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Turkey is willing to purchase U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems but will not agree to disposing of the Russian S-400 system it has already bought, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.Speaking to reporters on board his plane on his way back from a meeting with Donald Trump in Washington, Erdogan said the U.S. president was engaged in “sincere efforts” to resolve disputes between the NATO allies.Turkey took delivery of the Russian S-400 system this year, dismissing warnings from the United States that it poses a threat to NATO security.As a result, Washington suspended Turkish participation in the multinational F-35 fighter jet program.“We told them we can purchase the Patriots too. We regard the proposal to completely remove the S-400s (from Turkey) as meddling in our sovereign rights,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying. “There can be no question of us leaving the S-400s and turning toward the Patriots.”FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.Erdogan said: “I want both America and Russia to be my friend. All our efforts are geared toward that.”The dispute over the competing air defense systems is one component of the tension between the two countries. Turkey has also come under fire in Washington for its incursion into Syria last month to drive away Syrian Kurdish forces that fought with the U.S. against the Islamic State.Turkey, meanwhile, is angry at the U.S. for supporting the Kurdish forces it views as a threat and for refusing to extradite a Muslim cleric it accuses of fomenting a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.Erdogan also told reporters that he had returned a letter that Trump sent on Oct. 9, urging Erdogan restraint over his plans for an offensive in Syria. Trump wrote: “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!”Opposition parties had decried the letter as an insult to Turkey, calling on Erdogan to send it back to Trump.Erdogan said Trump did not react when he handed him back the letter. 
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Italy’s government is set to declare a state of emergency in flood-ravaged Venice, to swiftly secure the historic city funds to repair damage from the highest tide in 50 years.
                   
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described the flooding as “a blow to the heart of our country.”
                   
He said a cabinet meeting called for Thursday afternoon will declare a state of emergency and approve the first measures aimed at helping the city’s recovery.
                   
Conte spent Wednesday night in Venice, where world-famous monuments, homes and businesses were hit hard by the exceptional flooding. The water reached 1.87 meters above sea level Tuesday, the second-highest level ever recorded in the city.
                   
Venice’s mayor said the damage is estimated at “hundreds of millions of euros.”
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The Dutch-led team investigating the 2014 downing of the Malaysian Airlines jet over Ukraine has released new phone intercepts, saying they show ties between Russian military and political officials and separatists in eastern Ukraine were much closer than previously known.The intercepts were released on November 14 as part of a new push by the Dutch team, known as the Joint Investigative Team (JIT), seeking new witnesses for the crash of MH17, which killed all 298 people on board.
In June, Dutch prosecutors announced that three Russians and one Ukrainian would be put on trial in the Netherlands for their alleged involvement in the incident.In announcing the charges, prosecutors said there was evidence of a direct line of command between Russian officials and separatists who were fighting in eastern Ukraine and had announced the formation of an unrecognized government called the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR).Russia has repeatedly rejected the conclusions of the Dutch-led team, and the evidence pointing to the presence of the Buk missile in eastern Ukraine at the time of the jet’s downing.FILE – Wilbert Paulissen of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) speaks on the preliminary results of the investigation into the shooting-down of MH17 during a press conference in Nieuwegein, Netherlands, Sept. 28, 2016.MH17 was flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur when it exploded and crashed in territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian fighters on July 17, 2014.The JIT has said that a sophisticated antiaircraft missile system known as a Buk was used in the attack, and that the weapon came from Russia.In a statement accompanying the release of the intercepts, the JIT said it was seeking more witnesses as prosecutors compile more evidence ahead of the trial of the four men, scheduled for March 2020.”Recent analysis of witness statements and other information revealed that Russian influence on the DPR went beyond military support and that the ties between Russian officials and DPR-leaders appear closer,” the team said.”The intensity of Russian influence is relevant to investigating further persons involved in the downing of MH17. That is why today the JIT releases this new appeal for witnesses,” the JIT said.Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, accused of downing of MH17, are shown on screen as international investigators present their latest findings, in Nieuwegein, Netherlands, June 19, 2019.A spokeswoman told RFE/RL that the intercepts were obtained by the JIT from Ukraine’s main security agency, the SBU.In the intercepts, which were published on YouTube and date from July 2014, according to the JIT, several men can be heard discussing what appears to be a chain of command.In one, which the JIT said was placed at the beginning of July 2014, a man who appears to sound like a commander tells another that “men are coming with a mandate from Shoigu” — a reference to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.In another call dated March 2015, a man whom JIT identified as Leonid Zakharchenko, a military intelligence officer for the separatists, is heard discussing with another man about a third man’s potential legal problems.The conversation repeatedly mentions the name Surkov — a reference to Vladislav Surkov, a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Other prominent individuals that JIT said were mentioned in the intercepts include Igor Girkin, a top separatist commander in eastern Ukraine who was among the four charged by Dutch prosecutors, and Sergei Aksyonov, who became the Russian-appointed leader in Crimea after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the new recordings were “fake” and “unconfirmed,” and accused prosecutors of concocting evidence to fit a predetermined verdict.The four suspects accused by Dutch prosecutors are believed to be in Russia, which is not expected to hand them over for prosecution. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met at the White House Wednesday but did not reach resolutions on major irritants to bilateral relations including Turkey’s recent incursion into northern Syria and its purchase of Russian military hardware. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
 
