U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday, part of the longstanding White House tradition of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations of Irish culture in the United States.

“It’s a big day in my grandparents’ household, our household, big day here,” Biden told Varadkar in reference to his Irish heritage. “Ireland and the United States share great friendship and long, long traditions,” added the president, who was wearing a green tie and shamrock in his suit pocket, traditional Irish symbols.

Varadkar thanked Biden for his “support and understanding for our position on Brexit.”

During negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, also known as Brexit, the Irish government pushed to include the Northern Ireland Protocol, designed to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.

The Irish government feared that a hard border could threaten the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace deal that ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland over the question of whether it should unify with Ireland or remain part of the UK.

Under the 2021 protocol, Northern Ireland remains in UK customs territory, but it follows many EU rules and regulations.

“And we’ve got to a good place now I think with the Windsor framework, where we can have an agreement that lasts,” Varadkar noted, referring to the post-Brexit deal designed to fix trade issues under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The White House said the framework is an important step in maintaining the peace accord.

Biden is expected to visit Ireland in coming weeks to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The White House has not officially announced the trip, but Varadkar said he was looking forward to it.

“I promise you that we’re going to roll out the red carpet and it’s going to be a visit like no other,” Varadkar said.

Support for Ukraine

Biden thanked Varadkar for his support in Ukraine. “It means a great deal, speaking out against Russian aggression,” he said.

The taoiseach, as the Irish prime minister is officially known, in turn thanked Biden for his leadership against Moscow.

“I never thought we’d see a war like this happen in Europe in my lifetime,” Varadkar said, repeating a line often used by Western leaders that his country will stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

After their meeting, Biden and Varadkar headed to Capitol Hill for a Friends of Ireland Caucus luncheon hosted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, before returning to the White House for a St. Patrick’s Day reception in the evening, where the taoiseach presents the president with a crystal bowl full of shamrocks, as per tradition.

St. Patrick’s Day in-person meetings at the White House and lunch with congressional leaders at the Capitol were suspended the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 44-year-old Varadkar served as prime minister from 2017 to 2020 before returning to the office in December 2022 and was the last Irish leader to visit the White House in person in March 2020 under former president Donald Trump. Biden met with Varadkar’s predecessor, Micheal Martin, virtually in 2021 because of the pandemic, and virtually in 2022, after Martin tested positive for COVID-19 while already in Washington.

With Indian heritage from his father’s side, Varadkar is the first minority taoiseach in the country’s history. He also is the first openly gay Irish leader.

Prior to his White House engagement, Varadkar and his partner, Matthew Barrett, attended a breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, at the vice president’s official residence.
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Around 100,000 people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have fled their homes following a string of recent attacks, and fighting between M23 rebels and government forces, according to the United Nations. The U.N. accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels, a claim Rwanda denies.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says at least 800,000 people have been forced to flee the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the past 12 months. Many are living in refugee camps in the DRC and in neighboring countries.

Espoir Ndagije, who fled to a camp in Goma in the DRC, said he had no choice.

“Coming here to Goma was the only option because the M23 rebels control all the other territories. Life is hard here. We need help,” Ndagije told Agence France-Presse.

M23 rebels

The M23 rebels claim they are defending ethnic Tutsis in the eastern DRC, drawing on longstanding tensions between Tutsis and Hutus that led to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when over half a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by armed Hutu militia forces.

The heavily armed M23 rebel group has seized swathes of territory in the DRC’s North Kivu province since reemerging in late 2021.

A panel of United Nations experts released a report in December that found widespread evidence that Rwanda was supporting the M23 rebels and sending its own troops over the border. The rebel group is accused of conducting widespread atrocities, including the arbitrary slaughter of civilians and mass rape.

The DRC, the European Union and the United States also blame Rwanda for supporting the insurgency.

Following the visit of a U.N delegation to the region this week, the DRC’s minister of humanitarian affairs, Modeste Mutinga Mutushayi, called on the rebels to withdraw.

“We are all listening, hoping that clear instructions, clear messages, will be sent to Rwanda and to the M23 so that on the 31 (of March) at the latest, our territory can be liberated,” Mutushayi told reporters March 12.

France’s ambassador the United Nations, Nicolas De Rivière, was also part of the delegation. He urged a political solution and said the U.N. Security Council will address the conflict.

“It is clear that Rwanda supports the M23,” De Rivière said. “It is also clearly established that there are incursions by the regular Rwandan army in North Kivu and that this too is unacceptable. So, this is one of the subjects that must be discussed (at the U.N. Security Council) and it must stop.”

Rwandan backing

Observers say the evidence of Rwandan involvement is clear.

“The weaponry they have, the Kevlar jackets they have, the backpacks, the RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades], these are all identical to what the Rwandan army sports when it goes into battle. So essentially, it’s just a branch of the Rwandan army,” said Michela Wrong, a British journalist focusing on the Great Lakes region and author of a recent book on Rwanda, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad.

However, Rwanda has denied supporting M23 rebels and accuses Kinshasa of supporting Hutu rebels. At a March 1 news conference in Kigali, Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused his critics of ignoring history.

“People who want a short cut blame it all on Rwanda,” Kagame told reporters. “In Congo, there are over 120 armed groups, of which M23 is only one of them. … This fighting that started a couple of years ago was not started by Rwanda by any means,” he said.

DRC resources

The DRC government suspects Rwanda is seeking control of its rich mineral resources.

