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Pope Francis on Sunday publicly defended St. John Paul II, condemning as “offensive and baseless” insinuations that recently surfaced about the late pontiff.

In remarks to tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he was aiming to interpret the feelings of the faithful worldwide by expressing gratitude to the Polish pontiff’s memory.

Days earlier, the Vatican’s media apparatus had described as “slanderous” an audiotape from a purported Roman mobster who insinuated that John Paul would go out looking for underage girls to molest.

The tape was played on an Italian TV program by Pietro Orlandi, brother of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee who lived at the Vatican. The disappearance of the 15-year-old in 1983 is an enduring mystery that has spawned countless theories and so far fruitless investigations in the decades since.

Francis noted that in Sunday’s crowd in the square were pilgrims and other faithful in town to pray at a sanctuary for divine mercy, a quality John Paul stressed often in his papacy, which spanned from 1978 to 2005.

“Confident of interpreting the sentiment of all the faithful of the entire world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul II, in these days the object of offensive and baseless insinuations,” Francis said, his voice turning stern and his words drawing applause.

Last week, Pietro Orlandi met for hours with Vatican prosecutors who earlier this year reopened the investigation into his sister’s disappearance. Italy’s Parliament has also begun a commission of inquest into the case.

Emanuela vanished on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.

Among the theories about what happened to her have been ones linking the disappearance to the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt against John Paul in 1981 in St. Peter’s Square or to the international financial scandal over the Vatican bank. Still other theories envision a role played by Rome’s criminal underworld.

The recent four-part Netflix documentary “Vatican Girl” explored those possible scenarios and provided new testimony from a friend who said Emanuela had told her a week before she disappeared that a high-ranking Vatican cleric had made sexual advances toward her.

Her brother has long insisted the Vatican knows more than it has said. The Vatican prosecutor in charge of the probe says the pontiff has given him free rein to try to find the truth.

While at the Vatican last week, Pietro Orlandi provided Vatican prosecutors with an audiotape from a purported Roman mobster insinuating that John Paul would go out looking for underage girls to molest. The Vatican’s editorial director in a scathing editorial noted the insinuation lacked any “evidence, clues, testimonies or corroboration.”

Writing in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Tornielli said “no one deserves to be vilified in this way, without even a shred of a clue, on the basis of the ‘rumors’ of some unknown figure in the criminal underworld or some sleazy anonymous comment produced on live TV.”

John Paul’s longtime secretary, Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, also criticized the insinuations as “unreal, false and laughable if they weren’t tragic and even criminal.”

Pietro Orlandi’s lawyer, Laura Sgro, has insisted her client wasn’t accusing anyone.
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New developments:

Eleven people were killed and 21 were injured in Russian airstrikes in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Rescue crews are trying to reach victims trapped in the rubble of an apartment building.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has enacted a law making it easier to mobilize Russians into the military, even as one of his allies says it’s time to end military operations in Ukraine.
America’s top diplomat says Russia is not granting U.S. officials access to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Hanoi, that “we need consular access now.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that he had a long conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, and they discussed the Ukrainian peace formula that Zelenskyy described as being, “absolutely realistic and quite concrete.” The two leaders also discussed, according to Zelenskyy, their participation in the Vilnius NATO summit this summer.

The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update Sunday on the Russian invasion of Ukraine that it is “highly likely” that General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of Russia’s corps of airborne troops, the VDV, has returned to a major role in Ukraine, after being dismissed in January 2023.

The ministry described Teplinsky as “likely one of the few senior Russian generals widely respected by the rank-and-file” and that his “recent turbulent career suggests intense tensions between factions within the Russian General Staff about Russia’s military approach in Ukraine.”

His return means he will “highly likely” promote the VDV’s traditional role as an elite force, according to the intelligence update, and it is “unlikely” that his role will be limited to VDV units.

“In recent days,” the intelligence report said, “the VDV have resumed a key mission in the battle for Bakhmut, and likely undertaken novel integration with TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launchers in the Kremina sector.”

Bakhmut, the main target of Russia’s offensive in the east and the scene of months of grinding warfare, is experiencing some of its bloodiest fighting, Ukraine’s military said Saturday.

“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, said of the eastern Ukrainian city that was once home to 70,000 people.

“Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,” he told the 1+1 television channel.

His comments came as the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that the Wagner mercenary group now controlled two more areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

Wagner’s reported gains Saturday came one day after the group’s founder said Russia has should end its “special military operation” against its neighbor.

“Russia has achieved the results it wanted” and has “eradicated most of active male population of Ukraine and intimidated the rest,” Yevgeny Prigozhin posted Friday on Telegram, omitting any of Ukraine’s victories over Russia.

Death toll rising in Sloviansk

The death toll from a Russian airstrike Friday rose to at least 11 people, with 21 wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of, northwest of Bakhmut.

In his nightly video address Saturday, Zelenskyy said that the rescue operation continues in Sloviansk and Donbas after Friday’s Russian missile strike.

“It is reported that under the rubble of buildings, there are still bodies of the dead, unfortunately,” he said. Among them, he said, is a 2-year-old boy. Fifty residential buildings, of which more than 30 are apartment buildings, were damaged or destroyed, he said.

“None of those who are guilty of this aggression can be forgiven and forgotten,” he added.

Gershkovich prisoner swap

Russia has not allowed access of U.S. officials to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich since he was detained last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.

“We continue to call for his immediate release,” Blinken told reporters during a news conference in Hanoi. “We need consular access now,” The Washington Post reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia could consider a prisoner exchange for the jailed reporter once a Russian court reaches a verdict on espionage charges against him, a senior Russian official said.

Poland curbs imports

Poland’s government said Saturday it would temporarily stop grain and other food imports from Ukraine to stem the rising anger of Polish farmers, who say they cannot compete with the lower-priced Ukrainian grain on the market.

Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński said at a party convention in eastern Poland that while Poland supports Ukraine, it is forced to act to protect its farmers who are facing a “moment of crisis.”

“Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the importation of grain, but also dozens of other types of food, to Poland,” Kaczyński said. The government announced its import ban on agricultural products such as sugar, eggs, meat, dairy and vegetables would last until June 30.

Farmers in neighboring countries also have complained they are losing money because of Ukrainian grain flooding into their countries, causing prices to fall.

Orthodox Easter

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended Easter services Saturday in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

He crossed himself several times during the midnight service, known as the Divine Liturgy. When Patriarch Kirill announced, “Christ has risen,” Putin, along with other members of the congregation, replied, “Truly he is risen.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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In the wake of Friday’s deadly Russian missile strikes, Ukraine’s air force said the country would soon have weapons with which to try to prevent such attacks: a Patriot air defense system.

The delivery of the Patriot is expected in Ukraine sometime after Easter, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said. The primarily Orthodox Christian country observes Easter on Sunday.

Speaking Saturday on Ukrainian state TV, Ihnat declined to give a precise timeline for the arrival of the defensive missile system but said the public would know “as soon as the first Russian aircraft is shot down.”

A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers completed their training last month at Fort Sill, a U.S. Army post in Oklahoma, and returned to Europe to learn more about using the defensive missile system to track and shoot down enemy aircraft.

Officials said at the time that the Ukrainians would then go back to their country with a Patriot missile battery, which typically includes six mobile launchers, a mobile radar, a power generator and an engagement control center.

Germany and the Netherlands also have pledged to provide a Patriot system each to Ukraine. In addition, a SAMP/T anti-missile system pledged by France and Italy “should enter Ukraine in the near future,” Ihnat said this week.

