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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Ukrainian officials said Tuesday a Russian missile struck the city of Kramatorsk, killing at least one person and wounding three others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that the missile hit the center of the city and damaged six high-rise buildings.

“The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population,” Zelenskyy said. “Destroying life and leaving nothing human. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder. It will definitely be that way.”

The attack came as Russia pointed to what it said is Ukraine’s refusal to engage in peace talks.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia has only a military path in Ukraine. “We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”

Zelenskyy has repeatedly said since Russia invaded his country more than a year ago that Ukraine will only consider peace talks when all Russian forces withdraw.

Grain exports

Russia said Monday it is ready to allow an extension to a Ukraine grain export deal that has helped bring down global food prices, but only for 60 days.

A Russian delegation at talks with senior U.N. officials described the conversations Monday as “comprehensive and frank” but said Russia wanted to see “tangible progress” on a parallel agreement on Russian exports before the Ukraine grain deal again comes up for renewal.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative allows for Ukraine — one of the world’s leading producers of grain — to safely ship food and fertilizer from three Ukrainian ports.

The grain deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July to help ease a global food crisis and was extended for 120 days in November. That extension is due to expire on Saturday.

The Russian delegation at the talks in Geneva said in a statement Monday that “while the commercial export of Ukrainian products is carried out at a steady pace, bringing considerable profits to Kyiv, restrictions on the Russian agricultural exporters are still in place.”

“The sanctions exemptions for food and fertilizers announced by Washington, Brussels and London are essentially inactive,” it said.

Russia has been struggling to export grain and fertilizer due to a range of factors, including banking restrictions imposed by Western countries and high insurance costs.

Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said Russia’s decision to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative for only 60 days goes against the agreement.

“[The grain] agreement involves at least 120 d. of extension, therefore Russia’s position to extend the deal only for 60 d. contradicts the document signed by Turkey and the UN,” Kubrakov said on Twitter.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Monday that the deal is “a critical instrument at a critical time.”

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Monday that “the United Nations remains totally committed to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, as well as our efforts to facilitate the export of Russian food and fertilizer.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged Monday to increase military funding by 5 billion pounds ($6 billion) over the next two years in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “epoch-defining challenge” posed by China. 

The increase, part of a major update to U.K. foreign and defense policy, is less than military officials wanted. Sunak said the U.K. would increase military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product “in the longer term,” but didn’t set a date. Britain currently spends just over 2% of GDP on defense, and military chiefs want it to rise to 3%. 

The extra money will be used, in part, to replenish Britain’s ammunition stocks, depleted from supplying Ukraine in its defense against Russia. Some will also go toward a U.K.-U.S.-Australia deal to build nuclear-powered submarines. 

“The world has become more volatile, the threats to our security have increased,” Sunak told the BBC during a visit to the U.S. “It’s important that we protect ourselves against those.” 

Sunak met U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego on Monday to confirm next steps for the military pact, known as AUKUS, struck by the three countries in 2021 amid mounting concern about China’s actions in the Pacific. 

Under the deal, the U.K. and Australia will build new nuclear-powered, conventionally armed subs from a British design, with U.S. technology and support. Most of the U.K. construction will take place in shipyards at Barrow-in-Furness in northwest England, with the first subs completed by the late 2030s. Australia will also buy up to five Virginia-class subs from the U.S. 

The three leaders said the submarine plan “elevates all three nations’ industrial capacity to produce and sustain interoperable nuclear-powered submarines for decades to come, expands our individual and collective undersea presence in the Indo-Pacific, and contributes to global security and stability.” 

Britain last produced a defense, security and foreign policy framework, known as the Integrated Review, in 2021. 

The government ordered an update in response to an increasingly volatile world. The new report, released Monday, said “there is a growing prospect that the international security environment will further deteriorate in the coming years, with state threats increasing and diversifying in Europe and beyond.” 

Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine upended European security order, and the review said Russia poses “the most acute threat to the U.K.’s security.” 

The U.K. is also increasingly concerned about what the government calls “the epoch-defining challenge presented by the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly concerning military, financial and diplomatic activity.” 

The defense review said that “wherever the Chinese Communist Party’s actions and stated intent threaten the U.K.’s interests, we will take swift and robust action to protect them.” 

U.K. intelligence agencies have expressed growing concern about China’s military might, covert activities and economic muscle. Ken McCallum, head of domestic spy agency MI5, said in November that “the activities of the Chinese Communist Party pose the most game-changing strategic challenge to the U.K.” MI5 said in January 2022 that a London-based lawyer had tried to “covertly interfere in U.K. politics” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party — including by channeling money to an opposition Labour Party lawmaker. 

Concern about Beijing’s activities has sparked a government-wide catch-up campaign on China, including Mandarin-language training for British officials and a push to secure new sources of critical minerals that are essential to technology. 

