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The United States on Friday signaled it would not bow to the European Union’s request to keep agriculture out of planned U.S.-EU trade talks, publishing negotiating objectives that seek comprehensive EU access for American farm products.

The objectives, required by Congress under the “fast-track” trade negotiating authority law, seek to reduce or eliminate EU tariffs on U.S. farm products and break down non-tariff barriers, including on products developed through biotechnology, the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said.

Agricultural issues were among the major sticking points in past negotiations for a major U.S.-EU trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), before talks were shelved after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Wednesday that the 28-country bloc could not negotiate on agriculture in a new, more limited set of negotiations expected to start this year.

“We have made very clear agriculture will not be included,” Malmstrom told reporters after meeting Lighthizer, adding that the two sides had not yet agreed on the scope of the talks.

Trump and EU president Jean-Claude Juncker agreed last July to re-launch negotiations to cut tariffs on industrial goods, including autos, and also discuss ways for Europe to buy more U.S. soybeans.

Trump told Juncker that he would refrain from levying threatened 25-percent tariffs on EU-produced cars and auto parts, which he is considering imposing worldwide on national security grounds.

Trump has long complained about Europe’s 10-percent import tariff on autos. The U.S. passenger car tariff is only 2.5 percent, although U.S. tariffs on pickup trucks and other commercial trucks are 25 percent.

The U.S. negotiating wish list does not specifically mention autos, but pledges to seek duty-free market access for U.S. industrial goods that eliminate non-tariff barriers such as “unnecessary differences in regulation.”

USTR’s decision to push for a full-fledged trade negotiation on agricultural goods follows a hearing in December at which U.S. farm, food and beverage groups argued for their products to be included.

Influential lawmakers such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa farmer, have warned they might not support an EU deal that did not include agriculture. Now that the U.S. objectives have been published, the USTR may be ready to formally launch negotiations in as little as 30 days.

But the EU’s own negotiating mandates on industrial goods and regulatory cooperation need to be cleared by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, and approved by member states, and it is unclear how long that process will take.

The United States had a $151 billion goods deficit with the EU in 2017, despite two-way annual trade of about $1.1 billion. USTR also said it will seek commitments by Europe not to impose duties on any digital downloads of U.S. software, movies, music and other products nor any rules that restrict cross-border data flows or require data localization, USTR said.

In an objective aimed at Europe’s efforts to tax products and services from U.S.-based internet giants, including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Amazon.com, USTR said it would seek a “guarantee that these products will  not face government-sanctioned discrimination based on the nationality or territory in which the product is produced.”
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The New York Times is reporting that FBI officials were so alarmed by President Donald Trump’s behavior after he fired former FBI Director James Comey that they started investigating whether he was working against American interests.

The Times cited anonymous former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation Friday who said counterintelligence investigators looked into whether “Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”

The officials told the newspaper that after Comey was fired in May 2107, they become concerned when Trump tied the firing of Comey to the Russia investigation.

Trump actions questioned

Law enforcement officials have previously confirmed that after the firing the FBI opened an investigation into whether the action constituted obstruction of justice. However, what has not been made public is that law enforcement officials also sought to determine whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security, according to the Times.

The entire investigation was taken over several days later when special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election as well as possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

There has been no public evidence that Trump was in contact with Russia during the election campaign and Trump has long denied any illicit connection. Russia has also denied the allegations.

Giuliani: Nothing found

A lawyer for Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, told the Times that if FBI officials had concluded Trump was working against American interests, the public would have heard about it.

“The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing,” Giuliani told the paper.

Two days after Trump dismissed Comey in May 2017, he told NBC News anchor Lester Holt that he was going to fire Comey regardless, “knowing there was no good time to do it,” but was thinking of the Russia investigation when he decided to dismiss him.

“When I did this, now I said to myself, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,’” Trump said.

Comey’s firing, rather than ending the Russia investigation, led directly to the appointment, over Trump’s objections, of Mueller, another former FBI director, to take over the Russia probe. Trump has repeatedly called the Russia probe a “witch hunt.”
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In the latest blow to the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to rid itself of scandal, marketing head Tsunekazu Takeda is being investigated for alleged corruption related to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Takeda, who is also the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, was placed under formal investigation for “active corruption” on Dec. 10, France’s financial crimes office said Friday. 

French investigators are in the midst of a years-long and wide-ranging probe into sports corruption that is looking, among other things, at the bidding contests for the 2020 Olympics and other major sports events. 

Takeda’s career in Olympic circles has ticked almost every box, starting with representing Japan in equestrian competition at the 1972 Munich Games and 1976 Montreal Games. 

As the head of the IOC’s marketing commission since 2014, Takeda has overseen the signing of sponsorship deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including new partnerships with Alibaba, Intel and Allianz. 

In a statement issued Friday by the Japanese Olympic Committee, Takeda denied any wrongdoing. The JOC said he was in Tokyo but gave no further details. 

“The case is causing tremendous concern among the people who are supporting the Tokyo Games, but I will continue to cooperate in the investigation in order to clear any suspicion of me,” Takeda said. 

The IOC ethics commission was scheduled to meet later Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Takeda could be provisionally suspended from Olympic duty, or offer to step aside during the investigation. 

“The IOC ethics commission has opened a file and will continue to monitor the situation,” the IOC said in a statement. “Mr. Takeda continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence.” 

The preliminary charge of active corruption against Takeda announced by the National Financial Prosecutors office was first reported on Friday by French newspaper Le Monde. The preliminary charge means the investigating magistrate has determined there are serious grounds for suspicion but has not yet ruled on whether to pursue a prosecution. 

Secret deals suspected

Le Monde said the magistrate overseeing the probe, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, suspects the IOC vote for Tokyo in 2013 was swayed by secret deals that secured the backing of IOC members from Africa for the Japanese capital over Istanbul and Madrid. 

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told Japan’s NHK television she was “very surprised and puzzled” but declined to speculate how it might affect the Tokyo Olympics. 

“I just got the initial report on this, so I don’t have sufficient information,” she said. 

Le Monde reported French investigators suspect Takeda of authorizing the payment of bribes. French financial prosecutors are looking at two payments, totaling 1.8 million euros ($2 million), made on either side of the IOC vote in September 2013 to a Singapore company, Black Tidings, Le Monde said.  

French prosecutors have linked Black Tidings to Papa Massata Diack, one of the sons of Lamine Diack, who presided over the IAAF from 1999 to 2015. 

Lamine Diack, who had huge influence on African voters in Olympic contests, is also under investigation in France on corruption-related charges and allegations that he, his son and others were involved in blackmailing athletes and covering up failed drug tests. The 85-year-old Diack has had to turn in his passport and is not allowed to leave the country. 

His son is believed to be in Senegal. France has issued a wanted notice for him via Interpol.  

‘No such illegal activity’

Takeda, who is a distant relative of the Japanese imperial family but does not have royal status, said he was cooperating with French investigators. He said the money paid by the bid committee is a legitimate cost for the service provided by the Black Tidings under the consultancy contract between the two sides. He also said he did not know Lamine Diack. 

“I have explained [to the French authorities] that there was no such illegal activity tantamount to bribery,” Takeda said. 

Takeda was leading Tokyo’s second straight bid for the Summer Games, after losing in the 2016 Olympics race to Rio de Janeiro. French prosecutors are also investigating Rio officials and IOC members for alleged financial wrongdoing in 2009 linked to Papa Massata Diack.  

The Japanese Olympic Committee said it has conducted its own internal investigation and found no illegality involved in all payments made by the Japanese bid committee at the time. 

