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US Warns Germany a Huawei Deal Could Hurt Intelligence Sharing

The United States on Monday warned Germany about future “information sharing” if it uses “untrusted vendors” in its 5G telecom infrastructure amid debate over whether Chinese IT giant Huawei is an espionage risk.

The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell sent a letter to German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on Friday warning that in such a case the US could scale down intelligence and other information exchanges.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson told AFP on Monday it would not comment on diplomatic communications, but added that its position on 5G network security was well known.

“To the extent there are untrusted vendors in the networks of an ally, that could raise future questions about the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive communications within that country, as well as between that country and its allies,” the spokesperson said.

“This could in the future jeopardize nimble cooperation and some sharing of information. We are engaging intensively with our allies on how to secure our telecommunications networks to ensure continued interoperability.”

German minister Altmaier confirmed he had received the letter, but told AFP he could not comment on its contents, adding: “We will respond quickly”.

Germany, like other EU countries, has relied heavily on US intelligence on terror and other threats provided by the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy services.

The US and several other Western nations, fearful of the security risks posed by the company closely tied to the Chinese government, have shut Huawei out of tenders for the development of the newest 5G infrastructure.

The Chinese telecoms behemoth has strenuously denied the espionage allegations.

Germany, anxious to not get sucked into the maelstrom of an ongoing U.S.-China spat over a multitude of issues including trade, has taken a cautious stance on the issue.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it was necessary to talk to Beijing “to make sure that the company does not simply give up all data that is used to the Chinese state, but that there are safeguards”.

Some measures in the works include adding a non-spying clause, a requirement to publish code sources used in the infrastructures as well as allowing independent laboratories to carry out tests on the components used.

Huawei has quietly become a leading supplier of the backbone equipment for mobile networks, particularly in developing markets thanks to cheaper prices.

Germany, although it is Europe’s leading economy, has seen its mobile infrastructure lag behind, with most Germans having access only to 3G.

The 5G network is meant to be 100 times more rapid than 4G, and is viewed as the next major step in the digital revolution that makes data transfers almost instantaneous.

 
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British Parliament to Vote Again on Brexit Deal

Britain’s parliament is holding the first of what could be three days of votes Tuesday in order to decide how to proceed with its divorce from the European Union.

Members are voting Tuesday on Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest version of her plan, based on an agreement her government reached with the EU last year.

It initially got little support when first put to a vote, but May made a last-ditch trip to Strasbourg on Monday to secure altered terms in talks with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that she hopes will win over her opponents.

May said Juncker announced “legally binding changes” that in part address the longtime sticking point involving what to do with the border between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

The original deal calls for a so-called backstop agreement that keeps Britain and the EU in a customs union until they agree on a new trade agreement. Opponents in Britain’s parliament are concerned about being locked into EU rules instead of being able to gain full control of trade policies.

May said the new terms agreed to Monday would ensure the backstop deal is not a permanent part of Britain’s exit from the EU.

The opposition Labour Party rejected the plan, saying it still does not go far enough to allay their concerns.

Juncker warned that Britain is running out of options for Brexit, which is set to take place March 29.

“It is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all,” he said.

If the Brexit agreement fails the Tuesday vote, another would be held on Wednesday to see if lawmakers approve of exiting the EU at the end of the month with no terms in place. If that fails too, a third vote would come Thursday on whether to ask the EU for more time.
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As China Prevails, France’s Macron Shuffles His Cards in Djibouti

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sought to reassert the importance of France in its former colony Djibouti with Paris increasingly fearing China’s muscular role in Africa as it expands economic and military influence across the continent.

Djibouti, strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal, hosts France’s largest naval base on the continent and is home to some 1,400 personnel used to train African troops as well as to monitor the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

While it was seen as a vital outpost in the past, French administrations have disregarded it in recent years with Macron only the second French leader to visit the East African country in the last 20 years.

“France considered Djibouti for too long to be a territory that was won,” said a senior French diplomat based in the region. “But now the competition from China is fierce.”

Those comments echoed President Ismail Omar Guelleh’s public criticism in 2015 accusing France – from which it gained independence in 1977 – of abandoning Djibouti and investing very little.

Djibouti also hosts a U.S. military base used as a launch pad for operations in Yemen and Somalia, but in 2013, China opened its largest overseas military base in the country rivaling Paris and Washington directly.

