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The Turkish Parliament passed legislation Wednesday allowing imams to perform marriages. Women’s rights groups, who have strongly condemned the reform, warn it would exacerbate the problem of underage marriages.

The new law comes amid wider concerns over the erosion of women’s rights under emergency rule.

“We wont be silenced,” chanted women protesting the new legislation in the heart of Istanbul.

Since Turkey is a secular state, only state officials were allowed to carry out marriages. The new law met stiff opposition in parliament. Senal Sarihan, parliamentary deputy for the main opposition CHP Party, said the new law undermines secularism, which helps to protect women’s rights.

“This is an attempt by the ruling party to impose their political understanding to regulate life according to religion,” Sarihan said. “And this is against [the] constitution. And we are not accepting this.”

There are concerns that the reform will exacerbate the problem of underage marriages. Women’s rights groups argue Imams already are carrying out marriages involving underage girls in unofficial religious ceremonies. But Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking to consolidate his religious voting base ahead of presidential elections, has strongly backed the move, dismissing criticism as alarmist.

“They are heading to the streets making a fuss,” he said. “Whether you want it or not, this legislation will pass in the parliament. The marriages will not go unrecorded, they will be under record. On the contrary, this implementation will abolish unofficial marriages.”

Erdogan claims the reform will legitimize marriages, particularly in Turkey’s conservative rural regions, where unions often are only carried out by imams.

Women’s rights groups counter that underage marriages remain a major problem in these regions and has grown due to earlier government reform allowing older girls to study at home.

A campaign supported by Erdogan a decade ago to increase the number of girls attending school curbed child marriages. But critics claim Erdogan’s ruling AK party has in recent years moved away from its reformist policies, becoming more authoritarian, a process accelerated by the introduction of emergency rule following last year’s failed coup.

Under emergency rule, many women’s rights groups, especially in Turkey’s rural Kurdish region, have been shut down. With a presidential election looming, and Erdogan seeking to consolidate his religious and nationalist base, women’s rights groups are voicing growing alarm about the direction in which the country is heading.
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Spain’s government set plans in motion Thursday to strip Catalonia of its autonomy after the region’s leader vowed to continue a vote on independence.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office said it planned a special Cabinet meeting for Saturday to trigger Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, which gives the government the power to take away some or all of Catalonia’s autonomy.

Hours earlier, Catalonia’s leader, Carles Puigdemont, said the Catalan parliament will go forward with a vote on independence if the Spanish government does not engage in dialogue and follows through on its threat to strip the region of its autonomy.

Rajoy had given Puigdemont a Thursday morning deadline to clarify whether he had in fact already declared independence following a referendum earlier this month.

Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence in an address last week, but said he was suspending any formal steps in favor of talks with the government in Madrid.  He delivered his updated stance in a letter Thursday shortly before the deadline.

EU watching closely

At a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bloc was watching the situation closely.

“We hope that there will be solutions that can be found on the basis of the Spanish constitution,” she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a discussion of the crisis and a show of solidarity with the Spanish government at the EU summit, but a number of leaders and EU officials oppose adding it to the agenda, saying that the tensions are an internal affair.

Voters in Catalonia voted in favor of independence in an October 1 referendum, but fewer than half of those eligible to cast a ballot took part, with opponents boycotting the process.  Rajoy’s government dismissed the referendum as illegal.
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The number of French protesters appears to be falling on the third day of union-backed, nationwide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s divisive labor reforms.

In Toulouse, Marseille and Paris, on Thursday thousands of demonstrators brandished placards and posters decrying the new rules that came into force last month.

Police said there were 5,500 protesters in Paris while the CGT trade union said there were 25,000 — about half as many as during the previous protest last month.

The new measures make it easier for French firms to hire and fire employees and reduce the power of national collective bargaining.

Macron says they’re aimed at boosting growth and investment in the country.

 
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A high-level U.S. delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Cohen met Wednesday with senior Turkish diplomats to resolve bilateral tensions.

A diplomatic crisis erupted earlier this month with the arrest of local U.S. consulate employee Metin Topuz on terrorism charges, triggering tit for tat sanctions on the issuance of visas.

“I believe this problem will be resolved soon,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday in a television interview.

In an apparent gesture to ease talks before the U.S. delegation’s visit to Istanbul, Turkish authorities released Topuz’s wife and son from custody, although they still face charges.

Resolving bilateral tensions could prove key to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement to challenge Turkey’s neighbor Iran.

“Assuming he [Trump] is committed to combating Iran’s influence in the region, he needs a new wingman,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, referring to Turkey.

Yesilada added that Trump’s current new ally, the Syrian Kurds, “are too lightweight to [do] the job, so Turkey comes to mind.” But he said Turkey is “Iran’s new best friend and America’s worst enemy. There is obviously [a] current visa ban and [the] arrest of consular employees as well.”

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG in its fight against the Islamic State has infuriated Ankara. The YPG was part of efforts to capture Raqqa, the jihadists self-declared capital in Syria. But Ankara accuses the YPG of being linked to the PKK that is fighting the Turkish State and is designated by Washington and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

The Turkish government has accused the YPG of seeking to create an independent state on its border, which it fears could lead to similar demands from its own restive Kurdish population.

Common ground

Analysts say Turkey and Iran have found common ground over thwarting Kurdish independence and share lucrative trading interests.

This month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to Tehran to coordinate efforts against Iraqi Kurdish secession.

“It seems there is a deal in place, although the Iranian foreign policy spokesman denied it, but news from the ground the Iranian Revolutionary Guard closed two of the three border gates with Iraqi Kurdistan and they also closed their airspace,” notes former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who opened Turkey’s consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan.

But Ankara’s long term strategic interests may well coincide with Washington’s. While Turkey and Iran have a common position toward Kurdistan, Djamchid Assadi, an Iran expert at France’s Burgundy Business School, said politically, there are regional tensions they cannot solve.

He said “once they have solved the problem over Kurdistan, then problems which appear secondary will again come to the fore, like Syria.”

Until recently, Erdogan was equally vocal with Washington in expressing concern over what he called “Persian expansionism.”

Iran and Turkey are historically regional rivals. Ankara strongly supported rebels fighting the Tehran-backed Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. And until recently, Erdogan frequently accused Baghdad of pursuing a sectarian agenda against Iraqi Sunnis at Tehran’s behest.

