Two months after French President Emmanuel Macron won reelection, his second term is now threatened with gridlock and a possible political crisis after his centrist party lost its ruling majority in the lower house of the National Assembly Sunday. Legislative vote saw a surging far left and far right — and near-record abstention.

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne acknowledged the message from Sunday’s vote that gave the centrist Ensemble or Together coalition the largest number of seats in the lower house — but stripped it of a ruling majority. She called the situation unprecedented and vowed to cobble a working majority.

Meanwhile, the far left and far right were celebrating. Leader Jean-Luc Melenchon of the new left-wing NUPES coalition, which placed second in the voting, called the results an electoral defeat for President Emmanuel Macron.

However, his alliance didn’t do as well as he’d hoped — earning only 131 of the 577 legislative seats, compared to 245 for Macron’s centrists.

In many ways, the biggest win went to the far-right National Rally party, which scooped up 89 seats, an historic high. Leader Marine Le Pen noted that effectively makes hers the biggest opposition party, as Melenchon’s NUPES is an alliance of four different leftist parties.

What’s clear is the results present a major challenge to Macron’s second-term ambitions, which include passing major fiscal and retirement reforms. In the near term, it may also force him to concentrate less on foreign policy goals — including helping to end the war in Ukraine — as he looks for a way to govern effectively at home.

Political analyst Jean Petaux outlines several political scenarios for Macron moving forward — from hoping the NUPES coalition will divide and weaken, to seeking alliances with the center-right Les Republicains and other parties on a case-by-case basis. And possibly even orchestrating a political crisis that would allow the President to call for new legislative elections next year, hoping they might produce more favorable results. All suggest a complicated political path ahead.

Petaux believes Prime Minister Borne will likely keep her job.

But the NUPES vow to bring a no-confidence motion against her up for vote in early July. More immediately, three of Macron’s ministers lost their legislative bids. Under his rules, that means they must resign.
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What’s the price of peace? 

That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. 

Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” 

In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

“We want to return their future,” he said. 

He added that it’s important international sanctions levied against Russia do not prevent humanitarian aid, such as medicine for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need. 

“It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale but not taking any share of the proceeds. Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines. 

Honored for perseverance

The two journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats. 

Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February that has caused nearly 5 million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for safety, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. 

Independent journalists in Russia have come under scrutiny by the Kremlin, if not outright targets of the government. Since Putin came into power more than two decades ago, nearly two dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who had worked for Muratov’s newspaper. 

In April, Muratov said he was attacked with red paint while aboard a Russian train. 

Muratov left Russia for Western Europe on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding will begin Monday afternoon. 

Online bids began June 1 to coincide with the International Children’s Day observance. Monday’s live bidding falls on World Refugee Day. 

As of early Monday morning, the high bid was $550,000. The purchase price is expected to spiral upward, possibly into the millions. 

“It’s a very bespoke deal,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions. “Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction and not every day of the week that there’s a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block.” 

Uniqueness item, unique circumstances.

Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 recipients of the Nobel Prizes honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and the advancement of peace. 

The most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions, the same company that is auctioning off Muratov’s medal. 

Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov’s medal would be worth about $10,000. 

The ongoing war and international humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of those affected in Ukraine are bound to stoke interest, Benesh said, adding it’s hard to predict how much someone would be willing to pay for the medal. 

“I think there’s certainly going to be some excitement Monday,” Benesh said. “It’s it’s such a unique item being sold under unique circumstances … a significant act of generosity, and such a significant humanitarian crisis.” 

Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF. 

Press writer Andrew Katell contributed to this report.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia” this week as European Union leaders consider whether to support candidate status for Ukraine in the EU.

“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We are warning partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.

The European Commission recommended last week that Ukraine receive candidate status. The 27 member states will discuss the issue and give their votes during a summit Thursday and Friday. If Ukraine does advance to candidate status, the process for joining the EU in full could take several years.

Zelenskyy said, “fierce fighting continues in Donbas,” the eastern region of Ukraine that has been the focus of Russian efforts in recent months.

Leaders implore West for support

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Sunday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be long-lasting, but said Western allies should not curb their support for Kyiv’s forces.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Stoltenberg told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also warned against the risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war grinds on toward the four-month mark in the coming days.

In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

Zelenskyy said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back” from the Russians.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had destroyed parts of the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.

“The losses are significant,” he said. “Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted.”

Battles continue in east

While Russia failed early in the war to topple Zelenskyy’s government and capture the capital, Kyiv, intense fighting rages in the eastern part of the country, centering on the embattled industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk province, which is part of the broader Donbas region that Russia is trying to control.

Shelling continues, but Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukraine television, “All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.” But he said the battles made evacuations from the city impossible.

Haidai said that in Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he said.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces have taken control of Metolkine, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian state news agency TASS claiming that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. Ukraine’s military acknowledged that Russia had “partial success” in the area.

Analysts at a Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”

Some information from this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Firefighters in Spain and Germany struggled to contain wildfires on Sunday amid an unusual heat wave in Western Europe for this time of year.

The worst damage in Spain has been in the northwest province of Zamora where over 25,000 hectares (61,000 acres) have been consumed, regional authorities said, while German officials said that residents of three villages near Berlin were ordered to leave their homes because of an approaching wildfire Sunday.

Spanish authorities said that after three days of high temperatures, high winds and low humidity, some respite came with dropping temperatures Sunday morning. That allowed for about 650 firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft to establish a perimeter around the fire that started in Zamora’s Sierra de la Culebra. Authorities warned there was still danger that an unfavorable shift in weather could revive the blaze that caused the evacuation of 18 villages.

Spain has been on alert for an outbreak of intense wildfires as the country swelters under record temperatures at many points in the country for June. Experts link the abnormally hot period for Europe to climate change. Thermometers have risen above 40 C (104 F) in many Spanish cities throughout the week — temperatures usually expected in August.

A lack of rainfall this year combined with gusting winds have produced the conditions for the fires.

Authorities said that gusting winds of up 70 kph (43 mph) that changed course erratically, combined with temperatures near 40 C, made it very tough for crews.

“The fire was able to cross a reservoir some 500 meters wide and reach the other side, to give you an idea of the difficulties we faced,” Juan Suárez-Quiñones, an official for Castilla y León region, told Spanish state television TVE.

The fire in Zamora was started by a strike from an electrical storm on Wednesday, authorities said. The spreading fire caused the high-speed train service from Madrid to Spain’s northwest to be cut on Saturday. It was reestablished on Sunday morning.

Military firefighting units have been deployed in Zamora, Navarra and Lleida.

There have been no reports of lives lost, but the flames reached the outskirts of some villages both in Zamora and in Navarra. Videos shot by passengers in cars showed flames licking the sides of roads. In other villages, residents looked on in despair as black plumes rose from nearby hills.

In central-north Navarra, authorities have evacuated some 15 small villages as a precaution, as the high temperatures in the area are not expected to drop until Wednesday.

They also asked farmers to stop using heavy machinery that could unintentionally spark a fire.

“The situation remains delicate. We have various active fires due to the extremely high temperatures and high winds,” Navarra regional vice-president Javier Remírez told TVE.

Remírez said that some villages had seen some buildings damaged on their outskirts.

Some wild animals had to be evacuated from an animal park in Navarra and taken to a bull ring for safe keeping, authorities said.

