Turkey’s decision to revert the historic landmark, Hagia Sophia, to a mosque has sparked global outrage. But perhaps more than anywhere else, it has touched a nerve in Greece. The government in Athens is trying to mobilize international support for sanctions to be imposed against Turkey.The Greek government has billed the move to turn Hagia Sophia a mosque again a provocation and a grave historic mistake. Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said leading diplomats are scrambling to block Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s decision and that the coming week will be pivotal in that pursuit.Dendias said it’s becoming increasingly clear that Erdogan is bent on reviving the Ottoman era, asserting himself and Turkey as the kingmaker of the region, and defying both international law and codes of conduct.He said Greek diplomats would be teaming up in a round of crisis talks in the next few days, to chart out a course of action on the recasting of Hagia Sophia.An architectural masterpiece, the massive 1,500-year-old structure was the seat of Eastern Christianity for a thousand years before Ottoman Turks conquered its host city, then known as Constantinople.The conquest marks one of the darkest moments of Greek history, leading to the persecution of thousands of Christian Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks. Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque and many of its stunning religious mosaics were removed or painted over.Helene Ahrweiler, a Greek and world authority on Byzantine history said history is repeating itself.Erdogan’s decision, she said, marks a second fall of the Byzantine empire. Ahrweiler said the move is such an affront to Christianity that she would not be shocked to learn that the marvelous mosaics left on the temple’s walls have started shedding tears over it.From Pope Francis in the Vatican to Patriarch Kirill in Russia, to the White House, to the Kremlin, the move has sparked a huge outcry.But Greece is going a step further, trying to rally international support for sanctions against Erdogan and his government.Constantinos Filis, an expert in international relations, said it’s unlikely Athens will find the backing it wants from its U.S. and EU allies.He said it’s a Turkish domestic decision. And while Greeks may feel offended by it, he said, Athens cannot take any form of unilateral action — it needs a bloc of allies by its side.Fillis said it’s questionable whether the European Union or U.S. President Donald Trump would be willing to go to bat for Greece on this issue and risk a rift with Turkey’s leader.In recent days, though, leading European leaders have started to consider Greece’s call for sanctions, as Erdogan announced plans to proceed with controversial energy drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.Turkey said it may start the drilling in the next few days, just before it opens Hagia Sophia for public prayers.Greek government sources told VOA that Germany is trying to defuse the growing tensions by trying to bring Greek and Turkish representatives to the negotiating table.But the stakes remain high, and Greece isn’t taking any chances. Foreign Minister Dendias said the Greek military is already on high alert, fearing even a spark of conflict from Turkey.Greece is ready to defend its rights and sovereignty to the full, he said, adding that it’s not a matter for negotiation.  
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The British government’s decision to ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G telecom network beginning in 2027 is only the “opening salvo” of what is to come, according to a leading expert on U.S.-British relations. Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, thinks there is a “higher than 50% chance” that Huawei’s exit date will come two or even three years ahead of the announced date. The same hardline lawmakers in the governing Conservative Party who pushed for the rejection of Huawei consider seven years to be too long a period to completely disengage from the company, Gardiner said in a telephone interview, adding that these lawmakers may be able to push through legislation that would shorten the timeline. He pointed to statements made Tuesday by member of parliament Iain Duncan Smith immediately after the decision to cut Huawei out of the nation’s 5G plans was announced. FILE – Former leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith arrives for a meeting in London, February 4, 2019.“The head of [British Telecom] said ‘seven years, yes, but we can do it in five.’ So now let’s bring it forward to five and make sure it happens quickly; there’s no reason why they can’t,” Duncan Smith said in the House of Commons.  The former cabinet minister also urged the government to remove Huawei equipment from existing 3G and 4G infrastructure to prevent a scenario where the company’s software keeps getting upgraded, posing a continuing threat. “If they’re a risk in 5G, why are they not a risk to us generally?” he asked. Duncan Smith continued his urging with an op-ed the next day, in which he wrote, “Removing Huawei makes sense. Waiting seven years to do it does not.” Much of the concern about Huawei has centered on fears that its technology could be used by China to spy on countries that install it. In his op-ed, Duncan Smith wrote that “the bigger problem is the aggressive behavior of China and its crackdown on dissidents in China and elsewhere. We have become far too dependent on this powerful communist state and the free world needs to come together to resolve this issue.” He added: “End [Huawei’s] involvement earlier, in 2025 at the latest.” Gardiner, who predicted that Britain’s action would influence decision-making in other European capitals, believes the vision put forth by Duncan Smith could very well be realized. The cabinet is expected to introduce legislation, known as the Telecom Security Bill, to legalize the terms guiding the nation’s 5G network. Duncan Smith and “about 60” like-minded lawmakers in the Conservative Party, along with supporters in the opposition Labor Party, could attach amendments to the bill to advance the deadline for British companies to divest from Huawei, he said. Gardiner added that the legislators could set a date as early as 2024, when the next general election is due. Roger Garside, a former British diplomat whose postings included Beijing, told VOA from his home in London that he was “profoundly relieved that the British government is coming to its senses over Huawei.” “There has been a fundamental failure under successive British governments to appreciate the threat posed to our fundamental interests by the [People’s Republic of China]. Now we appear to wakening from that dream state.” Beijing, for its part, says it is “seriously evaluating the situation” before responding to the British decision. Huawei’s executives have denied they are obligated to share information with the Chinese government. Gardiner said British leaders were fully aware of the risk of retaliation when they made their decision, which he sees as a severe blow to both Huawei and its Communist Party backers, especially given “the vast inroads” the company had made in “the upper echelon” of British society and “vast amount of resources” Beijing poured into lobbying for Huawei to remain in Britain. He credits the sea change in British public opinion to a “perfect storm” created by China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its response to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Had Margaret Thatcher, his former boss, “still been with us today, I’m in no doubt she would be standing up to Beijing, standing up for the rights of the people in Hong Kong,” he said. 
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EU leaders failed Friday to make headway in negotiations over a massive stimulus plan to breathe life into economies ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, returning to their Brussels hotels shortly before midnight to rest and try again in the morning.Many of the 27 heads declared on arrival for their first face-to-face summit for five months that a deal was crucial to rescue economies in free fall and shore up faith in the European Union, which has lurched for years from crisis to crisis.But officials said a thrifty camp of wealthy northern states led by the Netherlands stood its ground on access to the recovery fund, in the face of opposition from Germany, France, southern nations Italy and Spain, and eastern European states.The proposed sums under discussion include the EU’s 2021-27 budget of more than 1 trillion euros and the recovery fund worth 750 billion euros that will be funneled mostly to Mediterranean coast countries worst affected by the pandemic.Diplomats said the 27 remained at odds over the overall size of the package, the split between grants and repayable loans in the recovery fund and rule-of-law strings attached to it.But the main stumbling block was over vetting procedures to access aid, an EU official said, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte demanding that one country could block payouts from the fund if member states backslide on economic reform.”If they want loans and even grants then I think it’s only logical that I can explain to people in the Netherlands … that in return those reforms have taken place,” Rutte said, estimating the chances for a deal at 50-50.Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki was even more gloomy.As the leaders broke up for the day, he tweeted that they were divided by a bundle of issues and said it was “highly probable” that they would fail to reach a deal on Saturday or even on Sunday if the summit drags past its scheduled two days.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who celebrated her 66th birthday around the negotiating table in Brussels, was also cautious on chances for an agreement, envisaging “very, very difficult negotiations.”After initial elbow bumps between the leaders – all wearing face masks – and birthday gifts for Merkel and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, tense meetings followed in the evening with Rutte and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.The world is watchingOrban, who critics accuse of stifling the media, academics and NGOs, threatened to veto the entire plan over a mechanism that would freeze out countries that fail to live up to democratic standards.With EU economies deep in recession and immediate relief measures such as short-time work schemes running out, the specter of an autumn of hardship and discontent is looming.The EU is already grappling with the protracted saga of Britain’s exit from the bloc and is bruised by past crises, from the financial meltdown of 2008 to feuds over migration.Another economic shock could expose it to more eurosceptic, nationalist and protectionist forces, and weaken its standing against China, the United States or Russia.”The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “The whole world is watching us.”Despite wrangling over medicines, medical gear, border closures and money, the EU has managed to agree a half-a-trillion-euro scheme to cushion the first hit of the crisis.Mediterranean countries now want the recovery financing to prevent their economies taking on ever-greater burdens of debt.”The big picture is that we are faced with the biggest economic depression since World War Two,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. “We need … an ambitious solution because our citizens expect nothing less from us.” 
