Irish regulators have launched separate inquiries into Google and dating app Tinder over how they process user data, in a new round of regulatory scrutiny aimed at tech companies.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said Tuesday that it decided to look into how Google handles location data after a number of consumer groups across the European Union filed complaints.The commission opened an investigation into Google’s Irish subsidiary to determine whether the U.S. search giant “has a legal basis for processing the location data of its users” and whether it meets transparency obligations under the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.Google “will cooperate fully with the office of the Data Protection Commission in its inquiry, and continue to work closely with regulators and consumer associations across Europe,” the company said in a statement. “In the last year, we have made a number of product changes to improve the level of user transparency and control over location data.”The regulator is also investigating Tinder after people in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU raised concerns about issues surrounding U.S. parent company Match Group’s “ongoing processing of users’ personal data” related to Tinder, transparency and compliance with GDPR.“Transparency and protecting our users’ personal data is of utmost importance to us,” Match Group said. “We are fully cooperating with the Data Protection Commission, and will continue to abide by GDPR and all applicable laws.”Ireland’s Data Privacy Commission is the lead EU regulator for both companies because their European headquarters are based in Dublin. Under GDPR, regulators can fine companies up to 20 million euros, or 4% of global turnover, whichever is higher, for any breaches as well as require changes to follow the law.The commission now has a total of 23 inquiries into big U.S. tech companies, which also include Facebook and Twitter. It launched a separate investigation of Google last year over personalized online advertising.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a nationwide vote on constitutional changes he proposed wouldn’t be used to extend his current term in office, but remained tight-lipped about his future political plans.
Kremlin critics have seen Putin’s amendments as part of his efforts to stay at the helm after his current presidential term expires in 2024. The proposed changes, however, don’t make it clear exactly how he could do that.
Asked during a meeting with students and teachers if the vote could be used to directly extend his term in office, Putin said it’s not what he wants.
 
“I didn’t propose that to extend my authority,” Putin said. “The election of the head of state must be held on a competitive basis.”
Observers have speculated that once his term expires Putin could use the amendments to continue calling the shots as head of the State Council or prime minister. The former position, however, is yet to be defined and the latter is clearly subordinate to the presidency, making it unlikely that Putin would want it for himself.
It has remained unclear why the Russian leader is rushing through constitutional changes four years before the end of his term.
Putin, a 67-year-old former KGB officer, who has led Russia for more than 20 years — the longest since Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Putin prefers to keep his plans secret until the final moment.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he chairs a meeting on drafting constitutional changes at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Jan. 16, 2020.Putin has argued that the changes in the constitution he proposed in a state-of-the-nation speech on Jan. 15 are intended to boost the powers of parliament and strengthen democracy. But the proposals also maintain and even strengthen presidential powers — something Putin described as a must for Russia.
The Kremlin-controlled lower house quickly approved Putin’s constitutional bill in the first of three required readings last month, and a second reading is set to be held later this month. Lawmakers and a working group created by Putin have already come up with a variety of proposals in addition to what the original draft outlines.
Once lawmakers complete work on the constitutional amendments, they will be put to popular vote. It’s still unclear how it will be organized.
Putin said Tuesday that he wants a nationwide vote as “the highest form of democracy,” adding that it will “make people feel engaged, feel themselves as co-authors of the document.” He noted that he hopes that the work on the constitutional changes could be completed in just over three months.  
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Tehran said Monday that it would stop sharing information with Kyiv about the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner last month, after a Ukrainian TV channel released leaked recordings from Iranian air traffic control.The recordings, which aired on Ukraine’s 1+1 Sunday evening, are of a conversation between two air traffic controllers speaking in Farsi about “the light of a missile” on the plane’s route.Iran denied for days after the plane crash that the jetliner was brought down by one of its missiles.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the recording “proves that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was hit by a missile.” Iranian authorities presumably would have had access to these records directly following the crash.On Monday, the head of Iran’s investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, said that Tehran would stop coordinating with Ukraine on the investigation.”The technical investigation team of the Ukrainian airline crash, in a strange move, published the secret audio file of the communications of a pilot of a plane that was flying at the same time as the Ukrainian plane,” Rezaifar said, according to semiofficial news agency Mehr.”This action by the Ukrainians led to us not sharing any more evidence with them,” he added.Rezaeifar did not deny that the leaked recordings were authentic.Iran admitted on January 11 to shooting down the Ukraine International Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Tehran three days earlier, saying its forces mistook the plane for an enemy threat hours after they fired missiles at an Iraqi base that houses U.S. troops. The crash of the Boeing 737 killed all 176 people on board, most of them Iranians and Iranian-Canadians who were flying to Kyiv en route to Canada, where many had been studying.  In the three days following the crash, Iranian state media reported that officials blamed it on mechanical problems with the plane. They also cited government denials of Western news reports that said Western intelligence agencies had evidence of Iranian forces downing the jet.
 