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The political crisis in Bolivia — where roiling street protests amid accusations of election fraud forced the resignation of longtime President Evo Morales this week — is exposing long-held differences within Russia’s own political system, with pro-Kremlin and opposition voices splitting along familiar dividing lines.As the events in La Paz unfolded, Russia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to express support for Morales, a Kremlin ally who has paid repeated visits to Moscow, most recently in July to expand economic ties.In a statement posted to its website, the ministry condemned violence “unleashed by the opposition” and blamed it for preventing Morales from “completing his tenure” amid “developments typical of a well-orchestrated coup d’etat.” “It would be foolish to expect another reaction — it’s absolutely the consolidated position from the Russian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked by journalists about the Foreign Ministry’s assessment.“Of course, we hope that Bolivians themselves will determine their fate without the interference of any third countries,” he said.Opponents of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales celebrate after he announced his resignation in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 10, 2019.Pro-Kremlin media outlets quickly picked up on the hint, noting that the United States included Bolivia, along with Venezuela and Cuba, as Latin American dictatorships.“The most logical version — a virtuosically prepared and executed coup by the United States, which is traditionally masked by slogans about democracy and human rights,” wrote Igor Pshenichnikov in a column explaining the events in Bolivia in the weekly Izvestia.“And now the time has come for the president and his country to experience for itself the might of American democracy,” he said.Collectively, the arguments were reminiscent of Russia’s position relative to neighboring Ukraine, where Moscow has long maintained that a 2014 pro-Western street revolution that drove another Kremlin ally — then-President Viktor Yanukovich — from power also was the work of the United States.As if to emphasize the Ukraine comparisons, pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine’s official Twitter account condemned the events in La Paz as a “fascist junta.” It’s another talking point widely used by Kremlin state media beginning in 2014 to denigrate Ukraine’s so-called “Maidan Revolution.”FILE – Police officers detain opposition supporters during a protest in Moscow, May 5, 2018. The posters read “I am against corruption.”Other viewsRussian opposition voices saw the events in La Paz, however, in an entirely different light — underlining Russia’s own fractured political environment.Proekt, an online investigative outlet funded by Kremlin foe and businessman Mikhail Khodorkvosky, issued a story reporting it was in fact Russia — driven by economic interests of its oil, gas and energy industries — that had played a key role in Morales’ reelection campaign.In turn, opposition figures were quick to note Russian President Vladimir Putin, like the now former Bolivian leader, also has stretched constitutional norms by serving an unprecedented fourth term in office and soon will face similar questions of if and whether to remain in power.“A corrupt president, unlawfully holding on to power at the expense of lies and falsification, has run from his country,” wrote Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in posting a picture of Morales and Putin together on Twitter.Коррумпированный президент, незаконно удерживавший власть за счёт лжи и фальсификаций, сбежал из страны. Пока речь идёт о том, что слева. pic.twitter.com/1Wmr38cu5t— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 10, 2019“For now, that means only the guy on the left,” Navalny said, in referring to Morales.“Oh, what’s this?” chimed in Navalny’s key strategist, Leonid Volkov, in a similarly themed post.Ой что это?После фальсифицированных выборов люди вышли на улицу и полоумный престарелый диктатор, нарушивший конституционные ограничения на количество сроков, вынужден был уйти в отставку.Ух как хочется, как в Боливии! pic.twitter.com/J79tXbpyyG— Leonid Volkov (@leonidvolkov) November 10, 2019“After falsified elections, people went out on the streets and a crackpot old dictator, having broken the constitutional limit on number of terms, was forced to resign,” Volkov wrote. “Oh, how I would love for us to be like Bolivia!”In a column in business daily Vedomosti, however, political analyst Fyodor Krasheninnikov warned that events in faraway Bolivia could negatively affect politics at home — particularly in the wake of a summer of rolling protests in Moscow and other cities over the banning of opposition candidates from elections.“After Bolivia, all talk about how Russia could have some competitive elections and some softening of the regime amid a future transfer of power should be taken with even more skepticism,” Krasheninnikov wrote. His point? As with Ukraine in 2014, the events in Bolivia have made an impression in Moscow. Perhaps too big of one.The Kremlin has taken note.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have a healthy 10-point lead ahead of an election on Dec. 12, a poll by Savanta ComRes showed on Wednesday, extending their advantage over Labour after the Brexit Party stood down candidates.The poll, carried out for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, showed the Conservative Party with 40%, up 3 points from a poll last week, ahead of Labour on 30%, up 1 point.The poll was conducted after Nigel Farage said his Brexit Party would not put candidates up in Conservative-held seats, a major boost to Johnson. The Brexit Party will still stand candidates in Labour-held seats.”The Brexit Party’s decision not to stand in Conservativeseats is likely to have an obvious positive impact on the overall Conservative vote share,” said Chris Hopkins, Head of Politics at ComRes. “But it’s those Labour-held seats that the Conservatives need to win for a majority, and the Brexit Party could still scupper those best-laid plans.”The poll showed the Liberal Democrats on 16% and the Brexit Party on 7%. Voting analysis website Electoral Calculus said the vote shares implied a Conservative majority of 110 seats. The online poll of 2,022 adults was carried out on Nov. 11-12.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House for a second time at what is a low ebb in relations between Washington and Ankara. 
 
