RIYADMEDIA

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive in China Wednesday for a three-day state visit aimed at discussing trade, human rights, and especially Ukraine with President Xi Jinping, amid ever closer ties between Beijing and Moscow.

The trip will be Macron’s first to China since 2019, and von der Leyen’s first as head of the European Union’s executive arm. Analysts and officials have downplayed expectations for any major outcome, though the two leaders will likely prod China to limit its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“My understanding is it is very much about reengagement,” said Tara Varma, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who specializes in Indo-Pacific issues.

Macron and von der Leyen are expected to hold talks with President Xi on Thursday. Macron is also scheduled to visit the southern city of Guangzhou.

The trip aims to present a common European front toward China, analysts say, amid growing friction on several fronts. The stakes for improving ties are high for both sides, including China’s position as a top EU trading partner.

In a recent speech that Chinese officials criticized, von der Leyen warned Beijing against directly supporting Moscow in its war on Ukraine and described EU-China relations as “more distant and more difficult.”

Von der Leyen characterized China as becoming “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad.” And she dismissed hopes of resuscitating a stalled investment deal with China, saying it had to be “reassessed” within Europe’s larger China strategy.

Von der Leyen, however, also said the EU did not need to “decouple” from its relations with China.

“That was the hardest hitting and most critical speech that we’ve had on China from a European leader in recent decades,” said Andrew Small, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and author of a recent book on China, titled, “The Rupture: China and the Global Race for the Future.”

“Although there are elements of this visit that will be about diplomatic reengagement, I think she laid out pretty starkly where the balance of European thinking is really moving,” he added.

Red line?

Macron, who had earlier hoped to visit China at least once a year as president, appears to have greater ambitions for success.

At a minimum, the French presidency reportedly wants China to draw a red line on providing arms to Russia while the war rages in Ukraine.

“Macron also has this hope to secure some form of Chinese support for a peace process, for putting pressure on Russia,” analyst Small said, even as he characterized broader European expectations for that happening as “extremely low.”

Last month, Beijing laid out a 12-point plan to end the war that included calls for a cease-fire, peace talks, and an end to sanctions against Russia. But it did not label Moscow as the aggressor in the war and offered no specifics on its stance toward Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Last week, von der Leyen said any peace plan that consolidated Russian seizures of Ukrainian territory was not viable.

Still, Small said, “there is value in delivering a strong message to the Chinese side that says, ‘The relationship with Europe will be conditioned by how you handle the Ukraine question and your relationship with Russia.’”

Along with Ukraine, Macron and von der Leyen will focus on human rights and economics.

Trade rivalry

Macron is accompanied by a hefty business delegation, composed of CEOs from the energy, transport and aviation sectors. The Reuters news agency reports Macron’s visit coincides with talks on a possible new Chinese order for Airbus planes.

The Europeans have been pressing for a more level playing field when it comes to trade and investment. For its part, China is particularly eager to resurrect an EU investment deal put on hold three years ago, Brookings analyst Varma said.

“I’m pretty sure the Chinese authorities will put the issue to both President von der Leyen and President Macron,” she added. “But there will need to be some guarantees provided by the Chinese authorities in terms of a level playing field, and reciprocity in terms of market access — which is not the case today.”

Ahead of the trip, European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned of the EU’s capacity to inflict economic damage on China as a major market for Chinese goods.

“China is a trade partner, but China is also a systemic rival,” Breton told French radio, “If the (EU) internal market ever closes to China, which I hope will not be the case, that’s four to five GDP points fewer for China.”
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Analysts say the war in Ukraine has been largely a stalemate in recent months, despite high casualty counts on both sides. But in the city of Chasiv Yar, the war has become deadlier and more dangerous week by week. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports. Videographer: Yan Boechat
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Britain’s privacy watchdog hit TikTok with a multimillion-dollar penalty Tuesday for misusing children’s data and violating other protections for users’ personal information.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said it issued a fine of $15.9 million to the short-video sharing app, which is wildly popular with young people.

It’s the latest example of tighter scrutiny that TikTok and its parent, Chinese technology company ByteDance, are facing in the West, where governments are increasingly concerned about risks that the app poses to data privacy and cybersecurity.

The British watchdog, which was investigating data breaches between May 2018 and July 2020, said TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million children in the U.K. under 13 to use the app in 2020, despite the platform’s own rules prohibiting children that young from setting up accounts.

TikTok didn’t adequately identify and remove children under 13 from the platform, the watchdog said. And even though it knew younger children were using the app, TikTok failed to get consent from their parents to process their data, as required by Britain’s data protection laws, the agency said.

“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a press release.

TikTok collected and used personal data of children who were inappropriately given access to the app, he said.

“That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll,” Edwards said.

The company said it disagreed with the watchdog’s decision.

“We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community,” TikTok said in statement. “We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps.”

TikTok says it has improved its sign-up system since the breaches happened by no longer allowing users to simply declare they are old enough and looking for other signs that an account is used by someone under 13.

The penalty also covered other breaches of U.K. data privacy law.

The watchdog said TikTok failed to properly inform people about how their data is collected, used and shared in an easily understandable way. Without this information, it’s unlikely that young users would be able “to make informed choices” about whether and how to use TikTok, it said.

TikTok also failed to ensure personal data of British users was processed lawfully, fairly and transparently, the regulator said.

TikTok initially faced a 27 million-pound fine, which was reduced after the company persuaded regulators to drop other charges.

U.S. regulators in 2019 fined TikTok, previously known as Music.aly, $5.7 million in a case that involved similar allegations of unlawful collection of children’s personal information.

Also Tuesday, Australia became the latest country to ban TikTok from its government devices, with authorities from the European Union to the United States concerned that the app could share data with the Chinese government or push pro-Beijing narratives

U.S. lawmakers are also considering forcing a sale or even banning it outright as tensions with China grow.
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Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Finland had adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II, but its leaders signaled they wanted to join NATO just months after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through its neighbors.

The move is a strategic and political setback for Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.

“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before accepting the documents that made Finland’s membership official.

The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

Russia warned it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.

The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.

Alarmed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military nonalignment to seek protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

“It’s a great day for Finland and an important day for NATO, too,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. “Russia tried to create a sphere around them and, well, we are not a sphere. I’m sure that Finns themselves feel more secure, that we are living in a more stable world.”

Neighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.

Niinisto said Finland’s membership “is not complete without that of Sweden. The persistent efforts for a rapid Swedish membership continue.“

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow “will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland’s accession to NATO.”

It said Finland’s move marks “a fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there. But he also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.

It’s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.

The country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO’s “iron-clad security guarantee,” under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.

But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organization’s decisions.

“We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,” he said.

Finland’s Parliament, meanwhile, said its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.

A pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO. The claim could not be immediately verified.

The hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow’s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament’s site last year.

Finland’s entry, marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.
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At least one person was killed and 30 injured, many seriously, when a passenger train carrying about 50 people derailed in the Netherlands early on Tuesday after hitting construction equipment on the track, Dutch emergency services said. 

Rescue teams were at the scene of the accident at Voorschoten, a village near The Hague, the emergency services said. 

A fire department spokesman told Dutch radio that 19 people were taken to hospital. Others were being treated on the spot, the emergency services said. 

The front carriage of the night train from Leiden city to The Hague derailed and ploughed into a field after the accident, ANP news agency said. The second carriage was on its side and a fire broke out in the rear carriage but was later extinguished, it said.   

There were conflicting reports about the cause of the accident. 

Earlier reports had said the passenger train had collided with a freight train. Dutch Railways (NS) spokesman Erik Kroeze said a freight train was involved in the accident but could not give details. 

