Month: October 2017

Russia used its U.N. veto Tuesday to block a resolution extending the mandate of the investigators probing chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

In a Security Council vote, 11 countries supported extending the mission for another year, while Russia and Bolivia voted against the measure, and China and Kazakhstan abstained.

The investigating team, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism or JIM, is expected to make public a report on Thursday that could identify the party responsible for a deadly April 4 attack in the rebel-controlled town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib that killed and sickened scores of civilians.

Three days later, the United States launched an airstrike on a Syrian air base which Washington accused the regime of Bashar al-Assad of having used to launch the poison gas attack.

Accountability

While the question of whether sarin or a sarin-like substance is not disputed, who used it still has to be officially confirmed, and it is anticipated the JIM’s report could shed light on the matter.

It would be politically embarrassing for Russia, a staunch ally of President Assad, if evidence shows that the regime — and not, for example, Islamic State militants — are responsible for the attack. In Syria, the government is the only party to the conflict that possesses air capabilities. Russia has previously suggested that the gas was released from a bomb on the ground and not in the air.

Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, first sought to postpone Tuesday’s vote through a procedural measure until after the release of the JIM’s report, saying the hastily-called vote was an effort by Washington to embarrass Moscow.

“You need to show up Russia and show that Russia is guilty of not extending the JIM, in fact you are the one who is begging for confrontation,” Nebenzia said of the U.S. delegation, which drafted the text and pushed for the vote.

While the procedural vote had the support of China, Kazakhstan and Bolivia, it fell short of the required eight-vote majority and failed to prevent the other vote going ahead, forcing Russia to use its veto.

Eighth veto on Syria

“I want to underscore that today’s voting is senseless also, because it won’t have any impact on the future of the JIM,” Nebenzia said after casting his veto — the eighth time Russia has done so on Syria. “We will return to the issue of extension in the future — we have not stopped it.”

The mission’s mandate does not expire until November 16, so the council has three weeks to approve an extension without disrupting the team’s work, as happened last year when consensus could not be reached on the JIM’s extension.

“The question we must ask ourselves is, whether the JIM is being attacked because it has failed in its job to determine the truth in Syria, or because its conclusions have been politically inconvenient for some council members,” said U.S. envoy Michele Sison.

“Russia called for the formation of the JIM, they negotiated its terms, they agreed its mission, and yet when faced with the prospect of the JIM revealing the truth, why has Russia alone chosen to shoot the messenger?” asked British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.

Some diplomats said the move for the vote now was intended to avoid politicizing whatever conclusions the report draws and avoiding having them affect votes for the extension.

All council members expressed the hope that they could return to the issue and reach consensus on extending the JIM’s mandate before it expires next month.
…

A trial begins in Istanbul Wednesday for eleven prominent human rights activists, including two foreign nationals, in a case that is drawing criticism from international human rights organizations who say it is part of a campaign by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to silence criticism and scrutiny in Turkey in the wake of last year’s coup attempt.  

The defendants face prison sentences of up to 15 years in prison.

Amnesty International’s chairman in Turkey, Taner Kilic, and Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s Turkey director, are among those on trial. The case centers on a digital security seminar that was held on Buyukada, an island on the Sea of Marmara near  Istanbul, that focused on security and coping with stress. In a 15-page indictment, prosecutors allege the meeting was part of a conspiracy to unseat the government by inciting civil unrest

“It’s a completely baseless case, there is not a shred of evidence,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher. “It’s an attempt to scare and silence human rights civil society. That’s why Turkey’s most prominent human rights defenders and human rights organizations have been swept up in this case,” he said.

Key members of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, one of Turkey’s most respected and oldest human rights groups, are among those on trial Tuesday.

Erdogan has vigorously defended the charges against the activists, portraying the case as an example that no one is above the law and evidence that Turkey faces a threat by international conspirators and unidentified countries following the failed coup. Erdogan on Tuesday lashed out at EU nations whose leaders have been critical of his crackdown and what they see as tightening controls on free speech.   “We expect European leaders to stop targeting Turkey and to return to common sense,” the Turkish leader said at an event in the capital, Ankara, on Monday.  

Mounting tensions with Europe

Tuesday’s trial is likely to further ratchet up tensions between Turkey and Europe. Two of the defendants are European nationals:  Swedish national Ali Gharavri and German Peter Steudtner, both of whom were giving seminars at the meeting where the human rights advocates were arrested.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly criticized the arrests, saying “Innocent people are caught up in the wheels of justice,” in Turkey.”

“Linking the work of Steudtner and other human rights activists, who are on trial with him, to the support of terrorism, to imprison and prosecute them, is highly absurd,” wrote European Parliamentarian Rebecca Harms in a statement released Tuesday. “The arbitrary detention of foreign citizens in Turkey proves to be more and more a measure by which the Turkish leadership wants to pressure the home countries of those concerned,” she said.

Under emergency rule introduced last year following the botched military coup, more than 50,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 others have lost their jobs.

Critics point to what they see as a lack of evidence to justify many of the prosecutions.

“If you look at the evidence, for example, against Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s director, it’s all to do with an Amnesty International campaign and public documents,” said Gardner. “The prosecutors have had three months of investigations to come up with evidence against human rights defenders and came up with nothing.”

Among the evidence against the defendants is a Tweet telling participants to turn off their phones and “enjoy the boat ride” to the island where the seminar was being held.

Courts as intimidation tool

There is a growing suspicion among observers that the trial is part of a campaign to intimidate wider civil society.

“The arrests of the human rights activists, I think, gives us a very bleak picture of the Turkish civic society, or what the regime means by ‘civic society,'” observes political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “It’s not very different from what we see in Russia, completely curtailed and diminished.”

Tuesday’s prosecution of human rights advocates comes amid a rash of arrests and trials of journalists. Media freedom groups have dubbed Turkey the world’s worst jailor of journalists, claiming more than 150 reporters are imprisoned.

