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The Netherlands says it is freezing international adoptions after a government commission discovered children had been stolen or bought from their parents.  
 
In cases going back to the 1960s, the commission found abuses such as “the falsification of documents, the abuse of poverty among the birth mothers and the abandonment of children for payment or through coercion.”
 
The commission was formed as adopted adults found their documents had been either lost or fake or that their adoption was illegal.
 
The commission reviewed cases from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Colombia between 1967 and 1998. However, it found that the abuse had been going on before and after this time period.  
 
Rights minister Sander Dekker said he “understood that this will be painful for some people but let us not forget … we are protecting children and their biological parents.”
 
Dekker said the job falls on the next administration to decide whether or not to renew an international adoption process without abuses. 
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A rescue ship with 422 migrants picked up off the coast of Libya, received permission from the Italian authorities to dock in the Sicilian port of Augusta late Sunday.  
 
Eight of the passengers tested positive for COVID-19 in health checks conducted onboard by the crew of Ocean Viking which patrols the Mediterranean Sea.  
 
The French-based SOS Mediterranee group, which operates the vessel said passengers included pregnant women, babies, children, and unaccompanied minors.
 
The Ocean Viking has picked up a total of 798 people since January 11, when it returned to sea after Italy had blocked it for five months.
 
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 95,000 migrants and asylum-seekers crossed the Mediterranean in 2020 in search for a better life in Europe. More than 1,200 did not survive the perilous journey. 
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Two gay men seized near Moscow and sent back to their native Chechnya, a region accused of brutal persecution against homosexuality, face “mortal danger,” a rights group said Saturday. The LGBT Network rights group helped the two Chechen men, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, flee Muslim-majority Chechnya for Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow in June last year after they were reportedly tortured by Chechen special police. The two men were detained for unknown reasons in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday and have been sent back to the North Caucasus region, the group said in a statement. LGBT Network spokesman Tim Bestsvet said the men were detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) domestic intelligence agency and had arrived at a police station in Chechen town of Gudermes on Saturday. “They are tired and frightened,” he told AFP Saturday. “All this time they were being pressured to refuse a lawyer,” Bestsvet said, adding that a lawyer with the LGBT Network was in Gudermes trying to get access to the men. “There have been cases when relatives brought back to Chechnya people that we had evacuated and then these people would die or, we can say, were probably murdered,” Bestsvet said, adding that Magamadov and Isayev faced “mortal danger.” The interior ministry’s Chechnya branch and the FSB were not immediately available for comment Saturday. While Magamadov is older than 18, Bestsvet said that because Isayev is 17 he can only refuse legal representation via his parents.  He added that Isayev’s father was brought to the police station Saturday and was facing pressure to refuse to let his son have an attorney. Magamadov and Isayev were arrested and tortured by Chechen special police in April 2020, Bestsvet said, officially for running an opposition Telegram channel, but “initially because of their sexual orientation.” The two men later recorded a video apology in which they said “they weren’t men,” before the LGBT Network helped them flee, Bestsvet said. They were also forced under torture to learn passages of the Quran as well as Russian and Chechen anthems, he added. Russia’s volatile republic of Chechnya has been under fire over alleged gay persecution since 2017, when gay men said they were tortured by law enforcement agencies. In 2019, the LGBT Network reported a second wave of persecution against gay people in the majority Muslim region, including two killings.  Chechen officials regularly dismiss the reports and strongman chief Ramzan Kadyrov claims the region’s population is exclusively heterosexual. Kadyrov, 36, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron grip since 2007 and oversaw vast redevelopment and Islamization in the war-torn region, is loathed by rights campaigners who accuse him of ordering kidnappings and extrajudicial killings. 
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A young leftist backed by a convicted-but-popular former president led the field of 16 candidates in early returns from Ecuador’s presidential election Sunday, which was held under strict coronavirus sanitary measures. Andrés Arauz, who is supported by former President Rafael Correa — a major force in the troubled Andean nation despite a corruption conviction — appeared likely to go on to an April 11 runoff, though it wasn’t clear hours after polls closed who else might advance. An early quick count showed conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso and indigenous rights and environmental activist Yaku Pérez vying for second place. In the early count, Arauz had more than 30% of the votes, and Lasso and Pérez each were around 20%. To win outright, a candidate needed 50% of the vote, or to have at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest opponent. Voters were required to wear masks, bring their own bottle of hand sanitizer and pencil, keep a 1.5-meter distance from others and avoid all personal contact in the polling places. The only time voters could lower their masks was during the identification process.  Long lines formed at polling places, especially in big cities, where some voters had to wait hours to cast their ballots. “I don’t care who wins the elections. We are used to thinking that the messiah is coming to solve our lives and no candidate has solved anything for me,” said one voter, Ramiro Loza. “During the quarantine, my income was reduced by 80%, and the politicians did not feed me.” The winning candidate will have to work to pull the oil-producing nation out of a deepening economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The South American country of 17 million people recorded more than 257,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 15,000 deaths related to COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Arauz, a former culture minister who attended the University of Michigan, has proposed making the wealthy pay more taxes and strengthening consumer protection mechanisms, public banking and local credit and savings organizations. Arauz, 36, said he would not comply with agreements with the International Monetary Fund. Arauz could not cast his vote in the capital, Quito, because he was registered to do so in Mexico, where he lived until shortly before his nomination, and he did not change his electoral address. Lasso, 65, was making a third run for the presidency after a long career in business, banking and government. He favors free-market policies and Ecuador’s rapprochement with international organizations. He promised to create more jobs and attract international banks. He also wants to boost the oil, mining and energy sectors through the participation of private entities to replace state financing. Hovering over the election was the future of Correa, a leftist who is only 57. He governed from 2007 to 2017 as an ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, both now deceased.  He remains popular among millions of Ecuadorians after overseeing a period of economic growth driven by an oil boom and loans from China that allowed him to expand social programs, build roads, schools and other projects. But he increasingly cracked down on opponents, the press and businesses during his latter stage in office and feuded with Indigenous groups over development projects. His appeal also has been tarnished by a corruption conviction he says was a product of political vengeance. Correa was sentenced in absentia in April to eight years in prison for his role in a scheme to extract millions of dollars from businessmen in exchange for infrastructure projects — money allegedly used for political purposes. That conviction barred him from running as Arauz’s vice presidential candidate. An earlier attempt by Ecuadorian prosecutors to extradite him from Belgium in an unrelated kidnapping case was rejected by Interpol on human rights grounds. 
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“I am not a dictator,” Haitian President Jovenel Moise said during a national address Sunday, hours after announcing that the police had foiled a coup attempt and made more than 20 arrests.  Haitians woke Sunday to gunfire in areas near the national palace, and a high police presence was seen by VOA Creole reporters on the scene.  At midday, the president surprised the nation by going live on Facebook from the international airport in Port-au-Prince to announce a foiled coup attempt and the arrests.  The prime minister would give more details, the president said, before heading to the southern coastal town of Jacmel to inaugurate Carnival festivities. He was accompanied by his wife, first lady Martine Moise.  
 
