Author: Tsikavyk

The annual Munich Security Conference got underway Friday, with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issuing a warning that Russia, China and the United States were endangering global security. “Russia … has made military force and the violent shifting of borders on the European continent the means of politics once again,” Steinmeier told the audience of leaders, military chiefs and diplomats at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in the southern German city.He added that China “accepts international law only selectively where it does not run counter to its own interests.” “And our closest ally, the United States of America, under the present administration itself, rejects the idea of an international community. We fall back into the classical security dilemma: more mistrust, more armament and then less security. These are the inevitable consequences.”List of problemsWorld leaders have descended on Munich with a long list of global flashpoints to resolve, from regional conflicts in the Middle East to rising competition between the U.S. and China. Longtime observers of the conference sense a change of tone. “This enhanced sense of danger seems to be pulling the Americans and the Europeans a bit closer together,” said James Davis, a professor of international politics at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper watches during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020.U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who is attending the three-day conference along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, hailed the 82-member coalition that had come together to defeat the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria. “But our work is not finished,” Esper told a news conference Friday. “Coalition members are in unanimous agreement on the need to remain vigilant against a weak and yet still dangerous adversary.”Instability in the Middle East tops the Munich agenda. NATO has stepped forward to take over the training mission in Iraq from the United States, for Iraqi forces battling Islamic State.U.S.-Taliban cease-fireMeanwhile, a possible cease-fire between the U.S. and the Taliban was cautiously welcomed by NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg. “NATO currently has around 16,000 troops in Afghanistan and we are ready to adjust that force level if the Taliban is able to demonstrate the will and real ability to reduce violence and we see a path to peace,” Stoltenberg said.On the sidelines in Munich, beyond the big speeches, there is diplomatic progress. Serbia and Kosovo will reopen rail and highway links after a 20-year break, in a deal brokered by the United States.The biggest clash of the conference is likely to come Saturday when U.S. and Iranian representatives take to the stage, just weeks after the U.S. targeted killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. FILE – Women walk past a banner of Iranian military commaner Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in Iraq in a U.S. drone attack, in Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2020.“I think the Iranians have understood that this [U.S.] president is willing to push to the edge,” said analyst James Davis. “The killing of Soleimani must have been a wake-up call for them. And he is willing to challenge them in the region. And so I think both sides recognize that the potential for conflict is there. And maybe that’s what you need to restart something of a diplomatic process.”The speeches will be watched closely for any sign of shifting positions.NervousnessThere is an inescapable climate of unease at this year’s Munich Security Conference, with fears over the breakdown of the Western liberal order and the alliances that have maintained it, along with the threat of a new global arms race and an erosion of the controls that have averted major conflict.Optimists say it may be a dangerous world, but at least dialogue is still taking place between global rivals. China, Russia, Iran, India and Japan have all sent senior ministers to the Munich conference. French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are also attending the summit for the first time.
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NATO says it will draw down troop levels in Afghanistan if the Taliban show they are willing and able to end violence in the country. That announcement followed a tentative deal struck between the U.S. and the Taliban this week. NATO’s secretary-general made the comments at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where world leaders assembled to discuss the numerous threats facing the world. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports from the conference.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday defended his decision to divert billions of dollars in funding for Navy and Air Force aircraft and other military programs to help pay for President Donald Trump’s promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
    
Esper was asked by a reporter about criticism from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, including Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Republican from Texas, who called the diversion of funds contrary to the constitutional authority of Congress.
    
“Border security is national security,” Esper said, “and national security is our mission.”
    
He added, “The action we took is legal under the law, and so it should be no surprise, and I’ll just leave it at that for now.”
    
Esper spoke on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich.
    
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that Esper approved shifting $3.8 billion in funds that Congress had previously authorized for F-35 fighter aircraft and other military programs. The money is being diverted to help the Department of Homeland Security build portions of the border wall. The Pentagon indicated that more such actions could be coming to provide additional funding for Trump’s signature campaign promise.
    
The action drew sharp rebukes from Democrats as well as Republicans.
    
“Today’s reprogramming request confirms once again that the President is obsessed with fulfilling a campaign promise at the expense of our national security,” Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “This administration has already stolen billions from the Department of Defense in order to begin building the president’s vanity wall and today they are doubling down on bad policy.”
    
Last year, despite congressional opposition, Trump faced no consequences when making similar transfers by cancelling or postponing dozens of military construction projects to free up $3.6 billion.
    
In reaction to Thursday’s Pentagon announcement, Thornberry, the top Republican on the committee and a supporter of wall construction, said that while the administration’s constitutional role is to recommend how tax dollars are spent, final choices are made by Congress.
   
 “Once those choices have been made, the Department of Defense cannot change them in pursuit of their own priorities without the approval of Congress,” he said.“Attempts to do so undermines the principle of civilian control of the military and is in violation of the separation of powers within the Constitution. The re-programming announced today is contrary to Congress’ constitutional authority, and I believe that it requires Congress to take action.”
    