On Tuesday, six more journalists went on trial for reporting on leaked emails that allegedly were written by Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of President Erdogan, and Turkey’s energy minister. The emails are considered to be in the public domain, yet observers note the journalists are being prosecuted for publishing state secrets.

The clampdown on media and freedom of expression is drawing further condemnation among Europeans already skeptical of Turkey’s readiness to continue its bid to some day join the EU.

“There cannot be an effective political debate when journalists cannot report or question political leaders without fear of harassment or arrest,” said Tanja Fajon, a Slovenian politician with the Social Democrats and member of the European Parliament. “As Turkey’s political situation worsens, it remains imperative to offer support to, and speak about, those imprisoned for their journalism.”

 
…

When Britain’s Cambridge University put physicist Stephen Hawking’s 1966 thesis on line for the first time Monday, the university’s website collapsed.

Professor Hawking’s “Properties of Expanding Universes” has been the most requested item in the university’s library.

To meet the demand, and with Hawking’s encouragement, Cambridge made it available on line.

About 60,000 people sought to access it, causing the system to periodically shut down throughout the day Monday.

Hawking is the world’s best-known physicist and expert on the cosmos.

His landmark 1988 work “A Brief History of Time” has sold more than 10 million copies.

With his thesis now available for anyone to read, Hawking said he hopes to “inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet, to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos.”
…

Britain’s democracy is one of the most secure in the world and will remain so, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday in response to a question about a suggestion that there may have been foreign interference in the Brexit vote.

Opposition lawmaker Ben Bradshaw last week urged the government to look into reports by an advocacy group suggesting that the origin of some Brexit campaign funds was unclear.

Bradshaw said in parliament the issue should be investigated “given the widespread concern over foreign and particularly Russian interference in Western democracies.”

At a regular briefing with reporters, May’s spokesman was asked if the prime minister was concerned about the reports. “I am not aware of those concerns,” he said.

“More broadly, as we’ve always said, the UK democratic system is amongst one of the most secure in the world and will continue to be so.”

The Electoral Commission, which regulates political finance in Britain, said in April it was investigating campaign spending by pro-Brexit organization Leave.EU, without giving details.

A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said on Monday that investigation was still going on and it would not provide any further information until it was complete.

 
…

The building that houses EU summits, where toxic fumes forced EU leaders to switch venues last week, will be closed for a further week as investigators

seek to resolve the problem.

The fumes leaking from the drains have forced the Europa Building, also known as “The Egg,” to be evacuated twice this month, including before a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

The new building was opened in January amid controversy over its 321-million-euro ($378 million) price tag.

Staff and meetings will be temporarily transferred to the next door Justus Lipsius building until the issue is resolved.

About 20 catering staff had to go to hospital on October 13 and an unspecified number on Wednesday. An EU official said the Council and Belgian health and safety agencies believe the two incidents were due to the same source.

Reporting by Lily Cusack; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Toby Chopra.
…

An unidentified male assailant has rushed into the Moscow headquarters of news radio station Ekho Moskvy and stabbed a deputy editor in chief and anchor, Tatyana Felgengauer.

Ekho Moskvy editor in chief Aleksei Venediktov wrote on Twitter that the attacker struck Felgengauer in the throat with a knife in the October 23 attack.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into charges of attempted murder.

The attacker was detained by station security personnel, while Felgengauer was hospitalized in serious, but non-life-threatening condition.

He said that police are working at the scene. No more details were immediately available.

Venediktov said the assailant rushed past station guards after spraying them with a chemical.

It is unclear how the assailant made it to the station’s offices on the 14th floor. The crowded building has only two public elevators that are notoriously slow.

Venediktov told RFE/RL that the attacker went directly into the room where Felgengauer was sitting.

“He knew the layout of the rooms at the station,” Venediktov said. “There can be no doubt about that.”

“The attacker didn’t shout anything,” station deputy editor in chief Sergei Buntman told the Meduza website. “Everything was quiet. He just walked up to her, grabbed her, and stabbed her.”

The Uzbekistan-born Felgengauer, 32, is stepdaughter of the well-known Russian journalist and military expert Pavel Felgenhauer. She has worked at Ekho Moskvy since 2005.

Owned by a Kremlin-controlled Gazprom natural gas company, Ekho Moskvy is one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Russia. It has managed to avoid being targeted for criminal investigations, which are often used in Russia to silence media.

Journalists frequently come under attack or are harassed in Russia. In September, Ekho Moskvy journalist Yulia Latynina fled Russia after being attacked and threatened in Moscow.

Political analyst Yekaterina Vinokurova wrote on the social-media site VKontakte that “Tanya and Ekho Moskvy have been under assault for years.”

“They have attacked journalists from the station,” Vinokurova wrote. “They have hung banners with their photos saying they were ‘enemies of the people,’ ‘agents of the [U.S.] State Department, and so on. There has been all sorts of garbage about them coming from state television…. Now we have come to this and they shameless are talking about the motive of ‘hooliganism.'”

Physical attacks on Russian opposition figures and journalists are often investigated under the relatively lax law against “hooliganism,” rather than as assaults or attempted murder.

Vsevolod Bogdanov, chairman of the Russian Union of Journalists, condemned the attack on Felgengauer.
…

Catalan separatists are devising nonviolent plans to resist the imposition of direct rule by Madrid.

With days to go before the Spanish government secures parliamentary approval to curb Catalonia’s semi-autonomy, separatist leaders are promising to disrupt Madrid’s efforts to shutter their regional government, which could start by the end of the week.

Separatists stand firm

They have pledged to meet any deployment of the national police with what the leaders say will be “walls of people.” And they say that new bosses sent in by Madrid to oversee Catalonia’s own regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and Catalonia’s public broadcaster as well as the regional tax authority will face obstructionism and disobedience.

