Russia said Wednesday that it will send an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station next month to bring home three astronauts whose planned return vehicle was damaged by a strike from a tiny meteorite.

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, made the announcement after examining the flight worthiness of the Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule at the space station, which sprang a radiator coolant leak in December.

Roscosmos and NASA officials said at a joint press briefing that an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft, MS-23, would be sent to the station February 20 to bring Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth.

“We’re not calling it a rescue Soyuz,” said Joel Montalbano, the space station program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “I’m calling it a replacement Soyuz.

“Right now, the crew is safe onboard the space station,” he added.

MS-22 flew Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio to the space station in September. They were scheduled to return home in the same spacecraft in mid-March.

But MS-22 began leaking coolant on December 14 after being hit by what U.S. and Russian space officials said they believed was a micrometeorite.

“Everything does point to a micrometeorite,” Montalbano said.

Sergei Krikalev, executive director of human space flight programs at Roscosmos, said the “current theory is that this damage was caused by a small particle about 1 millimeter in diameter.”

Krikalev said the decision to use MS-23 to fly the crew home was made because of concern over high temperatures in MS-22 during reentry. 

“The main problem to land the current Soyuz with crew would be thermal conditions because we lost heat rejection capability,” he said. “We may have a high temperature situation on Soyuz in the equipment compartment and in the crew compartment.”

Montalbano said discussions were also underway with SpaceX officials about potentially returning one or more crew members on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule currently docked with the space station.

Four astronauts were flown to the station by a SpaceX rocket in October for a mission expected to last about six months.

“We could safely secure the crew members in the area that the cargo normally returns on the Dragon,” Montalbano said.

“All that is only for an emergency, only if we have to evacuate ISS,” he stressed. “That’s not the nominal plan or anything like that.”

Krikalev said MS-22 would return to Earth after the two cosmonauts and the NASA astronaut leave on MS-23. It would bring back equipment and experiments that are not “temperature sensitive,” he said.

Soyuz MS-23 had been initially scheduled to fly Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA’s Loral O’Hara to the space station on March 16.

Space has remained a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions on Russia.

The space station was launched in 1998 at a time of increased U.S.-Russia cooperation following the Cold War space race.

Russia has been using the aging but reliable Soyuz capsules to ferry astronauts into space since the 1960s.
…

Russia’s top military officer was put in charge of troops fighting in Ukraine on Wednesday, a move that appears to reflect the Kremlin’s dissatisfaction with the current leadership and flaws in the military’s performance. 

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, was named the new commander of the unified group of forces in Ukraine. 

The previous commander, General Sergei Surovikin, was demoted to become Gerasimov’s deputy along with two other generals. 

The reshuffle, which was formally ordered by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, came with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval, signaling that he still has trust in his top military leaders who have faced broad criticism for the troops’ performance in the conflict. 

It also suggests a recognition of flaws in carrying out what Putin called “the special military operation” in Ukraine. 

While announcing Gerasimov’s appointment, the Defense Ministry said it was aimed at improving coordination between various forces fighting in Ukraine. 

“Raising the level of leadership of the special military operation is linked to the expansion of the scale of the tasks being fulfilled as part of it and the need to organize closer interaction between branches of the military and to increase the quality of supplies and the efficiency of directing groups of forces,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. 

Surovikin was credited with strengthening coordination and reinforcing control over Russian forces in Ukraine after his appointment in October. His demotion to the No. 2 role signaled that while Putin wasn’t quite happy with his performance, he still trusts the general’s expertise. 

Soon after Surovikin was appointed in October, Russian troops pulled back from the southern city of Kherson under the brunt of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The retreat from the only regional center captured by Russia since it sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 came weeks after its annexation by Moscow and dealt a painful blow to the Kremlin. 

In his turn, Gerasimov, who was seen as the top architect of the Russian action in Ukraine as the country’s top military officer in charge of strategic military planning, was also widely blamed for Moscow’s military setbacks. 

His critics included Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire businessman with close ties to Putin. Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group military contractor has played an increasingly prominent role in the fighting, has accused Gerasimov of incompetence and blamed him for a string of Russian military setbacks. 

Such criticism was shared by Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who deployed troops from his region to fight in Ukraine and repeatedly urged the Kremlin to up the ante in the conflict. 

The criticism of Gerasimov from Prigozhin and Kadyrov rose to a high pitch in September, when Russian troops were forced to pull back from Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv by a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Kadyrov particularly accused Gerasimov of covering up for his protege, Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin, who was in charge of the troops that retreated from the Kharkiv region. 

Despite such attacks, Lapin was promoted to become the chief of staff of ground forces earlier this week. His promotion along with Gerasimov’s new appointment appear to signal that Prigozhin and Kadyrov have little influence over the Kremlin’s decision-making despite their increasing public activity. 

Putin on Wednesday also gave a televised dressing down to Denis Manturov, a deputy prime minister in charge of aviation and other high-tech industries. 

Putin demanded that Manturov act more quickly in contracting new aircraft and cut him short during a televised video call with Cabinet members when he tried to defend his performance. 

When Manturov said he would try to make sure it’s done during the first quarter, Putin angrily snapped that it should be done within a month. “You don’t try to do all you can, you do it within a month, no later than that,” Putin said. 