Trump, while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, repeatedly promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico refused.
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Spanish opposition parties are calling for an investigation of a mysterious midnight meeting between Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and a senior Spanish cabinet official in Madrid’s airport last month, arguing that the session undercut Europe-wide sanctions against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro.Lawmakers demanded at a stormy parliamentary session Wednesday that Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos explain what was discussed at the meeting with Rodriguez, who along with 24 other Venezuelan officials is barred from entering the European Union.Abalos acknowledges that he arranged the brief stopover for Rodriguez when her aircraft landed in Spain on its way to Turkey on Jan. 20. The government argues that it seeks to negotiate democratic elections in Venezuela and that transit lounge meeting was designed to avoid a diplomatic incident.“I achieved not creating a problem in the diplomatic sphere with a government with which we want to have elections without coups,” said Abalos, echoing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s repeated calls for elections in Venezuela “as soon as possible.”EU sanctions violatedHowever, Eliot Abrams, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Venezuela, told the Spanish newspaper ABC that the meeting did violate the EU sanctions, which bar leading Venezuelan officials from entering EU territory including its air space. He called for the Spanish media and Congress to investigate the Madrid stopover.Since word of the airport meeting was first leaked to the media by sources in the Spanish police, Abalos has offered shifting explanations of the encounter. After first saying that the meeting consisted of only a casual greeting, he later admitted they had talked for 20 minutes on board her airplane.Second meeting heldSpanish news outlets have since reported that Abados and Rodriguez held a second meeting for an hour in the airport’s VIP lounge.The incident has heightened suspicion among Spain’s conservative opposition that the Socialist-led government is backing away from its previous support for Venezuela’s democratic opposition.Sanchez was among the first European leaders to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, but he has since formed a new coalition that relies on the support of the far-left Podemos party, which has longstanding ties to Maduro.Sanchez notably failed to meet with Guaido during a tour of Europe last month by the Venezuelan National Assembly president, who is recognized as interim president by the United States and more than 60 other countries. Guaido did secure meetings with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and other nations.’Motives’ questionedThe apparent snub, which was blamed on a scheduling conflict, prompted a subtle rebuke from the United States. “We don’t know the motives of [Prime Minister] Sanchez, but urge chiefs of government to meet with the interim president to know firsthand what happens on the ground,” said Carrie Filipetti, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State for Cuba and Venezuela.Despite that concern, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the “close friendship and shared history” between the United States and Spain this week in announcing a coming state visit to Washington by Spain’s King Felipe and his wife.
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The United States is trying to ease concerns about its decision to withdraw conventional troops from Africa and replace them with specialized military trainers.Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday the move will leave “roughly the same number of troops on the continent,” while giving U.S. commanders the capability to bolster partner forces.Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Esper said the move to swap out combat troops for trainers is based on observations by U.S. Africa Command Commander, General Stephen Townsend.“He [Townsend] thinks it’s a better fit than what we currently do,” Esper said. “The SFABs (Security Force Assistance Brigades) are specifically designed to do that train-and-assist mission, which we know partner countries there want.”The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it would start bringing home members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in the coming weeks, the first of many moves expected to impact the 6,000 U.S. troops currently in Africa.”It frees up, collectively, to train, over 4,000 troops” for great power competition missions, per @EsperDoD to reporters on decision to pull combat troops from Africa & replace them w/military trainers— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020Officials have yet to announce how many conventional forces will be leaving, but Esper said Thursday they will be replaced by roughly a couple of hundred forces from the Army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade.The brigade has previous experience working with the Afghan military and building relationships there, something that defense officials hope will pay off as they begin their missions in Africa.”We have some spotlight countries, as we call them, where we either want to build or sustain important relationships,” Esper said.Still, there are questions about how successful the trainers can be, stemming in part from their experience in Afghanistan.”The U.S. Army continues to struggle with staffing these units with the required number of skilled personnel, and with keeping personnel assigned to these units long enough to create enduring partnerships with a foreign force,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a June 2019 report.The report also warned, “there still is not enough theater-specific training focused on the host nation’s security institutions, systems, processes and weapons.”Defense officials say they are aware of the criticisms but note that some of the concerns, like the turnover rate, apply equally to conventional forces like the ones currently in Africa. They also say the trainers will be better positioned to respond to the needs of individual partner nations.U.S. military officials also contend that American military training available through the Security Force Assistance Brigade will continue to be superior to anything offered by Russia or China, especially in the fight against terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.”China and Russia do very little to help Africans combat the brutal terrorist networks plaguing them,” Africa Command’s General Stephen Townsend said in a statement Thursday, following talks in Kenya and Somalia.”U.S. training, equipment and advice directly support our African partners,” he added.  But despite what Townsend and others view as a growing terror threat, Esper on Thursday ruled out sending more U.S. forces, particularly to West Africa and the Sahel.”The Sahel is principally a CT [counterterror] mission,” Esper said. “I’m not looking to put more troops in that fight.”In West #Africa, “I’m not looking to put more troops in that fight. The French are” per @EsperDoD “They [#France] are asking the European partners to provide more help””What I’m looking to do to deal w/CT [counterterrorism] threats that threaten the [US] homeland” per Esper— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020 #alShabaab? @CarlaBabbVOA: “Al Shabaab has been identified by AFRICOM officials as one that wants to attack the homeland…”@EsperDoD: “I’m not sure where you got that information… I’ve not seen a final assessment on that”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020″The French are,” he said, adding that both France and the U.S. are urging European nations to do more.During a visit to the Pentagon last month, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that while she understood the U.S. need to reposition troops away from the region, some U.S. capabilities, such as intelligence and surveillance, were irreplaceable.Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report. 
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Italy’s far-right leader, Matteo Salvini, Thursday defended his position not to allow more than 100 migrants, who had been rescued at sea, to disembark from a coast guard vessel for six days last July. He said it was a shared decision with other members in the government.
Salvini, who was interior minister and deputy prime minister at the time, added that it was his duty to defend his nation as a citizen and even more so as a minister.He said he does not think he will be found guilty in a trial.The far-right leader was speaking one day after the Senate voted to lift his immunity from prosecution that had until now shielded him as a former Cabinet minister from being sent to trial. Now magistrates in Sicily will be able to press charges against him for abuse of power and kidnapping.It is not clear when such a trial will begin but should Salvini be convicted, he could face a sentence of six months to 15 years in prison. He could also be barred from holding public office.Salvini continues to promise he will return to power and says he believes in the impartiality of the judiciary.
Some Italians are voicing skepticism about the consequences of the vote now that the Senate has acted. Many say they doubt anything will occur because they think the judicial system moves very slowly.  
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У 2019 року Київ відвідали близько 2 мільйонів туристів. Про це повідомили у Київській міській державній адміністрації.

