RiyadMedia

Three more ships carrying thousands of tons of corn left Ukrainian ports Friday, part of a grain deal between Kyiv and Moscow, as the two countries accused each other of damaging a major Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom said Russian shelling had hit the Zaporizhzhia power station, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

“Three strikes were recorded on the site of the plant, near one of the power blocks where the nuclear reactor is located,” Energoatom said in a statement.

It said there were no signs that the damage had caused a radioactive leak.

 

Three strikes

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces were responsible for damaging the plant.

“Ukrainian armed units carried out three artillery strikes on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the city of Enerhodar,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Fortunately, the Ukrainian shells did not hit the oil and fuel facility and the oxygen plant nearby, thus avoiding a larger fire and a possible radiation accident,” it said.

Russian troops have occupied the plant in southern Ukraine since March.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia on Monday of using the plant as a shield for its forces.

An official with the Russian-backed administration in Enerhodar said earlier this week that Ukrainian forces had repeatedly attacked the plant, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Friday that Russia was committing acts of “nuclear terrorism.”

“Russia must take responsibility for the very fact of creating a threat to a nuclear plant,” he said.

Corn shipments

Three more ships carrying thousands of metric tons of corn left Ukrainian ports Friday in a sign that a deal to allow exports of Ukrainian grain, held up since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February, is starting to work.

The ships departed for Ireland, the United Kingdom and Turkey. Another ship, the Razoni, left Ukraine on Monday for Lebanon, carrying the first grain shipment through the Black Sea since the start of the war.

In New York on Friday, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said another ship was headed toward the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk to pick up a grain shipment.

The U.N. and Turkey recently brokered a deal, the Black Sea Grain Initiative, aimed at enabling Ukraine to export about 22 million metric tons of grain currently stuck in silos and port storage facilities. The deal is meant to ease a global food crisis marked by soaring prices and food shortages in some regions.

Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of the wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil that millions of people in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia rely on for survival.

In another hopeful sign, Taras Vysotsky, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agriculture, said the country could start exporting wheat from this year’s harvest through its seaports as early as next month. According to Reuters, Vysotsky said Ukraine hoped in several months to increase shipments of grain through the route from 1 million metric tons expected this month to between 3 million and 3.5 million metric tons per month.

The initiative will run for a 120 day-period that ends in late November.

A backlog of nearly 30 ships that have been stranded in Ukraine’s southern ports because of the war has entered its sixth month. The Joint Coordination Center, or JCC, a body set up under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, says the ships need to move out so other ships can enter the ports and collect food for transport to world markets.

The crews and cargo of the vessels that set sail Friday will undergo checks at the JCC inspection area in Turkey’s territorial waters before moving on toward their destinations.

The JCC says that based on its experience with the first ship that sailed Monday, it is now testing moving multiple ships in the safe corridor, both outbound and inbound.

 

Erdogan in Russia

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Russia on Friday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that included the grain deal, prospects for talks on ending hostilities in Ukraine, and the situation in Syria.

In a statement issued at the conclusion of the talks in Sochi, which lasted four hours, Putin and Erdogan emphasized “the necessity of a complete fulfillment” of the grain deal.

They also said that “sincere, frank and trusting ties between Russia and Turkey” are important to global stability.

In other developments Friday, the Biden administration prepared its next security assistance package for Ukraine. Reuters reported that the package was expected to be worth $1 billion, one of the largest U.S. military aid packages to Ukraine to date.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy blasted human rights group Amnesty International for a report that said Ukrainian forces had put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas.

The report “unfortunately tries to amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” Zelenskyy said. “There cannot be, even hypothetically, any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified. Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic.”

The head of Amnesty International’s Ukrainian office, Oksana Pokalchuk, also took issue with the report. In posts on Facebook on Thursday, she said the Ukrainian office “was not involved in the preparation or writing” of the report and tried to prevent the material from being published.

Pokalchuk on Friday announced her resignation from Amnesty International in a Facebook post.

Amnesty International said its researchers investigated Russian strikes in Ukraine between April and July in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. The organization said its “researchers found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions.”

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Seated at a table with his wife and a colleague in the small town of Leskovac, Dragan Marinovic was looking forward to a meal at his favorite restaurant.

Then a stranger approached and started to threaten Marinovic, who is executive editor of the Serbian news website Resetka.

The reason, Marinovic told VOA’s Serbian Service: a story Resetka had published about the death of a bodyguard who was assigned to a city official.

Threats are not uncommon for journalists in Serbia.

“Anyone can come to you on a street, or wherever, slap you a couple of times, and get away with it [even] while you are accompanied with friends or family,” said Marinovic.

The Council of Europe (COE) platform to promote the protection of journalism has cited Marinovic’s case and those of two other Serbian journalists threatened in recent months.

Dragojlo Blagojević, the editor of the magazine DrvoTehnika, received death threats in an anonymous call in July after reporting on the logging industry; and hooligans threatened Brankica Stankovic, of Insajder TV, during a basketball game in May.

Free expression and media rights groups have also separately pointed to a deteriorating climate for journalism in the country.

In Marinovic’s case from March, the journalist says the man verbally assaulted him and made death threats.

At first, Marinovic tried to reason with the stranger.

“We tried to talk to [the] person who approached. He started threatening and mentioning an influential local politician,” Marinovic said, declining to name the politician. “I telephoned the local politician to ask why a man was bothering us.”

At that point, Marinovic said, the assailant grabbed the journalist’s phone and left the restaurant.

“He came back after several minutes, continued with threats, so we left,” Marinovic said.

Marinovic was able to retrieve his phone, and he later wrote an editorial about the encounter.

That resulted in the police and a local prosecutor’s office investigating. But so far, he said, there have been no updates.

Threats are a regular challenge for local journalists in Serbia, Marinovic said. He has experienced three similar incidents.

In nearly all cases, he said, authorities are not able to identify the suspects “so the investigation goes blunt.”

A database by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia has recorded 60 cases of attacks, threats or intimidation since the start of the year.

And while Serbia improved its ranking in the 2022 Press Freedom Index and is noted for its award-winning investigative journalism, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders cited challenges including political pressure and impunity in attacks on media.

The Ministry of Culture and Information told VOA that it is dedicated to the integrity of journalism, and it cited platforms and services set up to assist those under attack.

As part of its “dedicated, transparent work on improving the environment,” the government established a working group focused on media safety and protection, which meets monthly, the ministry said. The president, vice president and other representatives attend those meetings.

Subtle warning

Jelena Zoric, an award-winning investigative reporter who contributes to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the weekly Vreme, has received threats against her family.

It started when Zoric reported on the alleged connections of state security officials to what’s known as the Jovanjica case, in which an organic farm apparently was used as a front for a marijuana operation.

A high-ranking official, who is facing accusations in an unrelated case, made claims in a TV interview about Zoric’s sources and falsely attributed statements from her brother about Zoric’s work.

