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The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday called on Belarus to immediately release a blogger arrested a week ago and allow him and other reporters to “freely and safely” cover Sunday’s presidential elections.The organization’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator in New York, Gulnoza Said, said President Aleksandr Lukashenko “wants an election to put a veneer of legitimacy on his longstanding leadership, but he is achieving the reverse by harassing and detaining journalists up and down the country who are trying to cover his opposition.”Belarusian police arrested Evgeniy Vasilkov, who also works as a mechanic, at his garage in Khoiniki July 31 and took him to a police station, local media reported.He was accused of writing a slogan used by Lukashenko critics on road signs.Vasilkov has denied the charge, saying his arrest was retaliatory because of his support for an opposition candidate.He appeared before a local judge who sentenced him to 10 days of detention for “disobeying” police, for allegedly refusing to show them the identification at his arrest.On July 31, Belarusian police also detained five reporters, working for Belsat, an independent satellite broadcaster, while they were livestreaming rallies in support of the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.Her supporters had taken to the streets in large numbers at rallies in the capital, Minsk, and other Belarusian cities.Tikhanovskaya, 37, entered the race with the promise to free political prisoners and call new elections after the arrest in May of her husband, opposition blogger and presidential hopeful, Sergei Tikhanovsky. He was charged with attacking a police officer, a claim he rejected as a provocation.Lukashenko is campaigning for a sixth term amid an increase in opposition protests against his autocratic rule and economic difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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A 37-year-old teacher with no political experience has become an unlikely challenger to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko — widely known in the West as ‘Europe’s last dictator’. As Henry Ridgwell reports, huge crowds have turned out to support the opposition presidential candidate in recent weeks — but it’s unclear if the show of ‘people power’ will be reflected in the election on Sunday.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    Produced by Henry Ridgwell
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In select circles in Madrid, the rumor had been making the rounds for weeks: Beset by a financial scandal that would not go away, former King Juan Carlos I was preparing to go into exile.The whispers were proven right in spectacular fashion when the ex-monarch left Spain this week.In a letter published on the royal family’s website, Juan Carlos told his son, King Felipe VI, he was leaving the country due to the “public repercussions of certain episodes of my past private life”.Stunned Spaniards were left to play a guessing game as to the whereabouts of the man who had reigned over them for nearly 40 years until he abdicated in 2014.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A newsrack displays copies of El Nacional newspaper with a page one headline that reads in Spanish: “The whereabouts of King Juan Carlos are unknown, but it is said that he is in the DR,” Aug. 4, 2020.Reigniting an old debateIn the wake of Juan Carlos’ abrupt departure, it has prompted a surge in republican sentiment in a country which has historically maintained a complex relationship with the institution of monarchy.Across the country there are 637 squares, streets or other public edifices named after Juan Carlos but since the 82-year-old’s departure, many of these were at the center of public anger towards the royal family.Students in Madrid called for the King Juan Carlos University to change its name, with an online petition garnering over 41,000 signatures by Wednesday.“Corruption cases surrounding the royal family keep appearing, torpedoing the image of a monarchy that had been presented to us as ‘wholesome’ and ‘humble,’” the petition read.In Gijón, in northern Spain, authorities said they would change the name of its Juan Carlos I avenue because they said the name of the former monarch “does not represent the institutional, moral and democratic values of our society anymore”, according to spokeswoman Marina Pineda.Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, said the departure of Juan Carlos would allow King Felipe to reign in a better way as the country confronted a period of instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.However, Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Unidas Podemos, the junior partner in the coalition government with the Socialists, condemned the former king’s exit while he faced a possible investigation in Spain.“Sooner or later, young people in our country will start a republic in Spain,” he added.A poll for the right-wing ABC newspaper, which supports the monarchy, found 68% thought Juan Carlos was wrong to leave the country.Javier Sanchez-Junco, a lawyer for the former king, said his client was not trying to escape justice by going into exile and would remain available to prosecutors. A view of the Royal Palace is pictured in Madrid, Spain, Aug. 4, 2020.Scandals The fall of a monarch who is respected by some in Spain for ushering in democracy after the death of longtime ruler General Francisco Franco began in 2018 in Switzerland when a prosecutor started an investigation into the ex-king’s murky finances.The prosecutor opened an investigation into Juan Carlos’ ex-mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and the former king’s lawyer and financial adviser, who are both based in Geneva. All deny any wrongdoing. The former king maintained a relationship with Sayn-Wittgenstein, a London businesswoman, between 