Pope Francis said Sunday the Vatican was willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war. He said, the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.

“All human gestures help. Gestures of cruelty don’t help,” Francis said during an airborne news conference en route home from Hungary.

Francis also revealed a secret peace “mission” was underway. However, he gave no details when asked whether he spoke about peace initiatives during his talks in Budapest this weekend with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary.

“I’m available to do anything,” Francis said. “There’s a mission that’s not public that’s underway; when it’s public I’ll talk about it.”

The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Russia President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner, accusing them of war crimes for abducting children from Ukraine.

Russia has denied any wrongdoing, contending the children were moved for their safety.

Last week Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met with Francis at the Vatican and asked him to help return Ukrainian children taken following the Russian invasion.

“I asked His Holiness to help us return home Ukrainians, Ukrainian children who are detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia,” Shmyhal told the Foreign Press Association after the audience.

Francis recalled that the Holy See had facilitated some prisoner exchanges, working through embassies, and was open to Ukraine’s request to reunite Ukrainian children with their families.

The prisoner exchanges “went well. I think it could go well also for this. It’s important,” he said of the family reunifications. “The Holy See is available to do it because it’s the right thing,” he added. “We have to do all that is humanly possible.” 
…

A large high-powered Russian delegation of 36 legal and human rights experts has failed to persuade a United Nations watchdog committee that the government has complied with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Russia was one of six state parties to the convention whose record came under review by the 18-member Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD, during its latest three-week session, which ended Friday.

The committee, which monitors member states’ implementation of the convention, expressed deep concern about “the grave human rights violations committed during the ongoing armed conflict by the Russian Federation’s military forces and private military companies against those protected under the convention, particularly ethnic Ukrainians.”

Committee member Mehrdad Payandeh said that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the committee has received reports of severe human rights violations and abuses including “instances and practices of excessive use of force, killings, extrajudicial and summary executions, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence” attributable to the state party.

The committee also has received information about the forcible transfer and deportation to the Russian Federation of inhabitants, particularly children from territories in Ukraine occupied under the effective control of the Russian Federation.

“We have addressed these concerns,” said Payandeh. “Again, the Russian Federation did not comment on those concerns or provide any more information.

“We raised our concerns in our concluding observations and recommended to the state party to investigate and to end these practices, so far as they are in violation of the convention,” he said.

The Ukrainian government in mid-April reported that more than 19,384 children have been deported to Russia and the fate of many thousands more remains unclear. The U.N. and human rights organizations say many children allegedly have been given for adoption to Russian families.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the war crimes of unlawful transfer and the deportation of children.

Earlier in April, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe opened an investigation into the forcible transfer and deportation of children to the Russian Federation from parts of Ukraine under Russian control.

The U.N. committee said it also has received disturbing reports of incitement to racial hatred and propagation of racist stereotypes against ethnic Ukrainians and of alleged forced mobilization and conscription into the army both within the Federation and on other territories under its effective control. Payandeh noted that these practices “disproportionately affect members of ethnic minorities, including Indigenous peoples.”

CERD’s review of Russia’s record, which began April 12, got off to a shaky start. The Russian delegation refused to discuss and respond to questions posed by the committee on issues related to the armed conflict and the convention rights of residents of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol.

The Russians argued that it was inappropriate to discuss the issue of Crimea due to a case pending at the International Court of Justice.

“We laid our position that we did not find anything in the ongoing procedures in front of the International Court of Justice [that] would hinder us from assessing the situation,” said Payandeh.

“The refusal of the Russian Federation to address these issues did not hinder us from addressing them in our concluding observations.” But, he added, “It made our work more difficult, and we would have liked to engage in a constructive dialogue.

“The purpose of this exercise with the Russian Federation is to raise our concerns, to hear their observations and then to come to our conclusions,” he said.

The committee accused the Russians of destroying and damaging Crimean Tatar cultural heritage, of imposing restrictions on Crimean Tatar’s political and civic rights, as well as harassing, threatening and instigating the assassinations of human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and journalists.

Committee members are calling on the Russian Federation to carry out impartial investigations into all reported cases of human rights abuse cited in its final observations. They are also seeking an end to the practice of forced mobilization and conscription of members of Crimean Tatars and Indigenous peoples in Crimea and in the ongoing armed conflict with Ukraine.

Russia has not yet commented on CERD’s report. The committee says it expects the Russian Federation to present a follow-up report within one year on questions raised regarding the armed conflict in Ukraine, on the rights of residents in Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as the situation of stateless persons, and undocumented and irregular migrants.
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China’s Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events.

