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A 500-year-old copy of a letter in which Christopher Columbus describes his voyage to the Americas has been returned to Spain after U.S. authorities tracked down the document, which had been stolen and replaced with a forgery years ago.

The letter, copied centuries ago from the one Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain after his first Atlantic crossing, was given to Spain’s Ambassador Pedro Morenes in Washington, law enforcement authorities said on Thursday.

The repatriation of the letter follows seven years of sleuthing by U.S. law enforcement agencies after the discovery that it had been replaced by a forgery at the National Library of Catalonia in Barcelona.

“We are truly honored to return this historically important document back to Spain — its rightful owner,” U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss said in a statement.

Columbus, born in Genoa in modern-day Italy, had written the letter in Spanish after his return to Europe in 1493. Ferdinand and Isabella, who sponsored his voyage, sent the document to Rome to be translated into Latin and manually copied, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie McCall said.

“A number of these copies were made and then delivered to various kings and queens in Europe to spread the news of Columbus’s discoveries,” McCall said by telephone.

A Latin copy of the letter, in which Columbus describes the mountains, fertile fields, gold and indigenous people he encountered in the Caribbean, is the one that was illegally swapped for a forgery at the Barcelona library, McCall said.

Authorities said they discovered the theft after a tip in 2011 to an assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware who had become experienced in the subject.

Because the library had digitized its collection before the theft, U.S. investigators said they and Spanish authorities were able to determine in 2012 that the letter it had was a forgery.

The real letter, they said, had been sold in November 2005 by two Italian book dealers for 600,000 euros.

After learning in March 2013 that it had been sold again in 2011 for 900,000 euros, authorities said they made contact with the person who had the letter. They said that person was unaware that it had been stolen.

They said they later concluded “beyond all doubt” that it was the letter taken from the Barcelona library and got it back.

The case is still under investigation, McCall said.
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Leaders of the world’s top industrialized democracies will meet in Quebec, Canada, this weekend at a time of growing tensions over trade and other issues While the G-7 Summit is likely to be overshadowed by another historic meeting next week in Singapore, analysts say the G-7 summit is likely to be no less consequential to the future of the global economy or the continued international leadership of the United States. Mil Arcega has more.
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Vladimir Putin, on a living standards drive at the start of a new presidential term, is expected to try to fix Russians’ everyday problems on live TV later Thursday, handing out real-time orders to regional governors and government ministers.

Putin, who won a landslide re-election victory in March, has taken part in the annual phone-in since 2001, using it to cast himself as a decisive troubleshooter on the home front and as a staunch defender of Russia’s interests on the world stage.

Political theater

Critics say the event, which is being held days before Russia hosts the soccer World Cup, is a stage-managed piece of theater designed to let Russians let off steam and fleetingly feel like they can influence a bureaucratic top-down system.

Putin and his aides say it is an indispensable tool to gauge public sentiment and learn what people’s real problems are.

The 65-year-old politician used the event last year to pledge to eradicate spiraling poverty, fielding almost 70 questions in just less than four hours in an event that Kremlin watchers often liken to a tsar listening to his petitioners.

This year, the Interfax news agency reported Putin would forgo his usual studio audience, field text and video questions on a series of TV monitors, and hand out real time orders to regional governors and government ministers who have been told to be at their desks when the event starts at 0900 GMT.

1.4 million questions

Members of the public have submitted more than 1.4 million questions, Russian news agencies reported, many of them visible on a special website set up for the event.

Questions posted ahead of the event included asking Putin whether he planned to meet U.S. President Donald Trump this year, whether relations with the West would improve anytime soon, how he planned to reduce poverty, and why petrol prices were rising so fast.

Putin, who is at the start of a new six-year term in office, always fields a smattering of foreign policy questions, which he typically uses to lash out at the West with whom Moscow’s relations are at a post Cold War low.

This year, he is expected to focus more heavily on domestic issues because he has said the main priority of his fourth term is raising living standards by sharply increasing social and infrastructure spending.
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Ukrainian journalists have been left puzzled and feeling uneasy since the Ukrainian security service (SBU) staged the assassination of Russian reporter Arkady Babchenko, a U.S. media watchdog says.

Ukrainian authorities have said the elaborate operation was designed to foil a Russian plot to assassinate Babchenko and other members of the Ukrainian media. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that Ukrainian media staffers were upset by SBU’s revelation that it had discovered a “hit list” of 47 journalists, bloggers and activists who may allegedly be targeted by assassins. But veteran journalists told CPJ that while they were perturbed by the news of the list, they were used to being under threat.

Many questioned why the SBU would go through all the trouble to protect Babchenko when it has yet to solve the daylight car bombing that killed Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet in 2016.

“I feel the same as I felt before the Babchenko case,” TV reporter Nastya Stanko told CPJ. “I didn’t feel safe then, and I don’t feel safe now.”

Stanko said the Babchenko case had, in fact, made things worse for journalists.

“When some journalists spoke their mind and said journalists shouldn’t work with security services, Babchenko himself said that he wished for these ‘betrayers’ to have a killer knocking on their door,” she said. “I think we are now at a greater risk of that than before.”
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A year ago in Sicily at the G-7 summit of leading industrial nations, U.S. President Donald Trump was at loggerheads with his fellow summiteers primarily over climate change. At this year’s annual meeting starting in Canada Friday, the dispute will be over tariffs.

European and Canadian participants remain fuming over Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports — an issue which will dominate a summit planners were already struggling to agree on an agenda for ahead of the U.S. president’s decision to include close allies in the new metals tariff regime.

The U.S. President will find himself without an ally when it comes to tariffs, say European and Canadian diplomats.

“There will be disagreements on important issues and tariffs will certainly be one of them,” a Canadian official told reporters midweek.

Even Britain’s Theresa May, who has declined to keep in step with her fellow Europeans and threaten retaliation, fearing apparently to do so could sink Britain’s chance of a post-Brexit deal with the U.S., has made her disapproval clear. She told Trump in a 30-minute phone call that the tariffs on EU metals are “unjustified and deeply disappointing” and urged him to exempt the Europeans.

