політика, бізнес, народ

Three teenage migrants have been charged in Malta with seizing control of a merchant ship and using force and intimidation, a crime considered a terrorist activity under Maltese law.

One of the accused was identified by the court during the arraignment Saturday as Abdalla Bari, a 19-year-old from Guinea. The other two are 15 and 16, and as minors could not be named. One is also from Guinea and the other from Ivory Coast.

They are suspects in the hijacking in the Mediterranean this week of the El Hiblu 1, an oil tanker. The captain has said that migrants that his crew had rescued began rioting and took control of his ship when they saw it was returning to Libya, forcing it to turn north toward Europe.

 
…

While Britain remains entangled in a promise to leave the European Union without a workable plan to do so, the White House says President Donald Trump is “eager to cut a bilateral trade deal with an independent Britain.”

Hours after British lawmakers rejected a Brexit plan for a third time Friday, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told reporters that when Britain extricates itself from the European Union, the United States will “be standing right there waiting for them.”

He said Trump empathized with embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May, and that he would like to “reassure the people of the United Kingdom how strongly we feel that we want to be there for them.”

Friday marked the third time Britain’s House of Commons rejected a withdrawal plan backed by May in a vote on the day Britain originally was scheduled to leave the European Union. The vote was 344-286.

In response, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has called a European Council meeting for April 10. The EU has given Britain until April 12 to let members know what it plans to do.

Britons voted nearly three years ago to leave the EU. But as last week’s scheduled departure date grew near, so did turmoil over terms of the deal May negotiated with EU leaders. 
…

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging the international community to step up its commitment to the organization’s peacekeeping operations, particularly in improving its specialized equipment and troop needs. 

“As conflicts become more complex and high-risk, our operations must keep pace,” Guterres on Friday told more than 100 defense ministers, foreign ministers and diplomats. 

The U.N. chief appealed for critical capabilities, including armored personnel carriers to protect peacekeepers in Mali and medical evacuation helicopters for its mission in the Central African Republic. 

“Elsewhere, we need armed utility helicopters; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance units; quick reaction forces, and air medical evacuation teams,” Guterres said. “I urge you to consider contributing these high-value and critical capabilities, and I assure you that they will be utilized effectively and efficiently, in accordance with our command-and-control policy.”

U.N. troops and police have had to adjust to asymmetrical threats, including from armed groups and terrorists. Last year, 27 peacekeepers were killed in the line of duty. New kinds of technology and equipment are needed to better prepare and protect them from these threats. 

The world body has nearly 100,000 troops and police from 127 countries working in 14 missions in Haiti, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The peacekeeping department has a budget of nearly $7 billion a year. 

As the U.N. looks to achieve gender parity throughout the organization, the secretary-general noted that it is “unacceptable” that only 4 percent of peacekeepers are women. He said his staff will present a strategy to increase their numbers to the Security Council next month. 

“Beyond better equipment and readiness, we must increase local engagement,” Guterres said. “Women peacekeepers and civilian staff are essential to improve those efforts.”

“If we want to substantially increase the number of women in peacekeeping operations, we need to increase the numbers of women in our respective militaries,” Canada’s Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan pointed out to the assembly. 

Ethiopia’s female defense minister said her country is both the leading troop contributing country with 8,000 troops in U.N. missions, and it has the most women (800) deployed. 

“However, while it may be the highest number from a single country, it is still barely representative of the possibilities,” said Aisha Mohammed Mussa.

U.N. peacekeeping has also struggled with allegations against some of its blue helmets — as the peacekeepers are known — of raping or sexually exploiting the civilians they are sent to protect. After a “zero tolerance” campaign started under the previous secretary-general, the numbers of such cases are starting to come down. A report earlier this month said the number of cases in peacekeeping and political missions dropped to 54 in 2018 from 62 in 2017 and 104 in 2016. 

Ministers also made new pledges of troops, equipment or other capacities at Friday’s meeting. 

Nepal’s defense minister said his country is ready to double its peacekeeping presence to 10,000 blue helmets if the U.N. requests the additional personnel.  Brazilian Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva said his government would deploy a jungle-experts warfare team to the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mongolia’s minister said his country was adding a rapid deployment battalion to its existing peacekeeping contribution. 

The United States, which is the top funder of U.N. peacekeeping, providing a quarter of its annual budget, said it is focused on the development of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, which are critical to improving the effectiveness of U.N. peacekeeping operations.
…

Russia is trying to influence the outcome of the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine by stirring up division and amplifying negative news stories, according to several analysts who have been monitoring Kremlin propaganda surrounding the March 31 poll. 

The first round of voting is set for Sunday, with 39 candidates on the ballot. The second-round runoff will be held three weeks later.

With no overtly pro-Russian candidates taking part in the poll, analysts warn the Kremlin has resorted to using social media and covert influence on Ukrainian media outlets to try to disrupt the election. 

Since the revolution of 2014, Ukraine has turned decisively to the West, as Kyiv seeks European Union and NATO membership. However, Moscow isn’t giving up and sees the election as just the latest in a series of strategic battles, said analyst Vladislav Inozemtsev, director of the Moscow Center for Post-Industrial Studies and author of a recent report, Kremlin-linked Forces in Ukraine’s 2019 Elections.

‘Second revenge’

“In 2004, in 2005, it was the first defeat,” Inozemtsev told VOA in a recent interview. “They got some kind of revenge in 2010 when [Viktor] Yanukovich was elected. Then of course there was nothing to do actually in 2014, because it was absolutely sure that the pro-European forces will win. And now we have a kind of second revenge which can be achieved if the Kremlin’s politics is quite wise and comprehensive.” 

Ukraine has ejected many Russian television channels and Kremlin-linked political figures, and has blocked pro-Moscow propaganda sites on the internet and social media. Yevgen Fedchenko, co-founder of the organization Stopfake.org, which was set up to highlight disinformation coming from Russia, said the Kremlin has looked for new channels of influence. 

“They are looking more and more to find new outlets that can be used, including Facebook, as one of the platforms, but also trying to influence the Ukrainian media, through just buying them or influencing their editorial policies or influencing just individual journalists,” he said. 

The head of Information Security at Ukraine’s Security Service, Oleksandr Klymchuk, said the government has been proactive in countering that influence.

