Obama Heads to China, Laos for Possibly Last Asia Trip

---

FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama, right, smiles after a group of children waved flags and flowers to cheer him during a welcome ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 12, 2014.

Next month, U.S. President Barack Obama will make what is expected to be his last official trip to Asia.

The White House announced Thursday that the president will travel to China on Sept. 2 to attend the G20 summit in Hangzhou.
He then will go on to Laos, making him the first U.S. president to visit that Southeast Asian nation.
In China, Obama will focus on the importance of a level playing field and broad-based economic opportunity, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
He also will hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as tensions continue to rise in the region over the South China Sea and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
In Laos, the president will attend the U.S.-ASEAN meeting, and hold talks with President Bounnhang Vorachith and other key officials to advance cooperation between the U.S. and Laos.
The trip also will be a chance for Obama to promote the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a key part of his Asia strategy that he hopes Congress will approve before his term ends Jan. 20.
During his time in the White House, Obama has sought to "rebalance" America's defense and economic policy to counter China's rising influence in the region.

US: $400M Payment to Iran Used as 'Leverage' in Prisoner Release

  

---

FILE - Secretary of State John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna. The Obama administration on Thursday clearly and publicly said a cash payment of $400 million to Iran was used as leverage to ensure the release of a group of American prisoners

Share.

For the first time the Obama administration on Thursday clearly and publicly said a cash payment of $400 million to Iran was used as leverage to ensure the release of a group of American prisoners being held by Tehran.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama denied that the payment to Iran on the same day as a hostage release was "some nefarious deal," pointing out that the transfer was announced in January, a day after implementation of the U.S. nuclear deal with Tehran.
Not a ransom payment

On Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby repeated the administration's position that the negotiations to return the Iranian money -- the result of an aborted arms deal in the 1970s with the U.S.-backed shah -- were conducted separately from the talks to free four U.S. citizens in Iran.
"We had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release,'' Kirby told reporters, citing years of mutual mistrust between the two countries. "Obviously when you're inside that 24 hour period and you already now have concerns about the endgame in terms of getting your Americans out, it would have been foolish, and prudent, irresponsible, for us not to try to maintain maximum leverage.
"So if you're asking me was there a connection in that regard at the endgame, I'm not going to deny that," he added.
The prisoners were The Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian; Marine veteran Amir Hekmati; Christian pastor Saeed Abedin; and a fourth man, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose disappearance had not been publicly known before he was freed.

The cash transfer and the release of the hostages -- both on January 17 -- came at the same time as Iran's deal with the United States and five other world powers restraining Tehran's development of nuclear weapons, along with the lifting of sanctions that had hobbled Iran's economy.
Republican criticism

Critics, especially those who oppose the Iran nuclear deal, have termed it a ransom payment. Republican lawmakers also criticized the action, saying it undermined the longstanding U.S. opposition to ransom payments.
Iranian media reports have quoted senior defense officials as saying they considered the cash as a ransom payment.
On the day of the transfer, non-U.S. currency cash — in euros and Swiss francs among others — was stacked on wooden pallets and flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane.

Muslim US Army Chaplain Sets Out to Bridge Cultures

---

Dawud Agbere, stationed at the Pentagon, is one of five Muslim Army chaplains or imams. (Photo - courtesy of U.S. Army)

THE PENTAGON —  Inside the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial chapel, built where Islamic extremists attacked the building nearly 15 years ago, sounds of the Muslim call to prayer softly welcome passersby at around 2:00 p.m. each day.
The prayer service is led by Dawud Agbere, one of five Muslim Army chaplains or imams. Since being stationed at the Pentagon, Agbere leads afternoon prayer to give fellow Muslims a chance to connect with their creator.
Abdul Zaid, an IT contractor who works in the building, credits Agbere with "running interference" to make the prayer service available. He calls Agbere a spiritual leader who cares, consoling his fellow Pentagon employees during times of grief and occasionally taking them for cookies or ice cream in times of celebration.

Dawud Agbere, a Muslim Army chaplain, has served in war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Army)

"It's about the community that he has built here," Habiba Heider, another Pentagon contractor, told VOA.
Unusual path to service
Agbere will be the first to say he's not a typical U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. Born and raised in the West African nation of Ghana, Agbere won the U.S. Diversity Visa lottery, which randomly selects immigrants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
"When you are growing up in Ghana — in Africa, not just in Ghana — America is the land of prosperity," he said.
He eagerly accepted the visa and got a job teaching high school students in New Jersey, but after months with the unruly students, he yearned for a job with more discipline and order.
"So when I saw the Navy was hiring people, I said, ‘That's where I belong,'" Agbere said.
He went to boot camp with the Navy until he discovered he could not become an officer without U.S. citizenship. Rather than make him wait, his superiors allowed him to switch to the Army, which did not have the same restriction.
Bridging the gaps
His Army career has taken him to war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a fluent Arabic speaker and oftentimes the only Muslim in his unit, Agbere says he works to "bridge the gap" between cultures. He said many in the allied armies he worked with "never fathomed" they'd see a Muslim in the U.S. Army.

Dawud Agbere, a fluent Arabic speaker and oftentimes the only Muslim in his unit, says he works to "bridge the gap" between cultures. (Photo courtesy of US Army)

"Then they see one; they are shocked," he said.
Only a small fraction — less than 3,600 — of the U.S. Army active duty and reservists self-identify as Muslim. Despite Agbere's ever-present optimism, his minority status has not always been a positive experience. When he deployed to Iraq, for example, one of Agbere's military leaders was extremely apprehensive of him even before they met.
"He had his own misconception about who that Muslim guy is going to be," Agbere said, "but today, he's one of my best friends."
Adding Agbere's time in the Army and the Navy, he has served in the U.S. military for nearly two decades. He says he doesn't judge those who have sought to vilify his faith during this turbulent political time, choosing instead to point out the "beauty" of American diversity.
"Definitely some of these things are based on ignorance, and I always see this as an opportunity to teach people," he said.
"I want to be able to define my story. I don't want my story to define me.

US Swimmer Will Donate $11,000 to Charity, Settle Rio Robbery Dispute

American swimmer James Feigen smiles during a swimming training session prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

American swimmer James Feigen has agreed to pay a charity in Brazil nearly $11,000 to settle his part of a robbery scandal at the Rio Olympic Games, allowing him to return to the U.S.

Feigen's attorney made the announcement early Friday after lengthy meetings with government and legal authorities in Rio.
The three other American swimmers involved in the false robbery report are already back home.
Brazilian police had said they were considering charging the swimmers with vandalism and giving false testimony after the swimmers admitted they fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint.

