France’s Call for Stronger Europe Finally Gains Traction

PARIS — For years, French President Emmanuel Macron has argued for a stronger, more independent European defense. “What Europe, Defense Europe, lacks most today is a common strategic culture,” he said in a 2017 speech at Sorbonne University in Paris.

His address, just months after taking office, called for such unity in countering a raft of threats, including climate change. “Our inability to work together convincingly undermines our credibility as Europeans,” Macron said.

Today, it seems, other European Union countries are finally listening. Not necessarily because of Macron, but because of events taking place far from the French capital: a menacing Russia and struggling Kyiv as the war in Ukraine heads into its third year; and fears of waning U.S. support for both the conflict and the Atlantic alliance, especially if former president Donald Trump returns to power.

“The Europeans will have to get their act together on defense no matter what — and that requires a sustained effort for five, 10 years,” says Camille Grand, who leads defense issues at the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute. While some European Union members had already begun moving in that direction, he said, “it took the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to get that massive shift.”

Recent weeks have seen Europe’s defense take center stage in meetings and commitments. At the Munich Security Conference that wrapped up Sunday, Denmark announced it would send its entire ammunition stock to Ukraine, calling on other European countries to also step up. During back-to-back visits to Berlin and Paris, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy secured fresh security pacts from both countries and billions of dollars more in aid.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for the European Union to become a military power in its own right, while the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia agreed last month to set up a common defense zone on their borders with Russia and Belarus. Last week, too, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced that Europe, for the first time, had collectively met the alliance’s 2% GDP target for defense spending.

But whether Europe’s wakeup call will translate into a common defense strategy remains uncertain, observers say, as doing so would entail moving beyond the EU’s traditional glue of France and Germany to include central and eastern member states — and working together in new ways.

“All we’ve been able to construct since the beginning of this century were specific cooperations to manage peripheral crises — in the Middle East, Africa or the Balkans,” said Dominique David, defense specialist at the French Institute of International Relations. “Not to make war or defend against a threat on our territory.”

Others warn against going it alone.

“We should not pursue any path that indicates that we are trying to divide Europe from North America,” the alliance’s Stoltenberg said.

Challenges ahead

While their aims may differ, the wave of recent European defense commitments reflects an old French argument.

“The idea that the Europeans, even within NATO, should represent a more autonomous and independent force vis-a-vis the United States was always a French idea,” analyst David said — one also taken up by Macron’s predecessors.

“The other Europeans thought the real security guarantee came from the United States,” he added, “and constructing a more-or-less autonomous European defense would weaken the American guarantee.”

Those beliefs are crumbling as a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine gathers dust in Congress — and after former President Donald Trump’s suggestion he may not protect a NATO member “delinquent” on its military spending, and instead encourage Russia to attack if back in office.

“The French, like other Europeans, are faced with a situation in which Ukraine has become their exclusive responsibility, a situation which nobody was expecting,” said French defense analyst Francois Heisbourg.

“We’re not in a point-scoring situation anymore,” he added, referring to earlier debates over how autonomous Europe’s defense should be. “We are now in a more existential world.”

What’s clear, analysts say, is Europe has serious catchup to do, after years of spending little on defense. Some fear it may be just a few years before Russia sets it sights beyond Ukraine. While the bloc has earmarked billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, including $54 billion earlier this month, it is lagging behind in other areas. The EU has moved a March deadline to deliver a million artillery shells to Ukraine, for example, to year’s end.

“It’s astonishing that the European abilities to supply Ukraine are not either physically strong enough or don’t exist,” said Judy Dempsey, a defense specialist at Carnegie Europe policy institute. “This is the tragedy of the post-Cold war era; that the defense structures were downsized.”

France, too, hasn’t always walked its security talk. It ranks 14th, behind Germany and the Netherlands, in terms of defense commitments to Ukraine, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute research group, although French government figures are higher. It’s fallen just shy of NATO’s 2% spending target in recent years — compared to Poland’s nearly 4% last year — although French authorities say that spending goal will be met this year and rise after that.

“The Poles, the Balts and the Nordics have been investing more rapidly and more significantly in defense than many of Europe’s more western and southern countries,” said analyst Grand. “They have become high-profile defense players,” which traditional EU heavyweights France and Germany “need to account for.”