 
…

Iran has sentenced a former senior defense official to death after convicting him on charges of spying for Britain, state-linked media reported Wednesday. 

The judiciary said Ali Reza Akbari, who was deputy defense minister until 2001, was a “key spy” for British intelligence, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. It said Iranian intelligence unmasked the spying by feeding him false information. 

Tasnim also reported that he had spied on past nuclear talks between Iran and Western powers. Akbari had served as deputy defense minister under President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who had pushed for improved relations with the West. 

Britain called for the execution to be halted and for Akbari’s immediate release. 

“This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. 

For several years, Iran has been locked in a shadow war with the United States and Israel, marked by covert attacks on its disputed nuclear program. The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist in 2020, which Iran blamed on Israel, indicated foreign intelligence services had made major inroads. 

Akbari, who ran a private think tank, has not been seen in public since 2019, when he apparently was arrested. 

Authorities have not released any details about his trial. Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are usually tried behind closed doors, where rights groups say they do not choose their own lawyers and are not allowed to see evidence against them. 

Tasnim said the Supreme Court upheld his sentence and that he had access to an attorney. There was no word on when the execution might be carried out. 

Akbari had previously led the implementation of a 1988 cease-fire between Iran and Iraq following their devastating eight-year war, working closely with U.N. observers.
…

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian shells have been a part of daily life in the city of Odesa. But a determined set of locals is fighting back, from hairdressers to police officers who are part of a territorial defense effort. Anna  Kosstutschenko reports. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy
…

Authorities in France say an attacker armed with a knife wounded six people Wednesday morning at a busy train station in Paris. 

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters police shot the attacker, who was “between life and death” after being taken to a hospital. 

The attack happened at the Gare du Nord station, one of the busiest in Europe. 

The motive for the attack was unclear, and authorities say they have opened a criminal investigation. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

Australian Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative and former top Vatican official who in 2020 was acquitted of sexual abuse allegations, died Tuesday at the age of 81, his private secretary said.  

Father Joseph Hamilton told Reuters that Pell died in Rome on Tuesday night.  

Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the archbishop of Melbourne, said Pell had died from heart complications following hip surgery.  

“Cardinal Pell was a very significant and influential Church leader, both in Australia and internationally, deeply committed to Christian discipleship,” he said in a statement on Facebook. 

An Australian appeals court ruling in 2020 quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choir boys in the 1990s. He spent 13 months in jail. 

The ruling allowed the then-78-year-old Pell to walk free, ending the case of the most senior figure accused in the global scandal of historical sex abuse that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. 

Pell, a former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, served as Vatican economy minister from 2014 until he took a leave of absence in 2017 to return to Australia to face the charges. 

He had been living in Rome since his acquittal in 2020 and had several meetings with Pope Francis. Pell often attended the pontiff’s Masses, and Francis praised him publicly after his return. 

Even before the sexual assault allegations, Pell was a polarizing figure in the two decades that he dominated the Australian Catholic hierarchy, revered by conservative Catholics but scorned by liberals for his staunch opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and women’s ordination. 

In May 2018, Pell was committed to stand trial on multiple historical sexual offense charges relating to alleged incidents at a pool in his hometown of Ballarat in the 1970s and at Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s. The so-called swimmers case was dropped after a judge did not allow certain evidence. 

Returning from Rome where he had been tasked with cleaning up the Vatican’s finances, Pell denied the allegations but did not take the stand at two trials, the first of which ended with a hung jury. At the retrial, a jury unanimously convicted him on five charges of assaulting two teenage choirboys at the cathedral when he was archbishop of Melbourne. 

Pell was sentenced to six years in jail, becoming the most senior Catholic official worldwide to go to prison for child sex assault. He lost his first appeal and was in solitary confinement for 404 days until Australia’s seven High Court judges unanimously overturned his conviction, saying it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt. 

“Look, it was bad, it wasn’t like a holiday, but I don’t want to exaggerate how difficult that was. But there were many dark moments,” Pell said of his jail time in a Reuters interview after returning to Rome in 2020. 

The former choirboy who accused Pell at his trial and was known as Witness J said he understood it was difficult to satisfy a criminal court beyond the shadow of a doubt that child sexual assault offenses occurred. The other former choirboy died before Pell was charged. 

Gold miner’s son   

The high-profile case was one of the Australia’s most divisive, and some media organizations went so far as to breach a court suppression order barring coverage of the trial. 

The son of an Anglican gold miner father and a devout Irish Catholic mother, Pell was talented both academically and at sports. At 18, he landed a contract to play professional Australian Rules football and played in the reserves for a club, but later chose to enter the seminary. 

He went on to earn a doctorate in church history from Oxford and then became a parish priest in Ballarat. 

A burly and imposing figure at 1.9 meters, Pell rose to prominence in the mid-1990s first as archbishop of Melbourne, then archbishop of Sydney in 2001. 

Through the 1990s, the church increasingly came under attack for protecting priests and other church personnel who had committed sexual offenses and for failing to support their victims. 

Pell took pride in having set up one of the world’s first schemes to compensate victims of child sexual abuse in Melbourne. Critics, however, later told a government-appointed inquiry that the scheme was designed to persuade victims not to pursue legal action. 