“Mentioning my brother’s name in public, via television broadcast, I see as a threat,” said Zoric.

The journalist also received disturbing notes from people she believes are connected to the case.

But, she said, “I am not comfortable to describe my feelings while threatened and what affects me the most, because I do not want them to know how they can get to me.”

Zoric reported the threats to authorities and described the reaction from officials as encouraging.

But she does not believe that authorities always take all the necessary steps in dealing with cases of attacked or threatened journalists.

And sometimes, she said, the threats are less direct.

“The most dangerous threats are the ones that are most difficult to prove,” she said. “Getting messages on your doorstep falsely showing concern on your behalf or wishing you and your family good health.

“I am aware of an old traditional criminal saying: The mob usually blows a kiss before shooting.”

‘Hostile and dangerous environment’

Serbia is among the European countries where journalists are under frequent threat, the Vienna-based International Press Institute says.

“There is a constant increase of attacks, death threats and defamatory campaigns against journalists,” the IPI’s Jamie Wiseman told VOA earlier this year. “Failure to solve those cases boosts a hostile and dangerous environment for journalists.”

Wiseman, who worked on Defending Press Freedom in Times of Tension and Conflict — a report produced by COE partner organizations including the IPI — was part of a delegation to Serbia in 2021.

“We saw an instance of political will, but also ambivalence shown by different bodies on how thorough the threats and intimidations should be investigated,” Wiseman said.

Teresa Ribeiro, the representative on freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, believes the key to improving the situation is the full implementation of a Media Strategy and Action Plan that Serbian authorities adopted in 2020.

The document, developed in cooperation with the European Union, OSCE, the Norwegian Embassy and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation — a German political party foundation — aimed to safeguard Serbia`s press freedom and regulate the development of media markets until 2025.

Ribeiro visited Serbia in July and spoke with representatives of the government, media and civil sector.

“There are challenges and gaps that need to be overcome,” she told VOA.

Riberio praised some government initiatives, including the working group for the safety of journalists and a 24-hour telephone line offering access to free legal advice for media workers who are attacked.

But, she said, “There is a need for more action and political commitment to create a safer, more free, functional and pluralistic media environment.”

The Ministry of Culture and Information also cited the working group and the helpline. In addition, the ministry said, the public prosecutor’s office is under orders to “act immediately” on reports of criminal acts directed at journalists.

Marinovic, of Resetka, believes Serbia’s journalists must “put more courage in what we do,” telling VOA, “Journalism, freedom and democracy are under threat in this country.”

The country’s media should stand up against efforts to intimidate or interfere with their work, Marinovic said, adding that journalists “should defend the public interest and not report in favor of local politicians and powerful people.”

This story originated in VOA’s Serbian Service.
…

Samantha Power won fame as a human rights advocate and was picked by President Joe Biden to lead the agency that distributes billions of dollars in U.S. aid abroad, including providing more food assistance than anyone else in the world. But since Russia invaded Ukraine, that job includes a new task with a Cold War feel — countering Russia’s messaging abroad.

As administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Power is dealing now with a global food crisis, brought on by local conflicts, the pandemic’s economic upheaval, and drought and the other extremes typical of climate change. As the Biden administration spells out often, the problems have all been compounded by Russia invading Ukraine, deepening food shortages and raising prices everywhere.

That set up an hearts-and-minds competition reminiscent of the days of the Soviet Union last month, when Power visited desperate families and struggling farmers in Horn of Africa nations. She watched relief workers give emergency food to children, always among the first to die in food crises, and announced new food aid.

But unexpectedly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov trailed her to Africa days later, visiting other capitals with a different message meant to shore up his country’s partnerships in Africa.

It was U.S. and international sanctions on Russia over its six-month invasion of Ukraine that were to blame for cutting off vital grain supplies from the world market, Lavrov claimed. He dismissed “the so-called food crisis” on the continent being hit hardest.

In fact, a Russian blockade has kept Ukraine’s grain from reaching the world. The international sanctions on Russia exempt agricultural products and fertilizer.

“What we’re not going to do, any of us in the administration, is just allow the Russian Federation, which is still saying it’s not at war in Ukraine, to blame the latest spike in food and fertilizer prices on sanctions and on the United States,” Power, back in her office in Washington, told The Associated Press.

“People, especially when they’re facing a crisis of this enormity, they really do know the difference about … whether you’re providing emergency humanitarian assistance … or whether you’re at a podium trying to make it a new Cold War,” Power said.

“For Mr. Lavrov to have traveled to Africa just after I did, there’s almost nothing tangible in the wake of that visit that the countries he visited have obtained from him, other than the misinformation and lies,” Power said.

Even African officials whose governments refused to join in formal U.N. condemnation earlier this year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine tell of calling Russian leaders privately to urge Russia to let Ukraine’s grain out of the ports, she said.

A former journalist, Power won the Pulitzer in 2003 for “A Problem from Hell,” a book on genocide that has fueled debates in government and among academics on the wisdom and morality of intervening in atrocities abroad ever since. She served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President Barack Obama, before joining the Biden administration.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, creating new food and energy shortfalls at a time when record numbers of people around the world were already hungry, much of Power’s focus has been on the food crisis. After an earlier decade of success slicing away at the numbers of people going without food, the estimated number of people around the world going hungry rose to 828 million this year, 150 million just since the pandemic, Power said, with many in acute need.

Even in countries outside areas where aid organizations warn of famine, high food prices are adding to political unrest, as in the overthrow of Sri Lanka’s government this summer. “Most analysts would be very surprised if the Sri Lankan government were the last to fall,” Power noted.

“The cascading political effects and the instability that stems from economic pain and people’s need, the human need, to hold authorities accountable for what is a terrifying inability to look out for the needs of your loved ones — that is a motivator if there ever is one” to protest, Power said.

“This, I can’t say it more starkly, is the worst food crisis of our lifetimes,” Power said.

There have been some hopeful signs in recent weeks, she pointed out — Russia allowing Ukraine to send its first ship of grain in months out of a Russian-blockaded port, and an easing of food and fuel prices.

But in the East Africa states hardest hit — Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia — four rainy seasons in a row failed, withering grain in the field and killing hundreds of million of livestock that were the only support for the region’s herders. “They don’t have a Plan B,” she said.

A woman farmer in Kenya told her of recoiling at the high price of fertilizer, and realizing she could only plant half as much food for the next season, a warning of even deeper hunger coming.

But donor assistance for Africa’s current hunger crisis is running at less than half of that for the last major one, in 2016, Power said. With no sign of an end to the war in Ukraine or to the food crisis, wealthier countries tell Power they gave much of their relief money to Ukraine and are otherwise tapped out.

Tellingly, a GoFundMe-run account that Power announced in mid-July for ordinary people to help out in the global food crisis showed just $2,367 in donations on Friday.

