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Only three times before has Buckingham Palace pressed what for the British monarchy is the “nuclear button” and transformed a royal into a mere private citizen.

After a 90-minute meeting with his mother, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, followed by a terse public communique, Prince Andrew—who is battling a civil sex case trial in the U.S. over allegations of sexual assault—last week became the fourth member of the Windsor family to be stripped of the right to be styled a Royal Highness.

The first to suffer the humiliation was the former King Edward VIII after abdicating the throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcée.

Edward’s demotion was an act of punishment, say royal historians. Andrew’s, though, is being seen as a ruthless move of self-protection by a monarchy that has decided it can’t wait to see if Andrew, also known as the Duke of York, will be able to clear his name in court.

The queen reportedly made the decision after discussions with her eldest son, and heir apparent, Prince Charles, who’s third in line of succession, and his son, Prince William. Andrew is ninth in line. Charles ignored reporters Friday when they shouted questions at him about Andrew and the decision to demote him.

The removal last week of HRH status is another stage in the queen’s endeavor to distance Britain’s monarchy as far away from Andrew, age 61, as she can—for both political and legal reasons—as he defends himself against sex abuse allegations leveled against him by Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre claims Andrew “committed sexual assault and battery” upon her on three occasions in 2001. Andrew vehemently denies the allegations. The 38-year-old Giuffre, formerly Virginia Roberts, says she was trafficked by the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 years old, allegations Andrew says are not true. Andrew remained an Epstein friend after the financier was convicted of child abuse offenses.

Court documents released Saturday reveal that one line of defense being considered by Andrew’s lawyers in the forthcoming New York trial is to argue that Giuffre “may suffer from false memories.”

“Brutal,” tweeted royal commentator Peter Hunt on the release of the two-sentence communique announcing Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the queen, and that he will stop using His Royal Highness title.

The move came after a New York court ruled midweek a civil action over sexual assault allegations can proceed and likely will be heard in a few months. The second sentence of the statement from Buckingham Palace read, “The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

“The Windsors have shown that when the institution is under threat, dynastic preservation trumps flesh and blood,” Hunt added.

Other royal commentators said the demotion is a clear sign the queen has lost patience with Andrew, who often is described by Britain’s tabloid press as the favorite of her four children.

The decision must have been personally painful for the elderly queen, who this year will be celebrating her platinum jubilee on the throne, according to Valentine Low, a reporter with The Times of London.

“The most important thing for the queen, however, is the preservation of the monarchy. She takes her role and the concept of royal duty incredibly seriously. She believes that she is there to serve the country and the rest of the royal family are there to back her up in this role. Nothing else matters,” he wrote.

Low noted, “To strip Andrew of his military affiliations and to tell him that he was no longer to use his HRH style ‘in any official capacity’ was, therefore, a very hard decision for her to take.” He said, “She would know that Andrew, who served as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict, took his military roles very seriously. He is also someone who does not hesitate to stand on his royal dignity.”

The move was in some ways inevitable and a case of bowing to public opinion, say other observers. Some question whether the queen should have moved earlier.

More than 100 Royal Navy, British Army and RAF veterans wrote to the queen to demand Andrew be removed from the honorary military positions, including that of colonel of the Grenadier Guards. Last year, she ordered Prince Harry, her second-born grandson, to give back his military titles and stop using the HRH title after moving to California with his American wife Meghan Markle and wanting to have a “half-in, half-out” arrangement with Buckingham Palace.

Palace insiders say the Royal family is determined to ensure that Andrew’s legal battles don’t overshadow the queen’s platinum jubilee. But there may, too, have been a legal motivation behind Andrew’s demotion. It could be a signal to Giuffre’s legal team that the royal family won’t assist in paying Andrew’s legal costs or contribute to any out-of-court settlement, if one is negotiated, a former palace official told VOA.

 
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Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly will visit Kyiv next week to reaffirm support for Ukrainian sovereignty and reinforce efforts to deter “aggressive actions” by Russia, Ottawa said Saturday.

Moscow has stationed more than 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and the United States said on Friday it feared Russia was preparing a pretext to invade if diplomacy failed to meet its objectives.

Canada, with a sizeable and politically influential population of Ukrainian ethnic descent, has taken a hard line with Moscow since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“The amassing of Russian troops and equipment in and around Ukraine jeopardizes security in the entire region. These aggressive actions must be deterred,” Joly said in a statement.

“Canada will work with its international partners to uphold the rules-based international order.”

