The prospect of Russian interference in Britain’s election flared anew Saturday after the social media platform Reddit concluded that people from Russia had leaked confidential British government documents on Brexit trade talks just days before the general U.K. vote. Reddit said in a statement that it had banned 61 accounts suspected of violating policies against vote manipulation. It said the suspect accounts shared the same pattern of activity as a Russian interference operation dubbed Secondary Infektion that was uncovered earlier this year.  Reddit investigated the leak after the documents became public during the campaign for Thursday’s election, which will determine the country’s future relationship with the European Union. All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs. Reddit said it believed the documents were leaked as part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia. We were able to confirm that they did indeed show a pattern of coordination,'' Reddit said. The British government has not challenged the authenticity of the documents. FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson sits on a train in London, Dec. 6, 2019, on the campaign trail ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.Britain's main opposition party has argued the documents prove that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party is seeking a deal with the United States after Brexit that would drive up the cost of drugs and imperil the state-funded National Health Service. The issue has been a central election theme, largely because the country deeply cherishes the health service, which has suffered under years of austerity. Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the 451 pages of documents, which covered six rounds of preliminary talks between U.S. and U.K. negotiators, proved that Johnson was planning to put the NHSup for sale” in trade talks. Johnson — who was not prime minister for most of the two-year period when the trade talks took place — has rejected Corbyn’s analysis. Britain is currently scheduled to leave the 28-nation EU on January 31. When asked about Reddit’s actions while on a campaign stop in Wales, Corbyn suggested the news was an advanced stage of rather belated conspiracy theories by the prime minister.'' ''When we released the documents, at no stage did the prime minister or anybody deny that those documents were real, deny the arguments that we put forward. And if there has been no discussion with the USA about access to our health markets, if all that is wrong, how come after a week they still haven't said that? he said. ‘Extremely serious’Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan told the BBC that the government was looking for and monitoring anything that might suggest interference in the British election.  From what was being put on that [Reddit] website, those who seem to know about these things say that it seems to have all the hallmarks of some form of interference,'' Morgan said.And if that is the case, that obviously is extremely serious.” The specter that Russia has meddled in Britain’s electoral process has been raised before. Critics are also questioning the British government’s failure to release a Parliament intelligence committee report on previous Russian interference in the country’s politics. They say it should have been made public before Thursday’s vote. The Times of London reported, without saying how it got the information, that the intelligence report concluded that Russian interference might have affected the 2016 referendum on Britain’s departure from the EU, though the impact was unquantifiable.'' The committee said British intelligence services failed to devote enough resources to countering the threat, and it highlighted the impact of articles posted by Russian news sites that were widely disseminated on social media, the newspaper reported. FILE - The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, reacts as she speaks at a campaign event in London, Nov. 9, 2019.Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson expressed concern about the new Russian interference claims. All of us should be concerned if a foreign country is trying to interfere in our democracy,” she said. “And that is why it is so appalling that the prime minister is sitting on a report that was written weeks before the general election, that the Security Committee say should be published, into interference in U.K. democracy by foreign countries like Russia.” 
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France’s most serious nationwide work stoppage in decades frustrated weekend travelers Saturday as truckers blocked thoroughfares and vital transportation services continued to operate far below normal capacity.Concern that President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension overhaul would force millions of people to work longer or face less lucrative benefits triggered the union-led strike on Thursday, bringing much of the country to a halt.Truckers blocked roads Saturday in about 10 regions in France to protest a proposed tax hike on diesel fuel for commercial vehicles.Yellow vest protesters, who have taken to the streets on Saturdays over the past year to voice frustration over the high cost of living in France, sought to capitalize on the nationwide strike.Several hundred of them launched a new protest Saturday in Paris and they scuffled with police in the city’s Left Bank district.Travel in France remained problematic Saturday, with only one in 10 regional trains running and one out of six high-speed TGV trains operating.Air travel was returning closer to normal after authorities dropped travel restrictions.More than 800,000 people participated in the first day of demonstrations on Thursday.In response to what they see as an attack on hard-won worker rights, union leaders have promised to continue protesting unless Macron abandons the proposed pension overhaul, which officials admit would force employees to gradually work longer.Unions have also announced another strike on Tuesday (Dec. 10).Officials have given few details about the pension plan, but Macron’s office said Thursday that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe would unveil the framework next week after negotiations with unions.The strike is a test of the political prowess of Macron, a former investment banker who won the presidency on the promise to transform France.Macron wants to standardize and simplify the country’s retirement system comprised of 42 pension plans, maintaining it is not financially sustainable or fair.Many workers, particularly teachers, worry Macron’s reform will leave them with less retirement money.With workers living much longer and a large segment of working-age citizens unemployed, analyst Jean Peteaux of Sciences-Po Bordeaux University said France’s pension system is under significant financial pressure.Peteaux also said it is uncertain if the government’s method to address the issue will succeed. 
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Strikes disrupted weekend travel around France on Saturday as truckers blocked highways and most trains remained at a standstill because of worker anger at President Emmanuel Macron’s policies.Meanwhile, yellow vest protesters held their weekly demonstrations over economic injustice in Paris and other cities, under the close watch of police. The marchers appear to be emboldened by the biggest national protests in years Thursday that kicked off a mass movement against the government’s plan to redesign the national retirement system.As the strikes entered a third day Saturday, tourists and shoppers faced shuttered subway lines around Paris and near-empty train stations.Other groups are joining the fray, too.
Nationwide Strike Paralyzes France video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkNationwide Strike Paralyzes FranceTruckers striking over a fuel tax hike disrupted traffic on highways from Provence in the southeast to Normandy in the northwest. A similar fuel tax is what unleashed the yellow vest movement a year ago, and this convergence of grievances could pose a major new threat to Macron’s presidency.The travel chaos is not deterring the government so far, though. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe plainly told the French in a nationwide address Friday: “You’re going to have to work longer.”He will present details of the plan next week. The government says it won’t raise the official retirement age of 62 but the plan is expected to including financial conditions to encourage people to work longer. Philippe did offer one olive branch, saying the changes would be progressive so that they don’t become “brutal.”Macron says the reform, which will streamline a convoluted system of 42 special pension plans, will make the system more fair and financially sustainable.Unions, however, see the plan as a t hreat to hard-fought workers’ rights, and are digging in for what they hope is a protracted strike. They also plan new nationwide retirement protests Tuesday, despite the tear gas and rioting that marred the edges of the Paris march Thursday.In a society accustomed to strikes and workers rights, many people have supported the labor action, though that sentiment is likely to fade if the transport shutdown continues through next week.“I knew it was going to last … but I did not expect it to be that chaotic,” Ley Basaki, who lives in the Paris suburb of Villemomble and struggles to get to and from work in the capital, told The Associated Press on Saturday at the Gare de l’Est train station. “There is absolutely nothing here, nothing, nothing. There is no bus, nothing.”Many travelers are using technology and social networks to find ways around the strike — working from home, using ride-sharing apps and riding shared bikes or electric scooters.But some are using technology to support the strike: A group of activist gamers is raising money via a marathon session on game-streaming site Twitch. Their manifesto says: “In the face of powers-that-be who are hardening their line and economic insecurity that is intensifying in all layers of the population,” they are trying to “occupy other spaces for mobilization and invent other ways of joining the movement.”
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Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military.While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members.The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally.Overall, the survey found 28% of Americans identified Russia as an ally, up from 19% the previous year.A sun ray illuminates St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square during a cold winter day in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 11, 2019.Generally, the pollsters found the positive views of Russia seemed to be “predominantly driven by Republicans who have responded to positive cues from [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump about Russia,” according to an executive summary accompanying the results.While a majority, 71% of all Americans and 53% of military households, still views Russia as an enemy, the spike in pro-Russian sentiment has defense officials concerned.“There is an effort, on the part of Russia, to flood the media with disinformation to sow doubt and confusion,” Defense Department spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Carla Gleason told VOA.“This is not only through discordant and inflammatory dialogue but through false narratives designed to illicit sympathetic views,” she said, adding, “we are actively working to expose and counter Russian disinformation whenever possible.”Reagan National Defense SurveyThe Reagan National Defense Survey, conducted on behalf of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, questioned just more than 1,000 adults between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.Concern among U.S. officials runs deep, partly because other surveys have also found a growing willingness in the U.S. to view Russia positively.For example, Paul R. Pillar, Georgetown UniversityOthers fear Russia’s gains in public opinion are symptomatic of a bigger problem that the Kremlin has managed to exploit.“People’s beliefs and perceptions are shaped more by whatever the leaders of their own political tribe say than by ideology, history, or even their own self-interest,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now with Georgetown University.He said, for now though, the gradual change in U.S. perceptions of Russia has had limited impact.“Many Republicans can slavishly follow Trump’s lead on most matters, including the rhetorical line on Russia, but still, say, support defense expenditures designed to maintain strength vis-a-vis Russia,” Pillar said, noting a variety of U.S. sanctions against Moscow are still in place.The U.S. national defense strategy, updated just two years ago, likewise lists Russia along with China, as the prime threats to the U.S.For the most part, the Reagan National Defense Survey found a majority of Americans are in agreement.“When we asked Americans which countries were tops on their list in terms of the threat that they posed to the United States the first was China [28%] and the second was Russia [25%],” said Ronald Reagan Institute Policy Director Rachel Hoff.She also said there was strong sentiment that the U.S. should not cede any ground on the global stage, to Russia or anyone else.“They want America to take the lead when it comes to international events rather than a less engaged posture where our country is reacting to global events,” Hoff told VOA, pointing to a 50% to 33% margin.At the same time, other polls have pointed to a lingering wariness on the part of a majority of Americans when it comes to Russia.A Gallup survey published in February of this year found only 24% of Americans had a positive view of Russia, down from a 44% favorable rating in February of 2013.
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A court in Moscow has handed popular blogger Yegor Zhukov a three-year suspended sentence after finding him guilty of inciting extremism online in a case condemned as politically motivated. 
 
