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The moment Air Force One touched down Friday at Orly airport, U.S. President Donald Trump blasted a caustic message for his host, terming French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a European military “very insulting.”

In the touchdown tweet, Trump suggested Europe first pay “its fair share” of NATO before contemplating a Europe-wide force.

As he stepped off his plane, accompanied by the first lady, Melania Trump, a group of White House reporters shouted questions at him about the Twitter message. Trump stared at the journalists but did not respond before entering the presidential limousine.

The fresh dispute between the two leaders, who have had a hot and cold relationship, threatens to cast a pall on Sunday’s ceremony here marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, in which 40 million people died.

The United States and France were allies in both world wars and partners in the post-World War II security structure for Western Europe: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is composed of separate forces of varying strengths and capabilities of the member nations.

Trump, however, since taking office nearly two years ago, has repeatedly questioned the mutual defense pact and harshly criticized European countries for failing to meet pledges of contributions of 2 percent of their gross domestic product to the alliance. He has also emphasized that the United States needs to take care of itself first before the needs of other nations, rejecting the concept of globalism.

Macron, during a visit to the World War I Western Front at Verdun, told Europe 1 radio that in face of a revived threat from Moscow, Europe needed to “defend itself better alone.” Europeans, he said, cannot protect themselves without a “true European army.”

Macron, in the interview, also blasted Trump’s recent announcement that Washington would withdraw from the 1987 INF Treaty limiting nuclear weapons that U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to.

The “main victim” of the withdrawal, Macron argued, is “Europe and its security.”

European force

The French president added that Europe also has to protect itself “with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America.”

Nine defense ministers from European countries are discussing how such a new international force would operate.

European leaders have been rattled since a NATO summit earlier in the year, when they perceived Trump’s demands for billions of additional dollars in military spending from them as a threat that the United States would pull out of the nearly 70-year-old alliance.

But the idea of a European army has limited support in Berlin and London. Political and military analysts question whether European countries have the will, money or materiel to replace the raw power of the United States.

The issue comes into sharp focus as France commemorates the fallen of a century ago in the war that ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

As a prelude to Sunday’s ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, which will be attended by dozens of world leaders, Trump and Macron are to meet on Saturday at Elysee Palace to discuss European and Mideast security.

Trump on Saturday also will make pilgrimages to two American cemeteries.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to France this weekend along with dozens of other world leaders for ceremonies to mark the centenary of the armistice that brought an end to the fighting in World War I. As Henry Ridgwell reports, relations between America and U.S. allies are tense, and France has warned that the current geopolitical climate is reminiscent of the build-up to the world wars.
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Turkey with its Ottoman Empire was a key ally of Germany in World War I, but there are no commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the war’s end. The defeat and occupation is a history that Turkey chooses not to commemorate. Yet as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the painful memories still remain a powerful force in society.
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Italian police discovered 270 kg (600 lb.) of heroin hidden in a container that arrived aboard a ship from Iran, the biggest such haul for at least 20 years in Italy, police said on Thursday.

The freighter had set sail from the Iranian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas and stopped off in Hamburg, Germany and Valencia, Spain before reaching the Italian port of Genoa on Oct. 17, where police discovered the heroin stashed away in a consignment of Bentonite clay.

A police spokesman said investigators were not sure when or where the drugs were brought onto the ship.

Police allowed a small portion of the illicit cargo to continue its planned journey by truck to the Netherlands.

They tracked the vehicle as it crossed Switzerland, France and Belgium before reaching the Dutch town of Roosendal.

When the vehicle pulled into a warehouse on Nov. 2, Italian and Dutch police raided the premises and arrested two men of Turkish origin. The truck driver apparently did not know heroin was in his rig, police said.

“The investigation continues in order to trace the entire network that manages the drug trade, which shows, once again, that the port of Genoa is an important crossroads for drug shipments destined for the rest of Europe,” a statement said.
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Spanish police say they have arrested a man who they believe intended to attack Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez over his controversial decision to exhume the remains of late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

Police say the 63-year-old former private security guard was arrested in the town of Terrassa in the Catalonia region on Sept. 19 after a brief investigation. He remains in custody and has not been charged.

The case was revealed Thursday by Spanish newspaper Publico.

Police found 16 firearms in the suspect’s home, ranging from handguns to sniper rifles, but did not explain how he had managed to amass such an arsenal.

“This person had a clear intention and will to take actions against the prime minister,” Catalan regional police spokesman Albert Oliva told journalists during a press conference.

 
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Augustin Trebuchon is buried beneath a white lie.

His tiny plot is almost on the front line where the guns finally fell silent at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, after a four-year war that had already killed millions.

A simple white cross says: “Died for France on November 10, 1918.

Not so.

Like hundreds of others along the Western Front, Trebuchon was killed in combat on the morning of November 11 — after the pre-dawn agreement between the Allies and Germany but before the armistice took effect six hours later.

His death at almost literally the eleventh hour only highlighted the folly of a war that had become ever more incomprehensible to many in nations drawn into the first global conflict.

Before November 11, the war had killed 14 million people, including 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries. Germany came close to a quick, early victory before the war settled into hellish trench fighting. One battle, like the Somme in France, could have up to 1 million casualties. The use of poison gas came to epitomize the ruthlessness of warfare that the world had never seen.

For the French, who lost up to 1.4 million troops, it was perhaps too poignant — or too shameful — to denote that Trebuchon had been killed on the very last morning, just as victory finally prevailed.

“Indeed, on the tombs it said `Nov. 10, 1918,’ to somewhat ease the mourning of families,” said French military historian Nicolas Czubak.

There were many reasons why men kept falling until the call of the bugler at 11 a.m.: fear that the enemy would not abide by the armistice, a sheer hatred after four years of unprecedented slaughter, the ambition of commanders craving a last victory, bad communications, the inane joy of killing.

As the hours ticked down, villages were taken, attacks were thwarted with heavy losses and rivers were crossed under enemy fire. Questions remain whether the gains were worth all the human losses.

Historian Joseph Persico estimated the total dead, wounded and missing on all sides on the final day was 10,900.

U.S. Gen. John J. Pershing, who had been bent on continuing the fighting, even had to explain to Congress the high number of last-day losses.

Other nations also were not spared such casualties.

With two minutes to go, 25-year-old Canadian Pvt. George Lawrence Price was slain by a German sniper.

About 250 kilometers (150 miles) away in France, a 23-year-old American, Henry Gunther, was killed by German machine-gun fire one minute before the armistice.

Trebuchon, 40, also was shot minutes before the cease-fire. He was running to tell his comrades where and when they would have a meal after the armistice.

All three are considered their nations’ last men to fall in active combat.

“The futility of the larger war”

Anti-German sentiment ran high after the United States declared war in April 1917, and Gunther and his family in Baltimore were subjected to the kind of prejudice and suspicion that many of German descent faced at the time.

“It was not a good time to be German in the United States,” said historian Alec Bennett.

Gunther had little choice when he got drafted. He was given the rank of sergeant, but he later was demoted when he wrote a letter home critical of the conditions in the war.

Soon after, he was thrown into the biggest U.S. battle of the war, the Meuse-Argonne offensive in northeastern France.

There were reports he was still brooding over his demotion right on Nov. 11. When he emerged from a thick fog in the valley around Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, he and his comrades faced a German machine gun nest on the hillside.

