The Taliban warned Saturday that it would be “unacceptable” to them and a “mistake” on the part of any nation to retain a military presence in Afghanistan to guard airports or other installations after the departure of U.S.-led NATO troops from the warn-torn country.
 
The insurgent group’s warning raises questions for Washington, other world countries, and aid groups with missions in Kabul about how to safely evacuate their personnel from the landlocked South Asian nation should fighting intensify and engulf the Afghan capital once all international forces withdraw by a September 11 deadline.  
 
Turkey, with about 500 soldiers still in Afghanistan, has offered its services to guard and run Kabul’s international airport beyond the withdrawal deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden. Ankara reportedly floated the proposal at a NATO meeting last month.
 
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that talks between different allies, including Turkey, were underway on exactly how to ensure security and safe administration of the Kabul international airport.  NATO Chief Admits Afghan Withdrawal ‘Entails Risks’Despite ‘lot of uncertainty,’ Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance will continue to support the Afghan government, even when the last of its troops have left the country 
But the Taliban vowed to resist deployment of any foreign military in the country after all international forces leave.
 
“The presence of foreign forces under whatever name or by whichever country in our homeland is unacceptable for the Afghan people and the Islamic Emirate [the name of the Taliban’s ex-government in Kabul],” the insurgent group cautioned Saturday in a policy statement sent to journalists.
 
The Taliban insisted that security of airports, foreign embassies and diplomatic offices is the responsibility of Afghans, saying that  “no one should hold out hope of keeping military or security presence” in Afghanistan.   
 
“If anyone does make such a mistake, the Afghan people and the Islamic Emirate shall view them as occupiers and shall take a stance against them as they have taken against invaders throughout history,” the statement said.
 
Stoltenberg said the security of the Kabul airport and other “critical” infrastructure” would be discussed at Monday’s NATO summit in Brussels.
 
“Because this is important not only for NATO but … for the whole international community, for a diplomatic presence of all countries, and of course, also for development aid and different aid organizations. So, NATO allies are addressing these issues as we speak.”  
 
While the Taliban regularly attacked U.S. and allied troops during their nearly two-decade long stay in Afghanistan, Turkish forces remain unharmed.  
 
Turkey is the only Islamic country serving under NATO’s non-combatant Resolute Support mission, which is mandated to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces battling the insurgents.
 
The U.S.-led military drawdown is an outcome of the February 2020 agreement Washington signed with the Taliban in return for counterterrorism guarantees and pledges the group would negotiate a political settlement to the war with the Afghan government.  
 
But the so-called intra-Afghan dialogue, which started last September in Qatar, has met with little success and mostly has been stalled, with each side blaming the other for the deadlock.  
 
Afghan battlefield hostilities have particularly intensified since the foreign forces formally began pulling out from the country on May 1.  
 
The Taliban has captured at least 15 new districts in recent days, while hundreds of combatants on both sides and Afghan civilians have been killed.  
 
Meanwhile, Islamic State militants have stepped up attacks, targeting Afghan forces and civilians, mainly those from the minority Hazara Shi’ite community.
 
Officials said Saturday bomb blasts struck two buses in the western part of Kabul, killing at least seven people. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.  
 
The surge in violence has raised concerns Afghanistan will see more bloodshed in coming months, which could plunge the country into another round of civil war once all international forces leave.
…

G-7 leaders appear to be split on U.S. President Joe Biden’s call to take more aggressive action against China, including on its forced labor practices, unwillingness to play by international trade rules and problematic global infrastructure financing mechanism.  
 
“There were some interesting discussions and a little bit of a differentiation of opinion,” said a senior Biden administration official while briefing reporters following G-7 plenary sessions in Cornwall, England. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.  
 
G-7 leaders agreed the threat of an increasingly assertive China is real but differ on how aggressive the response should be, the official said. Italy, Germany, and the European Union appear reluctant to take as tough a stance on China, and instead would rather focus on the “cooperative nature of the relationship.”
 
The U.S., Britain, Canada, and France, on the other hand, want to be more “action-oriented” to different degrees. Japan appears to be the most ambivalent of the group. US to Offer Alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative Biden to push G-7 countries to take ‘action against Chinese forced labor’  Build Back Better World  
 
Biden and this year’s G-7 Summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, are anxious to announce an infrastructure financing mechanism for low- and middle-income countries, designed to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative—the global infrastructure development investment strategy in dozens of countries that is central to Beijing’s foreign policy.  
 
The initiative, called “Build Back Better World,” or “B3W,” aims to mobilize existing development finance mechanisms and the private sector to narrow the gap in infrastructure financing needs in the developing world, while meeting labor, environmental and transparency standards.  
 
The administration says B3W will “collectively catalyze hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure.” The timeline, structure, and scope of the financing to be committed by the U.S., though, is still unclear.   
 
“It’s fair to ask whether this is going to be actually new funding, new capacity to build infrastructure in the region, or is this a repurposing and repackaging of resources that are also available,” said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.  
 
To expand its sphere of influence, Beijing is known to give BRI loans to countries for projects that are not considered creditworthy by established international lenders.   
 
“That raises the question of whether this new program is going to be less risk averse,” Daly said, noting that if these projects were bankable, lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank would have funded them already.  
 Xinjiang forced labor  
 
Sino-U.S. tensions are set to be raised further as Biden lobbies G-7 partners to come out with a strong statement and concrete action against Chinese forced labor practices targeting the Uyghur Muslims from Xinjiang and other ethnic minorities.  Human Rights Watch Calls Out China’s ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ Toward Uyghurs Group calls for coordinated international action against those responsible  
Since 2018, humanitarian organizations have documented evidence of Beijing implementing a mass detention and forced labor program. The program includes transferring Uyghur and other Chinese minorities from Xinjiang, forcing them to work under harsh conditions in factories across the country, many of which are in the supply chains of global brands.
 
