It was a Friday in June, a short workday before a public holiday weekend in Ukraine, and cybersecurity expert Victor Zhora had left the capital, Kyiv, and was in the western city of Lviv when he got the first in a torrent of phone calls from frantic clients.

His clients’ networks were being crippled by ransomware known as Petya, a malicious software that locks up infected computers and data. But this ransomware was a variant of an older one and wasn’t designed to extort money — the goal of the virus’ designers was massive disruption to Ukraine’s economy.

“I decided not to switch on my computer and just used my phone and iPad as a precaution,” he said. “I didn’t want my laptop to be contaminated by the virus and to lose my data,” he said.

​Virus spread like wildfire

The Petya virus, targeting Microsoft Windows-based systems, spread like wildfire across Europe and, to a lesser extent, America, affecting hundreds of large and small firms in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain.

While many Europeans saw the June cyberattack as just another wild disruption caused by anonymous hackers, it was identified quickly by experts, like the 37-year-old Zhora, as another targeted assault on Ukraine. Most likely launched by Russia, it was timed to infect the country’s networks on the eve of Ukraine’s Constitution Day.

The cyberattack started through a software update for an accounting program that businesses use when working with Ukrainian government agencies, according to the head of Ukraine’s cyberpolice, Sergey Demedyuk. In an interview with VOA in his office in the western suburbs of Kyiv, Demedyuk said, “every year cyberattacks are growing in number.”

“Sometimes when targeting a particular government agency or official, they mount complex attacks, first using some disguising action, like a denial-of-service attack, and only then launch their main attack aiming, for example, at capturing data,” he said.

Ukraine’s 360-member cyberpolice department was formed in 2015. The department is stretched, having not only to investigate cybercrime by nonstate actors but also, along with a counterpart unit in the state security agency, defend the country from cyberattacks by state actors. Demedyuk admits it is a cat-and-mouse game searching for viruses and Trojan horses that might have been planted months ago.

​Cybersecurity summit

On Wednesday, the director of U.S. National Intelligence, Dan Coats, told a cybersecurity summit in Washington that digital threats are mounting against the West, and he singled out Russia as a major culprit, saying Moscow “has clearly assumed an ever more aggressive cyber posture.”

“We have not experienced — yet — a catastrophic attack. But I think everyone in this room is aware of the ever-growing threat to our national security,” Coats added.

And many of the digital weapons the West may face are being refined and developed by Russian-directed hackers in the cyberwar being waged against Ukraine, said Zhora and other cybersecurity experts.

“They are using Ukraine as a testing laboratory,” said Zhora, a director of InfoSafe, a cybersecurity company that advises private sector clients and Ukrainian government agencies.

​Eye of the digital storm

Since the 2014 ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine has been in the eye of a sustained and systematic digital storm of big and small cyberattacks with practically every sector of the country impacted, including media, finance, transportation, military, politics and energy. Sometimes, the intrusions are highly tailored; other times, more indiscriminate attacks like Petya are launched at Ukraine.

Russian officials deny they are waging cyber warfare against Ukraine. Zhora, like many cybersecurity experts, acknowledges it is difficult, if not impossible most times, to trace cyberattacks back to their source.

“Attribution is the most difficult thing. When you are dealing with professional hackers it is hard to track and to find real evidence of where it has come from,” he said. “But we know only one country is the likely culprit. We only really have one enemy that wants to destroy Ukrainian democracy and independence,” he added.

Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, has been less restrained in pointing the finger of blame. Last December, he said there had been 6,500 cyberattacks on 36 Ukrainian targets in the previous two months alone. Investigations, he said, point to the “direct or indirect involvement of [the] secret services of Russia, which have unleashed a cyberwar against our country.”

Ukraine’s cyberpolice head agrees. Demedyuk says his officers have been able to track attacks, especially denial-of-service intrusions, back to “Russian special services, tracking them to their own facilities and their own IP addresses.” But the original source of more complex intrusions, he said, are much harder to identify, with the hackers disguising themselves by using servers around the world, including in Asia and China.

​Digital weapons refined

Digital intrusions have seen data deleted and networks crippled with real life consequences. And digital weapons are being refined often with the knowledge gained from each intrusion.

Zhora cites as an example of this evolution the difference between two large cyberattacks on the country’s electricity grid, the first in December 2015 and the second at the end of last year, which cut off energy to hundreds of thousands of people for several hours.

With the first attack the hackers used malware to gain access to the networks and then shut the system down manually. 

“They sent an email and when someone opened it, the payload was downloaded and later it spread across the network and they used the path created for the hackers to get to the administrator’s work station and then in a live session switched off the subsystems overseeing electricity distribution,” he said.

But with the 2016 attack no live session was necessary.

“They used a malware which opened the doors automatically by decoding specific protocols and there was no human interaction. I think they got a lot of information in the first attack about the utility companies’ networks and they used the knowledge to write the malware for the second intrusion,” he said.

Digital threats to US

In his speech midweek in Washington, Coats specifically cited possible digital threats to America’s critical infrastructure, including electrical grids and other utilities, saying it is of rising concern. 

“It doesn’t take much effort to imagine the consequences of an attack that knocks out power in Boston in February or power in Phoenix in July,” he said.

After the second cyberattack on Ukraine’s electrical grid, a group of American government and private sector energy officials was dispatched to Kyiv, where they spent a month exploring what happened, according to Ukrainian officials.

One lesson the visitors drew was that it would be much harder in the U.S. to switch the grid back on after an intrusion. The Ukrainians were able to get the electricity moving again by visiting each substation and turning the system on again manually, an option apparently more challenging in the U.S., where grid systems are even more automated.

“Virtual attacks are every bit as dangerous as military ones — we are living on a battlefield,” Zhora said.
…

British police say they have made an arrest in connection with Friday’s rush-hour bomb attack on a London subway train.

Authorities say the 18-year-old man was arrested in the port area of Dover Saturday morning. Dover is a major ferry port for travel between Britain and France.  A police statement called the arrest “significant.”

Earlier Saturday London Transport authorities said they have re-opened the Parsons Green station where the bomb on a train partially detonated.

Images of the bomb posted on social media appear to show a bucket on fire that had been placed inside a plastic bag close to a railcar door.

Prime Minister Theresa May said after the attack that the country’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Center decided to raise the country’s threat level to critical, meaning that a further attack may be imminent.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the assault. The terrorist group, however, has a history of claiming responsibility for attacks the group may not be connected with.

Shortly after the attack, armed police descended into the Parsons Green station.

May said the public may see more armed police on the streets and the transport network. The prime minister also said members of the military will begin aiding police, providing security at some sites not accessible to the public.

The National Health Service said late Friday that 21 people who were in the subway car at the time of the explosion were being treated at hospitals, while eight other people had been discharged.

The blast was the fifth major terrorist attack in Britain this year.

WATCH: Police Manhunt Following Terror Attack on London Underground

President Trump weighs in

U.S. President Donald Trump called Prime Minister May on Friday to convey his sympathies, the office of the White House press secretary said in a statement.

The statement said President Trump “pledged to continue close collaboration with the United Kingdom to stop attacks worldwide targeting innocent civilians and to combat extremism.”

Earlier, the British prime minister admonished Trump for his initial reaction to the attack. Trump had tweeted, “Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!”

May responded to the tweet, telling the BBC, “I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation.”

​Police, intelligence agency work together

London police said their investigation into Friday’s attack is being supported by MI-5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson appealed for calm and said it was important not to speculate.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the British capital “will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism.”
…

A suicide car bombing of a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan has killed at least one Romanian soldier and has injured two more.