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We understand each other’s country.” 
 
Erdogan recently infuriated U.S. officials when he ignored American warnings not to invade northeastern Syria in an operation targeting Syrian Kurds. 
 
The Turkish leader also upset American defense officials and diplomats with the purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Moscow. The purchase violated the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanction Act (CAATSA), which prohibits major purchases of Russian military hardware. 
 
That also prompted the United States to eject Turkey from its F-35 joint strike fighter program.  FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.”We’ll be talking about the S-400,” said Trump, when asked by reporters about the defense relationship. “We’ll be talking about the F-35 fighter jet.” 
 
Trump also was asked whether Turkey could possess F-35 jets while owning the Russian missile defense system. 
 
“We’re having a second meeting in a little while,” replied Trump, indicating there might be more to say about it at a joint news conference in the afternoon. 
 
Erdogan recently discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin buying Su-57 and Su-35 fighter jets from Moscow if he is not able to get the American aircraft, according to media reports. 
 
Such a move could endanger Turkey’s membership in the U.S.-led NATO defense alliance. 
 
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of congressmen sent Trump a letter requesting that he cancel his meeting with the Turkish president because of Erdogan’s “disastrous” actions in Syria and purchase of the S-400 system. 
 
“Given this situation, we believe that now is a particularly inappropriate time for President Erdogan to visit the United States,” the lawmakers wrote.  FILE – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., arrives for a gathering of the House Democratic caucus as Congress returns for the fall session, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 10, 2019.Just before Erdogan arrived at the White House, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, called it “shameful” for Trump to host Erdogan, accusing the U.S. president of “again turning a blind eye to the actions of foreign leaders who have amassed power and seek to rule as autocrats, subverting democracy in their countries and exploiting divisions and ethnic conflicts to promote their own legitimacy.” In an interview with VOA’s Kurdish service, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mustafa Bali, called for the United States not to sacrifice the Kurds, Christians and other ethnic and religious groups in northern Syria for its economic interests. 
 
“President Trump should fulfill his moral obligations and prevent the ethnic cleansing and demographic engineering” carried out by Erdogan “since his forces started the occupation in Syria,” said Bali, who alleged that Turkey has been violating the cease-fire and expanding territory outside the so-called “safe zone.”    
 
Turkey considers the Kurdish forces, allies of the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group inside Syria, to be terrorists.  FILE – In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, smoke billows from a fire in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, Oct. 20, 2019, days after the declaration of a cease-fire.In the Oval Office on Wednesday, alongside Erdogan, Trump said “the cease-fire is holding very well. We’ve been speaking to the Kurds and they seem to be very satisfied.” 
 
The discussions between Trump and Erdogan began amid the first day of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry the House is conducting against the U.S. president. 
 
