President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has threatened to retaliate for any European Union sanctions imposed on him for detaining two opposition activists after forcing their plane to land in Minsk earlier this week.Hours before a scheduled meeting in the Russian seaside resort of Sochi with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, his only major international ally, the Belarusian leader warned he would allow migrants and drugs to pour into western Europe. The 66-year-old said, “We stopped drugs and migrants. Now you will eat them and catch them yourselves.”In a show of support for Lukashenko, Russia has been refusing permission for some European passenger jets to enter its airspace after airlines, following EU guidance, ordered their planes to alter their usual flight paths and bypass Belarus, depriving the Belarusian government of millions of dollars in flyover fees.Austria Thursday condemned Moscow’s decision to cancel the Vienna-Moscow service as “absolutely incomprehensible.”“It is in the interests of both Austria and Russia that all flights to and via Russia can continue to be carried out without any problems,” the Austrian foreign ministry said in a statement. Lukashenko also sought Thursday to play down the impact of any possible EU economic sanctions, saying, “We’ll substitute Europe, which is growing mercilessly old, for rapidly growing Asia.” He continued to maintain that Belarus diverted Sunday’s Ryanair’s Athens-Vilnius flight because of a bomb threat against the flight by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Belarus Opposition Leader Alleges Journalist from Diverted Plane Beaten in DetentionOpposition blogger Raman Pratasevich was arrested Sunday after a Belarussian fighter jet forced a passenger plane in which he was traveling to land in MinskThe claim is dismissed by Hamas, and by Western governments, which say the forced landing of the Ryanair plane amounted to “state-sponsored hijacking.” Opposition activists 26-year-old Roman Pratasevich, a blogger, and 23-year-old Sofia Sapega, a law student and Russian national, were taken from the plane and arrested when it landed in the Belarusian capital. Both are accused of a variety of offenses, including inciting rallies against Lukashenko in the wake of last August’s presidential election, which was widely denounced by Western powers as rigged and fraudulent.European leaders have expressed outrage at the diversion of the Ryanair flight between two EU capitals and on Monday EU leaders discussed the incident at a summit, with European Council President Charles Michel saying in a statement the Belarus action “will not remain without consequences.” During an informal meeting in Lisbon Thursday, EU foreign ministers planned the steps to take in addition to the ban on EU-based airlines using Belarusian airspace. The proposals being discussed focus on economic and sector-specific sanctions, EU officials told VOA.“We will continue to look at what consequences [sanctions] will have in Belarus, whether Lukashenko will give in. And if this is not the case, we have to assume that this will be only the beginning of a big and long spiral of sanctions,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. Maas said sanctions must be made “effective” by targeting business sectors that are important to Belarus’ economy. He cited the potassium and phosphate sectors.“There is also the question to what extent Belarus should still be allowed to issue government bonds by the Belarusian state or by the Central Bank in Europe in the future,” he added. He said Lukashenko’s behavior was “so unacceptable,” the EU should not be satisfied with small steps.Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters Thursday, “We could talk about [sanctions on] the oil production sector.” Foreign ministers of the G-7 countries have separately called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Protasevich and Sapega “as well as all other journalists and political prisoners held in Belarus.” “We will enhance our efforts, including through further sanctions as appropriate, to promote accountability for the actions of the Belarusian authorities,” the G-7 group said in a statement.There are splits among Western governments about how severe sanctions should be, though, with some arguing that a balance must be struck between punishing the Belarusian authorities while avoiding driving the country deeper into the arms of  Putin, who Lukashenko is economically and militarily heavily reliant on.  Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has publicly advocated moderation, fearing deep and wide sanctions risk harming ordinary Belarusians without deterring Lukashenko.“We must also be careful that we do not hit people in Belarus,” he said. Estonia’s foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets, appeared to echo those sentiments, telling reporters in Lisbon she hopes sanctions can be focused on “companies which are close to the Belarusian regime.”Some Western analysts say fears of driving Lukashenko further into the Russian fold are misplaced. The diversion of the Ryanair flight, said Keir Giles of Britain’s Chatham House, “could be no clearer statement that President Lukashenko has turned his back on the West and abandoned any restraint or concern for international censure.”“Four years ago,” he added, “Belarus was still ostensibly nurturing a fragile form of independence, maintaining a degree of willfulness in its independent foreign policy from Russia, trying to quietly grow ties with the West while not alienating President Putin, and resisting Moscow’s attempts to take over the military defense of Belarusian territory.” Now, however, Giles said he believes “Lukashenko has placed all his bets on Moscow and Russia.”Russian officials have backed Lukashenko but initially did so softly, possibly because, some Western diplomats suspect, the Kremlin was trying to take stock of what the implications could be for the just-agreed summit meeting next month between U.S. President Joe Biden and Putin, the first face-to-face encounter between the pair since Biden was elected president.Biden, Putin Agree to June 16 Summit in GenevaWhite House says it hopes US, Russia will ‘restore predictability and stability’ to their relationshipThe editor-in-chief of state-controlled Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, said, at the start of the week, that Lukashenko “played it beautifully,” but top Kremlin officials were less forthcoming initially, with Putin’s spokesman declining press requests to comment, until Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov characterized Lukashenko’s actions “absolutely reasonable.” Lavrov called on other countries “to soberly assess the situation.” Lukashenko’s relationship with Putin has long been a fitful one, with the two frequently falling out. Lukashenko has relied on financial subsidies and oil supplies from Russia. A senior Russian diplomat based in Minsk once described to VOA a “shouting match” he overheard during a phone conversation between them.  The dispute was over the Belarusian leader’s resistance to Putin’s goal of closer integration between Russia and its onetime Soviet satellite, he said.  Analysts say Putin’s major Belarus objective is to ensure — much as his goal is with Ukraine — that it doesn’t end up as a pro-Western enclave on Russia’s borders. The Belarusian leader has long played the West against Russia and vice versa. He observed a neutral stance over Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.Western diplomats say it is irrelevant whether Russia is full-throated in backing Lukashenko or more vocally restrained. Either way Lukashenko has no one else to turn to now for support. They note since the August election, and the mass protests of his continued rule, he has been keener for closer cooperation between his military and Russia’s. That has seen the establishment of joint military training centers and planning for a massive joint military exercise in September, known as Zapad-2021.
