RIYADMEDIA

The European Union on Monday imposed an asset freeze on the investment arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, over Tehran’s brutal crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. 

The latest round of sanctions — the eighth imposed by the EU over the repression — came after Iran hanged three more men convicted in relation to the demonstrations.

The 27-nation bloc added the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which handles the Guards’ investments, to an EU asset freeze and visa ban blacklist for “funneling money into the regime’s brutal repression.”

The economic conglomerate, accused of serving as a slush fund for the paramilitary armed wing of Tehran’s Islamic revolution, was sanctioned by the United States in January. 

The EU also blacklisted the Student Basij Organization, which it said acts as enforcers for the Revolutionary Guards on university campuses.

Five regime figures, including three senior police commanders, a top cyber official and a regional prosecutor were also added to the list. 

The Iranian authorities brutally cracked down on protests that sprang up after the death in custody on September 16 of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.

The latest three men to be hanged were convicted on charges of killing security force members at a demonstration in the city of Isfahan in November.

Their executions on Friday brought to seven the number of Iranians executed in connection with the protests.

Brussels’ latest blacklistings bring to about 160 the number of individuals, companies and agencies targeted by EU asset freezes and travel bans over the crackdown.

Some EU capitals have pushed to list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group.

European officials say it is proving complicated to demonstrate the legal basis for such a blanket designation. 
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The European Union fined Meta a record $1.3 billion on Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. digital snooping fears.

The privacy fine of 1.2 billion euros from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s 746 million euro penalty in 2021 for data protection violations.

The Irish watchdog is Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters is based in Dublin.

Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.

“There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,” the company said.

“This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.

It’s another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook’s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. digital snooping.

The saga has highlighted the clash between Washington and Brussels over the differences between Europe’s strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law.

An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020 by the EU’s top court, which said it didn’t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government’s electronic prying.

That left another tool to govern data transfers — stock legal contracts. Irish regulators initially ruled that Meta didn’t need to be fined because it was acting in good faith in using them to move data across the Atlantic. But it was overruled by the EU’s top panel of data privacy authorities last month, a decision that the Irish watchdog confirmed Monday.

Meanwhile, Brussels and Washington signed an agreement last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy.

EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc’s lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren’t strong enough.

Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”

The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it’s forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore.

Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app’s potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers.
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Spanish soccer has a racism problem, football federation chief Luis Rubiales said on Monday, after Real Madrid lodged a complaint following alleged insults hurled at their Brazilian star Vinicius Jr. 

The top-flight LaLiga is under pressure to do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, FIFA and fellow stars such as Kylian Mbappe voiced support for Vinicius, even as LaLiga President Javier Tebas wrote on Twitter that it is doing enough and Vinicius should inform himself “before you criticize and slander LaLiga”.  

“The first thing is to recognize that we have a problem in our country,” Rubiales said at a press conference in Madrid on Monday. It is “a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country.” 

A match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia was stopped for 10 minutes after the 22-year-old forward, Real Madrid’s second top scorer this season (23) behind Karim Benzema (29), pointed out fans who were allegedly hurling racist comments at him.  

Videos posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed hundreds of Valencia fans singing “Vinicius is a monkey” as the Real Madrid bus arrived at the stadium before the match.  

“I am sorry for those Spaniards who disagree but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists,” Vinicius Jr wrote on Twitter after the game. 

Rubiales criticized Tebas’s comments, describing them as “irresponsible behavior.” 

“Probably Vinicius is more right than we think and we all need to do more about racism,” Rubiales said. 

Real Madrid said on Monday they have lodged a hate crime complaint following the incident in Valencia. It is the 10th episode of alleged racism against Vinicius that has been reported to prosecutors this season, according to LaLiga. 

Spanish police are also investigating a possible hate crime against Vinicius Jr after a mannequin wearing his number 20 shirt was hung from a bridge outside Real Madrid’s training ground in January ahead of the club’s derby match with Atletico Madrid. 

Prosecutors dropped a complaint filed for racist chants aimed at the player in September during another game against Atletico Madrid.  

The prosecutor archived the case because the chants of “monkey” were only said a couple of times and “only lasted a few seconds,” highlighting how Spain’s penal code makes it difficult to prosecute racist incidents at football games. 

Spanish prosecutors officially investigated just three cases of racist acts during the 2021-22 season, according to the Interior Ministry. Under current rules, people found guilty of racist behavior can be fined up to $4,403 and banned from stadiums for a year. 

There is growing momentum for Spain to do more to tackle the problem. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on FIFA and LaLiga to “take real action” while FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered his “full solidarity” and called for LaLiga to enforce a rule that penalizes clubs with points deductions if racist chants persist.
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose conservative party scored a landslide election Sunday but without the seats in parliament to win outright, indicated Sunday he will seek a second election in a bid to consolidate victory without need of a coalition partner. 

Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party was a full 20 percentage points ahead of its main rival, the left-wing Syriza party, nearly complete results showed. But a new electoral system of proportional representation meant his 40% vote share still was not enough to secure a majority of the 300 seats in parliament. To form a government, he would either have to seek a coalition partner from a smaller party or head to a second election. 

The prime minister said he would “follow all constitutional procedures” but maintained his view that the current electoral system that created the need for coalition was akin to “party horse-trading.” 

“Without a doubt, the political earthquake that occurred today calls on us all to speed up the process for a definitive government solution so our country can have an experienced hand at its helm as soon as possible.” 

Jubilant New Democracy supporters massed outside party headquarters in Athens, cheering and waving party flags. 

A second election, likely to be held in late June or early July, would be conducted under a new electoral law that gives bonus seats to the winning party, making it easier for it to form a government on its own. 

Sunday’s election was Greece’s first since its economy ceased being under strict supervision by international lenders who had provided bailout funds during the country’s nearly decadelong financial crisis. 

Syriza head Alexis Tsipras, 48, served as prime minister during some of the most tumultuous years of the crisis, and has struggled to regain the wide support he enjoyed when he was swept to power in 2015 on a promise of reversing bailout-imposed austerity measures. 

He called Mitsotakis on Sunday night to congratulate him on his victory. 

“The result is exceptionally negative for Syriza,” Tsipras said in initial statements after his party’s dramatic defeat became clear. “Fights have winners and losers.” 

Tsipras said his party would gather to examine the results and how they came about. “However, the electoral cycle is not yet over,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of time. We must immediately carry out all the changes that are needed so we can fight the next crucial and final electoral battle with the best terms possible.” 

As the massive gap between the first two parties became apparent, Syriza supporters expressed dismay. 

“I am very sorry about the terrible state of these people (who voted for New Democracy),” said Syriza supporter Georgi Koulouri, standing near a Syriza campaign kiosk in central Athens. “People who understand their position — the poverty and the misery that they have been put into — and still vote for them, they deserve what they get.” 

Mitsotakis, a 55-year-old Harvard-educated former banking executive, won elections in 2019 on a promise of business-oriented reforms and has vowed to continue tax cuts, boost investments and bolster middle class employment. 

