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Austria’s vice chancellor has resigned.

Heinz-Christian Strache stepped down Saturday after two German newspapers — Der Spiegel and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung — posted video footage of him appearing to offer state contracts to a potential Russian benefactor.

Strache said Saturday he was the “victim of a targeted political attack,” but admitted that his actions in the video were “stupid and a mistake.”

Political analysts say the scandal throws into the question the governing coalition between Strache’s anti-immigration Freedom Party and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s center-right People’s Party.

Neither politician has commented on the future of their alliance.

 
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The victims of an infamous Nazi pedophile commune in Chile say the compensation of up to $11,000 Germany has agreed to pay each of them is not enough.

Germany said Friday it would pay the funds to the victims of Colonia Dignidad commune founded in 1961 by Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier.

The commune was promoted as an idyllic German family village. The reality of the place, however, was something sinister.

Dozens of children were sexually abused at Colonia Dignidad by Schaefer.

Its approximately 300 German and Chilean residents were abused and drugged. They were prevented from leaving the site that was surrounded by armed guards with dogs.

Survivors say they were virtual slaves.

Horst Schaffrick told the French news agency AFP that the money is “a help, yes, but it does not solve the problem. We are a lost generation.” Schaffrick, who was three when he arrived at the commune with his family, says he was sexually molested by Schaefer.

A lawyer for the survivors said, “What we would have wanted, and what we are arguing for, would be that we give settlers who are old enough to retire a decent pension, no more and no less.”

A German report released Friday said, “The survivors still suffer massively from the severe psychological and physical consequences after years of harm caused by violence, abuse, exploitation and slave labor.”

The report also said that compensation to the victims would be paid “exclusively out of moral responsibility and without recognition of a legal obligation.”

The commune also “actively collaborated with Pinochet dictatorship henchmen on torture, murder and disappearances,” according to the German report in a reference to Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s dictator from 1973 – 1990, who tortured and “disappeared” his critics.

Schaefer was arrested in 2005 in Argentina. He was jailed in Chile for child sexual and other abuses.

He died in 2010 in prison at the age of 88.
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Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called a crisis meeting late on Friday after two German newspapers published footage purportedly showing his deputy discussing state contracts with a potential Russian backer in return for political support.

Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was filmed talking about the contracts with someone posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch in Ibiza in July, 2017, months before parliamentary elections, Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. 

Strache did not reply to a request for comment on the video. Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the footage independently, and the German newspapers did not say how they obtained it.

Kurz planned to make a statement on the case on Saturday, a government source told Reuters. The opposition called for Strache to resign.

Strache is head of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which became junior partner in a coalition with Kurz’s conservatives in December 2017 after winning 26 percent of the votes in the October elections.The FPO’s General Secretary, Christian Hafenecker, said the party’s lawyers were evaluating the material. Neither Strache nor the Freedom Party ever received or granted any benefits from the persons concerned, Hafenecker said in a statement.

“Since the video was obviously recorded illegally, we are also preparing appropriate legal steps.”

The footage, parts of which were posted by the newspapers, showed Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus with the woman in a room in what the newspapers said was a villa in Ibiza.

The woman said she wanted to invest several hundred million euros in Austria, according to the newspapers. Strache and Gudenus discussed investment opportunities for her, including taking over a 50 percent stake in Austria’s influential tabloid Kronen Zeitung and using it to support Strache and the FPO party in the election.

Gudenus was not immediately available for comment.

“If she takes over the Kronen Zeitung three weeks before the election and get us into first place, then we can talk about everything,” Der Spiegel quoted Strache as saying in the video.

Strache held out the prospect of awarding her public contracts in road construction if she helped the Freedom Party succeed, according to the video.

Vienna prosecutors said they would study the reports and decide whether there was sufficient cause to open an investigation, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors said.
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Brexit talks appear to have collapsed a day after British Prime Minister Theresa May set out a timetable for her exit from office — the latest sign of a government in tatters.

Britain’s Labor party head Jeremy Corbyn has sent a letter to May saying the Brexit talks have “gone as far as they can” because of the instability of her government and its refusal to change its position. 

