Kosovo is going to the polls Sunday in an early parliamentary election after the country’s Constitutional Court invalidated the vote to confirm the government formed by the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK.More than 1,000 candidates from 28 political groups are competing for the 120 seats in the legislative body, 10 of which belong to Serbian community and 10 to other minorities.Some 1.8 million people are eligible to vote, including about 100,000 in the diaspora.Last year, the LDK forced a vote in parliament to bring down the 4-month-old government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti of Vetevendosje, the Self-Determination Movement, and replace it with the government of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti of the LDK.In December, Kosovo’s Constitutional Court supported a Vetevendosje challenge of a vote by a convicted lawmaker that helped confirm the Hoti government.Sunday’s vote is held against an economic downturn caused primarily by the coronavirus pandemic. Kosovo has reported over 64,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 1,500 deaths.Bringing unemployment under control and fighting organized crime and corruption will be the biggest challenges for the new government.Opinion polls taken before Sunday indicated that Vetevendosje would win 45% to 55% of the vote among ethnic Albanians, who comprise about 90% of the population.Although it is about twice the number of votes Vetevendosje garnered in 2019 election, it is still below the 61% threshold to govern alone.
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There are 108.5 million global COVID-19 infections, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday. The U.S. has the most cases at 27.5 million, followed by India with 10.9 million and Brazil with 9.8 million.The Telegraph newspaper reports British scientists are developing a universal vaccine that would combat all the variants of the coronavirus and could be available within a year.The British newspaper says scientists at the University of Nottingham are working on a vaccine that would target the core of virus instead of the spike protein that current vaccines focus on.Targeting the core alleviates the need to frequently adjust existing vaccines as the virus mutates.The Telegraph said proteins found in the core of the virus are far less likely to mutate, meaning the vaccine would protect against all current variants and would theoretically have greater longevity.A 58-year-old man in France is reported to be the first person infected for a second time with the highly contagious South African variant of the coronavirus.The man’s reinfection is “rare albeit probably underestimated,” according to the authors of an article in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.New Zealand’s largest city in going into a three-day lockdown, the country’s first in six months. The shuttering of Auckland comes after the discovery of three family members – a father, mother and daughter – with COVID.The rest of the country will be on heightened restrictions.New Zealand is known for having have stamped out the local transmission of the coronavirus, but it regularly detects the virus in travelers to New Zealand who are then placed in quarantine.The mother in the New Zealand family with COVID works at a catering company that does laundry for airlines. Authorities are investigating whether there is a link to an infected passenger.Not all U.S. states are happy about President Joe Biden’s plan to establish 100 COVID vaccine inoculation sites around the country by the end of the month, according to an Associated Press report.The wire service reports that some states have learned that the sites do not come with additional vaccines but would pull vaccines from the state’s existing allocation.A spokesperson for Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee said, “Up until now, we’ve been under the impression that these sites do not come with their own supply of vaccine — which is the principal thing we need more of, rather than more ways to distribute what we already have.”Adding to the confusion, AP reported that some states have been told by federal officials that the new sites would come with their own supply of vaccines.
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Britain said Saturday it will use the first leaders’ meeting of its G-7 presidency next week to seek more global cooperation on coronavirus vaccine distribution and post-pandemic recovery plans.Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host G-7 heads of state for a virtual meeting Friday, their first gathering since April 2020 and U.S. President Joe Biden’s first major multilateral engagement since taking office last month.They are meeting at a seaside retreat in Cornwall in southwestern England on June 11-13, after last year’s gathering in the United States was shelved because of the pandemic.Johnson is eager to boost Britain’s post-Brexit profile and his own international standing, after criticism of his tactics during the country’s fraught divorce from the European Union and his support for ex-U.S. President Donald Trump.He has vowed to focus his G-7 presidency on better coordinating the international response to the pandemic, as well as climate change ahead of Britain hosting a U.N. conference on climate change, COP26, in November.”The solutions to the challenges we face… lie in the discussions we have with our friends and partners around the world,” Johnson said in a statement released late Saturday.He added “quantum leaps in science” had helped produce the COVID-19 vaccines needed to end the pandemic, and that world governments now had a responsibility to work together to distribute them.”I hope 2021 will be remembered as the year humanity worked together like never before to defeat a common foe,” Johnson said.Friday’s virtual gathering will see him host the leaders of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the presidents of the European Council and the EU Commission.Later in February, he will also chair a virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the link between climate change and conflict — the first time a U.K. leader has chaired such a session since 1992.The discussions at the meeting will inform crucial action ahead of the U.K.-hosted COP26 Summit to be held November 1-12 in the Scottish city of Glasgow, his Downing Street office said.
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The Italian president swore in the former chief of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, as prime minister on Saturday at the head of a unity government called on to confront the coronavirus crisis and economic slump.All but one of Italy’s major parties have rallied to his side and his cabinet includes lawmakers from across the political spectrum, as well as technocrats in key posts, including the finance ministry and a new green transition portfolio.Much now rests on Draghi’s shoulders.He is tasked with plotting Italy’s recovery from the pandemic and must immediately set to work on plans for how to spend more than 200 billion euros ($240 billion) in European Union funds aimed at rebuilding the recession-bound economy.If he prevails, Draghi will likely bolster the entire eurozone, which has long fretted over Italy’s perennial problems. Success would also prove to Italy’s skeptical northern allies that by offering funds to the poorer south, they will fortify the entire bloc.But he faces enormous challenges. Italy is mired in its worst downturn since World War Two, hundreds of people are still dying of COVID-19 each day, the vaccination campaign is going slowly and he only has limited time to sort things out.Italy is due to return to the polls in two years time, but it is far from certain that Draghi will be able to survive that long at the head of a coalition that includes parties with radically opposing views on issues such as immigration, justice, infrastructure development and welfare.Highlighting Italy’s political instability, Draghi’s government is the 67th to take office since 1946 and the seventh in the last decade alone.CABINET MIXPresident Sergio Mattarella asked him to take over after the previous coalition collapsed amid party infighting. Draghi has spent the past 10 days drawing up his plans and unveiled his 23-strong cabinet on Friday, which included eight women.Eight of the ministries went to technocrats, with the rest split amongst the six main parties that back the government — four for the 5-Star Movement, the largest group in parliament, three each for the Democratic Party, the League and Forza Italia and one apiece for Italia Viva and LEU.As finance minister, Draghi called on an old colleague, Daniele Franco, the deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, while the sensitive job of justice minister was handed to the former head of the constitutional court, Marta Cartabia.He also looked outside the political sphere for two new roles — technological innovation, which was entrusted to the former head of telecoms firm Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, and ecological transition, given to physicist Roberto Cingolani.These twin positions play into demands by the European Union that a sizeable chunk of its recovery fund should be used to promote the digitalisation of the continent and to shift away from a dependence on fossil fuels.Draghi, a reserved figure who has no profile on social media platforms, will unveil his program in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday and the lower house on Thursday.Confidence votes will be held in both chambers and with just the far-right Brothers of Italy outside the cabinet, he looks likely to win the biggest majority in Italian history.However, some members of the 5-Star Movement, which was created in 2009 as an anti-system, anti-euro protest group, have said they might vote against Draghi, threatening a party schism. 
