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Ukrainian soldiers evacuate parts of Bakhmut as fighting there intensifies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill to make it easier to mobilize Russians into the military.
China has promised not to sell weapons to either Ukraine or Russia, The Associated Press reports.
Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and may barricade a skeleton staff inside, says Kyiv’s state atomic agency, Energoatom.

The head of the Wagner Group wants Russia to get out of Ukraine. The time has come for a “firm end” to the war in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin posted on Telegram on Friday. He said Russian “government and society now need a firm end” to the war in Ukraine.

He said, “Russia has achieved the results it wanted” and has “eradicated most of active male population of Ukraine and intimidate the rest,” failing to mention any of Ukraine’s triumphs over Russia.

Prigozhin said Russia forces should now “hold on for dear life to the territories we already have.”

The Wagner Group has provided mercenaries for Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.  

Meanwhile, At least eight people were killed and 21 were wounded Friday in a Russian airstrike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, northwest of Bakhmut.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that seven missiles had been fired on the city. According to Ukrainian national police, S-300 missiles struck 10 apartment buildings and other sites. The top two floors of a five-story building collapsed after the strike. Rescue teams were looking for survivors.

A child was pulled alive from the rubble but died on the way to a hospital, Daria Zarivna, a senior official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said. Kyrylenko also said people were believed to be trapped under the debris.

“Not a single hour of this week before Orthodox Easter passed without murders and terror,” Zelenskyy tweeted Friday. “This is an evil state, and it will lose. To win is our duty to humanity as such. And we will win!” he said.

Later, in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that “for every Russian attack on our cities and villages, on our positions, for every killing of Ukrainians, the occupier must suffer the most tangible losses.”

Russian conscription law

The latest strikes come as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday allowing authorities to issue electronic conscription notices. The law has raised concern that Russia is planning another mobilization drive.

Previously, Russian law required an in-person delivery of conscription notices, which led some Russians to avoid the draft by staying away from their homes.

Under the new law, the conscription notices are considered valid as soon as they are sent electronically. The law also prohibits those who are conscripted from leaving the country and allows authorities to suspend the drivers’ licenses of conscripts who fail to report for duty.

In September, Putin announced the mobilization of about 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine. The Associated Press reports the order is estimated to have prompted an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russian men.

Bakhmut withdrawal

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, fighting continues to intensify. According to Reuters, analysts said Friday that Ukrainian forces there were trying to push back against a coordinated three-pronged attack by the Kremlin’s forces and against Russian attempts to intercept supplies to Ukrainian soldiers.

In its Friday intelligence update, the British Ministry of Defense wrote that Ukrainian troops had been forced to withdraw from parts of Bakhmut after a renewed Russian assault on the ravaged city. According to the update, “Russia has re-energized its assault on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian MoD [Ministry of Defense] and Wagner Group have improved co-operation.”

Ukrainian officials say Russia has been drawing down troops from other areas on the front for a major push on Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to capture for nine months to regain the momentum of the all-out invasion it launched more than a year ago.

“The enemy is using its most professional units there and resorting to a significant amount of artillery and aviation,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Every day, the enemy carries out in Bakhmut from 40 to 50 storming operations and 500 shelling episodes,” she said. The British intelligence update said Ukraine still held western districts of the town but had been subjected to intense Russian artillery fire the previous two days.

“Ukrainian forces face significant resupply issues but have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede,” it said.

China weapons

In other key developments, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Friday his country would not sell weapons to Russia or Ukraine. His pledge was a response to Western concerns that Beijing could assist Russia militarily.

China has asserted its neutrality in the conflict, while Western nations have imposed sanctions against Moscow.

Qin added that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces say they are discovering a growing number of Chinese components in Russian weaponry used in Ukraine. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, senior adviser to Zelenskyy, told Reuters via a video call that in “the weapons recovered from the battlefield, we continue to find different electronics.”

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which they captured in southeastern Ukraine after invading last year, Kyiv’s state atomic agency, Energoatom, said Friday.

The agency said this activity might indicate Russia was preparing to hold employees inside because of a dire shortage of qualified staff at Europe’s largest nuclear plant and in anticipation of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.

“Given the intense shortage of nuclear specialists needed to operate the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fearing a Ukrainian offensive, the [Russians] are preparing for the long-term holding of ZNPP employees as hostages,” Energoatom said.

“The invaders have already brought a lot of provisions and water to the station,” the agency added in a statement. “The occupiers will probably not allow the station staff to leave after one of the regular work shifts, forcibly blocking them at the ZNPP,” it said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Zelenskyy soldier beheading

In a tweet Friday, Zelenskyy thanked British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for condemning the “inhumane execution” of a Ukrainian soldier. “Together we must stop the aggressor & put an end to terror,” he said.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday opened an investigation into a video on social media purportedly showing one of Kyiv’s soldiers being beheaded.