“It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers. They took some guys off television.” 
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Placido Domingo is scheduled to sing two concert performances in Verdi’s “I Vespri Siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers)” next summer as part of the 100th anniversary Salzburg Festival, which features 221 performances over 44 days and includes seven staged operas.Domingo, who turns 79 in January, was dropped or has withdrawn from all his U.S. performances since reports by The Associated Press in August and September detailed accusations against him of sexual harassment or other inappropriate, sexually charged conduct.He received standing ovations in Salzburg at performances of Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” last August and is welcome back pending investigations by the LA Opera, where he resigned as general director last month, and the American Guild of Musical Artists. Helga Rabl-Stadler, president of the Salzburg Festival, said Domingo was engaged two years ago to sing the baritone role of Guido di Montforte on Aug. 16 and 19. European houses have maintained Domingo’s contracts.”We do not see any reason why we should change our opinion if there are no new facts,” Rabl-Stadler said in a telephone interview, adding the situation could change depending on what is uncovered by the investigations. “We have to follow the rules of our law.”Staged operas, concertsStaged operas announced Wednesday for next summer’s festival include Strauss’ “Elektra,” directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski; Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” directed by Romeo Castellucci and conducted by Teodor Currentzis; Mozart’s “Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute),” directed by Lydia Steier; Puccini’s “Tosca,” directed by Michael Sturminger and starring Anna Netrebko; Luigi Nono’s “Intolleranza 1960,” directed and choreographed by Jan Lauwer;, and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” directed by Johannes Leiacker. Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” with mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli will return after premiering May 29 at the Whitsun Festival.FILE – Actors perform during a dress rehearsal of Guiseppe Verdi’s opera “Macbeth” in Salzburg, July 28, 2011, in preparation for the 91st edition of the Salzburg Festival.The first Salzburg Festival opened Aug. 22, 1920, with a performance of Hofmannsthal’s “Jedermann” on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral. Its first opera, two years later, was “Don Giovanni.” Next summer’s festival runs from July 18 through Aug. 30.”The history of Salzburg Festival is extremely rich. It could be a burden,” said pianist Markus Hinterhauser, who became artistic director in October 2016 and has a contract running until September 2026. “But for me it’s really a very inspiring, very vitalizing thing to look at the history. But looking back needs also to make clear that we are always trying to lead the festival in a new presence.”Concerts include eight programs of Beethoven piano sonatas with Igor Levit; five performances by the Vienna Philharmonic led by Riccardo Muti, Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Thielmann, Mariss Jansons and Andris Nelsons; and two performances of the Berlin Philharmonic and new chief conductor Kirill Petrenko. The only U.S. orchestra is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck.”I’m often asked, is Salzburg here to keep the tradition or is it here to set the trends?” Rabl-Stadler said. “I think both. It’s wonderful to have Mozart in our town, but on the other hand, we have to think how can we explain the topics of works to people nowadays.”
 
