Russian media say Egypt has finalized a deal to build a nuclear power plant with funding from Moscow after nearly two years of negotiations.

The reports Monday came after Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, where they were attending a summit.

The nuclear plant will be built in Dabaa, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.

Egypt’s presidency says el-Sissi has invited Putin to Egypt to mark the start of construction.

In 2015, Egypt signed an agreement with Russia to build a four-reactor power plant. It will receive a $25 billion Russian loan to cover 85 percent of the plant, with a capacity of 4,800 MW.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-left challenger Martin Schulz failed to land a blow Sunday in the German election campaign’s one and only TV debate between party leaders.

A relaxed chancellor easily parried the attacks from Schulz, whose Social Democrats (SPD) have propped up Merkel’s conservatives in a “grand coalition” government since 2013.

With three weeks to go before the polls Schulz, a former European Parliament president, has been unable to engineer momentum to close a big gap between his party and Merkel’s conservatives, who in the latest surveys enjoy a 14 percent edge.

Migrants, Turkey

Schulz attacked Merkel for her 2015 decision to throw open Germany’s borders for mainly Syria asylum-seekers stranded in Hungary, arguing that she should have consulted Germany’s neighbors before making a decision that triggered central European leaders to close their borders, placing an even greater burden on Germany.

Merkel responded that she had to take a quick decision to relieve a growing humanitarian crisis, “In the life of a chancellor, there are moments when you need to make decisions.”

Schulz also took aim at the Chancellor’s handling of Turkey amid rising tensions between the two countries, which are currently in yet another stand-off, this time over the arrests of a dozen German citizens.

But the center-left challenger’s barbs on Turkey didn’t shake Merkel, and allowed her to appear tough on Ankara by announcing a new position on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, saying, “The fact is that Turkey should not become an EU member.”

Merkel’s performance

Polls during and immediately after the one-on-one debate aired by all four of Germany’s main broadcasters showed voters saw the confident Merkel as more credible and likable than the hesitant Schulz. One poll found 44 percent found Merkel more convincing than Schulz, whom only 32 percent found convincing.

Commentators faulted Schulz for failing to press Merkel, who has been in power now for 12 years, on some of the key challenges Germany faces — including renewing the country’s infrastructure, education and how the country will handle growing defense responsibilities. He chose to be more aggressive on foreign policy than on the domestic issues that trouble many Germans and clashed for several minutes with the Chancellor over motorway tolls, hardly a populist issue that can swing an election.

“This was Mr Schulz’s one big chance to change the direction and narrative of the election campaign, and he blew it,” judged the Economist magazine. The Social Democrats partly chose Schulz to be their candidate because his tenure in Brussels meant he would be in a better position to criticize the chancellor than others in the party who have had to work with her. But he appeared not to use that advantage in Sunday’s debate.

A year ago Germany’s veteran leader appeared to be in trouble with her popularity plummeting in reaction to her handling of the migration crisis roiling Europe. But after the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. her poll numbers started to climb again. Her aides jokingly explained the improving poll ratings as due to “the Trump factor.”

She seemed also to get a lift from political turmoil in Britain following the Brexit referendum. Instability elsewhere appeared to be pushing Germans to favor continuity and sticking with experience and positioning Merkel in a strong position for this month’s federal election.

One of the key questions, though, as Germany heads into the home stretch of campaigning is who Merkel will decide her right-leaning Christian Democratic Union should partner with to form a coalition government.

Seeking partners

As the CDU will not secure sufficient seats in the German Bundestag to govern alone it will either have to partner once again with the Social Democrats or with the Free Democrats and Greens and that may have major consequences for Germany’s position on European Union reforms being proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The electoral performance of Germany’s far-right anti-immigrant party, Alternative for Germany, which likely will become the third-largest­ faction in the German parliament after the September 24 election, could well have a bearing on the Merkel’s choice of coalition partners for her fourth term in office, say analysts.

While the AfD has failed to shape a right-wing populist wave, it will, according to the latest opinion polls, break the threshold needed to secure seats in the Bundestag. Polls give the far-right nationalist party about an 11 percent share of the vote, which would translate to about 60 Bundestag seats.

But as it tries to reshape itself as more of a political party than a protest movement, the AfD hasn’t backed away from Islamophobia, presumably having decided that it needs to consolidate its base rather than to try to try to reach out to a wider public. It has run throughout the campaign what critics charge has been inflammatory advertising. One of its election posters depicts two women wearing skimpy swim-wear with the tagline: “Burkas? We prefer bikinis.”

Another recalls Nazi propaganda, with a smiling, pregnant German under the caption: “New Germans? We’ll make them ourselves.”
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A top Turkish official took to social media on Monday to criticize comments on Turkey by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her opponent during a televised pre-election debate.

Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for the Turkish presidency, tweeted that Merkel and Martin Schulz were attacking Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a diversion from more urgent problems, such as a surge in discrimination.

Kalin said Europe’s attitude toward Turkey served to create an “other” and populism in German politics would fuel discrimination and racism.

In Sunday’s debate, Schulz said he would seek to end long-running but currently stalled talks on Turkey joining the European Union because of Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian policies.

Merkel, who has previously expressed doubts about Turkey ever joining the EU, refused to commit firmly to the same move, which would have to be agreed among EU members, but sharply criticized Erdogan’s rule. She said that “Turkey is departing from all democratic practices at breakneck speed.”

Polls show a double-digit lead for Merkel’s conservative bloc over Schulz’s center-left Social Democrats before Germany’s Sept. 24 election.

One reason Merkel gave Sunday for keeping lines of communication open with Turkey was Germany’s attempts to secure the release of 12 German citizens being held there for what Berlin considers political reasons — most recently, two who were detained last week at Antalya Airport.

A lawyer for one of those two says that the person has now been released without conditions, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul told reporters in Berlin on Monday.

Turkish media have reported that the two German citizens of Turkish origin were detained for alleged links to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara blames Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, for last year’s coup attempt in Turkey. Gulen denies the claim.

 
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Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child, Kensington Palace said Monday.

Kensington Palace made the pregnancy announcement as they said that the former Kate Middleton was not feeling well enough to attend an engagement later in the day. As with her other two pregnancies, the duchess is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, or acute morning sickness. Kate is being cared for at her Kensington Palace home in London.

“The queen and members of both families are delighted with the news,” the palace said in a statement.

William and Kate, both 35, already have two children: Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.

The announcement came at a time when the royal couple is due to mark a milestone in the life of their young family: They are set to send George to school for the first time on Thursday.

Their choice of Thomas’s Battersea in south London indicated that the Cambridges were settling into their Kensington Palace apartment, having moved recently from their Norfolk home Anmer Hall.

No details were immediately available about when the third baby is due, but betting agencies were quick to start offering odds on possible names for the soon-to-be-born child in the House of Windsor.

Paddy Power offered 8-to-1 odds on Alice. Also popular was Diana, after Prince William’s mother, particularly given the timing of the announcement.

Together with Prince Harry, William and Kate have taken a leading role in marking the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death. Last week the royals toured the garden of their Kensington Palace home to remember the princes’ mother and celebrate her contributions to their family and to the monarchy.

