Month: May 2017

U.S. congressional panels are issuing new subpoenas to Michael Flynn, in an effort to force him to turn over documents and testify about his brief tenure as President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser.

Flynn rebuffed the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this week, refusing to hand over information it had requested about the 24 days he held the key White House post in the first weeks of the Trump administration.  Trump fired him for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in the weeks before Trump assumed power.

But the Senate intelligence panel, and its counterpart in the House of Representatives, say they are they are issuing new subpoenas to Flynn.  He is a retired Army general who was one of Trump’s key political surrogates on the campaign trail last year.

“We initially requested his voluntary participation,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House panel, told reporters Wednesday. “He declined. We are going to be subpoenaing him.”

In refusing to turn over documents to the Senate panel, Flynn invoked his U.S. Constitution Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.  Legal experts say that if he handed over the information to congressional investigators he would risk not being able to claim the same privilege and refuse to testify before congressional panels investigating how Russia meddled in last year’s U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials to help Trump win.

One lawmaker, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, told CNN, “I think he’s going to have to tell his story.”

Another senator, Susan Collins of Maine, told VOA, the Senate panel issued a new subpoena for Flynn’s business records.

“It is dubious that a Fifth Amendment claim can be attached to a request for business records, and that is one reason we are pursuing that route,” she said.

Collins said the business records “may indicate payments from the Russian government or affiliated entities.  They may indicate meetings that were held.  We just don’t know.  That’s why we want to examine them.”

Flynn was paid more than $30,000 in recent years to attend Moscow events, including a 2015 dinner celebrating the Kremlin-backed RT television network where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and more than $500,000 to represent Turkish interests in the United States.  The Defense Department’s inspector general is investigating whether Flynn sought permission to receive the payments after being specifically warned when he retired from the military to not accept money from foreign governments.

While the congressional panels conduct their probes, Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency, was named last week to head a criminal investigation about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Trump has been dismissive of the various investigations, contending they are a “witch hunt” promoted by opposition Democrats as an excuse to explain his upset of Hillary Clinton.

 
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Russia’s aging Communist Party is attempting to attract new, young members by using pop culture and addressing their growing concerns over alleged corruption and income inequality.

Russia’s Communist Party, a successor from the Soviet Union’s, is celebrating 95 years in May since the founding of its youth Pioneers movement.

On Moscow’s Red Square Sunday, young Communist Party members wearing red hats and bandannas waved flags, while others danced to traditional songs; some were indoctrinated into the Leninist Young Communist League of Russia, known as the Komsomol.

Aging leaders of the party laid flowers at the tomb of their founder, Vladimir Lenin. But they insist the Communist Party is far from dying.

“An entire group has today joined the Komsomol,” said Chairman of Russia’s Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov. “These are guys who we made Pioneers some time ago. And recently 60,000 people of the younger generation have become party members. The organization lives and progresses.”

But the Communist Party, like its 73-year-old chairman, is getting old.

“The statement that the Communist Party is a ‘party of pensioners’ is quite correct, but just partly,” said Communist Party member and artist Igor Petrygin-Rodionov. “Because a change of generations is going on, and the older generation is leaving — though struggling and quite reluctantly.”

Looking for youth

Petrygin-Rodionov was enlisted by the party to try to attract younger members by using images from popular and Western culture. At his Saint Petersburg studio, a promotional poster depicts Lenin using a Communist Party laptop with the slogan “The Second Century is Online.”

At a weekend exhibit at Saint Petersburg’s University of Technology Management and Economics, Petrygin-Rodionov displays some of his most well-known posters. One revamps the famous image of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin smoking a pipe by replacing it with an electronic cigarette. Another shows communism’s founding father, Karl Marx, wearing a leather jacket and jeans with the Arnold Schwarzenegger slogan, from the film Terminator, “I’ll Be Back.”

But selling communism to Russia’s modern youth is no small challenge.

“One can’t say that communism was either bad or good,” said a student attending the exhibit who gave only his first name, Gena. “It is impossible to go back to communism, like it is impossible to go back in time or to push the toothpaste back into the tube.”

Concerns about corruption and growing inequality are rallying some young Russians, but not necessarily to their grandparent’s communist party.

New idea of communism

“There is no communism yet,” said the leader of the Moscow Duma faction of the Communist Party, Andrey Klychkov. “There is no communism in China either. When we ask what Chinese socialism is and why private property rights, enrichment opportunities are present there, the Chinese say, ‘That it is a least-evil measure for the construction of communism, when we reach it, we won’t have it.’ That’s why we are talking today about a different approach.”

Klychkov was speaking at a protest rally against a plan by Russian authorities to demolish up to 8,000 Soviet-era buildings in Moscow and relocate more than a million residents. The plan has raised suspicions of corruption and sparked demonstrations, including by the Communist Party.

“Today the main strategy is in giving the young people an opportunity to implement their ideas,” said Klychkov. “Not everybody accepts the reproduction of the Soviet past. But the ideas of socialism and social justice, as well as positive attitudes to the Soviet past, start prevailing among many young people, as social studies show.”

New leadership

To re-energize the party, Russia’s communists may for the first time in 24 years elect a new leader at the party’s congress this week. Zyuganov has led the party since it was allowed to be reconstituted in 1993, after being banned with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Klychkov, the party’s candidate for the 2018 Moscow mayor election, is one possibility.

“… it’s not a question of me replacing him,” said Klychkov. “The question of electing the party leader is for the party congress. And the congress will take a decision in the near future on May 26 or 27.”

Regardless of any next generation leadership, few expect the once revolutionary party of Vladimir Lenin to pose a real challenge to Russia’s ruling elite.

Although its leaders deny being part of a so-called “systemic opposition,” the Communist Party has supported the Kremlin on most domestic policies and almost all foreign ones.

