Month: May 2017

Hopes for a breakthrough in negotiations for cash-strapped Greece were dashed again and another deadline was set.

Greece once again failed to get approval from its European creditors to receive the next batch of bailout loans that it needs to meet a debt repayment hump this summer. It also failed to secure an agreement on the sort of debt relief measures it can expect to get when its current bailout program ends next year.

 

Without the loans, Greece faces another brush with bankruptcy. The Greek government had hoped that Monday night’s meeting of the eurozone’s 19 finance ministers would at least have seen it cleared to get the money. After all, it legislated for further cuts and reforms last week to meet creditor demands.

 

Still officials tried to put a brave face on the stalemate.

 

“It would be preferable to postpone a decision for a few days, which would give us time to work harder and prepare a better solution, than to take decisions that just move the problem on and do not offer a clear way out,” Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said Tuesday.

 

The eurozone’s top official Jeroen Dijsselbloem said a broad settlement involving both the next payout and the outlines of a debt relief deal is close, and could be reached in three weeks when finance ministers from the 19 countries from the single currency bloc meet next in Luxembourg on June 15.

 

Several eurozone officials though, had said as much before Monday’s meeting, too.

 

While hailing the recent progress the Greek authorities have made to implement the reforms and cuts demanded from creditors, Dijsselbloem said certain issues still needed to be addressed. But time is running out for Greece as without the rescue loans it would struggle to meet a big repayment in July of some 7 billion euros ($7.8 billion).

 

The executive Commission, which is one of the overseers of Greece’s bailout, sought to downplay fears that Greece was heading for another financial crisis.

 

“We are convinced that Greece has delivered,” said Margaritis Schinas, the Commission’s spokesman. “Now it is up to its partners to do the same.”

 

One of the major stumbling blocks has centered on a divergence of opinion between the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund, which is not involved financially in Greece’s current three-year bailout program which was agreed in the summer of 2015 and which could be worth up to 86 billion euros in total.

 

Getting the IMF on board is important as Germany and The Netherlands have indicated that they will refuse to lend more money to Greece without the Fund’s participation.

 

The IMF has argued that the eurozone forecasts underpinning the Greek bailout are too rosy and that the country as a result should get substantial debt relief so it can start growing on a sustainable basis following a depression that’s seen the economy shrink by a quarter and unemployment and poverty levels ratchet up sharply. While the eurozone has ruled out any debt write-off, it has indicated that extending Greece’s repayment periods or reducing the interest rates on its loans are possible at the conclusion of the bailout next year.

 

While austerity measures over the past seven years have seen Greece’s annual budget position improve markedly, the country’s debt burden stands at around 180 percent, a level that the Greek government and the IMF think is unsustainable in the long-term — hence the insistence on some debt relief.

 

Dijsselbloem said the IMF welcomes the progress made by Greece, and is “impressed” by the reforms undertaken by Greece and that it stands ready to go to the board to get involved financially.

 

Though the history of Greece’s various scrapes with bankruptcy over the past seven years of its bailout era shows how matters can easily spiral out of control, the prevailing view in markets is that despite some caution, Greece will get its deal.

 

“Despite some disappointment this time, a deal is clearly in the making,” said Lorenzo Codogno, chief economist of LC Macro Advisors. “The baseline scenario is for a deal at the June 15 Eurogroup meeting, with sufficient debt relief to allow the IMF to stay attached.”

 

The protracted nature of Greece’s bailout program has been costly for the country. Though Greece emerged from its economic depression in 2014, the economy is back in recession, having shrunk for two straight quarters. Analysts say the main reason why Greece has taken a step back is its stalled bailout negotiations.
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The bomber who struck a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande in the northern English city of Manchester, killing 22 and injuring 59 Monday night, set out to kill and maim as many of the music fans — many of them teenagers and children — as possible, say British police.

The device that exploded as concert-goers started exiting Europe’s largest indoor arena was a ‘nail bomb’ that sent metal shards ripping into the bodies of the music fans.

 

Security expert Will Geddes, CEO of British security consultants ICP, told reporters that the device appeared to be “a shrapnel-based” one, designed to cause as much injury as possible. “When a bomb goes off it is the shrapnel from the explosion which has the biggest impact which is often why terrorists use bags of ball bearings,” he said.

Witnesses say the ground near the epicenter of the blast was covered with nuts and bolts. Medics on the scene reported as the horror unfolded that they were treating wounds consistent with shrapnel injury.

