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Interview: Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Speaks to VOA

VOA Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze spoke to Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov about a United Nations program to deliver Ukrainian grain to the world and his country’s efforts to replace bridges damaged during Russia’s invasion. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: After you signed the agreement with the World Food Program under the U.N., and over 3 million tons of grain was delivered to the world, does it mean that the World Food Program and this agreement [are] working?

KUBRAKOV: Yes, you’re absolutely right. … Almost each week, we load in one, two vessels, which is going to Somalia, to Ethiopia, Kenya, and other African countries which are suffering now because you know that according to statistics of United Nations almost 70 million people now, they feel lack of food and there is a huge risk for these countries.

VOA: There was a report about Russia stealing Ukrainian grain. How are you dealing with this issue?

KUBRAVOV: We are trying to block these supplies. Normal countries which appreciate, which try to stick to international laws, they understand this, and they are not accepting such vessels with stolen grain from our country. But still there is Syria. Still there are some other countries oriented on the Russian Federation and they support such transactions.

VOA: And they are accepting the grain, Ukrainian grain under Russian pretext. There are a lot of Ukrainian grains. The world learned how big Ukraine is as an agricultural country and how much impact Ukraine has in the world. How are you planning to actually save Ukrainian grain?

KUBRAVOV: The most important for us is just to increase volume of our exports. Results of August were quite optimistic. We reached almost 5 million. It’s very similar volumes which we had before the war. So, I hope that if we will continue with the same volumes, I think we will save all our agricultural products and nothing will be spoiled. So, we will reach volumes which we had before the war.

VOA: My understanding that you are developing other ways to deliver grain, tell me about that.

KUBRAVOV: Last month we exported more than 2 million, about 2.2 million tons of different products through three ports on [the] Danube [River] and 1.6 million tons of agricultural products. So, it’s also like a huge contribution to whole export. We are developing our railway lines in direction to Poland, to Romania. It’s also important because we passed over 1 million tons of exports through these channels.

And for sure we are trying to simplify border cross checkpoints and all of these issues with our colleagues from Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Hungary. It’s not so easy, we understand that our points, they were not ready for such volumes. But we are working on this, and the European Commission also supports us.

VOA: We are standing on this bridge. It’s a fresh new building. You are replacing all the bridges that were destroyed during the first stage of invasion. My understanding [is that] a lot of infrastructure would have to be replaced. How are you dealing with that? And how much you are relying on the international community for support?

KUBRAVOV: First of all, we understand that the war is continuing, and now we’re focusing only on the main roads, the main railway roads, the main infrastructure. So, we are standing on a bridge which is part of international road, so that’s why we understand it’s like top priority for us. And we have 320 destroyed bridges. We have 53 temporary bridges which are already constructed. This bridge won’t be temporary. It will be a permanent, normal bridge. I hope that we will finish it in less than one and a half months, before first of November we will open the bridge.

And you asked about support of our international partners. Fortunately, they support us, and recently we have received the decision of the European Commission and European investment Bank, they will provide financing for such recovery of like fast recovery. It’s first part of the most important bridges, railway lines and almost half a billion euro program. So, I hope that it will be enough just to cover all these urgent issues.

VOA: So far, your assessment, how much would have to be replaced?

KUBRAVOV: I can rely on figures of Kyiv School of Economy and World Bank, they are very close because one of the organizations they calculated the date on — the date was beginning of summer — Kyiv School of Economy, they are trying to update almost each week, months. So, they are close to $100 billion of direct losses of infrastructure and number one point in this figure, it’s residential buildings and second issue it’s transport infrastructure.

Turkish, Greek Tensions Escalate as Allies Focus on Ukraine Conflict

Tensions between NATO members Turkey and Greece are escalating over territorial disputes. Some analysts warn domestic politics are fueling the tensions, with little sign of mediation efforts by Western allies who are focused on the Ukrainian conflict. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

 Bidens Attend Packed Funeral For Queen Elizabeth II 

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II Monday, joining world leaders, the royal family and a small group of invited guests at a somber, pomp-filled funeral ceremony at Westminster Abbey that celebrated her 70 years of service as Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

The Bidens arrived late Saturday for the event and have kept a low profile in the British capital, holding no official diplomatic meetings and keeping their public comments to the topic of the queen’s recent death September 8 at the age of 96.

White House officials told VOA before the funeral that Washington’s strong ties to London will continue after the recent change in leadership — which includes the new king, Charles III, and the recently installed prime minister, Liz Truss. Biden will meet with Truss Wednesday in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“We are confident that with King Charles and with Prime Minister Truss that the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain will endure, we’re not worried about that at all,” National Security Council director of strategic communications John Kirby told VOA.

On Sunday, Biden and his wife paid their respects as the queen’s body lay in state at Westminster Hall, where tens of thousands lined up for hours to pass by her elaborately draped casket, which also bore the Imperial State Crown, orb and scepter — a priceless and instantly recognizable piece capped by the massive, glittering Star of Africa diamond, a 530-carat stone given to the Crown by then-colony South Africa, in 1907.

On Sunday, the Bidens also signed condolence books, and the president praised the queen for her legacy of selfless duty.

“I think what she gave us is a sense of, maybe above all, the notion of service, that we all owe something,” he said. “There’s something within our capacity to do that can make things — not just the world better, but your neighborhood better, your household better, your workplace better. And that’s what she communicated to me anyway.”

The king also hosted a formal state reception for dignitaries Sunday, which Biden attended.

The British crown has extended a controversial funeral invitation to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to be responsible for ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. They did not invite the leaders of Russia, Belarus, Syria, Afghanistan or Venezuela.

Elizabeth will be buried privately later on Monday at St. George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle, next to her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip.

EU Drafts Media Act Amid Concern Over Spying, State Pressure 

The European Union’s executive branch has unveiled plans for new laws that it said would help protect media freedom and independence in the 27-nation bloc at a time of mounting concern about the dangers of political influence in several member countries.

Spurred into action allegations of state spying on reporters, the use of political pressure on news outlets and the placing of advertising to peddle influence, the European Commission said the EU needs a European Media Freedom Act.

“We see a lot of worrying trends regarding media in Europe, and it’s not only a matter of one or two countries,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told reporters in Brussels. She said the proposed legislation is needed “for the times we live in, not for the times we would like to live in.”

The commission has criticized the governments of Hungary, Poland and Slovenia in recent years for trying to pressure their national media. But EU officials say they see the risk of political influence in more than 20 member countries.

“We need to establish clear principles: No journalist should be spied on because of their job. No public media should be turned into propaganda channel,” Jourova said.

The main thrust of the new act is to protect media outlets from governments attempting to determine what they can publish or broadcast, and to prevent countries from spying on media workers.

The legislation also aims to ensure stable funding of public service media and to make media ownership more transparent.

The proposal would only take effect once it has been debated and endorsed by EU member countries and the European Parliament.

The centerpiece of the legislation would create an independent body, made up of national media authorities, to issue opinions on national measures and decisions affecting media markets and media market ownership. But the opinions of the European Board for Media Services would not be binding on national authorities.

Jourova rejected suggestions that the board would be answerable to the European Commission or serve as an oversight body that itself keeps tabs on what reporters and editors are doing.

“We are not going to regulate the media themselves, but the space for media,” she said.

The act would ban the use of spyware against journalists and their families, with exceptions only for investigations of crimes such as terrorism, child abuse or murder. Journalists would have the right to judicial protection, and countries would set up an independent authority to handle complaints.

The allocation of state advertising to media would also be made more transparent. Officials say that 21 countries are at medium to high risk of misusing advertising revenue to influence editors and journalists.

The plan is the commission’s second recent foray into the media world. On Sept. 6, it launched a consortium of 18 European news agencies to “carry out independent reporting on EU affairs.” The European Newsroom benefits from around 1.8 million euros ($1.8 million) in EU funding.