Joly will meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal and travel to the west of the country to speak to a 200-strong Canadian training mission that has been there since 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday and “emphasized that any military incursion into Ukraine would have serious consequences, including coordinated sanctions,” Trudeau’s office said.

Canada has imposed punitive measures on more than 440 individuals and entities over the annexation of Crimea.

Joly, who starts a weeklong trip to Europe on Sunday, will visit Brussels to see NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

She will also go to Paris for talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the statement said. 

 
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The government of Ethiopia has sent a letter to the World Health Organization, accusing its Ethiopian director-general of “misconduct” after his sharp criticism of the war and humanitarian crisis in the country.

Ethiopia nominated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to be the head of the U.N. health agency four years ago, but says he has “not lived up to the integrity and professional expectations required from his office,” accusing him of interfering in Ethiopia’s internal affairs, according to a press release issued late Thursday.

“Through his acts, (Tedros) spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO’s reputation, independence and credibility,” Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs said.  

WHO had no immediate response to the claims. 

Tedros, an ethnic Tigrayan, has repeatedly deplored the situation in his home country and called for humanitarian access to the conflict-ridden region of Ethiopia. 

“Nowhere in the world are we witnessing hell like Tigray,” said Tedros at a media briefing Wednesday. He cited a missive WHO had received recently from a physician in the region, who said health authorities had run out of basic medicines for diseases including diabetes in June and were now using expired stocks and intravenous fluids. 

Health officials in the Tigray capital have described the same to The Associated Press.

Tedros condemned Ethiopia’s blockade of international access to Tigray, saying that WHO had not been allowed to send any supplies to the region since July, noting the U.N. agency had access to Syria and Yemen even during their worst conflicts. 

He said there should be “unfettered” humanitarian access to Tigray and said that “just respecting the constitutional order would bring this problem into a peaceful conclusion.”

He continued: “Of course, I am from that region and from the northern part of Ethiopia. But I am saying this without any bias.”

The Ethiopian government said Tedros was using his office “to advance his political interest at the expense of Ethiopia” and said he continues to be an active member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front; Tedros was foreign minister and health minister when the TPLF dominated the country’s ruling coalition. 

The TPLF, the political party that runs the Tigray region, has been clashing with Ethiopian federal forces since the country’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister accused the heavily armed regional government of attacking a military base. Each government regards the other as illegitimate after a months-long falling-out amid political reforms.

On Friday, the U.N. World Food Program warned its food assistance in northern Ethiopia is “about to grind to a halt because intense fighting has blocked the passage of fuel and food.” No WFP convoys have reached the Tigray capital since mid-December, it said in a statement, “and the last of WFP’s cereals, pulses and oil will be distributed next week.” Stocks of nutritionally fortified food to treat malnourished children and women are depleted, it said.

“We’re now having to choose who goes hungry to prevent another from starving,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s regional director for Eastern Africa, calling for safe humanitarian corridors on all routes across northern Ethiopia. The WFP says nearly 10 million people need food assistance.

In a separate statement on the war, the U.N human rights office said at least 108 civilians have reportedly been killed in Tigray this year by airstrikes “allegedly carried out by the Ethiopian air force.” It warned of possible war crimes. 

The airstrikes have continued despite a shift in the war in recent weeks, with the Tigray forces retreating into their region and Ethiopian forces saying they wouldn’t pursue them further there. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has spoken of reconciliation and national dialogue.

In September, France, Germany and other European countries nominated Tedros for a second term as WHO’s director-general, the first time any candidate was not supported by his or her home country. Tedros is expected to be confirmed for another five-year term in May, as he is running unopposed. 

Under Tedros, WHO came under withering criticism from the U.S. Trump administration over allegations of grievous missteps in responding to COVID-19 and for allegedly “colluding” with China in the early phases of the outbreak. 

Tedros has been a leading voice urging rich countries and vaccine makers to do more to improve access to COVID shots in the developing world — a call that has largely gone unheeded. 

Last year, WHO faced mounting pressure over revelations from an AP investigation and an independent panel that found senior management were informed of sexual abuse allegations during the agency’s response to an Ebola outbreak in Congo.  
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The mayor’s office in Lisbon has been fined $1.4 million for sharing the personal data of protest organizers with embassies of countries targeted by the protests, Portugal’s data protection commission said on Friday.

The mayor’s office came under fire in June 2021 when Ksenia Ashrafullina, a Russian-Portuguese organizer of a protest rally in Lisbon, said she had received an email showing the city hall had shared data on her and fellow organizers with the Russian Embassy.

