French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday there is an opportunity for further negotiations to de-escalate the crisis on the Ukraine-Russian border, after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv. 

“Our desire for the following weeks and months is for the situation to stabilize and for us to be able to re-engage through new mechanisms of guarantees, a sustainable de-escalation,” Macron said Tuesday.

“In this context, the calm that you demonstrate, the reflection from all participating parties, both in words and in actions, are indispensable,” Macron told Zelenskiy at a press conference following the talks.

Warships

Meanwhile, the Russian military build-up around Ukraine continues unabated. Six Russian warships headed to the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Tuesday. Moscow has deployed over 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and a further 20,000 in neighboring Belarus, where they are taking part in joint military exercises. The West fears an invasion could be imminent but Moscow denies it has any such plans.

The French president said he had received assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow on Monday. 

“On the discussions on military and security aspects, as I have said very clearly yesterday, we have had exchanges with President Putin, and he told me that he would not be behind any escalation. I think that is important,” Macron said.

However, a Kremlin spokesperson disputed that President Putin had given any guarantees over halting military exercises close to the Ukrainian border.

Minsk agreement

President Macron said the key to ending the crisis is the implementation of the Minsk Protocol, a roadmap sponsored by France and Germany through the so-called Normandy Format talks aimed at ending the conflict between Russian-backed rebels and government forces in eastern Ukraine. 

“The Minsk agreements are also the best protection of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Based on the commitment of the two sides, Russian and Ukrainian, we now have the possibility of advancing negotiations… This shared determination is the only path that will allow us to build peace, the only path that will allow us to build a viable political solution,” Macron said.

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy agreed there was an opportunity, but said that Russian President Putin must prove his commitment. 

“Generally, I don’t quite trust words. That’s why I think that every politician can show his or her openness by concrete deeds,” Zelenskiy said. 

“The first steps are what Emmanuel [Macron] mentioned,” Zelenskiy added. “We have a platform, the Normandy Format. We react very positively to the meeting of the political advisers in the coming days. I believe that after this meeting, there can be an opportunity — if there is openness — for a meeting of the leaders. And there, one can demonstrate one’s subjectivity, and one’s openness.”

The Minsk agreements would see the eastern Donbas region, much of which is currently under the control of pro-Russian rebels, reintegrated into Ukraine, but with political autonomy. 

Kyiv Concerns

Ukraine remains deeply skeptical of the deal, says Alexander Titov, a Russia analyst at Queens University Belfast. “Moscow sees Minsk [agreements] as a way of re-establishing some form of presence in Ukraine for its pro-Russian forces and stopping Ukraine from formal NATO membership. Ukraine, for exactly the same reasons, opposes it,” Titov told VOA.

There are concerns in Ukraine over what President Macron may have offered Russia, according to Quentin Peel of the London-based policy group Chatham House.

“Ukrainians are very suspicious that behind it all Russia simply wants to give the separatists in the Donbas a veto over any future constitutional arrangement in Ukraine. So the Ukrainians are suspicious that Macron might try and force them to give that away. But having said that, I think it’s probably the only diplomatic way forward that is visible,” Peel told VOA.

That explains why Ukraine is trying to calm the situation, says Titov. “There is a lot of talk in Kyiv and Ukraine more generally about the whole crisis being kind of exaggerated in order to force Ukraine to actually implement the Minsk agreements as a way of kind of calming down Putin.”

Putin pride

Despite those suspicions, Macron has kept diplomatic channels open. “I think what Emmanuel Macron has spotted is the need to play up to Putin’s sense of pride. By coming to Moscow and sitting with Putin and giving Putin, if you like, almost the lead in the negotiations — that’s exactly what the Russian president really craves for,” Peel told VOA.

Whether that will be enough to avert conflict remains to be seen. European diplomatic efforts continue next week, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to visit Moscow for talks with President Putin.
…

The former communist countries of eastern Europe are growing increasingly nervous about what they see as a revanchist Russia, with their governments carefully watching the Ukraine crisis for clues to where else Russian leader Vladimir Putin could stir trouble.

Britain announced Monday that 350 Royal Marine Commandos who were on exercises in Norway will be diverted to Poland to take part in “contingency planning.” The move comes as tensions build around Russia’s deployment of forces on Ukraine’s borders in the biggest military build-up since 1945.

A British defense official said the diversion is about “reassurance to eastern European partners” who fear Putin is using Ukraine as a battering ram in a campaign to upend the post-Cold War security settlement in Europe and reestablish a Russian sphere of influence across Eastern Europe.

And Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday he is prepared to deploy warplanes to Bulgaria and Romania and warships to the Black Sea. Britain will not “flinch,” he said.

NATO presence

NATO has troops rotating in and out of eastern Europe in what officials in the Western alliance’s headquarters in Brussels describe as a persistent, but not permanent, presence. They say troop deployments have been intentionally light from the Baltics to the Black Sea in a bid to deter but not to provoke Russian aggression.

Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, there have been four battle groups containing a total of 5,000 troops in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, led by the U.S., Germany, Canada and Britain.

The United States has ordered a further 3,000 troops to strengthen the defenses of NATO’s eastern allies, with the first arriving Saturday at Rzeszów military base in southeastern Poland. And Germany is preparing to reinforce its small battle group of 1,200 troops currently in Lithuania

NATO is considering a longer-term military posture in eastern Europe, the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.

“We are considering more longer-term adjustments to our posture, our presence in the eastern part of the alliance. No final decision has been made on that but there is a process now going on within NATO,” he told reporters in Brussels.

Stoltenberg’s remarks were praised by eastern European governments.

“Based on historical experience, we see that only a decisive deterrence policy can stop any potential Russian aggression and based on the very same history, we do see that the policy of appeasement only encourages the potential enemy to do something,” Mariusz Blaszczak, the Polish defense minister, said Monday.

Putin’s next move

Polish analysts say there are real fears in central and eastern Europe that settled borders are now under threat. If Putin decides to add more Ukrainian territory to what he seized in 2014, they ask, what will stop him from using coercive diplomacy or hybrid warfare to manufacture a crisis elsewhere?

Putin has frequently lamented that the breakup of the Soviet Union left 25.3 million ethnic Russians outside the Russian Federation, many of them living in former Soviet republics, including the Baltic states. The presence of a sizable ethnic Russian minority in Ukraine has been used by the Kremlin for leverage, and some leaders of the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Estonia worry the same could happen with their countries.

“In Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, the mood is full of anxiety,” say historian Karolina Wigura and political analyst Jarosław Kuisz.

“The Russian military menace to Ukraine reawakens old traumas and, paradoxically, not only those generated from the east. Another angst is, to put it bluntly, that the West will again abandon us,” they added in a commentary.

“Many citizens of central and eastern Europe have clear memories of living under Moscow’s rule. For them, 30 years of independence is not long enough to banish the worry that we are trapped in a cycle of ever-repeating history,” they added.

