December 18, 2017


News and Views


COVERAGE ON THE HORRIFIC TRAIN DERAILMENT IN WASHINGTON STATE IS BEING LIVE CAST ON THE CBS NEWS SITE: HTTPS://WWW.CBSNEWS.COM/. AN EARLIER BBC REPORT, ALSO, IS BELOW.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42401707
Washington train crash: Rail carriages fall on US motorway
December 18, 2017

Photograph -- TROOPER BROOKE BOVA/WASHINGTON STATE PATROL
Image caption
A trooper from Washington State Patrol tweeted this image from the scene

Two train carriages have plummeted on to a motorway in Washington state, causing a number of fatalities, police say.

The train derailed and the carriages fell on to the I-5 highway below.

Images from the scene show emergency services treating people on the ground. Amtrak confirmed there had been injuries.

Several cars on the highway were struck by the derailed carriages, the Pierce County Sheriff's department says.

Sheriff department spokesman Ed Troyer has told local media that there are fatalities and people still trapped on the train.

Among motorists caught up in the incident there were a number of people injured but no one killed, the department said.

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Colleen O'Brien
@ColleenKIROFM
BREAKING: Pierce County Det. Ed Troyer: Confirmed fatalities, major injuries, ppl being transferred to hospital, ppl still trapped on the train. Don't know cause of derailment.

11:37 AM - Dec 18, 2017
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Local news stations report that this was the inaugural run of the new high-speed rail line.

The crash occurred around 07:30 (15:30 GMT), about 45 minutes into train 501's journey between Portland and Seattle.

train dangles on roadwayImage copyrightWASHINGTON TRANSPORATION BOARD
Before the crash, it was travelling at more than 80mph (130kmh), with at least 75 people on board.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

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Pierce Co Sheriff
@PierceSheriff
Photos from scene of amtrak passenger train derailment

12:10 PM - Dec 18, 2017
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WSDOT Tacoma Traffic
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@wsdot_tacoma
All SB lanes of I-5 blocked near Mounts Road in Pierce County due to derailed train car. Avoid area!

10:45 AM - Dec 18, 2017


"IT'S A REAL OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO GET OUT AND BE PART OF THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION.” MY, HOW THESE HEAD HONCHOS DO TALK. “OPPORTUNITY, A PART OF THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION,” MEANS THAT NOW THAT THE PRESS IS ONTO THE STORY, THEY ARE TRYING TO APPEAR TO MAKE CHANGES AND AVOID LAWSUITS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/air-force-academy-restructuring-sexual-assault-prevention-office/
CBS NEWS December 18, 2017, 7:36 AM
Air Force Academy restructuring, expanding office handling sexual assaults

The United States Air Force Academy says it's rebuilding its sexual assault prevention and response office after a scathing internal report. Our separate, six-month CBS News investigation looked into how the academy handles assault cases. We spoke to more than a dozen current and former cadets who told us they faced retaliation from peers and military leadership for reporting sexual assaults.

Part I: Current and former cadets speak out on sexual assault at Air Force Academy
Part II: Former Air Force Academy official alleges sexual assault cover-ups
Part III: Air Force Academy chief responds to CBS News sexual assault investigation
Part IV: Former Air Force prosecutor calls academy chief's response to sex assault investigation "pathetic"

The academy's superintendent says he's now open to all ideas that would help support victims.

"It's a real opportunity for us to get out and be part of the national conversation. The reckoning, the 'Me Too' movement, the things that we're talking about," Air Force Academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Silveria said the academy is restructuring and expanding its sexual assault prevention and response office with an emphasis on better-qualified staff and prevention efforts.

"I intend to be relentless in pursing the perpetrators of these horrible crimes and holding them accountable. But I also desperately want to help all of the victims in any way that I can," Silveria said.

His remarks to the Colorado Springs Gazette came days after denying on "CBS This Morning" that the academy had a problem with the way it handles sexual assault.

"Do you think there is a problem, general, at the academy when it comes to sexual assault and how it's being handled? Do you think that there are problems there?" "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King asked Silveria last week.

"I don't think there are problems and let me tell you why. ... We know that across the nation and across campuses this is underreported. So I want reporting to go up so that I can provide that care, provide that support," Silveria responded.

Last month, the academy released a scathing investigation into its sexual assault prevention and response office, accusing former director, Teresa Beasely, of a "lack of competency" that jeopardized victim care. Beasely told CBS News she's been made a scapegoat for standing up to leadership and advocating for survivors.

"Is the Air Force Academy supportive of those who report sexual assault?" "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell asked Beasley.

"I would have to say absolutely not. No," Beasley said.

One current cadet, who asked us to protect her identity, called it "slut shaming" and "victim blaming."

"I was terrified of reporting because I've heard of things that happen to people. And it did happen to me. So it's not horror stories," she said.

Silveria is also open to allowing sexually assaulted cadets to transfer to another military service academy.

"The focus shouldn't be on moving survivors and further disrupting survivors lives – the focus should be on reforming culture so that there aren't - isn't cases of retaliation against those who report," said former cadet Lynn Hall. She is the author of "Caged Eyes," a memoir about the way the Air Force Academy handled her sexual assault, and is on the advisory board of Protect Our Defenders.

