The UK government on Wednesday became the first country to announce it will regulate the use of self-driving vehicles at slow speeds on motorways, with the first such cars possibly appearing on public roads as soon as this year. Britain’s transport ministry said it was working on specific wording to update the country’s highway code for the safe use of self-driving vehicle systems, starting with Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) — which use sensors and software to keep cars within a lane, allowing them to accelerate and brake without driver input. The government said the use of ALKS would be restricted to motorways, at speeds under 37 miles (60 km) per hour. The UK government wants to be at the forefront of rolling out autonomous driving technology and the transport ministry forecasts by 2035 around 40% of new UK cars could have self-driving capabilities, creating up to 38,000 new skilled jobs. “The automotive industry welcomes this vital step to permit the use of automated vehicles on UK roads, which will put Britain in the vanguard of road safety and automotive technology,” Mike Hawes, CEO of car industry lobby group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said in a statement. Limits of technologyBut insurance companies warn that Britain’s goal of being a leader in adopting self-driving cars could backfire unless automakers and regulators spell out the current limitations of the technology available today. They say calling ALKS “automated,” or using the synonymous term “self-driving,” will confuse British drivers into thinking the cars can drive themselves, causing accidents and risking a public backlash against the technology. “Aside from the lack of technical capabilities, by calling ALKS automated our concern also is that the UK Government is contributing to the confusion and frequent misuse of assisted driving systems that have unfortunately already led to many tragic deaths,” said Matthew Avery, research director at Thatcham Research, which has tested ALKS systems. The dangers of drivers apparently misunderstanding the limits of technology has been an issue in the United States, where regulators are reviewing about 20 crashes involving Tesla’s driver assistance tools, such as its “Autopilot” system. 
 
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Thousands rallied in Slovenia on Tuesday against the government of right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whom opponents accuse of curbing democratic freedoms in the traditionally moderate nation. The peaceful protest was held on Slovenia’s Resistance Day, which marks the start of the World War II struggle by partisan groups against Nazi German and fascist Italian occupiers. Protest organizers said they were fighting “for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” Jansa’s government was formed last year after the resignation of a previous, liberal premier. A close ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Jansa has faced accusations of fueling hate speech, tightening his grip on power and pressuring the media. He has rejected these accusations. Jansa drew international attention when he congratulated former U.S. President Donald Trump while the vote count was still under way during the November election.  Tuesday’s protest in the capital Ljubljana was the first big rally in months, defying pandemic restrictions on public gatherings. Protesters carried banners reading “People have the power,” or “The young care.” Some wore protective face masks, but not all. Previously, protests against Jansa’s government were held every week, drawing thousands. 
 
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Jose Luis Boyeduana waited 13 years to reunite with his parents. The 16-year-old Ecuadorian national made the decision at the end of 2020 to travel to the U.S., undertaking a 3,000-kilometer journey to America’s southern border.“I entered on January 26, through a border crossing at Miguel Aleman [a municipality in Tamaulipas, Mexico],” Boyeduana told VOA, adding that he was held for two months at a federal facility in Roma, Texas.Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors have been intercepted at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, forcing the Biden administration to scramble to identify additional facilities — some makeshift — to house them.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Young unaccompanied migrants, ages 3-9 sit inside a playpen at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in Donna, Texas, March 30, 2021.It is a process Boyeduana knows firsthand. Last month, U.S. authorities reunited him with his mother and father, both of whom reside in the United States, after verifying that they were his legal guardians.”This happiness is forever, being with my son,” Carlos Lozada, Boyeduana’s father, told VOA.Boyeduana had been living with his grandparents in Ecuador since he was 3.He was allowed to stay in the United States under the Biden administration’s policy exempting minors and some families with small children from a blanket ban on accepting unauthorized border crossers. The ban was enacted under the former Trump administration as an emergency measure necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.The Biden administration has retained the policy in an amended form, expelling adult migrants as well as families with older children.As of April 22, more than 23,000 migrant children remained in U.S. custody.White House weighs inThe White House has made it clear that asking for asylum does not guarantee permanent residency in the U.S.