Top diplomats from Ukraine, Georgia and Romania are urging the United States and NATO to step up their presence in the Black Sea region to discourage Moscow from advancing its aggressive agenda.Ambassadors from the three countries, all of which border the sea, voiced their concerns Thursday at an event organized by the Middle East Institute’s newly inaugurated Frontier Europe Initiative.Sitting at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the Black Sea has been fought over for centuries, noted Ukrainian Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko. More recently, Russia has enlarged its footprint around the strategically vital waterway by directly or indirectly seizing territory from Georgia in 2008 and from Ukraine in 2014.“We alone don’t have the capability to stand up to Russia,” acknowledged Yelchenko, who was joined in that assessment by Georgian Ambassador David Bakradze. Both urged the United States to bolster its presence in the region and to strengthen its allies and partners.Greater US, NATO presenceThe U.S. and NATO presence in the Black Sea region “skyrocketed” immediately after the Crimea crisis in 2014 but has since tapered off, said Heritage Foundation analyst Luke Coffey in an interview with VOA.In a paper published earlier this year, Coffey described the Black Sea as “having been fought over by some of the world’s major empires. Throughout history, it has proven to be one of the most geopolitically and economically important locations in the broader Eurasian region.”FILE – Shipping containers are seen in the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine, Nov. 4, 2016.Fuel, shippingOil and gas pipelines, as well as fiber-optic cables, run along the bottom of the sea, while hundreds of ships crisscross its surface daily moving people and goods, said Coffey, director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at Heritage.For Russia, the sea is also the maritime gateway to the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and strategic points beyond.Coffey argued for a continuous NATO presence in the region, saying “every single day of the year, there should be at least one NATO ship” in the Black Sea.He acknowledged that NATO countries presently lack the ships and possibly the political will to maintain such a robust presence, especially with budgets constrained by the coronavirus pandemic. “Surface warships are very expensive defense capability.”He called for “creative solutions,” looking at how air and land assets could accompany a projection of naval force. The situation needs to be looked at “holistically,” he said, taking into account the differing levels of enthusiasm in the region for any alliance with the U.S. and its NATO partners.Romania, Coffey said, is the most enthusiastic NATO member among the countries that border the Black Sea, whereas Turkey wields the most maritime power in the region after Russia.Ankara support seen vitalThe ambassadors from Georgia, Romania and Ukraine agreed that no regional initiative is likely to bear fruit without the support of Ankara. “We would like to see Turkey more engaged,” said George Maior, Romanian ambassador to the United States.FILE – Romanian soldiers take part in a joint exercise with U.S. troops during Argedava Saber 17, a stage in Saber Guardian 17 exercises, in Bordusani, Ialomita, Romania, July 16, 2017.Romania, he said, has worked diligently and consistently with the Pentagon to increase and enhance the U.S. military presence, both on land and at sea.Several participants in the forum expressed hope that the United States and NATO would devote the same attention and resources to the Black Sea region as they have to the three Baltic states, all NATO members since 2004.While NATO membership still seems a distant prospect for Georgia and Ukraine, Coffey said that should not be ruled out.“If you were to ask people in the early 1990s what the prospect of Poland, Latvia joining NATO was, the answer you would likely get was ‘impossible,’ ” he said. Today both are not only alliance members but among the staunchest supporters of the institution.“We shouldn’t let Russia have the unofficial veto” over Georgia and Ukraine, he said.
…

Rights activists on Thursday accused Danish officials of being unable to recognize racism after authorities said the killing of a biracial man by two white men was not racially motivated.
 
“In Denmark, white people are colorblind. They cannot see that racism exists. That is embarrassing,”said Jette Moeller, head of the Danish chapter of SOS-Racism, an international association.  
“Of course, racism exists (in Denmark). We know that. It has been documented for years,” said Mira Chandhok Skadegaard, an assistant professor at Aalborg University in northern Denmark.
A biracial man was killed last month on a Danish Baltic Sea island. The Danish police, prosecutor, a defense lawyer and a white friend of the victim all say a personal relationship that went wrong  between the victim and the perpetrators was the reason for the slaying, not racism.  
The 28-year-old victim, who had Danish and African roots, was found on the island of Bornholm on June 23. Two white brothers in their 20s whom the victim reportedly knew have been detained until July 22 on suspicion of murder. None have been named by authorities.  
Speculation that the killing could be racially motivated began after it emerged that the victim’s death bore some similarities to that of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes even as Floyd pleaded for air. Floyd’s death has sparked protests around the world demanding racial justice and condemning police brutality.
The Danish chapter of Black Lives Matter wrote on Facebook that “two brothers committed a racial murder on Bornholm” and posted a photo of a swastika tattoo, claiming it was on one suspect’s leg.  
“Let a judge decide” whether the slaying was racially motivated, Moeller told The Associated Press in an interview. “But it should be investigated as a racially motivated crime. Knowing those who killed him doesn’t rule out it could include some racial elements.”
Activists like Moeller see a pattern of denial in Denmark, which they attribute to rising anti-immigrant attitudes in the Nordic country. She also points out that Denmark’s freedom of expression should not be used to denigrate people, and the miss-use of that right has previously brought the Scandinavian country of 10 million into the crosshairs of Muslims around the world.
“Racism is about the effect it has on other people … One cannot use the liberty of expression as an excuse to taunt others, like Rasmus Paludan does by burning copies of the Quran,” she said.
For months, Paludan, a far-right provocateur, has been touring the country and tossing copies of the Islamic holy book in the air before burning them before immigrants. This has sometimes led to brief confrontations between onlookers and police who have been protecting Paludan.
Last month, Paludan was convicted of racism, among other things, with a court ruling that “his statements were derogatory and degrading toward a population group.” He was given a three-month prison sentence, of which two were suspended, and his licence to practice law was suspended in part for three years. He has appealed the sentence.
In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad. This caused wide outrage among Muslims, who generally hold that any depiction of Muhammad is blasphemous and prompted often violent protests in Muslim countries. The newspaper — one of Denmark’s largest — said it had wanted to test whether cartoonists would apply self-censorship when asked to portray Muhammad. No Danish laws were violated with the cartoons’ publication.  
It was the same daily that in January published a cartoon with the Chinese flag with what resembles viruses instead of the normal stars, sparking China’s anger. In both cases, the Danish right to freedom of speech was invoked.  
In 2017, a 16-year-old Afghan boy was set on fire by four schoolmates but race was ruled out as factor. The four teenagers were found guilty of gross violence and the Afghan boy survived with burns on his legs and chest.  
A 2018 report by the European Union pointed out that hate crimes in Denmark had quadrupled over 11 years, from 35 reported cases in 2007 to 140 cases in 2016.
In Europe, “Denmark belongs to the tough group,” Moeller told the AP. “I believe that we’re on the right track as we start to discuss it, address it.”  
She noted that a racial justice demonstration in Copenhagen on June 7 drew at least 15,000 people.  
Chandhok Skadegaard, who has been studying discrimination for decades, said Danes “are far behind when it comes to recognizing racism in our society. Sweden is several steps ahead of Denmark … as is Norway, and Finland and England.”
“People tend to not report discrimination, because they find it is not acknowledged or taken seriously by the authorities,” she said.
In 2016, Denmark made international headlines when a law was passed requiring asylum-seekers to hand over valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner ($1,500), to help cover housing and food costs while their cases were being processed. Although the center-right government behind the move said it was in line with rules for unemployed Danes seeking benefits, critics denounced the law as inhumane.  
Still, the law has not been changed under Denmark’s present Social Democratic government. 
…

