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A Swiss couple whose bodies were found on an Alpine glacier after they went missing for nearly 75 years have been buried in Switzerland.

Swiss broadcaster SRF said the funeral of Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine, took place Saturday in a church in Saviese in southwestern Switzerland.

They were 40 and 37 when they disappeared on August 15, 1942. The couple’s daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, now 79, said her parents set off on foot to feed their animals but never returned.

SRF said two daughters took part in the funeral; the other five children have already died.

The bodies were found on the Tsanfleuron Glacier at 2,615 meters (8,580 feet) above sea level. Swiss police say that because of climate change, the bodies of long-dead people have been emerging from receding glaciers.
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Two aftershocks hit the Greek island of Kos on Saturday night, just a day after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake killed two people and injured nearly 500 others.

The first aftershock, of 4.4 magnitude, hit the island about 8 p.m. local time and was followed 16 minutes later by a 4.6-magnitude tremor, the Athens Geodynamics Institute reported.

The fresh tremors meant more worrying for residents and tourists on the island, as hundreds chose to spend the night sleeping outside, too scared to return to their homes or hotel rooms.

Officials on the island were assessing damage to cultural monuments and infrastructure, such as the port’s 14th-century castle and other older buildings affected by the quake.

The island’s port was among the damaged structures, along with a minaret from an old mosque.

The port was closed and ferry services were canceled until further inspection. Passengers were rerouted to nearby islands.

Kos Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis said that most of the residential buildings affected were old, predating earthquake building codes.

One that collapsed dated to the 1930s, Kyritsis said. “There are not many old buildings left on Kos. Nearly all the structures on the island have been built under the new codes to withstand earthquakes,” he added.

Greek authorities said the two tourists killed were from Turkey and Sweden but did not disclose their names.

At least five people were seriously injured and were flown to a hospital on the Greek island of Crete.

The earthquake was the second in the region this year to exceed a magnitude of 6.0, a level that can cause considerable damage.
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Two former top U.S. intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”

Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t hold back their anger about Trump’s past disparaging comments about the intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow deliberately interfered in the election and tried to sow discord in the United States.

Asked if he thinks Trump takes the threat from Russia seriously enough, Clapper said he wonders sometimes if the White House agenda is about “making Russia great again.” The comment played off Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

In a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Clapper and Brennan said that Trump advisers should have been more wary of meeting with a Russian lawyer and others. In June, in the heat of the campaign, the president’s son, his campaign manager and his son-in-law met a group at Trump Tower in New York that included a Russian lawyer and Russian lobbyist. Emails about the meeting showed that Donald Trump Jr., attended on the premise of obtaining damaging material the Russian government had on Hillary Clinton

“It would have been a really good idea to have vetted whomever they were meeting with. I think the Russian objective here was to explore to see if there was interest in having such a discussion on offering up dirt on Hillary Clinton,” Clapper said. He said the meeting reminds him of standard Russian spy craft.

Brennan called the meeting “profoundly baffling” and wondered why Trump advisers would “jump at the opportunity” to meet with individuals about getting information on Clinton. “The Russians operate in a very cunning manner and they will take and exploit any opportunity they get,” he said.

Clapper also suggested that the security clearance held by Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and the president’s son-in-law, should at least be suspended until it can be determined why he failed to disclose all the meetings he’s had with Russians.

Both said they didn’t think the Trump administration should return compounds in Maryland and New York to the Russians. President Barack Obama closed them in response to the Russian interference in the election. Clapper called the compound on the Eastern Shore a Russian “intelligence collection facility.” The Russians have said the estates were used for recreational escapes by Russian diplomats and their families.

Both expressed their annoyance at Trump’s negative statements about the intelligence agencies’ assessments of Russia and the presidential election.

“It’s interesting that Mr. Trump and others will point to U.S. intelligence when it comes to North Korea, or Iran or Syria … but when it’s inconsistent with what I think are preconceived notions as well as maybe preferences about what the truth would be, then the intelligence community assessments, the work force and the profession are disparaged. That’s when my and Jim Clapper’s blood boils,” Brennan said.

Brennan also said he was upset when Trump leaned over to Russian President Vladimir Putin before their recent meeting in Europe to say it was a “great honor” to meet him.

“This is Mr. Putin, who assaulted one of the foundational pillars of our democracy – our election system – invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, that has suppressed or repressed political opponents in Russia and caused the deaths of many of them,” he said. “I thought it was a very, very bad negotiating tactic.”

Both also said they were concerned about a second discussion the two leaders had in Europe with only a Russian interpreter. Clapper said Trump should have had his own translator to record the conversation and avoid any misinterpretations. Brennan said he has never heard of any other instance where a U.S. president has had a meeting with a Russian head of state without a U.S. translator.

“To have this one-off and rely on a Russian translator … It again raises concerns about what else may be going on between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin that is being held behind closed doors or outside the public view,” he said.
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Poland’s Senate approved a contentious law Saturday that gives politicians substantial influence over the Supreme Court, in defiance of European Union criticism.

The bill proposed by the populist ruling party only needs the signature of President Andrzej Duda to become binding. Duda has so far followed the ruling party line.

The vote was 55-23 with two abstentions. And it was met with boos from protesters gathered in front of the Senate building.

End of judicial independence

EU leaders say the bill would kill judicial independence and threaten the rule of law in the EU’s largest member in Central and Eastern Europe. The U.S. Department of State voiced concern Friday.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, contends the judiciary still works along a communist-era model and harbors many judges from that time. Communist rule ended in 1989. He says the justice system needs “radical changes” to become efficient and reliable.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo says the legislation is an internal matter and the government will not bow to any foreign pressure.

