Month: June 2017

A wave of cyberattacks that hit Ukraine and Russia is spreading beyond the borders of those countries, wreaking havoc on government and corporate computer systems in Europe and across the Atlantic.

Banks, government offices and airports in Ukraine were among the first to report the cyberattack. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko tweeted a photo of his black computer screen with a warning massage, saying the government’s headquarters had been shut down.

Multiple international firms reported being affected Tuesday. They include America’s Merck pharmaceutical company, Russia’s Rosneft oil giant, the Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, British advertising giant WPP and French industrial group Saint-Gobain.

“We confirm our company’s computer network was compromised today as part of global hack. Other organizations have also been affected,” Merck said on Twitter.

Anders Rosendahl, a spokesman for A.P. Moller-Maersk, said the attack had “affected all branches” of the shipping group, both at home and abroad.

IT experts have identified the virus as a type of ransomware — a program that is often used to hold data “hostage” until a payment is delivered.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it is monitoring the attacks and is in contact with its international and domestic partners.

“We stand ready to support any requests for assistance,” officials said in a statement.

British Defense Minister Michael Fallon spoke earlier at a conference hosted by the Chatham House policy institute in London. He did not address the attack, but discussed how Britain is responding in general to cybersecurity concerns.

“We are investing a huge chunk of money — some £1.9 billion [$2.4 billion] — into boosting our cybersecurity,” he said.

Europol’s European Cybercrime Center has told anyone affected by Tuesday’s attack to report the crime to national police and encouraged them not to pay any ransom requested by hackers.

VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
…

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis travels this week to Brussels, where he will consult with NATO allies on troop contributions and other support in Afghanistan before announcing his own decision on increasing the number of U.S. forces in that war-torn country. But as VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports, the new strategy is likely to be more of the same.
…

It has been a year since Britain voted to leave the European Union by a narrow margin of 52 percent. While the question on the ballot paper may have been simple, the divisions exposed by last year’s referendum cut far deeper.

After 12 months of political turmoil, analysts say British society is beginning to resemble that of the United States, with values dictating the divisions in society rather than traditional party politics.

Professor Anand Menon, from the UK in a Changing Europe program at Kings College London, points to the death penalty issue as an indicator of a person’s values.

“One of the best predictors of how you voted in the referendum was what values you hold, whether you’re a social liberal or a social conservative. One of the best predictors of a vote for Brexit was whether you believed in the death penalty or not. And that’s very American. Values didn’t really figure in our politics up to now,” Menon told VOA.

Britain’s general election earlier this month underlined the country’s political realignment. One of the biggest electoral earthquakes struck the ancient city of Canterbury, which had been a stronghold of the ruling Conservative party since 1918. On June 8, it fell to socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. The primary reason? Revenge for Brexit.

“Brexit has played an enormous role here,” says Amelia Hadfield of Canterbury Christ Church University. “I think young people who, for the most part voted to remain and then saw to their astonishment that the rest of the United Kingdom and indeed Kent voted to leave, were genuinely disappointed.”

Brexit was widely seen as part of 2016’s populist surge that swept Donald Trump to power in the United States. In calling this month’s election, British Prime Minister Theresa May appears to have misread that surge, says Tim Oliver of the London School of Economics.

“The parties are struggling to align themselves with how the British people vote or feel about issues. Are we seeing a move toward a more values-based political system? Yes, to some extent, just like in the United States. And we’re seeing that all over the democratic world as well, to varying degrees.”

Even as traditional party loyalties break down, support for the two established parties — the Conservatives and Labour — hit 82 percent, the highest since 1970.

The opposite appears to have occurred in France, where the two traditional parties, the Republicans and Socialists, were soundly defeated by centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron in presidential and parliamentary elections.

 

 

 
…

Thirteen EU nations voiced support on Monday for a proposal to empower the bloc’s executive to negotiate with Russia over objections to a new Russian gas pipeline to Germany, despite opposition from Berlin.

At an informal debate among EU energy ministers, Germany’s partners in the 28-nation bloc spoke out against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline plan to pump more gas directly from Russia’s Baltic coast to Germany.

EU nations are expected to vote in the autumn on the European Commission’s request for a mandate to negotiate with Russia on behalf of the bloc as a whole.

Germany, the main beneficiary of the pipeline, sees it as a purely commercial project, with Chancellor Angela Merkel last week saying she saw no role for the Commission.

The plan taps into divisions among the bloc over doing business with Russia, which covers a third of the EU’s gas needs, despite sanctions against Moscow over its military intervention in Ukraine.

