Winter could bring death to asylum seekers stranded on crowded Greek islands with only summer tents for shelter, aid groups said on Wednesday, urging a mass relocation to the mainland.

More than 10,000 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis fleeing years of war, have massed on the Greek islands that lie closest to Turkey, since the European Union agreed a deal with Ankara in March 2016 to shut down the route through Greece.

Authorities say the terms of the agreement prevent them from traveling to the Greek mainland until their asylum applications are processed. Those who do not qualify are deported.

But this has forced thousands to live in squalid conditions unfit for humans, the 20 aid groups said in a joint statement.

“We are in a race against time. Lives will be lost ‘again’ this winter unless people are allowed to move, in an organized and voluntary fashion, to the mainland,” said Jana Frey, who leads Greek operations for the International Rescue Committee.

Exposure to bad weather is a key risk, along with overcrowding, lack of basic services and a reliance on dangerous and impromptu measures to keep warm, the groups said.

Last year, a 66-year old woman and 6-year-old child died in Lesbos after a cooking gas canister exploded in a tent.

“Nothing can justify trapping people in these terrible conditions on the islands for another winter,” said Eva Cosse, Greece researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The government has moved 2,000 people to camps on the mainland after the groups wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last month, but conditions for those remaining on the island have since deteriorated, they said.

Crowded camps on Lesbos, Samos, and Chios are holding two to three times more people than they should, including single women and children, the aid workers said. Some women are also sharing tents with unrelated men, further jeopardizing their safety.

“European countries and Greece should urgently work together and move asylum seekers off the islands,” said Gabriel Sakellaridis, director of Amnesty International in Greece.

On Monday, residents on Lesbos went on strike, shutting businesses, shops, municipal offices and nurseries to protest against policies that they say have turned their island into a “prison” for migrants and refugees.

About 30,000 people have arrived in Greece this year, a fraction compared to the nearly 1 million who arrived in 2015. Greek authorities in London and Athens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reporting by Umberto Bacchi, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths.
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The remains of a blazing meteorite that lit up the dark skies of the Arctic last week are believed scattered near a lake in northern Finland, amateur Finnish astronomers said Wednesday.

The Ursa astronomical association says their calculations show the parts would have crashed in a remote area near the Norwegian and Russian borders.

The meteorite – which Norwegian scientists said gave “the glow of 100 full moons” – was seen in northern Norway and Russia’s Kola peninsula on Thursday for about five seconds.

Marko Pekkola, a scientist with Ursa, said it likely landed in the wilderness almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of Helsinki. He believed it weighted between 100 kilograms and 300 kilograms (220 pounds and 660 pounds) before it entered the atmosphere, and flew at a speed of 30 kilometers per second (18.6 miles per second) – “in the low end for meteorites.”

Pekkola said the meteorite likely broke into pieces when it entered the atmosphere, producing a blast wave that felt like an explosion. The parts are believed to be spread over an area of about 60 square kilometers (24 sq. miles).

“We don’t know many pieces are out there, it is [exceptional] to find something,” Pekkola said. “I can say that finding one or two pieces is possible.”

The group says it wants to start searching for the remains, though it hasn’t set a date yet.

In 2013, a meteorite streaked across the Russian sky and exploded over the Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring about 1,100 people. Many were cut by flying glass as they flocked to windows, curious about what had produced such a blinding flash of light.

The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteorite was estimated to be about 10 tons when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph). It shattered into pieces about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above the ground but some meteorite chunks were found in a Russian lake.
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The United Nations’ Yugoslav war crimes tribunal ruled Wednesday former Bosnian Serb army leader Ratko Mladic is guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

The court convicted Mladic on 10 of the 11 charges he faced, including persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians. He was sentenced to life in prison.

“The crimes committed rank among the most heinous to humankind, and include genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity,” judge Alphons Orie said in reading the verdict.

Genocide

The court said Mladic intended to destroy the Bosnian Muslim population in Srebrenica, and in Sarajevo personally directed a campaign of shelling and sniping meant to spread terror and perpetrate murder among civilians.

It also cited as a window into his motivations his expressions of a commitment to seek an ethnically homogenous Bosnian Serb republic.

Mladic appeared in the courtroom, but was not present as Orie read the verdict. He requested a bathroom break partway through Wednesday’s session, which was granted for five minutes but stretched on for 45 minutes.

When the proceedings resumed, his lawyer said Mladic’s blood pressure was dangerously high and requested the judge either stop reading the verdict or skip ahead to the court’s judgment.

Orie said the proceedings would go on as planned, at which point Mladic started yelling until he was ordered removed from the courtroom.

‘Butcher of Bosnia’

After the verdict, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein praised the court’s decision as a “momentous victory for justice” and the “epitome of what international justice is all about.”

“Today’s verdict is a warning to the perpetrators of such crimes that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take,” Zeid said in a statement.

A State Department official said Wednesday the United States supports the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and respects its ruling.

“We will continue to commemorate the victims of the horrific crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia,” the official said. “We urge the countries and peoples of the region to refrain from divisive rhetoric and work together to build a better future for the entire region.”

WATCH: ICTY Hands Down Mladic Verdict 

Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” is the last former military leader to face war crimes charges in the court, which was set up to deal with the aftermath of the Bosnian war that raged from 1992 through 1995.

He was charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in leading sniper campaigns in Sarajevo and the 1995 killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica — the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

Prosecutors asked the International Criminal Tribunal to sentence Mladic to life in prison. Last year, attorney Alan Tieger said anything less than a life sentence would be “an insult to the victims, living and dead, and an affront to justice.”

Mladic’s defense lawyer, Dragan Ivetic, accused prosecutors of seeking to make the former general a “symbolic sacrificial lamb for the perceived guilt” of all Serbs during the war. He called for Mladic, 75, to be acquitted on all charges.

At the end of the war in 1995, Mladic went into hiding and lived in obscurity in Serbia, protected by family and elements of the security forces.

Mladic was indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity but evaded justice for 16 years. He was eventually tracked down and arrested at a cousin’s house in rural northern Serbia in 2011.

The Bosnian Serbs’ political leader, Radovan Karadzic, was found guilty of war crimes in March 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
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United Nations judges in The Hague will decide within hours on a verdict in the trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes stemming from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” is the last former military leader to face war crimes charges in the court, which was set up to deal with the aftermath of the Bosnian war that raged from 1992 through 1995.

Mladic, who has been on trial since 2012, has been charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in leading sniper campaigns in Sarajevo and the 1995 killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica — the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

Prosecutors have asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to sentence Mladic to life in prison. Last year, attorney Alan Tieger said anything less than a life sentence would be “an insult to the victims, living and dead, and an affront to justice.”

