Talks begin this week on Britain’s exit from the European Union, which will leave the bloc with only one heavyweight military power — France. EU moves towards a common defense policy have raised fears in Britain that it could be frozen out of future security arrangements.

Europe’s security is at a turning point. Threatened by Russian aggression in Ukraine and Islamist militancy on its southern and eastern borders, the bloc is about to lose one its major military powers. Edward Lucas of The Economist.

“After Brexit, France becomes the most important military power in continental Europe. And I think that European security arrangements will have to reflect that,” he said.

Currently 4,000 French troops are fighting Islamist militancy in North Africa.

President Emmanuel Macron wants EU allies to do more.

Speaking on a trip to visit French forces in Mali last month, he said he wanted to strengthen European partnerships, in particular with Germany, and ensure the German engagement intensifies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want European security tied to a Franco-German military alliance, says Lucas.

“Because she is very keen to keep America fully involved in the defense of Europe,” he said.

The European Union is establishing a command center and $560 million defense fund, part of an emerging common defense policy. EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini says it will compliment existing military structures.

“We are not suggesting in any way to substitute duplicate or compete with NATO. This has to be clear,” she said.

NATO has deployed several thousand troops in Eastern Europe to deter Russia. The European Union is no substitute, says Michael Wolffsohn of the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich, who spoke to VOA via Skype.

“Most of the continental European armies are simply unprepared for any military intervention with the possible exception of the French armed forces. But the Bundeswehr [German armed forces] is completely overloaded, underfinanced and under-equipped,” he said.

Britain has long objected to an EU military force . But as Brexit talks begin, closer military integration is already underway, and France is taking the lead.
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TEASER: Britain’s calls north London attack on act of terrorism in bid to quell tensions.
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More than 1,000 firefighters were still battling Portugal’s deadliest forest blaze on Monday after it killed dozens over the weekend, and a fireman died from his injuries in a hospital, bringing the death toll to at least 63.

More than 70 people, including 13 firefighters, were taken to hospital on Monday with burns and injuries as the fires ravaged the central districts of Leiria and Castelo Branco.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who on Sunday visited the affected a mountainous area about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Lisbon, called it the biggest human tragedy in Portugal in living memory.

Despite government assurances that the first response by the emergency services was swift and adequate, media and residents questioned its efficiency and the strategic planning in a country which is used to wooded areas burning every year.

“So what failed this Saturday? Everything, as it has failed for decades,” read a headline in the newspaper Publico. It blamed a lack of coordination between services in charge of fire prevention and firefighting and poor forestry reserve planning.

Xavier Viegas, an expert on forest fires, said the blaze spread too quickly and violently for firefighters to respond in some villages, but the deaths have mainly shown shortcomings in communications to evacuate people in time.

At least half the victims died in their cars as they tried to flee along a local motorway. Many other bodies were found next to the road, suggesting they had abandoned their vehicles in panic. The firefighter who died on Monday had been helping people out of their cars when he was badly burned.

“It’s still hard to identify what failed, but it’s a bit of everything,” Viegas said. “Obviously, certain things that should have been done had not been done – especially in communicating with the population, telling them about the danger levels, areas to be avoided.”

An online public petition demanding an investigation into possible failures by the authorities has gathered 440 signatures. Some local residents said they had been without the support of firefighters for hours as their homes burned. Many blamed depopulation of villages that left wooded areas untended.

Other countries prone to forest fires have systems in place to warn people of danger. Australia, for example, revised its fire warning system after fires killed 173 people in 2009 and now uses text messages and emergency broadcasts to warn people.

“There’s an urgent need to organize that kind of alerting,” Viegas said. “Here, at best, someone from the parish council goes knocking on doors telling people to leave.”

Armindo Antonio, 67, was evacuated with his family on Sunday evening by civil protection workers who came to his village. He has no idea when he can go back and said he had received no information from authorities.

“All of this is so difficult to understand,” said Antonio, whose five family members had been housed in a packed old-age home with other evacuees. “It could have been our village.”

Civil protection commander Elisio Oliveira said the firefighting efforts were progressing well, but the fire was not yet under control. Water planes, including French and Spanish aircraft, flew overhead. Two army battalions were helping the emergency services.

“There is still a lot of forest that can burn,” said Rui Barreto, deputy chief firefighter at the makeshift emergency services headquarters in Pedrogao Grande, where the blaze began on Saturday.

Police said a lightning strike on a tree probably caused the blaze, in a region hit by an intense heat wave and dry, gusty winds that fanned the flames. However, the regional prosecutor still ordered a criminal investigation into the causes. Many forest fires in Portugal are caused by arson or carelessness.
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Police in London say a van collided with pedestrians outside a mosque late Sunday, killing one person and injuring 10 others.

London’s Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the attack.  British Prime Minister Theresa May said authorities are treating it as a potential terrorist attack, and called it a “terrible incident.”

Authorities said officers arrested the 48-year-old driver of the van, who had been detained by members of the public at the scene, and that as of early Monday no other suspects had been identified or reported to police.

The man killed in the attack was pronounced dead at the scene in northern London, and eight of the injured were taken to hospitals.

Harun Khan, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that based on accounts from witnesses the driver was “motivated by Islamophobia.”

“Given we are approaching the end of the month of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid with many Muslims going to local mosques, we expect the authorities to increase security outside mosques as a matter of urgency,” Khan said in a statement.

A Metropolitan Police statement said that due to the nature of the attack, “extra policing resources have been deployed in order to reassure communities, especially those observing Ramadan.”

Britain, especially London, has been on edge over several recent incidents, including last month’s terror bombing in Manchester and the recent car attack and stabbing near London Bridge.
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A Chinese naval fleet held a scheduled military exercise with the Russian navy in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad on Sunday in the first of planned exercises this year to strengthen their cooperation, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The “Joint Sea-2017” exercise follows similar ones held last year, and more exercises will be held in late July in the Baltic Sea, and in mid-September in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, it added.

The Chinese fleet, which sailed out from Hainan province in southern China, consisted of the missile destroyer Changsha, missile frigate Yuncheng, a comprehensive supply ship, ship-borne helicopters and marines, it said.

China and Russia are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, and have held similar views on many major issues such as the crisis in Syria, often putting them at odds with the United States and Western Europe.

They have previously held naval drills in the fiercely-contested South China Sea which China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims over.

Xinhua said the theme of this year’s drills was “joint rescue and protection of maritime economic activities”.
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Brexit Secretary David Davis starts negotiations in Brussels on Monday that will set the terms on which Britain leaves the European Union and determine its relationship with the continent for generations to come.

Almost a year to the day since Britons shocked themselves and their neighbors by voting on June 23 to cut loose from their main trading partner, and nearly three months since Prime Minister Theresa May locked them into a two-year countdown to Brexit in March 2019, almost nothing about the future is clear.

Even May’s own immediate political survival is in doubt, 10 days after she lost her majority in an election.

