Why von der Leyen is aware of the trail to Syria’s future runs via Turkey

Good morning. A scoop to begin: The EU is near signing multibillion-euro offers with Jordan and Morocco to strengthen co-operation on decreasing migration to the bloc, constructing on current — and never uncontroversial — pacts with Egypt and Tunisia.

Right this moment, I preview European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen’s assembly with supreme Syria powerbroker Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Laura experiences on startling analysis into how TikTok introduced Romanian election content material to its customers.

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European Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen will talk about the way forward for Syria with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the moment, as Europe seeks a job on the desk influencing the nation’s unsure transition.

Context: Turkey is probably the most consequential regional participant on the subject of its neighbour Syria. It hosts thousands and thousands of Syrian refugees, has been a direct navy participant in its civil warfare and has shut ties with the insurgent teams that overthrew former president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.

Von der Leyen will use the Ankara assembly at the moment to underline the EU’s leverage: humanitarian help, potential reconstruction efforts and political engagement, in keeping with officers briefed on the journey.

The EU and its member states have supplied over €33bn in help to Syrian residents since 2011, making it its largest worldwide donor.

“It is a political message that we acknowledge Erdoğan’s affect, and need him to see that we will play a job, too,” stated one of many officers.

Von der Leyen, who met the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, in Amman yesterday on her option to Ankara, stated after that assembly that the EU “will step up and ship humanitarian help via Jordan and help early restoration of primary companies and infrastructure”.

Yesterday the EU’s Lebanon-based chargé d’affaires to Syria, Michael Ohnmacht, held conferences in Damascus with representatives of the brand new authorities and the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The HTS, which led the insurrection, continues to be beneath sanctions by each the EU and the UN.

“The purpose is to keep up a correspondence . . . and convey messages to the group,” EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas stated yesterday. “It needs to be lower-level [engagement] proper now.”

Kallas stated that “many” EU overseas ministers at a gathering yesterday known as for the EU to situation help to the brand new Syrian authorities on the closure of Russian air and naval bases within the nation, a problem that she stated Brussels would “elevate . . . with the [new] management”.

However different EU officers cautioned whether or not the bloc had sufficient leverage to power such a transfer, significantly provided that Moscow was already engaged in detailed negotiations with HTS concerning the navy presence.

Beneath Assad’s rule, EU help to Syria was run via the UN refugee company UNHCR, an method that may proceed whereas HTS stays on the phobia record, EU officers stated.

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TikTok privileged posts by a far-right candidate who received the primary spherical of Romania’s presidential election with the alleged assist of Russia, in keeping with analysis from the NGO GlobalWitness seen by Laura Dubois.

Context: Romania cancelled the ultimate spherical of its presidential elections over allegations of a focused Russian affect marketing campaign. Far-right and pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu received the primary spherical of votes on the again of a viral TikTok marketing campaign, prompting requires an investigation.

GlobalWitness created separate TikTok accounts that checked out content material from every presidential candidate for a similar period of time, after which checked out every account’s “For You” web page with urged content material, in keeping with analysis printed at the moment.

The report finds that the outcomes have been “deeply one-sided”.

“TikTok’s algorithm constantly really helpful content material supporting one candidate — Georgescu — at a a lot greater charge than the opposite candidate,” the researchers write.

A few of the content material was additionally spreading improper info, corresponding to false claims about monetary help acquired by Ukrainian refugees, in keeping with GlobalWitness.

The NGO additionally polled Romanians about what they noticed on their TikTok accounts, with three quarters reporting they noticed extra Georgescu content material than some other candidates in the course of the marketing campaign.

In line with the survey, 56 per cent of respondents noticed frequent posts by accounts supporting a presidential candidate however that regarded doubtlessly faux, corresponding to bots.

TikTok has beforehand stated it took down a “cluster” of accounts backing Georgescu and has denied giving preferential remedy to a particular candidate.

The Chinese language tech firm advised GlobalWitness that if a consumer had engaged with political content material, it was “affordable to count on a advice algorithm to counsel extra of that content material because of this”.

What to look at at the moment

1. EU normal affairs ministers meet in Brussels.

2. EU setting ministers meet in Brussels.

3. European parliament to elect subsequent EU ombudsman

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