Spain’s conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the country’s three main national parties are adamant that the unruly northeastern region won’t be allowed to secede. They maintain Catalans broke the law when they held an independence vote on October 1, which was deemed illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Government strategy

According to Spanish officials, Madrid’s current plan is to remove from their offices only the top echelon of Catalonia’s government, including regional president Carles Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras but will leave in place other Catalan ministers, government officials and the executives of public companies so that they can continue to oversee day-to-day administration.

“We are going to ask them to be professional and to continue to provide services for their citizens,” a Spanish official told VOA. The strategy is to be as light-touch as possible and for the intervention to be as brief as possible with quick early regional elections.

Direct rule

On Saturday, the Spanish prime minister announced plans to impose direct rule on the troublesome Catalonia — marking the first time since 1933 that an elected Spanish government has stripped Catalonia of its semi-autonomy.

The separatists’ answer came Sunday when an estimated 450,000 took to the streets of Barcelona to protest on a warm sunny evening the proposed direct-rule measures and to demand the release of two prominent independence leaders, who have been jailed on charges of sedition.

Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, has pledged the region will not accept Madrid’s plan for direct rule, describing it as the worst attack on Catalonia’s institutions since General Francisco Franco’s 1939-1975 dictatorship, under which regional autonomy was dissolved completely and the Catalan language suppressed. His advisers say he may declare a formal break with Spain on the day, most likely Saturday, that Madrid moves in to take over.

And they expect many of the regional government’s more than 200,000 employees will obstruct the Spanish government. Spanish officials say all Catalan employees will remain in their positions under the current direct-rule plan, unless they work “for the independence of Catalonia.”

Threat of prison

The separatists are plotting their resistance, defying a warning from Spain’s attorney general that acts of rebellion will carry lengthy prison terms. “Passive resistance” classes are being held — some taught by 70-year-old Pepe Beunza, who spent years in Spanish prisons in the 1970s during Franco’s dictatorship.

He says separatists shouldn’t be afraid of imprisonment, arguing “we need to demystify the jail.”

“If the repressive drift does not end, the time will come when we will be freer in prisons than in the streets,” he says. He argues Catalan separatists will endure any crackdown by Madrid and come through “more convinced of their cause and stronger.”

Separatist propaganda on a winning streak

As the dangerous game of political chicken nears a denouement there are many here in the Catalan capital who feel impotent and puzzled why the conservative national government of Mariano Rajoy keeps on gifting — as far as they are concerned — the Catalan separatists propaganda wins.

In Barcelona’s warren-like medieval Barri Gotic, or Gothic Quarter, an area filled with trendy bars, clubs and Catalan restaurants as well as tourists, VOA found more people ambivalent about independence than for it. But all were alarmed about how the confrontation might play out, and critical of the central government’s strong-armed tactics — like its attempt to stop the October 1 referendum, which left about 800 people injured.

They worry Madrid is being led by the nose into yet another trap that will prompt more support for the separatists.

“The government should be softer,” 30-year-old Maria told VOA. She said she didn’t hold a strong position about whether Catalonia should be independent or not. “Maybe we should have a bit more autonomy,” she mused.

Danny, a 43-year-old street performer, said: “I know the rules, the rights of Spain but I think it most important that Madrid recognize the opinion of the Catalans and this nationalist feeling of Catalonia.”

“There is opposition to the measures that Madrid is proposing,” says Josep Costa, a political scientist. In an interview with VOA on the campus of Pompeu Fabra University, he said: “On the issue of independence there is not unanimity but when it comes to democracy and civil rights there is widespread unity. We see people wanting to show solidarity with the independence movement when it comes to the responses of the central government.”

He thinks Rajoy is pursuing “a flawed strategy.” By pledging to stop Catalonia holding the October 1 referendum, Madrid set itself on the path of repression “because it had to show it still has authority.”

Many are ambivalent

Less than half of the region’s 7.5 million Catalans turned out to vote in the referendum earlier this month, although 9 out of 10 who did, backed independence. But separatists think the political trajectory is favoring their cause.

Tanya Verge, a political scientist and prominent separatist, noted that Catalans have been divided on secession but she said the government’s strategy is backfiring. Catalans who were ambivalent about breaking away from Spain are being pushed into the pro-independence camp, she says.

“There’s a strong Catalan consensus on our right to self-determination, and with Madrid and all the national parties being opposed to even dialogue that’s making more people side with us,” she said.

But an opinion poll Sunday for El Periodico, a Barcelona newspaper, found only 36 percent of respondents backed independence, a 10 percent drop on previous polling.

 
…

Amid the turmoil in Spain’s separatist-minded Catalonia region, two wealthy Italian regions voted overwhelmingly Sunday for more autonomy from Rome.

Referenda were held in Veneto – the northern region that includes the tourist haven of Venice – and in Lombardy, another northern region with the city of Milan as its main attraction.

The presidents of both regions say more than 90 percent of those who cast ballots voted in favor of more autonomy.

Both referenda are non-binding. But the presidents say the voices of their people give them a strong mandate and more leverage when they open talks with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Leaders of both regions want to keep more tax revue and have a greater say over such matters as education, immigration, security, and the environment.
…

Key U.S. senators called Sunday for the White House to be more forthcoming about the country’s military involvement in Niger after four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush there earlier this month.

In separate interviews on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news show, Republican Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer said they support an effort last week by Republican Senator John McCain to find out the details of the attack as well as the scope of the U.S. campaign against Islamic State in the west African country. Both Graham and Schumer said they had been unaware of the substantial number of the U.S. troops in Niger.

“I didn’t know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,” Graham said. “This is an endless war without boundaries and no limitation on time and geography. You’ve got to tell us more.

“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world militarily and what we’re doing,” Graham said. “So John McCain is going to try to create a new system to make sure that we can answer the question, why were we there, we’ll know how many soldiers are there, and if somebody gets killed there, that we won’t find out about it in the paper.

“I can say this to the families,” Graham said. “They were there to defend America. They were there to help allies. They were there to prevent another platform to attack America and our allies.”