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The European Union on Saturday called on China to reverse its ban on the BBC World News television channel imposed in apparent retaliation for Britain’s pulling of the license of state-owned Chinese broadcaster CGTN.The EU said in a statement that Beijing’s move further restricted “freedom of expression and access to information inside its borders,” and violated both the Chinese constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The statement also said that Hong Kong’s announcement that its public broadcaster would also stop carrying BBC broadcasts added to the “erosion of the rights and freedoms that is ongoing” in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory since the imposition last year of a sweeping new national security law.”The EU remains strongly committed to safeguarding media freedom and pluralism, as well as protecting the right to freedom of expression online and offline, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information without interference of any kind,” the statement said.BBC Banned from Broadcasting in China Country’s broadcast regulator says network has ‘undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.’ While Britain is no longer in the EU, it remains a member of the Council of Europe, which oversees a 1989 agreement linking broadcasting licenses. Britain, the U.S. and foreign correspondents based in China have also expressed dismay over the BBC ban.China’s move Thursday was largely symbolic, because BBC World was shown only on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners and some other businesses. However, it comes against the backdrop of growing conflict between Beijing and Western governments over a slew of issues ranging from human rights to trade and the COVID-19 pandemic in which Chinese criticisms over foreign media coverage have played a prominent role.China’s National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News coverage of the country violated requirements that news reporting be true and impartial, reflecting complaints over BBC reports about the government’s initial response to the virus outbreak in China. Other complaints were over allegations of forced labor and sexual abuse in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, home to Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. The EU statement specifically linked the ban to BBC reporting on those topics.It wasn’t clear whether BBC reporters in China would be affected. Last year, Beijing expelled foreign reporters for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times amid disputes with the Trump administration and complaints over media criticism of the ruling Communist Party.Britain’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, revoked the license for CGTN, China’s English-language satellite news channel, on Feb. 4, citing links to the Communist Party, among other reasons.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Ofcom acted on “political grounds based on ideological bias.”Losing its British license was a major blow for CGTN, which is part of a global effort by the party to promote its views and challenge Western media narratives about China, into which it has poured enormous resources. CGTN has a European operations hub in London. 
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An investment deal agreed to in principle between the European Union and China at the end of last year is facing criticism both in and outside the EU. Analysts point to the expected approval of the deal as evidence of Beijing’s uncanny ability to assess the power game within the EU.“If you look at China’s policy, as far as we can tell, over the last decade, toward Europe, they’re very much about dividing Europe into different sections — Central and Eastern Europe [as one bloc], Germany and France and Britain when Britain was still part of the EU [as another bloc], very much focused on appealing to these countries’ national economic self-interest. You know, it’s worked,” said Didi Kirsten Tatlow in a phone interview. Tatlow is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.Tatlow cited China’s handling of its relationship with Germany as a case in point.FILE PHOTO: China’s President Xi Jinping meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 24, 2018.“They’ve been focusing on Germany for a long time,” she said. “I don’t think China has bottomless pockets, I think it’s very, very good at playing its cards.”Beijing, she said, not only “opened its doors to car and all kind of other German manufacturers,” it has also given Berlin unusual political access. “Let’s remember Germany is the country in Europe that has had these so-called ‘cabinet meetings’ with China for years now,” adding that participation in the meetings as seen as a “high-level honor” by some.In addition to successfully cultivating ties with major powers such as Germany and France, Tatlow said, Beijing has used all the tools at its disposal, including market access, to lure other countries into its orbit. As an example, she cited China’s decision to ink a deal with Slovakia on meat exports shortly before a Beijing-hosted summit with 17 Central and Eastern European countries this week.Even so, uneasiness about getting too close to Beijing has been fermenting among EU member states, Tatlow and others say. Whether that will lead one of the 27 member states to veto the investment agreement with Beijing is still uncertain.”In theory, it only takes one country to veto the deal,” said Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Center for Security Policy, based in Prague.But, he said in a phone interview, the small and medium-sized EU countries may be reluctant to use that power because they need support from Germany and France on other core interests, such as EU agricultural subsidies for Poland, or German backing of the Baltic states in their relationship with Russia.Janda regrets that the EU, under Germany’s leadership, failed to use the negotiations on the investment deal to advance its democratic values and support for human rights, especially since Beijing’s strong desire for a deal gave the EU leverage.The EU insists there are other mechanisms in place to discuss human rights, but Janda believes Beijing will take political concerns seriously only if they are linked to trade — an area that matters to it.“If you only raise the human rights issue through the EU-China human rights dialogue channel, and you tell China what you’re doing in [Xinjiang] is genocide of the Uighur people, the response you’ll get is, ‘No, we’re not.’ And that’s that.”Speaking to an international audience gathered at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, Charles Michel, president of the EU Council, defended the investment deal.FILE – European Council President Charles Michel is seen on a screen as he speaks with EU leaders during an EU Summit video conference, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the European Council building in Brussels, Nov. 19, 2020.“The relationship with China is an important question in Europe,” he said, suggesting that through dialogue, the EU could help pressure the Chinese government on human rights. He also credited the investment deal with bringing down certain barriers for EU companies doing business in China, including requirements on joint ventures.Still, the EU leadership’s support for the investment deal has come under fire in civil society. The proposed pact “further entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values,” says a widely circulated open letter signed by academics, human rights activists and former politicians.Citing the Chinese leadership’s “insistence on the centrality of the Chinese Communist Party in all parts of China’s economic and social life,” the signatories wrote that “the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era” when there were more legitimate hopes for Chinese liberalization from within.
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World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday all hypotheses regarding the origins of COVID-19 remain open, following his discussions with investigative team members about the findings during their visit to China.
 
