Author: Worldcrew

While Europe and the United States have welcomed large numbers of Ukrainian refugees, many of them are in Israel, living in legal limbo without official refugee status. Linda Gradstein reports from the Israeli port city of Haifa, where a group is offering the refugees help.
…

As Xi Jinping wraps up his three-day visit to Moscow, the White House expressed pessimism that the Chinese leader’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin will pave the way to end the war in Ukraine. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
…

The verdicts handed down last week to two senior members of the independent Belarusian news website TUT.by were condemned by media as retaliation for truthful reporting.

In a closed hearing in Minsk on Friday, a court convicted the website’s editor-in-chief, Maryna Zolatava, of incitement and distributing material aimed at harming national security. The site’s director, Lyudmila Chekina, was convicted of tax evasion, incitement and organizing the distribution of material aimed at harming national security.

The journalists, who have both spent nearly two years in pre-trial detention, were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Three other journalists from the website also faced trial but had left the country earlier.

The news website reported extensively on the contested 2020 presidential election when President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory and opposition candidates were detained or forced to flee.

Since 2020, TUT.by and its staff have been harassed, the newsroom raided, and access to its website blocked as part of what analysts say is Lukashenko’s wider crackdown on opposition voices. Authorities labeled the TUT.by site an “extremist organization” and many of its journalists have gone into exile.

The Belarus Embassy in Washington referred VOA to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belarus. The ministry did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Lukashenko has said in interviews that reports on media jailings in Belarus are “misinformed.” He told The Associated Press in 2022, “the law is one and it must be observed. 

Media condemn verdict

TUT.by was one of the most popular independent news websites in Belarus.

“It really was the largest media in the country, covering up to 70% of the internet audience,” the site’s co-founder Kirill Voloshin told VOA. “It was a real power, a real potential tool of influence and a real threat to Belarusian authorities.”

In general, Voloshin said, “The courts [in Belarus] treat journalists very harshly and are doubly harsh toward journalists and TUT.BY managers.”

Voloshin is among the estimated 400 Belarusian journalists who have left the country since 2020. Many now live or work from Lithuania and Poland.

The co-founder said he believes Friday’s hearing was conducted behind closed doors “because none of the allegations are true.”

He said he doesn’t believe his colleagues will be released any time soon, adding, “The number of political prisoners will soon exceed 1,500, or has already exceeded. There is even a Nobel laureate there, there are well-known human rights activists.”

Barys Haretski, the deputy chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), said he believes the verdict is retaliation for TUT.by’s journalism.

“Dictators are always afraid of the light, and when some events take place in the country, and journalists cover them honestly, dictators really don’t like it,” he told VOA.

Haretski said that many journalists had dreamed of working for TUT.by before it was forced out.

“Lukashenko is fighting any dissent, especially with such large and influential media as TUT.by,” he said.

Persecution spreads

Zolatava and Chekina are among dozens of journalists to be detained in Belarus since 2020.

The BAJ at the start of 2023 estimated that more than 30 journalists remained imprisoned for their work inside Belarus. 

Political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky described the sentences as “cruel” even when compared to the wider situation for Belarus media.

“Under Lukashenko, the independent press was simply denied the right to exist,” the political observer said.

Lukashenko and his government “considers the uncontrolled media as one of its main enemies … and therefore there is no mercy here,” Klaskovsky said. “There is also a cold calculation in this, because the authorities are methodically clearing the field of independent media.”

He noted the harassment of the few remaining publications. In March, at least seven journalists have been detained, and authorities have raided reporters’ homes as well as the office of a local newspaper, Infa-Kurjer.

Media analyst Galina Sidorova said that Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both involved in the persecution of independent journalists and the suppression of freedom of speech.

Sidorova is the co-founder of 19-29 Foundation, a community of investigative journalists.

“We must not forget that the Putin regime is waging an aggressive war, and the intensified repressions against journalists in Russia are connected precisely with this,” she told VOA.

She also believes the harsh response to TUT.by is linked to its popularity, especially during the contested 2020 presidential election in Belarus.

The website had millions of visits, Sidorova said, adding that it “was among the first media outlets that the authorities wanted to crack down on.”

She dismissed the charges against the website’s journalists, saying, “The reason for all these accusations was the same: their highly professional journalistic activity.”

Despite a difficult environment, Sidorova noted that journalists still report, adding that the media community is “looking for ways to somehow work and convey independent information to our audience in this terrible and unbearable situation.”