A steady lead he had enjoyed in opinion polls in the runup to the election slid following a February 28 rail disaster that killed 57 people. Authorities said an intercity passenger train was accidentally put on the same rail line as an oncoming freight train, and it later was revealed that train stations were poorly staffed and safety infrastructure broken and outdated. 

The government also was battered by a surveillance scandal in which journalists and prominent Greek politicians discovered spyware on their phones. The revelations deepened mistrust among the country’s political parties. 

Syriza’s campaign focused heavily on both the wiretapping scandal and the train crash. 

Greece’s once-dominant Pasok party, overtaken by Syriza during Greece’s 2009-2018 financial crisis, also fared well in Sunday’s vote, garnering just over 11 percent. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, 44, was at the center of the wiretapping scandal in which his phone was targeted for surveillance. 

Androulakis’ poor relationship with Mitsotakis, whom he accuses of covering up the wiretapping scandal, mean a potential coalition deal with the conservatives would be difficult. His relationship with Tsipras is also poor after he accused him of trying to poach Pasok voters. 

Since coming to power in 2019, Mitsotakis has delivered unexpectedly high growth, a steep drop in unemployment and a country on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global bond market for the first time since it lost market access in 2010 at the outset of the financial crisis. 

Debts to the International Monetary Fund were paid off early. European governments and the IMF pumped $300 billion into the Greek economy in emergency loans between 2010 and 2018 to prevent the eurozone member from bankruptcy. In return, they demanded punishing cost-cutting measures and reforms that saw the country’s economy shrink by a quarter. 
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Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied in the capital Chisinau on Sunday to support their pro-Western government’s drive toward Europe amid what officials have said are Russian efforts to destabilize their country. 

Moldova has been badly hit by the impact of Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which Chisinau has repeatedly condemned, and applied to join the European Union. 

President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of seeking to sabotage its European integration by fueling anti-government protests and propaganda. Moscow denies meddling in Moldova’s affairs. 

“Moldova does not want to be blackmailed by the Kremlin,” Sandu said at the rally, which was organized by her government and packed a central square. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by Ricardo Marquina

Police said more than 75,000 demonstrators were present. 

“We don’t want to be on the outskirts of Europe anymore,” she said, pledging that Moldova would become an EU member by 2030. 

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, on a visit to Chisinau, also addressed the rally, saying Europe would welcome Moldova “with open arms and open hearts.” 

“This is about the both of us: You will bring a piece of Moldova to Europe, and you will make Europe stronger,” she said. 

Demonstrators called on Moldova’s political leaders to amend the constitution to specifically mention the country’s European orientation. 

“I believe in a European Moldova and want for my country a future with advanced economic and socio-political development,” said 18-year-old attendee Alexandrina Miron. “Right now, we are a little behind, but we will slowly catch up and stand on par with Europe.” 

The leader of the pro-Russian opposition Shor party, exiled businessman Ilan Shor, told his supporters at rival protests in several cities via video link that he would seek a referendum on Moldova’s foreign policy. 

Shor, sanctioned by the U.S. as an agent of Russian influence in Moldova, was handed a 15-year jail sentence in absentia last month for his role in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks. 
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The floods that sent rivers of mud tearing through towns in Italy’s northeast are another drenching dose of climate change’s all-or-nothing weather extremes, something that has been happening around the globe, scientists say.

The coastal region of Emilia-Romagna was struck twice, first by heavy rain two weeks ago on drought-parched ground that could not absorb it, causing rivers to overflow overnight, followed by this week’s deluge that killed 14 and caused damages estimated in the billions of euros.

In a changing climate, more rain is coming, but it’s falling on fewer days in less useful and more dangerous downpours.

The hard-hit Emilia-Romagna region was particularly vulnerable. Its location between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea trapped the weather system this week that dumped half the average annual amount of rain in 36 hours.

“These are events that developed with persistence and are classified as rare,” Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters.

Authorities on Friday said that 43 towns were impacted by flooding and landslides, and that more than 500 roads had been closed or destroyed.

Antonello Pasini, a climate scientist at Italy’s National Research Council, said a trend had been establishing itself: “An increase in rainfall overall per year, for example, but a decrease in the number of rainy days and an increase in the intensity of the rain in those few days when it rains,” he said.

Italy’s north has been parched by two years of drought, thanks to less-than-average snowfall during the winter months. Melting snow from the Alps, Dolomites and Apennines normally provides the steady runoff through spring and summer that fills Italy’s lakes, irrigates the agricultural heartland and keeps the Po and other key rivers and tributaries flowing.

Without that normal snowfall in the mountains, plains have gone dry and riverbeds, lakes and reservoirs have receded. They cannot recover even when it rains because the ground is essentially “impermeable” and the rain just washes over the topsoil and out to the sea, Pasini said.

“So the drought is not necessarily compensated for by these extreme rains,” he said, “Because in northern Italy, the drought depends more on snow being stored in the Alps than on rain. And in the last two years, we have had very little snow.”

Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said the new normal of extreme weather events in the Mediterranean requires Italians to adapt and Italy to rethink its flood protections nationwide. He cited a fierce storm-triggered landslide last fall on the southern island of Ischia, off Naples, that left 12 dead.

“We can’t just pretend that nothing is happening,” he said Thursday. “Everything must change: the programming in hydraulic infrastructures must change, the engineering approach must change.”

He said those changes were necessary to prevent the types of floods that have left entire towns swamped with mud after two dozen rivers burst their banks.

The key going forward is prevention, he said, acknowledging that’s not an easy sell due to costs.

“We are not a nation inclined to prevention. We like to rebuild more than to prevent,” he told Sky TG24.

Italy is far from alone in lurching from dry to deluge. California and the United States West sloshed their way from a record-setting megadrought to at least a dozen atmospheric rivers dousing the region with so much rain that a long-dormant lake reappeared.

Scientists say flash floods of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium two years ago, which killed more than 220 people and caused billions of euros in damage, will become more likely as the planet warms.

“The rainiest events seem to be in many places getting rainier,” Princeton University climate scientist Gabe Vecchi said Thursday.

In 2021, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific panel said it was “established fact” that humans’ greenhouse gas emissions had made for more frequent and intense weather extremes. The panel called heat waves the most obvious but said heavy precipitation events had also likely increased over most of the world.

The U.N. report said, “There is robust evidence” that record rainfall and one-in-five, one-in-10 and one-in-20-year-type rainfall “became more common since the 1950s.”
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Seven young activists protesting against climate change climbed into the Trevi Fountain in Rome on Sunday and poured diluted charcoal into the water to turn it black.

The protesters from the “Ultima Generazione” (“Last Generation”) group held up banners saying “We won’t pay for fossil [fuels],” and shouted “our country is dying.”

Uniformed police waded into the water to take away the activists, with many tourists filming the stunt and a few of the onlookers shouting insults at the protesters, video footage showed.