News agencies could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video. Zelenskyy said that the video showed the “execution of a Ukrainian captive” and that “everyone must react. Do not expect that it will be forgotten that time will pass.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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“Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish,” President Joe Biden said, quoting his grandfather.

Such fierce ethnic pride from “the most Irish of all American presidents,” as the Taoiseach describes him, was guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, and Biden knew it.

Biden displayed an endless supply of that pride during a three-day visit that culminated in a Friday night speech in Ballina, County Mayo, where his paternal ancestors once lived. The speech was the last item on his schedule before he returned to Washington.

“Being here feels like coming home,” he told the crowd of 27,000, diving into his family background stretching back before the Irish famine of the mid-1800s.

The Irish “always believe in a better tomorrow,” he said. “Our strength is something that overcomes everyday hardships.”

Biden’s love of his Irish roots and, in turn, the affection shown in the rapturous applause of Irish lawmakers listening to his speech to parliament and in the cheering crowds lined up waiting for his motorcade in blustery weather, could also reach another audience — American voters.

“Ireland is one of the few countries where an American president can guarantee an uncritical welcome,” said Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

This visit, designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, is especially important. The 1998 peace deal helped end 30 years of bloody conflict over whether Northern Ireland should unify with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom.

By showing the U.S. is playing a constructive role in sustaining peace, Biden is sending an important message to Americans, in contrast to less successful foreign policy outcomes such as the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, O’Leary told VOA.

Biden’s Republican Party rivals had a different view. On Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, former President Donald Trump slammed Biden’s tour of his ancestral homeland.

“The world is exploding around us. You could end up in a third world war and this guy is going to be in Ireland!” he said Tuesday night.

Foreign policy credits aside, O’Leary said Biden clearly represents his Irish American experience as typical of the American middle-class experience.

“I think that facilitates his ‘Ordinary Joe’ campaigning,” he added.

‘My plan is to run again’

Speaking to reporters before departing Ireland on Friday, Biden said he would announce his reelection bid “relatively soon.”

“I told you, my plan is to run again,” he said.

His campaign will again center on his middle-class agenda, a message deeply interwoven with his Irish roots and working-class family background.

The latest U.S. government census indicates that about 10% of Americans, 31 million people, claim Irish ancestry. In presidential elections of the past few decades, Irish Americans traditionally backed Democratic candidates until 2016, when Trump won about half of their support.

But more than ancestries, elections are determined by programs and values. In his 50 years in politics, Biden, who says he was raised “with a fierce pride in our Irish ancestry,” often highlights the egalitarianism and communal solidarity captured in his family’s creed — that everyone is your equal.

“I don’t know that a lot of other politicians would say something like that,” said Timothy Meagher, a former associate professor at Catholic University of America who studies ethnic history focusing on Irish Americans.

“There’s a kind of sense, from him, of an identification with working class people, with regular people,” Meagher told VOA. “That follows, I think, from that kind of Irish heritage, that we’re all in this together.”

Other values include the dignity of work, which Biden has linked to legislative calls for job-creating policies that enable workers to earn a living wage, form unions and receive paid family and medical leave.

His outlook on immigration is also imbued by his Irishness. On at least two occasions during his trip, he told the story of how his maternal ancestor, shoemaker Owen Finnegan, emigrated to New York in 1849, about the same time as former President Barack Obama’s maternal ancestor Joseph Kearney, also a shoemaker from a nearby county.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he said to reporters Thursday. “The idea that they both would seek a new life and think that their great-great-grandsons would end up being president of the United States is remarkable.”

It’s the story of how poor immigrants can live the American dream, said Eoin Drea, a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. “I think that’s how President Biden views his family’s transition into where they are now,” he told VOA.

Possibilities

Biden’s origin story shapes how he understands the country’s psyche, often repeating what he said he told Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that the United States can be defined in one word: possibilities.

His optimism could resonate with another group of voters — naturalized citizens and descendants of immigrants. In the 2020 presidential race, more than 23 million immigrants, comprising about 10% of the electorate, were eligible to vote, according to a Pew Survey based on census data.

The cynical view is that political expediency motivates Biden to lean into his image of a scrappy son of a working-class family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. But for the endless “Bidenisms” and quotes of his parents that always begins with “Joey…,” Meagher said Biden comes across as genuine.

“There is a sort of politics to it, but it’s one that he seems to fit into naturally,” he said.

Through his rhetoric and legislative proposals, Biden has woven a consistent theme in his first term — build the economy from the bottom up and middle out by creating jobs, including for people who don’t have college degrees.

Whether that will carry him to a second term remains to be seen. Especially if he again faces Trump, the leading Republican contender, according to a recent poll.

In 2020, Trump’s nativist “Make America Great Again” message secured him 66% of the votes from white men without a four-year college degree, compared with Biden’s 31%.
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For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater.

Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels and nuclear power over concerns that neither is a sustainable source of energy.