In Photos: Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is being held at London’s historic Westminster Abbey.

Her body has been lying in state since Wednesday at Westminster Hall, where thousands of mourners have filed past her coffin to pay their respects.

Heads of state and dignitaries from around the world have flown into London to attend Elizabeth’s funeral which is certain to be full of British pomp and circumstance.

London Prepares for Queen’s Funeral at Westminster Abbey

The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is being held Monday at London’s historic Westminster Abbey. 

Her body has been lying in state since Wednesday at Westminster Hall, where thousands of mourners have filed past her coffin to pay their respects. 

Heads of state and dignitaries from around the world have flown into London to attend Elizabeth’s funeral which is certain to be full of British pomp and circumstance.

The queen is reported to have had a hand in planning some of the details of her final farewell. 

The dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, will preside over the service; the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will deliver a sermon. Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was appointed to her office by the queen just two days before Elizabeth died, will read a lesson.

The queen’s coffin will be carried Monday morning to Westminster Abbey on the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy that will be drawn by 142 sailors. The carriage also was used for the funeral of Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, in 1952.

Westminster Abbey also was the site of Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 and her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947. 

After the funeral, King Charles III and other members of the royal family, in a walking procession, will accompany Elizabeth’s coffin to Wellington Arch, Elizabeth’s last stop before her burial at Windsor Castle.  

Britain’s last state funeral was held almost 60 years ago for Winston Churchill, the prime minister who led Britain to a World War II victory.

Spanish Charity Rescues 372 in Central Mediterranean; 1 Dead

The Spanish charity Open Arms has rescued 372 people seeking to cross the central Mediterranean to Europe in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats and recovered the corpse of a man who had been shot by smugglers, officials said Sunday.

The rescue ship Open Arms Uno remained at sea and is seeking a safe port for the rescued people, including some who need medical attention and many who are suffering from dehydration, said Laura Lanuza, an Open Arms representative. She said they have made at least two requests for a safe port in Malta.

In all, the ship performed three rescues in 24 hours. In the largest rescue, the Open Arms picked up 294 people, mostly Egyptians, from an overcrowded barge in waters south of Malta during a nighttime operation that spanned nearly five hours before dawn Sunday. Those rescued said they had been at sea for four days.

The packed boat had been spotted by volunteer pilots combing the Mediterranean for people in distress, and a photo showed its decks packed with people waving for help.

Before that, the Open Arms rescued 59 migrants from Syria, Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea, among them 10 minors, from an oil platform they had reached in international waters near Tunisia. Still in the flimsy smugglers’ boat was the wrapped body of a migrant who had been shot on shore by smugglers, Lanuza said.

“The smugglers forced the people to take the corpse with them. They spent a day or so at sea, and kept the corpse until they were saved,” Lanuza said.

On Saturday morning, the Open Arms rescued 19 people from a rubber dinghy off Libya in international waters. They included 16 people from Syria.

A photographer with The Associated Press aboard, the Open Arms, said during each rescue, desperate people flung themselves into the water, complicating the operation.

Ukraine Looks For War Dead in Recaptured Northeast Region  

Ukraine on Sunday searched for its war dead in Izium and other towns in the northeastern part of the country it reclaimed from Russia in a lightning advance earlier this month.

Izium Mayor Valery Marchenko told state television that “the exhumation is under way, the graves are being dug up and all the remains are being transported to Kharkiv.

“The work will continue for another two weeks, there are many burials,” Marchenko said. “No new ones have been found yet, but the services are looking for possible burials.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that investigators had discovered new evidence of torture inflicted against some of the soldiers buried in Izium, one of more than 20 towns that Ukraine recaptured in the northeastern Kharkiv region that Russia had held for months. He said that 17 bodies were found at one site, some of which bore signs of torture.

Ukrainian officials said last week 440 bodies were discovered in woodlands near Izium, with most of the dead identified as civilians, Ukraine said the discovery proved war crimes had been committed by Russian forces. Emergency workers have been exhuming the remains.

Oleksandr Ilienkov, the chief of the prosecutor’s office for the Kharkiv region, told the Reuters news agency at the site on Friday: “One of the bodies [found] has evidence of a ligature pattern and a rope around the neck, tied hands.” Forensic examination of the bodies is continuing.

Moscow has repeatedly denied it has targeted civilians during its nearly seven-month invasion. The Kremlin has not commented publicly on the discovery of the graves.

The head of the pro-Russian administration that abandoned the Kharkiv region earlier this month accused Ukrainians of staging the atrocities at Izium. “I have not heard anything about burials,” Vitaly Ganchev told Rossiya-24 state television.

Meanwhile, as the fighting rages on, a British intelligence report said Sunday that Russia has widened its attacks on civilian infrastructure in the past week.

Five civilians were killed in Russian attacks in the Donetsk region in the last day. Ukrainian officials said that several dozen high-rise and private buildings, gas pipelines and power lines were damaged by Russian strikes in Nikopol.

The British report said, “As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.”

U.S. President Joe Biden is again warning Russian President Vladimir Putin against using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,” he said in an interview with CBS News scheduled to air Sunday night. Biden would not comment specifically on a U.S. response if Russia were to use chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” he added. “And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”

It was not Biden’s first warning to his Russian counterpart. Biden said in March that the NATO military alliance would respond “in kind” to any use of weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

“We will respond if he uses it,” Biden said, referring to Putin. “The nature of the response depends on the nature of the use.”

He spoke after meeting with partners from NATO along with the Group of Seven leading industrialized economies and the European Union.

Just days into the invasion of Ukraine, Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, prompting the White House to assemble a team of national security officials — the so-called Tiger Team — to study potential responses in the event Russia deployed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons against Ukraine, neighboring nations or NATO convoys of weapons and aid headed for Ukraine.

In 2000, Russia updated its military doctrine to allow the first use of nuclear weapons “in response to large-scale aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security of the Russian Federation,” according to the U.S.-based Arms Control Association. The 1997 version of the doctrine had allowed the first use of nuclear arms only “in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation.”

The newest version also states for the first time that Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons to respond to all “weapons of mass destruction” attacks.

In another development, The New York Times reports that Ukrainian military personnel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut say they believe they are fighting Russian prisoners instead of Russian soldiers.

The publication said it has analyzed a video posted online that apparently shows representatives of The Wagner Group, a private military company, promising inmates they could win their freedom if they completed a six–month, combat tour in Ukraine. The Times said, however, that the video could not be verified.

President Putin has said seizing Bakhmut is one of the main goals of its invasion of Ukraine.

Some material in this report came from Reuters.

Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II Is Huge Security Challenge  

The funeral of the only monarch most Britons have known involves the biggest security operation London has ever seen.

Mayor Sadiq Khan says Monday’s state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II is an “unprecedented” security challenge, with hundreds of thousands of people packing central London and a funeral guest list of 500 emperors, kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and other leaders from around the world.

“It’s been decades since this many world leaders were in one place,” said Khan. “This is unprecedented … in relation to the various things that we’re juggling.”

“There could be bad people wanting to cause damage to individuals or to some of our world leaders,” Khan told The Associated Press. “So we are working incredibly hard — the police, the security services and many, many others — to make sure this state funeral is as successful as it can be.”

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the “hugely complex” policing operation is the biggest in the London force’s history, surpassing the London 2012 Olympics.

More than 10,000 police officers will be on duty Monday, with London bobbies supplemented by reinforcements from all of Britain’s 43 police forces. Hundreds of volunteer marshals and members of the armed forces will also act as stewards along the processional route.

They are just the most visible part of a security operation that is being run from a high-tech control center near Lambeth Bridge, not far from Parliament.