Indications are that the Germans fired one salvo over his head as a warning, knowing the war was almost over. But he still charged onward.

“His time of death was 10:59 a.m., which is just so haunting,” Bennett said. Gunther was recognized by Pershing as the last American to die on the battlefield.

Questions remain whether it was a suicide run, an attempt at redemption or an act of true devotion.

“It is just as puzzling now as it was 100 years ago,” Bennett said, adding that one thing is clear: “Gunther’s act is seen as almost a symbol of the futility of the larger war.”

But there was one more cruel twist for his family: They were unaware he had been killed.

Upon his expected return “they went to the train station to meet Henry — not there!” said Bruce Malone, superintendent of Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the final resting place for 100 Americans who died Nov. 11.

“A need to kill one last time”

There was no mystery surrounding the death of Price, the Canadian. It was an utterly senseless loss of life.

He was a farm laborer in Saskatchewan when the swirl of history plucked him off the land in October 1917 as the Allies sought ever more manpower for the Western Front.

The summer after he was drafted, he was part of the surge of victories that seized villages and cities right up to Nov. 11. By that time, Canadians were retaking Mons in southern Belgium, where soldiers from the British Commonwealth had their very first battle with the Germans in August 1914.

It was especially sweet for the Commonwealth commanders to retake the city, bringing the war full circle where they lost their first soldier, English Pvt. John Parr, on Aug. 21, 1914.

Price decided to check out homes along the canals while civilians in the center of Mons had already broken out the wine and whiskey they had hidden for years from the Germans to celebrate with the Canadians.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and Price collapsed.

“It really was one man, here and there, who was driven by vengeance, by a need to kill one last time,” said Belgian historian Corentin Rousman.

The final minutes counted not just for the casualties but also for the killers.

“There are rules in war,” Rousman said. “There is always the possibility to kill two minutes before a cease-fire. Two minutes after, the German would have had to stand before a judge. That’s the difference.”

At the St. Symphorien cemetery just outside Mons, Price, the last Commonwealth soldier killed in the war, lies a stone’s throw from Parr, the first.

“He is not forgotten,” Rousman said of Price. “It’s a soldier whose tomb is often draped in flowers.”

“Part of this great patriotic momentum”

Trebuchon’s grave stands out because of the date, underscoring the random fortunes of war.

He was a shepherd from France’s Massif Central and could have avoided the war as a family breadwinner at age 36.

“But he was part of this great patriotic momentum,” said Jean-Christophe Chanot, the mayor of Vrigne-Meuse, where he died.

Trebuchon knew misery as part of France’s most brutal battles — Marne, Somme, Verdun. He survived right up to his last order — to tell soldiers where to gather after the armistice.

Instead, his body was found with a bullet wound to the head. He was recognized as “the last French soldier killed during the last French attack against the Germans,” Chanot said.

The date on his grave — November 10, 1918 — remains controversial, even if it was meant to soothe a family’s sorrow.

“It was a lie, without a question,” said Czubak, the French historian.
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Bullied herself online, Britain’s Princess Beatrice is determined to ensure other girls are equipped to deal with internet abuse and get the best from the digital world. 

Beatrice — who as the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and his former wife, the Duchess of York, is eighth in line to the British throne — said her bullying, about her weight and her appearance, were very public and could not be ignored. 

But she said other girls faced this in private and needed to be encouraged to speak out and to know where to get support, which prompted her to get involved in campaigns against cyber bullying. 

A recent study by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center found about 60 percent of U.S. teens had been bullied or harassed online, with girls more likely to be the targets of online rumor-spreading or nonconsensual explicit messages. 

“You’d like to say don’t pay attention to it … but the best advice is to talk about it,” Beatrice, 30, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation during an interview on Wednesday at the Web Summit, Europe’s largest annual technology conference. 

“Being a young girl, but now being 30 and a woman working full time in technology, I feel very grateful for those experiences. But at that time it was very challenging.” 

Beatrice, who works at the U.S.-based software company Afiniti, co-founded the Big Change Charitable Trust with a group of friends, including two of Richard Branson’s children, in 2010 to support young people who also grew up in the public eye. 

Campaign

She also last year joined the anti-bullying campaign “Be Cool Be Nice” along with other celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Cara Delevingne, which included a book. 

“There are lots of people who are ready to help and I want to make sure young people feel they have the places to go to talk about it,” said Beatrice, adding that teachers and parents also had a role to play. 

Beatrice said her bullying was so public that she could not hide from it, but her mother, Sarah Ferguson, was a great source of support. 

One of the most public attacks on the princess was at the 2011 wedding of her cousin Prince William when her fascinator sparked a barrage of media attention. A month later she auctioned the hat for charity for 81,000 pounds ($106,500). 

Her mother, who divorced Prince Andrew in 1996, had to get used to unrelenting ribbing by Britain’s royal-obsessed media. 

“She has been through a lot,” said Beatrice, whose younger sister, Eugenie, married at Windsor Castle last month. 

“When you see role models who are continually put in very challenging situations and can support you … [then] some of the tools that I have had from her I would like to share.” 

Beatrice said mobile technology should be a force for good for girls in developed and developing countries, presenting new opportunities in terms of education, careers and health. 

“Social media and the pressures that these young people now face is a new phenomenon … and if I can do more to give young people the tools [to cope], that is my mission,” she said. 

“I would say to young girls: You are not alone. Keep going.” 
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A coalition of European militaries ready to react to crises near the continent’s borders was launched Wednesday with Finland becoming the 10th country to join, amid calls by French President Emmanuel Macron for a “real European army.”

The French-led initiative would not conflict with the almost 70-year-old, U.S.-dominated NATO alliance, proponents say, but reflects in part concerns about a more isolationist United States under President Donald Trump.

The European Intervention Initiative took official shape in Paris after months of negotiations with Germany, who France wants at the center of the force.

Macron proposed the idea more than a year ago but was met with skepticism by other European Union nations, the idea coinciding with the EU’s launch of a landmark defense pact meant to promote joint military investment.

Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal have all given their green light for the French-led move. It will see members collaborate on planning, on the analysis of new military and humanitarian crises, and on eventual military responses to those crises.

“In an environment where threats and upheavals of a geopolitical or climatic nature are multiplying, the initiative must send the message that Europe is ready, that Europe is capable,” a French defense ministry official said.

The imminent departure from the EU of Britain, long opposed to EU military collaboration outside NATO, has revived talk of defense cooperation — as have concerns that Trump might prove less willing than his predecessors to come to Europe’s defense in the face of a newly assertive Russia.

The initiative does not “contradict or circumvent the EU’s historic defense efforts, nor those of NATO,” the defense official said. “On the contrary, it will only improve interoperability between the participating countries.”

On Tuesday, Macron called for a “real European army” to reduce dependence on the United States.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has long been a vocal supporter of the idea that the EU should have more common defense capability, separate from NATO.

Not everyone is convinced.

“Pragmatic advances and patient construction with those who are ready and willing for a political convergence in defense are infinitely preferable to totally illusory and even counterproductive slogans and incantations,” said Arnaud Danjean, a member of the foreign and defense committee at the European parliament.
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Three members of an Iranian opposition group were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of having praised those behind a Sept. 22 terror attack in Iran that killed at least 25 people.

Police spokesman Bjoerke Kierkegaard said that would violate Danish laws and they could face fines or up to two years in prison.