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President Donald Trump and Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met Wednesday as relations between the NATO allies have fallen to their lowest point in decades, with Turkey drifting closer to Russia and facing a Washington backlash over its military offensive against Kurds in Syria.Erdogan and Trump had a difficult agenda for their talks: Turkey’s decision to buy a Russian air defense system despite Turkey’s membership in NATO and its incursion into neighboring Syria to attack Kurdish forces that have fought with the U.S. against the Islamic State group.Despite those disputes, Trump said the two countries were poised to increase U.S. goods and services trade with Turkey, which totaled about $24 billion in 2017.“We’re going to be expanding,” Trump said. “We think we can bring trade up very quickly to about $100 billion between our countries.”The leaders’ scheduled afternoon news conference, following a meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House, would give Trump a stage to counter the first public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry.Sitting in the Oval Office with Erdogan, Trump said he was too busy to watch the televised hearing on the inquiry, which he called a “hoax.”Trump defended his decision to invite Erdogan despite Turkey’s widely denounced advance into Syria. He said that he and Turkey’s president have been “very good friends” for a long time and understand each other’s country.“I understand the problems that they’ve had, including many people from Turkey being killed in the area that we’re talking about and he has to do something about that,” Trump said.Protesters rally against the Washington visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan outside the White House, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington.The House last month overwhelmingly passed a bill to sanction senior Turkish officials and its army for the military incursion into Syria. Erdogan sees Kurdish forces in Syria as an extension of a separatist Kurdish group that’s been fighting inside Turkey since the 1980s.Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, speaks at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, May 3, 2019, in Kittery, Maine.“This is not the time or place to be extending hospitality and exchanging niceties with a dictator,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.In the Senate, two Democrats introduced legislation denouncing Turkey’s targeting of journalists, political opponents, dissidents, minorities and others.They said the Turkish government had imprisoned more than 80,000 Turkish citizens, closed more than 1,500 nongovernmental organizations on terrorism-related grounds and dismissed or suspended more than 130,000 civil servants from their jobs.In October, Trump moved U.S. troops in Syria out of the way of invading Turkish troops, a decision that critics said amounted to abandoning America’s Kurdish allies to be attacked.“It has upended what was an oasis of stability, damaged U.S. credibility and standing on the world stage and strengthened the hands of Russia, Iran” and the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, Shaheen said.Trump administration officials have said Trump told Turkey not to invade Syria. But when Erdogan insisted, they say, Trump decided to move 28 Green Berets operating on the Turkey-Syria border so they wouldn’t be caught in a crossfire between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurds.Amnesty International recently released a report documenting killings, human rights violations and possible war crimes caused by Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria.“There has been a callous disregard for civilian lives, including attacks on residential areas,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Over 100,000 people have fled this offensive and there are fears that the displaced are not getting access to food, to clear water, or to medical supplies.”She said Trump must send a message to Erdogan that these actions and unlawful behavior must stop and that those responsible be held accountable.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged Turkey to investigate reported cases of summary executions committed by a Turkish-backed armed group in northern Syria. The U.N. cited video footage showing fighters with the Ahrar al-Sharqiya armed group filming themselves capturing and executing three Kurdish captives on a highway in northern Syria.Turkey reached truce agreements with Russia and the United States last month that halted the incursion and forced Kurdish fighters to retreat from Turkey’s southern border. “The cease-fire is holding very well,” Trump said. “We’ve been speaking to the Kurds and they seem to be very satisfied.”But Erdogan claims the Kurds have not vacated border areas and says he will give Trump a list of attacks carried out by Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish-led force.FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.Trump planned to express concern about Erdogan’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system. The U.S. and fellow NATO nations say the S-400 would aid Russian intelligence and compromise a U.S.-led fighter jet program.The U.S. has since kicked Erdogan out of a multinational program producing components of America’s high-tech F-35 fighter jet. In response, Erdogan attended an annual Russian air show this summer in Moscow and expressed interest in buying the latest Russian Su-35 fighter jets.Trump has not yet decided whether to impose congressional sanctions on Turkey for the S-400 purchase.
