Russian authorities are investigating fidget spinners after state television reported that opposition activists are using them to attract supporters.

State-owned Rossiya 24 put out a report last month, claiming the popular toys were sold at opposition rallies and that online advertisements for them lead to YouTube channels promoting opposition politicians.

Fidget spinners – toys usually made of metal designed to keep small hands occupied – have taken the world by storm in recent months.

Russia’s consumer watchdog said in a statement on Tuesday that it is concerned about “an aggressive promotion of spinners” among children and teenagers. The Consumer Oversight Agency said it has teamed up with researchers to “study the influence” of fidget spinners on children’s well-being.

Pending the investigation the watchdog issued tips for parents who do buy fidget spinners for their children, including a recommendation to purchase them only from licensed sellers and check them for broken parts.
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After renowned journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bombing in central Kyiv last year, Ukraine’s president promised all-out efforts to solve the case. But as of Thursday’s anniversary of his death, there has been no visible progress.

Instead, say Ukrainian journalists, the case is mired in either incompetence or deliberate inaction. In a country where violence against journalists is frequent, reporters feel more in danger than ever.

The killing of 44-year-old Sheremet, who was driving in central Kyiv to appear on a morning radio show on July 20, 2016, was a shock that resonated far beyond Ukraine. The Belarusian native had received international awards and was widely lauded for bold reporting at home, where he was jailed for three months and then given a two-year prison suspended sentence in 1997. He later moved to Russia, where he worked for a TV station controlled by Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, then went to Ukraine to work at respected internet publication Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainska Pravda was long a thorn in the side of Ukraine’s corruption-ridden elite. Its first editor, Heorhiy Gongadze, was found decapitated in 2000 and audio recordings later emerged that implicated then-president Leonid Kuchma in his killing.

The failure to find Sheremet’s killer leaves Ukraine’s journalists feeling imperiled.

“Lack of progress in the Sheremet case is better than any declaration to show how authorities really care about the safety of journalists,” National Union of Journalists head Serhiy Tomilenko said.

Sheremet’s friends, colleagues and activists gathered Thursday morning around the time that Sheremet was killed. About 200 people laid flowers and left candles at the intersection where his car blew up before setting off to march to the presidential administration to express their frustration with the investigation. Some of the mourners spray-painted “Who killed Pavel?” on the sidewalk outside the presidential administration and plastered a poster with Sheremet’s portrait at the entrance to National Police headquarters.

Police say the killing was committed carefully, making identifying suspects harder.

“Unfortunately, the criminal offense was committed with good quality, so the investigation has not yet found the person who can be reasonably suspected of involvement in the murder,” Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said.

‘Impunity has become the norm’

Tomilenko’s group told an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe freedom-of-speech conference last month that more than 800 journalists have faced violence or threats in Ukraine since 2014. Although about half the incidents were connected to the 2014 mass protests that drove a Moscow-friendly president into exile or with the conflicts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine that followed, about 400 cases have happened in the rest of the country.

Most recently, reporter Volodymyr Volovodyuk, who had investigated black-market trading in the central Vinnytsia region, was beaten to death June 12.

None of these cases have been prosecuted.

“Impunity has become the norm,” Tomilenko said. “The daily life of journalists is more like reports from the front.”

After the 2014 uprising, Ukraine has increased its drive to become more integrated with Western Europe and to move out of Russia’s sphere of influence. But Europe is often uneasy with Ukraine’s disorder and corruption, and the Sheremet case adds to nervousness.

“Authorities say Russia is the prime suspect, but the lack of progress in the case, coupled with evidence pointing to possible Ukrainian involvement, weaken Kyiv’s credibility and suggest the need for an independent probe,” the Committee to Protect Journalists international watchdog said in a recent report.

The evidence referred to by CPJ centers on a report put together by Sheremet’s colleagues and other journalists, assisted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

That investigation identified two people observed by security cameras as lurking near Sheremet’s car the night before the blast, and identified one of them as a former agent of the national security service, the SBU. The SBU decline comment.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with Sheremet’s family last week and acknowledged that the probe had brought no results, but confirmed that he was “interested in a transparent investigation.”
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Furious survivors of the London high-rise fire that killed at least 80 people booed the new leader of the local authority during chaotic scenes on Wednesday at the council’s first meeting since the blaze.

