France abandons plans to build new airport in the west

January 17, 2018

PARIS (AP) — France will abandon plans to build a new airport in the west, the prime minister announced Wednesday, ordering the activists who have been protesting the project for nearly a decade to leave their makeshift settlement and unblock nearby roads.

Despite their long-sought political victory, the activists refused. Nantes Mayor Johanna Rolland, meanwhile, said the national government "ceded to blackmail and threats." Security forces began deploying extra forces to the area near Nantes even before the announcement, among the most divisive decisions since President Emmanuel Macron took office eight months ago.

"The Notre-Dame-des-Landes project will be abandoned," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said. "This is a logical decision, considering the dead-end where this project has found itself." He noted that plans for the airport were first made 50 years ago and "the debate should have ended long ago."

Philippe said the activists who have camped out for years to protest the plan must start clearing roads they have blocked or police would step in. He gave the squatters until spring to pull up their stakes.

Still, the decision failed to quell a potentially explosive situation. Activists in the hundreds cheered the announcement, popping bottles of bubbly and scheduling a victory party for Feb. 10. But at a news conference, they said they would refuse to leave their makeshift settlement — and hoped to transform the occupied land into "a space of social, environmental and agricultural experimentation."

Philippe said the decision was an "impossible dilemma" because of the passions for and against the airport, but that his decision aimed to calm a volatile situation. Earlier attempts to dislodge the squatters had ended in violent clashes with police.

"We will end this zone of lawlessness that has prospered for nearly 10 years," the prime minister said. Proponents had argued the region needed a larger airport to boost its economic prospects. Opponents said a new airport was unnecessary and a symbol of exploitative globalization.

To appease those favoring a new airport, Philippe said airport in both Nantes and Rennes would be expanded to help the region develop. Philippe Grosvalet, president of the Loire-Atlantique department, told BFM TV that the government had "ceded to disorder." He also said the prime minister's decision "tramples democracy," a reference to a 2016 referendum in which the Notre-Dames-des-Landes airport received the majority of votes.

Farmers who clung to their land had joined forces with the anarchists against the airport. The prime minister said farmers whose land was expropriated for the proposed airport could get their land back if they wanted.

French leader Macron in Calais urges new migrant policy

January 16, 2018

CALAIS, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron traveled Tuesday to the epicenter of France's migrant crisis, the northern port of Calais, to lay out a new approach to immigration: help for those who want to stay, expulsion for those using France as a transit point and sanctions for any poor behavior by security forces.

The northern city is a magnet for migrants because it is the closest point between France and Britain and has two cross-Channel transport systems, the Eurotunnel and ferries. Macron laid out the broad lines of his immigration policy in a speech before security forces, some of whom have been criticized for overzealous actions against migrants.

"Calais is not a back door to Britain," he said, referring to the hundreds of migrants trying to make an end run to Britain by sneaking across the English Channel. Macron declared that staying in Calais instead of applying for asylum in France is "a dead end" and vowed not to allow any migrant camp to take root after authorities dismantled Europe's biggest migrant slum, on the edge of Calais, in 2016.

Macron wants to change a 2003 border control agreement that allows British officials to help carry out checks in Calais, effectively moving the British border to the French port. That has spared Britain from receiving floods of migrants at its doorstep like other European countries, putting the burden of blocking their entry to the U.K. on France.

Macron is meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday in Sandhurst near London to discuss the issue. The French president said the three points he plans to raise with May include "better management of the issue of unaccompanied minors, reinforced police cooperation in Calais and with the countries of origin and transit" and getting British funds for development projects in Calais.

The former French tourist destination has long suffered because of the influx of migrants there. Macron, speaking in the Gendarmerie headquarters, told security forces they will be sanctioned if they fail to honor their rules of conduct. He listed some of the claims: that police confiscate sleeping bags and even shoes from migrants, awaken them in the night, use tear gas on their belongings and food.

"There are no half-truths," the president said. But Macron also said authorities would file defamation complaints against those who make false allegations against the police. The president's trip was a preview of a tough new immigration and asylum bill to be presented to the Cabinet in February.

More than 1,130 French security forces have been posted in Calais, including riot police, border police and gendarmes. Their mission is to keep migrants out of the port and Eurotunnel and stop them from setting up camps.

Macron also talked briefly Tuesday with Sudanese migrants at a special center in Croisilles, south of Calais, where migrants can apply for asylum in France. Many migrants only stay briefly in such centers and quickly resume efforts to sneak across the Channel.