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who hopes to win another term this year, has called for creating a new post of EU defense commissioner. Some suggest the job should go to an eastern European country like Poland, with a focused understanding of Russia’s threat.

The bigger goal of forging a common European defense strategy and bloc within NATO will be a key challenge, some say.

“I would say the answer is no,” said analyst David, referring to the prospect of that happening anytime soon. “We’re many, we’re divided, we’re in a situation that’s very complicated — we don’t know how to emerge from the war in Ukraine.”

What Europe can do now, he said, “is open these discussions, and hope to progress fairly quickly.”

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Turkey’s Erdogan Eyes Key Role in Postwar Gaza

As Israeli forces close in on the Gaza Strip’s last main population center and international pressure grows for cease-fire, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is eyeing a key role in the postwar future of the Palestinian enclave. Analysts warn, though, that Erdogan’s staunch support for Hamas will spur Israeli resistance. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

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Guinness World Records Annuls ‘Oldest Dog Ever’ Title for Dead Portuguese Canine

Lisbon — Guinness World Records has ruled against a Portuguese dog that died last year keeping the title of oldest canine ever.

Following a review, GWR said Thursday it “no longer has the evidence it needs to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder.”

Bobi, a reportedly 31-year-old guard dog, had lived on a farm in the village of Conqueiros in Portugal with its owner, Leonel Costa. He was proclaimed as the world’s oldest living dog and oldest dog ever in February 2023. Said to have been born on May 11, 1992, he died last October.

GWR said it opened an investigation following concerns raised by veterinarians and other experts, both privately and publicly, and media investigations.

“We take tremendous pride in ensuring as best we can the accuracy and integrity of all our record titles,” Mark McKinley, GWR’s Director of Records, who conducted the review, said in a statement.

The group had suspended the title pending the review announced last month.

“We of course require evidence for all Guinness World Records titles we monitor, often a minimum of two statements from witnesses and subject experts,” McKinley said.

He said they also considered pictures, video and, where appropriate, data provided by technology relevant to the achievement.

GWR said they found that a lack of evidence from Bobi’s microchip data left them with no conclusive evidence of Bobi’s date of birth.

McKinley said that it was too early to speak about a new record holder.

“It’s going to take a long time for microchip uptake around the world to catch up with pet ownership, especially of older pets,” he said.

“Until that time, we’ll require documentary evidence for all years of a pet’s life,” he said.

Bobi was a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed that has an average life expectancy of about 10 to 14 years.

In an emailed statement in January, his owner defended the title, saying Guinness World Records had spent a year checking the record claim.

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British Judges to Rule on US Extradition of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange

London — British judges are set to rule whether Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, will be extradited to the United States after he launched a last-ditch legal bid this week to block the order, the latest chapter in a legal battle stretching back nearly 14 years.

U.S. prosecutors are seeking Assange’s extradition in relation to 18 federal charges relating to allegations of hacking and theft of classified material, after Wikileaks published a trove of stolen U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents in 2010 relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reserved judgement

The two-day hearing at the High Court in London concluded Wednesday and the two senior judges hearing the case are expected to deliver a ruling in the coming days or weeks. “We will reserve our decision,” judge Victoria Sharp said. It is unclear when she and fellow judge Jeremy Johnson will issue their decision.

Julian Assange’s supporters staged demonstrations outside the London court and in cities across the world, with protestors marching on U.S. embassies to demand Assange’s release.

Assange was not present at the High Court due to his poor health, and he did not appear via video link.

Assange’s defense

His defense lawyers argued the extradition warrant was politically motivated and that Assange was simply doing his job as a journalist by publishing the stolen U.S. files, according to Simon Crowther, a legal adviser for the human rights group Amnesty International, which is campaigning for the extradition order to be blocked.

“Firstly, they pointed out this is something that journalists do all the time: you receive classified material as journalists from confidential sources and you publish it when it’s in the public interest, particularly when it covers issues such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, accusations of torture, extrajudicial execution,” Crowther said.

“So, Julian Assange’s lawyers were able to point to legal arguments and found legal precedent that showed that this is political action that journalists take. And as a result, they say it’s outside of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and the U.K.,” he added.

