In late December, it will be one year since Moscow detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan on espionage charges. During his 11 months in the infamous Lefortovo prison, Whelan has denied the allegations and complained of systematic mistreatment. His family in the U.S. is working to bring the former Marine home. Yulia Savchenko met with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, in Washington to get the latest on the case.
 
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Prince Andrew is scaling back travel and facing an uncertain future as he steps away from the royal role he has embraced for his entire adult life.
                   
The latest blow came Friday afternoon when the board of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra announced that it was cutting ties to Andrew, who had been its patron.
                   
The 59-year-old prince has suffered numerous setbacks in the six days since the broadcast of a disastrous TV interview from Buckingham Palace during which he defended his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in a New York prison in August in what the New York City medical examiner ruled was a suicide.
                   
The Times newspaper said in an editorial Friday that the debacle demonstrates the need for “urgent reform” of the royal household. The paper urged Andrew’s older brother and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, to take steps to streamline and make the royal family “more modest.”
                   
The disgraced prince scuttled plans for a trip to Bahrain that had been planned to support his Pitch(at)Palace project, according to the British news media, even though he is struggling to keep that enterprise going despite cutting ties to dozens of other charities.
                   
He did go horseback riding with his mother, 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, near Windsor Castle on Friday afternoon despite harsh November weather. The monarch has not commented publicly on her son’s troubles.
                   
There was a visceral public backlash to the TV interview _ particularly because Andrew did not express sympathy for Epstein’s young female victims that led politicians to debate the future of the monarchy in a televised debate ahead of the Dec. 12 national election. Shortly after the interview, Andrew announced that he was halting his royal duties “for the foreseeable future.”
                   
Up until now, Andrew, the queen’s third child, had been able to skate away from troublesome questions about his private life and his extravagant lifestyle. His association with Epstein had been known for more than eight years, but it only took him down after he went on TV to discuss it.
                   
Andrew is trying to find a way to keep alive at least one of his projects without relying on the prestige and real estate of the royal family.
                   
Buckingham Palace officials said Andrew would try to maintain Pitch(at)Palace as a non-royal charity that eventually would not be centered at any of the royal palaces. The prince founded the project in 2014 to link up young entrepreneurs with established business people. In the past, idea and product pitches for the program have taken place at St. James’ Palace.
                   
According to its website, Pitch(at)Palace has helped 931 start-up businesses and created nearly 6,000 new jobs. It boasts a 97% survival rate for new companies started by its alumni.
                   
Andrew was expected to remove himself from the many other charities with which he’s been involved over the years, a diverse group that sheds light on his interests and reflects the varied demands made on a senior royal.
                   
Among them have been the Army Officers’ Golfing Society, which promotes golf in the British Army, and the Maimonides Interfaith Foundation, which is devoted to the use of art and dialogue to improve relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians.
                   
The prince also was involved with a group fighting malaria and a charity helping deaf children throughout the Commonwealth, which includes Britain and many of its former colonies.
                   
The Falklands War veteran also was expected to drop his ceremonial role with many military units. In addition, he has resigned as patron of The Outward Bound Trust, an educational charity that helps young people have adventures in the wild with which he had been involved with for decades, and was to step down as chancellor of Huddersfield University, university officials said.
                   
Despite these many embarrassments and the dramatic drop in his work responsibilities, Andrew was not expected to face money pressures, although the details of his financial picture have not been made public.
                   
He has long received financial backing from the queen’s private accounts and there was no indication that this would change. He was likely, however, to close or severely downsize his well-staffed personal office at Buckingham Palace.
                   
When he served as Britain’s international trade envoy, Andrew relied extensively on public funding and was criticized for his deluxe travel style when going overseas on official business. He left that role in 2011, in part because questions were already being asked about his relationship with Epstein, who had already been convicted of sex offenses.
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At least six bodies of Europe-bound migrants were found on Libya’s Mediterranean coast on Friday, while another 90 were intercepted by Libya’s coast guard, the U.N. migration agency said.
                   
Libya has emerged as a major transit point for African and Arab migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe. Most migrants make the perilous journey in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats.
                   
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration tweeted that the bodies washed up on the shores of the Libyan port of al-Khums.
                   
In recent years, the EU has partnered with Libya’s coast guard and other local groups to stem the dangerous sea crossings. Rights groups, however, say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers rife with abuses.
                   
Separately, Libya’s eastern parliament Thursday accused the Italian government of violating the country’s sovereignty by flying a drone near the frontlines of the ongoing war between the Tripoli-based U.N.-backed government and the east-based, self-styled Libyan National Army.
                   
“The Libyan parliament demands that the Italian authorities provide an official explanation to this act of aggression on Libya’s sovereignty,” read the statement issued by the LNA-allied parliament.
                   
In a Wednesday press conference Ahmed al-Mosmari, the LNA spokesman said their forces had shot down an Italian drone near the city of Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli.
                   
In response, the office of Italy’s Joint Chief of Staffs issued a statement Wednesday affirming that an Italian drone crashed in Libyan territory while it was on a mission to support efforts aimed at stemming migrant sea crossings. The statement added that the plane was following a flight plan that had been communicated in advance to Libyan authorities.
                   
Since 2015, Libya has been divided between two governments, in the east and the west. In April, the LNA launched an offensive to capture Tripoli from the U.N.-backed government. While the LNA enjoys the support of France, Russia and Key Arab countries, the Tripoli-based government is backed by Italy, Turkey and Qatar.
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The lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would allow the government to label journalists, bloggers, and social media users as foreign agents.
 
The bill, which still needs approval from the Federation Council, the upper chamber, and President Vladimir Putin’s signature to become law, expands on existing “foreign agent” measures already targeting select foreign media and Russian NGOs.The laws have been criticized by human rights groups as highly restrictive but lauded by Kremlin loyalists as essential to protect Russian sovereignty.
 
Under the new expanded version, restrictions would now apply to journalists and individuals working for media organizations designated as foreign agents by Russia’s Justice Ministry.The new measure would require those who work for suspect media outlets to label any published materials as “made by a foreign agent” and personally submit to regular audits and inspections of their work and finances.Employees and contractors with Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and several affiliated partner projects — such as Current Time TV — would appear to be prime targets of the new bill.The U.S. government-funded outlets are currently the only media on the Justice Ministry foreign agent media blacklist created in 2017.The blacklist of foreign agents, seen here in a screenshot from the Russian Justice Ministry’s website, shows Voice of America (1), Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (7) and Current Time (5) among others.Yet, given the vague wording of the measure, the foreign agent label could also be applied to individuals who distribute suspect media content — a move that could have significant implications for Russia’s blogosphere and social media, both of which are largely considered open platforms for political debate.  How Russian authorities would enforce the foreign agent restrictions against individuals is not yet clear.
 Political overtones
 
The bill’s co-author, the chairman of the State Duma’s Commission on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs, Vasily Piskarev, vigorously defended law as a necessity — citing his commission’s findings that accused several foreign and domestic media outlets of interfering in Russia’s regional fall elections.
 
That vote was tarnished by the banning of nearly all opposition candidates from participating in the election — prompting a wave of street protests in Moscow through the summer.  While foreign and independent media covered the events, Russian state broadcasters largely ignored voters’ frustrations.
 
“Russian viewers and readers have the right to know of the foreign roots of these media outlets and where they get their money from,” Piskarev said in comments following Thursday’s vote.“After inclusion on the register, these citizens and media entities can continue their creative activities and continue to publish, provided they fulfill certain conditions,” he added.
 
Piskarev also insisted Russia was merely introducing measures to mirror those faced by Russian journalists elsewhere — an apparent reference to what Russia says is the harassment of its RT America and the network’s journalists working in the United States.
 
RT America was forced to register as a foreign agent with the U.S. Justice Department in 2017, a move that prompted similar measures against American government-funded media.FILE – Vehicles of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT are seen near the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, June 15, 2018. The potential info-chill to come
 
Rights groups warn the new foreign agents law would cast a much wider chill over Russians’ access to free speech over the airwaves and online.
 
“The new ‘foreign agent’ legislation quite simply is intended to silence critical voices and further limit Russian citizens’ right to access information,” said Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director, in a statement on the organization’s website.
 
Russia’s daily Kommersant newspaper, a Kremlin-favored publication known for providing light critiques of state policy, noted the vagueness of the law in the face of the Internet sharing culture would mean that nearly “half the country” would risk running afoul of its provisions — including Russians who work in companies with foreign funding or scientists who receive international grants.
 
