Sweden is still waiting for Turkey to approve its application to join NATO. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Sweden hopes the upcoming Turkish elections scheduled for May 14 could be a turning point.

Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is “in good health and good spirits, considering the circumstances” after his arrest in Russia late last month.

Speaking to reporters in Japan, Blinken said the United States continues to “call for his immediate release from this unjust detention.”

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said Monday she visited Gershkovich, whom Russia has accused of spying.

“This is the first time we’ve had consular access to Evan since his wrongful detention over two weeks ago,” Tracy said in a short statement in Russian on Telegram. “He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release.”

Gershkovich was arrested in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, 1,800 kilometers east of Moscow, while on a reporting assignment. Russia claims, without producing evidence, that he was caught “red-handed” while spying, collecting what it claimed were state secrets about a military industrial complex.

His newspaper and the U.S. government have rejected the charge of espionage, which, if he were to be convicted, carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Two weeks ago, his parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, who fled the Soviet Union in 1979 and live in the eastern U.S. city of Philadelphia, received a two-page, hand-written note from him in Russian, the language the family speaks at home.

“I want to say that I am not losing hope,” Gershkovich said. “I read. I exercise. And I am trying to write.”

He also teased his mother about her cooking. “Mom, you unfortunately, for better or worse, prepared me well for jail food,” he said. “For breakfast they give us hot creamed wheat, oatmeal cereal or wheat gruel. I am remembering my childhood.”

The parents said in a video interview with the Journal that they remain optimistic for their son’s release.

“It’s one of the American qualities that we absorbed, you know, be optimistic, believe in a happy ending,” Milman said. “But I am not stupid. I understand what’s involved.”

Milman said her son “felt like it was his duty to report” in Russia, even after most Western journalists left the country when President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last year. “He loves Russian people,” she said of her son.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called the journalist’s detention “totally illegal” and told the family he was working for Gershkovich’s release. The United States has officially declared that Gershkovich has been “wrongfully detained” and that he is being held as a hostage.

The U.S. has repeatedly told its citizens to leave Russia due to risk of arbitrary arrest.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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The European Union ambassador to Sudan was attacked in his home in Khartoum on Monday, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said, as fighting between rival generals gripped the nation.

“A few hours ago, the EU Ambassador in Sudan was assaulted in his own residency,” Borrell wrote on Twitter, without detailing any injuries to the envoy.

“Security of diplomatic premises and staff is a primary responsibility of Sudanese authorities and an obligation under international law,” he added.

The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan is 58-year-old Irish diplomat Aidan O’Hara. E.U. spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told AFP that he was “OK” following the assault.

“The security of the staff is our priority,” she said. “The EU delegation has not been evacuated. Security measures are being assessed.”

Ireland’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Micheal Martin, said O’Hara was “not seriously hurt” but that the assault was “a gross violation of obligations to protect diplomats under the Vienna Convention.”

“Aidan is an outstanding Irish and European diplomat who is serving the EU under the most difficult circumstances,” Martin said. “We thank him for his service and call for an urgent cessation of violence in Sudan, and resumption of dialogue.”

Fighting between the Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary faction has killed about 200 people and wounded 1,800 after three days of urban warfare.

The United Nations has called for an immediate ceasefire, and international bodies, including the European Union, have expressed grave concern.
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With Turkey nearing hotly contested presidential elections in May, international rights groups are condemning a crackdown on independent media that have challenged the incumbent president’s control of the mainstream media. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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In the past week, at least three people have died in the shelling that slams both in and out of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, sometimes every few minutes. City workers say their main job now is to get people, and anything else of value, out. 

“Many people have already left,” says Yevgeni Dmytriev, 32, the city administrator, when we meet him by his van near the center of town. The local government building is now a distribution point for emergency aid like food and wood to burn for heat. Businesses are closed. Their windows are either boarded up or smashed in. 

“Some humanitarian aid is still here,” explains Dmytriev. “We want to move this humanitarian aid from here to a safer place.”

Chasiv Yar is about 10 kilometers from the city of Bakhmut, where the longest and deadliest battle in Ukraine is currently taking place. Chasiv Yar is close enough to be hit by artillery aimed at Bakhmut, but it is also a target itself. Every tree-lined block in the city appears to have been bombed and most of the people we see are armed and armored soldiers. The roads are largely deserted, but tanks and vehicles carrying soldiers into battle whip by from time to time.

