Month: June 2018

A rescue boat saved 59 migrants at sea off Libya on Saturday and Italy immediately said it would not welcome them, setting up a fresh standoff with Malta and adding to tensions among European governments over immigration.

The migrants on board Open Arms, a boat run by the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms charity, include five women and four children, said Riccardo Gatti, head of the organization’s Italian mission.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League Party, said there would be no exception to his policy of refusing to let humanitarian boats dock in Italy and added that Malta was the nearest port of call.

“They can forget about arriving in an Italian port,” he tweeted.

Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia, shot back on Twitter that the rescue had taken place closer to the Italian island of Lampedusa than to Malta. He told Salvini to “stop giving false information and involving Malta without any reason.”

Gatti told Italian radio broadcaster Radio Radicale that the migrants on board included Palestinians, Syrians and Guineans and were all in good condition.

He later told Reuters that Open Arms had received no authorization from any country to dock and did not know where it would take the migrants.

German ship docked

On Wednesday, Malta let the German charity ship Lifeline dock in Valletta with 230 migrants on board, after it was stuck at sea for almost a week following Italy’s decision to close its ports to rescue vessels run by nongovernmental organizations.

However, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the gesture was a one-time solution, and the following day Malta announced it would not allow any more charity boats to dock.

European Union leaders on Friday came to a hard-fought agreement on migration that Salvini and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said was positive for Italy.

However, the agreement does not oblige other EU states to share the burden of sea rescues.

More than 650,000 migrants have come ashore in Italy since 2014, mostly after being rescued at sea off the Libyan coast by private and public groups. Italy is sheltering about 170,000, but the number of arrivals has plummeted this year.

Despite the decline in arrivals, there are still daily stories of disasters as migrants make the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. The Libyan coast guard said around 100 were thought to have drowned off Tripoli on Friday.

That tragedy raised the political temperature in Italy, where the government dismissed opposition accusations that it was responsible because of its crackdown on NGOs and said the best way to save lives was by preventing departures from Libya.

“The fewer people set sail, the fewer die,” Salvini said.
…

Fourteen European Union countries have said they are prepared to sign deals with Germany to take back asylum seekers who had previously registered elsewhere, part of an effort to placate Chancellor Angela Merkel’s restive Bavarian allies.

In a document sent to leaders of her coalition partners, seen by Reuters, Merkel listed 14 countries, including some of those most outspoken in their opposition to her open-door refugee policy, which had agreed to take back migrants.

Under the EU’s Dublin convention, largely honored in the breach since Merkel’s 2015 decision to open Germany’s borders, asylum seekers must lodge their requests in the first EU country they set foot in.

Merkel needs breathing space in her standoff with Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, whose leader, interior minister Horst Seehofer threatened ahead of this week’s Brussels summit to defy Merkel by closing Germany’s borders to some refugees and migrants, a move that would likely bring down her government.

EU leaders agreed at the summit to share out refugees on a voluntary basis and create “controlled centers” inside the European Union to process asylum requests.

According to the document seen by Reuters, the bilateral agreements will make the deportation process for refugees who have earlier registered elsewhere far more effective.

“At the moment, Dublin repatriations from Germany succeed in only 15 percent of cases,” the document says. “We will sign administrative agreements with various member states… to speed the repatriation process and remove obstacles.”

Among the countries that have said they are open to signing such agreements are Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, countries which have opposed any scheme to share out asylum seekers across the continent.

The other countries named are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden. Austria, where new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is an immigration hard-liner who governs in coalition with the far right, is absent from the list.
…

The U.S. ambassador to Estonia says he has resigned over frustrations with President Donald Trump’s comments about the European Union and the treatment of Washington’s European allies.

In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville wrote: “For the President to say EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”

Melville is a senior U.S. career diplomat who has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015. He has served the State Department for 33 years.

The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn did not immediately comment.
…

June 30 marks Asteroid Day, a U.N.-sanctioned campaign to promote awareness around the world of what’s up in the sky. In Milan, scientists are assembling a new telescope that uses “insect vision” to spot risky celestial objects. Faith Lapidus explains.
…

Senegalese computer scientist Alioune Ndiaye’s fears that he might face racist abuse at the soccer World Cup in Russia have not materialized. Nor have other foreign fans’ fears.

