Author Salman Rushdie called Sunday for the unconditional defense of freedom of expression as he received a prestigious German prize that recognizes his literary work and his resolve in the face of constant danger.

The British-American author decried the current age as a time when freedom of expression is under attack by all sides, including from authoritarian and populist voices, according to the German news agency dpa.

He made his remarks during a ceremony in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where he was honored with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for continuing to write despite enduring decades of threats and violence.

In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly while on stage at a literary festival in New York state.

Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” will be released on April 16. He called it a way “to answer violence with art.”

The German prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($26,500), has been awarded since 1950. The German jury said earlier this year that it would honor Rushdie “for his resolve, his positive attitude to life and for the fact that he enriches the world with his pleasure in narrating.”

Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had condemned passages referring to the Prophet Muhammad in Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” as blasphemous. Khomeini issued a decree the following year calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author into hiding, although he had been traveling freely for years before last summer’s stabbing.
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Weak economic growth and high interest on the country’s huge debt are the main problems facing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after her first year in power, an anniversary marked by an abrupt announcement she was leaving her long-time partner.

Meloni’s coalition, the first led by a woman in Italy’s history, was sworn in a year ago after a sweeping election victory and will soon cruise past the 14-month average postwar term life for Italian governments.

It was seen on taking power as the country’s most right-wing since wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, as Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). 

Yet Meloni, 46, set about quelling foreign concerns of possible extremism, forging good ties with allies by adopting a strongly pro-Western, EU-friendly stance and pledging staunch support to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

At home she pleased her rightist grassroots through measures to defend the traditional family, protect Italy’s cultural heritage and try to stem migrant arrivals.

“We have worked tirelessly to repay the trust and to demonstrate with facts that it was possible to build a different Italy,” she said in a video message this week.

However, an economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic has ground to a halt, with gross domestic product contracting by 0.4% in the second quarter, and analysts forecast Italian growth will be among the lowest in the euro zone next year.

That makes it harder for Meloni to keep her tax-cutting promises and makes Italy’s debt, equal to 140% of national output, vulnerable to market sell-offs.

“The economy is probably the toughest subject. The government has low margins in which to operate,” said Valentina Meliciani, an economics professor at LUISS university in Rome.

Last week Meloni weathered the first of several reviews on Italy’s debt when S&P Global Ratings confirmed the country’s BBB rating with a stable outlook.

However, the prevailing view among analysts is that the rating agencies will worsen Rome’s outlook while avoiding outright downgrades.

Meloni also has personal problems to deal with. She announced on Friday she was separating from her long-time partner, TV presenter Andrea Giambruno, after he repeatedly sparked outrage for sexist comments made on and off-air.

Tax cuts

This month the government approved a 2024 budget with around 24 billion euros ($25.3 billion) of tax cuts and increased spending, despite a public debt that is proportionally the second highest in the euro zone after Greece’s.

The budget has not impressed investors, and exacerbated a long-running rise in Italian bond spreads.

The gap between yields on Italian 10-year bonds and the German equivalent is hovering around 2 percentage points (200 basis points), far higher than for any other euro zone country.

Meliciani said Italy’s hopes of reviving its economy and cutting debt were strongly dependent on effective implementation of investment plans financed through EU post-COVID funds.

So far Rome has struggled to meet Brussels’ policy conditions and to spend the money it has received.

On the international front, as well as her backing for Ukraine Meloni has largely avoided confrontation with Brussels despite her eurosceptic past.

She has also dropped the calls she used to make in opposition for a naval blockade to prevent boats leaving north Africa, despite her inability to halt the influx of migrants.

Arrivals on Italy’s coasts have surged to more than 140,000 so far in 2023, nearly double the same period last year.

“We expected Italy to be very tough (on immigration) at the EU level but we have seen a conciliatory attitude overall, they are working to find a common line,” said Enzo Moavero Milanesi, a former foreign affairs minister.

Commanding position

At home Meloni has so far avoided the domestic political chaos that dogged so many of her predecessors.

A divided opposition has helped her tighten her grip on power and keep her party at the top of the polls, with nearly 30% of voter support, against around 18.5% for the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and 17% for the maverick 5-Star Movement.

Her party dominates its coalition allies, the League and Forza Italia, whose combined score remains below 20%.

