Month: July 2017

Russia’s new United Nations ambassador took up his post Friday, saying he would do his “utmost” to strengthen relations between Moscow and the organization.

“Today the world faces unprecedented threats and challenges,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the official presentation of credentials.

“Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will continue contributing constructively to addressing those challenges, together with the international community, and we reaffirm our commitment to promoting peace, development and human rights,” he said.

Guterres said Russia is “an important pillar of our multilateral system” and a country that the U.N. wants to have “very deep and effective cooperation with” in all aspects of its work.

Nebenzia, 55, was previously a deputy foreign minister. He also served at Russia’s U.N. Missions in New York and Geneva. He succeeds Vitaly Churkin, who was Moscow’s high-profile U.N. ambassador from 2006 until his sudden death in February.

After presenting his credentials, Nebenzia gave his first speech in the U.N. General Assembly at a meeting on counterterrorism. The U.N. chief appointed his colleague, Vladimir Voronkov, last month to head a newly created office for counterterrorism.

“Today, the issue of combating terrorism is a priority issue in the international agenda,” Nebenzia told the assembly. “The central coordinating role in this work must undoubtedly be played by the United Nations.

“Today the most important of these tasks is to combat foreign terrorist fighters — to combat financing for terrorism, and the spread of its ideology, including through the use of modern technology,” he added.
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Macedonian and United States troops have started two weeks of joint military manoeuvers in central Macedonia as part of the Balkan country’s drive to join NATO.

About 300 U.S. soldiers with 120 military vehicles and tanks arrived on Friday from neighboring Bulgaria to participate in the “Dragoon Guardian 17” exercise that will run until August 10.

They will be joined by some 100 Macedonian soldiers.

Macedonia’s defense ministry says the main goal of the exercise is to strengthen military cooperation with the U.S. and to show that the Macedonian army is compatible with NATO standards.

Macedonia wants to join NATO but was blocked in 2008 by neighboring Greece, a member of the alliance, due to a long-running dispute over Macedonia’s official name.
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Charlie Gard, a British baby who became the subject of a bitter dispute between his parents and doctors over whether he should be taken to the United States for experimental treatment, has died, local media said on Friday.

The 11-month-old baby suffered from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, and his parents’ long struggle to save him drew an international outpouring of sympathy, including from U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis.

“Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie,” Connie Yates, the baby’s mother, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

Local media said a family spokesman had confirmed the death.

“Everyone at Great Ormond Street Hospital sends their heartfelt condolences to Charlie’s parents and loved-ones at this very sad time,” said a spokeswoman for the hospital, where Charlie had been receiving treatment After a harrowing legal battle that prompted a global debate over who has the moral right to decide the fate of a sick child, a judge on Thursday ordered that Charlie be moved to a hospice where the ventilator that keeps him alive would be turned off.

Yates and the baby’s father Chris Gard had wanted Charlie to undergo a treatment that has never been tried on anyone with his condition before, against the advice of doctors at his London hospital who said it would not benefit him and would prolong his suffering.

Charlie required a ventilator to breathe and was unable to see, hear or swallow.

The case drew comment from Trump, who tweeted on July 3 that “we would be delighted” to help Charlie, and from Pope Francis, who called for the parents to be allowed to do everything possible to treat their child.

Britain’s courts, after hearing a wealth of medical evidence, ruled that it would go against Charlie’s best interests to have the experimental nucleoside therapy advocated by a U.S. professor of neurology, Michio Hirano.

The case prompted heated debate on social media and in the press on medical ethics, and staff at the Great Ormond Street Hospital which treated him received abuse and death threats.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that he was saddened to hear of Charlie’s death. He has previously referred to the case in the context of the U.S. healthcare debate, saying it offered a warning of the risks of state-funded healthcare.
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The British High Court ordered terminally ill infant, Charlie Gard, to be moved to a hospice facility to die, ending a case that has spurred debate over the role of the state in children’s rights and health care.

The decision was made Thursday after Charlie’s parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where he is being treated, failed to agree on an end-of-life care plan for the 11-month-old. If no further agreement is reached, Charlie will be moved to Hospice on Friday in accordance with the hospital’s plan. The life-support systems would be removed shortly after, “inevitably result[ing] in Charlie’s death within a short period of time,” according to the judge.

“It is not in Charlie’s best interests for artificial ventilation to continue to be provided to him, and it is therefore lawful and in his best interests for it to be withdrawn,” the court order said.