Thirty-year-old Ding won the rapid chess playoff by 2.5 points to 1.5, capitalizing on Nepomniachtchi’s mistakes in time trouble in the last of the shorter-format games, following the pair’s 7-7 tie in a psychological battle across 14 longer “classical” games.

“One Ding to rule em all,” fellow grandmaster Anish Giri wrote on Twitter in honor of the new champion.

Ding’s triumph means China holds both the men’s and women’s world titles, with current women’s champion Ju Wenjun set to defend her title against compatriot Lei Tingjie in July.

“The moment Ian resigned the game was a very emotional moment, I cannot control my feelings,” the new world champion said in a press conference.

Ding had leveled the score in the regular portion of the match with a dramatic win in game 12, despite several critical moments – including a purported leak of his own preparation.

The Chinese grandmaster takes the crown from five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who defeated Nepomniachtchi in 2021 but announced in July he would not defend the title again this year.

Carlsen said he was not motivated to play shortly after Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates tournament, the prestigious qualifier to the match.

Ding, runner-up in the Candidates thanks to an incredible second half of the event, was next in line.

He had only been invited to the tournament at the last minute to replace Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, whom the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, banned for his vocal support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ding ranks third in the FIDE rating list behind Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi.

The new champion will attend from May 4 the first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest, Romania, after being almost inactive since 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
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On his third and final day of his Hungary trip, Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Sunday in Budapest before tens of thousands of people in the historic Kossuth Lajos Square. Hungarian President Kataline Novak and Prime Minister Viktor Orban were among the attendees.

Throughout his trip in Hungary, Francis has urged Hungarians to remember and take in refugees from Ukraine and also refugees from the Middle East and Africa who are arriving on Europe’s shores in record numbers.

While Europeans have not always been charitable or receptive to the migrants from Africa and the Middle East, they have been more accepting of the Ukrainians who fled their homes after the Russian invasion.

Orban has said that migration threatens to replace Europe’s Christian culture.

At Mass on Sunday, Francis called on the clergy and lay people to become “increasingly open doors … be open and inclusive … help Hungary to grow in fraternity, which is the path of peace.”
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It will be a coronation of many faiths and many languages.

King Charles III, keen to show that he can be a unifying figure for everyone in the United Kingdom, will be crowned in a ceremony that will for the first time include the active participation of faiths other than the Church of England.

Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders will take part in various aspects of the coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said Saturday, as it revealed details of a service it described as an act of Christian worship that will reflect contemporary society.

The ceremony also will include female bishops for the first time, as well as hymns and prayers sung in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, as well as English.

“The service contains new elements that reflect the diversity of our contemporary society,” Archbishop Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Church of England, said in a statement. “It is my prayer that all who share in this service, whether they are of faith or no faith, will find ancient wisdom and new hope that brings inspiration and joy.”

The coronation ceremony reflects Charles’ efforts to show that the 1,000-year-old monarchy is still relevant in a country that is much more diverse than it was when his mother was crowned 70 years ago. While the king is the supreme governor of the Church of England, the latest census showed that less than half of the population now describe themselves as Christian.

Built around the theme “Called to Serve,” the coronation service will begin with one of the youngest members of the congregation — a Chapel Royal chorister — greeting the king. Charles will respond by saying, “In His name and after His example, I come not to be served but to serve.”

The moment is meant to underscore the importance of young people in the world today, according to Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The service will also include many historic elements underscoring the ancient traditions through which power has been passed on to new kings and queens throughout the centuries.

In the most sacred part of the service, the Archbishop of Canterbury will anoint the king with oil, consecrating him and setting him apart from his subjects.

A screen will cover Charles at this moment, and the anointing won’t be visible on television or to most people in the abbey, except for a few senior members of the clergy.

“When the screen which will surround the coronation chair is removed, the king is revealed to us all as someone who has taken on the responsibility of serving God and serving the people,” a Lambeth Palace spokesperson said while speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

This will be followed by the presentation of the coronation regalia, sacred objects like the orb and scepter that symbolize the monarch’s power and responsibilities.

In another innovation that reflects the changed religious landscape in Britain, members of the House of Lords from the Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh traditions will present the king with objects with no explicit Christian symbolism.

The new king will then be crowned and the refrain “God Save the King” will echo through the Abbey.

After Charles is crowned, the traditional homage of the peers will be replaced by an “homage of the people,” in which people in the Abbey and those watching on television will be invited to affirm their allegiance to the king.

Camilla will then be anointed, in a form similar to that of Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, in 1937. However, Camilla’s anointing won’t be hidden behind a screen.

The congregation will also be invited to say the Lord’s Prayer in the language of their choice.

