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The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) is holding talks with the British government on the participation of players from Russia and Belarus at this year’s Wimbledon, saying on Tuesday that it hopes to announce a decision in mid-May.

Russian and Belarusian players have been allowed to compete on the regular ATP and WTA Tours but not under the name or flag of their countries following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Belarus was a key staging area for the invasion, which Russia says is a “special military operation.”

Russia was also banned from defending its Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup team titles.

“We have noted the UK Government’s guidance regarding the attendance of Russian and Belarusian individuals in a neutral capacity at sporting events in the UK,” the AELTC, organizers of the grasscourt Grand Slam, said in a statement.

“This remains a complex and challenging issue, and we are continuing to engage in discussion with the UK Government, the Lawn Tennis Association, and the international governing bodies of tennis.

“We plan to announce a decision in relation to Wimbledon ahead of our entry deadline in mid-May.”

British Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston had said last month that he would not be comfortable with a “Russian athlete flying the Russian flag” and winning Wimbledon in London.

He added that U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev may have to provide assurances that he does not support Russian president Vladimir Putin if he is to compete.

Wimbledon will be held from June 27-July 10.

 
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An alleged former militia leader in Sudan’s Darfur region has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial of the militia leader known as Ali Kushayb is the first at the International Criminal Court to deal with the Darfur conflict.

Wearing a blue suit, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman sat with folded arms as he listened to a long list of atrocities he allegedly participated in nearly two decades ago.

Speaking here through a translator, he denied the charges against him.

“I reject all these charges. I am innocent of all these charges. I am not accused of any of these charges.”

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan offered a very different take. He outlined brutalities supposedly committed by Abd-Al-Rahman and other alleged members of Sudan’s feared Janjaweed militia in 2003 and 2004.

“Rapes against women and girls, children being targeted and attacked and abducted, men and boys amongst others, being executed and killed, homes being wantonly destroyed, people fleeing with nothing. For many, their lives never to be the same again.”

This is the first trial at the Hague-based criminal court dealing with the Darfur conflict, which the United Nations says killed roughly 300,000 people and displaced some 2.5 million others. It’s also the first trial resulting from a U.N. Security Council referral to the ICC.

“This is a really important moment,” expressed Elise Keppler, the associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

“It’s not the end, in fact it’s really just a beginning. But we have not seen any meaning accountability for crimes in Darfur and victims have been clamoring to see justice, that justice is such an important step,” she added.

Also known as Ali Kushayb, Abd-Al-Rahman was considered a senior Janjaweed member. The militia group was fighting non-Arab rebels, who had launched a revolt, complaining of discrimination.

Rights groups claim the Janjaweed’s response was a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing. Abd-Al-Rahman allegedly played a key role in Janjaweed attacks against at least four villages.

Prosecutor Khan aired clips of interviews of alleged witnesses and victims of the attacks.

“What has hit me every time I’ve interacted with Darfouris, and actually survivors throughout the world, is their dignity and remarkable resilience,” Khan pointed out.

The trial comes amid an uptick of violence in Darfur, and unrest across Sudan following a military coup last October.

Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir, and three others are also being sought by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Khartoum has yet to hand them over.
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The British government faced a backlash from opponents and the television industry on Tuesday over plans to sell publicly-owned broadcaster Channel 4.

The Conservative government said privatizing the channel would help it compete with streaming services and “thrive in the face of a rapidly-changing media landscape.”

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said on Twitter that government ownership was “holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon.”

But critics say privatization will wreck a channel that has backed acclaimed shows such as “Black Mirror,” “It’s a Sin” and “Derry Girls,” as well as highly regarded news and documentary programs.

Channel 4 was founded in 1982 to make programs for audiences under-served by existing broadcasters. It is owned by the government, but funded through advertising.

The broadcaster said it was disappointed by the government’s decision, saying it had been made without “recognizing the significant public interest concerns which have been raised.”

Unions and industry groups also criticized the decision. John McVay, chief executive of Pact, a trade body for independent production companies, said Channel 4’s programs are made by independent producers around the U.K., and selling it “risks reducing the opportunities for independent producers, and reducing the amount of programming commissioned outside London.”

Lucy Powell, culture and media spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said “Selling off Channel 4, which doesn’t cost the taxpayer a penny anyway, to what is likely to be a foreign company, is cultural vandalism.”

Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4’s former head of news and current affairs, alleged that the privatization was intended as “a bit of red meat” to Conservative supporters, many of whom think Channel 4 News has a left-wing bias.

“Channel 4 is not there to compete with Netflix and Amazon,” she said. “It’s there to provide a public service to the people of Britain.”
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Spain will expel some 25 Russian diplomats and embassy staff from Madrid, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday, joining other European Union countries in its response to alleged war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine.

“We have decided to expel Russian diplomats and staff from the Russian embassy in Spain who represent a threat to the interests and security of our country,” he said after the weekly cabinet meeting, without ruling out further measures.

