Europe-wide vote fragments center as far right, Greens gain

May 27, 2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's traditional center splintered in the hardest-fought European Parliament elections in decades, with the far right and pro-environment Greens gaining ground on Sunday after four days of a polarized vote.

Turnout was at a two-decade high over the balloting across the 28 European Union countries. The elections were seen as a test of the influence of the nationalist, populist and hard-right movements that have swept the continent in recent years and impelled Britain to quit the EU altogether. Both supporters of closer European unity and those who consider the EU a meddlesome and bureaucratic presence portrayed the vote as crucial for the future of the bloc.

In Britain, voters went for the extremes, with the strongest showing for Nigel Farage's the newly formed Brexit party and a surge for the staunchly pro-European Liberal Democrats, versus a near wipeout for Conservatives. In France, an electorate that voted Emmanuel Macron into presidential office in 2017 did an about-face and the party of his defeated opponent, Marine Le Pen, drew into first place. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition saw a drastic loss in support to the Greens and, to a lesser extent, the far right. Italy's League party, led by Matteo Salvini, claimed 32% of the vote in early projections, compared with around 6% five years ago.

"Not only is the League the first party in Italy, but Marine Le Pen is first in France, Nigel Farage is first in Great Britain. Therefore, Italy, France and England: the sign of a Europe that is changing, that is fed up," Salvini said.

Despite gains, the vote was hardly the watershed anticipated by Europe's far-right populists, who have vowed to dilute the European Union from within in favor of national sovereignty. Pro-EU parties still were expected to win about two-thirds of the 751-seat legislature that sits in Brussels and Strasbourg, according to the projections released by the parliament and based on the results rolling in overnight.

The continent-wide voting had major implications not just for the functioning of the bloc but also for the internal politics in many countries. Le Pen exulted that the expected result "confirms the new nationalist-globalist division" in France and beyond; Greece's governing party called for snap elections after its loss; and Salvini was expected to capitalize on the outcome to boost his power at home.

"The monopoly of power is broken," Margrethe Vestager, of the pro-EU ALDE grouping that includes Macron's party. Vestager declared herself a candidate to lead the European commission for ALDE, which gained seats in large part because Macron's party is itself a newcomer.

Le Pen's far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally party came out on top in France with 24% in an astonishing rebuke of Macron, who has made EU integration the heart of his presidency. His party drew just over 21%, according to government results.

Exit polls in Germany, the EU's biggest country, likewise indicated Merkel's party and its center-left coalition partner also suffered losses, while the Greens were set for big gains and the far right was expected to pick up slightly more support.

Turnout across the bloc was put at 50.5%, a 20-year high. An estimated 426 million people were eligible to vote. The results will likely leave Parliament's two main parties, the European People's Party and the Socialists & Democrats, without a majority for the first time since 1979, opening the way for complicated talks to form a working coalition. The Greens and the ALDE free-market liberals were jockeying to become decisive in the body.

A subdued Esther de Lange, vice chair of the European People's Party, conceded that the results indicate "fragmentation and a shrinking center." The Greens did well not just in Germany but in France and Ireland. "The Green wave has really spread all over Europe, and for us that is a fantastic result," said Ska Keller, the group's co-leader in the Parliament.

Germany's Manfred Weber, the candidate of the EPP, the biggest party in Parliament, said that now it is "most necessary for the forces that believe in this Europe, that want to lead this Europe to a good future, that have ambitions for this Europe" to work together.

The EU and its Parliament set trade policy on the continent, regulate agriculture, oversee antitrust enforcement and set monetary policy for 19 of the 28 nations sharing the euro currency. Britain voted, even though it is planning to leave the EU. Its EU lawmakers will lose their jobs as soon as Brexit happens.

Europe has been roiled in the past few years by immigration from the Mideast and Africa and deadly attacks by Islamic extremists. It has also seen rising tensions over economic inequality and growing hostility toward the political establishment — sentiments not unlike those that got Donald Trump elected in the U.S.

Hungary's increasingly authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orban, a possible ally of Italy's Salvini, said he hopes the election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration. The migration issue "will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union," he said.

Proponents of stronger EU integration, led by Macron, argue that issues like climate change and immigration are too big for any one country to tackle alone. His lead candidate, Nathalie Loiseau, said she would continue the fight against nationalists in the European Parliament.

With the elections over, European leaders are jockeying over the top jobs in the EU's headquarters in Brussels. The leaders meet for a summit over dinner Tuesday. Current European lawmakers' terms end July 1, and the new parliament will be seated the following day.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder, Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain; Pablo Gorondi in Budapest; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Colleen Barry in Milan; Jill Lawless in London; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Brexit Party wins, Conservatives bashed in UK's EU voting

May 27, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Britain's governing Conservative Party was all but wiped out in the European Parliament election as voters sick of the country's stalled European Union exit flocked to uncompromisingly pro-Brexit or pro-EU parties.

The main opposition Labor Party also faced a drubbing in a vote that upended the traditional order of British politics and plunged the country into even more Brexit uncertainty. The big winners were the newly founded Brexit Party led by veteran anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage and the strongly pro-European Liberal Democrats.

With results announced early Monday for all of England and Wales, the Brexit Party had won 28 of the 73 British EU seats up for grabs and almost a third of the votes. The Liberal Democrats took about 20% of the vote and 15 seats — up from only one at the last EU election in 2014.

Labor came third with 10 seats, followed by the Greens with seven. The ruling Conservatives were in fifth place with just three EU seats and under 10% of the vote. Scotland and Northern Ireland are due to announce their results later.

Farage's Brexit Party was one of several nationalist and populist parties making gains across the continent in an election that saw erosion of support for the traditionally dominant political parties.

Conservative Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was a "painful result" and warned there was an "existential risk to our party unless we now come together and get Brexit done." The results reflect an electorate deeply divided over Britain's 2016 decision to leave the EU, but united in anger at the two long-dominant parties, the Conservatives and Labor, who have brought the Brexit process to deadlock.

Britain is participating in the EU election because it is still a member of the bloc, but the lawmakers it elects will only sit in the European Parliament until the country leaves the EU, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 31.

Farage's Brexit Party was officially launched in April and has only one policy: for Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible, even without a divorce agreement in place. Farage said his party's performance was "a massive message" for the Conservatives and Labor, and he said it should be given a role in future negotiations with the EU.

"If we don't leave on Oct. 31, then the scores you have seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election — and we are getting ready for it," said Farage. But the election leaves Britain's EU exit ever more uncertain, with both Brexiteers and pro-EU "remainers" able to claim strong support. Labor and the Conservatives, who in different ways each sought a compromise Brexit, were hammered.

The result raises the likelihood of a chaotic "no deal" exit from the EU — but also of a new referendum that could reverse the decision to leave. The Conservatives were punished for failing to take the country out of the EU on March 29 as promised, a failure that led Prime Minister Theresa May to announce Friday that she is stepping down from leading the party on June 7. Britain's new prime minister will be whoever wins the Conservative party leadership race to replace her.

The favorites, including ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, have vowed to leave the EU on Oct. 31 even if there is no deal in place. Most businesses and economists think that would cause economic turmoil and plunge Britain into recession. But many Conservatives think embracing a no-deal Brexit may be the only way to win back voters from Farage's party.

Labor was punished for a fence-sitting Brexit policy that saw the party dither over whether to support a new referendum that could halt Brexit. Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry said the party needed to adopt a clearer pro-EU stance.

"There should be a (new Brexit) referendum and we should campaign to remain," she said.

Europe's voters elect new parliament as nationalism mounts

May 26, 2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — Pivotal elections for the European Union parliament reached their climax Sunday as the last 21 nations went to the polls, with results to be announced in the evening in a vote that boils down to a continent-wide battle between euroskeptic populists and proponents of closer EU unity.

Right-wing nationalists who want to slash immigration into Europe and return power to national governments are expected to make gains, though mainstream parties are tipped to hold onto power in the 751-seat legislature that sits in both Brussels and Strasbourg.

Leading the challenge to the established order is Italy's hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, head of the League party, who is assembling a group of like-minded parties from across Europe. "We need to do everything that is right to free this country, this continent, from the illegal occupation organized by Brussels," Salvini told a rally in Milan last weekend that was attended by the leaders of 11 nationalist parties.

As he voted in Budapest on Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he hopes the election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration. The migration issue "will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union," said Orban, who recently met with Salvini but has not yet committed to joining the Italian's group.

Projections released by the European Parliament last month show the center-right European People's Party bloc losing 37 of its 217 seats and the center-left S&D group dropping from 186 seats to 149. On the far right flank, the Europe of Nations and Freedom group is predicted to increase its bloc from 37 to 62 seats.

