Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, one of France’s most revered politicians, is getting the rare honor of being buried at the Pantheon, where French heroes are interred, one year after her death.

Veil was being inhumed Sunday at the Paris monument with her husband Antoine, who died in 2013, in a symbolic ceremony with her family and dozens of dignitaries, including French President Emmanuel Macron and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.

Veil repeatedly broke barriers for women in French politics. She was a firm believer in European unification and well known in France for spearheading the legalization of abortion.

Republican Guard pallbearers carried the caskets Sunday to the Pantheon over a blue carpet symbolizing the color of peace, the United Nations and of Europe, as a crowd of thousands applauded.

They paused several times to mark the big steps of Veil’s life with the soundtrack of her voice and music, including Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” — the European Union’s anthem — and the “Song of the Deported.”

“France loves Simone Veil,” Macron said in a speech. “She lived through the worst of the 20th century and yet fought for make it better.”

Confident that “humanity wins over barbarity,” Veil became a fighter for women’s rights, peace and Europe, he noted.

The Marseillaise national anthem was then sung by the American soprano Barbara Hendricks and the Choir of the French Army, followed by a minute of silence.

The caskets were carried inside the Pantheon, where they will be buried into the crypt.

Veil is the fourth woman to be honored at the Pantheon, which also holds 72 men. The other women are two who fought with the French Resistance during World War II — Germaine Tillion and Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz — and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie.

Veil was 16 when she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in March 1944. She lost her parents and her brother in Nazi camps and spoke frequently about the need to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

In 1974, as France’s health minister, she led the battle to get parliament to legalize abortion. The law is still known as the “Loi Veil.”

Veil also became the first elected president of the European parliament from 1979 to 1982. She died at age 89.

 
…

A rescue boat saved 59 migrants at sea off Libya on Saturday and Italy immediately said it would not welcome them, setting up a fresh standoff with Malta and adding to tensions among European governments over immigration.

The migrants on board Open Arms, a boat run by the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms charity, include five women and four children, said Riccardo Gatti, head of the organization’s Italian mission.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League Party, said there would be no exception to his policy of refusing to let humanitarian boats dock in Italy and added that Malta was the nearest port of call.

“They can forget about arriving in an Italian port,” he tweeted.

Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia, shot back on Twitter that the rescue had taken place closer to the Italian island of Lampedusa than to Malta. He told Salvini to “stop giving false information and involving Malta without any reason.”

Gatti told Italian radio broadcaster Radio Radicale that the migrants on board included Palestinians, Syrians and Guineans and were all in good condition.

He later told Reuters that Open Arms had received no authorization from any country to dock and did not know where it would take the migrants.

German ship docked

On Wednesday, Malta let the German charity ship Lifeline dock in Valletta with 230 migrants on board, after it was stuck at sea for almost a week following Italy’s decision to close its ports to rescue vessels run by nongovernmental organizations.

However, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the gesture was a one-time solution, and the following day Malta announced it would not allow any more charity boats to dock.

European Union leaders on Friday came to a hard-fought agreement on migration that Salvini and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said was positive for Italy.

However, the agreement does not oblige other EU states to share the burden of sea rescues.

More than 650,000 migrants have come ashore in Italy since 2014, mostly after being rescued at sea off the Libyan coast by private and public groups. Italy is sheltering about 170,000, but the number of arrivals has plummeted this year.

Despite the decline in arrivals, there are still daily stories of disasters as migrants make the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. The Libyan coast guard said around 100 were thought to have drowned off Tripoli on Friday.

That tragedy raised the political temperature in Italy, where the government dismissed opposition accusations that it was responsible because of its crackdown on NGOs and said the best way to save lives was by preventing departures from Libya.

“The fewer people set sail, the fewer die,” Salvini said.
…

Fourteen European Union countries have said they are prepared to sign deals with Germany to take back asylum seekers who had previously registered elsewhere, part of an effort to placate Chancellor Angela Merkel’s restive Bavarian allies.

In a document sent to leaders of her coalition partners, seen by Reuters, Merkel listed 14 countries, including some of those most outspoken in their opposition to her open-door refugee policy, which had agreed to take back migrants.

Under the EU’s Dublin convention, largely honored in the breach since Merkel’s 2015 decision to open Germany’s borders, asylum seekers must lodge their requests in the first EU country they set foot in.

Merkel needs breathing space in her standoff with Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, whose leader, interior minister Horst Seehofer threatened ahead of this week’s Brussels summit to defy Merkel by closing Germany’s borders to some refugees and migrants, a move that would likely bring down her government.

EU leaders agreed at the summit to share out refugees on a voluntary basis and create “controlled centers” inside the European Union to process asylum requests.

According to the document seen by Reuters, the bilateral agreements will make the deportation process for refugees who have earlier registered elsewhere far more effective.

“At the moment, Dublin repatriations from Germany succeed in only 15 percent of cases,” the document says. “We will sign administrative agreements with various member states… to speed the repatriation process and remove obstacles.”

Among the countries that have said they are open to signing such agreements are Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, countries which have opposed any scheme to share out asylum seekers across the continent.

The other countries named are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden. Austria, where new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is an immigration hard-liner who governs in coalition with the far right, is absent from the list.
…

The U.S. ambassador to Estonia says he has resigned over frustrations with President Donald Trump’s comments about the European Union and the treatment of Washington’s European allies.

In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville wrote: “For the President to say EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”

Melville is a senior U.S. career diplomat who has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015. He has served the State Department for 33 years.

The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn did not immediately comment.
…

June 30 marks Asteroid Day, a U.N.-sanctioned campaign to promote awareness around the world of what’s up in the sky. In Milan, scientists are assembling a new telescope that uses “insect vision” to spot risky celestial objects. Faith Lapidus explains.
…

There is momentum for improving Turkey’s frayed relations with the West even as it warms up to Russia, a senior Turkish government adviser told VOA on condition of anonymity, days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected.

Erdogan’s adviser said that in February, during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, both sides committed to the creation of a road map to address many differences that had sent relations between Washington and Ankara plunging to a crisis point. The adviser noted that bilateral relations were “better than six months ago, thanks to steps agreed on during Tillerson’s visit.”

He said the process led to the recent withdrawal of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the Syrian city of Manbij.

Ankara accuses the YPG of being linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting in Turkey. Washington, however, has backed the militia in the war against Islamic State. The YPG’s presence in Manbij with U.S. forces had become a focal point in Turkey’s tense relationship with the United States, a NATO ally.

Ankara trumpeted the Kurdish militia withdrawal as a triumph and a template for a further rollback of YPG-controlled areas across northern Syria. “We expect this process to continue,” said the adviser.