Criticism quickly mounted of what some concert-goers said was “lax security” at the venue. Some fans said that guards at the entrances to the concert were more concerned about whether they were carrying alcohol on them or water bottles. The Daily Mail reported that one woman complained of the lack of “proper security checks” in a review on the TripAdvisor website of an Ed Sheeran concert last month at the Manchester Arena.

The woman, who used listed herself Anna W, wrote: “’A female security person just scanned our ticket and didn’t check my bag at all. Once we got in and bought a bottle of wine the top is taken off so they r not used as missiles but no check to see if u have any type of weapon/bomb in your bag in these times of terror attacks its not good enough for the crowd or the act on stage. Needs sorting.

Soft targets

Nightclubs, restaurants, bars, vacation beaches and concerts have all been targeted in recent years by Islamic militants in the West, either directed or inspired by the Islamic State terror group, say analysts.

The targeting is partly a matter of convenience, according to counter-terror officials. Like transports hubs, concerts and nightclubs are not always tightly secure and draw large crowds, thereby maximizing the chances for attackers to inflict heavy loss of life as the bomber did on Monday night — and as militants did in November 2015 when they struck a sold-out rock concert at the Bataclan theater in the French capital, Paris, killing more than a hundred.

But jihadist strategists and propagandists also take cruel delight in striking at pop concerts, say analysts. IS propagandists made a point of stressing that the Bataclan concert by the Eagles of Death Metal band had been “precisely chosen” as a target by three suicide bombers because of its immoral nature.

“The targets included the Bataclan theater for exhibitions, where hundreds of pagans gathered for a concert of prostitution and vice,” read a statement released by the terror group after the Paris attack.

Manchester Arena on Monday night presented an “ideal target” for jihadists, says Olivier Guitta, managing director at GlobalStrat, a security and geopolitical risk consulting firm, as it combined music, which is abhorred by the militants, a “U.S. singer, children and teenagers.”

He notes that in the past year-and-half music venues and clubs have been targeted four times by jihadist attackers — “Bataclan, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and the Reina nightclub, Istanbul and now the Manchester Arena.”

And there could have been more if Western security services had not prevented other attacks. In February 2016 a group of IS followers were arrested in France for planning terror attacks on nightclubs.

 

Attack on ‘Crusaders’

IS supporters were quick after the carnage to celebrate the bombing on social media sites, saying it was as a victory over “the crusaders” of the West.

There were celebrations also on IS channels on Telegram, a social messaging app, prompting Michael S. Smith, a counter-terrorism analyst, to argue that that is a “strong indicator” the attack may be linked to the terror group. IS normally claims responsibility for attacks through their semi-official news channels, often not immediately but normally within 24 hours.

Concert halls were among a long list of targets recommended for attack in the latest issue of the IS magazine Rumiyah.

This is the worst terrorist attack in Britain in more than a decade. In July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers killed 52 people when they struck the London public transport system. After that incident the British government introduced measures to restrict the purchase of materials that can be used to make homemade explosives.

Britain’s interior minister Amber Rudd noted the particular barbarity of the bombing, “deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society — young people and children out at a pop concert.” She added: “My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and victims who have been affected.”

Oliver Jones, 17, who attended with his 19-year-old sister, told the Guardian newspaper: “The bang echoed around the foyer of the arena and people started to run.”

And Erin McDougle, aged 20, from Newcastle, said: “There was a loud bang at the end of the concert. The lights were already on so we knew it wasn’t part of the show. At first we thought it was a bomb. There was a lot of smoke. People started running out. When we got outside the arena there were dozens of police vans and quite a few ambulances.”
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Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Monday’s blast at a concert by U.S. pop star Ariana Grande in Manchester, England that killed at least 22 people.

The group said that “a soldier of the caliphate planted bombs” then detonated them.  

British police have said investigators believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device, which he detonated, and that he died at the site.  The blast has left at least 59 people wounded.

Prime Minister Theresa May said police and security officials believe they know the identity of the attacker, but are not yet ready to confirm it publicly.  

The police department later said on Twitter that officers had arrested a 23-year-old man in South Manchester in connection with the attack, but did not give any information about how he was involved.

The blast happened in the lobby of the 21,000 seat Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by Grande.

Reaction from Grande

“Broken.  From the bottom of my heart, I am so, so sorry,” Grande wrote on Twitter after the blast.  “I don’t have words.”

May said the blast was timed to “cause maximum carnage” and targeted “the young people of our society with cold calculation.”