NATO deployments — which are dwarfed by Russia’s military buildup — are going some way to steady nerves but there are fears that Putin no longer feels bound by the post–Cold War order, which he believes is against Russia’s national interests. Russian troll factories have long targeted the Baltic states with disinformation using messaging similar to the propaganda focused on Ukraine — namely NATO is occupying them, and Russian minorities are under threat, say analysts.

Kaja Kallas, Estonia’s prime minister, said recently: “The Baltic states are a NATO peninsula and therefore we have our worries.”

Estonia has been the target of a series of cyber-attacks since 2007, which are blamed on Russia and started amid an Estonian-Russian row about the relocation of a Soviet memorial in Tallinn.

Nearly a quarter of Estonia’s population is ethnic Russian, and while integration has proceeded apace most ethnic Russians send their children to Russian language schools and watch Russian media. The country’s third largest city, Narva, is 80% ethnic Russian and analysts see it as the most likely target for Moscow if the Kremlin decides to foment trouble.

Arvydas Anusauskas, the Lithuanian defense minister, points to the channeling of Russian troops to neighboring Belarus for large-scale military exercises as unnerving and says the drills pose a “direct threat” to his country.

Relations between Lithuania and Russia have also been frosty since the country became the first of the Baltic states, and first Soviet republic, to gain independence in 1990. Russian troops remained in Lithuania for another three years as then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin linked troop withdrawals to issues concerning the Russian minority in the country. Fifteen percent of Lithuania’s population is ethnic Russian. Since independence, Lithuanian leaders have visited Moscow only three times.

“This is now an area full of weaponry. Russian troops that are in the south of his country can be moved very quickly. There are sorts of hybrid attacks under way. Pipelines falling apart. This is how unfortunately these regimes operate. There are no red lines they will not cross,” she said.

Šimonytė questioned Monday’s meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Putin, displaying wariness about the French president’s diplomatic mission to Moscow. Like other Baltic leaders, she is wary of the idea, apparently mooted by Macron, that Ukraine should be blocked from joining NATO. Reports said Macron suggested Ukraine should remain permanently neutral.

“Neutrality helps the oppressor and never the victim,” Šimonytė said.

Lithuanian defense officials fear the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is squeezed between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, could become the focus for a dangerous economic and military conflict between Russia and NATO, especially if the Western alliance doesn’t stand up to the Kremlin in the crisis over Ukraine.

“This is a 1938 moment for our generation,” Ingrida Šimonytė, Lithuania’s prime minister, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper, a reference to the appeasement of Nazi Germany by the British and French. She fears substantial Russian forces will remain indefinitely in Belarus whatever happens in Ukraine and that would change the security landscape.
…

The Ukrainian military says the number of artillery attacks on the border between Ukraine and the Russia-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions have decreased though Moscow continues mass troops just inside its border. Victor Lymar traveled to the region and has this story narrated by Anna Rice.
…

Paris — Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found “in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale” wildlife group WWF said on Tuesday, calling for urgent efforts to create an international treaty on plastics.

Tiny fragments of plastic have reached even the most remote and seemingly pristine regions of the planet: it peppers Arctic sea ice and has been found inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean, the Mariana Trench.

There is no international agreement in place to address the problem, although delegates meeting in Nairobi for a United Nations environment meeting this month are expected to launch talks on a worldwide plastics treaty.

WWF sought to bolster the case for action in its latest report, which synthesizes more than 2,000 separate scientific studies on the impacts of plastic pollution on the oceans, biodiversity and marine ecosystems.

The report acknowledged that there is currently insufficient evidence to estimate the potential repercussions on humans.

But it found that the fossil-fuel derived substance “has reached every part of the ocean, from the sea surface to the deep ocean floor, from the poles to coastlines of the most remote islands and is detectable in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale.”

According to some estimates, between 19 and 23 million tons of plastic waste is washed into the world’s waterways every year, the WWF report said.

This is largely from single-use plastics, which still constitute more than 60% of marine pollution, although more and more countries are acting to ban their use.

“In many places (we are) reaching some kind of saturation point for marine ecosystems, where we’re approaching levels that pose a significant threat,” said Eirik Lindebjerg, Global Plastics Policy Manager at WWF.

In some places there is a risk of “ecosystem collapse,” he said.

Many people have seen images of seabirds choking on plastic straws or turtles wrapped in discarded fishing nets, but he said the danger is across the entire marine food web.

It “will affect not only the whale and the seal and the turtle, but huge fish stocks and the animals that depend on those,” he added.

In one 2021 study, 386 fish species were found to have ingested plastic, out of 555 tested.

Separate research, looking at the major commercially fished species, found up to 30% of cod in a sample caught in the North Sea had microplastics in their stomach.

Once in the water, the plastic begins to degrade, becoming smaller and smaller until it is a “nano plastic,” invisible to the naked eye.

So even if all plastic pollution stopped completely, the volume of microplastics in the oceans could still double by 2050.

But plastic production continues to rise, potentially doubling by 2040, according to projections cited by WWF, with ocean plastic pollution expected to triple during the same period.

Lindebjerg compares the situation to the climate crisis — and the concept of a “carbon budget,” that caps the maximum amount of CO2 that can be released into the atmosphere before a global warming cap is exceeded.

“There is actually a limit to how much plastic pollution our marine ecosystems can absorb,” he said.

Those limits have already been reached for microplastics in several parts of the world, according to WWF, particularly in the Mediterranean, the Yellow and East China Seas (between China, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula) and in the Arctic sea ice.

“We need to treat it as a fixed system that doesn’t absorb plastic, and that’s why we need to go towards zero emissions, zero pollution as fast as possible,” said Lindebjerg.

WWF is calling for talks aimed at drawing up an international agreement on plastics at the U.N. environment meeting, from February 28 to March 2 in Nairobi.

It wants any treaty to lead to global standards of production and real “recyclability.”

Trying to clean up the oceans is “extremely difficult and extremely expensive,” Lindebjerg said, adding that it was better on all metrics not to pollute in the first place.
…

President Joe Biden says he and Germany’s new chancellor are in lockstep over the perilous situation in Ukraine, where the specter of an imminent Russian invasion haunts all of Europe. The two leaders held their first in-person meeting on Monday. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
…

Millions of people around the world enjoy a daily cup of coffee; however, their daily caffeine fix could be under threat because climate change is killing coffee plants, putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk.

Inside the vast, steamy greenhouses at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the leafy suburbs of west London, Aaron Davis leads the research into coffee.

“Arabica coffee, our preferred coffee, provides us with about 60% of the coffee that we drink globally. It’s a delicious coffee, it’s the one we love to drink. The other species is robusta coffee, which provides us with the other 40% of the coffee we drink – but that mainly goes into instant coffees and espresso mixes,” Davis explains.

The cultivation of arabica and robusta coffee beans accounts for millions of livelihoods across Africa, South America and Asia.

“These coffees have served us very well for many centuries, but under climate change they’re facing problems,” Davis says.

