Month: July 2018

Authorities conducted extensive forensic tests Saturday, looking for the source of a nerve agent that sickened two people thought to have handled a contaminated item from the March attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter.

A police officer also underwent a precautionary test at a hospital to check for possible contamination related to the case, but Wiltshire police said late Saturday that he had been cleared.

The man and woman poisoned a week ago are in critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital, which is also where Sergei and Yulia Skripal spent months being treated after they were poisoned.

Authorities have said all four were sickened by Novichok, a nerve agent weapon developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Police think Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner, Charley Rowley, 45, had secondary exposure to the chemical weapon used in the attack on the Skripals.

Police have said they are looking for a vial that may contain Novichok. It is a slow and painstaking process, because there is no easy way to use modern technology to pinpoint the location of the rare nerve agent.

Officials have said the search could take weeks or months. It has brought more than 100 officers to Salisbury and the nearby town of Amesbury as suspect sites are condoned off to protect the public from possible contamination.

The police officer given the all clear underwent “appropriate specialist tests,” the Salisbury hospital said.

The hospital did not say whether the unidentified officer might have been exposed to Novichok. But a statement said the officer initially sought medical advice at another hospital “in connection with the ongoing incident in Amesbury,” which is where the latest victims developed symptoms of Novichok poisoning.

The Salisbury hospital added that it “has seen a number of members of the public who have come to the hospital with health concerns since this incident started and none have required any treatment.”

“We would like to reiterate the advice from Public Health England that the risk to the wider public remains low,” the hospital said.
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Fifty-three men slung their wives or partners over their shoulders and hurtled off on an hourlong race in the small Finnish town of Sonkajarvi on Saturday, as thousands of fans cheered from the stands.

The World Wife-Carrying Championship, now in its 23rd year, draws thousands of visitors to the town of 4,200 and has gained followers around the world.

There are official qualifying competitions in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Estonia. On Saturday, 53 couples from 13 countries joined the competition, organizers said.

The idea of wife-carrying as a sport was inspired by the 19th-century legend of Ronkainen the Robber, who tested aspiring members of his gang by forcing them to carry sacks of grain or live pigs over a similar course.

The championship is also said to stem from an even earlier practice of wife-stealing — leading many present-day contestants to compete with someone else’s wife.

On Saturday, Lithuanian parents of two, Vytautas Kirkliauskas and Neringa Kirkliauskiene, won the race, which involved running, wading through a slippery pool and getting through an obstacle course. The two defeated six-time world champion Taisto Miettinen, a Finn.

“It’s my wife,” Kirkliauskas shouted happily after the race. “She’s the best.”

The couple first competed in Sonkajarvi in 2005.

Finland, which straddles the Arctic Circle and goes through long, dark winters, is no stranger to strange sports. It has also given the world the world boot throwing, air guitar and mobile phone throwing competitions, to name a few.

“I think because we have only three months of light, we need to come up with nice stuff to do during the summertime, and we want to show everyone we have a great sense of humor,” said Sanna-Mari Nuutinen, a volunteer at Saturday’s event.
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Although Russia made it further at this year’s World Cup than almost anyone expected, it was Croatia that advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 shootout victory Saturday following a 2-2 draw.

The overachieving hosts, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament at No. 70, were trying to make it to the World Cup semifinals for the first time since the Soviet Union finished fourth at the 1966 tournament in England.

“I left everything on the field and unfortunately we were unlucky,” Russia midfielder Roman Zobnin said. “We gave everything we could.”

The Croats hadn’t advanced this far at the World Cup since 1998, when the country made its first appearance.

Croatia will next play England in the semifinals on Wednesday in Moscow. The English team defeated Sweden 2-0.

With the crowd silenced following an extra-time goal from Croatia defender Domagoj Vida in the 101st minute, Russia defender Mario Fernandes scored to send the match to yet another penalty shootout.

Native Brazilian

Fernandes, who was born in Brazil but rejected a chance to play for that country’s national team, sent his penalty kick wide of the net in the shootout, giving Croatia the advantage.

Both goalkeepers made early saves in the shootout, with an injured Danijel Subasic stopping the opening shot from Fedor Smolov. Igor Akinfeev later blocked an attempt from Mateo Kovacic.

