Greece’s foreign minister says he’s confident a preliminary deal to rename neighboring Macedonia will be fully ratified despite opposition in both countries.

 

Nikos Kotzias says he hopes and believes Macedonians will back the name change to “North Macedonia” in a September 30 referendum.

 

If implemented, the agreement will end a decades-old bilateral dispute and ease Macedonia’s accession to NATO and the European Union.

 

Kotzias also said Thursday that once Macedonia’s parliament amends the country’s constitution to accommodate the change, Greek lawmakers will also ratify the deal – even though most opposition parties reject it.

 

Kotzias said the timetable for finalizing the process will probably be delayed by about a month, to late January. He spoke after talks in Athens with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

 
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A French court ordered Marine Le Pen to submit to a psychiatric evaluation as part of its investigation into her decision to post images of Islamic State executions on Twitter, the far right leader said on Thursday and denounced the order.

The investigation is one of a series that have distracted Le Pen’s National Rally, formerly known as the National Front, as it seeks to rebuild after her loss to President Emmanuel Macron in the second round of an election last year.

The investigation relates to three graphic images of Islamic State executions Le Pen posted on Twitter in 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

The tribunal declined to confirm it had ordered the evaluation but said the assessments were a normal part of such probes.

“I thought I had seen it all: but no! For having denounced the horrors of #Daesh in tweets, the ‘justice’ is submitting me to a psychiatric evaluation! How far will they go?” Le Pen wrote on Twitter. “It’s UNBELIEVABLE.”

She later told reporters she would skip the test. “I’d like to see how the judge would try and force me do it,” she said.

Le Pen’s criticism fits the party’s narrative that it is persecuted by judges as part of an attempt by the establishment to undermine it politically.

Le Pen was placed under formal investigation in March on suspicion of disseminating violent images. The law states that medical evaluations must be carried out in such probes.

Le Pen and her party have been targeted by a series of other judicial probes, including over the alleged misuse of EU funds.

According to a copy of the court document dated September 11, which Le Pen published on Twitter, the judge wants the evaluation to assess if she suffers from any mental illness and, if so, if that could have affected her understanding of what she was doing when she posted the tweets.

The expert is also tasked with determining whether her mental health could be a risk to the public.

Le Pen’s hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon said the evaluation was unnecessary because Le Pen was “politically responsible for her political acts.”

“This is not how we will weaken the far-right,” he said.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in a statement: “A court orders a psychiatric assessment for Marine Le Pen. Words fail me! Solidarity with her and with the French who love freedom!”
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European Union leaders have gathered in Salzburg, Austria, for an informal discussion of key issues, including the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc. Britain’s conservative government has lost a majority and with it the mandate for a so-called “hard Brexit,” in which Britain would leave the EU’s single market and customs union. It is now seeking a compromise. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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The widow of an ex-KGB agent who was poisoned by a radioactive isotope in 2006 says Britain’s swift medical and diplomatic response to the recent nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter shows some improvement by British officials.

Skripal’s case has drawn numerous comparisons to the case of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian KGB-officer-turned-British-intelligence-agent and highly public critic of President Vladimir Putin.

Litvinenko died an agonizing death days after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 in a London hotel over decade ago, leaving British doctors struggling to identify the substance that killed him.

Speaking with VOA’s Russian service, Marina Litvinenko, Alexander’s widow, was asked whether British security officials had done enough to prevent — or at least prepare for — another attack.

She said that learning another former Russian spy had mysteriously fallen gravely ill on British soil — Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in the English town of Salisbury last March — came as a shock and “very serious disappointment.”

“But in this case, everything was different. There was no need to explain what was going on,” she said.

When her late husband was first hospitalized in November 2006, doctors initially attributed the poisoning to a severe stomach bug or ingested chemical. Her repeated attempts to explain the rationale of a possible covert assassination attempt, she said, fell on deaf ears.

“The doctors had no idea what we were talking about,” she said. “When we tried to explain that we were not just political refugees, but that [Alexander] had a very serious conflict with a special intelligence agency in Russia, the people acted like we lived on another planet. And not because they didn’t believe us — they just couldn’t comprehend what we were talking about.”

In Skripal’s case, however, “there was no need to explain what was going on,” in part because of his official status with British authorities. Unlike Litvinenko’s late husband, who advised British intelligence in an informal capacity, Skripal, she said, had received full asylum in a spy swap, meaning that security officials and forensic analysts were much better prepared to read the crime scene and outline a probable scenario.

Rapid confirmation of Skripal’s personal background, she said, also prepared medical professionals for the possibility that they would be dealing with a highly exotic — and exceptionally lethal — substance.

