Migrant children, especially those who became separated from their parents, are at risk of abuse, exploitation and trafficking, according to a United Nations report. While discrimination against migrants who travel through the Mediterranean is widespread, children and young people are the most vulnerable. Findings by UNICEF and the International Organization for Migration show that children from sub-Saharan Africa are targeted for abuse more than any other group. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Hollywood celebrities may have been the first to host a telethon to raise money for Hurricane Irma victims, but the idea is not theirs alone.
Dutch TV and radio stations also are banding together for an evening-long broadcast aimed at showing solidarity and gathering donations for victims on the island of St. Martin, Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. Henne Schuwer told VOA in an interview.
“We don’t have as many [radio and TV] stations as you have here in the United States,” so it’ll be easier to arrange, Schuwer said with a smile.
A cherished exotic part of the whole
Asked how the Dutch people on the mainland feel about the disaster happening half a world away, Schuwer insists that his nation is firmly united with all its citizens.
“It’s part of our kingdom that has been hit, the smallest part, but it’s the Netherlands, the kingdom, that has been hit; they’re part of us.” The ambassador describes the island as “an exotic part of us” but one that the Dutch are happy to have.
The Caribbean island, divided between Dutch St. Martin and French St. Martin, is less than 64 square kilometers located roughly 241 kilometers southeast of Puerto Rico. The island got its name when Christopher Columbus spotted it in 1493 on the feast day of the eponymous Catholic saint.
An island that prides itself as a destination where one’s limits “are the sky in one direction and the bottom of the sea in the other” now finds itself struggling to survive.
Daily crisis meeting
The Dutch government conducts a crisis meeting every day in The Hague, chaired by the prime minister, and the initial focus is on the basic necessities.
“Get the sewage system back working again, hopefully that can be done quite quickly; the drinking water system, that needs to be back on line again very, very quickly; luckily, that’s not as heavily damaged as could have been, as far as we can see,” Schuwer said.
Addressing health care issues, preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases and getting St. Martin’s hospital up and running again, are also high on the agenda.
Schuwer says reported looting on St. Martin is now under control.
“All looting is bad,” he said, but there’s a difference between taking a bottle of water from the store because one needs it, versus walking off with a television set for which he says “there’s no excuse, under any circumstances.”
An enhanced military presence, with a target number of around 550 total, is being deployed to St. Martin.
Friend in need
Schuwer said his country is grateful for the help the United States immediately offered and almost just as immediately provided, after the hurricane hit the island.
“It was wonderful to see that in a moment like this, you’re here as an ambassador, and one of the first phone calls you get is from your colleague in the State Department, with a very simple message: If you need something, just ask.”
Schuwer credits close bilateral ties, including strong military cooperation, as having laid the foundation for the show of support in time of crisis.
“The U.S. military also asked immediately: Can we help?” he said.
Schuwer said the U.S. has assets in the Caribbean which “we either don’t have or only have in smaller numbers,” such as military transport planes. He credits the Americans with helping clear the runway for the main airport on the island.
“We asked them for help on Saturday, on Sunday we got our reply and they were there, that was fantastic; they’re there now helping us with air traffic control,” he said, which is crucial as planes arrive to evacuate individuals with medical conditions, followed by tourists, and then local permanent residents.
Now the difficult part starts
Dutch authorities hope the majority of St. Martin’s permanent residents will decide to stay and begin rebuilding the island quickly, Schuwer said, but added: “If they want to get out, we cannot stop them, but we’ll talk to them, and say that this is your island, now the difficult part starts.’”
The ambassador said the Dutch government understands that tourism, the island’s main source of income, will probably be paralyzed for months, so it is considering incentives to encourage residents to stay on and rebuild.
King Willem-Alexander has visited the Dutch half of St. Martin and chose to stay there overnight to demonstrate his commitment and support for the rebuilding effort. Above all, the ambassador said, there is solidarity linking all Dutch people in other parts of the kingdom with the “Sint Maarteners.”
Schuwer said the message is: “You’re part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We are with you. You have suffered very badly; we will get you through the first few days and, more importantly, we will remain with you after the television cameras are gone.”
The Latin phrase semper progrediens, always progressing, is St. Martin’s official motto. The island’s residents may have cause to recall that sentiment in the weeks and months ahead, as they weather the aftereffects from Hurricane Irma.
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In his annual State of the Union address European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ruled out Turkish membership of the bloc for the “foreseeable future” over human rights concerns. He also pledged to improve conditions for African migrants held in horrific conditions at detention centers in Libya.
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The head of the European Union Commission has ruled out Turkish membership of the bloc for the “foreseeable future” because of human rights concerns. In his annual State of the Union address Wednesday, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker cited human rights concerns as the reason.
Addressing other topics, Juncker struck an upbeat tone compared to his annual address last year, which came in the wake of Britain’s vote to quit the bloc.
“Europe’s economy is finally bouncing back and with it our confidence… this leads me to believe the wind is back in Europe’s sails,” he told EU lawmakers gathered in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.. “We have now a window of opportunity but it will not stay open forever. Let us make the most of the momentum, catch the wind in our sails,”
Juncker said the European Union is aiming to complete trade deals with Mexico and South American countries, and to open trade talks with Australia and New Zealand.
But he reserved strong criticism for Ankara, highlighting the ongoing trial of dozens of Turkish journalists and opposition activists on terrorism charges.
“The rule of law, justice and fundamental values have a top priority in the negotiations and that rules out EU membership for Turkey in the foreseeable future. For some considerable time Turkey has been moving away from the European Union in leaps and bounds. Journalists belong in editorial offices, amidst the heated debate, and not in prisons.”
Amnesty International, whose Turkey chairperson is among those detained, welcomed the focus of Juncker’s speech.
“Over 150,000 people actually are facing some kind of prosecution, or loss of their position in the civil service. This situation is intolerable and in terms of human rights in Turkey, dissent is becoming an endangered species,” Amnesty’s Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum told VOA.
Istanbul residents offered mixed feelings on Europe’s rebuff Wednesday. 22-year-old Teoman Yilmaz said he understood Brussels’ position. “We cannot expect Europeans to be happy with us, especially when our own people are not happy about being here.”
Fifty five year old resident Cetin Dincer backs the crackdown led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following last year’s failed coup. “We have no need for Europe. We’re a self-sufficient country, but Europe doesn’t want this.”
