The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has departed for Turkey and the region, the U.S. State Department said Saturday, in a push to encourage Afghan parties to accelerate negotiations to end conflict in the country.
 
President Joe Biden is deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of the last 3,500 American troops in Afghanistan that was set in a February 2020 accord struck with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump.
 
Biden’s administration has sought to build international pressure on the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to reach a peace agreement and a cease-fire before the deadline.
 
“He will engage the two sides on their preparatory efforts for talks on a political settlement that produces a permanent cease-fire and a durable and just peace,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that Khalilzad departed Thursday for the talks.
 
The Taliban said Friday it would resume hostilities against foreign forces – which ended under the U.S.-Taliban deal – if they remain beyond the deadline.
 
Biden said Thursday it would be hard to comply with the deadline, which also requires the departure of some 7,000 allied forces.
 
The Taliban has said it was committed to the agreement, which it has termed the “most sensible and shortest path” to end 20 years of war in Afghanistan – America’s longest foreign conflict.
 
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After years of waiting tables, Danae De Vries is one step closer to achieving her lifetime dream of becoming a theater coach.Ironically, she owes that to the pandemic. It was after last year’s brutal lockdown that shut the Spanish economy down for weeks that the owners of a small restaurant chain in Madrid offered De Vries to cut her weekly work schedule by one day.Already struggling to make ends meet in a city that has seen rental prices spiral, the 28-year-old was hesitant at first — and then enthusiastic when she was told her wages would remain untouched.“Now I have time to work, to see my family and friends, and to find enough time to study,” she said. “It’s marvelous to have time, to not rush everywhere and find a bit of inner peace.”A happier and more motivated De Vries is also better for her boss María Álvarez, the entrepreneur who turned her two-restaurant business upside-down when she proposed rotational four-day week shifts. Álvarez, a mother of two toddlers, and her startup partner at La Francachela had both struggled to keep the business going with no childcare support.“There was a feeling that society had turned its back on families, that we had been betrayed,” explained Álvarez. “As business owners, we had to come up with some solutions for our businesses, our employees and also for our personal lives.”Experimenting with cutting back one workday per week is about to go nationwide in Spain — the first country in Europe to do so. A three-year pilot project will be using 50 million euros ($59 million) from the European Union’s massive coronavirus recovery fund to compensate some 200 mid-size companies as they resize their workforce or reorganize production workflows to adapt to a 32-hour working week.The funds will go to subsidizing all of the employers’ extra costs in the first year of the trial and then reduce the government’s aid to 50% and 25% each consecutive year, according to a blueprint by the Más País progressive party that’s behind the initiative.Maria Alvarez co-owner of La Francachela and founder of the Campaña 4 Suma poses for a picture at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.The only condition is that the readjustment leads to a real net reduction of working hours while maintaining full-time contract salaries, explained Héctor Tejero, a lawmaker with Más País in the Madrid regional assembly.“It’s not using the European funds for Spaniards to work less, it’s about seeing how we can improve productivity and competitiveness of our companies,” said Tejero.Arguments in favor of the move also cite benefits for the overall economy. A mass shift to a three-day weekend would lead to more consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, a backbone of the Spanish economy.Reducing work hours from 40 to 35 per week in 2017 would have resulted in a 1.5% GDP growth and 560,000 new jobs, a study published earlier this year in the Cambridge Journal of Economics found. Salaries would have also increased nationally by 3.7%, especially benefitting women who more often take part-time jobs, the research said.Software Delsol, in southern Spain, invested 400,000 euros last year to reduce working hours for its 190 employees and has since then reported a 28% reduction in absenteeism, with people choosing to go to the bank or see their doctor on their weekday off. Their sales increased last year by 20% and no single employee has quit since the new schedule was adopted.Rocio Sanchez works in the kitchen at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.Critics say that a pandemic-shaken economy is not the best scenario for experiments. With a 10.8% GDP contraction last year, its worst since the 1930s Civil War, Spain has suffered from intermittent lockdowns and the near-total freeze in international travel. Some experts argue that the priority should instead be fixing the country’s dysfunctional labor market, which is dragging one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates and is marred by precarious, low-wage jobs.ESADE Business School’s Carlos Victoria also warned against the one-size-fits-all approach of the proposal. “There are probably industries or economic areas in which a reduction of working hours won’t necessarily lead to productivity gains,” the economic policy researcher said.But Más País argues that it’s best to try first and decide later how to scale it up — or whether to do it at all.Still, not all unions are fully backing the plan, conservatives have been defensive and CEOE, the main Spanish business association, has so far offered a lukewarm response to the project.Nevertheless, at least half a dozen companies have already reached out expressing interest, according to Tejero, who said the pilot won’t be launched at least until September, when and if mass vaccination helps revive the economy.“In Spain, we have moved from presenteeism, where people had to be at the office for a very long time, to be in front of the computer, at home, for an even longer time,” said La Francachela’s Álvarez. “People are increasingly angry because remote working in itself is not going to solve our problems from a broader perspective.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised a recent Russian military exercise in the Arctic region showcasing the Russian military’s ability to operate in extreme conditions. During the exercise, three nuclear-powered submarines surfaced through the polar ice simultaneously, reported the commander-in-chief of the Russian fleet, Nikolai Yevmenov, during a videoconference with the Russian leader. Yevmenov also said three Russian warplanes flew over the North Pole.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a video-conference meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.Putin called the exercise unprecedented.”The Arctic expedition … has no analogues in the Soviet and the modern history of Russia,” Putin said, according to Reuters. He also ordered continued “Arctic expeditions and research in the Far North to help ensure Russia’s security,” according to The Associated Press. The exercises were conducted near Alexandra Land, a large island among the Franz Josef Land archipelago, where Russia recently constructed a military base, according to The Associated Press.Russia has also invested in other bases in the region. Countries with a stake in the polar region, including Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway, are eager to assert their jurisdiction in the area as potential shipping lanes open because of melting ice caps. The region is also rich in natural resources, including oil. Putin has said Arctic mineral reserves could be worth up to $30 trillion, news wires reported.
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A Turkish court sentenced two former police chiefs on Friday to life in prison for their role in the killing of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink more than 14 years ago, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.Editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and a leading promoter of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian communities, Dink was shot twice in the head outside his office in central Istanbul.After the slaying, tens of thousands of people gathered in central Istanbul to mourn. His death plunged Turkey’s Armenian community into mourning and sparked a sprawling trial that lasted more than a decade and involved senior security officers who were accused of being aware of the plot to kill Dink but failing to act.Demonstrators hold a banner reading “For Hrant, For Justice” during a gathering in front of the Caglayan Courthouse in Istanbul, March 26, 2021.Istanbul’s main court sentenced the city’s former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyurek and his former deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer to life in prison for “premeditated murder,” according to Agos.Former top Istanbul interior ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also jailed for life, while charges against another top city police chief were dropped because of the statute of limitation.In 2011, Dink’s assassin, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison by a juvenile court. He was 17 when the killing took place. The following January, a man named Yasin Hayal was sentenced to life in jail for instigating the killing.Ali Oz, a former interior ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon where the gunman came from, was sentenced Friday to 28 years in jail.Dink’s supporters and rights activists still maintain that the most senior police officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to run on. “Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted,” said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial. ”This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should not mark the end of the search for the truth.” State media said the court ruled that the murder was carried out in line with the goals of a clandestine network linked to U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016. FILE – Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pa., Sept. 26, 2013.Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies any involvement in the failed putsch, was one of 13 fugitives from justice among 76 defendants on trial in the Dink case. The court did not rule on the case of Gulen and the other 12 fugitives and instead separated their cases.Various other defendants in the Dink case were given jail sentences on charges including accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist group — because of links to Gulen’s network — as well as faking and destroying documents, state media said.The Istanbul court ruled Friday that Dink’s murder was committed “in line with the objectives of Feto,” an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen’s banned movement, NTV reported.Dink’s wife, Rakel, had said in January that blaming Gulen’s movement for her husband’s death nearly a decade before the failed coup was like, “I didn’t kill him, but my hand did.”
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European Union (EU) leaders have told the British-Swedish makers of the AstraZeneca vaccine they must honor their contract with the EU and deliver promised vaccine before exporting doses to other parts of the world.
 