Proponents of stronger EU integration, led by French President Emmanuel Macron , argue that issues like climate change and reining in immigration are simply too big for any one country to tackle alone.

Macron, whose country has been rocked in recent months by the populist yellow vest movement, has called the elections "the most important since 1979 because the (European) Union is facing an existential risk" from nationalists seeking to divide the bloc.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Sunday that he hopes the elections will strengthen the center rather than parties on the far right and left. Austria is one of the countries where the vote has increasing importance to national politics, serving as a first test of support ahead of a national election in September following the collapse of Kurz's governing coalition a week ago.

Spanish caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is currently trying to form a government at home, said as he voted in Madrid that he hopes the outcome of the vote will lead to stability in his country.

He added that the elections are "to decide the future of progress and wellbeing for the entirety of our country and Europe." In Belgium, a general election is taking place alongside the European vote, while Lithuanians will vote in the second round of their presidential election.

Sunday promises to be a long day and night for election watchers — the last polls close at 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) in Italy but the European Parliament plans to begin issuing estimates and projections hours earlier with the first official projection of the makeup of the new parliament at 11:15 p.m. (2115 GMT).

As the dust settles on four days of elections, European leaders will begin the task of selecting candidates for the top jobs in the EU's headquarters in Brussels. The leaders meet for a summit over dinner Tuesday night.

Current European lawmakers' terms end July 1 and the new parliament will take their seats in Strasbourg the following day.

Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

No election fever in Romanian village thriving with EU funds

May 24, 2019

LUNCAVITA, Romania (AP) — In 2014, the Romanian village of Luncavita had one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country for the European Parliament election — all of 19.3%.  But the southeastern village has increasingly figured out how to draw in exceptional amounts of European Union money for development projects. When the polling stations open again Sunday for this year's European Parliament vote, more residents say they will be there.

The village's turnout was hardly an exception in Romania's Tulcea County, where just 27.5% of eligible voters cast ballots, the second-lowest figure in Romania, according to the Permanent Electoral Authority.

"You can find this effect across Eastern Europe," said Sorin Ionita, a political analyst with Expert Forum, a Bucharest-based think-tank. "People think Europe is so big and runs so well that they don't need us to tell them what to do."

Voter turnout across the continent has been declining for decades in the European Parliament elections, falling to an all-time low of 42.5% in 2014. That included a range from 13% in Slovakia to 90% in Belgium, where voting is compulsory. Last month, the EU launched a three-minute video to inspire more Europeans to vote.

Since 2004, Luncavita has attracted more than 55 million euros ($61.3 million) in European funds, or almost 12,000 euros ($13,345) for each of its 4,600 residents. The man responsible for turning the village into an EU money magnet is Marian Ilie, who was preparing for the priesthood before a 2002 accident landed him in a wheelchair. Ilie then found a new vocation as project manager for the use of European Union funds allocated to his hometown.

Among other projects, EU money has financed the local drinking water and sewage system, a water treatment plant, roads and a school renovation. For Mayor Stefan Ilie, Marian's brother, the EU "is fundamental to our development."

"If Romania were to exit the EU tomorrow, it would return to communism within five years," Stefan Ilie said. Marioara Banea, a 63-year-old local retiree, remembers tying a rope from her home to the backyard outhouse so her blind mother could find it.

"The EU changed my life," Banea said. "Now we have water. We used to queue at the well for hours ... and we have indoor plumbing too!" Despite the EU-related benefits, she didn't vote in the EU elections in 2009 or 2014.

"I didn't know what the EU was, but now that I see how much money they gave us, I'm going to," Banea said, hoping some new EU funds will help build a home for the elderly. While some 3.6 million Romanians — most under the age of 40 — have left the country since it joined the EU in 2007, European money is also helping to bring some of them back to Luncavita. After working for six years in Italy, Radu Canepa, 34, came back to Romania and started a small farm with 30,000 euros ($33,420) in EU funding, buying some land and five cows.

The milk he sells to a local processing plant brings about in 1,000 euros ($1,115) a month. Canepa hopes to apply for an addition 10,000 euros ($11,180) to expand his business. "Without EU funds, I'd still be in Italy right now," Canepa said.

Valentina Radu also worked in Italy, but when her husband lost his job there, they struggled to pay the rent and decided to come home. They also used EU funds to buy a small farm, which now has 25 cows.

But Radu wanted to have a second business, and after talking with Marian Ilie, she settled on opening a tailor's shop. She bought machinery and raw materials with the help of the 70,000 euros ($78,000) she received from the EU and her traditional Romanian blouses and skirts are now in high demand.

For Romania, Sunday's vote will also be a test run for the country's presidential election this fall, with political parties trying out messages on voters now. "People do appreciate the support they get from the EU, but their feeling is that the EU works with or without them," said Ionita, the analyst.

Still, Radu is very appreciative of the EU's role in her successful enterprises, saying the bloc has "changed my life for the better." "I will definitely vote this time around," she added. "I want to expand my business and EU funds are the way to go."

Nicolae Dumitrache and Vadim Ghirda contributed to this report.

Climate protesters turn out as Europe votes on parliament

May 24, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Protesters — many of them too young to vote — took to the streets Friday across the European Union to demand tougher action against global warming as the 28-nation bloc elects a new parliament.

From Portugal to Finland, from Italy to Britain, students followed the call of Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg to stage 'school strikes' against climate change. The issue has come to the fore ahead of the elections that began Thursday and end Sunday for the EU's 751-seat assembly. The vote is expected to boost the influence of parties that have a strong environmental message.

In Berlin, thousands of mostly young people rallied in front of the German capital's landmark Brandenburg Gate waving banners with slogans such as "There is no planet B" or "Plant trees, save the bees, clean the seas."

Clara Kirchhoff said although she's not yet allowed to vote, she's been pressing family members and older friends to consider the world's long-term future when they go to the polls Sunday. "I think, particularly at the European level, it's an important issue to create a level playing field, because there's no point in Germany doing a lot for the climate and others not pulling their weight," the 17-year-old said.

Fourteen-year-old Parvati Smolka said she and her fellow students felt an obligation to attend the Berlin rally on behalf of future generations. "We've got a chance to go on the streets here and make our voice heard," she said.

A few thousands of people, mostly high school and university students, marched Friday in the streets of Paris in a joyful atmosphere to demand action against climate change. Some sang "One, two, three degrees, that's a crime against humanity" and waved posters reading "No nature, no future."

Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, said she consciously chose he run-up to the EU parliamentary vote to organize another continent-wide protest. "We think that it spreads a message that this is a very important election, and that it should be about the climate crisis," she told Sweden's TV4.

Sylvie Corbet from Paris contributed to this report.

Strong showing for pro-EU parties in Dutch EU vote

May 23, 2019

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Pro-European Dutch parties were predicted Thursday to win most of the country's seats in the European Parliament, with right-wing populist opponents of the European Union managing to take only four of the nation's 26 seats.

In a surprise forecast, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans became the country's biggest party in the 751-seat European Parliament, according to an Ipsos exit poll.

"What an unbelievable exit poll!" Labor leader Lodewijk Asscher told a gathering of cheering party faithful. The poll was published by Dutch national broadcaster NOS after polling stations closed Thursday evening in Netherlands. Earlier in the day, Dutch and British voters kicked off the first of four days of voting for the European Parliament in all of the EU's 28 nations.

Official results will only be announced after the last polling station in the EU closes late Sunday. The Dutch Labor party was forecast to win five seats, while the pro-European center right VVD of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gained one seat to win a total of four seats.

"There is a clear majority of people in the Netherlands, if you count them altogether, who want the European Union to continue playing a role in tackling problems that need to be solved," Timmermans told NOS, speaking from Spain.

Timmermans is a broadly respected former Dutch foreign minister who is trying to become the next president of the European Commission. The Dutch right-wing populist group Forum for Democracy was forecast by the Ipsos exit poll to win three seats in its first European elections, but those gains didn't primarily come at the expense of Europe's mainstream parties. Instead, it appeared they came from other populists. The anti-Islam Party for Freedom led by firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders lost three of its four EU seats, according to the poll.

The splintered result echoes Dutch domestic politics: There are 13 parties in the 150-seat national parliament. The United Kingdom was the only other EU country to vote Thursday, even as the nation remained in political turmoil over its plans to leave the bloc altogether. No exit polls were expected Thursday night from the UK voting.

The elections come as support is surging for populists and nationalists who want to rein in the EU's powers and strictly limit immigration. Meanwhile, Europe's traditional political powerhouses, both conservative and left-wing, insist that unity is the best buffer against the shifting economic and security challenges posed by an emerging new world order.

