Paris — French and British troops on Monday swapped roles to take part in the changing of the guard ceremonies outside the palaces of the other country’s head of state, in an unprecedented move to celebrate 120 years since the Entente Cordiale.

Signed in 1904, the Entente Cordiale accord cemented an improvement in relations after the Napoleonic Wars and is seen as the foundation of the two NATO members’ alliance to this day.

“Even after Brexit and with war back in Europe, “this entente cordiale is somehow the cornerstone… that allows us to maintain the bilateral relationship,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a video address on X, formerly Twitter.

“Long live the entente cordiale and long live the Franco-British friendship,” he said, switching to English.

Macron and British ambassador to France Menna Rawlings on Monday morning watched British guards taking part in the changing of the guard outside his Elysee Palace.

French guards were to do the same in London outside Buckingham Palace, the official residence of King Charles III.

At the Elysee, 16 members of the Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards of the UK embassy, wearing their traditional bearskin hats, relieved French counterparts from the first infantry regiment.

The French army choir then sang the two national anthems — God Save the King and La Marseillaise.

‘More to defeat Russia’

British Foreign Minister David Cameron and his French counterpart, Stephane Sejourne, celebrated their countries’ “close friendship” in a joint op-ed published late on Sunday.

They said it was key at a time when NATO is mobilized to ensure Ukraine does not lose its fight to repel the Russian invasion.

“Britain and France, two founding members and Europe’s nuclear powers, have a responsibility in driving the alliance to deal with the challenges before it,” the diplomats wrote in Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper.

“We must do even more to ensure we defeat Russia. The world is watching –- and will judge us if we fail.”

A French presidential official said it was “the first time in the history of the Elysee” that foreign troops had been invited to participate in the military ritual.

At the end of 2023, Macron made the changing of the Republican Guard public again, on the first Tuesday of each month, although the ceremony is much less spectacular than its counterpart outside Buckingham Palace.

Two sections of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiment of France’s Republican Guard were to participate in the London ceremony alongside guards from F Company Scots Guards and other British forces, the French presidential official said.

It would be watched by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh — Prince Edward and his wife Sophie — accompanied by the UK chief of the general staff, General Patrick Sanders, and French chief of the army staff Pierre Schill.

The event on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace was to mark the first time a country from outside the Commonwealth — which mostly includes English-speaking former British colonies and possessions — has taken part in the changing of the guard.

Tensions after Brexit

The signing of the Entente Cordiale on April 8, 1904, is widely seen as preparing the way for France and Britain joining forces against Germany in World War I.

While the accord is often used as shorthand to describe the Franco-British relationship, ties have been bedeviled by tensions in recent years, particularly since the United Kingdom left the European Union. 

Migration has been a particular sticking point, with London pressuring Paris to halt the flow of migrants across the Channel.

But a state visit by King Charles last autumn — one of his last big foreign engagements before his cancer diagnosis — was widely seen as a resounding success that showed the fundamental strength of the relationship. 
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Vatican City — The Vatican on Monday declared sex change operations and surrogacy as grave threats to human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that violate God’s plan for human life.

The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.

In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory” or the idea that one’s gender can be changed. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said they must not tinker with that plan or try to “make oneself God.”

“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.

It distinguished between transitioning surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.

The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Pope Francis confidante.

He had cast it as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.

And while rejecting gender theory, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime” making the assertion now part of the Vatican’s doctrinal teaching.

The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”

The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking and forced migration.

In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child. While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican document focuses almost more on the resulting child.

“The child has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver,” the document said. “Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life.”

The Vatican published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the “confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” that characterize post-modern culture. 

The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repurpose the 1986 language of a previous doctrinal document saying that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”

Francis has made reaching out to LGBTQ+ people a hallmark of his papacy, ministering to trans Catholics and insisting that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.

But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender and reproductive health.

“It needs to be emphasized that biological sex and the sociocultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,’” the new document said.

The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults. In addition, bills to govern youths’ pronouns, sports teams and bathrooms at school are also under consideration, as well as some books and school curriculums. 
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Preliminary hearings are opening Monday at the United Nations’ top court in a case that seeks an end to German military and other aid to Israel, based on claims that Berlin is enabling acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Nicaragua argues that by giving Israel political, financial and military support and by defunding the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and, in any case has failed in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide.”

While the case brought by Nicaragua centers on Germany, it indirectly takes aim at Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its toll doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has said women and children make up the majority of the dead.

Israel strongly denies that its assault amounts to genocidal acts, saying it is acting in self defense. Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker told judges at the court earlier this year that the country is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.”

Germany rejects the case brought by Nicaragua.

“Germany has breached neither the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will set this out in detail before the International Court of Justice,” German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer told reporters in Berlin on Friday.

Nicaragua has asked the court to hand down preliminary orders known as provisional measures, including that Germany “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance including military equipment in so far as this aid may be used in the violation of the Genocide Convention” and international law.

The court will likely take weeks to deliver its preliminary decision, and Nicaragua’s case will probably drag on for years.

Monday’s hearing at the world court comes amid growing calls for allies to stop supplying arms to Israel as its six-month campaign continues to lay waste to Gaza.

The offensive has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Food is scarce, the U.N. says famine is approaching and few Palestinians have been able to leave the besieged territory.

The case “will likely further galvanize opposition to any support for Israel,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame.

On Friday, the U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel. The United States and Germany opposed the resolution.

Also, hundreds of British jurists, including three retired Supreme Court judges, have called on their government to suspend arms sales to Israel after three U.K. citizens were among seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen killed in Israeli strikes. Israel said the attack on the aid workers was a mistake caused by “misidentification.”

Germany has for decades been a staunch supporter of Israel. Days after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Chancellor Olaf Scholz explained why: “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel,” he told lawmakers.

Berlin, however, has gradually shifted its tone as civilian casualties in Gaza have soared, becoming increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and speaking out against a ground offensive in Rafah.

Nicaragua’s government, which has historical links with Palestinian organizations dating back to their support for the 1979 Sandinista revolution, was itself accused earlier this year by U.N.-backed human rights experts of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes against humanity.” The government of President Daniel Ortega fiercely rejected the allegations.

In January, the International Court of Justice imposed provisional measures ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in Gaza. The orders came in a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention.

The court last week ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave.

 
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London — Find a globe in your local library or classroom and try this: Close the eyes, spin it and drop a finger randomly on its curved, glossy surface.