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John and Laura Hunter live in southern California and over the past few years they’ve been heading out into the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to make sure people making the trek to the U.S. from South and Central America have what it takes to stay alive during their passage. But not everyone agrees with the help the migrants are getting. Genia Dulot has the story. 
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Brexit Day, with its mixed emotions, exposed how wide the rift with the European Union remains and how difficult it will be to bridge the gap now that Britain has left the trading bloc.Much of the media focus has been on the likely commercial and political repercussions for Britain. The economic shock could be severe, depending on how quickly Britain can strike free trade deals with the United States and China.But the now 27-member EU will also be wounded.With Britain gone, EU federalists will have less restraining them in their push for a deeper political union among the remaining member states. That, in turn, could reignite euroskepticism and trigger another populist backlash, especially in central European states, which are the most skeptical of federalism and the most determined to preserve nation-state rights, analysts say.On the economic front, much rests with how trade negotiations unfold in the next few months between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brussels.”The problem is objectively that there will be some losses and damages, no doubt, on both sides,” said Donald Tusk, former European Council president.Speaking to the BBC Sunday, Tusk said there was no wish to punish Britain for exiting, and he does not expect either side will want to intentionally harm the other.”This is a process of only damage control,” he said.But few doubt there will be damage. There seems to be no love lost between London and Brussels. The rhetorical exchanges across the English Channel in recent days have been toxic in content and tone.FILE – Brexit supporters wave Union flags during Brexit celebrations in central London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson and his ministers unleashed a series of combative statements, triggering equally bellicose responses from European leaders who appeared to be encouraging Scotland to break away from Britain.  As a way of emphasizing Britain’s new status as an “independent state,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ordered British diplomats to spurn their erstwhile EU colleagues at international conferences and not sit next to them at gatherings.Former British senior diplomat John Kerr predicted Sunday that the negotiations on Britain’s future relationship with the EU, which will formally start on March 3, will quickly become “nasty and (objectionable) rebarbative.”  Johnson wants to agree to the terms of Britain’s future relationship with the bloc, modeled on the EU’s free trade agreement with Canada, by the time a transitional period ends in December.Johnson said if negotiations don’t go Britain’s way, he would be happy with a looser and distant relationship with the EU, and trade with the continent solely on World Trade Organization terms.That would mean the imposition of high trade barriers, costly tariffs and time-consuming customs checks on goods traded between the EU and Britain.  On Monday, Johnson outlined his “red lines,” saying he isn’t prepared to align with the EU’s regulatory rules, while at the same time, he said he wants tariff-free trade.”There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policies, subsidies, social protection, the environment or anything similar any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules,” Johnson said.But European officials say that would give Britain better terms than it enjoyed as an EU member state and give British manufacturers and farmers a competitive edge over their continental rivals by lowering production costs and making their goods cheaper.If Britain departs from EU rules just on industrial emissions and pollution, it could save British industry about $5 billion dollars a year, reducing the price of its goods.  FILE – People celebrate Britain leaving the EU on Brexit Day at Parliament Square in London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson also rejected calls by European leaders for EU trawlers to continue to have access to British fishing waters in exchange for a deal allowing Britain’s financial institutions unfettered access to the continent. And he is threatening a tariff war with the EU, warning that if no satisfactory trade deal is struck by year’s end, Britain will impose high tariffs on goods from the continent, such as cars, cheese and wine.In an open letter published in The Times newspaper on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that Johnson’s demands won’t be accepted.”Ease of access to the European market will depend on the degree to which the European Union’s rules are accepted,” he wrote.Few observers believe anything but a bare-bones trade agreement will be negotiated by year’s end, leaving both Britain and the EU with economic damage.Britain would be worse off, and the gloomiest forecasts have as much as 8% of its GDP lost as a result of a no-trade Brexit deal. A Canada-style deal could shrink the British economy by nearly 5% by 2035, according to the British government’s own analysis.But the impact is also going to be painful for the EU.A study last year by the University of Leuven in the Netherlands suggested close to 2 million jobs could be lost on the continent because of tariffs and trade barriers, if there is just a bare-bones deal. The EU risks a 1.5 percent fall in its collective GDP.For Europe, the economic pain would be spread across member states, although four countries would suffer the most.FILE – A projection appears on a wall in Ramsgate, southern England, on Brexit Day, Jan. 31, 2020.Nearly 14% of Ireland’s exports, mainly dairy and meat, go directly to Britain. Germany exports a wide variety of industrial products to Britain, including pharmaceuticals, chemical and petroleum products, and almost 800,000 cars a year. The Netherlands also enjoys significant trade with Britain. Meanwhile, France could see around 140,000 jobs lost with the country’s fishing industry hit hard, if French trawlers are blocked from British waters.An economic hit would be most unwelcome on the continent, where economic growth has already slowed almost to zero. The prospect of further economic disruption isn’t going to help in forthcoming haggling over the EU’s institutional budget. Brexit means the EU has to make up an estimated $12 billion shortfall in lost British contributions, and some cash-strapped governments are unhappy with the money they already have to contribute and want curbs on EU spending.Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, nicknamed the Frugal Four, are all pressing for a reduced EU budget. Berlin is determined to see that German taxpayers aren’t forced to take on the financial burden created by Brexit’s impact on the EU budget.And there’s growing alarm among member states that Britain’s departure will embolden EU federalists, who want to accelerate the bloc’s political integration. Britain had long been an opponent of a deeper political union.With Britain gone, Macron has already served notice of his plans for greater federalism, saying the EU “must understand the reasons” for Brexit “and learn lessons from it.”“It is a historic alarm signal which must resound in each of our countries, be heard by all of Europe and make us think,” Macron said.The lesson he draws is that “Europe needs new momentum.” His recipe is “more Europe, not less.”Macron is also championing a defense union separate from NATO.Later this year, the EU will hold a “Future of Europe” conference where divisions, as much as unity, could be on display, with central European states and Italy, which are already clashing with Brussels on migration policy and rule of law issues, resisting the “more Europe” formula.”Many EU member governments are wary of anything that might weaken NATO,” said Giles Merritt of the Friends of Europe research group, and author of “Slippery Slope: Brexit and Europe’s Troubled Future.”“Poland and the three other “Visegrad” countries of central Europe, along with the three Baltic republics, have ineradicable memories of their treatment at the hands of the Kremlin during the Cold War,” he said.Besides Poland, Visegrad countries include the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania comprise the Baltics. 
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Nearly 50 lawmakers who advocate for their regions to become independent from Spain boycotted Monday’s ceremonial opening of the nation’s legislative season over the presence of the royal family.
    
