The World Council of Churches, which represents 350 Christian churches, said Saturday it wrote to Turkey’s president expressing “grief and dismay” over his decision to turn the Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque.”Hagia Sophia has been a place of openness, encounter and inspiration for people from all nations and religions” since 1934 when it was turned from a mosque into a museum, the Geneva-based council’s interim general secretary Ioan Sauca said in the letter.The 1,500-year-old UNESCO-listed site was initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral that became a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453.Turkey’s Erdogan Declares Hagia Sophia a Mosque After Court RulingHe brushes aside international warnings not to change status of nearly 1,500-year-old monument revered by Christians, Muslims alikeOn Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the museum, one of the world’s architectural wonders, would be reopened for Muslim worship as a mosque, sparking fury in the Christian community and neighboring Greece.Erdogan’s declaration came after a top Turkish court revoked a 1934 Turkish decision that turned the sixth-century Byzantine monument into a museum.On Saturday, the council’s statement underscored that “by deciding to convert the Hagia Sophia back to a mosque you have reversed that positive sign of Turkey’s openness and changed it to a sign of exclusion and division.”The move would “inevitably create uncertainties, suspicions and mistrust, undermining all our efforts to bring people of different faiths together at the table of dialogue and cooperation,” the statement said.The council warned that the decision could also “encourage the ambitions of other groups elsewhere that seek to overturn the existing status quo and to promote renewed divisions between religious communities.” 
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A jury in San Francisco convicted Russian citizen Yevgeny Nikulin after a series of hacks and cyberthefts eight years ago that targeted major U.S. social-media companies such as LinkedIn and Dropbox.The District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday said Nikulin would be sentenced September 29.Nikulin, 32, faces up to 10 years in prison for each count of selling stolen usernames and passwords, installing malware on protected computers, as well as up to five years for each count of conspiracy and computer hacking.According to U.S. prosecutors, Nikulin in 2012 stole the usernames and passwords of tens of millions of social media users to access their accounts. Some of that data was put up for sale on a Russian hacker forum.Nikulin, who last year was examined by court-ordered psychologists amid concerns about his mental health, had pleaded not guilty to the charges.His lawyer, Arkady Bukh, vowed to appeal the verdict, which he called a “huge injustice.”    Nikulin was detained in the Czech Republic in October 2016 and extradited to the U.S. 17 months later.The move angered Moscow, which had asked Czech authorities to extradite Nikulin to his home country, citing him as a suspect in a $2,000 online theft in 2009.Nikulin’s trial started in California in early March but was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic a week later, when nearly all in-person court hearings were postponed across the United States.
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Turkey’s parliament passed a controversial bill changing the system of bar associations, the official Anadolu news agency reported Saturday, as critics say it will hamper lawyers’ independence.The law — backed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its nationalist ally MHP party — will allow legal professionals to set up their own associations and enforces a minimum membership of 2,000 for any association.While the AKP has said the changes will bring competition to the legal field, lawyers fear the legislation could drastically weaken the power of oversight enjoyed by the associations — some of which are critical of the government.The main opposition party has said it will appeal to Turkey’s top Constitutional Court.Last month, lawyers marched to the capital Ankara in protest — but were initially blocked by the police from entering the city.The government’s plan to allow multiple bar associations appears calculated to divide the legal profession along political lines and diminish the largest associations’ role as a watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement on Wednesday.”Turkey’s prominent bar associations play a key role in defending fair trial rights and scrutinizing human rights at a time when flagrant violation of rights is the norm in Turkey,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. 
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The U.N. Security Council was unable to break a deadlock Friday night that would decide the fate of a cross-border aid operation from Turkey into northwest Syria that assists 3 million people.After two rounds of votes on rival draft resolutions Friday, the humanitarian operation appeared on the verge of shutting down without authorization to continue. Those votes followed a contentious week of multiple rounds of votes, vetoes and negotiations, but no compromise.Friday afternoon, Russia and China vetoed a draft resolution supported by the other 13 council members extending operations at two crossing points for six more months.The council reconvened four hours later to hear the results of a vote on a Russian proposal authorizing one crossing for one year. That failed to garner enough support, with only four votes in favor (Russia, China, South Africa and Vietnam), seven against and four abstentions.After the second failure, diplomats said the council had returned to closed consultations to discuss next steps.The United Nations and aid partners say 3 million people in northwest Syria benefit from assistance that flows through the two crossings, known as Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa.A draft from Germany and Belgium, which holds the Syria humanitarian file on the council, called for a six-month reauthorization of the two crossings until January — a compromise from their earlier request for one year. Diplomats said they were continuing to work to find a solution.Russia and China have repeatedly tried to reduce the number of crossings (from two to one) and the length of the mandate (they prefer only six months), but have found little appetite or support for that among the other 13 council members.“We categorically reject claims that Russia wants to stop humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian population in need,” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, wrote on Twitter Thursday evening. “Our draft is the best proof that these allegations are groundless.”Moscow, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has argued that all aid should go through Damascus to other parts of Syria. The areas served by the operation from Turkey assist people in parts of the country outside government control.The U.N. and humanitarian groups have requested more access and crossing points, not fewer. The U.N. has asked the council to reauthorize use of a crossing from northern Iraq that was used for medical supplies, especially as Syria is now facing COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Russia and China forced the council to close that crossing in January.“Shutting the two northwest crossings could be a virtual death sentence for many of the millions of Syrians who rely on aid to survive,” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “But it’s not too late for Moscow to change course.””Council members have spent months debating how to pressure Russia and ensure aid continues to flow into Syria,” said Ashish Pradhan, senior U.N. analyst at the nonprofit International Crisis Group. “That Moscow has yet again backed them all into a corner and is on the verge of further reducing aid confirms that the Russians are not bothered by other states’ moral attacks and pleas at the U.N.”“With 2.8 million people in need and 2.7 million internally displaced people, needs for those in northwest Syria remain incredibly high,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week. “We have significantly increased the aid delivered via cross-border operations into the area, but much more is needed.”In addition to conflict and COVID-19, Syria faces a crippling financial crisis. Its currency, the pound, is in free fall, commodity prices are skyrocketing, and many Syrians are struggling to afford food, making them even more reliant on humanitarian assistance.  
