Tensions are rising between the United States and Russia following sharp statements from President Joe Biden on Vladimir Putin over the Russian president’s attempt to undermine the 2020 U.S. election. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Officials in Washington are reacting calmly to Moscow summoning home its ambassador to the United States for consultations about the deteriorated bilateral relationship.  
 
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, in explaining Anatoly Antonov’s temporary return home, stated: “The most important thing for us is to identify ways of rectifying Russia-U.S. relations, which have been going through hard times as Washington has, as a matter of fact, brought them to a blind alley. We are interested in preventing an irreversible deterioration in relations, if the Americans become aware of the risks associated with this.”  
 
The announcement from Moscow came shortly after a taped ABC television interview aired Wednesday morning in which U.S. President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “will pay a price” for his malevolent actions.  
 
Biden also recounted in the interview that he had told Putin, “I don’t think you have a soul.” He said Russian leader replied, “We understand each other.”  
 
Asked by the ABC interviewer if he believes Putin is a killer, Biden replied, “I do.”FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 11, 2021.According to a RAND Corporation adjunct senior fellow, William Courtney, “It is rare for a U.S. president to refer to the leader of a major adversarial power as a killer.”  
 
Courtney, who was a negotiator in U.S. defense talks with the Soviet Union, told VOA that “sometimes ambassadors are withdrawn after insults.”
 
“And, of course, the Biden administration is talking about more sanctions with regard to the SolarWinds cyberattack. So, both of those could be factors” in the move by Moscow, he said.
 
At Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to specify whether the president believes the Russian president, literally or metaphorically, is a killer.  
 
“He’s not going to hold back in his direction communications [with Russia]. He’s not going to hold back publicly,” Psaki said.   
 
When asked about Moscow recalling its ambassador, the press secretary said Biden’s administration “is going to take a different approach in our relationship to Russia than the prior administration. …We are going to be straightforward and we are going to be direct in areas where we have concerns.”FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with government members via a video conference call at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters “even as we work to work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, we’ll be able to hold Russia accountable for any of their malign actions.”  
 
The Biden administration has expressed interest in working with Moscow on areas of mutual concern, such as a new nuclear arms pact and mitigating the effects of climate change.  
 
Biden earlier ordered the release of a declassified version of an intelligence assessment that “Russian state media, trolls, and online proxies, including those directed by Russian intelligence, published disparaging content about President Biden, his family, and the Democratic Party, and heavily amplified related content circulating in U.S. media, including stories centered on his son.”
 
Russia, as well as Iran, according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, engaged in broader efforts to undermine U.S. public confidence in the election.  
 
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the U.S. intelligence report was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”
 
The U.S. government on Wednesday also announced additional sanctions on Russia for using chemical weapons against dissidents.
 
