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The European Union announced Wednesday a provisional agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-member bloc by 55% by 2030. The 2030 target is part of a larger goal of getting the EU to be carbon-neutral by 2050. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement puts the EU “on a green path for a generation.” “It is our binding pledge to our children and grandchildren,” she added. EU member states must approve the deal before it becomes official. Wednesday’s agreement comes ahead of the start of a two-day virtual summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden for world leaders to discuss ways to combat climate change. 
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The Czech Republic is urging European and NATO allies to take joint retaliatory action against Russia. It follows accusations that Russian spies were behind a huge explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014 – and were part of a special unit that also carried out an attempted assassination in Britain. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera:  Henry Ridgwell  
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The Czech Republic is urging European and NATO allies to take joint retaliatory action against Russia following accusations that Russian spies were behind a huge explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014. They claim the spies were also part of a special unit that tried to assassinate a double agent in Britain.The central European country evicted 18 Russian embassy staffers over the weekend, saying they were identified as intelligence officers. “We succeeded in breaking up both of the big Russian (spy) operation cells, and for the Russian side, it will be very complicated to put them together again,” Acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said Monday.Moscow has denied involvement in the 2014 explosion, which killed two workers at the site. The Kremlin expelled 20 Czech diplomats and other staff in retaliation for this week’s action.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 255 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSpeaking at a televised press conference Tuesday, Hamacek said, “We will call for collective action by European Union and NATO countries that will be aimed at a solidarity expulsion of identified members of Russian intelligence service from EU and NATO member states.”The explosion at the arms depot was initially thought to be an accident. Czech investigators, however, recently revealed they had discovered an email that had been sent to “Imex Group,” the company that operated the depot, prior to the blast. The message asked that two men be allowed to visit the site. The email was sent from an address, purporting to be from the National Guard of Tajikistan, which was later shown to be fake.
Subsequent investigations found the two men were traveling under false documents. They have since been identified as the suspects in the 2018 nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who barely survived. A local woman died after being exposed to the nerve agent.Suspects identified 
The investigative website Bellingcat identified them as Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, both officers in Russia’s GRU military intelligence. Their unit, 29155, is believed to focus on sabotage and subversion, says Russia analyst Ian Bond of the London-based Center for European Reform.
“They seem to be extremely active in a number of parts of Europe, and of course apart from them, we have seen the assassination of the Chechen-Georgian exile (Zelimkhan) Khangoshvili in Berlin, for which a Russian is on trial in Germany, and we’ve still got the MH17 trial going ahead in The Hague, and we’ve had other Russian citizens assassinated elsewhere in the EU,” Bond told VOA.
MH17 refers to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17. The aircraft was shot down July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The Russian military has said the missile that downed the aircraft, killing all 298 people on board, came from the arsenals of the Ukrainian army, not from Russia.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed support Monday for the Czech Republic’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. “These diplomats have been identified by the Czech intelligence to be Russian military service agents, and the European Union stands united and in solidarity with the Czech Republic.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the Czech accusations “groundless” and accused the West of “a massive anti-Russian psychosis.”
Tensions between Moscow and the West have deepened in recent weeks, as Russia has deployed military hardware and tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border. The European Union has called for de-escalation.Escalation risk in Ukraine”The Russian military buildup at the Ukrainian border is very concerning. It is more than 150,000 Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea. The risk of further escalation is evident. We have to commend Ukraine for its restrained response, and we urge Russia to de-escalate and to defuse tensions,” the EU’s Borrell told reporters Monday.
Russia also has jailed the main opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Doctors say he is in critical condition in a prison hospital after going on a hunger strike when he was denied urgent medical treatment. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.The Russian president is trying to whip up support at home, says analyst Bond.”Putin hasn’t had a particularly good 12 months. Russia has one of the highest excess death rates from COVID-19 in the world. The economy is pretty stagnant, and the IMF is forecasting that it will stay pretty stagnant for a while. And the protests about the arrest of Navalny in January were the largest Russia had seen in quite a long time.”The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia this month over alleged cyberattacks and other “malign” acts. U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a summit with his Russian counterpart.Europe must act fast in imposing its own measures, Bond said. “It’s hard to know what would jog Europe to impose further sanctions if it weren’t an example of state-sponsored terrorism of this kind. I can’t describe it in any other way — arranging the explosion of an ammunition dump which killed two people — it’s hard to see that as anything other than state terrorism.”That also sends a signal to Putin that there isn’t unity yet, even within the EU, about the need to take really firm measures to deter the sorts of activities that he has been authorizing in Europe over the last several years. And I think that will only embolden him unfortunately.”Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks on European soil and says its troop buildup on the Ukrainian border is in response to what it claims is increased military activity by the United States and NATO forces.   
