Unions representing more than a million health care workers in England, including nurses and paramedics — but not doctors — reached a deal Thursday to resolve months of disruptive strikes for higher wages.

The announcement came as early-career physicians spent a third day on picket lines and the day after U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt announced a budget that included no additional money for labor groups that have staged crippling strikes amid a punishing cost-of-living crisis and double-digit inflation.

Any strike actions will be halted while rank-and-file members vote on whether to accept an offer of a lump-sum payment for the current year and a 5% raise next year.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was a good deal for National Health Service staff who persevered through the pandemic along with patients and taxpayers. He encouraged other striking unions to come to the bargaining table.

“We don’t want disruption for patients. We don’t want disruption for schoolchildren in our classrooms,” Sunak said during a visit to a London hospital, where he met with nurses. “Today’s agreement demonstrates we are serious about this, and we can find workable solutions.”

But the head of the Royal College of Nursing, one of at least five unions supporting the deal, said the pay offer would not have come if nurses hadn’t made the difficult decision to go on strike, forcing the government to negotiate.

“It is not a panacea, but it is real, tangible progress. And the RCN’s member leaders are asking fellow nursing staff to support what our negotiations have secured,” Royal College of Nursing General Secretary Pat Cullen said.

Unite, the largest trade union in the U.K. but with a smaller presence in the health care field, blasted the government for months of “dither and delay” that caused unnecessary pain to staff and patients, and said it would not recommend the deal but let workers vote on it.

“It is clear that this government does not hold the interest of workers or the NHS at heart,” Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said. “Their behavior and disdain for NHS workers, and workers generally, is clear from their actions. Britain has a broken economy, and workers are paying the price.”

Unions argue that wages in the public sector have failed to keep pace with skyrocketing food and energy costs that have left many households struggling to pay their bills.

Inflation in the U.K. reached a 40-year high of 11.1% in October before dropping in January to 10.1%.

A wave of strikes by train drivers, airport baggage handlers, border staff, driving instructors and postal workers since last summer has created havoc for residents.

Firefighters, who canceled a planned strike, and London bus drivers recently reached deals to keep working. But many other professions remain locked in pay disputes. Tens of thousands of teachers, civil servants and workers on the capital’s subway system all walked off the job on Wednesday.

Some have criticized health care workers for jeopardizing lives, though ambulance crews said they responded to the most urgent calls, and emergency rooms were staffed.

The health care workers, including midwives and physical therapists, had been in talks since they held what organizers said was the largest strike in the history of the country’s National Health Service last month.

The labor actions echo the economic unrest that has rippled across France, including over the government’s plan to increase the retirement age.

The U.K.’s lackluster economy is likely to avoid a recession this year, though growth will still shrink. The International Monetary Fund last month said the country would be the only major economy to contract this year, performing even worse than sanctions-hit Russia.

It was not immediately clear where the funding for raises would come from because they weren’t in the budget Hunt announced Wednesday, and The Department of Health and Social Care had recently claimed that raises above 3.5% were unaffordable.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said they would look for cost savings and the funding would ultimately be up to the Treasury and would not come at the expense of patients.

If the Treasury doesn’t provide the additional money, the overburdened public health system could be forced for a second consecutive year to cut spending or positions, said Ben Zaranko of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank that analyzes U.K. government fiscal and economic policies.

“There must be a risk that the NHS is asked to make heroic efficiency savings to absorb these costs, struggles to do so, and instead has to be bailed out in six months or a year’s time,” Zaranko said. “That would hardly lend itself to sensible financial planning.”

A ratified deal with nurses and others will ease some of the pain on the state-funded public health system, which has been beset by winter viruses, staff shortages and backlogs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deal only applies to workers in England, because Scotland and Wales have semiautonomous governments in charge of health policy.
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A court in Namibia is hearing an appeal by the local branch of Russia’s state-owned atomic energy agency, Rosatom, which is seeking water permits needed for uranium mining.

The government of Namibia, the world’s second-biggest producer of the nuclear fuel, said last year that a mining company owned by Rosatom had failed to prove its uranium extraction method would not cause pollution.

The Uranium One mining company is asking the court to set aside the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform on the ground that it is contrary to an article of the Namibian constitution that requires administrative bodies to act fairly and reasonably.

