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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The meeting of NATO leaders in London to mark the alliance’s 70th anniversary got off to a difficult start Tuesday as the leaders of the United States, France and Turkey clashed over burden sharing and the future direction of the alliance. The official summit is set to take place Wednesday, where the various threats to NATO are due to be discussed – but as Henry Ridgwell reports, the biggest challenge could be keeping a lid on tensions within the organization
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U.S. President Donald Trump accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being “two-faced” after Trudeau and other NATO leaders appeared to have been gossiping about him.A recording of a reception Tuesday night in London’s Buckingham Palace shows Trudeau huddling with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Princess Anne, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rute and French President Emmanuel Macron.Trudeau was overheard apparently commenting on Trump’s lengthy impromptu exchange with journalists, during which Trump said Trudeau was perturbed over his remarks that Canada is not fulfilling its NATO financial commitments.Shortly after Trump’s comments about Trudeau, he tweeted NATO has made “Great progress” since he won the presidency nearly three years ago.Great progress has been made by NATO over the last three years. Countries other than the U.S. have agreed to pay 130 Billion Dollars more per year, and by 2024, that number will be 400 Billion Dollars. NATO will be richer and stronger than ever before….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership. Trump called it a “nasty statement.”  As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned that NATO member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products, including French wine.This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back.”It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump.”It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said.Islamic State fightersTrump and Macron argued about how to deal with Islamic State after the October withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, a move Trump made without consulting the alliance. The withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to launch an offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in northern Syria and triggered fear among allies of a potential IS resurgence.In response to a question on whether France should do more to take Islamic State fighters captured in the Middle East, Trump asked Macron if he would like “some nice ISIS fighters.”Macron countered that the main problem is IS fighters in the region. Referring to the abrupt U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria, Macron said “you have more and more of these fighters due to the situation today.”Macron is “more on the side of those who want to actually face up to the crisis and talk about it,” said Hans Kundnani of Chatham House. He is the sort of “disruptive factor” compared to other leaders who may choose to paper over disagreements, Kundnani said.The summit came as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home. He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.Trump is not the first U.S. president to attend a NATO summit under the cloud of impeachment. In 1974, Richard Nixon went to NATO’s 25th anniversary meeting in Brussels while the U.S. House of Representatives was concluding its impeachment inquiry. Nixon stepped down a few weeks later.
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The far-right Vox party won a seat on the committee responsible for running Spain’s parliament on Tuesday, raising its national profile as the Socialists struggled to form a government following an inconclusive national election last month.The Socialists, meanwhile, again held talks with a Catalan separatist party in a bid to gain support.Vox became the third-largest party in a fragmented parliament in the election, more than doubling its seats to 52 after campaigning on a platform of staunch nationalism and an anti-feminist and anti-immigrant stance.Amid some chaotic scenes and scuffles in the parliamentary chamber as the new legislature was sworn in, Vox lawmaker Ignacio Gil Lazaro was elected as one of the oversight committee’s four vice presidents.The nine-strong committee decides when bills are admitted for debate and its members represent parliament overseas, giving it considerable influence.Founded in 2013, Vox won two dozen seats in an inconclusive election in April, the first time a far-right party had won more than one seat since Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s after four decades of dictatorship.In the November election, Spain’s fourth in four years, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) won most seats but fell short of a majority.Despite reaching a coalition pact with the left-wing Unidas Podemos, it is still scrambling to drum up enough support from other parties to control the 350-seat parliament.Hours after the oversight committee election was picked, the Socialists sat down with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in its second formal conversation aimed at securing the Catalan separatist party’s backing for a Socialist-led government.Afterwards, the two parties avoided any mention of support but said in a joint statement they would meet again on Dec. 10.Ahead of the meeting, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had sought to temper expectations that Spain could have a government in place by December.”I don’t want to put a date on it,” Sanchez told reporters on Monday. “It could be December 12, December 20 or January 8.I don’t know. But what’s important to highlight is that Spain needs a government as soon as possible.”Prior to Tuesday’s vote on the oversight committee ballot, a scuffle broke out between a Vox member and a deputy from centre-right Ciudadanos. Socialist party spokeswoman Adriana Lastra twisted her ankle and had to receive medical attention.After the vote, in which Socialist Meritxell Batet was elected committee president, Catalan separatist politicians used the swearing-in process as a platform to demand freedom for jailed Catalan separatist leaders.They also refused to take the traditional oath to uphold Spain’s constitution, instead pledging to campaign for an independent Catalan republic. 