The Romanian Defense Ministry confirmed the casualties, and a local government spokesman told VOA that Friday’s attack occurred close to the airbase in Kandahar, the provincial capital.

Fazal Bari Biryali said the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed car into the foreign military convoy, which was on a routine patrol in the area.

A Taliban spokesman swiftly took credit for the blast, claiming it destroyed a military vehicle and killed seven “foreign invaders.” The insurgent group often makes casualty claims that later turn out to be untrue.

“We remind you [NATO] once again your soldiers will keep getting killed here and our sacred jihad will continue with the same vigor as long as you have a single soldier here,” a statement sent to reporters quoted Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who speaks for insurgent operations in southern Afghanistan.

NATO’s Resolute Support (RS) mission said in a statement: “A small number of RS service members were wounded today when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeted their patrol in Kandahar. The service members were taken to a medical facility at the Kandahar airfield for treatment.”

Taliban insurgents routinely have targeted Afghan security forces, but their attacks on foreign troops appear to have intensified since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his “new strategy” for Afghanistan aiming to break the military stalemate with the Taliban.

A suicide bomber earlier this week near the U.S.-run Bagram military airbase, north of Kabul, wounded several American soldiers.

Last week, a bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up near U.S. forces at an entrance to the facility and officials said it caused a “small number of casualties.”

 
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Turkey, Russia and Iran agreed Friday to a deal that will see the countries work together to police a de-escalation zone in Syria’s Idlib province for the next six months, according to a joint statement issued by the three countries following talks in Kazakhstan.

The three nations also agreed to set up a coordination center to monitor the implementation of other de-escalation zones around Syria during the latest round of peace talks in Astana.

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, observers from all three countries will be stationed at “control and observation” points within the de-escalation zones.

“The observer forces’ main task will be to prevent conflicts between the regime and the opposition and to monitor possible violations of the cease-fire,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

While the three nations agreed to set up the de-escalation zones, the details about how to enforce the safe zones are still being worked out, Russia’s representative at Syrian peace talks, Alexander Lavrentiev, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

He said the “mechanism and concrete locations [of a deployed force in Idlib] will be discussed,” according to RIA Novosti.

According to Lavrentyev, Turkey, Russia and Iran all will send about 500 observers to Idlib, with the Russian contingent consisting of military policemen.

Idlib, which borders Turkey, was captured in 2015 by an alliance of jihadists and rebels.

Representatives from both the Syrian government and the rebel groups attended the Astana talks.

 
…

At least 18 people were injured, many with burns, following a blast early Friday on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London. Police are treating the event as a terrorism incident.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged China to cut oil exports to North Korea to force Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear weapons program during his visit to London on Thursday.

Tillerson’s trip to Britain comes days after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea. He said he had hoped for stronger measures from the U.N., and urged Beijing to use its leverage.

“I am hopeful that China, as a great country, as a world power, will decide on their own and will take it upon themselves to use that very powerful tool of oil supply to persuade North Korea to reconsider its current path toward weapons development, reconsider its approach to dialogue and negotiations in the future,” he told reporters following meetings with his British and French counterparts.

Tillerson also had strong words for Iran, which he said was “clearly in default” of its expectations over the nuclear agreement. Britain supports the deal, but the United States accuses Tehran of breaching the terms.

“We must take into account the totality of Iranian threats — not just Iran’s nuclear capabilities, that is one piece of our posture toward Iran,” Tillerson told reporters.

Alongside his British hosts, Tillerson attended a summit on Libya with the country’s U.N. special representative, and delegations from France, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Egypt.

He said the United Nations has Washington’s full backing in seeking a political settlement.

“What we don’t want to see happen is Libya becoming a place to birth additional terrorist organizations, or provide opportunities for ISIS to re-emerge in a different part of the world. We are all committed to helping the Libyans find a Libyan solution that will lead to their future,” Tillerson said. ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expressed hope that elections could be held in Libya within a year.

“It’s very important, however, that you don’t do it too fast, and that you get the political groundwork done first. There has to be a constitution, there has to be an accepted basis for those elections to take place,” Johnson said.

Islamic State

There are growing fears, though, that the Islamic State terror group is making a comeback after being ousted in December from its stronghold city of Sirte, Libya.

Militias are exploiting the standoff between the internationally recognized Tripoli-based government and its rival administration in the east, said Riccardo Fabiani of the Eurasia Group.

“Those militiamen and jihadis that were part of the group were going to reform at some point somewhere, and to mount new attacks. So this is not something that is going to disappear overnight and will continue to be there as long as there is insecurity and instability in Libya,” Fabiani said.

Rohingya Muslims

Tillerson also was questioned on U.S. support for the Myanmar government in the wake of the attacks on ethnic Rohingya Muslims. He said the military should take the blame.

“This violence must stop. This persecution must stop. It’s been characterized by many as ethnic cleansing — that must stop,” Tillerson said. “And we need to support [Myanmar State Counselor] Aung San Suu Kyi and her leadership. But also be very clear and unequivocal to the military power-sharing government that this is unacceptable.”

In closing remarks, Tillerson said Britain faced challenges over Brexit, but reiterated that the United States would be a steadfast ally.

Analysts said Britain is keen to underline its ambitions of remaining a global player after its exit from the European Union. London sees its relationship with the United States as key to that goal.
…

The Catalonian government on Thursday launched its official campaign for an independence referendum, which Madrid has declared illegal, buoyed by the support of the capital Barcelona.

Crowds filled a bull ring in the northeastern city of Tarragona, applauding and shouting “We will vote!” as regional president Carles Puigdemont arrived to rally support for the October 1 vote.

In a boost for the credibility of the referendum, the mayor of Barcelona said earlier on Thursday that the vote would go ahead in the city, having previously expressed concern that civil servants involved may lose their jobs.

A town hall spokesman was unable to comment further or explain how civil servants could be protected.

Puigdemont himself is facing criminal charges of misuse of public money, disobedience and abuse of office for organizing the referendum, and prosecutors have summoned hundreds of the region’s mayors for questioning.

Police raided a newspaper office and a printing press last week, looking for signs of preparation, and the regional court has ordered Civil Guard agents to shut down web pages providing information about the referendum.

Regional home affairs councillor Joaquim Forn said there was a bigger than usual presence of national police in Catalonia.

“They are moving throughout the region. They must be looking for ballot boxes,” he told RAC1 radio.

A majority of Catalonia’s 5.5 million voters want to have their say on the northeastern region’s relationship with Spain, but the independence cause has lost support in recent years and surveys indicate less than 50 percent of the population would choose full self-rule.
…

In a Croatian port sits a boat built to carry bananas from Africa to Italy, that laid mines for Nazi Germany and was sunk by Allied planes before it was salvaged as the personal yacht of a globe-trotting communist leader.

Josip Broz Tito and the state he led – Yugoslavia – have long passed into history, and the boat, the Galeb (Seagull), was left to rust in a corner of Rijeka’s once mighty docks.

Now, with Rijeka readying to become European Capital of Culture in 2020, city authorities have secured European Union money to restore the 117-meter (384-feet) boat as a museum, just as debate in Croatia rages over the life and deeds of the man who graced the pink mattress in the front port-side cabin.

If the Galeb was a symbol of Tito’s prestige on the world stage – a communist leader welcome in ports West as well as East – its restoration is part of Croatia’s own tortured process of reconciliation with its 20th century history.

Villain to some, hero to others

To conservatives in Croatia, Tito – who was born in what is today Croatia to a Croat father and Slovene mother – was a totalitarian dictator: to look fondly on him means to be nostalgic for a shared federal state that denied Croats their own until they forged one in a 1991-95 war.