In recent years, Beijing has provided economic aid, developed industrial production in the country and invested massively in high-profile public infrastructure projects, including restoring a French-made railway from 1917 linking Djibouti to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

With a population of less than a million, it also handles 95 percent of the goods imported by Ethiopia, its landlocked neighbor with 100 million people.

“Strategically we need to strengthen the French presence threefold: economically, culturally and militarily,” Marielle de Sarnez, the head of France’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said after being dispatched by Macron last May. “It’s urgent. Otherwise we will lose ground.”

The unexpected peace accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2018 has also reshuffled the cards for Djibouti.

The lifting of the United Nations Security Council’s arms embargo on Eritrea and other sanctions in November sparked Djibouti’s ire. It accuses Eritrea of occupying part of its territory and holding 13 Djiboutian soldiers.

French officials say they have raised this at the U.N. and see it as a way for Paris to assert its diplomatic influence in the region.

“What the Djiboutian authorities are expecting from us is that we remain active so that Djibouti fully has its place in the recomposition of the region,” a French presidential source said.
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Russian Defense Ministry Boasts About Revived Military Power

The Russian military has commissioned more than 1,000 new aircraft and thousands of tanks in the past few years in a massive modernization effort amid tensions with the West, the nation’s defense minister said Monday.

Sergei Shoigu boasted of the military’s achievements in his six years on the job, saying in a speech to lawmakers that the armed forces have turned into a highly mobile force capable of projecting power to distant areas.

Shoigu noted that the military received more than 1,000 warplanes and combat helicopters and over 3,700 tanks in 2012-2018. He added that the armed forces have received 109 ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and 108 submarine-launched ICBMs and formed 10 brigades armed with state-of-the-art short-range Iskander missiles.

Russia-West ties have plunged to their lowest levels since the Cold War times over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the war in Syria and the allegations of Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Amid the tensions, NATO has expanded its presence near Russia’s borders to reassure its eastern members, a buildup Russia has described as a threat to its security.

Relations between Moscow and Washington also frayed over the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty over alleged Russian violations. The Kremlin has denied any violations and responded by also suspending its obligations under the INF treaty.

Shoigu said that the campaign in Syria that Russia has waged since 2015 showcases its military might and allowed the military to test its new weapons in combat, including shipborne and air-launched long-range cruise missiles.

He noted that the military also has seen a quick expansion in the number of drones, laser-guided artillery projectiles and other precision weapons.

The defense minister emphasized that the 1-million-strong military has nearly 400,000 professional enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers, a major shift for the armed forces that in the recent past relied exclusively on the draft.

Shoigu said that the increase in the number of contract soldiers has allowed the military to form 136 battalions consisting entirely of professional personnel. Such battalion tactical groups are the core tactical units, allowing the armed forces to quickly deploy to any area.

He said that every brigade or regiment in the Russian army now has two battalions of professional soldiers and one made up of draftees. The minister added that the draftees aren’t sent into combat.

Battalion tactical groups played a key role during Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine and the West also has accused Russia of sending its troops to support a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine — claims Moscow has denied.

Shoigu mentioned the military’s effort to beef up its presence in Crimea. He also noted that the armed forces have expanded their foothold in the Arctic, deploying 475 facilities there.
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Brexit: Leap Into Dark or More Delay?

For Britain, leaving the EU with a transition deal will be wrenching enough, a seismic realignment that will tear apart business, economic, security, legal, cultural and political ties that have deepened over half-a-century, enmeshing Britain in Europe and Europe in Britain.

But crashing out without a withdrawal agreement will be even more painful — a real leap into the dark.

With less than three weeks to go before the country’s March 29 Brexit deadline it still remains unclear whether the country will leave the bloc with a withdrawal deal or crash out without one, exiting even more chaotically and harmfully.

Or the British parliament could just delay the whole thing. Monday night Theresa May flew to Strasbourg for last-minute talks with EU negotiators.

For the three million continental Europeans living in Britain and a million-and-half Britons living in other EU member states these days are nail-biting. They fear for their jobs, health care and even their homes with their residency rights up in the air. EU citizens in Britain are being required to re-apply for residency — no matter if they’ve been settled in Britain for decades. The government says they’ll be able to remain, but nothing is legally guaranteed.

