Tens of thousands of people converged on the Serbian capital on Friday for a major rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic, who is facing an unprecedented revolt against his autocratic rule amid the crisis triggered by two mass shootings that stunned the nation. 

The event was somewhat overshadowed by a new crisis in Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs clashed with Kosovo police on Friday and Vucic ordered Serbian troops to be put on a “higher state of alert.” Vucic also said he ordered an “urgent” movement of Serbian troops to the border with Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. 

Answering Vucic’s call for what he called “the largest rally in the history of Serbia,” his supporters, many wearing identical T-shirts with his portrait, were bused to Belgrade from all over the Balkan country as well as neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia. 

Those working in state firms and institutions were told to take a day off from work to attend the rally in front of the parliament building. Some said that they were warned that they could lose their jobs if they didn’t show up on the buses, which started arriving hours before the gathering was to start. 

Serbian officials said the rally promotes “unity and hope” for Serbia. 

At three large anti-government protests held earlier this month in the capital, demonstrators demanded Vucic’s ouster and the resignation of two senior security officials. They also demanded the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses for two pro-Vucic television stations that they say promote violence and often host convicted war criminals and other crime figures. 

Opposition protesters blame Vucic for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the May 3 and May 4 mass shootings that left 18 people dead and 20 wounded, many of them schoolchildren who were gunned down by a 13-year-old schoolmate. 

Vucic has vehemently denied any responsibility for the shootings, calling organizers of the opposition protests “vultures” and “hyenas” who want to use the tragedies to try to come to power by force and without an election. 

“They are not against violence, they want my head,” he said. 

Analysts believe that by staging the mass rally, Vucic, who has ruled the country for more than a decade with a firm grip on power, is trying to overshadow the opposition protests with the sheer number of participants. 

“For the first time, Vucic has a problem,” said political analyst Zoran Gavrilovic. “His problem is not so much the opposition, but Serbian society that has woken up.” 

During the rally, Vucic is expected to announce he is stepping down from the helm of his Serbian Progressive Party and forming “a movement” that will unite all “patriotic forces” in the country. He also could call for a new parliamentary election for September — something unlikely to be accepted by the opposition under the current conditions where he has full control over all pillars of power, including the mainstream media. 

Vucic, a former pro-Russia ultranationalist who now says that he wants to take the country into the European Union, has alleged that “foreign intelligence services” are behind the opposition protests. He said that he received the tip from “sisterly” spy agencies “from the east” — thought to mean Russia. 

There are widespread fears that violence could erupt during the rally on Friday that could then be used as a pretext for a crackdown on future opposition protests, including one that is scheduled in Belgrade on Saturday. 

Similar big rallies were held in Serbia in the early 1990s when strongman Slobodan Milosevic delivered fiery speeches that heralded the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and rallied the masses for the wars that followed. 
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Pope Francis skipped meetings Friday because he was running a fever, the Vatican said.

There were no details about how sick Francis was. The last time he spiked a serious fever, in March, the 86-year-old pontiff was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. He received intravenous antibiotics and was released three days later.

A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the pope’s health, said Francis didn’t receive anyone in audience Friday “because of a feverish state.”

There were no formal audiences scheduled Friday, but Francis keeps a separate, private and unofficial agenda of meetings with people he receives at his residence.

Francis has had a busy week, presiding over a meeting of the Italian bishops conference, participating in an afternoon encounter Thursday with his school foundation Scholas Occurentes, as well as meeting with several other prelates and visiting dignitaries.

He is due to preside over Pentecost Mass on Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica, and in a sign that he was expected to recover quickly, the Vatican on Friday announced a new official audience with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, scheduled for Monday.
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New developments:

Russia accused Ukrainian militia of using U.S.-made armored vehicles in a cross-border incursion on Monday
In response, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized Thursday that U.S. is not at war with Russia
JCS Chief Mark Milley said Washington asked Kyiv not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia

The British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that for at least 20 years, Russia has experienced a “proliferation of paramilitary groups” from Russia’s military.

The “paramilitarization” has increased dramatically, the ministry said, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially in the Crimean Peninsula, where many units have been given “some semi-official status as reserve units of the regular army.”