VOA’s Ricardo Marquina Montanana and Olga Pavlova contributed to this report.
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Rihanna Hardy had been excited about seeing Ariana Grande ever since she got her concert ticket as a Christmas gift. So when the day came, the 11-year-old left school a couple of hours early to make sure to get to Manchester Arena on time.

Her parents, Ryan and Shauna, took the afternoon off work, and the family drove the 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Newcastle to Manchester. They struggled to find the arena’s multistory parking lot, and barely managed to buy Rihanna a black Ariana Grande tour sweatshirt before the concert started.

But what was supposed to be a special night for Rihanna and thousands of other young concertgoers turned into a tragedy when a suicide bomb blasted off just outside the cavernous hall. It killed 22 people, including an 8-year-old girl, and injured 59 — the deadliest attack in Britain in more than a decade.

“Poor Rihanna … just kept asking every five or 10 seconds, ‘Are we going to die?’ Those were her exact words,” her father said.

The family took their seats, close to the stage, just before the first of two supporting acts warmed up the crowd. The arena, which seats 21,000, was packed. Many clutched pink balloons and donned cat ears, like those the 23-year-old Grande is famous for wearing.

As the former star of the Nickelodeon series “Victorious” sang and danced her way through her set, the arena heated up. Young children and their parents glistened with sweat.

Then, as the concert ended, the horror began.

Just a few minutes after Grande finished her final song, “Dangerous Woman,” blew a kiss to the audience and left the stage, the house lights came back on. People began filing toward the exits.

It was then that a suspect identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi set off his suicide bomb in the foyer, near a road linking the venue to the city’s railway station. Witnesses described seeing bolts and other bits of metal at the scene of the blast.

The boom echoed through Manchester Arena, shaking the floor with a hollow thud. Thousands of Ariana Grande fans — many of them youngsters accompanied by their parents — fell silent for a few seconds, in shock. Then the screaming started.

“I thought we were going to die. It was just horrendous,” said Rihanna’s mother.

Panic descended on the hall.

“It was just sheer chaos,” said Kirstyn Pollard, who had a seat close to the stage. “People were trying to get off the balconies. It was awful.”

Melissa Andre and two friends clambered over a security barrier in their rush to get out. It was already dented from other concertgoers fleeing the arena, as officials tried frantically to restore order.

“A security official was on stage saying ‘Be calm, everything’s fine,’ ” said Andre, 20. “I think they were just saying that to calm people down before they got out. And then when we got out, the alarm went off.”

Police were called in at 10:33 p.m. As they arrived, a smell hung in the air — a bit like smoke, a bit like burning, nothing the Ryans had ever smelled before.

“I can’t describe it. It was a really awful smell,” Shauna Hardy said. “And there was just alarms going off, police everywhere. Sirens everywhere. People running, screaming. It was just crazy. Absolutely crazy.”

Ryan Hardy desperately tried to slow down his wife and daughter as they left the arena, worried they might fall in the crush of people fleeing the carnage. They emerged from the stifling heat of the concert hall into the cool night.

“Everyone else was running out the entrance while he was walking out the entrance,” Rihanna —  still wearing her Ariana Grande sweatshirt — said Tuesday, looking up proudly at her dad.

Police and paramedics rushed to aid the wounded, wrapping some in foil blankets to keep them warm and ward off shock. Others hobbled off into the night, their clothes torn and stained by blood.

Charlotte Fairclough, 14, was part of the rush to flee.

“Everyone was like scrambling over each other,” she said. “Quite a few people got knocked over. It was like just a race to get out.”

When Charlotte got out, she immediately called her mom, Stacy, who was waiting to pick up her daughter and a friend. The she called again to say she’d heard a big bang.

Her mother, at the time, wasn’t too worried.

“I’d heard fireworks earlier in the night, so I wasn’t too concerned to start with,” she said.

The full scale of the attack did not hit home until they turned on the news at a hotel.

The Hardy family escaped unscathed, but the shock of the night endured even as they tried to sleep it off. When a door slammed loudly at half past five in the morning, Rihanna got frightened.

“There are a lot of people killed, a lot of people injured, a lot of people missing,” Shauna Hardy said. “And we just feel so so lucky that we are all together.”
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Ariana Grande returned to the United States on Tuesday, one day after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at the singer’s concert in Manchester, England, as questions lingered over whether she would continue her European tour.

Grande, 23, was seen in photographs posted by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper walking down the steps of a private plane at an airport in her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida, and being met by family members.

The Daily Mail images showed the diminutive pop star dressed casually in sweats and appearing downcast as she greeted her boyfriend, the rapper Mac Miller, on the tarmac.

Grande had not been seen publicly since an explosion ripped through the packed Manchester Arena at the end of her performance there. Some of the 22 people who died in the attack were teens or young girls. Grande was apparently unharmed.

British police have identified the man suspected of carrying out the massacre as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who was born in Manchester to parents of Libyan origin. Islamic State claimed responsibility for what it called revenge against “Crusaders,” but there appeared to be contradictions in its account of the operation.

In her only statement so far, Grande took to Twitter some five hours after the bombing to describe herself as “broken” in the aftermath of the attack.

“from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words,” she said in the tweet.

Grande was performing in Manchester during the European leg of a tour to promote her third album, “Dangerous Woman,” which also has her scheduled to visit London, Belgium, Poland, Germany and Switzerland in the coming weeks.

Despite speculation that she would cancel the rest of the tour, no formal announcement had been made as of Tuesday. Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, did not respond to requests for comment by Reuters.

“We mourn the lives of children and loved ones taken by this cowardly act,” Braun said in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday evening. “We ask all of you to hold the victims, heir families and all those affected in your hearts and prayers.”