The final countdown Saturday — delayed for several months over feared energy shortages because of the Ukraine war — is seen with relief by Germans who have campaigned against nuclear power.

Yet with energy prices stubbornly high and climate change a growing concern, some in the country and abroad are branding the move reckless. As Germany closes nuclear stations, other governments in Europe have announced plans to build new ones or have backtracked on commitments to shut down existing plants.

“The Emsland nuclear power plant has indeed contributed significantly to the economic development of this region,” says Albert Stegemann, a dairy farmer and lawmaker for the opposition Christian Democrats who represents the nearby town of Lingen and surrounding areas in the federal parliament.

Unlike some of his conservative colleagues, Stegemann isn’t worried the lights will go out in Germany when the three reactors — Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II — are switched off for good. The closure of three other plants in late 2021 reduced nuclear’s share of electricity produced in Germany to about 5% but didn’t result in any blackouts.

The 47-year-old is also realistic about the lack of support the technology has among German voters, though he insists the vast majority of people in Lingen supported the plant.

“In the long term, nuclear power is certainly not the technology of the future. But at this time it would have been good to be able to rely on it,” he said.

Against the backdrop of the Russian attack on Ukraine and the challenges of climate change “it would have been wise to think about (delaying the shutdown) another one, two or three years,” Stegemann said.

“Politicians need to adjust to changed circumstances,” he added. “And I accuse the government of not doing that at all.”

Similar concerns have been raised in other quarters.

“Right now, existing nuclear plants are a critical source of carbon-free baseload energy,” said Peter Fox-Penner, previously a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy and now with the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. “Energy efficiency, wind, and solar energy will soon become dominant sources, but in the meantime, it is wisest to continue to run existing nuclear,” as long as safety is the priority, he said.

The government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made clear, however, that a further extension isn’t in the cards.

“Nuclear power remains a risky technology, and in the end, the risks can’t be controlled even in a high-tech country like Germany,” Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said at a news conference ahead of the shutdown.

She cited the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima atomic power plant in 2011, when a tsunami knocked out the power supply leading to a catastrophic meltdown, evoking memories of the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl that remains a pivotal event for Germany’s anti-nuclear movement.

While Lemke’s environmentalist Green party is most closely linked to that movement, it was former Chancellor Angela Merkel — then leader of Stegemann’s Christian Democrats — who pulled the plug on atomic energy in Germany following Fukushima. The decision led to a greater reliance on fossil fuels that has kept Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions stubbornly high compared to neighbors such as atom-friendly France.

At Lingen’s modern town hall, Mayor Dieter Krone said there are mixed feelings about the imminent nuclear shutdown, which will be marked with a small, closed-doors ceremony inside the plant.

“For the staff, it will be a moment of sadness” he said, noting that Emsland has safely produced electricity for Germany and its neighbors for decades. “On the other hand, it’s the start of a new era because we want to get into hydrogen.”

For the past 12 years, Krone and others have worked to convince public and private partners to invest in what they hope will be a key green fuel of the future. The region already produces more renewable energy than it consumes and aims to become a hub for hydrogen production using wind and solar power in the coming years.

“We have the big advantage that all the infrastructure, the networks, are there,” he said.

One of the world’s biggest clean hydrogen production facilities is due to begin operating in Lingen this fall. Some of it will be used to make “green steel,” a vital step if Europe’s biggest economy wants to become carbon neutral by 2045.

“I believe we are going to become the biggest and most significant location in Germany for hydrogen,” Krone said. “As such, I do think we can say this is a kind of blueprint for development.”

Critics have warned that without nuclear power, Germany will have to rely on dirty coal and gas plants for energy during periods of overcast but calm weather — a condition for which Germans have even coined a new term, Dunkelflaute.

The government has dismissed such concerns, arguing that thanks to Europe’s integrated electricity network, Germany can import energy when needed while remaining a net exporter.

Lemke has brushed aside suggestions that Germany’s no-nuclear policy will hamper efforts to cut the country’s emissions.

“The expansion of renewables remains the cheaper and in particular faster path if we want to achieve the climate goals,” she told reporters in Berlin earlier this month, pointing to significant delays and cost overruns in the construction of nuclear power plants elsewhere in Europe.

Meanwhile, the price of installing solar and wind energy has dropped significantly in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue.

Back in Lingen, activist Alexander Vent of the anti-nuclear group AgIEL says the shutdown isn’t the end of the road for their efforts.

“We want to stop and commemorate this day. Of course it’s a reason to celebrate,” he said. “But for us it’s basically a milestone that’s been reached. We now need to look forward because we see there’s still a lot left to do.”

Campaigners like Vent have now shifted their focus to nearby facilities that process nuclear fuel for reactors elsewhere in Europe.

“We need to stop enriching uranium,” he said. “We need to stop producing fuel rods for all the nuclear plants outside Germany.”
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday allowing authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the fighting in Ukraine, sparking fears of a new wave of mobilization.