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The governing bodies of world football have threatened to ban any club or player taking part in the new European Super League from playing in their competitions, raising the prospect that some of the world’s biggest stars could be banned from representing their countries in the FIFA World Cup. Battle lines are being drawn for the future of football, after a dozen top European clubs signed up to the breakaway competition, which critics say will destroy the traditional structure of the game. On both sides, powerful forces are squaring up for a fight that could decide the future of the global game. Six clubs from Britain — Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea; three from Spain — Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid; and three from Italy — AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus — originally signed up for the breakaway European Super League, whose formation was announced Monday. However, just hours after that announcement, Manchester City confirmed Tuesday they would no longer take part in the competition. It was reported that Chelsea also plans to drop out. The European Super League organizers say the new competition would rival but not replace existing domestic leagues and European tournaments, such as the UEFA Champions League. The founding members would never face relegation. A further five clubs would be admitted through seasonal qualification. A Chelsea fan walks past banners outside the stadium after reports suggest they are set to pull out of the European Super League, London, Britain, April 20, 2021.Sports finance analyst Borja Garcia of Britain’s Loughborough University said the primary motivation for the new league is money. “Football has never been a very good business for club owners until a few years ago. But now, of course, comes the pandemic. Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid — almost every club in Europe and around the world — are in massive debt. But the big clubs are in more debt because they have more salaries to pay. They depend more on audiences,” Garcia told VOA. “So, if I had to pick one (reason), I think it is indeed the level of debt that the pandemic has created in European football. But probably it is fair to say that that is not the cause of everything, but rather, an accelerator,” he said.  U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan will provide the finance, with each founding club gaining a share of $4.2 billion. Florentino Perez, European Super League chairman and current president of Real Madrid, defended the plans on national television Tuesday, warning that the top clubs had lost a total of $6 billion in the past season because of the pandemic. “At this time, we are doing this to save football, which is at a critical moment,” Perez said. “Soccer has to evolve, like life, like companies, people, mentalities, do. Social media has changed behavior, and football has to change and adapt to the times we live in.” Perez claimed that interest in football was declining among young people, although he did not provide evidence.  “Why are they not interested in football? Well, because there are too many matches of poor quality, and they aren’t interested. They have other platforms to entertain themselves with. That is the reality.  “Viewership declines. The rights were also declining. So, something had to be done, and the pandemic told us we had to do it with urgency. We are all broke. Soccer is global — it’s the only global sport in the world — and these 12 teams and some others have fans all over the world. Therefore, television is what needs to change so that we can adapt to the times,” Perez said. Opposition Plans for the European Super League have united a broad coalition of opponents. One poll suggested that almost 80% of British football fans are against the idea. “I think it is more despicable, it is more of a greedy power grab than we ever expected,” said Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe. “And they claim that they do it in the interest of football. They claim that they do it in the interests of everyone. They even claim that this is a response to the challenges of the pandemic. What they only really do is endanger the economic model of football and put every single club in Europe in danger.”  Chelsea fans protest the planned European Super League outside the stadium, in London, Britain, April 20, 2021.Sports historian Philip Barker told VOA the proposals for the European Super League go against centuries of competition. “The dream of actually coming up through the four divisions, doing what Wimbledon did many, many years ago — they came up from non-league football. We’ve seen it with (the) Wycombe Wanderers this past season — they got up to the championship. That dream of ascending through the levels of the pyramid was still there. But with this European Super League, there appears to be no promotion and relegations. It’s effectively a closed shop for the giants of the game,” Barker said. He added, “There is a school of thought that says that this is not actually for certain, but it’s a bargaining chip, because the big clubs were not happy with how UEFA was looking to expand the Champions League.”  Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, the managers of Liverpool and Manchester City respectively — both signatories of the European Super League — have voiced their opposition, as well. Critics have called the European Super League a “closed shop” that will destroy smaller clubs. “The European model of sport is supposed to be … a model where the whole football pyramid is linked together, so the top of the pyramid has a duty of care for the bottom of the pyramid,” Garcia of Loughborough University said. The European Union and the British government say it’s vital to preserve that model. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday at a press conference he would “look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this doesn’t go ahead.” He said, “Football was invented and codified in this country. It is one of the great glories of this country’s cultural heritage. These clubs, these names originate from famous towns and cities in our country. And I don’t think (it’s) right that they should be somehow dislocated from their hometowns, home cities, taken and turned into national brands and commodities, just circulate the planet propelled by the billions of banks, without any reference to fans and those who’ve loved them all their lives.”  Bans and consequences UEFA, which governs European football, and FIFA, which oversees world football, have threatened to ban all clubs and players taking part in the European Super League from participating in their competitions, including the World Cup. Speaking at the FIFA Congress in Montreux, Switzerland, Tuesday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino warned the participating clubs that there would be consequences. “If some elect to go their own way, then they must live with the consequences of their choice. They are responsible for their choice. Concretely, this means either you’re in or you’re out. You cannot be half in or half out. Think about it. Everyone has to think about it, and this has to be absolutely, absolutely clear. We can see that there is a lot to throw away for maybe a short-term financial gain of some, and people need to think very carefully,” he said. New fans, markets The European Super League is designed to appeal to fans outside of Europe and to take advantage of new markets. Some fans in Asia expressed support. “I’m mostly interested in watching these amazing matches and stiff competition. This could have a lot more appeal,” said Kevin Wang, an Inter Milan fan from Beijing. Dalad Suriyo, a Manchester United fan from Bangkok, shares that view. “I agree with the breakaway, as the football players can build up their strengths in the league,” Suriyo said. Some fans in Europe also support the changes. “I think the level of these clubs (involved in the European Super League) would improve, and it would create better matches for the audience. That would not fit very much with UEFA for economic reasons, and that’s why they are against it,” said Madrid student Andres Cruz. 
 