“Ever since President Mobutu [Sese Seko] fled what was then Zaire in 1997, there’s been a long-standing tradition of neighboring Uganda and Rwanda reaching into Congo and hoovering up its ‘coltan’ [columbite-tantalite metallic ore] — which is what we use to make mobile phones — its diamonds, its gold, its tin,” said Wrong.

There are other possible drivers of the conflict. In 2021, the DRC signed a series of trade deals with its neighbor, Uganda. Analysts say Rwanda’s president disapproved.

“He felt sidelined. He felt bypassed,” Wrong told VOA. “He felt that he is the key player in the Great Lakes region, and he wasn’t easy with the idea that these two neighbors were getting on so well and that in [the] future economic trade was going to be bypassing Rwanda.”

France

French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to broker a cease-fire on a visit to the region earlier this month. In Kinshasa, a few dozen protesters demanded that Macron impose sanctions against Rwanda. Some burned the French flag, angered by a widespread perception of a close relationship between Macron and Kagame.

Macron insisted he would pressure Rwanda to end its support for the M23.

“France has consistently condemned the M23 and all those who support it. And I am here to make sure that everyone takes responsibility, including Rwanda,” he told reporters in Kinshasa on March 4.

Britain

Britain, meanwhile, has not directly blamed Rwanda for backing the M23. Critics say the British government is reluctant to criticize its African ally after striking a deal last year with Rwanda to send asylum-seekers there for processing.

“Rwanda is a key part of that plan, and so, as long as Britain is counting on Rwanda to play a role in its ‘Illegal Migration bill’ we’re not going to see any outspoken statements or any criticism of Rwanda coming from the British government, that’s absolutely clear,” said Wrong.

“So, I’m afraid Britain is highly compromised on this issue and it’s not going to form part of a united donor front and that’s what we need.”

The British government did not respond directly to VOA requests for comment on the accusation that it is failing to criticize Rwanda due to the migrant deal. Government ministers have previously called on all parties to end support for rebel groups and commit to peaceful dialogue.

Rwandan donors

Western aid donors to Rwanda should present the country with a united front, Wrong said.

“What we saw in 2012 when the M23 was previously in action in eastern Congo and creating massive floods of displaced people was that Western donors got together and announced that they were cutting aid. And very, very quickly, you saw M23 fighters withdrawing to Uganda and Rwanda. It was a really startlingly fast reaction.”

“At the moment, what you’re seeing is Western donors, who — because they are not all agreed and they haven’t presented a united front — all they’re doing is just expressing public dismay. But that’s not going to cut it,” Wrong added.
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Chinese President Xi Jinging is making a state visit next week to Russia where he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin from Monday to Wednesday, China and the Kremlin said Friday. 

The two last met in China last year when Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and in September at a regional conference in Uzbekistan.

Next week’s visit was announced a day after China urged Russia and Ukraine to begin peace talks to end their conflict. 

Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago. 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that Xi’s Russian visit will “promote strategic coordination and practical cooperation between the two countries and inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that he would meet with Xi  after Xi called for talks between Russia and Ukraine.  

China and Russia have strengthened their ties in a number of fields and have entered what they say in a “no limits” partnership.   

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The Ukrainian government says that nearly one-third of its territory is mined, and that when the war ends, demining could last a decade or more. Evgeny Maslov has more in this story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Michael Eckels  
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Russian military and Wagner Group forces have recently gained footholds west of the Bakhmutka River in the town of Bakhmut, according to a British Defense Ministry intelligence update.

The river, the ministry said, had recently marked the front line of the battle in the fighting in the Donbas town of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces continue to defend the western portion of the town, the report said.

Meanwhile, the report said, Russia is conducting some of its lowest rates of local offensive fighting since January.

“This is most likely because Russian forces have temporarily depleted their combat power to such an extent that even local offensive actions are not currently sustainable,” it said.

The Russians will likely increase their “offensive potential” once personnel and munitions stocks are replenished. Until then, the ministry said, Russian commanders “will likely be forced to choose between carrying out offensive operations and conducting a credible defense of the full line.”

China is hoping there will be a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and is urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the table for peace talks, China’s foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart in a telephone conversation Thursday.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba that China “has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks.”

Qin also said “China hopes that all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained,” according to the statement, as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has recently passed its one-year anniversary.
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French President Emmanuel Macron is moving forward with a controversial plan to reform the country’s pension system without a parliamentary vote, as protests continue across the country and opposition parties prepare to call a no-confidence vote Friday.

Macron on Thursday used a constitutional power to pass legislation raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.

The Senate passed the bill Thursday, but right-wing politicians in the National Assembly opposed the measure, which meant the bill did not have enough votes.

Two-thirds of French voters oppose the pension overhaul, according to polls.

Strikes protesting the reform have been staged around the country since January, affecting trains, schools, public services and ports. Thousands of protesters demonstrated outside Parliament on Thursday.

“I feel like I’m being cheated as a citizen,” said 55-year-old teacher Laure Cartelier.

Unions have called for another day of protest around the country for next Thursday.

A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris who oppose the pension reform has resulted in mounds of trash, which have attracted rats and disgusted tourists.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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China is hoping there will be a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and is urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the table for peace talks, China’s foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart in a telephone conversation Thursday.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba China “has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks.”

Qin also said “China hopes that all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained,” according to the statement, as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has recently passed its one-year anniversary.