Sergei Aksyonov, the leader of Russian-occupied Crimea, is described as having been “instrumental” in creating these paramilitary groups in the region.

Now, however, Aksyonov is likely eager to distinguish himself by recruiting fighters, but the ministry said he is “likely concerned” about the military’s capacity to defend the peninsula.

“The main element of the Russian garrison, 22nd Army Corps,” the ministry said, “is currently mostly deployed outside the peninsula and has taken heavy casualties.”

‘This is Ukraine’s fight’

On Thursday, U.S. defense leaders were careful to draw the distinction that despite Washington’s continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the United States itself is not at war with Russia.

At a news conference following a virtual meeting of dozens of countries supporting Ukraine militarily, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded to concerns that U.S. military vehicles, reportedly used by a militia in its incursion into Russia on Monday, could be used as a pretext by Moscow to bring the United States directly into the war.

“We are not at war with Russia. This is Ukraine’s fight. Our goal is to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure Ukraine is successful,” Austin said.

The United States has long asked Ukraine not to use U.S. weaponry inside Russian territory, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, said Thursday.

“I can say that we have asked the Ukrainians not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia,” Milley said. “This is a Ukrainian war. It is not a war between the United States and Russia. It’s not a war between NATO and Russia.”

Earlier Thursday, Ukraine said its forces shot down 36 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia used to attack areas in western Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces “presumably aimed to attack critical infrastructure and military facilities.”

Russia has repeatedly used aerial attacks, including attacks involving crashing drones into targets to damage infrastructure sites in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that it had been an “uneasy night.”

“Continuing to terrorize Ukraine, the enemy used 36 Shaheds. None of them reached their target. Thanks to our air defense forces for the 100% result,” Zelenskyy said.

In Crimea, Aksyonov said Thursday that air defenses had shot down six drones overnight.

He said on Telegram no one had been killed or injured.

Bakhmut fight

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video published Thursday that his forces had begun withdrawing from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin said the Russian military was coming in to replace the Wagner forces and that his units would complete their withdrawal by June 1.

The announcement came a day after Prigozhin said the lengthy battle for Bakhmut left 20,000 of his fighters dead.

Prigozhin said about half of those killed were Russian convicts who were promised their freedom from sentences for criminal offenses if they fought in Ukraine for six months. But the mercenaries were often sent to the battle front with scant training and often were killed soon after in fierce combat with better-trained Ukrainian troops.

White House officials said Prigozhin’s casualty estimate was in line with their own and that Russian losses have accelerated. Russia claimed in recent days it has captured Bakhmut, while Ukrainian officials say they have not given up the fight for the city and are trying to surround it.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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More than 1 million people have started learning Ukrainian since February of last year, according to data from language learning app Duolingo. They say interest in Ukrainian remains high, and the top three countries with the most learners of the language are the United States, Britain and Poland. Correspondent Lesia Bakalets reports from Warsaw
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A prominent humanitarian group on Thursday blasted Greece over its treatment of asylum-seekers on the island of Lesbos, repeating allegations of illegal deportations back to Turkey and claiming authorities are using hunger as a weapon against some migrants. 

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement that the situation for asylum-seekers on the eastern Aegean Sea island is “continuously deteriorating.” 

“Many people there have been exposed to violence and have alleged abductions by unidentified masked people, pushbacks that forced them out of Greece, arbitrary detentions, and deprivation of food and shelter,” it said. 

The Greek government has ordered an investigation into claims that a group of migrants was illegally deported from Lesbos back to Turkey. Last week, a New York Times report claimed that the migrants were taken onto a Greek coast guard boat that left them in a raft at sea to be picked up by the Turkish coast guard, which returned them to Turkey. 

Athens has denied persistent allegations that it engages in such deportations, known as pushbacks. Lesbos is a major landing point for thousands of people seeking a better life in Europe, who cross illegally from Turkey in small boats provided by smuggling gangs. 

MSF said Thursday that fear of pushbacks was preventing many newly arrived migrants from accessing its health services, while others who could not be found may have been secretly deported. 

“When we are alerted of newly arrived people in urgent need of medical assistance, we spend hours — sometimes days — looking for them as they are often hiding in forests,” Nihal Osman, MSF’s Lesbos coordinator, said. Osman added that since June 2022, MSF had been unable to find 940 people at their reported locations. 

