France advised its citizens and companies Thursday to temporarily leave Pakistan, citing “serious threats to French interests” in the South Asian nation.The move follows violent protests this week across large parts of Pakistan by activists of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which has been demanding that Islamabad expel the French ambassador over the publishing of anti-Islam cartoons in France.“Due to the serious threats to French interests in Pakistan, French nationals and French companies are advised to temporarily leave the country,” France’s embassy said in an email to its estimated 500 citizens in living in Pakistan.  “The departures will be carried out by existing commercial airlines,” it said.Police officers guard a road blocked with shipping containers, near the French consulate, in Karachi, Pakistan, April 15, 2021.There was no immediate reaction by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.Pakistani officials said Wednesday that three days of clashes between TLP supporters and police killed two law enforcement personnel and wounded nearly 600 others, including dozens of protesters.The unprecedented attacks against police prompted the Pakistani government to declare the TLP a banned organization under the country’s anti-terrorism laws. TLP members took to the streets in major cities Monday, shortly after authorities in the eastern city of Lahore detained their leader, Saad Rizvi. They blocked highways across major cities, paralyzing business and daily life.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, left, and Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, give a press conference addressing anti-France violence, in Islamabad, April 15, 2021.Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said police and paramilitary forces had dispersed the protesters in most, but not all, places.Ahmed defended Rizvi’s arrest, saying Rizvi was planning to lead a march on Islamabad to besiege the capital in connection with the TLP’s demand for the expulsion of the French ambassador. The interior minister dismissed the demand as illegitimate, saying entities like the TLP cannot be allowed to dictate terms to the Pakistani state.The TLP has risen to prominence in Pakistan in recent years. Along with demonstrations against France, the party has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes. 
  
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Russian authorities on Wednesday charged four editors of an online student magazine with encouraging minors to take part in illegal activity for a report about the nationwide protests supporting jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.All four were ordered by a court not to leave their residences for the next two months and were banned from using the internet and communicating with anyone other than immediate family, lawyers and law-enforcement agencies.The charges, which carry a potential sentence of three years in prison, come amid heightened pressure on independent news media.Police raided the Moscow apartments of the four DOXA magazine editors as well as the apartments of two of the editors’ parents and the magazine’s offices before taking the editors in for questioning, according to DOXA and a human rights group involved in their defense. DOXA said the actions were connected to a video the magazine ran about the protests calling for Navalny’s freedom, which took place throughout the country on two consecutive weekends in January, among the largest shows of defiance in a decade.The video talked about the pressure that school and university students faced before the protests and described threats of expulsion, which it said were unlawful, for participating in the demonstrations.Russia’s media and internet watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that DOXA delete the video. The magazine complied, but filed a lawsuit contesting the order.DOXA said Wednesday that the video contained “no calls for unlawful actions — we were saying that young people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinion.””The pressure the journalist community has faced recently is unprecedented, but we won’t stop our work. We will continue to cover what’s important for young people and will continue to stand up for their rights,” the magazine’s statement read. Navalny’s chief strategist, Leonid Volkov, faces similar charges, although he left Russia in 2019. On Wednesday, he expressed “unconditional respect and support” on Facebook for the four DOXA editors: Armen Aramyan, Natalya Tyshkevich, Vladimir Metelkin and Alla Gutnikova.As the four appeared one-by-one in front a judge on Wednesday evening, dozens of supporters gathered near the courthouse in central Moscow. Some carried banners saying “We are DOXA” and “Get your hands away from DOXA.” Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most visible foe, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. He was later sentenced to about 2 1/2 years in prison on the grounds that his long stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence on a previous conviction for financial misdeeds. The crackdown on DOXA came several days after police searched the apartment of a prominent investigative journalist, Roman Anin, chief editor of the Vazhniye Istorii website. The website said the raid was likely linked with a 2016 story Anin wrote for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta that alleged a lavish super-yacht belonged to Igor Sechin, head of Russian state oil company Rosneft.Novaya Gazeta was ordered to retract the story as a result of a civil court case, but a criminal case on the matter has been pending for years.”Coverage of some important issues — protests, corruption, and so on — is perceived as hostile criminal activity, so none of the journalists who honestly do their job can feel safe now,” said Damir Gainutdinov of the Agora human rights organization that is providing legal support to three of the DOXA editors.
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The United States will announce sanctions on Russia as soon as Thursday for alleged election interference and malicious cyber activity, targeting several individuals and entities, people familiar the matter said.The sanctions, in which 30 entities are expected to be blacklisted, will be tied with orders expelling about 10 Russian officials from the United States, one of the people said.The White House, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The action will add a new chill to the already frosty relations between Washington and Moscow, which has tested the West’s patience with a military buildup near Ukraine.The wide-ranging sanctions would come in response to a cybersecurity breach affecting software made by SolarWinds Corp. that the U.S. government has said was likely orchestrated by Russia. The breach gave hackers access to thousands of companies and government offices that used the company’s products.Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack, which was identified in December, as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.”The United States also intends to punish Moscow for alleged interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In a report last month, U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the election to then-President Donald Trump and away from now-President Joe Biden.Washington’s expected action is likely to exacerbate tensions in a relationship that slumped to a new post-Cold War low last month after Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer.”In a call on Tuesday, Biden told Putin that the United States would act “firmly” to defend its interests in response to those actions, according to U.S. officials’ account of the call.Biden also proposed a meeting with Putin “in a third country” that could allow the leaders to find areas to work together.In the past few weeks, Washington and its NATO allies have been alarmed by a large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.”The hostility and unpredictability of America’s actions force us in general to be prepared for the worst scenarios,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week, anticipating the new sanctions.    
