Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Taliban bans Afghan women from working for UN

The United Nations said Wednesday that it will not comply with a Taliban decree banning Afghan women from working for the organization and called on them to revoke it. Taliban officials informed the United Nations verbally on Tuesday that an existing ban on women working for humanitarian organizations has been extended to include the U.N. The U.N. is continuing to engage with the Taliban to try to get the edict reversed. In the meantime, it has instructed both female and male Afghan staff to work from home.

UN Demands Taliban Reverse Ban on Afghan Female Staff 

Q&A: Linda Thomas-Greenfield

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke to VOA Monday about her recent trip to Costa Rica for the 2023 Democracy Summit and the important role of youth in government, her concerns about Russia’s and China’s influence in the region and calls for a non-U.N. international force to help Haiti.

Q&A: US UN Envoy: ‘Standing with Russia is a Losing Proposition’ 

ICC-indicted Russian official briefs Security Council

The Russian official charged alongside President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court for the alleged abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children said Wednesday that Moscow is “fully open” to cooperation in the interest of the children. Maria Lvova-Belova told an informal Security Council meeting via video link that Russia is protecting children in its custody. Ukraine says more than 16,000 children have been forcibly abducted to Russia during the 13-month war. Several council members walked out in protest when Lvova-Belova made her remarks.

Russian Official Indicted by ICC Briefs UN Security Council 

Report: Enforced disappearances rife in Iraq 

A U.N. watchdog committee is urging the Iraqi government to take action to stop the practice of enforced disappearances, which has resulted in the abduction and disappearance of up to a million people in the past five decades. The U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances expressed “deep concern” that the practice is not criminalized and continues to be widespread and practiced with impunity.

Up to 1 Million Iraqis Are Victims of Enforced Disappearance 

Mozambique battles cholera after cyclone

The World Health Organization says Mozambique is experiencing its worst cholera outbreak in 20 years, following the devastation of Cyclone Freddy, which killed hundreds of people in Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi in February and March. Tom Gould reports for VOA from Quelimane, Mozambique, on the outbreak. 

Mozambique Battles Cholera in Record Cyclone’s Aftermath 

In brief

— Cindy McCain took up her post as executive director of the World Food Program on Wednesday. It is a challenging time for the agency, which delivered food last year to a record 158 million people as it deals with funding shortages and unprecedented levels of global food insecurity. Since 2021, McCain has served as the U.S. ambassador to the three U.N. food and agriculture agencies in Rome. She succeeds David Beasley, who held the post from 2017 until earlier this week.

— International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi went to Kaliningrad, Russia, on Wednesday, where he met with officials on his efforts to secure a demilitarized zone in and around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The plant has come under repeated shelling and blackouts during the war and is currently occupied by Russian troops. A team of IAEA experts is also based at the facility. Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the city of Zaporizhzhia last week.

— A new report by the World Health Organization this week said 1 in 6 people worldwide is experiencing infertility. The WHO said this shows the urgent need to increase access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need. In most countries fertility treatments are largely paid out of pocket, putting the cost of starting a family beyond the reach of many.

Good news

The U.N. said Thursday that it has secured a supertanker to replace the decaying oil tanker FSO Safer, which is moored off the coast of Yemen and poses a serious environmental threat. The Nautica set sail from Zhoushan, China, this week and will arrive in Yemen in early May. A salvage company will oversee the transfer from the Safer to the Nautica of more than a million barrels of oil that the U.N. has warned for years would cause a catastrophic environmental disaster if the nearly 50-year-old Safer started leaking or exploded. Read more from our archive about the efforts to get this mission underway.

UN Buys Oil Tanker to Begin Salvage Operation Off Yemeni Coast 

Did you know?

The World Health Organization turned 75 on Friday. When the United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945, diplomats agreed there was a need for a body to encourage collaboration to control the spread of dangerous diseases, and the WHO was born. On April 7, 1948, the WHO’s constitution entered into force. Now that day is recognized as World Health Day. The health agency began with a focus on mass campaigns against tuberculosis, malaria, yaws, syphilis, smallpox and leprosy. When the polio vaccine was developed in 1952, the agency began work to eradicate the disease worldwide. The WHO also brings health care to refugees, displaced persons and people living in conflict zones. Most recently, the WHO has been at the forefront of coordinating the global response to the COVID-19 virus, including vaccinations.
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Russian Federal Security Service investigators have formally charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage, but The Wall Street Journal reporter denied the charges and said he was working as a journalist, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.

“Gershkovich has been charged,” Interfax quoted a source as saying.

TASS reported that FSB investigators had formally charged Gershkovich with carrying out espionage in the interests of the United States but that Gershkovich had denied the charge.

“He categorically denied all the accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,” TASS cited an unidentified source as saying.

The TASS source declined further comment citing the classified nature of the case.

Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.

The Journal has denied that Gershkovich was spying and demanded the immediate release of its “trusted and dedicated reporter.” The Journal said his arrest was “a vicious affront to a free press and should spur outrage in all free people and governments throughout the world.”

The Kremlin said that Gershkovich had been carrying out espionage “under the cover” of journalism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told the United States that Gershkovich was caught red handed while trying to obtain secrets.

The United States has urged Russia to release Gershkovich and cast the Russian claims of espionage as ridiculous. U.S. President Joe Biden has called for Gershkovich’s release.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment publicly on the case.

A fluent Russian speaker born to Soviet emigres and raised in New Jersey, Gershkovich moved to Moscow in late 2017 to join the English-language Moscow Times and subsequently worked for the French national news agency Agence France-Presse.

Russia announced the start of its “special military operation” in February 2022, just as Gershkovich was in London, about to return to Russia to join The Journal’s Moscow bureau.

It was decided that he would live in London but travel to Russia frequently for reporting trips, as a correspondent accredited with the Foreign Ministry.
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Thousands of farmers protested across Romania on Friday over the impact of Ukrainian grain imports on prices, blocking traffic and border checkpoints with tractors and trucks and urging the European Commission to intervene. 

Anger is rising among farmers in Central and Eastern Europe over a flood of cheap Ukrainian grain imports, exempt from customs fees until June 2024, which have hurt prices and sales of local producers. 

Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, had its Black Sea ports blocked following Russia’s February 2022 invasion and found alternative shipping routes through European Union states Poland and Romania, helped by “solidarity lanes” supported by the EU. 