“All acts of terrorism are cowardly attacks on innocent people, but this attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives,” she said.

May and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the country’s June 8 elections.

US monitoring situation

 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was monitoring the situation in Manchester, and that it did not have any information showing a “specific credible threat” to music venues in the U.S.

 

President Donald Trump said the victims in Wednesday’s attack were killed by “evil losers in life.”

“I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term, they would think that’s a great name,” Trump said.  “I will call them from now on losers, because that’s what they are.”

He added, “We cannot stand a moment longer for the slaughter of innocent people.”

WATCH: Trump reacts to Manchester attack

After the attack, Manchester police deployed hundreds of officers overnight and at one point conducted a precautionary controlled explosion near the arena of an object they later said turned out to not be anything suspicious.

Video from the concert showed thousands of concertgoers, many of them young girls, scrambling and screaming, trying to escape the building.

Some witnesses said the ground near the blast was covered with nuts and bolts.

Abandoned shoes, phones and jackets were scattered throughout the arena.

“It was a huge explosion. You could feel it in your chest. It was chaotic. Everybody was running and screaming just trying to get out,” a concertgoer told Reuters.

In Photos: Manchester suicide bombing

Search for survivors, victims

Worried parents who had brought their children to the show crowded the streets outside the building. A nearby hotel opened its doors to the kids looking for their mothers and fathers.

Cab drivers turned off their meters and offered to drive people from the ill-fated concert to wherever they want to go.
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Margaret Chan, the outgoing Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has opened this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) by staunchly defending the organization against critics who say it has lost its relevance.  

Chan’s tenure as head of WHO will soon end and after 10 years of service, she appears intent on handing her successor, who will be elected Tuesday, an organization that is viable and remains the essential leader in global health.  

In addressing the WHA for the last time, Chan presented 3,500 delegates from WHO’s 194 member states with, what could be seen, as a report card of her work by presenting some highlights from a report issued this month tracking the evolution of public health during her 10-year administration.

“The report sets out the facts and assesses the trends, but makes no effort to promote my administration.  The report goes some way towards dispelling criticism that WHO has lost its relevance.  The facts tell a different story,” Chan said.

Drug costs

The report covers setbacks as well as successes and some landmark events.  Among the successes, she cited WHO’s decade-long fight “to get the prices for antiretroviral treatments for HIV down.”

In contrast, she said “prices for the new drugs that cure hepatitis-C plummeted within two years.”

The results in both cases have been dramatic in making life-saving drugs affordable for millions of people.  During the past 10 years, antiretroviral treatments have fallen from $10,000 to less than $100 a year and Hepatitis C drugs, which cost a prohibitive $80,000 just two years ago can now be had for less than $200.

Chan noted for most of her tenure she has been faced with shrinking health budgets resulting from the 2008 global financial crisis.

Despite the austerity measures forced upon the organization, she said WHO has made significant progress in many areas.  These include the elimination or reduction of neglected tropical diseases, bringing mental health out of the shadows and into the spotlight, and bringing polio and guinea worm closer to eradication.

Ebola epidemic

Along with these successes, Chan accepted responsibility for mistakes and bad decisions, including the WHO failure to recognize the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  

She acknowledged the devastating consequences of this lapse for the people of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, 11,315 of whom died from the deadly Ebola virus before the epidemic was declared in January 2016.

“But, WHO made quick course corrections,” said Chan, “and brought the three outbreaks under control through team work and partnerships and gave the world its first Ebola vaccine that confers substantial protection.

“This happened on my watch, and I am personally accountable,” she said.

New leader competition

The World Health Assembly, which runs through May 31, has an exceptionally heavy and important agenda, with the election of a new Director-General topping the list.

On Tuesday, delegates will choose the new head by secret ballot.  The three nominees include the first African candidate Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia; David Nabarro of Britain, and Sanja Nishtar of Pakistan.  

This is the first time that there has been more than one candidate.  Whoever wins this fiercely contested post will take office on July 1.

During the coming nine days, delegates will approve WHO’s program budget for 2018-19, which has risen to $4.7 billion.  The Assembly also will discuss a wide-range of health-related issues, including polio eradication, antimicrobial resistance, access to medicines and vaccines, health emergencies and the health of refugees and migrants.

This forum offers an opportunity for health ministers and other officials to present their views.  

Newly appointed U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took the floor Monday to express the Trump Administration’s commitment to work with the new director general “on an agenda for ongoing improvements” including changes to ensure “a rapid and focused response to potential global health crises.”