Just before Charles sets off in the Gold State Coach for a procession on the streets of London, the leaders and representatives of faith communities will deliver a greeting in unison. The greeting won’t be amplified out of respect for those who are observing the Jewish sabbath and are barred from using electrical devices, Lambeth Palace said.
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Russia on Saturday promised it would respond harshly to what it said was Poland’s illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

Polish state-run news channel TVP Info earlier reported that police showed up outside the Russian embassy school in Warsaw on Saturday morning.

When asked about the incident, a Polish foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters the building housing the embassy school belonged to the Polish state.

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Polish authorities had entered the embassy school’s grounds with the aim of seizing it.

“We regard this latest hostile act by the Polish authorities as a blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and as an encroachment on Russian diplomatic property in Poland,” the ministry said.

“Such an insolent step by Warsaw, which goes beyond the framework of civilized inter-state relations, will not remain without a harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Polish interests in Russia,” it said.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said late on Saturday on the Telegram messaging app that it will give “a legal assessment” of the “seizure,” but it did not provide any further details.

Lukasz Jasina, a Polish foreign ministry spokesperson, told Reuters that it was Russia’s right to protest but that Poland was acting within the law.

“Our opinion, which has been confirmed by the courts, is that this property belongs to the Polish state and was taken by Russia illegally,” he said.

Sergei Andreyev, Moscow’s ambassador to Poland, had earlier told Russian state news agencies that the building housing the embassy school was a diplomatic one which Polish authorities had no right to seize.

The two countries’ fraught relations have soured further over the war in Ukraine with Warsaw positioning itself as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, playing a leading role in persuading allies to provide it with heavy weaponry.

In March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland said it was expelling 45 Russian diplomats suspected of working for Moscow’s intelligence services.
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Turkey’s first astronaut will travel to the International Space Station by the end of the year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

Air force pilot Alper Gezeravci, 43, was selected to be the first Turkish citizen in space. His backup is Tuva Cihangir Atasever, 30, an aviation systems engineer at Turkish defense contractor Roketsan.

Erdogan made the announcement at the Teknofest aviation and space fair in Istanbul, the president’s first public appearance since falling ill during a TV interview on Tuesday. He appeared alongside Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and Libya’s interim prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.

“Our friend, who will go on Turkey’s first manned space mission, will stay on the International Space Station for 14 days,” Erdogan said. “Our astronaut will perform 13 different experiments prepared by our country’s esteemed universities and research institutions during this mission.”

Erdogan described Gezeravci as a “heroic Turkish pilot who has achieved significant success in our Air Force Command.”

The Turkish Space Agency website describes Gezeravci as a 21-year air force veteran and F-16 pilot who attended the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology.

Wearing a red flight jacket, Erdogan appeared in robust health as he addressed crowds at the festival. Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 14, and opinion polls show Erdogan in potentially his toughest race since he came to power two decades ago.

Turkey is dealing with a prolonged economic downturn, and the government received criticism after a February earthquake killed more than 50,000 in the country. Experts blamed the high death toll in part on shoddy construction and law enforcement of building codes.

While campaigning for reelection, Erdogan has unveiled a number of prestigious projects, such as Turkey’s first nuclear power plant and the delivery of natural gas from Black Sea reserves.
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“We thought we could die.”

The Russian invasion had just begun when Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine, the House speaker then the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to lead a congressional delegation to Kyiv.

Pelosi and the lawmakers were ushered under the cloak of secrecy into the capital city, an undisclosed passage that even to this day she will not divulge.

“It was very, it was dangerous,” Pelosi told The Associated Press before Sunday’s one-year anniversary of that trip.

“We never feared about it, but we thought we could die because we’re visiting a serious, serious war zone,” Pelosi said. “We had great protection, but nonetheless, a war — theater of war.”

Pelosi’s visit was as unusual as it was historic, opening a fresh diplomatic channel between the U.S. and Ukraine that has only deepened with the prolonged war. In the year since, a long list of congressional leaders, senators and chairs of powerful committees, both Democrats and Republicans, followed her lead, punctuated by President Joe Biden’s own visit this year.

The steady stream of arrivals in Kyiv has served to amplify a political and military partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine for the world to see, one that will be tested anew when Congress is again expected this year to help fund the war to defeat Russia.

“We must win. We must bring this to a positive conclusion — for the people of Ukraine and for our country,” Pelosi said.

“There is a fight in the world now between democracy and autocracy, its manifestation at the time is in Ukraine.”