American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger walk in the departure area after checking into their flight at the airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016.

Lied about robbery at gunpoint

Swimmers Ryan Lochte, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Feigen initially told police they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning on their way back from a party outside Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro.
But two of the swimmers, Conger and Bentz, admitted to fabricating the story after they were detained at the airport late Wednesday while attempting to head back to the United States.
The two boarded a flight back to the U.S. late Thursday after being questioned by authorities. Lochte returned to the United States Monday before any of the news emerged.

A view of the bathroom doors at the gasoline station where U.S. swimmers Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were accused by staff of having caused damage, in Rio de Janeiro, August 18, 2016.

US Olympic Committee apologizes

The U.S. Olympic Committee has apologized to Brazil for the false robbery claim.
Fernando Veloso, head of the civil police of Rio, told reporters Thursday that security cameras revealed the swimmers actually visited a gas station early Sunday morning, and that witnesses said they damaged a bathroom, were confronted by an armed guard and left before police arrived.
Brazil's Globo TV on Thursday aired security video of the swimmers showing them arriving at the gas station in a taxi, entering the building, leaving, and later sitting on the curb with their hands up, as instructed by one of the staff members at the gas station.
Veloso said the men left $20 and 100 Brazilian reals to pay for the damage to the bathroom, which included broken mirrors and damage to the door. The police chief also said Lochte was "physically outraged" during the incident and was "probably drunk." But he said Lochte could not be held solely responsible for the incident. "That would be a premature assumption of guilt," Veloso said.
Rio Games: 'give kids a break'

Despite the visible ire of the police, Rio Games organizers defended the swimmers, insisting, "Let's give these kids a break."
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters, "They competed under gigantic pressure... They had fun, they made a mistake, life goes on."
The gas station is close to Olympic Park, where the sporting events have been overshadowed over the past two weeks by a series of muggings and robberies, including incidents involving other athletes and two visiting government ministers.

Who Killed Pavel Sheremet?

FILE - Journalist Pavel Sheremet talks on the air at a radio station in Kiev, Ukraine, October 11, 2015.

KYIV, UKRAINE —  The bomb blast was just 100 meters away, terrifying the skittish British businessmen who already were worried about whether Kyiv was safe. The explosion came the morning after Ukrainian translator Eugene Rysunkov had dropped them off at their four-star hotel.

“They were just sitting down to breakfast and they were shocked,” says Rysunkov. “I had reassured them that conflict and war was far away - that Kyiv is as safe as any other European city.”

The Britons weren’t the only ones shocked by the July 20 car bombing that killed Pavel Sheremet, a pioneering journalist and radio talk-show host who left his home country of Belarus six years ago after run-ins with its autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and a suspended prison sentence.

The high-profile murder in the heart of a district housing embassies and diplomats took Ukrainians aback — and police investigators now tasked with identifying the killers.

Last day alive

Sheremet was driving to work when a bomb exploded under the Subaru SUV belonging to his girlfriend, Olena Prytula, the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda. She wasn’t in the car. The bomb had been triggered by remote control, investigators say, but they won’t confirm earlier statements by officials that the bomb consisted of 500 grams of TNT.

“Assassinations are rare things in Ukraine,” says Viktor Gunko, the deputy chief of the investigations section at the Ministry of Interior. “And unusual when it comes to journalists in Kyiv,” he adds.

Investigators inspect a damaged car at the site where journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev, Ukraine, July 20, 2016.

Observing Ukraine from afar might strike some as an odd statement - Ukraine is hardly associated with peace these days. For 28 months, there has been on and off fighting in the east of the country, and images still remain fresh for many of protesters being gunned down in 2014 in Kyiv’s Independence Square as they battled to topple President Vladimir Putin’s ally, Viktor Yanukovych.

In the past 25 years, journalists have been murdered or died in mysterious circumstances - 11 in all; but, with the exception of two killings, they took place outside the capital and involved local journalists prying too deeply into political corruption, organized crime or the affairs of oligarchs.

One of the most notorious slayings came in April 1995, in Sevastopol, when Vladimir Ivanov, then editor-in-chief of the daily The Glory of Sevastopol, died four days after being blown up by a rudimentary bomb planted in a trash can. His murder came after he exposed some Crimea mobsters. He’d been campaigning also for semi-autonomy for the Black Sea peninsula - and doing so didn’t endear him to Ukrainian ultranationalists.

The most high-profile murder of a journalist in Kyiv before Sheremet was in September 2000, when Georgy Gongadze, an editor at Ukrayinska Pravda, disappeared. A leaked recording that appeared to implicate then-President Leonid Kuchma and two senior aides in the journalist's disappearance sparked a huge political scandal.

Former deputy prime minister and civil rights campaigner Oleh Rybachuk was on Pavel Sheremet's last radio show -- he thinks the slaying of his friend is part of Russia's "hybrid war" against Ukraine. (Photo: J. Dettmer / VOA)

Very symbolic execution

Sheremet’s highly public slaying smacks more of Moscow than Kyiv, say his friends. They compare it to the 2006 assassination in the Russian capital of journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was known for her opposition to the Second Chechen War and was an uncompromising critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It was a very symbolic execution - Pavel could have been killed in another, quieter way,” says his friend Oleh Rybachuk, a former deputy prime minister and now a civil rights campaigner. “It struck me where he was killed was important too - right in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Kyiv. When was the last time a journalist was killed in a car bombing like this - it never happens in Ukraine.”

The assassination was meant to send a message, says Rybachuk. “It was a political killing and I think this goes back to the Russian intelligence services,” he says. Rybachuk links it to what he sees as Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine involving on and off war in the east and disinformation.

“Hybrid war means keeping your opponent stressed and frightened,” he says. “I can’t believe he was doing some investigation that got him killed. We know reporters who are doing very complex investigations involving big money. And I am not aware of him having any case he was delving into.”

Rybachuk was on Sheremet's last radio show. “He had the gift of talking in a simple way about complex stuff.” They discussed political corruption in Ukraine; but, most of Sheremet’s focus was, as always, on freedom of speech issues and President Putin. “He had Russian dissidents often on his show - he was very well known in Russia,” Rybachuk says.