Midway through the month-long tournament, no major racist incidents have been reported among players and fans despite concerns in the run-up that the World Cup could be tarnished by racism.

International rights groups that sounded the alarm over a series of racist incidents at soccer matches in the months preceding the tournament have said that the World Cup experience in Russia has so far been generally positive.

“What I found in Russia is very different to what they told me before coming here,” Ndiaye, the Senegalese fan, said outside the stadium in the city of Samara, where his country’s side lost 1-0 to Colombia on Thursday.

“When I told people ‘I am going to Russia’ … they said ‘Oh, no, be careful’ and stuff like that. But people in Russia are very welcoming, very kind and I don’t see anything like racism here.”

Russia had pledged to host a safe and secure World Cup in 11 cities, including for visible minorities. But racist incidents at matches between Russian Premier League clubs and at an international friendly earlier this year fueled concern that players and fans could be subjected to abuse.

CSKA Moscow fans chanted racist abuse at Arsenal’s black players several times during a Europa League match in April in Moscow, while FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, fined Russia one month before the World Cup for racist abuse directed at French players during the friendly in March.

But at the World Cup, fans and rights groups say the mood is different.

“We are all together with them,” said Senegalese fan Bigue Thombane of Russian fans as she banged on a drum outside the stadium in Samara. “There is nothing. No racism at all. Truly.”

Piara Powar, the head of the FARE network, an organisation that monitors discrimination in European soccer, said it had not recorded a single significant incident involving Russian far-right hooligans or any racist incidents involving Russian fans.

“There has been nothing on a major scale and nothing from Russians,” Powar said. “That was one of the concerns of course coming into the tournament. So that’s all good news from our point of view.”

The world is watching

Referees at the World Cup have the power to stop, suspend of abandon a match in the event of discriminatory incidents. They have not done this so far in the tournament.

But the absence of major racist incidents does not mean that the group stage of the World Cup has been without problems related to discrimination.

FIFA fined Mexico for homophobic chants by their fans. Denmark was fined for a sexist banner, and some women at the tournament have been targeted by discriminatory behavior. Poland and Serbia were also fined for “political and offensive” banners displayed by their fans.

Powar said that the absence of racist incidents did not come as a major surprise given Russia’s and citizens’ efforts to project a positive image of the country to foreign guests.

“We know that during the World Cup period, the population sort of understand that they are in the spotlight,” Powar said. “The world is watching.”

Alexei Smertin, the Russian Football Union’s anti-discrimination inspector, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With the knockout stage beginning on Saturday, fans from the 16 remaining teams are eager for the tournament to remain racism-free.

“They see us around and they ask whether we need anything,” said Colombian fan Hernan Garcia. “No racism at all so far. It has been an amazing experience.”
…

Summit meetings can change the world. Back in the 1970s, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt used to say that it was of the highest importance for leaders to “get a smell of each other.” Chemistry between leaders was a useful factor in soothing fractious relations, he thought.

On July 16, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold their first official summit — in Finland’s capital — just days after the U.S. leader is scheduled to hold meetings with NATO, an alliance that has been in his crosshairs. The timing of the meetings gives Europe the opportunity to shape what the U.S. leader may seek from the summit.

Helsinki is no stranger to encounters between U.S. and Russian heads of state; but, the summit will rank as one of the oddest, say analysts, coming against the backdrop of probes into the actions of the U.S. president’s election advisers amid claims they colluded with Moscow’s interference in the 2016 White House race.

Trump’s domestic foes fault him for shying away from criticizing Putin personally, arguing it gives credence to claims made by a former British spy that the Kremlin holds compromising information on the U.S. president. Trump has angrily dismissed the claims.

The U.S. leader has said in the past that “getting along with Russia [and others] is a good thing, not a bad thing” to explain why he wants to improve relations with Moscow.

Not since the Cold War have relations between the West and Moscow been so fraught with clashes over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its pro-separatist operations in eastern Ukraine, as well as its military intervention in Syria.

NATO, cybersecurity

There also have been disputes over the nuclear arms treaties, NATO policy, and cybersecurity. And in the crowded battlefield of northern Syria, there was blood-drawing when U.S. artillery bombardments and airstrikes killed an estimated 200 Russians, in an assault still shrouded in mystery.