The Kuntsevo district court announced the verdict Friday as hundreds of supporters of Zhukov, 21, a student at Moscow’s prestigious Higher School of Economics, gathered outside the court building in western Moscow. 
 
“The court has established that Zhukov made public calls for extremist activity using the internet,” Judge Svetlana Ukhnaleva said. 
 
Zhukov was arrested in August amid protests that gripped Moscow for weeks this past summer as Russians vented against the country’s repressive political system. 
 
“Of course, this is not an ultimate victory. A big thank you to everyone,” Zhukov said after the verdict was announced. 
 
In his final court appearance, on Wednesday, Zhukov made an impassioned appeal to his supporters — and offered an indictment of Russia’s political system. Economic inequalityRussia’s current political system has fostered economic inequality that, Zhukov said, destroys any opportunity for human prosperity, with the top 10 percent holding 90 percent of the country’s wealth. 
 
“Among them, of course, there are very honorable citizens. But the bulk of this wealth was obtained not by honest labor, for the benefit of people, but by banal corruption,” he said. 
 
Prior to his predawn arrest on August 2, Zhukov had already drawn a sizable audience on YouTube, where he had posted a series of video blogs in which he vented against President Vladimir Putin and promoted opposition protests across the country.  FILE – A wheelchair-bound woman activist surrounded by journalists holds a poster reading, “The Constitution breakers to be brought to justice!” as she talks to police officers during a protest in the center of Moscow, Aug. 17, 2019.In the series of protests that hit Moscow on consecutive weekends during the summer, police detained hundreds of people on various charges. Most were released for misdemeanor violations. 
 
At a different location in the capital Friday, the Tver district court sentenced Nikita Chirtsov, a 22-year-old programmer who took part in an unsanctioned rally on July 27, to serve one year “in a general penal colony.” 
 
Chirtsov was initially fined 12,000 rubles ($185) for violating regulations for holding public events, after which he left Moscow for the Belarusian capital, Minsk. However, Belarusian officials detained him days later on a Russian request and ordered him sent back to Moscow. 
 
Upon his return, Chirtsov was rearrested and charged with assaulting a police officer during the rally and placed in pretrial detention. Chirtsov maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and the police officer involved told the court in November that the suspect “does not deserve imprisonment.” Other cases
 
The Tver district court also fined Pavel Novikov, 32, 120,000 rubles ($1,850) after finding him guilty of assaulting a police officer during the same July 27 rally. 
 
Meanwhile, the Meshchansky district court on Friday handed Vladimir Yemelyanov a two-year suspended sentence after also finding him guilty of assaulting a law officer during the July 27 rally. 
 
Zhukov was initially charged with mass unrest as a result of his participation in the protests, but amid an outcry from his student supporters, prosecutors reclassified the case against him. 
 