Kierkegaard said all three are members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz that Tehran has blamed for the deadly attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz. However, ASMLA has condemned the violence and says it was not involved.

The men were held on preliminary charges — a step short of formal charges.

Denmark’s intelligence agency has said that a police operation on Sept. 28 that briefly cut off Copenhagen from the rest of Denmark stemmed from an alleged Iranian plot to kill an ASMLA activist. The person was not named.

Iran has strongly denied the allegation, calling it an Israeli conspiracy that sought to harm Tehran’s relations with the European Union,

A series of raids were also made in Denmark Wednesday, Kierkegaard said, adding that the ASMLA remains under police protection out of fears they still may be targeted.

 
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Balkan nations that fought bitter wars as Yugoslavia broke apart during the 1990s have agreed to step up their cooperation in identifying thousands of people still missing as a result of the conflicts.

Representatives from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro signed an agreement Tuesday laying out how they will work together.

Some 12,000 of the 40,000 people who went missing as the former Yugoslavia violently collapsed remain unaccounted for, including about 4,000 whose unidentified bodies still are stored in morgues across the region.

The nations agreed to improve the sharing of information and to allow representatives from more than one country to take part in exhumations.

The Hague-based International Commission on Missing Persons will assist in DNA testing, manage the exchange of data and maintain a regional database.
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Russia is facing another round of U.S. sanctions over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

The Trump administration informed Congress on Tuesday that Russia failed to prove it is abiding by a global treaty outlawing biological and chemical weapons.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia in August. A 1991 U.S. law automatically triggers another round of sanctions.

It is unclear what those new sanctions would be or when they would come into effect, angering the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ed Royce.

“It is unacceptable that the administration lacks a plan, or even a timeline, for action on the second round of mandatory sanctions,” Royce said Tuesday. “No one should be surprised that Vladimir Putin refuses to swear off future use of weapons-grade nerve agents.”

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were seriously injured in March when they came in contact with a Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok, in the British city of Salisbury.

Britain has accused two alleged Russian military intelligence agents of attempted murder.

A woman died and her boyfriend was injured when they apparently came in accidental contact with the poison in June.

Russia has denied any involvement in either case.
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Security problems and a spate of insider attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan will not affect the alliance’s commitment to building Afghan forces capable of making the Taliban accept a negotiated end to the war, NATO’s top official said Tuesday.

The aim is to build a force strong enough to show the Taliban that it is “pointless and counterproductive to continue the fighting,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and senior NATO commanders.

“So there is a close link between our military efforts and our political efforts, a link between the strength of the Afghan security forces and the likelihood of progress in the peace process,” he told Reuters.

Peace efforts stepped up

Efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement to more than 17 years of war have intensified, with meetings between U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban officials aimed at preparing the way for peace talks.

“No one underestimates the scale of the challenge. And the situation remains serious,” Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference with Ghani in the presidential palace.

Even as peace efforts have picked up, Taliban insurgents have increased pressure across Afghanistan, where they now hold more territory than at any time since the U.S.-led campaign of 2001 that ousted them from power.

At the same time, Afghan forces have been suffering their highest ever casualty levels, according to a report last week from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, a U.S. Congressional watchdog.

Afghan forces suffer

On Tuesday, hours before Stoltenberg met Ghani, Taliban fighters killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers at a security post in the western province of Farah.

NATO and its coalition partners have around 16,000 troops from 39 countries in Afghanistan, well down from more than 100,000 at the height of the combat mission though higher than the 13,000 they had until the mission was beefed up last year.

Their main purpose is to train and advise Afghan army and police units as well as to provide a certain number of combat enabling services, including air support and intelligence.

Although the mission is no longer mainly a combat operation, the dangers of operating in Afghanistan have been underlined by a series of so-called insider attacks by rogue Afghan soldiers or police that have killed two NATO servicemen, an American and a Czech, in the past two weeks.

Stoltenberg said the threat of insider attacks and the high level of casualties suffered by Afghan forces was taken “extremely seriously” by NATO.

He had discussed the issue both with Ghani and the Resolute Support commander General Scott Miller, who himself narrowly escaped an insider attack in Kandahar last month, but said it would not undermine the alliance’s commitment to the mission. 

“It has led to some temporary adjustments of the way we provide support in some areas but that’s a temporary measure to address the immediate risks,” Stoltenberg said.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday his government has more information about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and that it will likely make the evidence public after investigations of his death have been completed.

Speaking during a trip to Japan, Cavusoglu told reporters that Turkey said Saudi Arabia and other countries interested in the information have been given the opportunity to see it.

Khashoggi died after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. 

Initially, Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate and that his whereabouts were unknown, then that he died in a fist fight and still later that he had died in a chokehold. The kingdom’s public prosecutor has since called the killing premeditated, but has not said who planned or approved it.

Cavusoglu said Tuesday that after multiple conversations with Saudi King Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is convinced the king was not involved.

But Cavusoglu said it is clear that a 15-man team alleged to have traveled to Turkey to act as a hit squad would not have taken such action on their own, and that investigators need to find who would have given that order.

Turkey said last week that Khashoggi, a U.S.-based journalist who had written columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate, his body dismembered and then destroyed, possibly dissolved in acid. 

No trace of Khashoggi’s remains has turned up, even as the 59-year-old journalist’s sons appealed on the U.S. television news network CNN on Sunday for the Saudis to return his body so he can be buried in the major Islamic pilgrimage city of Medina with the rest of his family.

A Turkish official, speaking anonymously, confirmed a Monday report in Sabah, a newspaper close to Turkey’s government, that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia, supposedly to investigate Khashoggi’s October 2 killing.

The Sabah report said the two experts visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17, with Saudi authorities allowing Turkish investigators to search the consulate on October 15.

“We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises,” the Turkish official said.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia told a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but continued to deflect reporters’ questions about Riyadh’s ongoing investigation. 

Bandar Al Aiban, the head of Riyadh’s delegation, told the U.N. hearing that King Salman had instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to “proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws,” and “bringing all the perpetrators to justice.” Saudi Arabia has detained 18 Saudi nationals in connection with Khashoggi’s death, but Aiban gave no details on their status or whereabouts.

“The case is still under investigation, as you know … I think my statement was very clear,” Aiban said.

More than 40 nations, including the United States, called for a thorough investigation of Khashoggi’s death and human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia. Numerous Western nations called for the abolition of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, an end to the system of male guardianship over women and a loosening of the definition of “terrorism” in the kingdom so that peaceful critics are not prosecuted. The Saudis have until Friday to report back on whether they will accept any of the recommendations.

The United States pulled out of the 47-member Human Rights Council in June, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.

But U.S. Charge d’Affaires Mark Cassayre appeared at the meeting in an observer status, saying that a “thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation (of Khashoggi’s death) carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential.”
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Britons would vote to stay in the European Union if there were another ballot as those in the biggest “leave”-voting areas change their minds, a survey for Channel 4 published on Monday showed.

Britain would back “remain” by 54 percent to 46 percent, the study by Survation for the broadcaster showed. It estimated that more than a hundred local authorities would now vote to stay.

“Leave” won the June 2016 vote by 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent. Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out another referendum on the issue.

Brexiteers argue May’s predecessor David Cameron said during the campaign that the decision would be final and there would be no re-runs. They say May should get on with delivering Brexit.