Mladic’s defense lawyer, Dragan Ivetic, has accused prosecutors of seeking to make the former general a “symbolic sacrificial lamb for the perceived guilt” of all Serbs during the war. He called for Mladic, 75, to be acquitted on all charges.

At the end of the war in 1995, Mladic went into hiding and lived in obscurity in Serbia, protected by family and elements of the security forces.

Mladic was indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity but evaded justice for 16 years. He was eventually tracked down and arrested at a cousin’s house in rural northern Serbia in 2011.

The Bosnian Serbs’ political leader, Radovan Karadzic, was found guilty of war crimes in March 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The U.N. tribunal is scheduled to initiate proceedings to deliver the verdict Wednesday.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

 
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday to support the U.N. effort to “peacefully resolve” the nearly seven-year-long Syrian civil war.

The White House said the two leaders talked for more than an hour and stressed the importance of ending the humanitarian crisis in which millions of Syrians have been displaced from their homes. Trump and Putin said the displaced Syrians should be allowed to return and “the stability of a unified Syria free of malign intervention and terrorist safe havens” should be ensured.

Trump talked by phone with Putin a day after the Russian leader held discussions in Russia with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad about a political resolution to the civil war, which has killed 400,000 people.

The White House said Trump and Putin “affirmed the importance of fighting terrorism together throughout the Middle East and Central Asia and agreed to explore ways to further cooperate in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaida, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations.”

In addition, they discussed ways “to implement a lasting peace in Ukraine,” where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting troops loyal to Kyiv, and how to keep international pressure on North Korea to end its nuclear weapon and missile development programs.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that it had called Assad to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Putin about Russia’s peace proposals for Syria, ahead of Putin’s summit Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Russia has bolstered Assad’s rule with airstrikes since late 2015 against groups trying to overthrow his regime, with Iranian fighters also supporting Damascus, and Turkey backing the Syrian opposition.

His power ensured, Asssad said he expressed his gratitude to Putin “for all of the efforts that Russia made to save our country.”

Putin, according to the Kremlin, told Assad that Russia’s “military operation is coming to an end. Thanks to the Russian army, Syria has been saved as a state. Much has been done to stabilize the situation in Syria.”

He praised Assad, predicting terrorism would suffer an “inevitable” defeat in Syria.

The Kremlin quoted Assad as saying, “It is in our interest to advance the political process. … We don’t want to look back. And we are ready for dialogue with all those who want to come up with a political settlement.”

U.N.-led peace talks about Syria are scheduled for November 28 in Geneva.
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On November 5, more than 50,000 runners and two million spectators turned out for the New York Marathon. The event took place just a few days after a lone attacker drove a van into cyclists and pedestrians beside a busy Manhattan highway, killing eight people.

Security was beefed up for the marathon: sand-filled sanitation trucks were deployed at key intersections to block vehicles, while hundreds of extra police backed by sniffer dogs and snipers were positioned along the 21-kilometer route.

The precautions underline the changing nature of the terror threat, 16 years after the 9/11 al-Qaida attacks on the same city.

“They are moving towards the lower technology attacks, using knives, using vehicles, and using weapons that they can perhaps purchase on the black market but not have to make themselves,” said leading counter-terror analyst Brooke Rogers of Kings College, London.

He said, beyond short-term, enhanced security, an urban environment can adapt.

“For example, by having blast-proof glass installed in these grand glass structures. Or having different security measures, physical security measures – some of that could be scanning technology, some of it could be CCTV (closed circuit television) based, but also human measures, in terms of the staff not only walking around the perimeter, walking around inside with highly visible uniforms, but also staff who are less visible,” said Rogers.

In France, thousands of extra security personnel including soldiers have been deployed since the 2015 Paris attacks. But Rogers notes they have themselves become targets for terrorists.

London has installed physical barriers to separate vehicles and pedestrians in the wake of this year’s vehicle attacks in Westminster and on London Bridge. Permanent protection has been built around government buildings, with some of it adapted into street furniture like benches. But sectioning off every walkway is simply not practical.

“The amount of engineering that goes into those can cost millions of dollars. But we have to be careful because everything that we secure means that we are then turning the attention of these terrorist groups to softer targets,” said Rogers.

As a result, more attention is being given to educating the public. Since 2010 the U.S. Department for Homeland Security has been running an awareness campaign titled, “If you see something, say something”. In London, the mantra is similar: “See It, Say It, Sorted.”

British authorities have also issued a campaign on what to do if you’re caught in a terror attack – summarized as “Run, Hide, Tell.”

Rogers says such campaigns aren’t pushed hard enough by authorities. “They’re very anxious that if they start making people think about that type of attack in the public places, that they’re going to frighten them and maybe scare them away. We have a lot of evidence that suggests that that is not the case. It doesn’t have a significant impact in terms of the perceived threat at all and in fact it builds higher levels of trust.”

Increasingly, security services see public awareness as a key line of defense against the changing terror threat.

 
…

The European Union’s top court Monday ordered Poland to stop logging in the ancient Bialowieza Forest, or pay an $118,000 daily fine.

“Poland must immediately cease its active forest management operations in the Bialowieza Forest, except in exceptional cases where they are strictly necessary to ensure public safety,” the European Court of Justice wrote.

The forest is home to rare plants, birds and mammals and is one of Europe’s last remaining primeval habitats. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The court first warned Poland against logging in July.

Poland says the trees are weak and damaged by a beetle outbreak. It says cutting them down is necessary to prevent people foraging for mushrooms from getting hurt if the trees fall.

The logging argument is another in a series of a war of words between the European Union and the right-wing Polish government, which accuses the EU of infringing on its sovereignty.

The EU has said it is worried about the decline of democratic values in Poland.
…

The European Union went back to its roots Monday by picking cities from two of its founding nations — France and the Netherlands — to host key agencies that will have move once Britain leaves the bloc in 2019.

During voting so tight they were both decided by a lucky draw, EU members except Britain chose Amsterdam over Italy’s Milan as the new home of the European Medicines Agency and Paris over Dublin to host the European Banking Authority. Both currently are located in London.

“We needed to draw lots in both cases,” Estonian EU Affairs Minister Matti Maasikas, who chaired the meeting and in both cases made the decisive selection from a big transparent bowl.

Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank, surprisingly failed to become one of the two finalists competing for the banking agency.

The relocations made necessary by the referendum to take Britain out of the EU are expected to cost the country over 1,000 jobs directly and more in secondary employment.