“We provided Facebook with information about 2,000 fake accounts and bots. They have already been blocked. Within the last two weeks we have provided information about 40,000 more bots,” Klymchuk said. 

Objective seen as division

Fedchenko said Moscow’s strategy was no longer to support a single candidate, but to sow division.

“For them, the most important thing is that anyone but [Petro] Poroshenko can be president,” he said. “So they used to endorse some candidates, including those who will be running against Poroshenko — the closest ones, like [Yulia] Tymoshenko, like [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy — during different periods of time. But also they try to create the atmosphere of chaos, and try to portray Ukraine as a kind of chaotic place where you just cannot have elections.”  

The rise of comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken Russia by surprise, Inozemtsev said. 

“[The] Zelenskiy factor shows that Ukrainian politics now asks for new names,” he said. “And on the Kremlin side there is none, because the people in Moscow used to work and collaborate only with the existing politicians.” 

The Kremlin denies trying to interfere in the election and says the accusations are part of a political campaign designed to win votes.
…

The city of Mariupol lies on the Azov Sea, next to the front lines of Ukraine’s war against Russian-backed rebels. The conflict has touched everyone’s lives as the danger of an escalation looms over the city. Moscow’s continued detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors seized just offshore in November underlines the threat. Faced with such challenges, how do the people here view Sunday’s presidential election, and who holds the key to ending the conflict? Henry Ridgwell reports from the city.
…

At the height of the conflict in 2014, the people of Mariupol, Ukraine, feared their city would be the next to fall to Russian-backed rebel forces.

The threat of annexation by Moscow has subsided for now. But the front line lies just six kilometers (3.7 miles) to the east — and the conflict continues to have a big impact on everyday life in the city. 

Moscow’s detention of two dozen Ukrainian sailors seized in a naval clash just offshore in November underlines the continued threat. 

Faced with such challenges, how do the people of Mariupol view Sunday’s presidential election? And who holds the key to ending the conflict? Amid the election campaigns, frustration and exhaustion are palpable.

“I like any of the candidates, but not the one who is in power now. We need more authority for us to have peace, for our economy to grow, for us to be prosperous,” Mariupol resident Tatyana told VOA.

Aleksandr Sidorov, a soldier on leave from the front line, believes the next president can do little about the war with Russia. He’s focused on domestic issues. 

“The main issue for me is for all the corrupt people to be imprisoned,” he said.

Young mother Alina Arabadzhi plans to vote for comedian-turned-presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Why Zelensky? Because it is a new face. Because he has no vested interests. He hasn’t been in politics a single day,” she said.

The war is having a huge effect on the local economy. Mariupol used to be an export hub for the Donbas region, Ukraine’s former industrial powerhouse. Most of that region is now controlled by Russian-backed separatists and has been all but cut off. 

Two giant steel plants still dominate Mariupol’s skyline, bringing prosperity but also choking pollution. The products are shipped around the world from the nearby port. However, since its forceful seizure of Crimea in 2014, Russia controls shipping access to the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait — effectively giving it a stranglehold on a key artery of Mariupol’s economy.

The director of the port, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, said he is losing over $7.5 million a year in business.

“Starting in April 2018, Russia started to search all the ships which enter the Azov Sea to reach Ukrainian ports. Then after loading, they check them again when they return back to the Black Sea. The waiting time, the route time, has increased, and it’s had a great financial impact on our export clients,” Aleksandrovich told VOA.

Amid the upheaval, there has been progress in some areas. The organization, Halabuda, began as a group of volunteers taking supplies to soldiers on the front line. It has now morphed into an advice group for residents and businesses.

“A question that concerns every single citizen of Ukraine is corruption. Compared to the corruption in law enforcement that we had five years ago, now after the reforms, we nearly eradicated corruption at the level of the traffic police,” said Halabuda founder Dmitry Chichera.

Corruption and conflict: generational challenges with no easy answers. The people of Mariupol are desperate for change and for the war to end. They know that whoever becomes president, the threat from the east is unlikely to end anytime soon.
…

The U.N. Security Council Thursday unanimously passed the first-ever resolution ordering members to enforce laws against terror financing. 

Experts believe as many as two-thirds of U.N. members are not adequately prosecuting those who aid terrorists in acquiring money.

Thursday’s resolution demands all states “ensure that their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offenses” to collect funds or financial resources to terrorist groups or individual criminals.

It also calls on members to create financial intelligence units. 

Nations that fail to carry out the resolution would face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. counterterrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov said the resolution comes at a “critical time,” saying terrorists have gotten their hands on cash through both illegal and legal channels, including drug trafficking, the construction trade and used car sales.

The U.N. resolution would also urge members to stop paying ransom to kidnappers, saying such payments have become a major source of financing for Islamic State and others. 
…

Iceland’s budget carrier WOW Air said it had ceased operations and cancelled all flights on Thursday, potentially stranding thousands of passengers.

The collapse of the troubled airline, which transports more than a third of those traveling to Iceland, comes after buyout talks with rival Icelandair collapsed earlier this week.

“All WOW Air flights have been cancelled. Passengers are advised to check available flights with other airlines,” the carrier said in a statement.

“Some airlines may offer flights at a reduced rate, so-called rescue fares, in light of the circumstances. Information on those airlines will be published, when it becomes available.”

WOW Air, founded in 2011, exploited Iceland’s location in the middle of the North Atlantic to offer a low-cost service between Europe and North America as well as tapping into a tourist boom to the volcanic island.

However it had flown into financial trouble in recent years due to heightened competition and rising fuel prices, and had been searching for an investor for months.

On Monday WOW Air said it was in talks to restructure its debt with its creditors after Icelandair ended brief negotiations over buying a stake in the no-frills airline.

WOW Air was left needing $42 million to save the company, according to the Frettabladid newspaper.

The privately-owned airline has undergone major restructuring after posting a pre-tax loss of almost $42 million for the first nine months of 2018.

It has reduced its fleet from 20 to 11 aircraft, eliminating several destinations, including those to the US, and cutting 111 full-time jobs.

A report by a governmental work group has warned that a WOW Air bankruptcy would lead to a drop in Iceland’s gross domestic product, a drop in the value of the krona and rising inflation.

 
…

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the leaders of France and Germany this week and signed lucrative deals in an attempt to cozy up to the European Union. Analysts say the efforts were aimed at softening restrictions on Chinese trade and investments in Europe, but it is unlikely that his trip will weaken the EU’s resolve.