Across the street, a team of three journalists wearing helmets and blue body armor wander through the city’s central park. At this moment, the nearby blasts are the Ukrainian Army’s artillery firing on Russian forces, but that can change in an instant.

Outside a community shelter about five minutes’ drive away, Alexandr Cverkovich, a 38-year-old aid worker and head of the Peace and Kindness Fund, oversees the delivery of boxes of food and water. He also wears body armor, and he and his colleagues are dressed in camouflage. 

Early last month, Cverkovich delivered supplies to Bakhmut. Now Chasiv Yar is as close as aid organizations and most journalists can get to the heart of the battle zone. And the conditions in Chasiv Yar are now, in many ways, eerily like those in Bakhmut two months ago, he says.

“[Chasiv Yar] is heavily damaged now,” he continues. “Last time we were here it was in one piece.”  

WATCH: Inside Russia’s War in Ukraine

Invincibility

The community shelters here are called “invincibility points,” providing electricity to charge phones and internet access. About 20% of the population remains in Chasiv Yar, but most city services are not operating. 

The thousand-plus people still in town are mostly old, sick, poor, or all three. Phone numbers for evacuation teams are printed on small paper handouts in the shelter and hung on the wall, but they are not often called. 

This situation was also similar in Bakhmut a few months ago, say aid workers. Back then all the people in Bakhmut who wished to flee were long-gone. But now things are different. The only way out is by rescue by an armed military unit, and soldiers are busy fighting to hold onto the city and their lives. 

“We got lucky,” says Svetlana, a 74-year-old former librarian who escaped Bakhmut last week after spending three days trying to wave down soldiers as they passed by, usually fleeing bombings.

But Alexandr, a 67-year-old Chasiv Yar resident and shelter volunteer, says he and many others have no plans to leave, despite warnings. In cities, towns and villages across Ukraine’s conflict area, people live under fire in order to care for elderly or sick relatives or neighbors, pets or farm animals. 

“[My home] was damaged,” he says, matter-of-factly. “The windows were blown out. So we covered them with plastic tarps.”

It is also commonly believed that many civilians who still live in Ukraine’s eastern war zone stay because they support the idea of Russian rule. Besides cross-border familial and cultural bonds, Russian is the most used language here and it’s not hard to find people who are nostalgic for the time of the Soviet Union. 

But we meet no one living side by side with Ukraine’s defending forces who overtly declares loyalty to Russia’s invading army.

While having a cigarette outside the shelter, Vladimir, 80, tells us he is not interested in talking of the Soviet days. But he points out what he perceives as the futility of this war. He says that, in his opinion, neither the United States nor Britain would be able to beat Russia in battle, so he doesn’t believe Ukraine can win now.

“Let’s all be friendly,” he says, emphatically repeating the final word in English with his finger pointed. “Friendly.”

In Pictures: Chasiv Yar, Ukraine Battleground Town

Front line moving in 

While we talk, residents and volunteers continue to move boxes of food into the shelter, and no one even blinks when the nearby artillery is fired. But one blast accompanied by the whistle of incoming weaponry makes a few people start and one woman declare, “It’s normal” as Yan Boechat, our videographer, drops his camera to look for the location of the hit. 

It isn’t near enough to endanger us, so he continues his work.

Inside the shelter, the lights go off. It is 3 p.m. and the generator needs to rest until morning. There is no electricity, gas or running water in town. The only internet connections are brought in by the army.

With the shelter dark for the day, locals begin to make their way home with packets of donated food. Some have bicycles but most are on foot. 

“I’ve stayed here at home for the whole war,” says Olga, 72, as she prepares to leave the shelter. “But now I am considering evacuation. Maybe.” 

Oleksandr Babenko contributed to this report.
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday the Justice Department intends to appoint a prosecutor and a legal adviser to assist Ukraine with its efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected war crimes by Russian forces.

The prosecutor will be based in The Hague at Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Garland said, following a meeting with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.

Garland said a resident legal adviser would also be dispatched to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv this summer.

He said Ukrainian prosecutors had been working with the Justice Department to investigate war crimes for which the U.S. has jurisdiction, such as those who kill or injure Americans. Congress also recently expanded the department’s authority to prosecute any war criminals found within the U.S.

“We have been making good progress with respect to some suspects,” Garland told reporters on Monday, adding that the investigation “is going very well.”

Russia denies involvement in war crimes and denies deliberately attacking civilians.

