Tunisia’s interior minister has fired 10 security officials amid an investigation into the sinking of a boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe that left an estimated 112 dead or missing.

It was the deadliest shipwreck this year on the dangerous route from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Braham announced late Tuesday the dismissal of 10 people including local police and security chiefs in the coastal city of Sfax and the Krekennah island, based on preliminary investigations into Sunday’s sinking.

The Tunisian government has been widely criticized for not grasping the extent of the tragedy. The prime minister visited the island Tuesday to oversee the search operations.

The International Organization for Migration has counted 60 confirmed deaths, 52 people still missing and 68 survivors.
…

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia says its military advisers will withdraw from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, after the United States and Turkey agreed on a road map to resolve the future of the city, an issue that is a major source of tension between the NATO allies.

The agreement to ensure security and stability in Manbij came during a meeting Monday in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The U.S. State Department did not provide further details about the agreement, but a senior official said Tuesday, “We will continue to be there. We hope Turkey can help patrol,” while declining to specify how many troops would remain.

The official added: “We want locally rooted forces to continue to support stability.”

Monday, Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists in Washington that U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters will withdraw from Manbij under a plan that could be implemented within six months.He said U.S. and Turkish officials would temporarily ensure security in Manbij.

“The aim of this road map is the clearing of Manbij of all terror organizations and the permanent instatement (establishment) of safety and stability,” Cavusoglu said.

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the war against the Islamic State group has angered Turkey. Ankara calls the YPG terrorists, accusing the militia of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Ahead of Cavusoglu’s visit to Washington, the Turkish foreign minister said, “[The United States] has preferred to collaborate with a terrorist organization in Syria.That was a grave mistake, and we are trying to change their position.”

The Syrian town of Manbij was seized from Islamic State by mainly YPG forces.Ankara has claimed Washington reneged on an agreement the militia would withdraw after taking Manbij.

Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey told VOA’s Turkish Service that although there are problems between the United States and Turkey, the ties between the countries would not break down.

“Because the U.S. and Turkey share basic interests — we are status quo powers, we are both major beneficiaries of the global order, and we see in similar terms a threat to that order in the region around Turkey, from Russia, from Iran and from extremist elements — the relationship will remain extremely important and will not break down.”

He acknowledged, “The relationship will also be fraught with problems because it is very complicated.”

Jeffrey said the most difficult problem between two countries is Turkey’s agreement to buy the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, a non-NATO country.

Turkey’s move to buy the surface-to-air missile system, which is incompatible with NATO systems, has unnerved NATO member countries.In response, a U.S. Senate committee has threatened to prevent Turkey from purchasing U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
…

The U.N. human rights office (UNHCR) is criticizing the United States’ new zero tolerance policy aimed at deterring migrants and refugees from coming to the country. Under this policy, people caught entering the U.S. irregularly are subject to criminal prosecution, and their children, some very young, are taken away.

The UNHCR calls this separation of family arbitrary and a serious violation of a child’s rights. The United States is the only country that has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nevertheless, the agency said this does not absolve the U.S. from its responsibilities to adhere to and protect these rights.

Human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles. She said children should never be detained because of their or their parents’ immigration status.

She told VOA there is no justification for detaining children.

“Detention is never in the best interest of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation,” she noted. “Entering a country without the relevant papers should not be a criminal offense. At most, it should be an administrative offense. So, these people should not be detained. Detention is never in the best interest of the child, and these children are effectively detained. They are separated and detained.”

The U.N. refugee agency also condemned the Trump administration’s immigration policy. It said preserving family unity is a fundamental tenet of refugee protection.

UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said the unity of the family is sacrosanct and should be preserved in the best interest of children and society as a whole. He said detention should be a measure of last resort.

“Most of the people attempting to enter the United States across the southern border are coming from three Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which are experiencing high levels of violence and persecution, often targeting children and young people and forcing families to flee to protect their lives,” he said.

Spindler added that people fleeing countries of violence should be given international protection. He said the right to claim asylum is a fundamental human right.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “zero tolerance” policy several weeks ago. Sessions said Congress has failed to pass legislation to fix the problem. The issue has sparked a political debate in the U.S. ahead of midterm congressional elections later this year.
…

The EU’s top court, in a landmark ruling for gay rights in Europe, said on Tuesday that Romania must grant residence to the American husband of a local man even though Romania does not itself permit same-sex marriage.

In a case which has highlighted social differences between western Europe and a more conservative, ex-communist east, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Romania must accept the validity of the mens’ 2010 Belgian marriage and treat American Clai Hamilton as Adrian Coman’s spouse under EU law.

The case did not touch on the freedom of member states to set their own matrimony laws, although campaigners have called on Brussels to push states to legalize same-sex marriage as a fundamental human right. Rather it upheld rights of EU citizens to move freely across the bloc along with their families.

“Although the member states have the freedom whether or not to authorize marriage between persons of the same sex,” the judges said, “They may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an EU citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a

national of a country that is not an EU member state, a derived right of residence in their territory.”

The case arose because Hamilton’s right as a non-EU citizen to live in Romania permanently was dependent on his status as Coman’s spouse. Coman challenged a Romanian decision to limit Hamilton’s residence to a three-month visa and a Romanian court referred the matter to the ECJ in Luxembourg.

Coman welcomed the ruling: “We can now look in the eyes of any public official in Romania and across the EU with certainty that our relationship is equally valuable and equally relevant for the purpose of free movement within the EU,” he said.

The deputy leader of the liberal bloc in the European Parliament, Sophie in ‘t Veld, said: “This is fantastic news and a landmark opinion for rainbow families.

“Freedom of movement is a right of all EU citizens. It cannot be restricted because of whom they love.”

The European Commission insisted that the ruling was not part of a push from Brussels to force social change in the bloc.

“Member states are in charge — but this is a useful clarification in terms of avoiding discrimination,” spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters when asked about opposition to same-sex marriage in parts of eastern Europe, where governments have also clashed with the EU executive over other civil rights.
…

Denmark’s government has announced that it will build a 68-kilometer fence along the country’s southern border to protect prime Danish pigs from swine fever.

The government says the fence will help keep out German wild boar that could be infected with a deadly African swine fever.