About 70 survivors of last month’s fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment block and other local residents gathered to protest as council members met amid tight security at Kensington Town Hall in north London.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council has been criticized by locals and politicians for its slow and ineffective response to the fire while many accuse the authority, which administers one of Britain’s wealthiest areas, of having turned its back on social housing.

“We did not do well enough in our initial response to the tragedy … tonight I want to reiterate my apology to you directly,” said council leader Elizabeth Campbell. “No ifs, no buts, no excuses. I am deeply sorry. We did not do enough to help you when you needed it most.”

Kensington’s previous leader Nicholas Paget-Brown resigned following his decision to abruptly suspend the last council meeting on June 29 when he said holding it in public could interfere with a future inquiry.

Campbell promised there would be a new direction at the council and that it would spend some of the 250 million pounds ($325 million) it held in reserve on new housing for those who had lived in Grenfell.

But her election was greeted with cries of “shame on you” and her subsequent speech was repeatedly interrupted by shouts and boos, while some residents who could not get into the meeting banged loudly on the council chamber doors.

After Campbell’s speech, a succession of survivors were invited to speak, many furiously berating the council for its failures.

Holding up the key to her Grenfell Tower apartment and weeping, Iranian national Mahboobeh Jamalvatan said: “Every time I look at this key, I wonder and I ask ‘what’s the difference between us human beings?’ We are all created human beings.

“The U.K. is accusing other countries about a lack of human rights, but there are lots of people from those counties living in the UK. Why don’t you care about human rights here?”

British police have said the final death toll from the blaze that gutted the 24-story building might not be known until next year.
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The European Union is coming closer to imposing sanctions on Poland for the government’s controversial attempt to take control of the judiciary, a senior EU official warned Wednesday, as new street protests and heated debate erupted in the Polish parliament.

The ruling conservative and populist Law and Justice Party had been rushing to get parliament’s approval for a contentious draft law that would reorganize the nation’s highest court. But it has had to slow down after vehement objection from the opposition, alarm from the EU and mass peaceful protests against the measure.

After a tense debate in parliament, lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to send the draft bill on the Supreme Court for more work by a special parliamentary commission. Opposition legislators have proposed 1,300 amendments to the draft, which they say violates the constitution, kills judicial independence and destroys the democratic principle of the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch.

Crowds have held street protests in Warsaw and other cities in defense of democracy and judicial independence, chanting “Free courts!” and “Freedom, equality, democracy!” They urged President Andrzej Duda to veto the draft legislation.

It was the latest in a string of conflicts that has exposed the deepening political divide in Poland since Law and Justice won power in 2015.

The proposed bill calls for the immediate dismissal of the current Supreme Court judges, except those chosen by the justice minister. It would give the justice minister the power to appoint the key court’s judges.

In a proposed amendment, the Law and Justice has switched those powers to the president.

The ruling party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, insists that its reforms will introduce “good change” expected by the people who voted them in. It also argues that the judiciary still works along communist-era principles and needs radical reforms and new people to be efficient.

The opposition says the changes to the judiciary are Kaczynski’s revenge on judges who have been critical of his policies.

Kaczynski, a lawyer, is currently Poland’s most powerful politician, controlling the government, the parliament and having influence on the president, even though he holds no government office.

The vote Wednesday was 434-6 with one abstention for a justice commission to review the draft law.

Shortly after the vote, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in Brussels that the EU may soon strip Poland of its voting rights because its recent steps toward the judiciary “greatly amplify the threat to the rule of law” and threaten to put the judiciary “under full political control of the government.”

Such a sanction, which was intended to ensure democratic standards in EU members, requires unanimity among all other member states. Timmerman said the dialogue between the EU and Poland should continue while the legislation is being worked on.