The group also claimed that Greek authorities stopped giving food on May 17 to people who had completed the registration process in a Lesbos center for asylum-seekers to stay pending examination of their bids. 

“The government is using food as leverage to force people to leave the facility,” Osman said. He also described as dire the conditions at another center where newly arrived asylum-seekers are sent for days, saying it’s overcrowded and too remotely located. 

There was no immediate comment from the Greek government. 

Nearly a million people reached Greece from Turkey in 2015, most landing on Lesbos. Numbers later dropped, and since 2019 Athens has stepped up patrols at sea to further reduce arrivals.
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A car crashed Thursday into the gates of Downing Street in central London, where the British prime minister’s home and offices are located, setting off a rapid, intense security response at one of London’s most-fortified sites. 

No one was injured, and police said they were not treating the incident as terror related. Police arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving, and local officers, rather than counterterrorism detectives, were handling the investigation. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in his office at the time of the crash. 

It was not immediately clear whether the crash was deliberate. Video footage posted on social media showed a silver hatchback car heading straight for the gates at low speed across Whitehall, the main thoroughfare in London’s government district. 

“I heard a bang and looked up and saw loads of police with Taser guns shouting at the man,” said witness Simon Parry, 44. “A lot of police vehicles came very quickly and were very quick to evacuate the area.” 

The BBC showed a photo of officers leading away a man with handcuffed hands behind his back. 

Footage shot soon after showed a car with its trunk open up against the tall metal gates. Several police officers minutely inspected the vehicle, removing items from the trunk and inside the car and placing them in evidence bags.  

About two hours after the crash, a car transporter arrived to take the vehicle away. 

Officers cordoned off a wide area of London’s government district, but lifted the barriers less than two hours after the incident took place, allowing people back into Whitehall. The street normally teems with civil servants and tourists keen to see the nearby Houses of Parliament and other historical buildings. 

“A small cordon remains in place outside Downing Street after a car collided with the gates earlier this afternoon,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. “The incident is being dealt with by local officers in Westminster and isn’t currently being treated as terror-related.” 

Downing Street is a narrow street with a row of Georgian houses that includes the prime minister’s official residence at No. 10. 

Public access to the street is restricted and the heavy steel gates are protected at all times by armed police officers. Bollards and metal crowd barriers also help keep threats at bay. 

Seats of power around the world are often magnets for protest and sometimes violent attack. The incident came three days after a man crashed a rented truck into a security barrier outside the White House in Washington, got out and began waving around a Nazi flag. Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, has been charged with damaging U.S. property. 
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Russia and Belarus signed a pact Thursday allowing Moscow to relocate an undisclosed number of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine enters its 16th month.

The Kremlin says it will maintain control of the shorter-range warheads to be transferred to its ally. It was not announced when the weapons would be sent there but Russian President Vladimir Putin has said storage facilities in Belarus would be completed by July 1.

The U.S. and Western allies have often warned Russia against the use of tactical nuclear warheads in the Ukraine conflict but also said at times they do not believe Moscow was on the verge of doing so.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use in killing enemy troops and destroying armaments on the battlefield. They can be deployed for relatively short-range attacks and have a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that can wipe out whole cities.

Both Belarusian and Russian officials characterized the transfer of the tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as a response to Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-controlled territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, in Minsk at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, said, “Deployment of nonstrategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us.”

Shoigu said, “In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere.”

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya blasted the new agreement.

“We must do everything to prevent Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, as this will ensure Russia’s control over Belarus for years to come,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press. “This will further jeopardize the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
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The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia argued openly in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in exchanges that underlined the extent of their differences over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At a meeting in Moscow, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan raised the issue of the Lachin corridor, the road which links Armenia to the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani activists in mid-December began obstructing the road, which Pashinyan noted should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers, and Baku subsequently erected a checkpoint along it.

“Azerbaijan, unfortunately, has blocked this corridor,” Pashinyan said at a round-table meeting of the Eurasian Economic Council in Moscow.

Azberbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev responded: “Azerbaijan did not block any corridor… There is no need to use this platform for unfounded accusations.”