In a statement, Ultima Generazione called for an end to public subsidies for fossil fuels and linked the protests to deadly floods in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in recent days. The group said one in four houses in Italy are at risk from flooding.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri condemned the protest, the latest in a series of acts targeting works of art in Italy.

“Enough of these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage,” he wrote on Twitter.

The tradition is for visitors to toss coins into the famous 18th century Trevi Fountain to ensure that they will return to Rome one day.

 
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German police are investigating the possible poisoning of exiled Russians after a journalist and an activist reported health problems following a Berlin meeting of dissidents, a spokesman for the force said on Sunday.

The probe is being handled by the state security unit, a specialized team that examines cases related to terrorism or politically motivated crimes, a Berlin police spokesman told AFP.

“An investigation has been opened. The probe is ongoing,” he said, declining to provide further details.

Russian investigative media outlet Agentstvo this week published a report saying two participants who attended a April 29-30 meeting of Russian dissidents in Berlin experienced health problems.

The Berlin meeting was organized by exiled former oligarch turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

One participant, identified as a journalist who had recently left Russia, experienced unspecified symptoms during the event. They said the symptoms may have started earlier.

The report added that the journalist went to the Charite University Hospital in Berlin — where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was treated after being poisoned in August 2020.

The second participant mentioned was Natalia Arno, director of the NGO Free Russia Foundation in the United States, where she has lived for 10 years since having had to leave Russia.

Arno had attended the Berlin meeting of dissidents before travelling to Prague, where she experienced symptoms and discovered that her hotel room had been opened, Agentstvo reported.

Leaving the next day for the United States, she contacted a hospital there as well as the authorities.

Arno detailed her problems — “sharp pain” and “numbness” — on Facebook this week, saying the first “strange symptoms” appeared before she arrived in Prague. She said that she still had symptoms but felt better.

Contacted by AFP, Czech authorities said they did not have information on the case.

‘Inconclusive tests’

The Agentstvo report also said former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, suffered from poisoning symptoms a few months before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Atlantic Council think tank confirmed Herbst showed symptoms that could be those of poisoning in April 2021 but medical tests were inconclusive.

It added that it worked with US federal investigators who took a blood sample but the lab results had failed to detect toxic compounds.

Herbst has since recovered to full health, it said.

Several poison attacks have been carried out abroad and in Russia against Kremlin opponents in recent years.

Moscow denies its secret services were responsible.

But European laboratories confirmed Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-made nerve agent.

The nerve agent was also used in an attempted murder in 2018 of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

The Skripal case further exacerbated already dire relations between London and Moscow since the 2006 radiation poisoning death in the British capital of former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
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Ukrainian military forces have successfully established positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River, according to a new analysis, giving rise to speculation Sunday that the advances could be an early sign of Kyiv’s long-awaited spring counteroffensive.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, reported late Saturday that geolocated footage from pro-Kremlin military bloggers indicated that Ukrainian troops had established a foothold near the town of Oleshky, along with “stable supply lines” to their positions.

Analysts widely believe that if Ukraine goes ahead with a spring counteroffensive, a major goal would be to break through the land corridor between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, which would necessitate crossing the Dnipro River in the country’s south.

Responding to Ukrainian media reports proclaiming that the establishment of such positions indicated the counteroffensive had begun, Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, called for patience.

While neither confirming nor denying the ISW report, she said only that details of military operations in the Dnipro delta couldn’t be disclosed for operational and security reasons.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Humeniuk added that it was “very difficult work” when “it’s necessary to overcome an obstacle such as the Dnipro, when the front line passes through a wide and powerful river.”

The Kremlin-installed head of the Kherson region, one of four parts of Ukraine that Russia said it was illegally annexing in September, denied on Sunday that Ukrainian forces have established a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro.

In a Telegram update, Vladimir Saldo said that Russian forces are “in full control” of the area, and speculated that the images referenced by the ISW may have depicted Ukrainian sabotage units that “managed to take a selfie” across the Dnipro before being forced back.

After more than a year since the Russian invasion, recent fighting has become a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain momentum.

But Ukraine has recently received sophisticated weapons from its Western allies, and new troops freshly trained in the West, giving rise to growing anticipation of a counteroffensive.

American-made Patriot missiles arrived in Ukraine last week and military spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Sunday on Ukrainian television that some have already gone into battlefield service.

The United States agreed in October to send the surface-to-air systems, which can target aircraft, cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles such as those that Russia has used to bombard residential areas and the Ukrainian power grid.

The fiercest battles have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is struggling to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the face of dogged Ukrainian defense.

On Sunday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Moscow’s forces had captured two more neighborhoods in the western part of Bakhmut, without providing further details or clarifying what areas were still in Ukrainian hands.

In the south, the Dnipro has for months marked the contact line in the Kherson region, where its namesake capital is regularly pummeled by shelling from Russian forces stationed across the river.

In addition to having established a foothold near the town of Oleshky, across the Dnipro delta from Kherson, the ISW said that Ukrainian troops were also approaching the nearby village of Dachi, citing data from Russian military bloggers.

In Telegram posts on Thursday and Saturday, the ISW said the bloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces had maintained these positions for weeks and established stable supply lines to them, indicating a lack of Russian control over the area.

The Associated Press confirmed the posts from the bloggers, but it wasn’t immediately possible to independently verify the data they shared.

Russia is also expected to launch more intensive attacks in the spring, but ISW reported that top Russian defense figures are showing signs that they may be pushing for a consolidation of existing gains in Ukraine, rather than costly new operations, as Moscow struggles with both material and manpower.

The ISW cited comments from financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group — a private Russian military company whose fighters have spearheaded the offensive on Bakhmut.

On Saturday, Prigozhin’s press service posted comments he made on its official Telegram channel in which he argued that Russian forces need to “anchor (themselves) in such a way that it is only possible to tear them out with (the) opponent’s claws.”

The interview was published shortly after Western leaders meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany pledged to train more Ukrainian personnel and keep up their military support for Kyiv.

As Moscow seeks to bolster its troop numbers, the U.K. Ministry of Defense noted Sunday in an intelligence briefing that Russian authorities had mounted a large-scale military recruitment campaign using social media, billboards and state television.

It said Russian officials are “almost certainly seeking to delay any new, overt mandatory mobilization for as long as possible to minimize domestic dissent,” while assessing that this latest effort would likely fail to meet the defense ministry’s stated goal of recruiting 400,000 new volunteers.

In attacks overnight, local authorities in eastern Ukraine reported that Russian forces had launched at least five S-300 missiles at Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and the surrounding region.

The missiles damaged an industrial facility and private homes but caused no casualties, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the Kharkiv regional governor.

In Kherson, one civilian was killed and two were wounded as Russian troops used artillery, drones and warplanes to launch a total of 54 strikes on the province, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram on Sunday morning.

Russian forces on Saturday and overnight also dropped five guided aerial bombs over the Kherson region, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said in a Facebook post Sunday. According to the post, the bombs were launched from drones and aircraft and damaged multiple residential buildings but caused no casualties.

