World
Is Poland becoming more authoritarian?
The alarm is being sounded over creeping authoritarianism in Poland.
A damning report printed in November mentioned the nation’s democracy was “faltering” and that key establishments had been “severely backsliding“.
This implies the federal government has eroded a number of the basic rights and freedoms that underpin Poland’s political system, in line with the report’s authors, the Worldwide Institute for Democracy and Electoral Help (IDEA).
Clear examples are the lowered independence of Poland’s media and judiciary system, although policing is a specific space of concern for some.
Wojciech Przybylski, president of the Res Publica Basis think-tank, mentioned there was an “alarming rise in eavesdropping” – with the ruling Legislation and Justice (PiS) social gathering embroiled in a cellphone tapping scandal of political opponents and journalists – moreover “increasingly” violent repression of demonstrators.
“Police management was already excessive earlier than PiS got here to energy – particularly by way of web surveillance and authorities intervention into on-line actions – however extreme policing in Poland has solely accelerated over the previous eight years,” mentioned Wojciech Przybylski, president of the Res Publica Basis think-tank.
In October, police had been criticised for detaining anti-fascist protestors at a nationalist rally, whereas not reacting to the unlawful use of Nazi symbols by different demonstrators.
However others say the issue shouldn’t be exaggerated.
Alberto Fernández, a senior programme officer at IDEA, advised Euronews that Poland was nonetheless dedicated to holding free and honest elections.
Others, in the meantime, commentators declare that fierce protests, significantly over the federal government’s restriction of reproductive rights and media freedoms, replicate the well being of Poland’s democracy.
‘Extraordinary scenario on the border’
All of that is set in opposition to the backdrop of a regional refugee disaster.
Amid swirling regional geo-political tensions in 2021, Belarus was accused of starting to push refugees and migrants throughout its borders into Poland and different neighbouring EU states in an obvious bid to destabilise the bloc.
Though this has had many results, Przybylski claims it has served as a pretext to pour more cash into its police and safety equipment.
“We have now an actual scenario on the border and we require extra border police and army given the given circumstances, however the query is whether or not funding for police truly goes within the path that resolves these issues,” he mentioned.
“On the similar time, whereas the extreme funding in assets and police privileges has been growing, the charges of murder and the charges of non-public threats in opposition to civilians have additionally risen.
“One thing is off right here. Both the [police] should not doing their job or one thing is severely unsuitable.”
From 2019 to 2020 the homicide price in Poland did enhance, though this follows a long-running fall. Crime charges within the nation are comparatively decrease than elsewhere in Europe.
‘Holding energy is tempting’
Quickly after the PiS shaped a majority authorities in 2015, they started reforming the judicial system, altering how judges had been appointed and managed, which led to accusations that the independence of the judiciary — a key pillar of democracy — was being undermined.
Whereas the general public did need restricted reforms to make it quicker and extra environment friendly, Przybylski says PiS used this sense as a pretence to paralyse the prevailing judicial system and begin constructing a politically managed different.
In 2019, PiS introduced in a brand new legislation, popularly known as a “muzzle legislation”, which permits the federal government to fireplace judges or minimize their salaries for talking out in opposition to the laws.
Judges weren’t the one ones seemingly within the crosshairs, it is claimed.
“PiS took management of the general public media and began utilizing them as their mouthpiece to provide authorities propaganda,” mentioned Filip Pazderski, head of the democracy and civil society programme on the Polish Institute of Public Affairs.
“In addition they modified the employees and the way journalists had been managed so as to management what sorts of messages had been being unfold.”
In 2021, Reporters With out Borders, a media watchdog, declared a “press freedom state of emergency in Poland”, citing how the state has introduced up regional newspapers and crackdown on unbiased media.
“We took it with no consideration that after Communism, Poland would set up democratic establishments, undertake a structure and new legal guidelines, [that] all the pieces would go easily,” mentioned Pazderski.
‘Intolerant alliance’
Nearly instantly after moving into energy, Przybylski claims PiS started imitating the political methods of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s nationalist chief.
“There’s a direct line between Budapest and Poland the place governments converse to one another … and really coordinate their insurance policies fairly intently … there may be an awfully intensive relationship general,” he says.
“What now we have in Poland is Budapest options being copied and pasted into Warsaw.”
Months after Orban gained elections in 2011, Jarosław Kaczyński, the present chief of PiS, mentioned: “The day will come after we will succeed, and we can have Budapest in Warsaw.”
Many commentators have advised that Brussels — with its political and financial affect over Warsaw and Budapest — is not less than partially liable for permitting this “intolerant alliance” to kind and develop.
“The EU has been neglecting the issue of starvation and democracy for a lot too lengthy,” mentioned Przybylski.
It allowed “this stage of political success [that] Viktor Orban might begin to replicate his system not just for Poland but additionally he is been intensifying his relations and recommendation, political consultancy to others in Western Balkans.”
Nonetheless, the EU has taken motion. Brussels beneficial freezing €7.5 billion in EU funds for Hungary over rule of legislation considerations on the finish of November.
