World leaders in favor of international cooperation and free trade struck back Wednesday against the wave of populist nationalism that has featured more prominently than usual at the gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland.

As heads of state took turns to address the political and business tycoons, the question of global cooperation emerged as a dividing line. The leaders of Japan and Germany – countries that have flourished on trade since their devastation under nationalist leaders in World War II – focused on the need for cooperation.

It was a not-so-subtle dig at earlier speeches by the populist president of Brazil and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said governments should focus more on national self-interest over international rules.

“I believe that it’s worth bringing together like-minded people around the world, because anything else will lead us into despair,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

She said efforts to combat global problems – from an economic slowdown to tensions over trade, Brexit and migration – “will only function if we are able to compromise.”

She cited as a positive example a free trade deal between the European Union and Japan that will take effect Feb. 1.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, put a similarly strong focus on working together, noting another trade deal, among Pacific Rim countries.

He warned, however that there are risks.

“U.S.-China trade friction is one of those risks and Japan traditionally has said tit-for-tat trade-restrictive measures are of no benefit,” he said in his first appearance in Davos in five years.

The U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies, are locked in a major trade dispute and have put tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of traded goods.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump says China is not being transparent on government subsidies it gives Chinese companies and is swiping intellectual property from Western firms.

While Abe and Merkel squarely warned against taking punitive measures like Trump has – without going through international institutions like the World Trade Organization to settle disputes – both Japan and European countries have also complained about China.

Abe said the WTO needs to be overhauled.

“Major changes are taking place and the WTO is behind the curve – it’s not keeping up with pace,” Abe said in a brief question-and-answer session. “We need to reform it.”

Efforts were underway to defuse the U.S.-China dispute, with a high-level Chinese delegation expected to visit Washington on Jan. 30.

The level of tensions remained intense, however.

China’s vice president used his own speech in Davos to take shots at Trump and his administration.

“Shifting blame for one’s own problems onto others will not resolve the problems,” said Wang Qishan.

He sought to cast China as a proponent of open markets, though in reality it keeps tight control of its access to foreign investors and companies.

“What we need to do is make the pie bigger while looking for ways to share it in a more equitable way,” he said. “The last thing we should do is to stop making the pie and just engage in a futile debate on how to divide it.”

Trump had intended to visit Davos with a big delegation to meet with the Chinese over the trade issues. They cancelled the trip, however, due to the government shutdown. Other major leaders have also had to nix their trip, including those of Britain and France to deal with Brexit and popular protests.

The uncertainty over Brexit also featured heavily in talks in Davos as a major risk to global commerce and cooperation.

British lawmakers last week voted down Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal with the European Union. Since then, speculation has risen that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a deal or that end up extending its date of departure from the current March 29.

Merkel said she is working for a “well-ordered” Brexit and is looking for a “good” future partnership with Britain not just on trade but issues like security and defence.

“The easier the relationship, the easier for all of us,” she said.
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The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill affirming congressional support for NATO, amid renewed concerns over President Donald Trump’s commitment to the 29-member alliance.

The bipartisan NATO Support Act, which forbids the use of funds to withdraw from the alliance and states that it is U.S. policy to remain part of the alliance, passed by a 357-22 vote.

Beside asserting Congress’s control over the money, the bill reaffirms U.S. backing of NATO and its mutual defense clause.

It also voices support for Montenegro, its newest member, and for “robust” U.S. funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, and for the goal that each alliance member spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Just hours before the vote, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell, the top U.S. diplomat to Europe and an outspoken NATO supporter, tendered his resignation amid strained ties in trans-Atlantic relations.

The House vote and Mitchell’s resignation come amid tensions with European leaders over Washington’s commitment to NATO and transatlantic ties in general.

The New York Times, citing federal government sources, recently reported that Trump put forward the idea of withdrawing the United States from NATO last year, a move that would effectively destroy the alliance, which marks its 70th anniversary in April.

“The NATO alliance is central to American security and to maintaining peace and stability around the world,” House majority leader Steny Hoyer said in a statement before the January 22 vote.

WATCH: Will US Pull Out of NATO?

Mitchell’s departure will be effective from February 15. He had served in the post for just over a year. Elisabeth Millard, a career public servant, will take over the job in a temporary capacity.

Reuters reports that Mitchell submitted his resignation letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on January 4, stating that he felt he had completed his goals at the job and wanted to spend more time with his family.

There was no overt sign that Mitchell, a former policy analyst on Central and Eastern Europe, was resigning in protest against the policies of Trump’s administration.

The administration has been constantly losing top officials since Trump took over the White House two years ago. Jim Mattis resigned at the end of last year as defense secretary, following strong disagreements with Trump’s Syria policy.

With reporting by dpa, AP, and The New York Times
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The European Union on Wednesday warned countries running lucrative schemes granting passports and visas to rich foreigners to toughen checks on applicants amid concern they could be flouting security, money laundering and tax laws.