Other friends say they wonder if the slaying was a domestic one. “Sheremet was also a threat to corrupt Ukrainian officials,” says Olexiy Haran, a political scientist at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Sheremet’s partner believes she and the Belarus journalist had been under police surveillance for months.
Evidence of third party

Investigator Viktor Gunko is cautious about divulging details of the ongoing probe into Sheremet’s murder. He nods in agreement that the killing was connected with Sheremet’s work but declines to comment on whether an overseas power was involved, saying he doesn’t want to compromise the inquiry. Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, Eugene Yenin, told VOA that the evidence so far suggests the involvement of “a third party.”

Last week, police released video footage of a man and woman who are suspected of planting the bomb. Both suspects were wearing loose-fitting track suits and baseballs caps, which helped obscure their faces from the CCTV cameras. The woman appears to have planted the bomb.

A Ukraine military intelligence official laughs at the killers’ appearance. “My suspicion is they were contracted local criminals. They looked like characters out of a Hollywood movie. They weren’t intelligence operatives and for me this points to Russia’s Federal Security Service rather than Russian military intelligence,” he says.

Iran's Foreign Minister Boosts Ties During Ankara Visit

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara on Aug. 12, 2016.

ISTANBUL —  The foreign ministers of Turkey an Iran agreed Friday to boost trade relations and pledged greater cooperation on resolving the Syria crisis despite their differences on the issue.
At a joint news conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed his country's support to Turkey over last month's failed coup attempt by officers within the military that left more than 270 people dead.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quick to heap praise and thanks on his Iranian counterpart. Cavusolgu stressed how important Zarif’s support was during last month’s failed military takeover.
“During the coup night I did not sleep until morning nor did my friend Javad Zarif. He was the foreign minister I talked to most, calling me five times during the night," Cavusoglu said.

US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers Turkey blames for a failed coup, is shown in still image taken from video, as he speaks to journalists at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, July 16, 2016.

Lack of Western solidarity
Turkey has complained of a lack of solidarity from Western allies who have raised concerns over Turkey's massive crackdown on alleged supporters of a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara accuses Gulen of orchestrating the coup.

In addition to the slow response in the days after the failed coup, Ankara is infuriated by growing criticism by both Europe and Washington over its ongoing crackdown against alleged coup plotters. Over 35,000 people have been detained since the coup attempt, of which nearly 18,000 have been arrested.
Tehran’s support of Ankara is predicted to have positive consequences.
“It's very important for us,” declared Ayse Sozen Usluer, chief international adviser for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Whoever gave support to democracy in Turkey and democratic regime in Turkey is very important for us and we will always remember that.” During his Ankara visit, Zarif also met with Erdogan.

Political columnist Semih Idiz of Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper predicts that Tehran’s support during the failed coup will facilitate ongoing efforts to improve relations as well as drive Turkey away from its allies.
“Yet even before the coup, we saw a move to these improved relations," he said. "And of course Iran was one the first countries to come and condemn the coup. Of course it tried to change the situation to its own advantage by saying Saudi Arabia and Qatar were not so keen in condemning the coup against Erdogan.”
Turkey's friends, Iran's rivals
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both rivals of Iran, have in the last few years become among Ankara’s strongest regional allies, a relationship strengthened by their shared support of rebel forces fighting the Syrian regime — a regime strongly backed by Tehran.
But Ayse Sozen Usluer, chief international advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, played down differences over Syria with Tehran.
“We don't have serious problems between Iran and Turkey," said Usluer. "We have various cooperative areas in the region. We only have different foreign policy approaches in the region. That's why from time to time we stand on different sides. But these are not serious problems, [that] will effect Turkish Iranian relations in the region.”
During Zarif’s Friday visit to Ankara, the two countries committed to deepening economic cooperation, particularly in the field of energy. Ankara is striving to become a bridge for Iranian gas to European markets.
“There will be a deepening of relations with Iran no matter what, in economic ties,” predicted International relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. But he warned age old rivalries will remain.
“Iran’s hegemonic aspirations, no matter who runs Turkey, are going to be a thorn in the side of the Turkish government. So as usual we will both compete and cooperate,” he said.
Zarif’s visit follows Erdogan’s visit this week to Moscow, in which both sides agreed to work together more closely in resolving the Syrian civil war and cooperate in fighting Islamic State.

Ukraine-Russia Tensions Flare as Russians Rebuild Military in Crimea

WASHINGTON —  Ukrainian troops are on high alert as tensions rise with Russia. Kyiv has accused Moscow of increasing its troop presence on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia two years ago. Moscow is accusing Kyiv of an incursion into Crimea. Some experts say the timing is ripe for a conflict because the world's attention is elsewhere.
Two years ago in Ukraine's Independence Square, riot police fired on protesters in Maidan. More than 50 were killed at close range. The result was the ouster of Ukraine's Russian-leaning President Victor Yanukovych and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea.
Now, the Ukrainian military is on high alert, fearful of another conflict with Russia. Moscow shut off three crossings at the Crimea-Ukraine border last week. Kyiv accuses Russia of massive troop buildups in the Donbas region and along the border shared by the two countries.
Phillip Karber of the Potomac Foundation told VOA's Jela De Franceschi the moves have clear invasion potential.
"They're reorganizing the 20th Army and then they created this new first guard's tank army. Since the end of the Cold War, the Russians haven't had anything tank army. Well, they're back," said Karber.

Crimea

But Russia accuses Ukraine of provocations by planning raids in Crimea. Moscow released video of a suspected saboteur accused of planning to bomb infrastructure in Crimea. President Vladimir Putin said the alleged raids are a terror tactic.
"This attempt to provoke an outbreak of violence, to provoke a conflict, is nothing other than a desire to divert public attention from the country by those who took power in Kyiv, to continue to stay in power and to continue stealing from their own people," said Putin.
Residents in Dzhankoi, a Crimean city near the de-facto border with Ukraine, report all is calm now.
"I have seen police patrols in a couple of places near the market, nothing special. Actually everything is as usual," said local Bekir Mambetov.
Observers say both sides seem to be preparing for "something bigger" -- defense analysts in Moscow like Pavel Felgenhauer say a full-scale battle would take the world by surprise.
“The United States is in the turmoil of a very divided election campaign, President Obama is a lame duck, and most likely will not take any serious action. Europe is also divided by the Brexit, by the refugee crisis, by other things," said Felgenhauer.
Experts say the West needs to provide a united front to help diffuse the tension. One goes so far as to say Western politicians should at least start paying attention.

Russia, Turkey Plan to Coordinate on Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Konstantin palace outside St.Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 9, 2016.

