The United States has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a computer hacking conspiracy linked to the release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. documents, just hours after British police dramatically arrested him at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had been holed up for nearly seven years. VOA’s Jeff Custer reports from Washington.
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Month: April 2019
US Charges Assange After London Arrest
The United States has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a computer hacking conspiracy linked to the release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. documents, just hours after British police dramatically arrested him at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had been holed up for nearly seven years. VOA’s Jeff Custer reports from Washington.
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Factbox: Gun Laws Around the World
Within weeks of a mass shooting that killed 50 people at two Christchurch mosques, New Zealand has introduced legislation that would ban the type of guns used in the attacks.
In first of three votes needed to enact the law, lawmakers almost unanimously voted to ban semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. Even though the measure has yet to be passed, Prime Minister Lucinda Ardern has already used her executive power to prevent sales of the banned weapons to keep people from stockpiling.
In light of such quick measures, here is a look at the effect other mass shootings have had on gun laws around the world.
AUSTRALIA
In 1996, Martin Bryant, then 28, went on a killing spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania. He killed 35 people and wounded 23 others. Australia acted swiftly to enact the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the use of all semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pump-action shotguns. It also mandated that all gun owners provide authorities with a reason for possessing a firearm, register all weapons with authorities and undergo safety training. Australia also instituted a gun buyback program that took more than 600,000 weapons out of private hands.
BRITAIN
In 1987, after unemployed laborer Michael Ryan, 27, used a copy of a Kalashnikov AK-47 to kill 16 people and then himself in Hungerford, England, Britain outlawed semiautomatic weapons and limited the sales of some types of shotguns.
But the response was far greater after Thomas Hamilton, 43, used several handguns to kill 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland in 1996. The 1997 Firearms Act banned virtually all private citizens from owning handguns. The law also made it harder to own sporting rifles by demanding far-reaching background checks. The government also instituted a gun buyback program that took tens of thousands of firearms out of private hands.
CANADA
In 1989, Marc Lepine, 25, stormed a Montreal engineering school armed with a semiautomatic rifle and killed 14 female students. The violent act shocked a nation that already had tough restrictions on automatic weapons and handguns. Lawmakers reacted by passing laws requiring registration and licensing of all rifles and other long guns, which account for a majority of firearms in Canada. But it didn’t last. The highly unpopular national gun registry was abolished in 2012.
GERMANY
In 2002, Robert Steinhauser, 19, a student expelled from a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt, returned to the school armed with a rifle and a handgun and killed 13 staff members, two students and a police officer before taking his own life. Within months, German lawmakers raised the legal age for carrying sporting weapons from 18 to 21 and made a psychiatric evaluation mandatory for gun buyers younger than 25.
Another school shooting, in the southwest town of Winnenden in 2009, led to further legislation. Tim Kretschmer, 17, returned to his school and killed 15 people, including nine students, most of them female. Germany acted immediately to toughen its gun laws, including allowing police to spot-check the homes of gun owners and impose fines if weapons are not locked away.
NORWAY
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, then 32, detonated a car bomb in Oslo, killing eight people and then used a semiautomatic rifle and a pistol to kill 69 people, mostly teens, at a youth summer camp organized by the Norwegian Labor Party on the island of Utoya. At the time, Norway already had strict gun laws on the books. But it has taken years for Norway to change its laws. Last year, Oslo announced plans to ban semiautomatic weapons by 2021 – a decade after the massacre.
UNITED STATES
Like other countries, the U.S. passed some of its strictest gun laws after major acts of violence.
In 1934, high-profile gangland crimes, such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago that killed seven, prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign a law that required gun owners to register machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns. It also imposed a $200 tax on transfers of those weapons. The same tax remains today.
In 1968, the assassinations of President John Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy saw the introduction of the Gun Control Act, which banned interstate shipments of weapons and ammunition to private individuals. It also prohibited the sale of guns to minors, felons, fugitives, drug addicts and “mental incompetents.” But in 1986, some of the restrictions were lifted, allowing dealers to sell firearms through the mail.
The Brady Bill was named after James Brady, who as President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. The legislation required unlicensed gun buyers to undergo background checks from licensed businesses, but not during private transactions.
Other shootings brought mixed legislative results.
In response to a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, in which Stephen Paddock, 64, killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his casino hotel room, the Trump administration banned the use of bump stocks, devices that let rifles fire like machine guns. The rapid-fire device was used by the gunman who killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his hotel room in a Las Vegas casino in 2017. The ban went into effect last month but is still being contested in the courts.
In 2018, Nikolas Cruz, then 19, who had been expelled from a high school in Parkland, Florida, is accused of using an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 17 students and faculty. A year later, several states, including Florida, have passed gun control legislation in response. The Florida Legislature raised the age to purchase guns to 21 from 18, banned people legally judged “mentally defective” from buying a gun, and set up a system for law enforcement to take guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
But other mass shootings resulted in little if any gun control legislation. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six staff members, renewed public debate of gun control measures, such as background checks on firearm sales, but Congress passed no major legislation related to the Connecticut shooting.
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Factbox: Gun Laws Around the World
Within weeks of a mass shooting that killed 50 people at two Christchurch mosques, New Zealand has introduced legislation that would ban the type of guns used in the attacks.
In first of three votes needed to enact the law, lawmakers almost unanimously voted to ban semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. Even though the measure has yet to be passed, Prime Minister Lucinda Ardern has already used her executive power to prevent sales of the banned weapons to keep people from stockpiling.
In light of such quick measures, here is a look at the effect other mass shootings have had on gun laws around the world.
AUSTRALIA
In 1996, Martin Bryant, then 28, went on a killing spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania. He killed 35 people and wounded 23 others. Australia acted swiftly to enact the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the use of all semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pump-action shotguns. It also mandated that all gun owners provide authorities with a reason for possessing a firearm, register all weapons with authorities and undergo safety training. Australia also instituted a gun buyback program that took more than 600,000 weapons out of private hands.
BRITAIN
In 1987, after unemployed laborer Michael Ryan, 27, used a copy of a Kalashnikov AK-47 to kill 16 people and then himself in Hungerford, England, Britain outlawed semiautomatic weapons and limited the sales of some types of shotguns.
But the response was far greater after Thomas Hamilton, 43, used several handguns to kill 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland in 1996. The 1997 Firearms Act banned virtually all private citizens from owning handguns. The law also made it harder to own sporting rifles by demanding far-reaching background checks. The government also instituted a gun buyback program that took tens of thousands of firearms out of private hands.
CANADA
In 1989, Marc Lepine, 25, stormed a Montreal engineering school armed with a semiautomatic rifle and killed 14 female students. The violent act shocked a nation that already had tough restrictions on automatic weapons and handguns. Lawmakers reacted by passing laws requiring registration and licensing of all rifles and other long guns, which account for a majority of firearms in Canada. But it didn’t last. The highly unpopular national gun registry was abolished in 2012.
GERMANY
In 2002, Robert Steinhauser, 19, a student expelled from a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt, returned to the school armed with a rifle and a handgun and killed 13 staff members, two students and a police officer before taking his own life. Within months, German lawmakers raised the legal age for carrying sporting weapons from 18 to 21 and made a psychiatric evaluation mandatory for gun buyers younger than 25.
Another school shooting, in the southwest town of Winnenden in 2009, led to further legislation. Tim Kretschmer, 17, returned to his school and killed 15 people, including nine students, most of them female. Germany acted immediately to toughen its gun laws, including allowing police to spot-check the homes of gun owners and impose fines if weapons are not locked away.
NORWAY
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, then 32, detonated a car bomb in Oslo, killing eight people and then used a semiautomatic rifle and a pistol to kill 69 people, mostly teens, at a youth summer camp organized by the Norwegian Labor Party on the island of Utoya. At the time, Norway already had strict gun laws on the books. But it has taken years for Norway to change its laws. Last year, Oslo announced plans to ban semiautomatic weapons by 2021 – a decade after the massacre.