But millions of tons of grain — cheaper than those produced in the EU — ended up in neighboring countries, propelled by logistical bottlenecks and lesser distances. 

Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk resigned from his post this week. Polish and Bulgarian farmers have also held protests. 

In the capital Bucharest, about 200 farmers protested Friday outside the European Commission’s local headquarters, carrying banners which read: “We respected EU rules, but EU ignored us,” “You can no longer pass through here” and “Stability for Romanian farmers.” 

Across the country, thousands of farmers used tractors, trucks and other machinery to block roads and borders. 

“We are talking about unfair competition in the European community,” said Nicu Vasile, the head of the league of Romanian associations of farm producers (LAPAR). 

“I know our Ukrainian colleagues also need to sell, but it is unfair competition.” 

Vasile said production costs of wheat have risen 70% on the year to 6,000 lei ($1,326) per hectare. 

The commission has estimated farmers from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia have lost 417 million euros ($455 million) overall from the inflows of cheaper Ukrainian grains. It decided to hand out compensation worth 56.3 million euros to Polish, Bulgarian and Romanian farmers, with more to come. 

“It’s a concrete measure, but the sums are small, it is true,” Romanian Farm Minister Petre Daea said Friday. The ministry will double the amount given to Romania. 

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected decisions to be announced in coming days and weeks to alleviate anger among Polish farmers. Six prime ministers in the region have asked the commission to intervene. 
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Police have warned that armed dissident groups are planning violent attacks over the Easter holiday weekend as Northern Ireland marks 25 years since the peace accord that ended three decades of bloodshed. 

U.S. President Joe Biden is due to visit Belfast next week as Northern Ireland commemorates the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998. The U.S.-brokered deal got Irish republican and British loyalist paramilitary groups to lay down their arms and setup a power-sharing government for Northern Ireland. 

The peace accord largely ended 30 years of violence, known as “the Troubles,” in which 3,600 people died, but small splinter groups mount occasional gun or bomb attacks on the security forces. 

The Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said police had received intelligence about planned violence around a parade in Londonderry on Easter Monday commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland. 

He said there was “potential for dissidents to try and draw us in to disorder and then experience tells us where that happens, that can quite often become the platform for an attack on our officers.” 

The threat from dissidents prompted U.K. authorities last month to raise Northern Ireland’s terrorism threat level to “severe,” meaning an attack is considered highly likely. 

Police Chief Constable Simon Byrne said police officers, military personnel and prison staff, and their families, were the main targets. 

“The style of attack that we are dealing with and trying to frustrate is gun attacks and bomb attacks on these people by a small number of determined dissident terrorists,” he said Thursday. 

While the peace forged by the Good Friday Agreement has largely held, the political structures have been through multiple crises. The Northern Ireland Assembly has not sat for more than a year, after the main unionist party pulled out of the government to protest new post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. 

Under the terms of the agreement, people jailed for taking part in the violence were released, an issue that still pains families of the conflict’s victims. 

A group of relatives of Troubles victims held a sunrise ceremony Friday on a beach in County Down, south of Belfast, to reflect on the conflict and the peace. 

“It was incredible being here with all these people, Catholic and Protestant, unionist and nationalist, republican and loyalist — we have all lost people,” said Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed by an IRA bomb in Belfast in 1993. “To look out at the sea and see the sun come up, that is the vision of the Good Friday Agreement, people standing together.” 

Later, residents from Catholic nationalist and Protestant unionist neighborhoods were due to hold a ceremony at a gate in one of the fortified “peace walls” that still divide Belfast. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron tells Chinese President Xi Jinping to use China’s relationship with Russia to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Kremlin says decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was prompted by NATO expansion toward Russia.  
Swedish prosecutor investigating Nord Stream pipeline blasts in September tells Reuters “the clear main scenario” is that a state-sponsored group was responsible.  
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Poland, updating leaders there on the war in Ukraine and meeting with Ukrainian refugees who fled after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russia has recently regained some “momentum” in the battle for Bakhmut, the British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The report said Russian forces have “highly likely advanced” into the town center of Bakhmut and have seized the west bank of the Bakhmutk River. The update also reported that Wagner forces and Russian Defense Ministry commanders “have paused their ongoing feud and improved co-operation.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use China’s relationship with Russia to help bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.  

Macron told Xi as they met Thursday in Beijing that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has harmed international stability.  

“I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron said.  

Xi told journalists that “together with France, we appeal for restraint and reason” in the 14-month conflict, adding that China was seeking “a quick return to peace negotiations in the quest for a political settlement, and the building of a European architecture that is balanced and lasting.”

The Chinese leader said his government “appeals for the protection of civilians. Nuclear weapons must not be used, and nuclear war must be avoided.”

But it was unclear whether Xi might pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate, as Macron requested, or whether the Chinese leader would speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said last month that China could be a “partner” in the quest for peace.

China has proposed a multipart peace plan for Ukraine that includes a call for upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, but it does not call on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.  

Ukrainian officials have said they will only engage in peace talks if Russia withdraws all its military, while Russia has insisted that Ukraine recognize areas that Russia has claimed to annex. There have been no known peace talks since last April.

Zelenskyy in Poland  

Zelenskyy visited neighboring Poland Wednesday, giving leaders there an update on the war in Ukraine and meeting with Ukrainian refugees who fled after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  

Zelenskyy said the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern city of Bakhmut remains difficult and that “corresponding decisions” would have to be taken if Kyiv’s troops were at risk of being surrounded by Russian forces.  

Zelenskyy discussed the state of the war with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as international support and cooperation for Ukraine. Zelenskyy thanked Poland for what he characterized as its historic assistance to the Kyiv government.  

Duda said Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine that must be punished.

“Today we are trying to get for Ukraine … additional guarantees, security guarantees, which will strengthen Ukraine’s military potential,” the Polish president noted.  

Poland has been a key ally for Ukraine. The U.N. refugee agency says there are 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees who have registered for temporary protection status in Poland.  

Poland also has served as a main hub for other Ukrainian partners to send in military and humanitarian aid.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Clashes erupted in Paris next to a Left Bank brasserie favored by French President Emmanuel Macron as protesters torched garbage cans and smashed two banks during the 11th day of nationwide demonstrations against pension reform. 

The bistro La Rotonde, whose awning was set alight as protesters threw bottles and paint at police, is known in France for hosting a much-criticized celebratory dinner for Macron when he led the first round of the 2017 presidential election. 

