The alleged rape of three American women by Afghan migrants is prompting a public examination of Spain’s legal system, with media commentators and politicians debating the veracity of the charges and the competency of Spanish authorities to handle the case appropriately.The Spanish press has delved into intimate details of the case, including speculation that the women – three sisters from the Midwestern state of Ohio aged 18, 20 and 23 — contrived the sexual assault to claim on their travel insurance. Reports have even cited disclosures by hospital examiners that the youngest of the three sisters was a virgin before her encounter with the alleged rapist.The United States, meanwhile, is advising other Americans to take precautions against sexual assault and warning about the legal handling of sexual assault cases in Spain. “U.S. citizen victims of sexual assault in Spain can find it very difficult to navigate the local criminal justice system, which differs significantly from the U.S. system,” said an advisory issued by the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. It specifically warned American female students to “take precautions against sexual assault during their stay in Spain.”FILE – Activists protest in Barcelona, Spain, June 21, 2018. A Spanish court triggered a new wave of outrage Oct. 31, 2019, by acquitting five men of gang rape and instead finding them guilty of a lesser charge of sexual abuse.Spain’s interior ministry says that while the number of rape cases has risen from fewer than 1,000 in 2016 to some 1,400 in 2019, the total remains well below that in most other European countries. Reported sexual assaults in France, by contrast, rose from 16,000 to 52,000 over the same period, according to the French government.A U.S. Embassy official told VOA that most rape cases in Spain go unreported because of the inadequate treatment that victims receive from police, health authorities and the legal system.While 34 sexual assaults against American women were reported during 2019, the official said many more cases go unreported, adding that a major American university with one of the largest exchange programs in Spain received complaints of sexual violence on an average of once per week.The three sisters, all college students, have accused Afghan refugees of violently forcing them into sexual intercourse on New Year’s Eve in the city of Murcia.The accused men, who have been released since their arrest days after the incident, claim the sex acts were consensual. Their lawyer has filed charges of “false accusation” against the women claiming inconsistencies in their police testimonies.U.S. Embassy spokesman Adam Lenert said the way in which rape victims are questioned in Spain is outdated and tends to put the burden of doubt on the victim. The first questions police asked the three women concerned what clothes they wore and whether they had consumed alcohol or drugs before they met their alleged rapists at a bar. They were also asked about travel insurance, which is mandatory for U.S. students in most exchange programs.Those practices persist despite a growing feminist movement, led in some instances by top officials of the ruling Socialist government, which has greatly raised consciousness about sexual violence. “Spain has become highly sensitized on matters concerning rape and sexual harassment,” said news anchor Antonio Jimenez, who led a round-table discussion about the U.S. travel advisory on his nightly talk show on one of Spain’s main television channels.At least two recent gang rape cases triggered mass protests by women’s groups, which have argued for stiffer jail terms for the perpetrators, who have become known as “wolf packs.”Right-wing groups have further politicized the issue, with some conservative leaders blaming the problem on the rising tide of immigrants from Muslim countries. Speaking before the congress two weeks ago, VOX party leader Santiago Abascal criticized the leniency extended to the Afghan rape suspects as an example of how immigrants receive special consideration.Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right party VOX, waves to supporters during a rally in protest against the new coalition government led by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, at Cibeles Square in Madrid, Spain, Jan. 12, 2020.There is concern that as the case of the three Ohio sisters gets entangled in Spain’s politics and complex legal system, it may become increasingly difficult to get a clear verdict or trial.Defense lawyer Melecio Castaño, said on television that evidence suggests the women and their alleged attackers had a “cordial farewell” on the morning after their encounter and that cell phone records indicate that one of the women subsequently called one of the men.Sources close to the women’s legal counsel say that text messages sent to one of the alleged attackers were placed at the request of police in an effort to locate him.Under Spanish law it’s necessary for the victims to appear before the court in order to “ratify” their charges. The Americans have left Spain and might be hesitant to return due to the way in which they have been treated, U.S. Embassy officials say.
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A gritty tale set in France’s disenfranchised suburbs, or banlieues, ranks among the finalists for the best foreign language film at Sunday’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles. However, Les Miserables has also unleashed a debate about what has changed in France and what has not.  For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from the Paris suburb of Montfermeil
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Britain is set for another royal wedding. Buckingham Palace announced Friday that Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice will marry in London on May 29.The palace says 31-year-old Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, will wed in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace. The chapel was the location for the wedding of Beatrice’s great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1840.The queen will host a reception afterwards at Buckingham Palace.
Beatrice, the elder daughter of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, announced her engagement to real estate entrepreneur Mozzi last year. He is a Briton descended from a noble Italian family.The father of the bride quit public royal duties in November amid an outcry over his friendship with the convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in August.An American woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, says she had several sexual encounters with the prince at Epstein’s behest, starting when she was 17. The FBI wants to question the prince as part of its Epstein investigation, but a U.S. prosecutor said last month that Andrew had been uncooperative.The prince denies wrongdoing.Beatrice’s younger sister, Princess Eugenie, married Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in 2018.
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Russian authorities have added more than 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses to a register of extremists and terrorists, the organization said in a statement Friday.The latest move in a crackdown on the religious group effectively cuts the believers off from the country’s financial system, because being on list leads to one’s bank accounts being frozen and to severe restrictions on any financial transactions.Russia officially banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and declared the group an extremist organization. The Kremlin has actively used vaguely worded extremism laws to crack down on opposition activists and religious minorities.Since then, hundreds of members have been subjected to raids, arrests and prosecution. Twenty-four members of the organization have been convicted, nine of whom have been sentenced to prison, and more than 300 people are currently under criminal investigation.Most of the blacklisted believers have not been convicted yet but are under investigation, the Jehovah’s Witnesses said.Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses world headquarters in the United States, said Friday that Russian authorities are “vilifying Jehovah’s Witnesses, crippling them from caring for their basic needs.”“Clearly, Russia has effectively reinstated its darkest period of history by relentlessly persecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses, as did its intolerant Soviet predecessors,” Lopes said.Thousands on registerThe register, available on the website of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence agency, currently contains more than 9,500 names. It doesn’t state a person’s affiliation with an organization. The Associated Press was able to identify at least two dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses on the list.Rosfinmonitoring officials would neither confirm nor deny blacklisting Jehovah’s Witnesses to The Associated Press, saying that they add people to the register based on the information law enforcement provides them.The crackdown on members of the group continues despite a promise by Russian President Vladimir Putin to look into “this complete nonsense.”“Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, so I don’t quite understand why persecute them,” Putin said at a meeting with the Presidential Council for Human Rights in 2018.