The arrest Thursday in the U.S. state of New Hampshire of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and long-time friend of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is ringing legal alarm bells thousands of miles away in Buckingham Palace, former royal advisers say. Maxwell, 58, has long been wanted for questioning by the FBI over allegations that she supplied underage girls to Epstein and his closest friends, including Prince Andrew, reputedly the favorite son of Queen Elizabeth. Maxwell has publicly denied procuring girls for Epstein and his circle of intimates. Andrew, also known as the Duke of York, was forced to step down in November from public life over his friendship with Epstein amid allegations that he’d had sex with a 17-year-old girl who had been arranged for him by Maxwell. The prince has denied the claim. Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against Ghislaine Maxwell, in New York, July 2, 2020.Elizabeth’s legal advisers will be trying to assess what ramifications Maxwell’s arrest may entail for the beleaguered 60-year-old prince, a former Buckingham Palace official told VOA. Maxwell was charged by New York federal prosecutors Thursday with six counts in connection with an ongoing investigation into Epstein’s accomplices, according to court documents, including enticement and conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transportation and conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two counts of perjury. “In particular, from at least in or about 1994, up to and including at least in or about 1997, Maxwell assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18,” the indictment states. FILE – Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry.Epstein was found dead last year in a New York prison cell, where he was being held on charges of trafficking girls as young as 14 years old. His death, ruled a suicide, has not stopped a wide-ranging federal probe that is drawing in Epstein’s friends. The prince has been locked in a transatlantic dispute since January with U.S. prosecutors who say he has failed to assist them in their long-running probe into Epstein’s history of sexual abuse, and the possible complicity of others, despite the prince’s pledges to do so. “Certainly, the worry will be that Andrew will be thrust back into the glare of the public spotlight, and that the arrest will embolden the federal prosecutors to press for Andrew’s cooperation,” a former palace official said. “This does risk wider political ramifications, including Britain’s political relations with the U.S, as well as how the British public will view the royal family moving forward,” he added. ‘Megxit’The deepening Epstein saga is adding to the mounting woes buffeting Britain’s royals. Buckingham Palace is also focused on trying to contain the fallout from the decision last year by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to move to the United States and carve out an independent life for themselves free from the protocol constraints of royal life. FILE – Britain’s Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrive to attend the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, March 9, 2020.The palace is braced for a string of upcoming books on the so-called “Megxit” of the young couple from royal life. The pair reportedly assisted some of the authors, and the lurid revelations are likely to deepen an alleged widening rift between royal family members, including between the Duke and his elder brother, Prince William — the sons of Prince Charles, the heir apparent. Hours before Maxwell’s arrest, Britain’s media was focused on claims by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that she felt shut out by the royal family and that the palace failed to protect her while she was pregnant with her first child, Archie, in 2019.  The claim was made in documents released as part of a High Court battle between the duchess and the Daily Mail newspaper, which she is suing for breach of privacy. Andrew’s legal woes — as well as the semi-public squabbling between members of the royal family, nicknamed “the firm” — is shaping up to turn 2020 into a year comparable to the series of troubles that rocked Buckingham Palace in 1992, which the queen dubbed an “annus horribilis” (horrible year).  That year included the public breakup of the Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and disclosures about their infidelities, followed by a fire at Windsor Castle that destroyed large parts of the 11th century building.   Questioning Andrew In June, the U.S. Department of Justice invoked America’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with Britain, a rare legal move, to demand a formal face-to-face interview with Andrew. British media reports suggest that so far, Andrew has only offered to provide written answers to questions posed by federal prosecutors — and to do so without taking an oath. He has publicly denied any wrongdoing and dismissed allegations that he slept with Virginia Roberts Giuffre at the billionaire’s luxury apartments in London and New York and at his Caribbean retreat when she was a teenager. FILE – A combination photo of the front-pages of British newspapers headline the scandal surrounding Britain’s Prince Andrew, Nov. 21, 2019.Asked during a Fox News interview last month whether the U.S. would officially ask Britain to hand over the duke for questioning, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said there were no plans to seek his extradition. “I don’t think it’s a question of handing him over. I think it’s just a question of having him provide some evidence,” he said. Andrew’s friendship with Epstein first came under intense scrutiny in 2010 when photographs emerged of the two together in New York when Epstein was already a registered sex offender. The prince, who has been accused in the past of forming ill-judged friendships and had a reputation as a hard-partying royal when younger, said in a BBC interview last year that he only visited Epstein at the time to tell him their friendship was over. The 45-minute TV interview, in which he failed to express sympathy for the teenagers trafficked and exploited by Epstein, was widely condemned and prompted a backlash from businesses sponsoring his charities. The immediate impact was Andrew’s announcement he was stepping down from royal duties — a move reportedly insisted on by his elder brother Charles during a family conference. Speaking at a press conference in New York, U.S. Deputy District Attorney Audrey Strauss said she would not comment on the status of Andrew in the investigation, but added, “We would welcome Prince Andrew coming in and speaking with us.” 
 
…

United Nations High Commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet warns Venezuela’s social and economic crisis will not go away until its profound political standoff is resolved through government negotiations with political opponents. Bachelet presented her latest update on the human rights situation in Venezuela Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
 
U.N. agencies report more than four million Venezuelans have fled poverty, hunger, human rights violations and political persecution in recent years. The situation has created the largest recorded refugee and migration crisis in the Americas. Most have sought refuge in countries in Latin America.
 FILE – U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is seen at a session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 30, 2020.Bachelet told the U.N. rights council that conditions in Venezuela remain grim.
 