Russian foreign agents laws were first introduced in 2012 in an effort to end foreign funding of Russian NGOs, a move that civil society advocates said had echoes of Soviet days when they were likened to potential traitors and spies.Indeed, Putin argued at the time that foreign-funded NGOs were less interested in developing civil society and more intent on fomenting revolution for their Western donors.FILE – A man passes by the office of “Memorial” rights group in Moscow, Russia. The building has the words “Foreign Agent (Loves) USA” spray-painted on its facade.Given the choice to identify themselves as foreign agents or face mounting penalties and court ordered fines, many organizations chose to shutter their doors.  The law’s political overtones have again been apparent of late as authorities have used it as a blunt instrument against perceived enemies at home.The Justice Ministry last month said it was adding the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an NGO led by opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, to the foreign agent registry.The move came after the organization — which has long tortured the Kremlin with a series of anti-corruption investigations into government malfeasance — supported a series of pro-democracy protests over the summer that led to the arrest of over 2,000 demonstrators.
 
Russia’s officials justified the decision by saying the organization — which exists on crowdfunded donations from Russian citizens — had received two small wire transfers from abroad.   
 
Then, in early November, Russia’s Supreme Court used the law to rule for the dissolution of For Human Rights, an organization with roots in the Soviet dissident movement that was defending the rights of Russians arrested in police sweeps tied to the summer’s unrest.
 
Speaking on the respected Echo of Moscow radio station, the organization’s founder, 78-year-old Lev Ponomarev, criticized the proposed additions to the foreign agent laws.“It is, likely, the latest nail in the coffin for the human rights movement in Russia — since all human rights organizations are financed by foreign foundations,” he said. 
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A Turkish court on Thursday upheld its conviction of 12 former employees of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper despite a higher court ruling, a lawyer for the newspaper said.The court acquitted a 13th defendant, journalist Kadri Gursel, due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court, Turkey’s highest, said the lawyer, Tora Pekin.In a case that drew global outrage over press freedom under President Tayyip Erdogan, 14 employees of Cumhuriyet – one of the few remaining voices critical of the government – were sentenced in April 2018 to various jail terms on terrorism charges.They were accused of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front militant groups, as well as the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says  organized a 2016 failed coup. Gulen denies any involvement.The Cumhuriyet staff have been in and out of jail for the duration of their trials. The 14th defendant, Cumhuriyet accountant Emre Iper, was released last month and his case is still under court review.The Court of Cassation, Turkey’s high court of appeals, had ruled in September for the 13 defendants to be acquitted, with the exception of journalist and politician Ahmet Sik. The court said Sik should be tried for a different crime.The case of the 12 defendants will now be re-evaluated by the Court of Cassation, Pekin said.”With the Court of Cassation ruling (in September), we thought this endless arbitrariness and injustice were ending. But we understood in court today that it wasn’t so,” said Pekin.Since the failed coup, authorities have jailed 77,000 people pending trial, while 150,000, including civil servants, judges, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Some 150 media outlets have also been closed.A global press watchdog said on Tuesday more than 120 journalists were still being held in Turkey’s jails, a global record.Turkey’s Western allies have voiced concern over the scale of the crackdown. Rights groups accuse Erdogan of using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent.
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A French court is to rule Thursday on whether to convict a mountain guide of helping migrants enter the country illegally — the latest case that is testing France’s “principle of fraternity” allowing humanitarian aid for irregular migrants.The cases have centered on the Alps, where migrants traverse snowy passes between Italy and France, many ill-equipped for the cold. Each year some die of hypothermia.Pierre Mumber, a 55-year-old ski instructor and member of migrant rights organization Tous Migrants, came across several West African migrants in January 2018 as he hiked through the Montgenèvre pass in search of people needing help.Mumber argues he was giving legal humanitarian assistance. Tous Migrants co-president Michel Rousseau said Mumber was bringing warm clothes and drinks to migrants when he was arrested. Mumber’s lawyer, Philippe Chaudron, has argued that his client helped them on French soil.A court in the city of Gap convicted Mumber earlier this year for “aiding the irregular entry of foreigners,” giving him a three-month suspended sentence. It pointed to the fact that his cell phone signals bounced off the Italian side as evidence that Mumber had illegally helped them cross the border.His lawyer says the prosecutor had insufficient evidence and appealed, and the regional appeals court in Grenoble is handing down its verdict Thursday. Lawyer Chaudon argues that in the Alps, cell phone signals and ski slopes often straddle both sides of the border.“My client is reproached for going back and forth between the two countries, but he is a ski instructor and the slopes of Montgenèvre cross into Italy,” Chaudon told The Associated Press.Between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants tried to illegally cross the border between France and Italy during a three-month period that winter, fueling both humanitarian efforts to help them and calls by nationalist politicians for a crackdown. It’s part of a Europe-wide migrant challenge, since both countries are part of the European Union’s border-free travel zone.The case is one of several that has tested how the French judiciary handles citizens providing aid to migrants since France’s Constitutional Council upheld the “principle of fraternity” in 2018.That ruling came after the high-profile case of farmer Cedric Herrou, who housed some 200 migrants in the Alps’ Roya valley and helped them travel within France. He was convicted in 2017 of helping migrants illegally cross the border.EU rules criminalize those who help migrants without the proper documentation from crossing into or transit through member states, as well as those who house migrants for financial gain. Some countries have more stringent restrictions; Denmark, for instance, has prosecuted hundreds of its citizens for giving migrants food or a lift. Germany and Switzerland have also seen similar court cases.France used to ban individuals from giving migrants free housing or transportation on French soil. The Constitutional Council, however, ruled that France’s motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” gives citizens freedom “to assist others for a humanitarian purpose,” even if they are in the country illegally. The decision, codified in French law in September 2018, excludes from punishment any person who helps migrants with a humanitarian goal without compensation.Fewer cases involving migrant assistance have wound up in French courts since then, Chaudon said. Still, prosecutions have continued — particularly in regions along the Italian and Spanish borders.Rousseau of Tous Migrants said lingering ambiguities over what constitutes a “humanitarian goal” and compensation under the law “opens the door to any interpretation.”Lola Schulmann of Amnesty International in France said a court decision to deny Mumber’s appeal could dissuade benevolent citizens who want to save migrants’ lives, particularly as winter sets in.“These people should not find themselves in front of a court; they should be encouraged and celebrated,” she told The AP.
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Ukraine says three captured naval vessels returned by Russia earlier this week were in poor condition and stripped of key components.After inspecting the returned vessels, the chief of Ukraine’s navy, Vice Adm. Ihor Voronchenko, was quoted by Ukraine’s “4th Channel” TV as saying the ships’ return to safe harbor had been hampered by their poor condition.  “They do not move on their own,” the vice admiral said, according to the report.  “The Russians ruined them — even took off the lamps, power outlets and toilets. We will show the whole world the Russian barbarism towards them.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later inspected the ships upon arrival at the port of Ochakiv and reportedly said repairing them would take three months. The Ukrainian leader also demanded Russia return missing components.Back in Moscow, officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, suggested sabotage.Russia’s RIA-Novosti wire service quoted FSB officials as claiming the ships had been returned in “normal condition, and plumbing equipment in working order.” The FSB also provided what it said was video of the ships in what appeared to be reasonable condition, noting that Ukrainian officials had signed off on the exchange in neutral waters Monday without registering complaints.“If Ukraine managed to ruin the vessels and their bathroom equipment as they crossed the coast of Crimea to Ochakiv, that’s Ukraine’s problem,” said a Russian FSB official, according to a separate report by Russia’s Interfax news service.Russian media reported earlier that the Ukrainian ships had been returned stripped of their guns — a detail that has yet to be confirmed by either side.Misplaced optimism?The return of the vessels had been widely viewed as a trust-building measure ahead of a December summit in Paris aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in the Donbas that has left some 13,000 people dead over the past five years.   Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both indicated they would join French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the event — billed as the latest attempt to jump-start peace negotiations after several previous failed attempts by the so-called “quartet” to end the fighting between Ukraine government forces and Moscow-backed rebels.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits the port of Ochakiv, Nov. 20, 2019, to see the three Ukraine’s naval ships, captured in the Kerch Strait in Nov. 2018 and then returned by Russia.Zelenskiy had signaled the return of the three Ukrainian vessels as the latest in a series of small step measures aimed at normalizing relations with Russia and ending the war in the Donbas.  “Step by step, we’re making peace, seeking diplomatic solutions, and fighting for our Ukraine to be united once again,” wrote Zelenskiy in a post to Twitter just hours before he reviewed the ships’ condition for himself.The ships and their crew were seized by Russia after its border patrol fired on the vessels off the coast of Crimea in November 2018 — arguing the ships had violated what had become Russia’s territorial waters after the Kremlin’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.The incident caused outrage in Kyiv and beyond, with the United States launching a new round of sanctions targeting Russia over its military actions in Ukraine.Moscow portrayed the incident as a ploy by Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, to stoke nationalist sentiment ahead of elections he would ultimately lose by a landslide to Zelenskiy.Zelenskiy has made ending the war in east Ukraine a top priority of what he says will be his sole term in office.Among his successes thus far is a negotiated deal with Putin that saw the release of the Ukrainian ships’ 24 crew members as part of a wider prisoner swap last September. 
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A sculptor known for trying to redress history through her art is creating the first statue of real-life women for New York’s Central Park, where the only females so honored until now have been fictional characters.Meredith Bergmann’s vision for the sculpture, chosen from 91 submissions, features three women’s rights pioneers — Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth. While honoring their specific efforts on behalf of women’s suffrage, women’s civil rights and the abolition of slavery, Bergmann hopes her latest work will also make a statement about the need to recognize the contributions ofWax statues at at the Occoquan Workhouse Museum in Lorton, Virginia, show the 1917 force-feeding of suffragist Lucy Burns, an American women’s rights advocate who was on hunger strike. (Photo by Diaa Bekheet).“This monument has a very focused message,” she said in an interview at her studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut. “The fact of the monument itself, that it exists at all, that it will be where it is, is the message.”Of the 23 statues of historical figures in the 840-acre, 166-year-old public park, none honors actual women. There are statues of three female fictional characters: Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose and William Shakespeare’s Juliet, who appears with Romeo.There had been a moratorium on erecting any new statues in Central Park. But in 2014, a volunteer, nonprofit group called Monumental Women, made up of women’s rights advocates, historians and community leaders, set out to break what they’ve called the “bronze ceiling” and develop a statue depicting real women. With the help of the Girl Scouts, private foundations and others, they raised $1.5 million in private funding for the 14-foot-tall monument, to be located on the park’s famed Literary Walk. It’s scheduled to be unveiled on Aug. 26, 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrined the right for women to vote.“It’s fitting that the first statue of real women in Central Park depicts three New York women who dedicated their lives to fighting for women’s rights,” said Pam Elam, president of Monumental Women, in a written statement last month after the project received approval from a city commission. “This statue conveys the power of women working together to bring about revolutionary change in our society. It invites people to reflect not just on these women and their work for equality and justice, but on all the monumental women who came before us.”Women’s Suffrage MovementTeaser DescriptionThe Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery looks back at the women’s suffrage movement – one of the longest reform movements in U.S. history – with an exhibition called, “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence.”  Curator Kate Clarke Lemay shows us some of the art and artifacts from that era and how creating visual displays for their cause created a different understanding about women’s freedom and voting rights.  
Reporter:  Julie Taboh, Camera: Adam Greenbaum; Adapted by:  Martin SecrestMidway into the massive and multi-faceted project, Bergmann and her assistants have nearly finished sculpting from foam and clay an imagined scene of the three women having a conversation at a table. Truth is speaking, Anthony is organizing and Stanton is writing, which Bergman describes as the three essential elements of activism.The current design is the result of a long process that involved various changes, including the late addition of Sojourner Truth, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist who was born into slavery but escaped to freedom in 1826. It originally included Anthony, a writer, lecturer and abolitionist who fought for the rights of women to vote and own property; Stanton, another leading figure in the women’s voting rights movement, and an abolitionist and author; and a scroll with a list of 17 other women involved in the women’s movement from 1848 to 1920.New Zealand Celebrates Women’s Suffrage Anniversary