Much hangs on this summit. Arms control and other security issues will figure as the main topics of discussion, according to U.S. and Russian officials, who say Ukraine and Syria will be discussed as well. Both sides are playing down the likelihood of any breakthroughs.

But it apparently is a summit more than most built around the importance of the leaders themselves, and less on a detailed and actionable agenda. It has not been preceded by a long period of behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations to flush out the minutiae of a pre-agreed deal.

“The format reflects both leaders’ preference for bold, big-brushstroke meetings,” said a British diplomat, adding it is similar in nature and conception to the summit in Singapore earlier in June with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “And it may be more art than deal,” he added.

Trump and Putin are not alone in being attracted to high-profile, symbolic encounters.

“Summit meetings are especially alluring to alpha types who relish new challenges,” British academics David Reynolds and Kristina Spohr wrote in a recent article for CAM magazine, a Cambridge University publication. But they also warn parleying at such high-profile encounters is “a high-risk business.”

Can personal chemistry be a substitute for substance when foreign leaders sit down to negotiate disputes? Is there a danger in placing too much hope on the personal ties leaders forge at symbolic summits?

Political precedents

In 1972, President Richard Nixon made a largely symbolic visit to China to talk with Mao Zedong in a bid to kickstart efforts to resolve the sharp differences between two highly antagonistic powers. Little of immediate substance was achieved but few doubt the trip was a success, paving the way for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing seven years later.

Analysts and former diplomats point to another Nixon trip in 1972 as a better and less risky model for summitry — his trip to then-Soviet Russia, becoming the first U.S. president to enter the Kremlin. That trip saw Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev toasting each other in St. Vladimir’s Hall. It was preceded by painstaking negotiations, led by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Even before Nixon set foot in Russia, Washington and Moscow had pre-agreed on 10 deals covering strategic arms limitation, trade, technology and cultural relations.

A former British ambassador to Russia, Andrew Wood, says summits “need something concrete to talk about and it is difficult to know what that concrete is — you can’t just talk in the abstract about Ukraine or the damage Russian military activities have done in Syria.”

He notes that in recent years, U.S. and Russian leaders have talked and “there has been wild-eyed optimism about what could happen and it has been disappointing and I see no reason why this meeting should be any different.”

The U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, cautioned in an exclusive interview with VOA shortly after Putin was re-elected as president in April against thinking in terms of a reset with Russia, saying a sudden breakthrough is unrealistic — advice he clearly has been giving to Trump.

“The resets and the redos of years gone by, both Republicans and Democrats, always end in disaster,” he told VOA. “They heighten expectations to the point of our inability to achieve any of those expectations. Hopes are dashed. Relationships crumble. We’ve seen that over and over again.”

He added it is important to maintain a dialogue and look for “natural openings to build trust in small ways.”

Putin’s agenda

Both the Russian and U.S. governments have differences of opinion among their officials — some are more dovish; others more hawk-like. And in the run-up to the July summit, there will be behind-the-scenes debates galore within both governments about tactics, strategies and goals for the meeting.

Last April, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, during a hearing on his nomination to be U.S. secretary of state, told a Senate panel that he favored a tough approach toward Russia. In the Kremlin there also are disagreements. A Kremlin insider earlier this year told VOA that many in the Russian government, including Putin, suspect there’s a permanent fracture between Russia and the West, which cannot be repaired. “Some people in the Kremlin hoped it would be different with Donald Trump. But I wasn’t holding my breath,” the insider said.

The question now is, if the insider is right, whether Putin has changed his mind and sees a summit as an opening that could help usher in a general improvement in Russia-West relations.

Some European diplomats say they are skeptical, arguing Putin has a clear game plan to persuade Trump to acknowledge that the annexation of Crimea is now irreversible by easing sanctions. The quid pro quo for that could be a Russian acceptance for the pro-Moscow Donbas region to be reintegrated with the rest of Ukraine.

Others said they believe Putin will be looking to Washington to help Russia cope with post-war Syria, which will need an estimated $250 billion in reconstruction costs. “Either way, by holding a summit with him, Trump is normalizing Putin — and without getting anything up front,” said a British diplomat.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the British charge.

“Of all countries, shouldn’t the British want lines of communication open? Wasn’t it Churchill who said, ‘Jaw-jaw is better than war-war?'” The official was referring to the quote popularly attributed to the late British prime minister, Winston Churchill.
…

After some final World Cup group matches seemed to turn into “non-games” with teams barely playing or seeming unwilling to score, FIFA said on Friday it had no plan to change rules or how the draw is made.