At a news conference following the summit, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen singled out AstraZeneca, saying “the company has to catch up.”
 
The comments followed the EU’s summit, in which EU leaders agreed on a plan announced earlier in the week that would tighten criteria for exporting EU-made COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to secure supplies for citizens inside the bloc.
 
Von der Leyen insisted the new export criteria was not about punishing any one country or company, but about a level playing field for trade.  
 
“The reciprocity element is something where we needed also transparency to show how much is going in different countries that are also producing vaccines so that it is in our common interests that supply chains stay intact, that an exchange of vaccines is the normal state of play,” she said.
 
Britain, the main supplier of AstraZeneca vaccine, has been the focus of the new export rules. The British government and the commission issued a joint statement earlier this week pledging to work together to “ensure a reciprocally beneficial arrangement” on COVID-19.
 
The focus on vaccine by EU leadership comes as the continent is facing a “third wave” of coronavirus infections and the overall vaccination rollout has been slow or stalled in some areas.
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The British government announced Friday its full support for parliamentarians and other citizens of Britain sanctioned by China for raising their voices in defense of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Asian country.  
 
“The MPs [Members of Parliament] and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet.  
 
“Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them,” Johnson said.The MPs and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims. Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them.— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2021China is imposing sanctions against nine Britons and four British entities, raising allegations that they had “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs.
 
Also, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Justice Minister Robert Buckland strongly condemned China’s move.  
   
