Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a controversial bill that opens the door for him to potentially remain in power until 2036. The bill, which was recently approved by the lower and upper chambers of parliament, aligns the election laws with constitutional changes approved by voters last year. One of the constitutional changes resets Putin’s term-limit clock to zero, allowing him to seek reelection when his current term expires in 2024, and again in 2030 if he wishes. Under the current election laws, a president is forbidden from seeking a third consecutive six-year term. Putin is currently in his second consecutive six-year term. The constitutional amendments were initiated in January 2020 by the 68-year-old Russian leader, who has been running the country as prime minister or president since late 1999. The nationwide vote for the amendments held last summer sparked protests in Moscow that were dispersed by law enforcement. According to the results of a poll by the independent Levada Center last month, 41 percent of Russians do not want Putin to stay in power after his current term expires in 2024. 
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Top European Union officials head to Turkey Tuesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a bid to reset relations.In a bid to ease the latest tensions, European Council president Charles Michel and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will seek a framework for cooperation with Turkey when they meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday.The EU wants to continue a 2016 refugee agreement that turned Turkey into Europe’s gatekeeper for migrants and refugees. Analyst Sinan Ulgen of the Edam research organization in Istanbul said Ankara is ready for a deal – at a price.”The Turkish government seems to want to extend this deal provided that the EU sets up a funding mechanism that is similar to the financial package of years past. And also, the EU will give the go-ahead to the start of the negotiations for the modernization of the customs union (agreement) and the revitalization of the visa liberalization process,” said Ulgen.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves from the video monitor as he participates in a video conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels, March 19, 2021.Michel and Von Leyen will be conveying to Erdogan the message of last month’s EU summit:  that any concessions will be tied to Turkey’s continuing talks with EU member Greece. The talks aim to resolve territorial disputes over the dividing Aegean and Mediterranean seas, which are believed to have significant energy reserves. Analyst Asla Aydintasbas said despite the Turkish-Greek talks, the situation remains volatile.”While we have had the start of Turkish Greek talks that were meant for de-escalation, it is really ripe for tensions because you still do have any solution to some of the underlying issues in the Aegean,” said Aydintasbas.But Turkey’s human rights record is not expected to be high on the agenda of Tuesday’s discussions. Last month, Ankara pulled out of a critical convention to protect women and prosecutors, opened a closure case against Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, the pro-Kurdish HDP.But Emma Sinclair Webb of the New York-based Human Rights Watch fears pragmatism is usurping principle and her group is calling on the European Union not to ignore human rights issues.”I think Ankara believes it can get away with anything at the moment, but I do think it’s time for the EU to start to speak with a much tougher language to Ankara, to answer back. The EU looks weak by constantly trying to put a positive spin on things, developments that are unconscionable,” said Webb.With Turkey hosting about four million Syrian refugees, analysts say the priority of EU leader’s Tuesday meeting with Erdogan will likely be to ensure Turkey’s ongoing role as refugee gatekeeper and avoid tensions with Greece. 
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Police and politicians in Northern Ireland appealed for calm on Monday after a third night of violence that saw Protestant youths start fires and pelt officers with bricks and gasoline bombs.The flareups come amid rising tensions over post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland and worsening relations between the parties in the Protestant-Catholic power-sharing Belfast government.The Police Service of Northern Ireland said officers were attacked in Londonderry on Sunday night, and there was also unrest in two pro-British unionist areas near Belfast. Police said most of those involved were teenagers.Chief Superintendent Darrin Jones condemned the “senseless and reckless criminal behavior that (does) nothing but cause damage to the community.”The disturbances followed unrest Friday and Saturday in unionist areas in and around Belfast and Londonderry, also known as Derry, that saw cars set on fire and projectiles and gasoline bombs hurled at police officers. Police said 27 officers were injured, and eight people have been charged, the youngest a boy of 13.Britain’s economic split from the European Union at the end of 2020 has shaken the delicate political balance in Northern Ireland, a part of the U.K. where some people identify as British and some as Irish.A new U.K.-EU trade deal has imposed customs and border checks on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. The arrangement was designed to avoid checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland, an EU member, because an open Irish border has helped underpin the peace process built on the 1998 Good Friday accord.The accord ended decades of violence involving Irish republicans, British loyalists and U.K. armed forces in which more than 3,000 people died. But unionists say the new checks amount to a new border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.The Democratic Unionist Party, which jointly governs Northern Ireland with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, has called for the Brexit deal to be scrapped.Unionists are also angry at a police decision not to prosecute Sinn Fein politicians who attended the funeral of a former Irish Republican Army commander in June. The funeral of Bobby Storey drew a large crowd, despite coronavirus rules barring mass gatherings.The main unionist parties have demanded the resignation of Northern Ireland’s police chief over the controversy, claiming he has lost the confidence of their community.Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Police Federation of Northern Ireland, said the “political atmosphere” was being used as an excuse for violence, orchestrated by banned paramilitary groups.”Older, more sinister, elements use the youth and use children…to achieve their aims,” Lindsay told BBC radio.
