Romania President Iohannis Announces NATO Chief Bid
Bucharest — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday announced his candidacy to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as chief of NATO, vowing a “renewal of perspective” at a crucial time for the alliance.
For the past two years, the Western defense alliance has navigated a challenging security environment in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I decided to enter the competition for the post of NATO secretary general,” Iohannis, whose country borders Ukraine, told reporters.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is largely believed to be the frontrunner to lead the alliance and replace Stoltenberg, after the United States, Britain and Germany expressed support for his potential candidacy.
Hungary, however, said the country would not support Rutte, who has previously criticized Hungary’s government.
A successor for Stoltenberg – the former Norwegian prime minister who has overseen NATO for a decade – is expected to be announced before a July summit in Washington.
“Given the current security context, I believe it is time for our country to assume an even greater responsibility within the Euro-Atlantic leadership,” Iohannis wrote in a statement.
He said Romania had a “deep understanding, including from the perspective of the historical challenges facing our region, of the current security situation, created by the war launched by Russia against Ukraine.”
“At the same time, I believe that NATO also needs a renewal of the perspective on its mission,” Iohannis added.
No decision is confirmed until consensus is reached on one candidate, according to NATO rules.
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Internet Personality Tate Brought to Romanian Court on UK Arrest Warrant
Bucharest, Romania — Internet personality Andrew Tate was arrested for 24 hours in Romania on a British warrant, his PR representative said on Tuesday, and the Bucharest Court of Appeals was set to decide on whether to extradite him.
Tate and his brother Tristan were detained on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15, which they “categorically” deny, his PR team said. The warrant was issued by Westminster Magistrates Court.
“Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were forcibly detained for 24 hours and handed a European arrest warrant by UK authorities. The charges, dating back to 2012-2015, include allegations of sexual aggression,” Andrew Tate’s PR representative said in a statement. “The Bucharest Court of Appeal is slated to make a pivotal decision today on whether to execute the mandate.”
The court had yet to decide when it will convene to address the warrant. It was not immediately available for comment.
Tate, who gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle, was indicted in June in Romania along with his brother and two Romanian women for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. They have denied the charges.
The case has since been with the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, which needs to decide whether the trial can start. A decision has yet to be made, with Romanian courts backlogged.
The Bucharest Court was also set to rule on Friday whether to maintain a seizure of Tate’s assets enforced by Romanian prosecutors at the start of 2023.
The Tate brothers were held in police custody pending the criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence. They were placed under house arrest until August.
They have since been under judicial control, a lighter preventative measure meaning they have regular check-ins with the police but can move around freely except for leaving the country.
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Intelligence Community Report Warns Lawmakers About US Disengagement From Ukraine
In its annual global threats assessment report Monday, the U.S. intelligence community told lawmakers that the war in Ukraine is at a turning point whose outcome will depend on American assistance. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from the Senate, where lawmakers called on the House to take up the $95 billion foreign aid bill.
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Pentagon Needs $10B to Replace Weapons Already Sent to Ukraine, Officials Say
pentagon — The Pentagon has a funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine, a shortfall that requires additional money from Congress to fix, top Defense Department officials said Monday.
“We are probably looking at about $10 billion to replace everything, everything that we’ve given in terms of supplies to Ukraine,” one official told VOA.
“We don’t foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding [bill] or having that money added into an appropriations bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters.
Pentagon officials expected to get the funding to replenish those stocks in a supplemental request from the Biden administration, which included billions of additional dollars in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, Congress has yet to pass a supplemental aid bill because of arguments on spending and U.S. border security.
The shortfall is tied to the way the Pentagon has accounted for the aid sent to Ukraine. Last June, the Pentagon said it overestimated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years.
When calculating its aid package estimates, the Department of Defense was counting the cost incurred to replace the weapons given to Ukraine, while it said it should have been totaling the cost of the systems actually sent, officials told VOA at the time.
The error provided the Pentagon the legal cover needed to send more aid to Ukraine, but the problem remained that more funds would be needed to replenish U.S. military stockpiles with newer, costlier weapons.
Failing to replenish U.S. stockpiles would negatively affect the military’s readiness, another defense official told VOA.
