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WARSAW As the United States ramped up warnings of a Russian attack, and as Western allies called for unity against aggression, the leaders of two NATO members bordering Ukraine headed for a gathering in Madrid over the weekend called Defend Europe.

But instead of tackling the Russian threat to Europes eastern frontier, the meeting attended by the prime ministers of Poland and Hungary, Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orban, focused on what the populist leaders cite as their most pressing threats: immigration, demographic decline and the European Union.

Even as the two NATO members rely on the alliance for their security, the pressing in Madrid of issues that have long driven a wedge between them and the United States and the European Union highlighted the extent to which domestic political concerns remain at the forefront of their calculations.

The meeting, which brought together populist, and for the most part, Kremlin-friendly, standard-bearers from across Europe, also underlined just how much those politics have blurred what the United States views as a clear-cut case of bullying by Russia, a nuclear-armed autocracy, against Ukraine, a vibrant, albeit highly dysfunctional, democracy.

Mr. Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, travels to Moscow on Tuesday to meet President Vladimir V. Putin. Frances far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, an outspoken fan of the Kremlin, was also at the two-day conclave, as was Austrias far-right Freedom Party, which has long called for an end to European sanctions imposed on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and military incursions into eastern Ukraine.

A declaration issued after the Madrid gathering made no mention of Ukraine, though it did lament Russian aggressive actions on Europes eastern border. It instead stressed the need to form a united front in favor of family policies, Christianity and keeping out immigrants. The European Union, the statement said, had become detached from reality, leading to demographic suicide.

Poland is a country with a long and traumatic history of Russian aggression. That it would join a gathering focused on attacking the European Union at a time of crisis on its eastern border highlighted just how much the governing party sees Brussels as a threat.

Poland regularly denounces Moscow and supports the presence on its territory of around 4,500 American troops and a U.S.-run missile defense installation. But, incensed by E.U. criticism of its restrictions on judicial independence, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and other issues, the governing party has increasingly turned its fire on Brussels.

Polish foreign policy has been completely subjugated to domestic needs and is now all about stopping interference from the European Union, said Roman Kuzniar, a professor at Warsaw University who advised his countrys previous pro-European government.

While tiny Baltic States have sent arms to Ukraine and worked to forge a united front against Moscow, Poland, the regions biggest and most militarily powerful country, has been very passive and has had nothing serious to say, Professor Kuzniar added.

After weeks of dithering, Polish authorities said on Monday that they would offer defensive weapons to Ukraine. Prime Minister Morawiecki, who travels to Ukraines capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday, expressed his unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian neo-imperialism that he said threatened destabilization of the European bloc.

Jacek Bartosiak, the founder of Strategy and Future, a research group, defended the governments caution, saying that Poland has too much at stake in Ukraine to risk hasty gestures. Poland, he said, is the most important piece of the puzzle in the game being played around Ukraine.

The scrambling of foreign policy by domestic politics mirrors a similar phenomenon in the United States, where the Republican right has challenged the Biden administrations support for Ukraine and asked whether Russia might be a more worthy cause.

Few in Poland voice sympathy for Russia. But, there is also deep wariness about Ukraine, the western part of which belonged to Poland before World War II, particularly among nationalists who view as genocide the massacre of tens of thousands of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during the conflict.

Anti-Ukrainian feeling is the ABC of Polish nationalism, said Marek Swierczynski, a security expert at Politika Insight, a research group in Warsaw. Everything in Poland these days has become so politicized, he added, noting that Law and Justice has been reluctant to embrace Ukraine too closely because part of their base may turn against them.

Hostility toward Russia generally cuts across political divisions but has been overshadowed by hostility toward Brussels, the ruling partys favorite bugbear.

Jarosaw Kaczyski, the head of Law and Justice and Polands de facto leader, fulminates regularly against the European bloc, claiming in December that it was becoming a German-led Fourth Reich, but has said nothing publicly about the Ukraine crisis.

Mr. Kaczynskis liberal critics note that his emphasis on defending traditional Christian values against what he views as decadent intrusions by the European Union is almost indistinguishable from the Kremlins own favorite propaganda trope.

But while standing on the Kremlins side in Europes culture wars, nationalist populists in Europe are bitterly divided over whether to reject or embrace Mr. Putin, a rift that has hobbled their efforts to make common cause. At the Madrid gathering, which followed a similar event in Warsaw in December, Mr. Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, pushed hard to get a reference to Russian aggression included in the final statement. Ms. Le Pen objected and issued her own statement that made no mention of Russia.

