Новини

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Britain for a two-day visit that includes meeting with the royal family, a state dinner and talks with outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth greeted Trump and his wife Melania after they arrived at Buckingham Palace by helicopter Monday.  After a welcoming ceremony that included a 41-gun salute, the Trumps headed inside for lunch with the queen.

Before leaving Washington, Trump said his trip would be “very interesting” and that he thinks the United States and Britain have an opportunity to work out a “very big trade deal” in the near future.

His visit comes as Britain is in the midst of political turmoil. May announced last month she would be resigning after failing to complete Britain’s exit from the European Union.

That process will be inherited by her successor, with no clear path to a resolution among sharply divided parties.

Trump has publicly backed former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and told reporters late Sunday he may meet with Johnson and pro-Brexit politician Nigel Farage while he is in London.

What is certainly not on his agenda is a meeting with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who wrote in The Observer newspaper that welcoming Trump for a state visit is “un-British.”He cited Trump’s sharing of tweets from a “British far-right racist group,” the president’s rejection of scientific evidence of climate change, and Trump “trying to interfere shamelessly” in the race to replace May.

When asked if he would be open to meeting with Khan, Trump said Sunday, “No, I don’t think much of him.”

Trump’s trip will also include D-Day commemoration ceremonies in both Britain and France, and a stop in Ireland.

 
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Pope Francis apologized to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church’s “discrimination” against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.

Making up around 10 percent of Romania’s 20 million people, many Roma are marginalized and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults.

“I ask forgiveness — in the name of the Church and of the Lord — and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you,” the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central town of Blaj.

“My heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” he said.

“Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!”

Earlier, the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era.

“The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology,” he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a “Field of Liberty” in Blaj.

“These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy,” added Francis, while praising the “diversity of religious expression” in mainly Orthodox Romania.

Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of “high treason” after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy.

The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.

Buried in secret

The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret — to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown.

The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit.

The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

While retaining Orthodox practices they recognized Roman Catholic papal authority — unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.

Under such stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics — who numbered more than 1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom profess Orthodoxy.

The politics which has seeped through Romania’s modern religious history has poisoned inter-faith relations — even if the papal visit has softened feelings to a degree.

“No matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get closed,” a 72-year-old Roma, who gave his name as Ion, told AFP.

Roma, originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery before the practice was formally abolished in 1856.

But they remain a mainly poor and marginalized community — even if recent years have seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.

Seeking inclusiveness

Francis’s arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe’s poorest states.

Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some “urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed,” according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.

Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.

“The pope’s visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others,” said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass.

 
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A court in Baghdad has sentenced two French citizens to death for being members of the extremist group Islamic State (IS), prosecutors said on June 2.

The new sentences raise the number of French citizens sentenced to death over the past two weeks to nine.

Those sentenced are among a group of 12 French citizens who were detained by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in neighboring Syria and handed over to Iraq in January.

France has said it would do all it can to spare the group from execution in Iraq.

Human Rights Watch has accused Iraqi interrogators of “using a range of torture techniques” while saying that France and other countries should not be “outsourcing” trials of IS suspects to “abusive justice systems.”

 
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A massive cruise ship lost control as it docked in Venice on Sunday, crashing into the wharf and hitting a tourist boat after suffering an engine failure.

Tourists on land could be seen running away as the 13-deck MSC Opera scraped along the dockside, its engine blaring, before knocking into a tourist boat, amateur video footage posted on Twitter showed.

Four people were slightly injured in the accident at San Basilio-Zattere in Venice’s Giudecca Canal, port authorities said.

The four, who were taken to hospital for check-ups, were on board the River Countess tourist boat.

The Opera, which suffered mechanical trouble before in 2011 during a Baltic cruise, can carry more than 2,500 passengers and boasts a theater, ballroom and water park for children.

Ship unable to stop

“The MSC ship had an engine failure, which was immediately reported by the captain,” Davide Calderan, head of a tugboat company involved in accompanying the ship into its berth, told Italian media.

“The engine was blocked, but with its thrust on, because the speed was increasing,” he said.

The two tug boats that had been guiding the ship into the Giudecca tried to slow it, but one of the chains linking them to the giant snapped under the pressure, he added.

The accident reignited a heated row in the Serenissima over the damage caused to the city and its fragile ecosystem by cruise ships that sail exceptionally close to the shore.

While gondoliers in striped T-shirts and woven straw hats row tourists around the narrow canals, the smoking chimneys of mammoth ships loom into sight behind the city’s picturesque bell towers and bridges.

Critics say the waves the ships create are eroding the foundations of the lagoon city, which regularly floods, leaving iconic sites such as Saint Mark’s Square underwater.

“What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time,” Italy’s environment minister Sergio Costa wrote on Twitter.

