SAVANNAH, Ga. — A company’s plan to mine minerals near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and its federally protected wildlife refuge neared final approval Friday as regulators in the U.S. state of Georgia released draft permits for the project, which opponents say could irreparably harm a natural treasure.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division said it will take public comments on the draft permits for 30 days before working up final versions to send to the agency’s director for approval.

Twin Pines Minerals of Birmingham, Alabama, has worked since 2019 to obtain government permits to mine titanium dioxide less than 4.8 kilometers from the southeastern boundary of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest U.S. refuge east of the Mississippi River.

Federal scientists have warned that mining near the Okefenokee’s bowl-like rim could damage the swamp’s ability to hold water. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2022 declared the proposed mine poses an “unacceptable risk” to the fragile ecosystem at the Georgia-Florida line.

“This is a dark day in Georgia’s history,” said Josh Marks, an Atlanta environmental attorney and leader of the group Georgians for the Okefenokee. “EPD may have signed a death warrant for the Okefenokee Swamp, our state’s greatest natural treasure.”

In documents released Friday, state regulators echoed past comments that their analysis shows the proposed 312-hectare mine won’t significantly harm the Okefenokee or lower its water levels.

“EPD’s models demonstrate that the mine should have a minimal impact” on the Okefenokee refuge, the agency said, “even during drought periods.”

Twin Pines President Steve Ingle applauded regulators’ decision to move forward after what he called a “thorough evaluation of our application.”

Ingle has insisted for years that his company can mine without hurting the Okefenokee.

“We expect stringent government oversight of our mining-to-reclamation project, which will be fully protective of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and the region’s environment,” Ingle said in a statement.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge covers nearly 1,630 square kilometers in southeast Georgia and is home to alligators, bald eagles and other protected species. The swamp’s wildlife, cypress forests and flooded prairies draw roughly 600,000 visitors each year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.

In February 2019, the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote that the proposed mine could pose “substantial risks” to the swamp, including its ability to hold water. Some impacts, it said, “may not be able to be reversed, repaired, or mitigated for.”

C. Rhett Jackson, a hydrology professor at the University of Georgia, warned state regulators in a written analysis that the mining pits planned by Twin Pines would siphon off enough groundwater to triple the frequency and duration of severe droughts in the swamp’s southeast corner.

Georgia regulators have an outsized role in deciding whether to approve the mine because the U.S. government, which normally considers environmental permits in tandem with state agencies, relinquished oversight of the Twin Pines project.

The Army Corps of Engineers was reviewing a federal permit for Twin Pines when the agency declared in 2020 that it no longer had jurisdiction authority because of regulatory rollbacks under then-President Donald Trump. Despite efforts by President Joe Biden to restore federal oversight, the Army Corps entered a legal agreement with Twin Pines to maintain its hands-off position.

The mining project is moving forward as the National Park Service seeks designation of the Okefenokee wildlife refuge as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Conservation groups say the rare distinction would boost the Okefenokee’s profile as one of the world’s last intact blackwater swamps and home to more than 400 animal species.

The draft permits were released barely two weeks after Twin Pines agreed to pay a $20,000 fine ordered by Georgia regulators, who said the company violated state laws while collecting soil samples for its permit application.

Twin Pines denied wrongdoing, but said it agreed to the fine to avoid further permitting delays.

“It is inconceivable to anyone who actually values Georgia’s environment to claim that this mine will not harm the critically important wetlands and wildlife of the Okefenokee ecosystem,” Ben Prater, southeast director for the group Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. He added: EPD has one job. It must deny the permits.”

Some House lawmakers In the Georgia legislature are again pushing a bill that would ban future mining outside the Okefenokee. The proposal got a hearing last year, but has stalled in a House committee. While the measure wouldn’t stop Twin Pines from obtaining permits already pending, it would prohibit expansion of the company’s mining operation if it became law.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former U.S. President Donald Trump told thousands of members of the National Rifle Association that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms” if he returns to the White House, and he bragged that during his time as president he “did nothing” to curb guns.

“During my four years nothing happened. And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield,” he said as he addressed the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg on Friday evening.