Also in the Kherson region, two women, ages 85 and 57, were hospitalized after being wounded in a Russian artillery attack that damaged a local school and about 25 residential buildings in the village of Kizomys, Prokudin said in a Telegram post.

In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian shelling wounded a 56-year-old man in Stepnohirsk, a town on the banks of the Dnipro river, local Gov. Yurii Malashko wrote on Telegram.
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Russia said Sunday that the United States has denied visas to journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s trip to New York, and Lavrov suggested that Moscow would take strong retaliatory measures.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department about the claim of refused visas. “The United States takes seriously its obligations as host country of the U.N. under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, including with respect to visa issuance,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

The journalists aimed to cover Lavrov’s appearance at the United Nations to mark Russia’s chairmanship of the Security Council.

“A country that calls itself the strongest, smartest, free and fair country has chickened out and done something stupid by showing what its sworn assurances about protecting freedom of speech and access to information are really worth,” Lavrov said before leaving Moscow on Sunday.

“Be sure that we will not forget and will not forgive,” he said.

“I emphasize that we will find ways to respond to this, so that the Americans will remember for a long time not to do this,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

The dispute comes in the wake of high tensions with Washington over the arrest last month of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia accuses of espionage. The United States has declared him to be “wrongfully detained.”

Many Western journalists stationed in Moscow left the country after Russia sent troops into Ukraine. Russia currently requires foreign journalists to renew their visas and accreditation every three months, compared to once a year before the fighting began.
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The UK conducted its first test of a new emergency alert service on Sunday, with millions of mobile phones emitting a loud alarm and vibrating.

The national system, modelled on similar schemes in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States, aims to warn the public if there is a danger to life nearby but has generated criticism over “nanny state” intrusion.

The alert was due to go off at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT), although some phones sounded the alarm before the scheduled time, and others minutes later.

Some users on social media complained that they had not received the warning at all.

The alarm was accompanied by a message reading: “This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there’s a life-threatening emergency nearby.”

Emergency services and the government hope to use the system to alert people to issues such as severe flooding and fires.

The 10-second alarm, which sounded even if phones were on silent, rang out at entertainment and sporting events, including Premier League football matches.

Organizers of the World Snooker Championship paused play just before the alert, while the Society of London Theatre advised its members to tell audiences to turn off their phones.

Drivers were warned not to pick up their phones during the test, and people who did not wish to receive the alerts were able to opt out in their device settings.

“Keep Calm and Carry On. That is the British way and it is exactly what the country will do when they receive this test alert at 3:00 pm today,” said Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden before the test.

“The government’s number-one job is to keep people safe and this is another tool in the toolkit for emergency situations.”

‘Terrifying’

But some Conservative figures have criticized the plan, with former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg urging people to defy the government’s calls and “switch off the unnecessary and intrusive alert.”

“It is back to the nanny state — warning us, telling us, mollycoddling us when instead they should just let people get on with their lives,” he said.

Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, ex-wife of government minister Michael Gove, called the plans “terrifying.”

“This Sunday, at 3 pm… the government intends to rattle our collective cages by invading our mobile phones — and our privacy — with its absurd emergency test signal. The notion is as terrifying as it is tiresome,” she wrote.

“Terrifying because it’s a reminder of the tyranny imposed on all of us by the technology that has invaded our homes like Japanese knotweed, infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives,” she added.

Dowden sought to play down privacy and intrusion fears, saying “all people need to do is swipe away the message or click “OK.”

“The test is secure, free to receive and one-way, and does not reveal anyone’s location or collect personal data,” he added.

Judy Edworthy, an international expert in alarm systems and psychology professor at the University of Plymouth, said the alert system was a positive development, even if its first airing may surprise people.

“Despite the message explaining it is a test, I expect some people may well be astonished,” she told the domestic Press Association.

MPs also criticized the decision to hand the lucrative IT contract for the alert system to Fujitsu, the Japanese firm responsible for faulty software in the Post Office system that led to innocent sub-postmasters receiving fraud convictions.
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A 50-member Indian business delegation starts a four-day visit to Russia Monday as both countries seek to deepen economic ties that have grown in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India and Russia are also in talks for a free trade deal, ministers from the two countries said earlier this week during a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov to New Delhi.

In recent months, Moscow has become India’s largest supplier of crude oil as sanctions-hit Russia seeks more trade with Asian countries.

New Delhi has not joined U.S-led Western sanctions on Moscow or condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine outright but has been calling for a negotiated resolution of the conflict.

It is also continuing to step up its economic engagement with Russia despite Western calls to gradually distance itself from Moscow.

The Indian business delegation headed to Russia is expected to meet buyers in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

“We see opportunities in Russia and that is why we put together this delegation. It is going to explore markets in food and agricultural products,” Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations told VOA.

He said that the aim is to double Indian exports to Russia to about $5 billion this year.

Trade analysts say India is trying to step up its exports to Russia to bridge a trade deficit that has become huge as New Delhi’s crude oil imports from Moscow rise exponentially.

While India’s imports from Russia have jumped fourfold to over $46 billion since 2021, its exports to Moscow add up to less than $3 billion.

But as Russia’s trade with the West dries up, it has been seeking products from India, including manufactured goods, electronics devices and automobile components.

“It is a windfall situation. We are getting discounted oil which is a huge advantage for India. Compared to virtually nothing prior to the Ukraine invasion, India’s crude oil imports have risen to over a million barrels of oil per day from Russia,” Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation told VOA. “And now that they are under sanctions, India sees an opportunity in promoting exports also, so that will be a double advantage.”

Russia, India’s Cold War ally, was its largest defense supplier for decades. Even though New Delhi has strengthened strategic partnerships with the United States and other Western countries in the last two decades, it maintains close ties with Moscow.

Addressing a business forum with Manturov on April 17 in New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar called the India-Russia relationship among the “steadiest” in global relations, and said that the partnership is drawing attention not because it has changed but because it has not.

Jaishankar said Russia’s resources and technology can make a powerful contribution to India’s growth as Moscow is looking more toward Asia.

“We are looking forward to intensifying trade negotiations on a free trade agreement with India,” Manturov, who is also Russia’s industry and trade minister said.

Indian exporters however say that issues such as logistics, market access and payment difficulties pose a challenge. “The opportunity is there to grow trade, but only time will tell how far we can exploit it,” Sahai said.

While Western countries want India to decrease its reliance on Russian imports to isolate Moscow over the Ukraine war, New Delhi has remained firm in maintaining its economic engagement with Russia.

“India’s message to the West is clear. We will pursue a relationship in our self-interest and we will go wherever our interests take us,” Joshi said.

“Yes, the West would like India to pressure Russia by not buying oil from them, but they have reconciled to the position that New Delhi has taken,” he said.
…

German government officials and labor unions have reached a pay deal for more than 2.5 million public-sector workers, ending a lengthy dispute and heading off the possibility of disruptive all-out strikes.