Liberals, however, recall his guerrilla fight against the Nazis and the relative freedom and prosperity of Yugoslavs compared to those who lived in the Soviet Union or in its shadow.

They see in the disdain of conservatives a thinly veiled fondness for the World War II Croatian state that collaborated with the Nazis but was snuffed out with Tito’s Partisan victory – sentiment that has gained a foothold in mainstream Croatian

politics in recent years.

It is a tug-of-war over history and identity that was encapsulated this month in the renaming by Zagreb’s city council of the capital’s Marshal Tito Square to Republic of Croatia square.

Days later, the government ordered the removal of a plaque near the site of a World War II concentration camp that bore a notorious slogan associated with the Nazi puppet regime in Croatia.

“We live in a time when history is being reinvented retroactively,” said Ivan Sarar, who as head of culture at Rijeka’s city council is in charge of its 2020 makeover.

“It’s interesting that just by undertaking this [restoration] we have already been declared revisionists,” he told Reuters.

‘Quasi-cultural exhibitionism’

After years of false-starts, work on restoring the Galeb is imminent – “a mammoth, multi-million-euro task to recreate the 1950s chic of Tito’s floating palace, host to over 100 heads of state and some of Hollywood’s finest.

Some of the furniture remains – in Tito’s cabin, his turquoise-tiled bathroom and the adjacent salon with doors that open to the deck. But the ship itself is little more than a rotting hull.

The Galeb was the stage for Tito’s major contribution to history, said Sarar, a showcase for the non-aligned movement he helped found in answer to the East-West polarization of the Cold War.

But Sarar stressed: “We won’t be soft on anyone.”

He noted Tito’s cosy ties with dictators around the world, the exodus of Italian residents of Rijeka when he took the city as part of Yugoslavia, and his denial of democracy during 35 years of one-man rule until his death in 1980. Yugoslavia fell apart in war a decade later and some 135,000 people were killed.

It was Tito’s seizure of Rijeka and the Istrian peninsula that cemented his status in this part of Croatia as a liberator.

Dozens of streets in Istria still bear his name, as do others in the Balkans – most notably in Serbia, once the dominant republic in Yugoslavia.

Conservatives, however, struck a blow with the renaming of Zagreb’s Marshal Tito Square, part of a deal struck by the mayor to secure his majority in the city assembly.

The man behind the initiative, leading right-wing politician Zlatko Hasanbegovic, told Reuters that while Tito was “undeniably a significant historical figure,” so were Napoleon, Stalin and Lenin.

“In all countries, streets and squares bear the names of those who embody the values with which the entire nation identifies itself,” he said, describing the restoration of the Galeb as part of an attempt to revive the cult of Tito.

“Those insisting on it should ask themselves how the tens of thousands of victims of Yugoslav communism look on that kind of quasi-cultural exhibitionism.”

In Rijeka, Sarar denied planning any kind of homage to Tito.

“We want to create a place for dialogue, away from the current situation of extreme black, white and red truths that lead nowhere,” he said. “It’s bound to be difficult.”
…

Migrant children, especially those who became separated from their parents, are at risk of abuse, exploitation and trafficking, according to a United Nations report. While discrimination against migrants who travel through the Mediterranean is widespread, children and young people are the most vulnerable. Findings by UNICEF and the International Organization for Migration show that children from sub-Saharan Africa are targeted for abuse more than any other group. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
…

Hollywood celebrities may have been the first to host a telethon to raise money for Hurricane Irma victims, but the idea is not theirs alone.

Dutch TV and radio stations also are banding together for an evening-long broadcast aimed at showing solidarity and gathering donations for victims on the island of St. Martin, Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. Henne Schuwer told VOA in an interview.

“We don’t have as many [radio and TV] stations as you have here in the United States,” so it’ll be easier to arrange, Schuwer said with a smile.

​A cherished exotic part of the whole

Asked how the Dutch people on the mainland feel about the disaster happening half a world away, Schuwer insists that his nation is firmly united with all its citizens.

“It’s part of our kingdom that has been hit, the smallest part, but it’s the Netherlands, the kingdom, that has been hit; they’re part of us.” The ambassador describes the island as “an exotic part of us” but one that the Dutch are happy to have.

The Caribbean island, divided between Dutch St. Martin and French St. Martin, is less than 64 square kilometers located roughly 241 kilometers southeast of Puerto Rico. The island got its name when Christopher Columbus spotted it in 1493 on the feast day of the eponymous Catholic saint.

An island that prides itself as a destination where one’s limits “are the sky in one direction and the bottom of the sea in the other” now finds itself struggling to survive.

​Daily crisis meeting

The Dutch government conducts a crisis meeting every day in The Hague, chaired by the prime minister, and the initial focus is on the basic necessities.

“Get the sewage system back working again, hopefully that can be done quite quickly; the drinking water system, that needs to be back on line again very, very quickly; luckily, that’s not as heavily damaged as could have been, as far as we can see,” Schuwer said.

Addressing health care issues, preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases and getting St. Martin’s hospital up and running again, are also high on the agenda.

Schuwer says reported looting on St. Martin is now under control.

“All looting is bad,” he said, but there’s a difference between taking a bottle of water from the store because one needs it, versus walking off with a television set for which he says “there’s no excuse, under any circumstances.”

An enhanced military presence, with a target number of around 550 total, is being deployed to St. Martin.

​Friend in need

Schuwer said his country is grateful for the help the United States immediately offered and almost just as immediately provided, after the hurricane hit the island.

“It was wonderful to see that in a moment like this, you’re here as an ambassador, and one of the first phone calls you get is from your colleague in the State Department, with a very simple message: If you need something, just ask.”

Schuwer credits close bilateral ties, including strong military cooperation, as having laid the foundation for the show of support in time of crisis. 

“The U.S. military also asked immediately: Can we help?” he said.

Schuwer said the U.S. has assets in the Caribbean which “we either don’t have or only have in smaller numbers,” such as military transport planes. He credits the Americans with helping clear the runway for the main airport on the island.

“We asked them for help on Saturday, on Sunday we got our reply and they were there, that was fantastic; they’re there now helping us with air traffic control,” he said, which is crucial as planes arrive to evacuate individuals with medical conditions, followed by tourists, and then local permanent residents.

Now the difficult part starts

Dutch authorities hope the majority of St. Martin’s permanent residents will decide to stay and begin rebuilding the island quickly, Schuwer said, but added: “If they want to get out, we cannot stop them, but we’ll talk to them, and say that this is your island, now the difficult part starts.’”

The ambassador said the Dutch government understands that tourism, the island’s main source of income, will probably be paralyzed for months, so it is considering incentives to encourage residents to stay on and rebuild.

King Willem-Alexander has visited the Dutch half of St. Martin and chose to stay there overnight to demonstrate his commitment and support for the rebuilding effort. Above all, the ambassador said, there is solidarity linking all Dutch people in other parts of the kingdom with the “Sint Maarteners.”

Schuwer said the message is: “You’re part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We are with you. You have suffered very badly; we will get you through the first few days and, more importantly, we will remain with you after the television cameras are gone.”

The Latin phrase Semper progrediens, always progressing, is St. Martin’s official motto. The island’s residents may have cause to recall that sentiment in the weeks and months ahead, as they weather the aftereffects from Hurricane Irma.
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The World Anti-Doping Agency has dismissed all but one of the first 96 Russian doping cases forwarded its way from sports federations acting on information that exposed cheating in the country.

