Authorities in the southwest region of France hit this week by destructive flash floods say the death toll has increased to 14, with one person still listed as missing.

Previously, the toll from the floods in the Aude region had stood at 13, with three missing.

The Aude prefect said Wednesday that 74 people were injured in the storms that swept in from the Mediterranean overnight Sunday to Monday, dumping months-worth of rain in a few hours and turning waterways into destructive torrents.

The region’s top local official, Alain Thirion, said Tuesday that flood victims were mainly older people who were “surprised by the amount of rain.”

 
…

European governments — in addition to the U.S. — appear perplexed about what action to take in response to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago after entering his country’s consulate in Istanbul.

While most media attention has focused on the U.S. reaction to Khashoggi’s disappearance, European governments are also wrestling with a quandary about how to punish Saudi Arabia, if it is found beyond doubt to be behind the journalist’s disappearance, without destroying what they say are valuable relations with the Gulf kingdom.

The questions policy makers are asking include: Should they confront Riyadh more as they demand answers about what befell the journalist and prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even if that wrecks security cooperation with Riyadh and endangers trade and lucrative weapons sales with the Gulf kingdom?

Or should they give the benefit of the doubt to the Saudi government, which claims Khashoggi left the consulate safely by the back door and that nothing happened to him inside the building, but risk by doing so undermining their own much-lauded insistence on the observance of global norms and rule-based values?

Another factor at play as they weigh how to respond is who will benefit from a confrontation between the West and Saudi Arabia. Some policy makers and analysts say Iran, Saudi’s arch-rival in the region, would be a beneficiary.  “As it has done in the past, Tehran will leverage this latest crisis to shore up its regional position,” cautions Sanam Vakil of Britain’s Chatham House research organization.

“In the face of forthcoming U.S. oil sanctions and coordinated pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel strategy – and as the EU attempts to preserve the nuclear accord after Washington’s withdrawal – the opportunity could not come at a better time for Tehran. Iran has repeatedly seized on Saudi miscalculations to gain leverage and protect itself from regional isolation,” she says.

Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete paperwork to finalize his divorce from his Saudi wife. Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi was killed inside by Saudi assassins with links to the crown prince and that his body was dismembered and removed while his unwitting Turkish fiancee waited for him outside the consulate.

The Saudis strongly deny the claim — and Saudi leaders reiterated their innocence Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was dispatched to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by President Donald Trump to discuss Khashoggi’s disappearance with the leaders of the Gulf kingdom, a close U.S. ally for 73 years.

On Wednesday, a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued the strongest warning yet from a European government about possible punishment, saying that Europe may have to adjust its relations with Saudi Arabia in the wake Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“We have a very ambivalent picture of Saudi Arabia, especially with what has happened in the Khashoggi case in recent days, and what emerges in the coming days will complete that picture. Europe may need to correct its policies toward Saudi Arabia,” Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats, told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

But rights campaigners and European opposition politicians who want a tougher approach to be adopted towards Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s disappearance say the German comments fall short of what is needed and fit a pattern of hedged remarks from European governments and officials. They note Hardt cautioned that as yet there are no plans for imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia.

A joint statement on Khashoggi’s disappearance Sunday by Britain, France and Germany also made no reference to possible sanctions. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt later cautiously announced Britain would consider an “appropriate way to react,” if it transpired the Saudis royals were found to be behind Khashoggi’s disappearance and likely death.

In Britain, Labour foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry says the British government has a “blind spot” when it comes to Saudi Arabia.” She criticizes Foreign Minister Hunt for taking a week after the journalist’s disappearance before issuing a tweet saying he was urgently seeking answers from Saudi Arabia.

“Imagine how this government would have reacted if either Russia or Iran had abducted – and in all likelihood murdered – one of their dissident journalists within the sovereign territory of another country,” she says.

British officials privately say they are trying to find a way to project outrage while at the same time keeping intact what they see as an important alliance. They argue Saudi Arabia is a key partner in the fight against extremist violence and that intelligence supplied by the kingdom’s security agencies has been crucial in thwarting terrorist plots on British soil.

And they say the bigger strategic picture in the Middle East needs to be taken into account. Saudi Arabia remains the one Arab state that is still reliably aligned with the West in the region, a point German officials echo.

They also acknowledge that the trade relationship after Britain leaves the European Union is earmarked to become more important. Twenty-three percent of the arms and weapon systems the Saudis’ purchase come from British defense firms. In the first six months of 2017, Britain sold Riyadh military equipment worth more than $1.4 billion, with thousands of British jobs dependent on the sales.

Riyadh remains by far the biggest overseas market for Britain’s arms industry, accounting for almost half of all British arms sales between 2007 and 2016.

But some analysts warn that placing so much emphasis on economics is a mistake. Relations need “to be based on a more nuanced understanding of the potential costs and benefits, so not just driven by economic interests,” Armida van Rij, an analyst at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, told a conference in London just days before Khashoggi disappeared.

Possible reputational damage from having close ties with Saudi Arabia at a time the kingdom is pursuing a highly aggressive foreign policy and cracking down on dissidents should also be taken into account, she says. By being tied to Saudi Arabia “does it affect your credibility on the international stage? Does it affect your credibility as an international actor? These are bigger questions that, at the moment, are not really being discussed,” she added.
…

The White House has announced plans to negotiate separate trade deals with Britain, the European Union and Japan.

“We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Tuesday.

He added that the White House wanted to “address both tariff and non-tariff barriers and to achieve fairer and more balanced trade.”

As required by law, Lighthizer sent three separate letters to Congress announcing the intention to open trade talks.

He wrote that the negotiations with Britain would begin “as soon as it’s ready” after Britain’s expected exit from the European Union on March 29.

Lighthizer called the economic partnership between the U.S. and EU the “largest and most complex”in the world, noting the U.S. has a $151 billion trade deficit with the EU

Writing about Japan, Lighthizer said it is “an important but still often underperforming market for U.S. exporters of goods,” noting that Washington also has a large trade deficit with Tokyo.

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, cautioned the administration against making what he called “quick, partial deals.” 

“The administration must take the time to tackle trade barriers comprehensively, including using this opportunity to set a high bar in areas like labor rights, environmental protection and digital trade,” he said.

President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports earlier this year and has threatened more tariffs on cars as a reaction to what he said were unfair deals that put the U.S. at a disadvantage.
…

Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin says the force he felt during a Soyuz emergency landing last week was like having a concrete block on his chest.

Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague spoke separately Tuesday about their frightening experience when an unknown mishap caused their Russian Soyuz to abort its mission 60 kilometers (37 miles) above Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft was on its way to the International Space Station when the emergency lights flashed in the cabin just minutes into the flight.

“There was no time to be nervous because we had to work,” Ovchinin told Russian television. “We had to go through the steps that the crew has to take and prepare for emergency landing … so that the crew is still functioning after landing.”

Ovchinin recalled being violently shaken from side by side as the crew cabin separated from the rocket, followed by a force seven times stronger then gravity as the cabin plunged through the atmosphere, followed by the shock of the parachutes yanking open.

Back home in Houston, Hague told the Associated Press, “We knew that if we wanted to be successful, we needed to stay calm and we needed to execute the procedures in front of us smoothly and efficiently as we could.”

Hague said he and Ovchinin were hanging upside down when the cabin landed back on Earth. They shook hands and cracked jokes.

Neither man was hurt, and an investigation is under way to find out why the rocket failed.

Hague said he is disappointed to be back home instead of walking in space, but he’s happy to be reunited with his wife and their two young sons, and is ready to fly again as soon as NASA gives him the word.

“What can you do? Sometimes you don’t get a vote,” Hague told the Associated Press. “You just try to celebrate the little gifts that you get, like walking the boys to school this morning.”

This was the first aborted Soyuz launch in more than 30 years.

The Russian spacecraft has been the only way to send replacement crews to the International Space Station since NASA retired the space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Two private U.S. companies — Boeing and SpaceX — are working on a new generation of shuttles.
…

Egypt’s president urged Russia on Tuesday to resume direct flights to Egyptian resorts as he discussed ways to bolster ties with Russian officials and lawmakers.

Moscow suspended the flights after a bomb planted by the Islamic State group brought a Russian passenger plane down over Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. 

Flights between Moscow and Cairo resumed in April after Egyptian officials beefed up airport security. Talks about restoring direct air travel to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts have dragged on.

Addressing the Russian parliament’s upper house, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi emphasized that restoring the flights was essential for Egypt’s tourism industry.

Following meetings in Moscow with top Russian lawmakers and Cabinet ministers, el-Sissi met over dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi later in the day.

The two leaders have developed a close personal rapport and sought to expand bilateral ties, which have strengthened considerably over the past few years.

El-Sissi is on his fourth trip to Russia since taking office in 2014, and Putin visited Egypt in 2015 and 2017.

Egypt has signed deals to buy billions of dollars’ worth of Russian weapons, including fighter jets and assault helicopters. When Putin visited Cairo last December, officials signed a deal for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Dabaa. 

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the two presidents will discuss the implementation of the nuclear plant contract, as well as prospects for the resumption of flights to the Red Sea resorts and other issues.

He said that el-Sissi will be offered a presentation of Russian weapons, including those which Egypt has expressed interest in buying.

Ushakov noted that bilateral trade rose by 62 percent last year reaching $6.7 billion and continued to expand at a swift pace this year.

Russian grain exports currently account for about 70 percent of Egypt’s needs, he said

Ushakov added that Putin and el-Sissi will discuss international issues, focusing on the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen and the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

Following broader talks Wednesday, the two presidents are set to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty that would further boost Russian-Egyptian ties.

                   
…

Germany has deported an accomplice of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States to his home country of Morocco.

Mounir al-Motassadeq had spent almost 15 years in prison in Germany before he was deported Monday to Morocco.