“Given the recent anniversary, there’ll be plenty of interest in the name Diana if the baby is a girl,” the agency said.

The royals have said from the time of their engagement that they wanted to have a family — the only question was how many children they wished for. Royal watchers recorded every aside for clues as to what the plans might be.

When asked on a royal tour in Singapore in 2012 about how many children he wanted, William said he was “thinking about having two.”

More recently, during a royal tour of Poland, Kate joked about a third child when given a cuddly toy designed to soothe tiny babies.

Kate thanked the well-wisher for the present and turned to William. “We will just have to have more babies,” she said laughing.

Kate is the eldest of three siblings, and reportedly had a very happy childhood. William has a younger brother, Prince Harry.

The royal couple can also be seen as following in the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who have four children.
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Moscow is demanding Washington rethink its order to close three Russian diplomatic facilities, calling the closing a “hostile act.”

“We consider what has happened as an openly hostile act and a gross violation of international law by Washington,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement Sunday.

“We call on the American authorities to come to their senses and immediately return the Russian diplomatic properties or all blame for the continuing degradation in our relations lies on the U.S.”

The U.S. State Department said Saturday it had seized control of three diplomatic posts vacated by Russia at the request of the U.S. government.

In an email Saturday, a State Department official said the posts were inspected in walk-throughs with Russian officials, and not forcibly searched as implied in a statement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

The Kremlin has accused Washington of bullying tactics and claimed that FBI officials threatened to break down the door to one of the facilities.

The compound in Washington was one of three that were shuttered as the United States and Russia have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat over the past several months. The other two diplomatic buildings ordered closed are in San Francisco and New York.

 
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Police in Italy say they’ve arrested a Congolese refugee as the fourth suspect in gang rapes at a beach resort.

Rimini police chief Maurizio Improta says the man was caught Sunday morning on a train about to leave a nearby town. On Saturday, the other three suspects, all minors, including two Moroccan teenage brothers, were detained in the rape of a Polish tourist, the savage beating of her companion and the rape of a Peruvian woman shortly after the first attack.

Improta said the brothers turned themselves in after surveillance camera video showing the suspects was made public. The third suspect, from Nigeria, was detained Saturday night near Rimini.

Sky TG24 TV said the Congolese man arrived in Italy as a rescued migrant in 2015.
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Police say bomb disposal experts have successfully defused a huge World War II-era bomb in the German financial capital Frankfurt that forced the evacuation of more than 60,000 residents.

Hospital patients and the elderly were among those affected in what was Germany’s biggest evacuation in recent history. Similar operations are still common 72 years after the war ended. About 20,000 people were evacuated from the western city of Koblenz before specialists disarmed a 500-kilogram U.S. bomb Saturday.   

Construction workers found the 1.8-ton (4,000-pound) British bomb Tuesday. Officials ordered residents to evacuate homes within a 1.5-kilometer (nearly a mile) radius of the site in Germany’s financial capital.

Dozens of ambulances lined up early Sunday to pick up anyone unable to independently leave the danger zone

 
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The Kalashnikov corporation’s recent unveiling of a fully armored anti-riot vehicle already has Russia’s political opposition organizers up in arms.

Slated to go into service for Russia’s newly formed National Guard less than a year before Russian presidential elections, the gargantuan armored tactical vehicle — replete with water cannons, ballistic projectile loopholes and a 24-foot reinforced retractable shield capable of protecting up to 38 officers — is technically not classified as a weapon.

Although the monstrously large “Shchit,” or “Shield,” is designed to disperse unauthorized rallies, Alexey Krivoruchko, Kalashnikov Concern’s chief executive, told journalists the vehicle was not designed under Kremlin contract.

“This new special equipment was developed in the spirit of innovation,” Krivoruchko said. “Besides the Shield, we’re also working to introduce new design solutions for wheeled armored vehicles in the domestic market and for export deliveries.”

According to the state-run RIA Novosti news outlet, Kalashnikov Concern, known for creating the iconic AK-47 assault rifle, routinely secures Russian defense industry contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Andrei Pivovarov, coordinator of the St. Petersburg branch of the opposition Open Russia democratic alliance, told VOA’s Russian service that the Shield represents an unprecedented step toward an increasingly hard-line approach to cracking down on political rallies in Russia.

‘Monsters’

“I’ve never seen images of such monsters in any other countries,” Pivovarov said, adding that the vehicle puts Russian security personnel in the global vanguard of militarized civilian police forces. “Even in countries where there is quite serious unrest — Venezuela, for example — police have individual shields. But this? This is a work of military art.”

National Guard deployment of the Shield, he added, indicates the Kremlin anticipates robust street protests ahead of the presidential elections set for early 2018.

“Why else would the Internal Affairs Ministry buy something like this?” said Pivovarov, who has repeatedly been detained at anti-Kremlin protests. “It’s not about investing in education, not health care. It’s about preserving the current political system.”

Russian officials have not issued a statement about the vehicle.

“Everything about this shows that the common people have a desire to take to the streets and express their displeasure,” Pivovarov added. “And clearly the authorities are preparing for this.”

Maxim Reznik of Russia’s Party of Growth, which has representatives in several local legislatures, largely echoed that sentiment.

“The use of this armor will only pour more oil on the fire of conflict,” Reznik told VOA. “Contact between society and the state is degrading so much that it’s leading to an explosion.”

An increasingly militaristic response to Russian street protests, he added, will only further alienate politically conscious youth.

“People will now be a bit more afraid to go to a protest rally, sure, but they will hate power even more,” he said. “In general, the brave isn’t the one who isn’t afraid, but the one who overcomes his fear. In that regard, no amount [of] powerful cars will help.”

Gennady Gudkov, a former State Duma deputy, told VOA that deployment of the Shield suggested the government of President Vladimir Putin was “preparing for war with their own people.”

“We see this in the stiffness of actions of the riot police, who grab protesters for coming out with white ribbons, and of course the government won’t follow any norms of humanity and law,” he said.

“Look, it’s armored to protect flanks of riot police … and squeeze people from the rally,” he added, claiming the vehicle is also capable of firing tear gas “or live ammunition.”

Ports for weapons use

Although Russian police have not said they intend to equip the vehicle with munitions, the machine has ports in the shield for firing projectiles.

“It is clear that there will be injuries, fractures and so on, and everything will go unpunished and painless for those who will be inside these cars,” Gudkov said.

Equipping guardsmen with such a formidable piece of equipment, he said, is a significant symbolic gesture by Putin.

“He wants to show that he is not as soft as Mikhail Gorbachev. No, he’s cool, he’s macho and will not let anyone down,” Gudkov said. “The very fact of the publication of photographs of armored vehicles indicates that the Kremlin people are ready to fight the people of Russia with rather ruthless methods of punishment.

” … You can safely predict that a protest [confronted by this vehicle] will be radicalized in the most rapid manner. And the huge experience of street fighting accumulated by our people, beginning with the revolution of 1905, and including the partisan struggle of the Second World War, should not be written off from accounts,” he said.

“It won’t frighten people who are ready for decisive steps,” Gudkov added.

According to the Russia’s TASS news agency, Kalashnikov’s sales in 2016 reached RUB18.3 billion ($319 million), a 123 percent increase over 2015.

