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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who led the Catholic Church for nearly eight years before becoming the first pope to resign in six centuries, died Saturday at the age of 95.

Benedict’s death followed an appeal by Pope Francis to pray for his predecessor, with the Vatican announcing the former pontiff’s health had worsened due to “advanced age.”

When he made the shock announcement in 2013 that he would be stepping down, Benedict said he no longer had the physical and mental strength to serve as pope.

He rarely made public appearances in his retirement, dedicating the last years of his life to prayer and meditation as he lived in a former convent in the Vatican.

In a 2018 letter to Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Benedict described “the slow withering of my physical forces,” saying he was “on an interior pilgrimage towards home.”

Early years

Born Joseph Ratzinger in 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany, he spent his youth in southeastern Germany near the Austrian border. He entered a seminary a year before the outbreak of World War II and would eventually be drafted into the German army, where he served in an anti-aircraft unit before eventually deserting in the late days of the war.

He returned to his theological studies, and in 1951 became an ordained priest. After years of teaching and serving as an adviser to the Second Vatican Council, in 1977 Pope Paul VI appointed Ratzinger archbishop of Munich and Freising and later made him a cardinal.

Ratzinger spent more than 20 years serving as the prefect of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he was a close friend and adviser of Pope John Paul II.

He presided over the April 2005 funeral mass for John Paul II, and that same month was elected the 265th pontiff.

Papal legacy

Benedict’s time as pope included the fallout from child sex-abuse scandals involving clergy that emerged during John Paul II’s papacy. His response included expelling priests and both apologizing to and meeting with victims.

A January 2022 report accused him of failing to act in four cases during his time as archbishop of Munich.  In a letter released by the Vatican, Benedict acknowledged what he called “errors” in handling allegations of sexual abuse and said he could “only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness.”

In 2006, Benedict prompted protests from the Muslim world after a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor stating what for some Muslims was seen as an attack on Islam.

In 2013, his butler was convicted of taking sensitive and confidential documents from the papal chambers and leaking them to journalists.

At the time of Benedict’s retirement, Brennan Pursell, one of Benedict’s biographers, told VOA he will be remembered first and foremost as a teacher.

“His legacy as pope will survive in his writings, above all, and his catechesis [religious/faith instruction], his encyclicals [papal letters], his various documents,” he said. “And for people who just read what’s online, they can get a sense of the awesome extent of this man’s contribution to church teaching.”

The Rev. Thomas Reece at Georgetown University said Benedict “had very strong ideas about church doctrine, orthodoxy, church traditions. He was not afraid to go after priests and religious and theologians who disagreed with him — basically try to silence them.”

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

Behind the frontline near Kreminna, a strategically located Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops say they are facing a tough enemy.

“We fight them every day, in any weather. We attack in the direction of Kreminna, but they are not easy to defeat,” said a 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier who goes by the call sign “Kulak” or “Fist.”

“They are good, they are tough,” he told Agence France-Presse in Yampil, a village some 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Kreminna and recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late September.

The city in the eastern Luhansk region — which Moscow claimed to have annexed along with three other Ukrainian regions — has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days.

“We had some successes on the Ukrainian side, but nothing huge. The enemy is not giving up,” Kulak said with a smile.

For the past few days, the region’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, has been posting encouraging — if slightly contradictory — messages on social media.

On Thursday, he wrote that Ukraine’s troops advanced 2.5 kilometers in the direction of Kreminna in a week.

A day earlier, he said Russians had sent reinforcements to the area, while adding that the city could be retaken early next year.

According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces “appear to be preparing for a decisive effort” in the Luhansk region.

‘Get it over with’

Yampil looks like a hive of wartime activity.

Military vehicles crisscross the main street of this largely destroyed village. There are nearly as many soldiers as there are civilians.

In a field behind several half-abandoned houses, soldiers are busy keeping two tanks — nicknamed Natalya and Salvador — in fighting shape. The tanks were captured during the Russian army’s retreat.

“If we liberate Kreminna, we will cut off the Russians’ supply route in Rubizhne, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk,” said one of the soldiers, Vlad, referring to other occupied towns in the region.

“We don’t want the situation to be put on ice. We want to push them back, get it over with,” said Vlad, who hails from Kyiv.

‘Nowhere better than home’

Although Yampil was liberated by Ukrainian forces during a sweeping counteroffensive in the fall, it is still within reach of Russian artillery.

A few kilometers up north, battles are raging in the village of Torske, and the shelling has intensified in recent days.

“It’s more or less fine. It would be better if it weren’t for these deafening noises,” said Olga, a 69-year-old retired teacher, declining to give her last name.

Every day, she meets with other residents of Yampil outside the only operating store.

The convenience store is both a collection point for humanitarian aid and a place to gather for a chat.

Despite the cold, they sit around a table in front of the store, talking and arguing as military vehicles drive by.

“We come here to talk; it’s our living room,” Olga said, smiling while a woman sitting next to her lamented the power cuts and lack of aid in the village.

“They don’t care about us!” she said.

Humanitarian aid dominates conversations here.

Not far away, an 84-year-old woman wearing a blue head scarf bursts into tears as she points to the people gathered round the table.

“When help arrives, they take everything, they don’t share anything. Why?” she asked tearfully, standing in front of her heavily damaged home.

But local official Yulia Rybalko insists that “nobody is starving” in Yampil.

She said she organizes the distribution of food, clothing and firewood delivered by NGOs.

Only some 600 civilians remain in the village that used to have a population of 2,500 people before Russia invaded on February 24.

But according to Olga, the former math teacher, many of those who leave choose to eventually return.

“Nowhere is better than home,” she said.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine continues to endure and repel waves of Russian air attacks and that Ukrainian air defenses have been made “stronger than ever.” 

“In the new year,” he added, “Ukrainian air defense will become even stronger, even more effective.”

The Ukrainian leader said Ukrainian air defense “can become the most powerful in Europe,” a guarantee of security “not only for our country, but for the entire continent.”

The United States last week announced nearly $2 billion in additional military aid, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on NATO member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine.

“I call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not win,” Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA on Friday.

Stoltenberg said the need for ammunition and spare parts was “enormous.” He told DPA that military support for Ukraine was the fastest way to peace, Reuters reports.

“We know that most wars end at the negotiating table — probably this war too — but we know that what Ukraine can achieve in these negotiations depends inextricably on the military situation,” he said.