Charlie was born with a rare genetic disease called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome – one of only 16 confirmed cases worldwide. He cannot see or hear, he cannot move or breathe, he cannot cry or swallow, he suffers from frequent epileptic seizures. He would turn one year old on August 4.

Earlier this year, the hospital treating Charlie asked for court permission to remove him from life support, saying that keeping him alive was merely causing more suffering. The parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, disagreed and asked for permission to take Charlie to the United States for experimental treatment. The British courts and the European Court of Human Rights all backed the hospital.

The Court of Human Rights argued that “undergoing experimental treatment with no prospects of success would offer no benefit, and continue to cause [Charlie] significant harm.”

The case drew pitched coverage from British tabloids and captured worldwide attention after world leaders like President Donald Trump and Pope Francis weighed in, offering medical support.

Earlier this week, Gard and Yates abandoned their months-long legal fight, acknowledging the illness was untreatable.

They then asked to take their son home to die, a request the hospital denied. According to the hospital, the “invasive ventilation” that Charlie required was only available in the hospital. The machines would not fit into the family’s home in London.

Under British law, children hold rights independent of their parents, meaning the parents do not always have the absolute right to make medical decisions for their children. Great Ormond Street Hospital released a statement expressing regret over the public disagreement.

“We deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlie’s doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period,” the statement read. “While we always respect parents’ views, we will never do anything that could cause our patients unnecessary and prolonged suffering. The priority of our medical staff has always been Charlie.”
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The White House Thursday broached the possibility that President Donald Trump could veto new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, prompting sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers of both political parties.

“He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians,” White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN.

Even the hint of a veto brought swift reaction from Capitol Hill.

“I think that would be a very bad mistake,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told VOA. “What would be better is if they [White House officials] worked with us on the legislation.”

“This [sanctions bill] gives the president a stronger hand in dealing with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” said the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin of Maryland. “If he vetoes it, it means he doesn’t want a stronger hand in dealing with Mr. Putin.”

“It’s hard to understand what comes out of the White House,” Cardin added.

“Congress has the power to override [a veto], and he would be overridden,” said New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

‘Laughable’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer derided as “laughable” Scaramucci’s assertion that Trump could negotiate even tougher sanctions against Russia.

“I’m a New Yorker too,” Schumer said, adding, “And I know bull when I hear it.”

The House of Representatives approved the sanctions bill Tuesday by a vote of 419-3. A similarly lopsided vote is expected in the Senate.

The bill seeks to impose an economic cost on Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang for an array of activities to which Washington objects, and gives Congress the power to block any presidential move to suspend the punitive measures.

During weeks of negotiations, the Trump administration initially pushed back at what it saw as an attempt to limit the executive branch’s ability to unilaterally ease sanctions, making the case that it limits U.S. leverage in attempts to impact Russian behavior and build a better relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That concern seemed to have been resolved at the start of the week, when the White House voiced backing for the legislation

“The president very much supports sanctions on those countries and wants to make sure that those remain, but at the same time wants to make sure that we get good deals. Those two things are both very important for the president,” White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that Moscow would likely retaliate against the United States if the sanctions are imposed.

According to state-run Russian media, Ryabkov warned that the new sanctions will scuttle any chance of improved relations between Moscow and Washington. He also said that Russia had previously warned the Trump administration it would mount a response if U.S. lawmakers passed the bill.

VOA’s Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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This year’s Venice Film Festival will include a crime comedy by George Clooney, a Guillermo del Toro fantasy and a Darren Aronofsky thriller.

Organizers of the world’s oldest film festival announced a 21-film competition lineup Thursday that features the Clooney-directed “Suburbicon,” the story of a home invasion gone wrong that stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore, with a script by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Venice’s late-summer time slot — starting a few days ahead of the Toronto festival — has made it a major awards-season springboard. In recent years it has presented the world premieres of major Oscar winners including “Spotlight” and “La La Land.”

This year’s contenders for Venice’s top Golden Lion award include del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” starring Sally Hawkins as a woman who forges a relationship with a sea creature, and Aronofsky’s secrecy-shrouded “Mother!” starring Jennifer Lawrence.

The 74th Venice festival opens Aug. 30 in the canal-crossed Italian city with Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing,” about a man — Damon again — who decides to shrink himself. It closes Sept. 9 with Takeshi Kitano’s gangster thriller “Outrage Coda.”

The winner of the Golden Lion and other prizes will be decided by a jury led this year by actress Annette Bening.