Ending Turkey’s accession negotiations will be discussed next month at a Brussels summit.
Europe’s migration crisis will also top the agenda. Juncker praised Italy for “saving the honor of Europe” by continuing to take in thousands of migrants. He pledged to address concerns of horrific conditions at migrant detention centers in Libya.
“Europe has got a collective responsibility and the Commission will work hand in hand with the United Nations to bring to an end this scandalous situation,” he told lawmakers.
As for Brexit, Juncker said Britain would come to regret leaving the bloc, adding the European Union would look at admitting new members after Britain withdraws in 2020. EU officials say Serbia, Albania and Macedonia are the most likely candidates, but no date has been set for their accession.
read moreRussia is not backing down in cyberspace, instead ramping up the pace of its operations against the United States, according to the nation’s top intelligence official.
“Russia has clearly assumed an ever more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from those operations,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Wednesday.
Coats did not elaborate on the scope or target of Russia’s cyber operations, but warned a range of enemies is increasingly seeking to weaponize public opinion.
“Adversaries use the internet as an echo chamber in which information, ideas or beliefs get amplified or reinforced through repetition,” Coats said at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington. “Their efforts seek to undermine our faith in our institutions or advance violence in the name of identity.”
The top intelligence official also said hackers are increasingly targeting the U.S. defense industry.
“Such intrusions even if intended for theft and espionage, could inadvertently cause serious if not catastrophic damage where an adversary looking for small scale destructive cyber action against the United Sates could miscalculate,” Coats said.
In an unclassified report released in January, the top U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin waged an unprecedented “influence campaign” in an effort to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.
As U.S. president, Trump has repeatedly questioned those assessments, suggesting at times it was unclear whether Russia was responsible.
‘As certain as gravity’
Just last week, however, an internal Facebook investigation found 470 Russian-linked accounts paid for thousands of political ads to appear during last year’s presidential election.
Facebook said further investigation also revealed another 2,200 ads “might have originated in Russia,” including ads purchased by accounts with IP addresses in the United States but set to Russian in the language settings.”
All the accounts in question have been suspended.
Democratic lawmaker Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told a security conference last week that the revelations may just be “the tip of the iceberg,” and that Russia also likely manipulated other social media platforms, such as Twitter and Google.
Despite the doubts raised by Trump and some of his supporters, former officials have remained steadfast that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee in an effort to discredit Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.
“We personally reviewed every single piece of intelligence that went into that ICA [intelligence community assessment] and spent hours and hours talking to the analysts,” said former National Security Agency deputy director Richard Ledgett.
“I am as certain of this as I’m as certain as gravity, that the Russian government directed this activity with the intent to influence the election.”
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Former governor of Odessa and onetime Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was served Tuesday with a legal notice to appear before a Ukrainian court to explain why he broke through a cordon of police and border guards to enter the country from Poland.
The legal move adds more drama to a weeks-long political standoff roiling Ukraine between the country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, and his onetime ally, Saakashvili, who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in July by the government.
Saakashvili, who claims Poroshenko revoked his citizenship illegally after the two fell out, has now sworn to rally opposition parties behind him. He and a rowdy group of supporters, that included five Ukrainian lawmakers, forced their way through the Polish-Ukrainian border Sunday after the authorities tried to deny him entry at other crossing points, first arguing his documents were invalid, and then halting a train he was traveling because of an alleged bomb threat.
After breaking through a police cordon at the Shehyni border crossing, Saakashvili made his way to a hotel in nearby Lviv and — with opposition leaders Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime minister, and Andriy Sadovy, looking on — he said he planned to rally Poroshenko’s political opponents and help them unseat the Ukrainian president over failed promises to reform the country.
Saakashvili says he is not seeking the presidency for himself, but wants to see his former friend, Poroshenko, voted out of office at the next elections, scheduled in 2019.
“I am fighting against rampant corruption, against the fact that oligarchs are in full control of Ukraine again, against the fact that Maidan has been betrayed,” Saakashvili said at a press conference, referring to the anti-government protests that saw pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych ousted from power.
In a country that, in the past four years, has witnessed high political drama, invasion and war — from the ouster of a Moscow-backed president by popular street protests to the Russian annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin fomenting of conflict and separatism in the Donbas in the east of the country — Sunday’s circus-like incident may seem minor by comparison.
But the clash between the friends-turned-foes is adding to a sense of alarm in the country and undermines Poroshenko’s argument that Ukraine is slowly but surely stabilizing and establishing the rule of law, according to analysts.
Poroshenko has said Saakashvili will have to face a court for his illegal crossing.
“This is a state security issue,” the Ukrainian president said in a video address Monday. “I don’t care who breaks the state border: fighters in the east, or politicians in the west. There should be direct legal accountability.”
From friends to foes
Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship in 2015 from Poroshenko when the president made him governor of Odessa, hoping he would help with the reform of Ukraine following the Maidan uprising. But the hard-charging Saakashvili and Poroshenko, who were old friends from university days, soon fell out.
The Georgian accused Poroshenko of abetting corruption; Poroshenko said Saakashvili had failed to deliver any real change as governor and alleged he had lied on his citizenship application form by leaving out information about possible corruption charges he could face in his native country of Georgia. Revoking citizenship rendered Saakashvili stateless, as Georgia revoked his Georgian citizenship when he became a Ukrainian.
“I think Poroshenko made a mistake inviting Saakashvili in the first place,” said political scientist Oleksy Garan, a professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. “He was invited because he was viewed as a successful reformer in Georgia. But he is a man of PR stunts. He didn’t perform his job well and he appeared very destabilizing and the two men clashed badly.”
Like many legal experts, Garan says the revocation of Saakashvili’s citizenship may be justified legally. “But from the moral and political point of view, it looked bad. The corruption investigation in Georgia was known about and everyone just turned a blind eye to it before Poroshenko used it to get rid of him,” he said. “Saakashvili’s antics now are playing into Russian hands — Moscow is now saying this shows how Ukraine is a failed state and chaotic.”
Saakashvili’s own popularity ratings in the polls are low, with under two percent of Ukrainians viewing him favorably. But populist sentiments he is beginning to trigger could be used by other opposition leaders and used against Poroshenko, analysts warn.
Saakashvili’s supporters say they believe the court papers were served on him in Lviv in an effort to prevent the former Georgian president from traveling to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, something he has threatened to do. On Tuesday, Saakashvili said he would tour Ukraine’s biggest cities to rally support before heading to Kyiv.