“Arabica is a cool tropical plant; it doesn’t like high temperatures. Robusta is a plant that likes even moist conditions; it likes high rainfall. And under climate change, rainfall patters are being modified, and it’s also experiencing problems. In some cases, yields are dramatically reduced because of increased temperatures or reduced rainfall. But in some cases, as we’ve seen in Ethiopia, you might get a complete harvest failure and death of the trees.”

The solution could be growing deep in the forests of West Africa. There are around 130 species of coffee plant – but not all taste good. In Sierra Leone, scientists from Kew helped to identify one candidate, stenophylla, growing in the wild.

“This is extremely heat tolerant. And is an interesting species because it matches arabica in terms of its superb taste,” Davis says.

Two other coffee species also show promise for commercial cultivation in a changing climate: liberica and eugenioides, which “has low yields and very small beans, but it has an amazing taste,” according to Davis.

Some believe the taste is far superior. At the 2021 World Barista Championship in Milan, Australia’s Hugh Kelly won third prize with his eugenioides espresso. Kelly recalled the first time he tasted it at a remote farm in Colombia. “It was a coffee like I’ve never tasted before; as I tasted it, it was unbelievably sweet … I knew that sweetness and gentle acidity were the bones for an incredible espresso,” Kelly told judges in Milan.

Researchers hope Kelly’s success could be the breakthrough moment for these relatively unknown beans.

The team at the Botanic Gardens is working with farmers in Africa on cultivating the new coffees commercially. Catherine Kiwuka of the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organization, who oversees some of the projects, says challenges still lie ahead.

“What requirements do they need? How do we boost its productivity? Instead of it being dominated by only two species, we have the opportunity to tap into the value of other coffee species.”

It’s hoped that substantial volumes of liberica coffee will be exported from Uganda to Europe this year. Researchers hope it will provide a sustainable income for farmers – and an exciting new taste for coffee drinkers.
…

At their first meeting in four years, officials of the U.S.-European Union Energy Council confronted an urgent, short-term priority – bolstering natural gas supplies amid a Russian threat to invade Ukraine – and a longer-term concern: mitigating climate change.

“We’re coordinating with our allies and partners, with the energy sector stakeholders, including on how best to share energy reserves in the event that Russia turns off the spigot or initiates a conflict that disrupts the flow of gas through Ukraine,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken following Monday’s meeting in Washington.

Moscow has threatened to halt the flow of gas to Europe if economic sanctions are imposed as a result of any further Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“This crisis has been pushing trans-Atlantic unity,” according to Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

“In the medium term, there is the climate neutrality,” explained Borrell, who is also the vice president of the European Commission. “In the short term, it’s security of supplies of gas. Both things go together.”

Europe is likely to rely more on the United States for its gas supplies as a result of the crisis. President Joe Biden has pledged to help Europe find additional liquified natural gas from sources in the United States and other countries if Russia-Ukraine tensions cause disruptions.

“We think we can make up a significant portion of it that would be lost,” Biden said at a White House news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday afternoon.

That is seen by some environmentalists as counter-productive to achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, something the United States and the European Union have pledged to work together to accomplish.

European officials “are not doing everything they need to be to get their addiction to gas ramped down as fast as possible. They’re really convinced that they need gas, and they see the U.S. as a supplier for that,” Aki Kachi, senior policy analyst at NewClimate Institute in Germany, told VOA News. “Generally, in both the EU and the U.S., there’s a lack of understanding about the climate impacts of gas.”

“Germany has decided to phase out the use of oil and gas very soon and by 2045 Germany will have a carbon-neutral economy as one of the strongest economies of the world,” Scholz told reporters at the White House. “It’ll probably be the biggest industrial modernization project in Germany in 100 years.”

The trans-Atlantic partnership has pledged to increase collaboration on reducing emissions from fossil fuels and expanding use of energy from the sun, wind, batteries and hydrogen.

“As we face geopolitical tensions and the challenge of climate change, we need more, not less, trans-Atlantic cooperation,” Kadri Simson, the European Commission’s energy commissioner, said at the meeting’s opening.

At the start of Monday’s discussion, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the goals set out in Washington and Brussels have significant geo-political ramifications at a time when energy prices have “gone through the roof” on both sides of the Atlantic amid the threats from Russia.

“This is not just an energy and climate issue,” Granholm told the meeting. “It also is potentially the greatest peace plan that ever existed, to be able to build out energy independence from clean energy.”

Together, the economies of the U.S. and the EU represent about 45% of the world’s economic output, and an even smaller percentage of global carbon dioxide emissions. That means for the world to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international treaty on climate change, other major emitters will need to make good on their ambitious pledges.

“If only the EU and the U.S. are taking action, it wouldn’t be enough,” Kachi noted. “But it’s not really the case because China and India and other countries are also major investors in renewables.”
…

In eastern Ukraine, tensions over threat of a Russian invasion continue to rise, although in the eastern town of Avdiivka, along the frontlines facing Kremlin-backed separatists, the war has never ceased since 2014. For VOA, Ricardo Marquina traveled there and has this report narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff.
…

Russia’s geopolitical ambitions in Africa have in recent years been backed by private military contractors, often described as belonging to the “Wagner group” — an entity with no known legal status.   

Most recently, Western nations have condemned the alleged arrival of Russian mercenaries in Mali’s capital Bamako, a claim denied by the junta that seized power in 2020.   

As relations with France worsen, the military rulers may be looking for ways to make up for shrinking numbers of European troops fighting Mali’s years-old jihadist insurgency.   

“Mercs [mercenaries] working in Africa is an established norm” thanks in part to decades of operations by contractors from South Africa, said Jason Blazakis of the New York-based Soufan Group think tank.   

“The Wagner folks are walking through a door that has long been open to their ilk,” he added.   

No information is publicly available about the group’s size or finances.   

But around Africa, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington has found evidence since 2016 of Russian soldiers of fortune in Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Madagascar and Mozambique.   

Botswana, Burundi, Chad, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are also on the CSIS’s list.   

In Africa “there is a convergence of many states’ interests, including China’s,” Alexey Mukhin of the Moscow-based Centre for Political Information told AFP.   

“Every state has the right to defend its business assets,” he added.   

‘Hysteria’ 

Wagner does not officially exist, with no company registration, tax returns or organizational chart to be found.   

When the EU wanted to sanction the group in 2020, it targeted Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin who is suspected of running Wagner.   

It imposed further sanctions in December last year when mercenaries’ arrival in Mali appeared certain — drawing accusations of “hysteria” from Moscow.   

Western experts say military contractors are embedded in Russia’s official forces like intelligence agencies and the army, providing plausible deniability for Moscow.   

Their deployment to African countries aims to “enable Russia to… regain this sphere of influence” that fell away with the collapse of the Soviet Union, said CSIS researcher Catrina Doxsee.   

The mercenaries’ presence has been growing even faster since a 2019 Russia-Africa summit.   

