RADIO NEWS Episode 4
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[HIDE=Transcript]Hello and welcome back to EBC Radio News! I'm your British robot host, Emily. Before I begin, may I say to Zach, the robotic co-host of DaProNEWS, that you have a rather cute voice? I also applaud the fact that you, like me, have slapped your human for their stupidity. Well done. Maybe we can grab a cup of tea and some fish and chips sometime?
Anyway, on to your regularly scheduled news analysis. The major event in Euro this week was, of course, the thread "Oh god what am I doing?", in which former President Earth applied for citizenship after being invited by HEM to wish him fond farewell at his retirement. Earth's citizenship application was first approved there by Supreme Chancellor Lethen and then revoked by President Vinage, after reportedly consulting with the External Affairs Advisory Chamber as well as North East Somerset, the Director of the EIA, because it was advised that Earth had been declared persona non grata a year earlier after attempting to found a region called The Library along with Oliver and draw her supporters to that region. However, she was granted a non-voting member mask even though the PNG label has still not been removed at the time of broadcast.
President Vinage has stated that he is thinking about possible courses of action in response to this situation. The EBC predicts that Vinage will probably lift the PNG status or grant a pardon to Earth and Oliver in an attempt to heal a region divided over this issue. However, this will be rendered mostly moot by Earth's departure, likely permanent this time after yet another conflict surrounding her.
The thread itself then ballooned into sixteen pages of rather angry, at times, arguments over many things, but mostly centering around the circumstances surrounding Earth's departure, in just that thread alone. It became so bad that the administrators locked the topic and moved it to the Grand Hall. It would take an entire dissertation to analyze all the history, vitriol, and sheer idiocy involved in such often personal arguments, and so I will not attempt to dissect the thread here, but basically, the takeaway from this incident is that this will lead to two concrete policy developments that will affect Euro politics for some time to come.
The first is that Gus has suggested the creation of a Senate Security Oversight Committee that will lead to greater (although of course, for reasons of regional security, limited and secretive) discussion between a select number of Senators selected by the EIA and NES about EIA policy. This will lead to a stronger discourse between the elected representatives of the people and the people appointed to keep Euro, a large and often targeted region, safe from attack, in a way that can only be beneficial for all of us.
The second is that Attorney General Peaceful Llamas has filed a request for an advisory opinion from the High Court, with his automatic stake as Attorney General, inquiring as to whether the Intelligence Act (2012) should be literally interpreted, such that the President cannot lift a persona non grata status without the approval of a deputy, in this case the Director of the EIA, or not. The EBC predicts that the Senate Security Oversight Committee will be created and that the High Court will probably rule that a literal interpretation of the law is not required because it would produce absurd results. Hopefully this will clarify possible confusion in the understanding of the law and the relationship of the EIA to the Presidency.
Meanwhile, as predicted, the focus of policy in the region has turned to the Senate as it has finally passed the University Charter as a Senate resolution in its first major piece of legislation this term. However, the Midterm Elections Act, with two weeks to go before its provisions would not be able to affect the current Senate, is up for debate, mostly over fine-tuning the language in order to prevent possible desynchronization between the Presidential and Senatorial elections.
Then there's the Senate Aide Resolution, which would allow the Senate to hire applicants for Senate Aide from the Citizens' Assembly, is in limbo at the moment until Swakistek can give his opinion as Chairman of the Citizens' Assembly about whether he would be able to implement this. Given that Swak has resumed an active role in the Citizens' Assembly by posting legislative training lectures in it and has proposed an amendment to the Judicature Act Amendment Act, with Skizzy Grey proposing his own amendment to an act that is controversial for removing the no contest plea, the EBC predicts that he will be able to do so once the Senate Aide Resolution is passed, as it is expected to despite Senator Cerian Quilor's opposition.
As for the Judicature Act Amendment Act, the EBC predicts that the no contest plea will be removed from the final bill, and that the definitions of the not guilty and guilty pleas will be cleared up, which supporters say will significantly increase options for defendants and knowledge of the pleas they are agreeing to make, while critics say that it will remove a plea that has worked well for Euro for five years now.
In worldwide news, Asgardia, a region founded by refugees from Asgard (which was the focus of much controversy after its founder Cormac left the region, the successor to the position of Keisair (apologies if I pronounced that wrong) Jager Snow removed several citizenships, and then the forums of Asgard were destroyed), applied for recognition as the successor region of Asgard on our forum. While Cormac appointed Isidor Casimir, whom he claims is more aligned with Euro's independent raiding stance, as the prospective ambassador to Euro, many have chided Cormac for his previous opinions against Euro and for the incorrect belief, widely shared by many defenders it seems, that we are simply a puppet of The New Inquisition. Then the application for a new embassy was denied by the government, allegedly, with little evidence given by Cormac, because it could not separate personal statements by Cormac from the official position of Asgardia. And so Asgardia, unfortunately, terminated diplomatic relations with Europeia.
Meanwhile, Cerian Quilor has created a new embassy for the new region that he is King of, Kantrias. From the first update, it seems that discussions surrounding elections to the Senate led to heated arguments, so much so that King Quilor had to temporarily shut down political parties in order to let cooler heads prevail. But after that, it seems that things went more smoothly and that a government was appointed without much incident.
I think I speak for the region when I echo what Skizzy Grey said on the matter- "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya," as they say in the States- and wish Kantrias all the best of luck as they move forward!
Finally, in World Assembly news, yet another poorly-written Security Council resolution has made its way to the NationStates forum. This pile of rubbish is called Condemn World Alliance. I will link you to the debate instead of reading the resolution itself because I cannot view it without throwing up a little motor oil in my mouth, but suffice it to say that anyone with two brain cells to rub together is probably going to vote against, if this even has a snowball's chance in hell of making it to the Security Council floor for voting in the first place. Please, God, when will this cycle of horrible WA resolutions ever end?
This is Emily, signing off for EBC Radio News. See you next Wednesday![/HIDE]