Russia’s military service rules previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists called up for duty. Under the new law, the notices issued by local military conscription offices will continue to be sent by mail, but they would be considered valid from the moment they are put on a state portal for electronic services.

In the past, many Russians avoided the draft by staying away from their address of record. The new law closes that loophole in an apparent effort to create a tool for quickly beefing up the military ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks.

Recipients who fail to show up for service would be prohibited from leaving Russia, would have their drivers’ licenses suspended and would be barred from selling their apartments and other assets.

The bill Putin signed into law was published on the official register of government documents.

Kremlin critics and rights activists denounced the legislation as a step toward a “digital prison camp” that gives unprecedented powers to the military conscription offices.

Lyudmila Narusova, the widow of former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, was the only house member who spoke against the measure when the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, considered the bill Wednesday.

Narusova, whose late husband was Putin’s mentor, charged that the bill contradicts the country’s constitution and various laws, and strongly objected to its hasty approval.

The swift enactment of the law fueled fears of the government initiating another wave of mobilization following the one that Putin ordered in the fall.

Russian authorities deny that another mobilization is being planned. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this week that the measure was needed to streamline the outdated call-up system in view of the flaws that were revealed by last fall’s partial mobilization.

“There was a lot of mess in military conscription offices,” he said. “The purpose of the bill is to clean up this mess and make the system modern, effective and convenient for citizens.”

Putin announced a call-up of 300,000 reservists in September after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that pushed Russian forces out of broad areas in the east.

The mobilization order prompted an exodus of Russian men that was estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Observers say the new law appears to give authorities a mechanism for quickly beefing up the ranks in preparation for a new Ukrainian attack.

“A possible reason is that they see that the Ukrainians are getting ready for an offensive,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter turned Kremlin critic who has left Russia.

Gallyamov has been labeled a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, a designation that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations aimed at undermining the recipient’s credibility. He also has been put on a wanted list for criminal suspects.

Gallyamov said the law could fuel smoldering discontent but would be unlikely to trigger protests.

“On the one hand, there is a growing discontent and reluctance to fight, but on the other hand there is a fear of escalating repressions,” he said. “People are put before a difficult choice between going to battle and dying, or landing in prison if they protest.” 
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A French court on Friday convicted 11 alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on charges of terror financing.

The defendants, all Kurds from Turkey who speak little or no French, were accused of being part of a network that seeks a so-called revolutionary tax, or “kampanya,” from the Kurdish diaspora. 

Deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey, the PKK has been waging a decades-long armed struggle against Ankara for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority in the country’s southeast.

Organized cells are believed to be active among France’s up to 150,000 Kurdish residents, as well as among the 100,000 in the Netherlands and the million-strong community in Germany. 

The Paris court found that “significant amounts” of funds had been obtained through threats that included “exclusion from the community.” 

Four of the defendants were already detained, and two failed to appear before the court. The defendants denied belonging to the PKK, saying it had no presence in France. 

The sentences ranged from suspended three-year prison terms to five years behind bars with one year suspended. 

But the court did not ban the defendants from French territory, as is common in terrorism cases, since most of them have refugee status in France.  

The investigation began in 2020, when two Kurdish women, aged 18 and 19, were reported missing in southeastern France. 

It soon appeared that they had left for PKK training camps elsewhere in Europe. 

The inquiry revealed a network based on a Kurdish association in the southern city of Marseille, which prosecutors say was collecting a form of community tax that funds the PKK. 

Testimony and phone tapping revealed harassment and extortion of diaspora members, investigators said, as the “tax collectors” set arbitrary contributions for individuals based on their estimated income. 

Investigators believe about $2.2 million (2 million euros) is collected in southeastern France each year. 
…

China has responded to Western criticism by saying that it will remain neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war and not sell weapons to either side. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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U.S. President Joe Biden broke down in tears on Friday after a chance meeting at an Irish church with the priest who performed the last rites on his son Beau, said a priest who accompanied Biden during the visit.

The Rev. Richard Gibbons, who led Biden on a tour of the Catholic shrine of Knock, said he had not known that one of his colleagues, ex-U.S. Army chaplain Father Frank O’Grady, had performed the sacrament until the president arrived.

Beau Biden, the president’s eldest son, died in the United States in 2015 from brain cancer.

“It just so happened, and this is spontaneous, that we have working at the shrine here the chaplain who gave the last rites, the last anointing, to his son in the United States,” Gibbons told BBC.

“He [President Biden] wanted to meet him straight away; he dispatched a Secret Service agent to go and find him. He was crying, it really affected him, and then we said a prayer, we said a decade of the rosary for his family, lit a candle and he took a moment or two of private prayer.

“He laughed, he cried, and it just kind of hit the man. You could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him. It was an extraordinary afternoon.”

Biden, who is wrapping up a three-day trip to Ireland, later visited a nearby County Mayo hospice for which he had broken ground in 2017. A plaque on the ground at the hospice entrance is dedicated to Beau Biden.

