President Joe Biden welcomed news late Monday that Sweden will be admitted to NATO, overcoming objections from the last holdout in the security alliance, Turkey, on the eve of a major summit of the security bloc in Lithuania’s capital.    

“I stand ready to work with (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and (Turkey) on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area,” Biden said in a statement issued from Vilnius, where he is attending the summit of NATO leaders. “I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO Ally.”    

Biden is set to meet with Erdogan late Tuesday at the end of the first day of the summit. 

Erdogan had opposed Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of not doing enough to crack down on their branch of a political party that Turkey’s government sees as extremists.   

In what appeared to be a last-ditch parry on the eve of the summit, Erdogan linked the Sweden issue with Ankara’s stalled demands to join the European Union.  

“The United States has always supported (Turkey’s) EU membership aspirations and continues to do so. (Turkey’s) membership application and process is a matter between the EU and (Turkey),” a National Security Council spokesperson told VOA. The official asked not to be identified, as is common practice when discussing administration policy. “Our focus is on Sweden, which is ready to join the NATO Alliance.”  

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Turkey’s decision on Sweden, calling it “an historic step” that makes all members stronger and safer.  

Sweden needed unanimous support from all 31 NATO members to join the alliance. Sweden and Finland applied jointly for membership last May, with both Nordic nations citing overwhelming popular support for the idea amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland’s membership was finalized in April.   

Defense spending and Ukraine 

The summit still has important issues to cover in a short time. Those include whether the members can agree on — and then meet — a commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Currently, only seven members fulfill that target.  

Another key agenda is Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO, something that Biden has candidly admitted there is no consensus about within the alliance. The U.S. is reluctant to grant quick membership for Kyiv for fear of dragging NATO into war with Russia. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he accepts that his country can only join after the conflict with Russia ends. Membership in the midst of a war would require the alliance to apply the principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all” enshrined in the bloc’s Article 5.  

Still, Zelenskyy has demanded a clear pathway to join the alliance, and during the two-day summit, NATO members will aim to nail down a compromise that will signal that Kyiv is moving closer to membership without making promises of a quick accession.   

Some NATO allies, including the U.S., U.K. and France, are set to come up with proposals to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces, including its postwar needs, through a series of long-term commitments outside the NATO framework.  

The so-called security guarantees are going to be done in “extremely close coordination, given how high the stakes are,” however it will be “different from having an Article 5 agreement to defend Ukraine,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, to VOA.   

Earlier on Tuesday, Biden will participate in a bilateral meeting with summit host President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania and with the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within the alliance.    

Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance. 
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Myanmar’s prolonged civil strife, tensions in the disputed South China Sea, and concern over an arms buildup in the region are expected to dominate the agenda when Southeast Asia’s top diplomats gather for talks this week in Indonesia. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China rivalry will also be under the spotlight as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang participate as dialogue partners of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers meeting in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. 

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will not attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, an annual security meeting, Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Sidharto Suryodipuro told a news conference on Monday, without elaborating. 

It’s also unclear who among the key figures in the world’s most intractable conflicts will meet on the sidelines of the group’s ministerial meetings. 

The top diplomats of ASEAN, which consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will meet Tuesday and Wednesday before their Asian and Western counterparts join them in discussions on Thursday and Friday. 

Group’s principles tested

Founded in 1967, the often-unwieldy collective of democracies, autocracies and monarchies has been held together for decades by bedrock principles of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and consensus-based decision-making. But that approach has also prevented the 10-nation bloc from dealing swiftly with crises that spill across borders. 

ASEAN’s principles have been tested since Myanmar’s army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and plunged the country into deadly chaos. 

More than 3,750 civilians, including pro-democracy activists, have been killed by security forces and nearly 24,000 arrested since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group that keeps tallies of such arrests and casualties. 

Myanmar’s military government has largely ignored a five-point plan by ASEAN heads of state that includes an immediate end to the violence and dialogue among all contending parties. That prompted the regional group to take an unprecedented punitive step by barring Myanmar’s military leaders from its top-level gatherings, including the ministerial meetings, that Indonesia will host. 

Since assuming ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship this year, Indonesia has initiated some 110 meetings with groups in Myanmar and provided humanitarian aid to build trust, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said, adding that continuing violence would hurt efforts to return the nation to normalcy within ASEAN. 

“ASEAN is still very concerned about the increasing use of violence in Myanmar which has resulted in civilian casualties and the destruction of public facilities,” Retno told a news conference on Friday. “This must stop immediately.” 

Two months ago, an aid convoy with Indonesian and Singaporean embassy representatives on an ASEAN mission to provide help to displaced people came under fire from unknown attackers in a road ambush in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State. A security team returned fire and a security vehicle was damaged, but no one in the convoy was injured, state-run television MRTV reported. 

ASEAN is under international pressure to effectively address the crisis in Myanmar. But ASEAN members appear divided over how to proceed, with some recommending an easing of punitive actions aimed at isolating Myanmar’s generals and inviting its top diplomat and officials back to the high-profile summit meetings. 

Retno stressed the group would continue to focus on enforcing the ASEAN leaders’ five-point plan. 

A draft of a post-meeting communique to be issued by the ASEAN foreign ministers remained blank on Myanmar, reflecting the difficulty of reaching agreement on the issue. Their concerns over other contentious issues, such as the South China Sea disputes, were included in the draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. 

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, director of the Jakarta-based Habibie Center think tank, said the situation in Myanmar could become a long-term problem like the South China Sea disputes given ASEAN’s limited capacity to solve it. The bloc, however, should try to convince Myanmar’s military government that it has better options, she said. 

“It’s recalcitrant. Its determination to hang on to power is not going to be sustainable because it’s only going to incite conflicts,” Anwar told the AP. 

Myanmar is scheduled next year to assume the role of coordinating ASEAN’s engagements with the European Union. But the E.U., which has imposed sanctions on the military government, has opposed such a role for Myanmar, two Southeast Asian diplomats told the AP on condition of anonymity because they lack authority to discuss the issue publicly. 

A call for self-restraint

On the South China Sea conflicts, ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to renew a call for self-restraint “in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability,” according to the draft communique, repeating language used in previous statements that does not name China. 