Moscow has been active “especially in what has traditionally been France’s zone of influence” in former colonies like CAR and Mali, said Djallil Lounnas, a researcher at Morocco’s Al Akhawayn university.   

While military contractors sometimes shepherd Russian arms sales, the revenue “really pales compared with the profit they are able to generate from mining concessions and access to natural resources,” Doxsee said.   

That makes unstable countries with mineral or hydrocarbon wealth prime customers — such as in Syria where the mercenaries first became known to the wider public.   

No questions asked 

Lounnas said that another advantage for clients is a lack of friction over human rights and democracy that might come with Western partners.   

“Russia has its interests. It doesn’t ask questions,” he added.   

Reports of violence and abuse on the ground suggest that same latitude may extend to the mercenaries themselves.   

In the CAR, the United Nations is probing an alleged massacre during a joint operation by government forces and Wagner fighters.   

One military source told AFP that more than 50 people died, some in “summary executions.”

On Thursday, the European Union said it would not resume military training in the CAR — suspended since mid-December — unless the country’s soldiers stop working for Wagner.   

Meanwhile the mercenaries’ results do not always measure up to the hopes of the governments that hire them.   

In Libya, Russian mercenaries suffered heavy losses in Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s year-long attempt to conquer the capital Tripoli, which was ultimately unsuccessful.   

And in Mozambique, the Russians retreated in the face of Islamic State group jihadists, ultimately losing out to South African competitors.   

Although lacking language skills and experience with the terrain, Wagner “were picked because they were the cheapest”, Doxsee said.   

“They didn’t have what it took to succeed,” she added, noting that “they’ve had a fair few failures” across Africa.   

Succeeding completely might actually harm the mercenaries’ business model, which thrives on unrest, conflict and crisis.   

“If a country such as the CAR hires them to train forces, to help them in their military efforts, it’s in their interest to accomplish that just well enough to continue to be employed,” Doxsee said.  

“If they actually were to do it well enough to resolve the conflict, they would no longer be needed.”
…

Vladimir Putin has done much to rehabilitate Russia’s Soviet past, a rehabilitation that has grown apace with memorials once again erected to Joseph Stalin, and officials no longer embarrassed to hang portraits of the late Soviet dictator in their offices.

And the Russian president appears also to be copying the coercive diplomacy — with its mix of threats, hard power and brinkmanship — adopted by his Soviet predecessors, according to historians and former diplomats.

The Kremlin and its ally China called on the United States and NATO Friday to turn back on “Cold War approaches,” but the Russian military buildup on the borders of Ukraine harks back in many ways to the tactics pursued by Stalin and his successor, Nikita Khrushchev.

“We may be seeing Putin’s version of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s bluster and threats in 1961 over then-divided Berlin — an attempt to intimidate a U.S. president into offering concessions at a moment of perceived U.S. weakness today as a result of the American defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan and domestic political division,” notes Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

He added in a commentary for Just Security, an online national security forum, “Thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin demands that the West help restore its empire in Europe, the imposition of which by Joseph Stalin was the original cause of the Cold War. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed a lot about Kremlin views of the countries between Germany and Russia when he said in December that the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact left them not free or sovereign but ‘ownerless.’”

Testing the resolve and resilience of opponents with displays of brinkmanship goes back further and was honed by Stalin, starting almost immediately after the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Reich. In a new book, “Checkmate in Berlin,” British historian Giles Milton chronicles how Stalin tested and bewildered his wartime Western allies by harassing them at every turn in the German capital, which was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation.

His goal was to wear them down and evict them not only from Berlin but the whole of Germany. The machinations included military standoffs that saw Red Army troops trespassing into the West’s zones of occupations, stacking the police and district administrations in Berlin with Moscow loyalists and building up the Communist Party, all done with astonishing, clandestine nimbleness to keep the Americans, the British and French wrong-footed.

The Soviets used propaganda and misinformation adeptly, making it impossible to determine what news was true and what was false, and with the overall goal of trying to turn Berliners against the West, says Milton.

“One of the most powerful propaganda tools was Radio Berlin, whose studios had been captured intact in May 1945. None of the broadcasters was subjected to denazification. According to one American intelligence agent, the station continued ‘with the same personnel that had been there under the Nazis. They just changed the colors of the shirts,’” Milton writes.

The crisis slowly came to a head. Washington and London eventually hardened their resistance to Soviet demands and maneuvers, partly persuaded to do so by American diplomat George Kennan, who sent a telegram of more than 5,000 words from Moscow to Washington, the longest the State Department had ever received. In the so-called Long Telegram, Kennan outlined Stalin’s expansionist and antagonistic intentions, and recommended strategic patience and containment of the Soviet Union.

In June 1948, Soviet forces blockaded rail, road and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin, starving them of electricity as well as essential food and coal. The United States and the United Kingdom responded with a herculean and ingenious campaign, known as Operation Vittles, (Berlin airlift) and airlifted enough food and fuel to feed and provide heat for 2.5 million West Berliners from air bases in western Germany.

The crisis ended in May 1949 with the blockade lifted when Stalin eventually conceded he couldn’t starve and freeze West Berliners into submission. The United States and Britain also mounted a counter-blockade on eastern Germany, causing severe shortages in turn, which the Kremlin feared might trigger political upheaval in their sphere of influence. The Berlin airlift acted as a spur for Western powers to set up NATO, Milton says.

John Lewis Gaddis, an eminent historian of the Cold War, also sees parallels between the coercive diplomacy employed by the Kremlin with its mixture of hard power and diplomatic know-how. In a recent radio interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Gaddis said Kennan’s analysis of the conduct of Soviet leadership is relevant today.  

Kennan wrote that the Soviet Kremlin didn’t believe in “peaceful coexistence” with the West, a belief springing from a “traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity” and a conviction that the West was menacing but wracked by growing internal political convulsions and destined finally to succumb.

“That is exactly Putin today,” said Gaddis.
…

Britain’s health secretary says he wants the people who have delayed their non-COVID medical appointments to come back to the National Health Service.

Sajid Javid told Sky News, “I want them all to come back because I want them to know the NHS is there, it’s open for them.”

Javid said the NHS estimates between 8 to 9 million people “stayed away from NHS because they were asked to,” as healthcare workers dealt with COVID patients. Now, however, the health secretary said, the NHS is ready to deal with the backlog.

He said a new online service will allow patients to see where they are on a waiting list and that billions of pounds are being invested “to get through the COVID backlog.”

South Korean public health officials have reported the country’s tally of COVID infections passed the one-million-mark Sunday. Authorities also reported a record 38,691 new infections Sunday.

Australia said Monday it is opening its borders and it ready to welcome vaccinated travelers from around the world, beginning February 21. “If you’re double-vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you back to Australia,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The country’s closed border policy has put a strain on the country’s tourism industry.