The legislation calls for firing current Supreme Court judges, except those chosen by the justice minister and approved by the president. It gives the president the power to issue regulations for the court’s work. It also introduces a disciplinary chamber that, on a motion from the justice minister, would handle suspected breaches of regulations or ethics.

​Protesters gather again

In anticipation of the vote, crowds gathered Friday night for yet another protest in front of the Supreme Court building in Warsaw and in some other cities. About 200 protesters also gathered in front of Duda’s vacation home in Jurata, on the Baltic coast, to demand that he doesn’t sign the bill.

The president has 21 days to sign it, and is not expected to do it before his meeting Monday with the head of the court, Malgorzata Gersdorf.

Two other bills on a key judicial body and on regular courts also await Duda’s signature.

Duda has so far not accepted an invitation for talks on the issue from European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.

Speaking to Poland’s TVN24, Tusk repeated his readiness for talks and said he was a “little disappointed’’ there has been no meeting.

Tusk said the steps the Polish government is taking toward the judiciary would allow it to limit social freedoms if it wants. He said they are in conflict with the EU’s principles and are damaging to Poland’s international standing.

European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans has warned that Poland could face a proceeding under Article 7 of the EU treaty, which makes possible sanctions in case of a “serious and persistent” breach of the EU’s basic values. In theory, Poland could be deprived of its vote in the EU’s council of governments, but such a move would have to be unanimous.

 
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The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 campaign has represented a military unit operated by Russia’s intelligence agency, according to court filings obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

The filings from 2011 and 2012 show that Natalia Veselnitskaya represented Military Unit 55002 — run by the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency — in a dispute over property rights. The court ruled in favor of the Federal Property Agency, which sought to regain ownership of a building occupied by the military unit.

Veselnitskaya was not immediately available for comment.

President Donald Trump’s eldest son, his son-in-law and then-campaign manager met with Veselnitskaya in June 2016 after being told that she could provide potentially incriminating information about Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The meeting has been billed by many as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican’s White House campaign.

Veselnitskaya denied having any ties to the Russian government, although the man who arranged the meeting said she got the information from Russia’s prosecutor general.

The court filings described how the building which used to be property of the Soviet Ministry of Electronic Industries was privatized following the fall of the Soviet Union and sold off to two private companies. The claimant argued that the building was sold illegally and that the military unit that was running it “essentially owns the disputed property and bears the maintenance costs.”

The filing shows that the military unit had been using the building since 2007 after the two companies first lost the case in 2006. They appealed the ruling until 2012.

The five-story building in the north of Moscow is currently occupied by Electronintorg, a state-owned electronics company which services the Russian military.
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Whether Kenya’s elections next month turn deadly violent, like the 2007 vote, or remain mostly peaceful, like the 2013 poll, international monitors will be on the ground to see whether the final outcome is trustworthy and fair.

With political tensions running high, it’s too early to tell how the August 8 elections might go. But Marietje Schaake, the head of the 2017 European Union Election Observation Mission to Kenya, says the voters she’s met with ardently hope there will be no election drama this time around.

“I myself have visited Mombasa, Eldoret and two other regions of Kenya, other than Nairobi, to talk to as many Kenyans as possible about what they see as important elements of this election. The vast majority of Kenyans want nothing more other than this election to be credible, transparent and peaceful,” Schaake told VOA’s Horn of Africa service in an interview Friday.

HRW has concerns

That’s not guaranteed, given that opposition parties have complained of alleged irregularities in the electoral system, and Human Rights Watch released a statement Friday criticizing the conduct of security forces and expressing concern about Kenyans’ rights to free expression and assembly ahead of the vote.

Earlier this month, the rights group urged Kenyan authorities to urgently investigate allegations of threats and intimidation between communities in Nakuru County’s Naivasha area.

Schaake, a European Parliament member and a politician from the Netherlands, said the EU observers are trying to determine if those concerns are legitimate.

“We hear different opinions from different people and we are assessing the extent to which there is a founding in this or whether there is no reason for concerns,” she said.

EU mission has started

In late June, the EU mission deployed 15 two-person teams around the country to begin monitoring the run-up to the elections. They will be joined by more than 100 short-term observers in the days before the vote.

About 20 million Kenyans are registered to vote in the election, now less than three weeks away. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is running for a second term against seven opponents, most prominently former prime minister Raila Odinga. It was Odinga’s loss in the hotly-disputed 2007 election that set off weeks of political and ethnic violence across Kenya, leaving more than 1,100 people dead.

Thousands of other contenders are vying for posts as senators, governors, members of parliament, members of county assemblies and women representatives.

All aspects of campaign being studied

Schaake says the EU observers are watching all aspects of the campaign, including the actions of the media, law enforcement, the parties, and the electoral commission.

“We talk to all kinds of stakeholders representative of political parties, police, and civil society to assess how the election have been organized,” she said. “…To look at the extent candidates can share their viewpoints. The way in which state resources have been deployed. Whether police and government are acting even handedly.”

“We really assess how the legal standards are applied and respected in practice,” she added.

Free and fair?

With a team of 130 observers, Schaake acknowledges the EU mission will not be able to monitor all polling stations on Aug. 8.

“We will only share about our observation what we have been able to see with our own eyes,” she said. “We are ambitious but we can’t be in every town and township in this large and important country.”

The EU observers will stay in Kenya until after the election and prepare a final report on whether the poll was free and fair.
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Russia’s parliament passed a bill to outlaw the use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, and other Internet proxy services, citing concerns about the spread of extremist materials.