You’re likely to pinpoint a spot in the water, which covers 71% of the planet. Maybe you’ll alight on a place you’ve never heard of — or a spot that no longer exists after a war or because of climate change. Perhaps you’ll feel inspired to find out who lives there and what it’s like. Trace the path of totality ahead of Monday’s solar eclipse. Look carefully, and you’ll find the cartouche — the globemaker’s signature — and the antipode (point diametrically opposed) of where you’re standing right now.

In the age of Google Earth, watches that triangulate and cars with built-in GPS, there’s something about a globe — a spherical representation of the world in miniature — that somehow endures.

London globemaker Peter Bellerby thinks the human yearning to “find our place in the cosmos” has helped globes survive their original purpose — navigation — and the internet. He says it’s part of the reason he went into debt making a globe for his father’s 80th birthday in 2008. The experience helped inspire his company, and 16 years later — is keeping his team of about two dozen artists, cartographers and woodworkers employed.

“You don’t go onto Google Earth to get inspired,” Bellerby says in his airy studio, surrounded by dozens of globes in various languages and states of completion. “A globe is very much something that connects you to the planet that we live on.”

Building a globe amid breakneck change?

Beyond the existential and historical appeal, earthly matters such as cost and geopolitics hover over globemaking. Bellerby says his company has experience with customs officials in regions with disputed borders such as India, China, North Africa and the Middle East.

And there is a real question about whether globes — especially handmade orbs — remain relevant as more than works of art and history for those who can afford them.

They are, after all, snapshots of the past — of the way their patrons and makers saw the world at a certain point in time. So, they’re inherently inaccurate representations of a planet in constant flux.

“Do globes play a relevant role in our time? If so, then in my opinion, this is due to their appearance as a three-dimensional body, the hard-to-control desire to turn them, and the attractiveness of their map image,” says Jan Mokre, vice president of the International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes in Vienna.

Joshua Nall, Director of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge, says a globe remains a display of “the learning, the erudition, the political interests of its owner.”

How, and how much?

Bellerby’s globes aren’t cheap. They run from about 1,290 British pounds (about $1,900) for the smallest to six figures for the 50-inch Churchill model. He makes about 600 orbs a year of varying size, framing and ornamentation.

The imagery painted on the globes runs the gamut, from constellations to mountains and sea creatures. And here, The Associated Press can confirm, be dragons.

Who buys a globe these days?

Bellerby doesn’t name clients, but he says they come from more socioeconomic levels than you’d think — from families to businesses and heads of state. Private art collectors come calling. So do moviemakers.

Bellerby says in his book that the company made four globes for the 2011 movie, “Hugo.” One globe can be seen in the 2023 movie “Tetris,” including one, a freestanding straight-leg Galileo model, which features prominently in a scene.

‘A political minefield’

There is no international standard for a correctly drawn earth. Countries, like people, view the world differently, and some are highly sensitive about how their territory is depicted. To offend them with “incorrectly” drawn borders on a globe is to risk impoundment of the orbs at customs.

“Globemaking,” Bellerby writes, “is a political minefield.”

China doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a country. Morocco doesn’t recognize Western Sahara. India’s northern border is disputed. Many Arab countries, such as Lebanon, don’t acknowledge Israel.

Bellerby says the company marks disputed borders as disputed: “We cannot change or rewrite history.”

Speaking of history, here’s the ‘earth apple’

Scientists since antiquity, famously Plato and Aristotle, posited that the earth is not flat but closer to a sphere. (More precisely, it’s a spheroid — bulging at the equator, squashed at the poles).

No one knows when the first terrestrial globe was created. But the oldest known surviving one dates to 1492. No one in Europe knew of the existence of North or South America at the time.

It’s called the “Erdapfel,” which translates to “earth apple” or “potato.” The orb was made by German navigator and geographer Martin Behaim, who was working for the king of Portugal, according to the Whipple Museum in Cambridge. It contained more than just the cartographical information then known, but also details such as commodities overseas, marketplaces and local trading protocols.

It’s also a record of a troubled time.

“The Behaim Globe is today a central document of the European world conquest and the Atlantic slave trade,” according to the German National Museum’s web page on the globe, exhibited there. In the 15th century, the museum notes, “Africa was not only to be circumnavigated in search of India, but also to be developed economically.

“The globe makes it clear how much the creation of our modern world was based on the violent appropriation of raw materials, the slave trade and plantation farming,” the museum notes, or “the first stage of European subjugation and division of the world.”

Twin globes for Churchill and Roosevelt during WWII

If you’ve got a globe of any sort, you’re in good company. During World War II, two in particular were commissioned for leaders on opposite sides of the Atlantic as symbols of power and partnership.

For Christmas in 1942, the United States delivered gigantic twin globes to American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They were 50 inches in diameter and hundreds of pounds each, believed to be the largest and most accurate globes of the time.

It took more than 50 government geographers, cartographers, and draftsmen to compile the information to make the globe, constructed by the Weber Costello Company of Chicago Heights, Illinois.

The Roosevelt globe now sits at the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., and Churchill’s globe is at Chartwell House, the Churchill family home in Kent, England, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.

In theory, the leaders could use the globes simultaneously to formulate war strategy. “In reality, however,” Bellerby writes, “the gift of the globes was a simple PR exercise, an important weapon in modern warfare.”
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London — The U.S., Britain and Australia are set to begin talks on bringing new members into their AUKUS security pact as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved as a deterrent against China, the Financial Times reported.

The countries’ defense ministers will announce discussions Monday on “Pillar Two” of the pact, which commits the members to jointly developing quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology, the newspaper reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation.

They are not considering expanding the first pillar, which is designed to deliver nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, the Financial Times said.

AUKUS, formed by the three countries in 2021, is part of their efforts to push back against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.

U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to step up partnerships with U.S. allies in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, amid China’s historic military build-up and its growing territorial assertiveness.

Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador in Tokyo, wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Japan was “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner.”

A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters on Wednesday that some sort of announcement could be expected in the coming week about Japan’s involvement but gave no details.

Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely discuss expanding AUKUS to include Japan when the president hosts the prime minister in Washington on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the talks said.

Australia, however, is wary of beginning new projects until more progress has been made on supplying Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines, said the source, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Obstacles for Japan

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FT report.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesperson said the ministry could not immediately comment.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles has said they would “seek opportunities to engage close partners in AUKUS Pillar II” and any involvement of more countries would be decided and announced by the three partners, a spokesperson from his office said.