Grande, a native of Boca Raton, starred in the Broadway musical “13” and on the Nickelodeon TV series “Victorious” before releasing her solo debut album, “Yours Truly.”

Best known for her singles “Problem” and “Break Free,” Grande is credited with having an exceptionally broad vocal range for a pop star.
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The suspected suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester, northern England, on Monday has been identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, British police said.

Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994 to parents of Libyan birth, U.S. security officials said, citing British intelligence officials. Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Abedi was born and brought up in Britain.

His parents emigrated from Libya to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester, where they have lived for at least 10 years, the U.S. officials said. Police raided a house in Elsmore Road in Fallowfield earlier on Tuesday.

A U.S. government source said investigators were looking into whether Abedi had traveled to Libya and whether he had been in touch with Islamic State militants there. The Times newspaper said Abedi was believed to have returned to Britain from Libya recently.

The University of Salford, based in Manchester, said in a statement that Abedi was one of its students and it was helping the police with their investigation.

Police arrest man

A 23-year-old man arrested by police in a separate move in south Manchester in connection with the attack on Tuesday was believed to be Abedi’s brother, news reports said.

Abedi had a sister named Jomana Abedi, the U.S. security officials said.

Abdalla Yousef, a spokesman for the Didsbury Mosque in Manchester, said Abedi’s father and brother had prayed there but Abedi had worshipped at another mosque.

“I have managed to track down somebody who knows the family. He confirmed his father and sister and the rest of the family had moved to Libya and had moved there straight after the revolution after Gadaffi was killed,” Yousef said.

He said it was possible the brothers had traveled between the two countries since then.

A trustee of the mosque, Fawzi Haffar, said Abedi’s father was currently in Libya and had been there for a while.
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U.S. President Donald Trump stops at the Vatican Wednesday for a meeting with Pope Francis. It is the last of Trump’s visits to the seats of the world’s three Abrahamic religions. The first two – Saudi Arabia and Israel – were filled with symbolism, ceremony and history. But as VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein reports, this one will be shorter, less formal, and possibly more awkward.
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Bombing at Manchester Concert Kills 19
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Ariana Grande is an American pop singer, dancer and actress. Grande was born in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1993 and began performing onstage when she was a child.

A role in a Broadway play at age 15, followed by some small TV roles, helped her land a role on TV’s “Victorious,” which was set in a performing arts high school. Grande was cast as a goofy aspiring singer-actress named Cat Valentine.

Her pop music career was set off by “Victorious,” and she was signed to the Universal Republic Record label. In 2012, her first single “Put Your Hearts Up” gained great attention, debuting at number 25 on the pop charts.

Her debut album, Yours Truly, was released in August 2013. Grande’s 2014 release, “My Everything,” sold 169,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 1.

In 2015, Grande released Christmas & Chill, a holiday album, and the single “Focus.” In February 2016, she released her third album Dangerous Woman, and the title track debuted at number 10 on the Hot 100 that March.

With it, Grande became the the first person in the history of that chart to have the lead single from each of her first three albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Grande’s accolades include three American Music Awards, the Music Business Association’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year, an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards and four Grammy Award nominations.

In 2016, Time magazine named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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When U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive Wednesday at the Vatican for a planned 20-minute audience with Pope Francis and Roman Catholic Church leaders they will be received with far less pomp than in Saudi Arabia.

Their arrival at the Vatican will be via what’s in effect a side-entrance to the Holy See, Porta del Perugino, a consequence of the pope’s request the faithful not be disturbed in St. Peter’s Square on the eve of Ascension Day. The pope is scheduled to hold his regular general audience in the square shortly after meeting Trump.

The understated arrival, though, is reflective of an eagerness by both the White House and the Vatican to lower expectations. American and Vatican officials have been nervous in the run-up to the meeting.

Tense exchanges

The two men have never met, but they have traded pointed exchanges. Last year, in February, Trump accused Francis of allowing himself to be used as a political pawn by the Mexican government on the issue of migration. The pontiff responded by questioning then-candidate Trump’s Christian faith, saying his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico had no basis in the Gospel. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian,” the pontiff told reporters while flying to Mexico.

That drew a harsh retort from Trump, who replied to Francis’ comments with a three paragraph statement in which he warned the Vatican could be attacked by Islamic State terrorists and then church leaders would be grateful if he were in the White House. “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” Trump said.

Since then the pair have not argued directly, but the pope, the spiritual leader of America’s 50 million Catholics, has clearly been at odds with Trump on a range of issues, including climate change, asylum-seekers and nuclear arms.

Bridging the divide

Earlier this month, though, Francis was more conciliatory, saying the upcoming Trump visit offered an opportunity to listen to each other. “I never make a judgment about a person without listening to them,” the pontiff said. He followed up by saying, “I will say what I think; he will say what he thinks.”

In recent weeks there have been intense discussions about the agenda for the meeting, and, a Vatican official told VOA, they aimed to avoid “mishap” and to stage a partial reconciliation between the pope and the president. For the White House, a good visit at the Vatican will help further the goal of presenting Trump as a figure eager to unite three religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, in the fight against Islamic militants.

Papal aides told Corriere della Sera newspaper Sunday, “the meeting will be fine.” Although the paper commented that it wasn’t sure if this were a prediction, a wish or a prayer. An official told the newspaper that Melania Trump’s attendance was being seen by some papal aides as useful, as it would likely help to prevent the encounter from becoming too hard-edged.

But for all their differences, the pope, who is highly political, is guided by a deep wish to forge unity and to build consensus and he sees disagreement as a useful dynamic, argue some Vatican-watchers. In Argentina, as a cardinal he strove to nurture relationships with diametrically opposed politicians and to build trust with them and between them, acting as a pastor.