Protests against the flagship reform of Macron’s second term, which lifts the retirement age by two years to 64, began in mid-January and have coalesced widespread anger against the president. 

Labor unions on Thursday evening called for another day of nationwide protests on April 13. 

“Strike, blockade, Macron walk away!” protesters chanted in the western city of Rennes, where police fired tear gas at protesters who threw projectiles at them and set bins on fire. 

The street protests have become increasingly violent since the government pushed the pension legislation through parliament without a final vote because of a lack of support among lawmakers. 

But police estimates indicate the number of people taking part may be falling. 

On Thursday, black-clad anarchists smashed the windows of two banks and engaged riot police in cat-and-mouse skirmishes along the route of the street protest. 

One police officer briefly lost consciousness after being struck on the helmet by a rock.  

A total of 77 police force members were injured, and 31 people were arrested as of early evening in Paris, police said. 

Polls show a wide majority of voters oppose the pension legislation. But a source close to Macron said that was not what mattered. 

“If the role of a president of the republic is to make decisions according to public opinion, there is no need to have elections,” the source said. “Being president is to assume choices that may be unpopular at a given time.” 

‘Withdraw the reform’ 

Union leaders and protesters said the only way out of the crisis was for the legislation to be scrapped, an option that the government has repeatedly rejected.  

“There is no other solution than withdrawing the reform,” the new leader of the hard-line CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at the start of the Paris rally. 

The number of people striking in schools and disrupting train traffic was down on Thursday from a week earlier. On the streets, the CGT said about 400,000 people joined the protest in Paris, down from 450,000 the week before. The Interior Ministry said 57,000 people attended in Paris, down sharply from the 93,000 reported a week earlier. 

Nationwide, 570,000 people marched against the reform on Thursday, down from 740,000 a week earlier. 

The numbers could bring some hope to officials who say they believe the rallies may be losing steam.  

Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate CFDT union, told France 5 television that the figures were hefty for an 11th day of protests. 

“The real issue is that there is widespread resentment and social anger,” Berger said, adding he condemned the violence. 

A crucial date on the issue looms on April 14, when the Constitutional Council delivers its verdict on the pension bill. Constitutional experts say the council is unlikely to strike the legislation down, which may help weaken protests. 

“Mobilization will continue, one way or another. … It’s a long-distance race,” the CGT’s Binet said. 

At the Paris rally, nurse Soraya Bouadouia said, “I will be here until the withdrawal of the pension reform, which is a completely unacceptable reform.” 

With Macron on an official trip to Beijing, one protester held a banner that read: “Macron resign. You will hear us all the way to China.”
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday wrapped up his first official visit to Poland since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country. On the one-day visit, the Ukrainian leader thanked his Polish hosts for standing – in Zelenskyy’s words – “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine, in what he described as a “historic relationship.” VOA Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Warsaw. Camera: Daniil Batushchak
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Fierce battles are raging on Ukraine’s front lines as fighting between occupying Russian forces and Ukrainian government troops appears to be escalating with the arrival of spring. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Torske in eastern Ukraine. Camera: Yan Boechat.
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European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has warned China President Xi Jinping not to supply arms to Russia, and she discussed a path to peace in Ukraine during talks Thursday in Beijing.

Von der Leyen traveled to China this week with French President Emmanuel Macron to show a united European front. Macron took part Wednesday and Thursday for the fifth meeting of the China-France Business Council. He later joined Von der Leyen for tri-lateral talks with Xi.

Speaking to reporters following her bilateral meeting, Von der Leyen said she raised the topic of Xi having a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding a peace plan. She said Xi expressed his willingness to speak with Zelenskyy “when [the] conditions and time are right.”

­­­­Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had a similar discussion with Xi, who at that time also expressed interest in the idea. Von der Leyen said she viewed his reiteration as a positive sign.

But the EU leader said she also warned China against providing military equipment directly or indirectly to Russia because it would be against international law and “would significantly harm our relationship.”

Von der Leyen raised the issue of Taiwan and the recent elevated tensions between it and the mainland. Beijing considers the democratically ruled island to be part of its territory, even though Taiwan has been self-governed since the end of China’s civil war in 1949.

China has vowed to bring the island under its control by any means necessary, including a military takeover.

The European Commission president said stability in the Taiwan Straits is of paramount importance and no one should unilaterally change the status quo in the region by force.

Von der Leyen said she expressed the EU’s “deep concern” about the human rights situation in China, particularly with the treatment of the ethnic Uyghur population there. She said the issue must be discussed and she welcomed the resumption of the EU-China human rights dialogue.

After her news briefing, Von der Leyen joined Macron and Xi for tri-lateral talks. Macron once again urged Xi to use his influence with Russia to end the conflict with Ukraine. Regarding Europe-China relations, Von der Leyen said decoupling from China was not “a viable or desirable strategy.”

Xi told the two leaders, “China and Europe should uphold dialogue and cooperation, maintain world peace and stability, promote common development and prosperity, advance human civilization and join hands to tackle global challenges.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and the Agence France-Presse.
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New developments:

Kremlin says decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was prompted by NATO expansion toward Russia
Swedish prosecutor investigating Nord Stream pipeline blasts in September tells Reuters “the clear main scenario” is that a state sponsored group was responsible
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Poland, updating leaders there on the war in Ukraine and meeting with Ukrainian refugees who fled after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use China’s relationship with Russia to help bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Macron told Xi as they met Thursday in Beijing that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has harmed international stability.

“I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron said.

China has proposed a multi-part peace plan for Ukraine that includes a call for upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, but it does not call on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have said they will only engage in peace talks if Russia withdraws all its military, while Russia has insisted that Ukraine recognize areas that Russia has claimed to annex.

Zelenskyy in Poland

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited neighboring Poland Wednesday, giving leaders there an update on the war in Ukraine and meeting with Ukrainian refugees who fled after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern city of Bakhmut remains difficult and that “corresponding decisions” would have to be taken if Kyiv’s troops were at risk of being surrounded by Russian forces.

Zelenskyy discussed the state of the war with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as international support and cooperation for Ukraine. Zelenskyy thanked Poland for what he characterized as its historic assistance to the Kyiv government.

Duda said Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine that must be punished.

“Today we are trying to get for Ukraine … additional guarantees, security guarantees, which will strengthen Ukraine’s military potential,” the Polish president noted.