Power and other U.S. officials increasingly urge China, in particular, to give more relief. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, asked for comment, said China had given $130 million to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

“That’s not a talking point,” Power said of the request to China. “That’s a sincere hope.”
…

Russia and the United States said on Friday they were ready to discuss a prisoner swap, a day after a Russian court sentenced basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for a drugs offense.

The case against Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, plunged her into a geopolitical maelstrom after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden had previously agreed on a diplomatic channel that should be used to discuss potential prisoner exchanges.

“We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden,” Lavrov said during a visit to Cambodia.

“If the Americans decide to once again resort to public diplomacy … that is their business, and I would even say that it is their problem.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was prepared to engage with Moscow through the established diplomatic channels. He said Griner’s conviction highlighted her wrongful detention by Russia and further compounded the injustice that had been done to her.

The Kremlin had previously warned the United States against turning to “megaphone diplomacy” in the case of Griner, saying it could only derail efforts to secure a potential swap.

Griner’s sentence — which Biden called “unacceptable” — could pave the way for a prisoner swap that would include the 31-year-old athlete and a prolific Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison term in the United States.

The United States has already made what Blinken called a “substantial offer” to secure the release of Americans detained in Russia, including Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan.

‘A serious proposal’

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said after Griner’s sentencing that the United States had made Russia a serious proposal.

“We urge them to accept it,” he said. “They should have accepted it weeks ago when we first made it.”

Kirby did not provide further detail on the U.S. proposal.

Washington has offered to exchange Russian arms trafficker Bout for Griner and Whelan, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters.

Russia had tried to add convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, imprisoned in Germany, to the proposed swap, a source familiar with the proceedings also told Reuters.

Russia and the United States staged a prisoner swap in April, trading former Marine Trevor Reed for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence in the United States.

Griner was arrested on Feb. 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.

The United States argued she was wrongly detained and being used as a political bargaining chip by Moscow. Russian officials dismissed the U.S. claims, saying Griner had broken Russian law and should be judged accordingly.

Griner, who had been prescribed medical cannabis in the United States to relieve pain from chronic injuries, said she had made an honest mistake by inadvertently packing her vape cartridges as she rushed to make her flight.

She pleaded guilty to the changes against her but insisted that she did not intend to break Russian law.

Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.
…

The Joint Coordination Center overseeing implementation of the U.N.- and Turkish-brokered deal to get commercial ships with Ukrainian grain to world markets said Thursday that three more ships are expected to sail Friday.

The first ship, the Razoni, departed on Monday from Odesa and is en route to Lebanon with a cargo of corn.

The Navistar will be the second vessel to sail from Odesa, carrying 33,000 metric tons of corn destined for Ireland.

The JCC, which is made up of representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, has also authorized the departure of two ships Friday from the port of Chornomorsk. The Polarnet will carry 12,000 metric tons of corn heading to Karasu, in northwestern Turkey, and the Rojen, which is carrying more than 13,000 metric tons of corn, is headed to Britain.

The total of 58,000 metric tons of grain is a small fraction of the more than 20 million metric tons in Ukrainian silos and on commercial ships waiting to leave the country. The U.N. says there are about 28 ships waiting to depart Ukrainian ports.

The JCC has also authorized the movement, pending inspection, of the Fulmar S, to enter the port of Chornomorsk. The ship is anchored at the center’s inspection area near Istanbul.

The vessels are scheduled to leave early Friday, but the JCC says departures could be affected “by readiness, weather conditions or other unexpected circumstances.” The vessels’ crew and cargo will undergo checks when they arrive at the inspection area in Turkey’s territorial waters.

The JCC says that, based on its experience with the first ship that sailed Monday, the Razoni, it is now testing moving multiple ships in the safe corridor, both outbound and inbound.

The Ukrainians mined their part of the Black Sea to protect their territory from Russian attacks. The U.N. said its experts determined early on in planning for the movement of grain not to attempt to demine the area, because it could take between three and five months, too long as food prices soar globally. Instead, safe lanes have been determined and the commercial vessels are to strictly adhere to them.

The JCC says the safe corridor has been revised “to allow for more efficient passage of ships while maintaining safety.”

There is a backlog of ships that have been stranded in Ukraine’s southern ports as a result of the more than five-month war. The JCC says the ships need to move out to free space for other ships to enter the ports so they can collect and transport food for export to world markets, as the July 22 Black Sea Grain Initiative envisages.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Amnesty International in his daily address for an Amnesty report released Thursday that said “Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February.”

Zelenskyy said the report “unfortunately tries to amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.” He said, “There cannot be, even hypothetically, any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified. Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic.”

Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement that Amnesty has “documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas.”  She said, “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”

The head of Amnesty’s Ukrainian office also took issue with the report and in posts on Facebook said the Ukrainian office “was not involved in the preparation or writing” of the report. Okswana Pokalchuk said “representatives of the Ukrainian office did everything they could to prevent this material from being published” and that the report “was created based on data collected by foreign researchers and researchers from the Crisis Response Department of our organization’s global office.”

Amnesty said its researchers investigated Russian strikes in Ukraine between April and July in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. Amnesty said its “researchers found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions.”

“Most residential areas where soldiers located themselves were kilometers away from front lines,” Amnesty said. “Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas.”

Amnesty said that in the cases it documented, it was “not aware that the Ukrainian military who located themselves in civilian structures in residential areas asked or assisted civilians to evacuate nearby buildings – a failure to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians.”

Zelensky said in his address, “Anyone who amnesties Russia and who artificially creates such an informational context that some attacks by terrorists are supposedly justified or supposedly understandable, cannot but realize that it helps the terrorists. And if you provide manipulative reports, then you share the responsibility for the death of people with them.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday the Western military alliance has the joint tasks of supporting Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion and preventing the conflict from spreading into a war between Russia and NATO.

Speaking to a summer camp in his native Norway, Stoltenberg said NATO has a moral responsibility to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who have been subjected to a war of aggression.

“We are seeing acts of war, attacks on civilians and destruction not seen since World War II,” Stoltenberg said, according to a NATO release of his prepared remarks. “We cannot be indifferent to this.”

Stotenberg said the world will be a more dangerous place if Russian President Vladimir Putin gets what he wants through the use of military force.

“If Russia wins this war, he will have confirmation that violence works. Then other neighboring countries may be next,” he said.

Ukraine’s military said Thursday that Russian forces were shelling multiple areas in Ukraine, including those around Kharkiv, Slovyansk and Chernihiv.

Meanwhile, Britain’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces were using missiles and artillery attacks against Russian “military strongholds, personnel clusters, logistical support bases and ammunition depots.” A ministry statement said such attacks were likely to have a high impact on Russia’s efforts to resupply and support its forces.
…

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban received a warm reception Thursday in Texas, where he was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a major event on the calendar of the right wing of the Republican Party.  

 

In remarks that ran for approximately 30 minutes, Orban demonstrated why he has become popular among American conservatives, rattling off a litany of claims and accomplishments that dovetailed with many American conservative voters’ priorities.  

