Новини

As teacher Tanya Mathiason flicked through a slideshow to display diagrams of male and female genitalia to primary school children in northwest London, no one flinched or giggled.

Instead, the students eagerly discussed the meaning of the words: female, genital and mutilation.

“Break those words down: What does female mean? What does genital mean? What does mutilation mean?” said Mathiason, the head of pastoral care at Norbury School in the culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood of Harrow.

“It means when someone cuts off stuff?” replied one student.

“Harm?” said another.

By the time they leave Norbury School, all 640 students — both boys and girls — will have learned about female genital mutilation (FGM), a ritual that usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia including the clitoris.

An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have undergone FGM, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

FGM can cause chronic pain, menstrual problems, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility. Some girls hemorrhage to death or die from infections. It can also cause fatal childbirth complications in later life.

Young age

As FGM is mostly carried out between infancy and age 15, school principal Louise Browning said she wanted the students to start learning about it in the third year, at about seven years old.

“I became more aware that FGM was happening to girls at a much younger age than I thought,” Browning told Reuters.

“Who’s to say that we don’t have survivors in our school? I felt I was letting down my girls by not raising this. Our end goal is for this practice to stop.”

Browning and her team worked with the National FGM Centre, run by children’s charity Barnado’s and the Local Government Association, to devise age-appropriate lessons, which they began teaching in Norbury School in 2015.

It is one of only a handful of primary schools in the country that teaches students about FGM, but raising awareness among parents and children was necessary, she said.

FGM mostly affects immigrant communities from various countries including Somalia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt — a demographic that is well-represented in the Harrow school.

“Many of our families, our children, come from FGM-practicing communities so it is really important that they have this knowledge, that they leave here at 11 [years old] knowing what this practice is about,” said pastoral manager Mathiason.

Shocking

FGM is performed by Muslims and Christians and by followers of some indigenous religions. People often believe FGM is required by religion, but it is not mentioned in the Koran or the Bible.

“Most people who do it think it’s in their religion … but no religion actually tells you to do that,” said 11-year-old Khadija, who has learned about FGM since she was seven.

“It’s just shocking because it’s most likely to be parents who would do it. They’re the ones who love you and care about you, but instead they want to harm you,” she added.

In March, a London solicitor accused of forcing his daughter to be circumcised was acquitted, increasing pressure on police and prosecutors who have yet to secure a conviction for FGM more than 30 years after it was outlawed.

The prosecution was only the second to be brought under FGM legislation introduced in 1985.

FGM is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality, but beliefs around the practice vary enormously. Many believe it purifies the girl, brings her status in the community and prevents promiscuity. Uncut girls risk being ostracized.

Sonita Pobi, head of training at the National FGM Center, said the lessons helped children make sense of the practice and know who to turn to for help, regardless of their cultural background or religion.

“It’s about giving children the vocabulary to speak up when something is wrong. It’s about making children aware about the hidden form of abuse that may happen to them,” Pobi said.

After learning about FGM at Norbury School, 11-year-old Oliver said he felt empowered to help classmates and friends.

“When I first learnt about it, I was quite scared because it was happening. But once I knew quite a bit about it, I knew that I couldn’t really sort out the situation, but I would know who to speak to,” he said.

His classmate Naylen, also 11, agreed.

“I think the FGM lessons are good for children to learn because … we could make a change to all of these harmful activities,” he said.
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Russian military spending fell by a fifth last year, its first decline in nearly two decades, with tighter purse strings likely to affect Moscow’s military activity ahead, a report by defense think tank SIPRI showed Wednesday.

Russia has flexed its military muscles during the last few years with its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and deep involvement in the Syrian conflict serving as examples of its more belligerent stance.

But while global military spending rose 1 percent to $1.739 billion last year, Russia’s fell 20 percent in real terms to $66.3 billion, the report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed.

It was the first fall since 1998, a year of a major crisis when Russia’s economy collapsed and it defaulted on domestic debt. The following year Vladimir Putin took power as prime minister and, on New Year’s Eve, president.