The department still has about $4 billion in authority to send aid to Ukraine, but Pentagon officials have told reporters that sending additional aid without the ability to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles would be a risk the Defense Department is not willing to take at this time.
But Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a defense analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA there are key weapons the U.S. could send Kyiv without compromising military readiness, “because the Army no longer needs them.”
One weapon would be 155-millimeter cluster munitions, which Montgomery says the U.S. doesn’t use in combat planning.
“That would give 155-mm ammunition to the Ukrainians very quickly,” he said.
Another weapon that could be immediately sent without incurring a cost on U.S. military readiness would be M113 armored vehicles.
“We have thousands of them that we’re getting rid of. We could transfer these to Ukraine,” he told VOA.
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Portugal’s Center Right Prepares to Rule; Far Right Warns of Instability
lisbon, portugal — Portugal’s center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won Sunday’s general election by a slim margin and is preparing to govern without an outright majority as the far-right Chega warned of instability if it is not included in government.
With 99.1% of the vote counted, the AD won 79 seats in the 230-seat legislature, followed by the Socialists with 77 seats, prompting the latter to concede defeat.
Chega, meaning “enough,” came in third, quadrupling its parliamentary representation to 48 lawmakers after campaigning on a clean governance and anti-immigration platform.
Chega voters said before the poll that Portugal was in a bad way, and they wanted changes in housing, education, health care and justice in Western Europe’s poorest country.
AD leader Luis Montenegro told reporters Sunday that he expected President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to formally invite him to form a government.
Rebelo de Sousa, who will meet with political parties from Tuesday until March 20, told the Expresso newspaper Friday that he would do everything he could to prevent Chega from gaining power. Those remarks drew criticism as the head of state is mandated to remain neutral.
Chega leader Andre Ventura told reporters the vote clearly showed that the country wants a government of the AD with Chega.
Ventura said in an interview with the TVI broadcaster that he would vote against the state budget if the AD did not negotiate it with his party.
“If there is no negotiation, that would be a humiliation for Chega and I would vote against it,” Ventura said.
The outcome was broadly in line with pre-election opinion polls, but the AD’s victory was significantly smaller and Chega’s growth was larger than predicted, political scientist Andre Azevedo Alves told Reuters.
Alves, a professor at Lisbon’s Catolica University and St. Mary’s University in London, added that the fragility of an AD government because of its reliance on either the Socialists or Chega to pass legislation made it unlikely to last for several years.
Javier Rouillet from rating agency DBRS Morningstar warned that if the new government was unable to pass legislation, another round of elections could be held later this year or in early 2025.
Chega’s surge was boosted by Ventura’s communication skills and widespread dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties, he said, factors that could help it garner even better results in the European Parliament elections.
“Political disaffection was brewing for a very long time,” said political scientist Pedro Magalhaes, at Lisbon’s Institute of Social Sciences. “But there was no political supply to address this political demand.”
Marina Costa Lobo, who heads institute, said she believed Montenegro would keep his word and not strike a formal deal with Chega but there might be “piecemeal” agreements between the two going forward.
“It’s difficult to predict Chega’s behavior because they’re an anti-system party,” she said, adding the far-right’s success in Portugal was a harbinger of what can be expected in the European Parliament election in June.
Out of the system
Euro-intelligence consultants said the result marked a new political chapter in Portugal after alternate governance by two mainstream parties for the past 50 years.
“We don’t know who’ll be in charge of the country. The far right has little or nothing to offer,” doctoral student Jorge Catanheira, 29, told Reuters.
The election result underscored a political tilt to the far right across Europe and a dwindling of Socialist governance.
Chega has since 2020 been part of the European Parliament’s Identity & Democracy group, which is expected to see gains in June.
Spain’s far-right VOX and Matteo Salvini, who leads Italy’s co-ruling party Lega, congratulated Ventura.
Portugal’s PSI stock index fell 0.3% at open, in line with a decline by European peers, before flattening out.
“The impact of the elections on the market turned out to be nil,” XTB analysts said in a note.
Under Socialist leadership since 2015, Portugal has grown at solid annual rates above 2%, except for the pandemic-induced slump of 2020, but many struggle to make ends meet because of low salaries and a housing crisis.