Officials say an outbreak of swine fever in Denmark would force the country to temporarily stop all pork exports. Denmark Minister for Environment and Food Esben Lunde Larsen says the country’s exports of pork outside the European Union are worth $1.8 billion annually.

African swine fever is harmless to humans but fatal to farm pigs.

Other countries in the region are also considering how to counter the spread of swine fever, with Germany allowing hunters to hunt wild boar year around.

Denmark’s government says the fence will be 1.5 meters tall and will be 50 centimeters deep to prevent boars from burrowing underneath. Officials say roads between Denmark and Germany will not be affected by the fence.

Critics say the fence will do little to keep wild boar out of Denmark and will harm other species of animals, such as foxes and deer. Advocates say the fence is a necessary precaution to protect Denmark’s billion-dollar pig industry from the catastrophic effects of an outbreak.
…

French President Emmanuel Macron called on international donors to quickly make financing available for the Sahel regional counterterror force.

In a news conference in Paris with visiting Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, Macron said money “now needs to be disbursed” to allow the five-nation regional force, known as the G5 Sahel, to keep functioning.

He said the European Union started financing the force last week and will provide equipment in coming weeks. He called on other donors like Saudi Arabia to meet their financial commitments. Issoufou expressed his concerns over the financial sustainability of the force.

Earlier this year, international donors pledged 414 million euros ($510 million) to help Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger set up a counterterror force to combat the deadly jihadist threat in the Sahel region.

In an interview to French television France 24, Issoufou said negotiations are ongoing for the release of two humanitarian workers who were kidnapped in Niger. He said Jeffery Woodke, an American abducted in 2016 and Jorg Lang, a German abducted in April this year, are alive.

Issoufou said “we have some news, we know they are alive. We keep working on creating conditions for their release.”

He said he couldn’t confirm their precise location but one probable hypothesis is that they are being detained in northern Mali.
…

The United States and Turkey have agreed on a roadmap to resolve the future of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, an issue that has become a major source of tension between the NATO allies.

The agreement came during a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington on Monday.

In a joint statement, Pompeo and Cavusoglu said their countries would take steps “to ensure the security and stability in Manbij.”

“They endorsed a roadmap to this end and underlined their mutual commitment to its implementation, reflecting agreement to closely follow developments on the ground,” the statement said, adding that the two sides agreed to hold further meetings to resolve outstanding issues.

​’Clearing of Manbij’

The U.S. State Department did not provide further details about the agreement. However, Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists in Washington Monday that U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters will withdraw from Manbij under a plan that could be implemented within six months. He said U.S. and Turkish officials would temporarily ensure security in Manbij.

“The aim of this roadmap is the clearing of Manbij of all terror organizations and the permanent instatement of safety and stability,” Cavusoglu said.

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the war against the Islamic State group has angered Turkey. Ankara calls the YPG terrorists, accusing the militia of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Ahead of Cavusoglu’s visit to Washington, the Turkish foreign minister said, “[The United States] has preferred to collaborate with a terrorist organization in Syria. That was a grave mistake, and we are trying to change their position.”

Center of US-Turkish tension

The Syrian town of Manbij, which was seized from Islamic State by mainly YPG forces, has become the epicenter of Turkish-U.S. tensions. Ankara claims Washington reneged on an agreement that the militia would withdraw after taking Manbij.

Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey told VOA’s Turkish service that although there are problems between the United States and Turkey, the ties between the countries would not break down.

“Because the U.S. and Turkey share basic interests — we are status quo powers, we are both major beneficiaries of the global order, and we see in similar terms a threat to that order in the region around Turkey, from Russia, from Iran and from extremist elements — the relationship will remain extremely important and will not break down.”

However, he acknowledged there will be difficulties between the countries going forward. 

“The relationship will also be fraught with problems because it is very complicated,” he said.

Jeffrey said the most difficult problem between two countries is Turkey’s agreement to buy the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, a non-NATO country.

Turkey’s move to buy the surface-to-air missile system, which is incompatible with NATO systems, has unnerved NATO member countries. In response, a U.S. Senate committee has threatened to prevent Turkey from purchasing U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

 Dorian Jones, Nike Ching, Serhan Akyildiz and Erhan Polat contributed to this report.

 
…

Tunisia’s Defense Ministry says at least 46 migrants have died after their boat sank off the country’s southern coast and 67 others were rescued by the coast guard on Sunday.

The rescue operation was ongoing, the ministry said in a statement. The migrants were of Tunisian and other nationalities.

In a separate incident, nine people, including six children, died Sunday after a speedboat carrying 15 refugees sank off the coast of Turkey’s southern province of Antalya, the Turkish coast guard said in a statement.

Reducing the flow of migrants into Italy is one of the aims of the anti-immigrant League party in Italy and its leader Matteo Salvini, who was sworn in as the country’s new interior minister on Friday.

Salvini and his party have promised to block the arrival of boat migrants from Africa and to deport up to 100,000 illegal immigrants per year.

“Italy and Sicily cannot be Europe’s refugee camp,” he told a crowd of supporters in the port town of Pozzallo, a migration hotspot.

“Nobody will take away my certainty that illegal immigration is a business… and seeing people make money on children who go on to die makes me furious.”

Meanwhile, Spain’s maritime rescue service said it rescued 240 people, with one person apparently drowning, while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.

The service said it rescued the migrants from 11 small boats attempting the perilous crossing from African shores to Spain between Saturday and Sunday.

The International Organization for Migration, the U.N. agency for migration, reported last week that 30,300 migrants and refugees entered Europe via sea in the first 147 days of 2018.

The arrivals are at this point in 2018 less than half those seen last year and less than 15 percent of those seen in 2016 at the same point. IOM had reported 69,219 refugees had arrived from January through May in 2017 and 198,346 during the same period in 2016.

IOM said 655 people have lost their lives at sea since the beginning of 2018, at least 1,000 fewer than the recorded deaths in the same period last year.

 
…

German police shot at a “rampaging” man wielding a knife in a cathedral in Berlin on Sunday, according to city officers.

“Shortly after 4 pm (1400 GMT) police shot at a rampaging man at Berlin Cathedral,” police said in a tweet.