MOSCOW— Russia and Turkey are taking unprecedented steps to directly coordinate actions in Syria after a rapprochement between their presidents and despite disagreeing over support for Damascus.
The level of cooperation in the five-year civil war was made possible after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reconciled face to face Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Putin announced that Russia would begin rolling back sanctions and restart important energy projects such as a stalled nuclear plant, which would be Turkey's first, and the Turkish Stream gas pipeline from southern Russia to the Black Sea.
Russian officials said trade with Turkey could be fully restored by the end of the year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, second left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, hold a news conference in the Konstantin palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug. 9, 2016.

On the sticking point of Syria, Turkish media reports said a newly formed joint committee would meet for the first time Thursday in Russia. The committee consists of intelligence, military and diplomatic representatives from Russia and Turkey.
The Hurriyet Daily News reports the Turkish and Russian militaries also agreed to set up a direct military line to prevent any future incidents between the two sides in Syrian airspace.
Coordination, cooperation or compromise?
But while military communications are easily established, political analysts are questioning the extent of cooperation between the two sides that is possible in Syria.
Russia’s military is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces while Turkey is supplying rebel groups battling to remove Assad from power, a stated goal of Ankara and its Western allies.
“I think until now they have no clear decision because it's clear that their interests are colliding in Syria,” said Alexander Golts, a Moscow-based independent military analyst and visiting researcher at Uppsula University in Sweden.
“In fact, Erdogan, Putin, the same day leaders met in St. Petersburg, Russian government sent to Duma (Russian parliament) the agreement which permits Russian armed forces to be in Syria as long as they want. So, it means that Russia will participate (in) this cruel civil war for a long period,” Golts said.
“And, now it's obvious that (the) Russian goal is support of Assad, which is totally unacceptable or was unacceptable for Erdogan," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attend a news conference following their meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug. 9, 2016.

But the change in attitude by Erdogan toward Putin could signal an appetite for compromise on Syria and to demonstrate he has options amid tensions with his Western allies as well as back home in Turkey.
“I think that Erdogan needs Russia more than Putin needs Turkey, and Erdogan has not reached the goals he had in mind when he spoiled the relations with Russia,” said Ishat Saetov, director of the Modern Turkey Studies Center in Moscow. “On one hand, he wanted to be closer to the West, to show that he is on their side.
"On the other hand, he did not expect that the deterioration of political relations with Russia would bring along economic sanctions in such a severe manner as Russia did: loss of more than 4 million tourists made quite a blow on the economy,” Saetov said.
“But the heart of the matter is not actually the economy, but its effect on the voters,” he added. “Much depends on the positions of voters, whose incomes are falling and then his legitimacy is fading."
Coup attempt
Russia supported Erdogan after a July coup attempt, in contrast to U.S. and European concerns about the massive crackdown that followed.
Turkey accuses Fethullah Gulen, a cleric exiled in the U.S., of orchestrating the failed putsch and wants him extradited, which Washington has refused to do without evidence.
Ankara is also upset with the European Union over payments to stem migrants and refugees, mainly from Syria, and granting visa free status to Turks.

FILE - A Free Syrian Army tank fires in Ramousah area, southwest of Aleppo, Syria, Aug. 2, 2016.

“Syria is one of the issues that Erdogan may trade upon,” Saetov said. “I think Erdogan is ready to concede in other issues, including Assad, and perhaps they'll find the right wording.
Despite the warming ties with Russia, Turkish officials maintain that Assad must eventually step down and say relations with Moscow will not take the place of its Western allies.
Turkey and Russian relations plummeted in November when Turkey shot down a Russian bomber jet along its border with Syria, accusing it of violating Turkish airspace. Russia denied crossing the border and called the act a planned provocation by supporters of terrorism.
Moscow retaliated with economic and diplomatic sanctions that lasted until late June when Erdogan apologized for the incident and Putin invited him for direct talks.

Europeans Bemused and Dismayed by Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauds during a campaign rally at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016.

PARIS— It’s not often that a major ally calls the next potential United States president “sickening,” but that indeed was how French President Francois Hollande described the “excesses” of Republican candidate Donald Trump just a week ago.
In neighboring Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is striking a more diplomatic note, saying merely she is following the U.S. campaign “with interest.”
But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls Trump a “hate preacher,” while Italy’s Prime Minister Mateo Renzi has placed his bets squarely on Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
If the presidential campaign is polarizing America, it is also riveting Europe.
Mainstream leaders are following every dramatic and often unscripted Trump turn on issues such as NATO, nuclear weapons and immigration with concern and even fear, analysts say, even as populist parties are cheering his run.

FILE - French President Francois Hollande shakes hands with Paris Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur, left, after a meeting with religious representatives in Paris, July 27, 2016. Hollande said the excesses of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump "make you want to retch."

“People are kind of stuck as slightly horrified spectators,” said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the London-based Centre for European Reform.  “Hoping that it turns out all right, but not having much influence over the outcome.”
Low confidence in Trump
A June poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found just 9 percent of Europeans had confidence in a Trump presidency, compared to 59 percent for Clinton, a known quantity here after her years as secretary of state.
Clinton’s chief handicap among U.S. voters, a popular perception she cannot be trusted, doesn't necessarily resonate in Europe. In France, for example, allegations of scandal have not stopped politicians such as former President Nicolas Sarkozy from eyeing another run for office.
“I don’t think trust is an issue so much in France as it is in the United States,” said Paul Godt, a former political science professor at the American University of Paris.
Europe’s parliamentary system also means voters tend to back parties, he says, rather than individuals.
After years of diplomacy, Clinton holds an advantage when it comes to European leaders.
“Many probably found her to be a reliable, steady interlocutor,” analyst Bond said. “From that perspective, the trust issue is a much bigger hurdle for Trump in terms of future relationships with allies, than it is for Clinton.”
Defense
That is especially the case when it comes to defense.
Trump’s nuclear stance, questioning why nuclear weapons cannot be used and suggesting new countries such as Japan and South Korea should adopt them, has sparked unease in a region haunted by its Cold War past and recent terrorist strikes.