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have been embroiled in long-simmering territorial conflicts with China and Taiwan for decades. ASEAN and China have been negotiating a non-aggression pact that aims to prevent an escalation of the disputes, but the talks have faced years of delay. 

The disputed waters have emerged as a delicate front in the rivalry between China and the United States. 

Washington has challenged Beijing’s expansive territorial claims and regularly deploys warships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation and overflight patrols that have incensed China. 

Other Western and European nations have deployed navy ships on occasional patrols in the busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s trade transits, with similar calls for unimpeded commerce and mobility. 

China’s increasingly aggressive actions have prompted other countries to boost their territorial defenses. 

“We expressed concern about the growing arms race and naval power projection in the region, which could lead to miscalculation, increased tensions, and may undermine regional peace, security, and stability,” the ASEAN foreign ministers said without elaborating in their draft communique, whose wording is still subject to negotiations and could change. 

Anwar said there’s no solution in sight for the South China Sea disputes and ASEAN could only take steps to help prevent full-blown conflict. 

“We hope that China will give up this claim, but don’t hold your breath on that,” she said. 
…

The repeated harassment of U.S. drones by Russian fighter pilots in the skies over Syria is again drawing the ire of U.S. officials who now warn Russia’s antics are serving to help save key terror leaders from almost certain death.

U.S. military and defense officials have complained for months about increasing Russian harassment of U.S. drones and repeated incursions into the airspace over U.S. positions in Syria. But in the latest reported incident, the U.S. says Russian jets spent hours harassing two U.S. drones that were being used to track down and kill a senior Islamic State leader.

“It is almost as if the Russians are now on a mission to protect ISIS leaders,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday in response to a question from VOA.

“They know exactly where we operate and so there is no excuse for Russian forces’ continual harassment of our MQ-9s after years of U.S. operations in the area aimed at the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Singh added, using an acronym for the Islamic State, also known as IS or Daesh.

U.S. Central Command announced Sunday the drones successfully tracked and killed Usamah al-Muhajir in eastern Syria on Friday, noting the same drones, earlier in the day “had been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours.”

Russia’s harassment of the drones used to kill al-Muhajir came a day after the U.S. accused Russian pilots of forcing U.S. drones to take evasive maneuvers in two separate incidents over a 24-hour period.

Those incidents, spanning this past Wednesday and Thursday, included what U.S. Central Command described as close flybys by Russian fighter jets that deployed flares and engaged their afterburners in an attempt to damage the drones’ electronic systems.

Singh declined to say Monday whether any of the incidents allowed other IS targets to escape, instead noting that at least on Friday the U.S. drones were able to successfully complete their mission.

Russia’s embassy in Washington has yet to respond to VOA requests for comment.

In June, the combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command accused Russian pilots in Syria of “buffoonery in the air.”

“Anytime you have an air force that has fallen so low on the professional ladder, that they’re giving medals for buffoonery in the air, you’ve really got to wonder what they’re thinking,” Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich told reporters at the time, adding Russia’s actions were allowing IS to rebuild.

“They are running training camps and they’re building up their capabilities because the Russians and the [Syrian] regime are either incapable or unwilling to put pressure on ISIS,” he said. “They’re letting the ISIS threat grow right under their nose.”

The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria to combat the threat from IS.

Intelligence estimates by United Nations member states shared in a report earlier this year indicate the terror group has about 2,500 to 3,500 fighters across Syria and Iraq.
…

At the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, a main question will be whether Ukraine should join the alliance, even though there will be no vote on the issue. The U.S. and Germany worry its admission could lead NATO into a direct confrontation with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to attend. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. VOA Camera: Daniil Batushchak.
…

The killing of a newly qualified teacher who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a man who had only recently been released from jail shocked Spain. 

But a legal case against a journalist who had covered the subsequent investigation and trial has also sent shock waves through the media community. 

Laura Luelmo, a 26-year-old teacher who had just moved to El Campillo, was killed December 2018 in a village in southern Spain. 

Her death led to questions in the Spanish parliament over the release of convicted killers after it emerged that the suspect, Bernardo Montoya, had served 17 years behind bars for beating an elderly woman to death. 

In 2021, Montoya was found guilty of murder, rape and kidnapping and was jailed for life. He denied any wrongdoing. 

But in the first case of its kind in Spain, a court later handed down a two-year prison sentence to a journalist accused of revealing details from a judicial investigation that had been placed under a secrecy order. 

Judges in the case argued that the journalist, who at the time worked for the regional daily, Huelva Información, reported details that were not in the public interest and had violated the deceased’s right to privacy.

‘Not good for democracy’

The ruling troubles Javier Ronchel, director of Huelva Información.

“We are very worried because this case goes against the fundamental principles of the Spanish constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression,” he told VOA. 

“It is very dangerous for the profession of journalism. The judges are judging what is news and what is not. This is dangerous. As journalists and professionals, we have this ability to decide what is news,” Ronchel said.

Kathy Kiely, the Lee Hills chair of Free Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism in the U.S., told VOA that this was a classic case of “killing the messenger.”

“We don’t need Spain to be putting a journalist in jail. It is not good for democracy,” she said in a telephone interview.

“Really, what they are doing is punishing a journalist for reporting a terrible crime. The anger should be directed at the person who carried out the crime.  I can understand the family, but the judges should be better than that,” Kiely said.

VOA tried to contact judicial authorities in Huelva and the Spanish Ministry of Justice for comment on the case but did not receive a response to its emails.

Judges covering criminal cases in Spain regularly impose secrecy orders during investigations, but aspects of the case are often leaked to the media. The right to free expression is enshrined in the Spanish constitution and can be used by the media as a defense if challenged. 

Legal right to privacy

In its ruling that was made public last week, the court said the journalist, who requested anonymity, had contravened Luelmo’s right to privacy. Under Spanish law, victims still have a right to privacy even when deceased.

The case against the newspaper was brought by Luelmo’s family as a civil case and the public prosecutor in a rare criminal prosecution. 

Luelmo’s family and the prosecutor argued that the newspaper reported details of injuries and from the post-mortem examination that were not in the public interest.

In the legal judgment, seen by VOA, the family and prosecutor complained about six aspects of the reporting. 