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The pandemic has boosted audiences for Europe’s public service media, with Europeans turning to fact-based news, according to the broadcasters’ trade association and academic studies.  Television, radio and digital channels all have shown upswings, especially in western Europe. But while the public has appeared to have been appreciative, the continent’s public broadcasters are facing a twin threat. Central Europe’s populist governments have been or are seeking to reduce their editorial independence, transforming them into official mouthpieces, warn rights campaigners and journalists.  And in western Europe, center-right governments are coming under mounting pressure from conservative lawmakers and populists to defund public broadcasters. FILE – Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis makes a statement during a media videoconference at an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2020.Attention in recent weeks has focused on Czech Television, and what critics of the populist government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis say are efforts to politicize its governing board and undermine the broadcaster’s senior management team ahead of October’s parliamentary elections.  Last week, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a trade association, urged Czech lawmakers to protect the independence of the country’s public broadcaster, saying Ceska Televize is “the most used news brand in the Czech Republic, with 60 percent of everyone in the country using the service at least weekly.”  The EBU’s president, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, and the association’s director general, Noel Curran, noted it also was “trusted by more Czechs than any other news brand.” They based their assertions on data and surveys compiled by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.  “In recent months, it has become alarmingly clear that the Czech Republic’s government is trying to exert pressure on that very independence, directly and indirectly,” they said.  FILE – An operator works in the master room of the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in Geneva, Nov. 13, 2007.Last November, the broadcaster’s supervisory council — which oversees operations, appoints the broadcaster’s director-general and approves the budget — was abruptly removed. The country’s parliament voted last week on a slate of new council members, all affiliated with the ruling ANO party.   The broadcaster’s current, and embattled, director-general, Petr Dvořák, told local media, “The aim is not to change one person in a leading position, but to change the whole Czech Television, its behavior and functioning.”  He warns the populist plan is to keep the broadcaster formally looking like an independent one, but it will be made to reflect the views of the ruling party. “The same has happened in Poland,” he added. Dvořák expects to be ousted soon.  Krzysztof Bobinski of the Society of Journalists in Poland worries that public broadcasters in 11 European Union member states are at high risk of coming under control of ruling parties.  Bobinski is urging the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to work more closely together to highlight how “too many EU governments are using public media to skew public debate in their favor and thus threaten the quality of the democratic processes and the rule of law.”  Babis’s moves to change public broadcasting in the Czech Republic are mirroring actions elsewhere in the young democracies of Central Europe. After it won power, Poland’s Law and Justice Party clipped the wings of the country’s public network, TVP. The OSCE’s observation mission of Poland’s 2019 parliamentary elections noted in its report of “a lack of impartiality in the media,” especially of TVP’s coverage. FILE – Polish Television (TVP) studios and headquarters are seen in in Warsaw, Poland, May 17, 2015.Reporters Without Borders says Poland’s public media outlets “have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces.” The group has raised similar concerns about public media in Hungary. During the country’s 2019 elections, leaked audio recordings emerged of editors instructing reporters to favor Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party in their coverage. Populist leaders say the criticism is unfair and that public broadcasters have been the mouthpieces of liberals and the left for years. Slovenia Prime Minister Janez Jansa accuses his country’s public service media of regularly dishing out “fake news.”  FILE – Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa attends a news conference in Vienna, Austria, March 16, 2021.He has dubbed the Slovenian Press Agency a “national disgrace” and says reporters working for public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija are paid too highly and spread “lies.” His government wants to amend the country’s media laws so they can increase state influence over public-service media. The criticism in Central Europe by populists of public broadcasters is echoed by counterparts in western Europe, who identify public media as liberal and accuse it of being hostile towards them and of being dominated by a metropolitan mindset out of step with the lives and thinking of millions of ordinary Europeans, especially those living in rural and de-industrialized areas. Germany’s populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been locked in a war of words for years with the country’s public broadcasters. In 2017, it went to the courts to try to get more airtime for its representatives, accusing the broadcasters of routinely shunning them.  Executives of German public-service television broadcaster ZDF have admitted they often have been too focused on covering issues and events in the country’s large metropolitan areas and have not been providing enough coverage of the rural east. They say that’s something they are seeking to rectify.  FILE – German television network ZDF crew members dismantle their setup in Marseille, July 18, 2007.In Britain, the ruling Conservatives have long had a strained and ambivalent relationship with the BBC, which they accuse of liberal bias. Libertarians object in principle to public funds being used. The BBC is funded largely by an annual television license fee charged to all British households, businesses and organizations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up.  The Conservatives pledged in 2019 to reform the BBC and review its funding. There has been a growing movement in recent years to abolish license fees, and a growing number of Britons have been refusing to pay it.  FILE – Pedestrians walk past a BBC logo at Broadcasting House in London, Britain, Jan. 29, 2020.”There’s no need for the BBC,” according to Alex Deane, a PR consultant and former Conservative government adviser. He says resentment toward the BBC is not based on right or left politics but instead is rooted in “cultural issues and topics like Brexit and patriotism.” And he says in the digital age, there are plenty of commercial news and entertainment sources. But the BBC’s defenders say it is respected both in Britain and around the world for its reliability, the strength of its journalism and its impartiality, and they highlight how in times of crisis, it is the preferred source of news for Britons over commercial rivals.  Ninety-three percent of the British population tuned in to BBC television or radio during the first two weeks of the 2003 war in Iraq, according to surveys. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the start of strict new coronavirus restrictions, more than 15 million viewers watched the BBC’s coverage, double the number who turned to commercial rivals.  
 