The two leaders continued arguing for several minutes before Putin closed off the conversation, noting that the topic was sensitive. He was due to host three-way talks with Aliyev and Pashinyan later.

“We will now have the opportunity, as we agreed, to talk about everything calmly in a businesslike manner in a trilateral format, and I hope to reach some agreements that will put the situation not only between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also in the region, on the path of constructive development,” Putin said. “I can assure you that everyone here has an interest in this, absolutely everyone.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at loggerheads for three decades, fighting two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh. In recent months, both sides have expressed increasing willingness to sign a permanent peace agreement, even as regular skirmishes have continued.

Minutes before the testy exchanges with Pashinyan, Aliyev had said there were “serious grounds for the normalisation of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty”.
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The city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine has been the scene of heavy bombardment by Russian forces. Ukrainian officials say at least eight people were wounded and scores of buildings damaged in airstrikes Monday. Despite the attacks, the strategically important city is holding steady. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze has this on the scene report from Dnipro.
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A Lebanese judge has banned the country’s central bank governor Riad Salameh from travelling, days after Beirut received an Interpol Red Notice following a French arrest warrant, a judicial official said Wednesday. 

Salameh has been the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad on allegations including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud and illicit enrichment, which he denies.   

French investigators suspect that during his three decades as central bank chief, Salameh misused public funds to accumulate real estate and banking assets concealed through a complex and fraudulent financial network.   

On Wednesday, judge Imad Qabalan questioned Salameh and “decided to release him pending investigation, ban him from travelling, and confiscate his Lebanese and French passports,” the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.   

Activists say the travel ban on the central bank chief helps shield him from being brought to justice abroad — and from potentially bringing down others in Lebanon’s entrenched political class.   

“The Lebanese judiciary, with the exception of a few judges, has shown that it is not independent. It is biased for politicians who steer it the way they want,” charged lawyer and activist Karim Daher.   

“The corrupt Lebanese regime… has no interest in Salameh being tried abroad and spilling the beans” about the political class’s financial activities, he told AFP.   

Interpol circulated a Red Notice last week after a French magistrate issued a warrant for Salameh, who failed to appear for questioning in Paris before investigators probing his sizeable assets across Europe.   

An Interpol Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant but asks authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.   

Lebanon does not extradite its nationals, but Salameh could go on trial in Lebanon if local judicial authorities decide the accusations against him are founded, an official previously told AFP.   

Qabalan asked the French judiciary to refer Salameh’s file to Beirut in order to “determine whether the Lebanese judiciary will prosecute him for the crimes he is accused of in France or not,” the official added.   

Salameh “asked the judge to try him in Lebanon and not to extradite him to France,” the official said. 

Also Wednesday, Germany notified Lebanon’s general prosecutor that it too had issued an arrest warrant for Salameh, the judicial official said, adding that Munich’s public prosecutor would submit the warrant to Interpol shortly.   

Salameh has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and continues to serve as central bank governor. His mandate ends in July.   

In March 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg seized assets worth $130 million in a move linked to a probe into Salameh’s wealth.   

In February, Lebanon charged Salameh with embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion as part of its own investigations.   

The domestic probe was opened following a request for assistance from Switzerland’s public prosecutor looking into more than $300 million in fund movements by Salameh and his brother.   

This year, European investigators have questioned Salameh in Beirut, also hearing from his assistant Marianne Hoayek, his brother Raja, a Lebanese minister and central bank audit firms.   

The judicial official said Wednesday that a judge had notified Raja Salameh and Hoayek that they were due to appear before the French judiciary respectively on May 31 and June 13.   

Since 2019, Lebanon has plunged into an economic crisis deemed by the World Bank as one of the planet’s worst since the mid-19th century.
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As a Chinese envoy continues talks in Europe after meetings in Ukraine, a senior U.S. State Department official said there is not much indication that China is willing to use its influence in Moscow to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. A Czech lawmaker is also skeptical of China’s peacemaking efforts. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching has more.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is urging African countries to abandon their stances of neutrality towards his country’s war with Russia.

Many African countries have refused to take sides in the European conflict, with several abstaining from votes at the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion. Ethiopia is one of them.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Wednesday, Kuleba said Ukraine was “very upset that some African countries chose to abstain” and called them to lend Ukraine diplomatic support “in the face of Russian aggression.”