FILE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, arrives for a news conference in Berlin, July 28, 2016. Merkel has not responded to taunts that she would lose reelection by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Eastern European countries, in particular, reacted strongly to his suggestion the United States may not defend NATO allies who don’t pay their “fair share," not to mention his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the benefits of closer U.S.-Russian ties.
Recent remarks by a key Trump ally, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who described Estonia as a “suburb” of Saint Petersburg, have not helped.
“This really adds to the sense that something horrendous has happened to the Republican Party. This is not the party of Ronald Reagan standing in Berlin and saying, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,' ” analyst Bond said. “It’s not the party of George H.W. Bush dealing with the consequences of the Cold War.”
Trump has also criticized Germany’s refugee policy that saw the country take in nearly 1 million asylum-seekers last year, and predicted Merkel would not win reelection.
The German leader has offered a low-key response, telling reporters she did not want to “wade into the American debate.” But Foreign Minister Steinmeier has been more outspoken, accusing Trump of fear-mongering.
Trump has also ruffled feathers in the Britain, where the British parliament debated whether to ban him from entering the country, and its new foreign minister, Boris Johnson, described him earlier this year as unfit to be president.
Past leaders sparked concern
To be sure, the American business titan is hardly the only U.S. candidate who has sparked European jitters.
Three decades ago, many saw Republican hopeful Ronald Reagan as just another Hollywood star, overlooking his two terms as California’s governor.
Eyeing the presidency in the 1990s, Democrat Bill Clinton was seen as an inexperienced Arkansan with an isolationist bent. Barack Obama, too, had little experience when he ran for the job eight years ago, as a mere junior senator from Illinois.
“Europeans have long considered Americans quite naive when it comes to politics,” Godt said. “So I don’t think that having someone unqualified running for president bothers them very much.”
Even so, Trump stands out, Godt and others say, with his rhetoric about immigration and Muslims resonating with populists on both sides of the Atlantic.

FILE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives to deliver his state-of-the-nation speech in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 28, 2016. Orban has called U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump an "upstanding candidate."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has built border walls to keep out illegal migrants, has described him as an "upstanding candidate.” Far-right politicians in the Netherlands and France also praise him.
"What appeals to Americans is that he is a man free from Wall Street, from markets and from financial lobbies and even from his own party," French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is eyeing her own presidential run, told Valeurs Actuels magazine, adding that if she were American, she would vote for Trump.
No wonder, perhaps, that some of the harshest anti-Trump rhetoric is coming from Hollande.
The French president faces reelection next year and is battling abysmal ratings and Le Pen’s sizeable appeal. “His excesses make you want to retch,” Hollande told French reporters of Trump.
“The last thing Hollande wants is Trump’s anti-Muslim views to become respectable, because they rather parallel the sorts of things the National Front has to say,” analyst Bond said. “The language may not be the same, but the appeal is.”

Trump, Clinton Trade Barbs Over Dueling Controversies

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a sign during a campaign rally at the BB&T Center, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump attacked each other Wednesday over dueling controversies dogging both candidates  -- new Trump comments on gun control that even have shaken up some supporters, and the old Clinton email controversy that her backers wish would go away already.
A conservative group called Judicial Watch released a new batch of emails sent and received when she was secretary of state. The messages were between Clinton aides at the State Department and the Clinton Foundation, a charity she started with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Conservatives allege the emails prove contributors to the foundation had special access to the State Department -- something the Clinton campaign has always denied.
Speaking to an audience of coal miners in the eastern state of Virginia, Trump called the latest Clinton emails "pay for play," meaning you could buy influence with the world's leading diplomat.
"It's really really bad" and illegal, Trump said, before ripping into the media, whom he accused of failing to report the facts.

At the same time Trump spoke to the miners, Clinton was talking to supporters in Iowa. She excoriated Trump for comments Tuesday that critics say was a call to gun rights supporters to assassinate Clinton and Supreme Court judges who want more gun control.

Clinton said Trump's comments "crossed the line."
"Words matter, my friends. And if you are running to be president or you are president of the United States, words can have tremendous consequences."

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 10, 2016.

She tweeted that she is "humbled and moved" by the Republicans who are willing to stand up and say that Donald Trump does not represent their values.
The U.S. Secret Service, which is in charge of protecting the president and major candidates, says it is aware of Trump's comments. It is unclear what action it has taken, if any.
Trump denies any intent of violence behind his remarks. He said he clearly meant that those who want to protect the constitutional right to own a gun must unite and vote against Clinton.
As miners waved signs reading "Trump Digs Coal,", Trump promised to revive the waning U.S. coal industry and put miners back to work. He said mines are an important energy source that has been destroyed by government regulations against pollution from burning coal.

Clinton in Iowa highlighted what she said is the importance of clean renewable energy. She said such technology as solar and wind will create thousands of jobs and turn the U.S. into a 21st century "clean energy superpower."

Still Unclear if UN Sanctions Working in North Korea

A North Korean woman walks past a sign which reads "200-day campaign," in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday, June 25, 2016.

SEOUL— It continues to be difficult to gauge the effectiveness of the United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea in March for conducting its fourth nuclear test and launching a long range rocket earlier this year.
While prices for essential goods in the North remain stable, there are reports that business is stagnating at the economic development zones set up to attract foreign investment.
Analyst Lim Eul-chul with Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far East Studies told VOA’s Korean Service that economic activity in two development zones near the Chinese border has deceased significantly in the last five months.
“The Mubong Economic Development Zone and the Onsung Island Economic Development Zone established detailed development plans and China had planned to invest in these areas. However, since the international community imposed sanctions against North Korea, and especially after China participated in the sanctions, such movements have been stopped,” said Lim.
Curtis Melvin, a North Korean researcher with the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University told VOA that the satellite images of North Korean economic development zones show no changes in the last year to indicate any growth or expansion.
The lack of international investment is, to some degree, the result of the U.N. sanctions that place increased financial restrictions on companies that do business with North Korea and U.S. sanctions that authorize the seizure of assets from international organizations and individuals involved with banned North Korean industries like mining and banking.
But Adam Cathcart, an East Asia expert at Britain’s Leeds University notes that even without sanctions, international companies are reluctant to invest in North Korea's economic development zones because they do “not provide enough infrastructure.”

FILE - A man passes by a TV news program with file footage of a North Korean rocket launch at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016.