At 1-1, Fernandes missed his shot — only the second player to miss in any of the four shootouts at this year’s World Cup.

The teams then traded two scores each before Ivan Rakitic calmly scored the winning penalty.

Denis Cheryshev gave Russia the lead with a shot into the upper corner in the 31st minute. Croatia equalized with Andrej Kramaric’s header near halftime.

It was the second straight time both teams played in a shootout. Russia beat Spain 4-3 and Croatia defeated Denmark 3-2 in the round of 16.

Argentina in 1990 had been the last team to win consecutive World Cup shootouts. It defeated Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals and Italy in the semifinals that year, which also made Italy the last host nation to lose on penalties before Saturday.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May secured a cabinet agreement on Friday for her plans to leave the European Union, overcoming rifts among her ministers to win support for “a business-friendly” proposal aimed at spurring stalled Brexit talks.

After an hours-long meeting at her Chequers country residence, May seemed to have persuaded the most vocal Brexit campaigners in the cabinet to back her plan to press for “a free trade area for goods” with the EU and maintain close trade tie.

The agreed proposal — which also says Britain’s large services sector will not have the current levels of access to EU markets — will not come soon enough for Brussels, which has been pressing May to come up with a detailed vision for future ties. But the hard-won compromise may yet fall flat with EU negotiators.

By also committing to ending free movement of people, the supremacy of the European court and “vast” payments to the bloc, May could be accused of “cherry-picking” the best bits of the EU by Brussels officials, who are determined to send a strong signal to other countries not to follow Britain out of the door.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed the agreement but added on Twitter: “We will assess proposals to see if they are workable and realistic.”

For now, May, who has been written off by critics regularly since losing her Conservative Party’s parliamentary majority in an ill-judged election last year, will be buoyed by the hard-won agreement.

“Today in detailed discussions the cabinet has agreed our collective position for the future of our negotiations with the EU,” May said in a statement. “Now we must all move at pace to negotiate our proposal with the EU to deliver the prosperous and secure future all our people deserve.”

In a document outlining the government’s position, ministers said they had agreed that an earlier proposal made to the EU “needed to evolve in order to provide a precise, responsible and credible basis for progressing negotiations.”

Instead, they had agreed to negotiate for a “free trade area for goods,” one that would see Britain having a “common rulebook for all goods” in a combined customs territory. This would allow Britain to set its own import tariffs and seal new free trade deals.

They also agreed that parliament would have the power to decide whether to follow EU rules and regulations in the future, and the government would step up preparations for the eventuality of a ‘no deal’ exit.

But for both sides of the Brexit debate — the hardline eurosceptics and the staunch EU supporters — the agreed negotiating position was not enough.

John Longworth, a chairman of campaign group Leave Means Leave, accused May of personally deceiving Brexit campaigners.

“May’s Brexit means BRINO — ‘Brexit In Name Only’ — a fake Brexit.”

Pro-EU Labour lawmaker Chuka Ummuna described it as “yet another behind-closed-doors stitch up that would leave us all worse off.”

The Times newspaper said, without citing sources, that May was taking a hard line and had promised senior allies that she would sack foreign minister Boris Johnson, a Brexit supporter, if he tried “to undermine the peace deal.”

Trade deals 

With nine months before Britain leaves and just over three before the EU says it wants a deal, May has been under intense pressure from the bloc and from many businesses to show her negotiating position.

As she held the crisis talks with her ministers, the chief executive of European planemaker Airbus, Tom Enders, accused the government of having “no clue or at least consensus on how to execute Brexit without severe harm.”

May was cautious on whether she will win the support of the EU, saying only that she had “been talking to European leaders over the last week or so.”

“This is a proposal that I believe will be good for the UK and good for the EU and I look forward to it being received positively,” she told reporters.

But she has at least cleared yet another domestic hurdle. She seems to have reassured pro-Brexit ministers that under the new negotiating position Britain will still be able to seek trade deals with the rest of the world, easing fears that mirroring EU rules for goods would rule that out.

They may also have been reassured by May reiterating her belief that any agreement with the EU should end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, although British courts would still have to “pay due regard” to its rulings.

