The Western IslesBoard

Welcome back, nations of Europe, to EuroNews! We apologise for our half-year hiatus; with so few writers we fell into disrepair. However, now we’re back with new staff and new motivation. We’re moving into a new era of EuroNews, our issues are now longer and more comprehensive, hopefully becoming more interesting for you, the reader. So, without further ado, we present the EuroNews July 2019 Issue. We hope you enjoy!

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European Events
Commissioner Competition
From the 26th of June to the 30th of June the region of Europe had its elections for Commissioner, which occur every three months. This race featured two candidates, Regnum Italiae and Rivierenland. Regnum Italiae, the incumbent, was running for his third term in office. Rivierenland is a new face in Europe who has quickly become a well-known nation. This was his first time running for Commissioner. Once the polls opened, Regnum Italiae took an early lead and maintained it until the end, winning the election, 38-15. Rivierenland did, however, do relatively well for a newcomer and it would not be unlikely to see him as a Commissioner in the future. This election also marks 6 months of the same nations comprising the Commission, consisting of South St Maarten, Regnum Italiae, and St Scarlett. Regnum Italiae joins St Scarlett, South St Maarten, and Feria-Alkaline as the only nations elected to three terms as a member of the Commission.
Next month's election will be for First Deputy Commissioner. Should the incumbent, St Scarlett, chose to run for a fourth term, she could face a host of possible challengers. Europe might see former unsuccessful election candidates, such as Yahlia, Suomessa, Potus branada, and Rivierenland, try to finally win enough votes and assume office. The next election will occur late in the month of July.

Written by South St Maarten

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Tournament Tales
Europe’s Suomessa, a professional ice hockey player in real life, has initiated a roleplay hockey tournament in the region, based off the real-life International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) tournament structure. The Cup is broken up into two leagues: the Division I league and the Division II league. Division play is then broken down into two groups for each division, where each team plays every other team in their group. The wins and losses are determined by a random number generator.
As of the most recent update to the tournament, the nation with the most points is the host, Suomessa, with a total of 9 points accumulated after 4 wins and 1 overtime loss. Just below Suomessa, with 8 points each are South St Maarten and Unionist mercia with 3 wins and 2 overtime losses, and 4 wins and 1 loss respectively.
When asked if he was supporting anyone in his competition, Suomessa replied that he wants “Laver [Island] to go back-to-back for this year's tournament. He won last time versus me in the gold medal game, I'd love to see him go all the way again.”

Written by Potus branada, edited by Yahlia

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Recognition Reward
For a while now, the commissioner team have been trying to push through a system to officially award excellence here in our region. And after a lot of discussion and a close poll that only went 4 votes over quorum, the Recognitions Act of 2019 was finally pushed through into official legislature.
This act creates three new awards: Grand Cross of the Order of Europe (GCOE), Commander of the Order of Europe (COE) and Member of the Order of Europe (MOE). Each of these are awarded by different members of the government for different reasons, with the GCOE being the highest honour, awarded only by the delegate and founder, with commissioner approval.
The act lay dormant for a few months before a member of our community became the first to receive one of these elusive awards. As had been planned for a while, the commissioners unanimously voted to award Laver Island with the Member of the Order of Europe award, and with Imperium Anglorum’s approval it was done. On 18 June 2019 Laver Island became Laver Island MOE and is currently still the only person with such a title.
So from all of us on the EuroNews team and the Government, congratulations Laver, you deserve it! It has been an honour getting to know you here and we hope you realise just how valued you are here in Europe!

Written by St Scarlett

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Europeans of the Month
Nothing is more important to keeping our region alive than its community! So here’s this issue’s Europeans of the Month to award some of our members for their contributions to NationStates Europe!

The award for Newcomer of the Month goes to... Potus branada!
Potus hasn’t been with us for too long yet but he has become a well-established member of the community, posting on the RMB every day and really engaging with others new and old! Welcome to Europe Potus Branada, you fit right in!