He argues he committed no offense by crossing into Ukraine, claiming he was carried by his supporters through the checkpoint and that can’t be considered an “illegal breakthrough.” Saakashvili also claims he has applied for asylum, and asylum applicants are exempt from penalties for border crossings with invalid papers.
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Italy’s lower house of parliament approved on Tuesday a bill aimed at curbing fascist propaganda, more than 70 years after the death of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.
The draft law, proposed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), follows a politically charged summer, with human rights groups warning of growing racism in Italy in the face of mass immigration across the Mediterranean from Africa.
Under existing laws, pro-fascist propaganda is only penalized if it is seen to be part of an effort to revive the old Fascist Party. The new bill raises the stakes by outlawing the stiff-armed Roman salute, as well as the distribution of fascist or Nazi party imagery and gadgets.
Offenders risk up to two years in jail, with sentences raised by a further eight months if the fascist imagery is distributed over the internet. The legislation now passes to the upper house Senate for further approval.
Opposition parties, including the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) party of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said the bill posed a threat to freedom of speech.
But Emanuele Fiano, a PD lawmaker who drew up the legislation, dismissed such concerns.
“This bill does not attack personal freedoms but will act as a brake on neo-fascist regurgitation and a return of extreme right-wing ideology,” he said.
Mussolini ruled over Italy from 1922 until 1943. He took Italy into World War II on Adolf Hitler’s side and passed race laws under which thousands of Jews were persecuted.
Italy was routed by the allied forces and Mussolini, also known as “Il Duce,” was executed in 1945.
Anti-immigrant sentiment
Mussolini is still admired by a core of supporters on the far-right, and posters using fascist imagery regularly appear on city billboards — most recently in a stylized picture of a white woman being assaulted by a muscular black man.
“Defend her from the new invaders,” said the poster, put up by a fringe party called Forza Nuova (New Force). The group was referring to a high-profile rape case last month when four foreigners were accused of gang-raping a Polish tourist.
More than 600,000 migrants, mainly Africans, have come to Italy over the past four years, boosting anti-immigration sentiment in the country and pushing up support for rightist and far-right parties that demand rigid border controls.
Given the political climate, the ruling PD was forced on Tuesday to delay its push to approve a contested law that would grant citizenship to the children of immigrants.
Opposition parties said the law would encourage migrants to try to come to Italy; they claimed victory when the PD announced it was dropping the bill from the Senate schedule this month.
“To approve this bill we need a majority, but we don’t have one right now in the Senate,” said Luigi Zanda, head of the PD in the upper house of parliament.
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Islamic State flags are not flying in Bosnia, Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said on Tuesday, dismissing allegations by some European leaders that radical Bosnian Muslims in the Balkan country were posing a terrorist threat for Europe.
Bosnian Muslims generally practice a moderate form of Islam but some have adopted radical Salafi Islam from foreign fighters who came to the country during its 1992-95 war to fight alongside Muslims against Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats.
Some joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq but police said departures had stopped completely in the past 18 months and more than half of those who returned have been jailed under a law prohibiting people to fight in foreign countries.
Czech President Milos Zeman has said there was a risk Islamic State may form its European base in Bosnia, where “ISIS [Islamic State] black flags are already flying in several towns,” according to reports.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has warned of “thousands of fighters returning to Bosnia from Syria and Iraq,” while Croatian magazine Globus last week put the number of radicalized Bosnian Muslims at 5,000-10,000.
Zvizdic said such allegations were unfounded and politically motivated and could damage Bosnia as an investment and tourism destination.
“ISIS flags are not flying in Bosnia,” Zvizdic told reporters after meeting the security minister and the heads of five security and intelligence agencies.
“There have been no departures to foreign war zones, we have not had any incident that could be characterized as an act of terrorism and we work to prevent the possibility of any such incident,” Zvizdic said, referring to the last two years during which several terrorist attacks took place across Europe.
Bosnia’s security agencies say a total of 240 Bosnian citizens have departed to fight for Islamic State since 2012, and 116 remained there. Out of 44 who had returned to Bosnia, 23 were jailed.
Security Minister Dragan Mektic said terrorism threats in Bosnia were mainly external and its agencies last month prevented a person with possible links to terrorists from entering the country.
In 2015, two Bosnian army soldiers and a policeman were killed in two separate attacks in Bosnia. No links to wider groups was found.
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France on Monday urged Chadian authorities to press ahead with parliamentary elections after securing billions of dollars in pledges from donor countries aimed at helping to revive the country’s struggling economy.
President Idriss Deby, who was re-elected in 2016 after gaining power in 1990 at the head of an armed rebellion, said in February that lack of financial resources meant Chad’s parliamentary elections would be postponed indefinitely.
“The legislative elections are an important moment in democratic life,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily briefing. “We hope in this regard that the Chadian authorities … will be in a position to announce a calendar [for elections] soon.”
In a statement on Friday, Chad’s government said it had secured about $18.5 billion in pledges for a 2017-2021 national development program, double its original expectations.
Romatet-Espagne said France would contribute 223 million euros ($267.27 million).
The former French colony, one of the poorest nations in the world, has been rocked by humanitarian crises over the past decade, including conflicts in the east and south, drought in the arid Sahel region and flooding.
That has been compounded since 2012 by instability on its borders with Libya, Nigeria and Central African Republic, forcing Chad to increase its security budget to handle thousands of refugees and counter a growing cross-border threat.
Its economy has especially been hit by a more than 50 percent drop in the price of oil, which represent three-quarters of its revenues. However, critics say too much of its revenues goes to the army.
“Military spending has helped Chad intervene in the Central African Republic, Mali, in neighboring countries threatened by Boko Haram and as far afield as the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to fight Houthi combatants in Yemen,” International Crisis Group analyst Richard Moncrieff said in a note on Sept. 8.
“This engagement has strengthened relations with Western powers and brought substantial financial and political support.
The EU, France and the U.S. in particular today consider Deby as their principal partner in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel. For Deby it is win-win: tackle domestic armed opposition, pay his troops and gain significant leverage over donors.”
The headquarters of France’s 4,000-strong counter-terrorism Barkhane force is in the Chadian capital N’djamena.
Asked at Science Po university on Sept. 6 whether France’s policy in West Africa was still based on “Francafrique,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian sought to play down that perception.