“There was really no need to prove who wanted to poison Skripal or why,” she said, adding that although she isn’t aware of any formal mechanisms for safeguarding fugitive spies against future poisoning attempts, “the U.K. has shown that for the most part, it did learn a lesson.”

Diplomatic response

“Literally a week after Skripal was poisoned, a completely different reaction followed, different from what was happening with our case,” Litvinenko said. “[Prime Minister] Theresa May made a public statement that was quite harsh, but it’s wrong to say that she immediately accused Russia. It wasn’t quite like that. She simply said that there are suspicions, and that it is important that Russia immediately provide evidence that they did not do it. And what did we all see? Angry responses from Russia saying that they had nothing to do with it and that the case does not apply to them in any way.”

As Britain launched a formal probe of the Salisbury chemical attack, which experts traced to a Soviet-era nerve toxin known as Novichok, Russia, she said, refused to discuss the possibility of pooling information, which might have entailed allowing international experts to investigate Russian chemical weapons labs.

“And then there was the international reaction,” said Litvinenko. “The way Britain was immediately supported by the EU and USA; the mass expulsion of diplomats was impressive. Nothing like that happened after my husband was poisoned. Also, the way the U.K. started treating money from Russian investors — that [large foreign investments] are now vetted and treated much more seriously. And this is important to understand … that people who benefit from this [Russian] regime should not be accepted in civilized countries simply as people with money.

“And I’m by no means saying that all rich people are thieves — absolutely not,” she added. “But if we say that this regime is a threat, and these people get big money only because they are close to the regime and not because they are very talented, not because they created their own businesses … these people need to understand that they cannot spend their money — stolen money, if you ask me — in America or in Europe.”

Real estate markets in London, New York and Miami are all under varying levels of scrutiny for the unusually large number of all-cash transactions that can be legally anonymized via offshore shell companies or are frequently traced to wealthy investors from Russia or former Soviet republics.

Russia has vigorously denied having any role in the attacks on British soil, a denial that even family members of both victims support.

In 2012, for example, Walter Litvinenko, father of the dead spy, appeared on Russia’s RT news outlet alongside Andrei Lugovoi, the man Britain accused of poisoning his son, to retract his longstanding opinion that Russian intelligence murdered his son on direct orders from Putin.

“I think [Walter] was used,” Marina Litvinenko told VOA on Friday. “He had just then lost his wife. He was in a difficult financial situation living in exile in Italy. And I think Russian intelligence emphasized [Alexander’s] cooperation with British agents, giving him an excuse to save face, to return to Russia and beg the president’s forgiveness.”

During that same broadcast, which also aired on state-run Channel One, the senior Litvinenko, who served as a doctor in a Soviet-era gulag and now resides in a pensioner’s flat in Moscow, called fugitive Russians in the U.K. “hostages” of Western spy agencies.

Lugovoi, who Russia has long refused to extradite, blamed the 2006 murder on Alexander Goldfarb, a personal friend of the late Litvinenko, whom he described as an undercover CIA officer out to frame Russian operatives.

About a year before the RT broadcast, Lugovoi joined the State Duma representing the Kremlin-friendly Liberal Democrat Party, thereby securing lifetime immunity from domestic prosecution.

Goldfarb recently filed a libel suit in U.S. federal court alleging that both RT and Channel One aired deliberately misleading reports about the circumstances of Litvinenko’s death. The suit claims that RT’s rolling coverage of Skripal’s case, which routinely touches on Litvinenko’s murder, is part of a politically motivated Kremlin TV campaign to deflect blame from the real perpetrators of both attacks.

Libel suit

RT representatives issued a public statement saying they are in the process of reviewing the complaint.

​Earlier this year, Viktoria Skripal, niece of the spy poisoned in Salisbury, repeatedly took to the Russian airwaves to express skepticism about Britain’s handling of her uncle’s investigation, suggesting that Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency had been manipulating her cousin Yulia, who had refused offers of assistance from the Russian embassy in London after being poisoned alongside her father.

On July 3, Skripal’s niece appeared on Russian television to announce that her candidacy for Yaroslavl region Duma elections had been endorsed by the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party.

“This is what Russian intelligence agencies still do,” Litvinenko told VOA, explaining that turning family members against each other has a long history in Russia’s spy community.

“They find a person who is easily influenced, who understands the benefits of his or her position,” she said. “Both Viktoria and Walter Alexandrovich were in very difficult financial situations, so this allows them to improve their financial situation. Both now have a salary, and Walter Alexandrovich even has an apartment in Moscow. And Victoria Skripal is going to run for the Yaroslavl Duma,” she added in a sarcastically cheerful tone. “This is a great start for her career.”

