Georgia drops controversial ‘foreign agent’ bill after two days of violent protests
Georgia’s ruling party said it will drop a controversial bill on “foreign agents” after two days of violent protests.
The ruling party, named Georgian Dream, said in a statement it would “unconditionally withdraw the bill we supported without any reservations”.
It cited the need to reduce “confrontation” in society but denounced “lies” told about the bill by the “radical opposition”.
The bill would have required Georgian media and non-governmental organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face fines.
Critics said the draft bill represented an authoritarian shift to the right and compared it with a 2012 Russian law that has been used to clamp down on dissent.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she would veto the bill if it crossed her desk.
Police use tear gas to disperse protesters during a rally against a draft law on “foreign agents”
Georgia, which became an independent state after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was not granted candidate status for EU membership last year, with the bloc citing stalled political and judicial reforms.
Supporters of the membership campaign were angered by the bill, claiming it would complicate Georgia’s path to joining.
Writing on Twitter after the decision to withdraw the bill, the EU’s delegation to Georgia said: “We welcome [the] announcement by the ruling party to withdraw draft legislation on ‘foreign influence’.
“We encourage all political leaders in Georgia to resume pro-EU reforms, in an inclusive and constructive way.”
Protesters hold a rally against the “foreign agents” law in Tbilisi, Georgia
Georgia’s opposition has long criticised the ruling party for what it sees as excessive closeness to Moscow.
A 2012 law on foreign agents in Russia was passed after a wave of public protests against Putin’s return to presidency. The law required organisations engaging in political activity and receiving funding from abroad to register as foreign agents.
The Georgian government said its own legislation was modelled on US foreign agent laws that have been in place since the 1930s.
The Georgian Dream party previously said it was necessary to unmask critics of the Georgian Orthodox Church – one of the country’s most powerful institutions.
Protesters put out fire during a rally against a draft law on “foreign agents”, which critics say represents an authoritarian shift
Parliament initially approved the bill, but it sparked mass protests in the capital Tbilisi as tens of thousands of people gathered outside parliament to protest the bill on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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Brawl breaks out in Georgia parliament
Police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons to disperse the crowds as some protestors threw petrol bombs and stones.
Georgia’s interior ministry said 77 people were arrested.
The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.
Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.
We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.
It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.
Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.
We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.
David Lammy and Norway’s Foreign Minister Barth Eide view the melting Blomstrandbreen glacier. Pic: PA
The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.
“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”
In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.
The foreign secretary visiting SvalSat, a satellite ground station which monitors climate in Svalbard. Pic: PA
Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.
“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.
But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.
Norwegian observers are concerned about the Russian leader – and Trump being ‘too soft’ on him. Pic: AP
Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”
Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.
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Trump doubles down on Putin criticism
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In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.
There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.
“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”
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This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.
Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.
World
‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment
A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing
The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.
“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.
He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.
Israel-Gaza latest: Netanyahu reportedly accepts US ceasefire plan
Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.
Children are among the bulk of the casualties in Gaza
“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.
“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.
“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”
Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.
They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.
Dr Victoria Rose is a British surgeon working in southern Gaza’s last remaining hospital
Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.
“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.
“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”
One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.
“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”
Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”
Hatem Senior
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The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.
He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.
Read more:
Gaza doctor’s nine children killed
How the new Gaza aid rollout collapsed
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”
Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.
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