The State Duma on Friday unanimously passed a bill that would oblige Internet providers to block websites that offer VPN services. Many Russians use VPNs to access blocked content by routing connections through servers outside the country.

The lawmakers behind the bill argued that the move could help to enforce Russia’s ban on disseminating extremist content online.

The bill has to be approved at the upper chamber of parliament and signed by the president before it comes into effect.

Russian authorities have been cracking down on Internet freedoms in recent years. Among other things they want Internet companies to store privacy data on Russian servers.
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U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Obama’s China ambassador for the U.S. top envoy in Russia. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, served as U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the first Bush administration and was elected twice as governor of Utah. In 2011 he resigned from his post in Beijing to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but soon dropped out. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more about Trump’s nominee for a high profile diplomatic post.
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A powerful earthquake sent a building crashing down on tourists at a bar on the Greek holiday island of Kos and struck panic on the nearby shores of Turkey early Friday, killing two people and injuring some 200 people.

Rescue authorities said two men from Turkey and Sweden died in the collapse at the White Corner Club when the 6.5-magnitude quake struck at about 1:30 a.m., rattling Greek islands and the Turkish Aegean coast in a region where seismic activity is common. The dead vacationers were not named.

Hundreds of revelers were in or near the popular White Corner Club in the old town of Kos when the building partially collapsed. 

At least five other people were seriously injured on Kos as tourists and local residents scrambled out of buildings, some even leaping from balconies. Five of the injured were being taken by helicopter to a hospital on the island of Crete, officials said. 

Kos old town area littered with debris

Kos’s old town area, full of bars and other nighttime entertainment, was littered with fallen bricks and other debris. The island’s hotels had broken glass and other damage, leaving hundreds of tourists to spend the rest of the night outdoors, resting on beach loungers with blankets provided by staff.

“The instant reaction was to get ourselves out of the room,’’ said Christopher Hackland of Edinburgh, Scotland, who is a scuba instructor on Kos. “There was banging. There was shaking. The light was swinging, banging on the ceiling, crockery falling out of the cupboards, and pans … 

“There was a lot of screaming and crying and hysterics coming from the hotel,’’ he said, referring to the hotel next to his apartment building. “It felt like being at a theme park with one of the illusions, an optical illusion where you feel like you’re upside down.’’

Other buildings damaged included an old mosque where a minaret collapsed and a 14th-century fortress at the entrance to the main port. Coastal roads were flooded. Minor damage — cracks in buildings, smashed windows and trashed shops — appeared widespread.

Rescuers were checking for trapped people inside houses after the quake struck in the middle of the night and were heading to outlying villages to check for damage. Ferry service was canceled until daylight because Kos’s main port was damaged.

Panic in Turkey 

Greek officials said the quake was 6.5-magnitude and the numerous aftershocks were weaker but still could put at risk the buildings that were already damaged. The epicenter was 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of Bodrum, Turkey, and 10 miles (16 kilometers) east-northeast of Kos with a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers). 

Turkish authorities said some 70 people were treated in hospitals in the resort of Bodrum for minor injuries, mostly sustained during panicked flight from their homes. But damage was light and they expect life will soon return to normal. 

Hotel guests briefly returned to their rooms to pick up their belongings but chose to spend the rest of the night outside, with some using sheets and cushions borrowed from nearby lounge chairs to build makeshift beds.

Several Greek government ministers, as well as rescuers with sniffer dogs and structural engineers traveled to Kos overnight to coordinate the rescue effort. The British Foreign Office warned travelers of the possibility of aftershocks, urging them to follow the advice of the local authorities.

Greece and Turkey lie in an especially earthquake-prone zone. 
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined a rowing regatta, visited a cancer research center and made pretzels in the university city of Heidelberg on the second day of their visit to Germany.

Prince William and his wife, Kate, took to the waters of the Neckar river on Thursday afternoon, coxing two opposing boats in a race of rowers from Heidelberg and its twin city Cambridge.

With German onlookers cheering the royal couple everywhere they showed up, they also practiced shaping pretzels at a British-German market in downtown Heidelberg, tried a local vintner’s wine and made sugar canes, the German news agency dpa reported.

“This visit is an enormous honor for us,” Mayor Eckart Wuerzner said.

Earlier Thursday, William and Kate also toured the German Cancer Research Center, peering through a microscope for a glimpse of the facility’s work. British researcher Michael Milsom, an expert in the development of blood stem cells, said he could never have dreamed of presenting his research to his future king.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg state governor, Winfried Kretschmann, gave the couple a specially made cuckoo clock with a British flag. Prince George and Princess Charlotte were given teddy bears with their names embroidered on them.

In the evening, the Duke and Duchess were returning to Berlin to attend a reception at the city’s famed Claerchens Ballhaus, one of the last remaining Berlin ballrooms, which opened in 1913.
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Russian authorities are investigating fidget spinners after state television reported that opposition activists are using them to attract supporters.

State-owned Rossiya 24 put out a report last month, claiming the popular toys were sold at opposition rallies and that online advertisements for them lead to YouTube channels promoting opposition politicians.

Fidget spinners – toys usually made of metal designed to keep small hands occupied – have taken the world by storm in recent months.

Russia’s consumer watchdog said in a statement on Tuesday that it is concerned about “an aggressive promotion of spinners” among children and teenagers. The Consumer Oversight Agency said it has teamed up with researchers to “study the influence” of fidget spinners on children’s well-being.