Kostin told reporters he welcomed assistance from the Justice Department, and said Ukraine was also talking with U.S. intelligence agencies “about the possibility of the sharing of intelligence information to investigate and prosecute specific war crimes committed by Russians.”

Last June, Garland tapped veteran prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum to lead a new War Crimes Accountability Team, which is tasked with coordinating and providing assistance to international counterparts to help collect and analyze evidence to hold suspected Russian war criminals accountable.

In March 2022, the department also launched a new task force known as KleptoCapture, which is dedicated to enforcing sanctions, export restrictions and economic countermeasures designed to freeze Russia out of global market.
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A French court on Monday acquitted Airbus and Air France of manslaughter charges over the 2009 crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris, which killed 228 people and led to lasting changes in aircraft safety measures.

Sobs broke out in the courtroom as the presiding judge read out the decision, a devastating defeat for victims’ families who fought for 13 years to see the case reach court.

The three-judge panel ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence of a direct link between decisions by the companies and the crash. The official investigation found that multiple factors contributed to the disaster, including pilot error and the icing over of external sensors called pitot tubes.

“We are sickened. The court is telling us, ‘go on, there’s not a problem here, there’s nothing to see,'” said Daniele Lamy, who lost her son Eric in the crash and heads an association for families of victims.

“For the powerful, impunity reigns. Centuries pass, and nothing changes,” she said. “The families of victims are mortified and in total disarray.”

While the court didn’t find the companies guilty of criminal wrongdoing, the judges said that Airbus and Air France held civil responsibility for the damages caused by the crash, and ordered them to compensate families of victims. It didn’t provide an overall amount, but scheduled hearings in September to work that out.

Air France has already compensated families of those killed, who came from 33 countries. Families from around the world are among the plaintiffs, including many in Brazil.

The two-month trial left families wracked with anger and disappointment. Unusually, even state prosecutors argued for acquittal, saying that the proceedings didn’t produce enough proof of criminal wrongdoing by the companies.

Prosecutors laid the blame primarily on the pilots, who died in the crash. Airbus lawyers also blamed pilot error, and Air France said the full reasons for the crash will never be known.

Air France said in a statement that the company took note of the ruling, and “will always remember the victims of this terrible accident, and express deep compassion to all of their loved ones.”

Airbus and Air France had faced potential fines of up to 225,000 euros ($219,000) each if convicted of manslaughter. That would have been just a fraction of their annual revenues, but a criminal conviction for the aviation heavyweights could have reverberated through the industry.

The A330-200 plane disappeared from radar in a storm over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, with 216 passengers and 12 crew members aboard. It took two years to find the plane and its black box recorders on the ocean floor, at depths of around 4,000 meters.

An Associated Press investigation at the time found that Airbus had known since at least 2002 about problems with the type of pitot tubes used on the jet that crashed, but failed to replace them until after the crash.

Air France was accused of not having implemented training in the event of icing of the pitot probes despite the risks. Airbus was accused of not doing enough to urgently inform airlines and their crews about faults with the pitots or to ensure training to mitigate the risk.

The crash had lasting impacts on the industry, leading to changes in regulations for airspeed sensors and in how pilots are trained.

The trial was fraught with emotion. Distraught families shouted down the CEOs of Airbus and Air France as the proceedings opened in October, crying out “Shame!” as the executives took the stand. Dozens of people who lost loved ones stormed out of the court as the trial wrapped up with the prosecutors’ surprising call for acquittal.
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Slovakia has delivered the remaining nine of the 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets that it promised to Ukraine, the Slovak Defense Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said the warplanes were transported overland for security reasons in a “complicated logistics operation.” The first four were flown from Slovakia to Ukraine by Ukrainian pilots on March 23.

“We are doing the right thing,” Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said in a statement.

On March 17, the Slovak government approved a plan to give Ukraine its entire fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 planes, becoming the second NATO member to answer Ukraine’s plea for warplanes to help defend against Russia’s invasion.

Slovakia grounded its MiGs in the summer due to a lack of spare parts and maintenance expertise. Neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic, both NATO members, stepped in to monitor Slovak air space.

Replacements for the MiG-29s are unlikely to arrive for another year. Slovakia previously signed a deal to buy 14 U.S. F-16 Block 70/72 fighter jets, but delivery was pushed back two years with the first aircraft to arrive in early 2024.