Wildfires were also active in three parts of northeast Catalonia: in Lleida, in Tarragona and in a nature park in Garaf, just south of Barcelona.

Firefighters said that 2,700 hectares (6,600 acres) were scorched in Lleida. They added that they have responded to over 200 different wildfires just in Catalonia over the past week.

In Germany, strong winds have been fanning the blaze about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Berlin, prompting officials to declare an emergency Saturday.

Villagers in Frohnsdorf, Tiefenbrunnen and Klausdorf were told to immediately seek shelter at a community center in the nearby town of Treuenbrietzen.

“This is not a drill,” town officials tweeted.

Germany has seen numerous wildfires in recent days following a period of intense heat and little rain.

The country’s national weather agency said the mercury topped 38 C (100.4 F) at some measuring station in the east Sunday.

Thunderstorms were forecast to bring cooler weather in from the west from the evening onward.
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France voted Sunday in the second-round runoff of legislative elections that saw a new left-wing alliance threatening President Emmanuel Macron’s majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of the country’s Parliament.

Voters trickled out of Neuilly Plaisance’s city hall, shopping carts in tow. After casting their ballots, their next stops were the bakery and Sunday market to finish their errands.

Gregory, an electrician in this eastern Paris suburb, had cast his ballot for France’s new leftist coalition, known as NUPES. He said French President Emmanuel Macron is breaking everything the country has worked for when it comes to social and environmental issues.

Pre-vote polls suggested Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble, or Together, would earn the largest share of votes — but not necessarily a ruling majority. The NUPES was hoping for an upset victory that would force Macron to pick its leader, far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, as prime minister.

Michelle, another Neuilly Plaisance voter, said she believes that scenario would be a disaster. Certainly not the NUPES, she said. If they win, France will be in a mess.

Retiree Raymond offered a similar reaction. He said he doubts the feasibility of programs pushed by the leftist coalition. “Where’s the money to pay for them?” he asked.

Macron won a second term against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen just two months ago. But the abstention rate was high, and many French are underwhelmed by their president. Some criticized Macron for not campaigning enough for this crucial parliamentary vote, where this time his main rival was the far left.

These elections for the powerful National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, will be critical in determining whether Macron can push through fiscal and retirement reforms that mark his second term agenda. The NUPES coalition has vowed to block them and enact tougher environmental policies.

Like the April presidential elections, these legislative elections have also been marked by high voter abstention.

 
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Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Sunday a new British law to change part of a Brexit deal to try to ease trade with Northern Ireland was “unilateralism of the worst kind” and urged the government to resume talks.

The European Commission launched two new legal proceedings against Britain this month after London published plans to override some post-Brexit rules in the so-called Northern Ireland protocol which governs trade with the British province.

London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in Northern Ireland and challenged the role of the European Court of Justice to decide on parts of the post-Brexit deal agreed by the EU and Britain.

The new legislation has yet to be passed by parliament, a process which could take some time.

“It’s not acceptable, it represents unilateralism of the worst kind,” Martin told the BBC.

“We accept fully there are legitimate issues around the operation of the protocol and we believe with serious sustained negotiations between the European Union and United Kingdom government, those issues could be resolved.”

He said the legislation, which London says is needed to restore a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, would damage the province’s economy by introducing a dual regulatory regime that could increase costs to business.

“If this bill is enacted, I think we’re in a very serious situation,” he said. “What now needs to happen is really substantive negotiations between the British government and the European Union.”
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Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, couples there continue to get married. For many, the war itself prompted them to officially tie the knot – especially military couples. At least one jewelry store provides military couples with free wedding bands; wedding ceremonies are often held online, at times, literally from the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
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Fine Italian knitwear packed in boxes addressed to retailers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kursk sit stacked in a Lombardy warehouse awaiting dispatch. Although not subject to sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the garments are not likely to ship any time soon.

Missing payments from the Russian retailers who ordered the garments are piling up due to restrictions tied to the banking sector, putting pressure on small fashion producers like D. Exterior, a high-end knitwear company with 50 workers in the northern city of Brescia.

“This is very painful. I have 2 million euros worth of merchandise in the warehouse, and if they cannot pay for it, I will be on my knees,” said D. Exterior owner Nadia Zanola, surveying the warehouse for the brand she founded in 1997 from the knitwear company created by her parents in 1952.

Italy is the largest producer of global luxury goods in the world, making 40% of high-end apparel, footwear and accessories. While Russia generates just about 3% of Italian luxury’s 97 billion euros ($101 billion) in annual revenue, it is a significant slice of business for some of the 80,000 small and medium companies that make up the backbone of Italian fashion, according to industry officials.

“We are talking about eliminating 80% to 100% of revenues for these companies,’’ said Fabio Pietrella, president of the Confartigianato fashion craftsman federation.

Districts producing footwear in the Marche and Veneto regions, and knitwear makers in Umbria and Emilia-Romagna have grown particularly reliant on Russia.

“These are districts that connect the supply chain, and if it is interrupted, not only is the company that closes harmed, but an entire system that help make this country an economic powerhouse,’’ Pietrella said.

The Italian fashion world is best known for luxury houses like Gucci, Versace and Armani, which unveil their menswear collections in Milan this week. And some of the biggest names appear on a list compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenberg of major companies doing business in Russia since the war in Ukraine began.

“There are companies that kept selling to Nazi Germany after the outbreak of World War II — we don’t celebrate them for that,” Sonnenberg said, labeling as “greedy” any enterprise that continues to do business in Russia today.

He also underlined that fashion companies don’t have the grounds to make humanitarian appeals to bypass sanctions, voluntary or otherwise, as has been the case with agricultural firms and pharmaceutical companies.

Among those receiving a failing grade from Sonnenberg is Italy’s Benetton, which in a statement condemned the war but said it would continue its commercial activities in Russia, including longstanding commercial and logistic partnerships and a network of stores that sustain 600 families.

French conglomerate LVMH, meanwhile, has temporarily closed 124 stores in Russia, while continuing to pay its 3,500 employees in Russia. The Spanish group Inditex, which owns the fast-fashion chain Zara, also temporarily closed 502 stores in Russia as well as its online sales, accounting for 8.5% of group pre-tax earnings.

Pietrella fears a sort of Russia-phobia is taking hold that is demonizing business owners for trying to keep up ties with a longer-term vision.

He characterized as a “witch-hunt” criticism of some 40 shoe producers from the Marche region on Italy’s Adriatic coast for traveling to Russia for a trade fair during the war.

European Union sanctions against Russia sharpened after the Ukraine invasion, setting a 300-euro wholesale maximum for each item shipped, taking super-luxury items out of circulation but still targeting the upper-middle class or wealthy Russians.

“Without a doubt, we as the fashion federation have expressed our extreme concern over the aggression in Ukraine,’’ Pietrella said. “From an ethical point of view, it is out of discussion. But we have to think of our companies. Ethics are one thing. The market is another. Workers in a company are paid by the market, not by ethics.”

He said the 300-euro limit on sales was a gambit by European politicians that on paper allows trade with Russia despite accompanying bureaucratic and financial hurdles, while also shielding governments from having to provide bailout funds to the industry. He also dismissed as overly facile government suggestions to find alternative markets to Russia.

“If there was another market, we would be there already,’’ Pietrella said.

At D. Exterior, exposure to Russia grew gradually over the years to now represent 35% to 40% of revenue that hit 22 million euros before the pandemic, a stream that is also under new pressure from higher energy and raw material costs.

