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The United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed Martin Corp made F-35 fighter jets to five new nations including Romania, Greece and Poland as European allies bulk up their defenses in the face of a strengthening Russia, a Pentagon official told Congress on Thursday.

In written testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives and seen by Reuters, Vice Admiral Mathias Winter — the head of the Pentagon’s F-35 office — said that “future potential Foreign Military Sales customers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain and Poland.”

News of the new customers coincides with U.S. tension with F-35 development partner Turkey over Ankara’s plans to buy a Russian missile defense system.

Foreign military sales like those of the F-35 are considered government-to-government deals where the Pentagon acts as an intermediary between the defense contractor and a foreign government.

Other countries considering F-35

Other U.S. allies have been eyeing a purchase of the stealthy jet including Finland, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Winter’s full written testimony, which will be made public as soon as Friday, said the United States would respond to all official requests for information about the jet.

Last year, Belgium was the first new customer for the F-35 in years, choosing it over the Eurofighter Typhoon to replace its aging F-16s in a 4 billion euro ($4.55 billion) deal.

Under President Donald Trump the United States has rolled out a “Buy American” plan that relaxed restrictions on sales and encouraged U.S. officials to take a bigger role in increasing business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry.

Three models of F-35 available

Lockheed, the jet’s prime contractor, is developing and building three models of the new warplanes for the U.S. military and 10 other countries that have signed up to buy the jets: Britain, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Belgium.

U.S. arms sales to foreign governments rose 13 percent to $192.3 billion in the year ending Sept. 30, the State Department said in November.

Lockheed delivered 91 F-35 fighter jets to the United States and its allies in calendar 2018.
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To experience corruption in Ukraine, just go for a drive. The bone-crunching, bouncing ride over the countless potholes is a daily ritual for travelers across the country.

Campaigners say the local authorities’ failure to repair the winter road damage is just one symptom of the myriad corruption schemes that plague the country.

Tackling corruption is invariably among the issues Ukrainians cite as a top priority for the next president, as incumbent Petro Poroshenko and newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskiy face a final round runoff April 21.

​Anti-corruption law struck down

There are growing fears that government resolve is stalling, after Ukraine’s Constitutional Court in February struck down a law against officials enriching themselves. The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch recently demanded the government get a grip on the problem.

High-level corruption poses an existential threat, says Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine.

“Schemes which are now existing in the sphere of national security or the energy sphere, it’s really dangerous for not only [government] effectiveness but also it’s dangerous for the existence of Ukraine, because we are a country now in war. And this corruption helps our enemy make us weaker,” Yurchyshyn said.

Poroshenko’s bid to win a second presidential term has been caught up in corruption allegations over military procurement. He denies involvement.

Yurchyshyn says Poroshenko shouldn’t be singled out. 

“When we see other candidates in the presidential campaign, for everyone we have several questions for his or their close affiliations with different corruption schemes,” he said.

Journalists, lawyers investigate

Many Ukrainians have had enough and are fighting back. The group BIHUS info consists of dozens of journalists and lawyers investigating corruption. Their results are put on YouTube, and they are not afraid to tackle some of the biggest scandals. One recent investigation looked into the funding of the Fatherland party, led by defeated presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Three residents of these two villages were among the party’s biggest contributors in 2018, donating more than $148,000 (4 million hryvnias),” according to reporter Maksym Opanasenko in a recent documentary on the BIHUS info YouTube channel. He then confronts one of the party donors as she is working at the checkout of a local village store. It is clear that she is not the real source of the money.

Such schemes use a typical formula, employing intermediaries to disguise financial transactions, says founder of the group Denys Bihus.

“A poor person is hired, and he or she then draws up financial documents for a silly amount of money. Then they pass the right to sign off on these documents to someone else, but formally, they remain the only one visible in [public] documents,” Bihus told VOA in a recent interview.

The Fatherland party denies accusations of corruption.

Bihus says they pass on evidence from their investigations to law enforcement agencies. 

“But the problem is that, though we can initiate a case, we cannot force them to investigate it effectively. This is especially true in those cases where top politicians are involved,” he said.

​Symbol of graft

Decades of graft can even be seen along the Kyiv skyline. Construction on the vast Podilsko-Voskresenskyi Bridge, a rail and road crossing over the Dnieper River, started 26 years ago. Work has been halted repeatedly over corruption scandals. It is still not complete.

Anti-corruption campaigners say fighting corruption in the system is not enough for in Ukraine, the system is corruption.
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Tackling corruption is invariably among the issues Ukrainians cite as a top priority for the next president. Incumbent Petro Poroshenko and newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskiy face a final round runoff April 21. There are growing fears that government resolve is stalling after Ukraine’s Constitutional Court in February struck down a law against officials enriching themselves. The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine recently demanded the government get a grip on the problem. Henry Ridgwell reports from Kyiv.
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Initial vote counts indicate that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party lost control of multiple major cities in Turkey in local elections Sunday. Erdogan is disputing the results in Ankara and Istanbul, but many analysts say the vote is clearly a setback for the powerful ruler. VOA’s Turkish Service spoke with political analysts about what the results mean, in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.  Pete Cobus contributed to this report.

LONDON – Ukrainians who live abroad strongly prefer sitting President Petro Poroshenko to other candidates in last weekend’s first-round presidential election, contradicting the choice of voters who reside within the eastern European nation.

According to official tallies of votes cast in Ukraine, comedian-turned-actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy was the preferred choice of 30 percent of the electorate, giving the novice politician a commanding lead over the incumbent Poroshenko, who came in a distant second with roughly 16 percent of the vote.

According to official tallies from Ukraine’s 101 foreign polling stations, however, the majority of Ukraine’s 20 million-strong expat community — less than a half-million of whom are registered to vote — gave Poroshenko 38.9 percent of their estimated 55,000 ballots, leaving Zelenskiy with 26.1 percent, and the difference split among the first round’s other 37 candidates.

Geographic voter preferences

Like their Ukraine-based counterparts, who handed victory to Zelenskiy in 20 of 25 reporting oblasts — the five outliers located the country’s far east and west respectively — voter preference among members of the country’s global diaspora also tended to be geographically clustered.