The two major British parties have been at a stalemate for weeks over a deal outlining the conditions by which Britain will withdraw from the European Union. The deadline for withdrawal was originally set for March 29, but the revised date — to give time for more negotiation — is Oct. 31.

Corbyn said in his letter to the prime minister that the two parties “have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us.” He added, “Even more crucially, the increasing weakness and instability of (May’s) government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed” between the Tory and Labor parties.

Corbyn also told reporters Friday there is no chance of ratifying even a partial Brexit deal by July.

May has said the process is hampered by a lack of consensus among Labor party members about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a new referendum in hopes of stopping it.

Parliament has rejected May’s plan in three separate votes and is set to hold another vote in early June. While May has promised some tweaks to the bill before the next vote, the plan is not expected to undergo any radical changes — meaning the impasse between the lawmakers likely is to remain unchanged.

Conservative lawmaker and former London mayor Boris Johnson, who has led the Brexit movement and supports leaving the EU even without a plan in place, has announced he will stand for the prime minister’s position after May vacates it.
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Germany on Friday authorized battery-powered scooters on its streets and cycle paths but banned them from pavements to protect pedestrians as the two-wheeled craze continues to spread across Europe.

Following fierce debate over road safety and the impact on traffic, the upper house adopted a proposal by Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer to approve the “electric propulsion vehicles” for road use.

They are either loved or loathed in Europe’s biggest economy.

“In Germany, souls are divided over e-scooters. Rarely has a new technology aroused such strong popularity — and such strong rejection,” said Achim Berg, president of Germany’s IT federation Bitkom.

Scheuer was forced to amend his initial suggestion to allow electric scooters on pavements, after it sparked an outcry from politicians, police unions and insurance groups.

Electrical scooters will only be allowed on pavements in exceptional cases, to be expressly indicated by signs.

E-scooter users must respect a speed limit of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) per hour and be aged 14 years or older.

‘Would be a Ferrari’

The decision opens up the market for mobility companies vying to provide rented e-scooters in Germany’s cities with Berlin-based startup Tier and Sweden’s Voi up against US firms Lime and Bird, leaders in the fast-growing sector.

Europe’s leading economy, with its mostly flat, highly urbanized geography and spiderweb network of cycle paths is a potential goldmine for e-scoot rental providers waiting in the wings.

“You have to expect a greyhound race. Whoever can convince people first will win the market,” said Hans Preissl, a spokesman for Frankfurt’s traffic authority.

The economic model of the booming e-scooter market still needs refining however, warns a study by the Boston Consulting Group on Friday.

“If market growth were vehicle acceleration, the humble electric scooter – the latest answer to urban mobility — would be a Ferrari,” said BCG, which predicts “consolidation is inevitable” in such a crowded market.

Undeterred, German car behemoth Volkswagen is eyeing the e-scooter market with plans to incorporate them into its own car-sharing scheme by the end of the year.

However, an influx of scooters could intensify the battle for space on Germany’s streets, where cycling associations have long demanded more and wider bicycle paths.

The co-existence of cyclists and e-scooter users on Germany’s cycle paths could quickly become untenable, warns Der Spiegel, “while imposing half-empty cars will continue to occupy lanes,” referring to Germans’ love of large cars.

‘Inevitable’ conflicts

“Conflicts are inevitable,” Social Democrat politician Anke Rehlinger said Thursday, adding that “continuous” effort should be made to define new rules for the e-scooters.

Scheuer labeled them a “genuine additional alternative for cars” in Germany’s traffic-choked cities yet there are also medical warnings against their use on Germany’s roads.

“E-scooters are highly dangerous in city traffic — not least because other road users find it extremely difficult to adjust to them,” Christopher Spering, from the German Society for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper.

There are also fears cyclists could be pushed off cycle paths specifically built for them.

“The already very limited area, currently granted to cycle traffic, should not have its use further extended,” said Jens Hilgenberg, traffic expert of the environmentalist group BUND told magazine Der Spiegel.

Daily newspaper Maerkische Oderzeitung says German cities have a choice — either they “risk chaos and even war between the modes of transport” or they prioritize cyclists, e-scooters users and pedestrians resulting in “painful losses for motorists” in inner city areas.
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U.N. agencies are expressing anger and sadness at the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians, including children, hit by airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, Thursday night.