The president, a devout Catholic, took a moment to look at the plaque before entering the hospice to meet the staff.
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A new draft bill passed by Russian lawmakers on April 11 will make it nearly impossible for men to avoid military conscription, just as Moscow is expected launch a fresh counteroffensive in its war on Ukraine. Anna Rice has the story.
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NATO allies Greece and Turkey came to the brink of war just a few years ago over competing energy rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas. Now, as both sides near key national elections, the government in Athens is extending an olive branch, saying it is open to Turkey joining in on lucrative energy projects.

In a television interview with Greece’s national broadcaster, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said it was imperative for Athens and Ankara to capitalize on their thawed relations.

After national elections are held in both countries next month, both sides can sit down and talk seriously. But to do so, Dendias said, there must be an agreed framework of discussion.

That is more likely to be worked out now, according to the Greek foreign minister, who said it would be a shame to squander such an opportunity given the excellent relations currently between the two countries.

Such remarks would have been unthinkable even months ago, when the two sides were hurling war threats and engaging in dangerous war games in the Aegean Sea over competing energy rights to vast oil and gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.

But after a set of devastating earthquakes struck Turkey earlier this year and Greece rushed to the support of its age-old foe, also prodding its European Union allies to provide urgent financial assistance to the government in Ankara, relations have taken a remarkable shift.

Dendias said daily and dangerous overflights in the Aegean by Turkish warplanes have ceased entirely. Communication between the two sides has resumed. And even the prospect of cooperation regarding once contentious energy projects is now being welcomed by Athens.

Among them is the so-called East Mediterranean Gas Forum that includes regional states like Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Greece now says it is open to inviting Turkey.

Any participation by another country would require approval from the other members. However, it would mark a very important move, as Dendias put it.

Other prospective cooperation includes a nearly $4 billion grid connector, streaming across the Mediterranean, which Greece and Egypt want to build in coming years, tapping into lucrative reserves that are currently being explored.

Turkey has disputed access to those areas, which Greece claims exclusively as its own in the eastern Mediterranean, sparking tension and naval standoffs between the two sides in recent years.

Whether the solid climate of affairs between Greece and Turkey will be sustained for talks to be held remains uncertain.

In recent days and at an election rally in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed territorial claims against Greece. So, too, have other leading officials.

But Dendias insists that should not spoil the climate of trust building up between the two NATO allies.

It’s clear the rhetoric is aimed at Erdogan’s domestic audience. And it is also clear, Dendias said, the upcoming elections will not be a walk in the park for Erdogan and that Turkey’s positions on longstanding issues with Greece will not change overnight.

Dendias said 63 attempts to restart constructive dialogue between Greece and Turkey have failed. But there is hope the 64th attempt will succeed after May elections in both Greece and Turkey. 
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China won’t sell weapons to either side in the war in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said Friday, responding to Western concerns that Beijing could provide military assistance to Russia.

China has maintained that it is neutral in the conflict, while backing Russia politically, rhetorically and economically at a time when Western nations have imposed punishing sanctions and sought to isolate Moscow for its invasion of its neighbor.

Qin Gang is the highest-level Chinese official to make such an explicit statement about arms sales to Russia. He added that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use.

“Regarding the export of military items, China adopts a prudent and responsible attitude,” Qin said at a news conference alongside visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock. “China will not provide weapons to relevant parties of the conflict, and manage and control the exports of dual-use items in accordance with laws and regulations.”

The minister also reiterated China’s willingness to help find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

At the same news conference, Qin also blamed Taiwan’s government for heightened regional tensions after Beijing held large-scale military drills in an attempt to intimidate the island it claims as its own territory.

In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. had intelligence suggesting China was considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia — and warned that such involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort would be a “serious problem.”

In recent days, European leaders have issued similar warnings, even as they visited China, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief lashed out at Beijing, saying its support of Russia during the invasion was “a blatant violation” of its United Nations commitments.

In her remarks, Baerbock also referred to China’s role as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, saying it bore a special responsibility for helping end the conflict.

“But I have to wonder why the Chinese positioning so far does not include a call for the aggressor, Russia, to stop the war,” she said. “We all know that President (Vladimir) Putin would have the opportunity to do so at any time, and the people in Ukraine would like nothing more than to finally be able to live in peace again.”

A visit to Moscow last month by Chinese leader Xi Jinping underscored how Beijing is increasingly becoming the senior partner in the relationship as it provides Russia with an economic lifeline and political cover. China announced Friday that Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu would visit Russia next week for meetings with counterpart Sergei Shoigu and other military officials.

On both Ukraine and Taiwan, Qin articulated well-worn defenses of Chinese policies that underscore Beijing’s rejection of criticisms from the West, particularly the U.S. Under the ardently nationalist Xi, China has sharpened its rhetoric, particularly on the issue of Taiwan, which split from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

Tensions around the island rose significantly after China deployed warships and fighter planes near Taiwan last weekend in retaliation for a meeting between U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen.