In private, EU officials say they hope direct talks with Russia would delay the project past 2019, depriving Russian state gas exporter Gazprom of leverage in talks over transit fees for Ukraine, the current route for most gas supplies to Europe.

Germany, Austria and France – which have firms partnering with Gazprom on the project – declined to take the floor on Monday, EU diplomats said.

“We had 13 delegations intervening, with all of them being supportive of the Commission’s approach,” Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic told Reuters by telephone after presenting the EU executive’s case to member states. “I am definitely optimistic about getting the mandate, but I know this is just the beginning of the debate.”

The Commission found support from Italy as well as Nordic, Eastern European and Baltic states, EU sources told Reuters.

“Germany has commercial interests, but it needs to explain itself,” one senior EU official said.

With the pipeline expected to reroute Russian gas supplies around Ukraine to the north, Italy voiced concerns it would increase gas prices for customers further down the line.

Eastern European and Baltic states fear it will increase their dependence on Gazprom and undercut Ukraine.

Nordic nations, meanwhile, have security concerns over the pipeline being laid near their shores under the Baltic Sea, where Russia has bolstered its military presence.

However, many EU nations have yet to take a stand.

“It is quite toxic. Many member states are quite wary of advertising their position,” one diplomat told Reuters.

There are also differences among EU member states over what aims to pursue in potential talks with Russia.

Speaking in Paris on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister said the draft EU proposal did not go far enough to secure guarantees from Russia, warning Nord Stream 2 would have “dangerous consequences” for the bloc.

Adding to tensions is the threat of new U.S. sanctions on Russia that would penalize Western firms involved in Nord Stream 2: Uniper, Wintershall, Shell, OMV and Engie.

Several EU diplomats said the measures proposed by the U.S. Senate have already backfired against their stated aim of bolstering European energy security.

“It’s a divisive measure,” one senior official said. “It’s easy for the U.S. to go after Russian gas of course, they don’t use it. … We are trying to make the best of a bad thing by balancing the interest of different member states.”
…

The European Union’s commissioner in charge of enlargement said on Monday the bloc will help Macedonia make key reforms such as ensuring judicial and media independence to unlock the country’s path towards EU and NATO membership.

Johannes Hahn arrived in Skopje on Monday to attend a cabinet meeting scheduled to debate a reform agenda.

“Tomorrow the first experts from the European Union will be in town to assist you in all these reforms,” Hahn told reporters after he met the cabinet.

Last month’s election of Zoran Zaev’s cabinet ended a two-year long political crisis, the biggest since Western diplomacy helped drag the former Yugoslav republic back from the brink of civil war in 2001 during an ethnic Albanian insurgency.

Committed to reforms

After meeting Hahn, Zaev said his government would be committed to reforms and would work hard to get a green light to open accession talks by the end of this year.

“As the Commission we have, I have every interest to arrive to a point where we can give a positive recommendation,” Hahn said. “But this is to a very high extent, linked to concrete progress on the area of urgent reform priorities.”

A stand-off between Zaev’s Socialists and nationalist VMRO-DPMNE triggered by a wiretapping scandal in 2015 prompted the EU to broker an agreement in which parties signed up to an early election and a set of reforms to ensure freedom of media and independence of judiciary.

Upper Macedonia?

After the December election, Zaev engineered a coalition with two parties representing ethnic Albanians, who comprise a third of the 2.1 million population. The new cabinet pledged to put reforms from the EU-brokered agreement high on its agenda.

Macedonia’s accession into the EU and NATO has been blocked over a name dispute with Greece, which has a northern province called Macedonia and regards Skopje’s use of the name as a territorial grab.

Earlier this month Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said Athens would back Macedonia’s European integration “in every way, once the name issue has been resolved”. Athens has previously insisted Skopje use a compound name such as “New” or “Upper” Macedonia.

 
…

British Prime Minister Theresa May has tried to reassure millions of Europeans living in Britain that their lives and those of their families will not be disrupted when London leaves the European Union in 2019.

May’s post-Brexit residency proposals offer EU nationals “settled status” in Britain with broadly the same rights as native-born English, Scots and Welsh, and the same access to health care, education, welfare and pensions. EU “settlers” would be subject to British law without recourse to the European Court of Justice.

“We want you to stay,” May said in a message to the estimated 3.2 million European nationals living in Britain. Her aim, she said, was to “completely reassure” anyone now living legally in Britain that they would not be asked to leave when the country breaks all ties to the EU.