The company said it was not given an opportunity to prove that its method of uranium extraction would not contaminate the underground water that farmers in the area rely on for their livelihoods.

Riaan Van Rooyen, Uranium One’s Namibian spokesperson, said the company “has launched review proceedings in the High Court of Namibia in terms of which it seeks to assail the decision taken by minister of agriculture, water and land reform in respect of an application for drilling permits submitted by Uranium One. As the case is currently sub judice [under judicial consideration], Uranium One will refrain from further commenting in respect to pending litigation.”

Calle Schlettwein, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, told VOA in an earlier interview that Uranium One must present scientific data that show no contamination of underground water will take place if the company is granted permits to continue with uranium exploration.

“It is not anything against the company or investment,” Schlettwein said. “It is the principle that we have to look at that guards against the possible contamination of a very important renewable resource.”

Local support

Schlettwein’s decision to not grant Rosatom’s Namibian subsidiary a water permit is supported by various local farmers, who are listed in an affidavit in the court case.

One of those farmers, Goddy Riruako, who is also a community activist, lamented what he termed extractive industries that come to Namibia with the promise of spearheading development.

He said the community cannot seek development at the expense of the long-term effects that pollution may have.

“Now, who says the method is clean and does not contaminate the underground water?” he asked. “No one knows what happens underground, and anything that you put into water that others drink or that we drink will have a detrimental effect on our health and the health of our children and generations to come.”

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform is listed among 39 other respondents in the affidavit.

Scientists say the global demand for energy is likely to increase by 40% in the next 17 years, and countries like Russia are looking to Africa to meet growing energy needs.
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French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power.

Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government. Riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing.

The proposed pension changes have prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January. Macron, who made it the flagship of his second term, argued the reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France’s population ages and life expectancy lengthens.

The decision to invoke the special power was made during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote, because Macron had no guarantee of a majority in France’s lower house of parliament.

Then, as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tried to formally announce the decision at the National Assembly, leftist members broke into the French national anthem, delaying her speech. The speaker had to briefly suspend the session to restore order.

“Today, there’s uncertainty” about whether a majority would have voted for the bill “by just a few votes,” Borne explained. “We cannot take the risk to see 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse … We cannot gamble on the future of our pensions. That reform is necessary,” she said.

Borne said her government is accountable to the parliament, prompting boos from the ranks of the opposition.

“In a few days, I have no doubts … there will be one or several no-confidence motions. There will actually be a proper vote and therefore the parliamentary democracy will have the last say,” she added.

One by one, opposition lawmakers emerged from the Assembly demanding the government step down. One Communist lawmaker called the presidential power a political “guillotine.” Others called it a “denial of democracy” that signals Macron’s lack of legitimacy. One union leader called it “institutional violence” and called for more strikes and protests.

Marine Le Pen said her far-right National Rally party would file a no-confidence motion, and Communist lawmaker Fabien Roussel said such a motion is “ready” on the left.

“The mobilization will continue,” Roussel said. “This reform must be suspended.”

The head of The Republicans party, Eric Ciotti, said his group won’t “add chaos to chaos” by supporting a no-confidence motion, but some of his fellow conservatives at odds with the party’s leadership could vote individually for such a motion.

To be adopted, a no-confidence motion needs to be approved by at least half the seats at the lower house — that is 287 now. In such case, which would be a first since 1962, the government would have to resign.

If no-confidence motions don’t succeed, the pension bill would be considered adopted.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate adopted the bill in a 193-114 vote, a tally that was largely expected since the conservative majority of the upper house of parliament favors raising the retirement age.

Macron’s alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year, forcing the government to count on conservative lawmakers to pass the bill. Leftists and far-right lawmakers are strongly opposed and conservatives are divided, which made the outcome unpredictable.

The French leader wants to raise the retirement age so workers put more money into the system, which the government says is on course to run a deficit.

Macron has promoted the pension changes as central to his vision for making the French economy more competitive. The reform would raise the minimum pension age and require 43 years of work to earn a full pension, amid other measures.

Union leaders reacted with fury and a determination to stage even more strikes a day after nearly 500,000 people protested against the bill. Francois Hommeril of the CFE-CGC, representing energy workers among others, said the government “forces a vote when it is sure to win it” and “prevents the vote when they know they would lose.”