The Ukrainian military is looking to beef up its ability to intercept missiles as it prepares for an expected spring counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied areas of the country.
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Ireland’s president has led tributes to Mark Sheehan, guitarist with Irish rock band The Script, after his death at 46.

The band said Sheehan died in a hospital Friday after a brief illness. In a statement, The Script called him a “much-loved husband, father, brother, band mate and friend.”

Formed in Dublin in 2001 by Sheehan, singer Danny O’Donoghue and drummer Glen Power, The Script topped U.K. and Irish charts with its self-titled debut album in 2008. It included the hits We Cry, Breakeven and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, which reached No. 1 in five countries.

The band’s pop-inflected rock sound made it one of Ireland’s biggest bands in the 2010s. The Script went on to have six Top 10 albums in the U.K. and one top three album in the U.S.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins praised the band’s “originality and excellence” and sent condolences to Sheehan’s family.

“Through their music, Mark and The Script have played an outstanding part in continuing and promoting this proud tradition of Irish musical success across the world,” Higgins said.

Sheehan is survived by his wife, Rina Sheehan, and their three children.
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Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni acknowledged “anomalies” in the handling of a Russian businessman who escaped from house arrest in Italy to avoid extradition to the United States and said Saturday she would speak with the justice minister to understand what happened.

During a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meloni termed the case of Artyom Uss “grave” and vowed to get to the bottom of it when she returned to Rome.

Uss, the 40-year-old son of a Russian regional governor, was detained in October 2022 at Milan Malpensa Airport on a U.S. warrant accusing him of violating sanctions. In November, a ruling from a Milan appeals court resulted in him being moved from jail to house arrest and outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

He escaped from Italy on March 22 — a day after a Milan court recognized as legitimate the U.S. extradition request — and surfaced in Russia earlier this month.

“For sure there are anomalies,” Meloni told reporters in Ethiopia. “The principal anomaly, I’m sorry to say, is the decision of the appeals court to offer him house arrest with a frankly debatable motivation, and to then maintain that decision even after there was an extradition request. Because obviously in that case, the flight risk becomes more obvious.”

Meloni welcomed the decision by Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio to undertake a disciplinary investigation, saying “we have to have clarity.” But she said Italy didn’t have detailed intelligence information from the U.S. Justice Department “about the nature of the person.”

Italian daily newspaper la Repubblica reported Saturday that U.S. authorities made clear that the Russian presented a “very high flight risk” in two notes to Nordio’s office — one from October 19, two days after Uss’ arrest, and the other sent after he was granted house arrest November 25.

The U.S. asked for Uss to remain jailed pending the outcome of extradition proceedings and cited six cases in the past three years in which suspects escaped from house arrest in Italy while extradition requests were pending, la Repubblica quoted the notes as saying.

The newspaper said Nordio assured the U.S. in a December 6 note that the electronic monitoring bracelet put on Uss and his required periodic check-ins with police were sufficient. The newspaper cited the Milan court’s reply to Nordio’s investigation as saying the justice minister had the authority at any time to impose tougher restrictive measures on someone in extradition proceedings.
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In a muddy trench under fire from Russian forces 200 meters away, Ukrainian servicemen injured while holding the line near the bloodiest battle of Moscow’s invasion face a precarious extraction.

“If someone gets unlucky, we have to carry them between 1 and 3 kilometers to the nearest place they can be collected,” a Ukrainian soldier, who calls himself Begemot, told AFP journalists several kilometers from the embattled city of Bakhmut.

“Even a light injury can be fatal in these conditions,” he added, the sound of artillery thundering behind him.

The difficulty of hauling out injured troops is one of the myriad factors dictating the timing of a highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian positions across the sprawling front line.

Ukraine is understood to be stockpiling precision ammunitions, mass recruiting assault battalions and mastering Western-supplied arms in preparation for a decisive pushback against Russian forces.

Observers of the Kremlin’s invasion say that after fending off a months-long lackluster Russian offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine could hit back within weeks.

But in the water-logged eastern industrial Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers tasked with holding the line against waves of Russian forces say: not yet.

“Any military hardware that passes here, their undercarriage will get stuck in the mud. They’ll be targets. We can’t talk about a counteroffensive yet,” Begemot said.

‘We have to grind them down’

AFP journalists moving toward a front-line position near Bakhmut saw Ukrainian troops dislodging by hand their transport stuck in the mud.

Watching over that same battlefield from footage streamed by drones over the trenches, 42-year-old battalion commander Evgeny sees assault as inevitable.

“It’s going to happen. Clearly. The situation on the front line dictates that. But a counteroffensive can only happen when the enemy’s forces are exhausted,” he told AFP.

He said that in the weeks his troops have been tasked with containing Russian forces from advancing around Bakhmut’s flanks, the attackers have lost steam.

“We have to grind them down so they can’t relocate their forces,” he said, describing in detail how Russian forces send waves of dispensable, then more experienced fighters toward his trenches.

Based on intercepted radio communications and footage his drones feed back to the bunker, he believes Russian forces — still pushing deeper inside Bakhmut — are preparing for Ukraine to attack, too.

“The enemy has started to lay mines along sections of their lines, which means they are tired. They’re preparing to defend,” he said.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said as much this week.

“Now only one thing remains: gain a firm foothold and dig into the territories that we already control,” the 61-year-old Kremlin ally said.

‘I’ll live in my basement’

For civilians in the crossfire, those who haven’t fled more than a year of intense fighting, the prospect of an escalation changes little.

Several kilometers west of Bakhmut, in the village of Kalynivka, 71-year-old Vera Petrova gestured to the artillery damage to her home to explain why she wasn’t making preparations to flee a counteroffensive.

“We’ve already been shelled. Half the kitchen roof was destroyed. Our neighbor’s roof was destroyed. This isn’t even serious,” she said referring to thuds, near and distant, of incoming and outgoing shelling.

Her street, lined with cherry trees and abandoned one-story homes, has about two dozen residents remaining, a fraction of those who once called it home.

“If my home is destroyed. I’ll live in my basement,” she added, without flinching at each boom.

In the trenches, Begemot said even if Ukraine managed to increase the rhythm of the artillery fire, it would be senseless to attack now.

“Even if there are a lot of us, and we had a bunch of artillery, how far could we go in one day? Five kilometers? Maybe 10?”

“They won’t have any strength left and you are not just walking, you need to fight,” he said.
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Beijing Saturday protested U.S. sanctions against additional Chinese companies over their alleged attempts to evade U.S. export controls on Russia, calling it an illegal move that endangers global supply chains.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday put five firms based in mainland China and Hong Kong on its “entity list,” barring them from trading with any U.S. firms without gaining a nearly unobtainable special license.

Washington has been tightening enforcement of sanctions against foreign firms it sees as aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine, forcing them to choose between trading with Moscow or with the U.S. A total of 28 entities from countries ranging from Malta to Turkey to Singapore were added to the list.

A statement from China’s Commerce Ministry said the U.S. action “has no basis in international law and is not authorized by the United Nations Security Council.”

“It is a typical unilateral sanction and a form of ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ which seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and affects the security and stability of the global supply chain. China firmly opposes this,” the statement said.

“The U.S. should immediately correct its wrongdoing and stop its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies. China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” it added.

The latest sanctions were leveled against Allparts Trading Co., Ltd.; Avtex Semiconductor Limited; ETC Electronics Ltd.; Maxtronic International Co., Ltd.; and STK Electronics Co., Ltd., registered in Hong Kong.