Regarding areas of contention, he said, “There is a process to compartmentalize issues of disagreement.”

“Each issue is being addressed separately by working groups,” he added, so as to prevent differences on one issue from affecting others.

The adviser, however, acknowledged that no progress had been made on the key issue of a Turkish request for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara alleges Gulen initiated a failed 2016 coup that claimed 250 lives. The cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, denies the accusations. The U.S. says extradition is a matter for the courts.

Adding to the souring of ties is the imprisonment in Turkey of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. He has been jailed for nearly two years and is currently on trial on charges of supporting Gulen.

U.S. President Donald Trump has strongly criticized the case, with some members of Congress accusing Ankara of hostage-taking. Erdogan has linked the Brunson case to calls for Gulen to be extradited.

The Brunson case has become a lightning rod for wider U.S. concerns about Turkey. The worsening of bilateral relations is countered by Ankara’s warming ties with Moscow.

Missile system purchase

Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Friday reaffirmed Turkey’s controversial purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system. Washington strongly opposes the deal, warning the missiles could compromise NATO systems.

The S-400 controversy comes as Ankara and Moscow increasingly cooperate over Syria. While Turkey strongly backs Syrian rebels, it is working with Russia and Iran, which support the Damascus government, to end the civil war under a peace effort named the Astana Process.

The Erdogan adviser sought to allay concerns by Turkey’s NATO allies about its intentions toward Moscow.

“Turkey is not moving away from the West,” he said. “Our relationship with Russia is specific to working on Syria, based on a necessity of cooperation. Our relationship with the West is a strategic relationship.”

“The situation is a failure of the West to intervene in the Syrian conflict. It left a vacuum, which Russia filled. That has created a situation where we have to work with Russia,” added the adviser.

Fears of a potential pivot toward Moscow are fueled by criticism of the decline in human rights in Turkey and Erdogan’s authoritarianism. Critics increasingly draw parallels between Erdogan’s rule and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following Turkey’s June 24 elections, Erdogan is likely to use his renewed electoral mandate to answer critics regarding his democratic credentials. International monitors have criticized the fairness of the election, which he won by a wide margin, but the actual voting and counting were broadly accepted by the rival candidates.

The Turkish president also reportedly is set to lift the much-criticized emergency rule introduced after the failed coup. This past week also saw an Istanbul court release from jail Mehmet Altan, a high-profile Erdogan critic; however, police raids on those who oppose the president, including some news media, continue.

Analysts suggest such moves will be welcomed by Turkey’s Western allies, in particular the European Union. Human rights concerns are major obstacles to relations, but Brussels needs Turkey to continue a migrant deal that has markedly reduced the number of people seeking sanctuary in Europe.

With Turkey currently hosting more than 3 million refugees, mainly from Syria, Erdogan is also looking to build on that cooperation.

“There is a need for a strategic cooperation on refugees. The problem is going to continue with instability in the region. Turkey cannot take any more [refugees],” said the adviser.
…

U.N. agencies are cautiously welcoming an agreement the European Union reached Friday after a marathon summit on problems posed by migrants who reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

The European Union states in principle have agreed to set up so-called secure centers to process asylum claims. Under the proposed deal, these centers are to be established in EU states on a voluntary basis. The aim is to relieve front-line states, such as Italy, Spain and Greece, of having the sole responsibility of accepting and processing migrants rescued at sea.

A welcomed consensus

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Leonard Doyle, said he was pleased with the solidarity and consensus that emerged from the summit in Brussels.

“Any solution that comes from the migration issue needs to be a European solution,” Doyle said, but it should come “with the absolutely indispensable engagement of the African Union at every step of the way.” 

U.N. agencies report about 40,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea this year, a small fraction of the number over the same period in 2016. Despite the reduced numbers, positions against maritime refugees and migrants have hardened. Recently, Italy and Malta refused to disembark hundreds of migrants rescued at sea.

U.N. waiting for details

Charley Yaxley, a U.N. refugee agency spokesman, said the EU agreement was a promising first step. But he told VOA that the proof of the effectiveness of this proposal would be in its implementation. He said the details were yet to be developed.

“Ultimately, if this is a coming together of European states and states in the region to develop a more harmonized approach to asylum that relieves some of the disproportionate responsibility that is currently being placed on a small handful of states, then that is something that will be welcomed,” Yaxley said.  

Yaxley said he wanted to see a unified approach that moves away from states unilaterally adopting actions that strengthen borders and restrict access by those seeking asylum from war and persecution.  
…

European Union leaders meeting Friday in Brussels hailed progress in reaching at least a partial deal on migration. But there appeared to be little breakthrough in two other key subjects: Brexit and reforming the eurozone financial union.

It took marathon talks lasting until early Friday for EU leaders to reach a partial and vaguely worded agreement on migration, a subject that bitterly divides the 28-member group.

EU chief Donald Tusk acknowledged a long road ahead.

“As regards our deal on migration,” he said, “it is far too early to talk about a success. We have managed to reach a deal in the European Council, but this is the easiest part of the task.”

The toughest part, Tusk said, will be in its implementation.

The leaders agreed to tighten the EU’s external borders, set up centers inside and outside Europe to screen asylum-seekers and more rapidly process their claims. But the centers are voluntary and it is not clear which countries would be willing to host them.

Many analysts say the deal merely papers over deep divides that have seen Italy insisting other countries take in more migrants — something Eastern European countries, in particular, refuse to do.

Still, a number of European leaders were upbeat about making any headway.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the agreement was a good signal. While more needed to be done to create a common asylum process, she said she was optimistic the EU could continue its work.

Merkel has been under pressure to come home with some kind of deal or face the possible collapse of her coalition government.

President Emmanuel Macron of France said the deal reflected European cooperation and values and that protected European citizens.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also seemed satisfied, saying his country was no longer alone in dealing with floods of migrant arrivals.

The number of migrants arriving in Europe has plummeted in recent months, down from more than a million in 2015 to tens of thousands so far this year. Many Europeans continue to view migration as a crisis — sentiments partly fueled by populist politicians and fears of Islamist extremism.

Humanitarian group MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, has sharply criticized the migrant deal as inhumane, claiming it would block people escaping horrors at home from reaching Europe.

It is clear the migration crisis is not going away. A pair of ships carrying migrants were at sea for several days until bickering countries finally gave them safe harbor. On Friday, Libya’s coast guard announced roughly 100 migrants were missing at sea and feared dead.