The cases stem from an investigation by Richard McLaren, who was tasked with detailing evidence of a scheme to hide doping positives at the Sochi Olympics and beforehand.

The 95 dismissed cases, first reported by The New York Times , were described by WADA officials as not containing enough hard evidence to result in solid cases.

“It’s absolutely in line with the process, and frankly, it’s nothing unexpected,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli told The Associated Press on Wednesday at meetings of the International Olympic Committee. “The first ones were the quickest to be dealt with, because they’re the ones with the least evidence.”

McLaren uncovered 1,000 potential cases, however, and a WADA spokesperson told AP it is the agency’s understanding that sports federations are considering bringing some of them forward.

Tainted samples missing

Niggli cautioned that it will be difficult to pursue some cases, because the Russian scheme involved disposing of tainted samples, and the Russians were not cooperative with McLaren in turning over evidence.

“There are a thousand names, and for a number of them, the only thing McLaren’s got is a name on a list,” Niggli said. “If you can prosecute an athlete with a name on a list, perfect. But this is not the reality. There were thousands of samples destroyed in Moscow.”

The revelation of the 95 dropped cases comes with a deadline fast approaching to make a decision on Russia’s participation at next February’s Winter Olympics.

Two IOC committees that will decide the matter — one reviewing individual cases and another looking at the overall corruption in Russia — are due to deliver interim reports at the IOC meetings later this week.

270 Russian athletes cleared for Rio 

In resolving the case against Russia’s suspended anti-doping agency (RUSADA), WADA has insisted the agency, the country’s Olympic committee and its sports ministry “publically accept the outcomes of the McLaren Investigation.” Track’s governing body put similar conditions in place for the lifting of the track team’s suspension.

The IOC, however, has made no such move. More than 270 Russian athletes were cleared to compete in the Summer Games last year in Rio.

“The best we can do to protect clean athletes is to have a really good, solid anti-doping process in Russia,” said WADA president Craig Reedie, who is also a member of the IOC. “That’s our role and our priority. The rest of it, you have to go and ask the IOC.”

IOC president Thomas Bach said the committees are “working hard all the time.”

Russia blames WADA

Meanwhile, Russian officials are showing no signs of acknowledging they ran a state-sponsored doping program.

This week, the country’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, blamed RUSADA and the former head of the Russian anti-doping lab, Grigory Rodchenkov, for the corruption, and suggested WADA was at fault, too. Rodchenkov lives in hiding in the United States after revealing details of the plot.

“We are rearranging the system but it should be rearranged so that WADA could also share responsibility,” Mutko told Russia’s R-Sport news agency. “They should have been responsible for (Rodchenkov) before, as they have issued him a license and given him a work permit. They were in control of him but now the state is blamed for it.”
…

Baghdad’s central criminal court sentenced a Russian national to death by hanging for his membership in the Islamic State group, the court said in a statement.

The man was arrested as Iraqi forces pushed the extremist group out of Mosul’s western half, according to the statement released late Tuesday. The fight for Mosul’s west was the second phase of the operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from IS that was launched in October of last year and declared complete in July.

The individual was tried under Iraq’s anti-terrorism law and confessed to carrying out “terrorist operations” against Iraqi security forces since 2015, said Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, spokesman for Iraq’s supreme judicial council.

Earlier this week, Iraqi forces announced they were holding more than 1,300 foreign women and children from 14 countries at a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq. The individuals from 14 countries surrendered to Kurdish forces at the end of August after an Iraqi offensive drove the extremist group from the northern town of Tal Afar, near Mosul, Iraqi security officials said.

The women and children will not be charged with crimes and will likely be repatriated to their home countries, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

In 2016, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi attempted to fast-track death sentences as his government faced growing anti-government protests demanding reform.

However, he United Nations warned the move would likely result in “gross, irreversible miscarriages of justice… given the weaknesses of the Iraqi justice system,” according to a statement from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.

Rights groups criticize Iraq’s widespread use of the death penalty. In 2016, Iraq executed more than 88 people, topped only by Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, according to Amnesty international.

 
…

Facing a backlash in Europe over palm oil’s environmental toll, the world’s top producers are scrambling to find new markets and even striking unusual barter deals, such as exchanging Sukhoi jets for the edible oil.

The European Union is the second-largest palm oil export destination after India for both Malaysia and Indonesia, which dominate production in a global market worth at least $40 billion.

But palm has come under increasing fire in Europe over its impact on forest destruction, encouraging producers to look at new markets ranging from Africa to Myanmar.

Threatened by crumbling demand in Europe, the industry is waging a public relations battle and pushing producers to enter more price-sensitive markets, where Indonesia should have an advantage over Malaysia due to its lower production costs.

“Our principle is we will not let go of even one tonne of trade contract or potential demand palm has globally,” Indonesia’s deputy Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Musdhalifah Machmud told Reuters.

Machmud said palm oil sales were being brought up in “every trade negotiation” Indonesia conducts.

Palm oil is used in thousands of household products, from snack foods to soaps, as well as to make biodiesel. 

But the demand boom has spread plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia across an area of more than 17 million hectares — an area greater than the size of Portugal and Ireland. They are mostly carved out of rainforests, which critics say has lead to an increase in the greenhouse gases that warm the planet.

Environmental activists have pressured consumer companies into demanding that their palm suppliers adopt more environmentally sustainable forestry practices. But in Europe, politicians say the industry’s standards on sustainability do not go far enough.

So far, palm oil sales to the European Union have held up. 

Indonesian exports rose about 40 percent to 2.7 million tons in the first half of 2017 from a year earlier.

Indonesia’s overall palm exports were worth $18 billion last year, with EU sales accounting for 16 percent, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) said. For Malaysia, the EU made up nearly 13 percent of exports, government data showed.

‘Imported deforestation’ 

Europe is particularly concerned about the soaring use of oils, including palm, as a biodiesel fuel. Once regarded as a green alternative, an EU-commissioned report now says it creates more emissions than fossil fuels.

France said in July it will reduce the use of palm in biofuels over concerns of “imported deforestation”, prompting concerns from Indonesia that other European countries could follow suit.

In Germany, the environment ministry said it will press to amend an EU renewables directive to take account of the study showing “palm oil and soyoil caused, in comparison to other biofuels, very much higher greenhouse gas emissions per energy unit through indirect land use change.”

The European parliament In April voted to phase out unsustainable palm oil by 2020. The resolution endorsed a single Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) plan for Europe-bound palm and other vegetable oil exports to ensure they are produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

In addition to environmental damage, the industry has come under fire over frequent reports of land grabs, child labor and harsh working conditions. Some of the annual forest fires that send shrouds of smoke over parts of Southeast Asia have broken out on palm oil concessions that burn forests to clear land.

Indonesian Trade minister Enggartiasto Lukita in May warned his EU counterparts that he might ask Jakarta not to buy Airbus planes in retaliation, the Jakarta Post reported.

GAPKI Chairman Joko Supriyono told a United Nations sustainability meeting in New York last week that Indonesian palm oil plantation governance met international standards.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is looking at new palm oil markets in Africa offering barter trades with palm oil. Lukita told reporters on a visit to Nigeria he had proposed to swap palm oil for crude oil.

Indonesia signed a preliminary deal last month with Russia’s Rostec to exchange commodities, including palm, as part of a $1.14 billion payment for 11 Sukhoi jets.

Indonesia’s Vegetable Oil Association executive director Sahat Sinaga said palm oil producers will open a marketing and research company in Russia, aiming to increase exports of 920,000 tons in 2016 by 4-5 percent per year up to 2023.