Biden characterizes the practices as “an affront to human dignity and an egregious example of China’s unfair, economic competition,” according to an administration official. The president wants the G-7 to speak out forcefully in a unified voice against Beijing’s forced labor practices but it is uncertain whether he will have the necessary support to include it in the final G-7 communique to be released Sunday.
…

For many Belarusians, a typical day began with Tut.by. Founded in 2000, the web portal quickly became one of the country’s leading independent news services, with over 1.8 million unique visitors daily.Today, the news organization’s website is shut down by government order, although its staff continue to distribute news as best they are able on other platforms.The success of the Minsk-based outlet, founded by the late businessman and philanthropist Yuri Zisser, was based on its independence.”It was the media market’s standard-bearer,” said Nikolai Khalezin, a journalist and the co-founder of the London-based Belarus Free Theater, which produces shows on social justice and human rights. ”This was in large part because Yuri Zisser was successful in maintaining a political balance without taking any one side.”As a result, Khalezin said, Tut.by became the country’s biggest internet-based platform, offering news, email service, sales listings for real estate and more. “All of this made it a market darling,” Khalezin said.”Tut.by would have been the equivalent of, say, The New York Times,” said Uladzimir Matskevich, a former journalist and renowned Belarusian philosopher and methodologist. “(But) with content easily accessible and free to all.”All that changed in August last year, when mass protests spilled across Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a contested election. Members of the opposition were jailed or forced into exile, protesters violently suppressed, and media targeted.Tut.by, which has had previous run-ins with Lukashenko’s government, has not been spared. Its offices have been raided; its reporters detained. The Ministry of Information stripped the outlet of its official media status in December, and last month it blocked access to Tut.by’s news website, claiming it was in violation of the country’s mass media law.Even as the pressure increased last year, Tut.by’s journalists remained committed to reporting on rights violations.One of those was Katerina Borisevich, whose reporting on Roman Bondarenko, an activist who died in November in police custody, countered the official account.Up to that point, the state had claimed Bondarenko was drunk and involved in a street fight.But Borisevich reported that details from his medical records showed that Bondarenko had no alcohol in his system. Witnesses and friends of the activist had also said that men believed to be plainclothes police officers had beaten Bondarenko unconscious in the courtyard of his apartment building.Borisevich’s coverage on Tut.by did not go unnoticed.”The evening of November 19, I left home to go to the store, and I never returned,” Borisevich told VOA. “Or, more accurately, I returned with seven strangers, and my home was searched while my 17-year-old daughter watched. I had no illusions. From the time of the first questioning, I knew that I would be convicted.”A court in March sentenced Borisevich to six months in prison for divulging medical secrets. The doctor who provided the medical records was handed a suspended sentence.Borisevich was released on May 19. But her news outlet’s troubles were far from over.In late May, security forces raided the home of Yulia Chernyavskaya, the widow of Tut.by’s founder, and searched the news outlet’s offices.Authorities say the company is under investigation for mass tax evasion.Belarusian authorities detained more than a dozen journalists, confiscated computers and searched homes. They questioned and detained at least four employees before releasing them under nondisclosure agreements. They placed Chernyavskaya under house arrest, froze her daughter’s bank accounts and blocked access to the news website.Retaliatory actionsIt comes as no small irony to Khalezin that Tut.by’s death blow came in the form of criminal tax-evasion charges.The company was based in Minsk’s High-Tech Park, an economic zone set up by Lukashenko in 2005 that is sometimes called the Belarusian Silicon Valley. Companies based there are exempt from value-added tax and real estate and corporate taxes.”It was the government that originally allowed Tut.by to be part of High-Tech Park and to take advantage of various tax breaks, and now it’s the government accusing it of tax evasion,” Khalezin said.Analysts believe the government’s harassment of Tut.by and other independent news outlets is in retaliation for their coverage of the months of unrest and violent suppression after the elections.At a May 21 briefing, Natalia Belikova, project coordinator for Press Club Belarus, described the raid as “a purging of the Belarusian media space.””With so many other information resources blocked, Tut.by served as a window to the world,” Matskevich, the philosopher, told VOA. “But now that window has been slammed shut.”Tut.by co-founder Kirill Voloshin also believes the legal cases are driven by retaliation.”The cause of the crackdown is our conscientious and honest coverage of events related to what the majority of the electorate believed was election fraud, as well as the ensuing violence and endless arrests,” Voloshin said.”We covered everything in an uncompromising, honest and efficient manner. When there were different interpretations of the same event, we always gave the other side an opportunity to have its say. But even this approach did not satisfy the powers that be.”Voloshin says Lukashenko’s “assassination of the portal” is made evident by those targeted in the tax-evasion case that put it out of operation: reporters, editors, programmers, the founder’s wife, and Sergei Povalishev, director of Hoster.by, which hosted Tut.by.”It’s unfathomable that these people are somehow being accused of tax evasion,” Voloshin said, adding that Tut.by was vigilant about submitting business plans and financial documentation to remain eligible for its High-Tech Park exemptions.Under attackTut.by’s experiences reflect the wider troubling climate for media since the elections. Hundreds of media workers have been arrested, with around 30 still detained, and more than 60 cases of violence against the press were recorded by the Belarusian Association of Journalists.The government has blocked access to more than 50 websites in Belarus, and many outlets and their staff have been forced into exile.Media outlets and bloggers with big followings have been singled out, including Raman Pratasevich, who ran the popular Telegram channel Nexta. On May 23, Belarus ordered a passenger plane in its airspace to divert to Minsk so it could arrest Pratasevich.According to Matskevich, the Nexta Telegram channel was of major concern to Lukashenko. When the country’s internet was shut down and hundreds of protesters were beaten, it was Nexta — whose office is based in Poland — that provided timely information on what was happening through videos and photos sent in by people on the streets.It acted as a news crowdsourcing project which, by the speed of its distribution, outflanked other media outlets in the process.While Matskevich does not see a direct link between the Tut.by crackdown and the Pratasevich arrest, he calls it all part of a “widespread crackdown on all information services.”After the arrest of Pratasevich, Lukashenko signed into law a decree that allows the shutdown of the internet if national security is threatened.While the decree conveys a sense of adjudication and finality, some, including Khalezin, refuse to believe Lukashenko holds the winning hand.”He has gambled and lost,” he told VOA. “Diplomatic relations with Latvia are severed; airspace over Belarus is shut down.”Latvia completely froze relations with Belarus over the flight diversion.Tut.by is facing huge pressure, but it has no plans to stop.Before the May raids, the outlet’s Telegram channel had close to 300,000 subscribers. It now has more than half a million.The editors plan to continue — at least on social media. Its co-founder Voloshin said he plans to ask the Belarusian Ministry of Information which articles allegedly violated a law, in a bid to eventually have the site restored.  But he doubts Tut.by will be permitted a comeback.”We don’t have any access to the servers,” he said. “For me, at least, the future won’t seem bright until democracy reaches our shores.”Still, Voloshin maintains the team has no regrets.”Our job was to carry forward the mission first advanced by Yuri Zisser: that of transparent, multifaceted and timely coverage of events taking place in our country,” he said. “Tut.by has never abandoned that mission and doesn’t intend to now. We should not regret that we told people the truth.”
…