American Catholics

Francis will also likely be mindful that six in 10 white American Catholics backed Trump in the November elections. There is already considerable tension between the Vatican and American Catholics, especially over the church’s handling of child abuse by parish priests.

While some U.S. and Italian reporters are anticipating the meeting between the pair as a possible prize-fight between ideological pugilists, some who know the pontiff say he will search for common ground and may focus on the downsides of globalization to the need to combat human trafficking.

Austen Ivereigh, who has written a book on the pontiff, argued Sunday in Crux, a U.S.-based independent Catholic media outlet, “Pope Francis wants to be in a relationship with world leaders, whomever they are, and whatever their views, so that when the opportunity to work together arises, the bond is there.”
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Thousands of Moscow residents protested this month against plans to move more than a million people if their apartments, built during the 1950’s era of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, are torn down. 

Russian authorities say some 8,000 short-story buildings are in disrepair, and promise to find or build the residents better apartments.  While some living in crumbling buildings celebrate, many Muscovites are skeptical and suspect corruption.

Families like Elmira Shagiakhmetova’s have lived in their home for generations.  They are shocked that it may be demolished.  

“I’ll be here until the bulldozers start,” says Elmira.  “I am not going to leave as by the (Russian) Constitution I have the right to stay in my property. This building is not falling apart.”

Family home

For Elmira and her mother, Galina, their modest but recently-refurbished two bedroom apartment is a home full of memories.  “We moved here in ’79 and it’s the place where my children were born, lived and their conscious experience started,” says Galina.  “It’s my history and my memory.”

Galina moved out some years ago and her husband passed away.  But the apartment is still their family home.

“When my father was still alive we celebrated his 50th birthday,” says Elmira describing the scene as she sits in the same living room.  “So many people came to congratulate him that we couldn’t find seats for them all in one room.  So the tables continued into the corridor.  And I remember this because then I understood how important it was to have a home that would hold all your friends together.”

Public uproar

After a public uproar, Moscow guaranteed the residents better apartments in the same areas or ‘appropriate’ financial compensation.  City authorities removed about half the buildings from a demolition list, including Elmira’s, and say they now will be razed only if more than two-thirds of residents agree.  Those living in Elmira’s building are to take a vote at the end of May.

But, like many Muscovites resisting the plan, Galina and Elmira suspect corruption as their building was not even inspected before its supposed need for demolition was announced.  “You know, a special commission should work and declare the building dangerous to live in,” says Galina.  “We have not seen such a commission ever here. So by many indications we may judge that it is not the people who are most important, but the location.”

Elmira agrees.  “The draft (law) that’s debated now is not about improvement of the living conditions, it’s about overriding the rights of property owners,” she says.  “It allows the authorities to get the land on which the houses stand free and to strip off the owners of their right to own and defend their property.”

No comment

The Moscow mayor’s office did not respond to VOA’s request for a TV interview with a spokesperson on the issue or written replies to submitted questions. 

Russian media reports quoted Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying he was prepared to take unpopular moves if he felt it was best for the city and people. 

Russia’s parliament is still drafting the final legislation for the Moscow renovation plan.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the law should not violate property rights or he would not sign it.

For families like Elmira’s, the controversy has moved them – for the first time – to protest against the state.  If authorities fail to satisfy Russians in the capital, they risk growing opposition at the polls in next year’s key presidential and mayoral elections. 

Ricardo Marquina Montanana contributed to this report.
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Resistance is building in Moscow over buildings — Soviet-era apartment buildings, scheduled to be demolished because authorities say they are in disrepair. They promise the million-plus people displaced will be relocated to new, modern apartments. But many Muscovites are skeptical, spawning protests and feeding suspicions of corruption. More from VOA’s Moscow correspondent Daniel; Schearf.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. has expressed its “dismay” to Turkish officials about last week’s clash in which Turkish security personnel apparently attacked demonstrators in Washington.

Tillerson told Fox News Sunday that Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S. has been told that last Tuesday’s violence was “simply unacceptable.”

“There is an ongoing investigation,” he said, adding that he will wait on the outcome of that probe before deciding on a more formal response.

The clash broke out between Turkish security personnel and protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington.

Protesters say they were attacked by Turkish security forces as they demonstrated peacefully. Turkey blamed the clash on the demonstrators, claiming they aggressively provoked people who had gathered to see Erdogan.

VOA’s Turkish service recorded images at the scene that indicated the Turkish security detail suddenly turned on the demonstrators, knocking them to the ground and kicking them until American police pushed the Turks away. The video showed Erdogan standing beside his limousine, watching the brawl.

U.S. officials briefly detained two members of Erdogan’s security detail, but they were soon released, under customary diplomatic protocols granting immunity to aides accompanying a visiting dignitary.

Some U.S. lawmakers have demanded the United States take stronger action, including Republican Senator John McCain, who called for the Turkish ambassador to be expelled.

 
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Germany’s Social Democrats raised pressure on conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, saying if she could not resolve a row with Turkey over access to the Incirlik air base, German troops should move.

Merkel’s defense minister, tacitly admitting the possibility said she had been looking for other locations and hinted that Jordan could be one.

Turkey, which has refused permission for German lawmakers to visit their troops at Incirlik, has said Berlin is free to move its soldiers from the base. That would, however, be a significant snub to a NATO ally.

Already strained bilateral ties have deteriorated further over Incirlik where roughly 250 German soldiers are stationed as part of the coalition against Islamic State militants.

“If Mrs Merkel doesn’t succeed at the NATO summit on Thursday to get Turkey to change course, we need alternative bases,” Thomas Oppermann, head of the SPD parliamentary group told Bild am Sonntag.

The SPD, or Social Democrats, trail Merkel’s conservatives in polls four months before the national election. It is desperate to score points with voters on issues other than social justice, its main focus in the last couple of months which has so far failed to resonate.