The award for RMBer of the Month goes to... Rivierenland!
Rivirenland is also a newcomer, and despite posting a little less than Potus he is still active almost every single day and he gives almost every RMB post a like. This allows everyone to feel welcome in Europe. Thank you for your service Rivierenland!

The award for Factbook of the Month Recent Period of Time goes to... Corthaen!
For his wonderful International Conservative Alliance (ICA) factbook:
page=dispatch/id=1202589

While this was created back in April it was a great and very creative idea that inspired me and a couple of others to make our own versions. A real spur of creativity within our region, nice work Corthaen!

The award for Flag of the Month goes to... Miharr!
Another newcomer, it’s great to see you guys becoming integral parts of the community so quickly! Miharr’s flag is both beautiful and unique, especially when you realise she drew it herself by hand! The colours, layout and symbols all work very well together and stand out from other flags, really representing her nation! For the creativity involved and the artistic ability, Miharr gets this award, well done!

The award for Motto of the Month goes to... Galway-Dublin!
“uwu” - Consul Madeline
UwU

The award for Government Official of the Month goes to... Novgorod-Pskov!
Novgorod is a quiet but very hard working diplomat for our region! He has connections to more regions, and certainly knows the international community better than anyone else. While he’s only officially the ambassador to The South Pacific and the Rejected Realms, which is already more than most ambassadors who only work for one region, he goes above and beyond his official duties. Nice work Novgorod-Pskov!

And last but definitely not least the award for General Excellence this month goes to... Yahlia!
Yahlia is a veteran here in NS, but is still very much active in our community, posting on the RMB as often as he can even despite his awkward time-zone living all the way down in New Zealand. He reads every single RMB post, no matter how many appear while he is asleep, 300, 500, 800?! He’s done it all! In addition to that Yahlia has been critical in finally reviving EuroNews, and hiring a whole new team of people to make this issue bigger and better than any issue before! Thank you for your hard work Yahlia. You’re certainly more dedicated to our region than anybody else, and that’s really saying something!

Written by St Scarlett

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NationStates News
World Assembly Assessment (Opinion Piece)

World Assembly Justice Accord: A Leap Into a New Era for The World Assembly?
On June 11th of 2019, the World Assembly Justice Accord passed in a landslide majority vote. (The poll ended with 11,753 nations for, and 3,001 nations against). In the rich history of the World Assembly, many resolutions have been passed, perhaps a testament to the productivity of the world’s premier governing body. However, Wallenburg’s proposal might just slot into the ranks of the most significant resolutions in WA history.

The World Assembly has always enjoyed its ever-burgeoning ranks and a high degree of legislation but has never been able to capitalize on the law laid down in its wake. Opponents of the World Assembly have historically called its bluff, pointing out that there was virtually no mechanic available for the WA to enforce the laws that passed even under its jurisdiction. Indeed, with hundreds of resolutions come and gone, the WA has made little progress in consolidating its executive authority in its acquisition of world order. This is set to change with the establishment of a specialized multilateral court system that will be able to charge nations trespassing on international law. In the context of a continuous challenge to the fundamental goal of the World Assembly, Wallenburg’s World Assembly Justice Accord might just be the turning point for the maintenance of worldly affairs via the influence of the World Assembly.

This arduous task embarked in early November of 2018, with preliminary discussions yielding a great amount of scepticism towards the proposal. A fiery debate would ensue in the next gruelling months through winter and spring until the proposal fell into the hands of the WA faithful. And now, the World Assembly Justice Accord stands to establish a World Assembly Judiciary Committee tasked with the supervision and distribution of prosecuting rights to the lesser courts of individual WA nations. However, there were initial concerns regarding the function of this committee in the early draft discussions of this proposal; sceptics cited issues with standardization of law between sovereign states, potential overstepping of World Assembly authority, and the risk of inflaming controversy over the ever-divisive capital punishment. Still, the terms of the resolution are reasonably equipped to deal with these complications.