“Neutrality is not the answer,” he told reporters. “By being neutral towards Russian aggression against Ukraine, you project neutrality to the violations of borders and mass crimes that may occur very close to you.”

Russia has built a substantial presence in several parts of Africa, where Russian private military contractor Wagner is active, and recently held joint military drills with South Africa. Russia plans to hold an Africa-Russia summit in July.

Kuleba also called on African countries to endorse the “ten-point peace formula” proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in December and emphasized Ukraine’s wish to build “mutually beneficial” relations with Africa, based on trade in energy, technology and pharmaceuticals.

“We have to remind each other of the importance of Africa to Ukraine and the importance of Ukraine to Africa,” Kuleba said, admitting that Ukraine’s previous attitude towards the continent was characterized by “inertia.”

Both Ukraine and Russia supply a significant amount of grain to Africa.

Kuleba is currently on an African tour that also includes visits to Morocco and Rwanda. In Ethiopia, he held discussions with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat and Azali Assoumani, the president of the Comoros and current chair of the continent-wide body.

Kuleba made his first trip to Africa in October when he visited Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Kenya. The trip was cut short after Russia launched strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure.

His Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, has also been active in shoring up ties with African countries since the Ukraine war broke out, touring the continent once in 2022 and making at least two visits so far this year.
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German police raided 15 properties linked to the Last Generation climate activist group Wednesday, seizing assets as part of an investigation into its finances in a sign of growing impatience with disruptive protest tactics also seen in other European countries.

Members of the group have repeatedly blocked roads across Germany in an effort to pressure the government to take more drastic action against climate change. In recent weeks, they have brought traffic to a halt on an almost daily basis in Berlin, gluing themselves to busy intersections and highways. Over the past year, they have also targeted various artworks and exhibits.

The raids, ordered by Munich prosecutors, come days after Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he thought it was “completely nutty to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the street.” Leading figures with the environmentalist Green party, part of his governing coalition, have also said the group’s actions are counterproductive.

A spokesperson for Last Generation said that the police searches had hit the group and its supporters hard, but that it wouldn’t let up its activities.

“They make us afraid, but we must not be frozen by fear,” Aimee van Baalen told reporters in Berlin.

“The German government is right now driving us toward climate hell with its eyes wide open. It is even stepping on the gas pedal,” she said. “We must continue to resist now, because we need to loudly demand that lives be protected.”

She called for the public to support upcoming protest marches in Berlin and other German cities.

Last Generation has acknowledged in the past that its protests are provocative, but argues that by stirring friction it can encourage debate within society about climate change and the policies necessary to stop it.

Germany’s top court ruled two years ago that the previous government was placing too much of the burden from global warming on young people, prompting then Chancellor Angela Merkel to sharpen climate targets. Experts say that while Germany now has some of the most ambitious targets for cutting emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gas, the country isn’t on track to meet them.

The investigation by Munich prosecutors is focused on seven people, ranging in age from 22 to 38, who are suspected of forming or supporting a criminal organization. The investigation was launched following numerous criminal complaints from the public over the past year, prosecutors said.

The Bavarian inquiry adds to an investigation launched last year by prosecutors in Neuruppin, outside Berlin, over actions against an oil refinery in eastern Germany. That investigation is also considering suspicions that Last Generation activists formed a criminal organization, a label that some conservative-leaning regional officials have backed.

Munich prosecutors said that the people under investigation are accused of organizing and promoting a campaign to “finance further criminal offenses” by the group, and collecting at least 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million). Two of them also are suspected of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline that connects the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt with the Italian port of Trieste in April 2022.

Wednesday’s searches, accompanied by orders to seize two bank accounts and other assets, aimed to secure evidence on the membership structure of Last Generation and on its financing. There were no arrests.

Another climate activist group, Extinction Rebellion, voiced solidarity with Last Generation. It contended in a tweet that the main aim of conducting raids on suspicion of forming a criminal organization was “to distract attention from the true criminals.”

But Germany’s top security official insisted that the raids were necessary.