The outcomes of the votes also left newer EU member states in eastern and southern Europe with some bitterness. Several had hoped to be tapped for a lucrative prize that would be a sign the bloc was truly committed to outreach.

Some 890 top jobs will leave Britain for Amsterdam with the European Medicines Agency, giving the Dutch a welcome economic boost and more prestige. The EMA is responsible for the evaluation, supervision and monitoring of medicines. The Paris-bound European Banking Authority, which has around 180 staff members, monitors the regulation and supervision of Europe’s banking sector.

After a heated battle for the medicines agency, Amsterdam and Milan both had 13 votes Monday. That left Estonia, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, to break the tie with a draw from the bowl. Copenhagen finished third, ahead of Slovakian capital Bratislava in the vote involving EU nations excluding Britain. One country abstained in the vote.

“A solid bid that was defeated only by a draw. What a mockery,” Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter.

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra was elated.

“It is a fantastic result,” he said. “It shows that we can deal with the impact of Brexit”

The European Medicines Agency has less than 17 months to complete the move, but Amsterdam was considered ideally suited because of its location, the building it had on offer and other facilities.

Even though rules were set up to make it a fair decision, the process turned into a deeply political contest.

Zijlstra said that “in the end, it is a very strategic game of chess.”
…

Germany has been plunged into political crisis after coalition talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and two smaller parties broke down. Analysts say the indecisive election result in September has revealed a splintering of German society and politics, posing a serious challenge to Chancellor Merkel. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the political chaos could have a much wider impact on issues like climate talks and European Union reform.
…

Germany — the most stable European Union country — was plunged into a political crisis Monday. Weeks-long exploratory talks over forming Germany’s next coalition government collapsed with all four parties involved at loggerheads over migration and energy policies as well as on further European Union integration. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel was due Monday to meet the country’s president, but it remained unclear whether she will try to run a minority government, forestalling a snap parliamentary election, or recommend heading to the polls early next year.

The news of the collapse of the talks sent the euro sliding in overnight Asian markets both against the dollar and the Japanese yen. Merkel’s difficulties come at a crucial time for the EU, which is locked in increasingly vitriolic negotiations with Britain over Brexit. 

The German Chancellor had been trying to forge a complicated coalition between her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Green party following federal elections at the end of September. Those elections left her ruling CDU the largest party but with a reduced share of the vote and fewer seats — thanks partly to a surge by Germany’s far-right populists.

CDU officials acknowledge that migration — the issue the populists of the Alternative for Germany built their election appeal on — was the main obstacle in the talks dividing potential partners in a so-called Jamaica coalition, nicknamed because the parties’ traditional colors are similar to the Jamaican flag.

Asylum-seekers

The question of how many of the 1.2 million migrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Africa who found their way to Germany in 2015 and 2016 should be allowed to be reunited with their families couldn’t be resolved in the coalition negotiations. On Sunday, the Green party offered a compromise whereby they would agree to limit Germany’s annual intake of migrants to 200,000 – as long as the other parties didn’t rule out that relatives of migrants already in Germany would be allowed to join them.

With migration such a contentious issue — and with the possibility of snap elections — the CDU, the CSU and the Free Democrats have appeared determined to outdo each in proposing tougher migration controls.

Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving leader, is facing renewed internal criticism of her handling of the coalition talks. As the negotiations dragged she cut a rather passive figure, according to party critics. On Sunday the embattled Chancellor said she regretted the collapse of the talks, but added she had “thought we were on the path where we could have reached agreement” when the Free Democrats decided to withdraw.

“It is at least a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany,” Merkel said. “But I will do everything possible to ensure that this country will be well led through these difficult weeks.”

Falling apart

Announcing the pull-out form the talks, the FDP leader Christian Lindner, argued, “it is better not to govern than to govern wrongly.” He suggested the huddles between officials had become acrimonious, complaining, “there was no process but rather there were setbacks because targeted compromises were questioned.”

The Free Democrats and Greens also clashed repeatedly over climate-change issues and the use of coal-fired energy generation.

Social Democrat leader, Martin Schulz, whose party had been a junior coalition partner to Merkel for the last four years, Sunday once again ruled out the possibility of another so-called grand coalition between the CDU and his party, the second largest in the Bundestag. “The voter has rejected the grand coalition”, Schulz said at a party conference in Nuremberg.

With the Social Democrats refusing to enter another coalition with Merkel following their disastrous showing in the September election, the Chancellor now faces a bleak choice. She can either try to form a minority government with the Free Democrats that would be at risk of being out-voted regularly, or concede that a re-run of September’s election is necessary. Most opinion polls suggest a re-run election would produce a very similar result to September’s.

But calling a snap election risks ending Merkel’s career and preventing her from serving a fourth-term as chancellor. In recent opinion polls, most Germans surveyed say it would mark the end of her career. And before the talks collapsed overnight Sunday Bild, Germany’s largest-circulation newspaper warned: “If she fails, the turbulence arising from a failure would quickly engulf her personally.”

But Merkel has made a habit of defying expectations over the last 12 years of her leadership.

With Germany distracted, and Merkel acting as a caretaker Chancellor, crucial EU decisions over Brexit, renewing sanctions on Russia and French President Emmanuel Macron’s push for reform of the economic bloc will likely be delayed, say analysts.

For Britain, the weakening of Merkel makes it more likely that it will crash out of the EU with no deal over trade with its largest trading partner. “The collapse of coalition talks in Germany makes a ‘no deal’ Brexit a little more likely,” tweeted Fraser Nelson, editor of Britain’s Spectator magazine. 

And the political editor of the Sun, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, Tom Newton Dunn tweeted: “Germany’s mess is bad news for Brexit. No10, perhaps inexplicably, is still holding out for Merkel’s help – but she’ll be weak and indecisive for many months now.”
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will consult Monday with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after weeks of talks to form a coalition government fell apart with one potential partner withdrawing from the process.

“It is at least a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany,” Merkel told reporters. “But I will do everything possible to ensure that this country will be well led through these difficult weeks.”

She spoke after the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) decided to exit a possible coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, along with the left-leaning Greens.

FDP leader Christian Lindner said his party opted to withdraw rather than compromise its principles and agree to policies it does not completely support.

“It is better not to govern than to govern falsely,” Lindner said.

The parties have clashed on several issues, including immigration and the environment.

With the failure of the coalition talks, Germany could be headed to new elections. Merkel could still try to form a minority government, or try to convince the Social Democratic Party to change its mind and continue as a junior coalition partner in a new government.