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Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday it found a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and rare forms of blood clots, but that the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks.
In its statement Tuesday, the EMA said that its drug safety group, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), after reviewing all available evidence, concluded that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s product information should include a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets.
The committee concluded that the events should be listed as very rare side effects of the vaccine.
The EMA gave a similar assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine which also was found to have a possible link to rare blood clots.
The EMA reviewed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following a small number of reports from the United States of serious cases of unusual blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets among people who had received the vaccine – one of which had a fatal outcome. As of April 13, more than 7 million people in the U.S. had received Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine.
All cases occurred in people under 60 years of age within three weeks of vaccination, the majority in women.
The reports prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration to recommend a “pause” in the use of the vaccine in the United States while further evaluations were carried out.  
On Monday, top U.S. immunologist and Chief Presidential Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci told reporters the pause on the use of the vaccine could be lifted as early as this week.
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The hulking, horned bison has long been an iconic symbol for people from the United States to eastern Europe. They were worshipped as deities by the Native Americans and for the Polish, they are the most important animal after the double-headed eagle which adorns the national flag. Cave paintings in Spain show they were an essential part of life on the Iberian Peninsula about 1.2 million years ago. After being hunted nearly to extinction in the United States and Europe alike, the bison is undergoing a resurgence in terms of numbers. Conservationists now believe that far from being a historical symbol, the bison may play a role in tackling some of the side-effects of the biggest problem facing mankind in the future– climate change. Bison are herbivores that naturally feed on the undergrowth which fuels forest fires, a natural hazard as the world heats up. Rising temperatures and rural depopulation among factors which are driving a rise in forest fires. In Spain, wildfires have destroyed about 741,000 hectares of forest over the past ten years, according to government estimates. FILE – A military police officer stands by his motorcycle next to flames from a forest fire near Mazagon in southern Spain, June 25, 2017.Huge blazes are also becoming more common elsewhere in Portugal, California and Australia. Since the 1950s, Spain has seen a slow drain of population from rural to urban areas that has left fewer flocks of sheep to eat the highly flammable scrubland as farms have been abandoned. However, a new program to reintroduce bison, which were driven into extinction about 10,000 years ago, may hold out hope of a way to reverse this trend. There are 18 centers breeding bison in Spain and over the past ten years their numbers have risen from 22 to just over 150. The way the bison eats shrubs helps to open up dense parts of the forest, which lets in light and allows grass to grow instead of scrub which helps forest fires spread. “These animals naturally eat the vegetation and this could act as a natural fire break. With less and less flocks of sheep or cows being farmed in open ground, bison would fill this gap,” Fernando Morán, a veterinarian who is director of the European Bison Conservation Center of Spain, told VOA. European bison can weigh up to one ton and eat around 30 kilograms of vegetation per day. When they were released into a 20-hectare oak forest in 2010, seven bison cleared the undergrowth, saving about $72,000 which it would have cost to pay engineers to do the same job. No status But, as bison have been extinct for so long, they are not recognized as an endangered species and so there is no state funding in Spain for these schemes which depend on donations. The animals are also not permitted to roam wildly as they are not considered as an indigenous species in Spain so are kept in large parks. Morán says politicians in Spain and beyond should realize the potential of the bison to restore the ecosystem and change the law so they can roam free once more. “At present there is not the political will to make this change at present despite the pressure we have put on the government to do this,” he said. Jesús Gonzalez was a miner who worked in the coalfields of northern Spain but now dedicates himself to promoting the cause of the bison at a reserve in San Cebrián de Muda, a tiny village of 162 inhabitants. “This part of Spain has changed from an area which used to produce coal — which damages the environment – to one which nurtures animals like the bison which could play a role in helping the environment,” he told VOA in an interview from the reserve. In eastern Europe, the bison is allowed to roam freely in Poland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania and Lithuania. There is also state funding for its nurture in Romania and Poland. FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles views bison at a reserve in Poland’s Bialowieza forest in Bialowieza, Poland, March 16, 2010. Seven young bison females were sent from Białowieża to farms in northern Spain to boost the herd there.Wanda Olech, a founder of the European Bison Friends’ Society based in Warsaw in Poland, believes this animal, like all grazing animals, could help combat climate change. She said the European bison has made such a recovery from the face of extinction that she advocates planned culls to prevent disease spreading. “In Poland alone there are 2,300 bison alone, of which about 50 are blind so we must control these animals with professionally organized culls,” Olech, who is a professor of animal genetics, told VOA. “This is not cruelty but should be professionally organized with hunters who could pay as they do in African countries.” Projects to export the European bison to Chile were rejected as it was believed the animal would not adapt, so bison are not present in Latin America or Africa.  
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Pakistan’s parliament began debating a resolution Tuesday on whether the French ambassador should be ordered to leave the country over the publication of anti-Islam caricatures in France. 
 