“We no longer talk about Francafrique but AfricaFrance,” Le Drian said. “France does not support corrupt [leaders], but on the contrary there are presidents who have been elected by universal suffrage – you mentioned some of them [Deby and Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou] – and whose elections were not contested, and that is the reality.”
Franceafrique describes an informal web of relationships Paris has maintained with its former African colonies and its support, sometimes in the form of military backing, for politicians who favor French business interests.
($1 = 0.8344 euros)
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A Turkish court remanded five prominent staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper in custody on Monday in a trial which President Tayyip Erdogan’s critics have condemned as an attack on free speech.
The court said the newspaper correspondents and executives, some of whom have already been detained for 10 months, should remain in detention until more evidence was presented.
“The court has decided to keep the arrested until witnesses are heard,” chief judge Abdurrahman Orkun Dag said after a 13-hour session, adjourning the case for two weeks. “After hearing the witnesses, we think a more healthy decision could be
reached.”
Prosecutors say Cumhuriyet was effectively taken over by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed by the government for last year’s failed coup attempt, and that the paper was used to target Erdogan and “veil the actions of terrorist groups.”
The newspaper has denied the charges and a defense attorney said on Monday that the court was ignoring evidence being put forward.
“As this is a political trial, material evidence is not taken into account,” said Tora Pekin.
The court remanded in custody editor in chief Murat Sabuncu, executive committee member and attorney Akin Atalay and three other staff. The rest of the 17 defendants are either free until the next hearing or are being tried in absentia.
Atala’s wife Adalet Dinamit said the charges against her husband were politically motivated: “This is not a trial held within bounds of law,” she told reporters outside the court.
Previous hearings in the case had taken place in Istanbul but Monday’s session was moved to Silivri, the site of a large prison about 60 km (40 miles) west of the city.
“Contradicting EU Values”
Prosecutors are seeking up to 43 years in jail for the newspaper staff, who stand accused of targeting Erdogan through “asymmetric war methods.”
Social media posts comprised the bulk of evidence in the indictment, along with allegations that staff had been in contact with users of Bylock, an encrypted messaging app the government says was used by Gulen’s followers.
Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have complained of deteriorating human rights under Erdogan. In the crackdown since last July’s failed coup, 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 detained or dismissed from their jobs.
Around 150 media outlets have been shut down and 160 journalists jailed, the Turkish Journalists Association says.
“The charges are ridiculous, the case does not make sense,” said Steven Ellis of the International Press Institute, who attended Monday’s hearing.
Ellis said the future of Turkey’s stalled European Union accession process could be decided by the outcome of the Cumhuriyet case. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the first time this month for the talks to be ended, saying Turkey was moving away from Europe.
“As long as they keep on trials like this, I don’t know how accession process may go forward,” Ellis said. “The case contradicts values that the EU puts forward.”
Turkish authorities say the crackdown is justified by the gravity of the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers tried to overthrow the government, killing 250 people, mostly civilians.
Cumhuriyet’s former chief editor Can Dundar, who is living in Germany, is being tried in absentia. An arrest warrant for Dundar remains in force.
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Hundreds of thousands of people packed the sunny streets of downtown Barcelona on Monday to celebrate Catalonia’s national day, an anniversary that provided a stage for the many Catalans who hope to vote within weeks for the region’s independence from Spain.
The Spanish city’s broad, tree-lined boulevards were a sea of yellow T-shirts that evoked the yellow-and-red striped Catalan flag. Many participants carried the pro-independence flag, known as the “estelada,” which also contains a blue triangle and a white star. The crowd passed a giant banner calling for a secession referendum overhead.
This year’s annual celebration came amid growing excitement and tension over the independence vote planned for Oct. 1. Spain’s constitutional court has suspended the referendum while it considers its legality, but Catalan leaders say they will go ahead with it anyway.
Spain’s national government, based in Madrid, is doing all it can to stop the ballot, which it says is illegal. Catalan independence parties said Monday’s huge turnout in the regional capital — estimated by Barcelona’s municipal police at 1 million — was a show of strength that would add momentum to their cause.
“Today we have said loud and clear that no orders from any court will stop us,” Jordi Sanchez, head of the grassroots movement Assemblea Nacional Catalana, said in a speech to the crowd.
While the standoff between Barcelona and Madrid is creating divisions, the good-humored celebration attended by families produced no signs of conflict
Participants sang and clapped along to recordings of the Catalan anthem “Els Segadors” (The Reapers). At one point, the crowd shouted in unison: “Independencia!” — Independence! The symbolic moment came after organizers counted down over a public address system to 5.14 p.m., which on a 24-hour clock is 1714.
That’s the year independence supporters regard as the point when Catalonia lost much of the self-governing power it enjoyed for centuries.
Among the comparatively wealthy region’s grievances is that because it accounts for a fifth of Spain’s economic output, it pays more into the central government’s coffers than it receives.
Nuria Bou, who wore a pro-independence flag tied around her neck like a cape, said she hoped she would get a chance to vote.
“We don’t have anything against Spaniards,” Bou said. “But for many years the Spanish government has been making cuts to the funds we receive, and what we want is to govern ourselves.”
Miquel Puig, 41, a pro-independence Barcelona resident who runs a language school, wore a T-shirt reading “Ara es l’hora,” which translates to “Now is the moment.” Puig said he was motivated by “a mix of cultural, social and economic issues.”
He noted that Catalonia, with a population of 7.5 million, has its own language and culture, that Catalans feel ignored by authorities in Madrid, and that the region can stand alone financially.
In a proof of their commitment to holding the vote, Catalan officials on Monday said mail-in voting by Catalan expatriates had already started.
Most Catalans support a vote on whether the prosperous region’s future lies within or outside of Spain, but polls show that a referendum approved by the central government is preferred over a vote Madrid opposes.
Citizens also are divided over the independence issue. According to a June survey by the Catalan government’s own polling agency, 41 percent supported independence while 49 percent were for staying in Spain. Outside of Catalonia, most Spaniards reject the idea.
Castillo Cancho, 69 and retired, did not go to the city center to join in the traditional march. He complained that what was once a day to celebrate Catalan culture has been usurped by the separatist cause.
Cancho is not in favor of independence and embraces his dual identity of Spanish and Catalan, but even so, he hopes that the Oct. 1 vote is held.