On Thursday, Japan’s 1-0 defeat by Poland turned to farce as the Japanese, level on points, goal difference and goals with Senegal, defended their advantage on FIFA’s fair play criteria by effectively stopping playing — thereby avoiding picking up bookings or red cards that would have jeopardized their second-place finish.

Later, the England v Belgium match was overshadowed by talk that, being both sure of qualifying for the next round, neither wanted to win since the group winners face a potentially tougher route to final than the runners-up. Fans found the tempo sluggish and England seemed less than desperate after Belgium scored.

Had England equalized they would have finished first, as they started with fewer yellow cards, while Belgium had also picked up more bookings during the course of the match.

FIFA’s World Cup chief executive Colin Smith said the fair play criteria for group qualification would be reviewed after its first use at the World Cup but he believed it would not change. And he defended the level of competitive intent seen among the teams involved in the past few days’ matches.

“This is the first World Cup that we’ve brought in this rule,” Smith told reporters of the law that saw Japan advance as Group H runners-up ahead of Senegal because they had the same points, goal difference and goal tally but had picked up fewer yellow cards.

“Obviously what we want to avoid is the drawing of lots. We believe that teams should go forward on their performance. “We will review after this World Cup,” he said. “But as it currently stands we don’t see any need to change the rules we’ve put in place.”

Smith acknowledged that there had been comment about the final minutes of the Japan game.

“But these are isolated cases because they find themselves in a particular scenario after goal difference and the various points that have been met,” he said. “The game of football for the fans is a competitive game of football and the fans who have paid money to come and watch matches expect to see that — and I think we have seen that.”

Asked whether there was a way to avoid teams trying to come second by making a new draw after the group phase, Smith said: “Redoing the draw is obviously very difficult from the whole logistical, organizational point [of view].”

Echoing comments by England coach Gareth Southgate, he said: “If Belgium didn’t want to win then they obviously forgot to tell the goalscorer — because it was a cracker.”

“We believe on our side that every game is a competitive game of football and teams want to win.”
…

French authorities have charged 10 suspected far-right extremists in connection with an alleged plot to attack Muslims, a judicial source said Thursday.

The nine men and one woman, who ranged in age from 32 to 69, were arrested in raids across France on Saturday. They appeared before a judge on Wednesday evening and were charged with “criminal terrorist conspiracy,” the source said.

Several were also charged with violations of firearms laws and the manufacture or possession of explosive devices.

Police have linked the 10 to a little-known group called Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces Action), which urges French people to combat Muslims, or what it calls “the enemy within.”

The suspects had an “ill-defined plan to commit a violent act targeting people of the Muslim faith”, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Monday.

Rifles, handguns and homemade grenades were found during the raids in the Paris area, the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the western Charentes-Maritimes region.

Firearms, ammunition seized

Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday that 36 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized, as well as items in one suspect’s home that could be used in the manufacture of a type of organic peroxide explosive.

The suspects include a retired police officer, identified only as Guy S., who was the alleged leader of the group, according to a source close to the investigation. The group also includes a former soldier.

France remains on high alert following a wave of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.

Officials have urged people not to confuse the actions of radicalized individuals with those of France’s estimated 6 million Muslims, but anti-Islamic violence is on the rise.

The Guerre de France (War for France) website of the shadowy Operational Forces Action depicts an apocalyptic battle scene under the Eiffel Tower, and claims to prepare “French citizen-soldiers for combat on national territory.”

France’s TF1 television has said the group planned to target radicalized imams and Islamist prisoners after their release from jail, as well as veiled women in the street chosen at random.

France registered 72 violent anti-Muslim acts last year, up from 67 in 2016.
…

Pope Francis gave the Catholic Church 14 new cardinals Thursday, exhorting them to resist any temptation toward haughtiness and instead embrace “the greatest promotion” they can achieve:  tending to those neglected or cast aside by society.

Among those receiving the cardinals’ biretta — a crimson-red square cap with three ridges — was his point man for helping Rome’s homeless and poor. Polish Monsignor Konrad Krajewski has handed out sleeping bags to those spending cold nights on the Italian capital’s streets and driven vans taking the poor on seaside daytrips arranged by the Vatican.