UNITED STATES
Like other countries, the U.S. passed some of its strictest gun laws after major acts of violence.
In 1934, high-profile gangland crimes, such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago that killed seven, prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign a law that required gun owners to register machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns. It also imposed a $200 tax on transfers of those weapons. The same tax remains today.
In 1968, the assassinations of President John Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy saw the introduction of the Gun Control Act, which banned interstate shipments of weapons and ammunition to private individuals. It also prohibited the sale of guns to minors, felons, fugitives, drug addicts and “mental incompetents.” But in 1986, some of the restrictions were lifted, allowing dealers to sell firearms through the mail.
The Brady Bill was named after James Brady, who as President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. The legislation required unlicensed gun buyers to undergo background checks from licensed businesses, but not during private transactions.
Other shootings brought mixed legislative results.
In response to a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, in which Stephen Paddock, 64, killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his casino hotel room, the Trump administration banned the use of bump stocks, devices that let rifles fire like machine guns. The rapid-fire device was used by the gunman who killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his hotel room in a Las Vegas casino in 2017. The ban went into effect last month but is still being contested in the courts.
In 2018, Nikolas Cruz, then 19, who had been expelled from a high school in Parkland, Florida, is accused of using an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 17 students and faculty. A year later, several states, including Florida, have passed gun control legislation in response. The Florida Legislature raised the age to purchase guns to 21 from 18, banned people legally judged “mentally defective” from buying a gun, and set up a system for law enforcement to take guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
But other mass shootings resulted in little if any gun control legislation. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six staff members, renewed public debate of gun control measures, such as background checks on firearm sales, but Congress passed no major legislation related to the Connecticut shooting.
…
3D Laser Imaging Shines New Light on ‘Last Supper’ Site
The arched stone-built hall in Jerusalem venerated by Christians as the site of Jesus’ Last Supper has been digitally recreated by archaeologists using laser scanners and advanced photography.
The Cenacle, a popular site for pilgrims near Jerusalem’s walled Old City, has ancient, worn surfaces and poor illumination, hampering a study of its history.
So researchers from Israel’s Antiquities Authority and European research institutions used laser technology and advanced photographic techniques to create richly detailed three-dimensional models of the hall built in the Crusader era.
The project helped highlight obscure artwork and decipher some theological aspects of the second-floor room, built above what Jewish tradition says is the burial site of King David.
“We managed, in one of the… holiest places in Jerusalem, to use this technology and this is a breakthrough,” Amit Re’em, Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told Reuters of the project, which began in 2016.
Re’em pointed to reliefs of what he described as the symbols of the “Agnus Dei,” a lamb that is an emblem of Christ, and the “Lion of Judah” on keystones in the hall’s vaulted ceiling.
“It tells the story of this room,” Re’em said. “It delivers the message of the Last [Supper] Room, Christ as a Messiah, as victorious, as a victim — and the lion, the lion is a symbol of the Davidic dynasty. They combine together in this room.”
Some archaeologists have questioned whether the room is the actual venue of the Last Supper, the final meal which the New Testament says Jesus shared with disciples before his crucifixion.
Ilya Berkovich, a historian at the INZ research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences who worked on the project, said the endeavor opens “incredibly new horizons” with enormous potential.
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3D Laser Imaging Shines New Light on ‘Last Supper’ Site
The arched stone-built hall in Jerusalem venerated by Christians as the site of Jesus’ Last Supper has been digitally recreated by archaeologists using laser scanners and advanced photography.
The Cenacle, a popular site for pilgrims near Jerusalem’s walled Old City, has ancient, worn surfaces and poor illumination, hampering a study of its history.
So researchers from Israel’s Antiquities Authority and European research institutions used laser technology and advanced photographic techniques to create richly detailed three-dimensional models of the hall built in the Crusader era.
The project helped highlight obscure artwork and decipher some theological aspects of the second-floor room, built above what Jewish tradition says is the burial site of King David.
“We managed, in one of the… holiest places in Jerusalem, to use this technology and this is a breakthrough,” Amit Re’em, Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told Reuters of the project, which began in 2016.
Re’em pointed to reliefs of what he described as the symbols of the “Agnus Dei,” a lamb that is an emblem of Christ, and the “Lion of Judah” on keystones in the hall’s vaulted ceiling.
“It tells the story of this room,” Re’em said. “It delivers the message of the Last [Supper] Room, Christ as a Messiah, as victorious, as a victim — and the lion, the lion is a symbol of the Davidic dynasty. They combine together in this room.”
Some archaeologists have questioned whether the room is the actual venue of the Last Supper, the final meal which the New Testament says Jesus shared with disciples before his crucifixion.
Ilya Berkovich, a historian at the INZ research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences who worked on the project, said the endeavor opens “incredibly new horizons” with enormous potential.
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After Netanyahu Win, Trump Confident of Middle East Peace
U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally who appears to have won his fifth term as Israeli prime minister in a tight parliamentary election, saying that Netanyahu’s victory would be good for peace. The Trump administration has said it will unveil a Middle East peace plan after this election. Little is known about the plan and whether it will be accepted by the Palestinians. Here’s more from White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara.
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After Netanyahu Win, Trump Confident of Middle East Peace
U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally who appears to have won his fifth term as Israeli prime minister in a tight parliamentary election, saying that Netanyahu’s victory would be good for peace. The Trump administration has said it will unveil a Middle East peace plan after this election. Little is known about the plan and whether it will be accepted by the Palestinians. Here’s more from White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara.
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Pompeo Defends Trump’s Cuts to Aid Central America
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended President Donald Trump’s move to halt U.S. aid to three Central American nations from which record numbers of migrants have fled to the U.S. southern border. Pompeo was responding to sharp criticism from Democrats at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday, who said the cuts will likely create more misery and fuel more migration north. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
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Pompeo Defends Trump’s Cuts to Aid Central America
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended President Donald Trump’s move to halt U.S. aid to three Central American nations from which record numbers of migrants have fled to the U.S. southern border. Pompeo was responding to sharp criticism from Democrats at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday, who said the cuts will likely create more misery and fuel more migration north. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
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Sudan Military to Make ‘Important Announcement’
Sudan’s state-controlled television says the army will make an “important statement” sometime Thursday.
State media offered no details about the upcoming message, but Pan-Arab TV networks carried unconfirmed reports that President Omar al-Bashir had stepped down, according to the Associated Press. His whereabouts were unknown.
The surprise announcement came amid intensified protests demanding the resignation of al-Bashir. Protesters have staged a sit-in since last Saturday in front of the Sudanese military headquarters since last Saturday.
At least 22 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, according to activists.
The protests began Dec. 19, with demonstrators accusing Bashir’s government of economic mismanagement that has sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages.
Bashir imposed a nationwide state of emergency Feb. 22 in an attempt to suppress the protests after an initial crackdown failed. The government said weeks ago that 31 people had been killed, but the group Physicians for Human Rights estimates the death toll is at least 60.
The government continues to enforce tough measures that have resulted in the arrests of protesters, opposition leaders and journalists.
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Sudan Military to Make ‘Important Announcement’
Sudan’s state-controlled television says the army will make an “important statement” sometime Thursday.
State media offered no details about the upcoming message, but Pan-Arab TV networks carried unconfirmed reports that President Omar al-Bashir had stepped down, according to the Associated Press. His whereabouts were unknown.
The surprise announcement came amid intensified protests demanding the resignation of al-Bashir. Protesters have staged a sit-in since last Saturday in front of the Sudanese military headquarters since last Saturday.
At least 22 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, according to activists.
The protests began Dec. 19, with demonstrators accusing Bashir’s government of economic mismanagement that has sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages.
Bashir imposed a nationwide state of emergency Feb. 22 in an attempt to suppress the protests after an initial crackdown failed. The government said weeks ago that 31 people had been killed, but the group Physicians for Human Rights estimates the death toll is at least 60.
The government continues to enforce tough measures that have resulted in the arrests of protesters, opposition leaders and journalists.