 

Orban touted his country’s low crime rate, its success at preventing immigrants from crossing its borders, its crackdown on the political left, its restrictions on the rights of gay and transgender individuals, and its low taxes. 

 

He cast liberals and progressives as history’s great villains and urged audience members to fight to place “Christian values” at the center of their politics.  

 

“The horrors of Nazism and communism happened because some Western states in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values,” Orban said. “And today’s progressives are planning to do the same. They want to give up on Western values and create a new world — a post-Western world. Who is going to stop them if you don’t?” 

Seen as strongman

Orban, 59, began his career as a radical liberal, but over the years he steered the political party Fidesz, which he had helped found, in a more populist and conservative direction. He remains president of the party. 

 

When he became prime minister for the second time in 2010 (he had held the office from 1998 to 2002), Orban moved quickly to consolidate both political and cultural power in Hungary, facilitated by Fidesz’s two-thirds majority in parliament, which allowed it to draft a new constitution.  

 

The revised constitution, which went into effect in 2012, wrote Hungarian nationalism and Christianity into the country’s laws and helped cement Fidesz’s political dominance. A new electoral system was put in place that allowed the party to retain more than two-thirds of the body’s seats in the 2014 elections despite earning 44.5% of the votes cast. 

 

Transparency International has characterized Hungary’s elections as “free but not fair.” Citizens can cast votes, and the votes are accurately counted, but the structure of the system ensures that Fidesz consistently wins representation that far exceeds its share of the votes. 

 

Judicial, press freedom curtailed

In addition to dominating parliament, Orban has restructured the Hungarian judiciary, reducing its independence and installing judges sympathetic to his administration.  

 

At the same time, the government has passed laws limiting freedom of speech and cracking down on independent media. Allies of Orban, meanwhile, have created a pervasive conservative media ecosystem that dominates the airwaves and generally echoes the positions of the Orban government.  

“Since returning to power in 2010, Orban has unceasingly attacked media pluralism and independence. After public broadcasting was turned into a propaganda organ, many private media were taken over or silenced,” according to the organization Reporters Without Borders. “The ruling party, Fidesz, has seized de facto control of 80% of the country’s media through political-economic maneuvers and the purchase of news organizations by friendly oligarchs.” 

 

The prime minister’s many critics argue he is an autocrat who has turned his country of 10 million people in the heart of Europe into a near-dictatorship. Orban has also been widely criticized for appointing friends and relatives to positions of authority and for turning a blind eye to corruption among senior leaders. 

 

U.S. President Joe Biden, when campaigning for the presidency, characterized Orban as a “totalitarian” and a “thug.” 

 

Multiple controversies

Under Orban’s leadership, Hungary has passed laws discriminating against LGBTQ people and has made preserving Hungary’s culture — as Orban defines it — a key element of his mission as prime minister. 

 

His defense of Hungarian culture has, according to his critics, frequently come close to explicit racism. 

 

In a 2018 speech, for example, he said, “We must state that we do not want to be diverse and do not want to be mixed: We do not want our own color, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others. … We do not want to be a diverse country.” 

 

Just last week, in a speech delivered in Romania, Orban criticized other European countries for allowing the “mixing” of people of different races. Referring to Hungary, Orban said, “We are not a mixed race, and we do not want to become a mixed race.” 

 

Those remarks prompted widespread denunciations from other world leaders, particularly within the European Union. One of Orban’s own senior advisers resigned, calling the speech “pure Nazi text.” 

 

Asked about Orban’s comments, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted, “All EU member states, including Hungary, signed up to common global values.”

“Discriminating on the basis of race is to trample on those values,” she said. “The European Union is built on equality, tolerance, justice and fair play.” 

 

American following

Over the past several years, Orban has amassed a considerable following among U.S. conservatives, chief among them former President Donald Trump. Comparing their governing styles, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has described Orban as “Trump before Trump.” 

The former president has personally praised Orban on a number of occasions, and on Wednesday he posted pictures of himself with the prime minister, who visited Trump in Florida, on the social media site Truth Social. 

 

“Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary,” Trump wrote. “We discussed many interesting topics — few people know as much about what is going on in the world today.” 

 

Major figures in American conservative media frequently praise Orban and his policies. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has produced a documentary on Hungary under Orban, met with the leader in Budapest, and even filmed his nightly television show there for a week last year. 

 

‘A lot to learn from Orban’

Rod Dreher, an editor at The American Conservative magazine, characterizes himself as an Orban “booster.” Writing from CPAC in advance of the Hungarian leader’s speech Thursday, he said, “American conservatives have a lot to learn from Orban.”  

He continued: “The United States is not Hungary, and some of what works there would not work here. Nevertheless, I appreciate Orban’s aggressive conservatism, especially his social conservatism, when compared with the all-hat-no-cattle version we tend to get from American conservatives. And, I appreciate how Orban instinctively knows that we are in a struggle for the future of Western civilization — and acts like it.” 

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who some point to as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, is also an admirer of Orban, according to his press secretary.  

 

Last year, DeSantis signed a bill into law that barred public school employees from discussing topics such as homosexuality and transgender identities. The restrictions were so broad that the legislation became known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. 

 

At the time, DeSantis’ press secretary suggested the effort was modeled on Orban’s laws in Hungary, saying, “We were watching the Hungarians and were inspired by their legislation.”
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. A just-concluded deal on freeing up Ukrainian grain, along with Russian backing for a new Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces will be on the agenda.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Friday meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi will be the second time the two leaders have met in a month.

The meeting comes just after the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain left the Black Sea under a Turkey-U.N.-brokered deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

Analyst Ilhan Uzgel of the Duvar news portal said Erdogan’s success in brokering the U.N. deal and the Sochi meeting sends a powerful message to Turkey’s western allies about the Turkish leader.

“It helps to ameliorate his troublemaker image internationally and regionally. He is still trying to show that he can make deals with Putin, showing to the United States and Biden administration that Putin is a close ally and friend of Erdogan. He can meet Putin twice a month,” he said.

Zaur Gasimov, a professor of history at Bonn University and a specialist on Turkish-Russian relations, said, with Ankara pursuing a balanced approach to the Ukrainian conflict, the grain deal will further deepen ties between Russia and Turkey.

“The current Turkish Russian relations have definite bonds with the current war in Ukraine. Ukraine wheat exports is a new chapter for the region, and Turkey plays a quite significant role as an intermediary. And also, close military cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey and the aspect of Turkey not joining the anti-Russian sanctions all that results in dynamics that are of importance to Moscow and for Ankara,” he said.

Turkey-Russia relations are intertwined from North Africa to the Middle East, to the Caucasus, in a mixture of rivalries and cooperation. The two also have a deepening partnership on energy.

Analyst Uzgel said Erdogan hopes the Sochi meeting will help resolve an impasse with Putin over Syria. The Turkish leader is looking to launch a major offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara accuses of being linked to an insurgency inside Turkey.

