More than 70 firefighters tackled a blaze at London Zoo on Saturday after a fire broke out at a cafe and shop at the attraction. No animals were reported injured.

The blaze broke out shortly after 0600 GMT, London Fire Brigade said. The fire was near an area where visitors can handle and feed animals but none were thought to have been involved.

“The fire at @zsllondonzoo is now under control but crews will remain on the scene throughout the morning damping down the fire which has affected a cafe and a shop,” the fire brigade said on Twitter.

Ten fire engines were sent to the zoo in Regent’s Park in central London. The fire brigade had earlier said that about three-quarters of the Adventure Cafe and a gift shop were alight. The cause of the fire was not yet known.

The attraction, the world’s oldest scientific zoo, which dates it origins back to 1826, houses 20,166 animals, according to its inventory for 2017.
…

Spain’s prime minister has rejected demands for talks from Catalonia’s independence leaders, following regional elections in the semi-autonomous region Thursday which gave pro-secessionist parties a slim majority of two seats in the Catalan parliament.

The election was called after Madrid sacked the Catalan government, after it tried to declare independence following a disputed referendum in October.

​The former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is in exile in Belgium, called for talks Friday with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a location outside Spain.

“Catalonia wants to be an independent state. This is the wish of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont told reporters in Brussels.

Puigdemont would face arrest if he tried to return to Spain. Many independence leaders have been jailed on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuses of public funds. The investigation was widened Friday to include several more Catalan politicians.

Rajoy said the election result does not affect the criminal charges.

“I hope there is a government that abandons unilateral decision-making and does not place itself above the law,” he told reporters in Madrid. He added that his first point of contact would be with the leader of the pro-unity Ciudadanos’ or Citizens party, which won the most votes, though short of the number needed to form a government.

​Back where they started

After the political convulsions of the past three months, Catalonia and Spain are back to square one, said Xabier Barrena, a political columnist for the El Periodico newspaper.

“Catalonia is living in an infinite stalemate. There was a considerable increase in participation in the parliamentary elections this time, and despite this, the result is the same as in 2015. Both then, and now, the solution must be a legitimate referendum,” he said.

The most likely election outcome remains a coalition of the three pro-independence parties, but their options appear limited, Barrena said.

“Any unilateral declaration (of independence) would elicit a violent response from the state,” he said. “So, they will avoid that course.”

WATCH: Spanish PM Rebuffs Catalan Leaders’ Demand for Talks on Independence Following Election

​Economic uncertainty

Meanwhile fears are growing that the uncertainty is hitting Catalonia’s economy. Carlos Rivaduro, head of Catalonia’s Association of Small Business, says the global image of Barcelona and Catalonia is taking a hit.

“Who wants to do business in a place where politicians are promoting division, exclusion, lack of solidarity?” he said.

The political tensions are given extra spice as the Barcelona football team travels to play Real Madrid Saturday. For many, the sporting rivalry trumps politics.

The Christmas break offers a few days respite before the political battle kicks off once again.
…

Italy organized a first airlift of refugees from Libyan detention centers to Rome after coming under international criticism for helping the Libyan coast guard block migrants from leaving by boat.

The Interior Ministry said the refugees were due to arrive later Friday at Rome’s Pratica di Mare military base. Interior Minister Marco Minniti and the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, were to welcome them.

The U.N. refugee agency’s Libya representative, Roberto Mignone, tweeted that he was traveling with 162 “vulnerable” refugees. Italy said the women, children and elderly people were all entitled to international protection. It did not say what countries they came from.

Italy and the EU have come under criticism from human rights groups for helping the Libyan coast guard more effectively patrol its coasts to prevent smugglers from operating. The groups say the policy has condemned refugees to torture, abuse and other inhuman treatment at the hands of militias who control lawless Libya’s detention centers.

Italy has defended the policy, saying it has helped save lives and reduced by 33 percent the number of migrants who arrived in Italy this year.

As of Friday, Italy had taken in some 118,914 migrants, compared to the record 179,769 who arrived in 2016. The International Organization of Migration recorded more than 3,100 deaths among migrants making the Mediterranean crossing in 2017, but the actual number is likely higher since an unknown number of boats sink without rescue crews ever knowing.

The airlift organized by the Italian government follows the “humanitarian corridors” initiated by the Sant’Egidio Community and other Christian churches that have already brought about 1,000 people to Italy, most from refugee camps in Lebanon.

In addition to the Italian airlift, African nations have begun repatriating their citizens from Libya.