 
Before departing Friday for Sochi, Lukashenko said he would be discussing with Putin restoring commercial air services between Russia and Belarus suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kremlin officials said discussions would focus on forming closer economic ties between the two countries.
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Morocco’s ambassador to Spain has threatened more reprisals against Madrid over its decision to allow a Western Sahara independence leader to be treated in a Spanish hospital.  
 
Karima Benyaich said elements in the Spanish government did not take the interests of Morocco into account, despite assurances from Madrid that Spain wants to move on from the crisis that led to thousands of migrants flooding into Spain’s North African enclave, Ceuta, last week.  
 
Morocco is suspected of opening the borders to the would-be migrants.   
 
Analysts have suggested the threatened further reprisals could mean Rabat will not cooperate in anti-terrorist operations.  
Thursday a Spanish court jailed three men of Moroccan origin for up to 53 years for playing a part in the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attacks which killed 16 people.    
 
Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali will appear before a Spanish court on June 1 to answer torture charges brought by a Western Sahara dissident group.  The front represents the Sahrawi people who are native to the Western Sahara territory.
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On Wednesday, a group of US senators introduced legislation that would provide financial help to US government workers suffering from brain damage connected to the mysterious Havana Syndrome. Daria Dieguts reports on this mysterious affliction.
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The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders, the State Department said.U.S. officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the administration had decided not to reenter the Open Skies Treaty, which had allowed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries before President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact. As a presidential candidate, Biden had criticized Trump’s withdrawal as “short-sighted.”Thursday’s decision means only one major arms control treaty between the nuclear powers — the New START treaty — will remain in place. Trump had done nothing to extend New START, which would have expired earlier this year, but after taking office, the Biden administration moved quickly to extend it for five years and opened a review into Trump’s Open Skies Treaty withdrawal.The officials said that the review had been completed and that Sherman had informed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov of the U.S. decision not to return to the 1992 Open Skies Treaty. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department later announced the move.“The United States regrets that the Treaty on Open Skies has been undermined by Russia’s violations,” the department said. “In concluding its review of the treaty, the United States therefore does not intend to seek to rejoin it, given Russia’s failure to take any actions to return to compliance. Further, Russia’s behavior, including its recent actions with respect to Ukraine, is not that of a partner committed to confidence-building.”June meeting in GenevaThe announcement comes ahead of a meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. They will try to find common ground amid a sharp deterioration in ties that have sunk relations to their lowest point in decades. Yet, Biden, who had supported the treaty as a senator, had been highly critical of Trump’s pullout.“In announcing the intent to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, President Trump has doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership,” then-candidate Biden said in May 2020.The Open Skies Treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty since it took effect in 2002, aimed at fostering transparency and allowing for the monitoring of arms control and other agreements.The Trump administration announced the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty last year, and the lower house of Russia’s parliament voted last week to follow suit. But until Thursday, the two sides had said the treaty could still be salvaged. Russian officials said they were willing to reconsider their withdrawal if the U.S. did the same.The upper house of Russia’s parliament, the Federation Council, was expected to approve the withdrawal bill on June 2, and once Putin signed the measure, it would take six months for the Russian exit to take effect.A trust-building measureThursday’s notification, however, appears to mark the end of the treaty, which was broadly supported by U.S. allies in Europe and Democrats in Congress as a trust-building measure between the former Cold War adversaries.In pulling out of the pact, Trump argued that Russian violations made it untenable for Washington to remain a party to the agreement. Washington completed its withdrawal from the treaty in November, but the Biden administration had said it was not opposed to rejoining it.The officials stressed the Biden administration’s willingness to cooperate with Russia on issues of mutual concern and noted the extension of New START, which was initially signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.However, the officials said that despite appeals for Russia to abide by the Open Skies Treaty, there was no practical way for the U.S. to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw. One official said that since Biden had taken office, Russia had demonstrated a “complete absence of progress” in taking steps to return to compliance.The officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior American officials had warned their Russian counterparts in the past week that a decision on Open Skies was imminent. Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Iceland last week, and Sullivan spoke with Putin’s national security adviser, Nikolay Patrushev, on Monday.Moscow had deplored the U.S. pullout, warning that it would erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly amid heightened Russia-West tensions over myriad issues, including Ukraine, cyber malfeasance and the treatment of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his supporters.Leading congressional Democrats and members of the European Union had urged the U.S. to reconsider its exit and called on Russia to stay in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.Russia had insisted the restrictions on observation flights it imposed in the past were permissible under the treaty and noted that the U.S. imposed more sweeping restrictions on observation flights over Alaska.As a condition for staying in the pact after the U.S. pullout, Moscow had unsuccessfully pushed for guarantees from NATO allies that they wouldn’t hand over the data collected during their observation flights over Russia to the U.S.