The company was already delivering its summer collection and taking orders for winter when Russia invaded on Feb. 24. By March, Russian retailers were having trouble making payments.

Not only is Zanola stuck with some 4,000 spring and summer garments that she has little hope of shipping to Russian clients, she said she was contractually required to keep producing the winter orders, risking 100,000 euros in labor and materials costs if those are unable to ship.

Over the years, her Russian clients have proven to be ideal customers, Zanola said. Not only do they pay on time, but they are appreciative of the workmanship in D. Exterior’s knitwear creations.

After working so hard to build up her Russian customer base, she is loathe to give it up and doesn’t see a quick long-term replacement.

“If Russia were Putin, I wouldn’t go there. But since Russia is not only Putin, one hopes that the poor Russians manage to raise themselves up,” she said.
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The head of NATO said Sunday the war in Ukraine could last years and Ukrainian forces faced intensified Russian assaults after the EU executive recommended that Kyiv should be granted the status of a candidate to join the bloc.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was cited by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper as saying the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would increase the chance of liberating the eastern Donbas region from Russian control.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” he said. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, made similar comments about the need to prepare for a long war in an op-ed for London’s Sunday Times newspaper.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday he stressed the need to avoid “Ukraine fatigue” and with Russian forces “grinding forward inch by inch,” for allies to show the Ukrainians they were there to support them for a long time.

In the op-ed, he said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

“Time is the vital factor,” Johnson said. “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”

Ukraine received a significant boost Friday when the European Commission recommended that it be granted EU candidate status — something European Union countries are expected to endorse at a summit this week.

This would put Ukraine on course to realize an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, even if actual membership could take years.

On Ukraine’s battlefields Russian attacks intensified.

Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of the eastern region of Luhansk, was again under heavy artillery and rocket fire as Russian forces attacked areas outside the industrial city, the Ukrainian military said.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff admitted its forces had suffered a military setback in the settlement of Metolkine, just to the southeast of Sievierodonetsk.

“As a result of artillery fire and an assault, the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine, trying to gain a foothold,” it said in a Facebook post late Saturday.

Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, referred in a separate online post to “tough battles” in Metolkine.

Russia’s Tass news agency, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists, said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine.

To the northwest, several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in Izium district, and Russian rockets rained down on a suburb of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, hitting a municipal building and starting a fire in a block of flats, but causing no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian authorities also reported shelling of locations further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, and on Saturday they said three Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the town of Novomoskovsk, wounding 11 people, one critically.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said Russian troops on a reconnaissance mission near the town of Krasnopillya had been beaten back with heavy casualties Saturday.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose defiance has inspired Ukrainians and won him global respect, said in a Telegram post on Saturday he had visited soldiers on the southern front line in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Our brave men and women. Each one of them is working flat out,” he said. “We will definitely hold out! We will definitely win!”

A video showed Zelenskyy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen.

Zelenskyy’s office said he had also visited National Guard positions in the southern region of Odesa to the west of Mykolaiv. Neither he nor his office said when the trips took place, but he did not deliver his customary nighttime address Saturday.

Zelenskyy has remained mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv, and two eastern cities close to where battles are being fought.

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals when he ordered his troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance and keep Moscow’s southern neighbor outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

But the war, which has killed thousands of people, turned cities into rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect — convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO — and helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership bid. 
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Czech Senate Leader Milos Vystrcil was little known to the world until he led a Czech parliamentary and business delegation to Taiwan in autumn 2020, defying threats of severe retaliation from Beijing. And that is just how his late father would have preferred it.

“He would always insist that we live a normal, average life, not too visible,” Vystrcil told VOA during a visit to Washington last week.

Vystrcil was born in the town of Telc in 1960, 12 years after the Soviet-backed local communist party took control of what was then the Czechoslovak Republic. In order for him and his sister to lead as normal a life as possible, “my father created this sort of bubble,” Vystrcil recalled. “To me, it wasn’t right.”

Not until he was about 15 did his father tell him their family was on the wrong side of the communist revolution because Vystrcil’s grandfather had established a factory that produced agricultural machinery and fire extinguishers. Consequently, theirs was a family of “exploiters” and was closely watched by the nation’s new guardians of supposed equality and egalitarianism.

“My father was afraid all his life that somebody would come and ban us from doing things or they would actually force us to relocate to somewhere else,” he said.

Vystrcil’s father became so pessimistic about life that “he didn’t even want to get married at one point because he knew that his children would have a very difficult life,” he recounted through an interpreter. “My father was afraid that his children would suffer just by being his children.”

On Nov. 17, 1989, everything changed. Or almost everything.

That day marked the beginning of a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations known as the “Velvet Revolution,” culminating 11 days later when the Communist Party announced it was ceding power.

A father’s fear

The 29-year-old Vystrcil started out on a new path — a path his father watched with considerable unease.

“I remember writing an article after 1989. My father read it and he came to me and said: ‘Why are you doing this? What will they say now?’”

The younger Vystrcil forged on and rose from a high school teacher to principal to mayor of the city of Telc, where the family had resided for generations. He went on to become governor of the region.

By the time his father died at age 92 in 2017, Vystrcil had been elected as a federal senator; three years later, he became leader of the Senate.

It was in that capacity that he led a delegation to Taipei in 2020, showing his nation’s support for another victim of communist intimidation, and later invited Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to Prague, prompting fierce Chinese threats of retaliation.

But, Vystrcil said in an interview with The Diplomat during his Washington visit, he personally did not feel added pressure from Beijing upon conclusion of the trip, partly because “the entire democratic world had actually stood up for us and stood up behind our mission to Taiwan once we were threatened by the People’s Republic of China.”

“On the other hand, this certainly does not mean that the Chinese have forgotten or will not do anything,” he added.

In the same interview, he stated that being able to “keep our backs straight” and not yield to pressure is a politician’s inherent duty to help build a “strong and proud nation” capable of withstanding challenges.

Asked by VOA whether his father ever overcame his anxiety as he watched his son’s political ascent, Vystrcil shook his head. “To answer your question, I’m afraid he did not manage to let go of his fear, even to the end of his life, he was not able to do it.”

Vystrcil said his father “was always afraid, because [he would say] ‘the more you go up the ladder, the stronger your enemies are, you’re more visible.’ He would always warn me: ‘Be careful.’” Vystrcil’s eyes grew wet as he recalled his father’s warning, and love. But he did not allow himself to dwell on it.

“Now that we have discussed this here together, that’s probably one of the reasons that convinced me that ‘never again’ — we mustn’t ever let it happen again,” he said of his nation’s period of one-party rule.
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Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect Saturday.

News of the ban came Friday, through a video posted by the region’s governor Anton Alikhanov.

The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.

Its immediate start was confirmed by the cargo arm of Lithuania’s state railways service in a letter to clients following “clarification” from the European Commission on the mechanism for applying the sanctions.

Urging citizens not to resort to panic buying, Alikhanov said two vessels were already ferrying goods between Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg, and seven more would be in service by the end of the year.

“Our ferries will handle all the cargo,” he said Saturday.

A spokesperson for Lithuania’s rail service confirmed the contents of the letter but declined to comment further. The foreign ministry did not reply to a request from Reuters for comment.

Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas told public broadcaster his institution was waiting for “clarification from the European Commission on applying European sanctions to Kaliningrad cargo transit.”

Sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania.

