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More than 3,200 government, business, academics and civil society leaders will address issues of globalization, climate change and other matters of world importance next week at the annual World Economic Forum in the plush Swiss Alpine village of Davos.

The list of participants reads like the Who’s Who of the most powerful, successful and inventive movers and shakers in the world. They will be rubbing shoulders during hundreds of formal sessions and workshops, as well as in private bilaterals on the sidelines of the meeting. They will discuss and seek solutions to some of humanity’s most vexing problems.

The theme of this year’s gathering is Globalization “4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” That refers to the emerging technology breakthroughs in such fields as artificial intelligence and robotics.

Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab says this fourth wave of globalization needs to be human-centered. He says globalization in its present form is not sustainable. He says globalization must be made more inclusive.

“Globalization produced winners and losers, and so there were many more winners in the last 24, 25, 30 years. But now we have to look after the losers — after those who have been left behind…what we need is a moralization, or re-moralization, of globalization,” he said.

The program is very wide-ranging. For example, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will discuss the state of the world. He will broach issues like climate change, fighting poverty and sustainable development. There will be special sessions by others about ways to make economic growth more inclusive, on rethinking world trade, as well as many scientific, artistic and cultural meetings.

Leaders from all regions of the world will attend. The Middle East will be represented by the presidents of Libya and Iraq. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there. So will Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Six or seven presidents from Africa will be in attendance. And organizers of the forum say there is great interest in an appearance by the new Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who has established peace with Eritrea during his first six months in office.

The forum president, Borge Brende, says a strong United States delegation will attend next week’s event, although President Donald Trump canceled his participation.

“We fully understand that, of course, President Trump will have to stay in D.C. as long as the government is facing this shutdown. We are very pleased, though, that the U.S. will be participating with key secretaries,” he said.

Brende confirms that among those coming will be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, fresh from his travels in the Middle East, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.
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Greek officials predict Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will survive a no-confidence vote in parliament later this week.

Tsipras called for the vote Monday after defense minister Panos Kammenos resigned and pulled his nationalist ANEL party from the ruling coalition. 

Kammenos quit to protest the deal with neighboring Macedonia over the use of the name Macedonia.

ANEL leaving the coalition leaves Tsipras’ ruling leftist Syriza Party without a majority of seats in parliament, opening the door to possible early elections.

But a government spokesman says the party is confident of winning the no-confidence vote, set for Wednesday, and completing its four-year term in October.

The U.N.-brokered deal with Macedonia ends a nearly 30 year-long dispute over who gets to use the name.

If approved by the Greek parliament, the former Yugoslav republic would be officially called the Republic of North Macedonia.

But many Greeks, especially nationalists, are still upset, saying the name should exclusively belong the ancient region of northern Greece, made famous by Alexander the Great. 

They say letting the country of Macedonia use it implies territorial claims on the region.

The dispute has held up Macedonia’s desires to join NATO and the European Union because of Greek objections.
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Britain appears set for a full-blown constitutional crisis, with a cross-party group of senior lawmakers conspiring to sideline embattled Prime Minister Theresa May by seizing control of Brexit negotiations.

They want to reduce the power of the government to control legislative business in parliament, boosting the chances of lawmakers being able to table a series of motions to stop Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal, or even offering legislation for a second referendum on British membership in the EU that could lead to the country not leaving at all.

Ahead of Tuesday’s crucial vote in the House of Commons on her highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the result of two years of ill-tempered haggling with Brussels, May warned that if her draft deal with the EU is voted down, the most likely outcome would be Britain remaining an EU member.

Speaking to factory workers in Wales on Monday, May said if she loses the vote, “it is now my judgment that the more likely outcome is a paralysis in parliament that risks there being no Brexit.” She added, “There are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so.”

Most observers — even ministers in her own divided cabinet — expect her to lose the vote on the withdrawal agreement, despite EU officials offering assurances Monday designed to diminish parliament’s opposition to the 585-page deal.

The big question is over the scale of the defeat, with some commentators predicting it could be the biggest rebuff a government has endured since 1924, when then-Labor Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald lost a vote by 166, triggering the collapse of his government and a general election he lost.

Transition deal

With the deal, May has tried to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.

The withdrawal agreement would see Britain locked in a customs union with the EU for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner. In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. It would not be able to implement free-trade deals with non-EU countries.

The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc, even if a final free-trade deal isn’t negotiated. Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a “vassal state, a rule-taker and not a rule-maker.”

On Monday, EU leaders sought to assuage lawmakers’ fears by saying it wouldn’t lock Britain in an indefinite transition. But opponents — both Brexiters and Remainers— appear unconvinced, calling assurances “meaningless,” as they don’t have the force of law, while the agreement, if passed by the British parliament, would.

Government vs. parliament

In readiness for May losing a key vote on the highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons Tuesday, veteran lawmakers, including former ministers from her cabinet, are laying the groundwork to upend the centuries-old relationship between Britain’s government and parliament.

That relationship is built on No. 10 Downing Street being able to control the legislative agenda, with government business taking precedence over that of individual lawmakers or the opposition parties. The shift would set the stage for a constitutional showdown that could have significant consequences for how Britain is governed, as Brexit itself would, said analysts.

“We may now be witnessing one of the most fundamental shifts in (the) relationship between the government and parliament since William Lenthall, the speaker, defied King Charles I in 1642,” according to Philip Cowley, a political scientist at London’s Queen Mary University.

That defiance came on the eve of the English Civil War, when the king entered the Commons to arrest five rebellious lawmakers. Charles demanded to know where the lawmakers were, and Lenthall replied, “May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here.”

Role of John Bercow

While the current behind-the-scenes parliamentary maneuvering is unlikely to trigger a clash of arms, it has thrust the spotlight on current Speaker John Bercow, who when he was elected to the post in 2009, made no secret of his determination to strengthen the powers of parliament and lessen the dominance of the government.

Last week Bercow, a moderate Conservative but ardent Remainer, outraged No. 10 Downing Street and Brexiters by allowing an amendment to the government’s business motion for the vote on May’s Brexit deal.

The amendment was in breach of standard practice. Under standard parliamentary rules, government motions can’t be amended. But Bercow accepted it, announcing that if precedence was always followed, nothing would ever change.

Two groups of Brexit opponents are planning to use Bercow’s ruling last week to try to pull away from government control of the parliamentary timetable. One group wants to suspend the Brexit schedule, allowing them to postpone Britain’s earmarked EU departure date of March 29, and for more efforts to be made to shape a national consensus.

Other lawmakers are looking at ways to force a second referendum. On Sunday, one of May’s predecessors, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major, called for Britain’s exit from the EU to be delayed and control of future negotiations with the EU be controlled by parliament. He also called for another referendum.

“In the midst of chaos, it is always sensible to pause and think,” he said.

According to recent polls, a majority of Britons now want a second plebiscite. May has adamantly ruled out that option to break the parliamentary deadlock.

With this week shaping up to be one of the most tumultuous in the modern history of the House of Commons, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labor Party, has said that if May loses the vote on Tuesday, he will table a motion of no-confidence in the government.
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The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained, LGBT activists in Russia charged Monday.

The new allegations come after reports in 2017 of more than 100 gay men arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them killed, in the predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia.

The Associated Press and other media outlets have interviewed some of the victims, who spoke about torture at the hands of Chechen law enforcement officers. Chechen authorities have denied those accusations, and federal authorities conducted a probe into the earlier reports but said they found nothing to support the charges.

Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Interfax news agency on Monday that the latest reports are “complete lies and don’t have an ounce of truth in them.” Karimov insisted that no one has been detained in Chechnya on suspicion of being gay.

But the Russian LGBT Network, which has been monitoring the situation in Chechnya and helping victims, said in a statement Monday that about 40 men and women have been detained on suspicion of being gay since December and that at least two of them have died of torture in detention. The detainees are believed held at the same facility that was named in the 2017 reports.

“Widespread detentions, torture and killings of gay people have resumed in Chechnya,” Igor Kochetkov, program director at the Russian LGBT Network said. “Persecution of men and women suspected of being gay never stopped. It’s only that its scale has been changing.”