The review doesn’t brand China itself a threat to the U.K., and Sunak has stressed the need for economic ties with China, to the annoyance of more hawkish members of the governing Conservative Party. 

“We are sliding towards a new Cold War,” said Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons Defense Committee. “Threats are increasing, but here we are staying on a peacetime budget.”

Speaking as he traveled to the U.S., Sunak said China’s Communist government “is increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad — and has a desire to reshape the world order.”

But, he added, “you can’t ignore China” given the size of its economy.

“It’s right to engage with China, on the issues that we can find common ground and make a difference on, for example climate change, global health, macroeconomic stability,” he said.

“That’s the right approach whilst being very robust in defending our values and our interests.” 
…

Australia will buy three nuclear-powered attack submarines from the United States as part of a three-nation, multi-decade deal with Great Britain that is aimed at strengthening the allies’ presence in the Asia-Pacific region as China grows bolder militarily. 

President Joe Biden says the decision to share sensitive U.S. nuclear technology with Australia is a big deal — and a necessary one. He spoke Monday in San Diego, California.    

“As we stand at the inflection point in history where the hard work of enhancing deterrence and promoting stability is going to affect the prospects of peace for decades to come, the United States can ask for no better partners in the Indo-Pacific, where so much of our shared future will be rooted,” Biden said at Naval Base San Diego, flanked by both countries’ leaders. “Forging this new partnership, we’re showing again how democracies can deliver our own security and prosperity, and not just for us, but for the entire world.” 

The multi-decade deal will see American and British nuclear-powered submarines rotating into Australian waters as soon as 2027. By the early 2030s, Australia will buy at least three — and as many as five — American nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines designed to hunt and attack other subs. And the three nations will work together to develop a new nuclear attack submarine — a project that could take two decades.   

Biden stressed that the deal concerns nuclear propulsion, not arms, and the leaders pledged to adhere to their nuclear non-proliferation agreements.  

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the deal, which could cost nearly $150 billion (as much as $200 billion Australian dollars) will create jobs and boost innovation and research.    

“The AUKUS agreement we confirm here in San Diego represents the biggest single investment in Australia’s defense capability in all of our history, strengthening Australia’s national security and stability in our region,” he said.   

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced that his nation would increase military spending to 2.5% of their GDP, to meet growing threats worldwide.    

“The last 18 months, the challenges we face have only grown: Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “China’s growing assertiveness, the destabilizing behavior of Iran and North Korea. All threaten to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division. Faced with this new reality it is more important than ever that we strengthen the resilience of our own countries.”    

Beijing has criticized the partnership and accuses Washington of “provoking rivalry and confrontation.”  

“This trilateral cooperation constitutes serious nuclear proliferation risks, undermines the international non-proliferation system, exacerbates arms race and hurts peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry. “It has been widely questioned and opposed by regional countries and the wider international community. We urge the US, the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, honor international obligations in good faith and do more things that are conducive to regional peace and stability.” 

But analysts say China’s aggression in the Pacific region prompted this decision.   

“This is really more a response to the very aggressive military buildup that China has had, as opposed to anything we’re doing that would be provoking to China,” Mark Kennedy, director of the Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition at the Wilson Center, told VOA. 

Because the three countries are democracies and have free-speech protections, there are vocal critics — and analysts expect legislators in all three nations to probe the terms of the deal as it evolves and question its impact on sovereignty issues and government spending.    

“There’s criticism, as well there should be, of this deal everywhere because that’s how democracies do policy, right?” Charles Edel, the inaugural Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. “The ambitions are really, really large, but they’re also very large bets that are being placed.”  

And, he said, it’s a sign that Australia’s ties with the U.S. are stronger than ever.  

“The real importance here is that nuclear propulsion technology is truly the crown jewel of America’s technological strength,” he said. “We’ve only shared it once in all of American history, and that was almost four decades ago with the British, despite being asked by multiple countries. I think it’s the closeness of the U.S.-Australian relationship, which makes this possible… That can only happen with countries where there is a very deep reservoir of trust.” 
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While the world has seen images of house-to-house combat in Bakhmut, most of the front lines in the Ukrainian war are different. Dug into trenches or under the cover of trees, soldiers endure the tiring routine of waiting for orders or an enemy attack. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report by Yan Boechat from Velyka Novosilka in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
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Tens of thousands of junior doctors went on strike across England on Monday to demand better pay, kicking off three days of widespread disruption at the U.K.’s state-funded hospitals and health clinics. 

Junior doctors — who are qualified but in the earlier years of their career — make up 45% of all doctors in the National Health Service. Their walkout means that operations and appointments will be canceled for thousands of patients, and senior doctors and other medics have had to be drafted in to cover for emergency services, critical care and maternity services. 