The United Nations has vowed to close the government-controlled detention centers in Libya to prevent the migrants from being trafficked and enslaved.
…

Britain announced Friday it would return to “iconic” blue and gold passports after it formally leaves the European Union in 2019.

Since 1988, British passports have been issued with a burgundy sleeve along with other European Union countries.

Supporters of Brexit hailed the decision as a reclaiming of Britain’s independence from the EU, while opponents have mocked their attachment to something superficial and have voiced concern that Brexit will diminish the country’s standing in the world.

“The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty — symbolizing our citizenship of a proud, great nation,” Prime Minister Theresa May said on Twitter.

“That’s why we have announced that the iconic blue passport will return after we leave the European Union in 2019.”

But a number of lawmakers, including some from May’s own party, said Friday the changing of a passport color would not appease those who opposed Brexit, many of whom are more concerned about economic issues and relations with Europe.

The announcement comes a week after EU leaders agreed to allow Britain to move onto the next phase of Brexit negotiations. The second phase of Brexit will be focused on post-Brexit relations between London and the European Union and any potential future trade agreements.
…

Kosovo’s president has urged political parties to intensify efforts to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro which is set as a precondition by the European Union for a visa-free regime for the country’s citizens.

In his end-of-year speech to parliament Friday, Hashim Thaci urged all local actors to speed up efforts to find a solution “within the next weeks.”

“Without losing time we should ratify the border demarcation deal with Montenegro. Ratification of such a deal would give an end to the unfair isolation of the Republic of Kosovo’s citizens,” said Thaci.

The 2015 deal has been contested by the opposition, which says Kosovo is ceding territory — a claim denied by the previous government and international experts. The protesters disrupted parliamentary work, using tear gas canisters, blowing whistles and throwing water bottles.

The government has re-sent the border issue to parliament, which has yet to set the time of its debate.

The opposition was not in the hall to follow Thaci, who also urged lawmakers to approve an agreement signed by the government to establish an association of municipalities with an ethnic-Serb population.

“The EU and many other partner countries are disillusioned with our inability to comply with the pledges,” he said, adding that the country’s credibility and reputation were at stake as it aims for EU and NATO membership.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade has not recognized.
…

Hackers tried to steal 55 million rubles ($940,000) from Russian state bank Globex using the SWIFT international payments messaging system, the bank said Thursday, the latest in a string of attempted cyberheists that use fraudulent wire-transfer requests.

Globex President Valery Ovsyannikov told Reuters that the attempted attack occurred last week, but that “customer funds have not been affected.”

The bank’s disclosure came after SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars each day, warned late last month that the threat of digital heists was on the rise as hackers use increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques to launch new attacks.

SWIFT said in late November that hackers continued to target the SWIFT bank messaging system, though security controls instituted after last year’s $81 million heist at Bangladesh’s central bank have helped thwart many of those attempts.

Sources familiar with last week’s attack on Globex said the bank had spotted the attack and been able to prevent the cybercriminals from stealing all the funds they had sought, according to a report in the Kommersant daily. The hackers withdrew only about $100,000, the report said.

Globex is a part of the state development bank VEB. VEB plans to transfer Globex to the state property management agency, sources familiar with the talks told Reuters this week.

SWIFT representatives declined to discuss the Globex case.

“We take cybersecurity very seriously, and we investigate all threats very seriously, taking all appropriate actions to mitigate any risks and protect our services,” the group said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “There is no evidence to suggest that there has been any unauthorized access to SWIFT’s network or messaging services.”

Brussels-based SWIFT has issued a string of warnings urging banks to bolster security in the wake of the February 2016 cyberheist at the Bangladesh bank, which targeted central bank computers used to move funds through the messaging system.

While SWIFT has declined to disclose the number of attacks or identify any victims, details of some cases have become public, including attacks on Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank and Nepal’s NIC Asia Bank.

Shane Shook, a cyberexpert who has helped investigate some hacks targeting the SWIFT messaging network, said that at least seven distinct groups have been launching such attacks for at least five years, though most go unreported.
…

Two Turkish-American men have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a brawl at the Turkish Embassy in Washington earlier this year,  according to court documents.

Sinan Narin, 45, of Virginia and Eyup Yildirim, 50,  of New Jersey “each pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to one count of assault with significant bodily injury. The pleas, which are contingent upon the Court’s approval, call for each defendant to be sentenced to agreed-upon terms of one year and one day of incarceration.”