U.S. President Joe Biden will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington on July 15 in what will likely be her farewell visit to the United States after almost 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy.The announcement was made Friday on the first day of the Group of Seven summit in England. Biden has hosted two other world leaders since taking office, Japan and South Korea.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Merkel “will discuss their commitment to close cooperation on a range of common challenges, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the threat of climate change, and promoting economic prosperity and international security based on our shared democratic values.”A standoff over the completion of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline piping Russian gas to Europe has strained ties at a time when Berlin and Washington are eager to rebuild relations after former U.S. President Donald Trump’s term.The United States waived sanctions last month on the company behind the pipeline, Russian state energy firm Gazprom, giving Berlin and Washington three more months to resolve the dispute.It will probably be Merkel’s farewell visit to the United States since she plans to step down after a September national election, regardless of how her Christian Democrats fare in the polls.The trip is scheduled just days after a July 10 deadline for Europe and the United States to settle a nearly 17-year-old dispute over government subsidies to Airbus and Boeing.U.S. and European Union officials are upbeat about reaching an agreement before currently suspended tariffs go back into effect on July 11.Stormy-Annika Mildner, executive director of the Aspen Institute in Berlin, said two leaders would likely focus on shared goals, such as ending the coronavirus pandemic and combating climate change, as well as digitalization and trade.China and a proposed waiver of intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization – a move backed by Washington but opposed by Berlin – would also be on the agenda, she said.The trip will underscore the importance of the transatlantic and German-U.S. relationship at a time when many Germans remain on edge after the tumult of the Trump administration, she said.”Merkel will be sending a message in both directions – towards the United States … and toward us here in Germany – that this is a window of opportunity,” she said.“There’s still a lot of mistrust in the German population towards the United States. There is the fear that after Biden, there might be another Trump. And even with regard to Biden that he will not be able deliver because of internal restrictions, and the very small majorities that Democrats have in Congress.”
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden would be less impulsive than his predecessor, Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new U.S. leader. In an interview with NBC News, Putin described Biden as a “career man” who spent his life in politics.  “It is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements on behalf of the sitting U.S. president,” he said, according to a translation by NBC News. Biden plans to raise a range of U.S. complaints, including over purported Russian election interference and hacking, in the summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva at the end of Biden’s first foreign trip. Putin had openly admitted that during the 2016 vote he supported Trump, who expressed admiration for the Russian leader and who, at their first summit, appeared to accept his denials of election interference. Biden has said he is under no illusions about Putin, whom he described as “a killer” in light of a series of high-profile deaths, including that of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. Asked if he is “a killer,” Putin said the term was part of “macho behavior” common in Hollywood. Such discourse “is part of U.S. political culture, where it’s considered normal. By the way, not here. It is not considered normal here,” he said. 
…

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO meeting Monday, with some observers questioning whether Turkey can still be viewed as a trusted NATO ally and security partner. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
…

Britain’s COVID-19 vaccines minister urged caution Friday regarding the planned full reopening of the nation later this month, speaking the same day the number of new cases spiked in the nation — 90 percent of which were the highly transmissible delta variant.According to the COVID-19 road map laid out by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, all pandemic-related restrictions are scheduled to be lifted June 21, one week from Monday.FILE – Britain’s COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi appears on BBC TV’s The Andrew Marr Show in London, Britain, May 30, 2021.But in an interview Friday, England’s COVID-19 vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, told Times Radio the nation must be very careful about the opening given the dominance of the delta variant, originally identified in India. His comments came as the government reported 8,125 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily total since February, and that daily transmission rates also were higher.Zahawi said the government should examine the data from this coming weekend very carefully and share it with the nation, and then decide about reopening. Chicago reopensMeanwhile, Chicago on Friday became the largest U.S. city to fully reopen. During a news conference formally announcing the reopening, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters that for more than a year, Chicago residents have endured so much, but they did their part every step of the way.”You masked up, you got vaxxed up, and now it’s time for you to get up, get out of the house this summer, and fully and safely enjoy the events of the best city on the planet, our beloved city of Chicago,” Lightfoot said.Earlier Friday, leaders from the G-7 nations announced they would donate a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and medium-income nations. The U.S. will donate 500 million shots, while Britain will donate 100 million doses.  G-7 Will Donate 1 Billion COVID Vaccines to WorldUS shots will begin shipment in August President Biden says; Britain will donate 100 million jabsOther vaccinesThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Thursday focusing on 10 jurisdictions, and it found that between March and May of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a marked decline in routine childhood vaccinations compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019.The study said the decline placed “U.S. children and adolescents at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” such as measles and polio.The CDC study also found the vaccination rate increased from June to September 2020, but “this increase was not sufficient to achieve catch-up coverage.”The CDC recommended health care providers “assess the vaccination status of all pediatric patients, including adolescents, and contact those who are behind schedule to ensure that all children and adolescents are fully vaccinated” to avoid disease outbreaks.
…

NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg, fresh from a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, told reporters Friday he expects next week’s summit of NATO leaders in Brussel to be a pivotal moment for the alliance and its collective security.
During a briefing at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg noted he had a very good meeting with Biden Monday at the White House and said all NATO alliance members were glad to hear the U.S. president’s strong commitment to reinvigorating the trans-Atlantic bond.
Stoltenberg said he was confident all the leaders at the summit will demonstrate their commitment to that alliance “not only in words, but also in deeds.”
He laid out a busy agenda for the meeting, topped by dealings with Russia and China, which he said were “pushing back against the rules-based international order.” He said the recent high-profile cyberattacks which have been traced to Russia, have left relations between the alliance and the country at their lowest point since the cold war.
He emphasized NATO needs to develop its next strategy for dealing with Russia and said he has reached out to the country to convene a new meeting the NATO-Russia Council. The council was created in 2002 in an effort to improve communications between the alliance and its primary adversary, but the group has not met since 2019.
Stoltenberg said Russia has “not responded positively” to the idea but the dialogue continues.
The NATO chief said the summit also will focus on ensuring the alliance’s technical capabilities to defend against cyberattacks, and he expects the allies will agree on a new cyber-defense policy.
Stoltenberg said outer space will also be a priority, underscoring that domain is as essential as any other the alliance defends. He said it is critical that NATO can gather intelligence, navigate, and be able to detect missile launches, among other space-related issues.
  
