World
The EU plans to digitise and monetise its borders. Here’s how
The European Union’s plans to roll out a price and automated biometric scanning for non-EU travellers intention to safe the bloc’s border however have raised considerations about surveillance and potential delays.
The 2 methods Brussels needs to introduce would, as soon as energetic, monitor all non-EU travellers’ entry and exit to the bloc. It can additionally introduce a €7 price and pre-travel registration requirement for 1.4 billion individuals who beforehand loved visa-free feeless entry to the bloc.
The initiative comes after a earlier try and tighten EU border safety did not safe consensus among the many union’s 27 international locations.
Issues have additionally been raised over the price and delays of the EU’s new Entry and Exit System (EES) and European Journey Data and Authorisation System (ETIAS).
Regardless of the problem of introducing such methods, “the Fee attaches nice significance to the well timed supply of EES, ETIAS and SIS” (Schengen Data System), and goals to introduce the brand new system by the tip of 2023, a spokesperson instructed Euronews.
The EU’s Entry and Exit System
The EES will log the entry and exit of all non-EU travellers as they enter the bloc, in addition to refusal of entry.
Automated kiosks finishing up biometric registration will exchange bodily passport stamping, with travellers being subjected to a facial picture and fingerprinting of 4 fingers.
This EES knowledge will then be saved for 3 years, or 5 years in instances of people that overstay.
Presently, non-EU residents from visa-exempt international locations, together with British nationals post-Brexit, can solely spend 90 days inside any 180 days within the bloc with out requiring a visa.
Presently, there isn’t any method of realizing if a traveller has overstayed the allowed 90 days besides by trying on the dates of entry and exit stamps in an individual’s passport.
The Fee says this technique is gradual and error-prone, because the entry and exit stamps could also be unreadable or counterfeit.
Whereas some international locations, together with Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus, have launched nationwide entry and exit monitoring methods, these can’t monitor whether or not a non-EU nationwide leaves the EU by way of one other nation.
The overwhelming of border administration by irregular migration in recent times, which has allowed asylum seekers and migrants to journey onward inside the Schengen space, has additionally created tensions between EU international locations.
This is the reason the Fee believes an EU-wide EES system, which won’t apply to residents from the EU or Schengen space, is required.
A lot delayed and combined opinions
Regardless of this, the EES, its introduction and its price have confronted vital criticism; although criticism of any venture of its dimension and significance must be anticipated.
The EES was initially meant to launch in 2022, then postponed until Might 2023, and is now slated to be delivered by the tip of 2023.
Whereas the EU’s govt insists it is going to lower ready instances at borders, member states have wildly completely different opinions.
Some international locations, corresponding to Lithuania agree with the Fee, however many extra don’t.
Austria said in November that “the extra duties ensuing from the EES regulation will result in a pointy enhance in course of instances. Presently, we count on course of instances to double in comparison with the present scenario.”
This concern is shared by Germany, which mentioned that “passenger flows on the border crossing factors had been analysed in shut cooperation with the aviation trade. It’s estimated that management instances for passengers will enhance considerably by the introduction of EES.”
The scheme has additionally been criticised by digital rights NGOs, specialists, advocates and lecturers on the European Digital Rights (EDRi) group.
Chloé Berthélémy, Senior Coverage Advisor at EDRi referred to as for “the prohibition of biometric mass surveillance and different biometric surveillance practices that disproportionately curtail rights and freedoms.”
She additionally warned in opposition to “the securitisation of migration points and the strengthening of ‘Fortress Europe’” and the dangers posed by potential cyber assaults on centralised digital id databases.
Nonetheless, a Fee spokesperson instructed Euronews that “safeguards are in place to make sure the rights of travellers near to the safety of their non-public lives and private knowledge. Their private knowledge will solely be retained within the EES for so long as crucial and for the aim(s) for which it was collected.”
They insisted that the gathering of biometric knowledge can considerably cut back instances of mistaken id, discrimination, racial profiling, and other people trafficking in addition to countering severe crime and terrorism.
The EU’s ETIAS Scheme
The second scheme, ETIAS, which is being developed carefully with the EES and depends on knowledge supplied by the EES can be launched some months after the primary scheme.
ETIAS will see travellers from non-EU international locations who presently take pleasure in visa-exempt journey to the bloc pressured to use for EU journey authorisation and pay a €7 cost earlier than arriving.
The Fee states that greater than 95% of ETIAS purposes can be robotically accredited inside a couple of minutes of submission.
Except revoked, journey authorisations will final for 3 years and for a number of journeys to the bloc, after which stage travellers might want to reapply.
Australia, Canada, and the USA all have related schemes already in place.
The Fee argues that the price of the system, which is presently set to be launched in November, “ought to” be coated by the €7 price which can go to the EU’s funds.
In 2018, vacationer lodging institutions within the EU recorded 168 million arrivals from third international locations. If every one among these arrivals was a first-time journey to the EU and the ETIAS scheme had been in place, it will’ve generated over €1.1 billion in income.
Nonetheless, the eventual income can be a lot decrease than this determine. Firstly, these below 18 and over 70 do not need to pay the price and the price additionally covers a number of journeys over 3 years. So somebody who paid the price to go to Spain in 2024 wouldn’t should pay once more until 2027, even when visiting different EU locations.
World
Justin Baldoni Sued by Former Publicist Amid Blake Lively Scandal
Justin Baldoni‘s former publicist sued him, his company and his current publicity team on Tuesday, amid a spiraling scandal over an alleged smear campaign against Baldoni’s “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively.