Kochetkov said the new wave of anti-gay persecution started at the end of the year, when Chechen authorities detained the administrator of a social media group popular with LGBT people in the North Caucasus. Kochetkov said the mass detentions began after the authorities got hold of the contacts on his phone.

Russia denies accusations

LGBT activists in 2017 helped to evacuate around 150 gay men from Chechnya to help them restart their lives elsewhere in Russia. Many of them have sought asylum and resettled abroad.

“News that the authorities have resumed the crackdown is spine-chilling,” said Marie Struthers, director of Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe section. “With lives in jeopardy, there is an urgent need for an international response to protect gay and lesbian people in Chechnya.”

Russian authorities have strenuously denied that killings and torture took place in the predominantly Muslim region where homosexuality is taboo, even after one man came forward to talk about the time he spent in detention in Chechnya.

One man’s account

Maxim Lapunov said he was detained by unidentified people on a street in the Chechen capital, Grozny, in 2017 and kept in custody for two weeks, where he was repeatedly beaten. He was let go after he signed a statement acknowledging that he was gay and was told he would be killed if he talked about his time in detention.

Lapunov, who is from Siberia, was the first to file a complaint with Russian authorities over the wave of arrests of gay people.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe last month called on Russia to investigate the reports and cited Lapunov’s case specifically.

Kadyrov and his government in Chechnya have been accused of widespread human rights abuses against many dissidents, not just gay men.
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President Donald Trump is warning Turkey it would face economic devastation if it strikes at the Kurds when U.S. forces pull out of Syria.

“Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey,” Trump said in a tweet late Sunday. Without giving any further details, he wrote “Create 20 mile (32 kilometers) safe zone.”

“Russia, Iran, and Syria have been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-term U.S. policy of destroying ISIS in Syria — natural enemies,” he tweeted.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (YPG) were among the United States’ closest allies in the fight against Islamic State militants inside Syria.

Turkey says the YPG is tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been fighting a long guerrilla war for more Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey.

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group and there are fears Turkey will attack Kurdish fighters inside Syria when the Americans leave.

Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responded to Trump Monday, comparing the YPG to Islamic State militants.

“Mr @realDonaldTrump Terrorists can’t be your partners & allies,” he wrote on Twitter. “Turkey expects the US to honor our strategic partnership and doesn’t want it to be shadowed by terrorist propaganda. There is no difference between DAESH, PKK, PYD and YPG. We will continue to fight against them all.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he is “optimistic” the Syrian Kurds will not be abandoned and confident the U.S. and Turkey can work out a deal to assure the Kurds will be safe.

The Kurds are looking for protection against a possible Turkish attack and Syria’s Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Sousan told reporters Sunday his government would like an intensified dialogue with the Kurds.

“Many of the Kurdish statements were positive regarding their concern for the unity of Syria,” he said.

Kurdish officials have said they would like Russian mediation in any talks with the Syrian government.

Trump tweeted Sunday that what he calls the “long overdue” U.S. pull-out from Syria has started “while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard and from many directions.”

But a U.S. defense official has denied that it was withdrawing any troops from Syria, telling VOA the initial stages of the pull-out involve “equipment, not troops.”

Trump unexpectedly announced last month that U.S. forces would be leaving Syria, causing confusion and concern among U.S. allies. The White House hinted that a pull-out could be complete within 30 days.

National Security Advisor John Bolton has since said there is no time-frame for a withdrawal.

 
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A man with a knife rushed on to the stage during the finale of a charity event and stabbed a Polish mayor in the abdomen Sunday, leaving the politician in very serious condition in an attack that Polish media said had a political element.

Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz grabbed his belly and collapsed on stage during the “Lights to Heaven” fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, Poland’s most important charity.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was informed that “doctors succeeded in reanimating the heart of the seriously injured Mayor Pawel Adamowicz and there is hope, but his condition is very difficult.” He called for people to pray for the mayor.

Polish broadcaster TVN said the assailant shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned under a previous national government led by Civic Platform, a party to which the mayor formerly belonged. The suspected attacker was arrested.

TVN broadcast footage of the perpetrator, just after the attack yelling that his name was Stefan and that “I was jailed but innocent. … Civic Platform tortured me.”

Police said the suspect was a 27-year-old with a criminal record and had carried out bank robberies. A police spokesman, Mariusz Ciarka, said the attacker gained access to the area with a media badge.

Radio Gdansk said Adamowicz was stabbed in the area of his heart, but did not cite its source, while Rzeczpospolita described the mayor’s condition as “critical,” citing unidentified sources. A spokesman for the hospital called his condition “very serious.”

TVN footage showed Adamowicz on stage just before the attack with a sparkler in hand telling the audience that it had been a “wonderful day” and then the attacker coming toward him. Adamowicz had been on the streets of his city Sunday collecting money for the charity, along with volunteers around the country.

European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who co-founded Civil Platform and is from Gdansk, wrote on Twitter: “Let’s all pray for Mayor Adamowicz. Pawel, we are with you.”

The head of the charity, Jerzy Owsiak, is a liberal critic of Poland’s current right-wing government. He blamed what he described as an atmosphere of hate under the ruling Law and Justice party for the attack on the mayor.

Owsiak referred to being personally depicted in a defamatory manner in an animation that ran on state TV last week and that also had anti-Semitic overtones.

The animation showed Owsiak as a clay figure being manipulated by a leading Civic Platform official who seized piles of cash that he collected. A Star of David was on one of the banknotes. The broadcaster apologized after the animation triggered an outcry.

Adamowicz, 53, has been mayor of Gdansk, a Baltic port city, since 1998. He was part of the democratic opposition born in that city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s. After leaving Civic Platform, he was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate in the fall.

As mayor, he has been a progressive voice, supporting LGBT rights and tolerance for minorities. He marched in last year’s gay pride parade, a rare action for a mayor in Poland.

He also showed solidarity with the Jewish community when the city’s synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism.

“Horrified by the brutal attack on Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz,” said Frans Timmermans, a Dutch politician and leading European Union official. “Hope and pray he will recover. A great leader of his city and a true humanitarian.”

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity raises money to buy state-of-the-art medical equipment for Poland’s cash-strapped hospitals, mostly for children.

The last attack on a politician in Poland was in 2010 in Lodz. A man shouting that he wanted to kill Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski fatally shot an aide to one of the party’s lawmakers to the European Parliament. A second man was stabbed and injured.

At the time Law and Justice was in the opposition and Kaczynski blamed the attack at an “atmosphere of hate” under the rival party, Civic Platform.

 
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French President Emmanuel Macron has released what he calls a “letter to the French,” encouraging a national debate on issues that have led to two months of anti-government protests.

“This is how I intend to turn anger into solutions,” Macron said Sunday. “Your proposals will help build a new contract for the nation, organizing the actions of the government and parliament, but also France’s positions at the European and international levels.”

Macron plans to hold a number of town hall meetings across the country over the next eight weeks.

Among the questions he is opening for debate are which taxes should be cut, what public spending should be a priority, are there too many bureaucratic layers, and questions surrounding the environment and immigration.

While Macron said no topic will be off the table, the right of people to seek asylum in France will not be up for debate.

“We won’t agree on everything, which is normal in a democracy. But at least we’ll show we’re a people which is not afraid of talking, exchanging [ideas], debating.”

So-called “yellow vest” marches erupted in France in November against a now-scrapped fuel tax. But they have since expanded into a general anti-government protest, especially in rural France, where many see Macron as someone more interested in the wealthy than their problems.

Some of the marches have turned violent, leading to government proposals to ban anyone wearing face masks from joining in or starting their own march.

The free speech group Reporters Without Borders has called on protest organizers to condemn violence against journalists covering the marches.

The group says reporters have been beaten, kicked, and threatened with rape.

 
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Four people have been confirmed dead Sunday in a suspected gas explosion in Paris a day earlier.

