Новини

Poland’s parliament passed legislation Wednesday to reinstate Supreme Court judges who were recently forced to retire, a step that could significantly ease a standoff with the European Union.

For the EU, which is facing a string of crises, including Brexit and Italy’s debt, it was a rare victory in its struggle to preserve democracy in a region where illiberal populism has been on the rise, a trend led by Hungary.

Wednesday’s development comes a month after the EU’s court ordered Poland to immediately suspend the lowering of the retirement age for Supreme Court judges, which had forced about two dozen of them off the bench.

The forced retirement of the judges was widely seen as an attempt by the ruling populist party, Law and Justice, to stack the court with loyalists, and it was condemned internationally as a blow to democratic standards.

Poland has been in a standoff with the EU for three years over attempts by Law and Justice, under the leadership of powerful party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, to impose control over the court system.

Many legal experts said that the forced retirement of the Supreme Court judges, including the chief justice, violated Poland’s constitution. That, along with the broader overhaul of the justice system, has raised serious concerns over rule of law in the young democracy, with the EU saying the changes erode the independence of the judicial branch of government.

Wednesday’s legislative initiative — which noted that it was introduced to comply with the EU court ruling — marks one of the first significant steps by Poland to meet EU demands.

“We know very well that in politics effectiveness matters and that sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward,” said Stanislaw Piotrowicz, a ruling party lawmaker and one of the key architects of the judicial overhaul, in an interview with the wPolityce.pl portal.

Zselyke Csaky, an expert on Central Europe with Freedom House, called it a “significant” step and a sign by the ruling party of “common sense,” though she also said on Twitter that “the full damage to rule of law and legal certainty will be much harder to remedy.”

The Polish government, in power since 2015, has been forced to climb down before. Earlier this year it softened a Holocaust speech law that made it a crime to attribute co-responsibility in the Holocaust to the Polish nation and which sparked a major diplomatic dispute with Israel. It also dropped draft legislation in 2016 that would have tightened the already restrictive abortion law after massive street protests by women wearing black.

But it is an almost unheard-of concession to the EU, which the government often says has no right to meddle in its internal affairs.

Under the amendment passed Wednesday to the new law on the Supreme Court, the judges who were forced to retire early will have the choice of returning to their duties. The law had lowered the retirement age from 70 to 65, and any judge who wished to remain had to request the consent of the president.

The party introduced the amended legislation to the parliament Wednesday and it was passed quickly by the lower house. It goes next to the Senate and also needs the president’s signature, but since both are aligned with the party, these steps are all but certain to happen.

The party’s reversal comes after local elections last month that showed Law and Justice winning the most seats in regional assemblies but losing badly in mayoral races in the cities and even mid-size towns. The results suggested the party’s conflicts with the EU — which is extremely popular among voters — have cost it votes among urban, middle-class voters.

It also comes as the party, which has a strong anti-corruption profile, finds itself mired in corruption allegations. Last week the head of the state financial authorities resigned over allegations he had solicited a bribe of millions of dollars from a billionaire who heads two troubled banks.
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British counterterrorism police are investigating after two devices were found in an unoccupied apartment in northwest London.

Police said Wednesday the “initial assessment” is that the items were improvised explosive devices.

Police said the devices were made safe and neighboring apartments that had been evacuated as a precaution have been re-opened to occupants.

Officials say the surrounding area was searched and has been declared safe. The area had been cordoned off for roughly eight hours.

Police were called to the Craven Park neighborhood Wednesday morning when the two suspicious devices were found in an apartment that was being refurbished.

Officials say they are keeping an open mind about the incident and have asked the public for any information.

The country’s official terrorism threat level is set at “severe.”
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The Trump administration has invited the heads of Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler to the White House to discuss U.S. tariffs on carmakers, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Citing industry and diplomatic sources, the paper said the meeting could possibly take place as soon as next week, depending on circumstances. Handelsblatt said it was not known whether U.S. President Donald Trump would attend the meeting.

A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to confirm or deny whether the carmaker had received an invitation. Sources close to VW said it had not received an invitation.

Daimler and BMW did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has threatened for months to impose tariffs on all European Union-assembled vehicles, a move that could up-end the industry’s business model for selling cars in the United States.