Looked beyond US borders

With a new Republican majority in the House whose Trump-aligned members have balked at overseas investments, Pelosi, a Democrat, remains confident the Congress will continue backing Ukraine as part of a broader U.S. commitment to democracy abroad in the face of authoritarian aggression.

“Support for Ukraine has been bipartisan and bicameral, in both houses of Congress by both parties, and the American people support democracy in Ukraine,” Pelosi told AP. “I believe that we will continue to support as long as we need to support democracy… as long as it takes to win.”

Now the speaker emerita, an honorary title bestowed by Democrats, Pelosi is circumspect about her role as a U.S. emissary abroad. Having visited 87 countries during her time in office, many as the trailblazing first woman to be the House speaker, she set a new standard for pointing the gavel outward as she focused attention on the world beyond U.S. shores.

In her office tucked away at the Capitol, Pelosi shared many of the honors and mementos she has received from abroad, including the honorary passport she was given on her trip to Ukraine, among her final stops as speaker.

It’s a signature political style, building on Pelosi’s decades of work on the House Intelligence committee, but one that a new generation of House leaders may — or may not — chose to emulate.

The new Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library this month, the Republican leader’s first foray as leader into foreign affairs.

Democrat Hakeem Jeffries took his own first trip abroad to as House minority leader, leading congressional delegations last week to Ghana and Israel.

Pelosi said it’s up to the new leaders what they will do on the global stage.

“Other speakers have understood our national security — we take an oath to protect and defend — and so we have to reach out with our values and our strength to make sure that happens,” she said.

‘A fight for everyone’

When Pelosi arrived in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stood outside to meet the U.S. officials, the photo that ricocheted around the world a show of support for the young democracy fighting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

“The courage of the president in greeting us on the street rather than us just meeting him in his office was yet again another symbol of the courage of the people of Ukraine,” she said.

Pelosi told Zelenskyy in a video released at the time “your fight is a fight for everyone.”

Last year, in one of her final trips as speaker, Pelosi touched down with a delegation in Taipei, Taiwan, crowds lining the streets to cheer her arrival, a visit with the Taiwanese president that drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing, which counts the island as its own.

“Cowardly,” she said about the military exercises China launched in the aftermath of her trip.

Pelosi offered rare praise for McCarthy’s own meeting with Tsai, particularly its bipartisan nature and the choice of venue the historic Reagan library.

“That was really quite a message and quite an optic to be there. And so, I salute what he did,” she said.

In one of her closing acts as House speaker in December, Pelosi hosted Zelenskyy for a joint address to Congress. The visit evoked the one made by Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Britain, at Christmastime in 1941 to speak to Congress in the Senate chamber of a “long and hard war” at the start of World War II.

Zelenskyy presented to Congress a Ukrainian flag signed by frontline troops that Pelosi said will eventually be displayed at the U.S. Capitol.

The world has changed much since Pelosi joined Congress — one of her first trips abroad was in 1991, when she dared to unfurl a pro-democracy banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square shortly after the student demonstrations that ended in massacre.

After the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s Russia and China that remain front of her mind.

“The role of Putin in terms of Russia that is a bigger threat than it was when I came to Congress,” she said. A decade after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, she said, Putin went up.

“That’s where the fight for democracy is taking place,” she said.

And, she said, despite the work she and others in Congress have done to point out the concerns over China’s military and economic rise, and its human rights record, “that has only gotten worse.”
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A walrus that became a global celebrity last year after it was seen frolicking and basking in a Oslo fjord before it was euthanized by the authorities has been honored with a bronze sculpture in Norway. 

The life-size sculpture by Norwegian artist Astri Tonoian was unveiled Saturday at the Oslo marina not far from the place where the actual 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) mammal was seen resting and relaxing during the summer of 2022. 

The walrus, named Freya, quickly became a popular attraction among Oslo residents but Norwegian authorities later made a decision to euthanize it — causing public outrage — because they said people hadn’t followed recommendations to keep a safe distance away from the massive animal. 

Norwegian news agency NTB said a crowdfunding campaign was kicked off last fall to finance the sculpture. The private initiative managed to gather about 270,000 Norwegian kroner ($25,000) by October, NTB said. 
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible “political settlement” to Russia’s war with the country.

Beijing has previously avoided involvement in conflicts between other countries but appears to be trying to assert itself as a global diplomatic force after arranging talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March that led them to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.

Xi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that a Chinese envoy, a former Chinese ambassador to Russia, would visit Ukraine and “other countries” to discuss a possible political settlement, according to a government statement.

It made no mention of Russia or last year’s invasion of Ukraine and didn’t indicate whether the Chinese envoy might visit Moscow.