«Згідно з даними Управління туризму та промоцій КМДА, за звітний період столицю відвідало близько двох мільйонів іноземних туристів. Середня тривалість їхнього перебування в українській столиці складає 2,2 дні», – мовиться у повідомленні.

У КМДА зазначили, що за минулий рік у столичний бюджет надійшло 63,3 мільйона гривень туристичного збору, що майже на 31 мільйон більше ніж попереднього.
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Міністр закордонних справ України Вадим Пристайко візьме участь у спеціальному засіданні Генеральної асамблеї ООН про ситуацію на тимчасово окупованих територіях України, повідомила пресслужба МЗС. Засідання має відбутися 20 лютого.

У відомстві нагадали про російську ініціативу скликати напередодні заходу засідання Ради безпеки ООН для обговорення стану виконання Мінських домовленостей.

«Очікуваний, традиційний та перевірений трюк російської дипломатії, спрямований на розпорошення уваги світової спільноти, зміщення акцентів, формування паралельних політичних реальностей. Але українська дипломатія готова до такого сценарію. Представники України візьмуть участь в обох заходах», – заявили у відомстві.

Верховна Рада України офіційно оголосила датою початку тимчасової окупації Криму і Севастополя Росією 20 лютого 2014 року. Сьогодні – п’ята річниця.

У березні 2014 року Росія анексувала український півострів Крим. Міжнародні організації визнали анексію Криму незаконною і засудили дії Росії, країни Заходу запровадили проти неї економічні санкції. Кремль заперечує анексію півострова і називає це «відновленням історичної справедливості».

Збройний конфлікт на Донбасі почався після анексії Криму. Україна і Захід звинувачують Росію у збройній підтримці бойовиків. Кремль відкидає ці звинувачення і заявляє, що на Донбасі можуть перебувати хіба що російські «добровольці».

За даними ООН, від березня 2014-го до 31 жовтня 2019 року внаслідок збройного конфлікту на Донбасі загинули 13 000 – 13 200 людей.