Five years of residence in Britain is required for Europeans who wish to apply to stay on in the country in the future, according to the government proposal. Those already living in Britain but for a shorter period can remain until they are eligible to apply for “settled status.” European nationals living permanently in Britain would lose that status, in most cases, if they stay outside the country for more than two years.

May delivered essentially the same proposal last week in Brussels to EU leaders, who said it did not meet all necessary criteria. The European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said Monday that “a number of limitations remain worrisome and will have to be carefully assessed.”
…

The list of high-rise apartment towers in Britain that have failed fire safety tests grew to 60, officials said Sunday, revealing the mounting challenge the government faces in the aftermath of London’s Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

All of the buildings for which external cladding samples were so far submitted failed combustibility tests, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said. As of late Sunday, that includes 60 towers from 25 different areas of the country_ double the figure given a day earlier.

The number of buildings at risk is likely to grow as owners and local officials provide more samples for safety tests.

The national testing was ordered after an inferno engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14. The tower’s cladding _ panels widely used to insulate buildings and improve their appearance _ was believed to have rapidly spread that blaze, which killed at least 79 people.

In north London, officials trying to avoid another fire disaster sought to complete the evacuation of hundreds of apartments in four towers deemed unsafe. They faced resistance as some 200 residents refused to budge.

Camden Council ordered residents from some 600 apartments at Chalcots Estate to evacuate late Friday as a precaution after fire inspectors found problems with the blocks’ fire doors and gas pipes.

The council said residents must leave immediately because of those issues and because the towers were encased in similar cladding to the material used at Grenfell Tower.

Hundreds were put up in hotels and other temporary accommodation. The evacuees now face up to four weeks in limbo as workers try to upgrade the buildings’ fire safety features. Council leader Georgia Gould said those still staying in their homes must leave for the renovations to begin.

Sayed Meah, 34, who lives with his mother and wife, said he would not move until the company that helps care for his mother agrees to provide service at a new location.

He said he and other residents are determined to remain in their apartments until a legal notice is obtained or they are “dragged out by their fingernails.”

Refurbishment of the Chalcots towers was overseen by Rydon, the same company involved in the recent renovation of the now-devastated Grenfell Tower.

A public inquiry is due to determine how the unsafe cladding was allowed to be fitted onto Grenfell and other buildings in the first place.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan backed the Camden Council’s decision to evacuate the apartment blocks.

“I think they’ve done the right thing. Look, you’ve got to err on the side of caution. You can’t play Russian roulette with people’s safety,” Khan told Sky News.
…

Italy’s center-right parties were the big winners in mayoral elections on Sunday, partial results showed, in a vote likely to put pressure on the center-left government ahead of national elections due in less than a year.

In the most closely watched contest, the northern port city of Genoa – a traditional left-wing stronghold – seemed certain to pass to the center-right for the first time in more than 50 years.

The candidate backed by the anti-immigrant Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party will get around 54 percent of the vote, compared with 46 percent for the candidate backed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), according to final projections based on the vote count.

The elections are a setback for PD leader and former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who took a back seat in campaigning after seeing his party roiled by internal divisions this year.

“The wind is blowing for the center-right from the north to the center to the south, this is an extraordinary victory,” said Renato Brunetta, the lower house leader of Forza Italia.

Around 4.3 million people were eligible to vote in 110 municipalities that were up for grabs after no candidate won more than 50 percent in the June 11 first-round election.

Although Sunday’s vote was one of the last before the general election, local factors mean it may not provide a clear reflection of parties’ national popularity.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which is Italy’s most popular party nationwide according to some opinion polls, performed very badly in the first round and only made the run-off in one of the 25 largest cities.

The turnout was also very low, at around 47 percent.

PD problems

Nevertheless, Sunday’s result could serve as a call for unity among the center-right parties, which are in competition at the national level. Their strong showing suggests if the parties can unite under a single leader they would be a force to be reckoned with at the general election.

That must be held by May 2018 but the broad coalition backing Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is fragile and political analysts say an early vote this autumn cannot be ruled out.

“We have clearly lost these elections,” said the PD’s lower house leader Ettore Rosato.

Around 10 provincial capitals held by the center-left going into the elections looked set to pass to the center-right.

Genoa is the latest of a string of recent defeats in the PD’s traditional strongholds. Last year it lost Turin, Italy’s third-largest city, and the capital Rome, to 5-Star.

The partial count on Sunday also put the center-right ahead in the northern cities of Verona, Como, Piacenza, Monza and Pistoia and in Catanzaro in the south.

It also seemed sure to win in the central city of L’Aquila, another recently center-left stronghold where the center-left candidate had led after the first round.