Danish-born Tove MacDonald is dismayed about having to re-apply to stay in a country she’s called home for more than half a century. The 87-year-old, who’s married to a Scot and has raised two children, posted on the internet, “it makes me feel very sad because this has been my home for all these years and I feel more Scottish than Danish.”

Belgian-born Corine Byron-Danuser says before the Brexit referendum she was “probably one of the proudest non-British Brits you could possibly imagine.” The 46-year-old mother-of-one has been here for 15 years, and during her marriage to a British serviceman she sang gustily “God Save the Queen” with the other military wives.

But her “sense of belonging” has been shaken because of a rise in nativism, she told VOA. “It is really hard because the place you called home no longer is. You don’t actually know any more where home is,” she explained. She describes a recent date with a guy she thought “lovely” at first, until Brexit was broached. “Their followed a tirade against foreigners,” she says. There was no second date.

Brexit has prompted a Brexodus with tens of thousands of EU nationals leaving. Net migration from the EU to the UK slumped in 2018 to a six-year low, according to government data, with only a 57,000 net increase. For many Brexiters that’s cause for celebration, but not for farmers, or construction and hospitality businesses, nor for the bosses of Britain’s under-staffed National Health Service.

On Tuesday, Britain’s deadlocked House of Commons is due to vote for a second time on a transition deal Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to with the EU after more than two years of ill-tempered wrangling. But as of Monday, there was fifty-fifty chance she would postpone the vote. In January parliament rejected the deal in the biggest rebuff ever suffered by a British prime minister.

Whenever she calls for a vote, she seems on course for another trouncing, say lawmakers, with hardline Brexiters and pro-EU Remainers opposed.

What happens then is anyone’s guess. A request for a Brexit postponement is the most likely scenario, but no one is ruling Britain crashing out of the EU without any transition deal. In a rare public admission of impotence, May has said, “no one knows what will happen.”

The uncertainty is infuriating business owners, depressing economic growth and fueling anxiety. Firms have put investment on hold, adopting a wait-and-see approach. That’s lowered productivity rates. Businesses have been warning for months about both the repercussions of a no-deal Brexit as well the damage being wrought by just not knowing how or when or if the country will break away.

Companies have been stockpiling everything they can — from airplanes to car parts — but have been running out of storage space. “We are facing a ‘perfect storm’ in the warehousing and logistics industry,” the UK Warehousing Association has warned in a statement.

Fear of a no-deal Brexit has prompted supermarket chains to stockpile imported food; and the NHS and armed forces have been hoarding drugs. So, too, are consumers, fearing the price shock they’ll face as a result of the reimposition of tariffs for goods, which will drive up shop prices and lead to delays and shortages in fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, say Britain’s retailers.

Remainers have been painting ever more lurid depictions of economic breakdown and social stress. Brexiters dismiss the dire forecasts as fanciful, dubbing them “Project Fear,” part of a naysaying vision offered by traitorous globalists. They say even if the country crashes out, it will thrive, and they point to how well foreign investment into Britain has stood up.

Foreign investment, indeed, has been inching up, and in the first full year after the Brexit plebiscite it did hit a record high. But the headline figure is deceptive, warn economists. The increase is far lower than in the three years before the referendum and is increasing at its weakest rate in almost a decade. More ominously, foreign investment has plunged by 19 percent for ‘greenfield’ projects, where an investor builds a business from scratch.

The British and EU governments have started to implement contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit. A taste of what that would mean for travelers and shippers came last week when France and Belgium tested new Brexit-style border arrangements, triggering two-hour long lines for disembarking rail passengers and lengthy gridlock for transport haulers.

“This will be what it is like after Brexit,” mused a French port director.

 
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French President Heads to East Africa

French President Emmanuel Macron heads to East Africa late Monday, on a three-nation trip aimed at expanding French military, business, cultural and environmental ties on the continent and countering newer players in the region, starting with China.

Beyond a stop in former French colony Djibouti, Macron’s four-day visit includes two rising Anglophone powerhouses, Ethiopia and Kenya — where his visit to Nairobi will be a first by a French president since Kenya’s 1963 independence.

It will also give a nod to other important players, with meetings expected in Ethiopia between Macron and African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, and in Kenya with newly elected Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi, whose controversial December win was initially criticized by France.

More broadly, it picks up a fundamental theme of Macron’s presidency — reasserting French influence on the world stage, starting with Africa — at a time when he is dogged by problems at home.

