The far-right ELAM party and a centrist splinter group made big gains in Cyprus’ parliamentary election on Sunday as a sizeable chunk of supporters appeared to have turned their back on the top three parties amid voter disenchantment with traditional power centers.With 100% of votes counted, ELAM garnered 6.78% of the vote — a 3% increase from the previous election in 2016 — to edge out the socialist EDEK party by the razor-thin margin of around 200 votes.The centrist DIPA — made up of key figures from the center-right DIKO party which has traditionally been the third biggest party — gained 6.1% of the vote.The center-right DISY emerged in first place with 27.77% of the vote, 5.4% more than second-place, communist-rooted AKEL. But the parties respectively lost 2.9% and 3.3% of their support from the previous election.“The result isn’t what we expected,” AKEL General-Secretary Andros Kyprianou told a party rally. “We respect it and we’ll examine it carefully to draw conclusions, but we can now say that we failed to convince (our supporters).”Analyst Christoforos Christoforou said the results indicate a “very big failure” on the part of both DISY and AKEL to rally more supporters by convincing them of the benefits of their policies. A last-ditch appeal by the DISY leadership limited a projected 5% voter loss to 3%.Christoforou said the real winners were ELAM with its strident anti-migration platform and hardline nationalist policies and DIPA whose top echelons still have connections to the centers of political power as former ministers and lawmakers.He said that the high electoral threshold of 3.6% means that 15,000 voters who cast ballots for smaller parties who didn’t win any seats are left without a voice in parliament.Opinion polls in the weeks preceding the vote indicated that both DISY and AKEL would hemorrhage support as disappointed voters seek out alternatives among smaller parties.The election won’t affect the running of the government on the divided Mediterranean island nation, as executive power rests in the hands of the president, who is elected separately.About 65.73% of nearly 558,000 eligible voters cast ballots for the 56 Greek Cypriot seats in parliament. Voter turnout was 1% less than the previous poll.Among the key campaign issues were the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hoped-for economic reboot as the country ramps up vaccinations. Migration has also been an issue as the Cypriot government insists it has exceeded its limits and can no longer receive more migrants.Smaller parties have appealed to voters to turn their backs on DISY, which they said is burdened by a legacy of corruption.An independent investigation into Cyprus’ now-defunct investment-for-citizenship program found that the government unlawfully granted passports to thousands of relatives of wealthy investors, some with shady pasts. DISY bore the brunt of the criticism because it backs the policies of Anastasiades, the party’s former leader.Christoforou said there are questions as to whether the government has breached rules by using state funds to campaign for DISY.
 
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Georgia’s main opposition party on Sunday announced the end of a months-long parliamentary boycott that has plunged the Caucasus nation into a spiraling political crisis, following disputed elections last year.Georgia’s opposition parties have denounced massive fraud in the October 31 parliamentary elections, which were won narrowly by the ruling Georgian Dream party.In the months since, they have staged numerous mass protests, demanding snap polls and refused to assume their seats in the newly elected parliament.The boycott that has left around 40 seats vacant in the 150-seat legislature weighed heavily on Georgian Dream’s political legitimacy.On Sunday, Georgia’s main opposition force — the United National Movement (UNM) founded by exiled ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili — said it had taken the decision to end the boycott.”We will enter parliament to liberate the Georgian state captured by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili,” UNM chairman Nika Melia told journalists.He was referring to the billionaire founder of the ruling party, who is widely believed to be the man in charge in Georgia, despite having no official political role.The post-electoral stalemate worsened in February after police arrested Melia in a violent raid on his party headquarters, leading to the prime minister’s resignation and prompting swift condemnation from the West.Melia was released from pre-trial detention in May, on bail posted by the European Union.The move was part of an agreement Georgian Dream and the opposition signed in April under the European Council President Charles Michel’s mediation.The deal commits opposition parties to enter parliament, while Georgian Dream has promised sweeping political, electoral and judicial reforms.In power since 2012, Georgian Dream and its founder Ivanishvili — Georgia’s richest man — have faced mounting criticism from the West over the country’s worsening democratic record.Critics accuse Ivanishvili of persecuting political opponents and creating a corrupt system where private interests permeate politics.
 
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The chief editor of a popular internet news site in one of Belarus’ largest cities was detained Sunday on suspicion of extremism. The arrest Sunday of Hrodna.life editor Aliaksei Shota comes amid a crackdown on independent journalists and opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The publication focuses on Belarus’ fifth-largest city, Grodno. City police said the website “posted information products that were duly recognized as extremist,” but didn’t give details. It wasn’t immediately clear if Shota had been formally charged with extremism, which can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Shota had collaborated with the country’s most popular internet portal Tut.by, which authorities closed this month after arresting 15 employees. Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich stands in an airport bus in the international airport outside Minsk, Belarus, May 23, 2021, in this photo released by Telegram Chanel t.me/motolkohelp. He was arrested shortly thereafter.Belarus’ crackdown escalated a week ago with the arrest of dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend who were aboard a commercial flight that was diverted to the Minsk airport because of an alleged bomb threat. The flight was flying over Belarus en route from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania. The move sparked wide denunciation in the West as an act of hijacking and demands for Pratasevich’s release. The European Union banned flights from Belarus. Pratasevich is charged with organizing riots, a charge that carries a potential sentence of 15 years. The day after his arrest, authorities released a brief video in which Pratasevich said he was confessing, but observers said the statement appeared to be forced. The Belarusian human rights group Viasna said Sunday that Pratasevich had received a package from his sister but that an unspecified book had been taken from it. Large protests broke out last August after a presidential election that officials said overwhelmingly gave a sixth term in office to Lukashenko, who has consistently repressed opposition since coming to power in 1994. Police detained more than 30,000 people in the course of the protests, which persisted for months. Although protests died down during the winter, authorities have continued strong actions against opposition supporters and independent journalists.  
