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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking about the contentious Belarusian presidential election and the ensuing police crackdown against peaceful protesters, says that “we want good outcomes for the Belarusian people, and we’ll take actions consistent with that.” Pompeo, who earlier condemned the conduct of the election that handed authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth-straight term by a landslide, said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with RFE/RL in Prague that “we’ve watched the violence and the aftermath, peaceful protesters being treated in ways that are inconsistent with how they should be treated.” The vote Sunday, which the opposition has called “rigged,” has resulted in three-straight evenings of mass protests marred by police violence and thousands of detentions. Pompeo said that the United States had not yet settled on the appropriate response but would work with Washington’s European partners to determine what action to take. Asked whether the election and its aftermath would affect the future of U.S.-Belarus relations, including the promised delivery of U.S. oil, Pompeo said: “We’re going to have to work through that…we were incredibly troubled by the election and deeply disappointed that it wasn’t more free and more fair.” U.S. troops in Afghanistan Pompeo, who was in Prague at the start of a five-day trip to Europe that will also take him to Slovenia, Austria and Poland, discussed a number of other issues, including allegations that Russia was involved in offering Taliban militants bounties to attack U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan; expectations that Washington will seek to extend the U.N. arms embargo against Iran; and the effect violence against protesters in the United States might have on Washington’s image abroad. WATCH: See Mike Pompeo’s entire interviewThe U.S. secretary of state declined to comment on whether he believed U.S. intelligence reports that said Russia had offered money to the Taliban and their proxies in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers, saying he never commented on U.S. intelligence matters. “What we’ve said is this: If the Russians are offering money to kill Americans or for that matter, other Westerners as well, there will be an enormous price to pay,” Pompeo said. “That’s what I shared with [Russian] Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov. I know our military has talked to their senior leaders as well. We won’t brook that. We won’t tolerate that.”  Regarding the prospect of resistance among European allies to U.S. efforts to extend the expiring arms embargo on Iran indefinitely, Pompeo said it “makes no sense for any European country to support the Iranians being able to have arms.” “I think they recognize it for exactly what it is,” he said of the U.S. proposal, a draft resolution of which is reportedly currently being floated in the 15-member Security Council. “And I hope that they will vote that way at the United Nations. I hope they will see.” “The resolution that we’re going to present is simply asking for a rollover of the extension of the arms embargo,” Pompeo said. “It’s that straightforward.” Asked specifically about the prospect that Iranian allies Russia and China could veto such a proposal, the U.S. secretary of state said: “We’re going to make it come back. We have the right to do it under 2231 and we’re going to do it.” U.N. Resolution 2231 was passed unanimously by the United Nations in 2015, endorsing the Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) The United States withdrew from the deal, which offered sanctions relief to Tehran in exchange for security guarantees aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, in 2018. Russian media pressure  Pompeo also discussed recent efforts by Russia to target foreign media operating there, which the secretary of state earlier warned would “impose new burdensome requirements” on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice Of America. In a statement Monday, Pompeo said that the two U.S.-funded media outlets already faced “significant and undue restrictions” in Russia, and that a recent draft order by Russia’s state media regulator requiring all media registered as “foreign agents” to label their content as such or face fines of up to 5 million rubles ($70,000) had left Washington “deeply concerned.” In Prague on Wednesday, Pompeo said that he believed that “we think we can put real pressure and convince them that the right thing to do is to allow press freedom.” “We’ve condemned it. We’ve also imposed enormous sanctions on Russia for other elements of their malign activity,” Pompeo said. “We hope that the rest of the world will join us in this. We hope that those nations that value the freedom of press, who want independent reporters to be able to ask questions, even if sometimes leaders don’t like them, will join with us.” Asked whether the recent handling of protests against social injustice in the United States, which has included the use of police force against civilians and journalists, had harmed Washington’s image and weakened its moral authority in scolding authoritarian regimes, Pompeo called the question “insulting.”  He said that the “difference between the United States and these authoritarian regimes couldn’t be more clear.” “We have the rule of law, we have the freedom of press, every one of those people gets due process. When we have peaceful protesters, we create the space for them to say their mind, to speak their piece,” he said. “Contrast that with what happens in an authoritarian regime. To even begin to compare them, to somehow suggest that America’s moral authority is challenged by the amazing work that our police forces, our law enforcement people do all across America — I, frankly, just find the question itself incomprehensible and insulting.” 