Poland’s parliament has already approved new laws that give lawmakers the power to appoint judges to the regulatory National Council of the Judiciary, and changed regulations for ordinary courts. All changes require the approval of Duda, who has so far followed the ruling party line.

Law and Justice has previously backed down under mass protests — including last year when it withdrew a proposed ban on abortions after a nationwide women’s strike.

The debate preceding Wednesday’s vote has led to some unpleasant exchanges in parliament.

An opposition lawmaker, Borys Budka, drew Kaczynski’s wrath when he implied that his late twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, had prevented him previously from taking any drastic steps toward the justice system.

Kaczynski’s reaction was immediate and violent.

“Don’t wipe your treacherous mugs with the name of my late brother. You destroyed him, you murdered him, you are scoundrels,” Kaczynski shouted from the podium. He was referring to the 2010 plane crash that killed the president, his brother, which he blames on the former government of the Civic Platform party.

Poland’s former foreign minister and head of the Civic Platform, Grzegorz Schetyna, condemned the tone of the parliamentary debate.

“It shows that we are in some catastrophic place, not only regarding emotions, but also regarding the level of the public debate,” Schetyna said Wednesday.
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Terror attacks and terror-related deaths trended downward last year although efforts to degrade the Islamic State terror group as well as Iran’s network of state-sponsored terror groups did little to diminish their capabilities.

In its annual report on global terrorism  released Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said worldwide terror attacks fell by nine percent from 2015 to 2016, while the number of deaths dipped 13 percent.

But American officials cautioned IS remained “the most capable terrorist organization globally in 2016,” helping to drive a more than 20-percent increase in attacks in Iraq compared to 2015.

They also warned IS continued to use its own operatives while exploiting ungoverned spaces in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, northeastern Nigeria, parts of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

“ISIS was responsible for more attacks and death than any other perpetrator group in 2016,” said Justin Siberell, the State Department’s acting coordinator for counterterrorism, using one of the many acronyms for the terror group.

“Attacks outside ISIS territorial strongholds in Iraq and Syria were an increasingly important part of ISIS’ 2016 terrorism campaign,” he added.

Closed-door briefing

On Capitol Hill, senators of both parties expressed cautious optimism that progress is being made in the fight against IS, after a closed-door briefing by top administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“There’s a whole different kind of effort that is underway,” Republican Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “There’s just a lot more clarity, a lot more focus on annihilation [of IS].

“There’s a renewed energy, renewed focus, and they are not playing around. Anybody that listened to that [briefing] understands they are all about killing every ISIS member they can get a hold of,” added Corker, of Tennessee.

“I think there is clear progress,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said. “A lot of tough fighting ahead. But I am cautiously optimistic, based upon what I heard [at the briefing].”

‘A worldwide threat’

Like IS, State Department officials warned the al-Qaida terror group and its regional affiliates also found ways to take advantage of ineffective governments across Africa and the Middle East “to remain a significant worldwide threat.”

Al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in particular, has benefited from the ongoing conflict there “by significantly expanding its presence in the southern and eastern governorates,” the State Department report warned.

The report also concluded al-Qaida continued to benefit from a willingness by the Iranian government to look the other way.

“Since at least 2009, Iran has allowed AQ (al-Qaida) facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria,” the report stated, citing just one of several concerns the United States has about what it continues to call the world foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

‘Extremely sophisticated’

The report also raised concerns about Iran’s continued support for Shia terror groups in Iraq as well as for Lebanon-based Hezbollah, described by the State Department’s Siberell as an “extremely sophisticated” terror group with a global network.

Along with Iran, Hezbollah operatives and fighters have been active in bolstering the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite suffering heavy casualties.

“There is a mixed picture on whether that has strengthened or weakened the group,” Siberell said. “They maintain a significant military capability that is being brought to bear.”

Over 11,000 terror attacks last year

According to the State Department report, 2016 was the second year in a row the world saw fewer attacks and fewer deaths due to terrorism.

Citing data collected by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, the report said there were more than 11,000 terror attacks last year resulting in more than 25,600 deaths.