The British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union, says pay for junior doctors has fallen 26% in real terms since 2008, while workload and patient waiting lists are at record highs. The union says burnout and the U.K.’s cost-of-living crisis are driving scores of doctors away from the public health service. 

The union said newly qualified medics earn just 14.09 pounds ($17) an hour. 

“All that junior doctors are asking is to be paid a wage that matches our skill set,” said Rebecca Lissman, 29, a trainee in obstetrics and gynecology. “We love the NHS, and I don’t want to work in private practice, but I think we are seeing the erosion of public services.” 

“I want to be in work, looking after people, getting trained. I don’t want to be out here striking, but I feel that I have to,” she added. 

Other health workers, including nurses and paramedics, have also staged strikes in recent months to demand better pay and conditions. NHS figures show that more than 100,000 appointments have already been postponed this winter as a result of the nurses’ walkouts. 

Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, said the 72-hour strike this week is expected to have the most serious impact and will cause “extensive disruption.” 

He said some cancer care will likely be affected, alongside routine appointments and some operations. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters Sunday it was “disappointing that the junior doctors’ union are not engaging with the government.” The doctors’ union said officials have refused to engage with their demands for months, and that a recent invitation to talks came with “unacceptable” preconditions. 

The doctors’ strike this week will coincide with mass walkouts by tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants Wednesday, the day the government unveils its latest budget statement. 

A wave of strikes has disrupted Britons’ lives for months, as workers demand pay raises to keep pace with soaring inflation, which stood at 10.1% in January. That was down from a November peak of 11.1% but is still the highest in 40 years. 

Scores of others in the public sector, including train drivers, airport baggage handlers, border staff, driving examiners, bus drivers and postal workers have all walked off their jobs to demand higher pay. 

Unions say wages, especially in the public sector, have fallen in real terms over the past decade, and a cost-of-living crisis fueled by sharply rising food and energy prices has left many struggling to pay their bills. 
…

Moldova is firing back at what its officials believe are Russian attempts to destabilize the tiny former Soviet republic, which borders Ukraine and has long had leanings toward the West. Moldovan leaders have unleashed a campaign against Russian propaganda that has reopened the debate on the use of the Russian language and on freedom of expression. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
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A top U.N. official warned Monday that ramping up enforcement alone will not fix the problem of thwarting illegal cross-Channel migration, following a major agreement between Britain and France.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron last Friday agreed a new pact worth over 500 million euros to thwart illegal migration across the Channel.

“An enforcement-only approach won’t fix the challenges that they’re facing,” Amy Pope, the deputy head of the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), told AFP.

The deal will see Britain step up funding to France to allow hundreds more French police to patrol the Channel and also establish a new detention center as a further deterrent.

Activists have expressed unease over the plan, with the France director of Human Rights Watch Benedicte Jeannerod saying the two sides were persisting with a tactic that “pushes exiles to risk dangerous crossings and subjects them to undignified treatment.”

Asked what she thought of the agreement, Pope, who is running to take over the top IOM job, said that in her long experience working on border issues, she had seen that “an enforcement-only approach doesn’t actually work.”

“It may dissuade some people, and it may cut down on the numbers of people, but ultimately, desperate people looking for opportunities will find ways.”

Sunak — who is under fierce pressure at home to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Britain — last week also unveiled legislation that would bar anyone arriving in the country illegally from seeking asylum.

Critics say the proposed legislation would make Britain an international outlaw on refugee rights.

In all cases where there are a large number of migrants on the move, Pope said it was vital to address “what is driving people from home in the first place.”

“It is critical that… all governments recognize the comprehensive approach that’s needed,” she said, saying more should be done to help people before they leave, and also to create better regular channels for migration.

“If you’re just looking at the Channel or you’re just looking at the Mediterranean, or you’re just looking at Libya, you have missed about 10 interventions that could have happened along the way,” she said.

One good thing about the UK-France agreement, Pope said, was the “recognition that one country acting on its own can’t solve the challenge.”

More than 3,000 migrants have arrived in Britain in small boats across the Channel so far this year, and the backlog of asylum claims now exceeds 160,000.
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Pope Francis marks 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday celebrating Mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel where he has lived since his election. 

The Argentina-born Francis, 86, became the first Latin American pontiff on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI who had become the first pope in six centuries to resign. 

“It seems like yesterday,” he said in a podcast by Vatican News broadcast on Monday. “Time flies. When you gather up today, it is already tomorrow.” 

When it was recorded at his residence on Sunday, he asked: “What’s a podcast?” according to Vatican News reporter Salvatore Cernuzio. When it was explained to him, he said “Nice. Let’s do it.” 

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has sought to project simplicity into the grand role and never took possession of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health.” 