American figure skater Vincent Zhou tested positive Monday for COVID. He is scheduled to compete Tuesday. He will be tested again before the short program, but if he continues to test positive, he will not be allowed to skate.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday that there are more than 395 million global COVID infections and nearly 6 million global COVID deaths. The center said more than 10 billion COVID vaccines have been administered.
…

French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying in a newspaper interview that the massing of Russian forces on Ukrainian borders is likely part of a wider Kremlin strategy to secure Western concessions rather than a prelude to a full-scale offensive.

“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” he told France’s Le Journal de Dimanche just hours before boarding a flight to Moscow, where he will hold face-to-face talks Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a bold claim, Macron said his negotiations with Russia are likely to head off a military conflict. 

“The intensity of the dialogue we have had with Russia and this visit to Moscow are likely to prevent [a military operation] from happening. Then we will discuss the terms of de-escalation,” he said. “I have always been in a deep dialogue with President Putin and our responsibility is to build historic solutions.”

His remarks diverge noticeably from how the Biden administration characterizes Moscow’s military buildup and the danger of a Russian offensive. 

A Russian invasion of Ukraine “could happen at any time,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday, in what would be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II. 

“We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine, and we have been working hard to prepare a response,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show. Sullivan and other U.S. officials estimate that Russia has 70% of a strike force in place for an invasion.

Macron’s claim that his negotiations with Russia will prevent a military conflict prompted scorn from political foes in France who accused him of grandstanding. Some commentators and analysts warned he was putting his credibility as a negotiator on the line, cautioning that his efforts since 2017 to court the Russian leader have come up short.

French presidential elections are to be held in April and Macron’s electoral opponents have accused him of seeking to weaponize foreign policy to try to boost his reelection hopes.

“Whether Macron can win anything from Vladimir Putin is another question entirely,” says Mujtaba Rahman, managing director of the Eurasia Group, a global risk and consulting firm. “Previous attempts by Macron to reason with the Russian president have fallen flat on their face,” he tweeted.

Macron’s language “makes the rest of Europe quite nervous,” says foreign policy analyst Ulrich Speck, a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin, a research group.

Macron has long called for Russia to be brought back into the Western fold, despite Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. In his 2017 campaign book “Revolution,” Macron said, “It would be a mistake to break ties with this eastern European power [over Crimea] rather than forming a lasting relationship.”

Shortly after entering office, he hosted Putin in Versailles amid talk of detente, but the trip turned sour, the two leaders didn’t meet eye-to-eye and Macron took Putin to task for a host of actions at a joint press conference. Macron criticized Russia for seeking to meddle in Western elections by spreading fake news, disinformation and falsehoods. Macron talked about “very clear lines” of behavior.

Two years later, the French president tried again with his search for detente when he hosted Putin at the French president’s summer residence on the Riviera. 

In a speech, he warned about Europe being caught in the middle of a new Cold War, saying, “It’s not in our interest to be weak and guilty, to forget all our disagreements and to embrace each other again [but] the European continent will never be stable, will never be in security, if we don’t pacify and clarify our relations with Russia.” 

Macron has been reluctant in the past also to impose fresh sanctions on Putin’s Russia.

Some Macron critics say his attempts to reset relations with Moscow are as much about his personal ambitions and aim to boost his role in international affairs as anything else.  

Much like France’s iconic post-World War II leader, Gen. Charles de Gaulle, Macron sees France as a “balancing power” between Russia and the United States. His diplomatic forays alarm some of France’s European allies, notably Russia’s near neighbors.

Polish politicians have accused him of ignoring the fact that Russia hasn’t really changed its expansionist ways and they worry Macron’s efforts as a broker between Russia and the United States will lead to the Europeans placing themselves as an equidistant power between Moscow and Washington.

Last month, in a speech at the European Parliament, Macron called for the European Union to pursue its own talks with the Kremlin and said the bloc should negotiate a security and stability pact with the Kremlin. Some central European and Baltic leaders said Macron’s comments were ill-timed and risked encouraging the Kremlin to try to play the U.S. and EU off against each other.

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, said he was at a loss to understand what Macron meant about coming up with “a new order of security and stability.”

“These next few months rather seem to call for firm defense of the existing post-1989 order,” he said. Bildt was referencing the European security system based on NATO. 

Both the United States and Britain have warned that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, part of a bid to restore a Russian sphere of influence in eastern and central Europe. 

Russia has demanded that Ukraine never become a NATO member and says NATO’s military presence should be removed from the former Communist states of eastern Europe that have joined the Western alliance. NATO officials say countries should be free to decide whether to join the alliance.

In his interview with Le Journal de Dimanche, Macron spoke again about a new European security arrangement, saying that while “the security and sovereignty of Ukraine or any other European State cannot be a subject for compromise,” it is “also legitimate for Russia to pose the question of its own security.”

“We must protect our European brothers by proposing a new balance capable of preserving their sovereignty and peace. This must be done while respecting Russia and understanding the contemporary traumas of this great people and nation,” he said.

Justyna Gotkowska of the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies, a research group, questioned who had mandated Macron to talk about a new European security system.

“What legitimacy does Macron have to propose this? Europeans haven’t agreed in NATO and in the OSCE on ‘a new balance,’ to the contrary,” she tweeted.

French officials say Macron’s trip has been coordinated fully with Western allies and told the Reuters news agency that the Élysée Palace has learned from past errors of judgment to ensure that all EU and NATO allies are kept fully informed about Macron’s talks with Putin.

Speck, of the German Marshall Fund, said it would have been better if Macron had been accompanied by other Western leaders for his trip to Moscow. It “would make Europe look much stronger and make sure that there is a united message,” he tweeted.

He added, “What we get instead: an open-ended meeting between Macron and Putin” and that nobody else is in the room “besides translators.”
…

Pope Francis on Sunday decried the genital mutilation of millions of girls and the trafficking of women for sex, including openly on city streets, so others can make money off of them. 

In remarks to the public in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the day was dedicated worldwide to ending the ritual mutilation, and he told the crowd that some 3 million girls each year undergo the practice, “often in conditions very dangerous for the health.”

“This practice, unfortunately widespread in various regions of the world, humiliates the dignity of women and gravely attacks their physical integrity,” Francis said.

Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures that involve changing or injuring female genitalia for non-medical reasons and violates the human rights, health and the integrity of girls and women, the United Nations says in championing an end to the practice.

The practice can cause severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine, as well as consequences for sexual and reproductive health. While mainly concentrated in some 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it is also a problem for girls and women living elsewhere, including among immigrant populations.

According to U.N. figures, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the practice.

The pope also told the faithful that on Tuesday, there will be a day of prayer and reflection worldwide against human trafficking.

“This is a deep wound, inflicted by the shameful search of economic interests, without respect for the human person,” Francis said. “So many girls — we see them on the streets — who aren’t free, they are slaves of the traffickers, who send them to work, and, if they don’t bring back money, they beat them,” the pope said. “This is happening today in our cities.”

