French President Emmanuel Macron celebrates his 40th birthday this weekend on the grounds of a former royal palace, in what some opponents called another tactless show of wealth.

Rivals have branded former investment banker Macron “president of the rich” for policies such as the scrapping of a wealth tax and cutting the housing benefit, moves the president framed as reforms to boost investment and social mobility.

Macron is staying with his wife, Brigitte, in a guesthouse close to the Chateau de Chambord, a former royal palace on the Loire that dates back to the 16th century.

His office denied media reports that the celebrations would take place inside the chateau and said the trip was being paid for by the couple.

Left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who ran against Macron in the presidential election this year, called the chateau stay “ridiculous” for its royal symbolism.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a right-wing politician who also ran for the presidency, said: “Times change but the oligarchy remains detached from the people.”

Macron’s weekend retreat came as several of his ministers were shown to be millionaires.

Cabinet of millionaires 

Figures released Friday by a body charged with ensuring financial transparency in politics showed Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud had the largest personal fortune, around 7.5 million euros ($8.8 million).

Penicaud, at the forefront of Macron’s push to shake up the economy, has been criticized for a gain made on stock options when she was an executive at food giant Danone.

Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot declared personal wealth of more than 7 million euros and revealed he owned six cars. The former TV presenter and campaigner has called for France to stop selling petrol and diesel cars by 2040.

Career politicians in the government had smaller fortunes, with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s declaration showing 1.7 million euros, and Public Finances Minister Gerard Darmanin just 48,000 euros.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has hit the delete button on domestic rules protecting net neutrality.

The FCC voted 3-2 on Thursday to end the 2015 Open Internet Order and enact the Restoring Internet Freedom initiative, which is widely seen as giving internet service providers (ISPs) more power to selectively limit internet access while favoring certain data streams.

In large part, this is an internal battle within the United States over consumer choice and how the internet will operate. Nonetheless, it also could have a significant impact beyond America’s borders, especially for those who routinely interact with U.S.-based internet services in their daily or professional lives.

Though you may not see the changes overnight, many critics say that, in the long run, internet users around the world may not know what products or services they are missing out on because of the rollback of net neutrality in the United States.

What is net neutrality?

Coined in 2003 by Columbia University professor Tim Wu, the phrase “net neutrality” refers to the principle that ISPs should treat all data provided to customers equally and without restriction to block out competitors. In essence, it keeps ISPs from choosing which data gets streamed at a faster rate and which websites are blocked or throttled. 

Net neutrality was made official policy in 2015 through new FCC regulatory rules that treated ISPs as a public utility following extensive industry and public debate.

Why does net neutrality matter?

Net neutrality is the law in more than 40 countries, including the United States and the European Union. But with the shackles for U.S.-based ISPs off, equality in cyberspace may disappear.

Companies or individuals willing to pay more may get a freer, faster internet service, which could lead to two classes of internet user: one rich in money and information, the other poor in both.

“The ending of net neutrality in the U.S. could be the beginning of the end of the open, interoperable, free internet,” said Quinn McKew, deputy executive director of ARTICLE 19 in the United Kingdom.

“It is now a question of how much, not if, freedom of expression online will be undermined around the world as a result of this shortsighted decision to enrich the entrenched near-monopolies who control internet access in the United States,” McKew said.

For example, if a company from the Balkans, Russia or Central Asia develops its own video-streaming service, an ISP may slow its delivery because the provider has a competing service of its own unless the company agrees to pay additional fees to have its product streamed at higher rates. 

And obviously it’s not only about entertainment. 

The Public Library of Science (PLOS), a U.S.-based nonprofit open-access publisher and advocate dedicated to progress in science and medicine through a transformation in research communication, warned that allowing ISPs to sort traffic based on content, sender and receiver, opens the door for corporate and government censorship that would greatly hinder access to scientific information around the globe.

“If you want to promote any other culture in the U.S., and you start driving lots of [internet] traffic through the U.S., and you have to go through these ISPs, they can throttle you,” according to Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and director of the Canadian Media Concentration Research Project.

Or, as Andrew McDiarmid, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Democracy and Technology, put it: “I think it’s a case that the U.S. remains a model for internet policy for the world. Not having it here may make it less likely to have it in other places.”

Could dismantling it affect human rights?