Two of those popular arguments against the WA Justice Accord contradict one another, being the preservation of WA limitations and policy over capital punishment as there is already an existing resolution (Protecting Innocents) that mandates that the WA is not to kill citizens of any member states. The WA Judiciary Committee is staying well within WA authority, even more, so that torturous and capital punishment remain unendorsed and unenforced by the World Assembly. Even conflicts in the observation of law between two contending adversaries in court are to be managed so that the two nations must agree to a set of laws in which to hold trial through. Although themes of tyrannical possibility have been affiliated with this resolution, the mechanics of WA Judiciary Committee should effectively place the power to uphold the law in the hands of the participating nations.

Standing in direct contrast to the stigma of any centralized structure taking oversight of world law, the World Assembly Justice Accord’s key aspects are the counterpoints to critical arguments. The establishment WA Judiciary Committee represents the conviction of thousands of nations worldwide to effectively uphold and practice the dense history of legislation deep in the archives of the World Assembly in a manner that is self-governing and supplementary rather than overbearing. This achievement of such self-propelled balance in the noble pursuit of enforcement of worldly affairs should be deemed to be a masterstroke by Wallenburg, one to be reaped by the nations of this fine international institution.

Written by Kans

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IRL Info
Hong Kong Kerfuffle
Hong Kong has been quite well known for its series of political protests by many of its citizens who demand independence from the People’s Republic of China since the latter began initiatives to reform Hong Kong’s laws. Beginning in 2014, where independence groups surfaced in the wake of the Umbrella Revolution, continuous efforts have been started to shelve legal reforms by the Chinese government that were thought by the protestors to be infringing their constitutional rights.The latest endeavour by the Chinese government in Beijing, the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 allows extradition from Hong Kong soils to other countries, even the nations which Hong Kong has no existing formal extradition agreement. This came in contrast with the ‘one country, two systems’ framework which allows Hong Kong high autonomy from China following the former’s handover to the latter in 1997.

Legal professionals, businessmen and activists perceived this bill as an erosion of Hong Kong’s legal system as well as the economic environment. Extraditions to courts in Mainland China raised concerns because the courts are under the Chinese political control, and offences not covered by the Hong Kong laws will be covered by Chinese laws. Such stricter environment is seen by the protestors as degrading Hong Kong’s progress.

Demonstrations began 28 April with 130,000 protestors marching, the largest turnout since the Umbrella Revolution. However, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, refused to budge even in the face of such turnout by asserting to pass the law. Students, teachers, and alumni have also started online petitions to oppose the extradition bill in a snowballing campaign in the wake of the protests. In 9 June, an interest group named the Civil Human Rights Front launched a long march from Victoria Park, Causeway Bay to Legislative Council in Admiralty and claimed that 1.03 million people joined the march.

The climax of the protests happened on 12 June, after the Hong Kong government made clear that it would go ahead with the bill. Many businesses closed on that day, with workers, student unions, and as many as 50 social welfare and religious groups taking part in a strike which caused the Legislative Council to postpone its meetings on the Extradition Bill.
The protestors who mostly comprised of young people wearing black shirts erected barricades to prevent legislators from entering the Legislative Council building, thus effectively preventing them from discussing the Extradition Bill. The protest took a violent turn with the police force fending off the protestors using rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas.
On June 15, Carrie Lam announced the suspension of the bill passage after a meeting with her Cabinet and reportedly the Vice Premier of China, Han Zheng. While protestors take this as their victory, the government is not displaying any sign of withdrawing the bill.

Objectives of the protests:
1. The resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam
2. Full withdrawal of the extradition bill
3. Release of arrested activists

Written by Gohia

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Sudanese Situation
Sudan has been in a state of civil unrest since late 2018. Mass protests against rising bread and fuel prices transformed into a movement calling for President Omar al-Bashir’s resignation after he introduced austerity measures which cut subsidies to the aforementioned products.
Al-Bashir, who seized power in Sudan after a bloodless military coup in 1989, was eventually removed from power by the military on 11 April, five days after protests reached a climax with demonstrators occupying the square outside the military’s headquarters.