And the agreed negotiating position also hands a big role for parliament to decide whether Britain should continue to follow EU rules and regulations, recognizing that any rejection of them “would have consequences.”

“This is a further step, an important further step, in our negotiations with the European Union,” she said. “But of course we still have work to do with the EU in ensuring that we get to that end point in October. But this is good.”
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So is this what a trade war looks like?

The Trump administration and China’s leadership have imposed tens of billions of dollars in tariffs on each other’s goods. President Donald Trump has proposed slapping duties on, all told, up to $550 billion if China keeps retaliating and doesn’t cave in to U.S. demands to scale back its aggressive industrial policies.

Until the past couple of years, tariffs had been losing favor as a tool of national trade policy. They were largely a relic of 19th and early 20th centuries that most experts viewed as mutually harmful to all nations involved. But Trump has restored tariffs to a prominent place in his self-described America First approach.

Trump enraged such U.S. allies as Canada, Mexico and the European Union this spring by slapping tariffs on their steel and aluminum shipments to the United States. The tariffs have been in place on most other countries since March.

The president has also asked the U.S. Commerce Department to look into imposing tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, arguing that they pose a threat to U.S. national security.

Here is a look at what tariffs are, how they work, how they’ve been used in the past and what to expect now: 

Are we in a trade war?

Economists have no set definition of a trade war. But with the world’s two largest economies now slapping potentially punishing tariffs on each other, it looks as if a trade war has arrived. The value of goods that Trump has threatened to hit with tariffs exceeds the $506 billion in goods that China exported to the United States last year. 

It’s not uncommon for countries, even close allies, to fight over trade in specific products. The United States and Canada, for example, have squabbled for decades over softwood lumber. 

But the U.S. and China are fighting over much broader issues, like China’s requirements that American companies share advanced technology to access China’s market, and the overall U.S. trade deficit with China. So far, neither side has shown any sign of bending.

​So what are tariffs?

Tariffs are a tax on imports. They’re typically charged as a percentage of the transaction price that a buyer pays a foreign seller. Say an American retailer buys 100 garden umbrellas from China for $5 apiece, or $500. The U.S. tariff rate for the umbrellas is 6.5 percent. The retailer would have to pay a $32.50 tariff on the shipment, raising the total price from $500 to $532.50.

In the United States, tariffs — also called duties or levies — are collected by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country. Proceeds go to the Treasury. The tariff rates are published by the U.S. International Trade Commission in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which lists U.S. tariffs on everything from dried plantains (1.4 percent) to parachutes (3 percent).

Sometimes, the U.S. will impose additional duties on foreign imports that it determines are being sold at unfairly low prices or are being supported by foreign government subsidies. 

Do other countries have higher tariffs than the United States?

Most key U.S. trading partners do not have significantly higher average tariffs. According to an analysis by Greg Daco at Oxford Economics, U.S. tariffs on imported goods, adjusted for trade volumes, average 2.4 percent, above Japan’s 2 percent and just below the 3 percent for the European Union and 3.1 percent for Canada.

The comparable figures for Mexico and China are higher. Both have higher duties that top 4 percent.

Trump has complained about the 270 percent duty that Canada imposes on dairy products. But the United States has its own ultra-high tariffs — 168 percent on peanuts and 350 percent on tobacco.

​What are tariffs supposed to accomplish?

Two things: Raise government revenue and protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Before the establishment of the federal income tax in 1913, tariffs were a big money-raiser for the U.S. government. From 1790 to 1860, for example, they produced 90 percent of federal revenue, according to Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy by Douglas Irwin, an economist at Dartmouth College. By contrast, last year tariffs accounted for only about 1 percent of federal revenue.

In the fiscal year that ended last September 30, the U.S. government collected $34.6 billion in customs duties and fees. The White House Office of Management and Budget expects tariffs to fetch $40.4 billion this year.

Tariffs also are meant to increase the price of imports or to punish foreign countries for committing unfair trade practices, like subsidizing their exporters and dumping their products at unfairly low prices. Tariffs discourage imports by making them more expensive. They also reduce competitive pressure on domestic competitors and can allow them to raise prices.