 
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Political and military leaders from across the world head to Germany for the three-day Munich Security Conference that opens Friday. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Munich, from Iran to Hong Kong, Ukraine to Libya, there is no shortage of security flashpoints — and the conflicts are taking place against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak and a global climate emergency.
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France marks the 60th anniversary of nuclear weapons tests that turned it into one of the world’s first nuclear powers.  That was at the height of the Cold War.  But critics claim more than three decades of testing — first in Algeria and later French Polynesia — left many scars, including victims who remain uncompensated. On February 13, 1960, France conducted its first nuclear test in Algeria’s southern Sahara desert. “Hurray for France,” then-French President Charles de Gaulle wrote at the time.  But Jean-Claude Hervieux has other memories. He joined the French testing efforts in Algeria as an electrician. He recalls another nuclear test, in 1962, which didn’t go according to plan.  Radioactive dust and rock escaped from underground. Hervieux and others witnessing the testing ran for cover. Two French ministers were among them. The group showered in military barracks to decontaminate. He laughs because it wasn’t often French ministers are seen in the buff.  A danger sign is seen at a French nuclear test site in In-Ekker, near Ain Meguel in southern Algeria, Feb. 25, 2010.France ended up conducting more than 200 nuclear tests until a later president, Jacques Chirac, ended them in 1996. Most took place in French Polynesia. But 17 took place in Algeria between 1960 and 1966, ending four years after Algeria’s independence from France. “It’s part of the whole issue of decolonization and Algerians in general asking for recognition of colonization crimes,” said Brahim Oumansour, a North Africa analyst at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris. He said that proper recognition and financial compensation for the Algerian tests could cost millions of dollars.  Hervieux spent a decade working on nuclear test sites in Algeria and later French Polynesia. Now 80 and living in France’s Lyon area, he says he’s physically fine — although he used to get some questionable radioactive testing results from the French government.  Roland Desbordes is a former French physicist and spokesman for an independent French atomic safety research group called CRIIRAD. He’s visited the Algerian test sites.  Desbordes said he detected radiation levels in some places that were colossal. Algerian nomads visited the sites to collect material left by the French. He believes the French government should declassify key information about the explosions. But he also blames Algerian authorities for failing to properly seal the desert sites.  France’s nuclear compensation commission, CIVEN, said more than 1,600 claims have been filed under a 2010 French law that finally acknowledged health problems related to the testing.Only about one-third have met compensation criteria that include about two dozen possible radiation-related cancers. Almost all the claims came from France and its overseas territory. Of the 51 claims from Algeria, only one has been compensated.  CIVEN Director Ludovic Gerin said the commission can only judge the Algerian claims it receives. He said the sicknesses described in the few that did come in didn’t match compensation criteria. And he said the commission couldn’t actively go out and search for other victims.
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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is threatening to escalate fighting against Syrian government forces following Monday’s killing of Turkish soldiers. The warning comes in the face of calls for restraint from Moscow, but Erdogan is facing growing domestic pressure for an uncompromising stance.”We have given the necessary response and retaliated in kind, but this is not enough,” Erdogan said Tuesday. The Turkish military claimed to have hit more than 100 targets of Damascus forces Monday.  The strikes were in response to the killing of five Turkish soldiers by artillery from Syrian forces in Idlib province.  Erdogan said Tuesday he would announce what new military steps he will take. He met Monday with his military commanders to discuss the Syrian situation.  In the space of a week, 12 Turkish soldiers have been killed by regime forces in Idlib. The Turkish president is facing growing domestic pressure to hit back.”What are you waiting for? Don’t beat around the bush while Turkish soldiers are being martyred in attacks carried out by soldiers of another state,” Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, said in a meeting of her party’s parliamentary group.”(Syrian leader Bashar al-) Assad is a murderer, a criminal and the source of hostility,” said Devlet Bahceli, the MHP leader and parliamentary coalition partner of Erdogan’s AKP. Bahceli turned up the pressure on Erdogan, calling on Turkish forces to march on Damascus, saying until Assad’s removal, there will be “no peace.””By saying such things, they [Bahceli and Aksener] are cornering Erdogan. They are pressuring him, he may feel compelled into taking steps he doesn’t want,” said international relations teacher Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.Analysts point out Bahceli’s party is increasingly making inroads into Erdogan’s AKP nationalist voter base. “The basis of [Turkish] foreign relations needs to be viewed through the prism of domestic policy,” said analyst Sezer Aydin.Turkish soldiers drink tea in the Syrian province of Idlib, Feb. 10, 2020. Turkey said it hit back at Syrian government forces on Monday, after “intense” Syrian shelling killed five of its soldiers and wounded five others.Erdogan appears to be leaving all options on the table with the Turkish army continuing to ramp up its deployment into Idlib.Ankara set up 12 military observation posts across Idlib as part of the 2018 agreement with Moscow to create a de-escalation zone aimed at ending fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces.  While Moscow backs Damascus and Ankara backs the rebels, the two countries have been cooperating to end the civil war. But the escalating violence in Idlib is putting increasing pressure on that cooperation.Tuesday, Moscow called on Ankara to end its military operations against Damascus and to enforce the 2018 deescalation agreement in Idlib. Russian diplomats accuse Turkish military forces of failing to disarm groups designated as terrorists in Idlib, a charge Ankara denies.On Tuesday, a Russian diplomatic delegation visiting Turkey to seek a solution to Idlib left for home after talks ended in deadlock.Turkish-Russian relations came under further pressure. “We genuinely hope that the [Turkish] government reviews its relations with Russia,” Bahceli said, describing recent diplomatic efforts over Idlib as “nothing but a fairy tale.”Damascus forces backed by Russian airpower are continuing to advance in Idlib. Tuesday saw rebels lose control of the last part of the critical M5 highway, which links Damascus with Aleppo, one of Syria’s main cities.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a joint news conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi (not pictured) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Feb. 2, 2020.While tensions between Moscow and Ankara escalate, Washington has been quick to offer support to its NATO ally. “My condolences to the families of the soldiers killed in yesterday’s [Monday’s] attack in Idlib. The ongoing assaults by the Assad regime and Russia must stop,” tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I’ve sent Jim Jeffrey to Ankara to coordinate steps to respond to this destabilizing attack. We stand by our NATO Ally #Turkey,” he added.U.S. ambassador Jeffrey is the Special Representative for Syrian Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Arriving Tuesday in Turkey, Jeffrey said threats were coming from Assad, and he will closely cooperate with “our ally” Turkey and wants to provide “any support possible.”Ankara’s recent rapprochement with Moscow has deeply strained Turkish-U.S. ties, with fears Turkey was abandoning its traditional Western allies.”Washington wishes to put an end to this estrangement,” said Ozel. “If you look at the statements coming from the American authorities and NATO, and they are giving more and more support for Turkey and Turkey’s position and Turkey is edging closer and closer to the United States and its allies in NATO.””Even in Ankara, they finally realize they cannot go so far with Russia, the interests are opposite to one another,” he added. “But Erdogan will not want to confront the Russians as they do have a lot of leverage over Turkey.”   Washington’s strong support of Ankara, analysts say, could strengthen Erdogan’s hand when he speaks by telephone Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a call that analysts say could well determine Erdogan’s course of action in Idlib and broader trajectory of Turkish foreign policy.