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The worst flooding in Venice in more than 50 years prompted calls Wednesday to better protect the historic city from rising sea levels as officials calculated hundreds of millions of euros in damage.The water reached 1.87 meters (6.14 feet) above sea level Tuesday, the second-highest level ever recorded in the city and just 7 centimeters (2 inches) lower than the historic 1966 flood. Another wave of exceptionally high water followed Wednesday.“Venice is on its knees,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said on Twitter. “St. Mark’s Basilica has sustained serious damage, like the entire city and its islands.”One death was blamed on the flooding, on the barrier island of Pellestrina. A man in his 70s was apparently electrocuted when he tried to start a pump in his dwelling, said Danny Carrella, an official on the island of 3,500 inhabitants.General view of flooding in Venice, Italy, Nov. 12, 2019. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)In Venice, the crypt beneath St. Mark’s Basilica was inundated for only the second time in its history, with water entering through the windows and bypassing all defenses. Damage was also reported at the Ca’ Pesaro modern art gallery, where a short circuit set off a fire, and at La Fenice theater, where authorities turned off electricity as a precaution after the control room was flooded.Tourists floated suitcases through St. Mark’s Square, where officials removed walkways to prevent them from floating away. The water was so high that nothing less than thigh-high boots afforded protection. Water poured through wooden boards that shop and hotel owners have previously placed in front of doors to hold back water during flooding. Tourists staying on the ground floor of hotels were forced to move to upper floors overnight.“I have often seen St. Mark’s Square covered with water,” Venice’s patriarch, Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, told reporters. “Yesterday there were waves that seemed to be the seashore.”Brugnaro said damage would reach hundreds of millions of euros, and he called on Rome to declare a state of emergency. Premier Giuseppe Conte was due to visit the city later Wednesday.“We are not just talking about calculating the damages, but of the very future of the city” Brugnaro told reporters. “Because the population drain also is a result of this.”The flooding was caused by heavy rains coinciding a full moon that brought high tides that were pushed into Venice by southerly winds. At the same time, rising sea levels because of climate change make the city built amid a system of canals even more vulnerable.Damage included five ferries that serve as water buses, a critical means of transportation.Photos on social media showed a city ferry, taxi boats and gondolas grounded on walkways flanking canals. At least 60 boats were damaged, according to civil protection authorities.Pellestrina was one of the worst hit areas. Facing the sea, water came over the banks of the canal and filled the island like a basin. Carrella said a meter (more than 3 feet) of water remained Wednesday because of broken pumps.Brugnaro blamed climate change for the “dramatic situation” and called for a speedy completion of a long-delayed project to construct offshore barriers called “Moses,” the moveable undersea barriers are meant to limit flooding.But the project, which was opposed by environmentalists concerned about damaging the delicate lagoon eco-system, has been delayed by cost overruns and corruption scandals, with no launch date in site.Luca Zaia, governor of the Veneto region, told SkyTG24 that the barriers were almost complete, but it wasn’t clear if they would work against such flooding.“Despite 5 billion euros under water, St. Mark’s Square certainly wouldn’t be secure,” Zaia said, referring to one of Venice’s lowest points, which floods when there is an inundation of 80 centimeters (31.5 inches).Zaia also expressed concern for snowfalls in the mountains above Venice, where up to 120 centimeters (47 inches) was expected.Across the Adriatic Sea, heavy storm and sweeping winds also collapsed caused floods in towns in Croatia and Slovenia.In the Croatian town of Split, authorities on Wednesday said that the flooding submerged the basement area of the Roman-era Diocletian’s Palace where emergency crews battled to pump out the water.Slovenia’s coastal towns of Piran, Izola and Koper reported that sea levels reached the second highest point in the last 50 years. 
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The British government is refusing to publish a report examining Russian interference in its democratic process – despite widespread calls for its release before the general election scheduled December 12. The report by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee was completed months ago – and the head of the committee says it is ready for release. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the delay is fueling suspicions that it could be damaging for the ruling Conservative party 
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