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Social distancing is not usually part of the ballroom dancing lexicon. But in an industrial zone on the outskirts of Rome, couples of every age twirl and turn across the dance floor, even through a pandemic, just as ballroom dancers have done for decades around the world. While much of Italy is in a coronavirus lockdown, with live music and theatrical performances barred, cinemas shuttered and many sporting activities limited, competitive ballroom dancing is alive and well here, albeit with precautions. The couples at the New Dancing Days hall are preparing for the Italian Championships in Rimini in July and as such are allowed to keep practicing, given that the government considers their activity in the national interest. It is the same allowance that has enabled other federally recognized competitive athletes to keep training in Italy even during the latest round of virus-related closures. “Yes, we can do it. Here we can keep on dancing,” said Raffaella Serafini, the 45-year-old owner of New Dancing Days and a 35-year veteran of competitive ballroom dancing. In the huge hall with mirrors on the walls and multi-colored lights, couples wear masks during warm-ups and pauses but are allowed to remove them while performing traditional ballroom or Latin dances. Most keep them on anyway. “It’s something beautiful for us because we’re older, but we can still put ourselves in play,” said Franco Cauli, a 70-year-old dancer who along with his 74-year-old partner is training for a competition at the end of April. He said he felt safe with the health protocols taken by the school and says participants rigorously respect them. The Italian Dance Sport Federation has decreed that 34 athletes are allowed to train in a school the size of New Dancing Days, recognizing that continuity in practice is necessary. Currently there are 17 couples, aged nine to 76, who train up to five days a week. From a viewing spot above the dance floor, Serafini keeps an eye on her twirling students and shouts directions to them. If she sees something wrong, she will stop the music, go down to the dance floor and demonstrate the correct way to do a step, pose or twirl. “The school is my great pride. When I see them on the dance floor, it is like I am there,” she said. 
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Millions of Christians around the world are celebrating Easter Sunday in unusual circumstances again this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there are fewer restrictions than the last year in some countries.In the United States, as more than 100 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, churches in some states are open for Easter services.Half a world away, Australians were celebrating Easter Sunday in a relatively unrestricted environment as the country did not report new locally acquired coronavirus cases. Community transmission of COVID-19 is largely eliminated in the country, according to health officials.In Italy, however, a strict Easter lockdown was observed, as the entire country is considered a high-risk zone.In a scaled-back Easter vigil service in St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis urged the faithful not to lose hope during the “dark months” of the pandemic.Due to social-distancing requirements, only about 200 people wearing masks attended the service, which marks the period between Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.The Vatican cut out the traditional sacrament of baptism for a few adults to decrease the chance of contagion.
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Thousands of demonstrators joined rallies across Britain on Saturday against a proposed law that would give police extra powers to curb protests, with some scuffles breaking out following a march in London.The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill aims to toughen measures officers can take to disperse demonstrations, such as imposing time and noise limits, which campaigners and activists fear would be used to curb dissent.”Kill the bill” marches were held in dozens of towns and cities, supported by big campaign groups such as climate change campaigners Extinction Rebellion and the Black Lives Matter movement.Police restrain a demonstrator during clashes following a ‘Kill the Bill’ protest in London, April 3, 2021. The demonstration is against the contentious Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.Nearly all were peaceful, but there were minor clashes in central London between protesters and police following a rally attended by several thousand people.”The policing operation in central London has now moved to the enforcement stage and arrests are being made,” said London’s Metropolitan Police on Twitter. The force deployed a large number of officers in the capital to end the protest.The new bill follows actions by Extinction Rebellion that paralyzed parts of London in early 2019 and fueled calls from some politicians for the police to be given tougher powers to prevent excessive disruption.Since the proposed law was brought before parliament last month, there have been sporadic demonstrations across the country, with Saturday’s rallies being part of what organizers said was a national weekend of action.Former Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses demonstrators during a ‘Kill the Bill’ protest in London, April 3, 2021. The demonstration is against the contentious Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill going through Parliament.”[I’m here] to defend the rights of free speech, and the rights of organizations in our society,” said Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the opposition Labor Party, who was among those who took part in the London protest.”These demonstrations, 50 of them today, will make a difference,” he told Reuters opposite the houses of Parliament.Much of the protest so far has been focused in the southwestern English city of Bristol, where some demonstrations have turned violent; officers have been bombarded with projectiles and police vehicles set on fire, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as “disgraceful attacks.”A large crowd gathered again in Bristol on Saturday evening, although the rally there was peaceful.Some senior officers have said the “kill the bill” tag was deliberately provocative because “the bill” is a nickname in Britain for the police.  
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Cars were set alight and masked people pelted a police van with petrol bombs Saturday, the second straight evening of disorder in pro-British parts of Northern Ireland amid rising post-Brexit tensions in the region.Many pro-British unionists fiercely oppose the new trade barriers introduced between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as part of Britain’s departure from the EU and have warned that their unease could lead to violence.Political leaders, including Britain’s Northern Ireland minister, had appealed for calm earlier Saturday, but police said they were responding to reports of disorder in Newtownabbey on the northern outskirts of Belfast.A video posted on Twitter by the Police Federation for Northern Ireland showed four masked individuals flinging petrol bombs from close range at an armored police van, which they also kicked and punched.Fifteen officers were injured in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday when a small local protest developed into a riot. Police said the rioters attacked them with masonry, metal rods, fireworks and manhole covers.The injuries included burns, head wounds and a broken leg, resulting in the arrest and charging of seven people, two of them as young as 13 and 14. Twelve officers were also injured in separate rioting Friday in Londonderry.First minister blamedOther political parties blamed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster on Saturday for stoking tensions with staunch opposition to the new trading arrangements.”By their words and actions they have sent a very dangerous message to young people in loyalist areas,” said Gerry Kelly, a lawmaker from the pro-Irish Sinn Fein party, which shares power in the devolved government with the DUP, in a statement.A DUP lawmaker, Christopher Stalford, said rioters were “acting out of frustration” after prosecutors opted not to charge any members of Sinn Fein last week for alleged breaches of COVID-19 restrictions.The DUP has called for the head of the police force to resign over the issue.The British-run region remains deeply split along sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland while Protestant unionists want to stay in the U.K. 