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service 
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday signed a new strategic partnership between their countries and called for a diplomatic solution to Moscow’s war against Ukraine, but Putin said he sees no indication that the Kyiv government and its Western allies are ready for peace talks.

After two days of talks with Xi at the Kremlin, Putin accused the United States and Western countries of fighting “to the last Ukrainian,” but praised what he said was China’s “neutral position” on the war.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Beijing and Moscow believe that the United Nations Charter “must be observed and international law must be respected,” but made no demand that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine or honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

Putin called his talks with Xi “open and friendly,” discussions aimed at cementing their “no limits” partnership agreed to in early 2022, less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

China recently proposed a 12-point plan calling for a de-escalation and eventual cease-fire in Ukraine, which the West has rejected because it would lock in place Russian territorial gains its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and more land seized by Russia in eastern Ukraine during its 13-month invasion.

Putin said, “We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when they are ready for that in the West and in Kyiv. However, so far, we see no such readiness from their side.”

Kyiv has welcomed Beijing’s diplomatic overture but says that Russia must first withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Fighting has mostly stalemated in eastern Ukraine along the main battlefront line.

The series of documents Putin and Xi signed called for “strategic cooperation” between the two countries, including a planned pipeline shipping Russian natural gas to China.

“I am convinced that our multi-faceted cooperation will continue to develop for the good of the peoples of our countries,” Putin said in televised remarks. He said Moscow was ready to help Chinese businesses replace Western firms that have left Russia in protest over the invasion of Ukraine.

Xi said he invited Putin to visit China later this year.

In opening remarks before their closed-door talks Monday, Putin said Russia was “slightly envious” of the rapid development of China in recent decades that has boosted it to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.

Russian news agencies later reported that the two leaders talked for nearly four-and-a-half hours before breaking for dinner, where Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said Putin would likely give Xi a “detailed explanation” of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

The Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Moscow gives both Xi and Putin a public show of partnership in opposing what both see as American domination of global affairs. Their growing alliance also facilitates economic deals, such as shipment of Russian oil and natural gas to China at a time when the U.S. and its Western allies have imposed widespread sanctions to curb Russia’s foreign business transactions in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington Monday that any proposal for Ukraine that allows Russian forces to remain in the country would merely let Moscow regain its strength to continue its offensive.

“Calling for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting the ratification of Russian conquest,” he said.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called on Xi “to press President Putin directly on the need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Some material in this report came from Reuters.

 
…

Next month marks an important step in the reconstruction of Paris’ iconic Notre Dame cathedral, heavily damaged by fire four years ago. The base of the new spire is to be built, and officials hope to reopen the cathedral by the end of next year. From Briey, France, where the work on the spire is being done, Lisa Bryant reports.
…

Ukraine is supporting artists painting murals in Europe and Africa to counter Russian disinformation about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Dubbed ”The Wall,” a nod to the album by British rock band Pink Floyd, the project was recently launched in Kenya’s capital and also employs local artists. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Kenya footage by Jimmy Makhulo.
…

After weeks of raucous parliamentary debate and public anger spilling onto garbage-choked streets, French President Emmanuel Macron has won his battle – for now – to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64. But what happens next?

After Monday’s defeat of two no-confidence motions, in the National Assembly, that would have toppled Macron’s government — one short by only nine votes — opposition lawmakers and unions vow to repeal Macron’s pension reform by other means, including ongoing strikes and protests that could paralyze the country.  

“There is a massive opposition to that reform,” says French political scientist and author Nicole Bacharan of the pension bill rammed through using a special constitutional measure. “The anger is growing and growing and growing. Nobody knows how far it will go.”

More protests broke out in Paris and other cities following the no-confidence vote, adding to days of unrest. Police arrested dozens and put out fires smoldering on piles of uncollected trash. Garbage workers are finally getting back to work after a week-plus strike over the reform, but more than nine thousand tons of refuse continued to fester at last count.

For their part, unions have called for another nationwide strike and protest on Thursday. Worker blockages in some refineries are also sparking fuel shortages in parts of the country.  

Macron — who has remained largely silent amid the pension uproar — will give a televised interview Wednesday, his office says. He has chosen to address the nation at lunchtime, rather than during prime time in the evening.   

He faces serious trouble convincing an angry nation.  

“Can he still govern over four more years?” asked France-Info radio in an editorial, noting the president had lost his absolute parliamentary majority and faces slipping support from the center right.  