The organizers of the 2020 Olympics referred questions to the JOC. 

In Takeda’s Olympic career, he has led a national Olympic committee, been a vice president of an Olympic sport’s governing body (equestrian), a chef de mission for Olympic teams, a sports director for a Winter Olympics (Nagano in 1998), a Summer Games bid leader, an IOC member since 2012, and now chair of one of the most financially significant IOC panels. 

Takeda also works closely with Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait, the influential IOC member who has stepped aside from the IOC while awaiting trial in Geneva this year in a fraud case unrelated to Olympic business. Takeda is a board member of the global group of Olympic committees, known as ANOC, and the Olympic Council of Asia, both led by the Kuwaiti sheikh. 
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Poland has arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a Polish national involved in cyber business on allegations of spying, Polish media reported Friday, deepening the controversy over Western criticism of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

Polish public TV channel TVP said security services had also searched the local offices of Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd, as well as the offices of telecoms firm Orange Polska, where it said the Polish national works.

Orange said in a statement the security agency had on Tuesday gathered materials related to an employee, whom it did not identify. The company added that it did not know if the investigation was linked to the employee’s professional work, and that it would continue to cooperate with the authorities.

Huawei Poland did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Huawei in China could not immediately be reached for comment.

Arrest in Canada

In December, Canadian authorities arrested a top Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of U.S. authorities as part of an investigation into alleged violations of U.S. trade sanctions.

U.S. intelligence agencies allege Huawei is linked to China’s government and that its equipment could contain “backdoors” for use by government spies. No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the claims.

The U.S. criticism has led to a number of Western countries and companies to review whether they should allow Huawei’s equipment to be used in their telecoms networks.

“The Chinese national is a businessman working in a major electronics company … the Pole is a person known in circles associated with cyber business,” Maciej Wasik, the deputy head of Poland’s special services, told state news agency PAP.

Held for three months

The arrested pair will be held for three months, PAP reported, citing the spokesperson for Poland’s head of special services.

TVP said the Polish national was a former agent of the internal security agency. The agency did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
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Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived an unassuming life in New York City for decades until his past was revealed and he was deported to Germany last year, has died, German media reported Thursday. He was 95.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten newspapers independently quoted German officials saying Palij died Wednesday in a care home in the town of Ahlen.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who lobbied for Germany to take Palij, said he had been informed of the death. He credited U.S. President Donald Trump with seeing through Palij’s August 2018 deportation after it had been stalled for a quarter-century.

“It would have been upsetting to many Americans if he had died in the U.S. in what many viewed as a comfortable escape,” Grenell told The Associated Press.

Palij was the last Nazi facing deportation from the United States when he was taken from his Queens home on a stretcher and put on a plane to Germany.

“An evil man has passed away. That, I guess, is a positive,” said Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, who had led protests at Palij’s home.

Dov Hikind, a longtime New York lawmaker who fought for Palij’s deportation, said the death brings “the closure survivors of the Holocaust needed.”

Lying about past

From the time American investigators first accused Palij of lying about his Nazi past, it took 25 years for his removal from the United States despite political pressure and frequent protests outside his home. He was not prosecuted in Germany and spent his last months in the nursing home.

Palij, an ethnic Ukrainian born in a part of Poland that is now in Ukraine, entered the U.S. in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act, a law meant to help refugees from postwar Europe.

He told immigration officials he worked during the war in a woodshop and farm in Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as at another farm in Germany and finally in a German upholstery factory.

Palij said he never served in the military. In reality, the U.S. Justice Department said he played an essential role in the Nazi program to exterminate Jews as an armed guard at the Trawniki training camp, southeast of Lublin in German-occupied Poland.

When investigators knocked on his door in 1993, he told them: “I would never have received my visa if I told the truth. Everyone lied.”

According to a Justice Department complaint, Palij served in a unit that “committed atrocities against Polish civilians and others” and then in the notorious SS Streibel Battalion, “a unit whose function was to round up and guard thousands of Polish civilian forced laborers.”

Palij served at Trawniki in 1943, the same year 6,000 prisoners in the camps and tens of thousands of other prisoners held in occupied Poland were rounded up and slaughtered.

Palij eventually acknowledged serving in Trawniki but denied any involvement in war crimes.

Stripped of citizenship

The U.S. lacks jurisdiction to prosecute such cases since the crimes were not committed in the United States and the victims were not Americans. Instead, it has focused on revoking the U.S. citizenship of suspects and deporting them — or extraditing them if another country is seeking to prosecute them.

A judge stripped Palij of his U.S. citizenship in 2003 for “participation in acts against Jewish civilians.” He was ordered deported a year later. But because Germany, Poland, Ukraine and other countries refused to take him, he continued living in limbo in the two-story, red brick home in Queens he shared with his now-late wife, Maria.

After a diplomatic push, the U.S. finally persuaded Germany last year to take Palij. However, German investigators concluded there was not enough evidence of wartime criminal activity to bring charges against him.

“Good riddance to this war criminal,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said after Palij’s deportation was announced.

Palij had managed to live quietly in the U.S. for years as a draftsman and then as a retiree until a fellow former guard told Canadian authorities in 1989 that Palij was “living somewhere in America.”

Investigators asked Russia and other countries for records on Palij beginning in 1990 and first confronted him in 1993. It wasn’t until after a second interview in 2001 that he signed a document acknowledging he had been a guard at Trawniki and a member of the Streibel Battalion.

Palij suggested at one point during the interview that he was threatened with death if he refused to work as a guard, saying, “If you don’t show up, boom-boom.”

As his case languished, his continued presence in New York City outraged many, especially members of the Jewish community. The frequent protests outside his home featured chants such as “Your neighbor is a Nazi!”

In 2017, all 29 members of New York’s congressional delegation signed a letter urging the State Department to follow through on his deportation.
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Opposition is rising among Italian mayors and regional governors who are against the central government’s crackdown on asylum-seekers. They are planning court challenges to the new measures in defiance of the populist government and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

A controversial security decree, backed by Salvini and recently approved by parliament, has significantly tightened the criteria for migrants requesting humanitarian protection. The mayors and governors who oppose the decree contend parts of it are unconstitutional. 

But Salvini has made clear that in the past Italy has provided humanitarian protection too easily, and now only those who are truly fleeing from a war will be able to stay in the country.

The interior minister stressed recently that those who were not fleeing a conflict, and instead were bringing conflict to Italy by selling drugs, stealing and committing other crimes, would not be staying in Italy. 

He added that there are 5 million Italians living in poverty and that they take priority over anyone else. But mayors from such cities as Palermo, Naples and Florence are refusing to bow to a law they do not consider to be in line with the Italian constitution.  

Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo, said this month that because of this law, up to 120,000 people in the country legally would be thrown onto the streets, becoming invisible and without rights. He added that the new decree would incite criminality, not prevent it.

At least eight regional governors have also joined the ranks of those who feel the matter should be taken to a judge who can decide whether the decree complies with the constitution. Among them is Sergio Chiamparino, president of the region of Piedmont in northern Italy, who expects to mount a legal challenge by early February.

He said there was a risk that the decree could indirectly affect policies, starting with health and social policies under the regions’ jurisdiction. And he said he thought there had been a violation in the attribution of responsibilities between the central state and regions. 

The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency in Italy, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children in public nursery schools, as well as for complete access to national health care. 

