France’s government is presenting a bill on cleaning up political ethics after years of corruption scandals — even as investigations haunt members of President Emmanuel Macron’s new government.

Justice Minister Francois Bayrou is unveiling the draft law on “restoring trust” in politics Wednesday to the Cabinet, the first major legislation by Macron’s administration.

It’s expected to easily pass parliament, where Macron’s party is on track to win a crushing majority in elections Sunday.

Yet the bill, a key Macron campaign promise to “moralize” France’s political life, is already clouded.

Bayrou’s centrist party Modem is under investigation for possible misuse of European Parliament funds.

The minister for European affairs, Marielle de Sarnez, also a member of the Modem, is among several French politicians facing a similar probe.

And the territorial cohesion minister Richard Ferrand is under investigation for his past business practices. They all deny wrongdoing.

The new bill notably would ban lawmakers and government members from hiring family members. About a hundred lawmakers — out of 577 — employed at least one family member during the last term at the National Assembly.

The presidential campaign had been deeply disturbed by an investigation of conservative candidate François Fillon. His wife, Penelope, was richly paid as a parliamentary aide, allegedly without actually working.

The bill would create a new sentence enabling judges to ban a person convicted for fraud or corruption-related crimes from running for an elected office for up to 10 years.

France’s Senate and the National Assembly would have to set specific rules to prevent conflicts of interest.

Lawmakers will be asked to report their expenses — a first in the country. Until now, lawmakers get monthly allowances to cover expenses they didn’t have to justify.

 
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British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are joining forces in order to crack down on tech companies, ensuring they step up their efforts to combat terrorism online.

Britain and France face similar challenges in fighting homegrown Islamist extremism and share similar scars from deadly attacks that rocked London, Manchester, Paris and Nice.

May traveled to Paris on Tuesday to hold talks on counterterrorism measures and Britain’s departure from the European Union.

She said major internet companies had failed to live up to prior commitments to do more to prevent extremists from finding a “safe space” online. Macron urged other European countries, especially Germany, to join the effort to fight Islamist extremist propaganda on the Web.

The campaign includes exploring the possibility of legal penalties against tech companies if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content, May said.

After the Islamic State group recruited hundreds of French fighters largely through online propaganda, France introduced legislation ordering French providers to block certain content, but it acknowledges that any such effort must reach well beyond its borders. Tech-savvy Macron has lobbied for tougher European rules, but details of his plans remain unclear.

Britain already has tough measures, including a law known informally as the Snooper’s Charter, which gives authorities the powers to look at the internet browsing records of everyone in the country.

Among other things, the law requires telecommunications companies to keep records of all users’ Web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that the firms worry could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.
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Hungary defied the EU and human rights groups on Tuesday by approving strict new rules for non-governmental organizations with foreign funding that further escalates Budapest’s conflict with billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

The law drafted by right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government requires NGOs that get money from abroad to register with the authorities.

The government says it wants to ensure greater transparency and protect Hungary from foreign influence, but NGOs say the bill stigmatizes them and is intended to stifle independent voices in the central European country.

Orban, 54, has especially focused on NGOs funded by Soros, an American-Hungarian, calling them a “mafia-like” network with paid political activists who threaten national sovereignty.

Foreign universities targeted

His government recently passed a law tightening controls over foreign universities in Hungary, which critics say is aimed at the Central European University founded by Soros.

“It is of vital public interest that society and citizens clearly see what interests these organizations represent,” the NGO law’s authors said in their reasoning. “Foreign interest groups strive to take advantage of civil organizations.”

Orban, who plans to seek re-election in April 2018, has taken control of much of the Hungarian media, curbed the powers of the constitutional court and placed loyalists in top jobs at public institutions since coming to power in 2010.

Along with his tough anti-immigrant rhetoric, such attacks on Soros fit well with Orban’s political agenda. His Fidesz party has a firm lead over the opposition in opinion polls.

Challenge planned

One of the NGOs affected, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), said it would not comply with the law and would take any legal challenge to international courts.

“The law is a targeted attack and attempt to silence TASZ and all other organizations which have the courage to help those who are oppressed,” it said in a statement.

TASZ receives large contributions from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, as does another human rights group, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which also said it would boycott the law.

The laws regulating NGOs and foreign universities have triggered mass protests in recent months in Hungary, and the European Parliament has launched a process that could theoretically deprive Hungary of its EU voting rights — though in practice its ally Poland would be likely to veto such a move.

’Cosmetic’ changes

Orban has gained a reputation in Europe as a maverick leader who holds the liberal West in contempt while forging closer ties with Russia, which will build and finance a big new nuclear power plant in central Hungary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Hungary for the second time this year in August for a judo world championship. Critics have often seen parallels between Orban’s policies and Putin’s moves in cracking down on his own opposition.

Hungary backtracks

Guy Verhofstadt, president of the liberal group in the European Parliament, urged EU action to protect the rights of civil society in all member states.

“The attempts by some EU governments to silence NGOs are shameful and contrary to the values of the European Union,” he wrote. “The European Commission should … do more to support NGOs inside the EU who face censorship.”

Last week Hungary backtracked on parts of the NGO legislation to meet some of the objections from the Council of Europe’s advisory panel, the Venice Commission.

However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) dismissed the amendments as “cosmetic” and said the law was about “silencing critical voices in society.”

“The amendments do not remove the provision to stigmatize organizations as ‘foreign funded,’ nor the risk of an organization being legally dissolved by the courts if it does not register as ‘foreign funded,’”  HRW said in a statement.

Serious risk to democracy

Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which disburse funding to several prominent NGOs in Hungary, also warned on Monday that the law posed serious risks to democracy in the country.

The law “attacks Hungarians who help fellow citizens challenge corruption and arbitrary power,” OSF director Goran Buldioski said.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution last month condemning Hungary for the “serious deterioration” in the rule of law and fundamental rights, and called on the government to withdraw the bill on foreign-funded NGOs.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed himself at the forefront of the defense of Qatar, in the face of Saudi Arabia-led economic and diplomatic sanctions.

“A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar; isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values,” Erdogan said in his weekly Tuesday address to his parliamentary deputies. “It’s as if a death-penalty decision has been taken for Qatar,” said Erdogan.

Erdogan is backing his increasingly tough rhetoric with action. A Turkish delegation flew Tuesday to Doha to prepare for the deployment of a military force in Qatar, which ultimately will rise to about 5,000 soldiers. Ankara already has sent large amounts food to break economic sanctions against Qatar.

“The risks, however, are high. If there is an escalation into a confrontation or any kind of hot conflict, this would expose those soldiers to all kinds of threats,” warned retired Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz, who heads the Ankara Policy Forum research group.

The Turkish army deployment is part of a military cooperation agreement with Qatar made before the crisis that also includes naval and air components. The army element of the deployment was brought forward by the onset of the crisis, with the Turkish parliament rushing through the required legislation to sanction it.

Playing down risk of military confrontation, analyst Sinan Ulgen a visiting scholar of the Carnegie Institute, points out that only a handful of Turkish soldiers initially will be deployed.

