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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The British government has banned China’s Huawei telecommunications equipment company from playing a limited role in Britain’s new high-speed mobile phone network.Britain’s Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said the country’s telecommunications operators have until 2027 to remove Huawei’s equipment that is currently used in Britain’s 5G network.Britain’s decision could have wide-ranging implications for relations between the two countries and signals that Huawei may be losing support in the West. Dowden said the ban was imposed after the U.S. threatened to cancel an information-sharing deal due to concerns Huawei’s equipment could allow the Chinese government to penetrate British networks.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed in January to give Huawei a limited role in Britain’s high-speed network, but the decision sparked a diplomatic disagreement with the U.S. 
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Several Azeri soldiers have been killed and Armenian soldiers and police wounded in border clashes, both countries said Monday, each accusing the other of encroaching on its territory. The two former Soviet republics have long been in conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh, although the latest clashes occurred around the Tavush region in northeast Armenia, some 300km (190 miles) from the mountainous enclave. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 13, 2020.The Azeri defense ministry said four of its soldiers had been killed and five wounded while Armenia’s ministry said three of its soldiers and two police officers had been wounded in the clashes. The exchanges of fire began Sunday and continued into Monday. The two sides traded accusations of cease-fire violations and shelling. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused the Armenian leadership of a “provocation.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the leadership of Azerbaijan would be responsible for “the unpredictable consequences of the regional destabilization.” The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a security watchdog that has tried to help find a solution to the conflict, urged the two countries to speak to each other to prevent any further escalation. The U.S. State Department condemned the violence, urged the two sides to stop using force immediately, and said it would “remain actively engaged in efforts” to achieve a peaceful settlement. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan, is run by ethnic Armenians, who declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia continue to accuse each other of shooting attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azeri-Armenian frontier. The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has concerned the international community in part because of its threat to stability in a region that serves as a corridor for pipelines taking oil and gas to world markets.  
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The legacy of former U.S. president Thomas Woodrow Wilson is going through a harsh re-examination by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, but in at least one country abroad, his place in history is undisputed. Wilson, who occupied the White House from 1913 to 1921, “is being criticized for his allegedly racist views as far as I know,” said Zdenek Beranek, the Czech Republic’s second-ranking diplomat in Washington.  The Czech people do not approve of any form of racism, Beranek said in an interview with VOA, but “we appreciate what he did for our nation. … Wilson invested his political capital to the independence of my country.”   Wilson, known internationally for his role in reshaping world affairs after World War I, has recently come under scrutiny amid a national movement to remove statues of Confederate generals and other historic leaders accused of having owned slaves or supported racial segregation.  A statue of former US President Woodrow Wilson is unveiled in Prague, Czech Republic, Oct. 5, 2011.Princeton University, one of America’s leading educational institutions, recently removed his name from its school of public policy because of his support for segregationist policies. In a sign of how problematic his legacy has become, the governor of New Jersey has decided to not sit behind a desk used by Wilson when he held that office.  Wilson, described by some as the most highly educated of all American presidents, served as a professor for many years before rising to become president of Princeton, then governor of New Jersey and then president of the United States. Until recently, he was best known for his handling of the presidency during the First World War — a period that saw the rise of the United States as a political and military power. In January 1918, as the war was drawing to a close, Wilson announced the Fourteen Points and laid the foundation for the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war.   During the war years, he was influenced by the entreaties of Czech exile Tomas G. Masaryk, a fellow academician-turned-politician who, with Wilson’s crucial help, would go on to help establish the new country of Czechoslovakia and become its first president.  Wilson is said to have been deeply moved when he learned that a document drafted by Masaryk and other leading figures to proclaim the right of the Czech and Slovak peoples to self-governance was modeled after the American Declaration of Independence.   “You could say our very independence was declared on American soil,” Beranek said. The Czechs honored Wilson with a larger-than-life full-sized statue erected in central Prague; they also named their main railway station after him.   The statue was knocked down and the railway station renamed when the country became a Soviet satellite after World War II. But after Moscow lost its grip on the region in 1989, a new statue was erected in its place. The train station was not renamed, but it stands on Wilsonova, or Wilson Avenue. 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday it is not clear whether EU member states would reach an agreement on a COVID-19 recovery fund and multi-year budget at a summit this week, given that differences remain. The leaders of EU member nations are scheduled to gather in person on Friday and Saturday to work out a compromise on a multibillion-dollar stimulus package proposed by Germany and France. The debate has been linked to a discussion on the 27-country bloc’s long-term budget. Merkel spoke to reporters alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at Meseberg Castle — the German government’s guest house, north of Berlin, where the two held talks. She said positions are still too far apart to make any predictions about how the negotiations will proceed. Merkel said what is important is the scope of the agreement.”What we want now, the recovery fund or the next generation EU program, it has to be staggering, something special. Because the task at hand is huge, and therefore the answer has to be big as well,” she said.Italian news reports quoted Conte as saying the EU should offer “solutions, not illusions and fears.” Much of the stimulus money would go to help countries that were hardest hit by the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, and its economic impacts, such as Italy and Spain. Some fiscally conservative EU countries oppose the French-German plan because it would entail borrowing by the bloc as a whole for the first time. 
 
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Investigators of the Federal Security Service have formally charged an aide to the chief of Russia’s Roskosmos space agency, journalist Ivan Safronov, with high treason. 
 
Safronov’s lawyer Ivan Pavlov said his client was indicted on July 13, adding that he reiterated his previous not guilty plea. 
 
Moscow police on July 13 detained about 20 supporters of Safronov near the Lefortovo detention center in the Russian capital, where Safronov is being held. 
 
Among the detained supporters of Safronov were a member of the journalists’ labor union, Sofia Rusova, and reporters Pyotr Parkhomenko, Maria Karpenko, Olga Alenova, Alla Pugachyova and Taisia Bekbulatova. Safronov, who has worked since May as an adviser to Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, is a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti. Police detain RT television channel journalist Maria Sherstyukova during a rally to support Ivan Safronov near the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, Russia, July 13, 2020. Safronov, a former military journalist, was arrested and charged with treason.He was arrested on July 7 amid allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.
 
Safronov has rejected the accusations and many of his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities, demanding his release. 
Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronov’s release and expressing concerns over the intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia. 
 
The chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia, Vladimir Solovyov, said on July 13 that his organization will “continue to closely monitor Safronov’s case.” 
 
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Election officials in North Macedonia carried ballot boxes to the homes of voters suffering from COVID-19 or in quarantine Monday, at the start of three days of voting in a general election that was delayed for months by the pandemic. Wearing white coveralls and other protective gear, the officials were visiting the homes of some 700 people who registered to vote in the pandemic but were unable to travel to polling stations. It is the first time elections have been held on a weekday, with the date set after the original April 12 vote was postponed due to the pandemic.After the delays, special provisions were made for those quarantined due to the virus. Of the roughly 5,000 people quarantined, just over 700 have registered to vote. Prison inmates, the elderly and the ill vote on Tuesday before the polls open Wednesday.  North Macedonia is holding its first parliamentary election under its new country name, with voters heading to the polls during an alarming spike of coronavirus cases in this small Balkan nation.The country has been run by a caretaker government since January following the resignation of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev after the European Union failed to set a date for North Macedonia to begin accession talks. Parliament elected a temporary government consisting of members of both main parties, with the sole aim of organizing the election.  Opinion polls in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote indicate a close race between coalitions led by the former governing Social Democrats and the center-right opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. The opposition is eager to return to power after losing the last election in 2016 following a decade running the country.Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Social Democrat-led coalition “Mozeme” (We Can) and the VMRO-led coalition “Obnova” (Renewal) are campaigning mostly through small gatherings and video messages.The caretaker government handled the coronavirus outbreak relatively well until May, imposing a lockdown that kept the number of infections and deaths low. But after authorities eased restrictions and opened the borders, North Macedonia saw an increase in new cases and deaths that have placed it among the most badly affected European nations in terms of the number of deaths and confirmed cases per capita.With more than 8,000 infected people and about 380 deaths in this country of around 2 million people by Sunday, the pandemic and its devastating economic consequences have become the main election issue. The opposition accuses Zaev’s party of being unable to deal with the outbreak or pull the country out of recession.North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a per-capita GDP of about $6,100. About a half of its 2 million people live on the brink of poverty.Polls suggest neither party will win the 61 seats needed in the 120-member parliament to be able to govern alone, meaning a coalition government with a smaller ethnic Albanian party is likely. A total of 15 parties and coalitions are running.Zaev, the Social Democrat leader, has touted his success in securing the country’s NATO membership after sealing a historic 2017 deal with neighboring Greece over the country’s name. Greece had been blocking the country’s NATO accession for three decades, objecting to the use of the name “Macedonia” which it said harbored expansionist claims on its own province of the same name.Zaev also signed a friendship deal with Bulgaria, part of a push to resolve issues with neighboring countries and prepare for EU membership.  The Social Democrats beat the populist conservative VMRO-DPMNE party in 2016 after a decade of autocratic rule by its then-leader Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power and corruption. Hungary granted him political asylum and North Macedonia is seeking his extradition.Gruevski’s successor, Hristijan Mickoski, moved VMRO-DPMNE toward the center-right and is appealing to voters disappointed with the country’s name change and the deal with Bulgaria. He also accuses the Social Democrats of corruption, influencing the judiciary, nepotism and destroying the economy.”These are elections when we decide on the future of our families, elections in which we need to make our ancestors proud,” Mickoski said during a recent television debate with Zaev. “The choice now on July 15 is between injustice, humiliation, and on the other hand justice and dignity.”The Social Democrats point to their success in achieving NATO membership and promise EU accession and a revival of the economy with billions in foreign investments.  “We have proved that North Macedonia could be a friend with everybody, made smart deals that brought the country into NATO and enabled a green light for the start of accession talks with the EU after 15 years,” Zaev said.If neither party wins enough seats to form a government, the largest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, or DUI, is the most likely coalition partner.  DUI has been in coalition governments for the past 18 years, and now says it is “high time” for an ethnic Albanian to head the government.Its slogan “Pse Jo?” (Why not?) was chosen to challenge the last “remaining ethnic taboo” of an ethnic Albanian being named prime minister. DUI has already chosen a long-retired politician for the post.Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of North Macedonia’s population. They took up arms against government forces in 2001, and the six-month conflict ended with a Western-brokered deal granting them greater minority rights, including making Albanian the country’s second official language.  Both main parties have rejected DUI’s idea.Over 1.8 million people are eligible to vote at nearly 3,500 polling stations. About 2,000 domestic and 130 international observers will monitor the process.Masks are compulsory during voting, and a two-meter distance must be kept from election officials. Authorities are assuring voters the process will not endanger their health. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday it was important to wear face coverings in confined spaces such as shops and added that the government would be making an announcement in the coming days on possible steps to make them mandatory.Critics have accused Johnson’s government of failing to offer clarity on the mask issue in the days since he began backtracking on previous advice suggesting such coverings were not necessary.But Johnson says the scientific research is now showing that masks help stop the transmission of COVID-19. Talking to reporters Monday, during a visit to the London Ambulance Service, Johnson said “Just to be absolutely clear, face coverings do have a real value in confined spaces, and I do think the public understand that.”When pressed on whether it should be mandatory, Johnson said “we will be looking at the guidance, we will be saying a little bit more in the next few days.”He said he wants to see people who have been working at home for a long time talking to their employers about coming back to work “in a safe way.”Johnson also suggested British citizens plan “staycations” and take their holidays in the country rather than going overseas. He said he plans to stay within Britain when he takes time off but would not say where he was going. 