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Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti pledges to abolish the 100% tariffs on Serbian imports, an impediment in normalization efforts between the two countries since 2018.Kurti, who was confirmed as prime minister by the Kosovo Assembly on Monday, said in an interview with Voice of America that the objective of the ruling coalition composed of his party, Vetvendosje (Self-Determination), and the Democratic League of Kosovo, is to introduce “measures of full reciprocity in trade, politics and economy” with Serbia.  This is not about revenge but justice, stated Kurti, adding, “Reciprocity is fairness.  It is a fair approach. It is on the justice record, and I know that in one of his statements. U.S. President Donald Trump has mentioned reciprocity as a value and a concept that is close to his heart. So, international relations in the world today are built on this principle.”Lamenting what he called “numerous unacceptable actions that Serbia has taken towards us,” he described Kosovo’s reactions as defensive measures. “Serbia’s campaign is offensive. Reciprocity is protection, it is defensive, and it is the minimum for some kind of dignity and integrity of our being an independent state.”U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenel speaks after he met with the leader of Vetevendosje, newly nominated prime minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti, in Kosovo’s capital Pristina on Jan. 23, 2020.Kosovo authorities have been under relentless pressure from Western allies to remove the tariffs. Trump’s special envoy for Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Grenell, urged the new Kosovo government to drop tariffs.“We expect the tariffs to be dropped immediately,” said Grenell, who is also U.S. ambassador to Germany. “We made clear to all the [Kosovo] party leaders that dropping the tariffs was in the best interest of Kosovo and its economy, and the desire to attract new businesses. And the party leaders agreed,” he said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.European Union-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo over normalizing relations stalled after the previous Kosovo government imposed 100% tariffs on Serbian goods to protest efforts by Belgrade to block Kosovo’s accession into international organizations.On Thursday, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who introduced tariffs in 2018, urged Kurti in an open letter “not to drop the tariffs.”  Haradinaj said that “the 100% tax is imposed as a defensive measure against Serbia’s aggressive policy toward Kosovo and can be revoked with recognition.”Negotiations with Serbia remain one of the main challenges facing the new prime minister and his government.Kurti does not rule out the possibility of reaching an agreement with Serbia this year.“It’s possible, but I cannot foresee such a thing now. Now, I can express my will for dialogue, for open and principled dialogue,” he said.Serbia and its ally Russia do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.Since its declaration of independence, more than 100 countries have recognized Kosovo, including the United States and most EU nations.
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Britain is letting European Union citizens stay once the country completes its transition out of the EU at the end of 2020. But some are choosing to leave and move back to the continent.Hanneke van der Werf is a Dutch herbalist and garden designer living on the border of Wales and England. Britain has been home for more than 25 years, but she is now preparing to leave.“This country has changed into something unrecognizable. It used to be very liberal, very outward looking, very welcoming and very tolerant,” Werf said. “And I personally was actually attacked the day after the referendum about me not being British, and why I wasn’t going, why I was still even there.”British-born people kept asking her why she had stayed in Britain after the Brexit vote, and those questions hurt.Considering move to EU countryVan der Werf has decided not to move back to the Netherlands but is contemplating a move to one of the southern EU countries.  Britain officially left the European Union on Jan. 31. It is still obliged to adhere to EU laws through the end of 2020 when the transitional period is over.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in Parliament in London, Jan. 29, 2020.Speaking on immigration during the December 2019 campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he could “make sure that numbers come down.”While he said that British people are “not hostile to immigration at all,” they want their country to be — in his words — “democratically controlled and that’s what Brexit allows us to do.”Another EU citizen preparing to leave Britain is Carole Convers. As a French student she visited Britain in 1987 and decided to move permanently to the southern English seaside resort of Brighton.  “I’d always seen myself as you know just a normal citizen really, which happened to live in a bit of Europe that wasn’t in the same bit as where I was born,” Convers said. “And that, that feeling went. I went from being a citizen to an uncertain future as a migrant, not knowing what would change for me.”Many decide to stayConvers campaigned with The 3 Million, an NGO that lobbies to protect the rights of EU citizens in Britain.While she initially considered applying for a British passport, she eventually decided against it.The latest figures from Britain’s home office show more than three million EU citizens have applied to stay in the country.  The process is often turning out to be difficult. EU citizens are not given a physical document to prove if their application to stay in the country is successful — and that is causing anxiety among some.  From Brighton to BurgundyConvers resents having to apply to stay in the country she has been living in for so long.After 31 years of living in Brighton, Convers has decided to move back to Burgundy, in east-central France at the end of April with her British partner.  “It’s all a bit uncertain because we’ve got accommodation only for the first few months,” Convers said. “And he doesn’t speak French, so I’ll have to find a job.”Not welcome?More than three million Europeans had moved from the continent to Britain after it joined the EU in 1973. The welcome appears to have worn off.Since British voters approved Brexit in 2016, there has been an increase in reports of xenophobia, racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric — often directed at those coming from Poland.The British Office for National Statistics last year said net migration from the European Union has fallen since 2016.  Those numbers are now at their lowest since 2003. 
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Lawyers for former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo urged International Criminal Court judges Thursday to lift conditions they imposed on him last year when he was released following his acquittal on crimes against humanity charges.Gbagbo and former youth minister Charles Ble Goude both were cleared early last year of involvement in deadly post-election violence in their West African nation.Prosecutors have appealed the acquittals, urging judges to call a mistrial, but both men were allowed to leave the court’s custody pending the appeal’s outcome. Judges, however, imposed conditions  on their liberty including that they had to turn in their passports, not leave the country hosting them, report weekly to police or the court and not contact witnesses or talk to the media about their case.Dozens of supporters attended Thursday’s hearing, waving to Gbagbo from the public gallery as the case opened. Gbagbo smiled and waved back. It wasn’t immediately clear when the court would decide on whether to free Gbagbo and Ble Goude.FILE – Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo enters the courtroom at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 15, 2019.Their supporters were hopeful judges would release them.“Today we are expecting something that should have happened long ago. We are not only expecting — we know that its going to happen today. It’s a day for freedom. It is a day to celebrate,” Njoh Fabrice Frisson said outside court.Speaking on behalf of Gbagbo, international law professor Dov Jacobs told judges they didn’t have the right to rein in the ex-president’s liberty.He said that, “in principle no restrictions can be placed on the freedom of a person who has been acquitted. This person should be able to enjoy all his rights, including his civil and political rights.”If judges agree to lift the conditions, it would clear the way for Gbagbo and Ble Goude to return home almost nine years after Gbagbo was ousted from power by force.The possibility of Gbagbo’s return is already escalating political tensions in a presidential election year. In written submissions to the court, Ivory Coast’s government argued that unconditionally freeing Gbagbo — effectively clearing him to return home — could rekindle the very tensions that led to him being put on trial.Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader, Alassane Ouattara, who ultimately prevailed back in 2011, has signaled that he could attempt to serve a third term if Gbagbo were to try and run again. Doing so would involve revising the constitution before October, and the opposition already has warned such a move could lead to widespread social unrest.Gbagbo officially received nearly 46% of the vote in 2010 and maintains a strong base of supporters who allege they have been left out of the reconciliation process in the years since his ouster.Gbagbo’s party, the Ivorian Popular Front, splintered into two factions back in 2014 and has been beset by infighting in recent years. One side has been led by ex-Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who distanced himself politically from Gbagbo after his ouster, while Gbagbo’s wife plays a prominent role in the other faction.Media reports say those differences appear to be on the mend after an apparent meeting between the two men last month in Brussels.Gbagbo’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, 70, was pardoned in August 2018 after serving three years of a 20-year sentence on charges of undermining state security in Ivory Coast. She lives in Abidjan, where she serves as second vice president of the party’s faction known as GOR (the French acronym for Gbagbo or Nothing).ICC judges acquitted Gbagbo and Ble Goude of involvement in violence that left more than 3,000 people dead in the aftermath of disputed 2010 presidential elections. The judges halted their trial at the halfway stage, saying prosecutors failed to prove their case.Prosecution lawyer Reinhold Gallmetzer told the court that if their appeal is accepted and a mistrial declared, prosecutors will seek a retrial.He said the judges shouldn’t reconsider the conditions because the circumstances that led judges to impose them last year haven’t changed.
 