The PD seemed set to score significant successes in Taranto in the south and Padua in the north.

The northern city of Parma went to the incumbent mayor who was elected as 5-Star’s first ever mayor in 2012 but ran as an independent after falling out with the movement’s leadership.

5-Star, which was only founded nine years ago, looked set to add eight mayors to its modest national tally, including a victory in the Tuscan city of Carrara.
…

Albanians voted in parliamentary elections Sunday as the country looks to bolster its democratic credentials ahead of potential European Union membership talks.

After polls closed, officials said preliminary turnout was just over 45 percent based on data from more than half of the polling stations, compared to 53.5 percent four years ago. 

Preliminary election results are not expected until Monday.

 

The ruling Socialists and the rival Democrats are the leading parties looking to gain an outright majority in the parliament of the NATO-member country of 2.9 million people.

The country gained EU candidate status in 2014, but movement has been slowed by its perceived lack of reforms, including those involved with the election process.

Eighteen political parties are running for 140 seats in parliament in Sunday’s vote. The main contenders are Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party led by Lulzim Basha.

Opinion polls showed the Socialists slightly ahead of the center-right Democratic Party. 

 All main parties campaigned on a reform agenda, pledging faster economic growth, pay increases and lower unemployment, which stands at about 14 percent. 

 

Some 6,000 police officers were on duty for election security, while more 300 international observers came to monitor the vote.
…

The jihadis’ targets in Europe are depressingly repetitive: the Brussels metro, the Champs-Elysees in Paris twice, tourist-filled bridges in London twice and a U.K. rock concert. And that’s just the past few months.

The steady stream of attacks on centers of daily life have drawn pledges from Europeans not to let terrorists change how they live, but in ways large and small they already have.

There is a heightened awareness and quicker reactions, especially in the hardest-hit countries of France, Britain and Belgium, that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.

In Brussels on Tuesday, a 36-year-old Moroccan man shouting “Allahu akbar!” set off a bomb among subway commuters. The bomb didn’t detonate in full and a soldier shot him dead.

It was another Muslim, Mohamed Charfih, who demanded that the subway’s doors be closed before the attacker could enter.

“I heard people on the platform shouting for help,” he told the news site DH. He looked out and knew what he saw. “I screamed to close the doors immediately. I asked to get out of there as fast as possible and that everyone get down on the floor.”

That reaction, blocking the door and fleeing, has become part of official instructions on what to do in case of an attack in France. Signs have been posted in public areas and even schools showing people running, ducking beneath a window, or using heavy furniture as a barricade.

Tensions are high enough in central Paris that on Thursday the quick-response police unit reacted to a witness’ phone call about a man wearing a sidearm by tackling him on the street, only to learn that he was a ranking member of the anti-terrorism squad, according to French media.

In Britain, decades of IRA attacks prompted the installation of country-wide TV surveillance cameras – one of the most expansive systems in the world. Paris is quickly ramping up its own camera system, to the point where authorities were able this week to track the minute-by-minute path of the man who tried to attack a Champs-Elysee gendarme patrol until the moment he rammed their vehicle. The man died of burns and smoke inhalation – the only casualty of his act – but left behind a substantial arsenal.

Both Britain and France have installed barriers around airports, train stations and other public buildings in recent years. Since the Westminster bridge attack in March, however, talks are underway to install even more barriers on bridges and around crowded places such as London’s Borough Market, where three attackers this month went on a stabbing rampage after crashing their vehicle on a busy street not far from London Bridge.

Echoing France, London’s security authorities have issued advice to pubs and restaurants since the attacks with the message of “Run, Tell and Hide.” The advice includes establishing whether the threat is inside or outside and not waiting for police to decide whether the venue should be locked down or evacuated.

Few British commuters have changed their habits. After suicide bombers in 2005 struck trains and buses during a busy London morning rush-hour, scores of commuters started riding bicycles to work. That method of transport has its own problems in London – with the number of annual cyclist deaths a rising concern.

Three of the four recent attacks, however, have involved the use of a vehicle as a weapon – much like the deadly 2016 Nice attack in France that killed 87 people.

“I suppose I could try taking a boat to work, but before long I’m sure they would attack those too. So I’m just taking my chances,” said Rohan Chansity, a 34-year-old finance worker in London.

Parents and teachers are talking to children more about being observant – a skill often lost on a gadget-obsessed generation.

A suicide bomber blew himself up last month at Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, mostly young concert-goers.