But those who back a “People’s Vote” on any final deal say May’s vision for Brexit was not on the ballot paper in 2016, so the public should be allowed another say when the terms of Brexit are known.

Survation interviewed 20,000 people online between Oct. 20 and Nov. 2. Up to now polls have shown no major change in public opinion. Most polls predicted “Remain” would win before the 2016 referendum.

Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29, with London and Brussels yet to secure an agreement on the terms of the U.K.’s departure and avoid a disruptive “no deal” scenario.

Even if May overcomes infighting in her own Conservative Party to finalize an agreement, the Survation poll found that 33 percent of people would reject the deal compared to just 26 percent who would accept it.

Should May be unable to agree a deal by March 29, 36 percent said Britain should leave without a deal, 35 percent said it should stay in the EU and 19 percent said departure should be delayed until an agreement is reached.

However, if May did agree a deal, 43 percent would support a referendum to choose between accepting the deal or remaining in the EU, compared to 37 percent who would oppose the choice, the survey found.
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The German military has received a hefty boost in a revised budget plan from 2020 after Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen refused to sign off the previous draft.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Monday proposed adding 5.7 billion euros ($6.5 billion) to the planned military budget from 2020, to buy more ships, fighter jets and other weaponry over several years, on top of a more modest 323 million euro boost in 2019.

Germany is under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to boost its military spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product from the current 1.2 percent – an issue that has sparked great debate within the ruling coalition.

Experts say the military budget – now slated to reach around 43 billion euros in 2019 – would have to increase by 2 billion euros a year through 2021 and 3 billion euros a year after that even to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel’s promise to hit 1.5 percent of GDP by 2024.

It was not immediately clear how the extra funding, set out in a 290-page list of proposed budget revisions seen by Reuters, would affect the military budget’s share of GDP.

Von der Leyen, from Merkel’s conservative CDU party, wants to plug long-standing gaps in personnel and equipment.

But Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, junior partners in the coalition, have been reluctant to accelerate military spending for fear of alienating more voters at a time when their polling numbers are collapsing.

The revisions, first reported in part by the Handelsblatt newspaper, will be debated in parliament this week, and could still be altered by the budget committee.

The document called for 5.6 billion euros to be spent on a new heavy-lift helicopter whose funding had been called into question, a sign that a formal competition will likely proceed next year between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The document also foresees additional spending on the new MKS180 multi-role warship, new Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes, and a missile defense program called TLVS that is to be built by European missile maker MBDA and Lockheed.

($1 = 0.8762 euros)
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Turkey is accusing Saudi Arabia of dispatching agents to Istanbul last month with the express aim of covering up the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi inside Riyadh’s consulate.

A Turkish official, speaking anonymously, confirmed a report in Sabah, a newspaper close to Turkey’s government, that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia, supposedly to investigate Khashoggi’s October 2 killing.

The Sabah report said the two experts visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17, with Saudi authorities allowing Turkish investigators to search the consulate on October 15.

“We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises,” the Turkish official said.

Turkey said last week that Khashoggi, a U.S.-based journalist who had written columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate, his body dismembered and then destroyed, possibly dissolved in acid.

Khashoggi had scheduled a visit to the consulate to pick up documents for his planned marriage to his fiancee, who waited outside in vain for his return.

No trace of Khashoggi’s remains has turned up, even as the 59-year-old journalist’s sons appealed on the U.S. television news network CNN on Sunday for the Saudis to return his body so he can be buried in the major Islamic pilgrimage city of Medina with the rest of his family.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia told a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but continued to deflect reporters’ questions about Riyadh’s ongoing investigation.  The kingdom’s public prosecutor has called the killing premeditated, but has not said who planned or approved it.

Initially, Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate and that his whereabouts were unknown, then that he died in a fist fight and still later that he had died in a chokehold.

Bandar Al Aiban, the head of Riyadh’s delegation, told the U.N. hearing that King Salman had instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to “proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws,” and “bringing all the perpetrators to justice.”  Saudi Arabia has detained 18 Saudi nationals in connection with Khashoggi’s death, but Aiban gave no details on their status or whereabouts.

“The case is still under investigation, as you know … I think my statement was very clear,” Aiban said.

More than 40 nations, including the United States, called for a thorough investigation of Khashoggi’s death and human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia.  Numerous Western nations called for the abolition of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, an end to the system of male guardianship over women and a loosening of the definition of “terrorism” in the kingdom so that peaceful critics are not prosecuted.  The Saudis have until Friday to report back on whether they will accept any of the recommendations.

The United States pulled out of the 47-member Human Rights Council in June, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.

But U.S. Charge d’Affaires Mark Cassayre appeared at the meeting in an observer status, saying that a “thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation (of Khashoggi’s death) carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential.”

 
…

As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in 1918, some in the Middle East mourn the fate of nations and peoples who came out losers in the ultimate dissection of the region and the division of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians mourn their dead during a World War I genocide in which close to a million-and-a-half people were killed. Other peoples who suffered from that war, including Greeks, Assyrians, and Kurds, recall its memory with bitterness.

As the war ended, the Ottoman Empire was divided, leaving communities shattered and broken by ethnic cleansing.

University of Oklahoma Middle East program director Joshua Landis says the Ottoman Empire had allowed many ethnic communities to govern themselves.

“The Ottoman Empire was a Sunni dynastic empire, and it was a multi-religious, multi-ethnic empire,” he said. “The various religious and ethnic communities were not equal, but there was a stability and they got along within a framework of Ottoman authority. Once that was destroyed and the French and British imposed national identities and chopped the place up to nation states, many of these nation states included peoples who did not want to live together, and this has led to the recent civil wars.”

Minorities like Armenians and Kurds, who were not awarded nation states, paid a heavy price, as Haigazian University President Paul Haidostian tells VOA.

“World War I really changed the demographic picture so quickly. Twenty years after World War I, if you looked at the demography of many of the regions of Asia Minor and the Middle East and so on, they had been impacted, moved, deported and changed in dramatic ways, and there was no protection and there was no logic to what happened, except for the consequences of alliances, of wars, and so on,” he said.

But some minorities like Lebanon’s Maronite Christians or Syria’s Alawites, gained prominence in the period after World War I during the destruction of the old world order, says Landis.

“Both the French and the British pursued a minority policy, and in order to help them rule during the inter-war period, they gave a leg up to minorities across the Middle East,” he said. “In Lebanon it was the Maronites, in Syria it was the Alawites, in Iraq it was the Sunni minority, 20 percent, In Israel-Palestine, it was the Jews, who were only 14 percent of the population at World War I.”

Haidostian says despite the war’s aftermath, Armenians, Kurds, Jews and other minorities rebuilt their communities and struggled once again to flourish.

“So many nations, despite the major losses of land, homes, human lives, in the hundreds of thousands, in the case of the Armenians a million-and-a-half, the story of resilience is really very particular. No matter what some nations may do, minorities, ethnic or religious groups find a way of surviving,” he said.

A key lesson of World War I, concludes Paul Haidostian, “is the intersection of the interests of the major powers, the mightier powers, versus those of the smaller powers,” which he argues “ultimately pay the price.”
…

Their pain has long gone. No odor from the gas warfare they endured remains. There are no echoes of the thump of artillery, no reverberation of the clash of arms, no sound of fusillades or the rat-a-tat of the machine guns. The trenches have long been filled; the entanglements of harsh wire gone, too. All is quiet on the Western Front.