The ver.di union had pressed for hefty raises as Germany, like many other countries, grapples with high inflation. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said as the deal was announced around midnight Sunday that “we accommodated the unions as far as we could responsibly do in a difficult budget situation.”

The deal entails tax-free one-time payments totaling 3,000 euros ($3,300) per employee, with the first 1,240 euros coming in June and monthly payments of 220 euros following until February. In March, regular monthly pay for all will be increased by 200 euros, followed by a salary increase of 5.5% — with a minimum raise of 340 euros per month assured. The deal runs through to the end of 2024.

Ver.di originally sought a one-year deal with a raise of 10.5%. The deal was reached on the basis of a proposal by arbitrators who were called in after talks broke down last month.

Ver.di chair Frank Werneke said that “we went to our pain threshold with the decision to make this compromise.” He said that the raises in regular pay next year will amount to an increase of over 11% for most employees of federal and municipal governments.

The union has staged frequent walkouts over recent months to underline its demands, with local transport, hospitals and other public services hit.

Germany’s annual inflation rate has declined from the levels it reached late last year but is still high. It stood at 7.4% in March.

The past few months have seen plenty of other tense pay negotiations in Europe’s biggest economy, some of which have yet to be concluded. In a joint show of strength, ver.di and the EVG union — which represents many railway workers — staged a one-day strike last month that paralyzed much of the country’s transport network.

EVG, whose members walked off the job again on Friday, is seeking a 12% raise and has rejected the idea of negotiating a deal based on the arbitration proposal that helped resolve the public workers’ dispute. The next round of talks is set for Tuesday.

And ver.di is still in a dispute with Germany’s airport security companies association over pay and conditions for security staff. In the latest of a string of walkouts, it has called on security workers at Berlin Airport to walk out on Monday. The airport says there will no departures all day.
…

New developments:

At least five Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts Saturday night.
Russia struggles to justify the war in Ukraine to its citizens.
Russia claims to have captured three more districts in Bakhmut.
Russian billionaires’ wealth rises to more than half a trillion dollars, despite Western sanctions, Forbes reports.

Russia is looking to recruit “real men” to fight in its invasion of Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its intelligence update posted on Twitter.

The ads for the new campaign on billboards, TV, and social media sites also feature the financial rewards of signing up for the Russian military, but it is “highly unlikely” that Russia will meet its target of 400,000 volunteer recruits, the British ministry said.

Ukraine announced new sanctions against individuals or legal entities who support or invest in “Russian aggression.” In his nightly video address Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv has sanctioned 322 companies that manufacture weapons and military components for Russia’s military against Ukraine.

Additional sanctions have been imposed against “individuals and legal entities that help circumvent sanctions against Russia,” he said.

“The task is to remove any opportunity for Russia to circumvent sanctions,” he added, “the tougher the sanctions against the Russian war economy, the faster the end of the aggression will be.”

So far, Western sanctions against Russia have not dampened the wealth of Russian billionaires.

According to Forbes World’s Billionaires list, the wealth of Russia’s billionaires rose to about half a trillion dollars in 2023. The overall wealth of Russian billionaires jumped from $353 billion in 2022 to $505 billion in 2023, and 22 people were added to the number of super-rich Russians, raising the total to 110. That number does not include the ultra-wealthy Russians who have renounced their Russian citizenship. The data “fly in the face of significant Western sanctions and a troubled Russian economy that shrank 2.1% last year,” Forbes says.

Missiles strike

Reuters reports that at least five Russian missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and adjacent areas late Saturday night, damaging some civilian buildings, according to local officials.

Regional governor Oleh Sinegubov wrote on Telegram that one missile destroyed a house in the village of Kotliary, just south of Kharkiv, and another caused a large fire in the city.

Just about an hour’s drive away, across the border in Russia, at least 3,000 evacuees returned to their homes Saturday in the city of Belgorod. They had evacuated while military experts disposed of a bomb.

A Russian Sukhoi-34 supersonic warplane accidentally fired on Belgorod on Thursday, and the blast injured three people, Russian officials said.

Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram that “operational headquarters decided to evacuate 17 apartment buildings within a radius of 200 meters” before explosive experts began their work.

Russia expels German diplomats

Russia announced Saturday it was expelling more than 20 German diplomats. According to Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency, the Kremlin’s decision was made in response to Germany’s expulsion of more than 20 Russian diplomats.

A German Foreign Ministry official said the two countries had been looking to reduce their staffing, with Germany interested in reducing Russia’s intelligence presence, according to Reuters.

“Today’s departure of Russian embassy staff is related to this,” the official told Reuters. The German ministry declined to say how many Russian diplomats had left.

“The German authorities have decided on another mass expulsion of employees of Russian diplomatic missions in Germany,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We strongly condemn these actions by Berlin, which continues to demonstratively destroy the entire array of Russian-German relations,” it said.

Relations between the two countries have been frosty since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before the invasion, Germany was Russia’s biggest oil and gas importer.

Russia’s war justification faltering

In its daily intelligence update on Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russia is “struggling to maintain consistency in a core narrative it uses to justify the war in Ukraine.” The narrative is that the invasion of Ukraine is similar to the Soviet experience in World War II.

Earlier this month, Russia cited safety issues as the reason for canceling the annual observance of the Immortal Regiment “Great Patriotic War” remembrance marches. “In reality,” the ministry said,” the authorities were highly likely concerned that participants would highlight the scope of recent Russian losses.”

The Russian military downplays the number of Russian soldiers killed in battle. According to RFE/RL of the 400 soldiers killed by a Ukrainian strike in the eastern city of Makiyivka four months ago, only 89 were documented. The government’s lack of transparency has led many Russians to desperately seek answers about their missing relatives at the war front, the article says.

“Maybe in 10 years we will learn the truth,” said a woman whose brother was killed in Makiyivka.

Another part of the Russian saga justifying its invasion against Ukraine, is its alleged de-Nazification operation there. But even Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner Group and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has publicly questioned the existence of Nazis in Ukraine, contradicting Russia’s justification for the invasion, the British ministry said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russian assault troops had captured three more districts in the western part of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Reuters reports. Russia’s regular forces and fighters from the Wagner private military company are launching nonstop assaults on the ravaged city Ukrainian commanders on the front lines told CNN.

Kyiv said Friday that while Russian forces had made some advances in the eastern city, the situation was still in play.

“The situation is tense, but under control,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Telegram.

Malyar made the comments after Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a briefing Friday that assault troops were fighting in western parts of Bakhmut, the last part of the embattled Ukrainian city still held by Kyiv’s forces.

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

Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday he did not want to “please anyone” with his views about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after provoking criticism in the West for suggesting Kyiv shared the blame for the war.

Speaking in Lisbon at the start of his first visit to Europe since being elected president, Lula said his aim was to “build a way to bring both of them (Russia and Ukraine) to the table.”

“I want to find a third alternative (to solve the conflict), which is the construction of peace,” he told a news conference.