This is just the latest tragedy to hit Yemen, which has been at war for more than four years.The U.N. human rights office reports nearly 7,000 civilians have been killed and 10,800 wounded as of November 2018.

Most of the deaths and injuries are due to aerial bombardments by the Saudi-led coalition, it reports. Saudi Arabia entered the civil conflict in March 2015 in support of the Yemeni government, which is locked in a fight for power with the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran.

A spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, said preliminary reports indicate five children were killed and 16 wounded by the airstrike.He says a number of health workers are among dozens of other casualties.

“The injured, including the children, were rushed to hospital for medical treatments,” Laerke said. “There are several hospitals functioning there. Two of them are being provided with support from humanitarian partners and they have received the wounded.”

A Somali refugee woman and her daughter reportedly are among the injured receiving critical treatment. The U.N. refugee agency reports Somalis comprise more than 90% of the 275,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Yemen.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said the already precarious situation of asylum-seekers and migrants in Yemen has deteriorated significantly as a result of the conflict.

“Incidents like these obviously result in tragic loss of civilian life and injury and continue to illustrate the fact that the war in Yemen is taking a brutal toll on the civilian population,” he said. “We add our voice to the calls that civilians must be protected and parties to the conflict must ensure adherence to their obligations enshrined under the international Humanitarian Law.”

The United Nations calls Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.It reports nearly 80% of the country’s population of 24 million needs humanitarian assistance and protection.

Unfortunately, aid agencies report the security situation and lack of access are hampering their ability to reach the millions of people in desperate need of aid.Another problem is the lack of support from the international community.The U.N. reports its $4.2 billion appeal to assist more than 20 million Yemenis is only 21% funded.
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The EU on Thursday defended its push to reform the European defense industry in a retort to U.S. accusations that the overhaul would shut out allies such as Washington from European projects.

The skirmish over military spending comes as transatlantic ties are at a long-time low with fears running high that cooperation at NATO could be endangered.

In a letter seen by AFP, two senior officials said that the European Union “remains fully committed to working with the U.S. as a core partner in security and defense matters” despite the planned changes.

However, the EU officials also insisted that the mooted reforms are merely a reflection of rules already imposed by the U.S.

“The transatlantic trade balance is resolutely in favor of the U.S.,” they insisted.

The U.S. concerns, set out in a letter on May 1 from two of President Donald Trump’s top defense officials, focused on the European Defense Fund (EDF), a seven-year 13-billion euro ($14.6 billion) pot approved by the European Parliament last month, and a key new EU defense cooperation pact known as PESCO.

Washington warned the proposed rules “would not only damage the constructive NATO-EU relationship we have built together over the past several years but could potentially turn the clock back to the sometimes divisive discussions about EU defense initiatives that dominated our exchanges 15 years ago.”

Along with the warnings, the U.S. officials also make a veiled threat to hit back, saying the EU would object to similar U.S. restrictions “and we would not relish having to consider them in the future.”

EU countries launched PESCO in late 2017 to try to harmonize a highly fragmented approach to defense spending.

Under the pact, countries cooperate on projects to develop new military equipment and on support systems such as military hospitals and training centers.

The U.S. letter chimed with bitter divisions within the bloc on what rules to set for non-EU allies such as the U.S., Norway — and for Britain after Brexit — who want to contribute to future defense projects.
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The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five individuals, including at least three Russians, for alleged human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act, including extrajudicial killings and the torture of LGBTI individuals.

The sanctions against the Terek Special Rapid Response Team in the Chechen Republic and the five individuals were announced by the U.S. Treasury on its website.

The Treasury Department imposed the sanctions, which freeze the banks accounts of those targeted, under a 2012 law known as the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials linked to the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old Russian auditor and whistleblower. The act also seeks to hold responsible those U.S. authorities allege orchestrated or benefited from the death of Magnitsky.

Those targeted on Thursday included Elena Anatolievna Trikulya and Gennady Vyacheslavovich Karlov, members of an investigative committee who allegedly “participated in efforts to conceal the legal liability for the detention, abuse, or death” of Magnitsky.