The Xi-Zelenskyy phone call was long anticipated after Beijing said it wanted to serve as a mediator in the war.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

China is the only major government that has friendly relations with Moscow as well as economic leverage as the biggest buyer of Russian oil and gas after the United States and its allies cut off most purchases.

Beijing, which sees Moscow as a diplomatic partner in opposing U.S. domination of global affairs, has refused to criticize the invasion and used its status as one of five permanent U.N. Security Council members to deflect diplomatic attacks on Russia.

Zelenskyy earlier said he welcomed a Chinese offer to mediate.

WHY DID CHINA DO THIS?

Xi’s government has pursued a bigger role in global diplomacy as part of a campaign to restore China to what the ruling Communist Party sees as its rightful status as a political and economic leader and to build an international order that favors Beijing’s interests.

That is a sharp reversal after decades of avoiding involvement in other countries’ conflicts and most international affairs while it focused on economic development at home.

In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran issued a surprise announcement, following talks in Beijing, that they would reopen embassies in each other’s capitals following a seven-year break. China has good relations with both as a big oil buyer.

Last week, Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks.

Wednesday’s statement warned against the dangers of nuclear war, suggesting Beijing might also have been motivated by what it sees as the growing danger of a more destructive conflict.

Mediating between Ukraine and Russia would increase China’s presence in Eastern Europe, where Beijing has tried to build ties with other governments. That has prompted complaints by some European officials that China is trying to gain leverage over the European Union.

Political science professor Kimberly Marten of Barnard College at Columbia University in New York doubted China would succeed in a peacemaker role.

“I have a hard time believing that China can act as peacemaker,” she said, adding that Beijing has been “too close to Russia.”

WHAT ARE CHINA’S RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA?

China is the closest thing President Vladimir Putin’s isolated government has to a major ally.

Xi and Putin issued a joint statement ahead of the February 2022 invasion that said their governments had a “no limits friendship.”

Beijing has tried to appear neutral but has repeated Russian justifications for the invasion.

Xi received a warm welcome from Putin during a visit to Moscow in March. The Chinese defense minister visited Russia this month.

China has stepped up purchases of Russian oil and gas for its energy-hungry economy, helping to offset lost revenue resulting from Western sanctions. In exchange, China gets lower prices, though details haven’t been disclosed.

Marten said the Xi-Zelenskyy call was “kind of a slap at Russia, because Russia has been very keen to portray China as its ally.” She said the direct China-Ukraine contact “indicates China is taking at least a step away from Russia.”

WHAT ARE CHINA’S RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE?

China was Ukraine’s biggest trading partner before the invasion, though on a smaller scale than Chinese-Russian trade.

In 2021, Ukraine announced plans for Chinese companies to build trade-related infrastructure.

Zelenskyy’s government was more ambivalent toward Beijing after it was clear Xi wouldn’t try to stop Putin’s war, but the two sides have remained amicable.

“Before the full-scale Russian invasion, China was Ukraine’s number one trading partner. I believe that our conversation today will give a powerful impetus to the return, preservation and development of this dynamic at all levels,” an official Ukrainian readout of the call reported.

Qin, the foreign minister, promised this month China wouldn’t provide arms to either side, a pledge that benefits Ukraine, which has received tanks, rockets and other armaments from the United States and European governments.

The Chinese ambassador to France set off an uproar in Europe when he suggested former Soviet republics — a group that includes Ukraine — might not be sovereign nations. That was in line with Putin’s comments denying Ukrainian sovereignty.

Beijing then reassured former Soviet states it respected their sovereignty and said the ambassador’s comments were a personal opinion, not official policy.

Elizabeth Wishnick, of the U.S.-based think tank CNA and Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, said in an email: “I wonder if Xi’s call was set up quickly to deflect attention” from the uproar over the Chinese ambassador’s remarks.
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The European Commission said Friday that it had reached a deal in principle to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain to resume through five European Union countries that had imposed restrictions.

Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia cited concerns that grain from Ukraine meant to be exported to other countries had ended up in their local markets, which was pushing down prices for local farmers.

European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted that the EU executive had reached “an agreement in principle” with the five “to address concerns of both farmers in neighboring EU countries and Ukraine.”

He said the deal included “safeguard measures” for four products — wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed. He did not provide further details.

The deal also includes a support package worth 100 million euros ($110.25 million) for local farmers, Dombrovskis said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken Friday to Charles Michel, president of the European Council, to raise concerns about what he called a destructive ban on exports of agricultural products.

“This gives the Kremlin dangerous hope, the hope that in our common European home someone’s wrong decisions can prevail over common interests,” he said in a video address.