He has invited all the cardinals who are in Rome with him to the Mass on Monday. 

A persistent knee ailment has forced Francis to alternate between a cane and a wheelchair, but he appears to be in good overall health. 

“You don’t run the Church with a knee but with a head,” he reportedly told an aide after he began occasionally using a wheelchair in public for the first time last May. 

Cardinal electors 

Francis has said he would be ready to step down if severe health problems prohibited him from running the 1.38-billion-member Church. But he has also said he thinks popes should try to reign for life and that being emeritus pope – as Benedict was – should not become a “fashion”. Benedict resigned on health grounds but lived nearly 10 more years. 

With his 10 years as pontiff, Francis has now reigned longer than the 7.5 years average length of the previous 265 pontificates. He has visited 60 states and territories, clocking up almost 410,000 kilometers. 

But he has not returned to his native Argentina, an absence that has prompted much speculation. 

He has named about 64% of the so-called cardinal electors who are under 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect his successor after he dies or resigns. 

Francis marks the anniversary having outlasted conservative opposition within the Church that has several times demanded his resignation and which is now at a crossroads, seeking new direction following the deaths of two of its leading figures. 

The longest papacy is believed to be that of St. Peter the apostle, the first pope, estimated to have lasted about 35 years. 

The longest papacy in recent centuries was that of Pius IX, which lasted more than 31 years between 1846 and 1878. After that comes the papacy of John Paul II, who reigned for more than 26 years between 1978 and 2005. 
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The battle for eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut featured fierce fighting Monday, according to both sides, as the months-long struggle for control of the area raged on.

Ukraine’s military said it was using artillery, tanks and other weapons to repel Russian attempts to capture the city.

Britain’s defense ministry has assessed in recent days that Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group controls most of the eastern part of Bakhmut, with Ukrainian forces holding the western portion.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin described the situation Sunday as “very tough” with the fighting getting more difficult the closer his forces get to the city center.

Russia has targeted Bakhmut as a key part of its wider goal to seize the Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to defend Bakhmut, while some allies, including U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have cautioned that a Ukrainian defeat would not amount to a turning point in the conflict.

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has ordered the closure of the Vatican Embassy in Managua and that of the Nicaraguan Embassy to the Vatican in Rome, a senior Vatican source said Sunday. 

Nicaragua signaled that the move, which came a few days after Pope Francis compared the Nicaraguan government to a dictatorship, was “a suspension” of diplomatic relations. 

The Vatican source said that while the closures do not automatically mean a total break of relations between Managua and the Holy See, they are serious steps toward that possibility. 

Ortega’s administration has been increasingly isolated internationally since he began cracking down heavily on dissent following street protests that erupted in 2018. Ortega called the protests an attempted coup against his government. 

Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a vocal critic of Ortega, was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison in Nicaragua last month on charges that included treason, undermining national integrity and spreading false news. 

Alvazez was convicted after he refused to leave the country along with 200 political prisoners released by Ortega’s government and sent to the United States. Alvarez refused to board the plane and was stripped of his citizenship. 

In an interview published last week with Latin American online news outlet Infobae ahead of Monday’s 10th anniversary of his pontificate, the pope pointed to Alvarez’s imprisonment and likened what was happening in Nicaragua to the “1917 Communist dictatorship or that of Hitler in 1935.” 

Staff in both embassies had been down to barebones for years with only a chargé d’affaires for the Vatican in Managua and almost no one for Nicaragua in Rome. 

The relationship between the Nicaraguan Catholic Church and the government has been severely strained since the crackdown on the anti-government protests in 2018, when the Church acted as a mediator between both sides. 

The Church had called for justice for more than 360 people who died during the unrest. 

Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Baez, also a critic of the government, went into exile in 2019. 

A year ago, the Vatican protested to Nicaragua over the effective expulsion of its ambassador, saying the unilateral action was unjustified and incomprehensible. 

Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, who had been critical of Nicaragua’s slide away from democracy, had to leave the country suddenly after the government withdrew its approval of the envoy.  
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The BBC’s sports coverage was hit with a second day of severe disruptions Sunday as dozens of staff refused to work in solidarity with top soccer host Gary Lineker, who was suspended by the broadcaster after he tweeted criticism of the British government’s asylum policy. 

The news corporation is reeling from huge fallout and questions over its impartiality after it suspended Lineker, one of English soccer’s most lauded players and the corporation’s highest-paid presenter, on Friday after he compared the Conservative government’s language about migrants to that used in Nazi Germany. 

He was referring to the government’s plans to stop migrants from arriving in small boats on U.K. shores by introducing tough new laws that would detain asylum seekers, deport them and ban them from ever re-entering the U.K. 