        New Zealand has marked the 125th anniversary of a historic move to give women the vote. It was the first country in the world to enact suffrage for women.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s third female prime minister said the nation’s 19th century fight for economic independence and equal rights was still continuing.

The gender pay gap in the South Pacific nation is, on average, 10 percent, although for working mothers it is about 17 percent — a pay difference known as the “motherhood penalty.” Women…
Once the sculpting work is done, likely in the coming weeks, Bergmann said molds will be taken and they will eventually be cast in bronze at a foundry in New York. Detailed work will need to be performed, such as making sure the women’s heads are at the right tilt and the ends of the granite base are curved perfectly.It has become a labor of love for Bergmann, albeit a challenging one.“I haven’t had a project on this scale, with this ferocious of a deadline. And it is, it is nerve-wracking. And I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked,” said Bergmann. “All summer, all fall, this is what I’m doing. And it’s thrilling.”
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Around the world, national leaders and diplomats have expressed their hopes that the United States will reverse its decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change. In Washington, some others have chosen to act in small ways rather than wait. 
 
Ambassadors and aides from all 28 members of the European Union joined forces last week with volunteers from Casey Trees, a local conservation group, to plant trees in a Washington city park, hoping to earn goodwill and make a symbolic point with their labor. EU countries’ representatives joined National Park Service staff and volunteers from Casey Trees to plant oak, holly, tuliptree and American elm trees at Montrose Park in northwest Washington, Nov. 15, 2019. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Trees soak up and store some of the excess planet-warming carbon dioxide that human activities produce.”The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,” the enthusiastic planters were told as they gathered in a sunny corner of Washington’s Rock Creek Park by Stavros Lambrinidis, ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the United States. “The second best time is now.”  Speaking afterward to VOA, Lambrinidis elaborated on the significance of individual citizens’ actions.”Every single thing every single citizen does is as important as the grand things that governments do,” he said, noting that the EU has committed itself to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.Benjamin Roehrig, senior counselor at the French Embassy in Washington, tells VOA that the door is always open should the U.S. change its mind concerning the Paris Agreement. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Estonian emissary Jonatan Vsevoiv, one of about a dozen ambassadors who took up shovels, said the effort “symbolizes the EU’s effort on the climate front.” He added that the oak tree he helped plant holds special meaning to his native Estonia, just as it does in the United States.”I would say this is a national tree. It symbolizes strength and longevity — and stability,” he said.Having spent half of the past decade in diplomatic posts in the U.S. capital, Vseviov added that Washington has become for him “almost like my second hometown. … I’m glad to do something that gives back to the city.”  The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. (Natalie Liu/VOA)The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. She said her nation has a special affinity for trees, given that 70% of its surface is covered by woods and that Finns basically “live in and outside of the forest.” 
 
Even as Finland is often imagined as a land of ice and snow, the trees in her Nordic country “have no problem surviving the winter,” she said. “Then we have a very nice summer, a lot of sunlight. That’s when the trees grow.”   
 
Eva Hunnius Ohlin, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, was laboring with two other female embassy staffers when Juan Urbano, the Spanish Embassy’s robust agricultural attaché, offered a hand. 
 
The self-sufficient women declined his offer, but Ohlin cheerily told Urbano he should not take it personally “because we had earlier turned down the Finnish ambassador.”  Eva Hunnius Ohlin, right, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, with two of her colleagues insisted on Swedish sovereignty in their planting effort. (Natalie Liu/VOA)On a more serious note, Ohlin told VOA that her embassy has been increasingly engaged on climate change with institutions on the city and state level, even as the federal administration is seen as retreating on the issue. 
 