“What I want to emphasize is that many people are not going to get their asylum claims in the United States and it is possible that they will return to their country of origin at the end of that process,” Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s coordinator on the southern border who is leaving the position at the end of April, told VOA. “So really the message is to wait because there will be more options — more secure, less expensive and in a safe way, to perhaps have the possibility of reaching the United States in the future.”To seek FILE – In this March 30, 2021, young migrants wait to be tested for COVID-19 at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas.Why they leaveMigrants’ motivations for coming to the United States may or may not meet the standards set forth for asylum relief.Many unauthorized border crossers say they seek to escape violence, poverty and, in many cases, the effects of natural disasters. Large swaths of Central America were devastated by hurricanes coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic that has stunted recovery efforts.Trump’s Unfinished Border Wall Continues to Stir Passions Some residents along Mexico-US divide would like to see the work completedHuman Trafficking a Profitable Business at Migrants’ ExpenseMany escaping violence, poverty in their home countries pay huge sums to smugglers and endanger themselves to cross US borderHonduran Eda Cristelia Melendez, who is in her 70s, is currently living with her young granddaughter in a shelter in Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.She says U.S. authorities sent the pair back to Mexico after they tried to cross the border.The grandmother says she made the trip after refusing a request by the girl’s mother, who lives in Chicago, to send the child across the border by herself.“‘Have you thought [of what could happen] if the girl goes alone?’” Melendez recalled asking.U.S. officials echo the grandmother’s concerns.”We’re working with partners throughout the region to deter the dangerous travel of those unaccompanied children from the region,” said Emily Mendrala, State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers blame the Biden administration for sharp increases in border arrivals, saying it signaled a departure from former President Donald Trump’s restrictive policies, causing migrants to believe the United States would take them in.Representative John Katko, a Republican from New York and ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, says he cautioned the Biden administration against sudden immigration policy shifts.“Homeland Security Republicans warned of this impending crisis months ago and we are committed to prioritizing the safety of Americans and the security of our homeland,” Katko wrote.Amid the political cacophony in Washington, José Luis Boyeduana is celebrating a goal reached.“Happiness can only be found with your parents,” he said.Click here for full VOA Spanish branch coverage.
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World powers resumed talks Tuesday in Vienna about revitalizing the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear development program and bring the United States back into the accord that former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from in 2018.Current U.S. President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the pact aimed at keeping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, although Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.The U.S. does not have a seat at the table for the negotiations, but diplomats from the other countries in the agreement — Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France — are representing its interests at the talks.Trump, believing the agreement approved by former U.S. President Barack Obama was too weak to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, instead stiffened U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran in hopes it would agree to tougher restrictions on its nuclear program. But no new agreement was reached before Trump left office in January.Tehran, with the country’s economy reeling, instead has steadily increased the purity of uranium it enriches and its stockpiles in a so-far unsuccessful effort to get the other countries in the pact to provide economic relief.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.The new talks are occurring days after comments surfaced from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif alleging that Russia at one point tried to undermine the pact, presumably in hopes that continued U.S.-Iranian hostility would deflect American pressure on Moscow.The Russian Foreign Ministry has yet to address Zarif’s comments, made in a seven-hour interview with a research group associated with the Iranian presidency.Before the talks began, Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov said he had met with officials from Iran and China but did not say anything about Zarif’s comments.”We compared notes and exchanged views on the way ahead towards full restoration of the nuclear deal,” he tweeted. “It was a very fruitful meeting.”Ulyanov later said the main negotiations were “guided by the unity of purpose.”The focus of the new talks is on the extent to which the U.S. would ease its economic sanctions and how Iran would again comply with the terms of the 2015 deal. 
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With this week marking 100 days of Joe Biden’s U.S. presidency, European allies are noting the change in the key relationship with Washington.  Henry Ridgwell reports from London on how the new administration is being viewed from across the Atlantic. Camera:  Henry Ridgwell, Ricardo Marquina Montañana Produced by:  Barry Unger 
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Monday he was likely to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that all sides were at the “finish line” of agreeing a new cease-fire.
 
“It seems to me that everything is going toward the fact that this meeting will take place,” he said.
 
Zelenskiy has sought a meeting with Putin after the two countries traded blame over a spike in clashes in the Donbass conflict and a build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and in annexed Crimea.
 
Russia began a troop pullback last week and Putin said he was willing to meet Zelenskiy in Moscow. Zelenskiy said he had instructed his chief of staff to contact the Kremlin to discuss when and where the two leaders could meet.
 
Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014. More than 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed this year after ceasefire agreed last July collapsed.
 
Asked if a new cease-fire could be in place for the Orthodox Easter this weekend, Zelenskiy said, “I believe that we are already at the finish line for this agreement.”