Based on the government’s spending plan until 2020, defense costs are expected to stay flat from 2017 or possibly even fall somewhat adjusted for inflation, said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher in the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program.

“Very clearly that has a direct impact on procurement and on operations. Those are the quickest things to cut,” Wezeman told Reuters.

In fourth place

Russia dropped to fourth place in the ranking of the world’s biggest military spenders, overtaken by Saudi Arabia.

“Russia definitely has a very clear feeling it has to show that it is still a major power, and you show that by undertaking operations, in for example, Syria, by showing up on the Atlantic Ocean with your navy,” Wezeman said. “But I am sure that there will be serious cost cuts to those.”

Russia’s finances are still fragile following a two-year economic downturn brought on by Western sanctions and a collapse in global oil prices. Higher crude prices helped the economy return to growth of 1.5 percent last year, short of a government target of 2 percent.

The export-dependent economy has now got accustomed to lower commodity prices than before 2014, and the budget is likely to post a small deficit or even a surplus in 2018.

Putin has also called for higher living standards and higher spending on social infrastructure, such as health care and education. Some government officials have called for lower military spending to free up funds for such initiatives.

The Kremlin said in March that Russia would cut its military budget to less than 3 percent of gross domestic product within the next five years.

The United States remains the world’s biggest military spender by far, accounting for 35 percent of global expenditures, more than the next seven highest-spending countries combined. Its military budget was unchanged in 2016 and 2017 but a significant rise is expected this year.

China’s spending as a share of world military expenditure rose to 13 percent last year from 5.8 percent in 2008.
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Britain will be able to impose sanctions on people who commit gross human rights violations under a so-called “Magnitsky amendment” backed by members of parliament on Tuesday.

The amendment to a new Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering

Bill going through parliament passed without a vote, because it was backed both by the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labor Party.

Lawmakers referred to it during their debate as the Magnitsky amendment, in reference to Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested in 2008 after alleging that Russian officials were involved in large-scale tax fraud. He died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after complaining of mistreatment.

The amendment is not specifically aimed at Russians, but it comes at a time of crisis in relations between Britain and Russia following a nerve agent attack in England on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, which London blames on Moscow.

Russia has denied any involvement in the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The standoff has led to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and fiery rhetoric on both sides.

Boris Johnson, Britain’s foreign minister, called the passage of the amendment through the House of Commons an “important moment.”

“These [provisions] will allow U.K. to act against those responsible for serious offenses worldwide. U.K. stands up for human rights globally,” he said on Twitter.

The United States passed a law known as the Magnitsky Act in 2012 under which it has imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials linked to the lawyer’s death.

Prime Minister Theresa May spoke May 14 about bringing forward a Magnitsky Act-style amendment in one of her statements responding to the attack on the Skripals.

Bill Browder, an investment fund manager who employed Magnitsky and has led a campaign to punish Russian officials he blames for the lawyer’s death, took to Twitter to thank lawmakers who played a part in the British Magnitsky amendment.

“Thank you for making a UK Magnitsky Act happen,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed allegations that Magnitsky’s death was linked to mistreatment, saying he died of heart failure. A Russian court sentenced Browder in absentia in December to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of deliberate bankruptcy and tax evasion, allegations

Browder denies.
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An Australian court ruled Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell, one of the Vatican’s highest-ranking officials and a close adviser to Pope Francis, must face trial on charges of historical sexual offenses.

Pell will be the highest-ranked Catholic official to be tried on such charges during the church’s decades-long sexual abuse scandal involving clergy. 

He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty Tuesday. 

Magistrate Belinda Wallington dismissed half the charges Pell was facing, including some his lawyer said were the most serious.

Pell was released on bail, but is not allowed to leave Australia where he returned last year after Pope Francis granted him a leave of absence.

The Vatican said in a statement it has “taken note” of Tuesday’s court decision and that Pell’s leave of absence remains in place.

Pell has long been under criticism for his handling of priests accused of sexually abusing children during his years as archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney. He was interviewed twice by a special commission formed to investigate allegations of sexual abuse committed by clergy, many of them dating back decades. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is extending tariff exemptions on aluminum and steel exports from the European Union, Canada, and Mexico for at least another month.