The choices of many of the new cardinals reflected Francis’ determination that the church be known for tireless attention to those on society’s margins. He also turned his attention to countries located far from the Vatican after centuries of European dominance of the ranks of cardinals, honoring churchmen from Peru, Madagascar and Japan, which has a tiny minority of Catholics.

With Thursday’s ceremony, there are now 226 cardinals worldwide, 74 of them named by Francis during his 5-year-old papacy.

Of that total, 125 cardinals are younger than 80 and can vote in a conclave for the next pope when the current pope dies or resigns: 59 of them appointed by Francis, 47 by Pope Benedict XVI, his predecessor, and 19 named by Pope John Paul II. 

Three of those named Thursday are too old to participate in selecting the next pope.

In his homily, Francis told the new cardinals to avoid the “quest of honors, jealousy, envy, intrigue, accommodation and compromise.”

“What does it gain the world if we are living in a stifling atmosphere of intrigues that dry up our hearts and impede our mission?” the pope asked during the ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. He lamented the “palace intrigues that take place, even in curial offices.”

“When we forget the mission, when we lose sight of the real faces of our brothers and sisters, our life gets locked up in the pursuit of our own interests and securities,” Francis said. “The church’s authority grows with this ability to defend the dignity of others.”

“This is the highest honor that we can receive, the greatest promotion that can be awarded us: to serve Christ in God’s faithful people,” Francis said, going on to cite the “hungry, neglected, imprisoned, sick, suffering, addicted to drugs, cast aside.”

Other top issues

At a post-ceremony reception, Peru’s new cardinal, Huancayo Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno, a Jesuit like Pope Francis, was asked which pressing questions churchmen should urgently address.

The cardinal told the AP that the “social exclusion” of migrants is an issue “all must address.”

Francis recently has appealed to all nations to be more welcoming to the refugees they can adequately integrate into society.

The Peruvian cardinal also cited the need to fight corruption worldwide. Francis has made battling corruption inside the church also one of his papacy’s priorities.

After the ceremony, the pope and the new cardinals took minivans to the monastery on Vatican City grounds where Benedict XVI, who retired from the papacy in 2013, lives. The cardinals each went up to greet the frail 91-year-old Benedict, who was sitting in a chair, taking his hand and briefly chatting with the emeritus pontiff.

New cardinals

The new cardinals include Iraqi churchman Louis Raphael I Sako, the Baghdad-based patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans.

Sako told Francis that he welcomed the pope’s “special attention” to the “small flock who make up the Christians in the Middle East, in Pakistan and in other countries who are undergoing a difficult period due to the wars and sectarianism and where there are still martyrs.”

A Pakistani prelate, Joseph Coutts, archbishop of Karachi, was another new cardinal.

Addressing his “dear brother cardinals and new cardinals,” the pope said the “only credible form of authority is born of sitting at the feet of others in order to serve Christ.”

In a sign of the pope’s attention to ordinary people’s suffering, Monsignor Giuseppe Petrocchi, the archbishop of L’Aquila, an Italian mountain town devastated by a 2009 earthquake, was among the newest cardinals.

Other new cardinals include:

Monsignor Antonio dos Santos Marto, bishop of Leiria-Fatima, which includes Portugal’s popular shrine town;

Monsignor Desire Tsarahazana, archbishop of Toamasina, Madagascar;

Monsignor Thomas Aquinas Manyo, who was bishop of Hiroshima before Francis made him archbishop of Osaka, Japan;

Monsignor Luis Ladaria, a Spanish theologian who heads the powerful Vatican office in charge of ensuring doctrinal orthodoxy;

Monsignor Giovanni Angelo Becciu, an Italian whose diplomatic career includes serving as ambassador to Cuba;

Monsignor Angelo De Donatis, the Rome vicar general;

The three new prelates too old to vote in a conclave included Sergio Obeso Rivera, Emeritus Archbishop of Xalapa, Mexico; Spanish priest Aquilino Bocos Merino; and Bolivian Monsignor Toribio Ticona Porco.
…

Russia’s leading social network is cracking down on chat groups created to shame women during the World cup amid growing complaints of sexist abuse during the tournament.