Kalashnikov’s website claims it has already generated $57 million from government contracts in the first of half of 2017.

This report originated in VOA’s Russian service.
…

Speaking in Washington on Friday night after four days of testy and inconclusive talks in Brussels with EU negotiators, the British minister overseeing Brexit negotiations, David Davis, offered the admission that Britain is weighing whether to join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Such an arrangement could at least be temporary while Britain tries to negotiate a better deal for itself with the EU, the country’s largest trading partner.  

Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to secure access to the EU’s Single Market and customs union, and avoid crippling tariffs and trade restrictions when it exits the EU in March 2019.

His open admission surprised some in the audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where in a speech, he also appeared to take aim at U.S. President Donald Trump and warned against the West turning its back on globalization and free trade. Without mentioning Trump directly, he said, “It feels to me it is necessary to make the case once more for free trade and capitalism.”

‘Hard Brexiters’ may bulk

It is Davis’ disclosure that Prime Minister Theresa May is considering the possibility of Britain applying for membership of the EFTA, however, that’s likely to prove explosive when it comes to so-called “hard Brexiters” in the Conservative Party and populist nationalists, such as Nigel Farage, who want a clean break from the EU.

“It is something we’ve thought about,” Davis said in reply to a question from Iceland’s ambassador to the U.S., Geir Haarde, about whether Britain could opt for the so-called ‘Norway option.’ But the British minister cautioned “it’s not at the top of the list.”

One drawback with the EFTA for the May government is that it would not offer the same kind of unrestricted access for the country’s lucrative banking and financial services sector as Britain currently enjoys with its EU membership. Also, EFTA membership would prevent Britain from imposing immigration controls on Europeans wanting to live and work in the country — something May and hard Brexiters want to do.

The current members of the EFTA are Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The group has free trade deals with various non-EU countries, including Canada and Mexico.

Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to apply for automatic membership of the European Economic Area, giving it full access to the EU’s Single Market, as currently enjoyed by Norway and two other EFTA members. Some analysts describe the EFTA as “backdoor EU membership.”

Brussels talks stalled

Davis’ admission came after a torrid week of acrimonious Brexit negotiations, which saw the British minister and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier snipe at each other publicly at the end of what is the third round of formal exit discussions between London and Brussels. Officials from both sides concede the two sides are as far apart on key issues as they were before the third round started.

Europeans accuse the British of being unclear about what they want, while the British argue the EU negotiators’ insistence on agreeing on the terms of departure before negotiating a free trade deal is unhelpful. Remaining stumbling blocks include a reported $89 billion “divorce bill” Brussels is demanding to cover budget payments, and project and structural loans that Britain committed to before last year’s Brexit referendum.

On Thursday the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Barnier, said progress was hampered by a “lack of trust” between the two sides. And at a joint press conference with Davis, he evoked the Brexiters’ oft-repeated slogan of “Brexit means Brexit” to ask his adversary whether Britain wasn’t missing the bloc after all.

The British say the EU divorce sums don’t add up, and on Friday in Washington, Davis called the Brexit negotiations “probably the most complicated negotiation in history and our enemy is time… it is getting a bit tense.”

The EU won’t even begin talks on a deal until there has been “sufficient progress” on the divorce terms.

‘More ripples ahead’

With time running out before Britain’s exit, there’s a growing movement within the Conservative Party — and with the support even of some prominent figures who campaigned in last year’s referendum for Britain to exit the EU — for an EFTA option.

The leaders of Iceland and Ireland have been urging Britain for weeks to apply for EFTA membership, and behind the scenes so have major British business leaders, who fear a hard Brexit would see Britain fall off an economic cliff.

This week’s bruising talks triggered in their wake another spasm in the war of words between Europeans and hard Brexiters. Liam Fox, Britain’s minister for international development, accused the EU of trying to extort London, saying “Britain can’t be blackmailed into paying a price.”

And John Redwood, a senior Conservative, and onetime challenger for the party leadership, tweeted: “Mr. Barnier wants the UK to set out its calculation of the exit bill. That’s easy. The bill is zero. Nothing. Zilch.”

The British tabloids and European newspapers have been trading sharp barbs all week, as well. Switzerland’s Der Bund newspaper accused Britain on its front page of being the “Laughing Stock of Europe,” and it described Brexit as “comical.”

Britain’s Sun newspaper headlined: “Michel Barnier and his EU team truly do excel in being the most inflexible and arrogant bunch of people going.”

In Washington Friday, Davis distanced himself from the blackmail comments of his cabinet colleague Fox, but he said, “We are in a difficult, tough, complicated negotiation; it will be turbulent and what we are having is the first ripple, and there will be many more ripples along the way.”
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned a United States diplomat to Moscow in order to formally protest the planned search of Russian compounds in America.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Anthony F. Godfrey, a deputy chief at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, over the planned “illegal inspection” of a Russian diplomatic building in Washington, which is set to be closed Saturday.

The Russians called the planned inspection an “unprecedented aggressive action,” and said U.S. authorities may use it as an opportunity to for “planting compromised items” in the Russian compound.

The compound in Washington is one of three ordered to be shuttered as the U.S. and Russia have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat over the past several months. The other two diplomatic buildings ordered closed are in San Francisco and New York.

The summoning of Godfrey comes a day after Russia’s Foreign Ministry also accused the FBI of planning a search of its San Francisco consulate, after ordering its closure Thursday.

The U.S. has not said whether it intends to search either of the buildings.

‘Direct threat’

A spokeswoman for the ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the search would “create a direct threat to the security of Russian citizens.”

Zakharova said in a statement Friday, “American special services intend on September 2 to carry out a search of the consulate in San Francisco including of the apartments of employees who live in the building and have [diplomatic] immunity.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that firefighters were called to the site of the consulate, but were not allowed to enter, after black smoke was seen billowing from a chimney. Firefighters determined that the fire was confined to a fireplace somewhere in the building.

A spokeswoman for San Francisco Fire Department, Mindy Talmadge, told reporters she did not know what people inside the building would be burning on a day when the outdoor temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius.

According to a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, the smoke came as part of efforts to “preserve the building” at a time when officials were gearing up to leave.

The move to close the San Francisco building came in response to a demand from Moscow that Washington reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia.

“In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday, adding that the deadline for the closures is September 2.
…

The digital arms race between the United States and Russia appears to be accelerating, fueled in part by new comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin, speaking to a group of Russian students Friday, called artificial intelligence “not only Russia’s future” but “the future of the whole of mankind.”

“The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world,” he said. “There are colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now.”

Digital domain

Top U.S. intelligence officials have been warning of a “perpetual contest” between the United States and Russia, with much of it playing out in the digital domain.

The Defense Intelligence Agency in particular has sought to maximize its ability to make use of artificial intelligence, or AI, reaching out to private industry and academia to help maintain the U.S. advantage.

Russia and China are seen as key competitors in the digital space and have been working on how to apply technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, to their war-fighting doctrines.

“They’ve got their heads wrapped around the idea that 21st century warfare is as much cognitive as it is kinetic,” outgoing DIA Director Lt.  Gen. Vincent Stewart told a small group of reporters from VOA and other organizations last month.