But populists across several countries have united to challenge those centrist forces. On Saturday, Italy's anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was joined at a rally by 10 other nationalist leaders, including far-right leaders Wilders, Marine Le Pen of France's National Rally party and Joerg Meuthen of the Alternative for Germany party.

Wilders vowed to keep fighting the populist cause even after his party's projected big defeat. "We had hoped for more seats," Wilders said in a statement. "But with one seat in the European Parliament we will, together with our European friends, fight even harder against the EU monster, Islam and mass-migration."

Voters across Europe are electing 751 lawmakers, although that number is set to drop to 705 when Britain eventually leaves the EU. The U.K. has 73 European lawmakers, who would lose their jobs when their country completes its messy divorce from the EU. Some of its seats will be reassigned to other EU member states.

The British vote may have a direct impact on the future of embattled Prime Minister Theresa May, whose Conservative Party appears to be losing support amid a prolonged Brexit impasse. May has tried but failed for months to get lawmakers in the British Parliament to back her plan to leave the EU.

Both the Conservatives and Labor in Britain were predicted to be heading for an electoral pasting in Thursday's vote, due to the chaos over Brexit. Results of the vote will be announced Sunday night, and a poor showing for the Conservatives would increase the calls for May to step down as party leader, which would set in motion a leadership contest.

Britain's Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, has appeared to gain strength in recent voter surveys. Farage voted Thursday, then declared that he hopes to have the shortest possible tenure as a member of the European Parliament because he wants Britain to leave the EU as quickly as possible.

"If you want Brexit, you've got to vote Brexit," he said, warning lawmakers from Britain's two major parties — Conservatives and Labor — that they will be vanquished at Britain's next general election unless they respect voters' desire to leave the EU.

Voting in Britain was marred by the inability of hundreds of the 3 million EU citizens in Britain to vote despite having a legal right to do so. EU citizens who wanted to vote in Britain had to complete a form confirming they would not be voting in their homelands. Some say they did not receive the forms.

The Electoral Commission blamed the problem on the short notice that officials had to prepare for the election, which would not have been held in Britain if the country had left the EU in March, as planned.

Katz reported from London.

Fake news changes shape as EU heads into elections

May 22, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Fake news has evolved beyond the playbook used by Russian trolls in the U.S. election. As the European Union gears up for a crucial election, it is mostly homegrown groups rather than foreign powers that are taking to social media to push false information and extremist messages, experts say.

And private and encrypted chat apps like WhatsApp are increasingly the favored platforms to spread false information, making it harder to monitor and fight. There were worries that the bloc's May 23-26 vote for the EU parliament would be a ripe target for foreign meddling, given Russian interference in the 2016 ballot that brought U.S. President Donald Trump to power and allegations of disinformation — plus a lack of solid facts — surrounding Britain's Brexit referendum that same year.

So far, no spike has appeared on the 28-nation bloc's disinformation radars and tech companies say they haven't found signs of a coordinated operation by foreign actors. There is, though, a constant buzz of false information that mainly seeks to erode the EU's image and that has ground on since the last Europe-wide elections in 2014.

"Previous, it was broadly about Russia, fakery and looking for bots. Now what we see is the transnational Far Right deploying that digital toolkit, less fake news, more hate-speech, and a more complex set of tactics to amplify populist narratives," said Sasha Havlicek, CEO of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based left leaning think tank. "That isn't to say that is there is no Russian activity but that it's harder to identify definitively."

The trend now is for populist and far right groups in Europe to "manipulate information" through more nuanced messages, to promote anti-migration, anti-gay and climate denial themes. This "narrative warfare" is much harder for governments and tech companies to react to, she said. Adding to the confusion, some world leaders have themselves been guilty of spreading false or misleading information on social media.

Online campaign group Avaaz said Wednesday it found 500 suspect Facebook pages and groups in Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Poland spreading fake news seen 533 million times in the past three months. Facebook has taken down 77 of the pages, some of which Avaaz had previously announced.

One of the pages taken down, supporting Italy's right-wing League party, had shared a video purporting to show African migrants smashing a police car that had racked up 10 million views. But it was actually a scene from a film and had been already debunked several times over the years, Avaaz said.

Christoph Schott, campaign director at Avaaz, says that fake news is often amplified with "bait and switch" tactics like building up an audience for a page on a generic topic such as football or cooking, then ramping up political agendas.

The aim is to sow "little seeds of distrust ... to slowly erode trust in institutions and divide people over a longer period of time," said Schott. Facebook said that after Avaaz shared its research, it removed a number of fake and duplicate accounts for violating its "authenticity policies" and took action against some pages that repeatedly posted misinformation.

Tech companies have stepped up broader efforts to fight fake news. Facebook has set up an EU election "war room" in Dublin, staffed by data scientists, researchers and threat intelligence specialists working with teams in California to monitor for abuse around the clock.

Facebook's vice president for public policy in Europe, Richard Allan, said this month the company hasn't detected any major attacks. "Part of that, we hope, is because we put in a lot of preventive measures," he said. "We've gotten better at fake account detection and removal."

Twitter, which launched a tool for EU users to report deliberately misleading election-related content, also says it hasn't seen any coordinated malicious activity. The two social media companies, along with Google, have tightened up requirements for taking out political ads, including confirming identities of ad buyers. They're putting all political ads into publicly searchable databases, although researchers say they don't give a comprehensive view and the ads aren't always properly classified.

The nature of European elections may be a factor in behind why they haven't been targeted. For one thing, turnout is usually low. Around 42 percent of voters cast their ballots in 2014. Beyond that, Europe's citizens often use the EU elections to cast protest votes about issues of domestic concern.

Around 400 million people in 28 countries are eligible to vote in the world's biggest transnational elections, choosing 751 representatives to the European Parliament, the EU's only democratically elected institution.

"The European elections are still basically 28 different national campaigns, fought mostly on national issues," said policy analyst Paul Butcher at the European Policy Centre think-tank. "Each country has got its own political priorities; the campaigns will be quite different in different places."

But it could also be a matter of not looking in the right place. Oxford University researchers studying tweets related to the EU elections found that only a small fraction came from Russian or "junk news" sources while mainstream news stories dominated.

However, some junk news stories can be several times more popular than those from professional media organizations, with the most successful centered on populist themes such as anti-immigration and Islamophobia while few attacked European leaders and parties or voiced skepticism about the EU, according to the researchers, who compiled about 585,000 tweets in seven European languages.

"Almost none of the junk we found circulating online came from known Russian sources," said Nahema Marchal, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. "Instead, it is homegrown, hyper-partisan and alternative media that dominate."

It's also become harder to keep track of disinformation as more online conversations go private, said Clara Jiménez Cruz, co-founder of Spanish fact-checking group Maldita.es. Twitter posts or public Facebook feeds are only part of the story, with many messages and discussions now moving to private Facebook groups or encrypted WhatsApp and Telegram chats, which EU and national governments can't easily monitor, she said.

Avaaz said in a report that millions of potential Spanish voters were flooded with false, misleading, racist or hateful posts on WhatsApp ahead of national elections last month. On WhatsApp, where it's so hard for outsiders to peer into private conversations to debunk lies, "that is where we find most of the hoaxes," said Jiménez. "And especially where we find them first."

Cook reported from Brussels and Parra reported from Madrid. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

High-tech Estonia votes online for European Parliament

May 20, 2019

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia was crippled by cyberattacks on government networks during a dispute with Russia in 2007. Today the tiny tech-savvy nation is so certain of its cyber defenses that it is the only country in the world to allow internet voting for the entire electorate, in every election, and thousands have already done so in the European Parliament elections.

Internet voting — or i-voting —has been available since 2005 in the nation that gave the world Skype, and the percentage of voters using the internet to cast ballots has increased with each election, reaching 44% of voters in national election in March.

Linda Lainvoo was one of the first Estonians to vote in the European Parliament election, which she did from a cafe before heading to work Thursday morning. The 32-year-old civil servant has voted online since she was first eligible to vote.

"I couldn't imagine my life any different," Lainvoo said after logging into a secure online portal with her ID card and a PIN code. "I do everything online so I don't have to stand in queues and do things on paper."

After downloading an app and identifying herself, she viewed the electoral lists inside a virtual "voting booth" and selected her candidate. The elections are taking place from May 23-26 across the 28-member bloc to fill 751-seat European Parliament, where Estonia, a nation of just 1.3 million, has six representatives.

It took Lainvoo about 30 seconds to vote and by the time she had finished, around 2,000 others in Estonia had also voted. Estonia's i-voting system runs from the 10th until the fourth day before the election and allows people to cast multiple ballots, with only the last vote counting. This aims to prevent voter coercion.