“From the start of his presidency, Macron and his team have always made it clear that Africa as a whole is regarded as a priority continent of engagement,” said Paul Melly, a specialist in French-Africa policy at London-based think-tank Chatham House.

After first focusing on France’s traditional ties in primarily francophone West Africa, particularly the restive Sahel region, Macron is now rolling out a second phase of his Africa policy, Melly said, aimed “to put some serious economic effort in the east and the south of the continent.”

Goodbye yellow vests — hello Djibouti

The trip is also the French president’s first extended overseas visit in weeks, following November’s yellow vest uprising. The crisis has subsided for now, and Macron’s approval rating is on the rise after having launched a lengthy national ‘Great Debate’ as a stop-gap measure. Still, a permanent exit strategy remains elusive.

The plane ride to East Africa should give him time to consider “that for the Great Debate, as for airline travel, what counts is the landing,” France’s Le Dauphine Libere wrote in an editorial.

Like recent French presidents, Macron has called for opening a new chapter in French-Africa relations, proclaiming that France-Afrique, a term referring to shadowy business and political ties with former colonies, is old history. Still his first stop is to a familiar country, Djibouti, where he meets longtime leader, Ismail Omar Guelleh, and visits France’s biggest military base in the world.

With its strategically located port, the tiny Horn of African nation is also in hot demand by other nations, hosting a raft of military bases, including the only permanent US base in Africa, and China’s first overseas base.

In an OP-ED carried in the French daily L’Opinion, Djibouti’s ambassador to France, Ayeid Mousseid Yahya, hailed Macron’s visit to Djibouti — only the second by a French president in 20 years — as “an important moment to relaunch strategic ties.”

“It would be very strange if a French president didn’t visit Djibouti” during a trip to the region, Melly said, suggesting the stopover to see French soldiers gives Macron a pretext “without being seen as giving too much of an endorsement” to authoritarian Guelleh.

Cultural ties on spotlight in Ethiopia

A very different agenda and political landscape await Macron in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s most populous and fastest growing countries, which has seen dramatic reforms under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. In both Ethiopia and Kenya, he greets countries in mourning following Sunday’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane heading to Nairobi.

Ethiopia “awaits Macron with impatience,” Ethiopia’s first female president and former ambassador to France, Sahle-Work Zewde, told France’s TV5Monde news channel, calling for a reinforcement of “secular ties” with France.

In the ancient town of Lalibella, renowned for its ancient rock-hewn churches, the president is expected announce French support for Ethiopian cultural conservation efforts — echoing a theme aired early on in his presidency, when Macron vowed to return looted artifacts to former francophone colonies.

“It’s a cultural outreach to Africa which, at the moment, other western countries are lagging behind,” said Melly of Chatham House. “This sort of cultural diplomacy, recognizing the inherent value of your counterpart’s culture, matters.”

Ethiopia is also a key French export market, and Macron will be accompanied by dozens top business leaders for both the Ethiopian and Kenyan legs of his journey. Beyond a defense agreement signed between Addis Ababa and Paris, business deals are expected to be cinched in both countries, including more than $3 billion worth of contracts in Kenya.

China in background

A subtext of Macron’s trip is the growing clout of other foreign powers in Africa, starting with China. “Macron in Djibouti to counter China’s growing influence,” read Monday’s headline in France’s conservative Le Figaro newspaper, echoing others.

To be sure, China has secured contracts to build Djibouti’s port, railway to Ethiopia and soon-to-be economic zone. It set up its first military base overseas in the country in 2017, and currently sells more weapons in sub-Saharan Africa than any other nation, according to The Economist.

But while China is a sizable foreign investor whose expansion in Africa worries traditional players, analyst Melly believes France and other Western countries have an edge in other ways. While China may cinch infrastructure development contracts, for example, French businesses may later land contracts to manage projects when they’re up and running.

“A strong point is that conditions attached to western engagement are predictable,” Melly said, said of French and other aid. “They’ve very public and out there. Sometimes African governments like to work with clarity.”

“You don’t counter Chinese strategic influence by trying to block it” in Africa, Melly added. “You balance it by remaining engaged.”

Development and environment

Macron appears to be following this thinking. Since taking office nearly two years ago, he has visited Africa multiple times. As president, he set a goal to sizably increase official development aid to 0.55 percent by 2022, a years-long high for France — albeit still below the 0.7 percent international target.