Britain’s defense ministry said it too would like to involve more allies in this work, subject to joint agreement.

While the U.S. is keen to see Japanese involvement in Pillar Two, officials and experts say obstacles remain, given a need for Japan to introduce better cyber defenses and stricter rules for guarding secrets.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, an architect of U.S. Indo-Pacific policy, said Wednesday the U.S. was encouraging Japan to do more to protect intellectual property and hold officials accountable for secrets. “It’s fair to say that Japan has taken some of those steps, but not all of them,” he said.

The United States has long said that other countries in Europe and Asia are expected to join the second pillar of AUKUS.

The senior U.S. official said any decisions about who would be involved in Pillar Two would be made by the three AUKUS members, whose defense ministers had been considering the questions for many months, based on what countries could bring to the project.

Campbell said that other countries had expressed interest in participating in AUKUS.

“I think you’ll hear that we have something to say about that next week and there also will be further engagement among the three defense ministers of the United States, Australia, and Great Britain as they focus on this effort as well,” Campbell told the Center for a New American Security think tank.

Campbell also said Wednesday the AUKUS submarine project could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing claims as part of China.

Biden, Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are to hold a trilateral summit Thursday.
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Paris — China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is due in Paris Sunday for talks that are expected to cover China’s fast-growing export of cheap electric vehicles (EVs) into the European market.

Four sources briefed on Wang’s trip told Reuters in late March that the discussions would focus on a European Commission investigation into whether China’s EV industry has benefited from unfair subsidies.

European carmakers have a fight on their hands to produce lower-cost electric vehicles and erase China’s lead in developing cheaper models.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm which forecasts China’s share of EVs sold in Europe could reach 15% of the market in 2025, says Chinese EVs benefit from huge state subsidies and is examining whether to impose punitive tariffs.

China contests the claim its EV industry has boomed because of subsidies and has called the EU inquiry “protectionist.” Analysts say factors, including China’s dominance of the battery supply chain, innovation and cut-throat competition in a crowded domestic market have also reduced prices.

Wang is due Sunday to meet Renault chief executive Luca de Meo, who is also acting chairman of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), a person briefed on the meeting said.

He is also expected to attend a dinner later Sunday with executives from the cosmetics industry, two other sources familiar with the plans said.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said he will hold talks with Wang on Monday. The Chinese trade ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

European Commission investigators inspected leading Chinese automakers BYD, Geely Automobile Holdings and SAIC earlier this year as part of their inquiries. Paris backed the anti-subsidy probe.

BYD’s Europe chief executive Michael Shu will accompany Wang during his trip, said a person briefed on the matter. Representatives of SAIC and Geely were also due to accompany Wang, Reuters reported last month.

BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China launched its own anti-dumping investigation into brandy in January in response to Europe’s EV probe. France accounts for almost all EU brandy exports to China.

Wang will meet Monday with the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (BNIC), a brandy trade group, along with company executives, said an association official.

China has said it is selecting Martell & Co, Societe Jas Hennessy & Co, and E. Remy Martin & Co as sample companies for its own investigation.

Wang will also attend a China-Italy business forum Friday in Verona, Italy, alongside the country’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the Italian government said.
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Moscow — Flood waters were rising in two cities in Russia’s Ural mountains on Sunday after Europe’s third longest river burst through a dam, flooding at least 6,000 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee with just their pets and a few belongings. 

A string of Russian regions in the Ural Mountains and Siberia, alongside parts of neighboring Kazakhstan have been hit in recent days by some of the worst floods in decades. 

The Ural River, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, swelled several meters in just hours on Friday due to melt water, bursting through a dam embankment in the city of Orsk, 1,800 km (1,100 miles) east of Moscow. 

More than 4,000 people were evacuated in Orsk as swathes of the city of 230,000 were flooded. Footage published by the Emergencies Ministry showed people wading through neck-high waters, rescuing stranded dogs and traveling along flooded roads in boats and canoes.  

President Vladimir Putin ordered Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov to fly to the region. The Kremlin said on Sunday that flooding was now also inevitable in the Urals region of Kurgan and the Siberian region of Tyumen. 

Putin had spoken to the governors of the regions by telephone, the Kremlin said. 

The Orenburg region’s governor, Denis Pasler, said the floods were the worst to hit the region since records began. 

He said that flooding had been recorded along the entire course of the 2,400 km (1,500 mile) Ural River, which flows through Orenburg region and then through Kazakhstan into the Caspian Sea.  

Russian media cited Orenburg region authorities as estimating the cost of flood damage locally as around $227 million, and saying that flood waters would dissipate only after April 20. 

In Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Saturday the floods were his country’s largest natural disaster in terms of scale and impact for 80 years. 

Flood warnings were issued in other Russian regions and Kurenkov said the situation could get worse very fast.  

“The water is coming, and in the coming days its level will only rise,” said Sergei Salmin, the mayor of Orenburg, a city of at least 550,000 people. “The flood situation remains critical.” 

Emergencies Minister Kurenkov said bottled water and mobile treatment plants were needed, while local health officials said vaccinations against Hepatitis A were being conducted in flooded areas.  

Local officials said the dam in Orsk was built for a water level of 5.5 meters (18 feet)yet the Ural River rose to 9.6 meters (31.5 feet). 

Federal investigators opened a criminal case for negligence and the violation of safety rules over the construction of the 2010 dam, which prosecutors said had not been maintained properly. 

The Orsk oil refinery suspended work on Sunday due to the flooding. Last year, the Orsk Refinery processed 4.5 million tons of oil.
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Moscow — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit China on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine and the deepening partnership between Moscow and Beijing.

Talks between Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who extended the invitation to the Russian minister, will include bilateral cooperation as well as “hot topics,” such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Reuters reported last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China in May for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what could be the Kremlin chief’s first overseas trip of his new presidential term.

China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War II.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, while U.S. President Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Putin and Xi share a broad world view, which sees the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges U.S. supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.

China-Russian trade hit a record of $240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3% from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.

Chinese shipments to Russia jumped 46.9% in 2023 while imports from Russia rose 13%.

China-United States trade fell 11.6% to $664.5 billion in 2023, according to the Chinese customs data.

One year into the Ukraine war, China in 2023 published a 12-point position paper on settling the Ukraine crisis. Russia has said China’s position is reasonable.

Switzerland in January agreed to hold a peace summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has put forward a peace formula that calls for a full Russian withdrawal from all territory controlled by Russian forces.