The Commerce Department said it is blocking export of items controlled for national security reasons that are destined for Russia. It is also suspending licenses that granted specific exceptions for exports to Russia, targeting replacement parts and equipment, technology and software and “additional permissive re-exports.”Putin enjoyed a more amicable relationship during the past four years with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. During his presidency, Trump frequently praised Putin and rejected intelligence community conclusions that Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election in which the property investor with no political experience defeated former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to counter what he called the “systemic challenge” posed by China as he set out the government’s 10-year defense strategy Tuesday.Some ruling Conservative Party lawmakers, however, have accused Johnson of “going soft” on Beijing.Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union. The government’s “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” says Russia remains the most acute threat facing the country but warns that China poses a “systemic challenge to our security, prosperity and values.”Uyghurs, Hong Kongers“The U.K. … has led the international community in expressing our deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province, and in giving nearly 3 million of Hong Kong’s people a route to British citizenship,” Johnson told lawmakers.“There is no question that China will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours, but we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including in building a stronger and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change,” he said.He added that changing defense priorities would enable the country to fulfil his post-Brexit pledge of a “global Britain.”FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference on Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.“Britain will remain unswervingly committed to NATO and preserving peace and security in Europe. From this secure basis, we will seek out friends and partners wherever they can be found, building a coalition for openness and innovation, and engaging more deeply in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.“I have invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in Carbis Bay in June, and I am delighted to announce that I will visit India next month to strengthen our friendship with the world’s biggest democracy. Our approach will place diplomacy first. The U.K. has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and we will seek to join the trans-Pacific free trade agreement,” Johnson said.Carrier’s voyageTo demonstrate that engagement, Britain’s new aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will make its maiden voyage to the Indo-Pacific later this year.However, several ruling Conservative Party lawmakers accused Johnson of “going soft” on China for seeking deeper trade links.Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of Parliament’s Defense Select Committee, wrote on Twitter that China was “still not seen as a geo-strategic threat but a competitive trading partner.”FILE – Britain’s opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer speaks in the House of Commons in London, Dec. 2, 2020.Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer also criticized the government’s approach.“We welcome the deepening of engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, but that comes on the back of an inconsistent policy towards China for a decade. Conservative governments have spent 10 years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting China to help build our infrastructure,” Starmer told MPs.Johnson said those seeking a “new Cold War” with Beijing were mistaken.Britain’s Ministry of Defense is set to detail later this month how the new strategy outlined in the “Integrated Review” would be implemented. Countering China’s assertiveness will require a broad response, said analyst Veerle Nouwens of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.“This won’t just be about sending ships to the region or planes to the region. It will really be about equally investing in new technologies, be that quantum, A.I., cyber, space, you name it. So, it really is a broader challenge than just the immediate visible military things that we know of when we speak about China’s rise and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific itself,” Nouwens told VOA.Focusing on strengths“It would be very difficult to compete with China match for match, point for point, but I think that’s the situation that most countries are heading to,” Nouwens said. “We do have limited resources, and so, it is really about finding those angles that the U.K. already has real strength in and working with partners and allies or others to try and shore up capability, shore up knowledge, and come out with products and technologies that allies can share alike.”Johnson added that the United States would remain Britain’s closest ally.“In all our endeavours, the United States will be our greatest ally and a uniquely close partner in defense, intelligence and security,” he told lawmakers. “Britain’s commitment to the security of our European home will remain unconditional and immovable.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pictured upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, March 17, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are visiting Japan and South Korea this week, with China at the top of the agenda. Speaking Wednesday in Seoul, Blinken underlined the threat posed by Beijing.“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse the human rights situation in Tibet and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said at a news conference.China accused the U.S. of disrupting regional peace and stability. Beijing has yet to respond to Britain’s plans for greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific.Meanwhile, Britain also announced it would raise the cap on its nuclear arsenal to 260 warheads from 180. Critics said that would breach Britain’s commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The government said the figure was a cap, not a target.Johnson confirmed a $33 billion multiyear boost to military spending. He said Britain’s total defense budget stood at 2.2% of GDP, above the NATO spending commitment of 2%. Part of the new investment will fund a new counterterrorism operations center and a new National Cyber Force. 
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Britain pledged to counter what it called the strategic threat posed by China as it set out its new t10-year defense strategy this week. Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union, according to the policy review, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Producer: Jason Godman. Camera: Henry Ridgwell. 
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Pope Francis Wednesday appealed for peace in Myanmar, where clashes between police and coup protesters have left around 200 people dead.
At the end of his weekly audience at the Vatican, the pope said with great sorrow, he felt the urgent need to mention the situation in Myanmar, where, he added, “Many people, especially the young, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country.”  
Daily nationwide protests have continued in Myanmar since the February 1 military coup pushed out the government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In his comments, Francis said, “Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say, ‘stop the violence.’ Even I open my arms and say, ‘Let dialogue prevail.'”
The pope referenced a dramatic scene captured in pictures and video last week when a Catholic nun, Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng, during a rally in the streets of the city of Myitkyina, dropped to her knees in front of armed police in riot gear and pleaded with them not to shoot the protesters. At least two of the officers dropped to their knees with her.
The nun later described to reporters how she told the police the demonstrators were merely shouting slogans and urged them not to beat or arrest them. The nun said when they told her they must stop the protesters, she told them they must go through her.
Despite her efforts, the police fired tear gas into the crowd and gunshots could be heard a short time later.  
In his concluding comments Wednesday, the pope urged “that a path of sincere dialogue may be found” to end the clashes. “Let us remember that violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained through it, but much is lost, sometimes everything,” he said. The pope visited Myanmar in 2017.
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Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday a U.S. intelligence report indicating Russia meddled in 2020 U.S. elections was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”Peskov was reacting to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) saying Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations aimed at denigrating U.S. President Joe Biden, boosting former President Donald Trump, undermining confidence in the election and exacerbating social divisions in the United States.The report said they did not see – as in 2016 – a persistent effort on the part of Russia to gain access to U.S. election infrastructure.In a telephone briefing with reporters, Peskov said Russia did not interfere with U.S. elections in 2016 or 2020 as mentioned in the report.  “Russia has nothing to do with any campaigns against any candidates,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.  He added he expects the U.S. government to use the report to impose additional sanctions against Russia, which he said, “harms painful Russian-American relations.”  The DNI report also found that Iran carried out a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” designed undercut former president Trump’s chances in last year’s election, though without boosting his rival. The report says Iran also attempted to undercut public confidence in the U.S. election process. The assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by several top U.S. officials, China ultimately decided to sit the election out and “did not deploy interference efforts.”The report goes on to say that Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Venezuela and Cuba all made efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. election, but were on a smaller scale.
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A just-released assessment by U.S. intelligence officials finds Russia and Iran, joined by a handful of other countries and groups, did seek to influence the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. But the assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by a number of top officials, China ultimately decided to sit it out. The declassified report, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the U.S. intelligence community’s final take on foreign meddling in the hotly contested race, in which then-presidential candidate Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. FILE – A newspaper with a front picture of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is seen at a newsstand in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 8, 2020.Initially completed and shared with the Trump administration in a classified form in January, the unclassified version, required by law, seeks to give U.S. voters an overview of the threats and of their impact on American democracy.  While the assessment concludes no adversary managed to infiltrate critical systems or change how votes were cast, the conclusions on China could lead to new questions about how the intelligence was initially presented to the public. “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” the newly released ODNI report said, adding it had “high confidence” in its finding. “China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping U.S. China policy regardless of the winner,” the report stated. Earlier warnings Those findings contrast with earlier warnings from intelligence officials who spent months warning voters of the potential threats, specifically calling out efforts by China along with Russia and Iran. “China is expanding its influence efforts to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and counter criticism of China,” then National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director FILE – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe waits on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.In August, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe grouped China with Russia and Iran in an interview with Fox Business News. “I don’t want to say this is only about China,” Ratcliffe said at the time. “China, Russia, Iran, other actors, are all trying to interfere or influence our elections for their own gain.” He added, however, that Beijing’s efforts stood apart. “China’s using a massive and sophisticated influence campaign that dwarfs anything that any other country is doing,” Ratcliffe said.  Another top Trump official, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, echoed those thoughts less than a month later. “The intelligence community has made very clear, first you have China, which has the most massive program to influence the United States politically,” O’Brien told reporters at the time. White House Defends Trump’s Concerns About Mail-In Voting National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien defended the president’s warning of fraud while dismissing an intel bulletin that suggested Russia is using mail-in voting to sow confusion ahead of the November electionTrump, himself, also played up the notion China was seeking his defeat. “China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said during a news conference last August. “They would own our country.” Declassified report In the newly declassified report, however, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Beijing did not use its well-developed influence machine to alter the results. “We did not identify China attempting to interfere with election infrastructure or provide funding to any candidates or parties,” the report said. It said Beijing had previously sought to influence U.S. politics, including in the 2018 U.S. elections. “We did not, however, see these capabilities deployed for the purpose of shaping the electoral outcome,” the report said. Report Puts Russia, China and Iran in Line for Sanctions for Election Meddling