“While the UK joins the international community to sanction human rights abuses, Chinese govt sanctions its critics. If Beijing want to credibly rebut claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it should give @UNHumanRights access to verify facts,” Raab tweeted.While the UK joins the international community to sanction human rights abuses, Chinese govt sanctions its critics. If Beijing want to credibly rebut claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it should give ⁦@UNHumanRights⁩ access to verify facts. https://t.co/FP3676fFlB— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) March 26, 2021“We strongly deprecate the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry” imposing sanctions on British citizens and entities, including a British law firm that has taken up Uyghur rights causes, Buckland said.We strongly deprecate the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry imposing sanctions on, among others, a set of Chambers for “spreading lies and disinformation” @DXWQC 1/2— Robert Buckland (@RobertBuckland) March 26, 2021The European Union, Britain, the United States, and Canada have sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic power elite this week over allegations of widespread human right abuses there. 
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Chinese state TV called Thursday for a boycott of H&M as Beijing lashed out at foreign clothing and footwear brands following Western sanctions on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.The ruling Communist Party criticized H&M for saying in March 2020 it would stop buying cotton from the northwestern Chinese region. The Swedish retailer joined other brands in expressing concern about reports of forced labor there.The party newspaper Global Times also criticized statements by Burberry, Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Zara about Xinjiang as early as two years ago.”For enterprises that touch the bottom line of our country, the response is very clear: don’t buy!” China Central Television said on its social media account. It said the ‘H’ and ‘M’ in the Swedish name stood for Chinese words meaning lie and falsehood.The attacks follow Monday’s decision by the 27-nation European Union, the United States, Britain and Canada to impose travel and financial sanctions on four Chinese officials blamed for abuses in Xinjiang.More than 1 million people in Xinjiang, most of them from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, have been confined to work camps, according to foreign researchers and governments. Beijing denies mistreating them and says it is trying to promote economic development and stamp out radicalism.”The so-called existence of forced labor in the Xinjiang region is totally fictitious,” said a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Gao Feng. He called on foreign companies to “correct wrong practices” but did not say what they were expected to do.Celebrities including Wang Yibo, a popular singer and actor, announced they were breaking endorsement contracts with H&M and Nike.H&M products were missing from China’s most popular e-commerce platforms, Alibaba Group’s TMall and JD.com. News reports said they were removed due to public criticism over its Xinjiang statement. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.Beijing often attacks foreign clothing, auto, travel and other brands for actions by their governments or to pressure companies to conform to its official positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues.Companies usually apologize and change websites or advertising to maintain access to China, one of the biggest global markets. But Xinjiang is an unusually thorny issue. Western brands face pressure at home to distance themselves from possible abuses.A man wearing a mask rides past a Uniqlo store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.A loss of sales in China, the only major economy where consumer spending has rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels, can be especially painful at a time when U.S. and European demand is weak.H&M Group “doesn’t represent any political standpoint” and “respects Chinese consumers,” the company said on its social media account.The company said it deals with 350 Chinese manufacturers to make products that “comply with the principles of sustainable development.” H&M said it “is committed to long-term investment and development in China.”Brian Ehrig, partner in the consumer practice of global strategy and management consulting firm Kearney, said it is likely that roughly 60% to 70% of H&M’s raw materials, like fabrics, come from China. He said that if H&M is cut off, it will be much harder for the company to get access to these materials and could mean higher prices and production delays.H&M had 520 stores and $1.4 billion in sales in China in 2019, the last year for which annual figures have been reported. China is its third-largest market after Germany and the United States.The criticism began when the ruling party’s Youth League on Wednesday called attention to last March’s H&M statement on its social media account. It gave no indication why it singled out the company or an explanation for citing a year-old statement.A delivery man walks past an Adidas store and an H&M store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.”Spreading lies to boycott Xinjiang while wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking,” the Youth League said.The Global Times said Burberry, Adidas, Nike and New Balance also made “cutting remarks” about Xinjiang cotton. A separate Global Times report cited what it said was a statement by Zara that it had a “zero-tolerance approach towards forced labor.”H&M’s statement last year cited a decision by the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes environmental and labor standards, to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton because it was “increasingly difficult” to trace how it was produced. In September, H&M announced it would stop working with a Chinese manufacturer that was accused of using forced labor in a unit unrelated to the Swedish brand.In January, Washington imposed a ban on imports of cotton from Xinjiang, a major supplier to clothing producers for Western markets.China’s official outrage has focused on Europe, possibly because relations with the EU had been amicable amid rancor with Washington over trade disputes and accusations of Chinese spying and technology theft.Official criticism of H&M reflected that tone of grievance at being hurt by a friend.”How can H&M eat Chinese rice and then smash China’s pot?” state television said in a commentary Wednesday.Comments on the internet cited clothing brands Uniqlo of Japan and The Gap of the United States as other possible offenders. It was unclear how many of those accounts were members of the public and how many were run by the ruling party’s vast propaganda apparatus.The pop star Wang’s announcement that he was quitting as a Nike “brand ambassador” didn’t mention Xinjiang. It said he “firmly resists any words and actions that pollute China.”Others including singer and actress Song Qian, a former member of Korean pop group f(x) who also is known as Victoria Song, and actor Huang Xuan, who announced they would end endorsement contracts with H&M. Actress Tang Songyun said she was breaking ties with Nike.Chinese athletic shoe brand ANTA announced it was pulling out of BCI, the industry cotton group.
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Debate over the future of the Commonwealth and Britain’s relationship with its former colonies has been fueled by claims of racism within the royal family in the aftermath of a TV interview this month of Prince Harry and his American wife, Meghan, by media mogul Oprah Winfrey.The couple said that a member of the royal family, who was not identified, had asked about the skin color of their son, Archie, before his birth. Meghan’s mother is Black, and her father is white. The prince and his wife broke away from official royal duties last year, citing a need to escape press intrusion amid claims that negative media coverage of Meghan had been racially motivated.FILE – In this image taken from video and made available by Buckingham Palace, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation and the Commonwealth from Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, April 5, 2020.The Commonwealth is made up of 54 countries, mostly former British colonies, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head.Barbados, one of several Caribbean Commonwealth members, had already planned to remove the queen as head of state later this year. Former Barbadian Ambassador to Britain Guy Hewitt, who is now a pastor in Florida, told VOA that the interview raised questions about Britain’s relations with people of the Commonwealth.“Regrettably, the interview — and I would say the previous separation that took place — reflected that the royal family still did not fully understand diversity, and literally did not know how to embrace it,” Hewitt told VOA. “Especially for a younger generation, Harry and Meghan symbolized that hope for a new way of being royal.”Windrush generationIn 2018, news emerged that Britain had wrongly denied citizenship rights to migrants from Caribbean colonies who arrived after World War II — the Windrush generation, named after the Empire Windrush ship that took them across the Atlantic.Migrants who had the right to stay were forcibly deported. Others were denied health care and state benefits. Anthony Bryan, 62, was almost deported to his birth country of Jamaica in 2015, half a century after coming to Britain. Authorities told him he was in Britain illegally when he applied for a passport to go on vacation.“It did break something,” Bryan said. “It broke the trust that I thought I had with the British.”That sense of injustice, fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement, is feeding into a narrative that Britain is out of touch. Harry and Meghan’s claims of racism are confirming those suspicions, Hewitt said.“The Commonwealth is invaluable to small states and to developing countries,” he said. “However, it has to be able to prove that it is still relevant by being responsive to the needs and sensitive to the aspirations of people in the [global] south,” he said.FILE – Malcolm Turnbull, then Australia’s prime minister, announces his cabinet during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Sept. 20, 2015.Reacting to Harry and Meghan’s television interview, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a republican who wants to sever links with the royal family, reiterated his call for Australia to abandon the British monarch as head of state.Canada’s political opposition leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters, “I don’t see the benefit of the monarchy in Canadians’ lives.”’Not of mutual benefit’The queen last visited Nigeria, the Commonwealth’s most populous Black nation, in 2003. The claims of racism within the royal family are a shock, Idayat Hassan, head of the Center for Democracy and Development in Abuja, said in a recent interview with VOA.“It raises a lot of questions that maybe again, this relationship is not of mutual benefit,” she said. “This relationship has not transcended what it was in the colonial days.”Hassan said many Nigerians thought Harry and Meghan’s marriage signaled a new chapter.“Maybe we live too much in a make-believe world,” she told VOA. “In this present day and age, we feel that race is not real, and the world has actually moved on — moved way, way, way up. But somehow, again, we discover that race is still a factor.”In a statement after the interview, the royal family said that it was dealing with Harry and Meghan’s claims privately and that “recollections may vary.”Both the queen and Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, have praised the Commonwealth in recent days and hailed its collective strength.FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2020.”On Commonwealth Day, I’m reminded once again that the essence of the Commonwealth is its remarkable diversity — a family of some 2.4 billion people from 54 nations across six continents whose traditions, knowledge and talents offer an incomparable richness of ideas and perspectives on the world we share,” Prince Charles said March 8 during a ceremony in Westminster Abbey.”As we recover from everything that we have endured and continue to endure through this pandemic, we have an unprecedented opportunity to change course by harnessing the extraordinary potential of our Commonwealth family. We are uniquely placed to lead the way, so let us be the boldest of the bold, and let us offer an example to the world,” Charles added.Claims of racism disputedSupporters of the royal family reject claims that the institution is racist. Commentator Penny Junor has been covering the royals for 40 years in broadcast and print media. She said, “This is a family that I would say, you know, it’s a family that is intertwined with the Commonwealth. I have never seen anything like racism.”The debate shows there are deeper, historical issues that need addressing in Britain, Hewitt said.“What may be required in the United Kingdom is that telling of truth, of unpacking a very long, oppressive, racist colonial history and starting to come to terms with and be reconciled to what it means in the 21st century,” he said.Hewitt said the debate over the future of the Commonwealth would likely intensify when the British crown passed to Charles.    
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European Union leaders on Thursday offered new incentives to Turkey to improve cooperation on migration and trade despite democratic backsliding in the country and lingering concerns about its energy ambitions in the Mediterranean Sea.Seizing on the recent conciliatory tone from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leaders said, should the relative calm continue, “the European Union is ready to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner to enhance cooperation in a number of areas of common interest.”This includes “a mandate for the modernization” of customs arrangements, the future launch of “high level dialogues” on issues like the pandemic, climate change, counterterrorism and regional issues, and strengthened cooperation “on people-to-people contacts and mobility.”The “customs union” agreement between the EU and Turkey removed duties on most Turkish goods and produce entering the 27-nation bloc but has not functioned as well as the government in Ankara would like.FILE – Migrants on a dinghy are approached by a Greek coast guard boat near the port of Thermi, as they crossed part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesbos, Greece, March 1, 2020.The leaders also ordered the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, to build on the EU-Turkey migrant agreement from 2016 and explore ways to continue to help finance the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as those in Jordan and Lebanon.That deal massively reduced migrant arrivals into the Greek islands, compared with 2015 when hundreds of thousands of people landed on European shores. Under it, the EU offered Ankara 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to help Syrian refugees and other incentives to prevent people from leaving Turkey to go to Europe.The EU believes the deal saved countless lives, stopped most people from trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greek islands like Lesbos and Samos, and improved life for refugees in Turkey. It wants to use the agreement as a model for similar arrangements with countries in North Africa.But aid groups say the pact created open-air prisons where thousands have languished in squalid conditions on the Greek islands while others were blocked in Turkey.The agreement ground to a standstill a year ago as the coronavirus spread and after Turkey encouraged thousands of migrants to leave, sparking clashes at the Greek border. Still, the EU is desperate for Turkey’s help to keep migration in check, and in December extended two programs for Syrian refugees in Turkey worth almost half a billion euros (nearly $600 million) over a year.But amid the offers, the leaders did warn that provocations by Turkey will prompt the EU to “use the instruments and options at its disposal to defend its interests and those of its member states, as well as to uphold regional stability.”FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel, center, participate in a video meeting with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, March 19, 2021The EU leaders said they will assess progress again on EU-Turkey ties when they meet in June.EU diplomats said before their videoconference summit that the leaders wanted to take advantage of a lull in tensions between Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean and to avoid any threats or sanctions that could undermine a new peace effort for divided Cyprus.Periods of calm in EU-Turkey relations have quickly come and gone, and worrying trends concerning human and political rights in Turkey have continued.Over the weekend, Erdogan ended his nation’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at preventing violence against women. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and femicide are on the rise.Last week, the EU criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party.
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Denmark health officials Thursday announced they were extending their suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for another three weeks to allow for more time for safety tests in connection to a fatal blood clot in a vaccine recipient.
 
The ruling comes as Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) each pronounced the vaccine safe and effective.  
 
Denmark suspended administering the vaccine March 11 after reports that a 60-year-old Danish woman died from blood clots after receiving the vaccine. Several other European nations followed suit.
 
At a news conference in Copenhagen, Tanja Lund Erichsen of the Danish Medicines Agency agreed with the decision.
 
“From a pharmacological perspective, the vaccine is still a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19.” But it cannot be ruled out that there is a connection between the vaccine and a very rare form of blood clotting.
 
Both the EMA and WHO made similar comments last week but felt the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks. Danish Health Authority Director General Soeren Brostroem told reporters they may decide to end the suspension sooner, depending on the ”ongoing assessment.”
 
Denmark’s decision comes as AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford released updated information about its effectiveness. The new information, based on its late-stage clinical trial involving more than 30,000 participants in the United States, shows the two-dose regimen is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus.  
 