“Legitimate protest always ends where crimes are committed and the rights of others are infringed,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, noting that police registered 1,600 criminal complaints in connection with climate protests in 2022, many of them during road blockades conducted by Last Generation.

Climate activists have received support from various corners, including some Christian groups. A Jesuit priest was fined earlier this month for taking part in road blockades, and Wednesday’s news conference by Last Generation was hosted by the Protestant Reformation Church in Berlin.

A representative of the congregation, Steve Rauhut, praised Last Generation for keeping its protests peaceful.

“The climate disaster and environmental destruction not only justify civil disobedience, they make it an imperative,” he said.

Similar nonviolent climate protests elsewhere in Europe have also met with crackdowns recently.

In Britain, two protesters from the group Just Stop Oil who climbed a major bridge in London were sentenced to five years in prison for causing a public nuisance.

In Italy, three members of the group Ultima Generazione face up to three years’ imprisonment and fines for gluing their hands to the base of a sculpture in the Vatican Museums and ignoring gendarmes’ orders to leave last year. This week the group staged other protests, including in front of the Italian Senate where two topless women poured mud over themselves in reference to the devastating recent floods in the country.

The Italian group’s name also translates as Last Generation. It is part of the international A22 activist network that includes its namesake in Germany and which receives support from the U.S.-based Climate Emergency Fund.

The fund, which counts oil heiress Aileen Getty and ‘Don’t Look Up’ filmmaker Adam McKay on its board, says on its website that it gave more than $5.1 million to 44 organizations last year “that are leading the way, galvanizing progress on climate through disruptive nonviolent activism around the world.”

 
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Visiting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has praised his country’s ties with China, saying relations “are at an unprecedented high level.” 

Mishustin made the comment during a meeting Wednesday in Bejiing with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Mishustin also met with President Xi Jinping, and reports say Xi offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests.”

Mishustin said the bilateral relationship is “characterized by mutual respect of each other’s interests, the desire to jointly respond to challenges, which is associated with increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West.” According to the Associated Press, Mishustin did not mention Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Mishustin and Li signed several agreements involving cooperation on trade services, Russian exports of agricultural products to China, and sports. 

Mishustin is the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. China has become Russia’s biggest customer of oil and gas exports due to sanctions by Western nations in response to the invasion. Russian state media recently said that Russian exports to China will increase by 40% this year.  

China has refrained from publicly criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Beijing maintains it is neutral in the conflict. 

The United States has cautioned China against providing military support to Russia for the war.
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Geneva’s airport was briefly closed to flights on Tuesday as climate activists stormed a private jet fair on a nearby tarmac by ripping down or scaling fences, handcuffing themselves to landing gear and other material, and scuffling with police and security before being hauled away. City police said about 80 people were detained. 

The protest involved about 100 activists from 17 countries and groups, including Greenpeace, Scientist Rebellion, Stay Grounded and Extinction Rebellion, who disrupted the annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition — one of the industry’s premier events, which is taking place in Geneva this week. 

Video images showed yellow-vested protesters pulling down a wire fence as police tried to tackle them or douse them with pepper spray while an alarm sounded. Others, arriving by bicycle and wielding ladders, scaled a fence in a separate area with less security to access the tarmac. 

Some demonstrators were spotted smiling as they took cellphone images of the incursion onto the static displays on the fringes of the Geneva airport. 

Once inside, demonstrators stuck warning labels on planes with messages such as “Private jets burn our future” or chanted “Climate justice!” 

Sandy Bouchat, spokeswoman for the Geneva airport, said it was shut to both outbound and inbound flights for about an hour, for security reasons. Seven flights were diverted, and others were delayed. 

Airport operators said they planned to file criminal complaints, adding that four people, including activists and private security staff, were injured in the protest. 

The protest comes months after climate activists blocked private jets at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, arguing that the super-rich should be stopped from causing vastly more greenhouse gas emissions than the rest of the world’s population. 

“Whilst many can’t afford food and rent anymore, the super-rich wreck our planet, unless we put an end to it,” said Mira Kapfinger of the group Stay Grounded. “Apart from banning private jets, it’s also time to end air miles schemes which reward frequent flying, and instead tax frequent flyers. We need fair climate solutions.” 