One migrant applying for asylum in France, identified only by his first name Ahmed, 25, said he travelled from Sudan through Libya and Italy to end up in Calais last year. He told Macron he wants to "learn French, get training and find a job as auto mechanic." He said he had no choice but to leave his country because his mother was killed and his family disappeared. Macron told Ahmed his story seems to meet the criteria to be granted asylum.

Just over a year ago, the filthy makeshift migrant camp in Calais was dismantled and some 7,000 migrants were sent to centers around France. But with 400 to 700 migrants in Calais today, the situation is in many ways worse, said Francois Guennoc of the aid group Auberge des Migrants. The group is one of two that declined to take part in a meeting with Macron.

"It's catastrophic," he said, because migrants have no right to pitch tents. Tensions also flare among the migrants in Calais. Up to 100 Afghans and Eritreans wielding iron bars and sticks clashed Sunday night and police had to use tear gas to separate them, officials said.

Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart has spent years pressing the French government for funds, police and other help in dealing with migrants. She is among the critics of the 2003 deal that put the British border security burden on France.

France is pressing Britain to take in more unaccompanied minors and seeking more funds from Britain to improve border controls. May's spokesman, James Slack, declined to comment on any new deal on migrants before Macron's visit to Britain.

Ganley reported from Paris. Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

UK and French leaders reach border deal, disagree on Brexit

January 19, 2018

CAMBERLEY, England (AP) — The leaders of Britain and France met Thursday against a military backdrop to pledge closer cooperation on defense, security and borders after Britain leaves the European Union.

But President Emmanuel Macron also delivered a firm message: the U.K. cannot keep coveted access to the EU for its financial sector after Brexit unless it continues to play by the bloc's rules once it leaves.

"The choice is on the British side, not on my side," Macron said at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May. "If you want access to the single market — including the financial services —- be my guest," he said. "But it means that you need to contribute to the budget and acknowledge European jurisdiction."

The future of Britain's financial sector — which employs more than 1 million people — is a key issue as Britain and the EU hammer out details of their relationship after Brexit. EU officials warn the U.K. it can't hang on to the benefits of membership without accepting its responsibilities, including free movement of people.

May said Britain would be leaving the single market, but wanted a free-trade deal with the bloc covering both goods and services. She said London "will continue to be a major global financial center" after Brexit.

The visit, Macron's first to Britain since he won the French presidency in May 2017, was aimed at strengthening security and intelligence ties between nations that are both neighbors and historic rivals, and building goodwill as Britain negotiates its exit from the EU.

The venue — the Sandhurst military academy southwest of London — was selected as a signal that the relationship between western Europe's two biggest military powers won't be weakened once the U.K. leaves the EU in March 2019.

May treated the French leader to a pub lunch of crab and duck breast, followed by a serving of British military pomp. Macron was greeted at Sandhurst troops from the Coldstream Guards in gray coats and bearskin hats.

Amid a sudden hailstorm, Macron and May inspected the honor guard before taking a salute from soldiers on horseback. Senior ministers from the two countries attended the one-day meeting, and signed agreements on everything from space exploration to tackling online extremism.

In a significant gesture, May offered millions to ease French annoyance over a 2003 deal that placed British border controls in the northern French port of Calais. The town has become a magnet for migrants hoping to reach Britain, and the accord puts the burden of blocking their entry to the U.K. on France.

Alongside a new treaty aimed at better management of their joint border, Britain agreed to pay 44.5 million pounds ($62 million) for fences, security cameras and other measures in Calais and nearby English Channel ports. France also wants Britain to take in more migrants from Calais, especially unaccompanied children.

May pointedly declined to give a number of migrants that Britain would take when asked by journalists at a joint press conference. Instead she stressed the need to clamp down on people smugglers and take other measures to stop migrants from getting to Calais.

Macron said the treaty would mean "smarter and more efficient management of the border" and a faster, more humane processing system for migrants. The U.K. also said it will send three Royal Air Force Chinook helicopters and dozens of personnel to join France's military mission against Islamic militants in Africa's Sahel region. France has led efforts to fight al-Qaida and IS-linked jihadi groups in the vast region south of the Sahara desert.

The leaders of the five main U.K. and French spy agencies also met for the first time, as the two countries seek to increase intelligence-sharing. France and Britain have both faced a string of violent attacks by extremists inspired or directed by the Islamic State group.