Top officials, both in government and in the private sector, have long been willing to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence and other technological advances.

But some analysts see Putin’s willingness to address the issue publicly as telling.

“[It’s] rare that you have a head of state discussing these issues,” said Frank Cilluffo, director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. “He is sending a message.”

And Cilluffo hopes the U.S. is paying attention.

“A big space race is on, and it’s a race we can’t afford to lose,” he said.

US maintains advantage

Many experts say the U.S. still maintains an advantage over Russia in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Still, as Russia, China and other countries seek additional breakthroughs in how to apply such technology, the stakes are high.

“It completely changes the game of warfare,” said David Kennedy, who served with the U.S. National Security Agency and with the Marine Corps’ electronic warfare unit.

“It’s no longer going to be about who has the most bombs or who has the better bombs,” he said. “It’s going to be who can apply these principles to respond faster to fight a war and win a war.”

And Kennedy, now chief executive officer at TrustedSec, an information technology security consulting firm, sees Russia gaining.

“They explore all options, and they have a substantial budget for it,” he said, noting that Moscow may have an advantage in how to apply the technology since it is willing to sidestep privacy and ethical concerns that the U.S. and even China have tried to address.

China, too, is making significant gains. But unlike Russia, China has focused more on quantum computing, launching a quantum satellite into space last year.

Quantum computing uses a quirk of physics that allows subatomic particles to simultaneously exist in two different states. As a result, a computer is then able to skip through much of the elaborate mathematical computations necessary to solve complex problems.

It is seen as a potentially game-changing tool for intelligence agencies, enabling them to hack encrypted messages from their adversaries while their own communications would be “hackproof,” if the technology can be perfected.

“The Chinese have one of the most powerful quantum encryption capabilities in the world,” DIA’s Stewart cautioned last month. “Whoever wins this space wins the game.”
…

Russia’s foreign ministry has accused the FBI of planning a search of its San Francisco consulate on Saturday, after ordering its closure Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the search, which the United States has not confirmed, would “create a direct threat to the security of Russian citizens.”

Zakharova said in a statement Friday, “American special services intend on September 2 to carry out a search of the consulate in San Francisco including of the apartments of employees who live in the building and have [diplomatic] immunity.”

Black smoke

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that firefighters were called to the site of the consulate, but not allowed to enter, after black smoke was seen billowing from a chimney. Firefighters determined that the fire was confined to a fireplace somewhere in the building.

A spokeswoman for San Francisco Fire Department, Mindy Talmadge, told reporters she did not know what people inside the building would be burning on a day when the outdoor temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Thursday, the United States ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and two other annexes by this weekend.

The move was in response to a demand from Moscow that Washington reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia.

“In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday, adding that the deadline for the closures is September 2.
…

China on Sunday hosts the annual summit of leaders from the BRICS countries — the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They represent 40 percent of the global population, and observers say the talks are aimed at showcasing the nations’ combined economic might as a counter to Western domination of world affairs.

As host, China hopes to make the meeting in the southeastern city of Xiamen a landmark event. However, it is hamstrung by sharp differences among member countries on several issues, as well as lurking suspicions that China is using the Beijing-headquartered group as a platform to advance its political and business interests.

“There is no doubt that Beijing senses an opportunity to burnish its credentials as the ‘sole champion’ of globalization and multilateralism at a time when the United States, under the Trump administration, seems to be turning inward and away from multilateralism,” Mohan Malik, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies at Honolulu, told VOA in an emailed response. “Lacking friends and allies, Beijing is keen to set up as many multilateral forums and financial institutions as possible to bring small- and medium-sized developing countries into its orbit.”

Some in China believe that the BRICS platform offers an opportunity to push for these causes and perhaps enhance Chinese President Xi Jinping’s image as a world leader. The question, however, is whether Russia and India, which have an array of differences with Beijing, are interested in it.

Internal squabbles

Analysts note that Moscow has serious reservations about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure development project making progress in central Asia, where Russia has plans to implement a similar program, called the Eurasian Economic Union. Separately, China and India have had their disagreements.

This past week, the two Asian giants carefully backed down from one of their biggest disagreements in the Himalayan region in years, agreeing to de-escalate a 10-week-old standoff on their disputed border. India did not confirm that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend the Xiamen summit until after the agreement was signed.

Recent years have seen China taking the lead in establishing or expanding homegrown international organizations where Western countries have little or no role. Beijing has also ensured that these organizations are headquartered in China.

In addition to BRICS, there is China’s National Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

BRICS Plus

More recently, China has been pushing a new proposal of BRICS Plus, which aims to bring non-BRICS countries into the organization.

China argues that doing so would strengthen the organization and make it a more potent force.

“BRICS is not an exclusive club. The impact of BRICS cooperation reaches far beyond the five countries,” said Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a recent press conference in Beijing. “I believe the BRICS Plus model will fully release the vitality of BRICS cooperation.”

Not everyone sees the proposal the same way, and it has met with stiff resistance and suspicion.

“China wants to be the leader of the organization, and the other four may not agree and that is why China is pushing to recruit more members,” said Oliver Rui, a professor of finance and accounting at the China Europe International Business School.

Some say China’s push to expand the organization is aimed at strengthening its position in BRICS, instead of making it stronger.

“Wang Yi’s idea of inviting other developing countries to join the partnership under the BRICS Plus concept would potentially unravel BRICS and transform it into just another SCO-like bloc, led and dominated by China [and Russia], that is likely to be anti-West in orientation and bolster Chinese leadership and serve Chinese interests,” Malik said.

For now, Beijing has been forced to abandon its effort to formalize the idea at the Xiamen summit, which begins Sunday and wraps up Tuesday.

Still, Foreign Minister Wang said China would stick to BRICS’ existing practice, which allows the host nation to invite other countries to the summit as a one-time opportunity. He also said that more would be done to help explain BRICS Plus and the rationale behind the idea.

BRICS without mortar

With a divide over expansion and a lack of clarity over the role the organization should play — whether it should have an economic or political agenda or both — some feel BRICS has yet to find that bonding element to hold the five countries together.

“I think the BRICS is kind of falling apart, due to many different kinds of reasons,” Rui said. “First, these five countries, naturally, they should not be a part of one organization.”

The group is not a trade bloc capable of influencing trade flows and decisions in the World Trade Organization. And the organization’s partners often complain of a huge trade balance in favor of Beijing because Chinese business tends to sell a lot more than it buys from these countries.

Beijing, however, is optimistic.

At the press conference, the Chinese foreign minister defended BRICS, saying that it reflects the aspirations of emerging markets and works for strengthening their economic situation. “It also plays an increasingly important role in promoting international peace and development,” he said.

VOA’s Joyce Huang contributed to this report.
…

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled as a “scandal” the decision of a U.S. court to indict 19 people, among them 15 members of a Turkish security detail, accused of attacking peaceful demonstrators during Erdogan’s visit to Washington on May 16.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul Friday, Erdogan called the indictment “a clear and scandalous expression of how justice works in America,” adding that he would discuss the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump during a trip to New York this month.

“The only thing I can say about this matter … as you know our foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to the ministry and conveyed the necessary warnings. This is a complete scandal. It is a scandalous sign of how justice works in the United States.”