As with many things, the United States is seen as a global leader on the internet. Thus, many critics fear that a loosening of its regulatory system may embolden others to crack down on a completely open internet.

Estelle Masse, senior policy analyst at Access Now, a digital-rights advocacy group, said the repeal of net neutrality rules would make the U.S. “an outlier on an issue of critical importance to the future of the internet, both as an engine for innovation and a platform for human rights, to the detriment of users.”

Some critics say the erosion of net neutrality in world leaders such as the United States could prevent events such as the 2010 Arab Spring, when social media played an integral part in the movement to overthrow oppressive regimes.

“Americans aren’t the only ones who would be harmed by a U.S. decision to repeal net neutrality rules,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, said in response to the move to end net neutrality.

He says that as the most economically advanced country in the world, such a move by the United States could give the green light to repressive countries like Iran to continue applying the same policies.

“The internet is the most valuable invention of the 20th century, and we should all be fighting to keep it free. As the birthplace of the internet, the U.S. should be carrying the torch on net neutrality, not following in the footsteps of autocrats,” he said.

Could there be any benefits for foreign countries?

One of the arguments for rolling back net neutrality is that it hindered investment and innovation that threatened to harm the internet’s continued ability to grow and evolve to meet consumers’ needs. 

The ruling could end up being a boon to innovators outside the United States if American entrepreneurs find they are at a disadvantage because large companies are spending heavily to dominate fast-lane internet access.

Jennifer Yeh, a policy counsel at Free Press, a Washington-based public interest group that advocates for an open internet, noted that while the decision may limit supply of new content and developments for users outside the United States, it could push innovators to leave “for better opportunities elsewhere.”

To that end, it appears as though some are ready to pounce on the opportunity.

“Maybe I shd [should] invite newly disadvantaged US startups to EU, so they have a fair chance,” tweeted Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s commissioner for the digital agenda, during the debate in the United States on ending net neutrality.
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Austria’s Conservative People’s Party (OVP) reached a coalition deal Saturday with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which takes a hard line on immigration.

The deal makes Austria the only western European country with a far-right group in government.

Austrian conservatives led by Sebastian Kurz and FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache said in a joint statement this was a “turquoise-blue agreement,” referring to each group’s political colors.

“We want to reduce the burden on taxpayers … and above all we want to ensure greater security in our country, including through the fight against illegal immigration,” Kurz said. The 31-year-old will be Austria’s new chancellor and will become the youngest head of government in the world. Strache will be vice-chancellor.

The coalition government will be sworn in Monday, according to Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen’s office.

More than a million refugees and other migrants arrived in Europe in 2015.

Austria reportedly opened its doors to more than 1 percent of those seeking asylum – one of the highest rates in the European Union. Both parties now are pledging to prevent a repeat of that influx.

According to the BBC, no details have been given about the new program, although the Freedom Party is expected to take the leadership on several ministerial roles.

In November, Reuters reported on an upcoming coalition that would focus on a commitment to the European Union, budget discipline, and cuts in migrants’ welfare benefits as basic policies.

Strache and Kurz are expected to restrict new arrivals’ access to many social services.

The agreement comes two months after a parliamentary election that was dominated by Europe’s migration crisis. It also ends about a decade of political opposition for the FPO, which last entered government in 2000.

Austrian news agency APA first reported the coalition and a source, familiar with the talks, confirmed the deal shortly thereafter.

Kurz’s party won the October 15 election. He ran on a hard line approach to immigration that often overlapped with the Freedom Party’s. Kurz has promised to bring change to Austrian politics even though he has been leading a party that has been in power in different coalitions for the past 30 years.

The FPO came in third with 26 percent of the vote.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister applauded decisions announced this week by Canada and the European Union (EU) as important in demonstrating the international community’s solidarity with Ukraine and sending a clear message to Russia.

“Look, Russia does not live in a vacuum, sanctions are effective,” Pavlo Klimkin said Friday in an interview with VOA.

EU Council President Donald Tusk announced Thursday that leaders of the organization’s 28 member states were “united on the rollover of economic sanctions on Russia.”

The European Union’s sanctions post constraints for Russia’s access to the coveted EU markets. Initially, they were put in place in 2014 “in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and deliberate destabilization of a neighboring sovereign country.” The EU said the sanctions are kept under “constant review” in order that they continue to contribute toward their stated objectives.