Street drains and garbage bins are being searched and sealed. On Monday there will be police spotters on rooftops, sniffer dogs on the streets, marine officers on the River Thames and mounted police on horseback.

Flying drones over central London has been temporarily banned, and Heathrow Airport is grounding scores of flights so that aircraft noise does not disturb the funeral service.

Authorities face the challenge of keeping 500 world leaders safe, without ruffling too many diplomatic feathers. Presidents, prime ministers and royalty will gather offsite before being taken by bus to the abbey — though an exception is being made for U.S. President Joe Biden, who is expected to arrive in his armored limousine, known as The Beast.

Another challenge is the sheer size of the crowds expected to gather around Westminster Abbey and along the route the coffin will travel after the funeral, past Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park. From there it will be taken by hearse about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to Windsor, where another 2,000 police officers will be on duty.

The queen is due to be interred in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle alongside her husband Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99.

Police are deploying more than 22 miles (36 kilometers) of barriers in central London to control the crowds, and transit bosses are preparing for jam-packed stations, buses and subway trains as 1 million people flood the ceremonial heart of London. Subways will run later than normal and train companies are adding extra services to help get people home.

While many will be mourning the queen, support for the monarchy is far from universal. Police have already drawn criticism for arresting several people who staged peaceful protests during events related to the queen’s death and the accession of King Charles III.

Cundy said it had been made clear to officers that “people have a right to protest.”

“Our response here in London will be proportionate, it will be balanced, and officers will only be taking action where it is absolutely necessary,” he said.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said the goal was to keep the event safe, “and try to do it in as unobtrusive a way as possible, because this is obviously a solemn occasion.”

Dean of Westminster David Hoyle, who will conduct the funeral service in the 900-year-old abbey, said preparations were going smoothly — despite the occasional security-related glitch.

“There was a wonderful moment when I had flower arrangers waiting in the abbey, and no flowers, because, quite properly, the police didn’t recognize what the van was and the flowers were sent back,” he said.

Biden, World Leaders Gather in London For Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II 

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are in London alongside hundreds of world leaders and thousands of ordinary people who flocked to the British capital, joining long lines to pay their final respects to the nation’s longest serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

Biden, who arrived late Saturday, is among hundreds of world leaders who are gathering in Britain to attend the queen’s funeral Monday.

On Sunday, as people milled around central London, world leaders made their way to Lancaster House to deliver condolences over the queen’s death on Sept. 8 at the age of 96.

“This is a time of grief, but also a time of deep gratitude,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who leads one of the 56 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, an organization of many former British colonies now led by Elizabeth’s eldest son, King Charles III. “Australians give thanks for the life of service of Queen Elizabeth II, a life defined by commitment to family, to country, to [the] Commonwealth.”

Biden and his wife are also expected to pay their respects to Elizabeth Sunday in Westminster Hall, where her body has been lying in state since Wednesday. Members of Europe’s royal families are also expected to attend the services. The king will also host a formal state reception for dignitaries Sunday.

The British crown has extended a controversial funeral invitation to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to be responsible for ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. But they did not invite the leaders of Russia, Belarus, Syria, Afghanistan and Venezuela.

On Sunday, as the skies over London remained clear, thousands of people milled around Westminster, the center of the city. London police cheerfully marshalled the heaving crowds of families, veterans carrying bouquets and children holding lollipops, as the Queen’s image beamed at them from shop windows.

Ukraine, Food Security in Spotlight During UN Leaders Week

The annual gathering of leaders at the U.N. General Assembly is taking place this year in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and as the war in Ukraine heads into a possibly decisive period.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is skipping the Queen’s funeral to remain in New York to oversee an Education Summit on Monday. He will then participate in the opening of the annual debate Tuesday morning, telling reporters it would be “inconceivable” that he would miss it.

U.S. President Joe Biden as host country leader would traditionally be the second head of state to address the assembly Tuesday, but as he will be attending Elizabeth’s funeral Monday, U.S. officials say his speech will now shift to Wednesday.

Spotlight

Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be coming to New York, but despite this, their conflict will dominate the agenda.

“I think that Joe Biden and other Western leaders will use this as an opportunity to simply hammer home their anger with Russia over this war,” Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, told VOA.

He said Western leaders will also be seeking to shore up support from some non-Western countries they feel are trying to avoid taking sides or criticizing Russia.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Friday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “tests the fundamental principles that the U.N. was founded on.” She urged the international community not to abandon those values.

“We must double down on our commitment to a peaceful world and hold even closer our deeply held principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, peace and security,” she said.

“And that’s why next week is so critical. We believe this is a moment to defend the United Nations and to demonstrate to the world that it can still take the world’s most pressing global challenges on.”

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council will hold a ministerial level meeting on the situation; it could see some heated exchanges between Russian and Western officials. There will also be a separate side event that day on accountability for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

But despite what will be many meetings and events about the conflict, even the secretary-general is not optimistic that there will be the opportunity for any ground-breaking diplomacy on the sidelines of the annual debate.

“My good offices are ready, but I have no illusions … at the present moment, the chances of a peace deal are minimal,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Food crisis

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up global food, fertilizer and fuel prices, pushing fragile countries closer to the brink.

World Food Program Chief David Beasley warns that in 82 countries, as many as 345 million people are acutely food insecure, or “marching toward starvation.”

Somalia is one of the worst off.

Four failed rainy seasons have led to unprecedented drought. Eight million people could soon face famine if October’s rains fail as forecast.

“In total, 300,000 people are expected to be in IPC 5 conditions between October and December,” the Food and Agriculture Organization’s chief economist, Maximo Torero, told U.N. Security Council members Thursday.

IPC 5 is the humanitarian classification for famine.

In 2011-12 more than 250,000 Somalis died from famine. In 2016, there were fears that would be repeated, but international donors rallied to prevent the worst outcome.

Today, leaders know they need to act and do so quickly.

Somalia has sent its special envoy for drought response to New York to muster international support.

“Food is available inside the country — what we need is cash,” Abdirahman Abdishakur told VOA.

He warns that if a scaled-up humanitarian response does not happen in the next few weeks, people will die.

“The famine is real — it is happening,” he said.

On Wednesday, there will be a high-level meeting on responding to urgent needs in the Horn of Africa.

As for rising global food prices, the United States, the African Union, European Union and Spain will co-chair a food security summit Tuesday.

“It is bringing both the South as well as countries — developing countries and donor countries — together in the room to address these issues and how we move forward,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said. “So that we can avoid the crisis that we are actually experiencing right now and see if we can make the situation better in the coming months.”

Improving market supply

The United Nations is counting on a package deal it has brokered with the help of Turkey and agreed by Ukraine and Russia, to put more grain on the global market and lower food prices.

The deal, signed July 22 in Istanbul, allows Ukrainian grain exports out of its Black Sea ports that Russia had blockaded. A separate agreement seeks to remove obstacles to get Russian fertilizer and food exports to world markets. Although not under Western sanctions, some shippers and insurers have been reluctant to do business with Russian companies for fear of running afoul of other sanctions targeting Moscow.

So far, more than 3 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain has gotten to markets in more than 30 countries via the deal, leading to a drop in food prices.

“Prices at the international level have gone down, but it is true that prices at the domestic level have not yet seen the decrease that we have seen in the international market,” said U.N. Conference on Trade and Development chief Rebeca Grynspan, who helped negotiate the deal.

She is also working to get more Russian fertilizer to markets, to ease prices, which she says are currently three times more than they were before the pandemic. If farmers cannot afford fertilizer, their crop yields could shrink, leading to food shortages next year.

“Fertilizer is a very important part of this deal,” Grynspan said.

Multitude of crises

While Ukraine may monopolize the spotlight during the high-level week, there is no shortage of other pressing issues, crises and conflicts for leaders to discuss.

Many will come up in bilateral meetings among top leaders. Others will get a broader setting.