The inquiry, known as a Royal Commission, began in 2013, a five-year investigation into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church and other institutions. 

It found the church and other institutions had repeatedly failed to keep children safe with cultures of secrecy and cover-ups. It also found that Pell was aware of child sex abuse by at least two priests in the 1970s and 1980s and had failed to take steps to get the priests removed. 

The commission also said Pell should have looked into why Gerard Ridsdale, a priest who was subsequently convicted on more than 130 charges of sexually abusing children, was being moved from one parish to another during the 1970s and 1980s. 

Pell told the commission he was unaware of Ridsdale’s offenses until his 1993 conviction. 

“It’s a sad story, and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” he said. 
…

Constantine, the former and last king of Greece who spent decades in exile, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Doctors at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to The Associated Press that Constantine died late Tuesday after treatment in an intensive care unit but had no further details pending an official announcement.

When he rose to the throne as Constantine II 1964 at the age of 23, the youthful monarch who had achieved glory as an Olympic gold medalist in sailing was hugely popular. By the following year he had squandered much of that support with his active involvement in the machinations that brought down the elected Center Union government of Prime Minister George Papandreou.

The episode involving the defection from the ruling party of several lawmakers, still widely known in Greece as the “apostasy,” destabilized the constitutional order and led to a military coup in 1967. Constantine eventually clashed with the military rulers and was forced into exile.

The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973; a referendum after democracy was restored in 1974 dashed any hopes that Constantine had of ever reigning again.

Reduced in the following decades to only fleeting visits to Greece that raised a political and media storm each time, he was able to settle again in his home country in his waning years when opposing his presence no longer held currency as a badge of vigilant republicanism. With minimal nostalgia for the monarchy in Greece, Constantine became a relatively uncontroversial figure.

Constantine was born June 2, 1940, in Athens, to Prince Paul, younger brother to King George II and heir presumptive to the throne, and Princess Frederica of Hanover. His older sister Sophia is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Greek-born Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was a relative.

The family, which had ruled in Greece from 1863 apart from a 12-year republican interlude in 1922-1935, was descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluecksburg branch of the Danish ruling family.

Before Constantine’s first birthday, the royal family was forced to flee Greece during the German invasion in World War II, moving to Alexandria in Egypt, South Africa and back to Alexandria. King George II returned to Greece in 1946, following a disputed referendum, but died a few months later, making Constantine the heir to King Paul I.

Constantine was educated at a boarding school and then attended three military academies as well as Athens Law School classes as preparation for his future role. He also competed in various sports, including sailing and karate, in which he held a black belt.

In 1960, at age 20, he and two other Greek sailors won a gold medal in the Dragon Class — now no longer an Olympic class — at the Rome Olympics. While still a prince, Constantine was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee and became an honorary member for life in 1974.

King Paul I died of cancer on March 6, 1964, and Constantine succeeded him, weeks after the Center Union party had triumphed over the conservatives with 53% of the vote.

The prime minister, George Papandreou, and Constantine initially had a very close relationship, but it soon soured over Constantine’s insistence that control of the armed forces was the monarch’s prerogative.

With many officers toying with the idea of a dictatorship and viewing any non-conservative government as soft on communism, Papandreou wanted to control the ministry of defense and eventually demanded to be appointed defense minister. After an acrimonious exchange of letters with Constantine, Papandreou resigned in July 1965.

Constantine’s insistence on appointing a government composed of centrist defectors that won a narrow parliamentary majority on the third try was hugely unpopular. Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica.

“The people don’t want you, take your mother and go!” became the rallying cry in the protests that rocked Greece in the summer of 1965.

Eventually, Constantine made a truce of sorts with Papandreou and, with his agreement, appointed a government of technocrats and then a conservative-led government to hold an election in May 1967.

But, with the polls heavily favoring the Center Union and with Papandreou’s left-leaning son, Andreas, gaining in popularity, Constantine and his courtiers feared revenge and prepared a coup. They were instead surprised by a coup led by a group of lower-ranking officers who proclaimed a dictatorship on April 21, 1967.

On Dec. 13, 1967, Constantine and his family flew to the northern city of Kavala with the intention of marching on Thessaloniki and setting up a government there. His counter coup, badly managed and infiltrated, collapsed and Constantine was forced to flee to Rome the following day. He would never return as reigning king.

To his final days, Constantine, while accepting that Greece was now a republic, continued to style himself King of Greece and his children as princes and princesses even though Greece no longer recognized titles of nobility.

For most of his years in exile he lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, and was said to be especially close to his second cousin Charles, the Prince of Wales and now King Charles III.

While it took Constantine 14 years to return to his country briefly to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, his visits increased and, from 2010, made his home there.

He is survived by his wife, the former Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, youngest sister of Queen Margrethe II; five children, Alexia, Pavlos, Nikolaos, Theodora and Philippos; and nine grandchildren.
…

French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo doubled down on its ridicule of Iran’s religious rulers on Tuesday, with fresh cartoons of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, despite protests from Iran and its allies.

“The mullahs aren’t happy. The caricatures of their supreme leader … do not seem to have made them laugh,” the paper’s editor, known as Riss, writes in the latest edition, which hits newsstands on Wednesday.