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Actor and activist Angelina Jolie urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to fulfill its promise to hold to account perpetrators of sexual violence against children in conflict settings.“I have met child survivors of sexual violence – and domestic violence and trauma and abuse – everywhere,” Jolie said of her 20 years working with the U.N. refugee agency. “There is no continent untouched by these crimes.”She addressed a council session reflecting on the issue, one year after adoption of Resolution 2467, which strengthened prevention through justice and accountability mechanisms, empowered the council to impose sanctions on perpetrators, and opened the way for victims to seek reparations.Jolie gave the example of Yazidi children she had met in northern Iraq. Thousands of their mothers and female relatives have been abducted, enslaved and abused since 2014 by fighters with the Islamic State group. Many are still in captivity.“Many of the children witnessed the murder of their relatives, and the rape of their mothers,” she told the council in a virtual meeting. “One doctor who has provided medical care for hundreds of Yazidi women and girls said that almost every girl she had treated between the ages of 9 and 17 had been raped or subjected to other sexual violence. In some cases, victims were girls under the age of 9.”Specialized care neededShe said the children experience post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, flashbacks and nightmares, yet these “invisible victims” are particularly overlooked when it comes to support services.“What few services there are have been largely focused on women survivors – who have immense trauma and unmet needs of their own,” Jolie said. “The reality is that no one is getting the care they need. But there is a specific lack of dedicated care for children.”Jolie said she has seen these problems in every conflict setting she has visited and urged the international community to step up its funding to address the needs of all survivors.Khin Ohmar, a peace activist from Myanmar, spoke on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. She said in her country, the military has long used rape as a weapon against ethnic communities.“The horrific accounts of Rohingya women during the 2016 and 2017 so-called ‘clearance operations’ remain urgent, shocking and unique in their ferocity,” she said. “They are also representative of the military’s pattern of using gender-based violence in their campaigns against other ethnic communities, including the Kachin, Shan, Ta’ang and Rakhine.”She said grave international crimes continue to be committed in Myanmar, and she urged the council to refer the file to the International Criminal Court, as domestic accountability is not possible.Sexual violence a tactic of warThe U.N. secretary-general’s envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, said sexual violence is a tactic of war and a tool of political repression, used to dehumanize, destabilize and forcibly displace populations. It includes rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization and forced marriage.“This is a crime that shreds the very fabric that binds communities together, leaving social cohesion and safety nets threadbare,” Patten told the council.She said the U.N. documented nearly 3,000 cases last year of conflict-related sexual violence but noted it is a crime that is underreported because of fear of reprisals and stigmatization. Nearly 90% of attacks targeted women and girls; 848 were on children. Hundreds of cases also targeted men, boys and LGBTQI persons.She noted that many victims are still seeking justice and support years later.“In post-conflict contexts, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, survivors of sexual violence are still fighting to realize their rights and status as legitimate victims of war, in order to access reparations and redress,” Patten said.She urged the council to enforce its resolution and show perpetrators that there are consequences for violating it.
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British World War II veteran Captain Tom Moore, who became a national hero and international celebrity in April when he raised $41 million for Britain’s National Health service, received a knighthood Friday during a ceremony at Windsor Castle. While the ceremony was held in private, pictures released from the event show a broadly smiling Queen Elizabeth using a sword that belonged to her father to bestow the honor on Moore on the grounds outside the castle.Captain Sir Thomas Moore poses for the media after receiving his knighthood from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, during a ceremony at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, July 17, 2020.While the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the postponement of other official ceremonies schedule for June and July, a special exception was made for Moore. The COVID-19 disease is caused by the coronavirus. Moore received the honor after he started an online pledge drive to raise money for the National Health Service charities during the peak of the country’s COVID outbreak. He sought to complete 100 lengths of his garden, using his walker, before his 100th birthday in April. The pledges exceeded his expectations. His efforts touched people in Britain and beyond as it provided a heart-warming distraction from the adversity of the pandemic, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to nominate Moore for the award. Moore, who has been made an honorary colonel and an honorary member of the England cricket team, said Friday he was “overwhelmed” by honor.  
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In Brussels, European Union leaders are holding their first face-to-face summit in months on two key issues that will shape the bloc in the years ahead— a massive coronavirus economic recovery plan and its next multi-year budget. But differences, especially over the fund, remain sharp. Many are downplaying chances of striking a deal this time around.Face masks firmly on, the 27 European heads of state started early on talks scheduled to end Saturday. But in a sign of the difficult negotiations ahead — and in hopes of a deal this weekend — Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said he had brought extra clothing should the meetings be extended by another day.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, acknowledged differences remained very wide. Merkel says she is not certain an agreement will be reached at this summit.Germany and France, the EU’s most powerful members, have teamed up to support a proposed $857 billion fund of grants and loans to reboot coronavirus-hit economies–especially those of southern European countries like Italy and Spain.But four northern countries are reluctant to offer non-repayable grants—and want strict governance criteria. Here’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands—considered to toe the hardest line among the so-called “Frugal Four,” meaning his country, along with Austria, Sweden and Denmark.European Union leaders during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, July 17, 2020.“If the South is needing help from other countries to cope with the crisis — I understand that because there is limited scope to deal with that financially themselves — then I think it is only reasonable for us to ask for a clear commitment to reforms. And if then, loans have to be converted to a certain extent to grants, then reforms are even more crucial — and the absolutely guarantee that they have taken place.”Italy’s economy minister, Giovanni Tria, told an Italian newspaper his country would fight any changes to the current recovery fund proposal. Still, many leaders and experts have voiced optimism a compromise will be reached — possibly later this month.Also up for discussion is the EU’s next seven-year budget.French President Emmanuel Macron called for more solidarity and ambition among leaders to tackle the post-coronavirus recovery. He said the coming hours would be decisive — adding he was optimistic, but prudent of a positive outcome.For Germany’s Merkel, currently the bloc’s longest-serving leader and staunchly pro-EU one, a successful outcome may be particularly important. Merkel steps down next year, and analysts say she has an eye on her legacy. She also turned 66 on Friday, and Luxembourg’s Bettel said a deal on the recovery fund would be a great birthday present. 
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Assa Traoré has been fighting for justice ever since her brother Adama died in the custody of French police on his 24th birthday four years ago. And she’s determined to keep fighting until “the end,” she says: until someone is convicted for his death.
But recently, her goal has grown larger. She’s now at the forefront of a new movement for Black rights, to wipe out systemic racism in policing and to challenge France’s official vision of itself as a colorblind society.
“We became soldiers in spite of ourselves,” Assa Traoré, whose family is of Malian origin, told The Associated Press this week. “There’s a movement today. We call it the Adama generation, these people who are not afraid anymore, and these youth who will not shut up.”
