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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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Fans of the Premier League clubs named as part of the breakaway Super League launched on Sunday have joined forces to condemn the move with Chelsea’s Supporters’ Trust describing it as the “ultimate betrayal.”
 
The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust said it was “deeply concerned” at their club’s involvement while Arsenal’s Supporters’ Trust described it on Twitter as “the death of the club as a sporting institution.”
 
Manchester United’s Supporters’ Trust (MUST) also stood firm against the Super League which would have the club’s co-chairman, American Joel Glazer, as it’s vice-chairman.
 
“These proposals are completely unacceptable and will shock Manchester United fans, as well as those of many other clubs,” it said in a statement.
 
“When Sir Matt Busby led us into the European Cup in the 1950s, the modern Manchester United was founded in the tragedy and then triumph that followed. To even contemplate walking away from that competition would be a betrayal of everything this club has ever stood for.”
 
Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham were named as six of the 12 founders of the Super League which has been widely condemned across the game and beyond and is likely to spark a bitter battle for control of the game in Europe.
 
In statement the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) said: “Our members and football supporters across the world have experienced the ultimate betrayal.
 
“This is a decision of greed to line the pockets of those at the top and it has been made with no consideration for the loyal supporters, our history, our future and the future of football in this country.
 
“This is unforgivable. Enough is enough.”
 
Unlike Chelsea, Tottenham’s record of winning silverware has been lamentable over the past few decades and they have not won the English title since 1961.
 
Their last trophy was in 2008 and while they have a state-of-the-art 60,000-seater stadium regarded as one of the best in Europe, they are unlikely to qualify for the Champions League next season. On Monday they sacked manager Jose Mourinho.
 
“The Board of Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust is deeply concerned by rapidly escalating reports linking Tottenham Hotspur Football Club with a breakaway European Super League: a concept driven by avarice and self-interest at the expense of the intrinsic values of the game we hold so dear,” a statement on the THST website said.
 
“Along with fan groups at Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea, we wholeheartedly oppose the move to create a closed shop for Europe’s elite.”
 
“We call on (owners) ENIC, the temporary custodians of our great club, to distance themselves from any rebel group and to consider the implications fully before making decisions that will fundamentally change the course of history for Tottenham Hotspur forever,” it said.
 
“The future of our Club is at stake.”
 
Manchester City Official Supporter’s Club (OSC) also voiced its opposition.
 
“This proposed new competition has no sporting merit and would seem to be motivated by greed,” it said. “Those involved have zero regard for the game’s traditions.”
 
Responding to the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust post on Twitter, Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly group replied: “Solidarity needed now more than ever.”
 