Earlier this week, the Canadian government added Ukraine to its Automatic Firearms Country Control List, thus enabling Canadian individuals and companies to apply for permits to export certain prohibited firearms, weapons and devices to Ukraine.

“Canada and Canadians will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland declared.

Klimkin said Western nations, “especially Europe, understands more and more that Russia has also been waging hybrid war against European institutions.”

​International community

Against this background, “there definitely will be more pressure, in the sense of targeted sanctions, in the sense of solidarity” coming from the international community, he said.

Ukraine hopes this sense of solidarity will manifest in a United Nations mandate for an international peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine, responsible for, in Klimkin’s words, “what is going on and what will be going on in the occupied Donbas,” including a level of security, and free and fair elections.

“We will keep pushing Russia to accept that fundamentally, it’s about Russia out, international component in, there’s no other way around it,” Klimkin told VOA’s Ukrainian service.

In the meantime, he says Russia has been trying to “fix up the situation in Donbas. … Russia has been trying to come up with more provocations, the idea is very clear: to maintain a Russian protectorate on the ground; the whole idea is simply to say: Look, it’s about internal conflicts in Ukraine.’”

The United States has been a strong critic of Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

​‘The single most difficult obstacle’

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson voiced the administration’s frustration during his recent trip to Europe.

“President (Donald) Trump, as you know, throughout his campaign was very clear that he views it as very important that Russia and the United States have a better relationship, that it is important that countries as powerful as these two nations are should have a more positive relationship,” Tillerson said in Vienna.

“When one country invades another, that is a difference that is hard to look past or to reconcile,” he said, adding, “We’ve made this clear to Russia from the very beginning that we must address Ukraine. It stands as the single most difficult obstacle to us renormalizing the relationship with Russia, which we badly would like to do.”

Natalie Liu has been a staff reporter and writer at Voice of America since 2005. She currently covers the diplomatic beat. Myroslava Gongadze is VOA’s Ukrainian service chief.
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British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said Saturday it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for a future trade deal with the European Union, rather than copying existing arrangements like the Canada-EU deal.

The European Union agreed Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact, but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain’s exit could be fraught with peril.

Summit chairman Donald Tusk said the world’s biggest trading bloc would begin “exploratory contacts” with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion on the immediate post-Brexit transition.

No off-the-shelf deal

Speaking in Beijing, Hammond it was probably not helpful to think in terms of off-the-shelf models like the Canada-EU deal.

“We have a level of trade and commercial integration with the EU 27 which is unlike the situation of any trade partner that the EU has ever done a trade deal with before,” he told reporters.

“And therefore it is likely that we will want to negotiate specific arrangements, bespoke arrangements,” Hammond added.

“So I expect that we will develop something that is neither the Canada model nor an EEA model, but something which draws on the strength of our existing relationship.”

The Brexit negotiations have been a vexed issue for the global economy as markets feared prolonged uncertainty would hit global trade and growth.

A transition period is now seen as crucial for investors and businesses who worry that a “cliff-edge” Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets.

China visit

Hammond’s China visit is the latest installment in long-running economic talks between the two states, but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the EU in 2019.

China is one of the countries Britain hopes to sign a free trade agreement with once it leaves the EU, and London and Beijing have been keen to show that Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc will not affect ties.

Hammond sought to offer reassurance to Chinese firms post-March 2019 when Britain formally leaves the EU.

“We won’t technically or legally be in the customs union or in the single market, but we’re committed as a result of the agreement we’ve made this week to creating an environment which will effectively replicate the current status quo,” he said.

Addressing the press after Hammond had spoken, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said China hopes Britain and the EU can reach a win-win agreement.
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Turkish prosecutors have taken another step toward the prosecution and possible jailing of the country’s main opposition leader. On Thursday, Ankara prosecutors announced they had prepared their case against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and called for the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.

The CHP responded by criticizing the ruling party and Turkey’s president.

“[The] Justice and Development Party, and most importantly, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is different from the parties in the past. It has no tolerance against being criticized heavily and this intolerance is reflected in the indictment written by the prosecutors,” said deputy CHP head Sezgin Tanrikulu.

Kilicdaroglu is being prosecuted for his criticism of Erdogan over this year’s controversial referendum to extend presidential powers that was narrowly passed amid accusations of vote-rigging.