"Time and time again, cadets lose their careers, they are often traumatized in ways that will affect them for the rest of their lives, and, meanwhile, perpetrators continue to graduate and serve in the armed services," Hall said.

The Air Force Academy tells CBS News that in the past five years, one cadet perpetrator of sexual assault has been convicted in a court martial proceeding. Eleven others accused of assault were pushed out of the academy.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



I DO HOPE THAT SENATOR MCCAIN WILL TOTALLY RECOVER FROM THIS FRIGHTENING TUMOR AND BE ABLE TO COME BACK TO WORK FOR THE LONG TERM. HE’S HONEST, COURAGEOUS AND DECENT. HE’S THE KIND OF PUBLIC SERVANT THAT WE NEED.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-mccain-tweets-im-feeling-well/
CBS NEWS December 18, 2017, 12:32 PM
John McCain tweets, "I'm feeling well"

Republican Sen. John McCain, who left Washington for Arizona Sunday, tweeted a thank you for public support during his illness and said he's feeling well and looking forward to coming back to work.


John McCain
✔
@SenJohnMcCain
Thanks to everyone for your support & words of encouragement! I'm feeling well & looking forward to returning to work after the holidays.

11:43 AM - Dec 18, 2017
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McCain had spent several days last week at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland recovering from side effects stemming from chemotherapy treatment for brain cancer. He's spending the holidays with his family and will be skipping the final vote on the GOP tax plan, which is currently expected to take place this week. The House takes up the final tax bill Tuesday, and once they've passed it, the Senate will bring it to the floor. McCain is expected to return to Washington in January.

The doctor treating McCain at Walter Reed, Dr. Mark Gilbert, Chief of Neuro-Oncology at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Cancer Institute, says McCain has responded well to treatment he's undergone for a viral infection, and his underlying cancer is "responding positively to ongoing treatment."

While he's in Arizona, McCain will also undergo physical therapy and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS SHOWS THE CONFUSION THAT HAPPENS SO MUCH ON CAPITOL HILL, BUT I NOTICE THAT LAST PARAGRAPH SAYS HE WILL VOTE FOR THE FINAL VERSION. IT DOESN’T SAY WHETHER OR NOT HIS REAL ESTATE AFFAIRS WILL BE AIDED, HOWEVER; I ASSUME THEY WILL.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-corker-wants-to-know-how-a-real-estate-provision-wound-up-in-final-gop-tax-plan/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS December 18, 2017, 8:37 AM
Bob Corker wants to know how a real estate provision wound up in final GOP tax plan

Sen. Bob Corker is seeking clarity on how a provision that would benefit people like him and President Trump wound up in the final agreement to overhaul the nation's tax code between Republicans in the House and Senate.

The Tennessee Republican sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Sunday and asked how a provision on pass-through businesses that would reportedly give real estate investors a large tax break wound up in the deal. A reporter had called Corker, he said, alleging that it was a new provision inserted into the bill.

"My understanding from talking to leadership staff today is that a version of this provision was always in the House bill—from the Ways & Means markup, through House floor consideration—and in reconciling the divergent House and Senate approaches to pass-through businesses this House approach stayed in the final conferenced version," Corker said.

Corker's office noted that the senator was not involved in the writing of the legislation and was not a member of the conference committee that crafted it.

"Because this issue has raised concerns, I would ask that that you provide an explanation of the evolution of this provision and how it made it into the final conference report. I think that because of many sensitivities, clarity on this issue is very important and hope that you will respond in an expeditious manner," he added.

Corker announced on Friday that he would back the plan, which is expected to pass both chambers this week.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



HERE ARE TWO YOUNG PEOPLE WHO, WHEN THEY REFUSE TO HATE, THEY ARE THREATENED. SUCH IS THE WAY OF THE WORLD. TWO ARTICLES, BELOW. IN THE FIRST, SEE MISS IRAQ, WHO MAY BE IN SERIOUS DANGER FROM THOSE WHO HATE HER EXPRESSION OF SOME SIMPLE PLEASANTNESS TO MISS ISRAEL. SHE HAD HER PHOTO TAKEN WITH HER.

IN THE SECOND ARTICLE AFTER THAT, CHRISTIAN PICCIOLINI, A LONG TIME WHITE SUPREMACIST HAS BEEN THREATENED FOR DEPARTING THE PATH OF REAL MANHOOD TOWARD ONE OF PEACE ON EARTH. HE IS COUNSELING YOUNG HATE-MONGERS NOW TO GROW AWAY FROM THEIR NEGATIVITY AND TOWARD WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE A DECENT LIFE. WHY IS IT THAT WHEN PEOPLE DO SOMETHING GOOD, THEY ARE THREATENED?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miss-iraq-universe-sarah-idan-threats-selfie-miss-israel-adar-gandelsman/
CBS NEWS December 18, 2017, 11:18 AM
Miss Iraq Universe threatened for selfie with Miss Israel

Photograph -- A photo posted on Instagram by Miss Iraq Universe 2017, Sarah Idan (right), shows her posing for a selfie with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman, ahead of the pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 13, 2017. INSTAGRAM/SARAH IDAN

Miss Iraq Universe, Sarah Idan, has told CNN that her family was forced to flee their native country amid death threats over a photo she posted online, posing for a selfie with Miss Israel.