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Incumbent Polish President Andrej Duda has won the presidential election. With 99 percent of the ballots counted from Sunday’s runoff election, Duda won 51.2 percent of the vote. The narrow victory was announced early Monday.The right-wing Duda and liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski both had about 50 percent of the votes late Sunday night with one exit poll by a state-run Polish TV station giving Duda a very slight lead.The president claimed victory Sunday night. “Thank you to all my fellow Poles who voted for me and cast their votes. I want to thank you with all my heart,” he told a rally in Pultusk.Duda’s Law and Justice Party wants to extend its majority in parliament and implement conservative social, judicial and immigration policies that many in the European Union have criticized as anti-democratic.Those policies include Duda’s pledge to ban gay rights classes in schools. He has called homosexuality worse than communism.Trzaskowski, of the Civic Platform party, campaigned on promises to preserve the ruling party’s popular welfare programs but said he would block any legislation he says would be unconstitutional. He also wanted to restore good relations with the European Union.The coronavirus outbreak forced a nearly two-month delay in the first round of voting.Observers say the postponement hurt Duda, who had looked as if he would cruise to a first-round victory. But his popularity in the polls slipped after the Civic Platform party replaced a much less popular candidate with Trzaskowski and other candidates were allowed to get out and campaign more when COVID-19 restrictions were eased. 
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Thousands of Bulgarians gathered for a fourth day on Sunday in Sofia and other cities to protest against corruption and demand the resignation of the conservative government.Over 3,000 protesters shouted “Mafia!” and “Resign!” outside the government headquarters in Sofia and marched to parliament.The protests in the capital were sparked by an unprecedented raid by heavily armed police and prosecutors on the presidential headquarters on Thursday.President Rumen Radev’s legal affairs and anti-corruption secretary and his security and defense adviser were detained for questioning and their offices searched as part of two separate probes into influence-peddling and disclosure of state secrets.Protesters also gathered in at least 10 other towns on Sunday.The searches on Thursday sparked public anger and brought thousands of demonstrators onto the streets of Sofia to condemn the raids as an attack by the government and the chief prosecutor against the Socialists-backed Radev.The president is an outspoken critic of the cabinet of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, accusing it of “links with oligarchs.”Borisov on Saturday refused to resign but opponents launched an online petition aiming to gather as many as 1 million signatures to demand his ouster.The Socialist opposition in parliament also said Sunday that they would table a no confidence motion against the cabinet for “corruption” next Wednesday, appealing to protesters to back them.Friday’s rallies turned violent with 18 protesters arrested, including two men who were hospitalized after being beaten, prompting an even bigger turnout on Saturday when Radev joined protesters in their demand for the resignation of the cabinet and the chief prosecutor.Police had appealed for restraint ahead of Sunday’s demonstration and the interior ministry announced late Sunday that the rally had ended without incident.Thirteen years after joining the EU as its poorest country, Bulgaria has also remained the bloc’s most graft-prone member state, according to Transparency International’s corruption perception index.A new rally is scheduled for Monday afternoon and another nationwide protest for Thursday. 
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Iran claims “human error” was responsible for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane earlier this year that killed all 176 people on board.The Iranian Civil Aviation authority said late Saturday, “A failure occurred due to a human error in following the procedure” for aligning the radar.The misalignment caused a “107-degree error” in the system, Iran said.On the same night of the plane downing, Iran had launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iran.The attack was in response to the killing of one of Iran’s top generals in a U.S. missile strike in Iraq.Scenes of Mourning, Anger in Wake of Ukraine Plane CrashIranian officials, after days of denials, admitted Jan. 11, 2020, that Tehran was responsible for mistakenly downing a Ukrainian airliner early on Jan. 8. Iran’s admission sparked anti-government protests in Tehran. Demonstrators gathered at two universities, where some called for the resignation of their country’s leaders.