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With only hours to go before a mandate to deliver aid across the border from Turkey into northwest Syria was due to expire Friday, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution extending that assistance for six more months, threatening to totally shut down the operation. “The [U.N. Security] Council must reach a solution to ensure this critical lifeline for the Syrian people,” Germany and Belgium said in a joint statement after the vote on the resolution they drafted. “Germany and Belgium are committed to this end. We will continue to advocate for extending the legal basis underpinning cross-border assistance.” The council has been in a stalemate after multiple rounds of voting, vetoes and negotiations this week failed to yield a compromise to keep the cross-border aid operation moving. Diplomats said after the failed vote that the council would convene in closed consultations to discuss next steps. The United Nations and aid partners say some 3 million people in northwest Syria benefit from assistance that flows through the two crossings, known as Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa. FILE – A Syrian truck carrying Turkish goods enters from Bab al-Salam point near the city of Azaz, Syria, Aug. 20, 2018.Germany and Belgium’s draft called for a six-month reauthorization of the two crossings until January – a compromise from their earlier request for one year. Russia and China have repeatedly tried to reduce the number of crossings (from two to one) and the length of the mandate (they prefer only six months), but have found little appetite or support for that among the other 13 council members. Russia’s proposalAs the clock continued to run out, Russia tried a final time on Thursday evening to influence the negotiations on Belgium and Germany’s draft resolution, putting forward a rival draft of its own. That text proposes keeping only the Bab al-Hawa crossing, but for one year, instead of six months. “We categorically reject claims that Russia wants to stop humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian population in need,” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, wrote on Twitter Thursday evening. “Our draft is the best proof that these allegations are groundless.” FILE – A Free Syrian Army flag flies at Bab al-Hawa crossing point in Syria, July 8, 2017.Moscow, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has argued that all aid should go through Damascus to other parts of Syria. The areas served by the operation from Turkey assist people in parts of the country outside government control. The U.N. and humanitarian groups have requested more access and crossing points, not fewer. The U.N. has asked the council to reauthorize use of a crossing from northern Iraq that was used for medical supplies, especially as Syria is now facing COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Russia and China forced the council to close that crossing in January. “Shutting the two northwest crossings could be a virtual death sentence for many of the millions of Syrians who rely on aid to survive,” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “But it’s not too late for Moscow to change course.” It was not clear yet whether or when council members might vote on the Russian draft resolution. UN: More aid needed”Council members have spent months debating how to pressure Russia and ensure aid continues to flow into Syria,” said Ashish Pradhan, senior U.N. analyst at the nonprofit International Crisis Group. “That Moscow has yet again backed them all into a corner and is on the verge of further reducing aid confirms that the Russians are not bothered by other states’ moral attacks and pleas at the U.N.” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week: “With 2.8 million people in need and 2.7 million internally displaced people, needs for those in northwest Syria remain incredibly high. We have significantly increased the aid delivered via cross-border operations into the area, but much more is needed.” In addition to conflict and COVID-19, Syria faces a crippling financial crisis. Its currency, the pound, is in free fall, commodity prices are skyrocketing, and many Syrians are struggling to afford food, making them even more reliant on humanitarian assistance.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia open to Muslim prayer as a mosque on Friday after a top court ruled that the building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal.Erdogan made his announcement just an hour after the court ruling was revealed, brushing aside international warnings not to change the status of the nearly 1,500-year-old monument that is revered by Christians and Muslims alike.The United States and church leaders were among those to express concern about changing the status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a focal point of both the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and now one of the most visited monuments in Turkey.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Muslims offer evening prayers outside the Hagia Sophia, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, July 10, 2020.Erdogan, a pious Muslim, threw his weight behind the campaign before local elections last year that dealt a painful blow to his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party.In parliament in Ankara, AK Party members stood and applauded after Erdogan’s decree was read aloud. The Ottomans built minarets alongside the vast domed structure, while inside they added huge calligraphic panels bearing the Arabic names of the early Muslim caliphs alongside the monument’s ancient Christian iconography.The Russian Orthodox Church said it regretted that the court did not take its concerns into account when making its ruling and said the decision could lead to even greater divisions, the Tass news agency reported.’Fracture’ fearedPreviously, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide and based in Istanbul, said converting it into a mosque would disappoint Christians and would “fracture” East and West.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also urged Turkey to maintain the building as a museum.But Turkish groups have long campaigned for Hagia Sophia’s conversion, saying it would better reflect Turkey’s status as an overwhelmingly Muslim country.
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Notre Dame Cathedral will be rebuilt just the way it stood before last year’s devastating fire.No swimming pool or organic garden on the roof of the medieval Paris monument, or contemporary glass spire, or other modern twists. And to stay historically accurate, it will again be built with potentially toxic lead.That’s the verdict reached by French President Emmanuel Macron, the cathedral’s present-day architects and the general in charge of the colossal reconstruction project for one of the world’s most treasured landmarks.Macron, who wants Notre Dame reopened in time for the 2024 Olympics, had initially pushed for a contemporary touch atop the cathedral, prompting eye-catching proposals from architects around the world.Rebuilding of Paris’ Notre Dame Stalled as Pandemic RagesCOVID measures stop reconstruction plans, and one year after it was heavily damaged in a fire, no one knows when the iconic cathedral will be repairedBut Macron came around to the traditionalists’ argument, and approved reconstruction plans for the 12th century monument that were presented Thursday, according to a statement from the state agency overseeing the project.The plan includes recreating the 19th century spire designed by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc that collapsed in the fire and “favors fidelity to the monument’s form and a restoration of the cathedral in its latest state,” the statement said.That means how Notre Dame was on the afternoon of April 15, 2019, before the fire broke out, consumed the roof and threatened the rose-windowed twin towers that keep the cathedral upright.More than a year later, the structure remains unstable. It took nearly a year to clear out dangerous lead residue released in the fire and to get to the point where workers could start removing scaffolding that had been in place for a previous renovation effort. Actual reconstruction won’t start until next year.The reconstruction plan presented Thursday says the project will replicate original materials “to guarantee the authenticity, harmony and coherence of this masterpiece of Gothic art.”  Those materials included tons of lead, which is raising concerns among health and environmental groups. Lead particles released during the fire forced schools in the area to close and prompted a lengthy, painstaking cleanup effort of the cathedral’s historic neighborhood on an island in the center of Paris. 