Voter turnout was 66.23%, the highest in nearly three decades.
Magalhaes said it was possible turnout reached such levels because voters who had been “out of the system” came back to support the radical right.
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NATO HQ Raises Swedish Flag, Strengthening Baltic Region Against Russian Threat
london — Sweden’s flag was raised in a ceremony Monday at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels after it officially joined the Western defensive alliance last week, ending its long-held policy of military nonalignment.
“We are now an ally among allies. After more than 200 years of military nonalignment, this is a historic step but also a very natural step. We’ve been preparing for decades and in details for the last two years,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a news conference ahead of the ceremony.
“With this membership, Sweden has come home. Home to the security cooperation of democracies. Home to the security cooperation of our good neighbors. Today, I’d like to say thank you to all of our allies. We have chosen you, and you have chosen us. All for one, one for all,” Kristersson added.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the alliance’s 32nd member.
“Sweden’s accession shows again that NATO’s door remains open. No one can close it. Every nation has the right to choose its own path, and we all choose the path of freedom and democracy. The brave people of Ukraine are fighting for these values as we speak,” Stoltenberg said.
Ratification delay
Sweden and Finland simultaneously applied to join NATO in May 2022, three months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland — which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia — joined NATO relatively quickly, in April 2023.
However, Sweden’s bid was delayed by NATO members Turkey and Hungary. Ankara accused Sweden of harboring Kurdish separatists, whom it considers terrorists. The passing of a new anti-terrorism law in Sweden persuaded Turkey to ratify its accession to the alliance.
Budapest appeared to object to Swedish criticisms of a perceived democratic backsliding in Hungary. A meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Swedish counterpart last month in Budapest, and a new bilateral defense deal, overcame those differences — and Hungarian lawmakers approved Sweden’s application on February 26.
Strategic change
After two centuries of military nonalignment, NATO membership marks a significant change for Sweden and its people. Opinion polls show most Swedes approve of the change.
“A couple years ago, I was really against Sweden joining NATO, because I was really for this neutrality policy that we have. But now … I guess we had to take a stance, really,” 24-year-old Stockholm student Carl Fredrik Aspegren told Reuters.
Information technology worker Hakan Yucel, 54, agreed.
“I think it feels much safer now. Before, we were outside and felt a little bit alone,” he said.
Baltic defense
Sweden is due to launch a fleet of new submarines by 2028 designed to protect vulnerable subsea infrastructure in the Baltic. Its accession brings valuable military capabilities to NATO, according to Barbara Kunz, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
“With all Nordic countries now being members of NATO and also the Baltic states being members of NATO, that allows for real holistic planning of the defense of Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area. Sweden is particularly qualified to operate in the Baltic Sea, which is a very special region. It’s like shallow waters in which you can’t really see that well, so Sweden is very good at that,” Kunz told Reuters.
NATO exercises
Swedish forces are already training in the Norwegian Arctic with NATO allies, part of the military exercise Steadfast Defender 2024, the alliance’s largest military drills since the Cold War, with some 90,000 troops taking part.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he intends to strengthen his country’s military presence along its western borders to, in his words, “neutralize threats associated with the next expansion of NATO.”
NATO said it is a defensive alliance and highlights that it was Russia’s unprovoked, illegal invasion of Ukraine that prompted Sweden and Finland to seek membership.
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Poland’s President Calls on NATO Allies to Raise Spending on Defense to 3% of GDP
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s president on Monday called on other members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3% of their gross domestic product as Russia puts its economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its invasion of Ukraine.
President Andrzej Duda made his call in remarks directed at home and abroad. His appeal came on the eve of a visit to the White House, where U.S. President Joe Biden will receive both Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday.
“In the face of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing imperial aspirations, the countries making up NATO must act boldly and uncompromisingly,” Duda said in a Monday evening address to his nation.
His appeal comes as Poland marks the 25th anniversary of its accession to NATO, along with the Czech Republic and Hungary, on March 12, 1999. And Duda’s remarks came on the same day that Sweden’s flag was raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels to cement its place as the 32nd member of the alliance.