In a further Tweet SOS said: “Embarrassing as fan representatives we are appalled & completely oppose this decision. (Owners) Fenway Sports Group have ignored fans in their relentless and greedy pursuit of money.”
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Russian prison officials said Monday that hunger-striking, jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny has been transferred to a prison hospital. “At the present time, Navalny’s health is assessed as satisfactory, and he is being examined daily by a physician,” the federal penitentiary service said in a statement.  “With the patient’s consent, he was prescribed vitamin therapy.” Navalny’s allies did not have an immediate response to the opposition leader’s move to the hospital at a high security prison east of Moscow. Earlier Monday, a Navalny ally had warned that there was no hope of receiving good news about his health. FILE – Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 28, 2020.Lyubov Sobol told Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday that Navalny’s allies expect to receive an update about the politician’s health status later in the day, according to the Reuters news agency. Allies of Navalny announced nationwide protests after the opposition figure’s family and personal doctors released blood analysis results that suggested he was at high risk of cardiac arrest or kidney failure.  The planned protests are scheduled for Wednesday and fall on the same day that President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual State of the Nation address from just outside the Kremlin — all but ensuring a tense standoff between Navalny supporters and police in the capital, Moscow. Over the weekend, Navalny’s doctors said that blood tests — provided by the opposition figure’s lawyers to his family — showed his potassium count had reached a “critical level.” “This means both impaired renal function and that serious heart rhythm problems can happen any minute,” said the letter, which was signed by Navalny’s personal physician, Anastasia Vasilyeva, and three other doctors. “If they don’t start treating Navalny, he will die within days,” warned his other physician, Alexander Polupan. FILE – A still image from CCTV footage published by Life.Ru shows what is said to be Alexey Navalny speaking with a prison guard at the IK-2 corrective penal colony in the town of Pokrov, Russia, in this image released Apr. 2, 2021.Navalny, 44, is currently on the third week of a hunger strike in an effort to gain access to medical treatment. He is serving a 2½-year sentence in a prison 100 kilometers from Moscow. On Friday, the opposition leader said prison authorities were threatening to force-feed him. Previously, he has detailed efforts by prison authorities to lure him out of his hunger strike — including slipping candy into his pockets and grilling chicken in the prison barracks. For several weeks, Navalny has described acute pain in his back that caused a loss of sensation in his legs and arms. Through his lawyers, he has also complained of a severe cough and dizziness. Navalny maintains that his ailments are linked to an August 2020 poisoning attack with a military-grade nerve agent that nearly took his life, and that he and Western governments blame on the Russian government. The Kremlin has denied any involvement but also refused to investigate the incident — saying that there is no definitive proof Navalny was ever poisoned. The government has also deployed state media to Navalny’s prison to film reports that portray conditions at the penal colony as near ideal, and Navalny as seeking special treatment by faking his symptoms. Yet the latest blood results suggested Navalny’s very survival was at stake, said his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, on social media.  A poisoned affair  Navalny was sentenced to prison in February for violating parole obligations dating back to a 2014 fraud conviction he argues was politically motivated to disqualify him from taking part in Russia’s political space. The parole violation charges appeared only after Navalny had spent months recovering in a German hospital from the poison attack. The action was widely seen as an effort by the Kremlin to strongly encourage the opposition figure to remain in exile.  Instead, Navalny announced he was returning home to Moscow, where he was promptly detained at the airport by police in January. FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen at the passport control point at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Jan. 17, 2021.Following his conviction, it later emerged he would be serving out his sentence at the IK-2 facility in the town of Pokrov, a high-security prison known for imposing a strict regime of psychological pressure on prisoners, say former inmates. The United States and its European allies have demanded Navalny’s release and issued sanctions against top Russian government officials and state entities involved. The Kremlin has rebuffed Western demands and sanctions as attempts to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs. Fern Robinson contributed to this report.   
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Israel and Greece have signed their biggest ever defense procurement deal, which Israel said Sunday would strengthen political and economic ties between the two countries as their air forces launched a joint exercise.The agreement includes a $1.65 billion contract for the establishment and operation of a training center for the Hellenic Air Force by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems over 22 years, Israel’s defense ministry said.The training center will be modeled on Israel’s flight academy and will be equipped with 10 M-346 training aircraft produced by Italy’s Leonardo, the ministry said.Elbit will supply kits to upgrade and operate Greece’s T-6 aircraft and also provide training, simulators and logistical support.”I am certain that (this program) will upgrade the capabilities and strengthen the economies of Israel and Greece and thus the partnership between our two countries will deepen on the defense, economic and political levels,” said Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.The announcement follows a meeting Friday in Cyprus between the UAE, Greek, Cypriot and Israeli foreign ministers, who agreed to deepen cooperation.The Israeli and Greek air forces on Sunday launched a joint exercise in Greece, the Israeli military said.In at least one past exercise over Greece, Israeli fighter planes practiced against an S-300 posted on Crete. The Russian-made air defense system is also deployed in Syria and Iran, Israel’s foes.A source in the Hellenic National Defense Command said the S-300 had not been activated in the joint exercise that began Sunday.
 
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Twelve of Europe’s top football clubs launched a breakaway Super League on Sunday, launching what is certain to be a bitter battle for control of the game and its lucrative revenue.The move sets up a rival to UEFA’s established Champions League competition and was condemned by football authorities and political leaders.Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus are among the leading members of the new league, but UEFA has threatened to ban them from domestic and international competition and vowed to fight the move.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson both issued statements condemning the breakaway and supporting UEFA’s position.Along with United, English Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have signed up to the plans.Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain join Real. AC Milan and Inter Milan make up the trio from Italy along with Juventus.The Super League said they aimed to have 15 founding members and a 20-team league with five other clubs qualifying each season.The clubs would share a fund of 3.5 billion euros ($4.19 billion) to spend on infrastructure projects and to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than 4 billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires,” said Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, the first chairman of the Super League.No German or French clubs have yet to be associated with the breakaway.World soccer’s governing body, FIFA, expressed its “disapproval to a ‘closed European breakaway league’ outside of the international football structures.”But there was no mention of a previous threat from FIFA to ban any players taking part in a breakaway from participating in World Cups.The announcement came just hours before UEFA is to sign off on its own plans for an expanded and restructured 36 team Champions League on Monday.UEFA issued a strong statement jointly with English, Spanish and Italian leagues and football federations, saying they were ready to use “all measures” to confront any breakaway and saying any participating clubs would be banned from domestic leagues, such as the Premier League.”The clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams,” UEFA said.”We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough.”The moves were condemned by football authorities across Europe and former players such as Manchester United’s ex-captain Gary Neville who called it “an absolute disgrace” and said the club owners were motivated by “pure greed.”France’s Macron raised his voice against the breakaway.”The president of the republic welcomes the position of French clubs to refuse to participate to a European football Super League project that threatens the principle of solidarity and sporting merit,” the French presidency said in a statement sent to Reuters.”The French state will support all the steps taken by the LFP, FFF, UEFA and FIFA to protect the integrity of federal competitions, whether national or European,” the Elysee added, citing the national, European and globally soccer governing bodies.Britain’s Johnson also opposed the move.”Plans for a European Super League would be very damaging for football and we support football authorities in taking action,” he tweeted.”They would strike at the heart of the domestic game and will concern fans across the country. The clubs involved must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any further steps.”There have been reports of a breakaway for several years and they returned in January with several media reported a document had been produced outlining the plans.In October, then Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the club had accepted a proposal to join a breakaway league.Those reports led FIFA and UEFA to warn that they would ban any players involved in a breakaway from playing in the World Cup or European Championship.
 
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