Authorities found the body of a woman reported missing the day before underneath the rubble at a bakery, the site of the explosion, in the French capital. Two firefighters and a Spanish tourist were also killed and dozens injured in Saturday’s blast, which left nearby buildings severely damaged.

Around 50 people have been provided temporary accommodation as authorities continue to search the rubble for bodies and assess the safety of damaged buildings.

Firefighters were responding to calls about a gas leak Saturday when the explosion occurred.

French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted his condolences to the firefighters and their families Saturday.

“Their mission: saving lives. To accomplish this they gave their own,” Macron tweeted, adding that his thoughts were with all the victims.

The blast is believed to have been accidental, but authorities have not yet ruled out other causes in a city which has fallen victim to numerous terrorist attacks in recent years.

 
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The U.S. ambassador to Germany has warned companies involved in the construction of the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that they could face sanctions if they stick to the project, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Germany of being a “captive” of Moscow due to its reliance on Russian energy and urged it to halt work on the $11 billion gas pipeline.

The pipeline, which would carry gas straight to Germany under the Baltic Sea, is also seen critical by other European countries as it would deprive Ukraine of lucrative gas transit fees which could make Kiev more vulnerable in the future.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell addressed the issue in a letter sent to several companies, the U.S. Embassy said.

“The letter reminds that any company operating in the Russian energy export pipeline sector is in danger under CAATSA of U.S. sanctions,” the embassy spokesman said, adding that other European states also opposed the planned pipeline.

Germany and other European allies accuse Washington of using its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to meddle in their foreign and energy policies due to its extraterritorial effect.

Russian gas giant Gazprom is implementing the project jointly with its Western partners – Uniper, Wintershall, Engie, Austria’s OMV and Anglo-Dutch group Shell.

The letter raised eyebrows within the German government. A German diplomat said the ambassador’s approach did not correspond to common diplomatic practice and that Berlin would address the issue in direct talks with officials in Washington. An Uniper spokesman declined to comment while no immediate reaction was available from Wintershall.

Germany and Russia have been at odds since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. But they have a common interest in the Nord Stream 2 project, which is expected to double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream 1 route.

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, which was first to report on the letter, said that Grenell was trying to blackmail German companies with the letter.

The U.S. Embassy denied this.

“The only thing that could be considered blackmail in this situation would be the Kremlin having leverage over future gas supplies,” the embassy spokesman said.

The letter was coordinated in Washington by several U.S. government agencies and “is not meant to be a threat but a clear message of U.S. policy”, the spokesman added.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday that any U.S. sanctions against Nord Stream 2 would be the wrong way to solve the dispute and that questions of European energy policy had to be decided in Europe, not in the United States.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is dismissing news reports suggesting he is beholden to Russia and President Vladimir Putin or hiding accounts of his private talks with the Russian leader the five times they have met, including at their July summit in Helsinki.

Asked directly late Saturday by Fox News talk show host Jeanine Pirro whether he is now or has ever worked for Russia, Trump said, “I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked.”

The U.S. leader said, “If you ask the folks in Russia, I’ve been tougher on Russia than anybody else, any other — probably any other president period, but certainly the last three or four presidents, modern day presidents. Nobody’s been as tough as I have from any standpoint.”

Trump was reacting to a report in The New York Times that Federal Bureau of Investigation officials started investigating whether he “was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence” because they were so alarmed by Trump’s behavior after he fired former FBI chief James Comey in May 2017 when he was leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“It’s a very horrible thing they said…,” Trump said. “They really are a disaster of a newspaper.”

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee that has been investigating Trump campaign links with Russia, told CNN on Sunday that at times Trump has “almost parroted” Putin’s policies.

“It’s a very real consideration” whether Trump is a willing agent of Russia, Warner said, especially considering information that surfaced last week that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data in 2016 with a former business associate of his that U.S. investigators believe had ties to Russian intelligence.

Another key Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, told ABC News there are “serious questions” about why Trump is “so chummy” with Putin.

Earlier, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement that in the coming weeks his panel “will take steps to better understand both the president’s actions and the FBI’s response to that behavior. There is no reason to doubt the seriousness or professionalism of the FBI, as the president did in reaction to this story.”

Trump also assailed The Washington Post’s new account that he has gone to extraordinary lengths to hide details of his conversations with Putin over the last two years. On one occasion, the newspaper said Trump took possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructed the linguist to not discuss what had transpired with other Trump administration officials.

The newspaper said that incident occurred after Trump and Putin met in Hamburg in 2017, a meeting also attended by then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Trump’s most high-profile meeting with Putin occurred in Helsinki, where the two leaders met for two hours behind closed doors with only their interpreters listening in. No official accounts of their talks have been released, but Trump told Pirro there was nothing to hide about their discussions and could release a transcript.

“Well Jeanine I would, I don’t care,” Trump said. “I had a conversation like every president does. You sit with the president of various countries, I do it with all countries. We had a great conversation. We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of other things. And it was a great conversation. I’m not keeping anything under wraps, I couldn’t care less. I mean, it’s so ridiculous.”

He added, “Anybody could have listened to that meeting, that meeting is up for grabs.”

Trump’s first two years in office have been consumed by the now 20-month investigation whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to help him win and whether, as president, Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the investigation after Trump ousted Comey.

Shortly after Trump dismissed Comey, he told NBC news anchor Lester Holt that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire the FBI chief, saying that he felt the investigation was created by Democrats dismayed that Trump had upset former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to win the White House.

Mueller is believed to be nearing the end of his investigation and is expected to write a report on his findings.

Trump has often assailed the Mueller probe, telling Pirro, “You know, the whole Russia thing, it’s a hoax. It’s a terrible hoax.” Trump has denied that his campaign colluded with Russia or that he has obstructed justice.

But Mueller and other federal prosecutors have won convictions or secured guilty pleas from key figures in Trump’s orbit, including Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign aide Rick Gates, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and his one-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, among others.
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Paris police fired water cannon and tear gas to push back yellow vest demonstrators from around the Arc de Triomphe monument Saturday, in the ninth straight weekend of protests against French President Emmanuel 

Macron’s economic reforms.

Thousands of protesters in Paris marched noisily but mostly peacefully through the Grands Boulevards shopping area in northern Paris, close to where a massive gas explosion in a bakery killed two firefighters and a Spanish tourist and injured nearly 50 people earlier in the day.

But small groups of demonstrators broke away from the designated route and threw bottles and other projectiles at the police. 

Around the 19th-century Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Elysees, riot police fired water cannon and tear gas at militant protesters after being pelted with stones and paint, witnesses said.

Groups of protesters also gathered on and around the Champs-lysees, the scene of disturbances in recent weeks, many of them calling loudly for Macron to resign. 

“Macron, we are going to tear down your place!” one banner read. 

84,000 across France

The Interior Ministry estimated that there were a maximum of about 84,000 demonstrators nationwide on Saturday — more than the 50,000 counted last week but well below the record 282,000 estimated on Nov. 17, the first day of the protests. 

In Paris, the ministry counted 8,000 demonstrators, more than in the past two weekends, when authorities tallied just 3,500 people on Jan. 5 and only 800 on Dec. 29. 

Much of central Paris was in lockdown on the first week of post-Christmas sales, with bridges across the Seine River closed and official buildings such as parliament and the Elysee presidential palace protected by police barriers.

In Paris, 156 “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protesters were arrested, some for carrying objects that could be used as weapons, police said. As of 2000 GMT, 108 remained in custody. Nationwide, 244 people had been arrested, of which 201 remained in custody. 

By nightfall, there had been no looting or burning of cars as seen in previous weeks and traffic circulation had resumed around the Arc de Triomple area. 

National debate

There were also thousands of marchers in the cities of Bordeaux and Toulon in southern France as well as Strasbourg in the east and the central city of Bourges. 

Bourges authorities said nearly 5,000 yellow vests stuck to the designated demonstration area. The historical city center was off-limits for demonstrators, but 500 protesters made their way to the center, where they scuffled with police and set garbage bins on fire. 