Tariffs fell out of favor as global trade expanded after World War II.

The formation of the World Trade Organization and the advent of trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada reduced or eliminated tariffs. 

​Why are tariffs making a comeback?

After years of trade agreements that bound the countries of the world more closely and erased restrictions on trade, a populist backlash has grown against globalization. This was evident in Trump’s 2016 election and the British vote that year to leave the European Union — both surprise setbacks for the free-trade establishment.

Critics note that big corporations in rich countries exploited looser rules to move factories to China and other low-wage countries, then shipped goods back to their wealthy home countries while paying low tariffs or none at all. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, the United States has shed 3.1 million factory jobs, though many economists attribute much of that loss not just to trade but to robots and other technologies that replace human workers.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to rewrite trade agreements and crack down on China, Mexico and other countries. He blames what he calls their abusive trade policies for America’s persistent trade deficits — $566 billion last year. Most economists, by contrast, say the deficit simply reflects the reality that the United States spends more than it saves. By imposing tariffs, he is beginning to turn his hard-line campaign rhetoric into action.

Are tariffs wise?

Most economists — Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro is a notable exception — say no. The tariffs drive up the cost of imports. And by reducing competitive pressure, they give U.S. producers leeway to raise their prices, too. That’s good for those producers, but bad for almost everyone else.

Rising costs especially hurt consumers and companies that rely on imported components. Some U.S. companies that buy steel are complaining that Trump’s tariffs put them at a competitive disadvantage. Their foreign rivals can buy steel more cheaply and offer their products at lower prices.

More broadly, economists say trade restrictions make the economy less efficient. Facing less competition from abroad, domestic companies lose the incentive to increase efficiency or to focus on what they do best. 
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Russia is denying any role in the poisoning of a British couple who British authorities insist are the latest victims of Novichok — allegedly a Russian-made military-grade nerve agent first implicated in an assassination attempt on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil last March.

The initial attack left former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, hospitalized in serious condition for several weeks before their ultimate recovery. The incident set off an international crisis that Kremlin officials seemed less than eager to repeat in the face of renewed allegations. 

“Of course we’re concerned that these substances have been used repeatedly in Europe,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “However, on the other hand, we have no information about which substances were used or how they were used.”

British nationals Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45, both fell ill in Amesbury — less than 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Salisbury — showing symptoms British medical personnel have described as consistent with those in the Skripals’ poisoning.

Russia has angrily denied any involvement in the incidents, arguing Moscow never possessed Novichok and had nothing to gain politically from an attack on a former double agent seemingly in retirement.

Yet, in the wake of the Amesbury incident, Russian officials have concentrated their frustration on British authorities’ continued refusal to allow Russian investigators to participate in a joint investigation.

“It is regrettable that U.K. officials try to link a second poisoning with Russia without having produced any credible results of the investigation of the first one,” the Russian Embassy in Britain said in a statement. “Instead of genuine cooperation, London is doing everything possible to muddy the waters, to confuse and frighten its own citizens.”

“There is a need for thorough and professional work, and the efforts of British security services will not be enough,” added Vladimir Shamanov, chairman of the defense committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma.

“Russia should be involved, among others,” he added.

The revival of the Novichok issue presents an additional challenge to East-West relations just days ahead of a July 16 summit in Helsinki between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that both sides say is much needed to thaw existing tensions.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is all but certain to raise the subject when Trump visits London for talks prior to the Helsinki summit.

In the wake of the March attack against the Skripals, the U.S. joined with Britain in marshaling the largest mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western allies since the days of the Cold War. 

At the time, British authorities argued, and U.S. officials concurred, that it was “highly likely” Moscow was either behind the attack or had lost control of its chemical weapons stores. 

Renewed focus on the poisonings serves as an unwelcome distraction from Russia’s continued hosting of World Cup 2018, which visiting soccer fans have overwhelmingly lauded as a success. 

The event has helped burnish Russia’s international image following years in which the Kremlin argues it has been unfairly demonized over everything from its policies in Ukraine and Syria to cyber-meddling in elections and what Washington has described as general “malign activities.”

Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the world governing body FIFA in Moscow on Friday, Putin praised the tournament and world soccer fans for helping to destroy “so many stereotypes about Russia.”

“People have seen that Russia is a hospitable country, a friendly one for those who come here,” said Putin.

Yet Sergei Zheleznyak, deputy speaker of the Duma, argued it was Russia’s very success as World Cup host that explained the sudden return of the Novichok scandal to world headlines.

“A huge number of British fans, despite the warnings from their government, came to support their team. Their impressions are just destroying everything British propaganda built over the past few years,” said Zhelezhnyak. “To break up this flow of really positive emotions that the British fans are sharing, they had to put something like this in the mass media.”

While British officials and the royal family have boycotted the games in protest against the Skripal poisonings, the controversy over Novichok wasn’t the only source of tension between London and Moscow.

Depending on the outcome of their World Cup matches Saturday, Russia and England could square off in the semifinals. 
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Prime Minister Theresa May called on her government to do its duty and agree a plan for Britain’s future outside the European Union, a last-ditch appeal to ministers to put Brexit rows behind them and take a “step forward”.

Just hours before hosting a meeting at her Chequers country residence on Friday that she hopes will overcome deep rifts that have hampered Britain’s Brexit plans, May urged her cabinet to agree a way to push on with all-but-stalled talks with the EU.

A united stance from the government cannot come soon enough for an increasingly frustrated EU and for many companies, which have stepped up their warnings of the risk to tens of thousands of jobs if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal.

But the first details of May’s new plan for close customs ties with the EU – a “facilitated customs arrangement” – won mixed reviews, with one Brexit campaigner saying it could leave the country out of Europe, but still run by Europe.

Her foreign minister, Boris Johnson, was reported by local media to have held a meeting of pro-Brexit ministers to plan a counter attack to May’s plans.

“The cabinet meets at Chequers … to agree the shape of our future relationship with the European Union. In doing so, we have a great opportunity – and a duty,” May said before her ministers set off for the 16th-century manor house 40 miles (60 km) northwest of London.

“Now is the time for another step forward. We want a deal that allows us to deliver the benefits of Brexit – taking control of our borders, laws and money and by signing ambitious new trade deals with countries like the U.S, Australia and New Zealand,” she added in a statement.

Her effective deputy, cabinet office minister David Lidington, said he was confident ministers, who have long been at odds over how close Britain’s future relationship with the EU should be, would reach a “concrete position”.

Brexit vision

The stakes are high.

May has been reluctant to spell out her Brexit vision for fear of angering one faction or another. But with only nine months before Britain leaves the bloc and just over three months before the EU says it wants a deal, she has been forced to act.

On Thursday, May made her opening gambit to overcome the deep divisions in not only her government, but in her Conservative Party, parliament and across Britain by suggesting a new customs plan to keep trade flowing as freely as possible.

It would see Britain closely mirror EU rules, use technology to determine where goods will end up and therefore which tariffs should be applied, and hand London the freedom to set its own tariffs on incoming goods. Britain would also be able to strike trade deals with other countries, her spokeswoman said.

But Brexit campaigners, including at least two ministers in her cabinet, fear that the plan will keep Britain in the EU’s customs sphere. That, Brexit supporters say, would be a betrayal of her pledge for a clean break with the bloc and for Britain to win the ability to strike out alone.

Her office has so far made public only a few details of the plan and it may be changed at the Chequers meeting, which is expected to run all day and possibly late into the evening.

Even if she finds agreement at home, May still faces the hard task of winning the support of the EU, which poured cold water on her previous suggestions for customs arrangements and has pressed the leader to come up with “workable” proposals.

But for now, May hopes to concentrate minds at home.

She said: “This is about agreeing an approach that delivers decisively on the verdict of the British people – an approach that is in the best interests of the UK and the EU, and crucially, one that commands the support of the public and parliament.”

 
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A Polish MiG-29 military jet crashed during a night flight in northern Poland the defense ministry said Friday.

The 33-year-old Polish air force pilot, whose name was not released, was killed, despite ejecting before the crash. His body was found a few hundred meters away from the wreckage.

The pilot had some 800 hours of flight time.