Cesare Mirabelli, president emeritus of Italy’s Constitutional Court, said what was occurring was basically a political act of dissent against the law, which would most likely lead to a challenge of its constitutional legitimacy  — for example, in cases where limits arise regarding the right to health, which is a human right that affects all, or the right to education, which pertains to minors, whether they are Italian citizens or foreigners.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has agreed to meet with a delegation of mayors next week to discuss how the technical application of the law could be modified.
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Jaguar Land Rover said Thursday it will cut 4,500 jobs as the carmaker addresses slowing demand in China and growing uncertainty about the U.K.’s departure from the European Union.

The luxury carmaker, owned by India’s Tata conglomerate, said the cuts will be in addition to 1,500 people who left the business in 2018. The cost-cutting program will begin with a voluntary reduction program in the U.K., where some 44,000 people are employed.

The latest job losses follow on from last year’s 2.5 billion-pound ($3.2 billion) turnaround plan that was designed to deal with many of the headwinds facing the company — Brexit, rising trade tensions between China and the U.S. and new European emissions standards combined to push Jaguar into the red in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with the same period the year before. The company also announced further investment in electrification.

“The next chapter in the story of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will be the most exciting — and challenging — in our history,” CEO Ralf Speth said in a statement. “Revealing the iconic Defender, investing in cleaner, smarter, more desirable cars and electrifying our facilities to manufacture a future range of British-built electric vehicles will all form part of building a globally competitive and flourishing company.”

Christian Stadler, professor of strategic management at Warwick Business School, said Jaguar was facing a “perfect storm of challenges,” with the drop in Chinese sales being the most immediate problem.

“That is JLR’s biggest market, but car buyers there are reluctant to make expensive purchases as the economy is growing at its slowest rate for a decade and the country is locked in a trade war with the U.S.,” Stadler said. “At the same time Chinese dealers are demanding better terms, which JLR has resisted.”

The cuts will not just be bad news for the Jaguar staff, Stadler said. Thousands more workers in the U.K. are part of Jaguar supply chain to the carmaker — jobs that will now also be at risk.

“Brexit is another factor, with businesses increasingly concerned about the prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, which would mean tighter border controls,” he said. “That would cause massive disruption as the U.K. car manufacturing industry is so closely integrated with Europe.”

Also Thursday, Ford signaled “significant” cuts among its 50,000-strong workforce under plans to make it more competitive. The Dearborn Michigan-based company also said it would shift to more electric models.
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Officials in Davos have authorized a protest by a Socialist youth group against U.S. President Donald Trump and other expected attendees of the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort this month.

Authorities rejected a similar protest request last year when Trump attended the elite event, citing heavy snowfall.

Julia Baumgartner, secretary-general of Switzerland’s Young Socialists, said Thursday that her group was “very excited” about the chance to demonstrate.

Baumgartner said she expected no more than 150 to 200 protesters because the rally falls on a Thursday when people are at work and school. The protest is to show opposition to Trump, freshly inaugurated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the wealthy elites gathered in Davos, she said.

Local officials approved Wednesday the Jan. 24 demonstration near City Hall, saying the right to peaceful protest and free expression was important. Officials say the authorization could be reviewed if the security situation or weather conditions change.

Security is heavy during the annual event, which is taking place Jan. 22-25.

It’s unclear if a partial shutdown of the U.S. government over a standoff over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall will complicate his travel to Davos. Last year, a brief government shutdown threatened to derail his trip to Davos too, but he did attend and gave remarks asserting that his “America First” agenda can go hand-in-hand with global cooperation.

 
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More than a million euros have been donated to French police hurt in clashes with yellow vest protesters as both sides take to online crowdfunding to rally support.

The police fund-raising campaign came in response to a similar support drive for a boxer who was captured on video punching police officers during Saturday’s protests in Paris.

Fund-raising site Leetchi suspended donations for the boxer, Christophe Dettinger, amid government outrage. Dettinger is in custody until his trial next month on charges of violence against public officials.

Conservative lawmaker Renaud Muselier then launched a fund-raising campaign for police injured since the protests began Nov. 17. It hit the 1 million-euro mark Thursday.

New protests are planned this Saturday despite concessions by President Emmanuel Macron. The movement started over fuel tax rises but has expanded to broad anti-government anger.

 
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Japan’s Shinzo Abe is likely to urge British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday to do everything she can to avoid a disorderly Brexit that some of Japan’s leading companies have warned could be a disaster.

Japanese firms have spent more than 46 billion pounds  ($59 billion) in Britain, encouraged by successive British governments since Margaret Thatcher promising them a business-friendly base from which to trade across Europe.

Future unsure

The future of Brexit remains deeply uncertain — with options ranging from a disorderly exit from the EU to another membership referendum — because British lawmakers are expected on Jan. 15 to vote down the deal May struck with the EU in November.

Abe welcomed the deal in November and investors fear that if it is defeated then the world’s fifth largest economy would be plunged into a chaotic no-deal Brexit that would severely disrupt supply chains.

Abe and May will discuss the economic opportunities that exist for both nations as the U.K. leaves the European Union, Downing Street said ahead of the meeting.

‘Natural partners’

“The U.K. and Japan are natural partners,” May said. “As the U.K. prepares to leave the EU, we raise our horizons towards the rest of the world. Our relationship with Japan is stronger than ever, and this visit will enhance cooperation in a wide range of areas.”

For Abe, however, Britain’s trading relationship with Europe after Brexit will be high on the agenda. He told reporters before his departure to Europe that he would convey Japan’s position on Brexit to May, reports said.

When the two met at the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires in December, Abe asked for May’s support to avoid a “no deal” and to ensure transparency, predictability and legal stability in the process.

Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda build roughly half of Britain’s nearly 1.7 million cars and have warned about the loss of any free and unfettered trade with the European Union after Brexit.

Blunt warning

The country’s ambassador to Britain, Koji Tsuruoka, issued a blunt warning about Brexit in February when he said Japanese companies would have to leave Britain if trade barriers made them unprofitable.

“If there is no profitability of continuing operations in the U.K. — not Japanese only — then no private company can continue operations,” he said. “So it is as simple as that.”

 
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Macedonian lawmakers are in the final stretch of renaming their country North Macedonia as part of a deal with neighboring Greece in return for membership of NATO and potentially the European Union. 

Speaking at the start of a debate on essential constitutional amendments that are part of the deal, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told lawmakers that by signing the agreement, the country is finally ending a decades-long dispute with a deal that recognizes Macedonian national identity and language.

“This is a historic and patriotic choice. We can be the generation that has made a bold decision,” Zaev said. 

The parliamentary session was adjourned until Thursday after Zaev’s speech. The debate is expected to last until Friday. 

The deal, signed in June, aims to put an end to a dispute with neighboring Greece that has kept the former Yugoslav republic out of organizations such as NATO and the EU. Greece argues use of the term “Macedonia” implies territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name, and on its ancient Greek heritage. 

The agreement has met with opposition in both countries, with opponents arguing it makes too many concessions to the other side. 

The center-right VMRO-DPMNE opposition party boycotted Wednesday’s parliamentary session, with party leader Hristijan Mickoski and other party lawmakers joining several hundred protesters outside parliament who were calling the name change deal “national treason.”

Votes are there

Despite the objections in Macedonia, the constitutional changes are expected to pass. Aleksandar Kiracovski, secretary general of the Social Democrats who heads the governing coalition, indicated the government has secured the votes from the required two-thirds, or 80, lawmakers in the 120-seat parliament.

“I have information that over 80 lawmakers have assured that Macedonia’s future is in NATO and the European Union, and this is conditioned by the `Prespa’ agreement and the constitutional changes,” Kiracovski said, referring to Lake Prespa on the border of Greece, Macedonia and Albania where the deal was signed. 