Davis, who unlike May has long campaigned to leave the EU, will meet chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, a former French minister, at the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT). They are due to give a joint news conference after talks among their teams lasting seven hours.

Officials on both sides play down expectations for what can be achieved in one day. EU diplomats hope this first meeting, and a Brussels summit on Thursday and Friday where May will encounter – but not negotiate with – fellow EU leaders, can improve the atmosphere after some spiky exchanges.

“Now, the hard work begins,” Davis said, adding he wanted a deal that worked for both sides. “These talks will be difficult at points, but we will be approaching them in a constructive way.”

Barnier, a keen mountaineer, spent the weekend in his native Alps “to draw the strength and energy needed for long walks”. Davis’s agreement to Monday’s agenda led some EU officials to believe that May’s government may at last coming around to Brussels’ view of how negotiations should be run.

Which Brexit?

May’s election debacle has revived feuding over Europe among Conservatives that her predecessor David Cameron hoped to end by calling the referendum and leaves EU leaders unclear on her plan for a “global Britain” which most of them regard as pure folly.

While “Brexiteers” have strongly backed May’s proposed clean break with the single market and customs union, finance minister Philip Hammond and others have this month echoed calls by businesses for less of a “hard Brexit” and retaining closer customs ties.

With discontent in europhile Scotland and troubled Northern Ireland, which faces a new EU border across the divided island, Brexit poses new threats to the integrity of the United Kingdom.

It will test the ingenuity of thousands of public servants racing against the clock to untangle 44 years of EU membership before Britain is out, 649 days from now, on March 30, 2019. For the officials sitting down on Monday, at least on the EU side, a major worry is Britain crashing out into a limbo, with no deal.

For that reason, Brussels wants as a priority to guarantee rights for 3 million EU citizens in Britain and be paid tens of billions of euros it says London will owe on its departure.

With a further million British expatriates in the EU, May too wants a deal on citizens’ rights, though the two sides are some way apart. Agreeing to pay a “Brexit bill” may be more inflammatory.

Brussels is also resisting British demands for immediate talks on a future free trade arrangement. The EU insists that should wait until an outline agreement on divorce terms, ideally by the end of this year. In any case, EU officials say, London no longer seems sure of what trade arrangements it will ask for.

But Union leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, are also determined not to make concessions to Britain that might encourage others to follow.

When 52 percent of British voters opted for Brexit, some feared for the survival of a Union battered by the euro crisis and divided in its response to chaotic immigration. The election of the fervently europhile Macron, and his party’s sweep of the French parliament on Sunday, has revived optimism in Brussels.
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The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze a detente with Cuba and his verbal attack on the Caribbean island’s leaders.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Trump is “returning us to the forgotten rhetoric of the Cold War.”

The statement says that “It’s clear the anti-Cuba discourse is still widely needed. This can only induce regret.”

Despite Trump’s campaign pledge to improve relations with Moscow, there has been no significant improvement in foreign policy cooperation between the two countries. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to back new sanctions on Russia.

Moscow maintains close ties with Havana, and in March signed a deal to ship oil to Cuba for the first time in over a decade.

 
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British Brexit minister David Davis heads to Brussels Monday to open divorce talks with the EU with a message that there should be “no doubt we are leaving the European Union.”

Days after a suggestion from French President Emmanuel Macron that Britain could still choose to remain, Davis said there would be no backtracking from Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to deliver on Brexit, for which Britons voted in a referendum almost a year ago.

“As I head to Brussels to open official talks to leave the EU, there should be no doubt we are leaving the European Union, and delivering on that historic referendum result,” Davis said in a statement.

“Leaving gives us the opportunity to forge a bright new future for the UK one where we are free to control our borders, pass our own laws and do what independent sovereign countries do.”

May, under pressure after losing her ruling Conservatives’ majority in a botched snap election and over her response to a devastating fire that killed at least 58 in a London apartment block, says she wants a clean break with the EU, a strategy some in her party have challenged as risking economic growth.

Davis, a prominent “Leave” campaigner in the referendum, said he was approaching the talks in a “constructive way,” knowing they will be “difficult at points.”

“We are not turning our backs on Europe,” he said in the statement. “It’s vital that the deal we strike allows both the UK and the EU to thrive, as part of the new deep and special partnership we want with our closest allies and friends.”
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French voters are expected to hand President Emmanuel Macron a landslide majority in parliament Sunday, a second election triumph for him after his presidential victory and one which should allow him to embark on deep social and economic reforms.

Polls have opened for the second round of parliamentary elections.

Just a month after the 39-year-old ex-banker became the youngest head of state in modern French history, pollsters forecast his centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) party will win as many as 75-80 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament.

Turnout, though, could touch record lows, in a sign of voter fatigue after seven months of roller-coaster campaigning and voting, but also of disillusionment and anger with politics that could eventually complicate Macron’s reform drive.

The start-up LREM is barely more than a year old and as many as three-quarters of lawmakers are likely to be political novices, something which will change the face of parliament at the expense of the conservative and socialist parties which have ruled France for decades.

​Major reforms ahead

One of the challenges for Macron as he sets out to overhaul labor rules, cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs and invest billions of public cash in areas including job training and renewable energy, will be to keep such a diverse and politically raw group of lawmakers united behind him.

Key rivals say they expect LREM to win a majority of seats and have been urging voters to make the margin as small as possible, saying that otherwise democratic debate could be stifled.

Opinion polls show that voters, while preparing to hand Macron a crushing majority, are actually hoping for a strong opposition to emerge in parliament.

“We need other parties to have some weight,” 54-year-old assembly line worker Veronique Franqueville, who is not a fan of Macron, said on the parking lot of a tumble-drier factory where she works in the northern France town of Amiens. “If he wins it all there will be no debate.”

But among those who plan to vote for LREM candidates the mood is very different, with an overwhelming feeling that the Macron needs to be given a strong enough majority to carry out the policies on which he was elected just over a month ago.

“I will vote for the ‘En Marche’ candidate,” said Aurelie, a 25-year-old nurse in Amiens, referring to Macron’s party. “If we want the president to be able to do things we need to give him a majority.”

Older parties feel their way

The election is set to send shockwaves through the older parties, with their unity, and even survival, at stake.

The conservative The Republicans are expected to be the biggest opposition group in parliament. But polls see them securing no more than 90-95 seats out of 577.

And they may not even stay together. Some Republican lawmakers could create a separate group to back Macron on a case-by-case basis, while others may see a future firmly in the opposition.

The Socialist Party, which ruled France until last month, faces a humiliating defeat that could see them with no more than 25-35 seats.

The election also spells trouble for the far-right National Front (FN), seen with only between one and six seats when earlier it had hoped to secure a “massive” presence in parliament. Its leader, Marine Le Pen, is expected to be among those who will be elected.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is also seen winning a seat in parliament. But polls are unclear if his France Unbowed party will reach the 15-strong threshold required to be able to form a parliamentary group.

