Nobel committee chairman says Turkey world’s largest jailer of intellectuals - Stockholm Center for Freedom

Veteran Swedish writer and Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature Per Wästberg said Turkey has become the largest jailer of intellectuals and journalists in the world since, according to a PEN International report, 151 journalists are behind bars.

Speaking with the Spanish El País daily after visiting İstanbul as part of a PEN International delegation that sought to stand in solidarity with 151 journalists and writers currently in Turkish prisons, Wästberg expressed concern over the Turkish government’s crackdown on dissenters, including journalists and writers, and labeling them as terrorists.

Read more: Nobel committee chairman says Turkey world’s largest jailer of intellectuals - Stockholm Center for Freedom

Scotland - Independence beckons: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – by Matthew Tempes

Support for Scottish independence in the wake of the Brexit referendum is now effectively neck-and-neck, according to a new poll released Wednesday (8 February).

The survey, for the Herald newspaper in Glasgow, puts support for independence at 49% and for the status quo at 51%, excluding don’t knows.

It comes against a backdrop of British Prime Minister successfully getting through a parliament a bill allowing MPs to vote on a final Brexit deal – but with very little consultation or safeguards against a so-called ‘Hard Brexit.’

Whilst still showing a theoretical victory for the status quo, it is within a statistical margin of error – and compares with the 2014 referendum result of 45% for independence and 55% against.

The seismic vote by the UK as a whole – but not Scotland, Northern Ireland or Gibraltar – to leave the EU  last year has brought fresh pressure on the Scottish National party minority government in Edinburgh to hold a fresh referendum.

That has increased with confirmation from Theresa May that Brexit will mean leaving the single market, and – as yet – no deal on the rights of EU workers in the UK, and vice-versa.

Alex Salmond, the SNP’s former leader, first minister, and foreign affairs spokesman for the party at the Westminster parliament, tweeted the result with the words “Game On.”

Read M<ore: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – EurActiv.com

The Netherlands Trump Admirer and Muslim hater Geert Wilders tweets fake picture of political rival

Trump and Wilders:"we are
the modern Biblical version of Samson"

Dutch far-right and anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim MP Geert Wilders, known for his comments attacking Islam and Muslims, has triggered a fight over fake news, after posting a Twitter message showing a digitally altered picture of another party leader at a rally.

Some five weeks before key elections in The Netherlands, Wilders on Monday posted the fake picture of D66 leader Alexander Pechtold supposedly at a rally with Muslims holding up signs reading: "Islam will conquer Europe" and "Shariah for The Netherlands", referring to Islamic law.

Wilders' anti-Islam and anti-immigrant platform has helped propel his Freedom Party (PVV) to the top of the opinion polls in recent months in advance of the March 15 vote.

In his tweet, he accused Pechtold, who heads the pro-European, social-liberal D66 party of "demonstrating with Hamas terrorists".

Read more: Geert Wilders tweets fake picture of rival | Netherlands News | Al Jazeera

The Netherlands - banking industry: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40

ABN Amro is planning to reduce the number of senior managers from around 100 to just 40 and is shaking up its executive board to make the bank ‘more client-focused, agile and efficient’.

Among those leaving is Chris Vogelzang, who had been tipped to take over when Gerrit Zalm stood down as chief executive. The managerial jobs to go will run across the level below the executive committee.

The 40 jobs remaining ‘will have a stronger involvement in the strategic direction and the leadership of the bank than before,’ the bank said in a statement. The composition of the ‘top 40’ will be reviewed every year.

‘Over the past few years, the number of bank staff has been reduced considerably but there has been no change in the number of senior managers,’ chief executive Kees van Dijkhuizen said. T

he bank will also have a slimmed down executive board made up of CEO Van Dijkhuizen, chief risk officer Wietze Reehoorn and a new financial boss who has yet to be appointed.

Read more: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40 - DutchNews.nl

USA: Trump just received the lowest approval rating in recent history for a new president

US President Donald Trump received the lowest approval rating — and highest disapproval rating — for a new president in recent history, according to a survey released Friday.

The poll, from CNN, showed that a 53% majority said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job two weeks into office. Just 44% approve of the job he's doing, 7 points below the previous low for presidents measured in the survey.

Trump is the only president in recent history to hold a net-negative rating at this point in his tenure.

Trump came into office as the least popular president in modern history, surveys showed. But several actions during his first two weeks have appeared to contribute to the latest erosion in Trump's numbers:

Read more: Trump just received the lowest approval rating in recent history for a new president

FRANKRIJK: EU opgelicht voor drie ton door Nationalist Marine LePen, politiek maatje van Geert Wilders

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: Marine Le Pen: Deadline passes for National Front leader to repay EU funds - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38821074

Klik hier voor volledig verslag

EU-US Relations: EU political party leaders team up to reject Trump ambassador to EU – by Georgi Gotev

The three major “pro-European” groups in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the ALDE liberals, have taken the position that the EU should reject Ted R. Malloch as US ambassador to the EU.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament, and Guy Verhofstadt, his colleague from ALDE, co-signed a letter to Council President Donald Tusk yesterday (2 February), proposing that the EU rejects Malloch as US ambassador to the EU.

Note EU-Digest: Hopefully EU President Donald Tusk will take positive action on this letter, which is supported by the majority in the EU parliament.

EU-Digest