EU leaders failed to make headway on two other issues — closer integration of the eurozone monetary union, and Brexit, which is the term used to refer to Britain’s decision to leave the EU. As for the latter, EU chief Tusk said the most difficult issues in reaching a deal between the EU and Britain by October remained unresolved.
…

U.S. and Russian leaders have agreed to meet July 16 to discuss long-standing disagreements on global issues such as conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe. The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin comes on the heels of the NATO summit in Brussels, but the two leaders have chosen neutral territory to meet. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
…

European Union leaders reached a deal early Friday morning on migration.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the agreement was “good news” and “European cooperation” prevailed over the talks that began Thursday evening and ended at dawn Friday.

EU Council President Donald Tusk said in a tweet early Friday that the 28 EU “leaders have agreed” on a compromise that was at the heart of their two-day summit. 

The deal establishes reception centers for migrants and asylum seekers in EU member states that volunteer to have them.

Italy had blocked the adoption of any agreements at the European Union summit in Brussels, demanding that the bloc do more to help Rome’s migration crisis.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Italy will decide later whether it will host any reception centers.

Italy’s month-old populist government had refused to sign any joint agreements, instead holding out for action by other European countries to help deal with the migrants and refugees coming to Italy from North Africa.

“Italy doesn’t need any more verbal signs, but concrete deeds,’’ Conte said.

EU sources described the talks as “virulent,” according to the French news agency.

Summit participants are planning to set up screening facilities in North African countries to slow the stream of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to the EU, often through Italy. While no countries have as yet agreed to host such screening posts, EU leaders hope to entice them with aid money.

Arrivals to the continent have dropped sharply since a 2015 crisis that drew sharp divisions among the bloc’s 28 members about how they should respond. Some countries promoted more open-door policies, while others set up barriers to prevent those who reached Europe from crossing their borders.

The EU said in 2015 there were more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into member countries. EU President Donald Tusk wrote in a letter ahead of the summit that the number of illegal crossings has dropped by 96 percent since its peak.

Policies already enacted have helped push that number down, notably an agreement with Turkey for the Turkish government to help cut off migration routes and to accept the return of those who make the journey from Turkey to Greece. The EU also began work to tackle the root causes pushing people from their home country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was among the most open to accepting migrants during the height of the crisis, is under pressure at home from critics who say Germany has been too welcoming.

She told parliament Thursday before heading to Brussels that she made the right decision in an exceptional situation, but that with the current situation the EU should put in place tighter controls. Merkel said that while there is division among members, they are united in the need to reduce overall migration, stop smugglers and strengthen the EU’s external borders.
…

Italy has blocked the adoption of any agreements at the European Union summit in Brussels, demanding that the bloc do more to help Rome’s migration crisis.

Italy’s month-old populist government refused to sign any joint agreements, instead holding out for action by other European countries to help deal with the migrants and refugees coming to Italy from North Africa.

“Italy doesn’t need any more verbal signs, but concrete deeds,” Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said.

Summit participants are planning to set up screening facilities in North African countries to slow the stream of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to the EU, often through Italy. While no countries have as yet agreed to host such screening posts, EU leaders hope to entice them with aid money.

EU leaders have one more day at the summit to bring Italy on board on issues that include trade and defense along with migration.

Arrivals to the continent have dropped sharply since a 2015 crisis that drew sharp divisions among the bloc’s 28 members about how they should respond. Some countries promoted more open-door policies, while others set up barriers to prevent those who reached Europe from crossing their borders.

The EU said in 2015 there were more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into member countries. EU President Donald Tusk wrote in a letter ahead of the summit the number of illegal crossings has dropped by 96 percent since its peak.

Policies already enacted have helped push that number down, notably an agreement with Turkey for the Turkish government to help cut off migration routes and to accept the return of those who make the journey from Turkey to Greece. The EU also began work to tackle the root causes pushing people from their home country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was among the most open to accepting migrants during the height of the crisis, is under pressure at home from critics who say Germany has been too welcoming.

She told parliament Thursday before heading to Brussels that she made the right decision in an exceptional situation, but that with the current situation the EU should put in place tighter controls. Merkel said that while there is division among members, they are united in the need to reduce overall migration, stop smugglers and strengthen the EU’s external borders.
…

A U.K. parliamentary committee concluded Thursday that it is beyond doubt that British intelligence agencies knew the United States was mistreating people detained after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

A report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found Britain knew of the mistreatment at an early stage and that “more could have been done” by authorities to attempt to influence American behavior.

The report showed that in 198 cases, British authorities received intelligence obtained from detainees whom they knew —or should have suspected — had been mistreated.

In 232 cases, UK personnel continued to supply questions or intelligence to allies after they knew or suspected mistreatment, the report said.

The committee acknowledged that British authorities didn’t want to risk losing access to vital intelligence during frenetic efforts at the time to prevent another attack. But the seriousness of Britain’s position was “slow to dawn,” it said.

The agencies appeared to be “deliberately turning a blind eye so as not to damage the relationship and risk the flow of intelligence; if the agencies started raising concerns, the U.S. could have refused U.K. officers access to the detainees and stopped passing on any intelligence they obtained,” it said.

The committee, which took 50 hours of oral evidence and reviewed 40,000 documents, rejected the agencies’ claims that the cases cited were “isolated incidents.”

“It is difficult to comprehend how those at the top of the office did not recognize the pattern of mistreatment by the U.S,” it said.

Human rights campaigners have called for a judge-led inquiry into detentions and renditions in the so-called war on terror, describing the parliamentary report as too limited to give a full picture. Their concern was born out when the committee — chaired by Conservative Party lawmaker Dominic Grieve — underscored it was denied access to “those who had been on the ground at the time.”

“The committee has therefore concluded – reluctantly – that it must draw a line under the inquiry,” the report said. “This is regrettable.”

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold their first formal summit July 16 in Helsinki.

The summit confirmation by both sides came a day after Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton met with top Russian officials, including Putin, to lay the groundwork for the summit.

“President Trump asked me to come and speak to Russian authorities about the possibility of a meeting between him and President Putin,” said Bolton, speaking at a press briefing with international journalists in Moscow on Wednesday.  

 “There are a wide range of issues despite the differences between us where both President Trump and President Putin feel they can find constructive solutions,” added Bolton.  “I’d like to hear someone say that’s a bad idea.”

Hawk becomes dove?

Appointed as a White House National Security Advisor just last March, Bolton — observers noted — made for an odd messenger for friendship with Moscow.

The former Bush administration official has long been regarded as a Russia ‘hawk’ and one of the Kremlin’s harshest critics over election interference, arms control, and other issues.

Yet challenged by reporters over his past statements — including calling President Putin a “liar” — Bolton claimed his past statements had no place in his current role as National Security Advisor.