“The challenge will be to use this power wisely and to ensure that aid increases are not only invested as effectively as possible to fight extreme poverty, but also to help mobilize other actors,” Friederike Röder director of anti-poverty advocacy group One France, wrote in an editorial last year.

In Kenya, Macron also gets to burnish his green credentials, as he joins President Uhuru Kenyatta in opening the third edition of the One Planet Summit — an initiative Macron launched in 2017 to drive a global fight against climate change.

The gathering promises to offer a positive counterpoint to France, where the French leader has been sharply criticized by environmental groups for failing to put his climate-friendly rhetoric into action.
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Erdogan Slams Women’s Day Rally Over ‘Rude’ Behavior

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused International Women’s Day protesters of being led by political rivals and of “disrespect” during the Islamic call to prayer, after Friday’s march was broken up by police firing tear gas.         

Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul on Friday in defiance of a ban by authorities, crowding the famous Istiklal avenue, before a police crackdown brought the demonstration to a chaotic end.

In his comments on Sunday, Erdogan referenced an unverified viral video showing women and men continuing to chant during the call to prayer.

“A group which came together in Taksim led by the (main opposition Republican People’s Party) CHP and (pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party) HDP supposedly for women’s day behaved rudely with whistling and chanting during the call to prayer,” Erdogan said.

The avenue is close to Taksim square, a traditional rallying point.

The president has been holding daily rallies across the country and often slamming the opposition ahead of local elections on March 31. He has accused the CHP of being in an alliance with the HDP, which Erdogan says is a political front for Kurdish insurgents.

The “March 8 Feminist Night march” group issued a statement on Sunday decrying the attempt to use Friday’s rally as “election material” in the press and on social media.

“Police violence against tens of thousands of women taking part/trying to take part in the night march cannot be covered up with polarising language… fake news and hate,” the group said, without making any direct reference to Erdogan.

In his statement the Turkish leader also played a short clip of the video as well as footage of an opposition rally from 2011 and said that participants did not carry the Turkish flag.

“(The opposition is) attacking our liberty and our future with this disrespect to our flag and our call to prayer,” he said during a rally in the southern city of Adana.

Although polls suggest Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) remains dominant, the opposition may make larger gains as the economic slowdown and the weaker Turkish lira impacts households.

Erdogan often says that his Islamic-rooted party has given greater freedom to Muslims in Turkey where until a few years ago, women were banned from wearing the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab, in state institutions and universities.

But he has been accused by critics of eroding the secular pillars of modern Turkey.

The call to prayer has been at the centre of controversy in the Turkish republic since its foundation in 1923.

From 1932 to 1950, the call to prayer was banned in Arabic in Turkey.

Most recently in 2018, there was a row after CHP MP Ozturk Yilmaz called for it to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.
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Center of Christianity Has its First Mormon Temple

Europe’s largest Mormon temple will be dedicated over three days starting Sunday. Russell Nelson, president of the world’s 16 million Mormons, will be in Rome for the dedication ceremonies. No expense has been spared on Italy’s first temple, a magnificence, Mormons say, that is justified by faith.

The entire leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church, has for the first time gathered outside of the United States for a very special occasion, the dedication of its temple in the eternal city. For the more than 25,000 Italian Mormons and the many others who will travel to Rome, this temple has special significance, as Italy’s representative of the Mormons, Alessandro Dini-Ciacci explains.

“Rome is the center of Christianity. Here’s where the apostles Peter and Paul, the early apostles of the Church of Christ came to preach and bear their testimony. We are followers of Jesus Christ. We love the Savior,” says Dini-Ciacci. “The temple we just built as a statement of our belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world in our belief that life goes on after we die and that families can be together. That is the focus of our temples. The ordinances that bind families together.”

The Mormons have 162 temples in different parts of the world and 40 more have already been announced for a church growing in numbers. No expense was spared for Rome’s towering white “house of the Lord.”

“The temple was built with the finest materials, is very refined, as our offering of love. Our show of love for the Savior and his father. That’s why we choose the best materials possible,” said Dini-Ciacci. “There’s Carrara marbles, stained glass, fine fabrics. It is all a tribute to our heavenly father.”

Elder Dini-Ciacci said it took a decade to build the 3,800 square meter temple.