The last video he posted before being detained had been viewed more than 300,000 times as of Thursday. Since his arrest, the videos posted to his YouTube channel by his supporters and allies have garnered hundreds of thousands more.
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Britons vote next Thursday in the country’s third general election in under four years, with pollsters and politicians warning it isn’t going to be easy to forecast the outcome. As the clock ticks toward the most consequential vote in a generation, the battle for Downing Street appears to be coming down once again to the two main storied parties  Labor and the Conservatives, say analysts, who note that voters have never held the leaders of either group in such high disdain as they do now.The fracturing of the two dominant parties, the revival of the country’s perennial third party, the Liberal Democrats, as well as the formation of a new anti-European Union party and the scrambling of traditional party allegiances, was adding too many variables for accurate prediction, the analysts cautioned, made more complicated by the country’s first past-the-post-voting system. This is where the candidate with the majority of the votes becomes the winner.One opinion poll after another and television debate after television debate have brought home how distrusting the British public has become of both the ruling Conservatives’ Boris Johnson and Labor’s Jeremy Corbyn.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson sits on a train in London, Dec. 6, 2019, on the campaign trail ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.Johnson is seen widely as an opportunist who will say anything to remain at No. 10 Downing Street but who doesn’t mean what he says and doesn’t say what he means. His public representation for being economical with the truth stretches back to when he was fired as a journalist by The Times newspaper for making up quotes.Corbyn is viewed as more in touch than Johnson with the trials and tribulations of ordinary people, but is judged an impracticable far-left figure from a bygone era whose plan to re-nationalize a chunk of the economy would likely bankrupt the country and who promises far more than can be delivered when it comes to redistributing wealth and reinvesting in Britain’s crumbling public services.Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during a press conference in London, Dec. 6, 2019, ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.Corbyn’s fudge on Brexit — in which he wants to renegotiate yet another exit deal with the European Union and then hold a second referendum while remaining neutral on the plebiscite — has provoked derision from studio audiences.Johnson, too, has faced ridicule in TV studios as well as snubs on the streets when campaigning. “Is that a lie again?” queried an irate Yorkshire woman when he visited flood-hit parts of Britain last month and faced a barrage of criticism from furious locals over Conservative promises of cash aid that had amounted to nothing. In vain he tried to engage some in conversation. “You’ve not helped us … I don’t know what you’re here today for,” sniped one woman, who insisted he get out of her way.Mid-week, fast food giant Burger King decided to use the election to poke fun at Johnson’s reputation for misrepresentation with a new advertisement slapped on the side of London buses, mocking his Brexit promises. “ANOTHER WHOPPER ON THE SIDE OF A BUS. MUST BE AN ELECTION,” the ad declared, a tongue-in-cheek reference both to Burger King’s signature burger, the Whopper, and to political lies.”With a week to go before the election, the central issue seems to come down to trust,” according to The Guardian columnist Gary Younge. “For the Conservatives it is about whether people trust what they say; for Labor, it is about whether voters trust that it can do what it says. The challenge for the Tories (Conservatives) goes all the way to the top,” he added.People attend a “Stop the Brexit landslide” rally in London, Dec. 6, 2019.Many voters do not rate either of the main leaders so they must choose their least worst option, the “lesser of two evils,” say analysts.Conservative strategists hope the distrust voters harbor for Corbyn and Johnson will cancel out each other and that in the end they will win through and maintain their seven-point lead over Labor by garnering all the pro-Brexit vote. They are banking on the pro-EU vote fracturing between Labor and the Liberal Democrats, depriving Corbyn of sufficient seats to form a parliamentary majority or enough seats to cobble together a coalition government with Scotland’s nationalists, who are likely to make major gains north of the border with England.The Conservatives have stayed rigidly on message, trying to make the election as much about Brexit as possible and marketing the fact that they will take Britain out of Europe by the end of January, if they form the next government. Their discipline is working to make sure they are seen as the only real political vehicle for Brexit to happen and the challenge from the newly-minted Brexit Party of Nigel Farage is collapsing.Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Brexit Party poses after speaking on stage at the launch of their policies for the General Election campaign, in London, Nov. 22, 2019.Farage’s party is polling at about 5 percent and midweek, three of the party’s high-profile members urged voters to back the Conservatives, if they want “Brexit to be delivered,” angering Farage.Conservative strategists are also banking on Britons not wanting another deadlocked parliament and that Brexit exhaustion will persuade even pro-EU Conservatives to back Johnson on the grounds that the Brexit mess needs now to be brought to a conclusion and that if Johnson isn’t returned to Downing Street the political impasse will merely be prolonged.The polls in the final days of campaigning have narrowed, with the Conservatives’ lead almost dropping from 13 percent  to 9 or 7 percent, but that is not enough to give Labor much hope of overtaking the Conservatives. Labor’s support in its heartland districts of the north, many of which backed leaving Europe in the 2016 Brexit referendum, is also looking increasingly shaky.But tactical voting by pro-EU voters to upset the Conservatives is a wild card and could upend polling predictions — two former prime ministers, Labor’s Tony Blair and the Conservatives’ John Major, both of whom want Britain to remain in the EU — have been urging Britons to vote tactically in constituencies to deny Johnson a parliamentary majority. Pro-EU organizations have created interactive electoral maps to encourage tactical voting.More people than ever before are expected to vote tactically when a divided Britain has its say on Dec. 12 after more than three years of Brexit uncertainty, according to a Sunday Times poll with up to 6 to 10 percent of its readers thinking about voting tactically.
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One of France’s biggest demonstrations in recent history continued Friday, with unions vowing to protest until the government backs down on planned pension reforms.Metro, rail and air service were severely disrupted again Friday, as France marked its second day of nationwide protests against a planned overhaul of the pension system.On Thursday, more than 800,000 people took to the streets across the country in a mass show of anger. Their numbers were more than double those of last year’s yellow-vests — although that protest movement hopes to revive on the back of this current discontent.Protesters hide behind a wooden board and an umbrella during a demonstration against the pension overhauls, in Nantes, Dec. 5, 2019, as part of a national general strike.Many of the current demonstrations have been peaceful, but in Paris, some were marked by clashes between police and so-called Black Bloc anarchists. The strike also shuttered schools and many tourist attractions.Pension reform is an explosive issue here. President Emmanuel Macron wants to standardize and simplify the current system comprised of myriad plans, retirement ages and benefits. The last major reform effort in 1995 triggered three weeks of paralyzing strikes — with the government backing off on the most ambitious changes.With people living much longer and a chunk of working-age French unemployed, analyst Jean Peteaux of Sciences-Po Bordeaux university says France’s pension system faces serious financial strains. He says it remains to be seen whether the government’s method will work.Yves Veyrier, general secretary of the Force Ouvriere union, told French radio it was important the mobilization continues. But he and other unions are also opting for the traditional path of negotiations with the government.
 
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says people have the right to strike — but those who want to work should be allowed to do so. Unions have announced another strike next Tuesday. 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel entered the hallowed grounds of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz on Friday as she began her first ever visit to the most notorious site of the atrocities that Adolf Hitler’s regime inflicted on Europe.
                   
Merkel also brought a donation of 60 million Euros ($66.6 million). The money will go to a fund to conserve the physical remnants of the site – the barracks, watchtowers and personal items like shoes and suitcases of those killed.
                   