Moise has said he will serve another year because he was sworn in in 2017 for a five-year term. But the nation’s opposition party says the president’s term should have ended Sunday, February 7, the date set by the constitution when elected presidents are sworn into office. Moise failed to hold elections in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and a climate of insecurity. The Biden administration on Friday expressed support for Moise’s position that his term would end February 7, 2022, while urging him to respect the rule of law, refrain from issuing more decrees and organize elections as soon as possible. It’s a position also supported by the United Nations and Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro.Police officers detain demonstrators during a protest to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 7, 2021.On Saturday, some U.S. lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemning Moise’s actions. 
 
The State Department and U.S. Embassy in Haiti did not comment on Sunday’s events. 
Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe described the police operation during an afternoon press conference at his official residence as “operation catastrophe” during which police targeted a location called Habitation Petit Bois in the Tabarre neighborhood of the capital. The prime minister said police made 23 arrests and seized U.S. and Haitian currency, weapons and munition.  “Among the 23 arrested, unfortunately there was a Supreme Court judge and an inspector general for the national police force. We deplore this,” he said.  
 
The Supreme Court judge has been identified as Hiviquel Dabrezil and the Police Nationale d’Haiti Inspector General was identified as Marie Louise Gauthier. Agronomist Louis Buteau was also detained.  
 
Prime Minister Joseph described the alleged attempted coup:  “Those people had contacted the official in charge of security for the national palace who were to arrest the president and take him to Habitation Petit Bois and also facilitate the swearing in of a new provisional president who would oversee the transition.”  The prime minister added that he saw and heard proof in the form of audio recordings, signed documents and the text of a speech for the inauguration of the new president.  
 
The opposition’s transition plan called for a judge of the Supreme Court to replace Moise after his term expired on February 7.  Asked by VOA Creole on Saturday who they had chosen among the judges, Andre Michel, a lawyer who represents the coalition of the Democratic and Popular opposition groups, declined to specify who it would be. He told VOA if he gave the name, the person would not live to see Sunday. 
 
As the prime minister was speaking, Michel held a simultaneous press conference elsewhere in town to denounce the arrests and insist that President Jovenel Moise is now a de-facto leader because his term expired at midnight on Saturday.A police officer fires his weapon to disperse demonstrators during a protest to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 7, 2021.“The CSPJ (Superior Council of the Judiciary Branch), who in principle has the last word in any political or legal conflict — this judicial branch of government — says Jovenel Moise’s constitutional term of office has expired,” Michel said, adding that this position is supported by members of the U.S. Congress.  
 
Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks tweeted Saturday that he co-led a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Congresswoman Yvette Clarke “to condemn President Moise’s undemocratic actions in Haiti, urging for a Haitian-led democratic transition of power.  The letter was signed by five other House representatives: Albio Sires, Andy Levin, Alcee Hastings, Ilhan Omar and Darren Soto.Today I co-led a letter to @SecBlinken with @RepYvetteClarke to condemn President Moïse’s undemocratic actions in Haiti, urging for a Haitian-led democratic transition of power. The full text of the letter: https://t.co/CDGgmpM45Lpic.twitter.com/pkuriOY5TS— Rep. Gregory Meeks (@RepGregoryMeeks) February 6, 2021Early Sunday, Congressman Levin tweeted condemnation of President Moise.  
 
“I am deeply saddened but unsurprised that Moise has escalated his anti-democratic campaign with a mass arrest of opposition officials and others on what should be his final day in office,” Levin tweeted.I am deeply saddened but unsurprised that Moïse has escalated his anti-democratic campaign with a mass arrest of opposition officials and others on what should be his final day in office.— Rep. Andy Levin (@RepAndyLevin) February 7, 2021The congressman also questioned Moise’s “claims of conspiracy against his life” saying “Moise is demonstrating what my colleagues and I have said: there is zero chance of real elections, real democracy or real accountability while he remains in power.”With no evidence to support his claims of a conspiracy against his life, Moïse is demonstrating what my colleagues and I have said: there is zero chance of real elections, real democracy or real accountability while he remains in power. https://t.co/3AzphfSPaN— Rep. Andy Levin (@RepAndyLevin) February 7, 2021Moise has faced intense pressure internally and internationally over the past months for ruling by decree and failing to curb the rampant kidnappings and gang violence that have terrorized the nation.  
 
However, he was jubilant Sunday, as he listed his infrastructure accomplishments that he said has brought electricity, irrigation and roads to towns nationwide.  He implored the opposition to stop fighting him and work with him to make the lives of the people better because he has only 364 days left in office.  
 
“The battle I’m waging is not for myself, it’s for you,” Moise said. “I’m not here to lie to you today, I’m here to tell you the truth. … My brothers and sisters in the opposition don’t let pride, revenge, selfishness keep you from working with me.” 
 
VOA Creole spoke to people in Haiti about the president’s speech and the events of the day.  
 
“Today we’ve reached a decisive moment. This is a moment to prove our sovereignty. This is a day to show that we are a symbol of democracy. And that is why we are in the streets today,” said a protester who said he belongs to a grassroots group called Slave Revolt. “We are living events we’ve never seen before and that has pushed us into civil disobedience.”  
 
Another protester said he’d like to remind Jovenel Moise that his term is expired.  
 
“We’re in the streets to remind the president that although he is reticent to respect the constitution — let’s remember it is the same constitution he was sworn to uphold when he was inaugurated. Now he’s letting the country tumble into a free fall,” he said.  
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A vessel carrying 422 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya has been given permission to dock in Italy after issuing an urgent appeal for shelter from a looming storm, its operator said Sunday.The SOS Mediterranee group, which operates the Ocean Viking rescue ship, said it had received the green light to bring the migrants ashore in the Sicilian port of Augusta after several earlier appeals went unheeded.It said it expected the vessel to arrive in Sicily on Sunday evening.The French-based group said its passengers included babies, children, pregnant women and unaccompanied minors.”They must urgently be disembarked in a safe port,” Luisa Albera, the head of the group’s rescue operations, had earlier urged, warning that weather conditions in the central Mediterranean were deteriorating.She described the health of several of the migrants as fragile.Eight tested positive for COVID-19 and were isolating aboard the ship, she added.Libya has become a key jumping off point for irregular migration to Europe in the chaotic years since the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising.While many migrants have drowned in rubber dinghies and rickety fishing boats, thousands have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libya, with the support of Italy and the EU.NGOs have criticized those returns, arguing that Libya is not safe for the migrants.  Since the Ocean Viking returned to sea on January 11 after being blocked in Italy for five months it has picked up a total of 798 people.On Jan. 21-22, it rescued 374 people at sea off Libya and took them to Augusta.Of 424 people who boarded the Ocean Viking on Thursday and Friday, a pregnant woman and her partner were flown by helicopter to nearby Malta.More than 1,200 migrants and asylum-seekers died while crossing the Mediterranean in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration.
 