The 35-year-old, who gave up her job as a special education teacher in a small Paris suburb to lead a movement demanding justice for her brother, has renewed purpose since George Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police.
“George Floyd is our brother here in France, too,” Traoré said in an interview ahead of a demonstration Saturday marking the anniversary of Adama’s death — her speech determined, her energy palpable. “When you see George Floyd’s death, you imagine the death of my brother Adama Traoré.”
It is not the first time that France has reckoned with its colonial history and relationship with its Black and North African citizens. Deaths involving police often lead to protests, most memorably in the form of nationwide unrest in 2005 sparked by the deaths of two boys who were electrocuted while hiding in an electric substation after fleeing police.
But now France is seeing a growing pushback against police violence, and against racism that many activists say is exacerbated by the country’s official doctrine of colorblindness, which encourages immigrants to integrate and bans the government from collecting census data on race.
While four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest have been charged — including one with murder who is behind bars — no one has been charged in Adama Traoré’s death. It wasn’t filmed, and the cause of death is still the subject of fierce debate.  
On July 19, 2016, police approached Adama and his brother for an identity check in the town of Beaumont-sur-Oise north of Paris, where the large family grew up. Adama fled on a bike because he didn’t have his ID. Gendarmes caught up with him and arrested him. Within hours he was declared dead.  
One gendarme initially said three officers jumped on Traoré to pin him down, according to early police reports. The gendarme later denied any of them pinned him down.  
The exact cause of death is not even clear. A dozen court-ordered medical reports found various cardiac diseases were responsible. The Traoré family countered those with an independent autopsy and medical reports pointing to asphyxiation instead. The case is still under investigation, and lawyers for the officers deny police were at fault.
In her quest for justice for her brother, Assa Traoré has met with families of those who died at the hands of police, toured struggling French suburbs where most of the population is immigrant or non-white, and organized activists across racial, geographical and economic lines.
In June, as France was reopening from virus lockdown and videos of Floyd’s killing circulated around the world, she rallied tens of thousands of protesters to call attention to French racial minorities’ own problems with police.
“We have to change everything, this systemic racism, we need to break it,” Traoré said. She called for banning dangerous techniques that police use to immobilize people that “overwhelmingly kill Black, Arabs and non-whites.”
She also thinks France needs to scrap the police oversight agencies, which are currently composed of police themselves, in favor of independent bodies.
In 2016, France’s top official for defending citizens’ rights reported that Black and Arab French people were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than others were. In 2020, Jacques Toubon published a study detailing systemic racism in the Paris police. The government has pledged to root out racism in police forces but blames the problem on a few bad apples.  
Traoré has built bridges with other social movements — like the yellow vest one against economic injustice and the climate crisis movement.
“It’s been four years of going to every poor neighborhood in France,” Traoré said. “We’ve been in the most remote places in France, in small villages, it’s been four years of alliances with domestic workers, undocumented people, yellow vests, climate groups.”
This Saturday’s march was organized with climate activists under the slogan: “We want to breathe.”
“Today the fight for Adama Traoré does not belong to the Traoré family anymore,” Traoré said. “It’s representative of a big unease and dysfunction of the French state, so it’s a struggle we take on together.”
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The leaders of the European Union hold their first face-to-face summit in five months on Friday, but the reunion seems unlikely to bridge their divide over a post-virus economic rescue plan.Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel turns 66 on the day that she and her 26 colleagues return to Brussels, not to celebrate but to test whether in-person negotiations can answer a 750-billion-euro question.The EU has been plunged into a historic economic crunch by the coronavirus crisis, and EU officials have drawn up plans for a huge stimulus package to lead their countries out of lockdown.But a determined band of northern capitals, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Netherlands, are holding out against doling out cash to their southern neighbors without strict conditions attached.Friday’s talks are expected to run into Saturday and perhaps even Sunday, but few here are confident of a breakthrough, despite the tight timetable, so another summit may well follow later this month.’A deal is essential’Summit host Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, has tried to create a sense of momentum after previous coronavirus-era videoconferences served only to underline the leaders’ differences.”Finding agreement will require hard work and political will on the part of all. Now is the time. A deal is essential,” he wrote in his letter inviting the leaders back to Brussels.”We will need to find workable solutions and come to an agreement, for the greater benefit of our citizens.”But optimism was in short supply as the leaders gathered in the Belgian capital, some arriving early on the eve of the summit to hold private discussions ahead of the main event.European diplomats said the Netherlands would continue to insist that member states retain the right to veto any joint borrowing by the European Union to finance loans to members.And they want any loans or grants to come with strict conditions attached to ensure that heavily indebted countries like Spain and Italy carry out reforms, under European Commission oversight.This is furiously opposed by the south. Both Michel and Merkel, whose country has just taken on the rolling six-month presidency of the EU, will struggle to broker any compromise.”We’re open to reaching an arrangement this weekend, but if there won’t be an agreement, we are open to more negotiations later on,” Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said on Wednesday.Loans or grants?The Netherlands has emerged as the most likely hold out, but Rutte’s position is backed to varying degrees by fellow members of the so-called “Frugal Four” — Sweden, Denmark and Austria.Michel’s draft plan foresees a 750-billion-euro recovery package, made up of 250 billion in loans and 500 billion in grants and subsidies that would not have to be repaid by the recipient member states.The Frugals oppose grants and want any loans to come with conditions attached.This package is in addition to the planned 1,074 billion-euro seven-year EU budget from 2021 to 2027 that the leaders must also agree in the coming weeks or months.”An agreement is not at all guaranteed. On the contrary, there remain large differences to get over,” a senior European official admitted.Aside from the governance of the recovery package, the leaders may also clash over efforts to make EU budget support contingent on member states respecting the rule of law.Hungary and Poland, which have been targeted by the European Commission over their alleged drift into authoritarianism, will fight to stop such a rule being written into the budget.  
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Saying Spain showed “strong resolve” that “changed the course” of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) said while paying tribute to the onetime COVID-19 hot spot for reversing “the trajectory of the outbreak.”WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday that “Spain has shown that with political leadership and action, backed by community support, that the coronavirus can be controlled, no matter at what stage virus transmission is at in a country. … From being greatly challenged, Spain has reversed the trajectory of the outbreak.”In late March and early April, Spain was reporting as many as 10,000 new cases a day.Tedros gave credit to both the Spanish government and people for adhering to tough restrictions including what the WHO says has been robust surveillance, testing, contact tracing, treatment and isolation.While hailing the success, Tedros also remembered the Spaniards and others worldwide felled by COVID-19 and warned that it remains a threat even where the emergency appeared to have abated.The coronavirus shows no sign of easing in Brazil, where the health ministry is reporting more than 2 million cases and more than 1,000 deaths a day.Brazilian health experts blame the federal government for the high toll.“The virus would have been difficult to stop anyway. But this milestone of 2 million cases, which is very underestimated, shows this could have been different,” said Dr. Adriano Massuda, a health care professor at Sao Paulo’s Getulio Vargas Foundation university. “There’s no national strategy for testing, no measures from the top … too little effort to improve basic care so we find serious cases before they become too serious, no tracking.”A health worker disinfects empty coffins that will be used to take the bodies of recently deceased residents of the San Jose nursing home in Cochabamba, Bolivia, July 16, 2020.Although the number of cases appears to be ebbing in some of the larger Brazilian cities, it is now starting to hit places that had been spared.