The five countries became transit routes for Ukrainian grain that could not be exported through the country’s Black Sea ports because of Russia’s invasion.

Bottlenecks then trapped millions of tons of grains in countries bordering Ukraine, forcing local farmers to compete with an influx of cheap Ukrainian imports that they said distorted prices and demand.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the deal “preserves both Ukraine’s exports capacity so it continues feeding the world, and our farmers’ livelihoods.”
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled his election appearances for a third day Friday after falling ill with what officials described as an intestinal infection.

Erdogan, who has governed Turkey for two decades as prime minister and then president, is seeking a third presidential term in Turkey’s May 14 elections. He had been due to appear at a bridge opening and a political rally in the southern city of Adana, but his schedule changed to show he would attend the opening ceremony via video link.

Erdogan spoke by phone Friday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on several matters, including the Ukraine-Russia grain and fertilizer deal they helped arrange, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said they discussed “how to guarantee the improvement, expansion and extension” of the deal, which expires May 18.

Erdogan became ill during a TV interview on Tuesday evening with what Health Minister Fahrettin Koca later said was a “gastrointestinal infection.” His election rallies planned for Wednesday and Thursday were canceled.

He looked pale Thursday as he inaugurated a nuclear power plant via video in his first public appearance since his illness. During his Friday video address Erdogan seemed well as he spoke for about 10 minutes from behind a desk.

Other officials sought to dispel concerns about the 69-year-old leader’s health ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections. Recent polls showed a slight lead for Erdogan’s main challenger amid an economic downturn and a February earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.

Erdogan, who underwent intestinal surgery in 2011, has ruled Turkey since 2003, first as prime minister and as president since 2014. He campaigned hard in recent weeks, attending several events across the country every day.
…

Four Kurdish journalists appeared in court in Turkey this week, accused of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

JinNews reporter Beritan Canozer, journalist Remzi Akkaya, Mesopotamia News Agency (MA) editor Abdurrahman Gok, and MA reporter Mehmet Sah Oruc were taken into custody in coordinated dawn raids Tuesday, in which Turkish police detained at least 128 people in 21 cities.

Among those detained are 10 journalists, a lawyer representing arrested Kurdish journalists in other court cases, and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third-biggest party in the Turkish parliament.

HDP faces a party closure case in Turkey’s Constitutional Court as it is accused of being linked to the PKK, a charge that the HDP denies.

Allegations include spreading propaganda

The detentions came ahead of Turkey’s upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections May 14, which are seen as the biggest electoral challenge that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has faced during two decades in power.

A Turkish security source told Reuters that the suspects were accused of providing financing, recruiting and spreading propaganda for the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.

In a joint statement, several international rights organizations, including Freedom House, the International Press Institute, and PEN International, have called on the Turkish authorities “to stop the systematic harassment and intimidation of Kurdish journalists, media workers, media outlets, the lawyers that defend them, and Kurdish political party officials, give them access to legal counsel, disclose full details of charges brought and to ensure that they are released from detention.” 

‘This no longer surprises anyone’

Several journalism organizations reacted to the arrest of the journalists.

Erol Onderoglu, the Turkish representative for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said that the police raids Tuesday were carried out to crack down on the Kurdish journalists.

“It is clear that the investigation and operation were carried out to purge the Kurdish media and put the opposition parties in trouble before the election, and this no longer surprises anyone,” Onderoglu told VOA. “With these arrests, it seems that we will once again gain a reputation of being among the countries which arrested the most journalists in the world, as was the case after the coup attempt.” 

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual prison census in 2022, Turkey was among the top five jailers of journalists, as 40 journalists were behind bars last year. 

Veysel Ok, co-director of the Istanbul-based Media and Law Studies Association, thinks that the operation has threatened freedom of expression and election security in Turkey.

“Lawyers will be on duty at the ballot box, and journalists are the ones who will inform the public about possible unlawfulness, corruption and extortion at the polls. Therefore, there is a serious risk,” Ok told VOA.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu posted a video of the police raids Tuesday on Twitter and said, “Either on the mountain or in the city, we are always breathing down their necks.”

“This video shows that the operation aims to create psychological, political and social fear among the public. In an operation within the limits of the law, the interior minister cannot post a video like this. Here is a logic that equates journalism, being a lawyer, or rights advocate with terrorism,” Ok said.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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Pope Francis, starting a trip to Hungary, pointedly warned Friday of the dangers of rising nationalism in Europe and told the Budapest government that accepting migrants along with the rest of the continent would be a true sign of Christianity. 