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Germany for the first time on Friday recognized it had committed genocide in Namibia during its colonial occupation, with Berlin promising financial support worth more than one billion euros to aid projects in the African nation.Namibia on Friday welcomed Germany’s acknowledgment it had committed genocide in the southwestern African country during its 20th century colonial occupation.”The acceptance on the part of Germany that a genocide was committed is the first step in the right direction,” President Hage Geingob’s spokesperson Alfredo Hengari told AFP.German colonial settlers killed tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people in 1904-08 massacres — labelled the first genocide of the 20th century by historians — poisoning relations between Namibia and Germany for years.While Berlin had previously acknowledged that atrocities occurred at the hands of its colonial authorities, they have repeatedly refused to pay direct reparations.”We will now officially refer to these events as what they are from today’s perspective: genocide,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a statement.He hailed the agreement after more than five years of negotiations with Namibia over events in the territory held by Berlin from 1884-1915.”In light of the historical and moral responsibility of Germany, we will ask forgiveness from Namibia and the victims’ descendants” for the “atrocities” committed, Maas said.In a “gesture to recognize the immense suffering inflicted on the victims”, the country will support the “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia via a financial program of $1.34 billion, he said.The sum will be paid over 30 years, according to sources close to the negotiations, and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama.However, he specified that the payment does not open the way to any “legal request for compensation.”Rebellion, reprisalsNamibia was called German South West Africa during Berlin’s 1884-1915 rule, and then fell under South African rule for 75 years, before finally gaining independence in 1990.Tensions boiled over in 1904 when the Herero — deprived of their livestock and land — rose up, followed shortly after by the Nama, in an insurrection crushed by German imperial troops.In the Battle of Waterberg in August 1904 around 80,000 Herero, including women and children, fled and were pursued by German troops across what is now known as the Kalahari Desert. Only 15,000 survived.German General Lothar von Trotha, sent to put down the rebellion, ordered the peoples’ extermination.At least 60,000 Hereros and around 10,000 Namas were killed between 1904 and 1908.Colonial soldiers carried out mass executions; exiled men, women, and children to the desert where thousands died of thirst; and established infamous concentration camps, such as the one on Shark Island.’Overcome the past’The atrocities committed during colonization have poisoned relations between Berlin and Windhoek for years.In 2015, the two countries started negotiating an agreement that would combine an official apology by Germany as well as development aid.But in August last year, Namibia said that Germany’s offered reparations were unacceptable. No details of the offer were provided at the time.President Hage Geingob had noted Berlin declined to accept the term “reparations,” as that word was also avoided during the country’s negotiations with Israel after the Holocaust.But in an effort to ease reconciliation, in 2018 Germany returned the bones of members of the Herero and Nama tribes, with the then foreign minister Michelle Muentefering asking for “forgiveness from the bottom of my heart.”
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Federal prosecutors are investigating whether current and former Ukrainian officials unlawfully interfered in the U.S. presidential election, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.The criminal investigation includes examining whether the Ukrainian officials used Rudolph Giuliani, then personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, to spread misleading claims about current President Joe Biden, The New York Times reported.The inquiry, which began during the final months of the Trump administration, is being handled by federal prosecutors in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the newspaper reported, and is separate from an ongoing criminal investigation into Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine.Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York are investigating whether the Ukrainian officials tried to influence the Nov. 3 election by spreading claims of corruption about Biden through a number of channels, including Giuliani, the newspaper reported. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.One of the officials being investigated is a Ukrainian member of parliament named Andriy Derkach, the newspaper reported.The U.S. Treasury Department previously sanctioned Derkach, identifying him as an “active Russian agent for over a decade.”Giuliani, who The New York Times said has not been accused of wrongdoing in this investigation, has previously denied representing any Ukrainians.The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Giuliani, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Giuliani’s business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs while he was working as Trump’s lawyer are the subject of a probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Federal agents searched his home and office in April, seizing phones and computers.Giuliani has denied allegations in that probe, and his lawyers have suggested the investigation is politically motivated. 