The temporary exemptions of the tariffs already imposed on such nations as China, Japan, and Russia, were to have expired Tuesday.

But the White House says it is giving negotiators 30 more days to work out a deal.

The European Commission criticized the temporary extension in a statement Tuesday, saying the EU has been willing to discuss the issue and “will not negotiate under threat.”

“The U.S. decision prolongs market uncertainty, which is already affecting business decisions,” it said. “The EU should be fully and permanently exempted from these measures, as they cannot be justified on the grounds of national security.”

Trump has called the tariffs a national security issue because overproduction by some countries makes U.S. exports more expensive and undesirable on the global markets.

WATCH: US trade and tariffs

​The White House also announced late Monday it reached a final deal on steel exports with South Korea — granting it a permanent exemption — while reaching agreements in principle with Argentina, Australia, and Brazil.

“These agreements underscore the Trump administration’s successful strategy to reach fair outcomes with allies to protect our national security and address global challenges to the steel and aluminum industries,” a White House statement said. 

Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum in March on China, Russia, Japan, and other exporters to for what he says is a remedy for unfair competition. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other senior U.S. officials head to China this week for trade talks, as reminded by Trump in a post on Twitter.

“Delegation heading to China to begin talks on the Massive Trade Deficit that has been created with our Country.  Very much like North Korea, this should have been fixed years ago, not now.  Same with other countries and NAFTA…but it will all get done.  Great Potential for USA!”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday imposing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum would be a major disruption because U.S. and Canadian industries — including U.S. car and fighter jet manufacturing — are closely integrated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is warning of a possible trade war if the U.S. does not grant the European Union a permanent exemption.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has postponed his decision on whether to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico until June 1. The announcement Monday provides more time to negotiate deals to exempt those countries from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs. The Trump administration announced broad tariffs in early March that went into effect for China, Russia, Japan and many other exporters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Britain’s Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry), which oversees  law enforcement, immigration, and counter-terrorism activities.

Interior minister Amber Rudd resigned Sunday amid a growing scandal over the harsh treatment of elderly immigrants who were brought to the country from the Caribbean seven decades ago.

Rudd told lawmakers last week that the government had not set targets to deport people considered illegal immigrants. But documents have since emerged contradicting her testimony.

She said in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May Sunday she “inadvertently misled” Parliament about the deportation targets.

Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry),

May and Rudd have been under increasing fire since the so-called Windrush scandal first emerged several months ago. The scandal gets its name from the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought the first wave of immigrants from the Caribbean to Britain to help rebuild the country in the aftermath of World War II.

News reports have revealed that many of these immigrants have lost jobs, housing, access to medical care and threatened with deportation because they could not produce documents proving their right to reside in Britain, which was granted by a law passed in 1971.

The harsh treatment of the “Windrush generation” apparently stems from a policy introduced by May during her tenure as interior minister between 2010 and 2016, which called for creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants.
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The latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia earlier this month targeting two dozen Kremlin insiders and oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin and their companies are proving more painful than had been expected, say analysts. But they’re doing nothing at this stage in turning ordinary Russians against the Kremlin or undermining the Russian leader’s overall popularity.

The rouble suffered its worst week in four years in the immediate wake of the April 6 announcement of new sanctions on 24 super-wealthy Russians and 14 companies, suggesting the additions to the sanctions blacklist could have major impact on the Russian economy.

And that appears to be the case with the fortunes of the blacklisted Oleg Deripaska. He is the owner is Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, which until the sanctions started to bite exported 82 percent of its production.

A majority of analysts and economists polled by Reuters Saturday said the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Moscow will likely limit interest rate cuts planned by Russia’s central bank, thereby slowing the country’s economic recovery, despite rising oil prices.

Retaliation

“The introduction of sanctions drastically raised uncertainty for the business environment in the Russian economy,” said Kirill Tremasov, a former Russian official and now head of research at Loko-Invest, a financial brokerage. The threat of counter-measures by the Russian parliament isn’t helping to calm turbulence, he added.