Polling stations close at 6 p.m. in small and medium towns and at 8 p.m. in Paris and other big cities. At that time, opinion polls will give an estimate of the outcome and official results will start trickling in. 
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British Prime Minister Theresa May met at her Downing Street office Saturday with survivors of this week’s deadly high-rise fire, a day after being chastised by protesters and as the death toll continued to rise.

May, who is facing mounting criticism for her response to Wednesday’s west London fire that killed at least 58 people, left hundreds of others homeless and dozens missing, met for 2½ hours with a delegation of family members.

Details were not disclosed, but an unidentified group spokesman said members had given May their “demands and expectations” and that a full statement would be made only “in the community, with the community.”

The death toll that London police gave Saturday includes the 30 who had already been confirmed dead.

“There are 58 people who we have been told were in Grenfell Tower on the night that are missing and, therefore, sadly, I have to assume that they are dead,” Commander Stuart Cundy told reporters at a news conference. He said the number, based on reports from the public, could rise.

First victim identified

Sixteen bodies have been removed from the blackened, 24-story public housing unit, and the first victim was formally identified as Mohammed Alhajali, 23, a Syrian refugee.

If at least 58 deaths are confirmed, the blaze would be London’s deadliest since World War II.

Before meeting with the survivors, May chaired a “cross-government” meeting at her office “to ensure everything possible is being done to support those affected” by the tragedy, a spokesman said.

The meeting came one day after May was chastised by protesters as she visited near the scene of the blaze. She faced cries of “coward” and “shame on you” as police restrained angry crowds, following accusations of avoiding local residents during a visit to the area Thursday.

Maintenance issue cited

Survivors of the building claimed the fatal fire resulted from a lack of maintenance to the tower. They also complained that May’s visit to the neighborhood was too slow and that support was lacking for those who lost relatives and homes.

Cundy said the police investigation would look into the building’s 2016 refurbishment and promised to prosecute “if there is evidence.”

Criticism of May intensified Friday after she sidestepped questions in a televised interview about whether she had underestimated the public’s anger and frustration.

In addition to fire and police investigations into the inferno, May has promised to hold public hearings. She has also pledged $6.4 million in support to the residents and promised that those who lost their homes would be relocated within three weeks.

The prime minister is still reeling from a botched snap election that resulted in her Conservative Party’s loss of its majority in Parliament.
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A catastrophic blaze at a London apartment tower has brought new scrutiny to a long-accepted, counterintuitive rule for people in tall buildings: If the blaze breaks out elsewhere in the structure, don’t automatically run for the stairs. Stay put and wait for instructions.

That’s what residents of London’s 24-story Grenfell Tower had been told to do, but the strategy failed early Wednesday when flames that began on a lower floor spread shockingly fast and quickly engulfed the entire building. Many residents were trapped, forcing some on higher floors to jump to their deaths rather than face the flames or throw their children to bystanders below. So far, at least 30 people have been reported dead and about 70 people were missing.

Despite that outcome, fire experts say “stay put” is still the best advice — as long as the building has proper fire-suppression protections, such as multiple stairwells, sprinkler systems, fireproof doors and flame-resistant construction materials, some of which were lacking in the London blaze.

“It is human nature for most of us — if we know there’s a fire, start moving and get out,” said Robert Solomon of the National Fire Protection Association, a U.S.-based organization that studies fire safety globally. “But we try to make sure people know there are features and redundancies in buildings that you can count on, and you can stay put.”

Fire safety rules vary

Most major cities with many high-rise buildings have detailed building codes and fire safety rules requiring several layers of protections in tall buildings. The rules vary from place to place, as does advice about when to evacuate, but fire experts say the “shelter-in-place” directive is usually applied to buildings of 15 stories or more.

Floors directly above and below the reported fire are usually evacuated, but others are to stay and use damp towels to block cracks beneath the door unless told otherwise, and call 911 if they have questions.

That’s partly to avoid repeated, unnecessary evacuations that cause people eventually to ignore such orders when they really matter. And it also avoids panicked and unsafe evacuations down a long stairwell choked with smoke, which can be just as deadly as the licking flames.

Several such high-rise evacuations over the years have resulted in needless deaths. In 2014, a man who fled his apartment on the 38th floor of a New York City apartment building died when he encountered a plume of suffocating smoke in a stairwell as he tried to descend to the street. His apartment remained entirely untouched by the flames.

Safety redundancies missing?

What makes the London fire maddening for fire experts who believe in the “stay put” rule is that the Grenfell may have lacked many of the safety redundancies necessary to make it work.

For example, the Grenfell building had only one stairwell. A lawmaker says it didn’t have working sprinklers. And Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that cladding used on the high-rise structure was made of the cheaper, more flammable material of two types offered by the manufacturer.

“The bottom line: Sprinklers, fire doors and multiple stairwells work,” said Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Conroy. “It becomes difficult to shelter-in-place when you have no engineered fire protection systems within a building.”

NYC fire boss supports stay-put

New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, whose department is among the most practiced in the world at fighting fires in tall buildings, says he believes in the stay-put policy but “what happened in London, in which a fire went from the fourth floor to the 21st floor in what we understand was in 17 minutes, is unprecedented.”

The sister of a man still missing in the London blaze told reporters that when she phoned him on the 21st floor as the fire spread, he said he hadn’t evacuated with his wife and three children because fire officials told him to “stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door.” Hana Wahabi said she begged her brother, Abdulaziz Wahabi, to leave but he told her “there was too much smoke.”

One question now is whether people will heed that guidance with the Grenfell disaster fresh in their minds.

“There is no way I am waiting to die in a building. I am getting out to safety,” said Jennifer Lopez, who works in a high-rise building a short walk from the World Trade Center in New York City.

Statistics support defend-in-place policy

Any move away from the shelter in place tactic would put lives at risk, said Simon Lay, a fire safety expert and fellow at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

“Statistics tell us that defend in place remains the best policy and is based on sound principles as it enables firefighters to work unhindered and protects against the apathy that can develop from exposure to false alarms,” he said.

Jonathan Lum, an advertising executive who lives on the 57th floor of a glittering Manhattan tower designed by Frank Gehry, said if a fire breaks out there, he will heed the wisdom of the fire department and stay in his apartment, but partly because he lives in a building constructed in the past decade.

“If I were in a different, less modern building with less obvious fire safety, I’m not sure how I would feel, honestly,” he said.
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The UN Children’s Fund warns three-quarters of a million children in Eastern Ukraine are at risk of water-borne diseases as fighting threatens to cut off their safe water supply.

The United Nations estimates around 10,000 people have been killed and more than 23,500 injured since fighting in Eastern Ukraine erupted between the government and Russian-backed separatists more than three years ago.