But he has refrained from imposing car tariffs while the United States and European Union launch negotiations to cut other trade barriers.
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Interpol’s general assembly voted Wednesday to make South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang its new president.

Kim had been serving as the organization’s acting president and will serve a two-year term, Interpol said.

He replaces China’s Meng Hongwei, who disappeared while visiting his native country in late September and was later said to be detained on bribery allegations.

Ahead of the vote, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly endorsed Kim to win.

​”We encourage all nations and organizations that are part of Interpol and that respect the rule of law to choose a leader of credibility and integrity that reflects one of the world’s most critical law enforcement bodies,” Pompeo said.

The result of Wednesday’s election was to some degree a surprise after many considered Russia’s Alexander Prokopchuk, one of Interpol’s vice presidents, as the front-runner in the race.

Kremlin critics said putting Prokopchuk in charge of Interpol would politicize the organization. A group of four U.S. Senators accused him of being “personally involved” in what they call Russia’s routine “abuses of Interpol for the purpose of settling scores and harassing political opponents, dissidents, and journalists.”

The Kremlin said opposition to a Russian candidate amounted to election interference.
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Interpol’s general assembly is voting to choose a new president at a meeting Wednesday in Dubai, with a member of Russia’s Interior Ministry considered the front-runner in the race.

Alexander Prokopchuk currently serves as one of Interpol’s vice presidents. Kremlin critics say putting Prokopchuk in charge of Interpol would politicize the organization.

Four U.S. Senators have called on the Trump administration to outright oppose Prokopchuk. They accuse him of being “personally involved” in what they call Russia’s routine “abuses of Interpol for the purpose of settling scores and harassing political opponents, dissidents, and journalists.”

Interpol presidents serve for a period of four years. The next president will replace China’s Meng Hongwei, who disappeared while visiting his native country in late September and was later said to be detained on bribery allegations.

South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang became Interpol’s acting leader, and on Tuesday U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly endorsed him to win the election.

“We encourage all nations and organizations that are part of Interpol and that respect the rule of law to choose a leader of credibility and integrity that reflects one of the world’s most critical law enforcement bodies,” Pompeo said.

The Kremlin says opposition to a Russian candidate is election interference.

U.S.-born British fund manager and Kremlin critic Bill Browder, who has been the subject of several Interpol arrest warrants requested by Russia, says electing a Russian official to lead Interpol could intensify Russian government efforts to silence critics.

“This is a perfect way for Putin to basically breathe the fear of God into all of his enemies, so that they know they can’t even escape Russia if one of his guys is at the head of Interpol.”
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Europe this month marked the 100th anniversary of the armistice that brought World War One to an end. Now, a conclusion to World War Two may be finally in sight – if Russian President Vladimir Putin gets his way. The Russian leader has an initiative to sign a final peace treaty with Japan — and resolve a Soviet-era dispute over the fate of several small islands in Russia’s Far East. Charles Maynes traveled to the region and has this report.
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British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Tuesday that he met with the family of jailed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe during his visit to Iran.

“No child should have to go this long without their mother,” Hunt wrote on Twitter alongside photos of him with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s four-year-old daughter Gabriella.

He also met her mother and brother during his brief visit to Tehran on Monday, and pressed for her release during his meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“British-Iranian dual nationals wrongly imprisoned must be freed,” Hunt tweeted later on Monday.

“I’ve pressed hard on this today – innocent people should not be turned into diplomatic pawns.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation – the media organization’s philanthropic arm – was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016.

She is serving a five-year jail sentence for sedition – and has denied all charges filed against her.

 
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Italian prosecutors have ordered the seizure of a migrant rescue ship and accused the aid group Doctors Without Borders of illegally disposing of 24 metric tons (26.5 tons) of medical and contaminated waste accumulated during nearly 50 rescues.

Prosecutors in Catania, Sicily said Tuesday that 24 people were under investigation, including the aid group’s Italy personnel and the crew of the Aquarius. Prosecutors accused them of working with a Sicily-based shipping company to mix medical and “contaminated” waste, like migrants’ clothing, with other garbage to save money.