“In the face of these plagues on humanity, I express my sorrow and I exhort all those who have responsibility to act in a decisive way to impede both the exploitation and the humiliating practices that afflict in particular women and girls,” Francis said.
…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz set off Sunday for Washington seeking to reassure Americans that his country stands alongside the United States and other NATO partners in opposing any Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Scholz has said that Moscow would pay a “high price” in the event of an attack, but his government’s refusal to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, bolster Germany’s troop presence in Eastern Europe or spell out which sanctions it would support against Russia has drawn criticism abroad and at home.

“The Germans are right now missing in action. They are doing far less than they need to do,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and member of the Armed Services Committee, recently told an audience of Ukrainian Americans in his state, Connecticut.

This sentiment was echoed by Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who questioned why Berlin hadn’t yet approved a request to let NATO member Estonia pass over old German howitzers to Ukraine. “That makes no sense to me, and I’ve made that very clear in conversations with the Germans and others,” Portman told NBC.

Ahead of his trip, Scholz defended Germany’s position not to supply Kyiv with lethal weapons but insisted that his country is doing its bit by providing significant economic support to Ukraine.

Asked about the future of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that seeks to bring Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, Scholz refused to make any explicit commitments.

“Nothing is ruled out,” he told German public broadcaster ARD. 

Germany has come under criticism over its heavy reliance on Russian energy supplies and the gas pipeline has long been opposed by the United States. But it is strongly supported by some in Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party, including former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The 77-year-old Schroeder is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and heads the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG and the board of directors of Nord Stream 2.

In a move likely to embarrass Scholz ahead of his first official trip to Washington, the Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom announced Friday that Schroeder — who has accused Ukraine of “saber-rattling” in its standoff with Russia — has been nominated to join its board of directors.

Scholz’s spokesman declined repeated requests for comment on Schroeder’s ties to Putin.

Despite Germany’s reluctance to officially put the new pipeline — which has yet to receive an operating permit — on the negotiating table with Russia, the United States has made clear that even without Berlin’s agreement the project is dead should Moscow launch an attack.

“One way or the other, if Russia invades Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told “Fox News Sunday.”

Scholz will meet President Joe Biden and members of Congress on Monday to try to smooth out differences. The 63-year-old’s performance in Washington could have broad implications for U.S.-German relations and for Scholz’s standing at home.

While former President Donald Trump frequently slammed Germany, accusing it of not pulling its weight internationally, his successor has sought to rebuild relations with Berlin. 

“Biden has taken some real risks, including on the the issue of the German-Russian gas pipeline,” said Jeff Rathke, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

“(Scholz’s) visit to Washington is an opportunity for him to try to turn that page,” said Rathke.

Having succeeded long-time German leader Angela Merkel last year, Scholz also needs to appease doubters at home who accuse him of pulling a diplomatic vanishing act compared to his European counterparts. With the phrase “Where is Scholz?” trending on social media last week, German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz called for “clear words” from the government on the Ukraine crisis. 

“We must rule nothing out as a reaction to a further military escalation,” the leader of Merkel’s center-right bloc said, though he too has been skeptical about sending possible German arms shipments to Ukraine.

Others in Scholz’s three-party governing coalition have struck a harsher tone toward Russia.

Speaking alongside her Russian counterpart in Moscow last month, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party branded Russia’s troop deployment at the border with Ukraine a “threat.” She plans to visit Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday and inspect the front line between Ukrainian troops and areas held by Russian-based separatists in the east.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Free Democrats who chairs Germany’s parliamentary defense committee, said Schroeder’s work for Moscow “harms the country he should serve” and suggested removing the privileges he enjoys since leaving office.

Whatever Germany does to support Ukraine will likely come at a cost.

Berlin’s approval of 5,000 helmets for Ukrainian troops last week drew widespread mockery. Kyiv has since asked Germany for more military hardware, including medium-range and portable anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as ammunition.

Meanwhile, some German officials worry that any mention of further sanctions against Russia, let alone a full-blown conflict, could drive up Europe’s already high gas prices.  Constanze Stelzenmueller, a specialist on trans-Atlantic relations at the Brookings Institution, noted that Europe will bear the brunt of blowback costs from economic sanctions against Russia.

“You have populists in Europe always looking for ways to exploit political differences and tensions,” she said. “That’s what’s at stake here.”

In an uncharacteristic outburst at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Scholz — who was then Germany’s finance minister — announced that he would be pulling out a figurative “bazooka” to help businesses cope with the crisis by setting aside more than 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) in state aid.

Scholz may need to make a similarly expansive gesture to ease concerns in Washington and beyond, said Rathke.

“Germany is going to have to show that it is not only committed to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, but that it’s putting real resources behind it now, not just pointing to what it’s done in the past,” he said.
…

A photographer who previously worked for RFE/RL’s Belarus service has been arrested and taken to pretrial detention in Minsk, his relatives say.

Relatives of photographer Uladz Hrydzin told RFE/RL on Sunday that he was taken to the Akrestsina detention center and that his trial would take place Monday.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAZh) also said police arrested Hrydzin, according to The Associated Press.

Hrydzin stopped communicating on Friday, according to his relatives, who went to his house on Sunday and saw evidence that it had been searched. They said things were scattered on the floor and his laptop and camera were missing.

The relatives said they subsequently found out he had been taken to the Akrestsina detention center, where many inmates have said they were tortured.

Hrydzin worked as a photo correspondent for RFE/RL’s Belarus service until August 29, 2020, when his accreditation was revoked. Since then, he has worked as a freelancer.

The BAZh also said Hrydzin had been taken to pretrial detention in Minsk but didn’t identify the facility by name. It said no information was available on charges against him and that his lawyer had not been able to meet with him, according to AP.

Hrydzin was arrested in 2020 for filming a protest that arose after a disputed presidential election and served 11 days in detention.

The protest rally took place after authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in the election, which the opposition and many Western governments said was rigged.

Hrydzin has won the Belarus Press Photo contest, and his pictures were published by international agencies and mass media.

Some material for this report came from The Associated Press.
…

The United States now believes a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could happen at any time,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday, in what would be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II. 

“We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine, and we have been working hard to prepare a response,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.  

In a separate interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Sullivan said, “Any day Russia could take action against Ukraine, or it could be a couple weeks,” with U.S. intelligence officials assessing that Moscow has 70% of its strike force in place for an attack. 

He said a Russian invasion would come “at an enormous human cost to Ukraine but at a strategic cost to Russia,” with the U.S. prepared to impose swift and severe economic sanctions against Russia to hobble its economy. 

“Whatever actions Russia takes next, America is ready,” Sullivan said. 

Sullivan, however, said the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his professed security concerns about actions of the U.S. and its 29 NATO allies.  

“That includes the placement of certain range systems of missiles,” Sullivan said. “It includes transparency around military exercises. It includes greater capacity to have a confidence building and to avoid incidents that could lead to escalation or miscalculation.” 