Young, tech-savvy males made up the bulk of i-voters in the first few elections, according to the head of Estonia's Electoral Office, Priit Vinkel. But after four elections it "diffused in the electorate and we can't say who the i-voter is. Any eligible voter can be an i-voter."

The electoral commission's research shows internet voting significantly increases turnout for Estonians abroad and for people living more than 30 minutes away from a polling station. While it's hard to quantify the impact of i-voting on the overall turnout numbers, Vinkel says it's a "sticky voting method" that has "stopped alienation," meaning a majority of people who have voted online at least once keep voting electronically and are more likely than average voters to keep voting at all.

When Estonia broke away from the Soviet Union and declared its independence nearly three decades ago it embarked on a modernization program that including going digital early on. The country has introduced a high-tech national ID system in which physical ID cards are linked to digital signatures that citizens use not only to vote, but to pay taxes and access health and school records.

But there have been vulnerabilities. In 2007, a massive cyberattack crippled the country's networks following a dispute with Russia over Estonia's removal of a Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn. The unprecedented scale of the attack forced governments worldwide to reconsider the importance of network security and defense.

Estonia, which borders Russia, took time to build security and privacy into its model. It created a platform that supports electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communications, in contrast with failed efforts by private companies to provide secure online voting systems in the United States, for example.

The architect of Estonia's i-voting system, Arne Ansper, compares it to postal voting. An external envelope verifies the identity of the voter — a digital signature for internet voting — which is then stripped from the ballot, leaving an anonymous internal envelope guaranteeing the secrecy of the vote. This envelope is then decrypted at the end of the election.

Transparency and security have been built into the system by allowing people to verify that their vote has been tallied correctly, while a third-party system creates logs that are compared to the results of the ballot boxes and which would reveal any discrepancies.

The role played by social media and fake accounts used to spread fake news in the 2016 U.S. election has also forced governments to reassess electoral interference. "Trust is the paramount factor in making sure that Internet-based voting actually takes place," said Tonu Tammer from the government agency in charge of the security of Estonia's computer networks.

Tammer says his organization is continuously monitoring and adapting to possible threats to the system, but says there are greater risks than an internet attack. "The biggest concern when it comes to trust is the dissemination of false news," he said, explaining that it's easier to erode trust by claiming electoral fraud than actually carrying out a successful attack.

On Friday, the European Commission criticized social media giants Facebook, Google and Twitter for not doing enough to fight disinformation ahead of the EU elections. But with more than 82,500 people having already voted online by Monday, it seems trust is still strong.

Back in the Tallinn cafe, Lainvoo closes her laptop and prepares to leave for the office. "I'm not an IT person, but I trust their expertise, and I also trust my state," she said.

Pro-EU rallies draw tens of thousands before elections

May 19, 2019

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators opposed to right-wing populism and nationalism took to the streets Sunday in a number of European cities before May 23-26 elections to the European Parliament.

Marches in Germany were held under the banner of "One Europe for Everyone: Your Voice Against Nationalism" in cities including Berlin, Cologne, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg. Organizers from more than 70 groups support the European Union, but also urge changes in migration policy such as support for refugee rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea.

Other gatherings under the slogan "No to Hate, Yes to Change" were planned in Budapest, Genoa, Utrecht, Warsaw, Bucharest and other cities. In Bucharest, thousands turned out at Victoria Square, and the crowd formed a heart with the message: "Romania loves Europe."

"We want to tell them that their vote matters and that it's very important to go out and vote, to express their selection and to show Europe that Romania loves Europe," rally organizer Catalina Hoparteanu said.

The dpa news agency said organizers reported 20,000 protesters in Berlin, while police estimated 10,000 in Munich, 14,000 in Frankfurt, and 10,000 in Hamburg. The 751-seat European Parliament has limited powers but the poll is being seen as a test of strength both by right-wing, populist and nationalist groups who want curbs on immigration and more authority for national governments on the one hand, and on the other by center-left and center-left mainstream parties who support the EU as a bulwark of cooperation among its 28 member states, rule of law and democracy.

UK's anti-EU Brexit Party launches EU election campaign

April 12, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Pro-Brexit British politician Nigel Farage on Friday launched a campaign for an election that may never take place to an institution he routinely insults — the contest for U.K. seats in the European Parliament.

Britain was supposed to have left the European Union before the European elections, which take place in late May in every EU nation. But with Britain's Parliament still deadlocked over whether to approve the government's divorce deal with the bloc, EU leaders have postponed the Brexit deadline until Oct. 31.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says taking part in this year's European elections three years after the nation voted to leave the EU would be "unthinkable." She still hopes Britain can avoid the U.K.'s May 23 election by leaving the 28-nation bloc before then.

But with British lawmakers unwilling to endorse the divorce agreement that May forged with the EU, preparations have begun to fill the 73 U.K. spots in the 751-seat European legislature. Winning candidates from Britain will only get to serve as long as their country remains in the EU.

Britain's ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labor party are unenthusiastic about running in the European Parliament election, where they are likely to be punished by disgruntled voters. But pro-Brexit and pro-EU parties are eager to run in a contest seen by many as a way to express their strongly divergent views on the EU.

Farage held the first campaign rally of his newly formed Brexit Party, calling delays to Britain's departure from the EU "a willful betrayal of the greatest democratic exercise in the history of this nation."

"The fightback begins here," said Farage, who formerly led the U.K. Independence Party and has sat in the European parliament since 1999. Farage was instrumental in helping the Leave side win Britain's 2016 referendum on EU membership, but stepped down as UKIP leader after the referendum. UKIP has since shifted to the far right; its new leader hired anti-Muslim agitator and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson as an adviser.

Farage said he did not want to be a part of a party that promoted "violence, criminal records and thuggery." Other candidates for the Brexit Party include Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg.

"I joined the Conservative Party in 1984 and this is not a decision I have made lightly — to leave a party for which I have fought at every election since 1987, from Maggie Thatcher through to Theresa May," she said. "I know which one I'd rather have representing us now."

The pro-EU Independent Group, founded by British lawmakers who quit Labor and the Conservatives, has registered to become a political party so it can run in the EU election on a platform calling for a new referendum on Britain's EU membership.

After months of acrimonious, indecisive yet cliff-edged wrangling in Parliament over Brexit, U.K. lawmakers began a 10-day Easter break on Friday. May has urged them to "reflect" and use the break to "resolve to find a way through this impasse."

Talks continued Friday between senior lawmakers in May's Conservative-led government and the Labor Party in hopes of striking a compromise Brexit deal that can win majority support in Parliament. Several rounds of negotiations over the past week have so far failed to reach a Brexit compromise.

Labor economy spokesman John McDonnell said the talks would continue and "we will see by the end of next week how far we have got."

Boris Johnson lost Parliament but he could win a UK election

September 10, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost Parliament. But he could still win a general election if enough voters approve of his determination to make Britain's departure from the European Union a reality.

The U.K. leader who took office in July failed spectacularly in his first encounter with Parliament, losing six important votes before suspending the legislature for an unexpected five weeks during a crucial period in Britain's political life. He was unable to convince enough lawmakers to back his call for an early national election, which he hoped would give him a more pliant group of lawmakers.

Despite his inability to get a general election set for mid-October — Parliament voted him down twice on that score — most observers think an early election is now inevitable, in part because Johnson's Conservative Party has lost its working majority in the House of Commons and no longer has enough votes to pass legislation.

Parliament is now suspended — or prorogued — until Oct. 14, but once its session resumes, most scenarios lead to a cross-party agreement to hold an early election that would test Johnson's popularity outside Parliament's Gothic halls in London. Right now the next British election is not scheduled until 2022.

Under a master plan hatched in part by top adviser Dominic Cummings, who played a key role directing pro-Brexit forces during the 2016 referendum campaign on EU membership, Johnson and his team would hope to cast the election as a "people versus Parliament" vote.

In this screenplay, the people — represented by Johnson and his Conservative Party candidates — are the good guys intent on implementing the results of the 2016 Brexit referendum that saw British voters, by a 4% margin, choose to leave the EU. Johnson's Conservative party has been to a large degree purged of moderates who did not share his willingness to countenance a "no-deal" Brexit divorce from the EU and all the economic risks that entails.

Parliament and opposition parties, meanwhile, will be cast as villains determined to thwart the will of the people with endless delays. The prime minister, well aware that many voters are tired of the whole thing, claims he doesn't want an election but sees it as the only way to make Brexit happen. He can blame the current Parliament for tying his hands with its legislation blocking his ability to pull off a "no-deal" Brexit on Oct. 31, and say the legislators are determined to overturn the Brexit referendum because they don't like the results.

