among his proposals are a complementary salary for lower incomes, a fight against corruption and fraud, the depoliticising of justice or a new administrative national organisation.

Best: he represents one new generation that want “level headed” changes

Worst: most part of their party partners are unknown for the people.

Pablo Iglesias (Podemos)

In his figure is represented the change and the fight against the “caste”, word frequently used among members of his party to talk about traditional groups. Iglesias has worked as lecturer of political science at UCM Univeristy, and he became famous after several television appearances in different Spanish media such as La Sexta, Cuatro, 24h, or 13TV. Combining his work as lecturer, with his labour as political commentator in television, he decided (along with other university mates) to create a new party, Podemos, in 2014 and standing for 2014 European elections, in which they obtained 5 MEP’s and 1.200.000 votes. Despite his party has been accused of left-wing populism, Iglesias define it as “transversal”. Their financing is based on crowd-funding. Podemos have taken some innovative initiatives such as designing a transparency organization trough people can see what they do with every single euro they receive. Among his promises are: guaranteed income, removing of revolving doors, guaranteeing the right to housing or a general taxes cutting to the poorest classes.

Best: his party has revolutionized the traditional Spanish politics.

Worst: some of his ideas are often criticised as populists.

Photos by: PP Cantabria, FSA-PSOE, Contando Estrelas, Xixón Sí Puede.

EU Memberstates To Set Their Own Social Media Age Limit

Rachel Gascoigne / December 12, 2015December 16, 2015 / Europe

European Union Memberstates are set to agree on their own age limits for social media use after they failed to agree on a uniform policy.

The proposal to ban Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media services from handling personal data belonging to those under the age of 16, unless their parents had given consent, would have effectively prevented the companies from offering their services to young people.

Obviously, technology firms petitioned against the idea.

The European Commission and European Parliament had originally proposed that there should be a standard age of consent set at 13 years, which would have brought the EU in line with America. At the moment, the majority of Europe already follow this rule, although Spanish law stops companies processing data belonging to the under-14s. As a result, Facebook and other social media companies operate a higher age limit in the country.

However, it emerged late last week that a last minute amendment to new data protection regulations could raise the said age limit to the age of 16.

The new draft law, allowing countries to set their own social media age limit, is set to be confirmed by a vote in the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee and then by a full parliament vote next year.

Our question is, should a new law be made for those who lie about their age on social media? Such as young children who desperately want to be online?
Please comment with your views!

Photo by: Francisco Osorio.