Dutch Railways said in a tweet that trains between Leiden and parts of The Hague were cancelled due to the accident. 
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There are growing concerns among top U.S. military and intelligence officials that Russia’s use of cyberattacks during its war against Ukraine is ushering in a new era of combat in which the line between virtual and real-life battlefields is being erased, along with the notion that any targets will remain off limits.

Instead, top officials are warning that U.S. adversaries are likely to look at Moscow’s efforts to topple Kyiv and conclude that not only do they need to coordinate cyber strikes with conventional, kinetic military tactics, but that a cyberattack may be the best first-strike option.

“The [Russian] operation in Ukraine as it relates to red lines for conflict should be of concern to many people,” a senior defense official told reporters during a briefing to the Defense Writers Group this past Friday.

“If you’re willing to drop a bomb on a power station, or if you’re willing to drop a bomb on a rail network, then you’re certainly willing to execute a cyberattack against them,” the defense official said in response to a question from VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set for the briefing.

“As a just general commonsense sort of military tactic, I don’t believe you would reduce something to rubble if you had the ability to neutralize it otherwise,” the official added. “You don’t want to use high-end kinetic tools unless you have to.”

Russia, though, has been using some of its top-end weaponry, including its Kinzhal hypersonic missile, to take out Ukrainian power plants and other critical infrastructure that have already been targeted by a series of cyberattacks.

“My belief is that had the Russians had the ability to significantly shut down Ukrainian critical infrastructure via cyber, they wouldn’t have wasted kinetic munitions on it,” the senior defense official said.

Despite the apparent failure of Russian cyberattacks to do more damage, Ukrainian officials have warned the pace of such attacks has picked up, and U.S. Cyber Command has warned the Kremlin’s cyber exploits could well “become bolder and look at broader targets.”

China taking notice

U.S. officials also assess that China is learning from Russia’s cyber failures as they prepare for future military confrontation, including potential plans to retake Taiwan.

“I think there’s been a general assessment that what the Russians did in Ukraine was not very well coordinated,” the senior defense official told reporters. “I think the Chinese will look at that, and if the Chinese have a plan to invade Taiwan in 2027, I would expect they have a cyber plan to go along with that. … They will study what happened, and they will try and not make the same mistakes.”

Other U.S. officials have gone as far as to suggest the first indication of a Chinese attack on Taiwan could come in cyberspace.

The first signs of a looming military confrontation in Taiwan “could probably start well below the threshold of a conflict,” Doug Wade, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s China Mission Group, said during a virtual event last month. “It would probably include a wide variety of activities, starting with things like cyber.”

Some analysts studying cyberwarfare agree that Russia’s war against Ukraine has changed the cyber landscape, potentially setting up another test for the effectiveness of cyberattacks with China and Taiwan.

“I think that you could see the first steps in a conflict over Taiwan, for example, to be trying to blind the U.S., in particular, to what China was about to do and then also blind the Taiwanese to what was about to happen, as well,” Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.

“I suspect that the cost-benefit analysis will come down on the side of cyberattacks, [which] are a reasonably low cost, reasonably high benefit way to at least confuse your adversary and perhaps undermine their ability to fight. So, it will be tried again,” she said.

Yet there are also those who think it will still take time before Russia, China or another nation is able to effectively use a cyberattack as a first-strike option.

“I think framing it as a first strike is a little bit misleading,” said Jason Blessing, a visiting research fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.

Blessing told VOA that while there is ample evidence that an increase in cyberactivity could be an indication of a looming physical attack, cyberattacks have yet to show they are capable of doing more than paving the way for conventional military operations.

“The drawback to using cyber operations, though, is it requires intense time and resources to plan something like that,” he said. “Cyber operations are almost always going to be complementary to the broader strategic goals and broader conventional aims. … It’s not that it’s going to replace launching a missile or driving a tank into some territory.”
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As bloody, stalemated battles in Ukraine grind on, young dancers in the eastern city of Izium are training again, hoping to resume competition despite the destruction of their theater. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Izium, Ukraine. Camera: Yan Boechat.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday urged Russia’s foreign minister to release Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist detained last week on accusations of espionage.  

Blinken “conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention” of an American journalist, according to a State Department statement that did not directly name Gershkovich. 

During the call, Blinken called for Russia to ensure the immediate release of the journalist and of former Marine Paul Whelan, who is also detained on espionage charges in Russia, the statement added. 

A U.S. official, speaking to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said that although the statement did not name Gershkovich, he is the journalist referred to.

Under U.S. law, the State Department is generally barred from speaking about an American citizen unless that person has signed a privacy waiver.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that during the call Lavrov told Blinken that Washington should not politicize the arrest and said that a court would determine Gershkovich’s fate, according to Reuters.

The minister repeated claims made by other Russian officials last week that the journalist was caught “red handed” but did not provide evidence to back up that claim.

Sunday’s call was a rare moment of direct contact between Blinken and Lavrov, who have not had regular communication since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was detained Wednesday in Yekaterinburg, a city about 800 miles from the Russian capital. 

A Moscow court on Friday ordered Gershkovich to be held in pre-trial detention until May 29. He is being held at Lefortovo prison in Moscow. 

Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker has denied the allegations against Gershkovich. She said in an interview with CBS that she is reassured that Blinken and Lavrov spoke.

In a message to Journal staff on Friday, Tucker described Russia’s actions as “completely unjustified.” 

“[Gershkovich] is a member of the free press who right up until he was arrested was engaged in newsgathering. Any suggestions otherwise are false,” Tucker said in a message shared by the Journal’s communications department. 

On board Air Force One on Monday, principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters that the U.S. is seeking the journalist’s immediate release, adding, “these charges are ridiculous, and we want to see consular access to evidence as soon as possible.” 

The National Press Club in Washington has described Blinken’s call with Lavrov as “encouraging” but noted that the charges Russia has brought against Gershkovich “could not be of a more serious nature.”

A statement by the club’s president Eileen O’Reilly and Gil Klein, who leads the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said that Gershkovich has been denied access to the lawyer provided to him by the Journal.

“Not since the days of the Cold War has Russia taken a U.S. journalist hostage. For nearly 40 years, despite the ebbs and flows of tensions between our countries, our journalists have been able to operate without being arrested and imprisoned. Now that has changed,” the National Press Club statement said.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has reported that Gershkovich’s lawyer was denied access to the hearing and that journalists were turned away from the court.

Some analysts have questioned whether the arrest is an attempt by Russia to gain leverage.

Several U.S. citizens are in detention in Russia, and both Washington and Moscow have accused the other of carrying out politically motivated arrests, Agence France-Presse reported.

In December 2022, Russia released from prison U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner had been serving a nine-year sentence on drug charges after being detained in Russia in February 2022.

Journal reporter Gershkovich has been working for the media company for just over a year, covering Russia and Ukraine.

His recent stories include coverage of economic problems in Russia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, and the Russian jets that collided with a U.S. drone over the Black Sea.

The Journal, which has a paywall for its news website, has made Gershkovich’s stories publicly accessible since his arrest.

Before joining the Journal, Gershkovich worked in Moscow for AFP and spent three years as a reporter for The Moscow Times. He also was a news assistant at The New York Times.

On the same day that Blinken and Lavrov spoke, an explosion at a St. Petersburg café killed a military blogger who had strongly advocated for the war.

The explosion killed Vladlen Tatarsky, who is also known as Maxim Fomin, and injured about 30 others.

Tatarsky had been speaking at an event organized by a group named the Cyber Z Front — a reference to the letter “Z” that Russia adopted as a symbol of the war.