A poll by popular BFMTV finds most French had hoped a no-confidence vote would pass. Another showed public disapproval of Macron and his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, had soared to 70%.

For its part, the centrist government has downplayed the close outcome of the no confidence effort, blaming rebels from the conservative Republicans party — whose leadership promised to support the reform.  

“They preferred to renounce their own ideas, their own campaign proposals rather than support the government,” government spokesman Olivier Veran told RTL radio Tuesday.  

Bigger tests ahead   

The opposition vows to block the reform from becoming law by other means, including petitioning France’s Constitutional Council.

Macron’s government “is already dead in the eyes of the French,” said Mathilde Panot, leader of the leftist France Unbowed coalition, calling on Prime Minister Borne to resign.  

The government may face a bigger test on the streets.

The ongoing protests spilling into violence have sparked fears of rolling Yellow Vest-style demonstrations that swept the country a few years ago. Some observers also draw parallels with massive 1995 protests that forced then-Prime Minister Alain Juppe to repeal a pension reform measure.  

“What worries me is seeing violent demonstrations succeeding dignified protests and the possibility of an explosion,” one leftist lawmaker told French media.  

Macron made reforming France’s generous and complicated pension system a central pillar of his presidency and campaign. He and his government argue the system risks going bankrupt as French age and fewer workers pay in. Currently, France enjoys among the lowest retirement ages in Europe.  

His critics argue there is no immediate urgency and there are other ways to make the system sustainable, including taxing the very wealthy.

Even more controversial, perhaps, has been Macron’s method of pushing through his reform. He rebuffed negotiations with unions, then used a controversial constitutional lever — Article 49.3 — to ram the reform through without a lower house vote.  

Far right the big winner?

“The accusation of isolation, out-of-touch, arrogance — it flies everywhere, including in his own support circle,” says analyst Bacharan, citing conversations she has had with members of Macron’s Renaissance party, including close allies.  

Today’s turmoil amounts to one of the biggest challenges of Macron’s presidency. It’s not clear whether he can recover, many analysts say — much less push through other reforms.  

“No matter how Macron comes out of this crisis, he will be very, very much weakened; that’s a sure thing,” Bacharan says.

Macron is “totally deaf to the aspirations of the French,” said Marine Le Pen, head of the main opposition National Rally party, after the vote. She called for a referendum on pension reform action and a new government.  

Observers believe Le Pen — runner up to Macron in the last two presidential elections — and her far-right party, could emerge the biggest winners from the crisis.  

Strengthening their hand, Bacharan says, is Macron’s apparent failure to turn his centrist movement that swept him to power in 2017 into a sustainable bloc.

“We are in a situation where the left in a way is irrelevant, the center will be gone — his party won’t survive his term,” Bacharan says.  “And the far right is getting stronger and stronger.” 
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a second day of talks Tuesday, after Putin welcomed Beijing’s peace plan to resolve Russia’s war against Ukraine and signaled to Western leaders the extent of what they call their “limitless” friendship.       

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday’s meetings would involve a range of subjects and officials from both countries. 

In opening remarks before their closed-door talks Monday, Putin said Russia was “slightly envious” of the rapid development of China in recent decades that has boosted it to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.   

Russian news agencies later reported that the two leaders talked for nearly 4 1/2 hours before breaking for dinner, where Peskov had said Putin would likely give Xi a “detailed explanation” of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. 

Putin said Monday he viewed the Beijing peace plan with respect.  

But China’s proposal has little chance of enactment as proposed because it does not meet key demands from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — namely, that Russia withdraw from Ukraine to honor its internationally recognized borders, including the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 and the eastern Ukrainian regions Russian forces invaded in February of last year.       

The Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Moscow gives both Xi and Putin a public show of partnership in opposing what both see as American domination of global affairs. Their growing alliance also facilitates economic deals, such as shipment of Russian oil and natural gas to China at a time when the U.S. and its Western allies have imposed widespread sanctions to curb Russia’s foreign business transactions in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.   

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington Monday that any proposal for Ukraine that allows Russian forces to remain in the country would merely let Moscow regain its strength to continue its offensive.     

“Calling for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting the ratification of Russian conquest,” he said.      

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called on Xi “to press President Putin directly on the need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”     

Ahead of Xi’s visit, in an article published in the Chinese People’s Daily newspaper, Putin described the visit as a “landmark event” that “reaffirms the special nature of the Russia-China partnership.”      