“Right now I’m an advisor to President Trump. It’s his agenda that we’re pursuing and that’s the agenda I intend to advance,” said Bolton.

‘Political noise’

Wherever and whenever it occurs, the summit is all but certain to intensify scrutiny of the White House’s relationship with Russia amid ongoing U.S. federal investigations into contacts between Trump’s presidential campaign and Kremlin-linked officials on the road to Trump’s 2016 election win.

While the White House and the Kremlin have repeatedly denied those charges as a “witch hunt,” both sides recognized the shadow the investigation has cast over attempts at detente.

Bolton, who last year called Russian election interference “a true act of war,” seemed to comply with the Trump administration Wednesday, at least as far as any possible collusion between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.

“A lot of the president’s critics have tried to make political capital out of theories and suppositions that have turned out to be completely erroneous,” said Bolton, adding that Trump had decided to disregard the “political noise.”

Indeed, that point was stressed by Putin in brief comments before cameras as talks got underway.

“From the beginning, it, unfortunately, must be said that Russian-American relations are not in the best shape,” said Putin in addressing Bolton.

“I’ve already said publicly more than once, and want to repeat again in our meetings, that this is mostly due to internal political struggles within the States themselves. Your arrival in Moscow instills hope that we can make at least initial steps towards the restitution of full relations between our governments.”

So many topics, so little time

Hovering over the next few weeks will be questions over what concrete deals can be worked out given the summit’s short notice.

Observers note that most presidential summits take months of planning and negotiations to present the right ‘optics’ and ‘deliverables’ worthy of a meeting at the highest level.

Bolton said he expected follow-on discussions between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to address those issues in the coming days.

The two sides will certainly have ample topics to choose from.

Both Washington and Moscow have expressed a desire to find common ground on issues such as arms control and combating terrorism. More vexing have been the fallout in relations over such issues as Ukraine, Syria, Western sanctions, and allegations the Kremlin was responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil last March.

But Bolton eschewed concerns that the summit would produce little of substance: “I think the fact of the summit itself is a deliverable and I don’t exclude that they will reach concrete agreements,” said Bolton.

Atlantic Council senior fellow Robert Manning told VOA the best case scenario for the summit would be progress on Ukraine and Syria, while maintaining current arms control agreements.

“I think Putin so far has been willing to accept Ukraine as another frozen conflict. I think there’s efforts afoot to try to find a way back to the Minsk agreement and to find a solution to the Ukrainian issue,” Manning said. “And it’s always easier to get into an intervention to get out of it, and I think probably Putin’s looking for an exit strategy in Syria as well.”
…

European Union leaders are considering reforms to address migration as they begin a two-day summit Thursday.

Arrivals to the continent have dropped sharply since a 2015 crisis that drew sharp divisions among the bloc’s 28 members about how they should respond. Some countries promoted more open-door policies, while others set up barriers to prevent those who reached Europe from crossing their borders.

The EU said in 2015 there were more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into member countries. EU President Donald Tusk wrote in a letter ahead of the summit the number of illegal crossings has dropped by 96 percent since its peak.

Policies already enacted have helped push that number down, notably an agreement with Turkey for the Turkish government to help cut off migration routes and to accept the return of those who make the journey from Turkey to Greece. The EU also began work to tackle the root causes pushing people from their home country.

Tusk is proposing further reforms, including setting up “regional disembarkation platforms” with the possible help of the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration where the EU could assess asylum claims outside of its territory, and thus help to disrupt smugglers and the dangerous sea crossings many make to try to reach Europe.

Tusk is also asking EU members to cooperate with countries of origin, particularly Libya.

“More and more people are starting to believe that only strong-handed authority, anti-European and anti-liberal in spirit, with a tendency towards overt authoritarianism, is capable of stopping the wave of illegal migration,” he wrote. “If people believe them, that only they can offer an effective solution to the migration crisis, they will also believe anything else they say. The stakes are very high. And time is short.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was among the most open to accepting migrants during the height of the crisis, is under pressure at home from critics who say Germany has been too welcoming.

She told parliament Thursday before heading to Brussels that she made the right decision in an exceptional situation, but that with the current situation the EU should put in place tighter controls. Merkel said that while there is division among members, they are united in the need to reduce overall migration, stop smugglers and strengthen the EU’s external borders.
…

Member countries of the global chemical weapons monitoring group voted in the Hague Wednesday to give the organization expanded authority to assign blame for toxic weapons attacks.

Members of the Organization for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons voted 82 to 24, easily exceeding the two-thirds majority need for approval.

The proposal was presented by Britain and was supported by the United States and the European Union. It was opposed, however, by 24 countries including Russia, Syria and their allies.

British representative Peter Wilson said passage will allow the OPCW “not to just say when chemical weapons are used, but by whom.”

Before the vote, OPCW lacked the ability to say who was responsible for chemical attacks that had occurred in Syria and elsewhere.

The vote followed a diplomatic stalemate at the two-day meeting between Western allies and Russia and Syria.
…

The Trump administration on Wednesday began dismantling the sanctions relief that was granted to Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal, a step that follows President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the international accord.

The Treasury Department announced it had revoked licenses that allowed U.S.-controlled foreign firms to export commercial aircraft parts to Iran as well as permitted Americans to trade in Iranian carpets, pistachios and caviar. It said businesses engaged in any such transactions have to wind down those operations by Aug. 6 or face penalties under U.S. sanctions. Another set of licenses covering other types of commerce, including oil purchases, will be revoked in coming weeks, with firms given until Nov. 4 to end those activities.

The step had been expected since May when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark agreement under which Iran was given relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Trump said the accord, a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, was the worst deal ever negotiated by the United States because it gave Iran too much in return for too little. Trump also complained that the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Other parties to the deal — Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the European Union — have criticized the U.S. withdrawal, which has left the agreement at risk of collapse. The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to isolate Iran and its faltering economy from international financial and trading systems.

On Tuesday, the administration said it was pushing foreign countries to cut their oil imports from Iran to zero by Nov. 4. Previously, the administration had said only that countries should make a “significant reduction” in their imports of Iranian oil or be subject to separate U.S. sanctions prohibiting all transactions between their central banks and Iran’s central bank.

A senior State Department official said the administration is now telling European and Asian countries that the U.S. expects their imports to hit zero by the time the grace period ends. A U.S. team from the State Department and the National Security Council is currently in Europe delivering the message, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The official added that the U.S. is working with other Middle Eastern countries to increase production so the global oil supply isn’t harmed.

