Russia’s President Vladimir Putin provoked chuckles earlier this month from school kids in the Russian city of Vladivostok when a 10-year-old asked him to subscribe to his YouTube channel. “Sign up please. I’d be very glad,” the kid said.

Russia’s 68-year-old leader seemed baffled.  

“What do I have to sign?” Putin asked. “Sign what? I didn’t understand — what should I sign?” the president queried. The exchange was seen by many Russian commentators as an iconic moment in a widening division between Putin and his country’s youngsters.

The Vladivostok school kids are not of voting age, but as Russians started to go to the polls Friday to vote in parliamentary elections, the turnout and voting patterns of the country’s internet-savvy 18-to-24-year-olds will be scrutinized by the Kremlin as well as Putin’s foes.

Over the past year opinion polling has suggested that young Russians are increasingly unhappy with their president. Around half of young Russians expressed dissatisfaction with Putin in a poll by the independent Russian polling organization Levada Center earlier this year. Only 20% said they supported him, a sharp drop from 36% previously. Nearly half said the country was moving in the wrong direction under his leadership, with just 44% saying the direction of travel was okay.

“Young people are becoming more politically active,” analyst Natia Seskuria said in a recent commentary for London-based think tank Chatham House. “After 21 years of Putin’s rule, regime fatigue is settling in — particularly in the younger generations who have known no other leader.”

“Growing dissatisfaction made many join demonstrations that led to more than 10,000 arrests and dozens of criminal cases against the protesters,” Seskuria said, referring to protests mounted in the wake of the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny earlier this year on charges he says are trumped up. “Young Russians have used social media to mobilize support for rallies and to criticize Putin. Navalny, too, has used the power of social media to connect with younger voters.”

How many of Russia’s young people vote for Putin’s ruling United Russia Party will give some idea of the challenge the Kremlin may face in the coming months. It also will indicate whether Russia’s leader will face a mounting backlash from a young generation that is frustrated with economic stagnation, the lack of job prospects and a propaganda-heavy media machine that does not connect with it in the way Navalny has managed to with You-Tube videos and social media posts.  

Polling data suggests that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for Putin’s United Russia Party, which is seeking to maintain its Duma majority of 334 seats. That is its lowest opinion poll rating since 2008.  

But few doubt United Russia will retain its Duma majority. Kremlin critics say this election — voting takes place over three days — is the least free since Putin came to power 21 years ago. Genuinely independent candidates are barred from running, cash-handouts have been offered to voters, and there is evidence of voter intimidation, all taking place amid an unprecedented crackdown on dissent.  

Critics also expect plenty of ballot-rigging in the election for the 450-seat State Duma. Long lines formed at some polling stations Friday, according to local reports. Navalny supporters suggested state workers were being mobilized to vote by the Kremlin and local authorities.  

“Every time [under Putin], elections have looked a little less like elections. Now this process is complete,” exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told Echo of Moscow radio station this week. “The next time our people will vote for real will be after they earn that right on the barricades,” he added.

But little is being left to chance by the Kremlin, say Navalny supporters.  

And they accused U.S. tech giants Google and Apple Friday of bowing to Kremlin pressure by deleting a youth-oriented Smart Voting app that offers a step-by-step guide on how to vote tactically against pro-Putin candidates.  

“This is an act of political censorship, and it can’t be justified,” said Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press spokesperson.  

“They caved into the Kremlin’s blackmail,” added Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s former campaign manager.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegation of political censorship, telling reporters in Moscow the app was removed in observation of the “letter and spirit” of Russian law.

From prison, via a message on Instagram, Navalny urged voters to undermine the Kremlin by voting for the best placed candidate not affiliated with United Russia, which means in many places voting for candidates offered by the Communist Party. In the message Navalny said: “Are you not interested in trying?”

The removal of Navalny’s tactical voting app by Apple and Google from their app stores also drew criticism from international rights organizations.  

“Russian government officials are putting tech companies in a tightening vise, threatening criminal actions against individual employees inside the country to pressure their employers into yielding to calls for censorship,” said Matt Bailey, director of the digital freedom program of PEN America.  

“The decision on the part of Apple and Google to remove an app from the iOS and Android App Stores being used to organize protest against the government is the result of blackmail, pure and simple,” he added in a statement.

 
…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s Smart Voting app disappeared from Apple and Google stores Friday as Russians began voting in a three-day parliamentary election marked by a historic crackdown on the opposition.

“Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship,” top Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter.

The app promoted an initiative that outlines for Navalny supporters which candidate they should back to unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians.

Russia had accused Google and Apple of election interference, demanding this week that they remove the app from their stores. 

Exiled Navalny ally Leonid Volkov said the companies had “caved in to the Kremlin’s blackmail.”

“We have the whole of the Russian state against us and even big tech companies,” Navalny’s team said on Telegram.

In a message from prison, Navalny had urged supporters to download the app, which aims to help Russians to vote out candidates from President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party in the upcoming polls. 

On the eve of the vote his team urged Russian voters to back Communist Party candidates. 

Navalny – who was detained in January – has this year seen his organizations declared “extremist” and banned, while all his top aides have fled.

Russia’s media regulator has since barred dozens of websites linked to Navalny including his main website navalny.com. 

 
…

The tourism industry in Turkey has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and until recently several wildfires. Several sites, however, have again started to attract local and international visitors. VOA’s Arif Aslan reports from Van, Turkey, in a story narrated by Sirwan Kajjo.
…

Turkish authorities have detained hundreds of unregistered refugees – including many Afghans – in Istanbul. The crackdown comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government faces growing public pressure to stop any surge of Afghans who arrive in Turkey following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Producer: Henry Hernandez
…

France has suspended 3,000 health care workers who were not inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine by a government-mandated Sept. 15 deadline.

“Several dozens” of the country’s 2.7 million health workers, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Thursday, opted to resign rather than receive the inoculation against the coronavirus.

Tens of thousands health workers were unvaccinated in July when President Emmanuel Macron announced the Sept. 15 deadline to have at least one shot of a vaccine.

Veran said most suspended employees worked in support services, while few doctors and nurses were among the suspended.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Friday that France has reported more than 7 million COVID cases and more than 116,000 COVID deaths.

In the U.S. state of Idaho, hospitals have begun rationing care “because the massive increase of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization in all areas of the state has exhausted existing resources,” the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said in a statement Thursday.