The minister added that the expulsions were also a response to “the terrible actions carried out in the past days in Ukraine especially in Bucha and the ones reported today from Mariupol.” referring to the discovery of mass graves and civilian killings in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

“The crimes cannot remain unpunished,” he said.

Russia has denied killing civilians in Bucha.

Italy, Sweden and Denmark had already announced similar expulsions early on Tuesday.

Albares said his government expected Russia to expel a similar number of Spanish diplomats in response.

However, he said Spain would not expel the Russian ambassador as Madrid wants to keep its own ambassador in Moscow and leave diplomatic channels open for talks with Russia to end the war.
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At the urging of the United States, Spain on Monday seized the yacht of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg at a shipyard on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The 78-meter-long boat named Tango is valued at more than $99 million.

It is the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that the U.S. has been involved in seizing property belonging to a Russian oligarch. The move comes under the Justice Department’s new KleptoCapture task force, which is expected to go after more assets held by Russian oligarchs.

“Today marks our task force’s first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg, who runs the energy and aluminum conglomerate Renova, was already the subject of multiple U.S. sanctions, including over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He has yet to comment on the seizure.

Spain has reportedly seized three other yachts owned by Russian oligarchs.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
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The United States said Monday it wants the U.N. General Assembly to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing allegations of war crimes committed in Ukraine.

“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce,” said Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the U.N. General Assembly vote to remove them.”

Thomas-Greenfield based her call for Russia’s removal on allegations by Ukraine that Russian troops killed dozens of civilians in the town of Bucha.

Ukraine said it is investigating the killings, and Russia has denied any involvement.

A two-thirds vote by the 193-member assembly is required to remove Russia from the council.

The council, which is based in Geneva, is largely symbolic, but it can authorize investigations into human rights violations.

Russia is in its second year of a three-year stint on the 47-member council.

It has yet to comment on calls for its removal.

Since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the General Assembly has passed two resolutions condemning the country’s actions.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
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The European Union said Monday it will hold discussions about a new round of sanctions on Russia, following the reported atrocities in Ukrainian towns that have been occupied by Russian forces.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that the EU “will advance, as a matter of urgency, work on further sanctions against Russia.”

Borrell said, “The massacres in the town of Bucha and other Ukrainian towns will be inscribed in the list of atrocities committed on European soil.”

The sanctions are to be discussed this week. EU foreign ministers will be able to read over them on the sidelines of a NATO meeting later this week or at their regular meeting next week.

Borrell’s statement said the EU will offer assistance to Ukrainian prosecutors who are collecting and preserving “the [evidence] of the war crimes.”

The EU is also in support of the investigations into the crimes by the International Criminal Court and the United Nations human rights commissioner, the statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply condemned Russia Sunday, accusing it of committing war atrocities in Ukraine as the world saw its first glimpse of the bodies of dead Ukrainians left behind in the streets of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after Russian troops departed the area.

“You can’t help but feel a punch to the gut,” the top U.S. diplomat told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We cannot become numb to this. We cannot normalize this.

Blinken is traveling to Brussels for meetings this week with other NATO foreign ministers, looking to highlight the military alliance’s resolve to hold Russia responsible for continued fighting in Ukraine.

Blinken said the United States would be “looking hard to document” Russian war crimes throughout Ukraine even as Ukraine claims it has retaken control of the north-central region around the capital. Moscow’s troops have pulled back from the Kyiv territory to concentrate new attacks in southern Ukrainian cities along the Black Sea and in the contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Reflecting on the bodies found in the streets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, “Indeed. This is genocide.” He said Ukraine is being “destroyed and exterminated” by Russian forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN, “It is a brutality against citizens we have not seen in decades” in Europe. “It is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s responsibility to end the war.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter, “I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine. It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the EU must be prepared to put more sanctions on Russia in response to the reported killing of civilians.

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said Sunday that authorities have found 410 bodies in and around Kyiv, during an investigation concerning possible war crimes committed by Russia. Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, said, however, that witnesses would have to be interviewed later because they are too traumatized by what they saw to speak now, according to a Reuters report.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch’s director of Europe and Central Asia said, in a statement that “The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians.” Hugh Williamson said, “Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces’ custody should be investigated as war crimes.”

In a surprise videotaped appearance at the Grammys, the annual ceremony in the U.S. honoring the year’s top musicians, President Zelenskyy asked the gathering for help.

“Support us in any way you can. Any, but not silence,” he said. “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos, they sing to the wounded, in hospitals, even to those who can’t hear them.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry contended in a statement Sunday that it had not killed civilians in Bucha and claimed that video footage and photographs showing the dead were “yet another provocation” by the West. Russia asked the U.N. Security Council to convene a meeting Monday to discuss the actions of “Ukrainian radicals” in Bucha.

However, Britain, which chairs the Security Council this month, said there would be no meeting Monday and that the issue could be discussed at the meeting on Ukraine already scheduled for Tuesday.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Medyka, Poland, is one of the busiest border crossings for people fleeing the war. Everyday refugees stream across the border form Ukraine, and at the same time volunteers are arriving to help. For VOA News, Julia Riera has the story.
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