“Laughing at themselves has never been a strong point of tyrants,” he added.

The paper was hit by a cyberattack after publishing cartoons of Khamenei in last week’s special edition, which marked the anniversary of the 2015 attack on its Paris offices that left 12 dead.

“A digital attack doesn’t leave anyone dead, but it sets the tone. The mullah’s regime feels in such danger that it considers it vital to its existence to hack the website of a French newspaper,” Riss wrote.

“It is an honour in one sense, but above all proves that they feel their power is very fragile.”

There have been months of protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a woman arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.

Iran issued an official warning to France over the “insulting and indecent” cartoons in last week’s Charlie Hebdo.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian movement in Lebanon, also condemned the cartoons, saying Khamenei was not just a ruler but “a religious symbol for tens of millions of believers.”
…

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday unveiled a contentious pension overhaul aimed at raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, which has prompted vigorous criticism and calls for protests from leftist opponents and worker unions. 

Speaking in a news conference in Paris, Borne said the minimum retirement age to be entitled to a full pension will be gradually increased by three months every year, starting this year, in line with a longstanding pledge by President Emmanuel Macron. 

In addition, people will need to have worked for at least 43 years to get a full pension, starting from 2027, she said. 

“Working more will allow future retirees to get higher pensions,” Borne said. 

“By 2030, our system will be financially balanced,” she added. 

Those who started working before the age of 20 will be able to get early retirement, Borne added. Specific categories of workers such as police officers and firefighters will also be able to retire earlier. 

The government argues that French people live longer than they used to and therefore need to work longer to make the pension system financially sustainable. All French workers receive a state pension. 

Center-left and hard-left worker unions unanimously expressed their disapproval of the proposed changes after talks with Borne last week. 

Some are in favor of an increase in payroll contributions paid by employers instead. 

The country’s eight main worker unions are gathering on Tuesday evening to set the date of a first protest day against the pension changes. 

A heated debate at parliament also is to be expected. 

Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year — and most opposition parties are opposed to the changes. 

Macron’s lawmakers hope to be able to ally with members of the conservative The Republicans party to pass the measure. Otherwise, the government may use a special power to force the law through parliament without a vote — at the price of much criticism. 

The pension reform is an electoral promise from Macron, who failed to implement a similar measure during his first term. The proposal at that time sparked nationwide strikes and protests, before the COVID-19 crisis led the government to postpone the changes. Macron was reelected for a second term last year. 

France’s Retirement Guidance Council issued a report last year showing that the pension system is expected to have a deficit over the next decade, with the government having to compensate. 

The minimum retirement age applies to people who have worked enough years to qualify. Those who do not fulfil the conditions, like many women who interrupt their career to raise their children and people who did long studies and started their career late, must work until 67 to retire without penalty. 

The average pension this year stands at 1,400 euros per month ($1,500 per month) once taxes are deducted. But that average masks differences across pension schemes depending on professions. 

Over the past three decades, French governments have made numerous changes to the system but each reform has been met with massive demonstrations. 
…

Military support for Ukraine and relations with Russia and China are among the key issues as Czech voters prepare to choose a new president Friday, with three candidates neck-and-neck in the polls.

Among them is Andrej Babiš, the billionaire former prime minister who received a boost after he was acquitted of fraud Monday.

Babiš was charged in 2022 for taking his “Stork Nest” farm out of his giant Agrofert holding company, in order to make it eligible for a $2 million European Union subsidy for small companies.

Prague Municipal Court Judge Jan Sott said it had not been proven that his actions constituted a crime. State prosecutors are considering an appeal.

The 68-year-old Babiš described the prosecution as a “political process.” 

“I think it is good news for the whole Czech Republic, for all citizens of the Czech Republic, that we live in the rule of law,” he told reporters following the verdict Monday.

Babiš, who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, is seen as a populist and a political ally of the outgoing president, Miloš Zeman. Babiš has criticized government and European Union policies on issues like migration and support for Ukraine. That has won him support – but also energized his critics.

Rivals

Babiš’ main rivals include Petr Pavel, a retired Czech general, and former chairman of the NATO Military Committee. His campaign slogan is, “Bring order and calm.’”

The third leading candidate is Danuše Nerudová, a former economist and university rector who promises a progressive, pro-European presidency. She would become her country’s first female president if elected.

“Both Petr Pavel and Danuše Nerudová are highly committed to the Czech Republic as a liberal democracy and also to its role in the liberal order more widely,” said Benjamin Tallis, an analyst with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

“That’s really the clear choice facing Czechs. Do they seize the chance to go back towards the liberal democratic mainstream, or is it a time that they would prefer to actually go back to the recent times of the Zeman-Babiš period and more towards this populist nationalist and authoritarian politics?” Tallis told VOA.

Ukraine

The president does not have executive powers; however, analysts say a Babiš victory could make life difficult for the current government under Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which has taken a strongly pro-Ukrainian stance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In his (Babiš’) view it’s too much support, too much help to Ukraine and also to Ukrainian refugees,” said Lubomír Kopeček, a professor of political science at Masaryk University. “But I don’t think that Babiš would be somebody like Zeman in the past – a pro-Russian and pro-Chinese president. Because his business interests are connected to western and central Europe.”

