Portugal battles to contain deadly wildfires amid heat, wind

June 20, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Emergency services in Portugal said Tuesday they were making headway in their battle to control a major wildfire that killed 64 people in the central area of the country, but another blaze nearby grew in size and caused concern.

The Civil Protection Agency said about 1,200 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft were fighting the deadly wildfire in Pedrogao Grande, which was raging for a third consecutive day about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon. Officials said that blaze was mostly contained though still burning fiercely.

Temperatures forecast to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), gusting winds and bone-dry woodland were fueling the blazes, Commander Vitor Vaz Pinto told reporters. Some resources were being diverted to Gois, about 20 kilometers from Pedrogao Grande, where almost 800 firefighters and four planes were battling the flames. Vaz Pinto said the Gois wildfire was "very fast and very explosive" and had forced the evacuation of 11 hill villages.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Antonio Costa ordered an investigation into what happened on Saturday night when the deaths occurred, 47 of them on a road as people fled the flames. Costa's order asked three questions: whether the extreme weather could explain the scale of the disaster, why emergency services communications at times didn't work, and why the road where the deaths occurred was not closed.

Thousands protest in German city of Hamburg before G20

July 02, 2017

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Thousands of people are taking part in the first major protest in the northern German city of Hamburg before the Group of 20 meeting next weekend. About 4,000 people marched through the city center Sunday to protest against the climate and trade policies of the world's major developed and emerging economies.

The demonstration, which also saw protesters take to the water with a flotilla of hundreds of small boats, was organized by environmental, labor, human rights and church groups. Authorities are putting in place tight security and declaring certain areas of Hamburg off limits to protesters during the July 7-8 summit.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video address Sunday that she wants discussion among leaders to include issues such as sustainable development, labor rights and environmental protection.

Germany to limit foreign election rallies after Turkey spat

June 30, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is clamping down on election rallies by foreign officials following a spat with Turkey ahead of that country's constitutional referendum, the government said Friday. All embassies were informed Friday that they will have to apply for permission to stage political rallies addressing their citizens in Germany, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said.

Permission will automatically be denied if the country in question is scheduled to hold an election within three months of the rally, Schaefer said. Other countries in the 28-nation European Union will be exempt from the rule.

Earlier this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, of "committing Nazi practices" after some local authorities blocked appearances by Turkish ministers hoping to campaign ahead of Turkey's referendum on expanding the president's powers.

The German government said its new rule is a consequence of that dispute, though Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel insisted that it is not specific to Turkey. He also pointed to rules inside Germany that prevent German politicians from visiting public institutions, such as police stations or schools, in the three months before the country's own elections.

Germany announced Thursday that it would deny permission for Erdogan to address Turks when he visits for the upcoming Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg. Germany's relations with Turkey have been frayed by a widening range of issues that also include Turkey's jailing of two German journalists.

Germany's vote to OK gay marriage likely to benefit Merkel

June 30, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel has dominated German politics for over a decade thanks to a combination of flexibility, tactical savvy and luck — and she looks likely to benefit from Germany's legalization of gay marriage as she seeks a fourth term in September.

Those qualities helped enable parliament's lightning-fast vote Friday to legalize gay marriage. Though Merkel herself probably didn't intend for it to happen so quickly and voted against the measure, it dispatched the issue before election campaigning really started.

The chancellor, a longtime though apparently lukewarm skeptic on same-sex marriage, set the ball rolling Monday for the stunningly fast decision by declaring the issue a matter of "conscience." That meant her conservative lawmakers wouldn't have to follow a party line and could vote however they wanted.

Her center-left challenger in Germany's Sept. 24 election, Martin Schulz of the Social Democrats, took the chance to seize the limelight and force a long-standing demand though the outgoing parliament on its last day. The Social Democrats have been struggling to dent Merkel's double-digit poll lead.

But that allowed Merkel to defuse an awkward issue — gay marriage is popular with German voters — without actually nailing her colors to the cause of "marriage for everybody," which could have annoyed her conservative base.

In nearly 12 years in power, Merkel has been relentless in throwing conservative orthodoxy overboard as public opinion evolves. She now has one issue fewer to worry about without having invested significant political capital.

Same-sex couples in Germany have been able to enter civil partnerships since a center-left government allowed that in 2001. While other Western European countries since legalized full marriage, there was little movement in Germany, largely due to resistance from Merkel's conservative Union bloc.