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Voters in Poland are going to the polls Sunday for what most analysts say will be a close runoff election between right-wing President Andrzej Duda and centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.In the first round of voting in late June, there was no clear winner.  Duda received 43 percent of the votes, while Trzaskowski obtained 30 percent.Duda’s nationalist Law and Justice Party is hoping to be able to extend its majority in parliament and implement conservative social, judicial and immigration policies that many others in the European Union have criticized as anti-democratic.They include Duda’s pledge to ban gay rights classes in schools. He has called homosexuality worse than communism.Trzaskowski, of the Civic Platform party, campaigned on promises to preserve the ruling party’s popular welfare programs but said he would block any legislation he says would be unconstitutional. He also says he would restore good relations with the European Union.The coronavirus outbreak forced a nearly two-month delay in the first round of voting.Observers say the postponement hurt Duda, who had looked as if he would cruise to a first-round victory. But his popularity in the polls slipped after the Civic Platform party replaced a much less popular candidate with Trzaskowski and other candidates were allowed to get out and campaign more when COVID-19 restrictions were eased.  
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Thousands of Bulgarians, frustrated with endemic corruption, protested Saturday for a third day in a row, demanding the resignation of the center-right government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the country’s chief prosecutor.Protesters, who chanted “Mafia” and “Resign” on Saturday, accuse Borissov’s third government and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev of deliberately delaying investigations into links between graft-prone officials and local oligarchs.Protests against what many called “state capture” and “mafia-style” rule were held in several other cities in the Balkan country.Police arrested 18 people late Friday after scuffles during the anti-corruption protests, but the demonstration Saturday was largely peaceful.Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt member state, has long pledged to root out graft but has yet to jail any senior officials on corruption charges.Public anger escalated following prosecutor raids on the offices of two of the Bulgarian president’s staff as part of investigations, which many saw as a targeted attack on President Rumen Radev, a vocal critic of the government.In an address to the nation Saturday, Radev said the protests showed that Bulgarians had had enough and called for the resignation of the government and the chief prosecutor.’We have done so much’Borissov, whose third government took office in 2017, prided himself on building new highways, boosting people’s incomes and getting the country into the eurozone’s “waiting room,” and said he does not plan to step down amid a looming coronavirus crisis.”We have done so much already, we have made so much efforts, nothing is keeping us in office except for responsibility,” Borissov said in a posting on his Facebook page.His GERB party said Radev, who was nominated for the post by opposition Socialists, was stoking a political crisis. GERB remains Bulgaria’s most popular political party, according to opinion polls. The next general elections are due in spring 2021.At another demonstration Saturday on the Black Sea coast near Burgas, hundreds of Bulgarians demanded access to a public coastline near the summer residence of Ahmed Dogan, a businessman and senior member of the ethnic Turkish MRF party. The demonstration was organized after the head of a small liberal party was denied access to the coast by armed guards of the National Protection Service, who were protecting Dogan.Protesters say the move was a sign of toxic links between the ruling elite and shady interests in the Balkan country.