​Politics and diplomacy

“Political and diplomatic side, rather than the military side [of the deployment], will be most important,” said Ulgen, “because Turkey is seen to have adopted a position firmly in support of Qatar that is certainly going to cause complications with other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Countries], primarily Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”

Erdogan’s robust stance in support of Qatar, scotched his foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s offer to mediate.

“This approach, unfortunately, is becoming a trend and it has developed into a pattern in Turkey’s foreign policy conduct,” lamented Cevikoz. “It is not in line with Turkey’s traditional policy of impartiality toward the problems of the region. The consequences are dangerous, and it has already resulted with Turkey’s isolation in the international community, if not in the region.”

Ankara’s robust support for Qatar is a testament to the deepening relations between the countries. Qatar is fast becoming one of the most important investors in Turkey, buying up banks, media companies, and investing in property.

Those investments accelerated in the aftermath of last year’s failed coup in Turkey, which saw many foreign investors shying away.

But the relationship extends far beyond economics, and a strong relationship has developed between the country’s two leaders.

According to reports not denied by either country, Qatar sent 150 of its special forces to protect Erdogan in the days after the July coup.

Muslim Brotherhood

Foreign policy collaboration, though, is where cooperation appears to be most important.

“Turkey has aligned itself more closely on a number of foreign policy options, which would include support of the Muslim Brotherhood, support of Hamas,” pointed out analyst Ulgen.

Ankara could pay a heavy price for its loyalty to Qatar, however, coming at a time when Turkey already is facing strained relations with most of it Western allies and all of its southern neighbors. Turkish pro government media has been sounding alarm bells, warning that the pressure facing Qatar really is a plot aimed at Ankara and Erdogan.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, voiced concerns about the precarious position facing Turkey over Ankara’s support with Qatar for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are all regarding the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization,” said Kilicdaroglu, criticizing Erdogan’s public use of Muslim Brotherhood symbols.

Erdogan has made little secret of his support for the Brotherhood, a stance that plays well with his religious base of voters.

“Support of the brotherhood has become part of domestic politics,” pointed out Ulgen.

But Ulgen emphasizes that the pressure facing Qatar cannot be applied to Turkey, although he warns the present crisis likely will put Ankara in an awkward position.

President Donald Trump has been particularly outspoken in support of Saudi Arabia’s stance in demanding that Qatar end its support of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with other radical Islamist groups, but he has remained publicly silent over Ankara’s stance toward the brotherhood. According to Turkish media, Trump and Erdogan are scheduled to talk about Qatar in the coming days.
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A group of U.S. Senators agreed Monday on legislation to strengthen sanctions against Russia, including a provision that would require congressional review if the White House relaxed, suspended or terminated sanctions already in place.

The bipartisan agreement comes in the form of an amendment to legislation the Senate is already considering on sanctions for Iran.  The bill is expected to have strong support when it goes before the full Senate, and would have to then pass in the House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump.

A statement from Republican and Democratic leaders on the Senate banking committee said the amendment “expands sanctions against the government of Russia in response to the violation of the territorial integrity of the Ukraine and Crimea, its brazen cyberattacks and interference in elections, and its continuing aggression in Syria.”

The measure would strengthen existing sanctions targeting Russian energy projects, while imposing new sanctions on those involved in serious human rights abuses, supplying weapons to the Syrian government, carrying out malicious cyber activities and doing business with Russian intelligence and defense.

The House and Senate, as well as a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, are all investigating Russia’s activities related to last year’s U.S. elections, as well as potential links to Trump’s campaign.  The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign meant to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Trump’s chances of winning.

“These additional sanctions will also send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
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“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”

This is the first entry in The Dairy of Anne Frank. She wrote it on June 12, 1942 – her 13th birthday. At that moment, she was a normal teenager living with her family in the Netherlands, where they moved from Frankfurt after Hitler’s rise to power. This was one of Anne’s last diary entries as a carefree teenager. Less than a month later, on July 5, 1942, her family was summoned for deportation to the Westerbork concentration camp.  

“The entry that Anne made in the diary exactly 75 years ago, and what she wrote in the duration of that entire week – that is the last proof of normal life. Friends, plans, prosperity,” said Edna Friedberg, curator of the National Holocaust Museum in Washington. “Instantly, Anne will be in a nightmare world. She will have to literally disappear, physically disappear.”

She did just that, vanishing into an Amsterdam rowhouse. The canal-facing Opekta Building became a shelter for Anne’s family and a few more Jews. They hid in a 46 square meter room behind a door masked as a bookcase. Here, Anne wrote letters to her imaginary friend Kitty about everything that worried her: her relationship with her parents, her first love, arguments over food, violence in the streets below.

The Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote that there is a duty not to understand the Holocaust, “because to understand is to justify.” But, he maintained, “If understanding is impossible, knowing is imperative, because what happened could happen again.” Anne Frank’s account remains a terrifying part of truly “knowing” the Holocaust.

“Often in the evening, in the darkness, I see columns of innocent people walking, driven by a pair of scoundrels, who beat them and torture them until they fall to the ground,” wrote Frank. “They don’t spare anybody: the elderly, children, infants, the sick, pregnant women – everyone goes to face death …It’s a terrible feeling to suddenly be an excess.”

Frank’s diary became one of 35 objects included in the Memory of the World Register, a UNESCO World Heritage List. Currently, the book is translated into 67 languages. Every modern schoolchild knows the Jewish girl’s name.

“This is proof that history isn’t statistics and facts, it’s always the fates of people,” said Friedberg.

Anne wrote her last entry in the diary on August 1, 1944. Everybody who was hiding in the building was found, arrested and sent to a death camp. Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March of 1945.

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”’ Friedman stopped reading and looked up. “That’s my favorite quote from her diary. It’s painful to think that the girl believed in humanity until her last days.”

The 15-year-old girl’s 7-month stay at the camp, punctuated by slave labor, hunger and finally death, hardly confirm her optimistic words. Anne’s father Otto was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust. He decided to publish the diary as proof that his daughter lived, loved and hoped. Anne became the voice of 6 million Jews – the victims of the Holocaust.

“Just think about how many talented and smart children like that were destroyed,” said Friedman.

One-point-five million Jewish children died during the years of the Holocaust. “Multiply this number by a million,” they say at the Memorial Museum in Washington. The lost life of a child is lost generations. Proof of that is the fate of a girl named Louisa, who was in hiding on the same street as Anne Frank. She survived. Today, 75-year-old Louisa Lawrence lives in Bethesda, Maryland and has three daughters and six grandchildren. Most often today, she has to answer the question: How does she feel about the thought that she was able to survive, but Anne, the girl who lived next door, didn’t?

“I am truly sorry for her,” said Lawrence. “But at the same time I’m thankful that my family was able to survive. I remember when The Diary of Anne Frank was published, everyone was uncomfortable. They didn’t want to talk about it, because it was painful, and embarrassing for others. This diary, written with the truthful words of a young girl, forced the world to hear about the horrors of that time.”
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Police in Russia have detained hundreds of protesters and some journalists at anti-corruption demonstrations in cities across the country on Russia’s national day.  The protests were organized by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained in Moscow as he left his home to try to join a demonstration in the capital.  VOA’s Moscow Correspondent Daniel Schearf reports that the White House condemned the detentions and said it is monitoring the situation.
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Poland’s defense minister is hailing an upcoming visit by U.S. President Donald Trump as an “enormous event” and a success of his conservative government.