More than 100 countries were victims of terror attacks, but the majority took place in just five, including Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, the report said.

VOA’s Michael Bowman contributed to this report from Capitol Hill.
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Russia says it reserves the right to retaliate in an ongoing dispute with the U.S. over the seizure of two Russian compounds last December by the Obama administration.  Before leaving office, then President Barack Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying, and saying the actions were to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Now Russia says its patience is running out. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Thirty-five European children have died from measles in the past 12 months in what the World Health Organization calls an “unacceptable” tragedy. The deaths could have been prevented by a vaccine. A measles outbreak in Minnesota sent many to the hospital. Still, some parents in developed countries continue to believe false reports that the measles vaccine causes autism. Some parents are refusing to get their children vaccinated for other diseases as well. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports.
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Russia says it reserves the right to retaliate in a dispute with the U.S. over the Obama administration’s seizure of two Russian compounds last December.

Before leaving office, then-President Barack Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying. He said the actions were aimed at punishing Moscow for having interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Now, six months later, Russia says it’s running out of patience with the Trump administration over the return of the compounds, and the State Department is being tight-lipped about negotiations with Russian officials.

Russia says the picturesque Russian compounds in Maryland and New York state are dachas, used strictly for recreation. But U.S. intelligence agencies say they were used for surveillance until they were seized.

Session at State Department

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met Monday at the State Department with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon. Caught by reporters as he was leaving, Ryabkov was asked whether Russia was close to getting its compounds back. He replied, “Almost.”

Pressed by reporters at Tuesday’s State Department briefing, spokeswoman Heather Nauert refused to comment on the status of negotiations or to say whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson favored giving the compounds back to Russia under certain conditions.

“I wouldn’t characterize it that way,” she said, adding that “the priority here is to get the United States and Russia to a place where they could have a good, decent, solid relationship so we can work together on areas of mutual cooperation. … One of them is Syria.”

Nauert said the talks with Moscow would continue.

Russian threats

After Monday’s talks, Russia was still threatening to retaliate in kind. Ambassador John Herbst, a veteran U.S. diplomat now with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, told VOA this was standard procedure.

“This fits standard Soviet and then Russian diplomatic practice,” he said. “When we catch their spies and then expel them, they immediately expel the same number of American diplomats. So they never acknowledge their culpability. When we take steps to deal with egregious actions on their part, they always take countersteps. It is simply the way they do business.”

Herbst said it was unusual that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not retaliate in kind after the compounds were seized and its diplomats were expelled, saying Putin most likely expected the Trump administration would give the compounds back. Asked how the Kremlin might respond if its patience wore thin, Herbst said there were several options.

Closures in Russia

“Well, we also have dachas, or at least had a single dacha in Russia,” he said. “Conceivably, they could take that away. I remember when Obama took these steps, there was speculation that they were going to close down the major school used by our embassy’s children. That would be very nasty indeed. And I would hope and expect that that would prompt a very strong reaction by us if they were to do that.”

The dispute over the compounds comes at a politically sensitive time as reports emerge of a previously undisclosed high-level meeting between Russians and top members of the Trump campaign last June.
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The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference.

Tuesday’s EU comment follows the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal against the ban.

The rejection of the religious group’s appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.

The EU said: “Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference.” It added that Russia was bound by its constitution as well as its international commitments to provide such guarantees.
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Spanish Football Federation president Angel Maria Villar was arrested Tuesday along with his son and two more federation executives as part of an anti-corruption probe.

The office of the state prosecutor in charge of anti-corruption said they suspect Villar, who is FIFA’s senior vice president and a UEFA vice president, of having arranged matches for Spain’s national team that led to business deals that benefited his son.

The state prosecutor and Spanish police both said that Villar, his son Gorka Villar, and two other soccer officials were detained while raids were carried out at the federation headquarters and other properties.

Two uniformed policeman guarded the entrance to the Spanish Football Federation as staff came in and out of the offices near the training grounds for Spain’s national teams in Las Rozas, just outside Madrid.