On news of the prosecution move, Kilicdaroglu told a gathering of party supporters, “You are not a prosecutor. Those who become slaves to the [presidential] palace cannot be prosecutors, or judges.” The government dismisses such accusations, maintaining the judiciary is independent.

The last few weeks have seen the opposition leader increasingly targeted by the president and others in government.

“Kilicdaroglu, your mind is rotten and your rope is about to break. I’m saying this very clearly; you are finished,” said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu at a recent party meeting.

Kilicdaroglu had been largely dismissed by the ruling AKP as irrelevant and ineffectual. Last month, however, he accused President Erdogan and his family of transferring large amounts of money to offshore bank accounts. Erdogan demanded Kilicdaroglu prove what he called slanderous accusations. A few days later, the parliament opposition leader produced bank documents appearing to substantiate his claim.

Erdogan’s accusations

Speaking to party supporters, Erdogan warned that Kilicdaroglu will “pay the price.” The president has widened his verbal attack to the CHP itself, declaring it a party of “treason” and describing it as a security threat. He also referred it to the country’s National Security Council, a move that until now was only reserved for the pro-Kurdish HDP, which the president accuses of being a party of terrorism linked to a Kurdish insurgency. Thousands of HDP officials, including its co-leaders, dozens of its mayors and 11 parliamentary deputies are in jail on terrorism charges.

Kilicdaroglu has faced previous accusations, but none has so far reached court. In the current political climate, these latest allegations are seen as by far the most serious.

“If they were to remove him [Kilicdaroglu] from the parliament and subsequently be detained, I don’t think the charade that Turkey is a democracy can be sustained. We are talking about the leader of the main opposition being taken in,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “If such a step were taken, I am almost sure the Council of Europe would remove Turkey’s membership. I don’t know how long the EU can tolerate these transgressions. Relationships at every level are currently frozen, so this could lead to an automatic suspension.”

The interior minister’s use of emergency powers this month to remove a locally elected CHP mayor in Istanbul on corruption allegations is being seen as a further warning against the party. Further removals of CHP mayors are reported to be imminent.

Moving against Kilicdaroglu

Kilicdaroglu’s fate lies with the ruling AKP, which would have to vote to lift his immunity. Analyst Yesilada believes international influence may dictate its final decision on moving against Kilicdaroglu.

“I don’t think AKP has settled on a plan for 2019. We may have a scenario where the government goes to a verbal war with [the] United States, but decides to repair the bridges with the EU. We may have a scenario where Ankara defies both its partners and becomes extremely xenophobic and completely turns to Muslim nations and Russia. Then they will have to stamp harder on the opposition. The fate of the opposition would be determined once this main choice has been made,” Yesilada said.

The legal woes of the CHP in 2019 are set to grow, with 60 of its parliamentary deputies under investigation.

“Turkey is quickly drifting away from the principles of a country of law and democracy under the leadership of Erdogan,” said deputy CHP leader Tanrikulu, who himself is facing prosecution. “It is not possible to talk about an independent and fair judiciary. If immunities are lifted and a case is opened [against Kilicdaroglu], then this may mean that this is the end of democracy and the parliamentarian regime.”
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United Nations human rights officials are condemning what they call the shocking and appalling mass executions of 38 men in Iraq on Thursday. The men, who were executed at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, were convicted for terrorism-related crimes. 

A spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, told VOA her office did not learn of the mass executions until after the fact.

“That again just underscores the situation, that suddenly we get sort of word, we get news that there has been a mass execution,” Throssell said. “That goes back to the lack of transparency, the lack of information regarding what is happening to these people.”   

Throssell said that since 2015, the U.N.’s office in Iraq repeatedly has asked the Iraqi minister of justice for information regarding the many men on death row, but with little response. She said no concrete figures are available, although about 1,200 men are believed to be awaiting execution. 

She noted the Iraqi justice system is very flawed and it is extremely doubtful that the 38 men who were executed had received a fair trial.  

“This raises the prospect of irreversible miscarriages of justice and violations of the right to life,” Throssell said. “The imposition of the death sentence upon the conclusion of a trial in which fair trial provisions have not been respected constitute a violation of the right to life.”   

Throssell said there is a disturbing pattern of mass executions in Iraq. She notes about 106 executions have taken place this year, including 42 mass hangings of prisoners in a single day in September. The Reuters news agency cites the Justice Ministry as saying all those convicted were members of Islamic State.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced several days ago that the three-year war aimed at driving IS out of Iraq was successful and had come to an end.