This "us versus them" scenario that Johnson's team is hoping to capitalize on borrows from U.S. President Donald Trump's "drain the swamp" approach, which helped him win the presidency in 2016. It is too early to predict with clarity what shape a British election would take, since there are too many unknowns, especially about what coalitions could be formed. A key question is whether Johnson will seek an alliance with Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, which could unite Brexit backers.

The two teamed up successfully during the 2016 referendum campaign, both touting the idea that leaving the EU would give Britain back control of its laws and borders. Farage is a single-issue politician who was more willing than Johnson to blame immigrants for some of Britain's problems.

John Curtice, a polling expert with the University of Strathclyde, said Johnson could form a winning coalition with Farage if he is unable to wring concessions from the EU and decides to openly embrace a "no-deal" Brexit as his stated goal.

"If he does a deal with Farage, and comes out in favor of 'no-deal' and Farage is ready to deal with him, that creates the potential of a winning coalition but contains the risk of splitting his own party," Curtice said.

He added that Johnson could also possibly win by getting a deal with the EU that wins parliamentary backing and woos Brexit Party voters back into the Conservative fold. "He's got two routes, neither of which is easy," Curtice said.

Johnson will need to win the backing of disgruntled voters tempted to vote for candidates like Jonathan Bullock, the Brexit Party's standard bearer in the pro-Brexit stronghold of Boston in eastern England.

"Parliament has completely let us down," Bullock said, claiming the current legislature is full of "remainers" who are determined to stall Brexit indefinitely. He backs the call for a general election but isn't sure about Johnson.

"Boris says the right thing, but can you trust him?" Bullock said. "The one person you can trust is Nigel Farage, who has been consistently right about this all along. He said that the establishment would try to stop Brexit, and he's been absolutely right."

Johnson's team also believes he can capitalize on the opposition Labor Party's left-wing tilt under leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is a divisive figure for many voter. Just as Johnson has alienated some Conservative moderates, Corbyn has lost the backing of some longtime Labour figures who are turned off by his doctrinaire approach.

But Johnson faces a potentially effective informal opposition coalition that would bring together Labor, which under Corbyn has not taken a clear position on Brexit but is opposed to a "no-deal" divorce, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalists, which are both strongly opposed to Brexit and smaller regional parties.

These groups banded together to block Johnson's bid for an immediate election, but it's not clear if they could bury past rivalries and find common ground in a longer campaign.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed.

Johnson calls opponents cowardly, plans new election bid

September 05, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson kept up his push for an early election as a way to break Britain's Brexit impasse, as lawmakers moved to stop the U.K. leaving the European Union next month without a divorce deal.

Johnson suffered another setback as his own brother quit the government on Thursday, saying it was not serving the national interest. Johnson remained determined to secure an election, after lawmakers on Wednesday rejected his attempt to trigger a snap poll. House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg told Parliament that a vote would be held Monday on a new motion calling for an election.

Johnson's office said the prime minister would appeal directly to the public, arguing in a speech later that politicians must "go back to the people and give them the opportunity to decide what they want."

He called Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to endorse an election a "cowardly insult to democracy." Johnson's determination to lead Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31, come hell or high water, is facing strong opposition from lawmakers, including members of his own Conservative Party who oppose a no-deal Brexit.

In a personal blow, the prime minister's brother, Jo Johnson, quit the government, saying he could no longer endure the conflict "between family loyalty and the national interest." Jo Johnson had served as an education minister in his older brother's government, despite his opposition to leaving the EU without a divorce deal. He said Thursday that he would also step down from Parliament, the latest in a string of resignations by Conservative moderates opposed to the government's hard-Brexit stance.

Boris Johnson became prime minister in July after promising Conservatives that he would complete Brexit and break the impasse that has paralyzed the country's politics since voters decided in June 2016 to leave the bloc, and which brought down his predecessor, Theresa May.

But after just six weeks in office, his plans to lead the U.K. out of the EU are in crisis. He is caught between the EU, which refuses to renegotiate the deal it struck with May, and a majority of British lawmakers opposed to leaving without an agreement. Most economists say a no-deal Brexit would cause severe economic disruption and plunge the U.K. into recession.

Johnson's solution is to seek an election that could shake up Parliament and produce a less troublesome crop of lawmakers. It is a risky gambit: Opinion polls don't point to a clear majority for the Conservatives and the public mood is volatile.

On Wednesday, the prime minister asked Parliament to back an Oct. 15 election, after lawmakers moved to block his plan to leave the EU on Oct. 31, even if there is no withdrawal agreement to pave the way.

But Parliament turned down his motion. Johnson needed the support of two-thirds of the 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons to trigger an election — a total of 434 — but got just 298, with 56 voting no and the rest abstaining.

British prime ministers used to be able to call elections at will, but under 2011 legislation fixing elections at five-rear intervals, they now need the support of lawmakers to hold an early poll. Corbyn said Labour, the biggest opposition party, would only vote for an early election if the prospect of a no-deal Brexit was taken off the table.

Labour economy spokesman John McDonnell said the party wanted an election but was still deciding on whether to seek one before the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, or to wait until Parliament had secured a delay to Britain's departure from the bloc.

"The problem that we have got is that we cannot at the moment have any confidence in Boris Johnson abiding by any commitment or deal that we could construct," he told the BBC. "That's the truth of it. So, we are now consulting about whether it's better to go long, therefore, rather than to go short."

Opposition lawmakers, supported by rebels in Johnson's Conservative Party, are attempting to pass a bill that would block a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31, compelling the prime minister to seek a three-month delay to Britain's departure if no exit deal has been agreed by late October.

The bill was approved by the House of Commons on Wednesday, but faced trouble in Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords, where pro-Brexit members planned to defeat it by filibustering — talking until time ran out.

But early Thursday, the Lords agreed to let the bill to pass through the chamber by Friday, allowing it to become law on Monday. Johnson plans to suspend Parliament at some point next week until Oct. 14.

Johnson also faces several legal challenges to his push to leave the EU come what may. On Thursday, transparency campaigner Gina Miller, who won a ruling in the Supreme Court in 2017 that stopped the government from triggering the countdown to Brexit without a vote in Parliament, was bringing a challenge at the High Court to Johnson's plan to suspend Parliament.

Miller, who is supported in her claim by Labour and the governments of Scotland and Wales, argues that sending lawmakers home at a crucial time for Britain is unlawful. "We say that what the prime minister is not entitled to do is to close Parliament for five weeks at such a critical time without justification," her lawyer, David Pannick, told the hearing.

Space launch includes 1st flyer from United Arab Emirates

September 25, 2019

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — An American, a Russian and the first space flyer from the United Arab Emirates blasted off Wednesday on a mission to the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off at 6:57 p.m. (1357 GMT) from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome to lift a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft into orbit.

The ship carrying NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, a military pilot from the UAE, docked at the International Space Station about six hours later.

It was the third spaceflight for Skripochka and the first for Meir and al-Mansoori, who flew to the station was on an eight-day mission under a contract between the UAE and Roscosmos. Al-Mansoori was the first of two men chosen by the Gulf Arab nation to fly to the space station.

The trio will join two Russians, three Americans and an Italian aboard the space station. Meir and Skripochka will spend more than six months in orbit. Al-Mansoori will return to Earth next week with Russia's Alexey Ovchinin and NASA's Nick Hague.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe honored at state funeral, burial delayed

September 14, 2019

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — African heads of state joined thousands of Zimbabweans at a state funeral Saturday for Zimbabwe's founding president, Robert Mugabe, whose burial has been delayed for at least a month until a special mausoleum can be built for his remains.

More than 10 African leaders and several former presidents attended the service and viewing of the body of Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore at age 95, at the National Sports Stadium in the capital, Harare. The crowd filling about 30% of the 60,000 capacity of the Chinese-built stadium. Most of those attending were supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa drew boos from the crowd, as a result of the recent attacks in Johannesburg on foreigners, including Zimbabweans. An official pleaded with the stadium crowd to let him speak. Ramaphosa apologized for the attacks.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta described Mugabe as "a great icon of African liberation" and "a visionary leader and relentless champion of African dignity." The announcement Friday evening that that burial will be postponed until the building of a new resting place at the national Heroes' Acre Monument is the latest turn in a dramatic wrangle between Mugabe's family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a once-trusted deputy who helped oust Mugabe from power.

Mnangagwa presided over Saturday's ceremony, attended by Mugabe's widow Grace, who wore a black veil. "A giant tree of Africa has fallen," said Mnangagwa, who hailed Mugabe as "a bold, steadfast revolutionary."