Poland has been a key ally for Ukraine. The U.N. refugee agency says there are 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees who have registered for temporary protection status in Poland.

Poland also has served as a main hub for other Ukrainian partners to send in military and humanitarian aid.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

It was an international summit of democracies, but several democratic countries in Asia and Africa were absent; some were not invited and some turned down the invitation. 

Pakistan declined to attend, giving no excuse except that Islamabad will engage Washington, a close ally, bilaterally.

The real reason for Pakistan’s absence, experts say, was not about democracy but about China. 

“This was a fairly straightforward diplomatic decision,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia institute at the Wilson Center, told VOA.

“China was not invited, and Taiwan was. Pakistan, out of deference to its Chinese ally, would not want to attend a forum where Taiwan was present,” he said.

The only nuclear-armed, majority-Muslim country in the world, Pakistan has extensive economic and political ties with the United States and China. 

In 2020, the United States was the top export country for Pakistani products — over $4.1 billion — while Pakistan imported products worth more than $12.4 billion from China, more than from any other country, according to the World Bank. 

China is the single largest creditor to Pakistan with over $31 billion in loans, while the United States has given more than $32 billion in direct support to Pakistan over the past two decades. 

It is unclear how Pakistan’s preference to skip the U.S. invitation to gain China’s approval will work out at a time when the country is facing serious economic challenges.   

Yet Pakistan’s decision was not driven purely by economic calculations, experts say. 

Fragile democracy

The U.S. summit came at a critical time for democracies around the world. The pace of democratization has slowed, while authoritarian regimes have become more effective and influential, according to Freedom House, a U.S. entity that reports on civil and political freedom globally.

“Democracy is on life support in Pakistan,” Kugelman said, adding that the country’s democratic progress made since 2008 is in peril.

For much of its existence since 1947, Pakistan has been taken over by a military dictatorship whenever the country suffered a civilian political breakdown.

Amid intensifying political brinkmanship between the incumbent coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, leader of a major opposition party, there is fresh speculation about yet another coup. 

A declaration of martial law by the Pakistani military “would be the worst possible outcome for the country,” tweeted Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.  

The United States has long held a policy of supporting and promoting democracy across the world, but Washington seems to be distancing itself from the intensifying political drama in Pakistan.

“The sobering reality is that the U.S. has itself contributed to Pakistan’s democratic deficit by emphasizing its relations with Pakistani military leaders. That may advance U.S. goals for Washington’s relations with Pakistan, given that the army makes the big decisions on relations with the U.S., but it doesn’t help a perpetually fragile democracy that today is gasping for breath,” said Kugelman. 

Turkey

The United States did not invite Turkey, a constitutional secular democracy and a NATO ally, to the first democracy summit held in 2021 nor to the one that took place last week. 

Often labeled as an autocrat and dictator, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blamed for taking Turkey on an undemocratic path — criticism that Erdogan has strongly rejected. 

“Turkey is no longer a democratic state but is perhaps best described as an electoral autocracy,” Paul Levin, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University, told VOA.

Aside from concerns about its democratic backtracking, Turkey is the only NATO member country that has refused to enforce Western sanctions against Russia, particularly in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

“Ankara feels like it cannot afford to antagonize Russia, as it is dependent on energy imports and deferment of loan payments, as well as needing Russian cooperation to achieve its own objectives in Syria,” Levin said. 

By playing on both sides of the war in Ukraine, Erdogan tries to offset the economic crisis that Turkey has been facing, analysts say.

The absence of Turkey and Pakistan in the democracy summit was not conspicuous. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim democracy, Bangladesh and many others were also absent.

“Regarding why certain countries are not invited, we will not discuss internal deliberations. However, we reiterate that for the summit, we aim to be inclusive and representative of a regionally and socioeconomically diverse slate of countries. We are not seeking to define which countries are and aren’t democracies,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told VOA in an emailed response. 

Bringing 74 democracies to a forum, despite significant differences evinced in the final declaration of this year’s summit, was officially lauded as a major achievement.

But that achievement has limits, some analysts say.

“There was a certain arbitrariness to the summit guest list that I fear takes away from the credibility of the summit itself,” Kugelman said.  
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Turkey has closed its airspace to flights to and from an airport in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq, a top Turkish official announced Wednesday, citing an alleged increase in Kurdish militant activity threatening flight safety. 

The airspace was closed Monday to flights taking off from and landing at Suleimaniyah International Airport, in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said. 

The closure was a response to an alleged increase in the activities of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the city of Suleimaniyah, including its “infiltration” of the airport, Bilgic said in a written statement. 

Bilgic said the Turkish airspace would remain closed until July 3, when Turkish authorities would review the security situation. 

The decision comes weeks after two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq, killing Kurdish militants who were on board. The incident fueled claims that the PKK was in possession of helicopters, infuriating Turkish authorities. 

The main U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force in northeastern Syria later said it lost nine fighters, including a commander, in the crash, which occurred during bad weather on a flight to Suleimaniyah. The nine included elite fighters who were in Iraq as part of an “exchange of expertise” in the fight against the Islamic State group, according to a group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. 

Suleimaniyah International Airport director Handren al Mufti said the airport received an email from Turkish Airlines on April 3 saying its flights that day and the next were canceled. A subsequent email extended the flight suspension until April 11, Mufti said. 

He said airport officials received no response when they asked why the action was taken. 

“I can assure everyone that we have no security issues at all, and not a single incident of security breach occurred inside the airport, but apparently there are other purposes behind their decision,” Mufti said. 

Turkish Airlines flew twice daily from Istanbul to Suleimaniyah. 

The PKK has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s and is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. Its members have established safe havens in northern Iraq and frequently come under attack by Turkey in the region. 

Turkey also considers a Syrian Kurdish militant group, which forms the backbone of the SDF, as a terrorist organization. The United States, however, distinguishes between the PKK and SDF and doesn’t consider the SDF a terrorist group. 

The helicopter crash also fed into a local rivalry between the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq. 

Officials from the Kurdish Democratic Party, which has maintained largely good relations with Turkey, alleged after the crash that the helicopters had been originally purchased by the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, which has its stronghold in Suleimaniyah, and that they had been flying without permission from the regional government. 
…

China feels it has the “right to redefine the global world order,” Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei told AFP on Wednesday ahead of the opening in London of his first design-focused exhibition. 

