Новини

Turks began voting Sunday for a new president and parliament in elections that pose the biggest challenge to Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party since they swept to power more than a decade and a half ago.

The elections will also usher in a powerful new executive presidency long sought by Erdogan and backed by a small majority of Turks in a 2017 referendum. Critics say it will further erode democracy in the NATO member state and entrench one-man rule.

More than 56 million people were registered to vote at 180,000 ballot boxes across Turkey. Voting began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will end at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Erdogan, the most popular but also divisive leader in modern Turkish history, moved the elections forward from November 2019, arguing the new powers would better enable him to tackle the nation’s mounting economic problems — the lira has lost 20 percent against the dollar this year — and deal with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey and in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Opposition galvanizes

But he reckoned without Muharrem Ince, the presidential candidate of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose feisty performance at campaign rallies has galvanized Turkey’s long-demoralized and divided opposition.

Addressing a rally in Istanbul on Saturday attended by hundreds of thousands of people, Ince promised to reverse what he and opposition parties see as a swing towards authoritarian rule under Erdogan in the country of 81 million people.

“If Erdogan wins, your phones will continue to be listened to. … Fear will continue to reign. … If Ince wins, the courts will be independent,” said Ince, adding he would lift Turkey’s state of emergency within 48 hours of being elected.

Coup attempt, then crackdown

Turkey has been under emergency rule, which restricts some personal freedoms and allows the government to bypass parliament with emergency decrees, for nearly two years following an attempted military coup in July 2016.

Erdogan blamed the coup on his former ally, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, and has waged a sweeping crackdown on the preacher’s followers in Turkey. The United Nations say some 160,000 people have been detained and nearly as many more, including teachers, judges and soldiers, sacked.

The president’s critics, including the European Union, which Turkey still nominally aspires to join, say Erdogan has used the crackdown to stifle dissent. Few newspapers or other media openly criticize the government, and he has received far more election coverage than other presidential candidates.

Erdogan, who defends his tough measures as essential for national security, told his supporters at rallies Saturday that if re-elected he would press ahead with more of the big infrastructure projects that have helped turn Turkey into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during his time in office.

“If he wins, I think the obstacles before us will disappear and we will have control,” said Nesrin Cuha, 37, a call center worker, who wore a headscarf. Religiously observant Muslims form the bedrock of Erdogan’s support.

“The opposition will not be a nuisance anymore with the new presidential system,” said another Erdogan supporter, retired sailor Engin Ozmen, 60.

Polls predict run-off

Polls show Erdogan falling short of a first-round victory in the presidential race but he would be expected to win a run-off on July 8, while his AK Party could lose its parliamentary majority, possibly heralding increased tensions between president and parliament.

Other presidential candidates include Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), who is now in jail on terrorism-related charges that he denies. If the HDP exceeds the 10 percent threshold of votes needed to enter parliament, it will be harder for the AKP to get a majority.
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Before it became one of the venues for the World Cup, the city of Volgograd in southwest Russia was famous for an overabundance of small, annoying flies called midges. While the small two-winged flies don’t bite, soccer fans are finding that they don’t leave you alone either. VOA’s Mariama Diallo takes a look at what Russian officials are doing to make the sporting life more comfortable for World Cup fans and players.
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More than 1,000 Macedonians protested on Saturday evening against the change of the name of the former Yugoslav Republic which was agreed with neighboring Greece to end a decades-long dispute.

Last week, the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia signed an accord to rename the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic the “Republic of North Macedonia.”

The agreement, which unlocked Macedonia’s path to possible European Union and NATO membership, triggered protests by nationalists.

The protest on Saturday evening organized by Macedonia’s biggest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, was peaceful. Protesters held banners reading “We don’t want to give up the name” and waved Macedonian flags as they demanded annulment of the agreement with Greece.

Macedonia, which declared its independence in 1991, avoided the wars that battered some other ex-Yugoslav republics. But Greece refused to accept the country’s name, saying it implied territorial claims on the Greek province of Macedonia and amounted to an appropriation of its ancient civilization. Greece blocked Macedonia’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO.