Ahead of the general debate, Secretary-General Guterres is convening an education summit to address the massive disruption caused to schooling by the pandemic. The U.N. says 244 million young people worldwide are still out of school.

A new report from the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, estimates that only a third of 10-year-olds worldwide can read and understand a simple written story. That is half what it was pre-pandemic.

This is the first year leaders will meet again in New York in person in large numbers since the pandemic began in 2020, and while COVID-19 will not be in the spotlight, pandemic recovery will be part of economic and health discussions.

As will the climate crisis.

The U.N. chief just returned from Pakistan, where deadly floods have submerged one-third of the country.

“What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it,” he told reporters.

He will use his platform to press for more investments for climate adaptation and mitigation for the poorest countries, which have contributed the least to climate change.

Biden in London for Queen’s Funeral

U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are in London where they will attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. 

Biden, who arrived late Saturday, is among hundreds of world leaders who are gathering in Britain to attend the queen’s funeral Monday. 

Biden and his wife are expected to pay their respects to Elizabeth Sunday in Westminster Hall, where her body had been lying in state since Wednesday. 

Members of Europe’s royal families are also expected to attend Elizabeth’s services. 

King Charles III, Elizabeth’s son, is holding a formal state reception Sunday for the many dignitaries who have gathered in England’s capital.

The British crown has extended a controversial funeral invitation to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who is widely believed to be responsible for ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.  

Belgrade’s EuroPride March Goes on Despite Far-Right Protests, Arrests

Serbian police arrested more than 30 people as thousands of LGBTQ activists turned out for Belgrade’s EuroPride march Saturday, despite a government ban.

The event had been intended as the cornerstone event of the EuroPride gathering. But the interior ministry banned the march earlier this week, citing security concerns after right wing groups threatened to hold protests.

And although the march took place without major incident, local media said clashes broke out between counterdemonstrators and police.

The interior ministry had also barred any counter protests, but some far-right groups vowed to rally and gather in front of churches.

Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin had warned in a statement that “we will not tolerate any violence in Belgrade streets, any more than illegal marches.”

Model and activist Yasmin Benoit said she had been to many gay pride parades “but this one is slightly more stressful than the others.”

“I’m from the U.K. where everyone is more supportive and it’s more commercial,” she told AFP.

“But here, this is really what pride should be,” she added, referring to the societal struggle at the origins of the movement.

“We are fighting for the future of this country,” said Luka, a Serbian taking part in Saturday’s event.

 

Gay marriage not recognized

Despite the official ban, demonstrators were able to march in the rain a few hundred meters between the Constitutional Court to a nearby park, a much shorter route than organizers had originally planned.

Gay marriage is not legally recognized in Serbia, where homophobia remains deep-seated despite some progress over the years in reducing discrimination.

The Balkan country, a candidate for EU membership, had been under intense international pressure to allow the march.

More than 20 embassies, including the U.S., France and Britain, had issued a joint statement urging the authorities to lift the ban.

There was a heavy police presence around the pride rally, with officers pushing back the small groups of counterdemonstrators waving crosses and religious insignia.

The interior ministry said 31 people were arrested.

The authorities gave no details on those detained, but AFP journalists saw several counterdemonstrators being taken away.

According to N1 television, there were scuffles between police and the counterdemonstrators, some of whom threw smoke bombs at the officers and damaged several vehicles.

The U.S. embassy had urged its citizens to avoid the event “because of the potential for unruly crowds, violence, as well as possible fines.”

‘Implicit sanctioning of bigotry’

Human rights groups and the European Union called on the Serbian government to rescind the ban.

“The Serbian government’s decision to cancel EuroPride is a shameful surrender to, and implicit sanctioning of, bigotry and threats of unlawful violence,” said Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch.

At least 15 members of the European Parliament announced that they would join the pride march in a show of solidarity.

Belgrade pride marches in 2001 and again in 2010 were marred by violence and rioting after far-right groups targeted the event.

Since 2014, the parade has been organized regularly without any notable unrest but was protected with a large law enforcement presence.

This year’s ban came just days after thousands took part in an anti-pride demonstration in Belgrade, with biker gangs, Orthodox priests and far-right nationalists demanding the EuroPride rally be scrapped.

“I am here to preserve Serbian traditions, faith and culture, which are being destroyed by sodomites,” Andrej Bakic, 36, a counter-protester in a group surrounded by riot police told AFP Saturday.

William, Harry Stand Vigil with Cousins at Queen’s Coffin

Princes William and Harry stood vigil at either end of the coffin of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Saturday, heads bowed as a line of mourners streamed past the late monarch’s lying-in-state.

The two sons of King Charles, attired in military uniforms, stood in silence at a 15-minute vigil in the vast Westminster Hall where the coffin has been lying since Wednesday, draped in the Royal Standard and with the bejeweled Imperial State Crown on top.

William and Harry were joined by their six cousins, including Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who earlier paid tribute to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. The queen died on September 8 at her summer estate in the Scottish Highlands at age 96.

“You were our matriarch, our guide, our loving hand on our backs leading us through this world,” said the sisters, daughters of Prince Andrew. “You taught us so much and we will cherish those lessons and memories forever. For now, dear grannie, all we want to say is thank you.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have lined up for long hours in a queue stretching along the River Thames, waiting to file past the coffin and honor the queen, a testimony to the affection in which she was held.

The other cousins at Saturday’s vigil were Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, the children of Princess Anne, and Louise and James, the children of Prince Edward.

Earlier on Saturday, Charles and his heir William shook hands and greeted well-wishers in the queue, asking people how long they had been there and whether they were warm enough.

To cheers of “hip, hip, hurrah” and shouts of “God save the King,” Charles and William spoke to mourners near Lambeth Bridge, as they neared the end of the massive line to see the lying-in-state in the historic Westminster Hall.

On Friday night, Charles joined his three siblings, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward, in a silent vigil at the coffin.

“She wouldn’t believe all this, she really wouldn’t,” William was heard telling one man of the late queen, who came to the throne in 1952. “It’s amazing.”

One woman told Charles it had been “worth the wait” and others wished him well and cheered as he moved down the line.

Ahead of the state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday, world leaders also start arriving in the British capital.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were among the dignitaries to pay their respects on Saturday while New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was seen curtsying to the coffin on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to go to the lying-in-state on Sunday.

On Saturday, Charles met leaders of the 14 countries where he is head of state such as Canada, Australia, and Jamaica after meeting the governors-general — the people who represent the monarch in overseas realms — at Buckingham Palace.

 

Security operation

London’s police force has described the funeral as the biggest security operation it has ever undertaken as prime ministers, presidents and royals come together and huge crowds throng the streets. The king visited police headquarters on Saturday to thank emergency services workers involved in the planning.

Underscoring the risks, police said one man had been detained and arrested after a witness told Sky News he “ran up to the queen’s coffin.” Footage showed a man being pinned to the ground by police officers and taken away.

By 5 p.m. local time, Britain’s culture ministry said the waiting time to reach the lying-in-state was up to 11 hours.

Inside the silent hall, some mourners wept, many were tearful while current soldiers and veterans saluted their former commander-in-chief. Others in the line fell to their knees.

New friendships, acts of kindness and the struggles of standing in line for hours, sometimes in the cold overnight, have come to define what has become known as just “the queue.”

The state funeral, to be attended by nearly 100 presidents and heads of government, is likely to be one of the biggest ceremonial events ever held in Britain.

Soldiers took part in early morning rehearsals in Windsor, where the queen’s coffin will be taken after the funeral at Westminster Abbey. Marching bands playing music and Grenadier Guards, who wear a tall bearskin hat on ceremonial duties, were seen marching down the High Street in preparation.

Liz Kelshall from Leatherhead, southern England, said she had brought her two children to Windsor so they would never forget the queen.

