phnom penh, cambodia — The Swedish government will phase out bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia by the end of this year, raising concerns among civil society groups likely to see their budgets shrink.

In 2023, the Swedish government provided about $17 million to civil society groups in Cambodia focusing on strengthening human rights, democracy and the rule of law, according to data from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs pointed to the war in Ukraine as forcing the country to refocus its foreign aid when it made the announcement in December, but the decision comes as Western donors have criticized Cambodia’s democratic backsliding over the past decade.

“The Swedish government wants Sweden’s development assistance to be used as effectively as possible, and that it is used where it does the most good. Limited resources and increasing needs abroad mean that the government must set difficult but necessary priorities for Sweden’s development assistance,” the ministry told VOA Khmer in an email in January.

“The Swedish government has therefore decided to phase out our bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia during 2024. The phasing-out of the bilateral development cooperation will be done in a responsible manner, and in dialogue with other donors and partners to minimize negative consequences,” it added.

Pen Bona, a spokesperson for the Cambodian government, played down Sweden’s decision and any potential impact on the Cambodian population.

“They [donors] see and evaluate that Cambodia doesn’t need the NGOs to continue working on [those issues] since the government has worked on that,” Pen Bona said in a phone interview on February 8.

“Some NGOs make bad reports about Cambodia to receive funding,” he added.

A group of 100 civil society associations — including communities, unions, youth networks and media organizations — wrote a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, saying they were “seriously concerned” about the announcement.

The decision, the Cambodian civil society groups said, “will have an immediate and devastating impact on civil society organizations and other nongovernmental entities that have stringent labor and other legal obligations to their staff members and the Cambodians they serve,” read the letter, dated January 18, obtained by VOA Khmer.

The letter said the decision to phase out funding would affect more than 30 organizations and multilateral institutions that rely directly or indirectly on this support and would be “detrimental to tens of thousands of Cambodians who look to Sweden as a reliable partner in the promotion of human rights, democracy, gender equality, youth empowerment and rule of law.”

The groups called on the Swedish government to reconsider the decision or give the NGOs more time to find alternate funding sources. 

“Sweden’s decision to phase out SIDA funding for Cambodia will also leave a vacuum in the country that will be filled by geopolitical players like China and Russia whose interests may not align with those of Sweden, impacting Sweden’s efforts to strengthen Cambodia’s economic growth,” the groups said.

In a response letter, Diana Janse, state secretary to Johan Forssell, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a paradigm shift with extensive political, economic and humanitarian consequences.

“In conjunction to this, the government has decided to reduce the number of countries that we have bilateral development cooperation with — Cambodia regretfully being one of them,” Janse wrote to the NGOs in a letter obtained last week by VOA Khmer.

“We have, as you point out, been a long-term supporter of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. We will therefore do our utmost to ensure a responsible phasing out,” she said.

Effects on women

Sdeung Phearong, executive director of the Banteay Srei Organization, which works on women’s empowerment, told VOA Khmer in a phone interview on February 8 that her organization had received funds from SIDA that account for about 15% to 30% of core funds. The backing has been channeled through an international NGO.

“The decision [to phase out] will impact the women victims who receive assistance from us,” she told VOA Khmer, adding that her organization had received funding from SIDA for more than 10 years.

“It is so immediate,” Sdeung Phearong said, calling on the Swedish government to reconsider or delay the decision until 2025 or 2026 so the NGOs in Cambodia have more time to seek replacement donors.

Pech Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, an NGO, said in a phone interview on February 7 that his group would also be affected by the decrease in Swedish funding. Besides the global security needs and challenges, Pech Pisey said, Sweden was facing the reality that “there is no positive change” in fundamental democracy and human rights in Cambodia.

The Swedish government closed its embassy in Phnom Penh and phased out bilateral cooperation with Cambodia in 2021.

“The democratic space in Cambodia has been severely restricted in recent years. This has made it difficult to pursue broad and close cooperation,” Peter Eriksson, then the Swedish minister for international development cooperation, said in November 2020.