Casting himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House,” Trump pledged to continue to protect gun owners’ rights, even as the country grapples with a crisis of gun violence and mass shootings that have left more than 3,000 dead since 2006.

“Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president,” he said.

Fresh off another dominant win in the Nevada caucuses Thursday night, Trump used the NRA forum to highlight his support of gun rights, a major priority for GOP voters. The issue is also a major motivator for Democrats as well as younger voters who grew up participating in active shooter drills and have witnessed a spate of school shootings in recent years.

Next week will mark the sixth anniversary of one of those shootings, the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead.

Trump grappled with Parkland and other mass shootings as president, and at times pledged to strengthen gun laws, only to back away from those vows.

At a meeting with survivors and family members of the Parkland shooting in 2018, Trump promised to be “very strong on background checks” and later scolded a Republican senator for being “afraid of the NRA,” claiming he would stand up to the gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence.

But he later retreated after a meeting with the group, expressing support for modest changes to the federal background check system and for arming teachers, while saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that there was “not much political support (to put it mildly).”

In December 2018, his administration banned bump stocks, the attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns and were used during the October 2017 shooting massacre in Las Vegas.

Trump’s appearance on Friday in the critical swing state came as the Republican nominating contest that he has been dominating turns toward South Carolina. The state’s February 24 primary may prove the last chance for Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival, to blunt the former president’s march toward the nomination. He and Haley will hold dueling campaign events there this weekend.

Trump hopes that a commanding win in the first-in-the-South race will deliver a devastating blow to Haley, who has yet to win a GOP contest. Haley, who was elected South Carolina’s governor twice, is betting that a home state advantage will lift her to a strong performance that could keep her in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5, when more than a dozen states will hold contests awarding a massive swath of the delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination.

“We’re leading everybody,” Trump said late Thursday following his Nevada victory. “Is there any way we can call the election for next Tuesday? That’s all I want.”

Trump had no competition in Nevada after Haley chose to skip Thursday’s caucuses to participate in an earlier primary that offered no delegates. But even without Trump on that ballot, Haley came in a distant second, swamped by GOP voters who picked a “none of these candidates” option.

Beyond Haley’s embarrassing Nevada defeat, Trump had an especially fortuitous week.

On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court seemed weary of attempts to kick him off the 2024 ballot under the Constitution’s Insurrection Clause. Both conservative and liberal justices voiced skepticism during a hearing over Colorado’s decision to disqualify Trump from its primary ballot because he refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Hours later, special counsel Robert Hur released a long-awaited and bitingly critical report that concluded criminal charges against President Joe Biden were not warranted but said there was evidence Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan. The report repeatedly pointed to Biden’s hazy memory in language that has raised new concerns about the president’s competency and age — a top concern for voters.

The findings will almost certainly blunt Biden’s ability to criticize Trump over his handling of classified documents. Trump was charged by a different special counsel, Jack Smith, for illegally hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after he left office and then obstructing government efforts to get them back.

Despite abundant differences between the cases, Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, on Friday cast the decision to charge him and not Biden as “nothing more than selective prosecution of Biden’s political opponent: Me.”

“Trump was peanuts by comparison,” he claimed.

Trump’s speech to the NRA — his eighth, according to the group — comes as the former political juggernaut has played a diminished role this election cycle amid financial troubles, dwindling membership and infighting.

The group’s longtime CEO, Wayne LaPierre, resigned last month ahead of a trial in New York over allegations that he treated himself to millions of dollars in private jet flights, yacht trips, African safaris and other extravagant perks at the powerful gun rights organization’s expense.

The New York attorney general sued LaPierre and three co-defendants in 2020, claiming widespread misspending and self-enrichment. The organization filed for bankruptcy and sought to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, but a judge rejected the move.
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HONOLULU — A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the world’s largest active volcano on Friday — Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii — knocking items off shelves and cutting power in a nearby town but not immediately prompting reports of serious damage.

The earthquake, which didn’t cause a tsunami and which the U.S. Geological Survey initially reported as magnitude 6.3, was centered on Mauna Loa’s southern flank at a depth of 37 kilometers, 2 kilometers southwest of Pahala.

“It shook us bad to where it wobbled some knees a little bit,” said Derek Nelson, the manager of the Kona Canoe Club restaurant in the oceanside community of Kona, on the island’s western side. “It shook all the windows in the village.”