“Poland is proud to have been a part of it for 25 years,” he said. “There has been and there is no better guarantor of security than the North Atlantic Alliance.”
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and should remain the leader in security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in his speech to his nation. “However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernize and strengthen their troops.”
NATO members agreed in 2014 to boost their defense spending to 2% of GDP after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, but most members, including Germany, still fall short of that benchmark.
Poland, however, now spends 4% of its GDP on defense, making it the member to spend the most in percentage terms as it modernizes its military, while the U.S. is well above 3%.
“Russia’s imperialistic ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow toward a direct confrontation with NATO, with the West and, ultimately, with the whole free world,” Duda said in an op-ed published in The Washington Post.
Duda said that puts the United States and Poland in a position to “lead by example and provide an inspiration for others.”
“The Russian Federation has switched its economy to war mode. It is allocating close to 30 percent of its annual budget to arm itself,” Duda argued in the newspaper op-ed. “This figure and other data coming out of Russia are alarming. Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the biggest threat to global peace since the end of the Cold War.”
The Biden administration suggested Duda’s call to raise the defense spending target for NATO countries may be, at least for now, overly ambitious.
“I think the first step is to get every country meeting the 2% threshold, and we’ve seen improvement of that,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “But I think that’s the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal.”
Duda will visit Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg after his visit to the U.S.
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Four European Countries Seal Free Trade Pact with India, Pledge $100 Billion Investment
New Delhi — India has signed a free trade pact with a group of four European nations that aims at drawing in investment of $100 billion over the next 15 years.
The deal announced Sunday with the European Free Trade Association, whose members are Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, comes weeks ahead of India’s national elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made economic growth a key poll plank as he seeks a third term in office.
The trade deal is one of several New Delhi is pursuing as it steps up efforts to grow its exports and take advantage of geopolitical shifts that are seeing many Western countries trying to reduce trade dependence on China.
The pact was sealed after about 16 years of negotiations. “The pact is significant because it is India’s first with developed countries,” according to Biswajit Dhar, trade analyst and Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development in New Delhi. “So far India, which has many protectionist barriers, only had such agreements with developing countries.”
To ease access to its vast market of 1.4 billion people, India will reduce tariffs on goods ranging from industrial imports to processed foods, beverages and items such as Swiss watches. New Delhi hopes to boost its exports in areas such as information technology and business services.
India is the European Free Trade Association’s fifth-largest trading partner after the European Union, the United States, Britain and China with two-way trade adding up to $18.65 billion in 2022-23.
The investment pledge by the four European countries will create one million jobs, according to Indian Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal.
“It’s for the first time that we are inking a free trade agreement with a binding commitment to invest $100 billion in India,” Goyal said. “It is a modern trade agreement, fair, equitable and win-win for all five countries.”
European officials said pledging the investment made it a “balanced” deal for both sides. “If you look at the different market sizes, India offers 1.4bn population, plus it’s a door to the global world,” Helene Budliger Artieda, Swiss state secretary for economic affairs, told reporters.
However, trade analyst Dhar said that it remains to be seen how the investment promise translates on the ground. “These four countries had invested just $10 billion in the last 23 years. So taking this up to up to $100 billion in 15 years is a tall order, it does not seem realistic,” he said.
In recent years, India has stepped up efforts to pursue trade agreements to boost its fast-growing economy. In the last two years, it has concluded a free trade pact with the UAE and a preliminary agreement with Australia. Officials are also trying to finalize deals with Britain and Oman.
“This landmark pact underlines our commitment to boosting economic progress and create opportunities for our youth,” Modi said in a post on X after the deal with the European countries was concluded.
Modi is promising to make India, which is a lower middle-income country, a developed nation by 2047.
Bucking the trend of slowing growth in many countries, the Indian economy is growing briskly. It is expected to grow at more than 7% in the financial year that ends in March — the fastest growth among major economies.
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In Swiss Alps, Major Search Continues for 6 Missing Ski Hikers
Geneva — The “major rescue operation” aimed at finding six Swiss ski hikers wanted since Saturday in the Swiss Alps must continue overnight, but the danger of avalanches is complicating operations, police said Sunday.
The six people are aged 21 to 58 and five of them are members of the same family.