Across the river Seine from the National Assembly, hundreds joined an unannounced rally at the Place de la Concorde, where security forces, backed by a water cannon, were on alert. Leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told the crowd that Macron has gone “over the heads of the will of the people.”

Members of Melenchon’s France Unbowed party were among the lawmakers singing the Marseillese in an attempt to thwart the prime minister’s call to force the bill through without a vote.

Economic challenges have prompted widespread unrest across Western Europe, where many countries, like France, have had such low birthrates that young workers might not able to sustain pensions for retirees. Spain’s leftist government joined with labor unions Wednesday to announce a “historic” deal to save its pension system.

Spain’s Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva said the French have a very different, unsustainable model and “has not addressed its pension system for decades.” Spain’s workers already must stay on the job until at least 65 and won’t be asked to work longer — instead, the new deal increases employer contributions for higher-wage earners.
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Britain said on Thursday it would ban TikTok on government phones with immediate effect, a move that follows other Western countries in barring the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns.

TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

“The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices. The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review,” Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said in a statement.

The British government had asked the National Cyber Security Centre to look at the potential vulnerability of government data from social media apps and risks around how sensitive information could be accessed and used.

The United States, Canada, Belgium and the European Commission have already banned the app from official devices.

“Restricting the use of TikTok on government devices is a prudent and proportionate step following advice from our cyber security experts,” Dowden said.

TikTok said it was disappointed with the decision and had already begun taking steps to further protect European user data.

“We believe these bans have been based on fundamental misconceptions and driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok, and our millions of users in the UK, play no part,” a TikTok spokesperson said.

China said the decision was based on political considerations rather than facts.

The move “interferes with the normal operations of relevant companies in the UK and will ultimately only harm the UK’s own interests”, its embassy in London said in a statement.

Dowden told parliament government devices would now only be able to access third party apps from a pre-approved list.

The TikTok ban does not include personal devices of government employees or ministers and there would be limited exemptions where TikTok was required on government devices for work purposes, he added.

British government departments and ministers have been increasingly using TikTok and other platforms to communicate with voters.

Energy Minster Grant Shapps said the ban on government devices was sensible, but he would stay on the platform on his personal phone.

He posted a clip from the movie “Wolf of Wall Street” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character says “I’m not f****** leaving”, and “The show goes on”.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense posted a video on the platform shortly before the ban was announced showing how the British army was training Ukrainian forces to use the Challenger 2 battle tank.
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At least one person was killed and two were injured in an explosion that caused a fire at a building belonging to the border patrol of Russia’s FSB security service in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday, local authorities said.

Footage captured by Reuters showed a plume of thick black smoke billowing into the air, near residential buildings and a shopping center in a built-up district of the city.

Local emergency services said an explosion had occurred, igniting a fire that spread to an area covering 880 square meters.

They said one person had been killed and two more injured in the incident.
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The U.S. military released a video Thursday of a Russian military intercept that resulted in the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone Tuesday over the Black Sea.

The video shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 dumping fuel as it approaches the U.S. MQ-9 drone from behind and passes over the top.

A second Sukhoi Su-27 approaches in a similar manner, and as it reaches the drone, the video feed is disrupted at the moment the U.S. military says the Russian fighter aircraft collided with the drone.

A final shot shows the video feed restored and that one of the drone’s propellor blades has been bent.

The video’s release came a day after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart about the encounter.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Austin told reporters after announcing that he had “just got off the phone” with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

It was the first call between the two defense leaders since October, according to officials.

The downed U.S. MQ-9 drone was “conducting routine operations” in international airspace Tuesday, according to the U.S. military, when the pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft intercepted it. U.S. forces brought down the drone in international waters after the Russian jet struck the drone’s propeller.

“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it is very unprofessional and very unsafe,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday.

Milley said he was “not sure yet” whether the physical contact between the Russian aircraft and the drone was intentional.

Russia said it is considering whether to try to retrieve the drone, but U.S. officials said its operatives were able to remotely erase sensitive software on the drone to prevent Russia from collecting secret information before sending the aircraft into the Black Sea.

The U.S. does not have ships in the Black Sea, which is largely controlled by Russia.

“But we do have a lot of allies and friends in the area, and we’ll work through recovery operations. That’s U.S. property,” Milley said.