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Sunday’s Super Bowl could have an unexpected audience of fans — in Russia. The Federation of American Football in Russia says the number of enthusiasts of the sport there runs in the tens of thousands and there are teams playing American-style football in almost every region of the country. Genia Dulot has the story.    
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Haitian authorities said Sunday they had foiled an attempt to kill President Jovenel Moise and overthrow the government, as a dispute rages over when his term ends.The plot was an “attempted coup d’etat,” according to Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent, with authorities saying at least 23 people have been arrested, including a top judge and an official from the national police.”I thank my head of security at the palace. The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life,” Moise said. “That plan was aborted.”Moise has been governing without any checks on his power for the past year and says he remains president until Feb. 7, 2022 — in an interpretation of the constitution rejected by the opposition, which has led protests asserting his term ends Sunday.The United States on Friday accepted the president’s claim to power, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Washington has urged “free and fair legislative elections so that parliament may resume its rightful role.”The dispute over when the president’s term ends stems from Moise’s original election: he was voted into office in a poll later canceled on grounds of fraud, and then elected again a year later, in 2016.After the latter disputed election, demonstrations demanding his resignation intensified in the summer of 2018.Voting to elect deputies, senators, mayors and local officials should have been held in 2018, but the polls have been delayed, triggering the vacuum in which Moise says he is entitled to stay for another year.In recent years, angry Haitians have demonstrated against what they call rampant government corruption and unchecked crime by gangs.  In a letter Friday to the U.N. mission in Haiti, a dozen or so human rights and women’s advocacy groups faulted it for providing technical and logistical support for the president’s plans to hold a constitutional reform referendum in April, then presidential and legislative elections.”The United Nations must under no circumstances support President Jovenel Moise in his anti-democratic plans,” the letter stated. 
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Ecuador will choose a new president Sunday facing unprecedented health measures due to the coronavirus pandemic and the influence of a populist former head of state who was blocked from a place on the ballot due to a corruption conviction. Sixteen candidates are vying to succeed President Lenín Moreno, a protege-turned-rival of former President Rafael Correa, who governed Ecuador for a decade and remains a major force despite a criminal conviction that blocked him from seeking the vice presidency this year. There are so many contenders that an April 11 runoff election is almost certain, but the clear leaders have been a Correa-backed candidate, Andrés Arauz, and a conservative former banker who finished second twice before, Guillermo Lasso. Voters have been ordered to wear a mask, bring their own bottle of hand sanitizer and pencil, keep a 5-foot (1.5-meter) distance from others and avoid all personal contact in the polling place. The only time voters will be allowed to lower their mask will be during the identification process.  The winner will have to work to pull the oil-producing nation out of a deepening economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The South American country of 17 million people had recorded more than 253,000 cases and nearly 15,000 deaths of COVID-19 as of Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Arauz, a 35-year-old former culture minister who attended the University of Michigan, faces Lasso, who at 65 is making a third run for the presidency after a long career in business, banking and government. Indigenous rights and environmental activist Yaku Pérez has been trailing in third place. Arauz has proposed making the wealthy pay more taxes and strengthening consumer protection mechanisms, public banking and local credit and savings organizations. He has said he will not comply with agreements with the International Monetary Fund. Lasso, favors free-market policies and Ecuador’s rapprochement with international organizations. He has promised to create more jobs and attract international banks. He also wants to boost the oil, mining and energy sectors through the participation of private entities to replace state financing. Hovering over the election is the future of Correa, a leftist who is still only 57. He governed from 2007 to 2017 as an ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, both now deceased.  He remains popular among millions of Ecuadorians after overseeing a period of economic growth driven by an oil boom and loans from China that allowed him to expand social programs, build roads, schools and other projects. But he increasingly cracked down on opponents, the press and businesses during his latter stage in office and feuded with Indigenous groups over development projects. His appeal also has been tarnished by a corruption conviction he says was a trumped up product of political vengeance. Correa was sentenced in absentia in April to eight years in prison for his role in a scheme to extract millions of dollars from businessmen in exchange for infrastructure projects — money allegedly used for political purposes. That conviction barred him from running as Arauz’s vice presidential candidate. An earlier attempt by Ecuadorian prosecutors to extradite him from Belgium in an unrelated kidnapping case was rejected by Interpol on human rights grounds. Moreno won office four years ago with the backing of Correa but broke with him, pursuing business-friendly policies as the nation’s economy was hit by a slide in oil and commodities prices. While eligible to seek reelection, he chose not to run.  
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Sunday’s Super Bowl could have an unexpected audience of fans — in Russia. The Federation of American Football in Russia says the number of enthusiasts of the sport there runs in the tens of thousands and there are teams playing American-style football in almost every region of the country. Genia Dulot has the story.    
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The Biden administration said on Saturday it was immediately suspending Trump-era asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, part of a bid to undo his Republican predecessor’s hard-line immigration policies.In a statement, State Department Secretary Antony Blinken said the United States had “suspended and initiated the process to terminate the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as the first concrete steps on the path to greater partnership and collaboration in the region laid out by President Biden.”The so-called “safe third country” agreements, inked in 2019 by the Trump administration and the Central American nations, force asylum seekers from the region to first seek refuge in those countries before applying in the United States.Part of a controversial bid by Trump to crack down on illegal immigrants from Central America who make up a large part of migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, the policies were never implemented with El Salvador and Honduras, the State Department said on Saturday.Transfers under the U.S.-Guatemala agreement have been paused since mid-March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the statement added.The moves announced Saturday came after Biden unveiled a host of measures last week aimed at revamping the U.S. immigration system, including a task force to reunite families separated at the United States-Mexico border and another to increase an annual cap on refugees.One of the orders called for Blinken to “promptly consider” whether to notify the governments of the three countries that the United States intended to suspend and terminate the safe third country deals. It also called on the Secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to determine whether to rescind a rule implementing the agreements.
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The U.S. government has ended a controversial agreement with Guatemala that sent asylum-seekers processed at the U.S.-Mexico border to the Central American country to await hearings, according to a U.S. State Department statement and the Guatemalan government.Guatemala’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday that U.S. officials had informed it of the cancellation of the program, which was negotiated under the administration of former President Donald Trump.The agreement with Guatemala was signed in 2019, just as similar pacts were negotiated with El Salvador and Honduras, all in a bid by Trump to force other countries in the region to help the United States alleviate a surge of asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S. southern border by agreeing to take them in for prolonged waits.Transfers under the U.S.-Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement had been paused since mid-March 2020 because of COVID-19 measures, and the agreements with El Salvador and Honduras were never implemented, according to a State Department statement Saturday.“To be clear, these actions do not mean that the U.S. border is open,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in the statement. “While we are committed to expanding legal pathways for protection and opportunity here and in the region, the United States is a country with borders and laws that must be enforced.”Criticism of pactsRights groups sharply criticized the pacts, saying they added to the misery of asylum-seekers, many of whom fled violent gangs from the same impoverished countries.The agreements allowed the U.S. to send asylum-seekers to one of the three Central American countries to apply for asylum there and have their claims reviewed.Earlier this week, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a review of asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border, part of a broad effort to chart a less-restrictive immigration system during the first weeks of his term.Among the measures announced, Biden called for a review of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump program also known as “Remain in Mexico” that ordered tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates.He also signaled the imminent end of the asylum deals with the Central American countries.Senior aides to Biden have nevertheless cautioned that administration’s broader immigration agenda will take time to roll out, as the new president seeks to be both more accepting of migrants and asylum-seekers while also seeking to prevent a surge in unlawful border crossings.  