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Pope Francis, leading an Easter vigil service scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Saturday that he hoped the dark times of the pandemic would end and that people could rediscover “the grace of everyday life.”This year is the second consecutive Easter that all papal services are being attended by about 200 people in a secondary altar of St. Peter’s Basilica instead of the nearly 10,000 that the largest church in Christendom can hold.The service began two hours earlier than usual so that participants could get home before a 10 p.m. curfew in Rome, which, like the rest of Italy, is under tough lockdown restrictions during the Easter weekend. Italy reported more than 140,000 new cases of the coronavirus in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, and nearly 3,100 deaths.At the start of the service, the basilica was in darkness except for the flames from candles held by participants to signify the darkness in the world before Jesus. As the pope, cardinals and bishops processed to the altar and a cantor chanted three times, the basilica’s lights were turned on.In his homily, Francis, marking the ninth Easter season of his pontificate, said the festival brought with it the hope for renewal on a personal as well as a global level.”In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope,” Francis said.Just as Jesus brought his message “to those struggling to live from day to day,” he said, people today should care for those most in need on the fringes of society.”[God] invites us to overcome barriers, banish prejudices and draw near to those around us every day in order to rediscover the grace of everyday life,” Francis said.On Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, the pope will deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message. 
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As Italy struggles with a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the government announced a new nationwide lockdown across the country for the Easter holiday weekend.
The measures come as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, officiated at the Way of the Cross procession in a nearly empty Saint Peter’s Square Friday, ahead of the Easter holiday Sunday, for the second consecutive year.
A new three-day national lockdown began Saturday in Italy as the country continues to struggle with a surge in COVID-19 infections and daily deaths amid a slow roll-out of vaccines.
The lockdown measures, enforced by thousands of police officers deployed across the country, do not allow any travel between Italian regions unless strictly necessary and limit visits to family members and friends to two people once a day. Customary Easter Monday picnics have also been banned.
The aim is to curb the spread of the virus as much as possible as hospitals and intensive care units countrywide are again seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 patients. After more than a year and over 110,000 deaths from the coronavirus, Italy has grown tired of the extended restrictions. But across the country, most of the population is complying with the rules.
At the Vatican, Good Friday began with a visit by Pope Francis to the vaccination center inside the city state where around 1,200 people were inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week. It is part of an effort to include the “poor and most marginalized people” according to the Papal Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.Pope Francis speaks to medical staff on Good Friday at a vaccination site at Paul VI Hall where the poor and homeless are being inoculated, at the Vatican, April 2, 2021. (Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters)The pope prayed for people suffering during the pandemic, asking for strength for those caring for the sick.
The “Via Crucis” or “Way of the Cross” procession was held for the second consecutive year in a nearly empty Saint Peter’s Square where candles were placed in a circle around its central obelisk. 
The procession includes prayers at each of a series of images representing biblical events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The pandemic, however, has forced the traditional procession at Rome’s ancient Colosseum, normally attended by hundreds of people, to be scaled back and moved to the Vatican.
This year’s meditations were written and read during the ceremony by children and young people from Rome, many expressing feelings about this difficult year. One child wrote of feeling lonely because of the pandemic and not being able to visit grandparents, another of losing his grandad to the virus, alone in the hospital.
Italians will be allowed to attend Easter service this year officials said. Pope Francis is planning to hold an Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday and will be delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” or “To the City and the World” message on Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar.