‘There are numerous misconceptions’
Nevertheless, others have mentioned care have to be taken to keep away from overstating what is going on in Poland.
“There are numerous misconceptions,” mentioned Alberto Fernández of IDEA. “The Polish authorities doesn’t have the intention to cancel democracy.”
As a substitute, he mentioned what was rising in Poland was extra like an intolerant democracy which is much less open and tolerant than democracies within the west, with leaders initiating tradition wars, however nonetheless preserving comparatively free and honest elections.
Polish leaders have fuelled by taking extra hardline stances on points round ethnic minorities, sexual rights, the LGBTQ+ group and refugees, selling condemnation from human rights organisations.
In response to Pazderski, this can be a hangover from Poland’s communist previous, which fuelled suspicion between folks and cynicism in direction of political teams.
“The federal government tries to say that opposition politicians and civil society teams are working in opposition to the nation […] they sow distrust that they don’t seem to be working for regular folks however themselves and their very own advantages,” he mentioned.
Although circuitously within the USSR, Poland was a satellite tv for pc state of the Soviet Union. The communist system, which was popularly perceived as corrupt and ineffectual, collapsed in 1989.
‘Polish society may be very vibrant, seen and vocal’
The notion of creeping authoritarianism in Poland has resulted in numerous demonstrations and resistance from civil society teams and opposition politicians.
“There’s a very well-organised opposition that has a very totally different sort of discourse from the federal government and actually opposes its actions”, says Fernández. “Sarcastically, components of Poland’s democracy are very vibrant and there’s a democratic motion that’s truly very tough to seek out in different EU international locations.”
Poland additionally has a big unbiased media panorama that gives different views to the federal government.
Combating in Ukraine has altered the image considerably, diverting consideration past Poland’s borders.
“The warfare in Ukraine has repositioned Poland … and helped realign the nation barely in direction of a extra pleasant scenario with the European authorities,” says Fernández. “Which will change issues in the long run”.
Bordering Ukraine, Poland has borne the brunt of the fallout from Russia’s invasion, with tons of of 1000’s of Ukrainians searching for security inside its borders.
For Przybylski, this humanitarian scenario is stopping the federal government and civil society from “pushing in opposition to one another as a lot.”
“It is a ceasefire, perhaps,” he provides.
Poland’s authorities didn’t reply to Euronews’ requests to reply to this text.
World
SZA Finally Releases Long-Delayed ‘Lana’ Album, Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco
SZA‘s long-awaited the deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning 2022 album “SOS,” which is titled “Lana,” has finally arrived. The album has been through a long series of false alarms — it seemed imminent back in February, when she released the song “Saturn” — and bears artwork similar to the insect-and-forest imagery featured during her tours last summer, but it’s finally here. Variety‘s full review of the album will appear this weekend.
The album features Kendrick Lamar on the track “30 for 30” (SZA appears on two songs on his recent “GNX” album) and production from Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco on one song each. Her collaborators on the other songs are largely “SOS” producers and writers like Michael Uzowuru, ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and others.
She previewed the album with a video for the song “Drive,” featuring Ben Stiller, on Thursday night. “Lana”‘s full tracklist appears below:
1 No More Hiding – produced by Michael Uzowuru
2 What Do I Do – produced by Benny Blanco, Carter Lang and ThankGod4Cody
3 30 for 30 feat. Kendrick Lamar – produced by J White
4 Diamond Boy (DTM) – produced by Carter, Scum, Solomonophonic, Declan and Michael Uzowuru
5 BMF – produced by Carter Lang, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi
6 Scorsese Baby Daddy – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Tyler Johnson
7 Love Me 4 Me – produced by Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and Nick Lee
8 Chill Baby – produced by Lil Yachty, Sad Pony, Cade, Calvin Dickinson, iseeyou and Julian Fried
9 My Turn – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel
10 Crybaby – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Carter Lang and Declan
11 Kitchen – produced by ThankGod4Cody
12 Get Behind Me (interlude) – produced by Michael Uzowuru
13 Drive – produced by ThankGod4Cody and Billy Lemon
14 Another Life – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Dylan Wiggins
15 Saturn – produced by Carter Lang, Rob Bisel, Solomonophonic and Monsune
SZA’s forthcoming stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar presents a prime opportunity to release new material — she’s been touring behind “SOS” since it was released two years ago.
The latest round of teasers began a week ago, on the two-year anniversary of “SOS,” with a short video trailer that included a snippet of one of the album’s tracks. The video depicts SZA in a nature setting, pulling down her baggy camo pants to pee by a creek. She looks directly into the camera before taking a tissue out of her pocket to wipe herself up as the words “Lana” appear across the screen. She lyrics to the song go, “You know we got a real history/That’s the reason I can’t choose me/You know that dick been good to me/You make it hard for me to choose me.”
While SZA has been talking about a deluxe edition of “SOS” since that album’s release, she explained the album and its to Variety in August of last year: “[‘Lana’] is outtakes [from ‘SOS’] and new stuff, too — I added a couple of songs. It’s like a whole new project. It’s called ‘Lana’ — my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of SOS.”