Pending the investigation the watchdog issued tips for parents who do buy fidget spinners for their children, including a recommendation to purchase them only from licensed sellers and check them for broken parts.
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After renowned journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bombing in central Kyiv last year, Ukraine’s president promised all-out efforts to solve the case. But as of Thursday’s anniversary of his death, there has been no visible progress.

Instead, say Ukrainian journalists, the case is mired in either incompetence or deliberate inaction. In a country where violence against journalists is frequent, reporters feel more in danger than ever.

The killing of 44-year-old Sheremet, who was driving in central Kyiv to appear on a morning radio show on July 20, 2016, was a shock that resonated far beyond Ukraine. The Belarusian native had received international awards and was widely lauded for bold reporting at home, where he was jailed for three months and then given a two-year prison suspended sentence in 1997. He later moved to Russia, where he worked for a TV station controlled by Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, then went to Ukraine to work at respected internet publication Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainska Pravda was long a thorn in the side of Ukraine’s corruption-ridden elite. Its first editor, Heorhiy Gongadze, was found decapitated in 2000 and audio recordings later emerged that implicated then-president Leonid Kuchma in his killing.

The failure to find Sheremet’s killer leaves Ukraine’s journalists feeling imperiled.

“Lack of progress in the Sheremet case is better than any declaration to show how authorities really care about the safety of journalists,” National Union of Journalists head Serhiy Tomilenko said.

Sheremet’s friends, colleagues and activists gathered Thursday morning around the time that Sheremet was killed. About 200 people laid flowers and left candles at the intersection where his car blew up before setting off to march to the presidential administration to express their frustration with the investigation. Some of the mourners spray-painted “Who killed Pavel?” on the sidewalk outside the presidential administration and plastered a poster with Sheremet’s portrait at the entrance to National Police headquarters.

Police say the killing was committed carefully, making identifying suspects harder.

“Unfortunately, the criminal offense was committed with good quality, so the investigation has not yet found the person who can be reasonably suspected of involvement in the murder,” Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said.

‘Impunity has become the norm’

Tomilenko’s group told an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe freedom-of-speech conference last month that more than 800 journalists have faced violence or threats in Ukraine since 2014. Although about half the incidents were connected to the 2014 mass protests that drove a Moscow-friendly president into exile or with the conflicts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine that followed, about 400 cases have happened in the rest of the country.

Most recently, reporter Volodymyr Volovodyuk, who had investigated black-market trading in the central Vinnytsia region, was beaten to death June 12.

None of these cases have been prosecuted.

“Impunity has become the norm,” Tomilenko said. “The daily life of journalists is more like reports from the front.”

After the 2014 uprising, Ukraine has increased its drive to become more integrated with Western Europe and to move out of Russia’s sphere of influence. But Europe is often uneasy with Ukraine’s disorder and corruption, and the Sheremet case adds to nervousness.

“Authorities say Russia is the prime suspect, but the lack of progress in the case, coupled with evidence pointing to possible Ukrainian involvement, weaken Kyiv’s credibility and suggest the need for an independent probe,” the Committee to Protect Journalists international watchdog said in a recent report.

The evidence referred to by CPJ centers on a report put together by Sheremet’s colleagues and other journalists, assisted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

That investigation identified two people observed by security cameras as lurking near Sheremet’s car the night before the blast, and identified one of them as a former agent of the national security service, the SBU. The SBU decline comment.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with Sheremet’s family last week and acknowledged that the probe had brought no results, but confirmed that he was “interested in a transparent investigation.”
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Furious survivors of the London high-rise fire that killed at least 80 people booed the new leader of the local authority during chaotic scenes on Wednesday at the council’s first meeting since the blaze.

About 70 survivors of last month’s fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment block and other local residents gathered to protest as council members met amid tight security at Kensington Town Hall in north London.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council has been criticized by locals and politicians for its slow and ineffective response to the fire while many accuse the authority, which administers one of Britain’s wealthiest areas, of having turned its back on social housing.

“We did not do well enough in our initial response to the tragedy … tonight I want to reiterate my apology to you directly,” said council leader Elizabeth Campbell. “No ifs, no buts, no excuses. I am deeply sorry. We did not do enough to help you when you needed it most.”

Kensington’s previous leader Nicholas Paget-Brown resigned following his decision to abruptly suspend the last council meeting on June 29 when he said holding it in public could interfere with a future inquiry.

Campbell promised there would be a new direction at the council and that it would spend some of the 250 million pounds ($325 million) it held in reserve on new housing for those who had lived in Grenfell.

But her election was greeted with cries of “shame on you” and her subsequent speech was repeatedly interrupted by shouts and boos, while some residents who could not get into the meeting banged loudly on the council chamber doors.

After Campbell’s speech, a succession of survivors were invited to speak, many furiously berating the council for its failures.

Holding up the key to her Grenfell Tower apartment and weeping, Iranian national Mahboobeh Jamalvatan said: “Every time I look at this key, I wonder and I ask ‘what’s the difference between us human beings?’ We are all created human beings.

“The U.K. is accusing other countries about a lack of human rights, but there are lots of people from those counties living in the UK. Why don’t you care about human rights here?”

British police have said the final death toll from the blaze that gutted the 24-story building might not be known until next year.
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The European Union is coming closer to imposing sanctions on Poland for the government’s controversial attempt to take control of the judiciary, a senior EU official warned Wednesday, as new street protests and heated debate erupted in the Polish parliament.

The ruling conservative and populist Law and Justice Party had been rushing to get parliament’s approval for a contentious draft law that would reorganize the nation’s highest court. But it has had to slow down after vehement objection from the opposition, alarm from the EU and mass peaceful protests against the measure.