George Simion, the leader of a right-wing Romanian political party, described the meeting as a disaster because of divisions over Russia, which he views as a threat blocking his own pet political cause, the union of Romania with neighboring Moldova, a territory seized by Moscow in 1940.

Polands high-level presence at such a gathering caused dismay among critics of Law and Justice, particularly the opposition leader Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who emphasized outreach to Ukraine and close relations with the European Union.

Denouncing the Madrid meeting as anti-Ukrainian and pro-Putin, Mr. Tusk had urged the prime minister not to attend. Among the parties in attendance was a far-right Estonian outfit whose leader has campaigned for elections with the anti-immigrant slogan: If you are Black, go back!

Mr. Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has a long record of cozying up to Moscow and quarreling with Kyiv, particularly over its policies toward ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine. Like Law and Justice in Poland, his Fidesz party has built its political brand around combat with the European Union, from which both countries have received billions of dollars in aid but which serves as an easy punching bag in domestic political battles.

Ominous warnings. Russia called the strike a destabilizing act that violated the cease-fire agreement, raising fears of a new intervention in Ukraine that could draw the United States and Europe into a new phase of the conflict.

The Kremlins position. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has increasingly portrayed NATOs eastward expansion as an existential threat to his country, said that Moscows military buildupwas a response to Ukraines deepening partnership with the alliance.

Facing a tough election in April, Mr. Orban has gone further than any other European national leader in reaching out to Moscow and demonizing the European bloc.

His opponents on Monday urged him to cancel his Tuesday visit to see Mr. Putin for talks on gas contracts and the expansion of a Russian nuclear power project in Hungary.

Peter Marki-Zay, the standard-bearer for an unusually united opposition camp in the April elections, said the Moscow trip meant that Hungary has betrayed its Western allies and betrayed the countrys thousand-year-old dream of Western integration.

Aside from the Baltic States, which have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, Europes formerly Communist eastern fringe has sent mixed messages, pledging loyalty to NATO, which now includes most former members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, but at times voicing distrust of Ukraine.

In the most abrupt rupture with NATOs position of solidarity with Ukraine, President Zoran Milanovic of Croatia, which joined the alliance in 2009, last week said Ukraine should never be admitted to NATO, a view heartily shared by Moscow. In the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, the president said, Croatia must get away from it like from a fire.

His comment, however, was driven less by the crisis over Ukraine than domestic political squabbles with Croatias prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, who belongs to a rival political party and has voiced strong support for Ukraine. The prime minister this week issued a statement noting that Ukraine deserved support as one of the first countries to recognize Croatia as an independent country after it split from Yugoslavia during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.

The history of past wars weighs heavily on governments across the region, where gratitude for past support jostles with bitter memories of betrayal, often by the same people.

In Poland, Poles massacred by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II compete with earlier memories of how soldiers from Ukraine helped Poland defeat invading Soviet troops in 1920 on the banks of the Vistula River near Warsaw.

Our history is very difficult, said Mr. Swierczynski, the Polish security expert.

Benjamin Novak contributed reporting from Budapest and Anatol Magdziarz from Warsaw.

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For Some of Ukraines Neighbors, Defend Europe Has Another Meaning - The New York Times

Two years in, the pandemic continues to show just how split most European Union member governments are on pandemic leadership. Destinations that persist with multiple entry rules will continue to negatively impact their tourism economies.

Lebawit Lily Girma

Perhaps no other region has demonstrated the chaos and resulting negative impact on the travel industry as a result of a non-uniform approach to entry rules than the European Union. But there was hope for the end of the fragmented EU approach by early 2022.

The European Council adopted a recommendation, effective February 1, that members should lift all entry restrictions for intra-EU movement, and base the rules on an individuals health status vaccinated, recovered, or neitherrather than the travelers country of origin.

This would mean members agreed in principle to take a more coordinated approach to travel within the EU for starters as of Tuesday, and that governments would lean towards using the EU Digital Covid Certificate as sufficient for entry, with a validity period of nine months starting on February 1.

But a close examination of the Re-Open EU platform on Tuesday reveals different additional restrictions remain for regional movement, including pre-departure testing requirements. Its a reminder that the European Councils recommendation is just that a recommendation and not a legally binding instrument. Whats more, restrictions on international travelers who are heading to an EU destination remain more split than ever.

As of Tuesday, just five European Union countries have expressly eased entry for all global travelers and cite the European Councils recommendation Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Latvia. Yet an astounding 26 are holding on to country or region-based approaches, with varying vaccine recognition lists to boot, and/or pre-entry tests for either regional or global movement into their borders.

