Italy’s right-wing former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, went on trial Saturday charged with kidnapping for refusing in 2019 to allow a Spanish migrant rescue ship to dock in Sicily, keeping the people onboard at sea for days.  

It is the first trial to go ahead against Salvini for his actions preventing migrant landings while he served as interior minister from 2018-2019 in an uneasy coalition between the populist 5-Star Movement and his right-wing League.  

Salvini was present for the opening day of the trial in Palermo, Sicily, which included procedural requests like witness lists. Among those being summoned is American actor Richard Gere, who visited the migrants aboard the Open Arms after seeing their plight while on a family vacation in Italy.  

“It is surreal undergoing a trial because I did my job. I feel sorry because, I mean, tell me, how serious can be a trial where Richard Gere will come from Hollywood to testify about my career,” Salvini said.  

Salvini was present for the opening day of the trial in Palermo, Sicily, which was expected to deal mostly with procedural requests. He has insisted he was fulfilling his duty by refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship, and the 147 people it had saved in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.  

Salvini took a hard line on migrant arrivals, blocking ships and pushing for Europe to take some of the burden off Italy.  

Prosecutors accuse Salvini of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for refusing to allow the ship into port for days in August 2019. During the nearly three-week standoff, some migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation and the captain pleaded for a safe, nearby port. Some migrants were taken to land for humanitarian or health reasons, while the remaining 83 were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa.  

“We expect justice for the unnecessary suffering that all the people had in those 20 days,” said the head of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, Oscar Camps. 

A court in Catania, Sicily, earlier this year decided not to try Salvini in a similar case, for keeping 116 migrants on board an Italian coast guard ship at sea for five days, also in 2019.
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Russia reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths Saturday for the fifth straight day as the country prepares for a week-long workplace shutdown and the reimposition of a partial lockdown in next week.

A record high 1,075 coronavirus deaths were reported by Russia’s national coronavirus task force over the past 24 hours, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began, boosting the country’s death toll to 229,528, the highest by far in Europe.

Daily coronavirus deaths in Russia have been surging for weeks because of sluggish vaccination rates, casual attitudes toward precautionary measures and the government’s hesitancy to tighten restrictions. The task force said only about one-third of Russia’s 146 million people have been vaccinated, straining the country’s health system.

Putin said earlier this week that employees would observe “non-working days” from October 30 to November 7, during which they would still receive salaries. He said the period, in which four of the seven days are state holidays, could start earlier or be extended in certain regions.

The rollout of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Namibia was postponed Saturday by the country’s health ministry after the vaccine’s regulator in neighboring South Africa raised concerns about its safety for people at risk of HIV.

The regulator said it would not approve an emergency use application for the vaccine at this time because some studies suggest that the delivery system known as a vector used to inoculate people with the Sputnik V vaccine can cause men to be more susceptible to HIV.

The vaccine’s manufacturer, Gamaleya Research Institute, said Namibia’s postponement was not based on scientific evidence.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists said Friday the risks of inoculating children 5 to 11 years old against COVID-19 are far less than the risk of rare cases of heart inflammation, called myocarditis.

The announcement comes as a panel of outside experts is expected to vote on Tuesday whether to recommend FDA approval of the vaccine for the young age group.

If the agency authorizes emergency immunization, the shots could be available in the United States in early November.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory committee takes up the issue on November 2 and 3.

U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, on Friday released data showing their COVID-19 vaccine is safe and 90.7% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in children 5 to 11 years old.

Pfizer said the trial was conducted among 2,268 children between the ages of 5 and 11 who were given two shots of a 10-microgram dose of the vaccine, a third of the dose given to those 12 and older.

In anticipation of the emergency approval, the White House this week announced plans to deliver enough of the children’s doses of the vaccine to all 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 currently living in the U.S.

Meanwhile in Britain, government scientific adviser Stephen Reicher warned Saturday that the country was “dilly-dallying into lockdown” and called for stronger measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, as the rate of new infections continued to mount. 

His warning came one day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson continued to dismiss calls for renewed COVID-19 restrictions, saying there is nothing to indicate those moves will be necessary in the coming months, despite the fact Britain is currently seeing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 infections.

Speaking to reporters while touring a London vaccination facility, Johnson said the current surge in infections is high, but still within the parameters experts predicted.

Johnson encouraged people to get vaccinated if they had not already done so, and for those eligible to get a booster vaccination. The British government has approved booster shots for everyone over 50.

With an average of more than 47,000 infections daily, up 18% from the previous week, the World Health Organization reported Friday week that Britain has among the highest number of daily new infections in Europe, the only part of the world that saw an increase in new cases last week.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

 
…

Forty-six countries and the European Union have adopted a legally binding mechanism under the so-called Aarhus Convention to protect environmental defenders who risk abuse and harm because of their activism.

The Aarhus Convention was adopted in 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. It is the only global legally binding treaty linking environmental and human rights concerns.  

However, U.N. officials say many of the rights guaranteed under the treaty are being violated.  In recent years, UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova says there have been many reports of these rights not being honored.