Together, those objects endure as evidence of German atrocities and as one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of humanity’s capacity for evil. But they also are deteriorating under the strain of time and mass tourism, prompting a long-term conservation effort.
                   
That donation to the Auschwitz Foundation comes in addition to 60 million euros that Germany donated when the fund was launched a decade ago, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum.
                   
That brings the total German donation to 120 million euros and makes Germany by far the most generous of 38 countries that have contributed. As with the earlier donation, half comes from the federal government and half from the German states, an acknowledgement of the German nation’s responsibility.
                   
Since becoming chancellor in 2005, Merkel has paid her respects at other Nazi concentration camps, and she has been five times to Israel’s Holocaust museum and memorial Yad Vashem.
                   
Still, Poland’s Foreign Ministry called her visit “historic,” in an obvious acknowledgement of the unique status Auschwitz has in the world’s collective memory. The ministry also noted that it was just the third visit of an incumbent head of a German government.
                   
Nazi German forces killed an estimated 1.1 million people at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex during their occupation of Poland during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews transported from across Europe to be killed in gas chambers. But tens of thousands of others were killed there too, including Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and Roma, or Gypsies. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.
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A nationwide strike about planned pension reforms that has paralyzed most of France enters its second day Friday.Concern that the proposed pension overhaul would force millions of people to work longer or have less lucrative benefits has prompted the strike, bringing much of the country to a halt.Tens of thousands of workers in France walked off the job Thursday as unions staged a nationwide strike against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to reform the country’s pension system.The strike shut down transportation, forced most schools to close, left hospitals understaffed and basic government services unmet.Largely peaceful demonstrations were held in Paris and in more than two dozen cities throughout the country.Protesters hide behind a wooden board and an umbrella during a demonstration against the pension overhauls, in Nantes, Dec. 5, 2019, as part of a national general strike.Violence erupted, however, near Place de la Republique in eastern Paris, where thousands of protesters had gathered. Some protesters set fire to a construction trailer and police responded by firing tear gas, witnesses said.Police also used tear gas against protesters in the northwestern city of Nantes and in the southeastern city of Lyon.Union leaders have promised to continue protesting unless Macron abandons the proposed pension overhaul, which officials admit would force employees to gradually work longer.Officials have given few details about the plan, but Macron’s office said Thursday that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe would unveil the framework next week after negotiations with unions.The strike is a test of the political prowess of Macron, a former investment banker who won the presidency on the promise to transform France.
 
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Russia and Turkey are working on a contract for the delivery of a new batch of Russian S-400 missile systems, the Interfax news agency cited a senior official at a Russian military cooperation agency as saying on Friday.Such a deal would be likely to further strain Ankara’s relations with Washington which has suspended Turkey from the U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jet program in which it was a producer and buyer, to penalize it for buying S-400 batteries this year.“We’re gradually working on this question. Most importantly, both sides are intent on continuing cooperation in this sphere,” the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation was quoted as saying.The official, Dmitry Shugaev, said he thought there was a “fairly high likelihood” Turkey and Russia would sign a contract for the delivery of an additional batch of S-400s next year.The head of Russia’s state arms exporter told RIA news agency on Nov. 26 that Moscow and Ankara were actively discussing Ankara taking up an option in its original missile contract for it to receive more S-400 systems.
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Hundreds of thousands of people went on strike in cities across France, causing a shutdown of public transport and drastically reducing teaching and hospital staff Thursday. Public and private sector workers are protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms that include extending minimum retirement age and rewarding employees for each day worked. VOA’S Zlatica Hoke reports.
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President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Russia said Vladimir Putin is likely “joyful” about the renewed prominence of a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for meddling in the 2016 election, which experts consider Russian disinformation.“He’s probably joyful that he has the world talking about something he may have been behind,” Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s the way they operate in Moscow, to try to sow seeds of discontent between the United States and Kyiv.”Huntsman is running for his old job as Utah governor after leaving the Moscow post, which he said likely had him spending as much time with the Russian president as any other American.Trump continues to say Ukraine was behind interference in the 2016 election as he faces an impeachment inquiry related to allegations he pressured the country into investigating his political rivals. The FBI has confirmed Russia was behind the meddling.‘No question’ Russia meddledThe Republican agreed that there’s “no question” Russia meddled while saying he didn’t have direct access to all information on Ukraine. It could happen again in 2020, from Russia or a handful of players, and the U.S. may not be prepared.“Let’s just say the capabilities are there to wreak havoc on our most prized institution of democracy,” he said. “We need to be prepared for it, and I don’t know if we are.”He said he’s especially concerned about state and local election systems, where officials might not have the resources or information to know about threats.The moderate conservative hasn’t quite endorsed Trump, who is less popular in Utah than in many other conservative states, but said he would back him in 2020.“He has maintained a strong economy and we are not at war … we hear a lot about the downside. I think the election will focus more on the upside,” he said, adding that an election is better than impeachment on deciding whether the president should stay in office.Utah governorAs he looks for a comeback in state politics, Huntsman downplayed the idea that becoming Utah governor again would be a platform between higher-profile roles, saying he’d serve out a four-year term if elected.First elected in 2004, he was a popular leader who oversaw a period of economic growth and tax reform and had recently won a second term when he stepped down in 2009 to serve as U.S. ambassador to China in the Obama administration.Huntsman mounted a short-lived run for president during the 2012 cycle, and five years later went abroad again as ambassador to Russia. Now, Huntsman said he’s ready to return to Utah.“If I wanted to be secretary of state, I would have stayed where I was,” he said. “No call is going to take me away from doing the work of the people here in Utah.”
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President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States may take action on trade with countries that are not contributing enough to NATO.Trump, fresh from a trip to London for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been pushing member countries to contribute more to the organization.The U.S. president said a lot of countries were getting close to the goal of 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for NATO contributions.”A lot of countries are close and getting closer. And some are really not close, and we may do things having to do with trade. It’s not fair that they get U.S. protection and they’re not putting up their money,” he said.Trump and French leader Emmanuel Macron clashed over the future of NATO on Tuesday before a summit intended to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Western military alliance.In sharp exchanges underlining discord in a transatlantic bloc hailed by many as the most successful military pact in history, Trump demanded that Europe pay more for its collective defense and make concessions to U.S. interests on trade.He also was upbeat about the alliance on Thursday, saying his meetings went well and that “NATO is in very, very good shape and the relationships with other countries are really extraordinary.”
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Republican Senator Kevin Cramer prevented the U.S. Senate from voting Thursday on a resolution that would recognize as a genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, saying it was not an appropriate time to pass legislation that would anger Turkey. 
 