Now is the time for European Governments to open borders and remove travel restrictions, Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, told Skift, adding that booking data shows Europeans are positive about traveling again, with Easter bookings up by more than 250%, while summer bookings are currently 80 percent above 2021 levels.

With European Union destinations continuing to fail to fully align with the European Councils recommendations and continuing to treat European travelers differently from all other travelers, its clear that Europes tourism industry will continue to face an ongoing dilemma in the recovery of the international market in particular, ahead of the spring and summer season demand.

Those few destinations that have stepped away from testing and quarantine requirements for entry, particularly Spain and non-EU countries such as the UK, are likely to benefit as a result. Spain recently projected reaching 88 percent of 2019 levels this year. Destinations such as the Dominican Republic, which never implemented pre-testing rules, also reported record levels of visitation as a result of high levels of in-country vaccination rates alongside relaxed entry protocols.

Tourism leaders have continued to press governments to enter a new phase of living with Covid, and to embrace the European Commissions health-based entry determination for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Those pleas are now further bolstered by a new report from Edge Health for the International Airport Transport Association (IATA), showing the inefficacy of pre-entry testing, released on Tuesday.

In Finland and Italy, for instance, Omicron-related entry requirements imposed six to eight weeks after the variant was in existence were ineffective in controlling its spread. Even if the testing requirements had been introduced on the first day of South Africa reporting the variant to the WHO, that wouldnt have halted its rapid spread, the report adds.

Keeping testing in place for vaccinated passengers therefore seems completely ineffective from the health point of view, but damages passenger confidence and national economies, said Conrad Clifford, IATA Deputy Director General in a release.

The report also comes on the heels of the United Nations World Health Organization and its World Tourism Organizations pleas to remove blanket restrictions and vaccine-only options, which continue to harm economic recovery, and the restart of the tourism industry.

For many months, we have been calling on governments to shift their risk assessment from entire countries to that of the individual traveller.Fully vaccinated travellers should be able to travel freely, said WTTCs Simpson.

But if European destinations differing travel rules are anything to go by, its another year of fragmented recovery and entry rules ahead, vaccinated or not.

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European Nations Still Not Buying Into a Coordinated Approach on Travel Rules - Skift

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn, met with European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson last week amidst the Commissioner's meetings with Silicon Valley tech leaders to discuss proposed EU legislation that would require platforms to do more to prevent child sexual abuse online.

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a global, pervasive problem on the internet, and the European Union is poised to take groundbreaking regulatory action to tackle the urgent issue. Recent research from WeProtect shows that 54% of children across the world have experienced at least one harmful sexual encounter online. Additionally, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) revealed that they had surpassed 100 million received reports of child sexual exploitationalmost all relating to images and videos circulating online of children being sexually abused, with nearly 80% of those files depicting children under the age of 12, according to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Thorn's mission is to eliminate child sexual abuse from the internet, and the nonprofit has developed tools that help tech companies combat the issue by identifying and removing CSAM from their platforms.

"I am thankful for the great work that Commissioner Johansson and her team are putting into this legislation. The EU is leading the fight against child sexual abuse online and could set standards that will improve the safety of children across the world. We at Thorn applaud the attention they're giving to this serious and urgent issue and look forward to providing our expertise wherever it is needed," said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn.

In their meeting, Cordua laid out Thorn's perspective on how lawmakers in the EU can help us to defend children across the world:

"Currently, global systems aren't doing enough to defend children from sexual abuse online. The EU has the power to set new standards for the safety of children, providing a clear legal framework for tech companies that encourages collaboration and innovative solutions. The European Commission could set a global example that will move us closer to universal adoption of the proactive detection, reporting, and removal of CSAM," continued Cordua. "We need the EU's leadership to make a long-term commitment, backed with thoughtful legislation, to building a safer internetone where every child can simply be a kid."

About Thorn: Thorn is a nonprofit founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse to eliminate child sex abuse material from the internet. Thorn creates products that identify child victims faster, provides services for the tech industry to play a proactive role in removing abuse content from their platforms, and works directly with youth and communities to build resilient kids. Learn more about Thorn's mission to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse at Thorn.org.

SOURCE Thorn

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Thorn Engages with European Commission to Develop Solutions to Stop the Spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material - PRNewswire

MONROVIA While the Liberian Senate is still debating how impactful the amended Mineral Development Agreement of ArcelorMittal would be on the country and its economy, the Vice President of the European Union Parliament for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borell, says the amended Agreement is important to Europe and has benefits for Liberia.