The latest release revises an announcement the British-Swedish company made Monday the vaccine was 79% effective against the virus. Those claims were questioned hours later by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data and Safety Monitoring Board that AstraZeneca “may have included outdated information” from the late-stage clinical trial, “which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”
 
Along with the European countries, South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca shot due to concerns about its efficacy against a local variant of the virus. The country sold at least a million of its AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to the African Union.  
 
Canada’s federal health agency announced Wednesday that it is updating the label on vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine with information about  “very rare reports of blood clots,” but continued to stand by the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against COVID-19.   
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been the leading choice in the developing world because of its low cost and simple storage requirements.
 
The latest twist in the AstraZeneca vaccine saga comes as the United States and Brazil reach new milestones in the yearlong pandemic.  According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. has now surpassed 30 million total cases, the most of any nation, while Brazil has gone beyond the 300,000 fatality mark.
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in poor health, according to one of his lawyers. The lawyer said Navalny is suffering back pain and has virtually lost the use of one of his legs.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny, 44, received an MRI scan but had not been given the results.
 
“In my opinion, he is in bad shape healthwise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg,” she said on TV Rain, according to Reuters. “One of his legs practically doesn’t work.”
 
She added that pleas for Navalny to be given necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks.
 
Russian authorities said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, according to the French news agency.
 
Navalny allies are asking for proof of his health after reports that his lawyers were denied access to him.
 
Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge.
 
He is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”  
 
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.  
 