Idan said she never expected a negative reaction to her photo, taken with Adar Gandelsman in the run-up to the international beauty pageant in Nevada in November.

"I woke up to calls from my family and the Miss Iraq Organization going insane. The death threats I got online were so scary," she told CNN. She said she immediately told her mother that the family should leave Iraq, given the seriousness of the threats -- which she says included Iraqi government officials threatening to strip her of her national title if she didn't take the photo down.

It remains on her Instagram account.

Iraq and Israel have no former relations. Anger toward the Jewish state across the Muslim world has reached a new crescendo in recent weeks as President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Both Palestinians and Israelis claim the holy city as their capital, and no other nation has unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Idan, a dual U.S.-Iraqi national, quietly agreed to post a follow-up message as the threats increased, making it clear her photo was no endorsement of Israel's government or policies. But the pressure increased.

"My mom was freaking out. I told her 'Mom, just get out. Get out.' I told her I'm sorry and asked if she wants me to leave the competition. I was ready to drop out right then," said Idan. "People in Iraq recognized my family, they immediately knew who they were. And they were getting death threats."

She told CNN she remained silent publicly during the backlash so that her family could get out of the country.

Miss Universe 2017 said her family was told she would have to apply for a new national identity card to renew her Iraqi passport. To do that, she would need to return to Iraq -- something she told CNN she's now afraid to do.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


“ALTERNATE SETS OF FACTS” WERE KELLYANNE CONWAY’S WORDS A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO WHEN SHE EXPLAINED WHY THE WHITE HOUSE IS TELLING SO MANY STRETCHERS. TRUTH IS BECOMING SO RARE THAT MANY PEOPLE DON’T EVEN RECOGNIZE HOW IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE “PUFFERY” OF BUSINESS AND POLITICS. LOOK UP PUFFERY. THAT’S A LEGAL TERM USED FOR DEFENSE AGAINST FRAUD CHARGES. HTTPS://DEFINITIONS.USLEGAL.COM/P/PUFFERY/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rejecting-hate-after-spending-nearly-a-decade-spreading-it/
Rejecting hate, after spending nearly a decade spreading it
Christian Picciolini spent eight years in the white supremacist movement, now he's trying to stop it
Dec 17, 2017
CORRESPONDENT
Scott Pelley

Terrorism has come to mean Islamic extremism. But the fact is, since 9/11, more than twice as many Americans have been murdered by white supremacists. This threat exploded into view this past August when a protest aimed at a Civil War monument in Charlottesville, Virginia ended with one dead and 19 injured. No one understands the white supremacist movement as well as Christian Picciolini. He knows it because he helped build it. This is the story of an American terrorist -- his long journey to redemption -- and his struggle now to lift others from the depths of hate.

Scott Pelley: You hated black people.

Christian Picciolini: I thought I did.

Scott Pelley: You hated Jews.

Christian Picciolini: I thought I did.

Scott Pelley: You wanted to kill them.

Christian Picciolini: At that time, I did.

piccolini-3.jpg
Christian Picciolini speaks with correspondent Scott Pelley CBS NEWS

Christian Picciolini was not born to hate. He was taught. His education began in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island. He was 14, at odds with his Italian immigrant parents and lost.

Christian Picciolini: I had been bullied and picked on for, you know, everything from my name to my short stature, to my parents not being able to speak English very well. And I just never fit in.

And one of Picciolini's neighbors was a national figure in the neo-Nazi movement.

Scott Pelley: When you first met this man in the alleyway and then the rest of the skinheads in that town, what was it that they were promising you?

Christian Picciolini: They promised me paradise. They promised me that they would take me out of whatever hell I was living in, whether that was abandonment or marginalization and to a degree they delivered. They did give me a new identity. I was now this powerful person. And they gave me a community that accepted me.

That community was a racist gang with its own culture and its own music. That's Picciolini with a song that he wrote called "white power."

Christian Picciolini: The music gave me very specific focus on what was happening to me and it was trying to give me the answers of why that was happening.

Scott Pelley: And what were those answers?

Christian Picciolini: Those answers were that everybody was against me as a white man that I was being intentionally ostracized and that diversity was a code word for white genocide and that if I didn't protect my proud European heritage that we would be wiped out.

"The truth is, I'd never met or had a meaningful dialogue or engagement with anybody that I thought I hated."

By the time he reached Eisenhower High School he had turned to violence. On his last day there he beat up the same black student twice.

Christian Picciolini: And I was brought down to the office, and to the principal's office who was also a black woman. And in that office, I got in a very heated physical argument with the security guard, Mr. Holmes.

That's security guard Johnny Holmes, who has never forgotten what he saw in the principal's office that day.

Johnny Holmes: She put her arms around Chris, he said, "You black bitch. Get your filthy hands off of me."

Christian Picciolini: There were some words that I said to the principal that were not very kind. In fact, they were disgusting and very racist.