 
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Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney is expected to press his British counterpart, Dominic Rabb, this week during a meeting in London to convene an emergency British-Irish intergovernmental conference to discuss a recent outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland. But British ministers are reluctant. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the British government would “look for an appropriate time for a future meeting” but did not commit to do so as a matter of urgency, despite a growing clamor in the British Parliament for a summit, which would include Northern Irish politicians. Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland deny they have been behind an eruption of street violence in the British-ruled province, but they have warned that politicians in London, Dublin and Brussels are playing with fire, saying they underestimate the impact Brexit is having on the sectarian balance. The sustained nature of rioting in largely Protestant neighborhoods of Belfast and Londonderry is prompting rising alarm in government circles in Dublin and London, with fears mounting the province risks being dragged back into its dark past of sectarian violence between pro-British, mainly Protestant Unionists and mostly Catholic Irish nationalists. Loyalists are seen as Unionist paramilitaries. FILE – Rioters throw burning bottles at the police on the Springfield Road as protests continue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 8, 2021.The rioting has been among the worst seen since the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement was struck in April 1998, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Many politicians and analysts agree that fury over the Brexit deal — which has left Northern Ireland inside the European Union’s single market and customs union, resulting in a regulatory “sea border” between it and the United Kingdom mainland — is the source of the rioting. Customs inspections are required under the Brexit agreement between London and Brussels on goods and agricultural produce to ensure compliance with EU standards. The imposition of a sea border meant a land border between the two halves of Ireland could be avoided, which would have risked sparking a violent reaction from nationalists and the paramilitary Provisional IRA. The reverse has happened — an outcome that some Unionists warned was likely. FILE – Graffiti in a loyalist area of south Belfast, Northern Ireland, against an Irish sea border is seen Feb. 2, 2021.Authorities say more than 90 police officers have been injured in the rioting, including 14 on Friday when youngsters lobbed bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs. The riots in Loyalist strongholds also have involved sectarian clashes along a peace wall in west Belfast with children as young as 13 years old participating. A burning car Monday was placed on the tracks of the Londonderry-to-Belfast rail-line. The engineer managed to bring her train to a standstill to avoid a collision. The unrest has cooled in recent days, but observers fear it will flare again. FILE – Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin speaks to the media in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 16, 2020.Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, has been urging his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to agree to the intergovernmental talks, according to Irish officials. Martin has also asked the White House to lobby for an emergency summit, insisting Northern Ireland must not be allowed to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord.” U.S. President Joe Biden has echoed the appeal for calm. Northern Ireland’s Unionists worry the Brexit deal Johnson struck with Brussels will in effect start peeling the province away from the U.K., and they say it affects their cultural identity. Analysts are concerned it will inexorably lead to reunification of the island of Ireland and feed into a psyche of political grievance. Reaction to the Brexit trading arrangements has revealed how fragile peace in Northern Ireland remains, according to observers. Some blame politicians in London and Belfast for neglecting to build on the Good Friday Agreement and do more to dilute the province’s toxic sectarianism. The presence of youngsters in the rioting is especially worrying, they say. “More than 600,000 young people have been born in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement was signed,” lamented Abby Wallace this week in the Irish Times, using another term for the Good Friday Agreement. “But under the broad umbrella of the ‘peace generation,’ not all young people have felt this peace in the same way. This is because our leaders have failed to build on the Belfast Agreement in a way which would allow all of Northern Ireland’s youth to feel that we are no longer living in the past. “More than 90 percent of Northern Ireland’s young people are still educated in segregated schools,” noted Wallace, a radio journalist and postgraduate politics student at Belfast’s Queen’s University. FILE – Pro-Union Loyalists demonstrate against the Northern Ireland Protocol implemented following Brexit, on the road leading to the Port of Larne in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, April 6, 2021.Northern Ireland’s police chief says there is no evidence rioting has been sanctioned by Loyalist leaders. “We feel that there may be some people who could have connections to proscribed organizations, who have been present at the scenes of violence,” he said, but added in a statement that “we don’t believe it’s been sanctioned and organized by proscribed organizations.” Others are less sure. Irish news outlets have reported that much of the trouble has been in neighborhoods where criminal gangs and drug traffickers linked to Loyalist paramilitaries have a strong presence. The rioting came after a recent police crackdown on crime in some Loyalist areas. “The motivations of the rioters appear to be an inchoate mix of criminal aggression and political grievance, their anger stoked by the manipulations of drug gangs and a climate of instability, all underlaid by decades of community neglect,” the Irish Times newspaper said in an editorial. FILE – A police officer walks behind a police vehicle with flames leaping up after violence broke out in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, April 3, 2021.British officials say the unrest is being fueled by several factors — among them the impact of Brexit, which Lewis told the British Parliament overlaps “with wider questions about national identity and political allegiance and comes at a time of economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.” The poisonous brew of disillusionment got an added ingredient last month when Northern Ireland officials declined to prosecute politicians from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional IRA, for attending the funeral of former IRA leader Bobby Storey, despite the funeral breaking pandemic restrictions. “To date there has been a spectacular collective failure to understand properly the scale and nature of unionist and loyalist anger,” Loyalist paramilitaries said in a joint statement last week. “Indeed, there is a complete failure to understand loyalists as people and equal citizens.” British and EU officials are now scrambling to see if they can tweak the trading arrangements to make them less intrusive, and they say they are making progress. But it remains unclear whether that will be a long-term cure. Sinn Fein, which always saw the Good Friday Agreement as a steppingstone to eventual Irish reunification, is pushing for a so-called border poll on the future of the British-ruled province, to the increasing frustration of Northern Ireland’s Unionists.