…

PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND – The G-7 Summit begins Friday in Cornwall, England, where leaders of seven wealthy democracies are meeting with the goal of leading the global fight against the pandemic and to “build back better” toward a greener, more prosperous and equitable future. The summit is hosted by Britain and attended by leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Representatives from the European Union also are attending, along with other guests – the heads of Australia, South Africa and South Korea. India’s prime minister is joining via video link.“This is a meeting that genuinely needs to happen,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, this year’s host as he opened the plenary session of leaders. “We need to make sure that we learn the lessons from the pandemic, we need to make sure that we don’t repeat some of the errors that we doubtless made in the course of the last 18 months or so.” Johnson said that he wants the G-7 to be “building back better, building back greener, building back fairer, and building back more equal and in a Leaders of the G7 pose for a group photo on overlooking the beach at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, June 11, 2021.While past G-7 meetings were marked with lavish banquets, massive delegations and media entourages, this year’s sessions are severely restricted. Masks, daily COVID-19 testing and other health protocols are stark reminders the coronavirus crisis is far from over.   “The world will look to the G-7 to apply our shared values and diplomatic might, to the challenge of defeating the pandemic and leading a global recovery,” said Johnson.This year’s @G7 Summit will be all about how we #BuildBackBetterpic.twitter.com/2XpSbhB3VC— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 11, 2021The pandemic caused leaders to skip last year’s summit. The last time the G-7 met in-person was in Biarritz, France 2018.  G-7 pandemic plan Johnson said the G-7 will announce a plan to donate a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries, including 100 million doses from Britain.Johnson’s announcement on Thursday came after U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier in the day that his administration is donating 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, half of the G-7 vaccine trove. 
Biden is eager to play his role in a successful G-7, to show the U.S. is back as a strong and dependable ally, after four years of unpredictability under Donald Trump. It’s the first official day of the G7 Summit here in the United Kingdom. I’m looking forward to reinforcing our commitment to multilateralism and working with our allies and partners to build a more fair and inclusive global economy.Let’s get to work.— President Biden (@POTUS) U.S. President Joe Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend a session during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, Britain, June 11, 2021.The G-7 countries are close allies and major trading partners, with similar views on security and trade cooperation. Collectively the group accounts for about half of the global economy. The G-7 summit ends Sunday. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will continue their tour and attend the European Union Summit, the NATO Summit and his highly anticipated meeting Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
…

The first match of soccer’s European championship gets underway Friday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with Turkey taking on Italy.The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic that brought many of the world’s activities to a halt.It is notable that Friday’s opening match will be played in Italy, the first country outside of Asia to get hit by the pandemic and the world’s first to impose a nationwide lockdown.Euro 2020 was suspended last March as countries worked to contain virus outbreaks that have killed more than 1 million Europeans, including 127,000 Italians.Organizers of the tournament, the Union of European Football Associations, hope to allay concerns that it is still unsafe for tens of thousands of fans to gather in stadiums across Europe by undertaking several safety measures. They include crowd limitations, staggered fan arrival times, social distancing and hand sanitizer.Fans attending the match in Rome are required to show documentation they have been vaccinated, tested negative in the 48 hours before the match, or previously have had the coronavirus.Euro 2020, the 16th UEFA championship, is scheduled through July 11. For the first time, matches will be played across Europe. The host cities are Rome, London, Saint Petersburg, Baku, Munich, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Seville. 
…

On Thursday, before the opening Friday of the G-7 Summit in Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the group is set to donate a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries.Johnson’s announcement came after U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier in the day that his administration is donating 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, half of the G-7 vaccine trove.”We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said.Britain will donate 100 million shots.“As a result of the success of the U.K.’s vaccine program, we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them,” Johnson said. “In doing so, we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good.”The U.S. shots will begin shipment in August “as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line,” Biden said in Cornwall on Thursday, adding that 200 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year and 300 million in the first half of 2022.Biden said the donation will be made with no strings attached.“Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions. We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic,” he said.Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, joined Biden for the announcement.“We are testing our vaccines response to newly arising variants,” Bourla said, noting that so far not a single variant has escaped the protection provided by the vaccine.With the pledge, the U.S. also aims to liberate itself from the uncomfortable reputation of being a vaccine hoarder.The move is a signal that the U.S. “isn’t as intensely parochial and inward focused,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House. That has been a deep concern globally, said Vinjamuri, during former President Donald Trump’s administration as well as in the early months of the Biden administration, when Washington was not sharing doses despite a massive oversupply.COVAXThe doses, delivered by the U.S. through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, are in addition to the 80 million already committed by the U.S. to be delivered by the end of June. In addition, the U.S. has given $2 billion to COVAX.The U.S. initially pledged an additional $2 billion for COVAX but is now redirecting the money to help pay for the 500 million donated doses, which has an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.Humanitarian organizations applauded the move.Tom Hart, acting CEO at The ONE Campaign, an organization that works to end poverty and preventable diseases, said in a statement, “This action sends an incredibly powerful message about America’s commitment to helping the world fight this pandemic and the immense power of U.S. global leadership.”However, it is unclear just how much G-7 countries can help. The member countries are at different stages of vaccinating their own populations. Japan and Canada, which have vaccination rates of under 10%, are not in a position to be as generous.Aside from donating vaccines, the G-7 is also under pressure to waive vaccine patents. The U.S. has supported waiving intellectual property rights on vaccines, the so-called TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. The European Union, however, is pushing for a different proposal, compulsory licensing to scale up vaccine production.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA that the different approaches will not be a point of contention at the G-7.“I anticipate convergence, because we’re all converging around the idea that we need to boost vaccine supply in a number of ways,” said Sullivan.The Biden administration knows that Europe will likely hold firm on not supporting the waiver, said Vinjamuri of Chatham House, adding that getting all members of the WTO to agree on a waiver is a long and challenging process, and it’s simply easier to donate vaccines rather than allow countries to produce them without fear of being sued.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA the U.S. will continue WTO negotiations but would not provide details on whether Biden will put his diplomatic weight behind it at the G-7.Biden-Johnson summitPrior to his vaccine announcement, Biden met Thursday with Johnson, with whom he has had disagreements in the past. Biden had once called Johnson a clone of Trump.The leaders agreed on a new Atlantic Charter, modeled on statement made by then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 to promote democracy and free trade, that was instrumental in shaping the world order after World War II.The 2021 Atlantic Charter underscores that, with similar values and combined strength, the two countries will work together to face the enormous challenges facing the planet – from COVID and climate change to maintaining global security.Biden, who is of Irish descent, is also concerned that Brexit could undermine the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 deal facilitated by the United States that brought peace to Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.Under the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland remains party to the EU’s single market, yet is no longer part of the union, which means a customs border must be implemented. The Biden administration wants to ensure that nothing in Brexit could endanger prospects for peace.Biden’s support for the Good Friday Agreement is “rock-solid,” Sullivan told VOA.“That agreement must be protected, and any steps that imperil or undermine it will not be welcomed by the United States,” said Sullivan. He would not say whether Johnson is undermining the agreement.Despite these tensions, Biden is very committed to anchoring the G-7 in the U.S.-U.K. partnership, said Vinjamuri. “Really using America’s deep and historic relationship with Britain to affirm the values of democracy, of liberalism, of freedom.”Johnson’s government has just concluded an integrated review of its foreign policy strategy, which included a reaffirmation of the special relationship between the two allies.  
…