Foreign policy shifts

But observers say Turkish domestic politics is increasingly dictating its foreign policy. Erdogan is facing re-election by 2019 in what is expected to be a close vote. Cracking down on Kurdish independence aspirations plays well with Turkish nationalists, a key Erdogan voting constituency.

Wednesday he renewed his attack on the Iraqi Kurdish leadership, accusing them of acting “hysterically” and warning they will be “held to account. “Monday, Turkish forces carried out a cross border raid against PKK bases in Iraq for the first time since 2008.

Erdogan also warned Wednesday Syrian Kurdish forces could face attack. “When the time comes, one night we will come to you suddenly and will do what we have to.Have we done it in Idlib? We have. “Earlier this month, Turkish forces entered the Syrian Idlib region as part of a deal with Moscow and Tehran to create a de-escalation zone.

Former Turkish diplomat Selcen suggests there will be no change in Turkish foreign policy toward the Kurds until presidential elections. But analysts warn the price of that policy could be high for both Ankara and Washington.

“We [Turkey] could capitalize on Trump’s desire to punish Iran to bargain a more pro-Turkey policy in Syria and to expand our sphere of influence in the Middle East geography,” claimed analyst Yesilada. “What we risk is greater Iranian influence that will eventually exclude us [Turkey] from our hinterland.”
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A Hungarian who printed thousands of passports allowing Jews to flee the country during World War II has been honored with a memorial plaque.

Emil Wiesmeyer’s printing company initially made 4,000 of the basic passports, part of efforts by Swedish special envoy Raoul Wallenberg to save Jews from Nazi death camps.

He then produced about 20,000 more on his own to help Jews make it out of Hungary.

The plaque honoring Emil Wiesmeyer was unveiled Wednesday in Budapest by Szabolcs Szita, director of the Holocaust Memorial Center, and Swedish Ambassador Niclas Trouve

Some 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Wiesmeyer later suffered persecution and was jailed in the 1950s, during Hungary’s communist era.

Wiesmeyer died in 1967. His son Gabor attended the ceremony.
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Malta, a tiny archipelago nation in the southern Mediterranean, is so attractive to those looking to shelter funds or operate under the radar of authorities that it’s got a nickname to prove it: “treasure island.”

Malta’s reputation as a tax haven, its cozy links with nearby lawless Libya and its legal passports-for-sale program were just some of the topics that investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia had dug into before she was blown up by a car bomb while driving.

That means investigators have many tangled paths to follow to discover who wanted the anti-corruption crusader dead as she drove down a country road Monday after filing her latest story about the proliferation of crooks in Malta, a European Union nation of 440,000.

The Italian daily La Repubblica, whose journalists had met with Caruana Galizia, said among the topics she was investigating in the last few months was Malta’s place in a suspected trafficking ring for contraband Libyan oil.

Precisely that concern made headlines Wednesday, when prosecutors in Catania, Sicily, announced nine arrests, including of two Maltese men, in a black market diesel fuel trafficking scheme.

Prosecutors said the ring carried out some 30 sea voyages transporting fuel from a refinery west of Tripoli to boats off Malta, where the contraband was allegedly transferred and further shipped to Italy, where it wound up mixed in with gasoline for Italian motorists.

Among the nine suspects is an alleged member of the Sicilian Mafia, who prosecutors said had close links to the Maltese suspects.

Italian prosecutors said armed Libyan militias operating along Libya’s coast near the Tunisian border were involved in the alleged diesel trafficking. It was not clear if the fuel smugglers were also involved in migrant trafficking, which has seen tens of thousands of migrants smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe.

Malta itself has a reputation as a tax haven, which has reportedly been attractive to the many online gambling companies that have set up shop there. But Italian prosecutors have warned for years now that the Naples-based Camorra syndicate and other Italian organized crime groups have heavily infiltrated international online betting operations.

Caruana Galizia came to international notice after she dug up Maltese links in leaked documents that emerged in the Panama Papers offshore accounts scandal, which revealed offshore companies held by politicians and other VIPs worldwide.

The same tax-haven reputation makes Malta, an EU member that also uses the shared euro currency, highly attractive for investments.

One of Caruana Galizia’s favorite targets, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, in interviews this week lamented that his nation’s notoriety as a tax haven was undeserved. He insisted that Maltese financial institutions follow the same rules laid out by the European Commission for all members.

But a study published earlier this year, commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, noted that Malta’s on-paper flat tax rate of 35 percent for companies there actually works out to an effective tax rate of just 5 percent thanks to various refunds.

The study noted concerns as to whether Malta would meet all the criteria needed to avoid ending up the EU’s “black list” of tax havens.

There has also been public outcry over Malta’s program to offer passports for sale for 650,000 euros ($766,000), effectively allowing wealthy foreigners to buy their way into EU citizenship.

The government doesn’t identify by nationality who bought the passports. But Malta’s finance minister just last week announced that the program will be extended for another year due to its “success.”

While Monday’s slaying of the prominent journalist shocked the nation, the EU and journalists’ groups worldwide, Malta is no stranger to car bombings.

In the last 10 years, there have been 15 Mafia-style bombings or similar attacks in Malta. Targets have included Maltese businessmen, a lawyer and some people with criminal links. Most of the reports about them say the crimes have gone unsolved.

Malta has asked forensic experts from the FBI and the Netherlands to help Maltese investigators probe Caruana Galizia’s slaying. The journalist had reported receiving threats.

It’s not clear if the bomb that killed her was placed in the car or on the road near her home and then detonated from a distance. Local media say she was driving a rented car.

EU officials have indicated they will scrutinize the probe of the journalist’s slaying.

“I am convinced that the Maltese authorities will do everything in their power to investigate and bring to light all the circumstances of this hideous crime,” EU chief Donald Tusk told an EU meeting Wednesday in Brussels.
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Tens of thousands of people protested Tuesday night in Barcelona against the Spanish government’s detention of two Catalan separatist leaders.

The demonstrators carried candles and banners demanding the release of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, who are being held on possible sedition charges.

Prosecutors accuse Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural movement and Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly of provoking violence against police during a pro-independence march last month.

Catalan leaders have called the two political prisoners, which the government denies.