The Swedish ministry said on January 25 in an email to VOA Khmer that it would continue to be a strong voice for human rights and democracy in Cambodia through its role in the European Union.
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Istanbul/Washington — Journalists in Turkey are welcoming a recent Constitutional Court ruling that revoked bans on online access to hundreds of news articles.

Last week, the court published a ruling that lifted the bans, stating that the restrictions are unconstitutional and violate freedom of expression.

Lower courts had blocked the stories, citing Article 9 of Law No. 5651, which enables such bans or removal of content in cases of personal rights violations. Press freedom advocates and journalists have long said that the measure was used as a form of censorship against digital media.

In its recent ruling, the Constitutional Court examined 502 orders to block access to websites and articles from 2014 to 2023. Of those, 352 were appealed by the Freedom of Expression Association, the IFOD.

“We have been following this issue since 2014,” Yaman Akdeniz, IFOD’s co-founder and human rights lawyer, told VOA.

The banned news articles were from several independent digital media outlets, including BirGun, Diken, Gazete Duvar, Arti Gercek and sendika.org.

A list of banned stories compiled by IFOD included articles concerning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his family, his Cabinet members and politicians from his ruling Justice and Development Party.

Cautious welcome

While welcoming the decision, Berkant Gultekin, BirGun’s digital broadcast coordinator, is taking a cautious stance.

“It is a good decision on paper, but we will see over time how it will affect the news production process in Turkey,” Gultekin said.

“Even if the Constitutional Court decides in favor of journalists, we cannot say, ‘We are free now,’ as the government decides which ruling the judiciary will implement,” Gultekin said, noting that the court’s rulings in other, unrelated cases are worrying.

Turkey has recently experienced a judicial crisis over the continued imprisonment of ex-parliament member Can Atalay. Atalay was elected to parliament in May 2023 from the Workers’ Party of Turkey, or TIP, while serving an 18-year prison sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the government.

In October and December, the Constitutional Court, in separate decisions, ruled for the release of Atalay. Elected parliamentarians in Turkey enjoy legislative immunity as stated in the constitution. Still, the top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, dismissed the rulings, and Atalay’s status as a lawmaker was stripped away by parliament last month.

Banu Tuna is the secretary-general of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, or TGS, which was a plaintiff in the case that sought to repeal the bans on access to digital content.

“Of course, we are pleased with our result, but will this decision protect other outlets from being censored in the future?” Tuna asked.

While welcoming the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the access ban case, she said Atalay’s situation is an example of problems facing Turkey’s judicial system.

“We essentially fulfilled our duty, and the Constitutional Court confirmed we were right,” she said. Tuna added that from this point on, the issue is what the Constitutional Court decisions mean for other courts and to what extent such decisions are implemented.

Diken, an independent media outlet, filed at least 118 applications to the Constitutional Court asking it to revoke access bans.

“The ruling has recorded our right to inform and people’s right to be informed, which we have defended from the very beginning,” said Erdal Guven, the editor-in-chief of Diken. “Yet, it is difficult to say that everything is all right.”

Local courts in Turkey have banned access to several VOA Turkish Service stories.

The Access Providers Association, an organization that implements media bans in Turkey, informed VOA Turkish that an Ankara court lifted a 2021 access ban on a news story, citing the recent ruling.

The content, however, is still not accessible in Turkey since a ban on VOA Turkish’s domain name over a licensing issue has been in effect since August 2023.

In January 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 9 of Law No. 5651 constituted “a structural problem” that caused the violation of freedom of press and expression. According to the court, the measure’s scope and limits were not clear, and the bans were placed without any input from affected media outlets.

The court gave parliament a year to come up with a solution, but lawmakers have taken no action on the matter.

This past January, the Constitutional Court decided to annul the measure, saying it limits freedom of the press. However, the repeal does not take effect until October.

IFOD’s Yaman Akdeniz has criticized the Constitutional Court for taking this long to annul the measure and decide on the caseload that has been growing since 2014.

“Since the article will be in effect until October 10, criminal judgeships of peace will continue to make decisions before the March 31 elections. The danger of censorship continues,” Akdeniz said. March 31 is when local elections are due to be held.

BirGun’s Gultekin also points out that lower courts can still implement access bans very quickly.