“We have seen an increasing trend of environmental defenders living under the threat of retaliation and in the fear for their lives, especially in cases where they speak out against spatial planning and large-scale infrastructural projects.… No one should live in fear for standing up for their environment and where they live,” Algayerova said.   

The UNECE says environmental defenders have been threatened, harassed, intimidated, and even killed because of protest actions against the construction of a dangerous dam, harmful agricultural practices and other environmentally destructive projects.

The new agreement establishes a post for a special rapporteur on environmental defenders. The official will be able to provide a rapid response to alleged violations as stipulated under the Aarhus Convention.

Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor says the creation of this rapid response mechanism could be of enormous benefit to environmental defenders.

“As I outlined in my report to the Human Rights Council earlier this year, 50% of the human rights defenders killed, as recorded by OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) in 2019, had been working with communities around issues of land, environment, in business activity, poverty and lives of indigenous people, Afro-descendants and other minorities,” Lawlor said.

A report by Global Witness last year found of the more than 300 human rights defenders who were killed, 70% were environmental defenders.

The new agreement outlines the various tools available to the special rapporteur for resolving complaints and protecting environmental defenders quickly and effectively.  They include issuing immediate protection measures, using diplomatic channels, releasing public statements, and bringing urgent cases to relevant human rights bodies for action.  
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Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the Western part of the Pacific Ocean on October 17-23, Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Moscow and Beijing, which staged naval cooperation drills in the Sea of Japan earlier in October, have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured.

The naval maneuvers have been closely watched by Japan which said earlier this week that a group of 10 vessels from China and Russia sailed through the Tsugaru Strait separating Japan’s main island and its northern island of Hokkaido.

“The group of ships passed through the Tsugaru Strait for the first time as part of the patrol,” Russia’s defense ministry said in the statement. The strait is regarded as international waters.

“The tasks of the patrols were the demonstration of the Russian and Chinese state flags, maintaining of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and guardianship of the subjects of maritime economic activities of the two countries,” the ministry added.
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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrapped his trip to Europe Friday at the conclusion of the NATO defense ministerial in Brussels, with a focus on China and Afghanistan. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports.
…

China wasn’t on the agenda at this week’s NATO defense ministers meeting, but by the time the gathering concluded, the secretary-general had said the military alliance needs to respond to the challenges presented by China’s rise.

“We see the whole global balance of power is shifting because of the rise of China,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Thursday at a press conference in Brussels. 

China is “heavily modernizing its military capabilities, including advanced nuclear systems and long-range missile systems,” and “we see China coming much closer to us, not least in cyberspace,” he said. And in response, the allies agreed “to do more together.” 

Without giving details, Stoltenberg said NATO would cooperate on a strategy involving areas such as artificial intelligence and technologically advanced weapon systems, “relevant to the challenges posed by the rise of China.”

He said that applies not only to Europe, NATO’s traditional focus, but also to challenges in the Asia Pacific, where “the rise of China just makes it even more important that Europe and North America stand together in NATO.”

At their June meeting, the allies had agreed to strengthen their relationships with partners in the Asia Pacific, which include New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan. 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA Mandarin’s request for a response to Stoltenberg’s remarks.    

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Stoltenberg said that countering the security threat from the rise of China will be an important part of NATO’s future rationale.

“NATO is an alliance of North America and Europe. But this region faces global challenges: terrorism, cyber, but also the rise of China. So when it comes to strengthening our collective defense, that’s also about how to address the rise of China,” Stoltenberg told the Financial Times. “What we can predict is that the rise of China will impact our security. It already has.”  

He pointed out that China has had an impact on European security through its cyber capabilities, new technologies and long-range missiles.

Bruce Jones, director and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, said Stoltenberg’s remarks revealed an important shift of the military alliance.

“It’s an important shift of NATO inside NATO,” he told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview.  “There’s been a debate about whether NATO should concentrate on Russia, Europe, or whether it should be part of a wider American reorientation towards China.”

He added that the statement from the secretary-general is “a signal about the direction that he is going to go and that he has some support for changing the orientation.”

Stoltenberg said NATO will adopt a new strategic concept next summer, which will outline the group’s strategies for the next 10 years. The current 2010 version does not mention China.    

In an interview with Politico earlier this month, Stoltenberg also stressed that NATO needs to strengthen its engagement with China.  

“We don’t regard China as an adversary or an enemy,” he said. “We need to engage with China on important issues such as climate change — there’s no way to reduce emissions enough in the world without also including China.”  

New threat  

The 30-member coalition was established after World War II, and its previous focus was on Russia and terrorism. NATO first mentioned the threat from China in its 2019 summit communiqué. 

As China expands its influence globally in a more aggressive manner, NATO’s concern about China’s rise has grown. In a joint communiqué in June, NATO leaders accused China of rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and being opaque in implementing its military modernization. 

“China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security,” the communiqué said. 

Dan Hamilton, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and director of the postdoctoral program on “The United States, Europe, and World Order,” told VOA Mandarin that the 27 countries in the European Union are feeling China’s presence in the region. 