After an internal investigation, it was revealed that data on organizers of 180 protests has been shared with embassies since 2012, 52 of which occurred after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — which bans such data sharing — came into force in 2018.

The city hall, then led by Socialist mayor Fernando Medina, shared data of protesters in front of the Cuban, Angolan, Venezuelan, Israeli embassies with the targeted institutions.

The decision by the data protection commission (CNPD), published on its website, said that between 2018 and 2021 there were a total of 225 data breaches committed by the mayor’s office related to sharing protesters’ personal information with embassies and other entities.

In a statement, the mayor’s office, now headed by Social Democrat Carlos Moedas, said the decision was a “heavy legacy the previous leadership … left to the people of Lisbon,” adding the fine now posed a challenge for the budget.

“We will evaluate this fine in detail and how best to protect the interests of citizens and the institution,” it said.

Medina did not immediately respond to a request for comment Ashrafullina, who organized the rally in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, told Reuters she was satisfied with the CNPD’s decision: “We have been waiting for it, and it finally came.”

But Ashrafullina is still scared about the consequences of the data-sharing.

“I’m worried about what would happen if I ever needed to go back to Russia,” she said. 

 
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With Russian troops massing and the specter of war looming over the trenches of eastern Ukraine, soldiers in the dugouts have found solace in the unlikely companionship of stray cats and dogs. 

In a muddy and freezing trench near the town of Avdiivka, 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier Mykyta was petting a dog adopted by the troops as he explained how she had become a valued asset on the frontline. 

“She immediately barks or growls if the enemy is planning an attack. It’s safer and calmer with her — no wonder they say that a dog is man’s best friend,” he told AFP, declining to give his last name over security concerns. 

More than two million Ukrainians were displaced from their homes and many pets were abandoned after fighting broke out in 2014 between pro-Moscow separatists and Kyiv’s army. 

The conflict, which has claimed 13,000 lives, has simmered in recent years with only sporadic reports of escalations and military deaths in eastern Ukraine. 

But that has changed recently with Kyiv’s Western allies accusing Russia of building up tens of thousands of troops around Ukraine’s borders in preparation for a possible invasion. 

Those tensions are at the center of intensive negotiations this week between the United States, NATO and Russia in Geneva and Brussels, with both sides accusing the other of ratcheting up tensions. 

“The animals aren’t to blame — the war is,” said 49-year-old soldier Volodymyr, who also declined to give his last name citing security concerns. 

An AFP journalist said around 15 cats and several dogs had taken up residence together with the soldiers in Volodymyr’s section of the trenches. 

“They were abandoned. They had to fend for themselves. We have to feed them,” Volodymyr said, pouring leftover soup for the cats. 

‘Talisman’ puppy 

After spending months on the frontline with their adopted strays, some soldiers have ended up taking their new comrades home, away from the fighting. 

In the basement of a bombed-damaged house where he sleeps while at the front, 29-year-old soldier Dmytro, meanwhile, is full of praise for his black hunting cat, Chernukha. 

“When winter came, field mice were running around the dugouts,” Dmytro said. 

“She caught them all,” within two months, the young soldier with a shaved head told AFP proudly. 

But it wasn’t the first time a pet had intervened during the war, he said. 

Dmytro told AFP that in 2014 he befriended a one-month-old puppy near the then-flashpoint town of Slavyansk. He said the dog soon became a “mini-talisman” among his fellow soldiers. 

Minutes before one bout of shelling began, he remembered, the dog hid. “We very quickly took the same measure as the dog,” Dmytro said with a smile on his face. 

We “grabbed bulletproof vests, helmets” and “ran.” 

With tensions higher now over fears Russia could invade, soldiers say the animals have been a particular boon, helping them relax and bringing respite to their daily routine. 

“You come back to the post, lie down on the bed, and here comes Chernukha,” Dmytro said. 

The cat “lies on your stomach and looks at you as if she wants to be petted.”

“It’s a sedative,” he said. 
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A key European diplomat believes there is still a chance to defuse the growing political crisis in Mali that has seen the country’s interim military government clash repeatedly in recent days with both its neighbors and members of the international community.

Emanuela Del Re, the European Union’s special representative for the Sahel, criticized Mali’s current rulers for provoking countries in the region and Europe by postponing elections for five years and for bringing in Russian mercenaries to help with security.

But in an interview Friday with VOA, Del Re said she thinks the coup leaders will eventually have no choice but to relent.

“I think that despite, of course, the fact that the government is so firm in saying that they want this long transition because probably they want to stay in power for a long time, the pressure will be so strong that at one point they will have to come to a compromise,” she said.