“[The courts] can issue an order to block within a few hours. The number of blocked news has recently reached five or six a week; I do not know the exact number,” Gultekin said.

This article originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China and Russia have doubled down on their “no-limits partnership” in recent weeks, with leaders from both countries vowing to maintain “close personal interaction” and the Chinese ambassador to Russia revealing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to visit China this year. 

During a Feb. 8 call, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin celebrated the deepened bilateral engagement and cooperation between China and Russia in various sectors and criticized what they called “U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs.” 

In addition to the call between Xi and Putin, China’s ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, told Russian state media Sputnik Feb. 10 that Putin will visit China this year and that the two leaders are expected to hold several meetings during the year.

“Putin’s visit to China [this year] will definitely take place [and] China looks forward to his arrival,” Zhang said in the interview. 

Some analysts say Beijing and Moscow hope to use their recent interactions to show the world they are “strongly aligned with each other.” 

They want to show “that they have each other’s back because they both feel pressure from the U.S.,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at National Singapore University, told VOA by phone.

Since Russia and China share the goal of replacing the U.S. and weakening coordination between Washington and its allies, other experts say Beijing and Moscow believe that it is in their interests to further deepen bilateral ties. 

“While there are frictions between Russia and China, they have been fairly successful in weakening democracies and exploiting their systems,” Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute, told VOA in a written response, adding that the relationship between China and Russia brings more positives than negatives to both countries. 

Despite the mutual commitment to deepen ties, some recent developments may limit the degree of cooperation. Several media outlets reported that the EU is preparing to propose sanctions on three Chinese companies and four companies in Hong Kong for supporting the Russian military. 

The sanctions would be part of EU efforts to close loopholes that may allow Russia to obtain military technologies required for its weapons manufacturing. In response to the news, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it considers the sanctions imposed by the EU “unacceptable.” 

“China strongly opposes the application of illegal sanctions or ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ against China because of China-Russia cooperation,” the ministry said in a statement shared with some media outlets, adding that Beijing “will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.” 

In addition to the proposed sanctions, some Chinese banks have reportedly either ceased operations with Russian or Belarusian companies or tightened regulations around transactions with Russia to comply with Western sanctions on Russia.

In response to the development, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said Moscow is confident that payment issues with China will be solved, adding that trade between China and Russia is expanding successfully.

Despite the closeness of their political relationship, some experts say the EU sanctions on Chinese companies and some Chinese banks’ reluctance to deal with Russian entities show that the commercial relationship between Beijing and Moscow is quite complex. 

“Chinese businesses and the Chinese government are very careful about not getting punished by international sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU,” Philipp Ivanov, a senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA in a video interview. 

He said that while diplomatic visits between the two countries will continue, Beijing will try to carefully manage the commercial activities between China and Russia.

“At the moment, it’s hard to see [recent developments] having a huge impact on trade [between China and Russia], but China may adjust its approach [to manage its trade relationship with Russia] in the mid- to long-term,” Ivanov said. 

Since this month marks two years since Putin and Xi declared the “no-limits partnership” between China and Russia, Ivanov said the close bilateral relationship may have reached its peak. “Russia and China are politically and diplomatically very close and their economic and trade ties are growing,” he told VOA. 

However, “since Russia can’t offer anything else to China apart from what’s already offering in terms of energy and commodities, there’s not a lot else that they can do together,” Ivanov said, adding that one area to observe is how Beijing and Moscow coordinate their strategic interests. 

As Switzerland prepares to facilitate possible peace talks on the Ukraine war, all sides are looking at how China positions itself in the process. Following his visit to Beijing earlier this month, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said he hopes China can contribute to the potential peace process by leveraging its close relationship with Russia.

Despite the aspirations expressed by Switzerland, Chong in Singapore said China may prefer to maintain its vague position on Ukraine, which is that all parties will strive to “create favorable conditions for the political settlement of the crisis.” 