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It could have been a scene taken from “The Thick of It,” the internationally acclaimed British comedy series satirizing the inner workings of the British government.The country’s top political reporters, collectively known as the Lobby, were summoned last week to No. 10 Downing Street for a special post-Brexit briefing, but once they had arrived, those considered hostile to Brexit or Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government were excluded.That provoked the fury of the entire Lobby with all reporters walking out in protest. Britain’s main national newspapers reacted in anger — with even pro-Johnson tabloid newspapers criticizing the rare upset of the well-established protocols of parliamentary reporting and the Conservative government’s seeming determination to pick and choose who receives briefings.“Information which should be available on the record, and of a type which was briefed freely in the past, is now being handed out as a favor to selected journalists in the expectation of favorable coverage,” said Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News. “No. 10 is trying to control the media, and everyone in our democracy should be afraid,” he tweeted.Last week’s spat came just days after Cabinet ministers were told to boycott a flagship BBC morning radio news program, which has a reputation for criticizing government officials. The squabble is being seen as an opening skirmish in what’s likely to turn into a long-running Johnson campaign to try to refashion key British institutions in ways more favorable to the ruling Conservatives, also known as Tories.Dominic Cummings a British political strategist and special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks into 10 Downing Street in London, July 30, 2019. Prime Minister Johnson and his chief strategic adviser, Dominic Cummings, an iconoclast who’s been likened to Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump’s onetime firebrand counselor, appear determined to remake the BBC and the civil service, curb what they see as judicial overreach and political activism by judges, sidestep the so-called mainstream media and shake up Britain’s liberal-leaning universities.Not since Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, took on public institutions in the 1990s, lambasted reporters as “moaning minnies,” (Note: minny is a carp fish) and described her Cabinet ministers as lacking a backbone, has Britain’s so-called establishment been so nervous — and outraged.The wider war was declared by Cummings in his less than discreet blog last month when he complained about what he dubbed “The Blob,” a reference to the 1988 remake of a Hollywood science fiction movie of the same name in which an amorphous, amoeba-like organism devours everything in its path. Cummings’ “blob” is an eclectic mix of cautious bureaucrats, academics, the mainstream media, judges and the traditional mouthpieces of British business, the Confederation of British Industry, the CBI, and the Institute of Directors.FILE – The sun shines through a European Union flag hanging outside Parliament in London, Oct. 28, 2019.For Cummings and his boss they are reactionary forces, which are pro-European Union, liberal-leaning and far too politically correct — as well as lacking optimism about post-Brexit Britain and Downing Street’s upbeat vision of a “global Britain.”Recently, Cummings called for “weirdos and misfits” to apply for jobs in Downing Street and the government quarter of Whitehall, saying what the new Johnson government needs is “true cognitive diversity” and not “more drivel about ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxbridge humanities graduates.”Graduates from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have traditionally dominated the corridors of British power.The Johnson-led and Cummings-advised government is moving quickly to combat the blob. Ministers are talking about decriminalizing non-payment of television licenses, which partly fund the BBC. And they are considering a judicial shake-up which could see Britain’s Supreme Court disbanded. Judges could see more restrictions introduced to hedge in their discretionary powers when sentencing.FILE – A street cleaner clears fall leaves from the front of 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, Nov. 6, 2019.The Downing Street door is being slammed shut on the CBI and the Institute of Directors. None of their officials was invited this month to a keynote Johnson speech outlining his plans for post-Brexit Britain.And when it comes to the mainstream media, the government is copying the Trump White House by using social media sites — from Twitter to YouTube — to promote its governing narrative. On Brexit night, Johnson did not appear on any national television programs to welcome in a new era; instead Downing Street posted a broadcast straight to the internet.Johnson supporters say the British prime minister has no choice but to take on the blob. Allister Heath, editor of The Sunday Telegraph and a prominent Johnson cheerleader, says, “It’s now or never – Boris must beat the Blob or be suffocated by it.” He says the blob exists, “but no longer in small town America: its new home is Whitehall, and it has developed a predilection for gobbling up Tory politicians and advisers.”Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Dec. 12, 2019. Others, though, see the Johnson game plan as having political affinity with the populist shake-up under way in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a champion of what he once dubbed “illiberal democracy,” has taken on his country’s public institutions and battled a not dissimilar cast of foes.Last month, Orban praised Johnson as one of the “the most courageous, the most dynamic” leaders and one of the most likely “to effect change.” A former Johnson aide and influential Conservative commentator, Tim Montgomerie, returned the compliment at two research group events in December and January in Budapest, Hungary, where he praised Orban for “interesting early thinking on the limits of liberalism” and compared the two populist leaders.He said, “Long-term trends in economics and culture” are “changing how people align themselves,” and predicted Johnson’s Britain and Orban’s Hungary would forge a “special relationship.”But not all Johnson supporters are as sanguine and fear the British prime minister may be over-reaching by taking on too many powerful institutions at once. Writing in the business daily City AM, Michael Hayman, a co-founder of Seven Hills, a London-based communication consultancy, warned, “Boris has a war to fight, and he’s going to need all the friends he can get.”
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Сполучені Штати Америки звинуватили Тегеран у використанні запуску супутників для розробки балістичних ракет. Заява пролунала через два дні після того, як іранські чиновники повідомили про невдалу спробу відправити на земну орбіту супутник іранського виробництва.