Mr. Borell was answering to a concern by a Romanian politician and a member of the European Union Parliament raised a question on the floor on the Union Parliament. His question was to ascertain the EUs awareness of the controversies surrounding the amendment and the concerns raised against it both in the mainstream and social media and whether the concerns have been raised with the authorities.

He also sought to ascertain if the new MDA is compatible with the EUs objectives of promoting good governance and sustainable development in Liberia.

The proposed Agreement, the third amendment to the original MDA signed in 2005, has already been passed by the House of Representatives and forwarded to the Liberian Senate for concurrence. The Agreement, among other things, called for ArcelorMittal to make US$800 million investment in Liberia, employed over 1,000 Liberians and provide the Government of Liberia with US$55 million within 19 months of ratification.

In his response, Mr. Borell, who is the Union Parliament High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy stated that EU is aware of the amendment to the MDA currently before the Liberian Senate for ratification.

The amendment seeks to expand ArcelorMittals mining logistics operations in Liberia. It is expected to boost the economy with some US$800 million investment.

Mr. Borell: The AM investment is by far the largest in the country and will be one of the largest mining projects in West Africa. One of the objectives of the amended MDA is to share the railway among the three mining companies in Liberia and in Guinea so that transport services are open to the two other mining companies in Guinea.

He continued: The EU is promoting good governance and the rule of law and supporting sustainable and inclusive development in its policy dialogues and cooperation with partner countries, including Liberia. This includes the promotion of human rights and responsible business conduct in line with United Nations Guiding Principles, and applies to all sectors of intervention, including mining. There are benefits for the country and its citizens, foreign investments being essential for Liberias development. For the EU this investment, with its link to the viability of a decarbonised steel industry in Europe, is of high importance.

The EU will continue its dialogue on economic governance with the government, to support responsible mining practices in compliance with the internationally agreed labour and environmental standards and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Reducing the CO2 intensity of the energy intensive industries in general and the global steel sector in particular is crucial for meeting the objectives of the Paris agreement and the EUs own climate targets. The EU steel industry currently accounts for 221 Mt GHG emissions annually (including both direct and indirect emissions). This is 5.7% of total EU emissions. Energy-intensive industries altogether accounted for 665 Mt GHG emission (only direct emissions), 15% of the EU total.16 To meet the ambitions of the European Green Deal, the steel industry has to transform itself in order to stay competitive.

Sharing the Railway

In a recent exclusive interview with FrontPageAfrica, the top management of ArcelorMittal Liberia debunked report that it is opting for sole ownership right of the railroads and port of Buchanan in the current proposed amendment of the MDA.

Since its passage by the House, there have been series of reports of an eminent deadlock over some of the new clauses inserted by the House. A notable one borders on the ownership right of the railroads and port of Buchanan.

According to the Houses Joint Committee on Investment and Concession, Ways, Means & Finance, Judiciary, Lands, Mines & energy and Environment, Article 3 of the proposed Amendment called for the company to have exclusive rights over Liberias railroads and the Port of Buchanan; something the Joint committee sees as a complete monopoly of the governments two major infrastructures.

In the amendment, the Committee called on the government to take ownership of the railroad, Buchanan Iron Ore Port and related Infrastructure. It called for the infrastructure to be structured, regulated, expanded and managed on a non-discriminatory multi-user basis for the benefit of all eligible applicants and the Republic of Liberia.

The Interim Chief Executive Officer of AML, Mr. Mahamar Haidara said since 2007, the Government of Liberia has exercised ownership of the rail and port infrastructure, and the current proposed amendment provides further rights to the Government.

GoL is the owner of rail and port infrastructure since 2007 and this Amendment provides further rights to the Government of Liberia on who can utilize the infrastructure corridor, he said.

We need to be careful about some misinformation campaign and propaganda being run in this regard by some vested interests, as ArcelorMittal is investing heavily in Liberia to further expand existing operations to unlock Liberian Iron ore resources for benefit of its people compared to others who are still making studies for potential development of Iron Ore resources for neighboring country with only nominal transit fee benefit for Liberia.

Mr. Haidara said the agreement strengthens GoLs demand for other users including Guinean miners to utilize the Liberia infrastructure for their export; adding that the other users will need to invest to increase the capacity of the rail and port for their own use.

He furthered that the third amendment ensures that AML cannot obtain any monetary benefit from other users of the rail and port. AML also cannot allocate the rehabilitation costs that it has already incurred to other users. These users will have to pay a transit fee only to the Government of Liberia.

Long and Exhaustive Process

The AML Acting CEO, commenting on the process in crafting the agreement said, it was a long and exhaustive process; lasting over 51 weeks and included top officials of the Liberian government, particularly the Executive, senior Government lawyers, members of the Inter-Ministerial Concession Committee and various international (US & Europe) advisors to the Government and executives of ArcelorMittal.