After a tense debate in parliament, lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to send the draft bill on the Supreme Court for more work by a special parliamentary commission. Opposition legislators have proposed 1,300 amendments to the draft, which they say violates the constitution, kills judicial independence and destroys the democratic principle of the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch.

Crowds have held street protests in Warsaw and other cities in defense of democracy and judicial independence, chanting “Free courts!” and “Freedom, equality, democracy!” They urged President Andrzej Duda to veto the draft legislation.

It was the latest in a string of conflicts that has exposed the deepening political divide in Poland since Law and Justice won power in 2015.

The proposed bill calls for the immediate dismissal of the current Supreme Court judges, except those chosen by the justice minister. It would give the justice minister the power to appoint the key court’s judges.

In a proposed amendment, the Law and Justice has switched those powers to the president.

The ruling party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, insists that its reforms will introduce “good change” expected by the people who voted them in. It also argues that the judiciary still works along communist-era principles and needs radical reforms and new people to be efficient.

The opposition says the changes to the judiciary are Kaczynski’s revenge on judges who have been critical of his policies.

Kaczynski, a lawyer, is currently Poland’s most powerful politician, controlling the government, the parliament and having influence on the president, even though he holds no government office.

The vote Wednesday was 434-6 with one abstention for a justice commission to review the draft law.

Shortly after the vote, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in Brussels that the EU may soon strip Poland of its voting rights because its recent steps toward the judiciary “greatly amplify the threat to the rule of law” and threaten to put the judiciary “under full political control of the government.”

Such a sanction, which was intended to ensure democratic standards in EU members, requires unanimity among all other member states. Timmerman said the dialogue between the EU and Poland should continue while the legislation is being worked on.

Poland’s parliament has already approved new laws that give lawmakers the power to appoint judges to the regulatory National Council of the Judiciary, and changed regulations for ordinary courts. All changes require the approval of Duda, who has so far followed the ruling party line.

Law and Justice has previously backed down under mass protests — including last year when it withdrew a proposed ban on abortions after a nationwide women’s strike.

The debate preceding Wednesday’s vote has led to some unpleasant exchanges in parliament.

An opposition lawmaker, Borys Budka, drew Kaczynski’s wrath when he implied that his late twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, had prevented him previously from taking any drastic steps toward the justice system.

Kaczynski’s reaction was immediate and violent.

“Don’t wipe your treacherous mugs with the name of my late brother. You destroyed him, you murdered him, you are scoundrels,” Kaczynski shouted from the podium. He was referring to the 2010 plane crash that killed the president, his brother, which he blames on the former government of the Civic Platform party.

Poland’s former foreign minister and head of the Civic Platform, Grzegorz Schetyna, condemned the tone of the parliamentary debate.

“It shows that we are in some catastrophic place, not only regarding emotions, but also regarding the level of the public debate,” Schetyna said Wednesday.
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Terror attacks and terror-related deaths trended downward last year although efforts to degrade the Islamic State terror group as well as Iran’s network of state-sponsored terror groups did little to diminish their capabilities.

In its annual report on global terrorism  released Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said worldwide terror attacks fell by nine percent from 2015 to 2016, while the number of deaths dipped 13 percent.

But American officials cautioned IS remained “the most capable terrorist organization globally in 2016,” helping to drive a more than 20-percent increase in attacks in Iraq compared to 2015.

They also warned IS continued to use its own operatives while exploiting ungoverned spaces in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, northeastern Nigeria, parts of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

“ISIS was responsible for more attacks and death than any other perpetrator group in 2016,” said Justin Siberell, the State Department’s acting coordinator for counterterrorism, using one of the many acronyms for the terror group.

“Attacks outside ISIS territorial strongholds in Iraq and Syria were an increasingly important part of ISIS’ 2016 terrorism campaign,” he added.

Closed-door briefing

On Capitol Hill, senators of both parties expressed cautious optimism that progress is being made in the fight against IS, after a closed-door briefing by top administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“There’s a whole different kind of effort that is underway,” Republican Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “There’s just a lot more clarity, a lot more focus on annihilation [of IS].

“There’s a renewed energy, renewed focus, and they are not playing around. Anybody that listened to that [briefing] understands they are all about killing every ISIS member they can get a hold of,” added Corker, of Tennessee.

“I think there is clear progress,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said. “A lot of tough fighting ahead. But I am cautiously optimistic, based upon what I heard [at the briefing].”

‘A worldwide threat’

Like IS, State Department officials warned the al-Qaida terror group and its regional affiliates also found ways to take advantage of ineffective governments across Africa and the Middle East “to remain a significant worldwide threat.”

Al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in particular, has benefited from the ongoing conflict there “by significantly expanding its presence in the southern and eastern governorates,” the State Department report warned.

The report also concluded al-Qaida continued to benefit from a willingness by the Iranian government to look the other way.

“Since at least 2009, Iran has allowed AQ (al-Qaida) facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria,” the report stated, citing just one of several concerns the United States has about what it continues to call the world foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

‘Extremely sophisticated’

The report also raised concerns about Iran’s continued support for Shia terror groups in Iraq as well as for Lebanon-based Hezbollah, described by the State Department’s Siberell as an “extremely sophisticated” terror group with a global network.

Along with Iran, Hezbollah operatives and fighters have been active in bolstering the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite suffering heavy casualties.

“There is a mixed picture on whether that has strengthened or weakened the group,” Siberell said. “They maintain a significant military capability that is being brought to bear.”