The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution  405-11 in late October. But there has not been a vote in the Senate, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a majority of seats. 
 
Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues such as Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and the NATO ally’s purchase of an S-400 missile defense system from Russia, which could provoke U.S. sanctions. 
 
The resolution asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. 
 
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but it contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide. Threat to sovereigntyAnkara views foreign involvement in the issue as a threat to its sovereignty. It immediately denounced the House vote. 
 
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tried to force a Senate vote on the resolution Thursday. 
 
Cramer, of North Dakota, blocked it, saying the time was not right, just after Trump held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a NATO summit in London. 
 
“I don’t think there’s a single member of the Senate who doesn’t have serious concerns about Turkey’s behavior,” Cramer said, adding, “At the right time, we may pass it.” 
 
Menendez disagreed, noting Erdogan recently visited Washington and nothing had changed. He promised to come to the Senate chamber once a week to raise the issue. 
 
For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by the Ankara government. 
 
The House vote marked the first time in 35 years such legislation was considered in the full chamber, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from members of both U.S. political parties. 
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has the “full right” to annex the Jordan Valley if it chose to, even as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned the country against taking the bold step.Netanyahu said his proposal to annex the strategic part of the occupied West Bank was discussed during a late-night meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said they also agreed to move forward with plans for a joint defense treaty.The longtime Israeli leader, beleaguered by a corruption indictment and political instability at home, is promoting the two initiatives as a justification for staying in office.The Trump administration has already delivered several landmark victories to Netanyahu, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Netanyahu says that thanks to his close relationship with Trump, he is singularly positioned to further promote Israeli interests at this junction before the 2020 U.S. election season heats up.The annexation move would surely draw condemnation from the Palestinians and much of the world and almost certainly extinguish any remaining Palestinian hopes of gaining independence.The Palestinians seek all the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their hoped-for state. The Jordan Valley comprises some 25% of the West Bank and is seen as the territory’s breadbasket and one of the few remaining open areas that could be developed by the Palestinians.But many Israelis say the area is vital to the country’s security, providing a layer of protection along its eastern flank.In her annual report, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office was following the Israeli annexation proposal “with concern.”When asked by reporters about the warning, Netanyahu insisted that it is Israel’s “full right to do so, if we chose so.”Netanyahu’s visit with Pompeo was their first since the secretary of state announced last month that the U.S. no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Israeli nationalists have interpreted that policy change as a green light to begin annexing parts or all of the West Bank.Netanyahu called their 1 hour and 45 minute-meeting in Lisbon “critical to Israeli security.”In particular, he noted the progress they made toward a joint defense pact that would offer Israel further assurance against a future attack from Iran. He said he has informed his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, of the progress in the initiative.Israeli defense officials, and Gantz as well, have expressed concern that such a pact could limit Israel’s freedom to operate militarily. Netanyahu said he was aware of the reservations but assured that it was a “historic opportunity” and Israel would not be limited to act against archenemy Iran.Mike Makovsky, president and chief executive of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in Washington, which has been promoting the idea of a narrow defense pact, said the proposal would offer “an extra layer of deterrence” and “mitigate the intensity and scope” of a potential war with Iran.“Just like every other mutual defense treaty it would be left to the discretion of both parties how it would be implemented,” he said. “Mutual defense pacts have been sources for stability.”In Lisbon, Netanyahu also met with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and thanked him for adopting the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, which toughens guidelines to include some forms of criticism of Israel. Israeli researchers reported earlier this year that violent attacks against Jews around the world spiked significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades.The trip gave Netanyahu a brief respite as he fights for political survival in the wake of two inconclusive elections and a damning corruption indictment. He refused to discuss his future options but vowed to carry on.Israel’s attorney general last month indicted Netanyahu for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.It is the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Unlike mayors or regular ministers, the prime minister is not required by Israeli law to resign if indicted. Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office, where he is best positioned to fight the charges.
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BOLSOVER, ENGLAND — Dennis Skinner is a no-nonsense, unchanging socialist and the only British MP ever to heckle the Queen’s Speech Ceremony, when Britain’s lawmakers process from the Commons annually to the House of Lords to hear the monarch’s address outlining the government’s legislative program.Nicknamed the “Beast of Bolsover,” a reference to the Derbyshire constituency he has represented since 1970, the 87-year-old Skinner has traditionally occupied the seat of the front bench below the gangway in the Commons, where invariably wearing a tweed jacket and red tie, he has harangued those he deems “class enemies,” earning himself a dozen cooling off’ suspensions for what was deemed “unparliamentary language.”The son of a coal miner — his father was sacked after the historic coal strike of 1926 — and a former miner himself, his first brush with the Speaker of the House of Commons was in 1984 when he dubbed the leader of a group of Labour defectors a “pompous sod” and was ordered out of the chamber when he agreed to withdraw only the word “pompous.” In 1992, he incurred another suspension for describing the then Conservative agriculture minister as “a little squirt” and “a slimy wart on Margaret Thatcher’s nose.”Skinner’s working-class constituents, many of them former coal-miners or the sons and daughters of miners, have been relentlessly behind their pugnacious tribune with the snappy bark, and they have been loyal to the Labour Party. The closure of local collieries by Conservative governments in the 1980s and 1990s only deepened Bolsover’s allegiance to Labour and to their MP, who took a pay cut himself in support of the miners during a ferocious 1984-85 miners’ strike.But the times are changing and the country’s oldest serving MP may became next week a casualty of electoral war thanks to the scrambling of British politics by Brexit and a makeover of the Labour Party, which has become more focused on metropolitan issues pushed by progressive urban recruits, irritating older and more socially conservative traditional Labour voters.FILE – Labour party MP Dennis Skinner listens to a speech at a Labour party conference in Liverpool, England, Sept. 25, 2018.Britain’s ruling Conservatives hope Boris Johnson can pull off what his predecessor at 10 Downing Street, Theresa May, failed to do in a snap election 18 months ago. Their hope is that Johnson will breach the Labour Party’s so-called northern red wall,’ once thought to be impregnable, by persuading anti-European Union northern working-class voters to defect to the class-enemy Conservatives to “deliver Brexit.”Skinner’s constituency is one brick in that wall and on the streets of Bolsover in the north east of the county of Derbyshire amid rolling hills, the talk is the December 12 general election may mark the end of the long-serving lawmaker’s political career. Locals say while they still admire their local MP, who’s been unable to campaign personally because of recent hip-replacement surgery, Brexit is driving them away from a Labour Party, which wants to hold a second Brexit referendum, if it wins power.