Eighteen people, many of whom were members of the Turkish ambassador’s security detail, were indicted for allegedly attacking protesters outside the ambassador’s residence on May 16. All 18 were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, a felony punishable by a maximum of 15 years in prison. Several faced additional charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

The brawl took place outside the residence of Turkey’s ambassador to Washington shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House.

Video of the protest recorded by VOA’s Turkish service shows what appear to be security guards and some Erdogan supporters attacking a small group of demonstrators.  

Men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she was curled up on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a woman’s neck and threw her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face.

After police officers struggled to protect the protesters and ordered the attackers to retreat, several suspects dodged the officers and continued the attacks.

The Turkish Embassy claimed that Erdogan’s bodyguards were acting in “self-defense” during the incident, and that the protesters were affiliated with the Turkish left wing PKK or Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

The PKK has waged a three-decade long insurgency in southeast Turkey.

 
…

The United States has approved the sale by U.S. manufacturers of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed this week that Congress was notified of the matter on December 13.

The legal framework for U.S. manufacturers to sell arms to Ukraine has existed since the Obama administration, Nauert said. 

Nauert noted in remarks to reporters Wednesday that the government itself was not supplying weapons to Ukraine, but only allowing U.S. weapons manufacturers to do so.

The export license covers such weapons as semiautomatic and automatic firearms, the Reuters news agency reported. It includes combat shotguns, silencers, military scopes, flash suppressors and parts.

Administration officials said the equipment approved for sale was valued at $41.5 million. The Washington Post reported that there had been no approval for requests by Ukraine for heavier weapons, like Javelin anti-tank missiles. The newspaper also said Canada had approved similar sales to Ukraine this week. 

Critics of the move say selling lethal arms to Ukraine threatens to escalate tensions between the United States and Russia. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, on a trip to Kyiv in August, said the Trump administration was “actively reviewing” whether to provide lethal defensive weapons to the war-torn country.

“Defensive weapons are not provocative unless you’re an aggressor, and clearly, Ukraine is not an aggressor,” he said in response to a question about whether Russia might see such a move as a threat.

He also said Washington did not accept Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
…

Catalonia holds a regional election Thursday that the Spanish government hopes will strip pro-independence parties of their control of the Catalan parliament and end their campaign to force a split with Spain.

But, though final polls showed separatist and unionist parties running neck-and-neck, an effective pro-independence majority remains a likely outcome that would jolt financial markets and cast a long shadow over national politics.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the Dec. 21 vote in October in the hopes of returning Catalonia to “normality” under a unionist government. He sacked its previous government for holding a banned referendum and declaring independence.

Economy

A new separatist majority would further dampen investors’ confidence in Catalonia, which by itself has an economy larger than that of Portugal and is the main driver of Spain’s economic growth. However, pro-independence leaders recently have backed away from demands for unilateral secession.

Voting stations in the affluent region of northeastern Spain will open Thursday at 0800 GMT and close at 1900 GMT. The election is expected to draw a record turnout.

The independence campaign pitched Spain into its worst political turmoil since the collapse of fascist rule and return of democracy in the 1970s. It has polarized public opinion, dented Spain’s economic rebound and prompted a business exodus from Catalonia to other parts of the country.

Thursday’s vote became a de facto referendum on how support for the independence movement has fared in recent months.

​No clear majority

None of the six parties in the Catalan parliament — ranging across the ideological spectrum from separatist Marxists to the Catalan wing of Rajoy’s conservative People’s Party (PP) — are expected on their own to come close to the 68-seat majority.

So, analysts expect the next Catalan government to result from weeks of haggling between parties over viable coalitions.

An analysis of polling data by the Madrid daily El Pais published on Tuesday found that the most likely scenario is separatists securing a majority with the backing or abstention of the Catalan offshoot of anti-austerity party Podemos.

Podemos backs the unity of Spain but says Catalans should be able to have a referendum authorized by Madrid to decide their future. At the same time, Podemos favors a left-wing alliance of Catalan parties that both back and reject independence.

In this, analysts say, Podemos is caught between two options it does not particularly like, but would prefer to back the separatists rather than a coalition involving Rajoy’s PP.

Separatist parties campaigned against the backdrop of Spanish courts investigating their leaders on allegations of rebellion for their roles in the Oct. 1 referendum, which was ruled unconstitutional.

Deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has campaigned from self-imposed exile in Brussels and his former deputy and now rival candidate, Oriol Junqueras, has done so from behind bars at a prison outside Madrid.