Price stressed the need for reform and said Washington expected the next director-general “to prioritize threats to global health, including influenza.”

He said “we will work to enable all countries around the world to prevent, detect, respond to, mitigate, and control these outbreaks.”

Looking ahead

In closing her remarks to the WHA, Margaret Chan urged governments to maintain investments in health development, which, she said “brings dramatic results, also as a poverty reduction strategy.”

She said behind every number and every statistic is a person “who defines our common humanity and deserves our compassion, especially when suffering or premature death can be prevented.”

Judging from the thunderous applause at the end of her speech, the delegates appeared to have given Margaret Chan a good report card for her work during the past 10 years.
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International summits this week are expected to touch on problems dealing with Moscow, including the NATO Western military alliance and the G-7 meeting of developed nations. Neither embraces Russia as a member.

NATO leaders meet May 25 in Brussels, while the G-7 holds talks in Sicily a day later. U.S. President Donald Trump is attending both meetings. He is not expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin until the July 7 G-20 meeting in Hamburg.

While Moscow has never applied to join NATO and often depicts the alliance as its adversary, its leaders have over the years touched on the idea of Russia one day becoming a member.

“It was half-serious,” said the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Alexander Baunov. “… because all other members of NATO, even the major economic powers in military aspect, are under American leadership. It’s quite difficult to imagine psychologically and practically that Russian military forces, that Russia as a military power, would be just a minor player under the command of American generals.”

The Kremlin has painted NATO as “moving eastward,” intent on surrounding Russia for possible aggression. To ease mistrust and build cooperation, the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act established regular meetings between the two sides through the NATO-Russia Council, or NRC.

Russia suspended

After Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, NATO suspended cooperation with Russia, but the NRC still meets a few times a year.

The G-8 also suspended Russia, changing the group’s name back to G-7 for the first time since 1998. Russia’s ejection came just two months before it was to host a G-8 summit.

“Of course it is a failure for Russian leadership, because in the long run it was one of the major priorities for Russian elite to be accepted as equals, well, as part of equal member[ship] of the international elite,” said Boris Kagarlitsky, director of the Institute of Globalization Studies and Social Movements.

Russia was G-8 outsider

The G-8 was more of a symbolic and prestigious gathering than one aimed at any negotiating or decision-making, say analysts, as a Western-oriented, liberal-democratic consensus is usually reached before any summit takes place.

“At [the] G-8, there was no possibility [for Russia] to make alliances,” said Baunov. “It was only [the] Western alliance of the G-7 and Russia.” Besides the United States, the other members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain.

Russia’s G-8 membership was seen to advance Boris Yeltsin’s choice of pursuing democracy and a market-based economy, but was always tenuous, Baunov said. “Almost every year or every second year, there was a subject or topic that allowed to the Western media, the politicians, the public opinion, to put under question Russian membership in the G-8, showing basically that it’s not a democracy so what’s this country doing in the club.”

Russia’s G-20 strategy?

Russian officials in January said Moscow had no intention of re-joining and its priority is the G-20.

Russia is more comfortable with the G-20’s diverse format where there is no consensus and Moscow is not the least democratic or free member of the club, as it was with the G-8, says Baunov. “So, you’re not the only bad among good,” he said. “There’s Turkey, there’s China. There are different, more problematic countries.”

Kagarlitsky says the Kremlin struggles with setting goals and objectives.

“The main problem is what is Russia going to do within these structures,” he said. “And, well, that was always the biggest failure for Russian diplomacy because they didn’t have a strategy, they didn’t have a list of priorities to achieve. And, in that sense, they were much weaker than, say, Brazil or China or India or even South Africa.”

Putin-Trump meeting

Analysts say little is expected to come from the Trump-Putin meeting at the July G-20 summit.

“Of course, at some point there was a tremendous illusion among Russian elites, because they thought that Trump was going to change totally the relationship between Russia and the West,” Kagarlitsky said. “And, it didn’t happen and it’s not going to happen.”

Analysts say the ongoing investigations into the Trump administration’s ties to Russia have made it very difficult for the U.S. president to negotiate with Putin. He’s not free to offer something without being heavily blamed for it, says Baunov, “So, for me, it can be only the opportunity to establish real, personal relations.”
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Germany and France pledged Monday to seek ways to strengthen the 19-nation eurozone, with harmonizing corporate taxes among the possible measures they will mull over in the coming weeks.

 

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and new French counterpart Bruno Le Maire said they are setting up a panel to produce proposals for a bilateral summit in July.