Державний секретар США Майк Помпео 11 лютого заявив, що «технології, які використовуються для запуску супутників на орбіту, практично ідентичні і взаємозамінні з технологіями, що застосовуються в системах дальнього радіусу дії, зокрема у міжконтинентальних балістичних ракетах» .

«Кожен запуск, невдалий чи ні, надалі дозволяє Ірану набути досвіду використання таких технологій, які могли б принести користь його ракетним програмам під виглядом мирної космічної програми», – наголосив Помпео.

Помпео заявив, що «провідному світовому спонсору тероризму не слід дозволяти розробляти і випробовувати балістичні ракети. Цей стандарт здорового глузду повинен бути відновлений міжнародним співтовариством».

Франція раніше також засудила запуск іранського супутника, закликавши Тегеран дотримуватися міжнародних зобов’язань щодо своєї ракетної програми.

Іран заперечує звинувачення. Тегеран висловлював наміри сконструювати ще п’ять супутників до березня 2021 року.
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Група російських сенаторів і депутатів підготувала поправки до законопроєкту про зміни до Конституції Росії, запропонованого президентом Володимиром Путіним, повідомляє російське державне агентство ТАСС із посиланням на комітет Держдуми із законодавства і державного будівництва.

Поправки пропонують дати президентам Росії право після закінчення або дострокового припинення повноважень ставати довічними членами Ради федерації. За задумом сенаторів, колишній президент зможе прийняти пропозицію стати довічним членом Ради федерації або відмовитися від неї.

Крім того, поправки пропонують збільшити число сенаторів, що призначаються президентом, з 17 осіб зі 170 до 30. Із цих тридцяти семеро також можуть бути призначені сенаторами довічно. За задумом авторів, президент зможе призначати довічними сенаторами громадян, які мають визначні заслуги в різних сферах.

Для інших сенаторів пропонують запровадити шестирічний термін повноважень. 

Авторами поправок стали глава комітету Держдуми з держбудівництва Павло Крашенинников, голова аналогічного комітету Ради федерації Андрій Клішас, глава комітету РФ із міжнародних справ Костянтин Косачов, сенатори Світлана Горячева, Олексій Пушков, депутати Андрій Макаров, Ярослав Нілов і Галина Хованська.

Володимир Путін оголосив про плани щодо внесення поправок до Конституції Росії під час послання Федеральним зборам 15 січня 2020 року. 20 січня законопроєкт про поправки внесли до Держдуми і вже 23 січня депутати розглянули його в першому читанні.

Законопроєкт закріплює пріоритет російських законів над нормами міжнародного права, вводить обмеження на заняття вищих посад для осіб, що коли-небудь мали друге громадянство або дозвіл на проживання в іншій країні, а також забороняє одній людині обіймати посаду президента більше ніж два рази.
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Swiss authorities said Tuesday they have opened an investigation into allegations a Zug, Switzerland-based maker of encryption devices was a front operated by the CIA and West German intelligence that enabled them to break the codes of the countries that used their products.A joint investigation published Tuesday by Germany’s ZDF public broadcaster and The Washington Post based on documents from the CIA and Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency revealed that Crypto AG made millions of dollars for the two agencies, while providing them with access to the encrypted communications of more than 120 countries for decades.The main adversaries of the U.S. in the Cold War, the Soviet Union and China, were never Crypto customers but other clients included Iran, India and Pakistan, military juntas in Latin America and the Vatican, the two outlets reported.Among other things, ZDF and the Post reported the spy agencies controlled nearly every aspect of the company’s operations from 1970 on. That allowed them to monitor Iran’s mullahs during the 1979 hostage crisis, fed Britain intelligence about Argentina’s military during the Falklands War, and caught Libyan officials congratulating themselves on the 1986 bombing of Berlin’s La Belle nightclub, which was frequented by American servicemen.Swiss Defense Ministry spokeswoman, Carolina Bohren, told The Associated Press that “following research carried out by the media” her office had notified the Cabinet about the Crypto case on November 5, 2019. On Jan. 15, the decision was made to appoint a former supreme court judge to look into the reports and report back by the end of June.“The events under discussion date back to 1945 and are difficult to reconstruct and interpret in the present-day context,” she said.Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a German intelligence expert who helped analyze the documents, told the AP that the involvement of western spy agencies in Crypto had long been alleged. In 1992, a Crypto representative was arrested in Iran and spent months in prison before being released after the BND allegedly paid a $1 million dollar ransom.The incident was one of the reasons why the German spy agency left the politically sensitive operation in 1993, he said.Germany’s BND refused to comment on the story.Konstantin von Notz, a lawmaker with Germany’s Greens party who sits on the parliamentary committee that oversees the BND, told ZDF that he has asked for answers to questions raised by the report about the operation.Crypto, whose products are still in use in more than a dozen countries, was liquidated in 2018. The two companies that purchased most of its assets say they have no ongoing connection to any intelligence services.While the BND used the proceeds generated from the sale of cryptography devices to fund field operations, the CIA used the money to buy up rival companies and establish a quasi-monopoly for Crypto, Schmidt-Eenboom said.Schmidt-Eenboom cast doubt on the notion that the Swiss government wasn’t aware of Crypto’s true nature.“That’s not credible,” he said. “They shut both eyes.”He added that Crypto remained part of the U.S. intelligence operation until 2018, when the company was sold.Similar U.S. operations involving manipulated communications equipment were detailed by Edward Snowden, a former American intelligence employee once based in Geneva who leaked a large trove of intelligence documents in 2013.
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A Belfast couple were on Tuesday set to become the first same-sex couple to get married in Northern Ireland after a change in the law.Robyn Peoples, 26, and Sharni Edwards, 27, were due to wed at 2:00 pm (1400 GMT) in Carrickfergus, near Belfast, after the new legislation came into effect on Monday.It followed campaigning by Amnesty International and partner organizations in the “Love Equality” campaign, which hailed the occasion “a landmark moment for equality in Northern Ireland.””We didn’t set out to make history — we just fell in love,” Edwards said ahead of the nuptials in a statement released by the campaign.”We are so grateful to the thousands of people who marched for our freedoms, to the Love Equality campaign who led the way, and the politicians who voted to change the law.”Without you, our wedding wouldn’t have been possible. We will be forever thankful.”Her soon-to-be wife Peoples added: “While this campaign ends with Sharni and I saying ‘I do,’ it started with people saying ‘no’ to inequality. By standing together, we’ve made history.”British MPs in London passed legislation last July, while Northern Ireland’s devolved government was suspended, to allow gay marriages and same-sex civil partnerships.The move, which brought the province into line with the rest of the UK, was opposed by a group of local lawmakers but they failed in a last-minute bid in October to block its implementation.London spent the intervening months drawing up new regulations to apply to the marriages and partnerships — with the first permitted to happen this week.In the meantime, Northern Ireland’s political parties also agreed to restart power-sharing in Belfast.Activists, British MPs including Northern Ireland Secretary of State Julian Smith, and others will celebrate the occasion at a parliamentary event in London later on Tuesday.Sara Canning, the partner of journalist Lyra McKee who was killed by dissident republicans in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry last year, helped to campaign for the change.”Of course, this historic moment is a little bittersweet. It had been our dream too. Lyra and I should have been an engaged couple now, planning our own wedding day,” she said in the statement.
 