“The situation is dire – we don’t have enough resources to adequately treat the patients in our hospitals, whether you are there for COVID-19 or a heart attack or because of a car accident,” DHW Director Dave Jeppesen said in a statement.

The best way to end the rationing “is for more people to get vaccinated,” Jeppesen said.“It dramatically reduces your chances of having to go to the hospital if you do get sick from COVID-19.”

The Intenational Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization have met with the major COVID vaccine manufacturers to devise strategies to improve vaccine access for low- and middle-income countries.

The goal of the coalition is to vaccinate at least 40% of people in every country by the end of this year and at least 60% by mid-2022.

WHO said the 2021 target is “a critical milestone to end the pandemic and for global economic recovery.” 

 
…

Taiwan’s government called on the European Union to quickly begin trade talks after the bloc pledged to seek a trade deal with the tech-heavyweight island, something Taipei has long angled for.

The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before President Tsai Ing-wen first became Taiwan’s president but has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since then.

Responding to the EU’s newly announced strategy to boost its presence in the Indo-Pacific, including seeking a trade deal with Taiwan, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday talks should start soon. The European Parliament has already given its backing to an EU trade deal with Taiwan.

“We call on the European Union to initiate the pre-negotiation work of impact assessment, public consultation and scope definition for a Bilateral Investment Agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible in accordance with the resolutions of the European Parliament,” it said.

“As a like-minded partner of the EU’s with core values such as democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, Taiwan will continue to strengthen cooperation in the supply chain reorganization of semiconductors and other related strategic industries, digital economy, green energy, and post-epidemic economic recovery.”

EU member states and the EU itself have no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan due to objections from China, which considers the island one of its provinces with no right to the trappings of statehood, so any investment deal could be tricky politically for the EU.

But the EU’s relations with China have worsened.

In May, the European Parliament halted ratification of a new investment pact with China until Beijing lifts sanctions on EU politicians, deepening a dispute in Sino-European relations and denying EU companies greater access to the world’s second-largest economy.

The EU has also been looking to boost cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductors, as a chip shortage roils supply chains and shuts some auto production lines, including in Europe. 

 
…

Russians in the Far East began voting in a three-day parliamentary election in which vocal Kremlin critics have been barred from running following a historic crackdown on the opposition.

Parliamentary and local polls in the world’s largest country spread over 11 time zones began at 8 a.m. Friday. So as Muscovites prepared to go to bed, residents of the Far Eastern Chukotka and Kamchatka regions were gearing up to cast their ballots.

“Let’s go!” Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission, said in a live broadcast. “We are so excited!”

The run-up to the parliamentary polls has been marred by an unprecedented crackdown on Kremlin critics and independent media, with President Vladimir Putin’s top foe Alexey Navalny jailed in January and his organizations subsequently outlawed.

With many voters frustrated by falling incomes and not planning to cast their ballots, Putin urged Russians to elect a “strong” parliament.

“I’m counting on your responsible, balanced and patriotic civic position,” Putin said in a video address.

The 68-year-old Russian leader is currently isolating after the Kremlin announced this week an outbreak of coronavirus cases among his inner circle. He said Thursday that “dozens” had tested positive.

In a message from prison, Navalny called on Russians to cast aside apathy and vote pro-Kremlin candidates out of power.

“Are you not interested in trying?” he said in a message posted on Instagram, adding that even in prison he remained optimistic and urged Russians to do the same.

“I really do not think that I cannot change anything,” said the 45-year-old, who barely survived a nerve agent poisoning he has blamed on the Kremlin.

The opposition politician’s allies have been barred from running, and his team has promoted Navalny’s tactical voting project app, urging supporters to back candidates best positioned to beat Putin’s United Russia candidates.

A majority of the 225 alternative parliament candidates named by Navalny’s allies are running on the Communist Party’s list.

The media regulator has blocked dozens of websites linked to Navalny, including the tactical voting website, and has also piled pressure on Google and Apple to remove Navalny’s app from their stores.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has claimed that developers of Navalny’s app have ties to the Pentagon, and last week Moscow summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan over interference of U.S. tech giants in the polls.

Recent surveys by state-run pollster VTsIOM showed fewer than 30% of Russians planning to vote for the ruling party, down from 40% to 45% in the weeks ahead of the last parliamentary election in 2016.

But United Russia is expected to retain its two-thirds majority in the Duma, enough to change the constitution as it did last year with reforms allowing Putin to extend his rule to 2036.

The vote is being held both online and in person, in a move officials said is aimed at limiting voters’ potential exposure to the coronavirus.

The opposition says that voting over several days gives officials greater opportunities to fix elections.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in August that it would not be sending observers to Russia for the parliamentary election because of a limit on the number of observers imposed by Moscow.

Campaigning was lackluster, and critics said the vote was little more than a rubber-stamping of Putin’s allies.

Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that the Kremlin needed a pliant legislature ahead of 2024 when Putin’s current term ends.

Widespread claims of voter fraud during parliamentary elections in 2011 sparked major demonstrations, but political observers were not expecting protests this time.

“Once the Duma elections are over, protests are unlikely, since the opposition and civil society are demoralized,” Kolesnikov wrote. “The regime crackdown will intensify.”

Besides United Russia, 13 more parties are running in the elections.

A total of 225 of the State Duma’s 450 members are elected through party lists, while the rest are selected in single-member districts.

More than 108 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in Russia, and another 2 million Russians can vote abroad.

Russian passport holders from Ukraine’s two breakaway regions can take part in the vote.

Russians are also voting in local polls in dozens of regions, including regional assembly and gubernatorial elections.
…

Sir Clive Sinclair, the British inventor who pioneered the pocket calculator and affordable home computers, died Thursday at age 81.

He died at his home in London a decade after being diagnosed with cancer, U.K. media said, prompting tributes from many who fondly recalled their first experience of computing in the early 1980s.

He was still working on inventions last week “because that was what he loved doing,” his daughter Belinda Sinclair told the BBC. “He was inventive and imaginative, and for him, it was exciting and an adventure. It was his passion.”

Sinclair’s groundbreaking products included the first portable electronic calculator in 1972.

The Sinclair ZX80, which was launched in 1980 and sold for less than £100 at the time, brought home computing to the masses in Britain and beyond.

Other early home computers such as the Apple II cost far more, and Sinclair’s company was the first in the world to sell more than a million machines.

Follow-up models included the ZX Spectrum in 1982, which boasted superior power and a more user-friendly interface, turbocharging the revolution in gaming and programming at home.