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who spent months minimizing COVID-19 as “a little flu,” has tested positive for the virus twice on the last two weeks.Bolsonaro has encouraged businesses to reopen and pushed local leaders to ease restrictions, saying the lockdowns and other measures are costing Brazilians their jobs.The government says lockdowns aimed at combating the spread of the virus have forced nearly 523,000 Brazilian businesses to temporarily or permanently close their doors in the first two weeks of June.Brazil trails only the United States in the number of cases and deaths. The A man is seen through a display of fun face masks for sale at a roadside stall in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 16, 2020.The country’s two largest brick-and-mortar retailers – Walmart and Kroger – announced the policy earlier this week.Without a national mandate from the White House to wear face coverings in public, it is up to states, cities and businesses to come up with their own policies.“To be clear, we’re not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer,” CVS executive Jon Roberts says. “What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering.”Another trial of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has proved to be ineffective as an early treatment for mild cases of COVID-19, researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine have concluded.“There is not convincing evidence that hydroxychloroquine can either prevent COVID-19 after exposure or reduce illness severity after developing early symptoms,” said Caleb Skipper, lead author of the study. “While disappointing, these results are consistent with an emerging body of literature that hydroxychloroquine doesn’t convey a substantial clinical benefit in people diagnosed with COVID-19, despite its activity against the coronavirus in a test tube.”President Donald Trump hyped hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment early in the pandemic and said he took the drug himself. He has tested negative for the coronavirus.After initially approving it as an emergency treatment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed itself after doctors warned of potentially deadly side effects.The National Football League’s Players Association says 72 NFL players had tested positive for the coronavirus as of earlier this week.Team training camps are set to open July 28 with the first games of the season scheduled to be played September 10.Baseball, soccer, hockey, and basketball teams plan to resume or open their shortened seasons within weeks.But the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said it is impossible to predict if NFL teams can play a full 16-game season.Former TV game show host Chuck Woolery, who tweeted late Sunday that “everybody is lying” about COVID-19, including doctors and the media, now says the coronavirus is real after announcing that his son has the disease.Woolery says he feels for “those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones.”In his Sunday tweet, Woolery said that the news about the coronavirus is “all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”Trump retweeted it.Woolery was the original host of the TV game shows “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection,” and “Greed” and has since become a conservative activist.  
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Military clashes between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan continued Thursday, further raising tensions between Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in the conflict.   The fighting erupted after a day of calm that had raised hopes of an end to the confrontation. At least 16 people have been killed since clashes started Sunday. What sparked the latest violence was not clear, but the two sides have blamed the other for the trouble. The two former Soviet Republics have been at odds for decades over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, predominantly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In the 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the disputed territory. Armenian servicemen transport used tires in the back of a truck to fortify their positions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border near the village of Movses on July 15, 2020.According to the Reuters news agency, Armenia’s defense ministry accuses Azerbaijan’s army of moving positions and using people in one village as human shields. Azerbaijan denies the allegation and has made similar accusations against Armenia. The latest clashes indirectly pit Turkey against Russia. Turkey backs Azerbaijan, while Russia supports Armenia. “Turkey will never hesitate to stand against any attack on the rights and lands of Azerbaijan,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. Erdogan suggested a wider conspiracy lay behind the latest fighting.  “This is not a border violation and conflict but a deliberate attack on Azerbaijan. Undoubtedly this attack shows Armenia is punching above its weight.” Turkish pro-government media have been quick to accuse Moscow of encouraging Armenia to attack Azerbaijan, albeit without substantiating the allegation. Moscow dismisses such accusations, with Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov on Tuesday calling for restraint on both sides and offering Russian mediation. Ankara and Moscow are already involved in proxy confrontations by backing rival sides in the Libyan and Syrian civil wars.  “Armenia and Azerbaijan are faced with the challenge of becoming the next spot, like Syria and Libya. The Russian military is already deployed in the region,” said Zaur Gasimov, a Russia expert at the University of Bonn.  “Turkey is the only player in the [Caucasus] region representing to a certain extent Western values and interests, and can prevent domination by Russia and Iran,” Gasimov added. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 2nd right, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, 2nd left, along with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, right and Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borisov left, symbolically open the TurkStream pipeline, Jan. 8, 2020.Energy interests Where the latest fighting between Armenian and Azeri forces is occurring is in itself cause for suspicion among observers.  “The location is very strange,” said Gasimov, referring to Azerbaijan’s remote Tovuz region, adding, “Normally fighting occurs in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.”The Tovuz region is close to Azerbaijan’s crucial South Caucasia pipeline. The SCP channels natural gas to Turkey’s TANAP pipeline and is a key component of Ankara’s efforts to decrease its dependence on Russian energy. “Turkey is heavily dependent on Russia for gas supplies,” said Mehmet Ogutcu of the London Energy Club policy group.  “Turkey is paying almost twice the price of EU buyers for [Russia’s] Gazprom gas,” Gasimov said.  “Turkey is now trying to reduce its intake from Russia,” he added. “Azeri gas is coming through TANAP (pipeline), which is cheaper than Russian gas that Turkey is buying. Turkey depends on 98% of its gas on imports and 92% on oil. It’s a national security issue.” Azerbaijan, one of the major oil suppliers to the European Union, is Turkey’s biggest foreign investor — mostly in the energy sector. The Azeri-Turkish partnership could deepen further as a new opportunity arises in 2021, when a major gas deal between Turkey and Russia is up for renewal. The 25-year-old deal has obliged Turkey to buy a set amount of Russian gas annually, ensuring Russia’s dominance of the Turkish energy market.  “With the contract coming to an end, Turkey will use this opportunity to rebalance its energy relations with Russia,” said Ogutcu. Russian concerns  Leaders in Russia worry their country is losing ground in Turkey’s energy market.  “Russian-Turkish talks in April on gas prices ended without success,” Gasimov said. “Azerbaijan, Iran, and Qatar are set to become as prominent as Russia as gas providers [in Turkey].” Analysts say Ankara’s energy diversification efforts play favorably for the U.S. administration.  Washington has been intensively lobbying its European allies to curtail energy cooperation with Russia as part of the Trump administration efforts to curb the Kremlin’s economic leverage over Europe. The United States is also threatening sanctions over Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline serving Germany and TurkStream, opened in January by Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. administration officials say both pipelines violate the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017.   FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaks during a news conference at the State Department, July 1, 2020, in Washington.In remarks Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the two projects as “the Kremlin’s key tools to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies” that he said “ultimately undermine transatlantic security.” “It is a clear warning to the companies aiding and abetting Russia’s malign influence projects. Get out now, or risk the consequences,” Pompeo said.  The rift between Turkey and Russia has coincided with a rapprochement between Ankara and Washington, but analysts are not rushing to declare an end to the Russian-Turkish partnership.   While Ankara seeks to reduce its dependence on Russia’s energy, both Erdogan and Putin are aware of a mutual dependency between the two countries. “Turkish-Russian relations are not based only on Russian gas,” said Ogutcu.  “It’s a package. You have a [Russian] nuclear energy plant being (built) in Turkey, you have a security issue in Syria. Turkish construction exports to Russia and Russian tourists coming to Turkey,” Ogutcu said.  As some observers see it, Moscow is likely to avoid a rupture with Ankara and they warn the latest tensions in the Caucasus could be a message to Turkey that there is a cost to rebalancing ties with Russia. 
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The political future of Russian President Vladimir Putin would seem to be secure. A constitutional referendum in Russia ending July first gave the longtime leader a new mandate to stay in power for 16 more years. But in the days that have followed the vote, Russia’s security services have launched a series of arrests and detentions against perceived government opponents. From Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.VIDEOGRAPHER: Ricardo Marquina,
PRODUCER: Rod James
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Britain’s foreign ministry said Thursday Russia sought to interfere in Britain’s 2019 general election by illicitly acquiring sensitive documents relating to a planned free trade agreement with the United States and leaking them online.
 