The album seemed imminent in February when she released “Saturn,” but just a few weeks later, SZA became frustrated by fans leaking songs and posted that she would be “starting ‘Lana’ from scratch” because “y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe.” She continued, “At this point, y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be starting ‘Lana’ from scratch. Do not ask me about it again,” adding a few minutes later, “I’ll round up the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems like a fair deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward. In a subsequent series of tweets, she said the deluxe edition of SOS will now feature “the leaks and outtakes” and “Lana” will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time and music no one’s ever heard before,” she wrote. However, she seems to have reverted to her previous plan.
World
Malaysia agrees to resume 'no find, no fee' hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after plane disappeared
Malaysia’s government has agreed in principle to accept a second “no find, no fee” proposal from a U.S. company to renew the hunt for flight MH370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than 10 years ago, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Friday.
Loke said Cabinet ministers gave the nod at their meeting last week for Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to continue the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean next year.
MALAYSIA ANNOUNCES RENEWED PUSH TO FIND MH370 DECADE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE: ‘SEARCH MUST GO ON’
“The proposed new search area, identified by Ocean Infinity, is based on the latest information and data analyses conducted by experts and researchers. The company’s proposal is credible,” he said in a statement.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
Under the new deal, Ocean Infinity will get $70 million only if significant wreckage is discovered, Loke said. He said his ministry will finalize negotiations with Ocean Infinity in early 2025. The firm has indicated that January-April is the best period for the search, he said.
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“This decision reflects the government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of MH370 passengers,” he added.
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and narrow the search area to the most likely site.
World
Last-minute budget bill to prevent US government shutdown prevails in House
A last-minute budget bill has passed in the United States House of Representatives to keep the federal government funded and running through mid-March, averting an impending shutdown.
The continuing resolution now progresses to the Senate with only hours to spare before the shutdown is slated to take effect on Saturday at 12:01am local time (05:01 GMT).
On Friday evening, the temporary budget legislation sailed through the House with an overwhelming 366 votes in support.
Only 34 representatives, all Republican, voted against the bill. One Democrat, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, abstained by voting “present”.
“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said in a news conference after the vote.
The stopgap bill, however, omitted one key issue that had stalled recent negotiations: the debt ceiling.
Normally, Congress weighs federal spending separately from the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow.
But this week, President-elect Donald Trump scuttled an earlier bipartisan bill in part because it did not extend or abolish the debt ceiling, which he compared with a “guillotine” dangling over his incoming administration.
The debt ceiling has become a divisive issue among Republicans, some of whom feared extending or eliminating it would pave the way for unfettered government spending.
Trump, for his part, threatened to set up primary challenges for any Republican who opposed his plan. He signalled that he preferred the debt ceiling debate to happen under the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat and his erstwhile election rival.
“Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. “This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats! They are looking to embarrass us in June when it comes up for a Vote.”
Trump’s opposition to this week’s bipartisan legislation put him at odds with Johnson, another top Republican leader. Johnson’s predecessor for the speakership, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was ousted last year in a historic vote over his role in passing a bipartisan spending bill.
After the first bipartisan bill was scuttled on Wednesday, Trump backed another version that failed in the House a day later, on Thursday. All Democrats opposed it, as well as 38 Republicans.
Friday’s bill managed to restore Democratic support after closed-door negotiations. In his remarks after the vote, Johnson tried to cast the latest spending deal as a win for Trump’s America First economic platform.
“This is America First legislation, because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people,” Johnson said.
He also hinted at changes to come in January, when a new Congress is sworn in and Donald Trump takes office for a second term. When that happens, Republicans will hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“In January, we will make a sea change in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on spending for 2025.”
Like earlier bills, the temporary stopgap measure that passed on Friday contains approximately $10bn in farm aid and $100bn in disaster relief, a priority after the destruction of hurricanes like Helene and Milton.
But the sabre-rattling that had accompanied an earlier version of the bill had largely subsided by Friday night, with Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk striking a conciliatory note.
Musk, who had decried a Wednesday version of the bill as “criminal”, praised Speaker Johnson after the vote on Friday night for streamlining the legislation.
“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” he wrote on his social media platform X. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”
Democrats, meanwhile, questioned Musk’s growing influence over the Republican Party. Musk is slated to advise Trump’s incoming administration in a new role, as part of a nongovernmental, yet-to-be-established agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Obviously, the thing Donald Trump wanted, he didn’t get,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told reporters as he walked down the Capitol steps. “It looks like Elon got some of the things he wanted. So that’s interesting.”
Moskowitz credited the Democrats for giving the Republicans the majority needed to pass the bill in the House, despite internal dissent within the right-leaning party.
“The drama that went on here for the last two days didn’t need to happen,” he said. “And we literally wound up in the same place we were always going to wind up in, which was the Democrats providing the majority of the votes to keep the government home open and deliver for the American people.”
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