Russia denied that its Su-27 jets came into contact with the U.S. drone and pinned blame for the crash on the operation of the drone. A U.S. military official told VOA the unmanned MQ-9 has not yet been recovered. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday the United States summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry Telegram channel reported Wednesday that Shoigu has blamed the incident on the United States’ “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone declared by the Russian Federation, which was established as part of a special military operation.”

Earlier Wednesday, Austin and Milley hosted the 10th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group more than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The virtual meeting included 51 participants. Milley said the group promised “a broad mix of air defense systems,” in addition to providing more artillery, armor and ammunition. For example, Sweden will provide 10 more Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and Norway will partner with the United States to provide two additional National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS.

“Ukraine matters. It matters not to just Ukraine or to the United States, it matters to the world. This is about the rules-based international order,” Austin told reporters Wednesday.

“Russia is running out of capability and out of friends,” he added. “Putin still hopes he can wear down Ukraine and wait us out, so we can’t let up, and we won’t.”
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Credit Suisse announced Thursday that it would borrow almost $54 billion from the Swiss central bank to reinforce the group after a plunge in its share prices.

The disclosure came just hours after the Swiss National Bank said capital and liquidity levels at the lender were adequate for a “systemically important bank,” even as it pledged to make liquidity available if needed.

In a statement, Credit Suisse said the central bank loan of up to $53.7 billion would “support… core businesses and clients,” adding it was also making buyback offers on about $3 billion worth of debt.

“These measures demonstrate decisive action to strengthen Credit Suisse as we continue our strategic transformation to deliver value to our clients and other stakeholders,” CEO Ulrich Koerner said in the statement.

“My team and I are resolved to move forward rapidly to deliver a simpler and more focused bank built around client needs.”

Credit Suisse, hit by a series of scandals in recent years, saw its stock price tumble off a cliff Wednesday after major shareholder Saudi National Bank declined to invest more in the group, citing regulatory constraints.

Its shares fell more than 30% to a record low before regaining ground to end the day 24.24% down, at 1.697 Swiss francs.

Credit Suisse’s market value had already taken a heavy blow this week over fears of contagion from the collapse of two U.S. banks, as well as its annual report citing “material weaknesses” in internal controls.

Mounting concerns

Analysts have warned of mounting concerns over the bank’s viability and the impact on the larger banking sector, as shares of other lenders sank Wednesday after a rebound the day before.

Credit Suisse is one of 30 banks globally deemed too big to fail, forcing it to set aside more cash to weather a crisis.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at trading firm Finalto, said Wednesday that if the bank did “run into serious existential trouble, we are in a whole other world of pain.”

In February 2021, Credit Suisse shares were worth 12.78 Swiss francs, but since then, the bank has endured a barrage of problems that have eaten away at its market value.

It was hit by the implosion of U.S. fund Archegos, which cost it more than $5 billion.

Its asset management branch was rocked by the bankruptcy of British financial firm Greensill, in which some $10 billion had been committed through four funds.

The bank booked a net loss of nearly $8 billion for the 2022 financial year.

That came against a backdrop of massive withdrawals of funds by its clients, including in the wealth management sector — one of the activities on which the bank intends to refocus as part of a major restructuring plan.
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The EU will reveal hotly debated proposals Thursday to boost spending on clean tech, possibly overcoming internal divisions to include nuclear energy in the mix, to confront growing industrial competition from the United States and China.

Brussels wants to protect European businesses by prioritizing green technologies, including solar and wind, for more financing and greater regulatory freedom.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will publish draft plans for a Net Zero Industry Act on Thursday to meet its ambitious target to become a “climate neutral” economy with zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The proposal was to be made public Tuesday, but a standoff in the commission over whether to include nuclear power, a low-carbon energy, delayed the announcement. Heated discussion was expected until the last minute.

Another landmark draft regulation will also be unveiled on Thursday that aims to secure supplies of critical raw materials needed to make the most of the electrical products consumers use today, including smartphones and electric vehicles.

Green technology production took on greater urgency after the United States unveiled a $370 billion “buy American” subsidy program for tax credits and clean energy subsidies, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year.