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The Ukrainian ambassador to Thailand collapsed and died on Sunday while on a resort island with his family, authorities said.Andrii Beshta, 44, was declared dead on Lipe Island in southern Satun province, Gov. Ekkarat Leesen told The Associated Press.Police quoted his teenage son, who was staying in the same hotel room, as saying his father vomited and fainted early Sunday. He said he was feeling fine before. Police said they suspect he may have suffered a heart failure.Leesen said the body was sent to the police hospital for an autopsy.Beshta had assumed the post of ambassador in January 2016. He is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons, according to a bio on the embassy’s website.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson married his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, The Sun and Mail on Sunday newspapers reported.A spokeswoman for Johnson’s Downing Street office declined to comment on the reports.Both newspapers said that guests were invited at the last minute to the central London ceremony, and that even senior members of Johnson’s office were unaware of the wedding plans.Weddings in England are currently limited to 30 people because of COVID-19 restrictions.The Catholic cathedral was suddenly locked down at 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) and Symonds, 33, arrived 30 minutes later in a limo, in a long white dress with no veil, both reports said.Johnson, 56, and Symonds, 33, have been living together in Downing Street since Johnson became prime minister in 2019.Last year they announced they were engaged and that they were expecting a child, and their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was born in April 2020.Earlier this month the Sun had reported that wedding invitations had been sent to friends and family for July 2022.Johnson has a complicated private life. He was once sacked from the Conservative Party’s policy team while in opposition for lying about an extramarital affair. He has been divorced twice and refuses to say how many children he has fathered.Johnson’s last marriage was to Marina Wheeler, a lawyer. They had four children together but announced in September 2018 that they had separated.
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France reported Saturday that the number of people in intensive care units with COVID-19 had fallen by 76 to 3,028, while the overall number of people in hospital with the disease had fallen by 425 to 16,847.Both numbers have been on a downward trend in recent weeks.While reporting 10,675 new cases, the health ministry also announced 68 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals and said there had been 487,309 COVID-19 vaccine injections over the past 24 hours.
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Medics concerned about the effects on public health of environmental degradation marched Saturday on the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, demanding health authorities make climate change and biodiversity loss their top priorities.White-clad activists from the group Doctors for Extinction Rebellion marched from Geneva’s Place des Nations to WHO headquarters where they were met by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, and Maria Neira, director of environment, climate change and health.”The pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for climate change,” Tedros said as he welcomed the activists outside the building. “We have to act now, in solidarity, to prevent and prepare before it is too late.”
 
Professor Valerie D’Acremont, an infectious disease specialist and co-founder of Doctors For Extinction Rebellion, called on the WHO “to be the driving force and guarantor of public policies that respect the health of all and preserve life.”
 
The activists handed Tedros a letter and a large hourglass, the symbol of Extinction Rebellion which wants to prompt a wider revolt to avert the worst scenarios of devastation outlined by scientists studying climate change.
 
Tedros later retweeted a message from the WHO stating both bodies were “standing in solidarity & urging global action” to end the climate crisis and protect health everywhere. “These are inextricably intertwined.”
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Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in the southern Russian town of Sochi continued into a second day on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
 
Lukashenko flew into Russia on Friday for talks with Putin amid an uproar in Europe over the grounding of a passenger plane in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident blogger.
 
“Discussion between the two presidents continue today,” Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. 
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The United States on Friday announced punitive measures against Belarus targeting the regime of strongman President Alexander Lukashenko, who met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin amid a global outcry over the forced diversion of a European plane.White House press secretary Jen Psaki called for “a credible international investigation into the events of May 23,” which she called “a direct affront to international norms.”Belarus scrambled a military jet to divert a Ryanair plane and arrested 26-year-old opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich who was onboard, triggering a global outcry.The White House announced it was working with the European Union on a list of targeted sanctions against key members of Lukashenko’s regime.Meanwhile, economic sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises, reimposed by Washington in April following a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, will come into effect on June 3.Further U.S. moves on Belarus could target “those that support corruption, the abuse of human rights, and attacks on democracy,” Psaki said.The White House also issued a “Do Not Travel” warning for Belarus to U.S. citizens, and warned American passenger planes to “exercise extreme caution” if considering flying over Belarusian airspace.The European Union has also urged EU-based carriers to avoid Belarusian airspace.However, President Vladimir Putin celebrated Russia’s close ties with Belarus on Friday as he hosted Lukashenko in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.With observers closely watching the talks to see how far the Kremlin would go to support the regime, the Russian leader said he was “very glad” to see Lukashenko and agreed with him the Western reaction was an “outburst of emotion.”‘Rock the boat’Lukashenko complained the West was seeking to stir unrest in Belarus.”An attempt is underway to rock the boat to reach the level of last August,” he said, referring to anti-regime protests following a disputed election.”It’s clear what these Western friends want from us.”The Belarus strongman, who arrived with a briefcase, said he wanted to show Putin “some documents” related to the Ryanair incident and thanked him for his support in the latest standoff with the West.The talks lasted for more than five hours but their results were not announced.Over the past years Lukashenko has had a volatile relationship with Moscow, playing it off against the West and ruling out outright unification with Russia.But after the Ryanair plane incident his options appear to be limited.Putin and the Belarus leader have met regularly since August, when historic protests broke out against Lukashenko’s nearly three-decade rule.The 66-year-old waged a ruthless crackdown on his opponents and has leaned increasingly on the Russian president amid condemnation from the West.Several people died during the unrest in Belarus, thousands were detained, and hundreds reported torture in prison.Sunday’s plane diversion was a dramatic escalation, with EU leaders accusing Minsk of essentially hijacking a European flight to arrest Protasevich.Technical reasonsThe overflight ban has led to several cancellations of air journeys between Russia and Europe, after Russian authorities rejected planes that would have skipped Belarusian airspace.Russia insists the cancellations are purely “technical,” but they have raised concerns that Moscow could be systematically refusing to let European airlines land if they avoid Belarus.The Kremlin criticized the flight ban as politically motivated and dangerous, with foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova calling it “completely irresponsible.”EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was monitoring whether this was a broader policy from Russia, but Moscow insisted the disruptions were in no way political.Belarus authorities claimed to have received a bomb threat against the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying the dissident.Minsk said it demanded the flight land in the Belarus capital based on the message it said was sent from a ProtonMail address by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.Protasevich, who helped organize the demonstrations against Lukashenko’s rule last year, was arrested along with Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, after the plane landed in the city.’Braver’Borrell has said proposals are “on the table” to target key sectors of the Belarusian economy including its oil products and potash sectors.Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Friday urged the EU to be “braver” and impose more sanctions against the Minsk regime.After meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, Tikhanovskaya said measures being discussed by EU countries did not go far enough.EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday warned Lukashenko that “it is time to change course.””No amount of repression, brutality or coercion will bring any legitimacy to your authoritarian regime,” she said.The European Commission president also wrote to the opposition offering a 3-billion-euro package to support “a democratic Belarus” if Lukashenko steps down.