In a hard-hitting speech to government leaders — including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has had a series of run-ins with the European Union — Francis also urged a rejection of “self-referential forms of populism” and strictly nationalist interests. 

Francis called for a return to the “European soul” envisioned by those who laid the groundwork for modern Europe after World War II, saying nations had to “look beyond national boundaries.” 

Speaking on the day that Kyiv vowed an “iron fist” response after Russia hit Ukraine with the first large-scale airstrikes in nearly two months, Francis made another appeal for an end to the war there, calling for “creative efforts for peace” to drown out the “soloists of war.” 

The three-day visit is the 86-year-old pope’s first trip since he was admitted to the hospital for bronchitis in March. 

Looking cheerful, Francis, who has a knee ailment, used a cane to walk by welcoming dignitaries and children in national dress at the airport. In recent arrivals, he used a wheelchair. 

Asked by reporters about his health on the flight from Rome, the pope joked, saying “I’m still alive” and “stubborn weeds never die.” 

Francis is keeping a promise of an official visit to Hungary after a stop of only seven hours in 2021 on his way to Slovakia that left many feeling slighted. 

Orban, 59, and the pope have differing views on handling migration from the Middle East and Africa, with Francis believing migrants fleeing poverty should be welcomed. 

Orban, whose government built a steel fence on the border with Serbia to keep out migrants, has refused to let Hungary be transformed into an “immigrant country” like he says others in Europe have become. 

He asked Francis in 2021, during the pope’s last visit, “not to let Christian Hungary perish.” 

Hungary’s founder saint 

After separate private meetings with President Katalin Novak and Orban, Francis gave a speech in the presidential palace overlooking the River Danube, in which he quoted St. Stephen, the 11th century founder of Christian Hungary. 

“Those who profess themselves Christian, in the company of the witnesses of faith, are called to bear witness to and to join forces with everyone in cultivating a humanism inspired by the Gospel and moving along two fundamental tracks: acknowledging ourselves to be beloved children of the Father and loving one another as brothers and sisters,” Francis said.

“In this regard, Saint Stephen bequeathed to his son extraordinary words of fraternity when he told him that those who arrive with different languages and customs ‘adorn the country,'” Francis said, quoting the saint’s command to “welcome strangers with benevolence and to hold them in esteem.” 

But Francis appeared to give comfort to Orban’s rejection of the imposition of what he says are liberal values by outsiders. Francis denounced any form of “ideological colonization” on issues such as “so-called gender theory” or “the right to abortion.” 

Later, addressing bishops, priests and nuns in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Francis urged Hungarians to confront “the rapid pace of social change and the crisis of faith affecting our Western culture.” 

Orban, who has said that Hungary and the Vatican are the only two European states that can be described as “pro-peace,” later posted on his official Facebook page that the pope’s words were a “confirmation” of Hungary’s desire for peace in Ukraine. 

Hungary supports a sovereign Ukraine but still has strong economic ties to Russia. Orban’s government has refused to send weapons to Ukraine. The pope has said sending weapons to Ukraine for self-defense is morally permissible. 

 
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Pope Francis arrived in Hungary on Friday.

During his three-day visit, he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Francis will also preside over an open-air Mass on Sunday in front of parliament.

Francis’ visit occurs as Europe is experiencing a migrant crisis and the war in Ukraine. He is expected to address both issues during his visit and he is scheduled to meet with some Ukrainians who fled their homes after Russia’s invasion.

Orban famously erected a razor wire fence in 2015 to keep Serbs out of Hungary, but he has welcomed Ukrainians. However, unlike some of his European counterparts, he has not supplied Ukraine with weapons for its battle against Russia.

The pontiff and the prime minister have both called for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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BBC Chairman Richard Sharp resigned on Friday after an
independent report found he had breached public appointment rules by not disclosing potential conflict of interest in his role in securing a $1 million loan for the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson.

His exit comes at a time of heightened political scrutiny of the British public broadcaster. A high-profile dispute with highly paid presenter Gary Lineker over neutrality dominated headlines in Britain last month.

Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker who became BBC chairman in 2021, had been under pressure since February when a committee of lawmakers said he had made “significant errors of judgement” in failing to declare his involvement in the loan.

Sharp said he had agreed to stay on until the end of June to give the government time to find a successor to lead the broadcaster, funded by a license fee paid by TV-watching households.

The investigation, initiated by the public appointments watchdog, examine dthe way in which Sharp was selected by the government to chair the corporation in 2021.

Specifically, it looked at whether Sharp fully disclosed details of his role in facilitating a $1 million loan for Johnson before he was named chairman.