British movie director Edgar Wright, whose latest film, Last Night in Soho, premiered in Venice this month, paid tribute to Sinclair on Twitter.

“For someone whose first glimpses of a brave new world were the terrifying graphics of 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81, I’d like to salute tech pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair,” he said. “He made 21st century dreams feel possible. Will bash away on the rubber keys of a Spectrum in your honour. RIP.”

Tom Watson, former deputy leader of Britain’s opposition Labor Party, tweeted: “This man changed the course of my life.

“And arguably, the digital age for us in the UK started with the Sinclair ZX80, when thousands of kids learnt to code using 1k of RAM. For us, the Spectrum was like a Rolls-Royce with 48k.”

However, not all of Sinclair’s inventions were a runaway success.

The Sinclair C5, a battery-powered tricycle touted as the future of eco-friendly transport, became an expensive flop after it was launched in 1985.

But in retrospect, it was ahead of its time, given today’s attention on climate change and the vogue for electric vehicles.

“You cannot exaggerate Sir Clive Sinclair’s influence on the world,” gaming journalist and presenter Dominik Diamond tweeted. “And if we’d all stopped laughing long enough to buy a C5, he’d probably have saved the environment.”

Born in 1940, Sinclair left school at 17, becoming a technical writer creating specialist manuals.

At 22, he formed his first company, making mail-order radio kits, including what was then the world’s smallest transistor radio.

Other ventures included digital watches and an early version of a flat-screen television.

He was knighted in 1983.

Ironically, in a 2013 interview with the BBC, Sinclair revealed that he did not use computers.

“I don’t like distraction,” he explained. “If I had a computer, I’d start thinking I could change this, I could change that, and I don’t want to. My wife very kindly looks after that for me.” 
…

As Germany prepares to elect a new leader, climate change is high on the agenda. Floods blamed on global warming killed hundreds in July. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from Germany, the country is also Europe’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and is struggling to wean itself off fossil fuels
…

The European Union’s executive arm asked its member countries Thursday to better protect journalists amid a rise of physical attacks and online threats against media professionals.

According to the European Commission, 908 journalists and media workers were attacked across the 27-nation bloc in 2020. A total of 23 journalists have been killed in the EU since 1992, with the majority of the killings taking place during the past six years.

“No journalist should die or be harmed because of their job. We need to support and protect journalists; they are essential for democracy,” said Vera Jourova, the commission vice president for values and transparency.  

“The pandemic has shown more than ever the key role of journalists to inform us. And the urgent need for public authorities to do more to protect them.”

Murders of reporters remain rare in Europe, but the killings of journalists in Slovakia and Malta in recent years have raised concerns about reporters’ safety in developed, democratic societies.  

Earlier this year, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen expressed support to investigative journalism after the killing of Peter R. de Vries, a renowned Dutch journalist who reported on the violent underworld of the Netherlands.

The commission’s non-binding proposals include recommendations for EU countries to ensure fair and effective investigations and prosecutions, and to provide protection to those under threat, with a strong focus on female journalists.  

According to the EU, 73% of female journalists have experienced online violence and the commission said EU countries should “support initiatives aimed at empowering women journalists and professionals belonging to minority groups and those reporting on equality issues.”

The bloc’s executive arm also proposed the creation of support services, including helplines, legal advice, and psychological support. It insisted on the need to ensure reporters’ safety during demonstrations, where most of the attacks take place.  

“Member states should provide regular training for law enforcement authorities to ensure that journalists and other media professionals are able to work safely and without restrictions during such events,” the commission said.

Noting that digital and online safety has become a “major concern” because of online attacks but also the risks of illegal surveillance, the executive branch also encouraged EU countries to improve cooperation between media and cybersecurity bodies.

“Relevant national cybersecurity bodies should, upon request, assist journalists who seek to determine whether their devices or online accounts have been compromised, in obtaining the services of cybersecurity forensic investigators,” the commission said.

The proposals were unveiled just months after the commission’s annual report on adherence to the rule of law concluded that democratic standards were eroding in several member countries.

That report notably singled out Slovenia, which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council, for attacks against the Balkan nation’s media.  

“This is not only Slovenia. We see the very aggressive rhetoric in some other member states,” Jourova said, adding that the EU will keep putting pressure on member countries where continuous issues are spotted.
…

The Speaker of the British House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has banned China’s ambassador to Britain, Zheng Zeguang, from entering Parliament until Beijing lifts sanctions it imposed six months ago on five Conservative lawmakers and two peers.  

The ban — the first ever imposed on a foreign envoy by a House of Commons Speaker — is the latest sign that British authorities are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as Beijing’s aggressive diplomacy. Hoyle consulted with Downing Street and Britain’s Foreign Office before announcing the ban, according to local media reports. 

His bar on Zeguang came just hours before British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed former trade minister Liz Truss as Britain’s new foreign secretary, part of a wider Cabinet reshuffle. Truss is seen as a China hawk and has lobbied for much tougher measures to be pursued against China’s Communist government for rights violations.

In a statement midweek Hoyle said: “I do not feel it’s appropriate for the ambassador for China to meet on the Commons estate and in our place of work when his country has imposed sanctions against some of our members.”

Last week Hoyle met with British lawmakers targeted by the Chinese sanctions. They urged him to impose a ban on the envoy. The Chinese embassy in London described the prohibition on Zeguang as “despicable and cowardly.”

Zeguang, who was appointed as envoy in June, was scheduled to speak to a British parliamentary group on China, but the invitation was withdrawn.

Souring relations

Relations between China and Britain have become fraught over Beijing’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and repression of its Muslim minority in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, where China’s Communist government has interned more than a million Uyghurs in detention centers, according to rights groups.

The Chinese sanctions imposed in March on British lawmakers, one of whom is a former leader of the ruling of Britain’s ruling Conservatives, were in retaliation for Britain sanctioning Chinese officials and a state-run entity for alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang. 

The Chinese sanctions imposed in March on British lawmakers, one of whom is a former leader of Britain’s ruling Conservatives, were in retaliation for Britain sanctioning Chinese officials and a state-run entity for alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.   

China has denied repeated claims that Uyghur Muslims are being held in detention centers. Beijing targeted 10 British organizations and individuals in its March sanctions. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the British officials were being punished for spreading “lies and disinformation” about Xinjiang.