In a statement submitted to the British House of Commons, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “It is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents.”
 
Raab said the documents relating to the British-U.S. trade deal were “illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.”
 
Raab said their investigation found that when the documents made little impact, further attempts were made to promote illicitly obtained material online before the election. He said Britain reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future.
 
Russia’s Foreign Ministry declined requests for immediate comment but said it would respond later Thursday. President Vladimir Putin has laughed off similar allegations in the past.
 
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Britain, Canada and the United States have accused Russia of trying to steal COVID-19 information from academic and pharmaceutical institutions.Britain’s National Cyber Security Center announced Thursday in coordination with the U.S. and Canada the attempts to steal vaccine and treatment research is being conducted by the hacking group APT29, which is said to be part of the Russian intelligence community.The NCSC said the hacking group, also known as Cozy Bear, is continuing its attacks with spear-phishing, custom malware and a variety of other tools and techniques.The U.S. and Britain said two months ago that networks of hackers were targeting organizations worldwide that were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not explicitly link the efforts to Russia.U.S. intelligence agencies widely suspect that Cozy Bear hacked Democratic Party computers before the 2016 election, with the intent of helping President Donald Trump win the election. 
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A suspected hacking attack caused the site of North Macedonia’s electoral commission to crash for hours after polls closed in national elections Wednesday, delaying preliminary results that showed the pro-Western Social Democrats narrowly leading the center-right opposition. The commission said early Thursday that with nearly 94% of the vote counted the Social Democrats have 36% and VMRO-DPMNE follow at more than 34%. The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration was third at 11%, while a coalition of two smaller ethnic Albanian parties followed at nearly 9%. The Commission gave no projections on how many seats each party stood to win in the 120-member parliament. Shortly afterwards, Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev declared victory. Addressing cheering supporters in the capital Skopje, he promised fast reforms to help the country’s European Union accession hopes end revive the battered economy. Electoral commission head Oliver Derkoski said the suspected hack affected the official website designed to give fast online results. Vote counting was proceeding normally as the commission’s central server was not affected, he said. Derkovski added that police have been informed and will investigate the attack and who might be behind it. Another official told The Associated Press that “an outside hacker attack spread a virus … so the public cannot see the results online.” “Our technical team is working to solve the problem,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. The election — delayed for months due to the pandemic — was held amid a resurgence of the coronavirus in the small Balkan country, with voters donning obligatory masks. Polling stations closed later than usual to encourage turnout, and authorities also organized two days of advance voting to allow people in quarantine or at greater risk from the virus to cast their ballots from home. North Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic with a population of around 2 million, reported more than 8,500 cases, including 393 deaths, as of Wednesday, with 198 new cases and four deaths reported over the previous 24 hours. The country saw new cases rise in recent weeks after infection-control restrictions were lifted. Election authorities said turnout had reached 50.8% half an hour before polls closed, which is lower than in previous elections. Zaev’s governing Social Democrats called the early parliamentary election when he resigned as prime minister in January after the European Union failed to give North Macedonia a start date for EU membership talks. Zaev faced a strong challenge from VMRO’s Hristijan Mickoski. The party has softened its earlier opposition to a landmark 2018 deal with Greece that saw the country change its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, clearing objections for it to join NATO earlier this year. Zaev, 45, ran much of his campaign on the accomplishment of securing the agreement with Greece that ended a dispute of nearly 30 years. “I believe our positive campaign has won over citizens,” Zaev said after voting. North Macedonia has had a caretaker government since his resignation as prime minister in January. Election campaigns were limited by social distancing rules and calmer than in past elections, which produced vitriolic animosity between the two main parties. The Social Democrats have governed since 2016 after beating populist conservative Nikola Gruevski of VMRO-DPMNE, who fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power and corruption. Gruevski’s successor, Hristijan Mickoski, moved the party toward the center-right but aimed his campaign at voters are still disappointed by the country’s name change. “People are going to the polls in large numbers from what we can see,” Mickoski said. “They are ready for a big change.” If neither party can achieve an outright victory, the winner will most likely have to seek a power-sharing deal with parties representing the country’s large ethnic Albanian minority. The election is being monitored by a team of international observers.  
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Russian police arrested more than 100 demonstrators protesting constitutional reforms that could keep Vladimir Putin in power for 16 more years, a human rights monitoring group said.About 500 people, many wearing face masks branded with the word “no,” marched down a major street Wednesday in the Russian capital.Some waved banners demanding that Putin resign, while others called the Russian president a “thief.”OVD-Info, an independent political monitoring group, reported more than 100 arrests, but police and Russian officials made no comments.“I came here to sign the petition against the constitutional reforms because I am a nationalist,” one protester told Reuters, while a teenage girl blamed Putin for “the poverty in our country.”Russian voters this month approved changes to the constitution that allow Putin to remain president until 2036. Without the amendment, he would have been required to step down in four years.The opposition said the vote to amend the constitution was rigged.Putin has been in control in Russia as president or prime minister for 20 years. 
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A Belarusian human rights group says police detained dozens of demonstrators in the capital and the city of Borisov on Wednesday as protests against the exclusion of two opposition candidates from the presidential ballot roiled the country. In Minsk, thousands of people stood in a 3-kilometer-long (2-mile-long) line outside the national elections commission to sign complaints about the removal of Viktor Babariko and Valery Tsepalko from the ballot for the Aug. 9 election.  The two candidates were seen as the strongest challengers to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a sixth term. Police closed off the center of Minsk, and the human rights group Vesna said at least 20 people were arrested. Another 15 demonstrators were detained in the city of Borisov, the group said.  Belarusian police officers detain a man in Minsk, Belarus, July 15, 2020.Thousands of people also took to the streets of Minsk and other cities in protest on Tuesday, and police said 250 were detained. The central election commission of Belarus allowed five presidential candidates to be named on the ballot, denying spots to Tsepkalo, founder of a successful high-technology park and a former ambassador to the United States, and former banker Babariko. The decision eliminated any serious competition for Lukashenko, who is seeking reelection after already spending a quarter-century in power.  Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, stifling opposition and independent news media. He accused protesters of plotting a revolution and promised to protect the country from one. “We will be defending the country with any lawful means. We will not surrender our country to anyone,” he said. People stand in a line outside the national elections commission to sign complaints about the removal of Viktor Babariko and Valery Tsepalko from the ballot for the Aug. 9 election in Minsk, Belarus, July 15, 2020.Amnesty International on Wednesday condemned mass detentions as provoking violence and violating protesters’ rights in Belarus.  “The police sought to disperse peaceful gatherings, with excessive and unnecessary use of force and in many cases deploying police officers in plainclothes. This provoked violent responses from some protesters who tried to prevent others being arrested and beaten,” Aisha Jung, Amnesty International’s senior campaigner for Belarus, said in a statement.  “However, according to eyewitnesses and widely available video footage, the gatherings remained largely peaceful, and many of those arrested were peaceful protesters,” Jung said.  Belarusian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said Wednesday that police demonstrated “self-restraint and high professionalism” despite “the aggression of certain individuals.” The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement that it won’t be deploying an election observation mission to Belarus due to a “lack of invitation” from the country’s government. 
 