Russia’s ongoing offensive

Russia shelled Ukrainian towns across a long stretch of the front line from north to south, Ukrainian officials said Friday, a day after Moscow fired dozens of missiles in its latest barrage against critical infrastructure.

In an evening report Friday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces had tried to advance near Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the east, while firing on several towns and villages, and shelled settlements further west in the Donetsk region, including the town of Vuhledar.

Zelenskyy said the nation’s forces were holding their positions in the eastern Donbas region.

“There are also some areas of the front where we are advancing a bit,” he noted.

Russian forces shelled several towns near Kupiansk, in the northeast Kharkiv region recaptured by Ukraine in September, the General Staff report said, as well as settlements in the Luhansk region, where Ukrainian forces hope to advance after the gains of recent weeks.

Areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south, also came under heavy Russian shelling, including the contested town of Hulyaipole. Additionally, there was also shelling in and around Ukrainian-held Nikopol, on the opposite side of the Kakhovka reservoir from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. 

On the southern front, there were renewed Russian strikes targeting infrastructure in the city of Kherson, which Russian forces abandoned last month, and Kachkarivka, further north on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Air attack sirens blared overnight into Friday in the capital, Kyiv, and Reuters reported several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire south of the city, as Russian forces launched 16 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the officials said.

The Ukrainian military said all of the drones had been destroyed. Seven had targeted Kyiv, where an administrative building was damaged, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Putin-Xi deepen ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed Friday to strengthen their bilateral cooperation. During their opening remarks on a publicly broadcast videoconference, the two leaders welcomed strengthening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid what they called “geopolitical tensions” and a “difficult international situation,” with Putin expressing his wish to extend military collaboration.

“In the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, the significance of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is growing as a stabilizing factor,” he said.

Putin added that he expected Xi to visit Moscow in the spring. Such a trip “will demonstrate to the whole world the strength of the Russian-Chinese ties on key issues, will become the main political event of the year in bilateral relations,” he said.

Xi said through a translator that “in the face of a difficult and far from straightforward international situation,” Beijing was ready “to increase strategic cooperation with Russia, provide each other with development opportunities, be global partners for the benefit of the peoples of our countries and in the interests of stability around the world.”

But an official Chinese transcript of the video summit between the two leaders highlighted differences in their approach to their developing alliance, making no mention of Xi’s visit to Moscow and stressing that Beijing, which has declined to back or condemn the invasion, would maintain its “objective and fair” stance.

The U.S. expressed concern about the Russian-China rapprochement.

“We are monitoring Beijing’s activity closely,” a State Department spokesperson said. “Beijing claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes it clear, it is still investing in close ties to Russia.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly said they have yet to see Beijing provide material support to Russia on its invasion on Ukraine, a move that could provoke sanctions against China.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  

 
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The condition of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI remains stable, the Vatican said Friday, as Catholics prayed for the 95-year-old former pontiff whose health has seriously deteriorated.

The German, who in 2013 was the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, has become increasingly frail over the years.

Pope Francis said Wednesday his predecessor, whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger, was “very ill.”

On Friday, the Vatican said his condition was “stable,” adding that Benedict had rested well overnight and taken part in a mass held in his bedroom.

Benedict moved out of the papal palace and into a former convent within the Vatican when he retired.

Francis called Wednesday for people to pray for him, before visiting him at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.

The Vatican later confirmed the former pope’s health had worsened “due to advancing age,” while a Vatican source told Agence France-Presse it had begun deteriorating “about three days ago.”

“It is his vital functions that are failing, including his heart,” the source said, adding that no hospital admission was planned, as he has the “necessary medical equipment” at home.

The Rome diocese celebrated a special mass for Benedict at the Basilica of St. John Lateran Friday. In his homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said as “priest, theologian, bishop, pope,” Benedict “expressed at the same time, the strength and the sweetness of faith.”

Gratitude

In Germany, in the church of St. Oswald in Marktl am Inn, where the former pope was baptized, a photo of Benedict was set up on a tripod next to a baptistery.

Photos from his 2006 trip to the town line the walls. A red candle burns on the floor of the white building, which is topped by a black bell tower.

One visitor, Tobias Ferstl, 43, prayed with his eyes closed for several minutes in front of the photograph of Benedict.

“I was passing through, so I decided to stop by the birthplace of the Pope Emeritus,” the devout Catholic, an altar server at Regensburg Cathedral, told AFP.

“I don’t feel any great sadness or astonishment, but rather gratitude,” he said, despite a few tears filling his eyes. Benedict was “a gentle person,” he said.

At Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, tourists and pilgrims taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree and Nativity scene contrasted with the few journalists on standby in case of a death announcement.

“He was a great pope,” Italian Carmelo Dellisanti told AFP. “Perhaps misunderstood by some in the Catholic world, but he served the Church. He produced extraordinary homilies and writings.”

A difficult time

Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005.

His eight-year pontificate was marked by multiple crises, including the global clerical sex abuse scandal, which has dogged him in retirement as well.

A damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally having failed to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s, when he was archbishop of Munich.

Benedict has denied wrongdoing, but in a letter released after the report, asked “for forgiveness.”

“I think he had a difficult time as pope, because of the pedophilia scandal, and he never really wanted to be pope, so it would be nice if he went to heaven,” said 30-year-old German Annika Hafner.

Benedict has appeared increasingly frail in recent months, using a wheelchair, but was still receiving visitors. He appears frail in photos taken December 1.

The last public video of him, released by the Vatican in August, shows a thin man with a hearing aid who can no longer speak, but whose eyes are still bright.
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Romanian authorities have arrested divisive social media personality Andrew Tate on suspicion of human trafficking and rape.
 

Prosecutors in Bucharest asked a court Friday to extend by 30 days Tate’s detention.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer, was detained along with his brother and two other men.  

Tate did not comment but his attorney confirmed he had been detained.

Tate has been barred from some media platforms because of his misogynistic comments and hate speech.  

Reuters reports that prosecutors say they found six sexually exploited women when they detained the four men.   

Tate recently was involved in an online exchange with 19-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg, after he said he owned 33 cars.  

 
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As the person who dressed the Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, who died Thursday at 81, was synonymous with 1970s punk rock, a rebelliousness that remained the hallmark of an unapologetically political designer who became one of British fashion’s biggest names.

“Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” her fashion house said on Twitter.

Climate change, pollution and her support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were all fodder for protest T-shirts or banners carried by her models on the runway.

She dressed up as then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for a magazine cover in 1989 and drove a white tank near the country home of a later British leader, David Cameron, to protest fracking.