The show at the Design Museum features hundreds of thousands of objects collected by the Chinese artist since the 1990s, from Stone Age tools to Lego bricks, and draws on his love of artifacts and traditional craftsmanship. 

The son of a poet revered by former communist leaders, Ai, 65, is perhaps China’s best-known modern artist and helped design the famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium for Beijing’s 2008 Olympics. 

But he fell out of favor after criticizing the Chinese government, was imprisoned for 81 days in 2011 and eventually left for Germany four years later. 

Among the artifacts in the new exhibition are thousands of fragments from Ai’s porcelain sculptures, which were destroyed when the bulldozers moved in to dismantle his studio in Beijing in 2018. 

In launching the show, Ai said he believed China was “not moving into a more civilized society, but [had] rather become quite brutal on anybody who has different ideas.” 

“Tension between China and the West is very natural,” added the artist, who has lived in Europe since 2015. 

“China feel they have their own power and right to redefine the global world order,” he said. “They think China can become an important factor in changing the game rules, basically designed by the West world.” 

And he said that even though Europe had been relatively peaceful for 70 years, there were many problems, including much less concern for “humanity” and threats to “freedom of speech.” 

The objects to go on display include 1,600 Stone Age tools, 10,000 Song Dynasty cannon balls retrieved from a moat, and donated Lego bricks that the artist began working with in 2014 to produce portraits of political prisoners. 

The exhibition will also feature large-scale works installed outside the exhibition gallery. 

They include a piece titled “Colored House” featuring the painted timber frame of a house that was once the home of a prosperous family during the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). 

Exhibition curator Justin McGuirk said the things Ai had been collecting over the years represented “a body of evidence about different histories, different cultural moments in China’s history [that]  maybe have been forgotten or not thought about enough.”  

“Ai Weiwei always makes something out of destruction and plays on the idea of construction,” he added.
…

A day after celebrating Finland’s joining the trans-Atlantic security alliance, NATO members got down to work Wednesday, tackling security threats posed by both Russia and China. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Brussels.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin charged Wednesday that Western intelligence agencies have helped Ukraine carry out acts of sabotage, as he urged his officials to mount a stronger response. 

Putin spoke during a call with members of his Security Council that focused on efforts to shore up control of the four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed as part of its territory in September — a move that was rejected by most of the world as an illegal annexation. 

“There are reasons to believe that the capabilities of third countries, Western special services, have been involved in preparation of acts of sabotage and terror attacks,” Putin said, without elaboration and without providing any evidence. 

He noted that the four provinces have faced Ukrainian shelling and acts of sabotage aimed at scaring the local population, adding that the authorities must act “harshly and effectively to ensure control over the situation.” 

Several Moscow-appointed officials in the newly incorporated provinces have been killed and wounded in a slew of bombings and other attacks. 

Putin urged officials to strengthen efforts to fully integrate the four regions into Russia and protect local residents from Ukrainian attacks. 

“They must see and feel that all our great country stands behind them and we will do everything to protect them,” Putin said in televised remarks at the meeting. 

When Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he charged that Russia’s “special military operation” was intended to “demilitarize” Ukraine, block its potential accession to NATO and protect the country’s Russian speakers – the rhetoric Ukraine and its allies have described as a cover for an unprovoked act of aggression. 

After failing to capture Kyiv in the initial weeks of the fighting, Russia has focused its military efforts on gaining control of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbas that includes the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. 

The Russian military captured the province of Kherson and part of the province of Zaporizhzhia in the south early during the conflict but withdrew from the city of Kherson and nearby areas on the western bank of the Dnieper River in November under the brunt of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Speaking during a separate Kremlin meeting where he received credentials from foreign ambassadors, including the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Lynne M. Tracy, Putin charged that Washington’s support for mass protests in Kyiv that ousted Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president in 2014 lay at the root of the current conflict. 

“The relations between Russia and the United States, which directly impact global stability and security, are in a deep crisis,” he said. “It’s rooted in principally different approaches to shaping the modern world order.”
…

Silvio Berlusconi, who has served as Italian prime minister four times, was being treated in intensive care in a cardiac unit at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital after reportedly suffering breathing problems.

The 86-year-old billionaire media tycoon has suffered repeated bouts of ill-health in recent years and came out of the hospital just last week.

“He has been admitted to intensive care because a problem caused by an infection has not been resolved but he is speaking,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a long-time ally of Berlusconi, told reporters in Brussels.

Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition although he does not have a role in government.

Berlusconi made his fortune through his commercial television channels and gained an international profile as owner of European soccer champions AC Milan before entering politics in 1994 when the previous political class was brought down by a corruption scandal.

His health has deteriorated, and he had heart surgery in 2016 and has also had prostate cancer. He has been repeatedly admitted to hospital over the past couple of years after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.

Italian media reports said Berlusconi was taken to hospital after complaining of breathing difficulties.

Three sources from Forza Italia said he was in intensive care, and one of them confirmed reports that he was being treated in a cardiac unit. Another of the sources said the situation was “under control.”

San Raffaele Hospital did not respond to a request for comment. A statement on Berlusconi’s condition was expected to be made on Wednesday evening.

Still provoking

Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greek-style debt crisis and was weighed down by his own scandals, including his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.

He was returned to the Senate (upper house) of the Italian parliament after a general election last September.

Berlusconi has stirred controversy in recent months with his criticism of Ukraine’s President Volodymir Zelenskyy, putting him at odds with Meloni.

An Italian court acquitted Berlusconi in February over allegations of paying witnesses to lie in an underage prostitution case that has dogged the former prime minister for more than a decade.

Berlusconi was accused of bribing 24 people, mostly young, female guests at his so-called bunga bunga parties, in a previous trial where he was charged with paying for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan nightclub dancer.

Berlusconi’s Fininvest family holding group retains control of the MediaForEurope television business, and its shares rose on Wednesday on speculation about potential mergers and acquisition activity in a post-Berlusconi era.
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International law enforcement agencies have seized a sprawling dark web marketplace popular with cybercriminals, Britain’s National Crime Agency, or NCA, said Wednesday, in a multinational crackdown dubbed ‘Operation Cookie Monster.’

A banner plastered across Genesis Market’s site late on Tuesday said domains belonging to the organization had been seized by the FBI. Logos of other European, Canadian, and Australian police organizations were also emblazoned across the site, along with that of cybersecurity firm Qintel.