The White House said Friday that Trump will visit Poland on July 6 before he joins the Group of 20 summit in Germany. It said the visit to Poland is meant to reaffirm America’s “steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies.”

Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said late Sunday the upcoming visit, which Poland had sought, “is an enormous event showing how much Poland’s place in geopolitics and world politics has changed” under his party, Law and Justice, which took power in 2015.

The nationalist party shares Trump’s opposition to Muslims migrants and, like the U.S. leader, talks of restoring national greatness.
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British business leaders are stepping up their Brexit-related demands, seeking to capitalize on last week’s election which saw Theresa May’s ruling Conservatives weakened and denied an outright parliamentary majority.

They are lobbying for the government to negotiate a much closer relationship with the European Union than previously planned by the embattled May, who appears determined to cling to power, at least in the short term, in the face of fury in the party over last week’s election result.

“We must have access to the European market — it is our biggest trading partner,” said Stephen Martin of the Institute of Directors, a lobbying group for business leaders. Business confidence has plunged since last Thursday’s upset election amid signs of a sharp economic slowdown, and company bosses blame uncertainty over the make-up of the government and over Brexit, according to a survey taken by the institute of its members.

Business demands

“It is hard to overstate what a dramatic impact the current political uncertainty is having on business leaders, and the consequences could — if not addressed immediately — be disastrous for the UK economy,” said Martin. Nearly 72 percent of IoD members said “reaching a new trade agreement with the EU” should be the highest priority of the new government.

Business leaders, who view the election result as a rebuff of May’s “hard Brexit” plan, are urging the prime minister to confirm quickly the residency rights of three million European nationals already living in Britain, arguing they are crucial for key sectors of the British economy. They also at the very least want non-tariff access to the Single Market.

Airbus, the aerospace giant, has laid out non-negotiable demands to the government on Brexit, including freedom of movement of their workers and maintaining regulatory harmonization with the EU, warning that if the demands aren’t met production will be shifted overseas. The company employs 10,000 workers in Britain and says another 100,000 British jobs are dependent on Airbus remaining in the country.

Uncertainties

But as business leaders demand a rethink of Brexit, it remains unclear what direction the twisting and turning May will take. The moves she has made so far to shore up her precarious position are sending mixed signals.

In a bid to stave off a leadership challenge, May has avoided making major changes to her Cabinet, leaving those most likely to challenge her for the leadership in the positions they held before last week’s election. Before the election she’d planned a major cabinet shake-up.

But she has brought into the Cabinet arch-Brexiter Michael Gove, while at the same time promoting longtime friend the pro-EU Damien Green to act as her deputy. It appears that May is searching for a way to balance the demands of moderates and hard Brexiters in a desperate bid to cling to power.

But threading the needle isn’t easy. She isn’t being helped by her Brexit minister, David Davis, who when asked in a television interview Monday whether the government should now listen to business and pursue a softer break with Europe insisted the hard Brexit plan hadn’t changed.

In a TV interview Sunday, Michael Fallon, the defense minister, had indicated the reverse, saying: “We want to work with business on this.”

In search of alliances

Senior party figures outside the Cabinet maintained a drumbeat of disapproval of May Monday, predicting she would have to leave shortly. Anna Soubry, a former minister who campaigned last June for Britain to stay in the EU during the Brexit referendum, said May’s position was “untenable.”

And Chris Patten, a former Conservative Party chairman, was highly critical of the parliamentary voting alliance May is concluding with Northern Ireland’s Protestant fundamentalist Democratic Unionist Party to boost her minority government, describing it as “lamentable.” “These are not people we can trust,” he said.

The ten Unionist lawmakers will give May a slight working majority in the House of Commons.

There are mounting fears that the voting alliance with the DUP risks unraveling the Northern Ireland peace process, which relies on the British government acting as a neutral broker between the DUP and the Catholic nationalist Sinn Fein.

Irish Republicans condemned Monday the voting arrangement being discussed between the DUP and the Conservatives, warning it would “end in tears.” Northern Ireland has been without a devolved administration for three months following the collapse of power sharing as a result of disputes between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

May was due late Monday to appear before the 1922 Committee, a gathering of backbench Conservative lawmakers. It will be crucial for her to convince the party she should stay on — at the very least to avoid another election or to give an opening to the Labour Party to form a minority government instead.
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Protests spearheaded by prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny were taking place across the country on Monday, but Navalny himself was reportedly arrested outside his Moscow home en route to the centerpiece demonstration in the capital city.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, said on his Twitter feed that he was arrested about a half-hour before the demonstration was to begin. There was no immediate statement from police.

Although city authorities had agreed to a location for the Moscow protest, Navalny called for it to be moved to Tverskaya Street, one of Moscow’s main thoroughfares. He said contractors hired to build a stage at the agreed-upon venue could not do their work after apparently coming under official pressure.

Tverskaya, known in Soviet times as Gorky Street, was closed off to traffic on Monday for an extensive commemoration of the national holiday Russia Day, including people dressed in historical Russian costumes.

After the change, Moscow police warned that “any provocative actions from the protesters’ side will be considered a threat to public order and will be immediately suppressed.”

A regional security official, Vladimir Chernikov, told Ekho Moskvy radio that police would not interfere with demonstrators on the street – as long as they did not carry placards or shout slogans.

More than 1,000 protesters were arrested at a similar rally March 26.

The protests in March took place in scores of cities across the country, the largest show of discontent in years and a challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s dominance of the country.

The Kremlin has long sought to cast the opposition as a phenomenon of a privileged, Westernized urban elite out of touch with people in Russia’s far-flung regions. But Monday’s protests could demonstrate that it has significant support throughout the vast country.

Navalny’s website reported Monday that protests were held in more than a half-dozen cities in the Far East, including the major Pacific ports of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and in Siberia’s Barnaul. Photos on the website suggested turnouts of hundreds at the rallies.

Eleven demonstrators were arrested in Vladivostok, according to OVD-Info, a website that monitors political repressions.

Navalny has become the most prominent figure in an opposition that has been troubled by factional disputes. He focuses on corruption issues and has attracted a wide following through savvy use of internet video. His report on alleged corruption connected to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was the focus of the March protests.

Navalny has announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2018. He was jailed for 15 days after the March protests. In April, he suffered damage to one eye after an attacker doused his face with a green antiseptic liquid.

 
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Rafael Nadal defeated Stan Wawrinka in straight sets Sunday in the final match of the tennis French Open, winning the grand slam for the 10th time in his career.

“It is really incredible. To win La Decima is very, very special,” the 31-year-old Spaniard said shortly after becoming the only man in tennis history to win a major tournament 10 times.

Defeating Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, Nadal, often referred to as the “king of clay”, showed his dominance over the red clay courts of the French Open, also referred to as Roland Garros in Paris.

“The nerves, the adrenaline I feel when I play on this court, it is impossible to compare … it is the most important event in my career, to win again here is impossible to describe,” he said.