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FBI Director Chris Wray said Wednesday that Russia is engaged in “information warfare” heading into the 2020 presidential election, though he said law enforcement has not seen ongoing efforts by Russia to target America’s election infrastructure.Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that Russia, just as it did in 2016, is relying on a covert social media campaign aimed at dividing American public opinion and sowing discord. That effort, which involves fictional personas, bots, social media postings and disinformation, may have an election-year uptick but is also a round-the-clock threat that is in some ways harder to combat than an election system hack, Wray said.“Unlike a cyberattack on an election infrastructure, that kind of effort — disinformation — in a world where we have a First Amendment and believe strongly in freedom of expression, the FBI is not going to be in the business of being the truth police and monitoring disinformation online,” Wray said.The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are on alert for election-related cyberactivity like what occurred in 2016, when Russians hacked emails belonging to the Democratic campaign of nominee Hillary Clinton and probed local election systems for vulnerabilities.But, Wray said Wednesday, “I don’t think we’ve seen any ongoing efforts to target election infrastructure like we did in 2016.”His appearance came two days after Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa were marred by a malfunctioning app that caused a delay in the reporting of results. Though local and federal officials have stressed that the problems weren’t caused by a foreign intrusion, the error played into existing unease surrounding election security and risked amplifying concerns among American about the integrity of the voting process.Even without signs of election system targeting, Wray said Russian efforts to interfere in the election through disinformation had not tapered off since 2016. He said social media had injected “steroids” into those efforts.“They identify an issue that they know that the American people feel passionately about on both sides and then they take both sides and spin them up so they pit us against each other,” Wray said. “And then they combine that with an effort to weaken our confidence in our elections and our democratic institutions, which has been a pernicious and asymmetric way of engaging in … information warfare.”At another point in the hearing, Wray avoided a direct answer when asked if President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr or other administration officials had asked him for investigations into Trump Democratic rival Joe Biden, his son Hunter, or into any members of Congress.The question was posed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the committee chairman and one of seven House Democratic managers of the impeachment case. He asked whether Trump had requested FBI investigations into the Bidens, lawmakers or former national security adviser John Bolton — who is due out with a book next month said to undercut a key Trump defense — as possible payback for impeachment.Wray initially said: “I have assured the Congress, and I can assure the Congress today, that the FBI will only open investigations based on the facts, and the law and proper predication.”After Nadler said he assumed that answer meant that neither Trump nor Barr nor other administration officials had requested improper political investigations, Wray tried again: “No one has asked me to open an investigation based on anything other than facts, the law and proper predication.”Trump has sought, without evidence, to implicate the Bidens in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father, as vice president, was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Ukraine. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.Wray’s appearance was his first since a Justice Department inspector general report that sharply criticized the FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide national security Carter Page. The errors produced rare bipartisan calls for changes to the federal government’s surveillance powers.The report identified what it said were significant errors in applications to eavesdrop on Page, including omitting critical information that cut against the FBI’s original premise that Page was a Russian agent — something he has repeatedly denied.After the report was issued, Wray told The Associated Press that the mistakes were “unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution.” He repeated that message to lawmakers Wednesday.The then-chief judge of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorizes wiretapping of subjects on American soil in national security investigations, responded to the report with an extraordinary public rebuke of the FBI and demanded that the bureau report back on what it was doing to fix the problems.The FBI has laid out a series of changes designed to ensure warrant applications are more closely scrutinized before being submitted for a judge’s approval and that they contain accurate information about the reliability and potential bias of sources whom agents rely on. The Justice Department has also said the surveillance of Page should have ended before it did.Wray bristled at the suggestion from some Republican lawmakers that he did not take the report’s criticism seriously enough.“I’ve been a prosecutor. I’ve been a defense attorney, I’ve been an assistant attorney general, I’ve been an FBI director,” Wray said. “To me, candor to the court is sacrosanct, and I don’t think there’s anybody in the FBI who’s belaboring under the misimpression that I think it’s OK to mislead a court.”
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British companies have made bigger profits investing in Africa than in any other region of the world, according to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which urges firms to seek profits on the continent rather than seeing it as a place to do charitable work.With 1.2 billion people and eight of the world’s 15 fastest-growing economies, the ODI says Africa offers world-beating returns on investment.The report looks at investment by British firms in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Its authors say the “young population, growing middle class, and planned industrial growth make the continent a great place to do business.”In 2019, the rate of return on all inward foreign direct investment in developing African countries was 6.5 percent, higher than the rates in developing Latin America and the Caribbean at 6.2 percent, and also higher than the 6 percent return in developed economies.The report was published as Britain formally left the European Union on January 31. The government repeatedly has said its ambition is to create a “global Britain” with new trading partners beyond the European continent. As part of the effort to court new partners, London hosted the Britain-Africa Investment summit last week.Proactive approach neededRecent data from agency the International Trade Center show France and Germany export more than double the value of goods to Africa than Britain does. London must get proactive post-Brexit, according to Lourenço Sambo, director general of Mozambique’s Investment Promotion Center, who spoke to VOA on the sidelines of the summit.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, center, visits the Pavegen stand, a company that converts footsteps into energy, at the Innovation Zone during the UK Africa Investment Summit in London, Jan. 20, 2020.”Nowadays, we very often say, ‘we are not just talking about Africa, we have to talk with Africa,’ Sambo said. “The UK [Britain] has to talk with Africa. If the UK just sits down, the vessel will go, that train will move.”Nigerian entrepreneur Samuel Onwubu said the days when foreign companies could dictate terms to Africa are gone.”UK companies need to come and work with the African business model,” he told VOA.British companies believe they have an edge against their rivals in the field of technology. The UK Space Agency is backing satellite firms that offer services to African farmers, such as PRISE, or Pest Risk Information Service.”It’s taking terabytes of satellite data and sending out text alerts to farmers, which can tell them when pests might become a problem in the future,” explained Chris Castelli, director of programs at the UK Space Agency.Investment in AfricaAfrican entrepreneurs are seeking investment in proprietary technology. Mobihealth is a mobile app that seeks to offer top-level health care access across Africa. Founder Funmi Adewara believes Britain’s expertise in finance could help.”Ninety percent of our doctors are from Western countries, 10 percent from the rest of Africa,” Adewara said. “They provide video consultation, prescriptions, diagnostic tests. We are looking here to connect with people who can help us to scale up our business and take this global.”The secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mukhisa Kituyi, told VOA in a recent interview that African nations need to work harder to attract investment.”We need to develop this human resource as a contribution to the world’s economy, we need to create the conditions to make Africa the next factory of the world. Then you can say, can Britain step in, just like any other friend of Africa, and offer some of the solution?”Britain says it can offer solutions. Many analysts warn, however, that negotiations over its future relationship with Europe likely will dominate trade talks in the coming months and years.
 