Opposition head Mickoski accused the Social Democrats of securing the majority through blackmail, although he did not elaborate on the claim. 

“The lawmakers will vote because of blackmail, not by their free will. Are these European values?” Mickoski told reporters before the parliamentary session. “’North Macedonia’ is perhaps Zaev’s homeland, but mine is the Republic of Macedonia.” 

Changes to preamble, articles

The amendments being debated envisage changing the preamble and four articles of the constitution to rename the country North Macedonia with guarantees it has no territorial aspirations towards its neighbors and is committed to good neighborly relations. 

Parliament is also expected to add an amendment to the law that puts the new constitution in force, stating the constitutional changes will not be valid until Greece’s parliament ratifies its side of the name deal and signs the accession protocol making the country a NATO member.

 
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Italy and Poland should join forces to reshape Europe, Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday during a visit to Warsaw to drum up support for a euroskeptic alliance to contest May elections to the European Parliament.

The euroskeptic governments in Rome and Warsaw are both keen to repatriate some EU powers from Brussels to national capitals and hope like-minded parties will do well in the May elections, which will follow Britain’s planned exit from the bloc in March.

“Poland and Italy will be part of the new spring of Europe, the renaissance of European values,” he told a press conference with Poland’s Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski.

Salvini’s visit to Warsaw was initiated by Brudzinski, who said the two had discussed migration and EU border security.

Salvini has repeatedly railed against the EU and says the May elections are vital for creating a “reformist” bloc that can overhaul Brussels institutions from within.

Salvini, whose anti-immigrant League is the most popular party in Italy, said his talks on Wednesday with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), had gone well.

PiS has echoed the League’s calls for Brussels to interfere less in the affairs of EU member states, though the parties are not currently allied in the European Parliament.

“At a party level, we have started a journey, a sharing of ideas, visions and projects for the future of the European Parliament that will, at long last, be profoundly different to what went before,” Salvini said.

“We started a dialogue. To close a deal in half an hour seems overly optimistic,” he added.

Salvini said he wanted to put together an alliance of like-minded EU parties that would campaign on a shared, 10-point program that has yet to be fully defined.

“We proposed a common program to be offered to other parties and peoples in Europe founded on certain themes, like (economic) growth, security, the family, Europe’s Christian roots that some have denied,” Salvini said.

At present, Salvini is allied to a small group of far-right parties such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and the anti-Islam Freedom Party in the Netherlands. But he wants to extend its reach and draw in conservative groups like PiS.

Previous attempts by populist right-wing parties to form a euroskeptic alliance in the European Parliament have not been very successful as they often have different priorities or interests and show little appetite for compromise.

Despite its euroskepticism, PiS has recently been trying to mend fences with Brussels, agreeing to reverse a law criticized by the EU that had forced Polish Supreme Court judges into early retirement.

Salvini has also called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia, while Kaczynski and other Polish conservatives support them and are deeply distrustful of Moscow.

 
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The United States downgraded the diplomatic status of the European Union’s delegation in Washington last year without formally announcing the change or telling Brussels, according to EU officials.

They say it only came to light when the bloc’s envoy in the U.S. capital, Irish diplomat David O’Sullivan, discovered he wasn’t being invited to certain events and was invited to the funeral of former U.S. President Herbert Walker Bush after national ambassadors, despite his seniority.

Diplomacy is saturated with symbolism and double meanings – and the downgrade, which now has been temporarily reversed – has angered EU officials, who fear the move was meant as a snub. They’ve requested an explanation for the downgrade, according to EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic.

Motives elusive

Politicians and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are struggling, though, to understand the motives for the demotion, debating whether the move was meant as a rebuff by an administration that has clashed with Brussels over trade and defense issues or whether it was the result of a bureaucratic mix-up.

“The demotion of the EU representative was reversed following bilateral talks in December,” an EU official told reporters Tuesday in Brussels.

President Donald Trump has been a vocal supporter of Britain’s exit from the EU – describing himself on the campaign trail as Mr. Brexit and frequently lambasting the bloc for running trade surpluses with America.

He has embraced anti-EU figures, including Nigel Farage, a leading Brexiter and onetime leader of the UK Independence party, whom he met after his election win ahead of meeting any EU leaders or Britain’s prime minister. The president tweeted that he thought Farage should be made Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!” Trump said.

Because of the partial government shutdown in Washington, the State Department is not responding to media requests about the protocol change.

‘Not notified of any change’

Previously, the U.S. treated the EU delegation and its ambassador as representatives of a country would be, say European officials. But the change, which is thought to have been made last October or November, downgraded the diplomatic status of the EU delegation to that of representing an international organization, a much lower pegging with potential impact regarding access to the administration.

“We understand that there was a recent change in the way the diplomatic precedence list is implemented by the United States’ Protocol,” said Kocijancic in a statement. “We are discussing with the relevant services in the administration possible implications for the EU delegation in Washington. We were not notified of any change. We expect the diplomatic practice established some years ago to be observed.”

The status change was first reported by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “We don’t exactly know when they did it, because they conveniently forgot to notify us,” an EU official told the broadcaster. “This is clearly not simply a protocol issue, but this is something that has a very obvious political motive,” he said.

Other EU diplomats in the U.S. capital contacted by VOA expressed the same view. A senior European diplomat maintained the relegation also may have been motivated by a wish to reverse a decision taken by the previous Obama administration, which upgraded the status of the delegation of the 28-nation bloc in 2016.

“If this wasn’t meant as a snub then the timing is odd,” he said. “Normally protocol tweaks are made in the first few months of a new administration, not two years in,” he said. “That aside, even if they didn’t intend it as a rebuff, they must have realized that’s how it would be interpreted. It is in line with what we see as an anti-EU stance by the Trump administration, which also dislikes multilateral organizations.”

‘Petty Trump move’

In a speech in Brussels in December, as the diplomatic downgrade was being discussed between U.S. and EU officials, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump’s “America First” policy was reshaping the post-Second World War system by recognizing the importance of sovereign states over multilateral institutions. He criticized “bureaucrats” for believing multilateralism is “an end in itself,” and cast doubt on the EU’s commitment to its citizens. That drew a sharp rebuke from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.

Several high-profile European politicians reacted to the news of the downgrade Tuesday with frustration. “Soap opera politics: US downgrades EU mission in DC in a petty Trump move,” tweeted Carl Bildt of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former Swedish prime minister.

Euro-skeptics cheered. “That should take the EU superstate down a peg or two!” tweeted the pro-Brexit Leave campaign.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom Tuesday heads to Washington for a round of trade talks with U.S. counterpart Robert Lighthizer. Trade tensions between Brussels and Washington have flared since Trump imposed tariffs on European aluminum and steel imports.

The U.S. president has threatened to impose tariffs on the European cars, too.
…

Labor rights campaigners warned against complacency as the European Union on Tuesday withdrew its threat to ban Thai fishing imports into the bloc, saying that the country has made progress in tackling illegal and unregulated fishing.

The EU’s so-called “yellow card” on Thai fishing exports has been in place since April 2015 as a warning that the country was not sufficiently addressing the issues.

“Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing damages global fish stocks, but it also hurts the people living from the sea, especially those already vulnerable to poverty,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for environment and fisheries said.

“Today’s decision reverses the first step of a process that could have led to a complete import ban of marine fisheries products into the EU,” he said in a statement.

Thailand has amended its fisheries legal framework in line with international law, and improved its monitoring and surveillance systems, including remote monitoring of fishing activities and more robust inspections at port, the EU said.