The rebel was inducted into Britain’s establishment in 1992 by Queen Elizabeth, who awarded her the Order of the British Empire medal. But, ever keen to shock, Westwood turned up at Buckingham Palace without underwear — a fact she proved to photographers by a revealing twirl of her skirt.

“The only reason I am in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity,'” Westwood said in her 2014 biography. “Nothing is interesting to me unless it’s got that element.”

Instantly recognizable with her orange or white hair, Westwood first made a name for herself in punk fashion in 1970s London, dressing the punk rock band that defined the genre.

Together with the Sex Pistols’ manager, Malcolm McLaren, she defied the hippie trends of the time to sell rock ‘n’ roll-inspired clothing.

They moved on to torn outfits adorned with chains as well as latex and fetish pieces that they sold at their shop in London’s King’s Road variously called “Let It Rock,” “Sex” and “Seditionaries,” among other names.

They used prints of swastikas, naked breasts and, perhaps most well-known, an image of the queen with a safety pin through her lips. Favorite items included sleeveless black T-shirts, studded, with zips, safety pins or bleached chicken bones.

“There was no punk before me and Malcolm,” Westwood said in the biography. “And the other thing you should know about punk too: it was a total blast.”

‘Buy less’

Born Vivienne Isabel Swire on April 8, 1941, in the English Midlands town of Glossop, Westwood grew up at a time of rationing during and after World War II.

A recycling mentality pervaded her work, and she repeatedly told fashionistas to “choose well” and “buy less.” From the late 1960s, she lived in a small flat in south London for some 30 years and cycled to work.

When she was a teenager, her parents, a greengrocer and a cotton weaver, moved the family to north London where she studied jewelry-making and silversmithing before retraining as a teacher.

While she taught at a primary school, she met her first husband, Derek Westwood, marrying him in a homemade dress. Their son, Ben, was born in 1963, and the couple divorced in 1966.

Now a single mother, Westwood was selling jewelry on London’s Portobello Road when she met art student McLaren, who would go on to be her partner romantically and professionally. They had a son, Joe Corre, co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

After the Sex Pistols split, the two held their first catwalk show in 1981, presenting a “new romantic” look of African-style patterns, buccaneer trousers and sashes.

Westwood, by then in her 40s, began to slowly forge her own path in fashion, eventually separating from McLaren in the early 1980s.

Often looking to history, her influential designs have included corsets, Harris Tweed suits and taffeta ballgowns.

Her 1985 “Mini-Crini” line introduced her short puffed skirt and a more fitted silhouette. Her sky-high platform shoes garnered worldwide attention in 1993 when model Naomi Campbell stumbled on the catwalk in a pair.

“My clothes have a story. They have an identity. They have character and a purpose,” Westwood said.

“That’s why they become classics. Because they keep on telling a story. They are still telling it.”

The Westwood brand flourished in the 1990s, with fashionistas flocking to her runway shows in Paris, and stores opening around the world selling her lines, accessories and perfumes.

She met her second husband, Andreas Kronthaler, teaching fashion in Vienna. They married in 1993, and he later became her creative partner.

Westwood used her public profile to champion issues including nuclear disarmament and to protest anti-terrorism laws and government spending policies that hit the poor. She held a large “climate revolution” banner at the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony in London, and frequently turned her models into catwalk eco-warriors.

“I’ve always had a political agenda,” Westwood told L’Officiel fashion magazine in 2018.

“I’ve used fashion to challenge the status quo.”
…

Georgiy Yatsenko was hiding in the basement trying to comfort his anxious grandchildren on Thursday morning when an explosion rocked his normally sleepy street in southern Kyiv.

The blast blew out all of his windows, but the scene that greeted him when he stepped outside was even more frightening: half a dozen nearby houses were mostly destroyed by Russia’s latest missile barrage targeting Ukraine.

“The main thing is that people are alive,” he said as he watched excavators try to clear the resulting mess of bricks, wooden planks and power lines.

Missiles cities in Ukraine

Ukrainian officials said the air defense systems downed all 16 missiles that targeted Kyiv on Thursday, part of a broader assault that also hit Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the east and the western city of Lviv on the border with Poland.

Multiple witnesses said the explosion on Yatsenko’s street in Kyiv’s southern Bortnychi neighborhood was probably caused by a missile fragment, not a direct hit.

It made little difference to Tetiana Denysenko, who rushed to the scene after receiving a distressing call from her young granddaughter.

“She said, ‘Grandma, our house is on fire. We’ve been hit. My mother (Denysenko’s daughter) was thrown to the ground. She’s lying unconscious,'” the 62-year-old recalled.

“That’s all I could hear,” she said.

By the time Denysenko arrived, her daughter was being taken in an ambulance for emergency surgery.

“Thank God the children are alive,” Denysenko said through tears. “Thank God my granddaughter only had an injured leg.”

Siren, then explosions

Sergiy, who lives in the same neighborhood and gave only his first name, said that despite an air raid siren early Thursday morning, he had spent a leisurely few hours having breakfast and walking his dog.

Once he heard reports of explosions elsewhere in Kyiv, he decided to go to a local shelter for cover. But he and his wife had only reached their front door when the explosion occurred around 9 a.m., local time.

“We heard a bang, very strong, and there was a second explosion, but less powerful,” the 59-year-old said.

“We went outdoors and saw the windows in our house were broken and the house opposite ours was destroyed.”

He and his neighbors now must race to repair their houses as they prepare for the depths of winter amid persistent blackouts.

Nearly half of Kyiv’s population was left without power after the attacks on Thursday, as was 90% of Lviv, officials said.

Yatsenko said he planned to cover his window frames with plastic in an attempt to warm the house where he lives with nine other relatives.

It was unclear what the options would be for those whose houses suffered heavier damage.

At Denysenko’s daughter’s house, neighbors helped cart out salvageable items including a refrigerator, but the elderly woman had no answer when asked where the family would go.

“I don’t know,” Denysenko said, sobbing. “I don’t know.”
…

A new wave of Russian missile strikes pounded cities throughout Ukraine on Thursday, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said a number of energy facilities were damaged and that “Russia is trying to deprive Ukrainians of light before the new year.”

However, the Ukrainian military said it had managed to neutralize most of the missiles, avoiding much larger damage.

“According to preliminary data, 69 missiles were launched in total. Fifty-four enemy cruise missiles were shot down,” said Ukraine’s top military general, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhniy.