They are “actively sought on the Zermatt-Arolla hiking route,” which is in the canton of Valais (southwest), the police said in a news release.
The group left Zermatt on Saturday with the aim of reaching Arolla the same day.
Saturday around 4 p.m. (3 p.m. GMT), a member of the family who came to pick up the group in Arolla contacted the cantonal police and the cantonal Valais emergency organization (OCVS), worried about not seeing their loved ones arrive.
A little over an hour later, the hikers were located in the Col de Tete Blanche area, at approximately 3,500 meters above sea level, because a member of the group managed to contact emergency services.
As soon as the alert was received, all emergency resources were mobilized on both sides of the route and numerous technical resources were deployed to find the hikers, the police said.
But the weather conditions, which were very bad over the weekend, made the emergency response very difficult.
The storm which raged in the south of the Swiss Alps as well as the danger of avalanches prevented helicopters and rescue columns from being able to approach the area.
An attempt to approach by land from Zermatt was undertaken during the night from Saturday to Sunday by “5 experienced rescuers” from the OCVS but they had to give up more than 3,000 meters of altitude due to the very bad weather conditions and the risks involved.
All day Sunday, the various specialized units of the cantonal police, in particular the mountain group as well as the technical and telecommunications officers, were engaged alongside the OCVS rescuers and the army air forces.
Operations will continue overnight.
In a separate news release published in the evening, the Valais police announced that an avalanche had carried away a skier traveling off-piste in Val Ferret on Sunday: “Freed from the snow mass, he was taken to hospital of Zion where he died.
Other avalanches and heavy snowfall in the region have also buried roads, blocking traffic.
Great caution is required over the coming days, when “the situation will be critical on the avalanche front,” warns the cantonal police.
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Why Did Ireland’s Referendums on Family, Women Fail?
Dublin, Ireland — Irish voters’ rejection of proposals to reword constitutional clauses on family roles and the duties of women has left politicians searching for answers.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar had presented the vote, conducted on International Women’s Day on Friday and tallied Saturday, as a chance to remove “very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women” from the constitution.
But a proposal to expand the definition of family from a relationship founded on marriage to include other “durable relationships” was rejected by 67.7% of voters, with only 32.3 voting “yes.”
A second referendum on replacing language about a woman’s supposed duties in the home with a clause recognizing the role of family members in the provision of care was rejected by 73.9% of voters.
It was the largest ever referendum defeat in Ireland’s history.
The votes came despite the government, along with most opposition parties, endorsing the proposed changes, and polls forecasting a win for the “Yes-Yes” vote.
What went wrong?
A mix of unclear messaging, a hurried and lackluster “Yes-Yes” campaign and dissatisfaction among “no” voters resulted in an increase in undecided voters leading up to the vote.
Opposition parties gave the proposals only lukewarm support, complaining that the twin questions distorted the suggested wording produced by a Citizen’s Assembly — a nationwide focus group regularly held in Ireland on public issues.
The use of the undefined phrase “durable relationships” in the first referendum was widely criticized as too vague.
The second amendment would have replaced language on “women’s role in the home” with a pledge that the government would “strive” — not be obliged — to support carers in the home.
It failed to mention care outside of the home.
“The government went on a solo run,” said Mary Lou McDonald, leader of the leftist-nationalist Sinn Fein, the largest opposition party which grudgingly backed a “Yes-Yes” vote.
“There is little point in having a Citizens Assembly if the government are then going to ignore the outcome,” she said.
Who voted no and why?
Turnout at less than 50% was lower than in previous referendums, like one on same-sex marriage equality in 2015 and an abortion ban repeal that captured the public attention in 2018.
Only one of 39 constituencies — an affluent area near Dublin — returned a “yes” vote in the family referendum and all 39 voted “no” in the home care referendum.
While “yes” voters failed to turn out in numbers, a disparate coalition of “no” voters angry for different reasons — both progressive and conservative — were energized.
“When a government doesn’t have all its own side on board and has split its liberal vote, it’s in trouble,” David Quinn, head of the conservative Iona Institute, told AFP.
The care amendment proposal was fiercely criticized by disability rights activists and carers who expressed relief at the result.