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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Denmark is embarking on a program to move tens of thousands of immigrants out of ethnically-concentrated communities, in what the country’s media have dubbed “the biggest social experiment of this century.”  To encourage integration, the center-left government is planning mass housing evictions and a cap on the number of migrants allowed to live in 58 housing estates and neighborhoods deemed as troubled and designated as “special prevention areas” because of high crime.The strategy aims to prevent the continuation of what top officials have called self-isolating communities and the emergence of “parallel religious and cultural societies.”The plan is drawing fire from minority groups and civil libertarians, who accuse the government of stigmatizing migrants and of planning to evict public tenants to gentrify estates for the benefit of more affluent Danes.Critics say the measure is based on false premises. They say surveys show that migrants want to live in mixed neighborhoods, but that is hard to do because of a national housing crisis. One-third of migrants polled said they wanted also to live close to friends and family for practical assistance and emotional support.  Marie Northroup, a tenants’ activist in Copenhagen’s Mjolnerparken housing estate, has dismissed the government characterization of migrant communities as self-isolating and says the government is whipping up public panic “in order to discriminate.”The proposal by the center-left government is seen as a continuation of the approach of the previous center-right government, which started drawing up a list of neighborhoods designated as “ghettos.”    The largest migrant groups in the country comprise 64,000 Turks, 43,000 Syrians, 33,000 Iraqis, 27,000 Lebanese, 26,000 Pakistanis and 23,000 Bosnians.FILE – Young Muslim women in burqas chat on a playground in a park near Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 3, 2018.Under the plan, some of these migrants would be relocated elsewhere, away from Copenhagen and some of the large cities, which have severe housing shortages.  Denmark’s government says the migrant dilution would help foster social cohesion, curb crime and give migrants better opportunities to assimilate and expose them more to “Danish values.”“There are a number of large residential areas with high rates of unemployment and crime, a low degree of education and with social and integration problems,” according to Kaare Dybvad Bek, the housing and interior minister.The goal is that by 2030, there will be no residential area in Denmark that has more than 30 percent of non-Western immigrants and their descendants.  “We have the next 10 years to strike a balance in our integration policies and in the way we live and work together. Otherwise, I think we end up with a two-part society where people withdraw from each other,” Bek told lawmakers earlier this month. “This whole effort is about fighting parallel societies and creating a positive development in residential areas, so that they are made attractive to a broad section of the population,” he added.  Under the initiative, which still needs parliamentary approval, municipalities would be prevented from allocating housing to specific groups in some areas, in order to prevent concentrations of low-income families or people who are not European Union citizens.  Municipalities would also be directed to pay attention to social and income mixes and to maintain a balance. Government ministers say the eviction and relocation of some poorer residents in order to bring in private renters opens up opportunities for “left-behind” residents.  FILE – Men pray at the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, a Sunni house of worship popular with residents of nearby Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 11, 2018.The main opposition group, the center-right Liberal Party, is supportive of the measure, but has raised concerns about the large number of people the government will have to relocate, questioning how the move will be achieved without using force.   Speaking this week in a meeting hosted by Facebook, Bek said, “We need to get better at spreading cultures so that not all perpetrators of violence live together and reinforce the norms they have been accustomed to.” Migrant representatives have pushed back against that characterization, saying crime rates in the so-called troubled neighborhoods are in line with rates elsewhere.Bek added, “We do not interfere in what people eat or do not eat, or how they arrange themselves, but we believe that people must adapt to the basic values and norms we have in Denmark.”   In a statement, the housing ministry said there is a better chance of that happening by breaking up large concentrations of migrants, creating the circumstances for them to mix more with native Danes.  “The objective is to give every child in Denmark the same life opportunities regardless of the neighborhood they grow up in or of their parents’ background. This means that they have to be exposed to the cultural norms of society as such and not grow up in closed and isolated communities,” the ministry said.  Public sentiment in recent years has turned distinctly against migrants. The far-right Danish People’s party recently proposed that any refugees denied resident permits, and who are deemed to be criminals, should be herded on to a remote island. Race- and religious-based hate crimes have become more frequent in recent years.  The Liberal Party proposed this month that foreign nationals applying to become citizens should face much tougher interviews designed to examine whether they have absorbed “Danish values.” The government has expressed support for the idea.  “Good behavior alone is not enough. If you want to be a Danish citizen, you should have taken Denmark in,” the Liberal Party spokesperson for citizenship, Morten Dahlin, told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. 
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U.S. officials say Russian state media is citing false reports to undermine faith in Western COVID vaccines to promote Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine.  Daria Dieguts has the story.Camera: Artyom Kokhan  
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George Kent, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke with VOA’s Ukraine service Wednesday, discussing Ukraine as well as Russia and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.The following interview, held at the U.S. State Department, has been edited for clarity and brevity.VOA: In the last two months since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. is demonstrating its commitment to have a strategic partnership with Ukraine. However, the administration is clearly stating its priorities, importance of the delivering on the reform agenda, anti-corruption effort, is President Volodymyr Zelensky delivering on those fronts?George Kent: Well first, welcome back to the State Department. I know it’s been a long time. I would say what’s most important is that President Zelensky delivers on his promises and the priorities of the Ukrainian people because they are the ones who elected him. And if you look back at 2019, with the presidential and Rada elections, President Zelensky … [was] elected on a mandate of reform and change. So I think first and foremost that is the answer that the current Ukrainian authorities have to answer. What the U.S. wants is clear. And U.S. Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken mentioned it in his testimony two months ago. We are ready to support Ukraine, defending against aggression from abroad primarily from Russia and from the challenges from within, and that’s the reform agenda. You mentioned this administration is putting authority on anti-corruption action and helping democracies thrive because we believe democracies are best placed to address the challenges of the 21st century, and this issue is something that is shared by Ukrainians and Americans.And so I think the needs are clear. The expectations of Ukrainians and Americans are clear. Reform efforts need to continue and deepen. The justice sector is absolutely essential. How Ukrainian authorities get out of the constitutional crisis created by the constitutional court undermining reversing changes that were made is a real challenge for Ukrainians. The U.S. as a partner is here to be supportive. But to be very clear, any legislation that rolls back the independence of organizations, whether it’s the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NBU, or the central bank, does not help Ukraine and that will make it very difficult for international partners, whether it’s the IMF or the United States, to continue to be as supportive of efforts when they are not leading to reform the change that Ukraine needs.VOA: Since President Biden took office, he spoke to many world leaders, however he did not speak to President Zelensky yet. How important it is to establish the contact between leaders and is their trust issue between two leaders?Kent: So I think you’re right that trust is very important in any relationship. That’s again within a country as well as between countries. And I think President Biden established an excellent record when he was vice president of reaching out and trying to establish that trust with Ukrainian counterparts. Trust is a two-way street, obviously, and I anticipate that there will be a call between our leaders in the near future. But I believe it’s also important to understand that a call, while taken as a symbol, has to be backed up by actions and the issues that we were discussing, the issues that are on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda. We want Ukraine to succeed. That means we want the government and President Zelensky to succeed. But for that success, there needs to be the right actions and the right reforms.VOA: The phone call between the two presidents is a hot political topic since we all remember well the last call between President [Donald] Trump and President Zelensky, is this a factor in today’s decision about the call?Kent: The Biden administration will make the right decisions for the U.S. interests in this administration, so I would not put any link between those.VOA: The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has become a serious issue between the U.S. and its European partners. Secretary Blinken made it clear that the U.S. opposed the building of the Nord Stream. What is the U.S. prepared to do if Germany and others will decide to go ahead with their plan to complete the pipeline?Kent: Yesterday, Secretary Blinken was in Brussels and stood up next to the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and he reiterated what he had issued last week. President Biden and the Biden administration considers Nord Stream to be a bad deal. It’s bad for Europe, it’s bad for our allies. And we think it fundamentally contravenes the concept of European energy security. And we do have obligations under our law to take action when we have. I think that’s the intent of the Biden administration.VOA: So what is the United States prepared to do?Kent: Well, again there are requirements under legislation to sanction companies that are directly involved in the pipe preparation planning process. So we are gathering information and considering next steps.VOA: U.S.-Russia relations are a hot topic as well, specifically after the security report about Russian interference in the U.S. election. There was an announcement about special sanctions or serious response to Russia. What should we expect?Kent: Well, we have not yet announced the package of response measures but as President Biden indicated last week. Russian actions do demand a response. So stay tuned.VOA: In Ukraine there’s a lot of fear that Russia will take on Ukraine in response to the United States and even possible escalation on Donbas, what is the United States prepared to do to ease the tension?Kent: Well we’re very concerned. You can see it in open-source reporting, different actions along the line of contact. New trenches near the old Donbas airport. I think the key thing is our expectation for Russia, the same as Ukraine is that President Vladimir Putin and Russia need to live up to the obligations and commitments that Putin made in February of 2015, six years ago. There would be a total cease-fire, foreign forces, by which mean Russian forces, are recalled from Russia and that Ukraine recovers the control of its sovereign border.And today seven years later, Russia has not lived up to its obligations.VOA: Is the United States prepared to be more active in negotiations with Russia in Normandy Format or other formats?Kent: I think you will see as we fill out our team at the State Department, we still don’t have a confirmed deputy secretary nominated or confirmed undersecretary or new assistant secretaries. As we all get vaccinated and are able to resume travel, you will see more active U.S. diplomacy in this area.VOA: The United States hasn’t had an ambassador in Ukraine for a long period of time and there’s a lot of questions about that. The United States is not represented well in Ukraine. When can Ukraine expect to have a U.S. ambassador on the ground?Kent: First of all, the State Department has full faith and confidence in our charge, we understand that all countries expect having fully accredited ambassadors and we expect the Biden administration to nominate a fully qualified person. And then it will be up to the Senate to confirm and look forward to having a U.S. ambassador.VOA: Do you have an idea about the timeline?Kent: Nope. And in that sense, ambassadors are the prerogative of the president and the White House with a role in the Senate to advise and consent. So no timeline yet.VOA: Could you comment on why Ukraine is important for the region since you were responsible for the whole region in the last three years. So what is the United States looking at in terms of Ukraine and its effect on the region?Kent: Ukraine is an important country in its own right. It’s an important country for the region. It’s an important country symbolically. It is the linchpin of, if you will, the eastern Slavic world. And I think the importance of Ukraine has never been understated, even by outsiders who may not follow the details on a daily basis.My former professor [Zbigniew] Brzezinski once said that if Ukraine succeeds, that gives the real impulse for Russia to have the possibility of reform in the long term. And so we treat Ukraine on its own merits and that’s why it is such a focus of our assistance that’s provided by Congress. It’s the focus of our diplomacy.We understand the great human potential of Ukrainians, whether it’s in information technology, whether it’s in agribusiness, whether it’s the dynamism of civil society. And we want to support that for Ukraine to succeed in its own right. And because we also understand that if Ukraine succeeds, then other countries farther to the east will understand that many of the false narratives and claims by Russia are simply not true.