Poroshenko, for example, was the clear favorite among Ukrainians based the United States, where he garnered 56 percent of the vote. He enjoyed similarly strong showings in Canada (49.9 percent), the United Kingdom (52 percent), France (46 percent) and Germany (42 percent). He also claimed landslides (between 53 and 59 percent) in Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Montenegro, Thailand and Australia.

Zelenskiy had a significantly stronger showing throughout Central and Eastern European countries such as Latvia (43 percent), Belarus (41 percent), Slovakia (40 percent), Hungary (32 percent), along with victories in Armenia, Czech Republic and Georgia. Zelenskiy also captured 38 percent of Poland’s Ukrainian diaspora.

Overall, Poroshenko claimed victory in 53 of the 71 foreign nations where Ukrainian expats are eligible to vote; Zelenskiy triumphed in 16 of them, whereas pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Yuri Boyko won in Estonia and Moldova with 35 and 33 percent respectively.

The breakdown suggests that Western-based Ukrainian voters tended to vote more conservatively than their Central- and Eastern-European counterparts, who appeared more amenable to voting for a newcomer.

Poroshenko, a 53-year-old confectionary magnate before he was elected five years ago, saw his approval ratings slip amid Ukraine’s economic turbulence during the first part of his term. Although real wages have ultimately increased and the economy is growing, ongoing dissatisfaction with cronyism and demands for more effective actions against corruption prompted him to build a re-election campaign that vows to defeat the Russian-backed separatists in the east and to wrest back control of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

Zelenskiy, 41, who plays a schoolteacher-turned-president infuriated by corruption in a popular television sitcom, made fighting corruption a focus of his actual candidacy, in which he proposed a lifetime ban on holding public office for anyone convicted of graft. He also called for new direct negotiations with Russia on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine, although he has yet to provide a detailed plan of action.

Boyko, 60, the Russian-friendly candidate who performed well in Estonia and Moldova, claimed 11.6 percent of votes cast on Ukrainian soil, where campaign vows to represent Ukraine’s “Russian-speaking population” notched victories in the ethnic-Russian strongholds of Luhansk and Donbass in Ukraine’s war-torn eastern flank.

Ukrainian officials refused to recognize votes cast by Ukrainians living in Russia, citing an inability to guarantee that a country with whom it is at war would conduct fair and transparent polling procedures. Although wire news outlets reported that some Russia-based Ukrainians did cast ballots from authorized polling stations in Finland and Belarus, data recorded in previous years show that Russia-based Ukrainians aren’t particularly engaged in domestic Ukrainian affairs.

This year’s foreign turnout cast 18,000 fewer votes than in 2014, when about 73,000 members of the Ukrainian diaspora helped push Poroshenko into office.

Long treks to the polls

In the United States, some diaspora members drove hundreds of miles to cast their votes.

“We drove about 15 hours yesterday,” Yaroslav Kuznetsov of Tampa, Florida, told VOA Ukrainian, explaining that Ukrainian voting laws required expats to vote at their nearest consulate.

For Kuznetsov, that entailed a trek to Washington, D.C., but one that he didn’t mind making.

“Its very important for the country for Ukraine for our future,” he said.

Ukrainian-American Andriy Nemchenko flew to the nation’s capital from Dallas, Texas.

“It’s most important elections because it is a chance for Ukraine to finally cut off ties with Russia,” he told VOA.

In Ukraine, police officials said they had received more than 2,100 complaints of violations on voting day alone, in addition to hundreds of earlier voting fraud claims, including bribery attempts and removing ballots from polling stations.

But election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe hailed Sunday’s election as competitive and free, even though it criticized procedural violations and said there were indications that state resources were misused in the vote.

Zelenskiy and Poroshenko have advanced to a runoff on April 21.

 
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State Department correspondent Cindy Saine and VOA Russian service reporter Valeria Jegisman contributed to this report

WHITE HOUSE — North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is set to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress Wednesday, ahead of a meeting in Washington of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invited the NATO leader to speak to members of the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate to show the bipartisan support the 70-year-old trans-Atlantic alliance enjoys among lawmakers in spite of President Donald Trump’s occasional criticisms of the alliance.

As foreign ministers of NATO gather in Washington, foreign policy analysts are emphasizing it is one of the most successful military alliances in history and still relevant, pointing to its ability to adapt in dealing with a resurgent Russia, managing the crisis on the south of NATO’s flank and new, increasing threats such as cybersecurity.

“NATO is adapting and allies are spending more on defense. And I think this administration is understanding more and more how critical NATO is to some of the challenges that it faces, including China,” Mark Simakovsky of the Atlantic Council tells VOA. “So, in many ways, NATO is far from obsolete.”

Trump criticism

Trump’s criticism that NATO members aren’t paying their fair share of defense spending, as well as political upheaval in Europe — including the impending British exit from the European Union — and calls by some to kick Turkey out of NATO, can leave the impression, however, that the defense alliance is fracturing.

“I don’t think that’s the case. The alliance is strong,” Estonian Defense Minister Juri Luik tells VOA, pointing to increased political dialogues and military exercises among NATO’s members, as well as more U.S. military equipment and troops being brought to Europe.

“You’re not giving the money to somebody else. You’re not putting it into a NATO budget somewhere, you’re spending it on yourselves,” says McCain Institute Director Kurt Volker, who formerly served as U.S. ambassador to NATO. “But it is a demonstration of your commitment to your own security, which then gives NATO the confidence that this is a country that we can help defend as well, because they are committed to defense of their own territory.”

Lack of trust

Others agree that defense spending is important, but they say the alliance is fundamentally about the members’ ability to trust each other, and Trump has damaged that trust.

“When an American president questions the value of the alliance, our enemies in Moscow and Beijing are now questioning whether or not NATO would come to the defense of some smaller NATO nations that the president has criticized as maybe not worthy of NATO’s defense,” says Simakovsky, a former Europe/NATO chief of staff in the policy office of the U.S. secretary of defense. “But I don’t think at this summit the administration is going to be announcing any departure of the United States.”

Brooking Institution’s Robert Kagan is expressing concern that Trump’s attitude toward the European Union and expressed hostility toward the defense alliance could bring more chaos to the continent.

“Think of Europe today as an unexploded bomb, its detonator intact and func­tional, its explosives still live. If this is an apt analogy, then Trump is a child with a hammer, gleefully and heedlessly pounding away. What could go wrong?” writes Kagan in an upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs.