European businesses have warned that lavish subsidies elsewhere alongside lower energy bills could tempt the continent’s firms to Asia or North America, and EU officials have complained that the IRA will discriminate against Europe’s industry.

Matching subsidies

The commission has toiled over a response to the IRA despite divisions in the 27-member bloc, with some countries arguing for looser subsidy rules to allow them to back their own firms with state aid, and others opposed over fears of triggering a subsidies war.

Last week, the commission loosened state aid rules for green technology and allowed members to match subsidies offered in other states.

The clean technology sector is expected to be worth $630 billion worldwide by 2030, more than three times current levels.

Under draft proposals seen by AFP, the commission now wants at least 40% of green tech to be produced in the EU by 2030.

This will be achieved, the commission hopes, by ensuring businesses obtain permits faster and says public tenders would be considered based on green criteria that could favor European companies.

If nuclear is included as a green technology, that would be a victory for around a dozen countries including France, although there is stringent opposition from anti-nuclear Germany.

Some have questioned the bloc’s “protectionist” objectives.

“The purpose of this law and how the draft was written is not to achieve faster decarbonization, but it’s basically to reshore production and that is a protectionist goal,” said Niclas Poitiers, research fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank.

“This is about making sure that batteries and solar panels are produced in the EU.”

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, however, this week dismissed such claims and insisted the proposal was in fact “a very open act.”

‘Vulnerable’ EU

The EU also wants to meet the rapidly growing need for raw materials, much of which it currently imports from China, to avoid relying on one country for a specific product.

When Moscow invaded Ukraine last year, the EU was brought to its knees by higher energy costs as Brussels raced to find fossil fuels elsewhere instead of Russia.

“The EU’s supply of raw materials is highly concentrated on a few countries… This makes us vulnerable to supply disruptions or aggressive actions,” the bloc’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said.

According to the leaked proposals, the EU wants the bloc to meet 10% of the demand for mining and extraction of raw materials.

It also says the EU should not rely on one single country for more than 70% of imports for any strategic raw material by 2030.
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The British Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Ukraine can go to trial to avoid repaying $3 billion in loans it said it took under pressure from Russia in 2013 to prevent it from trying to join the European Union.

The court rejected a bid by a British company acting on Russia’s behalf to order Ukraine to repay the loans without facing a trial. Ukraine said it borrowed the money while facing the threat of military force and massive illegal economic and political pressure nearly a decade before Russia invaded its neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that the ruling was “another decisive victory against the aggressor.”

“The Court has ruled that Ukraine’s defense based on Russia’s threats of aggression will have a full public trial,” he tweeted. “Justice will be ours.”

The case was argued in November 2021, and the court was not asked to consider Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three months later.

Ukrainian authorities allege that the corrupt government of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych borrowed the money from Moscow under pressure before he was ousted in protests in February 2014, shortly before Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

After the 2014 Ukraine revolution, the country’s new government refused to repay the debt in December 2015, saying Moscow wouldn’t agree to terms already accepted by other international creditors.

The case came to British courts because London-based Law Debenture Trust Corp. had been appointed to represent the interests of bondholders. The company initially won a judgment ordering repayment of the loans, but Ukraine appealed.

An appeals court overturned the lower court ruling, agreeing that Ukraine could challenge repayment of the loans on the grounds of duress but rejecting several other legal claims.

Both sides appealed to the Supreme Court, which reached a similar conclusion in favor of Ukraine for different reasons.

The Supreme Court rejected several of Ukraine’s legal arguments, including that its finance minister didn’t have authority to enter into the loan agreement and that Ukraine could decline payment as a countermeasure to Russia’s aggressions.

The ruling, however, said a court could consider whether the deal was void because of threats or pressure that are illegitimate under English law.

While the court noted that trade sanctions, embargoes and other economic pressures are “normal aspects of statecraft,” economic pressures could provide context to prove that Russia’s threats to destroy Ukraine caused it to issue the bonds.

“The success of Ukraine’s defense turns on whether Russia’s threatened use of force imposed what English law regards as illegitimate pressure on Ukraine to enter into the trust deed and related contracts,” the court wrote. “That question can only be determined after trial.”

Ukraine said that a month before it entered into the deal, Yanukovych told his Lithuanian counterpart that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to have Moscow’s banks bankrupt eastern Ukrainian factories if it signed an association agreement with the EU.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the United Kingdom court recognized the coercion.