Crowther said the second argument the lawyers made is that Assange’s actions were protected under guarantees of freedom of expression.

Press freedom

Press freedom campaigners have called for the United States to drop the charges against Assange and for him to be released from the high-security Belmarsh prison in London. Rebecca Vincent, the director of campaigns at Reporters Without Borders, said Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States.

“The publication by WikiLeaks in 2010 of the leaked classified documents exposed information that was in the public interest and informed journalism around the world. The prosecutor and other US officials have stated that as a foreign national, Assange will not be afforded First Amendment protections. Combined with the fact that the Espionage Act has no public interest defense, that means he cannot get a fair trial,” Vincent told VOA in a statement.

US prosecutors

U.S. prosecutors insist that Assange would receive a fair trial. In past hearings, British judges have also ruled that Assange would receive fair treatment under the U.S. judicial system.

Clair Dobbin, one of the lawyers representing the U.S. government, argued that Assange had encouraged people to steal documents, and that the published material contained unredacted names of U.S. sources, putting their lives at risk. She told the court this week that Assange had published them “indiscriminately” without redactions, and alleged that his actions were “unprecedented” and did not constitute journalism.

Assange could not therefore be “treated as akin to an ordinary journalist or Wikileaks akin to an ordinary publisher,” she said.

WikiLeaks cables

In 2010, WikiLeaks published a trove of diplomatic cables relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that had been stolen by the U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Assange said Manning’s leaks exposed abuses by the United States military, including potential war crimes.

Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on unrelated allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden. He jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he stayed for seven years.

Sweden later dropped the charges. However, Assange was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019 and imprisoned for breaching bail.

The British government signed an extradition order to the United States in June 2022, after successive failed legal challenges by Assange.

‘Life in danger’

Assange’s wife Stella has repeatedly claimed that the 52-year-old’s life is in danger if he is extradited to the U.S. “It’s an attack on all journalists, all over the world. It’s an attack on the truth and an attack on the public’s right to know. Julian is a political prisoner, and his life is at risk,” she told reporters outside the High Court as the hearing began this week.

In previous legal challenges, Assange’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to block the extradition on claims that the U.S. prison system would constitute a risk to his life, potentially causing him to commit suicide.

“If he was extradited to the U.S., Julian Assange could be held in solitary confinement – prolonged solitary confinement. And that constitutes a violation of the (convention on the) prohibition of torture,” Amnesty’s Simon Crowther told VOA.

U.S. authorities have disputed the notion that Assange would inevitably be held in solitary confinement.

Prison term

If he is found guilty in the U.S., Assange’s lawyers say he could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years, but a term of 30 to 40 years was more likely. U.S. prosecutors have said he would serve no more than 63 months.

The Australian parliament last week called for Assange, who holds Australian citizenship, to be allowed to return to his homeland in a motion supported by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

If Assange wins his case at the British High Court, a full appeal hearing will be held. If his legal bid fails, the case could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights. However, Britain could seek to extradite Assange to the United States before European judges could rule on the case.

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Taliban Publicly Execute Two Afghan Men Convicted of Murder

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban authorities publicly executed two men Thursday who had been convicted of murder in separate incidents.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court said the executions, by gunshot, were carried out in a football stadium in the southeastern city of Ghazni.

A large number of justice and government officials, as well as residents, witnessed the event, but no one was allowed to bring cellular phones or cameras to the stadium.

The court statement said the two put to death were tried and found guilty of fatally stabbing two people. It added that the judicial order was enforced after the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, approved it.

The Taliban have executed four people and flogged around 350 others, including women, in front of hundreds of onlookers since reclaiming power in August 2021 and imposing their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Female victims were mostly accused of crimes such as adultery and running away from homes.

The United Nations has criticized the punishments as violations of human rights, saying they run counter to international law and must stop.

The Taliban have rejected the criticism, saying their criminal justice system and governance at large are based on Islamic rules and guidelines.

Public floggings and executions were routine under the previous Taliban government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Afghan authorities have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to education and public life. They have barred female visitors from parks and gyms and forbidden girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade.