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Twelve companies and groups including Microsoft, Mastercard and Nestle’s Nespresso said Thursday that they would commit to making investments in Central America, a win for Vice President Kamala Harris as she aims to lower migration from the region into the United States. President Joe Biden has tasked Harris with leading U.S. efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Since then, Harris has taken a series of steps aimed at improving conditions and lowering migration from the region. Harris, who met with officials from these companies and groups Thursday, said economic opportunities in the region could be boosted via partnerships with the private sector. “In order for us as an administration, the United States government, to maximize the potential of our work, it has to be through collaboration, through public-private partnerships,” Harris told reporters at the start of the meeting. The meeting was attended by top executives from yogurt maker Chobani, food giant Nestle’s Nespresso unit, financial companies Bancolombia and Davivienda, as well as language-learning website Duolingo. Commitments by the companies include Microsoft’s agreeing to expand internet access to as many as 3 million people in the region by July 2022 and Nespresso’s plans to begin buying some of its coffee from El Salvador and Honduras with a minimum regional investment of $150 million by 2025, a White House official said. Chobani has agreed to bring its incubator program for local entrepreneurs to Guatemala, while Mastercard will aim to bring 5 million people in the region who currently lack banking services into the financial system and give 1 million micro and small businesses access to electronic banking, the official said. Areas of focusThe U.S. vice president’s push to spur regional economic growth will focus on six areas. These include expanding affordable internet access, combating food shortages by boosting farm productivity, and backing regional efforts to fight climate change and make a transition to clean energy. The plan will also aim to expand job training programs and improve public health access. In April, Harris unveiled an additional $310 million in U.S. aid to Central America. She is expected to visit Guatemala and Mexico on June 7-8, her first overseas trip as vice president. U.S. officials see corruption as a major contributor to a migrant exodus from the region, along with gang violence and natural disasters, issues that represent hurdles for companies investing in the region.Anti-corruption strategySome Central American leaders recently pushed back on the Biden administration’s anti-corruption strategy, which included releasing a list labeling 17 regional politicians as corrupt. On his trip next week to Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to use meetings with his Central American and Mexican counterparts gathered there to address corruption, governance and rule-of-law issues, said Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. “These are some of the issues that are the drivers of why people leave their homes in the first place,” Chung told reporters in a briefing ahead of Blinken’s June 1-2 trip. “They don’t have confidence in their governments.”  
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Germany and Norway on Thursday officially launched an undersea power cable between the two countries in a project that aids Europe’s effort to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, along with other government and industry officials, took part in a virtual ceremony to symbolically throw the switch on the more than $2.2 billion project. The 623-kilometer cable has been operational for at least a month but was formally opened Thursday.Workers on Nexans Skagerrak vessel lay a NordLink subsea interconnector power cable to connect Norway and Germany at the Vollesfjord fjord near Flekkefjord, Norway May 31, 2018.The cable, known as NordLink, allows an exchange of green energy between the two countries, allowing solar- and wind-generated electricity from Germany to flow to Norway, which will send back power generated largely from hydroelectric plants at water reservoirs. It will also fill gaps that occur because of fluctuations in wind and solar supplies.During the virtual ceremony, Merkel called it a good day for German-Norwegian cooperation. “Germany and Norway are moving closer together, and NordLink is a fantastic success for the energy cooperation of our two countries.” She said the project also represents a milestone in international energy cooperation.Interconnectivity between different countries is one of the central pillars of the European Union’s climate strategy. Similar cross-border projects are running between Norway and the Netherlands, the Netherlands and Britain, and Denmark and the Netherlands.NordLink will help Germany reach its carbon dioxide emissions reduction goals. The German government recently announced that it aims to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2045. Germany is closing its last nuclear plants next year and phasing out the use of coal by 2038. 
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Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday will announce commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration from the region.
Participants include corporate giants such as Mastercard and Microsoft as well as Pro Mujer, a nonprofit that focuses on providing aid to low-income women in Latin America, along with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the World Economic Forum.
Leaders in the effort planned to join Harris virtually and in person at an event later Thursday at her ceremonial office. The vice president was expected to issue a “call to action” for businesses and nonprofits to make new commitments to promote economic opportunity in Central America.
The aim is to focus aid on supporting vulnerable populations such as women and young people, and to invest in internet access, job-training programs and efforts to combat food shortages.
It’s part of Harris’ role in dealing with the root causes of migration to the United States, a task she was given by President Joe Biden in March. Harris has had multiple calls with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico, and held meetings with interest groups, policy experts and companies from the region.
She plans to visits Guatemala and Mexico in early June for her first trip abroad as vice president.
Harris has emphasized the need for economic development in the region and for public-private partnerships to address the challenges there. The administration is backing a proposal to provide $7 billion in assistance to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in hopes that the support can address the poverty and violence that leads people to flee to the U.S.