The Associated Press reports that Polish authorities have ordered all of the country’s aging Soviet-made MiG-29 jets grounded pending an investigation.

Poland has about 30 MiG-29 fighter jets which have been in service for almost 30 years. It is gradually replacing them with U.S.-made F-16 aircraft.
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Talks to save the 2015 nuclear deal on Friday are unlikely to satisfy Iran, European powers said, and Tehran warned that it could leave the accord if it was not fully compensated for the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions.

Ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia meet their Iranian counterpart in Vienna for the first time since U.S. President Donald Trump left the pact in May, but diplomats see limited scope for salvaging it.

Trump pulled the United States out of the multinational deal under which sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear program verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Washington has since told countries they must stop buying the OPEC producer’s oil from Nov. 4 or face financial consequences.

Speaking on French radio ahead of arriving in the Austrian capital, France’s foreign minister said world powers would struggle to put together an economic package immediately.

“They (Iran) must stop threatening to break their commitments to the nuclear deal,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said. “We are trying to do it (economic package) before sanctions are imposed at the start of August and then the next set of sanctions in November. For August it seems a bit short, but we are trying to do it by November,” he said.

On arrival in Vienna, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said he didn’t expect a collapse of talks, but suggested more negotiations would be needed in the future. He stressed hat world powers would struggle to compensate Tehran for companies leaving Iran.

The pillars of the European Union’s strategy are: European Investment Bank lending, a special measure to shield EU companies from U.S. secondary sanctions, and a Commission proposal that EU governments make direct money transfers to Iran’s central bank to avoid U.S. penalties.

Bank payments

“We’ve made some progress, including on safeguarding some crude (oil) sales, but it’s unlikely to meet Iranian expectations. It’s also not just about what the Europeans can do, but also how the Chinese, Russians, Indians, others can contribute,” said a senior European diplomat.

Iranian officials have said that key for them is to ensure measures that guarantee oil exports do not halt, and that Tehran still has access to the SWIFT international bank payments messaging system or an alternative.

“We are ready for all possible scenarios … the collapse of the deal will increase the tension in the region. To save the deal, other signatories should compensate for U.S. sanctions,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.

During a visit to Europe this week President Hassan Rouhani warned that Iran could reduce its co-operation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, having already threatened Trump of the “consequences” of fresh sanctions against Iranian oil sales.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have also warned that they may block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in response to U.S. calls to ban all Iranian oil exports.

“We expect our partners to give us verifiable solutions rather than just promises,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters on Friday.

 
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A court in Russia has fined Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for allegedly failing to comply with a Russian law regulating media outlets branded by the government as “foreign agents.”
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Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has indicated the end of emergency rule before it expires two weeks from now, on July 19.

“I suppose the government will be announced on Monday, the Cabinet will start work, and an emergency rule will have ended,” Yildirim said in an interview with the state news agency Anadolu.

As a result of the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections, Turkey moves to a powerful executive presidency. The role of the prime minister will end, and ministers will report directly to the president. During his campaign for re-election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would end emergency rule.

Parliament introduced emergency rule after a July 15, 2016, coup attempt. The measure allowed the president to rule by decree and extended sweeping powers to security forces.

The announcement has been cautiously welcomed by rights groups. “Lifting of the state of the emergency is a positive step,” U.S.-based Human Rights Watch senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said.

“But it’s only beginning because there need to be bold measures taken to provide redress to the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been deprived of their rights under the state of emergency,” added Sinclair-Webb.

Under the emergency rule, about 200,000 people have been purged from their jobs, and tens of thousands of others detained. Sinclair-Webb said only a thousand or so people had been reinstated in their positions by a body set up to review cases.

Analysts see the ending of emergency rule as a politically shrewd move. “The polls do show a majority of Turks do want emergency rule to be lifted, around 65 percent,” said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Edam research group in Istanbul. “People want to go back to normalcy, so it’s understandable there is this aspiration to lift emergency rule.”

Continued ‘rule by decree’

Ulgen suggests that ending emergency rule could prove to be more cosmetic than meaningful.

“Under the new presidential system, they (ruling AKP) may not need emergency rule, given the president can continue to rule by decree.  There will not be emergency rule decrees, but executive decrees under the new presidential system.”