Home to the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Sea fleet, it was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II.
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A third suspect in the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon rainforest was arrested Saturday, Brazil’s federal police said.

Jeferson da Silva Lima was on the run, but he surrendered at the police station of Atalaia do Norte in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia.

“The detainee will be questioned and referred to a custody hearing,” federal police said in a statement.

A forensic exam carried out on human remains found in the region on Friday confirmed they belonged to Phillips. The remains of a second person, believed to be indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were still being studied.

Phillips, a freelance reporter who had written for the Guardian and The Washington Post, was doing research for a book on the trip with Pereira, a former head of isolated and recently contacted tribes at federal indigenous affairs agency Funai.

They vanished on June 5 while traveling alone through the region by boat.

The police so far have arrested Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, a fisherman who confessed to killing the two men, and his brother, Oseney da Costa, who was taken into custody earlier this week.

Federal police said Friday that the killers acted alone, information the local indigenous group Univaja contested, adding it had informed officials numerous times that there was an organized crime group operating in the Javari Valley, a wild region that has lured cocaine smugglers, as well as illegal hunters and fishers.

Police sources told Reuters the investigation is focused on people involved in illegal fishing and poaching in indigenous lands.
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The far-right Alternative for Germany on Saturday elected two prominent figures to lead the party for the next two years, after one of its co-chairs quit in January saying it had become too radical.

Delegates voted for Alternative for Germany’s remaining co-chair, Tino Chrupalla, to head the party together with parliamentary caucus leader Alice Weidel.

The vote became necessary after European lawmaker Joerg Meuthen stepped down from the leadership in January, warning that the party risked being driven into “total isolation and ever further toward the political edge” with its current course.

Meuthen was the party’s third leader to quit since Alternative for Germany was founded in 2013. All cited extremist tendencies within the party that have also made it the subject of scrutiny by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

Initially formed in opposition to the euro currency, the party swung to the right in 2015 to capitalize on resentment against migrants and entered the federal parliament for the first time in 2017. Lately it has vocally opposed almost all pandemic restrictions and western sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The party, known by its German acronym AfD, received just over 10% of the vote in last year’s national election.

Delegates at AfD’s congress in the eastern town of Riesa also voted Friday in favor of changing its statutes so that in the future the party can be headed by a single leader. The proposal was championed by Bjoern Hoecke, the party’s leader in Thuringia state, who is considered to be on the extreme right of the party and has espoused revisionist views of Germany’s Nazi past.
…

A former hotel housekeeper who fought for the rights of her coworkers has become a symbol of the recent revival of France’s left, which is expected to emerge as the main opposition force in the French Parliament to President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Rachel Kéké, 48, is poised to win election as a lawmaker when France holds the decisive second round of parliamentary elections Sunday. She placed first in her district with more than 37% of the vote in the election’s first round. Her nearest rival, Macron’s former sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, received less than 24%.

Macron’s centrist alliance is projected to win the most number of seats in the National Assembly, but it could fall short of securing an absolute majority. In that case, a new coalition composed of the hard left, the Socialists and the Greens could make Macron’s political life harder since the National Assembly is key to voting in laws.

Kéké, a Black mother of five who is from the Ivory Coast and settled in France 20 years ago, appeared confident this week while visiting Fresnes, a suburb southeast of Paris, to hand out flyers near a primary school and encourage people to vote for her Sunday.

Kéké, who acquired French citizenship in 2015, knows she represents more than the face of her own campaign. If she wins a place in a Parliament dominated by white men, many of them holding jobs in senior management, it could represent a turning point in the National Assembly reflecting a more diverse cross-section of the French population.

“I am proud to tell Black women that anything is possible,” she told the Associated Press.

Kéké worked as a hotel chambermaid for more than 15 years and eventually climbed the ladder to next job grade, becoming a governess who managed teams of cleaners. But after she started working for a hotel in northwest Paris, she noticed how the demands of cleaning hotel rooms threatened the physical and mental health of the people she supervised.

She thinks “it’s time” for essential workers to have a voice in Parliament. “Most of the deputies don’t know the worth of essential workers who are suffering,” said the candidate, who has repetitive motion tendonitis in her arm because of her cleaning work and still manages hotel housekeepers.

In 2019, along with around 20 chambermaids who were mostly migrant women from sub-Saharan Africa, Kéké fought French hotel giant Accor to obtain better work and pay conditions. She led a 22-month, crowdfunded strike that ended with a salary increase.

The hotel workers’ grueling but successful battle inspired many. Drafted by hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, Kéké agreed to run in the parliamentary race “to be the voice of the voiceless.”

“People who take public transportation at 4 a.m. are mostly migrants. I stand for them, too,” she said.

She joined Melechon’s party, France Unbowed, during the presidential campaign that resulted in Macron’s reelection in May and then became part of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union, the left-wing coalition trying to curb the president’s power in Parliament.

If elected, Kéké would be in position to support one of the key items on the coalition’s platform: increasing France’s monthly minimum wage from about 1,300 ($1,361) to 1,500 euros ($1,570).

She claimed her rival “doesn’t stand a chance.” That’s not what Maracineanu, 47, the former swimming world champion who served in Macron’s government, thinks.

Campaigning Thursday in Thiais, a farmer’s market town in the Paris suburbs, she energetically tried to convince often skeptical residents of the importance of Sunday’s vote. According to opinion polls, voters from the traditional right are expected to widely support Macron’s candidates in places where their own party didn’t qualify for the second round.

“There are some (voters) who are interested in the election from a national point of view. They want Emmanuel Macron and the majority to be able to govern,” Maracineanu said. “Some others are against Jean-Luc Mélenchon, clearly.”

Born in Romania, Maracineanu arrived in France with her family in 1984 and was naturalized French seven years later at the age of 16. She became the first world champion in French swimming history and silver medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“I won’t be heading to the National Assembly as a world champion, and Mrs. Kéké won’t go as a cleaning lady,” she said. “You go to the National Assembly to be an MP. Personal trajectories are of course interesting and they’re worth talking about but … the election is about an agenda.”

Only one of them will be elected Sunday.

The first round of the election gave a big boost to the left-wing coalition, which finished neck-in-neck with Macron’s alliance at the national level. The French president needs a clear, if not absolute majority to enact his agenda, which includes tax cuts and raising the retirement age.

One unpredictable factor for both camps: the expected low turnout.

In the first round, less than half of voters went to the polls, echoing disillusion with Macron, the establishment and everyday politics expressed by many.

“I come from a country where you couldn’t vote or when you did, it was useless, and it was always the same candidate who was elected under Romania’s dictatorship before 1989. I know how important a democratic ritual it is and that’s what I try and remind people,” Maracineanu said. 
…

A celebrated Ukrainian medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol by an Associated Press team was freed by Russian forces on Friday, three months after she was taken captive on the streets of the city. 

Yuliia Paievska is known in Ukraine as Taira, a nickname she chose in the “World of Warcraft” video game. Using a body camera, she recorded 256 gigabytes of her team’s efforts over two weeks to save the wounded, including both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. 

She transferred the clips to an Associated Press team, the last international journalists in Mariupol, one of whom fled with the footage embedded in a tampon on March 15. Taira and a colleague were taken prisoner by Russian forces on March 16, the same day a Russian airstrike hit a theater in the city center, killing around 600 people, according to an Associated Press investigation. 

