5 Stories from Europe You May Not Have Seen

[rpannier]

1. A Blow To Fair Elections: Russian Police Stand Idly By As Election Observer Is Sucker Punched

Based on the reaction of police and election officials inside St. Petersburg polling station 1619, the event that unfolded before them on election day last week was nothing out of the ordinary.

Vasily Dyachenko, a 30-year-old election observer, was monitoring the polling on September 8 and had been trying for an hour to get the officials managing the process to address what he believed were deficiencies with the voter-registration book.

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As Dyachenko observed the vote at the polling station around 2:25 p.m., dozens of people arrived at the same time to cast ballots, he said in an interview with Current Time. He said he noticed election officials had been writing in their names on unnumbered pages in the back of the voting-registration book.

It had the markings of a well-known Russian voting scheme that involves busing groups of people from polling station to polling station to cast ballots for the government's candidates -- known colloquially as "merry-go-round voting."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-police-stand-idly-by-as-election-observer-sucker-punched/30160427.html


2. UK blackouts raise questions over private sector’s right to profit from power

There is never a good time for a blackout, but for Britain’s energy companies the timing of last month’s power failure could scarcely have been worse.

The best that the owners of the UK’s energy pipes and wires can expect in the coming years is a tighter squeeze on their deflated profits by the industry regulator. A Labour government could support nationalisation. In the meantime, investors are turning their backs on energy network companies.

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National Grid’s report on Britain’s worst blackout in a decade, published last week, leaves more uncomfortable questions than it answers. In the aftermath of the outage, the energy giant was quick to blame the whole episode on a literal bolt from the blue. A lightning strike to the energy grid – capable of felling a gas power plant, a windfarm and a string of micro energy generators – is a conveniently blame-free explanation.

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The truth, buried in technical detail and mind-numbing jargon, is far more damning. It is becoming clear that the answer may be as mundane as a clutch of outdated rules and equipment settings. That lacks the drama of a lightning strike, but the implications are arguably more shocking: the blackouts might have been averted if National Grid had had a tighter grasp of the energy system it operates.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/15/blackouts-energy-network-companies-raise-questions-profits-power


3. Lesbian PM Or Not, Serbia Blocks Gays' Path To Parenthood

BELGRADE -- When the gay partner of Serbia's prime minister gave birth to a son in February, reportedly via artificial insemination, it was seen by LGBT rights activists everywhere as a historic milestone.

Not only was Ana Brnabic one of the world's first openly gay heads of government. She became the first prime minister to have a child with a same-sex partner while in office.

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Within a month, Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar imposed a ban against anyone with a "history of homosexual relations during the last five years" from donating "reproductive cells" in Serbia for artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, or even for laboratory tests.

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Adoption by same-sex couples in Serbia is banned, although a single person is allowed to adopt regardless of their sexual orientation.

https://www.rferl.org/a/lesbian-pm-or-not-serbia-blocks-gays-path-to-parenthood/30123813.html

(italics and underline by me because I think it is so weird)


4. Fighters, not rabbis: Torah students who choose the army reveal Israel’s bitter divide

Life in one of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox military units does not proceed according to the usual army schedule. The morning starts with prayers just before dawn. Meals in the barracks are prepared under the strictest kosher requirements. Training is halted twice more during the day for prayers; once again for a rabbi to teach soldiers about religious texts. Unlike the rest of the Israel Defense Forces, there are no women on duty.

Many of the unit’s deeply observant members were raised to be rabbis, which is seen as the highest calling and duty. But as Daniel Rosenberg, an ultra-Orthodox who operated a heavy machine-gun, explained, sometimes a “kid doesn’t want to be a rabbi; he wants to be a fighter”.

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During the past two decades a small but growing number of Haredi have volunteered to join the military, often going against their parents’ wishes, and in many cases being rejected by their families.

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For Avigdor Lieberman, a secular former defence minister, the issue was a deal-breaker. In May he refused to join a coalition government with ultra-Orthodox parties unless Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to force the Haredi into the army. The stalemate led to a second election being called.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/14/fighters-not-rabbis-torah-students-who-chose-the-gun-reveal-israels-bitter-divide


5. EU: Moldova Moving 'Resolutely' Forward With Key Reforms

The European Union says Moldova has "moved resolutely” to implement key reforms to reinforce democracy and the rule of law since a change of government in June.

The Association Implementation Report on Moldova, published on September 12, shows that "while reforms in the economic and banking sector advanced during 2018, the fundamental structural reforms of the judicial system, the fight against corruption, the prosecution of the 2014 banking fraud and ensuring media plurality were lagging behind," the European Commission said in a statement.

"We expect the authorities to deliver on the commitments made and to implement the ambitious EU-Moldova Agreement, to the benefit of our citizens," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini added.

Moldovan Prime Minister Maia Sandu of the pro-Western Now Platform took office in June after months of political deadlock that followed inconclusive parliamentary elections in February.

https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-moldova-moving-resolutely-forward-with-key-reforms/30160990.html

[irisblue]

1. Thank You for posting these.

Most of my info about European news comrs from DU & the BBC overnight news.

[Hortensis]

2. Very interesting. The Haredi population in Israel is exploding,

and especially among Jewish population alone. And we think we have problems here with people determined to return us to pre-Enlightenment/Age of Reason thinking.

That military service issue is only going to grow. If young Haredi men were required to serve (until they voted that requirement away), at least that would hopefully give their communities reason to not exile those who did. And then what about Haredi women?

According to a December 2017 study conducted by the Israeli Democracy Institute, the number of Haredi Jews in Israel exceeded 1 million in 2017, making up 12% of the total population in Israel. By 2030, the Haredi Jewish community is projected to make up 16% of the total population, and by 2065, one third of the Israeli population.

The number of Haredi Jews in Israel is rising rapidly. The number of children per woman is 6.2, and the share of Haredim among those under the age of 20 was 16.3% in 2009 (29% of Jews).

Wow!

Go, Moldova. No surprise judicial reforms are lagging behind financial. Their system will be crammed with corrupt agents, like the ones the Republicans have been packing ours with.