“Cruise ships must not sail down the Giudecca. We have been working on moving them for months now… and are nearing a solution,” he said.

‘Risk of carnage’

Venice’s port authority said it was was working to resolve the accident and free up the blocked canal in the north Italian city.

“In addition to protecting the Unesco heritage city, we have to safeguard the environment, and the safety of citizens and tourists,” Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli said.

Nicola Fratoianni, an MP with the Italian Left party, noted Italy’s open-armed attitude to cruise ships contrasted sharply with its hostile approach to charity rescue vessels that help migrants who run into difficulty in the Mediterranean.

“It is truly curious that a country that tries to stop ships that have saved people at sea from entering its ports allows giant steel monsters to risk carnage in Venice,” he said.

MSC Cruises, founded in Italy in 1960, is a global line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva.

The Opera, built 15 years ago, suffered a power failure in 2011 in the Baltic, forcing some 2,000 people to be disembarked in Stockholm rather than continuing their Southampton to Saint Petersburg voyage.
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The captain of a river cruise ship that collided with a smaller sightseeing vessel was charged Saturday over the accident in Budapest that killed seven South Korean tourists and left 21 missing. 

The Mermaid, carrying mainly South Korean tourists, overturned and sank late Wednesday, seconds after colliding with the Viking Sigyn cruise ship on a busy stretch of the Danube in the heart of Budapest.

Strong currents have hampered the search for those missing — 19 South Koreans and two Hungarians — preventing divers from reaching the submerged boat.

The Sigyn’s Ukrainian captain was charged Saturday, a Budapest court official told AFP, but gave no further details.

The 64-year-old was detained Thursday for questioning for “endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths,” police have said. 

The captain’s attorney, Balazs Toth, said the court had granted bail but prosecutors were appealing, so his client remained detained.

“He is devastated by the number of victims and is asking constantly that condolences are conveyed to their families,” Toth said.

“My client has not changed his statement made as a witness. He insists that he has not made any error,” his other attorney, Gabor Elo, told reporters after the hearing. 

Help sought in search

Near the accident site, a floating crane was erected, as well as a small pier for use by divers. 

But with the Danube swollen after weeks of rain, the strong current has complicated plans to lift the wreck, and the prospects of finding any of the passengers alive were seen as very slim.

Serbia, Romania and Croatia — countries along the Danube, south of Hungary — have been asked to help in the search after South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha insisted in Budapest on Friday that her country would not give up hope of finding survivors.

One of the bodies was found about 11 kilometers (seven miles) downstream of the accident site. 

South Korean relatives of the Mermaid passengers arrived in Budapest Friday, and officials took them to the banks of the Danube.

The Hungarian Magyar Nemzet daily, meanwhile, on Saturday quoted police reports as saying the Sigyn might not have warned the pilot of the smaller ship that he was going to overtake.

According to the newspaper, he also did not alert police about the collision.
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Britain’s Border Force intercepted 74 people Saturday, including minors, on eight vessels trying to cross the English Channel into Britain. French authorities stopped two other boats. 

The interceptions on an exceptionally sunny, warm day will heighten concerns that improving weather will encourage smugglers to try their luck at bringing more migrants to the U.K. from France.  

Authorities said a criminal investigation was underway. The nationalities of the migrants were still being determined. Coast guard officials said the incidents stretched along Britain’s southeast coast, from the port of Dover to Winchelsea Beach near Hastings, 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. 

Home Secretary Sajid Javid vowed that he would work with French border authorities to halt this rise in people trafficking across the Channel. 

“Those who choose to make this dangerous journey across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world are putting their lives in grave danger — and I will continue to do all I can to stop them,” he said in a statement Saturday night. 

Local lawmaker Charlie Elphicke suggested the numbers were unprecedented and demanded action. 

‘Get a grip on this crisis’

This crisis was meant to have been dealt with at Christmas, yet numbers continue to rise,'' he wrote on Twitter.The Home Office needs to get a grip on this crisis.” 

The reports about migrants using small boats to cross the English Channel to Britain are politically explosive, even though Britain has not seen nearly as many migrant sea crossings as have fellow European Union nations Spain, Italy and Greece. So far this year, over 21,300 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, and at least 519 others have died trying, according to the International Organization for Migration. 

In December last year, Javid declared a rise in migrant crossings to be a “major incident.”  He said Saturday that since then, two cutters have returned to U.K. waters from overseas and he has agreed upon a joint action plan to halt human smuggling with his French counterparts. 

Officials have blamed the influx on smuggling gangs. 

It is an established principle that those in need of protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, and since January, more than 30 people who arrived illegally in the U.K. in small boats have been returned to Europe,'' Javid said.We will continue to seek to return anyone who has entered the U.K. illegally.” 