The representatives of five parties from the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia regions, all in northern Spain, say that the figure of the king is “anachronistic” and that it should be rooted out of Spanish politics.
    
Their symbolic gesture of not attending the first session of the national parliament since a new left-wing government was sworn in last month exposes the difficulties that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces in the coming months.
    
His coalition with the far-left United We Can (Podemos) party will need votes from the separatist parties to pass the nation’s 2020 spending plan and any significant legislation. Sanchez’s Socialists have been supportive of King Felipe VI and the former monarch, King Emerit Juan Carlos I.
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Turkey hit targets in northern Syria, responding to shelling by Syrian government forces that killed at least four Turkish soldiers, the Turkish president said Monday. A Syrian war monitor said six Syrian troops were also killed.
   
The exchange, which came hours after a large Turkish military convoy entered the northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria, is likely to further increase tensions between the two neighboring countries as such direct clashes have been rare.
   
Earlier, Turkey’s National Defense Ministry said the Turkish forces were sent to Idlib as reinforcement and were attacked there despite prior notification of their coordinates to the local authorities. It said Turkish forces responded to the attack, destroying targets. Along with four killed, nine Turkish troops were wounded.
   
Speaking to reporters before departing for a visit to Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish artillery hit some 46 targets. Erdogan said Turkish warplanes were also involved and claimed that there were between 30 and 35 casualties on the Syrian side but offered no evidence.
   
“Those who test Turkey’s determination with such vile attacks will understand their mistake,” Erdogan said. He said Russia was told that Ankara would not stand for any “situation where we are prevented” from responding to Syrian assaults.
   
“It is not possible for us to remain silent when our soldiers are being martyred,” Erdogan said.
   
The Russian military said its air force took control later Monday over the airspace in Idlib’s de-escalation zone, after Turkish troops were attacked. The Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria said in a statement that the airspace “is constantly being monitored by Russia’s air forces.”
   
Monday’s exchange occurred near the Syrian flashpoint town of Saraqeb, according to the the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group.
   
It comes amid a Syrian government offensive into the country’s last rebel stronghold, located in Idlib and parts of the nearby Aleppo region. Turkish troops are deployed in some of those rebel-held areas to monitor an earlier cease-fire that was agreed to but that has since collapsed.
   
Relations between Turkey and Syria have deteriorated sharply since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. Syria accuses Turkey of undermining its security by allowing thousands of foreign fighters to come battle the Syrian army. Idlib province is currently dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants.
   
With Russian backing, the Syria government has been on the offensive since December to capture and reopen a strategic highway held by the rebels since 2012. The offensive ignored a cease-fire deal brokered late last year between Russia and Turkey. The deal has since collapsed.
   
Syrian government forces captured the key Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan from the rebels last Wednesday, and have now set their sights on Saraqeb. The strategic highway passes through both towns.
   
The province of Idlib is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Syria in earlier bouts of violence. The United Nations has estimated that about 390,000 Syrians have been displaced there over the past two months _ 315,000 in December and 75,000 in January.
   
Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees, and the current wave of violence in Idlib has raised concerns of a new surge in displaced civilians fleeing toward the Turkish border.
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Official negotiations have not yet begun over their future relationship – but tensions are building between Britain and the European Union following the Britain’s official exit from the bloc Friday. Brussels says Britain will have to commit to aligning with EU standards in order to get a free trade deal, but London has insisted it will not do so. As Henry Ridgwell reports, official talks aren’t due to get under way for at least another month, leaving precious little time to negotiate a new deal.
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Within hours of Britain’s official exit from the European Union Jan. 31, tensions simmered between London and Brussels over their future relationship.Britain left the bloc at 11 p.m. London time Friday and immediately entered a transition period, where most rules and regulations remain the same. That period is set to end Dec. 31, and Britain has insisted it will not ask for an extension, leaving just 11 months to negotiate and ratify a free trade agreement. Early indications suggest the talks will be difficult, with big differences in the positions of both sides.Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that Britain will have to commit to aligning with EU standards in order to get a free trade deal.Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.“One thing we feel very strongly in the EU is that if we are going to have tariff-free, quota-free trade with the UK, which is essentially what we have with Canada on almost everything, then that needs to come with a level playing field. We, for example would have very strong views on fair competition and state aid,” Varadkar said in a BBC interview Sunday.British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab insisted the UK will not follow EU regulations.“We are taking back control of our laws,” Raab told Sky News Sunday. “So we’re not going to have high alignment with the EU, legislative alignment with their rules, but we’ll want to co-operate and we expect the EU to follow through on their commitment to a Canada-style free trade agreement.”The EU’s free trade deal with Canada eliminates most tariffs on the buying and selling of goods, but does not cover services, which makes up around 80% of Britain’s GDP.The economic arguments were forgotten Friday evening as hundreds of pro-Brexit supporters gathered in central London. A Brexit “countdown clock” was projected onto Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s residence at No. 10 Downing St. Friday. Nigel Farage of the Brexit Party addressed the crowd: “We should celebrate the fact that freed from the constraints of the European Union, we once again will be able to find our place in the world,” Farage told hundreds of supporters gathered in the rain in Parliament Square.Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage celebrates during a rally in London, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.Finding that place may not be so simple.“Many people believe that Brexit having gone through 3½ years of debate about what kind of Brexit they have, and whether to have it, (that) it’s all sorted, it’s all done. It isn’t done at all,” said Charlie Ries, international vice president of the RAND Corp. and a former U.S. ambassador. “In fact, the actual dimensions of the new relationship between the UK and the EU is just starting.”Early indications suggest Europe will demand access to British fishing waters and guarantees that Britain won’t undercut the EU’s labor and environmental standards, in return for access to the EU Single Market. Britain has rejected any such deal.The hard line from Westminster is putting the United Kingdom itself under increasing strain, with Scotland, which voted by a margin of 62% to remain in the EU in 2016, demanding a vote on independence so it can try to rejoin the bloc.Across Britain, the divisions wrought by Brexit will not be easily healed. Meanwhile tensions are already building in what looks likely to be stormy year ahead.
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British police shot and killed a man they say wore a fake explosive device and stabbed two people in London Sunday.Lucy D’Orsi, police deputy assistant commissioner, said police responded quickly to what they said was a “terrorist incident” and they believe it is tied to Islamic extremism, but she gave no other details. Bell Reberio-Addy, a member of Parliament who represents Streatham, said the attacker had been under surveillance “for some time.”A male stabbing victim suffered what is described as life-threatening wounds while the second victim, a woman, was also injured. A third person was slightly injured, apparently by flying glass. D’Orsi said there was no further danger to the public.Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his thoughts are with the injured as he thanked police and emergency workers. Johnson also said that in light of this attack and one in December, the government would introduce “fundamental changes” to how people convicted of terrorism are treated.London Mayor Sadiq Khan said “Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life. Here in London, we will never let them succeed.”Sunday’s incident took place on a busy street in south London’s Streatham neighborhood.Witnesses report seeing police chasing a suspect down the neighborhood’s main shopping district, yelling for him to stop. They opened fire and shot him three times when he ignored them. Police determined that the explosive device he wore was a fake.Police have not yet publicly identified him or spoke of an exact motive other than saying it was terrorism. 
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Monday outline a hardline stance in post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union, arguing Britain does not need to follow various EU rules to strike a trade deal.In a keynote speech detailing his vision for the country’s future, days after its historic departure from the bloc following nearly half a century of membership, Johnson is to say he will seek a “pragmatic agreement.”The British premier will note London has been told in earlier divorce talks with Brussels that it has the option of an ambitious trade deal, “which opens up markets and avoids the full panoply of EU regulation.””There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar,” Johnson is set to say, according to excerpts of the address released by his Downing Street office.”The UK will maintain the highest standards in these areas — better, in many respects, than those of the EU — without the compulsion of a treaty and it is vital to stress this now,” he will add.Johnson also insists that if that type of agreement, similar to one the EU recently struck with Canada, is not possible then Britain would opt for a less comprehensive trade deal.”The choice is emphatically not ‘deal or no-deal,'” he will say.But in a sign of the potentially fraught nature of the high-stakes talks, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar urged London on Sunday to “tone down” what he called “nationalistic rhetoric”.Britain should avoid repeating the past mistake of insisting on “rigid red lines” which “makes it hard to come to an agreement,” he said.’Infuriated’Late on Friday, Britain ended almost half a century of often reluctant membership of the European Union, an organization set up to forge unity among nations after the horrors of World War II.Upon leaving, the UK immediately entered an 11-month transition period agreed as part of the divorce, during which there will be little change in practical terms.Britons will be able to work in the EU and trade freely — and vice versa — until Dec. 31, although the UK will no longer be represented in the bloc’s institutions.Legally however, Britain is out, and attention is now turning to what may prove to be grueling talks with Brussels this year to hammer out all aspects of the future partnership.Johnson, a polarizing figure accused of glossing over the complexity of leaving the EU, is in a rush to seal an agreement.He has vowed not to extend the transition phase, giving himself just 11 months to find consensus on everything from fishing to finance — not enough time, according to his critics.EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who will set out the bloc’s negotiating positions also in a speech in Brussels on Monday, has warned that some items will have to be a priority.He wants handshakes on fisheries, internal and external security and, above all, trade in goods.France reminded Britain on Sunday that the UK exports most of its fish production to European Union countries, highlighting a potential bargaining chip in coming post-Brexit talks about fishing rights that promise to be thorny.But the bloc is also said to fear being undercut on their own doorstep if Britain’s does not commit to following its regulatory framework.’New era’British newspapers reported Sunday that the government is readying for a bruising battle, and unwilling to offer many of the compromises set to be demanded by the EU.The euroskeptic Sunday Telegraph said Johnson was “privately infuriated” at perceived EU attempts “to frustrate a comprehensive free trade deal”.Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acknowledged there was “a bit of frustration” in London that “commitments” seen as already agreed in the initial Brexit divorce deal were not being “lived up to.”London is also now free to strike trade agreements around the world, including with the United States, whose President Donald Trump is an enthusiastic Brexit supporter.One of his top envoys on Friday hailed an “exciting new era.”At a special Brexit day ministers’ meeting in northeast England, Johnson discussed an aim to get 80 percent of Britain’s commerce covered by trade agreements within three years, a spokesman said.Raab said Sunday that he would embark on a tour of Asia and Australia next week, a trip encompassing Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.The Foreign Office declined to release further details.The Sunday Telegraph reported that a trade deal is earmarked to be agreed with Japan by Christmas, followed by more agreements with Australia and New Zealand in mid-2021. 
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John and Laura Hunter live in southern California and over the past few years they’ve been heading out into the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to make sure people making the trek to the U.S. from South and Central America have what it takes to stay alive during their passage. But not everyone agrees with the help the migrants are getting. Genia Dulot has the story. 
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A man was shot and killed by police in London Sunday after a stabbing incident that authorities said could be terrorism related.”A man has been shot by armed officers in #Streatham. At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related,” the London Metropolitan police wrote on Twitter Sunday.#INCIDENT A man has been shot by armed officers in #Streatham. At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related. Please follow @metpoliceuk for updates— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) February 2, 2020Police confirmed that the man had been killed and currently “believe” that there are two injured victims.London mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed in a statement that he was in touch with police and following the situation closely.”Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life – here in London we will never let them succeed,” he wrote.My statement on today’s incident in Streatham. pic.twitter.com/x7rWASs1Xs— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) February 2, 2020In November, Usman Khan stabbed five people on the London Bridge before he was shot dead by police. Two of the victims later died of their wounds. The stabbing was declared a terrorist incident.
 