The report found that, while he had breached the government’s code for public appointments, that breach did not necessarily invalidate his appointment. Sharp said he believed the breach had been “inadvertent and not material.”

But he also said staying until the end of his four-year term would be a distraction from the broadcaster’s “good work.”

“I have decided that it is right to prioritize the interests of the BBC,” Sharp said in a statement. “I have therefore, this morning, resigned as the BBC chair.”

The opposition Labour Party’s culture spokeswoman, Lucy Powell, said the breach had “caused untold damage to the reputation of the BBC and seriously undermined its independence as a result of the Conservatives sleaze and cronyism.”

The report mentions Johnson’s Downing Street office as having recommended Sharp as “a strong candidate” for the role, which attracted 23 applications.

Sharp has maintained he was not involved in making the loan or in arranging a guarantee or any financing, and that he did no more than seek to introduce Canadian businessman Sam Blyth to a government official in late 2020.

Andrew Heppinstall, who carried out the inquiry, said he was “happy to record” that he had seen no evidence of Sharp having any role in Johnson’s private financial affairs aside from the attempted introduction.
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NATO allies have delivered almost all promised combat vehicles to Ukraine, including more than 1550 armored vehicles and 230 tanks.
Russia has canceled this year’s Russian International Army Games.  The British Defense Ministry said Russia “has likely canceled the games mainly because it is concerned the event would be seen as frivolous in wartime.”

Russia launched missile attacks early Friday on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, the capital.

At least five people were killed in the strikes, a mother and her 3-year-old in Dnipro, plus three people in the central city of Uman, where eight people were wounded.

The damage in Kyiv was not immediately clear.

On Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution recognizing that Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children has evidence of genocide.

“This decision,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address, “will significantly help our global efforts to bring Russia and its officials, including the head of the terrorist state, to justice for genocide and genocidal policies against Ukraine.”

Also Thursday, Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said he asked Pope Francis, during a private audience, for his help with returning Ukrainian children to Ukraine who have been ‘detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia.”

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their alleged involvement in the deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.  
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Reports emerged this week that the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group could be supplying weapons to one of the warring parties in the conflict in Sudan. Salem Solomon has the story with Patsy Widakuswara contributing.
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 A Ukrainian journalist working with an Italian newspaper was shot dead by suspected Russian snipers in southern Ukraine on Wednesday. His Italian colleague was injured, the paper reported.

“Our correspondent Corrado Zunino and his fixer Bohdan Bitik were victims of an ambush near the bridge in Kherson by Russian snipers on the outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine,” the daily newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday in an article on its website.

“Bitik unfortunately did not make it and died; he leaves behind his wife and a son. Corrado, who was wounded in the shoulder, is in the civil hospital in Kherson,” the newspaper said.

The reporters were targeted near the Antonivsky Bridge, which crosses the Dnipro River on the outskirts of Kherson in southern Ukraine, after passing through a series of Ukrainian checkpoints. The journalists reportedly were trying to speak to Ukrainian forces positioned near the bridge.

Russian forces left the western portion of the city last year but still often shell it from the eastern part.

When the men were attacked, both were wearing blue bulletproof vests marked with “PRESS” on the front and back.

“I’m well, I’ve got a wound in my right shoulder, shaved by the bullet that hit my great friend Bohdan,’’ Zunino told La Repubblica. “I saw Bohdan on the ground, he wasn’t moving. I crawled until I got out of the line of fire. I ran until I came across a civilian’s car. I was covered in blood. I got myself taken to the hospital in Kherson.

“I tried several times to call Bohdan. He didn’t answer. He was a great friend of mine; the pain is excruciating,” Zunino said.  

The Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, urged Kyiv and Moscow to investigate the ambush.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Ukrainian producer Bohdan Bitik and wish Italian reporter Corrado Zunino a speedy recovery,” Gulnoza Said, who works on Ukraine at the CPJ, said in a statement Thursday.

“Russian and Ukrainian authorities must swiftly investigate this tragic attack and ensure that journalists are not targeted while reporting on the war in Ukraine. Members of the press are civilians under international humanitarian law and should be protected as such,” Said continued. 

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said his ministry and the Italian Embassy in Kyiv were working with Ukrainian authorities to return Zunino to Italy.

The Italian newspaper said the presence of Russian snipers was making it hard to recover Bitik’s body.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Italian media that Russian forces were responsible for the killing.

“Russians don’t care if you’re Russian, Italian or Ukrainian, they just shoot,” he said.

Bitik is at least the 14th journalist killed in Ukraine while reporting on the Russian invasion, according to the CPJ.
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