Johnny Holmes: Then he turned from her to me. And he started to poke me in my chest like this. And he went on to say that how he lived to see the day where a n----- was hangin' from every light pole in Blue Island.

Christian Picciolini: And he really got in my face to try and stop me and subdued me until the police came. And the police arrested me.

picciolineholms.jpg
Christian Picciolini and Johnny Holmes CBS NEWS

Picciolini was expelled for the sixth and last time. Which only made him more committed.

Christian Picciolini: That is me, in 1994, looking very much like somebody who is a terrorist. I am at this point, the leader of an organization of skinheads and the people standing behind me are my soldiers, people that would have done anything for me.

Scott Pelley: And that last picture? Where are you?

Christian Picciolini: I am standing in front of the gates of Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.

Dachau, where an estimated 41,000 were murdered. Mostly Jews.

Scott Pelley: What are you thinking?

Christian Picciolini: I was thinking that I wanted to burn the world down because I was so angry at it.

The anger led Picciolini to recruit dozens of new members and unleash them on a campaign of assault, vandalism and burglary. The violence reached its peak one night when Picciolini and his 'soldiers' chased a black man out of a restaurant.


Christian Picciolini: We caught that individual and we proceeded to beat him brutally. And at one point when I was kicking him on the ground and his face was swollen, covered in blood, he opened his eyes and they connected with mine. that was the first time I felt empathy for one of my victims. And that was the last time I hurt anybody.

It took years from that moment for Picciolini to turn around. His wife and children left him. He went through five years of depression. But ultimately, he says, his anger began to cool he says as he was confronted by kindness -- blacks and Jews who refused to return the hate.

Christian Picciolini: The truth is, I'd never met or had a meaningful dialogue or engagement with anybody that I thought I hated. And when they took the step to try and reach me, the demonization of them that I had in my head started to crack.

picciolini5.jpg
Christian Picciolini speaking about the white supremacy movement CBS NEWS

20 years later, 44-year-old Christian Picciolini is making amends. He participated in a United Nations Peace Conference in Geneva. In the U.S., He trains police, the FBI, and Homeland Security in the mindset and tactics of the white supremacy movement.

"The data tells us this, 74% of extremist-related killings in this country in the last ten years have been carried out by right-wing extremists, not Islamic extremists."

Christian Picciolini: You know 30 years ago we were skinheads. We wore swastikas and shaved heads, and you could identify us pretty easily. So we decided at that time to grow our hair out, to trade in our boots for suits and we encouraged people to get jobs in law enforcement, to go to the military and get training and to recruit there.

Which is why it was hard to spot the racists amid the violence of Charlottesville.

Oren Segal: So Charlottesville is a seminal moment in this country for hate.

Oren Segal tracks the white supremacist transformation as director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL trains law enforcement officers in 250 agencies.

Oren Segal: You know, look no further than Charlottesville. One of the lasting impressions people have are these white kids with polo shirts and khaki pants. Almost looked like a fraternity scene. But they're holding tiki torches, and they're talking about how the Jews are responsible for the ills of this country. They're racist. They're anti-immigrant. They're misogynist. But they look like our kids. That's the changing face of hate in this country.

Scott Pelley: Since 9/11, the country has been focused on radical Islamic terrorism, but what do the facts tell you?

Oren Segal: The data tells us this, 74% of extremist-related killings in this country in the last ten years have been carried out by right-wing extremists, not Islamic extremists.

Scott Pelley: Including white supremacists.

Oren Segal: Yes. So white supremacists, in particular, have been responsible for a majority of the killings, even in the last ten years.

It is social media that propels the movement's momentum. Posts promoted the Charlottesville protest which drew people from 35 states. It was the largest white supremacy rally in 15 years. The most common hashtag for racist tweets now is "white genocide."

Christian Picciolini: And it's these types of things that appeal to young people who, frankly, are living in an environment right now where it's tough to find something to believe in.

Today, Picciolini is trying to give white supremacists something else to believe in. He says he's counseled 200 members of the movement.

He's sought out by parents and courts. In Chicago, a man who broke windows and painted swastikas on a synagogue was sentenced to a year of counseling with Picciolini.

Dean Chabot is another neo-Nazi who followed Picciolini out of white supremacy.

Scott Pelley: Dean, do you consider yourself to be out, or do you consider yourself to be in the process?

Dean Chabot: I am completely out. Actually, doing this interview is the final step.

Scott Pelley: How so?

Dean Chabot: Once this airs there's no going back. If you try to go back in, someone's gonna kill you.

This interview wasn't truly his final step.

Scott Pelley: Dean, would you mind showing me these tattoos?

Dean Chabot: Yes, sir.

Scott Pelley: And how old were you when you got these?

Dean Chabot: I was about 15 to 17.

Scott Pelley: And when you got the tattoos you thought what?

Dean Chabot: I just thought that it was complete. I finally have my ink.

Scott Pelley: Finally have your ink. You were all in, indelibly in the movement.

Picciolini arranged for a plastic surgeon to erase the last traces of Chabot's former life.

Dean Chabot: The reason I am doing this is to end a chapter of my life, getting the hate off my skin.

Scott Pelley: When you first sit down with one of these young men you're trying to turn around, what do you say to him?

