Greece’s main opposition leader urged lawmakers Saturday to support his no-confidence vote against the government over a deal to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Macedonia over the latter’s name.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ left-led coalition government is expected to survive the vote, set for later Saturday. His government controls 154 of parliament’s 300 seats. The nationalist party that is a junior coalition partner says it will reject the motion despite vehemently opposing the name deal that Tsipras reached with his Macedonian counterpart.

“Today you are all mortgaging the future of the country,” said conservative New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who brought the no-confidence motion.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who heads the junior coalition partner, the Independent Greeks party, stressed that Saturday’s vote was not on the Macedonia name deal itself, which his party opposes.

“Today we are not voting on the deal,” he said.

Tsipras and Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev settled on a deal Tuesday that would rename Greece’s northern neighbor North Macedonia, while Athens would drop its objections to the country joining NATO and the European Union.

The agreement aimed to end a bitter dispute that has roiled the two countries’ relations since shortly after the small country declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Greece argued that the name “Macedonia” implied territorial claims on its province of the same name, which is the birthplace of the ancient warrior king Alexander the Great, and usurped its ancient Greek heritage…

The British government changed course Saturday in a case concerning cannabis oil, saying an epileptic boy can be treated with it after his mother said he needed it to survive severe seizures.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he has agreed to urgently issue a license to allow Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland, to be treated with the oil. He said his decision was based on advice from senior doctors who say that Caldwell, who was hospitalized overnight in London, faces a medical emergency.

Javid said the British government’s immediate priority was to make sure Caldwell receives “the most effective treatment possible in a safe way.”

The case has revived the debate over medical marijuana use in Britain.

Cannabis oil is banned in Britain. Border Force agents seized it from Charlotte Caldwell, the boy’s mother, when she tried to bring it into London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday from Canada, where she obtained it legally.

She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent life-threatening seizures for him. He began the treatment in the United States legally two years ago.

Charlotte Caldwell says the oil has kept Billy seizure-free for more than 300 days.

He became the first person in the U.K. with a prescription for cannabis oil when it was recommended to him by a local doctor in Northern Ireland. But the doctor stopped prescribing cannabis oil after being warned by the Home Office.

After the government agreed to permit the treatment, Charlotte Caldwell said Saturday that she and her supporters…

A senior official in Russia’s southern Rostov region says Cossack patrols in this World Cup city will “display their military skills” and not replace the role of police.

Deputy regional governor Igor Guskov told reporters Saturday that members of the academy of the self-governing militia would take part in horseback patrols along the Don River, but weren’t strictly given the responsibility of providing security.

Guskov said that “we are all Cossacks here,” adding that a number of public events planned in the city would involve Cossack culture.

Authorities have boosted the police presence before Sunday’s match between Brazil and Switzerland. They are expecting up to 250,000 fans to visit through July 2, when the city hosts the last of its five games.

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More AP World Cup coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/WorldCup

Source: Associated Press

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Forget Brexit or a looming trans-Atlantic trade war. The diplomatic spat this week among Italy, Malta and France over who should take responsibility for some 630 people rescued at sea shows that the biggest challenge Europe faces today is migration.

It’s not about the hundreds of thousands of people who arrived across the Mediterranean in recent years — many in perilous sea crossings like those aboard the rescue ship Aquarius — seeking better or safer lives. Turkey has welcomed more. Tiny Lebanon and struggling Jordan handle almost two million refugees between them.

The crisis threatening the very existence of the European Union is the enemy within: the inability of the 28 states that make up the world’s biggest trading bloc to manage those migrant arrivals collectively.

Asylum reform is stranded on the rocks of national interests. The questions of who should take responsibility for those arriving — and whether there should be a quota system for European countries to share refugees — are fiercely disputed.

Long-suffering EU nations like Italy and Greece, where most sea migrants enter, feel abandoned by other EU nations.

In response, some European countries have deployed troops, erected border fences or temporarily reintroduced ID checks, undermining Europe’s wide-ranging passport-free travel area. Others have welcomed the migrants in.

Those acting alone have mostly angered their neighbors by passing the problem on. Mutual trust between nations in the bloc has evaporated.

Anti-migrant parties have exploited the chaos, winning votes as they foment fear of…

Just as Bob Green was about to leave for a World Cup voyage across Russia, it became tense in the England supporter’s household, as his girlfriend worried about his safety.

“There were massive concerns, arguments,” he recalled. “Hiding my passport on the last day.”

Two years ago in France, Green was in Marseille’s Old Port when Russian hooligan gangs attacked English fans before the two countries played at the European Championship.

“Some people were violent,” Green said. “But I’m not going to get driven away from what I love and have done for so many years by 150 people.”

British police want to keep fans such as Green safe in Russia, but to do so, they need to cooperate with Russian officials while the two governments are feuding over the poisoning of a former spy.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Britain was almost “almost 100 percent sure” President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin ordered the March attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England using the military-grade nerve agent, Novichok. Russians were outraged by Johnson comparing this World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany. Millions of Russians died fighting the Nazis in World War II.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the head of British football policing, now has to work alongside officials from a country that accused the UK of fabricating the poisoning.

“Of course we are aware of the threats and the broader political situation, but we need to maintain an effective relationship with the Russian police,” Roberts told The Associated Press. “That’s not being…

Police in Moscow say at least seven people have been injured when a taxi crashed into pedestrians on a sidewalk near Red Square.

Police say the driver in the crash Saturday has been detained. Preliminary information indicated the driver lost control of the vehicle.

There were no immediate details on the severity of the pedestrians’ injuries. Police initially said eight were injured, but later said seven had sought medical attention.

The agency that monitors Moscow’s traffic safety said the driver is a citizen of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan who told police that the crash was not intentional. The accident took place on Ilinka Street, about 200 meters (650 feet) from Red Square and Moscow’s famous GUM shopping arcade.

Russia is currently hosting the World Cup and Moscow is one of 11 Russian cities where tournament games are being played.

Source: Associated Press

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