China’s Global Times newspaper, an English-language outlet of the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper, reacted with fury to the parliamentary ban on the Chinese envoy, saying in an angry editorial: “It is extremely rare, if not ‘a global innovation,’ for the UK to ban a foreign envoy from Parliament, a public venue for political discussions in the country. It shows brutality, impulsiveness, and the breaking of the rules.”

The editorial added: “London acts as if only it can sanction others, but not the other way around. Given that it simply does not have the strength to deal with China this way, the UK now behaves like a hooligan after having become a loser.” It suggested Beijing bar the British ambassador from entering the Great Hall of the People.  

The group of British lawmakers sanctioned by China, which includes former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and MPs Tim Loughton and Nusrat Ghani, welcomed Hoyle’s decision, praising the Speaker for “standing up for freedom of speech in the mother of Parliaments by supporting those parliamentarians who have been sanctioned by China.”

Liz Truss

The appointment of Liz Truss as foreign secretary is unlikely to please Beijing. She has been targeted for criticism by China’s Foreign Ministry and Communist Party-run media in the past for lobbying for tough measures against Beijing as international trade secretary. The 46-year-old is only the second woman to hold the post of foreign secretary and is seen as a vigorous champion of free trade and markets and a strong supporter of the transatlantic alliance with Washington.  

She faults China for not pursuing fair trade and for engaging in “economic coercion” and warned in a speech last week against Britain becoming “strategically dependent” on China, criticizing Beijing for “unfair” trading practices.

Last December Truss fought a behind-the-scenes battle with Britain’s Foreign Office, her new ministry, over whether Parliament should legislate to allow British courts a role in determining whether the repression of Xinjiang amounts to genocide. The Foreign Office opposed giving British courts preliminary power to determine whether genocide is occurring in Xinjiang, or elsewhere, arguing the decision should rest with international courts.  

Nigel Adams, a Foreign Office minister, told a parliamentary panel that there was “credible, troubling and growing evidence” of forced labour taking place on a significant scale in Xinjiang but he feared an “asset flight,” if ministers rushed into enacting measures, warning China could start withdrawing investments from Britain.

Truss backed the legislative proposal.  

Commenting on Truss’s appointment, British newspaper The Times said she “is far more hawkish on China than the prime minister, aligning herself with the American shift towards confrontation with Beijing.”  Other British commentators said her pick to replace Dominic Rabb will help repair bridges with Washington following the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was criticized by senior British Conservative lawmakers.

“New UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, is a proper China hawk,” tweeted Sophia Gaston, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, a London-based think tank. Gaston said Truss would be able at the Foreign Office to hold “China to account on values” while “playing a larger role in coordinating diplomatic efforts with our [foreign] partners.”
…

The United States is backing Lithuania in the face of what American officials describe as China’s “coercive behavior” after Vilnius recently became the first European country since 2003 to allow Taiwan to open a representative office.On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis met for talks at the State Department. The meeting followed a call on August 21 in which Blinken “underscored ironclad U.S. solidarity” with Lithuania in the face of China’s “coercive behavior.”“Lithuania and the United States are very strong partners in NATO. We stand together for collective defense and security. We stand against economic coercion, including that being exerted by China,” Blinken said Wednesday.Wednesday was the United Nations’ International Day of Democracy. Landsbergis said it’s “truly symbolic” that the NATO allies “reaffirm our commitment to defend democracy, liberty, human rights across the globe.”On this International Day of Democracy, we celebrate a system that responds to the will of the people, respects human rights, and benefits the many, not the few. We look forward to the upcoming #SummitforDemocracy to demonstrate #DemocracyDelivers.— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 15, 2021Members of Congress have also expressed support for Lithuania’s position on Taiwan. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez in a tweet praised “Lithuania’s courageous efforts to stand up for Taiwan, as well as democracy activists in Belarus, Russia and Cuba.” Menendez met with Landsbergis on Tuesday.Honored to meet my friend @glandsbergis and discuss Lithuania’s courageous efforts to stand up for Taiwan, as well as democracy activists in Belarus, Russia and Cuba. pic.twitter.com/F8L7EX18kd— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) September 14, 2021China has long had a policy of urging countries not to develop closer ties with Taiwan, and this week a spokesperson in Beijing pushed back against American officials’ characterization of Beijing’s tactics.“The label of coercion can never be pinned on China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a Tuesday briefing.“The U.S. should immediately stop ganging up with others to wantonly smear China and stop provoking confrontation and disputes. Such tricks wouldn’t work on China,” Zhao said.In July, Lithuania became the first European country to allow Taiwan, a self-governed democracy, to open an office in Vilnius with the name of “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.” Other nations often designate such offices with the name “Taipei Representative Office” or “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” to avoid offending China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory.The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania is set to open this fall, marking the first time in 18 years that Taiwan has opened a new representative office in Europe. The last time Taiwan established a representative office in Europe was in 2003, with the name of “Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava, Slovakia.”Lithuania’s move has already led to repercussions and economic retaliation from China. In August, China’s government asked Lithuania to withdraw its ambassador to Beijing while recalling its own envoy to Vilnius. In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged “the Lithuanian side to immediately rectify its wrong decision, take concrete measures to undo the damage, and not to move further down the wrong path.”The Baltic Timesreported on August 22 that Beijing had stopped approving new permits for Lithuanian food exports to China. The report cited a Lithuanian official saying the country’s talks with China on export permits for feed, non-animal products and edible offal had stopped.China has also reportedly halted direct freight trains to Lithuania.A Lithuanian Railways spokesperson, Gintaras Liubinas, told Newsweek: “We have received information through our customers that several freight trains from China will not arrive in Lithuania at the end of August and in the first half of September. Meanwhile, transit trains pass through Lithuania in the usual way.”On September 3, Lithuania recalled its ambassador to China. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expressed regret over China’s actions, but said the Baltic country is ready to develop mutually beneficial ties with Taiwan. The top EU diplomats in China also met to show solidarity with Lithuania Ambassador Diana Mickevičienė as she departed Beijing.@SecBlinken is meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis @GLandsbergis Wednesday. In their 8/21 call, Blinken “underscored ironclad U.S. solidarity” with #Lithuania “in the face of the People’s Republic of #China’s coercive behavior,” per @StateDept#立陶宛https://t.co/1HqFO1f9HW— VOA Nike Ching 张蓉湘 (@rongxiang) September 15, 2021The meeting between the top diplomats of the United States and Lithuania follows Monday’s call between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė of Lithuania.Sullivan reaffirmed strong U.S. support for Lithuania as it faces attempted coercion from the People’s Republic of China, according to the White House.In another move to show solidarity with Lithuania, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa has urged the EU to stand with Lithuania against Chinese pressure. Slovenia holds the six-month EU presidency.Jansa said in a letter, dated Monday, that China’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Lithuania over a dispute about Taiwan was “reprehensible” and would hurt EU-China ties, according to Reuters report.
…