The list identifies entities — essentially businesses — that the U.S. suspects “have been involved, are involved, or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” the department said.

Entities named were designated as “military end users” for “attempting to evade export controls and acquiring or attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of Russia’s military and/or defense industrial base,” it said.

The Chinese protest was like one issued in February after the U.S. announced sanctions against the Chinese company Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd., also known as Spacety China.

The department said the company supplied Russia’s Wagner Group private army affiliates with satellite imagery of Ukraine that support Wagner’s military operations there. A Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Spacety China was also targeted.

At that time, China’s Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of “outright bullying and double standards” for sanctioning its companies while intensifying efforts to provide Ukraine with defensive weapons.

China has maintained it is neutral in the conflict, while backing Russia politically, rhetorically and economically at a time when Western nations have imposed punishing sanctions and sought to isolate Moscow for the invasion of its neighbor.

China has refused to criticize Russia’s actions, blasted Western economic sanctions on Moscow, maintained trade ties and affirmed a “no limits” relationship between the countries just weeks before last year’s invasion.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow last month and China announced Friday that Defense Minister General Li Shangfu would visit Russia this coming week for meetings with counterpart Sergei Shoigu and other military officials.

However, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Friday, China won’t sell weapons to either side in the war, responding to Western concerns that Beijing could provide outright military assistance to Russia.

“Regarding the export of military items, China adopts a prudent and responsible attitude,” Qin said at a news conference alongside visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock. “China will not provide weapons to relevant parties of the conflict, and manage and control the exports of dual-use items in accordance with laws and regulations.”
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Germany will switch off its last three nuclear reactors Saturday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Germany is bringing an early end to its nuclear age.

Europe’s largest economy has been looking to leave behind nuclear power since 2002, but the phase-out was accelerated by former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

The exit decision was popular in a country with a powerful anti-nuclear movement, stoked by lingering fears of Cold War conflict and atomic disasters such as Chernobyl in Ukraine.

“The risks of nuclear power are ultimately unmanageable,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, who this week made a pilgrimage to the ill-fated Japanese plant ahead of a G-7 meeting in the country.

But the challenge caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which put an end to cheap gas imports, and the need to quickly cut emissions has upped calls in Germany to delay the withdrawal from nuclear power.

The environmental activism organization Greenpeace, at the heart of the anti-nuclear movement, organized a celebratory fete at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to mark the occasion.

“Finally, nuclear energy belongs to history! Let’s make this April 15 a day to remember,” the organization said.

In contrast, conservative daily FAZ headlined its Saturday edition “Thanks, nuclear energy,” as it listed benefits it said nuclear had brought the country over the years.

A mistake

Initially planned for the end of 2022, Germany’s nuclear exit had already been pushed back once.

As Russian gas supplies dwindled last year, officials in Berlin were left scrambling to find a way to keep the lights on, with a short extension agreed until mid-April.

Germany, the largest emitter in the European Union, also powered up some of its mothballed coal-fueled plants to cover the potential gap left by gas.

The challenging energy situation had increased calls domestically for the exit from nuclear to be delayed.

Germany had to “expand the supply of energy and not restrict it any further” in light of potential shortages and high prices, the president of the German chambers of commerce Peter Adrian told the Rheinische Post daily.

The conservative leader of Bavaria Markus Soeder meanwhile told the Focus Online website that he wanted the plants to stay online and three more to be kept “in reserve.”

Outside observers have been similarly irked by Germany’s insistence on exiting nuclear while ramping up its coal usage, with climate activist Greta Thunberg in October slamming the move as “a mistake.”

Sooner or later

At the Isar 2 complex in Bavaria, technicians will progressively shut down the reactor from 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) Saturday, severing it from the grid for good.

By the end of the day, operators at the other two facilities, in northern Emsland and southwestern Neckarwestheim, will have taken their facilities offline as well.

The three final plants provided just 6% of Germany’s energy last year, compared with 30.8% from all nuclear plants in 1997.

“Sooner or later” the reactors will start being dismantled, Economy Minister Robert Habeck told the Funke group ahead of the scheduled decommissioning, brushing aside the idea of an extension.

The government has the energy situation “under control,” Habeck assured, having filled gas stores and built new infrastructure for the import of liquefied natural gas to bridge the gap left by Russian supplies.

Instead, the minister from the Green party, which was founded on opposition to nuclear power, is focused on getting Germany to produce 80% of its energy from renewables by 2030.

To this end, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for the installation of “four to five wind turbines a day” over the next few years — a tall order given that just 551 were installed last year.

But the current rate of progress on renewables could well be too slow for Germany to meet its climate protection goals.

Despite planning to exit nuclear, Germany has not “pushed ahead enough with the expansion of renewables in the last 10 years,” Simon Mueller from the Agora Energiewende think tank told AFP.

To build enough onshore wind capacity, according to Mueller, Germany now must “pull out all the stops.”
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Ukrainian soldiers evacuate parts of Bakhmut as fighting there intensifies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill to make it easier to mobilize Russians into the military.
China has promised not to sell weapons to either Ukraine or Russia, The Associated Press reports.
Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and may barricade a skeleton staff inside, says Kyiv’s state atomic agency, Energoatom.

The head of the Wagner Group wants Russia to get out of Ukraine. The time has come for a “firm end” to the war in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin posted on Telegram on Friday. He said Russian “government and society now need a firm end” to the war in Ukraine.

He said, “Russia has achieved the results it wanted” and has “eradicated most of active male population of Ukraine and intimidate the rest,” failing to mention any of Ukraine’s triumphs over Russia.

Prigozhin said Russia forces should now “hold on for dear life to the territories we already have.”

The Wagner Group has provided mercenaries for Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.  

Meanwhile, At least eight people were killed and 21 were wounded Friday in a Russian airstrike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, northwest of Bakhmut.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that seven missiles had been fired on the city. According to Ukrainian national police, S-300 missiles struck 10 apartment buildings and other sites. The top two floors of a five-story building collapsed after the strike. Rescue teams were looking for survivors.

A child was pulled alive from the rubble but died on the way to a hospital, Daria Zarivna, a senior official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said. Kyrylenko also said people were believed to be trapped under the debris.

“Not a single hour of this week before Orthodox Easter passed without murders and terror,” Zelenskyy tweeted Friday. “This is an evil state, and it will lose. To win is our duty to humanity as such. And we will win!” he said.

Later, in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that “for every Russian attack on our cities and villages, on our positions, for every killing of Ukrainians, the occupier must suffer the most tangible losses.”

Russian conscription law

The latest strikes come as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday allowing authorities to issue electronic conscription notices. The law has raised concern that Russia is planning another mobilization drive.

Previously, Russian law required an in-person delivery of conscription notices, which led some Russians to avoid the draft by staying away from their homes.

Under the new law, the conscription notices are considered valid as soon as they are sent electronically. The law also prohibits those who are conscripted from leaving the country and allows authorities to suspend the drivers’ licenses of conscripts who fail to report for duty.

In September, Putin announced the mobilization of about 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine. The Associated Press reports the order is estimated to have prompted an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russian men.

Bakhmut withdrawal

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, fighting continues to intensify. According to Reuters, analysts said Friday that Ukrainian forces there were trying to push back against a coordinated three-pronged attack by the Kremlin’s forces and against Russian attempts to intercept supplies to Ukrainian soldiers.