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George Kent, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke with VOA’s Ukraine service Wednesday, discussing Ukraine as well as Russia and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.The following interview, held at the U.S. State Department, has been edited for clarity and brevity.VOA: In the last two months since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. is demonstrating its commitment to have a strategic partnership with Ukraine. However, the administration is clearly stating its priorities, importance of the delivering on the reform agenda, anti-corruption effort, is President Volodymyr Zelensky delivering on those fronts?George Kent: Well first, welcome back to the State Department. I know it’s been a long time. I would say what’s most important is that President Zelensky delivers on his promises and the priorities of the Ukrainian people because they are the ones who elected him. And if you look back at 2019, with the presidential and Rada elections, President Zelensky … [was] elected on a mandate of reform and change. So I think first and foremost that is the answer that the current Ukrainian authorities have to answer. What the U.S. wants is clear. And U.S. Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken mentioned it in his testimony two months ago. We are ready to support Ukraine, defending against aggression from abroad primarily from Russia and from the challenges from within, and that’s the reform agenda. You mentioned this administration is putting authority on anti-corruption action and helping democracies thrive because we believe democracies are best placed to address the challenges of the 21st century, and this issue is something that is shared by Ukrainians and Americans.And so I think the needs are clear. The expectations of Ukrainians and Americans are clear. Reform efforts need to continue and deepen. The justice sector is absolutely essential. How Ukrainian authorities get out of the constitutional crisis created by the constitutional court undermining reversing changes that were made is a real challenge for Ukrainians. The U.S. as a partner is here to be supportive. But to be very clear, any legislation that rolls back the independence of organizations, whether it’s the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NBU, or the central bank, does not help Ukraine and that will make it very difficult for international partners, whether it’s the IMF or the United States, to continue to be as supportive of efforts when they are not leading to reform the change that Ukraine needs.VOA: Since President Biden took office, he spoke to many world leaders, however he did not speak to President Zelensky yet. How important it is to establish the contact between leaders and is their trust issue between two leaders?Kent: So I think you’re right that trust is very important in any relationship. That’s again within a country as well as between countries. And I think President Biden established an excellent record when he was vice president of reaching out and trying to establish that trust with Ukrainian counterparts. Trust is a two-way street, obviously, and I anticipate that there will be a call between our leaders in the near future. But I believe it’s also important to understand that a call, while taken as a symbol, has to be backed up by actions and the issues that we were discussing, the issues that are on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda. We want Ukraine to succeed. That means we want the government and President Zelensky to succeed. But for that success, there needs to be the right actions and the right reforms.VOA: The phone call between the two presidents is a hot political topic since we all remember well the last call between President [Donald] Trump and President Zelensky, is this a factor in today’s decision about the call?Kent: The Biden administration will make the right decisions for the U.S. interests in this administration, so I would not put any link between those.VOA: The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has become a serious issue between the U.S. and its European partners. Secretary Blinken made it clear that the U.S. opposed the building of the Nord Stream. What is the U.S. prepared to do if Germany and others will decide to go ahead with their plan to complete the pipeline?Kent: Yesterday, Secretary Blinken was in Brussels and stood up next to the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and he reiterated what he had issued last week. President Biden and the Biden administration considers Nord Stream to be a bad deal. It’s bad for Europe, it’s bad for our allies. And we think it fundamentally contravenes the concept of European energy security. And we do have obligations under our law to take action when we have. I think that’s the intent of the Biden administration.VOA: So what is the United States prepared to do?Kent: Well, again there are requirements under legislation to sanction companies that are directly involved in the pipe preparation planning process. So we are gathering information and considering next steps.VOA: U.S.-Russia relations are a hot topic as well, specifically after the security report about Russian interference in the U.S. election. There was an announcement about special sanctions or serious response to Russia. What should we expect?Kent: Well, we have not yet announced the package of response measures but as President Biden indicated last week. Russian actions do demand a response. So stay tuned.VOA: In Ukraine there’s a lot of fear that Russia will take on Ukraine in response to the United States and even possible escalation on Donbas, what is the United States prepared to do to ease the tension?Kent: Well we’re very concerned. You can see it in open-source reporting, different actions along the line of contact. New trenches near the old Donbas airport. I think the key thing is our expectation for Russia, the same as Ukraine is that President Vladimir Putin and Russia need to live up to the obligations and commitments that Putin made in February of 2015, six years ago. There would be a total cease-fire, foreign forces, by which mean Russian forces, are recalled from Russia and that Ukraine recovers the control of its sovereign border.And today seven years later, Russia has not lived up to its obligations.VOA: Is the United States prepared to be more active in negotiations with Russia in Normandy Format or other formats?Kent: I think you will see as we fill out our team at the State Department, we still don’t have a confirmed deputy secretary nominated or confirmed undersecretary or new assistant secretaries. As we all get vaccinated and are able to resume travel, you will see more active U.S. diplomacy in this area.VOA: The United States hasn’t had an ambassador in Ukraine for a long period of time and there’s a lot of questions about that. The United States is not represented well in Ukraine. When can Ukraine expect to have a U.S. ambassador on the ground?Kent: First of all, the State Department has full faith and confidence in our charge, we understand that all countries expect having fully accredited ambassadors and we expect the Biden administration to nominate a fully qualified person. And then it will be up to the Senate to confirm and look forward to having a U.S. ambassador.VOA: Do you have an idea about the timeline?Kent: Nope. And in that sense, ambassadors are the prerogative of the president and the White House with a role in the Senate to advise and consent. So no timeline yet.VOA: Could you comment on why Ukraine is important for the region since you were responsible for the whole region in the last three years. So what is the United States looking at in terms of Ukraine and its effect on the region?Kent: Ukraine is an important country in its own right. It’s an important country for the region. It’s an important country symbolically. It is the linchpin of, if you will, the eastern Slavic world. And I think the importance of Ukraine has never been understated, even by outsiders who may not follow the details on a daily basis.My former professor [Zbigniew] Brzezinski once said that if Ukraine succeeds, that gives the real impulse for Russia to have the possibility of reform in the long term. And so we treat Ukraine on its own merits and that’s why it is such a focus of our assistance that’s provided by Congress. It’s the focus of our diplomacy.We understand the great human potential of Ukrainians, whether it’s in information technology, whether it’s in agribusiness, whether it’s the dynamism of civil society. And we want to support that for Ukraine to succeed in its own right. And because we also understand that if Ukraine succeeds, then other countries farther to the east will understand that many of the false narratives and claims by Russia are simply not true.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed America’s commitment to NATO as he sought to strengthen the transatlantic relationship in a two-day summit this week in Brussels, which wrapped up Wednesday. As Henry Ridgwell reports, a broad agenda included the growing threat posed by China.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to NATO as he sought to strengthen the transatlantic relationship in a two-day summit this week in Brussels, which wrapped up Wednesday.”You have our unshakeable vow: America is fully committed to NATO,” Blinken said in a speech at NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital.He promised a new relationship with European allies.”Trust has been shaken to some degree over the past few years. So, let me be clear about what the United States can promise to our allies and partners. When our allies shoulder their fair share of the burden, they’ll reasonably expect to have a fair say in making decisions,” Blinken said.He outlined the military threats facing the alliance, warning that NATO must evolve to defend democracy and the rules-based international system.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seen on the second day of a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.”Our shared values of democracy and human rights are being challenged — not only from outside our countries, but from within. And new threats are outpacing our efforts to build the capabilities we need to defend against them,” he said.  “Beijing’s military ambitions are growing by the year. Coupled with the realities of modern technology, the challenges that once seemed half a world away are no longer remote. We also see this in the new military capabilities and strategies Russia has developed to challenge our alliances and undermine the rules-based order that ensures our collective security,” Blinken said.   He added that NATO must evolve to counter emerging threats, including disinformation, cyberattacks, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the U.S. commitment and gave further warnings of the dangers facing the alliance.  “Russia undermines and destabilizes its neighbors, including Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. It supports the crackdown on Belarus and tries to interfere in the Western Balkans region,” Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday. “We see that Russia continues to deploy new and destabilizing nuclear weapons. We need agreements that cover more weapons and more nations like China.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a press briefing at the end of a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.China’s rise poses a relatively new challenge for NATO, analyst Simona Soare of the European Union Institute for Security Studies said.  “It’s not about NATO moving into the Indo-Pacific but rather being more aware and more prepared to tackle the potential negative consequences of Chinese presence in Europe. And what this means is, of course, more awareness of foreign direct investment that could target potentially strategic technologies or critical infrastructure,” Soare told VOA.  The U.S. secretary of state said Washington still expects European allies to meet the NATO defense spending target of 2% of GDP by 2024, which was a key demand of the Trump administration.  U.S. President Joe Biden is pursuing a different strategy, Soare said.   “He has also put forward a proposal that allies spend more together through NATO’s common budget, and that common expenditure should go towards funding, at least in part, some of NATO’s missions and operations. And this has been framed as being key to solidarity.”  NATO’s mission in Afghanistan also was high on the agenda, with U.S. troops set to withdraw by May 1 under a peace deal signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban in 2020. Blinken said the situation was under review, and that the U.S. would consult with NATO allies.  FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.”We went in together, we adjusted together, and when the time is right, we will leave together,” Blinken told reporters.  Despite the harmonious words from the U.S. delegation, tensions within NATO resurfaced during the summit. In a sideline meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Blinken urged Ankara to drop its purchase of a Russian S-400 air defense system. Turkey said Wednesday that the “deal is done.”  FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.Blinken also made clear U.S. opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring Russian gas directly to Germany and warned that companies involved in its construction could face U.S. sanctions.  “The pipeline divides Europe. It exposes Ukraine and central Europe to Russian manipulation and coercion. It goes against Europe’s own stated energy security goals,” Blinken told reporters.  Following the NATO summit, Blinken also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Policy Minister Josep Borrell. Despite the hawkish tone against China within NATO, the EU is finalizing a trade agreement with Beijing.  Blinken said Europe and the U.S. should work together on shared goals.  “We know that our allies have complex relationships with China that won’t always align perfectly. But we need to navigate these challenges together. That means working with our allies to close the gaps in areas like technology and infrastructure, where Beijing is exploiting to exert coercive pressure,” he said.  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is welcomed by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell ahead of meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.Borrell said Europe sees China “as a partner, as a competitor and a systemic rival.”  “We agreed to launch the European Union-United States dialogue on China as a forum to discuss the full range of related challenges and opportunities. We decided to continue meetings at the senior official and expert levels on topics such as reciprocity, economic issues, resilience, human rights, security, multilateral, and areas for constructive engagement with China, such as climate change,” Borrell said at a news conference Wednesday evening.  Blinken said the EU was the United States’ “partner of first resort.” His words have been warmly welcomed in Europe, but analysts say the true test of the new transatlantic relationship is yet to come as the alliance faces threats on multiple fronts. 
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Becoming a “free French woman” hasn’t been easy for Claire Koç, a 37-year-old French TV presenter and daughter of Turkish immigrant parents.  And it may prove dangerous.  To finish her university education and marry the man she loved she had to break with her family. She suffered hostility from them, too, when she decided in 2008 to become a French citizen.  And now her account of what she calls her “journey toward emancipation” detailed in a book, Claire, le Prénom de la Honte (Claire, the Name of Shame), is earning her death threats and the offer of police protection.  Supporters of French President Emmanuel Macron have praised Koç’s book, arguing it shows why he is right to explore ways the government can encourage assimilation and stop minority and immigrant communities from isolating themselves and living apart from the French Republic.  Last year, Macron warned against religious sectarianism, which he said “often results in the creation of a counter-society.” Cultural and religious separatism is leading to kids being kept out of school, and sports, cultural and other community activities being used as a “pretext to teach principles that do not conform to the laws of the republic,” he said.Claire Koç is seen on the cover of her book Claire, le Prénom de la Honte or Claire, the Name of Shame (Social media)Koç has received favorable book reviews. “Her book … is a rare plea for freedom and integration, against communitarianism and all obscurantism,” wrote reviewer Carine Azzopardi.But some of France’s 6 million Muslims, especially Turkish ultranationalists, have voiced outrage. On social media sites, they accuse her of insulting Turkey. Some Muslim radicals say the book risks fueling Islamophobia.The book is both an angry denunciation of the Turkish migrant community for its resistance to assimilation and a very personal tale of one woman’s emotionally painful struggle to make her own choices in life.Koç told VOA she decided to use her family as an example of the resistance to assimilation. She was one year old when her parents immigrated to France in 1984 and grew up in Brittany and Strasbourg in public housing projects. In her book, she explains that as a child she was sent to Turkish lessons, where in the morning she would join her classmates in chanting the mantra, “Let my existence be a gift to Turkey.”  But she felt French, and increasingly so, and found herself at odds with her classmates. Her refusal as a youngster to attend mosque also marked her out.  The battles at home grew worse as she became a teenager.  “I wanted to work, I wanted to decide whom to marry and I wanted to go to university,” she told VOA. “My family told me that it wasn’t for an Anatolian woman to decide these things.” Her parents wanted her to marry a boy from Turkey, preferably from their home village.She says satellite television helped her family maintain cultural separateness from the French — they would watch only Turkish channels all day and followed Turkish politics, Turkish sports. Her family was uninterested in France and made no effort to adjust or to adopt French values, she says.Nor did they learn to speak French.  “How is it possible,” she writes in her book, “to live for 40 years in a country without mastering the language and to think … that a boss will take you on if you have made no effort to integrate?” Her father, she says, just mirrored what many others in the Turkish community do — complain about racism, accept welfare payments and make little effort to get work.  “I had one wish — to escape and to leave a family I found archaic,” she told VOA. Her godsend, she says, was the cinema: movies helped her to understand the country she lived in and to learn things she wasn’t learning at home.  Defying her family, she attended a university, and there met by chance a young Turkish man from a family of Alawites, a sect of Shia Islam. When her family found out she was seeing him, they insisted they marry. She was 22 years old, but soon after they were together, her new husband told her she had to stop studying.
 