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The European Commission has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the pool of those eligible to be inoculated, following similar approvals in the United States and Canada.The commission made the announcement Friday after the European Union’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, recommended Friday the use of the vaccine in children ages 12-15, saying that data show it is safe and effective.”Extending the protection of a safe and effective vaccine in this younger population is an important step forward in the fight against this pandemic,” said Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of health threats and vaccines strategy.It is now up to individual EU states to decide whether and when to offer the vaccine to young adolescents.Germany and Italy have already said they are preparing to extend their vaccination campaign to youths ages 12-15.Also Friday, Britain approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. It is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine approved in the country, after inoculations made by Pfizer and BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna.French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Friday to help provide South Africa and other African countries with vaccine doses. During a visit to Pretoria, Macron said France would donate more than 30 million doses this year to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine initiative.According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, South Africa has so far vaccinated roughly 700,000 people out of its population of 40 million.In Australia, Melbourne went back under lockdown on Friday, as health authorities said a cluster of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases had increased to 39.Health officials have ordered residents to stay home for seven days to prevent the infection from spreading and allow time to investigate how the virus was transmitted from a man being quarantined at a hotel.The outbreak has been traced to an overseas traveler who was found to be infected with an Indian variant of the coronavirus.The acting premier of Australia’s southern state of Victoria, James Merlino, told reporters in Melbourne that the new outbreak is the result of “a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded.”Stores are closed during a lockdown to stop the spread of the new coronavirus in downtown Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, May 28, 2021.During the lockdown, residents will be allowed to leave their homes only for essential work, school, shopping, caregiving, exercise and medical reasons, including receiving their scheduled coronavirus vaccinations.The new lockdown is the fourth one imposed on Victoria state since the start of the pandemic. The most severe period occurred in mid-2020 and lasted more than three months as Victoria was in the grip of a wave of COVID-19 infections that killed more than 800 people.Merlino had already imposed a new set of restrictions for Australia’s second most populous state, including limiting the size of public gatherings and making mask wearing mandatory in restaurants, hotels and other indoor venues until June 4.In other developments Friday, India reported 186,364 new coronavirus infections during the previous 24 hours, its lowest daily rise since April 14. Deaths rose from the previous day to 3,660.In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said children at summer camp who are not vaccinated do not have to wear masks outside unless they are in crowds or in sustained close contact with others. The new guidance comes as millions of children are set to resume summer camp this summer after the closure of many camps last year due to the virus.Americans are celebrating the start of the Memorial Day weekend by hitting the roads and skies as they seek to cast off more than a year of pandemic restrictions and try to resume a sense of normalcy.U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urged Americans to be patient this weekend at busy airports.”People will see lines because there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people traveling this weekend,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday.More than 1.8 million people went through U.S. airports on Thursday, and that number is expected to rise over the weekend.Also in the United States, Facebook said it will no longer remove statements that COVID-19 was created by humans or manufactured “in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts.”A man in a protective suit stands next to the burning pyre of a person who died of COVID-19, at a crematorium in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, May 28, 2021.Since the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, Facebook has changed its policy several times on what is and is not allowed on the topic. Another claim banned from discussion on the platform is the notion that vaccines are toxic or not effective.The American Civil Liberties Union requested Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “provide immediate vaccine access to the more than 22,100 people in ICE custody.””Over the course of the pandemic, ICE detention facilities have been some of the worst hotspots for the spread of COVID-19, with positivity rates five times greater than prisons and 20 times greater than the general U.S. population,” said the ACLU’s Eunice Cho.
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An increasingly influential Polish Catholic legal institute on Friday inaugurated a university in Warsaw that aims to educate a new generation of conservative lawyers in central Europe who it hopes will also shape wider European culture.The institute, Ordo Iuris, works to promote conservative causes, including restrictions on abortion and opposition to same-sex legal unions as it seeks to support traditional family structures. It successfully lobbied for the recent restriction of abortion rights in Poland and is spearheading efforts aimed at persuading countries not to ratify the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty against domestic violence, due to objections over how the treaty depicts gender relations in the family.Jerzy Kwasniewski, a Warsaw lawyer who heads Ordo Iuris, said that the university, Collegium Intermarium, is meant to be a space of free academic inquiry at a time of perceived censorship in traditional academic settings that he argued overwhelmingly targets and silences conservative thinkers.Kwasniewski also described the college as a counterweight to existing institutions, including the Central European University, which was founded by the liberal Hungarian American investor George Soros and which recently relocated from Budapest to Vienna under pressure from Hungary’s nationalist conservative government.”We all hope that Collegium Intermarium will bring change to the academic sphere of central Europe,” he said.A larger ambitionIntermarium (Latin for “between the seas”) is a historical term that refers to a swath of central Europe between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas. It’s a region of ex-communist countries that are largely more conservative than those in Western Europe, and it’s where nationalist parties have seen their support grow in recent years.The name points to a larger ambition, with Kwasniewski saying he also hopes the institution will allow conservatives from central Europe to one day shape the more secular culture dominant in the European Union.”We don’t follow the French way of a division between church and state. We rather follow the more American way of an alliance of the spiritual with the republic,” Kwasniewski told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the university’s inauguration conference. “We are not able to follow the motto of the European Union, ‘United in diversity,’ without acknowledging the diversity of different cultural spheres of Europe.”The Polish culture and education ministers praised the university as a place that will nurture Europe’s traditional Christian and classical traditions, while a letter was read out from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, underscoring the conservative government’s support for the new institution. Representatives of the Hungarian government also voiced their support.The former Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, spoke about his support for strengthening nation states in the face of an EU which he accused of eroding freedoms. He also denounced the cultural changes in the West since the liberal revolution of the 1960s, saying that since then, “generations were born who do not understand the meaning of our civilizational, cultural and ethical heritage and are deprived of a moral compass guiding their behavior.”Viewed with suspicionOrdo Iuris is viewed with suspicion by LGBT and women’s rights groups, which accuse the Catholic group of being part of an international network seeking to erode the rights they have gained in recent decades.Ordo Iuris successfully backed a successful effort to restrict abortion rights in Poland. It provided legal arguments to the constitutional court, which ruled last year that abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities are not constitutional. The result is that Polish women are now required to carry very sick or even unviable fetuses to term — a ruling that in practice drives more women to have abortions abroad. The ruling sparked weeks of mass protests in the country, which already had one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.The institute has worked across the region, for instance assisting a Romanian group that successfully lobbied to block the legalization of same-sex unions.Neil Datta, the head of the Brussels-based European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights who has extensively researched Ordo Iuris, says he believes the university will become a center for training “a new cadre of elites that basically can transform and whitewash far-right thinking so it appears professional and acceptable in a certain political discourse.”He said the plan reminds him of what happened in the United States, where the Christian right years ago began funding universities that over time produced new elites with influence at think tanks and in politics.”This is a first step in the same thing,” Datta said.Ordo Iuris members say the group is unfairly portrayed by activists and the media.Kwasniewski told the AP that the group is not against women, arguing that the institute includes many women and that its anti-abortion position is a human rights position.”Abortion is not about women’s rights. Abortion is also performed on girls in the prenatal stage of development. It’s just about the violation of the right to life,” he said.The university will offer accredited degrees at the master’s level in law, with the curriculum to include related subjects such as philosophy. It plans to offer a doctorate program in four to five years. It will be privately funded at first but plans to seek public funding in the future, Kwasniewski said.