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European heads of state will seek agreement over a proposed $856 billion pandemic recovery fund — and to discuss the bloc’s next multiyear budget — when they meet Friday in Brussels. Neither issue promises to be easily resolved. Backing the recovery package are hard-hit southern countries like Italy and Spain, which would benefit most from their proposed mix of loans, aid and grants. On the other side are the so-called “frugal four” — the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden — which warn spending must be responsible.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin, Germany, July 15, 2020.Europe’s traditional powerhouses, France and Germany, have joined forces to support the package. Even so, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency — expressed uncertainty earlier this week that a deal will be struck at the Brussels summit.”I think Angela Merkel is pretty determined to reach an agreement,” said Rosa Balfour, director of the Carnegie Europe research organization in Brussels. “What she has said to be cautious is that if it’s not this weekend, it will be in the coming weeks.”At stake are many things — European unity, the direction of financial markets, but also lightening up a heavy EU agenda that includes other key issues, such as finishing up Brexit, Britain’s departure from the European Union.Tara Varma, head of the Paris office for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the final funding agreement may look quite different from the original proposal.”But if ultimately they make it, that is quite a breakthrough,” she said. “And honestly, it’s a big move forward for the Germans, to implement the rest of their agenda, which is quite massive.”There are other stumbling blocks. Some researchers warn the rescue fund will siphon green investments needed to meet the EU’s ambitious climate goals. And Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said he may veto any deal linked to rule-of-law criteria.Analyst Balfour said EU leaders might bow to Hungary’s demands — at least this time.”But in the long term, I do think it’s an existential threat to the EU, because the EU is so tied to the fact it is formed by democracies,” she said.The two-day summit takes place amid EU estimates the bloc’s economy will shrink 8.3 percent this year, before growing in 2021.  
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Wednesday defended his government’s COVID-19 response and preparations for a potential second wave of the pandemic as he fielded pointed questions from opposition lawmakers in parliament.In the House of Commons, opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer, referring to a report commissioned by the Government Office for Science, asked Johnson about the report’s recommendation that tracking and tracing of COVID-19 cases be expanded throughout July and August to prepare for a possible winter surge.Johnson said they were preparing for the possibility of a second wave but did not say the government was specifically following the report’s recommendations. Starmer questioned if Britain’s track and trace program was up to the task.The prime minister insisted the track and trace program was “doing fantastic work” and is as equal to or better that any system in the world. He said the program has resulted in 144,000 people across the nation agreeing to isolate themselves to fight the spread of the coronavirus.Starmer noted the most recent statistics show the program is slipping, contacting 70 percent of the people it needs to, while it was at 90 percent just a few weeks earlier. He questioned whether Johnson had read his own government’s report, which set out the worst-case scenario for the pandemic in the months ahead and what to do about it.  Johnson said he was “aware” of the report and the government was taking every reasonable step to prepare.   The prime minister was asked if his government would commit to an independent public inquiry to access its response to the pandemic. He said certainly there would be an inquiry, but the middle of combating the pandemic was not the appropriate time for it.  Britain has reported one of the world’s highest numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths.On Tuesday Britain’s government said it will demand people wear face coverings inside shops.
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Turkey is marking the fourth anniversary of the July 15 failed coup attempt against the government, with ceremonies and events remembering its victims.
 
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, accompanied by civilian “veterans” who fought against the coup, laid a wreath at a memorial in the presidential complex in Ankara and prayed. Erdogan was kicking off a series of events to commemorate the crushing of the coup, including one at parliament. Attendees were wearing masks as the event took place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
On July 15, 2016, factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to try to overthrow Erdogan’s government. A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded as the coup plotters fired on people or bombed parliament and other government buildings. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were also killed.
 
Turkey has blamed U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, for the coup attempt. Gulen rejects the accusation. His network was designated a terrorist group and dubbed Fethullahist Terror Organization or FETO.
 
“We will continue our resolute fight inside our country and abroad until the last FETO member is brought to justice,” Erdogan said at a luncheon for the relatives of “martyrs” and the wounded.
 
The government declared a state of emergency after the coup attempt to crackdown on Gulen’s network.
 
Under emergency powers that were in place for two years, tens of thousands of people were arrested for alleged links to the coup and to Gulen and the trials continue. More than 130,000 people were fired from public service through emergency decrees, among them teachers and police officers.
 
Critics say the arrests and dismissals went too far, targeting all opposition to the government under Turkey’s wide terror laws.
 
Erdogan said more than 100 people with purported links to the cleric were caught abroad and brought back to Turkey to stand trial. Schools, cultural centers and associations set up across the world by Gulen’s transnational network were shuttered or transformed to institutions tied to the Turkish government.
 