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France’s once-powerful Communist Party is fielding its first presidential candidate in years for the 2022 elections, a choice some consider vital for its very survival. It’s one of Western Europe’s last relevant Communist parties, whose latest move paradoxically risks further fracturing an already weakened French left.  The French Communist Party’s presidential hopeful is Fabien Roussel, a former journalist with a reputation as a bon vivant and amateur fisherman, who has been at its helm since 2018. He got strong backing at a party meeting last weekend, although the movement’s base must still endorse his candidacy next month.  A new poll finds France’s Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel would score only a tiny percentage in the next presidential vote. But some say a run is key if the party is to stay relevant. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Announcing his run Sunday, Roussel said he wanted to offer the French people a program of hope — not only in defeating the coronavirus pandemic but also unemployment, poverty and inequality. 
 
France’s century-old Communist Party was once a major political force. In the 1970s, it was the country’s most powerful leftist party, with about 20% popular support. It also governed a raft of working-class towns around Paris nicknamed the Red Belt, with streets named after communist icons like Marx and Lenin.  
 The French Communist Party headquarters in northeastern Paris, designed by leading Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1965, when the party was a major player in French political life. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Today, it’s a shadow of its former self — although it’s among a handful of Communist parties across Europe with deputies in the European Parliament. Here in France, center- and far-right candidates have pierced the Paris-area “Red Belt” and the Communists now control just one French department.  FILE – French Communist Party (PCF) deputy Marie-George Buffet attends a session of questions to the Government at the French National Assembly in Paris, Apr. 14, 2020.The party’s last presidential hopeful, Marie-George Buffet, got less than 2% of the vote in 2007. Roussel was partly elected on his call for another run.   Political analyst Jean Petaux says Roussel’s move is almost an existential decision for the party. If the Communists don’t field a candidate they risk disappearing altogether. If they do, they risk another humiliating defeat.  
 FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a press conference, in Paris, France, Feb. 25, 2021.An IFOP poll Sunday found President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading in voter intentions for next year’s elections. It found no leftist candidate would score more 13% — and Roussel only capturing 2.5%.   FILE – Leader of France’s National Rally Party Marine Le Pen speaks during a news conference in Milan, Italy, May 18, 2019.Analyst Petaux says it’s a paradox, since the coronavirus crisis has left some French hungry for the kinds of messages the Communist Party has long embraced — like the return of the protector state. Yet even among the working class, the party has lost its shine. Many have turned instead to Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.  
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European Commission President Urusula Von der Leyen Wednesday announced the European Union has reached a deal with pharmaceutical partners Pfizer-BioNTech for 50 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine, to be delivered in the coming months.
At a news briefing in Brussels, Von der Leyen said the new deal means the EU will have obtained 250 million doses. She said the bloc is negotiating a third contract with the partners for 1.8 billion doses to be delivered in 2022 and 2023.  
She said the deal will “not only include the production of vaccines, but also the essential components. All of that will be based in the European Union.”
Von der Leyen said 100 million doses have been administered in the 27-nation EU bloc already, saying this is “a milestone we can be proud of.”   
But, noting issues with AstraZeneca, and this week, the Johnson & Johnson shots, the European Commission president said many factors can disrupt the planned delivery schedules of vaccines.
 
She said, “It is therefore important to act swiftly, anticipate, and adjust whenever it is possible, and we are doing everything in our power to support Europe’s vaccination rollout.”
Several European nations suspended administering the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of rare cases of blood clots. Tuesday, U.S. health regulators recommended pausing inoculations with Johnson & Johnson’s product because of similar reports.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet Wednesday in Brussels with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and top diplomats from several U.S. allies as the United States launches it plans to withdraw forces from Afghanistan.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is also participating in a meeting that includes German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi DiMaio, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.The Biden administration ended months of speculation about U.S. plans in Afghanistan by saying Tuesday it would withdraw remaining troops by September 11. That date is the anniversary of the 2001 attacks that saw al-Qaida terrorists hijack passenger planes and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.The attacks prompted the United States to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan in an effort that eventually grew to include more than 130,000 troops from 50 NATO and partner nations. Since 2015, the remaining forces, which now number fewer than 10,000, have been tasked with training and assisting Afghan security forces.U.S. officials have said the decision to leave Afghanistan would be taken in conjunction with NATO allies.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, left, meets with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, in Brussels, April 13, 2021.Blinken began his visit to Brussels on Tuesday with a focus on Ukraine, saying the United States supports an autonomous Ukraine, as Western allies watch a Russian buildup of forces along the border between the two countries.“The U.S. stands firmly behind the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Blinken said, adding that he would discuss Ukraine’s “Euro-Atlantic aspirations” this week. The White House said President Joe Biden also “emphasized the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” during a phone call Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.“The president voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up in occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, and called on Russia to de-escalate tensions,” the White House said in a readout of the conversation, adding Biden “proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia.”The Kremlin is overseeing the largest movement of Russian troops, tanks and missiles along the Ukrainian border since the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, according to Ukrainian and U.S. officials. Russia has conducted at least three military training exercises adjacent to the Ukrainian border since mid-March.“This meeting is extremely timely given what is happening along the Ukrainian border with Russia,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said just before talks with Blinken. The Ukrainian foreign minister expressed confidence that Western countries would also act to temper Russian aggression, which he said would force Ukraine to pay too high a price if left unchecked.Two U.S. warships are set to arrive in the Black Sea this week amid an escalation in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed troops.The conflict began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since killed some 14,000 people, according to Ukraine’s government.Blinken spoke with Stoltenberg about the situation Monday and said there was mutual agreement that “Russia must end its dangerous military buildup and ongoing aggression along Ukraine’s borders.”  Stoltenberg expressed support for Ukraine as he spoke alongside Kuleba on Tuesday, saying “NATO stands with Ukraine.””Russia’s considerable military buildup is unjustified, unexplained and deeply concerning,” Stoltenberg said. “Russia must end this military buildup in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and de-escalate immediately.”Kuleba said Ukraine “does not want war” and is “devoted to diplomatic and political means of settling the conflict.”But while highlighting the support of NATO, Kuleba also said, “Should Russia take any reckless move or start a new spiral of violence, it will be costly in all senses.” 