Velvet divorce

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have just marked the 30-year anniversary of the so-called ‘velvet divorce’ – the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia following the fall of communism. For some voters, the historical resonance is significant, says Tallis.

“Lessons the Czech Republic has learned from history about how to stand up to autocracy, things about what is worthwhile about democracy, about how Ukrainians have revived memories of why freedoms and rights are worth fighting and dying for. What is actually liberty all about and where is the hope of that progressive future?” Tallis told VOA.

If no candidate secures an outright majority in Friday’s election, the top two go through to a second round two weeks later.

According to the Financial Times newspaper, recent surveys indicate the three candidates each have between 20 and 30 percent of the vote, with six other contenders splitting the remaining votes.

Some of the information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Iran has sentenced a Belgian aid worker to a lengthy prison term and 74 lashes after convicting him of espionage charges in a closed-door trial, state media reported Tuesday.

The website of Iran’s judiciary said a Revolutionary Court sentenced 41-year-old Olivier Vandecasteele to 12.5 years in prison for espionage, 12.5 years for collaboration with hostile governments and 12.5 years for money laundering. He was also fined $1 million and sentenced to 2.5 years for currency smuggling.

Under Iranian law, Vandecasteele would be eligible for release after 12.5 years. The judiciary website said the verdicts can be appealed.

Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and sentencing them after secretive trials in which rights groups say they are denied due process. Critics accuse Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining chips with the West, something Iranian officials deny.

Iran has not released any details about the charges against Vandecasteele. It is unclear if they are related to anti-government protests that have convulsed Iran for months or a long-running shadow war with Israel and the U.S. marked by covert attacks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

The nationwide protests began after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. Rallying under the slogan “Women, life, freedom,” the protesters say they are fed up with decades of social and political repression. Iran has blamed the protests on foreign powers, without providing evidence.

Vandecasteele’s family said last month that he has been detained in an Iranian prison for months and has been on a hunger strike. They said he was deprived of access to a lawyer of his choice and is suffering from serious health problems.

Belgium has urged its nationals to leave Iran, warning that they face the risk of arbitrary arrest or unfair trial. There was no immediate comment on the verdict.

At least 520 protesters have been killed and more than 19,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided official figures on deaths or arrests.

Iran has executed four people after convicting them of charges linked to the protests, including attacks on security forces. They were also convicted in Revolutionary Courts, which do not allow those on trial to pick their own lawyers or see the evidence against them.

London-based Amnesty International has said such trials bear “no resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding.”

The protests, which have continued for nearly four months with no sign of ending, mark one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power.
…

Czech voters are preparing to choose a new president — with support for Ukraine and relations with Russia and China among the key issues. As Henry Ridgwell reports, three candidates are neck and neck in the polls.
…

A mission to launch the first satellites into orbit from Western Europe suffered an “anomaly” Tuesday, Virgin Orbit said.  

The U.S.-based company attempted its first international launch on Monday, using a modified jumbo jet to carry one of its rockets from Cornwall in southwestern England to the Atlantic Ocean where the rocket was released. The rocket was supposed to take nine small satellites for mixed civil and defense use into orbit.  

But about two hours after the plane took off, the company reported that the mission encountered a problem. 

“We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information,” Virgin Orbit said on Twitter.  

Virgin Orbit, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. It has previously completed four similar launches from California. 

Hundreds gathered for the launch cheered earlier as a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named “Cosmic Girl,” took off from Cornwall late Monday. Around an hour into the flight, the plane released the rocket at around 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.  

The plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returned to Cornwall after releasing the rocket. 

Some of the satellites are meant for U.K. defense monitoring, while others are for businesses such as those working in navigational technology. One Welsh company is looking to manufacture materials such as electronic components in space.  

U.K. officials had high hopes for the mission. Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the U.K. Space Agency, said Monday it marked a “new era” for his country’s space industry. There was strong market demand for small satellite launches, Annett said, and the U.K. has ambitions to be “the hub of European launches.”  

In the past, satellites produced in the U.K. had to be sent to spaceports in other countries to make their journey into space. 

The mission was a collaboration between the U.K. Space Agency, the Royal Air Force, Virgin Orbit and Cornwall Council.  

The launch was originally planned for late last year, but it was postponed because of technical and regulatory issues. 
…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday he remained convinced of the need to coordinate weapons deliveries to Ukraine with allies as pressure mounts on Berlin to send Kyiv its Leopard 2 battle tanks.

Germany announced last week it would provide Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles to help repel Russian forces. The announcement came on the same day that the United States pledged Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and a day after a similar announcement from France.

Scholz, who has often underscored the importance of not escalating the conflict in Ukraine or giving Russia a reason to deem it party to the war, said the Western allies had spent “a long time preparing, discussing and organizing this.”

Kyiv has also requested heavier vehicles such as the Leopards, which would represent a significant step up in Western support to Ukraine.

“Germany will not go alone,” he said at an event of his center-left Social Democrat party (SPD) kicking off the campaign for the Berlin state election.

“Germany will always remain united with its friends and allies. … Anything else would be irresponsible in such a dangerous situation.”

Germany has become one of Ukraine’s top military supporters in response to Russia’s invasion after last year overcoming a taboo that is rooted in its bloody 20th century history on sending weapons to conflict zones.