China is the EU’s No. 1 trading partner and the source of billions of dollars per year in direct investment, particularly in energy, according to a recent VOA Mandarin report. Beijing’s relations vary from one EU nation to the next, with east-central European nations such as Hungary and Serbia eager to engage while Western European countries are more skeptical.

“China is coming to us. It’s about China being present in Europe as sort of a power that includes investments in defense-related supply chain, investments in ports,” Hamilton said in a phone interview.  

In their June joint communique, NATO leaders expressed concern over China’s military cooperation with Russia in the Euro-Atlantic region.  

“China and Russia are collaborating more closely together, and that might affect the risk calculation each of them might take with regards to Western interests,” Hamilton said. 

“Russia might feel a bit more emboldened when it comes to issues like Ukraine or Belarus or military exercises if it feels China is supporting it,” he added. “Similarly, China might feel it has Russian support, then it might be able to be a bit more adventurous than otherwise it would ordinarily be.”   

US-EU cooperation  

The change in NATO’s view of China echoes that of Washington. The Biden administration believes that the competition between the West and China is a confrontation between democratic values and authoritarianism.  

But cooperation between the EU and the U.S. has encountered obstacles in the past few years.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump publicly questioned the value of NATO. Some European countries have proposed the concept of “strategic autonomy” and demanded a reduction in their dependence on U.S. military support. 

After Biden took office in January 2021, NATO and the White House resumed closer contact. Stoltenberg visited Washington this month, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin participated in NATO’s in-person meetings Thursday and Friday.  

Jones, of Brookings, said that between the U.S. and EU, there’s now a strong willingness to cooperate and counter the rise of China. “People are willing to put a lot of energy and effort into making that alignment work, so although Europe has a question mark about this administration, and potentially about future administrations, these shared interests are greater than the uncertainty.”

Lin Yang contributed to this report.
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The Lithuanian people along with democracy leaders from Belarus, Cuba and Myanmar have been awarded this year’s John McCain Freedom Award. The award ceremony was held in Washington, D.C., on October 19, as Alexey Gorbachev reports in this story narrated by Anna Rice. 

Camera: Sergii Dogotar, Elena Matusovsky
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth returned to work Friday following her first overnight stay at a hospital in years for what Buckingham Palace called “preliminary investigations.”

According to the palace, the 95-year-old monarch spent Wednesday night in the private King Edward VII’s Hospital, undergoing tests after canceling an official trip to Northern Ireland to mark the 100th anniversary of its creation.

The palace has said Queen Elizabeth accepted medical advice to rest for a few days. She returned to Windsor Castle by lunchtime Thursday. The matter was unrelated to COVID-19, and she remains in “good spirits,” stated the palace late Thursday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, sending his best wishes, spoke about the queen’s return to her duties Friday. “I am given to understand that actually Her Majesty is, characteristically, back at her desk at Windsor as we speak,” Johnson told reporters.

Prior to her hospital stay, the monarch hosted a reception for top business leaders Tuesday night after Prime Minister Johnson held a green investment conference preceding the COP26 climate summit. Guests included Bill Gates and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. The queen’s son, Prince Charles, 72, and grandson Prince William, 39, greeted guests along with her.

Queen Elizabeth’s stay in the hospital was notable considering that the last time she is thought to have done so was in 2013, when she was experiencing symptoms of gastroenteritis. She underwent surgery in 2018 for eye cataracts and a knee operation in 2003.

Next year marks the monarch’s platinum jubilee, 70 years on the throne. The queen has taken on fewer duties in recent years but is said to maintain a full schedule. In less than two weeks, she will host world leaders at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters
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Presidential ill health, police raids and corruption allegations, some involving caretaker Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, have thrown the Czech Republic into a surreal political crisis. 

The jarring turn of events could not have come at a worse time — the unnerved country is already in the grip of an acute energy crunch, like its European neighbors, and it is facing an alarming uptick in coronavirus infections.

The Czech Republic has been in post-election limbo since Tuesday, when a Senate committee stripped President Miloš Zeman of his powers. The decision came after doctors at a military hospital in Prague, the Czech capital, who are treating the president for liver failure, said Zeman was “incapable of fulfilling any of his working responsibilities.”  

The 77-year-old Zeman was due to name a new prime minister to head a coalition government following elections earlier this month in which the populist billionaire Babiš’ Action for Dissatisfied Citizens party won the most votes, but lost overall control to two opposition blocs, led by Petr Fiala. Babiš’ defeat was put down to the willingness of opposition parties to put aside their ideological differences and join to drive the populist leader out of power.

On Wednesday the state prosecutor added to the swirling political mix by requesting the Chamber of Deputies, the lower chamber of Parliament, remove Babiš’ immunity as a lawmaker so he can be prosecuted for fraud and misuse of $2 million of European Union funds involving a spa resort owned by members of his own family.  

Shortly before the elections Babiš featured in the so-called Pandora Papers, a huge trove of documents detailing the secret offshore financial dealings of hundreds of politicians, public officials and celebrities. The papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists showed how Babiš had used shell companies to buy property, including a chateau on the French Riviera in 2009, prompting money-laundering and tax-evasion accusations from opposition politicians. He has denied the Pandora allegations, saying he has done nothing wrong and that the charges against him are just smears.