The Taliban have ignored international outcry and calls for removing curbs on women. The treatment of women has mainly deterred foreign governments from recognizing the Taliban administration in Kabul.

A U.N. expert panel this week called for other countries to officially recognize “gender apartheid” as a crime against humanity, highlighting the oppression of women and girls under regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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At G20 Meeting, Western Ministers Criticize Russia Over Ukraine

RIO DE JANEIRO — Western foreign ministers from the G20 group of nations meeting in Brazil on Wednesday attacked Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov listened, diplomats said.

“Russia must be made to pay for its aggression,” British Foreign Minister David Cameron told the closed session, according to his office.

The top diplomats from the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and Norway made similar remarks on the first day of a two-day meeting.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters that Lavrov calmly replied to Cameron’s remarks with “a set of alternative facts” about events in Ukraine.

Lavrov did not speak to reporters. Russia’s justification of its “special military operation” in Ukraine, which began two years ago, initially was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. More recently, Moscow has emphasized that it needs to defend against Western aggression.

The meeting was set to prepare the agenda for a G20 summit in November. At a summit in September, G20 leaders adopted a declaration that avoided condemning Russia for the war in Ukraine but called on all states not to use force to grab territory.

Cameron also noted the death of dissident Alexey Navalny in a Russian prison last week.

Eide said the G20 session in Rio focused mainly on conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. “We have to support Ukraine until it emerges as a free and independent sovereign country without another army on its soil,” the Norwegian minister said he told the meeting.

Eide said the ministers who spoke at the meeting agreed with the need for a two-state solution in the Middle East but there was no consensus on how to achieve it.

Brazil, this year’s president of the G20, opened the foreign ministers’ meeting by blaming the United Nations and other multinational bodies for failing to stop conflicts that are killing innocent people.

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira called for “profound reform” of global governance as Brazil’s top priority this year.

“Multilateral institutions are not adequately equipped to deal with current challenges, as demonstrated by the Security Council’s unacceptable paralysis in relation to ongoing conflicts,” Vieira said at the meeting.

“This state of inaction results in the loss of innocent lives,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on his way to the Rio meeting and expressed U.S. support for Brazil’s agenda to make global governance more effective.

The top U.S. diplomat discussed Israel’s war in Gaza with Lula amid a diplomatic spat after the Brazilian leader likened Israel’s war to the Nazi genocide during World War Two, a U.S. spokesperson told reporters.

Lula’s accusations last week of atrocities by Israel in Gaza triggered a diplomatic crisis with an Israeli reprimand and Brazil recalling its ambassador.

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Problems Seen Remaining in Kazakhstan Despite New Government

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Kazakhstan has a new government with a big mandate from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev – to clean up the fallout from years of corruption while delivering a huge boost in the size of the economy over the next five years.

Tokayev accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov and his government on Feb. 5 in what was seen as a bid to consolidate his power two years after deadly unrest rocked the country.

The next day, Tokayev replaced Smailov with his 43-year-old chief of staff, Olzhas Bektenov, who had previously served as the country’s corruption czar.  

Smailov became prime minister in January 2022 after an earlier government was dismissed for increasing fuel prices, a move that sparked protests that turned violent and resulted in at least 238 deaths.

Smailov was considered a compromise figure to ease the transition from a political setup in which long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev still exercised enormous powers through his chairmanship of the Security Council — a body that had the power to overrule presidential decisions — despite having resigned the presidency in 2019.

Tokayev replaced Nazarbayev as chairman of the Security Council days before Smailov’s appointment.

Bektenov is seen as having been picked because of his loyalty to Tokayev, although he has no experience holding executive posts in the government; his anticorruption position was not part of the government.

Moreover, although Tokayev has highlighted Bektenov’s “vast knowledge in the economic sphere and other spheres” and “great organizational skills,” others expressed doubts. 

 

“He’s loyal to the president and enjoys his trust,” Shalkar Nurseitov, director of the Almaty-based Center for Policy Solutions think tank, told VOA.

With an eye on his own legacy, Tokayev is placing his confidence in Bektenov to deliver an economic revolution that will boost the size of the economy to $450 billion by 2029, when he is due to leave office.