He would not give a figure for how much the temple cost but simply said “it’s a cost of faith.” One of the 10 commandments of the Mormons, he added, is to keep the law of tithing which allows the church to pay for temples and all operations. He said the money spent on temples is far less than what the Church spends on humanitarian aid.

Members of the Church abide by rules which include chastity outside of marriage.

“We keep the Ten Commandments. We ask people to treat their bodies as temples. So we ask them not to pollute them with drugs or alcoholic beverages. We ask them not to smoke. That is what we believe was revealed to one of our prophets for the benefit of all out members,” said Dini-Ciacci.

The church’s leader, Prophet Russel Nelson, met with Pope Francis on Saturday at the Vatican. It was the first time a head of the Church of Latter Day Saints met with a pope. While the two churches differ in doctrine, they share concerns like human suffering, the importance of religious liberty and of building bridges of friendship.

 
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Russians Rally Against Moves to Tighten Control on Internet

Activists in Russia have kicked off demonstrations against a new bill, which its critics say is part of an effort by President Vladimir Putin’s government to increase state control over the Internet and facilitate censorship.

Several dozen people rallied in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk on March 10 to protest against the proposed legislation. Backers of the bill say it is designed to ensure the operation of the Internet in the country if access to servers abroad is cut off.

Activists later gathered on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue for a sanctioned rally.

Protest actions were also scheduled in the western city of Voronezh and other Russian cities.

The so-called “sovereign Internet” bill, which passed in the first reading in the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament on February 12, faces two more votes in the State Duma before heading to the upper house.

Aleksandr Isavnin of the Roskomsvoboda movement, one of the organizers of the planned, sanctioned rally on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue, told RFE/RL: “Our state has paid attention to the fact that the Internet is being used to freely exchange information, including by opposition forces, and therefore it wants very much to put it under control.”

The name Roskomsvoboda is short for Russian Freedom Committee and plays off Roskomnadzor, the name of the state communications, Internet, and media oversight agency.

Nikolai Lyaskin, an aide to opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, called the bill yet another step by the authorities to “tighten the screws” on Internet freedom, and urged the Russians to rally against “this madness.”

The bill reflects persistent tension between Russia and the West, where governments have accused Moscow of using cyberattacks and social-media activity to sow discord abroad and increase its global clout.

Proponents say it aims to make what they call the Russian segment of the Internet more independent, and argue that the legislation is needed to guard Russia against potential cyberattacks.

The bill calls for the creation of a system that would protect Russia in the event of cyberwar while also filtering Internet traffic to the country, but there has been debate about how realistic that is and how much it would cost.
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Germany Tightens Travel Advice on Turkey

Germany changed its travel advice for visitors to Turkey on Saturday, warning its citizens that they risked arrest for expressing opinions that would be tolerated at home but might not be by Turkish authorities. 

“It cannot be ruled out … that the Turkish government will take further action against representatives of German media and civil society organizations,” an updated Foreign Ministry travel advisory read. 

“Statements which are covered by the German legal understanding of the freedom of expression can lead in Turkey to occupational restrictions and criminal proceedings.” 

The advice, which a ministry spokeswoman confirmed was updated on Saturday, noted that several European journalists, including Germans, had been denied accreditation in Turkey without explanation. In the last two years German nationals have also been increasingly arbitrarily detained, it said. 

Turkish authorities are suspicious about any connections to the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a 2016 coup attempt, the ministry said. 

But it added that any tourists who had taken part in meetings abroad of organizations banned in Turkey risked being detained, as did Germans who made, or endorsed, statements on social media critical of the Turkish government. 
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Turnout Falls to Lowest Yet in French ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests

Turnout at “yellow vest” protests across France, a backlash against high living costs that has lasted nearly four months, fell Saturday to its lowest level yet.

People wearing the neon high-visibility vests that have come to symbolize the movement were joined in Paris by others donning pink tops, as child-care workers turned out against a reform of their unemployment subsidies.

Demonstrators on the Champs-Elysees avenue were pushed back at one point by water cannons, and sporadic clashes with police erupted in other cities including Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse, though the protests largely passed peacefully.

Some protesters staged a “flash mob” at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, waving French flags and dancing in one of the terminals, television footage on BFM TV showed.

Some 28,600 people turned out overall, according to the Interior Ministry, with 3,000 of those in Paris — down from 39,300 across France the previous Saturday, and a far cry from the nearly 300,000 who blocked roads and marched in cities in mid-November.