The interest in the issue in the big coastal states such as New York and California is well known. But, Ohlin said, citizens are also active “in the middle of the country,” in states like Colorado. 
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The new president of the largest party in the European Parliament launched a scathing attack Wednesday against autocratic and populist leaderships within the group’s ranks.Outgoing European Council President Donald Tusk spoke at the opening of the two-day congress in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, of the European People’s Party, which elected him its new leader.Without mentioning Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban or other hard-line European leaders, Tusk said the EPP should fight against “political populists, manipulators and autocrats.”Hungarian PM Viktor Orban leaves the stage after delivering a speech at the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, Nov. 17, 2019, during an event marking the 30th anniversary of the pro-democratic Velvet Revolution.The EPP did not invite Orban to the congress because his Fidesz party was suspended in March due to his government’s perceived violation of democratic standards. Some have urged the EPP, which has dominated European policies for decades, to expel Fidesz, which has been accused of undermining the rule of law in Hungary.“We will not sacrifice values like civic liberties, the rule of law, and decency in a public life on the altar of security and order, because there is simply no need,” Tusk said. “Because they don’t exclude one another. Whoever is unable to accept it, is de facto placing himself outside our family.”At the congress, the European center-right parties in the EPP group will elect new leadership after scoring a relative victory in May’s European elections. A number of heads of state or government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are attending the event.High on the agenda is the European Union’s enlargement in the Western Balkans following France’s recent decision to veto opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.Croatia’s prime minister Andrej Plenkovic speaks during the European Peoples Party congress in Zagreb, Croatia, Nov. 20, 2019.Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the EPP meeting that the EU’s recent decision not to start membership talks with the two countries is a “regrettable mistake.”France led a group of EU countries calling for an overhaul of the procedures to admit new members before beginning negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.Plenkovic said that the existing procedures and the criteria for becoming a member are very detailed and tough. He added that “any European country has the right to seek membership.”Merkel said after meeting Plenkovic that extensive discussions with France over the membership process were necessary.“There still has to be a realistic perspective of membership for the countries of the Western Balkans,” she said. “We cannot end up in breaking our promises.”There are fears within the EU that the stalling membership talks could lead to increased Russian and Chinese influence in the region that was at war in the 1990s.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating presidency at the beginning of January.
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A former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong says he was detained and tortured by Chinese secret police trying to extract information about massive anti-government protests in the territory.Simon Cheng said in an online statement and media interviews that he was hooded, beaten, deprived of sleep and chained to an X-shaped frame by plainclothes and uniformed agents as they sought information on activists involved in the protests and the role they believed Britain played in the demonstrations.FILE – Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Oct. 24, 2019.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab summoned the Chinese ambassador in London to demand Beijing investigate.”I summoned the Chinese Ambassador to express our outrage at the brutal and disgraceful treatment of Simon in violation of China’s international obligations,” Raab said in a statement. “I have made clear we expect the Chinese authorities to investigate and hold those responsible to account.”Chinese police in August announced Cheng’s release after 15 days of administrative detention but gave no details of the reasons behind his detention.China reactionChina’s foreign ministry responded angrily to the allegations and the summoning of the ambassador at a daily briefing Wednesday.Ambassador Liu Xiaoming will “by no means accept the so-called concerns or complaints raised by the British side,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Jan. 29, 2019.”The Chinese ambassador to the U.K. will lodge the complaints with the U.K. to express our strong opposition and indignation to the U.K.’s wrong words and deeds on Hong Kong in these days,” Geng said.Geng did not address Cheng’s allegations directly, but cited a statement by Shenzhen police from August saying his lawful rights had been protected and that he had “admitted his offense completely,” an apparent reference to a confession of soliciting prostitution that Cheng says was coerced. Cheng has strongly denied the charge.Police in Shenzhen did not immediately respond to faxed questions about Cheng’s allegations.Cheng worked for the consulate as a trade and investment officer with a focus on attracting Chinese investment in Scotland. That required him to travel frequently to mainland China and he was detained at the border with Hong Kong after returning from a one-day business trip.Hong Kong’s nearly six months of pro-democracy protests began in opposition to proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects in the semi-autonomous city to be extradited to face trial in mainland China, where critics say their legal rights would be threatened. While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has since withdrawn the bill, demonstrations have continued unabated as strong anti-government sentiment continues.China says it doesn’t allow suspects to be tortured or make false confessions, although both practices are believed to be common.’Blindfolded and hooded’In his account on Facebook, Cheng wrote that he had been asked about the supposed British role in the protests, his own involvement in them and mainland Chinese who joined in demonstrations.China has long accused “anti-China foreign forces” of fomenting the protests, which have grown increasingly violent, without providing direct evidence.FILE – Demonstrators hold posters in support of Simon Cheng, a staff member at the consulate who went missing after visiting the neighboring mainland, during a protest outside the British Consulate-general office in Hong Kong, China, Aug. 21, 2019.Cheng wrote that while being held he was shuttled between detention and interrogation centers while hooded and handcuffed. In addition to being shackled to the frame, he wrote he was ordered to assume stress positions for “countless hours,” and was beaten with what felt like “sharpened batons” and poked in the knee if he faltered. He was also punished for dozing off during the sessions by being forced to sing the Chinese national anthem, he wrote.”I was blindfolded and hooded during the whole torture and interrogations, I sweated a lot, and felt exhausted, dizzy and suffocated,” Cheng wrote.One interrogator speaking Hong Kong’s native Cantonese dialect cursed him, saying, “How dare you work for the British to supervise Chinese,” while another speaking in a northern Mandarin accent told him they were from China’s secret intelligence service and that he had “no human rights in this place,” Cheng wrote.He said the interrogators expected him to confess that Britain had instigated the protests by donating money and materials, that he personally led that effort and paid the bail of mainland participants. At the detention center, he witnessed police questioning other young inmates who appeared to be Chinese mainland nationals being punished for participation in the protests.Cheng said he refused but confessed to the minor offense of “soliciting prostitution” in order to avoid harsher treatment and a heavy sentence on national security charges. Some of the officers holding him said they could “abduct” him back to the mainland if he didn’t “behave,” he said.Cheng no longer works at the consulate and has fled to a third country. Raab, the foreign minister, said the U.K. is working to support Cheng, including a possible move to Britain.
 
