Donald Trump hopes for election boost from Kosovo-Serbia talks

White House summit irritates EU diplomats, who say deal brokered by them is near

The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will meet at the White House on Thursday and Friday, in an encounter that some see as a push for a diplomatic win for Donald Trump to brandish during his re-election campaign.

Kosovo’s prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, will meet with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, in talks that Trump aides say will be primarily about economic issues between the two countries, but may pave the way to a broader deal.

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‘You simply die all over again’: the agony of Srebrenica, 25 years on

The women who lost loved ones in the massacre of Bosnian Muslims are still burying bodies – and still seeking justice as the guilty walk free

In 2012, Munira Subašić identified the man who had transported her son to his death; a high-level official in Srebrenica’s police department.

Subašić vividly recalls their previous fateful encounter: it was July 1995, and tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims fled Srebrenica as it fell to Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladić. Subašić, along with dozens of her family members, sought protection at a battery factory in nearby Potočari, where a Dutch battalion of UN peacekeepers was stationed.

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The Guardian view on Covid-19 worldwide: on the march

Infections are accelerating in largely untouched countries and those which hoped they had come through the worst. But there is hope

“Most of the world sort of sat by and watched with almost a sense of detachment and bemusement,” said Helen Clark, appointed to investigate the World Health Organization’s handling of the pandemic. The former New Zealand prime minister was describing the early weeks of the outbreak, and the sense that coronavirus was a problem “over there”. The failure to recognise our interconnection created complacency even as the death toll rose.

It took three months for the first million people to fall sick – but only a week to record the last million of the nearly 13 million cases now reported worldwide. As England emerges from lockdown at an unwary pace, Covid-19 is accelerating globally. The WHO has reported a record surge of a quarter of a million cases in a single day. The death toll is over half a million people and rising fast.

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Serbian police arrest 71 in coronavirus protests

Riots continue in Belgrade in protest against government handling of pandemic

Serbian police have detained 71 people after clashes during a fourth night of anti-government protests that were initially sparked by the announcement of a new coronavirus lockdown, a senior police official has said.

Fourteen police officers were injured when hundreds of demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building in downtown Belgrade on Friday evening, the police director, Vladimir Rebić, said. Several reporters were also hurt.

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Serbian protesters clash with police over government handling of coronavirus – video report

Police have fired teargas to disperse protesters hurling flares and objects in Serbia’s capital as violence erupted for the second day in a row during demonstrations against the president’s handling of the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The president, Aleksandar Vučić, backtracked on his plans to reinstate a coronavirus lockdown in Belgrade this week, but it did not stop people from firing flares and throwing stones while trying to storm the  parliament building

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I prosecuted Srebrenica war criminals, but I know others are still walking free | Serge Brammertz

Until we bring all the genocide’s perpetrators to justice, we are again failing the boys and men massacred in Bosnia in July 1995

  • Serge Brammertz was the chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 2008 until its closure in 2017

This Saturday, like every 11 July on the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the remains of newly identified victims will be buried alongside the thousands already interred at the cemetery and memorial site in the Bosnian town. The bodies of Almir Halilović, Sakib Kiverić, Emin Mustafić and Fuad Ðozić, who died in the 1995 slaughter, will not, however, be among them.

Twenty-five years ago, senior Bosnian Serb leaders committed genocide against Srebrenica’s Bosnian Muslims. The town had been designated a UN safe area. But Bosnian Serb forces besieged and captured it and systematically executed more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, burying them in mass graves. They terrorised 35,000 more Bosnian Muslims – women, children and the elderly – before expelling them from the area.

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Kosovan acting PM accuses Trump envoy of meddling

Albin Kurti claims Richard Grenell involved in pushing for vote that collapsed government

Kosovo’s caretaker prime minister, Albin Kurti, has launched a stinging attack on Donald Trump’s acting national intelligence director, accusing him of meddling in the country’s politics and helping to bring down his former government with the goal of delivering a quick diplomatic victory for Trump.

Kurti is staying on as PM in an acting capacity after his coalition partners turned against him in a parliamentary vote last month that was egged on by US diplomats. The upheaval was met with disbelief among many Kosovans, who wanted the government to focus on fighting coronavirus.