“They have already met in Tehran two weeks ago. It seems that Erdogan could not get what he wanted from Putin. The permission for a Turkish incursion in northern Syria, where he openly stated the names of two places, Tel Rifat and Manbij. Most likely that he is looking for the possibility of such a military move into Northern Syria,” he said.

Ankara needs Moscow’s cooperation for its military operation, given that Russia controls Syrian airspace.

Analyst Gasimov said Putin is wary of Turkey’s growing military presence in Syria but says the two leaders are experienced in managing differences.

“Definitely, we see certain inconveniences on both sides but also the very huge readiness to discuss it with each other,” he said.

That readiness to talk and the growing list of common interests across the region means the frequent meetings between the two leaders may become a regular thing.
…

Travelers heading from the United States to Europe this summer can also help transport relief supplies to Ukraine. Khrystyna Shevchenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
…

Liudmyla Chudyjovych used to have a career as a lawyer in Ukraine and big plans for the future. That was before the Russian invasion forced the 41-year-old to put her daughter’s safety first and leave both her job and home behind.

Since fleeing the town of Stryj in western Ukraine in May, Chudyjovych has found a new job in the Czech Republic. But instead of practicing law, she’s had to settle for work as a housekeeper at a hotel in the capital, Prague.

“It’s just a different stage of my career,” she said. “That’s simply how it is.”

One of the millions of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Feb. 24 Russian invasion, Chudyjovych considers herself lucky to have a job at all. Not fluent enough in either Czech or English, Chudyjovych said she didn’t mind the work as long as she and her daughter are safe.

Although the European Union introduced regulations early in the war to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to live and work in its 27 member nations while they decide whether to seek asylum or return home, many are only now starting to find jobs — and many are still struggling.

Some 6.5 million Ukrainians, have entered the EU since February, according to Frontex, the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency, streaming into neighboring countries before many moved on to more prosperous nations in the West. Around half have since returned to Ukraine.

Only a relatively small number of those who stayed had entered the EU labor market by mid-June, according to the European Commission.

A recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report looking at the potential impact Ukrainian refugees will have on the EU workforce projected it will be about twice as large as the 2014-17 inflow of refugees, which included many fleeing war in Syria.

The study estimated the Czech Republic, which has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, would add the most Ukrainians to its workforce by the end of the year, with an increase of 2.2%, followed by Poland and Estonia. About 1.2 million workers would be added to the European workforce overall, mainly in service occupations, the report said.

Still, the influx is unlikely to drive down wages or boost unemployment in European countries, many of which face labor shortages due in part to their aging populations.

“Considering the labor needs of the main host countries, a negative impact in terms of employment or wages for the resident population … seems very unlikely,” the report concluded.

The EU effort to help the Ukrainians has won praise from the U.N. Refugee Agency and other rights groups dealing with migration. But they also note a major difference in the treatment of people fleeing wars or poverty in the Middle East, Africa or Asia, who often have to wait years before overcoming the hurdles for acquiring residency papers or work permits.

Still, there are many challenges ahead for Ukrainian refugees looking for work.

In addition to language barriers, skilled workers from Ukraine often lack documentation to prove their professional credentials to get better-paid employment. Their diplomas may not be recognized in their host countries, meaning many have to take language and training courses before they can seek professional opportunities.

Because men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving Ukraine, many refugees are women with children, which can be an additional obstacle for trying to find work. Many women are still weighing their options and might decide to return home for the start of the school year in September, officials say, despite the war being far from over.

In Poland, which has taken in about 1 million Ukrainian refugees, more than any other EU nation, just over a third have found work, according to the Polish minister of labor and social policy, Marlena Malag. Some have gotten jobs as nurses or Ukrainian language teachers in Polish schools, while others are working as housekeepers or waitresses.

In Portugal, some of the country’s largest companies have special job recruitment programs for Ukrainians, while the Institute for Employment and Professional Training offers free Portuguese language classes.

In Germany, about half of some 900,000 Ukrainian refugees have registered with the country’s employment agency, though no figures are available on how many have actually found jobs. The Mediendienst Integration group, which tracks migration in Germany, says about half have university degrees, but doesn’t specify how many have been able to work in their professional fields.

Natalia Borysova was chief editor of a morning TV show in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv before fleeing with her daughters, 11 and 13, in March, and settling in the German city of Cologne. She applied for low-paying jobs such as housekeeping, but ultimately decided to turn them down to focus on learning German.

“I’m an optimist and I am sure that I will find a job after learning the language,” the 41-year-old said via WhatsApp. “Perhaps on a different level than in Ukraine, but in the same field. Now it just doesn’t make sense for me to work for the minimum wage.”

Borysova, like other Ukrainian refugees, receives an allowance from the German government that helps the family pay for food and housing, but said she wants to return to work as soon as she masters German.

Chudyjovych is among some 400,000 Ukrainians in the Czech Republic who have registered for special long-term visas that grant access to jobs, health care, education and other benefits. Nearly 80,000 have already found work, the government said.

At the Background café in Prague’s Old Town, 15 Ukrainian refugees work with the Czech staff as part of a project sponsored by the Mama Coffee chain. The refugees also receive free language classes and other programs.

Lisa Himich, 22, from Kyiv, likes it and says “it feels like home here.”

For Chudyjovych, working as a housekeeper is far better than living in fear and under the constant sound of air raid sirens.

“I thought I would miss Ukraine and be homesick but that hasn’t happened at all,” Chudyjovych said. “It’s peaceful here, and I feel like a human being.”
…

Closing arguments are expected Thursday in American basketball star Brittney Griner’s drug trial in a Russian court.

Griner is facing a potential sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.

She was arrested at a Moscow airport in February with what she has acknowledged were vape cannisters with cannabis oil in her luggage.

Griner’s lawyers argued she had no criminal intent and had been prescribed the cannabis to treat pain. U.S. officials said she was wrongfully detained.

Russian officials have said Griner violated Russian law.

In a call last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to accept a prisoner swap that would send Griner and accused spy Paul Whelan – who U.S. officials say is also wrongfully detained – to the United States.

People familiar with the matter say the U.S. proposal would include releasing arms trader Viktor Bout to Russia.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

A code red alert has been declared in Iceland after a volcano erupted Wednesday near the capital, Reykjavik, at a site that erupted last year, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.

The IMO said the eruption took place in an unpopulated area 30 kilometers from the capital city and that no lives were in danger. 

The eruption is near the site of the Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano, which had been active from March to September of 2021.

If Wednesday’s volcanic activity is confirmed to be similar to the fissures seen last year, the code red aviation alert could be lowered to orange, signaling less danger, an agency spokesperson said.

Lava is reportedly coming from a crack in the ground, according to natural hazard specialist Einar Hjorleifsson, who spoke to Bloomberg.  

Iceland is also known for earthquakes that sometimes cause volcanic eruptions because two of the earth’s largest tectonic plates lie under the country.