But the memory remains of the industrial slaughter that was World War I. It echoes for later generations in fading black-and-white photographs, letters home stained with foxing and the poems of war poets like Wilfred Owen. And it echoes in the thoughts of the few surviving sons and daughters, frail and aged themselves, of the fathers who never came home.

And this week in the days leading up to November 11, the centenary of the end of World War I, one of the deadliest conflicts in the history of the human race, testimonies to the carnage are being pored over, discussed and debated.

On Sunday, hundreds of mourners turned up in the French village of Ors — some from as far away as the United States and New Zealand — to retrace the fateful last steps of Wilfred Owen, who died a week before Armistice Day along with hundreds of his fellows trying to cross a canal. They heard the plaintive notes of the Last Post being played on a bugle Owen retrieved from the battlefield.

His last letter home, written while he and his men rested before battle, included this final line: “You could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surround me.”

How best to commemorate the “band of friends”? Was it so sweet and fitting to die for one’s country in World War I? Should the victors of the war strike triumphant tones or downplay military victory in order to avoid offending vanquished European neighbors who are now allies?

Some 80 leaders from around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will fly into France this week to attend remembrance events marking a century since the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The culmination of the commemorations in France will come with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been keen to avoid any triumphalism. The tone of Macron’s speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will be respectful of the millions, regardless of nationality, who died in the four-year conflict, say his officials.

That order has sparked disgruntlement from some military veterans, including Michel Goya, a historian and former colonel, who accused Macron of “insulting the soldiers of 1918.” Military historian Bénédicte Chéron told France’s French Le Figaro newspaper recently that Macron and his ministers misunderstand “the continuity between the engagement of 1914-18 soldiers, and that of soldiers today.”

Nearly 37 million soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed in World War I and Macron’s aides say that many people view the 1914-1918 war as an unnecessary slaughter rather than a victory that should be celebrated with too much military pomp. Many in France and across Europe seem to agree with him.

They include veterans like retired British general Richard Dannatt. “Triumphalism, victory, those sort of notions are inappropriate.There is no need for jingoistic reaction at all.” Britain will also mark the centenary with a week of commemorations, small and large. including a display of 10,000 flames illuminating the moat at the Tower of London and a remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has also struck a note of reconciliation in the run-up to the centenary. “The killing fields of France and Belgium are scarred by the horrors of war, but the strength and closeness of our relationship today is a testament to the journey our countries have traveled together,” she said last week.

How to remember the Great War and its war dead have long been issues, going back even to the conflict itself and its immediate aftermath. The issues have been debated heatedly not only in France but the allied countries of Britain, Belgium, Italy and Russia as well as in the vanquished nations of Germany and Austria.

The sheer scale of the casualties meant that hardly a European household was left untouched by the war. The industrial nature of the killing, which saw young men scythed down by machine guns and obliterated by artillery barrages as well as being poisoned by clouds of noxious fumes, prompted rising despair and, as more men were hurled into the killing machine, accusations of massive miscalculation by national leaders and the senselessness of the fighting mounted.

As the war unfolded in all its horror, many wondered why they had been thrust into such a consuming, barbaric conflict by an assassination in a far-flung country in the Balkans. They questioned what the war was about. For some it was a case of imperial rivalry that had got out of hand. Others countered that right or wrong, one had to defend one’s country.

In Russia, World War I triggered the Bolshevik revolution. In other European countries fury over the carnage fueled the post-war rise of organized labor and parties of the far right and far left. The memory of the war was one of the prompts for Oxford University’s influential debating Union to approve the famous 1933 motion “that this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country.”

And there were disputes about the plans for formal remembrance of the conflict. In Britain, the authorities decided that there should be “equality of remembrance,” a revolutionary idea, and that all the men should be buried where they fell in war cemeteries on the battlefields of France and Belgium, ordinary soldiers laid to rest beside officers. Other nations followed suit.

Many applauded the idea. But many grief-stricken wives, inconsolable in their bereavement, “disagreed with the decision not to repatriate,” says historian Alison Fell. They wanted their husbands to be buried near to them in their local cemeteries at home and they organized a letter-writing campaign.

They pointed to the offer by the U.S. government to bereaved Americans to bear the costs of shipping bodies back to America, if families so wished. More than 300,000 of France’s dead were returned to their families. In Britain the government ignored repatriation demands.

One British widow wrote that perhaps it is not everyone’s wish to have their dead husbands repatriated, she noted, but I do. She wrote: “The country took him and the country should bring him back.”

 
…

Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello was the big winner at the MTV EMAs gala in Spain on Sunday, while Janet Jackson used her acceptance speech for a life-time achievement award to take a stand for women’s rights.

Jackson was honored with the Global Icon Award for her four-decade, 11-album career that started when she was a child growing up in the family that also produced her music legend brother, Michael, and The Jackson Five.

The 52-year-old Jackson showed she still has her dance moves while performing a medley of “Made for Now,” ″All for You” and “Rhythm Nation” while accompanied by African drummers and torchbearers. She later said her award came with a responsibility.

“Tonight I feel moved to speak for those women whose voices have been silenced,” she said. “I am one of those voices, women who have been gagged, literally and metaphorically, women who have been abused, women who have lived with fear, I stand with you.

“Tonight I carry the hope that a new world is emerging. Women, our voices will be heard!”

Other than Jackson’s call for gender equality, the show was all about the dazzle provided by the costumes, choreography and the elaborate light and video displays on the huge circular stage.

With pop star Ariana Grande shut out despite her five nominations, Cabello was the undisputed star of the night.

The 21-year-old Cabello beat out Grande, Drake, Dua Lipa and Post Malone for best artist, while her sultry hit “Havana” took the trophy for best song and best video. She also topped the category for best act.

Last year, Cabello won the award for best pop artist at the edition held in London. Born in Havana before her family left for Miami, Cabello was discovered on the U.S. version of X-Factor and formed a part of the group Fifth Harmony.

The 25th edition of the awards, formerly known as the as the MTV Europe Music Awards, was as usual loaded with eye-catching performances, as well as references to Bilbao’s links to the art world, first and foremost thanks to the city’s Guggenheim Museum.

Host Hailee Steinfeld opened the show with a video sketch featuring her breaking into an art gallery to “steal” one of the MTV trophies, only to then emerge on stage in a tiny silver dress. Several costume changes later, she became a “work of art,” in her words, when she donned a long white dress and was sprayed with blue and yellow paint.

After Nicki Minaj and Little Mix got the music going, the singer of Panic! At The Disco made an action-movie entry. Frontman Brendon Urie was depicted in a video as climbing down the façade of the Bilbao Exhibition Centre before he was lowed from the hall’s ceiling while singing the opening of “High Hopes.”

When his group won the best alternative award, Urie announced “this is going in my bathroom.”

Minaj won for best hip-hop artist and best look. 5 Seconds of Summer left with the best rock award, Marshmello was voted best electronic artist, and best new artist went to Cardi B.

Shawn Mendes won for best live performer, and British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa was best pop artist.

The spectators went wild singing along to “Malamente” by Spanish sensation Rosalia, but the most moving performance belonged to Halsey. She delivered her heart-torn “Without Me” while chained inside a large transparent cube. When the cube lifted, water poured down on her like rain.