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A German company is ready to remove hazardous materials stored in dozens of containers at Beirut’s port, Germany’s ambassador to Lebanon said Saturday, following efforts to secure the facility after the August 4, 2020, explosion that devastated the port and much of the city.Ambassador Andreas Kindl tweeted that the treatment at Beirut’s port for 52 containers of “hazardous and dangerous chemical material” has been completed. He added that the material was ready to be shipped to Germany.The decision to remove the material followed the August explosion that was triggered by nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertilizer component, that had languished at the port for years. The blast killed 211 people, wounded more than 6,000 and destroyed parts of the capital.In November, Lebanon signed a deal with Germany’s Combi Lift to treat and ship abroad the containers consisting. The deal is worth $3.6 million, toward which port authorities in Lebanon will pay $2 million with the German government covering the rest.Kindl said the material that was treated had been a threat to people in Beirut.Since the August blast and a massive fire at the port weeks later, authorities have been concerned about dangerous material still at the facility. A month after the blast, the Lebanese army said military experts were called in for an inspection and found 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate that was removed and destroyed.  
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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell came under scathing criticism Saturday for his visit to Moscow, which several of the bloc’s member states had urged him to cancel, fearing the Kremlin would manipulate the three-day trip to its advantage.His critics, including former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, along with Western diplomats, say their worst fears were realized during Borrell’s Friday joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in which Borrell said no EU member state had yet to propose new sanctions over the recent imprisonment of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, Alexey Navalny.Just moments before the press conference, Kremlin officials announced their decision to expel three EU diplomats — from Germany, Poland and Sweden — for allegedly taking part in the unsanctioned Navalny rallies, a move possibly timed to humiliate Borrell.Critics say that the propaganda trap is likely to embolden Russian authorities to persist in their brutal paramilitary-style crackdown on internal dissent and civil society activists who’ve rallied for Navalny’s release.Time to resign?”Borrell has to think about resigning,” tweeted EU lawmaker Rasa Juknevičienė, a former Lithuanian defense minister, condemning the overall tenor of Borrell’s message that the EU and Russia “can cooperate despite misunderstandings.”Although it was clear before Borrell’s arrival in Moscow that the Kremlin would “mock him,” Juknevičienė tweeted, the whole of the EU has instead been ridiculed.FILE – People clash with police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny in Moscow, Jan. 31, 2021.In a statement released Saturday summarizing his visit, Borrell said: “Diplomatic channels need to remain open, not only to de-escalate crises or incidents, but to hold direct exchanges, deliver firm and frank messages, all the more so when relations are far from satisfactory.”Borrell’s visit, which was planned before Navalny demonstrations erupted in more than 100 cities and towns across Russia, prompted some EU member states to lobby Brussels to cancel the event, fearing it was badly timed and would expose EU impotence. The Baltic states, alongside Poland and Romania, called instead for a new set of sanctions to be imposed on Russia. Their fear was that a dialogue with the Kremlin over the Navalny case at this stage would be a hopeless endeavor that would undermine EU credibility.Borrell, who went to Moscow on his own initiative in the first high-level EU trip of its type in four years, suggested he was accepting a long-standing invitation from Lavrov.Before Friday’s press conference, Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, warned his Russian counterparts that Navalny’s treatment had brought EU-Russian relations to a “low point,” and he reiterated EU demands for Navalny’s release.Message undercutThat message was undercut, however, when Borrell told Lavrov that no EU member state had proposed extra sanctions on Russia for now, which other EU officials said was inaccurate.Navalny was detained upon his January return to Moscow for parole violations, which his supporters say is a spurious charge, after recovering in Germany from a near-fatal poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.His arrest has triggered the largest anti-Kremlin protests seen in Russia since 2011, and more than 10,000 of his supporters have been detained by police amid allegations of police brutality, according to rights monitors.Borrell is also drawing fire for standing silently by Lavrov’s side as the Russian foreign minister dubbed the EU an “unreliable partner” and accused European leaders of lying about Navalny, dismissing the West’s conclusion — confirmed by laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, along with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — that Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.FILE – Former Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt is pictured during a media conference in Brussels, March 6, 2012.”This is simply appalling,” tweeted Verhofstadt, who slammed Borrell for being ill-prepared. “Not just that Russia makes a fool of the EU but that we let it happen.”Borrell “should simply not have gone to Moscow without a message of EU strength & a mandate for sanctions to back it up,” Verhofstadt tweeted.Borrell was also criticized for failing to protest more forcefully the Kremlin’s last-minute decision to expel the trio of EU diplomats.“As expected, Lavrov outplayed Borrell,” one senior EU diplomat told FILE – A nurse displays a vial of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 during a vaccination campaign inside River Plate stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb. 2, 2021.Pro-democracy activists said the Kremlin was swift to market Borrell’s visit for propaganda purposes and to discredit Navalny. During Friday’s press conference, Borrell also praised Russia’s development of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.”I take the floor just to congratulate Russia on this success,” Borrell said of the vaccine, which doesn’t yet have Europe’s scientific approval. “It’s good news for the whole of mankind.”Russia’s Foreign Ministry released a video shortly afterward, which begins with a clip of Navalny last year criticizing Russian authorities for prematurely authorizing Sputnik V, ahead of full testing, with the footage then cutting to Borrell praising Russia for developing Sputnik V.    
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In a major reform of the state-dominated economy, the Cuban government will allow small private businesses to operate in most fields, eliminating its limited list of activities, state-run media reported on Saturday.The measure, coming as the Caribbean island seeks to recover from an economic slump, will expand the field from 127 activities to more than 2,000 Labor Minister Marta Elena Feito Cabrera was quoted as saying. She spoke at a council of ministers meeting that approved the policy.She said there would be 124 exceptions, but the media reports provided no details.Reform-minded Cuban economists have long called for the role of small business to be expanded to help jump-start the economy and to create jobs.US Sanctions Cuba for Alleged Human Rights Abuses Sanctions come five days before end of Trump administrationThe economy has stagnated for years and contracted by 11% last year, due to a combination of the coronavirus pandemic that devastated tourism and tough U.S. sanctions. Cubans have been dealing with a scarcity of basic goods and endless lines to obtain them.The crisis has forced a series of long promised but stalled reforms, from devaluation of the peso and reorganization of the monetary system to some deregulation of state businesses and foreign investment.President Miguel Diaz-Canel said last year the country faced an international and local crisis and would implement a series of reforms to increase exports, cut imports and stimulate domestic demand.He said the measures would include “the improvement of the non-state sector, with immediate priority in the expansion of self-employment and removal of obstacles.”The non-state sector – not including agriculture with its hundreds of thousands of small farms, thousands of cooperative and day laborers – is composed mainly of small private businesses and cooperatives; their employees, artisans, taxi drivers and tradesmen.The labor minister said there were more than 600,000 people in the sector, some 13% of the labor force. They are all designated as self-employed and an estimated 40% depend mainly on the tourism industry or work in public transportation.Over the last six months the government has also moved to grant access to wholesale markets for small businesses and import and export, though only through state companies.