        Voters who went to the polls last month in the United States' midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly.However, a new report by the U.S. 

While stating it had high confidence in its findings regarding China, the ODNI report admitted there was some disagreement. “The National Intelligence Officer [NIO] for Cyber assesses that China took at least some steps to undermine former President Trump’s reelection chances, primarily through social media and official public statements and media,” it said, explaining the NIO gave more weight to indications that Beijing preferred Biden, seeing him as more predictable than Trump. The NIO also argued, with moderate confidence, that evidence suggested China increased its influence operations from June to August 2020, while calibrating its effort so as to “avoid blowback.” Still, several former intelligence officials who spoke to VOA about the ODNI report said its prevailing view in regard to China was not surprising. “[Former Director of National Intelligence] John Ratcliffe had the political mission of downplaying the whole Russian influence issue, with one way of doing that being to play up the idea that Chinese influence was at least as likely and significant as anything the Russians did,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who has been critical of Trump. Pillar, now with Georgetown University, said, in his view, the more notable conclusion from the ODNI report was how Russia sought to push Trump’s candidacy. FILE – Then-nominee for national intelligence director Avril Haines speaks during a confirmation hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Pool via AP)”Foreign malign influence is an enduring challenge facing our country,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement Tuesday.   “Addressing this ongoing challenge requires a whole-of-government approach grounded in an accurate understanding of the problem, which the Intelligence Community, through assessments such as this one, endeavors to provide,” she added. A separate report Tuesday, from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, reaffirmed earlier findings that foreign adversaries failed to impact the tallying of ballots. “We … have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information of any ballots cast during 2020 federal elections,” the report said. The second report also rejected claims made after the November 2020 U.S. election that foreign governments, including Venezuela, Cuba and China, were in any way in control of critical election infrastructure to manipulate the election’s outcome. Such claims “are not credible,” the Justice Department and DHS concluded. Some key lawmakers, though, reacted to the reports by warning it is more critical than ever for the U.S. to maintain its guard. “The problem of foreign actors trying to influence the American electorate is not going away,” Democratic Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “Given the current partisan divides in this country, [it] may find fertile ground in which to grow.” 
 