Reuters reported in February that Putin’s suggestion of a cease-fire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States after contacts between intermediaries.

Moscow says that Zelenskyy’s proposals amount to a ridiculous ultimatum and that the proposed meeting in Switzerland was being used by the West to try to garner support for Ukraine among the Global South.

Russia says that any peace in Ukraine would have to accept the reality of its control over just under one fifth of Ukraine and include a broader agreement on European security.

Ukraine says it will not rest until every last Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its Western allies are feuding with Russia over its diamond production, but they joined forces Wednesday to keep supporting the Kimberley Process, which aims to eliminate the trade in “blood diamonds” that helped fuel devastating conflicts in Africa.

At a U.N. General Assembly meeting, its 193 member nations adopted a resolution by consensus recognizing that the Kimberley Process, which certifies rough diamond exports, “contributes to the prevention of conflicts fueled by diamonds” and helps the Security Council implement sanctions on the trade in conflict diamonds.

The Kimberley Process went into effect in 2003 in the aftermath of bloody civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia where diamonds were used by armed groups to fund the conflicts.

Zimbabwe’s U.N. Ambassador Albert Chimbindi, whose country chaired the Kimberley Process in 2023, said in introducing the resolution that it would renew the General Assembly’s “commitment to ensuring that diamonds remain a force for inclusive sustainable development instead of a driver of armed conflict.”

It was true in 2003 and “remains true now,” he said, that profits from the diamond trade can fuel conflicts, finance rebel movements aimed at undermining or overthrowing governments, and lead to the proliferation of illegal weapons.

The European Union’s Clayton Curran told the assembly after the vote that the Kimberley Process “is facing unprecedented challenges” and condemned “the aggression of one Kimberley Process participant against another” — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

For the first time in its history, last November’s plenary meeting of Kimberley Process participants failed to produce a consensus communique because of serious differences between Russia and the West.

The key reason was a Ukrainian request, supported by the United States, Britain and others, to examine whether Russia’s diamond production is funding its war against Kyiv and the implications for the Kimberley Process which Russia and several allies strongly opposed.

Russia refused to support a communique that acknowledged Ukraine’s request. And before Wednesday’s vote, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s economic department, Alexander Repkin, accused Western countries of sabotaging international cooperation on diamonds for “their own geopolitical interests.”

Alluding to sanctions on Russian diamonds by the European Union, Repkin accused the West and its companies of trying to gain a hold over the global production and processing of diamonds.

He said “the further functioning of the Kimberley Process is at stake,” but Russia will do everything it can to support its work.

He noted that the plenary communique has served as the foundation for the General Assembly resolution on the role of conflict diamonds in fueling conflict but without one the resolution approved Wednesday “is largely technical in nature.”

The EU’s Curran urged reform of the process “to broaden the definition of `conflict diamonds’ to capture the evolving nature of conflicts and the realities on the ground.” He said the EU will also try again this year to discuss the issue of the negative impact of the illegal trade in diamonds on the environment.

Britain expressed regret at the failure to discuss the link between Russia’s rough diamond revenue and their invasion of Ukraine, and reiterated the need for a discussion to ensure that the Kimberley Process deals with issues related to delinking diamonds from conflict.

United Arab Emirates deputy ambassador Mohamed Abushahab said it’s more important than ever to strengthen the Kimberley Process, which his country is chairing this year.

The UAE has identified three ways: to establish a permanent secretariat which was approved at the end of March in Botswana’s capital, Gabarone, to complete a review and reform of the process by the end of the year, and to identify digital technologies that can strengthen the Kimberley Process, he said.
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ROME — An international campaign to ban surrogacy received a strong endorsement Friday from the Vatican, with a top official calling for a broad-based alliance to stop the “commercialization of life.”

A Vatican-affiliated university hosted a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy, be it commercial arrangements or so-called altruistic ones. It’s based on the campaigners’ argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother.

At issue is whether there is a fundamental right to have a child, or whether the rights of children trump the desires of potential parents.

The conference, which also drew U.N. human rights representatives and experts, marked an acceleration of a campaign that has found some support in parts of the developing world and western Europe. At the same time, Canada and the United States are known for highly regulated arrangements that draw heterosexual and homosexual couples alike from around the world, while other countries allow surrogacy with fewer rules.

Pope Francis in January called for an outright global ban on the practice, calling it a despicable violation of human dignity that exploits the surrogate mother’s financial need. On Thursday, Francis met privately with one of the proponents calling for a universal ban, Olivia Maurel, a 33-year-old mother of three.

Maurel was born in the U.S. in 1991 via surrogacy and attributes a lifetime of mental health issues to the “trauma of abandonment” she says she experienced at birth. She says she was separated from her biological mother and given to parents who had contracted with an agency in Kentucky after experiencing infertility problems when they tried to have children in their late 40s.

Maurel says she doesn’t blame her parents and she acknowledges there are “many happy stories” of families who use surrogate mothers. But she says that doesn’t make the practice ethical or right, even with regulations, since she said she was made to sacrifice “for the desire of adults to have a child.”

“There is no right to have a child,” Maurel told the conference at the LUMSA university. “But children do have rights, and we can say surrogacy violates many of these rights.”

She and proponents of a ban argue that surrogacy is fundamentally different from adoption, since it involves creating a child for the specific purpose of separating him or her from the birth mother for others to raise as their own.

Monsignor Miloslaw Wachowski, undersecretary for relations with states in the Vatican secretariat of state, concurred, saying the practice reduces human procreation to a concept of “individual will” and desire, where the powerful and wealthy prevail.

“Parents find themselves in the role of being providers of genetic material, while the embryo appears more and more like an object: something to produce — not someone, but something,” he said.

He called for the campaign to ban the practice not to remain in the sphere of the Catholic Church or even faith-based groups, but to transcend traditional ideological and political boundaries.

“We shouldn’t close ourselves among those who think exactly the same way,” he said. “Rather, we should open up to pragmatic alliances to realize a common goal.”

The Vatican’s overall position, which is expected to be crystalized in a position paper Monday on human dignity, stems from its belief that human life begins at conception and must be given the consequent respect and dignity from that moment on. The Vatican also holds that human life should be created through intercourse between husband and wife, not in a petri dish, and that surrogacy takes in vitro fertilization a step further by “commercializing” the resulting embryo.