The WHO-led international team this week completed a visit to China where they investigated the origins of COVID-19, including a visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where some have speculated the virus could have originated.
 
At a news conference before departing China, WHO scientist Peter Ben Embarek told reporters their initial findings led them to believe it was highly unlikely the virus originated in a lab.FILE – Peter Daszak and Thea Fischer, members of the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease, sit in a car at Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, Feb. 2, 2021.But at the agency’s regular briefing in Geneva, Tedros indicated nothing is off the table.  
 
“Having spoken with some members of the team, I wish to confirm that all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and studies,” he said.
 
Tedros also cautioned, as he had in prior briefings, that the mission would not find all the answers, but he said it has added important information that takes us closer to understanding the origins of the virus. Tedros said the mission achieved a better understanding of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and identified areas for further analysis and research.
 
He said he expects a summary of the report to be finished in the next week and when it is published, he will discuss the findings.
 
Meanwhile, Tedros said the number of reported COVID-19 globally fell for the fourth consecutive week, and that the number of deaths also fell for the second consecutive week.
 
He credited the declines to stringent public health measures being implemented. Tedros urged nations not to let their guard down and relax those measures just yet.
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The Istanbul head of the opposition Republican People’s Party, Canan Kaftancioglu, is credited with masterminding the 2019 victory over the ruling party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the city’s mayoral elections. The stunning defeat of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has now led Kaftancioglu to set her sights on ousting Erdogan, if she can avoid jail – as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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European Union leaders Friday signed an $814-billion package of grants and low-interest loans intended to help the bloc’s member nations recover from the record recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The package is the central component of a $908-billion recovery plan approved by the EU last year. Member nations must ratify the plan to allow the European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – to borrow funds on the market.
 
At a news conference in Brussels, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged EU nations to move quickly, because the commission will go to the market, raise the funds and disburse them as soon as possible. She expected the first of the recovery money by about the middle of the year.  
 
The 27-member governments have until the end of April to submit detailed plans on how they will spend the money. Under EU guidelines, the plans must dedicate at least 37 percent of their budgets to addressing climate change and at least 20 percent to “digital transformation” – updating their nation’s technology infrastructure. The funding will be available for three years.
 
The commission says that so far, 19 EU countries have submitted draft plans, while seven other countries have plans underway.
 
Von der Leyen also told reporters the European Commission hopes to see 70 percent of the EU population vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of summer – September 21.
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Russia says it needs to be ready to respond if the European Union imposes harsh sanctions on the country over the arrest and jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
 
Speaking to reporters Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow should be prepared to replace any of its vital infrastructure with necessary elements to counter the difficulties that Russia would face if faced with foreign sanctions.
 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with a YouTube channel (Soloviev Live, February 12, 2021) earlier Friday that Moscow is ready to sever ties with the European Union if the 27-member bloc imposes harsh economic sanctions on Russia.
 
Lavrov said that his country would take countermeasures if “we again see sanctions imposed in some sectors that create risks for our economy, including in the most sensitive spheres,” adding that Russians “don’t want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we have to be ready for that. If you want peace, then prepare for war.”
 
Likely sanctions would be travel bans and asset freezes on associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which after France and Germany indicated they were willing to take measures on Russia, could be imposed as soon as this month.
 
Pressure for sanctions has intensified after Moscow expelled German, Polish and Swedish diplomats last week without informing the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who was in Moscow for a visit.
 
Navalny, 44, appeared again in court Friday for allegedly making a derogatory statement about a World War II veteran last year.
 
The hearing came after the court ordered Navalny last month to serve 2 1/2 years in prison for allegedly violating a suspended sentence while recovering from a poisoning in Germany.
 
Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has fled Russia for Germany.
 
The Russian news agency Interfax and German daily Der Spiegel each reported her departure, quoting unnamed sources.
 