The country’s multibillion-dollar seafood industry has also come under scrutiny for slavery, trafficking and violence on fishing boats and at onshore processing facilities.

After the EU threatened to ban fish exports, and the U.S. State Department said it was failing to tackle human trafficking, the Southeast Asian country toughened up its laws and increased fines for violations.

Thailand has introduced modern technologies — from satellites to optical scanning and electronic payment services — to crack down on abuses.

But the International Labor Organization said in March that fishermen remained at risk of forced labor, and the wages of some continued to be withheld.

The EU on Tuesday said it recognized efforts by Thailand to tackle human trafficking and to improve labor conditions in the fishing sector.

Thailand voted in December to ratify ILO convention 188 — which sets standards of decent work in the fishing industry — becoming the first Asian country to do so.

But important gaps remain, said Steve Trent, executive director at advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation.

“We still have concerns about the workers. We need to see that the reforms are durable,” he said.

Thailand is yet to ratify two other ILO conventions on the right to organize and the right to collective bargaining, both of which are essential to protect workers, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This is particularly important in the fishing and seafood processing industries, as most of their estimated 600,000 workers are migrant workers.

“There is a risk that with the lifting of the yellow card, complacency will set in. We need to see a culture of compliance, and more being done to protect vulnerable workers in the industry,” Trent said.
…

The European Union on Tuesday froze the assets of an Iranian intelligence unit and two of its staff, as the Netherlands accused Iran of two killings on its soil and joined France and Denmark in alleging Tehran plotted other attacks in Europe.

The move, although in part symbolic since one of the men is in prison in Belgium, marks the first time the EU has enacted sanctions on Iran since lifting a host of curbs on it three years ago following its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers.

The decision, which includes designating the unit and the two Iranians as terrorists, follows last year’s disclosure by Denmark and France that they suspected an Iranian government intelligence service of pursuing assassination plots on their soil. Copenhagen sought an EU-wide response.

“EU just agreed to enact sanctions against an Iranian Intelligence Service for its assassination plots on European soil. Strong signal from the EU that we will not accept such behavior in Europe,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said on Twitter.

France, which has already hit the two men and the ministry unit with sanctions, has said there was no doubt the Iranian intelligence ministry was behind a failed attack near Paris.

On Tuesday, the Dutch government publicly accused Iran of the plots, as well as two killings in 2015 and 2017, sending a letter to parliament to warn of further economic sanctions if Tehran did not cooperate with European investigations.

The letter signed by the Dutch foreign and interior ministers said Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium met Iranian officials to convey “their serious concerns regarding Iran’s probable involvement in these hostile acts on EU territory.”

“Iran was informed that involvement in such matters is entirely unacceptable and must be stopped immediately … further sanctions cannot be ruled out,” the letter said.

Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plots, saying the accusations were intended to damage EU-Iran relations.

“Accusing Iran won’t absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday in a tweet.

“Europeans, incl(uding) Denmark, Holland and France, harbor MEK,” he added, referring to an exiled Iranian opposition group Mujaheedin-e Khalq.

Paris accused Iran of a plot to carry out a bomb attack at a rally near Paris organized by the MEK. Denmark says it foiled an Iranian intelligence plan to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil.

On Tuesday, the Netherlands said it had “strong indications” that Iran was behind the assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin, in 2015 and in 2017. The latter was dissident Iranian Arab activist Ahmad Mola Nissi who was gunned down by an unidentified assailant in front of his home in The Hague.

Iran denies any involvement in the killings.

Sanctions sensitive

The decision to impose the curbs was taken without debate at an unrelated meeting of Europe ministers in Brussels and the asset freeze comes into effect Wednesday, EU officials said.

The Danish Foreign Ministry named the two employees as the deputy minister and director general of intelligence, Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, and a Vienna-based diplomat, Assadollah Asadi.

Their names are to appear in the EU’s Official Journal on Wednesday.

Sanctions on the intelligence ministry, which is under the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are unlikely to change what the European Union says are Iran’s destabilizing activities in Europe and the Middle East.

The deputy minister and director general of intelligence is in Iran, while the Iranian diplomat was charged and is being held by Belgian authorities. Neither appear to have assets in France, which first imposed the asset freeze late last year.

But imposing economic sanctions on Iran, once the EU’s top oil supplier, remains highly sensitive for the bloc.

The EU has been straining to uphold the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers that U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of in May. It has been less willing to consider sanctions, instead seeking talks with Tehran.

Iran has warned it could ditch the nuclear deal if EU powers do not protect its trade and financial benefits.
…

As politicians argue over how or even if Britain should leave the European Union, the chances of the country crashing out by default with no deal in place are rising fast. As the exit day of March 29 approaches, governments and businesses in Europe are trying to prepare for the chaos that would follow – with supply chains, energy networks and basic cross-border services like banking facing prolonged uncertainty. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

France plans to crack down heavily on unauthorized protesters, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Monday, after an anti-government march over the weekend turned violent.

“We need to preserve the right to demonstrate in France, and we must sanction those who break the law,” Philippe told French television, saying they include “those who take part in undeclared protests, those who arrive at protests with balaclavas (face masks).”

Philippe said proposed laws would ban troublemakers from marches the same way hooligans and thugs are stopped from entering football stadiums.

He also said marchers would be forced to pay for damages to vandalized buildings and wrecked property.

An anti-government protest Saturday began peacefully but soon turned violent when some marchers set motorcycles and a restaurant on fire and threw debris at police.

One officer was hurt when a protester dropped a bicycle on him from a bridge.

The so-called yellow vest marches erupted across France in November to protest a new gasoline tax, but soon turned into a general anti-government protest.
…

The ranks of prominent citizens opposed to a new Italian law cracking down on asylum-seekers swelled on Monday, with more governors announcing court challenges to the populist government’s measure.

The law, approved first in the form of a government decree and later by Parliament late last year, tightens criteria for migrants receiving humanitarian protection, granting that status only to victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities and a few other limited situations.

Previously, many asylum-seekers who failed to qualify for full asylum were accorded humanitarian protection, with Italy allowing them to stay for a fixed term and receive social benefits. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, contends Italian authorities had been too elastic in the past in granting such protection.

The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children in public nursery schools, as well as complete access to Italy’s national health care system. And those accorded humanitarian protection won’t be eligible for shelter in government-run facilities for asylum-seekers, sparking concern they’ll end up living on the street.

Piedmont Gov. Sergio Chiamparino told Sky TG24 TV Monday that he’ll ask Italy’s constitutional court to decide whether the law violates the Constitution. He said he’d join forces with Tuscany’s governor in the court challenge.

“A really wide movement is being created” to challenge the residency measure, Tuscany Gov. Enrico Rossi said in Florence. He explained that Tuscany’s challenge would take aim on the tightened criteria for humanitarian protection as well as the ban on achieving residency.

Umbria, another central region, also decided on a court challenge of the law.

Chiamparino said in the meanwhile his region would continue to provide full health care for asylum-seekers and insisted by doing so, he wasn’t disobeying the law.

“We are simply obeying a fundamental principle that someone with a health problem gets treatment,” Chiamparino said.

Last week, the mayors of Palermo, Naples and some smaller cities vowed not to implement the law. Others, like Milan’s mayor, sharply criticized the law, but said they would implement it unless courts ruled otherwise.

In Milan, on Monday evening, about 50 critics of the crackdown protested outside city hall. Some banged wooden spoons on pot lids to draw attention to their cause.