Many businesses in Bourges had boarded themselves up to avoid damage, and authorities had removed street furniture and building site materials that could be used for barricades. 

In Strasbourg, up to 2,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the European Parliament building and later marched to the center of the city on the Rhine River border with Germany. No serious violence or looting was reported there. 

More than 80,000 police were on duty for the protests nationwide, including 5,000 in Paris. 

Frustration over economy

The yellow vests take their name from the high-visibility jackets they wear. Their rage stems from a squeeze on household incomes and a belief that Macron, a former investment banker seen as close to big business, is indifferent to their hardships. 

Macron, often criticized for a monarchical manner, is to launch a national debate on Jan. 15 to try to mollify the yellow vest protest, which has shaken his administration. 

The debate, to be held on the internet and in town halls, will focus on four themes: taxes, green energy, institutional reform and citizenship. But aides to Macron have said changing the course of Macron’s reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy will be off-limits. 
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Several thousand people turned out Saturday in Belgrade for the sixth week of street protests against populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his government. 

Demonstrations first started after thugs beat up an opposition politician in November, prompting calls for more democracy and an end to political violence in Serbia.  

Critics say Vucic has fostered an atmosphere of fear and hate speech against opponents in the Balkan nation while seeking to tighten his rule. He has denied the allegations. 

Whistle-blowing crowds marched through central Belgrade despite freezing temperatures and icy streets. Some carried banners reading “Rise Serbia” or “It’s started.” 

Smaller protests have been held in other towns in Serbia. Local media say Vucic plans to get his supporters out during next week’s visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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No one is sure about how many migrant children are living in Spain without their parents — and that’s part of the problem.

Three months ago, Spanish officials estimated there were 10,000 unaccompanied minors living in the country — 70 percent of them Moroccan. But more than 11,000 migrant children were recorded having arrived in Spain in 2018 alone, and previous migrant influxes had already swept in at least 4,000, say civil-society groups.

“The registry of unaccompanied minors is not working properly,” says the non-profit Fundacion Raices, which promotes the rights of migrant children. Not knowing the actual numbers is “very worrying, because it speaks of the mismanagement that prevails in our country in the protection policies of minors,” the non-profit has warned.

The plight of child migrants in Spain is being highlighted once again, this time in the run-up to a possible snap election later this year that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who leads a fragile minority government, may decide to call. Populist right wing parties are following the playbook of their counterparts in neighboring Italy and have focused on migrants as a possible vote-winning issue in pre-election campaigning.

Last month, Vox became the first far-right party in four-decades to win seats in a regional assembly in Spain, partly on the back of its call for illegal immigrants to be repatriated and for walls to built around Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in North Africa, to stop illegal migrants who have been climbing over the border fences.

The leader of Spain’s conservative opposition Popular party, led by Pablo Casado, is hardening its anti-immigrant rhetoric, prompting Sanchez to accuse it of fueling “the politics of fear.”

And there’s plenty of fear and frustration to go around. In Barcelona, locals cite lawlessness as their biggest headache, ahead of affordable housing or the intractable Catalan independence issue. With petty theft, violent robberies and burglaries all increasing as well begging and illegal street selling, many neighborhood associations in the Catalan capital blame asylum-seekers — among them migrant children.

Thousands of unaccompanied children in Spain are housed in overcrowded migrant centers and hundreds are living in squalid and dangerous conditions on the streets as potential prey for sexual exploitation.

Last month, police in Barcelona — as they do in some other Spanish cities — periodically clear the youngsters off the streets, taking them to already strained centers, which aren’t allowed under the law to detain them, if they want to leave, as many do.

For civil-society groups the primary concern shouldn’t be about crime when it comes to minors, but about their safety and well-being. With Spain now the main gateway into Europe for irregular immigration from Africa, surpassing Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, the problem of what to do with migrant children is only going to get sharper, they warn.

Under Spanish law migrant children cannot be sent back to their country against their will, if their families can’t be tracked down. When they reach 18,they are entitled to Spanish nationality, if they have been in a center for atleast two years.

Last year, the Spanish government prompted an outcry from rights groups when it started negotiating with the Moroccan government an arrangement to repatriate Moroccan children and explored possible agreements with Algeria and other African states. Many migrant children, rights groups say, flee their countries of origin because of poverty, family and social violence and terrorism.

Last month, the U.N.’s child agency highlighted the story of Sabba, a 17-year-old girl who fled her native Morocco to escape abuse. She decided at the age of 14 to get married to a 27-year-old because her farther was violent.

“At first it was good, before we got married, then my husband began to treat me badly, he would ask me for disgusting things that I did not want to do, and he would force me. It was worse than when I lived with my parents,” she says in an interview released by UNICEF.

Non-governmental organizations say aside from the issue of whether children should be returned or not to their native countries — the system for handling and protecting them in Spain is chaotic. Children are transferred haphazardly from center to center without proper planning and “overlooking the best interests of the children,” says Fundacion Raices. The NGO has demanded the assignment of independent legal guardians for migrant children to protect their legal rights.

Last year, hundreds of migrant children were moved from the southern region of Andalusia, where most migrants arrive, to Barcelona and other northern cities with little advance notice.

With reception centers packed, the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police force, was forced to shelter temporarily as many as they could, turning police stations into makeshift dormitories. Many kids, though, were turned away. In a statement, the Catalan police union complained that officers had in effect been “blackmailed” into accommodating the minors.
…

The United States on Friday signaled it would not bow to the European Union’s request to keep agriculture out of planned U.S.-EU trade talks, publishing negotiating objectives that seek comprehensive EU access for American farm products.

The objectives, required by Congress under the “fast-track” trade negotiating authority law, seek to reduce or eliminate EU tariffs on U.S. farm products and break down non-tariff barriers, including on products developed through biotechnology, the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said.

Agricultural issues were among the major sticking points in past negotiations for a major U.S.-EU trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), before talks were shelved after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Wednesday that the 28-country bloc could not negotiate on agriculture in a new, more limited set of negotiations expected to start this year.

“We have made very clear agriculture will not be included,” Malmstrom told reporters after meeting Lighthizer, adding that the two sides had not yet agreed on the scope of the talks.

Trump and EU president Jean-Claude Juncker agreed last July to re-launch negotiations to cut tariffs on industrial goods, including autos, and also discuss ways for Europe to buy more U.S. soybeans.

Trump told Juncker that he would refrain from levying threatened 25-percent tariffs on EU-produced cars and auto parts, which he is considering imposing worldwide on national security grounds.

Trump has long complained about Europe’s 10-percent import tariff on autos. The U.S. passenger car tariff is only 2.5 percent, although U.S. tariffs on pickup trucks and other commercial trucks are 25 percent.

The U.S. negotiating wish list does not specifically mention autos, but pledges to seek duty-free market access for U.S. industrial goods that eliminate non-tariff barriers such as “unnecessary differences in regulation.”

USTR’s decision to push for a full-fledged trade negotiation on agricultural goods follows a hearing in December at which U.S. farm, food and beverage groups argued for their products to be included.

Influential lawmakers such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa farmer, have warned they might not support an EU deal that did not include agriculture. Now that the U.S. objectives have been published, the USTR may be ready to formally launch negotiations in as little as 30 days.

But the EU’s own negotiating mandates on industrial goods and regulatory cooperation need to be cleared by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, and approved by member states, and it is unclear how long that process will take.

The United States had a $151 billion goods deficit with the EU in 2017, despite two-way annual trade of about $1.1 billion. USTR also said it will seek commitments by Europe not to impose duties on any digital downloads of U.S. software, movies, music and other products nor any rules that restrict cross-border data flows or require data localization, USTR said.

In an objective aimed at Europe’s efforts to tax products and services from U.S.-based internet giants, including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Amazon.com, USTR said it would seek a “guarantee that these products will  not face government-sanctioned discrimination based on the nationality or territory in which the product is produced.”
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The New York Times is reporting that FBI officials were so alarmed by President Donald Trump’s behavior after he fired former FBI Director James Comey that they started investigating whether he was working against American interests.