“Both Beijing and Moscow may be betting on the possibility of former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to office [in November,] which could reshuffle things to the advantage of China and Russia,” he told VOA. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Albania and then to Germany this week for the Munich Security Conference. Among issues he will likely face in Europe is the stalling of military aid to Ukraine in the U.S. House and former President Donald Trump’s comments threatening to abandon some NATO allies if he is reelected. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted a virtual meeting with allies on Wednesday to discuss support for Ukraine as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion nears. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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ROME — Pope Francis urged Catholics to forgo worldly trappings and focus on essentials as he opened the season of Lent with a traditional Ash Wednesday Mass on one of Rome’s historic seven hills.

He criticized people’s tendency to lay bare their lives on social media, deploring “a world in which everything, including our emotions and deepest feelings, has to become ‘social.'”

Instead, the faithful should enter their “inner chamber” to find time for quiet reflection and prayer, the 87-year-old pontiff said in a homily.

Lent is a 40-day period of penance that leads to Easter, the most important Christian festival, which celebrates the day on which Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

It represents the 40 days Jesus is said in the Bible to have spent fasting in the desert. During the season, Catholics are asked to fast, remember the needy and reflect on mortality.

“Life is not a play: Lent invites us to come down from the stage and return to the heart, to the reality of who we are,” Francis said.

“Let us not be afraid to strip ourselves of worldly trappings and return to the heart, to what is essential.”

He spoke at a service held in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill, preceded by prayers in a nearby church and a procession of cardinals and bishops.

Mass goers, including the pope, had ashes sprinkled on their heads in the Ash Wednesday ritual that, for the world’s more than 1.35 billion Catholics, serves as a reminder of mortality.
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Turkish security forces are detaining hundreds of people in the aftermath of an Islamic State attack on an Istanbul church. Authorities are warning of further attacks against Jews and Christians. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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PARIS — A Paris appeals court ruled Wednesday that former President Nicolas Sarkozy was guilty of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 reelection bid, confirming a previous ruling by a lower court, but his lawyer said he would take his case to France’s highest court.  

Sarkozy was handed a one-year prison sentence, half of which was suspended, that can be served through alternative means, such as wearing an electronic bracelet without going to jail.  

Sarkozy, 69, had been handed a one-year prison sentence in 2021 when first found guilty, although that was suspended while he launched his appeal. The new appeal will again mean the sentence is placed on hold. 

“Today’s ruling is highly questionable. That is why we will appeal to the Cour de Cassation,” his lawyer Vincent Desry told reporters, reiterating that Sarkozy was innocent.  

The Cour de Cassation is the country’s highest court, and its rulings typically focus on whether the law has been applied correctly rather than on the facts of the case. Appeals to the court can take years.  

Sarkozy was in court on Wednesday to hear the verdict but left without commenting to waiting reporters. 

President from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy has remained an influential figure among conservatives and is on friendly terms with President Emmanuel Macron — despite a string of trials and investigations linked to various legal issues surrounding his campaign finances.  

He has always denied accusations that his party, Les Republicains, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm named Bygmalion to hide the true cost of his campaign — marked by lavish show events previously unseen in French politics.  

During a hearing, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team: “I didn’t choose any supplier; I didn’t sign any quotation, any invoice,” he told the court. 

France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors allege that the firm invoiced UMP rather than the campaign. They say Sarkozy spent $45.9 million on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount.
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TBILISI, Georgia — Armenia said on Tuesday that two of its soldiers had been killed by Azerbaijani fire along the heavily militarized border, the first fatal incident since the two sides last year began negotiating a deal to end more than 30 years of intermittent war.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app that two of its soldiers had been killed and several more wounded at a combat post near the southern Armenian village of Nerkin Hand.

Azerbaijan’s border service said in a statement that it staged a “a revenge operation” in retaliation for a “provocation” it said Armenian forces had committed the day before.

It said that further “provocations” would be met with “more serious and decisive measures from now on.”

“The military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the incident.”

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that Armenian forces Monday evening fired at Baku’s positions along a northwestern section of the border, around 300 kilometers from Nerkin Hand. Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied that such an incident took place.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in conflict for over three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan in September retook Karabakh in a lightning offensive, prompting a rapid exodus of almost all of the territory’s Armenian inhabitants, and a renewed push from both sides for a treaty to formally end the conflict.

Although fatal exchanges of fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been common for decades, the border had become more peaceful since the start of talks, with little serious fighting since the collapse of Karabakh in September 2023.