China slowdown
Beijing’s enforcement of international sanctions is considered crucial because 90 percent of North Korean trade flows either to or through China.
In 2015, even before sanctions were imposed, North Korean exports fell 14.8 percent in large part due to the economic slowdown in China, according to the Bank of Korea in Seoul.
North Korea does not publish economic data, but in the last few months there have been reports that sanctions are having some impact.
Observers reported a reduction in vehicle traffic at the Sino/North Korean border, the suspension of currency transfers to North Korean banks, and increased inspections of North Korean vessels entering Chinese ports.
Stable prices
However there have also been reports that food and fuel prices in North Korea have not been affected by the new sanctions imposed this year.
The Reuters news agency and the Seoul-based Daily NK website, an organization staffed by defectors, gathered data to show the price of rice, corn, pork, petrol and diesel remained relatively stable over the last year.
The price of gasoline or petrol, they said, did initially increase 45 percent due to a fear of shortages under sanctions, but soon returned to normal.
Analysts credit the growth of semi-legal private markets under leader Kim Jong Un for keeping food and fuel supplies stable despite the sanctions.
North Korea analyst Andrei Lankov with Kookmin University in Seoul recently told Radio Free Asia that he is not sure if China is purposely evading enforcement of the U.N. measures, but he said, “if sanctions implementation begins to threaten the survival of the Kim Jong Un regime, China will pull back.”
North Korea has responded defiantly to the U.N. sanctions by test firing multiple short and medium range missiles that burn tons of fuel.
China has called on North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.  But it also wants a stable North Korea to counterbalance the U.S., South Korean military alliance on the peninsula.
Lankov said the decision by Washington and Seoul to deploy the controversial THAAD missile defense system in South Korea will likely increase Beijing’s support for Pyongyang. 

Report: Russia Breaks Aleppo Cease-fire Promise on First Day

Civilians breathe through an oxygen mask at al-Quds hospital, after a hospital and a civil defence group said a gas, what they believed to be chlorine, was dropped alongside barrel bombs on a neighbourhood of the Syrian city of Aleppo, Syria, early August 11, 2016.

The Russian military was set to temporarily cease military operations in the battered Syrian city of Aleppo at 10 a.m. local time Thursday in order to allow humanitarian aid workers to bring in much needed supplies, but media reports indicate that the fighting persists.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it would halt firing around Aleppo for three hours each day so humanitarian aid could be delivered to the ravaged city, saying the "humanitarian windows" would run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time starting on Thursday. Reuters news agency, however, reports that the fighting continued for more than an hour into the supposed cease-fire.
Mohammed Rasheed, a spokesman for one of the rebel groups fighting the Syrian government, told Reuters the cease-fire had not been upheld. Instead, he said, there had been an “escalation in Russian warplanes,” and government forces had tried to advance on the Ramousah district of Aleppo.
A witness in Aleppo and another rebel official corroborated Rasheed's claims, Reuters reported.
The United Nations on Tuesday called for weekly breaks of 24 to 48 hours for delivery of humanitarian aid. When informed of Russia's announcement, U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said during a news conference that he "will look at any kind of suggestion which enables humanitarian aid to be delivered," but that addressing the volume of need in Aleppo will take a full 48 hours.
O'Brien's latest comments came one day after he said more than 2 million people in Aleppo have no access to running water or electricity.
"To meet that capacity of need, you need two [traffic] lanes and about 48 hours to get sufficient trucks in," he said.
Truck convoys are more efficient than air drops for the amount of aid the civilians of Aleppo require. "Six weeks of air drops is the equivalent of one truck convoy, to Deir Ezzor for example. Purely practical matter," O'Brien said.

Medical treatment
In addition to efficiency, he said people in need of urgent medical treatment must be evacuated, a process that will take multiple hours and safe access to roads.
O'Brien also noted on Tuesday that the United Nations has supplies "ready to roll" and can deliver them if given safe passage and a sufficient time window.
U.S. General Sean MacFarland, the top commander for the coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, told reporters Wednesday that the humanitarian disaster in Aleppo is "a model of how I don't want to fight in Mosul [Iraq]."
"We want to conduct a campaign to liberate Mosul in a way that leaves the city largely intact and its people in good health," MacFarland said. "That does not seem to be the overriding consideration in the fight for Aleppo."
Attacks this week have severely damaged Aleppo’s electric and water infrastructure, while the main supply routes to both the eastern and western parts of the city have been cut in recent weeks, making an already severe humanitarian situation much worse.
O’Brien warned that the humanitarian situation across the country is dire. “Conditions across the rest of Syria are difficult and increasingly difficult,” he said. The U.N.’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, also briefed Security Council members Tuesday. In a private discussion held by video link, diplomats said de Mistura wants to restart the third round of intra-Syria talks as soon as possible, but that the right environment must exist.
De Mistura said last month that he hoped to resume the talks at the end of August; but, the escalation in Aleppo has cast doubt on that possibility, with several Western diplomats saying there could not be substantive negotiations without a stop to the fighting. Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said that while Moscow hopes the situation in Aleppo will improve, “we do not believe that there need to be any preconditions” for talks.

Counterattack
Meanwhile, the Syrian government has reportedly sent several thousand reinforcements to mount a counterattack south of Aleppo, in a bid to recapture territory taken by rebel factions in recent days.

Syrian state TV broadcast an urgent plea for volunteers, amid reports the army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies were bringing in reinforcements to try to retake a strategic corridor south and west of the city.

Heavy fighting took place along Aleppo’s southern outskirts of Khan Assel, Khan Toman, Atareb and Sarmada, and there were reports of heavy government and Russian airstrikes on rebel forces defending a supply corridor into the city.

According to Syrian government media, the Syrian military and its militia allies stopped rebels from advancing through a destroyed housing complex south of the city, demolishing dozens of armed vehicles; however, Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, discounted any major advance by the government or rebels in Aleppo.

“I don’t believe that either side will prevail in the battle for Aleppo, despite the recent attack or the counterattack by government forces or their allies,” Khashan said.

He argued that “a decisive victory by either party precludes the possibility for a negotiated settlement."
“An equilibrium will need to be maintained, whereby all local allies will be losers and their regional and international backers will have to reach a negotiated settlement for the distribution of the spoils," Khashan said.

Many Americans Fighting in Iraq, Syria Are Foes of IS

FILE - A Free Syrian Army fighter fires a shell toward Islamic State fighters in the northern Aleppo countryside, Syria.

WASHINGTON— More than half the men and women who have left the United States to join the conflict in Iraq and Syria may actually be battling against the Islamic State terror group instead of fighting for it.
That conclusion is based on a new report by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), as well as on court records and information previously shared by intelligence and law enforcement officials.
"That pathway is fairly well-trodden. The scale of it surprised us a little bit," said ISD Policy and Research Manager Henry Tuck, who co-authored “Shooting in the Right Direction: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria & Iraq.” ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.
The report looked at the nationalities and motivations of foreign fighters who traveled to the region through the end of 2015 specifically to fight IS or other known terror groups. It found 114 of these fighters were from the U.S.
That figure alone would represent a sizeable chunk — almost 46 percent — of the approximately 250 Americans who, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and the intelligence community, have sought to take part in the overall conflict.