The proposed resolution is the outcome of a deal Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government negotiated in overnight talks with leaders of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) to defuse days of deadly, nationwide anti-France demonstrations.  A supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a banned Islamist party, prepares to hurl back a tear gas canister fired by police to disperse protests over the arrest of their party leader Saad Rizvi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, April 19, 2021. The…The TLP has agreed to call off its protests across the country, said Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed while sharing details of the understanding. 
 
Ahmed added that all cases registered against activists of the group under anti-terror laws for their involvement in recent violent protests will also be withdrawn. 
 
The government, he said, has also agreed to withdraw last week’s decision outlawing the TLP and to release leaders as well as activists of the group detained during the protests. 
 
Attempts by police to disperse the demonstrations sparked violent clashes, leaving four policemen and six protesters dead. Officials said more than 800 people, mostly law enforcers, were among those injured in the clashes. Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a radical Islamist political party, chant slogans during a protest against the arrest of their party leader, Saad Rizvi, in Lahore, Pakistan, April 15, 2021.The resolution calls for the expulsion of the French envoy and it would be up to the lawmakers to vote in favor or against it. The text of the resolution, however, stressed the (Pakistani) state alone is authorized to deal with foreign policy matters and “no individual, group or party are allowed to exert undue illegal pressure regarding such matters.” “The optics of tabling a resolution calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador are not good for Islamabad, as it’s essentially caving in to the TLP’s core demand,” Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia program at Washington’s Wilson Center, told VOA.  “That said, the Parliament has an opportunity to reject the resolution, and that would be a major victory not just for the government, but also for a state that has repeatedly treated religious hardliners with kid gloves,” Kugelman said.
 
Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party holds a simple majority in the legislative house. 
 
The TLP has been agitating and demanding since November that Islamabad expel the French envoy, citing French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement defending media rights in France to republish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, an act denounced by Muslims as blasphemous. 
 
The latest protests in Pakistan erupted April 12 after authorities detained TLP chief Saad Rizvi, saying the cleric was planning to lead a march on Islamabad to pressure the government into expelling the French ambassador. 
 
The action angered Rizvi’s supporters, who took to streets across Pakistan, blocking scores of highways and refusing to disperse until the government released their leader. 
 
The government barred local media from covering the protests before ordering a police crackdown to disperse the rallies. The security action cleared almost all sit-ins, but TLP activists continue rallying in Lahore, the capital of eastern Pakistan, where the group is headquartered. 
 
In a televised address to the nation Monday evening, Khan defended the actions against TLP and said the expulsion of the French ambassador would not stop extremists in the West from insulting the Prophet Muhammad. FILE – In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan gives an interview to The Associated Press, in Islamabad, Pakistan. 
“It doesn’t make any difference to France. If we keep protesting our whole lives we would only be damaging our own country,” Khan said. He noted that expulsion of the French diplomat would mean cash-starved Pakistan cutting all ties with the European Union, one of the largest destinations for Pakistani textile exports. 
 
Khan again urged Western governments to criminalize any insulting remarks against the Prophet Muhammad and treat offenders the same way they do those who deny the Holocaust. 
 
The Pakistani leader called for all Muslim-majority countries to collectively lobby Western leaders to convince them that insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the name of freedom of speech hurts followers of Islam. 
 
”When 50 Muslim countries in one voice tell them that if something like this happens in any country, we will go for a trade boycott on them and stop buying their goods,” Khan insisted. 
 
The far-right TLP, along with demonstrations against France, has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes. 
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The European Union says roughly 150,000 Russian troops are massed along the border of Ukraine and in Crimea — calling it the highest such military deployment.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described Russia’s military buildup on the Ukraine border and annexed Crimea as very worrying.”The military deployment of Russian troops, with all kinds of materials — deploying campaign hospitals and all kinds of warfare — has been continuing. I cannot tell you where this figure comes from, but it is my reference figure. It is the highest military deployment of Russian army in Ukrainian borders ever,” he said.But Borrell said for now — and despite separate accusations by the Czech Republic that Russia was behind explosions in 2014 at an ammunition depot— the 27-member bloc is not planning more sanctions against Moscow.”At the time being there is no move on the field of more sanctions to Russia. Things can change, but the situation is the way I am explaining,” he said.A Ukrainian soldier is seen at fighting positions on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk, Ukraine, April 19, 2021.The Czech Republic has expelled 18 Russian diplomats accused of being spies in the case related to the explosion. In a tit-for-tat move, Moscow ordered 20 Czech diplomats out of Russia.The EU has followed Washington in warning Moscow about another key issue — the deteriorating health of opposition activist Alexey Navalny, who began a hunger strike last month demanding better medical care. Navalny reportedly has now been moved to a military hospital.“They are responsible for Navalny’s safety and health, and we will hold them to account for it,” said Borrell.The prison service said at the present time, Navalny’s health is deemed satisfactory, and that he is being examined daily by a physician. Officials also say he agreed to take vitamin therapy.FILE – Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny stands inside a defendant dock during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 20, 2021, in this still image taken from video. (Press Service of Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow/Handout)Russia was the top item at Monday’s EU foreign ministers meeting — held by video link because of the coronavirus pandemic. Experts say tensions between Russia and the West are at their highest point since the Cold War. Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France also held four-way talks in Kyiv.Senior analyst Amanda Paul, of the Brussels-based European Policy Center, said she is not surprised the EU isn’t taking bolder action against Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014.“The problem is, like always, you don’t have one voice. Obviously, there’s some member states that would like the EU to respond with a much tougher narrative or tougher steps. But you have the other part that is more cautious and wants to wait and see,” she said.On other hotspots, the EU adopted a new round of sanctions against Myanmar following the February coup there. It also criticized the lack of progress on Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where fighting between the federal government and the region’s former ruling party erupted last year.A burned tank stands near the town of Adwa, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 18, 2021.The EU says troops from Eritrea have not withdrawn and human rights violations continue. Eritrea had been fighting on the side of the Ethiopian federal forces. Eritrea previously denied being in the Tigray region.On a positive note, Borrell was upbeat about progress between Washington and Tehran at indirect nuclear talks in Vienna.“I think both parts are really interested in reaching an agreement,” she said.The Reuters news agency cites a Russian diplomat saying negotiations to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal were in a drafting stage, although solutions to issues were still far away.
 