Over 11,000 terror attacks last year

According to the State Department report, 2016 was the second year in a row the world saw fewer attacks and fewer deaths due to terrorism.

Citing data collected by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, the report said there were more than 11,000 terror attacks last year resulting in more than 25,600 deaths.

More than 100 countries were victims of terror attacks, but the majority took place in just five, including Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, the report said.

VOA’s Michael Bowman contributed to this report from Capitol Hill.
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Russia says it reserves the right to retaliate in an ongoing dispute with the U.S. over the seizure of two Russian compounds last December by the Obama administration.  Before leaving office, then President Barack Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying, and saying the actions were to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Now Russia says its patience is running out. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Thirty-five European children have died from measles in the past 12 months in what the World Health Organization calls an “unacceptable” tragedy. The deaths could have been prevented by a vaccine. A measles outbreak in Minnesota sent many to the hospital. Still, some parents in developed countries continue to believe false reports that the measles vaccine causes autism. Some parents are refusing to get their children vaccinated for other diseases as well. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports.
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Russia says it reserves the right to retaliate in a dispute with the U.S. over the Obama administration’s seizure of two Russian compounds last December.

Before leaving office, then-President Barack Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying. He said the actions were aimed at punishing Moscow for having interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Now, six months later, Russia says it’s running out of patience with the Trump administration over the return of the compounds, and the State Department is being tight-lipped about negotiations with Russian officials.

Russia says the picturesque Russian compounds in Maryland and New York state are dachas, used strictly for recreation. But U.S. intelligence agencies say they were used for surveillance until they were seized.

Session at State Department

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met Monday at the State Department with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon. Caught by reporters as he was leaving, Ryabkov was asked whether Russia was close to getting its compounds back. He replied, “Almost.”

Pressed by reporters at Tuesday’s State Department briefing, spokeswoman Heather Nauert refused to comment on the status of negotiations or to say whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson favored giving the compounds back to Russia under certain conditions.

“I wouldn’t characterize it that way,” she said, adding that “the priority here is to get the United States and Russia to a place where they could have a good, decent, solid relationship so we can work together on areas of mutual cooperation. … One of them is Syria.”

Nauert said the talks with Moscow would continue.

Russian threats

After Monday’s talks, Russia was still threatening to retaliate in kind. Ambassador John Herbst, a veteran U.S. diplomat now with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, told VOA this was standard procedure.

“This fits standard Soviet and then Russian diplomatic practice,” he said. “When we catch their spies and then expel them, they immediately expel the same number of American diplomats. So they never acknowledge their culpability. When we take steps to deal with egregious actions on their part, they always take countersteps. It is simply the way they do business.”

Herbst said it was unusual that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not retaliate in kind after the compounds were seized and its diplomats were expelled, saying Putin most likely expected the Trump administration would give the compounds back. Asked how the Kremlin might respond if its patience wore thin, Herbst said there were several options.

Closures in Russia

“Well, we also have dachas, or at least had a single dacha in Russia,” he said. “Conceivably, they could take that away. I remember when Obama took these steps, there was speculation that they were going to close down the major school used by our embassy’s children. That would be very nasty indeed. And I would hope and expect that that would prompt a very strong reaction by us if they were to do that.”

The dispute over the compounds comes at a politically sensitive time as reports emerge of a previously undisclosed high-level meeting between Russians and top members of the Trump campaign last June.
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The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference.

Tuesday’s EU comment follows the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal against the ban.

The rejection of the religious group’s appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.

The EU said: “Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference.” It added that Russia was bound by its constitution as well as its international commitments to provide such guarantees.
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Spanish Football Federation president Angel Maria Villar was arrested Tuesday along with his son and two more federation executives as part of an anti-corruption probe.

The office of the state prosecutor in charge of anti-corruption said they suspect Villar, who is FIFA’s senior vice president and a UEFA vice president, of having arranged matches for Spain’s national team that led to business deals that benefited his son.

The state prosecutor and Spanish police both said that Villar, his son Gorka Villar, and two other soccer officials were detained while raids were carried out at the federation headquarters and other properties.

Two uniformed policeman guarded the entrance to the Spanish Football Federation as staff came in and out of the offices near the training grounds for Spain’s national teams in Las Rozas, just outside Madrid.

The other two men who were arrested were Juan Padron, the federation’s vice president of economic affairs who is also the president of the regional federation for Tenerife, and the secretary of that regional federation. The four men were arrested on charges of improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption and falsifying documents as part of a probe into the finances of the federations.

“We have taken note of the media reports concerning the situation of Mr. Villar Llona,” FIFA said in a statement. “As the matter seems to be linked to internal affairs of the Spanish Football Association, for the time being we kindly refer you to them for further details.”

As part of an operation called “Soule,” the Guardia Civil’s anti-corruption unit said it raided the national federation’s headquarters, the offices of the regional soccer federation on the island of Tenerife, and “headquarters of businesses and several private homes linked to the arrested individuals.”

Police started the probe in early 2016 after a complaint was made by Spain’s Higher Council of Sport, the government’s sports authority.

The probe led the state prosecutor’s office to suspect that Angel Maria Villar “could have arranged matches of the Spanish national team with other national teams, thereby gaining in return contracts for services and other business ventures in benefit of his son.”

The prosecutor’s office said they suspect that Padron and the secretary of the regional federation of Tenerfe “favored the contraction of business” for their personal benefit.

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Spain’s minister of education, culture and sport, told national television moments after the raids that “in Spain the laws are enforced, the laws are the same for all, and nobody, nobody is above the law.”