Among mayors criticizing the law are some from the 5-Star Movement, a government coalition partner. Livorno’s 5-Star Mayor Filippo Nogarin, while saying that laws must be respected, has slammed the measure as “anything but a good law, ethically and politically.”

Cracks have formed lately in the government coalition over migrant policy, with a prominent faction of the 5-Stars pushing for Italy to allow migrants rescued at sea from human traffickers’ unseaworthy boats to reach Italy.

Salvini insists Italy’s ports are closed to private group’s migrant rescue vessels.
…

Britain’s embattled Theresa May will make a push this week to persuade rebel lawmakers in her ruling Conservative party to back her contentious Brexit withdrawal agreement.

But little has changed since she delayed before Christmas a House of Commons vote on the proposed deal and few observers believe she’ll be successful as many rebel lawmakers are locked into their opposition because of public promises they’ve made to their constituency parties.

Meanwhile, political pressure is mounting on the prime minister, who insists she can win the vote, to delay Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit from the European Union.  Two former ministers from the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher, Ken Clarke and Chris Patten, have urged her to rethink and put Britain’s exit from the bloc on hold in order for a political consensus to be hammered out on Britain’s future relationship with the EU.

Patten added his voice Monday to calls for a re-run Brexit referendum, “It may be that we can only end this divisive and impoverishing argument by holding another referendum,” he said.

May has adamantly ruled out holding another plebiscite to break the parliamentary deadlock.  More than 200 MPs from various parties have signed a letter urging her to take the prospect of a no-deal Brexit off the table, if she fails to garner the parliamentary support she needs for her Brexit withdrawal agreement to be approved.

The politicians from the Conservative, Labor, Liberal Democrat and the nationalist parties of Scotland and Wales are concerned about the impact on British manufacturing crashing out of the bloc in March without any kind of arrangement with the European Union, the only legal current option.

In their collective letter, the lawmakers wrote, “Leaving the EU without a deal would cause unnecessary economic damage.  Trading on World Trade Organization terms would instantly make our manufacturers less competitive and make it very difficult for the industry to justify producing goods in the UK for export. Leaving without a deal would make continued investment in UK manufacturing a real challenge for global firms, when they have plants in other European locations.”

May has little more than a week to rescue her Brexit plan.  The House of Commons will restart debate on the Brexit withdrawal agreement Wednesday.

The House of Commons is likely to vote on the proposed deal next week unless the government again postpones it, something May on Sunday pledged not to do.

May’s deal, which was negotiated after almost two years of ill-tempered haggling between British and EU negotiators, tries to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.

The proposed deal would see Britain locked in a customs union with the European Union for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner.  In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe.  It would not be able to implement free trade deals with non-EU countries.

The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc even if a final free-trade deal isn’t negotiated.  Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a “vassal state,” a rule-taker and not a rule-maker.

May’s aides appear convinced the European Union will offer some concessions in the next few days to help the British leader get the votes she needs, but critics say they’re reaching for straws, and EU leaders frustrated with the time and energy they have spent on Brexit appear in no mood to offer her assistance.

Britain’s divorce deal with Brussels is the only deal on the table and cannot be renegotiated, an EU Commission spokesperson said Monday.  EU officials say the bloc will continue to advance its “no deal” planning and no more Brexit negotiation meetings are scheduled.  The language used by the EU Commission Monday is no different from what EU leaders have used since the deal was signed in November.

May promised before Christmas to get legal reassurances from Brussels over the so-called Irish backstop – the insurance policy to ensure a hard border with customs checks is not reimposed on the island of Ireland.

With May unable apparently to squeeze anything out of the bloc’s negotiators in the final hour that would substantially alter the political dynamic in London, her aides are also considering a parliamentary trick — to change the wording of the legislation presenting the Brexit withdrawal agreement next week by making any approval of the deal contingent on the European Union offering more concessions.

The move would be intended to limit the scale of the parliamentary rebellion against May. But EU officials say that would infuriate Brussels, which would unlikely accept the blackmail.

 
…

The Russian Foreign Ministry says Paul Whelan, the American detained in Moscow on suspicion of spying, may receive visits from diplomats from the three other countries whose citizenship he holds.

When Whelan was arrested in late December, he was identified only as an American. Last week, it emerged that he also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenship. U.S. Ambassador Jon Hunstman Jr. visited him in prison last week.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state news agency RIA-Novosti that the other countries have applied for consular visits and “if the arrestee confirms that he wants these visits they will be arranged.”

Whelan’s twin brother David said Monday that “the U.S. Embassy has indicated it will continue to lead on consular efforts, since Paul entered Russia on a U.S. passport.”
…

Lyon’s archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and five other figures are on trial on charges of failing to act against sexual abuse allegations targeting a priest in his diocese. This is the latest pedophilia scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church before a key Vatican conference on sexual abuse.

The sexual abuse allegations date back to the 1980s and 1990s. They involve Father Bernard Preynat, a priest in France’s Lyon diocese, who has admitted to wrongdoing and is due to go on trial later this year.

But one of country’s most prominent clerics, Lyon’s archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, is accused of covering up the abuse. If found guilty, he faces up to three years in jail and a $54,000 fine.

Barbarin denies the charges. He says he took action as soon as he found out about the sexual abuse allegations — many years later.

The archbishop did not comment publicly before his trial, but one of his lawyers says the cleric expects to be acquitted.

Barbarin reportedly sought advice about how to handle the allegations from a Vatican official who will not be present at the trial on grounds of diplomatic immunity.

Francis Devaux, who heads French victims’ group “Freed Speech” [La Parole Liberee], told local TV what is most important about the case is that it was covered up for so long and that alleged victimizer Father Preynat was protected.

Devaux was the first alleged victim to go public, claiming in 2015 he was abused by Preynat, who was subsequently removed from his post. A year later, investigators dropped the case against the priest. But the victims’ group carried on, ultimately succeeding in landing Barbarin and five others in court.

This is not the French Church’s first sexual abuse scandal, but it is the highest profile one to date. It comes before a key Vatican meeting in February that Pope Francis says aims to shed full light on sex scandals and alleged cover ups by Catholic clergy.

The chair of Catholic reform group “We Are Church International,” Colm Holmes, said Cardinal Barbarin’s trial is an encouraging step. But he is disappointed in Pope Francis, who has praised Barbarin.

“He has backed the Cardinal all the way,” he said, “but he has not listened to any of the victims.And now at last the victims will have their say when it comes to [the] court now.”

Holmes said he is skeptical next month’s Vatican meeting will lead to real church reform.

He also pointed to his native Ireland, one of a number of countries rocked by pedophilia scandals, and where church attendance has plummeted in recent decades.

“And that has happened in other countries as well, where people are so disappointed with the reaction of the hierarchy of the people in charge to the whole abuse scandal,” he added.

A historically Catholic nation that is now staunchly secular, France has also seen emptying pews.

Last year, French bishops announced they would create an independent commission to investigate sexual abuse.A poll found most French Catholics support a parliamentary probe.
…

The brother of an American man being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying is raising the possibility that his sibling is being used as a pawn in a potential exchange for a Russian woman behind bars in the U.S.

Paul Whelan’s brother told The Associated Press that he can’t help but question if the events are connected.

“You look at what’s going on and you wonder if this is just a large game of pieces being moved around,” David Whelan told the AP via Skype from Newmarket, Ontario. “You start to wonder if all of these things are connected. But at the same time, they could just be arbitrary events.”

Asked about the matter by reporters at the White House on Sunday, President Donald Trump said: “We’re looking into that.”