 
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Prime Minister Theresa May and the leader of Britain’s main opposition party were due to meet Wednesday for talks on ending the impasse over the country’s departure from the European Union — a surprise about-face that left pro-Brexit members of May’s Conservative Party howling with outrage.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the government was not setting preconditions for the talks with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, but was also not offering a “blank check.”

“There will need to be compromise on all sides,” he said.

The exact timing for the meeting between May and Corbyn wasn’t immediately specified, but it will probably take place Wednesday afternoon.

After failing repeatedly to win Parliament’s backing for her Brexit blueprint, May dramatically changed gear Tuesday, saying she would seek to delay Brexit and hold talks with the opposition to seek a compromise.

May said the country needs “national unity to deliver the national interest.”

That points Britain toward a softer Brexit than the one May has championed since the June 2016 decision to leave the EU. Labour wants the U.K. to remain in a customs union with the bloc to ensure frictionless trade. May has always ruled that out, saying it would limit Britain’s ability to forge an independent trade policy.

But May’s Brexit deal with the EU has been rejected three times by Parliament.

Barclay said the “remorseless logic” of Parliament’s failure to back the prime minister’s deal was that the country was heading toward a softer form of Brexit.

“The alternative to that is no Brexit at all and I think that would be very damaging from a democracy point of view,” he told Parliament’s Brexit committee.

May’s government and the Conservative Party are split between those who want to keep close economic ties with the EU, and Brexiteers who say Britain must make a clean break in order to take control of its laws and trade policy.

The Brexit-backers condemned May’s shift. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Brexit “is becoming soft to the point of disintegration.”

Junior Wales Minister Nigel Adams quit his post, sending the prime minister a letter criticizing her for seeking a deal with “a Marxist who has never once in his political life out British interests first” — a reference to the left-wing Corbyn.

“It is clear we will now end up in the customs union. That is not the Brexit my constituents were promised,” Adams wrote.

May’s change of plan came just days before Britain faced a disruptive no-deal departure from the EU. That would mean tariffs and other barriers to trade between Britain and the bloc, with the potential for border gridlock and shortages of goods.

The leaders of the EU’s 27 remaining countries have given the U.K. until April 12 to leave the bloc or to come up with a new plan, after British lawmakers three times rejected an agreement struck between the bloc and May late last year.

The House of Commons has also failed to find a majority for any alternative plan in two days of voting on multiple options.

European Council President Donald Tusk gave a cautious welcome to May’s change of course.

“Even if, after today, we don’t know what the end result will be, let us be patient,” he tweeted — a suggestion the EU would wait for Britain to present a clear plan.

The European Parliament’s Brexit chief, Guy Verhofstadt, tweeted that May’s move toward compromise was “better late than never.”

Labour’s business spokeswoman, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said May’s offer was long overdue, but that the opposition would enter talks with an open mind.

“We’re not setting any red lines for these discussions with the prime minister,” she said.
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U.S. lawmakers of both parties on Tuesday resolutely endorsed the Trump administration’s decision to halt delivery of F-35 fighter equipment to Turkey over Ankara’s decision to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system — a possible first step to blocking Turkey from acquiring the stealth jet altogether.

“If Turkey goes through with the Russian system, there is no way in the world that we can justify training them [on the F-35] and going through with our commitment on the [delivery of] the two F-35s,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said.

“The two can’t exist [together], the F-35 and the Russian system,” said Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who also serves on the panel. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Both senators spoke with VOA moments before the committee heard from President Donald Trump’s nominee to become NATO Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters.

“I concur with this committee’s belief that the S-400 [Russian missile system] and the F-35 are not compatible, and if Turkey proceeds down a path to procure and operate the S-400, they should not get the F-35,” Wolters said.

Danger to F-35s

Last week, Turkey’s foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s commitment to a deal with Moscow to buy the S-400, a system Washington believes could imperil the F-35, an advanced radar-eluding fighter jet. U.S. officials have warned that Turkey’s possession of both U.S. and Russian systems ultimately could help Moscow find ways to detect the F-35 and gain access to advanced American military technology.

“We cannot allow the technology of the F-35 to get into the hands of the Russians and our enemies,” New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told VOA.

Shaheen and three other senators have introduced legislation prohibiting the transfer of F-35s to Turkey until the Trump administration certifies that Ankara will not accept delivery of the Russian air-defense system.

“It would be better if we were able to simply have them eliminate the S-400,” South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said of Turkey’s planned purchase.

Complicating the issue is Turkey’s role in the supply chain for assembling the F-35, which is made by U.S. aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin.

“Component parts of the F-35 are produced in Turkey, so we have to examine all the options,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said. “We need to really maximize our effort to achieve Plan A, which is that they don’t purchase the Russian system.”

‘Mixed issues’ with Turkey

Inhofe suggested Turkey’s role in F-35 production can be replaced.

“One time, they [Lockheed Martin] said, ‘We can’t make them without Turkey.’ We found that was not true,” the chairman said.

The Pentagon confirmed Inhofe’s assertion.

“The DoD [Department of Defense] has initiated steps necessary to ensure prudent program planning and resiliency of the F-35 supply chain,” acting Chief Pentagon spokesperson Charles Summers said. “Secondary sources of supply for Turkish-produced parts are now in development.”

The disagreement over military systems is one of several points of tension that have arisen in recent years between Washington and Ankara.

“They’re an ally, they’re a NATO ally, but we’ve got a lot of mixed issues with them, from our support for the Kurds in northern Syria, who have been an effective fighting force against ISIS, to this issue [of military acquisitions],” Kaine told VOA.

The senator added, “But then again, we would not have been able to successfully prosecute the war against ISIS without using the Incirlik [Turkish military] base in Adana. So they have been a supportive ally in many ways.”

Asked how he would characterize Turkey as a U.S. ally, Manchin said, “Cautiously, very cautiously. I put them in the same category as I would Pakistan [a major non-NATO U.S. ally].”

VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report from the Pentagon.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will seek a further delay to the country’s exit from the European Union to allow more time for parliament to pass a deal on the terms of its withdrawal.

To date, British lawmakers have three times rejected the deal that May’s negotiators agreed to after two years of talks with the EU.

“So we will need a further extension of Article 50, one that is as short as possible and which ends when we pass a deal. And we need to be clear what such an extension is for, to ensure we leave in a timely and orderly way,” May said Tuesday. “Today I am taking action to break the logjam.”