But behind the united front of disapproval there are deep disagreements among U.S. allies — especially among the Europeans — about how to respond and whether to take retaliatory action. And if so, what counter-measures to introduce. The disagreements partly stem from different interpretations about what’s driving the U.S. President.

Is Trump being opportunistic and mercurial and playing to a domestic American audience seeking to secure short-gains or is there are an overall longer-term strategy, one at odds with the global free-trade system Washington largely shaped and has backed since the end of World War II?

Is he wanting to change or ‘re-balance’ the terms of global free-trade by using U.S. leverage to reshape rules or is he out to wreck a rules-based system entirely, thereby creating a free-for-all which allows the largest, most powerful countries to exploit their power to the full, secure better deals and lift trade barriers impeding them?

Despite Trump’s rapport with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Paris has been among the hardest pushing for retaliation, along with top EU officials, viewing the U.S. President’s decision to cite national security as the grounds for the tariffs on steel and aluminum as a direct challenge to the rules-based global trade system overseen by the World Trade Organization.

CNN reported last week that Macron and Trump clashed during a phone call in a conversation described as “terrible” by an unidentified White House source. In a statement issued by the Elysée Palace before the call, Macron said the U.S. tariff imposition was “a mistake on many points. It is a mistake because it responds to a worldwide unbalance that exists in the worst ways through fragmentations and economic nationalism.”

Germany, which runs a large trade surplus with the U.S. and has more to lose than most European nations from a full-blown transatlantic trade, has been more reticent with German businesses — especially in its auto sector — urging Berlin to proceed cautiously. German car-makers’ biggest fear is that EU retaliation — Brussels has already published a list of U.S. products that could be targeted — will result in the U.S. imposing tariffs on German cars.

Trump has lambasted in the past the 10 percent EU tariff on car imports. On May 23 the Trump administration announced an investigation into whether car imports are a threat to U.S. national security, too. A German magazine reported last week that Trump told Macron in April he wanted German carmakers out of the United States altogether. The report was based on unnamed sources and hasn’t been confirmed by either the White House or Elysée Palace.

German car-makers are banking on President Trump’s not raising U.S. duties to 25 percent on all imports of automobiles and auto parts, arguing that to do so will hurt American workers as much as German ones.

An analysis by the Peterson Institute, a Washington think tank, has suggested the fallout for the U.S. auto industry from such tariffs would be harsh as well with a possible 195,000 American workers losing their jobs over a three-year period. But projected chain-supply job consequences in the U.S. from the metals tariffs imposed on June 1 did not deter the Trump administration and EU retaliation could well prompt, German officials fear, Washington to respond with tariffs on auto imports.

According to some analysts and European officials, it doesn’t really matter whether Trump has a longer term-strategy to end rules-based trading or is determined to tug the global system in a direction that favors the U.S. more, making the rules anyway less predictable. Up to a point, the consequences are the same, they say.

“In a world where there are no internationally predictable rules, most countries faced with protectionist actions, crudely, have two options – retaliate or concede. If they choose to retaliate, the optimal strategy is to cause enough pain to the political leadership of the protectionist country that they will back down,” argued Matthew Oxenford, an analyst at Britain’s Chatham House.

He added: “However, this can only be effective for large economies that the U.S. exports to significantly. For smaller countries without significant leverage, the alternative is to concede and try to negotiate a favorable settlement, which will still be asymmetrical.”

That is the policy South Korea has followed, agreeing to quotas on their steel exports to the U.S. in exchange for a permanent exemption.

For all of the rage and fury in Europe about the metal tariffs, amid disunity about how to respond, that may well end up as the result with the EU, too, but probably not in Canada this week. U.S. officials say they expect a long rocky road ahead and they doubt there will even be an agreed joint statement at the end of the summit, emphasizing how the G-7 is becoming increasingly, in the eyes of observers, a G-6 plus 1.
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Britain, France and Germany have joined forces to urge the United States to exempt European companies from any sanctions the U.S. will slap on Iran after pulling out of an international nuclear agreement.

In a letter dated Monday to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ministers from the three European countries said they “strongly regret” President Donald Trump’s decision last month to withdraw from the Iran deal. Trump has said sanctions will be imposed on any company doing business with Tehran.

The three European countries were also signatories of the 2015 deal, which was meant to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In their letter, made public on Wednesday, the ministers said that “as close allies we expect that the extraterritorial effects of U.S. secondary sanctions will not be enforced on EU entities and individuals, and the United States will thus respect our political decision and the good faith of economic operators within EU legal territory.”

The ministers, which included British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and his German counterpart Olaf Scholz, said they want the U.S. to “grant exemptions” for EU companies that have been doing business with Iran since the deal came into force in 2016. They also said Iran should not be cut out of the SWIFT system for international money transfers.

Many companies from Europe and the U.S. have been steadily building up their investments in Iran in the past few years in the wake of the nuclear deal, particularly in the fields of pharmaceuticals, banking and oil.

France’s Le Maire tweeted Wednesday that EU “businesses must be able to pursue their activities.”

 
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Tunisia’s interior minister has fired 10 security officials amid an investigation into the sinking of a boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe that left an estimated 112 dead or missing.

It was the deadliest shipwreck this year on the dangerous route from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Braham announced late Tuesday the dismissal of 10 people including local police and security chiefs in the coastal city of Sfax and the Krekennah island, based on preliminary investigations into Sunday’s sinking.

The Tunisian government has been widely criticized for not grasping the extent of the tragedy. The prime minister visited the island Tuesday to oversee the search operations.

The International Organization for Migration has counted 60 confirmed deaths, 52 people still missing and 68 survivors.
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The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia says its military advisers will withdraw from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, after the United States and Turkey agreed on a road map to resolve the future of the city, an issue that is a major source of tension between the NATO allies.