As the conference was getting underway, Italy’s main gay family advocacy group, Rainbow Families, sponsored a pro-surrogacy counter-rally nearby. The aim was to also voice opposition to proposals by Italy’s hard-right-led government to make it a crime for Italians to use surrogates abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal.

“We are families, not crimes,” said banners held by some of the 200 or so participants, many of them gay couples who traveled abroad to have children via surrogate.

A 2004 law already banned surrogacy in Italy. The proposed law would make it illegal in Italy for citizens to engage a surrogate mother in another country, with prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.15 million) for convictions.

Participants at the rally complained that the law would stigmatize their children and they denied anyone’s rights or dignity was violated in the surrogacy process, which they noted was legal and regulated.

“All parties involved are consenting, aware,” said Cristiano Giraldi, who with his partner Giorgio Duca used a surrogate in the U.S. to have their 10-year-old twins. “We have a stable relationship with our carrier, our children know her. So actually there is no exploitation, there is none of the things that they want the public to believe.”

In the U.S., Resolve, the National Infertility Association, which advocates for people experiencing infertility problems, has criticized any calls for a universal ban on surrogacy as harmful and hurtful to the many people experiencing the “disease of infertility.”

“Resolve believes that everyone deserves the right to build a family and should have access to all family building options,” Betsy Campbell, Resolve’s chief engagement officer, said in a telephone interview. “Surrogacy, and specifically gestational carrier surrogacy, is an option.”

She said the U.S. regulations, which include separate legal representation for the surrogate and the intended parents, and mental health and other evaluations, safeguard all parties in the process and that regardless less than 2% of pregnancies in the U.S. using assisted reproductive technology involves surrogacy.

“Most people do not expect to have infertility or to need medical assistance to build their families,” she said. “So when non-medical people speak about IVF and surrogacy in a negative way, it can be very discouraging and make an already challenging journey all the more challenging.”

Velina Todorova, a Bulgarian member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, told the Rome conference that the U.N. committee hasn’t taken a definitive position on surrogacy, but that its concern was the rights of children born via the practice.

It was a reference to legislation to prevent parents from being able to register the births of children born through surrogacy in their home countries.
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Strasbourg, France — Europe’s top rights court will on Tuesday issue unprecedented verdicts in three separate cases on the responsibility of states in the face of global warming, rulings that could force governments to adopt more ambitious climate policies.

The European Court of Human Rights, part of the 46-member Council of Europe, will rule on whether governments’ climate change policies are violating the European Convention on Human Rights, which it oversees.

All three cases accuse European governments of inaction or insufficient action in their measures against global warming.

In a sign of the importance of the issue, the cases have all been treated as priority by the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, the court’s top instance, whose 17 judges can set a potentially crucial legal precedent.

It will be the first time the court has issued a ruling on climate change.

While several European states, including France, have already been condemned by domestic courts for not fulfilling commitments against global warming, the ECHR could go further and make clear new fundamental rights.

The challenge lies in ensuring “the recognition of an individual and collective right to a climate that is as stable as possible, which would constitute an important legal innovation,” said lawyer and former French environment minister Corinne Lepage, who is defending one of the cases.

Turning point

The court’s position “may mark a turning point in the global struggle for a livable future,” said lawyer Gerry Liston, of the NGO Global Legal Action Network.

“A victory in any of the three cases could constitute the most significant legal development on climate change for Europe since the signing of the Paris 2015 Agreement” that set new targets for governments to reduce emissions, he said.

Even if the Convention does not contain any explicit provision relating to the environment, the Court has already ruled based on Article 8 of the Convention — the right to respect for private and family life — an obligation of states to maintain a “healthy environment” in cases relating to waste management or industrial activities.

Of the three cases which will be decided on Tuesday, the first is brought by the Swiss association of Elders for Climate Protection — 2,500 women aged 73 on average — and four of its members who have also put forward individual complaints.

They cite “failings of the Swiss authorities” in terms of climate protection, which “would seriously harm their state of health.”

Damien Careme, former mayor of the northern French coastal town of Grande-Synthe, in his case attacks the “deficiencies” of the French state, arguing they pose a risk of his town being submerged under the North Sea.

In 2019, he filed a case at France’s Council of State — its highest administrative court — alleging “climate inaction” on the part of France. The court ruled in favor of the municipality in July 2021, but rejected a case he had brought in his own name, leading Careme to take it to the ECHR.

‘For benefit of all’

The third case was brought by a group of six Portuguese, aged 12 to 24, after fires ravaged their country in 2017.

Their case is not only against Portugal, but also 31 other states – every EU country, plus Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Russia.

Almost all European countries belong to the Council of Europe, not just EU members.

Russian was expelled from the COE after its invasion of Ukraine but cases against Moscow are still heard at the court.

The ECHR hears cases only when all domestic appeals have been exhausted. Its rulings are binding, although there have been problems with compliance of certain states such as Turkey.

The three cases rely primarily on articles in the Convention that protect the “right to life” and the “right to respect for private life.”

However, the Court will only issue a precedent-setting verdict if it determines that these cases have exhausted all remedies at the national level.

The accused states tried to demonstrate this is not the case during two hearings held last year.
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LONDON — A journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London stabbed outside his home last week has returned to work, saying “the show must go on.”

Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for Iran International, needed hospital treatment for leg wounds suffered in the March 29 attack.

The 36-year-old said the stabbing was a “warning shot.”

“The fact that they just stopped in my leg was their choice,” he told ITV News.

“They had the opportunity to kill me because the way the second person was holding me and the first person took the knife out, they had the opportunity to stop anywhere they wanted,” he added.

Zeraati said he had returned to work Friday, adding: “Whatever the motive was, the show must go on.”

London’s Metropolitan Police say the two suspects went straight from the scene in southwest London to Heathrow Airport and left the U.K. “within a few hours.”

Detectives were considering whether “the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organization based in the U.K.” could have prompted the assault.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in the U.K., Mehdi Hosseini Matin, however, said Tehran denied “any link” to the attack.

The Metropolitan Police has previously disrupted what it has called plots in the U.K. to kidnap or even kill British or Britain-based individuals perceived as enemies of Tehran.

The Iranian government has declared Iran International a terrorist organization.

The U.K. government last year unveiled a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on U.K. soil.
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london — Airline passengers in parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland faced travel disruptions Saturday due to flight cancellations as a storm swept across both countries and left thousands of Irish homes with power outages. 