In a boost to Macron, Britain is throwing its backing behind the European Intervention Initiative, a multinational European military force that the French president has proposed. He also wants a common European defense budget and security doctrine.

In return, France will send troops to join a U.K.-led NATO battle group in Estonia in 2019, aimed at countering an increasingly assertive Russia. Macron also came with the news that France will loan Britain the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century panorama depicting the Norman conquest of England. It will go on display at an unspecified British venue in 2022.

Macron said that despite Brexit, "we are facing common challenges and sharing the same destiny." "We are somehow making a new tapestry together," he said.

Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this story.

Belarus bristles at Kazakhstan's offer to host Ukraine talks

January 19, 2018

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarus on Friday mocked Kazakhstan's suggestion that it could serve as a new venue for Ukraine peace talks previously hosted by Minsk. Belorussian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in a statement released to The Associated Press that the ex-Soviet nation "isn't seeking peacemaker's laurels unlike some others." He added that moving the talks elsewhere wouldn't change anything.

"The negotiations' venue is hardly relevant," Makei said. "The negotiations on Ukraine could even be moved to Antarctica if there is a certainty about their success." He added that for the talks to succeed it's necessary that every party to the conflict sincerely aims to end the bloodshed.

Belarus has hosted a series of negotiations to try to settle the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine that erupted weeks after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. A 2015 agreement signed in Minsk that was brokered by France and Germany helped reduce hostilities that have killed over 10,000 since April 2014, but clashes between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have continued and attempts at political settlement have stalled.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Thursday that the Minsk talks were deadlocked and suggested that his country could host them. He said on a visit to the U.S. that he discussed the issue during a meeting with President Donald Trump, adding that Trump suggested moving the talks to another location.

The 2015 peace deal obliged Ukraine to offer broad autonomy to the separatist regions and a sweeping amnesty to rebels. Most Ukrainian political parties rejected that idea as a betrayal of national interests.

On Thursday, Ukraine's parliament passed a bill on "reintegration" of the rebel regions that envisages the use of military force to get them back under Ukraine's control. It contained no reference to the Minsk agreement, and Russia warned that the bill effectively kills the Minsk agreements.

Thousands protest Austria's new right-wing government

January 13, 2018

VIENNA (AP) — Thousands of Austrians are protesting their country's new right-wing government with a march in Vienna. Police in the capital said about 20,000 people were attending the march on Saturday.

Some protesters carried placards reading "Never Again." Others chanted slogans such as "Refugees should stay, drive out the Nazis." The new governing coalition made up of the conservative Austrian People's Party and the nationalist Freedom Party has taken a hard line against migration.

Winter is here: "Game of Thrones" ice hotel opens in Finland

January 19, 2018

HELSINKI (AP) — A "Game of Thrones"-themed ice hotel complete with a bar and a chapel for weddings has opened in northern Finland in a joint effort by a local hotel chain and the U.S. producers of the hit TV series.

Lapland Hotels said Friday they chose "Game of Thrones" to be the theme for this season's Snow Village, an annual ice-and-snow construction project covering 20,000 square meters (24,000 sq. yards) in Kittila, 150 kilometers (93 miles) above the Arctic Circle.

Snow Village operations manager Janne Pasma told Finnish national broadcaster YLE that he was a huge fan of the series and it was "a dream come true" that HBO Nordic agreed to go along. The hotel, which stays open until April, suggests that guests stay only one night due to below-zero temperatures.

Thorny global issues abound a year into Trump presidency

January 19, 2018

With a sharp departure from years and sometimes decades of U.S. foreign policy, President Donald Trump has made a seismic global impact during his first year in office. It has been delivered with his own brand of bombast and occasional threats.

Contentious issues have always existed, especially in conflict-ridden or volatile countries, but has he improved or worsened matters? Twelve months into his presidency, Associated Press correspondents take stock:

RUSSIA

Trump repeatedly declared in his campaign that he would improve relations with Russia but was never specific. A year into his presidency, it's no clearer. Moscow and Washington are at odds over issues ranging from North Korea to Ukraine, despite Trump's open admiration of President Vladimir Putin.

Russian officials had high hopes that Trump would move to abandon or reduce the sanctions that the United States imposed over Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Instead, Trump approved selling lethal weapons to Ukraine for the fight against the rebels, he appointed a Russia hawk as Washington's envoy for Ukraine's peace process, and his U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, declared that the Crimea sanctions wouldn't be lifted unless the peninsula is returned to Ukraine.