“The enemy is attacking Ukraine from various directions with air- and sea-based cruise missiles from strategic aircraft and ships,” Ukrainian air defense said on social media, describing the scope of the attack as massive.

‘Senseless barbarism’

Officials earlier said more than 120 missiles were fired, according to Reuters. In addition to the cruise missiles, Ukraine’s military said anti-aircraft and S-300 ADMS (air defense missile system) were used.

Russia has repeatedly used missiles to target Ukrainian cities, including strikes that have destroyed critical infrastructure sites, though it denies targeting civilians.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks “senseless barbarism.”

“These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year,” he said.

Several people were wounded in the capital, as rescuers continued search-and-rescue operations.

“At the moment, there are three victims in Kyiv, including a 14-year-old girl. Everyone was hospitalized,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

He warned of potential electricity cuts and called on residents to stock up on water and to charge their electronic devices.

Kharkiv, other cities attacked

Russian kamikaze drones targeted infrastructure in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, where there were numerous explosions throughout the city.

“The Russian occupiers once again struck the energy infrastructure of Kharkiv, using 13 Iranian Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles in the attack. Ukrainian defense shot down 11 of these drones,” the Ukraine General Staff said.

Local officials said the attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv.

The strikes also targeted Zaporizhzhia and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, but most of them were downed by the Ukrainian military, the General Staff said, and five drones were shot down around the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Additional strikes were aimed at the Black Sea port city of Odesa and Lviv, where Russian attacks are rare, which was left without power. There were power cuts in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions to reduce potential damage to the power infrastructure.

Andriy Sadovyi, mayor of Lviv, said the attack left his city near the Polish border about 90% without electricity.

Shelling on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia damaged electricity lines and gas pipelines and damaged houses.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.

As heavy fighting in the Donbas region continued without significant advances on either side, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces rained scores of missile and rocket salvos along the whole front line in the east, while attempting to push ahead with their stalemated offensive in the Bakhmut and Avdiyivka areas of Donetsk.

Ukraine leader promotes peace plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been advocating a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to recognize Ukraine’s territory and withdraw its troops.

The Kremlin reiterated its dismissal of the proposal Wednesday, doubling down on its stance that Ukraine must accept the annexation Russia claimed in September after referendums rejected by Ukraine and most other nations as shams. The four Ukrainian regions include Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. “Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

After the latest Russian air strikes, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, “There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side.”

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Kosovo reopened the country’s main border crossing with Serbia on Thursday after a nearby barricade that led to its closure was removed, while Serbia’s president said more than a dozen other Serb roadblocks in northern Kosovo also would be dismantled. 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbs would start removing their barricades on Thursday. The move could defuse weeks of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia that triggered fears of new clashes in the Balkans.

Kosovo had demanded that NATO-led peacekeepers remove the barricades or said its forces would do it. Serbia then raised combat readiness of its troops on the border with Kosovo, demanding an end to “attacks” against Kosovo Serbs.

The removal agreement was reached at a late-night crisis meeting with the leaders of Kosovo’s Serbs, Vucic said. 

It followed the release from jail of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, whose detention on a terrorism change triggered protests and clashes in northern Kosovo. A court ordered him placed under house arrest Wednesday.

The roadblocks, which consist mostly of loaded heavy trucks, other vehicles and tents, were still in place as of mid-morning Thursday. Unknown assailants set fire to two trucks on a roadblock in the northern town of Mitrovica, Kosovo police said.

The former police officer, Dejan Pantic, was detained Dec. 10 for “terrorism” after allegedly assaulting a Kosovo police officer during an earlier protest. 

Kosovo’s president and prime minister have criticized a Kosovo court’s decision to release Pantic from jail. 

“How is it possible for someone who is accused of terrorism to go from detention to house arrest,” President Vjosa Osmani said late Wednesday.

The main Merdare border crossing with Serbia closed down earlier this week because of a roadblock a few kilometers away, on the Serbian side of the border. 

Kosovo police told expatriates heading to Kosovo from European countries for the holidays that they could again use that route instead of going through North Macedonia or other entry points.

The unrest over Pantic’s detention sparked tense standoffs and gunshots but no major clashes. However, international concerns grew of a new conflict in the Balkans while the war in Ukraine is raging as well.

A separatist rebellion by Kosovo’s majority Albanians led to a 1998-99 war that featured a brutal Serbian crackdown in the territory that was its province at the time.

NATO intervened in 1999 to stop the onslaught and push Serbia out of Kosovo. But Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and has relied on Russia and China for backing.

Both Serbia and Kosovo have been told they must normalize relations in order to become members of the EU. Washington and Brussels recently have stepped up efforts to push forward EU-mediated dialogue between the former war foes. 
…

Russia attacked Ukraine with a barrage of missiles Thursday, including ones that targeted the capital, Kyiv, as well as the city of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian presidential aide Miykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russia launched at least 120 missiles “to destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”

The attack prompted air raid sirens across the country, and Ukrainian officials said air defense systems were able to knock down incoming missiles.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported explosions in his city and said authorities were determining what had been hit and whether there were any casualties.

Russia has repeatedly used missiles to target Ukrainian cities, including strikes that have destroyed critical infrastructure sites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is advocating a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to recognize Ukraine’s territory and withdraw its troops.

The Kremlin reiterated its dismissal of the proposal Wednesday, doubling down on its stance that Ukraine must accept the annexation Russia claimed in September after referendums rejected by Ukraine and most other nations as shams. The four Ukrainian regions include Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. “Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

Also on Wednesday, Zelenskyy addressed the Ukrainian parliament in a closed-door session, urging lawmakers to remain united against Russia’s aggression, while praising Ukrainians for leading the West to “find itself again.”

“Our national colors are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world,” he said in his 45-minute speech, his last of the year.

“In any country, in any continent, when you see blue and yellow, you know it’s about freedom. About the people who did not surrender, who stood, who united the world, and which will win,” he said.

Zelenskyy said the world had seen that freedom can be triumphant through Ukraine’s gains on the battlefield, and he thanked Ukraine’s military.

Zelenskyy noted Ukraine has gained the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia’s invasion 10 months ago. Russia is believed to have thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war, though actual figures are not known.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Recent Russian-Belarusian military exercises have raised fears of a second invasion of Ukraine from the north. While Ukrainians see Belarus as an aggressor, some observers and members of the Belarusian opposition say that not all Belarusians side with Russia. In fact, some Belarusians decided to prove their allegiance to Ukraine by joining its army. Myroslava Gongadze met with members of a Belarusian regiment before they were sent to the front lines.
…

Bernard Phelan, a French Irish tour operator who has been detained in Iran for the past three months, was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” his sister said Wednesday.