But the Social Democrats have said since a disappointing result in the September election that they would be heading to the opposition.
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One-third of the newest crop of Rhodes Scholars from the United States are African-Americans, the most ever elected in a U.S. Rhodes class.

Of the 100 Rhodes Scholars chosen worldwide for advanced study at Oxford in Britain each year, 32 come from the United States, and this time, 10 of those are African Americans. One of them is Simone Askew, the first black female student to head the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy.

Other American scholars include a transgender man and students from U.S. colleges that had never had a student win a spot in the Rhodes program.

The Rhodes Scholar program is the most prestigious available to American students, but it had been criticized for excluding women and blacks until the 1970s.

The scholarship program was set up in 1902 by Cecil Rhodes, a wealthy British philanthropist for whom the nation of Rhodesia was named.  After a civil war removed Rhodesia’s white-minority government, that nation was renamed Zimbabwe.  

 
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The U.S. ambassador to Russia on Sunday attacked Moscow’s move toward forcing nine United States government-funded news operations to register as “foreign agents” as “a reach beyond” what the U.S. government did in requiring the Kremlin-funded RT television network to register as such in the United States.

Ambassador Jon Huntsman said the Russian reaction is not “reciprocal at all” and Moscow’s move toward regulation of the news agencies, if it is implemented, would make “it virtually impossible for them to operate” in Russia.

WATCH: Ambassador Jon Huntsman

He said the eight-decade-old Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) under which RT has registered as a foreign agent is aimed at promoting transparency, but does not restrict the television network’s operation in the United States.

Russia’s lower house of parliament approved amendments Wednesday to expand a 2012 law that targets non-governmental organizations, including foreign media. A declaration as a foreign agent would require foreign media to regularly disclose their objectives, full details of finances, funding sources and staffing.

Media outlets also may be required to disclose on their social platforms and internet sites visible in Russia that they are “foreign agents.” The amendments also would allow the extrajudicial blocking of websites the Kremlin considers undesirable.

The Russian Justice Ministry said Thursday it had notified the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and seven separate regional outlets active in Russia they could be affected.

“It isn’t at all similar to what we’re doing under FARA — it’s a reach beyond,” Huntsman said. “And, we just think the principles of free media, in any free society and democracy, are absolutely critical to our strength, health, and well-being. Freedom of speech is part of that. So, that’s why I care about the issue. That’s why we in the embassy care about the issue. And, it’s why we’re going to follow the work that is going on in the Duma and the legislation that is being drafted, very very carefully, because we’re concerned about it.”

The Justice Ministry said the new requirements in Russia were likely to become law “in the near future.”

VOA Director Amanda Bennett said last week that if Russia imposes the new restrictions, “We can’t say at this time what effect this will have on our news-gathering operations within Russia. All we can say is that Voice of America is, by law, an independent, unbiased, fact-based news organization, and we remain committed to those principles.”

RFE/RL President Tom Kent said until the legislation becomes law, “we do not know how the Ministry of Justice will use this law in the context of our work.”

Kent said unlike Sputnik and other Russian media operating in the United States, U.S. media outlets operating in Russia do not have access to cable television and radio frequencies.

“Russian media in the U.S. are distributing their programs on American cable television. Sputnik has its own radio frequency in Washington. This means that even at the moment there is no equality,” he said.

Serious blow to freedom

The speaker of Russia’s lower house, the Duma, said last week that foreign-funded media outlets that refused to register as foreign agents under the proposed legislation would be prohibited from operating in the country.

However, since the law’s language is so broad, it potentially could be used to target any foreign media group, especially if it is in conflict with the Kremlin. “We are watching carefully… to see whether it is passed and how it is implemented,” said Maria Olson, a spokeswoman at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

The Russian amendments, which Amnesty International said would inflict a “serious blow” to media freedom in Russia if they become law, were approved in response to a U.S. accusation that RT executed a Russian-mandated influence campaign on U.S. citizens during the 2016 presidential election, a charge the media channel denies.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine American democracy and help real estate mogul Donald Trump win the presidency. A criminal investigation of the interference is underway in the United States, as are numerous congressional probes.

The foreign registration amendments must next be approved by the Russian Senate and then signed into law by Putin.

RT, which is funded by the Kremlin to provide Russia’s perspective on global issues, confirmed last week it met the U.S. Justice Department’s deadline by registering as a foreign agent in the United States.
…

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Melvin Cavusolgu is hosting his Russian and Iranian counterparts at the Mediterranean Sea resort of Antalya to prepare the ground for Wednesday’s summit in Russia to discuss Syria.

Despite Ankara backing opposing sides to Tehran and Moscow in the Syrian civil war, they have been increasingly cooperating to resolve the conflict. The three countries armed forces are deployed in creating a “de-escalation zone” in the Syrian enclave of Idlib, one of last strongholds of rebels fighting the Damascus regime.

Despite growing cooperation, the countries competing agendas are increasingly coming to the fore with the imminent defeat of Islamic State and rebel forces in the Syrian civil war. The meeting Sunday in Antalya is seeking to ease, if not resolve, those differences before the summit.

The hastily arranged summit came out of disputes over Moscow’s plan to hold a Syrian conference. Reportedly Tehran is unhappy at Moscow hosting the event, while Ankara was enraged over an invitation being extended to the Syrian Kurdish militia the PYD. Ankara accuses the militia of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.

But shared opposition to Washington’s policy in the region is providing a powerful impetus to ongoing cooperation between the three countries. “The ‘zeitgeist’ or spirit of times, forces the countries not to go into confrontation but cooperation,” said international relations professor Huseyin Balci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. The United States arming of PYD forces in their fight against the Islamic State continues to deeply strain relations with its NATO ally Turkey.

PYD controversy

U.S.-Turkish differences over the PYD, are increasingly dictating Turkish foreign policy. “At the moment all of Ankara’s priorities have been put in the Kurdish basket,” notes political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website, ”and that seems to be the guiding motive, whether its relations with Russia and also its relations with Iran.”

Cavusoglu is expected to press his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during talks in Antalya to agree to allow Turkey to launch a military operation against the PYD forces in the Syrian Afrin enclave. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing party supporters Sunday, promised a military operation would be launched to “liberate” Afrin.

In the past few days, Turkey has been reinforcing its forces in the Syrian enclave of Idlib that borders Afrin. But with Russian soldiers deployed in Afrin, Moscow’s agreement to any attack is seen as crucial by Ankara.