She said she is willing meet with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labor Party, to try to agree on a Brexit plan that lawmakers could agree to.

Britain was originally due to leave the bloc by March 29, but May got approval from the EU for a short extension to give her government more time to find a solution parliament could support.

While the process dragged on, parliament sought its own path forward, but in a series of votes Monday lawmakers struck down four possible paths forward.  The closest that came to passing was a proposal to have Britain withdraw from the EU, but remain in a customs union.

The latest deadline set by the European Union is April 12.  If British leaders have still not agreed to a plan, then European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier says the only choices at that point will be for the country to exit with no deal or try to get the other EU members to agree to a longer extension.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party on Tuesday appealed election results in Istanbul and Ankara, claiming irregularities in the voting cost them mayorships in both cities.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a majority of votes throughout Turkey in Sunday’s local elections, but trailed in Istanbul, the country’s economic hub, and Ankara, the capital. If the initial outcomes hold, it would be a political setback for the Turkish leader, who campaigned extensively for his party’s candidates.

AKP’s Istanbul chief, Bayram Senocak, said the party had filed objections about the voting in all 39 districts in the city. “We have identified irregularities and falsifications,” he said.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem Imamoglu claimed victory in the mayor’s race in Istanbul by 28,000 votes over AKP’s Binali Yildirim, a former Turkish premier.

Imamoglu told reporters, “Had the other party won, I would have said ‘Congratulations, Mr. Binali Yildirim,’ which I do not say because I am the one who won. They are behaving like a kid who has been deprived of his toy.”

In Ankara, opposition CHP mayoral candidate Mansur Yavas was ahead of AKP’s Mehmet Ozhaseki by nearly four percentage points, according to the state news agency Anadolu, but the AKP said it was contesting the results in 25 districts.

Electoral authorities have two days to decide whether the claims of vote irregularities have any merit.

 
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The United States and its allies are stepping up cooperation in response to Russian aggression, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday while playing down differences among members as the military alliance marks its 70th anniversary.

Foreign ministers from NATO countries are meeting in Washington this week for the occasion, determined to show a united front in the midst of a long military stalemate in Afghanistan and tensions with Russia returned to Cold War-era levels.

But as NATO deploys thousands of troops and equipment to deter Russia and seeks solutions to fast-evolving new threats such as cyberattacks and hybrid warfare, its biggest challenge arguably lies within. Damaging infighting over defense spending and authoritarian tendencies exhibited by some allies undermine NATO’s values, according to experts.

“The strength of NATO is that despite these differences, we have always been able to unite around our core tasks. That is, to protect and defend each other,” NATO chief Stoltenberg said in Brussels before the trip.

Stoltenberg has talks with U.S. President Donald Trump planned for Tuesday. He is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday.

A big source of the internal strain is Trump’s recurrent demand that countries devote an amount equal to at least 2 percent of GDP to defense spending — though that metric takes no account of how well the money is spent — as well as the U.S. president’s reluctance to criticize strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“NATO’s single greatest challenge is the absence of strong, principled American presidential leadership for the first time in its history,” two former U.S. envoys to NATO, Nicholas Burns and Douglas Lute, wrote in a report for the alliance anniversary.

Trump, they said, is seen by allies as NATO’s “most urgent, and often most difficult, problem.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified last week before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington. He was asked if he was familiar with the report by Burns and Lute.

Pompeo said he hadn’t read the report but he had known Lute since he was a young military office and had “great respect for him.” But on the subject of Trump and NATO, Lute was “just simply wrong,” Pompeo said.

“If the conclusion he drew that President Trump is the biggest impediment to NATO, he’s just simply wrong,” he added. “We have worked diligently to make NATO stronger. I am convinced that we have done so.”

Trump made a memorable impression on leaders from Canada and European nations during his first NATO summit in May 2017. During a speech outside NATO’s new Brussels headquarters, he publicly humiliated them. Trump also cast doubt on whether they could count on Washington to fulfill NATO’s collective defense clause.

The speech was delivered by a memorial made from a twisted piece of the World Trade Center towers felled by al-Qaida’s airliner attacks on Sept. 11, 2011. Since the founding Washington Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, NATO has only once activated the clause stating that an attack on one member is an attack on them all, after the 9/11 attacks.

Trump also delayed a summit last year with fresh demands on burden sharing. That time, at least, his dressing down about the U.S. spending more on defense than the other NATO members combined happened behind closed doors.

Trump’s routine tirades have fueled suspicion his aim mostly is to drum up business for the U.S. defense industry.

But the attitude of Trump — who walked away from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement his allies in Europe value while making tariff threats against them — also is similar to authoritarian or populist streaks showing up in NATO members Turkey, Hungary, Italy and Poland.

“The political and trans-Atlantic unity that underpins NATO has been weakened. Only bad guys benefit from trans-Atlantic division and a U.S. retreat from its global leadership role,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Stoltenberg’s predecessor as NATO’s top civilian official, said in an email exchange with The Associated Press.

“We see the consequences of U.S. retreat, with autocrats and dictators filling the vacuum,” he added,

Burns and Lute say this retreat from democracy, individual freedoms and the rule of law is “a potentially cancerous threat.”

Still, NATO has survived formidable challenges over the decades, including the Cuban missile crisis and the missile race in Europe. It’s also remained intact after internal divisions over the Suez Canal, the Iraq war, and France’s departure from the alliance’s command structure. Officials say they are confident NATO will endure now, too.

The White House said last month in a statement about Stoltenberg’s talks with Trump on Tuesday that the two would “discuss the unprecedented success of NATO, including the recent increased commitments on burden-sharing among European allies and ways to address the current, evolving challenges facing the alliance.”

Trump is not scheduled to appear at the upcoming talks of NATO foreign ministers, but he is expected to attend a leaders’ summit in London in mid-December.

“I hope we will not see a repeat of President Trump’s antics in Brussels last year. It’s time for the world’s democracies to show their unity,” Rasmussen said.
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After months of warnings, the United States has stopped delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey in retaliation for Ankara’s decision to move ahead with the purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile system, the Pentagon said Monday.

Top U.S. government leaders have repeatedly threatened to shut down Turkey’s plan to buy the F-35 advanced fighter aircraft if Turkey didn’t abandon efforts to buy the S-400 Russian system. 