“People in Venezuela continue to suffer grave violations of economic and social rights due to low salaries, high food prices, persisting deficiencies in public services such as electricity, water and fuel shortages, as well as precarious access to health care. The crisis has been exacerbated by the increase in sectoral sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.   
 
Bachelet criticized U.S. economic sanctions on the government of Nicolas Maduro for intensifying the suffering of millions of Venezuelans.    
 
The U.S. sanctions include the freezing of individual accounts and assets; prohibiting individuals, companies and countries from doing business with the Venezuelan government; seizing of assets, arms embargoes and travel bans.
 
In August, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new economic sanctions targeting Venezuela’s petroleum, gold, mining, food and banking industries.
 
In a letter to the U.S. Congress, Trump explained that he had imposed the new measures “in light of the continued usurpation of power by Nicolas Maduro and persons affiliated with him, as well as human rights abuses, arbitrary arrest and detention of Venezuelan citizens.”
 
The Venezuelan ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Jorge Valero, lambastes the new measures imposed by the Trump administration. Speaking via video link, he blamed them for causing pain, death, and suffering of the Venezuelan people.
 
“We see the continuation of the seizure of Venezuela’s assets abroad, the freezing and pillaging of billions of dollars in foreign banks, which deny the Venezuelan state the resources it needs to acquire food, medicine and medical inputs abroad,” Valero said.   
 
The report presented by the Bachelet documents restrictions to the civic and democratic space in Venezuela. It says the government continues to violate freedom of expression and to detain political leaders, journalists and people protesting for public services.
 
She also expressed concern about what she called a pattern of arbitrary detentions and violations, including allegations of torture and enforced disappearances by security forces. 
…

Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was accused by many women of helping procure underage sex partners for Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested Thursday in New Hampshire, the FBI said. Maxwell, who lived for years with Epstein and was his frequent travel companion on trips around the world, was taken into custody around 8:30 a.m., said FBI spokesman Marty Feely. An indictment made public Thursday said Maxwell “assisted, facilitated and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse ” girls under age 18. FILE – This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein.Epstein killed himself in a federal detention center in New York last summer while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex. Those accusations, until now, never resulted in criminal charges. The indictment included counts of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and two counts of perjury. Messages were sent Thursday to several of Maxwell’s attorneys seeking comment. She has previously repeatedly denied wrongdoing and called some of the claims against her “absolute rubbish.” FILE – Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein, leaves after the hearing in the criminal case against Epstein, at Federal Court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019.Among the most sensational accusations was a claim by one Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, that Maxwell arranged for her to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew at her London townhouse. Giuffre bolstered her allegations with a picture of her, Andrew and Giuffre that she said was taken at the time. Andrew denied her story. Maxwell was described in a lawsuit by another Epstein victim, Sarah Ransome, as the “highest-ranking employee” of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking enterprise. She oversaw and trained recruiters, developed recruiting plans and helped conceal the activity from law enforcement, the lawsuit alleged.  
…

Russia overwhelmingly embraced changes to the country’s constitution in a weeklong national vote that ended Wednesday and was held during the coronavirus pandemic, scoring a controversial victory for President Vladimir Putin amid complaints of vote rigging and a constitutional coup by Kremlin critics.
 
Buried among nearly 200 amendments focusing on conservative and patriotic values was a little advertised measure to reset president term limits for Putin — in effect opening the door for the longtime Russian leader to remain in power beyond his current term and until the year 2036.
 
With nearly all votes counted, Russia’s Central Election Commission said 65% of registered voters had participated, with 78% endorsing the changes in an up or down vote. 21% voted against the packet of amendments, according to official results.FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.“De facto, this was a triumphant referendum of trust in President Putin,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in assessing the outcome of the vote during a call with journalists on Thursday.
 
On the eve of the final day of voting, Putin urged all Russians to let their voices be heard.
 
“We’re voting for the country in which we want to live,” said Putin in a video address released on the eve of the vote.
 
“Each of our votes is the most important,” added Putin.
 
The Russian leader made no mention of the term limit extension, or that the both houses of parliament had already ratified the agreement, making the vote largely a question of optics.
 An unusual voteThe vote was part of a carefully choreographed event initially scheduled for April — but was pushed back by Putin amid concerns over rapid spread of the coronavirus in Russia.
 
Russia on Thursday sat third in the global count for coronavirus infections, with just over 650,000 documented cases.Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, wearing a protective mask, is seen at a news conference on the preliminary results of a vote on constitutional reforms, at the commission’s headquarters in Moscow, Russia, July 2, 2020.To assure voters to participate amid the outbreak, Russia’s Central Election Commissioner, Ella Pamfilova, unveiled what she termed “exclusive procedures” aimed at securing public safety while avoiding rules associated with a formal referendum.
 
The vote was extended for a full week, electronic voting was introduced in Moscow, and government vote monitors were put in place of independent observers, under new rules adopted.
 
“Our job is to control the vote, and it was absolutely impossible to control,” says Roman Udot of the independent election monitoring organization Golos in an interview with VOA.
 
“We’ve never had an experience like voting over a week. People were voting in streets, lawns, parks…everywhere.”
 
Voters were also screened for temperature checks and given masks and gloves and individual pens to mark ballots. The urns were disinfected every few hours.
 
“It’s perfectly safe,” said Nina Pavlovna, the head of a voting precinct central Moscow in an interview with VOA. “You can see we’re all wearing protective equipment.”
 
In an attempt to pump up turnout, prizes were also advertised — everything from free pizzas and soccer balls to raffles for smartphones, automobiles and government-gifted apartments.A woman wearing a protective mask stands by the door of her apartment as she prepares to cast her ballot in a mobile ballot box during a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms in Moscow, Russia, July 1, 2020.Opposition leader Alexey Navalny compared the whole experience to a theater performance desperate for an audience.
 
“The only thing he needed was people to turn out, because you can’t perform a play without an audience,” said Navalny in a video released just before the vote ended.
 
“We will never recognize the result,” added Navalny.
 Reality redefined
 
Despite appearances of an overwhelming victory, observers wondered the Kremlin had in effect achieved a result too glaringly at odds with the sour mood of the country.
 
Russia is just coming out of a three-month lockdown in the face of the pandemic that saw unemployment soar and Putin’s poll numbers go into a downward trend.
 
Voting stations were often empty and yet official turnout was high.
 
State-run polling that predicted support for the amendments also clashed with independent studies that showed society was highly split over the vote, and Putin’s extension on term limits in particular.A woman holds a placard reading “No to an eternal Putin” as she protests amendments to Russia’s Constitution, on Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, July 1, 2020.Greg Yudin, a professor and polling specialist at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, suggests that Russia’s mayors and governors may have “over-performed” in their zeal to please the Kremlin.
 