“He was wounded in the leg,” police said, later adding that an officer had been wounded, without providing further details.

Officers rushed to the Berliner Dom, a major tourist attraction on the historic Museum Island in the German capital, after an employee called emergency services to report the incident.

Police have said the suspect is a 53-year-old man, and that there is no reason to believe the attack was related to terrorism.

 
…

The U.S. ambassador to Russia says any meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “would be a ways off.”

Jon Huntsman suggested Sunday on “Fox & Friends” that if a summit were to occur, “the president, at the right time, will say what needs to be said.”

Huntsman’s statement comes after a report that White House officials were working toward setting up a meeting.

Trump has said he was open to having a summit with Putin, who U.S. intelligence officials have said directed Russian meddling in the 2016 election to help Trump win.

The president has repeatedly said he wants to improve relationships with Moscow.

Huntsman says Trump would not sit down with Putin unless he had issues to discuss “that were aligned with our national interests.”

 
…

On Sunday, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, will visit Rwanda to meet his counterpart, Louise Mushikiwabo, and President Paul Kagame. They plan to discuss economic development and fighting terrorism, Russia’s foreign ministry said, along with Russia’s involvement with the Africa Union, which Kagame chairs until the end of the year.

Lavrov’s Rwanda trip follows a five-nation Africa tour in March and highlights Russia’s interest in deepening its involvement across the continent.

After that trip, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia decided to cancel more than $20 billion in debt contracted by African nations to help the continent overcome poverty.

Russia “is looking at Africa as a potential trading partner. It’s looking at Africa as a partner in this desire of Russia to create a multipolar world,” Paul Stronski, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told VOA by phone.

​Beyond arms deals

Those partnerships have historically centered on arms sales, with documented deals between Russia and at least 30 African nations, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

“They have three refurbishment plants at the moment already in the continent, including in South Africa,” said Alex Vines, a former U.N. sanctions inspector who’s now with the London-based think tank Chatham House. “That’s worked quite well for them, and Russian military equipment is pretty robust, fairly low maintenance. And that has made the Russians attractive.”

Increasingly, Russia has sought deals beyond weapons, including agreements to extract minerals, provide nuclear power, and boost its political and cultural influence in Africa.

Those efforts could translate into favorable votes at the U.N., where three African countries now serve on the Security Council.

The consequences of Russia’s re-emergence in Africa aren’t yet clear, experts say. But the implications could be profound, especially with new opportunities to partner with China and a U.S.-Africa strategy that remains largely undefined.

Soviet-era ties

Before its collapse, the Soviet Union enjoyed an extensive military presence in Africa — historic ties that bolster Russia’s efforts to reinvigorate its presence on the continent.

In the Cold War era, the Soviet Union established naval bases across Africa, including facilities in Egypt, Ethiopia, Angola, Libya and Tunisia.

Those bases were decommissioned when the Soviet Union fell, but military deals continued.

Between 1990 and 2017, Russia and Egypt, for example, engaged in nearly 30 arms deals, mainly for surface-to-air missiles and related technologies, according to SIPRI.

One example is Angola, which benefited from Soviet support when it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Now, Russia is involved in diamond mining in the country and, according to Vines, may build a new telecommunications center in Angola at their own cost.

Now Russia is seeking partnerships that broaden its interests. Vines told VOA that Russia’s aims are expanding from security to trade and resources.

“There will be some new relationships which are more mercantile (focuses) and based probably around extractives,” Vines said. “I think we will see more trips of the foreign minister of Russia, Lavrov, and some of his colleagues into Africa in the future for that very reason.”

​Securing votes

Russia also has political reasons to court African leaders.

Having long faced sanctions against itself and its trading partners, as well as an extended economic downturn, Russia needs African votes at the United Nations, Vines said, to accomplish its broader goals.

Russia has tried to sidestep U.N. sanctions and U.S. trade embargoes against countries it seeks arms deals with, Stronski said.

Allies in Africa could make that a lot easier. The continent’s 54 nations have considerable sway in the General Assembly, and Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia hold temporary seats on the powerful Security Council.

​‘No questions asked’

For African countries with emerging economies and authoritative governments, Russia, like China, represents an appealing partner: willing to engage, with few rules or requirements.

“Russia comes with, right now, sort of ‘no questions asked’ diplomacy,” Stronski said.

That’s good for African leaders, who benefit from added incentives and loose restrictions on the deals they make. But it also fuels corruption, according to Stronski, and that prevents citizens from benefiting from partnerships as much as they could.

“There is a lot of discussion about how Russian arms help fuel instability and fuel conflict on the African continent,” Stronski said. But African governments also risk a backlash, especially in countries with robust media playing a watchdog role, he added.

That’s a narrative Russia has sought to flip.

Russia “presents this vision of the West as sort of being an instability fueler and talk about how the bombing of Libya helped create sort of a power vacuum that has sort of led to the spread of weapons throughout the Middle East and North Africa,” Stronski said.

A multipolar world, rather than one dominated by the U.S., is one of Russia’s key strategic objectives, he added.

Setbacks

Russia’s efforts in Africa haven’t produced results at every turn. One failed venture appears to be in Djibouti, which Vines likened to “an aircraft carrier for Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.”

Five countries have established military bases in the tiny East African country, most recently China. Russia sought to subcontract space from China, Vines said. But Djibouti, facing pressure from the U.S. and its Western allies, blocked the deal.

Without access to China’s facility, Russia’s options are limited, Stronski said. 

“I don’t see Russia really having the funds, the resources to put anything beyond a very limited port call or landing and refilling rights,” he said.

Playing catch-up

Whether Russia can translate its renewed investments in Africa into major economic or political benefits isn’t clear, both Stronski and Vines said.

That’s in part because others, including Europe, the U.S., Gulf countries and China, are far ahead, according to Stronski.

“They closed down many of their embassies, and they really focused more closer to home. And now, in the last five years, they’ve realized that they were needing to play catch-up in Africa,” Stronski said.

Russia also faces financial constraints, particularly relative to China.

“The Russian Federation is by no means a Soviet Union, and it doesn’t have the deep pockets (or) the capacity to extend itself globally in the way that the Soviet Union was able to,” Vines said.