Immigration and “taking back control” of Britain’s borders has been a hot-button issue in the U.K. since voters backed Britain’s exit from the European Union. Like his predecessors in recent years, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping the English Channel migrant crossings one of his top priorities. But his latest plans have drawn swift condemnation from the U.N.’s refugee agency and many rights groups, which call the policies unethical and unworkable. 

Pressure is mounting on the BBC to resolve the crisis, with growing calls for its bosses to step down over allegations of political bias and suppressing free speech. 

The controversy has impacted the BBC’s sports programs, with dozens of sports presenters and reporters walking out of their jobs Saturday and Sunday in support of Lineker. 

A look at who Lineker is, the debate surrounding his comments and how it’s affected the BBC: 

Who is Lineker and what did he say? 

Lineker, 62, is one of Britain’s most influential media figures and was paid $1.6 million by the BBC last year. 

One of England’s greatest strikers with 48 goals in 80 international appearances, he was a household name in Britain even before he became chief presenter of the soccer highlights show “Match of the Day” in 1999. 

In a post Tuesday to his 8.7 million followers on Twitter, Lineker described the government’s new plan to detain and deport migrants arriving by boat as “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.” 

How did the BBC and others react? 

The BBC — which has prominently covered the Lineker controversy — said the presenter breached its social media guidelines and said he was to step back from presenting “Match of the Day.” 

While BBC news staff are barred from expressing political opinions, Linker is a freelancer who doesn’t work in news or current affairs. However, in guidelines updated in 2020, the BBC said presenters with a “significant public profile” had responsibility to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies. 

The government called Lineker’s Nazi comparison offensive and unacceptable, and some lawmakers said he should be fired. 

In a BBC interview, the broadcaster’s director-general Tim Davie flatly rejected a suggestion that Lineker was suspended due to pressure from the governing Conservative Party. 

Many who supported Lineker said he had a right to express his opinion online. 

“I cannot see why you would ask someone to step back for saying that,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who is known for being outspoken about current affairs. “If I understand it right, it is a message, an opinion about human rights and that should be possible to say.” 

Others say the corporation’s impartiality rules seem muddled, pointing out that Lineker did not face discipline when he criticized the Qatar government’s rights record during the World Cup last year. 

“It seems that they want to pick and choose when they want to be partial, criticizing others or criticizing other countries or other political parties or other religions seems to be okay,” former England soccer player John Barnes told Sky News. 

How has the BBC been affected? 

The 100-year-old BBC is under scrutiny particularly because it is a public corporation — it is mostly funded by a license fee paid by all households with a television — and is expected to be independent. 

The broadcaster’s neutrality came under recent scrutiny over revelations that its chairman, Richard Sharp — a Conservative Party donor — helped arrange a loan for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021, weeks before he was appointed to the BBC post on the government’s recommendation. 

More immediately, the decision to suspend Lineker has triggered a mass walkout of BBC sports presenters and reporters in solidarity with their colleague. 

On Saturday, several daytime soccer shows were pulled at the last minute and “Match of the Day,” regarded as something of a British institution since the 1960s, aired with no commentary and only featured shortened footage. Usually lasting around an hour and a half, Saturday’s “Match of the Day” only aired for 20 minutes. 

Sunday’s coverage of the Women’s Super League aired without commentary from regular BBC presenters and “Match of the Day 2” was also expected to run in a reduced format. 

Davie apologized for the disruption and said bosses are “working very hard to resolve the situation and make sure that we get output back on air.” 
…

Thousands of people protested Sunday against safety deficiencies in Greece’s railway network nearly two weeks after dozens were killed in the country’s deadliest train crash. 

The demonstrators also demanded punishment for those responsible for the head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train that killed 57 people Feb. 28. Police said that more than 8,000 people in Athens gathered outside Parliament Sunday to protest. 

The protesters later marched to the offices of privatized train operator Hellenic Train. The company, which has been owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane since 2017, isn’t responsible for the maintenance of the railway network. State-owned Hellenic Railways oversees upkeep. 

Authorities shut down four subway stations on two lines running through central Athens because of the protest. 

The rally was organized by civil servants, a pro-communist union and university students. 

In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, about 5,000 people demonstrated, listened to speeches and shouted slogans, such as “we will be the voice for all the dead.” 

Sunday’s rallies, which passed off without serious incident, weren’t as well-attended as similar events earlier in the week, when more than 30,000 had turned out in Athens and more than 20,000 in Thessaloniki. Police said four people were detained in Athens. 

A memorial service was conducted for 12 students who attended Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University, Greece’s largest, who were killed in the train crash. 

An inexperienced stationmaster accused of placing the trains on the same track has been charged with negligent homicide and other offenses, and the country’s transportation minister and senior railway officials resigned the day after the crash. 

Revelations of serious safety gaps on Greece’s busiest rail line have put the center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the defensive. He has pledged the government’s full cooperation with a judicial inquiry into the crash. 