 
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Once-warm relations between the European Union and China have taken a sharp turn for the worse, punctuated by a series of tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Beijing and Brussels.Only three months after China and the EU struck a landmark economic treaty, the 27 foreign affairs ministers of the EU announced sanctions last week against officials involved in China’s mistreatment of its ethnic Uyghur minority in its northwest Xinjiang region.Hours later, Beijing retaliated with its own sanctions on 10 EU individuals and four entities, including five members of the European Parliament, or MEPs.While U.S.-China relations have declined in recent years, the European countries have enjoyed a much softer ride. After years of negotiations, Beijing and Brussels finally struck a deal aimed at liberalizing trade between them in the last days of December.The breakthrough was made possible by last-minute concessions from Chinese President Xi Jinping and pushes from German officials. The deal, which remains subject to approval by the European Parliament, would ensure that European investors have better access to the fast-growing Chinese market and can compete on a more level playing field in that country.Until recently, this trend seemed to continue. According to data released by Eurostat on March 18, EU exports to China totaled 16.1 billion euros ($19 billion) in January, an increase of 6.6% year-on-year.The momentum is reversed now, however, with the tit-for-tat sanctions and a boycott of European brands being encouraged by Beijing.”It is the EU’s first sanctions against China on human rights issues since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989,” said Grzegorz Stec, an expert at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, one of the four entities sanctioned by China.Stec told VOA that the EU has imposed sanctions on China for other reasons, including a move against two Chinese people for cyberattacks last year. But this time, he said, “the EU made it clear that it was due to the human rights issue. China clearly regards this issue as China’s internal affair, and China’s countermeasures are unprecedented.”MEPs outragedAmong the individuals being sanctioned by China are five MEPs.Raphael Glucksmann, a French MEP and longtime French human rights advocate, said he sees the Chinese action, which includes a ban on visits to the country, as a recognition of his advocacy for Uyghur rights. After his election in 2019, Glucksmann was widely quoted as saying his goal was to become “the voice of the voiceless people.””Fortunately, we have worked hard to raise the public’s attention to this issue, which is why they (China) are angry with me,” Glucksmann told VOA.He pointed out that in addition to individuals, China sanctioned the Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. “It is a sanction on the democratic institution of the Parliament.”Shortly after Glucksmann was put on the blacklist by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he became the target of attacks on Chinese social media. In a show of solidarity with the legislator, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met Glucksmann last week and tweeted: “On the documented human rights abuses in Xinjiang, France’s position is firm.”Another sanctioned parliamentarian, Ilhan Kyuchyuk of Bulgaria, told VOA in an email that the EU sanctions on China are based on solid legal evidence.”Our relation with China is very important. It is a strategic relationship because we both are key actors in global scene. However, we cannot remain silent when it is obvious what is happening to the Uyghurs and other minorities.”Kyuchyuk said the EU “will continue to express concerns about freedom of expression and association, including the situation of persons belonging to minorities.”Michael Gahler, the foreign policy coordinator and spokesperson of the European People’s Party, the largest political party in the European Parliament, told VOA that he suspected he had been included in the sanctions because of his role as chair of the chamber’s Taiwan friendship group. The German politician said future dialogue between the EU and China will be “more difficult and burdensome.”Gahler pointed out that the Mercartor Institute, one of the most respected European research institutes, is also on the sanctions list. He said in an email that this should be taken into consideration by all the universities and think tanks that are co-financed by the Chinese state through Confucius Institutes or Chinese companies.”Academic freedom is for all or none,” he said. “Those who engage in appeasement are also responsible.”Slovakian MEP Miriam Lexmann said she believes that “credible reports show that the (Chinese Communist Party’s) actions fulfill all criteria of a genocide under the 1949 Genocide Convention.”Lexmann, also on the Chinese sanctions list, accused China of engaging “in threats and countersanctions against those, especially democratically elected parliamentarians, who seek to raise awareness to these terrible human rights abuses.”If China continues with this kind of response, it will make clear that it is not interested in being a partner but a systematic rival that undermines fundamental values and principles which are a ‘condicio sine qua non’ for any cooperation,” Lexmann said in an email.Deal jeopardized?It took seven years and 35 rounds of talks to negotiate the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. Now, just months later, its ratification by the European Parliament is in doubt because of the tit-for-tat sanctions.The agreement was scheduled to be reviewed and implemented this year, but three of the main political parties in the Parliament have said that as long as the sanctions remain in place, the Parliament will refuse to even open the debate for ratification.”The lifting of sanctions against MEPs is a precondition for us to enter into talks with the Chinese government on the investment deal,” said Kathleen van Brempt, an MEP from the left-leaning Socialist and Democrats group.Glucksmann, one of EU’s most effective activists on the Uyghur issue, said he believes it is time for China to pay a price.”What we should do is to announce clearly that we won’t be voting on the China-Europe investment agreement as long as the sanctions are going on,” Glucksmann said in a telephone interview.Stec, founder of the Brussels-based nonprofit platform “EU-China Hub,” said Beijing may not believe that the diplomatic turmoil will wipe out the achievements of the agreement.Eyck Freymann, a China expert at Oxford University, said last week was more of a political turning point than an economic one. “China and Europe remain deeply integrated in trade, and this relationship will not unravel overnight — if it ever does,” he told VOA.The author of the book One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World, Freymann pointed out that there are still powerful interest groups in Europe that want to maintain a good relationship with China.However, he said, “As long as human rights is on the top of the agenda, the China-Europe economic relationship cannot deepen or broaden.”   
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After a week or more of temperatures from Britain to eastern Europe running as much as 20 degrees above average, forecasters are saying the region will be plunged into record cold next week with a likelihood of snow in some areas. Meteorologists say a strong high pressure system remained over much of Europe the last half of March, trapping heat below it. Monthly high temperature records have fallen in at least three countries. Germany and the Netherlands Wednesday set all-time March records, reporting highs of 27.2 degrees Celsius and 26.1 degrees Celsius, respectively. In Britain Tuesday, Kew Gardens, about 15 kilometers west of London on the River Thames, hit 24.5 degrees Celsius, the highest March temperature in Britain since 1968. French meteorologists also recorded warmth Tuesday as the nation’s average temperature was higher than on any other March day in recorded history. More than 220 weather stations, or roughly 37% of France’s network, observed new maximum March temperatures. Climate scientists say these are the latest in a series of heat records that are disproportionately outpacing the occurrence of cold extremes, largely the product of a changing climate and a planet whose temperatures are skewed hot. The warm weather also made COVID-19 restrictions all the more difficult to enforce in many areas, said officials. But forecasters say that will come to a dramatic end in the next three to five days, as models show a wave in the jet stream forcing out the high pressure and allowing much colder Arctic air into the region, swinging temperatures from record highs to record lows for this time of year. Forecasters say the frigid air is likely to drop temperatures below 0 Celsius in some areas with snow likely in Scotland and higher elevations of Italy and eastern Europe.