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Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action.The report was compiled ahead of a meeting next week at which EU leaders will discuss punishing Hungary for eroding democratic norms under maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”The Hungarian government has systematically dismantled media independence, freedom and pluralism, distorted the media market and divided the journalistic community in the country, achieving a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” the report says.FILE – The spokesman of the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs, speaks to reporters at the Hungarian Embassy in Paris, Dec.19, 2018.Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the criticisms in a posting on Twitter.”Fact: TV outlet with largest audience, news portal with largest readership, largest weekly (are) clearly pro-opposition,” Kovacs wrote. “But report says: opposition media under constant threat, being muted. What?”Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist parties have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch a so-called Article 7 legal process against both the EU countries.The European Council, which brings together leaders of EU member states, will hold a hearing with EU affairs ministers on Dec. 10 to discuss the proceedings against both countries.Fact-finding mission Ahead of that meeting, the six organizations, which include the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), sent a fact-finding mission to Hungary last month.”Hungary’s situation does not get the attention it should,” IPI deputy director and mission leader Scott Griffen told Reuters. “It is important that the EU public and its institutions understand what is going on in Hungary.”The report said some prominent independent outlets remained in Hungary, but their market weight was dwarfed by pro-government publications.It said Budapest has “a clear strategy to silence the critical press (and operate) a pro-government media empire as a vast propaganda machine.”Critics say that under Orban, state media have become an obedient mouthpiece of his Fidesz party, while the rest of the media landscape is dominated by a conglomerate created by pro-Fidesz businessmen.Orban’s government has denied undermining press freedom.
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a reception late Tuesday at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth on the sidelines of the NATO summit, where leaders are marking 70 years of the alliance.This is the third time the Trumps have met the monarch. They met at a Buckingham Palace banquet during a state visit in June, and during a tea at Windsor Castle in July of 2018.Prior to Tuesday’s palace reception, the president and the first lady briefly met with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at their official residence at Clarence House.As in his previous visits to Britain, anti-Trump protests broke out. Protesters marched from London’s Trafalgar Square towards the palace as the evening reception took place. Among the protesters led by the Stop Trump Coalition, are doctors, nurses and staff of the country’s National Health Service concerned about the potential risks to the British health service system raised by a U.S. – Britain trade deal.Election meddlingBut earlier on Tuesday, Trump promised to stay out of Britain’s general election, scheduled to be held on December 12.“I have no thoughts on it.  It’s going to be a very important election for this great country, but I have no thoughts on it,” Trump said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.But the U.S. president could not resist giving his opinion about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying, “Boris is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.”In a recent interview, Johnson warned Trump against giving him an endorsement, saying it was best “for neither side to be involved in the other’s election campaigns.”In October, Trump praised the prime minister as “the exact right guy for the times” and said that the Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” as prime minister.Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.
It was Trump who said in June the NHS is “on the table”. And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won’t get their hands on it.
Our NHS is not for sale.pic.twitter.com/AUhht3pCgL
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 31, 2019World leaders rarely violate diplomatic norms and wade into other countries’ elections.Trump also said the United States has no interest in Britain’s National Health Service.“We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter,” he said.Trump’s interest in the privatization of the NHS has been a key focus of the British election, with Corbyn accusing Johnson and the Conservative Party of including it in a post-Brexit deal with the United States. Johnson has denied the accusation.Protesters hold a placard at a demonstration during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit for NATO summit, in London, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and the British prime minister are meeting in group events with other NATO leaders including at Buckingham Palace and a meeting afterwards at 10 Downing Street, but it is still unclear whether the two will have a one-on-one meeting during the two-day summit. Other than his meeting with Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday.In between meetings with leaders, the U.S. president also met with supporters in a closed press event. Tuesday’s fundraiser was expected to raise $3 million for his re-election campaign.Prince AndrewPrince Andrew did not join the Royal Family during the reception with NATO leaders. The queen’s son stepped back from his royal duties last month due to his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier found dead in a jail cell in August after being held on sex trafficking charges.Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, claimed that she was directed to have sexual encounters with Prince Andrew.FILE – President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump accompanied by John Hall, the Dean of Westminster, right, and Britain’s Prince Andrew leave after a tour of Westminster Abbey in London, June 3, 2019.Trump declined to weigh in on the controversy, saying Tuesday, when asked by a reporter, “I don’t know Prince Andrew. It’s a tough story.”????On Day 2 of the #USStateVisit, The Duke of York & Prime Minister @TheresaMay welcome President Donald Trump @POTUS to St James’s Palace for a UK/US Senior Business Leaders Group Breakfast Meeting. pic.twitter.com/NfvniwmQKX