In its Friday intelligence update, the British Ministry of Defense wrote that Ukrainian troops had been forced to withdraw from parts of Bakhmut after a renewed Russian assault on the ravaged city. According to the update, “Russia has re-energized its assault on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian MoD [Ministry of Defense] and Wagner Group have improved co-operation.”

Ukrainian officials say Russia has been drawing down troops from other areas on the front for a major push on Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to capture for nine months to regain the momentum of the all-out invasion it launched more than a year ago.

“The enemy is using its most professional units there and resorting to a significant amount of artillery and aviation,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Every day, the enemy carries out in Bakhmut from 40 to 50 storming operations and 500 shelling episodes,” she said. The British intelligence update said Ukraine still held western districts of the town but had been subjected to intense Russian artillery fire the previous two days.

“Ukrainian forces face significant resupply issues but have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede,” it said.

China weapons

In other key developments, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Friday his country would not sell weapons to Russia or Ukraine. His pledge was a response to Western concerns that Beijing could assist Russia militarily.

China has asserted its neutrality in the conflict, while Western nations have imposed sanctions against Moscow.

Qin added that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces say they are discovering a growing number of Chinese components in Russian weaponry used in Ukraine. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, senior adviser to Zelenskyy, told Reuters via a video call that in “the weapons recovered from the battlefield, we continue to find different electronics.”

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which they captured in southeastern Ukraine after invading last year, Kyiv’s state atomic agency, Energoatom, said Friday.

The agency said this activity might indicate Russia was preparing to hold employees inside because of a dire shortage of qualified staff at Europe’s largest nuclear plant and in anticipation of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.

“Given the intense shortage of nuclear specialists needed to operate the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fearing a Ukrainian offensive, the [Russians] are preparing for the long-term holding of ZNPP employees as hostages,” Energoatom said.

“The invaders have already brought a lot of provisions and water to the station,” the agency added in a statement. “The occupiers will probably not allow the station staff to leave after one of the regular work shifts, forcibly blocking them at the ZNPP,” it said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Zelenskyy soldier beheading

In a tweet Friday, Zelenskyy thanked British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for condemning the “inhumane execution” of a Ukrainian soldier. “Together we must stop the aggressor & put an end to terror,” he said.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday opened an investigation into a video on social media purportedly showing one of Kyiv’s soldiers being beheaded.

News agencies could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video. Zelenskyy said that the video showed the “execution of a Ukrainian captive” and that “everyone must react. Do not expect that it will be forgotten that time will pass.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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“Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish,” President Joe Biden said, quoting his grandfather.

Such fierce ethnic pride from “the most Irish of all American presidents,” as the Taoiseach describes him, was guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, and Biden knew it.

Biden displayed an endless supply of that pride during a three-day visit that culminated in a Friday night speech in Ballina, County Mayo, where his paternal ancestors once lived. The speech was the last item on his schedule before he returned to Washington.

“Being here feels like coming home,” he told the crowd of 27,000, diving into his family background stretching back before the Irish famine of the mid-1800s.

The Irish “always believe in a better tomorrow,” he said. “Our strength is something that overcomes everyday hardships.”

Biden’s love of his Irish roots and, in turn, the affection shown in the rapturous applause of Irish lawmakers listening to his speech to parliament and in the cheering crowds lined up waiting for his motorcade in blustery weather, could also reach another audience — American voters.

“Ireland is one of the few countries where an American president can guarantee an uncritical welcome,” said Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

This visit, designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, is especially important. The 1998 peace deal helped end 30 years of bloody conflict over whether Northern Ireland should unify with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom.

By showing the U.S. is playing a constructive role in sustaining peace, Biden is sending an important message to Americans, in contrast to less successful foreign policy outcomes such as the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, O’Leary told VOA.

Biden’s Republican Party rivals had a different view. On Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, former President Donald Trump slammed Biden’s tour of his ancestral homeland.

“The world is exploding around us. You could end up in a third world war and this guy is going to be in Ireland!” he said Tuesday night.

Foreign policy credits aside, O’Leary said Biden clearly represents his Irish American experience as typical of the American middle-class experience.

“I think that facilitates his ‘Ordinary Joe’ campaigning,” he added.

‘My plan is to run again’

Speaking to reporters before departing Ireland on Friday, Biden said he would announce his reelection bid “relatively soon.”

“I told you, my plan is to run again,” he said.

His campaign will again center on his middle-class agenda, a message deeply interwoven with his Irish roots and working-class family background.

The latest U.S. government census indicates that about 10% of Americans, 31 million people, claim Irish ancestry. In presidential elections of the past few decades, Irish Americans traditionally backed Democratic candidates until 2016, when Trump won about half of their support.

But more than ancestries, elections are determined by programs and values. In his 50 years in politics, Biden, who says he was raised “with a fierce pride in our Irish ancestry,” often highlights the egalitarianism and communal solidarity captured in his family’s creed — that everyone is your equal.

“I don’t know that a lot of other politicians would say something like that,” said Timothy Meagher, a former associate professor at Catholic University of America who studies ethnic history focusing on Irish Americans.

“There’s a kind of sense, from him, of an identification with working class people, with regular people,” Meagher told VOA. “That follows, I think, from that kind of Irish heritage, that we’re all in this together.”

Other values include the dignity of work, which Biden has linked to legislative calls for job-creating policies that enable workers to earn a living wage, form unions and receive paid family and medical leave.

His outlook on immigration is also imbued by his Irishness. On at least two occasions during his trip, he told the story of how his maternal ancestor, shoemaker Owen Finnegan, emigrated to New York in 1849, about the same time as former President Barack Obama’s maternal ancestor Joseph Kearney, also a shoemaker from a nearby county.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he said to reporters Thursday. “The idea that they both would seek a new life and think that their great-great-grandsons would end up being president of the United States is remarkable.”

It’s the story of how poor immigrants can live the American dream, said Eoin Drea, a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. “I think that’s how President Biden views his family’s transition into where they are now,” he told VOA.

Possibilities

Biden’s origin story shapes how he understands the country’s psyche, often repeating what he said he told Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that the United States can be defined in one word: possibilities.

His optimism could resonate with another group of voters — naturalized citizens and descendants of immigrants. In the 2020 presidential race, more than 23 million immigrants, comprising about 10% of the electorate, were eligible to vote, according to a Pew Survey based on census data.

The cynical view is that political expediency motivates Biden to lean into his image of a scrappy son of a working-class family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. But for the endless “Bidenisms” and quotes of his parents that always begins with “Joey…,” Meagher said Biden comes across as genuine.

“There is a sort of politics to it, but it’s one that he seems to fit into naturally,” he said.

Through his rhetoric and legislative proposals, Biden has woven a consistent theme in his first term — build the economy from the bottom up and middle out by creating jobs, including for people who don’t have college degrees.

Whether that will carry him to a second term remains to be seen. Especially if he again faces Trump, the leading Republican contender, according to a recent poll.

In 2020, Trump’s nativist “Make America Great Again” message secured him 66% of the votes from white men without a four-year college degree, compared with Biden’s 31%.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday allowing authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the fighting in Ukraine, sparking fears of a new wave of mobilization.

Russia’s military service rules previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists called up for duty. Under the new law, the notices issued by local military conscription offices will continue to be sent by mail, but they would be considered valid from the moment they are put on a state portal for electronic services.

In the past, many Russians avoided the draft by staying away from their address of record. The new law closes that loophole in an apparent effort to create a tool for quickly beefing up the military ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks.

Recipients who fail to show up for service would be prohibited from leaving Russia, would have their drivers’ licenses suspended and would be barred from selling their apartments and other assets.