There was a power outage affecting about 300 customers in Naalehu that appeared to be related to the earthquake, said Darren Pai, spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric Company.

The earthquake struck after 10 a.m. local time, less than two hours before an unrelated quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 shook Southern California.

Mauna Loa last erupted in late 2022. It’s one of five volcanoes that make up the Big Island, which is the southernmost in the Hawaiian archipelago.

Earthquakes can occur in Hawaii for a variety of reasons, including magma moving under the surface. In Friday’s case, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the likely cause was the weight of the Hawaiian Islands bending and stressing the Earth’s crust and upper mantle.

That’s what caused a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck off Kiholo Bay on the Big Island’s northwest coast in 2006. That temblor damaged roads and buildings and knocked out power as far away as Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, about 322 kilometers to the north.

Helen Janiszewski, an assistant professor in the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Department of Earth Sciences, said the Hawaiian Islands lie on the Pacific oceanic tectonic plate and have some of the world’s biggest volcanoes.

“So, there’s a huge amount of mass of rock associated with the islands and because of that, it’s actually enough to slightly displace the Pacific oceanic plate beneath the islands,” she said. “And that force causes earthquakes sometimes.”

This type of earthquake tends to occur several tens of kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface in the mantle, Janiszewski said. Quakes caused by moving magma tend to hit more shallow depths.

The observatory said Friday’s earthquake didn’t affect either Mauna Loa or a neighboring volcano, Kilauea.

There were no immediate reports of damage to telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea, another nearby volcano that has some of the world’s most advanced observatories for studying the night sky.

Jessica Ferracane, a spokesperson at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, said there was no apparent damage to its roads or visitor centers. Earthquakes are not uncommon, she said, but this one was “much more intense” than usual.

The Hawaiian Islands have been built by successive volcanic eruptions over millions of years. The vast majority of earthquakes in Hawaii occur on and around the Big Island. About once every 1.5 years, there is an earthquake in the state that is magnitude 5 or greater, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The Big Island is mostly rural and hosts cattle ranches, coffee farms and resort hotels. But it also has a few small cities, including the county seat of Hilo, population 45,000.

Friday’s earthquake could be felt in Honolulu. Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth was at a cardiologist appointment there and initially thought he was experiencing side effects from a procedure: “All of a sudden I felt like I was getting dizzy.”

He said he immediately got on the phone with his emergency management officials when he realized it was an earthquake, and that he was heading to the Honolulu airport to try to get an earlier flight back.

Grace Tabios, the owner of Will and Grace Filipino Variety Store in Naalehu, said the shaking knocked down her husband, who was working at their coffee farm in Pahala. At the store, jars of mayonnaise and medicine from the Philippines fell off the shelves.

“Some things fell down but didn’t break,” Tabios said.
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The US Senate will consider an emergency aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other allies, but the fate of Ukraine aid is uncertain in the Republican-led House, with former President Donald Trump opposing it. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was at the White House Friday to discuss how to best help Ukraine. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story.
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Washington — Joe Biden’s Republican rivals are pouncing on questions about his mental acuity, following a verbal slip by the U.S. president that has exacerbated Democrats’ anxiety about his age.

“Biden’s not going to be any sharper in November,” said Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign in a statement to VOA. The Make America Great Again Political Action Committee released a statement saying, “Joe Biden isn’t just senile, he put our national security at risk.”

Former President Donald Trump has a commanding lead in the Republican primaries and is likely to become the party’s nominee, despite facing 91 felony indictments in various federal and state criminal cases.

The campaign of Nikki Haley, who is trailing Trump, released a statement that Biden “should take a mental competency test immediately” and make it public.

“Joe Biden can’t remember major events in his life, like when he was vice president or when his son died,” Nikki Haley said. “That is sad, but it will be even sadder if we have a person in the White House who is not mentally up to the most important job in the world.”

Biden’s verbal slip

Republicans launched their renewed attacks after the president made a verbal slip Thursday evening, mistakenly referring to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as “the president of Mexico” while he was highlighting efforts he made to secure aid for the people of Gaza.