“He wanted me to live a similar life to my mother’s,” she says. Within a year they were divorced and she returned to the Université de Strasbourg, to the frustration of her parents and the disdain of Turkish neighbors. “They would cross the road when they saw me: they looked at me as though I were a whore,” she explains.Her family rejected her completely when she married a Frenchman following the divorce.The wounds of her struggle with her family have not healed.That became clear during VOA’s interview with Koç. She choked up as she explained how she learned of her father’s death two months ago from COVID-19. “I found out from a text message,” she says.His death precluded any opportunity for a reconciliation, one she still harbored hopes might take place one day, given time. “It is very difficult,” she said, shedding tears. “I had hoped my father one day would meet my son.”For her naturalization procedure, Koç changed her given name from Cigdem to Claire.“Claire? Are you serious? What a disgrace!” her brother said when she told him of the switch, she writes in the book. Her two brothers have shown no interest in communicating with her since their father’s death.Koç is unsparing in criticism, taking aim not only at religious and cultural obscurantism but also at some anti-racist politicians and groups for feeding, she says, an attitude that immigrants are always victims of racism. And she criticizes French mosques, funded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, for encouraging Turkish immigrants to maintain themselves apart from mainstream French society.“I am not denying my origins,” she tells VOA. “But I am proclaiming my love for France, which has allowed me to be free.”Koç has filed a criminal complaint after facing a torrent of abuse and insults on social media sites. One post, accusing her of being a traitor, displayed a Turkish flag and a gray wolf’s head, the emblem of Turkish ultranationalists.  Her lawyer, William Goldnadel, says the threats are alarming. “Those people don’t mess around: When they describe you either as a traitor to your country or as a terrorist and try to find your address with determination, it’s very worrying.”French politicians have rallied to her side. Rachid Temal, a Socialist Party senator, tweeted this week: “All my support to Claire Koç who like everyone has the right to choose their life, their loves and their life course. No one should be harassed for their choices.”Senator Valerie Boyer, a member of the liberal-conservative Republican Party, tweeted it is “intolerable that she has been harassed because she loves France too much. How long are these threats going to continue?” 
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The European Commission’s proposal to create a health passport to facilitate safe, free movement inside the EU during the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic could be a solution to save the tourism industry in parts of southern Europe this summer.  But with the vaccine rollout off to a slow start and the infection rates going up across Europe, few are hoping for a recovery soon. Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Alfonso Beato in Barcelona.
Camera: Alfonso Beato, Filip Huygens   
Producer:   Jon Spier 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to outline in a speech Wednesday in Brussels a commitment by the Biden administration to rebuild and revitalize U.S. alliances. That has been part of his message during his first visit to the region as the top U.S. diplomat this week, showing a departure from four years of foreign policy under former President Donald Trump that focused on prioritizing U.S. interests. The address comes on the final day of a two-day NATO ministerial meeting, during which Blinken is holding a number of sideline talks with his counterparts. Wednesday’s schedule includes separate talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, a session with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Blinken told reporters Tuesday the United States wants to rebuild its partnerships, “first and foremost with our NATO allies.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, rear center, waits for the start of a round table meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2021.The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden plans to discuss boosting U.S.-EU relations during a videoconference with EU leaders on Thursday. Biden’s stance is a marked contrast to that of former President Donald Trump, who frequently assailed other NATO countries for not meeting the alliance’s goal that each country spend the equivalent of 2% of the size of its national economy on defense.    “The last thing we can afford to do is take this alliance for granted,” Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian welcomed Blinken’s favorable comments about NATO, which was founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the then-Soviet Union.    One of the major topics for discussion during two days of meetings in Brussels is the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as a May 1 deadline approaches for the full withdrawal of all U.S. troops under a peace agreement made last year between Afghanistan’s Taliban and the Trump administration.  Blinken said the situation is under review, and that part of his work in Brussels would be conferring with NATO allies, both to listen and to share U.S. thinking. He said whatever the United States decides to do, its actions will be with the consultation of other member countries that have been a part of the military mission.    “We went in together, we have adjusted together, and when the time is right, we’ll leave together,” Blinken said.  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomes the peace effort, stressing it is the “only path to a lasting political solution in Afghanistan.” But the NATO chief said that in order to achieve peace, all parties must negotiate in good faith, there needs to be a reduction of violence, and the Taliban must stop supporting international terrorists such as al-Qaida.  German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against a premature pullout that would undercut security gains.  “We want a conditions-based withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan,” Maas said. 
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Benjamin Briere is a French tourist who was arrested last May while visiting Iran with his drone and minivan. Still detained, he was charged with espionage and “spreading propaganda against the system.” His lawyers deny the charges.If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.Briere’s case is the latest in a series against foreigners at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear activities.Bernard Hourcade is a geographer and Iran specialist.  He thinks that the cases against this French tourist and the 2019 arrest of the French Iranian academic, Fariba Adelkhah, are separate issues which would have no impact on the JCPOA talks or other negotiations between the two countries.France, along with Britain, Germany and the European Union, are trying to bring the United States and Iran to the table for informal talks as a first step toward reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal — also known as JCPOA — which lifted international sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 29, 2016, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria.However, tensions are growing over Teheran’s nuclear activities, and U.S Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last month said Iran is “heading in the wrong direction.” Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s Foreign minister, echoed those concerns.Le Drian recently told a French Senate hearing that Iran’s nuclear activities were developing in violation of the Vienna agreement. The minister also added that Iran conducted attacks in Iraq and Saudi Arabia to destabilize those countries. So, it is crucial to start de-escalation to ease tensions, he added.A source with the French Foreign ministry told VOA the French government has been in regular contact with Briere. But French officials have stuck to their regular strategy of maintaining discretion when dealing with Iran in order to increase the chances of obtaining the release of their citizens.Analysts point to Iranian leaders’ history of using hostages to get what they want.Mohammad Reza Djalili is an honorary professor of international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute.He describes the hostage situation in the U.S Embassy in Teheran in 1979 as the founding act for Iranian Islamic diplomacy. Djalili presents an Iranian policy to take Western hostages as a diplomatic weapon to release their own pro-regime citizens sentenced in France, Belgium and other countries. Iran seems very interested in dual citizens to gain leverage, according to Djalili.In this image released by the US State Department US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook welcomes Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang on arrival in Switzerland after his release from Iran on Dec. 7, 2019. (Ho /US State Department/AFP)The most recent high-profile releases of foreign prisoners in Iran — of American Xiyue Wang in December 2019, American Michael White in March 2020 and Frenchman Roland Marchal, also in March — were all accompanied by the release of Iranians held abroad on sanctions-busting charges.The case highlights for Western countries the complexity of dealing with Iran. Analysts say European countries appear to have less leverage than the United States does.Hourcade said France has tried several times to bring together Iran and the United States and resume talks, but overall France and Europe are weak partners if neither Washington nor Teheran has the political will to act. Therefore, Europeans are waiting to see how the situation will evolve.The presidential election is scheduled for June 18 in Iran and many observers believe that no major negotiations could resume before the poll.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the United States wants to rebuild its partnerships, “first and foremost with our NATO allies,” as he expressed the Biden administration’s “steadfast commitment” to the alliance. Blinken spoke to reporters in Brussels alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before the two held talks ahead of the start of a NATO ministerial meeting later in the day.Stoltenberg said he welcomed the new U.S. administration’s approach, saying there is a “unique opportunity to start a new chapter in the transatlantic relationship.”U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to join a videoconference of European Union leaders on Thursday, a top EU official said, as part of the U.S. commitment to NATO.Biden’s stance is a marked contrast to that of former President Donald Trump, who frequently assailed other NATO countries for not meeting the alliance’s goal that each country spend the equivalent of 2% of the size of its national economy on defense.”The last thing we can afford to do is take this alliance for granted,” said Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian welcomed Blinken’s favorable comments about NATO, which was founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the then-Soviet Union.One of the major topics for discussion during two days of meetings in Brussels is the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as a May 1 deadline approaches for the full withdrawal of all U.S. troops under a peace agreement made last year between Afghanistan’s Taliban and the Trump administration.Blinken said the situation is under review, and that part of his work in Brussels would be conferring with NATO allies, both to listen and to share U.S. thinking. He said whatever the United States decides to do, its actions will be with the consultation of other member countries that have been a part of the military mission.“We went in together, we have adjusted together, and when the time is right, we’ll leave together,” Blinken said.Stoltenberg said he welcomes the peace effort, stressing it is the “only path to a lasting political solution in Afghanistan.” But the NATO chief said that in order to achieve peace, all parties must negotiate in good faith, there needs to be a reduction of violence, and the Taliban must stop supporting international terrorists such as al-Qaida.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a news conference during a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2021.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against a premature pullout that would undercut security gains.”We want a conditions-based withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan,” Maas said.Blinken’s itinerary in Brussels also includes a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief. The State Department said agenda items include economic recovery efforts in response to the coronavirus pandemic and addressing “global challenges that come from Iran, Russia and China.”Regarding Iran, the top U.S. diplomat is expected to consult with EU colleagues about the prospects of the United States and Iran mutually returning to the agreement signed in 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.Both the United States, which left the deal under Trump in 2018, and Iran, which responded by taking steps away from its commitments, have expressed a willingness to observe the agreement once again, but each has signaled the other side should act first.The final part of Blinken’s trip agenda is bilateral talks with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès.  
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Press freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is suing Facebook in France, saying the social media platform spreads misinformation. The suit was filed Monday with the Paris public prosecutor.  “Reporters Without Borders accuses Facebook of ‘deceptive commercial practices’ on the grounds that the social media company’s promises to provide a ‘safe’ and ‘error-free’ online environment are contradicted by the large-scale proliferation of hate speech and false information on its networks,” the group said in a press release. Specifically, the group says Facebook allows “hate speech” against the media, as well as misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. The group said Facebook allowed posts that were insulting and threatening against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as well as targeting the TV program “Quotidien” and a regional newspaper, L’Union. Facebook said in a statement that it “has zero tolerance for any harmful content on our platforms,” Bloomberg reported. “Over the last few years, we’ve tripled the size of our safety and security team to 35,000 and built artificial intelligence technology to proactively find and remove harmful content,” the statement continued, according to Bloomberg. “While nobody can eliminate misinformation and hate speech from the internet entirely, we continue using research, experts and technologies to tackle them in the most comprehensive and effective way possible.” Should RSF win its case, the decision could have global repercussions for Facebook, as its terms of service are similar worldwide. Any change in France could trigger changes elsewhere. Facebook and other Big Tech companies have been under intense pressure to stop what some call misinformation. In December, the EU proposed new regulations that could hit companies with fines of up to 6% of their global revenue for not complying with orders to remove content deemed violent hate speech, according to Bloomberg. 
 