Del Re praised sanctions targeting Mali adopted earlier this week by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the EU, describing them as coherent and consequential, and called on the international community to maintain the pressure on the interim government.

Brussels meeting

At the same time, though, she and other European officials are continuing to talk to Malian officials and expect Mali to take part in a meeting scheduled for later this month in Brussels.

“The European Union wants to be coherent with this approach of the sanctions … it wants to be firm in this sense,” Del Re told VOA. “At the same time, it wants to also keep the doors open for negotiation.”

“I am sure that there will negotiations. There will be a dialogue,” she added.

Thousands of supporters of Mali’s military government took to the streets Friday in the capital, Bamako, railing against the ECOWAS sanctions as unjust.

“These illegal and illegitimate measures have three objectives: to destabilize the institutions, to destabilize the Malian army and to destabilize Mali,” Prime Minister Choguel Maiga told the crowd.

“But what they must not forget is that Mali is a lock, Mali is a dam. If Mali blows, and God help us, it will not blow, but if that happens, no one will have peace in ECOWAS,” he added.

Many of the protesters praised the military government for standing up to France, while others waived Malian flags and some even waived Russian flags.

The presence of Russian flags is likely to increase concern in the West, with European countries and the United States repeatedly warning the military government against bringing in mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a paramilitary company with ties to the Kremlin.

“We have seen what they have done in the Central African Republic, the predatory behavior and the violations of human rights, so we have made clear that we are completely against their intervention in Mali,” a European official told reporters Friday, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject when asked about reports that several hundred mercenaries are now in Mali.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Mali’s military government has committed to paying Wagner $11 million per month – $132 million a year – for the services of 1,000 mercenaries, an amount equal to more than 20% of Mali’s yearly defense expenditures.

Mali’s government has denied reports it is using Russian mercenaries, but the move appears to be having an impact on other international forces sent to the country to help fight against terrorists linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Sweden to withdraw

Sweden’s foreign minister said Friday that her country will withdraw from the Takuba Task Force, a European special forces mission to Mali, and that it may withdraw a couple hundred troops serving in Mali under the United Nations.

“We now know that there is Wagner Group,” Sweden’s Ann Linde told reporters in Brest, France, following a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “If they have a stronger and stronger impact, then it will be not possible to continue with those large number of troops from us.”

Other European officials cautioned that additional troops could be pulled if the situation worsens and warned there could be regional implications.

“It cannot be accepted for its part for the risk of having a domino effect,” Del Re told VOA. “The countries of the region, the countries of the G-5, for instance, they fear that this could be an example that might somehow give the idea of copying the situation to other countries.”

Despite these complications, Del Re and other European officials insist they have no intention of abandoning Mali or its neighbors in the Sahel.

“What we are worried about very much is the population of Mali, because they are already in such a condition,” Del Re told VOA. They don’t deserve this situation.”

Annie Risemberg contributed to this report from Bamako.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office apologized to Queen Elizabeth on Friday after it emerged that staff members partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, when indoor gatherings were banned.

Johnson is facing the gravest crisis of his premiership after almost daily revelations of social gatherings during COVID-19 lockdowns, some held when ordinary people could not bid farewell in person to dying relatives.

As an opinion poll showed the opposition Labour Party pulling into a 10-point lead over Johnson’s Conservatives, a report said he had encouraged staff to “let off steam” during regular “wine-time Friday” gatherings.

Johnson, who built a political career out of flouting accepted norms, finds himself now under growing pressure from some of his own lawmakers to quit. Opponents say he is unfit to rule and has misled parliament by denying COVID-19 guidance was breached.

In an extraordinary twist to a saga that has been widely lampooned by comedians and cartoonists, the Daily Telegraph said drinking parties were held inside Downing Street on April 16, 2021, the day before Prince Philip’s funeral.

“It is deeply regrettable this took place at a time of national mourning and No. 10 (Downing Street) has apologized to the palace,” Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters.

Johnson was at his country residence that day and was not invited to any gathering, his spokesperson said.

Such was the revelry in Downing Street, the Telegraph said, that staff went to a nearby supermarket to buy a suitcase of alcohol, spilled wine on carpets, and broke a swing used by the prime minister’s son.

The next day, Queen Elizabeth bade farewell to Philip, her husband of 73 years, following his death at 99.

Dressed in black and in a white-trimmed black face mask, the 95-year-old Elizabeth cut a poignant figure as she sat alone, in strict compliance with coronavirus rules, during his funeral service at Windsor Castle.