 

“We’ve been talking for years about progress in the integration of the eurozone, but things aren’t advancing quickly enough or far enough,” Le Maire said. “We are determined to get things moving faster and further, in a very concrete way.”

 

Germany and France could either propose a joint corporate tax system of their own or concentrate on pushing efforts for a harmonized assessment of corporate taxes at the European Union level, Schaeuble said.

 

“Both are ambitious,” he conceded, noting that wider tax harmonization is difficult because it would require consensus among EU leaders.

 

Le Maire said there needs to be better coordination of economic policy. He said investment will also be considered. He stressed France’s willingness to consider deeper reforms such as creating a finance minister for the 19-nation eurozone or a “European monetary fund,” an idea that Schaeuble has periodically backed.

 

He offered assurances that “France will respect its European obligations in terms of [budget] deficit reduction.”

 

The latest German-French drive to strengthen the EU’s economic coherence come as Britain, the bloc’s No. 2 economy after Germany, prepares to leave the EU.

 

“We see in Brexit an opportunity for our financial companies to be more attractive than they were before,” Le Maire said. “Our role is to create wealth for our country, to create jobs for our country. With Brexit, there is this opportunity, and we expect to seize this opportunity.”

 

New French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, also making his first trip to Berlin since President Emmanuel Macron’s new government was appointed last week, met separately with his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel.

 

Le Drian promised to keep up Franco-German diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has cost almost 10,000 deaths since fighting broke out in 2014 between Russia-backed separatists and the government.

 

“France and Germany are not Europe, but without France and Germany, Europe won’t be able to move forward,” Gabriel said. “We want to use this historic window of opportunity that opened up with the election in France.”

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has formally extended the state of emergency declared after a failed 2016 military coup, saying the decree will remain in place until the country finds “welfare and peace.”

Erdogan spoke Sunday in Ankara to tens of thousands of his followers and members of his ruling (AK) Justice and Development Party, which convened to re-elect their party co-founder to the post.

The state of emergency permits Erdogan and his Cabinet to issue decrees without parliamentary approval or judicial review.  

Erdogan’s announcement and his return as party chief came four weeks after Turkish voters narrowly approved a national referendum greatly expanding presidential powers.

The April 18 vote created a powerful executive presidency that largely sidelines Turkish lawmakers and the office of prime minister.  Under the constitutional amendments, Erdogan will also set the national budget and appoint judges to the high court and the constitutional court.

Critics, including prominent human rights organizations, have argued the reforms are tantamount to creating an elected dictatorship.  Erdogan and his supporters claim they will create a less cumbersome system of government better able to confront terrorism and a sluggish economy.

Tens of thousands jailed in crackdown

Under emergency rule, more than 47,000 people have been arrested and 100,000 others dismissed from public service for alleged connections to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan has accused the cleric of fomenting the July 15, 2016, uprising that left more than 260 people dead.  Gulen has denied involvement.

Erdogan’s address comes just days after his visit to the White House, where he sought to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap a U.S.-led military alliance with Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State extremists in northern Syria.

Erdogan’s efforts appeared unsuccessful.  The Turkish leader also drew sharp U.S. public criticism when, hours after the White House visit, he was shown outside the Turkish embassy in Washington standing by as his bodyguards assaulted protesters opposed to his rule.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. has expressed its “dismay” to Turkish officials about last week’s clash in which Turkish security personnel apparently attacked demonstrators in Washington.

Tillerson told Fox News Sunday that Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S. has been told that last Tuesday’s violence was “simply unacceptable.”

“There is an ongoing investigation,” he said, adding that he will wait on the outcome of that probe before deciding on a more formal response.

The clash broke out between Turkish security personnel and protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington.

Protesters say they were attacked by Turkish security forces as they demonstrated peacefully. Turkey blamed the clash on the demonstrators, claiming they aggressively provoked people who had gathered to see Erdogan.

VOA’s Turkish service recorded images at the scene that indicated the Turkish security detail suddenly turned on the demonstrators, knocking them to the ground and kicking them until American police pushed the Turks away. The video showed Erdogan standing beside his limousine, watching the brawl.

U.S. officials briefly detained two members of Erdogan’s security detail, but they were soon released, under customary diplomatic protocols granting immunity to aides accompanying a visiting dignitary.

Some U.S. lawmakers have demanded the United States take stronger action, including Republican Senator John McCain, who called for the Turkish ambassador to be expelled.