The United States has offered Slovakia 12 new military helicopters as compensation for the fighter jets given to Ukraine. Under the offer, Slovakia would pay $340 million for the Bell AH-1Z attack choppers in a deal worth about $1 billion. U.S. foreign military financing would cover the other $660 million.
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Japanese video games group Sega has offered to buy Angry Birds maker Rovio, valuing the Finnish company at over $770 million, the companies said Monday.   

“Combining the strengths of Rovio and Sega presents an incredibly exciting future,” Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio, said in a statement, which added that Rovio was recommending shareholders to accept the offer.   

The offer, which represents a 19% premium over Rovio’s closing share price on Friday, is part of the Sonic the Hedgehog maker’s “long-term goal” of expanding into the mobile gaming market, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi said.   

“Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential,” he added.   

In 2022, Rovio, which employs over 500 people, saw a revenue of $350 million, and an adjusted net profit of $34.5 million.   

Rovio launched the bird slingshot game in 2009 and it soared rapidly to become one of the most popular games on Apple’s App Store.   

In 2016, the “Angry Birds” movie, produced by Sony Entertainment, was a huge success and grossed $350 million worldwide.   

Rovio also manages Angry Birds theme parks in several countries and oversees the publication of children’s books about the famous birds in a dozen languages.   

Following the global success of Angry Birds, Rovio has remained heavily reliant on its flagship game, struggling to develop another similar hit.   

After years of success tied to its Angry Birds mobile games, Rovio hit a rough patch in 2015 and laid off a third of its staff.   

Sega is aiming to open the offer period in early May, hoping to complete the deal in the third quarter, the company said. 
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Former Chancellor Angela Merkel is to be decorated with Germany’s highest possible honor on Monday in recognition of her near-record 16 years at the helm of the country. 

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier plans to bestow the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement on the four-term chancellor, who will become only the third ex-leader to receive that level of distinction. The other two were Konrad Adenauer, West Germany’s first leader, and Helmut Kohl, who led Germany to reunification. 

Merkel, 68, was the first woman to lead Germany and the first chancellor who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in communist East Germany. 

She stepped down in December 2021 with a well-regarded record of leading Europe’s biggest economy through a series of crises, including the global financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. She didn’t seek a fifth term and ended her tenure as post-World War II Germany’s second-longest serving leader, 10 days short of one-time mentor Kohl’s record. 

Merkel’s legacy has attracted increasingly critical scrutiny since her departure, largely because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She has staunchly defended her diplomatic efforts, saying that a much-criticized 2015 peace deal for eastern Ukraine bought Kyiv precious time. 

She also has been unapologetic about her government’s decisions to buy large quantities of natural gas from Russia, Germany’s primary gas supplier when she left office, saying last year that “from the perspective of that time” those decisions made sense. 

Merkel has kept a relatively low profile since stepping down and has stayed out of the current political fray. Her successor, Olaf Scholz, is expected to attend Monday’s ceremony. 
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Russia and Belarus won’t be allowed to compete in International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments if the war in Ukraine continues, the group’s president said Sunday.

With both nations already barred from competing in IIHF events through 2024, its president, Luc Tardif, said a decision on the two countries’ eligibility in 2025 will be made in March.

“I hope Russia and Belarus will come back as soon as possible, because it will mean the war is over,” Tardif said during a news conference held on the final day of the women’s world hockey championships being held in the Toronto suburbs.

“It’s a question of security for fans, our teams. Anyway, no visa, cannot travel,” Tardif added. “And nobody knows how long it’s going to take.”

Russian men’s and women’s hockey players last competed under the Russian Olympic Committee banner at the 2022 Beijing Games, which concluded shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. That led to the IIHF barring Russia and ally Belarus from competition, and having Finland and Latvia host the men’s world championships being held next month, after the event was initially awarded to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Should the IIHF extend its ban in March, the decision would affect Belarus’ eligibility to compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics because that country’s teams would be unable to play in Olympic qualifying tournaments in 2025. Russia’s men’s and women’s teams have maintained their rankings while not being allowed to compete.

The International Olympic Committee is leaning toward having Russian and Belarus athletes compete in next year’s Paris Summer Games. Tardif said the IIHF isn’t following the IOC’s advice because hockey is a team sport. Another issue is security concerns after the IIHF last month cited a risk assessment study it conducted in determining it is not safe to allow Russia and Belarus to compete.