“If they don’t let them vote, I will be annoyed, and I would almost be pushed to go vote if I could,” he said. “Repression make you rebel.”
His wife Rosa Maria Descalzo, 60, was wary of the vote because of the lack of legal guarantees such as an official voter roll.
“I am not convinced by the reasons they are giving for independence,” she said. “When everyone is opening frontiers, why should we be closing them?”
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A prominent journalist says she has fled Russia following a suspected arson attack on her car.
Yulia Latynina, a radio host and a columnist with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said that she fled Russia and is “unlikely to return any time soon.” She didn’t say where she went.
One of the most scathing critics of the Kremlin, Latynina told Ekho Moskvy radio station Sunday she had been followed before and briefly given police protection. Latynina said she is “pretty scared” after her car was set on fire when she was out of town and her elderly parents had to put it out.
Last year, an unidentified assailant threw a bucket of feces at her. Novaya Gazeta then issued a statement, saying she had received death threats.
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Britain’s minister for leaving the European Union says Brexit will descend into chaos if lawmakers don’t approve a bill designed to lay the legislative groundwork for the country’s EU exit.
Lawmakers are voting on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which aims to convert some 12,000 EU laws and regulations into domestic statute when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.
Brexit Secretary David Davis says “a vote against this bill is a vote for a chaotic exit from the European Union. The British people didn’t vote for confusion and neither should Parliament.”
Critics say the bill gives the government worrying powers to change laws without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legislation.
Lawmakers are debating the bill Monday with a vote due early Tuesday.
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The introduction of post-Brexit customs checks could cost traders more than 4 billion pounds ($5.28 billion) a year, according to a think tank report released on Monday.
The British government has said it plans to leave the European Union’s customs union when it leaves the bloc, and it wants to negotiate a new relationship that will ensure trade is as free of friction as possible.
In its report ‘Implementing Brexit: Customs’, the Institute for Government said the government needed to offer as much certainty as possible to business and help them plan for changes to customs.
Around 180,000 traders now operate only within the EU and face making customs declarations for the first time after Brexit. The government estimates an extra 200 million declarations a year will be made.
Those declarations cost 20 to 45 pounds each, the IfG said, putting the total additional cost at 4 billion to 9 billion pounds.
“The scale and cost of change for many traders could be significant. Government must engage with them in detail about changes, understanding their requirements and giving them as much time to adapt as possible,” the report said.
The government has proposed two options for the future customs relationship. One is a system using technology to make the process as smooth as possible; the second a new customs partnership removing the need for a customs border. It wants a transition period after Britain leaves in March 2019 to allow time to adapt.
However, the EU says negotiating the customs relationship must wait until the two sides have made make progress on the rights of expatriates, Britain’s border with EU member Ireland and a financial settlement.
“To be in and out of the customs union and ‘invisible borders’ is a fantasy,” Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s coordinator for Brexit, said on Twitter after the British government floated its proposals. “First need to secure citizens rights and a financial settlement”.
Moving customs requirements away from the physical border, retaining access to key EU computer systems and setting up working groups with the private sector on implementing changes are among the report’s suggestions for smoothing the process.
To avoid a cliff-edge, the government must make sure everyone from port operators to freight companies and local authorities is ready, the IfG said. It should also work with EU partners to ensure issues at European ports do not cause significant disruption to supply chains.
“In the past they have been given years to adapt to any government change; they now have fewer than 20 months to prepare without yet being clear what they are preparing for,” the report said. “Successful change relies on all these organizations being ready.”
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Norwegians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election whose outcome is too close to call, with opinion polls showing Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s centre-right government and the opposition center-left bloc running neck and neck.
Solberg’s Conservatives want to cut taxes if they win a fresh four-year mandate, while the centre-left led by Labor’s Jonas Gahr Stoere seeks tax hikes to fund better public services.
The outcome could also impact Norway’s vital oil industry because to form a government either Solberg or Gahr Stoere is likely to depend on one or more parties that seek to impose limits on exploration in Arctic waters off Norway’s northern coast.
Polling stretches over two days, ending at 1900 GMT on Monday.
“I don’t want to change the current government. For me the most important is the tax reform policies,” said Kjell Solli, 47, a real estate agent who cast his ballot for the right-wing Progress Party, a junior member of Solberg’s coalition.
Economy recovering
For much of the year, Labor and its center-left allies were ahead in the polls and were favored to win a comfortable victory, but support for the government has risen as the economy has gradually recovered from a two-year slump.
Opinion polls in September on average have given Solberg’s four-party bloc 85 seats in the 169-member parliament, just enough for a majority, while Labor and the center-left are expected to secure 84 seats.
Erik Mathiassen, 61, a senior adviser at the Oslo city council, said he hoped Gahr Stoere would manage to oust Solberg.
“The most important for me is education policies matter most for me. I want more extensive policy from the government to support the unemployed… I don’t want the current government to stay in power,” he told Reuters.
Gahr Stoere, who comes from a wealthy background, has vowed to raise taxes on Norwegians on above-average incomes.
Casting his ballot in a quiet neighborhood of western Oslo, the Labor leader expressed confidence his party could stage a late rally to clinch the election.
“We have to keep the qualities of Norway at its best — equity, work for all, good investment in health and education so that we remain a strong team,” Gahr Stoere told reporters.
“What is Norway at its best? It’s when we pull together… We need a change now because we are growing apart from each other and that is not how Norway can perform at its best.”
Solberg is expected to cast her ballot on Monday.
The election winner will face tricky coalition negotiations and will have to meet tough demands from smaller parties to keep their support over the next four years.
The independent Greens want to end all oil exploration, citing concerns over climate change and pollution, while other smaller parties that may be involved in coalition talks also want to limit the award of new exploration acreage in Arctic waters.
The oil and gas industry accounts for almost half of Norway’s export revenues.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was optimistic that a dispute over how to distribute asylum seekers in the EU would soon be resolved after a court ruled on Wednesday that member states must take in a share of refugees who reach Europe.
Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (F.A.S.) newspaper two weeks before a national election in which she is expected to win a fourth term, Merkel said she welcomed the court’s decision.
Separately, the newspaper also reported that in negotiations between member states about redistribution, a compromise was starting to emerge which would link accepting refugees to payments that would come from the EU.