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The Czech people, occupied by Germany during World War II and then forced into the Soviet bloc, are no strangers to foreign coercion. That may be a factor in the anger in Prague over what many there see as Beijing’s heavy-handedness in dealing with their country.In a series of conversations centered on history and identity, Zdenek Beranek, the second-highest official at the Czech Republic Embassy in Washington, told VOA that even though his government had made it clear “on multiple occasions” that mutually beneficial economic cooperation with China was very much welcome, “there is still room for improvement, to put it diplomatically.””Personally, I do not believe that ‘standing up to China’ should be a goal, per se; quite the contrary, the unity of democratic countries is a precondition to balanced and mutually beneficial relations with China,” he said.A series of Chinese retaliatory actions prompted by Prague’s friendly relationship with Taiwan appears to have alarmed the Czech society.China has threatened action against Czech companies in China if Czech senate leaders go ahead with a visit to Taiwan. Last March, Taiwan’s top diplomat in Prague was asked to leave a conference organized by the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Trade and Industry in response to pressure from Beijing.Orchestra trip scrappedThe dispute over Taiwan also prompted Beijing to cancel a long-planned 14-city tour of China by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, costing the orchestra tens of thousands of dollars.Beranek, who describes himself as Czech by birth, European by heart, historian by training and diplomat by accident, relied on the latter skill as he discussed the issue.He said he doubted his country was the only one “being sensitive to the sometimes combative rhetoric or coercive approach” from Beijing. But, he said, the “traumatizing experiences” of the past century may contribute to his country’s aversion to that pressure.Czechoslovakia, the predecessor of the Czech Republic, was invaded by Nazi Germany two decades after its founding at the end of World War I. After Adolf Hitler’s defeat, it became a satellite of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union.The country’s “postwar elites did little to resist Soviet Russia, wrongly believing that Stalin was someone they could have negotiated with,” Beranek said.Yet even under communist rule, the ideal of a “humanistic nation” that honors democracy and human rights had taken root, he said, as witnessed in 1968 by the so-called Prague Spring, an eight-month period of protest and democratic reform that eventually was brutally crushed.Two decades later, the Soviet empire itself collapsed, democracy was reintroduced and the people of Czechoslovakia — Czechs and Slovaks — peacefully divided themselves into two independent nations.Cooperation ‘essential’Beranek’s training as historian keeps these events fresh in his mind. But when asked how that training has shaped his career in diplomacy, Beranek said, “It’s the other way around,” meaning that his diplomatic work has enabled him to see historical events with a clearer lens.As a historian, he also appreciates having a front-row seat as modern-day history unfolds. But he is not happy about everything he sees.”It’s clear that all democratic countries are facing unprecedented challenges; ever closer cooperation is essential,” he said.Such challenges have led his country to form closer ties with democratic nations far from Europe, he added, including Australia.Beranek identifies his country’s strategic decision to reintegrate with the West, including through memberships in both NATO and the EU, as crucial.”However, the upcoming era of global power competition will be yet another thorough test of our ability to make strategic decisions,” he said.He hopes that his countrymen will always bear in mind what their founding fathers had envisioned for their homeland: that efforts devoted to democracy and human rights outside their own boundaries will ultimately contribute to shaping an international environment “conducive to our own freedom and prosperity.”
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Serbian police said Saturday they arrested 71 people after violence erupted in Belgrade late Friday during a fourth night of anti-government protests triggered by another coronavirus lockdown.The head of Serbian Police, Vladimir Rebic, said 14 riot police were injured as they tried to protect the parliament building with tear gas in downtown Belgrade from hundreds of right-wing protesters who tried to storm the building with rocks, bottles and flares.  The protests over President Aleksandar Vucic’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic evolved during the course of the week into anti-government demonstrations attended by thousands of people.The first demonstration took place Tuesday after Vucic re-imposed a weekend curfew to contain a second eruption of coronavirus infections that has overwhelmed hospitals in Belgrade.Critics say the new surge in infections is the result of the government’s decision to relax some lockdown measures in May and to allow parliamentary elections to be held on June 21, which Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party largely won.While Vucic later reversed his lockdown, the protests continued and turned into a general rebuke of his management of the coronavirus crisis.Vucic dismissed his critics’ claims and accused his political opponents of planning the protests.“The perpetrators will be defeated, the majority of them will be arrested, and they will have to answer for all the crimes they committed,” Vucic said in a live television broadcast from Paris, where is engaged in normalization talks with Kosovo along with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Police said 130 officers have been injured since the protests began on Tuesday but did not say how many protesters have been hurt.Vucic noted that Friday was the most difficult day for the country since the coronavirus outbreak began in December. Eighteen people died of the disease in Serbia in a 24-hour period, according to data published Friday.The coronavirus has infected more than 18,000 people in Serbia and claimed more than 380 lives, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 
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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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