Moscow is competing with Washington for influence over the Syrian Kurdish forces. “Russia has its own contacts to Kurdish politicians in the region,” observes Zaur Gasimov an Istanbul-based Russia-Turkey analyst for the Max Weber Foundation, “but [Moscow] is very concerned on pro-American mood among most Kurdish politicians.” Analysts suggest Russia may view the threat of Turkish military action as important leverage to persuade Syrian Kurds to realize Moscow, rather than Washington, is the most useful ally.

NATO relations

But Ankara’s courting of Moscow and Tehran is raising questions among its NATO partners. Turkish NATO relations received another blow, Friday, when Turkey withdrew its forces participating in a military drill in retaliation for slights made to Erdogan and the founder of the Turkish State Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, by other soldiers participating in the exercise.

The incident continues to reverberate in Turkey. Erdogan Sunday dismissed an apology by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg describing its as “halfhearted.”

Reportedly Stoltenberg said those soldiers responsible for the slight had been dismissed. Anger against NATO is being whipped up in the Turkish media and has created a rare consensus in Turkey’s deeply polarized world.

Kemal Kilicdarolgu, leader of the main opposition CHP, joined in the condemnation of NATO. While Turkey’s Culture Minister Numan Kurtulmus described the incident as an example “anti-Islamic and anti-Turkey phobia.”

NATO and in particular the United States are viewed with deep suspicion among many Turks, and analysts point out such verbal attacks offer politicians an easy opportunity to score points with the electorate. With Turkey due to hold general and presidential elections by 2019, polls that are predicted to be close, the growing anti-Western nationalist rhetoric and policies are seen likely to continue. “Foreign policy in Turkey under the ruling AKP Party, it really has become an extension of domestic policy,” observes political columnist Idiz.

In such a political climate the NATO controversy could have far reaching effects, ”Turkey currently has more than one serious problem with the U.S., the locomotive force of NATO,” warned Murat Yetkin editor of Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News, “these problems are causing a rift between the two countries, prompting both Americans and Turks to question the long-running alliance between their countries.”

 
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The Turkish capital Ankara has banned the public showing of films and exhibitions related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, the governor’s office said on Sunday, citing risks to public safety.

The move is likely to deepen concern among rights activists and Turkey’s Western allies about its record on civil liberties under President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party.

“Starting from Nov. 18, 2017, concerning our community’s public sensitivity, any events such as LGBT… cinema, theatre, panels, interviews, exhibitions are banned until further notice in our province to provide peace and security,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

It said that such exhibitions could cause different groups in society to “publicly harbour hatred and hostility” toward each other and therefore pose a risk to public safety.

Authorities in Ankara had already banned a German gay film festival on Wednesday, the day before it was due to start, citing public safety and terrorism risks.

In addition, gay pride parades have been banned in Istanbul for the last two years running. Unlike in many Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but there is widespread hostility to it.

Civil liberties in Turkey have become a particular concern for the West following the attempted military coup in July 2016.

Since then, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial on suspicion of links to the coup. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs.

Human rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies fear Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to quash his opponents. Ankara says the measures are necessary, given the extent of the security threat it faces.
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Gerry Adams, the divisive politician known around the world as the face of the Irish republican movement as it shifted from violence to peace, announced Saturday that he was stepping down as leader of Sinn Fein next year after heading the party for over 30 years.

The 69-year-old veteran politician — who has been president of Northern Ireland’s second-largest party since 1983 — told the party’s annual conference in Dublin he would not run in the next Irish parliamentary elections.

“Leadership means knowing when it is time for change and that time is now,” he said, adding the move was part of an ongoing process of leadership transition within the party.

A divisive figure, some have denounced Adams as a terrorist while others hail him as a peacemaker.

He was a key figure in Ireland’s republican movement, which seeks to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the Republic of Ireland.

The dominant faction of the movement’s armed wing, the Provisional IRA, killed nearly 1,800 people during a failed 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U.K. It renounced violence and surrendered its weapons in 2005.

Although many identify Adams as a member of the IRA since 1966 and a commander for decades, Adams has long insisted he was never a member.

Adams was key in the peace process that saw the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the formation of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

Many believe Sinn Fein’s popularity among voters is hampered by the presence of leaders from Ireland’s era of Troubles.

The party is expected to elect a successor next year. Current deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald was seen as a favorite to succeed Adams.
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Fotis Kafatos, a Greek molecular biologist who had a distinguished academic career in both the United States and Europe and became the founding president of the European Research Council, has died. He was 77.

His family announced his death in Heraklion, Crete, on Saturday “after a long illness.”

Born in Crete in 1940, Kafatos was known for his research on malaria and for sequencing the genome of the mosquito that transmits the disease.

He was a professor at Harvard University from 1969 to 1994, where he also served as chairman of the Cellular and Developmental Biology Department, and at Imperial College in London since 2005. He had been an adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health since 2007.

Kafatos was also a part-time professor at the University of Crete in his hometown since 1982. He also was the third director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, a life sciences research organization funded by multiple countries, from 1993 to 2005.

Kafatos considered the 2007 founding of the European Research Council under the auspices of the European Commission as his crowning achievement. The council funds and promotes projects driven by researchers. He stepped down as president in 2010.

He came to be disillusioned by the heavily bureaucratic rules that, in his mind, hampered research.

“We continuously had to spend energy, time and effort on busting bureaucracy roadblocks that kept appearing in our way,” Kafatos told scientific journal Nature soon after he left the post. But, he added, “We delivered to Europe what we promised.”
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Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation Saturday of two U.S. prosecutors involved in putting a Turkish-Iranian businessman on trial for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, according to Turkey’s official news agency.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said it was investigating Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Bharara’s successor, acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim.

A statement from the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said the sources of the documents and wiretaps being used as evidence in the U.S. case against gold trader Reza Zarrab were unknown and violated international and domestic laws.

Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency published the statement Saturday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Zarrab, 34, has been charged in the U.S. with allegedly evading sanctions on Iran. An executive of Turkey’s state-owned bank, Halkbank, also faces charges and is due to appear in court in New York on November 27.

Former Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan is also among the nine defendants indicted in the case.

Bharara denies Gulen link

Turkish officials allege the case is politically motivated. They have accused Bharara, the former U.S. attorney, of links to a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government blames for a failed July 2016 military coup.

Bharara has vehemently rejected the allegation. Gulen denies involvement in the coup attempt.

The U.S. case was built on work initially performed by Turkish investigators who targeted Zarrab in 2013 in a sweeping corruption scandal that allegedly led to Turkish government officials.

Turkish prosecutors and police involved in the investigation were removed from duty, and charges that resulted from their probe were later dropped.