The 40-year-old Russian was among a group who have called on Moscow to take a more aggressive stance in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Russian authorities detained a St. Petersburg woman, Darya Trepova, in connection with the attack. 

VOA’s Carolyn Presutti contributed to this report.
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French authorities see the police as protectors who are ensuring that citizens can peacefully protest President Emmanuel Macron’s contentious retirement age increase. But to human rights advocates and demonstrators who were clubbed or tear-gassed, officers have overstepped their mission.

In the months since mass protests of the proposed pension changes began roiling France, some law enforcement officers have been accused of resorting to gratuitous violence. A man in Paris lost a testicle to an officer’s club, and a police grenade took the thumb of a woman in Rouen. A railroad worker hit by grenade fragments lost an eye.

“Where is your humanity?” a woman shouted at officers who knocked an apparently homeless man to the ground in Paris, kicked him and used vulgar language while ordering him to get up and go. In a video posted on Twitter, another passerby helped the man to his feet at the scene last month near the Place de la Bastille.

The violence adds to the anger in the streets and complicates efforts to invite dialogue between the government and labor unions, who are planning an 11th round of mass demonstrations Thursday.

The protests, which began in January, gained momentum after Macron’s decision last month to push a bill to raise the retirement age through the lower house of parliament without a vote. The common French reference to law enforcement officers as “forces of order” has been turned on its head. Now the question is whether police represent force or order.

Jarred by the bad publicity, authorities have shifted to damage control by offering accolades for security forces.

“There is no police violence,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday on RTL radio while condemning “individual acts” of officers who use disproportionate force. “Can’t we occasionally thank the forces of order?” he pleaded.

The concerns about police brutality have reverberated beyond France. Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights and the Council of Europe — the continent’s main human rights body — were among the organizations that cited excessive police violence during what has been a largely peaceful protest movement.

French police are sent into demonstrations with weapons that are prohibited in most European countries, including stun grenades and rubber bullets, according to Sebastian Roche, an expert on security forces with France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Demonstrations and potentially mutilating weapons are a combustible combination, Roche said, because “the temptation will be very big to use these armaments” especially when police come under a cascade of objects hurled at them, including Molotov cocktails.

The strategy is “at once very violent” and in some aspects illegal, Roche said, citing cases in which demonstrators were detained en masse and then released without charges the next morning. Lawyers’ and magistrates’ associations have said such practices are an abuse of the law.

Jonas Cardoso, a 20-year-old student, was among more than 100 people detained during a March 23 protest in Paris.

“I spent hours in a cell for four people with nine other protesters. I slept on the floor,” he told The Associated Press. Cardoso denied any wrongdoing and was released without charges.

Worse, Cardoso said, is that violence may beget more violence.

“If the government doesn’t listen to us, the violence will rise. Our worst fear is that someone will die while protesting,” the young man said.

Videos of police brutality posted on social media largely fail to capture the presence of black-clad ultra-leftists or anarchists who have infiltrated the protest marches, destroyed property and attacked police officers.

“There are troublemakers, often extreme left, who want to take down the state and kill police and ultimately take over the institutions,” Darmanin said after a protest in March that turned especially violent.

The ranks of these provocateurs have grown, bolstered by opportunists and some leftist students. The intruders work in small, highly mobile groups, appearing and disappearing in formations known as black blocs.

Black blocs are not a new phenomenon, but they represent a danger to police. In one dramatic video posted on social networks, an officer is seen crashing to the ground after being hit with a paving stone. Colleagues dragged him away.

Violence by and against police is not limited to Paris, or to protests over Macron’s retirement plan.

Gendarmes and militants opposed to an artificial water basin recently clashed in rural France. Four people — two gendarmes and two protesters — were hospitalized in serious condition.

According to French policing rules, the use of force “must be absolutely necessary, strictly proportionate and graduated.”

“Of course, the police response is proportionate,” Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez insisted in a television interview. Police intervene only when black blocs move into action, he said.

“Without police, demonstrations wouldn’t take place,” he said, insisting on their role as guardians of peace.

However, some protesters have found themselves trapped by police tactics such as encirclement, in which officers surround marchers so police can chase down troublemakers. But protesters stuck inside the police bubble can’t escape tear gas fumes.

Roche said the latest tensions show that France has “an accumulation of [police] crises that no other European country has.”

He cited the 2018-2019 Yellow Vest protests for social and economic justice where a brutal police response left two people dead, and multiple protesters lost eyes. Next came a debacle during last year’s Champions League Cup final when British soccer fans were gassed by police at the Stade de France.

Amnesty International’s France chief, Jean-Claude Samouiller, said last week at a news conference that France should improve its policing strategy and cited “a doctrine of de-escalation and dialogue” that is observed in Germany, Belgium and Sweden.

Compared with other European countries, Samouiller said, the two protest deaths in France in recent years put the nation at the bottom of the class, in the category of “bad student.”
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Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in a bomb attack in a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday in which some 30 other people were wounded. Here’s what we know so far.   

Who was Tatarsky? 

Tatarsky – real name Maxim Fomin – was among the best-known members of an influential group of military bloggers who have provided a running commentary on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Although frequently scathing about the defense establishment, they have been enthusiastic cheerleaders for the war and avoided direct criticism of President Vladimir Putin. Tatarsky, 40, was among those who publicly demanded that Russia pursue the war even more aggressively. For example, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kherson after Russia retreated from the city last November, Tatarsky demanded to know why Moscow had not taken the chance to assassinate him with a drone.   

What happened in the café? 

Tatarsky was giving a talk to an audience of about 100 people on Sunday evening at an event organized by a group called “Cyber Z Front”, whose name refers to the letter ‘Z’ that Russia has adopted as a symbol of the war. According to Russian news outlets, the explosion took place several minutes after a woman calling herself Nastya presented Tatarsky with a bust that she said she had made of him.   

Who is the suspect? 

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said on Monday that Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old woman from St Petersburg, had been arrested. The interior ministry earlier placed her on its wanted list but gave no further information about her.   

What could have been the motive? 

Tatarsky was the second high-profile war propagandist to be assassinated in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The first was Darya Dugina, the journalist daughter of a prominent ultra-nationalist figure, who was killed by a car bomb near Moscow last August. The killing is an attack on the hardline pro-war camp in Russia, and sends a warning to other members of this group that they could be targeted anywhere. Tatarsky had survived extensive reporting trips on the war’s front lines but was killed hundreds of miles away, in the heart of Russia’s second city. 

Tatarsky also had ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group fighting for Russia in Ukraine and the former owner of the cafe. Prigozhin is a highly divisive figure who has frequently argued with the defense establishment, accusing it at times of starving his men of ammunition and denying them credit for advances.   

Who could have been behind the attack? 

No one has produced clear evidence, but some Russians have pointed the finger at Ukraine. Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the part of Ukraine’s Donetsk province that is occupied by Russia, said: “The Kyiv regime is a terrorist regime. It needs to be destroyed, there’s no other way to stop it.” Prigozhin, however, said he would not blame Kyiv. Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, wrote on Twitter that it had only been a matter of time – “like the bursting of a ripe abscess” – before Russia became consumed by what he called domestic terrorism. 
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New developments:

In Kostiantynivka, eastern Ukraine, six civilians were killed and eight wounded from Russian shelling Sunday morning, a senior Ukraine official said, according to Reuters.
A top Ukrainian official outlined the plan Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the bridge that links the peninsula to Russia, The Associated Press reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia assuming leadership of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday an absurd and destructive move, Reuters reported.
An explosion at a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city killed a military blogger who had supported the fighting in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said. 

Blinken called for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia has accused of spying. A statement by U.S. State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel did not mention the journalist by name. 

