European Digest: Updates on the European Union and the Measles Outbreak

European Union: Italy will lead the European Union’s mission in the Red Sea to protect international shipping from attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi Shi’ite rebels of northern Yemen. The EU mission is in addition to the international one lead by the United States, with which some European and EU members are participating. Meanwhile, the EU leader, who is seeking another term, is proposing a defense commission as an auxiliary to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the mutual defense pact led by the United States that has deterred a Soviet/Russian invasion of Europe since 1949. Europeans are anxious because doubts have been raised about American commitment to world’s most successful defensive alliance in history because of the recent remarks by Donald Trump I posted about that treated the organization, which has been a bulwark of American security, as a protection racket that extorts its members to pay up, even though the organization does not rely on dues, but on mutual commitment to defense. Trump, whose candidacies for U.S. President were backed by Russia, encouraged the Russian invasion of NATO members who do not meet the voluntary goal of spending at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. Trump is currently discouraging the Trumpist-led U.S. House of Representatives from approving defensive aid to Ukraine, where Russian invaders have been advancing after American aid has run out. The EU and other European States have been trying to fill the gap to stop Russian aggression. American security depends on the support of the principles of independence, self-determination, and sovereignty and thus the opposition to aggression. Measles Outbreak: The measles outbreak in parts of both Eastern and Western Europe has spread to multiple countries in Western Europe. Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories on both the far left and the far right have decreased vaccination rates and thus the necessary herd immunity that had protected against such contagious diseases, as vaccines are effective and safe, and certainly better for health than the diseases they prevent. Measles, like certain other contagious diseases, had nearly been eradicated in America and Europe until the late 2000s, with the rise of the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine hesitancy in Europe and America has been exacerbated both by libertarianism and Russian disinformation, which uses the anti-vaccination movement as a kind of biological warfare against the West.