Also designated was Abuzayed Vismuradov, commander of the Terek Special Rapid Response Team in Chechnya who was accused of “being responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” against those seeking to expose illegal activity by Russian government officials.

The Treasury Department said Vismuradov was in charge of an operation that “illegally detained and tortured individuals on the basis of their actual or perceived LGBTI status.”

LGBTI is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex.

The Treasury also named Sergey Leonidovich Kossiev as being “responsible for extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognised human rights” as head of a penal colony in the Republic of Karelia.

The fifth individual targeted was named as Ruslan Geremeyev for acting on behalf of the head of Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, “in a matter relating to extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
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Analysts say Turkey is running out of time to balance its relationship with Russia and the United States as Moscow and Washington step up pressure on Ankara over its pending acquisition of Russian missile defense systems.

The U.S. opposes the missile system transaction, maintaining that Turkey’s use of the S-400s would compromise the technology of the F-35 fighter jet, which the U.S. and other NATO allies own. Turkey, also a NATO member, is due to take delivery of the F-35 this year. The U.S. has warned that if the Russian missiles are delivered, Turkey’s purchase of the F-35 will be in jeopardy and sanctions will be possible. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has dismissed Washington’s concerns. “If these claims by the U.S. were true, S-400s would have already accessed [secrets] to the F-35 [aircraft] technology [as both are deployed] in Syria, the Baltic region and the north,” he said Thursday during a visit to Latvia. 

According to reports, Washington had requested that Ankara postpone the July delivery of the Russian missiles. However, in what was widely seen as a slap in the face to the United States, Turkish Defense Industries President Ismail Demir suggested the missiles could be delivered as early as next month.

“We are a serious country. Our deal with Russia continues,” Demir said to reporters Thursday. 

‘No such thing as postponing’

Cavusoglu on Wednesday dismissed reports of any delay. “There is no such thing as postponing or canceling at this stage,” he said. “It’s not on the agenda, either.” 

Ankara’s resistance to Washington coincides with Moscow’s agreeing to Turkish requests for creation of a joint working group on the Syrian rebel enclave of Idlib. The working group is seen as giving breathing space to rebels, who have been under sustained Russian and Syrian government bombardment. 

The latest assault was the most intense since Ankara and Moscow reached an agreement in September, preventing Syrian forces from overrunning the enclave. 

“There are 2 million people in the [Idlib] enclave — jihadis and their families and those Sunni elements who will not make a deal with Damascus,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen. 

“Turkey will be determined to avoid this enclave being overrun as those people have nowhere to go but to Turkey,” said Selcen, who is a regional analyst. 

“Turkey will not want this to happen as it would impose major security and humanitarian problems. While Ankara insists it will not allow this to happen, Moscow could be the key player,” he added. 

​Peace efforts snagged

Russia and Turkey, along with Iran, are working together under the auspices of the so-called Astana Process to end Syria’s civil war and secure a long-term peace. Those efforts have hit an impasse with disagreements on the formation of a committee to create a new constitution. 

Turkish and U.S. diplomats are continuing their efforts to resolve a key point of tension. The diplomats aim to create a safe zone in Syria to protect Turkey’s border from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, designated by Ankara as a terrorist organization. 

Washington’s support of the YPG in the war against the Islamic State group has soured relations with Turkey. The safe zone is seen as a way of putting ties between the two NATO allies back on track. 

Expediting the delivery of S-400 missiles is interpreted to mean Moscow seeks to thwart U.S.-Turkish efforts to resolve differences on Syria. Ankara’s procurement of the weapons would open the door to wide-ranging and severe U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which bans significant Russian military purchases. 

“Our understanding is that Ankara has resigned to being sanctioned under CAATSA,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners, a business management consultant in New York.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “still clings to the hope that a summit with [U.S. President Donald] Trump will allow him to keep the S-400s, with the latter applying only the least damaging articles of CAATSA,” he said. 