 
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President Joe Biden Friday expressed strong U.S. support Friday for Ukraine in a call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the White House said.
 
“President Biden affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbass [sic] and Crimea,” the statement said.
 
NATO said Thursday it was concerned about a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s borders, as NATO ambassadors met to discuss the recent spike in violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, drawing Western condemnation and tit-for-tat sanctions.  
 
Biden emphasized his administration’s commitment to a strategic partnership with Ukraine and support for Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption plans and reform agenda.
 
“The leaders agreed these reforms are central to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the statement said. Zelenskiy said on Twitter he was glad to speak with Biden and appreciates U.S. support on different levels.
 
“We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform [Ukraine], improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said.Glad to talk to @POTUS. ?? appreciates ?? support on different levels. We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform ??, improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 2, 2021In November, Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump, who was impeached in 2019 over what White House aides described as an effort to withhold nearly $400 million in security aid and a coveted White House visit unless Ukrainian officials announced investigations Trump sought into Biden.
 
That exchange was at the center of a charge by the Democratic-led House of Representatives that Trump abused his power for political benefit. The U.S. Senate, then controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, acquitted him of the charge and another of obstructing justice. Trump denied any wrongdoing. 
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Protests against Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s plan to reform the constitution are mounting in the Caribbean nation. As the Moise government prepares for a June referendum, the opposition is urging voters not to participate. VOA’s Sandra Lemaire reports.
Camera: Renan Toussaint and Matiado Vilme
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Workers in Brussels were cleaning up the city’s Bois de la Cambre park early Friday after an April Fools’ Day prank brought thousands of young people there Thursday amid a COVID-19 lockdown, leading to clashes with police.A social media posting last month advertising “La Boum” (The Party) for Thursday, April 1, promising a concert was apparently intended as an April Fools’ Day joke. But police said they became concerned when nearly 20,000 people indicated plans to attend.Brussels police Wednesday issued warnings that the advertised “party” was a hoax and in violation of COVID-19 regulations. But officials say about 2,000 people showed up anyway, many of them frustrated by restrictions and drawn out by warm weather.Clashes began later Thursday when police attempted to disperse the crowd, which threw bottles and other projectiles. The police, some on horseback and others in riot gear, responded with water cannons and tear gas.Reports say at least four people were arrested and both police and party goers were injured, some seriously enough to seek treatment at local hospitals. Brussels police and prosecutors say they are investigating who was behind the social media prank.Some of the young people in the park told reporters they came not because of the promised concert or to provoke the police, but because they were bored, sick of the restrictions and wanted to get out.  Belgium’s current pandemic restrictions prohibit gatherings of more than four people. 
 
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ABOARD THE MSC GRANDIOSA — Italy may be in a strict coronavirus lockdown this Easter with travel restricted between regions and new quarantines imposed. But a few miles offshore, guests aboard the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship are shimmying to Latin music on deck and sipping cocktails by the pool.In one of the anomalies of lockdowns that have shuttered hotels and resorts around the world, the Grandiosa has been plying the Mediterranean Sea this winter with seven-night cruises, a lonely flag-bearer of the global cruise industry.After cruise ships were early sources of highly publicized coronavirus outbreaks, the Grandiosa has tried to chart a course through the pandemic with strict anti-virus protocols approved by Italian authorities that seek to create a “health bubble” on board.Passengers and crew are tested before and during cruises. Mask mandates, temperature checks, contact-tracing wristbands and frequent cleaning of the ship are all designed to prevent outbreaks. Passengers from outside Italy must arrive with negative COVID-19 tests taken within 48 hours of their departures and only residents of Europe’s Schengen countries plus Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria are permitted to book under COVID-19 insurance policies.  On Wednesday, the Grandiosa left the Italian port of Civitavecchia for its week-long Easter cruise, with 2,000 of its 6,000-passenger capacity and stops planned in Naples and Valletta, Malta, before returning to its home port in Genoa.Passengers welcomed the semblance of normalcy brought on by the freedom to eat in a restaurant or sit poolside without a mask, even if the virus is still a present concern.”After a year of restrictive measures, we thought we could take a break for a week and relax,” said Stefania Battistoni, a 39-year-old teacher and single mother who drove all night from Bolzano, in northern Italy, with her two sons and mother to board the cruise.The pandemic has plunged global cruise ship passenger numbers from a record 30 million in 2019 to over 350,000 since July 2020, according to Cruise Lines International, the world’s largest cruise industry association representing 95% of ocean-going cruise capacity. Currently, fewer than 20 ships are operating globally, a small fraction of CLIA’s members’ fleets of 270 ships.  The United States could be among the last cruise ship markets to reopen, possibly not until fall and not until 2022 in Alaska. Two Royal Caribbean cruise lines that normally sail out of Miami opted instead to launch sailings in June from the Caribbean, where governments are eager to revive their tourism-based economies.MSC spokeswoman Lucy Ellis said positive virus cases have cropped up on board MSC ships, particularly during the fall surge.  “The important thing is we have never had an outbreak,” she said. The Grandiosa is equipped with a medical center with molecular and antigen testing facilities, as well as a ventilator.  Extra cabins are set aside to isolate suspected virus cases. Because of the contact tracing wrist bands, if a passenger tests positive, medical personnel can identify anyone with whom they were in contact. Once the situation is clear, anyone who is positive is transferred to the shore.According to an independent consulting firm, Bermello Ajamii & Partners, just 23 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed on ships since the industry began its tentative relaunch last summer, for a passenger infection rate of 0.006%.  