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Venezuela’s Juan Guaido told a large crowd of cheering expatriates in Miami on Saturday that he will soon make his return to Caracas from an international tour, bringing with him the “world’s backing” to oust President Nicolas Maduro. “We have a plan. We have a strategy,” Guaido said. “We’re not alone, and we’re going to restore democracy.” The opposition leader bent on unseating the socialist president, however, presented few details for executing this plan upon returning, saying additional sanctions are “the only strategy” available. Guaido’s visit to Miami rounds out a two-week world tour that took him first to Colombia, then across Europe and Canada, where he held meetings with a list of world leaders. He delivered a message that Venezuelans are pressing for freedom from a “dictator,” but they need help. A key meeting absent from Guaido’s trip was with his most important ally, President Donald Trump, who earlier in the day tweeted a picture of himself golfing at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, saying he was “Getting a little exercise.” Meeting with president?When asked about a possible meeting with Trump, Guaido said, “Stay tuned,” but he also said he was already preparing his return to Venezuela. An estimated 3,500 people crowded into a Miami convention center to hear Guaido, the most promising opposition political figure to surface in years with the chance of ending two decades of rule launched by the late President Hugo Chavez. Guaido urged the crowd to remain unified and to resist, despite living away from Venezuela. “All options are on the table, but also under the table,” Guaido said. “There are things that are not talked about. All necessary actions will be used to finally liberate Venezuela.” Venezuela was once an energy powerhouse with the world’s largest oil reserves, but crude production has plummeted over the last two decades, which critics blame on corruption and mismanagement. Today, an estimated 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated from the country of 30 million, leaving behind crumbling infrastructure, broken hospitals, power failures and gasoline shortages with mile-long lines at filling stations across much of the South American nation. Guaido, 36, rose a year ago to prominence, named leader of the opposition-led National Assembly. In this position he claimed presidential powers, vowing to oust Maduro and reverse the political and social crisis. He won backing from the U.S. and nearly 60 nations that considered Maduro’s 2018 election a fraud and blamed his socialist policies for the crisis that’s driving mass migration and threatening the region’s stability. Maduro holds onMaduro, however, has maintained power with firm backing of the military and key foreign allies, including China, Cuba and Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit Caracas in the coming days. Before the rally, Guaido met with James Story, charge d’ affaires for the Venezuela Affairs Unit of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. The opposition leader also mingled with Venezuelans who have fled their homeland for the United States over the last two decades. Many at the rally wore baseball hats with bright yellow, blue and red, representing the colors of Venezuela’s flag. When Guaido stepped on stage, they cheered and held up their phones for photos. “We want him to tell us what’s going to happen,” said Gloria Bejaramo, 65, who traveled from Venezuela to South Florida to visit a daughter. “I’ve always supported him, and everyone is looking for a way out of this situation to achieve democracy.”  
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American fast-food icon McDonald’s Friday marked 30 years since it first opened its doors in Moscow, an occasion with deep resonance here since the transition from the communist Soviet Union.Yet, marring the celebration were city authorities’ concerns over an outbreak of the coronavirus in neighboring China.   
The restaurant had marketed a day of Soviet-era pricing, with hamburgers costing their original 1990 3 ruble price tag, but canceled the event amid government fears a Soviet-era line would pose a health hazard.   Coupons were issued instead for the thousands who arrived anyway.   Pushkin Square McDonald’s, Jan. 31, 2020, the 30th anniversary of the fast-food restaurant in Russia. (C. Maynes/VOA)Burgers of ChangeThe McDonald’s ‘Golden Arches’ first lit up on Moscow’s Pushkin Square to great fanfare on January 31, 1990.An estimated 38,000 Soviets lined up for hours for what they might have heard of but never tasted, a McDonald’s hamburger. “All I remember is we waited a long time,” Elena Nikolaevna, 78, a former factory worker who came to attend the 30th anniversary celebrations, said. “I felt like I was eating America itself,”  Andrey, 53, said, recalling his first bite, a month after the initial opening.  “The lines were huge,” he said.    The Moscow launch set company records at the time, with the most customers ever served in one day.   The event was intrinsically linked to Russians’ desire for Western-style market reforms under former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika, or restructuring.  First introduced in 1986, perestroika brought new openness to Soviet society, but provided few quick paths toward repairing the USSR’s deeply flawed command economy.The scene on Pushkin Square seemed to lay bare those contradictions; while shortages of basic necessities were common in Soviet stores, McDonald’s — almost magically — never ran out of food.The secret was that the company had negotiated to set up a private manufacturing plant within the Soviet Union — unheard of at the time — while importing 80% of whatever else was needed.  It was effective but far from perfect: the company operated at a loss. There were problems from the Soviet customer’s point of view too, as an average meal cost more than a half day’s wages.Calling McCanadaThere was also an open secret about this symbol of America being introduced into the Soviet Union — it was actually Canadian.The CEO of McDonald’s Canada, American-Canadian citizen George Cohen, first latched onto the idea of opening a McDonald’s in the Soviet Union after bringing Soviet representatives to a McDonald’s during the 1976 Montreal Olympics.The Soviets liked the food and, even more, they admired the service.   Moscow was gearing up to host its own 1980 Summer Games and looking for ways to feed foreign tourists something quick, familiar, and tasty while maintaining their pride.   “Being a Canadian company was giving a neutral touch to the whole setup,” Marc Carena, the current CEO of McDonald’s Russia, told VOA.  Cold War politics, including the U.S. decision to  boycott the 1980 games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, ultimately scuttled the deal.Yet, a few years and hundreds of hours of negotiations later, Gorbachev endorsed the Golden Arches as part of his push for change.  “McDonald’s was more than the opening of a simple restaurant,” Carena said,  “It came to symbolize the entire opening of the USSR to the West.”Service with a SmileWatching archival videos, available on YouTube, is like entering a time warp regarding relations between Moscow and Washington then. “They say the West is bad, but I like this food,” says a young customer interviewed at the 1990 opening. “We were interested in another life and what it looked like,” Georgi, a retired army veteran, told VOA.