The U.S. military released a video Thursday of a Russian military intercept that resulted in the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone Tuesday over the Black Sea.

The video shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 dumping fuel as it approaches the U.S. MQ-9 drone from behind and passes over the top.

A second Sukhoi Su-27 approaches in a similar manner, and as it reaches the drone, the video feed is disrupted at the moment the U.S. military says the Russian fighter aircraft collided with the drone.

A final shot shows the video feed restored and that one of the drone’s propeller blades has been bent.

The video’s release came a day after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart about the encounter.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Austin told reporters after announcing that he had “just got off the phone” with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

It was the first call between the two defense leaders since October, according to officials.

Meanwhile, Poland became the first NATO country to dispatch fighter jets to Ukraine, agreeing to send four Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv’s forces in the coming days. The U.S. and other Western allies far have balked at Kyiv demands for attack jets.

The downed U.S. MQ-9 drone was “conducting routine operations” in international airspace Tuesday, according to the U.S. military, when the pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft intercepted it. U.S. forces brought down the drone in international waters after the Russian jet struck the drone’s propeller.

“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it is very unprofessional and very unsafe,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday.

Milley said he was “not sure yet” whether the physical contact between the Russian aircraft and the drone was intentional.

Russia said it is considering whether to try to retrieve the drone, but U.S. officials said its operatives were able to remotely erase sensitive software on the drone to prevent Russia from collecting secret information before sending the aircraft into the Black Sea.

The U.S. does not have ships in the Black Sea, which is largely controlled by Russia.

“But we do have a lot of allies and friends in the area, and we’ll work through recovery operations. That’s U.S. property,” Milley said.

Another top U.S. military leader, Gen. Erik Kurilla, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that since March 1, the U.S. is seeing an increase “in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian Air Force.” He said armed Russian fighter jets fly over U.S. bases in Syria “in an attempt to try and be provocative.”

Kurilla said that Russia tries to “renegotiate the deconfliction protocols that they violate every day.”

Russia denied that its Su-27 jets came into contact with the U.S. drone and pinned blame for the crash on the operation of the drone. A U.S. military official told VOA the unmanned MQ-9 has not yet been recovered. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday the United States summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry Telegram channel reported Wednesday that Shoigu has blamed the incident on the United States’ “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone declared by the Russian Federation, which was established as part of a special military operation.”

Earlier Wednesday, Austin and Milley hosted the 10th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group more than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The virtual meeting included 51 participants. Milley said the group promised “a broad mix of air defense systems,” in addition to providing more artillery, armor and ammunition. For example, Sweden will provide 10 more Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and Norway will partner with the United States to provide two additional National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS.

“Ukraine matters. It matters not to just Ukraine or to the United States, it matters to the world. This is about the rules-based international order,” Austin told reporters Wednesday.

“Russia is running out of capability and out of friends,” he added. “Putin still hopes he can wear down Ukraine and wait us out, so we can’t let up, and we won’t.”
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The Biden administration said it is not seeking armed conflict with Russia as it releases footage of a Russian jet spraying fuel on a U.S. surveillance drone and — seconds later, the drone with a broken propeller — in international airspace over the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine.
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Unions representing more than a million health care workers in England, including nurses and paramedics — but not doctors — reached a deal Thursday to resolve months of disruptive strikes for higher wages.

The announcement came as early-career physicians spent a third day on picket lines and the day after U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt announced a budget that included no additional money for labor groups that have staged crippling strikes amid a punishing cost-of-living crisis and double-digit inflation.

Any strike actions will be halted while rank-and-file members vote on whether to accept an offer of a lump-sum payment for the current year and a 5% raise next year.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was a good deal for National Health Service staff who persevered through the pandemic along with patients and taxpayers. He encouraged other striking unions to come to the bargaining table.

“We don’t want disruption for patients. We don’t want disruption for schoolchildren in our classrooms,” Sunak said during a visit to a London hospital, where he met with nurses. “Today’s agreement demonstrates we are serious about this, and we can find workable solutions.”

But the head of the Royal College of Nursing, one of at least five unions supporting the deal, said the pay offer would not have come if nurses hadn’t made the difficult decision to go on strike, forcing the government to negotiate.

“It is not a panacea, but it is real, tangible progress. And the RCN’s member leaders are asking fellow nursing staff to support what our negotiations have secured,” Royal College of Nursing General Secretary Pat Cullen said.

Unite, the largest trade union in the U.K. but with a smaller presence in the health care field, blasted the government for months of “dither and delay” that caused unnecessary pain to staff and patients, and said it would not recommend the deal but let workers vote on it.

“It is clear that this government does not hold the interest of workers or the NHS at heart,” Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said. “Their behavior and disdain for NHS workers, and workers generally, is clear from their actions. Britain has a broken economy, and workers are paying the price.”

Unions argue that wages in the public sector have failed to keep pace with skyrocketing food and energy costs that have left many households struggling to pay their bills.

Inflation in the U.K. reached a 40-year high of 11.1% in October before dropping in January to 10.1%.

A wave of strikes by train drivers, airport baggage handlers, border staff, driving instructors and postal workers since last summer has created havoc for residents.

Firefighters, who canceled a planned strike, and London bus drivers recently reached deals to keep working. But many other professions remain locked in pay disputes. Tens of thousands of teachers, civil servants and workers on the capital’s subway system all walked off the job on Wednesday.