Films in competition include “Human Flow,” a documentary about migration by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei; “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” by Ireland’s auteur of tragicomedy, Martin McDonagh; “The Third Murder,” by Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda; and “Mektour, My Love: Canto Uno” by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, director of the Cannes winner “Blue is the Warmest Color.”

Competing directors are drawn from around the globe, with films from Australia’s Warwick Thornton (“Sweet Country”), Israel’s Samuel Maoz (“Foxtrot”), and Lebanon’s Ziad Doueiri (“The Insult”). But only one director among the 21 is a woman — China’s Vivian Qu, whose “Angels Wear White” centers on two girls assaulted by a man in a small seaside town.

Outside the main competition, high-interest entries include Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s “Loving Pablo,” starring Javier Bardem as Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar, and Stephen Frears’ reality-based historical drama “Victoria & Abdul,” with Judi Dench as Britain’s Queen Victoria and Ai Fazal as her Indian servant Abdul Karim.

The streaming service Netflix, which has shaken up the business of making and distributing movies, will debut the miniseries “Our Souls at Night,” a late-life romance starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

 
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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara has agreed to purchase Russia’s S-400 missile systems, despite NATO concerns. The controversial purchase comes as Ankara tries to court Moscow, after a Turkish jet downed a Russian bomber operating from Syria in 2015.

“We have now taken steps with Russia about this issue [S-400 missile system purchase]. Deals have been inked,” Erdogan announced Tuesday to his parliamentary deputies. “God willing, we will see S-400 missiles in our country and precede the process with joint production.”

The Turkish president did not miss an opportunity to dismiss concerns of his NATO partners. “Why will it cause tension?  A country should be in search for ideal ways for its own security,” he said.

Turkey’s allegiances questioned

Ankara is at loggerheads with its Western allies over their support for Syrian Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State militants, the former considered to be terrorists by Turkey, along with growing criticism over human rights.

Ankara’s NATO partners have voiced concern about the compatibility of the Russian system with its technology, along with fears that Moscow could use the S-400 as a Trojan horse to compromise NATO systems. The controversy will only add to growing questions over Ankara’s allegiances.

“NATO and EU member Greece purchased the S-300 [an earlier version of the Russian missile system] a couple of years ago,” said Zaur Gasimov, an Istanbul-based research fellow at the Max Weber Foundation working in the field of Russian-Turkish relations.  “However, it is an expensive measure of the Turkish side to demonstrate its sovereignty. It is a signal to the U.S., EU and Germany … by buying the S-400, Ankara demonstrates it’s willing to get closer to Moscow.”

Ankara insists the missile system, which is acknowledged as being one of most effective on the market, offers the best value for its money. The deal, worth $2.4 billion, is bolstered by Russia’s commitment to transfer technology, which also is a Turkish government priority.

Sanctions factor

There may be more than defense considerations, though, behind the missile purchase.  Ankara is trying to persuade Moscow to end all of the economic sanctions imposed after the Turkish jet downed the Russian bomber.

Some of those sanctions have been scaled back following a succession of meetings between Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.  Russia has lifted an embargo pertaining to the import of some Turkish goods and has ended a ban on Russian tourists visiting Turkey, which had devastated Turkey’s lucrative tourism industry.

But Moscow is extracting a heavy price from Ankara.

“All the rest of the concessions are actually demands, which are advantageous to the Russian side. These are the sale of the S-400 air defense systems to Turkey [and] the completion of Akkuyu, the nuclear plant by Rosatom [a Russian company],” pointed out former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an analyst. “Export of [Turkish] tomatoes is not solved yet. The issue of visas for Turkish citizens is not solved yet.”

Russia was once Turkey’s biggest export market for tomatoes, with the trade valued at $250 million annually.

During Erdogan’s March meeting with Putin, the Turkish president reportedly lobbied hard for an end to the tomato ban, to no avail.  But a breakthrough may be in the offing.  On the same day Erdogan announced the decision to buy the S-400, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced negotiations on the tomato ban would resume August 18.

But Moscow’s reluctance to make speedy concessions offers an insight into the wider nature of bilateral relations.

With multiple outstanding differences between Moscow and Ankara — in particular over Syria, with the two nations backing rival sides in the civil war — and Russia’s support for Syrian Kurdish rebels that Ankara calls terrorists, the possibility of a re-emergence of tensions remains.
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The European Union warned on Wednesday that it was ready to act within days to counter proposed new U.S. sanctions on Russia, saying they would harm the bloc’s energy security.