Analysts believe a slice of center-right voters switched to Meloni from the other two parties and are unlikely to shake the balance of power within the coalition by changing back again.

“Meloni came after a decade of political instability and voters floating across the party spectrum. The country looks now tired of this,” said historian and politics expert Giovanni Orsina.

($1 = 0.9476 euros) 
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In his daily address Friday, the president of Ukraine thanked military personnel in southern Ukraine “who are holding their ground and destroying the occupier day after day.”

“These days,” Volodomyr Zelenskyy said, “Russian losses are really impressive, and it is exactly the kind of losses of the occupier that Ukraine needs.”

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement that Russia will begin conducting fighter patrols in the eastern Black Sea with interceptor aircraft armed with Kinzhal air-launched missiles is in reaction to an increased presence of the U.S. in the eastern Mediterranean.

“Putin’s announcement,” the report said, “is in line with typical Russian rhetoric aimed at its domestic audience,” which calls the West aggressors, while framing Russian activity as “necessary for protection of the state.”

The Kinzhal missile, the ministry said, is “highly capable on paper,” but its performance in Ukraine thus far has been “poor.”

The British ministry said that “on paper” the Kinzhal is “able to fly at hypersonic speeds and evade modern air defense systems, although there almost certainly needs to be significant improvement in how Russia uses it to achieve this potential.”
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Three people died in Scotland and England and families were trapped in flooded homes Friday as Storm Babet moved east after pounding Ireland and headed for Scandinavia.

The U.K.’s Met Office issued a rare red severe weather warning for parts of eastern Scotland with “exceptional rainfall” of up to 22 centimeters (8.6 inches) forecast for Friday and Saturday.

Police said the body of a 57-year-old woman had been recovered after she was swept into a river in the county of Angus on Thursday afternoon.

A second person also died in Angus on Thursday evening after a falling tree hit the van the 56-year-old was driving.

A man in his 60s was dead Friday, washed away by waters that had flooded a road in Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire in central England, police said.

Officials in the southern Irish county of Cork, where hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded earlier in the week, described the deluge there as the worst in at least 30 years.

A community hospital for the elderly had to be evacuated in the town of Midleton, Cork, where the main street was up to four feet under water.

As the storm hit Scotland, Scottish leader Humza Yousaf warned Friday that he could not “stress how dangerous” conditions were, in the northeastern town of Brechin.

Emergency services were battling to reach trapped residents but being hampered by strong currents and flooding of up to 6 feet (nearly 2 meters).

“Around half the average monthly rainfall for October is expected to fall through tonight and tomorrow in areas that have already been severely affected by exceptional levels of rainfall,” Yousaf said late Friday.

“It’s just absolutely horrendous. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said local councilor Jill Scott, adding that hundreds of homes had been flooded.

Like a river

“People are trapped. … Some have been stuck there for hours. The boats are trying to get to them [but] they can’t get to them because the current is too strong. It’s all white water running round there. It’s like a river,” she added.

Fire crews and the coast guard began evacuating residents Thursday in Angus, knocking on doors and urging people to leave.

“Over 350 homes across Angus were contacted yesterday [Thursday] and advised to evacuate,” a spokesperson for Angus council said.

“Brechin, and increasingly other parts of Angus, are now only accessible via boat,” he added.

Train services meanwhile were severely disrupted as far south as central England due to heavy rainfall and high winds.

Some routes in northwest England and north Wales were completely closed due to flooding, rail officials said.

The Energy Networks Association said around 10,000 houses were without power in England while 45,000 others had been reconnected.

The Met Office has issued a string of less severe yellow and amber warnings indicating adverse weather conditions including flooding, heavy rain and high winds for other parts of central and northern England.
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The sumptuous Palace of Versailles was forced to evacuate visitors for the fourth time in less than a week for a security check after a bomb alert. Airports and schools around France also fell victim to bomb alerts and forced evacuations after similar warnings a day earlier. Even a nuclear research institute received a threat Thursday.

Pranksters or plotters?

No bombs have been found, but authorities can’t take risks with the lives of travelers, students or workers. Still, the government is growing impatient, threatening prison terms and heavy fines for those making fake bomb threats. A rash of false alarms forced the evacuation of 15 airports and cancellation of 130 flights, as well as shutting the doors to the Palace of Versailles repeatedly since last Saturday.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Thursday evening that 18 people had been detained in the last 48 hours — mostly, but not only, minors.