Schumer said, “We need to look at this carefully. This is a brave new world. There are no set battle plans.”

He said that he would favor revisiting the current congressional authorization for overseas military action that is 16 years old, an agreement stemming from the 2001 terror attacks on the U.S.

“There is no easy answer but we need to look at it,” he said. “The answer we have now is not adequate.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Graham and McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last week that the military is shifting its counter-terrorism strategy to focus more on Africa. The defense chief said military leaders want to expand their ability to use force against suspected terrorists.

U.S. officials believe the Niger attack was launched by a local Islamic State affiliate, but the Pentagon is still investigating the circumstances of how it occurred.

 
…

A letter written by one of the Titanic’s passengers a day before the ocean liner sank has sold for 126,000 pounds ($166,000) at an auction in England.

The handwritten note, on embossed Titanic stationery, was penned by first-class passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson on April 13, 1912 – the day before the ship hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, killing more than 1,500 onboard.

Holverson, a salesman, had intended to post it to his mother, who lived in New York.

Auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, which specializes in Titanic memorabilia, said Saturday the letter was “the most important Titanic letter we have ever auctioned” because of its content, historical context and rarity.

In the letter, addressed to “My dear Mother” and stained with saltwater marks, Holverson described the Titanic as “a giant in size and fitted up like a palatial hotel.” He added: “The food and drink is excellent.”

In a poignant line, he also wrote: “If all goes well we will arrive in New York Wednesday AM.”

The letter, one of the last known to have been written on board by the disaster’s victims, was found in Holverson’s pocket notebook when his body was recovered. It was later sent to his family.
…

Turkey’s banking regulator urged the public on Saturday to ignore rumors about financial institutions, in an apparent dismissal of a report that some Turkish banks face billions of dollars of U.S. fines over alleged violations of Iran sanctions.

“It has been brought to the public’s attention that stories, that are rumors in nature, about our banks are not based on documents or facts, and should not be heeded,” the BDDK banking regulator said in a statement, adding that Turkey’s banks were functioning well.

The Haberturk newspaper on Saturday reported that six banks potentially face substantial fines, citing senior banking sources. It did not name the banks. One bank faces a penalty in excess of $5 billion, while the rest of the fines will be lower, it said.

Asked to comment, a spokesman for the U.S. Treasury, which is responsible for U.S. sanctions regimes, said only: “Treasury doesn’t telegraph intentions or prospective actions.”

Two senior Turkish economy officials told Reuters Turkey has not received any notice from Washington about such penalties, adding that U.S. regulators would normally inform the finance ministry’s financial crimes investigation board.

U.S. authorities have hit global banks with billions of dollars in fines over violations of sanctions with Iran and other countries in recent years.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump last week adopted a harsh new approach to Iran by refusing to certify its compliance with a nuclear deal struck with the United States and five other powers including Britain, France and Germany under his predecessor Barack Obama.

Trump argues the deal was too lenient and has effectively left its fate up to the U.S. Congress, which might try to modify it or bring back U.S. sanctions previously imposed on Iran.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said Trump’s strategy involved placing additional sanctions on Tehran and that Washington had been “engaging our allies and partners” with the aim of denying funds to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Haberturk report comes as relations between Washington and Ankara, which are NATO allies, have been strained by a series of diplomatic rows, prompting both countries to cut back issuing visas to each other’s citizens.

U.S. prosecutors last month charged a former Turkish economy minister and the ex-head of a state-owned bank with conspiring to violate Iran sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran’s behalf.

President Erdogan has dismissed the charges as politically motivated, and tantamount to an attack on the Turkish Republic.

The charges stem from the case against Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in the United States over sanctions evasion last year. Erdogan has said U.S. authorities had “ulterior motives” in charging Zarrab, who has pleaded not guilty.
…

As thousands of Portuguese protested on Saturday over the government’s  handling of massive wildfires that have killed 108 people since June, government ministers pledged to spend over 400 million euros ($470 million) in aid.

The decision, announced during a special cabinet meeting which continued into the night, came on the same day as a new interior minister took over after his predecessor resigned, and ahead of Tuesday’s parliamentary vote on a motion of no-confidence launched by the opposition.

Earlier thousands of protesters gathered on Lisbon’s main Comercio square, in Porto and other cities to mourn the victims of the Portugal’s worst tragedy in living memory and demand better fire prevention policies in the country, which despite its relatively small size has suffered the largest forest fires in Europe this year.

“Enough! Too many deaths, too much destruction!” read many slogans. A few called for the government’s resignation.

The cabinet considered a detailed report by independent experts on the first wave of forest fires in June when 64 people died in central Portugal, and the first official accounts of the more widespread fires on Oct. 15-16, which killed 44.

The main report pointed to failures on practically every level from fire prevention and monitoring during an unusually hot and dry summer to civil protection response, emergency communications and the alerting of the population.

The government decided on Saturday to hire hundreds of forest sappers to maintain forests and to prevent fires, ordered a major clean-up of safety strips along motorways and railroads and promised to support the collection of forest waste for biorefineries.

The state will also take a sizeable stake in the emergency communications network SIRESP, whose equipment failed on many occasions during the fires. Another likely measure would put the air force in charge of firefighting aircraft which are currently hired and managed by the civil protection service, local media said.

The promised state aid for affected areas includes paying compensation to the families who lost relatives and homes, funding for reconstruction works and support to save local jobs.

The minority Socialist government has been weakened by the public clamour, but the impact on its strong approval ratings achieved due to an improving economy has been limited so far.

Also, the support of its left-wing allies in parliament means the no-confidence motion is not expected to be passed.