Christian Picciolini: I'm there to listen because they're used to people not listening to them.

roof-letterl.jpg
Dylann Roof's letter to Picciolini

His hardest case is the most notorious white supremacist of our time. In 2015, Dylann Roof murdered nine African Americans during bible study in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dylann Roof: I had to do it. Because somebody had to do something because black people are killing white people every day.

Picciolini wrote to Roof in the hope that Roof would express remorse. Roof responded this way to Picciolini's letter.

Christian Picciolini: Well, starts off with; "Traitor, you've really cashed in, haven't you? I know you won't be, but you really should be ashamed of yourself. I hope you know that you are 100 times worse than the Jews you've surrounded yourself with."

Scott Pelley: What does that tell you?

Christian Picciolini: That tells me he is completely indoctrinated by these alternate sets of facts, these conspiracy theories, this rhetoric that's pushed by the movement that puts all the blame on -- Jewish people and that he's so entrenched in that information that he's been fed that that's become his reality.

Redemption comes to those who face the evil they have done. Christian Picciolini's first job after white supremacy was as a computer technician. And by chance, he was sent to work at a high school -- Eisenhower High School -- where he apologized to Johnny Holmes, who was then still head of security.

Johnny Holmes: I knew it was genuine, and he was emotional. And it was a very, very special moment, that exchange.

Christian Picciolini: I am forever, forever grateful and that's really important for me to communicate.

Johnny Holmes: Well, I'm so happy for you. And I'm so glad that it happened.

Christian Picciolini: Thank you. Thank you.

Johnny Holmes: You're welcome.

Christian Picciolini: I think my biggest regret, aside from the people that I physically hurt, were all the young, promising people who could have had a normal, great life if I hadn't stepped in their way, if I hadn't recruited them. There are many that went to prison, many that ended up dead. And that's my biggest regret.

Scott Pelley: Do you fear for your safety?

Christian Picciolini: I receive death threats-- on a daily basis. But the way I look at it is, for eight years of my life in my youth I was willing to die for something that was wrong. So if I wasn't doing what I was doing to try and help pull people out of this movement, I don't know that I'd be able to live with myself.

Produced by Michael Radutzky. Associate Producer, Lucy Boyd.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



MIGRATION ISSUES IN GERMANY TODAY – TWO ARTICLES

https://www.thelocal.de/20171217/migrant-arrivals-in-germany-fall-for-second-year-in-a-row
Migrant arrivals in Germany fall for second year in a row

Photograph -- By late November this year, the number of new asylum seekers in Germany stood at around 173,000. Photo: DPA
AFP
news@thelocal.de
@thelocalgermany
17 December 2017 11:33 CET+01:00

The number of new asylum seekers in Germany has fallen for a second year in a row following the mass influx that peaked in 2015, the government said on Sunday.
For all of 2017, "I presume a total of fewer than 200,000 migrants," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was quoted as saying by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The EU's top economy has taken in more than one million asylum seekers since 2015, around half from conflict-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, in a mass intake that sparked a xenophobic backlash.

The total for 2015 reached 890,000, but arrivals slowed sharply after several Balkans transit countries shuttered their borders and the EU in March 2016 reached a deal with Turkey to stop crossings to the Greek islands.

Arrivals of new asylum seekers to Germany fell back to around 280,000 in 2016.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under strong pressure for her liberal immigration policy, and her Bavarian allies the CSU have long pushed for a maximum intake of 200,000 refugees a year.

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Merkel has agreed to the figure but labelled it a "benchmark" rather than an iron-cast maximum.

De Maiziere said that by late November this year, the number of new asylum seekers in Germany stood at around 173,000.



I DON’T THINK IT’S UNETHICAL, BUT IT MIGHT BE UNWISE IF INDIVIDUALS GET THE IDEA THAT THEY CAN GET PAID FOR PLAYING A GAME WITH IMMIGRATION. IF, HOWEVER, THEY HONESTLY WANT TO GO BACK OR ON TO ANOTHER NATION OF THEIR CHOICE, THEN GIVING THEM THE MONEY TO DO IT IN EXCHANGE FOR A PLEDGE TO STAY AWAY IN THE FUTURE MAKES SENSE TO ME. THERE IS NO PERFECT SOLUTION, THOUGH, AND THERE WILL PROBABLY BE WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, UNLESS A MIRACLE HAPPENS.

http://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c77jz3md4rdt/germany
Germany
Posted at 19:12 14 Dec
Should Germany pay its migrants to leave?
Rebecca Seales
BBC News

Berlin is offering asylum seekers thousands of euros to retrace their steps - but is it ethical?

If you'd travelled across the world to pursue a better life, would you move back in return for money?

Germany is betting that the answer is yes.

The country has long offered migrants and asylum seekers financial incentives to leave its shores, and until 28 February 2018 it's prepared to pay out extra.

Individuals will get €1,000 and families up to €3,000 (£2,650; $3,540) to cover rent or resettlement costs back in their home countries - things like basic kitchen or bathroom facilities.

Critics say Angela Merkel's government is trying to bribe its way out of a tricky situation, but supporters say the scheme will help sad, exhausted migrants who just want to go home.