2005 and 2009.The Swiss investigation, probing possible money laundering relating to a $100 million ‘gift’ to Juan Carlos, from the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2008, is ongoing. Juan Carlos is also being investigated for the first time by Spain’s Supreme Court over his role in alleged kickbacks to a high-speed train deal in Saudi Arabia.In March, after British newspaper The Daily Telegraph revealed that Juan Carlos and his son were both named as beneficiaries of a Panama-based fund started in 2008 with $100 million-dollars described as a “donation” from Saudi Arabia, King Felipe released a statement renouncing any financial inheritance from his father. Juan Carlos was also stripped of his royal allowance.Amid an almost daily drip feed of media revelations about his father, Felipe VI was coming under increasing pressure from Spain’s left-wing government to distance himself from the ex-monarch. Finally a deal was struck.Kings going into exile is nothing new in a country where Spaniards have long maintained an uneasy relationship with their monarchs. Alfonso XIII, Juan Carlos’ grandfather was forced into exile in 1931 after Spaniards voted for the Second Republic. The former monarch lived part of his young life in Italy, then Portugal before returning to Spain to become the nominated successor to General Francisco Franco.A man wearing a face mask walks past a graffiti by artist El Primo de Bansky of former Spanish King Juan Carlos in a street of Valencia, on Aug. 6, 2020.Popular figure Juan Carlos was lauded for helping to uphold a fragile new democracy after the death of Franco in 1975.In 1981, when armed police fired shots over the heads of terrified MPs in the Spanish parliament in an attempted coup d’etat, Juan Carlos made a televised address to the nation backing democracy and faced down the plotters. The coup failed.Despite his love of bullfighting, yachts and women to whom he was not married, the king was a popular figure.All this started to go wrong in 2012 when Juan Carlos had to be flown back to Spain after injuring himself during a secret elephant hunting safari in Botswana while in the company of Sayn-Wittgenstein. It caused outrage in a country struggling to survive a deep recession.A resident waves a Spanish Republican flag against Spain’s former monarch, King Juan Carlos I, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Aug. 5, 2020.However, El País, the left-wing newspaper, said this was not the moment for Spain to suffer a seismic shake-up by abolishing its monarchy.”Those who take advantage of the fall from grace of Juan Carlos I to reopen the debate on the monarchy must ask themselves whether beyond the legitimacy of the republican demand it now has sufficient parliamentary consensus to translate into a constitutional reform. The data indicates otherwise,” it said in an editorial.Some commentators believe a republic would not be the answer for a country riven by divisive politics.“I think the monarchy is not under threat because the alternative – a Third Republic – would be much worse,” William Chislett, a journalist who interviewed Juan Carlos’ father Don Juan in 1977, told VOA.“Spain is such a polarized country that a conservative or socialist president would be a disaster. What may happen next is Juan Carlos may give back some of the money which is involved in this but that will not happen soon.”Pilar Eyre, a writer and royal expert, doubted Spain would become a republic because the country’s two main parties supported the monarchy.“The two main parties, the Socialists and the (conservative) People’s Party are in favor of the monarchy and it needs their support to change the constitution and allow a referendum on a republic,” she told VOA.A spokesperson for the royal household declined to comment.When Felipe came to the throne in 2014, he promised a “renewed monarchy for new times” and vowing to “listen, understand, warn and advise”.The Spanish king faces an uphill struggle to convince many of his subjects of the validity of a monarchy.   
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Two RFE/RL journalists were assaulted at a rally for Bulgaria’s ruling GERB party in Sofia, where Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was speaking. RFE/RL has called for an investigation and for Bulgarian authorities to condemn the incident.
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Spain’s former King Juan Carlos the First left his country this week as he faces possible accusations of financial wrongdoing.  The besieged monarch, who handed the crown to his son, Felipe, six years ago, is not formally under investigation.  In this report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Alfonso Beato in Barcelona reports the former king’s scandals – and his exile – have reignited questions on whether Spain should keep its monarchy.PRODUCER: Jon Spier
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Pope Francis named six women to the Vatican financial oversight body Thursday, making them the first women ever in high-level Vatican positions.
 
The appointees will serve in the 15-person Council for the Economy. Francis created the Council in 2014 as an international group to oversee the Vatican’s finances and set financial policy.
 
The appointment of so many new women is the pope’s latest move to fix the gender imbalance at the Vatican. So far, he has named women for deputy foreign minister, director of the Vatican Museums and deputy head of the Vatican Press Office, as well as an additional four women as councilors to the Synod of Bishops.
 
Thursday’s appointments mark the most women appointed at one time to the Vatican.
 
Among the new councilors is Leslie Jane Ferrar, former treasurer to Prince Charles from 2015 to 2017. She now serves in several non-executive and trustee roles. New Council member Ruth Kelly was Britain’s former secretary of state for transport and the former minister for women and equality. 