Social network VKontakte told The Associated Press on Thursday it issued warnings to the administrators of such groups. VKontakte reminded administrators that “offensive behavior is unacceptable” and told them to better moderate their sites, including blocking content.

But sexist comments continued to appear Thursday on at least one of the targeted sites, which was named after an offensive Portuguese phrase for the female anatomy.

The site’s administrators openly criticize what they call inappropriate behavior by Russian women who celebrate with foreign fans during the World Cup.

Several female fans, journalists and others have complained of groping, sexist comments or other misconduct at the World Cup, being hosted in 11 Russian cities.
…

Kremlin officials say there is an agreement for Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to hold a summit in a third country.

The announcement came Wednesday as U.S. national security adviser John Bolton was in Moscow for talks with Putin and other senior Russian officials. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said details about the venue for a Trump-Putin summit would be announced Thursday.

The meeting is expected to take place after Trump attends the NATO summit July 11-12 and visits Britain on July 13. Vienna and Helsinki are among the venues being considered.

‘Sad state’ of bilateral relations

Earlier, Putin told Bolton his visit to Moscow increased the chances of a restoration of Russian-U.S. relations.

Putin said relations between the two countries were “not in the best shape.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters “the sad state” of bilateral relations between the two countries would be discussed, as well as a range of international issues.

Bolton had said he hoped his one-day visit would lay the groundwork for what would be the first summit between Putin and Trump.

“President Trump asked me to come and speak to Russian authorities about the possibility of a meeting between him and President Putin, and there will be an announcement on that tomorrow simultaneously, in Moscow and Washington, on the date and the time of that meeting,” Bolton said during a Moscow press conference.

Asked if current tensions between Washington and Moscow might impede progress toward “deliverables,” or concrete bilateral agreements, at the summit, Bolton struck an optimistic tone.

“I think the fact of the summit is itself a deliverable, and I don’t exclude that they will reach concrete agreements,” he said.

“But there are a lot of issues to talk about that have accumulated, and I think it was one of the reasons why President Trump believes so strongly that it was time to have this kind of meeting. And as you can see, President Putin agreed,” he added. “So, there will be other preparatory meetings. I don’t doubt that [U.S. Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo and [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov will get together, and I would expect there would be other preparatory meetings, as well.”

Former NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow expressed concern that “the intentions [of the prospective summit] are not entirely clear,” and that he suspected there wasn’t much common ground between the countries to build on.

Faith in Bolton

“I think it’s a good thing that Bolton was sent to Moscow to meet with his counterparts and President Putin, because this kind of meeting does need to be fully prepared,” Vershbow told VOA’s Russian service. “But there’s still a lot of questions about whether there are any major issues that are within reach of any resolution, given how deep our differences are on issues like Ukraine, [and Russia’s] continued efforts to marginalize the United States in Syria.

“For someone like me, who is a bit skeptical of where President Putin is taking his country and where he’s taking European security, I’m actually relieved to have Bolton as the man on the front line,” Vershbow said of Trump’s top adviser, who is renowned in Washington for his hawkish views on Moscow. “I know [Bolton] does believe strongly in Western values, and he has been strong in condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine and against Georgia 10 years ago. But at the end of the day, he answers to President Trump and … may be under instructions to be maybe a bit more flexible than his own instincts would tell him.”

Evelyn Farkas, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, told VOA that Trump’s willingness to meet with Putin contradicted American and European measures to penalize Russia’s gross violations of international laws.

“I think the challenge that Russia poses is one that it poses not just to the United States but to the international community, which is that Russia is pushing back against the international order, against international laws,” she said.

“With its 2008 invasion of Georgia, followed by the attempted annexation of Crimea — which changed borders by force for the first time in Europe since World War II — that woke everyone up,” she said.

Beyond military aggression, Farkas said evidence of Russian meddling in foreign elections, its alignment with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — despite his use of chemical weapons on his own civilians — and the March 2018 poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain all indicate a Kremlin that deliberately undermines international law.

“Russia is saying, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to make new rules, or there are going to be no rules. The rules don’t apply to us,'” she said.

The Kremlin has denied charges of election meddling and attempted assassinations on foreign soil.