Almost all of Italy’s political parties rallied behind Mario Draghi when he became prime minister — but the public seems to be falling for his biggest critic, the far-right leader Georgia Meloni.A straight-talking conservative who has embraced the fascist-era slogan of “God, Homeland and Family,”Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FDI) are close to overtaking Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigration League as the most popular party in opinion polls.Her success — recent surveys put her party at around 20% — raises the prospect that the next elections will produce the most right-wing government in Italy’s postwar history, with FDI in the driving seat.The next general election is not due until 2023, and technocrat Draghi is still the country’s most popular politician, but Meloni has made no secret of her ambitions.”I am not afraid, in the sense of being ready to do what the Italians are asking me to do,” she told RAI television last month.No ‘cult of fascism’FDI has benefitted from being the only major party opposed to Draghi’s national unity government, which stretches from left to right of the political spectrum, including the League.”As the sole opposition party, you get more airtime and above all, you can say things that parties in the coalition cannot,” Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of the Teneo political consultancy, told AFP.Meloni, 44, has led criticism of coronavirus restrictions, which she sees as excessive, and has lambasted the government’s failure to stop migrants landing in Italy from North Africa.According to Piccoli, she is mostly picking up votes from the League, whose leader Salvini can no longer ride on anti-establishment sentiment since his party gained a place in the Cabinet.The FDI, which takes its name from the opening lines of the Italian national anthem, has surged past the populist Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, and is a couple of points off the League.Meloni portrays herself as a champion of patriotism and traditional Christian values, which she sees endangered by “globalist” elites and the gay rights movement, and an enemy of political correctness.She is media-savvy and recently published a best-selling autobiography, I am Giorgia, in which she opens up on a series of personal traumas, including growing up without a father who left her mother before she was born.Meloni wrote that she “does not belong to the cult of fascism,” yet expressed sympathy for all the neo-Fascists who were killed in the political violence that wracked Italy in the 1970s.Her book — whose title nods to a Meloni speech that went viral after it was remixed into an unlikely dance anthem — has earned her huge publicity, also through controversy over her alleged fascist allegiances.In Rome, a leftist bookshop refused to stock it, while a Venice university professor caused an uproar by tweeting a picture of its front cover upside down — an apparent reference to the hanging of Benito Mussolini’s upside-down body after his death in 1945.’Bit of cleaning up’Meloni grew up in the left-wing working-class Roman neighborhood of Garbatella, and joined as a teen the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a now-defunct party founded by diehard Mussolini fans after World War II.She remains a polarizing figure, but according to Marco Tarchi, a political science professor from Florence university with a distant past in far-right politics, that is no obstacle to her popularity.People like “the radical nature of some of her positions, for example on immigration and the traditional family, and like the way in which she expresses them,” Tarchi told AFP.”She knows she cannot appeal to all Italians,” he said, but “she speaks quite clearly” to right-wing voters who he believes are in the majority.Tarchi added: “She’s a woman, moreover still relatively young, and in an age where feminism and youthfulness are dominant, this helps.”Meloni also has past government experience — she served as a minister under prime minister Silvio Berlusconi between 2008 and 2011.In Europe, she is allied with far right or nationalist forces such as Vox in Spain and Poland’s governing Law and Justice party and is a fan of former U.S. president Donald Trump.Despite intensive media speculation that Meloni could become Italy’s first female premier, experts urge caution.Piccoli warned that the FDI still needed “a bit of cleaning up” from its post-fascist roots, and warned she had no credible team behind her.  “In Italy, we have seen that political fortunes can turn very quickly,” he said.  
…

On Thursday, the eve of the G-7 summit in Cornwall, England, U.S. President Joe Biden formally announced what had been disclosed a day earlier — that his administration would donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to 92 low- and middle-income countries. Here’s the latest from White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara, who is traveling with the president.
…

China and Russia’s combined military spending exceeds that of the United States when adjusted for purchasing power, which has allowed China to shorten capability gaps in its quest to become the top superpower by midcentury, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.”Combined, the Russian and Chinese budgets exceed our budgets if all the cards are put on the table,” Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He called China’s increased spending trend “disturbing.”Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, arrive for a Senate Armed Services budget hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 10, 2021.China and Russia are the U.S. military’s two biggest competitors. Defense secretaries from Jim Mattis to Lloyd Austin have identified China as the “pacing challenge” for the U.S. military.Senator Jim Inhofe, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote in a FILE – Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., attends a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee markup at the Capitol in Washington, May 26, 2021.”It is our obligation to defend this nation, and this proposed budget does not do so,” added Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi. Other senators, including Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, pointed to funding gaps between what was requested by several military leaders for Pacific defense and what was in the administration’s current budget request.Milley and Austin said the defense budget, which amounts to $715 billion, required the department to make tough choices, but it was a means to provide the U.S. with “an adequate defense.””We’re going after the capabilities that can match the operational concepts that we’re putting into play and allow us to be not only competitive but actually dominant in this competition,” Austin said.Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, defended the budget, telling his Republican colleagues that while the Biden budget is $6 billion smaller than the proposed Trump administration budget for this year, Trump’s military budgets actually ended up being lower as he repeatedly took money out of the Pentagon budget for “nonmilitary emergencies” such as building a wall along the southern U.S. border.’Accidental conflict’With the U.S. focus on the growing Chinese threat, Senator Angus King of Maine said Thursday that “one of the most serious risks” was an “accidental conflict with China.” The registered independent pointed to tensions over Taiwan and in the South China Sea, saying the U.S. needed an effective communication line to prevent such a conflict.”There needs to be a direct line of communication between the military and also between government officials as well,” Austin agreed.”I’m concerned about something that could happen that could spark a crisis [with China], and I think we need the ability to be able to talk with both our allies and partners, but also our adversaries or potential adversaries,” he said.
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden Monday on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit for discussions seen as pivotal given the strained relations between the two nations. From Istanbul, Dorian Jones has this preview.Produced by: Rob Raffaele 
 
…

German health officials Thursday introduced that nation’s version of the digital COVID-19 vaccination pass, a smart phone app that will allow fully vaccinated Germans a simple way to prove their status.
 
Speaking to reporters in Berlin, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Germans who have been fully vaccinated can use the app, known as the CovPass, on their smart phones to give them access to restaurants, museums or other venues that require proof of vaccination.  
 
