After a week or more of temperatures from Britain to eastern Europe running as much as 20 degrees above average, forecasters are saying the region will be plunged into record cold next week with a likelihood of snow in some areas. Meteorologists say a strong high pressure system remained over much of Europe the last half of March, trapping heat below it. Monthly high temperature records have fallen in at least three countries. Germany and the Netherlands Wednesday set all-time March records, reporting highs of 27.2 degrees Celsius and 26.1 degrees Celsius, respectively. In Britain Tuesday, Kew Gardens, about 15 kilometers west of London on the River Thames, hit 24.5 degrees Celsius, the highest March temperature in Britain since 1968. French meteorologists also recorded warmth Tuesday as the nation’s average temperature was higher than on any other March day in recorded history. More than 220 weather stations, or roughly 37% of France’s network, observed new maximum March temperatures. Climate scientists say these are the latest in a series of heat records that are disproportionately outpacing the occurrence of cold extremes, largely the product of a changing climate and a planet whose temperatures are skewed hot. The warm weather also made COVID-19 restrictions all the more difficult to enforce in many areas, said officials. But forecasters say that will come to a dramatic end in the next three to five days, as models show a wave in the jet stream forcing out the high pressure and allowing much colder Arctic air into the region, swinging temperatures from record highs to record lows for this time of year. Forecasters say the frigid air is likely to drop temperatures below 0 Celsius in some areas with snow likely in Scotland and higher elevations of Italy and eastern Europe.
 
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President Joe Biden Friday expressed strong U.S. support Friday for Ukraine in a call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the White House said.
 
“President Biden affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbass [sic] and Crimea,” the statement said.
 
NATO said Thursday it was concerned about a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s borders, as NATO ambassadors met to discuss the recent spike in violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, drawing Western condemnation and tit-for-tat sanctions.  
 
Biden emphasized his administration’s commitment to a strategic partnership with Ukraine and support for Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption plans and reform agenda.
 
“The leaders agreed these reforms are central to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the statement said. Zelenskiy said on Twitter he was glad to speak with Biden and appreciates U.S. support on different levels.
 
“We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform [Ukraine], improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said.Glad to talk to @POTUS. ?? appreciates ?? support on different levels. We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform ??, improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 2, 2021In November, Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump, who was impeached in 2019 over what White House aides described as an effort to withhold nearly $400 million in security aid and a coveted White House visit unless Ukrainian officials announced investigations Trump sought into Biden.
 
That exchange was at the center of a charge by the Democratic-led House of Representatives that Trump abused his power for political benefit. The U.S. Senate, then controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, acquitted him of the charge and another of obstructing justice. Trump denied any wrongdoing. 
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Protests against Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s plan to reform the constitution are mounting in the Caribbean nation. As the Moise government prepares for a June referendum, the opposition is urging voters not to participate. VOA’s Sandra Lemaire reports.
Camera: Renan Toussaint and Matiado Vilme
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Workers in Brussels were cleaning up the city’s Bois de la Cambre park early Friday after an April Fools’ Day prank brought thousands of young people there Thursday amid a COVID-19 lockdown, leading to clashes with police.A social media posting last month advertising “La Boum” (The Party) for Thursday, April 1, promising a concert was apparently intended as an April Fools’ Day joke. But police said they became concerned when nearly 20,000 people indicated plans to attend.Brussels police Wednesday issued warnings that the advertised “party” was a hoax and in violation of COVID-19 regulations. But officials say about 2,000 people showed up anyway, many of them frustrated by restrictions and drawn out by warm weather.Clashes began later Thursday when police attempted to disperse the crowd, which threw bottles and other projectiles. The police, some on horseback and others in riot gear, responded with water cannons and tear gas.Reports say at least four people were arrested and both police and party goers were injured, some seriously enough to seek treatment at local hospitals. Brussels police and prosecutors say they are investigating who was behind the social media prank.Some of the young people in the park told reporters they came not because of the promised concert or to provoke the police, but because they were bored, sick of the restrictions and wanted to get out.  Belgium’s current pandemic restrictions prohibit gatherings of more than four people. 
 