“It was such a great sense of relief. Those sound like such ordinary words, and I don’t even know what to say,” her husband, Vadim Puzanov, told The Associated Press late Friday, breathing deeply to contain his emotion. Puzanov said he’d spoken by phone with Taira, who was en route to a Kyiv hospital, and feared for her health. 

Hoped for negotiations

Initially the family had kept quiet, hoping negotiations would take their course. But The Associated Press spoke with Puzanov before releasing the smuggled videos, which ultimately had millions of viewers around the world, including on some of the biggest networks in Europe and the United States. Puzanov expressed gratitude for the coverage, which showed Taira was trying to save Russian soldiers as well as Ukrainian civilians. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Taira’s release in a national address. 

“I’m grateful to everyone who worked for this result. Taira is already home. We will keep working to free everyone,” he said. 

Hundreds of prominent Ukrainians have been kidnapped or captured, including local officials, journalists, activists and human rights defenders. 

Russia portrayed Taira as working for the nationalist Azov Battalion, in line with Moscow’s narrative that it is attempting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. But the AP found no such evidence, and friends and colleagues said she had no links to Azov, which made a last stand in a Mariupol steel plant before hundreds of its fighters were captured or killed. 

The footage itself is a visceral testament to her efforts to save the wounded on both sides. 

A clip recorded on March 10 shows two Russian soldiers taken roughly out of an ambulance by a Ukrainian soldier. One is in a wheelchair. The other is on his knees, hands bound behind his back, with an obvious leg injury. Their eyes are covered by winter hats, and they wear white armbands. 

A Ukrainian soldier curses at one of them. “Calm down, calm down,” Taira tells him. 

‘I couldn’t do otherwise’

A woman asks her, “Are you going to treat the Russians?” 

“They will not be as kind to us,” she replies. “But I couldn’t do otherwise. They are prisoners of war.” 

Taira was a member of the Ukraine Invictus Games for military veterans, where she was set to compete in archery and swimming. Invictus said she was a military medic from 2018 to 2020 but had since been demobilized. 

She received the body camera in 2021 to film for a Netflix documentary series on inspirational figures being produced by Britain’s Prince Harry, who founded the Invictus Games. But when Russian forces invaded, she used it to shoot scenes of injured civilians and soldiers instead. 
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.   

UN human rights chief won’t seek second term 

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Monday that she will step down when her term finishes at the end of August. The news was welcomed by China rights activists, who have criticized Bachelet for failing to more forcefully criticize Beijing’s incarceration of nearly 2 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, including during her recent visit to China. 

Activists Welcome UN Rights Chief’s Decision to Step Down 

Truce eases Yemen violence, but hunger remains grave threat 

U.N. officials said Tuesday that a temporary truce in place across Yemen since April 2 has eased some hardships, but the country is still facing a dangerous food crisis in which 19 million people are going hungry. 

Hunger Stalks Yemenis as Truce Eases Some Hardships 

UK cancels controversial deportation flight to Rwanda  

On Tuesday night, Britain canceled its first deportation flight to Rwanda after a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which decided there was “a real risk of irreversible harm” to the asylum-seekers involved. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has been among critics of the plan. “This is all wrong,” Grandi told reporters Monday. 

UK Cancels First Flight to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda 

In brief    

— The heads of six U.N. humanitarian agencies called Thursday on the U.N. Security Council to renew the mandate allowing aid agencies to bring critical food and medical supplies into northwestern Syria from Turkey. The resolution authorizing the cross-border aid operation is due to expire on July 10. Russia has previously opposed renewing it and forced the council to gradually go from four crossing points to just one. The U.N. officials said the operation provides life-saving assistance to 4.1 million Syrians trapped in nongovernment-controlled areas. Damascus would like to see the cross-border operations end, saying all aid distribution should be through the government from inside the country. The U.N. has said such cross-line distribution is insufficient but would like to see it expanded. 

— Senior U.N. officials continue to work with Kyiv and Moscow on getting some 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain blocked at a port in Odessa to international markets to ease the growing global food crisis. The drop in Ukrainian grain has particularly hurt parts of the Middle East and Africa and has dramatically driven up operating costs for the World Food Program. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters Friday that alternative routes and methods are being sought, “but certainly they are much less efficient than using big ships through the ports.” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday at the U.N. that Washington is looking at helping Ukraine build temporary silos along its border to prevent Russian troops from stealing grain and to make space for the upcoming winter harvest.  

— The head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, concluded her post this week. In a farewell statement, she said that when she accepted the job two years ago she could not have imagined the Afghanistan she is now leaving. Lyons said she is heartbroken, especially for the millions of Afghan girls who have been denied their right to education and for the talented women told to stay at home by the Taliban authorities. Her replacement is expected to be named soon. On June 23, the Security Council will hold its regular meeting on the situation in Afghanistan.  

Quote of note     

“We have not seen a single genocide or Holocaust, or anything of that nature, that has happened without hate speech. People do not recognize that what Hitler did with his Ministry of Propaganda that was headed by [Joseph] Goebbels, that really was hate speech at the highest level you can imagine. Official hate speech.”  

— Alice Nderitu, U.N. Special Adviser on Genocide, in remarks to reporters Friday ahead of the first International Day for Countering Hate Speech on June 18.  

What we are watching next week  

Monday, June 20, is World Refugee Day. The U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said this week in its Global Trends report that the war in Ukraine has pushed global displacement to over 100 million. Watch more here:  

World Refugee Day: More than 100 Million People Seek Safety Worldwide 

 
…

News that police in France arrested two men suspected of traveling to the city of Nantes to kill an Azeri blogger will be of little surprise to journalists in Azerbaijan.

Attacks, especially over reporting that is critical of authorities, are common, and a lack of bringing perpetrators to justice makes matters worse, journalists and analysts say.

Reporting on crime, corruption, human rights abuses or alleged wrongdoing by the government can result in attacks or pressure, with orders appearing to come from high up, some journalists told VOA. A culture of impunity adds to the risks.

Last month, an assailant attacked journalist Ayten Mammadova in her apartment building in the capital, Baku. A man followed the journalist into an elevator on May 8, held a knife to her throat and told her to stop reporting on a court case.

The assailant didn’t say which case he was referring to, but Mammadova believes it is related to her coverage of a trial of a man accused of the kidnap, rape and killing of a 10-year-old girl.

Phoned threat

“I also received a threatening call on my landline, because I am one of the few journalists who have recently done research and written articles on this incident,” she told VOA. “I think there are certain forces that do not want the truth behind this incident to be revealed.”

The freelance journalist has been critical of the investigation and legal proceedings.

The man on trial said in court that he was not involved and had confessed after being tortured for four days, a claim the prosecutor general’s office denied.

In the case in France, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said police on Sunday arrested “two suspected hit men” about 90 km from where outspoken Azeri blogger Mahammad Mirzali lives.

The blogger’s address was in their GPS system and a photo of him was found in one of the suspect’s phones, RSF reported.

Mirzali, who lives in exile, has survived two knife attacks. RSF said he receives thousands of threatening messages via social media.

Legal protection

A lack of action in bringing perpetrators to justice increases the risk that other journalists will be attacked, said Khadija Ismayilova, editor-in-chief of Toplum TV.

“The atmosphere of impunity in the country sends a message to everyone that anyone can target journalists. Anyone can attack journalists. In some cases, the source of these attacks comes directly from above,” she told VOA. “People are targeted because they criticize the president and his family members and reveal things they want to keep secret.”