Three British Afghan women are on a hunger strike near the British Parliament to protest the treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Yalda Baktash reports.
…

Campaigning to elect a new German leader this month is being clouded by concerns that the country will face a new influx of refugees — this time those fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan.  In 2015, more than 1 million migrants, many of them Syrians escaping their country’s civil war, traveled across the Mediterranean and Europe to reach Germany, according to German officials. Angela Merkel is not standing in the September 26 election, so Germany will soon have a new chancellor tasked with formulating policy toward Afghanistan and the unfolding refugee crisis. FILE – Armin Laschet, chairman of the German Christian Democratic Union, addresses the media during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 13, 2021.Armin Laschet is the candidate for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, which currently shares power with the Social Democrats. Speaking shortly after the Taliban seized power last month, he pledged there would be no repeat of the refugee influx. “The European Union must be prepared that there will be refugees heading towards Europe. And this time we must provide humanitarian aid to the region, to the countries of origin in time. 2015 must not repeat itself. We need an orderly protection for those who are heading towards Europe,” Laschet told reporters on August 16.  Laschet’s rival — Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats, who are leading in the polls — also maintains that Europe must share the burden of any imminent refugee influx. FILE – German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 13, 2020.”It isn’t just Germany, but all of Europe has a responsibility, and we have to remember that almost all refugees, and there are millions in the world, have often found refuge in a neighboring country,” Scholz told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Germany has evacuated more than 4,000 Afghans since August. The government says anyone directly employed by German forces in Afghanistan is entitled to asylum. The situation for contractors, however, is not clear.  Afghan brothers Ahmad and Ikram, who did not want to give their real names, arrived in Germany in 2015 as part of the wave of migrants seeking a new life in Europe. They are currently staging a protest outside the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, to demand that Germany speed up the asylum process for refugees. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 21 MB720p | 46 MB1080p | 88 MBOriginal | 236 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIkram says he worked with NATO forces in Afghanistan and recently showed VOA the documentation he hopes will secure him refugee status. After six years of trying, they have both been denied visas. The brothers were due to be deported to Afghanistan in August but were given a reprieve after the Taliban seized power.”Afghanistan is no longer safe. People cannot let themselves die there — they themselves, and their families. And so, they say it doesn’t matter how dangerous the way is, people are saying we’re leaving, because otherwise they will be killed,” Ahmad told VOA.  So, could Germany face another migrant influx? The situation is very different, says Nora Brezger of the Berlin Refugee Council, a support group for migrants.  “At the moment now, there is actually no way to Europe where people can cross, like it was in 2015 or 2016. So, it’s more that a lot of Afghan refugees are in the surrounding countries of Afghanistan, and in the Balkan route they are stuck in Bosnia, they are stuck in Serbia, they are stuck in Greece, they are stuck in Turkey,” Brezger told VOA.  “So, it’s not a question of how we should avoid people coming here. For us, it’s more a question of how should we make people come here because they need a safe place,” she said. VOA recently spoke to several Afghan refugees currently stuck in the Turkish city of Erzurum. Among them was Yusuf, who said he was doing casual work to try to save money to reach Europe. Germany continues to exert a strong pull for those seeking a new life.  “We want to go to Germany, but the borders are closed at the moment. If you want to go to Germany via Bulgaria, you would be held in Bulgaria. The human smugglers say that the borders are open, you can go — but we know that they are closed. Once the borders are opened, God willing, we will go,” Yusuf said.  It appears unlikely that Germany — or the rest of Europe — is prepared to reopen those borders anytime soon. VOA’s Memet Aksakal contributed to this report.
 
…

Six years ago, more than a million migrants traveled across the Mediterranean and Europe to reach Germany — many of them Syrians escaping the civil war. So, could history repeat itself as refugees try to flee Taliban rule in Afghanistan? As Henry Ridgwell reports from Berlin, immigration is high on the agenda as Germany prepares for a general election later this month.Camera: Henry Ridgwell, Memet Aksakal   Produced by: Henry Ridgwell, Mary Cieslak 
 
…

The European Union’s chief executive called on member nations to develop its defense capabilities without U.S. support, an appeal that came after the Taliban’s recent seizure of Afghanistan.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks came a month after the Afghan army’s swift collapse and the messy evacuation of thousands of people fleeing the country after the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul.“Europe can and clearly should be able and willing to do more on its own,” von der Leyen said during her annual state of the union speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “What has held us back until now is not just shortfalls of capacity, it is a lack of political will,” said von der Leyen, a former German defense minister whose country is among the most hesitant EU member countries to send troops into combat around the world.She called on the EU to create a “defense union,” a development that would complement the bloc’s traditional soft power approach.The EU president proposed tax incentives to encourage the development and sale of weapons within the EU, improving intelligence-sharing programs and bolstering defenses against cyberattacks. The proposal to establish a 5,000-member force was first raised in May during a review of the bloc’s overall strategy. EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell said at the meeting he hoped a plan would be finalized by November.The EU currently has a system of combat troops to deploy to areas of unrest, but they have never been used. Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