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Russia refused to allow two EU-based airlines to land flights in the country to avoid Belarusian airspace days after Belarus scrambled a fighter jet and used a false bomb alert to divert an Irish passenger jet to Minsk and arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist.  Russia’s decision, an apparent show of support for Belarus, forced the cancellation of an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna and an Air France flight from Paris, the airlines said. European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell said before an EU defense ministers meeting Friday in Lisbon that the EU had yet to determine if the refusals were isolated incidents or if Russia was systematically refusing to allow European airlines to land if they avoided Belarus. “We don’t know if it is case-by-case, specific cases, or is a general norm from the Russian authorities in order to make the European planes overfly Belarus,” Borrell said. Russia’s federal aviation agency has told airlines that route changes from Europe to Russia were due to political disputes involving Belarus and that they may cause longer clearance times. The Kremlin described Friday’s issues as “technical.” 
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Friday in South Africa for a lightning trip to discuss COVID vaccine access for Africa, aides said. Macron arrived from a historic visit to Rwanda where he acknowledged French responsibility in the 1994 genocide. Landing in Johannesburg, he headed for the capital Pretoria where he was to be welcomed by Cyril Ramaphosa at Union Buildings, the seat of government.  The pair will launch a program at the University of Pretoria to support African vaccine production, a project backed by the European Union, United States and World Bank. The leaders, say Ramaphosa’s office, are also expected to discuss a temporary waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) property rights over coronavirus vaccine. The idea is being pushed by South Africa and India, which say the waiver will spur vaccine production in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind the rest of the world with vaccination — less than two percent of its population has been immunized six months after the campaign started. FILE- Health care workers await doses to start vaccinating people with Pfizer vaccines at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston, South Africa, May 17, 2021.Ramaphosa this month sounded the alarm about what he called “vaccine apartheid” between rich countries and poor ones. Pharma companies oppose the waiver, saying it could sap incentives for future research and development. They also point out that manufacturing a vaccine requires know-how and technical resources — something that cannot be acquired at the flip of a switch. Macron’s approach is to push for a transfer of technology to enable production sites in poorer countries. The industry “is highly concentrated in the United States, Europe, Asia and a little bit in Latin America,” a Macron aide said. “Africa today produces very few anti-COVID productions, and most notably no vaccine at the present time.” COVID-19 hit South Africa is the continent’s most industrialized economy, but also its worst-hit by COVID. The country has recorded more than 1.6 million cases of Africa’s 4.7 million infections and accounts for more than 40 percent of its nearly 130,000 fatalities. FILE – Health care workers look through a window during the rollout of the first batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines in the country, at a hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, Feb, 17 2021.But just one percent of its population of 59 million have been vaccinated — most of them health workers and people aged 60 or above. The immunization effort got off to a stuttering start when South Africa purchased AstraZeneca vaccines earlier this year and then sold them to other African countries following fears that they would be less effective. Then, after it started inoculating health workers, using Johnson & Johnson jabs, it had to pause for two weeks mid-April to vet risks over blood clots that had been reported in the US. Delayed trip Macron’s trip was scheduled to have taken place more than a year ago but was postponed as the pandemic shifted into higher gear. His push for the visit stems from the fact that South Africa “is a major partner on the continent, a member of the G20, it’s regularly invited to the G-7 — it’s essential in the approach to multilateralism,” one of his aides said before the trip. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron talk during a welcoming ceremony at the government’s Union Buildings, in Pretoria, May 28, 2021.Macron will also make a pitch for French business in South Africa, especially in climate-friendly sectors. The two will also discuss the security crisis in northern Mozambique, where a bloody jihadist insurgency is now in its fourth year. The French energy giant Total last month suspended work on a massive $20 billion gas project in Cabo Delgado province after jihadists attacked the nearby town of Palma. Before flying home Saturday, Macron will talk to members of the French community and, like many VIPs before him, visit the Nelson Mandela Foundation. 
 
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President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has threatened to retaliate for any European Union sanctions imposed on him for detaining two opposition activists after forcing their plane to land in Minsk earlier this week.Hours before a scheduled meeting in the Russian seaside resort of Sochi with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, his only major international ally, the Belarusian leader warned he would allow migrants and drugs to pour into western Europe. The 66-year-old said, “We stopped drugs and migrants. Now you will eat them and catch them yourselves.”In a show of support for Lukashenko, Russia has been refusing permission for some European passenger jets to enter its airspace after airlines, following EU guidance, ordered their planes to alter their usual flight paths and bypass Belarus, depriving the Belarusian government of millions of dollars in flyover fees.Austria Thursday condemned Moscow’s decision to cancel the Vienna-Moscow service as “absolutely incomprehensible.”“It is in the interests of both Austria and Russia that all flights to and via Russia can continue to be carried out without any problems,” the Austrian foreign ministry said in a statement. Lukashenko also sought Thursday to play down the impact of any possible EU economic sanctions, saying, “We’ll substitute Europe, which is growing mercilessly old, for rapidly growing Asia.” He continued to maintain that Belarus diverted Sunday’s Ryanair’s Athens-Vilnius flight because of a bomb threat against the flight by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Belarus Opposition Leader Alleges Journalist from Diverted Plane Beaten in DetentionOpposition blogger Raman Pratasevich was arrested Sunday after a Belarussian fighter jet forced a passenger plane in which he was traveling to land in MinskThe claim is dismissed by Hamas, and by Western governments, which say the forced landing of the Ryanair plane amounted to “state-sponsored hijacking.” Opposition activists 26-year-old Roman Pratasevich, a blogger, and 23-year-old Sofia Sapega, a law student and Russian national, were taken from the plane and arrested when it landed in the Belarusian capital. Both are accused of a variety of offenses, including inciting rallies against Lukashenko in the wake of last August’s presidential election, which was widely denounced by Western powers as rigged and fraudulent.European leaders have expressed outrage at the diversion of the Ryanair flight between two EU capitals and on Monday EU leaders discussed the incident at a summit, with European Council President Charles Michel saying in a statement the Belarus action “will not remain without consequences.” During an informal meeting in Lisbon Thursday, EU foreign ministers planned the steps to take in addition to the ban on EU-based airlines using Belarusian airspace. The proposals being discussed focus on economic and sector-specific sanctions, EU officials told VOA.