FILE - Young men chant pro-Islamic State slogans as they wave the group's flags in Mosul, Iraq.

But the percentage of American foreign fighters battling IS may be higher still — perhaps more than 50 percent — in large part because officials admit not all of the Americans who tried to go to Syria and Iraq actually made it.
In fact, statistics kept by the George Washington University Program on Extremism indicate as many as 47 would-be foreign fighters have been arrested in the U.S. and charged with IS-related offenses.
Authorities look the other way
While the U.S. has worked to cut down on the flow of foreign fighters to IS and other terror groups, travel to Iraq and Syria itself is not necessarily illegal, though the State Department advises against it.
"Private U.S. citizens are strongly discouraged from traveling to Syria to take part in the conflict," a State Department advisory warned earlier this year. "The U.S. government does not support this activity."
But the accounts of anti-IS foreign fighters included in the ISD report show few met with much, if any, resistance.
"We don't find too many stories of people getting stopped when they're leaving," said ISD's Tuck. "They might get taken aside and asked a few questions about where they're heading, what their plans are, but not too many people being turned away at the airport."

Some Americans fighting IS claim they have even been given verbal support from State Department officials in Iraq.
One such American, Matthew VanDyke, spoke with VOA via Skype in February 2015.
"This is really a full-time-plus job," VanDyke said at the time, describing his efforts to recruit U.S. combat veterans to offer specialized training to the Assyrian Christian fighters in northern Iraq. "It's going quite well."
State Department officials tell a different story.
"We do not endorse nonessential travel to Iraq by private U.S. citizens," one official told VOA when asked about VanDyke's claims.

 Iraqi counter-terrorism forces advance their positions in Fallujah, June 22, 2016. Pockets of Islamic State fighters continue to hold neighborhoods along the north and west of the city.
Still, the ISD study found many anti-IS foreign fighters, whether from the U.S. or Europe, reported similar experiences.
"The advice will be, don't go, but it won't necessarily be explicitly illegal,'" Tuck said.
And while the anti-IS foreign fighters are not considered a threat to the homeland, there are reasons for U.S. officials to worry.
"We don't like any ad hoc foreign fighting," said Patrick Skinner, a former intelligence officer now with the Soufan Group, a New York organization that provides strategic security intelligence services to governments and multinational organizations.
"It's less the specific cause and more the general passion and armed militancy," he said. "The rising tide of extremism on all sides lifts all dangerous boats."
Who are they?
The report found a few primary routes to the conflict. One involved traveling through Turkey to Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, where many of the anti-IS foreign fighters joined up with local forces. Other anti-IS foreign fighters reported traveling to Iraq via Europe or the Gulf States.

FILE - Fighters take a selfie while firing artillery against Islamic State militants in Fallujah, Iraq, May 29, 2016.

Many of the anti-IS foreign fighters also appear to have had an additional advantage. More than 30 percent were military veterans, many of whom had taken part in Western operations in Iraq and described the region "as a kind of second home," the report found.
Many of them also expressed a desire to "finish the job."
"They believe it is their personal responsibility to ensure the region's security if the international community and their own governments are unable to do so," the report said.
Researchers also found some commonalities between the foreign fighters battling against the IS terror group and those who seek to join it.
"These fighters fighting against ISIS have very different overall motivations," Tuck said. "But I think some of the more personal, some of the more individual, factors are quite similar in some ways."
"It might be a lack of belonging, a lack of purpose. They don't feel like they're doing enough with their lives," he said.

In Bloody Attack, Pakistan’s Lawyers Targeted for Greater Impact

             ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN— 

The suicide bombing in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta on Monday that killed 70 people may have targeted the legal community in order to multiply the impact of the attack, according to some lawyers and analysts.

“In light of available information, they are going after soft targets, and lawyers are a very important community,” said Ejaz Haider, editor for national security affairs at a television channel called Capital TV in Pakistan.
Lawyers in Pakistan are considered a well-organized, vocal community that gets plenty of media glare, especially since a lawyers movement from 2007 to 2009 partially led to the downfall of the former military leader of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

Multiplier effect
Ihsan Ghani, the man in charge of Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority, said targeting a particular community has the effect of multiplying the impact of the attack by rallying a whole community, a large group of people around the country, who all come out and raise their voices.
“When you blast a bomb in a bazaar, everyone still feels sad, but the reaction is not the same,” he said, although he thought it was too early to jump to the conclusion that they wanted to target lawyers per se.
“They wanted to target a community, and that community can be Hazaras [a Shi'ite minority group frequently targeted], Christians, Shi'ites, lawyers or students,” he said.
Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, told VOA how it planned the dual attacks, by first assassinating the president of the provincial bar association near a hospital of its choosing, knowing full well that his body would then be taken to that hospital and many lawyers and senior officials would gather there. JuA spokesmen said the group already had deployed a suicide bomber at the hospital, ready to strike once the crowd became large enough.
The impact of the attack was devastating — at least 70 dead, about two dozen still in critical condition and more than 160 wounded.

FILE - Victims of a suicide bombing targeting a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, lie on stretchers, Aug. 8, 2016. (Photo: H. Samsor for VOA)

More to come
The group promised more attacks would follow. Last week, the United States added this group to its list of global terrorist organizations.
The same group had taken responsibility for an attack in March in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, in which more than 70 people were killed. That attack, it claimed, was against the Christians celebrating Easter Sunday in a busy public park.
It also claimed the assassination in Quetta last week of two men of the Hazara community, but there was no way for VOA to independently verify these claims.
“There is a pattern to these things,” according to an advocate in Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Salman Akram Raja. “Various segments of society have been put under pressure in the past, have been made to feel insecure, and it could be a continuation of that dark strategy of making the society generally fearful and less confident as people go about their daily lives,” he said.
The other objective of this attack could be symbolic, Raja and various others said.

Critical of legal system
Multiple Islamist militant groups have claimed that Pakistan’s legal system is “un-Islamic,” and have demanded it be replaced with a more Islamic version.
Whatever the reason, Haider of Capital TV said the timing of the attack was crucial.
“The force multiplier effect is a lot, especially with celebrations planned for August 14 by Southern Command,” he said.
Pakistan celebrates August 14 as its independence day, and Southern Command is a portion of Pakistan’s military deployed in the southern part of the country and headquartered in Quetta.