Leave the stage

Opponents have called for Johnson, 57, to resign, casting him as a charlatan who demanded the British people follow some of the most onerous rules in peacetime history while his staff partied at the heart of government.

A small but growing number in Johnson’s Conservative Party have echoed those calls, fearing it will do lasting damage to its electoral prospects.

“Sadly, the prime minister’s position has become untenable,” said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen, a former Johnson supporter. “The time is right to leave the stage.”

In the latest report of rule-breaking, the Mirror newspaper said staff had bought a large wine fridge for Friday gatherings, events that were regularly observed by Johnson as he walked to his apartment in the building.

“If the PM tells you to ‘let off steam,’ he’s basically saying this is fine,” it quoted one source as saying.

Separately, the former head of the government unit behind COVID restrictions, Kate Josephs, apologized for holding her own party when she left the job in December 2020.

Johnson has given a variety of explanations of the parties, ranging from denials that any rules were broken to expressing understanding for the public anger at apparent hypocrisy at the heart of the British state.

The Independent newspaper said Johnson had dubbed a plan to salvage his premiership as “Operation Save Big Dog.”

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, seen as a possible successor, said “real mistakes” had been made.

“We need to look at the overall position we’re in as a country, the fact that he (Johnson) has delivered Brexit, that we are recovering from COVID. … He has apologized.”

“I think we now need to move on,” she said.

To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 360 Conservative members of parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee.

The Telegraph said as many as 30 such letters had been submitted.

Johnson faces a tough year ahead: beyond COVID-19, inflation is soaring, energy bills are spiking, taxation will rise in April and his party faces local elections in May.

British police said Thursday they would not investigate gatherings held in Johnson’s residence during a coronavirus lockdown unless an internal government inquiry finds evidence of potential criminal offenses. 
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Russia has conducted a special operation against ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States and has detained and charged the group’s members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said Friday. 

The arrests were a rare apparent demonstration of collaboration between Russia and the United States, at a time of high tensions between the two over Ukraine. The announcement came even as Ukraine was responding to a massive cyberattack that shut down government websites, though there was no indication the incidents were related. 

A joint police and FSB operation searched 25 addresses, detaining 14 people, the FSB said, listing assets it had seized, including 426 million rubles, $600,000, 500,000 euros, computer equipment and 20 luxury cars. 

Russia informed the United States directly of the moves it had taken against the group, the FSB said on its website. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said it could not immediately comment. 

“The investigative measures were based on a request from the … United States,” the FSB said. ” … The organized criminal association has ceased to exist and the information infrastructure used for criminal purposes was neutralized.” 

The REN TV channel aired footage of agents raiding homes and arresting people, pinning them to the floor, and seizing large piles of dollars and Russian rubles. 

The group members have been charged and could face up to seven years in prison. 

A source familiar with the case told Interfax the group’s members with Russian citizenship would not be handed over to the United States. 

The United States said in November that it was offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of anyone holding a key position in the REvil group. 

The United States has been hit by a string of high-profile hacks by ransom-seeking cybercriminals. A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in June that REvil was suspected of being the group behind a ransomware attack on the world’s biggest meatpacking company, JBS SA. 

Washington repeatedly has accused the Russian state in the past of malicious activity on the internet, which Moscow denies. 

Russia’s announcement came during a standoff between the United States and Russia. Moscow is demanding Western security guarantees, including that NATO will not expand further. It has also built up its troops near Ukraine.
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Turkey and Armenia on Friday said a first round of talks in more than 10 years was “positive and constructive,” raising the prospect that ties could be restored and borders reopened after decades of animosity. 

Turkey has had no diplomatic or commercial ties with its eastern neighbor since the 1990s. The talks in Moscow were the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified and relations have remained tense. 

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said Friday the talks were held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere, adding both sides were committed to a full normalization without any pre-conditions. They said special envoys had “exchanged their preliminary views regarding the normalization process.” 

The neighbors are at odds over several issues, primarily the 1.5 million people Armenia says were killed in 1915.

Armenia says the 1915 killings constitute a genocide, a position supported by the United States and some others. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One but contests the figures and denies killings were systematic or constitute genocide. 

Tensions again flared during a 2020 war over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Turkey accused ethnic Armenian forces of occupying land belonging to Azerbaijan. Turkey has since called for a rapprochement, as it seeks greater influence in the region. 

In separate but similarly worded statements, the foreign ministries said a date and location for the next round of talks would be finalized later. 

Turkish diplomatic sources said the discussions between the delegations lasted for about 90 minutes. 