These included reporting on the conflicting versions that Montoya gave to police about the crime, details of injuries, toxicology reports and a CCTV picture of Luelmo before she was kidnapped. 

Three judges ruled that the reports “affected the personal sphere of the deceased and her family, which caused damage without any legitimate interest other than that of offering exclusives and scoops at the expense of illegality.”

The ruling said that for the media to use the defense of freedom of expression, they had to justify that the person concerned was a public figure and merited the attention of media reports.

As part of the sentence, the Huelva Court banned the reporter from working in journalism for two years, fined her $3,510 and ordered her to pay $32,910 in compensation to Luelmo’s parents. Another journalist at Huelva Información was found not guilty. 

The 41-year-old journalist, who has since left the newspaper, told VOA she does not want to be named until the appeals court rules on the case. 

She denies any wrongdoing and is currently free pending appeal. 

She told VOA she didn’t want to comment on the sentence but added via email, ”I have a very clear conscience because I have only done my job, as I always did as a court journalist in my 17 years of experience.” 

In her email, she thanked her colleagues for “the respect and support they have shown me. It’s touching to receive so many expressions of affection.” 

Her case caught the attention of local media association AMI and international watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

The AMI, which represents 80 Spanish media outlets, said the ruling was a “serious violation of the right to freedom of information.”

On social media, RSF posted: “Serious! The Huelva Court sentences a journalist to two years for revealing secrets in a summary, something quite common in court journalism.” The watchdog added that it hoped Spain’s Supreme Court would reverse the decision.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the NATO summit after stopping in London to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Their meeting was overshadowed by Washington’s announcement that it would send cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite the bombs being banned by 123 nations, including Britain. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with the president and has this report.
…

The Netherlands and Indonesia on Monday hailed the return of hundreds of cultural artifacts taken — sometimes by force — during colonial times as a major step forward in restitution efforts worldwide.

The items, ranging from valuable jewels to 13th-century temple carvings, were officially handed back to Indonesia at a ceremony at the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden.

“We are really delighted. This is a very historic moment for both us, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. And the relationship between the two,” said Hilmar Farid, director general of cultural heritage at Indonesia’s Ministry of Culture. “But I think what we have achieved so far is also a very significant contribution to the global debate about returning of colonial objects.”

The Dutch government announced the return last week of the Indonesian treasures and looted artifacts from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry welcomed the decision and said the Indian Ocean nation will work to preserve the items, including a richly decorated ceremonial cannon.

They are the first artifacts returned home on the advice of a Dutch committee set up in 2022 to assess requests by countries for restitution of artifacts in state museums. The committee is considering more restitution requests from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Indonesia got back more than the trove of glittering jewels and ancient carvings from a temple in Java, said Farid.

“We consider these objects as our missing items in our historical narrative and of course they play different roles symbolically, culturally,” he said. Their return means Indonesia can “reintegrate them into their cultural contexts. And that is, of course, of symbolic importance to us.”

Gunay Uslu, the Dutch state secretary for culture and media, called the presentation Monday “a historically, important” event that resonates beyond the Netherlands and its former colony.

“It’s also an important moment for the world because it’s about colonial objects in a colonial context. So it’s a sensitive topic,” she said.

A Berlin museum announced in January it is ready to return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa. In 2021, France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. And last year, Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.
…

Latest developments:

Ukrainian officials say the country’s forces have recaptured 193 square kilometers of territory since launching a counteroffensive last month.





Poland, which serves as a hub for military aid to Ukraine, says it detained a 15th member of a Russian spy network. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said the person “kept surveillance of military facilities and seaports.”

The Kremlin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and several Wagner commanders days after Prigozhin led a brief mutiny.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the three-hour meeting included Putin giving his assessment “of the events of June 24,” the date of the rebellion, and listening to the commanders giving their account of what happened.

Peskov said the commanders pledged to continue to fight for Russia.

Wagner has taken part in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Prigozhin had criticized Russia’s military leadership ahead of the mutiny, in which Wagner forces briefly seized control of the headquarters for Russia’s southern military command.

The rebellion ended with a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, allowing Prigozhin and his fighters to move to Belarus.

The mutiny prompted speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin would reshuffle his military leadership.

Russia’s defense ministry shared a video Monday showing Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the country’s most senior general, in his first public appearance since the mutiny.

The video shows Gerasimov receiving a report and giving directions to Russia’s aerospace forces and the military’s intelligence service.

Gerasimov was one of the main targets of Prigozhin’s criticism, along with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Still absent from public view is Gerasimov’s deputy, General Sergei Surovikin, who has longtime links to Prigozhin.

NATO summit

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday his country could support Sweden joining NATO if the European Union opens the way for Turkey’s long-sought accession to the EU.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members not to give final approval to Sweden’s bid, with Turkey expressing opposition to what it says is a lack of action by Sweden against groups that Turkey considers terrorists.

“Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdogan said ahead of the NATO summit this week in Lithuania. “I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years.”

The EU and Turkey launched membership negotiations in 2005. The process has been stalled since 2016 due to concerns about democracy and human rights.

Sweden applied to join NATO along with Finland last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland was admitted in April. Swedish officials say they have lived up to an agreement with Turkey to institute reforms, including enacting a new anti-terror law.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was due to hold talks with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday.

Stoltenberg said leaders at the Vilnius summit this week in Lithuania will agree on a “multi-year package of support” for Ukraine.

This package will help Ukraine rebuild its defense and security sector, so that it can defend against further aggression,” Stoltenberg said in a Foreign Affairs article published Monday. “It will ensure that the Ukrainian armed forces are fully interoperable with NATO forces.”

The NATO chief said the alliance will host the first meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine council that will serve as “a platform for decisions and crisis consultation, where NATO allies and Ukraine will sit as equals to tackle shared security concerns.”

Stoltenberg has reiterated that NATO members agree Ukraine will one day join the alliance, while cautioning that adding Ukraine while Russia’s invasion is ongoing is not on the agenda.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview with CNN broadcast Sunday that if Ukraine were to become a NATO member before the war’s end, it would drag the whole alliance into the conflict against Russia. Biden also said that before Ukraine is considered for NATO membership, it will take time to meet all the qualifications required “from democratization to a whole range of other issues.”