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The United States has imposed sanctions on a Bulgarian judge who the State Department says is involved in “significant” corruption in the Balkan country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday in a statement that he was blacklisting Specialized Criminal Court Judge Andon Mitalov because of his involvement in “corrupt acts that undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Bulgaria.” The statement added that Mitalov’s wife, Kornelia Stoykova-Mitalova, and his daughter, Gergana Mitalova, were also given “special designation” status, which bars them from entering the United States. Ex-lawmaker’s award from PutinMitalov raised the ire of many within and outside Bulgaria when he allowed Nikolai Malinov, a former Bulgarian lawmaker who is charged with spying for Russia, to visit Moscow, where he received an award from President Vladimir Putin. “This is the first such designation in Bulgaria and reaffirms the U.S. commitment to combating corruption in Bulgaria and globally,” Pompeo said in the statement. “The United States continues to stand with the people of Bulgaria in their fight against corruption. The State Department will use these authorities to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally.” FILE – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov arrives at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Dec. 14, 2018.The U.S. move came a day after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said he was “withdrawing my confidence” in the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, accusing it of failing to tackle endemic corruption. The country has experienced steady economic growth under Borisov, but his government has also been criticized for slow progress in the fight against corruption and a perceived f   ailure to hold corrupt officials and businessmen accountable. ‘Acute crisis in governance'”This government and administration are leading to the collapse of the state and depriving us of our future as a nation,” Radev, a former air force commander, said in a live televised address. “Today we are witnessing an acute crisis in governance at all levels, a lack of will to reform and fight corruption.” The European Commission has also slammed Bulgaria over its record in the areas of rule of law and white-collar crime. Malinov has said Bulgarian prosecutors have been targeting him because he openly promotes stronger ties with Russia. 
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Winter is high season for tourism around Lake Baikal in Siberia, but the coronavirus outbreak has curtailed its main source of income: Chinese holidaymakers.They account for more than two-thirds of foreign tourists to the world’s largest freshwater lake, a significant part of the around two million Chinese who visited Russia last year, spending more than any other nation in its first three months.Russia has reported just two cases of the fast-spreading virus, but the flow of Chinese visitors to the lake has dwindled as Moscow and Beijing have imposed travel restrictions to stem its spread.”The number of Chinese tourists has fallen dramatically… There’s much less work now. Business is feeling it very badly,” said Anastasia Nikolayeva, a hotel waitress in Listvyanka, a small lakeside town in the Irkutsk region.Flanked by snow-capped hills and woodlands, Lake Baikal contains about one-fifth of the earth’s unfrozen freshwater reserves. It freezes in winter, offering an array of winter sports from skating, skiing, fishing to hovercrafting.That has helped turn it into a popular Chinese New Year destination. More than 49,000 Chinese visited Irkutsk alone in the first quarter of last year, up from 27,000 in the same period of 2017.A similar rush was expected this month after package tours sold out, but fallout from the coronavirus has left the resort’s wood-paneled chalet hotels largely empty. Restaurants have only a fraction of normal business.”It’s New Year in China and we normally have good tours from China in February… This year – just cancellations,” said Artyom Potashov, director of the Krestovaya hotel complex.Boosting what he calls Russia’s still untapped tourism potential is one of a series of targets mentioned in an economic stimulus package that President Vladimir Putin announced last year.Around one in 15 of the 30 million foreign tourists who visited Russia in 2019 were Chinese, so their role in that hoped-for expansion is a big one.But the coronavirus had nipped that in the bud, dealing a setback to the push to increase visitor flows and, for the time being, tour operators in Listvyanka can only guess how long the restrictions will stay in place.”The date when Chinese tourists will be allowed to travel is not yet clear, so we expect the bookings to be canceled at least until March 1,” Yekaterina Slivina, the head of Irkutsk’s state tourist agency said. 
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German sportswear company Adidas on Wednesday said it was temporarily shutting a “considerable” number of its stores in China due to the coronavirus outbreak which has killed nearly 500 people and infected thousands.The company said the fast-spreading virus was having a negative impact on its business but added that it could not yet assess to what extent.Adidas has around 12,000 outlets in China, including franchise stores.Adidas saw sales growth slow to 11% in China in the July-September period from 14% in the second quarter.Several retailers have warned that coronavirus is taking its toll, including Nike Inc and Hugo Boss, which have both closed some stores in China.Adidas’s German rival Puma on Wednesday declined to comment on whether coronavirus has hit its business in China.
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Three men who are members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, have been jailed in pre-trial custody in Denmark until Feb. 27, suspected of spying for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service.The three members of the London-based group were arrested Monday in Ringsted, 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Copenhagen, for the suspected spying on people and companies over a period of six years from 2012.They appeared before the nearby Roskilde City Court where judge John Larsen on Tuesday ordered the hearing held behind closed doors, meaning no details were made public.Heavily armed police officers with machine guns guarded the courthouse in Roskilde, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen. The men who can’t be named under a court ban, pleaded not guilty. The men are facing preliminary charges of espionage under a milder paragraph that could give them up to six years in jail.On Monday, the Saudi ambassador to Denmark, Fahad bin Maayouf Al Ruwaily, was summoned to the Danish foreign ministry.In the same case, another man was arrested Monday in the Netherlands – the historic Dutch city of Delft – for allegedly plotting one or more terror attacks in Iran and for membership of a terrorist organization.
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An avalanche hit a road in eastern Turkey, burying a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus, and killing at least five people, an official said Wednesday. Two other people are reported missing.The avalanche occurred late Tuesday near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahcesehir, in Van province, which borders Iran.Gov. Mehmet Emin Bilmez told reporters that the snow-clearing vehicle’s operator and six people inside the minibus survived. Rescuers were searching for the other two passengers, but their efforts were hampered by the weather conditions.The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the operator, Bahattin Karagulle, was trapped beneath the snow for some 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape. The agency quoted him as saying that he walked toward a village before he was picked up by a vehicle and managed to seek help.
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Russia’s government took additional measures to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus across the border from China, with a Kremlin task force announcing a quarantine location for at-risk patients just days after two cases were reported. Both of the infected are Chinese nationals living inside Russia. “We’re all interested in the results of our fight with the new virus being as effective as possible,” President Vladimir Putin said while addressing the global outbreak during a working visit to the city of Cherepovets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Echo of Moscow news radio that Putin was receiving regular updates from a government working group set up to prevent spread of the disease. “All necessary measures are being taken,“ Peskov said when asked if Putin was satisfied with the task force’s efforts to date. People evacuated The comments came as a Russian Defense Ministry plane evacuated 80 people from the epicenter of the virus in Wuhan, China. A second Russian military plane was reportedly en route late Tuesday to collect the roughly 70 people remaining, a group that, while mostly Russian, included citizens from neighboring Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia. In Moscow, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova announced that those returning would undergo a mandatory two-week precautionary quarantine in Siberia’s Tyumen region. None of the evacuees, Golikova noted, were at this point showing symptoms. Yet an official from a government consumer protection group was also quoted as saying that the Siberian medical facilities would be secured by fencing and patrolled by Russian National Guard, presumably to prevent escapes. “People will live in their own rooms, without leaving them. All measures are necessary for biological safety,” said Svetlana Popova, a doctor with the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare. “Everything will be done according to the rules.”  Russians in Wuhan The Tass news agency quoted Russian Embassy officials as saying 341 Russians were living in Wuhan, suggesting some Russians may not be immediately evacuated. Meanwhile, new Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin — now in his third week on the job after Putin announced a government shake-up last month — announced that foreigners discovered to have the disease would be deported. On Tuesday, Mishustin also postponed a high-profile global economic summit in Sochi until further notice because of the coronavirus. Russia has also announced it would close travel routes in and out of China — with Russian flights now limited solely to the national Aeroflot carrier routes between Moscow and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Flights are limited to a sole terminal in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, providing a lone choke point for health officials to monitor people for coronavirus symptoms. Some Russian charter companies had been offering additional air service routes — at least to Russian passengers. That caused outrage after the private Ural Airlines refused to honor tickets to 70 passengers from Central Asia attempting to board a flight out of Xian, about 800 kilometers from Wuhan, to Yekaterinburg. The company has since ceased offering the service. The RBK daily newspaper also reported the government was considering a ban on export sales of medical masks. Stocks reportedly were low after a run on orders by consumers, since news of the coronavirus broke. Price hikes were also reported amid the deficit. In St. Petersburg, a February 11 performance by a Chinese national opera and dance troupe at the city’s famed Marinsky Theater was postponed until a “more favorable time.”All these measures came atop previous efforts to essentially seal Russia’s 4,300-kilometer-border with China — with a ban on auto and foot traffic, as well as issuance of tourist visas to Chinese tourists introduced by the Kremlin last week. Measures Despite the measures, Russia’s Deputy Health Minister Sergei Krayevoy admitted his ministry had no choice but to hope for the best but prepare for “possible wide spread of the infection.” Health Ministry officials also noted that the coronavirus threat coincided with flu season — a consistently serious risk to global health in any year. Accordingly, two regions — Ulyanovsk and Samara — said they were closing schools and public events until week’s end amid a spike in flu. Officials from both said coronavirus had not factored into the move. 