Phelan’s family spoke with The Irish Times about the diplomatic dispute he is involved in.

According to the Times, Phelan, 64, was arrested by Iranian police on Oct. 3. He is being held in Vakilabad prison in Mashhad, in northeast Iran, and is sharing a cell with 15 other people, the Times reported.

Iran has leveled multiple charges against Phelan, including spreading propaganda against Iran and taking photos of police officers, all of which he denies.

Irish security sources believe he was detained on trumped-up charges in order to send a message to the French government: “Stay out of our business,” the paper reported.

Phelan lives in France and had arrived in Iran with a French passport.

In September, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died while in police custody. She had been detained by the country’s morality police for violating the dress code. Her death sparked continuing protests in Iran and around the globe.

Tehran has accused France, among other Western nations, of attempting to stir up the protests, while the French government has said its nationals – at least seven — are being held as state hostages.

Irish and French diplomats have been working behind the scenes to secure Phelan’s release, the Times reported.

Phelan was traveling through the city of Mashhad on Oct. 3 as part of a research trip, when he was arrested for allegedly taking photographs of police officers and a mosque that had been burned, The Irish Times reported.

The paper reported that Phelan was held in solitary confinement for two weeks before being transferred to Vakilabad prison.

After a month in custody, officials charged Phelan with engaging in propaganda against the Iranian regime and with sending photographs to the Guardian newspaper, the Times reported.

“It’s a political issue,” Caroline Massé-Phelan, Bernard Phelan’s sister, told the Times. “On the Irish side, there is no reason for him to be held because the Iranians have a fairly good relationship with Ireland. He should be released.”

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Times the department “is aware of the case and has been providing consular assistance, in close coordination with France.

The French and Iranian embassies in Dublin did not respond to requests for comment.

His family told the newspaper they have only had two phone calls from Phelan in the 84 days he has been detained.

“Bernard was supposed to be with me for my 97th birthday in November and also with me for Christmas,” Vincent Phelan, Bernard’s father, said Tuesday. “I fear that I will never see him again.”
…

The Biden administration is marking the four-year anniversary of the detention in Russia of American businessman Paul Whelan, whose continued imprisonment is one of several major irritants in tattered relations between Washington and Moscow.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that securing Whelan’s release remains a top administration priority.

U.S. officials had hoped to include Whelan in a prisoner swap earlier this month in which they traded detained WNBA star Brittney Griner for a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. The administration considers Whelan, like Griner, to have been wrongfully detained.

See related video by VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara:

Blinken said Whelan and his family are “suffering through an unfathomable ordeal,” and he again condemned the American’s conviction, which was based on secret evidence, and 16-year prison sentence.

“His detention remains unacceptable, and we continue to press for his immediate release at every opportunity,” Blinken said. “Our efforts to secure Paul’s release will not cease until he is back home with his family where he belongs.”

Charges of espionage

Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, is jailed in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless. U.S. officials said Russia refused to consider including Whelan in the Griner deal, calling it a “one or none” decision.

“Paul and the Whelan family recently showed the entire country the meaning of generosity of spirit in celebrating a fellow American’s return while Russia continues its deplorable treatment of Paul as a bargaining chip,” said President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

The Whelan family supported the exchange that freed Griner but expressed fears that Whelan would not be released for years.

His brother, David Whelan, said when the swap was announced, “I think we all realize that the math is not going to work out for Paul to come home anytime soon, unless the U.S. government is able to find concessions.”

1,461 days

Paul Whelan, 52, was sentenced in 2020.

In a statement Wednesday, David Whelan said, “Today is the 1,461st day that Paul has been held hostage by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities entrapped him four years ago today. How do you mark such an awful milestone when there is no resolution in sight?”

The anniversary, he said, “is both awful and mundane, just another day that Paul has to suffer in a Russian labor colony for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
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Ukraine has bought some 1,400 drones, mostly for reconnaissance, and plans to develop combat models that can attack the exploding drones Russia has used during its invasion of the country, according to the Ukrainian government minister in charge of technology.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Mykhailo Fedorov, the minister of digital transformation, described Russia’s war in Ukraine as the first major war of the internet age. He credited drones and satellite internet systems like Elon Musk’s Starlink with having transformed the conflict.

Ukraine has purchased drones like the Fly Eye, a small unmanned aerial vehicle used for intelligence, battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance.

“And the next stage, now that we are more or less equipped with reconnaissance drones, is strike drones,” Fedorov said. “These are both exploding drones and drones that fly up to 3 to 10 kilometers and hit targets.”

He predicted “more missions with strike drones” in the future but would not elaborate.

“We are talking there about drones, UAVs, UAVs that we are developing in Ukraine,” he said. “Well, anyway, it will be the next step in the development of technologies.”

Russian authorities have alleged several Ukrainian drone strikes on its military bases in recent weeks, including one on Monday in which they said Russian forces shot down a drone approaching the Engels airbase located more than 600 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s military said debris killed three service members, but no aircraft were damaged. The base houses Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities have never formally acknowledged carrying out such drone strikes, but they have made cryptic allusions to how Russia might expect retaliation for its war in Ukraine, including within Russian territory.

Ukraine is carrying out research and development on drones that could fight and down other drones, Fedorov said. Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed drones for its airstrikes in Ukrainian territory in recent weeks, in addition to rocket, cruise missile and artillery attacks.

“I can say already that the situation regarding drones will change drastically in February or March,” he said.

Fedorov sat for an interview in his bright and modern office. Located inside a staid ministry building, the room contained a vinyl record player, history books stacked on shelves and a treadmill.

The minister highlighted the importance of mobile communications for both civilian and military purposes during the war and said the most challenging places to maintain service have been in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kyiv regions in the center and east of the country.

He said there are times when fewer than half of the mobile phone towers are functioning in the capital, Kyiv, because Russian airstrikes have destroyed or damaged the infrastructure that power them.

Ukraine has some 30,000 mobile phone towers, and the government is now trying to link them to generators so they can keep working when airstrikes damage the power grid.

The only alternative, for now, is satellite systems like Starlink, which Ukrainians may rely on more if blackouts start lasting longer.

“We should understand that in this case, the Starlinks and the towers, connected to the generators, will be the basic internet infrastructure,” Fedorov said.