The gaffe happened while Biden was pushing back against reporters’ questioning on a special counsel’s report about his mishandling of classified documents that noted his lapses in memory, citing examples of him being unable to recall defining moments in his own life, such as when he served as vice president or when his son Beau passed away.

“My memory is fine,” a visibly angry Biden shot back as he denied forgetting when his son died. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

Three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they have concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health, according to an NBC News poll released this week.

Less than half of voters have concerns about Trump’s mental and physical health according to the same poll, despite his multiple flubs. During a campaign event earlier this month Trump appeared to mistakenly refer to his rival Haley as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when discussing the Jan. 6, 2021. He has previously mixed up Biden and former President Barack Obama.

No charges

Special Counsel Robert Hur has determined that Biden will not be charged for mishandling classified documents. However, Hur’s characterization of the president’s memory is likely to provide Biden’s Republican rivals ammunition in their messaging that he is unable to lead the country.

Trump, who is under federal indictment with 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, obstructing justice and making false statements, sharpened his attack on Biden’s handling of the documents.

He called Biden’s case “100 times different and more severe than mine,” charging in a campaign statement Thursday that there is “a two-tiered system of justice and unconstitutional selective prosecution!” and “election interference.”

In his report, Hur pre-empted such assertions.

“Unlike the evidence involving Mr. Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr. Trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts,” the report noted. “Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite.”
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The University of the People, a tuition-free online university, was founded in 2009 and accredited in 2014. The game-changing goal of the U.S. nonprofit is to make education accessible to some 140,000 students from 200 countries. Maxim Adams has the story. Video: Dana Preobrazhenskaya.
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Hungary has rejected criticism of its new ‘sovereignty protection’ law, after the European Union instigated legal action against Budapest Wednesday. The EU has concerns that the legislation breaches basic democratic rights. Henry Ridgwell has more from the Hungarian capital. Camera: Ancsin Gábor
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Ukraine moves closer to joining the European Union as leaders agree to start membership talks. But money to sustain its war effort against invading Russia hit a familiar roadblock with an ally of Russia’s president in the EU. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi the story.
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Washington — U.S. and Ukrainian researchers say Western nations are making progress in trying to curb illicit transfers of Western electronic components to a Russian facility suspected of making Iranian-designed attack drones, but that more needs to be done.

The White House released a U.S. intelligence finding June 8 asserting Russia was receiving Iranian materials needed to build an attack drone manufacturing plant in its Alabuga special economic zone.

Russia has said it relies on its own resources in using drones to attack Ukraine; Iran has acknowledged supplying drones to Russia but only before Moscow’s February 2022 Ukraine invasion. Neither Russia’s Washington embassy nor Iran’s U.N. mission in New York responded to questions about the Alabuga plant emailed by VOA Thursday.

The researchers pointed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s December 6 placement of 11 Russian companies on its list of entities requiring a license for items subject to export controls. Commerce officials cited the companies’ association with the suspected Alabuga drone facility. Commerce expanded the items subject to U.S. export controls in February to include semiconductors and other drone components used by Russian and Iranian entities on the Entity List.

David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, one of the researchers interviewed by VOA in recent weeks, said he “commends” Commerce for sanctioning the 11 Russian companies and considers the move a sign of progress.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a Ukrainian sanctions researcher serving as an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also welcomed the U.S. move.

“We are happy that the U.S. government is taking actions aimed at thwarting certain Russian facilities, including Alabuga, and thus making an impact on Russia’s military industry,” Vlasiuk told VOA in a Thursday phone call.

Vlasiuk and Albright said the Biden administration should go further, though.

The administration has not sanctioned JSC Alabuga, the plant’s owner, although several of its apparent subsidiaries were added to the Commerce list December 6.

Albright said the U.S. Treasury and State departments should sanction JSC Alabuga and associated companies to discourage foreign businesses from dealing with them, calling such designations “long overdue.”

Vlasiuk said Ukraine also would like to see the United States sanction JSC Alabuga and other companies that Kyiv has identified as engaged in Russia’s drone industry.

Asked by VOA for the U.S. position on sanctioning JSC Alabuga, Commerce said November 28 it “does not comment on potential deliberations related to Entity List actions.”