Iceland has 32 volcanic areas that are currently active, the highest number in Europe. 
…

From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Jewish community in Russia has not explicitly supported the military actions of the Kremlin, thus undermining President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russian forces are on a mission to denazify Ukraine. Russian Jews avoid talking about this issue, and many have chosen to leave the country. Marcus Harton narrates this report from VOA’s Moscow Bureau.
…

PARIS – Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights.

Click. Click. Click.

One by one, the outdoor lights that stores had left on are extinguished. It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia so factories aren’t forced to close and homes stay heated and powered.

Engineer Kevin Ha and his equally nimble friends had been acting against wasteful businesses in Paris long before Russia started cutting energy supplies to Europe in a battle of wills over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. As such, the campaigners were precursors of the energy economy drive becoming all the rage in France, Germany and elsewhere. Their message — that everyone can contribute — is almost word-for-word what public officials from cabinet ministers to mayors are saying now, too.

“Everyone can have a positive impact at their own level, by adopting good practices, by doing the right things to reduce their overall energy footprint,” the 30-year-old Ha said on a recent night of light-extinguishing on the Champs-Élysées boulevard.

The stakes are high. If Russia severs the supplies of gas it has already drastically reduced, authorities fear Europe risks becoming a colder, darker and less-productive place this winter. It’s imperative to economize gas now so it can be squirreled away for burning later in homes, factories and power plants, officials say.

“Europe needs to be ready,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “To make it through the winter, assuming that there is a full disruption of Russian gas, we need to save gas to fill our gas storages faster. And to do so, we have to reduce our gas consumption. I know that this is a big ask for the whole of the European Union, but it is necessary to protect us.”

And although Europe is scrambling to get energy from elsewhere, any difficulties this winter could be a harbinger of worse to come if Russian gas supplies are completely severed and stay off through 2023, said France’s minister overseeing energy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

“If gas deliveries are cut by the end of the year, that will mean we’ll have a full year without Russian gas, so the following winter could be even harder,” Pannier-Runacher told French senators.

Hence the mounting appeals — already familiar to exasperated parents of wasteful teenagers everywhere — for Europeans to take shorter showers, switch off power sockets and otherwise do what they can.

Germany had been getting about a third of its gas from Russia, making the EU’s biggest economy and most populous nation conspicuously vulnerable. Energy saving is in full swing, with lights going off, public pools becoming chilier and thermostats being adjusted.

The glass dome of the Reichstag, the parliament building in Berlin, is going dark after it closes to visitors at midnight, and two facades will no longer be lit. Legislators’ office temperatures will drop by 2 degrees to 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) this winter. Berlin City Hall, the Jewish Museum, two opera houses and the landmark Victory Column with panoramic views are among about 200 sites in the German capital that will no longer be lit at night.

Saunas are closing in Munich’s municipal swimming pools, which have chillier water now, too. There’ll only be cold showers at public pools in Hannover, part of a plan by the northern city to cut its energy use by 15%.

“The sum of all the contributions will help us get through this winter and be prepared for the next one,” said Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister. He also told news weekly Der Spiegel he has slashed the time he spends showering.

“It will be a demanding, stony road, but we can manage it,” he said.

With a campaign dubbed “Flip the Switch,” the Netherlands’ government is urging showers of no more than five minutes, using sun shades and fans instead of air conditioning, and air-drying laundry.

Under a law passed Monday in often-sweltering Spain, offices, stores and hospitality venues will no longer be allowed to set their thermostats below 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, nor raise them above 19 degrees Celsius in winter.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked office workers to ditch neckties, presumably to lessen the temptation to use air conditioning. He led by example, appearing at a news conference in an open-necked shirt.

The Italian government also is recommending limits on heating and cooling in public buildings.

In France, the government is targeting a 10% reduction in energy use by 2024, with an “energy sobriety” drive. Mayors are also waging their own war on waste, with fines introduced for air-conditioned or heated stores that leave front doors open; others are working to limit the pain of soaring energy prices.

The 8,000 residents of Aureilhan, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southwestern France, have been adjusting to nights without street lights since July 11. Extinguishing all 1,770 of them from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. will save money that Mayor Yannick Boubée would rather spend on roads and other maintenance. Otherwise, he said, the town’s 84,000-euro ($86,000) lighting bill in 2021 was on course to nearly triple next year.

“When it comes down to it, there’s no reason to keep the lights on at night,” he said by phone. “It is shaking up our way of thinking.”

Next will be convincing townspeople to agree to less-heated classrooms when schools reopen.

“We’re going to ask parents to put a pullover on their children, all measures that don’t cost anything,” he said. “We have no choice, unfortunately.”
…

Voting by Britain’s Conservative Party members to pick the next prime minister has been delayed after a British spy agency warned that cyber hackers could change people’s ballots, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

There was no specific threat from a hostile state, and the advice was more general and about the voting process and its vulnerabilities, report added.

As a result of the concerns, the Conservative Party has been forced to abandon plans to allow members to change their vote for the next leader later in the contest, according to The Telegraph.

Postal ballots are also yet to be issued to the around 160,000 party members who have now been warned they could arrive as late as Aug. 11, the report added. The ballots were earlier due to be sent out from Monday, The Telegraph reported.

Former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are competing in the leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson as the next British prime minister.

Truss leads in opinion polls among Conservative Party members, who will decide who becomes the next prime minister on Sept. 5 after weeks of voting.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) gathers communications from around the world to identify and disrupt threats to Britain. A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of the GCHQ, said that it provided advice to the Conservative Party.

“Defending UK democratic and electoral processes is a priority for the NCSC and we work closely with all Parliamentary political parties, local authorities and MPs to provide cyber security guidance and support,” an NCSC spokesperson told Reuters.

“As you would expect from the UK’s national cyber security authority we provided advice to the Conservative Party on security considerations for online leadership voting,” the spokesperson added.
…

Tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow are rising over a Russian attempt to close the Jewish Agency office in Moscow. The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency helps Jews immigrate to Israel, but Russia says it violates local laws by gathering information on Russian citizens. Israeli officials say they believe it has more to do with growing Israeli support for Ukraine. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.
Videographer: Ricki Rosen
…

The U.S. imposed new sanctions Tuesday targeting Russian elites, including oligarchs and a woman — one-time Olympic rhythmic gymnast champion Alina Kabaeva — often named in news reports as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lover and mother of four of his children. 

The Treasury Department froze the visa of Kabaeva, 39, and imposed other property restrictions on her. She is a former member of the Russian Duma, the country’s legislative body, and is also head of a Russian national media company that has promoted Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Kremlin opponents and Putin critic Alexey Navalny have called for sanctions against Kabaeva, contending that her news outlet had taken the lead in portraying Western commentary on the invasion as a disinformation campaign. 

Britain sanctioned Kabaeva in May, and the European Union imposed travel and asset restrictions on her in June. 

Among the others sanctioned was Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, an oligarch who owns the Witanhurst estate, a 25-bedroom mansion considered to be the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace. 