Russia’s TASS news agency cited Armenia’s foreign ministry as saying Thursday it expected the talks to lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of frontiers closed since 1993. 

Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, said in November opening borders and renovating railways to Turkey would have economic benefits for Armenia, as the routes could be used by traders from Turkey, Russia, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last year the two countries also would start charter flights between Istanbul and Armenia’s capital Yerevan under the rapprochement, but that Turkey would coordinate all steps with Azerbaijan. 

The flights are set to begin in early February. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday Armenia needed to form good ties with Azerbaijan for the normalization effort to yield results. 

No easy breakthrough 

Despite strong backing for normalization from the United States, which hosts a large Armenian diaspora and angered Turkey last year by calling the 1915 killings a genocide, analysts have said the talks would be complicated. 

Emre Peker, a London-based director at Eurasia Group, said a cautious approach focusing on quick deliverables was expected on both sides due to the old sensitivities, adding that the role of Russia, which brokered the Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire and is the dominant actor in the region, would be key. 

Cavusoglu also has said Russia contributed to the process of appointing the special envoys. 

“The bigger challenge will come from the question of historic reconciliation,” Peker said, adding that the fate of talks would depend on “Ankara’s recognition that it must right-size its ambitions.” 

 
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Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, is coming under political pressure to explain why it did not alert lawmakers sooner about the activities of a suspected Chinese spy, who the security service now say was “knowingly engaged in political interference in the U.K.”

The British security agencies have been warning in recent months about China increasing espionage activity in the country, but alleged spy Christine Lee, a 59-year-old mother of two and legal adviser to the Chinese embassy, was allowed to work unhindered and even received an award in 2019 from 10 Downing Street.

According to a rare alert sent by MI5 Thursday to authorities at the House of Commons, Lee facilitated and channeled financial donations from China to political parties and parliamentarians and spent the best part of three decades establishing connections with politicians and high-flyers.

The MI5 alert said Lee is an agent for the United Front Work Department, a department that reports directly to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The alert says she has been using the financial donations to gain access to British politicians and to exert political influence. One of the biggest beneficiaries was senior Labour MP Barry Gardiner.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied the allegations on Friday.

“China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs,” he said during a press briefing in Beijing. “We have no need and will not engage in so-called interference activities. Certain people may have watched too many ‘007’ movies, resulting in too many unnecessary associations.”

The Chinese embassy in Britain said the accusations against Lee were part of a campaign of “smearing and intimidation against the Chinese community in the U.K.”

Between 2015 and 2020, Lee’s law firm, based in the English town of Birmingham, alone donated $900,000 to Gardiner for the running of his office. The Labour lawmaker employed one of Lee’s sons in his private office. Gardiner told a London broadcaster that Christine Lee would seek his view on “who was up and who was down in politics.”

And in a statement, the British lawmaker said he had been “liaising with our security services for a number of years” about Lee and had correctly reported all donations. Gardiner served for a time as Labour’s main spokesman on energy and climate change and on international trade. He has generally taken pro-Beijing stances and has been a supporter of a contentious nuclear power plant being built in Britain in partnership with a Chinese-state owned energy company.

But there has been no suggestion from British authorities of impropriety on his part. Gardiner said MI5 had advised him there was no intelligence that shows Lee’s son, Daniel Wilkes, “was aware of, or complicit in, his mother’s illegal activity.”

After receiving a warning from MI5, Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, alerted parliamentarians Thursday, saying Lee “has been engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, targeting members here at Parliament and associated political entities.” He said MI5 had informed him Lee had masked the origins of the donations she gave to serving and aspiring parliamentarians.

Born in China, Lee set up a home in the English Midlands in the 1980s and established a successful law firm with its main office in Birmingham and branches in London’s Chinatown, Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. She is believed to be a naturalized British citizen.

Damian Hinds, the security minister, said Friday there would be a review to examine how Lee managed to forge ties with establishment figures. Hinds said the incident demonstrated the way in which hostile countries were trying to interfere with British politics.

“You have operators who specialize in trying to, you know, find ways of getting into influential positions and work in all manner of different ways,” he told Sky News.

Hinds added, “This is a story, an incident, an item about how other states can seek to influence our country in different ways, one of which is political interference, and one of the ways of doing that is through provision of finance.”

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative party leader, has called for a wider ranging review to include examining why lawmakers were not warned much earlier by the security services about Lee, who has been making donations to British politicians for 17 years.

“Why in heaven’s name is such an agent allowed in this country?” he asked Thursday in the House of Commons.