“I think that the request by the Prague prosecutor to lift Babiš’ immunity is an interesting development, simply because if the prosecutor had decided that Babiš should not be sent to court, should not be prosecuted, he would probably not ask for this,” political scientist Jiří Pehe told Prague Radio midweek. “His move seems to suggest that he is seriously thinking about sending Mr. Babiš to court,” he added.

In the meantime, if the Senate and House of Deputies confirm the committee’s vote to strip Zeman of his authority, some of his powers will be transferred to Babiš and one of his political allies, Parliament Speaker Radek Vondráček. In theory they would then decide who should be the next prime minister.

Babiš has promised to name Fiala, and he may have his eyes set more on running for the presidency to replace Zeman than in trying to hang on as prime minster, some Czech commentators say.  

Zeman was a onetime Babiš ally, but there are signs their alliance is breaking up. The Czech Republic’s second-largest newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes, which is owned by Babiš, headlined a story this week saying the prime minister is aiming to “clean Zeman’s men out” of power.  

Babiš has publicly demanded the resignation of Zeman’s chief aide, Vratislav Mynář, following allegations he and others in the presidential entourage had been trying to conceal the true state of the president’s health. Police have said they are investigating the allegations, which they have described as “criminal offenses against the republic.”

“The police of the Czech Republic will initiate an investigation into a possible illegal act, in which signs of criminal offenses against the republic can be seen,” Czech police tweeted. It is unclear what offenses may be involved but local media say the crimes could include treason and subversion. Mynář told reporters in Prague midweek that no laws had been broken and he criticized the Senate committee for its vote to strip his boss of his presidential powers.

The president’s wife, Ivana Zemanová, said Thursday that people should stop speculating about her husband’s illness as “treatment will take time.” Mynář remains defiant, telling reporters in Prague Thursday, “The President of the Republic is Miloš Zeman, who appointed me to the position and is the only one who has the right to dismiss me.”

But Babiš told iDNES.cz, a Czech news site, midweek that Mynář should resign, and that if doesn’t he would remove him after presidential powers are transferred. Parliament will vote on the issue in the first week of November.  

Czechs have been left reeling at the twists and turns of the bizarre chain of political events.

Like other Europeans they are struggling to recover from a pandemic that seems far from over. Coronavirus infections have started to surge again in the country with over 3,000 new cases recorded on both Tuesday and Wednesday, doubling the tallies seen on the corresponding days last week.

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch, announced new pandemic restrictions Wednesday, which will come into force next week. They include mandatory mask-wearing at work and checks for digital vaccination certificates to enter bars and restaurants.
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A visit by a group of French senators to Taiwan earlier this month is just the latest sign that European countries are willing to engage with the East Asian democracy even at the risk of angering China, according to regional experts.

The lawmakers from the Taiwan Friendship Group, led by Senator Alain Richard, arrived in Taiwan on October 6 for a five-day trip. They met the following day with President Tsai Ing-wen, who awarded Richard with a national medal during a brief reception. Richard is a former French defense minister.

Richard, who previously visited in 2015 and 2018, praised the friendship between France and Taiwan. He notably referred to Taiwan as a “country,” in an unusual move for a sitting parliamentarian as France does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei. China maintains that Taiwan is a wayward province that will one day be united with the mainland. 

News of the French senators’ trip to Taiwan, originally planned for March, was met by anger from the Chinese embassy in Paris, which said the group would give support to “pro-independence forces in Taiwan,” according to Taiwan media.  

Marc Cheng, executive director of the EU Center in Taiwan, said the trip was a sign that some European countries like France may be less wary of Beijing despite its often angry rhetoric about Taiwan. “This means that even under more pressure from China, European countries are still willing to maintain contact or exchange with Taiwan,” he said. 

The trip was also notable for its visibility, as Taiwan’s engagement with non-official allies often occurs with less media fanfare. An estimated 45 French parliamentarians visited Taiwan between 2017 and 2020, according to Mathieu Duchâtel, director of the Asia Program at Institut Montaigne in France, including study groups and a delegation from the French National Assembly.

“If the Chinese embassy had not politicized the visit, it would have gone completely unnoticed,” Duchâtel said of the recent trip. “It’s symbolic but overall what really made it important and unusual this time was the harsh reaction of the Chinese embassy.” 

Duchâtel said China’s representatives may have been particularly sensitive because in May, the French Senate passed a resolution calling for Taiwan to participate in U.N. agencies like the World Health Organization, the World Health Assembly, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and Interpol.

Due to Taiwan’s disputed political status, it lacks representation at the U.N. and affiliates at the behest of China. In years past, Taiwan has participated in organizations like the World Health Assembly as an observer but it has been blocked since 2016 by China.  

Taiwan’s successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and experience with SARS, brought fresh attention to its lockout and led to a first-ever statement of support from the “G-7” countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

European countries have also begun to pay more attention to Taiwan as part of a greater pivot toward Asia. Earlier this year, the European Union passed its first strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, which makes plain concerns about the rise of China in the region and the future security of the Taiwan Strait.