Many cities and towns are facing power cuts lasting up to 10 hours. Fedorov said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree that instructs mobile phone companies to ensure they can provide signals without electricity for at least three days.

Meanwhile, with support from its European Union partners, his ministry is working to bring 10,000 more Starlink stations to Ukraine, with internet service made available to the public through hundreds of “Points of Invincibility” that offer warm drinks, heated spaces, electricity and shelter for people displaced by fighting or power outages.

Roughly 24,000 Starlink stations are in operation in Ukraine. Musk’s company, SpaceX, began providing them during the early days of the war after Fedorov tweeted a request to the billionaire.

“I just stood there on my knees, begging them to start working in Ukraine, and promised that we would make a world record,” he recalled.

Fedorov compared Space X’s donation of the satellite terminals to the U.S.-supplied multiple rocket launchers in terms of significance for Ukraine’s ability to mount a defense to Russia’s invasion.

“Thousands of lives were saved,” he said.

As well as the civilian applications, Starlink has helped front-line reconnaissance drone operators target artillery strikes on Russian assets and positions. Fedorov said his team is now dedicating 70% of its time to military technologies. The ministry was created only three years ago.

Providing the army with drones is among its main tasks.

“We need to do more than what is expected of us, and progress does not wait,” Fedorov said, scoffing at Russian skill in the domain of drones. “I don’t believe in their technological potential at all.”
…

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced late December that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is expanding its influence, recruiting convicts and receiving arms from North Korea. Garri Knyagnitsky has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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NASA is exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft can potentially offer an alternative ride home for some crew members of the International Space Station after a Russian capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbital lab.

NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an external radiator of Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is supposed to return its crew of two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut to Earth early next year.

But the December 14 leak, which emptied the Soyuz of a vital fluid used to regulate crew cabin temperatures, has derailed Russia’s space station routines, with engineers in Moscow examining whether to launch another Soyuz to retrieve the three-man team that flew to ISS aboard the crippled MS-22 craft.

If Russia cannot launch another Soyuz ship, or decides for some reason that doing so would be too risky, NASA is weighing another option.

“We have asked SpaceX a few questions on their capability to return additional crew members on Dragon if necessary, but that is not our prime focus at this time,” NASA spokeswoman Sandra Jones said in a statement to Reuters.

SpaceX did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

It was unclear what NASA specifically asked of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capabilities, such as whether the company can find a way to increase the crew capacity of the Dragon currently docked to the station, or launch an empty capsule for the crew’s rescue.

But the company’s potential involvement in a mission led by Russia underscores the degree of precaution NASA is taking to ensure its astronauts can safely return to Earth, should one of the other contingency plans arranged by Russia fall through.

The leaky Soyuz capsule ferried U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dimitri Petelin to the space station in September for a six-month mission. They were scheduled to return to Earth in March 2023.

The station’s four other crew members — two more from NASA, a third Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut — arrived in October via a NASA-contracted SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which also remains parked at the ISS.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, a gumdrop-shaped pod with four astronaut seats, has become the centerpiece to NASA’s human spaceflight efforts in low-Earth orbit. Besides Russia’s Soyuz program, it is the only entity capable of ferrying humans to the space station and back.

Three possible culprits

Finding what caused the leak could factor into decisions about the best way to return the crew members. A meteroid-caused puncture, a strike from a piece of space debris or a hardware failure on the Soyuz capsule itself are three possible causes of the leak that NASA and Roscosmos are investigating.

A hardware malfunction could raise additional questions for Roscosmos about the integrity of other Soyuz vehicles, such as the one it might send for the crew’s rescue, said Mike Suffredini, who led NASA’s ISS program for a decade until 2015.

“I can assure you that’s something they’re looking at, to see what’s back there and whether there’s a concern for it,” he said. “The thing about the Russians is they’re really good at not talking about what they’re doing, but they’re very thorough.”

Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov had previously said engineers would decide by Tuesday how to return the crew to Earth, but the agency said that day it would make the decision in January.

NASA has previously said the capsule’s temperatures remain “within acceptable limits,” with its crew compartment currently being vented with air flow allowed through an open hatch to the ISS.

Sergei Krikalev, Russia’s chief of crewed space programs, told reporters last week that the temperature would rise rapidly if the hatch to the station were closed.

NASA and Roscosmos are primarily focusing on determining the leak’s cause, Jones said, as well as the health of MS-22 which is also meant to serve as the three-man crew’s lifeboat in case an emergency on the station requires evacuation.

A recent meteor shower initially seemed to raise the odds of a micrometeoroid strike as the culprit, but the leak was facing the wrong way for that to be the case, NASA’s ISS program manager Joel Montalbano told reporters last week, though a space rock could have come from another direction.

And if a piece of space debris is to blame, it could fuel concerns of an increasingly messy orbital environment and raise questions about whether such vital equipment as the spacecraft’s coolant line should have been protected by debris shielding, as other parts of the MS-22 spacecraft are.

“We are not shielded against everything throughout the space station,” Suffredini said. “We can’t shield against everything.” 

 
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Ukraine said Russia attacks Wednesday included missiles fired at civilian targets in the southern city of Kherson.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported 33 missiles fired at Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured after Russian forces withdrew last month.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military also reported fighting Wednesday around the city of Bakhmut and other parts of the eastern Donbas region.

Oil price cap

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country would ban any oil exports to countries that agreed to an oil price cap imposed by Western nations that took effect earlier this month.

According to a presidential decree published on a government portal and the Kremlin website, “The supply of Russian oil and oil products to foreign legal entities and individuals is prohibited if the contracts for these supplies directly or indirectly” are using a price cap.

The decree was presented as a direct response to “actions that are unfriendly and contradictory to international law by the United States and foreign states and international organizations joining them,” Reuters reported.

The oil price cap was agreed to earlier this year by the Group of Seven nations, which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union. It will be enforced by the G-7 nations, the EU and Australia, Reuters reported.

Shortly after the agreement was reached December 2, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said, “This price cap has three objectives: First, it strengthens the effect of our sanctions. Second, it will further diminish Russia’s revenues, and thirdly, at the same time, it will stabilize global energy markets.”

Russia, however, has said the cap will not affect its military campaign in Ukraine and expressed confidence it will find new buyers for its oil products.

Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, said the ban will be in effect from February 1 to July 1.

In his nightly video address on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a meeting of the military command had “established the steps to be taken in the near future.”