Despite these limitations, Russia’s rising profile has clear implications for the U.S., according to Stronski.

“The United States should look at this as a warning sign and should develop a more coherent and clear policy of what it sees as U.S. interests in the African continent. And I don’t see a very coherent message coming out of either the State Department or the White House right now on that issue,” he said.
…

Finance leaders of the closest U.S. allies vented anger over the Trump administration’s metal import tariffs but ended a three-day meeting in Canada on Saturday with no solutions, setting the stage for a heated fight at a G7 summit next week in Quebec.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to soothe the frustrations of his Group of Seven counterparts over the 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs that Washington imposed on Mexico, Canada and the European Union this week.

The other six G7 member countries asked Mnuchin to bring to President Donald Trump “a message of regret and disappointment” over the tariffs, Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said at a press conference after the end of a three-day meeting in the Canadian mountain resort town of Whistler, British Columbia.

“We’re concerned that these actions are actually not conducive to helping our economy, they actually are destructive, and that is consistently held across the six countries that expressed their point of view to Secretary Mnuchin,” he added.

In a statement issued by Canada, the G7 finance officials agreed that “decisive action is needed” on the tariff issue at a summit of G7 leaders next week in Charlevoix, Quebec.

‘G6 plus one’

Speaking separately after the meeting, frequently referred to as the “G6 plus one,” Mnuchin told reporters he was not part of the summary statement and said Trump was focused on “rebalancing our trade relationships.”

Mnuchin rejected comments from some G7 officials that the United States was circumventing international trade rules with the tariffs or ceding global economic leadership.

“I don’t think in any way the U.S. is abandoning its leadership in the global economy, quite the contrary. I think that we’ve had a massive effort on tax reform in the United States which has had a incredible impact on the U.S. economy,” Mnuchin said.

The U.S. Treasury chief said he has relayed some of the G7 comments to Trump and added that the U.S. president would address trade issues with other G7 leaders, but declined to speculate on any outcomes.

Washington’s move

Trump on Saturday took to Twitter to complain about the higher tariffs charged by some U.S. trading partners under World Trade Organization agreements.

All six of the other G7 countries are paying the tariffs, which are largely aimed at curbing excess production in China.

Exemptions expired for Canada, Mexico and EU countries on Friday, while Japanese metals producers have been paying the levies since March 23.

Canada and Mexico, which are embroiled in talks with the United States to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, responded to the U.S. move by announcing levies of their own on a variety of American exports.

The EU is set to retaliate with tariffs on a range of U.S. goods from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to blue jeans and bourbon whiskey.

​Days before trade war

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the United States has only a few days to avoid sparking a trade war with its allies and it is up to Washington to make a move to de-escalate tensions over tariffs.

Speaking after the meeting, Le Maire said the EU was poised to take counter-measures against the new U.S. tariffs.

Some officials at the meeting said the tariffs made it harder for the group to work together to confront China over its trade practices. Mnuchin disagreed, saying there was support for dealing with China’s joint venture requirements, technology transfer efforts and other policies.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said G7 countries also told Mnuchin about their opposition to new U.S. sanctions on Iran, which will affect European companies. Trump announced last month that he was pulling the United States out of an international nuclear agreement with Tehran.

“There were several issues discussed at the G7 over which there was no agreement,” Scholz told reporters. “That’s really quite unusual in the history of the G7.”

The meeting of top economic policymakers was seen as a prelude to the trade disputes that will dominate the two-day G7 summit that begins on Friday in Quebec.
…

Slovenia’s parliamentary election on Sunday is likely to hand the most seats to an opposition anti-immigrant center-right party, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), but it may not find the coalition partners to form a government.

The country is holding a slightly early election after the outgoing center-left Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned in March over a legal obstacle to the government’s top railway investment project. The election would have been held later in June had Cerar not resigned.

About 1.7 million eligible voters will choose among candidates from 25 parties, with the latest opinion polls indicating that the SDS will win, with up to 24.5 percent of the vote.

“It seems clear that the SDS will win, but everything else about this election is unclear because the question is whether the SDS will be able to form a government coalition,” Meta Roglic, a political analyst of the daily Dnevnik, told Reuters.

According to polls the SDS will need to form a coalition with at least two other parties to gain a majority in the 90-seat parliament. But so far, most other parties that are likely to enter parliament said they would not go into government with the SDS, which has the open support of Hungary’s

nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

According to a Mediana poll published by daily newspaper Delo on Friday, the center-left List of Marjan Sarec, which has never before run for parliament, may emerge as the second-largest party with about 8.2 percent, followed by the Cerar’s Party of Modern Center.

‘Volatility’

“Given the volatility of party ratings in recent months, the election is an open race and the real winner will be the party that can form a coalition with a majority of seats in a likely highly fragmented parliament,” said Otilia Dhand of political risk advisory firm Teneo Intelligence.

Analysts believe that it will take at least two months before the new government is formed — and that another early election cannot be ruled out.

Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, returned to growth in 2014. The government expects the economy to expand by 5.1 percent this year versus 5 percent in 2017, boosted by exports, investments and household spending.

The new government will have to focus on privatization of the country’s largest bank, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, as the previous government has agreed to the sale of the state bank in exchange for the European Commission’s approval of state aid to the bank in 2013.

The next cabinet will also have to reform the inefficient state health sector and the pension system.
…

Italians are marking the anniversary of the founding of their republic with a pomp-filled military parade and the first official outing of its populist government, installed after a three-month political crisis.

Italy’s famed aeronautic acrobatic squad has flown low and loud over downtown Rome trailing smoke in the red, white and green of the Italian flag as President Sergio Mattarella placed a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

The institutional and national pride on display Saturday is a feature of every Republic Day, but it assumed more significance this year after Italy ended three months of political, institutional and financial turmoil and installed a government of the 5-Star Movement and League whose populist and euroskeptic leanings have alarmed Europe.

Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday’s celebrations transcend recent tensions.

 
…

Opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez was sworn in Saturday as Spain’s new prime minister, taking over the premiership after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote Friday.

Spain’s King Felipe VI administered the oath of office in a ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid.