The U.N. children’s fund warns an upsurge in fighting in the rebel-held territory is putting more lives at risk.  The agency reports the recent escalation of hostilities has damaged vital water infrastructure, leaving 400,000 people, including more than 100,000 children without drinking water for four days this week.

Water pipes repaired

Damage to these water pipes has been repaired.  But, UNICEF says other infrastructure that provides water for three million people in eastern Ukraine is in the line of fire. UNICEF spokesman, Christophe Boulierac warns many families, including some 750,000 children will be cut off from safe drinking water if these structures are hit.

“Why we are worried is because the children who are cut off from clean drinking water can quickly contract water-borne disease, such as diarrhea,” said Bouliererec.  “Girls and boys having to fetch water from alternative sources or who are forced to leave their homes due to disruptions to safe water supplies face dangers from ongoing fighting and other forms of abuses.”  

Other problems

UNICEF reports nearly four million people in Eastern Ukraine need humanitarian assistance.  The agency says children are among those suffering the most from more than three years of conflict.  

The aid agency says tens of thousands of children face dangers from landmines and unexploded ordnance.  It says many children show signs of severe psychological distress.

 
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A pan-European rights body said on Friday there were significant concerns about a draft law in Moldova that would change the way the country conducts parliamentary elections and expand the powers of the president.

The proposed changes have proved divisive in the ex-Soviet nation ahead of a parliamentary election next year, when parties who favor closer integration with the European Union will fight it out with pro-Moscow rivals.

At the moment, Moldova elects its parliament under a proportional representation system. The ruling pro-European Democratic Party wants a mixed system, with some lawmakers elected, as now, on party lists, and others running in first-past-the-post constituency races.

On Friday, the Venice Commission, a body that rules on rights and democracy disputes in Europe, decided to accept the conclusion of external experts, who said the new system could be susceptible to undue influence by vested interests.

Their report “raises ‘significant concerns’ including the risk that constituency members of parliament would be vulnerable to being influenced by business interests,” the commission said in a statement.

Like neighboring Ukraine, Moldova has become the subject of a tug of war for influence between Russia and the West.

It has a trade pact with the European Union and its government says it wants even closer integration, but President Igor Dodon, a frequent visitor to Russia, has said Moldova should focus instead on building ties with Moscow.

Earlier in June, Andrian Candu, the speaker of the Moldovan parliament and a member of the Democratic Party, told Reuters he disagreed with the conclusions of the experts’ report, but would work with the Venice Commission on its technical recommendations.

European member states of the commission are committed to respecting its decisions, but Candu said the body should “not … interfere in what we consider to be the sovereign choice of the country.”

Supporters of the electoral change say having legislators represent particular constituencies would enhance the link between parliament and voters. Opponents say it is an attempt to skew the electoral system in favor of the Democratic Party.

Last Sunday, several thousand people took part in demonstrations across Moldova, protesting both in favor of and against the proposed changes.

Moldova has seen three governments fall since 2015, after the disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system plunged the country, Europe’s poorest, into political and economic chaos.
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Nationwide strikes left commuters and tourists stranded across Italy on Friday, as transport unions called for better job conditions for workers and protested against privatization.

Underground and overground trains, airplanes and buses were cancelled in a series of strikes over a 24-hour period starting on Thursday evening.

Transport Minister Graziano Delrio said he had tried to negotiate with union leaders, but “sadly, it will be a black Friday.”

People seeking shade from the summer sun at bus stops around Rome’s Termini train station, the city’s main transport hub, said it was unfair that the country’s powerful labour unions still resorted to striking.

“I’ve waited for buses from three different lines for two hours and not even one has passed,” said Rome resident Franco Marini. “I find this way of protesting uncivil, in the 21st century there should be other ways to resolve labor issues.”

Italy is due to spin off parts of the state railway company under a delayed privatization plan to cut its huge public debt.

It is also looking for a buyer for struggling airline Alitalia, which was put under state management in May after making losses for years.

“The doctrine of privatization has gradually, dangerously spread through this sector, creating economic instability, unemployment, fewer services, and worrying reductions in safety, and sending salaries and workers’ rights and protections into free fall,” the SGB union said in a statement.

One of the special commissioners brought in to help salvage Alitalia said the strikes were “irresponsible” and “a gift to competitors”, adding the airline would try to cancel no more than 160 of 620 flights scheduled during the walk out.
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Greek stocks rallied to two-year highs Friday after the government struck a deal with European creditors that means the country won’t face another brush with bankruptcy anytime soon.

However, for austerity-weary Greeks, the deal does little to lift the pall from years of belt-tightening.

After months of haggling that raised fears of another escalation in Greece’s nearly eight-year debt crisis, the 19-country eurozone agreed late Thursday to release a further 8.5 billion euros ($9.5 billion) from its current, third bailout after the Greek government delivered on an array of reforms. Getting the money was becoming increasingly urgent because Greece has a big debt repayment hump next month.

Extending repayments

With an eye to the longer term, the eurozone creditors also made clear they are ready to ease the burden of Greece’s debt repayments when its bailout program ends next year, possibly by extending repayments by up to 15 years. The International Monetary Fund may also get involved financially, with up to $2 billion, but only if and when it sees the specifics of the debt relief and agrees it can make Greece’s debt bearable.

“I think that’s really the best agreement we’ve had for quite a while,” said Pierre Moscovici, the top economy official for the European Union, the 28-country bloc that includes the 19 states using the euro.

Even though some details remain sketchy, investors breathed a sigh of relief if just on the mere fact that a deal wasn’t postponed, as has occurred so many times previously. The main Athens stock index hit a two-year high, later closing up 0.8 percent on the day. The yields on both the two-year and 10-year Greek bonds fell, reflecting diminished investor fears of the chances of bankruptcy.

“While the deal might have proved the usual exercise in issue avoidance, the fact is that it’s now unlikely that a fresh crisis will emerge in Greece in July,” said Simon Derrick, chief markets strategist at BNY Mellon.

Greece’s left-led coalition government sought to present the deal as favorably as possible, even though the precise nature of the debt relief has to still be ironed out.

“We had a decisive step yesterday,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the country’s president. “A decisive step for the country’s exit from the long-running crisis.”

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said Greece’s European creditors had accepted “nearly all the points that the Greek side was asking for.”

The spokesman highlighted the creditors’ acceptance of a long-standing Greek demand that debt repayments be linked to economic growth, meaning that repayments could be postponed if the economy entered recession.

Less optimism

Outside the government, the view was less rosy.

Dozens of protesting hospital workers held a rally outside the finance ministry building in central Athens, building a fake wall outside the entrance topped with a banner reading “They have made us drown in debt.”

Pictures pinned to the fake wall depicted Tsipras, with a tie pinned to his neck. Tsipras doesn’t wear a tie, and had once joked that the only time he would do so would be on the day Greece won debt relief.

Tsipras, elected in 2015 on promises to repeal bailout-related budget cuts, has lost popularity after implementing further austerity measures in return for the bailout money and a promise on debt relief.