The bill Putin signed into law was published on the official register of government documents.

Kremlin critics and rights activists denounced the legislation as a step toward a “digital prison camp” that gives unprecedented powers to the military conscription offices.

Lyudmila Narusova, the widow of former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, was the only house member who spoke against the measure when the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, considered the bill Wednesday.

Narusova, whose late husband was Putin’s mentor, charged that the bill contradicts the country’s constitution and various laws, and strongly objected to its hasty approval.

The swift enactment of the law fueled fears of the government initiating another wave of mobilization following the one that Putin ordered in the fall.

Russian authorities deny that another mobilization is being planned. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this week that the measure was needed to streamline the outdated call-up system in view of the flaws that were revealed by last fall’s partial mobilization.

“There was a lot of mess in military conscription offices,” he said. “The purpose of the bill is to clean up this mess and make the system modern, effective and convenient for citizens.”

Putin announced a call-up of 300,000 reservists in September after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that pushed Russian forces out of broad areas in the east.

The mobilization order prompted an exodus of Russian men that was estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Observers say the new law appears to give authorities a mechanism for quickly beefing up the ranks in preparation for a new Ukrainian attack.

“A possible reason is that they see that the Ukrainians are getting ready for an offensive,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter turned Kremlin critic who has left Russia.

Gallyamov has been labeled a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, a designation that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations aimed at undermining the recipient’s credibility. He also has been put on a wanted list for criminal suspects.

Gallyamov said the law could fuel smoldering discontent but would be unlikely to trigger protests.

“On the one hand, there is a growing discontent and reluctance to fight, but on the other hand there is a fear of escalating repressions,” he said. “People are put before a difficult choice between going to battle and dying, or landing in prison if they protest.” 
…

A French court on Friday convicted 11 alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on charges of terror financing.

The defendants, all Kurds from Turkey who speak little or no French, were accused of being part of a network that seeks a so-called revolutionary tax, or “kampanya,” from the Kurdish diaspora. 

Deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey, the PKK has been waging a decades-long armed struggle against Ankara for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority in the country’s southeast.

Organized cells are believed to be active among France’s up to 150,000 Kurdish residents, as well as among the 100,000 in the Netherlands and the million-strong community in Germany. 

The Paris court found that “significant amounts” of funds had been obtained through threats that included “exclusion from the community.” 

Four of the defendants were already detained, and two failed to appear before the court. The defendants denied belonging to the PKK, saying it had no presence in France. 

The sentences ranged from suspended three-year prison terms to five years behind bars with one year suspended. 

But the court did not ban the defendants from French territory, as is common in terrorism cases, since most of them have refugee status in France.  

The investigation began in 2020, when two Kurdish women, aged 18 and 19, were reported missing in southeastern France. 

It soon appeared that they had left for PKK training camps elsewhere in Europe. 

The inquiry revealed a network based on a Kurdish association in the southern city of Marseille, which prosecutors say was collecting a form of community tax that funds the PKK. 

Testimony and phone tapping revealed harassment and extortion of diaspora members, investigators said, as the “tax collectors” set arbitrary contributions for individuals based on their estimated income. 

Investigators believe about $2.2 million (2 million euros) is collected in southeastern France each year. 
…

Some 400,000 survivors of February’s earthquake in southern Turkey have arrived in the coastal city of Mersin over the past two months, according to its mayor, who has pleaded for more government help to cope with the influx.

Located a couple hundred kilometers west of the fault lines that caused the February 6 earthquake, Mersin was spared any damage. However, the city is now struggling to cope with the influx of survivors, along with Syrian refugees, according to its mayor, Vahap Secer.

“The population of our city was 1.9 million. Currently, it has reached 2.7 million, 400,000 of which are asylum-seekers and 400,000 of which are earthquake victims. Housing prices have increased by 200 percent,” Secer told the Haberturk news website last month.

Some of the earthquake survivors have been given shelter at the city’s vast exhibition hall. Yasar Batman, his wife and their four children fled their home in the devastated city of Antakya and arrived in Mersin a week after the earthquake.

“Everywhere had collapsed, the people around us all died. Our house did not collapse, but the gas in the house exploded. Now, slowly, we try to get over this,” Batman told VOA. “Thank God, they are taking care of us here, they try to make up for what we lack as much as they can. Mersin municipality provides us with bread and food in the best way they can. I hope they will build a house for us as soon as possible, and we can go to our home city as soon as we can.”

In an adjacent cubicle in the exhibition hall, Abdurrahim Bal described how he tried to remain in Antakya.

“We asked for a tent and other things while we were there in Antakya, but so far we have not received anything,” he told VOA. “If they give us one, we will go there. But life is difficult there, even if you live in a tent. It is raining and there are storms.”

Local concerns

The influx of survivors is causing problems in Mersin. Local officials say basic services like the health system and water supply are under growing pressure.

City residents told VOA prices are already high because of the influx of refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

“A few years ago, life was easier. Rents were lower, shopping was cheaper. After Syrians came here, the rents went up and the prices doubled. After the earthquake, it went up even more,” said Ayten Demirezer, a longtime resident of Mersin.

Her husband, Kalender Demirezer, said the pressure on the city is overwhelming.

“It is not possible for this city to support 400,000 people,” he told VOA. “Still, many of our friends are looking for a house to rent. And now those people came from Hatay [province, in the earthquake zone]. Syrian [refugees] also have rights. They are also human beings, but this city cannot cope with this. We need to support our own people first.”

Mersin is not in the official disaster zone and so does not qualify for emergency government funds. In February, 47 charities and nongovernmental organizations in Mersin wrote an open letter calling for the city to be included in the emergency funding plan. The city’s mayor says Ankara has so far declined to give the city special status so it can receive extra support.

Memet Aksakal contributed to this report.
…

China is promising not to sell weapons to either Ukraine or Russia, The Associated Press reports.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet launches war games, missile launches in a massive show of force, according to Reuters.
Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water supplies to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and may barricade a skeleton staff inside, says Kyiv’s state atomic agency Energoatom.

At least five people were killed and 17 were wounded on Friday from a Russian airstrike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. According to Ukraine’s National Police, S-300 missiles struck 10 apartment buildings and other sites. The two top floors of a five-story building collapsed after the strike. Rescue teams were looking for survivors.

A child was pulled alive from the rubble but died on the way to a hospital, said Daria Zarivna, a senior official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office. Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also said seven people were believed to have been trapped under the debris.

“The evil state once again demonstrates its essence,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post accompanied by footage of a damaged building. “Just killing people in broad daylight. Ruining, destroying all life.”

Russia renews Bakhmut assault

Ukrainian troops have been forced to withdraw from some parts of Bakhmut after a renewed Russian assault on the ravaged city. In its daily assessment, Britain’s military said Friday, “Russia has re-energized its assault on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian MoD [Ministry of Defense] and Wagner Group have improved co-operation.”

Ukrainian officials say Russia has been drawing down troops from other areas on the front for a major push on Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to capture for nine months to regain momentum of the all-out invasion it launched more than a year ago.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Russian commanders had redirected troops to Bakhmut from other areas.

“The enemy is using its most professional units there and resorting to a significant amount of artillery and aviation,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Every day, the enemy carries out in Bakhmut from 40 to 50 storming operations and 500 shelling episodes,” she noted. The British update said the Ukrainians still held western districts of the town but had been subjected to particularly intense Russian artillery fire during the previous two days.

“Ukrainian forces face significant resupply issues but have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede,” it said.