Turkey’s President in Russia to Repair Ties

           MOSCOW—

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is turning to Russia after having received post-coup criticism from the West.
In his first trip since the July 15 putsch, he is in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
“It’s significant for both because both of them have to bargain hard with the West,” said Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research center focused on domestic, foreign, economic and security policy.
Putin's concerns are economic sanctions and normalization of relations with the West, Baunov said. Erdogan feels that in the wake of putting down the coup attempt, he has been "criticized too much by the Western politicians, journalists and media. For him to bargain means to show that he can get closer to Russia and alienate himself from the West.”
Erdogan was livid after Western criticism of his massive crackdown on perceived opponents following the coup attempt, and Russia was quick to condemn the insurgents. More than 270 people died during the failed attempt by some elements of the military. Erdogan has blamed a Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for orchestrating the coup.

FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during an event for foreign investors in Ankara, Aug. 2, 2016. He again blasted unnamed Western countries that he says supported an attempted coup on July 15.

Betrayal seen
Erdogan viewed the Western response as betrayal, said the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs’ Victor Mizin.
“So, what he decided, it's some kind of his version of 'pivot to the East,' promoting the relations with such countries like Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan,” Mizin said.
But the relationship with Russia is the most important tactically, and not just for Turkey.
“Now it's very important [for Russia] to turn this country — which was the spearhead of NATO against the Soviet Union in the past, and where so many intelligence assets or radars had been placed to monitor Russian military activity — to draw it back to Russia and to resume good relations,” Mizin said.
Tuesday's meeting will be the first between the two leaders since relations fell apart over Turkey’s downing of a Russian bomber in November along its border with Syria.
The face-to-face talks in St. Petersburg are expected to focus on restoring economic ties that were severed after a Turkish F-16 shot down the Russian SU-24, resulting in the deaths of one jet pilot and a rescue pilot who died during a recovery attempt.

FILE - People wait in front of Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, March 31, 2015. Turkey advised its citizens to delay non-urgent travel to Russia, one of the moves made in a diplomatic spat over the downing of a Russian warplane last November.

Accusations, sanctions
The incident sparked finger-pointing, Russian sanctions and fears of a wider conflict between Russia and the NATO member. Moscow accused Ankara of supporting terrorism, while Turkey accused Russia of violating its airspace and bombing civilian targets inside Syria.
Russia imposed costly economic sanctions on Turkey, including banning Turkish food imports as well as Russian vacationers from visiting Turkey. The result was a multibillion-dollar blow to the country and its important tourist trade.
But a surprisingly fast rapprochement came in late June after Erdogan gave a long-demanded apology, expressing regret to the families of the two pilots in a letter to Putin. More recently, he accused the pilots of the Turkish F-16 of being involved in the coup. They were arrested earlier.
Political analysts say while Erdogan’s quick 180-degree turn was motivated by the economic damage caused by lost Russian trade, tensions with his Western allies in Europe and the United States have spurred the face-to-face meeting with Putin.

End of ties to West unlikely
Some minority calls inside Turkey for Ankara to seek a strategic partnership with Russia to replace ties with the United States and the European Union are unlikely to gain ground.
“At the same time, I think it would be unrealistic to think that Turkey could be banished or ousted from NATO as certain American experts, especially on the conservative side, would suggest, because as I said, strategically, Turkey is too important,” Mizin said.
While progress in the talks is expected on economic issues, the conflict in Syria remains a sticking point.
Russia’s bombing campaign in support of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad had already put a chill on relations between Moscow and Ankara, which supports rebel groups in Syria’s five-year civil war and wants to see Assad leave power.

GOP Senator, Former National Security Officials, Say Don't Vote for Trump

A demonstrator stands on a chair and yells as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers an economic policy speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.

WASHINGTON— Republican Senator Susan Collins says she will not vote for the party's presidential nominee, Donald Trump, saying he does not represent Republican values or the "inclusive approach to governing" the country needs.
Collins, who was elected to the Senate in 1996, wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post  that her view of Trump as unfit for the presidency is based on his disregard for the principle of treating other people with respect.
"Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities," Collins said.
She also expressed worry that if elected Trump's "lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments" would make the world more dangerous.
"It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honoring treaty commitments with our allies. Mr. Trump's tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control."

FILE - Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Trump: reverse the blame

There was no comment from the Trump campaign Monday night about the senator's statement. 
But the campaign did respond to a letter from 50 former national security and foreign policy officials who served under previous Republican presidents and said they, too, would not vote for Trump.
The group that includes former Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, former CIA chief Michael Hayden, and former Director National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte say they know what it takes to be president and Trump lacks the character and experience for the job.
"Mr. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of America's vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances, and the democratic values on which U.S. foreign policy must be based," the letter says.  "At the same time, he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends.
The former officials wrote that Trump shows "an alarming ignorance of basic facts" about today's international politics and no desire to educate himself.
Trump's campaign said those who signed the letter deserve "the blame for making the world such a dangerous place."

"They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it's time they are held accountable for their actions," the campaign said.  It attributed the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and the rise of Islamic State to the group, as well as his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets members of the audience after speaking at a rally at Osceola Heritage Park, in Kissimmee, Fla.,Aug. 8, 2016.

 
Clinton sued over Benghazi

Clinton's campaign also issued a statement Monday after the families of two Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, filed a lawsuit against her.

Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, filed the wrongful death suit saying it is highly probable Clinton's use of a private email system while secretary of state left sensitive information open to militants.
"As a direct result of Defendant Clinton's reckless handling of this classified, sensitive information, Islamic terrorists were able to obtain the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thus the U.S. State Department and covert and other government operations in Benghazi, Libya and subsequently orchestrate, plan, and execute the now infamous September 11, 2012 attack," the suit alleges.
The attack killed Stevens, Smith, Woods and Glen Doherty.
A two-year, Republican-led investigation in the U.S. House of Representatives ended in June with no new allegations that Clinton did anything wrong related to the attack.

Pat Smith, mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith, salutes after speaking during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 18, 2016.

Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement in response to the lawsuit that, "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton."
Economic plans

The two candidates are focusing this week on their plans for the economy.
Trump gave a speech Monday in Detroit saying he wants to "jump-start America."
He proposed big tax cuts for businesses and individuals, as well as halting regulations that he says stifle companies.  He pledged to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement that has been in place since the 1990s and to pull out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that has been presented to Congress but not approved.
Trump also portrayed Clinton as wanting to continue policies he says have not worked under President Barack Obama.
Clinton responded by saying Trump's tax plans will only help the wealthy and will help push the country into recession.  She is scheduled to give her own economic address in Detroit on Thursday.