…
China’s Spreading Influence in Eastern Europe Worries West
Coal-powered plants, mobile networks, major bridges, roads and railways: Chinese investments have been booming throughout Central and Eastern Europe’s cash-strapped developing countries, even as European Union officials scramble to counter Beijing’s mounting economic and political influence on the continent.
EU member Croatia is hosting a summit Thursday between China and 16 regional countries – the 8th so far – that focuses on expanding business and other links between China and the region, which Beijing sees as a gateway into Europe.
The gathering in Dubrovnik of the so-called 16+1 initiative consists of Central and Eastern European countries that have endorsed China’s ambitious global “Belt and Road” investment project, which has triggered concerns among some key EU states about increased Chinese political and economic clout in the region.
China has already invested billions of dollars in various infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Western leaders worry that further investment in the states that are EU members – or those hoping to join – could mean lower environmental and other standards than those in the rest of the bloc.
Thorny issues include the flouting of EU competition rules, potential over-borrowing by some of the states, the quality of constructions, and security concerns over high-speed 5G network technology supplied by Chinese companies. Critics also say that in return for allowing Chinese expansion into the region, Beijing should give better reciprocal access for European companies to Chinese markets.
Top Chinese officials have sought to alleviate EU fears of unfair competition from Chinese state-controlled companies, which benefit from the government’s financial backing. Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during a recent visit to Paris to work with European leaders to seek fairer international trade rules.
Of the 16 participating countries – Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia – 11 are EU member states, and the remaining five want to join.
Beijing has marketed its expanding initiative as a way to give some of Europe’s neediest countries a financial boost, helping them gain access to more trade and investment. That has been mostly welcomed by the Central and Eastern European nations.
Linda Tjia, an expert on Chinese development strategy at the City University of Hong Kong, said there is no evidence to support concerns that Beijing is harboring “neo-colonial” goals to exploit Eastern Europe, Africa and other developing economies.
European leaders “have to somehow show their people they are trying to protect national interests,” Tija said.
Major Chinese-led infrastructure projects in the region include a planned high-speed railway from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade in neighboring Serbia. The line will link up with the Chinese- controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.
The project has drawn scrutiny from the EU because Chinese state-owned banks would provide financing, and Chinese companies would supply technology and the actual building. That conflicts with EU rules requiring public works to be broken into segments small enough to attract multiple bidders.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose own government often has been criticized for anti-democratic policies, says Hungary’s relations with China should be based on “mutual respect.”
Hungary last year did not sign an EU report criticizing China’s human rights record and business policies.
In Serbia, an EU membership candidate, Chinese companies are building major bridges and highways. They are also constructing a large coal-powered electricity plant even as China is trying to curb pollution at home by implementing renewable energy projects and reducing the use of lignite, by far the most polluting fossil fuel.
Serbian analyst Mijat Lakicevic said the strategically-located Balkan country situated between East and West is a perfect place where “China can realize its economic concept, the way it wants to enter (Eastern European) markets,” without much concern over fair bidding processes or pollution standards.
Bosnia, a potential EU candidate, is at odds with the bloc over its decision to issue a public guarantee for a 600-million euro ($676 million) loan from China’s Export-Import Bank to expand Bosnia’s largest coal-fired power plant.
EU’s energy watchdog has warned that the move could eventually harm Bosnia’s bid to join the EU because the agreement violates EU’s subsidy and environment rules. Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has said the issue “raises serious questions” about the Balkan country’s “commitment to international treaties (and) European rules.”
Chinese companies are also involved in the construction of a $380-million Peljesac bridge in Croatia, which links two coastal parts over the Adriatic Sea, as well as a highway linking the Adriatic in Montenegro to neighboring Serbia.
In the Czech Republic, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency followed U.S. authorities’ warning against the use of hardware or software made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. That, however, did not change Czech President Milos Zeman’s positive stance toward Huawei.
Zeman publicly criticized the Czech watchdog, saying it harms the Czech Republic’s business interests as it could affect Huawei’s plan to invest $370 million in 5G networks in the Czech Republic.
U.S. officials mounted an international campaign to keep Huawei gear out of any foreign 5G network that might carry sensitive U.S. intelligence.
…
China’s Spreading Influence in Eastern Europe Worries West
Coal-powered plants, mobile networks, major bridges, roads and railways: Chinese investments have been booming throughout Central and Eastern Europe’s cash-strapped developing countries, even as European Union officials scramble to counter Beijing’s mounting economic and political influence on the continent.
EU member Croatia is hosting a summit Thursday between China and 16 regional countries – the 8th so far – that focuses on expanding business and other links between China and the region, which Beijing sees as a gateway into Europe.
The gathering in Dubrovnik of the so-called 16+1 initiative consists of Central and Eastern European countries that have endorsed China’s ambitious global “Belt and Road” investment project, which has triggered concerns among some key EU states about increased Chinese political and economic clout in the region.
China has already invested billions of dollars in various infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Western leaders worry that further investment in the states that are EU members – or those hoping to join – could mean lower environmental and other standards than those in the rest of the bloc.
Thorny issues include the flouting of EU competition rules, potential over-borrowing by some of the states, the quality of constructions, and security concerns over high-speed 5G network technology supplied by Chinese companies. Critics also say that in return for allowing Chinese expansion into the region, Beijing should give better reciprocal access for European companies to Chinese markets.
Top Chinese officials have sought to alleviate EU fears of unfair competition from Chinese state-controlled companies, which benefit from the government’s financial backing. Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during a recent visit to Paris to work with European leaders to seek fairer international trade rules.
Of the 16 participating countries – Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia – 11 are EU member states, and the remaining five want to join.
Beijing has marketed its expanding initiative as a way to give some of Europe’s neediest countries a financial boost, helping them gain access to more trade and investment. That has been mostly welcomed by the Central and Eastern European nations.
Linda Tjia, an expert on Chinese development strategy at the City University of Hong Kong, said there is no evidence to support concerns that Beijing is harboring “neo-colonial” goals to exploit Eastern Europe, Africa and other developing economies.
European leaders “have to somehow show their people they are trying to protect national interests,” Tija said.
Major Chinese-led infrastructure projects in the region include a planned high-speed railway from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade in neighboring Serbia. The line will link up with the Chinese- controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.
The project has drawn scrutiny from the EU because Chinese state-owned banks would provide financing, and Chinese companies would supply technology and the actual building. That conflicts with EU rules requiring public works to be broken into segments small enough to attract multiple bidders.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose own government often has been criticized for anti-democratic policies, says Hungary’s relations with China should be based on “mutual respect.”
Hungary last year did not sign an EU report criticizing China’s human rights record and business policies.
In Serbia, an EU membership candidate, Chinese companies are building major bridges and highways. They are also constructing a large coal-powered electricity plant even as China is trying to curb pollution at home by implementing renewable energy projects and reducing the use of lignite, by far the most polluting fossil fuel.
Serbian analyst Mijat Lakicevic said the strategically-located Balkan country situated between East and West is a perfect place where “China can realize its economic concept, the way it wants to enter (Eastern European) markets,” without much concern over fair bidding processes or pollution standards.
Bosnia, a potential EU candidate, is at odds with the bloc over its decision to issue a public guarantee for a 600-million euro ($676 million) loan from China’s Export-Import Bank to expand Bosnia’s largest coal-fired power plant.
EU’s energy watchdog has warned that the move could eventually harm Bosnia’s bid to join the EU because the agreement violates EU’s subsidy and environment rules. Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has said the issue “raises serious questions” about the Balkan country’s “commitment to international treaties (and) European rules.”
Chinese companies are also involved in the construction of a $380-million Peljesac bridge in Croatia, which links two coastal parts over the Adriatic Sea, as well as a highway linking the Adriatic in Montenegro to neighboring Serbia.
In the Czech Republic, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency followed U.S. authorities’ warning against the use of hardware or software made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. That, however, did not change Czech President Milos Zeman’s positive stance toward Huawei.