Macedonia has to amend its constitution to conform with the provisions of the deal. A referendum is also expected in Macedonia in the autumn.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov also opposes the accord. He refused to sign the agreement even though it was ratified by parliament on Wednesday.
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The Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a former Holy See diplomat and sentenced him to five years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first such trial of its kind inside the Vatican.

Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted to viewing the images during what he called a period of “fragility” and interior crisis sparked by a job transfer to the Vatican embassy in Washington. He apologized to his family and the Holy See, and appealed for leniency by saying the episode was just a “bump in the road” of a priestly vocation he loved and wanted to continue.

Tribunal President Giuseppe Dalla Torre read out the verdict after a two-day trial and sentenced Capella to five years and a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,830 ).

Prosecutor Gian Piero Milano had asked for the sentence to be stiffer due to what he called the “great” amount of material seized, which included 40 to 55 photos, films and Japanese animation found on his cellphone, an iCloud and Tumblr account, which Capella accessed even after he had been recalled by the Vatican in August 2017.

Capella’s attorney disputed that Capella had distributed the material. He denied the amount of porn was excessive and noted that his client had cooperated with investigators, repented and was seeking psychological help.

The Vatican recalled Capella, the No. 4 official in its Washington embassy, after the U.S. State Department notified it of a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by one of its diplomats in Washington.

Soon after, Canadian police issued an arrest warrant for Capella, accusing him of having accessed, possessed and distributed child porn over the Christmas 2016 holiday from a church in Windsor, Ontario using a social networking site.

During the first day of the trial on Friday, prosecutors and Vatican investigators revealed that the material featuring children aged 14-17 engaged in sexual acts.

Capella admitted to having viewed the material during a period of internal crisis brought on by his job transfer from the Vatican secretariat of state to Washington. He said he realized now that it was vulgar and “improper.”

During a final statement Saturday begging for the minimum sentence, Capella apologized for the pain his “fragility” and “weakness” had caused his family, his diocese and the Holy See.

“I hope that this situation can be considered a bump in the road” and that the case could also could be useful for the church, he said.

Capella was a high-ranking priest in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps. He served on the Italy desk in the Vatican’s secretariat of state and was part of the official delegation that negotiated a tax treaty with Italy before being posted to the U.S. embassy in 2016.

A canon lawyer, Capella is listed online as having written a 2003 paper for the Pontifical Lateran University on priestly celibacy and the church’s criminal code.

 
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U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will meet Russia’s energy minister next week in Washington, a person familiar with the situation said Friday, as the two countries compete to supply global markets with natural gas and crude.

Perry will meet Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Tuesday, in the context of the World Gas Conference in Washington, the source said.

Meetings between top energy officials from Russia and the United States, two of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, have been rare in recent years.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have cooled over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and as the Trump administration blames the Russian government for cyber attacks that targeted the U.S. power grid over the last two years.

The two countries are competing to sell natural gas to Europe. Russia’s Gazprom, the European Union’s biggest gas supplier, and several Western energy companies hope to open Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany.

The United States, meanwhile, has begun some sales of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to Poland and Lithuania, though LNG shipments can be more expensive than gas sent via pipeline.

The United States says the advantage of its LNG is dependability and stable pricing.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump opposes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, as did the administration of former President Barack Obama. Washington believes that the pipeline would give Russia, which has at times frozen deliveries to parts of Europe over pricing disputes, more power over the region.

The meeting comes as U.S. national security adviser John Bolton plans to visit Moscow next week to prepare for a possible meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Perry and Novak will also likely talk about oil markets. On Friday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in Vienna to raise oil output by a modest amount after consumers had called for producers to curb rising fuel prices.

Russia, which is not an OPEC member, began cooperating last year with the group for the first time, holding back production to support global oil prices. Before the Vienna OPEC meeting, Novak said Moscow would propose a gradual increase in output from oil-producing countries, starting in July.
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“All I want to do is the Bataclan, the Bataclan.” Those are lyrics to a song released earlier in the year by rapper Medine. Two of his concerts are scheduled for the Bataclan theater in October. But not everyone wants to see the shows go on.