Xi’s European tour included stops in Italy, Monaco and France. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker came to Paris to meet the Chinese leader.

Overall, analysts said, the visit has improved the general atmosphere of relations between the EU and China, but the European backlash and increased scrutiny of Chinese companies and their investments is not likely to change.

Billions in deals

The “EU will not be softening its posture on its core demands (fair and reciprocal economic ties, including elimination of coerced technology transfers and respect from the EU’s community-based standards) in spite of the breakout of amity and huge deals during President Xi’s swing through the continent,” said Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the Institute of China-America Studies in Washington.

During the visit, Xi signed 29 deals worth $2.8 billion with Italy and placed orders for 300 jets with Airbus worth $34 billion in France, the same number of Boeing planes that he bought from the U.S. during President Donald Trump’s 2017 visit to Beijing.

In turn, Italy became the first Group of Seven country to sign up for the Belt and Road Initiative despite Washington’s criticism of the BRI and China’s “vanity project.”

“The buying binge may grab the headlines but that’s mostly just water under the bridge,” Gupta said adding, “and Italy’s formal BRI entry is a nice, shiny medal that will keep Beijing attentive and incentivized to adhere to European practices.”

Xi’s motivation

What motivated Xi’s visit is the lurking danger of dual pressures from the U.S. and EU to change some of the internal systems like state subsidy and financing of Chinese companies.

Many of the issues raised by Brussels and Washington are similar, but some additional demands from Europe are adding to Beijing’s headaches.

Ana Andrade, research analyst in the Europe team of The Economist Intelligence Unit, said there is a distinct difference in the way the European Union and United States approach China.

“EU and U.S. demands on China are not fully identical. The EU is very aware of the importance of China as a trading partner,” she said adding, “the EU is not interested in decoupling from China or creating a bilateral conflict as the U.S. has done.”

China is the biggest market for European luxury goods and the biggest single-country market for Airbus.

​Competitive edge

EU’s demands for reforms in China intensified since the U.S. launched a series of aggressive trade actions raising duties on Chinese goods leading to a trade war nearly nine months ago.

“The EU’s strategy is to piggy-back on the momentum for action generated by the Trump administration’s pressure on Beijing and engage and press China to make these market-leveling (allow fair competition) and market-opening reforms,” Gupta said.

Chinese analysts argue, however, that the EU’s demands are not necessarily additional pressure on Beijing and instead that the demands dovetail with reforms the U.S. is demanding.

“If China would make a deal with the U.S. on some of the issues, I think that would not only apply to the U.S. but China would adjust its overall position to apply to all countries,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai based analyst of international relations. The new foreign investment law, which was approved by the Chinese legislature this month, will apply to all countries and not just the U.S., he pointed out.

Both the U.S. and EU were driven into action because of concerns that China’s government has long been giving Chinese companies a competitive leg up through subsidies, inadequate transparency, lax standards on protection of labor, environment and intellectual property.

Helping China

Ding Yuan, dean at the China Europe International Business School, does not agree with the claim that a lack of transparency in business dealings gives Chinese companies a competitive edge over their counterparts in the rest of the world.

“Lack of transparency is never an advantage. If lack of transparency was an advantage, China shouldn’t have done the economic reforms and opening, and Soviet Union should have been there still, stronger than the U.S.,” he said.

Ding believes the critics and business rivals may be working at cross-purposes. They are actually helping China to take forward its reforms agenda and consolidate its position in the industrial world, he said.

“By blaming China on the role of the state, by promoting (the idea) Chinese state intervention as the core competence or the core competitive advantage of the Chinese success story, actually we are consolidating, helping Chinese authorities to consolidate their approach,” he said.
…

A Maltese special operations team Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants it rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, Malta’s armed forces said. 

The tanker was being escorted to a Maltese port, where the migrants will be turned over to police for investigation, they said. 

Authorities in Italy and Malta on Wednesday said that the migrants had hijacked the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1 after it rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea, and forced the crew to put the Libya-bound vessel on a course north toward Europe.

‘Act of piracy’

Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said the ship had rescued about 120 people and described what happened as “the first act of piracy on the high seas with migrants” as the alleged hijackers.

The ship had been heading toward Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa and the island of Malta when Maltese forces intercepted it. 

Maltese armed forces established communications with the captain while the ship was still 30 nautical miles off shore. The captain told Maltese armed forces he was not in control of the vessel “and that he and his crew were being forced and threatened by a number of migrants to proceed to Malta.” A patrol vessel stopped the tanker from entering Maltese waters, they said.

The special team that restored control to the captain was backed by a patrol vessel, two fast interceptor craft and a helicopter. 

There was no immediate word on the condition of El Hiblu 1’s crew.

Migrants mistreated

Humanitarian organizations say that migrants are mistreated and even tortured in Libya, and have protested protocols to return migrants rescued offshore to the lawless northern African nation. Meanwhile, both Italy and Malta have refused to open their ports to humanitarian ships that rescue migrants at sea, which has created numerous standoffs as European governments haggle over which will take them in. 

A private group that operates a rescue ship and monitors how governments treat migrants, Mediterranea, urged compassion for the group on the hijacked vessel and said it hoped European countries would act “in the name of fundamental rights, remembering that we are dealing with human beings fleeing hell.”

Mass migration to Europe has dropped sharply since 2015, when the continent received 1 million refugees and migrants from countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The surge created a humanitarian crisis in which desperate travelers frequently drowned and leading arrival spots such as Italy and Greece struggled to house large numbers of asylum-seekers.

Along with the dangerous sea journey itself, those who attempt to cross the Mediterranean risk being stopped by Libya’s coast guard and held in Libyan detention centers that human rights groups have described as bleak places where migrants allegedly suffer routine abuse.

EU members “alert the Libyan coast guard when refugees and migrants are spotted at sea so they can be taken back to Libya, despite knowing that people there are arbitrarily detained and exposed to widespread torture, rape, killings and exploitation,” said Matteo de Bellis, an international migration researcher for Amnesty International.

European Union member countries, responding to domestic opposition to welcoming immigrants, have decided to significantly downscale an EU operation in the Mediterranean, withdrawing their ships and continuing the mission with air surveillance only.