The EU policy follows in the footsteps of France, Germany and the Netherlands, which all have drafted individual Indo-Pacific strategies in recent years. French President Emmanuel Macron considers France an Asia-Pacific player due to its territories in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, according to the EU Center in Taiwan’s Cheng, and has worked to raise its visibility in Asia. 

Beyond western Europe, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic – all former Soviet bloc countries with limited investment from China – have also warmed to Taiwan and even become outspoken advocates for the democracy. They are also three of Taiwan’s major COVID-19 vaccine donors alongside the U.S. and Japan.  

On Wednesday, a Taiwan trade delegation of more than 60 representatives departed for Europe to boost its trade with the three countries as well as Central and Eastern Europe.  
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Deep divisions over the European Union’s legal order and energy took an EU summit into late Thursday, with eastern member states Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic standing in defiance against Brussels. 

The rule of law issue was especially thorny, with the potential to shake the very foundations of the 27-nation bloc. 

The east-west divide was set to continue Friday, when leaders would return to discuss migration, a topic that turned Europeans bitterly against each other when Germany opened its doors to asylum-seekers fleeing war in 2015.

Poland again defended an October 7 ruling by its Constitutional Court that said EU law applied only in specific, limited areas and Polish law prevailed in all others. 

The European Commission and countries including the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium countered that the position undermined EU cohesion and was legal cover for Warsaw to strip independence from its judicial branch and roll back democratic norms. 

But under the authority of heavyweights France and Germany, a measure of calm prevailed in the row, as they pressed for dialogue with Poland. 

Just before the summit started, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held one-on-one talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Macron urged Morawiecki “to find a solution in line with our principles and common rules,” according to an Elysee official. 

Leaders then held a relatively short two-hour discussion on the issue, kicked off by Morawiecki. 

“The debate took place in a serene atmosphere,” an EU official said on condition of anonymity. The debate “was a step that should help lead to solutions,” the official added. 

But that was preceded by four hours of wrangling over energy, which was the original main agenda item when the summit was organized.

Europe is struggling to find ways to cope with a global energy crunch while sticking to goals to mitigate climate change. 

Diplomats said that Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, backed by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, refused to sign off on the summit conclusions on energy, wanting to get new language on the EU’s landmark carbon emissions system, which he opposes. 

Orban and Babis are allies of Morawiecki, and Hungary and Poland have a pact to veto any EU moves to punish the other. 

The friction from the two disputes soured an EU summit that was likely to be the last for Merkel, who is bowing out to hand over the reins to a new German government being formed following September elections she did not contest. 

A group photo of the leaders, socially spaced, nevertheless presented a show of unity that belied the disagreements behind closed doors. 

‘Red line’

Arriving for the talks, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that “it’s very clear that a red line has been crossed” with Poland’s stance on the bloc’s legal order. 

“This discussion really goes to the heart of Europe,” he said. 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin both said it was time to get tough with Warsaw. 

They and several other leaders said Brussels should not release 36 billion euros ($42 billion) in pandemic recovery money that Poland badly wants while the issue stood unresolved.

A few said all EU budget money for Warsaw should be subject to an untested conditionality mechanism tying disbursement to member states upholding the rule of law. 

One EU diplomat warned that the commission was preparing the mechanism and that “the moment of truth was getting close” for Warsaw. 

Merkel wary 

As he arrived, Morawiecki showed no sign of backing down. 

While he said he was “ready for dialogue” he warned: “We won’t act under the pressure of blackmail.” 

Orban gave him his full support, saying the pressure on Poland was a “witch hunt.” 

Merkel, who has always urged a cautious approach in her 16 years of EU summits, said she did not want to see the disagreement with Poland end up before the European Court of Justice. 

“A cascade of legal disputes before the European Court of Justice is not a solution to the problem of how the rule of law can be applied,” she said.

 
…

Queen Elizabeth II spent a night in the hospital for tests after being forced to cancel a visit to Northern Ireland this week, Buckingham Palace said Thursday. 

“Following medical advice to rest for a few days, The Queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations, returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today, and remains in good spirits,” a palace statement said. 

Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency said the trip to the hospital was unannounced as it was expected to be a short stay, and also to protect the 95-year-old monarch’s privacy. 

The overnight stay was for “practical reasons,” it added. 

Elizabeth was seen by specialists at the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London, where her late husband, Prince Philip, spent four weeks from February this year for treatment for a preexisting heart condition. 

Philip, who was married to the queen for 73 years, died in April just a few weeks before his 100th birthday. 

The queen, who has been on the throne since 1952 and is Britain’s longest-serving monarch, was said to be back at her desk on Thursday afternoon, undertaking light duties. 

She had been due to attend an ecumenical service in the border town of Armagh on Thursday to mark the 100th centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland. 

But the palace said on Wednesday morning that she had “reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days.” 

The decision was not related to the coronavirus, and she was said to have been resting at her Windsor Castle residence, west of London.