The group is also planning to open a storage facility in Pakistan, which imports 1-2 million tons of palm from Indonesia a year, anticipating further growth in demand.

Malaysia more vulnerable

The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) says it will increase efforts to diversify into new markets such as Myanmar, the Philippines and West Africa regardless of the EU Resolution.

Malaysia’s plantation industries and commodities minister Mah Siew Keong said in June he met EU commissioners and members of parliament for talks. The ministry did not respond to a request for further comment.

Malaysia is more reliant on palm oil exports than Indonesia, shipping out more than 90 percent of its palm oil last year, compared to about 70 percent in Indonesia.

Production costs in Malaysia are also 10-15 percent higher than in Indonesia, analysts estimate.

“If EU doesn’t take up palm for biodiesel, demand for palm oil globally will fall and prices will be affected on the downside . . . which will impact everyone equally,” said Ivy Ng, regional head of plantations research at CIMB Investment Bank.
…

Tens of thousands of women who survived enslavement and rape during the 1992-95 Bosnian war are still being denied justice, according to a report from Amnesty International. A quarter of a century after the conflict began, rights activists say many of the survivors are living in poverty and have lost all hope the perpetrators will face trial. Henry Ridgwell reports.
…

Tens of thousands of women who survived enslavement and rape during the 1992-95 war in the Balkans are still being denied justice, according to a report from Amnesty International.

A quarter of a century after the conflict began, the human rights group says many of the survivors are living in poverty and have lost all hope the perpetrators will face trial.

More than 20,000 Bosnian women were subjected to rape and sexual violence during the Balkan war, mostly by Serbian military or paramilitary groups.  Many were held captive for months or years in so-called “rape camps,” tortured, and forcibly impregnated.

“The Bosnian authorities have failed to provide justice and reparations for the utmost majority of them.  Only about 800 women are receiving a pension as civilian victims of war.  And only about 120 perpetrators have been brought to justice,” says Todor Gartos of Amnesty.

Official designation as a “civilian victim of war” allows survivors access to a range of state services.

But under the 1995 Dayton Agreement that brought an end to the conflict, Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.  

“This means that women survivors who may be in one part of the country do not have access to this status,” says Gartos.  “Consequently they don’t receive any of the services provided by the state. Other women had their statuses not granted because they couldn’t demonstrate that the violence, that the rape committed against them had caused long term sustained trauma and injuries to them.”

Since war crimes trials began in Bosnia in 2004, Amnesty reports less than one percent of the total number of rape victims have had their cases heard in court.  Amnesty’s Gartos says the prosecution system has improved, but there are still huge obstacles.

“That included the lack of witness protection, women being exposed to perpetrators living in the same communities or perpetrators being protected because of their social status, so for example war generals or war veterans were less likely to be prosecuted.”

Amnesty says that has discouraged survivors from coming forward, undermining confidence in the prosecution system and generating an “overwhelming sense of impunity.”  Many survivors say they doubt they will live long enough to see justice.
…

A joint study by the U.N. Children’s Fund and International Organization for Migration says up to three-quarters of refugee and migrant children and young people trying to reach Europe are abused, exploited and subject to trafficking.

The study, based on 20,000 interviews, 11,000 with refugee and migrant children, describes in detail the appalling levels of human rights abuses to which people on the move are subjected.

It finds children and young people traveling on the central Mediterranean route are at a particularly high risk of exploitation and trafficking. U.N. Children’s Fund spokeswoman Sarah Crowe told VOA those moving along this route are mainly young Africans traveling across the Sahara from the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Nigeria, or other West African countries.

“We also see from this report that the children who have less education and who are coming from sub-Saharan Africa have got a greater risk of being exploited, beaten and discriminated against at every step of the way, but specifically in Libya,” Crowe said.

The report says most of the migrants and refugees passing through Libya are exposed to lawlessness, militias and criminality. A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Leonard Doyle, said the young people, ages 14 to 24, pay smugglers between $1,000 and $5,000 for their perilous journey.

“People willingly go there. They pay for the journey. But, they do not realize that they are stepping into a trap where they become exploited. Horribly so. Women get put into the sex trade or sold as slaves. Boys are hugely abused.”  

The report is calling for the establishment of more regular, safe pathways for children on the move.  It says services should be strengthened to protect migrant and refugee children whether in countries of origin, transit or destination.

The study adds children on the move should not be held in detention and that other, less abusive alternatives, must be found.
…

Sweden’s leading photographers are launching a new exhibit and publishing a book in response to President Donald Trump’s criticism of the country’s immigration policies.

During a rally in Florida in February, Trump said that terrorism was growing in Europe, and “look what’s happening last night in Sweden.” But the comment baffled many Swedes because there had been no extraordinary trouble that night in Sweden, a country welcoming to immigrants. Trump later tweeted more comments attacking Sweden’s immigration protocols.

Publisher Max Strom commissioned “Last night in Sweden” in an effort to present a more diverse and multi-faceted portrait of the country.

“We felt we had to react because we didn’t recognize Sweden at all in his words,” photographer and publisher Jeppe Wikstrom told The Associated Press before the opening of the exhibition.

The photos, all taken after 6 p.m. in the spring, present a diverse portrait of Sweden, from an elderly couple in their sauna to a group of scouts from Syria practicing music.

The crowdfunded book hits the shelves on Tuesday, with the first copy sent to the White House and the next ones to all members of U.S. Congress.

“Last night in Sweden” doesn’t shy away from complicated truths, and the book’s foreword acknowledges that following an extremist attack in Stockholm in April, it’s “hard to claim that ‘nothing happened last night in Sweden.'”

But those involved in the project hope to present a nuanced portrait of the country that transcends social statuses as well as political, social and cultural divides.

“When I see this exhibition and this book, I feel very proud of being Swedish,” said Anna Claren, the head of the Nordic School of Photography, who worked on selecting the photos for the book. “There are a lot of different people of course, but there is so much warmth around and among people.”

 
…

A day after forcing his way past border guards back into Ukraine, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he would unite the opposition against his former ally President Petro Poroshenko and planned to campaign for support.

Saakashvili wants to unseat Poroshenko at the next election, accusing the president of reneging on promises to root out corruption and carry out reforms made during the 2014 Maidan protests, which ousted a pro-Kremlin leader.

At present it seems unlikely that Saakashvili, who studied in Ukraine and speaks fluent Ukrainian, will come to power. His Ukrainian citizenship, bestowed by Poroshenko when he made him governor of Odessa in 2015, has been withdrawn, and polls show little support for his party, the Movement of New Forces.

“I am fighting against rampant corruption, against the fact that oligarchs are in full control of Ukraine again, against the fact that Maidan has been betrayed,” Saakashvili said at a press conference in the city of Lviv.

Saakashvili divides opinion. Supporters see him as a fearless crusader against corruption but critics say there is little substance behind his blustery rhetoric.

Back home in Georgia, his time in office was tarnished by what critics said was his monopolizing power and exerting pressure on the judiciary. He was president at the time of a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008, a conflict that his critics argued was the result of his own miscalculations.

Saakashvili says he does not covet the presidency himself and wants to promote a new, younger politician to the post. But while perhaps not a threat as a direct rival, Saakashvili could prove to be an effective weapon against Poroshenko for powerful opposition figures like Yulia Tymoshenko, who was with him at the border on Sunday.

Poroshenko trails in the polls behind Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and leader of one of Ukraine’s largest opposition parties.

“This is a marriage of convenience between Tymoshenko and Saakashvili, but the parties have different interests,” said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. “She tries to use this situation with the hope that this will provoke a political crisis in Ukraine and lead to early elections.”