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is looking at alternatives, including Jordan and Cyprus, and said on Saturday she had been impressed with a possible base in Jordan but stressed the government had not yet made a decision.

Merkel is vulnerable on relations with Turkey as critics accuse her of cosying up to President Tayyip Erdogan, who last month won sweeping new powers in a referendum, as she needs his help to control the flow of migrants to western Europe.

The SPD, junior partner in Merkel’s right-left coalition, also tried at the weekend to raise its profile on European issues.

Leader Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, has tried to ally himself with new pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron and on Saturday said he would model his campaign on the Frenchman’s.

On Sunday he told a rally in Bavaria it was time for a “new German-French initiative for a socially fair Europe of growth.”

A week after a disastrous election defeat in Germany’s most populous state, an Emnid poll showed the gap widening between Merkel’s conservatives, up 1 percentage point at 38 percent, and the SPD, down 1 point at 26 percent.
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U.S. President Donald Trump raised the firing of his FBI director in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday.

“The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news,” H.R. McMaster said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Reports that Trump boasted to Russian officials of firing former FBI director James Comey to relieve “great pressure” from a law-enforcement probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election engulfed his administration in turmoil just as Trump left for his first foreign trip as president on Friday.

“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump said during a May 10 meeting with Russian officials, according to a report by The New York Times that cited a document summarizing the meeting and an unnamed U.S. official.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Comey had come up during the meeting, according to Interfax news agency.

McMaster also said in Sunday’s interview that the central purpose of Trump’s conversation with Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to Washington was to confront Russia on areas where the United States considers them disruptive, such as Syria.

McMaster criticized sources who told reporters that Trump had disclosed highly classified information to the Russian officials in the meeting about a planned Islamic State operation.

“In a concern about divulging intelligence they leaked actually not just the information from the meeting, but also indicated the sources and methods to a to a newspaper. I mean it doesn’t make sense,” McMaster said.”
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The Macedonian Interior Ministry has suspended 16 police officers for their failure to prevent a violent storming of the parliament building by nationalist protesters.

The angry invasion of the parliament on April 27, which included masked men, resulted in dozens of journalists and lawmakers being injured, including Social Democratic Union leader Zoran Zaev.

Zaev is now attempting to form a government and become Macedonia’s prime minister after he received the mandate from President Gjorge Ivanov, who had previously refused to do so.

The attack on parliament came after the appointment of an ethnic Albanian, Talat Xhaferi, as speaker.

The May 20 announcement named 11 police officers, four members of the special police unit, and a senior ministry official as being suspended because they “passively observed a crowd who entered and moved freely within the parliament…and did not help other police officers,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that disciplinary proceedings had also begun against the suspended police.

About 25 percent of Macedonia’s 2 million citizens are ethnic Albanians.

The attack on parliament was seen as a blow for the country’s aspirations to join both NATO and the EU.

Nationalists were upset by demands made by the ethnic Albanian parties that were negotiating to form a government with the Social Democrats, including making Albanian a second state language.

Some material for this report came from AFP and AP.
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Evidence of far-right extremism within the German armed forces is growing following the arrest Friday of four students at a military university in Munich. Police are trying to establish whether they have links to another soldier accused of plotting to frame refugees in a terror attack. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the allegations remain sensitive in a country where the 20th century Nazi history casts a long shadow.
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During President Donald Trump’s first overseas trip, he will meet in Brussels with the other leaders of NATO member states. Some of them are nervous about the president’s commitment to the defense alliance in which the United States has played a central role since NATO’s formation at the start of the Cold War. VOA White House Bureau Chief Correspondent Steve Herman reports.
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The U.S. State Department said a clash in Washington this week in which Turkish security personnel apparently attacked demonstrators was “deeply disturbing.”

A State Department statement Friday promised a “thorough investigation’’ to hold those responsible accountable. Tom Shannon, the acting deputy secretary of state, met Wednesday with Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic to discuss the altercation.

“The State Department has raised its concerns about these events at the highest levels,” the statement said.

Watch: Turkish President Erdogan Watched Violent Clash Near Embassy

The clash broke out Tuesday between Turkish security personnel and protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington.

Protesters say they were attacked by Turkish security forces as they demonstrated peacefully. Turkey blamed the clash on the demonstrators, claiming they aggressively provoked people who had gathered to see Erdogan.

VOA reporters recorded images at the scene that indicated the Turkish security detail suddenly turned on the demonstrators, knocking them to the ground and kicking them until American police pushed the Turks away. The video showed Erdogan standing beside his limousine, watching the brawl.

U.S. officials briefly detained two members of Erdogan’s security detail, but they were soon released, under customary diplomatic protocols granting immunity to aides accompanying a visiting dignitary.

Some U.S. lawmakers have demanded the United States take stronger action.
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Sweden’s top prosecutor says she is dropping an investigation into a rape claim against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after almost seven years.

“Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny has today decided to discontinue the preliminary investigation regarding suspected rape concerning Julian Assange,” the prosecutors office said in a statement.

Assange, 45, took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 to escape extradition to Sweden to answer questions about sex-crime allegations from two women, which he denies. He has been there ever since, fearing that if he is arrested he might ultimately be extradited to the United States.

Friday’s announcement means Assange is no longer under any investigation in Sweden.

British police said Assange would still be arrested if he leaves the embassy. 

“Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012,” London police said in a statement. “The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy.”

Reuters contributed to this report.
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Donald Trump begins his maiden international trip as U.S. president Friday, leaving the White House awash in a slew of controversies that has some politicians invoking comparisons to the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.

“We look forward to getting this whole situation behind us,” Donald Trump told reporters Thursday.