Just one day earlier, history was also made in Women’s Singles at the tournament when 20-year-old Latvian Jelena Ostapenko became the lowest ranked player ever to win the championship.

“I am really happy to win here. I think I’m still — I still cannot believe it, because it was my dream and now it came true,” she told reporters after defeating Simona Halep, who was seeded third in the tournament.

An unseeded player has not won the French Open since 1933.

 
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Ukrainians celebrated the first day of visa-free travel to the European Union Sunday in what President Petro Poroshenko called “a final exit of our country from the Russian empire.”

“The visa-free regime for Ukraine has started! Glory to Europe! Glory to Ukraine!” he tweeted from his official account Sunday morning.

The arrangement will allow Ukrainians with biometric passports to enter all EU member states other than Britain and Ireland for up to 90 days every six months for tourism or to visit family and friends.

Poroshenko met with Slovak counterpart Andrej Kiska Saturday on their common border, opening a symbolic “door to the EU.”

“Welcome to Europe,” Kiska told a crowd. “I want to call on you to continue carrying out reforms.”

Thousands of Ukrainians had crossed into EU countries by midday, according to the Ukranian Foreign Ministry’s consular department.

“#Bezviz [no visa] is just the beginning!” Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter, accompanied by photos of himself crossing the border into Hungary.

The EU approved the arrangement last month after repeated delays since it promised to cement ties with Kyiv in 2014. Ukraine that year became the scene of the worst confrontation between Russia and the West in Europe since the Cold War, with Moscow annexing Crimea and backing separatist rebels in the east of the country.

Visa-free travel is seen as a step toward Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, though major hurdles remain based on economic instability and fears of furthering escalating the conflict with Russia.
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Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said on Sunday there had been no change to plans for U.S. President Donald Trump’s to come to Britain on a state visit, after the Guardian newspaper reported the trip had been postponed.

The paper, citing an unnamed adviser at May’s Downing Street office who was in the room at the time, reported Trump had told May by telephone in recent weeks that he did not want to come if there were likely to be large-scale protests.

“We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations,” a spokeswoman for May’s office said. “The queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.”

The White House had no immediate comment on the report.

No date has been set for the visit, which was agreed during May’s visit to Washington in January, but British media had reported it was planned for October.

Trump has come under fire in Britain this month for his public criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s response to an attack by Islamist militants in London, in which eight people were killed. May found herself forced to defend Khan, who is from the opposition Labour party.

At that time, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was no reason to cancel the visit, while White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Trump intended to go and that “he appreciates Her Majesty’s gracious invitation”.
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Russia said on Saturday it had told the United States it was unacceptable for Washington to strike pro-government forces in Syria after the U.S. military carried out an airstrike on pro-Assad militia last month.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov relayed the message to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call on Saturday initiated by the U.S. side, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

U.S. officials told Reuters last month that the U.S. military carried out the airstrike against militia supported by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which it said posed a threat to U.S. forces and U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in the country’s south.

Russia said at the time that the U.S. action would hamper efforts to find a political solution to the conflict and had violated the sovereignty of Syria, one of Russia’s closest Middle East allies.

“Lavrov expressed his categorical disagreement with the U.S. strikes on pro-government forces and called on him to take concrete measures to prevent similar incidents in future,” the ministry said.

The two men had also exchanged assessments of the situation in Syria, it added, and confirmed their desire to step up cooperation to try to end the conflict there.

The ministry said Lavrov and Tillerson had also discussed the need to try to mend the rift between Qatar and other Arab nations through negotiations, and had talked about the state of U.S.-Russia relations and planned meetings between officials from the two countries.
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Amsterdam police said there was “no indication whatsoever” of terrorist involvement in an incident Saturday in which eight pedestrians were struck and injured by a car.

The car was parked illegally near Amsterdam Central Station, the city’s main rail terminal, police said. When officers approached the driver, the car lurched forward into a retaining wall, striking several pedestrians.

The police later tweeted, after speaking with the driver, that the incident appeared to have been unintentional. They said the driver had apparently been ill, but he was arrested.

Six of the injured people were hospitalized, a police spokeswoman said, adding that two were in serious condition.

Attacks over the past three weeks in England, beginning with a deadly suicide bombing at a concert hall in Manchester, and other terror-related incidents have put authorities in many European countries on high alert.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will visit NATO ally Poland before he heads to Germany for the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in July, the White House announced.

“The visit will reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies and emphasize the administration’s priority of strengthening NATO’s collective defense,” the White House said in a statement late Friday.

Trump will deliver a major speech during the visit, and attend the Three Seas Initiative summit as a symbol of Washington’s “strong ties to Central Europe,” it said.

Leaders from several central, eastern and southern European countries are to meet in the city of Wroclaw in western Poland for the Three Seas summit on July 6-7.

The G-20 summit takes place in Hamburg on July 7-8.
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Peace talks on divided Cyprus are to resume in Geneva on June 28, the United Nations said Friday, ending a stalemate on procedure that had threatened to derail two years of negotiations.

Talks between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci stalled last month in disagreement about a conference in Geneva including Britain, Turkey and Greece that would address post-settlement Cyprus security issues.

Both leaders met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday in New York and agreed to resume talks.

They will both travel to Geneva for the negotiations later this month, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Friday, along with Greece, Turkey and Britain as guarantor powers, and the European Union as an observer.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974, triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.

Security issues related to the presence of up to 30,000 troops in the breakaway north of the island are a key sticking point in talks. Greek Cypriots perceive their presence after a settlement as a threat, while Turkish Cypriots say the troops are necessary for their security.
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The carnage of the London Bridge attack could have been worse: One of the attackers tried to rent a larger truck that could have killed more people, but his payment was declined. The bloodthirsty gang was also shot dead before they could make their way back to the van where their petrol bombs were stored.

In a rare glimpse into the weeklong investigation, police released details on Saturday that showed Khuram Butt originally tried to rent a 7.5 ton truck. The intended truck was smaller but similar to the one used in the Nice attack last year that killed 86 people and injured hundreds in the resort town in the south of France.

After his payment was declined, Butt and his two accomplices rented a smaller van that they used to plow into crowds before they leapt from the vehicle and went on a stabbing rampage in an attack that left eight people dead and nearly 50 people injured. It was the third such deadly attack in Britain in the three months.

​Knives featured pink blades 

After leaving the small white van, the men used 12-inch knives with bright pink blades, according to Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command.

Police also disclosed that multiple petrol bombs were discovered in the van, and a copy of the Quran opened at a page “describing martyrdom” was found at one of the attackers’ houses.

Investigators believe three victims were killed on the bridge, including one man who was thrown into the Thames River, before the attackers left the vehicle and stabbed five people to death around London’s busy Borough Market, Haydon said. Police believe Butt was driving the van.

“When I come back to Butt trying getting hold of a 7.5 ton lorry — the effect could have been even worse,” he said.

Molotov cocktails found

More than a dozen wine bottles filled with flammable liquid and rags wrapped around them in the shape of Molotov cocktails were found in the van. Two blow torches were also found.

Haydon said the men may have been planning even more bloodshed if they had survived their stabbing spree and made it back to the van.