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service.
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A Turkish court has detained 24 construction workers for protesting conditions at the building of Istanbul’s third airport, according to Turkish media.

International condemnation was swift. “This is an appalling assault on the right to protest and organize and on the dignity of workers in Turkey,” tweeted senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair Webb of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The 24 workers face charges of resisting police, violating protest laws and damage to public property. The detentions are in connection to protests involving thousands of workers over safety and poor conditions at the construction site of Istanbul’s new airport.

The airport is planned to be one of world’s largest, the centerpiece of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s scheme of mega-construction projects to create what he calls the “new Turkey.”

The labor unrest at the airport site started Sept. 14, triggered by the reported deaths of four workers traveling on a service bus from their dormitories to work.

“Four of our friends died,” said one protesting worker, speaking to local media anonymously. “The shuttle bus had an accident.”

He added, “5,000, 6,000, almost 7,000 workers left work because they didn’t get paid. We can’t tell them don’t go. Neither can we stay here like that.”

Within hours of the protest, police using tear gas and armored cars moved in, arresting many strikers. Early Sept. 15, police raided the worker’s dormitories, detaining as many as 500 people.

With more than 36,000 people building the airport, it’s one of Europe’s biggest construction sites, but it also has become a national focal point for the treatment of construction workers. The International Trade Union Confederation lists Turkey as one of the world’s worst places for worker safety.

Media report that since construction on the airport started three years ago, more than 400 workers have been killed. The transport ministry says the number is 27.

Trade union officials claim workers are under intense pressure to meet next month’s opening, which is timed to coincide with Turkey’s Republic Day on October 29.

“What we call as demands are simply to correct the working conditions that belong to the middle ages,” said Ozgur Karabulut, general manager of Dev IS Union. “Workers can’t sleep because of cockroaches in the dormitories, they can’t eat the food as there are worms inside.”

Karabulut blames the deepening financial crisis in Turkey as a factor for the worsening conditions. The Turkish lira has plummeted more than 40 percent this year, driving up import costs.

“Because the costs are growing for the subcontractors, to make profit [they] cut from everything, from helmets to safety shoes,” Karabulut said.

“This problem is not unique to the airport construction site,” he added. “Any of the state’s mega-projects all have the same conditions and problems, and because the workers are asking for the rights they are getting beaten, gassed and detained.”

With nearly all mainstream media under control of the president or his supporters, the protesting workers have been labeled as “provocateurs” and “terrorists.”

In Istanbul’s central Kadikoy district Sunday, union officials reached out to the public and fringe media.  Officials tried to read a statement outlining their demands and the conditions facing the workers.

Police quickly surrounded the officials and told them the Istanbul governor, Vasip Sahin, had banned the protest. Seconds later the officials were arrested, handcuffed and dragged away. More than two dozen people were detained.

Opposition parties are voicing support for the protesting workers.

Deputy leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, Sezgin Tanrikulu, says the crackdown is unprecedented.

“Nowhere in the world, just for demanding better and more humane working conditions, more than 500 workers are taken into custody, gassed, beaten in raids on dorms in the middle of the night. For demanding adequate food, payments to be made to a bank account. It shows the level of democracy and law concerning workers’ rights and workers,” Tanrikulu said.

The consortium building the airport has not commented. However, Governor Sahin promised action, saying, “The employer has begun work to eliminate the problems of the employees of the airport construction.”

But with less than six weeks left until the airport’s planned opening, union officials claim pressure is being stepped up on workers.

Paramilitary police are now reportedly supervising the workers who’ve returned to work, while new workers are being brought in from Erdogan’s traditional Black Sea voting stronghold.
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French President Emmanuel Macron’s former personal security officer, who was fired for beating protesters, defended himself before a senate inquiry Wednesday by saying he was neither a policeman nor a bodyguard.

Alexandre Benalla was taken into custody by police last July after Le Monde released video showing him posing as a policeman in riot gear and beating protesters during France’s May Day demonstrations.

The incident grew to become the most serious scandal Macron has faced during his short time in office after it was revealed Benalla had only been punished with a two week suspension at the time.

The president fired Benalla after the videos became public on July 19, deepening the furor and leading to a senate and a judicial investigation. Macron’s ministers have denounced the investigations as politically partisan.

The president’s popularity has been hovering around 30 percent recently, half of what it has been in the past, and French media has frequently compared the incident to Watergate.