Overall, migration into Europe is down substantially since over 1 million asylum-seekers and migrants came to the continent in 2015, but the issue still resonates politically, including in the elections last week to the European Parliament. 
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Pope Francis braved a rain-soaked, twisting drive through the mountains of Transylvania on Saturday to visit Romania’s most famous shrine, urging Romanian and ethnic Hungarian faithful to work together for their future.

Storms forced Francis to change his travel plans and add in a three-hour car ride through the Carpathian mountains that he had planned to traverse via helicopter. The steady rains doused the estimated 80,000-100,000 people who gathered for the Mass at the Sumuleu Ciuc shrine, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The showers let up as Francis arrived and he made a quick run through the poncho-clad crowds in his popemobile. But the 82-year-old seemed unsteady after the long trip and held onto the arms of aides as he negotiated a mud-slicked path to get to the altar for Mass.

In his homily, Francis praised the multicultural and multilingual tapestry that makes up Romania and urged its people to put aside past divisions for the sake of “journeying together.”

The rights of around 1.2 million ethnic Hungarians who live in Romania have been at the center of political disputes between the two countries for decades. Hungary lost Transylvania in the peace treaties after World War I yet the region remains heavily Hungarian in both culture and language.

Those tensions are often reflected in the uneasy relationship between the predominantly Hungarian Roman Catholic community and the Romanian-speaking Greek-Catholic communities. The two rites make up Romania’s Catholic minority in the overwhelmingly Orthodox country.

“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters,” Francis said.

The pope delivered the homily in Italian, and it was translated into Romanian and Hungarian.

After Mass, with the weather improved, Francis was able to fly by helicopter back to the airport for a flight to another corner of Romania, the university city of Iasi in the northeast. There he had an appointment with young Romanians.

Francis was travelling across Romania to visit its far-flung Catholic communities to make up for the fact that St. John Paul II was only allowed to visit the capital, Bucharest, in 1999 in the first papal visit to a majority Orthodox country.

 
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On a trip to Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is seeking common ground with European allies, despite fundamental differences over the United States’ withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and doing business with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington, as talks between Pompeo and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped Friday.
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A Turkish-American scientist who was recently released from three years in a Turkish prison said Friday he wants to return to the United States and his former job at NASA.

Serkan Golge, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was freed Wednesday shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone.

Golge is on probation and has been staying in his family home in Antakya, a southern Turkish city near the Syrian border.

Not so much as a traffic ticket

Golge told VOA Friday during an interview in his home that the conditions of his release prohibit him from returning to the United States.

“I am on probation now,” Golge said, saying he must “go to a local police station four days a week.”

Golge said his passport has been returned to him, but said he does not want to violate his probation conditions by leaving the country. 

“I have never violated any laws in my life, neither in Turkey or in the United States. I don’t even have a traffic ticket,” he said.

Arrested in wake of coup attempt

Golge was on a family visit in southern Turkey when he was arrested in July 2016 in the aftermath of a failed military coup against President Erdogan.

Turkey blames the coup on supporters of exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States, and Turkish authorities charged Golge with ties to Gulen.

Golge was sentenced in 2018 to 7½ years in prison despite U.S. State Department protests that there was no credible evidence of wrongdoing. A Turkish appeals court subsequently reduced his sentence to five years.

Golge told VOA he always objected to the “unfounded claims” against him.

Golge’s wife, Kurbra, told media outlets this week she is joyful about her husband’s release, but said he is not allowed to travel to the United States.

President Trump said in remarks to reporters Thursday that Golge would “pretty soon” be able to leave the country. He also thanked Erdogan for releasing Golge.

​Meeting at G20

Trump and Erdogan are to meet at next month’s Group of 20 summit. The United States and Turkey are at odds over Turkey’s plans to acquire a missile defense system from Russia. They also have disagreements over Washington’s support of Kurdish rebels in Syria and the U.S. government not extraditing Gulen to Turkey.

At the time of his arrest, Golge was working for the U.S. space agency in Houston, studying the effects of radiation on astronauts.

“I would love to go back to NASA,” Golge said. “I’m a scientist and I’ve been away from science for three years.”
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Serkan Golge, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was freed from a Turkish prison Wednesday shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone. Golge was visiting family in southern Turkey when he was arrested in a sweeping crackdown that followed a failed military coup in 2016.
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In his first visit to Germany as the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is meeting Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Earlier, speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas after their meeting, Pompeo said that Washington would not stand in the way of INSTEX, a system Europeans are developing to protect companies from American sanctions if they deal with Iran.

The system is intended to process payment regarding legal businesses, from medicines to aid services and other goods, which are permitted under sanctions regimen.

INSTEX is not yet up and running, but Europeans hope to have it functioning by this summer.