The U.S. hasn’t extradited the 79-year-old cleric despite repeated requests.
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Treason in Russia can almost mean anything these days, say rights campaigners.  The high-profile arrest last week of former defense reporter Ivan Safronov on a charge of high treason has prompted an international outcry, but his detention is part of a Kremlin-sponsored “spy mania” that’s seeing the net being cast far and wide for traitors and spies and entangling not only reporters and academic researchers. FILE – Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who works as an aide to the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, is detained on suspicion of treason and escorted before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2020.The number of people charged and convicted of treason and espionage has jumped five-fold in Russia since 2011 — with a noticeable acceleration after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Twelve people were convicted in 2009 compared with 62 last year, according to MediaZona, an opposition website. Of the more than 300 charged for treason or espionage — or for divulging state secrets — since 2011, only one of those accused managed to secure an acquittal. Russia’s FSB intelligence agency is under pressure from President Vladimir Putin to uncover spies, according to political activists and commentators. “Every day, without interruption, brings more searches, detentions, arrests and criminal charges,” said Ilya Klishin, an opposition journalist and one of the organizers of the 2011-’12 protests in Moscow against election fraud.  Instilling terror “Maybe there is no deeper logic behind all of this than the desire to intimidate the population, to instill terror — in the literal sense of the word,” he wrote in an opinion article for the English-language Moscow Times newspaper. “It has become a mechanical morning ritual: Wake up and scan the news to learn whom the authorities came for that day.” He said Russian authorities are targeting largely journalists and historians and that “the rest of us could be next.”  In fact, several people who would classify themselves as “the rest” have been charged with espionage in a series of bizarre arrests the past few years, including of a newly-married couple who have been in jail for a year.  Antonina Zimina was arrested in 2018, then last year her husband, Moscow-based lawyer Konstantin Antonets. Both are accused of blowing an FSB agent’s cover. Antonina’s father told Kommersant newspaper that during their 2015 wedding reception the agent, a friend, drank heavily, gossiped about his work and took photos with other guests. The happy couple sent copies of the wedding snaps to friends. These were posted on social media sites with the agent figuring in the photographs.   It is not clear whether the couple were targeted because of their work, but analysts say that is unlikely as Antonina worked as a consultant for a Russian think tank founded by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin loyalist. FILE – Oksana Sevastidi, center, surrounded by journalists, leaves the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, Russia, March 12, 2017.Other arrests have included the detention of Oksana Sevastidi, a storekeeper from Sochi, in southern Russia, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for sending a text message to a friend in neighboring Georgia about a train she spotted carrying military equipment. Sevastidi served two years in prison before Putin pardoned her amid a public uproar. ‘No spy mania in Russia’ Last week, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed claims that Moscow is in the grip of spy mania or that the rising treason and espionage arrests are a show of force aimed at intimidating critics. “Compared, for example, with the U.S. and the EU, there is no spy mania in Russia,” he said, adding that he was not aware there had been a rise in espionage cases in Russia. FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.He added, though, that foreign intelligence services are operating aggressively in Russia.”It is no secret that foreign intelligence services are not slacking off in Russia, they work day and night against Russian officials, and Russian intelligence officers,” he said, adding Russian counter-intelligence “is not sitting back either.” Russian journalists were shocked by the arrest of Ivan Safronov, now a communications adviser to Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. The thirty-year-old Safronov denies allegations of selling military secrets to the Czech Republic and the United States. For many years he was a highly respected military correspondent for leading Russian newspapers. So far, the authorities have no revealed evidence justifying the treason charge. Ivan Pavlov, the journalist’s lawyer, told independent broadcaster Dozhd that the charges were linked to Safronov’s past reporting and not his job at the space agency, which he joined in May. If convicted, Safronov could be sentenced to 20 years in jail. Since his arrest, dozens of journalists have been arrested protesting his detention, most have been released. “Now Vladimir Putin’s been in power for 20 years and he doesn’t care what anyone thinks,” said one of Safronov’s supporters, journalist Grigory Pasko. He told the BBC: “There are no brakes now; no restraints. They can do what they want, how they want and to whomever they want.” In 1997, Pasko was accused of treason. Safronov’s lawyer, Pavlov, says there appear to be trends when it comes to the FSB targeting. “A few years ago there was a trend [of going after] scientists, they started taking them in droves. Well now, it’s you [journalists],” he told the Meduza, an independent news site.  Echoes of the past The trends, though, start merging, according to Ilya Klishin. He said the Russian intelligence agencies seem even more emboldened since the amending this month of the Russian constitution allowing Putin to remain in office until 2036. They seem suddenly to have “redoubled their activity” and “things feel different.” For some, the rising treason arrests amount to an echo, albeit a faint one, of the blood-drenched 1930s, when communist dictator Joseph Stalin staged show trials of his enemies or those he perceived as potential threats, cowering an already terrified population. The Moscow show trials also helped to intensify nationalist feeling by making Russians feel their country was beleaguered — under threat not just from ideological foes abroad but from fifth-columnists at home as well. 
 
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Hundreds marched in Minsk Tuesday after Belarus’ election officials refused to register two top opposition candidates for the August 9 presidential election. “We are categorically for honest and fair elections,” said one protester. It is unclear how many people were arrested Tuesday. The election commission allowed five candidates to put their names on the ballot but denied spots to opposition candidates Valery Tsepkalo and Viktor Babariko. Both are seen as the only serious competitors to longtime incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko. Tsepkalo is a former Belarusian ambassador to the United States. Election officials claim most of the names on the petition to place him on the ballot are invalid.Police officers detain protesters during a rally against the removal of opposition candidates from the presidential elections in Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, July 14, 2020.Babariko, the former head of a Russia-owned bank, was jailed last month for alleged money laundering, a charge he denies.  European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell says excluding Tsepkalo and Babariko “limits the possibility for the Belarusian people to express their will and already undermines the overall integrity and democratic nature of the elections.” Political observers say leaving the two off the ballot assures Lukashenko of another term. He has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 26 years, stifling free speech and cracking down on the opposition and independent media. Lukashenko has tried to overcome his image as an authoritarian by drifting away from Russia and seeking better ties with the United States and European leaders.  
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Spain’s Catalonia regional government pushed ahead Tuesday with FILE – Migrants who are seeking seasonal work stand in a square in Lleida, Spain, July 2, 2020.”What is proposed today goes far beyond a simple limitation of movement and seriously affects constitutionally recognized rights,” Judge Elena Garcia-Munoz Alarcos said. Quim Torra, president of Catalonia, stood firm and refused to accept the ruling. “We cannot understand that there are bureaucratic obstacles in decisions that are taken for the health and life of citizens,” Torra told a news conference. “It’s a luxury to lose time with legal resolutions. We cannot allow this.” The regional government approved a decree Monday giving it legal backing to enact coronavirus lockdown measures, resulting in Tuesday’s confinement orders. The mixed messages between the judge and the regional government have caused confusion among Lleida’s 160,000 residents, with the city’s mayor, Miquel Pueyo, being unsure as to whether to tell people to stay at home or uphold the judge’s decision. Regardless of the outcome, Lleida’s residents will still be prohibited from leaving the region, as per a travel ban implemented July 4. Everyone in Catalonia is also held to a compulsory mask-wearing mandate put in place in early July. Violations result in a $114 fine. As of Tuesday, Spain had the highest number of coronavirus cases in the European Union, with 65,086 in Catalonia alone, and nearly 256,000 in Spain overall. 
 
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France will soon require people to wear masks in enclosed public places to prevent a rebound in COVID-19 cases, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.After a two-month lockdown starting in March, France began easing restrictions in May, and reopened bars and restaurants in early June. But in recent weeks, France’s virus reproduction rate has crept up to a point each person with COVID-19 is infecting at least one other person. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.”We have some signs that it’s coming back a bit,” Macron said in an interview Tuesday with French broadcasters. “Faced with that, we must anticipate and prepare.”While reopening, France recommended people use masks but did not require them, except on public transit and in public spaces where social distancing is not possible — a requirement that did not apply to shopping in stores.”I want us, in the next few weeks, to make masks compulsory in enclosed public places,” Macron said. “I ask fellow citizens to wear masks as much as possible when they are outside, and especially so when they are in an enclosed space.”Around 30,000 people have died of COVID-19 in France, which has recorded close to 200,000 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard.
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British officials are bracing for fierce Chinese government reaction and possible retaliation to Britain’s decision Tuesday to block Chinese tech giant Huawei from playing any role in the development of Britain’s next generation 5G phone network.
 
