euronews: Government restrictions on religion rising in Europe — Pew Research Centre study

It highlighted that although religious restrictions remain higher in the Middle East-North Africa region, the biggest increases over the last decade have been in Europe and in sub-Saharan Africa.

It flagged, for instance, the growing number of European governments placing limits on Muslim women's dress. In 2007, there were five countries reported to have such restrictions in Europe, by 2017, that number had quadrupled to 20. [...]

Pew also flagged Spain as having experienced the largest increases in its score for government limits on religious activity. Catalonia introduced bans on the burqa and niqab, while religious groups such as Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses have faced restrictions on public preaching and proselytising.

Social hostilities related to religious norms also rose dramatically in Europe. Four countries in 2007 reported having individuals or groups who used violence or the threat of violence to try and force others to accept their own religious practices and beliefs.

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Axios: Trump's new impeachment problem

Why it matters: This has the potential to fundamentally change the conversation around impeachment, which has so far mostly focused on possible instances of obstruction of justice as laid out by Robert Mueller's findings. [...]

Our thought bubble: Does racism fit the definition of high crimes? Congress gets to define the term. And if past is prologue, one of Andrew Johnson's articles of impeachment was a non-criminal high misdemeanor of speaking ill of Congress. [...]

What to watch: It's too early to tell whether other members of the Democratic caucus, including Green's colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, will take up impeachment with him now that he's renewing bigotry as the reason.

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Politico: How feminist is von der Leyen?

As minister for family affairs, von der Leyen managed to push through what many others didn't even dare talk about in Germany: laws that made clear that raising a child is as much a father's job as it is a mother's. She successfully rebranded "maternity leave" as "parental leave" — no mean feat in a country where for a long time having a family meant the fathers go to work and women do the care-taking. [...]

She also fought for better day care for children, so women wouldn't have to decide between a career and a family. And she insisted gender balance in child raising is not just a women's issue: “Men want to be accepted as active fathers.” She started to talk about measures that would include men in “care work” and help women better reintegrate into the workforce. [...]

Von der Leyen was strong enough politically to weather the storm, partly because she always had Merkel's support. Germany's first female chancellor never wanted to be called a feminist, and so left feminism to von der Leyen, who used the spotlight to put forward the controversial concept of the "conservative feminist." The emancipation of women, she claimed, had to become a conservative project if the party wanted to stay in touch with the pace of social change and with its voters. [...]

But there's no denying that it was von der Leyen — whatever her personal privileges — who delivered breakthrough changes for average middle-class women in Germany. She was also ahead of her time in highlighting that poverty poses a huge problem particularly for women in Germany.

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The Guardian: Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, says president

In an interview with Swiss television, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović appeared to admit the pushbacks were taking place. She denied they were illegal and also admitted that police used force when doing so.

“I have spoken with the interior minister, the chief of police, and officers on the ground and they assured me they have not been using excessive force,” said Grabar-Kitarović, according to reports of the interview. “Of course, a little bit of force is needed when doing pushbacks.” [...]

Last year in the Bosnian border towns of Velika Kladuša and Bihać the Guardian spoke to dozens of men who said they had been subjected to violence at the hands of Croatian police. Often they were apprehended deep inside Croatian territory and driven back to the border. Women and children generally said they had not been physically assaulted, though there were some exceptions. Many said police had destroyed their telephones and stoleb money before driving them back to the Bosnia-Croatia border and dumping them on the other side. [...]

In a statement last year, the Croatian interior ministry accused the migrants of carrying weapons and inflicting injuries on themselves. The ministry said the Croatian police force always respected the “fundamental rights and dignity of migrants”. Human Rights Watch said that in a meeting in May with the interior ministry, the secretary of state said migrants had fabricated claims of violence and suggested activists were impersonating Croatian police officers.

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The Guardian: ‘I want my country’s image to be good’: has Romania’s ruling party moved on?

In less than 48 hours in May, Romania’s ruling party was given a triple dose of reality when it was badly beaten in European parliamentary elections, rebuked in a referendum on its attempt to reverse tough anti-corruption laws and had its powerful party leader, Liviu Dragnea, jailed for three-and-a-half years for abuse of office. [...]

More than 80% backed a ban on the government having powers to change judicial legislation by emergency decree and the use of pardons in corruption-related cases, as the PSD’s vote share simultaneously more than halved from the 45% it won in the 2016 general election. [...]

In the aftermath of the May votes, Dăncilă vowed to abandon the controversial judicial proposals, a pledge she reiterated this week. “We have understood the message from 26 May. We have not spoken about the justice system, we have not let anybody get involved on that topic … I would like to go back to the agenda that is focused on the citizen, less on the justice system,” she said. [...]

Dăncilă would not be drawn on whether her government would continue to oppose Kövesi’s appointment, but said that she personally believed Kövesi must “solve her issues with the justice system” before taking this kind of role. “What do we do if those accusations are real? I don’t know if they are real or not, it’s a hypothesis, but I believe that the Romanian image will be affected and I want my country’s image to be very good,” she added.

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