“We will continue to look at what consequences [sanctions] will have in Belarus, whether Lukashenko will give in. And if this is not the case, we have to assume that this will be only the beginning of a big and long spiral of sanctions,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. Maas said sanctions must be made “effective” by targeting business sectors that are important to Belarus’ economy. He cited the potassium and phosphate sectors.“There is also the question to what extent Belarus should still be allowed to issue government bonds by the Belarusian state or by the Central Bank in Europe in the future,” he added. He said Lukashenko’s behavior was “so unacceptable,” the EU should not be satisfied with small steps.Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters Thursday, “We could talk about [sanctions on] the oil production sector.” Foreign ministers of the G-7 countries have separately called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Protasevich and Sapega “as well as all other journalists and political prisoners held in Belarus.” “We will enhance our efforts, including through further sanctions as appropriate, to promote accountability for the actions of the Belarusian authorities,” the G-7 group said in a statement.There are splits among Western governments about how severe sanctions should be, though, with some arguing that a balance must be struck between punishing the Belarusian authorities while avoiding driving the country deeper into the arms of  Putin, who Lukashenko is economically and militarily heavily reliant on.  Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has publicly advocated moderation, fearing deep and wide sanctions risk harming ordinary Belarusians without deterring Lukashenko.“We must also be careful that we do not hit people in Belarus,” he said. Estonia’s foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets, appeared to echo those sentiments, telling reporters in Lisbon she hopes sanctions can be focused on “companies which are close to the Belarusian regime.”Some Western analysts say fears of driving Lukashenko further into the Russian fold are misplaced. The diversion of the Ryanair flight, said Keir Giles of Britain’s Chatham House, “could be no clearer statement that President Lukashenko has turned his back on the West and abandoned any restraint or concern for international censure.”“Four years ago,” he added, “Belarus was still ostensibly nurturing a fragile form of independence, maintaining a degree of willfulness in its independent foreign policy from Russia, trying to quietly grow ties with the West while not alienating President Putin, and resisting Moscow’s attempts to take over the military defense of Belarusian territory.” Now, however, Giles said he believes “Lukashenko has placed all his bets on Moscow and Russia.”Russian officials have backed Lukashenko but initially did so softly, possibly because, some Western diplomats suspect, the Kremlin was trying to take stock of what the implications could be for the just-agreed summit meeting next month between U.S. President Joe Biden and Putin, the first face-to-face encounter between the pair since Biden was elected president.Biden, Putin Agree to June 16 Summit in GenevaWhite House says it hopes US, Russia will ‘restore predictability and stability’ to their relationshipThe editor-in-chief of state-controlled Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, said, at the start of the week, that Lukashenko “played it beautifully,” but top Kremlin officials were less forthcoming initially, with Putin’s spokesman declining press requests to comment, until Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov characterized Lukashenko’s actions “absolutely reasonable.” Lavrov called on other countries “to soberly assess the situation.” Lukashenko’s relationship with Putin has long been a fitful one, with the two frequently falling out. Lukashenko has relied on financial subsidies and oil supplies from Russia. A senior Russian diplomat based in Minsk once described to VOA a “shouting match” he overheard during a phone conversation between them.  The dispute was over the Belarusian leader’s resistance to Putin’s goal of closer integration between Russia and its onetime Soviet satellite, he said.  Analysts say Putin’s major Belarus objective is to ensure — much as his goal is with Ukraine — that it doesn’t end up as a pro-Western enclave on Russia’s borders. The Belarusian leader has long played the West against Russia and vice versa. He observed a neutral stance over Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.Western diplomats say it is irrelevant whether Russia is full-throated in backing Lukashenko or more vocally restrained. Either way Lukashenko has no one else to turn to now for support. They note since the August election, and the mass protests of his continued rule, he has been keener for closer cooperation between his military and Russia’s. That has seen the establishment of joint military training centers and planning for a massive joint military exercise in September, known as Zapad-2021.
 
Before departing Friday for Sochi, Lukashenko said he would be discussing with Putin restoring commercial air services between Russia and Belarus suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kremlin officials said discussions would focus on forming closer economic ties between the two countries.
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Morocco’s ambassador to Spain has threatened more reprisals against Madrid over its decision to allow a Western Sahara independence leader to be treated in a Spanish hospital.  
 
Karima Benyaich said elements in the Spanish government did not take the interests of Morocco into account, despite assurances from Madrid that Spain wants to move on from the crisis that led to thousands of migrants flooding into Spain’s North African enclave, Ceuta, last week.  
 
Morocco is suspected of opening the borders to the would-be migrants.   
 
Analysts have suggested the threatened further reprisals could mean Rabat will not cooperate in anti-terrorist operations.  
Thursday a Spanish court jailed three men of Moroccan origin for up to 53 years for playing a part in the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attacks which killed 16 people.    
 
Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali will appear before a Spanish court on June 1 to answer torture charges brought by a Western Sahara dissident group.  The front represents the Sahrawi people who are native to the Western Sahara territory.