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Questions about the future of Turkey’s rapprochement with Russia are growing as fallout continues from Monday’s killing of at least five Turkish soldiers by Russia-backed Syrian government forces.  The rising Russia-Turkey tension over Syria is now seen as offering an opportunity to the United States to improve strained ties with Turkey.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a two-day visit to Ukraine to turn up the pressure on Moscow. During the visit, Erdogan condemned Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and signed a military deal with Kyiv.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, right, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a joint news conference following their talks in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 3, 2020.”The situation with Russia, the crisis is accelerating, also with this visit to Ukraine, we’ve reached a point where the Russian limits will be less and less, with Turkey,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.”So the Russians are not happy. The Americans seem to be the winner of the day,” added Bagci.Ankara’s deepening relationship with Moscow has caused alarm among Turkey’s NATO allies, especially the U.S.  U.S. sanctions are looming against Turkey for Ankara’s purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system, an acquisition that violates U.S. law.  But the incident involving the Turkish military personnel in Syria could open the door to a reset with Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he holds a news conference at the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2020.”We witnessed before how Erdogan can change his course in foreign policy, it is too early to tell, but we may not have to wait long.” said former senior Turkish ambassador Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington.Despite what happened, Erdogan appeared to step back Tuesday from any rupture with Moscow.”We do not need to engage in a conflict or a serious contradiction with Russia at this stage,” the Turkish president told reporters while returning from Ukraine.”We cannot overlook these [strategic partnerships with Russia]. That is why we will sit down and discuss everything [with Russia]. Not in anger since it would only bring harm,” Erdogan added.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Istanbul, Jan. 8, 2020. Putin and Erdogan are meeting in Istanbul to inaugurate the dual natural gas line, TurkStream, connecting their countries.The Turkish president underlined the importance of Turkey’s energy relationship with Russia. In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Istanbul to attend an opening ceremony with Erdogan of a new Russian gas pipeline to supply Istanbul.Turkey depends on Russia for about half of its gas supplies, while a Russian company is building the country’s first nuclear power station.  Erdogan also reiterated Tuesday the importance of the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system, dashing any U.S. hopes that Turkey would not activate the system, which is scheduled for later this year.Erdogan’s relationship with Putin is the driving force behind the country’s rapprochement. “This leader’s diplomacy is the engine in Turkish-Russian relations,” said Selcen.Ankara’s ongoing suspicion of Washington’s intentions in the region also remains a powerful impetus to sustaining Turkish-Russian relations.  “There is a break of trust; Turkey is not trusting with the Americans,” said Bagci. “In many ways, this lack of trust was the architect of Turkey orienting toward Russia.”Washington’s support of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the war against the so-called Islamic State group continues to sour U.S.-Turkish relations, given Ankara designation of the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.”This [support] is perceived as an existential threat to Turkey by Ankara,” said Selcen.President Donald Trump’s decision last year, to withdraw American forces supporting the SDF, opened the door to Turkish forces attacking the militia. Ankara was banking on the U.S. withdrawal marking the end to Washington’s support of the SDF.James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria Engagement, speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Nov. 14, 2019.Ambassador James Jeffrey is the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. This week, he reaffirmed Washington’s ongoing support for the SDF.”We had a setback temporarily in Syria back in October with the Turkish incursion, but we’re back doing full operations with our local partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces,” Jeffrey said Thursday during a State Department telephone briefing.Washington’s ongoing support of the SDF continues to fuel Ankara fears that ultimately an independent Kurdish state could be created.   “What’s important regarding Syria for Turkey and the Russian Federation is that they keep maintaining the territorial integrity of Syria — while we are not on the same page with the United States,” said former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende.   “We are quite disappointed [with Washington],” he added, “Not only the government but the Turkish people. Because they disregard the vital interests of Turkey, we are against establishing mini-states.”Monday’s death of the Turkish soldiers is seen as a warning of how little leverage Ankara has in its relationship with Moscow.”Right now, Putin knows, we [Turkey] have no intention to go back to the United States. So he has no incentive, no intention to give us even some breadcrumbs, concessions,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “Because he knows he will get whatever he wants from Turkey. Now we say no to whatever the U.S. says and yes to Russia.”   Until the trust deficit between Ankara and Washington is bridged, efforts to improve ties are predicted to remain tense. Analysts point out Washington still has failed to dispel suspicions of its involvement in a failed military 2016 coup to overthrow Erdogan. Putin was among the first to offer support to Turkey on that violent night.Analysts say Erdogan also is aware of what a dangerous adversary Putin can be.”Erdogan will be careful at the end of the day not to anger Putin because we know when Putin gets angry, we have troubles,” said Bagci.
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U.N.-sponsored military and security talks aimed at achieving a lasting cease-fire in Libya are underway in Geneva. The negotiations are held as Libya’s warring parties continue to violate a temporary truce agreed to in mid-January.Five high-ranking officers appointed by the Government of National Accord in Libya and five other high-ranking military officers appointed by rebel commander Khalifa Haftar are in attendance. This is the first time ever that high-ranking officers from both sides are getting together to talk peace.U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame says both sides agree on the necessity to turn the truce into a permanent cease-fire. But how they will achieve that, he says, is very much an open question.“That is why these talks in Geneva are meant to listen carefully to the position of the two sides on what are the conditions for them to accept this translation of the truce into a permanent and lasting cease-fire,” Salame said.Haftar, who began a military assault on Tripoli nearly a year ago in April, expected an easy win. Instead, it has turned into a bloody stalemate, claiming more than 2,000 lives and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.Salame says an arms embargo imposed in 2011 by the U.N. Security Council has been incessantly violated since then. The ready availability of weapons, he says, is a source of great concern as it continues to fuel the war.
“We have evidence of new equipment, but also new fighters, non-Libyan fighters, joining the two camps. Therefore, we believe that the arms embargo is being violated by both parties, and therefore, by the countries who are violating [the embargo] as the source of this equipment or the source of these new fighters,” he said.
Salame says the Security Council has been asked to revitalize a sanctions committee to give more teeth to the arms embargo. He says that could give a much-needed boost to peace talks. 
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The World Health Organization is warning that false information circulating on social media about the new coronavirus is hampering efforts to tackle the epidemic.  This fast moving disease so far has infected more than 20,000 people and killed at least 427. The overwhelming number of cases and all but two deaths have occurred in China.Health officials say a disease epidemic is likely to quickly generate an epidemic of information. This is not unusual, they explain, because at the start of an outbreak, a lot is unknown about the nature of the disease and the risks it entails.Unfortunately, they say the search for answers often triggers a lot of misinformation and harmful rumors. Sylvie Briand is the director of WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness unit. She says trying to deal with the mass of false information and rumors circulating on social media is challenging.“A few centuries ago, this phenomenon existed as well. But at that time there was no social media and so the information was spreading as well, but much slower than now,” said Briand. “Now, the information is spreading very fast and is amplified immediately in every corner of the world, basically. This speed is very difficult to address in a timely manner.”Travelers arrive at LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal wearing medical masks for protection against the novel coronavirus outbreak on February 2, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.WHO is teaming up with Google, which has launched a new project called SOS Alert. The system allows people to easily access key and correct information about the coronavirus.  It says other social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok also are taking steps to limit the spread of misinformation.Briand tells VOA that getting the right message out to the public is not always easy.“But I think it is a challenge of the 21st century because we are all beneficiaries of those extremely intense and fast communications, but also we could be the victims of it,” said Briand. “This is why it is very important to characterize the phenomenon and to develop methods to tackle it appropriately.” Briand says confronting false information head on is not censorship. Rather, she says, it is a way of responding to people’s concerns in the best way possible given the evidence that exists at the moment. As evidence and understanding about the new coronavirus grow, she says more and better information will become available.
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Irish regulators have launched separate inquiries into Google and dating app Tinder over how they process user data, in a new round of regulatory scrutiny aimed at tech companies.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said Tuesday that it decided to look into how Google handles location data after a number of consumer groups across the European Union filed complaints.The commission opened an investigation into Google’s Irish subsidiary to determine whether the U.S. search giant “has a legal basis for processing the location data of its users” and whether it meets transparency obligations under the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.Google “will cooperate fully with the office of the Data Protection Commission in its inquiry, and continue to work closely with regulators and consumer associations across Europe,” the company said in a statement. “In the last year, we have made a number of product changes to improve the level of user transparency and control over location data.”The regulator is also investigating Tinder after people in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU raised concerns about issues surrounding U.S. parent company Match Group’s “ongoing processing of users’ personal data” related to Tinder, transparency and compliance with GDPR.“Transparency and protecting our users’ personal data is of utmost importance to us,” Match Group said. “We are fully cooperating with the Data Protection Commission, and will continue to abide by GDPR and all applicable laws.”Ireland’s Data Privacy Commission is the lead EU regulator for both companies because their European headquarters are based in Dublin. Under GDPR, regulators can fine companies up to 20 million euros, or 4% of global turnover, whichever is higher, for any breaches as well as require changes to follow the law.The commission now has a total of 23 inquiries into big U.S. tech companies, which also include Facebook and Twitter. It launched a separate investigation of Google last year over personalized online advertising.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a nationwide vote on constitutional changes he proposed wouldn’t be used to extend his current term in office, but remained tight-lipped about his future political plans.
Kremlin critics have seen Putin’s amendments as part of his efforts to stay at the helm after his current presidential term expires in 2024. The proposed changes, however, don’t make it clear exactly how he could do that.
Asked during a meeting with students and teachers if the vote could be used to directly extend his term in office, Putin said it’s not what he wants.
 