“This shameful decision has nothing to do with the needs of people who risk their lives at sea, but everything to do with the inability of European governments to agree on a way to share responsibility for them,” de Bellis said.
…

British Prime Minister Theresa May bowed to Conservative Party critics Wednesday and said she would quit as the country’s leader once Britain had split from the European Union, but it was unclear when she might step down. 

May, whose Brexit deal she negotiated with EU leaders has twice been overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Commons, said she would quit as prime minister “earlier than I intended” in hopes of winning passage of her divorce deal from the 28-nation bloc. 

Her comments to Tory lawmakers were the first she made about leaving No. 10 Downing Street, even as her Brexit plan was defeated by 230 votes in January and by 149 votes earlier this month. 

“I know there is a desire for a new approach — and new leadership — in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, and I won’t stand in the way of that,” she said. 

Her intentions became known as Parliament prepared to vote on new Brexit plans.

The House of Commons was planning a five-hour debate on several plans, with lawmakers being asked to vote for any of the proposals they could accept. The intention then is to hold a second vote next Monday on the most popular plans in the hope that one can win majority support.

Wednesday’s debate is occurring two days after the parliamentarians wrested control over the Brexit debate from the government.

May said she would consider support for other plans as “indicative votes,” but she has refused to say she will adhere to the result.

There are 16 options under consideration, including proposals for leaving the 28-nation EU without details of a departure in place, remaining in the EU and holding a new nationwide referendum on the issue.

Britons voted nearly three years ago to leave the EU, but as Friday’s scheduled departure date grew near, so did turmoil over terms of the deal May negotiated with EU leaders. The contention centered on trade and the border between EU member Ireland and London-controlled Northern Ireland, which local residents routinely cross daily without stopping.

Last week, the EU said that if Parliament approved the deal it had negotiated with the British government, Brexit would occur May 22. If not, Britain has until April 12 to say what it plans to do.

May hopes to put her plan up for another vote, despite the decisive earlier losses.

Pro-Brexit members of her Conservative Party had called for her resignation, but until Wednesday she had resisted. 

“It is my sense of responsibility and duty that has meant I have kept working to ensure Brexit is delivered,” she said. 

Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn contended that May was “unable to compromise and unable to reunite the country.” He said May must “either listen and change course or go.” 
…

The stained-glass windows of Podilske’s towering concrete cultural hall radiate the idealized vision of Ukraine’s Soviet past: bucolic scenes of bountiful wheat fields, agricultural mechanization and content families toiling the land for the greater good.

The modern reality is very different.  Many of the village houses and farms are abandoned.  The bus calls twice a day to take workers away to a nearby town, leaving behind pensioners, the unemployed, and schoolchildren.

Like many villages, Podilske’s future appears bleak.  As Ukraine prepares to choose its next president in elections scheduled Sunday, one of the biggest challenges remains its sluggish economy.  With unemployment at close to 10 percent, it’s in the rural villages where the hardship is felt most – once the breadbasket of the Soviet collective system, but now struggling to stay competitive in a global economy.

Podilske, which lies some 140 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, achieved minor fame in 2015 when it elected the country’s youngest mayor, Artiom Kukharenko, who was just 24 years old when he took on the role.  For the past five years he’s been trying to stem the tide of young people leaving the village for a better life.

“What does the youth need today?  A house, a decent job, which provides a decent salary, which may offer them a start.  The poor credit system that we’ve got is a huge burden, not only for the youth but also for people who are better established,” Kukharenko says.

Everyone VOA spoke to voiced the same concern.  The village school’s Ukrainian language teacher, who gave only her first name of Lilya, says most of her students leave after graduation.

“It’s clear that people want more money, and there is no vision for that in small villages.  So that is why quite a lot of young people just go abroad.”

Viktor Lytsik, who heads the Podilske’s cultural center, agrees.

“We don’t have anywhere to work here.  All the people have to go somewhere else.”

Seventy percent of Ukraine’s land is given over to agriculture, which generates $18 billion in exports.  Mayor Kukharenko says agro-industrial corporations are swallowing up family farms and jobs.

“No matter who is to become a president, they must pay attention to the creation of new jobs and social security of the people, because the economy has ground to a halt, not only in villages but also in small towns as well.”

Few of the villagers who spoke to VOA voiced optimism that any of the presidential candidates offered the answers to their problems.

Kukharenko says the high unemployment leads to alcoholism and mental illness among some residents.  It seems a bleak future.  But for a dose of optimism, head to Podilske’s primary school.

Ukrainian folk music blasts out of the stereo as a dozen six-year-olds rehearse for the upcoming national dance championship.  The students embrace the traditions with enthusiasm and are determined to win the competition for their village.

Two elder children told VOA of their hopes for the future.

“I don’t want to leave Ukraine.  But I want to go to another city and then return here to look after my parents and look after my village,” 10-year-old Anastasia Rudenko said.

Her friend Julia Shilova also plans to leave the village.

“I want to go to the most polluted places in Ukraine, to the cities, and work on improving the environmental problems there.”

Their big ambitions are welcomed by teachers and parents, but underline the challenges ahead as Ukraine’s rural populations head for the cities.

In villages like Podilske, the biggest battle is survival itself.

 
…

As Ukraine prepares to choose its next president in elections scheduled Sunday, one of the biggest challenges remains its sluggish economy. Henry Ridgwell reports from Podilske, one hundred and forty kilometers southeast of Kyiv, where the local mayor is trying to stop the exodus of young people leaving the village.
…

Spain is seeking extradition from the United States as many as 10 people who burst into the North Korean embassy in Madrid last month and tried to pass stolen information to the FBI.

A Spanish judge believes all 10 fled to the U.S. after the Feb.  22 raid. He calls them members of a criminal organization and accuses them of trespassing, burglary, assault, and threats.

The leader of the group has been identified as Adrian Hong Chang — a Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident. Others in the group include American and South Korean citizens. 

The suspects call themselves Cheollima Civil Defense and describe the group as a human rights movement working to liberate North Korea. 

According to the Spanish court complaint, the 10 barged into the North Korean embassy in Madrid on Feb. 22, wearing full head masks and armed with knives and fake handguns. 

They allegedly tied up and gagged the staff while they took a North Korean diplomat into the embassy basement and tried to talk him into defecting.

When the embassy official refused to go with them, they allegedly bound and gagged him too.