The Russian Hockey Federation dismissed the IIHF’s security concerns as a “contrived reason” to keep its teams out of competition.

“I understand that sometimes there is a politic approach,” Tardif said Sunday. “As a human being, I’ve got my own understanding of the situation. But with my IIHF cap, I have to take the decision following our executive and to protect our competition.”

In other news, USA Hockey announced it has selected Utica, New York, as host for next year’s women’s world championships, tentatively scheduled to run from April 4-14. That would mark the fifth time the United States has hosted the tournament and first since 2017, when it was held in Plymouth, Michigan.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that he will press for a trade agreement between the European Union and Indonesia as part of his country’s efforts to reduce its reliance on China for crucial raw materials.

Speaking at the opening of the annual Hannover Messe trade fair, Scholz told Indonesian President Joko Widodo that a trade deal between Southeast Asia’s most populous nation and the 27-nation bloc would create an economic area with 700 million people.

“I am working to finally get this agreement across the finish line,” Scholz said of the negotiations between Jakarta and Brussels, which have been ongoing since 2016.

The German leader said he was similarly hopeful about talks between the EU and the Mercosur bloc in South America, Mexico, Australia, Kenya and India.

“Here, too, a whole new dynamic has emerged in recent months,” he said, adding that such agreements were necessary to help countries reduce their dependence on particular markets.

Germany is particularly concerned about becoming too reliant on China, including for crucial commodities needed for digitalization and the shift toward a zero-carbon economy.

“At the moment, we import many of them from China,” Scholz said.

“And that’s despite the fact that rare earth, copper or nickel are often not extracted there but in countries such as Indonesia, Chile or Namibia,” he said. “We want to change that.”

Scholz said building processing facilities for such raw materials in the countries where they are found would benefit the local economy and should be part of any new trade deal.

Indonesia is the partner country of this year’s Hanover fair.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected in Baghdad on Monday on his first visit to Iraq since Russia invaded his country, the foreign ministry said.

Kuleba is due to hold talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as well as Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

They will discuss “bolstering bilateral ties, as well as regional and international” issues, said the statement quoting foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahhaf.

Kuleba’s visit comes less than a week after Sudani received a phone call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

At the time, Zelenskyy said he was “keen to develop relations with Iraq in all fields” describing it as “a pivotal and influential country,” according to a statement from Sudani’s office.

Iraq maintains good economic ties with both Kyiv and Moscow and has adopted a neutral stance since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

In February this year, the Iraqi foreign minister reiterated Baghdad’s support for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, during a visit to Baghdad by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

Iraq has hosted a raft of foreign officials in recent months and witnessed intense diplomatic activity, including several rounds of reconciliation talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In March, the regional heavyweights made a surprise announcement saying they had agreed to restore diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by China.

Riyadh cut ties with Tehran after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic republic in 2016 following the Saudi execution of revered Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
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In the weeks since Chinese leader Xi Jinping won a third five-year term as president, setting him on course to remain in power for life, leaders and diplomats from around the world have beaten a path to his door. None more so than those from Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a high-profile state visit to Beijing last week accompanied by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, just days after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in the northeastern port city of Tianjin on Thursday, following a visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in November. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, would have been in China this week, too, but he tested positive for COVID-19.

For the 27-nation trading bloc, the reasons to head to China are clear.

As an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi could play a pivotal role in helping to end the war in Ukraine. The conflict has dragged on for more than a year, driven up energy prices and inflicted more damage on economies struggling to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Europeans want Xi’s help. They want him to talk to Ukraine’s president as well as Russia’s, but they don’t see him as the key mediator. China’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine is mostly a list of its previously known positions and is unacceptable, EU officials say.

The EU also fears that Xi might supply weapons to Russia. They’ve been particularly disturbed by Putin’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. That announcement came just days after Xi and Putin met to cement their “no-limits friendship.”

Baerbock said the war is “top of my agenda.” Praising Beijing for easing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, she said, “Its influence vis à vis Russia will have consequences for the whole of Europe and for our relationship with China.”

At the same time, the EU is deeply concerned about a military escalation in the Taiwan Strait. China launched war games just after Macron left. But unlike the United States, with its military and strategic interest in Taiwan, the Europeans mostly see the island in economic and pro-democracy terms.