China makes promise

In other key developments, China is promising it won’t sell weapons to Russia or Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Friday. He made that vow in response to Western concerns that Beijing could provide military assistance to Russia.

China has asserted its neutrality in the conflict, while Western nations have imposed sanctions against Moscow. Qin added that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces say they are discovering a growing number of Chinese components in Russian weaponry used in Ukraine. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, senior adviser to President Zelenskyy, told Reuters via a video call that in “the weapons recovered from the battlefield, we continue to find different electronics.”

Fleet shows force

The entire Russian Pacific Fleet was put on high alert Friday for military exercises that will include practice missile launches in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the goal of the war games is to measure the capability of Russia’s armed forces to mount a response if threatened.

The drills also will involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes in addition to the naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, Shoigu said.

The Russian Defense Ministry released videos showing warships and submarines heading to the maneuvers, while its military has concentrated most of its forces on the front lines in Ukraine.

On Ukraine’s northern border, Russian ally Belarus said Friday that its pilots had finished training in Russia, where they are learning how to operate Su-25 fighter planes.

“The acquired knowledge and skills will serve to ensure the military security of the Union State,” Minsk’s Defense Ministry said, referring to Belarus’ political union with Russia.

Moscow stocks nuclear plant

Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water supplies to the nuclear power plant (ZNPP) they captured in southeastern Ukraine after invading last year, Kyiv’s state atomic agency Energoatom said Friday.

The agency said this activity might indicate Russia is preparing to keep employees inside because of a dire shortage of qualified staff at Europe’s largest nuclear plant and in anticipation of Ukraine’s much-expected counter-offensive.

“Given the intense shortage of nuclear specialists needed to operate the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fearing a Ukrainian offensive, the [Russians] are preparing for the long-term holding of ZNPP employees as hostages,” Energoatom said.

“The invaders have already brought a lot of provisions and water to the station,” the agency added in a statement. “The occupiers will probably not allow the station staff to leave after one of the regular work shifts, forcibly blocking them at the ZNPP,” it said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Ukraine investigates beheading video

In a tweet Friday, Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy thanked British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for condemning the “inhumane execution” of a Ukrainian soldier. “Together we must stop the aggressor & put an end to terror,” he said.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday opened an investigation into a video on social media purportedly showing one of Kyiv’s soldiers being beheaded.

News agencies could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video. Zelenskyy said the video shows the “execution of a Ukrainian captive” and that “everyone must react. Do not expect that it will be forgotten that time will pass.”

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

A 50-year-old Spanish elite athlete, Beatriz Flamini, emerged Friday from a cave in southern Spain, where she had lived 70 meters underground for 500 days, as part of an experiment on the effects of isolation on the human mind and body.

With her support team limiting media coverage of her emergence so as not to overwhelm her, Flamini climbed out of the Los Gauchos cave near Motril, smiled and waved to the small crowd. Noting she had been underground for a year-and-a-half, Flamini asked, “Who was buying the beer?”

Elena Mera, a spokeswoman for the project, known as Timecave, told the Spanish news agency EFE the isolation experiment was Flamini’s idea. An experienced mountaineer, solo climber and self-sufficiency expert, she approached the media production company Dokumalia in 2021 about the idea of living in a cave alone with no external contact for 500 days. 

According to her support team, Flamini entered the cave November 20, 2021, taking with her two GoPro cameras to document her time, 60 books and 1,000 liters of water and food supplies. She had no way to measure time. They say she spent her time doing exercises to keep herself fit, painting and drawing, and knitting woolly hats.

Flamini was monitored by a group of psychologists, researchers, speleologists — specialists in the study of caves — and physical trainers, who watched her every move and monitored her physical and mental well-being, though they never made contact.

EFE reports her experience has been used by scientists at the universities of Granada and Almeria and a Madrid-based sleep clinic.

While her support team has claimed the 500 days in isolation underground is a new world record, the Reuters news service reports a spokesman for the Guinness Book of World Records was not able to immediately confirm that claim.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
…

A European spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a decadelong quest to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons that could have buried oceans.

The journey began with a morning liftoff by Europe’s Ariane rocket from French Guiana in South America. Arianespace’s chief executive Stephane Israel called it “an absolutely perfect launch.”

But there were some tense minutes later as controllers waited for signals from the spacecraft nearly an hour into the flight.

When contact was confirmed, European Space Agency’s Bruno Sousa declared from Mission Control in Germany: “The spacecraft is alive!”

It will take the robotic explorer, dubbed Juice, eight years to reach Jupiter, where it will scope out not only the solar system’s biggest planet but also Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. The three ice-encrusted moons are believed to harbor underground oceans, where sea life could exist.

Then in perhaps the most impressive feat of all, Juice will attempt to go into orbit around Ganymede: No spacecraft has ever orbited a moon other than our own.

With so many moons,— at last count 95 — astronomers consider Jupiter a mini solar system of its own, with missions like Juice long overdue.

“We are not going to detect life with Juice,” stressed the European Space Agency’s project scientist, Olivier Witasse.

But learning more about the moons and their potential seas will bring scientists closer to answering the is-there-life-elsewhere question. “That will be really the most interesting aspect of the mission,” he said.

Juice is taking a long, roundabout route to Jupiter, covering 6.6 billion kilometers (4 billion miles).

It will swoop within 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Callisto and 400 kilometers (250 miles) of Europa and Ganymede, completing 35 flybys while circling Jupiter. Then it will hit the brakes to orbit Ganymede, the primary target of the 1.6 billion-euro mission (nearly $1.8 billion).

Ganymede is not only the solar system’s largest moon — it surpasses Mercury — but has its own magnetic field with dazzling auroras at the poles.

Even more enticing, it’s thought to have an underground ocean holding more water than Earth. Ditto for Europa and its reported geysers, and heavily cratered Callisto, a potential destination for humans given its distance from Jupiter’s debilitating radiation belts, according to Carnegie Institution’s Scott Sheppard, who’s not involved with the Juice mission.

“The ocean worlds in our solar system are the most likely to have possible life, so these large moons of Jupiter are prime candidates to search,” said Sheppard, a moon hunter who’s helped discover well over 100 in the outer solar system.

The spacecraft, about the size of a small bus, won’t reach Jupiter until 2031, relying on gravity-assist flybys of Earth and our moon, as well as Venus.

“These things take time — and they change our world,” said the Planetary Society’s chief executive, Bill Nye. The California-based space advocacy group organized a virtual watch party for the launch.

Belgium’s King Philippe and Prince Gabriel, and a pair of astronauts — France’s Thomas Pesquet and Germany’s Matthias Maurer — were among the spectators in French Guiana. Thursday’s launch attempt was nixed by the threat of lightning.

Juice — short for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer — will spend three years buzzing Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. The spacecraft will attempt to enter orbit around Ganymede in late 2034, circling the moon for nearly a year before flight controllers send it crashing down in 2035, later if enough fuel remains.

Europa is especially attractive to scientists hunting for signs of life beyond Earth. Juice will keep its Europa encounters to a minimum, however, because of the intense radiation there so close to Jupiter.

Juice’s sensitive electronics are encased in lead to protect against radiation. The 6,350-kilogram (14,000-pound) spacecraft also is wrapped with thermal blankets — temperatures near Jupiter hover around minus 230 degrees Celsius (minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit). And its solar panels stretch 27 meters (88 feet) tip to tip to soak in as much sunlight that far from the sun.