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The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders, the State Department said.U.S. officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the administration had decided not to reenter the Open Skies Treaty, which had allowed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries before President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact. As a presidential candidate, Biden had criticized Trump’s withdrawal as “short-sighted.”Thursday’s decision means only one major arms control treaty between the nuclear powers — the New START treaty — will remain in place. Trump had done nothing to extend New START, which would have expired earlier this year, but after taking office, the Biden administration moved quickly to extend it for five years and opened a review into Trump’s Open Skies Treaty withdrawal.The officials said that the review had been completed and that Sherman had informed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov of the U.S. decision not to return to the 1992 Open Skies Treaty. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department later announced the move.“The United States regrets that the Treaty on Open Skies has been undermined by Russia’s violations,” the department said. “In concluding its review of the treaty, the United States therefore does not intend to seek to rejoin it, given Russia’s failure to take any actions to return to compliance. Further, Russia’s behavior, including its recent actions with respect to Ukraine, is not that of a partner committed to confidence-building.”June meeting in GenevaThe announcement comes ahead of a meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. They will try to find common ground amid a sharp deterioration in ties that have sunk relations to their lowest point in decades. Yet, Biden, who had supported the treaty as a senator, had been highly critical of Trump’s pullout.“In announcing the intent to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, President Trump has doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership,” then-candidate Biden said in May 2020.The Open Skies Treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty since it took effect in 2002, aimed at fostering transparency and allowing for the monitoring of arms control and other agreements.The Trump administration announced the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty last year, and the lower house of Russia’s parliament voted last week to follow suit. But until Thursday, the two sides had said the treaty could still be salvaged. Russian officials said they were willing to reconsider their withdrawal if the U.S. did the same.The upper house of Russia’s parliament, the Federation Council, was expected to approve the withdrawal bill on June 2, and once Putin signed the measure, it would take six months for the Russian exit to take effect.A trust-building measureThursday’s notification, however, appears to mark the end of the treaty, which was broadly supported by U.S. allies in Europe and Democrats in Congress as a trust-building measure between the former Cold War adversaries.In pulling out of the pact, Trump argued that Russian violations made it untenable for Washington to remain a party to the agreement. Washington completed its withdrawal from the treaty in November, but the Biden administration had said it was not opposed to rejoining it.The officials stressed the Biden administration’s willingness to cooperate with Russia on issues of mutual concern and noted the extension of New START, which was initially signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.However, the officials said that despite appeals for Russia to abide by the Open Skies Treaty, there was no practical way for the U.S. to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw. One official said that since Biden had taken office, Russia had demonstrated a “complete absence of progress” in taking steps to return to compliance.The officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior American officials had warned their Russian counterparts in the past week that a decision on Open Skies was imminent. Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Iceland last week, and Sullivan spoke with Putin’s national security adviser, Nikolay Patrushev, on Monday.Moscow had deplored the U.S. pullout, warning that it would erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly amid heightened Russia-West tensions over myriad issues, including Ukraine, cyber malfeasance and the treatment of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his supporters.Leading congressional Democrats and members of the European Union had urged the U.S. to reconsider its exit and called on Russia to stay in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.Russia had insisted the restrictions on observation flights it imposed in the past were permissible under the treaty and noted that the U.S. imposed more sweeping restrictions on observation flights over Alaska.As a condition for staying in the pact after the U.S. pullout, Moscow had unsuccessfully pushed for guarantees from NATO allies that they wouldn’t hand over the data collected during their observation flights over Russia to the U.S.
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Germany for the first time on Friday recognized it had committed genocide in Namibia during its colonial occupation, with Berlin promising financial support worth more than one billion euros to aid projects in the African nation.Namibia on Friday welcomed Germany’s acknowledgment it had committed genocide in the southwestern African country during its 20th century colonial occupation.”The acceptance on the part of Germany that a genocide was committed is the first step in the right direction,” President Hage Geingob’s spokesperson Alfredo Hengari told AFP.German colonial settlers killed tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people in 1904-08 massacres — labelled the first genocide of the 20th century by historians — poisoning relations between Namibia and Germany for years.While Berlin had previously acknowledged that atrocities occurred at the hands of its colonial authorities, they have repeatedly refused to pay direct reparations.”We will now officially refer to these events as what they are from today’s perspective: genocide,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a statement.He hailed the agreement after more than five years of negotiations with Namibia over events in the territory held by Berlin from 1884-1915.”In light of the historical and moral responsibility of Germany, we will ask forgiveness from Namibia and the victims’ descendants” for the “atrocities” committed, Maas said.In a “gesture to recognize the immense suffering inflicted on the victims”, the country will support the “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia via a financial program of $1.34 billion, he said.The sum will be paid over 30 years, according to sources close to the negotiations, and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama.However, he specified that the payment does not open the way to any “legal request for compensation.”Rebellion, reprisalsNamibia was called German South West Africa during Berlin’s 1884-1915 rule, and then fell under South African rule for 75 years, before finally gaining independence in 1990.Tensions boiled over in 1904 when the Herero — deprived of their livestock and land — rose up, followed shortly after by the Nama, in an insurrection crushed by German imperial troops.In the Battle of Waterberg in August 1904 around 80,000 Herero, including women and children, fled and were pursued by German troops across what is now known as the Kalahari Desert. Only 15,000 survived.German General Lothar von Trotha, sent to put down the rebellion, ordered the peoples’ extermination.At least 60,000 Hereros and around 10,000 Namas were killed between 1904 and 1908.Colonial soldiers carried out mass executions; exiled men, women, and children to the desert where thousands died of thirst; and established infamous concentration camps, such as the one on Shark Island.’Overcome the past’The atrocities committed during colonization have poisoned relations between Berlin and Windhoek for years.In 2015, the two countries started negotiating an agreement that would combine an official apology by Germany as well as development aid.But in August last year, Namibia said that Germany’s offered reparations were unacceptable. No details of the offer were provided at the time.President Hage Geingob had noted Berlin declined to accept the term “reparations,” as that word was also avoided during the country’s negotiations with Israel after the Holocaust.But in an effort to ease reconciliation, in 2018 Germany returned the bones of members of the Herero and Nama tribes, with the then foreign minister Michelle Muentefering asking for “forgiveness from the bottom of my heart.”
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Federal prosecutors are investigating whether current and former Ukrainian officials unlawfully interfered in the U.S. presidential election, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.The criminal investigation includes examining whether the Ukrainian officials used Rudolph Giuliani, then personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, to spread misleading claims about current President Joe Biden, The New York Times reported.The inquiry, which began during the final months of the Trump administration, is being handled by federal prosecutors in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the newspaper reported, and is separate from an ongoing criminal investigation into Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine.Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York are investigating whether the Ukrainian officials tried to influence the Nov. 3 election by spreading claims of corruption about Biden through a number of channels, including Giuliani, the newspaper reported. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.One of the officials being investigated is a Ukrainian member of parliament named Andriy Derkach, the newspaper reported.The U.S. Treasury Department previously sanctioned Derkach, identifying him as an “active Russian agent for over a decade.”Giuliani, who The New York Times said has not been accused of wrongdoing in this investigation, has previously denied representing any Ukrainians.The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Giuliani, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Giuliani’s business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs while he was working as Trump’s lawyer are the subject of a probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Federal agents searched his home and office in April, seizing phones and computers.Giuliani has denied allegations in that probe, and his lawyers have suggested the investigation is politically motivated. 