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A new survey shows about one in four Europeans holding anti-Semitic beliefs, with such attitudes on the rise in eastern countries and mostly steady in the west.The poll of 14 European countries released Thursday by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League found anti-Semitic attitudes most prevalent in Poland, Ukraine and Hungary, with more than 40% of the respondents in each country expressing such views.The governments of all three countries have been criticized by Jewish groups recently, though all deny being anti-Semitic.In western Europe, the study found anti-Semitic views were either stable or down, with decreases in Britain, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria. Denmark and Belgium saw minor increases, while France was unchanged and Sweden had the lowest rate, at 4%.Italy and Austria both posted significant decreases.
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn clashed over Brexit in the first televised debate Tuesday, ahead of the December 12 election. Both men faced laughter and heckling from the audience, and polls show much of the voting public appeared unimpressed by the debate.Recent polls give Johnson’s Conservatives a lead of between 8 and 12 percentage points over Labour, which still may not be enough to give the prime minister a parliamentary majority.Boris Johnson’s campaign promiseDuring the debate, Johnson promised to end what he called the ‘national misery’ of Brexit, and said a Conservative government would leave the European Union in January – adding that reaching a trade deal with the EU would be easy.“We have ample time to do a fantastic free trade deal with our friends and partners in the EU because we’re already in a state of perfect alignment, both for tariffs and for quotas,” Johnson told the audience in Salford, Manchester.He said a win for his Labour opponents would see more Brexit confusion.“We don’t know on which side Mr. Corbyn would campaign. Is he going to campaign for leave or remain?”Jeremy Corbyn’s policyCorbyn insisted his policy is clear: to negotiate a better Brexit deal. “Three months to negotiate, six months for a referendum, and that will bring that process to an end,” the Labour leader said.He accused Johnson of planning to sell out Britain’s National Health Service, the NHS. “What we know of the government’s proposals, what we know of what Mr. Johnson has done, is a series of secret meetings with the United States in which they were proposing to open up our NHS markets, as they call them, to American companies,” he said.Johnson insists Britain’s National Health Service won’t be on the table in any U.S. trade deal.Views on climate and environmentBoth men agreed climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the country.“I think it’s a colossal issue for the entire world, and the UK is meeting that challenge with the most far-reaching ambition to get to carbon neutral by 2050. And I know you don’t want me to say this, but we need to get Brexit done in order to deliver on those priorities,” Johnson told the audience.His Labour opponent pledged to go further on environmental issues.“This is the most massive issue facing the whole world,” Corbyn said. “When the poorest people in the poorest countries lose out because of flooding and unusual weather patterns, when we have unusual weather patterns in this country, when we have extreme levels of air pollution, we have to have a green industrial revolution where we invest for the future in sustainable industries and jobs and prevent the continuing damage to our natural world and our environment.”Voters appear unimpressedAfter the debate, polls showed the public was evenly divided over who emerged victorious – and many were unimpressed. “I didn’t think anyone won, I didn’t think it was very meaningful, or kind of, revealing debate at all,” said Emily, a voter from Kent in southeast England. “It was pretty underwhelming all-round really,” said London resident James Davies.There was anger among other opposition parties over their exclusion from the debate. The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party launched a failed court case against the host broadcaster ITV to try to force them to include smaller parties.Jo Swinson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats criticized the debate format Wednesday. “I think people at home will be forgiven for thinking, surely we deserve better than this. There was a huge gap in that debate. Both of them want Brexit and yet the voice of remain wasn’t there,” he said.Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon leader renewed her party’s pitch for independence. “It really underlines the importance for Scotland of getting our future out of the hands of Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, a broken Westminster system and taking our future into our own hands,” Sturgeon said Wednesday.Both leaders pledged big increases in spending on health, education, and tackling climate change. But in reality, Brexit will still likely dominate the next parliament, says analyst Ian Bond of the Center for European Reform.“If we leave the EU on 31st January, then we will have several more years of uncertainty while we negotiate the future trade deal with the EU.”Whoever becomes Britain’s next Prime Minister, their time in office will likely still be defined by Brexit. 
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The son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday.A 57-year-old German man is in custody after he jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening.An off-duty police officer in the audience who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded and had to undergo surgery.Von Weizsaecker died at the scene despite immediate attention from colleagues.“We cannot yet say anything about the attacker’s motive,” said police spokesman Michael Gassen.Police said later that the man, who was not a patient at the hospital, had been questioned overnight. Police were also investigating if von Weizsaecker or his family had received threats in the past.The 59-year-old was the son of one of Germany’s most esteemed presidents. Richard von Weizsaecker became West Germany’s head of state in 1984 and when the country was unified, became the first president of the new nation, serving until 1994. He died in 2015.Fritz von Weizsaecker was one of the ex-president’s four children. His sister Beatrice posted a picture of Jesus on the cross on Instagram after the killing of her brother and wrote, “Take care of my brother …”Both politicians and colleagues expressed shock over the brazen murder.Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to his widow and the family, her spokesman said.“We don’t know much about what happened here in Berlin last night,” spokesman Steffen Seibert said. “It’s a horrible blow to the von Weizsaecker family and the chancellor’s condolences, and certainly also those of all the members of the government, go to the widow, to the entire family.”Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democrats party, of which Fritz von Weizsaecker was a member, expressed shock at the murder.“I’m stunned and have to share my sadness,” Lindner tweeted. “Once more one wonders what kind of world we live in.”The board of Berlin’s Charite hospital said they were “deeply shocked by the violent death of the highly regarded friend and colleague. Our thoughts are with his family and the colleagues at Schlosspark-Klinik.”Von Weizsaecker studied and worked at several hospitals in Germany and abroad, including the Harvard Medical School in Boston and a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. His fields of expertise were internal medicine and gastroenterology.On Tuesday night, he was giving a lecture about fatty liver disease, an increasingly common medical condition. The lecture was open to everybody and local media reported that several colleagues were in the audience as well.The slaying of von Weizsaecker echoes a similar incident in 2016 when a man fatally shot a doctor at Berlin’s Benjamin Franklin Hospital before killing himself.The von Weizsaeckers are one of Germany’s most prominent families. Richard von Weizsaecker was not only one of the most popular but also one of the country’s most respected presidents.In 1985, then-West German President von Weizsaecker called the Nazi defeat Germany’s “day of liberation” in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the war’s end. His words were supported by most Germans, and to this day the speech is often cited by politicians and taught in schools.
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Croatia’s first-ever presidency in the European Union will come at come at a “critical period” for the 28-nation bloc, outgoing EU leader Donald Tusk said Tuesday.The EU’s newest member could end up in charge of launching the bloc’s post-Brexit negotiations with Britain, the European Council president said after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating chairmanship at the beginning of January while Britain’s departure from the bloc is now set for Jan. 31.”Your task is not easy,” said Tusk. “It will be a critical period for the EU and we will be relying on your steady leadership.”Tusk expressed confidence in Croatia’s preparation for the job, adding that Croatia also needs to focus on the EU’s enlargement agenda and the volatile Western Balkans.EU aspirations in the Western Balkans have been dealt a blow after France and the Netherlands blocked the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.”I deeply believe that you (Croatia) will do everything in your power to restore EU unity and enlargement while demonstrating positive EU engagement in the region,” Tusk said.Tusk was in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, for a meeting of the European People’s Party, the main center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The Polish politician is expected to be elected the leader of the alliance during the two-day gathering.”I am leaving the EU in good hands,” he said. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked each other’s policies on Brexit, health care and the economy Tuesday in a televised election debate that likely failed to answer the question troubling many voters: Why should we trust you?The two politicians hammered away at their rival’s weaknesses and sidestepped tricky questions about their own policies in the hourlong encounter, which was the first-ever head-to-head TV debate between a British prime minister and a chief challenger.It was a chance for Corbyn to make up ground in opinion polls that show his Labour Party trailing Johnson’s Conservatives ahead of the Dec. 12 election. For Johnson, the matchup was an opportunity to shake off a wobbly campaign start that has seen the Conservatives thrown on the defensive by candidates’ gaffes and favoritism allegations involving Johnson’s relationship with an American businesswoman while he was London’s mayor.Both play it safeBoth men stuck to safe territory, with Corbyn touting Labour’s plans for big increases in public spending and Johnson trying to keep the focus on his promise to “get Brexit done.”Speaking in front of a live audience at the studios of broadcaster ITV in Salford, in northwest England, the two men traded blows over Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union — the reason the election is being held. The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Jan. 31, after failing to meet the Oct. 31 deadline to approve a divorce deal.Johnson pushed to hold the election more than two years ahead of schedule in an effort to win a majority in the House of Commons that could pass his departure agreement with the EU. He blamed the opposition for “dither and delay, deadlock and division” and said a Conservative government would “end this national misery” and “break the deadlock.”Corbyn said a Labour government would also settle the Brexit question by negotiating a new divorce deal before holding a new EU membership referendum within six months. A lifelong critic of the EU and lukewarm advocate of Britain’s membership in the bloc, Corbyn did not answer when asked repeatedly by Johnson whether he would support leaving or remaining in a new referendum.New trade deal would take yearsThe Labour leader, meanwhile, slammed Johnson’s claim that he would negotiate a new trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020 as a fantasy, saying such deals usually take years to complete.“You’re not going to get it done in a few months, and you know that perfectly well,” Corbyn said.The Labour leader also repeated his allegation that Johnson planned to offer chunks of Britain’s state-funded health system to American medical firms as part of future trade negotiations with the U.S.Johnson branded that claim “an absolute invention.”All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election. Smaller parties in the race include the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, who want to cancel Brexit; the Scottish National Party, which seeks Scotland’s independence from the U.K.; the anti-EU Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage; and the environmentalist Greens.Two candidates are excludedThe debate featured only two candidates after the High Court in London rejected a legal challenge from the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party over ITV’s decision to exclude their leaders from the debate. The court decided it was a matter of ”editorial judgment” to limit the format to the leaders of Britain’s two largest political parties, one of whom will almost certainly be the country’s next prime minister.Later in the campaign, the leaders of smaller parties will take part alongside Labour and the Conservatives in two seven-way debates, and Corbyn and Johnson are due to square off again in a BBC debate on Dec. 6.The stakes are high for both Johnson and Corbyn as they try to win over a Brexit-weary electorate. Both are trying to overcome a mountain of mistrust.Neither delivered the kind of performance to silence their critics.Johnson — who shelved his customary bluster in favor of a more muted, serious approach — is under fire for failing to deliver on his often-repeated vow that Britain would leave the EU on Oct. 31.He drew derisive laughter from the audience when he urged voters, “Look what I have said I’m going to do as a politician and look what I’ve delivered.”Corbyn, a stolid socialist, is accused by critics of promoting high-tax policies and of failing to clamp down on anti-Semitism within his party. His refusal to say which side he would be on in a Brexit referendum was also met with laughter.Pushed by moderator Julie Etchingham to pledge to tone down the angry rhetoric that has poisoned British politics since the country’s 2016 Brexit referendum, the two men awkwardly agreed and shook handsAwkward momentThere was another awkward moment when they were asked about Prince Andrew’s friendship with American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew gave a televised interview last week in which he denied claims that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, a woman who says she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager.Asked if the British monarchy was “fit for purpose,” Corbyn replied, “Needs a bit of improvement.” Johnson said “the institution of the monarchy is beyond reproach.”Both expressed sympathy for Epstein victims — something Prince Andrew failed to do in his interview.Televised debates are a relatively new phenomenon in British elections — the first took place in 2010 — and they have the power to transform campaigns. A confident 2010 appearance by former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sparked a wave of “Cleggmania” that helped to propel him into the deputy prime minister post in a coalition government with the Conservatives.’Pretty messy’During Britain’s last election in 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May refused to take part in any TV debates. The decision reinforced the view that she was a weak campaigner, and the election turned out to be a debacle for her Conservative Party, which lost its majority in Parliament.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Tuesday’s debate was “a pretty messy score draw, although Corbyn may just have snuck a win in the dying minutes.”“Hardly two men at the top of their game, though,” he said.
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Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid defended NATO on Tuesday after French President Emmanuel Macron branded it “brain dead,” saying Estonia felt safe in a military alliance that has been fortifying its eastern flank as a shield against Russia.”NATO is clearly functional,” said Kaljulaid, whose Baltic state was for half a century a Soviet republic under Moscow’s thumb until 1991.”Let’s face it — it (NATO) has a 100% success record. No NATO ally has ever been attacked. So we trust in NATO, yes,” she told Reuters on a visit to Brussels.Macron said earlier this month that European countries could no longer rely on the United States to defend NATO allies and the alliance was experiencing “brain death.”FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2018.His comments questioning the alliance’s main principle of collective defense have prompted soul-searching in European capitals, and is likely to dominate discussions at a NATO summit in Britain next month. U.S. President Donald Trump, who described the 29-nation alliance as “obsolete” when he was president-elect, will attend.’Plan B’Estonia’s three-party coalition was split on the topic Tuesday. Mart Helme, the head of far-right EKRE, the second-largest coalition partner, said Estonia was looking for Plan B for NATO.”We are working also on Plan B, on what Estonia — and not only Estonia, but also other Baltic countries — will do if what Macron said was true,” Interior Minister Helme was quoted as saying by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.The comments were strongly opposed by other ministers.”Estonian government has never discussed and does not plan to discuss Plan B. These stories are absurd, they undermine unity of NATO and weaken deterrence,” Defense Minister Jüri Luik said in a statement.As evidence NATO was still relevant, Kaljulaid cited its increased engagement in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and NATO standing by Kyiv in its fight against Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.Ukraine crisisThe Ukraine crisis has dragged European Union-Russia ties to historic lows, with the bloc imposing sanctions on Moscow. The economic curbs are now in place until the end of January 2020 and they require unanimity of all 28 EU states to be extended.But Macron also spoke this month of the need for the EU to rethink its relations with Russia, while stressing the need to remain firm on demanding that Moscow fulfills a peace deal for Ukraine.However, Kaljulaid stressed there were clear limits of that thinking for Estonia.”If you are firm in your dialogue and you keep pointing out that international law needs to be respected, countries’ territorial integrity needs to be respected, and you are having this dialogue to try to remedy the adverse developments, then dialogue is absolutely fine,” she said.”If you’re having dialogue ignoring the facts on the ground then of course we have a problem. And then we’d be against it.”
 