Police also found a number of office chairs, gravel and a suitcase in the van.

Detectives believe the gravel may have been placed in the vehicle to make it heavier, or as part of a cover to justify hiring it, while the chairs may have been used to convince family and friends they were moving furniture.

Butt, a 27-year-old Pakistan-born British citizen, and his two accomplices, Rachid Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan, and Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old Italian national of Moroccan descent, were shot dead by armed police eight minutes after the first emergency call.

Fake suicide belts

The three attackers were wearing fake suicide belts consisting of plastic water bottles wrapped in grey duct tape.

Haydon described the pink knives as “pretty unusual” and appealed for anyone with information about where they came from to contact police.

Police raided Redouane’s small residence on Tuesday and said he had been renting it since April. This was the safe house where the attack was planned, police said. In the residence, police found an English language copy of the Quran opened at a page describing martyrdom, pieces of cloth which appeared to match material wrapped around the petrol bombs and water bottles similar to those used in the fake suicide vests, police said. Luggage straps, plastic retractable craft knives and rolls of duct tape were also found.

Eighteen people have been arrested in connection with last week’s attack. All but five have been released. Searches are continuing.

Questions remain

The question remains how the men met and knew one another but police said Saturday they did not suspect a wider plot.

“It looks as if it is pretty much a contained plot involving the three of them, which is supported by the forensic evidence we’ve got back so far,” Haydon said.

Butt, who police consider the attack ringleader, had been on bail after being arrested for fraud in a case in October of last year, police said. He had also been repeatedly reported to police for violent behavior and trying to recruit young children to the Islamic State group as well as featuring in the documentary, “The Jihadis Next Door,” where he was seen next to a group of men unfurling a black-and-white flag scrawled with Arabic script and associated with the Islamic State group.

Warned by police

“There was no evidence uncovered of any attack-planning in relation to him,’ Haydon said.

Butt had been warned by police on two occasions — once for fraud in 2008 and once in 2010 for assault. Still, he did not have any criminal convictions.

Zaghba and Redouane lacked any criminal convictions or such warnings in Britain.

“From what I’m seeing, there is nothing that suggests at the moment that we got that wrong,” Haydon said, referring to Butt.

 
…

Britain has been plunged into political chaos after a shock result in Thursday’s general election that saw the ruling Conservative Party’s majority wiped out.

Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap poll hoping to boost her mandate for talks on Britain’s exit from the European Union, due to start next week. But the Brexit timetable has been thrown into jeopardy as the opposition Labor Party saw its vote share soar.

May on Friday resisted calls to quit — calls that came even from senior figures in her party.

After visiting Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, a part of electoral procedure, May announced she would try to form a minority government supported by the Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, from Northern Ireland.

“Our two parties have enjoyed a strong relationship over many years, and this gives me the confidence to believe that we will be able to work together in the interests of the whole United Kingdom,” May said.

Solid majority seen vital

The prime minister maintained that the Brexit talks would begin as planned next week, but with her party’s loss of 13 seats and its parliamentary majority, May will rely on the support of the DUP vote by vote. That is simply unsustainable, said political analyst Ian Dunt, author of the book Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now?

Minority governments in Britain “have very bad track records — they always get torn apart. The system doesn’t like it. When you’re doing that going into Brexit negotiations — some of the most brutal, arduous negotiations this country has ever faced — you don’t have a chance going up against it without really a strong majority.”

So is Britain’s EU exit now in doubt? No, Dunt said, but May’s vision of a so-called “hard Brexit” — in which the U.K. would most likely leave the single European Union market, take full control over its borders, strike new trade deals and apply laws within its own borders — has been rejected.

“She said, ‘Give me a mandate.’ And the answer was, ‘No.’ And that means we have to rethink everything, the entirety of the way we’re doing Brexit,” Dunt said.

The Conservatives’ losses were largely gains for the Labor opposition, which defied polls and predictions to gain 29 seats — a vindication for leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose grip on the party appears to have strengthened.

“We put forward our policies — strong and hopeful policies — and they’ve gained an amazing response and traction,” he said.

Youth vote energized

Among those was scrapping university tuition fees, which energized the youth vote. As one teaching student at the University of London told VOA, “I think most of us here were against Brexit last year. And I don’t feel like the current prime minister or, indeed, the Tory party, has any idea about what to do with Brexit at the moment.”

Elation in the Corbyn camp is tempered by electoral reality, said Dunt, making a comparison to last year’s U.S. presidential campaign.

“In a sort of Bernie Sanders way, he just created this sort of idealistic momentum around young people,” Dunt said. “He’s done something extraordinary. But he still doesn’t have that many seats.”

A year after the Brexit vote, Britain appears as divided as ever — between young and old, left and right, pro- and anti-Europe.

May’s campaign catchphrase of a “strong and stable government” has backfired. Britain looks set for months of political chaos.
…

Britain was thrown into political uncertainty Friday after the Labour Party, the country’s main opposition, made an extraordinary electoral comeback, denying Prime Minister Theresa May and the ruling Conservatives a majority in the House of Commons, largely thanks to a surge in youth voters.

In what will rank as one of the most remarkable elections in modern British history, May’s gamble to expand her party’s parliamentary majority failed spectacularly, raising doubts that she will be able to persevere and lead a minority government with the support of Northern Ireland’s Unionists.

Calls mounted Friday from the Labour Party, the leaders of third parties and from some Conservatives for the prime minister to step down.

But May made clear she would struggle on and seek to govern after receiving Unionist assurances. Downing Street officials said May will head to Buckingham Place to ask the Queen for permission to form a government. Her plan is to govern with the support of Northern Ireland’s Unionists and she would have a one-seat majority.

May’s plan will be then to face a vote of confidence in the House of Commons next week.

Despite their anger at her decision to call a snap post-Brexit referendum election and her conduct of the party’s campaign, Conservative lawmakers appeared ready in the short-term to back her.

If May were to lose a Commons confidence vote next week, it would give Labour a chance to form a coalition government of its own, or seek to govern as a minority government, although it is unclear if Labour would be able to do so.

​Calls for May to step down

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was all but written off at the start of the election campaign 50 days ago, called on the prime minister to resign, saying she should “go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country.” He said Labour had denied her a “hard Brexit” mandate.

“We are ready to do everything we can to put our program into operation,” he added:

Former Conservative finance minister George Osborne, removed from the Cabinet by May and now editor of the Evening Standard newspaper, told ITV: “I doubt she will survive in the long term as Conservative party leader.”

And former Conservative minister Anna Soubry said May should take personal responsibility for a “dreadful” campaign.

Among conservatives there was clear fury at the result, a seismic political shock that could trigger a second election within months. Few commentators appeared to believe that a minority Conservative government is sustainable for more than a few months. “Does she really think she can blunder on?” said Lord Ashcroft, a former Liberal Democrat leader.

​Brexit not the only issue

Exit polls on Thursday night suggesting Britain was heading for a hung parliament prompted gasps at Conservative Party headquarters in London.

May focused her party’s election campaign on Brexit, saying she would be able to bring the strength necessary to get the best deal for Britain with the European Union.