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ABOARD THE MSC GRANDIOSA — Italy may be in a strict coronavirus lockdown this Easter with travel restricted between regions and new quarantines imposed. But a few miles offshore, guests aboard the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship are shimmying to Latin music on deck and sipping cocktails by the pool.In one of the anomalies of lockdowns that have shuttered hotels and resorts around the world, the Grandiosa has been plying the Mediterranean Sea this winter with seven-night cruises, a lonely flag-bearer of the global cruise industry.After cruise ships were early sources of highly publicized coronavirus outbreaks, the Grandiosa has tried to chart a course through the pandemic with strict anti-virus protocols approved by Italian authorities that seek to create a “health bubble” on board.Passengers and crew are tested before and during cruises. Mask mandates, temperature checks, contact-tracing wristbands and frequent cleaning of the ship are all designed to prevent outbreaks. Passengers from outside Italy must arrive with negative COVID-19 tests taken within 48 hours of their departures and only residents of Europe’s Schengen countries plus Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria are permitted to book under COVID-19 insurance policies.  On Wednesday, the Grandiosa left the Italian port of Civitavecchia for its week-long Easter cruise, with 2,000 of its 6,000-passenger capacity and stops planned in Naples and Valletta, Malta, before returning to its home port in Genoa.Passengers welcomed the semblance of normalcy brought on by the freedom to eat in a restaurant or sit poolside without a mask, even if the virus is still a present concern.”After a year of restrictive measures, we thought we could take a break for a week and relax,” said Stefania Battistoni, a 39-year-old teacher and single mother who drove all night from Bolzano, in northern Italy, with her two sons and mother to board the cruise.The pandemic has plunged global cruise ship passenger numbers from a record 30 million in 2019 to over 350,000 since July 2020, according to Cruise Lines International, the world’s largest cruise industry association representing 95% of ocean-going cruise capacity. Currently, fewer than 20 ships are operating globally, a small fraction of CLIA’s members’ fleets of 270 ships.  The United States could be among the last cruise ship markets to reopen, possibly not until fall and not until 2022 in Alaska. Two Royal Caribbean cruise lines that normally sail out of Miami opted instead to launch sailings in June from the Caribbean, where governments are eager to revive their tourism-based economies.MSC spokeswoman Lucy Ellis said positive virus cases have cropped up on board MSC ships, particularly during the fall surge.  “The important thing is we have never had an outbreak,” she said. The Grandiosa is equipped with a medical center with molecular and antigen testing facilities, as well as a ventilator.  Extra cabins are set aside to isolate suspected virus cases. Because of the contact tracing wrist bands, if a passenger tests positive, medical personnel can identify anyone with whom they were in contact. Once the situation is clear, anyone who is positive is transferred to the shore.According to an independent consulting firm, Bermello Ajamii & Partners, just 23 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed on ships since the industry began its tentative relaunch last summer, for a passenger infection rate of 0.006%.  But cruise industry critics say the risk isn’t worth it and add that cruise companies should have taken the pandemic timeout to address the industry’s longstanding environmental and labor problems.”All large cruise ships burn huge volumes of the dirtiest, cheapest fuel available,” said Jim Ace of environmental group Stand Earth, a member of the Global Cruise Activist Network. “Cruise ship companies could have used the COVID shutdown to address their impacts on public health and the environment. Instead, they scrapped a few of their oldest ships and raised cash to stay alive.”On board, though, passengers are relishing the chance to enjoy activities that have been mostly closed in Italy and much of Europe for a year: a theater, restaurant dining, duty-free shopping and live music in bars.  The rest of Italy is heading back into full lockdown over the Easter weekend, with shops closed and restaurants and bars open for takeout only to try to minimize holiday outbreaks. In addition, Italy’s government imposed a five-day quarantine on people entering from other EU countries in a bid to deter Easter getaways.”Let’s say that after such a long time of restrictions and closures, this was a choice done for our mental health,” said Federico Marzocchi, who joined the cruise with his wife and 10-year-old son Matteo.  The cruise industry is hoping for a gradual opening this spring.Cruises are circulating on Spain’s Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, including the company AIDA catering to German tourists. Costa Cruises, which with MSC is one of Europe’s largest cruise companies, will resume cruises on May 1, with seven-night Italy-only cruises. Costa plans to begin sailing in the western Mediterranean from mid-June.  Britain is opening to cruise ships in May, with MSC and Viking launching cruises of the British Isles, among several companies offering at-sea “staycation” cruises aimed at capturing one of the most important cruise markets. The cruise industry is hoping Greece will open in mid-May, but the country hasn’t yet announced when it will reopen tourism.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a “framework” for resuming cruises in the U.S., but the industry says the health agency hasn’t spelled out the details that companies need to operate their ships. Once the CDC provides technical requirements, industry officials say it takes about 90 days to prepare a ship for sailing.The cruise companies complain that last fall’s CDC framework is outdated and should be scrapped. They say it was issued before vaccines were available and before the restart of cruises in Europe, which they say have safely carried nearly 400,000 passengers under new COVID-19 protocols. And they complain that cruising is the only part of the U.S. economy that remains shuttered by the pandemic.The Cruise Lines International Association trade group is lobbying for an early July start to U.S. cruising.”Cruisers love to cruise, and they will go where the ships are sailing,” said Laziza Lambert, a spokeswoman for the trade group. “The longer cruises are singularly prohibited from operating in the United States, the more other places in the world will benefit from the positive economic impact generated by an influx of passengers.” 
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Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.The virus is still raging in the Philippines, France, Brazil and other predominantly Christian countries, where worshippers are marking a second annual Holy Week under various movement restrictions amid outbreaks fanned by more contagious strains.Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city’s holy sites.This year, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of worshippers down the Via Dolorosa, retracing what tradition holds were Jesus’ final steps, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers at the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a wooden cross along the route through the Old City, singing hymns and pausing to offer prayers.The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, is open to visitors with masks and social distancing.”Things are open, but cautiously and gradually,” said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. “In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home … This year we are somehow silent.”Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during Holy Week.The main holy sites are in the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital, while the Palestinians want both territories for their future state.  Israel included Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in its vaccination campaign, but has only provided a small number of vaccines to those in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has imported tens of thousands of doses for a population of more than 2.5 million.Israeli authorities said up to 5,000 Christian Palestinians from the West Bank would be permitted to enter for Easter celebrations. Abunassar said he was not aware of any large tour groups from the West Bank planning to enter, as in years past, likely reflecting concerns about the virus.Pope Francis began Good Friday with a visit to the Vatican’s COVID-19 vaccination center, where volunteers have spent the past week administering some 1,200 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to poor and disadvantaged people in Rome.Pope Francis speaks to medical staff on Good Friday at a vaccination site in the Paul VI Hall where the poor and homeless are being inoculated, at the Vatican, April 2, 2021. (Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters)The Vatican City State bought its own doses to vaccinate Holy See employees and their families, and it has been giving away surplus supplies to homeless people. A masked Francis posed for photos with some of the volunteers and recipients in the Vatican audience hall.Later Friday, Francis was to preside over the Way of the Cross procession in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Square, instead of the popular torchlit ritual he usually celebrates at the Colosseum.In France, a nationwide 7 p.m. curfew is forcing parishes to move Good Friday ceremonies forward in the day, as the traditional Catholic night processions are being drastically scaled back or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are on localized lockdowns, where parishioners can attend daytime Mass if they sign the government’s “travel certificate.”  Although a third lockdown “light” is being imposed Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron has wavered on a travel ban for Easter weekend, allowing the French to drive between regions to meet up with family on Friday.FILE – Churchgoers wearing face masks lineup outside the Notre-Dame-des-Champs church in Paris, France.Fire-ravaged Notre Dame will not hold a Good Friday Mass this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” will be venerated by the cathedral’s clergy at its new temporary liturgical hub in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.In Spain, there will be no traditional processions for a second year in a row, and churches will limit the number of worshippers. Many parishes are going online with Mass and prayers via video streaming services.In the Philippines, streets were eerily quiet and religious gatherings were prohibited in the capital, Manila, and four outlying provinces. The government placed the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.The Philippines had started to reopen in hopes of stemming a severe economic crisis, but infections surged last month, apparently because of more contagious strains, increased public mobility and complacency.
 