German media published photographs of Motassadeq wearing a blindfold and being led by two armed policemen to a helicopter. German officials confirmed he was flown out by plane from Frankfurt airport on Monday evening.

Motassadeq was convicted of helping Mohamed Atta, the alleged pilot of one of the hijacked 9/11 planes, and other suicide pilots to help plot the attacks on New York and Washington. The suicide pilots were part of an al-Qaida cell based in Hamburg, Germany, where Motassadeq also lived.

Motassadeq was found guilty in 2003 of being a member of a terrorist organization and an accessory to the murder of the passengers aboard the four airliners used in the September 11 attacks. His five years of trials in Germany involved multiple appeals, overturned convictions, and reinstated verdicts. In the end, he received the maximum sentence the German court could hand down for the crimes — 15 years in prison.

Motassadeq denied being involved in the 9/11 plot, but admitted to being friends with those who did. He said his actions to send money to the suicide pilots were merely favors for his friends.

He was the first person convicted anywhere in the world in connection with the September 11 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died.

Motassadeq was released shortly before completing his 15-year sentence on the condition that he agreed to be deported to Morocco. Germany says it will re-arrest him if he ever returns.
…

One of the first steps taken by Spain’s prime minister after assuming office in June was to order the exhumation of the remains of right-wing military dictator Francisco Franco from a mausoleum in the capital’s outskirts, where they have rested since he died in power a half century ago.

“Democracy cannot dignify a dictator,” Pedro Sanchez, leader of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), said in justifying the order.

The decision was hailed by leftists, but critics warned that polarizing struggles between traditional conservatives and a new breed of left-wing populists could end five decades of bipartisan continuity since Franco’s death.

Sanchez maintains a razor-thin edge in parliament’s lower chamber through an alliance with hard-left groups and Catalan nationalists. His priorities, he said in an address to last month’s U.N. General Assembly, include raising social spending, fighting climate change and promoting women’s rights.

Elsewhere in Europe, populism has come to be identified with far-right movements whose rhetoric is often associated with the xenophobia and racism that characterized the fascist movements that brought Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini to power.

But today’s Spanish populism, says influential opinion columnist Mario Saavedra, is “leftist” and appears rooted in memories of a 1930’s republic that was overthrown by Franco in a bloody civil war.

The republic established after King Alfonso XIII stepped aside in 1931 captured the imagination of European and American intellectuals such as Ernest Hemingway, who based his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls on his experiences there. It brought together the world’s most fashionable utopian ideologies at the time, including communism and anarchist syndicalism. Democratic socialists occupied its presidency.

Historian Javier Arjona draws parallels between the coalition of leftist parties which maneuvered Sanchez into the prime minister’s seat and the radical “Popular Front” that came to power through a disputed election victory in 1936. Government supporters scoff at the comparison and Sanchez accuses conservatives of appealing to the “extreme right” in a bid to regain power.

Regardless, a leftist brand of republicanism seems to be back in vogue. Its purple colors appear at social protests and adorn the jerseys of some soccer clubs. Catalan nationalists and the far-left United We Can party who prop up Sanchez’s government call for restoring a republic and holding a referendum on the future of the monarchy. Burning pictures of King Felipe has become a ritual at separatist rallies in Catalonia.

United We Can, or Unidos Podemos (UP) in Spanish, is led by Pablo Iglesias, a political science professor who merged a new generation of leftists with remnants of the old communist party. His movement harnessed a wave of social discontent that exploded into mass protests during the recent global recession, in which Spain’s unemployment rate topped 25 percent nationally and reached 50 percent among young people.

Disenchanted working-class supporters of Sanchez’s mainstream PSOE turned to UP, which promised to confront corruption on all sides.  

While Spain has largely recovered from the darkest days of the crash, UP continues to win followers by denouncing abusive business practices such as the eviction of low-income tenants from housing estates when they are bought up by foreign “vulture funds.” It also champions an increase in old-age pensions for Spain’s growing senior population.

In unveiling its budget October 11, the Sanchez government announced an agreement between the PSOE and UP on a package that includes a massive increase in public spending, the expansion of public services, new regulations, and a substantial rise in the minimum wage.

Sanchez has also called for changing Spain’s constitution. His justice minister, Dolores Delgado, an outspoken proponent of women’s rights, has said that it needs to be rewritten to make it more gender neutral.

His vice president, Carmen Calvo, has called for curbing press freedoms to counter what she calls a “high volume of half-truths and lies” by conservative media. She has threatened to take legal action against the conservative, pro-monarchy, pro-Catholic newspaper ABC over its published allegations that Sanchez plagiarized his doctoral thesis.  

Some business leaders say they are worried. John de Zulueta, chairman of the Circulo de Empresarios, the Spanish business association, said tax hikes proposed by Sanchez to cover a rise in social spending could depress the markets at a time when the economy is not fully out of recession. The IMF has also criticized Sanchez’s plans to finance deficit spending.

Government spokespersons defend their actions, saying their plan is adjusted to EU budget requirements.

Conservatives are also trying to block Sanchez from satisfying Catalan separatists by granting pardons to Catalan Vice president Oriol Junqueras and other officials who are in prison awaiting trial for plotting an independence bid.

“We have to find a political rather than a judicial solution to the Catalan crisis,” Sanchez said after recent violent protests in Barcelona.

Political analyst Ramon Peralta, a professor at Complutense University of Madrid, said Sanchez “tries to shield his government by wrapping it in popular causes.”

In his U.N. speech, Sanchez highlighted his feminist agenda, boasting that 60 percent of his cabinet are women and pledging “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment.

Feminist leaders, who see Spain’s traditional culture of machismo as toxic to women’s rights, are strongly backing Sanchez despite a scandal in which the justice minister was caught on tape speaking insultingly about the interior minister’s homosexuality.

Sanchez’ moves have been well received by liberals elsewhere in Europe. In a recent editorial, the British newspaper The Guardian said, “exhuming Franco is a necessary step in the final stages of Spain’s historic journey away from authoritarian violence towards enduring democracy.”

But others, including some of the prime minister’s allies, suggest that steps like the exhumation of Franco will simply fan the flames of the extreme right. Since Sanchez announced plans to open Franco’s crypt, visits to the mountaintop mausoleum have risen by 77 percent.

The visitors have included blue-shirted members of the Falange party, who raise their arms in the fascist salute while singing their battle hymn, “Cara al Sol,” or “Face to the Sun.” A new extreme-right party called VOX has threatened to stage mass protests to block the exhumation.

Spanish public opinion is about evenly split. According to a survey in July by polling institute Sigma Dos, about 41 percent support the decision while 39 percent are opposed. 
…

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy threw the United States into an epoch-defining financial storm. Imagine 300 of them going bust at once.

That, in relative terms, is what Iceland endured a decade ago during its banking crisis, which on this rugged island steeped in myths of gods and giants is now known as “hrunid” – the collapse.

The last in a series of prosecutions of those deemed responsible started this month and the hope is that it will give this country of 330,000 people some closure after years of reckoning and reconstruction. Icelanders have become more cynical about political and business leaders, to the point of drafting a new constitution. The top financial entrepreneurs of a generation have been thrown behind bars and the economy has had to be reinvented more profoundly than most countries affected by the crisis.

“Icelanders experienced the crash as a deep betrayal, not just as a serious economic loss,” says Jon Olafsson, a professor who advises the prime minister on ways to improve trust in the government. “Politicians, businessmen and the media told the public, over and over, that everything was fine and people believed them.”

Everything was not fine. Over the span of one week, 90 percent of the financial sector defaulted.

The collapse of Iceland’s three major commercial banks – which had grown 20-fold over the previous seven years through debt-fueled acquisitions abroad – amounted to the third-largest bankruptcy in modern financial history, according to the Icelandic financial regulator. For the United States, an economy 1,100 times bigger, it would be like if 300 Lehman Brothers defaulted simultaneously, it notes.

An economic depression followed that saw people line up for food aid, an unprecedented sight in this country with a progressive welfare state. Families stockpiled goods from supermarket shelves and thousands emigrated.

Johanna Thorvaldsdottir, a goat farmer, had a mortgage in a foreign currency – a common practice then because of the strength of the local currency and lower interest rates abroad – when the Icelandic krona lost nearly half of its value overnight. The cost of her debt soared.

“I worked every evening, sometimes until midnight,” she says. Had it not been for a crowdfunding campaign, raising $90,000 from donors worldwide, the family estate would have been seized by bank creditors.

“We were lucky,” she says. “Many people were not.”

As big as the shock of the financial crisis was, so was the country’s determination to put things right. It emerged from recession in 2011 as it refocused the economy on tourism and technology, and it has been more aggressive than most countries in going after the culprits of the crisis.

Altogether, 29 men and two women have been sentenced to a combined 99 years of prison, for crimes ranging from insider trading to market manipulation. Six cases are still in the appeals process. By comparison, no top Wall Street executives have been prosecuted in the U.S.

Last week, Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the former CEO of Kaupthing Bank, stood trial in the last criminal prosecution related to the financial crisis.

The 48-year old has been sentenced in four prior cases, to a total of seven years in prison. He now stands accused of rigging share prices in his bank two months before it crashed. He denies wrongdoing. While a guilty sentence is unlikely to send him back to prison, as he has already served the maximum time for such crimes, it would help draw a line under the cases, which have dragged on for years.

Sigurdsson began his career at a fish factory in a small town before entering finance, and was during the booming years hailed as a self-made genius.

In some ways, his story reflects that of the country, which in the 1990s embraced the flashy world of finance to attain the wealth that the traditional industries could not provide. The media frequently referred to aggressive entrepreneurs like Sigurdsson as modern-day Vikings raiding foreign shores for acquisitions. In the end, it led to disaster.

Iceland is bent on “learning every lesson from the crisis,” says Iosif Kovras, director of Accountability after Economic Crisis, a research project based in City University-London.