Halting the delivery of parts and manuals needed to prepare for the aircraft’s planned delivery this summer is the first step toward ending the actual aircraft sale.

“The United States has been clear that Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 is unacceptable,” said acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. “Until they forgo delivery of the S-400, the United States has suspended deliveries and activities associated with the stand-up of Turkey’s F-35 operational capability. Should Turkey procure the S-400, their continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk.”

The U.S. move comes just days after Turkey’s foreign minister said his country was committed to the deal to buy the Russian system and was discussing delivery dates.

American defense and military leaders have said that unless Turkey, a NATO ally, reconsidered its purchase of the S-400, it would forfeit other future American military aircraft and systems. The U.S. and other NATO allies have repeatedly complained about the purchase, saying it is not compatible with other allied systems and would represent a threat to the F-35.

During a Capitol Hill hearing last month, U.S. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the top NATO general, said his best military advice would be that the U.S. not work with an ally that’s acquiring Russian systems that can threaten one of the American military’s most advanced capabilities. Officials have also expressed concerns that Turkey’s acquisition of both U.S. and Russian systems could give Moscow access to sophisticated American technology and allow it to find ways to counter the F-35.

“I’m pleased to see that the Pentagon is heeding our calls to stop the transfer of F-35 related equipment to Turkey,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “Turkey operating both the S-400 missile and the F-35 is a non-starter. It puts our national security at risk and undermines our NATO allies.”

The U.S. had agreed to sell 100 of its latest, fifth-generation F-35 fighters to Turkey, initially planning to deliver the two aircraft to Turkey in June.

Summers said that although Washington continues to talk with Turkey about the matter, the Pentagon has begun taking necessary steps to find other sources of supply for the Turkish-produced parts of the F-35. The department, he said, is taking prudent steps to protect the supply chain and the shared investments in the aircraft technology.

Pentagon leaders have warned that ending Turkey’s participation in production would likely force other allies to take on that role and could delay aircraft delivery.

U.S. leaders have pressed Turkey to buy an American-made air defense battery, and in December the State Department approved the sale of a $3.5 billion U.S. Patriot system to Ankara.

Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday his country was committed to buying the Russian missile defense system. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out the possibility of Turkey selling the S-400s to another country as suggested by some analysts as a compromise solution.

“As a principle, it is contrary to international laws for a third country to oppose an agreement between two countries,” Cavusoglu said. “We are committed to this agreement. There can be no such thing as selling to a third country. We are buying them for our own needs.”

Cavusoglu also insisted Turkey had met all of its obligations concerning the F-35 program.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered his worst electoral setback, with his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, losing control of the capital, Ankara, and seemingly set to lose Istanbul following this past Sunday’s local elections.

In Istanbul, posters that were put up around the city early Monday celebrated the victory of AKP mayoral candidate Binali Yildirim; however, the candidate of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ekrem Imamoglu, has the votes and is claiming the win in Istanbul, albeit with a thin margin of victory over Yildirim.

Sadi Guven, the head of Turkey’s High Electoral Board (YSK), which administers the country’s elections, confirmed Imamoglu had secured around 25,000 votes more than Yildirim, out of 9 million ballots cast.

Opposition parties have criticized Guven, an Erdogan appointee, for being too close to the AKP in previous voting controversies.

Yildirim is looking to Guven to overturn the latest result.

“Let me tell you what will happen next. Whoever is given the mandate by the YSK will take over as mayor,” he said.

Yildirim says an excessive number of invalidated votes denied him victory, a charge dismissed by Imamoglu.

Istanbul’s Uskudar district is home to Erdogan and a stronghold of his AKP. Yildirim’s stance has support there. “Istanbul is won by Yildirim. With God’s will, he will be confirmed,” said an AKP supporter who declined to be named.

Other Yildirim supporters, however, said they were ready to admit defeat.

“They (AKP) are defeated because they couldn’t hit their targets with some of their programs,” said a logistics worker serving the security forces. “They (AKP) also lost because of the economic and political situation as well as unemployment,” said the person, who wished to remain anonymous.

New future

Turkey is in the grip of a recession, with unemployment approaching record numbers and inflation at nearly 20 percent. Food prices are rising by close to 30 percent.

The district neighboring Uskudar is Kadikoy, an electoral stronghold of the opposition CHP. Party banners there are celebrating the party’s victory. Many people are already looking to a new future.

“Elections took place with much excitement, and I think the result was unexpected for the people,” said Emir, an airline worker.

“It is an election that will be talked about by people for a long time to come,” he added. “AKP won the polls for many years, but I think now a change has happened and I believe this change will be good for people.”

Analysts say Istanbul traditionally provides the impetus for political change in Turkey.

“Results of Istanbul’s local elections are so important for Turkish politics because Istanbul is the greatest city, traditionally politically, culturally and economically, of course,” said communications professor Baris Doster of Istanbul’s Marmara University.

“Istanbul changes the face of Turkish politics,” Doster said.

Importance of Istanbul

In 1994, Erdogan rose from political obscurity to dominate Turkish politics after narrowly winning the Istanbul mayorship in a surprise victory as a member of a then-fringe Islamist party.

Doster says the opposition will likely seek to use Istanbul as a springboard to power.

“Istanbul changing hands with elections after a quarter of a century will bring excitement to the opposition and will have, from now on, a lasting impact in Turkish political life,” he said.

Given the importance of Istanbul, the AKP appears not ready to give up control of the city, with party officials claiming voting irregularities.

In AKP strongholds like Uskudar, however, some are calling for reconciliation rather than confrontation.

“We are all brothers; this is not a war, whether its vote is for the prime minister or the municipal mayor,” said one retiree. “I wish for our country just to live peacefully under one flag.”

Analysts say the local elections were among the most politically divisive, with Erdogan claiming the country’s future was at stake; however, in an address to supporters Sunday night, he took a more conciliatory approach by avoiding verbal attacks on the opposition and stressing the importance of putting country before party.

Some analysts interpreted the comments as a code for accepting defeat in Ankara and Istanbul. The AKP, however, is continuing to contest both results. They say that how the disputed Istanbul vote is resolved will be key to determining whether the political divide deepens.
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VOA’s Turkish and Kurdish services contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s local elections, losing critical cities across the country, while the main opposition party is on course to win the capital Ankara.