EU countries have welcomed in more than 6,000 new citizens and close to 100,000 new residents through golden passport and visa schemes over the past decade, attracting around 25 billion euros ($28 billion) in foreign direct investment, according to anti-corruption watchdogs Transparency International and Global Witness.

 

In a first-ever report on the schemes, the EU Commission said that such documents issued in one country can open a back door to citizenship or residency in all 28 states.

 

Justice Commissioner Vera Jurova said golden visas are the equivalent of “opening the golden gate to Europe for some privileged people.”

 

“We want more guarantees related to security and anti-money laundering. We expect more transparency,” she told reporters in Brussels.

 

Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta offer passports to investors without any real connections to the countries or even the obligation to live there by paying between 800,000 and 2 million euros ($909,000 to $2.3 million).

 

Twenty EU states offer visas in exchange for investment: Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

 

 Investment can range from 13,500 euros to over 5 million euros ($15,350 to $5.7 million) in the form of capital and property investments, buying government bonds, one-time payments to the national budget or certain donations to charity.

 

Cyprus toughened up vetting procedures last year after it was accused of running a “passports-for-cash” scheme. It said passport numbers would be capped at 700 a year.

 

The Mediterranean island introduced the scheme in the wake of a 2013 financial crisis that brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy and forced it to accept a multibillion-euro rescue program from creditors. One Cyprus lawmaker has estimated that the scheme generated around 4.8 billion euros ($5.4 billion) between 2013 and 2016.

 

In compiling the report, Commission researchers struggled to obtain clear information about how the schemes are run, the number of applicants and where they come from, as well as how many are granted or refused visas. They noted that EU countries exchange little or no information about the applicants.

 

But the report did find that the security checks run on applicants are insufficient, and it recommends that EU computer databases like the one controlling Europe’s passport-free travel area be used routinely. Tougher “due diligence” controls are also needed to ensure that money laundering rules are not circumvented, while more monitoring and reporting could help tackle tax evasion.

 

Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the Commission “will monitor full compliance with EU law.”

 

“The work we have done together over the past years in terms of increasing security, strengthening our borders and closing information gaps should not be jeopardized,” he warned.

 

The Commission proposed setting up a working group with EU member countries to study the schemes by year’s end.

 

The report angered Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, who underlined that, over the past five years, the number of citizenships granted by Cyprus under its scheme amounts to 0.3 percent of the EU’s total.

 

He said that Cyprus has the toughest citizenship criteria among all 20 countries, “and despite this, Cyprus is being targeted.”

 

“These double standards must finally come to an end and I want to be strict about this,” Anastasiades said.

 

Malta welcomed the Commission report, but said it has “reservations on a few issues,” notably that people it accepts under the schemes undergo far more rigorous checks than others granted residency or citizenship. It also underlined that physical presence in Malta is mandatory.

 
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A leaked proposal to impose universal speed limits on the Autobahn is causing outrage among car-loving Germans.

The country’s transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, has said the idea “goes against all common sense.” But prominent Green Party lawmaker Cem Ozdemir defended the proposal Tuesday, calling it an “act of reason.”

Germany is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t impose speed limits on its beloved Autobahn highways.

The idea — still very much just a notion — would limit speeds on the country’s highways to 130 kph (80 mph). Proponents say this would reduce air pollution, help fight climate change and reduce the number of car accidents.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert sought to smooth the waves created by the leaked report, saying Monday that a government-appointed committee examining various proposal isn’t finished yet. 
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The lawyer for an American man being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying said on Tuesday that his client was given a flash drive containing Russian “state secrets” before he was arrested, but did not know he had them and had not looked at them.

His family insisted that he was entrapped and denied that he is guilty of espionage.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was detained in Moscow at the end of December. The arrest raised speculation that he could be swapped for one of the Russians held in the U.S., such as gun rights activist Maria Butina, who has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the U.S.

Whelan made his first public appearance in court on Tuesday to hear the appeal of his arrest. The judge upheld the previous ruling that ordered him to be kept behind bars at least until the end of February.

Whelan was kept in a glass cage and did not speak to reporters.

Spying charges carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Russia.

Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said Tuesday that when his client was detained at a Moscow hotel at the end of December he had something with him that contained “state secrets.”

The lawyer said that Whelan was a frequent visitor to Russia and that he asked an unnamed person to email him something about travel around the country. Whelan reportedly was not able to download it and then asked that person to put it on a flash-drive.

“He was expecting to see on the flash drive some personal information like pictures or videos, something like that, about that person’s previous trips around Russia,” Zherebenkov told reporters. “We don’t know how the materials that contain state secrets ended up there.”

The lawyer said the American was detained before he could open the files. He added that it was not clear what has happened to the person who reportedly gave the flash drive to Whelan.

Zherebenkov said the investigators have not yet disclosed which country he is accused of spying for.

Family disappointed

Paul Whelan’s twin brother, David, said in a statement that the family was disappointed but hardly surprised by the denial of bail.

“While we still lack any details from the Russian government about why Paul is thought to be a spy, and who provided him with the alleged state secrets, we are certain that he was entrapped and is not guilty of espionage,” he said in a statement. “We have not had any information about a USB drive, what was on it, or how it might have materialized in Paul’s possession.”