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The novel coronavirus has reportedly infected 28 Georgian soldiers in the NATO Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.  
 
The infected soldiers have been transported back to their country and are undergoing treatment in a military hospital, local media quoted Georgia’s Ministry of Defense as saying. It described the health condition of the soldiers as “satisfactory.”
 
A spokesman for the non-combatant military alliance in Afghanistan, when contacted for comments Friday, referred VOA to Georgian defense officials to talk about the status of their forces.  
 
“Resolute Support does not confirm individual case numbers. Protection of the force from all threats, to include COVID-19, remains our top priority,” said the spokesman.
 
Georgia is said to be the largest non-NATO contributor to the 38-nation military mission in Afghanistan with around 900 soldiers.   
 
The military alliance has reported several cases of infections since the pandemic reached Afghanistan four months ago without disclosing the nationalities of those suffering from the virus.
 
As of Friday, the official tally of coronavirus cases in Afghanistan stood at about 34,000, with nearly 1,000 deaths.
 
Afghan public health officials, however, have warned that the actual numbers are much higher, citing limited testing capacity, among other challenges facing the war-hit health care system. They anticipate that more than half of the country’s estimated 37 million population could become infected in the coming months.
 
NATO has lately stepped up cooperation with Afghan national security forces to help them fight the pandemic by providing supplies of personal protective medical equipment, including 1.4 million masks, 500,000 gloves and 460,000 gowns.
 
The virus is reportedly sweeping through Afghan military and police forces. The Afghan defense ministry, however, denies any large scale infections among security forces.  
 
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There may be some additional competition for the thousands of U.S. troops that could soon be on their way out of Germany. Poland is already in line to receive some of the 9,500 troops that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to withdraw from Germany following disagreements over defense spending levels. Now, Latvia says it, too, would like to be under consideration. FILE – Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks attends a meeting at NATO headquarters, March 10, 2011.Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said Thursday that his country is willing to host U.S. forces, though he hopes it will not have to be at Germany’s expense. “We are ready to invest, to receive also a certain amount of American troops on Latvian soil,” he said during the virtual European Union Defense Forum. “We are not trying here to punish Germans,” Pabriks added. “We understand there must be a push for Germans to do more, but a presence in Germany is vital for global security.” “We must be capable to react very quickly to these accusations and false news. We should transmit them extremely fast in mass media & also in social media” per #Latvia DefMin @Pabriks
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) FILE – Poland’s President Andrzej Duda listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 24, 2020.Still, European officials are wary, concerned that the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Germany could lead to a reduction of the U.S. presence on the continent. “If I’m asked by anybody if I am ready that Poland receives more U.S. troops in our country, of course, I am ready,” Duda said during his stop in Washington. But he added, “I requested Mr. President that he would not withdraw U.S. forces from Europe, because the security of Europe is very important to me.” Latvian officials, likewise, want to see U.S. forces stay in Europe. “We think that American military presence in Europe actually should be increased and not decreased,” Defense Minister Pabriks said Thursday, suggesting deployments at various possible sites in Northern Europe, the Baltics or Poland could all serve to better contest what Washington’s European allies see as a growing Russian threat. Germany, while not happy with the prospect of losing U.S. forces, appears to be resigned to some reduction of the U.S. military footprint but seems to hold out hope that if troops do leave, they will not go too far. FILE – The propeller of a so-called “raisin bomber” airplane from World War II is seen in front of German and U.S. flags at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, June 24, 2020.”What we are discussing is the security of the (NATO) alliance,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Wednesday. “If they [U.S. troops] were redeploying within Europe, then that would mean that the strong commitment of the United States in the transatlantic partnership and the focus on Europe would remain, and that would be an important message.” U.S. defense officials say that under the current proposal, the military footprint in Europe will become more flexible, enhancing the ability of NATO to push back against Moscow. But some former U.S. military officials warn that any redeployment would be a mistake, especially with intelligence suggesting that Russia may have paid bounties for Taliban militants to target U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. “With respect to Russia, we should suspend any troop withdrawals from Germany,” retired General John Nicholson, the former commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, told lawmakers Thursday. “These troop withdrawals play into Russian desires to undermine and weaken NATO,” he said. “If carried out despite these bounties, this will be viewed as a sign of American weakness in the face of Russian threats.”
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The Greek government is experiencing significant resistance as it seeks to pass a new law that would restrict the right to protest. Violence erupted Thursday as an estimated 10,000 people gathered outside parliament in Athens to protest the new bill as it went to a preliminary vote.  According to The Associated Press, a group of protesters hurled gasoline bombs at riot police as the officers attempted to contain the rally with tear gas and flash grenades.In total, more than 40 demonstrations were held across the country, many of them backed by a leading labor union affiliated with the opposing Greek Communist Party.  The largest public sector union, ADEDY, staged a walkout Wednesday and said it supported Thursday’s protests.  “We’ll do everything possible to make sure it won’t pass,” ADEDY member Odysseas Ntrivalas told Reuters. Protests have plagued the Mediterranean nation for more than a decade, starting in late 2009 with the onset of the worldwide economic crisis. Syntagma Square outside parliament became the scene of massive anti-austerity protests that continued during Greece’s three internationally backed bailouts and subsequent recovery period.  Schoolteachers dressed in black take part in a demonstration against a new protest law in Athens,  July 9, 2020.Despite falling turnout, the center-right government led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis alleges that there were nearly two protests a day in May and June, and such actions disrupt economic productivity.  Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis told lawmakers that the majority of Greek citizens wanted the demonstrations to be regulated.  The proposed legislation mandates restrictions on demonstrations and reserves the right of authorities to ban protests if they are deemed a threat to public safety. The bill also holds organizers responsible for any harm or damage caused by participants.  Greeks prize their right to protest, even going to so far as to include it in their national constitution. Many also believe that abuse of power by the political elite played a pivotal role in the Greek debt crisis, while older citizens fear the return of totalitarian policies that haunted country while it was under the control of a military junta from 1967 to 1974. 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a growing backlash over plans to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, the former Greek Orthodox cathedral that is now a museum, into a mosque. Once eastern Christianity’s greatest church, it was turned into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century and then a museum in the 1930s. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul on the latest battle over Hagia Sophia.Camera: Berke Bas   Produced by: Jon Spier 