London’s High Court said on Wednesday it would take steps if necessary to serve papers on Britain’s Prince Andrew in a U.S. lawsuit brought by a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her two decades ago. 
The prince, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, is accused by Virginia Giuffre of assaulting her when she was 17, at a time she says she was being abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein. 
Andrew, 61, who is officially known as the Duke of York, has rejected the accusations and his lawyers have described the case as baseless. His legal team declined comment. 
Last week, Giuffre’s legal team said it had tried to serve papers on Andrew by leaving the documents with a police officer at his home in southern England. The prince’s lawyers told the U.S. District Court in Manhattan they had not been properly served under English law and the Hague Convention. 
A spokesperson for London’s High Court said the issue about how claims could be served on parties in different jurisdictions was governed by the Hague Service Convention, which requires requests to be made and approved by the relevant authority in each country. 
“The lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention,” the spokesperson said in a statement. 
“The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the Convention unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.” Manhattan hearing 
At a hearing on Monday in Manhattan, the prince’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, said Giuffre appeared to have in 2009 signed away her right to sue the prince in resolving a separate lawsuit. 
“This is a baseless, nonviable, potentially unlawful lawsuit,” Brettler said. “There has been a settlement agreement that the plaintiff has entered into in a prior action that releases the Duke and others from any and all potential liability.” 
Andrew is a former friend of Epstein, a registered sex offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 after U.S. prosecutors charged him with sexually exploiting dozens of girls and women. 
The prince stepped down from royal duties and charities and other organizations distanced themselves from him after a BBC interview in November 2019 about his relationship with Epstein. 
He denies having sex or any relationship with Giuffre. Her lawsuit, filed last month, says he forced her to have unwanted sexual intercourse at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate. 
It also said Andrew abused Giuffre at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and on a private island Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges she aided Epstein’s sexual abuses. She faces a scheduled Nov. 29 trial before U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan. 
The next conference for Giuffre’s lawsuit is scheduled for Oct. 13.  
…

U.S. warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over shielding cybercriminals holed up in Russia appear to have made little impact, according to top U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials. “There is no indication that the Russian government has taken action to crack down on ransomware actors that are operating in the permissive environment that they’ve created there,” Paul Abbate, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Tuesday at an intelligence summit just outside Washington.  “We’ve asked for help and cooperation with those who we know are in Russia, who we have indictments against, and we’ve seen no action,” Abbate said. “So, I would say that nothing’s changed in that regard.” U.S. President Joe Biden has twice called on the Russian leader to take action against cybercriminals operating out of Russia — first at a summit in June in Geneva and again in a phone call a month later. FILE – President Joe Biden, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at the Villa la Grange, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.”I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is,” Biden told reporters following the July phone call.Biden, Putin Discuss Ransomware Attacks From Russia Biden warns of consequences if attacks continueSince the initial talks, senior White House officials have noted a decrease in ransomware attacks, though they have been hesitant to attribute the change to any action by Moscow. “The present absence of criminal activity should not be confused with solid policing,” U.S. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis told an audience later Tuesday. “There’s still a monetary incentive and possibly a geopolitical incentive to allow that to come back,” he said, pushing back against calls for the U.S. to go on the offensive. “There is a sense that we can perhaps fire some cyber bullets and kind of shoot our way out of this. That will be useful in certain circumstances if we have a clear shot at a cyber aggressor and it could take them offline,” Inglis said. “That’s not going to affect the leadership that allows this to happen.”  “We have to figure out what is it that matters to Putin and the oligarchs and how do we change their decision calculus,” he added. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any role in a series of ransomware and cyberattacks against U.S. companies and infrastructure. And following the Biden-Putin call in July, it issued a statement supporting collaboration on cybersecurity, calling for such efforts to “be permanent, professional and nonpoliticized and should be conducted via special communication channels … and with respect to international law.” New: Discussions w/#Russia on #cyber continue, per Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber Anne Neuberger@POTUS “looking for action” she says, adding US must also focus on “doing everything we can to lock our digital doors”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 2, 2021The U.S. blames Russia or Russian-based cyber actors for a series of high-profile hacks and ransomware attacks, including the December 2020 hack of SolarWinds, a U.S.-based software management company, and for the May 7 ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the U.S.  U.S. officials have blamed the GRU for targeting the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 elections and the pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines against the coronavirus.  US, Britain Warn of Russian ‘Brute Force’ Cyber CampaignUS officials urge agencies and organizations to take basic precautions as a first step in fighting backAsked Tuesday whether the U.S. has reached the point where it is ready to take action against Russia, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command deferred to the White House. “That’s obviously for the president to decide,” CYBERCOM’s General Paul Nakasone said. “But those options certainly will be provided for his consideration.” VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
 
…

In a message of inclusion, Pope Francis is reaching out to the Roma people of Slovakia, where he has condemned Central Europe’s historic marginalization of communities including Jews.On his second day in Slovakia, the pope travelled to the town of Presov in the eastern part of the country where he celebrated mass in the Byzantine rite in the city’s sports stadium. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Roma community in the nearby town of Kosice — a gesture analysts see as a sign of inclusion.The impoverished Lunik neighborhood, which the pope will visit, is home to the country’s highest community of Roma residents, where his message is welcomed by a population living with problems that include overcrowded housing, in some cases with no running water or electricity. Slovakia has a 400,000-strong Roma minority which has historically faced discrimination.On Monday, the pope addressed the Slovak president and other officials in the gardens of Bratislava’s presidential palace and stressed the need to work for the common good and not focus on individual needs.Referring to nation’s communist past, the pope said that until a few decades ago, a single thought system stifled freedom adding that “today another such system is emptying freedom of meaning, reducing progress to profit and rights only to individual means.”Pope Francis said, “Fraternity is necessary for the increasingly pressing process of integration.” The pope also addressed representatives of the Jewish community on Monday at a memorial for Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. At this site, a synagogue was demolished in 1969 in what the pope said were efforts to cancel every trace of the Jewish community.Here in this place, the pope said, the Name of God was dishonored, for the worst form of blasphemy is to exploit it for our purposes, refusing to respect and love others.More than one hundred thousand Slovak Jews were killed during the Holocaust and the pope added that it was shameful how people who said they believed in God perpetrated or allowed “unspeakable acts of inhumanity.”The Jewish community in Slovakia now amounts to some 2,000 people. Pope Francis said, “Let us unite in condemning all violence and every form of antisemitism.”An open-air Mass in the Slovak town of Sastin Wednesday caps the pontiff’s visit before his return to Rome. This visit to Hungary and Slovakia is his first foreign trip since he underwent intestinal surgery in July.
 
…

A Russian court has fined Facebook, Twitter and Telegram, saying the companies failed to delete content that Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor said violates Russian law. 
 
Facebook was fined about $288,000, while Twitter was fined about $69,000 and Telegram was hit with $124,00 in fines, according to the magistrate court in Moscow’s Taganskiy district. 
 
None of the companies has commented on the issue. 
 
The most recent fines come as Russia has levied similar fines on Google, WhatsApp and TikTok in recent months.  
 
In March, the Kremlin slowed down Twitter in the country for failing to remove content. 
 
The fines have been over content, as well as for the companies’ refusal to store personal data on Russian users in Russia.  
 