Zeman publicly criticized the Czech watchdog, saying it harms the Czech Republic’s business interests as it could affect Huawei’s plan to invest $370 million in 5G networks in the Czech Republic.
U.S. officials mounted an international campaign to keep Huawei gear out of any foreign 5G network that might carry sensitive U.S. intelligence.
…
Analysts: Potential Trade Deal Tough Challenge for China’s Communist Party Leaders
Although much of the reporting about the coming U.S.-China trade deal has focused on the challenge that lingering tariffs and follow-up enforcement presents to a potential agreement, one obstacle has been given less attention to the threat it could pose to the ruling Communist Party of China.
Analysts say that even if and when a deal is reached, China’s communist leaders will find it extremely difficult to convince party cadres, local industries and the public of the merits of a deal.
The United States sees its decision to impose severe tariffs on Chinese goods as an attempt to press Beijing to reduce the trade deficit and ensure a level playing field for its trade and investments.
But in China, the 9-month-old trade war is seen more as an attempt by Washington to force Beijing to accept an unequal deal. The Chinese media have painted a different picture portraying Washington as a bully that is trying to contain a rising competitor.
View from China
From the Chinese point of view, “it sounds like the U.S. is trying to impose an unequal treaty on China, which reminds many in China of the ‘Century of Humiliation’ when the declining Qing Dynasty had to accept unequal treaties imposed on China by foreign powers,” said Zhiqun Zhu, a political science professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Accepting something perceived as an unequal treaty would be seen in China as a sign of weakness.
“I think it will be politically dangerous if the CPC does not put up a strong resistance (to Washington) and seek a fairer deal with the U.S.,” he said.
Since July 2018, the two countries have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war that has resulted in losses worth billions of dollars to businesses across the globe. The two sides have held nine rounds of intense talks for a deal to end the trade war, but the outcome of the negotiations remains uncertain.
Challenge for Communists
For the rank and file of China’s Communist cadres, there is an expectation Chinese leadership will match the United States in political strength and negotiation capability. Some even see the trade war as a tussle between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
“The U.S. demand that China genuinely move toward a market economy is a challenge for any CCP leadership, but is particularly the case for a China led by Xi Jinping,” said Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
That is equally challenging because under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has moved backward in terms of market reforms, Kennedy said.
“Previous CCP leaders have adopted policies less inimical to markets, and they did not see marketization as a vital threat to CCP rule the way Xi Jinping apparently does,” he said.
U.S. reports suggest Washington wants to craft the deal in a way China cannot deviate from it, leaving no future room for Beijing to impose counter-measures like tariff increases on American business.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs worth hundreds of billions of dollars on Chinese goods. Washington appears to be negotiating from a point of strength as China has exhausted its ability to impose counter tariffs on American products.
The U.S. is asking China to address old concerns like industrial subsidies, technology transfer, and intellectual property rights. Accepting these demands would impose a heavy financial burden on Chinese industry because it will result in costly restructuring and an increase in product prices. Price increases can in turn affect China’s exports.
Questions are being asked whether the United States will find a way to make sure the deal is implemented at the factory and trade levels across China.
Deal or no deal, the situation in China is unlikely to change, said Fraser Howie, author of the book Red Capitalism.
“China will pay lip service to much of what is being discussed, sign a weak deal, buy some stuff, approve some deals in the short term, but longer term China will be pursuing Made in China 2025, they will be stealing IP (intellectual property) where they can, and they will be treating foreign companies differently as much as they can,” he said.
Party vs. US relations
The worst to be hit will be state-owned enterprises that thrive on government subsidies and preferential policies. State support for enterprises is the cornerstone of the Chinese economy and the foundation power at the local level, analysts note.
And restructuring heavily staffed state-owned enterprises is likely to result in large scale unemployment and throw up another political challenge for the party.
“If they (Chinese leaders) don’t make the concessions necessary for a deal it will only be because the Chinese leadership has determined that maintaining the place of SOEs and special interests is more important than an amicable relationship with the United States,” Kennedy said.
In the end, the importance of the one-party system matters a lot more to China than its relations with the United States or Western ideas of the free market.
“China is run by a Leninist dictatorship which has made no secret of the importance of the party as the core of the society and economy,” Howie said.
…
Analysts: Potential Trade Deal Tough Challenge for China’s Communist Party Leaders
Although much of the reporting about the coming U.S.-China trade deal has focused on the challenge that lingering tariffs and follow-up enforcement presents to a potential agreement, one obstacle has been given less attention to the threat it could pose to the ruling Communist Party of China.
Analysts say that even if and when a deal is reached, China’s communist leaders will find it extremely difficult to convince party cadres, local industries and the public of the merits of a deal.
The United States sees its decision to impose severe tariffs on Chinese goods as an attempt to press Beijing to reduce the trade deficit and ensure a level playing field for its trade and investments.
But in China, the 9-month-old trade war is seen more as an attempt by Washington to force Beijing to accept an unequal deal. The Chinese media have painted a different picture portraying Washington as a bully that is trying to contain a rising competitor.
View from China
From the Chinese point of view, “it sounds like the U.S. is trying to impose an unequal treaty on China, which reminds many in China of the ‘Century of Humiliation’ when the declining Qing Dynasty had to accept unequal treaties imposed on China by foreign powers,” said Zhiqun Zhu, a political science professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Accepting something perceived as an unequal treaty would be seen in China as a sign of weakness.
“I think it will be politically dangerous if the CPC does not put up a strong resistance (to Washington) and seek a fairer deal with the U.S.,” he said.
Since July 2018, the two countries have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war that has resulted in losses worth billions of dollars to businesses across the globe. The two sides have held nine rounds of intense talks for a deal to end the trade war, but the outcome of the negotiations remains uncertain.
Challenge for Communists
For the rank and file of China’s Communist cadres, there is an expectation Chinese leadership will match the United States in political strength and negotiation capability. Some even see the trade war as a tussle between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
“The U.S. demand that China genuinely move toward a market economy is a challenge for any CCP leadership, but is particularly the case for a China led by Xi Jinping,” said Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
That is equally challenging because under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has moved backward in terms of market reforms, Kennedy said.
“Previous CCP leaders have adopted policies less inimical to markets, and they did not see marketization as a vital threat to CCP rule the way Xi Jinping apparently does,” he said.
U.S. reports suggest Washington wants to craft the deal in a way China cannot deviate from it, leaving no future room for Beijing to impose counter-measures like tariff increases on American business.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs worth hundreds of billions of dollars on Chinese goods. Washington appears to be negotiating from a point of strength as China has exhausted its ability to impose counter tariffs on American products.
The U.S. is asking China to address old concerns like industrial subsidies, technology transfer, and intellectual property rights. Accepting these demands would impose a heavy financial burden on Chinese industry because it will result in costly restructuring and an increase in product prices. Price increases can in turn affect China’s exports.
Questions are being asked whether the United States will find a way to make sure the deal is implemented at the factory and trade levels across China.
Deal or no deal, the situation in China is unlikely to change, said Fraser Howie, author of the book Red Capitalism.
“China will pay lip service to much of what is being discussed, sign a weak deal, buy some stuff, approve some deals in the short term, but longer term China will be pursuing Made in China 2025, they will be stealing IP (intellectual property) where they can, and they will be treating foreign companies differently as much as they can,” he said.
Party vs. US relations
The worst to be hit will be state-owned enterprises that thrive on government subsidies and preferential policies. State support for enterprises is the cornerstone of the Chinese economy and the foundation power at the local level, analysts note.
And restructuring heavily staffed state-owned enterprises is likely to result in large scale unemployment and throw up another political challenge for the party.
“If they (Chinese leaders) don’t make the concessions necessary for a deal it will only be because the Chinese leadership has determined that maintaining the place of SOEs and special interests is more important than an amicable relationship with the United States,” Kennedy said.
In the end, the importance of the one-party system matters a lot more to China than its relations with the United States or Western ideas of the free market.
“China is run by a Leninist dictatorship which has made no secret of the importance of the party as the core of the society and economy,” Howie said.