For this to happen, the government calculates that the economy would have to grow, considering exchange rate changes and other factors, by at least 6% annually over the coming years – an ambitious target that the former government was clearly not going to deliver, experts say. The country’s gross domestic product grew by 5.1% last year.

After Smailov’s government resigned, the president leveled a host of criticisms at the former Cabinet, complaining about the low efficiency of the budget, tax policies, and government spending of public funds. He also accused it of focusing too much on immediate problems rather than pursuing long-term strategies.

“The efficiency of the budget and tax policy should be radically improved. … This means the government still faces an objective of efficiently managing budget and making quality forecasts for budget parameters,” Tokayev said. 

“Another systemic problem is the way the budget is spent, because it doesn’t promote economic activity, but money is spent on solving immediate problems, while strategic goals take a back seat,” he said while chairing the new government’s meeting Feb. 7. 

Retreat from tax reform proposal

Bektenov’s government has already retreated from one key proposal of the old Cabinet, to raise Kazakhstan’s value added tax to reduce the budget deficit, estimated at $6.2 billion in 2023. That proposal would have raised the rate from 12% to 16% but without eliminating provisions that allow large companies to claim it back.

Kassymkhan Kapparov, the founder of the Ekonomist.kz economic analysis website, told VOA that the VAT structure benefits mostly large corporations, such as oil giants Chevron and Shell, because as foreign investors or exporters they can claim it back. 

Tokayev criticized the plan to boost the tax because of opposition from business and called for “reforming” it. Bektenov subsequently said the plan would be abandoned, although he did not say what would replace it and he has not said how the government will meet its ambitious growth target. 

“Tokayev’s criticism of VAT sends a message to them [Chevron and other exporters and investors] that this loophole would be closed or their contracts should be renegotiated,” Kapparov said, noting there had been discussions about replacing it with a sales tax.

“Sales tax is more transparent than VAT and it works in the U.S.,” he said.

Bektenov’s performance in his former role as anti-corruption czar, when he was charged with recouping assets illegally appropriated during Nazarbayev’s rule, evidently pleased his boss, who said efforts to claw back illicit assets would continue. As of late last year, the state had recouped some $2.2 billion, including $600 million from abroad, according to government figures.

However, skeptics are not convinced by the Tokayev’s anticorruption drive, which officials tout as part of their efforts to rid Kazakhstan of the legacy of Nazarbayev. The former president fell into disgrace after the violent unrest in 2022, in which some of his associates are believed to have been complicit.

Nurseitov, from the Center for Policy Solutions, pointed to a lack of transparency in the asset return program, with neither the public nor parliament provided with specifics about what the assets are, who appropriated them, and whether those who engaged in wrongdoing faced any repercussions.

 “The main issue is where these assets are being returned to. It looks more like the redistribution of property rather than return of assets to the state coffers because there is no transparency or any information,” he said.

“Tokayev now has to solve all the problems in the system and while attempting to clean all that mess up, placing responsibility on the old regime,” Kapparov said. “Everything that was stolen during Nazarbayev’s rule he would try to bring to light to show that he is different from his predecessor and cares about the state and people.”

With the change of government, Tokayev is trying to emphasize the difference between the old regime and what he bills as his New Kazakhstan.

Part of his strategy is to tackle some of the economic problems that sparked the socioeconomic grievances that brought the public out onto the streets in 2022.

Although he has instituted some political reforms over the last two years, analysts say he is not rooting out the authoritarianism that is Nazarbayev’s main legacy.

“We don’t see the main fight against the most important legacy – authoritarianism. On the contrary, the current authorities aim to benefit from this system,” Nurseitov said, “Only the frontman and his entourage have changed.”

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Russia Takes Center Stage in US Political Battle

The death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has put Russia in the center of American political discourse and has increased pressure on congressional Republicans to support Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and his main challenger, former President Donald Trump, take opposing views heading into the November U.S. election. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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Russia Takes Center Stage in US Political Battle

washington — Russia has taken center stage in American political discourse after the death of a prominent opposition figure there, putting congressional Republicans under increased pressure to support Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden has highlighted in his recent statements one of the differences between him and his challenger, former U.S. President Donald Trump.