But cruise industry critics say the risk isn’t worth it and add that cruise companies should have taken the pandemic timeout to address the industry’s longstanding environmental and labor problems.”All large cruise ships burn huge volumes of the dirtiest, cheapest fuel available,” said Jim Ace of environmental group Stand Earth, a member of the Global Cruise Activist Network. “Cruise ship companies could have used the COVID shutdown to address their impacts on public health and the environment. Instead, they scrapped a few of their oldest ships and raised cash to stay alive.”On board, though, passengers are relishing the chance to enjoy activities that have been mostly closed in Italy and much of Europe for a year: a theater, restaurant dining, duty-free shopping and live music in bars.  The rest of Italy is heading back into full lockdown over the Easter weekend, with shops closed and restaurants and bars open for takeout only to try to minimize holiday outbreaks. In addition, Italy’s government imposed a five-day quarantine on people entering from other EU countries in a bid to deter Easter getaways.”Let’s say that after such a long time of restrictions and closures, this was a choice done for our mental health,” said Federico Marzocchi, who joined the cruise with his wife and 10-year-old son Matteo.  The cruise industry is hoping for a gradual opening this spring.Cruises are circulating on Spain’s Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, including the company AIDA catering to German tourists. Costa Cruises, which with MSC is one of Europe’s largest cruise companies, will resume cruises on May 1, with seven-night Italy-only cruises. Costa plans to begin sailing in the western Mediterranean from mid-June.  Britain is opening to cruise ships in May, with MSC and Viking launching cruises of the British Isles, among several companies offering at-sea “staycation” cruises aimed at capturing one of the most important cruise markets. The cruise industry is hoping Greece will open in mid-May, but the country hasn’t yet announced when it will reopen tourism.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a “framework” for resuming cruises in the U.S., but the industry says the health agency hasn’t spelled out the details that companies need to operate their ships. Once the CDC provides technical requirements, industry officials say it takes about 90 days to prepare a ship for sailing.The cruise companies complain that last fall’s CDC framework is outdated and should be scrapped. They say it was issued before vaccines were available and before the restart of cruises in Europe, which they say have safely carried nearly 400,000 passengers under new COVID-19 protocols. And they complain that cruising is the only part of the U.S. economy that remains shuttered by the pandemic.The Cruise Lines International Association trade group is lobbying for an early July start to U.S. cruising.”Cruisers love to cruise, and they will go where the ships are sailing,” said Laziza Lambert, a spokeswoman for the trade group. “The longer cruises are singularly prohibited from operating in the United States, the more other places in the world will benefit from the positive economic impact generated by an influx of passengers.” 
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Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.The virus is still raging in the Philippines, France, Brazil and other predominantly Christian countries, where worshippers are marking a second annual Holy Week under various movement restrictions amid outbreaks fanned by more contagious strains.Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city’s holy sites.This year, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of worshippers down the Via Dolorosa, retracing what tradition holds were Jesus’ final steps, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers at the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a wooden cross along the route through the Old City, singing hymns and pausing to offer prayers.The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, is open to visitors with masks and social distancing.”Things are open, but cautiously and gradually,” said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. “In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home … This year we are somehow silent.”Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during Holy Week.The main holy sites are in the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital, while the Palestinians want both territories for their future state.  Israel included Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in its vaccination campaign, but has only provided a small number of vaccines to those in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has imported tens of thousands of doses for a population of more than 2.5 million.Israeli authorities said up to 5,000 Christian Palestinians from the West Bank would be permitted to enter for Easter celebrations. Abunassar said he was not aware of any large tour groups from the West Bank planning to enter, as in years past, likely reflecting concerns about the virus.Pope Francis began Good Friday with a visit to the Vatican’s COVID-19 vaccination center, where volunteers have spent the past week administering some 1,200 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to poor and disadvantaged people in Rome.Pope Francis speaks to medical staff on Good Friday at a vaccination site in the Paul VI Hall where the poor and homeless are being inoculated, at the Vatican, April 2, 2021. (Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters)The Vatican City State bought its own doses to vaccinate Holy See employees and their families, and it has been giving away surplus supplies to homeless people. A masked Francis posed for photos with some of the volunteers and recipients in the Vatican audience hall.Later Friday, Francis was to preside over the Way of the Cross procession in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Square, instead of the popular torchlit ritual he usually celebrates at the Colosseum.In France, a nationwide 7 p.m. curfew is forcing parishes to move Good Friday ceremonies forward in the day, as the traditional Catholic night processions are being drastically scaled back or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are on localized lockdowns, where parishioners can attend daytime Mass if they sign the government’s “travel certificate.”  Although a third lockdown “light” is being imposed Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron has wavered on a travel ban for Easter weekend, allowing the French to drive between regions to meet up with family on Friday.FILE – Churchgoers wearing face masks lineup outside the Notre-Dame-des-Champs church in Paris, France.Fire-ravaged Notre Dame will not hold a Good Friday Mass this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” will be venerated by the cathedral’s clergy at its new temporary liturgical hub in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.In Spain, there will be no traditional processions for a second year in a row, and churches will limit the number of worshippers. Many parishes are going online with Mass and prayers via video streaming services.In the Philippines, streets were eerily quiet and religious gatherings were prohibited in the capital, Manila, and four outlying provinces. The government placed the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.The Philippines had started to reopen in hopes of stemming a severe economic crisis, but infections surged last month, apparently because of more contagious strains, increased public mobility and complacency.