“No one had any doubt about their ability to achieve the numbers that they want. The issue is whether people will believe the results. And this is still up for grabs,” said Yudin in an interview with VOA.
 
“It might be too much. Too much to be credible,” added Yudin.
 The dissenters
 
In central Moscow, several hundred demonstrators gathered on Pushkin Square to express outrage over the prospect of President Putin remaining in office for the next 16 years.
 
Although scores of police vans lined adjoining streets, no arrests were made.
 
“I don’t know anyone who voted for the amendment,” said Valentina Meshkova, a brand manager in her 20’s, in an interview with VOA.
 
“Russians think they can’t change anything, although people are tired of Putin and want a better future,” she added, noting disappointment in the small turnout.Law enforcement officers block protesters during an opposition rally against amendments to Russia’s Constitution on the last day of a weeklong nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 1, 2020.“It’s a constitutional coup,” said Alexey, 20, a student who wore a surgical face mask with the word “Nyet” – “No” in Russian – written on it.
 
“I decided not to participate in this circus,” he added. “But if they’d let me vote for specific amendments instead of all of them at once, I would have.”
 
In addition to the term limit extension, other high profile conservative amendments included a ban on gay marriage, a measure protecting “historical truth” of Soviet actions in World War II, and outlawing calls to “expropriate” Russian territory.
 
Other measures were targeted at working families — such as promise to re-index the pension fund and increases in funding for healthcare and education.
 
Even with the vote now secure, Putin has not indicated his intentions other than to say he is “not ruling out“ a run for the presidency following the end of his current term in 2024.
 
But observers have long argued Putin’s authority depends on the impression of a mandate — something lost in the rush to push through constitutional changes amid a global pandemic.
 
“It’s obvious that Putin doesn’t have the support of the majority — that which has protected him over many years and gave him the basis to do what he wants,” opined Boris Vishnevsky, a liberal political with the Yabloko party in Saint Petersburg in his telegram channel.
 
“And practice shows that when people don’t believe in the authorities, in the end, they stop following them, too,” Vishnevsky said.   
…

Colombia says it has seized more than 7.5 tons of cocaine worth $286 million in a joint operation with the United States. Colombia Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said the cocaine was seized inside a Colombian-flagged vessel near Panama. Trujillo said the drugs were mixed with a construction product and smuggled from Colombia’s coastal city of Cartagena bound for the port of Colon in Panama. Authorities said the drugs are tied to the Gulf Clan organized armed group, with an eventual destination to Central America and Europe. There was no immediate word of any arrests.  Although Colombia has been the focus of years of anti-narcotics measures, the country remains one of the world’s top cocaine producers.   
…

A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to the President Nicolás Maduro since Britain does not recognize him as the president.
Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cash-starved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic.
But the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as his country’s legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro’s socialist administration.
Guaidó has sought to preserve the gold stash at the Bank of England to keep it out of the hands of the Maduro government.
Banco Central de Venezuela sought to release the gold, which it wants to sell for food and medical equipment that is desperately needed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
A lawyer representing Maduro’s side promised to appeal.
Sarosh Zaiwalla said in a statement that the judgment “entirely ignores the reality of the situation on the ground” in Venezuela.
“Mr Maduro’s government is in complete control of Venezuela and its administrative institutions, and only it can ensure the distribution of the humanitarian relief and medical supplies needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” he said. “This outcome will now delay matters further, to the detriment of the Venezuelan people whose lives are at risk.” 
…

Top U.S. intelligence officials are set to brief key members of Congress Thursday on what is known — and what is not known — about an alleged Russian plot to pay militants for attacks on American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.The White House confirmed CIA Director Gina Haspel and National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone will meet with members of the so-called Gang of Eight.The meeting will be the first chance for lawmakers to hear directly from veteran intelligence officials about reports that Russia was offering Taliban-linked militants bounties to target and kill U.S. and allied troops.Until now, briefings on the allegations have been led by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a former U.S. representative who was sworn in just over a month ago, along with national security adviser Robert O’Brien and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, both of whom have served in their roles less than a year.The three have repeatedly told lawmakers that information on the alleged Russian bounty program could not be confirmed, defending the decision not to bring the intelligence to the attention of President Donald Trump.”The person who decided early on whether the president should be briefed on this in the Oval, in the Oval intelligence briefing, was a senior career civil servant,” O’Brien told White House reporters earlier on Wednesday. “And she made that decision because she didn’t have confidence in the intelligence that came out.”O’Brien also said the White House was working on potential responses to Russia should additional intelligence lend credibility to the initial reports.”These are important allegations that, if they’re verified, I can guarantee you the president will take strong action” he said. “We’ve been working for several months on options.”But other officials, when pressed, refused to elaborate on what might come next.”I won’t get ahead of the president on action. I also won’t get ahead of the intelligence,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a White House briefing, saying the intelligence remained unverified.And Trump himself on Wednesday continued to dismiss the alleged Russian plot as a hoax, first on Twitter and later during an interview with Fox Business News.“No corroborating evidence to back reports.” Department of Defense. Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party. I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – American soldiers wait on the tarmac in Logar province, Afghanistan.Credible reports
New media reports, however, are challenging that assertion.The Reuters news agency, citing four U.S. and European government sources, reported Wednesday that the U.S. had acquired fresh intelligence in recent weeks that lent credibility to the claims Russia was offering Taliban-linked militants bounties to attack U.S. and coalition troops.Current and former Taliban officials have also come forward, claiming that the bounty program was real.“Individual commanders have been receiving money and weapons from Russian intelligence,” Moulani Baghdadi, a Taliban commander from Ghazni, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department, July 1, 2020, in Washington.Pompeo downplays concerns
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday tried to downplay concerns.“The fact that the Russians are engaged in Afghanistan in a way that’s adverse to the United States is nothing new,” he said. “The Russians have been selling small arms that have put Americans at risk there for 10 years. We have objected to it.”“When we see credible information that suggests that the Russians are putting American lives at risk, we’re responding in a way that is serious,” he added.Still, Democratic lawmakers Wednesday continued to express dissatisfaction and frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of the intelligence.“If true, these reports detail an astounding escalation by an already aggressive adversary and the President’s dereliction of his most sacred responsibility to protect the lives of the American people,” Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, July 1, 2020.Not taken lightly
Despite the lack of agreement on the intelligence about the alleged Russian plot to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack and kill U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials insist the threat was not taken lightly, and that precautions were put in place. And White House officials said there is no evidence any U.S. troops were harmed.”We always act in the best interest of our troops,” McEnany told reporters late Wednesday.“The Defense Department has said they do not know of any Americans that have been killed in relation to this unverified intelligence that’s currently being assessed,” she added.VOA’s Katherine Gypson and Steve Herman contributed to this story. 
…