The agreement to ensure security and stability in Manbij came during a meeting Monday in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The U.S. State Department did not provide further details about the agreement, but a senior official said Tuesday, “We will continue to be there. We hope Turkey can help patrol,” while declining to specify how many troops would remain.

The official added: “We want locally rooted forces to continue to support stability.”

Monday, Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists in Washington that U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters will withdraw from Manbij under a plan that could be implemented within six months.He said U.S. and Turkish officials would temporarily ensure security in Manbij.

“The aim of this road map is the clearing of Manbij of all terror organizations and the permanent instatement (establishment) of safety and stability,” Cavusoglu said.

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the war against the Islamic State group has angered Turkey. Ankara calls the YPG terrorists, accusing the militia of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Ahead of Cavusoglu’s visit to Washington, the Turkish foreign minister said, “[The United States] has preferred to collaborate with a terrorist organization in Syria.That was a grave mistake, and we are trying to change their position.”

The Syrian town of Manbij was seized from Islamic State by mainly YPG forces.Ankara has claimed Washington reneged on an agreement the militia would withdraw after taking Manbij.

Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey told VOA’s Turkish Service that although there are problems between the United States and Turkey, the ties between the countries would not break down.

“Because the U.S. and Turkey share basic interests — we are status quo powers, we are both major beneficiaries of the global order, and we see in similar terms a threat to that order in the region around Turkey, from Russia, from Iran and from extremist elements — the relationship will remain extremely important and will not break down.”

He acknowledged, “The relationship will also be fraught with problems because it is very complicated.”

Jeffrey said the most difficult problem between two countries is Turkey’s agreement to buy the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, a non-NATO country.

Turkey’s move to buy the surface-to-air missile system, which is incompatible with NATO systems, has unnerved NATO member countries.In response, a U.S. Senate committee has threatened to prevent Turkey from purchasing U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
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The U.N. human rights office (UNHCR) is criticizing the United States’ new zero tolerance policy aimed at deterring migrants and refugees from coming to the country. Under this policy, people caught entering the U.S. irregularly are subject to criminal prosecution, and their children, some very young, are taken away.

The UNHCR calls this separation of family arbitrary and a serious violation of a child’s rights. The United States is the only country that has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nevertheless, the agency said this does not absolve the U.S. from its responsibilities to adhere to and protect these rights.

Human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles. She said children should never be detained because of their or their parents’ immigration status.

She told VOA there is no justification for detaining children.

“Detention is never in the best interest of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation,” she noted. “Entering a country without the relevant papers should not be a criminal offense. At most, it should be an administrative offense. So, these people should not be detained. Detention is never in the best interest of the child, and these children are effectively detained. They are separated and detained.”

The U.N. refugee agency also condemned the Trump administration’s immigration policy. It said preserving family unity is a fundamental tenet of refugee protection.

UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said the unity of the family is sacrosanct and should be preserved in the best interest of children and society as a whole. He said detention should be a measure of last resort.

“Most of the people attempting to enter the United States across the southern border are coming from three Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which are experiencing high levels of violence and persecution, often targeting children and young people and forcing families to flee to protect their lives,” he said.

Spindler added that people fleeing countries of violence should be given international protection. He said the right to claim asylum is a fundamental human right.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “zero tolerance” policy several weeks ago. Sessions said Congress has failed to pass legislation to fix the problem. The issue has sparked a political debate in the U.S. ahead of midterm congressional elections later this year.
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The EU’s top court, in a landmark ruling for gay rights in Europe, said on Tuesday that Romania must grant residence to the American husband of a local man even though Romania does not itself permit same-sex marriage.

In a case which has highlighted social differences between western Europe and a more conservative, ex-communist east, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Romania must accept the validity of the mens’ 2010 Belgian marriage and treat American Clai Hamilton as Adrian Coman’s spouse under EU law.

The case did not touch on the freedom of member states to set their own matrimony laws, although campaigners have called on Brussels to push states to legalize same-sex marriage as a fundamental human right. Rather it upheld rights of EU citizens to move freely across the bloc along with their families.

“Although the member states have the freedom whether or not to authorize marriage between persons of the same sex,” the judges said, “They may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an EU citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a

national of a country that is not an EU member state, a derived right of residence in their territory.”

The case arose because Hamilton’s right as a non-EU citizen to live in Romania permanently was dependent on his status as Coman’s spouse. Coman challenged a Romanian decision to limit Hamilton’s residence to a three-month visa and a Romanian court referred the matter to the ECJ in Luxembourg.

Coman welcomed the ruling: “We can now look in the eyes of any public official in Romania and across the EU with certainty that our relationship is equally valuable and equally relevant for the purpose of free movement within the EU,” he said.

The deputy leader of the liberal bloc in the European Parliament, Sophie in ‘t Veld, said: “This is fantastic news and a landmark opinion for rainbow families.

“Freedom of movement is a right of all EU citizens. It cannot be restricted because of whom they love.”

The European Commission insisted that the ruling was not part of a push from Brussels to force social change in the bloc.

“Member states are in charge — but this is a useful clarification in terms of avoiding discrimination,” spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters when asked about opposition to same-sex marriage in parts of eastern Europe, where governments have also clashed with the EU executive over other civil rights.
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Denmark’s government has announced that it will build a 68-kilometer fence along the country’s southern border to protect prime Danish pigs from swine fever.

The government says the fence will help keep out German wild boar that could be infected with a deadly African swine fever.

Officials say an outbreak of swine fever in Denmark would force the country to temporarily stop all pork exports. Denmark Minister for Environment and Food Esben Lunde Larsen says the country’s exports of pork outside the European Union are worth $1.8 billion annually.

African swine fever is harmless to humans but fatal to farm pigs.

Other countries in the region are also considering how to counter the spread of swine fever, with Germany allowing hunters to hunt wild boar year around.