At issue, in part, are the words to another song by the artist, whose real name is Medine Zaouiche. In the song, “Don’t Laik,” one line goes, “I put fatwas on the heads of idiots.” The song was released in 2015 — the same year that France was hit by several terrorist attacks, including one targeting the Bataclan.

This is not the first time Medina has generated controversy. A decade earlier, he released an album titled Jihad — and he has been photographed in a T-shirt bearing the term, and a massive sword.

Now, thousands of people have signed a petition launched by the far right and demanding Medine’s concerts be canceled. Critics are tweeting their opposition via the hashtag #pasdemedineaubataclan, or “no Medine at the Bataclan.”

On French radio, far-right National Rally party head Marine Le Pen described Medine as an Islamic fundamentalist. His performance at the Bataclan, she said, is a threat to public order.

Victims’ associations are divided. Philippe Duperron, who heads one of them, is against the concerts taking place, out of respect for the victims and the memory of them.

Medine and his lawyers are fighting back. The rapper has criticized Islamic fundamentalism a number of times and says he is against violence. He says “Don’t Laik” is more of a slap at France’s tough secular creed, and that the jihad he refers to is an internal spiritual struggle, rather than violence.

“It’s been 15 years since I’ve criticized all forms of radicalism in my albums,” he posted recently on social media. Banning his concerts, he argues, amounts to caving in to the far right.

Medine’s arguments are drawing support, partly in the name of free expression. That appears to be the argument of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. 

Still, others argue the divisions over the rapper’s concerts are the worst outcome, at a time when the French should be united against terrorism. 
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Italy said on Friday Malta had refused to take in a Dutch-flagged ship carrying more than 200 rescued migrants and said the decision was “inhumane,” 10 days after shutting its own ports to a migrant vessel.

The new stand-off between the neighboring Mediterranean countries arose as Italy’s new government has been pressuring European partners to shoulder more of the burden of immigration from North Africa.

Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli criticized tiny Malta on his Facebook page, where he also posted a photo of an email full of nautical information and signed by the Armed Forces of Malta inferring that it was not responsible for the latest ship as it was not in a “SAR (Search and Rescue) Situation.”

Anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said the ship, the “Lifeline,” should take the migrants to the Netherlands since it is flying a Dutch flag.

Malta’s government spokesman said in a separate statement that the country was not the competent authority because initial “Search and Rescue” was done by Libya and that the ship had breached its obligations to oblige by Libyan instructions.

While Toninelli said the ship was in Maltese search and rescue waters and in difficulty, the Maltese email said the ship “has not manifested any distress.”

“Europe must intervene to remedy this inhumanity of Malta,” Toninelli said.

Maltese Interior Minister Michael Farrugia shot back with a statement saying “Toninelli should stick to the facts.”

Toninelli’s criticism of Malta as being inhumane was similar to accusations made by France, which earlier this month accused Rome of “cynicism and irresponsibility” for not letting the charity ship Aquarius dock in Italy.

That left the Gibraltar-flagged ship stranded at sea for days with more than 600 migrants on board — until Spain offered them safe haven. Malta had also refused to take in the Aquarius.

The tiny island nation has not taken in large numbers of people rescued at sea, while Italy has seen 650,000 arrivals since 2014.

The 234 migrants on board the Lifeline include 14 women and four small children.

While the number of sea arrivals to Italy has dropped dramatically this year — by more than 77 percent from 2017 — the new populist government has thrust immigration to the top of the EU’s agenda ahead of a summit of leaders next week.

Italy’s government, sworn in earlier this month after promising to raise its voice on immigration in Brussels, has sparred with France, Malta and Germany ahead of the meeting.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down expectations of a breakthrough at a hastily-arranged talks among EU leaders on Sunday on the migration dispute dividing Europe and threatening her own government.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose a 20 percent tariff on vehicles assembled in the European Union and shipped to the United States, in retaliation for European tariffs on American imports.

On Friday, the day new EU tariffs went into effect, Trump tweeted, “…if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!”