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Russia is continuing to build up its naval presence in the Black Sea, and The Sunday Times newspaper, quoting British naval sources, said Britain is also deploying two warships to beef up NATO’s presence, as tensions over Ukraine escalate.Access to the Black Sea is through Turkey’s Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways which are controlled by the 1936 Montreux Convention.Retired Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende, a maritime law analyst, said the current tensions underlines the treaty’s importance.“Maritime powers, which are not are riparian states, they have limited access to the Black Sea,” Rende said. “Because of the limited tonnage that each country cannot keep more than thirty thousand of tonnage capacity in the Black Sea and for a period for only 21 days. So, it probably desirable for certain countries, like the United States to have an alternative to Montreux.”Earlier this month, news reports said Russian President Vladimir Putin pressed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ensure NATO fully comply with the Montreux convention.Huseyin Bagci of the Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara said Moscow sees the convention as key to Russian Black Sea hegemony.“This is (the) only way which makes Black Sea at the same time a Russian sea, because the Russian navy is there dominating,” Bagci said. “And the American warships are limited there. And so, it’s good for Russia to have Montreux, maybe more than Turkey.”But the future of the 80-year-old convention could be in question.A Turkish commercial extolls the virtues of the Istanbul canal that would run parallel with the Bosphorus, offering a faster and safer passage for ships. The canal — whose construction is due to start in the coming months — is causing concern in Moscow.Erdogan said this month the canal is not covered by Montreux, opening the door to potential unlimited use by any nation’s warships. Turkey-Russia relations analyst Zaur Gasimov at Bonn University said deliberations over Montreux gives Ankara leverage over Moscow.“The Montreux agreement and how Turkey deals with it, that gives also a new possibility for Ankara to promote its interests in its interaction with Russia,” Gasimov said. “That gives also certain leverage for Ankara to influence the situation the dynamics around the Black Sea region and even also to deepen the cooperation with the United States.”But Erdogan’s plan is facing pushback. More than 100 retired Turkish admirals issued a statement this month, defending Montreux, claiming it guarantees Turkish control over the Bosphorus. The Turkish authorities put the admirals under investigation, accusing them of threatening the government.
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A year ago, Boris Johnson’s tenure as Britain’s prime minister looked to some like it might be short-lived. Brexit woes and a string of missteps and abrupt U-turns in the government’s handling of the pandemic prompted Conservative lawmakers to hazard privately that his days would likely be numbered.And they were betting on his likely departure date.That kind of talk has evaporated now. Johnson has bounced back — characteristically, grumble his naysayers, who see him as a fortunate opportunist who gets saved by being lucky. Johnson largely has a successful and quick coronavirus vaccine rollout to thank for his current approval rating of 46%, according to the latest surveying by pollster YouGov.His party is riding high, too, with a poll last week putting the Conservatives 14 points ahead of the main Labour opposition, with the parties on 43% and 29% respectively.But Johnson has another monumental political challenge ahead: how to keep the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from breaking apart, say analysts.The “union is now weaker than at any point in living memory,” judges Britain’s influential weekly Economist magazine. The chances of a breakup are mounting. “The causes are many, but Brexit is the most important,” the magazine noted. And it blames Johnson partly for the rising risks “by putting party above country and espousing a hard Brexit.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, in London, March 24, 2021.The Scots and Northern Irish never wanted to leave the European Union and voted in the 2016 referendum to stay in the EU, in Scotland’s case overwhelmingly by 62% to 30%. The Scottish Nationalist Party led by Nicola Sturgeon has used Brexit to argue that Scotland should get another opportunity to hold a plebiscite on independence.In a 2014 referendum the Scots voted to remain a constituent part of Britain by 55.3 to 44.7 and that plebiscite was run on the basis, as far as the Conservatives were concerned, as a “once in a generation vote.” The then SNP leader, Alex Salmond, also accepted that there should be a “generational” gap before another independence referendum.But Brexit has changed that — as far as the SNP is concerned. And Scottish public opinion appears increasingly behind the idea of having another independence vote. Polling data suggests that the Scottish Nationalists will storm to a big win in next month’s Scottish Parliament’s elections and seem set to win an overall majority. The SNP is campaigning for another independence plebiscite to be held by 2023. And public surveys suggest a small majority would back seceding from Britain.Former Scottish leader Alex Salmond is sworn in before giving evidence to a committee of the Scottish parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh, Feb. 26, 2021.London and Edinburgh are on course for a political collision. Johnson has said he is adamantly opposed to another referendum, arguing Britain cannot keep on running plebiscites. Earlier this year he said there should be a 40-year gap between the first and a second Scottish independence referendum — similar to the interval between British referendums on Europe in 1975 and 2016.