Orikhiv attack

Officials in southern Ukraine said Monday that Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid hub, killing at least four people and injuring 11 others.

The attack happened in the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Yuriy Malashko, the regional governor, said on Telegram that Russia forces used a guided bomb to strike the site in a residential neighborhood and that all four of those killed died at the scene of the attack.

Russia has been accused of striking numerous civilian targets during its invasion that began in February 2022, while denying it targets civilian sites.

Azov release

Zelenskyy tweeted a note of thanks to Turkey on Monday along with a video from his trip that included bringing home five commanders from Ukraine’s Azov unit who were involved in the defense of the city of Mariupol.

The commanders were taken to Turkey as part of a September prisoner swap and were supposed to stay there until the end of the war under the conditions of the deal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Turkey had violated the terms of the agreement and that Russia was not informed in advance that the commanders would be released back to Ukraine.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Australia has confirmed one of the largest defense export deals in its history selling armored combat vehicles to Germany. The $661million announcement was made by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he arrived in Berlin ahead of talks at a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Australia will supply Germany with 100 Brisbane-made Boxer armored combat vehicles from 2025.

The deal is worth $661 million and is expected to be formally signed on Tuesday.

Analysts have said the Boxer heavy assault vehicle, which is armed with a cannon, has a reputation for mobility, firepower and protection from explosives with a reinforced hull and wheel housings. The Australian-made assault vehicles will eventually replace aging heavy weapons carriers in German army platoons.

German defense contractor Rheinmetall started producing the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle in the Australian state of Queensland in March. It has a contract to supply more than 200 vehicles to the Australian military.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen European nations replenish military hardware, which has given Australia the opportunity to export German military technology back to Germany.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Berlin, Germany Sunday that it was a historic arms deal for his country.

“This will be one of our largest-ever exports,” he said.  [It] will guarantee that the 1,000 jobs that are there in Queensland will go into the future and will be worth in excess of AUD$1 billion for the Australian economy. This will boost our sovereignty; this will increase our defense capability and boost our economy.”

Albanese also is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia is one of the largest non-NATO contributors to Kyiv’s war effort.

Canberra has recently approved an additional $73.3m in military aid to Ukraine.

On Sunday, Education Minister Jason Clare told local media that while there had been criticism that Australia’s assistance to repel the February 2022 Russian invasion was not enough, the Canberra government has indicated that more support could be on its way, although no details were given.

Albanese will also meet the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, on his trip to Europe, along with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, who have also been invited to attend this week’s NATO summit.
…

Latest developments:

Ukrainian officials say the country's forces have recaptured 193 square kilometers of territory since launching a counteroffensive last month.





Poland, which serves as a hub for military aid to Ukraine, says it detained a 15th member of a Russian spy network. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said the person "kept surveillance of military facilities and seaports."

Officials in southern Ukraine said Monday that Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid hub, killing at least four people and injuring 11 others.

The attack happened in the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Yuriy Malashko, the regional governor, said on Telegram that Russia forces used a guided bomb to strike the site in a residential neighborhood and that all four of those killed died at the scene of the attack.

Russia has been accused of striking numerous civilian targets during its invasion that began in February 2022, while denying it targets civilian sites.

NATO summit

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said leaders at a summit this week in Lithuania will agree on a “multi-year package of support” for Ukraine.

“This package will help Ukraine rebuild its defense and security sector, so that it can defend against further aggression,” Stoltenberg said in a Foreign Affairs article published Monday. “It will ensure that the Ukrainian armed forces are fully interoperable with NATO forces.”

The NATO chief said the alliance will host the first meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine council that will serve as “a platform for decisions and crisis consultation, where NATO allies and Ukraine will sit as equals to tackle shared security concerns.”

Stoltenberg has reiterated that NATO members agree Ukraine will one day join the alliance, while cautioning that adding Ukraine while Russia’s invasion is ongoing is not on the agenda.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview with CNN broadcast Sunday that if Ukraine were to become a NATO member before the war’s end, it would drag the whole alliance into the conflict against Russia.

The U.S. president also said that before Ukraine is considered for NATO membership, it will take time to meet all the qualifications required “from democratization to a whole range of other issues.” In the meantime, he expressed the U.S. commitment to provide Ukraine “the weaponry they need, the capacity to defend themselves.”

Biden said there is no unanimity in NATO on whether to bring Ukraine into the alliance in the middle of the war, emphasizing that “holding NATO together is really critical.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” that during the summit, he hopes to “do whatever he can to… expedite solutions for an agreement with our partners.”

Cluster bombs

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, both Democrats, expressed concerns Sunday over the White House decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion.

Cluster munitions typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode upon contact with the ground then pose a danger for decades. They are banned by more than 100 entities, though not the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

Kaine, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he had “some real qualms” about the U.S. decision because it could inspire other countries to bypass the international convention barring the munitions.

“It could give a green light to other nations to do something different as well,” Kaine said on “Fox News Sunday.” However, he said that he “appreciates the Biden administration has grappled with the risks.” Kaine also affirmed that Ukraine had given assurances that they were not going to use these munitions against Russian civilians.

Republican U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told “CNN Sunday,” Ukraine’s counteroffensive was going slowly and that cluster bombs could be a “game changer” for the Ukrainians, adding that he’s pleased the administration has finally agreed to do this.”

However, Lee urged the Biden administration to reconsider the move.

“Cluster bombs should never be used. That’s crossing a line,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding the United States risked losing its “moral leadership” by delivering cluster bombs to Ukraine.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby defended the U.S. decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, saying Sunday that it will keep the country “in the fight,” as Ukrainian forces are running out of regular artillery ammunition.

Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres all expressed opposition to the U.S. decision.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the U.S. announcement and promised the cluster munitions would be used only in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and not in Russia.

Moscow described the U.S. decision as another egregious example of Washington’s anti-Russian course.

Wagner mutiny      

Russia’s defense ministry shared a video Monday showing Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the country’s most senior general, in his first public appearance since a brief mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group. 

The video shows Gerasimov receiving a report and giving directions to Russia’s aerospace forces and the military’s intelligence service. 