Since the July 2016 coup attempt, Turkey has arrested more than 50,000 people and fired over 100,000 state workers for alleged links to Gulen’s network.
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Russia has again vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended an international probe into chemical weapons use in Syria, one day after it rejected a similar resolution.

Japan had put forward a resolution that would have extended the investigation to identify who is behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria by 30 days to allow time for negotiations on a wider compromise.

On Thursday, the United States sponsored a similar resolution with a yearlong extension that was also vetoed by Russia.

Russian proposal fails

A separate Russian draft resolution Thursday that called for changes to the international investigation failed to get enough votes to pass, with just four countries supporting it. The Russian proposal included changes to the mandate that the United States opposed.

Without passage of any extension, the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) expired Thursday at midnight.

Friday’s veto by Russia was the 11th time Russia vetoed a resolution on Syria.

After Friday’s vote, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council: “Russia has no interest in finding common ground with the rest of this council to save the JIM. Russia will not agree to any mechanism that might shine a spotlight on the use of chemical weapons by its ally, the Syrian regime. It’s as simple and shameful as that.”

Haley offered “sincere apologies” to the “families of the victims of chemical weapons in Syria and the Syrian children, women and men who may be victims of future attacks.”

She added: “Know that the United States, along with the rest of this council, will not give up on seeking justice for your lost loved ones and protection for your families. Know that Russia can obstruct this council, but it cannot obstruct the truth.”

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the inquiry could only be extended if “fundamental flaws in its work” were fixed.

Series of attacks

The Joint Investigative Mechanism began its work more than two years ago after a series of chemical weapons attacks against civilians in Syria that killed or caused agony to hundreds.

The U.N. investigators have blamed the Syrian government for using the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack and for several times using chlorine as a weapon. It blamed Islamic State militants for using mustard gas.

Syria’s government says terrorists, its word for the opposition, are responsible for all the attacks.

Russia, which is Syria’s most powerful ally, has supported investigations into chemical weapons but criticized the reports as being unfair to the Syrian government.
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The U.S. State Department approved a possible $10.5 billion sale of Raytheon Co’s Patriot missile defense system to Poland, the Pentagon said on Friday. NATO member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and in response to Moscow’s renewed military and political assertiveness in the region.

Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said in March that Poland expected to sign a deal with Raytheon to buy the Patriot missile defense system by the end of the year.

Patriot missile defense interceptors are designed to detect, track and engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and short-range or tactical ballistic missiles.

Support services part of deal

The proposed sale includes 208 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, 16 M903 launching stations, four AN/MPQ-65 radars, four control stations, spares, software and associated equipment.

In addition, Poland is authorized to buy U.S. government and contractor technical, engineering and logistics support services as well as range and test programs for a total estimated potential program cost of up to $10.5 billion.

A Raytheon representative said “it is Raytheon’s experience that the estimated cost notified could be larger than the final negotiated contract amount,” signaling that the final price could be lower as negotiations on a final amount proceed.

Raytheon added that it “will work closely with the U.S. and Polish governments to ensure Poland is able to procure Patriot at a mutually agreeable price.”

NATO allies have same system

The Pentagon said the sale will take place in two phases.

If a deal is finalized, it would allow Poland to conduct air and missile defense operations with NATO allies the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Greece, which currently have the Patriot system, a U.S. State Department official said.

The contract still requires approval from the U.S. Congress, because it involves a purchase of advanced military technology for which special permission must be obtained.

Poland, which had said it was planning to spend around $7.6 billion on the whole project, said the negotiations are not over.

“This does not mean that this amount ($10.5 billion) is the final value of the LOA (Letter of Offer and Acceptance),” the Polish Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding it has a “good track record” in negotiating similar offers.

Lawmakers can block sale

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said it had delivered notification to Congress on Tuesday.

U.S. lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, but that rarely happens.

In addition to Raytheon, the prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin Corp and Northrop Grumman.

 
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Greek police clashed with hooded youths in Athens on Friday after thousands marched to mark a bloody 1973 student uprising that helped topple the military junta which then ruled the country.

More than 10,000 people marched peacefully to the embassy of the United States, which some Greeks accuse of having supported the seven-year military dictatorship. About 5,000 police were deployed in the streets of central Athens.

At the tail-end of the demonstration, hooded youths hurled stones and petrol bombs at police in the Exarchia district in central Athens, often the setting for such clashes. Police used teargas to disperse them.

Earlier on Friday, Greeks laid flowers at the Athens Polytechnic University to honour those killed during the revolt.

The junta collapsed less than a year later.

The annual protest often becomes a focal point for protests against government policies and austerity measures mandated by the country’s international lenders in exchange for bailout funds. The crisis that broke out in 2010 has left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed.

Protesters held banners reading: “We will live freely” and “No pensioner will be fired!”

After seven years of belt-tightening Greeks hope that they will emerge from lenders’ supervision in August 2018, when the country’s third international bailout expires. Many of them accuse a political elite of driving the country to bankruptcy.
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Rescue crews were searching Friday for six people missing from deadly flash floods that killed at least 16 near Athens, as new storms hit the Greek capital.

The fire department, which had been searching since Thursday for four missing people, said two more people were reported missing Friday in the district of Mandra, on the western outskirts of Athens. 

Wednesday’s flash floods, which came after an overnight storm, turned roads into raging torrents of mud that flung cars against buildings, inundated homes and businesses and submerged part of a major highway.

The flooding is one of the worst disasters to have hit the Athens area in decades. More bad weather, with heavy rainfall and storms, lashed the capital Friday, flooding a central road in the Keratsini area west of Athens, cutting off traffic.

The fire department said it had received 910 calls for help in the western areas of the capital since Wednesday morning to pump water from flooded buildings and transport people to safety. It said its crews rescued 96 people trapped in vehicles and homes.

The repeated storms led to another 70 calls for help to the fire department in other areas of the Greek capital and the nearby island of Aegina on Friday, and hundreds more from towns in northern Greece.
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Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and four members of his cabinet are expected to appear before a Belgian court Friday for a hearing in connection with a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

The court will hear arguments behind closed doors from prosecutors and lawyers for the Catalan ex-officials, before it considers whether to extradite them to Spain, where they would face charges of rebellion and sedition for their roles in region’s independence drive.

Madrid issued the warrant for Puigdemont and the four ex-ministers after they fled to Brussels last month and ignored a summons to appear before a Spanish judge, claiming they would not get a fair trial.

Spanish authorities had removed Puigdemont and his 13-member Cabinet from office for pushing ahead with secession.

Friday’s court appearance will be the first hearing in what could become a protracted courtroom battle, with both sides expected to appeal the outcome.

The judge is expected to give an initial ruling in eight to 10 days.