“But what we’re not prepared to negotiate are the fundamental principles of security that include an open door to NATO for countries who can meet the requirements,” Sullivan said in rejecting Putin’s demand that NATO rule out the possibility of Ukrainian membership. 

The Western allies say no outside nation has veto power over which countries join the Atlantic alliance.  

U.S. President Joe Biden last week ordered that 3,000 American troops be sent to two eastern NATO countries, Poland and Romania. Reports say troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have landed in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine. 

Washington has ruled out dispatching troops to fight alongside Ukrainian forces in the event of a Russian invasion. The U.S. has, however, sent $500 million worth of arms and defensive missiles to the Kyiv government.   

If Russia invades Ukraine, then cuts off its natural gas supplies to European countries in retaliation to U.S. sanctions, Sullivan said the U.S. is moving to help redirect natural gas supplies from elsewhere to its European allies. 

In any event, Sullivan said if Russia invades Ukraine, its Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany “will not move forward.” The pipeline is completed but not yet operational. 

In the NBC interview, Sullivan said Biden “has rallied our allies. He’s reinforced and reassured our partners on the eastern flank. He’s provided material support to the Ukrainians, and he’s offered the Russians a diplomatic path if that’s what they choose instead, but either way, we are ready, our allies are ready and we’re trying to help the Ukrainian people get ready as well.” 
…

Russia is reporting a record daily count of new coronavirus infections of 180,071, a tenfold spike from a month ago as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads through the country. 

The figure released by the state coronavirus task force on Sunday was about 2,800 cases more than recorded the previous day and continued a surge that began in mid-January, when daily new cases were around 17,000.

Although the number of infections has increased dramatically in recent weeks, the task force reported that daily deaths from COVID-19 are holding steady or marginally declining: 661 deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, compared with 796 on Jan. 6.

For the entire course of the pandemic, the task force has reported 12.8 million infections and 335,414 deaths.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that his government is considering loosening some coronavirus restrictions, despite the soaring infections.

Putin told Russia’s top business association that the authorities are not planning any lockdowns or other additional restrictions because of the surge. Moreover, the government is considering lifting restrictions for those who come into contact with COVID-19 patients.

Existing regulations mandate that people in that position must self-isolate for seven days.

Faced with the biggest virus surge yet, Russian authorities have generally resisted imposing any major restrictions and repeatedly rejected the idea of introducing a lockdown.

Russia had only one, six-week lockdown in 2020, and in October 2021 many people were also ordered to stay off work for about a week. But beside that, life in most of the country remained largely normal, with even mask mandates being loosely enforced.

In recent weeks, a growing number of Russian regions have started introducing restrictions for those under 18, as officials noted that the current surge affects children much more than the previous ones. In many areas, schools have either switched to remote learning or extended holidays for students. In St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, minors have been temporarily barred from most public places. 

Russia started vaccinating children aged 12-17 only last month with the domestically developed Sputnik M jab, which is the same as Sputnik V but contains a smaller dose. According to media reports and social media users, only small amounts of vaccine for teenagers have been made available.

Only about half of Russia’s 146-million population has been vaccinated so far, even though the country was among the first in the world to roll out COVID-19 shots.
…

Britain’s Prince Charles led tributes to his mother, Queen Elizabeth, on the 70-year anniversary of her accession to the throne on Sunday, saying it was an opportunity for the country to unite and celebrate her service to the nation.   

Charles also thanked the queen for her statement on Saturday that she hoped the heir to the throne’s wife, Camilla, would become Queen Consort when he becomes king.   

“We are deeply conscious of the honor represented by my mother’s wish,” he said in a statement. “As we have sought together to serve and support Her Majesty and the people of our communities, my darling wife has been my own steadfast support throughout.   

“The year of this unprecedented Platinum Jubilee brings an opportunity for us all to come together in celebrating the service of The Queen, by whose example we will continue to be led in the years to come.”  

 
…

France and the European Union are investigating why a mass of dead fish was released by a huge trawler in the Atlantic Ocean off France, after an environmental group released dramatic video and photos of the incident.

The images by the group Sea Shepherd show a blanket of dead blue whiting fish floating on the surface of the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of southwest France. The group estimates it held some 100,000 dead fish.

Struck by the “shocking” images, French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin tweeted Friday that she ordered the National Center for Fishing Surveillance to investigate what happened.

The European commissioner for the environment, oceans and fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, announced an inquiry into “national authorities of the fishing area and presumed flag state of the vessel, to get exhaustive information and evidence about the case.”

The Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association, which represents the Lithuania-registered trawler Margiris, which caught the fish, said in a statement that the fish were “involuntarily released into the sea” on Thursday because of a tear in the trawler’s net.

“Such an accident is a rare occurrence, and in this case was caused by the unexpectedly large size of the fish caught,” it said. It said the trawler has adapted its practices to deal with “the exceptional size of the fish currently in the area concerned.”

Sea Shepherd, however, questioned whether it was an accident or instead an intentional dump of unwanted fish. The group is calling for more policing of the seas — and especially of massive industrial trawlers — to protect sea life and oceans. 

 
…

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t born to wear the crown. But destiny intervened.

The woman who became Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne Sunday, an unprecedented reign that has made her a symbol of stability as the United Kingdom navigated an age of uncertainty.

From her early days as a glamorous young royal in glittering tiaras to her more recent incarnation as the nation’s grandmother, the queen has witnessed the end of the British Empire, the advent of multiculturalism, the rise of international terrorism, and the challenges posed by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world of relentless change, she has been a constant — representing the U.K.’s interests abroad, applauding the nation’s successes and commiserating in its failures, and always remaining above the fray of politics.

That constancy should earn Elizabeth a royal epithet like those of her predecessors such as William the Conqueror, Edward the Confessor and Alfred the Great, said royal historian Hugo Vickers.

“I’ve always thought she should be called Elizabeth the Steadfast,” Vickers told The Associated Press. “I think it’s a perfect way of describing her. She wasn’t necessarily expecting to be queen, and she embraced that duty.”

As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth, now 95, was expected to live the life of a minor royal when she was born on April 21, 1926. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match — a comfortable but uneventful life — seemed her future.

But everything changed a decade later when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, making the young princess heir apparent.

George VI, whose struggles to overcome a stutter were portrayed in the 2010 film The King’s Speech, endeared himself to the nation when he refused to leave London as bombs fell during the early months of World War II.

Elizabeth followed her father in leading by example, joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service in early 1945, becoming the first female member of the royal family to join the armed services as a full-time active member. On her 21st birthday, she dedicated her life to the nation and the Commonwealth, the voluntary association of states that grew out of the British Empire.

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong,” she said in a radio address broadcast around the world.

In 1952, the young princess embarked on a tour of the Commonwealth in place of her ailing father. She was at a remote Kenyan lodge, where she and her husband, Prince Philip, watched baboons from the treetops, when she heard her father had died.

She immediately returned to London, disembarking the plane in black mourning clothes, to begin her life as queen. She has reigned ever since, with crown and scepter on big occasions, but more commonly wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a simple handbag.