Video showed Turkish security agents beating and kicking protestors outside the residence of the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, following a meeting between Erdogan and President Donald Trump.

Erdogan said the security officials, among them the head of Erdogan’s security operation, were protecting him from members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after U.S. police failed to do so.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry repeated Ankara’s criticisms of “serious negligence” by U.S. security authorities who did not “secure our delegation’s safety” and conveyed its reaction to the U.S. ambassador to Ankara.

The charges against Erdogan’s security agents sent a clear message that the U.S. “does not tolerate individuals who use intimidation and violence to stifle freedom of speech and legitimate political expression,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.
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Hungary’s prime minister is asking the European Union to pay for half of the cost of anti-migrant fences it built on its southern borders, some 440 million euros ($523 million). 

In a letter dated Thursday to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the fences erected in 2015 protect not just Hungary “but entire Europe against the flood of illegal migrants.”

Orban said Europe needed to show solidarity with Hungary’s border protection efforts, not just with Greece and Italy, the countries that have received the brunt of the migration influx. 

EU leaders have criticized Hungary for failing to show solidarity because it refuses to take in any asylum-seekers sought to be relocated from Greece and Italy until their asylum requests are decided.
…

Aid groups have criticized efforts by European leaders to stem the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, arguing Europe’s economy needs more workers. One nongovernmental organization in Italy has been trying to fill the gap by training African migrants to work as beekeepers and then pairing them with local honey producers in need of employees. Ricci Shryock reports for VOA from Alessandria, Italy.
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Frankfurt’s city center, an area including police headquarters, two hospitals, transport systems and Germany’s central bank storing $70 billion in gold reserves, will be evacuated on Sunday to allow the defusing of a 1.8-metric ton World War II bomb.

A spokesman for the German Bundesbank said, however, that “the usual security arrangements” would remain in place while experts worked to disarm the bomb, which was dropped by the British air force and was uncovered during excavation of a building site.

The Bundesbank headquarters, less than 600 meters (650 yards) from the location of the bomb, stores 1,710 metric tons of gold underground, around half the country’s reserves.

“We have never defused a bomb of this size,” bomb disposal expert Rene Bennert told Reuters, adding that it had been damaged on impact when it was dropped between 1943 and 1945. Airspace for 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) around the bomb site will also be closed.

Frankfurt city officials said more than 60,000 residents would be evacuated for at least 12 hours. The evacuation area will also include 20 retirement homes, the city’s opera house and the diplomatic quarter.

Bomb disposal experts will use a wrench to try to unscrew the fuses attached to the bomb. If that fails, a water jet will be used to cut the fuses away, Bennert told Reuters.

The most dangerous part of the exercise will be applying the wrench, Bennert said.

Roads and transport systems, including the underground, will be closed during the work and for at least two hours after the bomb is defused, to allow patients to be transported back to hospitals without traffic.

It is not unusual for unexploded bombs from World War II air raids to be found in German cities, but rarely are they so large and in such a sensitive position.
…

The United States has ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and two other annexes by this weekend, the State Department said Thursday.

The move was in response to a demand from Moscow that Washington reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia.

“In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian Government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday, adding that the deadline for the closures is September 2.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his “regret” about the closures shortly after the announcement was made.

Thursday’s announcement marked the latest chapter in a diplomatic spat largely caused by new U.S. sanctions on Russia put in place last month.
…

Turkey has been pressuring countries around the world to close or hand over control of schools linked to an influential Muslim cleric who was a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before becoming his most worrisome foe.

Influential and polarizing, Fethullah Gulen has been accused of being behind a corruption probe of Erdogan’s government in 2013, which shattered their friendship. He also is accused of masterminding the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey that left 250 people dead and 2,200 injured.

The reclusive 76-year-old cleric denies those allegations. He espouses a moderate form of Islam with an eye on political clout, and he built a financial empire in Turkey that included banks, media, construction companies and schools. He is reported to have 3 million to 6 million followers in Turkey, including high-ranking government and military officials.

The schools began expanding internationally in 1993, and at one point there were Gulen-linked schools, cultural centers or language programs in more than 100 countries. In the United States, it’s the largest group of so-called charter schools, which receive tax funds. It has about 140 schools in 28 states, taking in more than $2.1 billion from taxpayers.

While some schools include teaching Islam, others reportedly have no religious content. Generally focused on math and science, the schools have earned praise from some parents, often because the quality of education is better than is generally available in some poverty-wracked countries.

Accused of hidden agenda

In Pakistan, for instance, they provide an alternative to the madrassas that have been accused of breeding extremism. The schools also are popular among Africa’s middle class.

But they have been accused of having a hidden agenda: instilling a sense of deep loyalty among students that is part of an alleged long-term strategy of infiltrating governments, starting with Turkey, to spread a socially conservative agenda. The schools typically pursue visas for Turkish nationals — almost all men — to teach and even populate the school boards.

Gulen’s critics point to a video that surfaced in 1999 that purportedly came from a speech he gave.

“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers,” he said in the video. “If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere… You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it.”

Gulen has said the video was manipulated and that the only purpose of the schools is education.

In the United States, there are allegations that some Gulen schools were involved in improper contracting and ordered teachers to kick back part of their salaries to the organization. While the FBI wouldn’t say if it is investigating the schools, there have been several news reports saying they were being probed, going back to 2011.

The Gulen organization, also known as the Hizmet movement, denies those accusations.

“We are very disappointed that in a quest to consolidate power and cast aspersions on Mr. Gulen, the Erdogan regime has decided to target K-12 schools that provide education, opportunity and hope to tens of thousands of students around the world, many of whom lack access to quality education in a safe environment,” said Alp Aslandogan, executive director of the Alliance for Shared Values, a nonprofit that serves as a voice for cultural organizations affiliated with Hizmet.

“Especially in countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where violent radical groups targeted girls attending schools, these schools have been offering life-changing opportunities to both boys and girls. These schools operate completely independent of Mr. Gulen, as he has said many times, and in targeting them, Erdogan is only intensifying his cruel crackdown and robbing young girls and boys of a chance for a better life.”

Extradition demands

The Turkish government wants Gulen extradited from the United States — he has lived in a guarded compound in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999. Turkey says his Fethullah Gulen organization (FETO) is a terrorist group.

Ankara has shuttered thousands of schools, foundations and organizations linked to Gulen since the coup attempt. Turkish authorities have fired more than 100,000 government workers alleged to have ties to Gulen, and imprisoned about 50,000 people. Five hundred people, including top army generals, are on trial for Gulen links; Gulen himself is being tried in absentia.

The campaign against Gulen’s enterprises has expanded outside the country, too. On virtually every foreign trip by Erdogan, reports have emerged that he has pressed for Gulen schools to be closed or handed over to a Turkish foundation.

“These schools are one of the ways for FETO to finance its operations,” an official at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., told VOA. “They are a source of money. They can also be used as a source to recruit followers.”

The Turkish effort has resulted in the closure of schools in more than a dozen countries.

Turkey has begun denying visas to Kyrgyzstan citizens who study at schools affiliated with the Gulen movement; their families also are being denied.

Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Education and Science responded by saying the restriction was an attempt to discredit the educational institutions known as Sapat.