Still, critics say Scholz and his ruling SPD are too slow, waiting for allies to act first instead of assuming Germany’s responsibility as the Western power closest to Ukraine.

The SPD’s junior coalition partners, the Greens and liberal Free Democrats, have been more vocal in their calls to ramp up military support to Ukraine.

Germany cannot rule out the delivery of Leopard tanks, heavier fighting vehicles than the Marders, to support Ukrainian military forces in the future, Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens told German broadcaster ARD.

Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with the British army’s Challenger 2 main battle tank, Sky News reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.
…

A modified jumbo jet carrying a Virgin Orbit rocket took off from southwestern England Monday, marking the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from Western Europe.

Hundreds gathered for the launch cheered as the repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named “Cosmic Girl,” took off from Cornwall late Monday. Around an hour into the flight, the plane will release the rocket at 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.

The rocket will then take nine small satellites for mixed civil and defense use into orbit, while the plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returns to Cornwall.

If successful, the mission will mark the first international launch for Virgin Orbit, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. The company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, has already completed four similar launches from California.

In the past, satellites produced in the U.K. had to be sent to spaceports in other countries to make their journey into space.

Some of the satellites are meant for U.K. defense monitoring, while others are for businesses such as those working in navigational technology. One Welsh company is looking to manufacture materials such as electronic components in space.

“This is the start of a new era for the U.K. in terms of launch capabilities,” said Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the U.K. Space Agency. There was strong market demand for small satellite launches, he said, and the U.K. has ambitions to be “the hub of European launches.”

Annett said it was too early to say whether more missions are planned in coming months.

The mission is a collaboration between the U.K. Space Agency, the Royal Air Force, Virgin Orbit and Cornwall Council.

The launch was originally planned for late last year, but it was postponed because of technical and regulatory issues.
…

Ryan Hendrickson is a retired Green Beret, a special forces unit of the U.S. Army. But today he is in Ukraine, helping to clear mines laid by invading Russian forces and keep soldiers and civilians safe. For VOA, Іa Meurmishvili talked to Hendrickson in this report. Video editor – Anna Rice.
…

Five employees of what used to be authoritarian Belarus’s largest independent news outlet went on trial Monday in Minsk, facing several charges including tax evasion and “inciting enmity”, a rights group said.

The outlet Tut.by covered large-scale protests in 2020 that erupted after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a sixth term in office in a contested election.

The new source’s editor-in-chief Marina Zolatova and the its general director Lyudmila Chekina have been in pre-trial detention since May 2021.

Three other defendants in the case left Belarus before the trial started, according to rights group Viasna.

A photo from court published by opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya showed Zolatova and Chekina sitting inside a cage for defendants.

“We must support all journalists who fight for the truth!” Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter on Monday at the start of the closed-door trial.

The media outlet was designated “extremist” in 2021. Some of its employees now work from abroad for a successor publication called Zerkalo.

Zerkalo said in a statement the case against their former colleagues “was fabricated from start to finish and appeared only because the regime is afraid of journalists”.

Following the historic anti-regime protests in 2020, Belarus has sought to wipe out remaining pockets of dissent, jailing journalists, activists and forcing many others into exile.

According to Viasna, there are over 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus.

In a high-profile case last week, Viasna founder Ales Bialiatski, who was co-awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, went on trial in Belarus with several of his associates.

They face between seven and 12 years in prison.

Tsikhanouskaya, who claimed victory in Belarus’s disputed 2020 presidential election, will face trial in absentia on January 17 on charges including high treason and conspiracy to seize power.
…

Britain’s foreign minister James Cleverly summoned Iran’s most senior diplomat on Monday after Iranian authorities executed protestors Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini.

“Today I have summoned the Iranian charge d’affairs to condemn in the strongest possible terms the abhorrent executions we witnessed over the weekend,” Cleverly said in a statement.

Since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini last September, Britain said it had imposed more than 40 sanctions on leading officials in Iran “for their role in serious human rights violations.”

The two men were hanged on Saturday for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during protests that followed the death of Amini.

The latest execution brings the number of protesters officially known to have been executed since the unrest to four.
…

Pope Francis condemned Iran’s execution of protesters for the first time on Monday in his traditional New Year’s address to diplomats, and said the war in Ukraine was “a crime against God and humanity.”

The pontiff made his remarks in a speech to diplomats accredited to the Vatican, his overview at the start of the new year which has come to be known informally as his “state of the world” address.

His eight-page speech in Italian, read to representatives of most of the 183 countries accredited to the Vatican, ran the gamut of all the world’s conflict areas, including those in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

He repeated his condemnation of abortion, appealing “particularly to those having political responsibilities, to strive to safeguard the rights of those who are weakest,” and he again warned of threat of a nuclear conflict.

However, the main novelty of the speech in the Vatican’s Hall of Benedictions was his breaking of silence on the nationwide unrest in Iran since the death last September of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody.

“The right to life is also threatened in those places where the death penalty continues to be imposed, as is the case in these days in Iran, following the recent demonstrations demanding greater respect for the dignity of women,” he said.

Four protesters have been executed in connection with the wave of popular protests in the Islamic Republic.