“Referendums in my experience, direct experience, in this country are not particularly jolly events,” he told the BBC. “They don’t have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once-in-a-generation,” he added.The British parliament would have to endorse holding another referendum, according to constitutional lawyers. But the SNP-controlled is exploring legal avenues and a prolonged battle in the courts and political tussle is in the offing, adding another high-stakes, dramatic confrontation in Britain’s era of Brexit-wrought chaos, say analysts.The SNP has steered clear of suggesting it would call a wildcat referendum along the lines Catalonian separatists did in Spain in 2017, which triggered a violent standoff between Madrid and Barcelona. Nationalists currently recognize that a ‘non-legal’ vote could easily be de-legitimized with a boycott campaign the British government would almost certainly organize, calling on union-supporting Scots ignore the vote.In the run-up to next month’s Scottish parliament elections, Scotland nationalists have been arguing that Johnson would have no political or moral option but to grant another referendum, if faced with the demand for one from a vehement Scottish parliament.Last week, Sturgeon said she believes Johnson will have to grant another independence vote. “If people in Scotland vote for a party saying, ‘when the time is right, there should be an independence referendum,’ you cannot stand in the way of that, and I don’t think that is what will happen,” she said.Scottish First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon speaks as she campaigns for the parliamentary elections, in Ayr, April 19, 2021. Nonetheless, most Westminster lawmakers say they are bracing for Britain to be thrust into yet another time-consuming and energy-sapping political and constitutional struggle just as it is trying to plot a new international course for itself in the wake of Brexit and while it is attempting repair damaged relations with its European neighbors.Britain and the worldU.S. officials say privately they are concerned with the prospects of Britain, a key foreign-policy and defense ally, being preoccupied by more domestic upheaval. The Biden administration is banking on London to assist it in strengthening Western democracy. There are also Washington worries about the implications for Britain in the event that Scotland does break away.Would a diminished Britain get to keep its permanent seat on the U.N. security council? And what would happen to Britain’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent? They are just two key questions being pondered by officials in Washington as well as European capitals.George Grant, a former associate fellow at The Henry Jackson Society, a London think tank, told VOA recently that one destabilizing spin-off of a Scottish secession would be “the disruption of Britain’s military capability, specifically its nuclear deterrent.” Grant wrote a report on the defense implications of a Scotland departure.Scottish independence would mean the Royal Navy would lose its base at Faslane, the home port of Britain’s Trident nuclear submarines, and the base at Coulport, where the missiles and nuclear warheads are stored and maintained. And south of the border there is no obvious base to relocate the fleet, said Grant.“Regarding the deterrent it is a very tricky one and the short answer is there is nowhere ideal. The difficulty insofar as relocation is concerned is not so much where to re-house the nuclear submarines, but where to re-house the nuclear warheads,” he said.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, visits the nuclear submarine HMS Victorious with Defence Secretary Ben Wallaceat, centre, and Commander Justin Codd, left, at the Naval Base in Faslane, Scotland, July 29, 2019.For Johnson the clock is ticking — and maybe for the union. Columnist Neal Ascherson suspects “time is running out for the union as the case grows for a new independence vote.”Downing Street is now scrambling to shape plans on how to counter the prospect of a Scottish exit from the British union. The strategy includes a billion-pound spending spree of direct investment from London in Scotland’s transport system and infrastructure, circumventing the SNP-run Scottish government.A so-called union unit is being formed to come up with other ideas and to act as a quick-response war room. Other ideas being considered include having the House of Commons sit periodically in Scotland — as well as Wales or Northern Ireland. British government ministers are also focusing their messaging on how the SNP is providing no realistic plans on what independence would mean for Scottish pensions, the border with England and Scotland’s economy.The problem for English Conservatives is that they are not liked north of the border — and have not been since the days of Margaret Thatcher, who, even sympathetic biographers admit, had no ear for Scottish sensitivities.  
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