The U.S. also blocked movement of his $120 million yacht, the Alfa Nero, and sanctioned his son, Andrey Andreevich Guryev, and his son’s Russian investment firm, Dzhi AI Invest OOO. 

“As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. 

“Together with our allies, the United States will also continue to choke off revenue and equipment underpinning Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine.” 

The State Department also imposed additional visa restrictions and other sanctions.  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “As Ukrainians continue to valiantly defend their homeland in the face of President Putin’s brutal war, Russia’s elite are running massive revenue-generating companies and funding their own opulent lifestyles outside of Russia. Today, the United States is taking additional actions to ensure that the Kremlin and its enablers feel the compounding effects of our response to the Kremlin’s unconscionable war of aggression.” 

 
…

A man was charged with intent to “alarm her Majesty” after being arrested at Queen Elizabeth’s Windsor Castle home with a crossbow on Christmas Day last year, police and prosecutors said. 

Jaswant Singh Chail, 20, a resident of Southampton in southern England, was arrested on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the queen often resides. Chail was carrying a crossbow, prosecutors said.  

At the time of the incident, the queen was at the castle, along with her son and heir Prince Charles, his wife and other close family members. According to police, Chail did not break into any buildings. 

Following an investigation by counterterrorism police, Chail was charged with “discharging or aiming firearms, or throwing or using any offensive matter or weapon, with intent to injure or alarm her Majesty,” an offense under section 2 of the Treason Act of 1842. He has also been charged with threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon. 

Nick Price, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr. Chail are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.” 

Chail will appear before London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 17.  

Security breaches at the royal residences are rare. The most serious breach under Elizabeth’s reign happened in 1982 when an intruder climbed a wall of Buckingham Palace, the queen’s home, and made his way to her bedroom.  

In 2003, Aaron Barschak, a man who called himself the “comedy terrorist,” evaded security wearing a pink dress and an Osama bin Laden-styled beard to gatecrash the 21st birthday party of Charles’ elder son, Prince William.  

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

 
…

Thousands of Afghans took refuge in Turkey as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year. Many of these Afghans say they are now worried about being sent back. VOA’s Mahmut Bozarslan and Soner Kizilkaya bring us one man’s story in this report, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. VOA footage by Mahmut Bozarslan and Ogulcan Bakiler. Ezel Sahinkaya contributed.
…

The Supreme Court of Russia, acting on a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office, has designated Ukraine’s ultra-right Azov Regiment as a “terrorist” organization.

The court announced the decision on Tuesday against the group, one of the most prominent Ukrainian military formations fighting against Russia in eastern Ukraine.

The court ruled to “recognize the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Azov a terrorist organization and to ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the judge was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying.

The ruling takes immediate effect.

The Azov Regiment is a far-right volunteer group that is part of Ukraine’s National Guard. Formerly known as the Azov Battalion, it espouses an ultranationalist ideology that U.S. law enforcement authorities have linked with neo-Nazi extremism. But supporters see it as a patriotic and effective part of the country’s defense forces.

Russia falsely claims that Ukraine is controlled by Nazis and used that charge as one of the justifications for its unprovoked invasion of the country.

Some relatives of Azov Regiment soldiers have worried that the court’s designation could mean that those who surrendered to Russia, or were captured by Russian forces, could now be tried as terrorists.

The Azov Regiment fought Russian troops for months in the southern city of Mariupol before around 2,500 of its fighters surrendered in mid-May.
…

The U.N. secretary-general warned Monday at the start of a nuclear non-proliferation conference that the risks of more nuclear weapons is growing as guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening.

“Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” Antonio Guterres told the opening of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference.

He warned that there are crises with nuclear undertones from the Middle East to the Korean Peninsula, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said there are nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled around the world.

“States are seeking false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons that have no place on our planet,” he said. Noting that people are in danger of forgetting the lessons of World War II.

Guterres said he would travel to Japan to attend commemorations on August 6 at Hiroshima, where the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb 77 years ago in an effort to end that war.

Since it entered into force in 1970, the NPT has been a cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Under it, parties are called on to prevent the spread of nuclear arms, promote disarmament as well as international cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear power.

Guterres also urged nations to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear technology to advance development, such clean energy and medical breakthroughs.

“When used for peaceful purposes, this technology can be a great benefit to humanity,” he said.

Russian nuclear saber rattling

Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine was condemned at the meeting by leaders, as well as several regional groups, including those from the Pacific region and Nordic countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that in January the five nuclear powers – Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.—all affirmed that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

“The very next month, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” Blinken said. “And it has engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear saber rattling, with its president [Putin] warning that those supporting Ukraine’s self-defense “risk consequences such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

Blinken pointed to Russia’s seizure of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, saying they are now using it as a military base because they know the Ukrainians cannot fire back at their positions because they could hit a nuclear reactor.

“There is no place in our world—no place in our world—for nuclear deterrence based on coercion, intimidation or blackmail,” Blinken said. “We have to stand together in rejecting this.”

Japan’s prime minister echoed international concerns about Russia’s actions.

“The recent attacks on nuclear facilities by Russia must not be tolerated,” said Fumio Kishida.

“In attacking a country that gave up nuclear weapons, Russia is brutally violating the assurances it gave in the Budapest Memorandum,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, referring to the 1994 agreement in which Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons left on its territory after the USSR’s collapse in exchange for security guarantees.

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at the start of Russia’s invasion, he laid out seven pillars of nuclear safety that must not be violated during the conflict, including on the safety and security of facilities and the personnel that work at them.

“All these seven principles have been trampled upon or violated since this tragic episode started,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the meeting.

Russia is expected to speak later in the debate.

Trouble spots

Parties to the agreement—there are 191, including the five recognized nuclear weapon states (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States)—are attending the conference, which runs until August 26 and will review implementation and ways to strengthen it.

Ahead of the conference, President Joe Biden said in a statement that the United States is committed to the NPT, its obligations as a nuclear state, and working towards a nuclear-free world. He said his administration is ready to negotiate a new arms control framework with Moscow to replace New START when it expires in 2026.

“But negotiation requires a willing partner operating in good faith,” Biden said. “And Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression in Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and constitutes an attack on fundamental tenets of international order.” He said Moscow should demonstrate that it is ready to resume work on nuclear arms control with the U.S.

At the conference, Secretary Blinken said the United States keeps its nuclear arsenal—which has shrunk 90% since the end of the Cold War—as a deterrence and would use it only in “extreme circumstances” to defend its own vital interests or those of its allies and partners.

More than 133 governments and nuclear organizations will speak at the debate that started Monday and continues through Thursday.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Reza Najafi is also due to speak this week. World powers have been trying to get Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Britain and France, which are a part of the agreement, along with the United States, which withdrew under former U.S. President Donald Trump but is seeking a mutual return with Iran, said in a statement that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon.

“We regret that, despite intense diplomatic efforts, Iran has yet to seize the opportunity to restore full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” they said urging Iran to return to the deal.