​Fundamental differences

Ankara says Erdogan has built a unique working relationship with Trump, and that the problems in bilateral ties are the result of those working around the U.S. leader. However, some analysts suggest that the difficulties between the NATO allies are more fundamental. 

“Turkish and U.S. understanding of the world order has been diverging rather than converging,” said international relations professor Serhat Guvenc of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. “They view the international developments through a totally different lens. I think the problem is structural rather than conjectural.” 

Prying Turkey away from its Western partners is a decades-long strategic dream if not the goal of Moscow, but analysts contend that any Russian-Turkish alliance would inevitably fail on historical and regional rivalries, with Syria the likely flash point. 

“Unfortunately, Ankara thinks they can play the Russians and Americans against each other. It won’t work,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Athens University.

“The Russians sooner or later will clear Idlib, which is filled with tens of thousands of terrorists, and this is the first and foremost point of disagreement between Ankara and Moscow,” he said. 
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Representatives of the Venezuelan government and the opposition are in Norway for talks on resolving the stalemate that has mired the South American nation in a political and economic crisis.

Venezuelan officials say Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez is representing President Nicolas Maduro, while lawmaker Stalin Gonzalez is leading the opposition delegation.

President Maduro said Rodriguez was on “a very important mission” abroad during a televised speech Wednesday, but did not provide any details.

The negotiations in Norway are being held after the military failed to heed a call April 30 by opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaido to rise up against Maduro. Guaido, the leader of the National Assembly, declared himself interim president earlier this year after the opposition-majority legislative body determined Maduro won another term in a fraudulent election.

The United States and about 50 other countries recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president. Venezuela has put the United States at odds with Russia, which has supplied military equipment to the Maduro regime, and Cuba, who the U.S. accuses of placing pro-Maduro troops on the ground in Venezuela.

Also on Wednesday, the United States has suspended all commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says she, along with the secretaries of state and homeland security, has determined conditions exist in Venezuela “that threaten the safety or security of passengers, aircraft, or crew.”

Many international airlines, including those in the United States, have already stopped flying to and from Venezuela because of the political upheaval.
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The heiress of a German biscuit empire has apologized for comments that seemed to downplay the use of forced labor in Nazi Germany.

Verena Bahlsen, who is part owner of her father’s Bahlsen bakery, said she “deeply regrets” her remarks about the way the company treated those forced to work under Hitler’s regime.

“It was a mistake to amplify this debate with thoughtless responses. Nothing could be further from my mind than to downplay national socialism or its consequences,” Bahlsen said.

She said she recognizes the need to learn more about the company’s history.

Bahlsen told Germany’s Bild newspaper that the bakery treated forced laborers “well” during World War II and paid them as much as it paid German workers.

Many of the forced laborers were women from Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

Some in Germany have called for a boycott of Bahlsen products, including the famous Leibniz cookies.

German courts have thrown out compensation claims made by many former laborers because the statute of limitations had run out. But the company voluntarily paid more than $840,000 into a compensation fund in 2000.

Bahlsen was mocked earlier this month when she told a Hamburg business conference that she is happy to be part owner of a company because she wants to make money and buy yachts.
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Several thousand people rallied Wednesday in Russia’s fourth-largest city as the showdown between authorities and activists protesting the plans to a build a cathedral in a local park entered its third day. 

Thousands gathered in a riverside park in Yekaterinburg in the evening. Some were on bicycles, more camped out on the grass, and others were walking their dogs. 

As night fell, protesters turned on their mobile phone lights and flashlights, chanting, “We stand for the park!”  

Security measures for what has largely been a peaceful protest were heightened on the eve of the rally, with hundreds of riot police deployed to the park.

Earlier, construction workers started building a new fence to replace the chain-link fence that protesters brought down a day earlier. 

Opponents of the cathedral, which is promoted by authorities and funded by the owners of two major local industrial giants, say the construction project smack in the city center would take away green and recreational space needed by residents of a city with 1.5 million people. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier Wednesday that the Kremlin had full trust in the local government to handle the protests, but he also decried the rallies, which he described as unsanctioned, illegal demonstrations. 

Hundreds of protesters stayed in the park well after midnight, facing several rows of riot police who were encircling the fence around the proposed construction site.
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