 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a growing backlash over his plans to turn Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque.The sixth-century Byzantine cathedral served as a mosque for 400 years before it was turned into a museum. More  recently, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.Throughout the Hagia Sophia’s 1,500-year history, its status has reflected the rise and fall of empires.For nearly a millennium, the Hagia Sophia was eastern Christendom’s greatest church. But in 1453 when Ottoman forces led by Sultan Fatih Mehmet conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, his first act on entering the city was to pray in the cathedral and declare it a mosque.In 1935, the founders of Turkey’s secular state turned the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum as a symbol of modernity. (Dorian Jones/VOA)In 1935, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turned the building into a museum symbolizing Turkey’s new status as a modern Western-style secular society.  For 80 years, symbols of Islam and Christianity have harmoniously coexisted in this architectural marvel, once the largest building in the Byzantine empire.Now, Erdogan is vowing to turn it back into a mosque.Political interestsThe Hagia Sophia’s reconversion has long been a demand of the most ardent elements of Erdogan’s religious and nationalist base.Last year’s celebration of the Muslim conquest of the city saw hundreds of people praying outside the Hagia Sophia as part of a campaign to convert the building into a mosque.Turkey’s Birlik Foundation says more 2 million people have signed its petition calling for the Hagia Sophia to be made a mosque again.Mehmet Alacaci, chief executive of Turkey’s Birlik Foundation, says the campaign to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque is about reclaiming an important symbol of religious identity. (Dorian Jones/VOA)”The question of its reopening to prayers has been in the heart of Muslims since it was closed to prayers and converted to a museum,” said Mehmet Alacaci, chief trustee of the Birlik Foundation.”The will and bequest of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who conquered this city, is to have Hagia Sophia as a mosque. And we are in the spirit of taking back this inheritance and property of our ancestors,” he added.Erdogan has long flirted with the Hagia Sophia’s conversion through his nearly 20 years in power, first as a prime minister and then as president.”You know, they changed Hagia Sophia from mosque to museum a while ago. God willing, after the election, we will change Hagia Sophia’s name from museum to mosque,” Erdogan said last year during a campaign rally ahead of  local elections.With the economy hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the president’s ruling AKP Party poll ratings sliding, Erdogan needs to consolidate his base quickly and appears ready to push ahead with Hagia Sophia’s conversion.Professor Istar Gozaydin, an expert on religion and the state, says the move to convert the Hagia Sophia to a mosque is an effort to consolidate the president’s religious and nationalist base amid sliding support for his AKP Party. (Dorian Jones/VOA)”The AKP is suffering in current times. In order to change the agenda in Turkey, they need a [new] subject to be worked on,” said Istar Gozaydin, a professor and expert on religion and the state. “To convert it into a mosque apparently means something for the grassroots of AKP in Turkey and supporters abroad,”  she said.But the gesture that Erdogan is offering to his base is coming at a high price.Protests”The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque will disappoint millions of Christians around the world,” warned the leader of the 300 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.”The Hagia Sophia, which, due to its sacredness, is a vital center where East is embraced with the West, will fracture these two worlds,” he added.Bartholomew, who is based in Istanbul,  aware of the delicate situation facing Turkey’s small remaining Orthodox community, usually refrains from openly criticizing Erdogan.The Ecumenical Patriarchate is receiving growing international support in its fight to avert a transformation of the landmark. The United States urged Ankara not to change the Hagia Sophia’s status.”We urge the government of Turkey to continue to maintain the Hagia Sophia as a museum, as an exemplar of its commitment to respect the faith traditions and diverse history that contributed to the Republic of Turkey, and to ensure it remains accessible to all,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last Wednesday.Russia, despite its competing interests in Turkey, voiced concerns similar to those of the United States.A nationwide petition calling for the Hagia Sophia to be turned into mosque has been launched. In Sanliurfa, people queue to add their names. (Birlik Foundation)”Hagia Sophia, in addition to its tourism value, has a very deep sacred spiritual value,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week.Protests have also come from the government of neighboring Greece.Erdogan defiantThe Turkish leader has dismissed all international criticism.”Accusations against our country about Hagia Sophia directly target our sovereign rights,” shot back Erdogan last week.A recent opinion poll found most Turkish respondents backed the Hagia Sophia’s conversion. However, the same survey also recorded a larger number of people viewing the issue as an attempt to distract voters from the current economic malaise.There are now growing concerns for the Hagia Sophia’s magnificent interior. Large mosaics depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary and Byzantium rulers adorn the massive walls and ceilings of the onetime cathedral.”It’s not practical, and it’s illogical to convert into a mosque again,” said professor Zeynep Ahunbay, who spent 25 years working on the Hagia Sophia’s restoration and preservation.She alluded to Islam’s traditional ban on divine images.”When you pray, you don’t want to be in the presence of some images, which can be considered like icons, et cetera. It is against the Islamic creed,” she said.”And what will happen? How will [they] be covered during prayers?  Can you imagine a curtain hanging over the mosaics? I think it’s not acceptable.”WATCH: Erdogan Pushes to Reconvert Hagia Sophia into Mosque Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 41 MBOriginal | 227 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe judges who sit on Turkey’s high court, who invariably accommodate Erdogan’s wishes, are due in the coming days to rule on whether a conversion of the building would be legal. Turkish newspaper columnists close to Erdogan are predicting the court will decide in the president’s favor.There is a growing expectation in Turkey that it may not be long before Hagia Sophia’s minarets rejoin the chorus of surrounding mosques’ calls to prayer.