Gerasimov was one of the main targets of criticism, along with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, for Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led his forces in the takeover of the headquarters of Russia’s southern military command late last month.   

The rebellion prompted speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin would reshuffle his military leadership. 

Still absent from public view is Gerasimov’s deputy, General Sergei Surovikin, who has longtime links to Prigozhin. 

Azov release

Zelenskyy tweeted a note of thanks to Turkey on Monday along with a video from his trip that included bringing home five commanders from Ukraine’s Azov unit who were involved in the defense of the city of Mariupol.

The commanders were taken to Turkey as part of a September prisoner swap and were supposed to stay there until the end of the war under the conditions of the deal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Turkey had violated the terms of the agreement and that Russia was not informed in advance that the commanders would be released back to Ukraine.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this article was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is in London for an overnight stop Sunday enroute to Lithuania for the NATO summit in Vilnius, where it remains unlikely that the alliance will welcome Sweden as its 32nd member due to persistent objections from Turkey.

During the flight to Britain, Biden spoke on the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a last-minute push to pave the way toward Ankara agreeing to Sweden’s accession — a process that must be unanimous among all current members.

“I can’t characterize how close, how far, all I can say is that we believe that Sweden should be admitted to NATO as soon as possible,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One enroute to London. “We believe that there should be a pathway to do so.”

In a readout of the call, Ankara stated that Sweden has taken some steps in the right direction but has not made sufficient progress to support Stockholm’s application to join NATO.

Ankara has accused Sweden of being too lenient toward militant Kurdish organizations that Turkey considers terrorist groups. Following Turkish demands, Sweden has enacted reforms, including a new anti-terrorism law. Erdogan initially accused Finland of doing the same but approved Helsinki’s application to join NATO in April.

Sullivan added that Biden and Erdogan discussed the sale of F-16s, a subject that remains a sticking point for Ankara despite its public denials. In its statement, Ankara noted Erdogan said “it would be incorrect to associate Sweden’s NATO accession with the sale of F-16 jets” while thanking Biden for his support to Ankara on its desire to purchase the fighter planes.

Lawmakers from both parties in the U.S. Congress, which has authority to approve major weapon sales, insist that Ankara must first drop its objections to Sweden’s accession before the deal can proceed.

Hungary also opposes Sweden’s bid but has said it will approve it if Turkey assents.

Biden, British leaders to meet

On Monday Biden will meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles to discuss various bilateral issues and climate financing for developing nations.

It will be Biden and Sunak’s sixth meeting in six months. In June, Biden hosted Sunak at the White House, committing to the Atlantic Declaration to cooperate on advanced technologies, clean energy, and critical minerals to counter China’s clout around the world.  

Biden heads to Vilnius Monday evening for a two-day meeting with NATO leaders where they will discuss bolstering support for Ukraine, which includes hashing out the final wording of a compromise communique that will signal to Kyiv it is moving closer to membership without promises of a quick accession. He has repeatedly said Ukraine must make additional reforms to qualify for NATO membership.

In an interview taped last week, Biden told CNN he thinks it is premature to call for a vote on Ukraine joining NATO.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden said. “I don’t think there’s unanimity in NATO now …in the middle of a war. If the war is going on [and Ukraine was a NATO member], then we’re all in the war. We’re at war with Russia,” since NATO’s charter calls for all its members to defend any individual country when it is attacked.

Allies will also discuss security guarantees for Kyiv outside of the NATO framework as it moves toward membership. Sullivan said that Washington alongside allies and partners within a multilateral framework will negotiate long-term bilateral security commitments with Ukraine.

“Meaning that the United States would be prepared to provide in various forms of military assistance, intelligence and information sharing, cyber support and other forms of material support, so that Ukraine can both defend itself and deter future aggression,” he said.

NATO countries, led by the United States, have sent billions of dollars in armaments to Ukraine, but Russian aerial bombardments have continued to kill dozens of Ukrainian civilians even as Kyiv’s forces have shot down hundreds of incoming missiles. The ones that landed have killed people and destroyed residential buildings.

Next stop: Helsinki

After the NATO summit, Biden heads to Helsinki, the Finnish capital, to commemorate Finland recently joining the military alliance created in the aftermath of World War II, and to meet with Nordic leaders.

Finland joined NATO in April, effectively doubling the length of Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Biden has characterized the strengthened NATO alliance as a sign of Moscow’s declining influence.

White House correspondent Anita Powell and VOA’s Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.  
…

At least 300 people who were traveling on three migrant boats from Senegal to Spain’s Canary Islands have disappeared, migrant aid group Walking Borders said Sunday. 

Two boats, one carrying about 65 people and the other with between 50 and 60 on board, have been missing for 15 days since they left Senegal to try to reach Spain, Helena Maleno of Walking Borders told Reuters. 

A third boat left Senegal on June 27 with about 200 people aboard. 

The families of those on board have not heard from them since they left, Maleno said. 

All three boats left Kafountine in the south of Senegal, which is about 1,700 kilometers (1,057 miles) from Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. 

“The families are very worried. There [are] about 300 people from the same area of Senegal. They have left because of the instability in Senegal,” Maleno said. 

The Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller number also seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish mainland. Summer is the busiest period for all attempted crossings. 

The Atlantic migration route, one of the deadliest in the world, is typically used by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. At least 559 people — including 22 children — died in 2022 in attempts to reach the Canary Islands, according to data from the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden expressed a desire to see Sweden join NATO “as soon as possible” in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in which they discussed Sweden’s bid to become a member of the Western alliance, the White House said Sunday.

Turkey, along with Hungary, has been a stumbling block to Sweden’s bid, which requires unanimous approval by all NATO members.

Erdogan told Biden that Stockholm has taken steps in the right direction for Ankara to ratify its bid, referring to an anti-terrorism law, but said these steps were not useful as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) supporters continued to hold demonstrations in Sweden, the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate said separately Sunday.

Biden “conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said in a statement.

The leaders agreed to meet face-to-face in Vilnius, Lithuania, at an upcoming NATO summit and discuss bilateral relations and regional issues in detail, the Turkish presidency also said.