The controversies include the firing of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey amid allegations Trump wanted Comey to stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The president is also facing questions about his ties with Russia during the presidential election and allegations he revealed classified material to Russia’s foreign minister during a meeting in the Oval Office.

The stops include

Stops on the upcoming trip include Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican; places sacred to three of the world’s major religions.

In Saudi Arabia, Trump, who has been outspoken about his mistrust of Muslims and has tried to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., is set to deliver a speech on Islam before a group of Muslim leaders. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, said the president is hopeful for the emergence of a peaceful vision of Islam.

Controversy precedes the U.S. president on his stop in Israel as well, following Trump’s alleged disclosure of Israeli intelligence to Russian officials.

Meeting with Pope Francis

The U.S. president will also go to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis who has said he will not make any judgments about Trump before meeting him.

Trump will then go to Belgium, where he will meet with NATO members in Brussels before ending his trip in the Sicilian town of Taormina for a G-7 summit.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir will not attend the Islamic summit with Trump in Saudi Arabia, according to Sudan’s state news agency SUNA.  The agency said “personal reasons” were preventing him from attending, but did not list the reasons.  

Bashir has for years faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court for crimes committed against civilians in Darfur. He has yet to be arrested.
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Emerging from her crushing defeat in France’s presidential contest, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Thursday she will run for a parliamentary seat in June elections and that her National Front party has “an essential role” in a new political landscape.

Le Pen will run for a seat in a district in her northern stronghold of Henin-Beaumont, a hardscrabble former mining region where she lost a similar bid in 2012. A new failure could jinx her bid to unite the National Front and to make it France’s leading opposition party.

“I cannot imagine not being at the head of my troops in a battle I consider fundamental,” Le Pen said in an interview on the TF1 television station, her first public appearance since her May 7 loss to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen announced her candidacy while facing forces of division that could frustrate her new goals. Her popular niece is leaving politics, her disruptive father is back in the ring and her party is in disarray.

At the same time, Macron has upset the political equation, drawing from the left and right to win the presidency and to create his government. The new president now is looking across the political spectrum to obtain a parliamentary majority to support his agenda. 

“We are in reality the only opposition movement,” Le Pen said.

“We will have an essential role to play (and) a role in the recomposing of political life,” she said, reiterating her contention that the left-right divide has been replaced by “globalists, Europeanists and nationalists” like herself.

Le Pen is counting on the 10.6 million votes she received as a presidential candidate to propel her anti-immigration party into parliament in the June 11 and June 18 elections.

The party also hopes to pick up votes from “electoral orphans” unsatisfied with Macron and feeling betrayed by the mainstream right, National Front Secretary-General Nicolas Bay said this week.

The National Front plans to field candidates for each of France’s 577 electoral districts, hoping to block Macron’s movement from obtaining a majority of seats and to secure a strong bloc of its own to counter his new government.

Le Pen dismissed the notion that there were links between her loss and a series of events widely seen as potentially weakening the National Front.

The party recently lost a rising star who served as a unifier on its conservative southern flank. One of the National Front’s two current lawmakers – Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen –  announced last week that she was leaving politics, at least temporarily.

Enter Jean-Marie Le Pen, who likened his granddaughter’s exit from politics to a “desertion.”

The elder Le Pen, who was expelled from the party he co-founded because of his penchant for making anti-Semitic comments, is backing up to 200 parliamentary candidates through an ultra-conservative alliance, the Union of Patriots.

Some of the five parties represented in the alliance are headed by former National Front militants who, like Jean-Marie Le Pen, were expelled by his daughter in her bid to scrub up the party’s image for the presidential contest.

His own Jeanne Committees will present some 35 of the 200 candidates. The decision smacks of revenge, but the elder Le Pen’s aide denied that was the case.

“This is not meant to cause trouble for the National Front. It is to defend the values that the National Front no longer defends,” the aide, Lorrain de Saint Affrique, said.

The risk that other far-right parties would challenge the National Front “has existed since the National Front decided to exclude Jean-Marie Le Pen,” De Saint Affrique said. “They should have thought of that then.”

The competition from all but obscure parties is not a substantial threat to Le Pen, but mirrors frustrations roiling the National Front, some of which became public following Le Pen’s defeat.

More menacing, her top lieutenant, Florian Philippot suggested after Le Pen’s loss to Macron that he would leave the party if it decided to do away with the goal of leaving the euro currency – a divisive proposal but at the top of Le Pen’s presidential platform.

“I’m not there to keep a post at any price and defend the reverse of my deep convictions,” he said last week on RMC radio.

Le Pen conceded Thursday that the subject of the euro “considerably worried the French” and would be discussed after the parliamentary elections. “We will have to take this into account, reflect,” she said.

She welcomed Philippot’s launching this week of an association, called The Patriots, which could be seen as the budding of a potential rival, like the movement Macron started 13 months ago, En Marche (On the Move).

“The more ideas the better,” she said.
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After his Oscar-nominated film “Leviathan” was deemed “anti-Russian” by Russia’s Minister of Culture, director Andrey Zvyagintsev returned to the Cannes Film Festival with an equally bleak critique of Russian society.

Zvyagintsev was to premiere his fourth film, “Loveless,” on Thursday in Cannes, where “Leviathan” won best screenplay three years ago. That film, which also won a Golden Globe, was made with Russian state funding and prompted Russia’s culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, to refuse any further state financing for what he called Zvyagintsev’s mix of “hopelessness and existential meaninglessness.”

“Loveless” was instead made as an international co-production. The film is ostensibly about a bitterly divorcing couple (Mariana Spivak and Alexey Rozin), whose young son (Matvey Novikov) goes missing. But “Loveless” is also filled with state news reports and other sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant references that – as in “Leviathan” – suggest Russia’s politics has bankrupted its society.