Last week he said the United States and European allies should stop supplying arms to Ukraine, arguing that they were prolonging the war.

“If you are not making peace, you are contributing to war,” Lula said.

The White House accused Lula of parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who accompanied Lula at the news conference, said their countries’ stances on the war were different.

Portugal is a founding member of the Western NATO defense alliance and has sent military equipment to Ukraine. Rebelo de Sousa said Ukraine had the right to defend itself and recover its territory.

Lula arrived in Portugal on Friday for a five-day visit as he strives to improve foreign ties after Jair Bolsonaro’s four years in office, during which Brazil’s relations with many countries including its former colonial power frayed.

Bolsonaro did not visit Portugal, home to about 300,000 Brazilians, during his time in office.

“I wanted to tell you how happy I am,” Lula, standing next to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, told a room packed with government officials and reporters. “Brazil spent almost six years, especially the last four, isolated from the world.

“Brazil is back, to improve our relationship,” he said.

Lula signed 13 agreements on technology, energy transition, tourism, culture and education with Costa.

Brazil has said Portugal could be an important ally in helping South America’s Mercosur bloc to negotiate a free trade deal with the European Union.

“Small adjustments are needed but we will do it,” Lula said.
…

France is trying to limit the diplomatic fallout after President Emmanuel Macron said Europe should reduce its dependence on the U.S. and avoid “getting caught up in crises that are not ours,” following a state visit to China earlier this month.

Critics said Macron’s remarks undermined the transatlantic relationship at a time of dangerous geopolitical tensions.

Macron was in Beijing April 5-8, alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, partly to seek China’s help in ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They were accompanied by dozens of European business leaders, who signed a series of commercial deals during the visit.

So far, China has refused to condemn Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. President Xi Jinping again refrained from criticizing Moscow during Macron’s visit. Nevertheless, Macron later wrote on Twitter: “Long live the friendship between China and France!’”

In an official statement, China described the visit as “successful and rewarding with fruitful outcomes.”

Beijing has since vowed not to send any weapons to Russia. “China will not provide weapons to relevant parties of the conflict and will manage and control the exports of dual-use items in accordance with laws and regulations,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said at an April 14 news conference, alongside his visiting German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock.

Taiwan focus

Just two days after Macron and von der Leyen’s visit to Beijing, the Chinese military conducted live fire exercises encircling Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

On the flight home to Paris, Macron gave interviews to journalists from Les Echos and Politico, in which he reportedly said the great risk Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”

“The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron was reported as telling Politico.

Macron was questioned about his remarks during a visit to The Hague on April 12.

“France is for the status quo in Taiwan. France supports the ‘One China’ policy and the search for a peaceful settlement of the situation. This is, moreover, the position of the Europeans, and it is a position which has always been compatible with the role of ally,” Macron told reporters.

“But it is precisely here that I insist on the importance of strategic autonomy. Being allies does not mean being a vassal. It is not the case that because we are allies, because we do the things together that we decide to do, that we no longer have the right to think alone.” he added.

Fierce pushback

There has been a strong backlash on both sides of the Atlantic.

Marcin Przydacz, a foreign policy adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, said Warsaw was not in favor of any shift away from Washington. “We believe that more America is needed in Europe. … Today, the United States is more of a guarantee of safety in Europe than France,” Przydacz told Polish broadcaster Radio Zet.

In Washington, Republicans on Capitol Hill also strongly criticized Macron’s remarks. In a video posted on Twitter, Senator Marco Rubio said if Europe refuses to “pick sides between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, then maybe we shouldn’t be picking sides either [on Ukraine].”

Timing questioned

Macron’s timing was unwise, said Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to the United States and the United Nations and now an analyst with the Atlantic Council.

“We are just right now fighting — all of us, together, behind the Americans — we are fighting the Russian aggression in Ukraine. And I do understand that for a lot of our partners, it was not the right moment, frankly, to raise the issue of our transatlantic alliance,” Araud told VOA in an interview Tuesday.

Others fear the fallout could be more damaging, as Macron’s comments undermine the transatlantic alliance just as the West tries to counter Russian aggression and stand up to an increasingly assertive China.

“The way Macron framed it made it sound as if it is a project of equidistance — of having sort of the same distance to the United States and to China,” said Liana Fix, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “And it also created the impression that it is the United States which is pushing confrontation, and not China. The feedback from China was very positive, because it confirmed Chinese thinking that it’s possible to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe.”

“From the perspective of central and eastern Europeans, these remarks basically confirmed their most fundamental fears: that Macron’s pledge for European strategic autonomy or more independence is just a pledge for more French power in Europe. It’s a pledge to decouple from the United States,” Fix told VOA on Monday.

Mending ties

In the wake of a growing diplomatic storm, a delegation from the French parliament visited Taiwan last week to reassure them of French support.

“This is very important for us to be here and just saying to all the people from Taiwan, we stand to you, we are close to you,” the head of the delegation, Eric Bothorel, told reporters in Taiwan.

Analyst Renaud Foucart of Britain’s Lancaster University argued that Macron was simply trying to avert wider confrontation.

“China is asking for a multilateral world. And Macron is coming and saying, ‘OK, if you don’t arm Russia, we can be France and claim that we are not a vassal to the U.S., we can claim that we are all different blocs, that we have our own sensitivities to the ‘One China’ policy of Taiwan, and all those things.

“But if you start yourself, China, to create a bloc with Russia — to start to arm Russia— then we cannot be the multilateral world. We need to be together with the U.S. And this is going to be our natural allies in that in that framework.’”

It is disingenuous to suggest that Macron supports China over Taiwan, Foucart asserted.

“At the same time that Macron was making these comments about China and Taiwan … there were military boats of France cruising the Taiwan Strait at the same time as the Chinese were having their [military] training,” he said. “So, the French have their own interest in the Indo-Pacific.”

US election

The United States is set to hold presidential elections in 2024. That could usher in a new administration less keen than Joe Biden to spend money arming Ukraine or defending Europe, said Araud, the former French ambassador to the U.S.

“For the moment, as long as the U.S. administration is strongly supporting the defense of Europe, there will be no question about strategic autonomy on European defense,” said Araud. “If [Donald] Trump is elected president, I think that the debate would be reopened by force. The Europeans who want to sleep under the American flag will be obliged to wake up.”
…

France is trying to limit the diplomatic fallout after President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe should reduce its dependence on the U.S. and avoid ‘getting caught up in crises that are not ours’ after a state visit to China earlier this month. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

VOA Azerbaijani Service journalists Idrak Jamalbeyli and Seymur Shikhaliyev received shrapnel wounds Saturday when a booby trap left by Russian soldiers exploded as they were reporting in the previously Russian-occupied trenches near the village of Myrne in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian volunteers were showing Jamalbeyli and Shikhaliyev extensive trenches dug by Russian troops in the area when the explosion was ignited by a trap set up by the departed Russian soldiers.