Authorities in Brazil say nine people were killed and more than 1,000 others were forced to leave their homes after a cyclone raced across southern Brazil, off the coast of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.Meteorologists said Tuesday’s “extratropical bomb cyclone,” originated in the South Atlantic Ocean.The storm packing nearly 110-kph winds damaged homes across dozens of towns in Santa Catarina.Structures in Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina, suffered the greatest damage.The storm prompted officials in Rio Grande Mdo Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana to issue flood warnings.      
…

Voters in Russia have approved a package of constitutional reforms that includes opening the possibility that President Vladimir Putin can remain president until 2036.Opposition officials and independent election observers cast doubts on the legitimacy of the voting, which ended Wednesday, noting among other concerns that turnout seemed artificially high in some areas.“We’ll never recognize this result,” opposition politician Alexei Navalny said.Election officials said the voting was carried out with integrity.The 67-year-old Putin has led Russia either as president or prime minister for more than two decades, and the reforms allow him to run for two more six-year terms after his current term runs out in 2024.With most of the votes counted, election officials said voters had approved the package 78 percent to 21 percent.Putin has said he will decide closer to 2024 as to whether he would run for another term.Also included in the constitutional reforms are protections for pensions and a de facto ban on same-sex marriages.The voting took place over the course of a week so that polling places could minimize crowds due to coronavirus concerns. 
…

Top U.S. intelligence officials are set to brief key members of Congress Thursday on what is known — and what is not known — about an alleged Russian plot to pay militants for attacks on American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.The White House confirmed CIA Director Gina Haspel and National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone will meet with members of the so-called Gang of Eight.The meeting will be the first chance for lawmakers to hear directly from veteran intelligence officials about reports that Russia was offering Taliban-linked militants bounties to target and kill U.S. and allied troops.Until now, briefings on the allegations have been led by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a former U.S. representative who was sworn in just over a month ago, along with national security adviser Robert O’Brien and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, both of whom have served in their roles less than a year.The three have repeatedly told lawmakers that information on the alleged Russian bounty program could not be confirmed, defending the decision not to bring the intelligence to the attention of President Donald Trump.”The person who decided early on whether the president should be briefed on this in the Oval, in the Oval intelligence briefing, was a senior career civil servant,” O’Brien told White House reporters earlier on Wednesday. “And she made that decision because she didn’t have confidence in the intelligence that came out.”O’Brien also said the White House was working on potential responses to Russia should additional intelligence lend credibility to the initial reports.”These are important allegations that, if they’re verified, I can guarantee you the president will take strong action” he said. “We’ve been working for several months on options.”But other officials, when pressed, refused to elaborate on what might come next.”I won’t get ahead of the president on action. I also won’t get ahead of the intelligence,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a White House briefing, saying the intelligence remained unverified.And Trump himself on Wednesday continued to dismiss the alleged Russian plot as a hoax, first on Twitter and later during an interview with Fox Business News.“No corroborating evidence to back reports.” Department of Defense. Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party. I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2020″We never heard about it because intelligence never found it to be of that level,” the president said.”The intelligence people, many of them didn’t believe it happened at all,” he added. “I think it’s a hoax based on the newspapers and the Democrats.”New media reports, however, are challenging that assertion.The Reuters news agency, citing four U.S. and European government sources, reported Wednesday that the U.S. had acquired fresh intelligence in recent weeks that lent credibility to the claims Russia was offering Taliban-linked militants bounties to attack U.S. and coalition troops.Current and former Taliban officials have also come forward, claiming that the bounty program was real.“Individual commanders have been receiving money and weapons from Russian intelligence,” Moulani Baghdadi, a Taliban commander from Ghazni, told Business Insider when asked about the bounties. “These are criminal groups that work alongside the mujahedeen and give us a bad reputation.”Mullah Manan Niazi, a onetime spokesman for former Taliban leader Mullah Omar, told The Daily Beast such a program would not be unusual.“The Taliban have been paid by Russian intelligence for attacks on U.S. forces — and on ISIS forces ù in Afghanistan from 2014 up to the present,” he said.U.S. defense and intelligence officials have long been concerned about Russian interference in Afghanistan, complaining repeatedly that Moscow has been providing the Taliban with weapons and training.A new Pentagon report released Wednesday, while making no mention of the alleged bounties, warned Russian involvement is growing.“Russia has politically supported the Taliban to cultivate influence with the group, limit the Western military presence, and encourage counter ISIS [Islamic State terror group] operations, although Russia publicly denies their involvement,” the report said.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday tried to downplay concerns.“The fact that the Russians are engaged in Afghanistan in a way that’s adverse to the United States is nothing new,” he said. “The Russians have been selling small arms that have put Americans at risk there for 10 years. We have objected to it.”“When we see credible information that suggests that the Russians are putting American lives at risk, we’re responding in a way that is serious,” he added.Still, Democratic lawmakers Wednesday continued to express dissatisfaction and frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of the intelligence.“If true, these reports detail an astounding escalation by an already aggressive adversary and the President’s dereliction of his most sacred responsibility to protect the lives of the American people,” Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote in a letter demanding Pompeo testify before Congress.Other Democrats were even more critical.“If this does not count as treason, I don’t know what does,” Democratic Representative Seth Moulton said during a call with reporters Wednesday. “If the most junior officer in the United States military ignores an intelligence report delivered to him or her, as we know this intelligence report was delivered to the commander in chief, then that junior officer would absolutely be in prison.”Despite the lack of agreement on the intelligence about the alleged Russian plot to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack and kill U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials insist the threat was not taken lightly, and that precautions were put in place. And White House officials said there is no evidence any U.S. troops were harmed.”We always act in the best interest of our troops,” McEnany told reporters late Wednesday.“The Defense Department has said they do not know of any Americans that have been killed in relation to this unverified intelligence that’s currently being assessed,” she added.VOA’s Katherine Gypson and Steve Herman contributed to this story. 
…

Mexican officials are trying to identify the gunmen who attacked a drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding seven others in the town of Irapuato.Pedro Cortes, secretary of public security in Irapuato, told the French News Agency (AFP), the suspects forced the victims to the ground and opened fire before fleeing in a red vehicle.Cortes said the victims were in an unregistered annex of the rehabilitation center, where street level drug dealers are known to seek shelter from drug gangs.In response to the attack, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government would not allow the country “to fall into anarchy and disorder.”The attack occurred northwest of Mexico City, in Guanajuato state, where the Jalisco cartel has been part of a violent turf battle. But it is unclear if Wednesday’s attack is linked to an organized crime group.The La Jornada newspaper said there have been four attacks since December on annexes in Irapuato, where people were abducted, some killed, and a building was set on fire. 
…