“The death penalty cannot be employed for a purported state justice, since it does not constitute a deterrent nor render justice to victims, but only fuels the thirst for vengeance,” Francis said.

He then repeated an appeal for an end to capital punishment worldwide, saying it is “always inadmissible since it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person.”

Francis said many countries were paying lip service to commitments they had made to respect human rights and he called for respect for women, saying they were still widely being deemed second-glass citizens, subjected to violence and abuse.

“It is unacceptable that part of a people should be excluded from education, as is happening to Afghan women,” he said.

Francis spoke of the “war in Ukraine, with its wake of death and destruction, with its attacks on civil infrastructures that cause lives to be lost not only from gunfire and acts of violence, but also from hunger and freezing cold.”

He then immediately quoted from a Vatican constitution, saying “every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and humanity which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.”

Referring to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, he said: “Sadly, today too, the nuclear threat is raised, and the world once more feels fear and anguish.”

The pope repeated his appeal for a total ban on nuclear weapons, saying even their possession for reasons of deterrence is “immoral.”
…

A Prague court on Monday acquitted former Prime Minister Andrej Babis of fraud charges in a $2 million case involving European Union subsidies.     

A prosecutor requested a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of $440,000 for the populist billionaire. The prosecution still can appeal.     

Babis pleaded not guilty and repeatedly said the charges against him were politically motivated.     

He wasn’t present at Prague’s Municipal Court on Monday. His former associate, Jana Nagyova, who signed the subsidy request, was also acquitted.     

The ruling is a boost for Babis just days before the first round of the Czech presidential election.     

Babis is considered a front-runner in Friday’s election, along with retired army general Petr Pavel, former chairman of NATO’s military committee, and former university rector Danuse Nerudova. 
…

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida begins a weeklong trip Monday to strengthen military ties with Europe and Britain and bring into focus the Japan-U.S. alliance at a summit in Washington, as Japan breaks from its postwar restraint to take on more offensive roles with an eye toward China.

Kishida’s talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will highlight his five-nation tour that also takes him to France, Italy, Britain and Canada — some of the Group of Seven nations Japan has stepped up defense ties with in recent years. His first stop is Paris on Monday evening.

Kishida said his summit with Biden will underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and how the two countries can work more closely under Japan’s new security and defense strategies.

Japan in December adopted key security and defense reforms, including a counterstrike capability that makes a break from the country’s exclusively self-defense-only postwar principle. Japan says the current deployment of missile interceptors is insufficient to defend it from rapid weapons advancement in China and North Korea.

Kishida said he will explain to Biden the new strategy, under which Japan is also reinforcing defenses on its southwestern islands close to Taiwan, including Yonaguni and Ishigaki, where new bases are being constructed.

“Will will discuss further strengthening of the Japan-U.S. alliance, and how we work together to achieve a fee and open Indo-Pacific,” Kishida told a NHK national television talk show Sunday, referring to a vision of national and economic security cooperation the two countries promote to counter China’s growing military and economic influence.

Under the new strategies, Japan plans to start deploying in 2026 long-range cruise missiles that can reach potential targets in China, nearly double its defense budget within five years to a NATO standard of about 2% of GDP from the current 1%, and improve cyberspace and intelligence capabilities.

The idea is to do as much as possible in a short time as some experts see growing risks that Chinese President Xi Jinping may take action against self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Japan’s new strategy has been well received by the Biden administration and some members of the Congress. Experts say it would also widen cooperation with their main regional partners Australia and possibly South Korea.

“This is an opportunity to rethink and update the structure and the mechanisms of the alliance to reflect a much more capable partner that’s coming,” said Christopher Johnstone, senior adviser and Japan chair for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said, however, that Japan’s focus on the strike capability and budget is a welcome but “a daunting agenda” that will require a lot of cooperation with the United States.

Paving the way for the summit, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will fly to Washington to meet their American counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken, respectively, on Wednesday, followed by separate defense ministers’ talks on Thursday.

The Biden administration, which also adopted its security strategy in October, expects Japan to assist in the supply and storage of fuel and munitions in case of a Taiwan emergency, experts say. Japan and the United States are also reportedly considering establishing a joint command.

During the talks at the White House, the two leaders are also expected to discuss China, North Korea’s nuclear and missile development as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine, Japanese officials said.

Cooperation in the area of supply chain and economic security will be also on the table. Last week, Japanese Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo discussed in Washington the importance to work together to promote and protect critical and emerging technologies, including semiconductors, and export controls to address competitiveness and security concerns.

During his trip, Kishida will seek to further strengthen bilateral military ties with four other countries, Japanese officials say.

Japan’s joint development and production of its F-X next-generation fighter jet with Britain and Italy for a planned deployment in 2035 will be a top agenda item during his visits in Rome and London on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Japan and Britain have also been discussing a Reciprocal Access Agreement that would remove obstacles to holding joint military exercises in either country. Besides the Japan-U.S. security treaty that allows U.S. troops to station in Japan, Tokyo has a similar agreement only with Australia, and Britain would be second.

During his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Kishida is expected to share concern over China’s growing activity in the South Pacific and confirm stepping up joint military exercise between the two sides.
…

Turkey, which has for months blocked NATO membership bids by Sweden and Finland, has made some demands that Sweden cannot accept, Sweden’s prime minister said on Sunday.