“McDonald’s just made the world just feel wider. That’s not the case now,” he said.  In theory, he was referring to  the current poor state of U.S.-Russian relations, although in reality, he had just finished a Big Mac.McDonald’s’ most lasting Russian legacy may lie in the Western-style services the company pioneered here.After placing a single advertisement in the leading Moskovsky Komsomolets daily, the company fielded 30,000 applications.  Just over 600 finalists were chosen.   “I remember waiting for the bus and looking at the McDonald’s sign and crying,” said Svetlana Polyakova, who was hired to flip hamburgers.“I thought I’d made it,” added Polyakova, now the company’s Russia public relations director.   Those chosen were young and energetic, and had little or no experience.  That was the point.  McDonald’s employees, by design, had none of the bad habits associated with the grim unfriendly service of Soviet cafes, Anna Patrunina, one of the original cashiers but now vice president of operations, said. “Anna Patrunina, one of the original 1990 hires and now VP of Operations of McDonald’s Russia, Jan. 31, 2020. (C. Maynes/VOA)We were asked, can you smile for eight hours straight? We all said yes, of course,” she told VOA,  “but it turns out it’s harder than you think.”Smiling was a warmth easily extended in Soviet home but was not part of public life.  It was foreign.  It was weird.  It was American.New Times, New RulesToday, good service in Russia is common, and so, too, is McDonald’s.The company now has more than 700 stores across the country and 98% of the company’s supplies are now sourced locally.”We’re a Russian company and we always were a Russian company,” according to Carena, a Swiss national and the only foreigner on staff.  Not everyone is happy, though. “I don’t like their fast food. I never have,” said Elchin, 58, a businessman who moved to Moscow from Baku, Azerbaijan, 30 years ago, adding he preferred home-cooked meals. “Ukrainian borscht, Russian dumplings, Armenian barbecue … now that’s food to savor,” he said.   “Nothing against the U.S. but I love the classics,” he said.
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A Spanish charity boat with 363 rescued migrants aboard is appealing to be allowed to dock at a port so it can let passengers disembark after several days in the Mediterranean Sea. Gerard Canals, head of the Open Arms mission, on Saturday also expressed concern that food could run out. He said there was about 30 kilos (66 pounds) of rice aboard, enough to last about two more days. In a separate tweet, Open Arms said the migrants were crowded together on the bridge of the rescue boat. The migrants were taken aboard Open Arms in five separate rescues from distressed boats launched by Libya-based human traffickers over the past few days. After no permission came from Malta for a safe port, Canals said, the rescue group is hoping Italy will allow it to dock. In the past few months Italy has allowed such charity ships to disembark rescued migrants at its ports on condition that other European Union nations agree to take some of the asylum-seekers. Several EU nations have done so, making good on pledges to share the migrant burden at a conference in Malta a few months ago. During Italy’s previous government, which included the anti-migrant League, then-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini triggered repeated standoffs at sea when he refused port permission to private rescue ships. In some cases, the rescuers were left in limbo for days or forced to sail as far as Spain to disembark migrants. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that the United States is willing and able to provide Belarus with 100% of its oil and gas, taking a slap at Russia which recently cut off supplies.Pompeo is the first secretary of state to visit Belarus in 26 years and arrived in Minsk amid new tensions between Minsk and Moscow over energy. In a meeting with authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, Pompeo said he hoped to help provide an opportunity for Belarus to achieve the “sovereignty” and “independence” it seeks.“The United States wants to help Belarus build its own sovereign country,” Pompeo said at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei. “Our energy producers stand ready to deliver 100% of the oil you need at competitive prices. We’re the biggest energy producer in the world and all you have to do is call us.”Belarus fears Russia is trying to absorb it and last month began purchasing gas from Norway after Russian supplies were cut off. Last week, Lukashenko accused Russia, the country’s main provider of cheap oil and gas, of stopping supplies “to dissolve Belarus.”Pompeo said the U.S. wants to help fill the vacuum and will continue to boost staffing at its embassy in Minsk, which was severely reduced 12 years ago when the U.S. imposed significant sanctions on the country over human rights abuses. The two countries agreed in September to exchange ambassadors for the first time since 2008. Pompeo said a new U.S. ambassador would be named soon.Noting the recent history of poor relations, Lukashenko lamented the “absolutely groundless misunderstandings of the past authorities” and welcomed Pompeo’s visit.Belarus had been a candidate to be included in the Trump administration’s expanded travel ban that was announced on Friday but avoided it by taking measures to improve security cooperation and potential traveler threat information with the United States.In addition to trying to boost American influence in Belarus, Pompeo urged economic and political reforms as well as improved human rights conditions — a message similar to those he will be bringing to his next stops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan later this weekend. At each stop, Pompeo will warn of attempts by Russia and China to aggressively assert themselves in Europe and Central Asia.Russia stopped supplying oil to Belarus after Dec. 31. The two nations had failed to renegotiate an agreed oil price for this year during drawn-out negotiations on deepening the integration of their economies.Moscow argues that Belarus should accept greater economic integration if it wants to continue receiving energy resources at Russia’s domestic prices.This has prompted fears in Belarus that the Kremlin is plotting to form a single state with Belarus to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in power well past the end of his term in 2024.Lukashenko has repeatedly rejected the idea, saying that Belarus would never become part of Russia.The Russian suspension did not affect oil crossing Belarus to Europe or the supply of natural gas, but had consequences for Belarus, which relies on Russia for more than 80% of its energy needs.Lukashenko has since vowed to find alternative oil suppliers and said Friday that Belarus is currently negotiating additional supplies with the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.In the news conference, Pompeo also said Belarus has made “real progress” in reforms, including on human rights, but that more needs to be done to bring about a lifting of U.S. sanctions. “Further progress in those areas and others is the only path towards lifting U.S. sanctions,” he said.Makei acknowledged that Belarus recognized the necessity of making changes. “Belarus is probably not a most ideal country in this regard, and we do understand that we must implement some reforms in many areas, including the area of human rights — and we are doing this,” he said.Since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, Belarus has suppressed opposition and its human rights record has been widely criticized. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 called Belarus “Europe’s last dictatorship.”