Trump even signed legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia — unwillingly, but effectively forced to by the measure's near-unanimous Senate approval. Publicly, the Kremlin contends Trump is hogtied by suspicions of Russia held over from the Barack Obama era and by hysteria over allegations that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election and that Trump and Russia had colluded.

Trump himself has criticized Russia, saying Moscow "seeks to challenge American values, influence and wealth," and complaining he is not satisfied with Russia's role in easing tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Russia contends the U.S. wants to undermine the deal limiting Iran's nuclear program and that Washington clandestinely supports Islamic fighters in Syria. Although Trump has a taste for defying conventional political wisdom, his potential moves toward Russia appear constricted until the investigation into his campaign's dealings with Russia concludes and leaves him untarnished. While the probe continues, the Kremlin is edging from quiet disappointment into needling suggestions of U.S. weakness.

"Will they show good will? Will they gather courage, exercise common sense?" Putin said.

ASIA

Asia was one of Trump's punching bags during his election campaign. Chinese and Japanese exports were destroying U.S. jobs. South Korea and Japan weren't paying enough for U.S. troops defending their countries.

Then came Kim Jong Un. Two weeks before Trump took office, the leader of North Korea declared in a New Year's address that preparations for an intercontinental ballistic missile were in "the final stage." Trump tweeted in response: "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!"

Both sides traded threats and insults, and North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and three ICBM launches that demonstrated at least a theoretical ability to reach the U.S. Seeking China's help on isolating North Korea through economic sanctions, Trump backed off a threat to label China a currency manipulator. He was off-and-on conciliatory on trade during an extended visit to Asia in November, and China said it would lift restrictions on foreign investment in its banks and other financial institutions.

As his second year in office dawns, however, Trump appears to be moving steadily toward raising tariffs or restricting imports to try to force China to take steps to narrow its trade surplus with the United States.

Kim began the year with his own conciliatory note: sending a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea. But he also said in a Jan. 1 speech that North Korea's nuclear and missile tests have achieved a powerful deterrent that "nothing can reverse."

SYRIA, IRAQ AND THE ISLAMIC STATE

Trump can claim credit for the virtual defeat of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria on his watch. He largely continued Obama's anti-IS strategy and intensified it. U.S. troop levels were increased in both countries, coalition commanders got more authority to call airstrikes and operations focused on killing more militants rather than allowing their escape, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

The biggest victory was retaking the Iraqi city of Mosul, launched under Obama. Iraqi forces later retook nearly all the territory held by IS and the government declared victory over the group in December.

In Syria, Kurdish forces with stepped-up backing from U.S. forces retook the de facto IS capital of Raqqa. Since then, they and Syrian forces have been pushing IS out of most of its remaining territory.

In dealing with Syria's civil war, Trump made it clear his fight was not against President Bashar Assad, who has presided over killings on a massive scale in order to retain power. Trump has largely continued Obama's mostly hands-off policy, effectively allowing Russia to take the reins militarily and politically, along with Iran, both Assad allies.

Trump halted a covert CIA program to arm and train moderate rebels fighting Assad. The U.S. has not played any role in the political effort to end the war and is conspicuously absent from U.N.-led talks. Russia has taken the lead, brokering agreements with Turkey and Iran and spearheading a separate political track that has led to four de-escalation zones meant in theory to reduce violence.

In April, the U.S. struck a Syrian air base after a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians that the U.S. blamed on Assad. It marked the first deliberate U.S. military action against Assad's forces, but it was not followed up by any other action and was largely seen as muscle flexing rather than part of a coherent policy.

The Trump administration has not spelled out post-IS policies for Iraq and Syria. It said it won't finance a program to rebuild the destruction from the Iraq war. It also hasn't made clear how it sees the future of those parts of eastern and northern Syria held by the Kurds.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000-member Kurdish-led border security force in Syria, vowing to "drown this terror force before it is born."

ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS

Trump promised to pursue "the ultimate deal" — an agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A year later, he has made little headway and his hoped-for peace push appears to be in tatters. In December, he upended decades of policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The move, seen as siding with Israel, set off weeks of unrest and prompted the Palestinians to declare Trump unfit to mediate peace.

Trump earlier distanced himself from the two-state solution favored by the global community, saying he would support it only if both sides agreed, effectively giving Israel veto power. The U.S. has said little about Israeli settlement construction, stayed silent over a Likud Party vote in favor of annexing parts of the West Bank and blamed the Palestinians for the impasse in peace efforts.