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Behidin Piric never had the chance to know his maternal grandfather.In 2009, the St. Louis, Missouri, resident received a phone call from his native Bosnia informing him that his grandfather’s body had been found in a mass grave with his hands tied behind the back with barbed wire. He had two bullet wounds in the back of his head.“I had the task of telling my mother who came home from work that they found her father, so that was a pretty tough thing to do,” said the 27-year-old American student.Piric’s grandfather was one of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim civilians, mostly men,  who were killed in the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian war.“The genocide began in Srebrenica in July of 1995 and was a catastrophic uprooting of multiple generations of Bosnian Muslim families,” said Ida Sefer, president of the Chicago-based Bosnian-American Genocide and Education center, in an e-mail interview with VOA.She said Bosnian Serbs backed by neighboring Serbia used torture, sexual assault, forced impregnation, concentration camps, rape camps, ethnic cleansing and murder against the Bosnian Muslim population in the three years after Bosnia declared its independence from the former state of Yugoslavia in 1992.A woman prays at the memorial cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica, July 7, 2020. Over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims perished in 10 days of slaughter after the town was overrun by Serb forces in the closing months of the 1992-95 fratricidal war.The International Criminal Court in The Hague convicted former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2017. Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic was convicted in 2016 for his war crimes and role in perpetrating the genocide.Officials from the Serbian Embassy in Washington did not respond to repeated requests for comment.July 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. Decades later, survivors and other Bosnians still have a difficult time speaking about the calamities they went through.“We will never heal. Our loss is so huge, so enormous that we will never heal, especially my generation,” said Senada Pargan, a Srebrenica survivor and one of the more than 21,000 Gravestones are lined up at the memorial cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica, Bosnia, July 7, 2020.The purpose of the initiative is to record the culture and experiences of Bosnian genocide survivors through interviews, books, letters, and photographs.The Bosnian war was already underway when Piric was born in Srebrenica in 1992. His earliest memory is of leaving Tuzla, the third-largest city in Bosnia, with his parents and brothers after the war ended with the signing of the Dayton Accords by the presidents of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia in November 1995.“I remember being in the back of the U.N. truck and seeing soldiers and a bunch of other people,” he recalled. “After that, I have a lot of memories of the rebuilding of the country – the tensions that were still there in the city where I lived after the war. There was still a lot of religious tension, ethnic tensions.”Piric’s father was wounded during the war when a mine exploded, damaging his legs while he was farming potatoes. Besides his grandfather, Piric also lost his maternal grandmother, an uncle, and “countless cousins.”Like Pargan, he said that he and his parents still cannot heal from the tragic events at Srebrenica even though 25 years have gone by.“When I go back to Srebrenica to the memorial, it’s a strange feeling,” he said. ”There’s a feeling of dread. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I get goose bumps, so it’s difficult.”Retelling the story of Srebrenica to future generations and never forgetting all those who were lost has become a mission for the Bosnian community in the United States, especially as some Bosnian Serb officials continue to deny that a systematic genocide occurred during the war.“Remembering the 8,372 victims and their families during this time is an important part of preventing genocide in the future, meaning uplifting the voices of the survivors,” Sefer said.“Listening to survivor testimonials, reading the stories of their loved ones, humanizing the people who were murdered, is all a part of remembering.”
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Johnny Depp denied assaulting ex-wife Amber Heard on a private Caribbean island and during a furious rampage in Australia in a third day of evidence Thursday in the actor’s libel suit against a U.K. tabloid newspaper that called him a “wife-beater.”
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that said he’d physically abused Heard. He strongly denies the allegation.
Under cross-examination by The Sun’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, Depp depicted a volatile relationship with Heard, during a period when he was trying to kick drugs and alcohol, and sometimes lapsing. He said he came to feel he was in a “constant tailspin” but denied being violent.
Depp rejected Heard’s claim that he subjected her to a “three-day ordeal of assaults” in March 2015 in Australia, where Depp was filming the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.
“I vehemently deny it and will go as far as to say it’s pedestrian fiction,” he said.
He said his relationship with Heard was a “constant barrage of insults and demeaning footnotes and accusations of things that never happened.”
Depp and Wass sparred over disputed details of the Australia episode, which ended up with the couple’s rented house being trashed and Depp’s fingertip being severed to the bone.
Depp accuses Heard of cutting off his fingertip by throwing a vodka bottle at him. She denies being in the room when the digit was severed.
According to Heard, Depp snorted cocaine, swigged Jack Daniels from the bottle, smashed bottles, screamed at Heard, smashed her head against a refrigerator, threw her against a pingpong table and broke a window.
“These are fabrications,” he said.
He denied taking drugs but agreed that the couple had argued and at one point he “decided to break my sobriety because I didn’t care anymore. I needed to numb myself.”  
Depp agreed with the lawyer that the house was “wrecked” after the couple’s argument. The court was shown photographs of graffiti-covered mirrors, which Depp acknowledged he’d written on by dipping his bloody fingertip in paint.
But he said Heard was responsible for most of the damage to the house.
“That is completely untrue,” Wass said.
“Thank you, but it’s not,” Depp replied.
Wass also alleged that Depp had lashed out at Heard during an attempt to break an addiction to the opioid Roxicodone on his private island in the Bahamas in 2014.  
Wass said that at the time Depp praised Heard’s efforts to help him get clean. The lawyer read from a message Depp sent to Heard’s mother, saying “your daughter has risen far above the nightmarish task of taking care of this poor old junkie” and speaking of her “heroism.”
Heard alleges that Depp became violent towards her. He denied physical violence, but said Heard’s claim that he was “flipping” and “screaming” might be accurate.
“I remember that I was in a great deal of pain and uncontrollable spasms and such. … So flipping could be a word that was correct,” he said.
“I was not in good shape. It was the lowest point I believe I’ve ever been in in my life.”
Depp accused Heard of telling “porkie pies” — slang for lies — about his behavior. He acknowledged striking out at objects, saying it was better than “taking it out on the person that I love.”
Depp has acknowledged that he may have done things he can’t remember while he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. But he denied he could have been physically abusive and not remember it.
“There were blackouts, sure, but in any blackout there are snippets of memory,” Depp said.
The Sun’s defense relies on a total of 14 allegations by Heard of Depp’s violence between 2013 and 2016.
The case is shining a light on the tempestuous relationship between Depp and Heard, who met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard, a model and actress, filed for divorce the following year and obtained a restraining order against Depp on the grounds of domestic abuse. The divorce was finalized in 2017.
While neither Heard, 34, nor 57-year-old Depp is on trial, the case is a showdown between the former spouses, who accuse each other of being controlling, violent and deceitful during their marriage.
Wass read the court an email to Depp that Heard had composed in 2013 but never sent, saying he was “like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Half of you I love madly, and the other half scares me.”