The new presidential system comes into effect Monday when Erdogan takes the oath of office. He will then be allowed to issue decrees with the force of law.

Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish HDP party has reservations about the impact of lifting emergency rule.

“I don’t think there will be any change,” HDP honorary president Ertugrul Kurkcu said. “Looking at the legislation introduced, in particular the Domestic Security Act, it gives them (security forces) all the necessary powers without declaring a state of emergency.”

Emergency rule initially targeted followers of the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the attempted coup.  But the extraordinary powers have also been used against the HDP, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party. The government accuses the pro-Kurdish party of having links to the PKK, which has been waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey for decades.

Under emergency rule, thousands of HDP activists and officials have been jailed.

New security measures will be introduced before the emergency rule ends. “The last decree law will include necessary regulations in order to avoid weakness in the fight against terrorism in the period when the state of emergency is lifted,” Yildirim said.

Mixed views

HDP’s Kurkcu warns even if some draconian powers end, the mentality created under special powers will likely continue. “The state of emergency, which blanketed the country for two years, will leave behind a security approach for every issue; in order for us to leave this behind will take much time,” Kurkcu said.

Critics say emergency rule has been used by the government to intimidate opponents, a charge it denies.  

Some observers argue even if the ending of emergency rule offers the return of few freedoms and rights, its passing is still significant.  “It can be more important symbolically,” said a prominent newspaper columnist who requested anonymity.  “It created an atmosphere of oppression. Even if things don’t change much on the ground, its ending can psychologically be significant, especially for opponents and critics,” the columnist added.

The ending of emergency rule is also likely to boost Ankara’s efforts to repair its relations with the European Union. The bloc has strongly criticized the crackdown and repeatedly called for it to be ended.

Next week, Erdogan is due to meet with key European leaders when he attends a NATO summit in Brussels.

 
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Britain’s interior minister says the nerve agent that sickened a man and a woman is the same type used in an attack earlier this year on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

“This has been identified as the same nerve agent that contaminated both Yulia and Sergei Skripal,” Sajid Javid said Thursday.  He said it is not clear at this time whether the nerve agent that poisoned the British couple, identified by friends as 44-year old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year old Charlie Rowley, is from the exact same batch used in the attack on the Skripals.

The couple was was found unconscious Saturday in Amesbury, 13 kilometers from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found in March.

Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC on Thursday investigators believe the new exposure is a result of the March incident and not a new attack directed at Sturgess and Rowley.  

The unexpected poisoning of the couple, with no known link to Russia, has raised public concerns in the Salisbury area. Health officials say the risk to the public is low.

Britain has blamed Russia for poisoning the Skripals with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  

Wallace called on Russia to share information about the poisoning.

Russia has denied any involvement and instead has claimed that Britain itself was to blame for the attack, in an attempt to stoke anti-Russian sentiments.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on British law enforcement authorities at a briefing Thursday “not to get involved in dirty political games” that “Theresa May’s government has stirred up” and demanded an apology from Britain.

Earlier Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the British government has not presented any evidence of Russia’s involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations.”

The Kremlin also said Thursday it had offered to help Britain with the Skripal investigation, but that Britain had declined.

The incident prompted the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold war as the United States and Britain’s European allies sided with London in blaming Moscow.
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Emboldened by its success in the June 24 elections, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish HDP Party is looking to broaden its support beyond its traditional ethnic base — a move that could redraw the country’s entrenched political borders. 

Narrowly passing the 10 percent electoral threshold to enter parliament, the HDP’s success was tinged by some political fallout: Many of its officials were jailed, including nine parliamentary deputies, on terrorism charges alone. HDP also claims there was a media blackout on its campaign and it was a victim of voter suppression by the government. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP Party claim the HDP is a terrorist organization affiliated to the Kurdish insurgent group the PKK — a charge the party denies.

While the HDP’s support remained largely unchanged in its traditional electoral stronghold in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, its votes increased in large cities in the West inhabited mainly by Turks. 