So the visits are meant to reassure Xi of respect for Beijing’s control over all of Chinese territory and to urge calm. They also highlight the challenge the U.S. faces as it tries to build a coalition of countries to ramp up pressure on Beijing over its expansionist policies.

“The key is that we have every interest, both in Europe and in China, to maintain the status quo,” a senior EU official said Wednesday, briefing reporters on plans for Borrell’s sensitive trip on condition that he not be named. “It has worked well for all sides for decades.”

Beyond the geopolitics lies business. The EU and China did more than 2.3 billion euros’ ($2.5 billion) worth of trade every day last year, and the Europeans don’t want to endanger that. However, the EU’s trade deficit has more than tripled over the past decade, and it wants to level the business playing field.

It’s also desperate to limit its imports of critical resources from China, like rare earth minerals or hi-tech components, after painfully weaning itself off its biggest, and most unreliable, gas supplier, Russia.

It’s a fine line to walk, and China is adept at divide-and-conquer politics.

Over the past two decades, the Chinese government has often used its economic heft to pry France, Germany and other allies away from the U.S. on issues ranging from military security and trade to human rights and Taiwan.

Beijing has called repeatedly for a “multi-polar world,” a reference to Chinese frustration with U.S. dominance of global affairs and the ruling Communist Party’s ambition to see the country become an international leader.

“There has been a serious deviation in U.S. understanding and positioning about China, treating China as the primary opponent and the biggest geopolitical challenge,” the Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, told reporters last month.

“China-Europe relations are not targeted, dependent, or subject to third parties,” he said.

Macron’s visit appeared to illustrate that Qin’s view isn’t just wishful thinking. As tensions rise between Beijing and Washington, the French leader said, it is important for Europe to retain its “strategic autonomy.”

“Being a friend doesn’t mean that you have to be a vassal,” Macron said Wednesday, repeating a remark from his trip that alarmed some European partners. “Just because we’re allies, it doesn’t mean (that) we no longer have the right to think for ourselves.”

Such comments could strain ties with the U.S. and have also exposed divisions within the EU.

Without mentioning Macron, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that some in Europe were too slow to heed the “wake-up call” on China.

“You could see this over the past couple of weeks as some European leaders went to Beijing,” Morawiecki said, adding, “I do not quite understand the idea of strategic autonomy, if it means de-facto shooting into our own knee.”

For its part, the White House has sought to downplay Macron’s talk of Europe as “an independent pole in a multi-polar world.”

It thinks European skepticism toward Beijing is growing. U.S. officials note a recent Dutch decision to restrict China’s access to advanced computer chip components or Scholz publicly prodding Xi not to deliver weapons to Russia.

Despite the differences of national emphasis, the EU’s strategy on China remains much as it was enshrined in 2019 — that the Asian giant is “a partner, a competitor and systemic rival.” The aim of the recent visits fit that mold: to secure Xi’s commitment to peace, keep trade flowing fairly and reduce Europe’s reliance on China for critical resources.
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Thousands of people rallied again in the Czech capital on Sunday to protest high inflation and demand the government’s resignation.

It was the second such rally at Prague’s Wenceslas Square after one on March 11 that was organized by a new political party known as PRO under an “against the poverty” banner.

The demonstrators, speakers at the protest and the head of the populist group, Jindrich Rajchl, blamed the European Union and the Czech government for soaring inflation and all repeatedly called on the current five-party coalition to resign.

“We want the government’s resignation,” Rajchl told the crowd. Rajchl, a lawyer by profession, is the former deputy head of the Czech soccer association.

“Resign, resign,” the protesters chanted.

“We’re here to stand by our country,” Rajchl said.

His group, whose name in English stands for Law, Respect, Expertise has no seats in parliament.

Rajchl claimed his group was ready to further escalate the protests.

Inflation has been high but on the decline in recent months, dropping to 15% in March, down from 16.7% in February and 17.5% the month before.

The protesters also want the Czech government to stop taking actions that are intended to reduce misinformation and fake news.

Although Raichl rejected his group is pro-Russia, the protesters condemned the government’s stance in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Czech Republic has staunchly supported the government in Kyiv since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. The country has provided weapons for the Ukrainian military and taken in about 500,000 refugees.

Rajchl called Defense Minister Jana Cernochova, a vocal supporter of the pro-Ukraine stance, “the biggest security risk for our country.”

Some people at the rally were signing a petition demanding the country quits NATO.