“Placing Sapat schools on the same footing as terrorist organizations and imposing certain sanctions on students and members of their families only on the grounds that they are studying in Sapat schools are unacceptable and the statements of Turkish officials are irresponsible,” the ministry said.

In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, Turkish teachers and staff have been deported to Turkey, where they appeared likely to be arrested.

In February, Turkmenistan court sentenced 18 men to up to 25 years in prison — and confiscated their property — on offenses relating primarily to incitement to social, ethnic, or religious hatred and involvement in a criminal organization. Most were affiliated with Gulen schools.

Rights groups have called on the Turkmen government to free the men and quash their sentences.

“The way Turkmenistan’s courts prosecuted and tried these men bears no resemblance to justice,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Ankara turning up the heat

During his visit to Albania in 2015, Erdogan asked authorities to close down the network of Turkish colleges that was the biggest private educational group in Albania. Since the failed coup, the pressure from Ankara has increased.

Several countries, including Angola and Uzbekistan, have cited unspecified “national security reasons” in shutting down Gulen schools and expelling the Turkish staff and their families.

Some countries appeared to choose closure rather than get involved in the hassles of overseeing a switch in who runs the schools.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Education ordered the Gulen-affiliated Hope Academy to close on June 2, just over two months after it had been granted permission to open. The ministry cited Turkey’s request to transfer control of the school to a Turkish foundation.

Other countries have resisted Turkey’s pressure. While accreditation was halted for one school in Georgia, at least six others remain open, with some education experts urging the country to defend its national interests because the schools have good reputations. But several schools are said to be likely transferred to the Turkish-government-owned Maarif Foundation, sources told VOA.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, some Gulen schools work with the nation’s Bosna Sema educational institutions, which employ about 500 Turks. Turkish Ambassador CIhad Erginay urged the government to close down the schools, calling Gulen’s movement a terrorist organization.

VOA’s Africa, East Asia Pacific, Eurasian, South and Central Asia divisions contributed to this report.
…

Turkey’s foreign ministry says the country protests “in the harshest way” a U.S. court decision to indict 19 people, including 15 Turkish security officials.

The statement published late Wednesday follows Tuesday’s grand jury decision in Washington to charge the defendants with attacking peaceful demonstrators during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 16.

Turkey has repeatedly told U.S. officials that security outside the ambassador’s home was negligent and didn’t ensure the safety of Erdogan’s entourage amid sympathizers of an outlawed Kurdish militant group, according to the statement.

The ministry called the indictment “biased” and “regretful,” claiming it also accused people who had never been to the U.S.

It announced Turkey would follow legal paths to fight the decision.
…

Moscow and Washington should re-establish direct contacts between their military and foreign policy chiefs, Russia’s new ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday.

“The time has come to resume joint meetings of Russia’s and the United States’ foreign and defense ministers in a ‘two plus two’ format,” Antonov said in an interview published on the Kommersant business daily’s website.

Military contacts between Moscow and Washington were frozen in 2014 due to the Ukraine crisis.

Antonov also called for meetings between the heads of Russia’s Federal Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency.

A “working cooperation” between Russia’s Security Council and the U.S. National Security Council could also help fight terrorism and cyberthreats and help strategic stability, he said.

Antonov, a former deputy foreign minister, is subject to European sanctions over his role in the conflict in Ukraine.
…

Three weeks before Germany’s election and with at least one poll suggesting nearly half of all voters don’t know what they will do, the government has unveiled an updated online tool to help them decide.

Around two dozen young people from around Germany helped launch the “Wahl-O-Mat” (roughly Vote-O-Meter) on Wednesday – a website that matches people with a party after they answer a series of policy questions.

One of the first to try was Hubertus Heil, general secretary of the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.

“I got 100 percent,” he beamed after completing the 10-minute process.

Participants choose whether they agree, disagree or are neutral about 38 issues identified in recent months by 26 young people chosen from 500 volunteers. The issues center on key topics such as increased video surveillance, raising taxes on diesel cars, and setting limits on migration.

Merkel is widely expected to win a record-tying fourth term, with her CDU/CSU conservatives maintaining a two-digit lead over the SPD despite continuing concerns over her 2015 decision to allow in over a million migrants.

But it remains unclear which parties will be involved in the next coalition government.

A poll by the Allensbach Institute last week showed that 46 percent of voters had not made up their minds on how to vote – the highest rate since in two decades so close to an election, which is being held on September 24.

The voter tool is available online at www.wahl-o-mat.de or via apps on mobile phones. A pared-down analogue version will also tour Germany over the next three weeks for those not online.

The tool has been around before, and less official versions have been available in other countries. But Thomas Krueger, head of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, which created it, expects many millions of hits.

It was used over 13.2 million times in the last national election in 2013 and even more people are expected to participate this time, he said.

“We’ve seen that about six percent of those who were not planning to participate in the election changed their minds after using the tool,” he said.

Markus Blume, general secretary of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s CDU, said voter participation had been higher in recent state elections and he hoped the trend would continue for the national election.

“Germany is experiencing a re-politicization because people realize we are living in uncertain times, that a great deal is at stake in this parliamentary election, and that it’s not irrelevant who’s elected.”

Richard Hilmer, director of the Berlin think tank Policy Matters, said the tool was critical, especially for younger voters who had not been involved in politics before.

“Interest is definitely higher in this election, but so is uncertainty. It remains to see how that will affect participation. It could well be that if people remain uncertain that they simply stay home.”
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday threw her weight behind the European Commission in its row with Warsaw over freedom of Poland’s court system.

The previously reticent Merkel, speaking in Berlin, said she took the issue “very seriously” and would talk about it with Commission President Jean-Claude Junker on Wednesday.

In July, the commission, the European Union’s executive, gave Warsaw a month to address its concerns about reforms it saw as interfering with an independent judiciary.

Warsaw’s reply signaled that the ruling nationalist and euroskeptic Law and Justice (PiS) party had no intention of backing down and even doubted the commission’s right to intervene.

While two of the new Polish laws questioned by the commission have been sent back for reworking by an unexpected presidential veto, a third one, giving the justice minister powers to fire judges, has become law.

The commission said it undermined the independence of the courts and therefore EU rules.

“This is a serious issue because the requirements for cooperation within the European Union are the principles of the rule of law. I take what the commission says on this very seriously,” Merkel said at a news conference.

“We cannot simply hold our tongues and not say anything for the sake of peace and quiet,” she said.

‘Political emotions’

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said Merkel’s remarks showed the criticism was political, rather than factual.

“I’m convinced that Polish government will be executing its targets despite political emotions that appear in politicians’ statements,” Ziobro told reporters in Warsaw.

“Every country which is independent within the EU has its own laws and should settle its problems within democratic mechanisms,” he said in remarks broadcast on state TV.

In its reply to the commission on Monday, the Polish foreign ministry said the legislative process of overhauling its judiciary was in line with European standards.

It called the commission’s concerns groundless and noted that judiciary was the province of national governments, not the commission.

“We have received the reply from the Polish government. Regarding the point that we have no competence in this sphere, this is something that we would actually quite powerfully refute,” a commission spokeswoman said.