An opinion poll by Aximage pollsters for Correio da Manha daily, which surveyed 603 people on Oct. 14-17, showed aupport for the Socialists had dropped by 1.1 percentage points to 41.9 percent, still far ahead of the closest rival, at 23.8 percent.
…

The Spanish government said Saturday it plans to depose the leaders of Spain’s restive northeast region of Catalonia and wants snap elections within six months — part of an effort to block the region from breaking away. Catalan separatists remain defiant, saying it won’t be so easy to bring them to heel, and they’re threatening to engage in mass civil disobedience. VOA’s Jamie Dettmer has more from Barcelona.
…

At China’s Communist Party Congress this week, President Xi Jinping said the country would be a contributor to global development. Key to that is the so-called One Belt One Road Initiative, which seeks to rekindle the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking China with Europe and Africa. Billions of dollars have been plowed into infrastructure projects along the route, but as Henry Ridgwell reports, there are calls for China to focus on development goals such as alleviating poverty.
…

The European Union will push to conclude free trade talks with South American bloc Mercosur by the end of the year, leaders said, despite French reservations over the surge of farm imports an agreement would bring.

French President Emmanuel Macron had said he was in no hurry to do a deal with the beef-exporting Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and succeeded in pushing trade onto the agenda of an EU leaders summit in Brussels.

“We had a short moment just after midnight to discuss international trade,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference after the leaders met on Friday.

Juncker said Europe had a great opportunity to seal trade deals with countries across the world, while respecting European values and standards and the “reciprocity sought by the French president.”

“We will continue to do everything we can to conclude the negotiations with Mercosur before the end of the year. It’s important. We underestimate the importance of Mercosur for the European Union,” he said.

The European Commission says the savings the EU could make from reduced import tariffs with Mercosur would be three times greater than for deals with Canada and Japan combined.

EU exports to Mercosur from cars to pharmaceuticals are subject to duties of about 4.4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) per year. France, said a Commission source, would be among one of the greatest beneficiaries if these were cut.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he and fellow EU leaders had decided not to slow down the talks and still wanted a deal by the end of the year.

The French president said Europe faced an internal challenge to persuade the public to support to trade deals.

“And an external one which is to have a growth agenda and, at a time when the United States is turning isolationist, to be able to build strategic commercial relationships with several regions of the world.”

France has been concerned that the Commission was rushing towards a deal with Mercosur, while also seeking to open talks with Australia and New Zealand, two other countries that want to expand exports of farm products.

With 10 other countries, it told the Commission last month that Europe first needed to determine how much beef, ethanol and other farm products it can afford to let in under current and future deals.

One of them, Ireland, injected a note of caution on Friday. “A Mercosur deal by Christmas is optimistic,” its Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

($1 = 0.8472 euros)

Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Andrew Heavens.
…

Ankara is facing growing national and international criticism over Wednesday’s arrest of Turkish philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala. Kavala –  a leading member of Turkey’s civic society – was detained Wednesday night at Istanbul airport. According to his lawyer, he is being held at Istanbul’s counterterrorism department.  

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert voiced concern on Thursday.

“It’s just another example, right, of a lot of things taking place, of respected civil society leaders, human rights defenders, journalists  we’ve all followed this story closely  academics, also activists detained in that country,” she said. “The detentions are often made without  very little evidence, very little transparency, and we consider that to be a very alarming trend in that country.”

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Kati Piri, wrote on Twitter, “Very disturbing news that Osman Kavala has been detained in Istanbul.” Piri added she would propose the European Parliament launch an urgent call for his release.

The European Union has been voicing growing concern over Turkey’s ongoing crackdown following last year’s coup, which has seen over 60,000 people arrested.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending a summit of EU leaders this week, described developments in Turkey as very negative and said she would propose funding to Turkey be curbed.  

Kavala has set up and funded projects to bridge deep social and ethnic divides in Turkey and encourage cultural diversity. Human rights groups nationally and internationally have voiced outrage over his arrest.

Political scientist Cengiz Aktar said Kavala’s arrest is a watershed moment.

“He was one of the main movers and shakers of the Turkish liberal civil society and nothing will be like before since the custody of Osman Kavala,” he said. I think now the Turkish liberal civil society activist will be much move cautious in their actions in Turkey. It actually confirms a very frightening trend whereby the Turkish liberal civil society is targeted if not annihilated.”

Ankara strongly defends the ongoing crackdown, insisting it is facing a continuing threat from conspirators seeking to overthrow the government.

International pressure over the crackdown is likely to grow with the trial beginning Wednesday (Oct. 25) of leading Turkish members of Amnesty International and two European nationals detained at a human rights meeting.
…

President Vladimir Putin has threatened U.S. media operating in Russia, saying Moscow would retaliate if U.S. officials put restrictions on Russian media in the United States.

The comments from Putin came October 19 during an appearance at a meeting of Russian and international foreign policy experts known as the Valdai Discussion Club, held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Officials with Russian state-funded media, including the RT TV channel formerly known as Russia Today and the news website Sputnik, say those organizations’ American units have been ordered to register under a decades-old law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The law was passed in the 1930s aimed at limiting the spread of Nazi propaganda in the United States.

Since a U.S. intelligence report in January accused RT and Sputnik of being part of a Russian campaign to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, a growing chorus of officials in Washington have called on those Russian media to comply with the law.

The Justice Department has not confirmed that it issued any order to RT or Sputnik.

Russian officials, meanwhile, have suggested they could restrict the work of some U.S. media in Russia, including CNN, Voice of America, and RFE/RL.

Putin echoed those remarks in his Valdai comments, though he did not specify what restrictions Moscow would take.

“In this case we will do it only in kind and quite quickly, as soon as we see steps [to pressure] our media, there will immediately be an answer,” Putin said.

While RT distributes its programs freely in the United States on cable television, and Sputnik has an FM frequency in Washington, RFE/RL and Voice of America have no access to cable TV in Russia.

RFE/RL once had nearly 100 radio channels inside Russia, but had lost all of them by 2012.
…

Romanian border police have taken into custody 28 migrants who are suspected of trying to cross into Hungary illegally.

The border police agency said in a statement that the group of nine women, eight men and 11 children was spotted close to the Hungarian border early Friday and couldn’t explain why they were in the area.