Denmark’s government says the fence will be 1.5 meters tall and will be 50 centimeters deep to prevent boars from burrowing underneath. Officials say roads between Denmark and Germany will not be affected by the fence.

Critics say the fence will do little to keep wild boar out of Denmark and will harm other species of animals, such as foxes and deer. Advocates say the fence is a necessary precaution to protect Denmark’s billion-dollar pig industry from the catastrophic effects of an outbreak.
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French President Emmanuel Macron called on international donors to quickly make financing available for the Sahel regional counterterror force.

In a news conference in Paris with visiting Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, Macron said money “now needs to be disbursed” to allow the five-nation regional force, known as the G5 Sahel, to keep functioning.

He said the European Union started financing the force last week and will provide equipment in coming weeks. He called on other donors like Saudi Arabia to meet their financial commitments. Issoufou expressed his concerns over the financial sustainability of the force.

Earlier this year, international donors pledged 414 million euros ($510 million) to help Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger set up a counterterror force to combat the deadly jihadist threat in the Sahel region.

In an interview to French television France 24, Issoufou said negotiations are ongoing for the release of two humanitarian workers who were kidnapped in Niger. He said Jeffery Woodke, an American abducted in 2016 and Jorg Lang, a German abducted in April this year, are alive.

Issoufou said “we have some news, we know they are alive. We keep working on creating conditions for their release.”

He said he couldn’t confirm their precise location but one probable hypothesis is that they are being detained in northern Mali.
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The United States and Turkey have agreed on a roadmap to resolve the future of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, an issue that has become a major source of tension between the NATO allies.

The agreement came during a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington on Monday.

In a joint statement, Pompeo and Cavusoglu said their countries would take steps “to ensure the security and stability in Manbij.”

“They endorsed a roadmap to this end and underlined their mutual commitment to its implementation, reflecting agreement to closely follow developments on the ground,” the statement said, adding that the two sides agreed to hold further meetings to resolve outstanding issues.

​’Clearing of Manbij’

The U.S. State Department did not provide further details about the agreement. However, Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists in Washington Monday that U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters will withdraw from Manbij under a plan that could be implemented within six months. He said U.S. and Turkish officials would temporarily ensure security in Manbij.

“The aim of this roadmap is the clearing of Manbij of all terror organizations and the permanent instatement of safety and stability,” Cavusoglu said.

Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the war against the Islamic State group has angered Turkey. Ankara calls the YPG terrorists, accusing the militia of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Ahead of Cavusoglu’s visit to Washington, the Turkish foreign minister said, “[The United States] has preferred to collaborate with a terrorist organization in Syria. That was a grave mistake, and we are trying to change their position.”

Center of US-Turkish tension

The Syrian town of Manbij, which was seized from Islamic State by mainly YPG forces, has become the epicenter of Turkish-U.S. tensions. Ankara claims Washington reneged on an agreement that the militia would withdraw after taking Manbij.

Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey told VOA’s Turkish service that although there are problems between the United States and Turkey, the ties between the countries would not break down.

“Because the U.S. and Turkey share basic interests — we are status quo powers, we are both major beneficiaries of the global order, and we see in similar terms a threat to that order in the region around Turkey, from Russia, from Iran and from extremist elements — the relationship will remain extremely important and will not break down.”

However, he acknowledged there will be difficulties between the countries going forward. 

“The relationship will also be fraught with problems because it is very complicated,” he said.

Jeffrey said the most difficult problem between two countries is Turkey’s agreement to buy the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, a non-NATO country.

Turkey’s move to buy the surface-to-air missile system, which is incompatible with NATO systems, has unnerved NATO member countries. In response, a U.S. Senate committee has threatened to prevent Turkey from purchasing U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

 Dorian Jones, Nike Ching, Serhan Akyildiz and Erhan Polat contributed to this report.

 
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The threat posed by Islamist militants to Britain is expected to remain high for the next two years and could even rise, the interior ministry said on Sunday, on the first anniversary of an attack that killed eight people in central London.

The current threat level to Britain is assessed as severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. The government said it had foiled 25 Islamist militant plots since June 2013 — 12 of those since March 2017 — and was currently handling over 500 live operations.

Britain will publish a revised counter-terrorism strategy on Monday designed to cope with what it said was a shift in the threats the country faces as militants of all ideologies adopt new tactics.

“In summary we expect the threat from Islamist terrorism to remain at its current, heightened level for at least the next two years, and that it may increase further,” the ministry said in a statement.

The threat level was raised to “critical,” its highest, twice in 2017.

A review found existing counter-terrorism policy was well-organized and comprehensive, but suggested ways it could be improved.

“The threat from terrorism is constantly evolving. Globally, terrorist groups and networks of all ideologies continue to develop organically, exploiting social media, technology and science to further their aims and ambitions,” the ministry said.

The statement said the threat from “extreme right-wing terrorism” was also growing and four plots had been disrupted since March last year.

Interior minister Sajid Javid will speak at a memorial service for those killed in the London Bridge attack when three men drove a van into pedestrians and then stabbed passers-by in the popular nightlife area.

“The government is absolutely committed to doing everything possible to tackle the terrorist threat. It is my first priority every day in this job,” he will say, according to the department.

The revised strategy will try to develop police and security services data analysis capability, coordinate more closely between intelligence agencies and police on specific suspects, and look in more detail at the activity of right wing groups.

It is due to be announced in full on Monday. 
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begin a three-nation European tour Monday as he seeks support for altering the international nuclear agreement with Iran.

Netanyahu begins in Germany where is holding talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel before traveling on to meet with the leaders of France and Britain.

Britain, France and Germany agreed to the deal with Iran in 2015 along with Russia, China and the United States. 

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last month the U.S. was pulling out of what he called a “horrible, one-sided deal,” while saying he wants additional restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and what he called its “destabilizing activities in the Middle East.”

The other signatories have expressed a desire to keep the nuclear deal in place, saying it is working. Britain, France and Germany have suggested addressing other concerns about Iran through a supplemental agreement.