Border Violation

Saakashvili’s relationship with Poroshenko dates back nearly three decades to when they were students at the same university in Kyiv and their shared opposition to the Kremlin later brought them together as politicians.

But a bitter spat erupted in November 2016, a year after Poroshenko invited Saakashvili to be the governor of the region of Odessa to help drive reforms. The latter quit, accusing Poroshenko of abetting corruption and turned into one of his loudest critics.

Meanwhile Poroshenko’s office said Saakashvili had failed to deliver change as governor and said his Ukrainian citizenship was withdrawn because he allegedly put false information on his registration form. Saakashvili says the decision was politically motivated. It left him effectively stateless as Georgia has also withdrawn his citizenship.

On Sunday evening Saakashvili and his supporters forced their way past a cordon of border guards to return to Ukraine from Poland.

“It does not matter who violates the state border – invaders in the East or politicians in the West. There always must be legal responsibility,” Poroshenko said in televised remarks on Monday.

The president said Saakashvili should have used Ukrainian courts to challenge the revocation.

“Now this is a matter of law enforcement agencies and they have begun to act,” Poroshenko said.

Saakashvili said he would travel to all regions of Ukraine to unite “different political forces around a common theme that we must have a democracy and we should not let oligarchs hold sway.”

Ukraine’s record of implementing reforms has been patchy since Poroshenko took office in 2014.

Reformist lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem, one of the faces of the Maidan protests and a member of Poroshenko’s faction in parliament, traveled with Saakashvili on Sunday and accused the Kiev authorities of trying to silence opponents.

“We didn’t want this country when we stayed on Maidan,” he told reporters. “We wanted a country in which opponents, political opponents, have a right to say what they want.”

Saakashvili may yet face arrest. Police have launched a criminal investigation into Sunday’s incident, while General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko said those who crossed the border illegally would be prosecuted.

Kyiv could leave Saakashvili alone, arrest him and possibly extradite him to Georgia.

Saakashvili took power in Georgia after a peaceful uprising, known as the Rose Revolution, in 2003. The 49-year-old is now wanted on criminal charges in Georgia, which he says were trumped up for political reasons.
…

Norway’s tax-cutting Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg declared victory on Tuesday after a parliamentary election, narrowly defeating a Labour-led opposition with her promises of steady management of the oil-dependent economy.

The win is historic for Solberg, whose supporters compare her firm management style to that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, because no Conservative-led government has retained power in an election in Norway since 1985.

“It looks like a clear victory,” for the center-right, a beaming Solberg told cheering supporters in Oslo just after midnight (2200 GMT), following Monday’s voting.

“Our solutions have worked. We have created jobs,” she said, but warned, “We have some challenges ahead. … Oil revenues are going to be lower. We all must take responsibility.”

The ruling minority coalition of her Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, together with two small center-right allies, was set to win a slim majority with 88 seats in the 169-seat parliament, according to an official projection with over 90 percent of the votes counted.

Opposition Labour leader Jonas Gahr Stoere told supporters that it looked like his party, the main force in Norwegian politics in the 20th century, had fallen short.

“It’s a big disappointment,” he said.

Solberg, 56, plans more tax cuts as a way to stimulate growth for Norway’s top oil and gas producer. Stoere favors tax increases to improve public services such as education and healthcare for Norway’s 5 million citizens.

The oil industry could be affected by the vote, because Solberg will need support from two green-minded, center-right allies to ensure a majority to pass legislation in parliament.

The allies include the Liberals, who want to limit exploration in Arctic waters. Solberg’s Conservative Party was set to lose three seats to 45 in parliament, making her more dependent on outsiders’ help.

That means it may be more difficult to have a stable government.

“They [The Liberals and the Christian Democrats] will support Solberg as prime minister, but the question is whether they get a firm agreement or if there is cooperation on a case-by-case basis,” said Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, a professor in comparative politics at the University of Bergen.

“Then it may be a weaker government,” she told Reuters.

The Norwegian currency, the crown, strengthened slightly following the first projections after weakening sharply earlier in the day on weaker-than-expected inflation data.

For much of the year, Labour and its allies were favored by pollsters to win a clear victory, but support for the government has risen as the economy gradually recovered from a slump in the price of crude oil, Norway’s top export.

Unemployment, which a year ago hit a 20-year high of 5 percent, has since declined to 4.3 percent, while consumer confidence is at a 10-year high.

Solberg has won credit for the upturn with a no-nonsense style of management. Norway’s economy also has the cushion of a sovereign wealth fund worth almost $1 trillion, the world’s biggest, built on income from offshore oil and gas.

“Regardless of which government we get, the challenge will be to use less oil money,” said Erik Bruce, chief analyst at Nordea Markets. “There is broad consensus about the outlook for the sovereign wealth fund and the Norwegian economy, which means a tighter fiscal policy.”

The sovereign wealth fund has wanted to invest in unlisted infrastructure to boost its return on investment. Finance Minister Siv Jensen has twice said no to the request over the past two years, citing political risk.

That stance is unlikely to change now that the government has been re-elected.

Labour

Labour was set to remain the biggest party in Norway, with 49 seats, just ahead of the Conservatives.

Stoere, who sometimes compares himself to French President Emmanuel Macron, took over the leadership of the Labour Party from Jens Stoltenberg, who left Norwegian politics to become NATO’s secretary-general.

Solberg’s coalition partner, the populist Progress Party, has sharply limited immigration to Norway in what Stoere says is a betrayal of Norwegian values.

“We have done our share of the job. We have delivered,” Finance Minister Siv Jensen, leader of the Progress Party, told party supporters as they chanted “four more years.”

Norway’s problems are small by the standards of most nations.

Apart from its sovereign wealth fund, Norway tops U.N. lists of the best country in which to live, based on issues such as personal earnings and education. It even rose to first, from fourth, in a 2017 survey that ranked nations by happiness.
…

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has urged the United States to start finding a way to resolve the problems between the two countries.

“We called for a stop to the destruction of Russia-U.S. relations and … to start finding solutions to resolve problems that are mounting through no fault of ours,” said a Russian Foreign Ministry statement after Ryabkov met with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon in Helsinki, Finland.

Shannon arrived in Finland earlier Monday for the talks aimed at calming tensions, between Washington and Moscow, which have been mounting for months.

Shannon is the State Department’s third-ranking official and met earlier this year with Ryabkov to discuss numerous obstacles in the bilateral relationship.

Mounting tensions

Tensions between the Untied States and Russia have been especially high since allegations emerged that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. Congress passed sanctions against Moscow in July for its alleged meddling and U.S. President Donald Trump, unwilling to risk having lawmakers override a veto, signed the legislation, but blamed Congress for creating new tensions with Moscow.

Trump, who has sought closer relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the legislation as “significantly flawed,” with “clearly unconstitutional provisions” that limited his right to conduct foreign affairs as he sees fit.

Putin retaliated to the new law by closing a U.S. recreational site and a warehouse and ordering the United States to cut 755 diplomats and staff workers, many of them Russians, from its embassy and consulates in Russia.

Trump has been largely dismissive of numerous investigations in Washington into the Russian meddling and accusations that his aides colluded with Moscow, calling them a “witch hunt” and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over his Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Numerous congressional investigations are under way, as is a criminal probe being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Tragic relationship

Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012-2014, told VOA’s Russian service that the current state of the U.S.-Russia relationship is a “tragedy.”

“It (the US-Russia relationship) is in a bad place. I think you have to go deep into the Cold War to have a comparable time, when things were so confrontational. I personally think it is tragic.”

He laid much of the blame for the poor relationship with Putin.