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Poland’s prime minister set out plans on Tuesday to strengthen the state’s role in the economy and deepen an overhaul of the justice system that has put Warsaw on a collision course with its European Union partners.Mateusz Morawiecki said the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party would continue increasing welfare spending and the share of Polish capital in domestic companies, underlining its break with the free-market reforms of liberal governments before it.”Neoliberals have fueled a sense of confusion in our value system. Many people were led to believe that the state is a ball and chain,” he said in a policy speech to parliament after an Oct. 13 election that gave PiS four more years in power.”Extremes are not good. We are building a normal state.”Morawiecki spoke repeatedly of a return to “normality,” referring both to PiS’s economic policies and its conservative vision of the traditional family which has won over voters but has been criticized by opponents for encouraging homophobia.He promised new welfare programs to help families with at least three children and the elderly.In separate comments, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said: “Our society… must be based on the Polish family, the family in its traditional sense. A family which takes the form of a relationship between a man and a woman.”Opposition lawmakers criticized PiS’s vision of normality.”The desire for normality means the rule of law and economic prudence, and you break those principles day after day,” said Grzegorz Schetyna, leader of the largest opposition party, Civic Platform.Morawiecki’s government won a vote of confidence in a late-evening session on Tuesday, with 237 deputies out of 454 lending him their support.Concerns over rule of lawSince returning to power in 2015, PiS has introduced changes to how courts are run and altered some of the rules governing the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court.The European Commission, the EU executive, responded by launching legal action over reforms which it says threaten the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that it was up to Poland’s Supreme Court to decide on the independence of the Disciplinary Chamber and the National Judiciary Council, offering some criteria on adherence to EU law.Morawiecki gave no details of the next steps PiS plans to take in its reforms of the judiciary. The party says further reforms are intended to make the court system more efficient but opponents say the reforms made so far have politicized it.PiS has said it will keep a balanced budget in 2020, benefiting from one-off revenues and fast economic growth, although some economists say such plans are too ambitious at a time when the European economy is slowing down.
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One of only four oar makers for Venice’s famed gondoliers, Paolo Brandolisio wades through his ground-floor workshop for the third time in a week of record-breaking floods, despairing of any help from national or local institutions.”If these phenomena continue to repeat themselves, you have to think about how to defend yourself,” he says. “Because the defenses that the politicians have made don’t seem to be nearly enough.”You have to think of yourself,” he repeats.Venetians are fed up with what they see as inadequate responses to the city’s mounting problems: record-breaking flooding, environmental and safety threats from cruise ship traffic, and the burden on services from over-tourism.They feel largely left to their own devices, with ever-fewer Venetians living in the historic part of the city to defend its interests and keep it from becoming mainly a tourist domain.The historic flooding this week — marked by three floods over 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) and the highest in 53 years at 1.87 meters (6 feet, 1 inch) — has sharpened calls to create an administration that recognizes the uniqueness of Venice, for both its concentration of treasures and its increasing vulnerability.Flood damage has been estimated at hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), but the true scope will only become clear with time. Architectural masterpieces like St. Mark’s Cathedral still need to be fully inspected and damaged manuscripts from the Music Conservatory library treated by experts — not to mention the personal losses suffered by thousands of residents and businesses.”I feel ashamed,” said Fabio Moretti, the president of Venice’s historic Academy of Fine Arts that was once presided over by Tiepolo and Canova. “These places are left in our custody. They don’t belong to us. They belong to humanity. It is a heritage that needs to be preserved.”Fabio Moretti, president of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Fine Arts Academy, looks out of a window of the academy during an interview with the Associated Press, in Venice, Italy, Nov. 16 2019.’Sick governance’The frustration goes far beyond the failure to complete and activate 78 underwater barriers that were designed to prevent just the kind of damage that Venice has endured this week. With the system not yet completed or even partially tested after 16 years of work and 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) invested, many are skeptical it will even work.”This is a climate emergency. This is sick governance of the city,” said Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist and executive director of the NGO “We Are Here Venice,” whose aim it is to keep Venice a living city as opposed to a museum or theme park.Brandolisio, the oar builder, sees systemic lapses in the official response, including the failure of local authorities to organize services immediately for those in need, an absence filled by volunteers. That included both a network of students who helped clear out waterlogged property for those in need and professionals like water-taxi drivers who offered transport during the emergency.For now, he is taking matters into his own hands.To protect his bottega where he not only makes oars but carves ornamental oar posts for gondolas or as sculpture, Brandolisio said he will have to consider raising the floor by at least 20 centimeters and buying a pump — precautions he never previously deemed necessary.”I think I will lose at least two or three weeks of work,” he said. “I will have to dry everything. Lots of things fell into the water, so I need to clean all the tools that can get rusty. I need to take care of wood that got wet, which I can’t use because it cannot be glued.”At the public level, proposals for better administering the city including granting some level of autonomy to Venice, already enjoyed by some Italian regions like Trentino-Alto-Adige with its German-speaking minority, or offering tax breaks to encourage Venice’s repopulation.Paolo Brandolisio stands among his oars in his flooded laboratory, in Venice, Italy, Nov. 17, 2019.Shrinking populationsJust 53,000 people live in the historic part of the city that tourists know as Venice, down by a third from a generation ago and dropping by about 1,000 people a year. The population of the lagoon islands — including glass-making Murano and the Lido beach destination — is just under 30,000, and dwindling too.That means fewer people watching the neighborhood, monitoring for public maintenance issues or neighbors in need. Many leave because of the increased expense or the daily difficulties in living in a city of canals, which can make even a simple errand a minor odyssey.Activists also say local politicians are more beholden to the city’s mainland population, which has jumped to 180,000 people not directly affected, for the most part, by the same issues as the lagoon dwellers.They are pushing for passage of a referendum on Dec. 1 that would give the historic center and islands their own administration, separate from that serving more populous Mestre and the industrial port of Marghera. Those areas were annexed to Venice by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and not necessarily a natural fit.”It is precisely because we also have a climate emergency that this kind of thing is more important,” Da Mosto said.”The only thing we can do for the climate is to prepare. That requires appropriate policies and investments and responsible engineering. And because the political context of Venice is so wrong, Venice doesn’t have a chance at the moment.”
 
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Google’s head of philanthropy says the company is having “a lot of conversations” internally amid worries about the tech giant’s bottomless appetite for consumer data and how it uses its algorithms.
                   
Vice President Jacqueline Fuller wouldn’t comment on specific data privacy controversies dogging Google lately, but says she shares other concerns many have about Big Tech. Cyberbullying. Hate speech amplified online. The impact of artificial intelligence on everything, from jobs to warfare.
                   
“As a consumer myself, as part of the general public, as a mother, it’s very important to understand what am I seeing, what are my children seeing,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, where she announced new grant winners Tuesday for projects aimed at teaching digital skills to poor, immigrant, rural or elderly users.
                   
The philanthropic arm she runs, Google.org, is like the company’s conscience, spending $100 million a year on non-profit groups that use technology to try to counteract problems the tech world is accused of creating, abetting or exacerbating.
                  
“Across the world we want to make sure we’re a responsible citizen,” she said.
But can Google’s do-good arm make up for everything else? At least it’s trying, she argues.
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“The company is having a lot of conversations around things like access to information and access to data and making sure there’s no algorithmic bias,” she said.
                  
Public outrage has grown over Google’s use of consumer data and domination of the online search market, with governments stepping up scrutiny of the company.
                   
Just in the past week, nine groups called for the U.S. government to block Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, citing privacy and antitrust concerns. Then Google came under fire for a partnership with U.S. health care system Ascension that the Wall Street Journal says gives the search giant access to thousands of patient health records without doctors’ knowledge. Both companies say the deal is compliant with health-privacy law.
                   
Fuller wouldn’t comment specifically on either case, but said, “We take our users’ trust very seriously.”
                   
She also insisted that the company has a very vibrant discussion'' internally about sexual misconduct, human rights and other problems that have tarnished Google's reputation.
                   
Its philanthropic arm is focused lately on using artificial intelligence to help society, for example by providing better access to health care and more effective emergency services. It's also working on ways to limit the damage of the breakneck developments of AI, notably after employee departures and public pressure over a Pentagon contract pushed the company to pledge it wouldn't use AI in weapons development.
                   
