ІНСАЙДЕР УКРАЇНА

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foreign universities targeted

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

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

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

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

Challenge planned

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

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

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

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

’Cosmetic’ changes

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

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

Hungary backtracks

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

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

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

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

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

Serious risk to democracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​Politics and diplomacy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muslim Brotherhood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business demands

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

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

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

Uncertainties

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

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

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

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

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

In search of alliances

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The White House had no immediate comment on the report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​Knives featured pink blades 

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

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

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

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

Molotov cocktails found

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

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

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

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

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

Fake suicide belts

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

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

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

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

Questions remain

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

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

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

Warned by police

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solid majority seen vital

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

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

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

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

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

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

Youth vote energized

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

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

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

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

May’s campaign catchphrase of a “strong and stable government” has backfired. Britain looks set for months of political chaos.
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Britain was thrown into political uncertainty Friday after the Labour Party, the country’s main opposition, made an extraordinary electoral comeback, denying Prime Minister Theresa May and the ruling Conservatives a majority in the House of Commons, largely thanks to a surge in youth voters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

​Calls for May to step down

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

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

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

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

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

​Brexit not the only issue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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