Prosecutors ordered the sequester of the Aquarius, which is currently moored in Marseille, France, as well as the seizure of 460,000 euros ($526,000), which prosecutors said was the amount saved by the group by not properly disposing of the material.

Doctors Without Borders called the accusation “disproportionate” and another attempt to criminalize migrant rescues. The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said its waste disposal followed all approved “standard procedures.”

At the same time, however, MSF allowed that there may have been lapses, especially among port authorities with whom MSF worked, acknowledging prosecutor video showing latex gloves and what appeared to be a syringe mixed in with regular garbage.

“We are ready to clarify the facts and respond about the procedures we followed, but we strongly reaffirm the legitimacy and the legality of our humanitarian activities,” said MSF Italia’s director general, Gabriele Eminente.

At a news conference, MSF officials expressed shock at the prosecutors’ claim that migrants’ clothing alone could spread infectious disease, saying it showed ignorance about public health and was more an attempt to tarnish MSF’s reputation.

The Aquarius, a 77-meter (252.62-foot) -long former fishery protection vessel, is perhaps best known for having become a pawn in the European battle over migration in June after Italy’s new populist government refused to let it dock in an Italian port.

After a weeklong standoff at sea that returned the migration debate to the world stage, Spain agreed to let the Aquarius dock with its 630 migrants who, along with tens of thousands of other migrants before them, had set off from Libya aboard smugglers boats.

The same Sicily prosecutors’ office behind the new investigation made headlines in 2017 when it publicly accused rescue groups of aiding illegal migration by being in contact with Libyan-based human traffickers as they plucked migrants from the sea off Libya’s coast. To date, the investigation hasn’t produced any indictments.

In the new probe, dubbed “Operation Borderless,” prosecutors alleged that between Jan. 1, 2017, and May 2018, MSF and the Sicily-based Mediterranean Shipping Agency knowingly avoided the “rigid treatment” required for “dangerous waste,” including food containers and medical equipment used on board the ship to treat sick migrants.

Prosecutors produced documentation filled out by the suspects that certified that no medical waste or contagious or infections substances were being thrown away. Prosecutors also provided wiretaps of communications between MSF personnel and the shipping agency about how to classify the material.

A statement from prosecutors noted cases of scabies, HIV, tuberculosis and meningitis among newly arrived migrants and said their “contaminated clothing” risked spreading infection.

They accused the suspects of “organized activity trafficking in illegal waste.”

Another aid group that works with MSF aboard the Aquarius, SOS Mediterranee, denounced the ship’s sequester as a “politically driven attack” and urged French authorities to “show restraint” as they weigh the seizure order from Italian prosecutors.

Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who drove the June crackdown on the Aquarius and other aid groups, praised the Catania prosecutors for the new investigation, which also involved another rescue ship the Vos Prudence.

“I did the right thing by blocking the NGO ships, for not only stopping the traffic of clandestine migrants but also, apparently, the traffic in toxic waste,” he tweeted with the hashtag (hash)portsclosed.
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The Kremlin says opposition to a Russian candidate to lead the global police group Interpol amounts to election interference.

The election for a new leader is set for Wednesday at the end of Interpol’s annual conference in Dubai.

Four U.S. senators issued an open letter Monday urging President Donald Trump to oppose the candidacy of Russia’s Alexander Prokopchuk, the current Interpol vice president.

The senators said Prokopchuk had been “personally involved” in what it said was Russia’s routine “abuses of Interpol for the purpose of settling scores and harassing political opponents, dissidents and journalists.”

“This is probably a certain kind of interference in the electoral process of an international organization,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to criticism of Prokopchuk.

Interpol member countries will vote to replace Meng Hongwei, who disappeared in his native China in September. China later told Interpol that Meng had quit after being charged with accepting bribes.

Also vying for the presidency of Interpol is South Korea’s Kim Jong-Yang, who is serving as acting president.

Prokopchuk, considered the leading candidate, has also been criticized by others including Bill Browder, a U.S.-born British fund manager and Kremlin foe who has been the subject of several arrest notices issued by Interpol at Russia’s request.