Sanchez won the no-confidence motion with 180 votes in favor, 169 against and 1 abstention in the 350-seat lower house. It was the first ouster of a serving Spanish leader by parliament in four decades of democracy.

Rajoy lost the vote after six years in office, following corruption convictions last week involving former members of his center-right Popular Party.

Sanchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, becomes Spain’s seventh Prime Minister since its return to democracy in the late 1970s, following the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Sanchez still must name his Cabinet, and it is only when their names are published in an official government journal that he will fully assume his duties.
…

Birds and airplanes share the sky, so inevitably collisions occur. But airport authorities try to limit those encounters because bird strikes cause costly damage to jet engines and can lead to crashes. Some airports employ trained dogs, others use loud noises to frighten birds away. A company in the Netherlands says its robotic predator Robird is much more efficient. VOA’s George Putic has more.
…

The World Health Organization has expanded its Ebola vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo to include high risk people in three areas. Latest WHO figures show 37 confirmed cases and 13 probable ones.

Since the start of the Ebola vaccination campaign in May, the World Health Organization said 682 people have been vaccinated, among them nearly 500 in Mbandaka, a city of more than one million people.

The campaign recently was expanded to include Bikoro, where Ebola was first discovered on May 8 and the Iboko health zone, which is the most remote of the three areas. Those immunized include health workers, responders and other people at high risk of falling ill from the fatal disease.

WHO officials say the vaccine, which has not been formally approved, appears to be providing protection and giving rise to hope that it can help stop the spread of the Ebola virus.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was president of Liberia during the unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa, shares that hope. Ebola broke out in West Africa in late 2013. By the time it was brought under control in 2016, the disease had killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia lost 4,800 people during that outbreak.

While on a visit to Geneva earlier this week, she told VOA there has been an improvement in health care delivery systems, including infection control since the experience with Ebola.

“So the capacity to be able to address any outbreak is now improved in the affected countries, as well as in other places,” she added. “I think there is an important new dimension in the fight for Ebola and that is vaccines.

Sirleaf said vaccine trials in Guinea and now in the DRC have shown good results.

“We are hoping that DRC like others will have a capacity to deal with it, to stop the spread,” she said. “… We are hoping that DRC will come out of this without the major effect, the major results that we saw in the three countries that were not prepared for this.”

The vaccine developer, Merck, has contributed 7,500 doses of the Ebola vaccine to the DRC. The company says as many as 300,000 more doses are available in case of a serious outbreak.
…

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen is announcing a name-change for her National Front party, founded by her father nearly a half-century ago. It is expected to become the National Rally in a bid to more broadly embrace French voters ahead of next year’s European elections.

The profile of Le Pen, a nationalist once at the center of the political limelight, has dimmed since she was trounced by pro-globalist Emmanuel Macron in presidential elections a year ago. She announced a refounding of the National Front at its March congress.

Members were asked to vote by mail on the proposed new name with results announced Friday at a meeting of the party leadership.

Le Pen hopes Italy’s populist government, sworn in Friday, will boost her anti-immigration party’s fortunes.
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After President Donald Trump said the United States was getting out of the Paris climate agreement because it put the U.S. at a “big economic disadvantage,” the last two holdouts said they were getting in.

Nicaragua and Syria announced late last year that they would join the global agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

Experts said it’s one way that Trump’s decision to pull back from tackling climate change has galvanized others to step up.

But whether others will fill the gap the U.S. has left remains an open question.

No other country has followed his lead, said former lead climate negotiator Todd Stern.

“The first, most important piece of good news, and it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, is that other countries stayed in,” he said.

Stepping up

Some countries have announced plans to step up their efforts. China, France, Britain and several other countries have said they will end sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, though not all have set a deadline.

More than 60 countries, states, cities and companies have promised an end to coal-powered electricity generation.

In the U.S., experts note that states, cities and businesses have been taking action to fight climate change, even when the federal government has not.

Following Trump’s announcement, an alliance representing more than half of the U.S. economy pledged to meet the nation’s Paris greenhouse gas-reduction commitment anyway.

Counted among the “We Are Still In” coalition’s 2,770 members are New York, California and seven other states; 230 cities, including nine of the 10 most populous; and Unilever, Intel, Gap Inc. and other Fortune 500 companies.

Some states announced plans to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia and New Jersey moved to require power plants to pay for their carbon pollution, joining a nine-state cap-and-trade program.

“A lot of this work would have occurred naturally,” noted Virginia deputy secretary of commerce and trade Angela Navarro, but Trump’s decision “gave us a galvanizing point.”

More than 400 companies worldwide have promised to reduce their emissions in line with global climate goals, and 26 U.S.-based companies, including McDonald’s, Walmart and PepsiCo, have already set targets.

Market forces have also helped U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fall steadily since 2007. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has created a boom in natural gas, replacing dirtier coal in power plants. And the cost of wind and solar energy has been plummeting.

Tipping the balance

But it’s unclear whether the trend will continue. The Trump administration is working to undo regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gases from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

“The question is, how will it all pencil out?” asked Rhodium Group climate policy analyst Kate Larsen. “Are the federal rollbacks more than enough to tip the balance?”

State, city and business action is “a really good place to start,” she added, “but over time, it’s not a great replacement for federal action.”

The world pledged in Paris to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is currently falling far short of that goal.

All countries have to ramp up their efforts. But with the Trump administration stepping back, former U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern said other countries may be less willing to step up.

“You see the United States — the biggest historic emitter, the second biggest emitter now — suddenly saying, ‘Never mind.’ What’s the impact of that? Obviously not good,” Stern said.

Negotiators will meet in Poland in December aiming to finalize the “rule book” for how to implement the Paris climate agreement. Experts said that will be one of the first indications of how serious countries are about increasing efforts to meet their climate goals, with or without the United States.
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Nine people were hurt, including two children, when Croatian border police fired at a van full of illegal migrants that refused to stop.

Police said they discovered 29 people inside the van after it crossed the border from Bosnia.

The driver fled into the woods, and police were searching for him. 

The two wounded children were recovering in a hospital, and officials said their lives were not in danger.

“We are sorry about the children being injured in this incident,” Zadar town police chief Anton Drazina said. “Our priority is the fight against organized crime and protection of the state border and not against the migrants, but against the criminals who are unfortunately endangering the lives of the migrants by their smuggling activities.”