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian woman who has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the U.S.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Saturday that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t been formally charged, according to Russian news agencies.

“As to the possibility of exchanges of one sort of another, it’s impossible and incorrect to consider the question now when an official charge hasn’t even been presented,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA-Novosti.

“Charges will be presented in the near future,” he said, according to the Interfax agency.

Some Russian news reports earlier cited unnamed sources as saying Whelan had been indicted on espionage charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 20 years.

Russian officials haven’t given details of Whelan’s suspected activities and he was initially identified only as an American. His concurrent Canadian, British and Irish citizenships became known on Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. visited Whelan on Wednesday in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a 130-year-old facility noted for strict conditions. Britain, Canada and Ireland have applied for consular access to him.

Whelan, 48, was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

His brother, David, told the AP that Whelan loves to travel and likes to “interact with the people in the places that he goes,” but that Whelan would be too “conspicuous” to be selected as a spy.

David Whelan said his family had had no direct contact with Paul and had received no details about the alleged espionage charges from either the Russian or U.S. governments.

“He likes to go places and Russia happens to be a place where he knows people and when he’s there, he does go and visit,” David Whelan said.

Paul Whelan established an account on VKontakte, a social media service similar to Facebook that is popular among Russians, which showed he had scores of contacts in Russia. Many attended universities affiliated with the military, civil aviation or technical studies. Many share his interest in sports and firearms.

Also Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said it was seeking information about a Russian who was arrested Dec. 29 in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific. The ministry said Dmitry Makarenko was sent to Florida after his arrest and it wants consular access to him.

The Saipan Tribune reported that Makarenko was indicted in 2017 in Florida for the alleged illegal shipment of military goods to Russia.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Makarenko’s arrest was “the latest attack on a citizen of Russia outside the framework of international law,” Interfax reported.

 
…

Russia’s space agency is complaining that the invitation for its head to visit the U.S. has been cancelled without informing the organization.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Washington Post in a story Saturday that he has rescinded the invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin after several senators raised complaints.

Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, when he was a deputy prime minister.

Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told state news agency Tass on Sunday that “it seems strange to us that our NASA colleagues dealt with us through the media and not directly.”

Russian lawmaker Frants Klintsevich said the decision shows that “the U.S. political establishment doesn’t intend to change its Russophobic vector.”
…

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that a delayed vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal will “definitely” go ahead later this month, as she promised to set out measures to win over skeptical lawmakers.

May told the BBC that in the coming days she will give more details about measures addressing Northern Ireland and concern over the Irish border. She also promised a greater role for Parliament in negotiations over future trade relations with the European Union as a sweetener, and added that “we are still working on” getting extra assurances from Brussels to secure domestic support for her deal.

May struck a withdrawal agreement with the EU in November, but that deal needs Parliament’s approval. In December, May decided to postpone a parliamentary vote intended to ratify the agreement at the last minute after it became clear that it would be overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.

Lawmakers are resuming debate on the deal Wednesday, before a vote expected to be held around Jan. 15.

If the deal is voted down, Britain risks crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no agreement in place, a messy outcome that could plunge the country into its worst recession for decades.

May’s Brexit deal is unpopular with British lawmakers across the spectrum, and the main sticking point is the insurance policy known as the “backstop” – a measure that would keep the U.K. tied to EU customs rules in order to guarantee there is no hard border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland, which won’t belong to the bloc after Brexit.

EU officials have insisted that the withdrawal agreement can’t be renegotiated, although they also stressed that the backstop was meant only as a temporary measure of last resort.

As part of her efforts to win support for her deal, May on Sunday reiterated that the agreement she negotiated was the only one that respects the 2016 referendum result, protects jobs and provides certainty to people and businesses.

She warned in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that critics of her Brexit deal risk damaging Britain’s democracy and its economy by opposing her plan.
…

Germany has Alternative for Germany, France has the National Front, Italy has The League and Spain now has VOX, the latest far-right actor to emerge on Europe’s political scene after an unexpectedly strong showing in local elections last month in Andalusia, the Spanish southern region until now considered a Socialist bastion.

Violent protests erupted following the Dec. 2 vote, as leftist leader Pablo Iglesias called for an “anti-fascist mobilization.”

His followers camped out in front of the regional parliament in Seville, threatening to block access to VOX party representatives.

Protesters set cars on fire and vandalized businesses.

But the results were clear and the protests did not change the reality that the populist, anti-establishment fever had arrived in Spain.

​Seats lost

The Socialist party and its far left ally, Podemos, lost seats and could no longer muster a governing majority in the regional parliament. Support for the mainstream center-right People’s Party and the Citizens party remained static while 11 percent of votes were swept up by VOX, whose support may be crucial to form a new regional government.

“While polls anticipated gains by VOX, these results have exceeded all expectations by wide margins,” said Ignacio Jurado, a political science professor the University of York. VOX, he said, “becomes for the first time a parliamentary force in Spain.”

VOX leader Santiago Abascal, a political upstart whose violent discourses against immigration, feminism and regional separatism have gained him a strong national following, declared he would go on to “throw Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez out of the Moncloa,” the palace that serves as the official residence.

VOX votes in Andalusia rose from 18,500 in the 2015 elections to almost 400,000 last month, and analysts expect the numbers to multiply by similar proportions in other parts of Spain.

Unlike other populist movements that are sweeping Europe, Spain’s emerging rightists are not necessarily pushing for an exit from the European Union.

Abascal said he wants to keep Spain in the European Union. He has in the past told VOA he instead seeks to change the bloc from within and is focusing his strategy on winning seats in the European Parliament elections set for May. Previously ignored, Europe’s leaders see this year’s poll as the most decisive ever: a de facto referendum on modern European liberal democracy.

​Far right parties

At a meeting of far right parties in Belgium in December, French National Front leader Marine Le Pen called on like-minded forces to take control of the European parliament. She had earlier sent a message of congratulations to Abascal.

Iglesias’ Podemos party had until now been the main beneficiary of disenchantment with the bipartisan status quo that had prevailed in Spain for the past half century.

Iglesias provided key parliamentary support for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to form a government earlier this year. But disdain for Spanish national symbols like the monarchy and the flag alienated many of the kingdom’s traditionally minded voters.

Abascal says much of his support is driven by growing African immigration, which he blames on what he says are overly permissive government policies.

Analysts say the issue was undoubtedly a factor in Andalusia, which has become a main landing zone for migrants crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa.

Voter resentment over the rising number of immigrants was palpable in the run-up to the elections.

“These people are better treated than we are,” said one voter in the town of Jimena de la Frontera, pointing to a hotel that is being used to house migrants.

Her sentiment is providing fertile ground for the populists.

“We will expel anyone who enters our house without permission,” Abascal said before cheering multitudes recently. He pledged to ban the practice of Islam and shut down mosques.

Abascal denies suggestions that his movement bears any resemblance to what Spain saw in the 20th century.

“The stigma attached to the far right over memories of the Franco dictatorship,” Abascal said, “are fading.” Today, he claims, those memories are eclipsed by the seemingly endless corruption scandals plaguing the establishment at large, from the Socialists to the conservative People’s Party.

A controversial bid by Sanchez to exhume Franco’s remains from their resting place in a national mausoleum could be intended to distract public opinion from other issues, Abascal said.

“People want change,” Abascal said. But he says there is no thirst for radical revolutions. “They won’t go the way of Castro Chavismo,” he said, referring to the radical socialist regimes in the former colonies of Cuba and Venezuela, which Iglesias and other Spanish leftists have at times praised.