Protesters were planning to march to the government office later Sunday. Prime Minister Petr Fiala is currently on a trip to Asia.
…

Pope Francis on Sunday publicly defended St. John Paul II, condemning as “offensive and baseless” insinuations that recently surfaced about the late pontiff.

In remarks to tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he was aiming to interpret the feelings of the faithful worldwide by expressing gratitude to the Polish pontiff’s memory.

Days earlier, the Vatican’s media apparatus had described as “slanderous” an audiotape from a purported Roman mobster who insinuated that John Paul would go out looking for underage girls to molest.

The tape was played on an Italian TV program by Pietro Orlandi, brother of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee who lived at the Vatican. The disappearance of the 15-year-old in 1983 is an enduring mystery that has spawned countless theories and so far fruitless investigations in the decades since.

Francis noted that in Sunday’s crowd in the square were pilgrims and other faithful in town to pray at a sanctuary for divine mercy, a quality John Paul stressed often in his papacy, which spanned from 1978 to 2005.

“Confident of interpreting the sentiment of all the faithful of the entire world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul II, in these days the object of offensive and baseless insinuations,” Francis said, his voice turning stern and his words drawing applause.

Last week, Pietro Orlandi met for hours with Vatican prosecutors who earlier this year reopened the investigation into his sister’s disappearance. Italy’s Parliament has also begun a commission of inquest into the case.

Emanuela vanished on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.

Among the theories about what happened to her have been ones linking the disappearance to the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt against John Paul in 1981 in St. Peter’s Square or to the international financial scandal over the Vatican bank. Still other theories envision a role played by Rome’s criminal underworld.

The recent four-part Netflix documentary “Vatican Girl” explored those possible scenarios and provided new testimony from a friend who said Emanuela had told her a week before she disappeared that a high-ranking Vatican cleric had made sexual advances toward her.

Her brother has long insisted the Vatican knows more than it has said. The Vatican prosecutor in charge of the probe says the pontiff has given him free rein to try to find the truth.

While at the Vatican last week, Pietro Orlandi provided Vatican prosecutors with an audiotape from a purported Roman mobster insinuating that John Paul would go out looking for underage girls to molest. The Vatican’s editorial director in a scathing editorial noted the insinuation lacked any “evidence, clues, testimonies or corroboration.”

Writing in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Tornielli said “no one deserves to be vilified in this way, without even a shred of a clue, on the basis of the ‘rumors’ of some unknown figure in the criminal underworld or some sleazy anonymous comment produced on live TV.”

John Paul’s longtime secretary, Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, also criticized the insinuations as “unreal, false and laughable if they weren’t tragic and even criminal.”

Pietro Orlandi’s lawyer, Laura Sgro, has insisted her client wasn’t accusing anyone.
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New developments:

Eleven people were killed and 21 were injured in Russian airstrikes in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Rescue crews are trying to reach victims trapped in the rubble of an apartment building.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has enacted a law making it easier to mobilize Russians into the military, even as one of his allies says it’s time to end military operations in Ukraine.
America’s top diplomat says Russia is not granting U.S. officials access to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Hanoi, that “we need consular access now.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that he had a long conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, and they discussed the Ukrainian peace formula that Zelenskyy described as being, “absolutely realistic and quite concrete.” The two leaders also discussed, according to Zelenskyy, their participation in the Vilnius NATO summit this summer.

The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update Sunday on the Russian invasion of Ukraine that it is “highly likely” that General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of Russia’s corps of airborne troops, the VDV, has returned to a major role in Ukraine, after being dismissed in January 2023.

The ministry described Teplinsky as “likely one of the few senior Russian generals widely respected by the rank-and-file” and that his “recent turbulent career suggests intense tensions between factions within the Russian General Staff about Russia’s military approach in Ukraine.”

His return means he will “highly likely” promote the VDV’s traditional role as an elite force, according to the intelligence update, and it is “unlikely” that his role will be limited to VDV units.

“In recent days,” the intelligence report said, “the VDV have resumed a key mission in the battle for Bakhmut, and likely undertaken novel integration with TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launchers in the Kremina sector.”

Bakhmut, the main target of Russia’s offensive in the east and the scene of months of grinding warfare, is experiencing some of its bloodiest fighting, Ukraine’s military said Saturday.

“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, said of the eastern Ukrainian city that was once home to 70,000 people.

“Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,” he told the 1+1 television channel.