…
Violence in Libya Could Give IS Renewed Opportunities
As conflict continues to escalate between the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar and the United Nations-recognized government in the capital of Tripoli, experts warn Islamic State militants could take advantage of the security vacuum and resurface on the battlefields of Libya.
The unrest in Libya flared up last week when rebel leader Haftar ordered the Libyan National Army from the east to move on Tripoli in a “victorious march” against the Government of National Accord (GNA).
Haftar’s forces have since conducted multiple airstrikes, including on Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, as clashes continue near the gates of the capital.
According to the World Health Organization, the fighting over the past three days has cost at least 47 lives, with 181 others injured. The clashes have also displaced more than 2,000 people from their homes.
U.N. children’s agency UNICEF warned that more than a half-million children could be at “direct risk” if the violence lingers.
Meanwhile, experts who watch jihadist movements in Libya say the turmoil near Tripoli and the risk of the country falling into a broader civil war could create a vacuum that IS militants would exploit to re-emerge after their defeat in 2016.
Libya ‘reset’
Jason Pack, founder of Libya Analysis, said the IS group in Libya has been able to “reset,” moving through three phases of recovery, reorganization and re-engagement during the past two years. He said the militant group is now ready to come back stronger and make new territorial gains as Tripoli clashes draw security forces away from other parts of the country.
“I think this current offensive is great for jihadists,” Pack told VOA. “I see IS and jihadism in Libya now on the verge of making a huge breakthrough, just like they did in 2012-2015 after killing (U.S.) Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and then jihadism flourished in many outlets in Libya.”
The U.S. ambassador was killed in September 2012 when the U.S. mission in Benghazi came under a militant attack by Ansar al-Sharia — an Islamist group whose members mostly pledged allegiance to IS after controlling the city of Sirte in 2015.
IS was cleared from Sirte and other populated areas of Libya by late 2016 in a campaign that took months and considerable aerial support from the U.S.
The group has since withdrawn to isolated desert areas and shifted its tactics from controlling land to guerrilla insurgency.
Through its low-level attacks on Libyan forces and local infrastructure, the group is hoping to use a war of attrition to prevent any future progress in Libyan state-building, Pack said. As such, through low-cost and high-impact attacks, it poses a greater threat to Libyan state-building processes in 2019 than it did in 2016.
IS more recently has increased efforts to target key government institutions, including the 2018 attacks on the Libyan Foreign Ministry, the National Oil Corp. and the High National Electoral Commission. Its low-profile attacks have mostly targeted security forces and local leaders in remote areas.
The group Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on al-Fugaha in southeast Tripoli, killing three men, including the town’s local council leader and its security official. The town, under Haftar’s Libyan National Army, suffered another deadly IS attack last October.
“That attack on April 9 shows that already ISIS is able to tactically take advantage of the LNA troops being deployed to for this offensive in the north. It shows what’s likely to happen if this fighting continues, that there will be a vacuum, and IS is perfectly positioned to take advantage of that,” Pack, of Libya Analysis, said.
Lawless environment
Some experts warn that Libya’s southern desert areas are particularly vulnerable to IS re-emergence because of their lawless environment. The vast territory has also served as a safe haven for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, and the opposition fighters from Chad, Mali and Sudan.
Haftar’s LNA forces earlier this year launched a large-scale attack on the Fezzan region, which made IS supply networks in the south more complicated.
WATCH: Libyan Strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar
Hady Amr, an expert with the Brookings Institution who served as deputy head for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said the clashes in Tripoli could easily undo the progress made against the jihadists in the distant areas of the country.
“While militant Islam has proven effective at adaptation, and while religion continues to have an appeal in a scary and rapidly transforming world, it is most likely to be most effective in the far-flung areas of Libya,” Amr told VOA.
“It rises up and seeks to exploit the vacuum created by new developments when other factions are in conflict,” he added.
…
Violence in Libya Could Give IS Renewed Opportunities
As conflict continues to escalate between the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar and the United Nations-recognized government in the capital of Tripoli, experts warn Islamic State militants could take advantage of the security vacuum and resurface on the battlefields of Libya.
The unrest in Libya flared up last week when rebel leader Haftar ordered the Libyan National Army from the east to move on Tripoli in a “victorious march” against the Government of National Accord (GNA).
Haftar’s forces have since conducted multiple airstrikes, including on Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, as clashes continue near the gates of the capital.
According to the World Health Organization, the fighting over the past three days has cost at least 47 lives, with 181 others injured. The clashes have also displaced more than 2,000 people from their homes.
U.N. children’s agency UNICEF warned that more than a half-million children could be at “direct risk” if the violence lingers.
Meanwhile, experts who watch jihadist movements in Libya say the turmoil near Tripoli and the risk of the country falling into a broader civil war could create a vacuum that IS militants would exploit to re-emerge after their defeat in 2016.
Libya ‘reset’
Jason Pack, founder of Libya Analysis, said the IS group in Libya has been able to “reset,” moving through three phases of recovery, reorganization and re-engagement during the past two years. He said the militant group is now ready to come back stronger and make new territorial gains as Tripoli clashes draw security forces away from other parts of the country.
“I think this current offensive is great for jihadists,” Pack told VOA. “I see IS and jihadism in Libya now on the verge of making a huge breakthrough, just like they did in 2012-2015 after killing (U.S.) Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and then jihadism flourished in many outlets in Libya.”
The U.S. ambassador was killed in September 2012 when the U.S. mission in Benghazi came under a militant attack by Ansar al-Sharia — an Islamist group whose members mostly pledged allegiance to IS after controlling the city of Sirte in 2015.
IS was cleared from Sirte and other populated areas of Libya by late 2016 in a campaign that took months and considerable aerial support from the U.S.
The group has since withdrawn to isolated desert areas and shifted its tactics from controlling land to guerrilla insurgency.
Through its low-level attacks on Libyan forces and local infrastructure, the group is hoping to use a war of attrition to prevent any future progress in Libyan state-building, Pack said. As such, through low-cost and high-impact attacks, it poses a greater threat to Libyan state-building processes in 2019 than it did in 2016.
IS more recently has increased efforts to target key government institutions, including the 2018 attacks on the Libyan Foreign Ministry, the National Oil Corp. and the High National Electoral Commission. Its low-profile attacks have mostly targeted security forces and local leaders in remote areas.
The group Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on al-Fugaha in southeast Tripoli, killing three men, including the town’s local council leader and its security official. The town, under Haftar’s Libyan National Army, suffered another deadly IS attack last October.
“That attack on April 9 shows that already ISIS is able to tactically take advantage of the LNA troops being deployed to for this offensive in the north. It shows what’s likely to happen if this fighting continues, that there will be a vacuum, and IS is perfectly positioned to take advantage of that,” Pack, of Libya Analysis, said.
Lawless environment
Some experts warn that Libya’s southern desert areas are particularly vulnerable to IS re-emergence because of their lawless environment. The vast territory has also served as a safe haven for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, and the opposition fighters from Chad, Mali and Sudan.
Haftar’s LNA forces earlier this year launched a large-scale attack on the Fezzan region, which made IS supply networks in the south more complicated.
WATCH: Libyan Strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar
Hady Amr, an expert with the Brookings Institution who served as deputy head for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said the clashes in Tripoli could easily undo the progress made against the jihadists in the distant areas of the country.
“While militant Islam has proven effective at adaptation, and while religion continues to have an appeal in a scary and rapidly transforming world, it is most likely to be most effective in the far-flung areas of Libya,” Amr told VOA.
“It rises up and seeks to exploit the vacuum created by new developments when other factions are in conflict,” he added.
…
US White Nationalists Barred by Facebook Find Haven on Russia Site
Ihar Tsikhanenka contributed to this report
WASHINGTON — Last month, Jeff Schoep, the self-styled commander of one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States, took to VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, to update his followers about a brewing scandal.
Schoep’s group, the National Socialist Movement, was outraged over his bizarre decision to hand over the reins to a black civil rights activist, and Schoep wanted to set the record straight.