Some have criticized health care workers for jeopardizing lives, though ambulance crews said they responded to the most urgent calls, and emergency rooms were staffed.

The health care workers, including midwives and physical therapists, had been in talks since they held what organizers said was the largest strike in the history of the country’s National Health Service last month.

The labor actions echo the economic unrest that has rippled across France, including over the government’s plan to increase the retirement age.

The U.K.’s lackluster economy is likely to avoid a recession this year, though growth will still shrink. The International Monetary Fund last month said the country would be the only major economy to contract this year, performing even worse than sanctions-hit Russia.

It was not immediately clear where the funding for raises would come from because they weren’t in the budget Hunt announced Wednesday, and The Department of Health and Social Care had recently claimed that raises above 3.5% were unaffordable.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said they would look for cost savings and the funding would ultimately be up to the Treasury and would not come at the expense of patients.

If the Treasury doesn’t provide the additional money, the overburdened public health system could be forced for a second consecutive year to cut spending or positions, said Ben Zaranko of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank that analyzes U.K. government fiscal and economic policies.

“There must be a risk that the NHS is asked to make heroic efficiency savings to absorb these costs, struggles to do so, and instead has to be bailed out in six months or a year’s time,” Zaranko said. “That would hardly lend itself to sensible financial planning.”

A ratified deal with nurses and others will ease some of the pain on the state-funded public health system, which has been beset by winter viruses, staff shortages and backlogs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deal only applies to workers in England, because Scotland and Wales have semiautonomous governments in charge of health policy.
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A court in Namibia is hearing an appeal by the local branch of Russia’s state-owned atomic energy agency, Rosatom, which is seeking water permits needed for uranium mining.

The government of Namibia, the world’s second-biggest producer of the nuclear fuel, said last year that a mining company owned by Rosatom had failed to prove its uranium extraction method would not cause pollution.

The Uranium One mining company is asking the court to set aside the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform on the ground that it is contrary to an article of the Namibian constitution that requires administrative bodies to act fairly and reasonably.

The company said it was not given an opportunity to prove that its method of uranium extraction would not contaminate the underground water that farmers in the area rely on for their livelihoods.

Riaan Van Rooyen, Uranium One’s Namibian spokesperson, said the company “has launched review proceedings in the High Court of Namibia in terms of which it seeks to assail the decision taken by minister of agriculture, water and land reform in respect of an application for drilling permits submitted by Uranium One. As the case is currently sub judice [under judicial consideration], Uranium One will refrain from further commenting in respect to pending litigation.”

Calle Schlettwein, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, told VOA in an earlier interview that Uranium One must present scientific data that show no contamination of underground water will take place if the company is granted permits to continue with uranium exploration.

“It is not anything against the company or investment,” Schlettwein said. “It is the principle that we have to look at that guards against the possible contamination of a very important renewable resource.”

Local support

Schlettwein’s decision to not grant Rosatom’s Namibian subsidiary a water permit is supported by various local farmers, who are listed in an affidavit in the court case.

One of those farmers, Goddy Riruako, who is also a community activist, lamented what he termed extractive industries that come to Namibia with the promise of spearheading development.

He said the community cannot seek development at the expense of the long-term effects that pollution may have.

“Now, who says the method is clean and does not contaminate the underground water?” he asked. “No one knows what happens underground, and anything that you put into water that others drink or that we drink will have a detrimental effect on our health and the health of our children and generations to come.”

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform is listed among 39 other respondents in the affidavit.

Scientists say the global demand for energy is likely to increase by 40% in the next 17 years, and countries like Russia are looking to Africa to meet growing energy needs.
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United Nations investigators accused Russian authorities of a pattern of grave, wide-ranging human rights violations against Ukrainian civilians that, in many cases, could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In its first comprehensive report on the situation in Ukraine since Russia invaded that country on February 24, 2022, the three-member International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has concluded that “the Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes.”

The war crimes include attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, willful killings, torture and inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement, rape and unlawful transfers and deportations of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The conflict in Ukraine has had devastating effects at various levels,” said Erik Mose, chair of the commission. “Human losses and the general disregard for the life of civilians are shocking.

“The number of displaced persons or those seeking refuge abroad is the highest in Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 5.4 million people are internally displaced, and more than 8.1 million Ukrainians have fled as refugees to neighboring European countries.

Mose said the destruction of essential infrastructure — schools, health facilities, residential buildings and other facilities — has had an immense impact on people’s lives.

“The effects of the aggression upon people and on the country will not be overcome without great effort and commitment,” he said.

Over the past year, the commission has traveled to Ukraine eight times, visited 56 localities, and interviewed nearly 600 women and men.

“While the commission could establish a dialogue with Ukraine authorities and receive responses to its questions, it regrets that it was not able to establish such a dialogue with the Russian Federation,” Mose said.

Among its findings, the commission has gathered evidence of the use of explosive weapons by Russian armed forces in populated areas “with an apparent disregard for civilian harm and suffering.”

The report said the attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate “in violation of international humanitarian law.”

According to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, such attacks have caused 90.3% of civilian casualties in the conflict. Since the start of the war, the U.N. has recorded at least 8,000 deaths and nearly 13,300 injured, although it believes “the actual figures are considerably higher.”

The commission has collected evidence showing a widespread pattern of summary executions, which commissioner Pablo de Greiff said show that “Russian authorities have committed unlawful killings of civilians in areas which came under their control …which are violations of the right to life and in certain cases are war crimes.”