Boy duo Jack & Jack lifted spirits singing “Rise” while being hoisted aloft on wires, spinning and twisting over a stage that depicted a whirlpool until a friendly bunch of fans rushed in to cushion their landing.

On Saturday night, Muse kicked off the weekend’s festivities with guitar-driven rock concert at San Mames Stadium, home to local soccer club Athletic Bilbao.

The MTV EMAs is held in a different European city each year, with winners selected by fans across the continent.

 
…

everal hundred people have gathered outside the Ukrainian Interior Ministry headquarters after the death of an anti-corruption activist who was attacked with acid three months ago.

Kateryna Handziuk died on Sunday in a hospital where she was being treated for burns from the July 31 attack.

Police detained five people in the case, including the alleged assailant.  They have not identified anyone suspected of ordering the attack on Handziuk, who was an aide to the mayor of the city of Kherson as well as an activist.

The people honoring Handziuk on Sunday called for intensified efforts to find those responsible.

Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said in August that separatist organizations were believed to have been involved, with the aim of destabilizing southern Ukraine. Kherson is a significant port city.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) argued on Sunday over whether they should return to a more conservative agenda once she steps down as party chair as contenders to succeed her gear up for the leadership race.

Support for their Social Democrats (SPD) coalition partner meanwhile hit a record low, according to a poll published hours before senior members of both the CDU and the SPD were due to discuss the parties’ future courses in closed-door meetings.

Merkel announced last week that she would step down as CDU party leader in December, ending an era of nearly two decades in which she shifted Germany’s most powerful party gradually from the right to the center.

Her decision followed two regional votes in which Merkel’s center-right bloc and the left-leaning SPD suffered their worst election results in decades while the ecologist Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained support.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, one of the three contenders to replace Merkel as party leader, said the CDU had watered down its profile by becoming too centrist in the past years.

“Parties must differ from another again more strongly,” Spahn told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “The way we view people and society is fundamentally different from the one of the Social Democrats,” he added.

Spahn is one of the fiercest critics of Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million refugees, mainly Muslims from war zones in the Middle East.

Spahn ruled out a coalition with the anti-immigration AfD, saying the CDU could not work together with a party he called anti-American and which he said idolizes Russian autocrats.

CDU deputy chair Armin Laschet warned against moving the CDU more to the right. “I’m convinced that such a policy shift would be wrong,” Laschet told Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily. The CDU should stick to its centrist course, he added.

Speaking to reporters shortly before the CDU board meeting in Berlin, Laschet and CDU deputy leader Julia Kloeckner both suggested that the candidates to succeed Merkel should present themselves in several regional conferences in the coming weeks.

LEADERSHIP RACE

The candidate most likely to stand for a continuation of Merkel’s centrist course is CDU party secretary general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer who is expected to comment on her candidacy in the coming days.

The third candidate is Friedrich Merz who would stand for a shift towards the low-tax, business-friendly right-wing conservatism that Merkel has pushed into the background.

The CDU seems to be split over its leadership question. An Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag showed that 44 percent of party members backed Merz and 39 percent favored Kramp-Karrenbauer. Support for Spahn was at 9 percent.

SPD deputy chair Ralf Stegner said his party would not remain in the coalition “at any price”.

“If the coalition does not drastically and rapidly change its work mode and image, it cannot and will not last,” he said.

A Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv broadcasters showed on Sunday that support for the SPD plunged to a record low of 13 percent while Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc rose to 27 percent.

The pro-immigration Greens jumped to 24 percent to become the second-strongest party, the poll showed. The AfD fell to 13 percent while the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the party The Left both stood at 9 percent.
…

France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party jumped ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM for the first time in a poll of voting intentions for May 2019 European Parliament elections.

An Ifop poll published Sunday showed the centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) with 19 percent of voting intentions compared with 20 percent at the end of August, while far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s RN, formerly the National Front, rose to 21 percent from 17 percent previously.

Together with the 7 percent score of sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and 1 percent each for “Frexit” parties led by former Le Pen associate Florian Philippot and Francois Asselineau, far-right parties won a combined 30 percent of voting intentions, up from 25 percent end August.

The poll asked nearly 1,000 French people on Oct 30-31 whom they would vote for if the European Parliament elections were to be held the next Sunday.

The conservative Les Republicains party led by Laurent Wauquiez slipped 2 percentage points to 13 percent, while the far-left France Insoumise led by Jean-Luc Melenchon fell from 14 to 11 percent.

Melenchon was widely criticized and mocked after yelling at police officers during a raid of his party offices as part of an anti-corruption inquiry.

In an Odoxa-Dentsu poll released mid-September, Macron and Le Pen’s parties were neck-and-neck around 21 percent, while the conservative Les Republicains came third with 14 percent and Melenchon’s France Insoumise fourth with 12.5 percent.

In an Ifop poll in May, the LREM was seen winning 27 percent of the EU parliament vote, well ahead of the far right’s 17 percent and more than Macron’s 24 percent in the first round of France’s April 2017 presidential elections.

The European elections are shaping up to be a major battle between centrist, pro-EU parties like Macron’s LREM and far-right formations that want to stop immigration and globalization.

The European Parliament elections determine who leads the major EU institutions, including the European Commission, the bloc’s civil service, and are also important as a bellwether of sentiment among the EU’s 500 million people.

In a YouGov poll published last week, Macron’s popularity fell to its lowest level since his 2017 election, with only 21 percent of those polled saying they were satisfied with him.

Macron’s reputation has been hit by the brusque departure of two high-profile ministers and a summer scandal over his bodyguard, while stubbornly high unemployment, high taxes and rising fuel prices add to a general feeling of discontent.
…

Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food industry and now accounts for more than 50 percent of the total global seafood supply, according to the World Economic Forum. But farming fish requires food for those fish, and currently, it relies on a lot of ingredients that could be feeding people, including soybean, corn, rice and wheat. Faith Lapidus reports on some new sustainable ideas about feeding farmed fish, from Norway.
…

Heavy rain and gales devastating parts of Italy have killed two more people, pushing the overall death toll to at least 17, and laid waste to vast swaths of forest. 

A German tourist died Friday when hit by lightning on the island of Sardinia, while another person struck by lightning several days ago died in a hospital, Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said Saturday. 

A spokeswoman said 17 deaths related to the severe weather had been reported to the agency so far. 

Many of the victims have been killed by falling trees. Coldiretti, the association of Italian agricultural companies, said in a statement that gales had destroyed about 14 million trees, many in the far north. 

Areas from the far northeast to Sicily in the southwest have been affected by the storms, with the worst damage in the northern regions of Trentino and Veneto — the region around Venice — where villages and roads have been cut off by landslides.

In the Alps near Belluno, 100 km (60 miles) north of Venice, pine trees and red spruces were snapped wholesale like matchsticks.

The surface of the Comelico Superiore dam, farther north near the Austrian border, was covered with the trunks of trees that had fallen into the Piave river.

“We’ll need at least a century to return to normality,” Coldiretti said. 

Many of the squares and walkways of Venice itself have been submerged in the highest floods the canal city has seen in a decade.

The governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, said the region’s storm damage amounted to at least a billion euros ($1.1 billion).

Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection Department, said Veneto had seen winds of up to 180 kph (112 mph), and that the situation there was “apocalyptic.”

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was due to visit the region Sunday. 
…

With just days to go until the U.S. midterm elections, there are growing fears that Russia’s efforts to undermine U.S. democracy extend far beyond the polls on Nov. 6 or the presidential election in 2020.