Bolsover voted 70 percent to Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum and because of that high proportion of pro-Brexit voters, the seat is a key target for the Conservatives. On a cold, breezy day when VOA visited the town center, which has the feel of left-behind desperation about it with boarded-up shops, shuttered pubs, neglected terrace houses and shabby cheap takeaways, it wasn’t difficult to find locals planning to switch their votes to either the Conservatives or the newly-minted Brexit Party of Nigel Farage.One former miner, Dave Michaels, a stocky 65-year-old wearing a flat cap, said, “I’ve been Labour all my life, as was my father, and I don’t like Johnson, don’t trust the man, but I think he’ll get us out of the EU and stop all the dithering.” He voiced annoyance at the influx of eastern European migrants to staff new warehouses and online retail distribution centers. Locals complain migration has altered the social cohesion of this corner of Derbyshire and strained already under-resourced public services.Others expressed similar sentiments, suggesting that Skinner’s 5,000 majority may well collapse next week, adding to a possible seismic change in British politics that could see Labour and the Liberal Democrats snatch traditional Conservative seats in the pro-EU south of England and the commuter belt around London, but lose heartland seats of their own in the north, midlands and southwest of the country.Britain’s Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s rival in the country’s upcoming election Jeremy Corbyn takes pictures with people outside the University of London, in London, Britain, Dec. 3, 2019.The Conservatives’ assault on the “red wall” will make or break Johnson’s dream of securing a parliamentary majority and dictate whether Britain leaves the European Union or not.Daphne, a 52-year-old, who’d just finished shopping in a butcher’s shop, said she’ll be voting for Skinner’s Conservative rival Mark Fletcher. The mother of two grown up daughters, Lewis says she remains grateful to Skinner for all he’s done in the past, but he is “long in the tooth” and it is time for a change. “The Conservatives seem to have a goal,” she says.The 34-year-old Fletcher, the grandson himself of a miner who was educated at state schools before heading to Cambridge University, says locals “want to get Brexit done and the Labour party has lost its way.” He’s convinced he can win Bolsover and that the Brexit Party won’t deny him victory by splitting the Leave vote. He is buoyed by a seat-by-seat opinion survey last week produced by the YouGov polling agency that predicted he will win the seat on December 12 with 42 percent of the vote, with Labour trailing 38 percent and the Brexit Party picking up 12 percent.But the remaining days will be crucial before voting — in Bolsover, as well as in 49 other Labour seats in Wales, the midlands and northern England targeted by the Conservatives. At the last general election there were hints the ‘red wall’ isn’t as strong as Labour strategists suppose — two of Bolsover’s neighboring constituencies, North East Derbyshire and Mansfield, defected to the Conservative camp.The Labour activists are hitting the doorsteps hard in the northern constituencies, though, trawling residual party support. And while the Conservatives are doing well when it comes to the issue of Brexit, they are on the back foot when it comes to public-service issues, and especially in regards to the under-staffed and under-funded National Health Service.But Brexit isn’t Labour’s only problem in the north in what commentators describe as a “hold-your-nose election.” Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, seen widely as the most far-left leader the party has ever had, are vying in the unpopularity stakes, and according to opinion polls neither are trusted by voters. Johnson is the most disliked new prime minister in the modern history of opinion polling, while Corbyn is the most disliked leader of the opposition.General election victory or defeat may come down to who is disliked the most. 
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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been proposed for International Olympic Committee membership, but World Athletics head Sebastian Coe will have to wait due to a conflict of interest, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Thursday.FIFA and World Athletics, the governing bodies of two of the biggest sports in the Olympics, have been without membership ever since the departure from the IOC of their respective former presidents Sepp Blatter and Lamine Diack in 2015.For years, membership of the IOC for the heads of soccer and athletics was seen as almost automatic.Yet the two international federations have been left out in the cold as they struggled with widespread corruption and doping scandals which tarnished their images. Diack, who has denied wrongdoing, faces a corruption trial in France in January.Bach said Infantino had been proposed for election at their next session in January along with International Tennis Federation chief David Haggerty and Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita.World Athletics chief Coe, however, had not been proposed due to a conflict of interest.”We wanted him (Coe) to become an IOC member as president of one of our most important Olympic sports,” Bach said. “Since then we are in close consultation with him and since then we have addressed the risk of a potential of conflict of interest he may have.”Apart for his role at World Athletics, Coe is also Group Chairman of consultancy firm CSM which also works with the IOC.”CSM is consulting various organizations and stakeholders including having contractual partnerships with the IOC itself.”Bach said Coe had informed them that he could not immediately resolve this situation but was working on it. Bach said Coe could become a member at their session during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”He is hopeful to address it in a couple of months. Then that would mean the door is still open for Tokyo.”The IOC elects new members at its sessions once candidates are vetted by the Olympic body. 
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Two Russian residents have been criminally charged in the United States over an alleged multi-year, international scheme to steal money and property by using malware to hack into computers, according to an indictment made public on Thursday.Maksim Yakubets was accused of being the leader of a group of conspirators involved with Bugat malware and botnet, while his close associate Igor Turashev allegedly handled various functions for the conspiracy, the indictment said.The indictment identifies Yakubets as one of the earliest users of a family of malicious software tools called Bugat, better known as Dridex, which has been bedeviling American banks and businesses for more than eight years.Cybersecurity experts say the malware, which first appeared in late 2011, is responsible for millions of dollars in damages worldwide. Experts have long speculated that the malware is the brainchild of a Russian hacking group.The conspiracy allegedly began around November 2011, and several entities – including a school, an oil firm, First Commonwealth Bank – were among the defendants’ victims, according to the indictment filed with the federal court in Pittsburgh. Two of the transactions were processed through Citibank in New York, the indictment says.The indictment is dated Nov. 12 but was unsealed on Thursday.U.S. and British authorities are expected later Thursday to detail charges against a Russian national over allegations of computer hacking and bank fraud schemes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.That announcement characterized the Russian national as being “allegedly responsible for two of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade.”Malware is a software program designed to gather sensitive information, such as passwords and bank account numbers, from private computers by installing viruses and other malicious programs.Spokespeople for First Commonwealth Bank and Citibank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
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Moscow denies any involvement in the shooting death of a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin in August. The Russian government Wednesday condemned Germany’s decision to expel two Russian diplomats over the case. Germany has accused Russia of failing to assist in the investigation. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the attack on the Chechen rebel in Germany has been compared to the attempt on the life of a former Russian spy in Britain last year.