Earlier Tuesday, Spain’s top court ruled Catalonia’s independence referendum was illegal, saying that regional law backing the vote violated Spain’s constitution.

The Catalan government had passed the “self-determination referendum law” on September 6. Spain’s high court said the law must be suspended temporarily as it assessed the Spanish government’s opposition to it, but Catalonia went ahead with the referendum on October 1.

According to court regulations, the suspension was to last five months while judges come up with a ruling, but the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia claimed that the universal right to self-determination outweighs Spain’s laws.

Catalonia’s government spokesperson, Jordi Turull, told reporters Tuesday Catalonia would not “surrender” its secession bid and reiterated calls for talks with Madrid on what he called “a democratic mandate” for independence.

Spain has given Catalonia until Thursday to reverse any moves it has made to secede or face direct rule from Madrid.

Catalonia, Spain’s most prosperous region, is home to 7.5 million people. Its capital, Barcelona, is one of Europe’s major tourist attractions. Catalonia has its own language and distinct culture, and is deeply divided over independence.

The Catalan government said that 90 percent of Catalans who participated in the October 1 referendum voted for independence from Spain. Many opponents of independence boycotted the vote, reducing turnout to around 43 percent of eligible voters.
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The United States is condemning, in the strongest terms, the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Galizia who was investigating alleged government corruption.

“It was a cowardly attack that took the life of a talented and brave … reporter who dedicated her career to fighting the rule of law and shining a light on corruption,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

She said the FBI has responded quickly to the prime minister’s call for U.S. help in the investigation. A Dutch forensic team is also in Malta to help.

Monday’s blast blew up Galizia’s car just moments after she left her home. It set the vehicle on fire and sent it careening into a field.

Galizia’s son saw his mother’s car explode, but there was nothing he could do to save her.

“My mother was assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong journalists,” Matthew Caruana Galizia wrote on Facebook. “She was also targeted because she was the only person doing so.”

Several hundred people protested her murder outside the Maltese courthouse Tuesday.

Galizia was investigating alleged ties between Maltese government officials and offshore banks and companies that are often used to avoid paying taxes.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was among those under suspicion because of information gleaned from leaked documents known as the Panama Papers, which gave details on the tax havens.

Muscat denied any wrongdoing and sued Galizia. But he condemned her killing and vowed to investigate.

Just 30 minutes before her death, Galizia wrote on her blog “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”
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In a rare public speech Tuesday, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency said the terror threat in the country is worse now that it has ever been during his 34-year career.

“It’s clear that we’re contending with an intense UK terrorist threat from Islamist extremists,” MI5 chief Andrew Parker said. “That threat is multi-dimensional, evolving rapidly and operating at a scale and pace we’ve not seen before. But so too is our response.”

Parker said the MI5, also known as he Security Service, has noted a “dramatic upshift” in the threat this year, with a total of 36 people killed in separate attacks in London and Manchester.

“Twenty attacks in the U.K. have been foiled over the past four years. Many more will have been prevented by the early interventions we and the police make,” Parker said.

Last month, a makeshift bomb on the London subway injured at least 30 people. The blast was the fifth major terrorist attack in Britain this year.
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Rain and cooler temperatures are helping firefighters in Portugal and Spain’s Galicia region battle wildfires that have killed at least 40 people.

Authorities in Portugal said Tuesday the fires there were under control, while in Spain the blazes were still threatening inhabited areas.

Portugal also began three days of mourning Tuesday.

Winds from Hurricane Ophelia fanned the wildfires that officials in both countries have said were started by arsonists.

“They are absolutely intentional fires, premeditated, caused by people who knew what they are doing,” said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the head of Galicia’s government.

Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spain’s interior minister, said in a tweet that several people had already been identified in connection with the fires. He appealed for people with further information to share it with the national protection service.

Wildfires are an annual problem in Portugal, where strong winds off the Atlantic blow into a hot and dry country. In June, a massive forest wildfire killed 64 people and injured 150 others. Scientists say climate change has extended the wildfire season from two to five months.
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Europe looks set to have its youngest leader with Austria’s 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People’s Party scoring a clear victory in Sunday’s parliamentary election, winning around 32% of the votes cast. 

Kurz, who took the reins of the party earlier this year, told his jubilant supporters that “The Austrian population gave us their confidence to bring about a new style of political culture and for a respectful relation to the other parties, and most importantly to advance Austria forward.”

His victory marks an extraordinarily rapid rise to the top of Austrian politics. Kurz transformed the fortunes of his People’s Party, largely on an anti-migrant platform.

On the campaign trail earlier this month, he promised supporters that he would “strike a very clear path which is going to reduce illegal migration to zero,” adding that migrants who “set off illegally must be stopped at the border, taken care of and sent back.”

Elections in France and the Netherlands this year checked the momentum of right-wing populist parties in Europe. But Austria has shown it is still a political force, says Leopold Traugott of the analyst group Open Europe.

“Right wing populism certainly is not dead in Europe, particularly not in Austria. Austria was one of the main reception countries, but also transit countries during the refugee crisis in 2015. And still during this election campaign it was the meta-topic to which all other issues were combined.”

Kurz’s rival, Heinz-Christian Strache – leader of the far-right Freedom Party – accuses Kurz of stealing his policies and political slogans on migration and Islam.

“Now we will see if they really mean it honestly or seriously, if they are even willing to have honest negotiations with us or not. And I’m telling you: you can rely on one thing. We are going to stay true to ourselves,” Strache told supporters Sunday as it became clear his party had sealed second place.

Coalition talks

With all parties well short of a majority, tough coalition talks lie ahead. Analysts say a coalition agreement between the People’s Party and the Freedom Party is now the most likely outcome of the election – although other combinations are possible. The third-placed Social Democrats, hurt by scandals during the campaign, have not ruled out forming a coalition with either of the two right-wing parties.

It’s clear Kurz’s People’s Party tried to offset the challenge of the far right by taking a tough line on immigration, says Traugott.

“The question of how you can actually beat the populists is debated all over Europe. And at least in Austria, moving towards them certainly did not help.”

In Austria, as in other parts of Europe, analysts say voters express the same common concerns.