The six women have backgrounds in business, banking, politics, and academia, and they are from Britain, Spain and Germany. 
The Council currently faces intense economic pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vatican has had to use reserve funds and implement harsh cost-control measures. 
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, the Council was made up of only men. One cardinal serves as coordinator, and the 14 remaining positions are split between clergy and non-clergy. Now, the non-clergy portion will include the six women newly appointed, along with one man.
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The United States exposed Russia’s tactics of using a combination of “official, proxy, and unattributed communication channels and platforms” to create and amplify false narratives, in a report published on Wednesday.While avoiding a direct discussion of American election interference by Moscow, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) traced Russian disinformation links, detailing Kremlin’s schemes of spreading disinformation through official government communications, state-funded global messaging, cultivation of proxy sources, weaponization of social media, and cyber-enabled disinformation in the newly released report.“Beijing has also taken a page from Russia’s playbook, leveraging conspiracy websites and proxy channels to push disinformation and propaganda with the goal of undermining democratic norms and institutions,” Lea Gabrielle, special envoy and coordinator of the GEC, said during a phone briefing.“The threat of both China and Russia disinformation is real,” she added.The report comes as the U.S. is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who works with or for a foreign government for the purpose of interfering with U.S. elections through certain illegal cyber activities.“The U.S. government will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections,” Gabrielle told VOA. “The GEC works with our partners worldwide who share information on election interference and the tactics that they’ve seen used by Russia and others.”Seven Kremlin-aligned disinformation proxy sites and organizations, including the Strategic Culture Foundation website and the Katehon think tank, were also profiled in GEC’s report. Those proxies amplified narratives critical of the U.S. while embracing Russian positions, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak.The report said Russia’s general aims are “questioning the value of democratic institutions” and “weakening the international credibility and international cohesion of the United States and its allies and partners.”But a counterdisinformation community made up of governments, civil society, academia, the press, the private sector and citizens is pushing back, the State Department said.Senior Russian officials and pro-Russian media have sought to capitalize on the fear and confusion surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic by actively promulgating conspiracy theories, the report said.
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Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said it will decide by next week whether to leave a European treaty to protect women against domestic violence, a move that has angered many Turkish women, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter.Turkey was the first country to ratify the Istanbul Convention in 2012, followed by 33 other European nations.It is called the first binding agreement that declares violence against women a human rights violation and “creates a comprehensive legal framework and approach to combat violence against women,” including protecting victims and prosecuting violent suspects.But Turkey’s conservative government says it wants to withdraw from the pact because opponents say it undermines Turkish families and so-called traditional values that already protect women from violence.A 2016 U.N. report said that 38 percent of Turkish women had experienced “physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence.”  And, according to an authoritative Istanbul-based advocacy group, We Will Stop Femicide, the number of women murdered, usually by their partners, has been increasing, with 121 women murdered in 2011 and in 2018, 440, according to an NPR report.The possible withdrawal is pitting Erdogan’s son and daughter against each other.“It is our religion which determines our fundamental values, our view of the family,” the Turkish Youth Foundation said. Erdogan’s son, Bilal Erdogan, is a member of the foundation’s board.But Erdogan’s daughter Sumeyye Erdogan is the deputy head of Turkey’s Women and Democracy Association.“We can no longer talk about ‘family’ … in a relationship where one side is oppressed and subject to violence,” the association said. “Marital rape is not normal in a healthy relationship. Bullying is in opposition to human dignity and Islamic value judgments.”The deputy chairman of the AKP, Numan Kurtulmus, said Turkey’s LGBTQ community has “taken refuge” behind the convention to push for equal treatment.Those who support Turkey remaining in the agreement said dropping out would be contrary to European values and be considered a step back from Turkey’s long campaign to join the European Union.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he would visit Poland and three other European countries next week, as the United States announced plans to reposition troops outside of Germany. During this tour, which will begin Aug. 11, the U.S. top diplomat will also visit the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Austria. “It will be a very important and productive trip,” he said, announcing the tour during a press conference. Polish President Andrzej Duda, a populist conservative, was narrowly reelected to a new five-year term last month after a highly polarizing campaign in which he was notably received into the White House by Donald Trump. FILE – Poland’s President Andrzej Duda listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 24, 2020.The American president, who has a terrible relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has decided to withdraw thousands of American soldiers from Germany to reposition some of them in Poland. The Pentagon announced last week that the United States would deploy 1,000 additional troops to Poland in rotations, thanks to an agreement reached with Warsaw on their status in the country. They will be added to the 4,500 American soldiers already deployed by rotations in the country. The tour should also be placed under the sign of China, as Pompeo, who seeks to reduce Beijing’s influence in the world, urges U.S. allies to avoid Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.  
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