“I didn’t propose that to extend my authority,” Putin said. “The election of the head of state must be held on a competitive basis.”
Observers have speculated that once his term expires Putin could use the amendments to continue calling the shots as head of the State Council or prime minister. The former position, however, is yet to be defined and the latter is clearly subordinate to the presidency, making it unlikely that Putin would want it for himself.
It has remained unclear why the Russian leader is rushing through constitutional changes four years before the end of his term.
Putin, a 67-year-old former KGB officer, who has led Russia for more than 20 years — the longest since Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Putin prefers to keep his plans secret until the final moment.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he chairs a meeting on drafting constitutional changes at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Jan. 16, 2020.Putin has argued that the changes in the constitution he proposed in a state-of-the-nation speech on Jan. 15 are intended to boost the powers of parliament and strengthen democracy. But the proposals also maintain and even strengthen presidential powers — something Putin described as a must for Russia.
The Kremlin-controlled lower house quickly approved Putin’s constitutional bill in the first of three required readings last month, and a second reading is set to be held later this month. Lawmakers and a working group created by Putin have already come up with a variety of proposals in addition to what the original draft outlines.
Once lawmakers complete work on the constitutional amendments, they will be put to popular vote. It’s still unclear how it will be organized.
Putin said Tuesday that he wants a nationwide vote as “the highest form of democracy,” adding that it will “make people feel engaged, feel themselves as co-authors of the document.” He noted that he hopes that the work on the constitutional changes could be completed in just over three months.  
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Tehran said Monday that it would stop sharing information with Kyiv about the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner last month, after a Ukrainian TV channel released leaked recordings from Iranian air traffic control.The recordings, which aired on Ukraine’s 1+1 Sunday evening, are of a conversation between two air traffic controllers speaking in Farsi about “the light of a missile” on the plane’s route.Iran denied for days after the plane crash that the jetliner was brought down by one of its missiles.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the recording “proves that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was hit by a missile.” Iranian authorities presumably would have had access to these records directly following the crash.On Monday, the head of Iran’s investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, said that Tehran would stop coordinating with Ukraine on the investigation.”The technical investigation team of the Ukrainian airline crash, in a strange move, published the secret audio file of the communications of a pilot of a plane that was flying at the same time as the Ukrainian plane,” Rezaifar said, according to semiofficial news agency Mehr.”This action by the Ukrainians led to us not sharing any more evidence with them,” he added.Rezaeifar did not deny that the leaked recordings were authentic.Iran admitted on January 11 to shooting down the Ukraine International Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Tehran three days earlier, saying its forces mistook the plane for an enemy threat hours after they fired missiles at an Iraqi base that houses U.S. troops. The crash of the Boeing 737 killed all 176 people on board, most of them Iranians and Iranian-Canadians who were flying to Kyiv en route to Canada, where many had been studying.  In the three days following the crash, Iranian state media reported that officials blamed it on mechanical problems with the plane. They also cited government denials of Western news reports that said Western intelligence agencies had evidence of Iranian forces downing the jet.
 