A showdown that could determine if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will solidify his grip on power is set for early December. The opposition is already rejecting the December 6 poll as a sham, which favors Maduro’s ruling Socialist Party.  Opposition leaders say Maduro is maneuvering to end rival opposition politician Juan Guaido’s leadership of the legislative body.  Guaido is considered Venezuela’s leader by several countries, including the United States, following Maduro’s disputed 2018 re-election. Guaido has also led unsuccessful efforts supported by the  United States to remove Maudro from office. During a televised address Wednesday,  Maduro seemed to reference Guaido, without mentioning his name.  He said,  “Venezuela needs a new National Assembly, legit and constitutional. Maduro then expressed confidence in the outcome of the upcoming vote, saying, he is already   imagining, January 5, 2021, Federal Legislative Palace, the lawmakers elected by the people arrive and a new National Assembly is born.” Maduro also urged voters to turn out in large numbers, and he said election officials assured him they will take measures to ensure a safe voting process amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  
…

A modernized U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact took effect Wednesday, ensuring continuity for manufacturers and agriculture, but the threat of disputes is exposing cracks in what was meant to be a stronger North American fortress of competitiveness.As the deal kicks in, the Trump administration is threatening Canada with new aluminum tariffs, and a prominent Mexican labor activist has been jailed, underscoring concerns about crucial labor reforms in the replacement for the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes tighter North American content rules for autos, new protections for intellectual property, prohibitions against currency manipulation and new rules on digital commerce that did not exist when NAFTA launched in 1994.Trump had lambasted NAFTA as the “worst trade deal ever made” and repeatedly threatened to end it.Virus-related recessionsUSMCA launches as the coronavirus has all three countries mired in a deep recession, cutting their April goods trade flows — normally about $1.2 trillion annually — to the lowest monthly level in a decade.”The champagne isn’t quite as fizzy as we might have expected — even under the best of circumstances — and there’s trouble coming from all sides,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economics professor and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “This could be a trade agreement that quickly ends up in dispute and higher trade barriers.”FILE – Workers check screens for faults at an LG flat screen TV assembly plant in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas, March 23, 2017.Issues dogging USMCA include hundreds of legal challenges to Mexico’s new labor law, seeking to ensure that workers can freely organize and unions are granted full collective bargaining rights.A ruling against the law would harm Mexico’s ability to deliver on provisions aimed at ending labor contracts agreed upon without worker consent that are stacked in favor of companies and have kept wages chronically low in Mexico.Tougher labor provisionsDemocrats in the U.S. Congress had insisted on the stronger labor provisions last year before granting approval, prompting a substantial renegotiation of terms first agreed upon in October 2018. The arrest of Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto in early June has fueled U.S. unions’ arguments that Mexican workers’ rights are not being sufficiently protected.”I remain very concerned that Mexico is falling short of its commitments to implement the legislative reforms that are the foundation in Mexico for effectively protecting labor rights,” U.S. Representative Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday, adding that USMCA’s success “truly hinges” on its new labor enforcement mechanism.On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a FILE – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 18, 2019.But Lighthizer has also said he will file dispute cases “early and often” to enforce USMCA provisions, citing Mexico’s failure to approve U.S. biotech products.That could lead to increased tariffs on offending goods, such as products from individual factories where labor violations are found. Former USTR general counsel Stephen Vaughn, a legal architect of the Trump administration’s “Section 301″ tariffs on Chinese goods, was appointed on Wednesday to a U.S. roster of panelists to settle state-to-state dispute cases under USMCA.Carlos Vejar, a former Mexican trade negotiator, said it was in the country’s interest to uphold pledges made to strengthen unions and end child labor.”If Mexico isn’t mindful of this, there will be cases against Mexico, and Mexico will lose them,” Vejar said.U.S. national security tariffs on imported steel and aluminum — including from Canada and Mexico — were a major irritant during USMCA negotiations until a deal for exemptions was reached last year. But now, USTR is considering domestic producers’ request to restore the 10% duty on Canadian aluminum to combat a “surge” of imports.Energy sectorAnother source of disputes may be the energy sector, where the main U.S. oil and gas lobby has complained that recent actions by Mexico favoring state oil company Pemex already violate USMCA’s protections for private investors.Canada has also complained about new Mexican rules formally threatening investment in renewable energy.USMCA will put new compliance burdens on the region’s automotive manufacturers as the coronavirus craters consumer spending and auto production. Within three to five years, vehicles’ minimum North American content rises to 75% from 62.5%. Automakers must also produce 40% of their vehicles’ content in “high wage” areas — effectively the United States and Canada.A U.S. International Trade Commission study found this would draw more auto parts production to the United States, but may curb U.S. vehicle assembly and raise prices, limiting consumer choice in cars. The same panel found that after 15 years, the deal would add $68.5 billion annually to U.S. economic output and create 176,000 jobs compared with a NAFTA baseline.
…