Merkel has showed an ability to shift positions from the start. In 2005, after barely squeaking through an election she was expected to win easily, she dropped talk of far-reaching economic reforms at home.

Since then, she has dropped military conscription, introduced benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children and abruptly accelerated the shutdown of Germany's nuclear power plants following Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Those switches, not always popular in conservative ranks, have deprived rivals on the left of rallying themes and allowed Merkel's party to occupy center ground. She has also distanced herself from U.S. President Donald Trump, who is very unpopular in Germany, by suggesting that Europe can no longer entirely rely on the U.S. — cutting off another potential line of attack for her rivals.

The 62-year-old chancellor, a Protestant pastor's daughter, has never looked comfortable discussing gay marriage and has said relatively little about the matter. Merkel voted Friday against legalizing gay marriage but said she's fine with full adoption rights for same-sex couples. She said she believes the German constitution views marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Recent polls show large majorities in Germany in favor of legalizing gay marriage. All three of Merkel's potential coalition partners in the next government were demanding it: Schulz's Social Democrats, who are her current partners in an awkward "grand coalition" of rivals; the pro-business but socially liberal Free Democrats; and the traditionally left-leaning Greens.

Merkel faced the prospect of having to commit her conservatives to gay marriage to get a coalition deal this fall. With only a quarter of her caucus backing its legalization Friday, that might have been tough.

On Monday, at a discussion organized by the women's magazine Brigitte, Merkel was challenged by a man asking "When can I call my boyfriend my husband?" She replied that she preferred to view it as a "decision of conscience rather than me pushing something through by majority vote." She added that "the decision will have to be made some time."

That signaled Merkel was backing off the conservatives' long-standing refusal to budge. Schulz leapt on the about-turn and pushed for a vote this week on a nearly four-year-old bill. Due to timing, that carried little immediate political risk. An open rift earlier might have brought down Merkel's coalition government, but Friday was the outgoing parliament's last session before the September vote.

In fact, the vote Friday offered both sides an opportunity to highlight their differences after four fractious years of governing together. Schulz joined two left-leaning opposition parties to force Friday's vote, so the conservatives can hope to scare voters with the notion of a left-wing government including the Left Party, which has communist roots.

The nationalist Alternative for Germany, which hopes to enter parliament for the first time in September, still opposes same-sex marriage but the issue hardly seems likely to rally voters behind it. A popular satirical program, public broadcaster ZDF's Heute Show, summed up Merkel's flexibility and longevity with a backhanded compliment Friday on Twitter.

"Merkel votes against 'marriage for everybody.' Shame. But she has another eight terms as chancellor to think about it," it wrote.

French president vows support in Africa anti-extremist fight

July 02, 2017

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — France's president on Sunday promised strong support for a new multinational military force against extremists in Africa's vast Sahel region, saying the "terrorists, thugs and assassins" need to be eradicated.

President Emmanuel Macron, meeting in Mali with leaders from the five regional countries involved, said France will provide military support for operations as well as 70 tactical vehicles and communications, operations and protective equipment.

The 5,000-strong force will be deployed by September, and its funding will be finalized by then, Macron said at a press conference. The leaders of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad — known as the G5 — must clarify their roles and contributions for the force to attract more support from outside countries, the French president added.

"We cannot hide behind words, and must take actions," he said. The new anti-terror force will operate in the region along with a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, which has become the deadliest in the world, and France's own 5,000-strong Barkhane military operation, its largest overseas mission.

The new force is not meant to replace those missions, Macron said. "It's a force that fights against terrorism, and the trafficking of drugs and humans." Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said each of the Sahel countries would contribute 10 million euros ($11 million) toward the force's overall budget of 423 million euros ($480 million).

The European Union already has pledged some 50 million euros ($57 million) in support of the new G5 force. In mid-June, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution welcoming the deployment of the new force. The U.N., however, will not contribute financially.

Sunday's meetings came a day after the recently formed extremist group Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, based in Mali, released a proof-of-life video showing six foreign hostages seized in the region in recent years. The video claimed that "no genuine negotiations have begun to rescue your children."

Macron said he welcomed the first sign of life for several months from the French hostage in the video, Sophie Petronin. "They are terrorists, thugs and assassins," Macron said of the extremists. "And we will put all of our energies into eradicating them."