On Thursday, Sweden failed to convince Turkey to lift its block on Stockholm’s path to NATO membership in a foreign minister-level meeting, as Ankara requested more action in the fight against terrorism.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he would convene a meeting Monday between Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Vilnius.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While Finland’s NATO membership was green-lighted in April, Turkey and Hungary have yet to clear Sweden’s bid. Stockholm has been working to join at next week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.

During their call, Biden and Erdogan also discussed the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, and Ukraine’s aim to join NATO, according to the Turkish presidency’s readout.
…

As NATO members prepare for their upcoming summit in Vilnius, the U.S. has again justified its decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. The chances of Kyiv joining NATO anytime soon, however, are almost nil, as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Latest developments:

Russian air defense systems downed four missiles Sunday, Russian officials said on Telegram. One of the drones was shot down over the annexed Crimean Peninsula and three over Russia's Rostov and Bryansk regions bordering Ukraine. Moscow alleges Ukraine regularly targets areas inside Russia. Kyiv denies these accusations, saying it is fighting a defensive war.
Turkey favors Ukraine’s entrance into NATO. “Without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to be in NATO,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Istanbul.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Black Sea grain deal in a phone call with Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Sunday, Russia's foreign ministry said. Moscow has been threatening to quit the deal, expiring July 17, that allows the safe passage of grain and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea if its terms to export its own grain and fertilizer are not met.
The British defense ministry said Sunday that Russian state media outlets were caught off guard by last month’s Wagner Group mutiny. “Outlets were almost certainly initially surprised by the mutiny and were not prepared,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence report on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is not ready for membership with NATO before the war’s end, said U.S. President Joe Biden.

If Ukraine were to join the alliance during the war, he told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday, “we are at war with Russia if that were the case,” meaning the NATO alliance will be dragged into the conflict.

The U.S. president also said that before Ukraine is considered for NATO membership, it will take time to meet all the qualifications required “from democratization to a whole range of other issues.” In the meantime, he expressed the U.S. commitment to provide Ukraine “the weaponry they need, the capacity to defend themselves.”

Biden will be in Europe this week for a three-nation tour that includes attending the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania July 11-12. He said there is no unanimity in NATO on whether to bring Ukraine into the alliance in the middle of the war, emphasizing that “holding NATO together is really critical.”

Watch related video by Patsy Widakuswara:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” show, that during the summit, he hopes to “do whatever he can to…. expedite solutions for an agreement with our partners.”

Zelenskyy also touted Ukraine’s value as a future NATO country member “with actually the strongest armed forces in Europe.” He added, “Ninety percent of Ukrainians want to be a part of NATO. More than 90 percent of Ukrainians want to be a part of the European Union.”

Ukraine shelling

At least eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded by Russian artillery Saturday in the Ukrainian city of Lyman, a key railway junction in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian forces tried to advance in the Lyman sector but were repelled, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces reported. It said at least 10 towns and villages were struck by the shelling, which started fires that burned a house, printing shop and three cars in the area.

The attacks came as Ukraine marked the 500th day of the Russian invasion.

US allies on cluster bombs

National Security Council spokesperson Kirby Sunday defended the U.S. decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, saying that it will keep the country “in the fight,” as Ukrainian forces are running out of regular artillery ammunition.

Watch related video by Veronica Balderas Iglesias:

U.S. allies and Russia reacted Saturday to the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions that are banned by more than 100 entities, though not the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres all expressed opposition to the U.S. decision.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the U.S. announcement to deliver cluster bombs to Kyiv and promised the munitions would be used only in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and not in Russia.Reznikov said on Twitter that the new weapons “will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.”

Cluster munitions typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode upon contact with the ground then pose a danger for decades.

Moscow described the U.S. decision as another egregious example of Washington’s anti-Russian course.

Biden defended the U.S. move Friday, calling it a “difficult decision.” “It took me a while to be convinced to do it,” Biden said in a CNN interview, underscoring the cluster munitions would help Ukraine to “stop those [Russian] tanks from rolling.”

Biden’s decision circumvents U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1% by allocating the munitions from existing defense stocks under the Foreign Assistance Act once the president deems that such a provision is in the U.S. national security interest.

The cluster munition supply is part of an $800 million security package that has brought U.S. military aid to Ukraine to more than $40 billion since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, and VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Hundreds lined the Bosnian capital’s main street Sunday as a truck carrying 30 coffins passed on its way to Srebrenica, where newly identified victims of Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II will be buried on the 28th anniversary of the massacre.

As the truck, covered with a huge Bosnian flag, briefly stopped in front of the country’s presidential building, members of the crowd tucked flowers into the canvas hiding the remains of victims found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis.

“It is devastatingly sad that hundreds of victims still have not been found and that some people still deny the genocide [in Srebrenica],” said Ramiza Gandic, who came to pay her respects.

Newly identified Srebrenica massacre victims are reburied annually on July 11, the day the killing began in 1995, at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery outside the eastern town.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and reburied there.

The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalistic passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic populations — Croats and Bosniaks.

In July 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a U.N.-protected safe haven in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters, chased them through the woods around the ill-fated town, and slaughtered them.

The perpetrators then plowed their victims’ bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they later dug up with bulldozers, scattering the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes.

The massacre has been declared a genocide by international and national courts. Still, Serb leaders in Bosnia and neighboring Serbia continue to downplay or even deny it, despite the irrefutable evidence of what happened.
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Two controversial laws signed by the Bosnian Serb president, which Washington says undermine the peace deal that ended Bosnia’s 1990s war, entered into force on Sunday.

Kremlin ally President Milorad Dodik had on Friday signed legislation into law that effectively allow the Bosnian Serb entity to bypass or ignore decisions made by the top international envoy to Bosnia.

The latter, currently German diplomat Christian Schmidt, oversees the civilian aspects of the Dayton peace deal that ended the 1992-1995 war.

The international envoy has important executive powers notably to sack elected officials and impose laws.

A second piece of legislation signed into law by Dodik on Friday suspends the Bosnian Serb entity’s recognition of rulings made by Bosnia’s constitutional court.

On Sunday, both bills, that were approved by Bosnian Serb lawmakers last month, officially entered into force with their publication in the official gazette of Republika Srpska (RS).

The RS along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up post-war Bosnia.