“It’s really important for them to grow up and remember this and it’s important for us as a family to come and show some respect for an amazing woman,” she said.

Pelosi in Armenia Days After Clashes, Says US Committed to Peace

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived Saturday in Armenia, days after the Caucasus country’s deadly border clashes with Azerbaijan jeopardized Western efforts to broker lasting peace between the arch foes.

The worst clashes since Yerevan’s 2020 war with Baku erupted on Tuesday, claiming the lives of 215 people, before hostilities ended on Thursday after international mediation.

Pelosi said her visit “is a powerful symbol of the United States firm commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Armenia, and a stable and secure Caucasus region.”

She is the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to Armenia since the tiny, impoverished nation’s 1991 independence from the Soviet Union.

The three-day visit “will play a big role in ensuring our security,” Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan told journalists ahead of her arrival.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars, in 2020 and in the 1990s, over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated enclave.

Together with France and Russia, the U.S. co-chairs the Minsk Group of mediators, which had led decades-long peace talks between Baku and Yerevan under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

“We will convey the strong and ongoing support of the United States, as an OSCE Minsk Chair and longtime friend to Armenia, for a lasting settlement to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pelosi said in a statement.

The latest escalation came as Armenia’s closest ally, Moscow, is distracted by its nearly seven-month war in Ukraine.

Analysts have said the hostilities have largely undone Western efforts to bring Baku and Yerevan closer to a peace deal.

With Moscow increasingly isolated on the world stage following its February invasion of Ukraine, the European Union had taken a lead role in mediating the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process.

The six weeks of fighting in 2020 claimed the lives of more than 6,500 troops from both sides and ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire.

Under the deal, Armenia ceded swaths of territory it had controlled for decades, and Moscow deployed about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.

Biden Warns Putin on Use of WMDs: ‘Don’t, Don’t, Don’t’

President Joe Biden again is warning Russian President Vladimir Putin against using weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Ukraine.

“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,” he said in an interview with CBS News scheduled to air Sunday night. 

Biden would not comment specifically on a U.S. response if Russia were to use chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” he added.  “And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”   

It was not Biden’s first warning to Putin: Following a meeting with European Union and G-7 partners and NATO allies in March, Biden said NATO would respond “in kind” to any use of WMDs in Ukraine.

“We will respond if he uses it,” Biden said, referring to Putin. “The nature of the response depends on the nature of the use.”

A month later, Biden chastised Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as “irresponsible” after Lavrov told Russian state television that the risks of nuclear war were “considerable.”

“No one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons or the possibility of the need to use them,” Biden said.

Just days into his invasion of Ukraine, Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert for the first time since the fall of the former Soviet Union, prompting the White House to assemble a team of national security officials — the so-called Tiger Team — to study potential responses in the event Russia deployed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons against Ukraine, neighboring nations or NATO convoys of weapons and aid headed for Ukraine.

In 2000, Russia updated its military doctrine to allow the first use of nuclear weapons in “in response to large-scale aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security of the Russian Federation,” according to the U.S.-based Arms Control Association.  The 1997 version of the doctrine had allowed the first use of nuclear arms only “in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation.”  

The newest version also states for the first time that Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons to respond to all “weapons of mass destruction” attacks. 

Meanwhile, Russia’s targeting of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has renewed nuclear anxiety across Europe. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi reported Saturday that the plant, Europe’s largest, is once again receiving electricity from the national grid.

Grossi cautioned that the general situation for the plant, however, remains precarious, as long as Russian forces are shelling in the wider region around Zaporizhzhia.  

The nuclear plant remains under Russian control, the IAEA said, but Ukrainians are handling its operations.

Cyprus Hails US Decision to Fully Lift Weapons Embargo

Cyprus on Saturday hailed the full lifting of a U.S. arms embargo on the ethnically divided island nation as a milestone reaffirming increasingly tighter bilateral bonds that serve to bolster stability in the turbulent east Mediterranean region.

President Nicos Anastasiades tweeted his gratitude to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, for helping to lift the embargo.

Turkey, which maintains more than 35,000 troops in the northern third of Cyprus, condemned the decision. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to reconsider, warning that the move would harm efforts for a Cyprus peace deal, lead to an arms race on the island and undermine regional stability.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in in a statement that Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined Cyprus met the conditions to allow for “exports, re-exports and transfers of defense articles … for the fiscal year 2023.”

The U.S. will assess annually whether Cyprus complies with conditions for the embargo lift, including implementing anti-money laundering regulations and denying Russian military vessels access to ports for refueling and servicing.

Cyprus barred Russian warships from using its ports in early March following the invasion of Ukraine.

The conditions are enshrined in the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act that the U.S. Congress passed in 2019. The law underscores U.S. support for closer ties among Greece, Cyprus and Israel based on recently discovered offshore gas deposits.

The U.S. enacted the embargo in 1987 to prevent a potential arms race from harming peace talks with the Mediterranean island nation’s breakaway Turkish Cypriots. Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup aimed at union with Greece.

Barred access to U.S. weapons, Cyprus turned to Russia to procure Mi-35 attack helicopters, T-80 tanks and Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems.

Thousands Wait in Cold to Pay Respects to Queen Elizabeth II

Thousands of people spent London’s coldest night in months huddled in line to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, and authorities warned Saturday that arriving mourners face a 16-hour wait.

Police arrested a man after what the force described as a “disturbance” Friday night in Parliament’s Westminster Hall, where the queen’s coffin is lying in state, draped in her Royal Standard and capped with a diamond-studded crown.

Parliamentary authorities said someone got out of the queue and tried to approach the coffin on its platform. The Metropolitan Police force said a man was detained for a suspected public-order offense.

The tide of people wanting to say goodbye to the queen has grown steadily since the public was first admitted to the hall on Wednesday. On Friday, authorities temporary halted letting more visitors join the end of the line, which snakes around Southwark Park some 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Parliament.

Overnight, volunteers distributed blankets and cups of tea to people in line as the temperature fell to 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite the weather, mourners described the warmth of a shared experience.

“It was cold overnight, but we had wonderful companions, met new friends. The camaraderie was wonderful,” Chris Harman of London said. “It was worth it. I would do it again and again and again. I would walk to the end of the earth for my queen.”

People had myriad reasons for coming, from affection for the queen to a desire to be part of a historic moment. Simon Hopkins, who traveled from his home in central England, likened it to “a pilgrimage.”

“(It) is a bit strange, because that kind of goes against my grain,” he said. “I’ve been kind of drawn into it.”

Honoring their patience, King Charles III and Prince William made an unannounced visit to greet people waiting to file past Elizabeth’s coffin. The two senior royals shook hands and thanked the mourners in the miles-long queue near Lambeth Bridge.

Charles has made several impromptu walkabouts since he became king on Sept. 8, in an attempt to meet as many of his subjects as possible.

Members of the public kept silently streaming into Westminster Hall even as the queen’s four children — Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — stood vigil around the flag-draped coffin for 15 minutes on Friday evening. A baby’s cry was the only sound.

Before the vigil, Edward said the royal family was “overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that has engulfed us and the sheer number of people who have gone out of their way to express their own love, admiration and respect (for) our dear mama.”

All eight of Queen Elizabeth II’s grandchildren are due to stand vigil beside her coffin on Saturday. Charles’ sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, will attend along with Princess Anne’s children, Zara Tindall and Peter Philips; Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie; and the two children of Prince Edward – Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.

William, who after his grandmother’s death is now the heir to the throne, will stand at the head of the coffin and Harry at the foot. Both princes, who are military veterans, will be in uniform.

Most senior royals hold honorary military roles and have worn uniforms to commemorate the queen. Harry, who served in Afghanistan as a British army officer, wore civilian clothes during the procession of the queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace because he is no longer a working member of the royal family. He and his wife Meghan quit royal duties and moved to the United States in 2020.