“The Ministry of Culture went to great pains to emphasize how much they disliked ‘Leviathan’ and their desire to avoid the repetition of this kind of mistake in the future,” said producer Alexander Rodnyansky. “After the uproar that ‘Leviathan’ caused in Russia, I made a conscious decision to do this without any state involvement. I decided we didn’t need to embarrass them again and to do the film on our own.”

Grim and controlled, “Loveless” is initially focused on the relationships of its central characters. But Zvyagintsev steadily builds political subtext into the tale that, by the end, moves to the film’s center. State propaganda on Ukraine is heard on the radio and on TV. In one pivotal scene, the mother wears a jogging suit emblazed with “Russia” and the national colors.

Though it didn’t immediately earn the same widespread praise as “Leviathan,” London’s Daily Telegraph praised “Loveless” as “an opaque but pitiless critique on the director’s native Russia.”

Variety wrote: “Zvyagintsev can’t come right out and declare, in bright sharp colors, the full corruption of his society, but he can make a movie like ‘Leviathan,’ which took the spiritual temperature of a middle-class Russia lost in booze and betrayal, and he can make one like ‘Loveless,’ which takes an ominous, reverberating look not at the politics of Russia but at the crisis of empathy at the culture’s core.”

In one unusual exchange Wednesday, a reporter accused Zvyagintsev of proffering his own propaganda.

“Certainly not,” said Zvyagintsev. “If you saw ‘Leviathan’ then you know where I stand vis-a-vis the powers that be. It’s not supposed to be propaganda at all in this episode. You do see these scenes on TV. It’s Russian life, Russian society, Russian anguish at the end of the day. But it’s also universal, not just Russian.”

“Loveless” will be released in Russia by a unit of Sony Pictures and the Walt Disney Co. on June 1. “Leviathan” made $1.5 million at the Russian box office in 2015. Millions, however, watched a copy that leaked online.

On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film for U.S. distribution.

 
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U.S. officials say they are closely following Ukraine’s order blocking access to a number of Russian websites in the latest round of sanctions over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The U.S. State Department has not taken an official position on the matter. However a U.S. official on background told VOA that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s recent decision to cut access to several popular Russian websites, such as search engine Yandex, for three years, undermines Kyiv’s constitutionally enshrined right to free expression.

Despite Russian-controlled media campaigns that seek to undermine Western media—and the Ukrainian government—with fake stories and false information, “freedom of expression is a key element of every healthy democracy, and it is enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution.”

“We call on the Ukrainian government to find a way to protect its national interests that does not undermine its constitutional principles,” the official said.

Asked if there was any communication between U.S. and Ukrainian officials prior to Poroshenko’s announcement of the ban, the official said although they could not comment on private diplomatic conversations regarding specific issues, “we have routinely engaged in conversations with the government of Ukraine about the importance of upholding free expression.”

The listed websites were still functioning in Ukraine on Tuesday, and it is unclear how and when the government plans to block them.

The Ukrainian government cited security concerns, saying the ban was imposed partly to protect against companies “whose activities threaten the information and cyber security of Ukraine,” according to a statement released by the Security and Defense Council.

The latest round of sanctions adds Yandex and social media sites Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte to the list of over 400 Russian firms blacklisted by Kyiv since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and consequent pro-Russian separatist uprising in 2014. According to the Reuters news agency, the Kremlin has threatened retaliation.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Ukrainian Service.

 
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday mocked U.S. news reports suggesting President Donald Trump inappropriately shared sensitive intelligence with him about terror threats involving laptops on airplanes.

Without directly confirming the details of their conversation, Lavrov said he didn’t understand what the “secret” was since the U.S. introduced a ban on laptops on airlines from some Middle Eastern countries two months ago.

He joked that some U.S. media were acting like communist newspapers in the former Soviet Union and not offering real news.

“There used to be a joke in the Soviet Union that there was a newspaper, Pravda, so-called Truth, that there was no ‘izvestia’ or news in there,” Lavrov said. “Truly, I get this impression that many U.S. media are working in this vein.”

Lavrov was in Cyprus on Thursday for talks with his Cypriot counterpart.

Asked to comment on the controversy surrounding the reported intelligence-sharing, he said media have reported that “the secret” Trump told him was that “`terrorists’ are capable of stuffing laptops, all kinds of electronic devices, with untraceable explosive materials.”

“As far as I can recall, the Trump administration maybe one month or two months before the Trump administration had an official ban on laptops on airlines from seven Middle Eastern counties and it was connected directly with the terrorist threat,” Lavrov added. “So, if you’re talking about that, I see no secret here.”

The Washington Post reported this week that Trump shared highly classified information with Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak about an Islamic State terror threat involving laptop computers on aircraft. Other outlets, including The Associated Press, later confirmed the report.

Trump responded by tweeting that as president, he had authority to disclose whatever he’d like. He did not deny discussing classified information.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is attempting to put a positive spin on his Washington encounter with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, calling it a “new awakening” in bilateral relations.

But behind joint commitments “to work together in the war against terrorism,” reaction has been cool in Turkey, with a recognition that the much-heralded “pivotal” encounter failed to deliver any breakthrough in ongoing points of bilateral tension.

“Trump, Erdogan seek to strengthen ties: White House,” read a less than enthusiastic headline of the pro-Erdogan Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper. 

“It was an important meeting, but to qualify it as pivotal, some long-lasting big-time decisions have to be made. This was no such meeting,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar of the Carnegie Institute in Brussels, adding, “On many issues which continue to divide Turkey and the U.S., there does not seem to be a particular convergence.”

Erdogan had pledged to seek to reverse Trump’s decision to arm the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, in its fight against the Islamic State. Ankara accuses the militia of being a terrorist organization affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish State.