The Times cited anonymous former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation Friday who said counterintelligence investigators looked into whether “Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”

The officials told the newspaper that after Comey was fired in May 2107, they become concerned when Trump tied the firing of Comey to the Russia investigation.

Trump actions questioned

Law enforcement officials have previously confirmed that after the firing the FBI opened an investigation into whether the action constituted obstruction of justice. However, what has not been made public is that law enforcement officials also sought to determine whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security, according to the Times.

The entire investigation was taken over several days later when special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election as well as possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

There has been no public evidence that Trump was in contact with Russia during the election campaign and Trump has long denied any illicit connection. Russia has also denied the allegations.

Giuliani: Nothing found

A lawyer for Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, told the Times that if FBI officials had concluded Trump was working against American interests, the public would have heard about it.

“The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing,” Giuliani told the paper.

Two days after Trump dismissed Comey in May 2017, he told NBC News anchor Lester Holt that he was going to fire Comey regardless, “knowing there was no good time to do it,” but was thinking of the Russia investigation when he decided to dismiss him.

“When I did this, now I said to myself, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,’” Trump said.

Comey’s firing, rather than ending the Russia investigation, led directly to the appointment, over Trump’s objections, of Mueller, another former FBI director, to take over the Russia probe. Trump has repeatedly called the Russia probe a “witch hunt.”
…

In the latest blow to the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to rid itself of scandal, marketing head Tsunekazu Takeda is being investigated for alleged corruption related to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Takeda, who is also the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, was placed under formal investigation for “active corruption” on Dec. 10, France’s financial crimes office said Friday. 

French investigators are in the midst of a years-long and wide-ranging probe into sports corruption that is looking, among other things, at the bidding contests for the 2020 Olympics and other major sports events. 

Takeda’s career in Olympic circles has ticked almost every box, starting with representing Japan in equestrian competition at the 1972 Munich Games and 1976 Montreal Games. 

As the head of the IOC’s marketing commission since 2014, Takeda has overseen the signing of sponsorship deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including new partnerships with Alibaba, Intel and Allianz. 

In a statement issued Friday by the Japanese Olympic Committee, Takeda denied any wrongdoing. The JOC said he was in Tokyo but gave no further details. 

“The case is causing tremendous concern among the people who are supporting the Tokyo Games, but I will continue to cooperate in the investigation in order to clear any suspicion of me,” Takeda said. 

The IOC ethics commission was scheduled to meet later Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Takeda could be provisionally suspended from Olympic duty, or offer to step aside during the investigation. 

“The IOC ethics commission has opened a file and will continue to monitor the situation,” the IOC said in a statement. “Mr. Takeda continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence.” 

The preliminary charge of active corruption against Takeda announced by the National Financial Prosecutors office was first reported on Friday by French newspaper Le Monde. The preliminary charge means the investigating magistrate has determined there are serious grounds for suspicion but has not yet ruled on whether to pursue a prosecution. 

Secret deals suspected

Le Monde said the magistrate overseeing the probe, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, suspects the IOC vote for Tokyo in 2013 was swayed by secret deals that secured the backing of IOC members from Africa for the Japanese capital over Istanbul and Madrid. 

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told Japan’s NHK television she was “very surprised and puzzled” but declined to speculate how it might affect the Tokyo Olympics. 

“I just got the initial report on this, so I don’t have sufficient information,” she said. 

Le Monde reported French investigators suspect Takeda of authorizing the payment of bribes. French financial prosecutors are looking at two payments, totaling 1.8 million euros ($2 million), made on either side of the IOC vote in September 2013 to a Singapore company, Black Tidings, Le Monde said.  

French prosecutors have linked Black Tidings to Papa Massata Diack, one of the sons of Lamine Diack, who presided over the IAAF from 1999 to 2015. 

Lamine Diack, who had huge influence on African voters in Olympic contests, is also under investigation in France on corruption-related charges and allegations that he, his son and others were involved in blackmailing athletes and covering up failed drug tests. The 85-year-old Diack has had to turn in his passport and is not allowed to leave the country. 

His son is believed to be in Senegal. France has issued a wanted notice for him via Interpol.  

‘No such illegal activity’

Takeda, who is a distant relative of the Japanese imperial family but does not have royal status, said he was cooperating with French investigators. He said the money paid by the bid committee is a legitimate cost for the service provided by the Black Tidings under the consultancy contract between the two sides. He also said he did not know Lamine Diack. 

“I have explained [to the French authorities] that there was no such illegal activity tantamount to bribery,” Takeda said. 

Takeda was leading Tokyo’s second straight bid for the Summer Games, after losing in the 2016 Olympics race to Rio de Janeiro. French prosecutors are also investigating Rio officials and IOC members for alleged financial wrongdoing in 2009 linked to Papa Massata Diack.  

The Japanese Olympic Committee said it has conducted its own internal investigation and found no illegality involved in all payments made by the Japanese bid committee at the time. 

The organizers of the 2020 Olympics referred questions to the JOC. 

In Takeda’s Olympic career, he has led a national Olympic committee, been a vice president of an Olympic sport’s governing body (equestrian), a chef de mission for Olympic teams, a sports director for a Winter Olympics (Nagano in 1998), a Summer Games bid leader, an IOC member since 2012, and now chair of one of the most financially significant IOC panels. 

Takeda also works closely with Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait, the influential IOC member who has stepped aside from the IOC while awaiting trial in Geneva this year in a fraud case unrelated to Olympic business. Takeda is a board member of the global group of Olympic committees, known as ANOC, and the Olympic Council of Asia, both led by the Kuwaiti sheikh. 
…

Poland has arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a Polish national involved in cyber business on allegations of spying, Polish media reported Friday, deepening the controversy over Western criticism of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

Polish public TV channel TVP said security services had also searched the local offices of Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd, as well as the offices of telecoms firm Orange Polska, where it said the Polish national works.

Orange said in a statement the security agency had on Tuesday gathered materials related to an employee, whom it did not identify. The company added that it did not know if the investigation was linked to the employee’s professional work, and that it would continue to cooperate with the authorities.

Huawei Poland did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Huawei in China could not immediately be reached for comment.

Arrest in Canada

In December, Canadian authorities arrested a top Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of U.S. authorities as part of an investigation into alleged violations of U.S. trade sanctions.

U.S. intelligence agencies allege Huawei is linked to China’s government and that its equipment could contain “backdoors” for use by government spies. No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the claims.

The U.S. criticism has led to a number of Western countries and companies to review whether they should allow Huawei’s equipment to be used in their telecoms networks.

“The Chinese national is a businessman working in a major electronics company … the Pole is a person known in circles associated with cyber business,” Maciej Wasik, the deputy head of Poland’s special services, told state news agency PAP.

Held for three months

The arrested pair will be held for three months, PAP reported, citing the spokesperson for Poland’s head of special services.

TVP said the Polish national was a former agent of the internal security agency. The agency did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
…

Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived an unassuming life in New York City for decades until his past was revealed and he was deported to Germany last year, has died, German media reported Thursday. He was 95.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten newspapers independently quoted German officials saying Palij died Wednesday in a care home in the town of Ahlen.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who lobbied for Germany to take Palij, said he had been informed of the death. He credited U.S. President Donald Trump with seeing through Palij’s August 2018 deportation after it had been stalled for a quarter-century.

“It would have been upsetting to many Americans if he had died in the U.S. in what many viewed as a comfortable escape,” Grenell told The Associated Press.

Palij was the last Nazi facing deportation from the United States when he was taken from his Queens home on a stretcher and put on a plane to Germany.

“An evil man has passed away. That, I guess, is a positive,” said Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, who had led protests at Palij’s home.

Dov Hikind, a longtime New York lawmaker who fought for Palij’s deportation, said the death brings “the closure survivors of the Holocaust needed.”

Lying about past

From the time American investigators first accused Palij of lying about his Nazi past, it took 25 years for his removal from the United States despite political pressure and frequent protests outside his home. He was not prosecuted in Germany and spent his last months in the nursing home.