The king, however, has requested that both William and Harry wear their military uniforms at the Westminster Hall vigil.

People queuing to see the queen have been of all ages and come from all walks of life. Many bowed before the coffin or made a sign of the cross. Several veterans, their medals shining in the spotlights, offered sharp salutes. Some people wept. Others blew kisses. Many hugged one another as they stepped away, proud to have spent hours in line to offer a tribute, even if it lasted only a few moments.

On Friday, the waiting time swelled to as long as 24 hours. The mourners included former England soccer captain David Beckham, who lined up for almost 12 hours to pay his respects. Wearing a white shirt and black tie, he bowed briefly to the coffin before moving out of Westminster Hall.

“We have been lucky as a nation to have had someone who has led us the way her majesty has led us, for the amount of time, with kindness, with caring and always reassurance,” Beckham told reporters afterwards.

The lying-in-state is due to continue until Monday morning, when the queen’s coffin will be borne to nearby Westminster Abbey for a state funeral, the finale to 10 days of national mourning for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. Elizabeth, 96, died at her Balmoral Estate in Scotland on Sept. 8 after 70 years on the throne.

Hundreds of heads of state, royals and political leaders from around the world are flying to London to attend the funeral, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako. Charles is set to hold audiences Saturday with incoming prime ministers, governor generals of the realms and military leaders.

After the service at the abbey, the late queen’s coffin will be transported through the historic heart of London on a horse-drawn gun carriage. It will then be taken in a hearse to Windsor, where the queen will be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.

Hundreds of troops from the British army, air force and navy took part in an early-morning rehearsal on Saturday for the final procession. As troops lined The Long Walk, a picturesque path leading to Windsor Castle, the thumping of drums echoed into the night as marching bands walked ahead of a hearse.

London police said the funeral will be the largest single policing event the force has ever handled, surpassing even the 2012 Summer Olympics and the Platinum Jubilee in June celebrating the queen’s 70-year reign.

“The range of officers, police staff and all those supporting the operation is truly immense,” said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy.

King Charles’ History with US Presidents: He’s Met 10 of Past 14

Hanging out with Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia at a White House supper-dance. Swapping stories with Ronald Reagan about horseback riding. Bending the ears of Donald Trump and Joe Biden about climate change. 

King Charles III, who became head of state following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has made the acquaintance of 10 of the 14 U.S. presidents who have held office since he was born in 1948. 

He was just 10 when he checked off his first president in 1959. That was when Dwight Eisenhower visited the queen and her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she died on September 8 after a 70-year-reign. 

“I guess you can’t start too early,” said Barbara A Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She noted that Charles’ grandson, Prince George, was a toddler when Kensington Palace released a photograph of him shaking hands with Barack Obama during the president’s trip to London in 2016. 

Charles never met Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy, Perry said. 

His encounters with U.S. presidents included what he recalled as an “amusing” weekend visit to Nixon White House in 1970 with his sister Anne, when the 20-year-old future king — one of the world’s most eligible bachelors — sensed there was an effort afoot to set him up. 

“That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon,” he later recalled. 

The king has chatted up presidents on his visits to the U.S. and met others when they traveled in the United Kingdom. He was in the company of Trump, Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when he represented the British monarchy at the state funeral for former President George H.W. Bush in 2018 in Washington. 

Charles met Biden last year at a climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. 

The royal has visited America about 20 times since that memorable first trip in the Nixon years, he told CNN last year. 

The royal siblings had been invited to Washington by Nixon’s daughters and son-in-law, Tricia Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband, David Eisenhower, grandson of President Eisenhower, for that three-day visit in July 1970. 

The young VIPs had a packed schedule that included frolicking at the Camp David presidential retreat, a nighttime tour of Washington’s monuments, museum visits, a luncheon cruise down the Potomac River to George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, a dance on the South Lawn for 700 guests, and a Washington Senators baseball game. 

Charles and Nixon also met in the Oval Office. But if the president had his heart set a union between his family and the royals, it wasn’t meant to be. 

In June 1971, less than a year after Charles’ visit, Tricia married longtime beau Edward Cox in the White House Rose Garden. A decade later, in July 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. They divorced in 1996. 

Nixon, himself, had pushed for Charles to visit the U.S. for the perceived public relations bonanza, according to a January 1970 memo he sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. 

“I think this could do an enormous amount of good for U.S.-British relations,” Nixon said. He wrote that he’d been told that Charles “is the real gem” of the royal family and “makes an enormously favorable impression wherever he goes.” 

Charles returned the praise in a thank-you note. 

“The kindness shown to us at the White House was almost overwhelming and for that we are immensely grateful,” the prince wrote to Nixon. “Both my sister and I take back to Britain the most heartwarming evidence of what is known as the special relationship between our two countries and of the great hospitality shown to us by you and your family.” 

Many of the former Prince of Wales’ conversations with recent U.S. presidents centered on his interest in tackling climate change. Charles has campaigned for the environment for 50 years, but he acknowledged after becoming king that his new role requires that he set aside his activism on that and other issues. 

Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall. 

Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris climate agreement after Trump as president withdrew the U.S. from the accord. 

Biden and the king spoke on Wednesday, with Biden offering his condolences over the queen. 

Trump has said that during his visit with Charles, the former prince “did most of the talking” and pressed him on climate during a scheduled 15-minute meeting that stretched to 90 minutes in 2019 at Charles’ residence in London. 

During a three-day visit to Washington in 2011, Charles, an advocate of environmentally friendly farming, met with President Obama. In a speech, he praised Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity and hunger, and U.S. manufacturers’ efforts to produce healthier foods. 

He criticized U.S. government subsidies for large-scale agriculture and encouraged increased business and government support for organic and environmentally friendly food production. 

In his toast at a White House dinner in 2005, the future king told President George W. Bush that the world looks to the United States “for a lead on the most crucial issues that face our planet and, indeed, the lives of our grandchildren. 

“Truly, the burdens of the world rest on your shoulders,” he said. 

In the remarks, Charles also said the trip reminded him of his first visit to America, “when the media were busy trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon.” 

Visiting with Reagan in the Oval Office in 1981, the two discussed their interest in horseback riding as a steward brought tea. But it was not served the British way. 

Of the experience, Reagan later wrote in his diary: 

“The ushers brought him tea — horror of horrors they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup and finally put it down on the table. I didn’t know what to do,” Reagan confessed. 

Putin Vows to Press Attack on Ukraine; Courts India, China

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Friday to press his attack on Ukraine despite Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.

Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he sees no need to revise it.

“We aren’t in a rush,” the Russian leader said, adding that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Some hardline politicians and military bloggers have urged the Kremlin to follow Ukraine’s example and order a broad mobilization to beef up the ranks, lamenting Russia’s manpower shortage.

Russia was forced to pull back its forces from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine’s move to reclaim control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages marked the largest military setback for Moscow since its forces had to retreat from areas near the capital early in the war.

In his first comment on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.”

He noted that Ukraine has tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “we so far have responded with restraint, but just yet.”

“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Putin said.

“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south. “Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”

He alleged, without offering specifics, that Ukraine has attempted to launch attacks “near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants,” adding that “we will retaliate if they fail to understand that such methods are unacceptable.”

Russia has reported numerous explosions and fires at civilian infrastructure in areas near Ukraine, as well munitions depots and other facilities. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and refrained from commenting on others.

Putin also sought Friday to assuage India’s concern about the conflict in Ukraine, telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Moscow wants to see a quick end to the fighting and alleging that Ukrainian officials won’t negotiate.