Historically, French leaders have used shadowy unofficial police and intelligence operatives to carry out dubious acts. The incident has dredged up memories of this old sore point.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Benalla claimed that he had never been an unofficial bodyguard, but rather an aide in charge of liaising between Macron’s office and the GSPR, the security body officially in charge of protecting the president.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the downing of a Russian military plane by Syria “a chain of tragic, accidental circumstances,” tamping down what could have turned into a tense situation with Israel.

Fifteen people aboard the Russian reconnaissance jet died when the Syrians shot it down, responding to an Israeli missile strike.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, that Israel “bears full responsibility” and that Russia had the right to retaliate.

But Putin stepped in, calling it “a chain of tragic, accidental circumstances.” He said Russia would respond by “taking additional steps to protect our servicemen and assets in Syria.” He said “everyone will notice” those steps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his sorrow at the loss of Russian lives and blamed Syria for the incident.

The Israeli military said its jets were targeting a Syrian military facility supplying arms to the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah.

Israeli warning

Israel said it had warned Russia of the airstrike in advance, and its jets were already back in Israeli airspace when Syria fired its missile.

The Russian defense ministry said Israel’s warning came less than a minute before the airstrike. It accused the Israelis of using the Russian plane as a cover to avoid Syrian air defense systems.

While Putin did not appear to blame Israel outright for causing the Russian plane to be shot down, the Kremlin said it told Netanyahu that Israel had violated Syrian sovereignty and urged it “not to let such situations happen again.”

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that, based on what he had been told, Syria shot down the Russian plane. He called the deaths of those aboard “a very sad thing.”

Trump took a moment to say the United States has done a “tremendous job” in helping eradicate Islamic State from Syria and said “we are very close to finishing that job.”

Putin is striving to maintain his good relationship with Israel, while continuing to back the Syrian government in its fight against the rebels.

Russia also has healthy relations with Iran, Israel’s archenemy.

Israel has said it will not allow any permanent Iranian military presence inside Syria and has looked to the Russians to help keep Iranian-backed forces away from the Israeli-Syrian frontier.
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Dozens of European countries are backing a plan to increase the use of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels to cut the continent’s carbon emissions.

 

Energy officials from 25 countries pledged Tuesday to increase research into hydrogen technology and accelerate its everyday use to power factories, drive cars and heat homes.

 

The proposal, which was included in a non-binding agreement signed in Linz, Austria, includes the idea of using existing gas grids to distribute hydrogen produced with renewable energy.

 

The idea of a “hydrogen economy,” where fuels that release greenhouse gases are replaced with hydrogen, has been around for decades. Yet uptake on the concept has been slow so far, compared with some other technologies.

 

Advocates of hydrogen say it can solve the problem caused by fluctuating supplies of wind, solar, hydro and other renewable energies. By converting electricity generated from those sources into hydrogen, the energy can be stored in large tanks and released again when needed.

 

Electric vehicles can also use hydrogen to generate power on board, allowing manufacturers to overcome the range restrictions of existing batteries. Hydrogen vehicles can be refueled in a fraction of the time it takes to recharge a battery-powered vehicle.

 

On Monday the world’s first commuter train service using a prototype hydrogen-powered train began in northern Germany.

 

The European Union’s top climate and energy official said hydrogen could help the bloc meet its obligations to cut carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris accord. Miguel Arias Canete told reporters it could also contribute to the continent’s energy security by reducing imports of natural gas, much of which currently comes from Russia and countries outside of Europe.

 

Kirsten Westphal, an energy expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said encouraging the use of hydrogen as a means of storing and transporting energy makes sense, but added the overall goal for should be reducing fossil fuels rather than pushing a particular energy alternative.
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The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has been transferred from his job just weeks after he made remarks that appeared to downplay anti-migrant violence.

Hans-Georg Maassen has been embroiled in a controversy since anti-migrant protests began in the eastern German city of Chemnitz in late August. A video was uploaded on social media that appeared to show far-right protesters chasing a man while shouting xenophobic slogans.

Maassen told the Bild newspaper in September that the video might be “false information.” He also said his agency had found no evidence that foreigners were being “hunted” in the city streets. His remarks contradicted those of Prime Minister Angela Merkel, who had condemned the attacks based on the video.

Maassen’s comments caused an uproar among the members of Merkel’s coalition government, with most calling for resignation or termination.

However, the far-right Alternative for Germany party praised Maassen and used his comments to further attack Merkel’s “completely failed asylum policy.”

Merkel’s interior minister and rival, Horst Seehofer, also backed Maassen.

On Tuesday, Merkel’s government announced that Maassen would be relieved of his duties at the intelligence agency and be made deputy interior minister under Seehofer.

It is not clear who will replace Maassen as intelligence chief.
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