At a recent rally, Trump said that if he were president and a NATO member fell short of its financial commitments to the security bloc, he would not protect that ally. “In fact, I would encourage them” — meaning Russia — “to do whatever the hell they want,” Trump said.

“Every president since Truman has been a rock-solid supporter of NATO, except for Donald Trump,” a stentorian male voice intones in an ad released this week by the Biden campaign. “Trump wants to walk away from NATO. He’s even given Putin and Russia the green light to attack America’s allies. … No president has ever said anything like it. It’s shameful. It’s weak. It’s dangerous. It’s un-American.”

The divide was further compounded by the death last week of opposition leader Alexey Navalny in a Russian prison.

Biden has been quick to lay blame and threaten stiff sanctions over the 47-year-old’s death in an Arctic penal colony, which Russian officials say was caused by “sudden death syndrome.”

“The fact of the matter is, Putin is responsible,” Biden said. “Whether he ordered it, he’s responsible for the circumstances they put that man in. And it’s a reflection of who he is. It just cannot be tolerated. I said there will be a price to pay.”

The Kremlin said Biden’s allegation is “unfounded” and “insolent,” but authorities have denied Navalny’s mother access to his body.

A different line

Trump and his Republican Party have taken a different line, with Trump saying he would not support NATO as strongly as Biden has. And, in a recent event with Fox News, he cast himself as a victim of political persecution, like Navalny.

“It’s a horrible thing, but it’s happening in our country, too,” Trump said Tuesday night. “We are turning into a communist country in many ways. And if you look at it, I’m the leading candidate. I get … I never heard of being indicted before. … I got indicted four times, I have eight or nine trials, all because of the fact that — and you know this — all because of the fact that I’m in politics.”

Trump was vague on how he’d end the war, instead saying that if he were president, Putin would never have invaded Ukraine.

Republicans have grown more vocal in questioning why they should fund the conflict. Russian forces recently captured a key Ukrainian city, Avdiivka, which the White House points to as proof that Ukrainian forces need urgent help.

In urging members of Congress to pass a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan argued it is “in our cold-blooded, national security interest to help Ukraine stand up to Putin’s vicious and brutal invasion.”

“We know from history that when dictators aren’t stopped, they keep going,” Sullivan told reporters this week in a briefing. “The cost for America rises, and the consequences get more and more severe for our NATO allies and elsewhere in the world.”

Some Republicans are confident that they will pass the stalled $95 billion aid package, most of which is for Ukraine.

“I think the slow response from Europe and the United States, of course, that hurts Ukraine,” Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick said on a recent visit to Ukraine. “And that’s why we can’t let this happen, why we’re going to get something done.”

War’s symbolism grows

Meanwhile, as Ukraine nears the second anniversary of the invasion and U.S. aid hangs in the balance, the war has taken on greater symbolic meaning.

“This has become about America,” journalist and author Peter Pomerantsev told VOA’s Russian Service via Skype. He is also a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. “Will America continue to play the role of a power that keeps its promises, that respects its alliances and that is capable of projecting strength?

“Or is America over as a serious power? That’s the question now,” he said. “It’s no longer about Russia or Ukraine. Now all eyes of the world are on America, and the way America decides will have epic consequences.”

VOA’s Rafael R. Saakyan contributed to this report from Washington.

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Indian Farmers Pause March to Delhi After Protester’s Death

New Delhi — Indian farmers paused their protest march for two days after clashes with police left one protester dead, the protest leaders said Wednesday.

Indian police used tear gas and water cannons earlier Wednesday to disperse thousands of protesting farmers as they attempted to resume a march to the capital, New Delhi, after negotiations with the government failed to resolve a deadlock over their demands for guaranteed crop prices.  

A young farmer, Subhkaran Singh, 21, died of what appeared to be a bullet wound to his head. He arrived at a local hospital with two other protesters, who also appeared to have bullet wounds. They are in stable condition.

Farmers’ leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters one person had been killed and others injured, but Haryana state police denied anyone died. 

 

It is the second time the police used tear gas to thwart attempts by farmers to reach Delhi since they launched their protest on Feb. 13.  