“In general globalization, digitalization, economic crisis, people are more and more insecure, people lose their jobs and even or especially less educated people have kind of a feeling that they can’t keep up with modern times, a modern labor market and so on,” says Alexandra Siegl, a polling analyst at the Vienna-based Peter Hajek Strategies, a political consultancy firm.

Those same concerns were echoed in the French presidential election, won by another young leader who stormed the established political order – Emmanuel Macron. Analysts say the similarities end there.

“While Macron is a cosmopolitan, a globalist as he calls himself, Sebastian Kurz clearly portrays a more conservative, traditionalist image,” says Traugott.

They are contrasting visions within the new generation of European political leaders. For the EU itself, analysts say the result in Austria will dampen hopes that 2016 – the year of Brexit – marked the beginning of the end of the right-wing populist surge.
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Europe looks set to have its youngest leader with Austria’s 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz scoring a clear victory in Sunday’s election. With most results in, the conservative foreign minister appears to have won over 31% of the vote – still well short of a majority, meaning complex coalition talks lie ahead. As Henry Ridgwell explains, Kurz’s victory was built largely on an anti-immigrant platform.
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Turkey is expanding its latest military intervention in Syria rapidly, sending more special forces and commandos into Idlib as part of a high-risk effort agreed to with Moscow and Tehran to establish a de-escalation zone in the northwest Syrian province that is mainly controlled by an al-Qaida offshoot.

The intervention is the biggest incursion by the Turks in Syria since last year, when Turkish forces partnered with Free Syrian Army (FSA) militias, once aided by the U.S. but now dependent on Ankara, to clear Islamic State militants, as well as Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), from a stretch along the Turkish border in neighboring Aleppo province.

Analysts say the most recent incursion has several aims, including encircling a Kurdish enclave Turkey does not want the Kurds to unite with other territory they control further east. It marks a deepening of efforts by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to try to shape an end-game to the long-running Syria conflict, independent of Western priorities and participation.

Turkish officials say the intervention in Idlib is part of a deal reached last month with Russia and Iran to reduce clashes between rebels based in Idlib and the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

For the Turks, the halting of clashes between insurgents, including al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian regime, reduces the chances of refugee flight towards the Turkish border. More than two million people are estimated to be living in Idlib province, and prior to the agreement to set up a de-escalation zone there, the province was being targeted by Russian and Syrian regime warplanes in a vicious air campaign that killed hundreds of civilians.

Cengiz Tomar, an analyst with the Istanbul-based Marmara University, told a conference in Istanbul last week a key goal for Ankara is “to prevent a new wave of refugees from Syria.”

Damascus has raised objections to the Turkish intervention, denouncing the incursion as a violation of its sovereignty, and on Saturday demanding an “immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of Turkish troops deployed to Idlib alongside FSA fighters militiamen. But the condemnation from President Bashar al-Assad’s government strikes many as a face-saving one.

A senior Turkish lawmaker, who is a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, told the news outlet Al Jazeera the Syrian government’s demand for Turkish troops to withdraw was for domestic Syrian public opinion and should not be taken seriously.

“At the end of the day, foreign troops have entered the Syrian land and this has to be explained to the Syrian public one way or another,” said lawmaker Kani Torun.

No objections from Russia

Russia, a key Assad ally, has raised no objections. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the de-escalation zones — a total of four across the country— “were conducted in the framework of the Astana talks with the participation of the three guarantor countries, Russia, Turkey and Iran.”

“Cooperation with Russia is one of the key elements of our foreign policy. We are in close coordination on Syria as well,” Turkish Parliament spokesman İsmail Kahraman told reporters on Saturday in in St. Petersburg after a meeting with Russian officials.

The Turkish intervention began overnight Thursday when four convoys of armored vehicles, including tanks, crossed into Idlib near Bab al-Hawa.

On Saturday more convoys moved into position on the Turkish side ready to cross, say FSA commanders.

FSA rebels said the intervention force will probably go up to 40 kilometers inside Idlib province, giving the Turks and their FSA allies control of a large pocket of Syrian territory stretching from Bab al-Hawa to Jarablus city and south to the town of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo city.

For Syrian Kurds aligned with the YPG, the Turkish incursion into Idlib represents a further threat to their interests and will block them from linking up territory they control along the Turkish border, some of it captured from FSA militias and jihadists.

Afrin, a Kurdish enclave the Turks have periodically bombarded, is potentially in Turkish cross-hairs. Ankara has threatened to expel Kurdish forces based there.

“We have no tolerance for the smallest wrong in Afrin,” Erdogan told reporters Friday while en route to Ankara from a trip in the Balkans.

But the intervention is high-risk for Turkey. There are many moving parts involved in what will be a phased operation, if the Turks are to be successful in pacifying Idlib. A key challenge will be constraining al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra.

Aron Lund, a Syria specialist at the U.S.-based think tank The Century Foundation, has questioned how Turkey will implement de-escalation.

“The obvious stumbling block is the fact that much of Idlib is under the control of Tahrir al-Sham, which is viewed internationally as a terrorist group,” he said.

So far, HTS has been withdrawing its fighters, allowing the Turks and their allies to move in. The al-Qaida offshoot also provided an escort for the initial Turkish convoys last week, helping the Turks complete an encirclement of Afrin. That has prompted Kurdish accusations of Ankara being in cahoots with the jihadist group.

But it isn’t clear HTS has much choice but to comply – to do otherwise would risk the Turks moving against them, according to Yezid Sayigh, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center, a policy research group.

He argued even before the Turkish incursion was launched that Ankara’s moves to set up a ‘de-escalation’ zone could pave the way for an offensive against HTS.

An added complication for Turkey may come from a breakaway from HTS, which has sworn allegiance to a son of Osama bin Laden, Hamza.

According to the jihad and terrorism monitoring group the Middle East Media Research Institute, Ansar Al-Furqan Fi Bilad Al-Sham (the Supporters of the Qur’an in Syria) has sworn to target U.S. interests primarily but in statement released on October 10, the breakaway said it is also ready to fight the Turkish army.
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At least 34 people have died after wildfires ravaged Portugal and Spain’s Galicia region, rescuers said on Monday.

In Portugal, at least 31 people died in fires that blazed through forests in the northern and central parts of the country, causing residents to flee towns and villages, and injuring more than 50 people. Local media reports said several people are still missing, including a one-month old baby.