Spanish police say an embassy employee managed to jump out of a window and alert officers. Hong Chang posed as a diplomat and assured police everything was fine. The group allegedly escaped with computers and hard drives in a stolen embassy car. 

Hong Chang is suspected of attempting to pass the material to the FBI when he arrived in the US. 

It is not known if the FBI took the stolen information. The FBI issued a statement saying “it is standard practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

There have been no comments from the Spanish, South Korean, or North Korean governments.

But a State Department spokesman said Tuesday the United States government had nothing to do with the raid.
…

An Irish-American man described by the FBI as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet” faced a U.S. judge for the first time this week, on allegations that he ran an anonymous web hosting service that allowed users to post images of child rape.

After five years in Irish custody, Eric Eoin Marques, 33, was extradited on March 23 and stood before a federal judge in Maryland two days later.

He is charged with four counts related to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography.

In a 16-page criminal complaint outlining the case against Marques, an FBI agent describes the graphic content of two Dark Web sites only available through special software, and hosted by a service that allowed users to remain “anonymous or untraceable.”

The complaint contains explicit descriptions of images of sexual torture, bestiality, and rape that were available — and searchable — to website users. The child victims included infants, according to court documents.

Investigators reviewed more than one million files from one website and found that “nearly all of the files depict children who are engaging in sexually explicit conduct with adults or other children, posed nude and/or in such a manner as to expose their genitals, in various states of undress, or depict child erotica,” the U.S. Department of Justice summarized. 

The U.S. government alleges Marques ran the now-defunct business, Freedom Hosting, for at least five years, from July 2008 to July 2013, according to the complaint. He was arrested in Dublin in 2013.

In a Dublin court bail hearing, FBI Special Agent Brooke Donahue described Marques as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet.” 

“Criminals cannot hide on the dark web or in foreign countries,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur.  “We will find them and bring them to justice.”

Hacktivist group Anonymous repeatedly targeted Freedom Hosting in 2011, taking down links to what they claimed were more than 40 child pornography sites. 

When an administrator restored services, Anonymous “once again infiltrated the shared hosting server at Freedom Hosting and stopped service to all clients,” the group described. They declared the hosting service “Enemy Number One” in their collective anti-child pornography efforts, known as Operation DarkNet.

“The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death,” Anonymous stated at the time. 

The Irish media closely monitored Marques’ case over the years, as the dual US-Irish citizen fought extradition in the Irish courts.  

Last week, however, Ireland’s Supreme Court cleared the way for his removal to face the U.S. charges. 

Marques was born in New York to a Brazilian father and Irish mother. The family moved to Ireland when Marques was 6, according to media reports. 

He is scheduled to make a second appearance in Maryland district court on March 27 for a detention hearing.
…

Top European Union leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris in stressing multilateralism to address issues from peace and security to climate change and trade.

The Paris meeting with Xi, which came ahead of a key EU-China summit planned for April 9, brought together some of the bloc’s biggest heavyweights: President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

At a joint press conference following the talks, Macron stressed what he described as areas of convergence between the European Union and China, two of the world’s biggest economic powers. Among them: intensifying the fight against climate change, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and development and security in Africa.

Both sides, Macron said, want to construct a renewed multilateralism that is more just and balanced.

President Xi said the world is facing major challenges and peace and development were key. He described the growing threat of protectionism and unilateralism.

The cooperation through which China hopes to expand its ambitious ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure and investment initiative initiative, however, is controversial and divisive within the European Union. As Germany’s Merkel said, “Europe wants to join the Belt and Road plan, but it demands reciprocity.”

Several areas stressed by the two sides, including EU and Chinese support for the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, contrast with positions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Chinese leader’s visit to France is the last leg of a European trip marked by multibillion dollar deals, including a major Chinese purchase of Airbus planes.

Earlier during Xi’s visit to in Rome, Italy became the first G-7 nation to sign on to China’s Belt and Road project.

Xi’s visit was greeted by some rights protests. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders also released a new report on China’s alleged efforts to stifle media freedom abroad, as well as at home.

Cedric Alviani, the group’s East Asia Bureau director, said, “What we expect from that report is that, all around the world, journalists would start investigating in their city, in their region, in their country on the way Chinese authorities are pushing their influence.”

Alviani said China’s Belt and Road initiative is one way Beijing is spreading not only its economic, but also its ideological influence.

 
…

Airbus signed a deal worth tens of billions of dollars on Monday to sell 300 aircraft to China as part of a trade package coinciding with a visit to Europe by Chinese President Xi Jinping and matching a China record held by rival Boeing.

The deal between Airbus and China’s state buying agency, China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, which regularly coordinates headline-grabbing deals during diplomatic visits, will include 290 A320-family jets and 10 A350 wide-body jets.

French officials said the deal was worth some 30 billion euros at catalogue prices. Planemakers usually grant significant discounts.

The larger-than-expected order, which matches an order for 300 Boeing planes when U.S. Donald Trump visited Beijing in 2017, follows a year-long vacuum of purchases in which China failed to place significant orders amid global trade tensions.

It also comes as the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX has left uncertainty over Boeing’s immediate hopes for a major jet order as the result of any warming of U.S.-China trade ties.

There was no evidence of any direct connection between the Airbus deal and Sino-U.S. tensions or Boeing fleet problems, but China watchers say Beijing has a history of sending diplomatic signals or playing off suppliers through state aircraft deals.

“The conclusion of a big (aviation) contract … is an important step forward and an excellent signal in the current context,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint address with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The United States and China are edging towards a possible deal to ease a months-long tariff row and a deal involving as many as 200-300 Boeing jets had until recently been expected as part of the possible rapprochement.

Long-term relationship

China was also the first to ground the newest version of Boeing’s workhorse 737 model earlier this month following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash, touching off a series of regulatory actions worldwide.

Asked if negotiations had accelerated as a result of the Boeing grounding or other issues, Airbus planemaking chief and designated chief executive Guillaume Faury told reporters, “This is a long-term relationship with our Chinese partners that evolves over time; it is a strong sign of confidence.”

China has become a key hunting ground for Airbus and its leading rival Boeing, thanks to surging travel demand.

But whether Airbus or Boeing is involved, analysts say diplomatic deals frequently contain a mixture of new demand, repeats of older orders and credits against future deals, meaning the immediate impact is not always clear.

The outlook has also been complicated by Beijing’s desire to grow its own industrial champions and, more recently for Boeing, the U.S.-China trade war.