“Now, the Kremlin will have to disclose all information about the actions against Ukraine in open court,” Shmyhal said. “Justice will definitely prevail. Russia will definitely answer for all its illegal actions and crimes.”
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Flash floods killed at least 14 people living in tents and container housing across Turkey’s quake-hit region on Wednesday, piling more pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of crunch elections.

Several more people were swept away by the rushing water, which turned streets into muddy rivers in areas hit by last month’s 7.8-magnitude quake, officials said.

More than 48,000 people died in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in Syria in the Feb. 6 disaster, the region’s deadliest in modern times.

Hundreds of thousands of Turkish quake survivors have been moved into tents and container homes across the disaster region, which covers 11 provinces across Turkey’s southeast.

Torrential rains hit the area Tuesday and the weather service expects them to last until late Wednesday.

Turkish officials said the floods killed 12 people in Sanliurfa, about 50 kilometers north of the Syrian border.

Two people, including a 1-year-old, also died in nearby Adiyaman, where five remain unaccounted for.

Images showed the waters sweeping away cars and flooding temporary housing set up for earthquake victims.

In one viral video, a man dressed in a beige suit and tie reaches out for help while floating down a surging stream alongside a piece of furniture. His fate remains unknown.

Other images showed people pulling victims out of the water with branches and rope.

The Sanliurfa governor’s office said the flooding also reached the ground floor of one of the region’s main hospitals.

Pressure on Erdogan

Facing a difficult reelection on May 14, Erdogan is confronting a furious public backlash over his government’s stuttering response to the biggest natural disaster of his two-decade rule.

Erdogan has issued several public apologies while also stressing that no nation could have dealt quickly with a disaster of such scale.

Erdogan has spent the past few weeks touring the region, meeting survivors and promising to rebuild the entire area within a year.

“By the end of next year, we will build 319,000 houses,” Erdogan told his ruling party members Wednesday in a parliamentary address.

“Beyond the search and rescue, emergency aid and temporary shelter we have provided so far, we have a promise to our nation to restore the cities destroyed in the earthquake within a year,” he said.

Erdogan dispatched his interior minister to the flooded region to oversee the government’s response.

“Currently, we have 10 teams composed of 163 people doing search and rescue work across a 25-kilometer stretch,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

“We also have divers. But the weather conditions are not allowing us to do much,” he said.
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Turkey will continue discussions to extend a deal that allows grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for 120 days rather than 60 days, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Wednesday.

“We started negotiations in line with the initial version of the deal. The continuation of the deal is important. We will continue our contacts [regarding its extension for] 120 days instead of two months,” Akar said according to a statement by the defense ministry.

Parties of the deal will evaluate and decide on a further extension of the agreement, Akar also said, adding that Ankara hoped for a positive outcome.

The deal reached in July last year created a protected sea transit corridor and was designed to alleviate global food shortages by allowing exports to resume from three ports in Ukraine, a major producer of grains and oilseeds.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Wednesday, and Moscow said it was counting on the elaboration of an “overall” deal taking into account concerns about its own farm and fertilizer exports.

“[Russia’s] position was confirmed concerning the need to achieve the full and good-neighborly implementation of the U.N. general secretary on ensuring free access to world markets for Ukrainian grain and Russian fertilizer and foodstuffs,” the foreign ministry said on its website.

Since Russia and Ukraine signed the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative in Turkey on July 22, millions of tons of grain and other food products have been exported from Ukrainian ports, helping lower global food prices from record highs.

As the talks continued, Russia suggested allowing the deal to be renewed for 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal, but Ukraine rejected it.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the challenge posed by China prompted Britain to publish an updated defense strategy this week, as the country tries to balance strategic threats with financial constraints at home. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Britain has published an updated defense strategy, prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the challenge posed by China, as Britain tries to balance strategic threats with financial constraints at home. 

The document, “Integrated Review Refresh 2023,” updates a previous strategy review issued two years ago.

Ukraine invasion 

The new document, published on Monday, “forces a refocus on European security,” David Lawrence, a research fellow at London-based Chatham House, a research group, told VOA.

“In the original review, there was this emphasis on the Indo-Pacific tilt. … It seemed like the U.K. wanted to move away from European security being its main sphere of influence,” he said. 