Three people have been reported dead in Spain; two victims were found in a burned-out car on the side of the road.

In Portugal, the government declared a state of emergency for regions north of the Tajo river. More than 6,000 firefighters in 1,800 vehicles were deployed by early Monday morning.

Winds from Hurricane Ophelia fanned the flames of the wildfires that Portuguese and Spanish authorities said were sparked by arsonists.

“They are absolutely intentional fires, premeditated, caused by people who knew what they are doing,” said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the head of the Galicia government.

Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spain’s interior minister, said in a tweet that several people had already been identified in connection with the fires. He appealed for people with further information to share it with the national protection service.

Wildfires are an annual problem in Portugal, where strong winds off the Atlantic blow into a hot and dry country. In June, a massive forest wildfire killed 64 people and injured 150 people. Scientists say climate change has extended the wildfire season from two to five months.

The fires were caused by “higher than average temperatures for the season and the cumulative effect of drought, which has been felt since the start of the year,” Patricia Gaspar, Portuguese civil protection agency spokeswoman, said.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, who is from Galicia, said he was returning to the region to see the emergency coordination himself.

Light rainfall early Monday is expected to help extinguish the flames.
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There is more trouble for disgraced U.S. movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he has started the process to strip Weinstein of the Legion of Honor — the highest honor in France and one of the world’s most prestigious awards.

France presented Weinstein the honor in 2012 in recognition of his efforts to promote French and other European cinema around the world.

Four French actresses are among the 13 who accuse Weinstein of sexually assaulting or harassing them over several decades.

This latest blow against Weinstein came a day after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, voted to “immediately expel” Weinstein from the academy.

The vote by the 54 member Board of Governors was overwhelming, saying it wants “to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.”

It called the allegations that Weinstein traded professional favors for sexual ones “a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”

The British film academy suspended Weinstein’s membership last week.

Weinstein was fired by the board of his production company, the Weinstein Co., following an explosive New York Times report just days earlier, in which 13 women accused him of sexually harassing or assaulting them.

History of transgressions

At least three women accuse him of rape. Among the actresses who have leveled accusations of sex abuse against Weinstein are such major stars as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette.

The New Yorker magazine reports 16 current and former employees The Weinstein Co. and Miramax, which Weinstein co-founded with his brother Bob, either witnessed of knew of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. According to the report, all of those employees said Weinstein’s sexual deviancy was widely known within the two companies.

The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of many popular films over the past 30 years, including Shakespeare in Love, Pulp Fiction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting and The Butler.

Weinstein said in a statement “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” Later, he claimed some of accusations reported in the media were false and said he would sue for defamation.

Weinstein has been a big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S., including twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures scrambled over the weekend to distance themselves from the disgraced filmmaker.

Several Democrat politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren, have promised to donate money they received from Weinstein to charities supporting women.
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Innsbruck no longer plans to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics after its promise to organize low-cost and sustainable games failed to convince residents.

The province of Tyrol said Sunday it will drop plans to host the games after 53.35 percent of voters had rejected the idea in a referendum. In Innsbruck, the capital of the province, 67.41 percent of residents said “no” to a possible bid.

Results from postal voting will be announced Monday but were not expected to significantly change the outcome.

“The decision stands,” Tyrol governor Guenther Platter said. “I was, and still am convinced that our offer for re-dimensioned games would have been a chance, not only for Tyrol but also for the Olympic movement.”

A feasibility study presented in June suggested Innsbruck could host the games on a budget of 1.175 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

The host city would have avoided building new permanent infrastructure with sports being spread over existing venues in the Tyrol region as well as in southern Germany and northern Italy. The Alpine skiing events would have taken place in St. Anton, biathlon in Hochfilzen, Nordic combined in Seefeld, hockey in Bolzano, Italy, and ice skating in Inzell, Germany.

IOC reform program dealt blow

Also, the concept refrained from building a central Olympic Village as athletes would have been located close to their respective venues.

In sharp contrast to the overall outcome, residents in St. Anton (85.12 percent), Hochfilzen (80.71) and Seefeld (65.40) easily voted in favor of a possible bid.

The rejection deals a blow to the International Olympic Committee as Innsbruck’s plans closely followed the guidelines of Agenda 2020, the IOC’s reform program that allows more flexibility in hosting the games, including the possibility of using venues in other cities, and even in neighboring countries.

Peter Mennel, general secretary of the Austrian Olympic Committee, said he was “personally disappointed.”

“We have been fighting hard for this chance over the last couple of months because we are convinced that the time was right for this low-key bid by Tyrol,” Mennel said.

After Innsbruck hosted the Winter Games in 1964 and again in 1976, its residents have voted against another bid two times before, in 1993 and again in 1997. Since then, Austria had several failed bids, most recently with Salzburg for the 2014 Games.

In 2013, the last time Austrian citizens were asked about hosting Olympics, Vienna had to drop plans to bid for the 2028 Summer Games after more than 70 percent of its residents rejected the idea.

The formal bidding process for the 2026 Olympics will start next year with the hosting rights to be awarded in July 2019.
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Ireland dispatched its armed forces to bolster flood defenses on Sunday and warned people against non-essential travel as the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia threatened the country with its worst storm in 50 years.

Ophelia, the sixth major hurricane of the Atlantic season, is due to make landfall on the south west coast of Ireland at around 0500 GMT on Monday, the Irish weather service said, describing the storm as “unprecedented.”

Hurricane force winds are likely off Ireland’s south coast but they are expected to ease before they reach the coastline, said the weather service, which has declared a Status Red weather alert.

The weather service has warned some gusts may exceed 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour).

The government has also warned of localized coastal flooding and likely disruption to transport and electricity services.

“You should not be out in this storm … this is an extreme weather event,” the chairman of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Group Sean Hogan said at a briefing.

Asked if it was likely to be the worst storm in half a century, he said the “comparable weather event” was Hurricane Debbie, which killed 12 in Ireland in 1961. Ophelia has the potential to be a life-threatening event in Ireland, he said.

The storm is likely to pass close to a west of Ireland golf course owned by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has been planning a wall to protect its greens from coastal erosion.

“The storm has the potential to reshape stretches of the Irish coast, John Sweeney, a climatologist at Maynooth University,” said.