His comments came as the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that the Wagner mercenary group now controlled two more areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

Wagner’s reported gains Saturday came one day after the group’s founder said Russia has should end its “special military operation” against its neighbor.

“Russia has achieved the results it wanted” and has “eradicated most of active male population of Ukraine and intimidated the rest,” Yevgeny Prigozhin posted Friday on Telegram, omitting any of Ukraine’s victories over Russia.

Death toll rising in Sloviansk

The death toll from a Russian airstrike Friday rose to at least 11 people, with 21 wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of, northwest of Bakhmut.

In his nightly video address Saturday, Zelenskyy said that the rescue operation continues in Sloviansk and Donbas after Friday’s Russian missile strike.

“It is reported that under the rubble of buildings, there are still bodies of the dead, unfortunately,” he said. Among them, he said, is a 2-year-old boy. Fifty residential buildings, of which more than 30 are apartment buildings, were damaged or destroyed, he said.

“None of those who are guilty of this aggression can be forgiven and forgotten,” he added.

Gershkovich prisoner swap

Russia has not allowed access of U.S. officials to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich since he was detained last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.

“We continue to call for his immediate release,” Blinken told reporters during a news conference in Hanoi. “We need consular access now,” The Washington Post reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia could consider a prisoner exchange for the jailed reporter once a Russian court reaches a verdict on espionage charges against him, a senior Russian official said.

Poland curbs imports

Poland’s government said Saturday it would temporarily stop grain and other food imports from Ukraine to stem the rising anger of Polish farmers, who say they cannot compete with the lower-priced Ukrainian grain on the market.

Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński said at a party convention in eastern Poland that while Poland supports Ukraine, it is forced to act to protect its farmers who are facing a “moment of crisis.”

“Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the importation of grain, but also dozens of other types of food, to Poland,” Kaczyński said. The government announced its import ban on agricultural products such as sugar, eggs, meat, dairy and vegetables would last until June 30.

Farmers in neighboring countries also have complained they are losing money because of Ukrainian grain flooding into their countries, causing prices to fall.

Orthodox Easter

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended Easter services Saturday in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

He crossed himself several times during the midnight service, known as the Divine Liturgy. When Patriarch Kirill announced, “Christ has risen,” Putin, along with other members of the congregation, replied, “Truly he is risen.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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In the wake of Friday’s deadly Russian missile strikes, Ukraine’s air force said the country would soon have weapons with which to try to prevent such attacks: a Patriot air defense system.

The delivery of the Patriot is expected in Ukraine sometime after Easter, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said. The primarily Orthodox Christian country observes Easter on Sunday.

Speaking Saturday on Ukrainian state TV, Ihnat declined to give a precise timeline for the arrival of the defensive missile system but said the public would know “as soon as the first Russian aircraft is shot down.”

A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers completed their training last month at Fort Sill, a U.S. Army post in Oklahoma, and returned to Europe to learn more about using the defensive missile system to track and shoot down enemy aircraft.

Officials said at the time that the Ukrainians would then go back to their country with a Patriot missile battery, which typically includes six mobile launchers, a mobile radar, a power generator and an engagement control center.

Germany and the Netherlands also have pledged to provide a Patriot system each to Ukraine. In addition, a SAMP/T anti-missile system pledged by France and Italy “should enter Ukraine in the near future,” Ihnat said this week.

The Ukrainian military is looking to beef up its ability to intercept missiles as it prepares for an expected spring counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied areas of the country.
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Ireland’s president has led tributes to Mark Sheehan, guitarist with Irish rock band The Script, after his death at 46.

The band said Sheehan died in a hospital Friday after a brief illness. In a statement, The Script called him a “much-loved husband, father, brother, band mate and friend.”

Formed in Dublin in 2001 by Sheehan, singer Danny O’Donoghue and drummer Glen Power, The Script topped U.K. and Irish charts with its self-titled debut album in 2008. It included the hits We Cry, Breakeven and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, which reached No. 1 in five countries.

The band’s pop-inflected rock sound made it one of Ireland’s biggest bands in the 2010s. The Script went on to have six Top 10 albums in the U.K. and one top three album in the U.S.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins praised the band’s “originality and excellence” and sent condolences to Sheehan’s family.

“Through their music, Mark and The Script have played an outstanding part in continuing and promoting this proud tradition of Irish musical success across the world,” Higgins said.

Sheehan is survived by his wife, Rina Sheehan, and their three children.
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