Some close U.S. allies are among the largest importers of Iranian crude oil, including India and South Korea. Japan and Turkey also import significant amounts of Iranian oil, according to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The biggest importer of Iranian oil last year was China.
…

Authorities in Afghanistan have rejected latest Russian claims that thousands of Islamic State fighters are “consolidating” their presence in nine out of 34 provinces of the war-hit country.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish, at a news conference Wednesday in Kabul, estimated that about 2,000 IS militants operate in four provinces, including Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan in the east, with Jowzjan in the north.

Radmanish was speaking a day after the Russian envoy to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, reinterated during a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan Moscow’s concerns about IS growing influence particularly in northern provinces that border Central Asian countries.

“This is a group, which has up to 10,000 fighters in its ranks, and it is already active in at least nine out of 34 provinces … and is constantly consolidating its positions in the north of the country, turning it into a springboard for its expansion into Central Asia,” said Nebenzya, while speaking through his official interpreter.

He went on to assert that IS is creating training camps for the fighters, including those who come from Central Asian states. “These are the facts we cannot shy away from,” said Nebenzya.

IS calls its Afghan branch Khorasan Province, and it routinely carries out suicide bombings against Afghan civilians and military targets around the country, including in capital city Kabul, inflicting hundreds of casualties.

The latest bombing occurred Tuesday, killing at least nine members of the Afghan police force in the western province of Kunar.

IS, through its Amaq News Agency, claimed responsibility for the attack on an Afghan Local Police camp in the Chawkay district, saying the blast killed 13 “militias loyal to the apostate Afghan government.” It also provided a photo of the bomber, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

American military commanders also dismiss Russian claims about the growing IS strength in Afghanistan, saying the campaign is aimed at justifying Moscow’s support to the Taliban insurgency, charges Nebenzya again rejected while speaking on Tuesday.

Senior U.S. State Department diplomat Alice Wells told a Congressional hearing last week that Russia has been “very unhelpful” in international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

“We see Russia adopting a posture that the Taliban are a legitimate bulwark against ISIS [IS], and we do not buy that as a justification of engagement with the Taliban,” Wells said.

The U.S. military say its close support to Afghan Special forces in conducting counterterrorism operations have enabled them to significantly degrade IS strength in Nangarhar, Kunar, Nuristan, and Jowzjan, which shares a border with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
…

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and possibly Vladimir Putin, part of an effort to lay the ground for a summit between Putin and President Donald Trump.

Bolton, whom the Kremlin regards as an arch Russia hawk, is due to give a news conference after his meetings at 1630 GMT, where he might name the date and location of a summit, which the Kremlin has been trying to make happen for months.

Trump congratulated Putin by phone in March after the Russian leader’s landslide re-election victory and said the two would meet soon. However, the Russians have since complained about the difficulty of setting up such a meeting.

Relations between Washington and Moscow are languishing at a post-Cold War low. They are at odds over Syria, Ukraine, allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and accusations Moscow was behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain in March.

Expectations for the outcome of any Putin-Trump summit are therefore low, even though Trump said before he was elected that he wanted to improve battered U.S.-Russia ties and the two men occasionally make positive statements about each other.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it wanted to talk about international security and stability, disarmament, regional problems and bilateral ties. It did not rule out a meeting between Bolton and Putin, but did not confirm one either.

Details unclear 

The summit is expected to take place around the second half of July after Trump attends a NATO summit in Brussels and visits Britain. It is unclear where it would be held, with Vienna and Helsinki cited as possible venues.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the weekend he expected Bolton’s Moscow visit to lead to a summit “in the not too distant future.” He said Washington was “trying to find places where we had overlapping interests, but protecting American interest where we do not.”

Such a summit, if it happened, would be likely to cause irritation in parts of the West, where countries such as Britain want to isolate Putin. It would also go down badly among Trump’s foreign and domestic critics, who question his commitment to NATO and fret over his desire to rebuild ties with Russia even as Washington continues to tighten sanctions on Moscow.

The United States initially sanctioned Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its backing for a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine. Subsequent sanctions have punished Moscow for what Washington has called its malign behavior and meddling in U.S. politics, something Russia denies.

Some Trump critics say Russia has not significantly altered its behaviour since 2014 and should therefore not be given the prestige that a summit would confer.

 
…

Daniel Baud is a veteran of Route 66, who fondly recalls riding the iconic highway spanning a large swath of the United States saddled on his motorcycle. Sporting a snowy goatee and a leather jacket speckled with American memorabilia, he speaks reverently about his vehicle of choice. 

“I’ve dreamt of having a Harley-Davidson ever since I was a kid,” Baud said. “For me, it’s about liberty.”

Baud might fit comfortably into an upscale Hells Angels club. But the aging biker is not from Paris, Texas, but rather the French capital.

On a recent morning, he gathered with other Paris-area enthusiasts to plot out their next trip — to Prague. The lure of the open road has been transplanted from America’s heartland to Eastern Europe.

Now, as a transatlantic trade dispute deepens, Harleys, as the motorcycles are called, are a symbol of both what divides and what unites Europe and the United States.

“The French in general seem to have an overwhelming passion and enthusiasm for American culture,” said Richard Clairefond, co-director of the Harley-Davidson Bastille dealership in Paris, where Baud’s club meets most weekends. “And the Harley just kind of rolls up into that experience.”

In the crosshairs

At the moment, however, the motorcycle is better known for being in the crosshairs of a growing divide between Brussels and Washington. After the Trump administration introduced tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports, the European Union riposted, slapping taxes on a long list of U.S. products, including peanut butter, orange juice — and Harley-Davidsons.

WATCH: Caught in Trade Spat, Harley-Davidson Bridges Transatlantic Divides

Now, the Wisconsin-based motorcycle manufacturer is also feeling the heat at home. President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that it would be “taxed like never before” after the company announced it would move part of its operations overseas — it hasn’t said where — to avoid the European tariff hike.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had a different take.

“Anything that creates jobs in Europe goes in the right direction,” Le Maire told members of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris in an interview. “We don’t want a trade war, but we will defend ourselves. We aren’t the aggressors, but the aggressed.” 

Even as he described “excellent” personal relations with Trump administration counterparts, Le Maire also defended Brussels’ apparent efforts to tax products from mostly Republican states ahead of U.S. congressional elections in November.

“It’s legitimate to use the means we have to make Mr. Trump understand we don’t accept his decision” to tax European metals exports, he said. “And if the sanctions hit Republican states and it makes Republicans understand that their decision is unacceptable, so much the better.”

For the Bastille Harley club, however, the sharpening dispute is being met with a somewhat Gallic shrug.

“It’s politics, that’s all. It’s a mistake on both sides,” said the club’s vice president, Patrick Sarfati, who believes European Harley fans will continue to buy the bike even at a higher price.