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It’s been two months (Jan. 18), since Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny returned home following a lengthy recovery abroad from a near fatal poisoning attack.  Navalny — and western governments — blame the Russian government for the attempt on his life — a charge the Kremlin denies.  Yet a Russian court has since sentenced Navalny to just over two and a-half years in prison for alleged past parole violations.  The question now: can Russia’s opposition thrive — or even survive — without its leading figure?  From Moscow for VOA, Charles Maynes reports.Camera: Ricardo Marquina, Agencies,  Produced by: Ricardo Marquina/Rob Raffaele   
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The independent Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta has called on Moscow authorities to investigate a “chemical attack” against its premises after a security camera recorded a person spraying its office entrance with an unknown liquid.The media outlet, which shares the premises with several other companies in the Russian capital, demanded the investigation on March 16, a day after a strong chemical odor swept through the building. Late on March 15, a video allegedly taken by a CCTV camera  at the building circulated on the Internet showing a man in a Yandex.Food delivery uniform spraying an unknown liquid near the building’s entrance from a device on the back wheel of the bike he was riding.”Look, it is now a device for terrorist acts — a false courier sprays a poisonous gas that is in a container installed on a bicycle. The idea is clear: the employees step in the poison and then distribute it to all of the floors in the building,” Novaya Gazeta said in a statement.A spokeswoman at Yandex.Food told the website Mediazona that the company did not receive any orders from the address where Novaya Gazeta is located.Novaya Gazeta’s staff members have said the odor in the building was very similar to one that was present when the home and car of correspondent Yulia Latynina was sprinkled with an unknown chemical in 2017.That same year the newspaper received a letter with an unknown white powder inside, which later was shown to be harmless.In October 2018, unknown people brought three cages with sheep wearing vests with the inscription PRESS on them.Several days before that, unknown individuals threw a funeral wreath in front of the periodical’s building with notes threatening Denis Korotkov, a correspondent for the newspaper. Days later a sheep’s head was found near the office with a note threatening all reporters at Novaya Gazeta.Six Novaya Gazeta journalists, including well-known reporters Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, and Anastasia Baburova, have been killed since 2001. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament Tuesday that his government will seek to strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of the nation’s departure from the European Union.The shift is part of his government’s so-called Integrated Review of national security and international policy, a year-long study by his government that he highlighted for lawmakers. Calling it the most comprehensive review of British defense and foreign relations since the Cold War ended, Johnson said its purpose is to make the nation safer, stronger and more prosperous, while standing up for its values.”The review describes how we will bolster our alliances, strengthen our capabilities, find new ways of reaching solutions and relearn the art of competing against states with opposing values,” he told members of parliament.As part of Britain’s pivot toward Asia, Johnson said he has invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in the British resort town of Carbis Bay, in June. Johnson plans to visit India next month and announced that Britain has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He said Britain will also seek to join the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.The prime minister said his plan calls for Britain to invest at least $9.1 billion to fund advanced and next-generation research and development in areas including space, directed energy weapons, and advanced high-speed missiles.To reaffirm that Britain is “unswervingly committed” to leadership in NATO, Johnson said the government will increase its defense budget by more than $33 billion over the next four years and remain the largest European spender on defense in NATO, with expenditures now standing at 2.2% of its gross domestic production. Britain will deploy more of its armed forces overseas more often and for longer periods of time, while cybersecurity will also be strengthened, he said.Johnson also told lawmakers the United States remains Britain’s most important bilateral relationship in defense, intelligence and security.He added that while China would pose a great challenge to what he described as Britain’s “open society,” his government would continue to work with Beijing whenever it was “consistent with our values and interests.”
 