“I know your stand on the conflict in Ukraine and the concerns that you have repeatedly voiced,” the Russian leader told Modi. “We will do all we can to end that as quickly as possible. Regrettably, the other side, the leadership of Ukraine, has rejected the negotiations process and stated that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, on the battlefield.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s Russia that allegedly doesn’t want to negotiate in earnest. He also has insisted on the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine as a precondition for talks.

Putin’s remarks during the talks with Modi echoed comments the Russian leader made during Thursday’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping when Putin thanked him for his government’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, while adding that he was ready to discuss China’s unspecified “concerns” about Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Putin said he and Xi “discussed what we should do in the current conditions to efficiently counter unlawful restrictions” imposed by the West. The European Union, the United States and other Western nations have put sanctions on Russian energy due to the war in Ukraine.

Xi, in a statement released by his government, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also interest in working together to “inject stability” into world affairs. China’s relations with Washington, Europe, Japan and India have been strained by disputes about technology, security, human rights and territory.

Zhang Lihua, an international relations expert at Tsinghua University, said the reference to stability “is mainly related to China-U.S. relations,” adding that “the United States has been using all means to suppress China, which forced China to seek cooperation with Russia.”

China and India have refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine while increasing their purchases of Russian oil and gas, helping Moscow offset the financial restrictions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

Putin also met Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bolstering economic cooperation and regional issues, including a July deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume from the country’s Black Sea ports.

Speaking at the Uzbekistan summit on Friday, Xi warned his Central Asian neighbors not to allow outsiders to destabilize them. The warning reflects Beijing’s anxiety that Western support for democracy and human rights activists is a plot to undermine Xi’s ruling Communist Party and other authoritarian governments.

“We should prevent external forces from instigating a color revolution,” Xi said in a speech to the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations, referring to protests that toppled unpopular regimes in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.

Xi offered to train 2,000 police officers, to set up a regional counterterrorism training center and to “strengthen law enforcement capacity building.” He did not elaborate.

His comments echoed longtime Russian grievances about the color-coded democratic uprisings in several ex-Soviet nations that the Kremlin viewed as instigated by the U.S. and its allies.

Xi is promoting a “Global Security Initiative” announced in April following the formation of the Quad by the U.S., Japan, Australia and India in response to Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy. U.S. officials complain it echoes Russian arguments in support of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Central Asia is part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across an arc of dozens of countries from the South Pacific through Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formed by Russia and China as a counterweight to U.S. influence. The group also includes India, Pakistan and the four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iran is on track to receive full membership.

Ukrainian President: Burial Site Contains Torture Victims

Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.

The site near the northeastern city of Izium, recently recaptured from Russian forces, appears to be one of the largest discovered in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy spoke in a video he rushed out just hours after the exhumations began, apparently to underscore the gravity of the discovery. He said more than 440 graves have been found at the site but that the number of victims was not yet known.

Digging in the rain, workers hauled body after body out of the sandy soil in a misty pine forest near Izium. Protected by head-to-toe suits and rubber gloves, they gently felt through the decomposing remains of the victims’ clothing, seemingly looking for identifying items.

Associated Press journalists who visited the site saw graves marked with simple wooden crosses. Some of the markers bore people’s names and had flowers hanging from them.

Before digging, investigators with metal detectors scanned the site for explosives, and soldiers strung red and white plastic tape between the trees.

Zelenskyy said hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, had been found near Izium’s Pishchanske cemetery after being tortured, shot or killed by artillery shelling.

He cited evidence of atrocities, such as a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms. In another sign of possible torture, one man was found with his hands tied, according to Serhiy Bohdan, the head of Kharikiv police investigations, and Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets.

Ukrainian authorities warned that their investigation was just beginning, and the scale of the killings could rise dramatically.

“The harsh reality indicates that the number of dead in Izium may be many times higher than the Bucha tragedy,” Oleg Kotenko, an official with the Ukrainian ministry tasked with reintegrating occupied territories, said on Telegram.

Bucha is a Kyiv suburb where authorities have said 458 bodies were found after a 33-day Russian occupation. Authorities say they have uncovered the bodies of more than 1,300 people elsewhere, many in mass graves in the Kyiv-area forest.

Zelenskyy, who visited the Izium area Wednesday, said the discoveries showed again the need for world leaders to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

Meanwhile, in his first public comments on Ukraine’s recent battlefield gains, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with the war and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.

“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Putin told reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan.

Russia has reported numerous explosions and fires at civilian infrastructure sites near Ukraine, as well munitions depots and other facilities. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and refrained from commenting on others.

The “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal, Putin said.

“We aren’t in a rush,” he said, adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

Some hardline Russian politicians and military bloggers have lamented manpower shortages and urged the Kremlin to follow Ukraine’s example and order broad mobilization to beef up the ranks.

Ukrainian forces gained access to the site near Izium after recapturing the city and much of the wider Kharkiv region in a lighting advance that suddenly shifted the momentum in the nearly seven-month war. Ukrainian officials also found evidence of torture elsewhere in the region.

The U.N. human rights office said it would investigate, and the human rights group Amnesty International said the discovery of the mass burial site confirmed “our darkest fears.”

“For every unlawful killing or other war crime, there must be justice and reparation for victims and their families and a fair trial and accountability for suspected perpetrators,” said Marie Struthers, the group’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Most of the people buried at the site were believed to be civilians, but a marker on one mass grave said it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.

Russian officials distanced themselves from responsibility for the site.

The Khariv region’s Russian-installed governor, Vitaly Ganchev, told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Ukrainian, not Russian, forces were responsible for civilian casualties in Izium. Tass also quoted a member of Russia’s parliament, Alexander Malkevich, claiming that Ukrainian troops had abandoned their dead, so Russian forces buried them.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the war continued to claim lives and wreak destruction.

Ukraine’s presidential office said Russian shelling killed five civilians and wounded 18 in a 24-hour span. Missile strikes were also reported, with Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih among the targets for a third consecutive day Friday. Air raid sirens howled in the capital, Kyiv.

More killings targeting pro-Russian separatist officials were reported in areas under their control. Separatist authorities said a blast killed the prosecutor-general and his deputy of the self-proclaimed republic in the Luhansk region. Moscow-backed authorities said two Russian-installed officials were also killed in Berdyansk, a city in the Zaporizhzhia region occupied earlier in the war. And local authorities reported three people were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on an administrative building in Russian-occupied Kherson.

To bolster the Ukrainian offensive, the Biden administration announced another $600 million package of military aid.

Izium resident Sergei Gorodko said that among the hundreds buried in individual graves were dozens of adults and children killed in a Russian airstrike on an apartment building, some of whom he pulled out of rubble “with my own hands.”

Izium was a key supply hub for Russian forces until they withdrew in recent days. Izium city council member Maksym Strelnikov told reporters that hundreds of people had died during the fighting and after Russia seized the town in March. Many couldn’t be properly buried, he said.

His claims could not be immediately verified, but similar scenes have played out in other cities Russian forces captured, including Mariupol.

Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said “torture chambers” have been found in the Kharkiv region’s recaptured towns and villages. The claim could not be independently verified.

Seven Sri Lankan students who fell into Russian hands in Kupiansk, also in the Kharkiv region, have also said that they were held and mistreated, he said.

“They are scared, they were abused,” Klymenko said. They include “a woman who can barely speak” and two people with torn toenails.

Turkish Regulator Criticized Over Public Service Video

Turkish media and LGBTQ groups are questioning a decision by the country’s regulator to classify a video from a coalition of conservative groups as a public service announcement.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) voted to list a video promoting an event scheduled for Istanbul on Sunday as a public service announcement.

The video shows pictures of Pride parades in Turkey, as a narrator calls for people who are “against the LGBT impositions and propaganda” and want to see an end to “global and imperialist lobbies who want to abolish gender, reduce the human generation, and destroy the family unit,” to join the rally.