He praised Mugabe for seizing land from white farmers. "To him, this was the grievance of all grievances of our people," Mnangagwa said. "The land has now been reunited with the people and the people have been reunited with the land." He also called on Western countries to remove sanctions imposed during Mugabe's era.

"Go Well Our Revolutionary Icon" and "Farewell Gallant Son of the Soil" were among the banners praising Mugabe, who led the bitter guerrilla war to end white-minority rule in the country then known as Rhodesia. Mugabe was Zimbabwe's first leader and ruled the country from 1980 for 37 years, from years of prosperity to economic ruin and repression.

He was deposed in 2017 by the military and Mnangagwa in a bloodless coup that was marked by more than 100,000 people demonstrating in Harare's streets to demand that he step down. Following Mugabe's resignation, Mnangagwa took power and won elections the next year on campaign promises he would improve the collapsed economy and create jobs. But Zimbabwe's economy has lurched from crunch to crisis and some in the crowd expressed the view that life was better under Mugabe's rule.

"Bread was less than a dollar when we marched against him (Mugabe). It is now $9," said Munashe Gudyanga, 18. "I am just here to say 'Sorry, President Mugabe, we didn't know things will be worse.'" Some in the stadium sang an impromptu farewell to Mugabe, "When you left bread was a dollar," lyrics that implicitly criticized Mnangagwa, whose nearly two-year rule has been marked by rising prices, with inflation currently more than 175%.

The visiting leaders viewed Mugabe's the partially open casket, followed by a 21-gun salute, a flypast by Zimbabwean air force jets and the release of 95 doves, to mark Mugabe's 95 years. Mugabe's body is to be viewed in his birthplace, Zvimba, on Sunday and then will be held in preservation until the new mausoleum is ready.

In downtown Harare, many Zimbabweans were busy with their weekend errands, and expressed little interest in the funeral, which was open to the public. "What will I get if I go there? What will Mugabe do for me now that he failed to do when he was alive?" said Amelia Tukande, who was selling cellphone chargers along Harare's Samora Machel Avenue that leads to the stadium. "It is a waste of time. I have to work for my family."

Others said they would have wanted to attend the funeral but cannot afford transport fares. "I didn't like him, but I still wanted to attend just to see for myself that he is gone ... but kombis (minivan taxis) want $3.50 just to get to the stadium," said Amos Siduna, waiting in line at a bank to get cash, which is in short supply. "That's too much money for me just to go and say 'bye bye' to a corpse. Mugabe's corpse. No."

The mourning period for Mugabe's death has been marked by the ongoing drama over where, when and how the ex-strongman will be buried. The new resting place will be built near the stadium at Heroes' Acre, a national burial site for top officials of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party who contributed to ending white colonial rule

The mausoleum will be at an elevated site above the other graves, according to Mnangagwa and a Mugabe family spokesman. Grace had previously insisting on a private burial rather than the state funeral and burial in a simple plot alongside other national heroes planned by the government.

"We are building a mausoleum for our founding father at the top of the hill at Heroes' Acre," Mnangagwa said on state television Friday night, consenting to the Mugabe family's wishes.

Mugabe's body heading home to Zimbabwe for mourning, burial

September 11, 2019

SINGAPORE (AP) — The body of Zimbabwe's former President Robert Mugabe was being returned to his homeland Wednesday to lie in state before his burial in the African nation he ruled for decades. Mugabe died Friday in a Singapore hospital at age 95.

The ex-guerrilla leader took power when Zimbabwe shook off white minority rule in 1980. He enjoyed strong public backing in the initial years, but that support waned following repression, economic mismanagement and alleged election-rigging and he was forced out of power in 2017.

Many still regard him as a national hero, with some Zimbabweans even saying they missed him after his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, failed to revive the economy and used the army to crush dissent. Zimbabwe's Vice President Kembo Mohadi was seen at the Singapore Casket funeral parlor Tuesday afternoon, and police escorted a hearse from the building Wednesday morning to go to the airport.

A Zimbabwe state newspaper said his body would return to the country on Wednesday. The Sunday Mail quoted presidential spokesman George Charamba in reporting Mnangagwa and family members will receive the body at the airport named after the former president in the capital, Harare. The body will be taken to Mugabe's rural home before being placed in a stadium for public viewing.

Mnangagwa declared Mugabe a national hero and said official mourning will only end after the burial at the National Heroes Acre, a hilltop shrine reserved exclusively for Zimbabweans who made huge sacrifices during the war against white-minority rule.

Zimbabwe's information minister said Mugabe's body will lie in state at two stadiums in Harare for three days. His burial is scheduled on Sunday.

It's complicated: Zimbabweans see Mugabe's legacy as mixed

September 06, 2019

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean politician summed up her reaction to Robert Mugabe's death with one word: Complicated. Mugabe, 95, stood tall on the world stage for decades, first as a celebrated liberator and then as a combative enforcer, loathed by many of the Zimbabweans who once loved him.

The mark — a raw wound, some would say —that he left on long-suffering Zimbabwe will be felt long after Mugabe, who could be as charming as he was remorseless, died in a hospital far from home. In November 2017, euphoria swept Harare when Mugabe resigned after nearly four decades in power that saw one of Africa's most promising nations become one of its most dysfunctional.

Nearly two years later, much of the local response to his death Friday has been muted, indifferent or sullen, reflecting the fatigue and distraction of the daily hardship that is Mugabe's most enduring legacy.

"He died in luxury in Singapore. What about us, who can't even get medicines at hospitals here?" a woman shouted among commuters as she and dozens of others prepared to shove their way onto crowded, government-subsidized buses in Harare.

"Zimbabweans, you are an ungrateful lot," a man shouted back. "He gave you independence, and then returned the land from the whites." At one time, Mugabe was an electric figure, a champion of Africa's struggle to shake off the last vestiges of white minority rule on a continent that had been colonized over centuries. In 1980, he presided over the end of what was called Rhodesia and the creation of independent Zimbabwe, promising racial reconciliation and economic growth.

Then, things turned ominous. Thousands of Ndebele people were killed in the 1980s by a North Korea-trained military unit loyal to Mugabe, a member of the rival Shona ethnic group. In 2000, violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms began, causing agricultural production to plunge. A land reform program favored Mugabe loyalists.

As the years went by, Mugabe was widely accused of hanging onto power through violence and vote fraud, notably in a 2008 election that led to a troubled coalition government after regional mediators intervened.

Under Mugabe, shortages of basic goods, collapsing infrastructure and economic hardship were the norm for Zimbabweans. They still are under his successor and former loyalist, Emmerson Mnangagwa. "Mugabe invokes two emotions: a hero of the liberation struggle and a villain toward the end of his administration," Morgan Tsvangirai, then the main opposition leader, said in an interview with The Associated Press after Mugabe quit. Tsvangirai died of cancer in February 2018.

"I ain't an expert on critical race theory; but there must be an explanation why predominantly white countries focus on his legacy as dictator whilst the predominantly black ones acknowledge his role as a liberator," tweeted David Tinashe Hofisi, a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe.

Fadzayi Mahere, a Zimbabwean opposition politician, also alluded to Mugabe's mixed record. "Rest In Peace, Robert Mugabe," Mahere wrote on Twitter. "My response to your passing is complicated. I'm going to write a long piece. However, for now, deepest condolences to his family."

In ruthlessly hanging onto power, Mugabe seemed the antithesis of Nelson Mandela, the global statesman who led South Africa out of white minority rule and served one term as president. Yet Mugabe's criticism that Mandela was too soft on the country's white minority is shared by some black South Africans struggling for economic opportunities. Social problems in South Africa, Zimbabwe's wealthier, more powerful neighbor, have boiled into violence against African immigrants in past days.

A target of Western sanctions, Mugabe nevertheless enjoyed appreciation on the continent, serving as the rotating chair of the African Union in 2015-2016. His often frenetic travel schedule well into his 90s, and false alarms about his health, had many Zimbabweans musing sardonically about whether, indeed, the old man would ever die.

He showed his old gusto as late as March 2016 when an interviewer from state television asked him about retirement plans. "Do you want me to punch you to the floor to realize I am still there?" Mugabe told the interviewer.

Zimbabwean ruling party officials say they assured Mugabe ahead of his resignation that he would not be prosecuted for alleged crimes. Some people wonder whether his wife Grace, who at one time was positioning herself to succeed her husband and faces an arrest warrant in South Africa for alleged assault, might now be vulnerable.

For many Zimbabweans, Mugabe's rule was a deeply personal, often anguished experience. He embodied the country for the bulk of their lives, an immovable object whose longevity drove some to despair. Millions who couldn't bear conditions in Zimbabwe left the country.