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Despite the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, France is once again under pressure to take new measures to curb a new spread of the virus in the country.  The situation is once again deteriorating rapidly in the French capital. Hospitals in the Paris region are close to capacity and health professionals are rushing daily to find beds for their COVID patients. As of Monday, more than 4,200 patients were in intensive care units across France. The pandemic’s third wave is a reality in France and health workers have been evacuating seriously ill COVID patients to other parts of the country to cope with bed shortages. Enrique Casalino, a medical director with Hopitaux de Paris, the largest health system in Europe, describes the epidemic situation as deteriorating in the Paris region where every 12 minutes a new patient enters an intensive care unit. Casalino thinks medical evacuation to other French regions is just a temporary solution that does not solve the current crisis. He says there are only two options: a quick and massive immunization campaign to safeguard 70% of the population, which he doubts is currently achievable in France. The other would be a strict lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading further.On top of a delay in the delivery of vaccines, France is among European nations that are pausing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to public concerns about side effects.Lockdowns have already been imposed in some hotspots in France, including Dunkirk and Nice, but not in the capital region.  A national nighttime curfew has been in force since the end of January, and bars, restaurants, museums, and movie theaters remain closed.  Still, a general lockdown in the Paris region has not been ordered.  Jerome Béglé, deputy director at Le Point, a French weekly, sees a lockdown of the Paris region as equivalent to a national lockdown as this region is the main economic center of France with 12 million people living there and a few tourists still visiting.With neighboring Italy imposing new restrictions Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron resisted the idea of a third national lockdown.Jean Castex, France’s prime minister says a national lockdown would be a last resort that cannot be ruled out due to the current situation. He says he would like to avoid one as it would place a heavy burden on the population.More than 90,000 people have died so far in France due to the COVID. The country is expected to reach a dreaded 100,000-death milestone next month.
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Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders appeared until recently to have faded into political irrelevance, thanks partly to the country’s mainstream parties’ adoption of some of his populist positions. Rivals on the populist right, notably Thierry Baudet, started to eclipse Wilders.  But the controversial firebrand seems to be on the brink of pulling off a strong electoral showing with his party, the Party for Freedom, PVV, likely to place second in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, according to opinion polls.Pollsters say the PVV is on course to retain the 20 seats it won in 2017, and analysts and commentators say that if that holds true, it will amount to a comeback by Wilders, whose party has struggled to keep its political footing and stumbled in 2019 when it went from nine seats to five in elections for the national parliament’s upper house. Dutch anti-immigration, anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders speaks to the media following the verdict in his appeal in Schiphol near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sept. 4, 2020.In the same year, his anti-immigrant and anti-EU party just scrambled to reach the electoral threshold to gain a single seat in the European Parliament. Wilders was dismissed as a has-been. Baudet was seen as the new face of alt-right in the Netherlands. Euro-skeptics gainingWilders also stood out less with other parties embracing, to varying degrees, euro-skepticism.A record number of 37 parties are competing for seats in the 150-strong lower house. All the eve-of-election polls are giving the right-wing liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD, of incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte a clear lead in the elections. His party is projected to get at least 30 seats in the lower house.EU negotiations last year over a coronavirus recovery fund for member states ran into an impasse partly thanks to Rutte, who took on the leadership role of the so-called “frugal four” north European countries opposed to an $857 billion EU stimulus package. Rutte was nicknamed “Mr. No No No!” for his opposition to the package and he’s seen as the leader of what Eurocrats dub “the awkward squad.” Third place in the elections is likely to go to the Christian Democratic Appeal party, CDA, which has moved further to the right under the leadership of Wopke Hoekstra, the country’s finance minister, who was also an outspoken critic of the EU’s post-pandemic financial stimulus plan, which will see richer European countries help out poorer ones. Wilders said this week that the three largest parties after the election should immediately enter into coalition discussions, but Rutte has ruled that out, saying he won’t include the PVV in talks about forming a new government.  The same happened in 2017 when the PVV was shut out of government.That, according to Wilders, is “undemocratic.” “Voters are in charge, not Mark Rutte,’ Wilders told NPO Radio 1 Monday. But he still harbors hopes, saying Rutte is a “full-blooded power broker” who will cut whatever deal he needs to stay in office. Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders of the PVV party and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the VVD Liberal party take part in a televised debate in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 11, 2021.Some analysts question whether Wilders has any interest in actually joining a government. If he had, they say, he would have been more circumspect in his rhetoric in the lead-up to the polls. Controversial figureWilders says that he wants the Netherlands to return to “a country without headscarves, but with traditional Dutch coziness,” and backs the contentious tradition of Black Pete, when children and adults dress as “blackface” during the December holiday of Sinterklaas.  
“We express that our own culture is best. And we’re proud of that! Unfortunately, the attack on the Netherlands’ culture went into high speed last year because of the glorification of dangerous activist groups like Black Lives Matter and Kick Out Black Pete,” Wilders says in the PVV manifesto. The folklore character of Black Pete is a helper of the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas and has been the focus of fierce debate for years in the Netherlands.Racial inequality has been debated in the election campaigning, mainly pushed by minor parties. Sylvana Simons, a former TV presenter who leads a small party called ‘Together,’ says she hopes those who gathered last year to support Black Lives Matter, which head to the polls.Simons, who was born in Suriname and at 18 months moved with her parents to the Netherlands,  told Associated Press: “It was good to see that so many people said, ‘enough is enough’ and they came out and spoke out. And I do also hope that they will use that same voice when we have our general elections.” But pollsters say Simons’ party will struggle to gain even one seat.Housing shortages, the environment, health care and education have all figured in election campaigning. Rutte’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has also been an issue. The 54-year-old’s favorability ratings had held up well for most of last year, but a prolonged lockdown has begun to dent his popularity in recent weeks. And Wilders has sought to profit from the Dutch impatience. “What are you doing Premier Rutte? You are holding an entire country hostage in fear and captivity,” Wilders has charged. 
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An investment deal between China and the European Union restricts Europeans from investing in Chinese media and entertainment companies but does not block Chinese firms from investing in European ones, according to newly released details.  Despite mounting alarm about Chinese disinformation and propaganda campaigns in Europe, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment pact, announced Friday, gives Chinese firms a significant advantage in the media sector, critics say.  FILE – National security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Feb. 4, 2021.The deal, which was signed in principle in December, has drawn fire from Washington. Days before the agreement was struck, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged the Europeans to delay completing negotiations, calling in a tweet for “early consultation with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices.” Critics on both sides of the Atlantic say the deal will give China preferential access to European markets while Beijing continues to tamp down Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and maintain detention centers in Xinjiang province, where China’s Communist government has interned more than a million Uyghurs, according to rights groups. Growing criticismThe agreement still has several stages to go before adoption and needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. The rules governing investment access to the media and entertainment sector are quickly becoming the focus of criticism from some European lawmakers, mostly members of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the largest grouping in the European Parliament.  In a statement, the EPP has urged European commissioners to “develop an EU-wide regulatory system to prevent media companies either funded or controlled by governments to acquire European media companies.”  China has invested around $3.5 billion in European media firms in the past decade. EU officials say the investment deal is merely enshrining access rules that the bloc and China had agreed under World Trade Organization terms.  FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet remotely, in Brussels, Dec. 30, 2020.The deal “does not create any new rights for the Chinese investors in (the) media sector,” according to a European Commission spokesperson. Under the terms, Chinese investors in media companies should be treated the same as European investors and enjoy similar market access. But the deal does not afford European investors the same rights. French lawmaker Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a liberal in the European Parliament, has “even more questions than before,” since further details of the investment deal became public last week.  She said the EU is treating China as a partner, but Beijing is not reciprocating. Other lawmakers point to recent studies tracking Chinese influence that show when Chinese firms, mainly state-owned, invest in European media, China’s coverage of the new acquisitions turn more positive. In a study published last year, MapInfluenCE, a foreign policy research group operated by the Association for International Affairs, concluded that “local audiences in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia have increasingly become direct targets of not only ‘mask diplomacy,’ but more complex propaganda efforts promote a positive image of China, strain transatlantic relations and directly attempt to rewrite narratives around sensitive issues.” Eleven member states, mostly central European, including Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, remain concerned about the deal and are reserving the right to treat Chinese investors differently.  Media restrictionsChina is a major trading partner for the EU. Over the past 20 years, European companies have invested $174 billion in China. The European Commission said the investment agreement will provide overall improved market access and fairer rules for European companies in China, investors and service providers.  FILE – European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis speaks at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, March 10, 2021.”The agreement provides a clear and enforceable framework of rules, which will give EU businesses greater access and more certainty when investing in China,” the bloc’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement last week. Critics of the deal say there is no level playing field when it comes to the media. China’s state-controlled CCTV channels are broadcast without hindrance across Europe, but restrictions are placed by China on European broadcasters.  Outside the EU, Britain and China have disagreed over the media. Last month, the Beijing government banned BBC World News after the channel ran a string of reports on accusations of systematic rape of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.  FILE – Britain’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the move an “unacceptable curtailing of media freedom.”  The U.S. State Department condemned the decision, calling it part of a wider campaign to suppress free media in China. China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said BBC World News had “seriously violated” broadcast guidelines, including a “requirement that news should be truthful and fair” and not “harm China’s national interests.”  Earlier this year, British media regulator Ofcom revoked state broadcaster China Global Television Network’s (CGTN) license to broadcast in Britain. The details of the EU-China investment pact will likely add to the Biden administration’s dismay over the EU’s decision to advance the deal. U.S. President Joe Biden wants a “united front” when it comes to China to increase leverage on Beijing.  Analysts have warned for weeks that the EU and the Biden administration will not see eye to eye on the best ways to handle an increasingly assertive China. 
 