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The World Health Organization warns travel bans to limit the spread of the new coronavirus from China could backfire and lead to a worsening of the epidemic worldwide.  Latest reports put the number of confirmed cases at nearly 12,000, including 259 deaths, with most of the cases and all of the deaths occurring in China. A WHO emergency committee declared the coronavirus a global public health threat on Thursday, triggering a series of recommendations aimed at limiting the spread of the deadly disease.  WHO does not recommend any restrictions on travel and trade despite the rapid acceleration of the disease inside China and its steady, but relentless growth worldwide.  More than 100 cases are reported in 22 other countries.  In response, some airlines have stopped flying to mainland China. The United States, which has declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, says it will deny entry to foreigners who recently visited China.  Australia says it will take similar action.WHO spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, says closing borders will not keep out the virus.“As we know from other scenarios, be it Ebola or other cases, whenever people want to travel, they will. And, if the official paths are not open, they will find unofficial paths,” said Lindmeier. “But the only way to control, to check fever, for example, to identify travel history, to try to monitor who is coming across your border and to see whether they have any signs of infection is through official border crossing points.” Lindmeier says states have the sovereign right to take whatever measures they believe are best to protect their citizens.“Yet, the recommendations stay.  And, if travel restrictions are imposed, then we would hope these are as short-lived as possible to try to continue normal flow of life as good as possible,” said Lindmeier. “But of course, increase surveillance and monitoring in order to avoid the spread of the disease.” China is taking draconian measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.   Wuhan city, the epicenter of the disease and 15 other cities have been quarantined, placing an estimated 50 million people under lockdown.Despite these efforts, the virus continues to spread at a rapid pace.
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The car of an RFE/RL Ukrainian service correspondent in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv was set on fire overnight on January 29-30 — an arson attack that Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko said could have been ordered by someone. Halyna Tereshchuk, who has been working for RFE/RL since 2000, said she suspected the attack was linked to her professional activities. “We think the crime was ordered, that somebody hired someone to conduct it,” Herashchenko told RFE/RL, adding that the police were doing “everything to find both the perpetrators and those who ordered the attack.” The National Police in Lviv said earlier in the day that a probe had been launched into the “deliberate destruction of the journalist’s property.” According to witnesses, a masked individual approached the Mitsubishi Colt around midnight, placed something on the windshield of the vehicle, set fire to it and then fled. Second fireThe Ukrainian unit of rights group Freedom House condemned the torching of not only Tereschchuk’s vehicle but also, on the same day, the car of Andriy Lukin, an activist in Zaporizhzhya. “We are outraged by the fires … and call on law enforcement agencies to investigate these incidents effectively,” Freedom House Ukraine said on Facebook. The group stated that “arson or other methods of destruction of vehicles and property are becoming increasingly used as a means to pressure active people in Ukraine.” It noted that there were 11 cases last year of property belonging to activists being destroyed and “in almost all cases, the perpetrators were not found and punished.” 
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France announced its sixth case of the new coronavirus this week and repatriated a planeload of its citizens from the virus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan. But back at home, Chinese and others in the wider East Asian community there say they are becoming targets for discrimination.Just as fast as the coronavirus is spreading, so too seems to be prejudice. In Japan, South Korea and Italy — and now France. This week the French hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus — I Am Not A Virus — was trending on Twitter.  One Chinese man interviewed on France’s BFMTV — his face hidden so he wouldn’t be recognized — described walking out of a Paris gym and being accosted by teenagers, who laughed and said, “There’s coronavirus coming.”  Ethnic Chinese aren’t the only ones being targeted. One account on social media describes a Vietnamese woman being shunned by those around her. Other East Asians say fellow passengers on public transport move away from them, or put scarves in front of their faces.French passengers on buses leave a military air base in Istres, southern France, Jan.31, 2020, after arriving by plane from the virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan.In a television interview, Laetitia Chhiv, head of the Association of Young Chinese in France, said coronavirus was giving expression to latent racism.  It hasn’t helped that a French newspaper, Le Courrier Picard, published the headline “Yellow Alert” on its cover last Sunday, and titled an editorial “A New Yellow Peril.” The newspaper quickly apologized, saying the move was unintentional, but the damage was done.  Interviewed by a colleague, journalist Linh-Lan Dao said she couldn’t believe the Courrier Picard’s title. “We’re in the 21st century,” she said.  All this comes after France reported a surge in racist and xenophobic acts in 2019 — up 130 percent from the previous year. While much of the focus has been on Jews and Muslims, ethnic Chinese have also been targeted in recent years. The government’s line is zero tolerance to discrimination.In 2016, thousands of Chinese staged protests after a Chinese man was killed outside Paris by three men trying to rob his companion’s bag. It wasn’t the first attack — and Chinese anti-violence activist Tamara Lui says it hasn’t been the last.  Lui says the same prejudice behind these past attacks on the Chinese community — because they’re stigmatized as rich and hardworking and therefore good targets to rob — is being seen with coronavirus today.
 