The agency says they originally were from Afghanistan, India, Iran and Iraq and had been living in refugee centers around Romania after registering as asylum-seekers.

Border agents took the group into custody for investigation. The travelers told police they wanted to reach Western Europe.

Hungary is a member of the Schengen visa-free travel area, but Romania isn’t.

 
…

The Kremlin accused the U.S. government on Friday of pushing for Russia’s exclusion from the Olympics.

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the IOC was coming under pressure from the U.S., his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin meant “state (structures), including through social and non-government organizations.”

Putin said the effort aimed to ensure Russia was either barred from next year’s Winter Olympics entirely or forced to compete under a neutral flag.

In televised comments on Thursday, Putin said the IOC depended on sponsorship income “and in turn clear signals are being given to these sponsors by certain American bodies. We aren’t simply guessing about this, we know about it.”

Missing the Olympics or competing as neutrals would be “degrading” for Russia, Putin added, and suggested it might be meant to interfere in the Russian presidential election in March. Putin is widely expected to run for re-election but has yet to confirm that.

“If someone thinks that in this way they can influence the election campaign in Russia in the spring of next year, then they are deeply confused,” Putin said.

Russia is already under IOC investigation over allegations it operated a state-backed doping program including swapping out dirty samples at the drug-testing laboratory for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Neither Putin nor Peskov specified which specific U.S. government bodies might be involved in the alleged pressuring of the IOC.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a non-government body which receives part of its funding from the U.S. government, is among a group of 37 national drug-testing agencies which have called for Russia to be barred from the Olympics, which start on Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The IOC has said its investigators expect to have “a number” of doping cases involving Russians at the Sochi Olympics resolved by the end of November, but they have no plans to dictate the eligibility of these athletes for Pyeongchang.

Putin’s suggestion of U.S. meddling in the Russian election comes amid investigations in the U.S. into alleged interference in last year’s presidential vote. The U.S. Senate’s special panel is conducting a probe into Russian influence in the 2016 election and whether there were any links to Donald Trump’s campaign.

 
…

The Turkish Parliament passed legislation Wednesday allowing imams to perform marriages. Women’s rights groups, who have strongly condemned the reform, warn it would exacerbate the problem of underage marriages.

The new law comes amid wider concerns over the erosion of women’s rights under emergency rule.

“We wont be silenced,” chanted women protesting the new legislation in the heart of Istanbul.

Since Turkey is a secular state, only state officials were allowed to carry out marriages. The new law met stiff opposition in parliament. Senal Sarihan, parliamentary deputy for the main opposition CHP Party, said the new law undermines secularism, which helps to protect women’s rights.

“This is an attempt by the ruling party to impose their political understanding to regulate life according to religion,” Sarihan said. “And this is against [the] constitution. And we are not accepting this.”

There are concerns that the reform will exacerbate the problem of underage marriages. Women’s rights groups argue Imams already are carrying out marriages involving underage girls in unofficial religious ceremonies. But Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking to consolidate his religious voting base ahead of presidential elections, has strongly backed the move, dismissing criticism as alarmist.

“They are heading to the streets making a fuss,” he said. “Whether you want it or not, this legislation will pass in the parliament. The marriages will not go unrecorded, they will be under record. On the contrary, this implementation will abolish unofficial marriages.”

Erdogan claims the reform will legitimize marriages, particularly in Turkey’s conservative rural regions, where unions often are only carried out by imams.

Women’s rights groups counter that underage marriages remain a major problem in these regions and has grown due to earlier government reform allowing older girls to study at home.

A campaign supported by Erdogan a decade ago to increase the number of girls attending school curbed child marriages. But critics claim Erdogan’s ruling AK party has in recent years moved away from its reformist policies, becoming more authoritarian, a process accelerated by the introduction of emergency rule following last year’s failed coup.

Under emergency rule, many women’s rights groups, especially in Turkey’s rural Kurdish region, have been shut down. With a presidential election looming, and Erdogan seeking to consolidate his religious and nationalist base, women’s rights groups are voicing growing alarm about the direction in which the country is heading.
…

Spain’s government set plans in motion Thursday to strip Catalonia of its autonomy after the region’s leader vowed to continue a vote on independence.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office said it planned a special Cabinet meeting for Saturday to trigger Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, which gives the government the power to take away some or all of Catalonia’s autonomy.

Hours earlier, Catalonia’s leader, Carles Puigdemont, said the Catalan parliament will go forward with a vote on independence if the Spanish government does not engage in dialogue and follows through on its threat to strip the region of its autonomy.

Rajoy had given Puigdemont a Thursday morning deadline to clarify whether he had in fact already declared independence following a referendum earlier this month.

Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence in an address last week, but said he was suspending any formal steps in favor of talks with the government in Madrid.  He delivered his updated stance in a letter Thursday shortly before the deadline.

EU watching closely

At a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bloc was watching the situation closely.

“We hope that there will be solutions that can be found on the basis of the Spanish constitution,” she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a discussion of the crisis and a show of solidarity with the Spanish government at the EU summit, but a number of leaders and EU officials oppose adding it to the agenda, saying that the tensions are an internal affair.

Voters in Catalonia voted in favor of independence in an October 1 referendum, but fewer than half of those eligible to cast a ballot took part, with opponents boycotting the process.  Rajoy’s government dismissed the referendum as illegal.
…

The number of French protesters appears to be falling on the third day of union-backed, nationwide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s divisive labor reforms.

In Toulouse, Marseille and Paris, on Thursday thousands of demonstrators brandished placards and posters decrying the new rules that came into force last month.

Police said there were 5,500 protesters in Paris while the CGT trade union said there were 25,000 — about half as many as during the previous protest last month.

The new measures make it easier for French firms to hire and fire employees and reduce the power of national collective bargaining.

Macron says they’re aimed at boosting growth and investment in the country.