The statement added that “continuing to respond to Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine remains a high priority for the department” and listed several U.S. actions taken to crack down on illicit networks for sending chips and other items to Russia.

The State Department referred VOA questions about Alabuga to Commerce, while the Treasury Department did not respond to a November 25 VOA email about Alabuga.

Albright also pointed to the interest of several European governments in using his institute’s research on the Alabuga plant to try to disrupt its access to electronic components made by companies headquartered in their territories. His research is based on documents apparently leaked from Alabuga to The Washington Post, which first reported their existence in August.

Albright’s institute has reported that the documents appear authentic and describe Alabuga supply-chain procurement, production capabilities, and plans for manufacturing Russian-branded copies of Iran’s Shahed 136 attack drone.

While more than half of the electronics on the assembly list for Alabuga’s Shahed 136 drones are made by U.S. companies, according to Albright’s review of the documents, some of the rest come from four Europe-based companies, his institute has said. Those include Switzerland-based TE Connectivity and u-blox, Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors, and STMicroelectronics, which is headquartered in Switzerland and has manufacturing plants in the Netherlands.

“Switzerland and the Netherlands certainly are interested in the information we have to offer,” Albright said.

Vlasiuk also credited the two European nations for working with Ukraine on the issue.

“We are in constant communication with the Dutch government on sanctions and they have been very helpful and proactive,” Vlasuk said. “As for the Swiss, it has been a little harder, but we also are in contact and they mostly are adopting the sanctions of the EU, which is good.”

In response to VOA questions about Alabuga and Albright’s research, the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry said it is a “priority” to prevent the circumvention of sanctions designed to make it as difficult as possible for Russia to continue waging war on Ukraine.

“To that end, we undertake many actions with international partners, both visible and invisible. The ministry cannot comment on contacts with individual companies or organizations,” it said.

The Swiss government provided no comment after VOA emailed its Washington embassy last month to request one.

Albright and Vlasiuk said Western electronics makers also must do more to stop their parts from ending up in Alabuga’s drones.

“In the electronics industry, companies send off millions of components to distributors who could care less about the end user,” Albright said. “So electronics manufacturers need to rapidly work with distributors on policies promoting due diligence. Manufacturers need to say we are just not going to make sales of these critical items unless we really know who the end user is.”

Vlasiuk said Ukraine is unhappy with finding Western parts in attack drones launched by Russia and with how the manufacturers explain the phenomenon. “They say, ‘we are not supplying anything officially to Russia,’ Of course they do not. So I think that they could have tightened their compliance and know-your-customer procedures,” Vlasiuk said.

In a Saturday statement sent to VOA, a spokesperson for Swiss company u-blox said the use of its products in embargoed countries’ weapons systems is a “clear breach” of conditions of sale for its customers and distributors. “We investigate any infringement of this policy very thoroughly and will take legal action in case of infringement,” the spokesperson said.

Asked about Alabuga, u-blox said it is in regular contact with government officials and several NGO representatives.

Regarding how u-blox parts were found in drones used by Russia, the spokesperson said there are several likely explanations, including that the components were purchased before sanctions were in place, that they were part of excess inventory sold by customers to brokers in countries not sanctioning Russia and then shipped into Russia, that they were smuggled into Russia, or that they were removed from products such e-scooters, e-bikes, cars and construction machines and put into Russian drones.

Dutch company NXP Semiconductors also sent VOA a statement on Friday, saying it is “committed” to complying with the law and “working diligently to ensure its products are not improperly diverted to embargoed countries including Russia, Iran and Belarus for use in weapons and other systems for which they were not designed or intended.”

“Our team is in ongoing contact with regulators around the world on this issue, working within an industry-wide effort to prevent illegal chip diversion,” the company added, referring to an initiative of the Semiconductor Industry Association, of which it is a member.

TE Connectivity and STMicroelectronics did not respond to VOA requests for comment emailed on Friday.
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Paris — Notre Dame Cathedral got its rooster back Saturday, in a pivotal moment for the Paris landmark’s restoration.

The installation by a crane of a new golden rooster, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, goes beyond being just a weathervane atop the cathedral spire. It symbolizes resilience amid destruction after the devastating April 2019 fire — as restoration officials also revealed an anti-fire misting system is being kitted out under the cathedral’s roof.