“We will continue preparing the armed forces and Ukraine’s security for next year. This will be a decisive year. We understand the risks of winter. We understand what needs to be done in the spring,” he said.

Zelenskyy said he also spoke with the International Monetary Fund “regarding the work of the banking system and our cooperation with the IMF. We must provide even more opportunities for Ukrainians in the coming year and guarantee the strength of our banking and financial systems.”

Retired General James Jones, the former commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander, told VOA’s Eurasia service Tuesday that two military takeaways from the past 10 months of war in Ukraine are how well-trained the Ukrainian forces are and how poorly the Russian forces have performed.

“I’m quite sure that Mr. Putin was convinced that this would be a very short war. I think he was convinced that NATO would be somewhat impotent to react to that,” said Jones, a national security adviser to former President Barack Obama. “The ability … to train and equip the Ukrainian army was slow to start with but has now achieved a certain cadence that is much more encouraging.”

“I’m quite convinced that President Putin believed that this would be a very short war, and I think his military probably told him what he wanted to hear, which is what militaries do when dealing with dictators,” he said.

As far as what could happen in 2023, that “remains to be seen,” he said. “I’m hopeful that things will come to a conclusion.”

Jones said the most important thing for NATO and the United States right now is quickly meeting the needs of Ukrainian forces. Later, he added, the alliance members must “make sure that we have a plan that can help Ukraine rebuild itself.”

“Ukraine, I think, is destined to be on the forward edge of the defense of Europe for a long time, depending on what happens in Russia, of course,” Jones said.

VOA’s Eurasia Service contributed to this story. Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Pope Francis said Wednesday that former Pope Benedict is “very sick.”

Speaking during his general audience, the pope asked for special prayers for Benedict.

He did not elaborate on Benedict’s condition and there has been no comment from the Vatican on the state of his health.

The 95-year-old Benedict resigned in 2013, citing among other things his declining physical and mental health, becoming the first pope to do so in 600 years. Since then, he has been living in a convent on the Vatican grounds.

In the few photographs that have emerged, Benedict has appeared frail.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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French authorities were Tuesday investigating as suicide the drowning of an Iranian man in the southeastern city of Lyon; he had said on social media he was going to kill himself to draw attention to the protest crackdown in Iran.

Mohammad Moradi, 38, was found in the Rhone, which flows through the center of Lyon, late on Monday, a police source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Emergency services intervened but were unable to resuscitate Moradi on the riverbank, the source added.

Moradi had posted a video on Instagram saying he was about to drown himself to highlight the crackdown on protesters in Iran since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.

“When you see this video, I will be dead,” Moradi said.

“The police are attacking people, we have lost a lot of sons and daughters, we have to do something,” Moradi said in the video.

“I decided to commit suicide in the Rhone River. It is a challenge, to show that we, Iranian people, we are very tired of this situation,” he added.

Lyon prosecutors said they had launched a probe to “verify the theory of suicide, in view in particular of the messages posted by the person concerned on social networks announcing his intention” to take his life.

The incident shocked the city, with a small rally to remember Moradi taking place on the banks of the Rhone on Tuesday.

Mourners placed candles and wreaths on the riverside railings, an AFP correspondent said.

“Mohammad Moradi killed himself to make the voice of revolution heard in Iran. Our voice is not carried by Western media,” said Timothee Amini of the local Iranian community.

According to several members of the Iranian community, Moradi was a history undergraduate and worked in a restaurant.

He lived in Lyon with his wife for three years.

“His heart was beating for Iran, he could no longer bear the regime,” said Amini, deploring that while the Ukraine conflict was covered “every morning,” one heard “very little about Iran” in the news.

Lili Mohadjer said Moradi hoped that “his death would be another element for Western media and governments to back the revolution underway in Iran.”

She said his death was “not suicide” but “sacrifice to gain freedom.”

Mohadjer said that in his video Moradi said he “could not live peacefully, comfortably here, where he was very well integrated,” while Iranians were being killed.

Protests have gripped Iran since late September.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Tuesday 476 protesters have been killed in the crackdown with at least 100 Iranians risking execution over the protests. Two young men have been executed.

Iran’s top security body in early December gave a toll of more than 200 people killed, including security officers.

At least 14,000 people have been arrested since the nationwide unrest began, the United Nations said last month.
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Britain’s National Trust on Wednesday said nature and wildlife at the charity’s sites had been harmed by extreme weather in the past year and warned it could become the “new normal.”

The heritage conservation charity’s climate change adviser Keith Jones said it was a “stark illustration of the sort of difficulties many of our species will face if we don’t do more to mitigate rising temperatures.”

“We’re going to experience more floods, droughts, heat waves, extreme storms and wildfires — and they will go from bad to worse, breaking records with ever alarming frequency if we don’t limit our carbon emissions,” he said.

The planet remains off track from an ambition set by the Paris climate accord in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

A cascade of extreme weather exacerbated by climate change devastated communities across the globe this year, including sweltering heat and drought across Europe that wilted crops, drove forest fires and saw major rivers shrink to a trickle.

Here is a rundown of the National Trust’s year:

January: A record warm start to the year with a temperature of 16.3 C recorded in central London on January 1. Overall, the month is around 0.8 C above the 1991-2020 long-term average.

February: Storms Eunice and Franklin bring down trees across the country.

April: Spring bird migration occurs later, and swifts return about two weeks later than normal and in lower numbers.

May: There are no sightings of toadlets by May as hot weather and lack of rain causes ponds to dry up.

June: Bird flu starts to hit many of the seabird colonies on the Farne Islands, off the northeastern English coast, wiping out seabirds that come to the islands to breed including kittiwakes, shags, gulls and puffins.

At Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, extreme weather in late June causes multiple tern colonies to fail.

July: A record-breaking heat wave peaks at 40.3 C at Coningsby in central England with exceptionally dry conditions across the south and east and wildfires across large parts of the country.

Bats have to be rescued from the heat. Experts suspect the weather has hurt the breeding success of many bird species.

Wildfires break out in a number of places and pools and streams dry up.

August: Newly planted trees fail at some National Trust sites because of prolonged drought and heat.

Many places experience a “false autumn” with trees dropping their leaves early because of drought. Butterfly numbers seem to be down, and bumblebees, hoverflies and flies vanish in the heat wave.

September: Swallows are still active at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland a month later than in previous years and do not migrate until the very end of the month.

Some wildflowers have a second flowering because of a lack of frost.