Baud is similarly philosophical.

“It’s too bad, but we can’t do anything about it,” he said. “But it won’t stop us from buying our Harleys.” 

Dilemma mirrored in Europe

In some ways, Harley-Davidson’s dilemma is matched by the one faced by some European companies. They’ve been threatened with separate U.S. sanctions for doing business with Iran following Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement. A growing number are pulling out of Iran, and Economy Minister Le Maire acknowledged that for the moment, European governments had little means of reversing the trend. 

“For the moment, our requests remain unanswered,” he said of discussions with Washington.

France, in particular, is no stranger to rocky transatlantic relations — and the euros lost as a result. In 2003, French opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq led to a “freedom fries” retaliation by an irate U.S. Congress, and an American boycott of iconic products like brie and camembert.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was French prime minister at the time, is happy that Europe today is fighting for its principles.

“Maybe it’s Europe’s luck to have Mr. Trump,” he said in an interview. “Because it finds new unity in this adversity, and maybe this will allow it to react strongly.”

Experts say the U.S., for now, is in a position of strength, particularly given its booming economy, although it is confronted by multiple trade disputes. The EU, by contrast, is economically weaker, and splintered by political divisions over issues such as migration and closer economic unity.

Still, the former head of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, is confident, for the moment, that free trade will win in the long term.

“My own sense is that we’ve reached a stage of globalization that will make de-globalization extremely unlikely” unless protectionist and populist parties strengthen further, Lamy said in recent remarks to Anglophone reporters.

Harley-Davidson’s eventual reprieve from EU sanctions, following its production shift, will help maintain business, said Clairefond of the Bastille motorcycle store — especially when it comes to newer riders with less loyalty and financial means than those in the bikers club.

But he is less upbeat about the broader standoff.

“I think anytime you have a trade war, there’s bound to be winners and losers,” Clairefond said. “But more losers in the end.” 
…

The European Union is preparing for a crunch two-day summit beginning Thursday in Brussels – as differences over immigration policy threaten to tear the bloc apart. Henry Ridgwell reports on the summit that some analysts say could make or break the European Union.
…

The British Parliament has overwhelmingly approved plans to expand Europe’s biggest airport after decades of debate over its potential impact.

The House of Commons on Monday voted 415-119 to build a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government and business groups strongly backed the expansion, saying it would be tantamount to putting out an “open for business” sign as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.

But small communities around the airport and environmental groups have vehemently opposed the expansion on environmental, noise and financial grounds. Friends of the Earth described it as a “morally reprehensible” move that would result in Heathrow emitting as much carbon as all of Portugal.

Greenpeace UK said it was ready to join London councils and the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, in a legal challenge to the third runway. The environmental watchdog said if ministers wouldn’t protect people from toxic air, opponents would ask a court to do so.

May had directed Conservative Party lawmakers to vote for the project. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who once pledged to lie down in front of bulldozers to stop the expansion, avoided a confrontation with the prime minister by visiting Afghanistan on Monday.

His absence did not go unnoticed. Shouts of “Where’s Boris?” could be heard in the Commons, as opposition lawmakers spoke out against the $18.6 billion project.

The government has vowed the airport will be built at no cost to the taxpayer and will create some 100,000 jobs. 

But former Conservative Party transport secretary Justine Greening — who broke with her party to reject the expansion — told lawmakers the story of Heathrow was one of “broken promises, broken politics and broken economics.”
…

Some European lawmakers urged the EU on Monday to consider stripping Hungary of its voting rights to punish it for weakening democracy and the rule of law, a move which prompted a swift rebuke from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties committee (LIBE) voted in favor of triggering a formal punitive procedure, citing concerns about the independence of the judiciary, freedom of expression, the rights of minorities, and treatment of migrants and refugees in Hungary.

The European Parliament as a whole is expected to endorse the proposal in September but it is unlikely to lead to any swift action against Hungary as that would require all other EU states to back the idea.

But the LIBE move highlighted a widening rift between the liberal EU founders and Hungary – part of a grouping of newer, eastern member states which are now run by nationalist eurosceptics and have resisted an EU push to host asylum seekers.

Orban dismissed the committee’s vote as an attempt to pressure Hungary to change its policies on migration, state news agency MTI reported.

“But, given that Hungarian voters have already made their decision about this issue, there is nothing to discuss,” he said, according to MTI.

Orban’s Fidesz party won by a landslide in elections last April, partly on a wave of support for his hardline migration policies, including a refusal to take in anyone from the new arrivals from the Middle East and North Africa.

During his eight years in power, Orban has increasingly put pressure on courts, media and non-government groups. Though the EU has often protested, it has largely failed to stop him in what his critics denounce as a growing authoritarian drive.

Orban’s other nationalist, eurosceptic ally Poland would most likely shield Budapest from any sanctions even if the Article 7 punitive procedure was launched against Hungary.

Orban has made clear he would block any such move against Warsaw, which has been at odds with the bloc for more than two years over its own judicial reforms that critics say weaken courts and the rule of law in the largest ex-communist EU state.

Twenty-eight EU ministers will discuss their concerns about Poland again on Tuesday at a session in Luxembourg.

EU leaders are preparing to discuss immigration policy in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, seeking to heal a deep division in a bloc already badly shaken by Brexit.
…

Moldova’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld a decision to invalidate the election victory of a pro-transparency candidate for the post of mayor of the capital Chisinau, despite public protests demanding the ruling be overturned.

Hundreds and sometimes thousands of Moldovans have been protesting daily, since a court ruled on June 19 that Andrei Nastase’s electoral win was illegitimate, citing unspecified violations.

The scandal has brought more political turmoil for a country that plunged into crisis following a $1 billion banking fraud in 2015, enduring successive government collapses and frequent conflict between the president and the government.

According to Moldovan law, the Supreme Court’s ruling is final and the post will be filled by an acting mayor until the next election in 2019.

Around a thousand people gathered outside the court to protest against the decision and chanted: “Revolution!” Nastase, who has led a movement demanding greater transparency and accountability, says the court decisions were made at the behest of the head of Moldova’s ruling party, businessman Vlad Plahotniuc.

“Judges are bastards. They are scared of Plahotniuc, but not of you, the people of this country,” Nastase said after the latest ruling. “We will continue the protests until we win.”

The press office of Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Plahotniuc has previously said negative perceptions about him were down to lies spread by his opponents after he entered politics.

Nastase, a former prosecutor, won 52.5 percent of the votes in the June 3 election. His supporters’ daily protests included a gathering of several thousand in Chisinau on Sunday.