The barrage of alerts “disorganizes our security services and obviously stops society from functioning,” Darmanin said in an interview with BFM-TV. False alerts also “pose an enormous risk in case of a (real) problem.”

The minister said that “enormous means” are being used to identify pranksters with their phone numbers and addresses.

“We tell those listening: We will find everyone,” he said.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti blamed the alerts on “little jokers, little clowns” and warned of the consequences.

Under French law, prank calls can be punished with up to three years’ imprisonment and fines of 45,000 euros ($47,000), the minister said. The justice minister said minors’ parents could be made to pay for damages, while the interior minister said that student pranksters won’t get off the hook: their names and phone numbers will be transmitted to the National Education system.

“We don’t need this. We don’t need troublemakers, psychosis, at this moment,” the justice minister said Wednesday.

Police said that at least seven airports received threats Thursday, mainly by email. Among those targeted were airports at Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse.

France has been on heightened alert since the fatal stabbing of a schoolteacher last week that was blamed on a suspected Islamic extremist who allegedly declared allegiance to the Islamic State group.

A funeral service for Dominique Bernard, the French-language teacher killed by a knife wound to the neck, was held Thursday in Arras, the northern town where he taught at the Gambetta-Carnot school. President Emmanuel Macron was in attendance — his plane on the tarmac of nearby Lille airport, among those evacuated during the morning service, according to the local Voix du Nord newspaper.

Among threats received Thursday was one at a nuclear research facility in Grenoble, in the southeast. Two delivery men, aged 23 and 26, were arrested after leaving a package at the Laue Langevin Institute and telling guards as they left, “We did it. We delivered a bomb,” the local Le Dauphine Libere reported. 

French Transport Minister Clement Beaune said false threats were made against 17 airports Wednesday, causing widespread disruption, the evacuation of 15 airports, cancellation of 130 flights and many flight delays.

It is the regional prefects who decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether threats necessitate an evacuation.

“For the moment, we have no miracle solution,” said Nicolas Paulissen, general delegate for the Union of French Airports which is present at all 150 airports around the country. The bomb risk cannot be ignored, but “we can’t stop airports from functioning.”

He noted, however, that airports are capable of adapting to threats and crises.

“Adaptation is in our DNA,” Paulissen said.

Beaune, the transport minister, underscored the government’s firm message about the barrage of bomb alerts.

“These false alerts are not bad jokes. They are crimes,” Beaune posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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President Joe Biden returned to the United States from Israel without meeting Palestinian or Arab leaders. With the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensifying, Washington’s ability to prevent a wider war is becoming more complicated. Cindy Saine reports. Contributor: Calla Yu. Camera: Yiyi Yang.
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The World Health Organization said Thursday that five trucks full of medical supplies are ready at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, with hopes that the aid could be delivered to Palestinian hospitals as early as Friday.

“Our trucks are loaded and ready to go,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. The delivery of aid would be the first since Israel imposed a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip, following the October 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed over 1,400 Israelis. 

Health authorities in the Gaza Strip said Thursday that at least 3,785 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardment since the latest conflict erupted.

Border closed

While aid continues to build up on the Egyptian side of the crossing, Egypt is not allowing Palestinians to cross from Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. 

Following a meeting on Wednesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said such an exodus of people from Gaza would jeopardize Palestinian aspirations of statehood.

“The idea of displacement of Palestinians from the [Gaza] strip to Egypt simply means that something similar will also happen with the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan. And thus the idea of the Palestinian state that we are talking about — and the international community is talking about — remains unimplementable, because the land exists, but the people do not exist, and therefore I warn of the danger of this matter,” el-Sissi told reporters in Cairo.

“The idea [of] transferring Palestinian citizens from the [Gaza] strip to Sinai very simply means that we are transferring the idea of resistance, the idea of fighting from the Gaza Strip to Sinai, and thus Sinai becomes a base for launching operations against Israel. In this case, Israel will have the right to defend itself and its national security, and as part of the response, it deals with Egypt and launches strikes on Egyptian lands,” the president added.

Palestinian refugees

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their land in past conflicts with Israel, with many settling in Egypt and other neighboring states. Many refugees have never been allowed to return — and the regions fear the wider implications of Palestinians being forced to flee Gaza, said analyst Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding.