As part of Thursday’s deal, the government committed to deliver primary budget surpluses — that is, a surplus excluding the cost of servicing debt — worth 3.5 percent of Greece’s annual gross domestic product until 2022, and 2 percent thereafter each year until 2060. That is a big commitment for Greece, but seems to have been agreed on in principle to show Greece’s debt can be sustained with help from creditors.

Despite years of spending cuts and tax increases since Greece was first bailed out in 2010, the public sector debt burden stands at about 320 billion euros, or 180 percent of GDP. That’s largely because the economy has contracted by around a quarter, meaning a worsening in the relative debt load even though the budget has improved.

An outright cut in Greece’s debt is not allowed under euro rules, but the length of time the country has in paying back its debts can be extended, and the interest rates can be cut. More comprehensive details should emerge in the coming months.
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The Sun newspaper Friday listed 65 people who it said were missing or feared dead in a London tower block fire which police said has left 17 people dead with the death toll expected to rise.

When asked Thursday whether the death toll could exceed 100, London police commander Stuart Cundy said: “I’d like to hope that it isn’t going to be triple figures.”
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2017 was described as the year that right-wing populists would take charge in Europe, echoing the election of President Donald Trump in the United States. But it has not played out like that at the polls.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron scored a crushing victory in France, and the far-right UK Independence Party was all but wiped out in Britain as the ruling Conservatives lost their majority.

Analysts think Trump may in fact be hindering Europe’s populist right.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump in January. Media on both sides of the Atlantic focused on the warm reception as the two leaders held hands on the grounds of the White House, but the encounter may have cost May at the polls.

Britain suffered a series of terror attacks before last week’s election, the latest at London Bridge, which killed seven people. Initially, Trump offered the United States’ support, but he later used Twitter to criticize the mayor of London. That led many voters to question Britain’s approach, said Ian Dunt, editor of the website politics.co.uk.

“It’s not a tangible thing, but you just get a sense of the national debate swinging back around a little bit, becoming more wary of America again,” he said.

Le Pen’s defeat

In April, Trump appeared to endorse French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen after the terrorist shooting of a police officer in Paris. Macron soundly defeated her. Polling suggested many French voters disliked Le Pen’s praise of Trump, said Catherine De Vries of the University of Essex.

“It did play a role in the sense that it hindered her chances because of the example that Donald Trump was setting in the United States, which was not necessarily perceived as positive,” she said.

Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement also alarmed Europe.

Competing force

“And I think many voters are now realizing and asking themselves: Would voting for anti-establishment right-wing candidates in Europe do them any good?” De Vries said. “I don’t think it’s the end of right-wing populism. I do think that they’re not necessarily the only mobilizers of anti-establishment sentiment. And they just find themselves in competition.”

That’s competition with a new political breed: populist yet centrist. But not all of Europe is converted.

Trump remains popular in the east, in countries like Poland. The president will visit Warsaw next month. No visits are planned for Paris or Berlin — and his proposed state visit to London is on hold.

Analysts say it is a mark of the growing gulf between Washington and Western Europe.
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Police in Washington have issued arrest warrants for 16 people, most of them Turkish security agents, for their alleged role in assaulting protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s home in Washington during an official visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The incident, which left nine people injured, sparked outrage in the United States. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports that Turkey Thursday condemned the warrants and blamed U.S. authorities for failing to prevent the altercation.
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London fire officials said Thursday firefighters had put out a blaze that killed 12 people as it raced through a 24-story apartment building a day earlier, and that an unknown number of people remained inside.

“Tragically, now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive,” London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton told Sky News. “The severity and the heat of the fire will mean that it would be an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive.”

The fire moved quickly through Grenfell Tower in West London in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, trapping residents. The building contained an estimated 120 apartments and was home to as many as 600 people.

Cotton said it will take time for crews to search the building and identify anyone who is left there. She also said that while investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire, it is “far too early” to speculate what started it.

WATCH:  Video footage and eyewitness account from scene

Witnesses said they heard screams for help as the fire stormed through the floors, trapping residents who could be seen from windows flashing their cell phone lights in hopes of being rescued. Witnesses said some residents held small children from windows while other people jumped from the lower stories of the building.

Why did fire spread so quickly?

As the building continued to burn after noon Wednesday, questions emerged on why the fire spread through the building so quickly in a city where a centuries-old history of disastrous fires has forced one of the world’s most stringent fire codes.

Some residents evacuated from the building said they did not hear fire alarms. Some reported smelling burning plastic in the early moments of the fire, which broke out just after midnight. Questions pointed to non-existent or malfunctioning sprinklers, flammable plastic building components, and insufficient fire escapes.

Survivors also said they received orders from emergency workers to stay in their apartments, a standard fire procedure but one that angry residents said was the wrong thing to do this time.

“It was horrendous. People up at their windows, screaming and the thing went up, it felt like seconds, it was just going up and up and up,” a resident who identified himself as Mikey, told the British Broadcasting Corporation. “I’ve never seen nothing like it. It was like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie,” he said.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Wednesday that “many, many people have legitimate questions that demand answers.”

PM calls emergency meeting

British Prime Minister Theresa May called an emergency meeting on dealing with the disaster. A spokesman for Number 10 Downing Street said May “is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life.”

Aside from the 12 victims who have thus far been confirmed dead, officials said at least 74 people were taken to hospitals with injuries that included smoke inhalation. Hospital officials say 20 are in intensive care.

London commuters faced snarled traffic as police cordoned off streets and cleared the surrounding area. As the fire burned ferociously Wednesday, there were concerns the building might collapse.

Officials later said structural engineers were confident that would not happen. “Structurally it is safe for our crews to be in there working,” Cotton said.
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Turkey’s main opposition party has started a 400-km (250-mile) march from the capital to an Istanbul prison to protest the imprisonment of one of its lawmakers.

The leader of the pro-secular Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said Thursday he is seeking justice. He called the march after parliamentarian Enis Berberoglu was convicted to 25 years in prison for revealing state secrets.

With thousands gathered in protest, Kilicdaroglu said: “Everyone needs to defend the independence of the judiciary and justice in this country.”

The guilty verdict for Berberoglu is part of a case that stems from a 2015 story by the Cumhuriyet newspaper suggesting Turkey’s intelligence service had smuggled weapons to Islamist rebels in Syria.
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Russia’s hosting of FIFA’s (International Federation of Association Football) Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2 and the World Cup championship in 2018 is reigniting hopes in the country for football (soccer).

The last time Russia made the world’s top four was in 1966 when it was part of the Soviet Union.

Watch: Russia’s Hosting of FIFA Tournaments Reignites World Cup Hopes

Russian football gained global recognition during the 1966 World Cup when the Soviet Union defeated Italy, Chile, and Hungary to take fourth place.

Half-a-century later, the few living players from that championship have yet to see Russia return to the top four.