Jamalbeyli was wounded by some shrapnel in one of his legs, and one of Shikhaliyev’s arms was hit, also by shrapnel. Both are recovering, and they did not sustain serious injuries. One of the Ukrainian volunteers also received light wounds on his face.
…

The Sudanese army said Saturday it was coordinating efforts to evacuate diplomats from the United States, Britain, China and France out of the country on military airplanes, as fighting persisted in the capital, including at its main airport.

The military said that army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan had spoken to leaders of various countries requesting safe evacuations of their citizens and diplomats from Sudan. The country has been roiled by bloody fighting for the past week that has killed more than 400 people so far, according to the World Health Organization.

Foreign countries have struggled in vain to repatriate their citizens, a task deemed far too risky as clashes between the Sudanese army and a rival powerful paramilitary group have raged in and around Khartoum, including in residential areas.

The main international airport near the center of the capital has been the target of heavy shelling as the paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces, has tried to take control of the complex, complicating evacuation plans. With Sudan’s airspace closed, foreign countries have ordered their citizens to simply shelter in place until they can figure out evacuation plans.

Burhan said that some diplomats from Saudi Arabia had already been evacuated from Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport on the Red Sea, and airlifted back to the kingdom. He said that Jordan’s diplomats would soon be evacuated in the same way.

Even as questions persisted over how the mass evacuation of foreign citizens would unfold, the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that it had started arranging the evacuation of Saudi nationals out of the country. Officials did not elaborate on the plans.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it was moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan.

On Friday, the U.S. said it had no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of an estimated 16,000 American citizens trapped in Sudan, and continued to urge Americans in Sudan to shelter in place. 
…

New developments:

The Wagner Group founder is concerned about a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The United States will be training Ukrainian soldiers on Abrams tanks, while Germany will build a tank repair hub in Poland.
Ukraine grain exports are still banned by European countries.

In its daily intelligence update on Ukraine, then British Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russia is “struggling to maintain consistency in a core narrative it uses to justify the war in Ukraine.” The narrative is that the invasion of Ukraine is similar to the Soviet experience in World War II.

Earlier this month, Russia cited safety issues as the reason for canceling the annual observance of the Immortal Regiment “Great Patriotic War” remembrance marches. “In reality,” the ministry said,” the authorities were highly likely concerned that participants would highlight the scope of recent Russian losses.”

Another part of the Russian narrative is the rallying cry that there are Nazis in Ukraine.  But now, however, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is the chief of the Wagner Group and also a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has publicly questioned the existence of Nazis in Ukraine, contradicting Russia’s justification for the invasion, the British ministry said.  

In his nightly video address Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was readying for a counteroffensive.

“The front line is priority No. 1,” he said Friday. “We are also actively preparing new brigades and units that will show themselves at the front.”

Zelenskyy thanked the allies for their commitment to Ukraine’s defense.

A U.S.-hosted meeting Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany focused on air defense and ammunition in Ukraine. The United States said it would soon start training Ukrainian troops to operate Abrams tanks, while Germany announced that it was building a tank repair hub in Poland for tanks deployed in Ukraine.

During the meeting, allies also reassured Kyiv of their unconditional support and backed Ukraine’s bid to join NATO in the future.

Ukraine pressed its allies for long-range weapons, jets and ammunition ahead of the counteroffensive against Russian troops, which is expected in the coming weeks or months.

Prigozhin concerned

Following Zelenskyy’s remarks Friday, Yevgeni Prigozhin, chief of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, expressed concerns about an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive with highly trained Ukrainian forces.

“Today we are killing those who were trained in Ukraine, but the ones coming from Germany will be technologically educated,” he said in an audio recording released on his Telegram channel.

He was referring to those Ukrainian soldiers who will train in Germany to use U.S. Abrams tanks.

Prigozhin predicted that Ukraine would counterattack after the spring rains, when the ground is firm.

“They will attack … they will come and try to tear us apart, and we must resist,” he said.

Russia relies heavily on the Wagner forces in Bakhmut, where fighting is still raging.

Kyiv said Friday that while Russian forces had made some advances in the eastern city, the situation was still in play. “The situation is tense, but under control,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Malyar made the comments after Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a briefing Friday that assault troops were fighting in western parts of Bakhmut, the last part of the embattled Ukrainian city still held by Kyiv’s forces.

EU-Ukraine grain

Four European Union member states have banned Ukraine’s food exports to protect their own markets. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria say that an influx of Ukrainian food imports is harming their own farmers, who can’t compete with Ukraine’s low prices. The Polish government approved $2.4 billion in aid for its agricultural sector, criticizing the European Commission on Friday for not doing enough to help resolve the problem.

“What the EU is offered with a delay, it is too little, a drop in the ocean of needs,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.

The European Commission has offered $110 million of aid for central European farmers, in addition to an earlier $61.5 million package. It has also said it will take emergency preventive measures for other products — like wheat, corn and sunflower seeds — but the central European states want this list to be broadened to include honey and some meats, Reuters reported.

Ukraine’s economy is heavily dependent upon agriculture, and the European ban will put a significant dent in its sales, Bloomberg reported, citing UkrAgroConsult.

Romania has for now decided not to participate in the ban, while allowing transit of Ukraine exports through its Black Sea port of Constanta.

Several central European countries became the gateway to a glut of Ukraine’s food exports after Ukrainian grain was stranded in Black Sea ports blockaded by Russia. The Black Sea Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey has allowed safe transit of grain shipments through that corridor, though Russia is threatening not to renew after the deal expires on May 18.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the renewal of the deal depended on whether the West would lift restrictions affecting Russia’s agricultural exports. The Kremlin said Friday that it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on Russian exports and that new Western sanctions would damage the global economy.

“We are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We believe that both the current sanctions against the Russian Federation and the new additional steps that the U.S. and the EU may be thinking about now will, of course, also hit the global economy.”

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

The European Union is reportedly preparing emergency curbs on Ukrainian food products. Some Eastern European states have imposed their own import bans in recent days, complaining that a glut of cheap Ukrainian produce is hitting their own farmers. Ukraine’s struggles to export grain following Russia’s February 2022 invasion have raised fears of a global shortage, as Henry Ridgwell reports.
…

The European Union is reportedly preparing emergency curbs on Ukrainian food products after several member states bordering Ukraine imposed their own import bans in recent days, complaining that a glut of cheap produce is hitting their own farmers.

Following a virtual meeting with EU officials on Wednesday, Romanian Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea outlined the bloc’s plans.

“The [European] Commission is making available to the five countries [Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia] 100 million euros [$109.32 million] from its crisis reserve. … It provides for the activation of exceptional safeguarding mechanisms, which means stopping imports until June 5 for the following products: wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed,” Daea told reporters.

He added that the deal would be made available only when member states had withdrawn their own unilateral import bans.

The EU has yet to confirm details of the planned support package.

Ukraine grain

Ukraine, the world’s fifth-biggest grain exporter, has struggled to ship agricultural produce from its Black Sea ports to world markets following Russia’s invasion last year.