The canceling of Nastase’s win has drawn sharp rebukes from the United States and the European Union.
…

Britain’s Prince William on Monday toured the ruins of the Roman city of Jerash, a major tourist attraction his wife visited as a child when she and her family lived in Jordan.

Along the route, William and Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein stopped in front of an enlarged photo on an easel that showed the former Kate Middleton, her father and younger sister posing against the backdrop of the Jerash ruins. For almost three years in the 1980s, the family lived in Jordan where Michael Middleton worked for British Airways.

William then stood in the same spot where the photo was taken and said: “Need to come back with the family for this shot.” He pointed at his father-in-law in the photo, saying that “Michael’s looking very smart in his flip-flops.”

The visit to Jerash came on the second day of a five-day tour that also takes William to Israel and the Palestinian territories. It’s a high-profile foreign trip for William, second in line to the throne, and comes at a time of widening rifts between Israelis and Palestinians.

Later Monday, he’ll be the first British royal to visit the Holy Land in an official capacity. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict looms large, despite the ceremonial nature of the trip.

William, an avid soccer fan, arrived in Jordan on Sunday afternoon, at a time when the England-Panama World Cup game was under way. The Jordanian crown prince recorded it for him, and the two watched it later Sunday on a huge TV screen at Hussein’s residence. England thrashed Panama 6-1, advancing to the second round.

Before settling down to soccer, William spoke at a garden reception at the British Embassy, praising Britain’s historic ties with Jordan and the kingdom’s commitment to hosting Syrian and Palestinian refugees.

Over decades, Jordan has taken in waves of refugees, most recently those fleeing civil war in Syria. Jordan hosts about 660,000 registered Syrian refugees, but says the actual number of displaced Syrians in the kingdom is twice as high.

Jordanian government officials on Monday were quoted as saying that Jordan could not absorb more refugees. The comments came as Syrian government forces advanced in southern Syria, near Jordan’s border, leading to more displacement.

During the Jerash tour, William met with dozens of children attending a U.N.-sponsored education program, known as Makani, that serves Syrian refugees as well as Jordanian children from overburdened host communities.

The children greeted the two princes in the amphitheater of Jerash, where they showed him some of their art work, including paintings. One girl painted with her foot.

The ruins of Jerash are one of Jordan’s main tourist attractions.

In a speech Sunday, William said the Middletons have fond memories of their time in Jordan, and that Kate was sorry she couldn’t join him on the trip to the kingdom. Kate gave birth in April to the couple’s third child, Louis.

 
…

Latin American countries have sprung a World Cup surprise by filling Russia’s 11 host cities with tens of thousands of fans from Mexico and Colombia to Peru and Argentina.

And some of the Europeans who did show up said their friends back home told them they were crazy to go.

The contrasting cast of supporters at the biggest event in sport reflects Russia’s progressive creep away from Europe in the 18 years of President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Moscow is now embracing new allies that happen to worship football and where damning — and often exaggerated — media stories about Russian hooligans and poisoning cases are rare.

This mix and the added ingredient of a more evenly spread-out global middle-class with the means to travel the world has the streets of Russia dancing to a decidedly Latin beat.

“We didn’t expect it to be this beautiful and the people are amazing,” Mauricio Miranda said as she waved a Colombian flag on the edge of Red Square in Moscow.

“We will definitely come back,” said the 30-year-old.

Belgian public relations consultant Jo De Munter does not necessarily disagree. It is his friends who do.

“I think Europeans are a bit afraid,” the 46-year-old said while staring in the direction of Lenin’s Mausoleum.

“In Belgium, everybody told me I was crazy to go to the football.”

By the numbers

World Cups come in all shapes and sizes and comparing ticket sales rarely tells the whole tale.

Europeans and Latin Americans are naturally more inclined to attend World Cups held in their regions because of the easier travel arrangements and familiarity.

South Africa in 2010 may provide a better example because it was a frontier football country with specific security and logistical risks.

Yet FIFA figures showed almost 50 percent more Britons bought tickets for the African continent’s first World Cup than this maiden one in eastern Europe.

Australians were in third place then but are just ninth in Russia.

Germany and England bought the fourth- and fifth-most number of tickets. France was ninth.

But France dropped out of the top 10 in Russia while Britain slipped down to last place. Germany remained fourth.

The United States has long led purchases among non-hosting countries because of its massive economy and large communities from football-mad Mexico and other Central American communities.

Taking the US out of the equation leaves Latin Americans accounting for two-thirds of the top 10 countries that have bought tickets for Russia.

Safety net

Fans banging Mexican drums and sporting the red-and-white bodypaint of the Peruvian flag encountered on a Moscow summer’s day were almost all big city office workers.

Colombia’s Miranda is an urban planner with a new job in Canada.

Alexandro Grado is a former financial consultant with Mexico’s Citibanamex who now owns a plastics recycling firm.

“Going to Russia is not expensive if you buy everything ahead of time,” Grado said.

Yet not all fans can afford to go bar hopping near the Kremlin and sociologists who study the sport say this is where Latin American football federations come in.

“There are national teams which have very strong organizational support behind them. Argentina in 2010 was one example,” said Ludovic Lestrelin of France’s Universite de Caen in Normandy.

Lestrelin said less well-off fans in Europe get far less travel and accommodation assistance from state agencies and are increasingly more likely to stay home and watch on TV.

This means Europeans attending World Cups tend to be richer than the average football fan. The traveling Latin Americans are more likely to come from all types of backgrounds.

“Those who travel to Russia and other places do not reflect the social makeup of French stadiums,” said Lestrelin.

“Those (in France) are more diverse, with a central core of lower and middle class workers.”

Zbigniew Iwanowski of the Institute of Latin American Studies in Moscow said Russia is further reaping the rewards of a “pink tide” that brought anti-US leaders power across the continent.

“The pendulum has swung back to the right but they still have (Russian state media) like Sputnik and RT,” Iwanowski said.

“Russia’s image is better in Latin America than it is in Europe and US.”

‘Not properly European’

Few would argue that Russia generates a lot of negative headlines in Europe in general and Britain in particular.

But the media’s role in shaping public opinion — and the reverse — is all but impossible to gauge.

What is clear is that at least some of the Europeans who ventured to Moscow and beyond did so with a degree of trepidation the voyagers from Latin America lacked.

De Munter said he often travels to watch Belgium play abroad. Rarely has he seen the national team’s support so small.

“We are expecting 4,000 Belgian people, which is not that much. Especially now because the Red Devils are doing very well.”

Gherardo Drardanelli flew in from Italy to take part in one of the fan tournaments organised alongside the World Cup.