In a written interview with Reuters published on Monday, Junqueras struck a conciliatory tone and opened the door to building bridges with the Spanish state.
…

A jury did not reach a verdict in its first day of deliberations in the trial of a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions and launder billions of dollars in oil revenue.

Deliberations began early Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Manhattan after Judge Richard Berman read instructions on the law to jurors. The jury went home four hours later after requesting some pens and coffee.

The trial of Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla has featured testimony about bribery and corruption at high levels in Turkey.

Turkish officials have lobbed counteraccusations that U.S. prosecutors are basing the case on evidence fabricated by enemies of the state.

Atilla’s fate rests with federal court jurors who seemed to listen attentively after a juror was dismissed for sleeping.
…

Pope Francis is set to offer a “final commendation” Thursday at the Rome funeral of Cardinal Bernard Law, even as Law’s critics recalled him as the disgraced archbishop of Boston in the United States who covered up the actions of pedophile priests.

The Vatican said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will celebrate the funeral mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for Law, who died earlier this week in Rome at the age of 86 after a long illness. Pope Francis will then offer a blessing for Law, as he has done previously at other cardinals’ funerals.

Law oversaw the Catholic church’s archdiocese in Boston in the northeastern U.S. for 19 years before he was forced to resign in 2002 as allegations mounted that he had hidden widespread pedophilia by dozens of parish priests, often moving them from one church to another rather than removing them from the ministry. The archdiocese eventually paid $95 million as compensation to more than 500 victims. 

As he left the U.S. for Rome to become archpriest of the Papal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major, Law said, “To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.”

The scandal of abusive priests spread, however, eventually reverberating through several archdioceses in the U.S. and in other countries.

As news of Law’s death became known, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said, “We highly doubt there is a single victim of abuse who will ever receive the same attention, pomp and circumstance by Pope Francis.  

“Every single Catholic should ask Pope Francis and the Vatican why,” the group said. “Why Law’s life was so celebrated when Boston’s clergy sex abuse survivors suffered so greatly? Why was Law promoted when Boston’s Catholic children were sexually abused, ignored, and pushed aside time and time again?”

Law’s successor in Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, reacted to his death by apologizing to the victims of clergy sex abuse.

“I recognize that Cardinal Law’s passing brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones,” O’Malley said. “To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing.”

One survivor of the clergy sex abuse, Alexa MacPherson, said at a news conference, “With his passing, I say I hope the gates of hell are open wide to welcome him because I feel no redemption for somebody like him is worthwhile.”

Another victim, Robert Costello, said, “I don’t really consider him a cardinal or a man of God.  There were plenty of priests who knew what was going on but they had their own secrets to hide.”

 
…

Austria’s new chancellor traveled to Brussels on Tuesday on his first foreign trip since being sworn in, aiming to dispel concerns that his coalition with the far right spells trouble for the European Union.

Responding to a letter on Monday from European Council President Donald Tusk that underlined EU worries, 31-year-old conservative leader Sebastian Kurz tweeted back that his new government would be “clear pro-European and committed to making a positive contribution to the future development of the EU.”

A day after he took office at the head of a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Kurz delivered that message in person to Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose EU executive has responded to October’s election with little of the outrage that greeted the FPO’s first taste of government in Austria 17 years ago.

At a joint news conference in Brussels, Juncker said he would judge Kurz’s government by its deeds.

“This government has a clear pro-European stance. That is what is important for me,” Juncker said.

The FPO has distanced itself from its Nazi-apologist, anti-Semitic past, while surges in irregular immigration and militant attacks have pushed the European political mainstream rightward, leading to a much more muted reaction than in 2000.

But a French member of the Commission was wary: “Things are doubtless different from the previous time, in 2000,” tweeted Socialist former finance minister Pierre Moscovici. “But the presence of the far right in government is never without consequences.”

Confirmation of the FPO’s return to a share of power raises concern that small, wealthy Austria will be an intractable voice on EU asylum reform and efforts to increase the EU budget.

The bluntest criticism has been south of the Alps, where a plan to offer Austrian citizenship to people living in Italy’s German-speaking border region has rekindled worries over old territorial arguments.

“Iron Fist, Velvet Glove”

A junior foreign minister in Rome said the offer may be couched in a “velvet glove of Europeanism” but bore “a whiff of the ethno-nationalist iron fist.”

Kurz assured Italians on Tuesday that he would consult Rome on the plan, which is a long-standing FPO policy, adding he would speak to Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

For an EU battered by mounting nationalism that goes well beyond Brexit, there is concern too that criticism of Brussels in Vienna may help fuel the euroscepticism of former communist member states in Central Europe, including Poland, where the Commission is seriously considering imposing sanctions that were initially designed in response to the FPO’s rise early this century.