 
Speaking at an event to mark the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Zelenskiy said in a speech he did not want the Donbass conflict area to turn into another no-go zone like the contaminated land around the atomic plant.
 
“We cannot go back in time and prevent the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” Zelenskiy said. “But we can definitely do everything today to prevent a future tragedy… which may occur in the occupied Donbass.”
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Three days of U.N.-mediated talks are under way to try and reunify the island of Cyprus, which has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since 1974. That was when Turkey invaded Northern Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed military coup on the island.The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as foreign ministers of three guarantor States – Greece, Turkey and Britain, the former colonial ruler of Cyprus — will be holding so-called informal talks over the coming days.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened this meeting to test the waters, so to speak. His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the aim of the meeting is to determine whether there is enough common ground for the parties to negotiate a lasting solution to the Cyprus issue within a foreseeable horizon.“The secretary-general will move forward based on the outcomes of the informal talks. The parties are welcome to be creative and the secretary-general will be encouraging them to move—to use diplomatic language—in a sincere and frank manner,” he said.U.N Peacekeepers stand on a guard post in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, April 24, 2021.The spokesman said Guterres will hold separate bilateral meetings Tuesday afternoon with the leaders of the two communities. In the evening, he will host a reception for the heads of delegations.On Wednesday morning, Guterres will host a plenary meeting with all five parties, to be followed by bilateral meetings in the afternoon.There have been three attempts to reunify Cyprus since 2004. All have failed. The last attempt occurred in July 2017, six months after Guterres took office. Guterres took a hands-on approach to resolving this intractable issue, energized at the prospect of achieving a diplomatic win so soon after becoming the U.N. chief.Ten days of negotiations in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana also ended in failure.Dujarric said the secretary-general is unwilling to pre-judge the outcome of the talks. He said this is an issue that Guterres knows well as he has participated in discussions before. Dujarric said the secretary-general is neither cautiously optimistic nor pessimistic, but realistic. 
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is intensifying efforts to court the Biden administration as the new U.S. president weighs whether to risk a political backlash in Florida and ease up on sanctions seeking to isolate the socialist leader.In the past two weeks, Maduro conceded to longstanding U.S. demands that the World Food Program be allowed to establish a foothold in the country at a time of growing hunger. His allies also vowed to work with the U.S.-backed opposition to vaccinate Venezuelans against the coronavirus and have met with diplomats from Norway trying to revive negotiations to end the country’s never-ceasing political strife.The frenzy of activity comes as senior U.S. officials are reviewing policy toward Venezuela. An interagency meeting, which was originally scheduled to take place Monday and include Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman but was postponed at the last minute, will focus on whether the U.S. should take steps to support an uncertain attempt at dialogue between Maduro and his opponents, said two people who insisted on anonymity to discuss classified diplomatic matters.”All these recent movement points to Maduro trying to get Washington’s attention,” said Geoffrey Ramsey, a Venezuela watcher at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The question is whether the White House is ready to commit to a full-fledged negotiations strategy, or whether it will continue to play it safe and keep the policy on the back burner.”Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the pro-Maduro congress and a key promoter of dialogue, wouldn’t comment when asked about the recent moves by Maduro.Ramsey said even more goodwill gestures could be on the horizon.Tuesday is the deadline for a committee in the Maduro-controlled congress to present a list of candidates for the National Electoral Council. Behind the scenes, moderates aligned with former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles have been meeting with Maduro representatives to push for the inclusion of two opposition rectors on the five-member board.If the demand is met, it could pave the way for Maduro’s opponents to participate in mayoral and gubernatorial elections later this year.Also in the mix is future of several American citizens jailed in Venezuela. In recent months, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has pressed Maduro and senior aides to release six former executives at Houston-based CITGO who U.S. officials believe are unjustly imprisoned as well as two former Green Berets who participated in a failed raid last year staged from neighboring Colombia and a former U.S. Marine being held on unrelated allegations.So far, the posturing by Maduro has failed to impress officials in Washington.Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described Maduro as a “brutal dictator” and vowed to continue recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader — a position shared by more than 50 nations.Other than promising to work more with U.S. allies and support the delivery of more humanitarian aid to Venezuela, the Biden administration has done little to unwind Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat Maduro.The politics of engaging with Maduro are treacherous. Past attempts at dialogue have failed to produce a breakthrough and ended up strengthening Maduro, whose grip on power relies on support from the military as well as allies Iran, China and Russia — all of whom have seen their influence expand since Guaidó, with U.S. support, tried to ignite protests by declaring himself president in 2019 after Maduro was re-elected in a vote boycotted by the opposition when several of its leaders were barred from running.That hasn’t stopped others from trying to bring the two sides together, however. This week, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is traveling to Venezuela in what many observers see as an effort by the Holy See to test the waters for another attempt at negotiations like the ones it mediated with former Spanish President Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero in 2016.While the trip’s stated purpose is to attend the April 30 beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez, known as the “doctor of the poor” for his caring of the sick in the 1800s, Parolin is the Vatican’s former ambassador to Venezuela and his highly unusual trip suggests more than just saint-making is on the agenda.But both supporters and opponents of more active U.S. engagement agree that the biggest obstacle is Florida. Trump comfortably carried the battleground state in part due to hardline policies preferred by immigrant voters fleeing Cuba, Venezuela and other authoritarian governments. With Democrats holding a slim six-seat majority in the House of Representatives, betting on Maduro to follow through on his word could end up hurting their chances in midterm elections.”As of today, there is simply no reason to believe the Maduro regime is acting in good faith,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela and Iran. He cited Maduro’s failure to honor an agreement last year brokered by the World Health Organization’s regional arm to combat the coronavirus pandemic as just one example.”Every engagement by Biden with the Maduro regime undermines the democratic opposition,” said Abrams, now a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. “If the US is going to engage at any point, it should only be done in the context of serious negotiations between the regime and the opposition, to help those negotiations succeed.”The planned U.S. policy meeting is unlikely to produce any immediate shift and follows at least one previous high-level meeting by senior Biden officials at several agencies — the Treasury, Justice, Commerce and State Departments as well as the White House — to discuss Venezuela.However, it could provide a roadmap for future U.S. actions should momentum toward negotiations build, the two people said, including the lifting of a Trump-era ban on diesel fuel swaps that even some of Maduro’s opponents say is worsening hunger by making it harder to move food supplies to market in diesel-powered trucks.The U.S. must also decide by June whether to allow Chevron to resume limited drilling and oil shipments — a potential lifeline to Maduro, who is desperate for every dollar as oil production under his watch has fallen to its lowest level since the 1930s despite abundant crude reserves. As part of a waiver from sanctions granted last year, the U.S. oil giant and its American partners were ordered to cease all operations except those strictly necessary to maintain its assets in the country.The State Department wouldn’t comment on Monday’s meeting or the status of the review of U.S. policy. However, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere said the U.S. welcomes efforts to relieve the suffering of the Venezuelan people and bring the country’s humanitarian crisis to an end through effective international cooperation.To be sure, not all of the signals coming from Caracas are encouraging.Last week, when the State Department celebrated the World Food Program’s announcement it would begin providing emergency food assistance to 1.5 million Venezuelan children, Foreign Minister Arreaza took to Twitter to accuse the U.S. of “kidnapping” Venezuela’s resources in international banks through “criminal sanctions.”That triggered a bitter exchange which ended with Arreaza vowing to present as evidence of blackmail to the International Criminal Court a tweet by a senior State Department official conditioning sanctions relief on the release of political prisoners and the organizing of free and fair elections.”If Washington’s responses remain exclusively public — via Twitter or television ؅— without a counterpart in a private diplomatic channel, progress or any sort of thaw or transition will be painful and full of mistrust,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.While Gunson said Maduro’s limited willingness to engage in partial agreements should be reciprocated wherever possible to encourage further opening, overcoming the inertia of the Trump years will be difficult.”There is no quick fix in Venezuela,” said Gunson. “A solution is going to require subtlety and long-term engagement.”