Like Trump, Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the nuclear deal, saying it agreement left Iran with the potential to quickly develop a nuclear weapon when the terms expire.

Iran, which won sanctions relief in exchange for limiting its nuclear program, has said repeatedly its nuclear activity was solely peaceful in nature.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday the U.S. decision to withdraw from the agreement was illegal and he urged the other signatories not to follow suit.

State-run Iranian media said Zarif sent a letter to the foreign ministers of the remaining nations. He asked them to “make up” for the Iranian losses brought on by the U.S. withdrawal if they want to save the deal.

Zarif called the 2015 nuclear agreement the result of “accurate, sensitive and balanced multilateral talks.”

“The illegal withdrawal of the U.S. government … especially bullying methods used by this government to bring other governments in line, has discredited the rule of law while challenging the principles of the U.N. charter and efficiency of international bodies,” Zarif wrote.
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Parisians and tourists wearing seasonally appropriate all-white outfits enjoyed gourmet picnics Sunday in front of the French capital’s 19th century Les Invalides monument, a meal heightened by a preceding mystery. 

The location of the 30th anniversary staging of the international dining event known as “Diner en Blanc,” or “Dinner in White,” was revealed to participants in a series of text messages up until the last minute.

People gathered on green lawns with fabulous views of the gold-domed building that houses the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and other prominent French figures.

They brought tables with white tablecloths and sipped champagne and wine. 

Organizers expected 20,000 to 30,000 participants, one-third of them from outside France. The Champs-Elysees avenue, the Louvre museum and the Eiffel Tower are among past sites.

Francois Pasquier, who launched the event in Paris in 1988, said more than two dozen orchestras were set to entertain guests.

Last year, over 110,000 people in 28 countries participated in “Dinner in White” events. 
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British civil servants have warned of shortages of food, fuel and medicines within weeks if the U.K. leaves the European Union without a trade deal, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Sunday Times said government officials have modeled three potential scenarios for a “no deal” Brexit: mild, severe and “Armageddon.”

It said under the “severe” scenario, the English Channel ferry port of Dover would “collapse on day one” and supermarkets and hospitals would soon run short of supplies.

Britain wants to strike a deal on future trade relations with the EU before it officially leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019, but officials are also drawing up plans for negotiations ending without an agreement.

The U.K.’s Department for Exiting the European Union rejected the downbeat scenario, saying it was drawing up no-deal plans but was confident “none of this would come to pass.”

Britain and the EU are aiming to strike an overall Brexit agreement by October, so parliaments in other EU nations have time to ratify it before Britain leaves the bloc.

But British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government is split between ministers who favor a clean-break “hard Brexit,” that would leave Britain freer to strike new trade deals around the world, and those who want to keep the country closely aligned to the EU, Britain’s biggest trading partner.

 EU leaders are frustrated with what they see as a lack of firm proposals from the U.K. over how to resolve major issues around customs arrangements and the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That will be the U.K.’s only land border with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said Saturday that the U.K. must produce “written proposals” for the border within two weeks, ahead of a June 28-29 EU summit.

 British Home Secretary Sajid Javid said Sunday that the British government would have “a good set of proposals” to submit to the bloc at its June meeting.

 
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A transport policeman was one of the first to intervene as three assailants armed with long ceramic knives went on a stabbing frenzy after driving their transit van at people near London Bridge.

Reacting to screams, he rushed to confront the attackers, who stabbed him several times, slicing and lunging at his head, legs and arms, leaving him temporarily blind and crippled.

A year on from the terror attack in the Borough district of London, Wayne Marques is still recovering and has only recently been able to walk independently. In a video released this week he said he hopes to return to work next month, but admitted he has some rehabilitation to go. He concedes his family has concerns about his desire to work but says: “It’s a job that I enjoy. It’s who I am, to be honest.”

On the first anniversary of the London Bridge attack that left eight people dead and 48 others injured, tales of heroism and loss were shared Sunday in newspaper articles, broadcast reports and at a memorial service to honor the victims of a stabbing rampage carried out by three young men in the name of jihad.

Mourning, remembering

The words London United were projected onto the bridge Sunday as British Prime Minister Theresa May noted that among the eight people killed, seven were foreign nationals, “a tragic reminder that the threat from terrorism transcends borders and impacts us all,” she said.

In a statement the British leader added: “My message to those who target our way of life or try to divide us is clear: Our resolve to stand firm and overcome this threat together has never been stronger.”

As Londoners marked the anniversary of the attack, mourning the dead and recalling acts of bravery like the intervention of PC Marques, senior counter-terror officers warned resolve will indeed be needed. The country, they said, is still facing a “very significant security threat,” and they revealed Britain’s security agencies have thwarted roughly a terror plot every month the past year.

​Vigilance urged

They said Britain can’t let its guard down and urged “all members of the public to remain vigilant.”

“The police and security services are working extremely hard, foiling and disrupting terrorist attacks all the time,” Dean Haydon, deputy assistant commissioner in London’s Metropolitan Police, told Britain’s Sky News.

Britain’s Interior Minister Sajid Javid is to unveil Monday new security measures including the hiring of an extra 1,000 intelligence officers to help keep suspected extremists under better surveillance. His officials say Britain’s police and security agencies are running at any one time more than 500 live operations focusing on 3,000 “subjects of interest.”

Under Javid’s proposals, British jihadists will be monitored more closely and given longer prison sentences on conviction. Technology companies will be required to do considerably more to tackle extremist content posted on their social-media sites. The package of measures includes plans to fast track extremists to prison even before they have finalized attacks plans.

The proposals stem from a yearlong review of Britain’s counterterror strategy, which found security lapses and a failure to join up intelligence data. 

The suicide bombing at the Manchester arena last year, which left 22 people dead, could have been averted the review concluded, if two pieces of crucial information about the bomber, Salman Abedi, had been linked. The strategy focuses on improving data sharing and on the need to spot the importance of suspected militants who may have been overlooked or have become re-radicalized after monitoring of them has ended.