“It is going to be perhaps an event comparable to Debbie in 1961 which has effectively marked many of the coastlines of the west coast of Ireland to the present day,” Sweeney told state broadcaster RTE.

Members of the armed forces have been sent to Tralee on the south west coast to build coastal defenses with sandbags.

Britain’s meteorological service said in a statement that the weather system may effect road, rail, air and ferry services.

British media are comparing the storm to the Great Storm of 1987, which subjected parts of the United Kingdom to hurricane strength winds 30 years ago to the day.
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Polls are open in Austria where voters are casting ballots in a snap election that analysts say could result in a resurgence by conservatives.

Opinion polls favor Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old charismatic conservative party leader and current foreign minister, who observers say has succeeded in reinventing the conservative party and galvanizing the Austrian right, including the far right, following the breakdown of a coalition between conservatives and socialists.

The campaign has been dominated by the issue of immigration. Austria, with a population of just less than 9 million, accepted 90,000 asylum seekers, most of them Muslim, during the 2015 migrant crisis, fueling support for right-wing politicians who favor tougher immigration laws.

Conservatives suffered a blow in December 2016 when Norbert Hofer was narrowly defeated in an election also dominated by the issue of immigration, but in which voters chose a Green party candidate, Alexander van der Bellen.

Now, analysts say the conservative People’s Party, led by Kurz, has soared to No. 1 in the polls, leaving the far-right Freedom Party and the socialists vying for second place. 

Observers say the poll represents a chance for the far right to join a coalition government for the first time in years and mark a shift to the right in Austrian politics.
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Hurricane Ophelia, a rare storm for the North Atlantic, was expected to bring high winds and rough seas to five western counties of Ireland this weekend.

Ophelia, strengthening offshore near the Azores Islands, was a   Category 3 storm, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It had top sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph) and was expected to produce total rain accumulations of up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) over the southern Azores.

Seven of the nine islands of the Azores were on red alert as ordered by regional civil protection services. The islands were expecting heavy rainfall overnight.

The 245,000 people who inhabit the Azores were told to stay inside while the storm passes.

Ophelia was expected to wind down slightly before reaching Ireland as a tropical cyclone on Monday. Five counties were placed on red alert for severe weather conditions on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Irish Meteorological Service.

Ireland, which only rarely sees hurricanes, was expected to endure winds in excess of 130 kph (80 mph) on Monday.

Coincidentally, Monday will be the 30th anniversary of what has been nicknamed the Great Storm of 1987, a hurricane that took down 15 million trees in Britain and killed more than 20 people in Britain and France together.
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The United Nations warns some 4 million people across Ukraine are facing a desperate situation as winter approaches and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance to survive the bitterly cold months ahead.

Ukraine is into its fourth year of war, a war that the United Nations estimates has killed about 10,000 people and injured more than 23,500 others. No resolution is in sight to what has become a frozen conflict between the Kyiv government and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

This is causing immense suffering to millions of people living in zones close to the contact line that separates the areas controlled by each side. The UN reports some four million people need food, health services, shelter, water and sanitation and protection as winter approaches.

Jens Laerke is spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He says most of the people in urgent need of aid live in the rebel-controlled areas in the east, though pockets of need also exist in Government-controlled areas throughout the country.

“One of the results of this deteriorating crisis is that we now estimate that 1.2 million people in Ukraine on both sides of the contact line…are food insecure. So, that is certainly a concern,” said Laerke.

Laerke says some 600,000 people, most living in separatist east Ukraine, are unable to access their pensions, which are critical for their survival.

He warns aid agencies will not be able to provide the humanitarian aid needed to help Ukraine’s millions of vulnerable people this winter without more money. He notes only 26 percent of this year’s $200 million U.N. appeal for Ukraine has been received.
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The Vatican trial over $500,000 in donations to the pope’s pediatric hospital that were diverted to renovate a cardinal’s penthouse is reaching its conclusion, with neither the cardinal who benefited nor the contractor who was apparently paid twice for the work facing trial.

Instead, the former president of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital and his ex-treasurer are accused of misappropriating 422,000 euros from the hospital’s fundraising foundation to overhaul the retirement home of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope Benedict XVI.

Prosecutors have asked for a guilty verdict, a three-year prison term and a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,910) for the ex-president, Giuseppe Profiti. They asked to dismiss the case against the ex-treasurer, Massimo Spina, for lack of evidence.

The trial, which began in July and resumes Saturday with the defense’s closing arguments, exposed how Bertone bent Vatican rules to get his retirement apartment in shape for him to move into after Pope Francis was elected in 2013 and named a new secretary of state.

Retirement nest 

After retiring in 2013, Bertone was assigned a 400 square meter (4,305 square feet), top-floor apartment in the Vatican-owned Palazzo San Carlo, which sits on the edge of the Vatican gardens and offers fabulous views of St. Peter’s Basilica and overlooks the Vatican hotel where Francis lives.

During the trial, Bertone was shown to have personally engineered the unprecedented maneuver to get an old friend, Gianantonio Bandera, to do the renovation. Bertone’s project jumped the queue for Vatican real estate repairs, and avoided the normal external bidding process required for such an expensive overhaul, presumably because he promised to foot the bill himself.

And Bertone did indeed pay some 300,000 euros ($355,000) out of his own pocket. The problem is the hospital foundation also paid Bandera’s firm 422,000 euros for a job that totaled 533,000 euros, including communal repairs to the palazzo’s leaky roof.

The chief engineer of the Vatican’s building maintenance office, Marco Bargellini, testified that Bertone’s August 2013 request for renovations was unique. Bargellini said he had never seen a case where a tenant proposed a project with the construction firm already chosen, since the Vatican has a list of contractors who would normally bid for the contract.

Bandera’s firm, Castelli Re, originally estimated the renovation at 616,000 euros, a fee Bargellini said was excessive compared to market rates. But he said the Vatican approved it after Bandera offered a 50 percent discount up-front.

In the end, Castelli Re went bankrupt, and the hospital’s 422,000 euros were sent instead to another Bandera company located in Britain. 