Among projects Google.org is funding are those that help users create and share digital resumes or map job opportunities, as the company tries to figure out “how can we anticipate some of the impacts of AI in an economy, and understand how can we make sure that everyone has access to jobs that are not only interesting now but jobs that are going to be here in the future,” Fuller said.
                   
Google is also holding a competition this year in Europe for projects on “how we can keep children safe,” she said.
                   
Digital literacy is crucial, she said:All of us need to discern what is truthful of what I see online. How do I ask the questions of who is sponsoring this content.”
                   
In Paris, Fuller announced the winners of Google.org’s latest “Impact Challenge,” contests it holds around the world for non-profits using technology for good. Ten groups won grants worth a total of 3 million euros for projects helping the millions of people in France who lack the basic digital skills that are increasingly crucial for everything from paying taxes to finding a job.
                   
Despite its philanthropic efforts, Google’s critics remain legion _ even within the tech universe.
                   
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris argues technology is shortening our attention spans and pushing people toward more extreme views. He couldn’t get Google to tackle these problems when he was there, so he quit and is pushing for change through his Center for Human Technologies.
                   
He says companies like Google won’t change voluntarily but that the tech world has undergone a “sea change” in awareness of problems it’s caused, thanks in part to pressure from a frustrated public. 
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Swedish prosecutors have dropped a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.The probe began when a Swedish woman accused him in 2010 of having unprotected sex with her while she was sleeping, after she repeatedly refused to have unprotected sex with him.Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told reporters the case was dropped although prosecutors found the woman’s claim “credible.””My assessment is that all investigative measures that can be taken have been taken,” Persson said. “But… the evidence is not strong enough to file an indictment.”Assange, an Australian citizen, has repeatedly denied the allegation.The statute of limitations in the case was set to expire in August 2020.Tuesday’s decision by Sweden’s prosecution authority follows a June court ruling that Assange should not be detained.Assange was evicted from the Ecuador Embassy in London two months before the June decision after seven years of diplomat refuge.British authorities arrested him immediately and he is now serving a 50-week sentence in a London prison for jumping bail in 2012.Assange, an Australian citizen, has repeatedly denied the 2010 allegation against him.Assange is also battling extradition to the U.S., which says he is facing charges for publishing secret documents. 
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Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president.Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking military aid from the United States to defend against Russian aggression and allies of President Donald Trump were ramping up efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry’s supporters little more than a month after the U.S. energy secretary attended Zelenskiy’s May inauguration. In a meeting during that trip, Perry handed the new president a list of people he recommended as energy advisers. One of the four names was his longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer.A week later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to drill for oil and gas at a sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. They offered millions of dollars less to the Ukrainian government than their only competitor for the drilling rights, according to internal Ukrainian government documents obtained by The Associated Press. But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Energy, was awarded the 50-year contract because a government-appointed commission determined they had greater technical expertise and stronger financial backing, the documents show.Perry likely had outsized influence in Ukraine. Testimony in the impeachment inquiry into Trump shows the energy secretary was one of three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader.White House and State Department officials have testified that the president would only meet with Zelenskiy if he committed to launching an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter. In the impeachment inquiry against Trump, the officials have also said that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was being withheld until Zelenskiy publicly announced such an investigation.The sequence of events suggests the Trump administration’s political maneuvering in Ukraine was entwined with the big business of the energy trade.Perry made clear during trips to Kyiv that he was close to Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American investor and longtime Perry supporter who lives in Houston, and Cranberg, a Republican mega-donor who provided Perry the use of a luxury corporate jet during the energy secretary’s failed 2012 presidential bid.Perry’s spokeswoman said Wednesday that the energy secretary has championed the American energy industry all over the world, including in Ukraine.“What he did not do is advocate for the business interests of any one individual or company,” said Shaylyn Hynes, the press secretary for the Energy Department.Jessica Tillipman, who teaches anti-corruption law at George Washington University, said even if Perry did seek to influence foreign officials to award contracts to his friends, it is likely not illegal.“My gut says it’s no crime,” she said. “It’s just icky.”Zelenskiy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.In a statement to AP, Bleyzer denied that Perry helped his firm get the gas deal.“I believe that Secretary Perry’s conversations with Ukrainian government officials, if they in fact took place, did not play any role in Ukrainian Energy winning its bid,” Bleyzer said Tuesday. He said the process was competitive and transparent and “will hopefully serve as an example of how the Ukrainian energy market can be opened for new investments.”Amy Flakne, a lawyer for Cranberg’s company Aspect Holdings, said Wednesday that Perry and other U.S. officials supported “a fair, competitive process to bring foreign capital and technology to Ukraine’s lagging energy sector.”“Aspect neither sought, nor to our knowledge received, special intervention on its behalf,” Flakne said.‘FREEDOM GAS’As Trump’s energy secretary, Perry has flown around the globe to push for U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, which he calls “Freedom Gas.” He’s made multiple trips to Ukraine and other former Soviet-bloc nations, where shipments of American gas and drilling technology take on strategic importance as a potential alternative to continued dependence on imports from Russia.Ukraine has long suffered from a reputation for political corruption, particularly in its oil and gas sector. In the chaotic days following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Ukrainian government sold off many state-owned businesses worth billions to a cadre of well-connected oligarchs who amassed immense fortunes.As Ukraine sought economic and security support from the U.S. and other Western democracies, those countries pressed it to put in place a more open and transparent process for awarding oil and gas exploration rights on state land.At the urging of Western partners, Ukraine’s government created a process requiring that exploration contracts be put out to bid and awarded following review from a selection board appointed by the president’s cabinet of ministers. The board recommends the winners, pending final approval from the ministers.Those Western partners also advised Ukraine to appoint an independent supervisory board at Naftogaz, the state-owned energy company, as a guard against corruption and self-dealing.In February, the Ukrainian government opened up bidding for nine oil and gas blocks encompassing 4,428 square miles (11,469 square kilometers) of land. Ukrainian Energy, the joint venture between Bleyzer’s investment firm SigmaBleyzer and Cranberg’s Aspect Energy, submitted a single bid for the largest block, which covers 1,340 square miles (3,471 square kilometers).Under the contracts, the winning bidder is awarded exclusive rights to extract petroleum for up to 50 years. After the initial costs are recovered, the company and the government split the profits.An internal review of the proposals by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining obtained by the AP show they were not the highest bidder.The only competing bidder, UkrGasVydobuvannya, known by the acronym UGV, offered more than $60 million for the first phase of the project, compared with $53 million from Bleyzer and Cranberg, the document shows. UGV is Ukraine’s largest domestic gas producer and is a subsidiary of Naftogaz, the state-owned company where Perry sought to replace board members.Despite the lower upfront investment, the selection board gave the Americans higher scores for technical expertise and overall financial resources, according to the document reviewed by AP.Of the nine gas deals awarded on July 1, Bleyzer and Cranberg’s bid was the only one of the winners that didn’t include the participation of a Ukrainian company. UGV won four of the remaining bids.Two members of the board that helped select the bid winners told the AP that the process is designed to be difficult to improperly influence because it is a mix of government representatives and industry experts.Roman Opimakh, a commission member who is the head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, said the government was looking for foreign investment, particularly U.S., and the board considered that as a factor. He said it’s an advantage if a company is well-connected in Washington but added that he saw no indication that U.S. officials influenced the process.Perry, who served 14 years as the governor of Texas, has publicly championed the potential of U.S. hydraulic fracturing technology to boost oil and gas production in Ukraine and pressed for the bidding process to be opened up to U.S. companies.At an energy industry roundtable in Kyiv in November 2018, Perry said the potential for oil and gas development in Ukraine is “staggering.” Ukraine, he declared, had a chance to become “the Texas of Europe.”At the same event, which was co-sponsored by the nonprofit U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Perry plugged Cranberg’s expertise. Both Cranberg and Bleyzer were in the room, along with several American and Ukrainian energy industry officials.“You know, Alex Cranberg, who has been in this business a long time, can attest to this probably as well as anyone sitting around the table, that we have the potential to change the world,” Perry said, according to a transcript released by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.During the same 2018 trip, Perry had a private meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where they discussed deepening the ties between the two country’s energy industries, according to a U.S. Embassy summary of the meetingRecords suggest Perry has also met regularly with Bleyzer. Visitor logs released by the Energy Department through a public records request show Bleyzer entering through the VIP check-in desk at the building where Perry’s office is at least three times, most recently on May 8.Less than two weeks later, Perry was on a plane to Kyiv to attend the inauguration ceremony for Zelenskiy, who had defeated Poroshenko in an April election. It was during that trip that Perry presented his list of recommended advisers that included Bleyzer and remarked on their long friendship, according to a person in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Attendees left the meeting with the impression that Perry wanted to replace an American representative on the Naftogaz board with someone “reputable in Republican circles,” according to the person who was there.Bleyzer said Tuesday that he had been included in what he described as a brainstorming session with Energy Department officials about creating an informal group knowledgeable about Ukraine’s energy industry to help develop U.S. strategy, but he had no idea his name would be forwarded to the country’s new president.