Shahin Hajiyev, executive director of the Najaf Najafov Foundation, a media development fund, told VOA that sooner or later all journalists are subjected to pressure if they seriously cover crime, corruption, human rights abuses or any other kind of wrongdoing by government agencies.

“This practice has been going on in Azerbaijan for a long time,” the director said. “There are certain topics, there are certain classes of people that you are forbidden to criticize or give negative information about. A journalist who violates this will be punished.”

‘Not based on fact’

Elshad Hajiyev, head of media and public relations at the Interior Ministry, which oversees law enforcement, told VOA such claims are baseless.

“All these allegations are subjective considerations, not based on fact. [The ministry] focuses on taking all measures in accordance with the law,” Hajiyev said.

The spokesperson added that Azerbaijan takes measures to bring perpetrators to justice.

Under pressure

Journalists and human rights activists have been pressured for years, according to independent journalist Natig Javadli.

“Journalists work in dangerous conditions,” Javadli said. “The attacks on not only Ayten Mammadova but [others] show that journalists are not safe.”

Ismayilova believes better communication between officials and the press is the way forward and that the president should lead by example and “be open to the press and tolerate criticism.”

“[Officials] must restore communication with journalists who can act as a bridge between them and society,” Ismayilova said.

Impunity in attacks must be addressed, the journalist said, adding, “No one who attacks free speech should go unpunished.”

One problem is that journalists do not have adequate access to necessary legal assistance, said lawyer and media rights expert Alasgar Mammadli.

“The state provides free legal assistance only to those accused of crimes. In addition, direct legal assistance is available only at the request of legal entities and with their own funds. In this regard, legal assistance in Azerbaijan is very limited to the media by nongovernmental organizations,” Mammadli said.

‘Guaranteed’ safety

On the other hand, Mushfig Alasgarli, chair of the Trade Union of Journalists, said the state guarantees the safety of journalists at a high level.

Media security is “guaranteed by law” he told VOA, adding that several mechanisms exist to ensure safety.

“Any incidents involving journalist organizations or journalists are recorded, acted upon, and solidarity is created around that journalist for the issue to be resolved positively,” he said.

Pressure on independent journalists, including those in exile, and inaction on attacks against the media are among the obstacles to press freedom in Azerbaijan, said RSF.

The media watchdog ranks it 154th out of 180 countries where 1 is freest on its Press Freedom Index.

This article originated in VOA’s Azeri Service.
…

Russian journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov is auctioning his Nobel medal for Ukrainian refugees, distraught at the eradication of independent media in his country, where he says fewer and fewer people support Moscow’s military campaign.

Muratov is the bear-like co-founder and long-time editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper critical of the Kremlin that was itself established in 1993 with money from former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev’s Nobel Peace Prize.

For years it defied tightening restrictions on dissenting media, but in March it finally suspended its online and print activities after it became a crime—punishable by 15 years in jail—to report anything on the conflict that veered from the government line.

“My country invaded another state, Ukraine. There are now 15.5 million refugees … We thought for a long time about what we could do … and we thought that everyone should give away something dear to them, important to them,” Muratov told Reuters in an interview.

Auctioning his golden medal would mean he shared in some way the fate of refugees who had lost their mementoes and “their past,” he said.

“Now they want to take away their future, but we must make sure that their future is preserved … the most important thing we want to say and show is that human solidarity is necessary.”

Muratov’s medal is being sold by Heritage Auctions on June 20, World Refugee Day, with the support of the prize committee.

It had called the award to Muratov and Maria Ressa, a journalist from the Philippines, an endorsement of the right to free speech that was in jeopardy around the world.

Muratov dedicated his prize to six Novaya Gazeta journalists murdered for their work, among them some of the highest-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin.

Media clampdown

He lamented the lack of a free media, and the severity of the state’s crackdown on protest.

“The absence of real freedom of speech, of real exchange of opinions, of real freedom of expression is leading to the fact that people have no choice. They just have to believe what the state propagandists tell them,” he said.

“There are no free media outlets. Rallies are actually banned, including in the regions. For any statement, an administrative or criminal case is initiated.

“Independent journalism is impossible in modern Russia. Content delivery is possible, for example, through the YouTube platform. It is possible to deliver some content—alternative to the state view—through VPN services. But this is getting more and more difficult every day.

Nevertheless, he questioned research indicating that most Russians support the invasion.

“When they call you on the phone … and ask: ‘Do you support the actions of President Putin?’ or ‘Do you support the action of the Russian army?’ or ‘Do you support the military operation in Ukraine?’—how does the person respond, do you think?

Muratov believes that in reality, support for the war, often shown by a display of a ‘Z’ from the Latin alphabet, is dwindling.

“If you walk through the streets of Moscow now, you will see that there are practically no ‘Z’s left on the streets.”

Moscow says it sent troops into Ukraine to defuse a military threat and protect Russian-speakers from persecution, assertions that Kyiv and its Western allies say are a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war of acquisition.

“I see what people say to me in the streets,” Muratov said. “I see what our readers are writing, and I understand that it’s impossible to say Russia supports the invasion of Ukraine with one voice.”

He said even the Kremlin acknowledged that 25-30% of the population did not support the operation.

United leadership

But Muratov said those who believed change may occur in Russia as a result of a split in the elite were mistaken.

“The powers-that-be have never been so united, never been so monolithic. People in power have nowhere to go: not Europe, not America, they are not allowed anywhere else. They are here. They are here like the crew of a submarine with no escape. And of course, they are united around the president.”

He also questioned suggestions that Russians might turn against the authorities if their standard of living suffered from Western sanctions, saying they were more likely to evoke the “can-do” spirit of those who survived the privations of World War Two.

“Russia has arrived at the point where Russian President Putin will remain in power for as long as he sees fit—as he sees it, for the good of Russia. Whether he will be president or some kind of monarch, I don’t know. But the tendency towards absolutism is absolutely obvious.”

Asked how much he expected the medal to raise, Muratov said he had heard forecasts of $2 million or more, but had no real idea:

“The finale will be as unexpected for me as it is for you.”
…

The British government on Friday ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges — a milestone, but not the end of the decade-long legal saga.

WikiLeaks said it would challenge the order, and has 14 days to lodge an appeal.

Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the order authorizing Assange’s extradition to the U.S., where he faces charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of classified documents.

The decision was referred to Patel after a British court ruled in April that Assange could be sent to the U.S., where he faces trial on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.

The Home Office said in a statement that “the U.K. courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr. Assange,” and so the government had to approve the extradition.

“Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, and that whilst in the U.S. he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his health,” it said.

Supporters and lawyers for Assange, 50, argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that his case is politically motivated and that he cannot get a fair trial in the U.S.

“Today is not the end of the fight. It is only the beginning of a new legal battle,” said Assange’s wife, Stella Assange. She said the U.K. decision marked “a dark day for press freedom and for British democracy.”

“Julian did nothing wrong,” she said. “He has committed no crime and is not a criminal. He is a journalist and a publisher, and he is being punished for doing his job.”

A British judge approved the extradition in April, leaving the final decision to the government. The ruling came after a legal battle that went all the way to the U.K. Supreme Court.

A British district court judge had initially rejected the extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. U.S. authorities later provided assurances that the WikiLeaks founder wouldn’t face the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk. Those assurances led Britain’s High Court and Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling.