Added Joel Perret, a spokesperson from Extinction Rebellion: “Geneva is home to one of the airports with the most private jet traffic in Europe. This is where change must begin: We need to drastically reduce aviation to halt climate catastrophe and the destruction of life.” 

The Brussels-based environmental think tank Transport & Environment said that emissions from private jets increased faster than those from other forms of aviation between 2005 and 2019. In a report published two years ago, it found that private jets generate between five and 14 times more pollution per passenger than regular passenger planes. 

Top officials of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) and Washington-based National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which jointly organized the expo, said the protesters missed a chance for “constructive dialogue” about sustainability in the sector. 

“This is a completely unacceptable form of protest,” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and EBAA Chairman Juergen Wiese said in a statement. They insisted business aviation was “deeply committed to climate action” and said the industry has cut its carbon emissions by 40% over the past 40 years and is working toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. 

Organizers of the show also suggested that visitors could support sustainability by using recycling bins and Geneva public transportation; bringing their favorite reusable water bottle or utensils; asking their hotel not to replace towels every day; and encouraging them to “opt for a vegetarian meal at least once during each day of the show.” 
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The Dutch government said on Tuesday it would hold U.S. industrial group 3M Co. liable for polluting the Western Scheldt river with potentially harmful substances known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” 

3M said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters that it had received a letter from the Dutch government’s legal representative on Tuesday and was studying its contents. 

The Netherlands said it would hold the company responsible for pollution in the Dutch part of the river, allegedly caused by its nearby Belgian plant. 

Higher than acceptable pollutant levels have resulted in financial damages for the fishing fleet and the government, the Netherlands said. 

“I think polluters should pay … Holding 3M liable is in line with that basic position,” Dutch Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Mark Harbers said in a statement. 

3M said it had already invited the Dutch authorities to have a meeting about the PFAS situation in the Western Scheldt. 

“(We) welcome the opportunity for conversation with the Dutch government and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management,” it said in its statement. 

3M’s website shows it has a plant that makes products that contain PFAS on the Belgian side of the Scheldt river, which originates in France. 

Last December 3M set itself a 2025 deadline to stop producing PFAS. The European Union is considering a ban on the chemicals. 

Perfluoralkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) do not break down quickly and have in recent years been found in dangerous concentrations in drinking water, soils and foods. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias

The chemicals have been used in everything from cars to medical gear and nonstick pans due to their long-term resistance to extreme temperature and corrosion. 

But they have also been linked to health risks including cancer, hormonal dysfunction and a weakened immune system as well as environmental damage. 

The Dutch government said there would be an assessment of how much of the alleged PFAS damages 3M could be held liable for. 
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U.S. forces are expected to start training Ukrainians on M1A1 Abrams tanks “in the next week or so,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told VOA on Tuesday.

About 250 Ukrainians are arriving in Germany this week for the training, a senior military official familiar with the training told VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.

The Ukrainians will train on 31 Abrams tanks that arrived in Germany earlier this month. U.S. officials have said that a different set of 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks are being refurbished in the United States and will be delivered to Ukraine by the fall.

Training in Germany is expected to last about 10 weeks and will focus on how to operate the tanks, how to maneuver the tanks in a combined arms fight and tank maintenance, the official said.

The course structure will be similar to previous U.S.-led training on armored Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker vehicles, which were provided to Ukraine earlier this year, according to the official.

Abrams tanks, in particular, have been a long-awaited addition to the fight. The tank’s thick armor and 1,500-horsepower turbine engine make it much more advanced than the Soviet-era tanks Ukraine has been using since the war’s beginning.

The Biden administration announced in January that it would send a newer version of the Abrams tanks, known as M1A2, to Ukraine after they were procured and built, a process that could potentially take years.

In March, the administration pivoted to provide M1A1 Abrams tanks instead, to get the tanks “into the hands of the Ukrainians sooner rather than later,” Ryder said at the time.

F-16s on agenda

The news of the Abrams tank training comes as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is set to host another virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Thursday.

Military and defense leaders from more than 50 nations are expected to focus on ground-based air defense, ammunition needs and F-16 training, Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon earlier Tuesday.

Ryder said F-16 training would be conducted outside of Ukraine at European sites, but it could be weeks or months before the training begins.