The threat in the region has been growing for years. A French-led intervention drove out Islamic extremists from strongholds in northern Mali in 2013, but the extremists have continued targeting peacekeepers and other forces. Religious extremism has spread south, and attacks have become more brazen.

In March, the extremist groups Ansar Dine, Al-Mourabitoun and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb declared that they had merged into Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen.

Associated Press writers Philippe Sotto in Paris and Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

Poland 1st: Why Trump visits ex-communist nation before UK

July 02, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — President Donald Trump is breaking with tradition by visiting Poland, an ex-communist country in central Europe, before making a presidential visit to longtime allies Britain, France or Germany.

The White House has stressed Poland's importance as a loyal NATO ally and its potential as an energy partner as reasons for the visit, which he will make Thursday just before attending a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. But there are several other reasons that make Poland a logical early destination for the new U.S. president.

POLAND FIRST FOR A POPULIST WELCOME

Trump will be welcomed in Poland by populist leaders who are closely aligned with his worldview and who gained power in 2015 with the same brand of nationalistic, anti-Muslim rhetoric that has put both the new U.S. leader and the Poles in conflict with leaders in Western Europe. Like Trump, Poland's leaders seek to restore more national sovereignty and weaken international institutions like the European Union. Some political observers worry that the visit could further deepen divisions between Poland and its Western European partners. There is also concern Trump's visit could embolden the Polish government and encourage what the EU sees as an erosion of the rule of law in Poland.

WARSAW CAN PRODUCE CHEERING CROWDS

Trump can probably count on large enthusiastic crowds to greet him in Warsaw, where he is expected to give a major televised address to the nation. In fact, according to Polish media reports, that is exactly what Poland's government promised the White House in its invitation. To make good on that pledge, ruling party lawmakers and pro-government activists plan to bus in groups from the provinces to hear Trump's speech. A warm reception would certainly be a plus for Trump after his somewhat awkward debut in Europe in May. He also could get a frosty reception at the G-20 due to his recent decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord and other policies. Some NATO allies have also been annoyed by Trump's repeated calls for them to increase military spending.

POLAND SEES U.S. BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Poles, on the other hand, can expect only praise from Trump on their defense expenditures. A U.S. ally in Iraq and Afghanistan, Poland is one of the five NATO members that spends the expected 2 percent of gross domestic product on its military. The Poland-U.S. security relationship has also gotten a boost this year with the deployment of some 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland as part of two separate American and NATO missions. The deployments are meant to reassure allies on NATO's eastern flank that the alliance is serious about protecting them from Russian aggression.

Many across the region hope to hear Trump commit himself to NATO's Article 5, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all. After months of waffling on that defense pact, Trump finally did so in June standing alongside the Romanian president in the Rose Garden. Still, it would mean a lot to an anxious region to hear those words spoken on soil closer to Russia.

POLISH-AMERICANS VOTE IN U.S. ELECTIONS

The hundreds of thousands of Polish-American voters in the United States represent an important constituency in several battleground states, and last year they helped give Trump the edge he needed in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. They will certainly be grateful for Trump's visit to Warsaw, especially since he has chosen to address Poles at Krasinski Square, a location that symbolizes Polish heroism during World War II. That large square has a memorial to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, a courageous but doomed uprising against Nazi Germany that resulted in more than 200,000 Polish deaths and the destruction of Warsaw.

ENERGY TIES

During Trump's visit to Warsaw, he will also attend a summit devoted to the Three Seas Initiative, an effort to expand and modernize energy and trade links among 12 countries located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas. One driving purpose of the initiative is to make the region less dependent on Russian energy. Under the project, U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which began arriving in Poland in early June, would have the potential to supply more of the region. The visit coincides with efforts by Trump's administration to become a net exporter of oil, gas and other resources to boost U.S. revenues and influence.

Protest against bullfights in Pamplona before famed festival

July 01, 2017

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Around 400 people have protested bullfighting in Pamplona, a week before the city hosts its famed festival featuring dangerous bull runs. Holding signs that read in English "Bullfight Is Cruel" and "No Tradition Trumps Reason" in Spanish, the protesters marched Saturday through the city's old quarter. The route included a stretch of the narrow streets that will be used for the bull runs that have made the San Fermin festival known worldwide.

Tens of thousands of partygoers from Spain and abroad come each year to Pamplona to witness or take part in the early morning bull runs, when crowds of runners risk being gored or trampled as they lead a pack of bulls to the ring where they will be used in bullfights.

The festival runs from July 6-14.