A donation made

The only hint of a potential kickback from Bandera’s apparent double-billing involved a proposed six-figure “donation” from Bandera to the hospital foundation. Profiti said he “didn’t exclude” that he had sought such a donation, and Spina testified that he tried to get the money out of Bandera. Bandera, however, pleaded financial hardship after his company went bankrupt and never paid up.

Neither Bertone nor Bandera were indicted in the case, though it’s possible prosecutors in the Vatican and Italy now have the evidence they need to mount a case against the builder over the apparent double billing.

At the trial, Bandera testified that he never billed twice for the work, though he acknowledged he was no longer fully in control of the company after it went bankrupt in early 2014.

Bertone has insisted he knew nothing of the hospital’s payment. After the scandal came to light in late 2015, Bertone quickly made a 150,000 euro ($177,300) “donation” to the hospital. He insisted it wasn’t a payback but a gesture of goodwill.

Profiti, for his part, admitted he used foundation money to spruce up Bertone’s flat because he planned to host hospital fundraising soirees there. None were ever held.

Profiti’s replacement as hospital president, Marella Enoc, testified that “it’s not my style to have fundraising dinners in the homes of cardinals or celebrities.”
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UNESCO’s executive board voted Friday to make a former French government minister the U.N. cultural agency’s next chief after an unusually heated election that was overshadowed by Middle East tensions.

The board’s selection of Audrey Azoulay over a Qatari candidate came the day after the United States announced that it intends to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias.

The news rocked a weeklong election already marked by geopolitical resentments, concerns about the Paris-based agency’s dwindling funding and questions about its future purpose.

If confirmed by UNESCO’s general assembly next assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, whose eight-year term was marred by financial woes and criticism over Palestine’s inclusion in 2011 as a member state.

Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a runoff with a third finalist from Egypt earlier Friday. The outcome was a blow for Arab states that have long wanted to lead the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

UNESCO has had European, Asian, African and American chiefs, but never one from an Arab country.

In brief remarks after she won the election, Azoulay, 45, said the response to UNESCO’s problems should be to reform the agency, not to walk away from it.

“In this moment of crisis, I believe we must invest in UNESCO more than ever, look to support and reinforce it, and to reform it. And not leave it,” she said.

The new director will set priorities for the organization best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions. The agency also works to improve education for girls, promote an understanding of the Holocaust’s horrors, defend media freedom and coordinate science on climate change.

The next leader also will have to contend with the withdrawal of both the U.S. and Israel, which applauded its ally for defending it and said Thursday that it also would be leaving UNESCO.

The election itself had become highly politicized even before the U.S. announced its planned departure.

Azoulay started the week with much less support than Qatar’s al-Kawari but built up backing as other candidates dropped out. She went on to win a runoff with a third finalist, Moushira Khattab of Egypt. Egypt’s foreign ministry has demanded an inquiry into alleged “violations” during the voting.

Jewish groups opposed al-Kawari, citing a preface he wrote to a 2013 Arabic book called “Jerusalem in the Eyes of the Poets” that they claimed was anti-Semitic. He wrote, “We pray to God to liberate (Jerusalem) from captivity and we pray to God to give Muslims the honor of liberating it.”

In March, the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote an open letter to German Ambassador Michael Worbs, chair of the UNESCO Executive Board, to criticize the organization for accepting the former Qatari culture minister’s candidacy.

During the months leading up to the election, Egypt and three other Arab nations were engaged in a boycott of Qatar over allegations that the government funds extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran.

French media reported that Qatar recently invited several members of the UNESCO executive board on an all-expenses-paid trip to the country’s capital, Doha.

Azoulay’s late entry into the leadership race in March also annoyed many UNESCO member states that argued that France shouldn’t field a candidate since it hosts the agency. Arab intellectuals urged French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw his support for her.

She will be UNESCO’s second female chief and its second French chief after Rene Maheu, UNESCO’s director general from 1961-74. While she is Jewish, her father is Moroccan and was an influential adviser to Moroccan kings, so she also has a connection to the Arab world.

The Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, but the timing of the State Department’s announcement that it would leave at the end of 2018 was unexpected. Along with hostility to Israel, the U.S. cited “the need for fundamental reform in the organization.”

The outgoing Bokova expressed “profound regret” at the U.S. decision and defended UNESCO’s reputation.

The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. UNESCO says the U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.

Azoulay acknowledged the image of the organization — founded after World War II to foster peace, but marred by infighting between Arab member states and Israel and its allies — needed rebuilding.

“The first thing I will do will be to focus on restoring its credibility,” she said.

While UNESCO’s general assembly must sign off month on the executive board’s leadership pick, but officials said the confirmation vote typically is a formality.
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Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody, the United Nations human rights office said Friday.

“Arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.

In Azerbaijan, more than 80 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people have been arrested since mid-September and the U.N. has received allegations that some were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, forced shaving and other forms of humiliation to force them to incriminate themselves before being released, Colville said.

There was no immediate comment from authorities in Baku.

More than 50 people have been arrested so far in Egypt’s widest anti-gay crackdown, a swift zero-tolerance response to a rare show of public support for LGBT rights in the conservative Muslim country.

Two were arrested for waving rainbow flags at a concert and one for a Facebook page, Colville said.

“In some cases, individuals were reportedly arrested after being entrapped by law enforcement officials on apps and in internet chat rooms. Charges include ‘habitual debauchery,’ ‘inciting indecency and debauchery,’ and ‘joining a banned group,'” he said.

At least 10 men in Egypt have been sentenced to between one and six years imprisonment, a few have been released, and most others await trial, Colville added.

In Indonesia, more than 50 people were arrested at a sauna in Jakarta last Friday, Colville said. Four men and one woman were charged under the country’s pornography law, a vague statute used to arrest people for consensual same-sex relations, he said.

“In all three countries, authorities have alleged that those arrested were involved in sex work — although in almost all cases the accused have denied such allegations or indicated that they were coerced into confessing involvement,” Colville said.

He called for the release of people detained on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and for authorities to drop charges based on vague or discriminatory laws, and to repeal such legislation.
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A Polish security official says Poland has expelled a Russian historian on suspicion that he acted against Poland’s interests.

A spokesman for the minister in charge of state security, Stanislaw Zaryn, said Friday the man used his contacts among Polish historians and journalists to promote Russia’s viewpoint, to discredit Polish authorities and to undermine Poland’s ties with Ukraine.