French President Macron unexpectedly failed to clinch an Airbus order for 184 planes during a trip to China in early 2018 and the two sides have been working to salvage it.

Industry sources have said the year’s delay in Airbus negotiations, as well as a buying freeze during the U.S. tariff row, created latent demand for jets to feed China’s growth.
…

British lawmakers voted on Monday to wrest control of Brexit from Prime Minister Theresa May for a day in a bid to find a way through the European Union divorce impasse that a majority in parliament could support.

Lawmakers should now vote on a range of Brexit options on Wednesday, giving parliament a chance to indicate whether it can agree on a deal with closer ties to Brussels, and then try to push the government in that direction.

The move underlined to what extent May has lost her authority, although she said the government would not be bound by the results of the so-called indicative votes on Wednesday.

Monday’s vote was put forward by Oliver Letwin, a lawmaker in May’s Conservative Party, and came after the prime minister admitted that the deal she had agreed with the EU after two years of talks still did not have enough support to pass.

Lawmakers backed Letwin’s proposal by 329 votes to 302, and were almost certain to confirm their decision in the final vote of the evening on the overall “motion as amended.”

Earlier, May said the proposal would set an unwelcome precedent and could lead to support for an outcome to which the EU itself would not agree.

“No government could give a blank cheque to commit to an outcome without knowing what it is,” May said before the vote. “So I cannot commit the government to delivering the outcome of any votes held by this house.”

Last week, the EU agreed to delay Britain’s original March 29 departure date because of the deadlock. Now, it will leave the EU on May 22 if May’s deal is approved by parliament this week. If not, it will have until April 12 to outline its plans.

Monday’s vote was an attempt to find a way to come up with such a plan European Council President Donald Tusk said last week that all Brexit options were still open for Britain until April 12, including a deal, a departure with no deal, a long extension – or even revoking Article 50 and remaining in the EU.

But nearly three years after the 2016 EU membership referendum and four days before Britain was supposed to leave the bloc, it was still unclear how, when or if Brexit would take place, with parliament and the nation still bitterly divided.

May’s deal was defeated in parliament by 149 votes on March 12 and by 230 votes on Jan. 15, but she had signaled that she would bring it back a third time this week.

To get her deal passed, May must win over at least 75 MPs who voted against her on March 12 – dozens of rebels in her Conservative Party, some opposition Labour Party MPs and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government but has voted against the deal so far.

“Why would the prime minister ever expect us to give support to an agreement which is based on a lie?” DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told BBC television.
…

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots warns chances of achieving a U.N. treaty banning the development, production and use of fully autonomous lethal weapons, also known as killer robots, are looking increasingly remote.  Experts from some 80 countries are attending a weeklong meeting to discuss the prospect of negotiating an international treaty. 

Representatives from about 80 countries have been meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems since 2014.  They have to decide by November to begin negotiations on a new treaty to regulate killer robots. 

Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams says Russia has been in the forefront of a group of countries, including the United States and Australia, trying to block movement in this direction.  At the opening session, she tells VOA that Russia argued for drastically limiting discussions on the need for meaningful human control over lethal autonomous weapons.

“It is very unlikely as they finish up this year that there will be a mandate to meaningfully deal with meaningful human control, which is fundamental in our view to how you deploy such systems,” Williams said. “There would be no utility in continuing to come here and hear the same blah, blah, blah over and over again.” 

Williams said the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots may have to resort to civil activism to get an accord banning killer robots.  She said such tactics successfully achieved international treaties banning land mines and cluster munitions outside the United Nations framework.

But for now, the activists are not giving up on persuading U.N. member countries to take the right course.  They said delegating life-and death decisions to machines crosses what they call a moral red line and should not be allowed to happen.  

They said they have strong support for their stance from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In a statement to delegates attending the meeting, he warned of the dangers of giving machines the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement.

He called this morally repugnant and politically unacceptable.  He said these weapons should be prohibited by international law.

 
…

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has canceled a visit to Romania to protest its prime minister’s support for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Royal Hashemite Court said Monday that the decision came “in solidarity with Jerusalem.” Abdullah was scheduled to visit Romania later in the day.|

On Sunday, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told a conference in Washington that her country was moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

However, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, a rival who’s in charge of the East European nation’s foreign policy, said the prime minister hadn’t consulted with him over the decision.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.

Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as their capital.

Jordan is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in east Jerusalem’s Old City.

 
…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia for talks this spring or summer, RIA news agency cited Russian lawmaker Alexander Bashkin as saying on Monday.

The exact date of the trip has not been set yet, Bashkin said.

The United States last week imposed new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, the first such steps since a U.S.-North Korean summit collapsed last month.

The Kremlin confirmed on a conference call that a trip by Kim to Russia was being worked on but said that it was not able to provide further details.

“As soon as there is a concrete agreement on time, place and the form of the meeting, we will present the relevant information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
…

Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her Brexit survival strategy to her disgruntled ministers Monday as Britain entered the week it was meant to leave the European Union with its government in crisis.

Britain is still no closer to figuring out how it intends to split off from the other 27 EU nations than it was when voters narrowly backed Brexit in a divisive 2016 national poll.

All the options are back on the table after May’s deal twice failed to win parliamentary support by resounding margins.

Anxious EU leaders agreed last week to delay Brexit’s March 29 deadline and give Britain until April 12 to figure out how it intends to avoid simply crashing out of the bloc.

The EU ramped up the pressure on Monday, saying it had completed no-deal preparations as this outcome on April 12 was looking “increasingly likely”.

May outlined her plans to top ministers Monday before chairing a special meeting of the cabinet that followed a weekend of UK media reports about an attempted government coup.

“Time’s up, Theresa,” The Sun tabloid, Britain’s most widely read newspaper, declared in a front-page headline Monday.

May huddled on Sunday with several of the reported plotters at her Chequers country residence.

Most of them are Brexit backers who fear the terms of Britain’s departure being watered down  or even reversed  down the line.

“Theresa May is the chicken who bottled Brexit,” former foreign minister Boris Johnson, May’s great critic and eternal leadership rival, wrote in a weekly column for The Telegraph.

“It is time for the PM to channel the spirit of Moses in Exodus, and say to Pharaoh in Brussels – LET MY PEOPLE GO.”