Speaking in Brussels, Kurz said he would make it Austria’s task to bridge the gap between EU member states in the east and the west, adding his country would fight to stop illegal immigration into the EU.

In a letter of congratulation to Kurz, Tusk made clear his concerns about the new coalition in Austria: “I trust that the Austrian government will continue to play a constructive and pro-European role in the European Union,” Tusk wrote, noting that Austria will from July enjoy six months of influence in Brussels as chair of EU ministerial councils.

Germany and France, the EU’s lead powers, also indicated a vigilance about Austria in their comments on Monday which highlighted Kurz’s pledges to foster European cooperation.

Kurz’s visit to Brussels comes on the eve of an important Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Juncker’s team will consider recommending sanctions on Poland for its continued defiance of warnings that its new laws on the judiciary are contrary to EU democratic standards.

“We are in a difficult process, which I hope will turn out to be a process of convergence. But not all bridges to Poland will be burnt tomorrow,” Juncker said.
…

In the heart of Barcelona lies a foreboding reminder of Spain’s past. La Modelo prison is located just a few blocks from the Catalan capital’s main railway station and many of the city’s major tourist attractions. 

The jail housed political prisoners during the 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. More than 1,000 were executed.

Barcelona was the last bastion of republican resistance in the Spanish civil war, falling to Franco’s forces in 1939. In the four decades of dictatorship that followed, many continued the opposition fight underground. Among them was Felipe Moreno, who was eventually caught and jailed in 1975. He has watched the recent events with growing alarm.

The Spanish government arrested many leaders of the Catalan independence movement in October, following a disputed referendum on secession from Spain. Moreno says the government’s actions echo the repression of the Franco era.

“To think, in this day and age, that they can arrest you for political thoughts if you do not accept the state,” Moreno said. “The government says there are no political prisoners, but in the Franco era they said the same thing.  We were enemies of the regime and we were accused of terrorism.”

In the hills outside Barcelona lies the village of Vilarsar, yellow ribbons adorn almost every tree and lamppost — symbols of support for Catalonia’s jailed independence leaders.

History supports independence

The village is at the forefront of the independence campaign, led by Mayor Xavier Godàs, whose grandfathers fought for Catalan republicans against General Franco’s troops.  He said he feels the weight of history behind his independence campaign. 

“Keeping alive the flame of republican freedom.  By that I mean the fight against domination. That is something that goes beyond the 40 years of dictatorship.  It has been transmitted through generations, and is not only to do with national motives, but with principles of democracy,” said Godàs.

The Spanish government claims it is trying to uphold that democratic principle.  Catalonians will vote in regional elections Thursday, after Madrid dissolved the regional government following the October referendum.  Polls suggest the vote is evenly split between pro- and anti-independence parties.

Whatever the outcome, Vilasar Mayor Xavier Godas said he will continue the fight to break away from Spanish rule.
…

The European Union’s executive may trigger a process on Wednesday to begin to strip Poland of its voting rights in the bloc, officials say, as months of tensions between Brussels and Warsaw come to a head.

In what would be an unprecedented move, the European Commission could invoke Article 7 of the European Union’s founding Lisbon Treaty to punish Warsaw for breaking its rules on human rights and democratic values.

“Unless the Polish government postpones these court reforms, we will have no choice but to trigger Article 7,” said a senior EU official before a Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Poland’s reforms are on the agenda.

Poland’s new prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in Brussels last week that “the decision has already been made.”

​

The Commission’s deputy head Frans Timmermans warned in July that Poland was “perilously close” to facing sanctions.

Such a punishment could still be blocked. Hungary, Poland’s closest ally in the EU, is likely to argue strongly against it.

But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) won power in late 2015.

The Commission says Poland’s judicial reforms limit judges’ independence. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law.

If all EU governments agree, Poland could have its voting rights in the EU suspended, and may also see cuts in billions of euros of EU aid.

The PiS government rejects accusations of undemocratic behaviour and says its reforms are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality.

Following a non-binding European Parliament vote last month calling for Article 7 to be invoked, the Commission appears to have little leeway to grant Warsaw more time to amend its legislation.