“We talk about being observant, looking for exits, making sure you’re around a responsible crowd – but in the end, it’s not like I’m going to keep her from going to concerts,” said Moira Campbell, 45, who has a 15-year-old daughter.

Tourists, too, say they are aware of potential dangers but have refused to be cowed.

Dave Howland, who traveled from New Hampshire to London with his youngest son a few days before the Borough Market attack, said he was conscious of the threat when he went to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, a round wooden venue in the Borough Market area.

“I looked around and didn’t see exit signs,” said the 47-year-old English teacher who lives in Durham. “But then I looked around and saw this performance and that people were celebrating life. So I thought, we’re going to enjoy the moment. London is an incredible city, and life is too short not to enjoy everything you can.”

The latest would-be assailant on the Champs-Elysees had an arsenal of firearms in both his car and at home, and France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said disaster was averted only by sheer luck. It was the second attack in less than two months on the famous avenue.

Still, tourists and Parisians still flock to the Champs-Elysees, watched over by camouflaged soldiers carrying automatic rifles. And in Brussels, the day after the fizzled metro bombing, the headlines focused on how to cope with the recent heat wave.

The weather, it seems, is not going away – just like the jihadi threats.
…

Six people, including three children, were injured Sunday after a car ran into pedestrians outside a Newcastle sports center where people gathered to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Police said the incident was not believed to be terror-related.

 

Northumbria Police said they arrested a 42-year-old woman, who remained in police custody. The force said it was not looking for other suspects. They say a full investigation was underway to determine what happened outside Westgate Sports Center in the northern English city of Newcastle on Sunday morning.

 

“There is nothing to suggest that this is terror-related,” police said.

 

The ambulance service said three children and three adults were being treated at a local hospital for injuries sustained in the crash.

 

Video on social media, apparently taken minutes after the crash, showed dozens of people in Muslim dress, including children, screaming and rushing forward to see what happened.

 

A statement from the nearby Newcastle Central Mosque said the collision took place just as people were leaving Eid prayers.

 

Newcastle lawmaker Chi Onwurah, who said on Twitter that she was one of thousands celebrating Eid in the city, tweeted: “I was at the prayers earlier and there was so much joy and unity. Thinking of those affected by what I am told was terrible accident.”

 

Britain is on high alert for terror-related incidents involving vehicles after a string of recent attacks. A man drove a van into Muslim worshippers leaving two London mosques on June 19, killing one and injuring others. Police said that was a terror attack directed at Muslims.

 

Police in Newcastle put extra officers on patrol to reassure people.

 

 
…

Albanians were voting Sunday in a general election that follows a landmark agreement between the country’s two biggest political parties to look past their bitter differences and back efforts for Albania to eventually join the European Union.

 

Holding a free and fair election is key to launching EU membership talks for the nation of 2.9 million, which is already a NATO member. After earning EU candidate status in 2014, Tirana has struggled to pass important reforms vital for its bid to advance to EU — namely deeply reforming its corrupted justice system.

 

Eighteen political parties are running for 140 seats in parliament in Sunday’s vote. The main contenders are Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party led by Lulzim Basha.

 

An agreement reached in May ended the three-month parliamentary boycott by the Democrats, who claimed that voting was open to manipulation. The election date was delayed a week and Rama’s Socialists promised greater oversight on election transparency.

 

All main parties campaigned on a reform agenda, pledging faster economic growth, pay hikes and lower unemployment, which stands at about 14 percent.

 

Some 6,000 police officers were on duty for election security, while more 300 international observers came to monitor the vote.

 

“We expect a better Albania and leaders to work to do what they have pledged at the campaign,” Zenel Caka, 47, said at a polling station in Tirana.

 

Luan Rama of the Socialist Party for Motivation, the third main political party, said one member was injured following a quarrel and a shooting incident outside a polling station in Shengjin, 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of the capital, Tirana.

 

Police investigating the incident said they found a cartridge but no injured person was taken to the hospital. They said it did not disrupt the voting.

 

The Interior Ministry also reported hundreds of attempts to buy votes, a crime that may result in a jail term.

 

Central Election Commission said partial turnout at a quarter of polling stations by 10 a.m. was 12.6 percent, almost the same as in the previous election.

 

Albanians also celebrated Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. In the early morning, thousands of Muslim believers said prayers at the recently-renovated Skanderbeg Square in Tirana.

 

All top leaders cast their ballots, congratulating Muslims on the holiday and urging citizens to vote.

 

“Today, Albania needs God more than ever,” Rama said.

 

The western city of Kavaja was also holding a mayoral election.

 

Preliminary results from the vote are expected Monday.

 

 
…