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A storm battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, killing at least seven people and causing severe travel disruptions as it moved eastward across the continent Monday and bore down on Germany.After striking Britain and Ireland on Sunday, the storm moved on, leaving a trail of damage including power cuts for tens of thousands of homes across Europe.A woman and her 15-year-old daughter died in Poland after the storm ripped off the roof of a ski rental equipment building in the mountain resort of Bukowina Tatrzanska and sent it hurtling onto people standing near a ski lift, police said. Three people also were injured in the incident.In Sweden, one man drowned after the boat he and another person were sailing in on the southern lake of Fegen capsized. The victim was washed ashore and later died. The other person is still missing, according to the Aftonbladet daily.Two men, one in the north of Slovenia and another in southern England, also died after their cars were hit by falling trees. And in Germany, a driver died after crashing his truck into a trailer parked by workers clearing storm debris off a highway in the southern state of Hesse.The jib of a crane is seen after it fell onto the roof of Frankfurt Cathedral during a storm, in Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 10, 2020.Police in the Czech Republic said the storm likely was to blame for a car accident that killed the man driving and injured a woman passenger. Investigators think a tree fell on the car, which skidded off the road and and overturned.The number of Czech households without electricity reached 290,000, according to power company CEZ.Britain, which bore the brunt of the storm on Sunday, was assessing the damage and working to get power restored to 20,000 homes. However, for parts of northern England and Scotland, the respite is set to be brief, with forecasts of blizzards and snow.Many parts of the country were mopping up after a month and a half’s rain fell in just 24 hours in some places and rivers burst their banks. Though 360 flood warnings have been removed as the storm moves on, around 75 remain in place across the country.The River Irwell burst its banks in northwest England, prompting authorities to evacuate residents. And in the Scottish town of Hawick, which borders England, a guest house and bistro collapsed into the raging River Teviot. No one was injured.In another dramatic scene, a driver managed to escape unhurt in the early hours of Monday when a car fell nose-first into a sinkhole in a residential street in the town of Brentwood, east of London. Six properties had to be evacuated due to the unstable ground that is said to have been linked to a partially collapsed sewer. The emergency services made the scene safe just before daybreak.The British government said it was offering financial compensation through its emergency Bellwin scheme. Under the scheme, local authorities dealing with the storm can apply to have certain costs reimbursed.Transport authorities were also working hard to clear up the mess. Network Rail, which runs the country’s rail infrastructure, said thousands of engineers had “battled horrendous conditions” after the storm blew trees, sheds, roofs and even trampolines onto the tracks.Ferries were operating across the English Channel after being closed down on Sunday, though P&O Ferries said in a tweet that further disruptions were possible.Airlines operating to and from U.K. airports were still being affected by the storm, with more than 100 flights canceled.”We’re getting in touch with those affected, and have brought in extra customer teams to help them with a range of options including a full refund or an alternative flight between now and Thursday,” British Airways said in a statement.The storm had largely passed through France by midday, though meteorologists warned that the Mediterranean island of Corsica could later see winds as high as 200 kph (124 mph). Up to 130,000 homes stretching from Brittany, in western France, through Normandy and the northern regions were without power Monday morning.In Germany, utility companies were also scrambling to restore power to some 50,000 homes in northern Bavaria, where a top wind of over 160 kph (100 mph) was recorded. The storm resulted in a record amount of electricity being fed into the German grid from wind turbines, equivalent to almost 44 nuclear power plants.Train travel across Europe’s biggest economy was also severely disrupted, leaving many commuters unable to get to work. Deutsche Bahn said Monday it was slowly resuming long-distance rail services in the north of the country but warned travelers to expect further disruptions. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights from German airports.The storm, which was dubbed Sabine in Germany, also led to school closures in several cities and regions, including North Rhine-Westphalia state, where several people were injured by falling branches and toppling trees. Parts of a construction crane fell onto the roof of Frankfurt Cathedral overnight.Even though there were no reported fatalities in Belgium, the storm had an emotional impact in the central town of Zottegem, where a scenic 150-year-old poplar tree was snapped at its roots, before falling and being pulverized on a country road.The tree had been granted protected status by the Flemish regional government and locals now plan to have a special remembrance service on Friday.”The tree meant so much to everyone,” Stefan Fostier, the driving force behind the initiative, told The Associated Press. “It will be a moment to honor the tree.”
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Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday he saw no preparations taking place for a promised summit over the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that he had little hope it would make any progress even if it goes ahead.The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met in Paris in December to discuss the long-running Ukraine crisis and agreed to get together again within four months to keep the dialogue open.FILE – Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystayko gestures while speaking to the media during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 10, 2020.”I am confident that when leaders say they will meet in April then they will … what I don’t see though is the preparation,” Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters during a visit to Italy.”Before the December meeting … (preparations) started half a year beforehand. Now we have two months to go and I have not seen anything prepared. Maybe it will be a much faster process than last time and maybe we will make much more progress. I am sorry, but I doubt it.”The conflict in eastern Ukraine that broke out in 2014 has killed more than 13,000 people, left a large swathe of Ukraine de facto controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, and aggravated the deepest east-west rift since the Cold War.The December summit did not produce the sort of breakthrough some had hoped for, such as an agreement on expanding a cease-fire zone, but it did lead to a prisoner exchange deal.Prystaiko welcomed the subsequent large-scale prisoner swap that took place at the end of last year, but noted that more people had died in continued fighting in January 2020 than in the same month a year earlier.”We haven’t managed to achieve a cease-fire. … But even if we have just an exchange of prisoners, that is a good step for Ukrainians,” he said.
 