“We assess that Genesis is one of the most significant access marketplaces anywhere in the world,” said Rob Jones, the NCA’s Director General of Threat Leadership.

The NCA estimated that the service hosted about 80 million credentials and digital fingerprints stolen from more than 2 million people.

It said 17 countries were involved in the operation, which was led by the FBI and Dutch National Police and had resulted in about 120 arrests, more than 200 searches and almost 100 pieces of “preventative activity”.

Qintel did not immediately return messages seeking comment and Reuters could not immediately locate contact details for Genesis Market’s administrators.

The FBI seemed eager for information about them as well, saying in its seizure notice that anyone who had been in touch with them should “Email us, we’re interested.”

Genesis was specialized in the sale of digital products, especially “browser fingerprints” harvested from computers infected with malicious software, said Louise Ferrett, an analyst at British cybersecurity firm Searchlight Cyber.

Because those fingerprints often include credentials, cookies, internet protocol addresses and other browser or operating system details, they can be used by criminals to bypass anti-fraud solutions such as multi-factor authentication or device fingerprinting, she said.

The site had been active since 2018.

The NCA said Genesis had operated by selling credentials from as little as $0.7 to hundreds of dollars depending on the stolen data available.

“To get up and running on this you just have to know of the site, potentially be able to get yourself an invite which given the volume of users probably wouldn’t be particularly difficult,” said Will Lyne, NCA Head of Cyber Intelligence.

“Once you become a user, it’s really easy to then … perpetrate criminal activity.”

The NCA said countries involved in the investigation also included Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

People can check if they were victims by visiting https://www.politie.nl/checkyourhack.
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New developments:

French President Emmanuel Macron, during visit to Beijing, says with China’s relationship with Russia it can “play a major role” in achieving peace in Ukraine.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi reiterated the “urgent need” to protect the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine as he met with Russian officials in Kaliningrad.
Russian bank VTB reports $7.7 billion in losses for 2022. Bank officials blamed Western sanctions that targeted Russia’s financial sector after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Poland’s Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk announces resignation amid anger from Polish farmers about effects of Ukrainian grain imports on prices.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled Wednesday to neighboring Poland to meet with leaders there as well as members of the public and Ukrainian refugees who fled after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Polish officials said his talks with President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki would include discussion of the conflict as well as international support and cooperation.

Poland has been a key ally for Ukraine. The U.N. refugee agency says there are 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees who have registered for temporary protection status in Poland.

Poland has also served as a main hub for other Ukrainian partners to send in military and humanitarian aid.

U.S. aid

The United States is providing Ukraine with a $2.6 billion military aid package that includes munitions for Patriot air defense systems and three surveillance radars.

The package also includes hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds along with 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, which Ukrainian forces have continued to quickly burn through as they counter Russia’s illegal invasion.

“Ammunition for HIMARS, for air defense, for artillery is just what we need,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday. “Thank you Mr. President Biden, thank you Congress, thank you every American!”

A senior defense official, who spoke to reporters Tuesday on the condition of anonymity, said new equipment in the package such as nine 30 mm gun trucks could “detect and intercept drones such as the Iranian-built Shahed[s]” that Moscow is currently using in the fight.

About $500 million of the aid package announced Tuesday will provide ammunition and equipment from U.S. military stockpiles using the presidential drawdown authority. Another $2.1 billion will buy an array of munitions and weapons for Ukraine in the future.

The U.S. has now pledged more than $30 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion. When viewed as a percentage of donor country GDP, the U.S. ranks about 10th in its security donations to Kyiv.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron are to land in China on Wednesday seeking to “reset” ties with an important economic partner while broaching thorny issues like Ukraine and trade risks.  

Macron last visited China in 2019. It will be von der Leyen’s first trip since becoming European Commission president that year. 

Since then, China’s strict pandemic controls forced all diplomatic meetings online as relations with Europe soured: first because of a stalled investment pact in 2021 and then Beijing’s refusal to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. 

For Macron, facing embarrassing pension protests at home, the trip offers a chance to land some economic wins as he travels with a 50-strong business delegation, including Airbus, which is negotiating a big plane order, Alstom and nuclear giant EDF. 

However, some analysts said ostentatious deal-signing would appear opportunistic at a time of heightened frictions between the United States and China.  

“It’s not the time to announce business deals or big new investments,” said Noah Barkin, an analyst with Rhodium Group. “It would essentially be a vote of confidence in the Chinese economy and send the message that France is not on board with the U.S. approach.” 

Von der Leyen has said the EU must reduce risks in ties with Beijing, including limiting Chinese access to sensitive technology and reducing reliance for key inputs such as critical minerals, as well as batteries, solar panels and other clean tech products. 

Macron invited von der Leyen on the trip as a way to project European unity, after French officials criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for going solo to China late last year.  

He has pushed the EU to be more robust in trade relations with China and is broadly supportive of von der Leyen’s stance, Macron advisers said, but the French leader has publicly refrained from using strong anti-China rhetoric, Beijing being prone to bilateral retaliatory measures.  

Beyond trade, both have said they want to persuade China to use its influence over Russia to bring peace in Ukraine, or at least prevent Beijing from directly supporting its ally. 

“Both (Macron and von der Leyen) have not only business in mind but also Ukraine,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. “I’m sure it’s not going to be an easy visit.” 

China earlier this year proposed a 12-point peace plan for the Ukraine crisis, which called on both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation leading to a comprehensive ceasefire. 

But the plan was largely dismissed by the West because of China’s refusal to condemn Russia, and the U.S. and NATO then said China was considering sending arms to Russia, claims which Beijing has denied.  

Suspicions over China’s motives only deepened after President Xi Jinping flew to Moscow for meetings with Vladimir Putin last month in his first overseas visit since securing a precedent-breaking third term as president. 

Macron has said he is also keen to stress to Xi, who he will meet alongside von der Leyen on Thursday, that Europe will not accept China providing arms to Russia. 

“Considering China’s proximity with Russia, it’s obvious it is one of the few countries, if not the only one, which could have a game-changing effect on the conflict, in one way or another,” one of Macron’s advisors said ahead of the trip. 

In a meeting with Xi in Beijing last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had encouraged the Chinese leader to talk to the Ukrainian leadership and learn first-hand about Kyiv’s peace formula. 

Macron and von der Leyen are expected to echo the message that Xi should also talk to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

After brokering a surprise detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia last month, China has been eager to present itself as a global peacemaker and an alternative to the United States, which it says is fanning flames by sending weapons to Ukraine. 