Russians overwhelmingly approved a package of constitutional changes in a nationwide vote, partial results showed Wednesday, allowing President Vladimir Putin to potentially extend his two-decade rule until 2036.With just over 85 percent of ballots counted after the end of seven days of voting, 77.8 percent of voters had supported the reforms, according to election commission figures cited by Russian state agencies.There had been little doubt that voters would back the changes, which Putin announced earlier this year and critics denounced as a maneuver to allow him to stay in the Kremlin for life. FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during a rally in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 29, 2019.But top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny slammed the results as a “huge lie” that don’t reflect real public opinion.The amendments had been passed weeks ago by Russia’s parliament and copies of the new constitution were already on sale in bookshops, but Putin had said voter approval was essential to give them legitimacy.The reforms include conservative and populist measures — like guaranteed minimum pensions and an effective ban on gay marriage — but crucially for Putin also reset presidential limits allowing him to run twice again after his current six-year term expires in 2024.Turnout as of 2000 GMT was about 65 percent, the election commission said.The Kremlin pulled out all the stops to encourage voting, with polls extended over nearly a week, the last day of voting declared a national holiday and prizes — including apartments, cars and cash — on offer to voters.Initially planned for April 22, the referendum was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic but rescheduled after Putin said the epidemic had peaked and officials began reporting lower numbers of new cases. ‘Stability, security, prosperity’In a final appeal to voters on Tuesday, Putin said the changes were needed to ensure Russia’s future “stability, security, prosperity.”State television showed Putin voting Wednesday at his usual polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he was handed a ballot by an electoral worker wearing a surgical mask and gloves. Russian President Vladimir Putin shows his passport to a member of a local electoral commission as he arrives to cast his ballot in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms at a polling station in Moscow, July 1, 2020.Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Putin was not wearing any protective gear.At a polling station in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, 79-year-old Valentina Kungurtseva told AFP she supported the reforms.”For us as pensioners, it’s very important that they will increase our pension every year,” she said.”As long as we have a good president, life will be good,” she said.In the second city, Saint Petersburg, 20-year-old Sergei Goritsvetov said he opposed the reforms but doubted it would make any difference.”I voted against and I hope there will be many of us, but I don’t know what it will change,” he said. “At least I expressed my opinion.” A woman holds a placard reading “No to everlasting Putin” as she protests amendments to the Constitution of Russia on Pushkinskaya Square in downtown Moscow, July 1, 2020.Navalny had said Putin, 67 and in power as president or prime minister since 2000, wants to make himself “president for life” and called for a boycott, calling the vote illegitimate.”We have just watched a show with a planned finale,” he wrote on his blog after polls closed.”Putin will not leave himself,” Navalny wrote, “not until we begin to come out to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, by millions.”The opposition divided and failed to mount a serious campaign, with some voting “no” and others staying home. There were only small protests Wednesday in central Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Falling approval ratings Golos, an independent election monitor, said it had received hundreds of complaints of violations, including people voting more than once and claims employers were putting pressure on staff to cast ballots.Members of a local electoral commission empty a ballot box at a polling station after a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms in Moscow, July 1, 2020.Election commission chief Ella Pamfilova denied any problems on Wednesday, saying only a couple of violations were confirmed and they would have no effect on the result.Putin’s approval rating has fallen in recent months. It stood at 60 percent in June according to pollster Levada, down 20 points from the months after his reelection in 2018.Analysts say Putin wanted to get the vote over with before Russians — already suffering from several years of falling incomes — are hit by the full economic impact of the pandemic.Putin said in a recent interview that he had not decided whether to run again but suggested that part of the reason for the presidential reset was to allow Russia’s political elite to focus on governing instead of “hunting for possible successors.”
 
…

After months of coronavirus restrictions, the European Union began reopening its borders to visitors Wednesday from 14 countries it considers safe. That list does not include the United States, where the virus is resurging in some states. Public health is at stake, but from Paris, the world’s most visited city, Lisa Bryant reports the travel ban also reflects widening transatlantic differences.
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he would tighten controls on social media, days after remarks were made on Twitter about his daughter and son-in-law.“Turkey is not a banana republic,” Erdogan said in a televised address to his party members. “We will snub those who snub this country’s executive and judicial bodies.”Erdogan’s eldest daughter, Esra Erdogan, and his son-in-law, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak reportedly received what were called insulting tweets after the couple announced the birth of their fourth child on social media.Eleven of 19 Twitter users who allegedly insulted Erdogan’s family were detained, Turkish police said in a statement on Wednesday.“Do you understand now why we are against social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Netflix?” Erdogan ask while addressing his party. “These platforms do not suit this nation. We want to shut down, control [them] by bringing [a bill] to parliament as soon as possible.”Rights groups have accused Erdogan of using the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to tighten controls on the media, with only a few independent publications continuing to report on the Turkish president’s handling of the pandemic.Turkey’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, called Twitter a “propaganda machine” after it recently suspended 7,340 accounts. Twitter said the accounts were “employing coordinated inauthentic activity” promoting favorable narratives to Erdogan and his party. 
…

Turkey claims to have one of the lowest COVID mortality rates in Europe, surpassing many more wealthy countries. But doctors warn complacency could spoil that record.   Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Camera: Berke Bas, Turkish Ministry of Health Produced by:  Rod James   
…

Spain has had the world’s highest nursing home death rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Madrid city government documents show officials set rules preventing nursing homes from transferring some residents to hospitals at the time the infection rate peaked.  Now, some people are demanding answers.  Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Alfonso Beato in Barcelona. Camera:Alfonso Beato  Producer: Jonathan Spier 
 
…

News media reports President Donald Trump was briefed on Russian bounties awarded to the Taliban for the death of U.S. troops in Afghanistan continued to roil Washington Tuesday. U.S. lawmakers are pushing for answers after the White House said the president was not aware of that intelligence because it had not been verified. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
…

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will travel to Washington next week to meet with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced on Twitter Tuesday that Lopez Obrador will spend two days in Washington beginning July 8. Ebrard said further details about the visit will be released later Wednesday. The visit with President Trump will be the first foreign trip for Lopez Obrador since he first took office in December 2018.  He said earlier this week that his trip to the United States will celebrate the start of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which goes into effect Wednesday.  But Lopez Obrador has come under intense criticism for his planned visit with Trump,  who is widely disliked for demonizing Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and criminals when he launched his presidential campaign, as well as his vow to make Mexico pay for building a proposed wall at U.S.-Mexican border. 
…