Chief architect Philippe Villeneuve, who designed this new rooster, stated that the original rooster’s survival signified a ray of light in the catastrophe.

“That there was hope, that not everything was lost. The beauty of the [old] battered rooster … expressed the cry of the cathedral suffering in flames,” Villeneuve said. He described the new work of art, approximately half a meter long and gleaming in the December sun behind Notre Dame Cathedral, as his “phoenix.”

Villeneuve elaborated on the new rooster’s significance, saying: “Since [the fire] we have worked on this rooster [the] successor, which sees the flame carried to the top of the cathedral as it was before, more than 96 meters from the ground. … It is a fire of resurrection.”

In lighthearted comments, the architect said that the process of design was so intense he might have to speak to his “therapist” about it.

Before ascending to its perch, the rooster — a French emblem of vigilance and Christ’s resurrection — was blessed by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich in a square behind the monument. The rooster — or “coq” in French — is an emotive national emblem for the French because of the word’s semantics — the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus simultaneously meaning rooster.

Ulrich placed sacred relics in a hole inside the rooster’s breast, including fragments of Christ’s Crown of Thorns and remains of St. Denis and St. Genevieve, infusing the sculpture with religious importance.

The Crown of Thorns, regarded as Notre Dame’s most sacred relic, was among the treasures quickly removed after the fire broke out. Brought to Paris by King Louis IX in the 13th century, it is purported to have been pressed onto Christ’s head during the crucifixion. A sealed tube was also placed in the sculpture containing a list the names of nearly 2,000 individuals who contributed to the cathedral’s reconstruction, underscoring the collective effort behind the works.

Amid the rooster benediction ceremony, Notre Dame’s new restoration chief, Philippe Jost, also detailed pioneering measures taken to safeguard the iconic cathedral against future fires — in rare comments to the press.

“We have deployed a range of fire protection devices, some of which are very innovative in a cathedral, including a misting system in the attics, where the oak frame and in the spire are located,” Jost said. “And this is a first for a cathedral in France.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week visited the site to mark a one-year countdown to its re-opening, announced that the original rooster will be displayed in a new museum at the Hôtel-Dieu. This move, along with plans to invite Pope Francis for the cathedral’s reopening next year, highlights Notre Dame’s significance in French history and culture.

The rooster’s installation, crowning a spire reconstructed from Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s 19th-century design, is a poignant reminder of its medieval origins as a symbol of hope and faith.

Its longstanding association with the French nation since the Renaissance further adds to its historical and cultural significance, marking a new chapter of renewal and hope for Notre Dame and the French people.
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LISBON, Portugal — Portugal’s Socialist Party (PS) on Saturday elected Pedro Nuno Santos to lead them in a March 10 snap parliamentary election, following Antonio Costa’s resignation as prime minister and party leader last month amid a corruption investigation.

The 46-year-old former infrastructure minister beat acting Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro, who was seen as a more moderate candidate, with 62% of the vote to become the PS secretary-general.Nuno Santos, who has described himself as “a cobbler’s grandson, son of a businessman,” is from the left wing of the center-left party and is known for successfully coordinating support in parliament for a previous government with the far-left in 2015-19.

Costa, in power since 2015, resigned on November 7 over an investigation into alleged illegalities in his government’s handling of green energy projects. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has called a snap election for March 10.

Nuno Santos had himself resigned in late 2022 in a scandal around a large severance payout by state-owned airline TAP, which he oversaw as infrastructure minister. Although the scandal dented his popularity, analysts have long seen him as Costa’s successor.

Nuno Santos eulogized Costa in his victory speech, praising the strong economic growth of the past few years, financial stability and a significant reduction of public debt.

“We want to build Portugal where nobody is excluded or forgotten,” he said as he advocated a strong welfare state, adding though: “We do not want the state to replace companies, we want companies as partners.”

His main rival in the upcoming general election is Luis Montenegro, 50, of the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), who has promised tax cuts in a bid to secure a majority and said he expected the implosion of the majority Socialist administration to play into his hands.