The reforms would give the PiS-controlled parliament de facto control over the selection of judges and end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

The Council of Europe, the continent’s human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

The Commission fears letting Poland off the hook could weaken its hand, especially in the ex-communist east, and risk damaging the EU’s single market and cross-border legal cooperation.
…

Police say a British man who was arrested at an air base used by the U.S. Air Force in England has been detained for involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act.

That means authorities believe he needs urgent treatment for a mental health problem and poses a risk to himself and others.

The 44-year-old man has not been charged in connection with an incident Monday that prompted a lockdown at the RAF Mildenhall base.

He was arrested on suspicion of criminal trespass after trying to enter the base. Police say the incident was not connected to terrorism.

Officials say American service personnel fired shots as it unfolded. The man suffered cuts and bruises, but no one else was hurt.

The military and police didn’t identify or provide further details on Tuesday.

 
…

Turkey will take the resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its declaration of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital to the United Nations General Assembly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

The resolution was introduced to the U.N. Security Council on Monday by Egypt, a non-permanent member, but was vetoed by the United States, despite the 14 other votes in favor.

“Now, God willing, we will carry the resolution to the U.N. General Assembly,” Erdogan a joint news conference with the Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh. “A two-thirds support in the General Assembly would actually mean the rejection of the decision made by the Security Council,” he added.

 
…

Pope Francis and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday discussed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that both say is dangerous to Middle East peace.

Abdullah and the pope spoke privately for about 20 minutes at the start of the king’s visit to the Vatican and France.

A Vatican statement said they discussed “the promotion of peace and stability in the Mideast, with particular reference to the question of Jerusalem and the role of the Hashemite Sovereign as Custodian of the Holy Places.”

King Abdullaha’s Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Amman sensitive to any changes of status of the disputed city.

When Trump announced his decision on December 6, the pope responded by calling for the city’s “status quo” to be respected, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts.

Among an outpouring of international criticism, Jordan also rejected the U.S. decision, calling it legally “null” because it consolidated Israel’s occupation of the eastern sector of the city.

The United States was further isolated over the issue on Monday when it blocked a U.N. Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn.

Both the Vatican and Jordan back a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with them agreeing on the status of Jerusalem as part of the peace process.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its “united and eternal” capital.

The statement said both sides wanted to encourage negotiations.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alison Williams.
…

Russia poses an increasing threat and is willing to use propaganda, subversion and cyberattacks to undermine Britain and the rest of Europe, Britain’s national security adviser said Monday.

Mark Sedwill, who is overseeing a review of Britain’s security services, told a parliamentary committee that Russia is attempting to “sow dissension” and undermine democracy in Britain and other western nations.

He said the threats from Russia included from unconventional warfare such as disinformation campaigns to the dangers posed from an increase in its military capability in the North Atlantic and in Eastern Europe.

“We know that the Russian threat is definitely intensifying and diversifying,” Sedwill said. “The Russian attitude has worsened more generally toward the West and that seems set to continue.”

Britain has been more vocal in recent weeks about the threat posed by Russia at a time when there is growing concern among some members of the ruling Conservative party about the impact of cuts to defense spending.

Prime Minister Theresa May last month in her most outspoken attack on Russia accused the country of meddling in elections and planting fake stories in the media.

The head of Britain’s armed forces said last week that trade and the internet are at risk of damage from any Russian attack on underwater communications cables that could disrupt trillions of dollars in financial transactions.

Sedwill accused Russia of planting fake stories in the media about the conduct of soldiers in Eastern Europe, where NATO troops are based, to undermine the legitimacy of them being there.

He also accused Russia of meddling in the recent French elections even though he said this had no chance of changing the outcome of the vote.

“It clearly was designed to undermine the citizen’s trust in their systems and we see quite a lot elsewhere,” he said.
…

As the most serious challenger during Vladimir Putin’s 18 years in power, Alexei Navalny has endured arrests, show trials and facefuls of green antiseptic that damaged his vision.

But in an interview Monday with The Associated Press, he said the biggest thing keeping him from becoming Russia’s next president is a political system that punishes him for rallying support and conspires to keep his face off the airwaves.

Putin’s approval rating is astronomical and he is widely expected to win another term with ease, but the fact that he won’t even say Navalny’s name suggests the anti-corruption crusader has struck a nerve. Navalny’s criminal record will probably keep him off the ballot — a sign, he says, of how much he frightens the political class.

Navalny, in his first interview since the start of the presidential campaign, said he would win it “if I am allowed to run and if I’m allowed to use major media.” And he said the Kremlin knows it.

“It’s the main reason they don’t want me to run,” he said. “They understand perfectly how ephemeral the support for them is.”