The video was produced by the Unity in Ideas and Struggle Platform, a group of about 150 conservative nongovernmental organizations.

Critics, including some members of the RTUK board, say the video contains hostile language and could result in attacks on the LGBTQ community.

RTUK did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

The Unity in Ideas and Struggle Platform has denied promoting hate speech. In a tweet, its head, Kursat Mican, blamed misinformation for the criticism over the video.

“This meeting is not against LGBTI+ individuals,” Mican said in response to an open letter from a parent whose child is gay. “We want to put an end to this trend that threatens the existence of humanity by raising awareness against LGBTI+ propaganda and imposition. We have no other intention than this, beyond that it is a needless assumption.”

Ilhan Tasci, an opposition member of RTUK’s board who voted against the decision, told VOA he believes the video could lead to hate crimes and so should not be broadcast as a public service announcement.

“If something bad happens to some people from the LGBTQ community tomorrow after this public service announcement, which makes them a target, will the RTUK’s president take responsibility?” Tasci said.

Under law, RTUK has the power to list informative or educational content from public institutions and nongovernmental organizations as public service announcements if it deems them to be in the public interest.

The regulator advises radio and TV channels to broadcast the announcements, but media outlets have editorial discretion over what they use.

RTUK shared the video on its website but did not upload it to YouTube, where it often shares public service announcements.

Tasci says the RTUK president has discretion over what is posted to the regulator’s social media accounts.

YouTube guidelines define hate speech as content that “incites hatred or violence against groups based on protected attributes such as age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status.” In the case of violation, the platform removes the content.

At a panel Thursday, RTUK President Ebubekir Sahin said the media can play a role “in the escalation of hate crimes.” He did not reference the regulator’s decision at the event.

“It is not possible for us to accept the normalization of hate speech and its imposition on society through the media. Hate speech in traditional media is on the rise. At the same time, we unfortunately see that the new media and social media are having the same discourse,” Sahin said.

Several journalism organizations criticized RTUK’s decision.

“Supporting a protest that marginalizes a certain group and supports hostility towards them is definitely not an acceptable attitude. It is an outright contradiction that RTUK paves the way for an anti-LGBTQ public service announcement to be broadcast on TV channels,” Gokhan Durmus, chair of the Journalists Union of Turkey, told VOA.

Yildiz Tar, a journalist and coordinator for KAOS GL — a LGBTQ rights organization and news portal — said the decision appears to reflect a wider policy in Turkey.

“For a long time, there have been lynching calls and campaigns on social media targeting LGBTQ+ people,” Tar told VOA. “With this public service advertisement, the government has said that ‘these lynching calls and hate speeches are our policy.’”

“LGBTQ+ people are portrayed as a community that needs to be fought and destroyed in this country,” Tar said.

Kerem Dikmen, a legal coordinator for KAOS GL, said the RTUK decision contradicts its regulatory role.

“RTUK, as a regulatory body, needs to take measures to prevent hate speech. But it took and executed a decision that would spread hate speech, contrary to its full responsibility, and this is completely illegal,” Dikmen told VOA.

“It is forbidden for LGBTQ+ people to organize Pride Parades in Turkey, and they are prevented from having picnics by the police. But this group can have a protest that spreads hate speech, and this is a political disposition,” Dikmen said.

Pride events have been banned in Turkey since 2015. When a parade took place in Istanbul in 2021, police arrested hundreds of people, including several journalists.

In its 2021 report on human rights in Turkey, the U.S. State Department found “LGBTQI+ individuals experienced discrimination, intimidation and violent crimes.”

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service. 

King Charles, Siblings Stand Vigil as Mourners Line Grows

King Charles and his siblings stood vigil by the coffin of their late mother Queen Elizabeth II on Friday as tens of thousands of mourners queuing to pay their final respects as she lies in state were told they faced a wait of up to 24 hours.  

Charles, Princess Anne, Princes Andrew and Edward, attired in military uniforms, stood in silence with their heads bowed for the 15-minute vigil at the historic Westminster Hall where the coffin of the late monarch has been lying since Wednesday. 

Most of the other members of the British royal family, including some of the queen’s great-grandchildren, watched from a gallery. 

Tens of thousands of people of all ages and from all walks of life have filed past the coffin in a constant, solemn stream to pay tribute to the queen, who died in Scotland on September 8 at age 96 after a 70-year reign. 

Despite the warning of how long it would take to reach the building, mourners continued to join a well-organized line that stretched along the south bank of the Thames, then over the river to Parliament’s Westminster Hall, knowing their wait would last through the night when temperatures were forecast to be cold. 

“We have been overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that has engulfed us and the sheer number of people who have gone out of their way to express their own love, admiration and respect to such a very special and unique person,” Prince Edward, the queen’s youngest son, said in a statement. 

Rosie Beddows, 57, from Sussex, had queued with her husband and son, and happened to pass by the coffin when it was being guarded by the royal family.  

“It was absolutely amazing, so moving, so beautiful. It was an incredibly long day, but we saw the king,” she said, sounding elated. “I can’t believe it. I think he’s going to be a brilliant king.”  

Despite the warning of lengthy queues, repeated across local rail stations, people had flooded into Southwark Park to join the line, many in high spirits. In contrast, those who emerged from Westminster Hall were quiet, reflective and a little stiff.  

Among their number was former England soccer captain David Beckham, who looked tearful as he waited to file past the coffin, having queued for more than 13 hours on his own, snacking on crisps, sweets and doughnuts.  

“We were all here celebrating her majesty today and it didn’t matter how long we were there,” said Beckham. “We were there for a reason. And everyone was together. It was a special few hours.” 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in London for the funeral, was another of those who visited Westminster Hall on Friday, stopping to curtsy as she filed past the coffin. 

More than 750,000 people in total are expected to file past the coffin ahead of the state funeral on Monday, which presidents, prime ministers, royalty and other world leaders are due to attend.  

U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Australia, Canada and Jamaica will join the emperor of Japan among the congregation. 

London’s police force said the funeral would be the biggest security operation it has ever undertaken.  

Visit to Wales 

Charles, who acceded to the throne on his mother’s death, earlier visited Wales on Friday, the last stage of a tour of the United Kingdom to acknowledge his status as the new monarch and head of state and to greet the public.  

Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort, attended a service at Cardiff’s Llandaff Cathedral, then talked with cheering well-wishers outside.  

Wales has a particular significance for the new king, who for five decades preceding last week’s accession had the title Prince of Wales. 

There were a few anti-monarchy protesters outside Cardiff Castle, where Charles met Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.  

Similar small protests have been held outside parliament in London and in Edinburgh over the past days, although Charles has enjoyed a surge in support since he succeeded Elizabeth.  

Defender of faiths 

Later, the new king returned to London to meet faith leaders at Buckingham Palace, where he said he was determined to be “sovereign of all communities.” 

As monarch and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Charles holds the title “Defender of the Faith,” but he said he his saw his role as stretching beyond his own strong Christian beliefs, and that he had a duty to protect diversity. 

“By my most profound convictions, therefore – as well as by my position as sovereign – I hold myself bound to respect those who follow other spiritual paths, as well as those who seek to live their lives in accordance with secular ideals,” he told the faith leaders.  

“I am determined, as king, to preserve and promote those principles across all communities, and for all beliefs, with all my heart.” 

Following the vigil of the queen’s children on Friday, her eight grandchildren, including the new Prince of Wales, William, and his brother Prince Harry will stand vigil at the coffin on Saturday evening. 

In an adjustment to protocol, both Harry and his uncle Prince Andrew have been allowed to wear military uniforms when they take their turns, royal officials said.  

Both are war veterans, but so far only “working royals” have appeared in uniform while Andrew and Harry have appeared in processions in morning suits after they lost their honorary military titles when they stepped back from public royal duties.