The high commissioner is calling for a halt to all executions and a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iraq.
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Russia and Egypt signed a deal on Friday to resume flights between Moscow and the Egyptian capital of Cairo starting from February, after more than a two-year break, officials announced.

Moscow suspended flights to Egypt after a bomb by the local Islamic State affiliate brought down a Russian airliner over Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

The attack decimated Egypt’s vital tourism industry. Egyptian authorities have since spent millions of dollars to upgrade security at its airports, hoping to get Moscow to change its mind.

Russian Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov said he and Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation Sherif Fathi signed a protocol on security cooperation that would allow direct flights between Moscow and Cairo to resume, starting from February.

Russia, however, is not yet talking about resuming charter flights to Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, once a popular destination for Russian tourists, Sokolov said, adding that this would be “the next stage” of negotiations.

President Vladimir Putin on a visit to Cairo on Monday said the deal on the resumption of flights could be signed “in the nearest time” and praised Egypt’s efforts to boost security at its airports.

In the wake of the IS bombing, Britain, another major source of visitors to Egypt, suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort in Sinai from which the doomed Russian airliner took off.

Putin’s visit to Egypt was part of the Russian president’s blitz day-trip to the region that kicked off with a visit to a Russian air base in Syria, then to Cairo and concluded with a stop in Turkey. It was his second visit to Egypt in as many years, and Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi appeared keen to cement their countries’ ties, which have deepened in recent years as Moscow has expanded its reach across the region.

El-Sissi, who has visited Russia twice since taking office in 2014, has signed deals to buy billions of dollars’ worth of Russian weapons, including fighter jets and assault helicopters. Last month, Russia approved a draft agreement with Egypt to allow Russian warplanes to use Egyptian military bases.

On Thursday, Fathi headed to Moscow to finalize the agreement on the resumption of flights.

Later Friday, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said in a statement that the two sides will hold talks in April on the resumption of Russian flights to Egyptian resorts.

Associated Press writers Menna Zaki in Cairo and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
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European Union nations bickered openly over migration policy Thursday in an east-west divide centered on several nations that refuse to accept refugee quotas.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia announced that they planned to spend around 35 million euros ($41 million) to beef up EU borders after the four countries — known as the “Visegrad Four” — were criticized for failing to show solidarity with the rest of the bloc.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte still thought it was “shameless” and said shirking responsibility by not taking in their share would wither the EU. 

“If we allow this then we get an EU where people go to shop for whatever they like,” and give little back, he said.

​Funding not enough

Greece and Italy have had to play host to tens of thousands of migrants who landed there after crossing the Mediterranean or Aegean seas, severely stretching the two countries’ resources. They have called for help from EU partners.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country has taken in the largest number of refugees, said the announcement by the Visegrad nations was welcome but not enough.

“We need solidarity not just in regulating and steering migration … on the external borders. That is good and important, but we also need internal solidarity,” Merkel said. “In my opinion, there cannot be selective solidarity among European member states.”

EU Council President Donald Tusk said the divide “when it comes to migration, it is between east and west.” He said there have been complaints that eastern members were happy to get aid from their richer western partners but unwilling to live up to their part of the bargain of being in a joint endeavor.

“The European Union is not only an ATM when you need support,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. “Cooperation means solidarity and responsibility.”

Border funds

The issue of migrants and refugees was high on the agenda of a two-day EU summit in Brussels that started Thursday — and some saw the border funding move by the four nations as a cynical ploy to avoid accepting refugee quotas.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said their contribution will help save European funds. And, he added, “if we will see good projects in the future, first of all projects that are effective, we are ready to spend even more money because we really want to show solidarity.”

Despite the tensions, the discussion at the summit dinner table remained within bounds, Rutte said. “It was fine because we can all take a little hit. If it is the spirit of ‘I like your drawing if you like mine,’ we get nowhere.”

Hungary saw tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and others pass through its territory in 2015 looking for shelter in richer northern European nations. Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered the construction of a border fence to keep migrants out.

Orban said Thursday that the border funds will help defend the EU’s borders with the outside world and will also contribute to EU work in Libya, where many migrants leave for Europe.