Poll results

That support certainly looks strong: The latest independent poll, conducted this month by the Levada Center, suggests 75 percent of Russians would vote for Putin. People in much of Russia back Putin as a matter of course, and Navalny supporters are routinely heckled, arrested and fined when they try to spread their message.

But there are also signs that enthusiasm for Putin may be starting to wane. Another Levada poll, conducted in April, found that 51 percent of people are tired of waiting for Putin to bring “positive change” — 10 percentage points higher than a year ago. Both polls surveyed 1,600 people across Russia and had margins of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Navalny hopes to capitalize on that discontent.

“Putin has nothing to say,” Navalny said. “All he can promise is what he used to promise before, and you can check that these promises did not come true and cannot come true.”

Social media, not TV

Navalny gets out his message on social media, using Twitter and Telegram and broadcasting a weekly program on YouTube. But television — the main source of information for most Russians — remains off limits because it’s controlled by the government.

Other opposition candidates are expected to run, notably socialite Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin’s mentor — but there is wide speculation that her candidacy is a Kremlin plot to split Navalny’s support. The only other candidates who are critical of Putin have too little support for the Kremlin to view them as threats.

Putin himself has announced his re-election bid but so far refrained from any campaigning events. Even so, his face is everywhere — at his annual news conference last week, carried live for nearly four hours on Russian television, he touted his accomplishments and even taunted Navalny — but stuck to his practice of not saying his name.

Navalny was not a candidate during Russia’s last presidential election in 2012, but he spearheaded massive anti-government protests that rattled Putin. Amid dwindling popularity, Putin seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and threw support behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, striking a chord with millions of Russians who felt like losers in the outcome of the Cold War. Now, people are tiring of the Ukrainian conflict and becoming more focused on their own economic woes, providing fertile ground for Navalny’s message.

Navalny published his full election platform last week, focusing on fighting corruption and funneling more money into education and health care. He calls for a windfall tax on oligarchs and huge cuts to Russia’s bloated bureaucracy. Unlike Putin’s focus on foreign policy, Navalny’s platform is almost entirely domestic, which he credits for growing support in places like Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city, where he drew a large crowd in October.

“Our government is in the grip of illusions. They deal with Syria and they’re not interested in what’s happening in Novosibirsk, and people there feel it,” Navalny told the AP. “That translates into the fact that I’m receiving more support.”

Visibility, backlash

The blue-eyed Moscow lawyer first made his name in 2009 when he began publishing investigations into corruption at Russia’s biggest state-owned companies. When the AP first interviewed Navalny in 2010, he was a lone wolf, but he has since acquired allies and supporters who have made investigations into official corruption their full-time job.

With the visibility came the backlash: The 41-year-old Navalny has been convicted on two sets of unrelated charges, and his brother was sent to prison in what was largely viewed as political revenge. A conviction on one of the charges bars Navalny from running for public office without special dispensation — and the election official who will consider that request in the coming weeks has already said she sees no legal grounds for him to run.

In his only formal election campaign, Navalny ran for Moscow mayor in 2013 and got nearly 30 percent of the vote.

His presidential bid began a year ago, when he started to build a network of supporters across Russia. He currently counts over 190,000 volunteers, most of them young, from Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad to Vladivostok on the Pacific. His supporters have opened campaign offices in 83 cities and towns, including many where Putin is accustomed to winning by a landslide.

On his most recent visit to Putin’s heartland, 1,000 people braved temperatures of -15 Celsius (-5 Fahrenheit) to hear him speak in the industrial town of Novokuznetsk, where Putin got 77 percent of the vote in 2012.

Many of those in the crowd sounded weary of the president but said they saw no alternative. Asked about Navalny, many said they had heard very little about him.

While Navalny has captured the attention of a younger generation and the politically active via social media, he conceded he won’t be able to reach the broader population as long as he is barred from state television.

“We have won among the active political class despite the ban,” he said. “The politically active class will turn the politically dormant one in our favor. It’s going to happen in this election if I’m allowed to run.”
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European Union environment and energy ministers on Monday agreed on renewable energy targets for 2030 ahead of negotiations next year with the European Parliament, which has called for more ambitious green energy goals.

Ministers said they would aim to source at least 27 percent of the bloc’s energy from renewables by 2030 — up from a target of 20 percent by 2020.

In October, the European Parliament called for this target to be increased to 35 percent, a level also put forward by a group of big technology, industry and power companies last week.