The other two men who were arrested were Juan Padron, the federation’s vice president of economic affairs who is also the president of the regional federation for Tenerife, and the secretary of that regional federation. The four men were arrested on charges of improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption and falsifying documents as part of a probe into the finances of the federations.

“We have taken note of the media reports concerning the situation of Mr. Villar Llona,” FIFA said in a statement. “As the matter seems to be linked to internal affairs of the Spanish Football Association, for the time being we kindly refer you to them for further details.”

As part of an operation called “Soule,” the Guardia Civil’s anti-corruption unit said it raided the national federation’s headquarters, the offices of the regional soccer federation on the island of Tenerife, and “headquarters of businesses and several private homes linked to the arrested individuals.”

Police started the probe in early 2016 after a complaint was made by Spain’s Higher Council of Sport, the government’s sports authority.

The probe led the state prosecutor’s office to suspect that Angel Maria Villar “could have arranged matches of the Spanish national team with other national teams, thereby gaining in return contracts for services and other business ventures in benefit of his son.”

The prosecutor’s office said they suspect that Padron and the secretary of the regional federation of Tenerfe “favored the contraction of business” for their personal benefit.

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Spain’s minister of education, culture and sport, told national television moments after the raids that “in Spain the laws are enforced, the laws are the same for all, and nobody, nobody is above the law.”

Calls made by The Associated Press to both the Spanish Football Federation and the regional soccer federation of Tenerife went unanswered.

UEFA said in a statement it is “aware of the reports regarding Mr. Villar Llona. We have no comment to make at this time.” The Higher Council of Sport said it will “use everything in its means to ensure that competitions are not affected” by the arrests.

The 67-year-old Villar has been the head of Spain’s soccer federation since 1988, overseeing its national team’s victories in the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.

Villar has also been at the heart of FIFA and UEFA politics since the 1990s, and has worked closely with several international soccer leaders who have since been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

His son, Gorka, worked in recent years for South American body CONMEBOL as legal director then as the CEO-like director general for three presidents who were implicated in the American federal investigation. Gorka Villar left CONMEBOL in July 2016.

Angel Maria Villar was a tough midfielder for Athletic Bilbao and Spain before retiring to work as a lawyer and soccer administrator. He was elected to the UEFA executive committee 25 years ago, and to FIFA’s ruling committee 19 years ago. He has also been an influential figure in the legal and referees committees of both organizations.

In the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests, Angel Maria Villar led the Spain-Portugal bid which the FIFA ethics committee briefly investigated in 2010 for allegedly arranging a voting pact involving South American voters to trade support with Qatar’s bid. Russia won the 2018 contest.

Villar’s conduct in a subsequent wider probe of the bids was singled out in a report by then-FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia.

“He (Villar) was not willing to discuss the facts and circumstances of the case,” Garcia wrote in a 2014 report that was published last month. “Moreover, his tone and manner were deeply disturbing, as the audio recording of the interview … makes evident.”

Increasingly seen as a polarizing figure with leadership ambitions, Villar decided against trying to succeed Michel Platini as UEFA president last year.

Before joining CONMEBOL, Gorka Villar was a prominent sports lawyer in Madrid. He helped represent cyclist Alberto Contador in a failed appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against losing the 2010 Tour de France title after a positive doping test.

The arrests are the latest step taken by Spain to crack down on financial wrongdoing in soccer.

Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father were found guilty of tax fraud, and in recent weeks prosecutors have opened tax fraud investigations into several others, including Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and former Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. Both Ronaldo and Mourinho deny cheating on their taxes.

 
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Heavy rainfall has caused floods in Istanbul, inundating roads, underpasses and subway lines and causing havoc in the city.

Several vehicles were stranded in the floodwaters on Tuesday and television footage showed a rescue crew entering an underpass in a rubber boat to help trapped passengers.

The private DHA news agency said people stranded in homes due to flooding in the district of Silivri — one of the worst-hit areas — were also helped out in boats.

The Eurasia Tunnel, connecting Istanbul’s Asian and European sides under the Bosporus strait, was temporarily closed to traffic.

Authorities urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel.
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