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The Taliban said on Tuesday they would not attend a summit on Afghanistan’s future in Turkey this month until all foreign forces leave their country.”Until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland, (we) will not participate in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan,” tweeted Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the Taliban office in Qatar.His intervention came just hours after it emerged that the U.S. would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan about five months later than Washington had originally agreed with the insurgents.U.S. officials said President Joe Biden would withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan before this year’s 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.The drawdown, finally ending America’s longest war despite mounting fears of a Taliban victory, delays by around five months an agreement with the Taliban inked by former President Donald Trump to pull troops.There is a growing consensus in Washington that little more can be achieved in the conflict-torn nation.The decision came as Turkey announced an international peace conference on Afghanistan that the hosts hope could pave the way to a power-sharing arrangement.The conference, due to be held in Istanbul from April 24 to May 4, will seek to revive long-stalled peace talks that are being hosted in the Qatari capital Doha.
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U.S. President Joe Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Tuesday that the United States is concerned about Moscow’s “sudden … military buildup” along Ukraine’s border and in occupied Crimea. He called on Russia to “deescalate tensions,” the White House said in a summary of the conversation.”President Biden emphasized the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House said, but gave no assessment of Putin’s reaction to the U.S. leader’s remarks.Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, with the U.S. and Western allies condemning the takeover but doing nothing to block it. Since then, Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region have fought Kyiv’s troops, with skirmishes flaring periodically, sometimes intensely.FILE – Joe Biden (left), then vice president of the United States, shakes hands with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow, March 10, 2011.Washington initiated the call, according to the Kremlin, with both sides saying that Biden expressed the hope that the two countries could normalize relations.It is the second time the two leaders have talked by phone since Biden assumed power in late January.The White House readout of the call said Biden and Putin “discussed a number of regional and global issues, including the intent of the United States and Russia to pursue a strategic stability dialogue on a range of arms control and emerging security issues, building on the (five-year) extension of the New START Treaty.”It also said the U.S. president “made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference.””President Biden reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with U.S. interests,” the White House said.
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With tensions escalating between Russia and Ukraine, Turkey is finding itself caught in the middle. Ankara — anxious to get Russian COVID vaccines and tourist revenue — faces a difficult choice as Kyiv seeks to purchase Turkish-made military drones. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Produced by: Henry Hernandez 
 
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Alexey Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been jailed for several months, is reportedly suffering the effects of his hunger strike, according to his wife, who visited him Tuesday. Navalny, 44, began his hunger strike at the end of March in protest over what he said was a lack of medical care for severe back and leg pain. His wife said he is having a hard time speaking. “He is still as cheerful and upbeat as ever,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote in an Instagram post. “He speaks with difficulty, though, and from time to time he hangs up the phone and leans on the table to take a break. He has lost a lot of weight … and weighs 76 kg at 190 (cm).” Navalny has reportedly lost 16 kilograms (35 pounds) since his imprisonment in February.  FILE – Russian police officers guard the entrance to the penal colony N2, where Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has been transferred to serve a two-and-a-half year prison term for violating parole, in the town of Pokrov, April 6, 2021.According to The Associated Press, Navalny’s team said authorities are threatening to force-feed him. Navalnaya said prison officials will still not let a doctor examine her husband. “I’ve never seen skin so tight around one’s skull, but I know he’s not going to give up,” she wrote. Prison staff said they offered Navalny medical treatment, but he refused it. Navalny had been moved to the prison clinic earlier this month with a bad cough and fever. On Tuesday, the Russian prisons service said a panel of doctors assessed Navalny’s health as satisfactory. They said he had been transferred out of the clinic and back to the main part of the prison on April 9, according to Reuters, which cited the RIA news agency. Also Tuesday, Navalny threatened to sue the prison for refusing to give him a copy of the Quran, AP reported. Navalny reportedly said studying the Islamic holy book was a goal of his while in prison. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.   He was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge and is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”  The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.  
 
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Belarusian authorities have stopped the European news network Euronews from broadcasting inside the country amid a campaign to muzzle independent media and journalists as part of the government’s crackdown on dissent following a disputed presidential election that returned strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power.The Information Ministry said in a  Police officers detain a demonstrator as they prevent an opposition action to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, March 27, 2021.The demonstrators are demanding that Lukashenka leave and new elections be held, but Belarus’s strongman has been defiant. Security officials have arrested thousands and forced Tsikhanouskaya and other top opposition figures out of the country.Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.Meanwhile, Barys Haretski, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, says the government has embarked on the largest crackdown on journalists and rights activists Europe has ever seen.”Since last summer, the authorities have systematically created, let us say, ‘a Great Wall of China’ around Belarusian society. They have repressed journalists and shut down media outlets,” said Haretski.Lukashenka, who has run Belarus since 1994, and other top officials have been slapped with sanctions by the West, which refuses to recognize him as the legitimate leader of the country.Minsk-based media expert Paulyuk Bykouski said the move to ban Euronews cuts off a main point of access to fair and unfiltered news for Belarusians, who “do not have access to such information projects as CNN, Fox News, and any other channels that could be a possible alternative to what is being broadcast by Belarusian state media and Russian television channels.”  