Canada has failed to take back dozens of Canadian citizens detained in Syria for suspected links with the Islamic State (IS) terror group, an international rights watchdog said. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Monday that Canadian authorities have not repatriated any of the estimated 47 Canadians who have been detained in overcrowded camps in northeast Syria. The HRW said during the coronavirus outbreak Canada has repatriated 40,000 Canadian citizens from 100 countries, including 29 from Syria, but has failed to bring back those held in Syrian detention camps. “If Canada can bring home tens of thousands of citizens from around the world in a matter of weeks, surely it can find a way to repatriate fewer than 50 others trapped in horrific conditions in northeast Syria,” Letta Tayler, a senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW, said in a statement Monday. “The lives of Canadians are on the line, and the time to bring them home is now.” Among those detainees are 26 children, most of whom are under the age of six. Canadian officials say they are aware of Canadian citizens held in northeast Syria and that they are “particularly concerned with cases of Canadian children in Syria.” “Canadian consular officials are actively engaged with Syrian Kurdish authorities to seek information on Canadians in their custody. We continue to monitor the situation very closely,” Barbara Harvey, a spokesperson for Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry, told VOA. Given the security situation on the ground and the current COVID-19 context, Canada’s ability to provide any kind of consular assistance in Syria remains limited, Harvey added. Despite Canada’s security concerns, the HRW report said that dozens of other countries, including the United States, Germany and France, have repatriated their citizens from Syria.  Last week, France took back 10 children of IS fighters who were held in Kurdish-run camps in northeast Syria. Dire conditions There are about 12,000 foreigners held at three camps for displaced people in northeast Syria, including al-Hol Camp where humanitarian groups say they suffer malnutrition and disease. Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor who teaches extremism and terrorism at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, visited al-Hol Camp last year. “Al-Hol can only be described as an urgent humanitarian catastrophe… It’s crowded, it’s dirty, violence breaks out often, and there are just small children everywhere,” he told VOA. Amarasingam said, “Around April 2018, there was definitely contact between Canadian officials and their Kurdish counterparts.” “Canadian officials even spoke to some of the detainees and started paperwork to get them identification documents and so on,” he said, “Then, a month later, the whole process was mysteriously shelved. It’s not clear why, but there has been no new attempt to repatriate Canadians.” Contacted by VOA, Kurdish officials declined to comment on whether there has been recent contact between them and Canadian authorities regarding Canadian citizens held in Syria, including 8 men who are accused of fighting for the Islamic State. But a Canadian official told VOA on a condition of anonymity that, “Investigating, arresting, charging and prosecuting any Canadian involved in terrorism or violent extremism is a priority for the Government of Canada.” Foreign fighters Syrian Kurdish officials have called on countries to take back their detained citizens, cautioning they do not have enough resources to keep IS prisoners and their families indefinitely. In addition to women and children, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has more than 10,000 IS fighters in their custody, including about 2,000 who come from more than 50 countries.  U.S. military officials say their SDF partners in Syria have been overwhelmed to keep IS prisoners. “The global coalition believes that through appropriate international laws and protocols, there should be a final resolution for what happens with the foreign terrorist fighters,” Col. Myles Caggins, spokesman for the anti-IS global coalition, told VOA in a recent interview.  He added that the coalition continues to support the SDF with stipends for the detention center guards and equipment “to make the detention centers safer for the Asayish [Kurdish security forces] who are providing security, as well as safer and more humane treatment  for the detainees.” Over the past few months, there have been several prison break attempts by IS prisoners held in a detention facility in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah. The most recent one was on Monday when a riot took place inside a major IS detention center in the city, triggering a rapid response by SDF fighters and their coalition backers to contain the situation, local news reported. In a congressional testimony in March, General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of United States Central Command, said the best way to alleviate the problem of IS prisoners in Syria is to repatriate them. “While some countries have made efforts to reclaim their foreign fighters, full resolution requires a comprehensive diplomatic and international effort,” Gen. McKenzie said, adding that, “This problem will not go away by ignoring it, and can only be addressed by the international community working together to accept its shared responsibilities.” Local Kurdish authorities have said since the international community doesn’t have concrete plans to repatriate and prosecute IS prisoners in their home countries, they would proceed to try them in local courts in Syria. However, rights groups fear that given the current security situation in Syria, it would be challenging to make sure IS prisoners receive fair trials. “The fact that the Syrian government led by [President Bashar] Assad has little real control over the country and no due process, and SDF territory has a multitude of militias and foreign militaries present, the process of trying detainees in court is convoluted and difficult,” Philippe Nassif, Advocacy Director for Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, told VOA. 
…

Haiti reopened its two international airports in Port-au-Prince and Cape Haitian, as well as four official border crossings in Anse-a-Pitres, Malpasse, Belladere and Ouanaminthe on Tuesday. President Jovenel Moïse announced the news in a national address.  The airports closed to all nonlocal flights on March 16 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but exceptions were made for some nonlocal flights, including to fly people who were stuck in Haiti back to their home countries.JetBlue Flies American Citizens, Residents Stuck in Haiti Home Passengers boarding flight to Fort Lauderdale told VOA they are not afraid and look forward to returning to Haiti Safety measures  
 
Officials told VOA that safety measures are in place to limit vehicular traffic in and around the airport, with special attention paid to passenger pick-up and drop-off zones. Agents will limit the number of passengers around airline check-in counters and security check points. Face masks are mandatory.  “Security agents will accompany passengers going through immigration, where we placed signs indicating where they should stand in adherence with social distancing measures,” Joseph Frantz Sedras, director of equipment for Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, told VOA Creole.   Protective glass barriers are in place at all agent counters, and procedures are in place to keep passenger lines moving forward.  Sedras told VOA that social distancing will be mandated at every step of the departure and arrival process and that security agents will search passengers and their luggage before they reach the immigration area. In addition, counters and equipment will be disinfected often, he said.    “When the passenger reaches the departure lounge, he/she will be allowed to occupy every other seat in accordance with social distancing guidelines,” Sedras said. “These measures will be mandated throughout the departure lounge.”   Hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed throughout the airport for passenger and employee use.     COVID-19 infections  Haiti currently has 5,933 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data published by the published health ministry on June 29. That number is an increase of more 1,000 cases since June 20 when the confirmed infection toll stood at 4,916. The current death toll is 105.  Health officials say the hardest-hit regions are the northeast, west and Artibonite departments, but there is speculation that the toll could be higher nationwide, where fear of stigmatization keeps people from seeking medical treatment.Workers with the Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population walk outside of International Airport Toussaint Louverture, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 15, 2020.Diaspora travelTravelers from the Haitian diaspora are essential to the country’s economy, according to Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe. During a visit to the Port-au-Prince airport before its reopening, he told VOA Creole he recognizes their desire to tend to property, as well as attending annual religious festivals.    “I can’t keep them from coming to dance at the festivals. And if the airport in Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) is open and we are not, Haitians will find a way to get here somehow,” he said.  With regards to the pandemic and its spread, the prime minister said he consulted the country’s top health experts on a timeline but was not given an answer.     “Community transmission is an issue. There are many people who say they have a fever or a cold, they insist it’s not corona(virus). But we know how Haitians are. I guess if I had it, I would say I didn’t, too. So, all we can do is reinforce the security measures and preventative measures already in place,” he said.  Jouthe said hand washing and wearing masks are a necessity, even though they are not always comfortable.  Criticism  
Opposition Sen. Jean Renel Senatus told VOA that he, too, understands there are people who need to travel to Haiti to deal with important matters, but he doubts the government’s information about the current COVID-19 situation.  He also expressed concern about the surge in U.S. cases.   “We’ve heard that cases are spiking in Miami. And most of the planes arriving in Haiti are coming from Miami, Florida,” the senator said. Scheduled flights   Eleven flights are scheduled to arrive in Haiti on July 1, according to FlightRadar24, a website that tracks air traffic worldwide in real time. Among those, five flights from U.S. carriers American Airlines, Spirit and JetBlue departing from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida and New York City, are due to arrive between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time.     
…