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Islamic State media operatives appear to be flailing about in cyberspace, still trying to recover more than a week after tens of thousands of their messaging accounts were targeted by European officials. Unlike some past efforts to hamper the terror group’s propaganda efforts, which dealt only temporary setbacks, the latest takedown seems to be having a lasting impact, counterterrorism officials and analysts say. “For the time being, for as far as we know, IS is not present on the internet anymore,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor’s office, said during a news conference at The Hague last week. “We will see how fast — if ever — they will regain service.” Only so far, the results of the operation by Europol and the European Union’s Internet Referral Unit working with online service providers such as Telegram, Twitter, Google and Instagram seem to be bearing out the optimistic assessment. U.S. officials say the crackdown on Telegram, long a favorite for IS operatives and supporters, has been especially effective. FILE – The Telegram logo is seen on a smartphone screen in this illustration, April 13, 2018.”Telegram removed over 43,000 terrorist-related bots and channels, the highest monthly total since Telegram began providing such data in September 2016,” a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA of the effort in November. Additionally, the official said, attempts by IS to reestablish or re-create its Telegram accounts have not gone well. “Telegram has expanded and strengthened its terrorist content detection and removal efforts on public channels and groups in the immediate aftermath of Europol’s recent action to disrupt ISIS’s online activities,” the official said, using another acronym for the terror group. Nor does it appear that IS is having much success moving its propaganda and messaging to other platforms. “They are going here, there and everywhere,” said Raphael Gluck, co-founder of Jihadoscope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists. “They are lost in the desert right now.” Over the past week, officials and experts have followed as IS media operatives have sought out alternative messaging platforms, including Russia-based TamTam, Brazil-based Rocket Chat and Hoop Messenger from Canada. Of these, TamTam saw what appeared to have been the biggest surge in new accounts and groups from IS operatives and supporters. But analysts described the company’s response as massive. Amarnath Amarasingam, a terrorism researcher at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, said that of the 165 IS channels and groups he found on TamTam between November 29 and December 2, only 37 were still operating December 3. Multiple attempts by VOA to speak to TamTam directly were unsuccessful. But the company told Amarasingam on Twitter that it was “strongly against the presence of any sort of content by terrorist organizations on our platform.” Thank you, Amarnath, good to know that! We are strongly against the presence of any sort of content by terrorist organizations on our platform. Feel free to report the remaining channels or chats by using the “Report” button in the app or sending links to abuse@tamtam.chat. BR— ТамТам Мессенджер (@tamtamchat) December 3, 2019In other tweets, the messaging platform encouraged experts and users to report any IS or terrorist-linked activity. Analysts caution that the sustained crackdown by governments and service providers is only part of the story. The other part, they say, is Islamic State’s response. “Judging by what they are doing on TamTam, and what they tried on Rocket Chat, there doesn’t seem to be much innovation going on at present,” Amarasingam said. Instead, it appears the terror group, long credited with helping pioneer the use of social media to grow its ranks, is struggling to adapt. “ISIS is at a loss since losing Telegram. They wish they could go back,” Gluck said. “At the tail end of the mass migration [to TamTam], they’re just linking back to good old Telegram.” FILE – Islamic State prisoners in orange jumpsuits are marched along a beach said to be near Tripoli, in this still image from an undated video made available on social media, Feb. 15, 2015.For now, analysts say, IS operatives are doing their best to create new accounts and groups on Telegram, as well as on familiar social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as fast as they can, trying to pump out as much information and propaganda as possible before the accounts are removed. “ISIS and its supporters are trying all kinds of messaging platforms right now, seeing what works, what does and doesn’t get blocked, and what is sustainable for them,” said Chelsea Daymon, a terrorism and security researcher at American University in Washington. “There’s still a good amount of activity on Rocket Chat, which some supporters are saying is the platform they are going to lay low on until things settle down.” For now, thanks to the European-led takedowns, Daymon and others see the start of long-awaited progress in the battle against IS’s so-called virtual caliphate. “It shows a sustained objective, which is what will have potentially positive long-term results,” she said. 
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Italy has increased relocation of migrants around Europe, official figures showed Wednesday, reducing frictions around the issue and enabling far-right leader Matteo Salvini focus more on the economy.Interior Ministry data showed that 172 migrants who came onshore from the Mediterranean were sent elsewhere in the last three months, compared with just 90 in the January-August period.Immigration has been one of Italy’s most contentious issues and fueled the rise of Salvini’s League party, which ruled in coalition with the 5-Star Movement from mid-2018 until August.The new administration signed an agreement to distribute migrants saved from the Mediterranean around the European Union to ease pressure on southern states.Salvini’s replacement as interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, is a technocrat with no party affiliation and has established better relations with European partners. “European countries prefer the current government and interior minister to Salvini, who constantly accused them,” said Gianfranco Pasquino, an analyst from Bologna University.FILE – League party leader Matteo Salvini talks to reporters in Rome, Aug. 22, 2019.During his time in office, Salvini sought to block Italy’s ports to charity migrant rescue ships. Those noisy standoffs are over, though the new government of the 5-Star and the center-left Democratic Party has not repealed his laws.With EU countries offering to take 82% of migrants qualified for relocation, pressure on Italy has eased and Salvini has shifted his focus. Now he leads opposition to reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which he says could jeopardize citizens’ savings with restructuring of Italy’s debt.Polls show the League remains Italy’s most popular party.”Salvini jumps on every issue the government has difficulties with. The ESM [reform] is perfect. He will wait for other occasions and will try to exploit them,” Pasquino added.Italy’s immigration problems are, however, far from over.Arrivals may have halved from last year to 10,960 so far in 2019, according to government data. But there are still 95,000 migrants in Italian centers and more than 1,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, the International Organization for Migration says.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Wednesday in an effort to defuse rising tensions over disputed territorial waters in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The meeting on the sideline of the London NATO summit comes amid Turkish-Greek tensions over territorial disputes about the Mediterranean.Bilateral tensions have escalated with Turkey’s agreement with Libya, increasing Turkish control of eastern Mediterranean waters. The region is experiencing a scramble for potential energy reserves in the area.Athens has been pressing for the full details of the Turkey-Libya deal, which Erdogan signed in Istanbul with Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA ). Under the agreement, Turkey extended its control of the eastern Mediterranean, opening up the area to Turkey to search for hydrocarbons.Athens condemned the agreement, claiming it denied the territorial waters of three prominent Greek Islands.”Turkey’s attempt to abolish the maritime borders of islands like Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos, and Kastelorizo with tricks, such as voiding bilateral memorandums of understanding, will not produce internationally legal results,” said Mitsotakis.Egypt and the Greek Cypriots, too, voiced concern about the agreement. The three countries, along with Israel, are cooperating in developing sizeable natural gas fields across the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is predicted that cooperation between the countries will extend to security, a move analysts say could be aimed at curtailing Turkey’s growing assertiveness.”Whatever Greece, Egypt, and Greek Cyprus do will not affect the step we have taken with Libya. We have already sealed our agreement with Libya,” Erdogan said, dismissing regional concerns.In this photo taken on Nov. 6, 2019, graffiti on a wall reading “Your wall can not divide us” is seen at the U.N buffer zone by a fence that divides the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north, in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus.Ankara is already at loggerheads with Athens and Nicosia over disputed territorial waters around the divided island of Cyprus. The island is partitioned between Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities following Turkey’s 1974 invasion in response to an Athens-inspired coup.The Greek Cypriots have the only internationally recognized government