The Kremlin says the April round of sanctions, which Washington imposed after accusing Russia of “malign activities,” are unlawful and Russian officials have warned they will retaliate.

In mid-May, the lower house of the Russian parliament is set to consider legislation detailing retaliatory steps, including suspension of space and nuclear cooperation and a ban on importing U.S. agricultural produce, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol.

Some Russian lawmakers also want to suspend the intellectual rights to software developed by U.S. individuals or companies that’s used on Russian territory.

Impact on investment

When the West imposed its first sanctions on Russia, after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and fomenting separatism in eastern Ukraine, the effect was limited, according to analyst to Nigel Gould-Davies of Britain’s Chatham House, Russia found ways to adapt.

“But America’s latest financial sanctions, announced on 6 April, are a game-changer,” he argued in a recent commentary, noting the latest sanctions have created bigger uncertainty.

“No one knows who might be targeted next,” he continued. “Russia faces a new systemic risk: expectations about U.S. sanctions are now as important as the oil price for assessing its prospects.”

The sanctions, he and other analysts argue, deter counter-parties and agencies handling payments from doing business with the blacklisted Russians, including the aluminum king Deripaska and Vladimir Bogdanov, CEO of Russia’s third largest oil company. And by targeting publicly traded companies the sanctions have stripped away protecting corporate assets by listing on foreign stock exchanges, including London, New York or Hong Kong.

The sanctions have already impacted Deripaska by locking Rusal out of the global aluminum market, roiling the market and prompting massive prices hikes. The U.S. Treasury has now said it will consider lifting sanctions on Rusal, if Deripaska divests from the company and relinquishes control, something the industrial titan has hinted he may have to do.

UK sanctions

This week, more pressure will be applied on the Russian elite, when British lawmakers start the process of introducing legislation that will block Russian oligarchs and officials linked to human rights abuses from doing business in the country and buying property in Britain.

“If foreign oligarchs and kleptocrats who’ve committed crimes or abused human rights suddenly find they can’t buy property or stash their cash in the UK, it’s going to hurt,” said British Conservative lawmaker John Penrose.

Impact on Putin?

But while the Russian elite is being roiled by U.S. sanctions targeting oligarchs, disrupting their businesses and impacting foreign investment more broadly in the country, it remains unclear whether they’re denting Putin’s popularity among Russians or will in the future.

The Kremlin has been able to maintain price stability with subsidies, cushioning the impact of sanctions by dipping into reserves and the increased revenue from oil price rises.

Analysts remain divided about whether sanctions will force the Kremlin to curtail what Washington views as aggressive foreign activity, such as the alleged poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, an attack Moscow denies it had a hand in.
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Britain’s interior minister has resigned after Prime Minister Theresa May’s government faced criticism for its treatment of some long-term Caribbean residents who were wrongly labeled illegal immigrants, a government official said.

A spokesman for May was not immediately available for comment but a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed a BBC report that Home Secretary Amber Rudd had resigned.

For two weeks, British ministers have been struggling to explain why some descendants of the so-called “Windrush generation,” invited to Britain to plug labor shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, had been labeled as illegal immigrants.

The Windrush scandal overshadowed the Commonwealth summit in London and has raised questions about Theresa May’s six-year stint as interior minister before she became prime minister in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Rudd had faced repeated calls from the opposition Labor Party to resign after she gave contradictory statements about meeting targets for deportations.

May apologized to the black community on Thursday in a letter to The Voice, Britain’s national Afro-Caribbean newspaper.

“We have let you down and I am deeply sorry,” she said. “But apologies alone are not good enough. We must urgently right this historic wrong.”

 
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A court in Iraq has sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad, which deals with terrorism cases, also sentenced six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan to life in prison on Sunday on the same charge.

Most of the defendants told the court they had been brought to Iraq against their will from Turkey by IS fighters.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said between 50 and 70 “Russian-speaking women” were being held in Iraq, along with more than 100 of their children.

IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, among others.

Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centers.

Experts estimate that Iraq is holding 20,000 people in jail over suspected IS membership. There is no official figure.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS.

 
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A mystery is brewing at the White House about what happened to the oak tree President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron planted there last week.