But the increase in migration at the border has become a significant political headache for Harris and Biden. Republicans accuse them of inaction on what they say is a crisis created in part by the president’s decision to halt construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and end some restrictions on asylum-seekers.
April was the second-busiest month on record for unaccompanied children encountered at the border, following March’s all-time high, and the Border Patrol’s total encounters in April were up 3% from March, marking the highest level since April 2000. The April encounters are not directly comparable because most of those stopped were quickly expelled from the United States under federal pandemic-related powers that deny rights to seek asylum, and because being expelled carries no legal penalty, many try to cross multiple times.
The increase has strained the capacity of the Border Patrol and the Department of Health and Human Services, which holds the minors in shelters until they can be placed with relatives or sponsors in the U.S. while authorities determine whether they have a legal right to remain in the country, either through asylum or for some other reason. It also has led to criticism from Republicans, who point to Harris and Biden’s decision not to visit the border to survey the situation as evidence of their negligence.
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French President Emmanuel Macron was in Rwanda’s capital Thursday, where he acknowledged France’s role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and said he hoped for forgiveness.  Speaking alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the Gisozi genocide memorial in Kigali, Macron said, “I hereby humbly and with respect stand by your side today, I come to recognize the extent of our responsibilities.”Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans.  The visit follows the release in March of a French inquiry panel report saying a colonial attitude had blinded French officials, and the government bore a “serious and overwhelming” responsibility for not foreseeing the slaughter.But the report absolved France of direct complicity in the genocide, a point Macron made in his comments, saying “France was not an accomplice,” but that his nation “has a role, a history and a political responsibility in Rwanda.”Rwanda released its own report that found France was aware a genocide was being prepared and bore responsibility for enabling it by continuing in its unwavering support for Rwanda’s then president, Juvenal Habyarimana.It was the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane, killing the president, that launched the 100-day frenzy of killings.Macron said only those who survived the genocide “could perhaps forgive, and so could give us the gift of forgiving ourselves,” and repeated, in Rwanda’s native language, the phrase “Ndibuka,” meaning “I remember.”Rwanda’s Kagame called Macron’s speech “powerful,” and said his words were something more than an apology. “They were the truth. Speaking the truth is risky, but you do it because it is right, even when it costs you something, even when it is unpopular,” he said.Macron said he proposed to Kagame the naming of a French ambassador to Rwanda, a post that has been vacant for six years. He said filling the post and normalizing relations between the nations could not be envisioned without the step he took on Thursday. 
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British Health Minister Matt Hancock rejected allegations Thursday he had repeatedly lied during his response to the COVID-19 pandemic made by Dominic Cummings, a former top aide of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.In testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday, Cummings accused Hancock of lying to the public and said he “should have been fired” for testing failures that saw patients with the coronavirus discharged from hospitals to nursing homes, and also for lying about the status of the pandemic to Parliament and the public. Addressing Parliament’s House of Commons, Hancock called Cummings’ allegations “serious” but “unsubstantiated and not true.” He said the government has published the full details of how his office worked with nursing homes “as much as possible to keep people safe, and we followed the clinical advice on the appropriate way forward.”The United Kingdom has recorded almost 128,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe, and experienced one of the world’s deepest recessions in 2020 as three successive lockdowns hobbled the economy.A mass vaccination campaign that started in December has brought infections and fatalities down sharply, though the U.K. is now reckoning with a more transmissible new strain of the virus first identified in India.The government said it will begin an independent public inquiry into its handling of the pandemic within the next year. 
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Turkey’s foreign minister is scheduled to hold talks in Athens with his Greek counterpart Monday in the latest efforts to deescalate tensions between the two NATO members.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu rebuked his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias at a press conference in Ankara last month.  The very public argument over who was to blame for the lack of progress in resolving the countries’ differences underscores the scale of the ministers’ task when they meet in Athens Monday, says Cengiz Aktar of the Athens University. “I think the Greeks are very realistic,” he said. “They, of course, prefer to talk, that’s what they said right from the beginning. But what we know is that the disagreements are there to stay. There is no development whatsoever on the numerous, countless issues and the problems that exist between the two countries.”Turkey and Greece are contesting territorial waters between the countries which are believed to have vast energy reserves. Last year, the Greek and Turkish navies faced off against each another.  FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks with Turkish drilling ship, Fatih, in background, in Istanbul, Aug. 21, 2020.In a sign of renewed tensions, Turkey has announced it may resume drilling for energy in waters claimed by Greece. Adding to the friction, Ankara accuses Athens of breaking international law by pushing back refugees entering Greek waters from Turkey.  Greece denies the charge, accusing Turkey of reneging on a refugee deal with the European Union. Earlier this month, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accused Greece of sabotaging diplomatic efforts to resolve differences. Akar said Turkey is in favor of a peaceful resolution of these problems within the framework of international law and good neighborly relations by talking and negotiating with its Greek neighbors.  However, he accused those neighbors of — in his words —  “doing their best to sabotage the positive state of affairs with their actions and discourse.” A Turkish presidential advisor says he believes Greece is increasingly emboldened because of growing support from Washington. The U.S. has traditionally played the role of an honest broker between the NATO members.  But U.S.-Turkish relations are currently strained over Turkey’s deepening ties to Moscow.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.Ilhan Uzgel, an analyst for the Turkish news portal Duvar, says the expanding military cooperation between Greece and the United States could usurp Turkey as the primary host for U.S. military bases in the region, a prospect Ankara fears could change the balance of power. “What Washington is trying to do, is [say] that ‘you are not irreplaceable,’ that Turkey can be substituted that [there] may be some alternatives. The United States can have a military base in Alexandroupoli in Greece and in Crete. This psychology diminishes the bargaining power of Turkey,” he said.   The Turkish military dwarfs its Greek counterpart, but Athens is embarking on a modernization of its military, including the United States’ latest F-35 fighter jet, which Washington refuses to sell to Turkey because of Ankara’s purchase of a Russian missile system.  