At the start of the campaign it looked as if she might pull off a landslide victory, but opinion polls showed the race tightening, and May came under criticism for running an aloof campaign that took the voters for granted.

A turning point in the campaign appeared to come when the parties unveiled their election manifestos. The Conservatives had to backtrack on plans to make the elderly pay more for residential and social care.

May spent more than half of the election campaign in Labour-held seats, demonstrating how confident she was of making gains from a Labour Party led by the most left wing leader in its history, a man the press sees as a throwback to the militant 1970s.

With 10 days to go before Brexit negotiations, it remains unclear whether Britain will have a government in place to take on the formal talks — or whether the government that starts the talks will be the government that finalizes them.

European officials and lawmakers warned Friday a hung parliament could be a “disaster” that hugely increases the chance of Brexit talks failing. They said political uncertainty would likely delay talks, with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, questioning whether he would have someone to really negotiate with about Brexit.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit representative, described the result as “yet another own goal” for Britain.

Some analysts compared the political situation to 1923, when Conservative Stanley Baldwin failed to win a parliamentary majority, struggled on for a few months as prime minister and then lost a confidence vote in the House of Commons. The king then had to ask Labour to form a minority government.

The election result also throws into doubt whether Britain will now seek the hard Brexit that May and the right wing of her party have been advocating. There is now likely a majority across the parties in the new House of Commons for a softer Brexit, one that might see Britain remain in the single market.

“What it means is we will have pressure in the House of Commons for a soft Brexit,” said Jack Straw, a former Labour foreign minister. “The math and chemistry in the Commons will be pushing away from a hard Brexit,” he added.

Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage complained about the election result in a tweet, saying May’s failure had put Brexit in jeopardy. Some commentators argued the election could be seen as a second referendum on Brexit, a vote about a ‘hard’ or ‘soft Brexit,’ certainly when it came to the youth vote.

Hundreds of thousands of people ages 18 to 34 registered to vote before last month’s closing date, including more than 450,000 on the final day. Voters ages 18 to 24 appear to have voted heavily in favor of Labour. 
…

Prime Minister Theresa May faced calls to quit Friday after her election gamble to win a stronger mandate backfired as she lost her parliamentary majority, throwing British politics into turmoil and potentially disrupting Brexit negotiations.

May failed to get the 326 seats her Conservative party needs for an outright majority. She needs 18 more seats, with only 17 more seats left to declare.

The result looks set to trigger a period of political uncertainty and could throw Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union, due to start June 19, into disarray. The pound lost more than 2 cents against the dollar within seconds of an exit poll projecting an uncertain result.

With only 17 of the 650 seats still to declare, the results largely bore out the exit poll, which predicted the Conservatives would get 314 of the 650 House of Commons seats, down from 330. The Labour Party was projected to win 266, up from 229. 

John Curtice, who oversees the exit poll for a consortium of broadcasters, said Friday that the Conservatives’ final tally might be a bit higher than 314, but it was extremely unlikely they would get a majority.

Minority government likely

As the results piled up, some form of minority or coalition government appeared increasingly likely. That raised the odds that an election called by May to provide “strong and stable government” would bring instability and the chance of yet another early election.

The results confounded those who said the opposition Labour Party’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was electorally toxic. Written off by many pollsters, Labour surged in the final weeks of the campaign. It drew strong support from young people, who appeared to have turned out to vote in bigger-than-expected numbers.

Calls for May to resign

By Friday morning, pressure was mounting on May, who called the snap election in the hope of increasing her majority and strengthening Britain’s hand in exit talks with the European Union. 

“This is a very bad moment for the Conservative Party, and we need to take stock,” Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry said. “And our leader needs to take stock as well.”

As she was resoundingly re-elected to her Maidenhead seat in southern England, May looked tense and did not spell out what she planned to do.

“The country needs a period of stability and whatever the results are the Conservative Party will ensure we fulfill our duty in ensuring that stability so that we can all, as one country, go forward together,” she said.

Others predicted she would soon be gone.

Scottish party suffers as well

Corbyn said the result means “politics has changed” and voters have rejected Conservative austerity. Speaking after being re-elected to his London seat, Corbyn said May should “go … and make way for a government that is truly representative of all the people of this country.”

The result was bad news for the Scottish National Party, which by early Friday had lost about 20 of its 54 seats. Among the casualties was Alex Salmond, a former first minister of Scotland and one of the party’s highest-profile lawmakers.

The losses complicate the SNP’s plans to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence as Britain prepares to leave the EU.

May had hoped the election would focus on Brexit, but that never happened, as both the Conservatives and Labour said they would respect voters’ wishes and go through with the divorce.

May, who went into the election with a reputation for quiet competence, was criticized for a lackluster campaigning style and for a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their care, a proposal her opponents dubbed the “dementia tax.” As the polls suggested a tightening race, pollsters spoke less often of a landslide and raised the possibility that May’s majority would be eroded.

Then, attacks that killed 30 people in Manchester and London twice brought the campaign to a halt, sent a wave of anxiety through Britain and forced May to defend the government’s record on fighting terrorism. Corbyn accused the Conservatives of undermining Britain’s security by cutting the number of police on the streets.

Eight people were killed near London Bridge on Saturday when three men drove a van into pedestrians and then stabbed revelers in an area filled with bars and restaurants. Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Reuters contributed to this report.
…

Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the United States supported peace talks on Cyprus aimed at reunifying the divided island.

Pence hosted Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades at the White House on Thursday. The White House said Pence expressed hope that Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders “will agree to a settlement that would reunify Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation to the benefit of all Cypriots.”

Pence also thanked Cyprus for its support for the Middle East peace talks and the fight against Islamic State.

Anastasiades said that he invited Pence to visit the island and that “what satisfied me most is that the U.S. acknowledged the role Cyprus plays as a result of its excellent relations with all its neighboring nations.”

Cyprus has been split between a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a military coup aimed at unifying the island with Greece.

The south is recognized as the sole Cypriot government, while only Turkey recognizes a separate Turkish Cypriot north.

U.N.-sponsored reunification talks have been slow because of several sensitive issues, including Turkish demands that Turkish forces be allowed to stay on the island. The Greek Cypriots want them to leave.
…

NATO member nations are united in their stance toward Russia in a way they have not been for many years, says General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. In an interview with VOA’s Jela de Franceschi, Stoltenberg also said NATO is committed to stepping up its defense while at the same time continuing dialogue with Russia.
…

Three men arrested in a series of raids Wednesday in east London are suspected of having been in the final stages of plotting a terror attack in the British capital similar to the murderous rampage carried out last Saturday at London Bridge, say officials.

The men, all in their 30s, are not connected to last week’s van-and-knife attack in the London Bridge and Borough districts of the capital that left eight dead and 48 injured, say police officers.

Video of recent attack

The news of the arrests came as new video footage emerged of the dramatic shooting of the London Bridge attackers by armed police last Saturday. It shows officers leaping out of a moving police car to shoot the men in a few seconds of frenetic activity, bringing an end to a killing spree that lasted eight minutes.

The footage, taken by a local resident, has been circulated on social media sites. 