He contrasted Iceland’s approach with that of Ireland, where the crisis was also traumatic but took longer to unfold. The country received a bailout from fellow European nations that took years of reforms to complete.

“It did not prompt the same political urgency,” says Kovras. “Iceland’s apocalyptic crash cleared the way for gathering evidence and data.”

The University of Iceland this month marked the 10-year anniversary of the crash with a symposium hosting over 100 speakers. They ruminated on topics like the crisis’ impact on cardiovascular health, pop-song lyrics, patriarchy and popular protests.

“There is no formula for restoring a peaceful, democratic society,” former President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said in an evening-long public broadcast reflecting on the events. “Amid the crisis, when the situation was revolution-like, I feared not for the economy but our recovery as a nation.”

Reforms of the financial sector have focused on making it less risky. Already there are those saying the rules should be relaxed to allow for faster growth, as the U.S. did this year. President Donald Trump’s administration eased a 2010 law that had sought to limit risk in the financial sector and protect taxpayers from bailing out banks. Critics including Trump saw it as red tape holding the economy back.

Others suggest that loosening the rules would merely increase the likelihood of a new crisis and that Icelanders already seem to be forgetting the lessons of the crash.

Thorhallur Thorhallsson, who works as a tour guide in the capital, notes the proliferation of building cranes rising from the skyline.

“We are so used to cranes occupying the sky that it was decided to make them our national bird,” he tells a half dozen tourists gathered by the statue of the Norse explorer who is said to have settled the island 1,100 years ago.

“In fact, today, Reykjavik has more building cranes than before the 2008 crash.”
…

The threat is growing — and so, too, the toll.

Forty-eight journalists have been killed so far this year, according to a VOA tally, adding to the thousand killed in the past decade-and-half.

Some died on dangerous reporting assignments in conflict zones as they courted similar risks to combatants and were killed in crossfire or bombings.

They include 9 Afghan reporters, among them three from VOA’s sister public broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

All were killed in the same bombing incident in Kabul in April, likely planned to cause a high media death toll. It was the most lethal attack on the media in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, making the country the deadliest in the world for the press this year.

But others were targeted individually, earmarked by armed groups, criminals, drug-dealers and terrorists — and, more disturbingly, by governments and politicians.

Until recently attacks on journalists more often than not occurred in less advanced countries. But now the threat is shifting to the West, where the media has traditionally been immune from violence and where media freedom is lauded and seen traditionally as an important check on authority and government wrongdoing.

In the past 12 months, three reporters have been killed in the European Union. The murder earlier this month of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, who was beaten, raped and strangled, may not have been because of her journalism, but that still remains unclear. Days before her murder she hosted a program exploring the defrauding of EU funds by companies operating in Bulgaria.

Marinova aside, observers and analysts have no doubt that Slovakia’s Ján Kuciak, who was shot in his home alongside his fiancée, and Malta’s Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was blown up in a car bomb, were targeted because of their investigative journalism.

Caruana Galizia had been a thorn in the side of the powers that be on the Mediterranean island for years thanks to her probes into government corruption and nepotism and into the links between Malta’s online gambling industry and organized crime.

According to Reporters without Borders, their deaths “have capped a worrying decline for the continent’s democracies” when it comes to the defense of press freedom. “The traditionally safe environment for journalists in Europe has begun to deteriorate,” according to the group, which notes that this year has seen “unprecedented verbal attacks on the media” as well as rising threats to investigative reporters.

In the past week, the ‘disappearing’ of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished after visiting his country’s consulate in Istanbul, where Turkish officials suspect he was murdered on the orders of the Saudi government, has prompted worldwide media outrage and a business backlash.

On Sunday, Afghan journalists joined in the chorus of condemnation, with the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee saying the possible killing of the prominent Saudi journalist was “an inhuman act no matter who or what country was behind such an offense.”

Murdering a media critic on foreign soil is being seen by journalists as yet another escalation in a dismal trend that’s seen the press increasingly targeted by the powerful or corrupt across the globe.

“From intimidation to restrictive laws and curbs on information, media outlets and individual journalists face a variety of threats to maintaining their independence and integrity in print and online,” warns Britain’s Chatham House.

This month the storied international affairs think tank gave its prestigious award annual Chatham House Prize to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in recognition for the non-profit’s efforts “to defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal and at a time when the free press is under serious pressure in many parts of the world.”

In September, the CPJ’s executive director warned the United Nations that governments collectively have failed to raise their voices in defense of press freedom and have allowed an alarming climate to build up by not ensuring there are consequences for attacks on the media — from intimidation and harassment of reporters to their imprisonment and murder.

On the jailing of journalists, he noted “the list is long — in fact, it’s never been longer.”

Simon complained: “Governments are directly responsible for this grave abuse, and the U.N. has a culture of rarely calling out its members. But the jailing of journalists has reached unprecedented levels. At the end of last year, there were 262 journalists jailed around the world, the highest number ever recorded by CPJ. The jailing of journalists is a brutal form of censorship and is having a profound impact on the flow of information around the world. The time has come to speak out and to name names.”

But whether names will be named is another matter, say analysts. The case of Jamal Khashoggi has clearly captured international public attention, but the slow erosion of press freedom and the targeted of journalists has been building for years, they say.

In Europe, from Hungary to Poland, Germany to Italy, populists from right and left of the political spectrum have targeted the media for rhetorical disdain, say analysts. In Germany supporters of the the far-right Alternative for Germany have dug out the old Nazi slogan Lügenpresse (lying press) to taunt reporters.

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico has dubbed reporters “filthy anti-Slovak prostitutes” and “idiotic hyenas.” In the Czech Republic President Milos Zeman once brandished a dummy Kalashnikov inscribed with the word “journalists” at a press conference, after suggesting they should be “liquidated.” And in Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic accuses journalists who criticize him of being “spies in foreign pay.”

Britain, too, is seeing a rise in threats against reporters. The BBC has had to provide on several occasions a bodyguard for the corporation’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg because of online threats mainly from the left-wingers, who accuse her of being biased against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Political leaders are increasingly the source of the verbal attacks and harassment that create a hostile climate for journalists,” says RSF.

 
…

Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, are expecting their first child in the spring, Kensington Palace said Monday.

The announcement came hours after Harry and the former Meghan Markle arrived in Sydney at the start of a 16-day visit to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. Hundreds of people gathered to catch a glimpse of the couple after they landed.

“Their royal highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public,” the palace said in a statement.

After their arrival in Sydney, the prince and the former American actress held hands and walked out an airport rear entrance and into a car. Meghan, wearing skinny black pants and a black, burgundy trimmed coat, was smiling and clutching folders, while Harry gave a thumbs up to bystanders.

The announcement of the pregnancy confirms weeks of speculation from royal watchers about why Meghan was not joining Harry on his Sydney Harbour Bridge climb set for Friday.

Harry and Meghan — along with Prince William and his wife, Kate, the duchess of Cambridge — have stepped to the fore in the last year as Queen Elizabeth II, 92, slightly reduces her public schedule.

Monday’s announcement is welcome news in Britain, where Meghan has won many hearts since her engagement to Harry was announced last December.

British Prime Minister Theresa May offered her “warmest congratulations” on the news, which provided a bit of relief from concerns about the stalled Brexit negotiations. “Wishing them all the best,” May tweeted.

The royal couple started dating in July 2016 after they were introduced by friends, and Harry courted Meghan on a trip to Africa shortly afterward. They kept their relationship secret for several months but word eventually leaked to the British press.

They were married in May in a spectacular ceremony on the grounds of Windsor Castle that drew tens of thousands of people to Windsor and was watched by a global TV audience.

Harry has become immensely popular in Britain, in part because of his military service and tireless work on behalf of wounded soldiers, and he has spoken often in recent years of his desire to settle down and start a family.

When the couple got engaged, Harry was asked about plans for children.

“You know, I think one step at a time, and hopefully we’ll start a family in the near future,” he said.

He said in 2015, before he met Meghan, that he would “love to have kids right now.”

Meghan has also talked about wanting to have children.

She said in a 2016 interview that becoming a mother was on her “bucket list.” She was still acting in “Suits” at the time.

“I can’t wait to start a family, but in due time,” she said.

Meghan, with her American roots and successful acting career, has been seen as a modernizing influence on the sometimes stodgy royal family, and she is credited by many for bringing happiness to Harry, who has long struggled to cope with the early death of his mother, Princess Diana.

Harry has broken new ground by talking openly about his mental health issues related to the death of his mother when he was only 12, and that candidness, which is part of a royal campaign to raise awareness about mental illness and end the stigma surrounding it, has brought the royals increased public backing.

The royal couple’s trip Down Under is their only international tour since they were married, apart from a two-day visit to Ireland.

Days after watching Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie tie the knot in a lavish ceremony in Windsor, the couple touched down in Sydney on an overcast morning after a regular Qantas Airways flight from London with a brief stopover in Singapore.

Sydney’s weather is expected to be drizzly and cool on Tuesday, with showers forecast for most of the week.

It won’t be the first time Harry has had to brave the rain in Sydney. Last year, he made a whirlwind visit to cast his eye over the Invictus Games preparations, where he charmed his fans during torrential rain.

The couple’s current tour coincides with the games, which start in Sydney on Saturday. The sporting event, founded by Harry in 2014, gives sick and injured military personnel and veterans the opportunity to compete in sports such as wheelchair basketball.

Harry and Meghan will attend the games’ opening and closing ceremonies. In all, they have 76 engagements scheduled over 16 days in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

In Australia, they will pet a koala in a Sydney zoo, visit the drought-stricken Outback town of Dubbo and meet indigenous leaders on Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, in northeastern Queensland state.