“I don’t think it was inevitable, it didn’t have to go this way, but I also think it is largely in response to policies that president Putin did. It takes two to tango to make a good relationship work.”

McFaul cited Putin’s efforts to annex Crimea and his support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as actions that have put him at odds with the United States and said, “Until he adjusts his policy, we will be in a rather difficult bilateral relationship.”

“Right now, at least in the last couple of years, he (Putin) has done some very dramatic things that have been against the rules of the international system — things like annexation, things like intervention in Syria,” he said.

McFaul described the new Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, whom he knows personally, as a tough negotiator. McFaul expressed hope that beyond having friendly and warm communication with President Trump, the new Russian ambassador will also reach out to members of the U.S. Congress, the media and the U.S. civil society.

McFaul stressed that despite tensions between the United States and Russia, the two countries need to collaborate on an array of issues, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Yulia Savchenko contributed to this report.
…

The introduction of post-Brexit customs checks could cost traders more than 4 billion pounds ($5.28 billion) a year, according to a think tank report released on Monday.

The British government has said it plans to leave the European Union’s customs union when it leaves the bloc, and it wants to negotiate a new relationship that will ensure trade is as free of friction as possible.

In its report ‘Implementing Brexit: Customs’, the Institute for Government said the government needed to offer as much certainty as possible to business and help them plan for changes to customs.

Around 180,000 traders now operate only within the EU and face making customs declarations for the first time after Brexit. The government estimates an extra 200 million declarations a year will be made.

Those declarations cost 20 to 45 pounds each, the IfG said, putting the total additional cost at 4 billion to 9 billion pounds.

“The scale and cost of change for many traders could be significant. Government must engage with them in detail about changes, understanding their requirements and giving them as much time to adapt as possible,” the report said.

The government has proposed two options for the future customs relationship. One is a system using technology to make the process as smooth as possible; the second a new customs partnership removing the need for a customs border. It wants a transition period after Britain leaves in March 2019 to allow time to adapt.

However, the EU says negotiating the customs relationship must wait until the two sides have made make progress on the rights of expatriates, Britain’s border with EU member Ireland and a financial settlement.

“To be in and out of the customs union and ‘invisible borders’ is a fantasy,” Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s coordinator for Brexit, said on Twitter after the British government floated its proposals. “First need to secure citizens rights and a financial settlement”.

Moving customs requirements away from the physical border, retaining access to key EU computer systems and setting up working groups with the private sector on implementing changes are among the report’s suggestions for smoothing the process.

To avoid a cliff-edge, the government must make sure everyone from port operators to freight companies and local authorities is ready, the IfG said. It should also work with EU partners to ensure issues at European ports do not cause significant disruption to supply chains.

“In the past they have been given years to adapt to any government change; they now have fewer than 20 months to prepare without yet being clear what they are preparing for,” the report said. “Successful change relies on all these organizations being ready.”
…

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and later a Ukrainian citizen, crossed from Poland into Ukraine in a crowd of his supporters Sunday.

Saakashvili has been stateless since his former mentor, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship two months ago. He is wanted in Georgia on charges related to his political career there, and Tbilisi has asked the Kyiv government to extradite him, but it is not clear whether the request will be honored.

Saakashvili said he wanted to return to Ukraine to contest Poroshenko’s action stripping him of his citizenship while he was out of the country. Ukrainian authorities in the border region tried to block Saakashvili’s return – first by train, then by bus – but then he walked across the Ukrainian border at Shehyni in the midst of a crowd of his supporters.

The Ukrainian border service said in a Facebook post that the crowd broke through a checkpoint and that fighting broke out when guards tried to block Saakashvili’s supporters. Those who accompanied the former Georgia leader included former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Courtesy – RFE/RL

Also with Saakashvili was Mustafa Nayyem, who was active in protests in Ukraine in 2013-14 that drove then pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, out of the country. Saakashvili was a strong supporter of those protests and later was a staunch ally of Poroshenko, but more recently he has opposed the current administration in Kyiv, accusing Poroshenko and others of contributing to widespread corruption.

Later Sunday in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, about 80 kilometers from the Polish border, Saakashvili said the border crossing took place “according to all legal procedures,” and promised to defend anyone who accompanied him from threatened criminal charges. Government officials at the border said 17 police and guards were injured during the confrontation with Saakashvili’s supporters.

After leaving Georgia, where he led the Rose Revolution in 2003 that toppled then president Eduard Shevardnadze, Saakashvili wound up in Ukraine, where President Poroshenko appointed him governor of the Odessa Oblast (region) in May 2015. He served for 18 months before the political split with Poroshenko that led to his present circumstances. He has been known as a pro-Western, pro-NATO political leader in both Georgia and Ukraine.

Georgia has pursued Saakashvili on criminal charges of abuse of power and misappropriation of property. The former Georgian president, who left office after two terms, contends those claims are politically motivated. He forfeited his Georgian citizenship when he accepted Poroshenko’s welcome to Ukraine and the post as Odessa governor two years ago.
…

Norwegians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election whose outcome is too close to call, with opinion polls showing Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s centre-right government and the opposition center-left bloc running neck and neck.

Solberg’s Conservatives want to cut taxes if they win a fresh four-year mandate, while the centre-left led by Labor’s Jonas Gahr Stoere seeks tax hikes to fund better public services.

The outcome could also impact Norway’s vital oil industry because to form a government either Solberg or Gahr Stoere is likely to depend on one or more parties that seek to impose limits on exploration in Arctic waters off Norway’s northern coast.

Polling stretches over two days, ending at 1900 GMT on Monday.

“I don’t want to change the current government. For me the most important is the tax reform policies,” said Kjell Solli, 47, a real estate agent who cast his ballot for the right-wing Progress Party, a junior member of Solberg’s coalition.

Economy recovering

For much of the year, Labor and its center-left allies were ahead in the polls and were favored to win a comfortable victory, but support for the government has risen as the economy has gradually recovered from a two-year slump.

Opinion polls in September on average have given Solberg’s four-party bloc 85 seats in the 169-member parliament, just enough for a majority, while Labor and the center-left are expected to secure 84 seats.

Erik Mathiassen, 61, a senior adviser at the Oslo city council, said he hoped Gahr Stoere would manage to oust Solberg.

“The most important for me is education policies matter most for me. I want more extensive policy from the government to support the unemployed… I don’t want the current government to stay in power,” he told Reuters.

Gahr Stoere, who comes from a wealthy background, has vowed to raise taxes on Norwegians on above-average incomes.

Casting his ballot in a quiet neighborhood of western Oslo, the Labor leader expressed confidence his party could stage a late rally to clinch the election.

“We have to keep the qualities of Norway at its best — equity, work for all, good investment in health and education so that we remain a strong team,” Gahr Stoere told reporters.

“What is Norway at its best? It’s when we pull together… We need a change now because we are growing apart from each other and that is not how Norway can perform at its best.”

Solberg is expected to cast her ballot on Monday.

The election winner will face tricky coalition negotiations and will have to meet tough demands from smaller parties to keep their support over the next four years.

The independent Greens want to end all oil exploration, citing concerns over climate change and pollution, while other smaller parties that may be involved in coalition talks also want to limit the award of new exploration acreage in Arctic waters.

The oil and gas industry accounts for almost half of Norway’s export revenues.
…

U.S. and Russian envoys are to meet in Finland next week in a bid to calm diplomatic tensions that have risen to levels of the Cold War.