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Officials in Scotland said three people died Wednesday and at least six others were injured when a passenger train derailed near the northeastern city of Stonehaven. The British Transport Police force said officers were notified of the accident about 9:40 a.m. local time. Initial investigators at the scene report the six-car train went off the track about 160 kilometers northeast of Edinburgh, with the locomotive and three cars sliding down an embankment. The full extent of the incident can be seen in aerial video from the scene, with one carriage lying on its side in a hilly, woodland area near the track. The British Broadcasting Company reports the train was traveling from Aberdeen to Glasgow when the derailment occurred. It reports six people were taken to a local hospital following the accident, but their injuries were not believed to be serious. British Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps spoke to reporters Wednesday, saying members of the Rail Accident Investigation Board were on their way to the scene.  It is suspected that a landslide, caused by recent heavy rain in the area, contributed to the wreck. But Shapps stressed that it is still early in the investigation. 
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that China’s economic power is in some ways a greater global threat than the Soviet Union was during the Cold War.    “Today an even greater threat is the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaigns of coercion and control,” Pompeo said in a speech to the senate in the Czech Republic. “The CCP is already enmeshed in our economies, in our politics, in our societies in ways the Soviet Union never was.”   The top U.S. diplomat also cited Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat, warning of “national security” risks and data theft.   “We’re going to make sure that American data not end up in the hands of an adversary like the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo said in Prague.    Pompeo’s remarks come after China’s ambassador to London accused the United States last month of instigating conflict with Beijing before the November U.S. presidential election.U.S.-China relations have deteriorated sharply this year over issues such as Beijing’s management of the coronavirus, its security clampdown in Hong Kong and activities in the disputed South China Sea.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, smiles as he arrives for a meeting of the senate in Prague, Czech Republic, Aug. 12, 2020.Pompeo held talks with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis in Prague earlier Wednesday on the second day of his weeklong visit to central Europe.The two leaders discussed nuclear energy cooperation and the Three Seas Initiative, a political platform to promote connectivity among nations in central and eastern Europe by supporting infrastructure, energy and digital interconnectivity projects.The initiative gets its name from the three seas that border the region: the Baltic, Black and Adriatic.Wednesday, Pompeo said the U.S. is ready to invest up to $1 billion in the Three Seas Investment Fund to help protect against “China’s opaque lending practices” during his speech to the Czech senate.  The chief U.S. diplomat began the day taking part in a roundtable discussion with a group of leaders from tech companies from the U.S. and the Czech Republic to highlight the benefits of U.S. investment, and according to the State Department, “underscore the attractiveness of the United States as an investment destination for Czech start-ups.”The top U.S. diplomat’s trip comes as the Trump administration looks to confront Russian and Chinese economic and geopolitical competition in Europe.In addition to Pilsen, Pompeo is traveling to Prague, Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland, this week.The trip comes as the Pentagon prepares to move forward with a FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump greets members of the U.S. military during a stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Dec. 27, 2018.Ambassador Philip Reeker, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Pompeo will discuss with his counterparts the just-completed U.S.-Poland Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that “provides a framework” to further strengthen “the broad transatlantic security.”The defense deal enables the United States for “rotational presence” of an additional 1,000 U.S. troops to “enhance deterrence against Russia, strengthen NATO,” and to assure allies, officials say. About 4,500 U.S. personnel are already on rotation in Poland.SloveniaIn Ljubljana, Pompeo will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology with Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar.Over the past year, European countries, including Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic, have signed agreements with the U.S., pledging that 5G suppliers would not be subject to control by a foreign government without independent judicial review, which effectively excludes Chinese firms.AustriaIn Vienna, the U.S.-Austria Strategic Partnership and growing trade relationship will be high on the agenda in Pompeo’s meetings with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.Austria hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations in charge of monitoring Iran’s adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal from which the U.S. has withdrawn.Pompeo will also hold talks with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, as Washington is calling on other members of the U.N. Security Council to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire on Oct. 18.PolandIn Warsaw, the chief U.S. diplomat will meet with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on deepening defense ties, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, securing 5G networks, and improving regional energy and infrastructure through the Three Seas Initiative. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.Pompeo will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who visited the White House in late June.Poland sees Nord Stream 2, which would double Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea, as a threat to Europe’s energy security.FILE – Workers are seen at a construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, June 5, 2019.Last month, the State Department said people making investments or engaging in activities related to Nord Stream 2, including pipe-laying vessels and engineering service in the deployment of the pipelines, could face U.S. sanctions. “It’s a clear warning to companies: aiding and abetting Russia’s malign influence projects will not be tolerated,” said Pompeo during a July 15 press conference.”Let me be clear. These aren’t commercial projects. They are the Kremlin’s key tools to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies,” Pompeo said.  Wayne Lee contributed to this report.