The European Union ended quotas and tariffs on Ukrainian goods after the outbreak of the war to shore up the Ukrainian economy. Eastern European states claim this has led to cheap grain imports being dumped on their domestic markets.

In the past week, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria have banned the import of Ukrainian grain and other products, in an apparent breach of EU trade law. Bulgarian Prime Minister Galab Donev said Wednesday that the measures were necessary.

“A significant amount of [Ukrainian] food has remained in the country and disrupted the main production and trade chains,” Donev told reporters. “If this trend persists and even increases, it is possible to reach extremely serious consequences for the Bulgarian business.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki outlined a $2.4 billion support package for farmers and said the European Union response had been inadequate.

“What the EU is offering us is offered with a delay; it is too little, a drop in the ocean of needs,” Morawiecki told a news conference Friday in Warsaw.

Protests

Farmers have staged protests in several countries bordering Ukraine, including Romania.

“Our fear is that this unfair competition coming from our colleagues in Ukraine cannot be borne by the Romanian farmers. We will witness a chain of bankruptcies of Romanian farmers,” warned Liliana Piron of the League of Romanian Agriculture Producers Associations at a protest in Bucharest earlier this month.

Brussels warned this week that the import bans violated EU law.

“Unilateral action is not possible under EU trade policy,” European Commission spokesperson Miriam Garcia Ferrer said Wednesday. Nevertheless, it appears the EU is preparing to approve emergency curbs on Ukrainian imports for certain countries.

Domestic politics

The dispute has taken many by surprise, said Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform, an analyst group.

“In the case of Poland, what’s so strange is that this is so much at odds with the assistance that Poland has given Ukraine in other ways,” Bond told VOA.

“So, this is entirely driven by domestic political considerations to do with protests by Polish farmers, and the risk that government obviously feels that the farmers might defect and vote for some other party in the next elections,” Bond said.

Ukraine reaction

For Ukrainian farmers, the import bans add to the troubles caused by Russia’s invasion. Volodymyr Bondaruk, executive director of the Pearl of Podillia, a mixed dairy and arable farm near Ternopil in western Ukraine, said, “I would like farmers and the agricultural lobby in the Eastern [European] countries to understand that we face similar problems. We don’t ask for subsidies; we don’t want anything like that. Just help us to sell our goods,” Bondaruk told Reuters.

“We have leftovers from the 2022 harvest. In the previous years, we exported a lot of corn, wheat and other grains to the Middle East countries, African countries. But today because of the war, ports do not accept large amounts of goods,” he added.

Black Sea

The glut of Ukrainian grain in Europe is the result of reduced exports through the Black Sea since Russia’s invasion. A deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to reopen the shipping route, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, came into force last August. However, Russia is threatening to end the deal when it’s up for renewal next month.

The ban on imports of Ukrainian grain by some countries in Europe could play into Moscow’s hands, analyst Bond said.

“It seems to me that this increases the chances that Russia will see this as a pressure point and will try to use it as a way of saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to renew the grain deal unless you agree to completely unacceptable conditions.’”

While its domestic import ban remains in place, Poland resumed the transit of Ukrainian products across its territory on Friday.

The European Union said it planned to organize alternative transport, including convoys of trucks, trains and barges, to take grain from Ukraine’s land borders to ports where it could be shipped to the world market.
…

New developments:

Kyiv acknowledges Russian advances in Bakhmut.
U.S. will be training Ukrainian soldiers on Abrams tanks, while Germany will build a tank repair hub in Poland.
Britain sanctions a Russian judge and four others linked to the arrest and alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years for alleged treason and other offenses.

Four European Union member states have banned Ukraine’s food exports to protect their own markets. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria say that an influx of Ukrainian food imports is harming their own farmers, who can’t compete with Ukraine’s low prices. The Polish government approved $2.4 billion in aid for its agricultural sector, criticizing the European Commission on Friday for not doing enough to help resolve the problem.

“What the EU is offered with a delay, it is too little, a drop in the ocean of needs,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.

The European Commission has offered $110 million of aid for central European farmers, in addition to an earlier $61.5 million package. It has also said it will take emergency preventive measures for other products — like wheat, corn and sunflower seeds — but the central European states want this list to be broadened to include honey and some meats, Reuters reported.

Ukraine’s economy is heavily dependent upon agriculture, and the European ban will put a significant dent in its sales, Bloomberg reported, citing UkrAgroConsult.

Romania has for now decided not to participate in the ban, while allowing transit of Ukraine exports through its Black Sea port of Constanta.

Several central European countries became the gateway to a glut of Ukraine’s food exports after Ukrainian grain was stranded in Black Sea ports blockaded by Russia. The Black Sea Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey has allowed safe transit of grain shipments through that corridor, though Russia is threatening not to renew after the deal expires on May 18.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the renewal of the deal depended on whether the West would lift restrictions affecting Russia’s agricultural exports. The Kremlin said Friday that it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on Russian exports and that new Western sanctions would damage the global economy.

“We are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We believe that both the current sanctions against the Russian Federation and the new additional steps that the U.S. and the EU may be thinking about now will, of course, also hit the global economy.”

Bakhmut fighting

Fighting in Bakhmut is raging and Kyiv said Friday that while Russian forces had made some advances in the eastern city, the situation was still in play. “The situation is tense, but under control,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Malyar made the comments after Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a briefing Friday that assault troops were fighting in western parts of Bakhmut, the last part of the embattled Ukrainian city still held by Kyiv’s forces.

US tank training

The U.S. hosted a meeting Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany focused on air defense and ammunition in Ukraine. The United States said it would soon start training Ukrainian troops on driving Abrams tanks, while Germany announced that it was building a tank repair hub in Poland for tanks deployed in Ukraine.

During the meeting, allies also reassured Kyiv of their unconditional support and supported Ukraine’s bid to join NATO in the future.

Ukraine pressed its allies for long-range weapons, jets and ammunition ahead of a counteroffensive against Russian troops that is expected in the coming weeks or months.

NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands announced Thursday that they were partnering to buy and refurbish 14 Leopard 2-A4 tanks to send to Ukraine.

The Dutch and Danish defense ministries said the tanks would be ready for delivery to Ukrainian forces early next year. Denmark and the Netherlands will share the $180 million cost.

Belgorod blast

Late Thursday, Russian authorities reported an explosion in Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine, saying it had left a crater 20 meters wide in the city center.

Neither the region’s governor nor the city’s mayor said what caused the explosion. A report from the Russian state news outlet Tass, however, cited Russia’s defense ministry as saying a Russian warplane was to blame.

“As a Sukhoi Su-34 air force plane was flying over the city of Belgorod, there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition,” Tass cited the Defense Ministry as saying.

The Belgorod region, including the city of the same name, has been frequently hit by shelling since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Ukrainian women from all walks of life have joined the armed forces to fight for their homes and country. Anna Kosstutschenko met with some near Bakhmut. Video: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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