Farmers mounted on tractors came equipped with masks and gloves to protect themselves from the tear gas at Shambhu, about 200 kilometers from Delhi, where thousands have gathered. 

Some had also brought bulldozers and excavators to dismantle barricades erected along highways, but hundreds of security personnel lined both sides of the highway and prevented them from moving ahead. Using loudspeakers, farm leaders urged them to fight for their rights.

Local media showed police using water cannons at farmers at another protest site.

Highways leading to Delhi have been heavily barricaded with concrete blocks, barbed wire and iron spikes to prevent the farmers from laying siege to key roads on the capital’s outskirts as they did during a yearlong mass protest in 2021.

The farmers’ leaders have urged the government to let them enter the capital.

“We will remain peaceful, but we should be allowed to remove these barriers and march towards Delhi,” Pandher told reporters.

Farmers launched their protest last week, accusing the government of failing to meet some promises it made when they called off the protest two years ago.

Four rounds of talks in recent days have failed to break an impasse over their key demand for legislation that would guarantee prices for all crops. The farmers say that would buffer them from market fluctuations and help improve their incomes. 

Currently, the government announces subsidized prices for about two dozen agricultural products each year and buys some crops, such as rice and wheat, at guaranteed prices — a system that began in the 1960s to encourage farmers to sow food grains at a time when India faced severe shortages. 

At the last round of talks, which broke down on Monday, the government had offered to extend price guarantees to some more crops such as pulses, maize and cotton, but that failed to satisfy the farmers.

The government is urging the farmers to continue negotiations.

“After the fourth round, the government is ready to discuss all the issues,” Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda posted on X. “I again invite the farmer leaders for discussion. It is important for us to maintain peace.”

Farmers in India complain of stagnant or dwindling incomes, saying that crop prices have failed to keep pace with rising costs of inputs such as fertilizers and seeds. More than two-thirds of the country is dependent on farm incomes.

The protest is being held months before India holds national elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is widely seen as winning a third term in office.

Political analysts said the government is using heavy security to prevent the farmers from reaching the capital because images of tens of thousands of farmers sitting around the capital were “bad optics.”

“If farmers reach the capital, they would get much more media attention just as they did during the last protest in 2021,” political analyst Rasheed Kidwai explained. “Anything happening around Delhi becomes magnified. That is why the government wants to control the protest away from the city.” 

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Upsurge in Violence in Northern Mozambique Displaces Thousands

Maputo, Mozambique — A new outbreak of unrest in northern Mozambique, scene of a jihadi insurgency, has forced thousands to flee their homes, according to United Nations figures and sources in Cabo Delgado province.

An alert from the U.N. migration agency IOM said recent attacks in the Macomia, Chiure and Mecufi districts had displaced 13,088 people, most of them children, by bus, canoe and on foot.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi confirmed there had been new population movements but played down the threat and insisted security forces had the situation under control.

“There are a significant number of people who move from one area to another and complain about support,” he said, after a meeting with military commanders.

“Terrorists try to recruit in this province, which is why we see these movements,” he said.

A recent flight of people from the town of Ocua, he said, was a result of revenge attacks after Mozambican and Rwandan forces had thwarted an attempt to kidnap children.

“The last month recorded significant movements by non-state armed groups towards the southern districts of Cabo Delgado” a spokesperson from the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHRC, told AFP.

“This wave of attacks has essentially been characterized by a high level of destruction, namely residences, churches and social infrastructures as schools and health centers.”

Forces from Rwanda and countries of the Southern African Development Community, deployed to Mozambique in July 2021 after years of jihadi attacks.

They have helped the country retake lost territory in Cabo Delgado, but unrest continues.

One civil servant in Cabo Delgado confirmed to AFP that the situation had deteriorated. He spoke anonymously on government orders.

“It seems they have returned with great fury,” he said, of the armed groups behind the attacks.

Tobias Miguel, a researcher following the crisis, said those displaced seem to be seeking refuge in the northern town of Pemba or crossing out of the province to neighboring Nampula.

“We have received reports that terrorists have stopped some cargo transport vehicles to demand monetary payments,” he said.

The secretary of state for Nampula Province, Jaime Neto, confirmed that the National Institute for Disaster Management was seeking to open a transit center to accommodate displaced people.  

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