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Switzerland on Sunday voted strongly in favor of a new law against homophobia in a referendum despite opposition from the populist right wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), according to a projection.The projection published by GFS Bern polling and research group found that 62 percent had voted in favor of the reform, with a margin of error of three percent.The new law will widen existing legislation against discrimination or incitement to hatred on ethnic or religious grounds to include sexual orientation.”This is a historic day,” Mathias Reynard, a lawmaker from the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland who initiated the reform, told Swiss channel RTS 1.”It gives a signal which is magnificent for everyone and for anyone who has been a victim of discrimination,” he said.The change was passed by the Swiss parliament in 2018 but critics, who believe it will end up censoring free speech, had forced a referendum on the issue.Eric Bertinat, an SVP local lawmaker in Geneva, told AFP before the vote that he believed the law was “part of an LGBT plan to slowly move towards same-sex marriage and medically assisted reproduction” for gay couples.Marc Frueh, head of the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU), a small party based on Christian values, said after the projection: “I accept defeat.””We will keep a close eye on how the law is implemented by the courts,” he told RTS 1.All of Switzerland’s major parties except the SVP, the biggest political force in parliament, support the law.Rights campaigner Jean-Pierre Sigrist, founder of an association of gay teachers, had said before the referendum that the new law might have stopped him getting beaten up outside a bar in Geneva four decades ago.”And maybe I would not have been laughed at when I went to the police,” the 71-year-old told AFP, adding that he hoped the reform would help to counter a resurgence of intolerance against gay people.Sigrist said he supported freedom of expression, “but not the freedom to say anything at all.”‘No to Special Rights!’Under the new law, homophobic comments made in a family setting or among friends would not be criminalized.But publicly denigrating or discriminating against someone for being gay or inciting hatred against that person in text, speech, images or gestures, would be banned.The government has said it will still be possible to have opinionated debates on issues such as same-sex marriage, and the new law does not ban jokes — however off-color.”Incitement to hatred needs to reach a certain level of intensity in order to be considered criminal in Switzerland,” Alexandre Curchod, a media lawyer, told AFP.But he admitted that there could be exceptions “if it can be shown that, under the cover of artistic production or joking, someone is in fact engaging in incitement.”Gay rights campaigners were divided over the legislation.A group called “No to Special Rights!” is opposed, arguing that the gay community does not need special protection. 
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Іранський уряд обіцяє запустити супутник «у наступні кілька годин».

За день до цього ЗМІ повідомляли, що запуск відклали на кілька годин.

Водночас іранський міністр інформації та комунікаційних технологій Мохаммад Джавад Азарі Джагромі повідомив, що «супутник «Зафар» випустять на обіту сьогодні» із міста Семнана.

Минулого року щонайменше два запуски іранських супутників завершилися невдало.

Американська влада вважає, що запуск супутника є частиною програми розвитку балістичних ракет. На думку США, технологія зможе застосування під час використання ядерних боєголовок. Іран заперечує звинувачення.
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