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Much of Europe has been forced back into lockdown amid a deadly third wave of the coronavirus. In Britain however, pubs, shops and services reopened Monday as the government hailed its vaccination program for cutting infections. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell 
Producer: Jason Godman  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Brussels on Tuesday to meet with European and NATO allies on a range of issues, including Russia’s buildup of forces along the border with Ukraine and coalition operations in Afghanistan.The visit comes three weeks after Blinken was in Brussels for a summit with his counterparts from NATO member states. Blinken spoke of the priority for the United States to focus on strengthening ties with allies during the previous meeting.“Glad to be heading back to Brussels. The United States is committed to rebuilding U.S. alliances, particularly with our NATO Allies,” Blinken Tweeted on Monday. “We remain steadfast in our support for NATO as the essential forum for Transatlantic security.”Glad to be heading back to Brussels. The United States is committed to rebuilding U.S. alliances, particularly with our @NATO Allies. We remain steadfast in our support for NATO as the essential forum for Transatlantic security. #USNATOpic.twitter.com/WSVjC7tSUk— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) April 13, 2021 Blinken’s schedule Tuesday includes talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.Russia’s recent movement of troops to the border area has raised concerns in the United States and elsewhere.Blinken spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the situation Monday and said there was mutual agreement that “Russia must end its dangerous military buildup and ongoing aggression along Ukraine’s borders.”Stoltenberg expressed support for Ukraine as he spoke alongside Kuleba on Tuesday, saying “NATO stands with Ukraine.””Russia’s considerable military buildup is unjustified, unexplained and deeply concerning,” Stoltenberg said.  “Russia must end this military buildup in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and deescalate immediately.”Kuleba said Ukraine “does not want war” and is “devoted to diplomatic and political means of settling the conflict.”But while highlighting the support of NATO, Kuleba also said, “Should Russia take any reckless move or start a new spiral of violence, it will be costly in all senses.”Philip Reeker, the U.S. acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters in previewing Blinken’s meetings that NATO talks about Ukraine would bring calls for Russia to show restraint and refrain from “escalatory actions.”Joining Blinken in Brussels is U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.Another major topic of discussion will be the situation in Afghanistan just weeks before a May 1 deadline set an agreement between the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Taliban for the withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 U.S. forces from the country.Reeker said those talks would be an opportunity to follow up on discussions about Afghanistan from the ministerial meetings last month. Blinken said during the March talks that the United States wanted to “listen and consult” with NATO allies, while pledging to “leave together” when the time is right.
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Rome restaurateurs and other small-business owners clashed Monday with police for the second week in a row, demanding to be allowed to open after being shut down for much of the past year. Italy has been one of the hardest-hit nations over the course of the pandemic, with more than 114,000 deaths from COVID-19. The government has closed many of its restaurants, along with other stores and markets, for varying periods for much of the past year. They had been allowed to reopen at various times, only to be told to shut again when the virus surged. But now they want to reopen for good, and at least 200 people from around Italy joined Monday’s protest in a plaza close to Montecitorio Palace, the lower house of Parliament. Many carried signs or shouted “Work!” and “Freedom!” as they faced down police in riot gear.  A demonstrator gestures as she speaks to a police officer during a protest of restaurant and small-business owners who call for their businesses to be allowed to reopen amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Rome, Italy, April 12, 2021.Scuffles broke out between police and protesters after a small group of demonstrators attempted to break through police barricades. The restrictions prohibit dining and drinking at restaurants, bars and cafes through at least April in most regions, with only takeout or delivery services permitted. The government has allocated millions in aid to business sectors particularly hit hard by pandemic restrictions. While initial lockdowns to control the virus were widely accepted, business owners took to the streets after learning about the current shutdown extension.  
 
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Princes William and Harry paid tribute Monday to their grandfather, Prince Philip, remembering his wit, sense of duty and barbecue skills.
The brothers, who are at the center of a royal family rift, issued separate statements about Philip, who died last week at 99.
William, who is second in line to the throne, pledged “to get on with the job” of serving Queen Elizabeth II as he and his brother became the latest family members to honor Philip’s service to the nation and the monarch.
“My grandfather was an extraordinary man and part of an extraordinary generation,” William said in a statement. “Catherine and I will continue to do what he would have wanted and will support The Queen in the years ahead. I will miss my Grandpa, but I know he would want us to get on with the job.”
Prince Harry, who stepped away from royal duties last year and now lives in California, has arrived in the U.K. to attend Philip’s funeral service Saturday at Windsor Castle. His wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is pregnant and was advised by her doctor not to make the long  journey.
Harry’s office also issued a statement Monday, describing Philip as a man who was “authentically himself.”
“He will be remembered as the longest reigning consort to the Monarch, a decorated serviceman, a Prince and a Duke,” Harry said. “But to me, like many of you who have lost a loved one or grandparent over the pain of this past year, he was my grandpa: master of the barbecue, legend of banter, and cheeky right ’til the end.”
William and his wife released a picture of Philip sitting in a carriage with his great-grandson, Prince George, their oldest child. Philip has the reins.”My grandfather was an extraordinary man and part of an extraordinary generation.”A message from The Duke of Cambridge following the death of The Duke of Edinburgh: https://t.co/lVCSPrG7uGpic.twitter.com/atiB8djxPO— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 12, 2021Philip’s royal ceremonial funeral at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle will be a slimmed-down service due the COVID-19 pandemic and will be closed to the public.
Philip, the queen’s husband of 73 years who was also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, took part in planning his own funeral and its focus on family was in accordance with his wishes.  
As preparations for the service continue, tributes to Philip are pouring in. In the House of Commons, which was recalled early from its Easter recess because of the prince’s death, lawmakers offered their condolences.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Philip “shaped and protected the monarchy through all the vicissitudes” of the past seven decades.  
“He gives us all a model of selflessness and of putting others before ourselves,” Johnson said. “He made this country a better place.”