Britain’s culture minister, Oliver Dowden, told the House of Commons of the decision to banish Huawei from the network, saying any of the company’s components already installed will have to be removed from the network by 2027.  
 
The major policy U-turn is prompting fears in Downing Street that Britain may become the target of a possible China-sponsored cyberattack similar to one that struck Australia last month amid heightened tensions between Canberra and Beijing.
 
Chinese officials, including Beijing’s ambassador to London, have maintained a chorus of warnings in recent months, threatening serious consequences if Huawei, one of China’s flagship companies, is excluded from participation in developing Britain’s 5G network.
 A Trump victory
 
Tuesday’s announcement is seen by analysts and diplomats as a big win for the Trump administration which, along with other Western allies, has been lobbying Britain for more than a year to block Huawei from Britain’s 5G wireless network on security grounds.  
 
In January, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided to allow Huawei a role in the development of the fast-speed network, limiting the company’s participation to just 35%. But U.S. officials — as well their Australian counterparts — continued to lobby London to block Huawei altogether.  
 
U.S. officials say there is a significant risk that the company, which has close ties to the Chinese intelligence services and was founded by a former Chinese army officer, will act as a Trojan horse for Beijing’s espionage agencies, allowing them to sweep up data.
 
Dowden told British lawmakers: “We have not taken this decision lightly and I must be frank about the decision’s consequences for every constituency in this country; this will delay our roll-out of 5G.” The British government acknowledges the move will delay the rollout of 5G in the by two to three years and increase costs by at least $2.5 billion.  Huawei’s UK headquarters building is pictured in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020.Acting on the guidance of Britain’s National Cyber Security Center, Johnson accepted that U.S. sanctions imposed on Huawei in May had become a “game changer.”  Previously the center, a department within Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ, said the security risks posed by Huawei could be safely managed and mitigated, a view not shared by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the imposition earlier this year of new U.S. restrictions on Huawei altered the picture, the center warned.  
 
Britain’s cybersecurity chiefs concluded the U.S. sanctions, which block Huawei from using components and semi-conductors based on any American intellectual property, will mean the telecom giant will have to use “untrusted” parts, increasing security risks.  
 
Responding to the government’s announcement, Huawei UK spokesperson Ed Brewster said: “This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide.” He added: “Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about U.S. trade policy and not security.”
 
That view was not shared by former British Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has been at the forefront of a campaign to block Huawei. He says that it is impossible to separate Chinese firms like Huawei from the Chinese government. “Across the free world, more and more countries are now recognizing that they face a particular threat now from Chinese government intentions,” he said.  
 Big blow for Huawei
 
Britain’s decision is a big blow for Huawei. Europe accounts for 24% of the company’s sales and the British decision could have knock-on effects elsewhere on the continent, where other governments are currently assessing how much access to give Huawei.  British officials say the decision is bound to worsen already sharply deteriorating relations between the two countries. Chinese officials, including Beijing’s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, have underscored for weeks that there will be repercussions in the event Huawei is excluded.Tensions have been escalating between London and Beijing quickly over a Chinese security clampdown on Hong Kong, a former British colony transferred to China in 1997. To Beijing’s anger, Britain announced Hong Kong residents would be allowed to move to Britain to escape the crackdown. The two governments have clashed also over Britain’s backing of an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus.According to press reports, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison briefed Johnson recently on a massive cyberattack Morrison says was launched on his country last month. The incident, say Australian officials, targeted “government, industry, political organizations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure.”FILE – A sign reading “Boris Stop Huawei” is seen next to the M40 motorway, Tetsworth, Britain, May 1, 2020, in a reference to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.Australia and China’s communist government have been at loggerheads since Australia became the first nation to call for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.Critics have long alleged Huawei has close links to the Chinese Communist government and its equipment could be used for espionage purposes. The company denies the claim, describing Huawei as a private company “fully owned by its employees.”
 An ‘intimate part of the Chinese state’
 
Former British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove disputes that description. On Sunday, he said Huawei “is not an ordinary international telecommunications company. It is an intimate part of the Chinese state.” Dearlove added that a ban on Huawei would amount to “a reset of the whole of our relationship with the Chinese leadership.” He has long lobbied for Huawei’s exclusion, along with dozens of lawmakers from Johnson’s own ruling Conservative party.Last week, Ambassador Liu warned Johnson of the consequences of excluding Huawei, saying at a virtual press conference, “You cannot have a golden era if you treat China as an enemy.” A ban on Huawei, he said, would have many repercussions, including inflicting damage on Britain’s reputation as “a business-friendly, open, transparent environment.” Among other possible consequences, he said, China could disinvest from Britain’s energy sector.Fallout
 
Two studies, by British research groups and set for publication this week, warn that a major disruption in Britain’s trade relations with China sparked by a ban on Huawei would depress the British economy.Cambridge Econometrics says hundreds of thousands of British jobs depend on trade with China and that the relationship directly supports more than 100,000 jobs in sectors such as education and tourism. The study was commissioned by the China-Britain Business Council, a trade promotion association.Clive Hamilton, an Australian academic and co-author of “Hidden Hand,” a groundbreaking new book examining Chinese influence operations and networks in the West, says he expects “Beijing will react angrily” to Huawei’s exclusion.FILE – The British flag and a smartphone with a Huawei and 5G network logo are seen on a PC motherboard in this illustration picture taken Jan. 29, 2020.Hamilton’s book, co-authored with Marieke Ohlberg, a China scholar from Germany, has figured prominently in a fierce political debate raging in Britain about the future of Anglo-Chinese relations. The book has been cited by lawmakers who have been urging for Huawei to be banned from Britain’s 5G network.
 
In the book, Hamilton and his co-author accuse the CCP of intensive grooming of British politicians, business people and academics and warn that “so entrenched are the CCP’s influence networks among British elites that Britain has passed the point of no return, and any attempt to extricate itself from Beijing’s orbit would probably fail.”
 
Asked by VOA whether Tuesday’s decision to exclude Huawei would suggest that such a judgment is premature, Hamilton responded in an email exchange that he “expects the CCP’s powerful friends among Britain’s elites to re-emerge and lobby hard to give priority to economic relations and give way to Beijing on other issues.”  
 Losing friends  
 
Hamilton added, though, that the coronavirus pandemic, and increasing “public awareness of the nature of the CCP regime,” is hardening attitudes towards the Chinese government. “The pandemic, its origins in Wuhan and the early Chinese government handling of it have changed the international dynamic in ways that are still playing out.” He says the Chinese communist government has taken “a big reputational hit in many countries around the world. In Britain, the damage has been compounded by the events in Hong Kong, which looms large in Britain’s political consciousness for historical reasons.”
 
“Elsewhere in Europe, the picture is mixed. China retains warm ties with several nations in East and Central Europe and with Italy and Greece. But it is losing friends in nations like France and Sweden. Germany is the key, and it is wavering,” he added.
 
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