“When there was the world championship in England, the coach said, ‘Thank you guys, we won’t achieve such a success for the next 50 years.’ So, 50 years passed,” said Vladimir Ponomarev, USSR defender in the 1966 championship.

Fans have high hopes

Despite Russian football’s struggle since, die-hard fans have high hopes for the tournaments.

“That’s why we are faced with big problems when they show negative results,” said Lokomotiv Football Club’s Maksim “Loko” Shataylo. “Sometimes it may result in such extraordinary situations because the fans become too upset. They believe too much, they hope too much! I believe in the better. We’ll definitely be in the top eight,” adds Shataylo.

As host of the FIFA tournaments, Russia’s national team automatically qualifies to compete.

Russia’s star players say their goal is clear.

“Of course, it is to get to the final game, step by step,” said Spartak Moscow Football Club Captain Denis Glushakov in May comments to the press. “We’ll play the first and the second match and only then I may tell you whether we get to the final or not.”

Passion is lacking

Ponomarev says Russian football lacks the passion it had during Soviet times.

“But we’ll keep working and growing. We’ll keep training and that will allow us to get on the same level as great European teams,” said Ponomarev. “So far, we are not much valued. The Confederations Cup matches will show us the level of Russian football.”

The Confederations Cup will also test how well Russia itself is prepared for next year’s World Cup championship.

“As for the world championships and the idea that so much effort is put into winning them without a result, I think that after the world championship of 2018 there will be a breakthrough in football here,” says Shataylo. “It will become more popular. New stadiums, new infrastructure are under construction. It will be more convenient to move around the country to see the matches. The fans will love this country and football, and all will be well.”

Meanwhile, Ponomarev continues to support Russian football and the next generation of players by offering advice to amateur teams and coaches.

“We must start small. We must start with our small footballers who train here,” he said.

But as for hosting the upcoming FIFA tournaments, he adds optimistically, “For me it will be a success. Fifty years have passed. It’s time to get to fourth place. It would be superb for all Russian fans! They would be absolutely happy.”

Field is set

For the host Russian team, its Confederations Cup Group A opener will be played on Saturday (June 17) against New Zealand in St. Petersburg. Wednesday (June 21) the Russians play in Moscow against Portugal, and the hosts final group match is against Mexico in Kazan on June 24.

The other four teams in the tournament — Cameroon, Chile, Australia and Germany — are in Group B. After round-robin play, the first and second-place teams in each group advance to the semifinals, with the championship match in St. Petersburg July 2. The tournament winner will receive $5 million, and the runner-up $4.5 million.

 Olga Pavlova and Ricardo Marquina Montañana contributed to this report.
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As the political instability in Britain continues, pollsters say last week’s election appears to have marked a watershed moment. Young people voted in big numbers – with some estimates suggesting turnout soared from 44 percent in 2015 to as much as 72 percent this year – and most voted for the left-wing Labour party. Activists say they have taken inspiration from other political movements across the globe.

Ben Noble and James Fox work at a radio station in Brighton. Outside work hours, they are committed Labour party activists. They’re celebrating a big win.

The Labour candidate in Brighton Kemptown beat the incumbent Conservative MP by some 10,000 votes – a 10 percent swing. Pollsters say the youth vote was behind Labour’s surge.

Speaking to VOA on Brighton’s windy seafront, Ben Noble said the election has destroyed myths about young people.

“It’s simply not true that the young vote are uninformed or ignorant. In fact maybe we’re more engaged than anyone else because we see news through Facebook and Twitter,” he said.

Inspired by Bernie Sanders

In the social media battle, Labour crushed its rivals. Of the top 100 shared political news stories, just five were pro-Conservative. Many youth activists took inspiration from Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign in the United States to become the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential candidate. Labour activist James Fox says he narrowly lost to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – but galvanized left-leaning, young voters.

“I’d never been involved with an election campaign. And seeing the Bernie campaign, how that worked, I was like, I know if it’s going to happen that’s the only way I can make it happen,” he said.

Noble said younger people have watched the rise of global right-wing politics with alarm.

“There’s a sense of urgency as well because we saw what happened in America. A lot of us didn’t like it. We saw what nearly happened with Le Pen in France. And I think it’s scary times internationally,” he said.

The Labour vote surged in university towns like Brighton – where many students were attracted by the party’s pledge to scrap annual $12,000 tuition fees. The election laid bare Britain’s generational divide. Pensioners Barbara and Ann accuse Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of making promises the country can’t afford.

“He just won them for the youngsters, what he’s put on, what he’s going to do for the youngsters,” said Barbara. “And where is the money going to come from?”

Ann said, “I do feel sorry for the young though. We certainly had it a lot better as we were growing up.”

Hopeful about future

Young Labour supporters see a brighter future with Jeremy Corbyn.

“They’ve shown that there’s a pathway to a Labour government,” said Fox. “And everyone before that was saying, ‘You’re never going to be in power.’”

Nobel said, “It’s also a vindication of left-wing policies. Left-wing policies have come alive again.”

Labour is still not in power. But the close result means another early election is possible. And the party’s young supporters believe the momentum is with them.
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Workers hired to build stadiums and other structures in preparation for the FIFA 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup in Moscow face exploitation and labor abuses, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Russian workers, many of whom migrated internally, and migrant workers from neighboring countries both reported unpaid or delayed wages, work in conditions as cold as -25° C, and the failure of their employers to provide work contracts required for legal employment, the watch dog said.

“FIFA’s promise to make human rights a centerpiece of its global operations has been put to the test in Russia, and FIFA is coming up short,” said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Construction workers on World Cup stadiums face exploitation and abuse, and FIFA has not yet shown that it can effectively monitor, prevent, and remedy these issues.”

Human Rights Watch also said that workers were hesitant to speak about abuses, fearing reprisals from their employers.

Additionally, the international rights group said one of their researchers was detained, questioned, threatened, and eventually released without charges by Russian authorities while trying to interview construction workers outside the World Cup stadium in April.

Though FIFA documented a system coordinated with Russian authorities to monitor working conditions, Human Rights Watch stressed that the system was not made public, and that it only covered the construction of stadiums and no other World Cup infrastructure construction.

Russia will host eight international soccer teams, including its own at the Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2. One year later, Moscow will host the World Cup, the world’s premier football tournament.
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France’s government is presenting a bill on cleaning up political ethics after years of corruption scandals — even as investigations haunt members of President Emmanuel Macron’s new government.

Justice Minister Francois Bayrou is unveiling the draft law on “restoring trust” in politics Wednesday to the Cabinet, the first major legislation by Macron’s administration.

It’s expected to easily pass parliament, where Macron’s party is on track to win a crushing majority in elections Sunday.

Yet the bill, a key Macron campaign promise to “moralize” France’s political life, is already clouded.

Bayrou’s centrist party Modem is under investigation for possible misuse of European Parliament funds.