The health minister said people who get vaccinated will receive a letter or emailed certificates to upload to the app, and people who already have been vaccinated will get theirs retroactively. He said it will take time get them all out, but he said certificates and the app should be available to everyone in Germany who is fully vaccinated by the end of June.EU Parliament Approves Digital COVID-19 Travel Certificate App will allow EU citizens with vaccinations to move among member states  
Spahn said the yellow paper WHO-issued vaccination certificates will still be honored as well. But he said the idea is to use an app that is compatible with similar apps to those being introduced elsewhere in Europe.“The goal is that this digital vaccination certificate can be read in Helsinki, Amsterdam or on Mallorca and with that, we as the European Union are setting a standard, which across countries so far does not exist in the world,” he said.
 
The European Parliament Wednesday approved a measure establishing a digital COVID-19 certificate allowing travel throughout the bloc for those who are fully vaccinated.
 
Meanwhile, the country’s Koch Institute for disease control (RKI) reported Thursday that 47 percent, or 39.1 million people in Germany, have had at least one shot and that 23.9 percent – or 19.9 million people of the country’s 83 million residents are fully vaccinated.
 
The RKI reports that as of Wednesday, almost 1.3 million people received an inoculation against the coronavirus making it the second highest number of injections given in one day since the country started its campaign.
…

The anti-corruption group of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is pledging to continue its work after a Russian court outlawed Navalny-affiliated organizations and labeled them “extremist.”“We will continue to fight corruption!” Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation posted Thursday on Twitter.The ruling Wednesday by the Moscow court prevents people linked to the Navalny-affiliated groups from seeking public office, including seats in parliament. Russia has a parliamentary election in September.Prosecutors accused Navalny and his associates of trying to destabilize Russia.The U.S. State Department condemned the ruling Wednesday.“We urge Russia to cease the abuse of “extremism” designations to target nonviolent organizations, end its repression of Mr. Navalny and his supporters, and honor its international obligations to respect and ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms,” spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “The Russian people, like all people, have the right to speak freely, form peaceful associations to common ends, exercise religious freedom, and have their voices heard through free and fair elections.”Nalvany, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, is serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for parole violations stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction he maintained was politically motivated.Nalvany was arrested in January in Russia after spending five months in Germany recovering from a nerve agent poisoning, he accuses the Kremlin of committing. Russia has denied the allegation.U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said she expects President Joe Biden to speak with Putin about Navalny’s poisoning and other human rights issues when they meet next week in Geneva. 
…

Pope Francis has refused to accept the resignation of a German cardinal who requested to step down as archbishop of Munich and Freising over the Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse cases.Cardinal Reinhard Marx offered to resign earlier this month, maintaining he must share the church’s responsibility for decades of sex abuse by clerics.But in a letter published Thursday, Francis rejected Marx’s resignation. The pope acknowledged reform was needed and said Marx must stay on to “shepherd my sheep.”The 67-year-old Marx is part of a small group of cardinals who advise the pope on various issues. He has not been linked to any investigative reports, but the prelate said all members of the hierarchy had some responsibility for the church’s failures. A report about the handling of sex abuse cases in Marx’s archdiocese is due to be released this summer.Marx wrote in his resignation letter that probes in the last decade indicated there had been “a lot of personal failures and administrative mistakes but also institutional or ‘systemic’ failure.”The church launched an investigation into abuse allegations at the German archdiocese in Cologne after a report released in March uncovered hundreds of victims there.“I agree with you that this is a catastrophe. The sad history of sexual abuse and the way the church approached it until recently,” Francis said.Earlier this month, the pope criminalized priests’ sexual abuse of adults in the most comprehensive changes to church law in nearly four decades.As a result, the law now says adults can also be exploited by priests who abuse their authority and that laypeople who hold positions in the church can be punished for comparable sex crimes, as well as for abusing minors.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden meets Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a European trip that includes high-level talks with other Western heads of state and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The world will be watching how Biden and Johnson will interact Thursday afternoon after past disagreements on policies, including Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, which the Obama-Biden administration opposed.      “The chemistry hasn’t been good. President Biden had called Boris Johnson a clone of Donald Trump,” said Dan Hamilton, the director of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center.   Biden, who is of Irish descent, is also concerned that Brexit could undermine the Good Friday U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at Cornwall Airport Newquay, June 9, 2021.Biden kicked off his United Kingdom visit Wednesday with remarks to U.S. troops stationed at the Royal Air Force Mildenhall in Suffolk. The military base is used almost exclusively by American soldiers and home to the U.S. Air Force 100th Air Refueling Wing.   “Thank you. We owe you. We’re so damn proud of you,” said Biden, noting the sacrifices that service members and their families have made. ”You are the solid steel spine of the United States,” he said. ”You are not only warriors. You are diplomats and bridge builders.”      Biden spoke of his agenda at the G-7, NATO and European Union summits in the days ahead, as well as his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.      “I will tell Putin what I will tell him,” Biden said. ”I am going to communicate that there are consequences for violating the sovereignty of democracies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”   The president underscored his belief that world democracies will not only endure but thrive.     “We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” said the president, saying that even though things are changing rapidly, democracies can still get together to reach a consensus to respond to autocrats.   First lady Jill Biden, speaking before the president, showed her appreciation for military members’ sacrifice. She has recently relaunched Joining Forces, a support facility for American troops.      G-7 summit goals   The president’s main agenda in the U.K. is to attend the G-7 summit, a meeting of the world’s seven most advanced democracies: the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.   “Strengthening the alliance, making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight. The G-7 is going to move,” Biden said of his goal for the summit to reporters as he boarded Air Force One.   Now Biden is under pressure to shore up a global pandemic recovery strategy with other G-7 leaders, including how to help vaccinate the world’s population. “I have one and I’ll be announcing it,” Biden said to VOA.   The White House said early Thursday that Biden would be announcing a U.S. program to buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to donate to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and the African Union over the next year.  The U.S. plan calls for the donation of 200 million doses — enough to fully vaccinate 100 million people — by the end of this year, with the remainder sent overseas in the first half of 2022. The White House also said Biden would “call on the world’s democracies to do their part in contributing to the global supply of safe and effective vaccines.” The United States has vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but impoverished countries are trailing far behind that level of inoculations.  The United States has just joined Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in reaffirming support to waive vaccine patents, the so-called TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA negotiations on the waiver at the WTO are being pursued by United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, but Psaki would not provide details on whether Biden will put his diplomatic weight behind it at the G-7.   “The president has certainly spoken about his support on the waiver. He believes it’s an important component of addressing the global threat of COVID, and he will continue to play a constructive role,” Psaki said.    The G-7 leaders last met in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. That summit did not produce the usual communique because of disagreements between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders on key issues.  Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One en route to England that a communique is expected at the end of this G-7.     The three-day G-7 sessions commence on Friday, at the Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate and Tregenna Castle Resort, in St. Ives, Cornwall. The summit is expected to encounter extraordinary logistical challenges to meet COVID-19 health protocols.    
…