Visegard Four

After more than 1 million refugees entered Europe in 2015, the EU introduced a refugee-sharing plan to help overwhelmed Greece and Italy.

The four Visegrad nations voted against the quotas, but were legally bound to accept refugees as the decision was made by a majority vote. Still, Hungary and Poland have taken in no refugees under the plan, while the Czech Republic has accepted 12.

The EU Commission wants to introduce a permanent mechanism that would oblige countries to take in quotas of refugees if a migrant surge hit one or more EU nations. The Visegrad nations remain firmly against migrant quotas.

“Quotas do not work. They are ineffective,” Fico said. “The decision on quotas really divided the European Union.”

Disagreement over how to manage the migrant challenge has created distrust between EU neighbors and fueled anti-migrant parties across Europe, slowly threatening to undermine the entire European project.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it is important not to get bogged down in old disputes and solidarity can take different forms.

“We need to be able to express solidarity without getting trapped in any excessive roadblocks” about the past, he said. “I think everyone needs to make an effort.”
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President Donald Trump thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for remarks he made Thursday “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance,” the White House said. 

The two presidents spoke by phone following Putin’s annual press conference in Moscow. 

They discussed ways to work together to address North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic weapons program, the White House said. 

In an equally brief statement, the Kremlin said in addition to North Korea, Trump and Putin discussed relations between their two countries and agreed to stay in contact. The Kremlin made a point of noting that Trump initiated the call. 

During his remarks in Moscow, Putin accused those investigating potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign of damaging the U.S. political situation, “incapacitating the president and showing a lack of respect to voters who cast their ballots for him.” 

Putin also warned the U.S. against using force against North Korea. Trump has repeatedly said that all options remain on the table.
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Two people were killed and three injured Thursday night in two stabbing incidents in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, authorities said.

Police said in a tweet that one suspect had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the incidents. They released no details on the suspect or the victims.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was not a terror attack, echoing comments from the police.

“It is terrible what happened there. People were killed and others were injured,” Rutte said at an EU summit in Brussels.

The incidents happened in a residential neighborhood in the north of Maastricht, a city 215 kilometers (133 miles) south of the capital, Amsterdam, and close to the Netherlands’ borders with Belgium and Germany.

Police said a man was stabbed to death during a fight around 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) and a suspect fled the scene. Ten minutes later a woman was fatally stabbed and two men injured about a kilometer (about a half mile) away from the first incident. A third wounded person was later found at a local mosque.

Police said the investigations are continuing.
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The European Union’s leaders are due to say Friday that the Brexit talks with Britain can move on to the next phase to include the key topic of trade, according to a draft statement seen by The Associated Press.

The progress comes after the sides reached a deal on the preliminary divorce issues, such as the status of Britain’s physical border with EU member Ireland. The EU had long said it wanted a deal on Britain’s exit terms before broadening the talks to include the subject of future relations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will address EU leaders at a two-day summit on Thursday evening and welcome progress in the Brexit talks. But she is not expected to remain in Brussels on Friday when the leaders give the green light to broaden the negotiations.

The draft statement says that progress made in Brexit talks “is sufficient to move to the second phase” to discuss future relations and trade.

In the statement, which could be modified before Friday, the leaders emphasize the importance of organizing a transition period, probably of around two years, to ease Britain out of the EU from 2019.

That would buy time for all sides. Britain will leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but the Brexit negotiations must be wrapped up by the fall of 2018 to leave time for individual EU parliaments to endorse any agreement.

During a transition period, Britain will have no seat at the EU’s table, no lawmakers in the European Parliament, and no judges in the bloc’s courts. But it will still be bound by European law, without having any say in decision-making, and the European Court of Justice will remain the final arbiter of any disputes.

Britain during this period “will no longer participate in or nominate or elect members of the EU institutions, nor participate in the decision-making of the Union bodies, offices and agencies,” the draft statement says.

Ahead of the summit, Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator said Thursday that a situation in which the U.K. crashes out of the EU without a deal has become “massively less probable” because of a preliminary agreement reached last week.

Brexit Secretary David Davis told lawmakers that a “no-deal” Brexit was now extremely unlikely, although “we continue to prepare for all outcomes.”

The British government is hailing progress in Brussels, but faces trouble at home over Brexit. Late on Wednesday, lawmakers won a House of Commons vote giving Parliament the final say on any deal with the EU.

 
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