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Germany and Norway on Thursday officially launched an undersea power cable between the two countries in a project that aids Europe’s effort to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, along with other government and industry officials, took part in a virtual ceremony to symbolically throw the switch on the more than $2.2 billion project. The 623-kilometer cable has been operational for at least a month but was formally opened Thursday.Workers on Nexans Skagerrak vessel lay a NordLink subsea interconnector power cable to connect Norway and Germany at the Vollesfjord fjord near Flekkefjord, Norway May 31, 2018.The cable, known as NordLink, allows an exchange of green energy between the two countries, allowing solar- and wind-generated electricity from Germany to flow to Norway, which will send back power generated largely from hydroelectric plants at water reservoirs. It will also fill gaps that occur because of fluctuations in wind and solar supplies.During the virtual ceremony, Merkel called it a good day for German-Norwegian cooperation. “Germany and Norway are moving closer together, and NordLink is a fantastic success for the energy cooperation of our two countries.” She said the project also represents a milestone in international energy cooperation.Interconnectivity between different countries is one of the central pillars of the European Union’s climate strategy. Similar cross-border projects are running between Norway and the Netherlands, the Netherlands and Britain, and Denmark and the Netherlands.NordLink will help Germany reach its carbon dioxide emissions reduction goals. The German government recently announced that it aims to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2045. Germany is closing its last nuclear plants next year and phasing out the use of coal by 2038. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron was in Rwanda’s capital Thursday, where he acknowledged France’s role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and said he hoped for forgiveness.  Speaking alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the Gisozi genocide memorial in Kigali, Macron said, “I hereby humbly and with respect stand by your side today, I come to recognize the extent of our responsibilities.”Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans.  The visit follows the release in March of a French inquiry panel report saying a colonial attitude had blinded French officials, and the government bore a “serious and overwhelming” responsibility for not foreseeing the slaughter.But the report absolved France of direct complicity in the genocide, a point Macron made in his comments, saying “France was not an accomplice,” but that his nation “has a role, a history and a political responsibility in Rwanda.”Rwanda released its own report that found France was aware a genocide was being prepared and bore responsibility for enabling it by continuing in its unwavering support for Rwanda’s then president, Juvenal Habyarimana.It was the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane, killing the president, that launched the 100-day frenzy of killings.Macron said only those who survived the genocide “could perhaps forgive, and so could give us the gift of forgiving ourselves,” and repeated, in Rwanda’s native language, the phrase “Ndibuka,” meaning “I remember.”Rwanda’s Kagame called Macron’s speech “powerful,” and said his words were something more than an apology. “They were the truth. Speaking the truth is risky, but you do it because it is right, even when it costs you something, even when it is unpopular,” he said.Macron said he proposed to Kagame the naming of a French ambassador to Rwanda, a post that has been vacant for six years. He said filling the post and normalizing relations between the nations could not be envisioned without the step he took on Thursday. 
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British Health Minister Matt Hancock rejected allegations Thursday he had repeatedly lied during his response to the COVID-19 pandemic made by Dominic Cummings, a former top aide of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.In testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday, Cummings accused Hancock of lying to the public and said he “should have been fired” for testing failures that saw patients with the coronavirus discharged from hospitals to nursing homes, and also for lying about the status of the pandemic to Parliament and the public. Addressing Parliament’s House of Commons, Hancock called Cummings’ allegations “serious” but “unsubstantiated and not true.” He said the government has published the full details of how his office worked with nursing homes “as much as possible to keep people safe, and we followed the clinical advice on the appropriate way forward.”The United Kingdom has recorded almost 128,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe, and experienced one of the world’s deepest recessions in 2020 as three successive lockdowns hobbled the economy.A mass vaccination campaign that started in December has brought infections and fatalities down sharply, though the U.K. is now reckoning with a more transmissible new strain of the virus first identified in India.The government said it will begin an independent public inquiry into its handling of the pandemic within the next year. 
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Turkey’s foreign minister is scheduled to hold talks in Athens with his Greek counterpart Monday in the latest efforts to deescalate tensions between the two NATO members.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu rebuked his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias at a press conference in Ankara last month.  The very public argument over who was to blame for the lack of progress in resolving the countries’ differences underscores the scale of the ministers’ task when they meet in Athens Monday, says Cengiz Aktar of the Athens University. “I think the Greeks are very realistic,” he said. “They, of course, prefer to talk, that’s what they said right from the beginning. But what we know is that the disagreements are there to stay. There is no development whatsoever on the numerous, countless issues and the problems that exist between the two countries.”Turkey and Greece are contesting territorial waters between the countries which are believed to have vast energy reserves. Last year, the Greek and Turkish navies faced off against each another.  FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks with Turkish drilling ship, Fatih, in background, in Istanbul, Aug. 21, 2020.In a sign of renewed tensions, Turkey has announced it may resume drilling for energy in waters claimed by Greece. Adding to the friction, Ankara accuses Athens of breaking international law by pushing back refugees entering Greek waters from Turkey.  Greece denies the charge, accusing Turkey of reneging on a refugee deal with the European Union. Earlier this month, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accused Greece of sabotaging diplomatic efforts to resolve differences. Akar said Turkey is in favor of a peaceful resolution of these problems within the framework of international law and good neighborly relations by talking and negotiating with its Greek neighbors.  However, he accused those neighbors of — in his words —  “doing their best to sabotage the positive state of affairs with their actions and discourse.” A Turkish presidential advisor says he believes Greece is increasingly emboldened because of growing support from Washington. The U.S. has traditionally played the role of an honest broker between the NATO members.  But U.S.-Turkish relations are currently strained over Turkey’s deepening ties to Moscow.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.Ilhan Uzgel, an analyst for the Turkish news portal Duvar, says the expanding military cooperation between Greece and the United States could usurp Turkey as the primary host for U.S. military bases in the region, a prospect Ankara fears could change the balance of power. “What Washington is trying to do, is [say] that ‘you are not irreplaceable,’ that Turkey can be substituted that [there] may be some alternatives. The United States can have a military base in Alexandroupoli in Greece and in Crete. This psychology diminishes the bargaining power of Turkey,” he said.   The Turkish military dwarfs its Greek counterpart, but Athens is embarking on a modernization of its military, including the United States’ latest F-35 fighter jet, which Washington refuses to sell to Turkey because of Ankara’s purchase of a Russian missile system.  