and insist it controls recently discovered gas fields in waters surrounding the island and will administer future drilling. Ankara insists Nicosia has to work with the Turkish Cypriots administration, which is only recognized by Turkey.”Turkey made it very clear, they are determined to protect their rights and the rights of Turkish Cypriots and its interests,” said former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende, who now is a regional energy expert.”Do you think Turkey is bluffing or do you think the Greeks and Greek Cypriots, with its forces, will prevent Turkey from protecting its rights?” he asked.In this photo taken on Oct. 30, 2018, Turkey’s new oil and gas drillship ‘Conquerer’ is seen off the coast of Antalya, southern Turkey.Ankara has deployed energy exploration ships escorted by Turkish warship to Cypriot waters on four occasions, in the face of protests by Athens and Nicosia.Until now, the explorations have been carried out in Turkish Cypriot waters. In a potential flashpoint, Ankara is set to deploy the fifth exploration to waters contested by Turkish and Cypriot administrations.Analysts claim the Libya-Turkey deal, coupled with Ankara’s robust stance over Cyprus, is part of a significant shift in Turkish policy.”It’s a show of force by Turkey and assertion of its sovereignty according to the new maritime doctrine, called the ‘Blue Homeland,”‘ said international relations professor Cengiz Aktar of Athens University.”It’s part and parcel of a new doctrine. It claims a huge sea mass, in the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea bordering Turkey. It amounts to a 460,000 square kilometers. The doctrine says the surface of this ‘Blue Homeland,’ its water body, its sea bed and the landmass under the sea bed, belong to Turkey.”Ankara’s new doctrine is matched by a shift in its military priorities. “A lot of funds are now being allocated to the Turkish navy,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen.FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bottom center, accompanied by officials pose for photographs during the launch of a new Turkish Navy ship, in Tuzla, outside Istanbul, July 3, 2017.”The new Ada class corvette [ship] is top of the game, so to speak,” he said. “This open seas approach is prominent — the new deal with the Libyan government. Looking for oil and natural gas around Cyprus is there. This is like Turkey is back after a century. We understand the necessity of a navy, a blue-seas navy.”Ankara’s robust diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is calculated to force Nicosia to ultimately make a deal. “Without a settlement, they [Nicosia] are not going to reap the benefits of their resources,” said Rende.”I don’t believe any energy company is going to sink $10 billion or $15 billion into the deep waters of the eastern Mediterranean, as long as their remains a threat of confrontation,” he added.Migrants and refugees arrive at the Moria refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 23, 2019.Athens and Nicosia are looking for support from their fellow European Union members. Brussels is warning Ankara of sanctions if it doesn’t step back from violating Cypriot waters.”The EU is now filling in the contents of the sanction list against Turkish interests,” said Aktar. “Of course they may pull back, backing down, taking into consideration the threats of migrants by Turkey.”Erdogan routinely threatens the EU with opening Turkish borders and allowing millions of refugees hosted by Turkey to enter Europe. Such a threat has seen Brussels being reluctant to confront Turkey, and Ankara again may calculate its robust east Mediterranean stance will prevail.”International organizations like the EU, are preferring to ignore it [Turkey’s Mediterranean policy],” said Aktar. “They can’t deal with Turkey’s intervention in Syria. They are not capable of dealing with Ankara moving closer to Moscow. So they hate to see a new problem in the Mediterranean by Turkey. But it will create problems. It will create skirmishes and chaos in the eastern Mediterranean.”
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The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist told a court on Wednesday a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing but also implicated people tied to government in the growing scandal.Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week for information that would lead to the conviction of alleged plot leader and multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.However, his detailed court deposition raised fresh questions over the inner circle of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, with Theuma linking apparent attempts at a cover-up of the 2017 murder to figures inside government headquarters.Fenech has been charged with complicity over the killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb.He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other senior officials.Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the murder which has highlighted allegations of rampant corruption in Malta’s overlapping worlds of politics and business.Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was arrested in connection with an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, leaves the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old Fenech contacted him in 2017 to organize the hit, providing 150,000 euros ($165,000) for the contract.The plot was put on hold before elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.”I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mastermind.Only he spoke to me,” said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to the criminal underworld.Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.He said he was called to government headquarters after agreeing to arrange the assassination and that Schembri gave him a tour of the building, where Muscat’s offices are housed.Muscat has denied any wrongdoing but has acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.Panic
Theuma was subsequently told he had been put on the government payroll and received a paycheck for three or four months. “If you asked me, I wouldn’t know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went,” he said.He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing.Thanks partly to help provided by the U.S. FBI, the trio were later arrested, and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty. They sat in court on Wednesday stony-faced.People hold pictures of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as they protest outside the office of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, calling for his resignation, in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were seized and news emerged that one was cooperating with police.He said he was then contacted again by an employee from government headquarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given 1 million euros, though the bail did not arrive, Theuma said.Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no answer. Scared for his safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.”I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me,” he said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit. In court, he distanced himself from the accusation against Schembri, making clear he had no evidence.A police source later identified Kenneth as Kenneth Camilleri, who used to work in Muscat’s security detail. He was recently transferred to Transport Malta, a government body. The company said on Wednesday it had suspended one of its employees following Theuma’s deposition, without giving details.Camilleri did not respond to a message from Reuters requesting comment.With Malta under scrutiny, the new head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a thorough investigation without political interference. “It is crucial that all those responsible are put to justice as soon as possible,” she said.A European Parliament delegation, which has spent two days in Malta to review rule of law within the EU’s smallest member, recommended that Muscat go immediately.”There has to be absolute confidence in the (investigation) and I think when he is in office, that confidence is not there,” said Sophie In’t Veld, a Dutch member of parliament who led the mission. 
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Sweden’s prison board says U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky won’t be able to perform in the Swedish prison where he was held until convicted of assault in a June street brawl in Stockholm.Citing logistical and security issues, Vilhelm Grevik of Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet on Wednesday that the prison board won’t be able to organize a concert in the Kronoberg prison.In August, A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was convicted of assault. The rapper and his two bodyguards were given “conditional sentences,” meaning they won’t serve prison time unless they commit a similar offense in the future.Mayers, who wanted to entertain inmates at the Kronoberg prison, is due to perform Dec. 11 at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe arena.
 
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