China insists that self-governing Taiwan submit to its rule, either peacefully or by force, and Qin said the pursuit of independence by Taiwan’s government and its foreign supporters — a veiled reference to chief ally the United States — were the reason for the tensions.

Baerbock warned that a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, through which much of the world’s international trade passes, would bring global disaster.

“We therefore view the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait with great concern,” she said. “Conflicts must be resolved peacefully. A unilateral change of the status quo would not be acceptable to us as Europeans.”

Apparently rejecting Baerbock’s concerns, Qin said Taiwan was “China’s internal affair.”

“Taiwan independence and peace cannot co-exist,” he said
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French President Emmanuel Macron has stunned allies by saying that Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, a position experts say is calibrated to persuade China to mediate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

At a news conference during a state visit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Macron emphasized that France’s position on Taiwan has not changed, and Paris favors the status quo for the island.

“It’s the One China policy and a Pacific resolution of the situation. That’s what I said in my one-to-one meeting with Xi Jinping, that’s what was said everywhere, we haven’t changed,” Macron said.

The One China policy of the U.S. differs from the One China principle, which is China’s view that it has sovereignty over the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Under the U.S. One China policy, Washington acknowledges but does not endorse Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan. It considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.

In an April 9 interview with Politico and Les Echos, the French financial newspaper, Macron said that Europe must avoid the risk of “getting caught up in crises that are not ours.”

“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” he said. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said in the interview.

Macron made his comments after spending some six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping while visiting China from April 5 to 7. His statement drew criticism from some politicians and scholars in Europe.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is now seeking the Republican Party nomination for a second term, told Fox News, “Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China kissing [Xi’s] ass in China, okay. I said France is now going to China?” Trump said.

His relationship with Macron evolved to “frenemy” by the time Trump left office, according to France 24.

Analysts told VOA Mandarin that Macron might be sacrificing France’s position on Taiwan in exchange for China’s mediation of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Tung-Chieh Tsai, a professor at the Graduate Institute of international Politics at the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, told VOA Mandarin that the Ukraine crisis is having a substantial impact on the daily lives of many Europeans as immigrants stream in and commodity prices rise. This puts European leaders “under great pressure” to help reach a cease-fire.

“I think France is looking for Beijing’s support to reach a cease-fire in the Ukraine conflict, so it’s making a gesture to support China in the Taiwan issue first,” Tsai told VOA Mandarin in a Zoom video chat Tuesday, adding that Macron’s statement is honest.

“If Europe can’t even manage the Ukraine crisis, which is happening at its doorstep, does it really have the ability to be involved in any crisis in the Taiwan Strait?” Tsai asked.

In the short run, Macron’s words might cause some disturbance, Tsai said, but in the long run, it forces the world “to see the reality and look for a more practical solution to the Taiwan crisis.”

Lun Zhang, a professor of Chinese studies at CY Cergy-Paris Université in France, echoed Tsai.

“I think the most important task of Macron’s visit was drawing a red line for Beijing, that is, China can’t get involved in supporting Russia in the Ukraine crisis,” Zhang told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview on Wednesday. “This touches the fundamental interests of the whole European continent.”

Yet, Zhang said, the timing of Macron’s statement was “extremely inappropriate,” as Beijing just finished three days of combat drills simulating the sealing off of Taiwan. The action was to protest a meeting between U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on American soil.

Zhang said that Macron’s statement damaged France’s image and caused conflict within Europe.

Francesco Sisci, a senior China watcher, said Macron’s visit was “a failure,” because China did not publicly make any promise on mediating the Ukraine crisis.

Sisci said that while it would be helpful if China could play a positive role in solving the Russia-Ukraine war, Beijing has expressed willingness to speak to Ukraine but the conditions for this are unclear, according to Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 13 that Xi plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that meeting has not happened yet. Zelenskyy suggested to China on March 21 that it join a Ukrainian effort to end the conflict.

Sisci added that the world should not over interpret Macron’s position on Taiwan, since the pro-business French government will likely continue to authorize arms sales to Taiwan. He also argued that even if France is not going to be a U.S. vassal, it does not mean that France will take China’s side.

“Not being a U.S. vassal does not mean being a Chinese vassal. In fact, throughout their history, France and the United States always have a very special relationship,” Sisci said, “France can say the most ugly things to the United States, but in the end, Paris has always chosen to ally with Washington.”
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Russia on Thursday said there would be no extension of the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 unless the West removed a series of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.

The Ukraine grain Black Sea export deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July last year to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by conflict disrupting exports from two of the world’s leading grain suppliers.

“Without progress on solving five systemic problems … there is no need to talk about the further extension of the Black Sea initiative after May 18,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We note that despite all the high-sounding statements about global food security and assistance to countries in need, the Black Sea Initiative both served and continues to serve exclusively commercial exports of Kyiv in the interests of Western countries,” the ministry said.