The sapling was a gift from Macron on the occasion of his state visit.

News photographers snapped away Monday as Trump and Macron shoveled dirt onto the tree during a ceremonial planting on the South Lawn. By the end of the week, the tree was gone from the lawn. A pale patch of grass was left in its place.

The White House hasn’t offered an explanation.

The oak sprouted at a World War I battle site that became part of U.S. Marine Corps legend.

About 2,000 U.S. troops died in the June 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood, fighting a German offensive.

 
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Tens of thousands of people have marched in northern Spain for a third consecutive day to protest the acquittal of five men on gang rape charges.

Local police in Pamplona estimated the size of the crowd at Saturday’s march at 35,000.

An 18-year-old woman was attacked during the city’s famed San Fermin bull-running festival in 2016.

The five men, whose members named their WhatsApp group “The Pack,” were convicted Thursday on a lesser felony of sexual abuse and sentenced to nine years each in prison. Lawyers say the victim is appealing.

The court’s decision has also prompted thousands of women to share their experiences of abuse on Twitter under the hashtag #cuentalo, Spanish for #tell it.

The Spanish government has announced plans to convene discussions on possible legal reforms.
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Law enforcement authorities in the United States, European Union and Canada this week began a joint cybercampaign against Islamic State online communication channels that will “severely disrupt” the group’s propaganda machine, the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol said.

The multinational action, led by Belgian federal prosecutors, was launched  Wednesday and Thursday and targeted IS media outlets, including Amaq news, al-Bayan radio, Halumu and Nashir news.

IS’s Amaq news agency is believed to be a major propaganda outlet for the terror group. The group relies on the outlet to spread propaganda in several languages, including English and French. Amaq has broadcast claims of responsibility for deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Barcelona.

“With this groundbreaking operation we have punched a big hole in the capability of IS to spread propaganda online and radicalize young people in Europe,” Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, said in a statement released Friday.

“I applaud the determined and innovative work by Europol and its partners to target a major part of the international terrorist threat prevalent in Europe today,” he added.

Earlier efforts

This is not the first time Western countries joined forces to crack down on IS propaganda capabilities. A coordinated effort in August 2016 hit Amaq’s mobile application and web infrastructure. Another multinational operation led by Spanish Guardia Civil in June 2017 against the outlet helped authorities identify radicalized individuals in over 100 countries around the world.

Europol claimed the two-day effort this week led to the seizure of digital evidence by law enforcement authorities and compromised IS broadcast capabilities and materials.

Europol authorities said the data retrieved as a result of the crackdown would be used to identify the administrators behind IS media outlets.

In a separate statement, Belgian police said the operation also aimed to seize and shut down computer servers used to spread terror propaganda in Europe.

Over the years, IS has weaponized the internet to radicalize, recuit and inspire acts of terrorism in the West and around the world.

The group’s ability to produce and distribute new propaganda has been significantly diminished since it lost nearly 98 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, and social media giants Facebook, Google and Twitter increased their efforts to remove radical content from the internet. 

VOA Turkish service’s Arzu Cakir contributed to this report from Paris. 
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that airstrikes on Syria, conducted by the U.S., Britain, and France on April 14, were a violation of international law and indicated that the Western powers were trying to destroy the peace process.

Lavrov, speaking after meeting in Moscow with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, said such “attempts to … destabilize the situation” encourage the extremists in Syria to go on with their armed struggle.

Lavrov and his counterparts said they agreed that Syria’s territorial integrity should be preserved, while accusing the United States of plans to “reformat” the Middle East and divide Syria into parts.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif said there was no military solution to the Syrian crisis. He also said that Iran condemned the use of chemical weapons and hoped that the investigation of an alleged Syrian attack on its own people would uncover the truth. He also said anyone who supported Iraq when it used chemical weapons against Iran in the 1980s had no right to criticize Syria today.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country, too, supported Syrian territorial integrity and, with allies Iran and Russia, hoped ultimately to find a political solution to the crisis. He said “some groups” had tried to undermine that work, and he urged all parties to contribute to the peace process instead.
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