Palij, an ethnic Ukrainian born in a part of Poland that is now in Ukraine, entered the U.S. in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act, a law meant to help refugees from postwar Europe.

He told immigration officials he worked during the war in a woodshop and farm in Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as at another farm in Germany and finally in a German upholstery factory.

Palij said he never served in the military. In reality, the U.S. Justice Department said he played an essential role in the Nazi program to exterminate Jews as an armed guard at the Trawniki training camp, southeast of Lublin in German-occupied Poland.

When investigators knocked on his door in 1993, he told them: “I would never have received my visa if I told the truth. Everyone lied.”

According to a Justice Department complaint, Palij served in a unit that “committed atrocities against Polish civilians and others” and then in the notorious SS Streibel Battalion, “a unit whose function was to round up and guard thousands of Polish civilian forced laborers.”

Palij served at Trawniki in 1943, the same year 6,000 prisoners in the camps and tens of thousands of other prisoners held in occupied Poland were rounded up and slaughtered.

Palij eventually acknowledged serving in Trawniki but denied any involvement in war crimes.

Stripped of citizenship

The U.S. lacks jurisdiction to prosecute such cases since the crimes were not committed in the United States and the victims were not Americans. Instead, it has focused on revoking the U.S. citizenship of suspects and deporting them — or extraditing them if another country is seeking to prosecute them.

A judge stripped Palij of his U.S. citizenship in 2003 for “participation in acts against Jewish civilians.” He was ordered deported a year later. But because Germany, Poland, Ukraine and other countries refused to take him, he continued living in limbo in the two-story, red brick home in Queens he shared with his now-late wife, Maria.

After a diplomatic push, the U.S. finally persuaded Germany last year to take Palij. However, German investigators concluded there was not enough evidence of wartime criminal activity to bring charges against him.

“Good riddance to this war criminal,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said after Palij’s deportation was announced.

Palij had managed to live quietly in the U.S. for years as a draftsman and then as a retiree until a fellow former guard told Canadian authorities in 1989 that Palij was “living somewhere in America.”

Investigators asked Russia and other countries for records on Palij beginning in 1990 and first confronted him in 1993. It wasn’t until after a second interview in 2001 that he signed a document acknowledging he had been a guard at Trawniki and a member of the Streibel Battalion.

Palij suggested at one point during the interview that he was threatened with death if he refused to work as a guard, saying, “If you don’t show up, boom-boom.”

As his case languished, his continued presence in New York City outraged many, especially members of the Jewish community. The frequent protests outside his home featured chants such as “Your neighbor is a Nazi!”

In 2017, all 29 members of New York’s congressional delegation signed a letter urging the State Department to follow through on his deportation.
…

Opposition is rising among Italian mayors and regional governors who are against the central government’s crackdown on asylum-seekers. They are planning court challenges to the new measures in defiance of the populist government and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

A controversial security decree, backed by Salvini and recently approved by parliament, has significantly tightened the criteria for migrants requesting humanitarian protection. The mayors and governors who oppose the decree contend parts of it are unconstitutional. 

But Salvini has made clear that in the past Italy has provided humanitarian protection too easily, and now only those who are truly fleeing from a war will be able to stay in the country.

The interior minister stressed recently that those who were not fleeing a conflict, and instead were bringing conflict to Italy by selling drugs, stealing and committing other crimes, would not be staying in Italy. 

He added that there are 5 million Italians living in poverty and that they take priority over anyone else. But mayors from such cities as Palermo, Naples and Florence are refusing to bow to a law they do not consider to be in line with the Italian constitution.  

Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo, said this month that because of this law, up to 120,000 people in the country legally would be thrown onto the streets, becoming invisible and without rights. He added that the new decree would incite criminality, not prevent it.

At least eight regional governors have also joined the ranks of those who feel the matter should be taken to a judge who can decide whether the decree complies with the constitution. Among them is Sergio Chiamparino, president of the region of Piedmont in northern Italy, who expects to mount a legal challenge by early February.

He said there was a risk that the decree could indirectly affect policies, starting with health and social policies under the regions’ jurisdiction. And he said he thought there had been a violation in the attribution of responsibilities between the central state and regions. 

The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency in Italy, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children in public nursery schools, as well as for complete access to national health care. 

Cesare Mirabelli, president emeritus of Italy’s Constitutional Court, said what was occurring was basically a political act of dissent against the law, which would most likely lead to a challenge of its constitutional legitimacy  — for example, in cases where limits arise regarding the right to health, which is a human right that affects all, or the right to education, which pertains to minors, whether they are Italian citizens or foreigners.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has agreed to meet with a delegation of mayors next week to discuss how the technical application of the law could be modified.
…

Jaguar Land Rover said Thursday it will cut 4,500 jobs as the carmaker addresses slowing demand in China and growing uncertainty about the U.K.’s departure from the European Union.

The luxury carmaker, owned by India’s Tata conglomerate, said the cuts will be in addition to 1,500 people who left the business in 2018. The cost-cutting program will begin with a voluntary reduction program in the U.K., where some 44,000 people are employed.

The latest job losses follow on from last year’s 2.5 billion-pound ($3.2 billion) turnaround plan that was designed to deal with many of the headwinds facing the company — Brexit, rising trade tensions between China and the U.S. and new European emissions standards combined to push Jaguar into the red in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with the same period the year before. The company also announced further investment in electrification.

“The next chapter in the story of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will be the most exciting — and challenging — in our history,” CEO Ralf Speth said in a statement. “Revealing the iconic Defender, investing in cleaner, smarter, more desirable cars and electrifying our facilities to manufacture a future range of British-built electric vehicles will all form part of building a globally competitive and flourishing company.”

Christian Stadler, professor of strategic management at Warwick Business School, said Jaguar was facing a “perfect storm of challenges,” with the drop in Chinese sales being the most immediate problem.

“That is JLR’s biggest market, but car buyers there are reluctant to make expensive purchases as the economy is growing at its slowest rate for a decade and the country is locked in a trade war with the U.S.,” Stadler said. “At the same time Chinese dealers are demanding better terms, which JLR has resisted.”

The cuts will not just be bad news for the Jaguar staff, Stadler said. Thousands more workers in the U.K. are part of Jaguar supply chain to the carmaker — jobs that will now also be at risk.

“Brexit is another factor, with businesses increasingly concerned about the prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, which would mean tighter border controls,” he said. “That would cause massive disruption as the U.K. car manufacturing industry is so closely integrated with Europe.”

Also Thursday, Ford signaled “significant” cuts among its 50,000-strong workforce under plans to make it more competitive. The Dearborn Michigan-based company also said it would shift to more electric models.
…

Officials in Davos have authorized a protest by a Socialist youth group against U.S. President Donald Trump and other expected attendees of the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort this month.

Authorities rejected a similar protest request last year when Trump attended the elite event, citing heavy snowfall.

Julia Baumgartner, secretary-general of Switzerland’s Young Socialists, said Thursday that her group was “very excited” about the chance to demonstrate.

Baumgartner said she expected no more than 150 to 200 protesters because the rally falls on a Thursday when people are at work and school. The protest is to show opposition to Trump, freshly inaugurated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the wealthy elites gathered in Davos, she said.

Local officials approved Wednesday the Jan. 24 demonstration near City Hall, saying the right to peaceful protest and free expression was important. Officials say the authorization could be reviewed if the security situation or weather conditions change.

Security is heavy during the annual event, which is taking place Jan. 22-25.

It’s unclear if a partial shutdown of the U.S. government over a standoff over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall will complicate his travel to Davos. Last year, a brief government shutdown threatened to derail his trip to Davos too, but he did attend and gave remarks asserting that his “America First” agenda can go hand-in-hand with global cooperation.

 
…

More than a million euros have been donated to French police hurt in clashes with yellow vest protesters as both sides take to online crowdfunding to rally support.

The police fund-raising campaign came in response to a similar support drive for a boxer who was captured on video punching police officers during Saturday’s protests in Paris.