This week, the Trump administration cut $65 million in money for Palestinian refugees, saying the U.N. agency responsible for the programs must undertake a "fundamental re-examination." While Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is one of Trump's biggest supporters, the Palestinians have virtually cut off ties and are trying to rally opposition to U.S. efforts.

Palestinian frustrations boiled over in a belligerent speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that ridiculed Trump and some of his closest advisers. Abbas pre-emptively rejected any peace plan Trump offers.

The U.S. peace team, led by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, has yet to offer a proposal.

SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN

Trump and his tough talk on Iran were exactly what Saudi Arabia wanted to hear. Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman's assertive young son, traveled to the U.S. to meet with Trump's administration and became close to Kushner. Mohammed bin Salman was later elevated to crown prince, putting him next in line to the throne.

Trump's first foreign trip as president was to Riyadh for a summit of more than 50 Arab and Muslim leaders. Saudi Arabia later joined three other Arab nations in boycotting Qatar, home to a U.S. military base. While American officials have tried to defuse the crisis, Trump offered comments seeming to back the boycotters.

Iran's leaders have mocked and criticized Trump, whose refusal to re-certify the Iran nuclear deal has put the accord in question. Some analysts have suggested Trump's refusals could doom the deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions allowing it to sell oil again on the world market.

Average Iranians also are angry at Trump for slights such as his travel bans. Yet he voiced support for protests in Iran at the end of the year, unlike Obama's caution toward demonstrations in 2009 over its disputed presidential election.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America also found Trump's first year a time of uncertainty. Trump had made clear in his campaign that relations with Mexico — the neighbor he characterized as a source of drugs and rapists and a thief of jobs — would change. Trump has continued in that vein, saying as recently as this month that Mexico would pay for the border wall — just a day after asking Congress for $18 billion to build it.

His hardball renegotiation of the North American Trade Agreement has kept the Mexican peso dancing for months as he and his team regularly threaten to walk away if Mexico and Canada don't submit to significant changes. He ended the Obama-era program that allowed young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally to stay and work — a decision recently suspended by a federal judge. His aggressive pursuit of immigrants had several Latin American countries preparing for a flood of deportees that has yet to arrive.

The ride has not been smoother in Central America or the Caribbean. Trump ended the temporary protective status of residents who fled natural disasters in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti. A decision on Honduras, a key U.S. ally in the drug war, was delayed. Shortly after Honduras voted against a U.N. resolution condemning Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the Trump administration congratulated Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on his disputed re-election victory.

But Haiti received the region's final broadside in Trump's first year. Last week, Trump labeled the island battered by earthquakes and hurricanes a "shithole," along with unspecified African nations during an immigration meeting with lawmakers. He later said he didn't say anything derogatory about the Caribbean country.

AFRICA

Trump's approach to Africa has been one largely of neglect — and that insult. Concerns emerged about the administration's proposed cuts to foreign aid and the shift from humanitarian assistance in Africa to one of counterterror operations. The approach was seen in Somalia, where the first U.S. ambassador to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation in 25 years raised eyebrows by handing its new president a hat emblazoned with the words "Make Somalia Great Again."

An increase in U.S. drone strikes followed as Trump expanded military operations against the Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabab. Some humanitarian workers were appalled, with the country on the brink of a famine.

But it was the deaths of U.S. military service members in Africa that turned Americans' attention to the continent. For the first time since 1993, a U.S. military member died in combat in Somalia. And in October, the killing of four U.S. soldiers in the West African nation of Niger raised questions about why the U.S. military was there at all.

As key ambassador posts in South Africa, Egypt, Congo and elsewhere stayed vacant, Trump's rare mentions of Africa signaled a lack of interest or outright ignorance. He referred to a country called "Nambia," which doesn't exist. He reportedly mocked Nigeria, one of Africa's largest economies, by saying its people wouldn't return to their "huts" once they saw the U.S.

And there was anger and astonishment over Trump's vulgar reference to African countries. As calls for apologies or boycotts followed, the relatively placid southern African nation of Botswana summoned the U.S. ambassador to clarify whether it, too, was held in such regard.

Many Africans expressed concern that Trump might drag America's reputation down with him.

Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo, Joe McDonald in Beijing, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Susannah George in Baghdad, Joe Federman in Jerusalem, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Christopher Sherman in Mexico City, Jim Heintz in Moscow, and Cara Anna in Johannesburg.