To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a separate three-year agreement was also struck in July in which the United Nations agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.

Russia said the two agreements were “interconnected parts of one ‘package,'” and scolded the U.N. Secretariat for what it said was a distortion of the facts.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that “discussions, communications are still going on with the parties,” and that U.N. officials were determined to ensure the implementation of both deals.

He said in relation to Russia’s exports, “there’s still a lot of critical issues that need to be resolved over payments and other technical issues” that U.N. officials were trying to fix.

But he noted that “there’s been some concrete results that contribute to larger grain trade volumes, lower freight rates and an increased number of ships that have called at Russian ports for fertilizer and lowering in insurance.”

“So we’ve made some progress, but we continue to push to make more,” Dujarric said.

Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. Its food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned, but Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.

The Foreign Ministry said that Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) had to be reconnected to the SWIFT payment system, that supplies of agricultural machinery and parts needed to be resumed, and that restrictions on insurance and reinsurance needed to be lifted.

Other demands include access to ports, the resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline that lets Russia pump the chemical to Ukraine’s port, and the unblocking of assets and the accounts of Russian companies involved in food and fertilizer exports.

“The removal of obstacles to domestic agricultural exports was supposed to take place within the framework of the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum,” the ministry said.

Russia said there had been a failure of the inspection regime of ships carrying grain from Ukraine.

“Currently, 28 vessels carrying more than 1 million tons of food are awaiting inspection in the territorial waters of Turkey,” the Foreign Ministry said.

It accused U.N. staff in the Joint Coordination Center of refusing to draw up an inspection schedule.

“In turn, an even more difficult situation has developed around the registration of bulk carriers,” the ministry said, denying that Russia was responsible for any of the congestion and accusing Ukrainian port officials of accepting bribes to accelerate registration.
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A Moscow court on Thursday again fined Wikipedia for a Russian-language article it refused to remove about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the latest in a series of government moves to silence objective reporting or criticism of the war and restrict the Russian public’s access to information. 

The court fined Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia, 2 million rubles ($24,464) for not removing a Wikipedia article titled “Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia region,” a reference to one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia annexed last September. Most countries have condemned the annexation, as well as that by Russia in 2014 of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, as illegal. 

The state Tass news agency said the Wikimedia Foundation had failed to heed the demands of Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove articles containing “false information.” Tass said a Wikipedia representative asked the court to reject the removal demand as vague. 

President Vladimir Putin in recent years has increased his crackdown on criticism and factual reporting that doesn’t correspond to his government’s views or versions of events. The crackdown has widened since his troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, focusing especially on information and dissent against what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” in the neighboring country. 

Through Roskomnadzor, his government has also tried, with mixed success, to technically limit Western news reports that can be seen in Russia. The BBC and some Voice of America sites are among those that it has blocked but that Russians can access using virtual private networks. 

This is not the first time Wikipedia has been fined for refusing to delete “false” information about the war in Ukraine. 

Last week, the same Moscow court issued a fine of 800,000 rubles ($9,785) to the Wikimedia Foundation for not removing materials linked to a song by a Russian rock band called Psychea, which Russian authorities consider to be extremist. 

In November 2022, the organization was fined 2 million rubles for refusing to delete “false” information in seven Wikipedia articles about the “special military operation,” including information about atrocities in Bucha and the destruction of Mariupol’s theater. 

Wikipedia didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment but says in its online encyclopedia about censorship: “Since the early 2010s, Russian Wikipedia and its editors have experienced numerous and increasing threats of nationwide blocks and countrywide enforcement of blacklisting by the Russian government, as well as several attempts to censor pages, spread propaganda and disinform.” 

Tass said Roskomnadzor would label Wikimedia in search engines as a violator of Russian law, and that more action against specific articles was planned.
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Continuing his three-day visit to the Republic of Ireland, President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke to the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin, becoming the fourth American leader after John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to address a joint sitting of the Irish parliament.

Biden reminisced about his Irish heritage and focused on the enduring strength of the bond with Ireland that began with the very founding of the United States.

“The Irish hearts that helped kindle the torch of liberty in my country and fire its revolutionary spirit,” he said. “The Irish blood from across this island that was willingly given for my country’s independence.”

Highlighting Ireland’s support in defending Ukraine from Russia’s aggression, he noted how the country stood proudly with the U.S. and partners around the world.

“Ireland pursues an independent course in foreign policy, but it is not neutral between liberty and tyranny and never will be,” Biden said, quoting Kennedy’s 1963 address to the Irish parliament.

The country, part of the European Union but not a member of NATO, is militarily neutral but lends humanitarian support to Ukraine, welcoming nearly 80,000 Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion.

Biden received multiple rapturous applause from lawmakers.

“You have demonstrated unshakable faith, deep resilience and the ability to bring people of diverse and often conflicting views together,” Sean O Fearghail, speaker of the lower chamber, said in his welcoming remarks.