Journalism organizations and human rights groups had called on Britain to refuse the extradition request. Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if he is convicted in the U.S., though American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower than that.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said Friday that extraditing Assange “would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over.”

“If the extradition proceeds, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill treatment,” she said. “Diplomatic assurances provided by the US that Assange will not be kept in solitary confinement cannot be taken on face value given previous history.”

Assange has been held at Britain’s high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle. Before that, he spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.

In March Assange and his partner Stella Moris, who have two sons together, married in a prison ceremony.
…

The European Commission recommended Friday that Ukraine should be granted European Union candidate status.

“Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the country’s aspiration and the country’s determination to live up to European values and standards,” the EU’s Executive Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels.

The Executive Commission also approved the candidacy of Moldova, one of Ukraine’s neighbors, for membership in the bloc.

Ukraine and Moldova still face a lengthy process to achieve membership.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Klaus Iohannis of Romania visited Kyiv on Thursday in a show of support for Ukraine amid its battle to fend off Russia’s invasion.

“It’s an important moment. It’s a message of unity we’re sending to the Ukrainians,” Macron said. Air raid sirens blared as their visit began.

After the talks between the four and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the four signaled that Ukraine would be offered candidate status in the economic bloc.

“My colleagues and I have come here to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family,” Scholz said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council, dismissed the European leaders as “connoisseurs of frogs, liver and pasta” and said their visit brought no benefit.

“Again they promised EU membership and old howitzers, slammed down some vodka and, like 100 years ago, took the train home,” he tweeted. “And that’s all good. It’s just that this doesn’t bring Ukraine any closer to peace. And the clock is ticking.”

But in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said it was important for him to hear that the European leaders “agree the end of the war and peace for Ukraine should be as Ukraine sees them.”

He said Ukrainians will continue to fight for all of their land.

Military aid

The focus of the fighting remains the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian forces say their troops are still holding out. Ukraine is also claiming some progress in taking back territory in the south.

Zelenskyy said winning the war depends on the West continuing to arm Ukraine.

“We appreciate the support already provided by partners; we expect new deliveries, primarily heavy weapons, modern rocket artillery, anti-missile defense systems,” he said after speaking with his European counterparts.

“There is a direct correlation: the more powerful weapons we get, the faster we can liberate our people, our land,” he said.

Macron promised faster deliveries of weapons, including six more truck-mounted artillery guns. In Brussels, NATO defense ministers from more than 45 countries discussed delivering weapons to Ukraine as well as fortifying the alliance’s eastern borders.

On Wednesday, the United States announced $1 billion more in military aid to Ukraine, Washington’s 12th and biggest tranche yet of weaponry and equipment intended to confront Russia’s slow but relentless advance on Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House the aid includes $350 million of equipment coming directly from the U.S. military, including 18 high-powered mobile long-range howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition and 18 tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers, along with additional ammunition and other equipment.

Kirby said the remaining $650 million in aid, including coastal defense systems, radios, night vision devices and other equipment, will be purchased by the Pentagon from weapons manufacturers through a funding mechanism known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

Kirby said the United States has provided more than $914 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion on Feb. 24, including an additional $225 million announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden. Biden said in a statement the new money will fund safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items.

Even before Biden’s announcement of new military assistance, the United States and its allies supporting Ukraine had sent billions of dollars of weaponry and ammunition to assist Ukraine’s fighters.

But U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided a grim assessment of the current battlefield situation on the sidelines of the Brussels conference, telling reporters that the Ukrainian military is suffering as many as 300 casualties a day, including 100 soldiers killed in action and 100-300 wounded.

“For Ukraine, this is an existential threat,” Milley said. “They’re fighting for the very life of their country. So, your ability to endure suffering, your ability to endure casualties is directly proportional to the object to be obtained.”

UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, said Thursday Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has contributed to pushing the number of people forced to flee their homes past “the dramatic milestone of 100 million.”

The agency said the situation in Ukraine has caused “the fastest and one of the largest forced displacement crises since World War II.”

“Either the international community comes together to take action to address this human tragedy, resolve conflicts and find lasting solutions,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said in a statement, “or this terrible trend will continue.”

National security correspondent Jeff Seldin and White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some material came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
…

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Klaus Iohannis of Romania visited Kyiv on Thursday in a show of support for Ukraine amid its battle to fend off Russia’s invasion.

“It’s an important moment. It’s a message of unity we’re sending to the Ukrainians,” Macron said. Air raid sirens blared as their visit began.

The European Commission is considering whether to recommend Ukraine be granted candidate status for European Union membership. After the talks between the four and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the four signaled that Ukraine would be offered candidate status in the economic bloc.

“My colleagues and I have come here to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family,” Scholz said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council, dismissed the European leaders as “connoisseurs of frogs, liver and pasta” and said their visit brought no benefit.

“Again they promised EU membership and old howitzers, slammed down some vodka and, like 100 years ago, took the train home,” he tweeted. “And that’s all good. It’s just that this doesn’t bring Ukraine any closer to peace. And the clock is ticking.”

But in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said it was important for him to hear that the European leaders “agree the end of the war and peace for Ukraine should be as Ukraine sees them.”

He said Ukrainians will continue to fight for all of their land.

Military aid

The focus of the fighting remains the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian forces say their troops are still holding out. Ukraine is also claiming some progress in taking back territory in the south.

Zelenskyy said winning the war depends on the West continuing to arm Ukraine.

“We appreciate the support already provided by partners; we expect new deliveries, primarily heavy weapons, modern rocket artillery, anti-missile defense systems,” he said after speaking with his European counterparts.

“There is a direct correlation: the more powerful weapons we get, the faster we can liberate our people, our land,” he said.

Macron promised faster deliveries of weapons, including six more truck-mounted artillery guns. In Brussels, NATO defense ministers from more than 45 countries discussed delivering weapons to Ukraine as well as fortifying the alliance’s eastern borders.

On Wednesday, the United States announced $1 billion more in military aid to Ukraine, Washington’s 12th and biggest tranche yet of weaponry and equipment intended to confront Russia’s slow but relentless advance on Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House the aid includes $350 million of equipment coming directly from the U.S. military, including 18 high-powered mobile long-range howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition and 18 tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers, along with additional ammunition and other equipment.

Kirby said the remaining $650 million in aid, including coastal defense systems, radios, night vision devices and other equipment, will be purchased by the Pentagon from weapons manufacturers through a funding mechanism known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

Kirby said the United States has provided more than $914 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion on Feb. 24, including an additional $225 million announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden. Biden said in a statement the new money will fund safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items.

Even before Biden’s announcement of new military assistance, the United States and its allies supporting Ukraine had sent billions of dollars of weaponry and ammunition to assist Ukraine’s fighters.

But U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided a grim assessment of the current battlefield situation on the sidelines of the Brussels conference, telling reporters that the Ukrainian military is suffering as many as 300 casualties a day, including 100 soldiers killed in action and 100 to 300 wounded.

“For Ukraine, this is an existential threat,” Milley said. “They’re fighting for the very life of their country. So, your ability to endure suffering, your ability to endure casualties is directly proportional to the object to be obtained.”

National security correspondent Jeff Seldin and White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some material came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.  
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Before the ceremony and the serious meetings about war, the European leaders witnessed the devastation wrought by Russia. A must. To understand Ukraine’s fight for survival, they had to see it themselves, with their own eyes. 