Germany is by no means first to this approach. So where else has done it - and is it morally wrong?

'Pressure is being ramped up'

According to Dr Jeff Crisp, a Fellow at the Chatham House think tank, so-called "voluntary return" programmes for asylum seekers have been around for at least 20 years, and everywhere from Australia to the UK and Canada has tried them.

"The pressure on people to return is definitely being ramped up, and return is being seen as the key to the whole migration situation in Europe at the moment," he told the BBC.

"Governments in Europe particularly much prefer these programmes because they're less messy. There's less likelihood that things will go wrong than when you're forcing people onto planes in handcuffs."

Photograph -- Image copyrightCHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- Police escort rejected asylum seekers to a plane at Franz-Josef-Strauss airport in Munich

Figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which runs many countries' reward schemes, show that it helped 98,403 people return to their countries of origin in 2016. Over half of them - 54,006 people - were leaving Germany.

Some 39,000 out of the 98,403 received cash (given to 61% of people) or benefits in kind, at a cost of $32.7m.

How does a government sell that kind of outlay to the voting public?

In Scandinavia, which has seen a migrant influx in the past decade, officials say it's cheaper to help asylum seekers leave than to house them in immigration centres.

Sweden currently offers grants of 30,000 Krona (£2,653; $ 3,550) for lone migrants and 75,000 for families, paid as a lump sum in US dollars.

And in spring 2016, nearby Norway made headlines for adding a 10,000 kroner "bonus" onto its existing rewards package for the first 500 asylum seekers to apply.

"We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way out," Migration Minister Sylvi Listhaug declared.

But is that really an ethical approach?

An April 2016 Facebook post by Norwegian integration minister Sylvi Listhaug reads (translated from Norwegian): "Good morning everyone! Today the udi will begin a campaign for more asylum seekers to travel voluntarily from Norway. We'll pay them a little extra, but save the state for money because it costs a lot to have people at the asylum centre. Looking forward to visit kristiansund today." Image copyrightFACEBOOK/SYLVI LISTHAUG
Image caption -- An English translation of a Facebook post by Norway's migration minister

Preying on the desperate?

While the IOM says it adopts "a humane and dignified approach" to help migrants get home, human rights groups have argued otherwise.

In Germany, pro-refugee group Pro Asyl accused the government of "trying to entice people to give up their rights in the basest manner".

The man who migrated twice
How are the ages of child migrants verified?

Dr Crisp questions whether these schemes should be described as voluntary at all when participants may be destitute, unable to work legally in their host country.

"The IOM is very keen to push up the numbers. I think they get paid pretty much on a per capita basis. So for everyone they send back to their home country, they get money from donor states such as Germany," he says.

Container homes for asylum seekers are pictured at the Tempelhofer Feld former airport in Berlin, on 1 December, 2017.Image copyrightBERND VON JUTRCZENKA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- Germany has built container homes for asylum seekers at the Tempelhofer Feld former airport in Berlin

The rule about which countries are exempt from the scheme is also controversial.

Migrants from Syria, Yemen, and Libya are not eligible for assistance, as the IOM feels it can't guarantee their safe return from Germany. But observers say departees could also be at risk in Afghanistan, which the funding does cover, as conflict is ongoing and the authorities lack resources to help them.

How voluntary are these schemes?

Sabine Lehmann, a spokeswoman for IOM Germany, said there was a long-term plan in place for every person's reintegration in their home country, via IOM offices on the ground. She said all volunteers received "return counselling" before departing, and left on ordinary passenger flights.

"Not all of them are obliged to leave the country. Many of them are rejected asylum seekers - but it's not the majority," she said.

"It could be that you have been living in Germany for 10 years or for 30 years. Maybe your partner dies, you want to go back, you don't have the money - then you can participate in this programme."

EU governments complicit in migrant torture - Amnesty
Persuading would-be migrants to stay at home

She adds that people being held in detention centres are not eligible to apply for the funding - so nobody is bartering for their freedom.

Will it save Germany money?

The news that 222 planned flights were stopped by German pilots who refused to fly failed asylum seekers back to Afghanistan shows how controversial deportation has become there.

While the number of new asylum applications in Germany fell by almost half to 90,389 in the first half of 2017, a humane solution is needed for the thousands whose requests have already been turned down.

Berlin clearly hopes its latest push will be good value compared with the cost of grounded flights and the security officers who oversee forced deportations. And then there's the saving in court time.

An Afghan refugee who was deported from Germany arrives with his belongings at the international airport in Kabul on January 24, 2017.Image copyrightWAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- German pilots have been refusing to fly planes full of deportees back to Afghanistan

Almost twice as many asylum seekers are launching appeals in Germany year on year in 2017, as its deportation drive cranks up. Around one in two rulings makes it to court, and about a quarter of appeals succeed.

German public broadcaster NDR (cited by the news portal DW) puts the rough cost of these judgements at 19m euros from January to November 2017 - a full 7.8m more than in 2016.

For that money, the latest incentive scheme could afford to pay 19,000 people to leave voluntarily.

A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.