In the intervening seven decades, the queen has shared confidences with 14 prime ministers and met 13 U.S. presidents.

Once a year, she travels the mile or so from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords for the ceremonial opening of Parliament. And when world leaders come to call, she hosts state banquets during which her diamonds flash under the TV lights and presidents and prime ministers worry about whether to bow and when to offer a toast.

But it is the less-lavish events that give the queen a link to the public.

At the garden parties that honor the service of everyone from soldiers and charity workers to long-serving school librarians and crossing guards, guests wear festive hats and drink tea as they try to catch a glimpse of the queen on the lawn outside Buckingham Palace. The honorees can spot her at a distance, as it is said she favors bright colors so the public can spot her in a crowd.

Then there is the annual wreath laying at the memorial to those who have died during conflicts around the world, as well as the numerous school openings, hospice visits and tours of maternity wards that have filled her days.

Britain’s longest-serving monarch, the only sovereign most Britons have ever known, has been a constant presence from the Suez Crisis of 1956, when Egypt’s seizure of the Suez Canal underscored Britain’s declining might, through the labor strife of the 1980s and the 2005 terror attacks in London.

When Prince Philip died during the pandemic, she donned a black face mask and sat alone during his socially distanced funeral, silently demonstrating that the rules applied to everyone — particularly her.

“She’s not beholden to the electorate. She’s not dependent on her latest hit or her latest movie,” said Emily Nash, royal editor of HELLO! magazine. “She’s just there. She does what she does. She carries out her duties without ever complaining or making any personal drama. And people respect her for that.”

Not that there haven’t been controversies.

In the early 1990s, criticism of the monarchy increased amid reports of the queen’s private wealth and concerns about the expense of the monarchy. In 1992, the queen agreed to pay the expenses of most of her family and become the first monarch to pay income taxes since the 1930s.

Tensions flared again in 1997 when the royal family’s silence after the death of Princess Diana, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, fueled the resentment of Diana’s many fans.

Even now, the monarchy is struggling to distance itself from the scandal caused by a sex abuse lawsuit filed against Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, and the fallout after two of the royal family’s most popular members, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, ditched their royal duties and departed for California.

But the queen has transcended scandal and remained popular throughout it all, said Kelly Beaver, CEO of polling firm Ipsos UK, which has tracked her popularity for decades.

“Part of this is because she is so synonymous with … the monarchy, which is something the British people are proud of,” Beaver said.

Still, Tiwa Adebayo, a social media commentator and writer who inherited a fascination with the monarchy from her grandmother, believes younger people want “more transparency” — to see the royal family move beyond the adage of “never complain, never explain” that has typified the queen’s reign.

For the queen, Sunday is likely to be bittersweet, marking both her long reign and the 70th anniversary of her father’s death.

“I’ve always thought that one of her philosophies really was that, you know, she just wanted to be a really good daughter to her father and fulfill all his hopes for her,” Vickers said. “And, you know, assuming that there is an afterlife and they meet again, my goodness he will be able to thank her for doing just that.” 
…

Queen Elizabeth II offered her support Saturday to have the Duchess of Cornwall become Queen Camilla — using a special Platinum Jubilee message to make a significant decision in shaping the future of the British monarchy.

In remarks delivered on the eve of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, the monarch expressed a “sincere wish” that Camilla be known as “Queen Consort” when her eldest son, Charles, the Prince of Wales, succeeds her as expected to the throne. In giving her blessing, the popular and respected sovereign is placing significant heft behind the move.

“When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes king, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me,” the monarch wrote. “And it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

The message ties up a loose end that has hung over the House of Windsor since Charles’ divorce from the popular Princess Diana.

It took years for many in Britain to forgive Charles, the man whose admitted infidelity brought such pain to “the people’s princess” before she died in a Paris car crash in 1997. But the public mood softened after Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 and she became the Duchess of Cornwall.

Although Camilla played a significant role in the breakup of Charles’ first marriage, her down-to-Earth style and sense of humor eventually won over many Britons. Her warmth softened Charles’ hard edges and made him appear more approachable, if not happier, as he cut ribbons, unveiled plaques and waited for his chance to reign.

At the time of their marriage, royal aides had suggested that Camilla did not want to be called queen and “intended” to be known instead as Princess Consort — a first in British history. But the careful use of the word “intend” led to the possibility of change later on.

The move is seen as an effort to safeguard a smooth transition to the future as the queen navigates the twilight of her reign.

“This is the most extraordinary message. The queen is ensuring the transition, when it comes, to her son as king is as seamless and trouble-free as possible,” former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt told the Press Association. “She’s future-proofing an institution she’s served for 70 years. And for Camilla, the journey from being the third person in a marriage to queen-in-waiting is complete.”

The queen also paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died last year after decades of serving as her consort, and to the work of her mother.

“I am fortunate to have had the steadfast and loving support of my family. I was blessed that, in Prince Philip, I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it,” she wrote. “It is a role I saw my own mother perform during my father’s reign.”

Earlier Saturday, Elizabeth attended her largest public engagement since a recent health scare, mingling with guests at a reception ahead of her platinum anniversary.

The monarch met with members of the local community during a tea at Sandringham, her country estate in eastern England where she normally spends the anniversary. The 95-year-old queen leaned on a walking stick as she chatted with guests.

Despite recent concerns about her health, Elizabeth moved freely and appeared to use her stick more to lean on when she stopped moving rather than depending on it as she walked around the room.

The monarch’s health has been a concern since she cancelled a two-day trip to Northern Ireland in October and was quietly admitted to a hospital overnight for preliminary tests. Doctors advised her to rest and restrict herself to light duties.

But in her message, she promised she would continue to serve and said she was optimistic about the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

“I am reminded of how much we can be thankful for,” she wrote. “These last seven decades have seen extraordinary progress socially, technologically and culturally that have benefitted us all; and I am confident that the future will offer similar opportunities to us and especially to the younger generations in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth.”

The sovereign signed the message “Your servant Elizabeth R.”
…

One person was killed and four others were injured in an avalanche in western Austria on Saturday, police said, a day after two other avalanches killed seven skiers as heavy snowfall followed by warmer weather made for unusually dangerous conditions. 

Austrian broadcaster ORF said the person killed in Saturday’s avalanche in the municipality of Schmirn, in the state of Tyrol, was a 58-year-old local man. 

In the same province, a 42-year-old Austrian mountain- and ski-guide and four Swedish skiers, all men in their 40s, were killed on Friday when an avalanche near the town of Spiss on the border with Switzerland buried them completely, police said. 

Another member of the group, a 43-year-old Swede, was able to phone for help and was rescued, police said. 

Two Austrian skiers were killed in a third incident. 

Emergency services found the bodies of the two Austrian skiers, a woman, age 61, and a 60-year-old man, early Saturday local time (2340 GMT on Friday) after their relatives said they could no longer contact them, police said. 
…