The two semi-autonomous entities are linked by a weak central government.

The Bosnian Serb entity’s initiatives had provoked strong reactions particularly from Bosnian Muslim leaders, and have also been criticized by Washington, Paris and Berlin.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday tweeted that Dodik’s signing of a law rejecting the international envoy authority “violates the Bosnia and Herzegovina constitution and undermines the Dayton Accords.”

Dodik signed the bills just days after Schmidt tried to head off the controversial moves by passing an executive order that deems them illegal and prevents their implementation.

Schmidt made the ruling last weekend when he also passed a new measure that would allow Bosnia’s judiciary to prosecute politicians who oppose his orders and those of the constitutional court — with punishments running up to five years in jail.

Dodik has refused to recognize Schmidt’s authority since the position lost the backing of the United Nations thanks to an intervention by Russia and Beijing.

Dodik — who remains a Moscow ally — has held enormous sway over the Bosnian Serb entity for years, repeatedly stoking ethnic tensions with his secessionist threats.

Earlier this week, Dodik vowed to continue to oppose the envoy.
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NEZUK, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA — A solemn peace march started on Saturday through the forests in eastern Bosnia in memory of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II.

The annual 100-kilometer march retraces a route taken by thousands of men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, made up primarily of Muslims, who were slaughtered as they tried to flee Srebrenica after it was captured by Bosnian Serb forces late in the 1992-95 war.

The march is part of several events preceding the commemorations on the actual date of the massacre on July 11.

Nearly 4,000 people joined this year’s march, according to organizers. The event comes as ethnic tensions still persist, with Bosnian Serbs continuing to push for more independence and their open calls for separation.

“I come here to remember my brother and my friends, war comrades, who perished here,” said Resid Dervisevic, who was among those who took this route back in 1995. “I believe it is my obligation, our obligation to do this, to nurture and guard (our memories).”

Osman Salkic, another Srebrenica survivor, said, “Feelings are mixed when you come here, to this place, when you know how people were lying (dead) here in 1995 and what the situation is like today.”

The war in Bosnia erupted in 1992 after the former Yugoslavia broke up and Bosnian Serbs launched a rebellion and a land grab to form their own state and join Serbia. More than 100,000 people died before the war ended in 1995 in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement.

In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak males were separated by Serb troops from their wives, mothers and sisters, chased through woods around Srebrenica and killed. Bosnian Serb soldiers dumped the victims’ bodies in numerous mass graves scattered around the eastern town in an attempt to hide the evidence of the crime.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Bosnia’s carnage was considered the worst in Europe since WWII. There have been fears that the separatist policies of pro-Russian Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik could fuel further instability as the war rages in Ukraine.

Despite rulings from two U.N. courts, Dodik has denied that genocide took place in Srebrenica, even as the remains of newly identified victims are continuously being unearthed from mass graves. They are reburied each year on July 11, the day the killing began in 1995.

A U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands, has sentenced to life in prison both the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and the ex-military commander Ratko Mladic for orchestrating the genocide.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and buried at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery outside Srebrenica. The remains of 30 more victims will be laid to rest there Tuesday.
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STOCKHOLM – Surrounded by emotional fans from around the globe, Elton John hailed them as his “lifeblood” as he gave his final farewell concert in Stockholm after more than 50 years of live performances.

“You know how much I like to play live. It’s been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you’ve been absolutely magnificent,” he told the delighted audience at the arena in the Swedish capital.

Wearing a tailcoat accented with rhinestones and a red pair of his trademark large glasses, the 76-year-old pop superstar sat down at the piano shortly after 8 p.m. local time to cheers to open his farewell show with one of his most popular songs, Bennie and the Jets.

Playing for more than two hours, John interspersed the songs with moments when he would leave the piano to thank not only his fans but also his band and his crew, some of whom have been with him for more than 40 years.

“I want to pay tribute to these musicians. … They’re really incredible, they’ve been with me so long, some of them. And they are the best, I tell you, the best,” he said.

Shortly after a rendition of Border Song which he dedicated to Aretha Franklin, John’s I’m Still Standing brought the 30,000 fans at the Tele2 Arena to their feet.

Before he took his encore, John screened a message from Coldplay, who were playing in the western Swedish city of Gothenburg, in which singer Chris Martin thanked him for his career and commitment.

“It was amazing. I have no words right now because I haven’t processed all the show, but it was amazing,” said Anton Pohjonen, a 25-year-old bank worker from Finland.

“You almost start tearing up on his account. But then it feels great to be here,” added Swedish teacher Conny Johansson, who bought tickets for the show four years ago.

Excited fans were looking forward to an emotional end to the superstar’s glittering live career even before the curtain went up.

“It’s going to be very emotional tonight,” said Kate Bugaj, 25, a Polish student who admitted she had delayed her master’s exams to follow her musical hero’s tour.

Describing herself as a “huge fan,” she said it all began the first time she watched The Lion King, the 1994 Walt Disney film which gave John one of his two Oscar music wins.

Fifty-year-old Jeanie Kincer traveled from Kentucky in the United States for the show.

“I wanted to be here for the end because I was too young to be here in the beginning,” she said.

The star has been winding down his decades-long live career with a global farewell tour.

He played his last concerts in the United States in May and brought the curtain down on Britain’s annual Glastonbury Festival last month.

Saturday’s farewell concert was the second consecutive evening the Stockholm stadium hosted the legendary British singer-songwriter for the last leg of his final tour, which began five years ago and was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and a hip operation in 2021.

On his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, John will have given 330 concerts, crisscrossing Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain, before closing in Stockholm.

Overall, the tour has seen him perform in front of 6.25 million fans. 
…

PARIS – About 2,000 people defied a ban Saturday to join a memorial rally in central Paris for a young Black man who died in police custody, while marches took place throughout France to denounce police brutality, as tensions remain high after days of rioting engulfed the country.

Nationwide, around 5,900 people took to the streets, according to the interior ministry.

Seven years after the death of Adama Traore, his sister had planned to lead an annual commemorative march north of Paris in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.

But fearful of reigniting recent unrest sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. at a traffic stop near Paris, a court ruled the chance of public disturbance was too high to allow the march to proceed.