Under current Belgian law, a decision on a European arrest warrant should be made within 60 days.

That means that Puigdemont and his associates could still be in Belgium when Catalonia goes to the polls Dec. 21 for an early election ordered by Madrid to “restore normality” in Catalonia, Spain’s northern wealthiest region.
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Mafia “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina has died in the hospital while serving multiple life sentences as the mastermind of a bloody strategy to assassinate Italian prosecutors and law enforcement trying to bring down the Cosa Nostra, Italian media reported Friday. He was 87.

Riina died hours after the Justice Minister had allowed his family members bedside visits Thursday, which was his birthday, after he had been placed in a medically induced coma. Italian media said his health had deteriorated following two recent surgeries.

26 life sentences

Riina, one of Sicily’s most notorious Mafia bosses, was serving 26 life sentences for murder convictions as a powerful Cosa Nostra boss. He was captured in Palermo, Sicily’s capital, in 1993 and imprisoned under a law that requires strict security for top mobsters, including being detained in isolated sections of prisons with limited time outside their cells.

Prosecutors accused Riina of masterminding a strategy, carried out over several years, to assassinate Italian prosecutors, police officials and others who were going after Cosa Nostra when he allegedly held the helm as the so-called “boss of bosses.”

The bloodbath campaign ultimately backfired on Cosa Nostra.

Crackdown

After bombs killed Italy’s two leading anti-Mafia magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two months apart in 1992, the state stepped up its crackdown on Sicily’s Mafiosi. 

Riina was captured in a Palermo apartment six months after Borsellino and his police escorts were killed by a car bomb. A native of Corleone, a Sicilian hill and Mafia stronghold, he steadfastly refused to collaborate with law enforcement after his capture.

Riina was incarcerated at a Milan prison before his hospitalization. In July, a court denied a request by Riina’s family to transfer the convicted mobster to house arrest because of his ailing health.
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After widespread allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, the first evidence is emerging of possible attempts by Moscow to influence Britain’s referendum on leaving the European Union. Researchers have identified tens of thousands of social media accounts that promoted anti-EU messages or sought to whip up political and racial tensions.  Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Thousands of traumatized children in foster care in Britain go missing, with some returning to traffickers who feed them “a web of lies”, charities said on Thursday, urging better protection.

UK children’s charity Barnado’s said on Thursday that 16 percent of children referred to its fostering network had been sexually exploited or abused, and 17 percent were trafficked.

“It is well known that there is a greater risk of trafficked children going missing from care but too often processes are not put in place to protect children,” its chief executive Javed Khan said in an email to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Children are threatened, manipulated and controlled by their traffickers who feed them a web of lies leading them to fear authorities,” he said, adding that many vanish within days.

More than 50,000 children in England are in foster care, Department of Education statistics show, with thousands disappearing more than once.

Children may abscond because they feel unsafe or isolated, particularly if they do not speak English.

Some contact their traffickers because they fear reprisals against themselves or their families, have been made false promises or believe they have debts to pay, experts say.

Anti-child trafficking organization ECPAT UK said its research showed 28 percent of all trafficked children in care went missing at least once. Vietnamese children were most likely to abscond, often re-enslaved in nail bars or cannabis farms.

More than 150 Vietnamese children rescued from traffickers in Britain have disappeared from care and foster homes since 2015, charities said last month.

Having been in various foster homes from the age of three, British survivor Sarah said she was trafficked for sex at the age of 12 by a gang in England.

“I was alone and vulnerable … I saw them as people who cared about me,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference on Wednesday, using a false name.

“For the next seven years I was sold every day to many different men,” she said, adding that her school, social services and other authorities failed to see her plight.

Charities have called for specialist foster carers to be trained to look after trafficked children and for the setting up of safe houses with high levels of support and supervision.

“It is vitally important that foster carers are offered the support and training they need to be able to look after highly traumatized young people,” said a spokesman for Fostering Network, a charity that supports foster carers in Britain.

At least 13,000 people across the country are estimated by the government to be living in modern slavery but police say that the true figure is likely to be in the tens of thousands.

The government has said it is introducing a scheme to give trafficked children specialist advocates or guardians who could provide support and reduce re-trafficking risks.

 
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At least 3,000 people formed a chain of light in Vienna on Wednesday to protest against the formation of a government that includes the far-right Freedom Party.

Demonstrators holding flickering candles, torches and bicycle lamps encircled the capital’s government district.

“Our republic’s most powerful political offices should be exclusively reserved for trustworthy people who are not in the slightest connected to right-wing extremists,” said Alexander Pollak, spokesman for SOS Mitmensch, one of several human rights groups which organized the demonstration.

It was the biggest protest in Austria since coalition talks between the conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Freedom Party (FPO) started two weeks ago.

Organizers estimated the number of people taking part at 8,000 to 10,000, the police at around 3,000.

“We are here because they (the FPO) feed hatred and want to divide people,” said Brigitte Griesser, holding a candle.

But the protest was far smaller than unrest 17 years ago, when the FPO last formed a government with the OVP and more than 100,000 took to the streets.

“[The shift to the right] has become a European trend… it’s no longer just an Austrian issue and that’s why it is not that controversial any longer,” said protester Juergen Pucher.

 
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French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Europe to fill a funding void left by Washington’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Macron was among world leaders speaking at a climate meeting in Germany that has left Washington isolated.

Macron said European governments and the private sector must ensure funding for the main U.N. scientific body, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He also called on nations to accelerate their energy transition, and said France would close all its coal plants before 2022.

Rich nations have imposed their universe on the world, Macron said of greenhouse emissions — it is forbidden to impose the tragedy it may create, he added.

France and Germany are leading the push to accelerate emission cutting promises reached by world leaders in Paris two years ago. This latest meeting in Bonn aims to draw up the rules for executing the 2015 climate pact, aimed at limiting global warming to under two degrees Celsius from 1990s levels.

New findings show the world already has reached the one-degree mark. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said his recent visit to Caribbean islands devastated by hurricanes provided him with a glimpse of what the future could hold.

“Floods, fires, extreme storms and droughts are growing in intensity and frequency and are increasing everywhere,” he said. “Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are higher than they have been for 800,000 years. Climate change is the defining threat of our time.”

Speaking on behalf of African nations, President Ali Bongo of Gabon said his continent was paying the price for rising CO2 emissions, as rising seas swallow up its coastlines and threaten agricultural production and food security.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the bottom of the mountain,” he announced. “And we must dare to climb it, rather than continuing to hope that the rising floods will not reach us.”