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The executive committee of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party backed chairman Armin Laschet on Monday as candidate for the next leader.Merkel is not seeking a fifth term, after leading Germany for 16 years.Laschet, 60, declared Sunday that he was prepared to run for chancellor in the national elections to be held in September.Markus Soeder, 54, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) of Bavaria, the sister party in Merkel’s governing coalition, also expressed his willingness to run for the post Sunday but said he would settle the issue amicably with Laschet.Laschet, who is currently the prime minister of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, was elected as CDU leader in January. As a centrist politician, he is widely seen as a candidate who would continue Merkel’s legacy, although he has clashed with her over coronavirus restrictions.Soeder, an astute political operator, strongly supported Merkel during the pandemic; however, no CSU leader has become chancellor before.CDU runs in 15 of Germany’s 16 states, while the CSU runs only in Bavaria, which reports say is likely to be the decisive factor for Laschet to emerge as the candidate of CDU/CSU for the job of chancellor during the federal election. 
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Two US warships are expected to arrive in the Black Sea this week as a demonstration of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as fears mount that Russian President Vladimir Putin is contemplating an assault on his neighbor.The Kremlin is overseeing the largest movement of Russian troops, tanks and missiles along the Ukrainian border since the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, according to Ukrainian and US officials. Russia has conducted at least three military training exercises adjacent to the Ukrainian border since mid-March.Last week, President Joe Biden made his first phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since entering the White House and, according to a White House statement, “affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbas and Crimea.”The dispatch of warships to the Black Sea is meant to underline Biden’s affirmation.An Ukrainian serviceman walks in a trench as he stands at his post on the frontline with Russia backed separatists near the town of Zolote, in the Lugansk region on April 8, 2021.Fighting between Ukrainians and Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine’s Donbas region has been intensifying since the end of January, and senior Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak, who has blamed Ukraine for the clashes, has issued an ominous warning that a full-scale conflict would likely mean “the beginning of the end” for Ukraine, a statement viewed in Kyiv and Western capitals as a threat.Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin chief spokesperson, has not disputed a military build-up is taking place, but he told reporters in Moscow that Russia “moves its armed forces around its territory at its discretion.” Ukrainian President Zelenskiy visited the Donbas frontlines last week and bewailed the “big escalation.”Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits positions of armed forces near the frontline with Russian-backed separatists during his working trip in Donbass region, Ukraine April 8, 2021.Since his surprise election in 2019 to the presidency in Kyiv, Zelenskiy has been urging for a new round of peace talks involving other Western leaders. Shortly after his landslide election victory he appealed to Putin directly, saying in a video, “We need to talk? We do. Let’s do it.” Later that year, the Kremlin and Kyiv agreed a prisoner swap, sparking hopes a peace deal might be in the offing, one that would halt the seven-year conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists backed by Russian forces.Some Zelenskiy critics feared his search for peace would end up creating a permanent Russian enclave in Ukraine’s most easterly provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk. But Zelenskiy hasn’t budged on the issue of Ukrainian sovereignty over the Donbas, and has refused to accept, what he says, is a Russian charade when it comes to who controls and directs the pro-Moscow separatists.Some observers hazard that recent Russian moves are an indication of Russian frustration with Zelenskiy, who has also been targeting Kremlin allies in Ukraine, including politician, tycoon and TV mogul Viktor Medvedchuk, a personal friend of the Russian leader. Medvedchuk, along with his wife, have been accused of channeling funds from a Russia-based oil facility to the so-called breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have placed a freeze on his assets.Biden Affirms US ‘Unwavering Support’ for Ukraine in CallAffirmation came in a call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the White House saidWhat is alarming some Western diplomats and analysts is the fiery language being used by Kremlin officials along with the nature of the coverage of the crisis by Kremlin-controlled Russian media outlets. They are reporting Kyiv is planning an offensive on the Donbas and have been highlighting comments by Kozak, deputy chief of staff of the presidential administration, suggesting Ukraine may be plotting ethnic cleansing in the Donbas.Peskov, President Putin’s spokesman, said Friday the Kremlin fears a resumption of full-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine and would be ready to take steps to protect Russian civilians in the Donbas. Ukraine’s military chief dismissed the Russian claims that his country’s armed forces are preparing to launch an attack on the breakaway east, and, along with other Ukrainian officials, accuses the Kremlin of looking for a pretext to mount an offensive.“Everything suggests that Russia is preparing for a military incursion into Ukraine,” tweeted Sunday Anders Aslund, author of the book Russia’s Crony Capitalism. “Putin always keeps his options open, but both the military moves & the Kremlin propaganda indicate that Russian military aggression is near,” he added.But other analysts and diplomats caution that the Kremlin is whipping up a frenzy over the Donbas more for domestic reasons than international ones and that Putin is looking to distract Russians from the ongoing agitation for the release from jail of firebrand opposition figure Alexey Navalny, whose health is reported to have worsened in prison.They say the military buildup may be part of an electoral strategy ahead of parliamentary elections in Russia September. Putin’s approval ratings are falling, and his United Russia political party seems destined for setbacks in the polls. Shaping an emergency short of a full-scale war could boost the prospects of United Russia, allowing the party to benefit from a wave of patriotism, they say.Taras Kuzio, an academic at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, doesn’t believe the Kremlin is preparing Russia to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine “because that would lead to a long war and the complete breakdown of Russia’s relations with the West.”Although he doesn’t discount the Kremlin may want a brief but limited clash and has suggested the Kremlin may be thinking of repeating what happened in 2008 in Georgia when then Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili fell into a trap and responded to provocations from South Ossetia, another separatist region, and intervened, prompting a Russian intervention.