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British lawmakers are set to vote Monday on whether misogyny constitutes a hate crime in the aftermath of the killing of a woman in London. Lawmakers are proposing an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill, which would require police in both England and Wales to keep track of cases of violence motivated by misogyny. Set to be debated in the House of Lords, Britain’s upper parliamentary chamber, the amendment has cross-party support. “This is our moment for change,” said parliamentarian Stella Creasy of the Labor Party, who proposed the amendment. “Rather than telling women not to worry about violence or to stay home at night if they want to be safe, it’s time to send a message that women should be equally able to live free from fear of assault or harm from those who target them simply for who they are.” Labor Party parliamentarian Alicia Kennedy added that “this is a simple measure that we could take now to start making sure every woman is safer at home and on our streets.”  The change was inspired by the slaying of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, who was kidnapped and killed on her way home on March 3. Wayne Couzens, a police officer who has been charged with kidnapping and murder in her death, will appear in court Tuesday. FILE – A sign is seen as people gather at a memorial site in Clapham Common Bandstand, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain, March 13, 2021.A September report from the British Law Commission concluded that misogyny should be treated in the same way as discrimination against other groups. In Britain, protections — that can carry harsher sentences — already exist for race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity. The bill also has the support of conservative and cross-bench parliamentarians, as well as of human rights organizations such as Citizens U.K., U.N. Women U.K., and the Fawcett Society.  
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Germany, France and Italy are the latest European countries to halt the rollout of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine following reports of possible adverse side effects – but as Henry Ridgwell reports, the World Health Organization says the drug is safe. Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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Russia said Wednesday it was restricting the use of Twitter on the grounds the company has not removed banned content. State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said if Twitter does not comply with Russian law, there will be further actions against the service, including a complete ban. The agency said Wednesday’s action involved slowing service speeds for all those in Russia accessing Twitter on mobile devices and half of those using the service in other ways. Twitter did not immediately comment on the new restrictions. The move is the latest by Russia to tighten control of the internet. It previously banned a number of websites, including Dailymotion and LinkedIn. 
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Greece’s prime minister appealed for calm Tuesday night after youths protesting an incident of police violence attacked an Athens police station with firebombs and severely injured one officer. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis issued a statement strongly condemning the violence at the march.  “Blind rage leads nowhere,” Mitsotakis said. “These scenes of violence must be the last.” The violence came during a demonstration by about 5,000 people, according to a police estimate, in the southern Nea Smyrni district, about 4 kilometers southwest of central Athens. Hundreds of youths threw firebombs and stones at police, who tried to repel them with water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades. At one point in the clashes, rioters pulled down a police officer riding pillion in a column of motorcycle police. Dozens rushed at him, hitting him with clubs and stones and raining blows on him. Other officers eventually succeeded in repelling the mob, and the injured police officer was taken to hospital. A police officer stands over an injured companion during a demonstration against a police crackdown on gatherings, in Athens, Greece, March 9, 2021.“It should serve as a wake-up call that the life … of a young policeman was endangered,” Mitsotakis said. “At this point everyone must display restraint and calm.” Opposition parties also condemned the riots. Police said another two officers were injured, and 10 people were arrested on suspicion of taking part in the riots. There were no immediate reports on injured demonstrators. Rioters also caused extensive damage to parked vehicles. Before the demonstration started, police said they had confiscated quantities of firebombs destined for use by violent protesters. They said several participants in the march were armed with iron bars. The march to the Nea Smyrni police station was in reaction to an incident on Sunday during police enforcement of pandemic lockdown measures in a square in the same area. Video showed a police officer repeatedly beating with a baton a man who did not appear to have engaged in any threatening behavior. Police said officers had earlier been attacked by dozens of people who objected to them trying to issue fines to people who were not obeying lockdown restrictions. An investigation has been ordered into Sunday’s incident. 
 