The counterterror strategy to be published Monday concludes: “We expect the threat from Islamist terrorism to remain at its current, heightened level for at least the next two years, and that it may increase.”

Other terror groups

But it isn’t only Islamic extremism worrying Britain’s counterterror officers. The strategy also warns “the threat from extreme right-wing terrorism is growing.”

For the foreseeable future, though, counterterror analysts say that despite the defeat of the Islamic State group on the battlefield and the dismantling of its self-proclaimed state in Syria and Iraq, Islamist extremists remain the biggest threat to Britain and other European states.

Islamic State’s surviving leaders are desperate to be seen as a major force, say analysts, and continue to encourage and instruct followers to mount attacks in the West, like the recent attack by a “lone wolf” militant in the Belgian city of Liege that left three dead, including two female police officers.
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An Uzbek migrant living in Russia says life has not always been easy with locals often deriding him about where he comes from and accusing him of stealing Russian jobs. What keeps him going is what he does after work: playing soccer with other migrants from around the world. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization face an uncertain security environment as they prepare for July’s summit in Brussels. Among the challenges facing the 29 member countries: rising tensions with Russia, which has long opposed NATO expanding its membership in Eastern Europe. Ahead of the July 11th summit, four countries have declared their intent to join the alliance. VOA’s Jane Bojadzievski has more.
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Britain will not sign a trade agreement with the United States that is not in the country’s best interests, Trade Minister Liam Fox said Saturday after European Union officials filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over stiff U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

“If we can’t come to an agreement that we believe is in the interests of the United Kingdom, then we wouldn’t be signing any trade agreement,” Fox said Saturday in an interview with BBC radio.

Fox’s comments came one day after European Union officials submitted a formal complaint to the WTO, the first in a series of retaliatory actions, including possible tariffs, against the U.S. Fox said the tariffs are “illegal” and that British Prime Minister Theresa May would raise the issue at the Group of Seven meeting next week in Canada.

Trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions escalated when the U.S. imposed on Friday a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. The U.S. also negotiated quotas or volume limits on other countries, such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil, instead of tariffs.

In a separate dispute, China is prepared to target billions of dollars in U.S. products, many of which come from America’s agricultural heartland, where Trump enjoys strong voter support.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in Beijing Saturday in an attempt to avert an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies. On China’s target list are U.S. soybean farmers, who export about 60-percent of their soybeans to China.

A dairy farmer who also grows soybeans in the midwestern state of Nebraska, Ben Steffen, is angry about the U.S. tariffs “because it hits me in my pocketbook from multiple angles.”

California farmer Jeff Colombini, who grows walnuts, cherries and apples, is concerned about the financial damage a trade war could bring.

“With these tariffs, its going to make the product[s] too expensive for the consumers in Mexico and in Canada and in the EU,” he said. “I have 200 employees, and they depend on the success of this operation for their jobs and to feed and clothe their families.”

The imposition of the tariffs is also not popular with some members of Congress, including those from Trump’s own party, whose states are dependent on exports.

“Imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on our most important trading partners is the wrong approach and represents an abuse of authority intended only for national security purposes,” said Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“You don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said on Twitter. “Blanket protectionism is a big part of why we had a Great Depression. ‘Make America Great Again’ shouldn’t mean ‘Make America 1929 Again.’”

Tennessee has three major auto assembly plants. Nebraska is a significant exporter of cattle, corn, soybeans and hogs.

Mexico said, in response, it will penalize U.S. imports, including pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel.

“There’s a reason why” the countries are carefully selecting which American products to target in response, said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Most of bourbon is made in Kentucky, which is the state of the Senate majority leader. Harley Davidsons are made in Wisconsin, which is the state of the speaker of the House,” Reinsch told VOA News. “Usually when other countries retaliate, and the Chinese have done something similar, is they’re good at maximizing political pain by picking out products that are made in places where people are politically important.”

“Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are a tax hike on Americans and will have damaging consequences for consumers, manufacturers and workers,” said Republican Orrin Hatch, who chairs the Senate’s finance committee and is a longtime advocate of breaking down trade barriers.

Expected higher prices for U.S. consumers on some products is only one side of the equation, said Ross, who noted that steel and aluminum makers in the U.S. are adding employment and opening facilities as a result of the U.S. government action.

“You can create a few jobs, however, you’re going to lose more in the process,” as consuming industries will be placed at a disadvantage of paying more for raw materials compared to their foreign competitors, Simon Lester, trade policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, told VOA News.

 
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White House officials are making plans for a possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report, citing a senior administration official, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, has been in Washington to help schedule the meeting.

“This has been an ongoing project of Ambassador Huntsman, stretching back months, of getting a formal meeting between Putin and Trump,” the official said.

People familiar with the plans said the purpose of the summit would be to address long-standing differences between the two countries.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the intent of helping Trump win. The findings have led to a special counsel investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has denied any collusion.

The U.S. also has denounced Russia’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has expressed opposition to Moscow’s military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Tensions between Washington and Moscow escalated in March when the U.S. and dozens of other nations ordered Russian diplomats to leave their countries after a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned in the United Kingdom with a military-grade nerve agent. Russia has denied responsibility and has accused the U.S. of coordinating an extortion plan.

Regarding the potential summit, the official said a lot of planning still must be done, including setting a date and location.

If the summit does take place, it would be the third meeting between the two leaders. They met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit last July in Hamburg, Germany, and in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam.

Trump currently is focusing on a planned June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The senior administration official said if negotiations with North Korea continue, plans for the summit with Russia will be delayed.

Trump has said a number of times he would like to improve relations with Russia.
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The faked murder of a Russian journalist in Ukraine has set off soul searching among journalists and a debate in civil society over the propriety of the gambit in an era of propaganda and “fake news.”