‘Disastrous position’   

How May intends to go about saving both Brexit and her leadership should become more apparent when she speaks in parliament Monday afternoon.

Media reports said she will offer lawmakers to vote on an array of Brexit options that include Britain maintaining much closer trade ties with the European Union than those written into her deal.

Other alternatives include holding a second Brexit referendum and even revoking Article 50  the notice London sent Brussels about its intention to leave.

“I think we will see today that there is a mood in the House of Commons to stop us leaving without a deal, even if that means no Brexit,” International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told BBC radio.

“I think that is a constitutionally disastrous position.”

The prospect of a softer form of Brexit could theoretically push Brexit hardliners into supporting May’s current deal.

But May herself admits that she is nowhere near to securing the votes needed to finally get her Brexit deal over the line.

It is not entirely clear when  or even if  she will go for a third vote.

“As the prime minister has said, there wouldn’t be much point bringing a vote back to the house that clearly we were going to lose,” Fox said Monday.

What happens to her premiership if parliament rallies around a more EU-friendly Brexit alternative that contradicts her policies is unclear.

Parliamentary control   

Brexit should happen on May 22 if the premier’s deal somehow prevails.

But parliament could still get a chance to have its say on alternative options on Wednesday if an initial vote by MPs later on Monday goes through.

Whatever lawmakers decide on would not be binding  but it would put enormous pressure on May.

Parliament is most likely to rally around the idea of keeping Britain in a customs union with the European Union or its single market.

Both of those policies contradict May’s position.

A customs union would keep Britain from striking its own trade agreements with non-EU countries.

A single market would require the government to go back on May’s promise to regain control of Britain’s borders and migration policy.

But some of May’s most senior minister said they would support any options that ensures Britain leaves the EU with a deal.
…

Chinese President Xi Jinping has found one country in Europe that isn’t worried about China’s growing global clout or its ambitions to dominate the future of technology: Monaco.

Xi visited the tiny Mediterranean principality Sunday as part of a European tour that is clouded by mixed feelings about how to engage with China and benefit from its trade — while setting limits on its appetite for greater economic and diplomatic influence.

Xi’s appearance alongside Monaco’s Prince Albert and Princess Charlene marks the first state visit by a Chinese president to the principality. The palace said Monaco is seeking to boost its trade and economic cooperation with China, without providing details on eventual contracts to be signed.

Monaco last year clinched a deal with Chinese tech company Huawei to develop its 5G telecommunications network — a thorny issue for several European countries.

The U.S. government says Huawei’s 5G network could give Chinese security services a backdoor to spy on consumers, and has pressed European partners to shun it. Huawei says the fear is unfounded.

Monaco banned all flights in its airspace during Xi’s brief visit and any sailing in its waters or mooring in its luxury yacht-filled harbor.

The Chinese leader will dine Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron in the French Mediterranean resort town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer. A police boat and police divers worked to secure the area before his arrival, and security cordons blocked several roads in Nice, where Xi will stay overnight.

Xi will sign energy and other contracts with Macron on Monday, then meet in Paris on Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The European Union is China’s biggest trading partner, but many in Europe worry about unfair competition from Chinese companies that benefit from government financial backing.

Xi comes to Monaco and France from Italy, which just endorsed a vast Chinese transport infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. Macron criticized Italy’s move, calling for a concerted European approach to China instead.

“There is this bad European habit to have 28 different policies, with countries competing against each other to attract investment,” a top French official said. “We need to speak with a common voice if we want to exist. We have the same approach on the 5G issue: avoiding 28 different decisions.”

 
…

Rescue helicopters airlifted 479 people from a disabled cruise ship off Norway’s western coast before it regained engine power Sunday and was escorted by three vessels to the nearby port of Molde.

Twenty people were injured in the ordeal as the Viking Sky ship tossed in winds gusting to 38 knots and rough seas with eight-meter waves. When the cruise ship regained power, 436 guests and 458 crew members remained on board.

The Norwegian Red Cross said those injured sustained broken bones and cuts.

The Viking Sky crew issued a mayday call Saturday as the engines failed with the ship within 100 meters of striking underwater rocks and 900 meters offshore.

Passengers reported horrifying scenes on the swaying ship.

One American passenger, Rodney Horgen, 62, of Minnesota, said he knew something was very wrong when the guests were all brought to the ship’s muster point. The Associated Press reported that Horgen was certain the end was nigh when a huge wave crashed through glass doors and swept his wife, Judie Lemieux, 10 meters across the floor.

“When the windows and door flew open and the two meters of water swept people and tables 20 to 30 feet, that was the breaker. I said to myself, `This is it,” Horgen recalled. “I grabbed my wife but I could not hold on. And she was thrown across the room. And then she got thrown back again by the wave coming back.”

“I was afraid,” Janet Jacob, one of the first passengers to be air-lifted, told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. “I have never experienced anything so scary.”

“The evacuation is proceeding with all necessary caution,” operator Viking Ocean Cruises said on its website before the ship regained power.

Most of the passengers on the ship were from the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
…

Prime Minister Theresa May faces growing pressure from within her own party either to resign or to set a date for stepping down as a way to build support for her Brexit agreement with the European Union, British media reported Sunday.

Senior Conservative Party figures were urging May to recognize her weakened political position and leave the prime minister’s post. However, there was no indication from Downing Street a resignation was near.

May thus far has been unable to generate enough support in Parliament for the withdrawal deal her government and the EU reached late last year. Lawmakers voted down the Brexit plan twice, and May has raised the possibility of bringing it back a third time if enough legislators appear willing to switch their votes.

The U.K.’s departure from the EU long was set to take place on March 29, but the absence of an approved divorce agreement prompted May last week to ask the leaders of the 27 remaining member nations for a postponement.

The leaders rejected May’s request to extend the deadline until June 30. Instead, they agreed to delay Brexit until May 22, on the eve of EU Parliament elections, if the prime minister can persuade Parliament to endorse the twice-rejected agreement.

If she is unable to rally support for the withdrawal agreement, the European leaders said Britain only has until April 12 to choose between leaving the EU without a divorce deal and a radically new path, such as revoking the decision to leave the bloc or calling another voter referendum on Brexit.

Parliament may take a series of votes this week to determine what proposals, if any, could command majority support.

Conservative Party legislator George Freeman tweeted Saturday night that the U.K. needs a new leader if the Brexit process is to move forward.