“I think our concept of Russia — we feel that Russia is far away, that it’s not a properly European country,” the 28-year-old said. 
…

Pro-Brexit politicians and business figures have urged British Prime Minister Theresa May to be ready to walk away from the European Union without a trade agreement, despite warnings from major manufacturers that a “no deal” Brexit would be an economic disaster.

In an open letter, 60 lawmakers, economists and business chiefs accused the EU of being “intransigent” in divorce talks and said Britain should threaten to withhold the $52 billion divorce bill it has already agreed to pay.

The letter released Sunday by Economists for Free Trade was signed by prominent supporters of a “hard Brexit,” including ex-U.K. Treasury chief Nigel Lawson, Conservative lawmakers John Redwood and Peter Bone, and Tim Martin, chairman of the Wetherspoons pub chain.

They urged U.K. authorities “to accelerate their preparations for ‘no deal’ and a move to a World Trade Deal under WTO rules.”

That would mean tariffs and other trade barriers between Britain and the EU, and many businesses say it would severely harm the U.K. economy. Airbus, Siemens and BMW have all warned recently that leaving the EU without a free-trade deal would hurt British businesses and cost jobs. Airbus alone employs nearly 14,000 workers in the U.K.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the warnings from businesses were “inappropriate” and undermined chances of getting a “clean Brexit.”

“The more that we undermine Theresa May, the more likely we are to end up with `a fudge,’ which would be an absolute disaster for everyone,” he told the BBC.

May’s Conservative government is divided between Brexit-backing ministers calling for a clean break so that Britain can strike new trade deals around the world, and those who want to stay closely aligned to the EU, Britain’s biggest trading partner.

Hunt urged people to unite behind the prime minister, saying she would mix “cautious pragmatism” with a determination to fulfil voters’ decision to leave the EU.

On Saturday, however, tens of thousands of anti-Brexit protesters marched in London to demand a new referendum on leaving the EU as Britain marked the second anniversary of its 2016 vote to quit the bloc.

“Brexit is not a done deal. Brexit is not inevitable. Brexit can be stopped,” Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable told the crowd.

 
…

Leaders of 16 European Union countries met Sunday in Belgium, ahead of the upcoming European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday, to discuss how to best cope with huge waves of migrants landing on the continent’s shores. A key issue on the table was the so-called Dublin Regulation, which says that asylum-seekers must be processed in the EU nation where they first arrive. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
…

Turks began voting Sunday for a new president and parliament in elections that pose the biggest challenge to Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party since they swept to power more than a decade and a half ago.

The elections will also usher in a powerful new executive presidency long sought by Erdogan and backed by a small majority of Turks in a 2017 referendum. Critics say it will further erode democracy in the NATO member state and entrench one-man rule.

More than 56 million people were registered to vote at 180,000 ballot boxes across Turkey. Voting began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will end at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Erdogan, the most popular but also divisive leader in modern Turkish history, moved the elections forward from November 2019, arguing the new powers would better enable him to tackle the nation’s mounting economic problems — the lira has lost 20 percent against the dollar this year — and deal with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey and in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Opposition galvanizes

But he reckoned without Muharrem Ince, the presidential candidate of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose feisty performance at campaign rallies has galvanized Turkey’s long-demoralized and divided opposition.

Addressing a rally in Istanbul on Saturday attended by hundreds of thousands of people, Ince promised to reverse what he and opposition parties see as a swing towards authoritarian rule under Erdogan in the country of 81 million people.

“If Erdogan wins, your phones will continue to be listened to. … Fear will continue to reign. … If Ince wins, the courts will be independent,” said Ince, adding he would lift Turkey’s state of emergency within 48 hours of being elected.

Coup attempt, then crackdown

Turkey has been under emergency rule, which restricts some personal freedoms and allows the government to bypass parliament with emergency decrees, for nearly two years following an attempted military coup in July 2016.

Erdogan blamed the coup on his former ally, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, and has waged a sweeping crackdown on the preacher’s followers in Turkey. The United Nations say some 160,000 people have been detained and nearly as many more, including teachers, judges and soldiers, sacked.

The president’s critics, including the European Union, which Turkey still nominally aspires to join, say Erdogan has used the crackdown to stifle dissent. Few newspapers or other media openly criticize the government, and he has received far more election coverage than other presidential candidates.

Erdogan, who defends his tough measures as essential for national security, told his supporters at rallies Saturday that if re-elected he would press ahead with more of the big infrastructure projects that have helped turn Turkey into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during his time in office.

“If he wins, I think the obstacles before us will disappear and we will have control,” said Nesrin Cuha, 37, a call center worker, who wore a headscarf. Religiously observant Muslims form the bedrock of Erdogan’s support.

“The opposition will not be a nuisance anymore with the new presidential system,” said another Erdogan supporter, retired sailor Engin Ozmen, 60.

Polls predict run-off

Polls show Erdogan falling short of a first-round victory in the presidential race but he would be expected to win a run-off on July 8, while his AK Party could lose its parliamentary majority, possibly heralding increased tensions between president and parliament.

Other presidential candidates include Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), who is now in jail on terrorism-related charges that he denies. If the HDP exceeds the 10 percent threshold of votes needed to enter parliament, it will be harder for the AKP to get a majority.
…

Before it became one of the venues for the World Cup, the city of Volgograd in southwest Russia was famous for an overabundance of small, annoying flies called midges. While the small two-winged flies don’t bite, soccer fans are finding that they don’t leave you alone either. VOA’s Mariama Diallo takes a look at what Russian officials are doing to make the sporting life more comfortable for World Cup fans and players.
…

More than 1,000 Macedonians protested on Saturday evening against the change of the name of the former Yugoslav Republic which was agreed with neighboring Greece to end a decades-long dispute.

Last week, the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia signed an accord to rename the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic the “Republic of North Macedonia.”

The agreement, which unlocked Macedonia’s path to possible European Union and NATO membership, triggered protests by nationalists.

The protest on Saturday evening organized by Macedonia’s biggest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, was peaceful. Protesters held banners reading “We don’t want to give up the name” and waved Macedonian flags as they demanded annulment of the agreement with Greece.

Macedonia, which declared its independence in 1991, avoided the wars that battered some other ex-Yugoslav republics. But Greece refused to accept the country’s name, saying it implied territorial claims on the Greek province of Macedonia and amounted to an appropriation of its ancient civilization. Greece blocked Macedonia’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO.

Macedonia has to amend its constitution to conform with the provisions of the deal. A referendum is also expected in Macedonia in the autumn.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov also opposes the accord. He refused to sign the agreement even though it was ratified by parliament on Wednesday.
…