Busy schedule

The queen has had a busy schedule since returning from her remote Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland at the start of October. 

She has resumed public engagements since the funeral of Prince Philip, either alone or accompanied by other senior royals. 

Last week, she delivered a speech at the opening of the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, and on the weekend spent a day at Ascot Racecourse. 

On Monday, she held a virtual audience with the new governor-general of New Zealand, and on Tuesday received two ambassadors, also by video link. 

On Tuesday evening, she hosted a reception at Windsor for international business leaders attending a government investment summit, including the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, and senior British ministers. 

At that reception, the queen appeared cheerful as she, her eldest son and heir Prince Charles, 72, and grandson Prince William, 39, mingled with guests, none of whom were wearing face masks. 

Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in Britain in July, but an increase in cases has prompted calls for measures to be reimposed to prevent further close-contact transmission. 

Daily virus cases crossed the 50,000 mark on Thursday, according to the latest government figures, the highest since July 17. 

Elizabeth and Philip moved to Windsor in March last year as the coronavirus outbreak took hold. 

They decided to self-isolate because of the increased risk of infection due to their age, although she has since been vaccinated. 

The queen is still expected to join other senior royals for a series of events linked to the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Glasgow next month. 

She was seen last week at a major public event using a walking stick, but royal officials said it was not linked to any specific health condition. 

But news that she stayed overnight in a hospital will inevitably raise fears for her health, given her advanced age, and questions about whether she should slow down. 

Next year she is due to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee to mark 70 years on the throne.
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A group of mixed-race women who were abducted as children by state officials in what was then Belgian Congo is suing the Belgian state for crimes against humanity. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the case comes as Belgium struggles to reconcile with its brutal colonial past.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting calls by some public health officials to implement new COVID-19 restrictions, despite a surge of new infections hitting the nation.

The Health Ministry reported 52,000 new infections on Thursday, with a daily average the past week of more than 44,000 — a 16% increase from the previous week.

The World Health Organization reported this week that Britain has among the highest number of daily new infections in the European region, the only part of the world that saw an increase in new cases last week.

Speaking to reporters, Johnson said the government is going to stick to a plan it laid out earlier this year which called for a series of steps to allow the country to reopen and lift the restrictions.

Johnson said officials are carefully watching the COVID-19 numbers and said while the figures are high, they are within the parameters that government experts predicted.

Johnson said the best thing people can do now is get a booster shot. Almost 80% of British residents 12 and older have been fully vaccinated, and everyone over 50 is being offered a booster.

Johnson said, “Ninety percent of the adult population has antibodies right now. But we must fortify ourselves further.”

Critics of the government plan say the booster campaign is moving more slowly than the infection. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday the booster shot campaign is currently vaccinating about 165,000 people a day and that it should be closer to 500,000 per day.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. 

 
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British authorities said Thursday that a British man has been charged in the fatal stabbing of lawmaker David Amess last week while he was meeting with constituents at a church. 

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old of Somali heritage, has been charged under the Terrorism Act.

The death of the longtime lawmaker has stunned Britain and particularly its politicians, who have a tradition of being accessible to constituents. His murder has sparked high level conversations about how Britain protects its leaders and confronts domestic extremism.

The 69-year-old Amess was a social conservative who opposed abortion and supported Britain’s exit from the European Union.

His killing came five years after Labour Party legislator Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist, the first British lawmaker to be killed since a peace agreement ended violence in Northern Ireland nearly three decades before.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
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A week ago, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would be prepared to increase natural gas exports to help Europe with an energy crunch that has triggered soaring prices. But there are no signs he will make good on promise of relief, say energy experts.

This week Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom appeared to have opted not to boost gas exports to Europe and refrained at auctions from reserving additional gas transit capacity on Ukrainian or Polish pipelines, according to Bloomberg data.

Last week, in an interview with American broadcaster CNBC, the Russian president dismissed suggestions the Kremlin was using gas as a geopolitical weapon, saying such talk was “politically motivated blather.”   

But Gazprom’s decision not to reserve additional capacity for gas exports to Europe has prompted anger from European leaders, who accuse the Kremlin of playing a political game.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters in Brussels Monday that soaring gas prices have deep geopolitical roots. “It’s part of a geopolitical battle,” he said. But Borrell also acknowledged Russia has honored all its contracts. “It cannot be said that they are not delivering when they said they would, but it has not increased the quantities,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was more restrained in her language Wednesday when briefing the European Parliament, saying, “Gas prices are — and have always been — cyclical, and they are set by global markets. So, it is not a regional or local phenomenon, it is a global phenomenon.”

But she added she thought the Kremlin could do more to help, saying in previous years Gazprom had responded to higher demand.

Russia supplies 43% of the EU’s gas imports. Europe is heavily reliant on natural gas to generate much of its electricity. Gazprom exports actually fell in the first half of October.

Summit

EU national leaders are set to discuss the energy crunch at a two-day summit starting Thursday. In his summit invitation to national leaders, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said, “We will address the current hike in energy prices which is challenging the post-pandemic recovery and severely affecting our citizens and businesses.”