Months before he was forced from power, even Mugabe seemed to see the end of the road. During a meandering speech at his birthday party in February 2017, he raised his fist in salute, but he also rested his drooping head on one hand. His hands gripped the podium. He talked slowly about his mission as Zimbabwe's leader, said he felt alone and described his life as a "long, long journey."

For Zimbabwe, it's been a long, long journey too.

Torchia reported from Rio de Janeiro. He covered events in Zimbabwe while based in Johannesburg between 2013 and 2019.

They said it: Leaders at the UN, in their own words

September 26, 2019

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Lots of leaders saying lots of things about lots of topics — topics that matter to them, to their regions, to the world. That's what the speechmaking at the U.N. General Assembly invariably produces each year. And each year, certain enormous topics and certain louder voices dominate.

Here, The Associated Press takes the opposite approach and spotlights some thoughts you might not have heard — the voices of leaders speaking at the United Nations who might not have captured the headlines and the airtime on Wednesday, the second day of 2019 debate.

"We must ensure that nobody has to choose between sending her daughter to school and sending her to work."

— Edgar Lungu, president of Zambia

"The peoples of the world have seen the movement of globalization nurture in them this common dream of seeing the Earth become a genuine global village. But, alas, we have never seen so many walls and barriers thrown up."

— Faustin Archange Touadera, president of the Central African Republic

"Multilateralism is nothing but showing compassion for the fate of others."

— Kersti Kaljulaid, president of Estonia

"More than most, island nations must have faith in the multilateral international order. We are by nature isolated and by design, our livelihoods are tied to the rest of the world. We rely heavily on this premise as well as on the actions or inactions of others for our very survival."

— Danny Faure, president of Seychelles

"All of you are coffee drinkers around the world. I want to ask all of you a question: If you would dare ask those who sell that cup of coffee to you whether they're paying a fair price to the producers, would you ask that question? Would you even consider it? Think about it. Think about it. Because I am certain that if the answer is yes, that would be very powerful. It would be very powerful because it could change the lives of some 120 million families of coffee producers around the world."

— Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, whose coffee-growing country is contending with a drop in its harvest that he attributes to both low global prices and climate change

Netanyahu, rightist allies appear to fall short of majority

September 18, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell short of securing a parliamentary majority with his natural religious and nationalist allies in national elections Tuesday, partial results indicated, setting the stage for a period of coalition negotiations that could threaten his political future and even clear the way for him to be tried on corruption charges.

Initial partial results showed challenger Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party tied with Netanyahu's Likud. While the results do not guarantee that Gantz will be the next prime minister, they signaled that Netanyahu, who has led the country for over 10 years, could have trouble holding on to the job.

Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, Netanyahu refused to concede defeat and vowed to work to form a new government that excludes Arab parties. His campaign focused heavily on attacking and questioning the loyalty of the country's Arab minority — a strategy that drew accusations of racism and incitement from Arab leaders.

"In the coming days we will convene negotiations to assemble a strong Zionist government and to prevent a dangerous anti-Zionist government," he said. He claimed that Arab parties "negate the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state" and "glorify bloodthirsty murderers."

The partial results released Wednesday by the Central Election Commission were based on 35 percent of the vote counted. The three Israeli TV channels reported the same outcome, based on more than 90 percent of the vote counted, but did not explain the discrepancy with the commission's percentage.

Final results are expected Wednesday and could still swing in Netanyahu's favor. According to the partial results, the parties of Gantz and Netanyahu received 32 seats each in the 120-member parliament. Likud with its natural allies of religious and ultra-nationalist parties mustered 56 seats — or five short of the needed majority.

This means both Likud and Blue and White will have difficulty setting up a governing coalition without the support of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party. That put Lieberman, a former protege of Netanyahu's who has become one of the prime minister's fiercest rivals, in the position of kingmaker.

Arab parties, which have never before sat in an Israeli government, also finished strong, and exit polls predicted they would form the third-largest party in parliament. Addressing his supporters late Tuesday, a jubilant Lieberman said he saw only "one option": a broad, secular coalition with both Blue and White and Likud.

"We've always said that a unity government is only possible in emergency situations. And I tell you and I tell every citizen today watching us on television: the situation, both security-wise and economically, are emergency situations," he said. "The country, therefore, requires a broad government."

Early Wednesday, Gantz told a cheering rally of supporters that while it was too soon to declare victory, he had begun speaking to potential partners and hoped to form a unity government. "Starting tonight we will work to form a broad unity government that will express the will of the people," he said.

Attention will now focus on Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, who is to choose the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a stable coalition. Rivlin is to consult with all parties in the coming days before making his decision.

After that, the prime minister designate would have up to six weeks to form a coalition. If that fails, Rivlin could give another candidate for prime minister 28 days to form a coalition. And if that doesn't work, new elections would be triggered yet again. Rivlin has said he will do everything possible to avoid such a scenario.

Lieberman called for an immediate start to negotiations and predicted it could be wrapped up quickly. But such a deal promises to be complicated. Gantz, a former military chief who has presented himself as a unifying figure in a divided nation, has ruled out a partnership with Likud if Netanyahu remains at the helm at a time when he is expected to be indicted on criminal charges.

But in his speech, he made no such conditions. "I intend to speak with everyone," he said, without mentioning Netanyahu. Lieberman, who leads a nationalist but secular party, is unlikely to sit with Arab parties on the left or ultra-Orthodox religious parties on the right.

That could limit both Gantz's and Netanyahu's ability to maneuver and could potentially put pressure on the longtime leader, who has ruled for over a decade, to step aside. Likud members said they remained behind their leader.

"We have the basic principle of standing by the party leader who was elected in the party primary, which is why we won't take action against Netanyahu," said lawmaker Micky Zohar, a Netanyahu loyalist.

Netanyahu had sought an outright majority with his allies in hopes of passing legislation to give him immunity from the expected indictment. Israel's attorney general has recommended charging Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three scandals, pending a hearing scheduled next month. A formal indictment would increase the pressure on Netanyahu to step aside if he does not have immunity.

Netanyahu tried to portray himself as a seasoned statesman uniquely qualified to lead the country through challenging times during an alarmist campaign marked by mudslinging and slogans that were condemned as racist. Gantz tried to paint Netanyahu as divisive and scandal-plagued, offering himself as a calming influence and honest alternative.

Netanyahu's campaign promoted images of him jetting off to world capitals and boasting of warm relations with powerful leaders, most notably President Donald Trump. At the same time, he issued repeated doomsday warnings that his opponents were scheming with politicians from the country's Arab minority to "steal" the election.

He tried, and failed, to pass legislation that would allow cameras in polling stations, a step he said was needed to crack down on alleged fraud in Arab towns. Facebook suspended his account for 24 hours last week after it published a post saying that "Arabs want to annihilate all of us."

Netanyahu also sought to appeal to his hard-line base with a number of election promises, including plans to annex all of Israel's settlements in the West Bank. His proposal, which could extinguish any remaining hopes for a Palestinian state, were condemned by much of the world, including important Arab countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia. But the U.S. remained muted, suggesting he had coordinated with Washington ahead of time.

Netanyahu's frenetic warnings about Arabs appeared to backfire, turning off some Jewish voters and driving heavy turnout in the Arab sector. Ayman Odeh, leader of the main Arab faction in parliament, said Netanyahu's repeated attacks had boosted turnout and hurt Netanyahu in the end.

"There's a heavy price to pay for incitement," he told Channel 13 TV. The election was Israel's second of the year. In April's vote, Netanyahu appeared to have the upper hand, with his traditional allies of nationalist and ultra-religious Jewish parties controlling a parliamentary majority.

But Lieberman, his mercurial ally-turned-rival, refused to join the new coalition, citing excessive influence it granted the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. Without a parliamentary majority, Netanyahu dissolved parliament and called a new election.

Lieberman's gamble paid off Tuesday, and partial results indicated his party had nearly doubled in strength, with nine seats. Israel's election commission said 69.4% of all eligible voters cast ballots by the time polls closed on Tuesday evening, a slightly larger number than took part in April's vote. Turnout in April's elections was 68.5%.

Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report.

Hong Kong soccer fans loudly boo Chinese national anthem

September 11, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of Hong Kong soccer fans booed loudly and turned their backs when the Chinese national anthem was played before a World Cup qualifier match against Iran on Tuesday, taking the city's months of protests into the sports realm.

The crowd broke out into "Glory to Hong Kong," a song reflecting their campaign for more democratic freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. After the match started, fans chanted "Fight for freedom" and "Revolution of our Times." One person carried a blue poster that read, "Hong Kong is not China."