Responding to Blinken, Lavrov said that Gershkovich’s fate will be determined by a Russian court and told Blinken it was unacceptable for Washington to politicize the case. Lavrov said the journalist was caught “red-handed,” though Russia has yet to present any evidence.

The statement said Blinken also sought the release of U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, who has been detained for 1,553 days after being sentenced to a 16-year sentence at a Russian penal colony after being convicted of espionage.

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was freed from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner exchange last year, has urged the Biden administration to keep using “every tool possible” to secure the release of the U.S. reporter.

The Kremlin asserts Gershkovich was using journalism as a cover for spying, something the newspaper has vehemently denied. The Wall Street Journal has demanded the immediate release of Gershkovich, calling his arrest Thursday “a vicious affront to a free press,” while The New York Times published a statement from a coalition of news organizations expressing deep concern about Gershkovich’s detention.

Russian troop deaths

A number of Russia’s troop deaths in Ukraine have come from noncombat injuries, such as alcoholism and improper training, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday.  

A “significant minority” of the roughly 200,000 casualties Russia has suffered since invading Ukraine were due to noncombat causes, such as alcohol consumption, road traffic accidents and “climatic injuries, such as hypothermia, the British defense ministry said Sunday in its latest intelligence update.

“Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness,” the update said. “However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations.”

Spring counteroffensive

Meanwhile, ahead of a planned spring counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military, a senior Ukraine official outlined a plan Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea.

On Sunday, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary, said among the steps would be dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia. 

Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most nations do not recognize the peninsula as Russian territory. 

As a condition for peace, Moscow has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge other land gains made by Russia since fighting began more than a year ago. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea.

More aid

A new $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine’s fight against Russia is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Friday.

A half-dozen types of munitions, including tank munitions, are also expected to be on the list of equipment that could be finalized this weekend. The officials added that the dollar amount and specific equipment in the package could change.

Also slated for inclusion were precision aerial munitions, bridging equipment Ukraine would use to assault Russian positions, recovery vehicles to help disabled heavy equipment such as tanks, and additional rounds for NASAMS air defenses that the U.S. and allies have given to Kyiv.

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

Well-known Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by a bomb blast in a St. Petersburg cafe on Sunday in what appeared to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said 19 other people were wounded in the blast, and it had opened a murder investigation.

Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent of the influential military bloggers who have championed Russia’s war effort in Ukraine while often criticizing the failures of the army top brass.

“We’ll defeat everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll rob everyone we need to. Everything will be as we like it,” he was shown saying in a video clip last September at a Kremlin ceremony where President Vladimir Putin claimed four occupied regions of Ukraine as Russian territory – a move rejected as illegal by most countries.

There was no indication as to who was behind the blast.

TASS news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the improvised explosive device was hidden in a miniature statue that was handed to Tatarsky as he addressed a group of people in the cafe.

Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russian law enforcement, posted a video that appeared to show Tatarsky, microphone in hand, being presented with a statuette of a helmeted soldier. It said the explosion happened minutes later.

Tatarsky’s death followed the killing last August of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent ultra-nationalist, in a car bomb attack near Moscow.

Russia’s Federal Security Service accused Ukraine’s secret services of carrying out that attack, which Putin called “evil.” Ukraine denied involvement.

Russia’s war bloggers, an assortment of military correspondents and freelance commentators with army backgrounds, have enjoyed broad freedom from the Kremlin to publish hard-hitting views on the war, now in its 14th month. Putin even made one of them a member of his human rights council last year.

They reacted with shock to the news of Tatarsky’s death.

“He was in the hottest spots of the special military operation and he always came out alive. But the war found him in a Petersburg cafe,” said Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the name War Gonzo.

Alexander Khodakovsky, a leading pro-Moscow figure in eastern Ukraine, wrote: “Max, if you were a nobody, you’d have died of ‘vodka and headcolds.’ But you were dangerous to them, you did your business like no one else could. We will pray for you, brother.”
…

Finns cast ballots on Sunday in a closely contested parliamentary election that could cost left-wing Prime Minister Sanna Marin power amid voter concern over the future of generous public services at a time of economic downturn.

No party is seen as holding a decisive lead and the election is likely to be followed by lengthy coalition talks, although whichever party wins on Sunday will have the first attempt at forming a government.

Voting began at 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) and closes at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT). Partial results from early voting will be published shortly afterwards.

Marin, 37, is seen by fans around the world as a millennial role model for progressive new leaders and remains very popular among many Finns, particularly young moderates, but she has antagonized some conservatives with lavish spending on pensions and education that they see as irresponsible.

“She [Marin] has been like a rock star, but she has been very nervous,” said retired graduate engineer Matti Valonen referring to Marin’s performances in debates leading up to the election.

Opinion polls show Marin’s Social Democrats, the biggest party in the outgoing coalition government, in a dead heat with the rightist National Coalition Party and the nationalist Finns Party, with all three seen winning some 18.7-19.8% of ballots and so reliant on other smaller parties to form a government.

The National Coalition has led in polls for almost two years although its lead has melted away in recent months. It has promised to curb spending and stop the rise of public debt, which has reached just over 70% of GDP since Marin took office in 2019.

The grouping accuses Marin of eroding Finland’s economic resilience at a time when Europe’s energy crisis, driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine, has hit the country hard and the cost of living has increased.

The Finns Party, too, calls for austerity but its main goal is to reduce what its leader Riikka Purra has called “harmful” immigration from developing countries outside the European Union.
…

Bulgarians vote in their fifth parliamentary election in two years on Sunday amid rising resentment towards political elites who many see as unwilling to tackle graft and economic reforms.

Opinion polls show the ballot will likely leave Bulgaria short of a functioning parliamentary majority again, putting in question its ambitions to join the euro zone in the near term and effectively use European Union COVID recovery aid.

In the running is a coalition of the center-right GERB party of former long-serving premier Boyko Borissov, 63, and its small Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) partner, as well as the newly established coalition of the pro-Western We Continue the Change (PP) party and reformist Democratic Bulgaria (DB).

“Regardless of which of the two comes first, it does not solve the big question – what are the prospects of forming a government,” said Genoveva Petrova of Alpha Research.

“Parties in Bulgaria have had four interim parliaments to realize that there is no political force at the moment that has not just an absolute majority but a large enough advantage to set the agenda,” Petrova added.

Voting ends at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT).

The two coalitions are neck and neck in opinion polls, with the latest by Exacta Research Group showing them at 26.2% and 25.6%, respectively, and the nationalist Revival party at 12.8%.

Complicating coalition building are accusations by many of his political rivals that Borissov had not done enough to stop corruption in the country during his decade-long rule that ended in 2021, something that Borissov denies.

“It is not normal to not have any political dialogue, there is no will … to consolidate so that things get better,” said Ivailo Atanasov, 47, in Sofia.

At stake could also be Bulgaria’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Once an ally of President Vladimir Putin, Sofia has supported Kyiv since Moscow launched what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

The two coalitions in the running on Sunday want Bulgaria to maintain its pro-Ukraine stance but President Rumen Radev, who has wielded much power throughout the political instability, has pushed for a more nuanced approach.
…

New developments:

“Russian UNSC presidency is a slap in the face to the international community,” said Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba in a tweet.
On Saturday, Russia took over the presidency of the U.N.'s top security body, which rotates every month. The last time Moscow held the post was in February 2022, when its troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine's top security agency notified Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of famed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Orthodox monastery that he was suspected of justifying Russia's aggression, a criminal offense. The Metropolitan refuses to vacate the religious site.
A new $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine could be announced next week, U.S. officials say.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised during a visit to Moscow to boost munitions supplies to Russian forces in Ukraine, according to footage published by the Defense Ministry on Saturday on Telegram.