Other footage has also emerged of the three London Bridge attackers, who have been identified as Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, meeting outside an all-Muslim gym the trio frequented in east London five days before the attack. 

In the video obtained by The Times newspaper, the three are seen hugging and laughing outside the Ummah Fitness Center near where Butt lived with his wife and two young children. 

The men appear to want to evade surveillance.

Redouane is seen placing his cellphone on a builder’s sack nearby before the men walk away. Presumably, they feared the phone was bugged. They are out of view of the CCTV camera for 10 minutes and when they return Redouane retrieves his phone. 

The footage of the meeting outside the gym will reinforce pressure on the British intelligence services to explain why the three were not under full-time surveillance. 

The Ummah Fitness Center was once run by a man accused of helping to train the Islamic extremists responsible for the coordinated July 7, 2005, underground train bombings in London, Britain’s first-ever Islamist suicide attack.

Fifty-two people were killed across the city in the 2005 coordinated strike that left more than 700 injured.

Missed chances

The British intelligence service, MI5, has been accused of missing a string of chances to identify Butt as a high-risk militant.

On Tuesday The New York Times reported that in 2015 FBI informant Jesse Morton, a one-time al-Qaida recruiter, warned his American handlers about the London Bridge terrorist. “Khuram Butt was on our radar rather a lot,” he told the newspaper.

Questions are also being asked about why the British security services didn’t act on information supplied by Italian police on Zaghba, an Italian-Moroccan, who had been stopped at Bologna airport last year on suspicion he was heading to join the Islamic State in Syria.

Italian authorities say they informed British intelligence agencies about him and uploaded his details to a European Union database that’s designed to trigger an alert to passport control officers.

Officer injured in attack

Meanwhile, the rookie transport policeman who was stabbed in an eye while tackling the London Bridge terrorists armed only with a baton issued a statement Wednesday saying he “did everything I could” to stop them.

He has not been named by the authorities. He was one of the first officers to confront the London Bridge assailants.

“I am truly moved and overwhelmed by all the support and comments that I’ve received, not only from people in this country, but across the world,” the officer said.

He has been hailed as a national hero, but he dismissed the description.

“Like every police officer who responded, I was simply doing my job,” he said. “I didn’t expect the level of love and well wishes I have received. I feel like I did what any other person would have done. I want to say sorry to the families that lost their loved ones.”
…

There was a different kind of rush in Alipasa and Lalabey in Sur, Diyarbakir, Turkey as residents gathered for an iftar dinner put on by the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions of Turkey (KESK). The neighborhoods face demolition because the government wants to rebuild the majority of the Sur district following battles between security forces and PKK’s youth branch last year. The concept of ‘Earth Surface Table’ outdoor iftar dinner was first happened after the Gezi Protests in 2013 in Istanbul.
…

Prime Minister Theresa May called the general election that Britain is holding Thursday in the hope of winning strong backing for her government during upcoming negotiations in Brussels on the country’s exit from the European Union.

May called the snap election — an early vote, three years before Parliament’s term was due to expire — in early April. The prime minister originally expected a big win to boost her Conservative Party’s majority in Parliament, but that optimism faded as her campaign sputtered over the past few weeks.

Late developments, however, could upend the experts’ predictions once again.

Polls: Labour Party is gaining

Several recent opinion polls showed the opposition Labour Party was gaining on the Conservatives, or Tories as they are known in Britain. Not all of the polls agreed, though, and Conservative activists professed confidence.

The Times newspaper reported Wednesday night that a final poll by the YouGov group showed the Conservatives’ lead over Labour had widened to seven percentage points — up from four percent on Saturday, just hours before the London Bridge terrorist attack that killed eight people.

All 650 seats in the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, are up for election Thursday. A party needs to win 326 seats to form a majority government.

The deadly terror attacks in England — in London last Saturday, and in Manchester 12 days earlier — have overshadowed the late stages of political campaigning. Speaking at a rally Tuesday, the prime minister pledged to put security first:

“And if, if our human rights laws stop us from doing it, we’ll change those laws so we can do it,” she told supporters to enthusiastic applause.

Proper funding needed

May’s threat to tear up the Human Rights Act drew criticism from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“The way you deal with the threat to the democracy is not by reducing democracy, it’s by dealing with the threat,” he said during a campaign visit to Glasgow Wednesday. “That means properly funding our police and security services.”

Political analyst Professor Iain Begg of the London School of Economics says the prime minister is now fighting to save face:

“If she does no better than [former Conservative prime minister] David Cameron did in 2015, it would be deemed a considerable defeat for her. Jeremy Corbyn seems to be doing far better than most people expected.”

Needed: Young voters

Corbyn needs a big turnout by young voters, and his focus on improving public services and reducing fees for university students has won support. But he also has faced questions over national security and his past associations with groups including Hamas and the Irish Republican Army.

Third in the polls are the Liberal Democrats, whose central theme is opposition to Brexit — Britain’s departure from the European Union. On that question, analyst Iain Begg says, the country appears to have moved on.

“Economy, national health services and party leaders are the top issues,” Begg said. “Even in this Brexit context, Europe is not as high an issue as it might otherwise be, and therefore the Liberal Democrats have probably backed the wrong horse by trying to emphasize their campaign is about Brexit.”

May needs a big win

Support for the far-right UK Independence Party has collapsed. With Brexit decided, pollsters say many UKIP voters have switched to the Conservatives.

Theresa May says she needs a big win to give her a stronger hand in upcoming Brexit negotiations, but officials in Brussels say the size of her majority will have no bearing on the talks.

There will be no political honeymoon for the winner, says Kevin Schofield, editor of the website politicshome.com, the self-styled “home of digital public affairs” in Britain.

“You’re straight into the biggest discussions, the biggest negotiations that any British government has faced in a generation, probably since the Second World War, Schofield said. “So there is no respite, there is no letup.”

Independence for Scotland?

A big Conservative win would encourage those who support independence for Scotland. Breaking away from the United Kingdom and becoming an independent nation won considerable support earlier in this decade, but the Scots rejected independence in a referendum three years ago.

Now, however, following the Brexit decision by voters nationwide — in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — the Scottish National Party is demanding a second referendum on independence.

“In actual fact, the Scottish people, most of them don’t want a referendum so soon,” said website editor Schofield. “They think that they’ve made their decision in 2014.”

Terrorism, Brexit and the potential breakup of Britain are daunting challenges that lie ahead for the winner of Thursday’s election. Each political party is offering voters a very different road map to the future.
…

Slovakia wants to be a part of the EU “integration machine,” its prime minister said on Wednesday, in comments that follow calls by Germany, France and Spain for deeper cooperation and contrast with the eurosceptic stance of some other east European states.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s new President Emmanuel Macron agreed in May to outline a road map for deeper European Union integration while Spain suggested that members of the bloc should pool some aspects of their debt management and share a budget to fight crisis shocks.

“Slovakia meets conditions to be a part of the EU integration machine led by Germany and France,” said Robert Fico, Slovakia’s leftist third-time prime minister who oversaw his country’s adoption of the euro in 2009.

“Deeper cooperation and integration with stronger countries suit a small country like Slovakia, this is a historic chance to come closer to the average living standards of the EU,” he told reporters after a regular government meeting.