British officials say Lee was suspected of seeking to influence several MPs, regardless of their party affiliations. Several lawmakers, including senior ones, from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties received donations and she had access to a succession of British prime ministers. In 2019, she received a Points of Light Award from then-Prime Minister Theresa May for her work on behalf of the British-Chinese community. The award was rescinded Thursday.

A middle-aged, bespectacled and respected lawyer, Lee would seem at first glance to be an improbable spy. But British intelligence officials say her spycraft was a textbook case of influence peddling, enlisting the assistance of sympathizers and identifying potential recruits.

“People think spying is all glamorous James Bond stuff,” a serving British intelligence officer told VOA. “But Lee’s role was not to steal state and military secrets but to insinuate her way into political and business circles in ways useful for China’s foreign-policy aims and to open up avenues of influence,” he added.

“She is a classic case of a spy hiding in plain sight,” he added.

Certainly, Lee was not low-key. She was a familiar figure in the British parliament, and she did not hide her high-level connections with the Chinese political establishment. Her law firm advised the Chinese embassy, and she has been photographed standing next to China’s President Xi Jinping.

In December, Richard Moore, head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, said the rise of China was the “single greatest priority” for his officers. He warned Beijing was increasing its espionage activities and focusing on politicians and government workers and those employed in industries and universities that could be useful to the CCP.

“They also monitor and attempt to exercise undue influence over the Chinese diaspora,” he said.
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To mask or not to mask is a question Italy settled early in the COVID-19 outbreak with a vigorous “yes.” Now the onetime epicenter of the pandemic in Europe hopes even stricter mask rules will help it beat the latest infection surge.

Other countries are taking similar action as the more transmissible — yet, apparently, less virulent — omicron variant spreads through the continent.

With Italy’s hospital ICUs rapidly filling with mostly unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, the government announced on Christmas Eve that FFP2 masks — which offer users more protection than cloth or surgical masks — must be worn on public transport, including planes, trains, ferries and subways.

That’s even though all passengers in Italy, as of this week, must be vaccinated or recently recovered from COVID-19. FFP2s also must now be worn at theaters, cinemas and sports events, indoors or out, and can’t be removed even for their wearers to eat or drink.

Italy re-introduced an outdoor mask mandate. It had never lifted its indoor mandate — even when infections sharply dropped in the summer.

On a chilly morning in Rome this week, Lillo D’Amico, 84, sported a wool cap and white FFP2 as he bought a newspaper at his neighborhood newsstand.

“(Masks) cost little money, they cost you a small sacrifice,” he said. “When you do the math, it costs far less than hospitalization.”

When he sees someone from the unmasked minority walking by, he keeps a distance. “They see (masks) as an affront to their freedom,” D’Amico said, shrugging.

Spain reinstated its outdoor mask rule on Christmas Eve. After the 14-day contagion rate soared to 2,722 new infections per 100,000 people by the end of last week — from 40 per 100,000 in mid-October — Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was asked whether the outdoor mask mandate was helping.

“Of course, it is. It’s not me saying it. It’s science itself saying it because (it’s) a virus that is contracted when one exhales,” Sanchez said.

Portugal brought masks back at the end of November, after having largely dropped the requirement when it hit its goal of vaccinating 86% of the population.

Greece has also restored its outdoor mask mandate, while requiring an FFP2 or double surgical mask on public transport and in indoor public spaces.

This week the Dutch government’s outbreak management team recommended a mask mandate for people over 13 in busy public indoor areas such as restaurants, museums and theaters, and for spectators at indoor sports events. Those places are currently closed under a lockdown until at least Friday.

In France, the outdoor mask mandate was partially re-instated in December in many cities, including Paris. The age for children to start wearing masks in public places was lowered to 6 from 11.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced last week that people must wear FFP2 masks outdoors if they can’t keep at least 2 meters apart.

In Italy, with more than 2 million people currently positive for the virus in a nation of 60 million and workplace absences curtailing train and bus runs, the government also sees masks as a way to let society more fully function.

People with booster shots or recent second vaccine doses can now avoid quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person if they wear a FFP2 mask for 10 days.

The government has ordered shops to make FFP masks available for 85 U.S. cents. In the pandemic’s first year, FFP2s cost up to $11.50 — whenever they could be found.

Italians wear them in a palette of colors. The father of a baby baptized this week by Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel wore one in burgundy, with matching tie and jacket pocket square. But the pontiff, who has practically shunned a mask in public, was maskless.