The man, identified only as Dmitry K. in line with Poland’s privacy law, taught at a college in Pultusk, eastern Poland. He was expelled Wednesday.

Zaryn said he had failed to tell the college about his cooperation with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, which is led by a former foreign intelligence service chief and advises the Russian government.

Poland, a NATO member, is distrustful of Moscow’s activity in the region.
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A military helicopter lands to evacuate people wounded during a police raid against terrorists who took hostages at Sarajevo airport – part of the first joint

drill by the EU peacekeeping force (EUFOR) in Bosnia and local army and police.

In the exercise, part of the drill dubbed “Quick Response 2017,” Sarajevo is hit by severe flooding, and EUFOR flies in to help the population. There are also protests across the country and a risk of terrorist groups linked to organised crime rings smuggling arms and fake documents.

“This was a realistic exercise and an opportunity to demonstrate that we have capacities, power and determination to quickly and efficiently respond to any security threat,” said Bosnia’s Security Minister Dragan Mektic.

More than 20 years since the end of its war in the 1990s, Bosnia is still troubled by ethnic politicking and external influences. While separatist aspirations by the Bosnian Serb and Croat nationalists grow stronger, there is also a threat of radicalisation among traditionally moderate Bosnian Muslims.

The five-day drill, by the 600- strong EUFOR along with 400 British and NATO troops, also includes reconnaissance and surveillance of wide areas across Bosnia.

In 2015, parts of Bosnia were hit by the greatest flooding in a century, leaving thousands without homes and hurting the economy. The same year, two soldiers and a police officer were killed in separate terrorist attacks.

EUFOR was deployed in Bosnia in late 2004, replacing NATO’s SFOR force to maintain security after the 1992-95 war. Its mandate has been repeatedly extended.

While Bosnia’s central authorities want to join NATO, Bosnian Serbs, who prefer stronger ties with Russia, oppose that and have threatened to hold a referendum on the issue.

Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Robin Pomeroy.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday that Russia was preparing lawsuits to reclaim what Moscow says was illegally seized property in the United States, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Lavrov, in a telephone conversation with Tillerson, also said it was unacceptable that U.S. authorities had removed Russian flags from its seized diplomatic buildings in the United States, the ministry said.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, asked about the accusations later, told reporters that U.S. actions at the shuttered Russian facilities were “perfectly legal” and were carried out with “a lot of thought” and in a “judicious fashion.”

“The flags of the former Russian consular properties in San Francisco were respectfully lowered. They’re safely stored within each of the buildings,” Nauert said. “There’s no country in the world that pays greater respect to its own flag and to the flags of other nations. That is something that we take seriously.”

But Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov stressed to Tillerson that “the lawlessness continued by U.S. officials runs counter to declarations made at the highest level in Washington about intentions to normalize the bilateral relations, which have hit an all-time low.”

Russian staff left the consulate in San Francisco last month after Washington ordered Moscow to vacate some of its diplomatic properties, part of a series of tit-for-tat actions resulting from a souring of relations between the two countries.
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Full Name: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Created: 1945.

Mission: To build a culture of peace, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.

How does it work?

UNESCO’s primary decision-making body is the General Conference, comprising all 195 member states. It meets every 2 years to set the policies and programs of the agency. It is overseen by a Director-General, who is appointed every four years.

Programs: UNESCO’s activities are focused on five areas.

    Attaining quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning
    Mobilizing scientific knowledge and policy for sustainable development
    Addressing emerging social and ethical challenges
    Fostering cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace
    Building inclusive knowledge societies through information and communication

Observances: UNESCO observes 40 International Days, including International Women’s Day on  March 8, World Press Freedom Day on May 3, World Teachers’ Day on October 5 and International Migrants Day on December 18.
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A suggestion by President Donald Trump that a U.S. regulator pull broadcast licenses from TV networks over what Trump calls “fake news” has been met by silence from the watchdog’s head Ajit Pai, who has a history of defending free speech rights.

Pai, who was reconfirmed last week for a new five-year term at the Federal Communications Commission and named chairman by Trump in January, has been urged by members of Congress to denounce Trump for a proposal that has little, if any, chance of success.

That is because the commission does not actually license broadcast networks or cable stations and the hurdles to denying licenses to individual stations are extremely high.

Trump’s remarks on Wednesday that threatened to muzzle the media and fellow-Republican Pai’s strong support for press freedoms could conflict as Pai mounts ambitious plans to overhaul federal communications regulations.

Trump said in a Twitter post: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!”

His ire was raised by an NBC News report that said he had called for a massive increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a report Trump denied. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on media reports critical of his administration, often without providing any evidence to support their case that the reports were untrue.

Pai’s office has declined to comment, despite Reuters’ repeated requests Wednesday and Thursday.

The FCC, an independent agency, does not issue licenses to individual networks but to local stations, including those directly owned by broadcasters such as Comcast Corp that owns NBC. Comcast and NBC declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.

Pai has defended the First Amendment and press freedoms. In October 2016, he said anyone at the FCC “has the duty to speak out whenever Americans’ First Amendment rights are at stake.”

In a 2014 Wall Street Journal piece, Pai said “the government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.”

Pai has an ambitious agenda, which he is expected to unveil details of in the coming months. It includes proposing to eliminate some significant media ownership restrictions and a plan to roll back former Democratic President Barack Obama’s so-called net neutrality rules.

Senator Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said on Twitter Trump’s comments were “unacceptable attacks on the #FirstAmendment by @POTUS. @AjitPaiFCC committed to Congress to speak up at times like this. We are waiting.”

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan defended press freedoms Thursday but did not directly criticize Trump.

“I’m for the First Amendment. I don’t always agree and like what you guys write, but you have a right to do it,” Ryan said.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse asked if Trump was “recanting” the oath of office to defend the First Amendment.

In March, Pai told the U.S. Congress he did not agree with Trump when he said that “the media is the enemy of the American people.” Pai said he would act independently of the White House on media-related matters.

Last month, Pai lamented that people on Twitter demand “the FCC yank licenses from cable news channels like Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN because they disagree with the opinions expressed on those networks. Setting aside the fact that the FCC doesn’t license cable channels, these demands are fundamentally at odds with our legal and cultural traditions.”
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