A “significant minority” of the some 200,000 casualties Russia has suffered since invading Ukraine were due to noncombat causes, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its latest intelligence update.

The noncombat causes include alcohol consumption, road traffic accidents and “climatic injuries” such as hypothermia.

“Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness,” the update said. “However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations.”

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian spring counteroffensive could begin anytime now, Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said last week. According to the Associated Press, Kyiv is gearing up for a long fight, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working to keep troops and civilians motivated.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Zelenskyy said Western help has been vital in strengthening Ukraine’s resistance and in shaping the course of the war, now in its 13th month of intense fighting with no negotiated peace in sight.

The Ukrainian military starts the spring with an influx of powerful weapons. Germany said this week it had delivered the 18 Leopard 2 tanks it promised to Ukraine. Poland, Canada and Norway have also handed over their pledged Leopard tanks.

Additionally, British Challenger tanks have arrived, while Ukraine’s defense minister says he hopes Western partners will supply at least two battalions of the German-made Leopard 2s by April. He expects six or seven battalions of Leopard 1 tanks, with ammunition, from a coalition of countries. About 80 tanks make up a battalion.

The U.S. pledged Abrams tanks, and France promised light tanks, along with training of Ukrainian soldiers.

More aid

A new $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine’s fight against Russia is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Friday.

A half-dozen types of munitions, including tank munitions, are also expected to be on the list of equipment that could be finalized this weekend. The officials added that the dollar amount and specific equipment in the package could change.

Also slated for inclusion were precision aerial munitions, bridging equipment Ukraine would use to assault Russian positions, recovery vehicles to help disabled heavy equipment such as tanks, and additional rounds for NASAMS air defenses that the U.S. and allies have given Kyiv.

Faltering offensive

According to the British Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update on Ukraine, Russia has made only marginal gains. The ministry reported that the Russian chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, has failed to stage a general winter offensive in Ukraine with the aim of extending Russian control of the whole of the Donbas region.

Gerasimov took command of the “special military operation in Ukraine,” the report said, but 80 days on, “it is increasingly apparent that this project has failed” at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties and “largely squandering its temporary advantage in personnel gained for the autumn’s partial mobilization.”

During a visit to Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised to boost munitions supplies to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, according to footage published by the Defense Ministry on Saturday.

Shoigu has in recent months come under bitter criticism from hard-line advocates of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, who have accused him of failing to supply sufficient munitions to troops on the frontline.

‘Slap in the Face’

In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskyy said it is absurd that Russia has assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council, adding is showed the U.N.’s “total bankruptcy.”

Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba also called Russia’s UNSC presidency “a slap in the face to the international community.”

The U.S. on Thursday urged Russia to “conduct itself professionally,” saying there was no means to block Moscow from the post.

The Kremlin said Friday it planned to “exercise all its rights” in the role.

Nuclear risk

“The risk of a nuclear weapon being used is currently higher than at any time since the depths of the Cold War,” Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. high representative for disarmament affairs, said Friday. “The war in Ukraine represents the most acute example of that risk,” she said.

Nakamitsu said the lack of dialogue and the erosion of the disarmament and arms control agreements combined with dangerous rhetoric and veiled threats could potentially lead to nuclear escalation.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened Friday that Belarus could host intercontinental nuclear missiles on its soil in addition to the tactical nuclear weapons its Russian ally and neighbor has decided to station in Belarus.

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

On March 29 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, along with several other counties, marked 19 years since they joined NATO. All three Baltic nations have long warned of the Kremlin’s imperialistic ambitions and the looming threat it poses to countries throughout the region.

Over the last year, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius — Europe’s most staunch supporters of transatlantic integration for both Ukraine and Georgia — have been among the largest direct supporters of Ukraine’s military in terms of GDP.

During a stopover in Washington to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics told VOA’s Georgian Service Wednesday that Russia’s decision to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is an act of desperation on the part of the Kremlin and calls the very sovereignty of Belarus into question. He also explains why he believes providing Kyiv with the ability to strike bases within Russia is a means to de-escalate the war.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: March 29 marked 19 years since Latvia’s accession to NATO. Visiting Washington after 101 years of formal diplomatic ties with the U.S., what are the key issues and challenges that you discussed with this strategic partner?

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics: The main topics we’re discussing with all the people I’m meeting here is about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and how to better help Ukraine. I think that we are in a year that [will prove] very decisive. Our position is that we must provide Ukraine with all the weapons and ammunition they’re asking for. Then, of course, we need sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

We also discussed the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius — how to proceed from [the 2022 NATO summit in] Madrid to [the upcoming 2023 NATO summit in] Vilnius and beyond. Apart from that, definitely there are also some areas that we believe we should pay closer attention: Moldova, the Caucasus, countries in the Central Asia.

VOA: Visiting Riga last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Baltic States have “formed a democratic wall” in Europe. After 13 months Russia’s of the full-scale war in Ukraine, where do things stand right now for Baltic and European security?

Rinkevics: I think that there are three major challenges that we need to tackle. One is the immediate challenge that is war in Europe; to stop Russia, to help Ukraine to liberate its territory. Helping Ukraine win is in the interest of Europe, the United States and the globe. If we fail and Ukraine fails, then it’s an incentive for [aggressors] to do the same things all over the world. It’s also very important that we continue implementing all those decisions that we made [at the 2022 NATO summit] in Madrid. [Europe’s] eastern flank needs more troops, more weapons, hard military security is important. And finally, the most challenging thing is how you actually look at the challenges in our societies, how to fight disinformation and propaganda; how to strengthen the resilience of our societies.

VOA: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. What do you think this means at this point of the war and how should the West respond? Do you think the placement of nuclear weapons in Belarus might increase calls to avoid “unnecessary escalation” or “provocation” of Moscow?

Rinkevics: Frankly, when it comes from a hard security point of view, this is not going to fundamentally change the military security and situation. The Russians had nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad near our borders already before the full-scale invasion in Ukraine. I believe this is the act of desperation, because you see that the war in Ukraine is not going well for Mr. Putin. Not [just for] three days, not three weeks, not three months, Russian troops have not been able to capture any significant city in Ukraine. I believe this is just a continuation of the nuclear blackmail that we’ve seen in the last year. In my opinion, this kind of announcement clearly shows that Belarus is not a sovereign country. It’s actually part of a Russian military district. And we need to impose more sanctions on both Russia and Belarus, simply to make a point that this blackmail, these moves aren’t going to work.

On the other hand, I think that this kind of rhetoric is not as influential as probably one could think. Assuming that if we do not help Ukraine, Russia is going to stop and won’t escalate is completely wrong. Russia is escalating, and it’s not going to de-escalate simply if someone thinks that not providing Ukraine with means of defense would help the political process. The goal of Putin is not to sit at the negotiation table — the goal of Putin is to take over Ukraine, to [ethnically] cleanse it, to perpetrate all those atrocities revealed in territories since liberated by Ukraine.

VOA: Long-range missiles and fighter jets are still a priority for Ukraine, and yet the U.S. seems hesitant to provide weapons that could be used to strike Russian soil. Many believe it’s unfair to limit Ukraine in that regard. Where does Latvia stand on this?