Some analysts say that while Russia may be seeking to exploit Europe’s energy crunch, the continent’s leaders have partly themselves to blame for their plight as they shifted away years ago from agreeing long-term contracts, preferring instead to opt for a system of market-based pricing, which can offer lower prices when supplies are in abundance but is highly volatile and can see prices skyrocket when there are shortages. Europeans have also done nothing to diversify suppliers.

The price jumps in natural gas are due largely to a surge in demand in Asia and low supplies of in Europe, which has seen an astonishing 280% increase in wholesale gas prices. Electricity prices are also soaring because natural gas is used across the continent to generate a substantial percentage of its electricity.

The International Energy Agency has called on Russia to boost gas exports. “The IEA believes that Russia could do more to increase gas availability to Europe and ensure storage is filled to adequate levels in preparation for the coming winter heating season,” it said in a statement earlier this month.

Nord Stream 2 and Ukraine  

There have long been fears, stretching back to the 1990s, that the Kremlin could use Europe’s dependence on Gazprom against it. A succession of U.S. presidents have urged European leaders to be wary and opposed the development of the just completed Nord Stream 2, NS2, natural gas pipeline, which will deliver energy from Russia to Germany while bypassing an older line running through Ukraine and Poland.

Some European politicians suspect the Kremlin is deliberately worsening Europe’s energy crunch as a tactic to pressure the EU into speeding up certification of the just completed NS2 pipeline.

Central European politicians have also opposed NS2 — which runs 1,200 kilometers from Vyborg, Russia, to Lubmin, Germany, snaking under the Baltic Sea — and not only because their countries will lose lucrative transit fees from the older pipeline, but because they feared the Kremlin was building the new pipeline for political reasons and not commercial ones.

“Nord Stream 2 is no ordinary business project,” according to Inna Sovsun, a former Ukrainian minister and now a lawmaker and professor at the Kyiv School of Economics. “On the contrary, it is a geopolitical weapon aimed at the heart of Europe that has been conceived since day one as a tool to isolate Ukraine and strengthen Russia’s position in its confrontation with the Western world,” she said earlier this year in a paper for the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank.

She added, “In recent months, Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom has refused Ukrainian offers of additional pipeline capacity, despite surging European demand for gas due to a range of factors including maintenance on alternative Russian pipelines. Moscow prefers to wait for Nord Stream 2 to be commissioned and wants to send a clear message that it expects Russia’s European customers to facilitate this process without delay.”

European energy executives have warned of a difficult northern hemisphere winter ahead. Energy-intensive industries may have to slow down production, which could lead to shortages of fertilizers, steel, and food, they warn. Some energy companies have been trying all year to boost their gas stocks, which were depleted by last year’s exceptionally cold winter. Alfred Stern, CEO of Austria’s energy company OMV, says, “Everything will depend on how cold this winter is.”

On that score, the omens are not good. Meteorologists are forecasting a high risk of colder than normal winter weather this year. If those predictions play out, there will be even greater demand for natural gas and even higher energy prices, boosting overall European inflation which is running currently at 3.4%, the highest level since 2008.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers Thursday and Friday to talk about security issues in Afghanistan, tensions with Russia and technology policy.

“I’m here to help advance NATO’s military adaptation, and ensure the alliance is prepared for the challenges of the future,” Austin tweeted after arriving Wednesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the defense ministers would discuss preventing Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorists, and making sure Afghans evacuated during a massive airlift operation are able to resettle in NATO member states and not remain at transit centers.

“The most urgent role NATO has, and the most immediate task we are faced with, is to resettle Afghans who worked with us,” Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of the ministerial. “And NATO Allies and the NATO partners were able to get more than 120,000 people, many of them Afghans, out of Afghanistan. And we still, Allies and partners, are still working on how to get more people out.”

Austin traveled to Belgium from Romania, where he said Wednesday the Biden administration is committed to strengthening its Euro-Atlantic bonds while securing NATO’s eastern flank.

Speaking in Bucharest, Austin praised Romania for setting “an important example for allied commitment on sharing responsibility” and defense modernization.

Romania is one of the few NATO nations that spends more than 2% of its Gross Domestic Product on defense, with 20% of that spending going toward modernization — two key NATO spending goals.

The country also hosts about 1,000 rotational U.S. forces who help maintain security of the Black Sea region.

Austin’s visit to Romania followed stops in Ukraine and Georgia, two countries that aspire to join NATO and that are partially occupied by Russian and Russian-backed forces.

Tensions have risen between Russia and the longstanding alliance, with Russia announcing on Monday it was suspending its permanent mission to NATO in response to the alliance’s expulsion of eight Russians earlier this month.

Speaking in Kyiv Tuesday, Austin called Russia an “obstacle” to any peaceful resolution to the war raging in Ukraine’s east.

“We again call on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea, to stop perpetuating the war in Eastern Ukraine, to end its destabilizing activities in the Black Sea and along Ukraine’s borders,” Austin said.

Earlier this year, the largest number of Russian troops amassed near the Ukrainian border since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Kyiv. Russia soon pulled back its troops, however, after taking part in exercises near the Ukraine border.