Addressing “Fellow Patriots of the National Socialist Movement,” Schoep wrote in a March 2 post that he had been “deceived” by James Stern who had persuaded him to sign over NSM’s presidency to him in order to shield the group from a lawsuit. Schoep reassigned control to his chief of staff, Burt Colucci.
VK welcomes provocative, racially offensive posts
Schoep chose VKontakte, or VK, for a reason: Russia’s free-for-all Facebook clone is the only major social media platform that still welcomes people like him to post pretty much anything they want — no matter how racially offensive or provocative — with relative impunity.
With U.S. social media companies tightening their content policies in the wake of the recent mosque shootings in New Zealand, some extremist groups are getting pushed to the margins of the internet.
That, researchers say, could turn VK into a safe harbor for an ever greater number of white nationalists seeking to communicate with one another and get their messages out.
“The best thing about VK is it’s not going to throw you off for saying terrible things about Jews or African Americans and so on,” said Heidi Beirich, director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center, tongue in cheek.
In recent years, as social media companies have curbed extremist content on their platforms, tech-savvy white nationalists have turned to alternative sites to communicate, organize and recruit members.
While some have been pushed into the internet’s dark underbelly, others have gravitated to websites that still allow extremist content under the guise of free speech.
For Twitter users, Gab, a “free speech” Twitter clone, has emerged as an alternative. For white nationalists banned from Facebook, VK, based in St. Petersburg, has become a favorite destination. Its laissez faire policy allows them to post hate-filled memes, praise Hitler, rail at immigrants and Jews, and doxx — publish private information about their enemies.
100 right-wing American groups on VK
Megan Squire, a computer scientist at Elon University in North Carolina, has collected data on about 100 right-wing American groups and 10,000 members on VK. They range from the older skinheads and neo-Nazis to the younger, more modern ethno-nationalists collectively known as the alt-right, short for alternative right.
Many alt-right followers joined VK after they were barred from Facebook in the wake of the 2017 right-wing white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
While some have since left VK, the Russian platform’s attractiveness as a meeting ground for right-wing extremists is likely to grow after Facebook announced last month it would prohibit content that promotes white nationalism and separatism.
“I don’t think there is any question activity will pick up on VK,” Beirich said.
Hate groups view themselves as civil rights’ organizations
Labeled as hate groups by the SPLC, extremist white nationalist groups see themselves as civil rights organizations and say Facebook’s new policy will only encourage members to look for alternative platforms such as VK.
“Institutions like Facebook … have extremely strict laws as far as what you can and can’t say on there,” Colucci said in an interview.
“So consequently, as an American, even though we have our constitutional rights, we have to go to a Russian network such as VK to be able to express it.”
Founded in 2006, two years after Facebook, VK has grown into Russia’s largest social media platform with an estimated 500 million users.
Then, Charlottesville happened.
In August 2017, far-right groups, including Colucci’s, descended on the southern U.S. college town to protest the planned removal of a Confederate general’s statue.
A 32-year-old woman was killed, and 28 people were injured after a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Charlottesville conflict a turning point
The violence outraged the nation, especially after President Donald Trump insisted there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally.
News reports that the organizers had used social media platforms and other websites to organize and raise funds led to public pressure on internet companies to act.
In the days that followed, Facebook, Twitter and others suspended or otherwise removed dozens of accounts belonging to right-wing groups and individuals involved in the rally.
That drove many white nationalists to VK. A new VK group called “FB Alt-Right Expats” was created. Two weeks after Charlottesville, the leader of an alt-right group wrote on his brand-new VK page: “Good bye Zucc,” referring to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
VK’s terms of service prohibit users from “calls for war, aggression, as well as national and religious division.”
VK selective in enforcing terms of service
“We remove such materials and block communities and pages that distribute them minutes after user complaints,” the company said in a statement to VOA. But when it comes to extremist content, VK’s own terms of service are all but ignored or are applied selectively, experts say.
From January to November 2018, VK removed 7.9 million pieces of content related to the promotion of suicide or injury, and 300,000 posts related to violence in schools, the company said.
Last year, under Israeli pressure, VK deleted a page dedicated to a “Miss Hitler” beauty competition in which contestants were asked to upload “Nazi-themed sexy selfies” and explain why they love Hitler. But a new page titled “Miss Hitler 2019 Contest” has since cropped up. “Only Requirement to participate is to Respect Hitler,” it announced.
Russian authorities rarely interfere
Roman Dobrokhvotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, a Moscow-based investigative portal, told VOA that Russian authorities do not interfere with VK’s management “because they want to observe those radical elements, and their activity is in full view in VKontakte.”
“It’s also possible that there is a directive from above not to touch them because the Russian authorities welcome the upsurge of various racist and extremist movements in the West,” he added.
Just how many white nationalists joined VK after Charlottesville remains unclear. But the flight from Facebook proved short-lived, as some alt-right groups, unhappy with VK’s small echo chamber, left to get back on Facebook.
To create new Facebook accounts, they use throwaway email addresses or a virtual private network to make it appear as if they’re based in another country. To elude scrutiny on Facebook, they create “secret groups” open to vetted members.
“If you need to recruit people and your whole mission is … about changing the narrative, changing the social norms, then you have to be on regular social media where normal people are,” Squire said.
Neo-Nazis find VK useful to recruit followers
On the other hand, legacy membership organizations such as neo-Nazi groups “don’t mind being on VK because that’s where they’re going to grow their community,” Squire said.
Identity Dixie, a neo-Confederate group, is among those that joined VK in the aftermath of Charlottesville but have since all but abandoned it, according to Squire.
Michael Peinovich, a prominent white nationalist and conspiracy theorist, followed a similar path and now is back on Facebook.
But others, either unable or unwilling to return to Facebook, have stayed on VK. Among them are organizations such as League of the South, the National Socialist Movement and the Ku Klux Klan.
Jason Robb, general counsel of the KKK, said that while he personally has not been barred from Facebook or Twitter, he began using VK in the last year or two “as I started seeing others switch over to VK and decided to give it a try.”
“VK is not restrictive at this point and hopefully, it doesn’t change,” Robb said in an email to VOA.
Matthew Heimbach, a veteran of the neo-Nazi movement, said VK’s free speech policy makes it “very popular among many elements of the white nationalist movement.” He said more than 10,000 white nationalists have joined VK, and “the number is growing every day.”
At times, divisions among the famously quarrelsome white nationalists have spilled out into the open. After word got out last month that Schoep had “sold out” the National Socialist Movement, a tussle erupted among its members, all played out on the pages of VK.
Kynan Dutton, the Tennessee director of the organization, turned to VK to condemn Schoep as a “race traitor” and announce he was resigning from the organization “out of honor bound duty to my Race and National Socialism.”
Ramsey Randall, another NSM member, posted a meme of Schoep on VK with the words “Wanted for Treason.”
With divisions emerging within the organization’s ranks, other white nationalist groups such as the League of the South swooped in to poach irate members.
Division in NSM ‘a giant meltdown’
“It was a giant meltdown within that group,” Squire said.
Colucci played down the fallout, saying he’d regained control of the group from Stern and that for the “four or five” members it had lost, the organization had received applications from six prospective members.
Colucci said VK is not the only platform he uses to get his message out. The organization produces a podcast, a radio show and a weekly newsletter to reach members.
As for anti-communist American white nationalists using a Russian-built social media platform, Colucci said: “It’s the most ironic thing I’ve heard in my life.”
…
US White Nationalists Barred by Facebook Find Haven on Russia Site
Ihar Tsikhanenka contributed to this report
WASHINGTON — Last month, Jeff Schoep, the self-styled commander of one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States, took to VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, to update his followers about a brewing scandal.
Schoep’s group, the National Socialist Movement, was outraged over his bizarre decision to hand over the reins to a black civil rights activist, and Schoep wanted to set the record straight.
Addressing “Fellow Patriots of the National Socialist Movement,” Schoep wrote in a March 2 post that he had been “deceived” by James Stern who had persuaded him to sign over NSM’s presidency to him in order to shield the group from a lawsuit. Schoep reassigned control to his chief of staff, Burt Colucci.