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Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte fought for his political life Thursday in a bitter parliamentary debate about the country’s derailed process of forming a new ruling coalition following an election last month.Rutte’s conservative party, known by its Dutch acronym VVD, won the most seats in parliament in the vote, putting him in line to form his fourth governing coalition and possibly become the country’s longest-serving prime minister.That looked a long way off Thursday as lawmakers accused him of trying to sideline a popular lawmaker, a charge that Rutte denies.Negotiations halted a week ago after one of the two officials leading the coalition talks tested positive for COVID-19 and was photographed carrying notes laying out details of the talks.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party that finished second in elections last month, right, gestures during a debate in parliament in The Hague, Netherlands, early Friday, April 2, 2021.Among the text was a line saying: “Position Omtzigt, function elsewhere.” That was a reference to lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt of the Christian Democrat Appeal party, who, with his tough questions, has long been a thorn in the side of the government.After the note was photographed, Rutte told reporters last week that he had not discussed Omtzigt in his coalition talks. But according to notes made by civil servants that were published Thursday, Rutte did talk about the lawmaker.Rutte told the ensuing debate that he did not remember that part of the discussion and had answered reporters’ questions “in good conscience.””I am not standing here lying. I am telling the truth,” Rutte said.One of the officials who led the coalition talks, caretaker Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren, also told lawmakers that she did not recall discussing Omtzigt with Rutte, saying that it was the first of 17 separate discussions with party leaders.”We didn’t speak with anybody, with none of the party leaders about a function elsewhere for Mr. Omtzigt,” she said as the hourslong debate extended deep into the night.The debate around the coalition talks and Rutte’s leadership comes as the Netherlands is battling rising coronavirus infections despite a monthslong lockdown. Rutte’s popularity soared last year as he was seen as a steady hand steering the Netherlands through the coronavirus crisis, but it ebbed as the March election approached.Opposition lawmaker Geert Wilders demanded that Rutte step down immediately and called for a motion of no confidence.”Don’t you realize that your time is up?” Wilders said.Omtzigt was not present for the debate between party leaders. He is taking time off, after complaining of exhaustion.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party, which finished second in the election, said she had seen a “pattern of forgetfulness, amnesia” from Rutte over his more than a decade in office.”How can you, in the greatest crisis that we face in the Netherlands, restore the trust that has again been damaged?” Kaag asked. 
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Protests against Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s plan to reform the constitution are mounting in the Caribbean nation. As the Moise government prepares for a June referendum, the opposition is urging voters not to participate. VOA’s Sandra Lemaire reports.
Camera: Renan Toussaint and Matiado Vilme
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Russia’s espionage agencies are redoubling efforts to penetrate NATO, Western intelligence officials say, and are focusing on recruiting moles in the defense ministries of the pact’s member states.Italy expelled two Russian diplomats this week after they were caught in a parking lot in Rome handing cash to an Italian naval captain in exchange for sensitive military documents, which included NATO files.The 54-year-old Italian naval officer, Walter Biot, had been working at the Italian Ministry of Defense in Rome for a decade and was attached to the policy unit within the office of the Chief of the Defense Staff. According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Biot’s unit handled “all confidential and classified documents,” including NATO dossiers.The Carabinieri, one of Italy’s main law enforcement agencies, said Biot, a father of four, was caught “red-handed” exchanging the documents stored on a flash drive and was being detained on “serious crimes linked to spying and state security.”This wasn’t Biot’s first meeting with his Russia handlers, according to Italian investigators, and he was paid more than $5,000 each time he met with them.His arrest followed months of surveillance by Italy’s domestic intelligence agency AISI, according to an Italian official who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity. He compared the surveillance to the painstaking 2001 counterespionage operation in the United States that unearthed Robert Hanssen, a top FBI counterintelligence agent, as a Russian mole.Timing was key“Senior defense staff were informed of the suspicions about Biot, but it was important that there wasn’t a premature arrest and that he was caught actually handing over classified documents,” he added. “The Russians seemed mainly interested in NATO secrets.”Biot’s arrest came just weeks after Bulgaria broke up a military spy ring and expelled a pair of Russian diplomats. The half-dozen Bulgarians arrested, some of them Defense Ministry employees, have been charged with leaking classified NATO and European Union information.One of the six Bulgarians detained on March 18 made a full confession, according to local media, and reported he was paid $3,000 each time he handed over classified information. The most senior Bulgarian recruit was Ivan Iliev, a former chief of Bulgarian military intelligence. His wife, who is a dual Bulgarian-Russian citizen, was also a member of the ring.FILE – Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio speaks in Tripoli, Libya, March 25, 2021.The Italian government denounced the Russian spying. Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio described the incident as a “hostile act of extreme gravity.” He summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Razov and ordered the expulsion of the diplomats who handed the cash to Biot.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab expressed midweek his “solidarity” with Rome and criticized “Russia’s malign and destabilizing activity that is designed to undermine our NATO ally.”Kremlin accents ‘positive’ tiesThe Kremlin played down the possibility that the spying allegation could disrupt relations with Italy. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters he hoped “the very positive and constructive nature of Russian-Italian relations will continue and will be preserved.”Moscow is currently negotiating with the Italian government of Mario Draghi to sell Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. The Russian Embassy in Rome said it “regretted” the expulsions of the two diplomats but withheld threat of any tit-for-tat expulsions of Italian diplomats, despite Russian media reporting that the Kremlin might retaliate.Eleonora Tafuro, a Russia expert at the ISPI research organization in Milan, told Agence France-Presse the incident “really takes us back to the Cold War period.”Biot’s wife, Claudia Carbonara, a psychotherapist, told Italian reporters Thursday that her husband was “desperate” because of the family’s economic situation and said any material he handed over wouldn’t have compromised national security.