Police said most of the people in the van were from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants used the so-called Balkan route to cross into the European Union before the route was shut down. But a number of people still slip through.
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Pope Francis on Thursday promised Chilean Catholics scarred by a culture of clergy sexual abuse that “never again” would the Church ignore them or the cover-up of abuse in their country, where a widespread scandal has devastated its credibility.

The pope issued the comments in a letter to all Chilean Catholics as the Vatican announced that Francis was sending his two top sexual abuse investigators back to the country to gather more information about the crisis there.

The Vatican’s most experienced sexual abuse investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, and Father Jordi Bertomeu, a Spaniard, had visited Chile earlier this year.

In the letter released by Chilean bishops, Francis also praised the victims of sexual abuse in the country for persevering in bringing the truth to light despite attempts by Church officials to discredit them.

“The ‘never again’ to a culture of abuse, and the system of cover-up that allowed it to perpetuate, calls on all of us to work towards a culture of carefulness in our relationships,” he said in the eight-page letter.

He described the Chilean scandal as a “painful open wound.” Hours before the letter was released in Chile, the Vatican said Scicluna and Bertomeu would concentrate on the diocese of Osorno in southern Chile, seat of a bishop who has been most caught up in the scandal.

A Vatican statement said the purpose of the trip, due to start in the next few days, was to “move forward in the process of reparation, and healing for victims of abuse.”

The two prepared a 2,300-page report for the pope after speaking to victims, witnesses and other Church members earlier this year.

On May 18, all of Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign en masse after attending a crisis meeting with the pope in the Vatican about the cover-up of sexual abuse in the south American nation.

Francis has not yet said which resignations he will accept, if any. In his letter, the pope said the renewal of the Church hierarchy on its own would not bring the transformation needed in Chile, calling for unity in a time of crisis and a deepening of faith.

The scandal revolves around Father Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s. Now 87 and living in a nursing home in Chile, he has always denied any wrongdoing.

Victims accused Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno of having witnessed the abuse but doing nothing to stop it. Barros, who was one of those who offered to stand down, has denied the allegations.

During a visit to Chile in January, Francis staunchly defended Barros, denouncing accusations against him as “slander.”

But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, dispatched Scicluna and Bertomeu to Chile. Some of their findings were included in a damning 10-page document that was presented to the bishops when they came to Rome.

In April, the pope hosted three non-clerical victims who said they were abused by Karadima, and this weekend he will be meeting with priests who said they were abused by Karadima when they were young.
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Reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from American trading partners — including the European Union — came fast and furious, with threats of retaliation and warnings they risk sparking a trans-Atlantic trade war.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the European bloc would respond by imposing penalties of its own on American exports.

“Today is a bad day for world trade,” said Cecilia Malmström, the European trade commissioner. EU officials previously informed the World Trade Organization of the bloc’s plan to levy duties on $7.2 billion worth of U.S. exports if the Trump administration proceeded with threats to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum.

Canadian and Mexican officials also threatened retaliatory responses but have as yet not indicated which U.S. products they will target. Both countries had hoped that the White House would continue to exempt them from the tariffs. 

National security cited

Europe, along with Canada and Mexico, had been granted a temporary reprieve from the U.S. tariffs after they were unveiled in March by Trump, who said the levies were needed to stem the flood of cheap steel and aluminum into the U.S. and that to impose them was a national security priority.

In Europe, there was disappointment, but less surprise. 

Juncker called the U.S. action “unjustified” and said Europeans had no alternative but to respond with tariffs of their own and to lodge a case against Washington with the World Trade Organization in Geneva. “We will defend the union’s interests, in full compliance with international trade law,” he said.

The EU had already publicly announced that in the event tariffs did go ahead, it would impose levies on Levi-made jeans, Harley-Davidson motorbikes and bourbon whiskey.

British officials appeared the most alarmed. The government of Theresa May had pinned post-Brexit hopes on securing a trade deal with the U.S., and the imposition of tariffs on steel is adding to fears that negotiating a quick trade liberalization agreement with Trump looks increasingly unlikely.

“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. has decided to apply tariffs to steel and aluminum imports from the EU on national security grounds,” a government spokesman said. “The U.K. and other European Union countries are close allies of the U.S. and should be permanently and fully exempted.”

Discussion at summit

He said the British prime minister planned to raise the tariffs with the U.S. president personally in Canada at a scheduled G-7 summit of the seven largest advanced economies. That summit is likely to be a frosty affair, much like last year’s in Taormina, Sicily. 

With a week to go before the June 7-8 summit, there’s still no final agreement on the agenda, British and Italian officials said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earmarked climate change, women’s rights and economic growth as key issues, but there has been pushback from Washington. Thursday’s tariff announcement by the White House will further complicate agreeing on a G-7 agenda.

German reaction to the announcement of the tariffs was among the fiercest. Chancellor Angela Merkel dubbed them “illegal.” Manfred Weber, a key ally of the German chancellor and leader of the biggest bloc in the European Parliament, accused the Trump administration of treating American allies as enemies.

“If President Trump decides to treat Europe as an enemy, we will have no choice but to defend European industry, European jobs, European interests,” he said. “Europe does not want a trade conflict. We believe in a fair trade regime from which everybody benefits.” 

Wilbur Ross, U.S. commerce secretary, who’s in Europe and has been pressing the EU to make concessions to avert the tariffs, dismissed threats of a trade war, saying retaliation would have no impact on the U.S. economy. He held out hope that the tariffs could be eliminated, saying, “There’s potential flexibility going forward. The fact that we took a tariff action does not mean there cannot be a negotiation.” 

Business leaders cautious

Some European business leaders have urged their national leaders to be restrained in response, fearing a tit-for-tat spiral could be triggered quickly. Britain’s Confederation of British Industry warned against overreaction, saying no one would win on either side of the Atlantic if a major trade war erupted.

The director of UK Steel, Gareth Stace, said he feared there was clear potential for a damaging trade war.