Russia is also trying to compel these companies to open official offices in Russia. 
 
Kremlin critics say the moves are an effort by the country’s ruling United Party to stifle dissent in the run-up to September 19 parliamentary elections. 
 Some information in this report came from Reuters. 
 
…

When Germany’s long-standing chancellor, Angela Merkel, steps down following federal elections later this month, it will mark the end of an era, not only for Germany but also for the European Union.In power since 2005, the 67-year-old Merkel has been the third longest-serving chancellor in German history, beaten in the longevity stakes only by Otto von Bismarck in the nineteenth century and in the twentieth by Helmut Kohl. And she has been the country’s only woman chancellor.For 16 years German politics has revolved around Merkel — and so too to a large extent has the politics of the European Union.She has been widely seen as a steadying influence on the fractious bloc, the grown-up politician who could assuage and tamp down disputes, often finding a way out of seemingly intractable disputes between the 27 member states, frequently by delaying decisions or shelving them.It was to Merkel that Britain’s David Cameron looked to secure a deal that he hoped would help win the 2016 Brexit vote — and it was a Conservative British successor, Boris Johnson, who appealed to Berlin to help break an impasse in withdrawal talks between London and Brussels, which avoided a complete breakdown in relations between the EU and Britain.Euro crisisMerkel helped to steer the bloc out of the 2008 financial crash and the subsequent euro crisis when the bloc’s currency was under severe threat. “If the euro fails, then Europe fails,” Merkel warned as the economic storm gathered force. She took the lead in foisting tough austerity measures on the indebted countries of southern Europe, while at the same time backing aid and loans for struggling EU member states. She also supported the European Central Bank in buying large quantities of government bonds and bringing interest rates to zero, allowing then ECB chairman Mario Draghi to fulfill his promise to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.FILE – A share trader watches German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck’s announcement on an impact of the global financial market, on television at the Frankfurt stock exchange, Oct. 13, 2008.Even Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, who fought Merkel over the austere bailout terms Berlin forced on Athens, credits Merkel with saving the European currency.“Crisis management has always been her forte, whether saving the euro during the global financial crisis of 2009, keeping Europe together during the refugee crisis, or now coping with the pandemic,” Judy Dempsey of the think tank Carnegie Europe, noted recently in a commentary on Merkel’s legacy.Mixed reviewsBut the Carnegie analyst also describes Merkel’s record as mixed and labels her legacy “ambiguous.” On the foreign front “her legacy, however, is inconsistent, especially with regard to Russia and China and some of the EU’s own member states,” she says. For some critics she has not been tough enough with Russia and has been too ready to allow profits and business to define relations with Beijing.Robert Terrell, a scholar of modern Germany at Syracuse University in New York, also sees a mixed record, although he says assessments of Merkel “will continue to change as shifting social contexts inform the politics of memory.” “In Europe, the Great Recession and the European Debt Crisis pushed Merkel into the unenviable position of trying to stabilize the economy of over two dozen states,” he told VOA. While her push for austerity measures was well received in Germany, it led to a degree of cultural chauvinism among Germans towards the Greeks. “In Greece, she remains divisive, with some Greek citizens blaming her for one of the bleakest periods in recent memory,” he says. Euro-skeptic sentiment has also increased dramatically in Italy and Spain.FILE – Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, right, and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel speak at the Maximos mansion in Athens, Oct. 9, 2012.While decisive on the Euro crisis, much of Merkel’s record is marked by what her aides dubbed “strategic patience.” In 2015 “the German dictionary publisher Langenscheidt announced ‘merkeln’ — a verb form of Merkel’s name — was in the running for the ‘Youth Word of the Year.’ It meant to do nothing out of caution, or to be overly deliberative. Whether simply her political style, or a conscious effort to avoid the gendered critique of impulsiveness, Merkel made a point of cautious decision making,” says Terrell.Migration and nationalismShe wasn’t cautious, though, when it came to the migration crisis of 2015-16, when hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia entered Europe. Merkel critics say her initial open-door policy encouraged the migration waves that buffeted Europe and roiled the continent’s politics, fueling the rise of populist nationalist parties.“The refugee crisis was another watershed moment during her chancellorship—one that will undoubtedly play a key role in shaping her legacy,” says Terrell. “Merkel’s decision to welcome well over a million refugees beginning in 2015 left the nation divided. Proponents of the Willkommenskultur — or ‘welcoming culture’ — helped furnish arriving refugees with money, supplies, and emergency accommodations. Others resisted, making the refugee crisis a catalyst for increasingly radical nativist sentiment,” he says.FILE – Immigrants are escorted by German police to a registration center after crossing the Austrian-German border in Wegscheid near Passau, Germany, Oct. 20, 2015.It also fueled tensions and clashes with other EU member states, especially with nearby Central European countries, Poland, Austria and Hungary.Move to centrismOn Germany her record looks less mixed. “Under Merkel’s helm, Germany changed. She moved the conservative, male-dominated Catholic CDU party to the center, which is no easy feat for someone brought up in communist East Germany and whose father was a Lutheran pastor,” says Dempsey.“She abolished military conscription, eventually came around to accepting single-sex marriage, gave parents more flexibility when it came to taking leave for newborn children, and supported the introduction of a minimum wage,” says Dempsey.Her supporters also credit her for closing Germany’s 17 nuclear power stations, a policy reversal following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, a brave political move in the face of the country’s powerful energy lobby. Although her foes — and some Green lawmakers — have also pointed out that closing the power stations has meant Germany has had to resort to an excessive use of coal adding to greenhouse emissions.But much like her performance on the foreign policy stage, some critics note that for much of Merkel’s 16 years in office she preferred on the domestic front to do as little as possible, to manage and tinker rather than define broad visionary goals and to try to reach them.“Merkel’s years were one of stasis and of betting big on the indefinite continuation of the country’s manufacturing and export-driven growth model,” says Dalibor Rohac, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. “Yet, without growing productivity, the perpetuation of the status quo is not a guarantee of limitless economic prosperity, especially in an environment in which Germany’s international value chains might be under threat from the looming de-globalization,” he warned.He says Merkel’s accomplishment was to have avoided conflict as much as possible the past 16 years. For Germans that has been a reassuring gift. 
 