Depp accused Heard of making up “hoax” abuse claims. He has acknowledged heavy drinking and drug use, but said Heard’s claim that drugs and alcohol made him a monster was “delusional.”
He also denied claims he hit Heard when she laughed at one of his tattoos, dangled her Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, out a car window and threatened to put the dog in a microwave.
Depp acknowledged having a “rather skewed” sense of humor and said the microwave comment was a running joke because the dog was so tiny.
Heard is attending the three-week trial and is expected to give evidence later.
Depp is also suing Heard for $50 million in the U.S. for allegedly defaming him in a Washington Post article about domestic abuse. That case is due to be heard next year. 
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Kosovo President Hashim Thaci will go to The Hague on Monday to be interviewed by international war crimes prosecutors.Thaci was a top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought a guerrilla war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s. He announced his appearance on his Facebook page on Wednesday.A special international court has indicted Thaci and other former fighters for alleged war crimes by the KLA, including murder, kidnapping and torture. Thaci has denied the charges.  “While my compatriots as well as me will face international justice with dignity and integrity, I call upon you to stand united in dealing with the challenges that our country is facing,” he said on Facebook. A pretrial judge in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers has yet to decide whether to put Thaci and the others on trial or throw out the case.Thaci has told Kosovars that if he is tried, he will “will immediately resign as your president and face the accusations.”Thaci’s indictment forced the cancellation of last month’s White House peace talks between Kosovar and Serbian leaders. Serbia has refused to recognize an independent Kosovo. NATO peacekeepers remain in Kosovo to prevent tension between the two sides from exploding into violence.
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There is growing speculation that Britain may be about to reverse course and ban the Chinese firm Huawei from its rollout of 5G mobile telecoms technology.  A move by the United States to ban U.S. companies from selling crucial microchips to Huawei appears to have changed the calculation in London. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Beijing has warned Britain against what it calls ‘making China into an enemy.’Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has retracted his decision to reimpose a coronavirus curfew and has urged people to stop attending anti-government rallies after a violent clash between protesters and police.The president said Wednesday that new measures could still include shortened hours for nightclubs and penalties for those not wearing masks.On Tuesday, Vucic said at a news conference he would implement a curfew Friday, “probably” to run from 6 p.m. until 5 a.m. on July 13. The president added that gatherings would be restricted to five people starting Wednesday, citing a rising number of coronavirus cases in the country and hospitals running at full capacity.Vucic’s backtracking Wednesday came after a protest by thousands Tuesday night outside the parliament building in Belgrade. Police fired tear gas and beat demonstrators, while protesters retaliated by throwing stones and bottles at officers, some chanting for the resignation of the president.The clash left 17 protesters and 43 police injured and 23 protesters arrested, according to police director Vladmir Rebic. More protests were reported Wednesday.Vucic said foreign secret services were behind the protests by “right-wing and pro-fascist demonstrators.” He did not name specific intelligence agencies and stood by the police’s handling of the protests.”We will never allow the destabilization of Serbia from within and abroad,” he said.The president’s critics have accused him of lifting previous lockdown measures to hold parliamentary elections on June 21, which Vucic’s Progressive Party won by a landslide — accusations the president has denied.Critics also blame Vucic for the swell in infection rates, as the government permitted sports matches, religious festivities, parties and private gatherings to resume after lifting state of emergency restrictions on May 6.As of Wednesday afternoon EDT, Serbia had 17,076 reported cases of the coronavirus infection and 341 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
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Russian journalists have launched a petition demanding treason allegations against a former reporter be made public, fearing the case is bogus and that media are being increasingly persecuted.   Ivan Safronov, a former newspaper journalist working at Russia’s space agency since May, was detained by security agents outside his flat on Tuesday and accused of passing military secrets to the Czech Republic. He denies the charges.   At a closed hearing, the court ordered Safronov to be held in custody for two months. One of his lawyers, Ivan Pavlov, said the hearing was unusual as the state investigator had not presented any evidence. Ivan Safronov stands inside a defendants’ cage before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2020. “Now they’ve taken Ivan Safronov,” read the petition circulated online by journalists at investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta and signed by nearly 7,500 people.   The petition said the case should be declassified and the allegations made public, adding: “Otherwise it’s fake. The evidence is hidden when it is fake.”   The Kremlin noted what it described as some emotional media reactions, but said those outlets had not seen the evidence, which would be reviewed in court. It said it had seen no signs of a campaign of pressure against reporters.   Several journalists were photographed staging one-person pickets in various Russian cities on Wednesday, demanding Safronov be freed. Dozens of people, including journalists, were detained by Moscow police on Tuesday.   On Monday, a court in the city of Pskov found another journalist guilty of justifying terrorism. She denied the charge.   Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva charged with publicly justifying terrorism arrives for a court hearing in Pskov, Russia, July 6, 2020.Mediazona, a private media outlet, wrote that it looked like law enforcement agencies were trying to “force us to stay silent.”   FILE – Pyotr Verzilov gestures during a court hearing in Moscow, July 16, 2018.Police opened a criminal case this week against Mediazona’s publisher, Pyotr Verzilov, for failing to declare dual Canadian citizenship. He is an anti-Kremlin activist.   The U.S. Embassy’s spokeswoman wrote on Twitter it was “starting to look like a concerted campaign against #MediaFreedom.”   “Mind your own business,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry responded. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday he takes full responsibility for the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, two days after appearing to blame workers in health care facilities for the deaths of residents there.Johnson was responding in parliament to opposition Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer, who quoted the prime minister regarding deaths in British care homes.  Johnson said, “too many care workers did not follow procedures the way they should have.” Starmer said front-line care workers took great offense at the remark and called on Johnson to apologize.The prime minister responded by saying the last thing he wanted to do was blame care workers or for anyone to think he was blaming them and said they have done “an outstanding job.” He said, “When it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened.”Johnson added that no one knew when the pandemic began that COVID-19 would spread asymptomatically the way it does, and procedures changed.Starmer said Johnson’s explanation was not an apology and said by refusing to do so, Johnson “rubs salt in the wound” of the frontline workers he says he admires so much.  Johnson responded by calling for bipartisan measures to invest in and reform Britain’s care home sector.