The top U.S. envoy to Belarus told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the country’s dependence on Russia had significantly increased. The warning came as a U.S. Senate panel considered policy options in response to Belarus’ detention last month of opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.Producer: Katherine Gypson. Camera: Alexei Gorbachev.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden meets Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a European trip that includes high-level talks with other Western heads of state and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The world will be watching how Biden and Johnson will interact Thursday afternoon after past disagreements on policies, including Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, which the Obama-Biden administration opposed.      “The chemistry hasn’t been good. President Biden had called Boris Johnson a clone of Donald Trump,” said Dan Hamilton, the director of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center.   Biden, who is of Irish descent, is also concerned that Brexit could undermine the Good Friday U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at Cornwall Airport Newquay, June 9, 2021.Biden kicked off his United Kingdom visit Wednesday with remarks to U.S. troops stationed at the Royal Air Force Mildenhall in Suffolk. The military base is used almost exclusively by American soldiers and home to the U.S. Air Force 100th Air Refueling Wing.   “Thank you. We owe you. We’re so damn proud of you,” said Biden, noting the sacrifices that service members and their families have made. ”You are the solid steel spine of the United States,” he said. ”You are not only warriors. You are diplomats and bridge builders.”      Biden spoke of his agenda at the G-7, NATO and European Union summits in the days ahead, as well as his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.      “I will tell Putin what I will tell him,” Biden said. ”I am going to communicate that there are consequences for violating the sovereignty of democracies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”   The president underscored his belief that world democracies will not only endure but thrive.     “We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” said the president, saying that even though things are changing rapidly, democracies can still get together to reach a consensus to respond to autocrats.   First lady Jill Biden, speaking before the president, showed her appreciation for military members’ sacrifice. She has recently relaunched Joining Forces, a support facility for American troops.      G-7 summit goals   The president’s main agenda in the U.K. is to attend the G-7 summit, a meeting of the world’s seven most advanced democracies: the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.   “Strengthening the alliance, making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight. The G-7 is going to move,” Biden said of his goal for the summit to reporters as he boarded Air Force One.   Now Biden is under pressure to shore up a global pandemic recovery strategy with other G-7 leaders, including how to help vaccinate the world’s population. “I have one and I’ll be announcing it,” Biden said to VOA.   Later, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other media, cited sources familiar with the issue who said that the United States will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to donate to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union over the next year. The U.S. has vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but impoverished countries are trailing far behind that level of inoculations.    The U.S. plan calls for the donation of 200 million doses — enough to fully vaccinate 100 million people — by the end of this year, with the remainder sent overseas in the first half of 2022, the sources said.  The United States has just joined Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in reaffirming support to waive vaccine patents, the so-called TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA negotiations on the waiver at the WTO are being pursued by United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, but Psaki would not provide details on whether Biden will put his diplomatic weight behind it at the G-7.   “The president has certainly spoken about his support on the waiver. He believes it’s an important component of addressing the global threat of COVID, and he will continue to play a constructive role,” Psaki said.    The G-7 leaders last met in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. That summit did not produce the usual communique because of disagreements between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders on key issues.  Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One en route to England that a communique is expected at the end of this G-7.     The three-day G-7 sessions commence on Friday, at the Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate and Tregenna Castle Resort, in St. Ives, Cornwall. The summit is expected to encounter extraordinary logistical challenges to meet COVID-19 health protocols.    
…

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Newquay, Cornwall, Wednesday evening in anticipation of the G-7 summit, which starts Friday.Biden kicked off his United Kingdom visit earlier Wednesday with remarks to U.S. troops stationed at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, an air force station in Suffolk. The military base is used almost exclusively by American soldiers and home to the U.S. Air Force 100th Air Refueling Wing.”Thank you. We owe you. We’re so damn proud of you,” said Biden, noting the sacrifices that service members and their families have made. “You are the solid steel spine of the United States. You are not only warriors. You are diplomats and bridge builders.”President Joe Biden speaks to American service members at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, June 9, 2021, after arriving in Europe for meetings with U.S. allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Biden spoke of his agenda at the G-7, NATO and European Union summits in the days ahead, as well as his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.”I will tell Putin what I will tell him,” Biden said. ”I am going to communicate that there are consequences for violating the sovereignty of democracies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”The president underscored his belief that world democracies will not only endure but thrive.”We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” said the president, explaining that even though things are changing rapidly, democracies can still get together to reach a consensus to respond to autocrats.The first lady, speaking before Biden, showed her appreciation for military members’ sacrifice. She has recently relaunched Joining Forces, a support facility for American troops.G-7 summit goalsThe president’s main agenda in the U.K. is to attend the G-7 summit, a meeting of the world’s seven most advanced democracies: the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.President Joe Biden points as he boards Air Force One, June 9, 2021, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Biden embarked on the first overseas trip of his term, eager to reassert the United States on the world stage and steady European allies.”Strengthening the alliance, making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight. The G-7 is going to move,” Biden said of his goal for the summit to reporters as he boarded Air Force One.Now Biden is under pressure to shore up a global pandemic recovery strategy with other G-7 leaders, including how to help vaccinate the world’s population. “I have one and I’ll be announcing it,” Biden said to VOA.Later, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other media, cited sources familiar with the issue who said that the U.S. would buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to donate to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union over the next year. The U.S. has vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but impoverished countries are trailing far behind that level of inoculations.US planThe U.S. plan calls for the donation of 200 million doses — enough to fully vaccinate 100 million people — by the end of this year, with the remainder sent overseas in the first half of 2022, the sources said.The U.S. has just joined Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in reaffirming support for waiving vaccine patents, the so-called TRIPS waiver, at the World Trade Organization. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA that negotiations on the waiver at the WTO were being pursued by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, but Psaki would not provide details on whether Biden would put his diplomatic weight behind it at the G-7.”The president has certainly spoken about his support on the waiver. He believes it’s an important component of addressing the global threat of COVID, and he will continue to play a constructive role,” Psaki said.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets then-U.S. President Donald Trump for talks during the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, Aug. 25, 2019.The G-7 leaders last met in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. That summit did not produce the usual communique because of disagreements between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders on key issues. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One en route to England that a communique was expected at the end of this G-7.Biden-Johnson meetingFrom Mildenhall, Biden headed to the summit’s location in Cornwall, a one-hour flight away. On Thursday afternoon, he is scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The world will be watching how the two leaders will interact after past disagreements on policies, including Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU, which the Obama-Biden administration opposed.”The chemistry hasn’t been good. President Biden had called Boris Johnson a clone of Donald Trump,” said Dan Hamilton, the director of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center, a global policy research group in Washington.Biden, who is of Irish descent, is also concerned that Brexit could undermine the FILE – Loyalist protesters opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol on Brexit make their point under the statue of former Unionist leader Lord Edward Carson at Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 8, 2021.Under the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland remains party to the EU’s single market, yet is no longer part of the union, which means a customs border must be implemented. The Biden administration wants to ensure that nothing in Brexit could endanger prospects for peace.”President Biden has been crystal clear about his rock-solid belief in the Good Friday Agreement as the foundation for peaceful coexistence in Northern Ireland. That agreement must be protected, and any steps that imperil or undermine it will not be welcomed by the United States,” Sullivan told VOA, adding that Biden would be making “statements of principle” on this issue. He would not say whether Johnson was undermining the agreement.Special tiesDespite these tensions, Hamilton said, the leaders will commit to pursuing transatlantic relations to the best of their countries’ interests. Johnson’s government has just concluded an integrated review of its foreign policy strategy, which included a reaffirmation of the special relationship between the two allies.The three-day G-7 sessions commence Friday at the Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate and Tregenna Castle Resort in St. Ives, Cornwall. The summit is expected to encounter extraordinary logistical challenges to meet COVID-19 health protocols.Steve Herman contributed to this report.
…

Leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet this weekend in Britain, with an agenda topped by the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, taxation, and the challenges posed by Russia and China. The three-day summit beginning Friday will be held at Carbis Bay, a popular tourist resort in Cornwall on Britain’s southwestern peninsula. British warships are patrolling the coastline and more than 6,500 police officers have been deployed as Britain prepares to host the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa also have been invited as guests. Police officers stand guard outside a security gate around Tregenna Castle in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, June 9, 2021.The summit marks President Joe Biden’s first official overseas trip while in office. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as he prepared to fly to Britain on Air Force One, Biden was asked about his priorities for the trip. “Strengthening the alliance. Making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight, and the G-7 is going to move,” Biden said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday he was looking forward to hosting allies face to face. “This is the first time for almost six months in office almost that Joe Biden the U.S. president has been able to come overseas for a major trip; it’s his first time on the European continent. It’s the first time that any of us really have been able to see each other face to face since the pandemic began. “So here at the G-7, what we’re looking at is making sure we have a new treaty on the pandemic, working on that, building back greener, building back better, which is why we’re looking at what’s going on here in Cornwall with all of the green technology, but also talking about the values we have in common, everything we want to do together. There’s a huge agenda,” said Johnson. Plane spotters take pictures of an airplane at RAF (Royal Air Force) Mildenhall ahead of the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden, near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Britain, June 9, 2021.After four years of troubled transatlantic relations under former President Donald Trump — whose “America First” agenda alienated many allies — Biden will receive a warm welcome in Europe, says analyst Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, vice president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “The attempt to rebuild trust — lost trust — with allies is at the heart of the agenda. And that message comes across loud and clear,” Kleine-Brockhoff told VOA. But he added that the scars have not yet fully healed. “There’s sort of a lingering suspicion that Joe Biden could be an outlier, an intermezzo between two nationalist presidencies, and an America that has changed for the long haul. And so, the investment into the Biden administration [by European allies] is not as immediately visible as the Biden administration would hope,” Kleine-Brockhoff said. Nonetheless, analysts say the G-7 leaders will put on a strong show of unity amid numerous challenges, says Creon Butler, a former British government adviser on the G-7 and now the director of the Global Economy and Finance Program at London’s Chatham House foreign policy institute. “The COVID recovery generally is the top item, and you can see that in the way that the U.K. is presenting the summit,” Butler told VOA. “There is a sort of economic aspect and then there are other aspects, particularly on the health side.” FILE – Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivers a speech n central London, Britain, May 21, 2016.The summit host, British Prime Minister Johnson, has pledged the G-7 will help to vaccinate the whole world by the end of 2022. One of his predecessors, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, says that rhetoric must be turned into reality. “I think it’s no exaggeration to say that Friday’s G-7 is a life and death matter. Its decision will determine who is vaccinated and safe and who remains unvaccinated and at risk of dying,” Brown said at a virtual meeting held Tuesday by Chatham House. G-7 leaders also will focus on tackling climate change, and trade and taxation are high on the agenda. G-7 finance ministers last week backed a plan for a minimum global tax rate of 15%. “This bit is really quite revolutionary,” said Butler. “As, indeed, is the agreement on sharing taxing rights around — so not just in the location where the tax residence of the company is, but also in locations where a company may have very large revenues but pay very, very little tax.” Butler said Britain’s hosting of the G-7 summit provides an ideal platform for the government to project a new image now that it has left the European Union. A man rides a motorbike past a pub with flags of the G-7 nations and the flag of Cornwall in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, June 9, 2021.”Actually, the G-7 is now even more important for the U.K. and actually for the Western alliance more generally, now that the U.K. has left the EU, because, certainly for the U.K., things that you might have wanted to coordinate and work with the EU on within the EU, the G-7 is now the logical place to do it.” The threat to G-7 democracies from Russia and China also will be discussed in Cornwall. Biden will be hoping for a strong response from allies, says analyst Kleine-Brockhoff. “The question as to whether Western countries can find a joint approach vis-à-vis China, and whether President Biden can get the language and the commitment that he needs also for his domestic political purposes out of his European allies … that to me is the big question,” said Kleine-Brockhoff. Several of the G-7 leaders will go straight from Cornwall to Brussels on Monday for a NATO summit. Biden is then scheduled to meet European Union leaders Tuesday. Analysts say the sequence of meetings is aimed at underscoring allies’ support ahead of Biden’s summit Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva. 
 
…

A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that an incident in which a man slapped the president would not deter his national tour.Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town. The man in question was taken into custody, and after security initially pulled the president away from the scene, he resumed shaking hands and visiting with people a short time later.At a Paris news conference Wednesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters that while the presidential security detail remained as vigilant as always, no special alert had been raised after the slap.Attal said Macron would continue tours of the country because at this time, as the COVID-19 pandemic is winding down and human contact has been restricted for so long, there is no better way to “take the pulse” of the country.”There is nothing more suited than direct contact and direct exchanges with French people. So obviously [Macron] will continue this in the coming weeks,” Attal said.Speaking of the incident during a Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, Macron said any acts of physical violence must be taken seriously.“There’s stupidity, and when stupidity comes with violence, that’s unacceptable. That’s something else. We can’t confuse it for something else,” the French president said.Macron also said he thought people were tired from the pandemic, and that although there was never an excuse for resorting to violence, he hoped the media would not make too much of the incident. He felt it was an isolated incident and should be left as such.Meanwhile, the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, reported that Macron’s assailant had been identified only as Damien T, 28. He remained in police custody and was expected to be charged with assaulting a public figure, which carries a maximum three-year prison term. Police said he had no criminal record.
…