A seven-member Transitional Military Council (TMC) claimed power after al-Bashir was overthrown, however, the change in leadership has been unable to subdue protesters. The TMC claims that their military rule is necessary to maintain order and stability within the country during a three-year transition to democracy. However, the protesters have not accepted the Council’s claim and desire civilian rule.

After negotiations, the TMC and demonstration leaders agreed on 15 May that there would be a three-year transition to a civilian administration. This is meant to allow time to dismantle the deeply entrenched regime that al-Bashir has left behind. The two parties also decided upon a new sovereign council, a cabinet, and a legislature.

However, on 3 June, the military and the Janjaweed militia, a group who gained infamy for their role in the violence in the Darfur region, reportedly massacred more than a hundred civilians. The opposition claimed the victims’ occupation of the square had been peaceful, but the military asserts that criminal activities had begun to be perpetuated by members of the group; however, the TMC has vowed an investigation into the violence after international condemnation. Many Sudanese citizens have reported that they are fearful to leave their homes following the violence.

After the brutal crackdown, the opposition, led by the Sudanese Professionals Association (a group of lawyers, doctors, and health workers), ended negotiations with the TMC, which then announced it was withdrawing from its commitments made during negotiations with the opposition and will hold elections in nine months. Analysts believe an election in such a short time frame won’t allow for sufficient dismantling of the past regime nor allow for adequate precautions to create a free and fair election, simply consolidating the TMC’s position.

Following the breakdown of talks, Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed flew to Khartoum as a mediator to try and renew negotiations. On 11 June, it was announced that the protesters would end their demonstrations and that the TMC would release political prisoners. Both sides have expressed a desire to return to negotiating, but no date has been set for when this would occur.

Most African and Western states have expressed support for the protestors, with the African Union suspending Sudan’s membership until a civilian administration takes power. However, the Sudanese military is backed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
The TMC has since cut the internet in Sudan.

Written by Yahlia

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Titillating Trivia
Hello and welcome to this issue’s National Trivia section! This month we’re covering facts from two countries that have been in the news a lot as of late, and it hasn’t all been good news so hopefully these facts can lighten the mood a little!

Republic of the Sudan
Sudan was the largest country in Africa until 2011 when South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, gained its independence. Algeria now holds the title for the largest African nation with Sudan in third place. This change in borders allows you to easily spot outdated world maps, with pre-2011 ones only having the one Sudan.

The name Sudan comes from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān which means “land of the Blacks”. This name was also once given to the nation of Mali when it was a part of French West Africa. Under French rule, Mali was named French Sudan.

Hong Kong SAR
Despite now being a part of China, as a Special Administrative Region or SAR, Hong Kong still retains a lot of British influences from when it was a colony pre-1997. They use English more frequently than mainlanders, even having English names alongside their traditional Chinese names, they use Type-G electrical plugs and they drive on the left. This format of driving led to an interesting bridge being constructed between Hong Kong and Shenzhen where traffic on the left crosses under traffic on the right and ends up on the opposite side of the road in the other territory.

Despite most development happening in Hong Kong over just the last 100 years, the city now holds the significance of having the most skyscrapers over 150m tall. With a total of 355, it beats New York City’s 277 with ease. The reason for having so many tall buildings is the population density of the city, so many people living in such a small area surrounded by ocean and mountains means the only way to increase living capacity is to build up and not out.

Written by St Scarlett

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We Need You!
Thanks to a brilliant turnout from nations in our wonderful region, this issue of EuroNews has turned into probably our best issue to date. However, we cannot continue to consistently put out fantastic newsletters like this month's without volunteers from Europe. If you would like to help us out in future, as a writer, or editor, or in any other way, please do not hesitate to get into contact with our founder, Feria-Alkaline, or Yahlia, one of EuroNews's Chief Officers for more information. We understand that real life commitments always come before a project such as this, so none of our members are obligated to assist with every issue, more staff simply means less work and pressure for all of us. We hope to see you in our Discord server soon!