“Since President Trump stated his plans to impose blanket tariffs on steel imports almost three months ago, the U.K. steel sector had hoped for the best, but still feared the worst. With the expiration of the EU exemption now confirmed to take effect tomorrow [June 1], unfortunately, our pessimism was justified, and we will now see damage not only to the U.K. steel sector but also the U.S. economy.” 
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In today’s energy-hungry world, scientists are constantly revisiting every renewable resource looking for ways to increase efficiency. One researcher in the Netherlands believes even gravity can be harnessed to produce free electricity on a scale sufficient to power small appliances. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports after failing to win concessions from the European Union, a move that could provoke retaliatory tariffs and inflame trans-Atlantic trade tensions.

The tariffs are likely to go into effect on the EU with an announcement by Friday’s deadline, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The administration’s plans could change if the two sides are able to reach a last-minute agreement, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump announced in March the United States would slap a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, citing national security interests. But he granted an exemption to the EU and other U.S. allies; that reprieve expires Friday.

​Europe bracing

Europe has been bracing for the U.S. to place the restrictions even as top European officials have held last-ditch talks in Paris with American trade officials to try to avert the tariffs.

“Realistically, I do not think we can hope” to avoid either U.S. tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminum, said Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union’s trade commissioner. Even if the U.S. were to agree to waive the tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, Malmstrom said, “I expect them nonetheless to want to impose some sort of cap on EU exports.”

European officials said they expected the U.S. to announce its final decision Thursday. The people familiar with the talks said Trump could make an announcement as early as Thursday.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross attended meetings at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on Wednesday, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer joins discussions in Paris on Thursday.

The U.S. plan has raised the threat of retaliation from Europe and fears of a global trade war — a prospect that is weighing on investor confidence and could hinder the global economic upturn.

​

If the U.S. moves forward with its tariffs, the EU has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. orange juice, peanut butter and other goods in return. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire pledged that the European response would be “united and firm.”

Limits on cars

Besides the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, the Trump administration is also investigating possible limits on foreign cars in the name of national security.

“Unilateral responses and threats over trade war will solve nothing of the serious imbalances in the world trade. Nothing,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an impassioned speech at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

In a clear reference to Trump, Macron added: “These solutions might bring symbolic satisfaction in the short term. … One can think about making voters happy by saying, ‘I have a victory, I’ll change the rules, you’ll see.’”

But Macron said those “who waged bilateral trade wars … saw an increase in prices and an increase in unemployment.”

Tariffs on steel imports to the U.S. can help local producers of the metal by making foreign products more expensive. But they can also increase costs more broadly for U.S. manufacturers who cannot source all their steel locally and need to import the raw material. That hurts the companies and can lead to more expensive consumer prices, economists say.

Ross criticized the EU for its tough negotiating position.

“There can be negotiations with or without tariffs in place. There are plenty of tariffs the EU has on us. It’s not that we can’t talk just because there’s tariffs,” he said. He noted that “China has not used that as an excuse not to negotiate.”

But German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier insisted the Europeans were being “constructive” and were ready to negotiate special trade arrangements, notably for liquefied natural gas and industrial goods, including cars.

WTO reforms

Macron also proposed to start negotiations between the U.S., the EU, China and Japan to reshape the World Trade Organization to better regulate trade. Discussions could then be expanded to include other countries to agree on changes by the end of the year.

Ross expressed concern that the Geneva-based World Trade Organization and other organizations are too rigid and slow to adapt to changes in global business.

“We would operate within (multilateral) frameworks if we were convinced that people would move quickly,” he said.

Ross and Lighthizer seemed like the odd men out at this week’s gathering at the OECD, an international economic agency that includes the U.S. as a prominent member.

The agency issued a report Wednesday saying “the threat of trade restrictions has begun to adversely affect confidence” and tariffs “would negatively influence investment and jobs.”
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A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday dismissed two lawsuits by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab that sought to overturn bans on the use of the security software maker’s products in U.S. government networks.

The company said it would seek to appeal the decision, which leaves in place prohibitions included in a funding bill passed by Congress and an order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The bans were issued last year in response to allegations by U.S. officials that the company’s software could enable Russian espionage and threaten national security.

“These actions were the product of unconstitutional agency and legislative processes and unfairly targeted the company without any meaningful fact finding,” Kaspersky said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington said Kaspersky had failed to show that Congress violated constitutional prohibitions on legislation that “determines guilt and inflicts punishment” without the protections of a judicial trial.

She also dismissed the effort to overturn the DHS ban for lack of standing. Kaspersky Lab and its founder, Eugene Kaspersky, have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said the company would not help any government with cyber espionage.

The company filed the lawsuits as part of a campaign to refute allegations that it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence, which had prompted the U.S. government bans on its products.

That effort includes plans to open a data center in Switzerland, where the company will analyze suspicious files uncovered on the computers of its tens of millions of customers in the United States and Europe.
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Spanish police on Wednesday briefly detained Bill Browder, a U.S.-born British financier and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who tweeted he had been arrested at the request of Russia.

A police spokeswoman said Browder was taken to a police station to check on the arrest warrant, but that authorities found that it had expired.

“Good news. Spanish National Police just released me after Interpol General Secretary in Lyon advised them not to honor the new Russian Interpol Red Notice,” Browder wrote on Twitter. “This is the 6th time that Russia has abused Interpol in my case.”

The Interpol press office told VOA, “There is not, and never has been, a Red Notice for Mr. Bill Browder,” and that he is “not wanted via Interpol channels.”

Interpol allows member countries to request what it calls a Red Notice, or international alert for a wanted person, and it is then up to local authorities to carry out any arrests.

Browder had earlier posted a message saying he had been arrested, along with a photo from inside a police car on the way to the station. He also posted a photo of what he said was his arrest warrant, but the page he showed only included details about the rights of a person arrested in Spain.

Browder said last year Russia had added him to the Interpol list five times, but that each time the agency had looked at the circumstances and lifted the notices after determining they were illegitimate.

In 2013, the Independent Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files investigated Russia’s use of the agency to seek information about Browder and determined the Russian activity “was predominantly political in nature” and went against Interpol’s rules. The agency responded by carrying out the commission’s recommendation that it delete all data related to Russian requests about Browder from its databases.