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Buckingham Palace said Tuesday the British royal family is “saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the past few years have been” for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, popularly known as Harry and Meghan.Following a widely publicized CBS interview Sunday with Oprah Winfrey, in which issues of race, family dynamics and suicidal thoughts were raised, a Buckingham Palace statement issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth said, “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”The statement, published on Twitter, also said the couple and their son Archie will always be “much loved family members.”The statement comes after Markle, who is biracial, said a member of the family raised concerns over “how dark” Archie would be. The former actress is now pregnant with her second child.In February, the palace announced the duke and duchess would not return as working royals, almost a year after it was announced that they would be stepping down from their duties as working members of the royal family. The couple moved to North America later that year. They currently reside in California.Tuesday marks the first time the royal family has publicly responded to the issues raised in the Sunday interview. 
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With the Kremlin cutting deals to ship its Sputnik V vaccine to countries struggling to combat the coronavirus, Russian soft power is on display. Yet the global outreach campaign is happening amid signs the government is struggling to inoculate its own population at home.  For VOA from Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.Camera: Ricardo Marquina
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The European Parliament voted Tuesday to waive the immunity of the former head of Spain’s Catalonia region and two other separatists, raising the prospect they could be extradited to Spain to face sedition charges.
 
Carles Puigdemont and former cabinet members Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati have had immunity since winning seats in the European Parliament, and they plan to appeal Tuesday’s decision.
 