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Brexit Day, with its mixed emotions, exposed how wide the rift with the European Union remains and how difficult it will be to bridge the gap now that Britain has left the trading bloc.Much of the media focus has been on the likely commercial and political repercussions for Britain. The economic shock could be severe, depending on how quickly Britain can strike free trade deals with the United States and China.But the now 27-member EU will also be wounded.With Britain gone, EU federalists will have less restraining them in their push for a deeper political union among the remaining member states. That, in turn, could reignite euroskepticism and trigger another populist backlash, especially in central European states, which are the most skeptical of federalism and the most determined to preserve nation-state rights, analysts say.On the economic front, much rests with how trade negotiations unfold in the next few months between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brussels.”The problem is objectively that there will be some losses and damages, no doubt, on both sides,” said Donald Tusk, former European Council president.Speaking to the BBC Sunday, Tusk said there was no wish to punish Britain for exiting, and he does not expect either side will want to intentionally harm the other.”This is a process of only damage control,” he said.But few doubt there will be damage. There seems to be no love lost between London and Brussels. The rhetorical exchanges across the English Channel in recent days have been toxic in content and tone.FILE – Brexit supporters wave Union flags during Brexit celebrations in central London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson and his ministers unleashed a series of combative statements, triggering equally bellicose responses from European leaders who appeared to be encouraging Scotland to break away from Britain.  As a way of emphasizing Britain’s new status as an “independent state,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ordered British diplomats to spurn their erstwhile EU colleagues at international conferences and not sit next to them at gatherings.Former British senior diplomat John Kerr predicted Sunday that the negotiations on Britain’s future relationship with the EU, which will formally start on March 3, will quickly become “nasty and (objectionable) rebarbative.”  Johnson wants to agree to the terms of Britain’s future relationship with the bloc, modeled on the EU’s free trade agreement with Canada, by the time a transitional period ends in December.Johnson said if negotiations don’t go Britain’s way, he would be happy with a looser and distant relationship with the EU, and trade with the continent solely on World Trade Organization terms.That would mean the imposition of high trade barriers, costly tariffs and time-consuming customs checks on goods traded between the EU and Britain.  On Monday, Johnson outlined his “red lines,” saying he isn’t prepared to align with the EU’s regulatory rules, while at the same time, he said he wants tariff-free trade.”There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policies, subsidies, social protection, the environment or anything similar any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules,” Johnson said.But European officials say that would give Britain better terms than it enjoyed as an EU member state and give British manufacturers and farmers a competitive edge over their continental rivals by lowering production costs and making their goods cheaper.If Britain departs from EU rules just on industrial emissions and pollution, it could save British industry about $5 billion dollars a year, reducing the price of its goods.  FILE – People celebrate Britain leaving the EU on Brexit Day at Parliament Square in London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson also rejected calls by European leaders for EU trawlers to continue to have access to British fishing waters in exchange for a deal allowing Britain’s financial institutions unfettered access to the continent. And he is threatening a tariff war with the EU, warning that if no satisfactory trade deal is struck by year’s end, Britain will impose high tariffs on goods from the continent, such as cars, cheese and wine.In an open letter published in The Times newspaper on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that Johnson’s demands won’t be accepted.”Ease of access to the European market will depend on the degree to which the European Union’s rules are accepted,” he wrote.Few observers believe anything but a bare-bones trade agreement will be negotiated by year’s end, leaving both Britain and the EU with economic damage.Britain would be worse off, and the gloomiest forecasts have as much as 8% of its GDP lost as a result of a no-trade Brexit deal. A Canada-style deal could shrink the British economy by nearly 5% by 2035, according to the British government’s own analysis.But the impact is also going to be painful for the EU.A study last year by the University of Leuven in the Netherlands suggested close to 2 million jobs could be lost on the continent because of tariffs and trade barriers, if there is just a bare-bones deal. The EU risks a 1.5 percent fall in its collective GDP.For Europe, the economic pain would be spread across member states, although four countries would suffer the most.FILE – A projection appears on a wall in Ramsgate, southern England, on Brexit Day, Jan. 31, 2020.Nearly 14% of Ireland’s exports, mainly dairy and meat, go directly to Britain. Germany exports a wide variety of industrial products to Britain, including pharmaceuticals, chemical and petroleum products, and almost 800,000 cars a year. The Netherlands also enjoys significant trade with Britain. Meanwhile, France could see around 140,000 jobs lost with the country’s fishing industry hit hard, if French trawlers are blocked from British waters.An economic hit would be most unwelcome on the continent, where economic growth has already slowed almost to zero. The prospect of further economic disruption isn’t going to help in forthcoming haggling over the EU’s institutional budget. Brexit means the EU has to make up an estimated $12 billion shortfall in lost British contributions, and some cash-strapped governments are unhappy with the money they already have to contribute and want curbs on EU spending.Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, nicknamed the Frugal Four, are all pressing for a reduced EU budget. Berlin is determined to see that German taxpayers aren’t forced to take on the financial burden created by Brexit’s impact on the EU budget.And there’s growing alarm among member states that Britain’s departure will embolden EU federalists, who want to accelerate the bloc’s political integration. Britain had long been an opponent of a deeper political union.With Britain gone, Macron has already served notice of his plans for greater federalism, saying the EU “must understand the reasons” for Brexit “and learn lessons from it.”“It is a historic alarm signal which must resound in each of our countries, be heard by all of Europe and make us think,” Macron said.The lesson he draws is that “Europe needs new momentum.” His recipe is “more Europe, not less.”Macron is also championing a defense union separate from NATO.Later this year, the EU will hold a “Future of Europe” conference where divisions, as much as unity, could be on display, with central European states and Italy, which are already clashing with Brussels on migration policy and rule of law issues, resisting the “more Europe” formula.”Many EU member governments are wary of anything that might weaken NATO,” said Giles Merritt of the Friends of Europe research group, and author of “Slippery Slope: Brexit and Europe’s Troubled Future.”“Poland and the three other “Visegrad” countries of central Europe, along with the three Baltic republics, have ineradicable memories of their treatment at the hands of the Kremlin during the Cold War,” he said.Besides Poland, Visegrad countries include the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania comprise the Baltics. 
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Nearly 50 lawmakers who advocate for their regions to become independent from Spain boycotted Monday’s ceremonial opening of the nation’s legislative season over the presence of the royal family.
    