In Istanbul, election results remain too close to call, with opposition claims of voter manipulation.

Erdogan, speaking in Istanbul to reporters, acknowledged his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had suffered setbacks and vowed to learn “lessons” from the poll.

“We had some wins; we had some losses,” he said.  Erdogan went on to promise to introduce measures to boost the economy, which is mired in recession.

Possible defeat in Ankara

Some analysts see Erdogan’s avoidance of his traditional fiery rhetoric against the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as a sign of accepting defeat in the capital Ankara.

Ankara’s CHP candidate, Mansor Yavas, appears set for a historic but narrow victory for the opposition.

In addressing thousands of supporters gathered in the heart of the capital, Yavas gave a conciliatory speech, promising to focus on services, adding there would be no purge of workers with ties to the AKP.

In Istanbul, the contest remains mired in controversy. AKP candidate Binali Yildirim claimed victory in a short speech. However, CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu immediately shot back, saying it was shameful to claim success, given that only a few thousand votes separate the candidates and some ballots remain uncounted.

Imamoglu called on his supporters not to sleep for the next 48 hours, warning their victory was being stolen from them.

Earlier Sunday evening, Imamoglu challenged the integrity of the counting of the vote, claiming there were disparities in results in the announced elections.

With 98.5% of votes counted in Istanbul, results appeared frozen with no update for several hours. Most of the outstanding uncounted ballots are in CHP strongholds.

Recent elections in Turkey have been marred by controversy over voter manipulation and outright fraud allegations by the opposition, a charge denied by the governing AKP. Critics, however, claim the Supreme Electoral Board, which administers elections, is run by the government and presidential appointees.

Sunday evening, the electoral board stopped sending results to the opposition parties for 40 minutes, claiming it was upgrading its system. Leading members of the opposition party went to the electoral board headquarters, demanding an explanation.

Beyond Ankara and Istanbul, the AKP lost several key provincial cities, while narrowly avoiding defeat in many others. Several other important results remain in the balance.

Recession, inflation

The AKP appears to be paying a heavy price for an economy in recession and soaring inflation.

“Our economy is getting worse and worse because of their (government) bad management,” said Erdem, an engineer, speaking before voting in Istanbul. “Most of my friends are now looking for a job and some my friends lose their job because of economic crisis.”

Voters in Ankara spoke about the country’s economic problems.

“The youth in this country are unemployed. We know the hardships of people who don’t have a job. The only solution to this is creating jobs,” Orhan Kurubacak told VOA.

“I don’t think things are going well. There is nothing more else to say. There are a lot of economic factors,” Hakan Akyürek said.

Diyarbakir AKP candidate, Cumali Attila, told VOA’s Kurdish service, “I hope these elections would end with gumption. It is our responsibility to claim democracy.”

The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) heavily defeated Attila. However, the AKP scored some crucial victories in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, winning key provinces. In Sirnak, the AKP won with a 30 percent swing to the party from the HDP.

Such success will likely do little to soften the blow Erdogan has suffered in the Sunday polls. Even though Erdogan was not on the ballot, he took personal control of the local election campaign. In the last few days held more than a dozen rallies across Istanbul in a bid to consolidate his party’s support.

Realities in country

Despite such efforts, analysts say Erdogan could not escape the economic realities facing the county.

“I think that the most powerful and effective opposition parties are not the classical parties, like the Republican People’s Party or the Good Party. However, the key issue for the elections is the increasing prices of vegetables. Let’s say the prices of cucumbers or tomatoes. These are the most effective oppositions of Turkey,” Doster added.

The loss of Ankara and possibly Istanbul is the worst electoral defeat for Erdogan, who has enjoyed unparalleled success. Analysts say  Erdogan’s reputation of electoral invincibility has received a significant blow.

Meanwhile, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan said votes cast Sunday for her party “will contribute to peace, freedom and equality.”

Buldan said, however, obstacles their party faced, such as receiving no television coverage during the election, might not be enough to win.

“Every day we tried to clear and explain the truths told our people about the lies, slanders, threats and the perception that created against us. We did our duty today. I believe that our people will do their duty at the polls, too,” she said.
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Pope Francis on Sunday defended his decision to  refuse to accept the resignation earlier this month of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was convicted of failing to report sexual abuse allegations to police.

Francis, who spoke with reporters on his return from a two-day trip to Morocco, said a final decision wouldn’t be made until Barbarin’s appeal process was completed.

“I can’t accept it (resignation) because in juridical terms, in classic world jurisprudence, there is the presumption of innocence as long as the case is open, and he has appealed,” the pope said.

Barbarin offered his resignation on March 18. He said at the time the pope “spoke of the presumption of innocence and did not accept” it.

Francis instead asked Barbarin, the most senior French cleric involved in the Catholic Church’s worldwide pedophilia scandal, to do what Barbarin believes is best for the Lyon archdiocese. The 68-year-old cardinal has decided to take a leave of absence and has asked his assistant to assume leadership of the archdiocese until the appeal process is over.

Barbarin was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence earlier this month for failing to report a predator priest to authorities. The priest, Benard Preynat, allegedly sexually abused boy scouts in the 1980s and 1990s.

The pope has previously defended Barbarin, saying in 2016 that his resignation before a trial would be “an error, imprudent.”
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One of Russia’s richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, has died in a small plane crash in Germany, the Russian airline operator said Sunday.

Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a town in southwestern Germany, about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the airline’s press service said in an email.

German police said there appeared to be three people aboard the plane, including the pilot of the flight, which originated in France. They said the two passengers were believed to be Russian citizens but that positive identification of the occupants would require further investigation.

German aviation authorities were probing the cause of the crash. Egelsbach is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Frankfurt.

The business publication Forbes.ru estimated Fileva’s fortune at $600 million.

“S7 Group team extends sincere and heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Fileva’s family and loved ones,” the company said in a statement. “The memory of her as an inspiring and sympathetic leader and a wonderful person will forever stay in the hearts of all S7 Group employees. It is an irreparable loss. ”

Based at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, S7 is part of the Oneworld alliance and flies to 150 destinations in 35 countries.

The crash was also linked to other deaths in Germany.

The dpa news agency, citing police, reported that two people died Sunday and three others were seriously hurt when a police vehicle that was responding to the plane crash with flashing lights and sirens was struck head-on by another vehicle several kilometers (miles) from the crash site.