Browder said it would be “outrageous” if Prokopchuk wins the election, which he maintains is an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to “expand his criminal tentacles to every corner of the globe.”  

 
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged greater cooperation on migration while making his first visit Monday to Morocco, a jumping-off point for a growing number of migrants trying to reach Spain and get a foothold in Europe.

Spain is one of the North African kingdom’s strongest European allies, and enhanced collaboration on all levels was a focus of Sanchez’s visit. It was among the topics discussed at a lunch hosted by Moroccan King Mohammed VI, the official MAP news agency said.

Controlling migration from Morocco to Spain was the focus of Sanchez’s talks with Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani.

“Migration is a shared responsibility, and we need to strengthen our cooperation,” Sanchez said at their joint news conference.

El Othmani said Morocco “is doing everything in its power” to fight illegal immigration, but insisted the complex issue “cannot be solved solely by the security approach.”

“Despite the importance of security, we must focus on the development of countries of departure in Africa,” Othmani said.

Many migrants in Morocco who embark for Spain are sub-Saharan Africans.

Moroccan authorities say the kingdom prevented 65,000 migrants from crossing to Spain in 2017. However, Morocco says it cannot be the region’s immigration police.

Morocco’s place as a point of passage has grown with Italy’s refusal to take in migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. The Libyan coast guard, with help from the Italian government, increasingly has intercepted flimsy boats launched by migrant smugglers.

Migrants head to northern Morocco with the aim of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain or climbing over high fences to reach the Spanish enclaves in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla.

Nearly 47,500 migrants arrived in Spain by sea since the start of the year, while 564 died or went missing while attempting the voyage, according to the International Organization of Migration.

Morocco, along with Tunisia and Algeria, has refused to serve as an immigration reception and processing center, an idea proposed by the European Union. Morocco instead wants more EU funding to help manage migration across its borders.

Morocco is scheduled to host an international U.N.-sponsored conference on migration on December 10-11.
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Britain is facing weeks of high-stakes political drama, as Prime Minister Theresa May attempts to get parliamentary backing for the divorce deal agreed to last week with the European Union. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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France wants to boost the number of foreign students at its universities by more than half over the next decade and will offer more courses taught in English to attract them.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, announcing the plan on Monday, said increasing the number of foreigners studying in the country would help build French influence overseas.

Home to centuries-old universities such as the Sorbonne in Paris and some leading business schools, France is the world’s top non-English speaking student destination, but it ranks behind the United States, Britain and Australia.

The number of foreign students at French universities fell by 8.5 percent between 2011 and 2016 and the country has seen increased competition from Germany, Russia, Canada and China, the prime minister’s office said.

“Many countries are already building global attractivity strategies, linking studies, the job market, tourism, which explains the influence of Asia or monarchies in the Gulf,” Philippe said in a speech unveiling the strategy. “In this field just as in other economic ones, the world’s balance of power is shifting. That’s why we need to welcome more foreign students.”

Under the plan, France will simplify student visa regulations but will also increase tuition fees for students outside the European Economic Area in order to be able to provide better facilities. However, fees will still be much lower than in Britain and other neighboring countries.

From March 2019, foreign graduates with a French master’s degree will be able to get a residence visa to look for work or set up a business in France.

“We are constantly compared, audited, judged among 10 other possible destinations. In an age of social media, no one can rest on its reputation only,” Philippe said.

French officials said current fees of around 170 euros ($195) a year for a bachelor’s degree in France or 243 euros for a masters’ — the same as those paid by French students — was interpreted by students in countries like China as a sign of low quality.

From September 2019, non-European students will be charged 2,770 euros annually to study for a bachelor’s degree and 3,770 euros a year for masters and PhDs.

“That means France will still subsidize two thirds of the cost of their studies,” Philippe said. “And the fees will remain well below the 8,000 euros to 13,000 euros charged by the Dutch or the tens of thousands of pounds paid in Britain,” he said.

Some of the extra revenue will be used to boost the number of scholarships offered by the foreign ministry.

The number of courses taught in English, which have already been increased fivefold since 2004 to 1,328, will be boosted further, Philippe said.

More French classes will also be on offer for foreign students and student visa applications will be made available online.
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