Rinkevics: Let’s not forget that shelling Ukrainian cities and villages with all kinds of ammunition is something that Russians have actually been doing since 2014. I have no reason to argue that Ukraine does not have this right to respond in a proper way to stop the aggression. I don’t believe [providing Ukraine with long-range missile and fighter jets] is escalatory. If Russia and Mr. Putin can comprehend that there is no winning for them, then that would most probably lead to de-escalation. I’m in that camp that firmly believes that providing Ukraine with all kinds of weapons systems and ammunition is the right thing to do and we should not prevent Ukraine from using military equipment or weapons for legitimate defense. And legitimate defense does not mean only the territory of Ukraine, but, yes, striking military bases in Russia. It is completely legitimate. It’s exactly what Russia currently does in Ukraine.

VOA: Visiting Kyiv last month, President Joe Biden said that “Vladimir Putin hoped to outlast us [the West], but he’s been plain wrong.” Many in Western democracies are worried about so-called Ukraine fatigue indicated by some recent opinion polls. Do you think Western resolve may weaken and reach its limits in the near future?

Rinkevics: Russia really counts on this fatigue, counts on the change of course. We are all democratic countries, and we have elections. There are many pressing issues that democratic countries have to discuss. Of course, military operations could become an object of criticism. Russia now is counting that it may use a lot of its own people, to kill them just for the goal of restoring the Russian empire. Right now, the biggest threat for Russia is next year with the series of elections, including in Russia.

But I think that what we really need is what we call strategic endurance. I think that President Biden is right. Russia so far has failed politically, militarily and frankly, even in blackmailing. We need to find a way to overcome this fatigue, how to endure this. But I’m confident that with all those challenges, we will withstand.

Interview conducted by VOA’s Georgian Service.
…

Three British men have been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Presidium Network, U.K. nonprofit group, said on Saturday.

“We are working hard to secure consular contact with British nationals detained in Afghanistan and we are supporting families,” the U.K.’s foreign ministry said in a statement. 

Media reports named the men as charity medic Kevin Cornwell, 53, an unnamed manager of a hotel for aid workers and YouTube star Miles Routledge.

Routledge, 21, is described in the British press as a “danger tourist,” someone who travels to dangerous countries and posting about it online.

Scott Richards of the Presidium Network told Sky News: “We believe they are in good health and being well treated … and we’re told that they are as good as can be expected in such circumstances.”

There had been “no meaningful contact” between authorities and the two men Presidium is assisting, he added.

These two men are believed to have been held by the Taliban since January.

It is not known how long the third man has been held for.

Presidium on Twitter urged the Taliban to be “considerate of what we believe is a misunderstanding and release these men.”

Last year the Taliban freed a veteran television cameraman and four other British nationals it had held for six months.

Peter Jouvenal was one of a number of Britons that the British government said had been held by the hard-line Islamists.

Britain’s foreign ministry said the five “had no role in the UK government’s work in Afghanistan and travelled to Afghanistan against the UK government’s travel advice.”

“This was a mistake,” it added.

At the time, Afghanistan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused the Britons of “carrying out activities against the country’s laws and traditions of the people of Afghanistan.”

“After consecutive meetings between the IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) and Britain, the said persons were released … and handed over to their home country,” he said.

“They promised to abide by the laws of Afghanistan, its traditions and culture of the people and not to violate them again,” he added.

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and has since sparked global outrage with its policies in particular toward women and girls.
…

A chipper-sounding Pope Francis was discharged Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away that he’s “still alive.”

Francis, 86, was hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday following his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square after reportedly experiencing breathing difficulties. The pontiff received antibiotics administered intravenously during his stay, the Vatican said.

In a sign of his improved health, the Vatican released details of Francis’ Holy Week schedule. It said he would preside at this weekend’s Palm Sunday Mass and at Easter Mass on April 9, both held in St. Peter’s Square and expected to draw tens of thousands of faithful. A Vatican cardinal will be at the altar to celebrate both Masses, a recent practice due to the pontiff having a troublesome knee issue.

But Francis is scheduled to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass, which this year will be held in a juvenile prison in Rome. Still unclear was whether he would attend the late-night, torch-lit Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum to mark Good Friday.

Before departing Gemelli Polyclinic late Saturday morning, Francis comforted a Rome couple whose 5-year-old daughter died Friday night at the Catholic hospital. Outside, Serena Subania, mother of Angelica, sobbed as she pressed her head into the chest of the pope, who held her close and whispered words of comfort.

Francis seemed eager to linger with well-wishers. When a boy showed him his arm cast, the pope made a gesture as if to ask, “Do you have a pen?” Three papal aides whipped out theirs. Francis took one of the pens and added his signature to the child’s already well-autographed cast.

Asked how he felt now, Francis joked, “Still alive, you know.” He gave a thumbs-up sign.

Francis exited the hospital from a side entrance, but his car stopped in front of the main entrance, where a gaggle of journalists waited. He opened the car door himself and got out from the front passenger seat. Francis had a cane ready to lean on.

After chatting, he got back into the white Fiat 500 car that drove him away from Gemelli Polyclinic. But instead of heading straight home, his motorcade sped right past Vatican City and went to St. Mary Major Basilica, a Rome landmark that is one of his favorites.

There, startled tourists rushed to snap photos of him as he sat in a wheelchair, which he has used often to navigate longer distances in recent years due to a chronic knee problem. When he emerged after praying, residents and tourists in the street called out repeatedly, “Long live the pope!” and clapped.

Francis spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery for a bowel narrowing, After his release back then, he also stopped to offer prayers of thanksgiving at St. Mary Major Basilica, which is home to an icon depicting the Virgin Mary. He also visits the church upon returning from trips abroad.

Before leaving the hospital Saturday, Francis, while chatting with journalists, praised medical workers, saying they “show great tenderness.”

“We sick are capricious. I much admire the people who work in hospitals,” he said. Francis also said he read journalists’ accounts of his illness, including in a Rome daily newspaper, and pronounced them well done.

Francis stopped to talk to reporters again before he was driven into the Vatican through a gate of the tiny walled city-state, where he lives at a Holy See hotel. Speaking through an open car window, he said: “Happy Easter to all, and pray for me.”

Then, indicating he was eager to resume his routine, he said, “Forward, thanks.”

In response to a shouted question from a reporter, who asked if the pope would visit Hungary at the end of April as scheduled, Francis answered, “Yes.”

On yet another stop, he got out of his car to distribute chocolate Easter eggs to the police officers who drove the motorcycles at the head of his motorcade.

Given his strained voice, it was unclear if the pope would read the homily at the Palm Sunday service or deliver the usually lengthy “Urbi et Orbi” [Latin for to the city and to the world] address, a review of the globe’s conflicts, at the end of Easter Mass.

He told reporters that after Palm Sunday Mass, he would keep his weekly appointment to greet and bless the public in St. Peter’s Square.

As a young man in his native Argentina, Francis had part of a lung removed, leaving him particularly vulnerable to any respiratory illness.
…

The International Monetary Fund has approved a $15.6 billion support package for Ukraine to assist with the conflict-hit country’s economic recovery, the fund said in a statement Friday.

Russia’s invasion has devastated Ukraine’s economy, causing activity to contract by about 30% last year, destroying much of its capital stock and spreading poverty, according to the IMF.

The outbreak of war has rippled through the global economy, fueling global inflation through rising wheat and oil prices.

The invasion has also highlighted Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas for its energy security. Many countries were forced to seek out alternative sources of energy after the war began.

The two-step program will look to stabilize the country’s economic situation while the war continues, before turning to “more ambitious structural reforms” after the end of hostilities, IMF deputy managing director Gita Gopinath said in a statement.

The 48-month Extended Fund Facility approved by the fund’s board is worth roughly $15.6 billion.

It forms the IMF’s portion of a $115 billion overall support package comprised of debt relief, grants and loans by multilateral and bilateral institutions, the IMF’s Ukraine mission chief Gavin Gray told reporters on Friday.