Maas said that even though the U.S. had withdrawn from the Iran agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), its goal remained the same.

Pompeo’s stop in Berlin makes up for a visit that he abruptly called off in early May to fly to Iraq. It is the first of his four-nation European trip, during which he also will visit Switzerland and the Netherlands before joining President Donald Trump on his state visit to Britain.
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Rescue crews in Budapest Friday are working to raise a sightseeing boat from the bottom of the Danube River, while searching for 21 people still missing after a cruise ship collided with the smaller tour boat late Wednesday.

Seven people are confirmed dead and seven have been rescued All but two people on the boat were South Korean tourists.

Hungary’s state TV reported that all rescued people have been released from the hospital except one who is being treated for broken ribs.

Hungarian police arrested the Ukrainian captain of the Viking cruise ship, identifying him as Yuriy C.

Police say he is suspected of “endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths.”

Investigators say the Viking ship and the tour boat, Mermaid, were sailing side-by-side on the Danube in central Budapest when both vessels arrived at pillars under the Margit Bridge.

The Mermaid turned in front of the Viking ship which struck the boat and capsized it. Police say the Mermaid sank in just seven seconds, giving passengers and two Hungarian crew members almost no time to get to safety.

Hungarian rescuers say heavy rain and the Danube’s strong currents are hampering their efforts. They have extended their search downriver into Serbia.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the boat accident was “shocking,” and asked authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the accident.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has sent a delegation of Korean officials and experts to Budapest to help.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will be in Britain June 3 on a state visit by invitation of Queen Elizabeth II and participate in events commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

This will be the second time Trump has gone to Britain since taking office, after a working visit in July of last year.

A state visit involves more pomp and pageantry, and the host country pays the costs. An invitation was extended after Trump took office but was delayed for a number of reasons, including security.

“There is an enormous controversy surrounding a state visit for Donald Trump,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The biggest news of the visit is that it’s happening, he said. “It was on again off again, on again off again.”

Trump will take part in the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, in which 150,000 Allied troops pushed German forces from France. He will attend events in Portsmouth, and in Normandy, France, alongside French President Emanuel Macron.

The president will attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace and cultural engagements with members of the Royal Family.

​May resigns after Trump leaves

Trump is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May, who is resigning June 7, two days after Trump departs, over failure to reach a deal on Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Trump, a Brexit supporter, has in the past criticized May’s handling of the issue. He has in some ways reached out to the Brexiteers, Kupchan said, and told May at one point that “she’s not firm enough, she’s not getting out quickly enough, and completely enough.”

Still with May having recently announced her resignation, the expectation is that Trump would speak highly of her in his public appearances with her and wish her all the best, said Jacob Parakilas, an analyst at the Chatham House in London. But he added that there’s not much depth to the relationship. 

“I don’t think the two of them see eye-to-eye or have pretty strong personal bond,” he said.

​Meeting with Johnson or Farage?

On Thursday, days before his departure, Trump said he may meet with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, pro-Brexit politicians seeking to replace May.

“It’s not my business to support people. But I have a lot of respect for both of those men,” Trump said.

On a briefing call to reporters, a White House senior official would not confirm whether such a meeting would take place.

WATCH: Pomp and Protests in Store for Trump on State Visit to Britain

​Trade, Brexit, Iran and China

Trump and May could still discuss major issues related to the current U.S.-U.K. relationship, including negotiations on a trade agreement.

The U.K. is keen to begin bilateral trade conversations with the U.S., said Kupchan, as it anticipates no longer being part of the EU.

Kupchan said the president will want an update on where things stand with Brexit. Although that may not be a very long conversation because “the balls are still up in the air,” he said.

Officials are also expected to discuss how to deal with Chinese investments and Huawei in particular, said Parakilas. He said the U.S. has taken a much more hard-line approach than the U.K. on this issue as well as on confronting Iran, which the U.S. under the Trump administration has much more appetite for, than either the U.K. or France.

​‘Trump Baby’ to appear again

Last year more than a 100,000 people protested in London and elsewhere in Britain. This year organizers say they expect similar numbers, protesting against Trump’s policies including immigration and climate change.

“Trump Baby,” the giant balloon depicting the president as an angry infant, is expected to make another appearance. Matt Bonner, the artist behind the giant inflatable said he would let it fly again if a crowdfunding campaign can raise $38,000 (30,000 pounds) for groups backing causes from climate action to women’s rights.

Last year London Mayor Sadiq Khan gave permission for the 6-meter tall balloon to fly above Parliament Square in London during Trump’s visit, provoking the president’s anger, who said it was an insult to the leader of Britain’s closest ally.

The senior administration official said that the White House is not concerned about the planned protests. 

“We haven’t talked about this at all,” she said.
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