Late next year, NASA will send an even more heavily shielded spacecraft to Jupiter, the long-awaited Europa Clipper, which will beat Juice to Jupiter by more than a year because it will launch on SpaceX’s mightier rocket. The two spacecraft will team up to study Europa like never before.

NASA has long dominated exploration at Jupiter, beginning with flybys in the 1970s by the twin Pioneers and then Voyagers. Only one spacecraft remains humming at Jupiter: NASA’s Juno, which just logged its 50th orbit since 2016.

Europe provided nine of Juice’s science instruments, with NASA supplying just one.

If Juice confirms underground oceans conducive to past or present life, Witasse said the next step will be to send drills to penetrate the icy crusts and maybe even a submarine.

“We have to be creative,” he said. “We can still think it’s science fiction, but sometimes the science fiction can join the reality.”
…

French President Emmanuel Macron has stunned allies by saying that Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, a position experts say is calibrated to persuade China to mediate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

At a news conference during a state visit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Macron emphasized that France’s position on Taiwan has not changed, and Paris favors the status quo for the island.

“It’s the One China policy and a Pacific resolution of the situation. That’s what I said in my one-to-one meeting with Xi Jinping, that’s what was said everywhere, we haven’t changed,” Macron said.

The One China policy of the U.S. differs from the One China principle, which is China’s view that it has sovereignty over the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Under the U.S. One China policy, Washington acknowledges but does not endorse Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan. It considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.

In an April 9 interview with Politico and Les Echos, the French financial newspaper, Macron said that Europe must avoid the risk of “getting caught up in crises that are not ours.”

“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” he said. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse 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 said in the interview.

Macron made his comments after spending some six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping while visiting China from April 5 to 7. His statement drew criticism from some politicians and scholars in Europe.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is now seeking the Republican Party nomination for a second term, told Fox News, “Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China kissing [Xi’s] ass in China, okay. I said France is now going to China?” Trump said.

His relationship with Macron evolved to “frenemy” by the time Trump left office, according to France 24.

Analysts told VOA Mandarin that Macron might be sacrificing France’s position on Taiwan in exchange for China’s mediation of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Tung-Chieh Tsai, a professor at the Graduate Institute of international Politics at the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, told VOA Mandarin that the Ukraine crisis is having a substantial impact on the daily lives of many Europeans as immigrants stream in and commodity prices rise. This puts European leaders “under great pressure” to help reach a cease-fire.

“I think France is looking for Beijing’s support to reach a cease-fire in the Ukraine conflict, so it’s making a gesture to support China in the Taiwan issue first,” Tsai told VOA Mandarin in a Zoom video chat Tuesday, adding that Macron’s statement is honest.

“If Europe can’t even manage the Ukraine crisis, which is happening at its doorstep, does it really have the ability to be involved in any crisis in the Taiwan Strait?” Tsai asked.

In the short run, Macron’s words might cause some disturbance, Tsai said, but in the long run, it forces the world “to see the reality and look for a more practical solution to the Taiwan crisis.”

Lun Zhang, a professor of Chinese studies at CY Cergy-Paris Université in France, echoed Tsai.

“I think the most important task of Macron’s visit was drawing a red line for Beijing, that is, China can’t get involved in supporting Russia in the Ukraine crisis,” Zhang told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview on Wednesday. “This touches the fundamental interests of the whole European continent.”

Yet, Zhang said, the timing of Macron’s statement was “extremely inappropriate,” as Beijing just finished three days of combat drills simulating the sealing off of Taiwan. The action was to protest a meeting between U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on American soil.

Zhang said that Macron’s statement damaged France’s image and caused conflict within Europe.

Francesco Sisci, a senior China watcher, said Macron’s visit was “a failure,” because China did not publicly make any promise on mediating the Ukraine crisis.

Sisci said that while it would be helpful if China could play a positive role in solving the Russia-Ukraine war, Beijing has expressed willingness to speak to Ukraine but the conditions for this are unclear, according to Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 13 that Xi plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that meeting has not happened yet. Zelenskyy suggested to China on March 21 that it join a Ukrainian effort to end the conflict.

Sisci added that the world should not over interpret Macron’s position on Taiwan, since the pro-business French government will likely continue to authorize arms sales to Taiwan. He also argued that even if France is not going to be a U.S. vassal, it does not mean that France will take China’s side.

“Not being a U.S. vassal does not mean being a Chinese vassal. In fact, throughout their history, France and the United States always have a very special relationship,” Sisci said, “France can say the most ugly things to the United States, but in the end, Paris has always chosen to ally with Washington.”
…

Russia on Thursday said there would be no extension of the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 unless the West removed a series of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.

The Ukraine grain Black Sea export deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July last year to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by conflict disrupting exports from two of the world’s leading grain suppliers.

“Without progress on solving five systemic problems … there is no need to talk about the further extension of the Black Sea initiative after May 18,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We note that despite all the high-sounding statements about global food security and assistance to countries in need, the Black Sea Initiative both served and continues to serve exclusively commercial exports of Kyiv in the interests of Western countries,” the ministry said.

To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a separate three-year agreement was also struck in July in which the United Nations agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.

Russia said the two agreements were “interconnected parts of one ‘package,'” and scolded the U.N. Secretariat for what it said was a distortion of the facts.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that “discussions, communications are still going on with the parties,” and that U.N. officials were determined to ensure the implementation of both deals.

He said in relation to Russia’s exports, “there’s still a lot of critical issues that need to be resolved over payments and other technical issues” that U.N. officials were trying to fix.

But he noted that “there’s been some concrete results that contribute to larger grain trade volumes, lower freight rates and an increased number of ships that have called at Russian ports for fertilizer and lowering in insurance.”

“So we’ve made some progress, but we continue to push to make more,” Dujarric said.

Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. Its food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned, but Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.

The Foreign Ministry said that Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) had to be reconnected to the SWIFT payment system, that supplies of agricultural machinery and parts needed to be resumed, and that restrictions on insurance and reinsurance needed to be lifted.

Other demands include access to ports, the resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline that lets Russia pump the chemical to Ukraine’s port, and the unblocking of assets and the accounts of Russian companies involved in food and fertilizer exports.

“The removal of obstacles to domestic agricultural exports was supposed to take place within the framework of the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum,” the ministry said.

Russia said there had been a failure of the inspection regime of ships carrying grain from Ukraine.

“Currently, 28 vessels carrying more than 1 million tons of food are awaiting inspection in the territorial waters of Turkey,” the Foreign Ministry said.

It accused U.N. staff in the Joint Coordination Center of refusing to draw up an inspection schedule.

“In turn, an even more difficult situation has developed around the registration of bulk carriers,” the ministry said, denying that Russia was responsible for any of the congestion and accusing Ukrainian port officials of accepting bribes to accelerate registration.
…

Continuing his official four-day visit to Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, President Joe Biden spoke to the houses of Oireachtas in Dublin, becoming the fourth American leader after John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to address a joint sitting of the Irish parliament. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
…

The Berlin Zoo celebrated the 66th birthday of Fatou, the world’s oldest-known living gorilla, with a special dinner that included fruit, vegetables and a watermelon with her age carved into it.

Fatou, a Western lowland gorilla, enjoyed her birthday meal Thursday as zoo visitors snapped pictures. Her keeper, Ruben Gralki, said her species would live 45 to 50 years in nature. While zoo animals tend to live longer, he said that reaching an age beyond 60 years is a special feat.

The zoo said in a press release that Fatou’s exact age is not known. She came to the zoo in 1959, and her age was estimated to be two at the time. The zoo said before that, she was owned by a sailor who exploited her to pay his bar tab at a tavern in Marseille, France. 