Citing police, dpa reported that three injured were in the police vehicle and the two dead were in the other car.
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Pope Francis turned his attention Sunday to ministering to Morocco’s small Christian community after reaching out to the kingdom’s Muslim majority and calling for a greater welcome for its growing number of migrants.

On the second day of a 27-hour visit to Morocco, Francis visited a church-run social services center and met with Catholic priests and other Christian representatives in the cathedral of the capital, Rabat. He is scheduled to wrap up his trip with a Mass in the city’s sports stadium.

Francis thanked Morocco on Saturday for protecting migrants and warned that walls and fear-mongering would not stop people from leaving their home countries in search of opportunities and safety. Morocco has become the main departure point in Africa for migrants attempting to reach Europe after Italy essentially closed its borders to asylum-seekers leaving from Libya.

The pope’s comments had additional resonance in the region he was visiting since Spain has a border fence at its Northern African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla to try to keep out migrants.

“The issue of migration will never be resolved by raising barriers, fomenting fear of others or denying assistance to those who legitimately aspire to a better life for themselves and their families,” Francis said.

Francis met with migrants from Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and other countries, telling them they deserved to be welcomed. He called for expanded legal channels for migration and protections for the most vulnerable.

“You are not the marginalized. You are at the center of the church’s heart,” he assured them.   

Francis has made the plight of refugees a hallmark of his papacy and used many of his foreign visits to insist on the moral imperative for countries to protect and integrate them.

Upon his arrival Saturday, Francis also praised Morocco’s tradition of interfaith coexistence and its efforts to promote a moderate form of Islam.

Muslims, Christians and Jews have long lived peacefully in Morocco. Catholics are tiny minority of about 23,000.

Morocco, a Sunni Muslim kingdom of 36 million, reformed its religious policies and education to limit the spread of fundamentalism in 2004, following terrorist bombings in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 43 people.

 
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North Korea said Sunday it wants an investigation into a raid on its embassy in Spain last month, calling it a “grave terrorist attack” and an act of extortion that violates international law.

The incident occurred ahead of President Donald Trump’s second summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28. A mysterious group calling for the overthrow of the North Korean regime has claimed responsibility. 

The North’s official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that an illegal intrusion into and occupation of a diplomatic mission and an act of extortion are a grave breach of the state sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international law, “and this kind of act should never be tolerated.”

He claimed an armed group tortured the staff and suggested they stole communications gear.

The 10 people who allegedly raided the embassy in Madrid belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty. The leader of the alleged intruders appears to be a Yale-educated human rights activist who was once jailed in China while trying to rescue North Korean defectors living in hiding, according to activists and defectors.

Details have begun trickling out about the raid after a Spanish judge lifted a secrecy order last week and said an investigation of what happened Feb. 22 uncovered evidence that “a criminal organization” shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. A U.S. official said the group is named Cheollima Civil Defense, a little-known organization that recently called for international solidarity in the fight against North Korea’s government.

Spain has issued at least two international arrest warrants for members of the group.
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Turks are going to the polls in Sunday’s nationwide local elections. The vote is expected to be the toughest Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has faced, with the control of the capital Ankara and Istanbul at risk.

With the economy in recession and soaring inflation, economic concerns are first and foremost on many voters’ minds.  

“Our economy is getting worse and worse because of their [government] bad management,” said Erdem, an engineer, speaking before voting in Istanbul, “most of my friends are now looking for a job and some my friends lose their job because of economic crisis.”

Istanbul is Turkey’s largest city and the country’s financial capital. According to opinion polls the election there is too close to call. Erdogan’s AK Party has controlled the city for more than fifteen years.

“My expectation is there will be good things coming out of this election, we will win with a big difference,” said Sinan, an AKP supporter speaking after voting in Istanbul.

Even though Erdogan is not on the ballot, he took personal control of the local election campaign. In a sign of what analysts suggest are fears of losing Istanbul, Erdogan in the last few days held more than a dozen rallies across the city in a bid to consolidate his party’s support.

Refocus

Throughout the campaign Erdogan sought to move the agenda away from economic woes, instead focusing on security concerns, and the threat posed by Kurdish separatists, along with a religious agenda.

Erdogan repeatedly played videos of a massacre of Muslims praying in New Zealand mosques at his rallies. The Turkish president likes to present himself as as a protector of Muslims around the world; a stance analysts say plays well with his religious and nationalist base.

In another move aimed at his base, Erdogan, days before Sunday’s poll, promised to turn Istanbul’s Hagia Sofia museum, once one of Christendom most important churches, into a mosque.

However, analysts say Erdogan struggled to change the agenda away from the economy. With Turkey in the grip of soaring food prices, over 30 percent, “The key issue for the next local elections in Turkey is the economy,” said Professor Baris Doster of Istanbul’s Marmara University.

“I think that the most powerful and effective opposition parties are not the classical parties, like the Republican People’s Party or the Good party. However, the key issue for the elections is the increasing prices of vegetables. Let’s say the prices of cucumbers or tomatoes. These are the most effective oppositions of Turkey,” added Doster.

In a bid alleviate public anger over rising prices, in the run-up to the local elections state-subsidized food was sold in Ankara, Istanbul and other major cities. However, analysts say the images of people queuing up for food appears to have only underlined opposition claims the country is in crisis.

Erdogan appears to have also been wrong-footed by the surprise move of the pro-Kurdish HD Party’s decision not to contest the main cities outside of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast region.

“Our strategy is based on winning in the East and making them lose in the west,” said Gul Demir co-head of HDP in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district.

Demir says her party is calling on its supporters to vote for the main opposition CHP party. The HDP, Turkey’s second largest opposition party, accounts for nearly 10% of the electorate in cities like Istanbul and Ankara.

While courting Turkish nationalist voters Erdogan has targeted the HDP, calling the party terrorists partly linked to Kurdish insurgents the PKK. Thousands of its officials have been jailed in a crackdown, including elected mayors and parliamentary deputies.

Kurdish vote

The HDP is seeking to win in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region, in towns and cities which its mayors have been removed from office and jailed by the state, accused of supporting Kurdish insurgents.

However, analysts say HDP voters could play a decisive role in Turkey’s western cities where polls indicate close contests, especially Istanbul where the HDP has a strong base. On Saturday dozens of HDP local officials were detained in police raids in Istanbul.