Auto industry experts say such tariffs could negatively impact the U.S. economy, as well as Europe’s.

“It’s really a tangle; it’s not a simple question” of cars being made in one place and sold in another, Kasper Peters, communications manager of ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, said Friday in an interview with VOA.

In March, ACEA Secretary General Erik Jonnaert noted the impact European carmakers with plants in the United States have on local economies. “EU manufacturers do not only import vehicles into the U.S. They also have a major manufacturing footprint there, providing significant local employment and generating tax revenue,” Jonnaert said in a statement.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said earlier this week that his department plans to wrap up by July or August an investigation into whether imported cars and car parts are a threat to national security. But Daniel Price, a former senior economic adviser to President George W. Bush, told The Washington Post that Trump’s threat of new tariffs “short-circuited the … process and conclusively undercut the stated national security rationale of that investigation.”

The new EU tariffs enacted Friday apply to billions of dollars’ worth of American goods — including jeans, bourbon and motorcycles.

The action is the latest response to Trump’s decision to tax imported steel and aluminum.

The U.S. is scheduled to start taxing more than $30 billion in Chinese imports in two weeks.

Like the EU, China has promised to retaliate immediately, putting the world’s two largest economies at odds. 

A U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president, John Murphy, was cited by the Associated Press as saying he estimates that $75 billion in U.S. products could be subjected to new foreign tariffs by the end of the first week of July.

Separately, a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry said, “The U.S. is abusing the tariff methods and starting trade wars all around the world.”

“Clarity [is] still lacking about how far things will ultimately go between [the] U.S. and China and the potential ripple effect for world trade,” said financial analyst Mike van Dulken.

During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to apply tariffs, saying countries around the world had been exploiting the U.S.

A former White House trade adviser says Trump “has been so belligerent that it becomes almost impossible for democratically elected leaders — or even a non-democratic leader like [Chinese President] Xi Jinping — to appear to kowtow and give in.”

Phillip Levy, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said, “The president has made it very hard for other countries to give him what he wants.”
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Father Mick Ngundu has survived the rolling conflict that has ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo, emerging as a passionate advocate of the poor and critic of corruption he claims poisons chances of democracy. From the stately grounds of a former French monastery, he describes how many in his resource-rich homeland are too destitute to afford electricity.

French retiree Veronique Couque is listening. She has never stepped foot in sub-Saharan Africa. Their paths might never have crossed had it not been for a growing citizen movement known as Living Libraries designed to smash stereotypes and prejudice through dialogue.

“They allow you to actually speak to a black, or an Arab or a Jew, and discover what it’s like to be that person,” said Natacha Waksman, a former French diplomat who helped to launch the latest Living Library encounter this month in the Normandy city of Caen. “It allows you to discover what it’s like to be that person. It’s an opportunity to break barriers.”

The initiative coincides with a new report by Europe’s top rights watchdog that shows rising levels of xenophobia and hate speech across the region, partly driven by populism, terrorist attacks and the massive influx of migrants, the subject of a European Union summit next week.

Along with newer targets like Africans and Arabs, the study authored by the 47-member Council of Europe finds older prejudices also linger against Jews, Roma and the LGBT community, despite strides in some countries.

​Changing the narrative

“It’s not that there is no will to change things, but it shows we need to make more efforts” said Zeynep Usal-Kanzier, a lawyer at the council’s European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, in Strasbourg, France. “We still have to encourage a change in the narrative, for example, by showing the positive contribution of well-governed migration.”

Living libraries also aim to shape the shifting narrative, supporters say, by offering people a chance to meet those they might otherwise shun and ask them frank questions. The initiative’s motto: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

“The living books are often people who have personal experiences of discrimination or social exclusion that they are willing to share with the readers,” said Tina Mulcahy, executive director of the council’s European Youth Centre, which promotes Living Libraries and has written an organizer’s guide. Like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, Mulcahy said, readers can check out subjects they’re interested in, “borrowing” human books for conversations.

Founded by a Danish NGO nearly two decades ago, Living Libraries have spread to more than 60 countries to date, including the United States, New Zealand and India. In Hungary, where right-wing lawmakers toughened anti-immigration legislation this week, Living Libraries have been held nearly annually in Budapest since 2001.