“He had truly been in crisis for some time because he was afraid that he would not be able to face up to all the spending we have,” she said.She added, “I assure you that he gave the minimum he could give to the Russians. Nothing compromising — he is not stupid or irresponsible. He was just desperate, desperate about our future and that of our children.” She said the family had “been impoverished by COVID.”’Dazed and disoriented’If convicted, Biot faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. On Thursday, he appeared before a magistrate but declined to answer questions.“He said he was dazed and disoriented but ready to clarify his position. He asked for time to collect his thoughts,” Roberto De Vita, Biot’s lawyer, said.The court declined Biot’s request to be released from jail and to be placed under house arrest.The Kremlin’s more muted response to the Biot incident contrasted with its reaction to the expulsion last month of Russian diplomats by Bulgaria and to the expulsion in December by the Dutch government of a pair of Russian diplomats.Dutch officials alleged the diplomats were spies and had been targeting the high-tech sector and building a “substantial network of sources” in the industry. The two diplomats were working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the officials said.According to Dutch Interior Minister Karin Ollongren, the Russians targeted companies dealing with artificial intelligence, semiconductors and nanotechnology. Ollongren said the spy network had “likely caused damage to the organizations where the sources are or were active and thus possibly also to the Dutch economy and national security.”The Russian Foreign Ministry described the accusations as “unfounded” and warned the decision to expel the diplomats was “provocative.”The Biot incident came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin bemoaned “the unsatisfactory state of Russia-EU ties.” He blamed tense relations on the “often confrontational policies” of Brussels.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Moscow of building up troops on his country’s border as the United States warned Russia against “intimidating” Ukraine.Kyiv has been locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and this week Ukrainian officials reported Russian troop movement in annexed Crimea and on the border, near territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.On Thursday, Zelensky’s ministers discussed the escalating security situation with Western allies, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.Zelensky said in a statement that “military exercises and possible provocations along the border are traditional Russian games.” He accused Moscow of seeking to create “a threatening atmosphere” as Kyiv hopes to resume a cease-fire brokered last year.The U.S. State Department said it was “absolutely concerned by recent escalations of Russian aggressive and provocative actions in eastern Ukraine.””What we would object to are aggressive actions that have an intent of intimidating, of threatening, our partner Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.Some observers said the reported Russian troop buildup was a test for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who caused an uproar in Moscow last month by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “killer.”This week, Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for a rise in violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has undermined the cease-fire.Zelensky said 20 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 57 wounded since the start of the year.Separately, the military announced that a Ukrainian soldier had been wounded in an attack it blamed on separatists.FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to Defense Department personnel at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Feb. 10, 2021..’Ready for an offensive’On Thursday, U.S. defense chief Austin called his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Taran, Ukraine’s defense ministry said.Austin said during the call that Washington would “not leave Ukraine alone in the event of escalating Russian aggression,” the ministry said.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, for his part, discussed the “aggravation by the Russian Federation of the security situation” on the front line with his Canadian counterpart, Marc Garneau.Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia of preparing to “expand its military presence” in the separatist-controlled eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.In a statement, the intelligence service said it “does not rule out” an attempt by Russian forces to move “deep into Ukrainian territory.”A high-ranking Ukrainian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the Russian army was practicing “military coordination” with separatists.”From mid-April their combat units will be ready for an offensive,” the official told AFP.FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.West shouldn’t ‘worry’Moscow has repeatedly denied sending troops and arms to buttress the separatists, and Putin’s spokesman stressed on Thursday that Moscow was at liberty to move troops across its territory.”The Russian Federation moves its armed forces within its territory at its discretion,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but he did not directly confirm a troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.He added that “it should not worry anyone and does not pose a threat to anyone.”The war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula following a bloody uprising that ousted Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych.On Wednesday, the Pentagon said U.S. forces in Europe had raised their alert status following the “recent escalations of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.”Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Valery Gerasimov and Ruslan Khomchak.Khomchak said this week that 28,000 separatist fighters and “more than 2,000 Russian military instructors and advisers” were currently stationed in eastern Ukraine.On Thursday, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, Roman Mashovets, called for joint drills with NATO forces to “help stabilize the security situation.”Zelensky was elected in 2019 promising to end the years-long conflict, but critics say a shaky cease-fire was his only tangible achievement.The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron will reportedly visit Kigali in coming weeks, following a report he commissioned which sheds a harsh light on France’s alleged role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.If Macron hoped the report would put the controversy over French actions to rest, it now seems to be doing the opposite.Sounds of a Paris ceremony a few years ago, commemorating a new memorial to the roughly 800,000 victims of Rwanda’s genocide.The memorial wasn’t enough to end a dark chapter in French-Rwandan relations. Today, it’s uncertain whether a new report by French historians can do so either.Reactions have been trickling in this week to the so-called Duclert report on France’s