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Dear friends and colleagues,

On the first day of the sacred month of Ramadan, and at a time when COVID-19 is ravaging our people’s health and nations’ economies, I wish health, peace, wisdom and humility to all our earth’s inhabitants.

As ever, I hope you are coping well with confinement, keeping a physical distance but making sure to maintain crucial social contacts. We must keep hope that humanity will triumph over this crisis, that solidarity will triumph over , that international cooperation will triumph over nationalism and that wisdom and humility will guide our future actions.

Although COVID-19 is a threat to us all, our human ingenuity means that there is also opportunity in a post-crisis world for reforms and improvements in many sectors of society, involving both private and public activity, that have been affected by the crisis. We have been given a rare moment in history to restart our engines, to reshape our systems of production and democratic models to include more societal strata than ever before and to ensure that growth leads to a sustainable and fair form of prosperity.

The good news is that these reforms are mutually beneficial, any investment made in improving the sustainability of our democracies and economic systems will inevitably benefit all of us and contribute to continued growth, that would otherwise be impossible in a landscape threatened by climate change and the rise of protectionist, restrictive forms of authoritarian government across the world.

COVID-19 has caused untold suffering over the past few months, but from that suffering have emerged the ingenuity and the resilience of humankind when faced with very real threats to their existence. Communities have come together, ignoring old divisions, to fight the virus and its effects and governments have launched social support projects and economic packages on a scale never before seen in history.

These changes are creating wealth and democratising access to services on an unprecedented scale; in , online tuition was rolled out across the entire nation which, for the first time, meant that children living in most rural areas had access to the highest quality of teacher that the nation has to offer; West African states are revolutionising the way they use mobile technology to communicate with their citizens about virus prevention and transfer of welfare payments; East Asian states, particularly Taiwan, have shown the world what it means to mobilise government resources quickly and effectively in the interest of their citizens’ health; European states and the have proven that multilateral communication and sharing of resources is essential to responding to an attacker that does not respect borders. This list goes on and on but the principle remains the same: our human resilience offers us a real opportunity to re-launch our way of life post COVID-19 in a way that benefits us all and guarantees the sustainability of our lifestyles for future generations.

We, as , urge governments and corporations to continue to act with the same energy and drive when developing their crisis responses.

We urge them to ensure that climate principles are integrated at the heart of all stimulus packages and corporate We urge them to ensure that climate principles are integrated at the heart of all stimulus packages and corporate action plans.

We urge the parliaments of this world to resist the onslaught on anti-democratic rhetoric and, instead, invest in deepening multilateral cooperation in order to ensure that our planet will be better prepared for the next global challenge.

We emerged from the World Wars with a clear understanding that international and multilateral cooperation was the only way to safeguard the continued growth of human society; let us now honour those who have died in this crisis by ensuring that we use it as an opportunity to remake society for the better.

Sincerely,

Dr. Hakima El Haité

Dr Hakima el Haité President of

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LI President of Honour Van Baalen calls for Karl-Heinz Paqué: Italy’s insistence on action against Orbán and his government Eurobonds is dividing Europe

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LI HRC member Nilsson Söderström say: In LI CJC member Vinther Alis asks: Is times of crisis we must stand up for liberal pandemic a reason to postpone Climate democracy. focus? The COVID19 and lockdown derived recession will be The corona pandemic is not only a threat to our health extremely costly. The severity of the situation on a and economy, but also to . global scale in relation to health, security, and economic Authoritarian regimes are increasing their powers and sectors is painfully clear to all – so the question is, if cracking down on both civil society and political climate justice, for the time being, is a luxury we cannot opposition. In these difficult times we need more - not afford? less - , internationalism and solidarity.

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Applications open: Join LI's new working group on trade

Trade is a central tenet of liberalism and today the bureau of Liberal International has launched a call for qualified applicants to form our latest policy working group on trade, chaired by LI Deputy President, Prof. Karl-Heinz Paqué.

Similar to the prominent LI committees on human rights and climate justice, the trade working group will craft a global liberal position on one of the most important aspects of international politics.

Find out more and express your interest by clicking here.

Speech on solidarity by Renew Watch the latest "Liberties in RELIAL: Fake news and the state - Europe lockdown" by LI Partner European who threatens institutions the most? MEP Dragos Pislaru

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This weeks tweet comes from LI Vice President Abir Al-Sahlani

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Be sure to double-check your email - Liberal International has sent out communications to the membership. With the rise of Fake News and Disinformation, Liberal International has listed some trusted sites for information around COVID-19. As liberals, we need to do all we can to minimise the spread of Fake News & Disinfo and contain this pandemic.

If you want to find out more information on data and statistics, please also click the links below.

World Health Organization International Committee of Doctors Without (WHO) the Red Cross Borders

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TOP TIPS:

Do not feel guilty and know how to disconnect. Use reliable sources of information Do not look too much and listen to the media and social networks

Other websites to check out:

LitCovid Living map of evidence REACTING Consortium DocCismef A MOOC NephJC ERA-EDTA IPU ICLN

Africa Liberal Network (ALN) Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE Party) Arab Liberal Federation (ALF) Council of Asian Liberals & Democrats (CALD) Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) Red Liberal de América Latina (Relial)

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