With Syria joining the Paris climate pact this week, the Trump administration is now alone in opposing it, although it cannot fully withdraw from the agreement for several years. Macron is hosting another Paris summit next month, and so far he hasn’t invited President Trump.

Washington has sent a small delegation to Bonn, but hecklers booed an event hosted by the White House that defended the continued use of fossil fuels.
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Poland’s government hit back Wednesday after the European Parliament launched action over concerns that the right-wing government in Warsaw has compromised the independence of the judiciary and risks breaching fundamental European values.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo described the events in the Parliament — where a bitter debate preceded the vote — as “scandalous.” The Foreign Ministry called the resolution a “political instrument of pressure on Poland,” describing the document as “one-sided” and saying it was based on political considerations and not on legal analysis.

In a resolution adopted by 438 to 152, with 71 abstentions, the European lawmakers triggered the first stage of a so-called rule-of-law procedure against the Polish government on Wednesday.

The procedure could lead to the suspensions of Poland’s EU voting rights.

The assembly’s Civil Liberties Committee must now draw up a legal proposal to formally request that the mechanism — known as Article 7 — be activated due to a “clear risk of a serious breach” of EU values.

The EU’s executive, the Commission, has already launched a procedure of its own amid concerns that new laws in Poland undermine judicial independence and the rule of law.

The vote came after a heated debate that exposed the bitter feelings between European officials trying to keep Poland on a democratic course and Polish officials who argue the ruling party has a democratic mandate to change its own country’s court system and that Brussels has no right to interfere in the affairs of sovereign nations.

Ryszard Legutko, a member of Poland’s ruling party, accused the EU of waging an illegal “crusade against Poland.” He also accused the German media, which have criticized Poland’s direction, of holding an “anti-Polish orgy.”

In turn, others sharply criticized Poland’s government, with the parliament’s liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt saying the Polish government “has lost its senses.” Gianni Pittella, leader of an alliance of Socialists and Democrats, accused Warsaw of showing “scorn for liberal democracy.”

Several also criticized a march of 60,000 people in Warsaw that was organized by extremist far-right groups and included racist banners and slogans on Poland’s Independence Day on Saturday. Poland’s president sharply condemned the expressions of extremism, but the government leaders have praised the event as a celebration of Polish patriots.

Frans Timmermans, the vice president of the European Commission, said that some of “most terrible parts of European history” were “seen on the streets of Warsaw.”

The parliament’s resolution called on Poland to act on several points, including to strongly condemn what it called a “xenophobic and fascist march.”

Janusz Lewandowski, a member of Poland’s opposition Civic Platform party, sharply criticized the ruling party on several points, saying it was “committing abuse of power” and tolerating “racism, xenophobia and neo-fascism on Poland’s streets.” His words drew an angry retort from Legukto.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Poland was “shocked” by the language of the debate, saying it qualified as “hate speech” at times; and the prime minister, Szydlo, said “politicians who defame their country in an international forum do not deserve to represent it.”

Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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Germany on Tuesday pledged $125 million to boost the work of an international insurance partnership that aims to cover 400 million more poor and vulnerable people against disaster risks by 2020.

That goal was first set in 2015 by the G7 group of wealthy nations, but the effort has now been expanded to bring in other partners, including the World Bank and an alliance of about 50 countries vulnerable to climate threats, including small island states like Fiji, which is presiding over the talks in Bonn.

In July, Britain contributed 30 million pounds ($39.4 million) to establish a Center for Global Disaster Protection.

Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said that when powerful Cyclone Winston hit his nation last year, wiping out 30 percent of its economy, tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, and many households were uninsured.

“People protected by their wealth have no idea of the heartbreak of the poor and most vulnerable when they lose their homes and livelihoods in climate-related disasters,” he told an event to launch the partnership.

Fiji needs new forms of finance to develop while also reducing the risks of weather extremes and rising seas to tourism, forests, fisheries and agriculture, as well as to infrastructure, much of which is exposed on the coast, he said.

The InsuResilience Global Partnership will develop and roll out innovative finance and insurance solutions for individual countries tailored to the needs and challenges of their poor people in particular, it said.

Those will include sovereign risk pools like the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which has paid out $62 million to 10 Caribbean countries since hurricanes Irma and Maria brought destruction to the island states in September.

Using the additional funds announced Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks in Bonn, the global partnership will also aim to expand schemes such as the NWK Agri-Services cotton company in Zambia, which offers weather and life insurance to small contract farmers and is already backed by InsuResilience.

In 2015, some 52,000 farmers bought insurance, of whom more than 23,000 received payments after a major drought in 2016.

Allen Chastanet, prime minister of St. Lucia, said the CCRIF had proved to be “an amazing asset,” enabling quick access to funds after a disaster. But it was just as important to provide money to help Caribbean nations adapt to climate change to help prevent catastrophic losses, he said.

“Insurance is not dealing with the overall solution. It is dealing with the symptom, not the actual cause,” he said.

Aid agencies working in developing countries to reduce the risks of disasters said the partnership must also look at ways to help vulnerable communities prepare better for climate threats, besides providing insurance.

“Insurance doesn’t actually reduce risk, and it could be unaffordable for the communities it’s meant to cover,” said Tracy Carty, head of Oxfam’s delegation at the Bonn conference.

“No other choice”

Ibrahim Thiaw, deputy executive director of UN Environment, said the expansion of insurance could help bring down its costs, as has happened in Africa with mobile phones, which are now almost everywhere.

“Insurance is booming around climate. It will grow because people have no other choice. They need that buffer to protect themselves,” he told a separate discussion.

The group of climate-vulnerable countries working with InsuResilience, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Costa Rica, are also working on their own schemes, such as the planned Sustainable Insurance and Takaful Facility, which is based on the principles of Islamic finance.

It aims to close the gaps in insurance protection and disaster risk reduction for its member states’ 1 billion people, only 14 percent of whom have access to some form of risk cover.

Members would contribute to a fund that pays out when a disaster hits, as well as supporting adaptation and green projects, said Sara Jane Ahmed of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. The facility aims to start work next year.

This week, the U.N. climate change secretariat also launched an online platform under the Paris climate agreement that will use artificial intelligence to connect countries seeking innovative insurance solutions with the expertise they need.

U.N. Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa said the new efforts would bring together those working to prevent climate disasters and help allay damage across the international community.

“Failing to plan for climate impacts is a huge risk,” she said, noting how Hurricane Irma had recently left Barbuda uninhabited for the first time in 300 years while persistent drought is displacing people in Africa’s Sahel region, contributing to the migration crisis in Europe.

“It is in our best collective interest to build resilient societies,” she added.
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