The royal couple was driven from the airport to Admiralty House, the official Sydney residence of Governor General Peter Cosgrove, who represents Australia’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, Harry’s grandmother. The couple had no official functions on Monday following the 17,140-kilometer (10,650-mile) flight that Qantas says takes 22 hours and 20 minutes.

Hundreds of well-wishers gathered with umbrellas outside the airport and Admiralty House in the hope of catching a glimpse of Harry and Meghan. The crowd cheered as the waving couple was driven through the gates of the harbor-side mansion.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who plans to climb with Harry to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, told Parliament on Monday that he commended the prince for coming to Sydney for the Invictus Games and welcomed the couple.

“I want to … commend Prince Harry for his tremendous initiative in lifting the spirits of every single serviceman and woman all around the globe,” Morrison said.

After the announcement that Harry and Meghan are expecting a baby, Morrison tweeted: “What fantastic news! Australia is thrilled for you both. Looking forward to sharing in the joy during your stay down under.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s representative in Britain, Ambassador Woody Johnson, tweeted: “Happy news to wake up to on a Monday morning — congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex!!”

The royal couple’s visit comes six months after Harry’s father, Prince Charles, made his 16th official visit to Australia, primarily to open the 21st Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast city in Queensland.

 
…

At least 13 people died as violent rainstorms turned rivers into raging torrents in southwestern France on Monday in the latest episode of wild weather in Europe, officials said.

Flash floods swamped a number of towns and villages around the fortress city of Carcassonne, leaving a trail of overturned cars, damaged roads and collapsed homes.

An elderly nun was swept to her death as rising waters smashed through a nunnery in the village of Villardonnel to the north of Carcassonne. Meanwhile, at least four people died overnight in the hard-hit village of Villegailhenc, local authorities said Monday.

As Prime Minister Edouard Philippe headed to the scene, the French interior ministry said a total of 13 people had died after the equivalent of three months’ of rainfall in just a few hours.  

“There’s water everywhere in the house. Everything is flooded,” Helene Segura told AFP by telephone from Villegailhenc where at least one small bridge had collapsed.

“When I look out the window, I can only see water and mud everywhere. It’s sad when you’re 70 years’ old like me and you need to redo your house, change the furniture and all the upholstery,” she said.

Authorities rushed in helicopters and 600 firemen to help with rescue operations, particularly those in the floodplain of the Aude river which hit its highest level in 100 years, according to the Vigicrues flood agency.

In the town of Trebes, near Carcassonne, the water in the Aude rose eight metres (26 feet) in just five hours, officials said.

Around 1,000 people were evacuated in the area of Pezens, also near Carcassonne in the Aude area, due to fears that a nearby dam could burst.

The storms were triggered when a front of warm and humid air from the Mediterranean Sea slammed into colder air around the Massif central mountain range in central France, inundating an area from the eastern Pyrenees to Aveyron further north.

Violent storms on Sunday also hit Portugal, leaving 28 with minor injuries and hundreds of thousands without power amid flooding in the region around the capital Lisbon.

The heavy rain, which later rolled on through Spain, was the tail end of hurricane Leslie in the Atlantic which weakened to a post-tropical storm as it made landfall.

Last week, an unrelated weather system moving across the Mediterranean left 12 dead in the Spanish island of Majorca and another two died in southeastern France.

Firemen responded to more than 250 calls overnight, as 160 to 180 mm (6 to 7 inches) of rain fell within five hours in Carcassonne.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies lost their absolute majority in Bavaria’s state parliament by a wide margin Sunday, according to projections from a regional election that could cause more turbulence in the national government.

The Christian Social Union was on course to take just over 35 percent of the vote, down from 47.7 percent five years ago, projections for ARD and ZDF public television based on exit polls and a partial vote count indicated.

That would be the socially conservative party’s worst performance in Bavaria, which it has traditionally dominated, since 1950. Squabbling in Merkel’s national government and a power struggle at home have weighed in recent months on the CSU, which has taken a hard line on migration tradition.

There were gains for parties to its left and right. The Greens were expected to win up to 19 percent to secure second place, more than double their support in 2013. And the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was set to enter the state legislature with around 11 percent of the vote.

The center-left Social Democrats, Merkel’s other coalition partner in Berlin, were on course for a disastrous result of 10 percent or less, half of what the party received in 2013 and its worst in the state since World War II.

The CSU has held an absolute majority in the Bavarian parliament for all but five of the past 56 years and governed the prosperous southeastern state for 61 years.

Needing coalition partners to govern would in itself be a major setback for the party, which only exists in Bavaria and has long leveraged its strength there to punch above its weight in national politics.

“Of course this isn’t an easy day for the CSU,” the state’s governor, Markus Soeder, told supporters in Munich, adding that the party accepted the “painful” result “with humility.”

Soeder pointed to goings-on in Berlin and said “it’s not so easy to uncouple yourself from the national trend completely.”

But he stressed that the CSU still emerged Sunday as the state’s strongest party and a mandate to form the next Bavarian government.

He said his preference was for a center-right coalition — which would see the CSU partner with the Free Voters, a local center-right party that was seen winning 11.5 percent, and possibly also the Free Democrats, who may or may not secure the 5 percent needed to win state parliament seats.

The Greens, traditionally bitter opponents, with a more liberal approach to migration and an emphasis on environmental issues, are another possibility.

Bavaria is home to some 13 million of Germany’s 82 million people.

In Berlin, the CSU is one of three parties in Merkel’s federal coalition government along with its conservative sister, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and the Social Democrats.

That government has been notable largely for internal squabbling since it took office in March. The CSU leader, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, has often played a starring role.

Back in Bavaria, a long-running CSU power struggle saw the 69-year-old Seehofer give up his job as state governor earlier this year to Soeder, a younger and sometimes bitter rival.

Seehofer has sparred with Merkel about migration on and off since 2015, when he assailed her decision to leave Germany’s borders open as refugees and others crossed the Balkans.

They argued in June over whether to turn back small numbers of asylum-seekers at the German-Austrian border, briefly threatening to bring down the national government.

Seehofer also starred in a coalition crisis last month over Germany’s domestic intelligence chief, who was accused of downplaying recent far-right violence against migrants.

Seehofer, who has faced widespread speculation lately that a poor Bavarian result would cost him his job, said he was “saddened” by Sunday’s outcome, but didn’t address his own future.

It remains to be seen whether and how the Bavarian result will affect the national government’s stability or Merkel’s long-term future.

Any aftershocks may be delayed, because another state election is coming Oct. 28 in neighboring Hesse, where conservative Volker Bouffier is defending the 19-year hold of Merkel’s CDU on the governor’s office. Bouffier has criticized the CSU for diminishing people’s trust in Germany’s conservatives.

“Clearly the choices of subjects and the debates of recent weeks led to our friends in the CSU being unable to put their successful regional record at the center of their election campaign,” said the CDU’s general secretary, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

 
…

Britain’s former Brexit secretary is urging members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet to rebel against her proposed deal with the European Union over the terms of Britain’s departure from the bloc.

David Davis wrote in the Sunday Times that May’s plans for some continued ties with the EU under her Chequers plan is “completely unacceptable” and must be stopped. The fellow Conservative Party member said the time has come for ministers to shoot down May’s plan.

“It is time for the cabinet to exert their collective authority,” he said. “This week the authority of our constitution is on the line.”

May is struggling to build a consensus behind her Brexit plans ahead of a cabinet meeting Tuesday that will be followed by an EU summit Wednesday in Brussels.

If Davis’ call for a rebellion is effective, the cabinet meeting Tuesday would be a likely place for opposition to surface.

Davis and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned from the cabinet this summer to protest May’s Brexit blueprint. Both have become vocal opponents of her plan, calling it a betrayal of the Brexit vote that would leave Britain in a weakened position.

May also faces obstacles from the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which has played a crucial role in propping up her minority government in Parliament.

DUP leader Arlene Foster remains opposed to any Brexit plan that would require checks on goods traveling between Northern Ireland and Britain, as some EU leaders have suggested as part of a “backstop” plan.

The Chequers plan has also been questioned by some opposition Labour Party lawmakers, further complicating the prime minister’s hopes of winning parliamentary backing for any Brexit deal she reaches with EU officials.
…

Saudi Arabia has rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to punish it over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying Sunday it would retaliate with “greater” economic actions of its own if Trump were to sanction Riyadh.

The Saudi stock market plunged seven percent before recovering to a five percent loss for the day after Trump told CBS there would be “severe punishment” if it is determined, as Turkey believes, that Saudi agents killed Khashoggi inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The Saudis have said the allegation is “baseless,” but have provided no proof that Khashoggi left the diplomatic outpost alive after arriving to pick up documents for his impending marriage.

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed government source as saying, “The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures, or repeating false accusations.”

The statement said the Saudi government “also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action,” noting that its economy, as the world’s biggest oil exporter, “has an influential and vital role in the global economy.”

Trump, in excerpts released Saturday from an interview to be aired Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes show, warned there would be “severe punishment” for Saudi Arabia if it is determined that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the United States and had criticized Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in columns written for The Washington Post.

Trump said “nobody knows yet” what happened inside the consulate, “but we’ll probably be able to find out” if Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Trump added the United States “would be very upset and angry if that were the case.”

But Trump, who has frequently boasted about his business ties with the kingdom, suggested during the interview that ending U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia would not be an option, saying, “I don’t want to hurt jobs.”

A key U.S. lawmaker, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, told CNN on Sunday that if Saudi agents “went medieval” on Khashoggi, “that would be an outrage.”

He said any response to Khashoggi’s killing “needs to be strong, not symbolic,” including the possibility of cutting off U.S. weapons sales to Riyadh, or it would undermine the U.S.’s moral standing in the world.

In protest of Khashoggi’s disappearance, several U.S. businesses leaders have pulled out of next week’s Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” after the annual meeting of world economic interests in Switzerland. Rubio said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should also withdraw, but White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the Treasury chief is still planning to go.