“F-16s for Ukraine are about the long term. These F-16s will not be relevant to the upcoming counteroffensive,” he added.

After months of Ukraine pleading for Western fighter jets, U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would support a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on modern fighter aircrafts, including F-16s.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko responded to the news on Saturday with a warning that Western countries would run “colossal risks” if they supplied Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, according to the TASS news agency.
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The U.N. Secretary-General said Tuesday that the world is failing to live up to its commitments to protect civilians, an obligation that is preserved in international humanitarian law.

“Peace is the best form of protection,” Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the topic. “We must intensify our efforts to prevent conflict, protect civilians, preserve peace and find political solutions to war.”

Guterres said where there is war, countries must comply with international humanitarian law.

“It is the difference between life and death. Between restraint and anarchy. Between losing ourselves in horror and retaining our humanity,” he said. “But law overlooked is law undermined.”

Guterres pointed to the newest conflict, the five-week-old fighting between rival generals in Sudan, that has already killed hundreds, displaced more than a million and sent 250,000 people fleeing to neighboring countries. Food, water and fuel are all in short supply, and the country’s health system is on the brink of collapse.

“Terrible as this picture is, it is far from being unique,” he said, noting that 100 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced last year due to war, violence, human rights abuses or persecution.

Guterres said the effects of war include rising food insecurity — more than 117 million people faced acute hunger in 2022 primarily because of war and instability.

“This is an outrage,” the U.N. chief said. “Damage to critical infrastructure hampers food production, blocks distribution and deprives people of safe water.”

He welcomed the recent extension for another 60 days of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has facilitated the export of more than 30 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain via Black Sea routes since early August, stabilizing world food prices since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Guterres said he hopes outstanding issues with the implementation of a corresponding deal for Russia’s export of food and fertilizer will be resolved.

Swiss President Alain Berset chaired the debate, the signature event of his government’s month-long presidency of the 15-nation Security Council. More than 80 countries were scheduled to speak.

“Respect for international humanitarian law is a priority for all of us here around this table,” Berset told council members. “And of course, as the depository of the Geneva Conventions and the seat of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], we feel in particular bound by this humanitarian imperative.”

Switzerland is the depository for the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, which are the basis for international humanitarian law. They set out the rules of armed conflict and seek to protect civilians, medical and aid workers, the wounded and prisoners of war.

Switzerland is also home to the ICRC, which has protection of civilians at the core of its mandate.

“ICRC’s figures show that the number of non-international armed conflicts has, over the past 20 years, more than tripled from less than 30 to over 90,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said. “Many of these are protracted conflicts, bringing ceaseless suffering — suffering that is compounded by climate shocks, food insecurity and economic hardship.”

She said civilians suffer attacks, threats and political stalemates that make peace less achievable.

“Compliance with the law protects civilians. It prevents violations and abuses,” she said. “It reduces the cost of war while maintaining a pathway to cease-fire agreements, and eventually to lasting peace, functioning economies, and a healthy natural environment.”
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The United States has called for Russia to immediately release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after Moscow sought to extend his pre-trial detention by three months.

Gershkovich’s original pre-trial detention was set to expire on May 29. But a Russian court on Tuesday lengthened that period until August 30 after Russia’s intelligence agency, the FSB, requested an extension.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday that the U.S. is working hard to bring the U.S. journalist home.

“He shouldn’t be detained at all. Journalism is not a crime. He needs to be released immediately,” Kirby told CNN.

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 while on assignment in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Russian authorities accused the Moscow-based reporter of espionage, which carries a possible 20-year sentence. Gershkovich, the Journal, and the U.S. government deny the charges.

A CNN reporter tweeted that Gershkovich’s parents, who both fled the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, were present at the hearing at Moscow’s Lefortovo court.

Before Tuesday’s ruling, the U.S. State Department had sought a meeting for Thursday with Gershkovich, but Moscow denied the request, the Journal reported.

Kirby on Tuesday said there were “no grounds for denying consular access.”

The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Clayton Weimers of the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said, “Russia’s pretense for detaining Evan is already flimsy.”

Denying consular access “just betrays that Evan has become collateral damage in the Kremlin’s war on media freedom and its ongoing arguments with Washington,” Weimers said in an email to VOA on Monday.
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