— The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) June 4, 2019Since Trump’s statement, old photos of Donald Trump and Prince Andrew at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, have resurfaced.Trump also met Andrew during his last U.K. visit in June. 
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he supports the demonstrations in Iran and urged the world to watch the Iranian government’s violent effort to quash protests that he says have killed “thousands of people.”Speaking in London, where he is attending the NATO leaders summit, Trump said, “Iran is killing thousands and thousands of people right now as we speak.”He added they were killed “for the mere fact that they’re protesting,” and he called it a “terrible thing.”Trump was mum on what, if anything, the U.S. could do in response to the violence, but he said, “I think the world has to be watching.”Later, during a meeting, Trump misheard a question when he said he did not support the protesters. The president also sent out a tweet that said: “The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM. We have under the Trump Administration and always will!”Amnesty International said on Monday it believes at least 208 people were killed in the protests and the crackdown that followed. Iranian state television on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that security forces shot and killed what it described as “rioters” in multiple cities amid recent protests over the spike in government-set gasoline prices.The protests are viewed as a reflection of widespread economic discontent gripping the country since Trump reimposed nuclear sanctions on Iran last year.Trump encouraged reporters “to get in there and see what’s going on,” noting that the Iranian government has curtailed internet access to limit the spread of information about the violence.
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Russia on Tuesday accused a former U.S. Marine it has held for almost a year on spying charges of faking health problems in custody and lying about his ill-treatment to stir up noise around his case.Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was accused of espionage after agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service detained him in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28. Whelan, who is being held in pre-trial detention, denies Moscow’s allegations and says he was set up in a political sting.He has alleged at court hearings that he is being subjected to ill treatment in custody and that his complaints are systematically ignored. In October, he said a prison guard had forced him to his knees and threatened him with a gun.In August, Whelan’s lawyer said his client was suffering from a groin hernia that prison authorities were aggravating, prompting the U.S. embassy to demand immediate access to Whelan.A U.S. diplomat met him last week in jail and called for his immediate release. The U.S. embassy described Whelan’s treatment as “shameful”, said Moscow had refused permission for an outside doctor to examine him.On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Whelan’s allegations of ill-treatment had not checked out and that diplomats were being granted regular access to him in custody.”They (the diplomats) know perfectly well that the public statements by the accused about certain abuses and even threats (made to his) life in pre-trial detention – are nothing more than the defence’s provocatory line to help artificially create noise around his person,” the ministry said in a statement.It said Whelan had received qualified medical treatment from the detention facility’s doctors as well as a special clinic and that they had not found him to have any serious ailment.”So there is no threat to Whelan’s health, and the pretending which he is periodically resorting to is apparently part of the training for U.S. intelligence officers,” the ministry said.The U.S. embassy and lawyers for Whelan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. 
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The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.
                   
With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in t Veld said outside the prime minister's office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”
                   
The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.
                   
Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.
                   
The delegation chief's comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.
                   
“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” int Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”
                   
She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.
                   
“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.
                   
A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.
                   
The delegation will also meet during the 1-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.
                  
The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.
                   
 While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing “brain death,” saying the French leader’s comment was a “nasty statement.”Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as leaders of member nations gathered for a summit in London, Trump said, “You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO.”Macron’s comments came in an interview with London-based magazine The Economist published last month.  He has since defended his words, saying NATO “needed a wake-up call” and should be focused on issues other than the amount of money each member spends on its military.NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg gestures during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Winfield House in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and Macron are due to meet Tuesday.Defense spending has been a focus for Trump since he took office in 2017 and complained the United States was taking on an outsized financial burden.Stoltenberg praised Trump on Tuesday, saying his leadership on the issue is “having a real impact.” He cited a $130 billion rise in defense budgets among the non-U.S. NATO members and said that would go to $400 billion by 2024.In addition to budget discussions, Stoltenberg said leaders would be talking about counterterrorism efforts, arms control, relations with Russia and the rise of China.The summit comes as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home.  He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.But when asked if the proceedings weaken his position as he meets with other leaders, Trump said, “I don’t think so.”
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