In a video posted on Twitter, Assa Traore, Adama’s older sister, denounced the decision.

“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother,” she said.

She instead attended a rally in central Paris’s Place de la Republique to tell “the whole world that our dead have the right to exist, even in death.

“We are marching for the youth to denounce police violence. They want to hide our deaths,” she said at the rally, also attended by several lawmakers.

“They authorize marches by neo-Nazis, but they don’t allow us to march. France cannot give us moral lessons. Its police is racist and violent,” she said.

The Paris rally had also been banned on the grounds that it could disrupt public order and a legal case has been opened against Assa Traore for organizing the event, police said.

Youssouf Traore, another of Assa Tarore’s brothers, was arrested and taken into custody on suspicion of violence against a person holding public authority, public prosecutors told AFP.

“The march went off peacefully, it was a success, we don’t understand his arrest,” Assa Traore said.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the outspoken head of the radical leftist France Unbowed party, castigated the government on Twitter.

“From prohibition to repression … the leader is taking France to a regime we have already seen. Danger. Danger,” he tweeted, referring to the World War II regime of Vichy leader Philippe Petain who collaborated with the Nazis.

Many at the rally shouted “Justice for Nahel” before calmly dispersing later in the afternoon.

Around 30 demonstrations against police violence also took place across France, including in the southern port city of Marseille and in Strasbourg in the east. Authorities in Lille banned a gathering.

Several trade unions, political parties and associations had called on supporters to join the march for Traore as France reels from allegations of institutionalized racism in its police ranks following Nahel M.’s shooting.

Traore, who was 24 years old, died shortly after his arrest in 2016, sparking several nights of unrest that played out similarly to the weeklong rioting that erupted across the country in the wake of the point-blank shooting of Nahel.

The teenager’s death on June 27 rekindled long-standing accusations of systemic racism among security forces, and a U.N. committee urged France to ban racial profiling.

The foreign ministry on Saturday disputed what it called excessive and unfounded remarks by the panel.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination — 18 independent experts — on Friday asked France to pass legislation defining and banning racial profiling and questioned “excessive use of force by law enforcement.”

“Any ethnic profiling by law enforcement is banned in France,” the ministry responded, adding that “the struggle against excesses in racial profiling has intensified.”

Far-right parties have linked the most intense and widespread riots France has seen since 2005 to mass migration and have demanded curbs on new arrivals.

More than 3,700 people have been taken into police custody in connection with the protests since Nahel’s death, including at least 1,160 minors, according to official figures. 
…

 Latest developments:

Ukraine’s military intelligence reported Saturday that Russia continues to deliver mines and explosives around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The IAEA’s on-site experts say they have not yet found any explosives during their inspections of the nuclear plant but note they have not been granted access to inspect the rooftops.
Turkey favors Ukraine’s entrance into NATO. “Without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to be in NATO,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Istanbul.
Wagner mercenary fighters are preparing to move to Belarus under the agreement that averted their mutiny against Russia's military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying. The exact whereabouts of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries is unclear.
Poland began moving over 1,000 troops to the east of the country Saturday, the defense minister said, amid rising concern in the NATO-member that Wagner Group mercenaries were moving to Belarus and that their presence could lead to increased tensions on its border. 

At least eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded by Russian artillery Saturday in the Ukrainian city of Lyman, a key railway junction in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian forces tried to advance in the Lyman sector but were repelled, the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported. It said at least 10 towns and villages were struck by the shelling, which started fires that burned a house, printing shop and three cars in the area.

The attacks came as Ukraine marked the 500th day of the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy observed the somber anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the liberated Snake Island in the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian president thanked soldiers during a morning address Saturday.

“I thank you! Thank you to everyone who fights for Ukraine. … We will definitely win,” he said.

In a statement marking the 500 days of war in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed Ukraine’s resilience.

“The United States remains committed to helping Ukraine defend itself and to rebuild its future. Each day, the people of Ukraine demonstrate their resilience and unity in defending against Moscow’s brutal, relentless assaults. In the face of enormous adversity, the people of Ukraine inspire the world, reminding us of the importance of upholding the tenets of the U.N. Charter,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

Earlier Saturday, returning from his visit to Turkey, Zelenskyy brought home five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.

After a three-month siege, the city was seized by Russian forces and the five fighters were sent to Turkey, where they were to remain until the end of the war as part of a prisoner swap brokered by Turkey between Russia and Ukraine.

Russian denounced their release. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow.

Peskov said the release was a result of pressure from Turkey’s NATO allies ahead of next week’s summit, where Ukraine hopes to receive a positive signal about its future membership in the military alliance.

US allies on cluster bombs

U.S. allies and Russia reacted Saturday to the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions that are banned by more than 100 countries, though not the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres all expressed opposition to the U.S. decision.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the U.S. announcement to deliver cluster bombs to Kyiv and promised the munitions would be used only in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and not in Russia.

Reznikov said on Twitter that the new weapons “will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.”

Reznikov said that cluster munitions will be used “only in the fields where there is a concentration of Russian military.” He emphasized that such munitions will not be used in urban areas to avoid the risks for the civilian populations.

“These are our people; they are Ukrainians, and we have a duty to protect,” he wrote.

Cluster munitions typically release large numbers of smaller bombs that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode upon contact with the ground then pose a danger for decades.

Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., said Friday in an interview with VOA’s Ukraine Service that the cluster bombs from the U.S. are “of a much better quality and much safer than the typical cluster munitions that people are talking about.”   She said the cluster munitions “will help us to faster liberate our territories.” 

Moscow described the U.S. decision as another egregious example of Washington’s anti-Russian course.

President Joe Biden defended the U.S. move Friday, calling it a “difficult decision.”

“It took me a while to be convinced to do it,” Biden said in a CNN interview, underscoring the cluster munitions would help Ukraine to “stop those [Russian] tanks from rolling.”

Biden’s decision circumvents U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1% by allocating the munitions from existing defense stocks under the Foreign Assistance Act once the president deems that such a provision is in the U.S. national security interest.

The cluster munition supply is part of an $800 million security package that brings the total U.S. military aid to Ukraine to more than $40 billion since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, and VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence  France-Presse and Reuters. 
…