“The rule of law framework sets out how the commission should react should clear indications of a threat to the rule of law emerge in a member state. The commission believes that there is such a threat to the rule of law in Poland,” she said.

The commission said in July that it would launch legal action against Poland over the judicial reforms. It also said that if the government started firing Supreme Court judges, the commission would move to suspend Poland’s voting rights in the EU — an unprecedented punishment that would, however, require the unlikely unanimous support of all other EU governments.

Merkel’s remarks on Tuesday followed openly critical statements from French President Emmanuel Macron, who said last Friday that Poland was isolating itself within the EU and Polish citizens “deserved better” than a government at odds with the bloc’s democratic values and economic reform plans.

Logging

In another unprecedented sign of defiance against the EU, the Polish government ignored an order by the EU’s highest court to cease logging in the Bialowieza forest.

The court will convene September 11 to decide how to react to Warsaw’s failure to honor the injunction, the first in EU history.

As the EU’s spats with the PiS government get increasingly tense, the bloc’s member states are due to discuss again this autumn whether the situation in their largest ex-communist peer merits launching an unprecedented Article 7 punitive procedure.

The maximum punishment under the procedure, however unlikely, would be stripping Poland of its voting rights in the EU over not respecting democratic principles on which the bloc is built.
…

The Archbishop of Paris is on a 100 million-euro ($120 million) fundraising drive to save the crumbling gargoyles and gothic arches of the storied Notre-Dame cathedral.

Every year, 12 million to 14 million people visit the 12th-century Parisian landmark on an island in the Seine river. Groundbreaking for the structure occurred in 1163 and construction was completed in 1345. Pollution and exposure to elements over time have resulted in losses of large chunks of stone.

“If we don’t do these restoration works, we’ll risk seeing parts of the exterior structure begin to fall. This is a very serious risk,” said Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre-Dame charity set up by the archbishop.

Church officials, who have created what they are calling a “stone cemetery” from fallen masonry, say the cathedral remains safe to visit.

Entry to the cathedral is free, and the French state, which owns the building, devotes 2 million euros a year to repairs.

But that is not enough to embark on major restoration works, the last of which were carried out during the 1800s, officials at the cathedral and charity said.

Hugo’s book

Notre-Dame has long drawn tourists from around the world.

It is most famous in popular culture as the locale for 19th-century author Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and films of the same name, including the 1939 classic with Charles Laughton and the 1996 Disney musical animation.

The latter in particular raised the cathedral’s profile for modern-day tourists from China to the United States.

“It’s the movie for me. I just think of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and the book as well. After reading that book, I actually really wanted to come see it,” said U.S tourist Claire Huber as she visited the cathedral.

Church authorities hope the cathedral’s worldwide fame will attract donors, particularly from the United States.

“Gargoyles are what people want to see when they come to Paris. If there are no more gargoyles, what will they see?” Notre-Dame communications chief Andre Finot said.
…

Moroccan authorities have arrested a man suspected of supplying gas canisters to a jihadist cell that carried out a double attack in Catalonia earlier this month that killed 16 people, a source from the Spanish investigation said.

The cell accumulated around 120 canisters of butane gas at a house in a town south of Barcelona with which, police say, it planned to carry out a larger bomb attack.

Police believe the cell accidentally ignited the explosives on Aug. 16, the eve of the Barcelona attack, triggering a blast that destroyed the house in the town of Alcanar.

The remaining attackers then decided to use hired vans to mow down crowds along Barcelona’s most famous avenue and later mount an assault in the resort town of Cambrils.

Moroccan police arrested the man in the city of Casablanca, the source said, without giving further details.

Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said on Tuesday that Moroccan authorities had arrested two people linked to the attacks but declined to give details about them.

Spanish news agency EFE said the second man was arrested in the city of Oujda and was a relative of one of the members of the Barcelona cell. The source did not confirm that.

Zoido, speaking after a meeting with the Moroccan interior minister in Morocco’s capital Rabat, said Spanish and Moroccan authorities were working closely together in the investigation.

Most of the suspected attackers were Moroccan and an imam suspected of radicalizing the cell traveled there shortly before the attack took place.

Six of the attackers were shot dead by police and two died in the explosion at the house in Alcanar. Four other people were arrested over the assaults, two of whom have now been released under certain conditions.
…

A United Nations human rights panel called on the Russian Federation on Monday to step up prosecutions of racist attacks by ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis and of hate speech by politicians.

Russian authorities must intensify measures to “vigorously combat racist behavior in sports, particularly in football, and ensure that sports regulatory bodies investigate manifestations of racism, xenophobia and intolerance,” the U.N. Committee against Racial Discrimination (CERD) said.

Fines or administrative sanctions should be imposed for such cases. The panel, referring to “the upcoming (2018) World Cup, expresses its concern that racist displays remain deeply entrenched among football fans, especially against persons belonging to ethnic minorities and people of African descent.”

Russia has pledged to crack down on racism and fan violence as it faces increased scrutiny before hosting the World Cup finals next summer. Russian Premier League champions Spartak Moscow and rivals Dynamo Moscow were each fined 250,000 rubles ($4,250) over fans’ racist behavior, the Russian Football Union (RFU) said last month.

The 18 independent experts, who reviewed Russia’s record and those of seven other countries at a session that ended on Friday, issued their findings on Monday.

Igor Barinov, head of the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs of the Russian Federation, told the panel on Aug. 4 that Moscow had taken measures against the propagation of racist ideas.

Russia consistently combats the glorification of Nazism — made a crime in 2014 — the propaganda of Nazi ideas and attempts at racial hatred or discrimination, he said. In 2016, officials had identified 1,450 extremist crimes, 993 had been sent to court and 934 people were found guilty, he said.

The U.N. panel said violent racist attacks had decreased in recent years, but added: “Violent racist attacks undertaken by groups such as neo-Nazi groups and Cossack patrols, targeting particularly people from Central Asia and the Caucasus and persons belonging to ethnic minorities including migrants, the Roma and people of African descent, remain a pressing problem.”

It called for an end to “de facto racial profiling by the police,” decrying arbitrary identity checks and “unnecessary arrests.”

“Racist hate speech is still used by officials and politicians, especially during election campaigns, and remains unpunished,” it said, recommending investigations.

Russia still lacks anti-discrimination legislation and the definition of extremist activity in its federal law “remains vague and broad,” it said.

Regarding Crimea, seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, the panel voiced concern at the fate of Crimean Tatar representative institutions, such as the outlawing of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar’s semi-official legislature, the closure of several media outlets, and “allegations of disappearances, criminal and administrative prosecutions, mass raids, and interrogations.”

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump, who met with his Finnish counterpart at the White House on Monday, said the United States was “very protective” of the Baltic region, especially in terms of the northern European states’ relations with Russia.

“We are very protective of that region,” Trump said at a joint news conference with visiting Finnish President Sauli Niinisto after the two held talks in the Oval Office.

“That’s all I can say,” Trump added. “We are very, very protective. We have great friends there, great relationships there.”

He added that he thought Russia respected Finland and that he hoped the United States would also develop a good relationship with Russia.

“I say it loud and clear, I’ve been saying it for years,” Trump told reporters. “I think it’s a good thing if we have great relationships, or at least good relationships, with Russia. That’s very important.”