The commission has documented numerous cases of rape and sexual and gender-based violence affecting women, men and girls ages 4 to 82 committed by Russian authorities “as they undertook house-to-house visits in localities under their control and during unlawful confinement.”

Commission member Jasminka Dzumhur said the group has investigated the situation of forced transfer and deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The commission documented that Russian officials have taken legal and policy measures regarding Ukrainian children deported to Russian Federation.

“This includes citizenship and family placement measures, which have profound implications for a child’s identity,” she said. “Such measures are in violation of the right of the child to preserve his identity, including nationality, name and family relations, without unlawful interference as recognized by international human rights law … and may also amount to a war crime.”

The Ukrainian government reports that 16,221 children have been deported to Russia. The commission said it has not been able to verify these figures.

The commission found that the Ukrainian armed forces in a limited number of cases violated international humanitarian law. It said they have used cluster munitions, which are banned under international law, and that Ukrainian troops in two incidents had tortured and abused Russian prisoners of war, which could amount to war crimes.

The commission has drawn up a list of individuals identified as being responsible for war crimes. That list will not be made public and will be turned over to the U.N Human Rights Office for future prosecution.

The commission is calling for all violations and crimes to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable either at the national or the international level.

The report will be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.
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Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine such as willful killings, torture and the deportation of children, a U.N.-mandated investigative body said in a report published on Thursday.

The report, based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves, comes as the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said that Russian forces have carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on Ukraine, resorted to torture, killed civilians outside of combat and failed to take measures to safeguard the Ukrainian population.

“Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes…,” the report said.

The document gave details of torture methods used in Russian detention facilities where victims were subjected to electric shocks with a military phone – a treatment known as a “call to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin” – or hung from the ceiling in a “parrot position.”

Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine.
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At least one person was killed and two were injured in an explosion that caused a fire at a building belonging to the border patrol of Russia’s FSB security service in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday, local authorities said.

Footage captured by Reuters showed a plume of thick black smoke billowing into the air, near residential buildings and a shopping center in a built-up district of the city.

Local emergency services said an explosion had occurred, igniting a fire that spread to an area covering 880 square meters.

They said one person had been killed and two more injured in the incident.
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The U.S. military released a video Thursday of a Russian military intercept that resulted in the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone Tuesday over the Black Sea.

The video shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 dumping fuel as it approaches the U.S. MQ-9 drone from behind and passes over the top.

A second Sukhoi Su-27 approaches in a similar manner, and as it reaches the drone, the video feed is disrupted at the moment the U.S. military says the Russian fighter aircraft collided with the drone.

A final shot shows the video feed restored and that one of the drone’s propellor blades has been bent.

The video’s release came a day after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart about the encounter.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Austin told reporters after announcing that he had “just got off the phone” with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

It was the first call between the two defense leaders since October, according to officials.

The downed U.S. MQ-9 drone was “conducting routine operations” in international airspace Tuesday, according to the U.S. military, when the pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft intercepted it. U.S. forces brought down the drone in international waters after the Russian jet struck the drone’s propeller.

“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it is very unprofessional and very unsafe,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday.

Milley said he was “not sure yet” whether the physical contact between the Russian aircraft and the drone was intentional.

Russia said it is considering whether to try to retrieve the drone, but U.S. officials said its operatives were able to remotely erase sensitive software on the drone to prevent Russia from collecting secret information before sending the aircraft into the Black Sea.

The U.S. does not have ships in the Black Sea, which is largely controlled by Russia.

“But we do have a lot of allies and friends in the area, and we’ll work through recovery operations. That’s U.S. property,” Milley said.

Russia denied that its Su-27 jets came into contact with the U.S. drone and pinned blame for the crash on the operation of the drone. A U.S. military official told VOA the unmanned MQ-9 has not yet been recovered. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday the United States summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry Telegram channel reported Wednesday that Shoigu has blamed the incident on the United States’ “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone declared by the Russian Federation, which was established as part of a special military operation.”

Earlier Wednesday, Austin and Milley hosted the 10th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group more than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The virtual meeting included 51 participants. Milley said the group promised “a broad mix of air defense systems,” in addition to providing more artillery, armor and ammunition. For example, Sweden will provide 10 more Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and Norway will partner with the United States to provide two additional National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS.

“Ukraine matters. It matters not to just Ukraine or to the United States, it matters to the world. This is about the rules-based international order,” Austin told reporters Wednesday.

“Russia is running out of capability and out of friends,” he added. “Putin still hopes he can wear down Ukraine and wait us out, so we can’t let up, and we won’t.”
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Dutch farmers dealt a blow to Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s environmental plans Wednesday, ploughing up the political landscape to win elections that will shape the upper house of parliament.

Exit polls showed the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB), which was founded less than four years ago, riding a wave of recent protests to win the most seats in the Dutch senate.

The farmers’ party immediately vowed to challenge the Rutte government’s plans to cut nitrogen emissions by reducing livestock numbers and possibly closing some farms.

“What is happening here? We really knew we were going to win, but this is so indescribable,” stunned BBB leader Caroline van der Plas told public broadcaster NOS.

She described the nitrogen plans as a “kind of dogma dictated from The Hague”.

The BBB is on course to win 15 seats in the 75-seat senate, ahead of the 10 seats of Rutte’s center-right party, based on exit polls from provincial elections that also determine the make-up of the upper house.