“Unfortunately, today’s ruling merely confirms that Paul will remain wrongfully detained for many more months,” Whelan’s brother said, adding that “Paul was able to let us know that he is worried about some health conditions and his ability to communicate with prison medical staff.”

He added that his brother is “also concerned about translator support and his ability to present his defense in English.”

Additional concerns

David Whelan noted that the Russian authorities’ refusal to allow British diplomats to visit his brother in prison and the cancellation of a U.S. consular visit last week raised additional concerns, but said that Canadian diplomats were scheduled to visit Thursday.

Whelan holds U.S., Canadian, British and Irish citizenships.

Whelan, 48, was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.
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Italy’s interior minister on Tuesday called the French leader Emmanuel Macron “a terrible president,” in comments that were sure to further add to tensions with Italy’s trans-Alpine neighbour over immigration.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League that governs in coalition with the 5-Star Movement, said his issue was not with the French people but with “with Macron, who talks a lot and achieves little, who give lessons of generosity, and then rejects thousands of migrants at the Italian border.”

“If Macron is so good, he can prove it with facts by letting in thousands of refugees who are in Italy and whom he promised hospitality, with other European countries,” Salvini continued in a Facebook live transmission.

He said he hoped French voters would send Macron a message during the European elections in late May by showing their support for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, with whom Salvini is allied in European politics.

The 5-Star leader, Luigi Di Maio, already sparked annoyance earlier this month by saying his populist movement was ready to help France’s anti-government yellow vest protesters. The French Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the Italian ambassador over sharp anti-French comments from Italy about Europe’s migrant crisis.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has tried to tamp tensions down, saying that while questioning the efficiency of global politics was legitimate “this does not mean to put into discussion our historic friendship with France, nor with the French people.”

“This relationship remains strong and steady despite the political discussion,” Conte said.

The summons by the French Foreign Ministry on Monday was in reaction to Di Maio’s accusations that France is leading colonial-style policies in Africa that are “impoverishing” Africans and driving them to Europe’s shores. Salvini repeated them on Tuesday morning television. The populist government last fall accused France of dumping under-age migrants over the border without authorization.

In the recent spat, the populist Italian government accuses France of obliging 14 African countries using the CFA franc currency, established in 1945, to buy French government bonds with half of their reserves to finance public spending in France.

The Italian financial daily il Sole 24 Ore reported that the deposits made by the 14 countries into the French Treasury had marginal impact on French coffers, totaling 10 billion euros — or just 0.5 percent of the French public debt. It also noted that only 9 percent of the 23,370 migrants that arrived in Italy last year came from the 14 countries using the CFA.

A French diplomatic official said Ambassador Teresa Castaldo was questioned Monday about the “unfriendly and baseless” comments. The official said they run counter to “Franco-Italian partnership” and the sense of “European community.” The diplomat was not authorized to be publicly named.
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Refugees and migrants arriving in Europe are not bringing infectious diseases with them, according to a report from the World Health Organization. In the first large-scale survey of migrant health on the continent, the WHO report calls for European governments to ensure migrants get access to health services. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Economists warn that political uncertainties and trade tensions could undermine global economic growth. Rights groups warn of the dangers of growing economic inequality. About 3,000 political and economic leaders have gathered in the Swiss resort town of Davos to discuss global business and economic trends at an annual economic forum. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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At least 10 people are dead after two Tanzanian-flagged ships caught fire Monday in the Kerch Strait off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea. 

Russian authorities said at least 12 people were rescued, but the rest are missing. 

The ships, the Kandy and the Maestro, had crews that were nationals from India and Turkey. Together, the two ships carried 31 crew members. 

Russia’s transport ministry said a rescue operation was under way to find sailors who jumped overboard to escape the blaze, which ignited when fuel was being transferred from one ship to another.

Ships in ‘neutral water’

The crew members were sailing in “neutral waters” in the Black Sea when the incident occurred, authorities said.

The Kerch Strait is a point of high tension between Russia and Ukraine. 

In November, Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships in the strait as they tried to pass from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea. Russia continues to hold 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in the incident. They are accused of illegally crossing into Russian territory.

Ukraine has denied the accusation.
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Russia’s communication watchdog, Roskomnadzor, opened “administrative proceedings” Monday against Facebook and Twitter for non-compliance with country’s data laws, Interfax news agency reported.

Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov is quoted as saying that U.S. social media giants have a month to comply or face legal proceedings.

According to Roskomnadzor, Facebook and Twitter have not explained how and when they would comply with legislation that requires all servers used to store Russians’ personal data to be located in Russia.

Russia has introduced stricter internet laws in the past five years, among other things requiring search engines to share encryption keys with Russian security services.

In April last year, thousands rallied in Moscow in support of internet freedom after Russian authorities attempted to block access to the popular messaging app Telegram.

Telegram had refused to give state intelligence services access to private conversations which are usually encrypted.
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