Speaking to the state-run TASS news agency, lawyers for the Navalnys could not confirm her departure and said they had no information about it.
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China’s broadcasting regulator says it has taken the BBC World News off the air for what it called “serious content violations.”
 
The decision comes one week after Britain’s broadcasting regulator, the Office of Communications, revoked the license of the state-owned China Global Television Network.  The office said the Chinese Communist Party oversees the network’s editorial policy, a violation of a British law forbidding political bodies from controlling broadcast license holders
 
On Thursday, the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA)  said the BBC “was found to have seriously violated regulations on radio and television management” in its China-related reports, and “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.”
 
From her Twitter feed, Australia-based BBC World News Presenter Yalda Hakim said that according to NRTA, the BBC was responsible for a “slew of falsified reporting” on issues including the treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority in the western Xinjiang region and China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
In a statement posted on Twitter, the BBC said it is “disappointed” by China’s actions.
  
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A storied Russian liberal politician has sparked an outbreak of infighting among the country’s opposition groups after mounting a scathing attack on Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, arguing the path he would take the country down wouldn’t lead to a life free of repression.
 
“Everyone must decide whether to support Navalny or not,” Grigory Yavlinsky wrote this week. “But you need to understand. A democratic Russia, respect for people, and a life without fear and repression are incompatible with Navalny’s policies,” he added.
 
Yavlinsky, who ran twice for the Russia’s presidency, in 1996 against Boris Yeltsin and in 2000 against Vladimir Putin, founded the Yabloko party, which favors free-market economics and social liberalism. He’s been critical of Navalny in the past and this week repeated his accusation that Navalny, Russia’s most high-profile opposition politician, is xenophobic and an authoritarian nationalist.
 
The attack by Yavlinsky has split the party he founded and triggered broader opposition infighting. It comes amid signs the recent protests against the Kremlin, and demands for Navalny to be freed from jail, are not resonating with most Russians, and that the paramilitary style crackdown on the dissenters is deterring others from considering protesting or enlisting in any future political action.
 
A poll conducted by the independent Levada Center carried out between January 29 and February 2 suggests there is little public appetite for agitation. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning, which he blames on the Kremlin and was arrested last month in Moscow on his return following life-saving treatment in Germany.  
 
In the past two weeks, pro-Navalny supporters were on the streets in more than a hundred cities across Russia’s 11 time zones, with the largest protests mounted in the Russian capital and St. Petersburg. More than 11,000 people have been arrested at rallies opposing the jailing of Navalny, who started out as a blogger and became known as an anti-corruption campaigner.FILE – Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky participates in a march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, in central Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24, 2019.The poll found that just 15% of Russians would be prepared to participate in future pro-Navalny protests, four percent less than the pollster found in November 2020. The percentage rose to 17% when asked if they would join rallies to protest economic conditions. Those figures represent Russians’ lowest willingness to protest since March 2018, according to the pollster.
 
The pollster also found that only 22% viewed the recent political protests positively. Younger respondents, who tend to get their news from the Internet and non-government media sources, viewed the protests slightly more favorably than older Russians, who generally receive their news and views from government-owned or controlled channels.  
 
Government-sponsored channels have mounted unrelenting scorching attacks on Navalny and his allies, accusing them of being agents of foreign powers.
 
Among all respondents, two out of five said they view the protesters negatively. Another 37% expressed indifference to the political protests. Nonetheless, Russians do expect more political agitation in the future with 45% of people expecting more trouble, a jump from 23% last November, the highest it has been since 1998.
 
The poll findings are dismaying for Navalny supporters, who are in the process of taking stock and reorganizing to adjust for the high number of dedicated activists currently in detention. Navalny’s team last week said it intends to shift tactics and mount neighborhood flash mobs this Sunday instead of urging large numbers of supporters to take to the streets, risking more detentions and giving the security services an easy target to hit.  
 
Neighborhood flash mobs is a tactic pro-democracy activists have been using in recent weeks in neighboring Belarus.  
 
Navalny’s key aides are urging Russians to gather near their homes on February 14, Valentine’s Day, to shine torches and light candles in heart shapes. Navalny made multiple heart gestures to his wife Yulia in the courtroom where he was sentenced to two years and eight months on February 2.FILE – A still image taken from video footage shows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny making a hand gesture forming a heart during the announcement of his court verdict in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.He was convicted of violating the terms of his parole from a 2014 sentence for fraud in a case his supporters, international rights groups and Western governments say is spurious and politically motivated.  
 
Opposition infighting is par for the course. President Vladimir Putin’s foes are drawn from across the political spectrum, from right-wing ultra-nationalists to old-school Communists, and with a variety of liberal groups in the middle. In 2016, an effort to stitch together a broad alliance of opposition groups, called the Democratic Coalition, was short-lived.  
 
It fell apart when the leaders, who were meant to be working together to try to gain political influence, resumed their competition and tried to elbow each other out of the way.  
 
The Kremlin gave it the coup de grace when it leaked to the government-sponsored NTV channel a video of former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a key liberal opposition politician, and one of the founders of the Democratic Coalition, in which he was heard disparaging his political partners.  
 
Different coalition configurations were tried before and have been since, too, but keeping opposition groups marching, agitating and campaigning as one also has always been difficult and temporary. Yavlinsky’s public criticism of Navalny this week has exposed once again the splits and political animosities.
 
Navalny’s allies have urged Yabloko to expel Yavlinsky, and opposition social media forums have seen acrimonious exchanges, raising the prospect that opposition groups once again will end up squabbling and taking off in disparate directions in the run-up campaign to parliamentary elections in September.  
 
