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Author: Vijeta Uniyal

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Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is a writer based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Gatestone Institute and founder of the "Indians For Israel".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has successfully lobbied the United Nations to classify Climate Change as legitimate grounds for migration, a communique issued by the German parliament disclosed. "In order to shape migration in the context of Climate Change in sustainable manner, Germany advocated to recognize Climate Change as basis for migration in international negotiations for the global migration pact," a parliamentary bulletin surfaced on Monday said.  The document was made public on Twitter by Ralf Schuler, the parliamentary correspondent for the German newspaper Bild.

Amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activism in Europe, over 3000 members of Jewish diaspora and supporters of Israel gathered in Frankfurt, Germany, for the 5th German Israel Congress this weekend. Widely regarded as the biggest pro-Israel event in Europe, the conference was attended by leading politicians, government officials, and public figures from Germany and Israel. Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan took the opportunity to urge the German government to take a tougher stance on Iran. "Germany should take a more aggressive stance against the Iranian regime," Minister Erdan said. "It was only yesterday that President Rouhani called Israel metastatic cancer. History has taught us that anti-Semitic threats from fanatical leaders, and exporters of terror who have hegemonic aspirations, must be taken seriously."

The United States has accused Iran of hiding its chemical weapon-related activities. Tehran was failing to report military facilities designed to manufacture chemical-filled aerial bombs, and maintained stockpiles of toxic munitions, in violation of the 1997 international chemicals weapons convention.

European leaders need to halt mass-immigration to curb the growing right-wing populist movement across the continent, Hillary Clinton warned in an interview with a British newspaper. Europe "must send a very clear message – "we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support" – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic," she told The Guardian.

Erik Solheim, the head of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), has been forced to resign after an internal audit report questioning his huge travel expense surfaced in the media. Solheim, a green politician and former Norwegian Environment Minister, had spent almost half a million dollars jet-setting around the world. Solheim stepped down after cerain UN member states threatened to withhold funding over the latest revelations. According to a UK media report: "Countries unhappy with Solheim’s conduct were holding back tens of millions of dollars, threatening a financial crisis at the body."

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned an illicit Iranian-Russian network supplying oil to the Syrian regime. The elaborate oil scheme was used to finance the Islamic terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, a department press release said Tuesday. The covert shipment of Iranian oil was run by the aid of the Russian state-owned company Promsyrioimport. The network delivered millions of barrels of oil to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's regime and hundreds of millions of dollars to Islamic terrorist groups, the Treasury Department disclosed.

Contrary to the mainstream media reporting, President Donald Trump may be winning the trade war with China, according to a leading European think tank. The tariffs placed by the Trump administration could narrow the U.S. trade deficit with China by 17 percent, a recent paper published by Munich-based EocnPol Europe projects. "The US import tariffs will increase the prices of the affected Chinese products in the United States and decrease the profit margin of Chinese exporters," the fifteen page report says. "This might force some Chinese firms to stop exporting to the US, or even force them completely out of the market."

The European Union may switch to non-dollar transactions to protect its trade with Iran in the wake of the latest U.S. sanctions, Reuters news agency reports. The news comes as Iran's European trading partners are working to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle, which is a payment clearance house where Iran's proceeds from oil and gas sale could be offset against the country's purchases -- much like a transnational barter system without financial transactions. The move is in response to crippling sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump against Iran's energy, banking, and other sectors earlier this month.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a leading left-wing German think tank, has called off its plans to honor the Woman's March USA over allegations of antisemitism. Two leaders of the group, Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory, have not shied away from displaying their affection for notorious anti-Semite and racist Louis Farrakhan. The foundation, affiliated to Germany's ruling Social Democratic party, rescinded the award after weeks of protests from academics and researchers associated with the state-funded organisation, German newspapers report. "After careful consideration, the executive board has decided to cancel the award ceremony and the let the issue be examined by an independent entity," the foundation declared on its website.

Doing away with diplomatic niceties, the top European Union officials have welcomed the gains made by the Democrats in the US midterm elections. Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans hailed the electoral results while attacking the Trump administration for its "racism" and "rudeness." "Inspired by voters in the U.S. who chose hope over fear, civility over rudeness, inclusion over racism, equality over discrimination," Timmermans wrote on Twitter. EU Economic Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, also cheered the Democrats winning the House majority. "The Democrats win the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years despite powerful Republican gerrymandering," Moscovici said.

Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally has overtaken French President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche for the first time ahead of the next year's EU Parliament elections. The latest poll numbers place France's ruling centrist En Marche party at 19 percent, and the newly constituted National Rally -- formerly the Front National -- at 20 percent.

Austria has decided to follow the United States and Hungary in pulling out of the United Nations migration pact that is set to be ratified in December. The Austrian government was pulling out of the UN-sponsored pact to "defend its national sovereignty," local news reports say. "Austria rejects the possibility that the migration pact could establish new, customary international law which would be binding on Austria or could be interpreted as such," Heinz-Christan Strache, Austria's Vice Chancellor and head of the Freedom Party, told reporters. The international accord seeks to blur the line between legal and illegal immigration, a statement issued by the government said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced she will step down as leader of her Christian Democratic party (CDU) after massive losses in Sunday's election in the key German state of Hesse. Germany's ruling CDU suffered a second electoral drubbing in almost a fortnight, after voters in Bavaria and Hesse abandoned the party in droves. Speaking to the media, Merkel also confirmed her decision not to seek another term as Chancellor in the 2021 general elections and ruled out taking a position at the European Union after leaving the office. The four-term German Chancellor was expected to stand for a re-election as leader in the party's conference in December.

India has signed a $777 million missile defense deal with Israel, Indian newspapers report. State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries  (IAI) will supply Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (LR-SAM) for the Indian Navy. The deal is another milestone in Israel-India defense cooperation. Barak 8, as the missile defense system is known, is a joint venture of IAI and India's defense research agency DRDO. Bangalore-based company Bharat Electronics (BEL) will manufacture key components for the project, Israeli business daily Globes reported. Earlier this year, Barak 8 was successfully tested aboard an Indian navy ship, Indian media reports said.

A leading Chinese bank, which acted as the main conduit for payments to Iran, is halting financial transactions with the Islamic Republic, Reuters news agency reports. The state-owned Bank of Kunlun's decision was made "under pressure" of impending U.S. sanctions due to take effect early November, news reports disclose. The halting of transactions spells trouble for Iran's commercial ties to China, the country's biggest oil consumer. The Bank of Kunlun is controlled by China's state-owned energy group CNPC, a company running multi-billion dollar gas exploration projects in Iran.

Poland has signed a long-term gas deal to buy natural gas from the United States to ease its reliance on Moscow. Polish state-run energy company PGNiG signed a 20-year supply contract with Louisiana-based Venture Global LNG. "Today we can fulfill our efforts to improve the sovereignty, security, and competitiveness of our gas sector," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters on Wednesday.

German police are carrying out raids in connection with yesterday's attack at a Cologne central train station. On Monday afternoon, Special Forces stormed the station compound after an Arabic-speaking man, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State, set fire to a 14-year-old girl and took another woman hostage. The attacker tied gas canisters around the hostage and threatened to blow her up, forcing the Special Forces to move in. The suspect, identified as a Syrian asylum seeker, sustained several gunshot wounds during the rescue operation.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled in favor of two Christian bakers who refused to bake a cake iced with the slogan "support gay marriage." In a unanimous ruling, the five member Supreme Court bench reversed the previous rulings, upholding a business owners' right to freedom of expression and conscience.

"This court has held that nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe,” court president Brenda Hale said.