The HDP’s increase in votes is attributed in part to tactical voting by Turkish voters opposed to Erdogan’s ruling AKP. If the HDP had failed to enter parliament, its more than 60 seats would have been transferred to the AKP, which is its chief electoral rival.

HDP Honorary President Ertugrul Kurkcu, speaking in an exclusive interview with VOA, suggests the party’s success in broadening its support could become permanent. 

“I believe this section of voters are going to stay with HDP if we can develop a more coherent line of opposition by bringing together both aspirations of the Kurdish people, as well as the democratic and left forces as it was in the origins of the Kurdish movement. I am very confident in saying that with the new elements coming we are going to find a new way of thinking,” Kurkcu said.  

Some analysts remain skeptical over the HDP achieving a broader support among Turkish voters, pointing out many remain deeply suspicious over its relationship to the PKK. The decades-long insurgency by the PKK for greater Kurdish rights has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“The expectations are they [HDP] reject the relations with PKK and condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization,” International Relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University said.

“If we were to say that we were against everything the PKK is doing this would not be convincing,” countered HDP’s Kurkcu, “the brother of the former chair of our party is up in the mountains (fighting with the PKK). Everything is closely interrelated, it would not be convincing. Kurdish people don’t believe these people are terrorists. Who would believe their martyred son is a terrorist and would they appreciate a party that says he is,” added Kurkcu.

Nearly all of Turkey’s mainstream media regularly refer to the HDP as “terrorist supporters,” echoing President Erdogan’s line. Despite such a relentless campaign, Kurkcu believes the June election result suggests some people are ready to look to the future.

“New voters who voted for HDP did so knowing very well the HDP’s position, HDP’s discourse, but also knowing HDP’s potential,” he said.

Efforts to broaden the HDP’s political appeal comes at a time when some Kurds are calling for a harder line in response to ongoing government crackdown on the Kurdish movement.

“Many people in Kurdistan would love it if the HDP ran a fierce campaign for independence, but this is only 10 percent of our support, which is a reaction to the draconian policies of the government,” Kurkcu said.  “I would not say there are many contradictions in the party over our new approach, but rather among some of our Kurdish audience, we will hear such voices, and we have to address them.”

The political environment facing HDP also remains a challenge. Erdogan has indicated he will ease up on the legal crackdown of the party. 

The interior minister Suleyman Soylu this week declared there is no “HDP,” only the PKK. 

 “There is a political space for HDP’s initiative,” political scientist Cengiz Aktar said. “Whether the regime will allow this sort of opposition to itself, it needs to be seen. There are too many unknown elements.”

 
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United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell reportedly told German auto makers Wednesday the U.S. would back off threats of tariffs on European car imports in exchange for the European Union’s elimination of duties on U.S. cars.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Grenell told BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen executives of the proposal during a meeting Wednesday at the embassy in Berlin.

Daimler and Volkswagen declined to comment and BMW was not immediately available for comment, the report said.

The reported proposal comes after the European Union warned U.S. President Donald Trump last Friday the potential indirect costs of imposing tariffs on cars could amount to $294 billion.

The EU report, submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department, maintained the tariffs would disrupt cross-border supply chains in the automotive industry. The report said the tariffs could possibly trigger higher U.S. industrial costs, raise consumer prices, hurt exports and cost jobs.  

The World Trade Organization said Wednesday trade barriers being set by world economic powers could jeopardize the global economic recovery.

“This continued escalation poses a serious threat to growth and recovery in all countries, and we are beginning to see this reflected in some forward-looking indicators,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevendo said.

Azevendo did not expound on his remarks, but the WTO’s quarter trade outlook indicator in May suggested trade growth in the second quarter would decelerate.

 
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One pedestrian was killed and at least three others hurt Wednesday in the World Cup host city of Sochi when a car apparently accidentally veered onto a sidewalk.

Police told Reuters the driver had fallen asleep when the car was traveling fast on a main street before it crossed two lanes of traffic and rammed into the pedestrians.

Police said the accident occurred about 45 kilometers from the stadium in Sochi, one of eleven Russian cities hosting the soccer World Cup.

Authorities have promised safe venues for the soccer matches, but last month a taxi driver plowed into a crowd in near Moscow’s Red Square, injuring seven people.

 
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