Browder, who ran one of the most successful investment funds in Russia before his expulsion in 2005 when his business was expropriated, lobbied hard for U.S. sanctions to be introduced after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was arrested and died in Russian custody. That resulted in Congress passing the Magnitsky Act, a measure enabling Washington to withhold visas and freeze financial assets of Russian officials thought to be corrupt or human rights abusers.
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Greece’s largest labor unions are staging a general strike against plans to extend austerity measures, in a 24-hour protest that halted ferry services to the islands, and disrupted flights, public transport and other services.

Wednesday’s strike also closed schools and left public hospitals running on emergency staff.

Government budget austerity measures are due to continue for at least two more years after the international bailout ends in August, starting with another major round of pension cuts next January. Hundreds of protesters gathered in central Athens as several protest marches are planned in the capital and other cities Wednesday.

“The government is continuing disastrous policies for society and the economy, forcing unsustainable measures onto the backs of wage-earners and retired people,” the country’s largest union, the GSEE, said.

“The constant deterioration in the living standards is part of a downward trend that people [in government] chose not to see.”

Greece is currently negotiating the terms of its bailout exit with European creditors, including how its finances will be monitored and the conditions of a promised debt relief package. But the talks, due to be concluded in a few weeks, have been overshadowed by the political crisis in Italy and the resulting financial turmoil.

Eurozone member Greece has relied on money from three consecutive bailouts since losing market access in 2010. The rescue funds have been provided by a eurozone bailout fund and the International Monetary Fund, though the IMF has held off on a cash contribution toward Greece latest program.

A new round of administrative and market reforms demanded by creditors is due to be voted on in parliament on June 14.

 
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France’s Interior Ministry announced plans on Tuesday to beef up its emergency alert system to the public across social media.

The ministry said in a statement that from June during immediate threats of danger, such as a terror attack, the ministry’s alerts will be given priority broadcast on Twitter, Facebook and Google as well as on French public transport and television.

The statement said that Twitter will give “special visibility” to the ministry’s alerts with a banner.

In a specific agreement, Facebook will also allow the French government to communicate to people directly via the social network’s “safety check” tool, created in 2014. 

The ministry said that this is the first time in Europe that Facebook has allowed public authorities to use this tool in this way.

This announcement comes as a much-derided attack alert app launched in 2016 called SAIP is being withdrawn after malfunctions. 
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The U.S. declared Tuesday that religious freedom is “under assault” across the globe.

“The state of religious freedom is dire,” said Sam Brownback, the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, as he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the agency’s annual report concluding that many countries throughout the world crack down on religious adherents and punish them harshly for their beliefs.

Even as the U.S. works toward a June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the State Department report singled out the reclusive communist nation for abuses against believers.

“The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests,” the report said. “An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions.”

Brownback said, “What we know is we got a gulag system operating in North Korea, and it’s been a terrible situation for many, many years. You can go on satellite — open source satellite — and see some of these camps and their situation. You have people that have gotten out and written about the situation in North Korea. We know it is very difficult and desperate, and particularly for people of faith, and that’s why North Korea has remained a country of particular concern for us.”

The report also condemned abuse of religious believers in China, Iran, Russia and other countries.

The State Department said Beijing “continued to exercise control over religion and restrict the activities and personal freedom of religious adherents when the government perceived these as threatening” the state or the ruling communist party. The report estimated that “hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims have been forcibly sent to re-education centers, and extensive and invasive security and surveillance practices have been instituted.”

Brownback said, “You know, that was a concept you thought was gone decades ago and (is) being experienced in growing amounts. The report cites a number of very, very troubling concerns and a decline in religious freedom” in China.”

In Iran, the report said the government continues to deal harshly with religious minorities, including executing or imprisoning those convicted of waging “war on God.”

The State Department said that in Russia, “Authorities continued to detain and fine members of minority religious groups and minority religious organizations for alleged extremism. In one case, there were reports that authorities tortured an individual in a pretrial detention facility. Authorities convicted and fined several individuals for ‘public speech offensive to religious believers.’”

In releasing the report, Pompeo said, “Advancing liberty and religious freedom advances America’s interests. Where fundamental freedoms of religion, expression, press and peaceful assembly are under attack, we find conflict, instability and terrorism. On the other hand, governments and societies that champion these freedoms are more secure, stable and peaceful. So, for all of the reasons, protecting and promoting global respect for religious freedom is a priority for the Trump administration.”

Pompeo said the State Department is convening a ministerial meeting July 25-26 to promote religious freedom, inviting foreign diplomats from “like-minded governments, as well as representatives of international organizations, religious community, and civil society to reaffirm our commitment to religious freedom as a universal human right.”

He said the gathering “will not be just a discussion group, it will be about action. We look forward to identifying concrete ways to push back against persecution and ensure greater respect for religious freedom for all.”

Brownback said, “The problems are great, but the opportunity for change is, too.”

 
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Federal prosecutors are investigating the shooting deaths of two police officers and a third person Tuesday in the eastern Belgian city of Liege in what police said was an attack carried out by a man who was on an anti-terrorist police watchlist.

The gunman repeatedly stabbed the officers, both women, before shooting them with their own handguns in the morning outside a cafe on a major thoroughfare. He then fled to a high school where he briefly took a hostage, officials said.

“Armed with a knife, the suspect followed and attacked two police officers and used their own firearms to kill them,” prosecutor Phlippe Dulieu said at a news conference.

Liege police chief Christian Beaupere said “the assassin’s objective was to attack the police” and added four police officers were also wounded.

A spokesman for the Liege prosecutors, Catherine Collignon, told AFP the third victim was a motorist who was driving in the area.

The shooter, who was killed by police, was released from prison on Monday, according to the Belgian broadcaster RTBF. The broadcaster said the suspect was known for committing minor infractions.

Lawmaker George Dallemagne confirmed the attacker was placed on the police watchlist after being radicalized in jail.

“The supervision of radicalized prisoners remains tragically flawed,” Dallemagne wrote on Twitter.

Belgium’s national crisis center, which placed the country on high alert after Islamic State attacks in Brussels and Paris in the past three years, did not raise its alert level Tuesday, an indication the attacker acted alone.

The shootings occurred as Belgium is on high alert after a series of attacks in the capital of Brussels over the past few years for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
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