​Next weekend

Some campaigners are calling for a bigger show of force next weekend, when a series of town hall-style debates launched by President Emmanuel Macron to try to quell anger is due to end.

What started out last November as an outcry against Macron’s plan to hike fuel taxes — part of his bid to push a cleaner energy model — has morphed into a broader, leaderless movement decrying the government as out of touch with the hardships faced by some households and low-income workers.

Macron dropped the fuel tax increase and budgeted an extra 10 billion euros ($11 billion) to help the poorest workers.

Since riots in December, recent demonstrations have been largely peaceful. On Saturday in Paris, 19 people had been arrested by 6:35 p.m., police said.

In an Ifop poll taken March 7-8 for the online news site Atlantico, 54 percent expressed sympathy with the “yellow vests,” up from 50 percent in mid-February, but down from a peak of 72 percent.

Macron’s popularity has also improved in recent weeks. An Ipsos poll released March 6 gave him an approval rating of 28 percent, up 8 points since December.
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Bodies of Climbers Spotted on Pakistan’s ‘Killer Mountain’

Searchers have spotted the bodies of two climbers from Britain and Italy in Pakistan days after the pair disappeared while trying to scale one of the world’s highest peaks, officials said Saturday. 

Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi were caught in bad weather about two weeks ago while trying to climb the 8,125-meter Nanga Parbat, nicknamed “Killer Mountain,” using a route that has never been successfully completed. 

The search for Nardi, 42, and Ballard, 30, officially ended when the bodies of the pair were identified “beyond reasonable doubt” through telescope and aerial photos, the Italian ambassador to Pakistan said.  

“With great sadness I inform that the search for @NardiDaniele and Tom Ballard is over as @AlexTxikon and the search team have confirmed that the silhouettes spotted on Mummery [trail] at about 5,900 meters are those of Daniele and Tom. R.I.P,” Stefano Pontecorvo, tweeted (@pontecorvoste). The Italian diplomat was personally monitoring the rescue effort. 

Pakistani military helicopters were used to fly search teams to the site. 

Nardi’s family, in a message posted on his Facebook page, also confirmed his death along with that of his British climbing partner, saying they were “heartbroken.” “A part of them will always remain on Nanga Parbat.” 

Organizers said Nardi and Ballard had last established contact with their base camp on the evening of Feb. 24, saying they would be moving upward the next day.  

Ballard’s mother, Alison Hargreaves, also died in Pakistan while trying to climb K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain at 8,611 meters. Months before her 1995 death, Hargreaves had scaled Mount Everest alone, without supplementary oxygen or support. 

Both Ballard and Nardi stood among the top 10 Himalayan Alpinists in their own right, wrote veteran Pakistani climber Nazir Sabir on his Facebook page. 

“We are all so sad two more friends are gone, disappearing into the higher heavens and yet again the ‘Killer Mountain’ takes a toll as they become an eternal part of the Diamir [district, or west-side] Face of Nanga Parbat,” Sabir said. 
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Baby of Islamic State Teenager in British Furor Dies

The infant son of Shamima Begum, a teenager who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria, has died, a spokesman for the U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Friday.

Begum, whose first two children also died, was stripped of her British citizenship last month on security grounds after she was discovered in a detention camp in Syria.

The 19-year-old left London to join IS when she was 15. She had sought to return to Europe with her third child, who was born about three weeks ago.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said the child had died. Begum has said in media interviews her son was named Jarrah.

Begum married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch fighter for IS who surrendered to Syrian fighters and was being held in a Kurdish detention center in northeastern Syria.

A British government spokesman said: “The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family.

“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has consistently advised against travel to Syria since April 2011. The government will continue to do whatever we can to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and traveling to dangerous conflict zones.”

The family’s London-based lawyer on Friday said the baby’s death had been confirmed, after saying earlier that there were strong but still unconfirmed reports of the infant’s death.

The fate of Begum has illustrated the ethical, legal and security conundrum that governments face when dealing with the families of militants who swore to destroy the West.

The U.S-backed SDF is now trying to take Islamic State’s last, small patch of ground in eastern Syria. They have slowed their offensive on the jihadist enclave at Baghouz near the Iraqi border to allow many thousands of people to pour out in an exodus that has lasted weeks.

 
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