The Spanish government welcomed the European Parliament vote, saying the country’s matters should be settled internally.
 
Puigdemont and other separatists fled after a 2017 independence referendum for the Catalonia region.  Puigdemont and Comin have been in self-imposed exile in Belgium, while Ponsati has been in Scotland.
 
Voters overwhelmingly approved the referendum, but the Spanish government called it illegal.  A police crackdown injured hundreds of people in Catalonia.
 
In addition to sedition charges, Puigdemont and Comin are also facing charges of misusing public funds.
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The United States denounced Monday what it called a Russian disinformation campaign against U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccines, saying Moscow was putting lives at risk. The Global Engagement Center, an arm of the State Department whose activities include monitoring foreign propaganda, said that Russian intelligence was behind four online platforms involved in a campaign. The sites have “included disinformation about two of the vaccines that have now been approved by the FDA in this country,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It is very clear that Russia is up to its old tricks, and in doing so is potentially putting people at risk by spreading disinformation about vaccines that we know to be saving lives every day,” Price said.A medical specialist holds a vial of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in a department store in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Global Engagement Center’s findings, which said that the websites played up risks of the U.S.-made Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in an apparent bid to boost Russia’s homegrown Sputnik V. In an assessment provided last year to AFP, the Global Engagement Center said that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have run a coordinated campaign to undermine official narratives on COVID-19 including by spreading allegations of U.S. involvement. The center found that China briefly made a similar effort but ultimately decided it made more traction by highlighting Beijing’s own efforts. U.S. intelligence has long suspected Russia in disinformation campaigns on health, including spreading the myth in the 1980s that U.S. scientists created the HIV virus that causes AIDS. 
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For her studies in quieting wind turbines and making other forms of renewable energy more competitive, a University of California-Merced student from Germany has been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in the U.K. In October, Selina Brinkmann will start four years of study, all expenses paid, courtesy of the Rhodes program that awards a mere 102 scholarships each year to academically outstanding applicants around the world. Brinkmann told VOA she is passionate about renewable energy and has focused her research on desalinating farm wastewater in the agriculturally lush Central Valley of California. The valley produces half of all fruits and vegetables in the U.S., but requires massive irrigation, some of which requires desalination.  “I’m working on the third alternative, which will allow them to reuse the wet content of their drainage water — the water, because that’s valuable, especially here because it’s so dry — while also not having any salt, like on the ground,” Brinkmann said.  Prior to UC-Merced, Brinkmann attended the University of Siegen in Germany and spent a year in the U.S. at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. Brinkmann said that her parents were very supportive of her and her three siblings growing up. They expected her to achieve, but weren’t strict about it, she said.   “My parents would never be upset with me if I had bad grades if I showed that I actually tried it,” she said. “My parents would really get annoyed at me though, if I was just like not doing anything and then got a bad grade — that was bad. So, they were definitely into education.”  After graduating high school in Germany, Brinkmann spent a year in Edinburgh, Scotland, before attending the University of Siegen. “I went to my local university and I stayed at home, which was nice,” Brinkmann said. “It allowed me to save up money for traveling and doing my own hobbies,” which include backpacking, dancing and ultimate frisbee.  In her third year, she studied abroad on a grant in the U.S. at the University of Tulsa. A graduate student fellowship followed through the DAAD — the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, or the German Academic Exchange Service. Brinkmann applied to the German Rhodes Scholarship in fall 2020, working toward her Ph.D. to follow the master’s degree she is working on now. The Rhodes interview was conducted over video. “Yeah, so and then the unique thing is, you obviously hear back the same day, which considering the time difference was really nice, because I just went to bed and woke up in the morning to get the email,” she explained to VOA.  Her plans for Oxford fit in with her experience and passion for renewable energy. She reached out to two professors at Oxford before even applying to the Rhodes Scholarship. “I’ll be joining the center for doctoral training in wind and marine energy systems and structures,” she said. She noted that the program combines her precise interests: sustainable energy and turbo machinery. Brinkmann is excited for the opportunity, but acknowledged how daunting studying at Oxford is.  “It’s not like any university,” she said.  
 
Other famous Rhodes Scholars include former President Bill Clinton, U.S. senator Cory Booker, American actor and songwriter Kris Kristofferson, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow.  
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New controversy is brewing for Britain’s royal family after an interview on U.S. television with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle raised questions of possible racism in the royal family. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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France may soon join a handful of countries with laws aimed at repatriating stolen money and assets to their countries of origin. But anti-corruption watchdogs say the draft legislation needs changes to ensure the assets don’t go back to corrupt leaders.  Lisa Bryant reports from Paris. 
Camera: Lisa Bryant, agencies 
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