THIS IS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE, AND THE VIDEO WITH THE POOR RHINOS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN – THANK GOODNESS, THEIR EYES WERE COVERED – IS MESMERIZING. SOME TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS AGO I SAW SIMILAR FOOTAGE WHEN HELICOPTERS WERE USED TO TRANSPORT SOLIDLY FROZEN MAMMOTHS TO AN ICE CAVE. WHY? TO TRY TO REAP SPERM FROM THE MALES AND TRANSPLANT IT INTO FEMALE ELEPHANTS TO SEE WHAT WILL GROW. WHY? BECAUSE IT’S EXCITING, I GUESS. PERSONALLY, I THINK HAVING MAMMOTHS WALKING AROUND WOULD BE MORE EXCITEMENT THAN I WANT. TO USE MY FAVORITE ECONOMICS TERM, I THINK THERE MIGHT BE TOO MANY “UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saving-rhino-with-helicopters/
Saving rhino with helicopters
An effort to conserve a species has rhinos flying high ... and upside down
Dec 17, 2017
CORRESPONDENT
Lara Logan

How do you save a prehistoric looking animal that's ornery, exotic and weighs around a ton? Especially when it lives in places that are hard to get to. That the rhinoceros is in trouble is not a new story. For years, they've been crowded out of their habitats, and hunted for their distinctive horns. In the last 10 years the poaching has gotten so bad in South Africa where most of them live, that the rhino there are under almost daily attack. A team of veterinarians, pilots and game capture specialists are trying a different way to help the most endangered type of South African rhino, the black rhino. Their solution seems to defy the laws of gravity, and when we heard about it, we had to see it for ourselves.

Take one 1,400 pound Black Rhino who's been darted and sedated ...

Jacques Flamand: A young female. Probably about 6 or 7 years old.

Two veterinarians ...

Dave Cooper: With black rhino lots of things can go wrong.

Three game-capture specialists ...

Jacques Flamand: So now we're putting these straps on the feet.

Four leg straps ...

A 52-year-old Huey helicopter and its pilot ...

Add a potentially lethal 130-foot chain ...

Dave Cooper: Keep an eye on that chain. I'm always worried about it swinging into someone's face.

And you get this ...

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Lara Logan: Wow. Look at that.

Jacques Flamand: Amazing isn't it? Yeah, I never tire of seeing it.

This feat of engineering, aerodynamics and conservation has been choreographed by Jacques Flamand, a veterinarian who's moving these rhino to save them.

Lara Logan: Why did you start flying the rhinos -- transporting them by helicopter instead of by road or other means?

Jacques Flamand: Some of these rhino are in very inaccessible parts of the reserve. And this method of airlifting them provided us with an opportunity. I immediately thought that this is the solution to our problem, getting 'em out of rugged mountainous or thick forested areas where vehicles cannot go in.

With more than a hundred square miles of mountains and ravines, the Ithala Game Reserve fits that description. When we joined Flamand and his team, they were searching the impossible terrain for three rhino they'd selected for relocation. Part of his plan to protect them from poachers and increase their numbers.

Lara Logan: Why did you choose the black rhino to focus on?

Jacques Flamand: Well, I didn't choose it. It chose itself because it's in trouble.

Lara Logan: So how many black rhino were there in the country when you began?

Jacques Flamand: There were about two and a half thousand black rhino in South Africa when we started the project.

That was 15 years ago. The black rhino was a critically endangered species. To get the numbers up, Flamand started the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project with the help of the World Wildlife Fund . The idea was to take a small number of rhino from government parks and settle them in new places, mostly on private land, where they would breed and create new populations.

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Lara Logan: So you got the word out to people.

Jacques Flamand: We got the word out that we were looking for land for black rhino. And well, it's worked -- amazingly. So those 20 black rhino or however many get put all together onto a new block of land and are left to breed. And we wanted to put 20 because that's a genetically viable number.

Flamand's team captured the rhino by darting them, then driving trucks in to pick them up.

But when they ran out of road, they turned to the skies.

Lara Logan: I mean, it's spectacular and unbelievable and also slightly distressing at the same time. It's sort of everything?

Dave Cooper: You really have to put your mind at rest that, that animal physiologically is not being harmed in any way.

Dave Cooper has been the chief veterinarian for KwaZulu Natal Parks for 22 years. He says the rhino are usually in the air for less than ten minutes and fully sedated the entire time.

Dave Cooper: It looks as if the animal's really uncomfortable. But we've done our homework. We didn't just do this and see if it was gonna work. We hung rhino upside down with cranes and sat and monitored their vitals on top of this sophisticated kind of equipment.

Lara Logan: Didn't you volunteer to hang yourself upside down from the helicopter?

Dave Cooper: I did. But the pilots wouldn't let me.

Tosh Ross: We've had some of the vets want to be hung upside down and try -- they have told me that anything that can walk on its feet can hang by its feet.

Pilot Tosh Ross and Dave Cooper have been working together from the beginning. Ross told us the Huey helicopter he's flying for this can haul two tons, more than enough to lift a black rhino.

Lara Logan: You've done how many now?

Tosh Ross: This will be 198.

Lara Logan: So almost 200 and you've lost none.

Tosh Ross: Yeah if we do three today that'll be 200 yeah.