The talks with European leaders come amid high tension with the U.S. over issues ranging from Taiwan to bans on semiconductor exports, and China is eager that Europe does not follow what it sees as a U.S.-led effort to contain its rise.  

Taking aim at von der Leyen’s comments last week on the risks of trade with China, the state-run Chinese nationalist Global Times warned on Monday that Europe would suffer from any attempt to cut economic ties with Beijing. 

“The EU is in a difficult struggle as it is under great pressure from the U.S. to adjust its economic relations with China. China and EU decoupling will only serve U.S. interests, but make both China and Europe suffer,” it said.  

But aside from some hard talk on Ukraine and trade tensions, the trip will also serve up some lighter opportunities to demonstrate what Macron’s advisor said was an attempt to “reset” diplomatic and economic relations with China. 

On Friday, Xi will accompany Macron on a trip to the sprawling southern port of Guangzhou, where the first French ship reached Chinese shores in the 17th century and where France opened its first consulate.  

After meeting students there, Macron will attend a private dinner and tea ceremony with the Chinese leader who also has sentimental attachment to the city as his late father, Xi Zhongxun, used to work there as provincial first secretary. 

“We believe that this (trip) has very large symbolic significance and suggests that (France) is ready to relaunch cooperation with China,” Henry Huiyao Wang, president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank. 
…

After a relatively low turnout of 40% in Bulgaria’s parliamentary elections that were held on Sunday, results show there was no outright winner, and the parties are headed to coalition talks.

Analysts say the results could influence Bulgaria’s position on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two-party coalition of GERB-SDS, led by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, won the early parliamentary elections with 26.51% of the votes, Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission announced on its website, based on unofficial regional results.

The pro-Western reformist coalition We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, or PP-DB, is in second place with 25%. Revival, with 14% of the votes, is in third place, ahead of DPS, receiving nearly 14% of voter support. The Bulgarian Socialist Party, an heir to the Bulgarian Communist Party, finished with a historically low 9%.

“The biggest setback was the rise of the Russophile Party to third place, gaining 5 percentage points more than last year,” said Margarita Assenova, an analyst at The Jamestown Foundation. “This will boost Moscow’s influence in Bulgaria and potentially increase calls for a peace settlement of Russia’s war against Ukraine, favoring the Kremlin-desired partition of Ukraine.”

At the same time, both likely winners share pro-European, pro-NATO positions and strong support for Ukraine. During former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s government, a secret supply of Bulgarian-made ammunition made its way to Ukraine as early as April 2022, as VOA reported. PP and GERB voted to provide Ukraine with military aid last November.

After casting his ballot, Borissov said a stable government in Bulgaria was the only way out of the crisis.

“With this terrible war in Ukraine, with this redistribution of the world and the entire supply chain, we very clearly have to stand with the democratic world,” The Associated Press reported Borissov as saying. Borissov was first elected as Bulgaria`s prime minister in 2009.

In an earlier interview with VOA, Petkov called on EU leaders to introduce the toughest sanctions against Russia in the early days of the full-force invasion and also emphasized his pro-European position at the polls.

“I voted for a normal European life, to have a normal European government, normal European roads, normal European health care, normal European education,” he said, according to the AP. Petkov led the Bulgarian government formed by a coalition of four parties between December 2021 and August 2022.

Despite their similar political positions, forming a coalition between two political forces is not a given, experts say.

“Too much hostility has accumulated in the last year to the point that it has been the official political strategy to deny any possibility of future cooperation,” Hristo Panchugov, assistant professor at New Bulgarian University, told VOA.

The PP and its ally, Democratic Bulgaria, vowed to never collaborate with GERB and its leader, accusing the party of presiding over rampant corruption during its lengthy rule, Borissov has denied the accusation.

“Even small collaborations on shared policy positions will be extremely difficult. With the local elections coming up in the autumn, the parties will be even more hesitant to enter a partnership that might lead them to lose support,” Panchugov said.

But the strong showing of the Russophile parties in this election, Assenova, said, might force two likely winners to cooperate and form a stable two-party coalition.

“It will be a historic chance for GERB and PP to return the country to its hard-earned place and role within Europe and NATO and to wash its face from shameful pro-Russia rhetoric as Moscow’s brutal genocidal war against independent Ukraine continues,” she said.

Ognyan Minchev, professor of political science at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, points to other forces that push both political forces to form a coalition. The first one comes from regular Bulgarians who are “fed up with the so-called caretaker government of the president, which practically in many important aspects did not govern,” he said.

“Secondly, there is significant pressure from Bulgaria’s partners in the European Union within NATO to create a parliamentary majority and normal functional government, because there are many issues that Bulgaria has to address separately and together with its allies in the context of present-day European and world developments,” Minchev said.

Thirdly, Minchev said both political forces would benefit from joining the government coalition, which would allow GERB to restore its legitimacy after the massive protests in 2020 against corruption in Borissov’s government. It would also help Petkov’s political force maintain its electoral support, which has decreased during the last three election cycles.

If the two leading parties cannot form a coalition, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev will form another caretaker government and schedule another national election. For most of the last two years, except for Petkov’s eight-monthslong government from December 2021 to August 2022, Bulgaria has been ruled by technocratic caretaker governments.

Radev is considered friendly to Russia. Both Panchugov and Assenova point to his opposition to sending military aid to Ukraine.

“He has been exploiting gaps in legislative decisions to limit or reduce support towards Ukraine,” Panchugov said.

“He even disregarded the parliament’s decision to do so. So, we will see another six months of the same, not only regarding the policy towards Ukraine in the war that is going on there, but also in foreign policy, defense policy, rearmament and modernizing of the Bulgarian army,” Assenova said.

She pointed out that the president, whose constitutional role is primarily ceremonial, made most foreign policy and defense decisions during the last two years.

Some information for this report comes from The Associated Press, Reuters and RFE/RL.
…

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive in China Wednesday for a three-day state visit aimed at discussing trade, human rights, and especially Ukraine with President Xi Jinping, amid ever closer ties between Beijing and Moscow.

The trip will be Macron’s first to China since 2019, and von der Leyen’s first as head of the European Union’s executive arm. Analysts and officials have downplayed expectations for any major outcome, though the two leaders will likely prod China to limit its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“My understanding is it is very much about reengagement,” said Tara Varma, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who specializes in Indo-Pacific issues.