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British diplomats are anxiously awaiting Senate confirmation of Katherine Tai as America’s new U.S. trade representative, in hopes of early progress on a U.S.-Britain trade agreement to reset the relationship following Britain’s departure from the European Union.Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the United States, told a recent audience at American University in Washington that there had been “successive rounds of formal talks” with the previous administration of President Donald Trump and that informal working groups have continued to discuss details of a possible agreement.“When Katherine Tai, the new USTR, is confirmed, we will need to talk to her about getting back to the formal stage,” Pierce said. “We would like to do that.”At the time of the Brexit campaign, which led to Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, the pro-Brexit camp had argued that the breakup would leave London free to negotiate a favorable pact with a sympathetic Trump-led administration in Washington.But President Joe Biden declared during his campaign last year that he would not enter into any new trade deals until necessary investments had been made at home. Now, Pierce said, that leaves open “the question as to what happens to trade deals already in the making, like the U.K. one.”The British envoy pointed out that Britain and the U.S. are among each other’s biggest trading and investment partners, and it would benefit both “to cement that and enhance it in a deal, but we need to see what the Biden administration has to say.”Theodore R. Bromund, a specialist in Anglo-American relations at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the Biden administration has every right to review what its predecessors have done but that it has essentially three choices.FILE – Katherine Tai, the Biden administration’s choice to take over as U.S. trade representative, speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 11, 2020.He said the new team could continue the talks within the established framework, seek to revise the content and framework of the talks or abandon the project.But, he said, the two countries share deep affinities and the same high regard for human rights and the rule for law, while wages and living standards are not as far apart as with some other countries.“If the U.S. cannot negotiate a deal with the U.K., who else can it negotiate a deal with?” he asked.Agriculture, health careMichelle Egan, a professor at American University who focuses on comparative politics and political economy, said in a phone interview that some of the biggest sticking points in any trade agreement between the two countries concern agriculture and Britain’s national health system.She said Brexit has left British farmers vulnerable, making it harder for London to offer concessions in the agricultural sector.American demands for greater access to Britain’s health care industry are also a problem for London, according to Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and German Marshall Fund based in Brussels.In written replies to questions from VOA, Kirkegaard said Britain’s National Health Service is seen as sacred by many of its citizens. That reverence has only deepened in response to the coronavirus pandemic.FILE – UK National Health Service employee Anni Adams looks at an NHS app for tracing contacts with people potentially infected with the coronavirus disease, on the Isle of Wight, Britain, May 5, 2020.“Ultimately, it comes down to politics in both U.S. and U.K.,” he said.Pierce admitted that agriculture tends to be a difficult topic in almost any trade negotiation, “to be absolutely honest.” She added that the Biden administration’s “buy American” agenda could also pose a challenge to Britain and America’s other trading partners.“It’s obviously a great concern to America’s trading friends and partners if there’s a very strong push for ‘buy American.’ So we’ll need to talk about that,” she said.Positive notesPierce highlighted some “very good things” that are included in the deal under discussion between her country and the United States, including an emphasis on the role to be played by small- and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs.“Both our economies rely very much on this sector,” she said. “What’s really going to get the economy going again” after the pandemic “is the SMEs, so we think that’s a plus.”She also said the prospective U.S.-British agreement would be the first free-trade agreement to look at digital commerce.
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Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s term will end on February 7, 2022, the Biden administration said Friday, weighing in on a contentious question that has roiled the Caribbean nation for months.”In accordance with the OAS [Organization of American States] position on the need to proceed with the democratic transfer of executive power, a new elected president should succeed President Moise when his term ends on February 7, 2022,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in response to a question from VOA.”The Haitian people deserve the opportunity to elect their leaders and restore Haiti’s democratic institutions,” Price said.The Biden administration’s expression of support is significant for Moise and comes at a crucial time as he faces intense pressure from the political opposition to step down this Sunday.Price told VOA the U.S. Embassy in Haiti maintains contact with members “across the political spectrum” and that the United States, like the OAS, has “consistently called on all political forces to adhere to the spirit of their constitutional order.”Ambassador’s meetingHaiti Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond tweeted Friday afternoon that he had a “very productive meeting” with the State Department. The ambassador said he discussed “upcoming elections, referendum on the new constitution and security challenges.”Today I had a very productive meeting with the FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.UN backs US positionThe United Nations on Friday backed the American position on the end of Moise’s term in 2022. Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told VOA that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “closely following developments” and that Guterres was encouraged “by the willingness of many stakeholders to engage constructively in finding agreement on a way forward, to ensure the holding of several free, fair and peaceful electoral processes in the coming months.”But the way forward is murky. Moise’s handpicked Provisional Electoral Council has announced a referendum on the constitution on April 25, followed by presidential and legislative elections in September.In contrast, Moise’s opponents, who have vowed  not to participate in an electoral process they view as illegitimate, have come up with their own transition plan. The plan stipulates that after Moise leaves office, a successor will be chosen from among the Supreme Court justices and a commission made up of seven members of the opposition will choose Cabinet members.It is unclear how the Biden administration and U.N. statements Friday will affect that plan.Anxiety about SundayMeanwhile, some Haitians are expressing fear that the situation will turn violent Sunday, after the opposition vowed to take to the streets and turn up the pressure. Haiti’s national police and security forces have been criticized for being overly aggressive and firing upon peaceful protesters and journalists over the past year.FILE – Smoke from tires set fire by protesters fills a street in Delmas where vendors sell clothing during a countrywide strike demanding the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 1, 2021.A protester was shot and killed by a police officer during a spontaneous protest Friday, VOA Creole reported. Tires were seen burning and blocking some streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince.Asked how the Moise administration would handle protests Sunday, Edmond told VOA the government intended to remain in observer mode, unless public property was destroyed and crimes were committed.Sunday is a day of national significance to Haitians. February 7 was the day dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier was overthrown. It is also the day when democratically elected presidents are to be sworn in, according to the constitution.What does the U.S. anticipate in the months ahead? State Department spokesman Price said the Biden administration expects the Moise government to exercise “restraint” in issuing decrees, “only using that power to schedule legislative elections and for matters of immediate threats to life, health and safety, so the parliament can be restored and resume its constitutional responsibility.”Cindy Saine at the State Department, Margaret Besheer at the United Nations and Matiado Vilme in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.  