He said AML also discussed with the Government its plans for organic growth in Liberia. With the existence of a large iron ore resource body in Nimba, he noted that AML plans to expand its operations from 15 mtpa to 30 mtpa, which will generate huge benefits for Liberia. He clarified that the planned expansion will not prohibit others from using the rail infrastructure as they can do so beginning in 2025.

Said the AML Interim CEO: The Amendment to the MDA includes an obligation for AML to present its feasibility study for the 30 mtpa tentative plan to the Government in 2023. The expansion to 30 mtpa in Liberia will further increase investments and benefits for the government and people of Liberia. Current estimates suggest that AML can produce at this level for about 50 years, making the AML Iron Ore operation in Liberia the largest on the African continent. With ArcelorMittals focus on decarbonization for its steel making, the superior Liberia concentrate product in future will be the appropriate ore for steelmaking.

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Liberia: 'ArcelorMittal Amended MDA is of High Importance to the EU' - European Union Parliament High Representative - Front Page Africa

TOURCOING, France (AP) French President Emmanuel Macron is taking aim at migration a core issue in the country's presidential campaign by pushing to strengthen the European Union's external borders against people illegally entering the blocs passport-free area.

Macron is expected to run for a second term in France's April 3 presidential election. Conservative and far-right candidates have made migration a top campaign theme, criticizing what they see as Macron's inaction on stemming migration.

Our passport-free area (in Europe) is being threatened if we dont know how to guard our external borders and monitor who is entering in, Macron told the La Voix du Nord newspaper.

Macron met with the EU's interior ministers in northern France on Wednesday evening, as the country holds the bloc's six-month rotating presidency. He also met earlier in the day with local officials to discuss economic issues in the former mining region.

Macron said migration policies need to be discussed within a specific political body that will be able to anticipate and draw plans up to prevent crisises.

We want to establish a real Schengen Council to supervise the (passport-free) Schengen area, like what we have for the eurozone," Macron said in a speech in the city of Tourcoing on the Belgian border. He proposed that the first meeting of the council be held next month.

The Schengen area comprises 26 countries including non-EU nations Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. During the pandemic, many Schengen nations erected temporary border controls that went contrary to the zone's freedom of movement ideal.

Macron also wants to create a rapid reaction force to help protect EU states' borders in case of a migrant surge and is also pushing for a rethink of the bloc's asylum application process.

The EU's 27 national leaders agree that changes are needed in the bloc's immigration policies but disagree on how to go about it.

The arrival in 2015 of well over 1 million people, many of them refugees fleeing war in Syria, sparked one of the EUs biggest political crises. Greece was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of people landing in its islands from Turkey. But other EU countries refused to share the burden of caring for the refugees.

In December, the EU's executive arm overhauled the rule book governing free movement in Europe amid EU accusations that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was exploiting migrants in a hybrid attack on the bloc by offering them passage to the borders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

Macron also said he wants the EU to be more efficient in deporting those refused entry.

The French president is also looking to reduce the number of visas issued to non-EU nations that are reluctant to take back their citizens who have been refused asylum in the EU. He said the issue will be discussed at a summit between the European Union and the African Union later this month. On average, only around 40% of people refused entry to the bloc are ever actually sent home.

At home, Macron has been under harsh criticism from political rivals over migration, especially after 27 migrants died when their smuggling boat sank in the English Channel in November.

Far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in January visited the northern town of Calais, where migrants gather in makeshift camps as they try to reach Britain. Zemmour said migrants are dying at sea "because were not tough enough with them. If we had told them ... you wont come to France, you will be deported as soon as you arrive, they would not be dead.

A record-high 52,000 people tried to cross the English Channel last year, with more than half making it to Britain, according to the French Interior Ministry.

The other French far-right presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, travelled last month to the border area between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, which is used as a entry route by migrants coming in from Africa. She called for re-establishing national border controls.

Conservative contender Valerie Pcresse recently made a campaign trip to Greece to visit a camp for asylum-seekers who want to enter Europe from Turkey. She also stressed the need for strong European borders.

It is not at all fortress Europe, but it is not a supermarket Europe either.... There are doors and you must go through the door, she said.

Zemmour, Le Pen and Pcresse are considered Macron's main challengers in the presidential election to be held in two rounds, with a first vote on April 10 and a runoff between the top two contenders on April 24.

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AP Writer Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels.

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Follow all AP stories about global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.

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Macron takes aim at migration with eye on French election - Danbury News Times