“I was not aware at any time that my name was recommended by Secretary Perry to the Ukrainian government to act in any capacity,” Bleyzer said.Perry’s work in Ukraine places him at the center of the House impeachment inquiry into efforts by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to press Zelenskiy to open an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings with Burisma, another Ukrainian gas company.Perry, who announced last month that he is resigning by the end of the year, has refused to cooperate with the congressional probe. In an Oct. 4 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Perry said that “as God as my witness” he never discussed Biden or his son in meetings with Ukrainian or U.S. officials.But Perry was at the White House for a key July 10 meeting where senior Ukrainian officials were told continued U.S. support was conditional on Zelenskiy’s government opening investigations into Democrats and Burisma, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an aide on Trump’s National Security Council, testified last month.TEXAS TIESBleyzer and Perry’s ties go back at least a decade. As governor, Perry appointed Bleyzer in 2009 to serve as a member of a Texas state advisory board overseeing state funding to emerging technology ventures. The following year, Bleyzer contributed $30,000 to Perry’s 2010 campaign for Texas governor.The Ukrainian-born Texan cuts a flamboyant figure in the energy world. A 2012 profile in the Houston Chronicle is set in his modernist 15,000-square-foot mansion. In an accompanying photo, he stands next to his wife, a mane of gray hair to his shoulders, on a balcony overlooking a swimming pool.A former engineer at Exxon, Bleyzer was born in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and trained in digital electronics and quantum physics. In 1994, he founded SigmaBleyzer Investment group, a private equity firm that specializes in developing corporate stakes in Eastern Europe. The company says it manages about $1 billion in assets.Bleyzer also has ties to Giuliani. In 2008, Bleyzer’s company hired Giuliani’s former Houston-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, to help it acquire and consolidate cable holdings in 16 Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, according to an announcement at the time. The same year, Bleyzer donated $2,300 to Giuliani’s presidential campaign.Bleyzer’s company is the primary funder of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, which promotes the interests of American businesses operating in Ukraine. According to tax records, the business council is run out of the Washington, D.C, offices of its president and CEO, Morgan Williams, who is also listed as the government affairs director for SigmaBleyzer.The council, which sponsors events that feature senior U.S. and Ukrainian government officials, pushes for policy priorities that dovetail with Bleyzer’s business interests — including lobbying to create the very process that opened Ukraine’s state-controlled oil and gas fields to foreign investment, according to the webpage of the state geology service.Days after the government in Ukraine posted the gas blocks for bidding in February, visitor logs show Williams accompanied Bleyzer through the VIP entrance at the Energy Department.On May 28, the day the bids were due in Kyiv, Williams again accompanied Bleyzer, who photos show was sporting a Western-style shirt with a Stars and Stripes pattern, to the offices of Ukraine’s energy ministry to submit their company’s bid.On June 5 — while Bleyzer and Cranberg’s proposal was under review — Williams met with a key Zelenskiy adviser, Oleg Ustenko, and told him that significant expansion of oil and gas production in Ukraine could only be achieved with investments from private companies, including ones from the United States, according to a summary of the meeting posted on the business council’s website.In an apparent dig at the company competing against Bleyzer and Cranberg for the gas deal, Williams also told Ustenko that the “participation of the state monopoly player” undermined the chances of private companies to win, according to the summary.What the council’s media release failed to mention is that, like Williams, Ustenko serves dual roles. In addition to advising the Ukrainian president, the economist is the longtime executive director of The Bleyzer Foundation, a Kyiv-based nonprofit organization founded by Bleyzer in 2001. The group’s website describes its mission as promoting private-sector investment in Ukraine.Less than four weeks later, Ukraine Energy was named the winner of the Varvynska block over the Naftogaz subsidiary.Bleyzer would not say whether he considered it a conflict for his employee to simultaneously be leading the international trade group while also advocating for his private business interests.He said the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council is just one of many organizations that strongly support the participation of foreign companies in the bidding process “as one of the key factors in helping Ukraine achieve its energy independence from Russia.”As with Bleyzer, Cranberg also has longtime ties to Perry.A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, Cranberg was appointed by Perry in 2011 to serve a six-year term on the state university system’s board of regents. He is a generous political donor, giving more than $3 million since the mid-1980s primarily to Republican candidates and fundraising committees, according to federal and state campaign finance records.In the last 13 months, Cranberg has contributed just over $650,000 to two committees focused on electing Republicans to House seats, $637,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $258,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He and his wife each gave $50,000 last April to Trump Victory, the joint entity that funds the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.When Perry campaigned for president in 2011, federal disclosures show his campaign paid more than $16,000 to a holding company for a private jet used by Cranberg.Cranberg is also among those who entered through the VIP desk at the Energy Department, logging in with his wife for a visit in April 2018.Last year, his company hired Perry’s former campaign manager, Jeff Miller, as a lobbyist. Miller has been to the Energy Department’s headquarters at least a dozen times since Perry became secretary, according to the visitor logs. He mostly signed in through the VIP entrance.
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In her first public appearance since being deported by U.S. authorities who had jailed her for being a Russian agent, Maria Butina was on Monday offered a job by Moscow to defend Russians imprisoned abroad.During an event for the media, Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, offered Butina, 31, a job working for her commission.”I invite you to work in our group defending compatriots abroad. I’m sure together we’ll be able to do a lot of good for people who’ve ended up in tough situations abroad,” Moskalkova said.Butina, who flew back to Russia on Oct. 26 after being deported, did not say whether she would accept the offer made at what she called her first public appearance since she was mobbed by wellwishers in front of the media at the airport on her arrival home.Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, a conviction slammed as ridiculous by Moscow.Russia accused Washington of forcing Butina to confess.The case put strain on relations that were already under pressure from an array of issues including U.S. allegations of Russian election meddling and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.Moscow denies any inteference in U.S. elections.Moskalkova invited Butina to help her commission defend the rights of Russians abroad such as Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot serving 20 years in the United States for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the country.Moskalkova said she also knew that Butina had been offered a job in the State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, and urged her to accept that one too.The case of Yaroshenko, who was arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010, and others like it have prompted Russia to accuse the United States of hunting its citizens across the world.The United States has accused the Russians in question of specific crimes and sought their extradition and arrest with regard to those crimes.Russia said last week it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian man to the United States where he faces a slew of serious cyber crime charges. 
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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko maintained his hold on power after results published Monday showed not a single opposition candidate had won a seat in a weekend parliamentary election.Lukashenko has governed the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for a quarter of a century and he announced on Sunday he would stand again in the 2020 presidential election.The 65-year-old has given more leeway to the opposition and released political prisoners in recent years in a bid to improve ties with the West after disputes with traditional ally Moscow.But official data on Monday showed, on a 77% turnout, no opposition figure won a seat. At the last election in 2016, two opposition members won seats for the first time in 20 years but neither was allowed to stand again this time around.FILE – Members of a local election commission sort ballots before starting to count votes after the parliamentary election in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 17, 2019.”The (election) result has long been determined. The authorities selected approved candidates. A change of power in Belarus is not possible through elections,” Nikolai Statkevich, a leading opposition figure, told Reuters.Western monitoring agencies have not judged a Belarus election to be free and fair since 1995, and on Monday international observers criticized the lack of a level playing field and questioned whether results were reported honestly.”These elections have demonstrated an overall lack of respect for democratic commitments,” said Margareta Cederfelt, leader of an observer mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).”Parliamentary elections are in danger of becoming a formality,” she added.The European Union called the election a “lost opportunity” to conduct a fair vote and urged Minsk to carry out reforms ahead of the presidential election next year.”This will also be key for achieving the full potential of EU-Belarus relations, building on the positive cooperation of the last three years,” it said in a statement.Yauheni Preiherman, director of the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, said Sunday’s election result was unlikely to lead to a freeze in ties with the EU because other issues were at stake in the relationship.The EU and Minsk are negotiating an agreement on a simplified visa regime, while Brussels is also pressing Belarus to abolish the death penalty.Lukashenko: ‘Trust me’Lukashenko said on Sunday the Belarusian people could vote him out of office next year if they no longer wanted him.”I have promised that I would not hang on to this seat until my fingers turn blue. Trust me, it’s not really the softest chair,” he told reporters.U.S. and EU sanctions imposed on Belarus over its treatment of political opponents were mostly lifted in 2016 following the release of political prisoners and other reforms.In September, the United States and Belarus announced they would resume ambassadorial relations for the first time since 2008.Relations with Russia suffered after Minsk refused to recognize Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Moscow also cut subsidies to Belarus that have long kept the country of 9.5 million in its orbit.
 
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