Niinisto said “the U.S. and NATO presence in Europe — and in the Baltic Sea — are most important, and they are increasing rapidly.” He also said small but positive steps had been made toward reopening dialogue between NATO and Russia.

The two leaders also discussed terrorism, and Trump said the United States stood in solidarity with Finland against terrorist threats. “We must all work together to deny terrorists safe havens, cut off their finances and defeat their very wicked ideology,” the American president said.

Earlier this month, a man stabbed eight people in western Finland, killing two of them in the city of Turku. Finnish police said at the time that it was too early to link the attack to international terrorism.

Niinisto said his talks in the Oval Office with Trump also included a discussion of the Arctic region, where climate changes and rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have greatly reduced ice levels and are endangering the environment.

“If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe,” Niniisto said.
…

Poland said on Monday that the legislative process overhauling its judiciary is in line with European standards and called the European Commission’s concerns about rule of law in the country groundless.

On July 26, the Commission said it would launch legal action against Poland over the reforms and gave Warsaw a month to respond to concerns that the process undermines the independence of judges and breaks EU rules.

Last month, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into a law a bill giving the justice minister the power to replace heads of ordinary courts, but after mass street protests blocked two other bills.

The vetoed bills would have empowered the government and parliament to replace Supreme Court judges and most members of a high-level judicial panel.

“In response … the Polish side emphasized that the legislative process which has the primary goal of reforming the justice system is in line with European standards and answers social expectations that have been growing for years, therefore the Commission’s doubts are groundless,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that “in the spirit of loyal cooperation” it has provided the European Commission with all necessary information on the situation in Poland.

Poland’s right-wing, eurosceptic government says the reforms are needed to streamline a slow, outdated legal system and make judges more accountable to the people. It has already tightened control of state media and took steps that critics said politicized the constitutional court.
…

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is urging U.S. President Donald Trump to stop his attacks on the press, saying they “degrade” the essential role of the media in a democracy.

The OSCE’s media freedom representative, Harlem Desir, Monday said Trump’s comments about the media are “deeply problematic,” adding that such statements, especially those identifying the media as “the enemy of the people,” could make journalists more vulnerable to being targeted with violence.

“I urge the United States administration to refrain from delivering such attacks on the media,” said Desir in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Desir highlighted remarks Trump made last week in Phoenix, Arizona in which the president accused the media of being “truly dishonest,” “fake,” “crooked,” and of making up stories and deepening divisions within the country.

Desir said the comments are “particularly worrying given the United States’ long-standing position as one of the global leaders in defending free speech and press freedoms.” He said the media play a key role in democracies to hold governments accountable and to offer a platform for diverse voices.

The Vienna-based OSCE monitors security and election issues across the group’s 57 member states, including Europe, much of central Asia, Russia and the United States.

Trump has popularized use of the term “fake news” to criticize news media and reporters that he contends treat him unfairly.

A poll released last week by Quinnipiac University found that the majority of Americans agrees with Trump: 55 percent of voters said they disapprove of the way in which the news media report on Trump, compared to 40 percent who approve.

An even larger number of voters – 62 percent – said they disapprove of Trump’s negative comments about reporters and their employers. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said they agree with Trump on such issues.
…

Italy is being accused of paying off Libyan militias linked to people smugglers in order to stop trafficking migrants across the Mediterranean for a month.

The claim, which coincides with an 86 percent fall in the number of asylum-seekers reaching Italy this month, compared to August of last year, comes as European and African leaders met in Paris to discuss how to stem the migrant flow roiling Europe.

According to Middle East Eye, a London-based news site, the Italian government has been paying off local brigades in the city of Sabratha, 80 kilometers west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The alleged payoffs involve cash, aid and equipment, and are channeled through the city’s municipal authorities, which are controlled by the militias, the site claims.

Earlier this month, the Italian Development Cooperation Agency announced it shipped 11 tons of aid to Sabratha University Hospital. Italian government spokespersons are refusing to respond to the payoff allegations, but last week the Reuters news agency reported an armed group has been stopping migrant boats from setting off across the Mediterranean from Sabratha beaches.

There have also been reports that trafficking from nearby Zawiya has come to a virtual standstill. The trafficking trade may have been disrupted, too, by the arrest in recent days of Fahmi Salim Musa Bin Khalifa, nicknamed the “king of smuggling,” by a mainly Islamist militia, known as the Rada Special Deterrence Force, in Tripoli.

A Rada statement said, “He is considered to be one of the biggest smugglers across the [Mediterranean] Sea, and owns transporters. He is also very active in sending death boats [migrant boats] across the [Libyan] shores of Zuwara and Sabratha.” Zuwara is a port city in northwestern Libya, 60 kilometers from the Tunisian border.

Drop in crossings

In explaining the sharp drop in numbers during July and August, Italian authorities say weather conditions have been highly changeable in what is normally peak season for crossings, but the weather has been highly favorable, according to seafarers.

Another explanation offered has been the Libyan coast guards have been more effective in their interdiction efforts, because of training and equipment offered by the Italian navy. An Italian warship is docked at Tripoli’s port.

According to analysts, some coast guard units are also tied to the militias.

On Saturday, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti met mayors from southern Libya to renew a commitment to fight people trafficking as part of an agreement signed earlier this year between Rome and the internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj, who heads one of Libya’s three rival governments.

The meeting focused on helping to shape economic alternatives to human trafficking and contraband smuggling in Libyan towns that profit from the migrant trade. “Youngsters in those areas and the whole of Libya deserve a future of hope, free from the threats of criminal organizations,” Italy’s Interior Ministry said in a joint statement with the Libyans.

“Libya looks forward to the timely support of Italy and the European Union,” the statement continued.

From Libya to Italy

Since 2014, more than 600,000 migrants have reached Italy by sea from Libya, where people smugglers linked to dozens of mainly town-based militias have operated with impunity in the turmoil that has engulfed the country since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Italy’s coalition government of Paolo Gentiloni has been stepping up efforts to curb the migrant influx.

Last month, Italian authorities introduced a code of conduct for NGOs operating humanitarian migrant rescue vessels in the Mediterranean.

The charities were accused of at best acting as a “pull factor,” encouraging asylum-seekers to risk the perilous crossing and, at worst, actually coordinating with the people smugglers and facilitating the trafficking.

Five of eight aid groups that operate migrant rescue ships, which pick up about 40 percent of the migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, have refused to sign up to the code, which discourages them from patrolling in Libyan territorial waters.

Paris meeting

At the meeting Monday in Paris, Italy was to push the European Union to try to replicate with Libya a deal struck last year with Turkey that largely shut down the migrant route through the Balkans.

Analysts warn such a deal would be unworkable when it comes to Libya, given its lack of an effective central authority. The Italians, with German support, have been pushing for a concerted interdiction effort along Libya’s southern borders.

Minniti also met Monday with the interior ministers of Chad, Libya, Mali and Niger to discuss strengthening controls on sea and land borders. Rome wants the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration involved in setting up migrant centers in Niger and Chad.

Meanwhile, with full migrant centers, Italian authorities are considering using property confiscated from the mafia to house asylum-seekers.
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