Most opinion polls put the PS neck and neck with the PSD, and many analysts fear a post-election quagmire and a potential strengthening of the role of the populist, anti-establishment party Chega.  
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chisinau, moldova — Moldovan President Maia Sandu hailed the adoption by parliament Saturday of a new defense strategy — calling for anchoring Moldova alongside its Western allies — and identifying Russia as a threat to the former Soviet state. 

Sandu posted on Facebook two days after the European Union agreed to open talks on extending its membership with both Moldova and neighboring Ukraine — more than 21 months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Sandu has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accused Moscow of plotting a coup to oust her. She said the new security strategy outlined the “main threats” facing Moldova and how to “effectively counter” them. “There are two principal threats to our national security — the aggressive policy of the Russian Federation against our country as a whole and deep-rooted corruption in Moldova,” she wrote. 

Members of Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity hold a majority in Moldova’s parliament, which on Friday adopted the strategy focusing on closer ties with the EU, Romania, the United States and NATO. 

But Moldova is to retain the “neutral” status set down in its constitution and, unlike Ukraine, is not seeking NATO membership. 

The document said the new strategy was “vital in the current geopolitical context to limit the risks facing Moldova.” 

“It is clear that the Russian Federation in the near future will not abandon its hostile actions against Moldova,” the document read. “We must therefore learn to live in conditions of a protracted, high-intensity hybrid war.” 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denounced the document as “Russophobic,” saying Moscow had always respected Moldova’s interests. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov derided the EU’s decision to launch membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova, saying neither country met the bloc’s criteria for membership. 

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry’s press secretary, Igor Zaharov, said Peskov’s comments were a clear indication that Moldova was drawing clear of Moscow’s sphere of influence. 

“We are decisively moving along the European path,” Zaharov told Radio Moldova. “This naturally makes the Russian political class unhappy or even indignant, but we have chosen this path and ask outside forces to stay out of our internal decisions.” 
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VATICAN CITY — A Vatican court Saturday sentenced a once powerful Italian cardinal to five years and six months in jail for financial crimes at the end of a historic trial.

Angelo Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, was the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court.

He and nine other defendants, including financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, were on trial for accusations of financial crimes focused on an opaque London property deal.

Court President Giuseppe Pignatone read out the verdict Saturday, with Becciu accused of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering.

His lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said they respected the sentence but would “certainly” appeal. He was also handed a fine of 8,000 euros ($8,727).

At the heart of the trial is the 350 million euro ($380 million) purchase of a luxury property in London, as part of an investment that began in 2014 and ended up costing the Vatican tens of millions of euros.

A test of Francis’ reforms

The trial, which began in July 2021, has shone a light on the Holy See’s murky finances, which Francis has sought to clean up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013.

It is also a test of his reforms.

Just weeks before the trial, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the power to try cardinals and bishops, where previously they were judged by a court presided over by cardinals.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu and between almost four and 13 years for the others.

Becciu had always strongly protested his innocence, denouncing the accusations against him as “totally unfounded” and insisting he never took a cent.

For its part, the Holy See viewed itself as “an offended party” and has asked through Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the court to “punish all crimes.”

Four Vatican entities are civil parties. They had requested compensation from the defendants, including 177 million euros ($193 Million) for moral and reputational damage.

Since the trial opened, there have been more than 80 hearings in the dedicated room within the Vatican Museums, where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.

The process had been mired by procedural wrangling, with defense lawyers complaining about a lack of access to key evidence.

Once high ranking

Becciu, a globe-trotting former Vatican diplomat, has been a near constant presence in the courtroom.

He was number two in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope, from 2011 to 2018.

He was moved to lead the department that deals with the creation of saints, before abruptly resigning in September 2020, after being informed of an investigation against him.

Initially, he told the trial, this was about a probe into 125,000 euros of Vatican money he donated to a charity in his native Sardinia, which prosecutors claim benefited his brother, who ran the organization.

But he was later drawn into investigations into the purchase and sale of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue — resulting in losses that, according to the Vatican, dipped into resources intended for charitable causes.

When the trial opened, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders.

Among the defendants are two brokers involved in the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, as well as Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, and former Vatican employee Fabrizio Tirabassi.

Becciu is also accused over payments made to a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna — who is also on trial — which he claims were to help negotiate the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.
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