Fund-raising site Leetchi suspended donations for the boxer, Christophe Dettinger, amid government outrage. Dettinger is in custody until his trial next month on charges of violence against public officials.

Conservative lawmaker Renaud Muselier then launched a fund-raising campaign for police injured since the protests began Nov. 17. It hit the 1 million-euro mark Thursday.

New protests are planned this Saturday despite concessions by President Emmanuel Macron. The movement started over fuel tax rises but has expanded to broad anti-government anger.

 
…

Japan’s Shinzo Abe is likely to urge British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday to do everything she can to avoid a disorderly Brexit that some of Japan’s leading companies have warned could be a disaster.

Japanese firms have spent more than 46 billion pounds  ($59 billion) in Britain, encouraged by successive British governments since Margaret Thatcher promising them a business-friendly base from which to trade across Europe.

Future unsure

The future of Brexit remains deeply uncertain — with options ranging from a disorderly exit from the EU to another membership referendum — because British lawmakers are expected on Jan. 15 to vote down the deal May struck with the EU in November.

Abe welcomed the deal in November and investors fear that if it is defeated then the world’s fifth largest economy would be plunged into a chaotic no-deal Brexit that would severely disrupt supply chains.

Abe and May will discuss the economic opportunities that exist for both nations as the U.K. leaves the European Union, Downing Street said ahead of the meeting.

‘Natural partners’

“The U.K. and Japan are natural partners,” May said. “As the U.K. prepares to leave the EU, we raise our horizons towards the rest of the world. Our relationship with Japan is stronger than ever, and this visit will enhance cooperation in a wide range of areas.”

For Abe, however, Britain’s trading relationship with Europe after Brexit will be high on the agenda. He told reporters before his departure to Europe that he would convey Japan’s position on Brexit to May, reports said.

When the two met at the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires in December, Abe asked for May’s support to avoid a “no deal” and to ensure transparency, predictability and legal stability in the process.

Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda build roughly half of Britain’s nearly 1.7 million cars and have warned about the loss of any free and unfettered trade with the European Union after Brexit.

Blunt warning

The country’s ambassador to Britain, Koji Tsuruoka, issued a blunt warning about Brexit in February when he said Japanese companies would have to leave Britain if trade barriers made them unprofitable.

“If there is no profitability of continuing operations in the U.K. — not Japanese only — then no private company can continue operations,” he said. “So it is as simple as that.”

 
…

Macedonian lawmakers are in the final stretch of renaming their country North Macedonia as part of a deal with neighboring Greece in return for membership of NATO and potentially the European Union. 

Speaking at the start of a debate on essential constitutional amendments that are part of the deal, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told lawmakers that by signing the agreement, the country is finally ending a decades-long dispute with a deal that recognizes Macedonian national identity and language.

“This is a historic and patriotic choice. We can be the generation that has made a bold decision,” Zaev said. 

The parliamentary session was adjourned until Thursday after Zaev’s speech. The debate is expected to last until Friday. 

The deal, signed in June, aims to put an end to a dispute with neighboring Greece that has kept the former Yugoslav republic out of organizations such as NATO and the EU. Greece argues use of the term “Macedonia” implies territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name, and on its ancient Greek heritage. 

The agreement has met with opposition in both countries, with opponents arguing it makes too many concessions to the other side. 

The center-right VMRO-DPMNE opposition party boycotted Wednesday’s parliamentary session, with party leader Hristijan Mickoski and other party lawmakers joining several hundred protesters outside parliament who were calling the name change deal “national treason.”

Votes are there

Despite the objections in Macedonia, the constitutional changes are expected to pass. Aleksandar Kiracovski, secretary general of the Social Democrats who heads the governing coalition, indicated the government has secured the votes from the required two-thirds, or 80, lawmakers in the 120-seat parliament.

“I have information that over 80 lawmakers have assured that Macedonia’s future is in NATO and the European Union, and this is conditioned by the `Prespa’ agreement and the constitutional changes,” Kiracovski said, referring to Lake Prespa on the border of Greece, Macedonia and Albania where the deal was signed. 

Opposition head Mickoski accused the Social Democrats of securing the majority through blackmail, although he did not elaborate on the claim. 

“The lawmakers will vote because of blackmail, not by their free will. Are these European values?” Mickoski told reporters before the parliamentary session. “’North Macedonia’ is perhaps Zaev’s homeland, but mine is the Republic of Macedonia.” 

Changes to preamble, articles

The amendments being debated envisage changing the preamble and four articles of the constitution to rename the country North Macedonia with guarantees it has no territorial aspirations towards its neighbors and is committed to good neighborly relations. 

Parliament is also expected to add an amendment to the law that puts the new constitution in force, stating the constitutional changes will not be valid until Greece’s parliament ratifies its side of the name deal and signs the accession protocol making the country a NATO member.

 
…

Italy and Poland should join forces to reshape Europe, Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday during a visit to Warsaw to drum up support for a euroskeptic alliance to contest May elections to the European Parliament.

The euroskeptic governments in Rome and Warsaw are both keen to repatriate some EU powers from Brussels to national capitals and hope like-minded parties will do well in the May elections, which will follow Britain’s planned exit from the bloc in March.

“Poland and Italy will be part of the new spring of Europe, the renaissance of European values,” he told a press conference with Poland’s Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski.

Salvini’s visit to Warsaw was initiated by Brudzinski, who said the two had discussed migration and EU border security.

Salvini has repeatedly railed against the EU and says the May elections are vital for creating a “reformist” bloc that can overhaul Brussels institutions from within.

Salvini, whose anti-immigrant League is the most popular party in Italy, said his talks on Wednesday with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), had gone well.

PiS has echoed the League’s calls for Brussels to interfere less in the affairs of EU member states, though the parties are not currently allied in the European Parliament.

“At a party level, we have started a journey, a sharing of ideas, visions and projects for the future of the European Parliament that will, at long last, be profoundly different to what went before,” Salvini said.

“We started a dialogue. To close a deal in half an hour seems overly optimistic,” he added.

Salvini said he wanted to put together an alliance of like-minded EU parties that would campaign on a shared, 10-point program that has yet to be fully defined.

“We proposed a common program to be offered to other parties and peoples in Europe founded on certain themes, like (economic) growth, security, the family, Europe’s Christian roots that some have denied,” Salvini said.

At present, Salvini is allied to a small group of far-right parties such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and the anti-Islam Freedom Party in the Netherlands. But he wants to extend its reach and draw in conservative groups like PiS.

Previous attempts by populist right-wing parties to form a euroskeptic alliance in the European Parliament have not been very successful as they often have different priorities or interests and show little appetite for compromise.

Despite its euroskepticism, PiS has recently been trying to mend fences with Brussels, agreeing to reverse a law criticized by the EU that had forced Polish Supreme Court judges into early retirement.

Salvini has also called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia, while Kaczynski and other Polish conservatives support them and are deeply distrustful of Moscow.

 
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The United States downgraded the diplomatic status of the European Union’s delegation in Washington last year without formally announcing the change or telling Brussels, according to EU officials.

They say it only came to light when the bloc’s envoy in the U.S. capital, Irish diplomat David O’Sullivan, discovered he wasn’t being invited to certain events and was invited to the funeral of former U.S. President Herbert Walker Bush after national ambassadors, despite his seniority.

Diplomacy is saturated with symbolism and double meanings – and the downgrade, which now has been temporarily reversed – has angered EU officials, who fear the move was meant as a snub. They’ve requested an explanation for the downgrade, according to EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic.

Motives elusive

Politicians and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are struggling, though, to understand the motives for the demotion, debating whether the move was meant as a rebuff by an administration that has clashed with Brussels over trade and defense issues or whether it was the result of a bureaucratic mix-up.

“The demotion of the EU representative was reversed following bilateral talks in December,” an EU official told reporters Tuesday in Brussels.

President Donald Trump has been a vocal supporter of Britain’s exit from the EU – describing himself on the campaign trail as Mr. Brexit and frequently lambasting the bloc for running trade surpluses with America.