The disruption caused by Storm Kathleen, named by the Irish Meteorological Service and the 11th named storm of the 2023-24 season, has affected flights at airports across Ireland and the U.K., including Manchester Airport and Belfast City Airport. 

Dublin Airport said travelers due to fly were being advised to check with their airline for travel updates after weather conditions at other airports led to some cancellations and flight diversions. 

EasyJet said that due to the impact of the storm, some flights to and from the Isle of Man and Belfast International had been unable to operate Saturday. 

“We are doing all possible to minimize the impact of the weather disruption,” the airline said in a statement to Reuters. 

EasyJet said it was providing customers whose flights were cancelled with the option to transfer to an alternative flight or receive a refund, hotel accommodation and meals. 

In Scotland, rail and ferry services were also affected and faced disruption due to Storm Kathleen with Scottish rail services implementing temporary speed restrictions earlier in the day. 

Strong winds associated with the storm also led to several power outages across the country, with approximately 34,000 homes, farms and businesses impacted, Irish power supplier ESB Networks said. 

“ESB Networks crews are mobilized in impacted areas and responding to power outages where safe to do so,” the company said in an update Saturday.  
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BUDAPEST, Hungary — A rising challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mobilized tens of thousands of supporters in Hungary’s capital Saturday, outlining a plan to unite the country and bring an end to the populist leader’s 14-year hold on power.

At the center of the demonstration, the latest in a recent series of protests against Orban’s right-wing nationalist government, was political newcomer Peter Magyar, a former insider within Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party who has shot to prominence in recent weeks through his allegations of entrenched corruption and cronyism among the country’s leaders.

Magyar addressed a crowd that filled the sprawling square near the parliament building in Budapest, announcing his creation of a new political community aimed at uniting both conservative and liberal Hungarians disillusioned by Orban’s governance and the fragmented, ineffectual political opposition.

“Step by step, brick by brick, we are taking back our homeland and building a new country, a sovereign, modern, European Hungary,” Magyar said, adding that the protest was “the biggest political demonstration in years.”

Magyar, 43, was once a member of Orban’s political circle and is the ex-husband of former justice minister and Orban ally Judit Varga. But he broke ranks in February in the wake of a political scandal that led to the resignation of his ex-wife and the president and has amassed a large following with frequent media appearances where he portrays Hungary’s political life as having been taken over by a privileged group of oligarchs and anti-democratic elites.

He has argued that Orban’s government operates as a “mafia,” and advocated for a moral, political and economic transformation of the country that would rein in corruption and create a more pluralistic political system.

“More than 20 years have passed as our elected leaders have incited the Hungarian people against each other. Whether the fate of our country went well, or we were close to bankruptcy, we were pitted against each other instead of allowing us to band together,” Magyar said. “We will put an end to this now.”

Hungary’s government has dismissed Magyar as an opportunist seeking to forge a new career after his divorce with Varga and his loss of positions in several state companies. But his rise has compounded political headaches for Orban that have included the resignation of members of his government and a painful economic crisis.

Last month, Magyar released an audio recording of a conversation between him and Varga that he said proved that top officials conspired to manipulate court records to cover up their involvement in a corruption case. He has called on Orban’s government to resign and for a restoration of fair elections.

Orban’s critics at home and in the European Union have long accused him of eroding Hungary’s democratic institutions, taking over large swaths of the media and altering the country’s election system to give his party an advantage. The EU has withheld billions in funding to Budapest over alleged democratic backsliding, misuse of EU funds and failure to guarantee minority rights.

One demonstrator on Saturday, Zoltan Koszler, said he wanted a “complete change in the system, which is now completely unacceptable to me.”

“I want to live in a normal, rule-of-law state where the principles of the rule of law are really adhered to, not only on paper, but in reality,” he said.

Magyar has said he will establish a new party that will run in EU and municipal elections this summer.
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BUCHAREST, Romania — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of threats posed by right-wing populists Saturday as he addressed a gathering of center-left European parties ahead of elections for the European Parliament in June. 

Scholz arrived in Romania’s capital Bucharest for a conference of the Party of European Socialists, part of the Socialists and Democrats group, the second biggest in the Parliament. Voters in the 27 EU member states go to the polls June 6-9. 

“Right-wing populists are running election campaigns against our united Europe,” the German leader said at the Palace of the Parliament, which hosted the conference. “They are ready to destroy what we have built for the kids; they stir up sentiment against refugees and minorities.” 

Opinion polls indicate a significant shift to the right in the upcoming election, with the radical right Identity and Democracy group likely to gain enough seats to become the third-largest group in the legislature, mainly at the expense of the Greens and the centrist Renew Europe group. 

Scholz said a prosperous EU capable of “getting things done” is “the best response to populism and autocrats.” He also pledged continued support for Ukraine, saying it’s “key to restoring peace in Europe.” 

Scholz leads an unpopular three-party coalition. Recent national polls have shown his center-left party far behind Germany’s main center-right opposition bloc and at best roughly level with the far-right Alternative for Germany party. 

The Socialists and Democrats President Iratxe Garcia Perez also addressed the issue of rising populism in the June elections, saying those parties “only pose a threat to our European project.” 

The meeting comes after the EU’s largest political party, the center-right European People’s Party, met in Bucharest last month, where representatives endorsed Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second five-year term leading the bloc’s powerful Commission.

Jobs and Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit from Luxembourg was chosen as the Socialists and Democrats lead candidate for Brussels’ top job. The next Commission chief will require approval from leaders of all EU’s member states. Almost half of the EU’s 27 national leaders are members of the European People’s Party. 
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…

Following Thursday’s meetings in Brussels, NATO’s 32 member states are getting to work on an expanded role in providing military aid to Ukraine. At the session marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg pledged NATO’s support for Ukraine, now and for the long haul. Myroslava Gongadze visits a Ukrainian air base to see how military aid has already strengthened the country’s air force. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych
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washington — A Serbian journalist is being harassed and threatened after a fake video circulated online in which he appears to make an offhand comment praising a war criminal. 

Dinko Gruhonjic, a media professor and a journalist for the local news website Autonomija, had participated in a regional festival in Dubrovnik, Croatia, last year.  

Then last month, a manipulated video of that appearance circulated online. In it, Gruhonjic appears to say that he is pleased to share a name with Dinko Sakic — a commander imprisoned for his role overseeing a World War II concentration camp.  

The Vienna-based International Press Institute, or IPI, says that Gruhonjic “has been the target of a public lynching campaign including threats of physical violence” since the doctored video was shared online.  