The farmers could now work with other parties in the senate to block nitrogen legislation proposed by Rutte’s four-party coalition, which is on course to lose eight seats to put its total at 24.

‘Don’t feel heard’

The Netherlands has been rocked by months of rowdy demonstrations in which farmers blockaded government buildings with tractors, winning support from international figures including former US president Donald Trump.

Thousands of farmers rallied in The Hague on Saturday. They also used tractors to blockade the location of a televised party leaders’ debate on the eve of the election.

But their cause has struck a chord in the Netherlands, a country with a proud farming tradition that despite its small population of 18 million is the world’s second largest agricultural exporter after the United States.

The Dutch government says it needs to reduce nitrogen emissions by 50% by 2030, blaming fertilizers and manure from agriculture in particular for pollution.

It says it must comply with a Dutch court order saying it had breached EU rules on nitrogen emissions affecting soil and water.

But the farmers say they are being unfairly targeted by the still unfinalized proposals compared to sectors such as construction, industry and transport.

“We don’t really feel heard,” Erik Stegink, national president of the BBB and a pig farmer himself, told AFP ahead of the vote.

“Sometimes we don’t even feel welcome in our own country anymore.”

‘Curious’

Exit polls showed the farmers’ party in first place in all the provinces surveyed, including a stunning 31.3% in its heartland in the rural Overijssel region and 14.3% in North Holland, which includes Amsterdam.

Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest-serving leader who has been in power since 2010, said ahead of the vote he hoped his coalition could resolve the issue.

Tessel van der Veeken, a 21-year-old student voting in The Hague, said she was “not worried but curious” about a BBB win.

Voter Michael van Heck, 69, described the farmers as a “populist party”, adding that he expected a “big victory from the BBB and I hope at least stable” for Rutte’s VVD party.

The farmers have also won support from the global far-right, who allege, without evidence, a sinister “globalist” plot to rob farmers of their land.

But exit polls showed the Dutch far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) party, which won the last provincial elections in 2019, being virtually wiped out.

Its leader Thierry Baudet has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “hero” and embraced Covid conspiracy theories.
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Credit Suisse announced Thursday that it would borrow almost $54 billion from the Swiss central bank to reinforce the group after a plunge in its share prices.

The disclosure came just hours after the Swiss National Bank said capital and liquidity levels at the lender were adequate for a “systemically important bank,” even as it pledged to make liquidity available if needed.

In a statement, Credit Suisse said the central bank loan of up to $53.7 billion would “support… core businesses and clients,” adding it was also making buyback offers on about $3 billion worth of debt.

“These measures demonstrate decisive action to strengthen Credit Suisse as we continue our strategic transformation to deliver value to our clients and other stakeholders,” CEO Ulrich Koerner said in the statement.

“My team and I are resolved to move forward rapidly to deliver a simpler and more focused bank built around client needs.”

Credit Suisse, hit by a series of scandals in recent years, saw its stock price tumble off a cliff Wednesday after major shareholder Saudi National Bank declined to invest more in the group, citing regulatory constraints.

Its shares fell more than 30% to a record low before regaining ground to end the day 24.24% down, at 1.697 Swiss francs.

Credit Suisse’s market value had already taken a heavy blow this week over fears of contagion from the collapse of two U.S. banks, as well as its annual report citing “material weaknesses” in internal controls.

Mounting concerns

Analysts have warned of mounting concerns over the bank’s viability and the impact on the larger banking sector, as shares of other lenders sank Wednesday after a rebound the day before.

Credit Suisse is one of 30 banks globally deemed too big to fail, forcing it to set aside more cash to weather a crisis.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at trading firm Finalto, said Wednesday that if the bank did “run into serious existential trouble, we are in a whole other world of pain.”

In February 2021, Credit Suisse shares were worth 12.78 Swiss francs, but since then, the bank has endured a barrage of problems that have eaten away at its market value.

It was hit by the implosion of U.S. fund Archegos, which cost it more than $5 billion.

Its asset management branch was rocked by the bankruptcy of British financial firm Greensill, in which some $10 billion had been committed through four funds.

The bank booked a net loss of nearly $8 billion for the 2022 financial year.

That came against a backdrop of massive withdrawals of funds by its clients, including in the wealth management sector — one of the activities on which the bank intends to refocus as part of a major restructuring plan.
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Flash floods killed at least 14 people living in tents and container housing across Turkey’s quake-hit region on Wednesday, piling more pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of crunch elections.

Several more people were swept away by the rushing water, which turned streets into muddy rivers in areas hit by last month’s 7.8-magnitude quake, officials said.

More than 48,000 people died in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in Syria in the Feb. 6 disaster, the region’s deadliest in modern times.

Hundreds of thousands of Turkish quake survivors have been moved into tents and container homes across the disaster region, which covers 11 provinces across Turkey’s southeast.

Torrential rains hit the area Tuesday and the weather service expects them to last until late Wednesday.

Turkish officials said the floods killed 12 people in Sanliurfa, about 50 kilometers north of the Syrian border.

Two people, including a 1-year-old, also died in nearby Adiyaman, where five remain unaccounted for.

Images showed the waters sweeping away cars and flooding temporary housing set up for earthquake victims.

In one viral video, a man dressed in a beige suit and tie reaches out for help while floating down a surging stream alongside a piece of furniture. His fate remains unknown.