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German prosecutors have charged the secretary of the former SS commandant of Stutthof with 10,000 counts of accessory to murder, arguing that she was part of the apparatus that helped the Nazi concentration camp function.The 95-year-old also faces an unspecified number of counts of accessory to attempted murder for her service at the camp between June 1943 and April 1945, Peter Mueller-Rakow, spokesman for prosecutors in the northern town of Itzehoe, said Friday.Despite her age, the suspect will be tried in juvenile court because she was younger than 21 at the time of the alleged crimes, Mueller-Rakow said.The suspect, whom Mueller-Rakow would not identify in line with German privacy laws, is believed to be in good enough health to stand trial.She has previously been partially identified as Irmgard F. by Germany’s NDR public broadcaster, which interviewed her at the retirement home where she now lives in a small community north of Hamburg.She confirmed to NDR that she had worked as the secretary to SS officer Paul Werner Hoppe in Stutthof, but said she never set foot in the camp itself and did not know of murders taking place there.Hoppe was himself tried and convicted of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to nine years in prison in 1957. He died in 1974.NDR cited a 1954 statement Irmgard F. had made when interviewed as a witness ahead of the trial, in which she told authorities all Hoppe’s correspondence with higher SS administration had gone past her desk and that the commandant had dictated her letters daily.She also said she did not know of prisoners being gassed but told authorities at the time she was aware Hoppe had ordered executions, which she presumed were as punishment for infractions, NDR reported.The case against her will rely on new German legal precedent established in cases over the last decade that anyone who helped Nazi death camps and concentration camps function can be prosecuted as an accessory to the murders committed there, even without evidence of participation in a specific crime.”In the trial we will focus on the suspect who was in the camp as a secretary, and her concrete responsibility for the functioning of the camp,” Mueller-Rakow said.Initially a collection point for Jews and non-Jewish Poles removed from Danzig — now the Polish city of Gdansk — Stutthof from about 1940 was used as a so-called “work education camp” where forced laborers, primarily Polish and Soviet citizens, were sent to serve sentences and often died.From mid-1944, tens of thousands of Jews from ghettos in the Baltics and from Auschwitz filled the camp along with thousands of Polish civilians swept up in the brutal Nazi suppression of the Warsaw uprising.Others incarcerated there included political prisoners, accused criminals, people suspected of homosexual activity and Jehovah’s Witnesses.More than 60,000 people were killed there by being given lethal injections of gasoline or phenol directly to their hearts, shot or starved. Others were forced outside in winter without clothing until they died of exposure or were put to death in a gas chamber.Last year, a former SS private, Bruno Dey, was convicted at age 93 of more than 5,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving at Stutthof as a guard and given a two-year suspended sentence.
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought Greece’s most profitable industry, tourism, to its knees.Yet a year since the deadly bug hit this sun-kissed nation of 11 million, causing mass travel cancellations and wreaking financial havoc unseen since Greece’s economy went into freefall over a decade ago, tourism officials say they are now marshaling an industry comeback. They are preparing to reopen the country to world travelers by June 1 with a new “safe travel” plan that lets visitors bypass quarantine regulations with a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of their departure.What’s more, a burst in bookings from the U.K. has industry officials banking on British travelers to spearhead the nation’s travel revival.”Greece has long been a favorite holiday destination for the British,” said Grigoris Tassios, president of the country’s hoteliers federation. “But with the rate of inoculations in the U.K. largely outpacing all others across Europe and beyond, British travelers will be among the safest to travel here by as early as May.”With more than a quarter of Israel’s population of 9 million inoculated in the world’s fastest vaccination drive against COVID-19, Israelis, too, are expected to follow suit, as are Americans.This week, U.S. health officials announced that more Americans had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine than have tested positive for the virus.”These are all promising signs,” Tassios said. “But we still have a way to go.”FILE – Tourists look at the changing of presidential guards outside the Greek parliament , in Athens, July 31, 2020.Tourism stalledGlobal tourism has been among the industries hit hardest by the public health emergency. The pandemic has affected 75 million people employed in a sector brought to a near standstill by travel bans and closed borders.But for Greece, where tourism accounts for 20 percent of GDP, providing one in five jobs in a country still crawling out of its worst financial crisis in recent times, the stakes are higher.A recent report by the financial risk advisory services group Ernst & Young showed Europe’s weakest economy shrinking an additional 10 percent in 2020 because of an 80 percent drop in tourism revenue. It forecast a 50 percent rise this year — half of the record 30 million travelers that flooded Greece ahead of the health crisis in 2019 — but only if, as experts warn, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers on the daunting task of balancing the safety of a nation with the economic boost more visitors would bring to a country in dire need of financial recovery.It is not an easy challenge. After five strict months, three national lockdowns and a surge in infections that has seen COVID-19 cases here rocket from 3,000 in September to 160,000 this week, Mitsotakis and his closest aides are now said to be considering the fiercest national shutdown orders yet in a bid to stunt a third wave of COVID-19 sweeping Greece — and to salvage the nation’s anemic economy.But until then, tourism businesses and hoteliers, who preferred to remain closed last year, are wasting no time positioning themselves for a stake in the estimated $10 billion in revenues that British travelers are set to bring to Greece this year, beginning in June.FILE – A French family poses in front of the ancient Parthenon, at the Acropolis Hill, during a hot day in Athens, July 31, 2020.’The chips are down’As many as 2 million foreign travelers will be redeeming vouchers for vacation packages canceled last summer because of the pandemic, according to industry data. The number of Israelis and Americans following suit remains unclear.”Not opening is not an option this year,” said Alexis Komninos, a leading hotelier on the iconic island of Santorini. “The chips are down, and it’s clearly crunch time.”But while I and others in the industry are doing our part, doling out the cold cash to refurbish, rebuild and slash my prices by 40 percent in flash sales to lure British, German and other customers, the government must do its part in helping subsidize this national reopening.”This isn’t about some sort of business experiment,” said Komninos. “It is a national gambit. And if this season is lost — well, then we’re all in for a really rough ride.”Tourism ministry officials say they have received assurances from the government that it will subsidize salaries in the industry during the summer. Still, it has yet to decide when and whether incentives will be introduced to cover startup and reopening costs and support a hoteliers bill seen by some as key to any comeback in Greek tourism. 
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The Russian government said Friday it was expelling Western diplomats for attending rallies in support of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Diplomats from Poland and Sweden in St. Petersburg and from Germany in Moscow were targeted for participating in “unlawful” rallies on January 23, according to Russia’s foreign ministry. Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets across Russia that day to express opposition to the arrest of Navalny, the Kremlin’s leading critic.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell hold a joint press conference following their talks in Moscow, Feb. 5, 2021.The ministry made the announcement as the European Union’s most senior diplomat told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the government’s treatment of Navalny represents “a low point” in relations between the 27-nation bloc and Moscow. In a statement, the ministry declared the diplomats “persona non grata” and said they must leave Russia “shortly.” A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the country refutes Russia’s claim that the Swedish diplomat participated in the demonstration. German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced the move and said after discussing security issues with French President Emmanuel Macron that “We consider this expulsion to be unjustified.” Poland’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “The Polish side expects the Russian authorities to reverse this erroneous decision” or “Otherwise, Poland leaves itself the option to take appropriate steps.” After his virtual meeting with Merkel, Macron said at a Paris news conference that he “very strongly” opposes Friday’s expulsions and Russia’s arrest and alleged poisoning of Navalny. FILE – A still image taken from video footage shows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny making a hand heart gesture during the announcement of a court verdict in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.A Russian court Tuesday sentenced Navalny to three-and-a-half years in prison, defying condemnation abroad and public outcry at home to send one of the Kremlin’s most vocal critics to jail.    The court found Navalny violated his parole from a prior 2014 suspended sentence by failing to notify prison authorities of his whereabouts when he was evacuated to Berlin for treatment following a near-fatal poisoning attack.   Navalny insists, and international media investigations suggest, the poison attack was carried out by Russian security services who laced his underwear with a military-grade nerve agent while the opposition leader was traveling in Siberia last August. Russian authorities deny this. FILE – Law enforcement officers stand guard during a demonstration after Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail, in Moscow, Feb. 2, 2021.Navalny’s sentencing triggered new protests Tuesday in Moscow and St. Petersburg that followed large demonstrations over the past two weekends, resulting in the arrest of more 1,400 protesters. Russian police beat many peaceful protesters and used stun guns against some in an attempt to suppress the opposition. Lavrov defended the Russian police response to the protests, contending it was much less forceful than some police actions against demonstrators in Western countries. 
 