Sanctions legislation overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday has angered EU officials: they see it as breaking transatlantic unity in the West’s response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Brussels also fears the new sanctions will harm European firms with connections to Russia, and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent.

“The U.S. bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU’s energy security interests,” EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement issued after a meeting at which European commissioners were united in their views, according to a senior EU official.

“If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. ‘America First’ cannot mean that Europe’s interests come last,” he said, mentioning President Donald Trump’s guiding slogan.

A EU document prepared for the commissioners, seen by Reuters, laid out the EU’s plans to seek “demonstrable reassurances” that the White House would not use the bill to target EU interests.

The bloc, it says, will also prepare to use an EU regulation allowing it to defend companies against the application of extraterritorial measures by the United States.

If diplomacy fails, Brussels plans to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization. “In addition, the preparation of a substantive response that would deter the U.S. from taking measures against EU companies could be considered,” it says.

However, most measures taken by Brussels would require approval from all 28 EU member governments, which could expose potential differences in individual nations’ relations with Moscow and Washington.

Despite changes to the U.S. bill that took into account some EU concerns, Brussels said the legislation could still hinder upkeep of the gas pipeline network in Russia that feeds into Ukraine and supplies over a quarter of EU needs. The EU says it could also hamper projects crucial to its energy diversification goals, such as the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project.

The new sanctions target the disputed Nord Stream 2 project for a new pipeline running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. But the EU note says: “the impact would in reality be much wider.”

A list prepared by the EU executive, seen by Reuters, shows eight projects including those involving oil majors Anglo-Dutch Shell, BP and Italy’s Eni that risk falling foul of the U.S. measures.

Voicing frustration at the fraying in the joint Western approach to Moscow, Juncker said “close coordination among allies” was key to ensuring that curbs on business with the Russian energy, defense and financial sectors, imposed in July 2014, are effective.

EU sources said Juncker told Commissioners the risk to EU interests was collateral damage of a U.S. domestic fight between Trump and U.S. lawmakers.

It was unclear how quickly the U.S. bill would reach the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The bill amounts to a rebuke of Trump by requiring him to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow.

Rejecting the legislation — which would potentially stymie his wish for improved relations with Moscow — would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers.

Industry concerns

European energy industry sources voiced alarm at the potentially wide-ranging damage of the new U.S. measures.

“This is pretty tough,” one industry source told Reuters.

“We are working with EU officials to see what safeguards can be anticipated to protect our investment and give us certainty.”

Five Western firms are partnered with Russia’s Gazprom in Nord Stream 2: German’s Wintershall and Uniper, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV and France’s Engie.

But EU officials warn the U.S. measures would also hit plans for the LNG plant on the Gulf of Finland in which Shell is partnering with Gazprom.

The EU document shows they might jeopardize Eni’s 50 percent stake in the Blue Stream pipeline from Russia to Turkey as well as the CPC pipeline, carrying Kazakh oil to the Black Sea, involving European groups BG Overseas Holdings, Shell and Eni.

It further warns that BP would be forced to halt some activities with Russian energy major Rosneft.
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Officials at the museum of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz say some exhibits are going on a tour of Europe and North America to bring its tragic truth about the Holocaust to a wider audience.

The museum says Wednesday this will be its first-ever traveling exhibition and will include some 600 items. Most of them will come from the museum, but also from other collections, like Israel’s Yad Vashem.

The “Not long ago: Not far away” exhibit will include personal items of the victims and an original barrack from the Auschwitz-Monowitz part of the camp, a German freight wagon the Nazis used to bring inmates in.

Some 1.1 million people, mostly Europe’s Jews, were killed in the camp that Nazi Germans operated in occupied Poland during World War II.

 
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Hundreds of firefighters in the Riviera region of southern France and on the island of Corsica battled wind-whipped blazes Tuesday that have left first responders injured.

Eight firefighters and some 15 police officers have been hurt in the fires that broke out Monday and have consumed nearly 4,000 hectares (9880 acres) of vegetation, according to French authorities.

The French civil security authority has asked the European Union for help and to provide two Canadair planes to contain and extinguish the wildfire.

There have been no reports of injuries among residents or tourists.

Flames burned some 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) around the Var area of Provence, with two villas destroyed a dozen kilometers (7 miles) west of Saint-Tropez. A huge fire in the neighboring Luberon region was under control on Tuesday.

The Var prefecture said about 100 people were evacuated in Ramatuelle.

The largest blaze was in northern Corsica, with nearly 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) burned.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb arrived Tuesday evening in Corsica to meet with emergency services.
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