…

Turkey is calling for collective international action to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The call comes as Turkey, already hosting the largest number of refugees globally, warns it cannot take any more.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, addressing a high-level United Nations meeting on Afghanistan Monday, warned that with millions of Afghans displaced and facing a humanitarian crisis, now is the time for collective action.A humanitarian and security crisis in Afghanistan would have direct implications across the globe. So, we should take the collective action now.  Turkish leaders fear an Afghan exodus through its territory as refugees flee Afghanistan and head for Europe.  Last week, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, paid a four-day visit to Turkey and praised the country for receiving nearly four million refugees who fled the Syrian civil war. Under a deal with the European Union, Turkey gets billions of dollars in aid to host the Syrians.  Some EU leaders are already suggesting the agreement be extended to include Afghans, claiming refugees should be hosted in locations closest to their places of origin.  But Turkey’s main opposition CHP party is strongly critical of the government’s refugee policy.”It is a record of serious mismanagement. It was simply a transactional relationship between Turkey and the European Union,” said Unal Cevikoz is a CHP parliamentary deputy. “And they simply wanted to stop the flow of refugees by giving some financial assistance to Turkey. A majority of the Turkish population thinks that burden-sharing is not fairly distributed in the international community, and we are also scared the same mismanagement will continue in the case of Afghanistan.”Senior EU officials visited Ankara last week to talk about the refugee deal with Turkey. Ankara insists it cannot take any more refugees and calls for the EU to share the burden.  Some analysts say Ankara needs the money from Europe, but international relations expert Sol Ozel says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will need more than monetary incentives to convince his people.  “He will have to show to the country something more than just money, and that is visa liberalization, which I don’t [think] the Europeans are capable of delivering on,” said Ozel.Visa-free travel for Turks in the European Union was part of the original Syrian refugee deal, but until now has been blocked by some EU members.  With Erdogan’s ratings languishing at record lows in opinion polls and the same polls indicating strong public opposition to receiving Afghan refugees, analysts predict any new EU refugee deal with Turkey will be difficult and fraught with political risk for the Turkish leader.
…

The center-left bloc headed to a victory in Norway’s elections Monday as official projections pointed to the governing Conservatives losing power after a campaign dominated by climate change and the future of the country’s oil and gas exploration industry. With a projection based on a preliminary count of nearly 93% of the votes, the Labor Party and its two allies — the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party — would hold 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. One seat was still unsure. As Norway’s largest party, Labor will try to form a coalition government and its chief, 61-year-old Jonas Gahr Stoere, is poised to become Norway’s next leader. The Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union. “We will now give Norway a new government and a new course,” Gahr Stoere said on a election night before cheering party members who chanted “Stoere” and clapped. He added that he will in the coming days invite the parties “that want a new change” for talks. Labor has promised an industrial policy that will funnel support to new green industries, like wind power, “blue hydrogen” that uses natural gas to produce an alternative fuel, and carbon capture and storage, which seeks to bury carbon dioxide under the ocean. In the 2013 election, Labor was ousted from power, enabling the Conservatives’ Erna Solberg to become prime minister and Norway’s longest-serving leader. Gahr Stoere said Monday that he wanted to thank Solberg for having been “a good prime minister.” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, leader of the Conservative Party, casts her vote in the 2021 parliamentary election at Skjold School in her home town, in Bergen, Norway, September 13, 2021. (NTB/Hakon Mosvold Larsen via Reuters)”We knew we needed a miracle — the Conservatives’ work session is over,” Solberg said. “I congratulate Jonas Gahr Stoere with what looks like a clear majority.” Her Conservatives suffered a setback, losing 4.7 percentage points, which was dubbed by Norwegian broadcaster NRK as “the election’s biggest loser.” Its former coalition partner, the Progress Party lost 3.4 percentage points, according to a preliminary counting of more than 93% of the votes by Norway’s election commission. Thanks to her long tenure, as well as her commitment to economic liberalism, the 60-year-old Solberg became known at home as “Iron Erna,” inspired by the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who was nicknamed “The Iron Lady” for her firm style.  Solberg was hoping to become the first prime minister to win a third consecutive four-year term. During her eight-year tenure, she has expanded oil exploration, cut taxes and sought to make public administration more efficient.  Any post-election horse trading is likely to be fraught for the Labor Party and Gahr Stoere. The Socialist Left won’t offer its support lightly and the Center Party is also demanding a more aggressive approach toward shifting to renewable energy. The campaign focused on the North Sea oil and gas that has helped make Norway one of the world’s wealthiest countries. But fears about climate change have put the future of the industry in doubt. The country’s biggest industry is responsible for more than 40% of exports and directly employs more than 5% of the workforce. On the other hand, Norwegians  are among the most climate-conscious consumers in the world, with most new car purchases now being electric. Most of Norway’s oil and gas still comes from mature areas in the North Sea, but most of the country’s untapped reserves are in the Barents Sea, above the Arctic Circle. That is a red line for environmentalists, who could play a crucial role in securing a majority government. Stoere also served as foreign minister from 2005-2013 under then-Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and took over the reins of the party when Stoltenberg became NATO’s secretary general. Nearly 3.9 million Norwegians were eligible to vote and more than 1.6 million of them voted in advance, according to Norway’s election commission. Turnout was 76.3%, down from more than 78% in this nation of 5.3 million voted.  
 
…

Britain’s chief medical officer (CMO), Professor Chris Whitty, recommended Monday that children between the ages of 12 and 15 be offered the COVID-19 vaccine, saying they would benefit from reduced disruption to their education. More than a week ago, Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, the panel that advises British health departments on immunization policies, issued a statement saying the “margin of benefit” to inoculating children of those ages was too small for them to recommend the government do so. Britain’s Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty attends a remote press conference to update the nation on the COVID-19 pandemic, inside 10 Downing Street in central London on June 10, 2020.But Monday, Whitty, along with his counterparts from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, told reporters they are recommending to their respective health ministers that the age group be given a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They have yet to decide on whether to give the students a second dose. Whitty stressed the vaccinations should be “an offer,” not a mandate, adding, “We do not think this is a panacea. This is not a silver bullet … but we think it is an important and potentially useful additional tool to help reduce the public health impacts that come through educational disruption.” Whitty said the CMOs have shared their recommendations with their ministers, and it is now up to the ministers to decide how to respond.  The United States, Israel and some European countries have rolled out vaccinations to children more broadly, putting pressure on the British government to follow suit. Britain has experienced more than 134,000 deaths from COVID-19, and a rapid start to its immunization rollout has slowed, with 81% of those over 16 receiving two vaccine doses. Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
…