Calls made by The Associated Press to both the Spanish Football Federation and the regional soccer federation of Tenerife went unanswered.

UEFA said in a statement it is “aware of the reports regarding Mr. Villar Llona. We have no comment to make at this time.” The Higher Council of Sport said it will “use everything in its means to ensure that competitions are not affected” by the arrests.

The 67-year-old Villar has been the head of Spain’s soccer federation since 1988, overseeing its national team’s victories in the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.

Villar has also been at the heart of FIFA and UEFA politics since the 1990s, and has worked closely with several international soccer leaders who have since been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

His son, Gorka, worked in recent years for South American body CONMEBOL as legal director then as the CEO-like director general for three presidents who were implicated in the American federal investigation. Gorka Villar left CONMEBOL in July 2016.

Angel Maria Villar was a tough midfielder for Athletic Bilbao and Spain before retiring to work as a lawyer and soccer administrator. He was elected to the UEFA executive committee 25 years ago, and to FIFA’s ruling committee 19 years ago. He has also been an influential figure in the legal and referees committees of both organizations.

In the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests, Angel Maria Villar led the Spain-Portugal bid which the FIFA ethics committee briefly investigated in 2010 for allegedly arranging a voting pact involving South American voters to trade support with Qatar’s bid. Russia won the 2018 contest.

Villar’s conduct in a subsequent wider probe of the bids was singled out in a report by then-FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia.

“He (Villar) was not willing to discuss the facts and circumstances of the case,” Garcia wrote in a 2014 report that was published last month. “Moreover, his tone and manner were deeply disturbing, as the audio recording of the interview … makes evident.”

Increasingly seen as a polarizing figure with leadership ambitions, Villar decided against trying to succeed Michel Platini as UEFA president last year.

Before joining CONMEBOL, Gorka Villar was a prominent sports lawyer in Madrid. He helped represent cyclist Alberto Contador in a failed appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against losing the 2010 Tour de France title after a positive doping test.

The arrests are the latest step taken by Spain to crack down on financial wrongdoing in soccer.

Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father were found guilty of tax fraud, and in recent weeks prosecutors have opened tax fraud investigations into several others, including Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and former Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. Both Ronaldo and Mourinho deny cheating on their taxes.

 
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Heavy rainfall has caused floods in Istanbul, inundating roads, underpasses and subway lines and causing havoc in the city.

Several vehicles were stranded in the floodwaters on Tuesday and television footage showed a rescue crew entering an underpass in a rubber boat to help trapped passengers.

The private DHA news agency said people stranded in homes due to flooding in the district of Silivri — one of the worst-hit areas — were also helped out in boats.

The Eurasia Tunnel, connecting Istanbul’s Asian and European sides under the Bosporus strait, was temporarily closed to traffic.

Authorities urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel.
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The Turkish parliament voted Monday to extend a state of emergency by three months, nearly a year after it was implemented in the wake of a failed coup attempt.

A statement from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s office earlier Monday had asked parliament to extend the state of emergency, which was due to expire on Wednesday.

About 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured last year when a disgruntled army faction commandeered tanks and warplanes in a bid to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after 15 years in power. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.

Since last year’s coup, operating under the state of emergency, the Turkish government has dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants characterized as supporters of the aborted coup. The government has arrested another 50,000 people.

President Erdogan claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades.

Gulen denies any involvement.

 
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The Bosniak Muslim member of Bosnia’s three-man presidency called on Monday for an investigation into Islamic State death threats to leaders of Bosnia’s Islamic community.

The latest Bosnian edition of the militants’ magazine Rumiyah published photos of top Bosnian clerics and described them as Islamic outcasts, saying killing them was more desirable than the killing of infidels.

“I call on the relevant state institutions … not to underestimate these threats, to investigate them thoroughly and support religious leaders,” Bakir Izetbegovic told reporters.

Bosnian Muslims generally practice a moderate form of Islam but some have adopted radical Salafi Islam from foreign fighters who came to the country during its 1992-95 war to fight alongside Muslims against Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats.

Some joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and threatened Bosnian Islamic clerics after they condemned killings and other crimes conducted by the hardline group.

Police estimate 188 Bosnian Muslims have left for Syria and Iraq over the past four years, with almost 50 returning.

But departures from Bosnia and returns from Syria had almost completely stopped by early 2016 because Bosnian authorities were prosecuting both aspiring fighters and those who returned.

Security Minister Dragan Mektic said the threats would be investigated.

He said the Bosnian intelligence agency OBA, in cooperation with other security agencies, last month halted two attempted attacks, but gave no further detail.

“We are making a risk assessment, updating information, following a number of persons,” Mektic told reporters on Monday.
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A Lithuanian accused of swindling Facebook and Google out of more than $100 million through an email fraud scheme must be extradited to the United States to stand trial, a court in Vilnius ruled on Monday.

Evaldas Rimasauskas denies the allegations and will appeal against the decision to a higher court, his lawyer said.

According to a U.S. indictment made public in March, Rimasauskas is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, which each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, and identify theft, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.

Rimasauskas has been in custody since March at the request of U.S. prosecutors.

“Material presented to the court provides enough evidence to think that Rimasauskas could have committed the deeds that he is accused of,” the judge, Aiva Surviliene, said as he read the verdict.

But his lawyer, Snieguole Uzdanaviciene, said the evidence provided by U.S. prosecutors was too vague and would not be considered evidence in a Lithuanian court.

She also called for Rimasauskas to be investigated in Lithuania rather than the United States.