“Erdogan was hoping to use his much-vaunted persuasive skills in high-level meetings when he met Trump,” noted Atilla Yesilada, a political consultant of Global Source Partners.

But the Turkish president had little opportunity to persuade Trump, with his meeting lasting only a reported 22 minutes. The two leaders’ meeting was followed by a luncheon involving officials from both sides. 

“The fact the initial meeting was so short is another indication that this was essentially a preparatory meeting where many issues on the bilateral relationship were not discussed in depth,” noted analyst Ulgen.

Gulen remains an issue

Erdogan’s calls for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, too, appears to have made little headway. Ankara blames Gulen for masterminding last July’s failed coup attempt. “Possible steps” were discussed on the issue, wrote Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s top adviser, in a statement. Ankara is also reportedly pressing for Gulen’s detention ahead of extradition hearings.

The failure to make any breakthrough on key issues of dispute was widely predicted, but resolving such disputes may not have been the main purpose of Erdogan’s visit.

“The single most important outcome from the Turkish perspective of this visit was clear — that is, to garner international legitimacy for the referendum results and the Erdogan presidency,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington and Iraq. “Of course the U.S. being sole global power, to have the photograph at the Oval Office was the sole target of Erdogan’s visit. From that perspective, it was a success.”

YPG at status quo

Last month, Erdogan narrowly won a controversial referendum victory extending his powers.  Allegations of vote rigging continue to dog the result, with Trump remaining the only western ally to congratulate Erdogan’s success.

During talks with Erdogan, Trump reportedly did not raise human rights concerns and an ongoing crackdown on dissent, despite more than 60 members of Congress expressing their concern over the deteriorating situation.

The U.S. president also extended support to Ankara’s war against the PKK. “They will have no safe quarter,” Trump said.

“All talk, no walk. That support was already there,” noted former Turkish diplomat Selcen. “Does that entail a green light from Washington for Turkey to carry out similar airstrikes as Ankara did against the YPG? I don’t think so.”

Erdogan has warned that his forces are ready to launch cross-border operations against the Kurdish rebels based in Iraq. Just hours before Erdogan sat down with Trump, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim made a less than thinly veiled warning of military incursions if Washington fails to address Turkish concerns.

Turkish military forces remain massed on both the Syrian and Iraqi borders close to position of the YPG.  Last month, Turkish forces struck YPG targets in Syria and Iraq, in the face of U.S. opposition, with one strike narrowly missing U.S. special forces. “I would expect more of the same. The same tensions will continue,” predicted former diplomat Selcen, “yet at the same time, some sort cooperation will continue concerning Syria and Iraq, as well.”

But such differences with Washington will be tempered by Ankara’s increasingly vulnerable position.

“From Erdogan’s perspective and Ankara’s perspective, the relationship with the U.S. is at a critical importance, at a time when Turkey’s relationships with its other partners in the West have entered a period of acrimony and difficulty. Therefore, the relationship with Washington and the need for a sound relationship with the new U.S. president is now more important than ever,” said analyst Ulgen.
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A man who was sentenced to life in prison for murder and espionage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been freed and has returned to Norway, Norwegian newspaper Verden Gang reported Wednesday.

Joshua French, who has dual British and Norwegian citizenship, was serving a life sentence after he and a fellow Norwegian, Tjostolv Moland, were convicted of murdering their driver in Congo in 2009 and spying for Norway — charges they both denied. They originally were sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted.

French and Moland were in Congo researching ideas for an extreme tourism company when they were charged with and found guilty of the murder of Abedi Kasongo. The two men said their car had been ambushed by gunmen and that their driver had been shot.

The men also were charged with espionage because they were carrying military ID cards at the time. The Norwegian government denied that the men were spies.

Moland found dead

In August 2013, Moland was found dead in his prison cell. A Congolese military court found French guilty of strangling Moland, but a Norwegian forensics team assisting French informed the court that Moland had hung himself.

Earlier this year, Congolese Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told Norway’s largest media organization, NRK, that French would be released this year.

French’s mother, Kari Hilde French, wrote on her blog that her son’s health recently has been “very bad,” and that his most recent stint in the hospital had lasted 4½ months.

“Our greatest wish is to get Joshua French home alive before it is too late,” she wrote.
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The Philippine government has told the European Union it will no longer accept development aid from the bloc, putting at risk programs to assist poor and

conflict-hit regions in the country’s south, Europe’s ambassador said on Wednesday.

Ambassador Franz Jessen said the decision to cut aid from the EU, a strong critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drugs war, would mean the loss of about 250 million Euros ($278.73 million) worth of grants mostly allocated to Muslim communities.

Manila’s move comes days after Duterte won billions of dollars in pledges from China after attending the Belt and Road summit in Beijing.

“The Philippine government has informed us they no longer accept new EU grants,” Jessen said without elaborating.

The EU will issue a statement on Thursday, officially announcing the end of its funding agreement with the Philippines.

There was no immediate response from the Philippines’ foreign ministry.

Duterte says European nations don’t understand the extent of the narcotics problem in the Philippines.

Almost 9,000 people, many small-time users and dealers, have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte took office on June 30. Police say about a third of the victims were shot by officers in self-defense during legitimate operations.

The EU has been providing support to Manila’s efforts to end nearly 50 years of Muslim rebellion in a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced 1 million and stunted growth in one of the country’s resource-rich regions.

It granted the Philippines 130 million euros in development assistance between 2007-2013. In 2015, it pledged 325 million euros over four years to finance projects in Muslim Mindanao after Manila signed a peace deal with rebels in March 2014.

($1 = 0.8969 euros)
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Donald Trump’s national security adviser says it was “wholly appropriate” for the president to share sensitive national security information with Russia’s ambassador and foreign minister during a meeting last week. That defense comes amid a firestorm of bipartisan criticism in Washington, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports.
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