Media reports say Khashoggi may have recorded his own death on his Apple Watch.

Accounts say Khashoggi turned on the sound recording capability on his device as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The watch is reported to have been connected to the iCloud and the cell phone that he left with his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, before he entered the consulate. Cengiz said she waited for Khashoggi to come out of the consulate, but he never left.

The reports say the watch recorded not only Khashoggi’s interrogation and torture, but also his murder.

The Washington Post reported in recent days that the Turkish government informed U.S. officials it was in possession of video recordings that prove Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, but have not made them public.

Saudi officials have denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance and said he departed the consulate shortly after entering. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Saud bin Nayef has called the reports the government ordered Khashoggi killed “lies and baseless allegations.”

A group of 15 Saudi men is reported to have flown into Istanbul the day that Khashoggi went to the consulate. Media reports say the men were in the consulate when Khashoggi was there. The men stayed at the consulate for a few hours and then took flights back to Saudi Arabia.

One of the members of the group, according to CNN, has been identified by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency and the Sabah newspaper as Salah Muhammed al-Tubaiqi, whom the media outlets say is listed on an official Saudi health website as the head of the forensic medicine department at the Interior Ministry.

 
…

The head of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, is “ready” to trigger a no-deal Brexit and now regards it as the “likeliest” outcome, The Observer reported Saturday, citing a leaked email.

The newspaper said Arlene Foster told Ashley Fox, leader of Conservative Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), she had a “hostile and difficult” exchange at her meeting this week with Michel Barnier, the French official leading the European Union’s negotiating team.

“AF said the DUP were ready for a no-deal scenario, which she now believed was the likeliest one,” according to the email, whose sender or recipient the newspaper did not identify.

The Observer said it was one of several emails “leaked from the highest levels of government” that it had seen.

A DUP spokesman declined to comment beyond what Foster wrote for an article published in Saturday’s Belfast Telegraph. In it, Foster said she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, describing current plans as amounting to “the annexation of Northern Ireland” by the EU.

British and European Union negotiators this month accelerated the push for a Brexit deal, but talks remain snagged over the issue of the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Irish Republic, an EU member state.

Without a comprehensive EU-UK trade partnership after Brexit, the EU is seeking a “backstop” arrangement whereby Northern Ireland would effectively remain subject to the bloc’s regulations to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

But the DUP, whose support May needs to pass legislation in the British Parliament, vehemently opposes any proposals that treat the province differently from the rest of the UK.

“I fully appreciate the risks of a ‘no deal’ [Brexit] but the dangers of a bad deal are worse,” Foster wrote in the Telegraph article.

“This backstop arrangement would not be temporary. It would be the permanent annexation of Northern Ireland away from the rest of the United Kingdom and forever leave us subject to rules made in a place where we have no say,” she added.

‘No game’

Britain wants any “backstop” arrangement to be time-limited. Hard-line supporters of Brexit in May’s ruling Conservative Party fear it could be used to indefinitely keep the entire UK inside a customs union with the EU.

The EU is opposed to any specific cutoff date.

Foster said her party, which has 10 lawmakers in the UK Parliament, was not bluffing in its tough stance.

“This is no game. Anyone engaging in this in a lighthearted way foolishly fails to grasp the gravity of the decisions we will make in the coming weeks,” Foster said. “The coming days, weeks and months will be critical. The decisions taken will shape the type of Northern Ireland that our grandchildren will live in.”

Foster said she wanted a workable deal for both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and would travel to Dublin for talks on Monday.

In an article in another Northern Ireland newspaper, the Belfast News Letter, former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson also took aim at the backstop, describing May’s agreement to accept it as a “dreadful mistake.”

“The only way to put things back on the right track is to ditch the backstop,” Johnson wrote.
…

Pope Francis has defrocked two Chilean former bishops for sexually abusing minors, the Vatican said Saturday, after a meeting between the pontiff and Chile’s president.

The decision to expel former Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and former Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez — the latest heads to roll in a country hit hard by the clerical abuse scandal — is not open to appeal.

Both were stripped of their priesthood “as a consequence of overt acts of abuse against minors,” the Vatican said.

The announcement came a day after the pope accepted the resignation of Washington, D.C., Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who has been blamed for not doing enough to deal with pedophile priests.

Saturday’s defrocking was “an extremely unusual, if not unprecedented” move, wrote Ines San Martin, a Vatican expert working for specialist Catholic website Crux.

Defrocking is considered the church’s harshest penalty for priests, barring the offender from exercising any clerical duties at all, even in private.

Scores of new cases involving the abuse of minors by priests have come to light in Chile, deepening a crisis in the Roman Catholic Church that has also embroiled Pope Francis.

On Saturday, Francis met with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera at the Vatican for talks on the “difficult situation” in Chile.

They discussed “the painful scourge of abuse of minors, reiterating the effort of all in collaboration to combat and prevent the perpetration of such crimes and their concealment,” the Vatican said.

The leaders “shared the hope that the church could live a true rebirth,” Pinera said in a statement.

A total of 167 bishops, priests and lay members of the church in Chile are now under investigation for sexual crimes committed since 1960.

Years of allegations

Fernandez became a bishop in 2006, at age 42, but resigned just six years later, allegedly for health reasons.

It later transpired he had been accused of sexual abuse, sparking both a church and a civil investigation.

“The civil investigation is still ongoing because he’s never responded to a court subpoena to give testimony,” Vatican expert San Martin said.

Last seen in public in 2013, Fernandez has reportedly been living a life of penitence and prayer in Peru, she wrote.

The allegations of abuse against Cox date to the 1970s.

The Vatican said he would remain part of the Schoenstatt Fathers institute in Germany.

Now 85 and reportedly in poor health, the prelate has lived at the institute since 2002, San Martin said.

In a statement, the Schoenstatt Fathers reaffirmed its “willingness to collaborate” with anything that the judicial authorities required.

It pledged to “ask for a medical evaluation to determine whether it is possible for Francisco Jose Cox to return to Chile.”

Legal proceedings were initiated in Germany against Cox over the alleged abuse of a child in care in 2004, Deutsche Welle radio reported.

Good day for survivors 

Francis has already apologized repeatedly to Chileans over the scandal, admitting the church failed “to listen and react” to the allegations, but has vowed to “restore justice.”

In May, the Argentine pontiff accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops following allegations of abuse and related cover-ups.

Francis himself became mired in the scandal when, during a trip to Chile in January, he defended 61-year-old bishop Juan Barros, who was accused of covering up abuse by pedophile priest Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 1990s.

Karadima was suspended for life by the Vatican over allegations of child molestation.

Francis eventually accepted he was wrong to defend Barros and subsequently accepted his resignation.

On Saturday, Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima’s victims, tweeted that it was “a good day for the survivors of these monsters.”

“Now it’s up to the Chilean justice to do something!”
…

A car carrying migrants collided with a truck in northern Greece Saturday, killing 11 people, police said.

Ten of the victims were believed to be migrants who crossed into the Greece from Turkey. The 11th person was the driver and a suspected migrant smuggler, police said. 

Police said the car in which the migrants were packed had another vehicle’s license plates and is suspected of having been used for migrant trafficking. The car had not stopped at a police checkpoint during its journey, but it wasn’t immediately clear how close to the site of the crash that it happened.

Increase in migrants

Police said the crash occurred just after 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) near the town of Kavala. The car, which had been heading to the main northern city of Thessaloniki, collided with a truck heading in the opposite direction and burst into flames. All of the victims have been burned beyond recognition. The truck caught fire as well. 

All those in the car were killed. The truck driver, a 39-year-old Greek man, was treated for minor injuries in a hospital in northern Greece before being discharged.

Greek authorities have been seeing an increase in people illegally crossing the Greek-Turkish border in recent months. Many are transported to Thessaloniki, where they head to police stations to be registered and apply for asylum.

Spanish rescues

Elsewhere, Spain’s maritime rescue service says it recovered the bodies of three migrants and feared that another 17 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The service says that its rescue craft found the three bodies in waters near a sinking boat it intercepted east of the Strait of Gibraltar. Rescuers saved 36 men of sub-Saharan origin from the boat. The saved migrants said that another 17 men who had traveled with them were missing. 

In total, the service pulled 509 migrants from 15 small boats Friday. 

The United Nations says that 337 of the total of 1,783 migrants who have died trying to reach Europe by sea in 2018 perished in waters near Spain.

 
…

Russia’s top diplomat on Friday called the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decision to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from Moscow a Washington-backed “provocation,” from which he vowed to protect “the faithful” in Ukraine if the schism sparks violence.

On Thursday, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based head of global Orthodox Christianity, recognized Ukrainian churches as independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, ending the Moscow Patriarchy’s 332-year oversight of Ukrainian parishes.

The move has immediately restored Ecumenical Patriarchate jurisdiction over all Orthodox faithful in Ukraine, granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the right to autocephaly — the ecclesiastical term for self-governance. Under this decree, leaders of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian community will be able to form an independently administrated Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Calling the decision “a provocation by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, undertaken with direct public support from Washington,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the move as part of a conspiracy in violation of internationally recognized laws.

“Interfering in church life is forbidden by law in Ukraine, in Russia, and, I hope, in any normal state,” he said, according to a transcript of a press conference posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.

The decision, which has sparked celebration in Kyiv and outrage in Moscow, is a victory in Ukraine’s struggle to keep Moscow at bay since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and its continued support for separatists fighting against Kyiv in the east, where violence has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives.

Theologian Sergei Chapnin recently wrote in Bloomberg News that “there’s a real danger that the rift could lead to bloodshed, an outcome that all sides must act decisively to prevent.”

Although the Kyiv Patriarchy’s formal break from Moscow has been discussed intermittently since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian aggression since 2014 has widened fissures running throughout Eastern Europe’s Slavic Orthodox community, hastening the split being witnessed this week.