The minister for European affairs, Marielle de Sarnez, also a member of the Modem, is among several French politicians facing a similar probe.

And the territorial cohesion minister Richard Ferrand is under investigation for his past business practices. They all deny wrongdoing.

The new bill notably would ban lawmakers and government members from hiring family members. About a hundred lawmakers — out of 577 — employed at least one family member during the last term at the National Assembly.

The presidential campaign had been deeply disturbed by an investigation of conservative candidate François Fillon. His wife, Penelope, was richly paid as a parliamentary aide, allegedly without actually working.

The bill would create a new sentence enabling judges to ban a person convicted for fraud or corruption-related crimes from running for an elected office for up to 10 years.

France’s Senate and the National Assembly would have to set specific rules to prevent conflicts of interest.

Lawmakers will be asked to report their expenses — a first in the country. Until now, lawmakers get monthly allowances to cover expenses they didn’t have to justify.

 
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British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are joining forces in order to crack down on tech companies, ensuring they step up their efforts to combat terrorism online.

Britain and France face similar challenges in fighting homegrown Islamist extremism and share similar scars from deadly attacks that rocked London, Manchester, Paris and Nice.

May traveled to Paris on Tuesday to hold talks on counterterrorism measures and Britain’s departure from the European Union.

She said major internet companies had failed to live up to prior commitments to do more to prevent extremists from finding a “safe space” online. Macron urged other European countries, especially Germany, to join the effort to fight Islamist extremist propaganda on the Web.

The campaign includes exploring the possibility of legal penalties against tech companies if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content, May said.

After the Islamic State group recruited hundreds of French fighters largely through online propaganda, France introduced legislation ordering French providers to block certain content, but it acknowledges that any such effort must reach well beyond its borders. Tech-savvy Macron has lobbied for tougher European rules, but details of his plans remain unclear.

Britain already has tough measures, including a law known informally as the Snooper’s Charter, which gives authorities the powers to look at the internet browsing records of everyone in the country.

Among other things, the law requires telecommunications companies to keep records of all users’ Web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that the firms worry could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.
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Hungary defied the EU and human rights groups on Tuesday by approving strict new rules for non-governmental organizations with foreign funding that further escalates Budapest’s conflict with billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

The law drafted by right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government requires NGOs that get money from abroad to register with the authorities.

The government says it wants to ensure greater transparency and protect Hungary from foreign influence, but NGOs say the bill stigmatizes them and is intended to stifle independent voices in the central European country.

Orban, 54, has especially focused on NGOs funded by Soros, an American-Hungarian, calling them a “mafia-like” network with paid political activists who threaten national sovereignty.

Foreign universities targeted

His government recently passed a law tightening controls over foreign universities in Hungary, which critics say is aimed at the Central European University founded by Soros.

“It is of vital public interest that society and citizens clearly see what interests these organizations represent,” the NGO law’s authors said in their reasoning. “Foreign interest groups strive to take advantage of civil organizations.”

Orban, who plans to seek re-election in April 2018, has taken control of much of the Hungarian media, curbed the powers of the constitutional court and placed loyalists in top jobs at public institutions since coming to power in 2010.

Along with his tough anti-immigrant rhetoric, such attacks on Soros fit well with Orban’s political agenda. His Fidesz party has a firm lead over the opposition in opinion polls.

Challenge planned

One of the NGOs affected, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), said it would not comply with the law and would take any legal challenge to international courts.

“The law is a targeted attack and attempt to silence TASZ and all other organizations which have the courage to help those who are oppressed,” it said in a statement.

TASZ receives large contributions from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, as does another human rights group, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which also said it would boycott the law.

The laws regulating NGOs and foreign universities have triggered mass protests in recent months in Hungary, and the European Parliament has launched a process that could theoretically deprive Hungary of its EU voting rights — though in practice its ally Poland would be likely to veto such a move.

’Cosmetic’ changes

Orban has gained a reputation in Europe as a maverick leader who holds the liberal West in contempt while forging closer ties with Russia, which will build and finance a big new nuclear power plant in central Hungary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Hungary for the second time this year in August for a judo world championship. Critics have often seen parallels between Orban’s policies and Putin’s moves in cracking down on his own opposition.

Hungary backtracks

Guy Verhofstadt, president of the liberal group in the European Parliament, urged EU action to protect the rights of civil society in all member states.

“The attempts by some EU governments to silence NGOs are shameful and contrary to the values of the European Union,” he wrote. “The European Commission should … do more to support NGOs inside the EU who face censorship.”

Last week Hungary backtracked on parts of the NGO legislation to meet some of the objections from the Council of Europe’s advisory panel, the Venice Commission.

However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) dismissed the amendments as “cosmetic” and said the law was about “silencing critical voices in society.”

“The amendments do not remove the provision to stigmatize organizations as ‘foreign funded,’ nor the risk of an organization being legally dissolved by the courts if it does not register as ‘foreign funded,’”  HRW said in a statement.

Serious risk to democracy

Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which disburse funding to several prominent NGOs in Hungary, also warned on Monday that the law posed serious risks to democracy in the country.

The law “attacks Hungarians who help fellow citizens challenge corruption and arbitrary power,” OSF director Goran Buldioski said.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution last month condemning Hungary for the “serious deterioration” in the rule of law and fundamental rights, and called on the government to withdraw the bill on foreign-funded NGOs.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed himself at the forefront of the defense of Qatar, in the face of Saudi Arabia-led economic and diplomatic sanctions.

“A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar; isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values,” Erdogan said in his weekly Tuesday address to his parliamentary deputies. “It’s as if a death-penalty decision has been taken for Qatar,” said Erdogan.

Erdogan is backing his increasingly tough rhetoric with action. A Turkish delegation flew Tuesday to Doha to prepare for the deployment of a military force in Qatar, which ultimately will rise to about 5,000 soldiers. Ankara already has sent large amounts food to break economic sanctions against Qatar.

“The risks, however, are high. If there is an escalation into a confrontation or any kind of hot conflict, this would expose those soldiers to all kinds of threats,” warned retired Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz, who heads the Ankara Policy Forum research group.

The Turkish army deployment is part of a military cooperation agreement with Qatar made before the crisis that also includes naval and air components. The army element of the deployment was brought forward by the onset of the crisis, with the Turkish parliament rushing through the required legislation to sanction it.

Playing down risk of military confrontation, analyst Sinan Ulgen a visiting scholar of the Carnegie Institute, points out that only a handful of Turkish soldiers initially will be deployed.

​Politics and diplomacy

“Political and diplomatic side, rather than the military side [of the deployment], will be most important,” said Ulgen, “because Turkey is seen to have adopted a position firmly in support of Qatar that is certainly going to cause complications with other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Countries], primarily Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”

Erdogan’s robust stance in support of Qatar, scotched his foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s offer to mediate.