“You challenge us to believe that the further shore is reachable,” he said quoting Seamus Heaney, the late Irish poet whose work Biden often cites.

It’s no surprise that Biden’s speech was well-received.

“It’s commonly regarded in Dublin that President Biden is very proud of his Irish roots,” said Eoin Drea, a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. “And that’s something that in effect makes a lot of Irish people very proud as well,” he told VOA.

Invited as a special guest to the event was Heaney’s wife, Mary Heaney, who seemed visibly moved when Biden noted in his speech that it was the poet’s birthday.

Good Friday Agreement

As he has done throughout the visit, which began Tuesday in Northern Ireland, Biden hailed the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace deal that helped end 30 years of bloody conflict over whether Northern Ireland should unify with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom.

“Peace is precious. It still needs its champions, and it still needs to be nurtured,” he said, calling for the United Kingdom and Ireland to work more closely to preserve the agreement.

Earlier Thursday, as he rang the Peace Bell at the Irish president’s official residence, Biden again voiced hope for the restoration of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland that has collapsed under boycott and political infighting. He promised that American corporations are ready to invest once the government returns.

Power sharing has been fraught with conflict, mainly between the two dominant political parties — the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which favors continued governance with London, and Sinn Fein, which broadly favors reunification with Ireland.

Since it was established in 1998, the government has collapsed numerous times because of boycotts by various parties, the latest one in February 2022 when DUP boycotted in protest of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit agreement between the U.K. and the European Union for Northern Ireland to maintain an open border and allow trade to continue with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.

Support for Ukraine

Earlier on Thursday, Biden held talks with Leo Varadkar, also known as the Taoiseach, who was in Washington last month for the annual tradition of having the Irish prime minister attend St. Patrick’s Day at the White House.

He praised Varadkar on Ireland’s commitment in welcoming Ukrainian refugees.

“I know it’s not easy,” he told Varadkar. “I think our values are the same, and I think our concerns are the same.”

“Democracy and liberty and the things that we believe in are on retreat,” Varadkar said, thanking Biden for his “leadership when it comes to Ukraine.”

Ireland has been determined to ensure that there’s plenty of humanitarian aid for Ukraine, said Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

“And Ireland has not taken a position that its neutrality requires it to avoid any military support for Ukraine,” he told VOA.

So far, that support has been minimal, including the participation of up to 30 of Ireland’s Defense Forces’ personnel to train Ukrainian troops under the European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine.

Since its independence in 1922, Ireland has a policy of not becoming engaged in wars that are started by others, said Drea.

“Surprisingly enough, even the war in Ukraine hasn’t been enough to convince the Irish people that they should seriously look at their long-standing position of neutrality,” he said.

‘An honor to return’

“As the Irish saying goes, your feet will bring you where your heart is. It’s an honor to return,” Biden wrote in the visitors’ book at President Michael D. Higgins’ official residence.

Not far from an Irish oak planted by then-President Barack Obama during his visit in 2011, Biden also shoveled dirt around his own newly planted tree and cheered a youth Gaelic sports demonstration.

A day earlier Biden traveled to County Louth, home to his maternal great-great-grandfather, shoemaker Owen Finnegan, who emigrated to New York in 1849.

“Isn’t that amazing? My great-great-grandfather left from the same port five weeks later after Barack’s … great-great-grandfather,” he said to reporters Thursday, referring to Obama’s Irish maternal ancestor.

“And the idea that they both would seek a new life and think that their great-great-grandsons would end up being president of the United States is remarkable.”

Biden will close his trip with a Friday night speech in Ballina, home of his paternal ancestors, on the west coast of Ireland.
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Highly accurate and maneuverable U.S. howitzers have been helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine fight off Russia’s aggression since July 2022. These days, the weapons are used mostly in the Bakhmut district in the Donetsk region. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Videographer and video editor: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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The Berlin Zoo celebrated the 66th birthday of Fatou, the world’s oldest-known living gorilla, with a special dinner that included fruit, vegetables and a watermelon with her age carved into it.

Fatou, a Western lowland gorilla, enjoyed her birthday meal Thursday as zoo visitors snapped pictures. Her keeper, Ruben Gralki, said her species would live 45 to 50 years in nature. While zoo animals tend to live longer, he said that reaching an age beyond 60 years is a special feat.

The zoo said in a press release that Fatou’s exact age is not known. She came to the zoo in 1959, and her age was estimated to be two at the time. The zoo said before that, she was owned by a sailor who exploited her to pay his bar tab at a tavern in Marseille, France. 

Gralki told Reuters that Fatou is one of five gorillas at the Berlin Zoo, but she has a pen to herself due to her advanced age. He said she has the opportunity to visit with the other gorillas but usually keeps to herself.

The World Wildlife Federation says Western lowland gorillas, though among the most common species of gorilla, remain critically endangered, largely because of poaching. 

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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