 
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Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte fought for his political life Thursday in a bitter parliamentary debate about the country’s derailed process of forming a new ruling coalition following an election last month.Rutte’s conservative party, known by its Dutch acronym VVD, won the most seats in parliament in the vote, putting him in line to form his fourth governing coalition and possibly become the country’s longest-serving prime minister.That looked a long way off Thursday as lawmakers accused him of trying to sideline a popular lawmaker, a charge that Rutte denies.Negotiations halted a week ago after one of the two officials leading the coalition talks tested positive for COVID-19 and was photographed carrying notes laying out details of the talks.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party that finished second in elections last month, right, gestures during a debate in parliament in The Hague, Netherlands, early Friday, April 2, 2021.Among the text was a line saying: “Position Omtzigt, function elsewhere.” That was a reference to lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt of the Christian Democrat Appeal party, who, with his tough questions, has long been a thorn in the side of the government.After the note was photographed, Rutte told reporters last week that he had not discussed Omtzigt in his coalition talks. But according to notes made by civil servants that were published Thursday, Rutte did talk about the lawmaker.Rutte told the ensuing debate that he did not remember that part of the discussion and had answered reporters’ questions “in good conscience.””I am not standing here lying. I am telling the truth,” Rutte said.One of the officials who led the coalition talks, caretaker Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren, also told lawmakers that she did not recall discussing Omtzigt with Rutte, saying that it was the first of 17 separate discussions with party leaders.”We didn’t speak with anybody, with none of the party leaders about a function elsewhere for Mr. Omtzigt,” she said as the hourslong debate extended deep into the night.The debate around the coalition talks and Rutte’s leadership comes as the Netherlands is battling rising coronavirus infections despite a monthslong lockdown. Rutte’s popularity soared last year as he was seen as a steady hand steering the Netherlands through the coronavirus crisis, but it ebbed as the March election approached.Opposition lawmaker Geert Wilders demanded that Rutte step down immediately and called for a motion of no confidence.”Don’t you realize that your time is up?” Wilders said.Omtzigt was not present for the debate between party leaders. He is taking time off, after complaining of exhaustion.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party, which finished second in the election, said she had seen a “pattern of forgetfulness, amnesia” from Rutte over his more than a decade in office.”How can you, in the greatest crisis that we face in the Netherlands, restore the trust that has again been damaged?” Kaag asked. 
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Protests against Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s plan to reform the constitution are mounting in the Caribbean nation. As the Moise government prepares for a June referendum, the opposition is urging voters not to participate. VOA’s Sandra Lemaire reports.
Camera: Renan Toussaint and Matiado Vilme
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Russia’s espionage agencies are redoubling efforts to penetrate NATO, Western intelligence officials say, and are focusing on recruiting moles in the defense ministries of the pact’s member states.Italy expelled two Russian diplomats this week after they were caught in a parking lot in Rome handing cash to an Italian naval captain in exchange for sensitive military documents, which included NATO files.The 54-year-old Italian naval officer, Walter Biot, had been working at the Italian Ministry of Defense in Rome for a decade and was attached to the policy unit within the office of the Chief of the Defense Staff. According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Biot’s unit handled “all confidential and classified documents,” including NATO dossiers.The Carabinieri, one of Italy’s main law enforcement agencies, said Biot, a father of four, was caught “red-handed” exchanging the documents stored on a flash drive and was being detained on “serious crimes linked to spying and state security.”This wasn’t Biot’s first meeting with his Russia handlers, according to Italian investigators, and he was paid more than $5,000 each time he met with them.His arrest followed months of surveillance by Italy’s domestic intelligence agency AISI, according to an Italian official who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity. He compared the surveillance to the painstaking 2001 counterespionage operation in the United States that unearthed Robert Hanssen, a top FBI counterintelligence agent, as a Russian mole.Timing was key“Senior defense staff were informed of the suspicions about Biot, but it was important that there wasn’t a premature arrest and that he was caught actually handing over classified documents,” he added. “The Russians seemed mainly interested in NATO secrets.”Biot’s arrest came just weeks after Bulgaria broke up a military spy ring and expelled a pair of Russian diplomats. The half-dozen Bulgarians arrested, some of them Defense Ministry employees, have been charged with leaking classified NATO and European Union information.One of the six Bulgarians detained on March 18 made a full confession, according to local media, and reported he was paid $3,000 each time he handed over classified information. The most senior Bulgarian recruit was Ivan Iliev, a former chief of Bulgarian military intelligence. His wife, who is a dual Bulgarian-Russian citizen, was also a member of the ring.FILE – Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio speaks in Tripoli, Libya, March 25, 2021.The Italian government denounced the Russian spying. Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio described the incident as a “hostile act of extreme gravity.” He summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Razov and ordered the expulsion of the diplomats who handed the cash to Biot.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab expressed midweek his “solidarity” with Rome and criticized “Russia’s malign and destabilizing activity that is designed to undermine our NATO ally.”Kremlin accents ‘positive’ tiesThe Kremlin played down the possibility that the spying allegation could disrupt relations with Italy. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters he hoped “the very positive and constructive nature of Russian-Italian relations will continue and will be preserved.”Moscow is currently negotiating with the Italian government of Mario Draghi to sell Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. The Russian Embassy in Rome said it “regretted” the expulsions of the two diplomats but withheld threat of any tit-for-tat expulsions of Italian diplomats, despite Russian media reporting that the Kremlin might retaliate.Eleonora Tafuro, a Russia expert at the ISPI research organization in Milan, told Agence France-Presse the incident “really takes us back to the Cold War period.”Biot’s wife, Claudia Carbonara, a psychotherapist, told Italian reporters Thursday that her husband was “desperate” because of the family’s economic situation and said any material he handed over wouldn’t have compromised national security.“He had truly been in crisis for some time because he was afraid that he would not be able to face up to all the spending we have,” she said.She added, “I assure you that he gave the minimum he could give to the Russians. Nothing compromising — he is not stupid or irresponsible. He was just desperate, desperate about our future and that of our children.” She said the family had “been impoverished by COVID.”’Dazed and disoriented’If convicted, Biot faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. On Thursday, he appeared before a magistrate but declined to answer questions.“He said he was dazed and disoriented but ready to clarify his position. He asked for time to collect his thoughts,” Roberto De Vita, Biot’s lawyer, said.The court declined Biot’s request to be released from jail and to be placed under house arrest.The Kremlin’s more muted response to the Biot incident contrasted with its reaction to the expulsion last month of Russian diplomats by Bulgaria and to the expulsion in December by the Dutch government of a pair of Russian diplomats.Dutch officials alleged the diplomats were spies and had been targeting the high-tech sector and building a “substantial network of sources” in the industry. The two diplomats were working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the officials said.According to Dutch Interior Minister Karin Ollongren, the Russians targeted companies dealing with artificial intelligence, semiconductors and nanotechnology. Ollongren said the spy network had “likely caused damage to the organizations where the sources are or were active and thus possibly also to the Dutch economy and national security.”The Russian Foreign Ministry described the accusations as “unfounded” and warned the decision to expel the diplomats was “provocative.”The Biot incident came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin bemoaned “the unsatisfactory state of Russia-EU ties.” He blamed tense relations on the “often confrontational policies” of Brussels.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Moscow of building up troops on his country’s border as the United States warned Russia against “intimidating” Ukraine.Kyiv has been locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and this week Ukrainian officials reported Russian troop movement in annexed Crimea and on the border, near territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.On Thursday, Zelensky’s ministers discussed the escalating security situation with Western allies, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.Zelensky said in a statement that “military exercises and possible provocations along the border are traditional Russian games.” He accused Moscow of seeking to create “a threatening atmosphere” as Kyiv hopes to resume a cease-fire brokered last year.The U.S. State Department said it was “absolutely concerned by recent escalations of Russian aggressive and provocative actions in eastern Ukraine.””What we would object to are aggressive actions that have an intent of intimidating, of threatening, our partner Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.Some observers said the reported Russian troop buildup was a test for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who caused an uproar in Moscow last month by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “killer.”This week, Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for a rise in violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has undermined the cease-fire.Zelensky said 20 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 57 wounded since the start of the year.Separately, the military announced that a Ukrainian soldier had been wounded in an attack it blamed on separatists.FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to Defense Department personnel at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Feb. 10, 2021..’Ready for an offensive’On Thursday, U.S. defense chief Austin called his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Taran, Ukraine’s defense ministry said.Austin said during the call that Washington would “not leave Ukraine alone in the event of escalating Russian aggression,” the ministry said.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, for his part, discussed the “aggravation by the Russian Federation of the security situation” on the front line with his Canadian counterpart, Marc Garneau.Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia of preparing to “expand its military presence” in the separatist-controlled eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.In a statement, the intelligence service said it “does not rule out” an attempt by Russian forces to move “deep into Ukrainian territory.”A high-ranking Ukrainian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the Russian army was practicing “military coordination” with separatists.”From mid-April their combat units will be ready for an offensive,” the official told AFP.FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.West shouldn’t ‘worry’Moscow has repeatedly denied sending troops and arms to buttress the separatists, and Putin’s spokesman stressed on Thursday that Moscow was at liberty to move troops across its territory.”The Russian Federation moves its armed forces within its territory at its discretion,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but he did not directly confirm a troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.He added that “it should not worry anyone and does not pose a threat to anyone.”The war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula following a bloody uprising that ousted Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych.On Wednesday, the Pentagon said U.S. forces in Europe had raised their alert status following the “recent escalations of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.”Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Valery Gerasimov and Ruslan Khomchak.Khomchak said this week that 28,000 separatist fighters and “more than 2,000 Russian military instructors and advisers” were currently stationed in eastern Ukraine.On Thursday, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, Roman Mashovets, called for joint drills with NATO forces to “help stabilize the security situation.”Zelensky was elected in 2019 promising to end the years-long conflict, but critics say a shaky cease-fire was his only tangible achievement.The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations. 
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