role in the genocide.The report, based on two years of research, is named after Vincent Duclert, who headed the fact-finding commission of 14 historians. It found Paris, under former President Francois Mitterrand — who was close to the Hutu-led government that carried out the genocide — bears serious responsibility in the mass slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda between April and July of 1994.But, it concluded there was no evidence France was an accomplice in the killing spree.Historian Duclert told France 24 that Mitterrand was blinded by an effort to extend France’s post-colonial influence in Rwanda, and saw events though an ethnic prism. Mitterrand had close ties with Rwanda’s Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana, whom the report described as racist, corrupt and violent. His death in a helicopter crash unleashed the genocide.The commission’s members were historians, not judges, Duclert said. Although no documents showed France wanted a genocide, it was important to question the country’s blindness and heavy responsibility.France and Rwanda have long traded accusations over the killings. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy earlier conceded France had made mistakes.Now, Rwanda describes the Duclert report a step forward. France’s leading newspaper, Le Monde, called it a “decisive step on the path to truth.”Based on cables, documents and other material from government archives, the roughly 1,000-page report looks at France’s role before and during the genocide — including its controversial military and humanitarian Operation Turquoise. Kigali is expected to shortly release its own report on the genocide.But instead of putting this chapter to rest, the Duclert report has unleashed mixed reactions and soul searching here.France’s former foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, a top Mitterrand aide during the genocide, calls the report important. But in a Radio France International interview, he disputed France was blind to warnings of an impending slaughter. He said the country was just trying to preserve peace.Others said the report doesn’t go far enough. Genocide-era documents are missing or destroyed, they said, and the commission has left many questions unanswered.Survie Association, a French group highly critical of France’s colonial rule, slams it as superficial.Spokesman David Martin: “First what’s needed is a recognition of complicity from France and apologies to the Rwandan people, the Rwandan government. Second there should be trial for people who have taken decisions (during 1994), have assisted in decisions. There are still people who are alive today … It is very important that justice is done.”Martin’s association has filed several judicial complaints related to the genocide. But the process is slow and expensive, he says. He doubts French courts have the appetite to take on the country’s controversial past. 
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in favor of a journalist from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service who has battled against the handover of her smartphone data to authorities in what the court agreed is an essential defense of a free press and privacy in democratic society. Natalia Sedletska, who hosts the award-winning investigative TV program “Schemes,” has been locked in a three-year effort to protect her phone data from seizure by Ukrainian prosecutors investigating a leak of state secrets nearly four years ago. Natalia Sedletska hosts the award-winning investigative TV program Schemes. (RFE/RL Graphics)The ECHR concluded that Sedletska should be protected from the data search under Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and stressed the importance of protection of sources for a functioning free press. “[T]he court is not convinced that the data access authorization given by the domestic courts was justified by an ‘overriding requirement in the public interest’ and, therefore, necessary in a democratic society,” the decision read. Sedletska turned to the European rights court after a Ukrainian court ruling in 2018 gave authorities unlimited access to 17 months of her smartphone data. Schemes had reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, during the period in question. Sedletska has argued that the Ukrainian ruling contravened domestic law and Kyiv’s commitments to a free press. Her application to the ECHR sought protection from the seizure of her communications data as such judicial action was not “necessary in a democratic society,” and was grossly disproportionate and not justified by any “overriding requirement in the public interest.” The ECHR agreed and stressed that “the protection of journalistic sources is one of the cornerstones of freedom of the press.” “RFE/RL applauds this ruling, which protects the confidentiality of journalistic communications and sets limits for executive power,” RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in connection with the April 1 decision. “The work of investigative journalists, by its nature, is hard and often dangerous. “Credible investigative journalism cannot be done in an atmosphere of official impunity, and without the certainty that exchanges between source and journalist will remain private.” The prosecutors pressed for access to Sedletska’s phone data in connection with a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau. On August 2018, Kyiv’s Pechersk district court approved a request by the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office to allow investigators to review all of Sedletska’s mobile-phone data from a 17-month period. The European Parliament in 2018 passed a resolution expressing “concern” at the Ukrainian ruling and stressing the importance of media freedom and the protection of journalists’ sources. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the watchdog groups Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders have also backed Sedletska’s arguments. “Schemes” is a corruption-focused TV program produced by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Ukrainian Public Television. It had a combined audience across its two channels of more than 10 million last year.  
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Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, Thursday stressed the need for Germany to stock up on COVID-19 vaccine for possible repeat shots next year, and said the nation should do so with or without the rest of the European Union.Spahn made the remarks during a Berlin virtual news briefing on the countries COVID-19 vaccination program and to mark the opening of BioNTech’s plant in Marburg, Germany. He said the new plant provides Germany with an opportunity to plan for the possible need for additional doses of vaccine. Germany’s Merkel Says Europe Needs More Vaccine Independence Chancellor tells German lawmakers Europe must have enough COVID-19 vaccine for Europeans Spahn said at this point no one has been vaccinated for longer than a few months and no one knows how long protection will last, and there may be a need for third and fourth shots next year. He said Germany would be obtaining those vaccine doses on its own if EU members did not see the urgency. The health minister said BioNTech would be a logical source for that vaccine, as opposed to importing vaccine.  He said, “AstraZeneca is due to supply 15 million vaccine doses for Germany in [the second quarter of 2021]; BioNTech plans to supply 40 million doses. That shows that our main component is indeed BioNTech. And with that this factory in Marburg, as the production of BioNTech in general is very important to us in the vaccine campaign.” Spahn also announced it was stepping up its vaccination program, by administering vaccine through doctor offices. He said in the next week, 940,000 doses will be delivered to 35,000 practices around the country. By the end of April, he expects more than three million vaccine doses will be available for doctors to administer. Spahn said the move to allow doctors to deliver vaccine “will not be a big step yet, but it will be an important one,” as it will provide yet another structure through which more people can get vaccinated faster. 