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Brazil, like many countries across the world, has suffered economic devastation during the pandemic with skyrocketing unemployment and poverty.  But an unexpected trend has emerged with analysts at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange reporting a huge jump in investment by small investors —a phenomenon driven largely by influencers.  For VOA, Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo.Camera: Edgar Maciel 
Producer: Marcus Harton  
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The parents of the young opposition activist and blogger detained in Minsk after the passenger jet he was on board was forced to land in the Belarusian capital earlier this week are pleading for the international community to help free their son.“I’m asking, I’m begging, I’m calling on the whole international community to save him,” Raman Pratasevich’s mother, Natalia, told AFP. Speaking from her home in Poland, she added, “Please save him. They’re going to kill him there.”“They sent a fighter jet to get this young man! It’s an act of terrorism — I don’t think you can call it anything else. He’s been taken hostage. This is an act of pure revenge!” she said.Her husband, Dmitry Pratasevich, a former soldier, said: “His lawyer tried to see him today but she was turned down. She could not see him. We still don’t know if he is in there, what his condition is, how he is feeling.”Their anguish was matched by the mother of Sofia Sapega, another opposition activist, who was also removed from the Ryanair flight in Minsk. A video of Sapega, a Russian national and friend of Pratasevich, was released Tuesday by Belarusian authorities as they announced she would be held for at least two months.FILE – Student Sofia Sapega is pictured in Gothenburg, Sweden, in this undated photo taken in 2019.In the video, Sapega, according to her mother, appears to be confessing to editing an opposition Telegram channel that publishes personal information of Belarusian policemen. Her mother said it appeared she was speaking under duress for the video, in which she provides her personal details and says she edited a platform “which publishes the personal information of officials from internal affairs bodies.”Sofia’s mother, Anna Dudich, told Russian television she was “shocked” by the video. “Either I’m confused, or it’s a dream, or it’s a setup,” Dudich said. She told Western media outlets that her daughter was talking in an unusual manner. “She sways, eyes in the sky — as if afraid of forgetting something.” Dudich added: “We are now packing warm clothes. We will go to Minsk. I want to try to give her a parcel. I saw she only had a thin jacket.”Sapega and Pratasevich were detained Sunday when the Ryanair plane they were flying on from Athens to Vilnius was diverted by Belarus authorities to land in Minsk. Western countries, including the United States, have accused Belarus of committing air piracy and hijacking the Ryanair plane after it was rerouted over a false bomb threat.FILE – The Boeing 737-8AS Ryanair passenger plane that was intercepted and diverted to Minsk by Belarus authorities lands at Vilnius International Airport, its initial destination, in Lithuania, May 23, 2021.Sapega’s lawyer, Alexander Filanovich, told RBC, a Russian news outlet, that Sapega was interrogated Tuesday and charged with criminal offenses. Russian foreign ministry officials say she’s being charged with “committing crimes under several articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus during the period from August to September 2020.” That was during the height of nationwide protests against the fifth re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.The Belarusian opposition and Western nations have condemned the election as rigged.Sapega’s mother said her daughter was in Lithuania at the time and wasn’t involved in the demonstrations in Belarus. Sapega, who is also a student at the European Humanities University, EHU, in Lithuania, and Pratasevich, 26, face stiff penalties if convicted. Pratasevich, whom Belarusian authorities have placed on a terrorism list on the ground that he incited mass protests, could be handed a death sentence, opposition groups fear. Some analysts say a 15-year prison term is more likely.TortureExiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told a news conference Tuesday that a video of Pratasevich released by Belarusian authorities suggested he had been tortured. “He said that he was treated lawfully, but he’s clearly beaten and under pressure. There is no doubt that he was tortured. He was taken hostage,” she told reporters in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko takes his oath of office during his inauguration at the Palace of the Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Both activists are being held in the Okrestina pre-trial detention center in Minsk, where thousands of anti-Lukashenko protesters and activists have been detained the past few months. Belarusian and international rights groups, including Amnesty International, say many detainees arrested for protesting are beaten and tortured in the center, which is overseen by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, part of the country’s interior ministry.Rights groups have documented three rapes. And in October 2020, opposition groups released a video purportedly showing fresh detainees being beaten in so-called “welcome parades.”At a meeting in Brussels on Monday,  leaders of the 27 European Union member states called for all EU-based airlines to cease all flights over Belarus, and they promised further economic sanctions.Ukraine’s responseSeparately, Belarusian neighbor Ukraine has suspended all air travel with Belarus, and the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, has ordered all Ukrainian airlines to avoid flying in Belarusian airspace, which will add, according to Ukrainian Airlines, 40 minutes to flights from Kyiv heading to the Baltic states and Finland.”Belarusian authorities stop at nothing in persecuting dissenters. Even its airspace is unsafe now,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “Ukraine has always been interested in a democratic Belarus where human rights are respected.”The EU and Ukraine air bans will result in a loss to Belarus of about $70 million in overflight fees, civil aviation associations reckon.