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Results of an independent inquiry announced Monday cleared Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, of breaking a ministerial code of conduct, but she is likely to face an opposition-led vote of no confidence in parliament Tuesday.  Sturgeon has been under intense scrutiny over what she did and did not do when she learned of complaints by several women against Alex Salmond – her predecessor as first minister and, once a close friend and ally in the cause of Scottish independence.  Salmond was charged in 2019 with sexual assault and attempted rape after allegations by nine women who had worked with him as first minister or for the party.He was acquitted by a criminal court in 2020, and claims the allegations made by several women were part of a conspiracy to wreck his political career.James Hamilton, a widely respected Irish lawyer appointed to conduct an independent inquiry into Sturgeon’s conduct, found that she had not breached the ministerial code. Had he reached the opposite conclusion, she would have been expected to resign.Hamilton rejected suggestions that she had broken the rules by failing to record meetings with Salmond in 2018, that she tried to influence an investigation into his behavior or that she misled the Scottish parliament.A second inquiry, by a committee of Scottish lawmakers, is due to publish a report on Tuesday. British media have reported that the committee voted 5-4 in favor of finding that Sturgeon gave an inaccurate account to Scotland’s Edinburgh-based parliament about when she learned of allegations against Salmond.The Conservatives, who are in power in the United Kingdom as a whole but in opposition in Scotland, are planning a vote of no confidence in Sturgeon on Tuesday.  With an election coming in May, Sturgeon called the vote a “political stunt” and said she was confident of winning.
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