In Malatya province in Eastern Anatolia, a polling station volunteer and a party observer from the small Islamist Felicity Party (SP) were killed.  Turkey’s official Andolu news agency reported the incident in the otherwise largely peaceful vote.

Attention is focusing on the outcome of the election in Istanbul.  Erdogan’s home town remains his power base and has significant symbolic value, being the city where he launched his political career by winning the mayorship back in 1994.

Control of Istanbul and other major cities is one source power outside of Erdogan’s direct control since he turned Turkey into a presidential system. The old Turkish political adage “who controls Istanbul, control’s Turkey,” for many still holds true.

The loss of Ankara and Istanbul would also deal a mighty blow to Erdogan’s reputation of electoral invincibility.

 
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Pope Francis is in Morocco as part of his ongoing effort to advance inter-religious dialogue.  It is the first visit by a pope to the predominantly Muslim country in 34 years. Just last month the pope visited the predominantly Muslim United Arab Emirates.

Pope John Paul II was the last head of the Catholic Church to visit Morocco in August 1985. Moroccans are seeing the current visit in a positive way and the message that Pope Francis has for them is that Muslims and Christians can peacefully co-exist.

Ahead of the two-day visit, Pope Francis issued a video message for the Moroccan people. He thanked King Mohammed VI for inviting him and Moroccan authorities for their collaboration in making this visit possible.

Francis said that, following in the footsteps of his holy predecessor, John Paul II, he is coming as a pilgrim of peace and brotherhood, in a world that greatly needs it. Francis added that both Christians and Muslims believe in God “who created men and women, and placed them in the world so that they might live as brothers and sisters, respecting each other’s diversity and helping each other in their needs.”

Morocco’s population is almost all Muslim, with the local Catholic community consisting of some 23,000 faithful. The majority of them are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The pope will spend only 27 hours in Morocco but he has a busy schedule. On his first day in Rabat, the pope focuses on inter-faith dialogue and on solidarity with migrants.

He will be visiting the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of imams in what is expected to be a significant moment of his visit. It is the first time a pope is welcomed in a school for imams. This is part of the Moroccan king’s effort against fundamentalism while promoting a moderate approach to Islam.

On Saturday, Pope Francis also will be meeting with migrants at a center run by the Catholic charity Caritas. There are some 50,000 migrants in Morocco and about 4,000 are looked after by Caritas. The issue of migrants is an important one, as Morocco’s proximity to Spain has led many migrants to travel this route to enter Europe.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will visit the Center for Social Services at Temara, just south of Rabat, which used to be a rural school run by Jesuits and is now an important care center for children. The pope will then hold a meeting with religious men and women in Rabat cathedral and lunch with the country’s bishops.

Before returning to the Vatican, Pope Francis will celebrate mass at the city’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium. The mass is expected to be attended by at least half the Catholic population in the country.

 
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A comedian who’s never held political office tops the public opinion polls ahead of Ukraine’s presidential election, but even he appears to be falling far short of enough support to win in the first round.

Ukrainians on Sunday will choose from among 39 candidates for a president they hope can guide the country of more than 42 million out of troubles including endemic corruption, a seemingly intractable war with Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east and a struggling economy.

Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko is running for another term but a poll released Friday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed him with support of just 13.7 percent of the voters.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who shot to national prominence by playing the role of president in a television comedy series, topped the poll at 20.9 percent.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister making her third run at the presidency, was in third with 9.7 percent.

If no candidate gets an absolute majority of the votes on Sunday, a runoff between the top two will be held April 21. Nearly a quarter of those who intend to vote say they remain undecided, according to the survey.

All the leading candidates advocate Ukraine eventually joining NATO and the European Union, and the election will be closely watched by those organizations for indications of whether Ukraine is developing democratic processes.

Concern about the election’s freedom and fairness spiked this week after the country’s interior minister said he was looking into hundreds of claims that campaigners for Poroshenko and Tymoshenko were offering money to voters to support their candidates.

Zelenskiy, 41, is famous for his TV portrayal of a schoolteacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral. Even before he announced his candidacy, Zelenskiy’s name was turning up high in pre-election public opinion polls, with potential voters seemingly encouraged by his “Servant of the People” TV series (which became the name of his party).

Like his TV character, Zelenskiy the candidate has focused strongly on corruption. He proposes a lifetime ban on holding public office for anyone convicted of corruption and calls for a tax amnesty under which someone holding hidden assets would declare them, be taxed at 5 percent and face no other measures. He also calls for direct negotiation with Russia on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

“We are tired of the old politicians who give out new promises, while they themselves only steal and increase corruption,” Zelenskiy supporter Oleg Derun said Saturday.

Poroshenko, 53, came to power in 2014 with the image of a “good oligarch.” The bulk of his fortune came from the Roshen confectionery company, hence his nickname “The Chocolate King.”

Critics denounce him for having done little to combat Ukraine’s endemic corruption and for failing to end the war in the east. He has made economic reforms that pleased international lenders, but that burdened Ukrainians with higher utility bills.  He did, however, score significant goals for Ukraine’s national identity and its desire to move out of Russia’s influence. He signed an association agreement with the European Union so Ukrainians now can travel visa-free to the European Union. He pushed successfully for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be recognized as self-standing rather than just a branch of the Russian church.

Poroshenko reinforced the latter issue on Saturday, even though campaigning is not allowed on the day prior to elections, by holding public prayers with the head of the new Ukrainian church.

Poroshenko “needs time to complete reforms, which are moving, but slowly,” said soldier Ihor Shumeiko, who attended the prayer service.

Tymoshenko is playing heavily to the economic distress of millions of Ukrainians. She has promised to reduce prices for household gas by 50 percent within a month of taking office, calling the price hikes introduced by Poroshenko “economic genocide.” She also promises to take away constitutional immunity for the president, the judiciary and lawmakers.

She was named prime minister after the 2004 Orange Revolution protests in which she was a major figure.  But her image darkened as she and President Viktor Yushchenko quarreled chronically, and she lost to Moscow-leaning Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election.

In 2011, she was arrested and charged with abusing power as premier in a natural gas deal with Russia. Tymoshenko said the proceedings were politically motivated revenge, and Western governments voiced concern about her incarceration. She was released amid the disorder of the 2014 overthrow of Yanukovych, and lost a presidential election to Poroshenko three months later.

 
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