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Twitter deletes 20,000 fake accounts linked to Saudi, Serbian and Egyptian governments

Accounts also linked to Honduras and Indonesia violated policy and were ‘targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation’

Twitter has deleted 20,000 fake accounts linked to the governments of Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Honduras and Indonesia, saying they violated company policy and were a “targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation”.

Yoel Roth, the head of site integrity, said the removal of the accounts was part of the company’s ongoing “work to detect and investigate state-backed information operations”.

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Papers reveal Anglo-French distrust before Srebrenica massacre

Archives show British PM was warned France may have made secret deal with Bosnian Serbs

Days before the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, John Major was warned France had possibly brokered a secret deal with the Bosnian Serbs to halt airstrikes in return for the release of western military hostages.

This claim, detailed in a secret Foreign Office note to the prime minister, is among documents available to read at the National Archives in Kew fromTuesday that expose the depth of Anglo-French distrust during the Balkans conflict.

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Nobel winner Peter Handke avoids genocide controversy in speech

Literature laureate accused of supporting Slobodan Milošević gives inaugural lecture

The controversial 2019 Nobel literature laureate, Austrian author Peter Handke, gave his inaugural lecture on Saturday night in front of the Swedish Academy and in the face of intense criticism of his selection for the honour.

Handke, 77, who is perhaps best known for the novel Wings of Desire, is accused of supporting the genocidal Serbian regime led by Slobodan Milošević and of denying the extent of Serbian terror and killing during the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.

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Leaked footage allegedly shows Russian spy bribing an unidentified Serbian official – video

Serbian authorities are investigating a video that purportedly shows a Russian spy handing over a bag of cash to an unnamed Serbian official. The video, uploaded anonymously to YouTube on Wednesday, later shows the Serbian man counting money from inside the bag while sitting in his car. Serbian officials confirmed the video was genuine and identified the agent as Georgy Kleban.

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‘The EU is running scared from fascism’ – Kosovo’s likely new PM

In exclusive interview, leftwinger Albin Kurti condemns the bloc’s refusal to halt Balkan enlargement

The leftwinger set to become Kosovo’s surprise new prime minister has condemned the EU’s decision to halt further Balkans enlargement, saying it showed western leaders had forgotten the lessons of two world wars and instead were in retreat in the face of fascism and populism.

Albin Kurti said the stance could damage the chances of Kovoso reaching a deal with Serbia, which has refused to recognise it as independent since the end of the 1998-99 war, as Belgrade has less incentive to act without the prospect of EU membership.

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Outcry as preschool sets up in former Nazi concentration camp

Kindergarten to join other businesses operating inside Staro Sajmište, in Belgrade, Serbia, as long-planned Holocaust memorial remains unbuilt

The greying, box-like building that houses the Savsko Obdanište kindergarten has had many uses over the years.

At one point it was a restaurant; when you step through the front doors you find yourself surrounded by musty, brown 1970s-style dining furniture.

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Deal with Serbia possible this year, says Kosovan president

But Hashim Thaçi has no plans to lift tariffs on Serbian goods that led to suspension of talks

An agreement to normalise relations between Serbia and Kosovo along the lines of the historic deal between Greece and North Macedonia is still possible in 2019, despite severe setbacks in recent months, the president of Kosovo has said.

Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo as an independent state since its former province broke away in 2008 after almost a decade of international administration in the aftermath of a bloody war in 1998-99.

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Serbian president vows to restore order amid protesters’ call for resignation

Aleksandar Vučić brands opposition leaders as ‘fascists, hooligans and thieves’

Serbia’s president has pledged to defend the country’s law and order a day after opposition supporters stormed the national TV station protesting what they said is his autocratic rule.

As Aleksandar Vučić held a news conference in the presidency building in downtown Belgrade, thousands of opposition supporters gathered in front, demanding his resignation.

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China, Serbia sign over 20 agreements, pledge to boost ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and his Serbian counterpart, Tomislav Nikolic, shake hands at the start of their meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 18, 2016. Xi arrived in Serbia for a visit meant to boost relations with the friendly nation and assert China's intention to increase its presence in the Balkans and Europe.