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Antimatter.It’s not just the stuff of science fiction.  The physicists working at CERN – officially the European Organization for Nuclear Research – create it almost every day as part of their efforts to find out what the universe is made of and how it works. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, CERN is a consortium of 23 countries and includes scientists and workers from many more.Their research lab is a ring-shaped underground tunnel, 27 kilometers around, that crisscrosses the border between Switzerland and France. In the tunnel lies the Large Hadron Collider, where protons – one of the building blocks of atoms – are made to crash into one another with incredible force, creating, among other elements, antimatter. But just because physicists can make antimatter doesn’t mean they understand everything about it yet. Antimatter is as old as the universe, part of its original creation, in an event often referred to as the “Big Bang.” Ludivine Ceard, physicist with the CMS Collaboration, gestures at the Compace Muon Solinoid – one of the experiments at CERN, in Geneva, looking for the tiniest particles of matter. (Courtesy Robert Gumm.)Ludivine Ceard, a physicist with CERN, discussed one of the theories behind the research.“We have this theory that says that right after the Big Bang, there was creation in equal amount between matter and antimatter,” she said.“In principle, if the difference between the two is only the charge, they should have just recombined and left nothing but radiation; however, we are here. I’m talking with you right now. So it means that at some point, matter took over the antimatter, and this must be because there are some differences between matter and antimatter that we don’t know about,” Ceard said.Searching for those differences is one of the tasks for the people at the Compact Muon Solenoid, or CMS, one of four main experiment sites around the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.  A muon is one of the so-called elementary particles, one with no smaller components. It is similar to an electron, but heavier. And while it is very, very tiny, the machine built to study it is large. A CMS staff member walking near the structure when VOA visited was dwarfed by the apparatus designed to study the muon.A cutaway illustration of the tube carrying the proton beams around the Large Hadron collider. The tube has been removed for maintenance. (Courtesy Robert Gumm)To create muons and antimatter, packets of protons race around a circular track in the LHC in two beams, one traveling clockwise and one counterclockwise near the speed of light. When the physicists are ready, the beams are focused and made to collide at just the right spot. Rende Steerenberg heads the group in charge of seeing those collisions happen. “On either end of the experiments we will switch on focusing magnets so that the beam squeezes into a small dimension and therefore the probability of collision increases,” he said.Even so, with 100 billion protons in a packet moving in one direction, and another 100 billion protons moving the other way, only 50 protons are likely to collide.Right now, the probability of a collision is zero – because the collider and the experiments around it are in the midst of a two-year shutdown for maintenance and upgrades – which happens every three years. You might think that would leave the scientists feeling frustrated, but you would be wrong. Patricia McBride, physicist with Fermilab, and deputy spokesperson of the CMS Collaboration in Geneva. (Courtesy Robert Gumm)The deputy spokesperson of the CMS Collaboration, Patricia McBride from Fermilab in the U.S., says what we might think of as down time is anything but.“I would say that for us it’s an opportunity. It’s also one of the busiest times for us because not only are we looking at the data that we’ve collected from the LHC from the last two rounds, but we’re looking at ways of making the detector better, repairing things, putting in new detectors, and preparing for the future runs which the experiment will be running until we hope till 2035,” she said.The collider was built in 10 years. Shortly after going into operation, it immediately made its predecessor, the Tevatron, a circular collider at the United States’ Fermilab in Illinois, obsolete. The Tevatron shut down in September 2011, not long after the LHC created its first particle collisions. But the researchers at Fermilab weren’t devastated by their eclipse. In fact, they helped build the new collider, and when it opened, they presented the new team with a baton – like those used in relay races – to symbolize the continuation of their research efforts. The CMS collaboration includes some 4,000 Scientists from more than 50 countries from across Europe, India, China, South Korea, Egypt, other parts of the Middle East and Russia.The discoveries and developments made at CERN are already helping to transform fields as diverse as nuclear waste disposal, medical testing, detection of art forgeries and efforts to disrupt financial markets. Technologies developed for CERN are also finding uses in optimizing farm irrigation, in creating sensors that detect water pollution, and in speeding up machine learning, to create better software for self-driving vehicles. And while the scientists love when the experiments confirm their predictions, they also love it when things don’t turn out as expected – because that might be saying something very fundamental about antimatter – and how the universe is put together. 
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There are growing calls for Britain to also enact sanctions against human rights abusers in China, after the first such measures were imposed against dozens of individuals from Russia and Saudi Arabia. The first so-called ‘Magnitsky’ sanctions were announced Monday following years of campaigning by friends and family of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer killed in 2009. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the British capital is a center for global finance and travel – so campaigners hope the sanctions will have a substantial impact.Camera: Henry Ridgwell   
 
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Dutch police announced Tuesday they arrested six men after discovering shipping containers that had been converted into a makeshift prison and sound-proofed “torture chamber.”  In their statement, officials said they discovered seven converted sea shipping containers in a warehouse in Wouwse Plantage, a small village in the southwestern part of the Netherlands, close to the border with Belgium.  Law enforcement authorities released video Tuesday showing a special police unit opening the shipping containers to reveal a specially rigged dentists’ chair, along with tools that included pliers, scalpels and handcuffs.  Police say the discoveries were originally made last month after investigating leads generated by data from encrypted telephones used by criminals that were cracked recently by French police. Detectives in Britain and the Netherlands have already arrested hundreds of suspects based on the encrypted messages.The police said they were tipped off by messages from an EncroChat phone that included photos of the container and dentist’s chair with belts attached to the arm and foot supports. They arrested six men June 22, on suspicion of crimes including planning kidnappings and serious assault.  The messages called the warehouse the “treatment room” and the “ebi,” a reference to a top security Dutch prison. Police said the messages also revealed identities of potential victims, who were warned and went into hiding.Dutch authorities said last week that their investigation, codenamed 26Lemont, based on millions of messages from the EncroChat phones, had led to the arrest of more than 100 suspects and the seizure of more than 8,000 kilograms of cocaine and 1,200 kilograms of crystal meth, as well as the dismantling of 19 synthetic drug labs and the seizure of dozens of firearms.