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The parents of the young opposition activist and blogger detained in Minsk after the passenger jet he was on board was forced to land in the Belarusian capital earlier this week are pleading for the international community to help free their son.“I’m asking, I’m begging, I’m calling on the whole international community to save him,” Raman Pratasevich’s mother, Natalia, told AFP. Speaking from her home in Poland, she added, “Please save him. They’re going to kill him there.”“They sent a fighter jet to get this young man! It’s an act of terrorism — I don’t think you can call it anything else. He’s been taken hostage. This is an act of pure revenge!” she said.Her husband, Dmitry Pratasevich, a former soldier, said: “His lawyer tried to see him today but she was turned down. She could not see him. We still don’t know if he is in there, what his condition is, how he is feeling.”Their anguish was matched by the mother of Sofia Sapega, another opposition activist, who was also removed from the Ryanair flight in Minsk. A video of Sapega, a Russian national and friend of Pratasevich, was released Tuesday by Belarusian authorities as they announced she would be held for at least two months.FILE – Student Sofia Sapega is pictured in Gothenburg, Sweden, in this undated photo taken in 2019.In the video, Sapega, according to her mother, appears to be confessing to editing an opposition Telegram channel that publishes personal information of Belarusian policemen. Her mother said it appeared she was speaking under duress for the video, in which she provides her personal details and says she edited a platform “which publishes the personal information of officials from internal affairs bodies.”Sofia’s mother, Anna Dudich, told Russian television she was “shocked” by the video. “Either I’m confused, or it’s a dream, or it’s a setup,” Dudich said. She told Western media outlets that her daughter was talking in an unusual manner. “She sways, eyes in the sky — as if afraid of forgetting something.” Dudich added: “We are now packing warm clothes. We will go to Minsk. I want to try to give her a parcel. I saw she only had a thin jacket.”Sapega and Pratasevich were detained Sunday when the Ryanair plane they were flying on from Athens to Vilnius was diverted by Belarus authorities to land in Minsk. Western countries, including the United States, have accused Belarus of committing air piracy and hijacking the Ryanair plane after it was rerouted over a false bomb threat.FILE – The Boeing 737-8AS Ryanair passenger plane that was intercepted and diverted to Minsk by Belarus authorities lands at Vilnius International Airport, its initial destination, in Lithuania, May 23, 2021.Sapega’s lawyer, Alexander Filanovich, told RBC, a Russian news outlet, that Sapega was interrogated Tuesday and charged with criminal offenses. Russian foreign ministry officials say she’s being charged with “committing crimes under several articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus during the period from August to September 2020.” That was during the height of nationwide protests against the fifth re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.The Belarusian opposition and Western nations have condemned the election as rigged.Sapega’s mother said her daughter was in Lithuania at the time and wasn’t involved in the demonstrations in Belarus. Sapega, who is also a student at the European Humanities University, EHU, in Lithuania, and Pratasevich, 26, face stiff penalties if convicted. Pratasevich, whom Belarusian authorities have placed on a terrorism list on the ground that he incited mass protests, could be handed a death sentence, opposition groups fear. Some analysts say a 15-year prison term is more likely.TortureExiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told a news conference Tuesday that a video of Pratasevich released by Belarusian authorities suggested he had been tortured. “He said that he was treated lawfully, but he’s clearly beaten and under pressure. There is no doubt that he was tortured. He was taken hostage,” she told reporters in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko takes his oath of office during his inauguration at the Palace of the Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Both activists are being held in the Okrestina pre-trial detention center in Minsk, where thousands of anti-Lukashenko protesters and activists have been detained the past few months. Belarusian and international rights groups, including Amnesty International, say many detainees arrested for protesting are beaten and tortured in the center, which is overseen by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, part of the country’s interior ministry.Rights groups have documented three rapes. And in October 2020, opposition groups released a video purportedly showing fresh detainees being beaten in so-called “welcome parades.”At a meeting in Brussels on Monday,  leaders of the 27 European Union member states called for all EU-based airlines to cease all flights over Belarus, and they promised further economic sanctions.Ukraine’s responseSeparately, Belarusian neighbor Ukraine has suspended all air travel with Belarus, and the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, has ordered all Ukrainian airlines to avoid flying in Belarusian airspace, which will add, according to Ukrainian Airlines, 40 minutes to flights from Kyiv heading to the Baltic states and Finland.”Belarusian authorities stop at nothing in persecuting dissenters. Even its airspace is unsafe now,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “Ukraine has always been interested in a democratic Belarus where human rights are respected.”The EU and Ukraine air bans will result in a loss to Belarus of about $70 million in overflight fees, civil aviation associations reckon.
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Myanmar’s army has lost a source of revenue as French energy giant Total said Wednesday that cash payments to a joint venture with the army have been suspended due to unrest in the country. Total has come under pressure from pro-democracy activists to “stop financing the junta” since a military coup in February which has been followed by a brutal crackdown on dissent. More than 800 people have been killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group. Total said in a statement that the decision to suspend payments was made at a May 12 meeting of shareholders of Moattama Gas Transportation Company Limited (MGTC), the joint venture which owns a pipeline linking the Yadana gas field and Thailand. The suspension was proposed by Total, which holds a 31 percent stake in MGTC and US partner Chevron (28 percent). Thai firm PTTEP holds a quarter of the company while 15 percent is held by military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). MOGE generates annual revenues of around $1 billion from the sale of natural gas. “In light of the unstable context in Myanmar… cash distributions to the shareholders of the company have been suspended” effective from April 1, Total said. It added that it “condemns the violence and human rights abuses occurring in Myanmar” and would comply with any potential sanctions against the junta from the EU or U.S. The MGTC pipeline brings gas from the offshore Yadana field operated by Total to Myanmar’s border with Thailand. Total said it would continue to produce gas so as not to disrupt electricity supply in either country. Total paid around $230 million to the Myanmar authorities in 2019 and another $176 million in 2020 in the form of taxes and “production rights,” according to the company’s own financial statements. French newspaper Le Monde detailed Total’s involvement in MGTC in early May, also reporting that the company was based in tax haven Bermuda. “The colossal profits of the gas operations do not pass through the coffers of the Myanmar state, but are massively recuperated by a company totally controlled by the military,” Le Monde found.  Days after publishing the story, Le Monde said Total pulled several adverts it had planned to run in its pages in the following weeks. Foreign firms NGOs have urged foreign companies to review their presence in Myanmar as the military dramatically ramped up its use of lethal force against protesters. The junta has vested interests in large swathes of the country’s economy, from mining to banking, oil and tourism. French energy giant EDF suspended activities in the country, where it is involved in a $1.5 billion project to build a hydroelectric dam. Japanese automaker Suzuki also halted operations at its two local plants shortly after the military coup. The factories assembled 13,300 vehicles in 2019, primarily for the domestic market.  But Suzuki, present in Myanmar since 1998, reopened the facilities again a few days later and intends to build a third production site in the country.  Myanmar is also a key manufacturer in the clothing industry and groups such as Italy’s Benetton and Sweden’s H&M have suspended all new orders from the country. Japanese brewer Kirin said it would cut business ties with the military with which it operates two local breweries, accusing the junta of acting “in contradiction” to its principles on human rights.  But the firm said it currently has no intention to pull out completely from a market that accounts for around two percent of its overall turnover. 
 
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