The blown-up buildings. The smashed cars. And a message of hope spray-painted on a damaged building despite mounting Ukrainian deaths. 

French President Emmanuel Macron spotted it immediately amid the ruins Thursday. 

“Look at that, ‘Make Europe, not war,’ ” Macron said, pointing and reading the words out loud in English. “It’s very moving to see that.” 

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania had a walking tour of Irpin, a small city that bore the full brunt of Russia’s failed assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the first weeks of the war. The tour preceded a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met them wearing army green pants, a matching T-shirt and sneakers. 

If the four hadn’t fully grasped the scale of the horrors inflicted by the Russian invasion, ravages like the ones visited across much of Europe during World War I and World War II, then Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Premier Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis have no excuses now. 

The leaders traveled by overnight train to the Ukrainian capital because flights aren’t possible in the wartime airspace where missiles, drones, fighter jets and helicopters have rained down death and destruction. Iohannis, whose country has been a key destination for Ukrainian refugees, traveled separately from the others. 

Standing out in their suits and ties amid the heavily armed soldiers guarding them, they heard from a Ukrainian government minister how Russian soldiers fired indiscriminately at families in cars and how the blowing up of bridges had blocked escape routes, locking people in a furnace of death and fighting. 

“How many cities do you have in such a situation?” Macron asked. 

“Hundreds,” Oleksiy Chernyshov, Ukraine’s minister for communities and territories development, replied. 

“They were shooting into the families, children, women” as they tried to flee the fighting, the minister said. “They were just deliberately killing people inside the cars.” 

Macron wanted to understand how troops could do such things. 

“How do you explain this?” he asked. 

Chernyshov explained that some of the killers appeared to have been ordinary young soldiers and others appeared to have been special forces from the Caucasus region, which lies between the Black and Caspian seas. Moscow has deployed fighters from Chechnya, known for their ferocity, to Ukraine. 

“We have hundreds of these cases, I am sorry to say. They are still going on,” he said. 

The devastated buildings with their innards blown out that the chancellor, the premier and the presidents walked past are just a small fraction of the destruction in Ukraine after nearly four months of fighting. 

The official said more than 12,000 apartment buildings have been destroyed so far. Add to that electricity substations, heating plants, roads, bridges, schools, churches. 

“You name it,” the minister said. “A lot of things to be rebuilt.” 

The leaders wanted to know more. 

How was the Russian advance going now? Scholz asked. 

Macron wanted to know whether additional forces were being massed in Belarus, posing another possible threat to Ukraine. 

“We think yes,” Chernyshov said. 

Macron was clearly moved. He called Irpin, which Ukrainian forces retook as Russian troops retreated from around Kyiv, “a heroic town.” 

“This is where the Ukrainians stopped the Russian army,” he said. 

The French leader said Irpin bore “the traces of barbary.” 

“Massacres were carried out.” he said. “We have the first traces of what are war crimes.” 

So now they know: With their own eyes. 
…

 Thursday’s visit to Ukraine by four European Union leaders comes ahead of a key decision on Kyiv’s EU candidacy, expected next week — and as tensions grow over Europe’s long-term commitment to the war.

Speaking to reporters from Kyiv’s war-ravaged suburb of Bucha, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said his visit with the leaders of Germany, Italy and Romania underscored the European Union’s strong political support for Ukraine and its respect for its people’s courage.

Macron dismissed controversy within the EU over his remarks that aggressor Russia should not be humiliated in finding an exit to the conflict. He said France had been by Kyiv’s side from the beginning.

Ukraine has also criticized Macron’s call for a so-called interim “European political community” group for non-EU members.

The Ukraine visit by the four EU leaders comes a day before the bloc’s executive arm is expected to recommend granting Ukraine EU candidacy status. The EU’s 27 members are expected to make a decision during a summit next week.

Even if its candidacy is approved, Ukraine will likely wait years to become an EU member — but Kyiv says the move is symbolically important.

But the outcome is uncertain. Members like Poland and the Baltic states strongly support Ukraine’s candidacy; others like Portugal and Denmark have voiced reservations. The biggest EU countries appeared lukewarm, but during a visit to Moldova Wednesday, Macron seemed to back candidate status.

Tensions with Kyiv have also surfaced over the strength of the EU military, political and financial support for Ukraine, as it battles the Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, European leaders face eroding support at home for the conflict, amid rising prices and supply shortages. A poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute finds one-third or more of all EU citizens want the war to end as soon as possible.

Macron faces extra pressure, ahead of legislative elections Sunday that may eliminate his majority in France’s lower house.

His far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, accuses Macron of profiting politically from his trip to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, another political rival, Jean-Francois Cope of the center-right, faults Macron for taking his eyes off the elections that may see a far-left win. The house is burning, Cope told French radio, and Macron is looking elsewhere.
…

The imprisoned leaders of Greece’s once-powerful neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party are seeking to overturn long prison terms in an appeals court trial that began this week in Athens.

Justice officials suggest it is unlikely that the court will show any leniency to the defendants. But while the neo-Nazi grouping, among the most dangerous in Europe, has been dismantled, far-right extremism still stains the birthplace of democracy.

The appeal comes 18 months after Golden Dawn leader Nikos Mihaloliakos and six other senior lawmakers from the party faced sweeping convictions for operating what the Greek Supreme Court then called a criminal organization masquerading as a political organization.

Mihaloliakos and the other convicted lawmakers are serving 13-year jail terms, but the appeals trial now gives them the chance to rechallenge the charges, potentially cutting years off their sentences or even overturning their convictions.

That prospect alone has activists here concerned.

Hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators spilled onto the streets of Athens this week demanding judges hearing the Golden Dawn appeal to “keep the Nazis in jail,” as they chanted ….

Fascism must be eradicated once and for all from our society, says this demonstrator.

Mihaloliakos did not attend the opening of the appeal, citing health reasons. Several other defendants followed suit, a sign political commentators in Athens said showed Golden Dawn’s waning appeal on Greek society.

On the margins for decades, the group took Greece – and Europe — by storm as a debt crisis and brutal 10-year economic recession gripped the country, enabling it to emerge as a potent political force.

Analysts say that not since the restoration of democracy here, with the collapse of military rule in 1974, had a party as brazenly thuggish or ideologically extreme been catapulted into the country’s Parliament, becoming the third-strongest political grouping, threatening democracy in the birthplace of democracy.

A bloody reign of terror existed in Athens for nearly a decade, with Golden Dawn regularly targeting migrants, trade unionists and left-wing sympathizers.

It took the 2013 assassination of Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist rapper, to trigger national outrage, setting in motion the group’s decline.  

On Wednesday, Fyssa’s grieving mother, Magda Fyssa, was the first to return to the courtroom.  

Conviction, she said, that is all that they deserve.

Since the conviction of Golden Dawn’s leaders, the extremist group has all but dismantled amid defections, feuds and infighting.

Far-right extremism, though, is far from finished here.

Kostas Papadakis, a leading lawyer of the prosecution explains.

He says the trial is important because it comes amid a rise in far-right extremism and soaring numbers of attacks reported against migrants and far-left sympathizers.

Activists and judicial officials expect Golden Dawn’s leaders to receive little if any leniency in their appeal.  

But with a new recession looming, an inflation rate hovering at over 10% and tensions with Turkey stoking nationalist sentiments, analysts fear the conditions are ripe for an extremist upsurge here. 
…