Contradictions

“On the positive side, our Congress and the executive branch are continuing to pressure Russia to change its behavior to stop all of these negative actions. On the negative side, our president gives signals that run counter to the policy, in essence saying, ‘Why don’t we allow Russia back into the Group of Seven?’ That flies in the face of sanctions. The reason Russia was kicked out unanimously by all the members of the G-7 was because Russia had attempted to change borders by force for the first time since World War II. And one of the punishments besides sanctions was throwing them out of the G-7.

“So that’s one example of the president seeming to contradict the overriding policy,” she said. “There’s also, of course, the many things he has said about Vladimir Putin.”

Trump and Putin have met twice on the sidelines of international summits and have spoken several times by telephone.​

This story originated in VOA’s Russian service. Yulia Savchenko reported from Aspen, Colorado.
…

Two major auto trade groups on Wednesday warned the Trump administration that imposing up to 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles would cost hundreds of thousands of auto jobs, dramatically hike prices on vehicles and threaten industry spending on self-driving cars.

A coalition representing major foreign automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Hyundai Motor Co, said the tariffs would harm automakers and U.S. consumers. The administration in May launched an investigation into whether imported vehicles pose a national security threat and President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to quickly impose tariffs.

“The greatest threat to the U.S. automotive industry at this time is the possibility the administration will impose duties on imports in connection with this investigation,” wrote the Association of Global Automakers representing major foreign automakers. “Such duties would raise prices for American consumers, limit their choices, and suppress sales and U.S. production of vehicles.”

The group added: “Rather than creating jobs, these tariffs would result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs producing and selling cars, SUVs, trucks and auto parts.”

On Friday, Trump threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all imports of EU-assembled cars. On Tuesday, Trump said tariffs are coming soon.

“We are finishing our study of Tariffs on cars from the E.U. in that they have long taken advantage of the U.S. in the form of Trade Barriers and Tariffs. In the end it will all even out — and it won’t take very long!” Trump tweeted.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Daimler AG , Toyota and others, urged the administration in separate comments filed Wednesday not to go forward.

“We believe the resulting impact of tariffs on imported vehicles and vehicle components will ultimately harm U.S. economic security and weaken our national security,” the group wrote, calling the tariffs a “mistake” and adding imposing them “could very well set a dangerous precedent that other nations could use to protect their local market from foreign competition.”

The Alliance said its analysis of 2017 auto sales data showed a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles would result in an average price increase of $5,800, which would boost costs to American consumers by nearly $45 billion annually.

Automakers are concerned tariffs would mean less capital to spend on self-driving cars and electric vehicles.

“We are already in the midst of an intense global race to lead on electrification and automation. The increased costs associated with the proposed tariffs may result in diminishing the U.S.’ competitiveness in developing these advanced technologies,” the Alliance wrote.

Toyota said in a statement Wednesday that new tariffs “would increase the cost of every vehicle sold in the country.” The automaker said the tariffs would mean even a Toyota Camry built in Kentucky “would face $1,800 in increased costs.”

Both automotive trade groups cited a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the cost to U.S. jobs from the import duties would be 195,000 jobs and could be as high as 624,000 jobs if other countries retaliate.

The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses said the “pattern of rising protectionism is very likely to continue if the U.S. decide to impose tariffs on foreign automobiles and automobile parts, thus causing tremendous damage to both economies.”

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a state that produced nearly 1 million vehicles and 1.7 million engines built by foreign automakers last year, urged the Commerce Department not to invoke the tariffs. She said job losses from new levies could be “devastating.”

The proposed tariffs on national security grounds have been met by opposition among many Republicans in Congress.

Trump has made the tariffs a key part of his economic message and repeatedly lamented the U.S auto sector trade deficit, particularly with Germany and Japan. Some aides have suggested that the effort is a way to try to pressure Canada and Mexico into making more concessions in ongoing talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday the department aimed to wrap up the probe by late July or August. The Commerce Department plans to hold two days of public comments in July on its investigation of auto imports.

The Commerce Department has asked if it should consider U.S. owned auto manufacturers differently than foreign automakers.

The Association of Global Automakers rejected that contention, saying its members’ American workers “are no less patriotic or willing to serve their country in a time of crisis than any other Americans.”

The group questioned national security as grounds to restrict auto imports. “America does not go to war in a Ford Fiesta,” they added.