The representatives of five parties from the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia regions, all in northern Spain, say that the figure of the king is “anachronistic” and that it should be rooted out of Spanish politics.
    
Their symbolic gesture of not attending the first session of the national parliament since a new left-wing government was sworn in last month exposes the difficulties that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces in the coming months.
    
His coalition with the far-left United We Can (Podemos) party will need votes from the separatist parties to pass the nation’s 2020 spending plan and any significant legislation. Sanchez’s Socialists have been supportive of King Felipe VI and the former monarch, King Emerit Juan Carlos I.
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Turkey hit targets in northern Syria, responding to shelling by Syrian government forces that killed at least four Turkish soldiers, the Turkish president said Monday. A Syrian war monitor said six Syrian troops were also killed.
   
The exchange, which came hours after a large Turkish military convoy entered the northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria, is likely to further increase tensions between the two neighboring countries as such direct clashes have been rare.
   
Earlier, Turkey’s National Defense Ministry said the Turkish forces were sent to Idlib as reinforcement and were attacked there despite prior notification of their coordinates to the local authorities. It said Turkish forces responded to the attack, destroying targets. Along with four killed, nine Turkish troops were wounded.
   
Speaking to reporters before departing for a visit to Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish artillery hit some 46 targets. Erdogan said Turkish warplanes were also involved and claimed that there were between 30 and 35 casualties on the Syrian side but offered no evidence.
   
“Those who test Turkey’s determination with such vile attacks will understand their mistake,” Erdogan said. He said Russia was told that Ankara would not stand for any “situation where we are prevented” from responding to Syrian assaults.
   
“It is not possible for us to remain silent when our soldiers are being martyred,” Erdogan said.
   
The Russian military said its air force took control later Monday over the airspace in Idlib’s de-escalation zone, after Turkish troops were attacked. The Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria said in a statement that the airspace “is constantly being monitored by Russia’s air forces.”
   
Monday’s exchange occurred near the Syrian flashpoint town of Saraqeb, according to the the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group.
   
It comes amid a Syrian government offensive into the country’s last rebel stronghold, located in Idlib and parts of the nearby Aleppo region. Turkish troops are deployed in some of those rebel-held areas to monitor an earlier cease-fire that was agreed to but that has since collapsed.
   
Relations between Turkey and Syria have deteriorated sharply since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. Syria accuses Turkey of undermining its security by allowing thousands of foreign fighters to come battle the Syrian army. Idlib province is currently dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants.
   
With Russian backing, the Syria government has been on the offensive since December to capture and reopen a strategic highway held by the rebels since 2012. The offensive ignored a cease-fire deal brokered late last year between Russia and Turkey. The deal has since collapsed.
   
Syrian government forces captured the key Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan from the rebels last Wednesday, and have now set their sights on Saraqeb. The strategic highway passes through both towns.
   
The province of Idlib is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Syria in earlier bouts of violence. The United Nations has estimated that about 390,000 Syrians have been displaced there over the past two months _ 315,000 in December and 75,000 in January.
   
Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees, and the current wave of violence in Idlib has raised concerns of a new surge in displaced civilians fleeing toward the Turkish border.
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