He has embraced anti-EU figures, including Nigel Farage, a leading Brexiter and onetime leader of the UK Independence party, whom he met after his election win ahead of meeting any EU leaders or Britain’s prime minister. The president tweeted that he thought Farage should be made Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!” Trump said.

Because of the partial government shutdown in Washington, the State Department is not responding to media requests about the protocol change.

‘Not notified of any change’

Previously, the U.S. treated the EU delegation and its ambassador as representatives of a country would be, say European officials. But the change, which is thought to have been made last October or November, downgraded the diplomatic status of the EU delegation to that of representing an international organization, a much lower pegging with potential impact regarding access to the administration.

“We understand that there was a recent change in the way the diplomatic precedence list is implemented by the United States’ Protocol,” said Kocijancic in a statement. “We are discussing with the relevant services in the administration possible implications for the EU delegation in Washington. We were not notified of any change. We expect the diplomatic practice established some years ago to be observed.”

The status change was first reported by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “We don’t exactly know when they did it, because they conveniently forgot to notify us,” an EU official told the broadcaster. “This is clearly not simply a protocol issue, but this is something that has a very obvious political motive,” he said.

Other EU diplomats in the U.S. capital contacted by VOA expressed the same view. A senior European diplomat maintained the relegation also may have been motivated by a wish to reverse a decision taken by the previous Obama administration, which upgraded the status of the delegation of the 28-nation bloc in 2016.

“If this wasn’t meant as a snub then the timing is odd,” he said. “Normally protocol tweaks are made in the first few months of a new administration, not two years in,” he said. “That aside, even if they didn’t intend it as a rebuff, they must have realized that’s how it would be interpreted. It is in line with what we see as an anti-EU stance by the Trump administration, which also dislikes multilateral organizations.”

‘Petty Trump move’

In a speech in Brussels in December, as the diplomatic downgrade was being discussed between U.S. and EU officials, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump’s “America First” policy was reshaping the post-Second World War system by recognizing the importance of sovereign states over multilateral institutions. He criticized “bureaucrats” for believing multilateralism is “an end in itself,” and cast doubt on the EU’s commitment to its citizens. That drew a sharp rebuke from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.

Several high-profile European politicians reacted to the news of the downgrade Tuesday with frustration. “Soap opera politics: US downgrades EU mission in DC in a petty Trump move,” tweeted Carl Bildt of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former Swedish prime minister.

Euro-skeptics cheered. “That should take the EU superstate down a peg or two!” tweeted the pro-Brexit Leave campaign.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom Tuesday heads to Washington for a round of trade talks with U.S. counterpart Robert Lighthizer. Trade tensions between Brussels and Washington have flared since Trump imposed tariffs on European aluminum and steel imports.

The U.S. president has threatened to impose tariffs on the European cars, too.
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Labor rights campaigners warned against complacency as the European Union on Tuesday withdrew its threat to ban Thai fishing imports into the bloc, saying that the country has made progress in tackling illegal and unregulated fishing.

The EU’s so-called “yellow card” on Thai fishing exports has been in place since April 2015 as a warning that the country was not sufficiently addressing the issues.

“Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing damages global fish stocks, but it also hurts the people living from the sea, especially those already vulnerable to poverty,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for environment and fisheries said.

“Today’s decision reverses the first step of a process that could have led to a complete import ban of marine fisheries products into the EU,” he said in a statement.

Thailand has amended its fisheries legal framework in line with international law, and improved its monitoring and surveillance systems, including remote monitoring of fishing activities and more robust inspections at port, the EU said.

The country’s multibillion-dollar seafood industry has also come under scrutiny for slavery, trafficking and violence on fishing boats and at onshore processing facilities.

After the EU threatened to ban fish exports, and the U.S. State Department said it was failing to tackle human trafficking, the Southeast Asian country toughened up its laws and increased fines for violations.

Thailand has introduced modern technologies — from satellites to optical scanning and electronic payment services — to crack down on abuses.

But the International Labor Organization said in March that fishermen remained at risk of forced labor, and the wages of some continued to be withheld.

The EU on Tuesday said it recognized efforts by Thailand to tackle human trafficking and to improve labor conditions in the fishing sector.

Thailand voted in December to ratify ILO convention 188 — which sets standards of decent work in the fishing industry — becoming the first Asian country to do so.

But important gaps remain, said Steve Trent, executive director at advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation.

“We still have concerns about the workers. We need to see that the reforms are durable,” he said.

Thailand is yet to ratify two other ILO conventions on the right to organize and the right to collective bargaining, both of which are essential to protect workers, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This is particularly important in the fishing and seafood processing industries, as most of their estimated 600,000 workers are migrant workers.

“There is a risk that with the lifting of the yellow card, complacency will set in. We need to see a culture of compliance, and more being done to protect vulnerable workers in the industry,” Trent said.
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The European Union on Tuesday froze the assets of an Iranian intelligence unit and two of its staff, as the Netherlands accused Iran of two killings on its soil and joined France and Denmark in alleging Tehran plotted other attacks in Europe.

The move, although in part symbolic since one of the men is in prison in Belgium, marks the first time the EU has enacted sanctions on Iran since lifting a host of curbs on it three years ago following its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers.

The decision, which includes designating the unit and the two Iranians as terrorists, follows last year’s disclosure by Denmark and France that they suspected an Iranian government intelligence service of pursuing assassination plots on their soil. Copenhagen sought an EU-wide response.

“EU just agreed to enact sanctions against an Iranian Intelligence Service for its assassination plots on European soil. Strong signal from the EU that we will not accept such behavior in Europe,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said on Twitter.

France, which has already hit the two men and the ministry unit with sanctions, has said there was no doubt the Iranian intelligence ministry was behind a failed attack near Paris.

On Tuesday, the Dutch government publicly accused Iran of the plots, as well as two killings in 2015 and 2017, sending a letter to parliament to warn of further economic sanctions if Tehran did not cooperate with European investigations.

The letter signed by the Dutch foreign and interior ministers said Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium met Iranian officials to convey “their serious concerns regarding Iran’s probable involvement in these hostile acts on EU territory.”

“Iran was informed that involvement in such matters is entirely unacceptable and must be stopped immediately … further sanctions cannot be ruled out,” the letter said.

Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plots, saying the accusations were intended to damage EU-Iran relations.

“Accusing Iran won’t absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday in a tweet.

“Europeans, incl(uding) Denmark, Holland and France, harbor MEK,” he added, referring to an exiled Iranian opposition group Mujaheedin-e Khalq.

Paris accused Iran of a plot to carry out a bomb attack at a rally near Paris organized by the MEK. Denmark says it foiled an Iranian intelligence plan to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil.

On Tuesday, the Netherlands said it had “strong indications” that Iran was behind the assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin, in 2015 and in 2017. The latter was dissident Iranian Arab activist Ahmad Mola Nissi who was gunned down by an unidentified assailant in front of his home in The Hague.

Iran denies any involvement in the killings.

Sanctions sensitive

The decision to impose the curbs was taken without debate at an unrelated meeting of Europe ministers in Brussels and the asset freeze comes into effect Wednesday, EU officials said.

The Danish Foreign Ministry named the two employees as the deputy minister and director general of intelligence, Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, and a Vienna-based diplomat, Assadollah Asadi.

Their names are to appear in the EU’s Official Journal on Wednesday.

Sanctions on the intelligence ministry, which is under the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are unlikely to change what the European Union says are Iran’s destabilizing activities in Europe and the Middle East.

The deputy minister and director general of intelligence is in Iran, while the Iranian diplomat was charged and is being held by Belgian authorities. Neither appear to have assets in France, which first imposed the asset freeze late last year.

But imposing economic sanctions on Iran, once the EU’s top oil supplier, remains highly sensitive for the bloc.

The EU has been straining to uphold the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers that U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of in May. It has been less willing to consider sanctions, instead seeking talks with Tehran.

Iran has warned it could ditch the nuclear deal if EU powers do not protect its trade and financial benefits.
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