“This step by the Kyiv Patriarchy was expected for a long time, and it is in response to many factors,” said Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, acting director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

“The Ukrainian people are divided. There are millions of Orthodox people who don’t have an alternative to the Moscow Patriarchy … and those people want to belong to an independent church that is free from Russian propaganda, free from collaboration with the Russian regime,” he told VOA, calling the Moscow Patriarchy an ideological instrument of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“Because the church was intertwined with this aggressive policy of the Russian state, the response to the Russian aggression now includes also response to the ecclesial issue,” he said. “So, the ecclesial issue in Ukraine — the church issue in Ukraine — has become a part of the political and security agenda for the state.”

Even then, he added, the Kyiv Patriarchy’s divorce from Moscow will give the faithful more choice in terms of how they choose to practice their faith.

“This move is wise because it corresponds completely to the principle of freedom of consciousness, of freedom of religion,” he said, explaining that all Ukraine-based parishioners will be able to choose which type of Orthodox Church they want to attend — including those guided by tenets of the Russian Orthodox tradition.

“And the [Ukrainian] state really stressed that in the statements by [President Petro Poroshenko] and other political officials, that they will respect that choice of the people and that communities can belong to any jurisdiction they want.”

In September, Patriarch Filaret, head of Kyiv Patriarchy, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service that the process of unifying Ukraine’s Orthodoxy will guarantee that each parish will be free to determine its future.

“Religious infighting would be a justification for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs,” he said, vowing to avoid bloodshed at all costs. “We want this process to be free of violence. If they don`t want to join Ukrainian church, they can stay with Russian church.”

Kyiv’s formal split from Moscow, he added, means that the Russian Orthodox Church will not only lose most of its political and ideological influence over Ukrainian faithful, but also its standing as one of the leaders of global Orthodoxy.

“Currently, Moscow’s Patriarchy together with the Ukrainian church is the biggest Orthodox church in the world,” he told VOA, adding that Constantinople’s recognition of autocephaly cuts the Moscow Patriarchy to half its current size.

“It wouldn’t be able to fight for leadership in the Orthodox Church,” Filaret said, referring to a centuries-long geopolitical competition between Moscow and Constantinople to claim command of Orthodoxy’s quarter-billion followers worldwide.

Although more than two-thirds of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, Russia is home to the largest number of Orthodox faithful, bolstering its national identity as a bastion of traditional Christian values, an image the Kremlin goes out of its way to project globally.

The next step in Ukraine’s split from Russia is to reunite its various strands of Orthodox faith under the new church, which includes deciding the fate of church buildings and monasteries, some of which are aligned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the start of 2018, Ukraine was home to roughly one-third of the Russian church’s parish holdings, according to Kyiv’s official data.

Russia’s past efforts to undermine the Kyiv Patriarchy’s move toward self-rule involved a cyberattack on Bartholomew’s top clergy, according to the Associated Press.

Last month, the State Department endorsed support for Ukraine’s Orthodox religious leaders’ pursuit of autocephaly, saying it “maintains unwavering support for Ukraine and its territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and the Russian occupation of Crimea.”

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Some information is from AFP and Reuters.
…

Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe’s rapid rise to global fame has earned the teenaged World Cup winner an appearance on the cover of Time magazine’s international edition.

Time said Mbappe was a global superstar who “is the future of soccer.”

Mbappe made headlines in September 2017 when he moved from Ligue 1 side Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain for a staggering 180 million euros ($207 million), a deal that saw the then 18-year-old player handed a reported monthly salary of 1.5m euros ($1.8m).

But the 19-year-old’s stock skyrocketed during this year’s World Cup, where a series of phenomenal displays drew compliments from Brazil legend Pele on his way to helping France end their 20-year wait to win another World Cup trophy.

Mbappe became the youngest French goal scorer in World Cup history when he struck in a 1-0 win over Peru in the group stages.

The teenager from the gritty Parisian suburb of Bondy then tore apart Argentina, scoring twice and earning a penalty as Les Blues eliminated the highly-fancied South Americans 4-3 in the last 16 knockout round.

In doing so, Mbappe became only the second teenager, after Pele in 1958, to score two goals in a World Cup match.

When Mbappe scored with a 25-yard strike in the final, a 4-2 win over Croatia, he became only the second teenager to do so, after Pele, in 1958.

With a total of four goals in the tournament, Mbappe received FIFA’s award for Best Young Player of the World Cup.

Arguably better still were the plaudits from Pele himself, who said: “If Kylian keeps on equaling my records, I’m going to have to dust off my boots.”

Mbappe’s teenage days will end when he celebrates his 20th birthday on December 20.

He played a key role for France on Thursday, equalizing from the penalty spot in a 2-2 friendly draw against Iceland.

 
…

Britain’s Princess Eugenie wore an elegant voluminous dress by London-based label Peter Pilotto for her wedding to Jack Brooksbank on Friday, with the bride picking a low back to reveal scars she got from surgery as a child.

The 28-year-old granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth walked down the aisle of Windsor Castle’s 15th Century St George’s Chapel in a fitted corset and pleated skirt with a long train designed by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, who founded the label in 2007.

“The dress features a neckline that folds around the shoulders to a low back that drapes into a flowing full length train,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “The low back feature on the dress was at the specific

request of Princess Eugenie who had surgery aged 12 to correct

scoliosis.”

Eugenie, who announced her engagement in January, worked closely with Pilotto and De Vos for the bespoke dress, with the designers leafing through archives of frocks worn by British royals to pick a silhouette.

Motifs meaningful to the couple were woven into a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend, the palace said. The designs included the thistle and shamrock, the flowers of Scotland and Ireland, and the English rose.

Eugenie borrowed the queen’s Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara, decorated with rose cut diamonds and emeralds and made by jewelers Boucheron in 1919 in the style worn in the Russian Imperial Court.

She wore diamond and emerald drop earrings given to her by

Brooksbank and satin peep-toe heels by Charlotte Olympia.

Speculation over who would design the wedding dress had mounted over the last few weeks, with labels such as Erdem, Ralph & Russo among those mentioned in media reports.

“As soon as we announced the wedding, I knew the designer, and the look, straight away,” she was quoted as saying. “I never thought I’d be the one who knew exactly what I like, but I’ve been pretty on top of it.”

Eugenie, who works in art and Brooksbank, who is European brand manager for Casamigos Tequila, a brand co-founded by Hollywood actor George Clooney, married at the same venue that her cousin Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose for their nuptials in May.
…

Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle on Friday in front of celebrities and Britain’s senior royals including Prince Harry and wife Meghan who wed at the same venue in May.

Eugenie, 28, younger daughter of the queen’s third child, Prince Andrew, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, tied the knot with Brooksbank, 32, in the castle’s 15th Century St George’s Chapel.

It was the same setting as the wedding of Harry and Meghan earlier in the year, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the couple are now known, were among the star-studded congregation at Friday’s event.

The 92-year-old queen and her husband Philip, 97, who has retired from official engagements, were joined by other royals and celebrities including Hollywood stars Liv Tyler and Demi Moore, models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and singer Ellie Goulding.

Female guests had to cling on to their hats as a blustery wind threatened their wedding outfits and a page boy tripped on the stairs walking into the chapel.

Eugenie’s dress, by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos who founded the British-based label Peter Pilotto, was designed deliberately with a low back to reveal scars from surgery she underwent as a child. She was led down the aisle by her father, Prince Andrew.

“This is meant to be a family wedding,” Andrew said earlier. “There will be a few more people than most people have, there are a few more than Harry had, but that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack – they’ve got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in,” he told ITV’s “This

Morning” which broadcast the event live.

Camilla absent

Singing and cheering well-wishers gathered outside in the streets of Windsor in the shadow of the castle, although there were far fewer people than crammed into the town for Harry’s wedding.

“I’m a true royalist,” David Weeks, 77, bedecked in a “Union Jack” suit and bowler hat, told Reuters. “I was here for the queen’s 90th birthday. I was here for Harry and Meghan’s wedding, I wouldn’t miss it, I love the atmosphere.”

The ceremony was overseen by the Dean of Windsor David Conner and charity guests and 1,200 members of the public were invited into the grounds for the occasion.

One noticeable absentee was Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, as she was carrying out an engagement in Scotland.

Princess Charlotte, 3, daughter of Harry’s elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate, was a bridesmaid, and her brother, Prince George, 5, a page boy.

After the service, the couple made an open-top carriage tour of Windsor. The queen then hosted a reception at the castle.

Eugenie, a director at London’s Hauser & Wirth art gallery, and Brooksbank, who owns a wine wholesale business and is European brand manager for Casamigos Tequila, which was co-founded by U.S. actor George Clooney, met in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010.
…

Hundreds of Bulgarians queued silently at a church in Ruse on Friday to pay their last respects to Viktoria Marinova, the television journalist whose brutal rape and murder shocked the country and triggered debates over freedom of the press.

The body of the 30-year-old Marinova, a host of a regional current affairs show at a local TV station, was found in a park near the Danube port of Ruse, her hometown, on Saturday. Police said she had been raped, beaten and strangled.

A Bulgarian man, Severin Krasimirov, 20, was arrested in Germany over the killing, and German authorities said he would be extradited to stand trial in Bulgaria soon.

Bulgarian prosecutors said no evidence indicated Marinova’s death was related to her work. A random attack and sexual assault were the most likely motive, they said, although they were still investigating all possibilities.

In her last aired show, Marinova featured investigative journalists and pledged to engage in similar work, which stoked fears about retribution against journalists exposing corruption.

She is the third journalist to be killed in the European Union within a year.

Marinova, who left a seven-year-old daughter, is to be buried later on Friday in Ruse Cemetery. More than 500 grieving Ruse citizens, carrying red and white carnations and funeral wreaths, flocked to the funeral service at the Sveta Troitsa (Holy Trinity) Cathedral.