“This approach, unfortunately, is becoming a trend and it has developed into a pattern in Turkey’s foreign policy conduct,” lamented Cevikoz. “It is not in line with Turkey’s traditional policy of impartiality toward the problems of the region. The consequences are dangerous, and it has already resulted with Turkey’s isolation in the international community, if not in the region.”

Ankara’s robust support for Qatar is a testament to the deepening relations between the countries. Qatar is fast becoming one of the most important investors in Turkey, buying up banks, media companies, and investing in property.

Those investments accelerated in the aftermath of last year’s failed coup in Turkey, which saw many foreign investors shying away.

But the relationship extends far beyond economics, and a strong relationship has developed between the country’s two leaders.

According to reports not denied by either country, Qatar sent 150 of its special forces to protect Erdogan in the days after the July coup.

Muslim Brotherhood

Foreign policy collaboration, though, is where cooperation appears to be most important.

“Turkey has aligned itself more closely on a number of foreign policy options, which would include support of the Muslim Brotherhood, support of Hamas,” pointed out analyst Ulgen.

Ankara could pay a heavy price for its loyalty to Qatar, however, coming at a time when Turkey already is facing strained relations with most of it Western allies and all of its southern neighbors. Turkish pro government media has been sounding alarm bells, warning that the pressure facing Qatar really is a plot aimed at Ankara and Erdogan.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, voiced concerns about the precarious position facing Turkey over Ankara’s support with Qatar for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are all regarding the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization,” said Kilicdaroglu, criticizing Erdogan’s public use of Muslim Brotherhood symbols.

Erdogan has made little secret of his support for the Brotherhood, a stance that plays well with his religious base of voters.

“Support of the brotherhood has become part of domestic politics,” pointed out Ulgen.

But Ulgen emphasizes that the pressure facing Qatar cannot be applied to Turkey, although he warns the present crisis likely will put Ankara in an awkward position.

President Donald Trump has been particularly outspoken in support of Saudi Arabia’s stance in demanding that Qatar end its support of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with other radical Islamist groups, but he has remained publicly silent over Ankara’s stance toward the brotherhood. According to Turkish media, Trump and Erdogan are scheduled to talk about Qatar in the coming days.
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A group of U.S. Senators agreed Monday on legislation to strengthen sanctions against Russia, including a provision that would require congressional review if the White House relaxed, suspended or terminated sanctions already in place.

The bipartisan agreement comes in the form of an amendment to legislation the Senate is already considering on sanctions for Iran.  The bill is expected to have strong support when it goes before the full Senate, and would have to then pass in the House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump.

A statement from Republican and Democratic leaders on the Senate banking committee said the amendment “expands sanctions against the government of Russia in response to the violation of the territorial integrity of the Ukraine and Crimea, its brazen cyberattacks and interference in elections, and its continuing aggression in Syria.”

The measure would strengthen existing sanctions targeting Russian energy projects, while imposing new sanctions on those involved in serious human rights abuses, supplying weapons to the Syrian government, carrying out malicious cyber activities and doing business with Russian intelligence and defense.

The House and Senate, as well as a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, are all investigating Russia’s activities related to last year’s U.S. elections, as well as potential links to Trump’s campaign.  The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign meant to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Trump’s chances of winning.

“These additional sanctions will also send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
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“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”

This is the first entry in The Dairy of Anne Frank. She wrote it on June 12, 1942 – her 13th birthday. At that moment, she was a normal teenager living with her family in the Netherlands, where they moved from Frankfurt after Hitler’s rise to power. This was one of Anne’s last diary entries as a carefree teenager. Less than a month later, on July 5, 1942, her family was summoned for deportation to the Westerbork concentration camp.  

“The entry that Anne made in the diary exactly 75 years ago, and what she wrote in the duration of that entire week – that is the last proof of normal life. Friends, plans, prosperity,” said Edna Friedberg, curator of the National Holocaust Museum in Washington. “Instantly, Anne will be in a nightmare world. She will have to literally disappear, physically disappear.”

She did just that, vanishing into an Amsterdam rowhouse. The canal-facing Opekta Building became a shelter for Anne’s family and a few more Jews. They hid in a 46 square meter room behind a door masked as a bookcase. Here, Anne wrote letters to her imaginary friend Kitty about everything that worried her: her relationship with her parents, her first love, arguments over food, violence in the streets below.

The Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote that there is a duty not to understand the Holocaust, “because to understand is to justify.” But, he maintained, “If understanding is impossible, knowing is imperative, because what happened could happen again.” Anne Frank’s account remains a terrifying part of truly “knowing” the Holocaust.

“Often in the evening, in the darkness, I see columns of innocent people walking, driven by a pair of scoundrels, who beat them and torture them until they fall to the ground,” wrote Frank. “They don’t spare anybody: the elderly, children, infants, the sick, pregnant women – everyone goes to face death …It’s a terrible feeling to suddenly be an excess.”

Frank’s diary became one of 35 objects included in the Memory of the World Register, a UNESCO World Heritage List. Currently, the book is translated into 67 languages. Every modern schoolchild knows the Jewish girl’s name.

“This is proof that history isn’t statistics and facts, it’s always the fates of people,” said Friedberg.

Anne wrote her last entry in the diary on August 1, 1944. Everybody who was hiding in the building was found, arrested and sent to a death camp. Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March of 1945.

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”’ Friedman stopped reading and looked up. “That’s my favorite quote from her diary. It’s painful to think that the girl believed in humanity until her last days.”

The 15-year-old girl’s 7-month stay at the camp, punctuated by slave labor, hunger and finally death, hardly confirm her optimistic words. Anne’s father Otto was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust. He decided to publish the diary as proof that his daughter lived, loved and hoped. Anne became the voice of 6 million Jews – the victims of the Holocaust.

“Just think about how many talented and smart children like that were destroyed,” said Friedman.

One-point-five million Jewish children died during the years of the Holocaust. “Multiply this number by a million,” they say at the Memorial Museum in Washington. The lost life of a child is lost generations. Proof of that is the fate of a girl named Louisa, who was in hiding on the same street as Anne Frank. She survived. Today, 75-year-old Louisa Lawrence lives in Bethesda, Maryland and has three daughters and six grandchildren. Most often today, she has to answer the question: How does she feel about the thought that she was able to survive, but Anne, the girl who lived next door, didn’t?

“I am truly sorry for her,” said Lawrence. “But at the same time I’m thankful that my family was able to survive. I remember when The Diary of Anne Frank was published, everyone was uncomfortable. They didn’t want to talk about it, because it was painful, and embarrassing for others. This diary, written with the truthful words of a young girl, forced the world to hear about the horrors of that time.”
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Police in Russia have detained hundreds of protesters and some journalists at anti-corruption demonstrations in cities across the country on Russia’s national day.  The protests were organized by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained in Moscow as he left his home to try to join a demonstration in the capital.  VOA’s Moscow Correspondent Daniel Schearf reports that the White House condemned the detentions and said it is monitoring the situation.
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