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Mexico is about to legalize marijuana for recreational use, turning the Latin American nation into the world’s largest market for the drug. The move comes after Mexico’s lower house of Congress passed a legalization bill early in March; the country’s Senate is expected to approve a similar measure in coming weeks. Mike O’Sullivan looks at what legalization of the cannabis plant means for Mexico and the United States, the country’s northern neighbor.
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El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on Wednesday that a missing teenager had been found, identifying her as the daughter of Victoria Salazar, who died in Mexico after a Mexican female police officer was seen in a video kneeling on her back.The attorney general’s office of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, where Salazar died, said on Tuesday night that an amber alert had been issued for her daughter, Francela Yaritza Salazar Arriaza, 16. Francela was last seen in the Caribbean tourist resort of Tulum, where her mother was killed.”The oldest daughter of Victoria has been found. She is now in the custody of FGE,” Bukele tweeted, referring to the state attorney general’s office. “She is physically well.”Quintana Roo’s attorney general’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.Salazar’s partner was arrested on Tuesday for abuse of her and her daughters, Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquin said.FILE – Rosibel Emerita Arriaza, the mother of Victoria Esperanza Salazar who died in police custody, talks to the press in Antiguo Cuzcatlan, El Salvador, March 29, 2021.Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Salazar, 36, had been subject to “brutal treatment and murdered” after her detention on Saturday by four police officers. An autopsy showed Salazar’s neck had been broken.Her death had echoes of the case of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in May as a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck. It sparked outrage on social media and calls by El Salvador’s president for the officers to be punished.”They used excessive force,” her mother, Rosibel Arriaza, told Mexican television network TV Azteca. She noted that her daughter’s death was similar to that of Floyd.Newly released surveillance camera video, published by Mexican newspaper Reforma, showed Salazar looking frightened and holding on to workers in a convenience store just before police arrived at the scene, apparently in the run-up to her death.The Quintana Roo attorney general’s office has opened a homicide investigation into her death, which has led to the arrest of the four officers seen on videos of the incident.
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President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown Wednesday in an effort to slow a third wave of COVID-19 infecting his country.Among the lockdown measures, Macron closed all schools for three weeks beginning next Monday.Macron had hoped to avoid a lockdown and the effect it would have on the economy. However, the country’s death toll is nearing 100,000 and it has struggled with a vaccine rollout that has been slower than hoped for. A rise in cases is crippling intensive care units in areas hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.”We will lose control if we do not move now,” he said in a televised address to the nation.He also announced movement restrictions, beginning Saturday, for the whole country for at least a month.In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States last year, and it boosted the overall U.S. death toll by nearly 16% from the previous year.During the White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters the pandemic trailed only heart disease and cancer last year, accounting for about 378,000 fatalities, or 11% of all deaths in the country last year.Walensky said COVID-19 deaths were highest among Hispanic people, and deaths among ethnic and racial minority groups were more than double the death rate of non-Hispanic white people.Also Wednesday, Pfizer said it had produced 120 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for the U.S.The drugmaker is on track to deliver to the U.S. 200 million doses by the end of May and 300 million doses by the end of July, as it had vowed earlier this year.On Monday, Moderna said it had shipped 100 million doses of its vaccine to the United States. While Johnson & Johnson said it had delivered about 20 million shots to the U.S. in March.However, Johnson & Johnson reported Wednesday that a batch of its COVID-19 vaccine made at a facility in Baltimore, Maryland, had failed quality standards and was unusable. The drugmaker did not give details on what happened to the batch or how many doses were lost.Amazon said Wednesday it plans to have its employees return to the Seattle-area office by fall.The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that the company had told employees it is planning a “return to an office-centric culture as our baseline.”Amazon spokesperson Jose Negrete said the company would not require office workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to the office. However, he said Amazon is urging employees and contractors to become vaccinated as soon as they are eligible.Elsewhere Wednesday, European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke said the organization has found no scientific evidence to support restrictions on using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.She told a virtual news conference from the drug regulator’s headquarters in Denmark that they stand by the statement they made nearly two weeks ago that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh any risks.The comments come a day after Germany announced it was limiting the vaccine to people 60 years of age and older due to concerns that it may be causing blood clots.Federal and state health authorities cited nearly three dozen cases of blood clots known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in its decision Tuesday, including nine deaths. The country’s medical regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, said all but two of the cases involved women between the ages of 20 and 63.Canada, France and Spain have made similar decisions regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday, affirmed Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity “in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression,” the State Department said in a statement.
 
Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and over its support for separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people.
 
Blinken “expressed concern about the security situation in eastern Ukraine and offered condolences on the recent loss of four Ukrainian soldiers,” the statement said.
 
Ukraine’s armed forces said last week that four soldiers were killed in shelling by Russian forces in Donbas, the highest daily death total since a cease-fire agreement was reached last July.
 
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Ruslan Khomchak said on Tuesday Russia was building up armed forces near Ukraine’s borders in a threat to the country’s security.
 
The Kremlin said Wednesday it was concerned about mounting tensions in eastern Ukraine and that it feared Kyiv’s government forces could do something to restart a conflict with pro-Russian separatists. 
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Mexican authorities are searching for the daughter of Salvadoran woman Victoria Salazar, who died after a female police officer was seen in a video kneeling on her back, a case that triggered an outpouring of anger in Mexico. The attorney general’s office of the state of Quintana Roo, where Salazar died, said on Tuesday shortly before midnight that an Amber Alert had been issued for her daughter, 16-year-old Francela Yaritza Salazar Arriaza. Francela was last seen in the Caribbean tourist resort of Tulum, where her mother was killed. Salazar’s partner was arrested on Tuesday for abuse of her and her daughters, Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquin said. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Salazar, 36, had been subject to “brutal treatment and murdered” after her detention on Saturday by four police officers. An autopsy showed Salazar’s neck had been broken. Her death, which had echoes of the case of George Floyd, an African American man who died in May as a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck, sparked outrage on social media and calls by El Salvador’s president for the officers to be punished. “They used excessive force,” her mother, Rosibel Arriaza, told Mexican television network TV Azteca. She noted that her daughter’s death was similar to that of George Floyd. FILE – Rosibel Emerita Arriaza, the mother of Victoria Esperanza Salazar who died in police custody, talks to the press in Antiguo Cuzcatlan, El Salvador, March 29, 2021.Newly released surveillance camera video, published by Mexican newspaper Reforma, showed Salazar looking frightened and holding on to workers in a convenience store just before police arrived at the scene, apparently in the run-up to her death. The Quintana Roo attorney general’s office has opened a homicide investigation into her death, which has led to the arrest of the four officers seen on videos of the incident. 
 