Steph Jones, who owns Jonesworks, accused Baldoni of breaching their contract, which required him to pay her $25,000 per month. Baldoni dropped the firm in August, a few months into a year-long deal, after his Jonesworks publicist, Jennifer Abel, left the company to start her own publicity firm.
Jones also sued Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan, accusing them of implementing the smear campaign against Lively behind her back and without her knowledge. She alleges that they are now trying to blame her for the ensuing meltdown.
“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” the lawsuit states.
Lively filed a complaint on Saturday with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing Baldoni and his publicists of orchestrating negative coverage about her in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment on set.
In the complaint, Lively accused Baldoni of a catalog of sexually inappropriate comments and behavior that allegedly took place on set in 2023. According to the complaint, she raised these issues through her attorneys before filming, which had been suspended during the Hollywood strikes, resumed earlier this year.
The rift between Baldoni and Lively became apparent during the publicity tour for the film last summer. Baldoni feared that Lively or her team would public accuse him of sexual misconduct, and sought ways to combat that. The complaint quoted extensively from text messages among Baldoni’s publicity team, in which they plotted to “bury” Lively.
In an unusual move, Lively’s attorneys obtained the messages by sending a pre-litigation subpoena to Jones.
Abel, Nathan, and Baldoni are represented by attorney Bryan Freedman. On Monday, Freedman threatened to sue Jones for releasing the contents of Abel’s phone to Lively’s legal team. Freedman, Abel and Nathan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jones’ suit.
In her lawsuit, Jones relates that she “forensically preserved” Abel’s company phone after Abel was fired.
“Abel and Nathan’s covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on Abel’s company-issued phone following her termination, which Jonesworks forensically preserved and examined in detail after receiving a subpoena for the phone’s contents,” Jones’ suit states. “Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan’s duplicity from these records, including that Abel was actively encouraging other Jonesworks clients and employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still employed there.”
Jones’ suit alleges that Abel conspired for months to leave her company and to “steal” her clients and trash her reputation in the industry. She accuses Nathan of encouraging Abel to leave, because Nathan would then have greater access to those clients.
“This scheme ultimately inflicted serious damage on Jones and Jonesworks,” states the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in New York.
Among other things, the suit alleges that Abel and Nathan planted negative stories about Jones in the press, including an article in Business Insider that was published last summer.
The suit alleges breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty and defamation.
World
Police officer dressed as the 'Grinch' steals Christmas spirit during drug bust
A Peruvian police officer dressed as the Grinch, the cantankerous and green-furred villain, busted suspected drug traffickers in the South American country’s capital days before Christmas.
The operation in San Bartolo in Lima resulted in the arrest of three suspects, according to a video posted online by the Peruvian National Police.
“In an ingenious operation, agents of the Green Squad arrested the aliases La Reina del Sur, La Coneja and Pote, alleged members of the La Mafia de San Bartolo gang, dedicated to drug dealing,” a police post on X states. “Various narcotics were seized.”
FLORIDA MAN WHO WAS HALF-NAKED, ‘HIGH ON METH’ BREAKS INTO HOME, GRABS CARPET CLEANER
Using what appeared to be a sledgehammer, the officer walked down the street dressed as the infamous Christmas villain with a small heart before breaking down the front door of a home and entering, according to the video footage.
The suspects were arrested, and the “Grinch” is seen rummaging through various items in the home before finding what authorities said were illegal drugs and other items related to drug trafficking.
MORE THAN $31M OF METH CONCEALED IN SHIPMENT OF PEPPERS SEIZED AT TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER
Peru is the second-largest producer of cocaine and cultivator of coca in the world, according to the State Department.
“The majority of cocaine produced in Peru is transported to South American countries for domestic consumption, or for onward shipment to Europe, the United States, East Asia, and Mexico,” the State Department website said.
Peru’s national police force has carried out similar operations in the past.
On Halloween 2023, officers disguised as horror favorites Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Tiffany Valentine, the murderous doll in the “Child’s Play” series, also broke into the home of alleged drug dealers.
World
Are your Christmas gifts ready? Here are where EU toys come from
While the EU saw a drop in toy exports, China was the EU’s biggest supplier, providing 80% of these imports, valued at €5.2 billion.
In 2023, the EU imported €6.5 billion worth of toys from countries outside the bloc, a €2 billion decrease compared to 2022.
According to the latest Eurostat figures, China was the EU’s biggest supplier, providing 80% of these imports, valued at €5.2 billion.
Vietnam followed with 6% and the United Kingdom with 2%.
Around a fifth of the EU’s toy imports ended up in Germany, while France and the Netherlands received 16% and 14%, respectively.
At the same time, the EU exported €2.3 billion worth of toys in 2023.
This figure represents a slight decrease of €0.2 billion from the previous year.
More than half of the toys exported from the EU came from the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium.
The UK was the top destination for EU toy exports, receiving 30% of the total, followed by Switzerland at 13% and the United States at 10%.
Concerns over toy safety
A recent Toy Industries of Europe study revealed that 80% of toys purchased from third-party sellers on online marketplaces failed to meet EU safety standards.
The research tested over 100 toys from various platforms, uncovering serious health risks such as choking hazards and toxic chemicals.
At the beginning of September, the European Parliament backed a proposal to improve the safety of toys available on the EU market.
The proposal focused particularly on decreasing the number of unsafe toys in the EU market and better protecting children from toy-related risks, including banning harmful chemicals in toys.
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