 
…

A high-level U.S. delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Cohen met Wednesday with senior Turkish diplomats to resolve bilateral tensions.

A diplomatic crisis erupted earlier this month with the arrest of local U.S. consulate employee Metin Topuz on terrorism charges, triggering tit for tat sanctions on the issuance of visas.

“I believe this problem will be resolved soon,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday in a television interview.

In an apparent gesture to ease talks before the U.S. delegation’s visit to Istanbul, Turkish authorities released Topuz’s wife and son from custody, although they still face charges.

Resolving bilateral tensions could prove key to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement to challenge Turkey’s neighbor Iran.

“Assuming he [Trump] is committed to combating Iran’s influence in the region, he needs a new wingman,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, referring to Turkey.

Yesilada added that Trump’s current new ally, the Syrian Kurds, “are too lightweight to [do] the job, so Turkey comes to mind.” But he said Turkey is “Iran’s new best friend and America’s worst enemy. There is obviously [a] current visa ban and [the] arrest of consular employees as well.”

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG in its fight against the Islamic State has infuriated Ankara. The YPG was part of efforts to capture Raqqa, the jihadists self-declared capital in Syria. But Ankara accuses the YPG of being linked to the PKK that is fighting the Turkish State and is designated by Washington and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

The Turkish government has accused the YPG of seeking to create an independent state on its border, which it fears could lead to similar demands from its own restive Kurdish population.

Common ground

Analysts say Turkey and Iran have found common ground over thwarting Kurdish independence and share lucrative trading interests.

This month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to Tehran to coordinate efforts against Iraqi Kurdish secession.

“It seems there is a deal in place, although the Iranian foreign policy spokesman denied it, but news from the ground the Iranian Revolutionary Guard closed two of the three border gates with Iraqi Kurdistan and they also closed their airspace,” notes former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who opened Turkey’s consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan.

But Ankara’s long term strategic interests may well coincide with Washington’s. While Turkey and Iran have a common position toward Kurdistan, Djamchid Assadi, an Iran expert at France’s Burgundy Business School, said politically, there are regional tensions they cannot solve.

He said “once they have solved the problem over Kurdistan, then problems which appear secondary will again come to the fore, like Syria.”

Until recently, Erdogan was equally vocal with Washington in expressing concern over what he called “Persian expansionism.”

Iran and Turkey are historically regional rivals. Ankara strongly supported rebels fighting the Tehran-backed Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. And until recently, Erdogan frequently accused Baghdad of pursuing a sectarian agenda against Iraqi Sunnis at Tehran’s behest.

Foreign policy shifts

But observers say Turkish domestic politics is increasingly dictating its foreign policy. Erdogan is facing re-election by 2019 in what is expected to be a close vote. Cracking down on Kurdish independence aspirations plays well with Turkish nationalists, a key Erdogan voting constituency.

Wednesday he renewed his attack on the Iraqi Kurdish leadership, accusing them of acting “hysterically” and warning they will be “held to account. “Monday, Turkish forces carried out a cross border raid against PKK bases in Iraq for the first time since 2008.

Erdogan also warned Wednesday Syrian Kurdish forces could face attack. “When the time comes, one night we will come to you suddenly and will do what we have to.Have we done it in Idlib? We have. “Earlier this month, Turkish forces entered the Syrian Idlib region as part of a deal with Moscow and Tehran to create a de-escalation zone.

Former Turkish diplomat Selcen suggests there will be no change in Turkish foreign policy toward the Kurds until presidential elections. But analysts warn the price of that policy could be high for both Ankara and Washington.

“We [Turkey] could capitalize on Trump’s desire to punish Iran to bargain a more pro-Turkey policy in Syria and to expand our sphere of influence in the Middle East geography,” claimed analyst Yesilada. “What we risk is greater Iranian influence that will eventually exclude us [Turkey] from our hinterland.”
…

A Hungarian who printed thousands of passports allowing Jews to flee the country during World War II has been honored with a memorial plaque.

Emil Wiesmeyer’s printing company initially made 4,000 of the basic passports, part of efforts by Swedish special envoy Raoul Wallenberg to save Jews from Nazi death camps.

He then produced about 20,000 more on his own to help Jews make it out of Hungary.

The plaque honoring Emil Wiesmeyer was unveiled Wednesday in Budapest by Szabolcs Szita, director of the Holocaust Memorial Center, and Swedish Ambassador Niclas Trouve

Some 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Wiesmeyer later suffered persecution and was jailed in the 1950s, during Hungary’s communist era.

Wiesmeyer died in 1967. His son Gabor attended the ceremony.
…

Malta, a tiny archipelago nation in the southern Mediterranean, is so attractive to those looking to shelter funds or operate under the radar of authorities that it’s got a nickname to prove it: “treasure island.”

Malta’s reputation as a tax haven, its cozy links with nearby lawless Libya and its legal passports-for-sale program were just some of the topics that investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia had dug into before she was blown up by a car bomb while driving.

That means investigators have many tangled paths to follow to discover who wanted the anti-corruption crusader dead as she drove down a country road Monday after filing her latest story about the proliferation of crooks in Malta, a European Union nation of 440,000.

The Italian daily La Repubblica, whose journalists had met with Caruana Galizia, said among the topics she was investigating in the last few months was Malta’s place in a suspected trafficking ring for contraband Libyan oil.

Precisely that concern made headlines Wednesday, when prosecutors in Catania, Sicily, announced nine arrests, including of two Maltese men, in a black market diesel fuel trafficking scheme.

Prosecutors said the ring carried out some 30 sea voyages transporting fuel from a refinery west of Tripoli to boats off Malta, where the contraband was allegedly transferred and further shipped to Italy, where it wound up mixed in with gasoline for Italian motorists.

Among the nine suspects is an alleged member of the Sicilian Mafia, who prosecutors said had close links to the Maltese suspects.