“They wanted people and families just to care for people at home, but we need the support of the government too,” Susan Bowles, a 39-year-old care assistant, told AFP in Dublin after the vote.
An anti-government right-wing protest vote was also a factor, according to analysts.
“No” campaigners warned against “woke” liberals and “cancelling” the words “women” and “mother” from the constitution.
The result was “a significant victory for the people against the political establishment,” Peadar Toibin, leader of the conservative Aontu, the only parliamentary party to back a No-No vote, told AFP.
Setback for women’s rights?
The ballots had been framed by some on the “Yes-Yes” side as the latest effort to mirror the evolving identity of Ireland, a member of the European Union.
It would also signify the diminishing influence of the once-dominant Catholic Church after the successful 2015 and 2018 referendums.
But holding the referendums on International Women’s Day — reportedly Varadkar’s idea — was a “hammy gesture,” according to Pat Leahy, a journalist with the Irish Times.
“There was an unavoidable sense of people being taken for granted in this,” he said.
Orla O’Connor, head of the National Women’s Council of Ireland which led the “Yes-Yes” campaign, cautioned against interpreting the result as Ireland voting to keep “life within the home” language for women in the constitution.
“It is more nuanced than that… We will go back and we will fight for those things and continue to fight for equality for families and equality for women,” she told local media.
What is the political fallout?
In the aftermath a visibly shaken Varadkar, who heads up a center-right-green coalition, admitted that the government had received “two wallops” from the public.
With a general election looming within the next 12 months, the defeat poses questions about Varadkar’s and other party leaders’ judgement.
The result “does not mean that general trend of society has lurched permanently to a conservative one,” wrote Leahy.
“But it definitely means that future governments will not assume that similar constitutional changes are a foregone conclusion,” he said.
Political scientist Eoin O’Malley of Dublin City University called it “a poorly executed referendum that nobody needed or wanted.”
“It was politically designed to secure a liberal legacy for Leo Varadkar, but it makes that legacy look opportunistic,” he told AFP.
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France’s Macron Backs ‘End of Life’ Bill, Debate Expected by May
Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday for the first time that he backed new end-of-life legislation that would allow what he called “help to die” and wanted his government to put forward a draft bill to parliament in May.
France’s neighbors Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands have adopted laws that allow medically assisted dying in some cases. But France has resisted that step, in part under pressure from the Catholic Church.
The Claeys-Leonetti law on the end of life, adopted in 2016, authorizes deep sedation but only for people whose prognosis is threatened in the short-term.
In an interview with Liberation newspaper, Macron said he did not want to call the new legislation euthanasia or assisted suicide, but rather “help to die.”
“It does not, strictly speaking, create a new right nor a freedom, but it traces a path which did not exist until now and which opens the possibility of requesting assistance in dying under certain strict conditions,” he said.
Macron said those conditions would need to be met and a medical team would assess and ensure the criteria for the decision was correct.
It would concern only adults capable of making the decision and whose life prognosis is threatened in the medium-term such as final-stage cancer, he said.
Family members would also be able to appeal the decision, Macron said.
The bill builds on the work of a group of 184 randomly appointed French citizens who debated the issue.
They concluded their work last year with 76% of them saying they favored allowing some form of assistance to die, for those who want it.
The decision to push ahead with the end-of-life legislation comes after the right to abortion was enshrined into the French constitution, following an overwhelming vote by lawmakers earlier this month.
Macron has sought to bolster his image as a social reformer just three months before June’s European parliamentary elections. His party is more than 10 points behind the far-right Rassemblement National party in polls.
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Moldova Faces Multiple Russian Threats as it Seeks EU Membership
CHISINAU, Moldova — The past two years have been the hardest and most tumultuous for European Union candidate Moldova in more than three decades as it faces threats from Russia in multiple spheres of public life, the country’s foreign minister says.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, its neighbor Moldova has faced a litany of crises that have at times raised fears the country is also in Russia’s crosshairs. These included errant missiles landing on its territory; a severe energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced gas supplies; rampant inflation; and protests by pro-Russia parties against the pro-Western government. Moldova has also taken in the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita of any country.