“We are talking about a Lithuanian citizen, and material presented to the court describe him as acting on Lithuanian territory, not elsewhere, and using means and tools which were within territory of Lithuania,” she said.

The U.S. indictment did not name the companies involved, but Uzdanaviciene told reporters Facebook and Google were both mentioned in the U.S. extradition request. The Lithuanian court decided against making the request public.

 
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Brexit Secretary David Davis launches a first round of negotiations on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union on Monday when he meets the EU’s Michel Barnier for four days of talks between their teams in Brussels.

A month after a first meeting where the two exchanged gifts inspired by a shared passion for hillwalking and spoke of the mountain of complexity they must climb, the Frenchman will press Davis to agree to Britain covering substantial British financial commitments and offer more detail on other British proposals.

With little more than a year to settle divorce terms before Britain leaves, deal or no deal, on March 30, 2019, the 27 other EU national leaders want British Prime Minister Theresa May to rally her divided nation swiftly behind a clear, detailed plan that can minimize economic and social disruption across Europe as its second biggest economy cuts loose from the continent.

Davis and Barnier will shake hands for the cameras at the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters at 9:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) before a first full session of talks. Negotiators will then break up into groups discussing four key areas of priorities before a planned news conference on Thursday afternoon.

Barnier, who secured Davis’s consent last month to the EU’s broad structure for talks, wants to hold the Englishman publicly to whatever else has been agreed during the week, EU officials say.

Working groups will focus on three areas: the rights of over 4 million people living as expatriates on either side of the new UK-EU frontier; the EU demand that Britain pays some 60 billion euros ($70 billion) to cover ongoing EU budget commitments; and other loose ends, such as what happens to British goods in EU shops on Brexit Day, or to outstanding EU court cases involving Britain.

A fourth set of talks, run by Davis and Barnier’s deputies Oliver Robbins and Sabine Weyand, will focus on curbing problems in Northern Ireland once a new EU land border separates the British province from EU member Ireland. Some of that will have to wait for clarity on future trade relations.

Brexit Bill

One key early advance that EU officials hope for this week is for Britain to stop challenging the principle it will owe Brussels money — though how much will have to be argued over and cannot be calculated until Britain actually leaves.

Three more weeks of talks, interspersed with internal EU sessions to coordinate the views of the 27 other governments, are scheduled, from late August until early October. At that point, Barnier hopes to be able to show “significant progress” on the divorce priorities for EU leaders to give him a mandate to launch negotiations on a future free trade agreement.

Davis and May had pressed over the past months for trade talks to start immediately but accepted the EU’s sequence for negotiations last month. However, Brussels accepts that details on the divorce terms will still be open when trade talks begin.

In a sign British ministers are coming round to the EU view that a trade deal can at best be sketched in outline over the next 20 months, two members of May’s cabinet who were on opposing sides of the Brexit referendum debate said they expected some transitional phase to start in 2019 to smooth the passage from full EU membership to a final free trade pact.

 
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Italy’s government will not try to push through a law that would grant citizenship to the children of immigrants in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday.

The draft law faced opposition from politicians including members of a small centrist group which supports Gentiloni’s Democratic Party’s (PD) slim majority in the upper house Senate.

A government source said earlier this month the measure would be put to a confidence vote, which speeds up passage of legislation but obliges the government to resign if it loses. The premier squashed that possibility on Sunday.

“Given the urgent deadlines in the Senate calendar and the difficulties that have emerged in some parts of the majority, I don’t think the conditions are right to approve the draft law on citizenship for foreign minors born in Italy before the summer break,” Gentiloni said in a statement.

Under the proposed law, children born in Italy to non-Italians, or who arrive before their 12th birthdays and spend at least five years in formal education, could be declared citizens.

Immigration is one of the thorniest issues facing Italian politicians, who have had to deal with the arrival of more than half a million mainly sub-Saharan Africans by boat from Libya over the last three years.

Opponents proposed some 48,000 amendments to the citizenship law by the time it reached the Senate for discussion in June, more than 1-1/2 years after it was approved in the lower house. A scuffle broke out and two senators were slightly injured.

Gentiloni said the law, which would require one or both parents to have a long-term residence permit before they could apply for citizenship, was “just”.

“I remain personally committed, as does the government, to approving it in the autumn,” he said.

 
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Thousands of people rallied in Warsaw Sunday to oppose the Polish government’s controversial new court reforms which opponents see as a threat to judicial independence.

Chanting “we will defend democracy” and waving EU and Polish flags, around 4,500 protesters attended demonstrations in the Polish capital, according to police. Smaller rallies were held in other cities throughout the country.

The law passed last week gives lawmakers a dominant role in appointing judges, a move that opposition parties and rights groups said would make jurists subject to political influence.

Sunday’s demonstrations were the latest in a string of anti-government protests since the conservative and populist Law and Justice party took political control in 2015.

The new legislation has drawn criticism from the European Union, which says that it violates judicial independence.

Poland is a relatively new democracy, having overthrown communist rule in 1989 and joined the EU in 2004.
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Spain’s Garbine Muguruza has won her first Wimbledon title, defeating American Venus Williams in straight sets Saturday, 7-5, 6-0.

The 10th seeded Williams, 37, had been seeking to become the oldest women’s Grand Slam champion but couldn’t overcome the 14th seeded Muguruza.

Muguruza, who lost in the Wimbledon finals in 2015 to Venus’ sister, Serena, saved two set points in the 10th game of the first set and then won nine straight games to clinch the championship. It is her second Grand Slam title.

Venus Williams was seeking her first Wimbledon title since 2008.  She has won a total of five.
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