WATCH: Fighting Prejudice by Checking Out People

On a recent afternoon, the Caen event was packed, as visitors sat down for conversations with the homeless and immigrants like Ngundu.

For the Roman Catholic cleric, who now works as a priest in Normandy, the experience has been transformative.

“Since I experienced war, I can offer ideas for how to end it,” he said, sketching out ideas for starting similar initiatives in local schools.

​Moving forward

“It helps people think, and perhaps move forward,” added Couque, the elderly reader, who described her conversation with Ngundu as a primer on politics and development.

Waksman, the former diplomat, is already thinking beyond Caen, describing cross-border initiatives that might bring Europeans together.

“That would give people another image of Germans, for example,” she said. Perhaps Britons might not have backed Brexit, she added, had they been more in touch with fellow EU nationals.

In Normandy, some have approached Waksman about starting an online library, but that is one idea that she rules out.

“I believe it’s great that people actually get to meet, shake hands, look into each others’ eyes,” Waksman said. “With our smart phones and virtual lives, it becomes harder and harder to talk to each other. This creates an intimacy that’s helpful in today’s society.”
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A report published Friday by Europe’s top human rights body finds xenophobia and hate speech are on the rise across the region. Despite progress in some areas, the Council of Europe finds minorities, including Muslims, Jews, homosexuals and Roma, face stigma, intolerance and sometimes exclusion across its 48 member states. A citizens’ initiative aims to bridge these divisions through dialogue. From the northern French city of Caen, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA on so-called “Living Libraries.”
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Increased openness, not protectionism, is the best way to ensure Britain’s prosperity in a rapidly changing world, the U.K. government’s two most powerful money men said Thursday.

Treasury chief Philip Hammond and Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney said financial and trade connections with the rest of the world will help ensure Britain’s economy stays strong as the country leaves the European Union, adjusts to technological advances and copes with an aging population.

“We must commit to being the most open market in the world …,” Hammond said in his annual Mansion House speech to leaders of the U.K. financial services industry. “Because ‘global Britain’ is not just a strategy for Britain’s economic future, it’s a statement about what kind of people we are — and about the economy and the society we are seeking to build.”

Carney, in complementary remarks to the same group, said the Bank of England is working to help Britain’s financial system keep pace with rapid technological developments, for example by allowing new forms of payment that will facilitate trade with everyone from traditional European partners to emerging markets.

Financial industry crucial

Retaining Britain’s place as one of the world’s top financial centers is critical to the success of Brexit. The U.K. financial services industry employs more than 1 million people and contributes 11 percent of annual tax revenues, while generating a trade surplus equal to 3 percent of economic output.

That is because London accounts for 40 percent of global foreign exchange volumes and handles more international banking activity than anywhere else, Carney said.

“Being at the heart of the global financial system reinforces the ability of the rest of the U.K. economy, from manufacturing to the creative industries, to compete globally,” Carney said. “And it broadens the investment opportunities and risk-adjusted returns for U.K. savers.”

Partnerships

But Britain must act now to guarantee that it preserves this position, Hammond said, announcing plans for what he called global financial partnerships.

The partnerships will bring together governments, regulators and industry to facilitate cross-border financial services and provide access to global markets, he said.

“Future success is not ours by right,” Hammond said. “If we are to retain — and entrench — our position as the world’s leading financial center, we must act now to secure it in the face of global challenge.”

Both men reached into history to underscore the challenges of the technological revolution that is at hand, with Hammond noting that past British leaders were slow to adopt the telephone and electric lights.

Carney went so far as to say Britain’s economy is on the cusp of a fourth industrial revolution — a dramatic rebalancing of the global world order. It is a hyper-connected world, where the future may increasingly belong to small- and medium-sized firms with direct stakes in local and global markets, Carney said.

“The nature of commerce is changing. Sales are increasingly taking place online and over platforms. … Intangible capital is now more important than physical capital,” Carney said. “Data is the new oil.”
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