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Seven Catholic clergy, including two French citizens, were kidnapped Sunday in Haiti, said the spokesman of the Bishop’s Conference for the island nation, which has been rocked by unrest.Five priests and two nuns were abducted in the morning in Croix-des-Bouquets, a commune east of the capital, Port-au-Prince, Father Loudger Mazile told AFP. They were “on their way to the installation of a new parish priest,” he added.The kidnappers had demanded a $1 million ransom for the group, which includes one French priest and one French nun, he added.Haitian authorities suspect an armed gang called “400 Mawozo,” which is active in kidnappings, is behind the abduction, according to a police source.The French embassy in Haiti did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.Kidnappings for ransom have surged in recent months in Port-au-Prince and other provinces, reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation.”This is too much. The time has come for these inhuman acts to stop,” Bishop Pierre-Andre Dumas of the Haitian commune Miragoane told AFP.”The church prays and stands in solidarity with all the victims of this heinous act,” he said.In March, the Haitian government declared a month-long state of emergency to restore state authority in gang-controlled areas, including in the capital.The measure was motivated by the actions of armed gangs who “kidnap people for ransom, openly declaring it, steal and loot public and private property, and openly confront the public security forces,” according to the presidential decree. 
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U.S. recession drama “Nomadland,” about a community of van dwellers, was the big winner at Britain’s BAFTA awards on Sunday, scooping best film and prizes for its Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao and leading actress Frances McDormand.The British Academy of Film and Television Arts ceremony was held virtually over two nights, with nominees joining in by video, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.However, film stars Hugh Grant and Priyanka Chopra Jonas appeared in person at London’s Royal Albert Hall while Renee Zellweger and Anna Kendrick joined from a Los Angeles studio to present the awards.”Nomadland,” which has already picked up prizes this awards season, stars 63-year-old McDormand as a widow, who in the wake of the U.S. economic recession, turns her van into a mobile home and sets out on the road, taking on seasonal jobs along the way.”We would like to dedicate this award to the nomadic community who so generously welcomed us into their lives,” Zhao, who won the director category, said in her acceptance speech.”Thank you for showing us that aging is a beautiful part of life, a journey that we should all cherish and celebrate. How we treat our elders says a lot about who we are as a society and we need to do better.””Nomadland” also won for cinematography.Outstanding British film went to #MeToo revenge movie “Promising Young Woman,” which also won original screenplay.The academy also paid tribute to Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, who died on Friday, at age 99. Philip was named BAFTA’s first president in 1959. His grandson Prince William is BAFTA’s current president.Following an outcry last year when BAFTA presented an all-white acting contenders list, more than half of this year’s 24 nominees were actors of color.Film veteran Anthony Hopkins won the leading actor category for portraying a man with dementia in “The Father.””I’m at a time in my life where I never expected to get this,” the 83-year-old told reporters of the award, adding his age had made making the movie “easy.”Youn Yuh-jung won supporting actress for “Minari,” in which she plays a grandmother who travels from South Korea to the United States to look after her grandchildren.The 73-year-old, who has won a Screen Actors Guild award and has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance, drew laughs in her acceptance speech when she jokingly said it was particularly meaningful to be recognized by “British people, known as very snobbish people.”Daniel Kaluuya, who has swept this awards season for his portrayal of late Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” won supporting actor.”Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi” director Ang Lee received the BAFTA Fellowship, the academy’s top honor, for his contribution to film.
 
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Greece has lashed out at Turkey for alleging that the government in Athens is aiding and abetting what Ankara sees as Kurdish terrorists. But the accusation, contained in a newly released video, comes after reports in Greece that Turkey has granted citizenship to Islamic State militants. The fresh accusations traded by the two NATO allies may threaten ongoing negotiations to ease long-standing differences that nearly sparked a war between them last year.
 
It is not the first time Turkey has made such accusations against Greece.  
 
“One country that stands out as a haven for the PKK is our neighbor and NATO ally, Greece,” says a voice in the video. The PKK is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been waging a decades-long insurgency inside southeastern Turkey and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara.
 
Yet in rebuffing the claim, calling it “mythical” and “propaganda,” the foreign ministry in Athens questioned the timing of the video’s release by the chief communications adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 
The video comes days after reports in Greece accused Ankara of granting citizenship to a number of IS militants – a move that raises serious concerns about Turkey’s border controls with Syria. The interior and finance ministries have seized the assets of eight people suspected of having links to the terror group.  
The video comes days before Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias goes to Ankara to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to thrash out long-standing differences between the two neighbors. 
It won’t be an easy round of talks, says analyst Manolis Kostidis. He also says the Turkish side will raise several issues and it’s highly unlikely that even if the talks do go well, that Greece can start speaking of improved relations between the age-old foes.
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over sea and air rights in the Aegean Sea that divides them. In the past year, relations have deteriorated over oil and gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean – a standoff that nearly brought the two NATO allies to the brink of war. 
Since then, senior European Union officials and the United States have intervened, bringing the two sides to a negotiating table to sort out differences. 
Two rounds of exploratory talks have so far made little progress and the coming discussions between the Greek and Turkish ministers are being seen as an attempt to salvage the process altogether. 
But with both sides trading accusations anew, analysts like Apostolos Maggiriadis, say they fear negotiations may be derailed.
The feeling among diplomats in Athens, he says, is that there is a concerted attempt by Turkey’s deep state to torpedo these talks. But Greece, he says, does not want to appear as the side abandoning the process and it will keep to its pledge of sending its foreign minister to Turkey.  
Athens has suggested taking bilateral differences to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if negotiations with Ankara fail to produce a diplomatic breakthrough.
The talks are scheduled to begin Wednesday.