Defense and security officials worry that as part of Moscow’s plan to sow division and discord, it is trying to conquer the U.S. military — not with bullets or missiles but with tweets and memes.

The tactic is an outgrowth of Russia’s overarching strategy to find seams within U.S. society where distrust or anger exist and widen those divisions with targeted messaging.

In the case of the U.S. military, according to current and former U.S. and Western officials, the Kremlin’s aim is likely to establish what is known as reflexive control. By seeding U.S. troops with the right type of disinformation, they say, Russia can predispose them to make choices or decisions that are favorable for Moscow.

The exact extent to which U.S. military personnel have been targeted or swayed is unclear.

VOA spoke with multiple defense and security officials, all of whom declined to comment on the nature or scope of Russia’s military-oriented influence operations. Still, almost all of the officials admitted Russia’s targeting of U.S. military personnel with influence operations, and the way it is being done, is a concern.

“We know it goes on,” said Ed Wilson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy. “That’s why we’ve amped up and increased the attention that we’re paying.

“We’re taking a renewed look at how we train and educate the broader force,” he said, noting that efforts go beyond just the military to the Defense Department’s partner agencies.

The former commanding general for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, Army Lt. Gen. Paul Funk, described the need to educate and shield troops from disinformation campaigns as a matter of “force protection.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a physical force or an information force,” Funk said. “Are you concerned about it? Of course. Do you have to have campaigns where you inform your soldiers of those kinds of things that happen? Sure.”

Reflexive control

Officials and experts say Russia’s use of influence operations to target the U.S. armed forces should come as no surprise. Russian President Vladimir Putin has tested the approach, using social media especially, in places like Ukraine, and since then it has become an ever more critical part of Russia’s overarching strategy.

“There’s nothing new with Russia or the Soviet Union wanting to have that degree of influence,” Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in September. “This is really kind of something that is in Putin’s DNA as a former KGB agent.”

U.S. officials have been aware of the effort for some time. At least as far back as March 2017, a Defense Information School presentation to Army public affairs officers identified disinformation on social media as a high-risk problem, capable of eroding “trust and confidence” in the ranks as well as in the Army as a whole.

But much of the military’s focus in dealing with social media, at least from what has been shared publicly, has concentrated on scams targeting military personnel, or on inappropriate or even unlawful behavior.

Some top U.S. officials have tried to downplay the dangers of Russia’s influence operation, saying in some ways the threat posed to U.S. troops is no different from the threat to anyone else.

“Like all Americans, we have to be alert to the people who would try to manipulate an election in the information age, when there’s so many feeds coming in to everybody,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said when asked about the threat in August.

“Certainly, we pay attention to that,” Mattis said. “But it’s part of the larger domain of protecting America.”

Already working?

Experts worry that simply treating the Russian influence operations targeting the military as an American problem and not a military problem has left the U.S. military vulnerable to Russia’s social media onslaught.

“U.S. military personnel and veterans — it is the uncovered stone in the Russian influence effort that no one is really taking enough of an interest in,” said Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and now a senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

And Watts, who has testified before Congress on Russian influence operations, thinks the Russians have already made considerable headway.

“At the enlisted ranks in the U.S. military, Russia won over a huge base of support in this country that still continues on today,” he said.

Some of the early Russian success could be traced back to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, when their push to sway the election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump, amplifying messages like “America First” and his tough talk on terrorism, may have resonated with rank-and-file members of the military.

A May 2016 unscientific survey by the Military Times found “Donald Trump emerged as active-duty service members’ preference to become the next U.S. president, topping Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin.”

More recent polling by Military Times and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University suggests opinions may be changing. More than 70 percent of troops surveyed said Russia was a significant threat, an increase of 18 percent from the previous year.

Yet experts and former officials say there is evidence to suggest Russian influence operations targeting U.S. military personnel and their families have continued unabated.

“Whether that’s Facebook, Twitter and others, we’re seeing where it [Russia] is focusing on identifying affinity groups,” said Heather Conley, a former deputy assistant secretary of state during the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Now a senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Conley says the military is just one of several such groups in Russia’s sights, such as law enforcement and religious organizations.

“These unwittingly are being used to promote disinformation and malign influence,” she said. “It starts identifying the key voices within these broader groups.”

Phony military ties

At least in part, Russia has been trying to reach out to those voices on platforms like Twitter, using fake accounts purporting to be those of Americans with ties to the military.

In Twitter’s latest release of accounts linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (on Oct. 17), at least 39 had user descriptions promoting links to the military.

Some gained little to no traction, like one that described the user as “Fighting to Make America Great Again strong #military supporter. Combat #Vet ????#OORAH Ret. #Frogman ???? #Sheepdog #Patriot ???? Follow me,” which did not attract a single follower.

Others did better, getting hundreds of followers. One Russian account, describing the user as a “Proud AMERICAN, wife, mother, conservative, served my country in USMC,” had more than 2,000 followers.

“We certainly are still seeing a lot of the accounts that we’re looking at that continue to have what seemed to be clear military connections,” Bret Schafer, a social media analyst for the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Alliance for Securing Democracy, told VOA.

Schafer, along with his colleagues, have been studying Russia’s outreach on social media to U.S. military personnel and their families. He said the use of terms like “veteran” or “Navy mom” is not unusual.

“You’ll see a lot of banners on Twitter, the account pictures that will be kind of non-identifiable in terms of a specific person, but a member of the military or just some sort of graphic that connotes that person is part of the military or a family member,” he said.

Still, Schafer said it is difficult to determine just how much Russia has managed to penetrate the U.S. military community, whether on Twitter or other social media platforms, like Facebook.

“My guess is a lot of this probably would be happening more in closed Facebook groups in which there are many with the military, and frankly, nobody has any idea what’s really happening for those groups, because of course Facebook doesn’t share those with researchers,” he said.

Isolated community

And there are worries that the U.S. military may be especially vulnerable as officials admit the defense community’s connection to the rest of the country is as weak as it has been in a long time.

“My concern is the broader isolation from the community we serve, and that’s a discussion [in Congress] as well,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said during a breakfast forum in August. “On the Army staff alone, you look at any number of the senior leaders, I think they all have at least one son or daughter, if not more, who are army officers or who are serving.”

“We’ve become more segmented,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. “I’m very concerned about that.”

Reed, like Esper, downplayed concerns that the problem is one the Russians could exploit.

“I can’t think of an institution that’s more committed to America, one America and one that’s governed by the Constitution, than the military,” he said recently.

US allies already targeted by Moscow

But U.S. allies say there is reason to worry as they have seen Russia use disinformation to repeatedly target their forces.

“We have seen attempts to erode trust within the alliance,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told VOA by email.

NATO’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Latvia, working with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, has seen several large-scale disinformation campaigns and also smaller-scale attacks targeting NATO’s enhanced forward presence in the Baltics.

“Our personnel get guidance and instruction regarding misinformation and information security as part of their pre-deployment training and their arrival process in order to increase their resilience,” according to Maj. Mark Peebles with NATO’s Task Force Latvia Headquarters.

“They are aware that it’s out there and are advised to maintain a critical eye to what they see on social media,” he said.

The British, too, have seen indications that Russia and others may be trying to cause dissent in the ranks.