 
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Protests erupted Tuesday for a third straight night in Belarus after the top opposition candidate in Sunday’s presidential election fled the country for her children’s safety.Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya sent a video message to her supporters asking them to forgive her going to Lithuania at this time.“It was a very hard decision to make. I know that many of you will understand me, many others will condemn me, and some will even hate me. But God forbid you ever face the choice that I faced. Children are the main thing in life,” she said.Her supporters say they believe she was forced to read from a prepared text when she told protesters not to confront police and show “respect for the law.”People, some of them ethnic Belarusians, hold a poster reading “Elections without Lukashenka! Freedom for political prisoners” and shout anti-Lukashenko slogans, Aug. 11, 2020.Tsikhanouskaya was the only serious challenger to longtime authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who the election commission says won a sixth term with 80% of the vote to her 10%. She says she will not recognize the results.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Belarus’s election was “not free and fair” and condemned “ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.”EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also alleges election fraud.Tsikhanouskaya jumped into the race late after her husband, Syarhei, an anti-government blogger and potential opposition candidate, was jailed in May.Belarusian police used rubber bullets and stun grenades against anti-government demonstrators who turned out for the third consecutive night Tuesday.Witnesses report police beating protesters before arresting them and smashing car windows before pulling people out of the vehicles.Earlier Tuesday, people left flowers at a place in Minsk where a demonstrator was killed Monday.Belarusian officials say more than 2,000 people have been arrested since Sunday.The European Union is accusing the Lukashenko’s government of “disproportionate and unacceptable violence” and said it was reviewing its relations with Belarus.Lukashenko has called the protesters criminals and dangerous revolutionaries.Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since it declared independence from Russia in 1991. He has been accused of suppressing free speech, ignoring human rights and showing little tolerance for dissent.
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The World Health Organization said Tuesday said it was holding talks with Russia regarding its recently approved COVID-19 vaccine. Russia on Tuesday became the first country to approve a vaccine for use in tens of thousands of its citizens. In an appearance on Russian television, President Vladimir Putin claimed the vaccine has proven efficient and has passed “all the necessary tests.”  Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 11, 2020. (Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin)He said his own daughter has taken the vaccine and after two shots had a normal temperature and a “high number of antibodies.” The announcement came amidst global skepticism because the vaccine received approval after less than two months of human trials in Russia with a limited number of test subjects. “We are in close contact with Russian health authorities and discussions are ongoing with respect to possible WHO prequalification of the vaccine, but again prequalification of any vaccine includes the rigorous review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.Jasarevic says he is encouraged by the speed in which possible vaccines are being developed around the world. He said the WHO’s main concern is equitably distributing whatever viable vaccines are developed around the world.  
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron has earned kudos from many Lebanese and the international community for his proactive response to last week’s explosion in Beirut — praise he doesn’t always hear at home these days. But some critics are raising old accusations of French neocolonialist meddling.Macron is back in the international spotlight, after making the first visit by a foreign leader last week to blast-crippled Beirut — and co-hosting Sunday’s virtual donors’ conference for the Lebanese, which raised nearly 300 million dollars in humanitarian aid. It’s a position the French president, who has spearheaded similar high-profile events — on climate change, Libya and the Sahel, for instance — seems to relish. Visiting Beirut — now rocked by massive anti-government protests — Macron was welcomed by residents who called him their only hope. A petition to return Lebanon to French mandate has gathered more than 60,000 signatures.French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a video-conference on the situation in Lebanon from Fort de Bregançon, southern France, Aug. 9, 2020.Its organizers say the Lebanese government — which resigned on Monday — has been totally incapable of securing and managing the country. France said Lebanese aspirations for reforms and governance must be heard. It’s been a while since Macron got such a hero’s welcome back home, where his approval rating is an underwhelming 39%. In a sign of his difficult presidency, a French newspaper is running a series on the many crises he’s faced, from the yellow vests protests to the coronavirus-crippled economy. “Macron wants to find a global role. He’s in a very difficult situation in France.”That’s former French diplomat and geopolitical expert Philippe Moreau Defarges. He said there’s one towering French figure in the backdrop — former World War Two hero-turned-president, Charles de Gaulle. “He wants to be a new de Gaulle …. he would like to do something for Lebanon.”Ties between Lebanon and France stretch back centuries. Following World War I Lebanon, as well as Syria, was placed under French mandate. Despite de Gaulle’s reluctance, it achieved independence in 1943. “Lebanon was a Christian country and there is a very multi-sectoral relation(ship) between France and Lebanon,” Defarges said. “There is a connection between France and Lebanon that is beyond colonialism …” Not all Lebanese — or French — see it that way. French far right National Rally spokesman Julien Sanchez called Macron’s moves opportunistic. How would French like it, he told French radio, if US President Donald Trump protested with the yellow vests on the Champs Elysees? Others, including French leftist politicians, claim Macron’s actions reflect a colonial mindset that has never disappeared. “Lebanon is in urgent need of a new pact,” wrote journalist and commentator Ramzy Baroud in Gulf News. “But not one engineered by France.”France has faced similar accusations before — its Barkhane peacekeeping operation, for example, has sparked protests in Mali and Niger. Macron’s message is only Lebanon can solve Lebanon’s problems — but not everyone believes it.  
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