November: Winter farmland migrating birds arrive a month later on the Mount Stewart Estate likely because of milder temperatures in northern areas where they spend the summer and breed.

December: After a largely very hot year with record temperatures, much of the U.K. is hit by a freezing cold snap. This is followed by much milder conditions, prompting concerns it could bring creatures out of hibernation.
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Hundreds of laptop-toting professionals and students line up outside the public library in the Ukrainian town of Irpin, desperate to get plugged in and online amid the latest energy blackout.

The library, on the ground floor of a nine-story apartment block in the town center of the Kyiv suburb, has become the locus and a symbol of a tentative recovery following the horrors of Russian occupation.

Once inside, Irpin residents jostle for seats in the area newly designated as the town’s first free co-working space, sometimes spilling over into the children’s books section.

With much of Irpin still in ruins, the library is also functioning as an alternative classroom for displaced schoolteachers, a makeshift office for psychotherapists or even a base for the town’s Saint Nicholas to greet and take pictures with children.

It is providing a touch of normalcy to a town that, because of its location in the pine forests on Kyiv’s northwestern edge, bore the full force of Russia’s advance on the capital in the war’s first weeks.

“As soon as the library reopened, we gave people the opportunity to recharge their phones. We gave people the opportunity to stay in warm conditions while watching the city rebuild,” said Yevgenia Antonyuk of the Irpin city council. “What happens in the library touches all aspects of people’s lives.” 

Wreckage and ruin

Olena Tsyganenko, 75, has been the head of the Irpin library for four decades, ever since the days when, as she recalls proudly, its photocopier was the only one in town.

“We are in the heart of the town, on the central square, and we were always popular,” she said. “When there was no internet, our halls were filled with readers.”

Not even during the pre-internet era, however, was the library the hive of activity it has become today, a reflection of just how badly the rest of Irpin has suffered.

After a monthlong battle marked by heavy urban combat, Russia pulled out of Irpin in late March, leaving behind hundreds of dead civilians, according to official estimates.

Once leafy parks were strewn with bodies, and barely a building had escaped the violence unscathed.

“It seemed to me there was no one but us in the city,” said resident Victoria Voskresova, recalling the first weeks after the Russians fled, when some houses in her neighborhood were still ablaze.

With winter conditions worsening, maintenance workers are now focused on repairing buildings that sustained only light damage, saving for later those that require more extensive rehabilitation.

Excavators, meanwhile, were still clearing the rubble of buildings that are no longer standing.

The library got off much easier — only some windows were broken — and now offers a refuge from the misery elsewhere.

On a recent morning, as young professionals sipped cappuccinos and tapped away at their keyboards, teachers taught a group of middle-schoolers about “the musical culture of Ukraine.”

With her 7-year-old daughter Maria in tow, Voskresova approached the entrance somewhat sheepishly, mindful she had three overdue books, checked out before the war, that she had not finished.

But the library was the only place where Maria could meet Saint Nicholas.

“We received some sweets, and that’s why we come with our children on this occasion, in order to lift our spirits,” she said.

They lingered well after an air raid siren prompted other mothers and children to leave and seek shelter.

‘Invincibility’

Ukrainian officials have tried to encourage Irpin on its road to recovery, designating it a “Hero City,” an acknowledgement of the resolve it demonstrated during Russia’s advance.

A mural by the elusive British artist Banksy also honors Irpin’s resistance.

Placed on a pockmarked building with burned-out balconies, it depicts an injured gymnast in a neck collar performing a ribbon routine.

Yet these high-profile odes to Irpin pale in significance to the daily work of the library in boosting public morale.

Last week, the library hosted a book launch for Sergey Martyniuk, who fought to defend Irpin and then wrote about the experience in a collection titled “13 Poems, or The Battle for Irpin Changed the World.”

“Irpin is really recovering now,” Martyniuk told AFP after the event, crediting the library with reinforcing the town’s “invincibility.”

He added: “I think that the people who have returned should be given the opportunity to work and feel like normal Ukrainians.”
…

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II died in September after seven decades on the throne. Her passing was mourned around the world – and the funeral watched by millions. Henry Ridgwell looks back at an extraordinary period in Britain’s history
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Protesting Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

Serbia’s defense ministry said in a statement late on Monday that in response to the latest events in the region and its belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and forcefully remove the barricades, President Aleksandar Vucic had ordered Serbia’s army and police to be put on the highest alert.

“There is no reason to panic, but there is reason to be concerned,” Serbia’s defense minister Milos Vucevic told RTS television late on Monday.

Since December 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo have erected multiple roadblocks in and around Mitrovica and exchanged fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving police officers during a previous protest.

Around 50,000 Serbs live in the northern part of Albanian-majority Kosovo and refuse to recognize the Pristina government or the state. They see Belgrade as their capital and are backed by Serbia, from which Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

“Kosovo cannot engage in dialogue with criminal gangs and freedom of movement should be restored. There should not be barricades on any road,” the Kosovan government said in a statement on Monday.

It added police had the capacity and readiness to act but were waiting for NATO’s KFOR Kosovo peace-keeping force, which maintains a neutral role, to respond to their request to remove the barricades.

“We urge all sides to help enable security and freedom of movement in Kosovo, and prevent misleading narratives from affecting the dialogue process,” KFOR said in a statement.

In Mitrovica on Tuesday morning trucks were parked to block the road linking the Serb-majority part of the town with the Albanian-majority part.

The local Serbs are demanding the release of the arrested officer and have other demands before they remove the barricades.

Ethnic Serb mayors in northern municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a Kosovo government decision to replace Serbian-issued car license plates with ones issued by Pristina.

 
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Russia on Monday placed a senior journalist with the Bellingcat investigative website on a wanted list, following his extensive reporting on Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev’s name was added to a list of wanted people on Russia’s interior ministry website.

The ministry did not specify the crime for which he is wanted.

But the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a source as saying that a criminal case had been opened against Grozev for “spreading fakes about the Russian army” — legislation adopted after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in February.

Russia’s FSB domestic security agency had accused Grozev of helping Ukrainian intelligence.

Grozev is Bellingcat’s chief Russia investigator and has led investigations into the poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny.

This year he has focused on Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

Moscow branded Bellingcat as an “undesirable” organization in July, saying it posed a security threat to the country.

Bellingcat already had been branded a “foreign agent” in Russia last year.

Since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in February, Bellingcat has largely focused on using open-source material and social media to document alleged Russian war crimes.
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