VK welcomes provocative, racially offensive posts
Schoep chose VKontakte, or VK, for a reason: Russia’s free-for-all Facebook clone is the only major social media platform that still welcomes people like him to post pretty much anything they want — no matter how racially offensive or provocative — with relative impunity.
With U.S. social media companies tightening their content policies in the wake of the recent mosque shootings in New Zealand, some extremist groups are getting pushed to the margins of the internet.
That, researchers say, could turn VK into a safe harbor for an ever greater number of white nationalists seeking to communicate with one another and get their messages out.
“The best thing about VK is it’s not going to throw you off for saying terrible things about Jews or African Americans and so on,” said Heidi Beirich, director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center, tongue in cheek.
In recent years, as social media companies have curbed extremist content on their platforms, tech-savvy white nationalists have turned to alternative sites to communicate, organize and recruit members.
While some have been pushed into the internet’s dark underbelly, others have gravitated to websites that still allow extremist content under the guise of free speech.
For Twitter users, Gab, a “free speech” Twitter clone, has emerged as an alternative. For white nationalists banned from Facebook, VK, based in St. Petersburg, has become a favorite destination. Its laissez faire policy allows them to post hate-filled memes, praise Hitler, rail at immigrants and Jews, and doxx — publish private information about their enemies.
100 right-wing American groups on VK
Megan Squire, a computer scientist at Elon University in North Carolina, has collected data on about 100 right-wing American groups and 10,000 members on VK. They range from the older skinheads and neo-Nazis to the younger, more modern ethno-nationalists collectively known as the alt-right, short for alternative right.
Many alt-right followers joined VK after they were barred from Facebook in the wake of the 2017 right-wing white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
While some have since left VK, the Russian platform’s attractiveness as a meeting ground for right-wing extremists is likely to grow after Facebook announced last month it would prohibit content that promotes white nationalism and separatism.
“I don’t think there is any question activity will pick up on VK,” Beirich said.
Hate groups view themselves as civil rights’ organizations
Labeled as hate groups by the SPLC, extremist white nationalist groups see themselves as civil rights organizations and say Facebook’s new policy will only encourage members to look for alternative platforms such as VK.
“Institutions like Facebook … have extremely strict laws as far as what you can and can’t say on there,” Colucci said in an interview.
“So consequently, as an American, even though we have our constitutional rights, we have to go to a Russian network such as VK to be able to express it.”
Founded in 2006, two years after Facebook, VK has grown into Russia’s largest social media platform with an estimated 500 million users.
Then, Charlottesville happened.
In August 2017, far-right groups, including Colucci’s, descended on the southern U.S. college town to protest the planned removal of a Confederate general’s statue.
A 32-year-old woman was killed, and 28 people were injured after a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Charlottesville conflict a turning point
The violence outraged the nation, especially after President Donald Trump insisted there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally.
News reports that the organizers had used social media platforms and other websites to organize and raise funds led to public pressure on internet companies to act.
In the days that followed, Facebook, Twitter and others suspended or otherwise removed dozens of accounts belonging to right-wing groups and individuals involved in the rally.
That drove many white nationalists to VK. A new VK group called “FB Alt-Right Expats” was created. Two weeks after Charlottesville, the leader of an alt-right group wrote on his brand-new VK page: “Good bye Zucc,” referring to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
VK’s terms of service prohibit users from “calls for war, aggression, as well as national and religious division.”
VK selective in enforcing terms of service
“We remove such materials and block communities and pages that distribute them minutes after user complaints,” the company said in a statement to VOA. But when it comes to extremist content, VK’s own terms of service are all but ignored or are applied selectively, experts say.
From January to November 2018, VK removed 7.9 million pieces of content related to the promotion of suicide or injury, and 300,000 posts related to violence in schools, the company said.
Last year, under Israeli pressure, VK deleted a page dedicated to a “Miss Hitler” beauty competition in which contestants were asked to upload “Nazi-themed sexy selfies” and explain why they love Hitler. But a new page titled “Miss Hitler 2019 Contest” has since cropped up. “Only Requirement to participate is to Respect Hitler,” it announced.
Russian authorities rarely interfere
Roman Dobrokhvotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, a Moscow-based investigative portal, told VOA that Russian authorities do not interfere with VK’s management “because they want to observe those radical elements, and their activity is in full view in VKontakte.”
“It’s also possible that there is a directive from above not to touch them because the Russian authorities welcome the upsurge of various racist and extremist movements in the West,” he added.
Just how many white nationalists joined VK after Charlottesville remains unclear. But the flight from Facebook proved short-lived, as some alt-right groups, unhappy with VK’s small echo chamber, left to get back on Facebook.
To create new Facebook accounts, they use throwaway email addresses or a virtual private network to make it appear as if they’re based in another country. To elude scrutiny on Facebook, they create “secret groups” open to vetted members.
“If you need to recruit people and your whole mission is … about changing the narrative, changing the social norms, then you have to be on regular social media where normal people are,” Squire said.
Neo-Nazis find VK useful to recruit followers
On the other hand, legacy membership organizations such as neo-Nazi groups “don’t mind being on VK because that’s where they’re going to grow their community,” Squire said.
Identity Dixie, a neo-Confederate group, is among those that joined VK in the aftermath of Charlottesville but have since all but abandoned it, according to Squire.
Michael Peinovich, a prominent white nationalist and conspiracy theorist, followed a similar path and now is back on Facebook.
But others, either unable or unwilling to return to Facebook, have stayed on VK. Among them are organizations such as League of the South, the National Socialist Movement and the Ku Klux Klan.
Jason Robb, general counsel of the KKK, said that while he personally has not been barred from Facebook or Twitter, he began using VK in the last year or two “as I started seeing others switch over to VK and decided to give it a try.”
“VK is not restrictive at this point and hopefully, it doesn’t change,” Robb said in an email to VOA.
Matthew Heimbach, a veteran of the neo-Nazi movement, said VK’s free speech policy makes it “very popular among many elements of the white nationalist movement.” He said more than 10,000 white nationalists have joined VK, and “the number is growing every day.”
At times, divisions among the famously quarrelsome white nationalists have spilled out into the open. After word got out last month that Schoep had “sold out” the National Socialist Movement, a tussle erupted among its members, all played out on the pages of VK.
Kynan Dutton, the Tennessee director of the organization, turned to VK to condemn Schoep as a “race traitor” and announce he was resigning from the organization “out of honor bound duty to my Race and National Socialism.”
Ramsey Randall, another NSM member, posted a meme of Schoep on VK with the words “Wanted for Treason.”
With divisions emerging within the organization’s ranks, other white nationalist groups such as the League of the South swooped in to poach irate members.
Division in NSM ‘a giant meltdown’
“It was a giant meltdown within that group,” Squire said.
Colucci played down the fallout, saying he’d regained control of the group from Stern and that for the “four or five” members it had lost, the organization had received applications from six prospective members.
Colucci said VK is not the only platform he uses to get his message out. The organization produces a podcast, a radio show and a weekly newsletter to reach members.
As for anti-communist American white nationalists using a Russian-built social media platform, Colucci said: “It’s the most ironic thing I’ve heard in my life.”
…
UN Chief Calls for Cease-Fire in Libya
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an end to the fighting that erupted last week between Libyan political rivals for control of the capital, Tripoli.
“It’s still time to stop. It’s still time for a cease-fire to take place, for a cessation of hostilities to take place and to avoid the worst, which would be a dramatic bloody battle for Tripoli,” Guterres told reporters late Wednesday after he met behind closed doors with the 15-nation U.N. Security Council for more than two hours.
“It is still time to recognize there is no military solution. Only political solutions can apply to situations like the one in Libya,” he said.
Guterres visited Libya last week. Just hours after he departed the country, forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar advanced from their positions in the east on Tripoli, which is controlled by the U.N.-backed Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj. Guterres met with both men during his mission.