“Quite a few senior commanders, increasingly, I see now, having had evidence of false Facebook websites coming up routinely in their names,” said Lt. Gen. Nick Pope, British army deputy chief of the general staff, describing efforts to take the fake pages down as “whack a rat.”

“The fact is that our potential adversaries, hostile agencies, are using cybercrime, if you call it that, as a mechanism now to try to unhinge reliable, evidence-based platforms,” he said.
…

Britain and Ireland will seek to hold regular summits between leaders and ministers after Brexit to maintain ties strained by Britain’s decision to leave the EU, senior ministers from both governments said on Friday.

Relations between the two have improved markedly since Ireland gained independence from Britain following a bloody struggle almost a century ago.

But ties have been tested over the last two years with Ireland a key player on the opposite side of the Brexit negotiating table to Britain. Arguments over how to manage the the border between EU-member state Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland have threatened the talks.

“What we’ve agreed is that we should aim for a model which is based upon a pattern of top level summits involving heads of government and senior ministers, probably alternating between the United Kingdom and Ireland year-by-year, and backed up by close bilateral work between ministers,” Britain’s Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington told a news conference.

“There is that shared commitment that we are not going to let political turbulence, which is a reality at the moment, deflect us from recognising that we have so much in common and so much both to gain from continued close work together.”

Lidington, Prime Minister Theresa May’s de facto deputy, was speaking after a meeting of a British-Irish cooperative body that was convened for the first time in a decade earlier this year as a result of a political deadlock in Northern Ireland.

Britain and Ireland are co-guarantors of the 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of sectarian violence in the province and introduced devolved government. However the power-sharing executive has not met for almost two years following a breakdown between Irish nationalist and pro-British unionist politicians.

Lidington said officials would come up with proposals by early next year to replace the current regular meetings at EU meetings that helped improve the “indispensable relationship.”

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney also sought to play down a number of recent newspaper stories that highlighted a deterioration in relations between the neighbouring countries.

“Some of what you read about the stresses and strains that are sometimes reported between the British and Irish government, on a personal that is certainly not the case,” Coveney said.
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President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russia’s GRU military intelligence on its centenary Friday, hailing the agency that has been accused by the West of election meddling, nerve agent poisonings and hacking attacks against chemical weapons probes and anti-doping sports bodies.

“I’m confident of your professionalism, courage and determination,” the Russian leader said in a speech to GRU officers in Moscow.

Putin said he highly appreciates the intelligence information and the analytics produced by the GRU and also praised the agency for its actions in Syria, saying it strongly contributed to the success of Russia’s campaign there.

The United States and its allies have accused the GRU of involvement in the March nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy in Britain, hacking the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and disrupting anti-doping efforts in world sports. Russian authorities have rejected the accusations, calling them part of a Western smear campaign.

Putin made no reference to Western accusations against the GRU, but noted rising global tensions.

“The conflict potential in the world is growing,” Putin said in Friday’s speech. “There are provocations and blatant lies, as well as attempts to upset strategic parity.”

The GRU has recently faced a series of exposures that revealed its inner workings.

In September, British intelligence released surveillance images of GRU agents accused of the March nerve agent attack on former GRU officer and British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury. The investigative group Bellingcat and the Russian site The Insider quickly exposed the agents’ real names. 

Dutch authorities also have recently identified four alleged GRU agents who tried to hack the world’s chemical weapons watchdog from a hotel parking lot.

While the GRU counts its history from 1918, when it was created in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution, Putin also mentioned its predecessors in imperial Russia. He noted that some imperial army officers helped the Bolsheviks organize military intelligence after the 1917 revolution. 

“They realized that there is no worse shame than to betray the Motherland, betray comrades, and at the time of turmoil and revolutionary upheavals helped preserve the continuity of the service’s traditions,” he said.

Putin added “military intelligence officers showed the same loyalty to their duty in the early 1990s following the breakup of the Soviet Union, helping preserve the GRU potential.”
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A Turkish presidential adviser and friend of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says his body was cut up and dissolved in acid for easier disposal, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported Friday.

“According to the latest information we have, the reason they dismembered his body is to dissolve it easier” before it was disposed of, Yasin Aktay told the newspaper.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who who had written critically of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month to get a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee.

After initially denying Khashoggi had been murdered, the Saudi government claimed he died in an unplanned “rogue operation.” Saudi public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb offered a different explanation last week when he said the killing was premeditated.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it may be a “handful more weeks” before the U.S. has enough evidence to impose sanctions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.

Pompeo told St. Louis radio station KMOX Thursday the U.S. administration is “continuing to understand the fact pattern” and added it is “reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals” who have so far been identified as being “engaged in that murder.”

Pompeo emphasized that U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed accountability for all involved in the “heinous crime.”

In his first public reaction Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the murder “horrendous” and said responsive action must be taken.

“At the same time, I say that it’s very important  …for the region and [for] the world that Saudi Arabia remain stable,” Netanyahu told reporters in the Bulgarian city of Varna. “I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals, because I think the larger problem is Iran.” Iran has denied accusations it is building a nuclear bomb, saying weapons of mass destruction are prohibited under Islam.

Khashoggi’s fiancee wrote in an op-ed piece published Friday in The Washington Post the Trump administration’s response to Khashoggi’s death has been “devoid of moral foundation.”

“Of all nations, the United States should be leading the way in bringing the perpetrators to justice,” Hatice Cengiz wrote.

Instead, Cengiz said, “Some in Washington are hoping this matter will be forgotten with simple delaying tactics. But we will continue to push the Trump administration to help find justice for Jamal. There will be no coverup.”

The New York Times, quoting two people familiar with the matter, reported Friday that White House officials knew from an October 9 phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he considered Khashoggi a dangerous Islamist, and therefore knew the Saudi prince had a potential motive for the killing. But because of its deep investment in Prince Mohammed as the main linchpin of the administration’s Middle East agenda, the Trump administration concluded it could not feasibly limit his power.

Instead, the White House “has joined governments around the region in weighing what effect the stigma of the Khashoggi killing may have on the crown prince’s ability to rule, and what benefit can be extracted from his potential weakness,” the Times said, quoting people familiar with the administration’s deliberations.

More than 100 members of PEN America, a New York-based non-profit group of journalists and artists devoted to human rights and free expression, have called on the U.N. to launch an independent probe into the killing.

“The violent murder of a prominent journalist and commentator on foreign soil is a grave violation of human rights and a disturbing escalation of the crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia, whose government in recent years has jailed numerous writers, journalists, human rights advocates, and lawyers in a sweeping assault on free expression and association,” the group said Friday in an open letter.

Turkish officials said earlier this week chief Istanbul prosecutor Irfan Fidan failed to get answers about the location of Khashoggi’s body and who ordered his killing during three days of a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation in Istanbul.

The U.S. is urging Saudi Arabia to locate Khashoggi’s body and return it to his family as soon as possible.

Khashoggi’s friends and family say they want even just a piece of his body so they can carry out his wish to be buried in the city of Medina, Islam’s second holiest site.

Turkey is trying to have 18 suspects detained in Saudi Arabia extradited so they can be tried in a Turkish court. Among the suspects are 15 members of an alleged “hit squad” that Turkey claims was sent to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi.

Some of the people suspected of being involved in the killing have close ties to the prince, whose condemnation of Khashoggi’s killing has failed to alleviate suspicions he was involved.

 
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