“[Egypt] does not want to land up hosting hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Sinai, in a tented city — with really quite a clear agenda, certainly on the Israeli right, that that becomes the permanent solution,” Doyle told VOA. “Palestinians and Egyptians are aware of this, are fearful that what happened to them in 1948 and 1967, when they fled in fear or were kicked out, will happen to them again. They’re talking about a second Nakba, a catastrophe.”

Cairo protests

In Cairo, as in many cities across the Arab world and beyond, thousands of people have taken to the streets to denounce Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Mahmoud Kamel, of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, helped to organize a demonstration in the Egyptian capital Wednesday.

“[We] condemn the massacre, the war crime and the genocide carried out by the Zionist forces and the IDF against the civilian, unarmed people of Gaza, occupied West Bank and Jerusalem,” Kamel told Reuters.

The protests pose a risk for President el-Sissi, said analyst Doyle. “We’re seeing a lot of anger right now in Egypt about what’s going on. So, [Egypt] will be wary of being seen to be somehow supporting Israeli actions at this moment, even though in private they are very critical of Hamas as well,” he said.

Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt’s president seized power in a 2013 military coup, ousting the democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood government.

“Let’s not forget that that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Professor Yossi Mekelberg of London’s Chatham House. “The more we see death among civilians, Palestinian civilians, the more people will go probably to the street. And it can really inflame the political situation in Egypt. And that’s why it’s actually in the Egyptian interest to mediate a cease-fire and mediate quickly.”

Dialogue

While Egypt has dialogue with Hamas, Mekelberg said it is also able to talk to Israel.

“Strategically, there is great understanding between Israel and Egypt over the last 10 to 11 years. And the other side — for Israel — he is a convenient neighbor. Because what is the alternative? The Muslim Brotherhood? This is definitely not something that Israel would like. It’s hard to see many other candidates to negotiate, to lead mediation between Hamas and Israel,” Mekelberg told VOA.

For now, analysts say Israel does not appear ready for mediation from any regional power, as it seeks retribution and the eradication of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 
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European Union interior ministers on Thursday debated how to manage the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas on the bloc, amid heightened security tensions after a firebomb assault on a Berlin synagogue and killings in Belgium and France by suspected Islamist extremists.

Officials from across the 27-nation EU have expressed concerns about a rise in antisemitic attacks, the radicalization of young people online, the use of encrypted messaging services by criminals or extremists, and the need to speed up the deportation of people who might pose a public danger.

But calls for an increase in security across the board are also creating deep unease as the solutions being discussed could undermine free movement and the right to assemble in Europe.

Italy is introducing border checks to counter a possible rise in tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. Denmark and Sweden are too, due to what they say is an “Islamist terrorist threat.” France intends to keep checks in place until at least May 2024, citing “new terrorist threats and external borders situation.”

More police have been deployed in Belgium, France and Germany.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell believes that part of the solution to Europe’s security woes must involve the bloc helping diplomatically and financially to bring an end to years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We have learned from history that the most difficult decisions are always taken when we are on the edge of the abyss. I believe that is where we are now: on the edge of the abyss,” Borrell told EU lawmakers on Wednesday.

“When I hear Muslim religious authorities speaking the language of inter-religious conflict and explicitly stating that Europe is a party to this conflict, I feel that the storm clouds are looming,” he said.

Still, not all of Europe’s challenges are directly linked to the war.

Earlier on Thursday, Sweden hosted a meeting of ministers from eight countries, among them Germany, Belgium and France, focused on how to handle incidents where people burn the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

Prosecutors are trying to establish whether that was a key motive for a Tunisian man who shot three Swedes in Brussels on Monday, killing two of them, ahead of a Belgium-Sweden soccer match in the capital.

While the Quran burnings are not directly linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, they are a sign of rising tensions between religious and other communities in Europe.

The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in the past 11 days.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

“We have to address multiple impacts from the continuing crisis in the Middle East” in the EU, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said.

“This entails the protection of our Jewish communities, but also the protection against a generalized climate of Islamophobia that has no place in our society,” he told reporters in Luxembourg, where the meetings were held.

Pro-Palestinian rallies have been held in several European cities since the war. France has banned them. Germany has also promised to take tougher action against Hamas, which is already on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.

After assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at the Berlin synagogue on Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “we will never accept when attacks are carried out against Jewish institutions.”

In France, the Palace of Versailles — a major tourist attraction — and three airports were evacuated for security reasons and temporarily closed Wednesday. The incidents were the latest in a spate of evacuations in the past five days, and the French government is threatening to fine or jail prank callers.

They followed the killing of a teacher in northern France on Friday by a suspected Islamist extremist.

French Interior Minister Gerland Darmanin noted that two foreigners were behind the recent attacks in Belgium and France, and he insisted that long-delayed reforms of EU asylum rules must be put in place.

Europe must “manage our borders, register people and conduct the security interviews that are necessary before every asylum request,” he told reporters.

Belgium’s top migration official, Nicole de Moor, said that “we are facing terror in the streets of our cities, in France, in Belgium, and we cannot tolerate this. Innocent people are dying, and this is unacceptable.”

She said tougher deportation laws are needed and countries that refuse to take back their nationals must be made to cooperate. The EU has agreements with Turkey and Tunisia to get them to prevent migrants reaching Europe but they are not working. Other deals, with Egypt notably, are planned.
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on Thursday to demonstrate solidarity with a country reeling from an Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas gunmen and to hold talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.

With Israel’s counter-offensive against Hamas in Gaza spiraling, Sunak will share his condolences for the loss of life in Israel and in the Palestinian enclave and warn against further escalation, his office said.

“Above all, I’m here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people. You have suffered an unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you,” Sunak told Israeli reporters after landing.

Sunak was due to visit other regional capitals after Israel.

In an early statement, he said a Gaza hospital blast Tuesday that caused mass Palestinian casualties should be “a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict,” adding that Britain would be at “the forefront of this effort.”

Sunak will also urge the opening up of a route to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt as soon as possible, and to enable British nationals trapped in Gaza to leave.

“Every civilian death is a tragedy. And too many lives have been lost following Hamas’ horrific act of terror,” Sunak said.

At least seven British nationals have been killed and at least nine are still missing since the attack on Israel, Sunak’s spokesperson said Wednesday.

Alongside Sunak’s visit, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who visited Israel last week, will travel to Egypt, Turkey and Qatar over the next three days to discuss the conflict and seek a peaceful resolution, his office said.

Britain said the three countries were “vital to international efforts to uphold regional stability, free hostages and allow humanitarian access to Gaza.”

Cleverly will meet with senior leaders there to discuss efforts to prevent the conflict spreading, the urgent need to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt to let aid reach those who need it and for Hamas to release hostages, Britain said. 
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Officials in southern Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a residential area late Wednesday, killing at least two people.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the missile hit a food shop in the Mykolaiv region.

Vitaliy Kim, the regional governor, said the attack happened in the village of Stepove and damaged both residential buildings and an agricultural business.

Another Russian missile strike earlier Wednesday hit a residential building in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Wednesday that attack killed five people and injured five others.

Another Russian strike killed a woman and injured four other people in Dnipropetrovsk, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Tensions between the United States and Turkey are growing, with each side accusing the other of posing a security threat. The war of words follows the U.S. downing of a Turkish drone that Washington said was threatening American forces in Syria. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their deepening bilateral ties Wednesday during a one-on-one meeting in Beijing.

The two leaders held talks at the Great Hall of the People on the sideline of a forum marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s signature policy to build massive infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Eastern and Southern Europe.

Referring to his Russian counterpart as “my old friend,” President Xi said the ‘political trust” between China and Russia has deepened, with two sides sharing “close, effective strategic coordination.”

“In the current difficult conditions, close foreign policy coordination is especially necessary,” President Putin said in his opening remarks.

The two leaders noted that bilateral trade was on track to reach a record $200 billion this year.

Just weeks before Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Xi and Putin signed a pledge declaring their “no-limits” bilateral partnership. Beijing has since become Moscow’s most reliable economic and diplomatic partner as Western nations have imposed strict economic sanctions in response to the invasion.

Putin’s trip to Beijing was his second overseas since the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for his arrest in March for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Earlier this month he traveled to Kyrgyzstan.

The ICC has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, obligating member countries to detain the Russian leader if he steps foot on their territory. Neither China, nor Kyrgyzstan, the other nation Putin has visited since the warrant, are members.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
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