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Britain froze assets, imposed sanctions and enacted travel bans on nearly two dozen people accused of bribery, kickbacks and fraud on Monday, marking the first time the nation employed its own sanctioning powers to combat international corruption. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that the sanctions would prevent the United Kingdom from being used as “a haven for dirty money,” according to The Associated Press. “Corruption has a corrosive effect as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations and keeps their people trapped in poverty. It poisons the well of democracy,” Raab said, according to Reuters. The list includes 14 Russians implicated in a $230 million tax fraud case, as well as Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, members of the Gupta business family at the center of a South African corruption scandal. The Guptas deny wrongdoing.  Sanctions were also imposed on businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Al-Cardinal, who is accused of stealing state assets in impoverished South Sudan, as well as individuals from Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press briefing in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he welcomed the sanctions, adding that they strengthened efforts to counter corruption globally. Britain previously imposed sanctions as part of the European Union or United Nations. It has created its own sanctions laws since leaving the EU at the end of 2020. Those laws give the British government the power to penalize those credibly involved in serious violation of human rights and corruption. Sanctioned individuals may not enter Britain, channel money through British banks or profit from the British economy.   The so-called Magnitsky sanctions, which the U.S. and several other countries have enacted, are named for Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was arrested and later died in prison in Russia after accusing Russian officials of a massive tax fraud. Those officials were among those sanctioned Monday. Opposition politicians said Monday’s sanctions are welcomed but aren’t enough because they don’t target corruption in British overseas territories and dependencies.  Labour Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Lisa Nandy said Britain remains a haven for “dark money” and urged Raab to increase the powers for financial crime investigators.  “The current rate of prosecutions for economic crime is … woefully low, as he knows, and to put it bluntly if he’s serious about what he’s saying today he needs to put his money where his mouth is,” Nandy said, according to the Associated Press. 
 
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Peru is now mandating that people wear two face masks in places where crowding is possible like commercial buildings. The regulation, aimed at slowing a deadly second wave of the virus, began Monday, and was first reported in Peru’s national newspaper, El Peruano. The paper said a Supreme Decree (#083-2021-PCM) also mandates double masking in malls, grocery stores, shopping arcades, markets and warehouses. Under the new initiative face shields are also recommended along with the double masks. The government still requires people to wear face mask in all public spaces.Additionally, health authorities are conducting intensive epidemiological surveillance to identify any increase in cases of people infected with COVID-19 and responding to the situations.Peru is racing to get people vaccinated as the country’s COVID-19 rates remains among the highest in Latin American, with 1,761,575 confirmed infections and 59,724 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei during a virtual call Monday that the U.S. will give $310 million in humanitarian relief to Central America, her office said, as the region tackles a wave of migration north. Harris, who leads President Joe Biden’s efforts to address the influx of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to the U.S.-Mexico border, met with Giammattei by videoconference, prior to her visit to Central America scheduled for June.  “In light of the dire situation and acute suffering faced by millions of people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Vice President Harris announced an additional $310 million in US government support for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity,” a statement from her office said after the meeting. Honduran migrants clash with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala.It said the two governments will also coordinate law enforcement efforts to tackle criminal organizations whose activities help drive migration and to open migrant resource centers to establish safe, legal migration.  “The United States plans to increase relief to the region, strengthen our cooperation to manage migration in an effective, secure and humane manner,” Harris promised Giammattei. Biden has asked Congress for $861 million to address the causes that drive irregular immigration from Central America, within the framework of his $4 billion plan for the region.  His proposal is included in the budget project for next year that has yet to be discussed and approved by legislators.    More than 172,000 undocumented immigrants, including nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors, were detained in March at the southern border of the United States, a rise of 71% in a month and the highest level in 15 years.  Most of the migrants come from the three countries of the Central American Northern Triangle. That area, vulnerable to natural disasters, was hit by two devastating hurricanes in November and is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a prolonged drought.  “We want to work with you to address both the acute causes and the root causes (of migration) in a way that gives hope to the people of Guatemala that there will be an opportunity for them if they stay home,” Harris also told Giammattei during the virtual meeting. Giammattei agreed on the need to “create hope” in Guatemala.  “The Guatemalan government wants to be a partner (of the United States) to address … not only poverty but also the many evils that affect us all,” he said.  In addition, the president said he looked forward to Harris’ visit in June. Many migrants in recent weeks say they were given new hope by Biden’s reversal of the hardline immigration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden to Lift Refugee Cap Next Month, White House SaysPresident initially retained historically low 15,000-person limit set by Trump administrationThe changes include allowing unaccompanied children to stay and be united with relatives living inside the United States. The number of unaccompanied children detained after crossing the border illegally, or trying to sneak through official entry ports, doubled in March from February to 18,890, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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Last week’s killing of a police worker outside Paris offers a chilling reminder that terrorism has become a grim feature of life in France. Now the country, which has weathered some of Europe’s most horrific terrorist attacks, joins just a handful of nations that are building concrete reminders. The French memorial-museum will be the first devoted not to one specific terrorism incident but to a broader arc of horror over a half-century. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.Camera: Lisa Bryant 
 