“The vast majority of EU states had not filed a complaint about redistribution and do not take the view that they never want to take in a refugee so I think there’s an opportunity to achieve a distribution of refugees that shows solidarity in the not too distant future,” Merkel said in the F.A.S. interview.
In its ruling, the EU’s highest court dismissed complaints by Slovakia and Hungary over the mandatory quotas introduced in 2015 to relocate asylum seekers from Greece and Italy.
Immigration has been a key issue during campaigning for Germany’s Sept. 24 election.
In the interview, Merkel said it was important to show solidarity in dealing with the migration crisis because otherwise there would be no solidarity on other issues in the EU and “that would be bitter for the cohesion of Europe.”
The newspaper reported that in negotiations between member states about redistribution, a compromise was starting to emerge which would link accepting refugees to payments that would come from the EU.
Citing sources involved in the negotiations, F.A.S. said EU member states had developed ideas such as solving the dispute by creating an incentive system in which the EU would give countries 60,000 euros for each refugee they take in.
If an EU member state undercuts its quota by more than half, the 60,000 euros per person should be withdrawn, it said.
As the distribution mechanism would be for a maximum of 200,000 refugees per year, it would cost up to 12 billion euros, the newspaper said.
It would also be possible to put border guards or national asylum officers in overburdened states so they take in fewer migrants, the newspaper said.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere had told a Saturday newspaper that social benefits for asylum seekers in Germany were “quite high” and needed be harmonized across Europe.
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Prominent Russian political commentator and writer Yulia Latynina has left Russia fearing for her life, she told a Moscow radio station.
Latynina’s car was set on fire at the beginning of September, weeks after unidentified assailants sprayed a poisonous substance on her house outside Moscow and the car.
“I’m quite scared … I’m terrified that the people who did it were prepared for fatalities,” Latynina said of the arson.
“I’m abroad, my parents are also abroad. It’s unlikely I’ll be going to Russia soon,” she told the Echo of Moscow radio station late Saturday.
Latynina, who works as a columnist at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has been critical of the Kremlin’s policy in the Chechnya republic in the Caucasus, as well as the local authorities.
Last year, Latynina was attacked in the center of Moscow.
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U.S. and Russian envoys are to meet in Finland next week in a bid to calm diplomatic tensions that have risen to levels of the Cold War.
The State Department’s third-ranking official, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, will meet Monday and Tuesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Shannon and Ryabkov have held several rounds of talks this year focused on resolving irritants in U.S.-Russian relations, such as the tit-for-tat closures of diplomatic missions and expulsion of diplomats. They’re expected to address broader strategic relations and arms control as well.
On August 31, in response to an order from Moscow to reduce the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia by several hundred people, the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and two annexes in Washington and New York. Those actions followed the U.S. seizure of two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York and the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who are expected to meet this month in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, charged Shannon and Ryabkov earlier this year with exploring ways to resolve bilateral disputes that are hindering broader cooperation on strategic and security issues, such as the war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine.
Among the top complaints from Washington: the harassment of American government personnel in Russia, a Russian ban on adoptions of children by U.S. families, and Moscow’s halting of plans to construct a new U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. Russia’s complaints include U.S. sanctions imposed after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and the seizure of its properties.
Two earlier rounds of talks between Shannon and Ryabkov ended inconclusively.
The State Department announced the new talks Saturday and said Shannon would also meet Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and other Finnish officials while in Helsinki.
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A Spanish judge ordered police to search a printer’s shop and two offices of a regional newspaper in Catalonia as part of an investigation into alleged preparations for an illegal referendum on independence for the prosperous northeastern region.
A Barcelona-based court said Saturday that the police searches took place Friday in Valls and Constanti in southern Catalonia. The court said the searches formed part of an investigation into possible disobedience, prevarication and the embezzlement of public funds by Catalan officials.
The regional Catalan newspaper El Vallenc reported that “4 agents of the Civil Guard entered our newspaper.”
El Vallenc said, “The search took place hours after they had searched the Indugraf business.” Indugraf is a printer in Constanti.
Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, the regional politician leading the push for independence, said on Twitter that police weren’t “looking for ballots, they were looking for a fight.”
The court did not say what police were looking for in the searches.
Spain’s constitutional court has suspended laws passed by the Catalan parliament this week to call for an independence referendum on October 1. State prosecutors have also targeted Puigdemont and other members of his government with lawsuits for possible disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement charges.
The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia says the vote will be binding and says if the “yes” side wins it will lead to the independence from Spain by October 3 no matter what the turnout.
Spain’s constitutional court has previously ruled that only the national government is allowed to call a referendum on secession and that all Spaniards in the country must have a vote when it comes to sovereignty.
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The Dalai Lama on Sunday will begin a 20-day tour of Europe, where he will give public teachings on Buddhism and also meet with scientists.
The Tibetan spiritual leader arrived Friday in New Delhi, India, from which he will depart for his four-nation tour. Calling it an educational visit, he said he was looking forward to the trip, especially to a meeting with scientists in Frankfurt, Germany.
“I am looking forward to the Frankfurt’s meeting. [I will be] meeting with some scientists, and also there will be some kind of commemoration [of the] late Von Weizsacker,” the Dalai Lama told Reuters. Carl von Weizsacker was a quantum physics teacher to the Dalai Lama, who has long shown an interest in modern science.
The Dalai Lama will first travel to Britain, where he will give a public talk on compassion. From there, he will travel to Frankfurt for a conference on the intersection between Buddhist teachings and modern science. While in Frankfurt, the Dalai Lama will also give a talk on ethics.
The spiritual leader will also attend a symposium on science while on the next leg of his trip in Italy. He will wrap up his European tour in Latvia.
Messenger of ancient thought
The Dalai Lama said his talks come from the ancient Indian wisdom of his teachers.
“I carry wherever I go the ancient Indian thought, Indian knowledge. So I just look at myself as a messenger of ancient Indian thought,” he said.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed Chinese uprising. China denounces him as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama denies this and says he is seeking autonomy for Tibetans.
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A Georgian citizen was reported to have died Friday in a car explosion in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said an explosive device went off inside a black Toyota Camry during rush-hour traffic.
Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said the victim was identified as Timur Makhauri. Shevchenko said Makhauri’s wife was seriously injured in the blast and was hospitalized.
Shevchenko told reporters a child was in the car with the couple. He said the child’s life was not in danger.
Police were investigating. Interfax Ukraine reported that a murder case had been opened.