As part of the package of measures, ministers also agreed on the share of renewable fuels to be used in transport, while setting a cap on first-generation biofuels, which critics say compete for agricultural land with food.

EU member states set a 14 percent renewables target for fuels used in road transport by 2030, with bonuses given for the use of renewable electricity in road and rail transport.

The inclusion of rail into the renewable transport targets was criticized by the European Commission, as large parts of the European rail network are already electrified.

“The level of ambition is clearly insufficient,” Europe’s climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told ministers during negotiations.

The European Council and the European Parliament will need to find a compromise in talks over the final legal texts on these matters next year.

The EU’s renewables targets are part of a set of proposals to implement the bloc’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, in the wake of the Paris Agreement to limit further global warming to no more than 2 degrees.

Ministers also reached a common position on a set of rules for the internal electricity market, such as the roll out of more sophisticated electricity meters to consumers and allowing grid operators to run energy storage facilities.
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Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Ukraine Sunday while trying to storm Kyiv’s October Palace following a rally against President Petro Poroshenko.

The crowd, which was dispersed with tear gas fired by police, is the latest in support of opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who was released from custody last week after having been detained and accused of trying to stage a Russia-sponsored coup.

No serious injuries were reported from the demonstration, and the situation was relatively calm after nightfall.

“You have to show them that you are brave, but very, very calm,” Saakashvili told the crowd Sunday. “I will stand by you to the very end.”

Clashes with police outside the cultural center known as the October Palace followed a more peaceful rally earlier in the day to call for the resignation of Poroshenko.

Ukrainian authorities decided last week to release Saakashvili from police custody for the duration of the probe into accusations of abetting an alleged “criminal group” led by former President Viktor Yanukovych — who was pushed from power in 2014 and fled to Russia — and staging protests as part of a Russian plot against Ukraine.

Saakashvili, 49, is also wanted in his native Georgia, where he served as president from 2004 until 2013, for alleged abuse of power.

Saakashvili became a regional governor in Ukraine in 2015 at the invitation of Poroshenko. However, the two men later had a falling out, with Saakashvili accusing the president of corruption and calling for his removal from office.

 
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An employee of Britain’s embassy in Lebanon was found murdered Sunday.

The body of Rebecca Dykes was reportedly found on the side of the road. Police sources told the British media that Dykes appeared to have been raped before she was killed but that the crime did not appear to be politically motivated.

A statement from Dykes’ family said they were “devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca.”

“We are doing all we can to understand what happened. We request that the media respect our privacy as we come together as a family at this very difficult time,” the family said.

Dykes had been working in Beirut for nearly a year as the program and policy manager for the Department for International Development, according to the BBC.

Local police say that an investigation, including a second post-mortem, is being carried out. British authorities said they were in contact with local police.

 
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The Kremlin said Sunday that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency provided Russian authorities with information that thwarted a series of Islamic State bombings planned in St. Petersburg.

Moscow said Russian President Vladimir Putin called U.S. President Donald Trump to thank him for the CIA information, a call the White House confirmed.

Russia said the intelligence was significant enough for its Federal Security Service to track down seven suspects last week who were planning suicide bomb attacks Saturday on the two-century-old Kazan Cathedral and other sites in Russia’s second largest city. Three more were arrested Sunday who authorities said were linked to the planned attack.

Authorities said they confiscated a large number of explosives used to make homemade bombs, automatic rifles, munitions and extremist literature.

Law enforcement agencies said the suspects had been using the messaging app Telegram to communicate with Islamic State leaders outside Russia. In October, a Russian court fined Telegram $14,000 for refusing to provide security officials with information about an April attack on St. Petersburg’s subway that killed 16 people and injured more than 50.

The state news agency RIA Novosti broadcast a video showing a man identified as Yevgeny Yefimov confessing that he planned to carry out Saturday’s St. Petersburg attack.

“My job was to make explosives, put it in bottles and attach pieces of shrapnel,” Yefimov said in the video.

Later, Yefimov told a St. Petersburg court that the cathedral was an intended target.

Moscow said Putin asked Trump to express his gratitude to the CIA and that Russia in turn would hand over information it learns about possible terrorist attacks in the U.S., as it says it has in the past.

Sunday’s call between the two leaders was their second in four days and comes at a contentious point in U.S.-Russia relations.

U.S. sanctions are still in place protesting Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, while the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump win.

Criminal and congressional investigations are underway in the U.S. about the Trump campaign’s links to Moscow. Putin has often denied Russian interference and Trump has frequently disparaged the investigations as an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset victory over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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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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