Hong Kong has been roiled by protests since June over an extradition bill that would have sent some residents to mainland China for trial. The government promised last week to withdraw the bill but that failed to placate the protesters, whose demands now include democratic reforms and police accountability.

Security at the Hong Kong Stadium was tight, with fans frisked to ensure they did not bring in political materials and other prohibited items. Iran, Asia's top team, had sought to move the match, citing safety concerns over the unrest, but the request was rejected by FIFA, soccer's governing body.

Stadium announcers said 14,000 spectators attended the game. Iran beat Hong Kong 2-0. "Hong Kong people are united. We will speak up for freedom and democracy," one of the spectators, Leo Fan, said as members of the crowd continued to chant slogans and sing protest songs as they left.

In July, Hong Kong fans chanted slogans and waved banners when English Premier League champions Manchester City played local team Kitchee at the stadium. Many see the extradition bill as a glaring example of the city's eroding autonomy since the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. Clashes have become increasingly violent, with police firing tear gas after protesters vandalized subway stations, set street fires and blocked traffic over the weekend.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam renewed an appeal to protesters earlier Tuesday to "say no to violence" and engage in dialogue, as the city's richest man urged the government to provide a way out for the mostly young demonstrators.

Lam said the escalation of violence, in which more than 150 people including students have been detained in clashes since Friday, will deepen rifts and prolong the road to recovery. She said her decision to formally withdraw the extradition bill and her other initiatives reflected her sincerity to heal society by initiating a direct dialogue with various communities, including protesters.

Billionaire Li Ka Shing, in a video broadcast on local TV, described the summer of unrest as the worst catastrophe since World War II. In his first public comments, Li called youths the "masters of our future" and said the government should temper justice with mercy in resolving the crisis.

"I am very worried. We hope Hong Kong people will be able to ride out the storm. We hope the young people can consider the big picture and those at the helm can give the masters of our future a way out," Li, 91, told a religious gathering outside a Buddhist temple over the weekend.

Asked about Li's comments, Lam agreed that the government "can do more and can do better" especially in meeting young people to hear their grievances. But she stressed the government cannot condone violence and will strictly enforce the law.

The unrest has become the biggest challenge to Beijing's rule since it took over Hong Kong and is an embarrassment to its ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 celebrations of its 70th year in power. Beijing has slammed the protests as an effort by criminals to split the territory from China, backed by what it said were hostile foreigners.

Beijing rebuked Germany on Tuesday for allowing prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong to visit "to engage in anti-China separatist activities." Wong met Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin late Monday at an event hosted by the German newspaper Bild.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Maas' "political show" with Wong displayed disrespect to China's sovereignty and was an interference in its internal affairs. She urged Germany to avoid sending the wrong signal to "radical, separatist forces in Hong Kong" and said any efforts to solicit foreign support to split the country are "doomed to fail."

In an immediate response, Wong tweeted that Chinese 's strong reaction was "baffling." Wong, a leader of Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protest movement, was charged last month with inciting people to join a protest in June. His prosecution came after his release from prison in June following a two-month sentence related to the 2014 protests.

Associated Press videojournalist Harvey Kong in Hong Kong and news assistant Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.

Russia and Ukraine trade prisoners, each fly 35 to freedom

September 07, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia and Ukraine conducted a major prisoner exchange that freed 35 people detained in each country and flew them to the other, a deal that could help advance Russia-Ukraine relations and end five years of fighting in Ukraine's east.

The trade involved some of the highest-profile prisoners caught up in a bitter standoff between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy greeted the freed prisoners as they stepped down from the airplane that had brought them from Moscow to Kyiv's Boryspil airport. Relatives waiting on the tarmac surged forward to hug their loved ones.

Most of the ex-detainees appeared to be in good physical condition, although one struggled down the steps on crutches and another was held by the arms as he slowly navigated the steps. Among those Russia returned was Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, whose conviction for preparing terrorist attacks was strongly denounced abroad, and 24 Ukrainian sailors taken with a ship the Russian navy seized last year.

"Hell has ended; everyone is alive and that is the main thing," Vyacheslav Zinchenko, 30, one of the released sailors, said. The prisoners released by Ukraine included Volodymyr Tsemakh, who commanded a separatist rebel air defense unit in the area of eastern Ukraine where a Malaysian airliner was shot down in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.

Dozens of lawmakers urged Ukraine's president not to make Tsemakh one of their country's 35 traded prisoners. Critics saw freeing Tsemakh as an act of submissiveness to Russia, but the exchange "allows Zelenskiy to fulfill one of his main pre-election promises," Ukrainian analyst Vadim Karasev told The Associated Press

Zelenskiy, who was elected in a landslide in April, has promised new initiatives to resolve the war in eastern Ukraine between government troops and the separatist rebels. The exchange of prisoners also raises hope in Russia for the reduction of European sanctions imposed because of its role in the conflict, Karasev said. Russia also is under sanctions for its annexation of Crimea in 2014, shortly before the separatist conflict in the east began, but that dispute is unlikely to be resolved.

At Moscow's Vnukovo airport, the released prisoners remained on the plane for about 15 minutes for unknown reasons. When they came off, many toting baggage, a bus drove them to a medical facility for examination.

Russia said it would release a full list of its citizens freed by Ukraine but had not done so by Saturday night. The 24 sailors in the swap were seized after Russian ships fired on two Ukrainian vessels on Nov. 25 in the Kerch Strait, located between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov next to Russia-annexed Crimea.

Another passenger on the plane from Moscow was Nikolai Karpyuk, who was imprisoned in 2016 after he was convicted of killing Russians in Chechnya in the 1990s. "Russia was not able to break me even though they tried hard to do this," Karpyuk said in Kyiv.

Kirill Vyshinsky, head of Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti's Ukraine branch, also had a seat. Vyshinsky had been jailed since 2018 on treason charges. He thanked Harlem Desir, the media freedom representative for the Organization for Security and Cooperation In Europe, for calling for his release.

The exchange comes amid renewed hope that a solution can be found to the fighting in Ukraine's east that has killed 13,000 people since 2014. A congratulatory tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump called the trade "good news."

"Russia and Ukraine just swapped large numbers of prisoners. Very good news, perhaps a first giant step to peace," Trump's tweet said. "Congratulations to both countries!" However, reaching a peace agreement faces many obstacles, such as determining the final territorial status of rebel-held areas. Russia insists it has not supported the rebels and the fighting is Ukraine's internal affair.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement welcoming the exchange touched on those difficulties, calling the war an "intra-Ukraine conflict." "Obviously, the habit of blaming Russia for all the troubles of Ukraine should remain in the past," the ministry statement said.

The prospect of progress nevertheless appeared to rise last month with the announcement of a planned summit of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany - the four countries with representatives in the long-dormant "Normandy format," a group seeking to end the conflict.

"We have made the first step. It was very complicated. Further, we will come closer to the return of our (war) prisoners," Zelenskiy said of the prisoner exchange. In July, a tentative agreement for the release of 69 Ukrainian prisoners and 208 held in Ukraine was reached by the Trilateral Contact Group of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; negotiations on fulfilling it continue.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign relations committee in the Russian parliament's upper house, said the exchange represented a move "in the direction of crossing from confrontation to dialogue, and one can only thank those thanks to whose strength this became possible."

Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, contributed to this story.

Ukraine, Poland want continued sanctions on Russia

August 31, 2019

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Saturday he and Poland's president have agreed that sanctions ought to continue against Russia until Ukraine regains the territory it lost in Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Zelenskiy, accompanied by some members of his Cabinet, was on his first visit to Poland as president for political talks and to attend ceremonies planned for Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.

He said he and Polish President Andrzej Duda had discussed the next steps needed to end the war in eastern Ukraine and to return the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine. "We have agreed on our next steps to stop the war in eastern Ukraine and to bring back occupied Crimea," said Zelenskiy, who was a comedian who starred on a popular sitcom before his election in April.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all of the world views as illegal. The European Union and the U.S. imposed sanctions. In eastern Ukraine, a deadly conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has gone on for five years.

Zelenskiy said his and Duda's "joint and principal position" is that the EU "sanctions should be reviewed only to be increased- not otherwise" unless existing peace agreements are fully implemented and "the territorial unity of Ukraine according to its internationally agreed borders" is restored.

Duda said he assured Zelenskiy of his support for continuing sanctions on Russia and protecting "Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity." Duda said especially in the context of Sunday's World War II anniversary, "We must stress how very important it is that no one, in Europa or in the world, is allowed to change borders by force."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of world leaders also will take part in the anniversary ceremonies in Warsaw. The invasion of Poland by Nazi German troops on Sept. 1, 1939 marks the outbreak of World War II.

Poland remained under Nazi German occupation for more than five years and lost some 6 million citizens.