 
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The United States is not the only country watching anxiously as coronavirus cases spike.Britain is poised to shutter individual towns in the event of a rise in confirmed cases. And the government has already locked down the English town of Leicester, where textile factories may be behind an alarming jump in infections, just as the rest of the country celebrated the easing of restrictions.Serbia reimposed a lockdown Friday as cases began to mount. Last month, neighboring Croatia reinstituted mandatory two-week self-isolation for travelers arriving from other Balkan countries. Bulgaria extended its state of emergency until July 15 and has made mask-wearing mandatory inside stores and public buildings.Deputy Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos, right, greets the 25 unaccompanied refugee children as they prepare to board a plane to Lisbon, Portugal at Athens International Airport, July 7, 2020.Following new outbreaks, Portugal renewed coronavirus restrictions on the capital, Lisbon, and the Spanish government has moved quickly with restrictions on parts of northeast Spain to try to tamp down local spikes.Some government officials say the biggest problem is persuading the public to observe social distancing rules and wearing masks. The easing of lockdowns and the reopening of economies do not mean caution should be jettisoned, they say.  Underlining their appeals for people to remain cautious and vigilant is an exasperation with egregious recklessness, prompting officials in some countries to question whether their citizens have the discipline or sense of civic responsibility to be trusted.In Britain, police expressed their frustration with maskless crowds converging outside bars and restaurants in some towns, including in central London. Last Saturday, the first day that bars reopened in England after the coronavirus shutdown, police described the close-quarters drinking and shoulder-to-shoulder socializing as “absolute madness.”“A predictably busy night confirmed what we knew, alcohol and social distancing is not a good combination,” tweeted John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales.Sgt. Richard Cooke of the West Midlands police tweeted, “Just got home after a long shift, late shift peppered with pub fights, domestic violence & drunken, drugged up fools. If today was anything to go by the second wave won’t be long in the making!”People sit and drink, outside a pub on the south bank of river Thames, as the capital is set to reopen after the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, in London, July 4, 2020.Rafal Liszewski, a store manager in the London district of Soho, told reporters that on Saturday, “Everything got out of control. And by 8 to 9 p.m., it was a proper street party, with people dancing and drinking. Barely anyone was wearing masks, and nobody respected social distancing,” he said. Liszewski added, “To be honest, with that many people on one street, it was physically impossible” (to social distance).Beaches have also seen swarms of people. In the English coastal town of Bournemouth, Mayor Vikki Slade said recently she was “absolutely appalled at the scenes witnessed on our beaches.”Britain has not been alone in seeing months of lockdown giving way to impromptu parties, illicit raves and illegal parties, hastily organized on social media and held in parks and industrial estates. In Portugal, a ban in Lisbon on gatherings of more than five people was instituted amid reports of illicit parties attracting thousands of young revelers. Portugal had been hailed as one of Europe’s coronavirus success stories. The government’s swift response was credited with keeping the country’s death toll to well under 2,000. But in recent weeks, cases have soared. Parties have proven fertile for the virus — 76 new cases were linked to a birthday celebration in The Algarve.“After doing everything right, we’re not going to ruin it now,” Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said, as he banned drinking in public places and prohibited restaurants from serving alcohol after 8 p.m. Germany, France and Spain have all been worried about block parties and raves.Visitors watch oil on canvas of 1807 entitled Le Sacre de Napoleon by Jacques Louis David, at the Louvre Museum, in Paris, July 6, 2020.The World Health Organization warned that around 30 European countries have reported new case surges in the past two weeks, and epidemiologists said the trajectory is alarming in 11 countries.Spanish officials, who recently fined Belgium’s Prince Joachim $11,700 after he broke the country’s quarantine rules to attend a party in southern Spain, fear that people will not be able to resist the allure of the country’s ingrained culture of summer fiestas — as hundreds did recently in a spontaneous gathering in the Menorcan city of Ciutadella to mark the day of local Saint Joan.Along with officials, infectious disease experts blame signs of a resurgence on the negligence of the public, with too many people ignoring orders to wear masks and keep their distance. But critics in several European countries fault officials, saying governments have been giving mixed signals in their eagerness to restart economies and end lockdowns, and have issued at times contradictory and confused instructions. They say governments seem to be positioning themselves to blame the public for a coronavirus resurgence.David King, a former chief scientific adviser to the British government, has criticized the lockdown easing as over-hasty. “We need to look at the fastest route out of COVID-19, and that is not the current route,” he said. 
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France’s newly appointed government gets down to work this week facing big challenges, including coronavirus and the economic crisis — not to mention general elections in less than two years.
 
The new government takes office just over a week after President Emmanuel Macron’s Republic on the Move party fared poorly in the second round of local elections. France’s new prime minister Jean Castex arrives at the Elysee Palace for the weekly cabinet meeting, in Paris, July 7, 2020.Heading it is Prime Minister Jean Castex, a little known former mayor from the Pyrenees. He earned the title of “Mr. Deconfinement” after managing France’s emergence from the coronavirus lockdown.  He replaces the popular Edouard Philippe, a possible challenger to Macron in the next election.  “President Macron has one goal: to fight the recession, to transform the country, to be in a better shape than now for the next presidential election,” said Ulysse Gosset, a political commentator for France’s BFMTV.“The job of the new prime minister is to execute the orders from Macron,” added Gosset. “He has to deal with the crisis. And no more. Macron doesn’t want a prime minister who could be a competitor like former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was.”  
Making more waves is the new interior minister, Gerard Darmanin. At 35, he’s the youngest interior minister of France’s Fifth Republic. He takes over at a time when the police force is demoralized and faces allegations of racism and brutality.  Newly appointed French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin arrives to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 7, 2020.Darmanin himself faces a preliminary investigation into a rape accusation, which Macron’s office says didn’t pose an obstacle to his appointment.  Police unions have offered a muted reaction to their new boss. But some feminists protested in front of the Elysee presidential palace.  New Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti is also controversial. He’s earned a reputation as a pugnacious lawyer defending Corsican nationalists, African politicians and Wikileaks founder Julien Assange. One judges union leader slammed his appointment as a “declaration of war” against the judiciary.  Macron’s reshuffled government faces heavy pressure to take environmental action after the Greens Party surged in municipal elections.Barbara Pompili, newly appointed French Minister for the Ecological Transition, arrives to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 7, 2020.The new minister for ecological transition, Barbara Pompili, co-founded an environmental party, and was a former secretary of state for biodiversity. But she isn’t a big name, and she’ll face close scrutiny in how she handles emissions reduction and other green goals.  
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