Elections are due later this spring and opinion polls released over the past week have shown the ruling conservatives’ lead over the left-wing opposition shrink almost by half compared with polls published before the crash. 
…

From the Vatican, Pope Francis sent a message of solidarity with Ukraine as Russian attacks in the city of Bakhmut and other regions intensified. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the logistical challenges Ukrainian forces are still facing on the battlefield. Video editor: Marcus Harton.
…

Among the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the early February quake in Turkey are religious minorities that call the region home. These communities have faced the same loss of life and property as other Turkish people, and in some cases, their very existence is at risk. Ezel Sahinkaya reports for VOA. (Camera: Murat Karabulut, Mahmut Bozarslan, Onur Erdogan)
…

Swiss neutrality is more important than ever, President Alain Berset said in an interview published Sunday, defending the controversial ban on transferring Swiss-made arms to Ukraine.

“Swiss weapons must not be used in wars,” he told the NZZ am Sonntag weekly.

The long tradition of neutrality has been hotly debated since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

While the wealthy Alpine country, which is not a member of the European Union, has followed the bloc’s lead on sanctions targeting Moscow, it has so far shown less flexibility on its military neutrality.

Despite pressure from Kyiv and its allies, Switzerland has continued to block countries that hold Swiss-made weaponry from re-exporting it to Ukraine.

To date, requests from Germany, Spain and Denmark have been rejected under the War Materiel Act, which bars all re-export if the recipient country is in an international armed conflict.

Berset told NZZ the policy was based on “commitment to peace, to humanitarian law, to mediation where possible.”

Switzerland’s role as the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions, as well as of the United Nations’ European headquarters “is reflected in our laws, including those relating to the export of weapons,” he said.

Protection of humanitarian and human rights law and the Geneva Conventions “may sound passé to some, but it is more important than ever,” he said, warning it would be “extremely dangerous to throw these fundamental principles overboard now.”

“As far as Switzerland is concerned, warfare is not part of the DNA,” Berset said, stressing his nation aimed “to be present wherever we can contribute to mediation and peace.”

He said he believed negotiations with Russia were needed to end the war in Ukraine, “the sooner the better.”

And he denounced a “war frenzy in certain circles” in Switzerland, amid calls to ditch neutrality.

It “does not mean indifference” and can “adjust,” he said, pointing to “unprecedented sanctions” Switzerland has imposed on Russia.

Several initiatives are under way in parliament toward relaxing the re-export rules to make it possible for Swiss-made weaponry to be transferred by third countries to Ukraine. 

But Berset stressed the government’s “position is clear. It also corresponds to my personal position. Swiss weapons must not be used in wars.”

The process toward a final decision, with debates between parliament and the government, followed by a probable referendum under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, is likely to take months.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Germany in an interview published on Sunday to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on Western fighter jets.

Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the “number one” problem in Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.

He said German weapons manufacturers had told him at the Munich Security Conference last month they were ready to deliver but were waiting for the government to sign contracts.

“So the problem lies with the government,” Kuleba was quoted as saying.

Kuleba made clear he did not expect Western allies to give Ukraine the fighter jets it has been asking for any time soon.

But he said Ukrainian pilots should be trained anyway, so they would be ready once that decision was taken, the paper wrote.

If Germany were to train Ukrainian pilots, that would be a “clear message of its political engagement,” he said.

Separately, Kuleba said Ukraine would keep defending the town of Bakhmut, the focus of a Russian onslaught for the last six months.

“If we withdrew from Bakhmut, what would that change? Russia would take Bakhmut and then continue its offensive against Chasiv Yar, so every town behind Bakhmut could suffer the same fate.”

Asked how long Ukrainian forces could hold onto the town, he declined to give a specific answer, comparing them to people defending their house against an intruder trying to kill them and take everything they own.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to combat what it describes as a security threat from Ukraine’s ties to the West, an argument that Kyiv and the West reject.
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Pope Francis celebrates the 10th anniversary of his election Monday, far outpacing the “two or three” years he once envisioned for his papacy and showing no signs of slowing down.

On the contrary, with an agenda full of problems and plans and no longer encumbered by the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI, Francis, 86, has backed off from talking about retiring and recently described the papacy as a job for life.

History’s first Latin American pope already has made his mark and could have even more impact in the years to come. Yet a decade ago, the Argentine Jesuit was so convinced he wouldn’t be elected as pope that he nearly missed the final vote as he chatted with a fellow cardinal outside the Sistine Chapel.

“The master of ceremonies came out and said, ‘Are you going in or not?'” Francis recalled in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I realized afterward that it was my unconscious resistance to going in.”

He was elected the 266th pope on the next ballot.