Italian prosecutors said armed Libyan militias operating along Libya’s coast near the Tunisian border were involved in the alleged diesel trafficking. It was not clear if the fuel smugglers were also involved in migrant trafficking, which has seen tens of thousands of migrants smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe.

Malta itself has a reputation as a tax haven, which has reportedly been attractive to the many online gambling companies that have set up shop there. But Italian prosecutors have warned for years now that the Naples-based Camorra syndicate and other Italian organized crime groups have heavily infiltrated international online betting operations.

Caruana Galizia came to international notice after she dug up Maltese links in leaked documents that emerged in the Panama Papers offshore accounts scandal, which revealed offshore companies held by politicians and other VIPs worldwide.

The same tax-haven reputation makes Malta, an EU member that also uses the shared euro currency, highly attractive for investments.

One of Caruana Galizia’s favorite targets, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, in interviews this week lamented that his nation’s notoriety as a tax haven was undeserved. He insisted that Maltese financial institutions follow the same rules laid out by the European Commission for all members.

But a study published earlier this year, commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, noted that Malta’s on-paper flat tax rate of 35 percent for companies there actually works out to an effective tax rate of just 5 percent thanks to various refunds.

The study noted concerns as to whether Malta would meet all the criteria needed to avoid ending up the EU’s “black list” of tax havens.

There has also been public outcry over Malta’s program to offer passports for sale for 650,000 euros ($766,000), effectively allowing wealthy foreigners to buy their way into EU citizenship.

The government doesn’t identify by nationality who bought the passports. But Malta’s finance minister just last week announced that the program will be extended for another year due to its “success.”

While Monday’s slaying of the prominent journalist shocked the nation, the EU and journalists’ groups worldwide, Malta is no stranger to car bombings.

In the last 10 years, there have been 15 Mafia-style bombings or similar attacks in Malta. Targets have included Maltese businessmen, a lawyer and some people with criminal links. Most of the reports about them say the crimes have gone unsolved.

Malta has asked forensic experts from the FBI and the Netherlands to help Maltese investigators probe Caruana Galizia’s slaying. The journalist had reported receiving threats.

It’s not clear if the bomb that killed her was placed in the car or on the road near her home and then detonated from a distance. Local media say she was driving a rented car.

EU officials have indicated they will scrutinize the probe of the journalist’s slaying.

“I am convinced that the Maltese authorities will do everything in their power to investigate and bring to light all the circumstances of this hideous crime,” EU chief Donald Tusk told an EU meeting Wednesday in Brussels.
…

Tens of thousands of people protested Tuesday night in Barcelona against the Spanish government’s detention of two Catalan separatist leaders.

The demonstrators carried candles and banners demanding the release of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, who are being held on possible sedition charges.

Prosecutors accuse Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural movement and Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly of provoking violence against police during a pro-independence march last month.

Catalan leaders have called the two political prisoners, which the government denies.

Earlier Tuesday, Spain’s top court ruled Catalonia’s independence referendum was illegal, saying that regional law backing the vote violated Spain’s constitution.

The Catalan government had passed the “self-determination referendum law” on September 6. Spain’s high court said the law must be suspended temporarily as it assessed the Spanish government’s opposition to it, but Catalonia went ahead with the referendum on October 1.

According to court regulations, the suspension was to last five months while judges come up with a ruling, but the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia claimed that the universal right to self-determination outweighs Spain’s laws.

Catalonia’s government spokesperson, Jordi Turull, told reporters Tuesday Catalonia would not “surrender” its secession bid and reiterated calls for talks with Madrid on what he called “a democratic mandate” for independence.

Spain has given Catalonia until Thursday to reverse any moves it has made to secede or face direct rule from Madrid.

Catalonia, Spain’s most prosperous region, is home to 7.5 million people. Its capital, Barcelona, is one of Europe’s major tourist attractions. Catalonia has its own language and distinct culture, and is deeply divided over independence.

The Catalan government said that 90 percent of Catalans who participated in the October 1 referendum voted for independence from Spain. Many opponents of independence boycotted the vote, reducing turnout to around 43 percent of eligible voters.
…

The United States is condemning, in the strongest terms, the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Galizia who was investigating alleged government corruption.

“It was a cowardly attack that took the life of a talented and brave … reporter who dedicated her career to fighting the rule of law and shining a light on corruption,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

She said the FBI has responded quickly to the prime minister’s call for U.S. help in the investigation. A Dutch forensic team is also in Malta to help.

Monday’s blast blew up Galizia’s car just moments after she left her home. It set the vehicle on fire and sent it careening into a field.

Galizia’s son saw his mother’s car explode, but there was nothing he could do to save her.

“My mother was assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong journalists,” Matthew Caruana Galizia wrote on Facebook. “She was also targeted because she was the only person doing so.”

Several hundred people protested her murder outside the Maltese courthouse Tuesday.

Galizia was investigating alleged ties between Maltese government officials and offshore banks and companies that are often used to avoid paying taxes.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was among those under suspicion because of information gleaned from leaked documents known as the Panama Papers, which gave details on the tax havens.

Muscat denied any wrongdoing and sued Galizia. But he condemned her killing and vowed to investigate.

Just 30 minutes before her death, Galizia wrote on her blog “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”
…

In a rare public speech Tuesday, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency said the terror threat in the country is worse now that it has ever been during his 34-year career.

“It’s clear that we’re contending with an intense UK terrorist threat from Islamist extremists,” MI5 chief Andrew Parker said. “That threat is multi-dimensional, evolving rapidly and operating at a scale and pace we’ve not seen before. But so too is our response.”

Parker said the MI5, also known as he Security Service, has noted a “dramatic upshift” in the threat this year, with a total of 36 people killed in separate attacks in London and Manchester.

“Twenty attacks in the U.K. have been foiled over the past four years. Many more will have been prevented by the early interventions we and the police make,” Parker said.

Last month, a makeshift bomb on the London subway injured at least 30 people. The blast was the fifth major terrorist attack in Britain this year.
…