Lara Logan: What's the most difficult part?

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Tosh Ross: Putting it down. Putting it down gently yeah.

Lara Logan: So you don't hurt the animal?

Tosh Ross: Yeah if it was so easy, everyone would be doing it.

We saw just how difficult it can be as Tosh Ross struggled to land the first rhino. He got it down safe and unhurt -- on the second try.

Vet Dave Cooper was already up in another, smaller helicopter looking for the next rhino.

He prepped darts for his tranquilizer gun with a dose strong enough to knock the animal out for 30 minutes.

The first dart didn't fully pierce the inch-thick skin. Three minutes later, his second shot stuck.

They tracked the rhino til it dropped. We were right behind them in the Huey with Jacques Flamand and the game capture team.

Lara Logan: I see the rhino down. How many minutes do you have now to get that rhino?

Tosh Ross: We've got a bit of time.

As soon as we landed, it was a race to get to the sedated animal. Dave Cooper's priority -- removing the tranquilizer dart and treating the wound with an antibiotic.

Dave Cooper: I darted him once here.

Lara Logan: Yeah?

Dave Cooper: The dart just went in and out and I immediately had to put another one in.

Lara Logan: So that's the first thing you do is cover the eyes?

Jacques Flamand: Yeah, that's right because that stops them.

Lara Logan: So is this a male or female?

Jacques Flamand: No, this is a male.

He's young and has many years of breeding ahead of him -- exactly what they need. They ID'd him from notches in his ears; most rhino in the KwaZulu Natal Parks are marked this way.

Lara Logan: Is that him breathing? Wow.

Dave Cooper: That's him breathing, lovely big deep breaths, I'm happy with that.

The game capture team cleared a path to above.

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Jacques Flamand: The helicopter now is going to come and we are going to hitch up those four straps to the central hook.

Tosh Ross maneuvered in the chain and swept the rhino away. It took them less than 16 minutes.

For Dave Cooper, it's a small victory every time.

Dave Cooper: I had tears in my eyes ...

Lara Logan: Because?

Dave Cooper: They mean a lot to me.

Lara Logan: As a vet, I mean, you're the one that gets called out when the poachers have been there and they've hacked up the horn and the animal's bleeding. Is that very difficult for you?

Dave Cooper: Yes. There's been so much negativity around rhino at the moment with all the poaching. And to be involved in something like this is what lifts you and keeps you positive about things.

This is what Cooper and Flamand are seeing more and more. When the program started in 2003, three or four black rhino were being killed a year.

Jacques Flamand: Now we're into the hundreds for this province alone this year.

Lara Logan: So, why is that?

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Jacques Flamand: Well, because, there is that stupid demand for rhino horn, which has absolutely no medicinal value, sadly.

Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same substance as human fingernails. Yet in countries like China and Vietnam, people believe it can cure hangovers and increase virility.

Private game parks are drowning in security costs. Most remove the horns to deter poachers. But it's worth so much, more per ounce than gold or cocaine, that every place there's rhino is a target.

Jacques Flamand: And some people have even got rid of their rhinos because they've become a liability on their own properties.

Lara Logan: And a financial burden.

Jacques Flamand: A very huge financial burden. But we still, fortunately, have some very committed passionate people who want to get more black rhino.

That commitment is shared by the game capture team. Vusi Ntshangase told us the poachers threaten their lives and their livelihood.

Vusi Ntshangase: We feed our children with this job. If rhinos-- will never here--

Lara Logan: Then you would have no job?

Vusi Ntshangase: Yes.

Lara Logan: So these animals mean alot to you?

Vusi Ntshangase: It's important to us. To our lives. So important.

Moving the rhino this way is expensive.

With Tosh Ross volunteering his services, it still costs about $100,000 to lift twenty rhino.

Jeff Cook: "You have to come in over the trucks"

Jacques Flamand joined his team at the landing zone, where they were preparing for their final delivery.

Tosh Ross eased his cargo down...

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The next part -- the dehorning -- was hard to watch.

Lara Logan: I know you do it to save the rhino but it still seems, like, horrible.

Jacques Flamand: It's painless. There's no nerve endings or blood supply to the horn directly.

Lara Logan: Don't they need their horns?

Jacques Flamand: They do to defend themselves. But it's a toss-up. You know, it's predators versus poachers. Who do we protect them from most? Poachers at the moment, I'd say.

After some prodding, the groggy female was loaded into a crate. She still had a road trip ahead of her to a holding area. Flamand will keep her there until he's captured enough rhino to relocate as a group.

Lara Logan: What is that like for you?

Jacques Flamand: It's great, it's great. I mean one always feels sad removing them from their existing homes but it's for a good cause. It is to start a new breeding population.

Eight weeks later, they were released. For security, we can't tell you exactly where but it's a well-guarded reserve in another part of the country.

Jacques Flamand said there are now about 200 more black rhino in South Africa than when he started his program.

Not as many as he wanted, but at a time of relentless poaching, there's no simple road to success.

Produced by Henry Schuster and Rachael Morehouse. Associate producers, Sarah Carter and Alex J. Diamond.

You can learn more about this by visiting the World Wildlife Fund's website or calling 1-800-960-0993.

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