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Italy says it expelled two Russian diplomats and arrested an Italian navy captain Tuesday for their alleged involvement in espionage. The diplomats were expelled Wednesday, according to news reports. Italian police say the captain and a Russian Embassy official were arrested in a parking lot in Rome and were accused of “serious crimes tied to spying and state security.” Reuters reported that an Italian police official told them the captain was named Walter Biot and that he was accused of passing information in exchange for $5,900.  Italian news agency Ansa reported that some of the documents seized were NATO documents. Italian police said the arrests were the result of a lengthy investigation by national security and military officials. The Russian Embassy in Rome, March 31, 2021.After the arrests, Italy summoned the Russian ambassador, and two Russian officials allegedly involved in the incident were expelled.  Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio characterized the incident as “extremely grave,” Reuters reported. “During the convocation of the Russian ambassador to Italy at the Foreign Ministry, we let him know about the strong protest of the Italian government and notified the immediate expulsion of the two Russian officials involved in this extremely grave affair,” the minister’s Facebook post said, according to CNN. Biot, 54, was reportedly working at the defense ministry in a department charged with developing national security policy and maintaining relations with Italy’s allies, Reuters reported. According to Reuters, Russian news agencies said the two expelled officials worked in the embassy’s military attaché office. They did not say if the person arrested in the parking lot was one of those expelled. Russian news agency Interfax reported that a Russian politician said it would reciprocate for the expulsions. But a Kremlin spokesman downplayed the incident. “At the moment, we do not have information about the reasons and circumstances of this detention,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to CNN. “But in any case, we hope that the very positive and constructive character of Russian-Italian relations will be preserved.” Both Bulgaria and the Netherlands have expelled Russian officials over spying allegations in recent months.  
 
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Coronavirus infections are ravaging Hungary’s 700,000-strong Roma community, according to personal accounts that suggest multiple deaths in single families are common in an unchecked outbreak fueled by deep distrust of authorities.Data on infections in the community is unavailable but interviews with about a dozen Roma, who often live in cramped and unsanitary conditions, reveal harrowing stories of suffering and death and of huge health care challenges.”Our people are falling like flies,” said Aladar Horvath, a Roma rights advocate who travels widely among the community.When asked by phone to describe the overall situation, he broke down sobbing and said he had learned an hour before that his 35-year-old nephew had died of COVID.Another Roma, Zsanett Bito-Balogh, likened the outbreak in her town of Nagykallo in eastern Hungary to an explosion.”It’s like a bomb went off,” she said.”Just about every family got it. …People you see riding their bikes one week are in hospital the next and you order flowers for their funerals the third.”Bito-Balogh, who herself recovered twice from COVID-19, said that at one point she had 12 family members in hospital. She said she had lost two uncles and her grandmother to the virus in the past month, and a neighbor lost both parents, a cousin and a uncle within weeks.She says she is now rushing to organize in-person registration points for vaccines and plans to have the network up and running in a few weeks.Despite the challenges in persuading many Roma to turn to health authorities for medical care and vaccinations, Roma leaders are urging the government to do more to intervene and tackle what Horvath describes as a humanitarian crisis.Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said vaccinations would be rolled out to Roma but that the community needed to volunteer for their shots.”Once we get to that point, the younger Roma should get in line,” Gulyas said in answer to Reuters questions. The Roma community is predominantly young, which means their vaccinations are scheduled later than for older Hungarians.The government’s chief epidemiologist did not respond to requests for comment.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 16 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 46 MB1080p | 89 MBOriginal | 102 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn northern Hungary, one of the European Union’s poorest regions, many Roma who live with hardship in the best of times are facing hunger as the coronavirus brings the economy to a halt.Decades of mistrustBarely 9% of Roma want to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a survey carried out at Hungary’s University of Pecs in January but published here for the first time. It was conducted by Zsuzsanna Kiss, a Roma biologist and professor at Hungary’s University of Pecs.Kiss said the Roma have mistrusted doctors and governments for decades because of perceived discrimination.However, gaining Roma trust is not the only challenge.Hungary’s 6,500 general practitioners are leading the vaccine rollout, but 10% of small GP clinics are shut because there is no doctor to operate them, mostly in areas with high Roma populations, government data shows.Although the government has deployed five “vaccination buses” that tour remote areas, people must first register for inoculations.”The rise in cases (among the Roma) is clearly proportionate to vaccine rejection,” said former Surgeon General Ferenc Falus.”This more infectious virus reaches a population whose immune system has weakened greatly during the winter months. If they go without vaccines for long, it will definitely show in extra infections and fatalities among the Roma.”Hungary currently has the world’s highest weekly per capita death toll, driven by the more contagious variant first detected in Britain, despite a rapid vaccination rollout, data from Johns Hopkins University and the European Union indicates.”We never trusted vaccines much,” said Zoltan Varga, a young Roma also from Nagykallo.
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