Macron and von der Leyen are expected to hold talks with President Xi on Thursday. Macron is also scheduled to visit the southern city of Guangzhou.

The trip aims to present a common European front toward China, analysts say, amid growing friction on several fronts. The stakes for improving ties are high for both sides, including China’s position as a top EU trading partner.

In a recent speech that Chinese officials criticized, von der Leyen warned Beijing against directly supporting Moscow in its war on Ukraine and described EU-China relations as “more distant and more difficult.”

Von der Leyen characterized China as becoming “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad.” And she dismissed hopes of resuscitating a stalled investment deal with China, saying it had to be “reassessed” within Europe’s larger China strategy.

Von der Leyen, however, also said the EU did not need to “decouple” from its relations with China.

“That was the hardest hitting and most critical speech that we’ve had on China from a European leader in recent decades,” said Andrew Small, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and author of a recent book on China, titled, “The Rupture: China and the Global Race for the Future.”

“Although there are elements of this visit that will be about diplomatic reengagement, I think she laid out pretty starkly where the balance of European thinking is really moving,” he added.

Red line?

Macron, who had earlier hoped to visit China at least once a year as president, appears to have greater ambitions for success.

At a minimum, the French presidency reportedly wants China to draw a red line on providing arms to Russia while the war rages in Ukraine.

“Macron also has this hope to secure some form of Chinese support for a peace process, for putting pressure on Russia,” analyst Small said, even as he characterized broader European expectations for that happening as “extremely low.”

Last month, Beijing laid out a 12-point plan to end the war that included calls for a cease-fire, peace talks, and an end to sanctions against Russia. But it did not label Moscow as the aggressor in the war and offered no specifics on its stance toward Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Last week, von der Leyen said any peace plan that consolidated Russian seizures of Ukrainian territory was not viable.

Still, Small said, “there is value in delivering a strong message to the Chinese side that says, ‘The relationship with Europe will be conditioned by how you handle the Ukraine question and your relationship with Russia.’”

Along with Ukraine, Macron and von der Leyen will focus on human rights and economics.

Trade rivalry

Macron is accompanied by a hefty business delegation, composed of CEOs from the energy, transport and aviation sectors. The Reuters news agency reports Macron’s visit coincides with talks on a possible new Chinese order for Airbus planes.

The Europeans have been pressing for a more level playing field when it comes to trade and investment. For its part, China is particularly eager to resurrect an EU investment deal put on hold three years ago, Brookings analyst Varma said.

“I’m pretty sure the Chinese authorities will put the issue to both President von der Leyen and President Macron,” she added. “But there will need to be some guarantees provided by the Chinese authorities in terms of a level playing field, and reciprocity in terms of market access — which is not the case today.”

Ahead of the trip, European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned of the EU’s capacity to inflict economic damage on China as a major market for Chinese goods.

“China is a trade partner, but China is also a systemic rival,” Breton told French radio, “If the (EU) internal market ever closes to China, which I hope will not be the case, that’s four to five GDP points fewer for China.”
…

Analysts say the war in Ukraine has been largely a stalemate in recent months, despite high casualty counts on both sides. But in the city of Chasiv Yar, the war has become deadlier and more dangerous week by week. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports. Videographer: Yan Boechat
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Britain’s privacy watchdog hit TikTok with a multimillion-dollar penalty Tuesday for misusing children’s data and violating other protections for users’ personal information.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said it issued a fine of $15.9 million to the short-video sharing app, which is wildly popular with young people.

It’s the latest example of tighter scrutiny that TikTok and its parent, Chinese technology company ByteDance, are facing in the West, where governments are increasingly concerned about risks that the app poses to data privacy and cybersecurity.

The British watchdog, which was investigating data breaches between May 2018 and July 2020, said TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million children in the U.K. under 13 to use the app in 2020, despite the platform’s own rules prohibiting children that young from setting up accounts.

TikTok didn’t adequately identify and remove children under 13 from the platform, the watchdog said. And even though it knew younger children were using the app, TikTok failed to get consent from their parents to process their data, as required by Britain’s data protection laws, the agency said.

“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a press release.

TikTok collected and used personal data of children who were inappropriately given access to the app, he said.

“That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll,” Edwards said.

The company said it disagreed with the watchdog’s decision.

“We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community,” TikTok said in statement. “We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps.”

TikTok says it has improved its sign-up system since the breaches happened by no longer allowing users to simply declare they are old enough and looking for other signs that an account is used by someone under 13.

The penalty also covered other breaches of U.K. data privacy law.

The watchdog said TikTok failed to properly inform people about how their data is collected, used and shared in an easily understandable way. Without this information, it’s unlikely that young users would be able “to make informed choices” about whether and how to use TikTok, it said.

TikTok also failed to ensure personal data of British users was processed lawfully, fairly and transparently, the regulator said.

TikTok initially faced a 27 million-pound fine, which was reduced after the company persuaded regulators to drop other charges.

U.S. regulators in 2019 fined TikTok, previously known as Music.aly, $5.7 million in a case that involved similar allegations of unlawful collection of children’s personal information.

Also Tuesday, Australia became the latest country to ban TikTok from its government devices, with authorities from the European Union to the United States concerned that the app could share data with the Chinese government or push pro-Beijing narratives

U.S. lawmakers are also considering forcing a sale or even banning it outright as tensions with China grow.
…

Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Finland had adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II, but its leaders signaled they wanted to join NATO just months after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through its neighbors.

The move is a strategic and political setback for Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.

“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before accepting the documents that made Finland’s membership official.

The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

Russia warned it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.

The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.

Alarmed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military nonalignment to seek protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

“It’s a great day for Finland and an important day for NATO, too,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. “Russia tried to create a sphere around them and, well, we are not a sphere. I’m sure that Finns themselves feel more secure, that we are living in a more stable world.”

Neighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.

Niinisto said Finland’s membership “is not complete without that of Sweden. The persistent efforts for a rapid Swedish membership continue.“

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow “will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland’s accession to NATO.”

It said Finland’s move marks “a fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there. But he also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.

It’s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.

The country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO’s “iron-clad security guarantee,” under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.

But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organization’s decisions.

“We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,” he said.

Finland’s Parliament, meanwhile, said its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.

A pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO. The claim could not be immediately verified.

The hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow’s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament’s site last year.

Finland’s entry, marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.
…