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Myanmar’s army has lost a source of revenue as French energy giant Total said Wednesday that cash payments to a joint venture with the army have been suspended due to unrest in the country. Total has come under pressure from pro-democracy activists to “stop financing the junta” since a military coup in February which has been followed by a brutal crackdown on dissent. More than 800 people have been killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group. Total said in a statement that the decision to suspend payments was made at a May 12 meeting of shareholders of Moattama Gas Transportation Company Limited (MGTC), the joint venture which owns a pipeline linking the Yadana gas field and Thailand. The suspension was proposed by Total, which holds a 31 percent stake in MGTC and US partner Chevron (28 percent). Thai firm PTTEP holds a quarter of the company while 15 percent is held by military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). MOGE generates annual revenues of around $1 billion from the sale of natural gas. “In light of the unstable context in Myanmar… cash distributions to the shareholders of the company have been suspended” effective from April 1, Total said. It added that it “condemns the violence and human rights abuses occurring in Myanmar” and would comply with any potential sanctions against the junta from the EU or U.S. The MGTC pipeline brings gas from the offshore Yadana field operated by Total to Myanmar’s border with Thailand. Total said it would continue to produce gas so as not to disrupt electricity supply in either country. Total paid around $230 million to the Myanmar authorities in 2019 and another $176 million in 2020 in the form of taxes and “production rights,” according to the company’s own financial statements. French newspaper Le Monde detailed Total’s involvement in MGTC in early May, also reporting that the company was based in tax haven Bermuda. “The colossal profits of the gas operations do not pass through the coffers of the Myanmar state, but are massively recuperated by a company totally controlled by the military,” Le Monde found.  Days after publishing the story, Le Monde said Total pulled several adverts it had planned to run in its pages in the following weeks. Foreign firms NGOs have urged foreign companies to review their presence in Myanmar as the military dramatically ramped up its use of lethal force against protesters. The junta has vested interests in large swathes of the country’s economy, from mining to banking, oil and tourism. French energy giant EDF suspended activities in the country, where it is involved in a $1.5 billion project to build a hydroelectric dam. Japanese automaker Suzuki also halted operations at its two local plants shortly after the military coup. The factories assembled 13,300 vehicles in 2019, primarily for the domestic market.  But Suzuki, present in Myanmar since 1998, reopened the facilities again a few days later and intends to build a third production site in the country.  Myanmar is also a key manufacturer in the clothing industry and groups such as Italy’s Benetton and Sweden’s H&M have suspended all new orders from the country. Japanese brewer Kirin said it would cut business ties with the military with which it operates two local breweries, accusing the junta of acting “in contradiction” to its principles on human rights.  But the firm said it currently has no intention to pull out completely from a market that accounts for around two percent of its overall turnover. 
 
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At its peak in the 1980s, the USSR’s so-called Leningrad Rock Club was ground zero for a generation of Russians who chafed at Soviet-era restrictions and wanted change. From Russia’s modern-day St. Petersburg, Charles Maynes revisits the club’s legend, and whether the independent spirit that fueled it remains today.Camera: Ricardo Marquina-Montanana.