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also commented on the video, Gruhonjic told VOA.  

“Vucic addressed my case: in his own style, holding a knife in one hand and a flower in the other, claiming that no one should harm me. But, on the other hand, saying I should be ashamed of the statements I made. Which, in fact, I did not make,” said Gruhonjic.  

36 attacks this year

The threats reflect a wider trend in Serbia. The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia or NUNS has documented 36 attacks on journalists so far this year. These include four physical attacks, one attack on property, 17 cases of journalists being pressured and 14 instances of verbal threats.  

So far, three people have been arrested on suspicion of threatening Gruhonjic and a second journalist — Ana Lalic-Hegedis — who appeared at the same festival.  

An arrest also was made in the case of Vojin Radovanovic, a journalist at the daily newspaper Danas, who received death threats via Instagram in 2023.  

“When I received a death threat, in which it was said that I should be killed as an example, I realized that such people should be prosecuted as an example to others who think it is OK to make death threats to someone only because you don’t like the way they work,” Radovanovic told VOA.  

The journalist, who covers politics and media issues, said authorities should take all threats seriously.  

Just a few months after police arrested the person suspected of sending the death threat, a different individual made threats against Radovanovic’s media outlet, saying it should be set on fire.  

Radovanovic said the threats come from an “environment in which critically oriented journalists are considered as someone who gets in the way.” 

Neither the Serbian Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime responded to VOA’s requests for comment about the harassment of Gruhonjic and other journalists.  

Threats cause suffering

Serbia ranks among the Council of Europe member states with the highest number of attacks on journalists, according to an annual report by partner organizations to the Council of Europe’s platform that promotes the protection of journalism and safety of journalists.  

Referring to the wider trends across Europe, Teresa Ribeiro, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, told VOA, “Threats and attacks on journalists are not only causing suffering, destruction and in the worst case loss of life, they also lead to self-censorship and undermine the credibility of public authorities and public trust in the media.” 

Ribeiro said that media freedom is possible only in an environment where journalists are able to work without fear of reprisal. 

“Without this, there can be no quality and independent journalism, nor can there be a lasting and well-functioning democracy and informed citizenry,” said Ribeiro.  

She added that OSCE states have an obligation to ensure media freedom. To ensure that it is upheld, she said, all attacks — both physical and online — must be “swiftly and effectively investigated and prosecuted.” 

Attila Mong, from the nonprofit the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said a lack of accountability for attacks makes the situation worse.  

“Despite some efforts, such as the establishment of working groups for the safety of journalists, it is evident that more needs to be done to comprehensively address these issues,” Mong told VOA.  

Mong cited a court decision in February to acquit four former secret police who had been convicted of the 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija.

At the time, the CPJ called the acquittal a “huge blow to justice.” 

The rise in attacks is resulting in a decline in Serbia’s ranking on media and human rights indexes. The country registered the biggest drop in the EU-Balkans region on the World Press Freedom Index last year. Serbia fell 12 places, to 91 out of 180 countries, where 1 shows the best media environment.  

The watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the index, notes that Serbia has a solid legal framework but that journalists are under political pressure and face threats. 

This article originated in VOA’s Serbian service.
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WASHINGTON — Next week could prove pivotal for Ukraine, as U.S. legislators reconvene following the Easter break. One of the most pressing topics for discussion is President Joe Biden’s supplemental request, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine. Without these funds, U.S. aid to Ukraine will have de facto halted.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated a potential willingness to provide weapons to Ukraine on loan. Would this address Kyiv’s immediate needs? What are the repercussions of delaying this aid? And what are the prospects for its swift approval? We discussed this with Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova on Thursday.

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: Madam Ambassador, since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, you’ve been advocating for more help from the American partners. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once reportedly said, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” And today, as Russians are gathering their troops and may be getting ready for another offensive, what does Ukraine need to stand strong?

Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S.: Well, nothing has changed, and it will not change until we win. So, from President Zelenskyy to defenders on the front line to everyone, including myself here in Washington, we have only one message: We need to win. And for that, we need more weapons, more ammunition, more support for Ukraine and more sanctions, isolation and bringing Russia to justice.

Right now, we’re at a pivotal moment in this fight. During the past two years, we have been able to liberate 50% of the territories. Last year, we literally liberated the Black Sea. We’re conducting very successful strikes against the Russian military, but we are not yet at the point where we can claim victory, and that is solely due to the availability of weapons and support. So, we must stay the course. We have to continue doing what has worked before. And we must do more.

VOA: President Biden has said multiple times that Ukraine has support among Republicans and Democrats on the Hill. However, the supplemental [aid package] has not resulted in a vote, mainly due to a couple of legislators, including Speaker Johnson. When President Zelenskyy visited Washington, you participated in a meeting with Mr. Johnson. I’m curious, what did you have to say to convince him to pass this legislation?

Markarova: We do have strong bipartisan support, and not only do we feel it, but we know it. We are talking to so many people on the Hill and to ordinary citizens, and we hear strong expressions of support from everyone, including Speaker Johnson. I mean, he was publicly supportive of why Ukraine needs to win.

Now, this year has been difficult, and I know that’s not an excuse; it’s just that we have to work harder. This is the fifth supplementary package; four of those we had during the last two years. And not all of them were easy to pass. But this one started as the Ukraine supplementary; it was during Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy’s time, then there was a change of speakership, then there were discussions about a joint supplementary. So, there were many issues which are very important for the United States, not related to Ukraine. We were made part of the package, which delayed discussions on this Ukrainian supplementary bill at different stages.

Now, since February, when the Senate passed a supplementary package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, there has been very active discussion on the Hill. We just needed that support yesterday. And I think the majority of people in the House also understand it. So, we all look forward to next week when the House will come back after the recess. And I really hope, as we heard Speaker Johnson saying, that this is going to be one of the first things that the House will start discussing. We need decisions.

VOA: As you said, the political environment in Washington, D.C., is quite dynamic. So, you had to talk to multiple speakers and the speakers have changed over the last year, a couple of times. How do you deliver those messages regarding Ukraine’s needs? Is it hard to find this human-to-human contact with them?

Markarova: Well, it’s a big team that works on it. And as you said, President Zelenskyy met with Speaker Johnson when he was here. They just had a very good phone call last week. But when I talk to people, whether it’s the speaker’s office or any senator’s, congressman’s, administration, anyone, I don’t think it’s hard to find a style, as you said, of how to talk.