Other images showed people pulling victims out of the water with branches and rope.

The Sanliurfa governor’s office said the flooding also reached the ground floor of one of the region’s main hospitals.

Pressure on Erdogan

Facing a difficult reelection on May 14, Erdogan is confronting a furious public backlash over his government’s stuttering response to the biggest natural disaster of his two-decade rule.

Erdogan has issued several public apologies while also stressing that no nation could have dealt quickly with a disaster of such scale.

Erdogan has spent the past few weeks touring the region, meeting survivors and promising to rebuild the entire area within a year.

“By the end of next year, we will build 319,000 houses,” Erdogan told his ruling party members Wednesday in a parliamentary address.

“Beyond the search and rescue, emergency aid and temporary shelter we have provided so far, we have a promise to our nation to restore the cities destroyed in the earthquake within a year,” he said.

Erdogan dispatched his interior minister to the flooded region to oversee the government’s response.

“Currently, we have 10 teams composed of 163 people doing search and rescue work across a 25-kilometer stretch,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

“We also have divers. But the weather conditions are not allowing us to do much,” he said.
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The British Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Ukraine can go to trial to avoid repaying $3 billion in loans it said it took under pressure from Russia in 2013 to prevent it from trying to join the European Union.

The court rejected a bid by a British company acting on Russia’s behalf to order Ukraine to repay the loans without facing a trial. Ukraine said it borrowed the money while facing the threat of military force and massive illegal economic and political pressure nearly a decade before Russia invaded its neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that the ruling was “another decisive victory against the aggressor.”

“The Court has ruled that Ukraine’s defense based on Russia’s threats of aggression will have a full public trial,” he tweeted. “Justice will be ours.”

The case was argued in November 2021, and the court was not asked to consider Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three months later.

Ukrainian authorities allege that the corrupt government of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych borrowed the money from Moscow under pressure before he was ousted in protests in February 2014, shortly before Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

After the 2014 Ukraine revolution, the country’s new government refused to repay the debt in December 2015, saying Moscow wouldn’t agree to terms already accepted by other international creditors.

The case came to British courts because London-based Law Debenture Trust Corp. had been appointed to represent the interests of bondholders. The company initially won a judgment ordering repayment of the loans, but Ukraine appealed.

An appeals court overturned the lower court ruling, agreeing that Ukraine could challenge repayment of the loans on the grounds of duress but rejecting several other legal claims.

Both sides appealed to the Supreme Court, which reached a similar conclusion in favor of Ukraine for different reasons.

The Supreme Court rejected several of Ukraine’s legal arguments, including that its finance minister didn’t have authority to enter into the loan agreement and that Ukraine could decline payment as a countermeasure to Russia’s aggressions.

The ruling, however, said a court could consider whether the deal was void because of threats or pressure that are illegitimate under English law.

While the court noted that trade sanctions, embargoes and other economic pressures are “normal aspects of statecraft,” economic pressures could provide context to prove that Russia’s threats to destroy Ukraine caused it to issue the bonds.

“The success of Ukraine’s defense turns on whether Russia’s threatened use of force imposed what English law regards as illegitimate pressure on Ukraine to enter into the trust deed and related contracts,” the court wrote. “That question can only be determined after trial.”

Ukraine said that a month before it entered into the deal, Yanukovych told his Lithuanian counterpart that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to have Moscow’s banks bankrupt eastern Ukrainian factories if it signed an association agreement with the EU.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the United Kingdom court recognized the coercion.

“Now, the Kremlin will have to disclose all information about the actions against Ukraine in open court,” Shmyhal said. “Justice will definitely prevail. Russia will definitely answer for all its illegal actions and crimes.”
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Russia said Wednesday it had started naval exercises with China and Iran in the Arabian Sea as it seeks to shore up ties with Beijing and Tehran.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the trilateral exercises, dubbed the Marine Security Belt 2023, had begun in the vicinity of the Iranian port of Chabahar.

The naval part of the drills will take place on Thursday and Friday.

Russia will be represented by the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and a medium-sized tanker, the ministry said.

During the naval drills, the ships will perform “joint maneuvers and will carry out artillery firing in daytime and at night,” the statement said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to ramp up political, economic and military ties with China and Iran after he sent troops to Ukraine a year ago, triggering multiple rounds of unprecedented Western sanctions.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the challenge posed by China prompted Britain to publish an updated defense strategy this week, as the country tries to balance strategic threats with financial constraints at home. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. tumbled Wednesday as investors worried about the stability of global banking systems in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of two American banks.

Major stock indexes in London, Paris and Frankfurt all plunged by more than 3% while three key U.S. indexes — the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 key stocks, the broader S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index — also dropped, although by 1% or less in late-day trading. Asian markets increased, mirroring Tuesday gains in the U.S.

The newest worries centered on Credit Suisse, with shares for the beleaguered Swiss lender falling more than 17% after its biggest shareholder, the Saudi National Bank, said it would not invest more money in it.

Problems at Credit Suisse, with outlets in major global financial centers, predated the U.S. government takeover of operations at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the last week.

Credit Suisse said Tuesday that managers had identified “material weaknesses” in the bank’s internal controls on financial reporting as of the end of last year.

But on Wednesday, Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann, speaking at a financial conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, defended the bank’s operations, saying, “We already took the medicine” to reduce risks. “We are regulated. We have strong capital ratios, very strong balance sheet. We are all hands on deck.”