Navalny was himself a member of Yabloko, but he was expelled in 2007 over what other members saw as unacceptable “nationalist” views. In the past, the Kremlin critic has participated in ultranationalist rallies and has been critical of migrants, using language his critics say make him unsuitable to be the figurehead of the opposition to Putin.  
 
Navalny denies he is a xenophobe, and says he was expelled from Yabloko because he made little secret he wanted to replace Yavlinsky.
 
But some Yabloko leaders are infuriated with Yavlinsky’s attack, which they say is ill-timed and will put off voters. Other opposition figures say Yavlinsky shouldn’t criticize someone now in jail as a political prisoner and unable to defend himself.
 
Last week, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oil tycoon who emerged as a prominent critic of Putin after a 10-year spell in a Russian jail, said he disagrees with Navalny on some issues, “But when a person becomes a political prisoner he must be supported.” 
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The suspension of the license of Hungary’s last independent news radio station has drawn international condemnation, with the European Union and media watchdogs calling the move a further attack on democracy in the EU member state. “We have expressed our concerns about media freedom and pluralism” in Hungary, which is already under investigation for flouting the rule of law, European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said on February 10, a day after Klubradio lost an appeal to keep its license. The case of the radio station “only aggravates these concerns,” Wigand added. Klubradio broadcasts mainly in Budapest. Its news and talk content is often critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. Employees of the opposition radio-station Klubradio work at its headquarters in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 9, 2021.In September 2020, Hungary’s National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) refused to extend Klubradio’s seven-year operating license, which expires on February 14, saying the station “repeatedly infringed” on the compulsory registration law by twice submitting documents late. Such violations usually incur fines and the NMHH’s announcement raised new concerns about political pressure from the government on the media in Hungary. “Another silenced voice in Hungary. Another sad day for media freedom,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic tweeted.Today’s ruling of the Budapest Court seals the fate of Andras Arato, president of Klubradio, listens as Judge Regina Antal delivers the verdict on the fate of the broadcaster whose license was not automatically renewed by the media authority last year in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 9, 2021.Calling the court decision “shameful and cowardly,” Klubradio President Andras Arato said the radio station now plans to appeal the ruling to Hungary’s Supreme Court. The EU’s Wigand told a news briefing on February 10 that the European Commission was “in contact with the Hungarian authorities to ensure that Klubradio can continue to operate legally,” adding that it was checking whether the decision complied with EU law and would “not hesitate to take action if possible and necessary.” In a statement, Pavol Szalai, the head of RSF’s European Union and Balkans desk, called on the European Commission to “delay no more in investigating [NMHH’s] independence under the revised European directive on broadcast media, and in investigating the other curbs on press freedom, such as state aid to pro-government media.” Hungary is under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and risks losing access to tens of billions of euros in funds from the bloc. The EU member state is ranked 89th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Only Bulgaria, at 111th, is ranked lower among the EU’s 27 member states.   
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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office announced Thursday it will partner with the European Union to deploy COVID-19 vaccines in six eastern European nations.Speaking at his headquarters in Copenhagan, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said the nearly $50 million program will target Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.Kluge said the program is intended to ensure equitable access to vaccines throughout Europe. “Vaccines offer a way to emerge faster from this pandemic, but only if we ensure that all countries, irrespective of income level, have access to them,” he said.UK COVID Variant Will Likely ‘Sweep the World,’ British Scientist WarnsScientists will probably be tracking global spread of mutations for at least next decade, Sharon Peacock of COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium saysKluge said the program will focus on vaccine readiness, information campaigns, supplies and training of health workers in the countries. It will complement existing EU sharing programs and the WHO-supported vaccine cooperative COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines throughout the world.Kluge also noted, with cautious optimism, that overall case incidences of COVID-19 in the 53-country WHO Europe region has declined for four straight weeks and said COVID-19-related deaths have fallen in each of the last two weeks. He said hospitalization rates have also declined.But he cautioned that the decline in cases conceals increasing numbers of outbreaks and community spread involving COVID-19 variants of concern, “meaning that we need to watch overall trends in transmission carefully and avoid rash decisions.”Kluge said the vaccination news in Europe is also mixed. He noted in the region, the total number of vaccination doses given has surpassed the number of reported COVID-19 cases — with some 41 million doses administered compared to 36 million reported cases.But he said, in 29 out of the 37 countries currently vaccinating in the European region today, 7.8 million people have completed their immunization series. That is equivalent to only 1.5% of the population of those 29 countries.”
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The European Union Commission’s president defended the bloc’s coronavirus vaccination strategy Wednesday amid growing criticism of delays in procurement and delivery. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the bloc is facing crises on multiple fronts.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell   
 
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The Russian government has levied a fine against the U.S. government-sponsored media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The $150,000 fine was assessed by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulatory body.  Russia first designated RFE/RL, a sister organization of the Voice of America (VOA), a foreign agent in 2017, a step some say made its work in Russia more difficult. According to the Reuters news agency, Russia has fined the outlet several times in recent weeks. The foreign agent law gives a wide berth for the Russian government to erect bureaucratic hurdles to any nongovernmental group that receives foreign funding, Reuters reported. RFE/RL says it plans to appeal the latest fine. “We have court hearings about three times a week, and we get fined at each one,” Andrei Shary, head of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, said in an interview with the RIA news agency. “The company considers this to be unfair. Every court decision will be appealed.”
“The Kremlin’s latest move is clearly intended to limit USAGM’s ability to operate and report independently and objectively within Russia. It is unacceptable,” USAGM acting CEO Kelu Chao told VOA.  FILE – Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.Congressman Michael McCaul expressed support for RFE/RL. “We’re seeing the Putin regime cracking down on free speech and on the ability of Radio Free Europe and Voice of America to operate out there in Moscow,” he told VOA’s Russian Service. “I think you’re going to see a very strong movement by the United States Congress, but I would urge that the [U.S.] president talk directly to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about this with condemnation about the ability to have free speech in his own country and to get the truth out. And that’s what Voice of America and Radio Free Europe do,” he added.VOA Russian Service’s Danila Galperovich contributed to this report.
 