“This past two years without exaggeration have been by far the most difficult in the past 30 years,” Mihai Popsoi, appointed foreign minister in late January, told The Associated Press.
Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but Russia continues to see the country — sandwiched between Ukraine and EU member Romania — as within its sphere of influence.
Moldovan officials have repeatedly accused Russia of conducting a “hybrid war” against the country — funding anti-government protests, meddling in local elections and running vast disinformation campaigns to try to topple the government and derail Moldova from its path toward full EU membership. Russia has denied the accusations.
Last week, Moldova’s national Intelligence and Security Services agency said it has gathered data indicating “unprecedented” plans by Moscow to launch a fresh destabilization campaign as Moldova gears up for a referendum on EU membership and a presidential election later in the year.
“We know that the Kremlin is going to invest a lot of energy and financial resources through their proxies to try to get their way,” said Popsoi.
“They’re trying to bribe voters and use citizens to bribe them,” he added. “The Russians are learning and adapting, and they’re trying to use the democratic process against us … to topple a democratic government in Moldova.”
Tensions have also periodically soared in Moldova’s Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria — a thin strip of land bordering Ukraine that isn’t recognized by any U.N. member countries but where Russia maintains about 1,500 troops as so-called peacekeepers, guarding huge Soviet-era weapons and ammunition stockpiles.
Shortly after the war started, a string of explosions struck the region; an opposition leader was found fatally shot in his home last July; and anxieties soared last month when some feared the region would ask to be annexed by Russia. Instead, the region appealed to Russia for diplomatic “protection” amid what it said was increasing pressure from Chisinau.
Popsoi acknowledged that the situation with Transnistria is tense, and he worries that the speculation could adversely impact investment. “The situation will remain tense as long as the front line is 200 miles away,” he said.
The 37-year-old minister noted the testing period Moldova has been through has nevertheless also been transformative for his country, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.
“When we look at the energy security of Moldova, two years ago there was very little,” he said. “Now Moldova is quite independent or has alternatives and can choose where to buy gas and electricity.”
The same can be said, he added, for his country’s defense capabilities, the resilience of key institutions such as intelligence, police force, and justice reform. “Moldova is moving in the right direction despite enormous challenges.”
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland
University, says Moldova has faced a “constant onslaught” of Russian tests to probe weaknesses that might undermine its EU trajectory.
“It feels like a geopolitical race in which Russia is trying to stop Moldova from moving toward the EU, while Moldova tries to fend off Russian influence until it joins the EU,” he said, adding that the authorities “have been much more open about acknowledging the danger Russia presents to the country’s democracy.”
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moldova applied to join the EU and was granted candidate status in June 2022. In December, Brussels said it would open accession negotiations for both Moldova and Ukraine.
Although militarily neutral, non-NATO Moldova has boosted defense spending over the past year and recently approved a new national security strategy that identified Russia as a main threat and aims to raise defense spending to 1% of GDP.
“A significant number of Moldovans still live under the spell of Russian propaganda which has made a boogeyman out of NATO,” Popsoi said. “But that doesn’t stop us from cooperating with our NATO partners and building resilience in our armed forces.”
Since the war started, Moldova has received critical financial and diplomatic support from its Western partners but needs long-term investments, Popsoi said.
The referendum later this year on EU membership aims to gauge where Moldovans see their future. Officials have an ambitious target of gaining full accession by 2030.
“We will do our utmost to make sure we get this message across that there is a better tomorrow and that is within the European Union,” Popsoi added. “No matter how hard Russian propaganda tries to convince our citizens of the opposite.”
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Man Arrested After Crashing Car Into Buckingham Palace Gates
London — Police officers have arrested a man who crashed a car into the gates of Buckingham Palace in London over the weekend, authorities said Sunday.
The Metropolitan Police said the car “collided with the gates” of the royal residence at 2:30 am (0230 GMT) on Saturday. No one was injured in the incident.
Armed officers arrested the man at the scene on suspicion of criminal damage and he was taken to hospital, the force said in a statement.
After an assessment he was detained under the Mental Health Act, the force said, but he has since been released on bail and enquiries continue.
The matter is not being treated as terror-related.