“The goal of Ukraine’s new IMF-supported program is to provide an anchor for economic policies — policies that will sustain macroeconomic financial stability and support … economic recovery,” he said.

Of the total amount approved by the IMF, $2.7 billion is being made available to Ukraine immediately, with the rest of the funds due to be released over the next four years.

The program also includes additional guarantees from some IMF members in the event that active combat continues beyond its current estimate of mid-2024.

If the conflict were to extend into 2025, it would raise Ukraine’s financial needs from $115 billion to about $140 billion, Gray said.

“This program has been designed in such a way that it would work even if economic circumstances are considerably worse than … the current baseline,” he said.
…

Without billions of dollars more to feed millions of hungry people, the world will see mass migration, destabilized countries, and starving children and adults in the next 12-18 months, the head of the Nobel prize-winning U.N. World Food Program warned Friday.

David Beasley praised increased funding from the United States and Germany last year, and urged China, Gulf nations, billionaires and other countries “to step up big time.”

In an interview before he hands the reins of the world’s largest humanitarian organization to U.S. ambassador Cindy McCain next week, the former South Carolina governor said he’s “extremely worried” that WFP won’t raise about $23 billion it needs this year to help an estimated 350 million people in 49 countries who desperately need food.

“Right at this stage, I’ll be surprised if we get 40% of it, quite frankly,” he said.

WFP was in a similar crisis last year, he said, but fortunately he was able to convince the United States to increase its funding from about $3.5 billion to $7.4 billion and Germany to raise its contribution from $350 million a few years ago to $1.7 billion, but he doesn’t think they’ll do it again this year.

Other countries need to step up now, he said, starting with China, the world’s second-largest economy which gave WFP just $11 million last year.

Beasley applauded China for its success in substantially reducing hunger and poverty at home, but said it gave less than one cent per person last year compared to the United States, the world’s leading economy, which gave about $22 per person.

China needs “to engage in the multilateral world” and be willing to provide help that is critical, he said. “They have a moral obligation to do so.”

Beasley said they’ve done “an incredible job of feeding their people,” and “now we need their help in other parts of the world” on how they did it, particularly in poorer countries including in Africa.

With high oil prices Gulf countries can also do more, especially Muslim nations that have relations with countries in east Africa, the Sahara and elsewhere in the Middle East, he said, expressing hope they will increase contributions.

Beasley said the wealthiest billionaires made unprecedented profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and “it’s not too much to ask some of the multibillionaires to step up and help us in the short-term crisis,” even though charity isn’t a long-term solution to the food crisis.

In the long-term, he said what he’d really like to see is billionaires using their experience and success to engage “in the world’s greatest need – and that is food on the planet to feed 8 billion people.”

“The world has to understand that the next 12 to 18 months is critical, and if we back off the funding, you will have mass migration, and you will have destabilization nations and that will all be on top of starvation among children and people around the world,” he warned.

Beasley said WFP was just forced to cut rations by 50% to 4 million people in Afghanistan, and “these are people who are knocking on famine’s door now.”

“We don’t have enough money just to reach the most vulnerable people now,” he said. “So we are in a crisis over the cliff stage right now, where we literally could have hell on earth if we’re not very careful.”

Beasley said he’s been telling leaders in the West and Europe that while they’re focusing everything on Ukraine and Russia, “you better well not forget about what’s south and southeast of you because I can assure you it is coming your way if you don’t pay attention and get on top of it.”

With $400 trillion worth of wealth on the planet, he said, there’s no reason for any child to die of starvation.

The WFP executive director said leaders have to prioritize the humanitarian needs that are going to have the greatest impact on stability in societies around the world.

He singled out several priority places — Africa’s Sahel region as well as the east including Somalia, northern Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia; Syria which is having an impact on Jordan and Lebanon; and Central and South America where the number of people migrating to the United States is now five times what it was a year-and-a-half ago.
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Vanuatu leads action on climate justice

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution Wednesday that will ask the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of states under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations from the impact of climate change. The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu spearheaded the drafting and negotiations of the resolution, with a core group of 18 countries representing most corners of the world.

What Are State’s Obligations to Protect Citizens from Climate Change? World Court to Weigh In

General Assembly closer to creating new entity on missing Syrians

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the international community Tuesday to create an international body that would assist families of the estimated 100,000 missing persons in Syria to find out the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

UN Chief Urges Creation of Entity to Clarify Fate of 100,000 Missing Syrians

Disarmament chief: risk of nuclear weapon use now highest since Cold War

The United Nations disarmament chief warned Friday that the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is higher now than at any time since the Cold War. Izumi Nakamitsu told the Security Council that the war in Ukraine “represents the most acute example of that risk.”

Russia takes over Security Council’s April presidency

On April 1, in what some critics say sounds more like an April Fool’s joke than reality, Russia will take over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month — and no one can prevent it.

Cyclone raises risk of disease at Malawi sites for displaced people

The U.N. humanitarian agency says Malawi needs immediate help to deal with diseases spreading in displacement camps for Cyclone Freddy survivors. The Malawi health minister told reporters Tuesday that the government is beefing up its medical staff, but a local newspaper says the country needs more money to adequately deal with health care needs.

UN Concerned About Disease in Malawi’s Displacement Camps

Talking to Sudanese men about female genital mutilation

The World Health Organization says about 87% of Sudanese females between 15 and 49 have undergone female genital mutilation, one of the highest rates in the world. A project by the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, is targeting sports clubs to engage men and boys in the fight against the practice. Watch this report from Henry Wilkins in Khartoum, Sudan:

UNICEF Talking to Sudanese Men’s Clubs About Female Genital Mutilation

In brief

— A resolution put forward Monday by Russia at the United Nations calling for an international investigation into the apparent sabotage last year on the Nord Stream gas pipelines failed to win Security Council support. Russia’s draft received only three votes in favor — from itself, China and Brazil. The other 12 Security Council members abstained. Several council members said an additional investigation would not be beneficial right now and urged waiting for the results of the national ones. Others suggested that a deadline be imposed for the national investigations to conclude, saying they should not be open-ended.

— International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi made a mission to Ukraine this week. He has been trying for months to negotiate a weapons-free zone around the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, which has come under repeated shelling and blackouts during the war and is currently occupied by Russian troops. A team of IAEA experts is also based at the facility. Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the city of Zaporizhzhya on Monday and indicated he may soon go to Russia for further talks. He warned that a nuclear accident with radiological consequences “will spare no one.”

— Thursday was the first ever International Day of Zero Waste. U.N. Secretary-General Guterres warned during a General Assembly meeting on the issue that the planet is turning into a “garbage dump” and by 2050 municipal solid waste will double to 4 billion tons a year. He called for more sustainable consumption and production patterns with the goal of a zero-waste future. Guterres also announced that he is establishing an Advisory Board of Eminent Persons on Zero Waste to be chaired by the first lady of Turkey, Emine Erdoğan.

Did you know?

The U.N. flag was designed in 1945 when the organization was founded. It is a map of the world resting inside two olive branches. The blue background was chosen to represent peace, and this shade of blue has become known as “U.N. blue.” American architect Oliver Lincoln Lundquist led the design team that created it.
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On Saturday, in what some critics say sounds more like an April Fools’ joke than reality, Russia will take over the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council for the month, and no one can prevent it.

With Russia’s war in Ukraine entering its 14th month, an arrest warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court for President Vladimir Putin, and Moscow planning to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus, critics are questioning how Russia could helm the U.N.’s most powerful organ.

“The question is very clear: Can the war criminal head the U.N. Security Council?” Andrius Kubilius, a Lithuanian member of the European Parliament, asked during a session Wednesday, referring to Putin.