 
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has ordered an urgent investigation into the assassination of one of the country’s top crime reporters. Greek media have long been targeted by far-left organizations and anarchists in a show of violent defiance to what they call links between them and the nation’s political and financial establishment. However,  journalist killings are rare in Greece and if it is established that the reporter was gunned down for carrying out his duties, it will be the first such case in Europe in years.Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis left a marathon meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying he was determined to hunt down the killers of Giorgos Karaivaz.He called the assassination an abhorrent crime but said he is convinced authorities will soon find those responsible, and hand them over to justice to be dealt with.The race is on… and the stakes are high.Karaivaz was gunned down by a pair of masked men who pumped ten bullets into the crime reporter’s head, neck and left palm, leaving him dead in a pool of blood outside his home, in the balmy residential suburb of Alimos, south of Athens.Locals like Elias, a municipal gardener who refused to give his last name for fear of reprisals, said he saw the gunmen and was stunned by how calculating and calmly they conducted themselves.The actual gunshot(s) were not heard because they used a silencer, he said. The killers both came in on a motorbike, gunned down Karaivaz and left calmly, as if nothing had happened.Authorities say they are now putting together pieces of the mystery, trying to identify the assailants from surveillance cameras, burner phones and a string of forensic evidence that has so far been compiled.They believe Karaivaz had been tracked for days before gunmen committed the deadly shooting Friday, in broad daylight.Senior police officials told VOA they suspect the killing is linked to organized crime and a group called Mafia Greece, known for hiring foreign shooters to sort out differences in the underworld here.Eleftherios Economou, the deputy  citizens’ protection minister explains.There is no doubt, he said, that they are dealing with contract killers. This is a methodology, he said, authorities have seen in at least 19 similar style murders in the last three years here and this may make solving the case, so much more difficult.A woman reads newspapers headlines of the killing of a Greek journalist in Athens, April 10, 2021.Either way, experts say, the motive behind the Karaivaz killing remains unclear.If confirmed as related to the journalist’s work, then it will be the first assassination of a journalist in the European Union since the 2018 murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak in Slovakia.Karaivaz was a contributor to the Eleftheros Typos newspaper, and he founded the news website bloko.gr, which reported on crime.Leading officials across the European Union have issued sympathy statements, supporting free speech while urging the government and the authorities in Athens to hunt down the assailants.The U.S. Embassy in Athens said it would help any effort to defend the sacred right of free speech.Greek media offices and journalists are frequently targeted by far-left anarchists who routinely strike them in what they claim are attacks against the establishment.Nevertheless, journalist killings are rare here, raising concerns that freedom of speech in the country that gave birth to democracy may now be in serious peril. 
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Bavarian premier Markus Soeder put himself forward on Sunday to run as the conservative candidate for German chancellor in a September election and said he would settle the question soon and amicably with his rival, the Christian Democrat (CDU) chief.  Pressure is mounting for a swift decision on whether Soeder, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), or the CDU’s Armin Laschet should stand for the two-party bloc in the Sept. 26 election, making them the candidate to succeed Angela Merkel.  “Markus Soeder and I had a long conversation before today. We declared our willingness to run for the chancellorship,” CDU leader Armin Laschet told a joint news conference.  Laschet lags Soeder in opinion polls but, as leader of the larger CDU, effectively has first refusal and enjoys the support of some powerful state premiers.  With September elections nearing, conservatives are pressing for a decision on the candidacy to end speculation which is highlighting divisions.  Laschet said the next step would come on Monday with CDU and CSU committee meetings but he gave no time for the decision.  “We want to win this election in the autumn – that is the main aim. And we are now thinking about the best formation,” said Soeder.  “There is a great expectation that a joint solution will be reached sooner rather than later,” said Soeder, stressing that the two rivals had agreed to show each other respect.  Conservatives nervous without Merkel   Laschet, 60, is a centrist widely seen as a candidate who would continue Merkel’s legacy, but he has clashed with her over coronavirus restrictions. Premier of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, his chaotic handling of the crisis has undermined his popularity.  Soeder, 54, is an astute political operator who has sided with Merkel during the pandemic. No CSU leader has become German chancellor.  Many conservatives are nervous about contesting the Sept. 26 federal election without Merkel, who has led them to four victories. She has ruled out standing for a fifth term and has not explicitly backed either candidate although she has hinted that she would back the CDU leader.  The conservative bloc has slipped to about 27% in polls, partly due to an increasingly chaotic management of the pandemic. In the 2017 election, it won almost 33%.  The Social Democrats have nominated Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as their candidate for chancellor, while the Greens plan to announce their nomination on April 19. 
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Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh and a delegation of ministers will make their first visit to Turkey on Monday since taking office last month, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.  Libya’s new unity government was sworn in on March 15 from two warring administrations that had ruled eastern and western regions, completing a smooth transition of power after a decade of violent chaos.  Turkey had backed the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), which was supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France.  Turkey’s presidency said Dbeibeh will hold a two-day visit upon President Tayyip Erdogan’s invitation, adding that he and Erdogan would chair the first meeting of the Turkey-Libya High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Ankara.  “At the Council Meeting to be held with the participation of relevant ministers, all aspects of Turkey-Libya relations, which have deeply-rooted, historic ties, will be discussed, steps that can be taken to further improve cooperation will be evaluated,” it said.  Turkish state media reported that Dbeibeh would visit Ankara with a team including 14 ministers, five deputy prime ministers, the chief of staff and other officials. It added cooperation on energy and health would be discussed, along with the resumption of projects by Turkish companies that were stopped over the war.  Turkey has said that Turkish firms would take an active role in rebuilding the war-torn country.  In 2019, Ankara signed a maritime demarcation agreement with the GNA in the eastern Mediterranean, and a military cooperation accord under which Turkey sent military advisers and trainers to Tripoli. Ankara also sent Syrian fighters to help the GNA block an LNA offensive on Tripoli last year.  Greece, which opposes the maritime agreement between Tripoli and Ankara, called for the accord to be cancelled on Tuesday, as it reopened its embassy in Libya after seven years.  Dbeibeh, selected through a United Nations-led process, has said economic deals between the GNA and Turkey should remain.  Turkey, Egypt and the UAE have each welcomed the appointment of the new government, as have the United States and European Union. However, foreign powers that backed each side have not pulled out fighters or arms.  Libya’s new presidency council visited Turkey last month for talks with Erdogan. 
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