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Lithuania has rejected orders issued Wednesday from a Moscow court calling for the arrest of Leonid Volkov, an exiled ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The court orders, sent via Interpol, charge Volkov with encouraging minors to participate in unauthorized rallies, which potentially carries jail term of up to three years in Russia.“Using international tools for politically motivated prosecution is a wrong practice,” said Lithuanian interior minister Agne Bilotaite, referring to Interpol, the government-funded international police network that coordinates cross-border police operations across 194 member states.Putin, Kremlin Critic Navalny Set Battle Plans for Next Phase in Struggle for MasteryRussian opposition leaders expect Kremlin crackdown to intensify but are preparing for a long-haul stand-off with Putin The Volkov warrant “raises serious doubts about Russia‘s membership in these organizations,” Bilotaite added.The Russian court, which said Volkov will be held in Russia for two months if and when he is extradited, said the warrant was issued under the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization of former Soviet republics to which Lithuania does not belong.The arrest warrant comes after the rise of demonstrations demanding the release of Russian opposition leader Navalny, who has been jailed since January 17.In a separate development on Wednesday, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who was recently detained for taking part in unsanctioned rallies in support of her jailed husband, left Russia for Germany according to a source quoted by Interfax.Volkov, a strategist who manages Navalny’s regional headquarters, fled Russia in 2019 when authorities opened a criminal probe of suspected money laundering by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. Navalny’s group has repeatedly called that criminal probe, among the latest of many, politically motivated.From his base in Lithuania, Volkov has been organizing protests demanding the release of Navalny, with the most recent one being planned for this Sunday.
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European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen Wednesday acknowledged Europe was late approving and rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, saying they were overconfident vaccines could be delivered on time.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Von der Leyen, however, defended the decision to have the commission – the European Union’s executive branch – oversee vaccine orders and for all 27 EU members to roll out vaccines at the same time, saying had the bloc’s biggest states acted unilaterally, “it would have been the end of our community.”
She also defended not cutting corners on safety when it came to approval of vaccines and waiting for an additional three or four weeks for approval from the EU drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency. But Von der Leyen also said there were lessons to be learned from the process.
Von der Leyen said while they were focused primarily on the quick development of a vaccine, the EU underestimated the difficulties in producing high volumes quickly. She said, “In some ways, science overtook industry.”
She said they now fully understand the difficulties of mass production and have invested billions in improving capacity. She urged member states to plan their rollouts accordingly.
The European Commission chief also expressed regret about an initial plan to restrict exports to British-ruled Northern Ireland, which would have set up a hard border between it and EU member Republic of Ireland, reigniting tensions in that region.
She said, “Mistakes were made in the process leading up to the decision and I deeply regret that. But in the end, we got it right. And I can reassure you that my commission will do its utmost to protect the peace of Northern Ireland.
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The European Parliament has seen stormy sessions before but rarely as ugly as Tuesday’s when lawmakers scolded the bloc’s top officials for everything from their handling of the coronavirus pandemic to what they dubbed a disastrous trip last week to Moscow by Europe’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell. Several national governments had urged Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, to call off his trip to the Russian capital, arguing it was ill-timed in the wake of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s jailing and amid the Kremlin’s paramilitary-style crackdown on street protests. Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny stands inside a defendant dock before a court hearing in Moscow, Feb. 5, 2021.Furious European lawmakers are demanding Borrell resign for the visit, widely seen as having handed the Kremlin a propaganda victory. His critics accuse him of failing to stand up to Russian bullying. Eighty-one members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have signed a letter drafted by Estonian lawmaker Riho Terras calling for Borrell to go.“Borrell’s misjudgment in proactively deciding to visit Moscow, and his failure to stand for the interests and values of the European Union during his visit, have caused severe damage to the reputation of the EU,” the letter reads. “We believe that the president of the European Commission should take action, if Mr. Borrell does not resign,” the lawmakers added.The criticisms were echoed Tuesday in the European Parliament’s chamber, even though Borrell hardened his language about the Kremlin when addressing lawmakers, telling them he would propose to EU foreign ministers next week a list of Russian names to be sanctioned over the jailing of Navalny. “I will put forward concrete proposals,” he told lawmakers, adding that he had “no illusions before the visit.”Borrell said “the Russian government is going down a worrisome authoritarian route,”  and that the country “seeks to divide us.”However, Borrell’s critics were not mollified.