The peace talks have in recent months appeared to stagnate, with both sides accusing the other of sabotaging the diplomatic process.

 
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washington — Since the Taliban seized control in August 2021, China, Iran and Russia have been steadily courting Afghanistan’s de facto government for influence. The three countries have kept their embassies open in Kabul and were among the first to hand over Afghan embassies to the Taliban at home.

Last month, Moscow, Beijing and Tehran were the most high-profile participants at the Taliban’s first conference on regional cooperation in Kabul.

But what are the real prospects of China, Russia, Iran and the Taliban cooperating in the region?

Analysts tell VOA that while Beijing, Moscow and Tehran may be united in a common goal to oppose the U.S. in the region, that is perhaps the only area where their interests align, analysts say.

“Anti-Americanism is the one idea” that brings China, Iran and Russia together, said Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

He told VOA that Tehran, Moscow and Beijing “want to push the United States out of Eurasia and Central Asia … [but] how much can they on the operational level cooperate? That’s a big question.”

He added that “anti-Americanism” alone cannot keep the partnership together as there “is nothing ideological to bring them together.”

According to a newly released U.S. State Department’s strategy document, China, Iran and Russia seek “strategic and economic advantage, or at a minimum, to put the U.S. at a disadvantage.”

“China, Iran and Russia have cultivated very close ties with the Taliban,” said Nilofar Sakhi, a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, adding that they are trying to “have political and economic influence in the region.”

Despite close ties, none of the three countries has formally recognized the Taliban’s government and their interests in the region all differ.

Pragmatic approach

Late last month, China was the first country to formally accept the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador.

Some former diplomats and analysts say the move was akin to formal recognition. Sun Yun, the director of the China Program at the Stimson Center in Washington does not agree.

China still has to “formally extended political recognition to the Taliban’s government,” Sun told VOA. Even so, compared to Western countries, China has established “very close” relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“China adopts a pragmatic approach in Afghanistan,” said Sun, adding that early on Beijing realized that the U.S.-backed former Afghan government did not have “the popular support to continue” governing Afghanistan.

Beijing had been cultivating ties with the Taliban for years before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.

Sun said that “what has happened in the past two and a half years substantiated that assessment that the Taliban regime is not going anywhere.”

She added that security, economic and political factors are “all part of a broader consideration that comes to the foundation of China’s policy toward Afghanistan.”

For China, one key concern is about any breach of militancy from Afghanistan into its western region of Xinjiang.

Beijing also has economic interests in Afghanistan, including extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative, to Afghanistan and investing in minerals in Afghanistan.

China has also been vocal in criticizing the U.S. and NATO for freezing Afghanistan’s assets and “leaving the Afghan people in a serious humanitarian crisis” in the country.

Complicated past

Though Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban, it handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban in February 2023.

The Middle East Institute’s Vatanka said that the Iranian regime has not recognized the Taliban because of some bilateral issues, including border security and water distribution.

Last year, tensions between Iran and the Taliban over the Helmand River’s flow of water escalated to a deadly clash, which killed two Iranian security guards and one Taliban border guard.

Iran and the Taliban have had complicated relations in the past.

During the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1990s, Iran was supporting the forces fighting against the Taliban, particularly after the Taliban killed nine Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998.

“It is still too early for the Iranians to forget what the Taliban was” when it was in power in the 1990s, said Vatanka.

Full of contradiction

Like Iran, Russia was another country that supported forces fighting the Taliban during the civil war in the 1990s.

Ghaus Janbaz, a former Afghan diplomat to Moscow, told VOA that Moscow’s policy toward Afghanistan has been “full of contradictions” in recent years.

Janbaz added that Russia is politically supporting the Taliban, but at the same time, its “military and security officials criticize the Taliban and cite an uptick in terrorist activities in Afghanistan.”

He said that before the Taliban’s takeover, Moscow had diplomatic relations with the former Afghan government, but it also supported “the Taliban at all the levels.”

“It is similar now. Russia has ties with the Taliban, but an anti-Taliban leader was invited to Moscow,” Janbaz said. “They say it was not an invitation by the government, but nothing happens without the approval of the government in Russia.”