“That has completely changed, because [Russia’s invasion of Ukraine] has forced the U.K. to acknowledge that our most immediate threats come much closer to home. And actually, that the U.K. is in a really strong position — as the last year has shown — to provide military support to allies in Europe, particularly on Europe’s eastern front,” Lawrence said. 

Defense spending

The defense review was published the same week as the government’s annual budget, or the Spring Statement. Britain is forecast to have the lowest economic growth this year of all members of the G-7 group of rich nations. 

Nevertheless, Jeremy Hunt, chancellor of the Exchequer, announced Wednesday an increase in defense spending over the coming decade. On top of Britain’s $58 billion annual defense budget, Hunt committed an additional $11 billion over the next five years. 

An allocated $2.3 billion will be spent over the next two years to replenish ammunition stocks depleted through military aid given to Ukraine. Britain is the second-largest donor of military aid to Kyiv behind the United States, giving $2.8 billion worth of equipment in 2022. 

Britain’s annual defense spending currently stands at around 1.9% of GDP. The review reiterated Britain’s ambition to increase that figure to 2.5% of gross domestic product. The target of meeting that goal by 2030, however, has been removed.

The government on Wednesday said defense spending would hit 2.25% of GDP by 2025.

‘Second-rate’ economy

“If the U.K. really wants to be global Britain, wants to be a force on the world stage, wants to be at the front of the pack when it comes to responding to Russia or to China, then we need more money to do that,” Lawrence said.

“At the moment, we’re trying to run a first-rate military, which is up there competing with the U.S. and China and Russia, on a second-rate economy, because we’re lagging behind many other of our peers at the moment,” he said.

China challenge

In a foreword to the defense review, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said China poses “an epoch-defining challenge.” 

“It’s a country with fundamentally different values to ours and its behavior over the past few years has been concerning — more authoritarian at home, more assertive overseas,” Sunak told reporters, following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego, California this week. 

Sunak stopped short of labeling China a “threat,” despite pressure from the more hawkish members in his party.

Lawrence said Britain is trying to strike a delicate balance.

“China’s policy can change, and no one knows whether or not China will invade Taiwan. Whether or not China will continue down this more assertive path. I think the government wants to keep its options open,” he said. China considers self-administered Taiwan a wayward province.

“And I think the U.K. also recognizes that China will be an important country to work with on addressing global challenges, not just climate change, but thinking about the transformative impact of artificial intelligence, the possibility of future diseases or pandemics. Whatever your challenge is, China is going to be an important player, so you need to think carefully about how to engage with it,” Lawrence said. 

AUKUS

Britain also allocated an additional $3.6 billion to support the delivery of three nuclear-powered submarines for the Australian navy, as part of the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) Indo-Pacific defense pact.

Beijing said the deal, which was finalized by the three allies in San Diego, put the region on a “dangerous path.” 
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Trash, several thousand tons of it, is overflowing in normally elegant Paris, spilling into the capital’s streets and sidewalks, choking bike lanes, attracting rats and triggering a nasty political battle.

France’s uncollected garbage has become the most visible — and smelliest — manifestation of public outrage over a highly controversial bill to boost the retirement age from 62 to 64, which may face a key vote in parliament as early as Thursday.

“It’s really too bad, we’re one of the most visited cities in the world,” said science researcher Manu, who declined to give his surname as he picked his way down a refuse-pocked street in Paris’s trendy 2nd arrondissement. “But unfortunately, it’s one of the few ways to get a reaction from the government.”

In a final push to sink the legislation, thousands of French took to the streets Wednesday, the eighth day strikes against the legislation in recent weeks.

Polls show more than two-thirds of French citizens oppose the pension reform, which President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist government argue is vital to keep the country’s retirement system solvent as the population ages.

Unions and other critics note the system is currently in the black — and that there are other means of keeping it that way.

Getting their due

Wednesday’s strike affected schools, oil refineries, trains and public transit as thousands joined nationwide protests. The majority of French hope the protests will continue even if the legislation is passed, according to a survey for BFMTV by research firm Elabe, suggesting Macron may face a rocky road ahead.

“They’re right,” said another Paris resident, Haddad, of the protesting garbage collectors, even though she works in the tourism industry. “If they don’t do this, they won’t get what’s due to them.”