The Russian leader specifically said the meeting sent a message to Washington that the two countries aren’t prepared to accept attempts to weaken them.      

“The U.S. policy of simultaneously deterring Russia and China, as well as all those who do not bend to the American diktat, is getting ever fiercer and more aggressive,” he wrote.      

The Chinese leader’s trip to Moscow came just days after the International Criminal Court in The Hague charged Putin with the illegal deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia. Russia has ignored the allegations as “null and void.”      

It was not immediately clear what China hoped to gain from Xi’s visit. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Xi’s trip was a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace.”      

On the war, Wang said, “China will uphold its objective and fair position on the Ukrainian crisis and play a constructive role in promoting peace talks.”      

The spokesperson added, “President Xi will have an in-depth exchange of views with President Putin on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern.”      

Wang said that Xi aims to “promote strategic coordination and practical cooperation between the two countries and inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations.”      

While trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, Beijing has not supplied weapons to Moscow, nor has it condemned the invasion. At the same time, it has accused NATO and the United States of provoking Putin’s attack on Ukraine.      

The U.S. has strongly rejected Beijing’s call for a cease-fire, which it says would leave in place Moscow’s territorial gains in eastern Ukraine.      

“The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops from the territory of Ukraine in accordance with the norms of international law and the U.N. Charter,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Monday on Twitter.      

On Monday, Xi wrote in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a Russian state-run daily publication, that the Chinese peace proposal represents “as much as possible the unity of the world community’s views,” according to an English translation of the article issued by the Chinese Mission to the United Nations.     

“The document serves as a constructive factor in neutralizing the consequences of the crisis and promoting a political settlement,” Xi said. “Complex problems do not have simple solutions.”         

White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and Paris Huang of VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

The U.K. on Monday sanctioned more senior officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including financiers and commanders, in its latest set of asset freezes and visa bans. 

The government said it was slapping sanctions on five board directors of a foundation which manages the IRGC’s domestic investments, as well as two provincial commanders of the state security service. 

It follows a flurry of other sanctions against Iranian officials by London, the European Union and the United States in recent months over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters. 

“Today we are taking action on the senior leaders within the IRGC who are responsible for funneling money into the regime’s brutal repression,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. 

“Together with our partners around the world, we will continue to stand with the Iranian people as they call for fundamental change in Iran.” 

The U.K. has imposed dozens of asset freezes and U.K. travel bans since the start of the year on Iranian individuals and organizations, including leading IRGC commanders and Tehran’s prosecutor general. 

The last set of sanctions in January followed Iran announcing that it had executed British-Iranian dual citizen Alireza Akbari for spying for the U.K., prompting widespread Western outrage. 

Demonstrations have swept Iran since the September 16 death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly failing to adhere to the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules. 

Iran has since arrested thousands of people in the wave of protests, according to the United Nations and rights groups.  
…

Russia plans to hold an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council in early April on what it said is “the real situation” of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, an issue that has gained the spotlight following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes related to their abduction. 

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told a news conference Monday that Russia planned the council meeting long before Friday’s announcement by the ICC. Russia holds the rotating presidency of the council in April. 

The court said it was seeking Putin’s arrest because he “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” 

The announcement of the warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, was welcomed by Ukraine as a first step toward accountability by Russia for crimes following its February 2022 invasion. It was dismissed by Moscow, which is not one of the 123 countries that are parties to the court, calling the action “legally void” and “outrageous.” 

The announcement followed a report Thursday by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine that said there was evidence of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia. 

The commission said both parents and children faced many obstacles in establishing contact, with the burden falling primarily on the children, with young children likely unable to make any contact. It concluded that the forced deportations “violate international humanitarian law, and amount to a war crime.” 

The Ukrainian government claims 16,221 children have been taken to Russia since the war began. 

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was quoted by the Courthouse News Service as telling Russia on Monday at a conference in London of justice ministers from more than 30 countries: “Return the children, repatriate the children.” 

Russia’s Nebenzia called the issue of the children “totally overblown” and said Moscow wants to explain at the Security Council meeting, around April 6, that they were taken to Russia “simply because we wanted to spare them of the danger that military activities may bring.” 

Nebenzia was asked whether Russia planned on returning the children. “When conditions are safe, of course. Why not?” the Russian envoy replied. 
…