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U.S. officials are not yet convinced Russia is making good on its word to de-escalate in Crimea and along its border with Ukraine following a weekslong military buildup, insisting it is “too soon to tell.” The Pentagon on Monday said it appears some Russian troops have pulled back, though the danger remains. “We have seen some departure of some forces away from Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, adding that the U.S. military is “going to keep watching this very, very closely.” “It’s too soon to tell and to take at face value Russian claims that what they said was an exercise is now over in there and they’re pulling everybody back,” he added. US, West Wary of Russian Claims That Military Buildup Near Ukraine Is OverPentagon says ‘it’s too soon to tell’ whether Moscow’s assurance can be taken at face value U.S. and Western officials have repeatedly raised concern over what they have described as the largest massing of Russian forces since Moscow gave the order to invade and seize the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. European officials last week said that at the height of the latest buildup, more than 100,000 Russian forces had positioned themselves within striking distance of Ukrainian territory. Bigger Than 2014: US Calls Out Russian Military Buildup Along Ukraine BorderThe Pentagon’s assertion that Moscow is massing more forces than it did when it invaded and annexed Crimea follows EU assessment that 150,000 Russian troops are now in the regionIn contrast to U.S. and Western concerns, Russian officials have continually accused Ukraine of being the cause of trouble in the region. On Monday, Russian’s foreign ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin used a call with French President Emmanuel Macron to highlight Kyiv’s “provocative actions” in eastern Ukraine. ????? Состоялся телефонный разговор Владимира Путина с Президентом Франции Эммануэлем Макроном. Особое внимание уделено внутриукраинскому конфликту. Выражена обеспокоенность в связи с эскалацией напряжённости на Юго-Востоке Украины.? https://t.co/vf8ezliI9Apic.twitter.com/6cI5UhrwDm— МИД России ?? (@MID_RF) April 26, 2021Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced this past Thursday that military exercises involving troops along the border with Ukraine were over and that they would return to their permanent bases by May 1. Later that day, a NATO official told VOA the alliance had taken note of the Russian announcement, adding, “Any steps towards de-escalation by Russia would be important and well overdue.” VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
 
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One hundred and eight prominent members of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP went on trial in the capital, Ankara, Monday in connection with violent nationwide protests in 2014 that left 37 people dead.The protests were against the government’s failure to militarily intervene as the Islamic State was poised to overrun the predominantly Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, on Turkey’s border.Speaking outside the courthouse Monday, HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said the trial is politically motivated.”The party official called this a case of revenge which he said is the product of the defeats that the HDP has made the government suffer,” Sancar said.Ankara accuses the YPG Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobane of being terrorists no different from Islamic State militants.The government is vigorously defending the prosecution, claiming the defendants have to be held to account for the deaths in the 2014 unrest.But Emma Sinclair Webb of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the case is part of an alarming trend.This is an entirely political trial as so many trials in Turkey are these days. This is part of a contentious effort to deplete the HDP to criminalize it,” Sinclair Webb said. “Basically evidence is based on political speeches and there is just no compelling credible evidence to pursue this case.”The defendants face life sentences on charges of murder, insurrection and inciting terrorism. Among those on trial is the HDP’s two former leaders, who are already in jail.The ruling AK Party accuses the HDP of being linked to the Kurdish rebel group the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state, a charge the party denies. Columnist Sezin Oney of the Duvar news portal said the future of the party is now in doubt.”Probably the beginning of the end of the HDP, AK party officials have on various instances have mentioned their intention is to wipe out the HDP for good so it can’t make a comeback,” Oney said.Dozens of elected HDP mayors are already in jail, and advocates fear that prosecutors could be preparing what is designed to be a fatal blow to Turkey’s second-largest opposition party. 
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Thirty-seven percent of surveyed countries are still experiencing disruptions in vaccinating children against deadly diseases like measles compared to 2020 levels, according to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The disruptions stem from the COVID-19 pandemic, the groups say.
They also say 60 lifesaving campaigns are currently “postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people — mostly children — at risk for measles, yellow fever and polio.”  
As the world marks World Immunization Week 2021, which takes place in the last week of April, the groups are calling for countries to increase investments in vaccines.
The groups say investment could save 50 million lives by 2030.
“If we’re to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must ensure routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Measles outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Yemen, according to the groups. They added that further outbreaks were likely as children are not vaccinated.