An Afghan anti-Taliban leader, Ahmad Masoud, participated in a conference on Afghanistan in Russia in November 2023.

Janbaz says that despite Moscow’s close ties with the Taliban, “I do not think that in the near future, Moscow will extend recognition to the Taliban’s regime.”

He said that similar to China and Iran, Russia’s policy toward the Taliban is driven by regional geopolitics.

“Tactically they might have an alliance against the West, but there are strategic differences” between these countries, Janbaz said.

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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A new bill allowing authorities to confiscate the property of Russians convicted of deliberately spreading what is deemed as fake news about Russia’s armed forces could soon become law. If signed into law, it would also allow the state to seize the property of Russian emigres who criticize the war in Ukraine. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: David Gogokhia.
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VATICAN CITY — Argentina’s President Javier Milei visited his compatriot Pope Francis in the Vatican on Monday, bearing pastries and gifts as he seeks to make up with the pontiff he had long dismissed and derided.

Milei, a maverick right-wing libertarian, had heaped insults on Francis during his vote campaign, calling him an “imbecile who defends social justice.” But he has shifted tone in office as he tries to shore up support at home amid mounting challenges.

He hailed the pope as “the most important Argentine in history” in an interview at the weekend. On Monday, he brought alfajores de dulce de leche pastries and a brand of lemon biscuits the pope likes, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said.

Francis and Milei met as Argentina faces its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation at more than 200% and the newly installed Milei in difficulty following parliamentary rejection of a major reform package. 

They spoke for about one hour, the Vatican said.

Francis, a former archbishop of Buenos Aires who has angered some of his compatriots by not visiting his homeland since becoming pope in 2013, has said he may finally visit “suffering” Argentina in the second half of this year.

Securing such a visit could help Milei shore up support from his conservative Catholic base, and help the president push ahead with his reforms.

On the weekend, Milei stressed Francis’ moral leadership role for a majority-Catholic country like Argentina.

Francis has previously said he did not want to be politically exploited by Argentinian politicians. On Friday, he said “radical individualism” permeates society like a “virus,” in words that may jar with Milei’s radical free-market instincts.

Francis and Milei exchanged warm words on Sunday, at the end of a canonization Mass in St Peter’s Basilica for the first female Argentine saint, Maria Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, an 18th century consecrated lay woman better known as “Mama Antula.”

Francis, who is 87 and has difficulty walking, was in a wheelchair as he went to greet Milei after the service. He smiled at him, extended his hand and told him, “You cut your hair!”

Milei, who still wears his hair unconventionally long for a politician, joked about having cleaned up his act and asked if he could hug and kiss the pope. A smiling Francis replied: “Yes, son, yes.”
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NICOSIA — Closer relations between Turkey and the European Union are contingent on Turkish engagement in solving the decades-old partition of Cyprus, the EU country’s president said on Monday.

Turkey has been an official candidate to join the EU for decades, but accession talks have stalled in recent years over EU concerns about Ankara’s record on human rights and respect for the rule of law.

Cyprus, an eastern Mediterranean island that was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 prompted by a brief Greek-inspired coup, has veto rights over Turkey’s EU ambitions, like all other members of the bloc.

The Republic of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, while the northern half of the island is a self-declared state recognized only by Turkey.

“Cyprus is a strong supporter of closer relations between the EU and Ankara; [such] closer relations pass through developments and a solution to the Cyprus problem,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters after meeting Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s president in Nicosia.

Steinmeier, on an official visit to the island, said Turkish actions on Cyprus should be taken into account in assessing its overall relations with the EU.

“Member states should send this message to Turkey,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Peace talks to resolve the longstanding conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots collapsed in 2017. Nicosia wants the EU to appoint an emissary to oversee attempts to revive talks, though says it would be supportive of any role of the United Nations, which takes the lead in Cyprus peacemaking.

Violence between the two Cypriot communities broke out in 1963, prompting the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force that still patrols a 180-km (116-mile) long cease-fire line.

Germany’s cabinet last week approved the dispatch of police officers who will join the civilian police contingent of the U.N. force, Steinmeier said.
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