Like the pension reform, the garbage strike has become a partisan lightening rod. Other French cities are affected, but not as badly as Paris, where nearly 7,000 tons of trash are uncollected.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Rachida Dati, the local mayor of Paris’s elegant 7th arrondissement, have demanded city hall install a minimum collection service — an idea rebuffed by the capital’s leftist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who supports the garbage strike.

The city’s governing body suspended work for two hours Wednesday so employees could participate in the pensions protest, Le Parisien reported.

“It’s not so much the garbagemen’s strike that’s a problem for me, it’s Anne Hidalgo that’s on strike,” tweeted French Transport Minister Clement Beaune. “She does nothing.”

Still, Paris city hall has announced “palliative measures” to battle rats and unsanitary conditions — like thorough cleaning after outdoor food markets — even as experts worry about mounting health risks. “Hygiene is our top priority,” Deputy Mayor Colombe Brossel told French media.

Political risks

The partisan dispute is also playing out in parliament, where the left and far right adamantly oppose the pension reform bill. President Macron is counting on his centrist alliance and the center-right Les Republicains party to deliver the necessary votes in the Senate and National Assembly. But as of Wednesday, it wasn’t a sure deal.

“We won’t go for a vote if we know we’re going to lose it,” one government official told Le Monde.

A last resort would be the “nuclear option,” as French media describe it: a constitutional tool Macron’s party could use to ram the bill through without a vote. Opposition lawmakers, however, vow to push for a censure motion if that happens, an outcome that would potentially hobble the rest of Macron’s five-year term.

Emerging from work in Paris’s trash-strewn Rue Saint-Denis, Magda Konieczna found some humor amid the squalor. The neighborhood farther north where she lives is picked up by private trash collectors.

“I think it’s very funny, and it’s very French as well,” says Konieczna, who is originally from Poland and supports Macron’s pension bill. “It’s an example of French being so convinced that they are right that they will not collect the trash until the whole city is drowning in it.”
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Lithuania, a country that feels directly threatened by Russia, had warned for decades of Russian aggression against its neighbors. Now Lithuanians worry that what is happening in Ukraine could also happen in Lithuania. Ricardo Marquina reports from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, that ordinary people are keep up grass-roots efforts to support their homeland. Jonathan Spier narrates
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French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Central Africa this month has received mixed reviews, with some skeptical of his latest reset of French relations with the continent. It’s part of broader challenges Macron faces in asserting French influence — not just in Africa but also in Europe, amid a fast-changing political landscape marked by the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing influence overseas. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA.
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March marks the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Many Crimean Tatars had to leave their home after Russian forces overran the peninsula — among them Ernest Suleimanov and his family. They fled to Warsaw where they opened a restaurant named “Crimea” right in front of the Russian embassy in Poland. For VOA from Warsaw, Lesia Bakalets has their story. Videographer: Daniil Batushchak
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French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Central Africa this month has received mixed reviews, with some skeptical of his latest reset of French relations with the continent. It’s part of broader challenges Macron faces in asserting French influence — not just in Africa but also in Europe amid a fast-changing political landscape marked by the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing influence overseas. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA.
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The U.S. military says a Russian fighter jet collided Tuesday with a U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone operating within international airspace over the Black Sea, causing the drone to crash.
A U.S. military official told VOA the unmanned U.S. MQ-9 has not yet been recovered.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States is summoning the Russian ambassador over the incident.

“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned U.S. aircraft.”

He added that U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy “has conveyed a strong message to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed about the incident, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

“If the message [from Russia] is that they want to deter or dissuade us from flying and operating in international airspace over the Black Sea then that message will fail because that is not going to happen,” Kirby told VOA. 

“We are going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters. The Black Sea belongs to no one nation and we’re going to continue to do what we need to do for our own national security interests in that part of the world.”

According to U.S. European Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Europe, two Russian Su-27 aircraft “dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.”

“One of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. … This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” EUCOM added.

U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a press release that the collision had “nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”

EUCOM called on Russian forces to act “professionally and safely,” while warning that these types of acts are “dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation.”

Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces what analysts say is his biggest electoral challenge in May elections by a man many have dubbed the Turkish “Gandhi.” Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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