“As COVID-19 vaccines are at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it is more critical than ever that children maintain access to other lifesaving vaccines to prevent devastating outbreaks of preventable diseases that have started to spread alongside the pandemic,” said David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. “We must sustain this energy on vaccine rollout to also help children catch up on their measles, polio and other vaccines. Lost ground means lost lives.”
UNICEF said it delivered 2.01 billion vaccines in 2020 compared to 2.29 billion in 2019.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be finding himself cornered over opposition claims that his government $128 billion squandered in defending Turkey’s currency, the lira.Throughout Turkey, giant banners emblazoned with the words “where is the $128 billion?” hang from party offices of the main opposition, People’s Republican Party, CHP.  Advertising trucks and vans carry images asking the same question, along with posters on billboards across the country, some with just the words “$128 billion Where?”In Istanbul, the governor ordered the banners taken down, claiming they violated COVID restrictions. Video of the police taking down the huge posters in the middle of the night went viral on social media, only fueling more interest.The CHP has countered by simply using the number 128, which has become synonymous with demands for accounting of the lost billions of dollars.Meral Aksener, the firebrand leader of the opposition Good Party, iyi, joined in the assault on the government, “Turkey has become the land of disappearance under the great illusionist Erdoğan,” quipped Aksener in an address to her parliamentary party deputies this month.”Vaccines are missing,” and “128 Billion USD and the Minister of Powerpoint (referring to former Finance Minister Berat Albayrak) who lost the money is also missing,” she said, referring to opposition claims that more than one million imported COVID vaccines are unaccounted for – a claim the government denies. Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, has not been seen public since reports said he was forced to quit in November.Under the finance minister’s two-year stewardship, billions of Turkey’s foreign currency reserves were used to prop up the currency, as he confounded economic orthodoxy of keeping interest rates low, despite rising inflation.A man is reflected at a foreign currency board in a currency exchange shop, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 22, 2021.Albayrak followed Erdogan’s unorthodox view that low-interest rates reduce inflation rather than the widely held belief that high rates are needed to tame rising prices.Analysts warn the growing controversy over the opposition’s slogan, “What happened to $128 billion,” is threatening to engulf Erdogan.”The question drives Mr. Erdogan furious because it is essentially an assault on the integrity of his son-in-law Mr. Berat Albayrak,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “It also implies AKP cronies might have absconded with part of Central Bank F/X sales.”Economic hardship caused by the COVID pandemic, with rising unemployment and inflation, mean that questions over missing billions of dollars are striking a chord in the country. In recent weeks, the question “What happened to 128 billion” has been among the top three search questions on Google in Turkey.  Erdogan on Wednesday accused the opposition of carrying out a campaign of “lies.””This money was not gifted to anyone or wasted,” Erdogan told members of his ruling parliamentary. “It simply changed hands and went to economic actors… and a large part of it has returned to the central bank,” he added.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during his ruling party’s congress in Ankara, March 24, 2021. (Credit: Turkish Presidency)But the president caused alarm in the financial markets when he said 165 rather than 128 billion had been used defending the currency and that he would support such a policy again if needed. The Turkish lira plummeted after the comments.”Erdogan is now saying $165 billion (were) used in two years to defend the lira. That is a huge sum spent on a failed FX intervention strategy,” tweeted Timothy Ash, a senior Emerging Market Analyst of Blue Ray Investments. “I cannot think of another country that wasted such huge sums on a failed defense of the lira. Disastrous,” he added.Falling approval ratingMany analysts see Turkey’s economic woes as the main factor behind Erdogan and his AKP Party’s slide in opinion polls. For the first time, the party’s support, according to polls, has fallen below 30%.Observers say Erdogan’s struggle to contain the 128 campaign indicates a far broader problem facing the president. Having dominated Turkish politics for nearly two decades, they say he now appears to be heading into enemy territory.”For the first time, the AK Party is obliged to a defensive strategy, and because it does not know how to play, it responds with kick and slap to every attack,” said veteran pollster Bekir Agirdir of the Konda polling company.The 128 campaign, using both traditional and modern means of communication and its slick presentation, is also a sign that Erdogan is facing a galvanized and effective opposition that appears to have a finger on the nation’s pulse.”The economic conditions in the country are getting harder, the government seems to be losing the grip of the pandemic, and to be honest, the opposition is playing tough,” wrote political columnist Murat Yetkin for the website Yetkin Report. 