Security measures at Buckingham Palace, the British royal family’s official residence, are stringent, with the building in the heart of the capital constantly monitored by armed officers.
The palace has faced several break-in attempts in the past.
In September last year, a 25-year-old man was arrested after trying to enter the royal stables.
Ahead of King Charles III’s coronation last May, a man was arrested for throwing shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds.
The same month, a 43-year-old man was arrested for ramming his car into the gates that guard Downing Street, the residence of Britain’s prime minister.
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Turkey Struggles to Stop Violence Against Women
istanbul — Muhterem Evcil was stabbed to death by her estranged husband at her workplace in Istanbul, where he had repeatedly harassed her in breach of a restraining order. The day before, authorities detained him for violating the order but let him go free after questioning.
More than a decade later, her sister believes Evcil would still be alive if authorities had enforced laws on protecting women and jailed him.
“As long as justice is not served and men are always put on the forefront, women in this country will always cry,” Cigdem Kuzey said.
Evcil’s murder in 2013 became a rallying call for greater protection for women in Turkey, but activists say the country has made little progress in keeping women from being killed. They say laws to safeguard women are not sufficiently enforced and abusers are not prosecuted.
At least 403 women were killed in Turkey last year, most of them by current or former spouses and other men close to them, according to the We Will Stop Femicides Platform, a group that tracks gender-related killings and provides support to victims of violence.
So far this year, 71 women have been killed in Turkey, including seven on February 27 — the highest known number of such killings there on a single day.
The WWSF secretary-general, Fidan Ataselim, attributed the killings to deeply patriarchal traditions in the majority Muslim country and to a greater number of women wishing to leave troubled relationships. Others want to work outside the home.
“Women in Turkey want to live more freely and more equally. Women have changed and progressed a lot in a positive sense,” Ataselim said. “Men cannot accept this, and they are violently trying to suppress the progress of women.”
Turkey was the first country to sign and ratify a European treaty on preventing violence against women — known as the Istanbul Convention — in 2011. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan withdrew Turkey from it 10 years later, sparking protests.
The president’s decision came after pressure from Islamic groups and some officials from Erdogan’s Islam-oriented party. They argued that the treaty was inconsistent with conservative values, eroded the traditional family unit and encouraged divorce.
Erdogan has said he believes that men and women were not biologically created as equals and that a woman’s priority should be her family and motherhood.
The president insists that Turkey does not need the Istanbul Convention, and he has vowed to “constantly raise the bar” in preventing violence against women. Last year, his government strengthened legislation by making persistent stalking a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, the minister for family affairs, says she has made protecting women a priority and personally follows trials.
“Even if the victims have given up on their complaints, we continue to follow them,” she said. “Every case is one too many for us.”
Ataselim said the Istanbul Convention was an additional layer of protection for women and is pressing for a return to the treaty. Her group is also calling for the establishment of a telephone hotline for women facing violence and for the opening of more women’s shelters, saying the current number is far from meeting demand.
Most of all, existing measures should be adequately enforced, Ataselim said.
Activists allege that courts are lenient toward male abusers who claim they were provoked, express remorse or show good behavior during trials. Activists say restraining orders are often too short and those who violate them are not detained, putting women at risk.
“We believe that each of the femicide cases were preventable deaths,” Ataselim said.
Each year, women’s activists in Turkey take to the streets on International Women’s Day on March 8 and on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, demanding greater protection for women and Turkey’s return to the treaty.
Turkish authorities regularly ban such rallies on security and public order grounds.
Demonstrators often carry signs that read, “I don’t want to die” – the last words uttered by Emine Bulut, who died in a cafe in Kirikkale in central Turkey after her husband slit her throat in front of her 10-year-old daughter. Her death in 2019 shocked the nation.
Evcil, killed in a salon where she worked as a manicurist, suffered physical and mental abuse after eloping at 18 to marry her husband, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison, her sister Kuzey said. Evcil decided to leave him after 13 years of marriage.
Kuzey described her sister as a kind woman who “smiled even when she was crying inside.”
Authorities have named a park in Istanbul in Evcil’s memory.
“My hope is that our daughters don’t experience what we have experienced and justice comes to this country,” Kuzey said.
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