“We have never looked so weak and clueless about how to deal with Russia,” Belgian lawmaker Hilde Vautmans told Borrell.European delegation member Sophie in ‘t Veld arrives before a meeting at the Europe House on Dec. 3, 2019 in Valletta.Dutch parliamentarian Sophie in ‘t Veld said Borrell has a “credibility problem.”Borrell’s trip saw Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dub the EU an “unreliable partner” during a joint press conference in the Russian capital, leaving the EU’s top diplomat silent and half-smiling. European governments fumed when it emerged that Borrell only learned through Twitter during a meeting with Lavrov that the Kremlin had expelled three European diplomats for allegedly participating in demonstrations in support of Navalny.Some former and current European diplomats say Borrell probably should have abandoned the meeting upon learning about the expulsions. FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the end of an EU summit video conference at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Jan. 21, 2021.Ursula von der Leyen has defended Borrell. Commission spokesperson on foreign policy Peter Stano said Borrell has her full backing. Stano said Borrell’s decision to remain silent during Lavrov’s verbal lashing of the EU was understandable. He said Borrell was “a diplomat” for whom “the press conference is not a platform for discussions or confrontations.” Stano argued that Borrell had been “very vocal in the negotiations with Mr. Lavrov.”But von der Leyen is not in a strong political position to protect Borrell, analysts say, and the Moscow trip is adding to alarm about her judgment, which increasingly is being called into question by European lawmakers and national governments. The criticism of von der Leyen has focused on the bloc’s coronavirus inoculation rollout, which has been marred by logistical mistakes and hidebound bureaucracy, leaving the EU desperately short of vaccine doses. The troubled rollout has lagged behind inoculation programs in Britain and the United States, with only two doses being administered so far for every 100 Europeans, compared to seven in the U.S. and 11 in Britain. Von der Leyen and her commissioners had pushed for vaccine procurement and disbursement to be handled by the EU, arguing it would advertise the bloc’s strength and solidarity while reducing the risk of vaccine rivalry among the 27 member states. But that is not the way it has turned out, and the European Commission president is now conceding that individual member states could have vaccinated their populations more quickly had they acted alone rather than having the EU oversee vaccine purchase and distribution.On Monday, von der Leyen inadvertently added fuel to the fire by acknowledging that a country like Britain acting on its own can out-maneuver like a “speedboat” the slower-moving EU “tanker.”EU lawmakers launched an onslaught on von der Leyen for the vaccine handling, dismissing her admission of errors as not enough.“When are they going to accept that they made mistakes?” asked Croatian MEP Ivan Sincic, who said EU commissioners had been “acting blindly.”The verbal lashing has left some observers questioning whether von der Leyen will complete her full five-year term as EC president. She has rejected calls from some quarters to resign, telling reporters last week that the time to “make a final assessment” of her performance will be at the end of her term in 2024.EU officials have cautioned that public expectations are in some ways too high, and people need to be more patient, though they acknowledge people are yearning for an end to lockdowns and a resumption of their normal lives. French President Emmanuel Macron looks on during a press conference with the Belgium’s Prime Minister after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Dec. 1, 2020.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have both defended von der Leyen.“What would people say if countries like France and Germany were competing with each other on vaccines?” Macron asked last week.Merkel on Friday said it would have been “a mess, and counterproductive” for member states to procure and compete for vaccines.  Other national leaders are not convinced. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been especially tough, saying recently he was “not happy with the pace” and that it was a mistake for EU member states to cast their lot together in the hunt for vaccine supplies. “There were manufacturers whose products were available sooner in Canada, the U.K,” he told Hungarian radio.He added, “We’re unable to move faster with inoculating people not because Hungarian health care is incapable of carrying out mass vaccinations rapidly, but because we have a shortage of vaccine supplies.”Hungary has broken ranks with the EU and ordered doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Several other countries, including the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain, are also questioning whether it was wise to entrust Brussels with cutting the deals to provide vaccines for the 450 million people living in the bloc. They, too, are now considering making their own purchases.
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Across global cities big and small, the coronavirus pandemic has forced a shutdown of cultural life. But that’s changing in the Russian capital, where a mass vaccination program is in full swing. Charles Maynes reports from Moscow.Camera:  Ricardo Marquina Montanana  Produced by: Bronwyn Benito  
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German prosecutors announced Tuesday they have charged a 100-year-old man with being an accessory to 3,518 murders committed while he was allegedly a guard at the Sachsenhausen World War II concentration camp outside of Berlin. Neuruppin prosecutor Cryll Klement told the Associated Press that the man, whose name is being withheld under Germany’s privacy laws, is alleged to have worked at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing. Klement, who led the investigation, said that despite his advanced age, the suspect is considered fit enough to stand trial, though accommodations may have to be made to limit how many hours per day the court is in session. FILE – Visitors walk past the gate, inscribed with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work makes you free), of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp, now a memorial, in Oranienburg, Feb. 7, 2020.The prosecutor said the Neuruppin office was given the case in 2019 by the special federal prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg charged with investigating Nazi-era war crimes. The charges come less than two weeks after prosecutors in the northern town of Itzehoe filed similar charges against a 95-year-old woman who worked during the war as the secretary to the SS commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp. Chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, told the AP the two new cases serve as “vital reminders to the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.” He said the advanced ages of these defendants “is no excuse to ignore them and allow them to live in the peace and tranquility they denied their victims.” The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established near Berlin in 1936 and was one of the first such camps established by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The camp was notorious for early experiments in the killing of inmates by gas in what became a trial run for the murder of millions in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. 
 