On March 17, The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader for his alleged role in the abduction and unlawful deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

“I think that people are seeing it the wrong way round. I think that people should understand that this month is more of a headache than an advantage for the Russians,” Richard Gowan, U.N. director for International Crisis Group, told VOA.

“If they try and use the presidency to try to stir up trouble for the Ukrainians, or push their narratives about the war, they will just get an enormous amount of blowback,” he added.

The 15-nation Security Council is the U.N.’s most powerful organ. It can authorize military action, deploy peacekeepers, sanction nations and individuals, and refer possible war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court.

Council members take turns as president according to alphabetical order (by English spellings). The last time Russia came up in the rotation was February 2022. On the 24th day of its presidency, Putin launched his “special military operation” into Ukraine, in a flagrant breach of the U.N. Charter and international law — also in the middle of a council meeting hoping to prevent it.

The only time in recent history when a country missed its presidency was in 1994 in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, according to Security Council Report, a think tank that studies the council’s transparency and effectiveness. At the time, Rwanda was a non-permanent council member.

Rwanda’s council seat was vacant for six weeks from mid-July, when Pasteur Bizimungu became Rwanda’s president, until September, when Rwanda should have been council president.

“But clearly the new government had just taken up the seat; they didn’t have time to prepare. They just had experienced the genocide and they had a new government,” Security Council Report told VOA. “So, they skipped Rwanda, and the seat went to Spain, which was next in alphabetical order.”

The council decided that Rwanda would get its chance, once the alphabetical rotation had been completed, and it did sit as president in December 1994.

As for Russia’s presidency, no one can prevent it.

From the White House podium on Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that a country that “flagrantly violates the U.N. Charter” and invades its neighbor has no place on the council, but there is “no feasible international legal pathway” around that.

“As unpalatable as it may be to see Russia presiding over the council, the reality is this is a largely ceremonial position which rotates to council members month by month in alphabetical order,” she said, adding that the U.S. encourages Russia to conduct itself professionally so the council can carry out its work.

“Russia is a permanent member,” said one council diplomat. “While they are misbehaving gravely on Ukraine and just tearing the [U.N.] Charter apart, my expectation is they will do this presidency in a professional manner.”

Ukraine is outraged that Russia is on the council, much less chairing it. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow’s presidency is a “bad joke.”

Kyiv argues that Moscow should have formally applied for U.N. membership after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and since it has not done so, it does not have the legal right to be on the council, much less a permanent, veto-wielding member.

“Russia’s presence in the U.N. Security Council is the result of the largest diplomatic fraud of the 20th century,” Kuleba said Thursday at a Chatham House discussion of Russia’s war. “We should delegitimize Russia’s presence in the U.N. Security Council first, by exposing the truth to everyone.”

Regardless of optics or opinions, U.N. observers say there is little Russia can do to exploit its position as council president.

“It’s not like the G-20, G-7 or EU presidency where you chair six months or a year and where you inject your own agenda,” the council diplomat said.

“I think the role of the council president is a bit overrated,” Crisis Group’s Gowan said. “Most of it is just chairing meetings and shuffling paper.”

Among Russia’s planned meetings in April will be a ministerial-level debate chaired by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the defense of the U.N. Charter.

Moscow also plans to hold an informal council meeting early in the month on the issue of Ukrainian children abducted and forcibly deported to Russia, which Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said was planned before the ICC issued its warrant for Putin. The envoy has described the issue of the children as “totally overblown.”

And on April 10, Russia has scheduled a meeting on Western arms transfers to Ukraine. Western nations say they are sending equipment, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine as it is fighting in self-defense. They accuse Moscow of obtaining illegal arms transfers from Iran and North Korea.

Boycott

There have been some calls for nations to boycott Russia’s presidency, including a nascent online petition campaign. Ironically, the only council member ever to boycott council proceedings was the former Soviet Union.

In 1950, the USSR boycotted council meetings for more than six months over the issue of China’s U.N. representation. Moscow had recognized the Communist People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government and wanted its representative to replace the Nationalist Chinese delegation.

“They did come back into the council on August 1, 1950, which was their presidency,” Security Council Report told VOA. “The reason why they came back was because that was during the Korean War and all these votes on U.N. engagement in Korea were being adopted because they were not there to veto them. So they realized it was disadvantageous to them to not be sitting in the council.”
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Officials in the small northern Spanish region of Asturias claimed Friday that unspecified arsonists were behind most of the 100 or so wildfires raging in the heavily wooded and mountainous area.

Unusually high spring temperatures and gusting winds have helped spread the fires over the past two days, with about 400 people needing to be evacuated from villages and small towns and several roads cut off for safety.

Asturias regional President Adrián Barbón said the “full weight of the law” would be applied to what he described as “fire terrorists.” He said the fires were started in an organized way by criminals taking advantage of the adverse weather conditions. He didn’t explain what the alleged arsonists’ motives might be. No arrests have been made.

Firefighters in the region reported early Friday they were dealing with 116 fires in 35 areas. By midafternoon, the number of blazes had dropped to 97.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez contacted Barbón from Beijing on Friday to express his support for the region. Speaking later at a press conference, Sánchez said that if it is proven the fires were started intentionally, the culprits would be punished.

Asturias region rural area councilor Alejandro Calvo told Spanish National Television that while the reason behind the fires is not really known, “evidently it is a wave of provoked fires that has no precedent.”

There were no immediate details on how much land has been affected by the fires.

Some 267,000 hectares burned last year in Spain, making 2022 its worst year of fire destruction since 1994, government statistics say. That was three times the national average for the past decade.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus satellite observation service, Spain accounted for 35% of the burned land in European wildfires in 2022.

Unexpectedly fierce wildfires burned more than 4,600 hectares of forest and led to 1,400 people being evacuated in eastern Spain this week. The blazes in the Castellón province were reported to have diminished considerably Friday. 
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Pope Francis baptized a baby and greeted children in Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday as he appeared to make a rapid recovery from a bout of bronchitis that caused him to be hospitalized earlier this week. 

Francis will return home on Saturday, the Vatican said, and is scheduled to take part in a Palm Sunday service the following day to mark the start of Easter Week celebrations. 

“After evaluating the results of the examinations carried out today and the favorable clinical progress, (the medical team) has confirmed the Holy Father’s discharge from the Gemelli Hospital tomorrow,” a Vatican statement said. 

The pope, 86, was taken to hospital two days ago after complaining of breathing difficulties. He was diagnosed with bronchitis and has responded well to an infusion of antibiotics, his medical team has said. 

Highlighting the pope’s improved health, the Vatican released a video showing him standing up and baptizing a baby who was in a hospital cot. In a separate photograph, Francis was shown handing an Easter egg to a young child.  

The Vatican said he stayed about 30 minutes in the children’s cancer and neurosurgery wards before returning to his own room. 

The dean of the college of cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, has said cardinals will help the pope during Easter celebrations this coming week and take care of altar duties.  

Holy Week, as it is known, includes a busy schedule of rituals and ceremonies that can be physically exhausting, including a Good Friday nighttime procession by Rome’s Colosseum. 

The pope was also forced to follow some of last Easter’s events seated, due to persistent knee pain, with cardinals celebrating some of the Masses in his place. 

Francis, who marked the 10th anniversary of his pontificate earlier this month, has suffered a number of ailments in recent years. He was last hospitalized in July 2021 when he had part of his colon removed in an operation aimed at addressing a painful bowel condition called diverticulitis. 

“When experienced with faith, the trials and difficulties of life serve to purify our hearts, making them humbler and thus more and more open to God,” the pope tweeted on Friday.  
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