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The European Union took AstraZeneca to a Belgian court Wednesday over the drug company’s failure to deliver tens of millions of COVID-19 doses it promised — slowing the EU’s efforts to kickstart its vaccine campaign.After weeks of souring relations and tough rhetoric against AstraZeneca, Europe is now turning to the legal system to force the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver the 180 million COVID-19 vaccine doses it has promised by July. Right now, reports say it is on track to deliver less than half that amount. Stefan De Keersmaecker, spokesman for the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm charged with procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the bloc — outlined its argument.  “We believe that the company has not respected the terms and obligations of the contract, which is a violation which we ask the courts to recognize as such,’ said De Keersmaecker. “In any case, in the context of the emergency procedures, we have claimed, indeed, that we want the court to order the company to deliver 90 million additional doses, in addition to the 30 million already delivered in the first quarter.”The EU initially planned to use AstraZeneca as a linchpin in its vaccination campaign. Delivery delays were a key reason for its much-criticized slow start.  Added to that were concerns about rare blood clots associated with the vaccine, leading some member states to limit or scrap its use altogether. South Sudan Stops Using Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Expiration FearsSouth Sudan health officials have stopped administering 60,000 AstraZeneca doses because of the COVID vaccine’s expiration date, even though the drugmaker and the WHO say the vaccine has a shelf life of 6 monthsThe EU has now turned to other COVID-19 vaccines, especially the more expensive Pfizer-BioNTech, to supply hundreds of millions of doses in the months to come. But that is not stopping the bloc from wanting AstraZeneca to deliver on its contract. It also accuses the manufacturer of favoring Britain, where it claims it has delivered most of its promised doses. AstraZeneca’s lawyer Hakim Boularbah told reporters the drug company deeply regretted the European Commission’s decision to go to court and hoped the dispute would be resolved as soon as possible. The company says its contract with the EU binds it only to ‘best reasonable efforts’ in delivering doses on time — although the Commission says there’s more to it. “The contract itself makes it fairly clear that the doses that were to be delivered under best reasonable efforts… the contract also specifically says that the parties won’t sue one another. So it’s a little strange the Commission is going this route in the first place,” said Scott Marcus, senior fellow at the Bruegel economic thinktank in Brussels.He fears this court case could have repercussions for the EU’s business with other vaccine makers.  “I really think a lot of the cases have to do more with political damage control than with doses actually being needed,’ said Marcus.Meanwhile, the bloc’s vaccination campaign is picking up steam. The European Commission says it’s on track to meet its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults this summer. 
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A former chief aide to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a parliamentary committee Wednesday the government failed the British people in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement Johnson rejects.  
Dominic Cummings, who left the government in December, explained to a select committee investigating the government’s pandemic response how Johnson failed to take the pandemic seriously early on, dismissing it as a “scare story.”  He said ministers and officials literally went on vacation in February of 2020.
Cummings said, “When the public needed us most the government failed. And I’d like to say to all the families of those who have died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and my own mistakes of that.”
The former aide said Johnson had been told Britain needed to be locked down on March 14, 2020, but there was no plan to do so.  He said the prime minister had been advised the peak of the pandemic would be in June, when, in fact, the National Health Service was already in danger of being overwhelmed.
Cummings had been a chief strategist behind the 2016 Brexit campaign and Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019. Since leaving Johnson’s team late last year, Cummings has become one of his former boss’s most vocal critics over how the prime minister led his team in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, describing it as “disastrous.”
Johnson responded to his former aide’s testimony from the floor of the lower house of parliament Wednesday, saying he takes full responsibility for the government’s response to the pandemic. He rejected Cummings claim the government had been complacent in its response to the pandemic at any point.  
He said, “I maintain my point that the government acted throughout with the intention to save life and protect the NHS [National Health Service] and in accordance with the best scientific advice. That’s exactly what we did.”
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Police arrested three people Wednesday in the cable car disaster that killed 14 people in northern Italy, saying an investigation showed a clamp, intentionally placed on the brake as a patchwork repair, prevented the brake from engaging after the lead cable snapped. Carabinieri Lt. Col. Alberto Cicognani said at least one of the three people questioned overnight admitted to what happened. He said the fork-shaped clamp had been placed on the emergency brake to deactivate it because the brake was engaging spontaneously and preventing the funicular from working. The clamp was put on several weeks ago as a temporary fix to prevent further service interruptions in the cable car line bringing sightseers to the top of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore. It was still in place on Sunday morning, Cicognani told Sky TG24.After the lead cable snapped Sunday, the cabin reeled back down the line until it pulled off entirely, crashed to the ground and rolled over down the mountainside until it came to rest against some trees. Fourteen people were killed; the lone survivor, a 5-year-old boy, remains hospitalized. “Because of a malfunction, the brake was continuing to engage even when it wasn’t supposed to,” Cicognani told Sky. “To prevent the cabin from halting during the transport of passengers, they chose to not remove the dispositive that blocked the emergency brake.” “In this way, the brake couldn’t function, and this brought about the fact that when the cable broke, the cabin fell backwards,” he said. Sky and the LaPresse news agency identified the three people arrested as the owner of the cable car service, the company’s director and the service chief. Verbania Prosecutor Olimpia Bossi said the deactivation of the brake was clearly designed as a stop-gap measure to allow the funicular to continue operating. The more extensive, “radical” repair operation that was needed would have likely taken it out of service, she said. Bossi told reporters that investigators believed the stop-gap measure was used with “the full knowledge” of the cable car company owners. As a result, the arrests turned the horror of Sunday’s disaster into outrage, given it appeared to have been an entirely preventable tragedy. Already, the mayor of the hometown of one of the victims, Serena Cosentino, announced that the city would pursue legal action against those responsible, saying it would present itself as an injured party in the civil portion of any possible prosecution. “The news unfortunately is showing a broad plane of responsibility and omissive guilt,” Diamonte Mayor Ernesto Magorno said in a statement. 
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