​Wide following

The Andalusian election results last month also indicate that VOX has a wide following, cutting across income groups. While Abascal received 30 percent of the vote in the wealthy province of Almeria, he also drew 14 percent of votes in the city of La Linea, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Spain.

Feminist leader Lidia Falcon says despite the electoral upset, Abascal’s support is limited. His opposition to a law targeting violence against women recently passed unanimously by Spain’s parliament has alienated women voters, Falcon said.

The number of incidents in which male spouses abused their wives rose dramatically, by almost 18 percent, in 2017, according to a study by Spain’s high court.

Differences over the law against gender violence has been a stumbling block in forming a governing coalition between VOX and the center-rightists in Andalusia.

Analysts doubt Abascal can ever hope to score a majority in Catalonia or his native Basque region, whose autonomous governments he wants to abolish, he says, to streamline bureaucracy and create a more efficiently managed central state.

But his polarizing message is securing the support of Spanish unionists in both regions who have lost confidence in the ability of mainstream parties to contain the separatists.

It may also attract votes in poorer regions like Andalusia, which depends on revenues from the richer industrial north.
…

The leaders of the populist parties that formed Italy’s government sparred Saturday over more migrants who are stranded on private rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, exposing the widening cracks in their coalition’s position on immigration.  

German humanitarian groups Sea-Watch and Sea Eye are seeking a port where two ships can disembark passengers who were picked up from unseaworthy smugglers’ boats, 32 of them on Dec. 22 and 17 more in recent days.  

Malta allowed the aid boats to shelter from bad weather near its coast and to take on fresh crew, food and water. But the tiny island nation has refused to let any of those migrants step onto Maltese land, saying the rescues took place outside the country’s search-and-rescue area. 

Italian Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, who heads the 5-Star Movement, insisted Saturday that Malta had to allow the 49 people off the ships. De Maio said Italy was willing to take the 10 mothers on the aid vessels and their children.  

Strict policy

Since the coalition government came to power in mid-2018, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the right-wing, anti-migrant League party, has made it strict policy that no private aid group receive authorization to transfer rescued migrants to land in Italian ports.  

Both he and Di Maio have likened private aid vessels to “taxi services” for Libya-based human traffickers. Amid criticism of the Italian government’s new hard-line stance, they also have reminded other European Union nations that Italy has taken in hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants as asylum seekers in recent years. 

Di Maio stressed Saturday that Italy was offering to accept the limited number of women and children from the rescue ships to keep families together. Such a gesture, he said, would also give “a good moral slap” to EU nations that have ignored Italy’s insistence that the burden of caring for rescued asylum seekers be shared.  

“We’re not going backward on migration policy, which has allowed us to reduce disembarking considerably,” Di Maio said. 

But Salvini contradicted his governing partner, telling journalists Italy intended to stick with its private rescue vessel ban and wouldn’t be taking the 10 mothers and their children. 

“We opened our hearts and our wallets. Now, it’s someone else’s turn,” Salvini said.  

As for any possible softening of Italy’s immigration policy, Salvini also tweeted, “I’m not changing my mind.” 

Both politicians slammed Malta for refusing to let the 49 disembark, but the EU nation retorted that it had rescued and permitted onto on its shores 250 migrants between Christmas and New Year’s.  

‘Strain on our services’

The recent rescues “are putting a strain on our services,” Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said, adding that Italian authorities had not articulated a clear position about the migrants on the aid boats because of the contradictory statements by Italy’s leaders. 

Farrugia has said the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, was working on an ad hoc plan to find countries where the 250 migrants in Malta and the 49 on the aid boats could have asylum applications processed. 

While politicians squabbled, Sea-Watch appealed on Twitter for a rapid, “reasonable solution that guarantees a port, medical care and food to women, children and men at the mercy of the waves.”  

Di Maio’s opening to taking some of the migrants appeared calculated to placate a faction of his party uncomfortable with the government’s rejection of rescued migrants.  

Championing that 5-Star faction is Roberto Fico, the speaker of the Italian Parliament’s lower chamber.  

“We can’t allow human beings, who are fleeing from pain, death and suffering, to be left in unacceptable conditions,” he wrote on Facebook.  
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Russia’s deputy foreign minister brushed back suggestions Saturday that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian citizen. 

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian who pleaded guilty of acting as a foreign agent in the United States. 

But Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t been formally charged, according to Russian news agencies. 

“As to the possibility of exchanges of one sort of another, it’s impossible and incorrect to consider the question now when an official charge hasn’t even been presented,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA-Novosti.  

“Charges will be presented in the near future,” he said, according to the Interfax agency. 

Espionage charges

Some Russian news reports earlier cited unnamed sources as saying Whelan had been indicted on espionage charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 20 years. 

Officials haven’t given details of Whelan’s suspected activities and he was initially identified only as an American. His concurrent Canadian, British and Irish citizenships became known on Friday. 

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. visited Whelan on Wednesday in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a 130-year-old facility noted for strict conditions. Britain, Canada and Ireland have applied for consular access to him.  

Whelan, 48. was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. 

His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.  In a column published by The Washington Post on Friday, his twin brother, David, urged the U.S. government to pressure Russia to release him. 

“Paul is a kind and considerate brother, son and uncle, and a generous and loyal friend,” he wrote. “He travels as often as he can, both for work and pleasure. He is many things to many people, but he is not a spy.” 

Paul Whelan established an account on VKontakte, a social media service similar to Facebook that is popular among Russians, which showed he had scores of contacts in Russia. Many attended universities affiliated with the military, civil aviation or technical studies. Many share his interest in sports and firearms. 

Another arrest

Also Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said it was seeking information about a Russian who was arrested Dec. 29 in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific.  

In a statement, the ministry said Sergei Makarenko was sent to the U.S. state of Florida after his arrest and that it wanted consular access to him. 

The Saipan Tribune reported that Makarenko was indicted in 2017 in Florida for the alleged illegal shipment of military goods to Russia. 

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Makarenko’s arrest was “the latest attack on a citizen of Russia outside the framework of international law,” Interfax reported.  
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A former North Korean diplomat who staged a high-profile defection to the South on Saturday urged an old colleague who has gone missing in Italy to defect to Seoul, following a report that he was seeking asylum in the United States.

Jo Song Gil, the 44-year-old who was until recently North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in early November, South Korean lawmakers said Thursday.

Jo has applied for asylum in the United States and is under the protection of Italian intelligence, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper said Friday, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.

The State Department and the U.S. embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a query from Reuters regarding the report.

In an open letter, Thae Yong Ho, Pyongyang’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, who said he went to the same university and worked with Jo before defecting to South Korea in 2016, urged Jo to follow in his footsteps.

To defect to the South is an “obligation, not a choice” for North Korean diplomats committed to unification, Thae said, calling Seoul “the outpost” for that task.

“If you come to South Korea, the day when our suffering colleagues and North Korean citizens are liberated from the fetters would be moved forward,” Thae said in the letter released on his website. “If you come to Seoul, even more of our colleagues would follow suit, and the unification would be accomplished by itself.”

Thae said his family visited Jo in Rome in 2008, where the latter was studying from 2006 to 2009. He guided them to sites such as St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

South Korea could not be “heaven on earth” but a place where Jo can realize his wishes, Thae said, highlighting the ardent desire for unification among many of the roughly 32,000 defectors there.

“The defectors may not be as wealthy as South Koreans,” Thae added. “But isn’t it the only thing you and I, as North Korean diplomats, should do the rest of our lives — to bring about unification and hand over a unified nation to our children?”
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