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While China was preparing to implement a new National Security Law in Hong Kong in the summer of 2020, Jennifer was planning to relocate her family to Britain.  Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers are expected to move to the United Kingdom in the coming years, where they are eligible to apply for British citizenship. Many of the thousands of newly arrived are now organizing initiatives to support others planning their move to Britain.  
 
Like many others, Jennifer participated in the 2019 pro-democracy and anti-government demonstrations. But the law passed last summer has Jennifer and others worried their civil liberties could be undermined.  
 
The National Security Law would prevent and punish what it calls acts of “secession, subversion or terrorism activities” that threaten national security. The law would also allow Chinese national security organizations to set up agencies in Hong Kong. Critics say it effectively curtails protests and freedom of speech; China says it is needed to restore order and stability.  
 
Jennifer, who requested that her real name not be used, spent months online preparing to move her family:  
    
“When I came, I was quite well-prepared because I could have everything for me settled by myself, through a lot of hard work in Hong Kong. So, I did a lot of online research and approaching different organization and departments in the U.K. to arrange my place to live and arrange school for my child and arrange my account and all that. Most of the families, they come here for the children’s future,” Jennifer said.FILE – A British National Overseas passport (BNO), right, and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China passport are pictured in Hong Kong, Jan. 29, 2021.Despite never having lived in Britain before, she holds a British National Overseas passport. Her family is eligible to apply for a new visa that offers a path to British residency and citizenship. The British government estimates nearly 3 million people are eligible along with about 2.3 million dependents. Applications opened January 31. So far 7,000 people with a BNO passport have arrived from Hong Kong since July 2020.Hong Kong is a former British colony over which China regained control in 1997.  
 
Jennifer now shares her knowledge about the moving process with other Hong Kongers through volunteer organizations. In recent months, several organizations were established in Britain to provide support to people arriving from Hong Kong and to those planning their move.  
 
Simon Cheng is the co-founder and chairman of one such support group, Hongkongers in Britain. The volunteer-run organization hopes to fill information gaps and smooth the process for the 300,000 Hong Kongers believed to resettle in Britain over the next few years.  
 
Cheng says that while there are a lot of questions about the practicality of relocating, such as finding employment and schools, there are deeper concerns regarding China’s ability to retaliate – even in Britain.  
    
“About one month ago, we did the policy study to identify their needs and their concerns. The security would be the area of the concern. And they were a little bit worried that if they come here when they’ve been harassed, the Chinese authority would be very upset about it. We’re not sure yet about the future and potential retaliation,” Cheng said.FILE – Simon Cheng, founder of Hongkongers in Britain, attends an event protesting shrinking political freedoms in Hong Kong, in Leicester Square, central London, Dec. 12, 2020.There are dozens of YouTube channels, Facebook groups and other online platforms where relocated Hong Kongers are sharing information about the visa application and the resettling process.  
 
Neil Jameson of UK Welcomes Refugees, an umbrella group helping people enter British society, says providing the right support and information to BNO holders will test British institutions:  
    
“The problem would be landlords, the National Health Service, the police, and then they will suddenly see these papers they haven’t seen before, which is BNO passports. The vast number of people who will be coming, will be coming legitimately, do need to be welcomed, do need ideally to have a trusted group to go to in the places they choose to settle,” Jameson said.
    
Britain announced the updated British National Overseas passports visa program after the ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy activists by Chinese authorities in Hong Kong. The Chinese government announced it would stop recognizing the BNO as a valid travel document from the moment the BNO application program opened to Hong Kong residents.
 
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A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared on a field in southeast Turkey has now disappeared, Turkish media reported Tuesday, four days after it was discovered.
The three-meter-high (about 10-foot-high) metal slab bearing an ancient Turkic script, was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe, which is home to megalithic structures dating to the 10th millennium B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge.
The shiny structure, however, was reported gone Tuesday morning, days after authorities said they were investigating its appearance by looking through closed circuit television footage and searching for vehicles that may have transported it to the site.
It wasn’t immediately clear if it had been taken down by the authorities. Officials at the Sanliurfa governor’s office weren’t immediately available for comment.
The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the field’s owner as saying he was baffled by both its appearance and disappearance.
“We don’t know if it was placed on my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement,” Anadolu quoted Fuat Demirdil as saying. “We saw that the metal block was no longer at its place. Residents cannot solve the mystery of the metal block either.”
The agency also quoted local resident Hasan Yildiz as saying the block was still at the field Monday evening, but had disappeared by the morning.
The monolith bore an inscription that read: “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” in the ancient Turkic Gokturk alphabet, according to reports.
Other mysterious monoliths have similarly appeared and some have disappeared in numerous countries in recent months.
Gobekli Tepe was the setting of the Turkish Netflix mystery series, “The Gift.”
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Public opinion is mixed on how well Western governments have handled the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, which also questioned people on their attitudes regarding compulsory vaccinations.Seventy-seven percent of Germans thought their government did a good job in handling the outbreak, while 58% of Americans say the U.S. government is doing a bad job.More than 4,000 adults were questioned in the United States, Britain, France and Germany.The survey was conducted in November and December 2020, before U.S. President Joe Biden took office in mid-January and just as vaccination programs were beginning to roll out in the United States and Britain.The European Union has been far slower in getting its vaccination programs under way, leading to some criticism of the bloc’s vaccine approval and procurement policy among EU citizens.An elderly visitor receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Cent Quatre cultural center in Paris, France, Feb. 1, 2021.France and other EU states have argued the process must not be rushed, fearing a loss of public trust. France has one of the highest levels of so-called “vaccine skepticism” in the world.A recent newspaper poll suggested that just over 40% of the adult population intend to get the coronavirus vaccine. French President Emmanuel Macron recently rejected calls for mandatory vaccines.The Pew survey questioned respondents on their attitudes to compulsory vaccinations.“In three of the countries where we asked that question, most people do not find that an acceptable idea,” report co-author Kat Devlin told VOA. “So, for instance, 75% in France do not like the idea of a government-mandated vaccine. The U.K. was the one country where we found more acceptance of the idea of a government-mandated vaccine — 62% find that an acceptable proposition.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 71 MBOriginal | 224 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vaccination program is accelerating in Britain, with over 12 million people having now received their first dose. Britain has also suffered the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe.Analysts say local elections scheduled for May will offer another measure of public approval for the British government’s handling of the pandemic. 
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