“It is obvious that my appeal for an offensive not to take place and for the hostilities to stop was not heard,” the U.N. chief said. “But I think that when one looks at the situation today, it is clear that we have a very dangerous situation, and it is clear that we absolutely need to stop it.”
National conference canceled
The fighting has scuttled U.N. plans for a national conference Sunday to bring the warring parties together. The U.N. said Tuesday that it is postponing it, as violence is overshadowing the political process.
On Wednesday, fighting centered on the suburbs south of the capital, with thousands of civilians fleeing their homes for safety. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 5,800 people have been displaced in this latest round of violence.
Residents in the city report Haftar’s warplanes were buzzing neighborhoods and firing at them. Fighting was also reported at what had been the country’s international airport.
The U.N. has expressed concern at the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas and called on the parties to abide by international law and to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.
Fears for region
U.N. officials fear the violence in Libya could destabilize the entire Middle East by sending more refugees fleeing to Europe across the dangerous Mediterranean, disrupting oil production, and allowing terrorist groups such as Islamic State to take advantage of the chaos.
South Africa’s U.N. ambassador, Jerry Matjila, told reporters after the meeting that the Security Council is united in supporting the U.N. chief and his special envoy, Ghassan Salamé, to get the parties back to the negotiating table.
Matjila also expressed concern about how the worsening situation could reverberate on the African continent.
Fears for Africans
“Also, our concern is Africans, about what might happen in the Sahel if the issue is not resolved,” he said. “We are also concerned about migrants who are trapped in some cities in Libya, and we need to give those migrants at least a corridor to go out to safety.”
There are thousands of African migrants who have tried to transit through Libya across the Mediterranean to Europe. Many are in overcrowded detention centers in Libya.
Libya has been in political and economic chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
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UN Chief Calls for Cease-Fire in Libya
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an end to the fighting that erupted last week between Libyan political rivals for control of the capital, Tripoli.
“It’s still time to stop. It’s still time for a cease-fire to take place, for a cessation of hostilities to take place and to avoid the worst, which would be a dramatic bloody battle for Tripoli,” Guterres told reporters late Wednesday after he met behind closed doors with the 15-nation U.N. Security Council for more than two hours.
“It is still time to recognize there is no military solution. Only political solutions can apply to situations like the one in Libya,” he said.
Guterres visited Libya last week. Just hours after he departed the country, forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar advanced from their positions in the east on Tripoli, which is controlled by the U.N.-backed Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj. Guterres met with both men during his mission.
“It is obvious that my appeal for an offensive not to take place and for the hostilities to stop was not heard,” the U.N. chief said. “But I think that when one looks at the situation today, it is clear that we have a very dangerous situation, and it is clear that we absolutely need to stop it.”
National conference canceled
The fighting has scuttled U.N. plans for a national conference Sunday to bring the warring parties together. The U.N. said Tuesday that it is postponing it, as violence is overshadowing the political process.
On Wednesday, fighting centered on the suburbs south of the capital, with thousands of civilians fleeing their homes for safety. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 5,800 people have been displaced in this latest round of violence.
Residents in the city report Haftar’s warplanes were buzzing neighborhoods and firing at them. Fighting was also reported at what had been the country’s international airport.
The U.N. has expressed concern at the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas and called on the parties to abide by international law and to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.
Fears for region
U.N. officials fear the violence in Libya could destabilize the entire Middle East by sending more refugees fleeing to Europe across the dangerous Mediterranean, disrupting oil production, and allowing terrorist groups such as Islamic State to take advantage of the chaos.
South Africa’s U.N. ambassador, Jerry Matjila, told reporters after the meeting that the Security Council is united in supporting the U.N. chief and his special envoy, Ghassan Salamé, to get the parties back to the negotiating table.
Matjila also expressed concern about how the worsening situation could reverberate on the African continent.
Fears for Africans
“Also, our concern is Africans, about what might happen in the Sahel if the issue is not resolved,” he said. “We are also concerned about migrants who are trapped in some cities in Libya, and we need to give those migrants at least a corridor to go out to safety.”
There are thousands of African migrants who have tried to transit through Libya across the Mediterranean to Europe. Many are in overcrowded detention centers in Libya.
Libya has been in political and economic chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
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your ad hereEU, Britain Agree on Brexit Pause to Oct. 31
European Union leaders gave Theresa May a new Brexit deadline of Oct. 31, four months longer than the prime minister asked for, in a move the EU summit chair said would let Britain resolve its domestic deadlock on the issue.
“EU27/UK have agreed a flexible extension until 31 October,” European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted after eight hours of talks that went into the early hours of Thursday.
“This means (an) additional six months for the UK to find the best possible solution,” Tusk added on the eve of what would otherwise have been the day Britain crashed out of the bloc with no deal to smooth the departure for businesses and citizens.
Britain, he stressed, could still leave earlier if May secures parliamentary backing for her Brexit treaty, or it could amend what it wants from a future trade pact. “Until the end of this period, the UK will also have the possibility to … cancel Brexit altogether,” Tusk added.
The agreement gives May more than the three months, to June 30, that she asked for to build a parliamentary majority behind the withdrawal treaty she negotiated with the EU last year.
But she insisted Britain could still secure a deal and leave before Britons would have to vote in a May 23-26 election to the European Parliament — a condition for the country to remain a member of the bloc beyond June 1 under the EU’s accord.
Resistance from Macron
Many leaders had wanted a much longer extension, to the end of the year or even next March, but French President Emmanuel Macron mounted stiff resistance throughout the evening, eventually forcing the compromise.
Macron questioned May’s ability to persuade Parliament to her treaty, EU officials said, and said that a tighter deadline would focus British minds. Others argued that an even longer extension could spook May’s pro-Brexit critics into backing her deal for fear Brexit might stall.
Leaving at midnight on Oct. 31 — Halloween, as social media commentators were quick to note — would correspond with the end of the mandate of the present EU executive Commission.
Leaders would assess the situation again when they meet for a regular summit on June 20-21. Britain could have left by then if May succeeds in building a coalition for her deal with the Labour opposition, though there is no sign of agreement yet.
In order to continue as an EU member beyond June, May has agreed to organize British elections to the European Parliament, though it is still unclear if that vote will go ahead and how far it might turn into a virtual second referendum on EU membership that some hope could mean British cancellation of Brexit.
Other leaders had all but ruled out pitching Britain, and parts of the EU economy, into chaos on Friday. But a drive by Macron to keep London on a tight leash saw the emergency summit bogged down in late-night wrangling as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others argued the merits of a longer lag.
As at a summit last month, which put back Brexit for two weeks, several EU diplomats said May failed to convince her peers that she could break the paralysis of repeated failures to ratify the treaty within the coming months.
French officials said the EU faced “blackmail” by hard-line pro-Brexit potential successors to May, such as Boris Johnson. They might try to sabotage decision-making, they said.
Laughter with Merkel
However, Merkel has urged the bloc to do all it can to avoid such disruption. She said before leaving Berlin that she favored a delay of “several months” for May, who has pledged to quit if hard-core Brexit supporters in her own Conservative Party drop objections to her “soft Brexit” and help ratify the deal.
Keen to ease tension, Merkel had broken the ice as talks began by showing May a photo montage on a tablet of both wearing similar jackets when addressing their parliaments earlier in the day. It provoked mutual laughter as other leaders joined in.
As talks wore on beyond midnight, with May patiently waiting elsewhere in the building for word on her nation’s fate, Macron rallied support for his concerns about a long extension.
May said on arrival that she did not want a long delay: “I want us to be able to leave the European Union in a smooth and orderly way as soon as possible,” she told reporters.
Her EU peers, however, are skeptical about her ability to break the deadlock soon. They are exasperated with May’s handling of a tortuous and costly divorce that is a distraction from ensuring the bloc can hold its own against global economic challenges.
Across from the summit venue, the EU executive celebrated its part in funding a global project that produced the first picture of a black hole, prompting no shortage of wry comments on social media about the juxtaposition.
Blogger Eliot Higgins tweeted: “We’re now more certain about what black holes look like than what Brexit looks like.”
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