“Either we get in the integration express or we’ll be stuck in the depot on the second track,” he said, distancing himself from eurosceptic governments in neighbouring Hungary and Poland, and the Czech Republic, where integrationist Social Democrats are expected to lose an election in October.

Slovakia is the only one of these so-called Visegrad Four countries that uses the euro as its currency.

It has been one of the better budget performers in the eurozone, with public debt load expected to fall to 51.8 percent this year, less than the eurozone average at 89.2 percent in 2016.

Fico also called on opposition parties to get behind the consensus on Slovakia’s foreign policy direction.

Richard Sulik, leader of the eurosceptic, anti-immigrant Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, Slovakia’s second largest after Fico’s center-left SMER, said on Tuesday Bratislava should not try to be part of the eurozone core as it would be forced to agree to tax harmonization and refugee quotas.

Slovakia under Fico’s government, along with the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, refused to accept EU refugee quotas and challenged them in an EU court.
…

About 25,000 military forces from the United States and 23 other countries will take part in a large-scale military exercise called Saber Guardian planned in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania next month.

In addition, several U.S. B-1B heavy bombers have arrived in Britain in support of two separate multinational exercises planned in the Baltic region and other parts of Europe this month to improve coordination among partner countries.

The U.S. military plans were announced by Stuttgart-based U.S. European Command, which said this year’s Saber Guardian exercise — held annually in the Black Sea region since 2013 — was “larger in both scale and scope” than previous exercises.

The news could exacerbate tensions that are already running high between Moscow and Washington.

Russia scrambled a fighter jet on Tuesday to intercept a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 strategic bomber it said was flying over the Baltic Sea near its border, in an incident that had echoes of the Cold War.

Washington said the long-range bomber was operating in international airspace.

European Command said the Saber Guardian exercise would include an array of live fire exercises, river crossings and a mass casualty exercise and was aimed at drilling “the ability to mass forces at any given time anywhere in Europe.”

“It is deterrence in action,” it said in a release.

The U.S. army said the larger exercise would be preceded by several smaller events — all aimed at shoring up the security and stability of the Black Sea region, where increased Russian submarine activity has sparked concerns.

The Saber Guardian exercise rotates through Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, with a goal to increase the ability of European and U.S. military forces to operate together in the event of an armed conflict.

It will be the largest of 18 separate Black Sea exercises planned this year, European Command said.

The B-1B bombers were deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota to a U.K. air base in Fairford to support two separate exercises planned this month, Saber Strike and BALTOPS, according to European Command.

It said an undisclosed number of B-1B bombers would join three B-52H bombers that were already in Europe for training.

BALTOPS is a recurring multinational exercise that will involve 4,000 shipboard personnel, 50 ships and submarines, and more than 50 aircraft.

Saber Strike, now in its seventh year, is aimed at improving cooperation among allies and partners while promoting regional stability and security, European Command said.
…

Nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump reportedly blindsided National Security advisers in Brussels by failing to stick to a White House speech reaffirming U.S. commitments to NATO’s Article 5, Vice President Mike Pence on Monday took the stage alongside Montenegro’s head of state to do exactly that.

Addressing an Atlantic Council awards ceremony at Washington’s Ritz Carlton hotel Monday evening — held just hours after Montenegro’s formal NATO accession ceremony at the State Department — Pence, fresh from private White House meetings with Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, vowed “unwavering commitment” to Article 5.

“Make no mistake … we will meet our obligations to our people to provide for the collective defense of all of our allies,” Pence was quoted as saying in Politico coverage of the event.  “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

Article 5 defined

NATO’s Article 5 defines an attack on any NATO member as an attack on all NATO members. The clause has only been triggered once, following the attacks on 9/11.

“As we look to the future, we cannot only look inward,” Pence said. “NATO’s open door must always remain so … NATO is as important today as it was at its founding nearly 70 years ago.”

Montenegro became NATO’s 29th member of NATO and been praised by the United States for joining the Western military alliance, despite Russian obstruction that included a failed attempt to overthrow the pro-Western government in October 2016.

Russia even warned of retaliation against Montenegro’s “hostile course” and condemned the small Balkan country’s “anti-Russian hysteria” during the State Department ceremony marking the accession.

“Allow me to rephrase on this historic day the words of [NASA astronaut] Neil Armstrong,” Markovic announced to the awards ceremony, vowing national readiness to assume membership responsibilities. “This is a small day for the United States and its allies, but a great day for Montenegro.”

‘NATO has never been more important’

Senator John McCain, (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called NATO’s first enlargement in eight years a significant step toward greater trans-Atlantic integration at a pivotal time.

“Given the increasingly complex challenges we face on both sides of the Atlantic, NATO has never been more important,” McCain said in a prepared statement issued on his website. “In the face of renewed Russian aggression, increasingly frequent terror attacks, and looming cybersecurity threats, the trans-Atlantic alliance must stand together. We welcome the assistance of Montenegro as the 29th NATO member state in combating these threats.”

In an interview with VOA’s Serbian Service, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “NATO will stand together with Montenegro against any kind of pressure and outside interference.”

“We have seen many reports about more Russian interference in the Western Balkans; we saw the failed coup attempt in Montenegro last year,” he said. “For me, this just highlights the importance of building strong security and defense institutions and strengthening resilience.”

Regional stability

Montenegro’s NATO membership, he added, will guarantee the Balkan country’s independence and contribute to regional stability.

“Montenegro is important not least because of its location in the Western Balkans,” Stoltenberg said. “NATO has a history there; we helped to end two ethnic wars. We see many challenges in the Western Balkans and we would like to work with Montenegro to address those challenges.”

Stoltenberg said that Montenegro, together with other allies, can help other neighboring countries in the region, such as aspiring NATO members Bosnia and Macedonia.

NATO has only a partnership with Serbia, with whose new president, Aleksandar Vucic, Stoltenberg claims “regular contact.”

This report originated in VOA’s Serbian Service.
…

Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained the local chair of Amnesty International for suspected links to the network of the Muslim cleric Ankara blames for last year’s failed coup, the rights group said.

Police detained Taner Kilic and 22 other lawyers in the Aegean coastal province of Izmir on suspicion of ties to the movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, it said, citing a detention order.

Since the July coup attempt, authorities have arrested 50,000 people and sacked or suspended 150,000, including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.

“Taner Kilic has a long and distinguished record of defending exactly the kind of freedoms that the Turkish authorities are now intent on trampling,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Turkish authorities were not immediately available for comment. Officials say the crackdown is necessary due to the gravity of the coup attempt, in which more than 240 people were killed.

Kilic was detained by police at his home in Izmir early on Tuesday before being taken to his office, Amnesty said. Both properties were searched and he remains in police custody.

His detention did not appear to be connected to his work with the rights group, nor did it appear to specifically target the organization, Amnesty said. It was unclear why he was suspected of having links to Gulen’s network, it said.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement in the coup and condemned it.

Critics in Turkey and abroad say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent and purge opponents.

Turkey’s interior ministry said on Monday it would strip citizenship from 130 people suspected of militant links, including Gulen, unless they return to Turkey within three months.
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