Ukraine is just sharing what really happens on the ground. You know, truth is our best weapon, as we say. We don’t need to come up with ways to say it. We are just informing our friends of what’s going on and why it is important for all of us to win. Putin says publicly that his goal and intent did not change. He wants to destroy us. Everyone understands that this war was unprovoked, that he attacked us for no reason at all. It’s a genocidal, terroristic war of an autocratic state against a peaceful, democratic, much smaller neighbor.

VOA: Do Americans understand the Ukrainian pain here?

Markarova: Yes. When you explain it to them, yes. The problem is getting information to them. Because there is so much going on, and when you are not on TV, sometimes you disappear from the discussion. And frankly, people in some areas ask me whether the war is still ongoing. I don’t mean to criticize them. I’m … saying we have to remind people about us.

That’s why all the brave journalists we have in Ukraine keep working. It’s because of them people throughout the globe were able to see what’s happening, and we have already lost, as you know, more than 70 people in Ukraine. They were journalists, camera people. Russia targets them.

VOA: Ambassador, Speaker Johnson indicated recently that he may be willing to consider a loan to Ukraine, say, a Lend-Lease Act 2.0. However, the State Department has criticized these efforts saying that it’s not acceptable to put more burdens on Ukraine during the war. In the light of this dire situation on the front line, would Ukraine consider this option of getting a loan instead of the supplemental?

Markarova: The Lend-Lease Act, adopted in 2022, addressed a portion of the military support provided during the presidential drawdown. This allowed the United States to provide not only grants through PDA from their own stockpiles but also lease or loan items. What is being discussed now, and again, there are several options, but in general, it’s to provide support to Ukraine in the form of a loan. We’ve heard about 0% loans, long-term loans, among other options. We will see the actual proposal when it’s presented.

Of course, we would be grateful for any type of support. Grants are preferred over loans because they also contribute to our macroeconomic and public finance stability. However, if the United States decides to provide aid in the form of a loan, especially budget support, it will be more challenging and have more implications than a grant. Nevertheless, it will be much better than receiving no assistance.

We are very grateful to the U.S. for not only providing us with help for two years but also providing it in the form of grants, as you know, while other partners mostly offered concessional loans. So, that is also a viable option.

VOA: Ambassador, I’m curious, what is the first thing you plan to do once the war is over? If you can share that. Have you ever thought about it?

Markarova: Oh my God, I never thought about that. I think we all will be so happy and glad. I will probably just take a day off to watch movies and sleep for as long as I can. But jokes aside, I don’t know.

Again, right now, victory is the goal for all of us. But when we win the war, our task will not be over. The very next second, we’ll have to continue working on not only rebuilding but also bringing Russia to justice. And that’s a comprehensive, very big task that a large team in Ukraine, again, led by the president, but with the prosecutor general and all investigators, are doing. And you know, continue working, continue serving the country, continue doing what we can in order to win the peace.
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berlin — Human rights lawyers said Friday they had filed an urgent appeal against Germany’s government to stop exports of war weapons to Israel, citing reasons to believe they were being used in ways violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

A Dutch court has ordered the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used for attacks on civilian targets in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed.

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians in the Gaza war, saying Hamas militants use residential areas for cover, which the Palestinian Islamist group denies.

The Berlin case, brought by several organizations including the European Legal Support Center (ELSC), Law for Palestine and the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, was filed in an administrative court on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza.

In a statement, the lawyers said the arms deliveries and support Germany has provided to Israel violated the country’s obligations under the War Weapons Control Act.

They cited a January order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, which it has subjected to siege and invasion since Hamas’ October 7 attack. Israel denies genocide allegations.

“Just the assumption is sufficient — that the weapons are used to commit acts that violate international law — to revoke arms exports under the Act,” lawyer Ahmed Abed told a news conference Friday in Berlin.

He said he expected a ruling within two to three weeks.

Political pressure

German government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said she could not comment about the Berlin court case and whether Germany would suspend arms exports to Israel pending a ruling.

“The federal government generally examines each arms export individually and takes a number of factors into account — including human rights and humanitarian law,” she said when asked about the matter by reporters.

International law experts said the litigation was unlikely to be able to force a halt to such arms exports under administrative law, though it could push Berlin to review its stance if evidence were provided.

“It could build up political pressure on the German government … to be more transparent and declare which arms it is planning to transfer or which arms it actually has transferred to Israel,” Max Mutschler, a senior researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, said.

Rights groups would have a better chance of success if they took the case to the ICJ in The Hague, said lawyer Holger Rothbauer, who successfully sued arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch over arms deliveries to Mexico in 2010.

“It seems to me that a [German] law to cover the case is missing,”

Rothbauer told Reuters, saying only a party directly affected by an administrative decision could sue to stop it. The rights lawyers said they were acting on behalf of Palestinians.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and 75,750 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said Friday in an update.

With Gaza in ruins, and most of its 2.3 million population forced from their homes and relying on aid for survival, Israel faces rising calls from allies to halt the war and allow unfettered aid into the enclave, with critics saying governments should threaten to withhold military aid if it does not do so.

Since Hamas’ October terrorism attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest allies alongside the United States, underlining its commitment to atonement for its perpetration of the World War II Nazi Holocaust in which 6 million Jews died.

Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth a 326.5 million euros ($353.70 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase compared with 2022, according to Economic Ministry data.
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COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir announced her resignation Friday and said that she will run for president, a ceremonial post that is mostly above the daily political fray.

It was not immediately clear who would succeed her as prime minister, a job she has held since late 2017.

“I had decided some time ago not to seek reelection in the next parliamentary elections. At the same time, I still have a burning desire to continue to offer my services to Icelandic society,” Jakobsdottir said in a video message.

Iceland will hold a vote on June 1 to elect its new head of state.

The island nation of almost 400,000 people faces uncertainty after recent volcanic eruptions that triggered the indefinite evacuation of thousands of people, adding to pressures on an economy already facing high inflation and soaring interest rates.

Still, Jakobsdottir said she believed that the government had made significant progress on the challenges and that the country was on a firmer footing than just a few months ago.

Jakobsdottir has been crucial in keeping together the current coalition of her own Left-Green Movement, the pro-business Independence Party and the center-right Progressive Party.

The government has been in power since 2017, providing unusual stability in a country that went to polls five times from 2007 to 2017, a period marked by political scandals and distrust of politicians following the 2008 financial crisis.
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