Interfax quoted Shevchenko as saying Makhauri was “known quite well in the criminal world” and “had firm connections with various Chechen circles.” He said Makhauri had been targeted for the attack.
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Amid rising German-Turkish diplomatic tensions, Ankara has allowed seven German lawmakers to visit German servicemen deployed at Turkey’s Konya NATO air base. For several months, Ankara had banned such visits, saying the climate in bilateral relations was inappropriate.
“The way the Turkish side is billing it is that it’s a multilateral visit, it’s not bilateral,” said political columnist Semih Idiz of the al-Monitor website. “They say this visit comes from NATO, therefore Turkey has to oblige, being a NATO member.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reportedly had been lobbying intensively to allow the German lawmakers’ visit. The ban on German lawmakers already had resulted in Berlin relocating its reconnaissance planes that had been engaged in anti-Islamic State operations from Turkey’s Incirlik air base.
“The visit by German lawmakers is significant. It eliminates one major factor, political factor, of irritation in the relationship,” according to Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Institute in Brussels. “However, there are still a number of outstanding important problems. So this will help, but it’s not a solution in and of itself in the difficulties we are witnessing.”
Coincidentally or not, Friday also saw the release of the second Turkish German national, detained last Friday. The two detentions had marked a new low in German-Turkish relations, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling them political. Berlin claims 12 German citizens, including journalists and human rights workers, are being held for political reasons since last year’s introduction of emergency rule in Turkey following a failed military coup. Ankara has strongly defended the detentions, claiming its judiciary is independent.
‘Effort’ by Turkey
German-Turkish relations have been plummeting in the last few months. Berlin has become increasingly vocal in its concerns over the ongoing crackdown since last year’s failed coup, and Merkel on Sunday said she was opposed to Turkey becoming a member of the EU. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday shot back, accusing Berlin of following policies of the Nazis.
But analysts suggest Ankara could be trying to contain the crisis.
“There is an effort, at least part of the Turkish administration, to prevent a further degradation of the relationship,” analyst Ulgen said. “There are many people in Ankara within the government which are concerned about the state of the affairs. But I think these efforts so far at least have proved to be piecemeal in nature.”
‘Increasing isolation’
Turkey’s increasingly precarious diplomatic situation is being cited as a key factor behind efforts to contain current German-Turkish tensions. Ankara is facing strained relations, not only with Berlin, but the wider European Union and Washington.
On Friday, Erdogan slammed the indictment by a U.S. prosecutor of a former Turkish minister and former head of a Turkish state bank on Iranian sanction-busting charges, claiming they were with “malicious intent.” Last month, U.S. prosecutors indicted 15 of Erdogan’s security detail for allegedly attacking protesters during a visit to Washington.
“Increasing isolation has started costing Turkey a lot, not only in Europe but also the Middle East, where Turkey is being basically sidelined on issues of crucial importance to it, whether it’s in Iraq or Syria,” said columnist Idiz. “So as far as the [Turkish] policy planners are concerned, it’s a matter of concern. But as far as the president is concerned, it seems he is more concerned, sending the right message to his constituents, a message that goes down well with his constituent.”
Erdogan faces a re-election bid within two years and already is campaigning hard on a nationalist platform, with a message that a strong independent Turkey can stand up to western powers.
Some analysts suggest that given the turmoil on Turkey’s southern borders and the need to maintain economic stability, Erdogan will need to balance nationalist campaign rhetoric and populist policies with diplomatic pragmatism.
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Britain announced Thursday it is stepping up support of the Lebanese army, providing funds for defensive barriers to be used along Lebanon’s border with Syria.
The move is being seen as a vote of confidence by London in the Lebanese army and encouragement of the ambition of its commanders to emerge as the dominant military force on the frontier with Syria — a goal that would complicate Iran’s forging of a so-called ‘land bridge’ through Iraq and Syria and of assisting its allies in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said Thursday, “Our ambition is for Lebanon to have complete authority over its border with Syria.”
The stepping up of aid to the Lebanese army (LAF) — Britain had already agreed to help fund over several years construction of 30 border watch towers and 20 forward operating bases — comes just days after LAF and Hezbollah, the country’s radical Shi’ite movement succeeded in clearing Islamic State fighters from a mountainous pocket of the Syria-Lebanon border.
The clearance operations were simultaneous but LAF insists there was no coordination between its assault inside Lebanon and Hezbollah’s from the Syrian side, a claim dismissed this week by Israeli officials. Any evidence of liaison with Hezbollah, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, would undermine LAF’s standing in Washington and Western capitals and jeopardize Western military aid for the Lebanese military.
In the end Hezbollah negotiated safe passage for some 300 jihadists and their families to eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border.
The Hezbollah safe-passage deal infuriated the U.S. and Iraq, whose governments condemned the agreement, which appears to have been engineered to spoil claims of battlefield success by LAF. For years LAF has had to defer to the Shi’ite movement, in a complex dance of a relationship aimed at avoiding clashes between the two and upsetting Lebanon’s delicate and highly charged sectarian politics.
Even so, some analysts say LAF should be seen as the bigger winner of the clearance operations rather than Hezbollah, as it drew the country’s military out from the shadows and allowed it to assert itself, undercutting Hezbollah’s claims that it is indispensable when it comes to Lebanon’s defense.
Aram Nerguizian, a military analyst who specializes in Lebanon, noted in an interview with local media, that for the first time since Lebanon’s independence LAF is now deployed almost fully along the border with Syria. “Over the last five years, areas that have been no-go zones for the Lebanese army – because they were spheres of Syrian government and/or Hezbollah preeminence – have gradually become LAF zones of control,” he said.
In a paper for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based policy research group, Nerguizian noted that “successive generations of LAF leadership have grown ever more confident and emboldened by the idea that the LAF can be Lebanon’s preeminent national security actor. Still, the LAF has struggled time and again with what it sees as the false perceptions of LAF-Hezbollah collusion.”
Last week, Israel’s envoy to the UN, Dany Danon, accused Hezbollah of planning for its next military campaign against Israel, arguing that Shi’ite commanders are “using officers in the Lebanese Army as terror operatives who help it against the IDF [Israel Defense Force] along the border,” with Israel. He claimed Hezbollah was building up its arsenals in southern Lebanon readying for a future attack and accused the UN peace-keeping force of failing to interdict the movement of arms.