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The German government on Friday welcomed President Joe Biden’s decision to formally halt the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany, arguing that the troops’ stationing there is “in our mutual interest.”
 
Last year, then-President Donald Trump announced that he was going to pull out about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops stationed in Germany, but the withdrawal never actually began.
 
Biden said Thursday that the pullout would be halted until Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reviews America’s troop presence around the globe.
 
“The German government welcomes this announcement,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters in Berlin. He said that “we will remain in contact with the new American administration on its further plans.”
 
“We have always been convinced that the stationing of American troops here in Germany serves European and trans-Atlantic security, and so is in our mutual interest,” Seibert said. “We very much value this close, decades-long cooperation with the Americans’ forces that are stationed in Germany.”
 
Asked whether Germany would make any concrete offers to persuade the U.S. not to withdraw troops, Seibert said that Berlin will follow developments but “how these reviews go is an internal American matter.”
 
The U.S. has several major military facilities in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base, the headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.
 
Trump’s order met resistance from Congress as well as from within the military, which has long relied on Germany as a key ally and base of operations.
 
Trump announced the troop cuts after repeatedly accusing Germany of not paying enough for its own defense, calling the longtime NATO ally “delinquent” for failing to spend 2% of its GDP on defense, a benchmark that alliance members have pledged to work toward.
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Authorities in Turkey made dozens of new arrests in cities across the country Thursday, after downplaying international criticism — including U.S. condemnation — of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on university student rallies.    
 
According to police, about 600 people have been detained since January 4 as protests spread in the capital, Ankara, and in Istanbul.
 
Erdogan has accused student demonstrators of being terrorists for protesting his appointment of a new rector at Bogazici University in Istanbul, one of the country’s top schools of higher education.For over a month, students, faculty members and alumni of Bogazici University have protested Erdogan’s appointment of Turkish politician and academic Melih Bulu, demanding an election to choose a rector from the university’s own faculty.Bulu holds a doctorate from Bogazici’s business management program but has never been a full-time academic at the university. Critics accused him of plagiarism in his dissertation and published articles and called for his resignation. Bulu has denied those accusations.His involvement in politics also stirred controversy over his appointment, since he once ran for parliament as a candidate for Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).He told reporters Wednesday he does not intend to resign from his university post. Still, his appointment has been viewed as an assault on academic freedom and sparked the protests.ArrestsPrior to Thursday’s arrests, Turkish police had detained more than 250 protesters in Istanbul and 69 students in Ankara this week, some of whom were released later. At least 51 protesters in Istanbul were referred to court on Wednesday and were released Thursday on bail.On Tuesday, academics wearing their gowns gathered on the Bogazici University campus, their backs turned to the rector’s building in protest, demanding Bulu’s resignation and the release of detained students.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 79 of the detainees were linked to terror groups such as the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).Erdogan echoed Soylu’s statement in a video address to his ruling AKP on Wednesday, saying the protesters lack Turkey’s “national and spiritual values” and are members of terrorist groups.“This country will not be run by terrorists,” he said. “We will do whatever is needed to prevent this. …We have not stood with terrorists, and we will not.”Rights groups say the Turkish government has broadened the definition of anti-terrorism laws to suppress dissent.“Turkish authorities have a long history of clamping down on free expression through abusive investigations, arbitrary detentions and unfounded prosecutions under vaguely defined anti-terrorism laws,” Deniz Yuksel, a Turkey advocacy specialist at Amnesty International, told VOA.LGBT rightsThe dispute at Bogazici University intensified after a poster depicting the Islamic holy site Kaaba with LGBT flags was displayed in an exhibition on campus as part of protests last week.On January 29, Soylu tweeted about the arrest of four students over the poster, calling them “LGBT deviants.” Later, Twitter placed a warning on Soylu’s tweet, saying it had violated the company’s rules regarding hateful conduct.Two of the detained students were arrested on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values.Over the weekend, police raided Bogazici University’s LGBTI+ student club and announced that an investigation for alleged terrorist propaganda was opened against the club after an illegal publication of Kongra-Gel and rainbow flags were found in the club room.Kongra-Gel is an umbrella organization for the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and its affiliates. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States.Following the raid, Bulu announced the club’s closure.Some analysts believe Bogazici University’s LGBT community became the latest target of the government’s broad brush to label dissidents as terrorists.“What is most striking in the Bogazici case is that LGBTI individuals are now demonized as criminals and terrorists simply because of their sexual orientation, reflecting how far Turkey has drifted away from fundamental rights and freedoms and the rule of law and due process,” Aykan Erdemir, director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a former Turkish Parliament member, told VOA.Erdogan praised his party’s youth Monday in a video conference, saying, “You are not the LGBT youth, not the youth who commit acts of vandalism. On the contrary, you are the ones who repair broken hearts.”Two days later, he said, “there is no such thing” as LGBT, adding that “this country is national and spiritual, and will continue to walk into the future as such.”Yuksel of Amnesty International said the Turkish authorities’ recent anti-LGBT statements were “not only a reflection of the government’s homophobia but also a calculated political strategy.”“The authorities’ attacks on LGBT (individuals) are the latest frontier in a culture war launched by President Erdogan in an effort to rally his conservative base ahead of elections scheduled for 2023, though rumors suggest they may be held earlier,” she said.U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday the United States is concerned about demonstrations at Bogazici University and strongly condemns the anti-LGBT rhetoric surrounding them.The United Nations Human Rights agency on Wednesday condemned “homophobic and transphobic comments by (Turkish) officials” and called for a “prompt release of students and protestors arrested for participating in peaceful demonstrations.”Turkey’s Foreign and Interior ministries did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment. But in a separate statement released Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, “It was determined that certain groups that are not from the University and are affiliated with terrorist organizations attempted to infiltrate into and provoke the events.
 