People who knew her talked about her determination, responsibility and kindness, her charitable work and commitment to social causes such as support for disabled and disadvantage children, about which she also reported.

“Viktoria’s death is a great loss for the whole city,” Zornitsa Koleva, 48, said. “She was so kind and ambitious at the same time. We all need to be united and show that we will do our best to prevent this from happening again in Ruse.”

Many were also angered at the horrific murder and called for the toughest sentence for the perpetrator.

Earlier on Friday, German authorities approved Krasimirov’s extradition, saying that he had agreed to an expedited procedure. That meant he should be sent to Bulgaria within 10 days.

The suspect told German magistrates he had hit a woman he did not know while drunk and on drugs but denied intending to kill her, rape her or rob her. His mother, however, said he had told her he had killed the journalist.

Marinova’s murder revived debate over the extent of press freedom in the Black Sea state, ranked 111 out of 180 countries this year in a world press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Bulgaria also ranks worst in the EU for violence against women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality.

 
…

The head of Russia’s space agency said Friday that two astronauts who survived the midair failure of a Russian rocket would fly again and would provisionally travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in spring of next year.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, was speaking a day after Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and American Nick Hague made a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan after the failure of the Soyuz rocket carrying them to the orbital ISS.

Rogozin Friday posted a picture on Twitter of himself next to the two astronauts and said they had now arrived in Moscow. Both men escaped unscathed and feel fine, Roscosmos has said.

The mishap occurred as the first and second stages of a Russian rocket separated shortly after the launch from Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era cosmodrome of Baikonur.

Thursday’s accident was the first serious launch problem experienced by a manned Soyuz space mission since 1983, when a crew narrowly escaped before a launch pad explosion.

The Interfax news agency Friday cited a source familiar with the Russian investigation as saying that a faulty valve had caused the first stage of the Soyuz-FG rocket to malfunction even though the valve had been properly checked before take-off.

NASA has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the United States retired its Space Shuttle program in 2011, although the agency has announced plans for a test flight carrying two astronauts on a SpaceX commercial rocket next April.

Space is an area of cooperation between the United States and Russia at a time of fraught relations. Asked about the mishap, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House he was “not worried” that American astronauts have to rely on Russia to get into space.

Moscow has suspended all manned space launches, while Rogozin has ordered a state commission to investigate what went wrong. Russia’s Investigative Committee has also opened a criminal investigation into the matter.

Unmanned launches of the Progress spacecraft, which carry food and other supplies to the ISS and use the same rocket system as Soyuz, might also be suspended, Interfax has said.

WATCH: US-Russian Space Crew Makes Emergency Landing
…

It’s time for another royal wedding at Windsor Castle — but this time it’s less of a global TV spectacle and more of a family affair.

Despite large signs at the castle’s ticket booth welcoming people to the wedding, many visitors seem unaware that Princess Eugenie, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, will marry tequila company executive James Brooksbank Friday.

“No interest,” said Michael Taylor, a drummer from Chicago who toured the imposing castle Wednesday — but didn’t know a wedding was being planned on the grounds. “I don’t know anything about her. If she walked past me right now, I wouldn’t even know.”

Eugenie is the 28-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and ninth in line for the throne. She has lived most of her life outside the media spotlight, and keeps a low profile compared to cousins Prince William and Prince Harry and their glamorous wives.

That’s reflected in the souvenir shops that line the streets leading to the imposing castle. Royal wedding merchandise fill the windows — but they feature Harry and Meghan Markle, who also married at Windsor Castle in May in a spectacular, globally televised ceremony.

Only a few Halloween face masks feature Eugenie, though some shopkeepers say that will change in the hours ahead of her wedding.

“It’s going to be shirts and some mugs. A few people have been asking for it, but compared to Harry-Meghan, it’s not that big,” said Salman Khan at The King and Queen gift shop. Eugenie items have been hard to find because only a few suppliers are manufacturing them, he added.

“This is different, but it’s still quite good for the town. The whole town is still excited. It’s going to be a good day for everybody,” he said.

Snippets of the wedding will be shown on British TV, but only one channel, ITV, is planning to provide live coverage of the proceedings.

Eugenie and Brooksbank are following a precedent set by Harry and Meghan by inviting 1,200 members of the public to the castle grounds for a better view of Friday’s festivities.

Like Harry and Meghan, the couple will also say their vows in St. George’s Chapel, a masterpiece of the “perpendicular Gothic” style with royal connections dating back to 1475, when construction began under King Edward IV.

Afterward, the newlyweds plan a carriage ride through the streets of Windsor to give the public a chance to see them up close.

It’s not clear how many visitors will come to Windsor, a riverside town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of London. Part of the draw will be the chance to catch a glimpse of the queen and other royals, including William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their two young children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

George, 5, will be a page boy in the bridal party, and three-year-old Charlotte will be one of six bridesmaids. It is not clear if their youngest brother, five-month-old Prince Louis, will attend.

Harry and Meghan, a former star of the TV show “Suits,” are also expected.

Eugenie is following tradition by not revealing who designed her wedding gown, but she has said it will be a British designer. She has asked her older sister, Princess Beatrice, to be her maid of honor.

Eugenie has worked for several years in a fulltime position with the Hauser and Wirth art gallery in London.

Brooksbank, 32, has asked his brother Thomas to be his best man. He and Eugenie have dated for many years. The couple says he got down on one knee and proposed in January during a trip to Nicaragua while the couple was visiting a spectacular lake next to a volcano.

The queen, who has only just returned from an extended summer holiday in Scotland, plans to host a champagne luncheon for the newlyweds shortly after the ceremony, and a second reception will be held that night.

The luncheon with the queen is expected to be a quiet, muted affair — reflecting the 92-year-old monarch’s advanced years — with the nighttime shindig seen as a chance for the younger generations to step out in style.

The presence of so many royals — and a number of celebrity guests — has prompted extra security measures to be put in place.

Police teams have been meticulously checking and sealing water drains near the castle, and sniffer dogs are checking for explosives in the royal-themed shops, restaurants and tea rooms frequented by tourists.

The royal family is paying for the wedding, but the anti-monarchist group Republic is lobbying Parliament to prevent any public money from being spent on security or other wedding-related costs.

The group says Eugenie does not carry out royal duties and that weddings are personal, private occasions, not affairs of state. It has criticized the royals for using weddings as “PR exercises” and expecting taxpayers to pick up part of the tab.

These concerns aren’t popular in Windsor’s business community, where the surging popularity of the royal family in recent years — and the afterglow of Harry and Meghan’s wedding — has helped bring in visitors in recent months.

“We are getting a lot of American and Chinese and Spanish visitors,” said Jag Khaira at the Nell Gwynn Tearoom. “A lot of tourists don’t even know about this wedding Friday, but it will bring in the crowds and should be a good day for us.”
…

A crowdfunding appeal launched in response to the #MeToo movement has paid out more than a million pounds ($1.32 million) to British charities fighting sexual harassment and abuse.

Organizers at the Justice and Equality Fund called for more donations as they announced the payouts, a year after the #MeToo campaign first swept the internet.

“We are just at the start,” said Samantha Rennie, executive director of women’s funding group Rosa, which organized the project. “The more people, companies and organizations that stand up and show their solidarity by giving to the fund, the quicker we will succeed.”

The #MeToo campaign spread across social media a year ago as women came forward with a slew of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in a scandal that sparked a wider, global debate over sexual abuse and harassment.

It led to the creation of the Justice and Equality Fund in February, backed by high-profile actors including Harry Potter star Emma Watson and Keira Knightley, who played a fanatical footballer in her breakthrough movie Bend It Like Beckham.

Watson put a million pounds into the fund and on Thursday hailed the campaign as a step toward “systemic change.”

“This year is just the beginning,” she said in a statement.

Rosa said it had received an extra million from the Comic Relief charity, bringing the total pot to 2.7 million pounds.

Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland was one of the biggest recipients, saying it would use the 200,000 pounds to re-establish a rape crisis center, 12 years after it had shut.

“To be able to fund the first rape crisis service provision in Northern Ireland for 12 years feels like a huge step forward,” said Knightley in a statement.

“I hope we can continue to raise funds to support more of the front-line organizations doing such critical work with women and girls.”

Other charities to benefit include a legal advice line Rights of Women, the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre and the London Black Women’s Project.
…

Real Madrid says it has taken legal action against a Portuguese newspaper that reported the Spanish club forced Cristiano Ronaldo to settle with the woman who accused him of rape.

Madrid says the information published by the Correio da Manha newspaper is “categorically false” and was printed in an effort to “seriously damage the image of this club.”

Madrid says it “has absolutely no knowledge of any of the information that the newspaper published with regard to the player Cristiano Ronaldo, and therefore the club was unable to take action on a matter of which it had no knowledge.”

The Correio da Manha published an article Wednesday saying that part of Ronaldo’s defense will be to say that Real Madrid forced him to settle. It said Ronaldo was against settling and always declared his innocence.

The newspaper said Thursday it stood by what it published and that everything that went into the article was properly checked.

Kathryn Mayorga filed a lawsuit late last month in Nevada saying she was raped by Ronaldo in Las Vegas in 2009. Police have re-opened an investigation.

The 33-year-old Ronaldo, who played nearly a decade with Real Madrid before joining Italian club Juventus in the offseason, has denied any wrongdoing.
…

Turkey’s finance tsar has declared war on soaring inflation and called on the country’s businesses to cut prices. 

Finance minister Berat Albayrak Tuesday called on business to cut prices by 10 percent to counter runaway inflation. The Turkish lira has fallen some 40 percent this year, driving up the price of everything from food to fuel and sending inflation to 25 percent last month, its highest in 15 years. 

Analysts warn that this radical strategy could hurt an economy that is already struggling. 