Since Lebanese General Joseph Aoun, a veteran field commander and counter-terrorism expert who trained in the U.S., was made army commander in March, LAF has become more assertive. Aoun has irritated Hezbollah with some of his picks for staff positions, although Nerguizian notes in his research paper that the army is “not in a position where it can be openly antagonistic towards Hezbollah,” which remains “the preeminent faction in Lebanon’s sectarian political landscape.”
Western powers, though, are clear in their determination to help boost LAF. Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon offered congratulations to Aoun during a Thursday visit to LAF headquarters on the clearance operation known as “the dawn of mountains,” of IS fighters in the mountain regions of Al-Qaa and Aarsal, on Lebanon’s north-eastern border with Syria.
The ambassador, Hugo Shorter, said the assault was “complex, risky and dangerous,” adding, “The Lebanese Army has shown that it is an effective, professional army capable of defending Lebanon from the threats of an uncertain region. We believe in the Lebanese Army as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon and the only one which represents all Lebanese acting within the law and with the consent of the Lebanese state and its people.”
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Hungary’s prime minister says that a ruling by the European Union’s top court upholding the relocation of asylum-seekers opens the way to a “mixed culture and population” on the continent.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban says Hungary, which is refusing to take part in the EU scheme to temporarily relocate refugees from Greece and Italy, is not an “immigrant country” nor does it want to be one.
Orban has kept immigration on top of his political agenda since 2015. He said Friday on state radio that he “took note” of the European Court of Justice ruling which rejected legal arguments by Hungary and Slovakia against the EU decision creating the relocation scheme.
He says “now instead of a legal fight, we have to fight a political fight” to change the decision.
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Spain’s Constitutional Court on Thursday blocked the prosperous Catalan region’s plan to vote on independence from Spain.
The ruling was expected after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed earlier in the day to “stop at nothing” to prevent the independence referendum called by the regional leaders from taking place.
According to court regulations, the suspension lasts five months while judges come up with a ruling.
The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia claims that the universal right to self-determination overrules Spain’s laws.
The regional parliament on Wednesday approved a law to legitimize the independence vote and set an October 1 date for it.
It is not clear how such a vote might turn out. Polls in the northeastern region show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves. But the majority of Catalans say they do want the opportunity to vote on whether to split from Spain.
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría on Wednesday condemned the Catalan leadership for carrying out “an act of force” and for acting more like “dictatorial regimes than a democracy.”
“What is happening in the Catalan parliament is embarrassing, it’s shameful,” she told reporters.
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Congressional investigators on Thursday questioned Donald Trump Jr. about Russian meddling in his father’s presidential campaign last year, including a meeting the younger Trump held with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who purportedly was going to hand them “damaging information” about Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
The younger Trump told the investigators that he set up the June 2016 meeting because he was intrigued that the lawyer might have “information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications” of Clinton, according to his opening statement, quoted by The New York Times.
But the newspaper said that the younger Trump, President Donald Trump’s eldest son, told investigators nothing came of the meeting and that he never colluded with the Russians to interfere in the U.S. election that his father ultimately won.
The younger Trump, who now helps run the president’s vast business empire, has emerged as a key figure in numerous Washington probes, with several being conducted by congressional committees along with a criminal investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators are focusing on the meeting the younger Trump held more than a year ago in the midst of the campaign at Trump Tower in New York, the president’s business and political campaign headquarters.
The younger Trump, along with his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, now a White House adviser to the president, and then campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with a woman described as a “Russian government attorney,” Natalia Veselnitskaya, after an intermediary had told the younger Trump that she would hand them information that would “incriminate Hillary” as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” in the election.
“Love it,” the younger Trump responded in setting up the meeting.
Both Kushner and the younger Trump have subsequently said the Russian attorney had no such damaging information about Clinton and the conversation quickly evolved into a discussion about a program for adoption of Russian children that Moscow canceled in retaliation for a U.S. law targeting Russian human rights abusers.
Senate Judiciary Committee investigators questioned the younger Trump behind closed doors, but eventually he and Manafort could be questioned by senators in a public hearing. At some point, the younger Trump is also expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which also is probing Russian meddling in the election.
Mueller is investigating whether President Trump obstructed justice in firing former FBI director James Comey at a time he was heading the Russia investigation before Mueller took over.
Shortly after ousting Comey, Trump told television anchor Lester Holt that despite earlier explanations to the contrary, he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to dismiss Comey.
Trump has denied colluding with Russian interests during the campaign. He had repeatedly said Russian connections to the U.S. election and the ensuing investigations are merely an excuse by Democrats to explain Trump’s upset win over Clinton.
The various investigations are expected to last for months and have cast a shadow over the first months of Trump’s presidency.
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Prince William’s wife Kate was too ill with morning sickness Thursday to take young Prince George to his first day of school.
The 4-year-old prince arrived at school holding the hand of his father, William.
Kate had planned to accompany them but canceled. “Unfortunately the Duchess of Cambridge remains unwell,” a Kensington Palace statement said.
George arrived on time for his first day at Thomas’s Battersea school in south London. He was met by a teacher who will introduce him to the other students.
The palace said earlier this week that Kate is pregnant with her third child and is suffering from acute morning sickness, as in her earlier pregnancies.
She has canceled several public appearances since the announcement.
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Parliament in Spain’s prosperous Catalonia region has approved an independence vote for October 1, which Madrid has vowed to stop.
Separatist parties, which hold a slim majority, backed the referendum legislation and legal framework needed to set up an independent state.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ordered government lawyers to file a complaint with the country’s constitutional court in hopes of annulling the referendum.
Polls in the northeastern region show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves. But the majority of Catalans say they do want the opportunity to vote on whether to split from Spain.
The vote will come about three weeks after Barcelona and a nearby town were struck by Islamist attacks that killed 15 people.
‘Act of force’
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría condemned the Catalan leadership for carrying out “an act of force” and for acting more like “dictatorial regimes than a democracy.”
“What is happening in the Catalan parliament is embarrassing. It’s shameful,” she told reporters.
But Catalan leaders have pledged to proclaim a new republic within 48 hours if the “yes” side wins, regardless of turnout.
Former Catalan President Artur Mas said pushing ahead with the referendum was justified because a pro-independence coalition won the 2015 regional election.
“The referendum is what we have to do because we have the mandate of the peoples of Catalonia,” Mas said.
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