Sex abuse

Francis had a big learning curve on clergy sex abuse, initially downplaying the problem in ways that made survivors question whether he “got it.” He had his wake-up call five years into his pontificate after a problematic visit to Chile.

During the trip, he discovered a serious disconnect between what Chilean bishops had told him about a notorious case and the reality: Hundreds or thousands of Chilean faithful had been raped and molested by Catholic priests over decades.

“That was my conversion,” he told the AP. “That’s when the bomb went off, when I saw the corruption of many bishops in this.”

Francis has passed a series of measures since then aimed at holding the church hierarchy accountable, but the results have been mixed. Benedict removed some 800 priests, but Francis seems far less eager to defrock abusers, reflecting resistance within the hierarchy to efforts to permanently remove predators from the priesthood.

The next frontier in the crisis has already reared its head: the sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of adults by clergy. Francis is aware of the problem — a new case concerns one of his fellow Jesuits — but there seems to be no will to take firm action.

Significance of synods

When the history of the Francis pontificate is written, entire chapters might well be devoted to his emphasis on “synodality,” a term that has little meaning outside Catholic circles but could go down as one of Francis’ most important church contributions.

A synod is a gathering of bishops, and Francis’ philosophy that bishops must listen to one another and the laity has come to define his vision for the Catholic Church: He wants it to be a place where the faithful are welcomed, accompanied and heard.

The synods held during his first 10 years produced some of the most significant, and controversial, moments of his papacy.

After listening to the plight of divorced Catholics during a 2014-15 synod on the family, for instance, Francis opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried couples receive Communion. Calls to allow married priests marked his 2019 synod on the Amazon, although Francis ultimately rejected the idea.

His October synod has involved an unprecedented canvassing of the Catholic faithful about their hopes for the church and problems they have encountered, eliciting demands from women for greater leadership roles, including ordination.

Latin Mass

Catholic traditionalists were wary when Francis emerged as pope for the first time on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica without the red cape that his predecessors had worn for formal events. Yet they never expected him to reverse one of Benedict’s signature decisions by reimposing restrictions on the old Latin Mass, including where and who can celebrate it.

While the decision directly affected only a fraction of Catholic Mass-goers, his crackdown on the Tridentine Rite became the call to arms for the anti-Francis conservative opposition.

Francis justified his move by saying Benedict’s decision to liberalize the celebration of the old Mass had become a source of division in parishes. But traditionalists took the renewed restrictions as an attack on orthodoxy, one that they saw as contradicting Francis’ “all are welcome” mantra.

“Instead of integrating them into parish life, the restriction on the use of parish churches will marginalize and push to the peripheries faithful Catholics who wish only to worship,” lamented Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society’s U.K. branch.

While the short-term prospects for Francis relenting are not great, the traditionalists do have time on their side, knowing that in a 2,000-year-old institution, another pope might come along who is more friendly to the old rite.

Role of women

Francis’ quips about the “female genius” have long made women cringe. Women theologians are the “strawberries on the cake,” he once said. Nuns shouldn’t be “old maids,” he said. Europe shouldn’t be a barren, infertile “grandmother,” he told European Union lawmakers — a remark that got him an angry phone call from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But it’s also true that Francis has done more to promote women in the church than any pope before him, including naming several women to high-profile positions in the Vatican.

That’s not saying much given only one in four Holy See employees is female, no woman heads a dicastery, or department, and Francis has upheld church doctrine forbidding women from the priesthood.

But the trend is there and “there is no possibility of going back,” said María Lía Zervino, one of the first three women named to the Vatican office that helps the pope select bishops around the world.

LGBTQ faithful

Francis’ insistence that long-marginalized LGBTQ Catholics can find a welcome home in the church can be summed up by two pronouncements that have bookended his papacy to date: “Who am I to judge?” and “Being homosexual is not a crime.”

In between making those historic statements, Francis made outreach to LGBTQ people a hallmark of his papacy more than any pope before him.

He ministers to members of a transgender community in Rome. He has counseled gay couples seeking to raise their children Catholic. During a 2015 visit to the U.S., he publicized a private meeting with a gay former student and the man’s partner to counter the conservative narrative that he had received an anti-same-sex marriage activist.

“The pope is reminding the church that the way people treat one another in the social world is of much greater moral importance that what people may possibly do in the privacy of a bedroom,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics.
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Russia is trying to buy “anything, anywhere”—including from Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar to get weapons for its invasion of Ukraine—according to the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence Kyrylo Budanov.

In a recent interview with VOA, the top Ukrainian intelligence official said, “There are certain efforts to buy through third countries. Large-scale withdrawal of weapons. Now they are trying with Myanmar.”

The Myanmar junta has denied the accusation. A spokesperson for the Myanmar junta, Major General Zaw Min Tun, told VOA Burmese by phone on Wednesday, “Russia is a country that sells weapons to the world. That kind of accusation is impossible and illogical.” He declined to offer any further comment on the subject.

Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for the human rights advocacy group Justice for Myanmar — also known as JFM — said in a statement to VOA, “The Myanmar junta and the Russian regime are key allies, complicit in each other’s atrocity crimes. The junta supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has openly offered Myanmar as a base for Russian business to access Asian markets, which bypasses sanctions.”

JFM says it has been monitoring what it says is a close relationship between Russia and the Myanmar junta since the coup in February 2021. The group identified 19 Russian businesses that should be sanctioned for supplying arms and equipment to the Myanmar military in its report of March 2022. 

During a visit by the Myanmar junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to Russia last July, one of several trips he has made there since the 2021 coup in his country, Russia and Myanmar declared they were deepening their defense cooperation. A press statement by Russia’s Defense Ministry on July 12, 2022, read that “the meeting [between Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing and top Russian defense officials] … confirmed the mutual disposition to consistently build up multifaceted cooperation between the military departments of the two countries.”

VOA recently reported on the junta’s renewed nuclear energy ties with Russia raising concerns in the region and globally.

Russian munitions

In an assessment on Russia, the Pentagon stated that after more than a year of fighting in Ukraine and facing strong sanctions from the West, Russia would run out of serviceable ammunition sometime in 2023.

Testifying on Wednesday in Washington before the Senate Intelligence Committee, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines argued that Russia lacks the troops and ammunition to make major advances this year. “If Russia does not initiate a mandatory mobilization and identify substantial third-party ammunition supplies, it will be increasingly challenging for them to sustain the current level of offensive operations in the coming months.”

Haines also said at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December, “Russia doesn’t have enough ability to replace those weapons on its own.”

According to reporting this month by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a co-founder and owner of the mercenary group Wagner, also indicated problems with the ammunition supply. “I am worried about ammunition and the ammunition hunger not only as far as Wagner goes, but all the units of the Russian Army.”

As of last September, the Russian military was still capable of producing “a lot of ammunition,” said a top NATO military adviser, despite being hampered by Western sanctions. However, “some of the components they need for their weapon systems come from the Western industry,” said Rob Bauer, chair of NATO Military Committee.

There are reports that Russia continues to buy weapons and ammunition from countries such as Iran and North Korea; however, the Iranian government, a close ally of Russia, denied this, stating that Iran “has not and will not” provide weapons to be used in the invasion of Ukraine.

“For Russia, almost the only country that actually supplies more or less serious weapons is Iran,” Budanov told VOA. “There was information that something was coming from North Korea, but we have no confirmation of that.”

“Russia is just trying to buy anything, anywhere,” he said. “Because their problems are significant. Serbia, which everyone in Russia hoped for, refused to supply weapons. There are certain efforts to buy through third countries. Large-scale withdrawal of weapons. Now they are trying with Myanmar, we will see what will come of it in time.”

Myanmar opposition concerns

Myanmar’s shadow civilian government, the National Unity Government, also known as NUG, has expressed concern about a “possible collaboration between Russia and [the] Myanmar army on the war in Ukraine,” Kyaw Zaw, a spokesperson for the NUG president’s office, told VOA via zoom.

“We think that Russia might use the Myanmar army and its cronies as middlemen to buy weapons from other countries because the Myanmar military does not have [the] ability to support arms for the Russian army,” he said.

“Despite the Western countries targeting sanctions against the Burmese military regime,” Kyaw Zaw said, “they are weak and ineffective due to loopholes, which Russia and the Myanmar military might be trying to exploit through cooperation.”

Responding to a question about whether China or India may be working through Myanmar to send arms and ammunition to Russia, he said, “There is no good reason for our government, the NUG, to accept a situation where Myanmar is being used to compete with powerful countries.”

Regarding the potential for Myanmar to be implicated in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyaw Zaw told VOA, “We are concerned about the news. We [are] worried the move may affect our country, as well as regional stability and global peace and security.”

Western countries, including the U.S., have raised concerns over the potential arming of Russia through its geostrategic partnership with China. However, “China had declared it won’t supply Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during his news conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in Berlin earlier this month. He suggested that Berlin has received bilateral assurances from Beijing on the issue.

JFM recently published a report about India’s exports of weapons to the Myanmar army.

The report states that the Indian state-owned arms company, “Yantra’s exports of 122mm barrels to Myanmar follows several other known exports of weapons and weapons components from Indian companies after the Myanmar military’s attempted coup, including exports of fuses and a remote-controlled weapon station.”

“Russia remains a major supplier of arms to the junta,” JFM’s Maung told VOA. “If Russia is exploring using the junta to help it resupply arms for its war in Ukraine, it shows yet again how the junta is a threat to the world that requires a global response.”
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