Category: Angela Merkel

Germany spends record 23 billion euros on refugees – Report

Germany spends record 23 billion euros on refugees – ReportThat marks an increase of nearly 11 percent on the 20.8 billion euros that Germany spent in the previous year, the document prepared by the Finance Ministry showed.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers will discuss the government’s annual report on refugee and integration costs during their regular cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Merkel has repeatedly defended her 2015 decision to leave German borders open to hundreds of thousands of war refugees, mainly from Muslim countries, as a humanitarian necessity, but has since vowed to prevent a repeat of such mass migration by tackling its causes.

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British and EU flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

Brexit hangs in balance as parliament to vote on May’s tweaked deal

LONDON (Reuters) – The future of Britain’s exit from the European Union hung in the balance on Tuesday as lawmakers prepared to vote on a divorce deal after Prime Minister Theresa May won last-minute assurances from the European Union.

“This is a bipartisan push. People understand - religious people, individuals who may not always be in the LGBTI fight - they understand that criminalizing homosexuality is absolutely wrong,” Mr Grenell said. “It is unbelievable to believe that in today’s world a 32-year-old man in Iran can be hanged simply for being gay,” he added, in reference to the alleged execution of a man on anti-gay and kidnapping charges. US officials told NBC News that the campaign is in part aimed at denouncing Iran over its human rights record, adding that the US government would likely work with international organisations including the United Nations and the European Union to put pressue on the 71 countries that still penalise homosexuality.

Trump unaware about his own administration’s plan to decriminalize homosexuality around the world

“This is a bipartisan push. People understand – religious people, individuals who may not always be in the LGBTI fight – they understand that criminalizing homosexuality is absolutely wrong,” Mr Grenell said.

“It is unbelievable to believe that in today’s world a 32-year-old man in Iran can be hanged simply for being gay,” he added, in reference to the alleged execution of a man on anti-gay and kidnapping charges.

US officials told NBC News that the campaign is in part aimed at denouncing Iran over its human rights record, adding that the US government would likely work with international organisations including the United Nations and the European Union to put pressue on the 71 countries that still penalise homosexuality.

The biggest BMW plant is in South Carolina not in the carmaker’s homeland of Bavaria, says German chancellor

Germany’s Merkel demolishes Trump foreign policies

Rancour and recriminations were the order of the day with allies as well as adversaries turning on each other in one of the most important gatherings of the Munich Security Conference in recent years.

Efforts were supposed to be made, at least among western countries, to find common ground on a range of issues from the Middle East after the end of the Isis caliphate to cyber warfare, Brexit, extremism and climate change.

Instead the US vice president Mike Pence attacked European states for not joining Washington in pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran and failing to fully follow the American line on the Venezuelan crisis.

Repeatedly praising Donald Trump for his allegedly “remarkable” and “extraordinary” qualities which have made “America stronger than ever before”, enabling it to “lead on the world stage again”, Mr Pence derided Nato allies.

His speech was greeted with muted cheering, with Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner clapping enthusiastically, but a significant number of those present staying silent and some of his remarks being greeted with whispered mockery.