Russia still occupies about a fifth of Georgia.
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German authorities on Wednesday detained two former soldiers who are alleged to have tried to form a mercenary group that would have intervened in the military conflict in Yemen.

Federal prosecutors said the men, identified only as Arend-Adolf G. and Achim A. in keeping with Germany privacy laws, were detained in southern Germany. Both are German citizens and former members of the Bundeswehr.

The men are accused of being ringleaders in the formation of a terror organization, prosecutors said in a statement.

Together, they allegedly decided in early 2021 to create their own mercenary group of between 100 and 150 former soldiers or members of the police.

The men’s primary motivation was to earn about 40,000 euros ($47,000) each per month by offering the group’s services to third parties, specifically Saudi Arabia, prosecutors said. The oil-rich kingdom has intervened in the conflict in neighboring Yemen against the Houthi rebel group.

Prosecutors said the men’s attempts to contact Saudi officials were unsuccessful.

The men were aware that their plans for military intervention in Yemen would inevitably require them to kill people, and they were aware that civilians might be injured and killed too, prosecutors said. 

Arend-Adolf G. is alleged to have won over at least seven people for the plan, they added.
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An international Russia-hosted meeting Wednesday pressed the Taliban to form a “truly inclusive” government in Afghanistan and called for the United Nations to convene a donor conference as soon as possible to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe facing the war-torn country.

The huddle, known as the Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan, was held with the participation of leaders of the interim Taliban government and senior officials from Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, as well as five formerly Soviet Central Asian states.

“Participating countries call on the current Afghan leadership to take further steps to improve governance and to form a truly inclusive government that adequately reflects the interests of all major ethno-political forces in the country,” said a post-meeting joint statement.

The delegates expressed “deep concern” over the deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, stressing the need for the international community to mobilize efforts to provide assistance to the Afghan people.

Participants proposed to convene the U.N.-led donor conference “certainly with the understanding that the core burden of post-conflict economic and financial reconstruction and development of Afghanistan must be shouldered by troop-based actors which were in the country for the past 20 years.”

The statement pointedly referred to the United States and Western allied troops, whose abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years paved the way for the Taliban to regain control of the country in August. 

Washington also was invited to the Moscow talks, but U.S. officials cited technical reasons for not attending, though they promised to join future rounds.

While the West and world in general have refused to give official recognition to the Taliban government, Wednesday’s joint statement recognized the “new reality” of the fundamentalist group’s return to power in Kabul.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while opening the meeting lauded the Taliban government’s efforts to improve the security and political situation. 

“[However], we see the formula for its successful solution mainly in the formation of a truly inclusive government, which should fully reflect the interests of all, not only ethnic, but also political forces of the country,” Lavrov said.

The head of the Taliban delegation, Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, while addressing the meeting, renewed a call for the global community to recognize the new government in Kabul and again demanded the United States unfreeze about $10 billon in Afghan central bank in foreign reserves.

Hanafi defended his interim government as “already inclusive” and said they would not accept any deal under pressure and cautioned against “isolating” Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s return to power has raised concerns whether they will protect human rights of Afghans and whether they will prevent the country from becoming a terror sanctuary. The worries stem from the Islamist movement’s rule in the 1990s, when it hosted leaders of the al-Qaida network and barred women from public life and girls from receiving an education. 

The Taliban have dismissed those fears, saying they have opened government offices for both male and female staff to return to work and girls are gradually being allowed to resume education activities. 

But the hardline group is already under fire for reneging on some of its pledges to protect human rights and is being accused of persecuting members of the ousted Afghan government.

“I would like to remind you all that the people of Afghanistan have no intention of harming any country or nation in the world,” Hanafi assured Wednesday’s meeting. He said the Taliban government “stands ready to address all the concerns of the international community with complete clarity, transparency and openness.”

Hanafi’s speech to the meeting in the Russian capital came a day after Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said he sees no situation where the Taliban would be allowed access to its funds in the U.S. reserves.

“We believe that it’s essential that we maintain our sanctions against the Taliban but at the same time find ways for legitimate humanitarian assistance to get to the Afghan people. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Adeyemo told the Senate Banking Committee.

The U.S. and other Western countries are working out how to engage with the Taliban without giving them the legitimacy they seek, while facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid to Afghans.

Adeyemo said the Treasury was taking every step it could within its sanctions program to make clear to humanitarian groups that Washington wants to facilitate the flow of aid into Afghanistan.

Russia says its diplomatic offensive to garner support for Kabul stems from concerns that continued instability would encourage terrorist groups to threaten the security of Afghanistan’s neighbors and the wider region. 

Lavrov highlighted those fears while opening Wednesday’s meeting and urged the Taliban to deliver on their pledge to prevent terrorist groups from threatening Russia’s “friends and allies.”

The Afghan branch of Islamist State, known as IS-Khorasan, has in recent weeks carried out dozens of bomb attacks, killing and injuring hundreds of people across Afghanistan, most of them civilians.

The violence is of major concern to neighboring countries and is raising questions about the Taliban’s ability to counter the growing terror threat.
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