But with the drop in the share price for Credit Suisse, bank stocks in Britain, France and Germany also fell sharply, although not by as much as for Credit Suisse.

S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday that the failures at the two U.S. banks would have little effect on the fortunes of European banks. But the S&P analysts added, “That said, we are mindful that SVB’s failure has shaken confidence.”

Share prices of other U.S. regional banks like Silicon Valley have fallen sharply in recent days.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Rights advocates in Belarus sounded the alarm about a new heavy crackdown on dissent by the authoritarian government that saw more than 100 people — including several psychologists and psychiatrists — detained in a week.

Viasna, Belarus’ oldest and most prominent rights group, said Tuesday that mass arrests took place in the capital Minsk, as well as in the east and the west of the country. 

The authorities targeted opposition activists, journalists, medical workers, members of shooting sports clubs and people working with drones.

Viasna’s Pavel Sapelka told The Associated Press that Belarus’ security forces are waging “sweeping raids and searches” on those suspected of involvement in a recent attack on a Russian warplane stationed near the Belarusian capital.

“Guerillas” from the country’s opposition BYPOL movement claimed responsibility for the attack on a Beriev A-50 parked at the Machulishchy Air Base near Minsk. 

Russia used the territory of its ally Belarus to invade Ukraine a year ago, and Belarus has continued to host Russian troops, warplanes and other weapons. The opposition activists had said they aimed to undermine that support for the war.

The Belarusian authorities have said they requested that longtime ally Moscow monitor their border, and initially kept quiet about the incident. Days later, Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, acknowledged the attack, saying that the damage to the plane was insignificant, but admitting it had to be sent to Russia for repairs.

According to Belarus’ interior ministry, on March 9 alone, 60 people were detained as part of “intensifying work on those involved in extremist groups and terrorist organizations.” The country’s KGB state security agency also reported detaining a Ukrainian national whom the authorities accuse of attacking the plane, and 20 Belarusian alleged accomplices.

The authorities also reported detaining 30 people in the city of Gomel on the border with Ukraine, “with the purpose of identifying connections with foreign members of extremist groups.” According to Viasna, those detained in Gomel remain in custody in harsh conditions.

The group also reported “inexplicable” mass detentions of Belarusian psychologists and psychiatrists. More than 20 doctors have been detained across the country, and the authorities “demand that they violate doctor-patient confidentiality and report ‘unsavory’ patients they’re treating.”

A total of four journalists have also been detained in Belarus over the past week. 

Among them are Viachaslau Lazarau, who was arrested in Vitebsk and is facing charges of “contributing to extremist activities,” and cameraman Pavel Padabed, who was detained in Minsk on Tuesday for a social media post from 2012. Another journalist, Anatol Hatouchyts in Gomel, was subjected to a home search.

Sapelka from Viasna said, “We know of a hundred detained all across Belarus, but the real scale (of the crackdown) can be much larger.”

“Every act of resisting Lukashenko’s regime triggers a new wave of harsh repression in Belarus,” Sapelka said, adding that the clampdown is aimed at “sowing more fear in an already intimidated society.”

A sweeping crackdown on dissent in Belarus was unleashed by the authorities in 2020 and has continued in waves ever since. It came in response to mass protests that followed an Aug. 2020 election that gave Lukashenko a new term in office. Opposition politicians and Western countries denounced the results as a sham.

Lukashenko, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has ruled the ex-Soviet country with an iron fist since 1994. More than 35,000 people were arrested, and thousands were beaten by police amid the protests, the largest ever held in the country.

“Detentions, raids, torture behind bars continue in Belarus, political prisoners face pressure, and independent media content is being labeled extremist,” Sapelka said. “Repression against those who actively express their views on the war in Ukraine, unleashed by Russia, are intensifying every day.”
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Lithuania, a country that feels directly threatened by Russia, had warned for decades of Russian aggression against its neighbors. Now Lithuanians worry that what is happening in Ukraine could also happen in Lithuania. Ricardo Marquina reports from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, that ordinary people are keep up grass-roots efforts to support their homeland. Jonathan Spier narrates
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Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating says the nation’s agreement to buy and develop a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines in cooperation with Britain and the United States is “the worst deal in all history.” 

Keating attacked the three-nation agreement between Australia, Britain and the United States Wednesday during a speech at the National Press Club in Sydney.   

The multi-decade deal, which could cost Australia as much as $245 billion, was announced Monday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, British counterpart Rishi Sunak and U.S. President Joe Biden in San Diego under a new trilateral defense partnership known by the acronym AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States). 

The agreement will see American and British nuclear-powered submarines rotating into Australian waters as soon as 2027. By the early 2030s, Australia will buy at least three — and as many as five — U.S.-built nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines designed to hunt and attack other subs. And the three nations will work together to develop a new nuclear attack submarine — a project that could take two decades. 

Keating dismissed the idea that China poses a military threat to Australia, and said it was “rubbish” that a small fleet of nuclear-powered submarines could defend the country from a Chinese naval fleet. He said Australia could simply sink the fleet “with planes and missiles.” 

The former prime minister, who served in the post from 1991 to 1996, said the nuclear submarine deal is the worst international decision made by a Labor Party government since World War I, when it failed to impose compulsory military service.   

In addition to the new submarine fleet, the AUKUS partnership  will allow the three countries to share information and expertise more easily in key technological areas such artificial intelligence, cybertechnology, quantum technologies, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
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