On Tuesday, journalists were shocked by the apparent slaying of Russian dissident, war veteran and journalist Arkady Babchenko, who Ukrainian authorities said had been gunned down outside his apartment in Kyiv. The first reports came from personal friends of Babchenko on their social media pages. This was quickly followed by official announcements from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Within hours of the killing, Ukrainian police even released a sketch of a possible suspect.

The next day, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) caused an even bigger shock wave by revealing that Babchenko was in fact very much alive. The SBU said the killing had been staged as part of a sting operation to catch a suspected Russian agent who was targeting Kremlin enemies in Ukraine. Journalists around the world expressed their astonishment when Babchenko appeared at the press conference along with Ukrainian officials. 

Perhaps the most dramatic reaction came from his own colleagues at the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR:

“This may have been the appropriate way to go about saving someone’s life,” Michael Carpenter, a former U.S. adviser on Russia and Ukraine, told VOA News. “But it does have long-term consequences, the way it was carried out.”

Critics and supporters of the act expressed relief that Babchenko was alive, but many voiced concerns about the credibility of Ukrainian government institutions. Others suggested that this would be a gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in some scandal.

Writing for the British newspaper The Independent, Oliver Carroll called the situation a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for the Kremlin.

“Ukraine is now a storyteller; nothing that comes out of Ukraine is really how it seems; everything Ukraine says is to show Russia in a bad light,” Carroll wrote. “Russia has been accused by the U.S. of using disinformation campaigns to try and affect the 2016 presidential election and in such a climate there is no doubt Moscow will use the staged killing to undermine news out of Kyiv.”

Threats did occur

There is little doubt Babchenko faced death threats in response to his years of journalistic work. In 2017, a wave of new threats in response to one of his Facebook posts forced him to flee Russia. Officials at Wednesday’s news conference explained how they had detected a plot to assassinate not only Babchenko but other Russian dissidents living in Ukraine. In contrast to several other high-profile slayings or attempted slayings of Russian dissidents in other countries, this time a suspect was captured.

The intelligence agency that staged the fake hit, however, has its own checkered past in controlling the media inside Ukraine. In its annual report, Freedom on the Net 2017, Freedom House listed Ukraine as only “partly free.” The democracy and human rights NGO said the SBU campaign was aimed at a pro-Russian news agency — blocking websites, forcing removal of content and even staging raids of two Ukrainian news outlets.

In late 2017, the English language Kyiv Post published a story that accused the SBU of using the armed conflict against Russia as a pretext “to persecute government critics and enrich themselves.”

In this context, some suggest the SBU’s faked homicide could be a propaganda gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in scandals or its own version of fake news.

“They will cite this, they will exploit this, they will use this to throw all sorts of doubts and seed questions about the legitimacy of Western news sources,” said Carpenter, who served in the White House advising Vice President Joe Biden on Russia.

Defenders, however, pointed out that had Babchenko been killed, the Kremlin and Russian state media would spread disinformation about his death while continuing their denial of involvement in such cases as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 or the more recent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in London.

Among journalists, the debate rages on the ethics of one of their own participating in a fake news event. The OSCE Representative for Media Freedom condemned the “spread of false information” on Twitter. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov also tweeted that Babchenko’s involvement in the scheme was “crossing a line” with him. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a statement condemning the stunt for raising many questions, which they listed. First among them was how “credible and imminent” the threat to Babchenko’s life was at the time.

‘Very difficult’ matter

Frank Sesno, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told Voice of America that the question of ethics in this case was “very difficult terrain.”

“If in fact there was legitimate information that an assassination was pending, that his family and his children were threatened as well, which apparently they were — that’s what he’s claiming, anyway — and if the security forces felt this was the only way to flush out the perpetrators or planners of this sort of thing, then reluctantly I would say this is something that probably needed to happen,” Sesno said.

Sesno pointed out that there are regimes that target and sometimes kill journalists, and “that needs to be exposed.” Yet he called for “full transparency and honesty” from those involved.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the press freedom implications depend on the answers to its series of questions, involving the seriousness of the threat to Babchenko, identities of the alleged plot organizer and contract killer, and who in the Ukrainian government knew of the staged killing.

“What is known is that the Ukrainian government has damaged its own credibility,” Nina Ognianova of CPJ’s European office wrote on Wednesday. “Given the SBU is an intelligence agency, which engages in deception, obfuscation and propaganda, determining the truth will be very difficult.” 

As to whether Babchenko’s fake slaying was a “gift” to Russian propagandists, there seemed to be only mixed initial evidence supporting the concern. While Babchenko was still thought to be dead, the state media and Russian officials seemed to be launching a narrative. Sputnik News on May 29 advanced a narrative portraying Ukraine as inherently dangerous for journalists. Before news of Babchenko’s “resurrection” broke, The Republic reported that Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the U.S. bore responsibility for Babchenko’s death.

Since the revelation, domestic Russian media fastened on the Skripal poisoning, but 30 hours later neither the Russian government nor state had demonstrated it was an international propaganda game changer.

In a way, the Babchenko story provides a good example of what is, and what is not, “fake news.” The fiction was not promoted knowingly by any journalist, other than Babchenko himself. The narrative was created and supported by Ukraine security and police officials. Even Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed it was opening a criminal case on the matter, citing the fact that Babchenko was a Russian citizen.

In a post-revelation interview, Babchenko explained how he was covered in pig’s blood after donning a T-shirt with bullet holes already in it. He was actually taken to the morgue before being “resurrected.” For all intents and purposes, Babchenko’s “killing” was “real news,” until it was publicly revealed as a hoax.

In the same interview, Babchenko gave his own opinion about disinformation surrounding the story:

“By the way, this is an example of birth of fake news: I don’t understand why there’s a version with me going to buy a loaf of bread [that] came up. I didn’t go to buy bread, I went to buy water.”