“I’m afraid it’s all over for the PM. She’s done her best. But across the country you can see the anger. Everyone feels betrayed,” Freeman tweeted. “This can’t go on. We need a new PM who can reach out & build some sort of coalition for a Plan B.”

Under Conservative Party rules, May cannot face a formal leadership challenge from within her own party until December because she survived one three months ago. But she may be persuaded that her position is untenable if Cabinet ministers and other senior party members desert her.

Her bid for fresh support for her withdrawal plan has so far failed to win backing from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which usually provides crucial votes for May’s minority government.

She also faces pressure from groups demanding a second Brexit referendum. Huge crowds turned out Saturday for an anti-Brexit protest march in London. Organizers claimed more than 1 million people attended.

 
…

It was late Saturday evening in Moscow and almost 24 hours since the news that special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his long-awaited report to the U.S. attorney general had reached Russia’s capital. But both the Kremlin and the country’s Foreign Ministry were quiet.  

While no details of the inquiry were made public, a single commentary by an unnamed Justice Department official could be viewed in Moscow as a preliminary victory: Mueller and his team, investigating alleged collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, did not recommend any further indictments.  

Russian officials for months have been denying any interference in the U.S. elections, despite dozens of charges brought by Mueller and his team against 25 Russian nationals,  mostly military officers and trolls,  for their role in alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. 

The people VOA interviewed on the streets of Moscow seemed uninterested in Mueller himself and the line of work he does.  

‘It never happened’

And a few, who were familiar with the inquiry he had led, stood firmly by their government, denying Moscow’s interference in the U.S. elections or any other malign activity abroad. 

“We didn’t need any such interference and it never happened,” said one unnamed Moscovite to VOA. “Russia didn’t have either desire or resources to influence the will of the American people,” echoed another. 

Independent experts are not surprised by such reaction by fellow countrymen. 

“The majority will tell you that you have to deny everything by default. We are in the state of information war, and it’s the right tactics,” said Denis Volkov from Levada Center, a Russian independent polling organization. 

Volkov has been studying public opinion in Russia for more than 10 years. He said that typically, at the beginning of surveys, Russians avoid answering questions about Moscow’s malevolent behavior abroad by just saying “it could have been anyone.” 

WATCH: Interference in Elections? The View From Moscow 

The researcher said that with such responses people almost subconsciously repeat the ever-changing interpretation of Russia’s involvement abroad by state-controlled TV. 

“It’s just like we [Russians] were rejecting the idea of Russian troops being in Crimea until Putin said, ‘Yes, those were our soldiers.’ But previously, he denied it,” Volkov said.

Old grudges

Experts believe many Russians also tend to accept the government’s interpretation of global events because of sociohistoric grudges stemming from lost glory.

The ongoing conflict between Moscow and the West doesn’t help, either. 

“I’d say it’s almost some kind of envy toward a country that is No. 1. Because just recently, there was a parity and 30 years ago it all ended,” Volkov said. 

The head of the Russian International Affairs Council, Andrey Kortunov, disagrees with Volkov. By siding with the government on issues like this, Russians simply seek affirmation of their new place in the world today. 

“I think for an average Russian it’s a mechanism of attracting American attention. Russia means something and you cannot write it off. You cannot call it Upper Volta with missiles, or a gas station that pretends to be a country,” Kortunov said. 

But studies show that Russians are not the only people who accept the mainstream position for ultimate truth.

In a series of coordinated surveys conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center in Moscow, sociologists asked Americans and Russians a variety of questions on foreign policy. The results somewhat surprised them. 

“It amused me quite a bit. The answers were mirror images of each other. The Russians said: ‘It’s not us, it’s them who interferes in our affairs.’ The exact opposite was true for the U.S.,” Volkov said. 
…

A cruise ship with engine problems sent a mayday call off Norway’s western coast on Saturday as it desperately tried to avoid being grounded on the rocky coast. Rescue workers then launched a high-risk evacuation of the ship’s 1,300 passengers and crew, winching them one by one up to helicopters as heaving waves tossed the ship from side to side. 

The Norwegian newspaper VG said the Viking Sky cruise ship ran into propulsion problems as bad weather hit Norway’s coastal regions and the vessel started drifting toward land. Police in the western county of Moere og Romsdal said the crew, fearing the ship would run aground, managed to anchor in Hustadsvika Bay, between the western Norwegian cities of Alesund and Trondheim, so the evacuations could take place. 

Rescue teams with helicopters and boats were sent to evacuate the cruise ship under extremely difficult circumstances. Norwegian media reported gusts up to 38 knots (43 mph) and waves over 8 meters (26 feet). The area is known for its rough, frigid waters.  

Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said the Viking Sky’s evacuation was a slow and dangerous process, as passengers needed to be hoisted from the cruise ship to the five available helicopters one by one. By 6 p.m., some 100 people had been rescued and were being taken to a nearby sports hall. 

Second rescue

Later, reports emerged that a cargo ship with nine crew members was in trouble nearby, and the local Norwegian rescue service diverted two of the helicopters to that rescue. 

Authorities told NRK that a strong storm with high waves was preventing rescue workers from using lifeboats or other vessels to take passengers ashore. 

“It’s a demanding exercise, because [passengers] have to hang in the air under a helicopter and there’s a very, very strong wind,” witness Odd Roar Lange told NRK at the site. 

Video and photos from people on the ship showed it heaving, with chairs and other furniture dangerously rolling from side to side. Passengers were suited up in orange life vests, but the waves broke some windows and water flowed over the feet of some passengers. 

According to the cruisemapper.com website, the Viking Sky was on a 12-day trip that began March 14 in the western Norwegian city of Bergen.  

The ship was visiting the Norwegian towns and cities of Narvik, Alta, Tromso, Bodo and Stavanger before its scheduled arrival Tuesday in the British port of Tilbury on the River Thames. 

The Viking Sky, a vessel with gross tonnage of 47,800, was delivered in 2017 to operator Viking Ocean Cruises.
…

Italy has joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious trillion-dollar transcontinental trade and infrastructure project, Saturday. Rome’s move to become the first G-7 nation to participate in China’s so-called New Silk Road has brought divisions within Europe as the European Union weighs a more defensive strategy on China. As State Department correspondent Nike Ching reports, American officials and analysts are cautioning allies about China’s approach to investment.
…