Gralki told Reuters that Fatou is one of five gorillas at the Berlin Zoo, but she has a pen to herself due to her advanced age. He said she has the opportunity to visit with the other gorillas but usually keeps to herself.

The World Wildlife Federation says Western lowland gorillas, though among the most common species of gorilla, remain critically endangered, largely because of poaching. 

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

Highly accurate and maneuverable U.S. howitzers have been helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine fight off Russia’s aggression since July 2022. These days, the weapons are used mostly in the Bakhmut district in the Donetsk region. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Videographer and video editor: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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New developments:

Ukraine remains adamant in its demand that Russia withdraw its troops from all its occupied lands, including the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
Human Rights Watch accused Russian forces who occupied Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson from March until November 2022 of running a “torture center.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Wednesday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Pentagon to discuss U.S. support for Ukraine.

Ukraine said Thursday it is intent in its demand that Russia withdraw its troops from Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, as well as other territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia claimed last year.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, via video, told the first Black Sea Security Conference in Bucharest, Romania, that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its 14th month, is “a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe,” but that all internationally recognized borders of Ukraine must be honored.

“We are united by U.N. Charter principles and the shared conviction that Crimea is Ukraine and it will return under Ukraine’s control,” Kuleba said.

“Every time you hear anyone from any corner of the world saying that Crimea is somehow special and should not be returned to Ukraine, as any other part of our territory, you have to know one thing: Ukraine categorically disagrees with these statements,” he told representatives of 50 countries attending the conference in the Romanian capital.

While Moscow failed in the early stages of the war last year to take control of all of Ukraine, it has continued to control Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, even as fierce fighting rages in the eastern industrialized territory. Russia claimed to have annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia provinces last September but does not control all the land in the four regions.

There are no signs of peace talks anytime soon, although Ukraine and Russia have several times exchanged prisoners of war and engaged in a wartime deal to export Ukrainian grain and Russian grain and fertilizers.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that highly sensitive U.S. government documents leaked online show that the Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that the war is still likely to be going on in 2024 and that even if Ukraine recaptures “significant” amounts of territory and inflicts “unsustainable losses on Russian forces,” it would not lead to peace talks.

“Negotiations to end the conflict are unlikely during 2023 in all considered scenarios,” the document said.

Video shows beheading

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday opened an investigation into a video on social media purportedly showing one of Kyiv’s soldiers being beheaded.

News agencies could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message, “There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill.”

Zelenskyy said the video showed the “execution of a Ukrainian captive” and that “everyone must react. Do not expect that it will be forgotten, that time will pass.”

The video appears to show a man in green fatigues with a yellow armband, typically worn by Ukrainian fighters. His screams are heard before another man in camouflage uses a knife to decapitate him. The man in camouflage and another man both speak Russian.

Ukraine’s state security service has opened an investigation, said Vasyl Maliuk, head of the agency. Officials are studying the video to identify those responsible, as well as to identify the victim.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the footage “horrible” but said that its authenticity needed to be verified.

Ukraine’s human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets said he will request that the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee investigate.

Writing on Telegram, Lubinets said, “A public execution of a captive is yet another indication of a breach of Geneva Convention norms, international humanitarian law, a breach of the fundamental right to life.”

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of committing war crimes and targeting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine, now in its 14th month, while Moscow says it has only targeted military sites and electrical and water infrastructure.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes in the abductions of children from Ukraine.

VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some material also came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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U.S. President Joe Biden holds talks Thursday with Irish President Michael D. Higgins and Leo Varadkar, the country’s prime minister, and is set to deliver remarks to the houses of the Oireachtas — the Irish parliament.

Biden’s schedule also includes a youth Gaelic sports demonstration in Dublin as well as a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle.

Biden, who often highlights his Irish heritage, closes his trip with a Friday night speech in Ballina, home of his paternal ancestors, on the west coast of Ireland.

Irish heritage

Biden began his visit to the region in Northern Ireland before heading to Ireland.

Immediately after landing in Dublin on Wednesday, Biden traveled to County Louth, home to his maternal great-great-grandfather, shoemaker Owen Finnegan, and toured Carlingford Castle. According to the White House, that would have been the last Irish landmark that Finnegan saw before departing for New York on March 31, 1849. Finnegan’s family, including his son James, Biden’s great-grandfather, followed him in 1850.

Meeting local residents at a pub in Dundalk, Biden spoke fondly of his roots, repeating the story he told during his 2016 visit to Ireland about Finnegan and Joseph Kearney, former President Barack Obama’s great-great-grandfather who was also a shoemaker from a nearby county and emigrated to the U.S. around the same time.

“In all of their dreams, I’m not sure they could have imagined that 175 years later both their great-great-grandchild would be president of the United States of America, Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” he said.

Northern Ireland

Biden told people in Belfast on Wednesday he hopes Northern Ireland’s devolved power-sharing government can soon be restored, promising that American corporations are ready to invest in the region.

“Many have already made homes in Northern Ireland, employing over 30,000 people,” he said, adding that in the past decade, American business has generated almost $2 billion in investment in the region.

In a speech hailing 25 years of peace in the region, Biden told the hundreds of people gathered at Ulster University that the democratic institutions that established the Good Friday Agreement remain critical.

The peace deal helped end 30 years of bloody conflict over whether Northern Ireland should unify with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom.

“An effective devolved government that reflects the people of Northern Ireland and is accountable to them. A government that works to find ways through hard problems together is going to draw even greater opportunity to this region,” Biden said. “So, I hope the assembly and the executive will soon be restored.”

Biden was referring to the region’s place in the U.K., in which the government in London has transferred a wide range of powers to Stormont, the Northern Ireland Assembly where local politicians instead of lawmakers in London make key decisions.

Fraught with conflict

In practice, power sharing in Northern Ireland has been fraught with conflict, mainly between the two dominant political parties — the Democratic Unionist Party, which favors continued governance with London, and Sinn Féin, which broadly favors reunification with Ireland.

Since it was established in 1998, the government has collapsed numerous times because of boycotts by various parties, the latest one in February 2022 when the DUP boycotted in protest of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit agreement between the U.K. and the European Union for Northern Ireland to maintain an open border and allow trade to continue with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.

Under the protocol, while Northern Ireland remains in U.K. customs territory, it is also part of the EU’s single market, requiring checks and additional documentation for certain goods imported into Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. Because of the region’s history of conflict, many people are uneasy with border checks.

The DUP also refused to endorse the Windsor Framework, a deal adopted in March that is designed to fix trade issues including by reducing the number of checks on goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

Biden-Sunak meeting

In Belfast, Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reaffirmed their commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and welcomed the Windsor Framework as an important step in preserving peace, according to a White House statement following their meeting.

Earlier this week, Sunak called on parties in dispute to “get on with the business of governance.”

Biden was more cautious in his comments on the Stormont logjam.

“I’m going to listen,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question on what he was going to say to the Northern Ireland political parties that he met later Wednesday.

DUP’s leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, said Biden’s visit does not move his party’s position.

“It doesn’t change the political dynamic in Northern Ireland. We know what needs to happen,” he said, underscoring that the British government must do more to protect the region’s place within the United Kingdom and its ability to trade within the U.K. internal market.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is in his ancestral home, Ireland, where he will spend the next two days meeting with leaders and family members. Earlier Wednesday in Northern Ireland, he urged that the collapsed power-sharing government be restored. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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