This story first appeared on Polygraph.info, a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Original reporting contributed by VOA’s Ukrainian service and Russia service and RFE/RL.
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Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist, worked with Ukrainian intelligence to stage his assassination. A day later, Kyiv security officials unveiled the ruse. While officials claim the scheme was necessary to save Babchenko’s life, ethics experts worry about the consequences. Bronwyn Benito narrates this report by Iryna Matviichuk of VOA’s Ukranian service.
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After three months of political deadlock following inconclusive March 4 elections, Italy has a new government. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a political novice, and his ministers were sworn in Friday. The government is backed by the populist 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League.

Markets breathed easier Friday after months of political wrangling ended. European stocks closed higher after Italian parties reached an agreement that led to the formation and swearing in of a new government, thereby averting the prospect of an early general election.

Conte has been dubbed “Mr. Nobody.” The 53-year old law professor took the oath of office along with his 18 ministers, five of them women. In the gilded Quirinale Palace, President Sergio Mattarella presided over the ceremony.

The new government coalition consists of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League. The two parties have a solid majority in both houses of parliament. Conte’s government will now seek confidence votes there early next week in order to be fully empowered.

Italy’s future in the eurozone has dominated the political uncertainty of the last week, with the head of state vetoing the coalition’s original choice for economy minister, Euroskeptic economist Paolo Savona. On Friday, Savona was sworn in as the new European affairs minister.

Mattarella’s rejection of Savona as economy minister led to the breakdown of the coalition’s first attempt to form a government. A technocratic government seemed the only solution until the leaders of the 5-Star Movement and the League decided to present a new lineup to the president, which was acceptable.

Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, who respectively head the 5-Star Movement and the League, are both deputy prime ministers in the new government. In addition, Di Maio will run the Labor Ministry and Salvini the Interior Ministry, two of the most important portfolios in Italy today.

Salvini said his first order of business as the country’s new interior minister would be to revamp the nation’s immigration policies. He wants to reduce the number of migrants arriving, increase the number of expulsions and cut the funds Italy spends tending to migrants.
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Brexit Secretary David Davis is creating a Brexit plan that would give Northern Ireland joint UK and European Union status so it could trade freely with both, as well as a buffer zone to eliminate the need for border checkpoints with Ireland, The Sun newspaper reported on Thursday.

Davis is drawing a proposed 10-mile (16-km)-wide trade buffer zone along the border that would be in effect for local traders like dairy farmers after Britain leaves the bloc, the newspaper said. 

The Brexit minister’s plan is a revision of the “max fac” or “maximum facilitation” plan, the report said, citing a source.

British Prime Minister Theresa May previously pledged to take the UK out of the EU customs union by considering two options. One would be “max fac” in which the UK and EU would be entirely separate customs areas but would try to use technology to reduce friction and costs at the border.

The other option being considered is a “customs partnership”, according to which the UK would cooperate with the EU more closely and collect tariffs on its behalf with no requirement of declarations of goods crossing the border.

The European Union previously criticized May for not setting out how the UK would achieve a frictionless border with the EU without erecting a land border to control goods between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Britain suggested earlier this month that it would be willing to extend the use of EU tariffs as a backstop if there were delays in ratification of a Brexit deal to avoid a return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, adding the government did not want to use that option. 
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The United States’ allies in the G-7 vowed Thursday to push back against Washington’s decision to impose tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, saying as they gathered for a meeting that the move threatens global growth.

The escalating trade conflict between the United States and many key allies will dominate the three-day meeting in Canada of financial leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations that began Thursday, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the top target for their complaints and lobbying.

The United States said it was moving ahead to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, starting at midnight (0400 GMT Friday), ending months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and sending a chill through financial markets.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire demanded a “permanent and total exemption” from the tariffs and said that European Union countries would respond with their own measures.

The U.S. tariff decision “is unjustified and unjustifiable and will have dangerous consequences for global growth,” Le Maire said in comments to media on his way to the meeting of policymakers from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada in the mountain resort of Whistler, British Columbia.

His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, said EU member states would show their unity and sovereignty by acting in a determined way. “Our response should be clear, strong and smart,” Scholz told Reuters.

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the tariffs would color the G-7 meeting.

“There will be some challenging discussions I’m sure,” Morneau told a news conference as top policymakers gathered. “We are not saying there won’t be frictions,” he added. “We’re not saying we won’t have strong words. We’re not saying we won’t be able to send messages.”

Mnuchin, who was not at the introductory discussion panels focused on development and sharing the benefits of global growth, is scheduled to meet individually with many of his global counterparts during the three-day meeting.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the U.S. decision to target trade in goods, not services, was misplaced.

“This focus on goods trade, bilateral goods, is not the right focus in a hyperconnected world where most of the economic activity, most people work, most small businesses, most women work in the service sector,” Carney told a panel.

“If we were to liberalize services to the same degree as we have liberalized [trade in] goods, these balances would be cut in half for the United States and for the U.K.,” Carney added.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said if trade was “massively disrupted,” the level of public trust in leaders would be severely damaged.

“First of all, those who will suffer most are the poorest, the less privileged people, those who actually rely on imported goods to have their living,” she said, adding that long-standing supply chains also would be disrupted.

The U.S. actions on trade policy, which also include potential tariffs and investment restrictions on China and a national security probe that could lead to tariffs on auto imports, are expected to also dominate the G-7 summit of world leaders in Quebec next week. 
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Nine people were hurt, including two children, when Croatian border police fired at a van full of illegal migrants that refused to stop.

Police said they discovered 29 people inside the van after it crossed the border from Bosnia.

The driver fled into the woods, and police were searching for him. 

The two wounded children were recovering in a hospital, and officials said their lives were not in danger.

“We are sorry about the children being injured in this incident,” Zadar town police chief Anton Drazina said. “Our priority is the fight against organized crime and protection of the state border and not against the migrants, but against the criminals who are unfortunately endangering the lives of the migrants by their smuggling activities.”

Police said most of the people in the van were from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants used the so-called Balkan route to cross into the European Union before the route was shut down. But a number of people still slip through.
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