“Turkey has confirmed that we have done what we said we would do, but it also says that it wants things that we can’t, that we don’t want to, give it,” Ulf Kristersson said during a security conference also attended by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We are convinced that Turkey will make a decision, we just don’t know when,” he said, adding that it will depend on internal politics inside Turkey as well as “Sweden’s capacity to show its seriousness.”

Sweden and Finland broke with decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the U.S.-led defense alliance in response to Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

But Turkey has refused to approve their bid until the two countries take steps, including joining Turkey’s fight against banned Kurdish militants.

Most of Turkey’s demands have involved Sweden because of its more robust ties with the Kurdish diaspora.

Finland’s foreign minister said that the country would join NATO at the same time as its neighbor.

“Finland is not in such a rush to join NATO that we can’t wait until Sweden gets the green light,” Pekka Haavisto, told reporters at Sunday’s conference.

NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said he expects both countries will be able to join the military alliance as early as this year, while admitting the decision depends on the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments. 

Among the 30 NATO members, only Hungary and Turkey have yet to green-light the two Nordic applications.

But Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said parliament will soon approve both Finland and Sweden’s accession bids, leaving Turkey the main holdout.

“I expect (that accession will take place in 2023), but I will not guarantee the exact date, because it is of course a sovereign decision of the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments, (which) have not yet ratified the agreement,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with AFP.

Finland and Sweden “are clearly committed to long-term cooperation with Turkey,” and “the time has come to finalize the accession process and to ratify the accession protocol,” he added.

In late December, Turkey praised Sweden for responding to its security concerns but stressed more was needed to win Ankara’s full backing for Stockholm’s stalled NATO membership bid.
…

Ukrainian soldiers, family and mourners gathered in frigid weather in Kyiv Sunday to pay tribute to a soldier killed fighting against Russian forces in Bakhmut, the strategic city under siege on the eastern front.

An open casket, outdoor service was held in Kyiv’s Independence Square for Maj. Oleh Yurchenko who was killed in Bakhmut Jan. 2. Fellow soldiers carried the coffin while others knelt on the ground. A bugle played and later a male quartet sang solemn hymns as an Orthodox priest conducted the service attended by about 200 people.

Yurchenko, 45, nicknamed “Happy,” volunteered for the army after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began Feb. 24. He had been the head of security for TIU Canada, an energy company operating in Ukraine, according to a Facebook post.

Yurchenko was well-known as a Ukrainian patriot as he had been a participant in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2004-2005 and later in 2014 which ousted Viktor Yanukovych as president. Kyiv’s Independence Square was the center of both demonstrations, so it was fitting as the site for the religious ceremony for Yurchenko.

“He was the best Ukrainian, a kind father, a very responsible person,” said Yurii Zhukovskyi, a Ukrainian soldier. “It is a very heavy loss, because these are the best people in Ukraine, and they are dying. It is a great pity. And no matter how many enemies are killed, we are sorry for (the death of) one such person.”

Another fellow soldier, Ruslan Boyko, praised Yurchenko’s positive outlook.

“He was a very brave, very cheerful person who always tried to help everyone, to be ahead in any situation,” Boiko said. He said that Yurchenko was always ready “to take on more responsibility, more tasks and protect everyone as much as possible.”

Olesia Yurchenko, the fallen soldier’s 22-year-old daughter and eldest child, said the family is grieving his death but trying to live by his principles.

“It is about everyone cherishing their virtues: hard work, kindness, honesty, loyalty to their country, their family,” she said. “Because this is what my father taught me. Not to give up, not to retreat.”

She said that her father “always said that we still have to build the country … build Ukraine.”
…

Climate activists pledged Sunday to defend a tiny village in western Germany from being bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby coal mine that has become a battleground between the government and environmental campaigners.

Hundreds of people from across Germany gathered for protest training and a subsequent demonstration in the hamlet of Luetzerath, which lies west of Cologne next to the vast Garzweiler coal mine.

The open-cast mine, which provides a large share of the lignite — a soft, brownish coal — burned at nearby power plants, is scheduled to close by 2030 under a deal agreed last year between the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and utility company RWE.

The company says it needs the coal to ensure Germany’s energy security, which has come under strain following the cut in gas supplies from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.

But environmental groups have blasted the agreement, saying it will still result in hundreds of millions of tons of coal being extracted and burned. They argue that this would release vast amounts of greenhouse gas and make it impossible for Germany to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris climate accord.

“[We] will fight for every tree, for every house, for every meter in this village,” said Luka Scott, a spokesperson for the alliance of groups organizing protests. “Because whoever attacks Luetzerath, attacks our future.”

Prominent campaigners have rallied support to defend the village from destruction, citing the impact that climate change is already having on Germany and beyond.

German news agency dpa reported that some activists have erected barricades and other defensive measures to prevent Luetzerath from being razed. Last week, protesters briefly clashed with police at the site.

The village and surrounding areas belong to RWE and the last farmer residing there sold his property to the company in 2022 after losing a court case against his eviction. Since then, only a handful of activists have remained, some living in self-built tree houses or caravans.

Police have said no clearance will take place before Jan. 10.
…