The Alliance said “there is no basis to claim that auto-related imports are a threat to national security” and noted that 98 percent of U.S. auto imports came from U.S. national security allies.
…

“I know quite a few people that, if the World Cup wasn’t in Russia, would have gone this year,” said Joe White, co-founder of Three Lions Pride, an LGBT group cheering for England’s team at the World Cup.

He and his co-founder, Di Cunningham, have been in Russia for the competition, showing up to games with a rainbow-striped Three Lions Pride flag, despite Russia’s five-year-old ban on what has been nicknamed “gay propaganda.”

Russia’s World Cup organizing committee has said in a statement that all visitors, regardless of sexual orientation (or race, gender, religion, ability, or other typical motivations for discrimination) are welcome at the World Cup, which runs through July 15.

The committee has even specifically promised to allow the display of rainbow pride flags at matches — a promise that has been tested by gay activists. So far, the government has kept its word.

The “gay propaganda” law, passed in 2013, makes it illegal for Russian citizens to present homosexual behavior as a norm in the presence of minors. But the law has been criticized for being open to interpretation, which makes it a potential tool for persecuting LGBT — lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — people.

In addition to Russian citizens, businesses, organizations and foreign visitors in Russia are subject to the law. Anti-gay violence has risen since the law was passed.

Vitaly Milonov, a member of the State Duma and one of the authors of the gay propaganda law, told The Associated Press before the World Cup opened that he wanted tighter, not looser, restrictions on LGBT fans during the international competition.

“I want to remind them that no matter how much they try lobbying, their hideous way of life is condemned all over the world,” he said in a story published June 1. “They do not have the right to propagandize their hideousness.”

Despite Moscow’s pledge to allow the display of the pride flag, Cunningham was briefly delayed June 18 at a security gate in Volgograd when she tried to enter the stadium with a pride flag. While she was eventually allowed to enter and display her flag at the England-Tunisia match that day, that hesitance is why White said it’s important for LGBT fans to show up in a country that is not seen as gay-friendly.

“I think the visibility of fans in the stadium is really making a big difference,” White said. “People are coming to terms with the fact that homophobia isn’t acceptable as part of the game, whether they’re being abusive toward players or toward fans.”

‘Diversity houses’

The group FARE, Football Against Racism in Europe, set up “diversity houses” in Moscow and St. Petersburg to give LGBT fans, as well as members of ethnic minorities, a safe place to gather and socialize.

On June 14, the owner of the St. Petersburg venue changed his mind just 12 hours before the house was set to open, forcing the group to find a new headquarters. They eventually landed in a St. Petersburg arts and cultural center because for some, fellowship with other LGBT fans is an essential part of the World Cup experience.

But White said outreach is also a component of the trip. He said it was important to him to socialize not only among his own crowd, but also to mingle with “people from other countries that may never have even thought about LGBT fans.”

It is a different style of activism for Peter Tatchell, a British gay-rights advocate who was briefly arrested June 14 in Moscow’s Red Square for protesting brutality toward gay men in the Russian republic of Chechnya.

Chechnya serves as home base for Egypt’s national team during the World Cup competition. White said people should give Tatchell “a huge amount of credit” for standing up for the rights of LGBT Russians. And he counts it as a win that Tatchell was charged with breaking a protest law and not the gay propaganda law.

Beyond World Cup

But the social diplomacy of pride groups attending football matches is a more subtle art than a protest in Red Square. For White, Cunningham and other gay fans, just showing up for the matches, flying the flag, and mingling with fellow football fans can be powerful.

White and his colleagues recognize that the relaxed policing of the gay propaganda law may go away once the World Cup concludes July 15. And the 2022 World Cup is scheduled for Qatar, where homosexuality is a criminal offense.

“The one thing [we] really would count as a success is making sure that when the World Cup finishes, we don’t just forget about the plight of LGBT Russians, that we continue supporting them,” White said. “We can support, from our privileged position in the U.K., the LGBT community in Russia or communities that aren’t as lucky as we are with the rights afforded to them. We can show that we stand in solidarity not just during World Cup but throughout the year, as well.”
…

The Senate in the Netherlands has approved a bill that bans wearing full-face cover in many public places. The 44-31 vote Tuesday ends a sensitive debate on religious freedom and women’s right to wear what they want. The bill bans wearing any type of clothing that completely covers the face except for the eyes in educational institutions, on public transportation, in hospitals and in government institutions. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
…