The State Department’s third-ranking official, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, will meet Monday and Tuesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Shannon and Ryabkov have held several rounds of talks this year focused on resolving irritants in U.S.-Russian relations, such as the tit-for-tat closures of diplomatic missions and expulsion of diplomats. They’re expected to address broader strategic relations and arms control as well.

On August 31, in response to an order from Moscow to reduce the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia by several hundred people, the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and two annexes in Washington and New York. Those actions followed the U.S. seizure of two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York and the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who are expected to meet this month in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, charged Shannon and Ryabkov earlier this year with exploring ways to resolve bilateral disputes that are hindering broader cooperation on strategic and security issues, such as the war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine.

Among the top complaints from Washington: the harassment of American government personnel in Russia, a Russian ban on adoptions of children by U.S. families, and Moscow’s halting of plans to construct a new U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. Russia’s complaints include U.S. sanctions imposed after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and the seizure of its properties.

Two earlier rounds of talks between Shannon and Ryabkov ended inconclusively.

The State Department announced the new talks Saturday and said Shannon would also meet Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and other Finnish officials while in Helsinki.
…

A Spanish judge ordered police to search a printer’s shop and two offices of a regional newspaper in Catalonia as part of an investigation into alleged preparations for an illegal referendum on independence for the prosperous northeastern region.

A Barcelona-based court said Saturday that the police searches took place Friday in Valls and Constanti in southern Catalonia. The court said the searches formed part of an investigation into possible disobedience, prevarication and the embezzlement of public funds by Catalan officials.

The regional Catalan newspaper El Vallenc reported that “4 agents of the Civil Guard entered our newspaper.”

El Vallenc said, “The search took place hours after they had searched the Indugraf business.” Indugraf is a printer in Constanti.

Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, the regional politician leading the push for independence, said on Twitter that police weren’t “looking for ballots, they were looking for a fight.”

The court did not say what police were looking for in the searches.

Spain’s constitutional court has suspended laws passed by the Catalan parliament this week to call for an independence referendum on October 1. State prosecutors have also targeted Puigdemont and other members of his government with lawsuits for possible disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement charges.

The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia says the vote will be binding and says if the “yes” side wins it will lead to the independence from Spain by October 3 no matter what the turnout.

Spain’s constitutional court has previously ruled that only the national government is allowed to call a referendum on secession and that all Spaniards in the country must have a vote when it comes to sovereignty.
…

The Dalai Lama on Sunday will begin a 20-day tour of Europe, where he will give public teachings on Buddhism and also meet with scientists.

The Tibetan spiritual leader arrived Friday in New Delhi, India, from which he will depart for his four-nation tour. Calling it an educational visit, he said he was looking forward to the trip, especially to a meeting with scientists in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I am looking forward to the Frankfurt’s meeting. [I will be] meeting with some scientists, and also there will be some kind of commemoration [of the] late Von Weizsacker,” the Dalai Lama told Reuters. Carl von Weizsacker was a quantum physics teacher to the Dalai Lama, who has long shown an interest in modern science.

The Dalai Lama will first travel to Britain, where he will give a public talk on compassion. From there, he will travel to Frankfurt for a conference on the intersection between Buddhist teachings and modern science. While in Frankfurt, the Dalai Lama will also give a talk on ethics.

The spiritual leader will also attend a symposium on science while on the next leg of his trip in Italy. He will wrap up his European tour in Latvia.

Messenger of ancient thought

The Dalai Lama said his talks come from the ancient Indian wisdom of his teachers.

“I carry wherever I go the ancient Indian thought, Indian knowledge. So I just look at myself as a messenger of ancient Indian thought,” he said.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed Chinese uprising. China denounces him as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama denies this and says he is seeking autonomy for Tibetans.
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Turkey cautioned its citizens on Saturday to take care when traveling to Germany, citing what it said was an upswing in anti-Turkish sentiment ahead of a German national election later this month.

The advisory is likely to further exacerbate tensions between the two NATO allies, whose ties have soured following last year’s failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his subsequent crackdown on alleged coup supporters.

“The political leadership campaigns in Germany are based on anti-Turkey sentiment and preventing our country’s EU membership. The political atmosphere … has actually been under the effects of far-right and even racist rhetoric for some time,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Last weekend German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a televised election debate that she would seek an end to Turkey’s membership talks with the European Union, in an apparent shift of her position that infuriated Ankara.

Merkel, whose conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) have long been skeptical about Turkey’s EU ambitions, is expected to win a fourth term in office in Germany’s September 24 election.

“Turkish citizens who live in, or who plan to travel to, Germany should be cautious and act prudently in cases of possible incidents, behavior or verbal assaults of xenophobia and racism,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The advisory marks a reversal of roles. Earlier this year Germany warned its own citizens travelling to Turkey about increased tensions and protests ahead of a Turkish referendum on April 16 which considerably expanded Erdogan’s powers.

Merkel and other EU leaders have strongly criticized Erdogan’s actions since the failed coup, saying his purges of Turkey’s state institutions and armed forces amount to a deliberate attempt to stifle criticism.

More than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000 suspended in the crackdown, including journalists and opposition figures. Some German nationals have also been targeted.

Turkey says the purges are necessary given the extent of the security threat it faces.
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The U.N. refugee agency warns overcrowding and deteriorating conditions on Greece’s eastern Aegean islands are causing serious distress among refugees, leading to self-harm and riots in protest.

UNHCR reports that refugees from Syria, Iraq and other destitute and conflict-ridden countries are arriving on Greece’s islands faster than the government can transfer them to the mainland for processing.

In August, it notes, nearly 3,700 people arrived by sea – nearly 1,500 more than in July. UNHCR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly says living conditions are particularly bad for refugees on the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Leros and Chios.

“Many of the people have been staying on the islands for months, and the conditions have affected their physical and mental health. The threat of violence, self-harm and sexual assault is extremely worrying and more security is needed,” Pouilly said.

The agency reports facilities on the islands are seriously overcrowded, and people who lack accommodations are forced to live in containers and tents. Pouilly says on the island of Samos, more than 1,900 people remain crammed into an area intended for 700.

Among them, she says, are more than 600 children, as well as pregnant women, serious medical cases and people with disabilities.

“We are concerned at the growing risks to their health and welfare, due to water shortages and poor hygienic conditions, and we have been providing assistance, such as blankets, mats, sleeping bags and so on. On Lesbos, tensions remain high at the Moria center, which has been twice rocked by riots in recent weeks,” Pouilly said.

The UNHCR is calling for robust action to improve conditions in reception facilities on the islands. It says additional national staff is needed to provide health, psychosocial support and protection of unaccompanied children.
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Emergency services in southern Spain say they are fighting a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of 400 residents from seven towns in the province of Seville.

Authorities said Saturday that the evacuations had taken place mostly overnight because of the smoke produced by the blaze, which broke out Friday. About 120 people have been given shelter in a public library, sports center and school.

More than 130 firefighters are combating flames that they say have reached 20 meters (65 feet) in height across a front stretching 20 kilometers (more than 12 miles).

Authorities have yet to say how much land has been burned.
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A Georgian citizen was reported to have died Friday in a car explosion in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said an explosive device went off inside a black Toyota Camry during rush-hour traffic.

Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said the victim was identified as Timur Makhauri. Shevchenko said Makhauri’s wife was seriously injured in the blast and was hospitalized.

Shevchenko told reporters a child was in the car with the couple. He said the child’s life was not in danger.

Police were investigating. Interfax Ukraine reported that a murder case had been opened.

Interfax quoted Shevchenko as saying Makhauri was “known quite well in the criminal world” and “had firm connections with various Chechen circles.” He said Makhauri had been targeted for the attack.
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