There was also concern about advances in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Secretary Blinken said Pyongyang is planning its seventh illicit nuclear test.

IAEA chief Rossi said he hopes his agency’s inspectors can return to North Korea after being expelled in 2009. “Without that, there will be no trust and there will be no confidence,” Rossie said.

Absentees at the review conference include Israel, India and Pakistan. All are believed to have nuclear weapons but are not NPT signatories.

Some countries also expressed unease about China’s growing nuclear arsenal.

“China’s arsenal is growing,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on behalf of Nordic countries. “We call on China to actively engage in processes on arms control as a responsible nuclear weapons state.”
…

Social media users in Turkey could face up to three years in jail for postings that authorities consider to be disinformation under proposed legislation. The move has prompted protests, with critics accusing the government of seeking to silence the last platforms that Turkish citizens have for venting their grievances. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…

The Spanish government maybe had a good idea, but the execution of the body positivity campaign has gone horribly wrong. 

The idea was to encourage women to come out and enjoy the beaches – without any worries about how they looked in their swimsuits.

But three of the five women whose photographs were used in the campaign said they had not given permission for the images to be used. 

Arte Mapache the campaign’s creator, has apologized for failing to obtain permission to use the images.  

“Given the – justified – controversy over the image rights in the illustration, I have decided that the best way to make amends for the damages that may have resulted from my actions is to share out the money I received for the work and give equal parts to the people in the poster,” the artist said.

Two of the women in the campaign’s artwork are professional models.  One has a prosthetic leg that was airbrushed out of the campaign artwork. 

Sian Green-Lord told The Guardian, “It’s one thing using my image without my permission, but it’s another thing editing my body, my body with my prosthetic leg … I don’t even know what to say but it’s beyond wrong.”

Juliet FitzPatrick, a cancer survivor, told the BBC that the face of a woman who had a mastectomy may be based on a photograph of her.  However, while the woman in the Spanish government photo has had a single mastectomy, FitzPatrick had a double mastectomy. 

She told the BBC that using her likeness without her permission “seems to be totally against” the theme of the campaign.  “For me it is about how my body has been used and represented without my permission.”

British photographer Ami Barwell who had taken photos of Fitzpatrick told the BBC that she believes Fitzpatrick’s photo was a composite of photos that she had taken of Fitzpatrick and another woman.  

Barwell told the BBC, “I think that the person who created the art has gone through my gallery and pieced them together.” 

Another model, Nyome Nicholas-Williams, who wears a gold bikini in the photo, said her image was taken from her Instagram account without her permission. 
…

Grain shipments from Ukraine’s port of Odesa resumed Monday.

The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni was the first to leave port, carrying corn bound for Lebanon. In a statement, Turkey’s defense ministry said other unspecified ships also would depart Ukraine.

Turkey and the United Nations brokered an agreement with Russia and Ukraine in late July to get grain exports going again amid a global food crisis that the U.N. says has been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The deal calls for safe passage of cargo ships traveling from ports in southern Ukraine through waters in the Black Sea that Russia has controlled since starting the war in late February.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the resumption of exports from Odesa.

“The day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as the first Ukrainian grain leaves Odesa after months of Russian blockade,” Kuleba tweeted. “Ukraine has always been a reliable partner and will remain one should Russia respect its part of the deal.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday the departure of the first ship is “very positive.”

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said ensuring grain can reach global markets “is a humanitarian imperative.”

“The Secretary-General hopes that this will be the first of many commercial ships moving in accordance with the Initiative signed, and that this will bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts,” Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Dujarric added that the World Food Program plans to purchase 30,000 metric tons of wheat to load and ship out of Ukraine on a U.N.-chartered vessel.

British say Russians make ‘slow progress’

Also Monday, Britain’s defense ministry said Russian forces had made only slow progress during the previous four days as they tried tactical assaults in the area northeast of Donetsk.

The British ministry said Russia is also likely shifting “a significant number of its forces” from the northern part of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine to southern Ukraine.

For several months, Russia has focused its efforts on the Donbas, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, after facing resistance on its approach to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. A reallocation of resources to the east helped Russia claim control of Luhansk in early July.

Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters struck

In southern Ukraine, a small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone hit the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday, wounding six people, local authorities said, while Ukraine said a Russian missile attack killed one of its richest people, a grain merchant.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone attack in the port city of Sevastopol, which forced cancellation of ceremonies for Russia’s Navy Day holiday. But the seemingly improvised, small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents in the territory seized by Russia in 2014, The Associated Press reported.

The drone appeared to be homemade and the explosive device low powered, the Black Sea Fleet’s press service said. Sevastopol is about 170 kilometers from the Ukrainian mainland, but it is unclear where the drone began its flight.

‘Not an accident’

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the mayor of the major port city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said a Russian attack killed one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed a grain production and export business.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted.

It “was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder,” Podolyak said. “Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike.”

Vadatursky’s agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

The Kosovo government postponed implementation of a decision that would oblige Serbs in the north of the country to apply for car license plates issued by Pristina institutions after tensions rose between police and local communities that set roadblocks.

Late on Sunday the protesters parked trucks filled with gravel and other heavy machinery on the roads leading to the two border crossings, Jarinje and Bernjak, in a territory where Serbs form a majority. Kosovo police said they had to close the border crossings.

“The overall security situation in the Northern municipalities of Kosovo is tense,” NATO-led mission to Kosovo KFOR said in a statement.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed the heightened tension on what she called “groundless discriminatory rules” imposed by Kosovo authorities

Fourteen years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, some 50,000 Serbs living in the north use license plates and documents issued by Serbian authorities, refusing to recognize institutions under the capital, Pristina. Kosovo has been recognized as an independent state by more than 100 countries but not by Serbia or Russia.

The government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti said it would give Serbs a transitional period of 60 days to get Kosovo license plates, a year after giving up trying to impose them because of similar protests.

The government also decided that as of August 1, all citizens from Serbia visiting Kosovo would have to get an extra document at the border to grant them permission to enter.

A similar rule is applied by Belgrade authorities to Kosovars who visit Serbia.

But following tensions on Sunday evening and consultations with EU and U.S. ambassadors, the government said it would delay its plan for one month and start the implementation on September 1.

Earlier on Sunday, police said there were shots fired “in the direction of police units but fortunately no one was wounded.”

It also said angry protesters beat up several Albanians passing on the roads that had been blocked and that some cars had been attacked.

Air raid sirens were heard for more than three hours in the small town of North Mitrovica inhabited mainly by Serbs.

A year ago, after local Serbs blocked the same roads over license plates, Kosovo’s government deployed special police forces and Belgrade flew fighter jets close to the border.

Tensions between the two countries remain high, and Kosovo’s fragile peace is maintained by a NATO mission that has 3,770 troops on the ground. Italian peacekeepers were visible in and around Mitrovica on Sunday.

The two countries committed in 2013 to a dialog sponsored by the European Union to try to resolve outstanding issues but little progress has been made.
…