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Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate and peers from other African nations on Friday made an urgent appeal for the world to pay more attention to the continent that stands to suffer the most from global warming despite contributing to it the least.The Fridays For Future movement and activist Greta Thunberg held a news conference with the activists to spotlight the marginalization of African voices a week after The Associated Press cropped Nakate out of a photo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Nakate, Makenna Muigai of Kenya, Ayakha Melithafa of South Africa and climate scientist Ndoni Mcunu of South Africa pointed out the various challenges both in combating climate change on the booming continent of some 1.2 billion people and in inspiring the world’s response.“African activists are doing so much,” Nakate said. “It gets so frustrating when no one really cares about them.”The AP has apologized and acknowledged mistakes in sending out the cropped photo on Jan. 24 and in how the news organization initially reacted. The AP has said that it will expand diversity training worldwide as a result.Nakate said Friday she was very sad the photo incident occurred but added that “I’m actually very optimistic about this” as it has drawn global attention to climate activists in Africa and the various crises there.Muigai pointed to a recent locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years, which threatens food security for millions of people in countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia and is moving toward South Sudan and Uganda.Challenges include everything from deforestation to bad energy policies, Muigai said. They also include changes in storm intensity that brought two devastating cyclones to Mozambique a year ago, Mcunu said. And they include the recent drought crisis in South Africa’s Cape Town region, Melithafa said.“The narrative we have is Africans can adapt to this. That is actually not true,” Mcunu said.The warnings have been stark for Africa. No continent will be struck more severely by climate change, the U.N. Environment Program has said.Africa has 15% of the world’s population, yet is likely to “shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs,” the African Development Bank has said, noting that seven of the 10 countries considered most vulnerable to climate change are in Africa: Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.And yet “to date, energy-related CO₂ emissions in Africa represented around 2% of cumulative global emissions,” the International Energy Agency said last year.In some cases it is difficult to persuade people to care more about climate change because there are so many other pressing everyday issues such as poverty, unemployment and gender-based violence, Melithafa said. “That’s hard for the global north to understand.”Instead people should work to hold more developed countries accountable for producing the bulk of emissions that contribute to global warming, the activists said.“Every individual is needed in the fight against the climate crisis,” Nakate said. “Because climate change is not specific about the kinds of people it affects.”For her part, Thunberg firmly returned the spotlight to the activists from African countries.“I’m not the reason why we’re here,” she said, later adding: “We are fighting for the exact same cause.” And she noted that while whatever she says gets turned into a headline, that is not the case for many others.“The African perspective is always so under-reported,” Thunberg said.Nakate urged the audience to make 2020 the year of action on climate change after young activists in 2019 put the issue squarely at the center of global discussions.It won’t be easy, she noted: “It is the uncomfortable things that will help to save our planet.”
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The Italian government declared a state of emergency Friday and closed all air traffic to and from China. The move came after confirmation that two Chinese tourists tested positive for the coronavirus. The couple are being treated in isolation in a Rome hospital specializing in infectious diseases. A special cabinet meeting held by the Italian government Friday declared a six-month state of emergency and allocated $5.5 million to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Further meetings were planned between the country’s health authorities and the civil defense department to decide what additional measures were needed.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte confirmed Thursday that a Chinese couple from Wuhan that had been staying in Rome’s Palatino hotel, near the Colosseum, had been admitted to Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital after showing symptoms of coronavirus.  A man passes through the main gate of the Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital, the National Institute for Infectious Diseases, in Rome, Jan. 31, 2020.The prime minister said there is no reason to panic, adding that all measures have been adopted to try to prevent the spread of the disease.  The director of the Spallanzani National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Professor Giuseppe Ippolito, said the Chinese couple were placed in isolation and are “in reasonable condition.”  Health minister Roberto Speranza said the state of emergency status gives the government more powers to deal to deal with the infection, but does not change life for Italians.Speranza also said efforts are being made to retrace the places the Chinese couple visited since arriving in Milan on January 23. The other 18 tourists and the driver who traveled with them on a bus also are being tested and remain under observation.The Palatino Grand Hotel is seen in Rome, Jan. 31, 2020.At the hotel where the couple were staying, their room was immediately sealed off and decontamination was carried out. The hotel has had cancellations, even though the director declared there is no danger for the staff or guests.  Additionally, the Italian government is organizing a special plane to bring back some 80 Italians in Wuhan. It is likely they will be flown back Monday, then will spend two weeks in quarantine.
 
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