In this respect, necessary and proportional measures are taken within the law against these illegal acts that go beyond the scope of the right to protest.”Bogazici’s significanceBogazici University was established in 1863 as Robert College by U.S. missionaries and became a public university in 1971.As one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities, its admission is highly competitive, as only the top percentile of the 2.4 million students competing in a national placement exam at Turkish universities study there free of charge.“Bogazici University has been the gold standard of meritocracy and vertical mobility in Turkey,” Erdemir of FDD said.“The university’s pioneer role in introducing Western scholarship and values has made it a target of Turkey’s various Islamist and ultranationalist factions, who accuse the institution of serving ‘foreign’ interests,’” he said.
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A former Mexican governor suspected of ordering the torture of an investigative journalist who had accused him of links to a pedophilia ring appeared in court Thursday to formally face charges.Mario Marin, who was the governor of the state of Puebla from 2005-11, asked to be placed under house arrest for the duration of the legal process, citing health problems and fear of catching COVID-19 in jail. The judge will decide on request next week. The 66-year-old former governor is in detention for the time being.In 2005, award-winning journalist Lydia Cacho had alleged in her book The Demons of Eden that Marin, who has been a fugitive since April 2019, and several prominent Mexican businessmen were linked to a child pornography ring.”I have been seeking justice for 14 years for having been tortured by this accomplice of child pornography networks,” the journalist wrote on Twitter.“He is the first governor arrested for acts of torture against journalists and linked, furthermore, with a ring of trafficking girls and boys,” Cacho said.In December 2005, agents of the Puebla prosecutor’s office arrested Cacho in Cancun and drove her to Puebla. She was accused of slander and defamation.Cacho was later released.She alleged that on the road from Cancun to Puebla officials psychologically tortured and threatened to sexually abuse her.The press freedom organization Artículo 19, which is representing Cacho, said that if convicted, Marin could face up to 12 years behind bars.Cacho, who now lives overseas, has won many international awards including the UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom prize.
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Some 80 journalists are included among the thousands of people who have been detained across Russia during protests over the arrest and sentencing of opposition politician Alexey Navalny.Several of the journalists were beaten. At least one was jailed because of posts on social media about the unrest.The strong tactics used by security forces to contain protests, and the retaliation against independent journalists covering them, were no surprise to Russian politicians, analysts and journalists interviewed by VOA. What was less expected was Russia’s inability to stem the flow of information about Navalny’s case and the rallies in his support.FILE – A still image taken from video footage shows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny inside a defendant dock during the announcement of a court verdict in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.The protests started shortly after Navalny was detained January 17 when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated after being poisoned. A Moscow court sentenced him Tuesday to two years and eight months in prison, prompting more demonstrations.Part of Navalny’s defense has been to use social media and journalism platforms to reach supporters and draw attention to President Vladimir Putin’s lavish lifestyle and what Navalny says were attempts by the Kremlin to poison him. Russia denies the allegation.Navalny has shared details of his persecution with his 6.5 million followers on Twitter and Instagram — numbers that equal or exceed the audiences of mainstream Russian news outlets. His Anti-Corruption Foundation used investigative journalism techniques and YouTube to detail allegations of high-level corruption. And news outlets, including the investigative website Bellingcat, have reported on Russia’s alleged attempts to surveil and poison him.FILE – The U.S. head office of TikTok is seen in Culver City, California, Sept. 15, 2020.Navalny’s media-savvy approach and use of new platforms have knocked Moscow off balance. With independent media largely suppressed and viewers turning away from state TV — which rarely covers issues that may anger the Kremlin — Russians have looked to international outlets or niche media for their news. They use a range of social media platforms, including TikTok, Telegram and others, to share information and reporting.Russia has attempted to block access to some of these sites through laws regulating posts and by warning platforms against sharing information about the protests. Pro-Kremlin trolls have tried to counter opposition voices on social media with limited success.The Kremlin argues the platforms are being used to incite unrest or spread what it deems to be extremist views, and that regulations are needed to prevent the spread of disinformation.The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.Mass protestsWhile the scenes in recent days were reminiscent of the anti-government rallies in 2011 and 2012, analysts say society has drastically changed, along with the communication channels used to share information and cover events.FILE – Russian opposition candidate Dmitry Gudkov gestures during his interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, March 11, 2020.”In 2011-2012, they stood up against fraudulent elections. Now, the protest has become more personalized,” Russian politician Dmitry Gudkov told VOA, adding that people now are out protesting against Putin.“And in response, Putin and his forces have hit back by detaining or retaliating against activists, independent journalists and social media that cover investigations into his administration,” he said.Gudkov was a member of the State Duma (lower house of the Federal Assembly) during the 2011 protests. His support for the movement led to his suspension from the Spravedlivaya Rossiya (Fair Russia) Party. He later led the opposition Civic Initiative Party, which the Supreme Court suspended in 2020.Social mediaIn 2011, Facebook was the primary platform.“Now, information is distributed across different social media and messengers,” said FILE – This picture taken on Jan. 22, 2021 in Rennes, France, shows a smartphone screen featuring messaging service applications WhatsApp, Signal, telegram, Viber, Discord and Olvid.In 2018, Russian officials tried to block Telegram. But they failed to prevent users from accessing the site, and the ban was overturned in 2020.“Authorities continuously threaten to block social media if they allow postings about protests,” Kozlovsky said. “A new law allowing the blocking of social media was adopted just a month ago,” he added, referring to legislation requiring social networks to filter information deemed to show “disrespect for society, the state, the Constitution,” or that calls for riots.Foreign broadcastsAlongside social media, another challenge to the official narrative comes from foreign media that provide coverage in Russian, including VOA, BBC, Deutsche Welle and RFE/RFL, journalists say.Audiences for foreign media have grown in Russia because of widespread censorship across major media outlets and efforts by the Kremlin to eliminate almost all local independent media in the country.”It’s clear for the Kremlin that journalists drive the liberal opposition in Russia. And they oppose the regime by reporting the truth on the internet,” said Maria Snegovaya, a visiting scholar at the George Washington University Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. “People who know the truth about the government become an opposition, too, and we can see this in polls. In this regard, of course, the masks are pulled off, and the regime no longer pretends to be friendly. The regime considers journalists as enemies.”FILE – The logo of German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle is pictured in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 30, 2020.The recent unrest was widely covered by mostly foreign media. Live coverage of Navalny’s arrest carried by “Current Time,” a daily Russian-language news show produced by RFE/RL and VOA, and Deutsche Welle, garnered hundreds of thousands of views and was shared on social media and other outlets.This fits a wider pattern of audiences looking to investigative journalism and social media platforms for news not covered by state media.In 2020, the nonprofit investigative media outlet Proekt published several articles that looked at corruption among Putin’s acquaintances.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a joint meeting of the country’s State Council and the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects via a videoconference at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, Dec. 23, 2020.The Kremlin may be slow to recognize the power of these platforms, but veterans of the Russian opposition movement say they anticipate repression toward civil society and media.”I don’t know what exactly they will do, but the reaction to the protests will be tough,” Kozlovsky said.Goncharov said he suspects authorities will hire bloggers to “push their propaganda on these platforms.”A counteroffensive already appears to be in play. Popular Russian bloggers and celebrities posted similar videos on Instagram and TikTok in which they criticized the protesters and praised Putin.FILE – Pop singer Philipp Kirkorov reacts next to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin after having been decorated with the Order of Honor during an awarding ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Nov. 15, 2017.Russian singer Philipp Kirkorov used Instagram to call Putin “the smartest leader in the history of humankind.”“Vladimir Putin and his team don’t stop to surprise me in a positive way. Russia deserves it,” Kirkorov wrote on January 24, the day after the mass protests.Videos posted online also show protesters giving what are believed to be forced apologies. Journalists have received threatening messages from anonymous users on Telegram, some of whom share personal information and private photos, or make up stories about the reporters’ alleged connections with the West.Victor Oleynik, a VOA contributor and co-founder of “Beware of Them,” a project that catalogs wrongdoing by police, said he was falsely accused of coordinating the protests in Russia with the U.S. government. The accusation was shared by dozens of troll accounts on Twitter and Telegram, which resulted in Oleynik’s receiving threatening messages.More arrests and harassment are anticipated, according to the Russians with whom VOA spoke, some of whom said they feared persecution if they talked on the record. But they said the spread of these platforms would make the stifling of news more difficult.
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