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Russia is considering using convicts to expand a railway line in the far east, a government document showed, as Moscow faces migrant labor shortages due to COVID-19.Restrictions linked to the pandemic have prompted many migrant workers to leave Russia and authorities have warned construction projects could be slowed down.Russia has already brought in soldiers to build a segment of its Baikal-Amur Mainline railway (BAM) in the far east to transport more coal and metal to ports for export to Asia.It is now also considering convict laborers to work on the line which is being expanded as part of a more than 6 trillion rouble ($79 billion) plan to upgrade and construct infrastructure.A document drawn up by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin’s office ordered the transport ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and Russian Railways, the state company that runs the vast national rail network, to assess the feasibility of using convicts to build railways.The document, first reported by Kommersant newspaper and reviewed by Reuters on Monday, ordered the three bodies to assess the possibility of using convicts to work on the construction of railway infrastructure on the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian railways by May 14.Russian Railways and the transport ministry declined to comment.A spokesman for Khusnullin did not immediately comment. The government and prison service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Prisoners from the Soviet Union’s vast GULAG labor camp system were used in the 1930s to build portions of BAM and develop large swathes of Siberia.
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A top European Union official said Sunday that Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to travel to Europe by summer, easing existing travel restrictions.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the union’s 27 members would accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Agency. The agency has approved the three vaccines used in the United States.”The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union.”She did not say when travel could resume. The EU largely shut down nonessential travel more than a year ago.European Union countries agreed this month to launch COVID-19 travel passes that would permit people who have been vaccinated against the disease, recovered from an infection or have tested negative to travel more easily.
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A leading contender to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor this fall has called for “dialogue and toughness” toward China when it comes to defending democratic values and human rights.Annalena Baerbock, the environmentalist Greens’ candidate for chancellorship, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Europe should use its economic might to block Chinese goods made with forced labor and avoid communications technologies that endanger European security.”We are currently in a competition between systems: authoritarian powers versus liberal democracies,” she said in an interview published Sunday.Baerbock cited China’s investment in infrastructure and energy grids through Central Asia to Europe as “brutal power politics.””We Europeans mustn’t kid ourselves,” she said, adding that the 27-nation European Union needs to act accordingly to defend its values, such as by using a recent investment accord between Brussels and Beijing to address more strongly the issue of China putting its Uyghur minority into forced labor.Baerbock, a graduate in international law, also took aim at Russia, in particular its support for rebel groups in Ukraine and the recent massing of Russian troops along Ukraine’s border.She backed Ukraine’s right to apply for membership in NATO and the EU but said “the most important thing right now is to increase the pressure on Russia so that the Minsk accord is adhered to.” That accord seeks to peacefully end the conflict in eastern Ukraine with Russia-backed rebels that has left at least 14,000 dead since 2014.Against the backdrop of Moscow’s aggressive behavior, Baerbock criticized the German government’s support for an underwater pipeline bringing Russian natural gas to Germany.  “I would have long withdrawn political support for Nord Stream 2,” she said.The Greens have called for closer cooperation with the United States to defend liberal values worldwide, but Baerbock suggested that the goal of having NATO members spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense should be revisited in light of the pressing need to invest large sums to curb climate change. She also suggested Europe’s defense contribution could also come in the form of a cybersecurity center.”A blanket 2% goal, on the other hand, won’t achieve greater security,” she said.The Greens emerged from the pacifist and environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, but in recent years have backed limited military deployments abroad, provided they are tied to U.N. resolutions.Baerbock said the future of U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe could be raised again as part of the disarmament negotiations between Moscow and Washington.  A poll published Sunday by weekly Bild am Sonntag put the Greens narrowly ahead of Merkel’s center-right Union bloc.Germans will elect a new parliament September 26 that will then choose who should become the country’s next chancellor. Merkel is not running for a fifth term.The survey, conducted by polling firm Kantar, found 28% of respondents planned to vote for the Greens, against 27% for the Union bloc. The center-left Social Democrats are expected to receive about 13% support while the far-right Alternative for Germany would get 10%. The poll of 1,225 voters found the pro-business Free Democrats would receive 9% and the Left party would get 7% of the vote.
 
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In March, one of the world’s biggest container ships became stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal, creating a commercial logjam and spikes in the cost of oil. At a training facility in France, mariners are learning how to avoid a similar predicament.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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