“It’s unusual to announce an anti-inflationary package without a reference to monetary policy,” said senior economist Inan Demir of Nomura International.

Most nations use monetary policy to fight inflation by raising interest rates to cut domestic demand and strengthen the local currency.

“I would say there is a reason, economic theory, and past experience favor monetary policy because measures to control prices have serious side effects,” Demir said.

Since the failed coup in 2016, numerous companies have been seized by Turkish authorities after being accused of conspiring against the government.

‘War on inflation’

In launching his “war on inflation,” the finance minister attacked unnamed companies for “speculation, opportunism and stockpiling.” Police have raided businesses, accused of speculation and shops and supermarkets are now being checked for “price gouging.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weighing in, calling on consumers to report shops and businesses for excessive price hikes.

Political analyst, Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, warns the government’s efforts to curtail inflation are more likely to hurt the economy than help it.

“Some people are obviously trying to benefit from the currency turmoil, but a lot of people simply have no idea how to price and cost things. This is why they are simply raising prices by as much as the exchange rate,” Yesilada said. “By trying to stop this kind of behavior, the government is simply making things worse because if people can’t price appropriately, they will stop producing or selling. I understand in some grocery stores, pharmacies and supermarkets there is a shortage of some essential goods.”

International investors 

Last month, the Turkish central bank won back some much need credibility by the international investment community by hiking interest rates by over 6 percent in a move to rein in inflation and defend the currency.

Analysts interpreted the rate hike as an essential step toward returning to economic stability and re-establishing the central bank’s independence.

A key factor cited by international investors for the weakness in the Turkish lira was Erdogan’s hostility toward interest rises and his apparent control over the central bank.

Analysts say the latest measure will likely unnerve investors again. However the Turkish lira only suffered a minimal fall following the controversial policy announcement.

“The most important agenda item for investors is the Pastor Brunson case, and any other news is overshadowed by the hearing Friday, which explains the short-lived sell-off,” said economist Demir.

An American citizen, Pastor Andrew Brunson, is on trial accused of terrorism in Turkey, charges Washington insist are baseless. U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade sanctions imposed on Turkey in August was, in part, retaliation for Ankara’s refusal to release Brunson. The sanctions resulted in the lira falling.

Brunson trial resumes

On Friday, Brunson’s trial resumes with growing expectation that he will be allowed to return to the United States. Such a move would lift the threat of further US sanctions. However, analysts warn about what will happen if Brunson is not released.

“If Brunson is not released, the markets will start to price in further sanctions by the U.S. And, as long as we don’t have much clarity on the U.S. sanctions, the market’s inclination will be to price in the more adverse scenario,” said analyst Demir.
…

U.N. human rights experts are calling for a prompt independent and international investigation into the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi.  He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 2.

Members of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances say they are deeply concerned over the vanishing of Kashoggi as well as over allegations of his state-sponsored murder.

They say they are disturbed the disappearance of the Saudi journalist may be directly linked to his criticism of his government’s policies in recent years.  They are demanding an immediate international probe into the events surrounding his case.  

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani agrees the apparent enforced disappearance of Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate is of serious concern.

“If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are confirmed, this is truly shocking.  We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and to make the findings public,” Shamdasani said.  

Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate more than one week ago to get divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancée.  He has not been seen since.  The journalist, a critic of the Saudi monarchy, has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for more than a year.

His disappearance has unleashed an international firestorm and warnings of serious diplomatic repercussions if the matter is not resolved.  U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, says he does not like the “bad stories” about this situation.

Turkish media reports allege Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate and his body dismembered.  Crown Prince Mohammed calls the reports about Khashoggi’s disappearance or death completely false and baseless.

U.N. human rights experts say an international probe is needed to learn the truth.  They say the perpetrators and masterminds of this alleged crime should be identified and brought to justice.

 
…

The White House said Wednesday that top Trump administration officials have spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials say they believe was murdered last week inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

National security adviser John Bolton and senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, talked with Salman Tuesday, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a follow-up call with the Saudi leader to reiterate the U.S. demand for information about the case, the White House said.

“In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” the White House said.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. is continuing to monitor the unfolding investigation in Istanbul, but offered no information what the crown prince told the U.S. officials about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Trump told reporters he had talked with officials in Saudi Arabia “at the highest level” about Khashoggi’s disappearance, but offered no indication on his whereabouts.

“It’s a very sad situation, this is a bad situation,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

“Nobody knows what happened,” Trump said, adding, “We want to get to the bottom of it. We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anyone.”

Trump declined to say whom he talked with in the Saudi government. He said his aides have been in contact with Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and hope to set up a meeting with her at the White House.

Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi, a critic of Salman who has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was murdered October 2 inside the consulate when he went there to pick up documents to allow him to marry Cengiz, a Turkish national, or perhaps spirited away to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has called the allegation “baseless,” but has offered no proof that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, nor has Turkey produced evidence that he was killed inside the diplomatic outpost.

Asked whether Washington might dispatch FBI technicians if Saudi Arabia requested it, Vice President Mike Pence said, “I think the United States of America stands ready to assist in any way.”

Pence did not indicate that either Turkey, which has launched an intensive investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance, or Saudi Arabia has sought U.S. assistance.

He told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Khashoggi’s disappearance is “a great concern for the United States of America. The suggestion that this journalist, Mr. Khashoggi, was you know, was murdered should be deeply troubling to everyone that cares as a free and open press around the world…. The free world deserves answers. Violence against journalists should be condemned, but at this point, we don’t know what happened.”

A key U.S. lawmaker, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, told VOA the unfolding drama could significantly affect U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, long an American ally in the Middle East.

“If it turns out that suspicions of Saudi involvement in the murder of this journalist are true,” Kaine said, “it could be a real sea-change in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could affect many things, including U.S. support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. So I think we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Turkey has focused much of its investigation on 15 Saudi nationals who arrived in Istanbul on two flights the same day as Khashoggi was at the consulate.

Khashoggi has written articles in The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi regime and its intervention in the war in Yemen. Cengiz, his fiancee, wrote in the newspaper Tuesday that Khashoggi had been “somewhat concerned that he could be in danger” when he first visited the consulate September 28, but after that visit was uneventful, seemed unconcerned when he returned last week to pick up the documents they needed to get married.

She called on Trump to “help shed light” on the journalist’s disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia’s leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area.

Turkish media Wednesday showed what it said was a team of the 15 Saudis arriving at the Istanbul airport on the same day Khashoggi went missing. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published names and pictures of the Saudi nationals, apparently taken at a passport control station.

Later, eight of the men checked into the Movenpick hotel near the consulate, with seven others checking into a different nearby hotel, the Wyndham. Nearly two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, video shows two vehicles with diplomatic plates leaving the consulate through police barricades and headed to the Saudi consul general’s residence. The 15 Saudis left Turkey at four different times, the Sabah report said.

Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper’s latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers.

“Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable.  We demand to know the truth,” Ryan said in a statement.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible.  The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said earlier in the week.

Crown Prince Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist.

Michael Bowman contributed to this report.
…

Journalists are familiar with the risks of reporting from war-torn lands, but the recent death or disappearance of three people in Turkey, Bulgaria and Mexico illustrates the growing dangers to reporters targeted for practicing their craft.

Authorities in Turkey are searching for Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing since walking into the Saudi Arabian consulate last week in Istanbul. There are concerns that Khashoggi, who has written critically of the Saudi regime, may have been killed there.

Elsewhere, Bulgarian national radio reported an arrest Tuesday in the death of television reporter Viktoria Marinova, host of a show that reported on the alleged misuse of European Union funds by a Bulgarian building company.

And in Mexico this past week, journalist and activist Sergio Martinez Gonzalez was shot and killed by two people on a motorcycle as he ate breakfast with his wife at a cafe.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 43 journalists have been killed in the line of their work so far in 2018. Last year, there were 46 deaths for all of 2017. The numbers aren’t that unusual and, in fact, have been higher: 73 in 2015 and 2013, 74 in 2012, the committee said.

What’s different is the way they are losing their lives. At least 27 journalists have been individually slain so far this year, compared with eight losing their lives in the crossfire of violent conflicts, CPJ said. Of all the journalists killed since 1992, 848 were individually killed and 1,322 were lost in crossfire, CPJ said.

“Conflict deaths are one thing, targeted assassinations another,” said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

Similarly alarming is the spread of slayings into Europe, as opposed to countries like Mexico, where drug violence has made journalism risky for years, said Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy executive director.

Besides Marinova’s death in Bulgaria, Jan Kuciak was found shot to death in Slovakia after investigating tax fraud among people close to the ruling party. In Malta, investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed after reporting frequently on government corruption for her blog.

“There are crooks everywhere you look now,” she wrote right before her death. “The situation is desperate.”

The killing of five staff members at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, by a gunman in June brought the threat home to the United States. Meanwhile, the United Nations has been involved in seeking the release from prison in Myanmar of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters reporters who had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohinga Muslim men and boys.

“It’s safe to say there is a pervasive worldwide threat directed to journalists and a perceived immunity for attacks,” Shapiro said. “And I think that’s very dangerous.”

The European cases appear to speak to the power of oligarchs involved in shady activities who act across borders without consequences, he said.

While careful not to place blame on President Donald Trump, experts say his attacks on the press as the “enemy of the people” have a corrosive effect that is noticed around the world. Journalists who may not have felt physical danger often find themselves the targets of threats and harassment online.

“We are conditioned to expect the United States to speak up for press freedom around the world and to defend it, not to belittle the press,” Mahoney said.

Journalism organizations have recognized the threat and have taken steps to protect reporters, the experts said.

“If there is an upside to this, I think that people who stand for democratic values are beginning to understand that scapegoating journalists and scapegoating the media is a step toward authoritarianism,” Shapiro said. 
…