 
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Germany’s Social Democrats raised pressure on conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, saying if she could not resolve a row with Turkey over access to the Incirlik air base, German troops should move.

Merkel’s defense minister, tacitly admitting the possibility said she had been looking for other locations and hinted that Jordan could be one.

Turkey, which has refused permission for German lawmakers to visit their troops at Incirlik, has said Berlin is free to move its soldiers from the base. That would, however, be a significant snub to a NATO ally.

Already strained bilateral ties have deteriorated further over Incirlik where roughly 250 German soldiers are stationed as part of the coalition against Islamic State militants.

“If Mrs Merkel doesn’t succeed at the NATO summit on Thursday to get Turkey to change course, we need alternative bases,” Thomas Oppermann, head of the SPD parliamentary group told Bild am Sonntag.

The SPD, or Social Democrats, trail Merkel’s conservatives in polls four months before the national election. It is desperate to score points with voters on issues other than social justice, its main focus in the last couple of months which has so far failed to resonate.

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is looking at alternatives, including Jordan and Cyprus, and said on Saturday she had been impressed with a possible base in Jordan but stressed the government had not yet made a decision.

Merkel is vulnerable on relations with Turkey as critics accuse her of cosying up to President Tayyip Erdogan, who last month won sweeping new powers in a referendum, as she needs his help to control the flow of migrants to western Europe.

The SPD, junior partner in Merkel’s right-left coalition, also tried at the weekend to raise its profile on European issues.

Leader Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, has tried to ally himself with new pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron and on Saturday said he would model his campaign on the Frenchman’s.

On Sunday he told a rally in Bavaria it was time for a “new German-French initiative for a socially fair Europe of growth.”

A week after a disastrous election defeat in Germany’s most populous state, an Emnid poll showed the gap widening between Merkel’s conservatives, up 1 percentage point at 38 percent, and the SPD, down 1 point at 26 percent.
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Recent studies suggest that as many as 400 million people around the world do not have access to basic health care. In some cases it’s because of conflict, but in some cases it’s just geography: humans live in some very far away places, Siberia for instance. That’s where the medical ship comes in handy. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May’s lead in the opinion polls has narrowed after her Conservatives and the Labour opposition published their policy plans this week, with one survey showing the gap between the two parties halving to nine points.

May had been on course for a landslide with a majority of up to 150 seats, opinion polls had indicated in the early stages of campaigning ahead of the June 8 national vote.

Four polls Saturday however showed the Conservatives with an expected vote share of between 44 and 46 percent, still easily ahead of the Labour Party at 33 to 35 percent, but pointing to a smaller projected majority of about 40 seats.

A YouGov poll showed her lead had halved to 9 points in a week.

On Thursday May launched pledges for the government to adopt a more interventionist stance in an attempt to attract traditional Labour supporters.

She also set out plans to transfer a greater share of the cost of caring for elderly people from taxpayers to those who can afford to pay for their own care, including property owners who are the basis of support for her party, and to restrict a currently universal winter fuel payment for older people.

YouGov found that 40 percent of the public opposed the policy changes for the elderly, while 35 percent were supportive, the Sunday Times said.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Conservative’s policies would set the young against the old in a “war between generations”.

He claimed pensioners will be 330 pounds ($430) a year worse off under the plans set out in the Tory manifesto. His party’s policies promised to renationalize mail, rail and water services, increase taxes on the highest earners and clamp down on corporate excess.

May attempted to turn the focus of her campaign back on the Labour leader on Saturday. 

“The cold hard fact is that if I lose just six seats I will lose this election, and Jeremy Corbyn will be sitting down to negotiate with the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of Europe,” she said in a Facebook post.

She set out her plans for the economy as Britain enters thorny two-year divorce negotiations with the 27 other members of the European Union, and has called an election purportedly to strengthen her hand in those talks.
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Rescuers pulled 2,121 migrants to safety from boats in the Mediterranean late Friday and early Saturday and recovered one dead body, the Italian coast guard said.

More than 45,000 people have reached Italy by boat from North Africa this year, up more than 40 percent from the same period in 2016, and 1,222 people are known to have died on the crossing, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The rescue operations involved two ships operated by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Sea Eye and Jugend Rettet, and a Spanish vessel participating in the EU’s EUNAVFOR mission in the Mediterranean, the coast guard said.

The coastguard did not give any details about the migrants. 

Most sea-borne migrants arriving in Italy are from Sub-Saharan Africa or Bangladesh and pay Libya-based smugglers to organize their passage.
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