On Monday, Vatican City State mandated FFP2s in all indoor places. The tiny, walled independent state across the Tiber from the heart of Rome also stipulated that Vatican employees can go to work without quarantining after coming into contact with someone testing positive if, in addition to being fully vaccinated or having received a booster shot, they wear FFP2s.

Francis did appear to be wearing a FFP2 when, startling shoppers in Rome on Tuesday evening, he emerged from a music store near the Pantheon before being driven back to the Vatican.

In Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has focused on vaccination, masks have never been required outdoors.

This month, though, the government said secondary school students should wear face coverings in class. But Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said that rule wouldn’t apply “for a day longer than necessary.”

When the British government lifted pandemic restrictions in July 2021, turning mask-wearing from a requirement to a suggestion, mask use fell markedly.

Nino Cartabellotta, president of the Bologna-based GIMBE foundation, which monitors health care in Italy, says Britain points to what can happen when measures like mask-wearing aren’t valued.

“The situation in the U.K, showed that use of vaccination alone wasn’t enough” to get ahead of the pandemic, even though Britain was one of the first countries to begin vaccination, he said in a video interview. 

 
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Ukraine was hit by a massive cyberattack warning its citizens to “be afraid and expect the worst”, and Russia, which has massed more than 100,000 troops on its neighbor’s frontier, released TV pictures on Friday of more forces deploying in a drill.

The developments came after no breakthrough was reached at meetings between Russia and Western states, which fear Moscow could launch a new attack on a country it invaded in 2014.

“The drumbeat of war is sounding loud,” said a senior U.S. Diplomat.

Russia denies plans to attack Ukraine but says it could take unspecified military action unless demands are met, including a promise by the NATO alliance never to admit Kyiv.

Russia said troops in its far east would practice deploying to far-away military sites for exercises as part of an inspection. Defense Ministry footage released by RIA news agency showed numerous armored vehicles and other military hardware being loaded onto trains in the Eastern Military District.

“This is likely cover for the units being moved towards Ukraine,” said Rob Lee, a military analyst and a fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The movements indicated Russia has no intention of dialing down tensions over Ukraine, having used its troop build-up to force the West to the negotiating table and press sweeping demands for “security guarantees” – key elements of which have been described by the United States as non-starters.

Ukrainian authorities were investigating a huge cyberattack, which hit government bodies including the ministry of foreign affairs, cabinet of ministers, and security and defense council.

“Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it,” said a message visible on hacked

government websites, written in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish.

“All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future.”

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters it was too early to say who could be behind the attack but said Russia had been behind similar strikes in the past. Russia did not immediately comment but has previously denied being behind cyberattacks on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government said it had restored most of the affected sites and that no personal data had been stolen. Several other government websites had been suspended to prevent the attack from spreading.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned the attack and said the EU’s political and security committee and cyber units would meet to see how to help Kyiv: “I can’t blame anybody as I have no proof, but we can imagine.”

The message left by the cyberattack was peppered with references that echoed long-running Russian state allegations, rejected by Kyiv, that Ukraine is in the thrall of far-right nationalist groups. It referenced Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, the site of killings carried out in Nazi German-occupied Poland by Ukrainian insurgents, a point of contention between Poland and Ukraine.

The United States warned on Thursday that the threat of a Russian military invasion was high. Russia has consistently denied that. 

Moscow said dialogue was continuing but was hitting a dead end as it tried to persuade the West to bar Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back decades of alliance expansion in Europe.

The United States and NATO have rejected those demands but said they are willing to talk about arms control, missile deployments, confidence-building measures and limits on military exercises.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow was awaiting a point-by-point written response to its proposals.
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The Dutch king ruled out Thursday using, for now at least, the royal family’s Golden Carriage, one side of which bears a painting that critics say glorifies the Netherlands’ colonial past, including its role in the global slave trade.

The announcement was an acknowledgement of the heated debate about the carriage as the Netherlands reckons with the grim sides of its history as a 17th-century colonial superpower, including Dutch merchants making vast fortunes from slaves.

“The Golden Carriage will only be able to drive again when the Netherlands is ready and that is not the case now,” King Willem-Alexander said in a video message.

One side of the vehicle is decorated with a painting called “Tribute from the Colonies” that shows Black and Asian people, one of them kneeling, offering goods to a seated young white woman who symbolizes the Netherlands.

The carriage is currently on display in an Amsterdam museum following a lengthy restoration. In the past it has been used to carry Dutch monarchs through the streets of The Hague to the state opening of Parliament each September.

“There is no point in condemning and disqualifying what has happened through the lens of our time,” the king said. “Simply banning historical objects and symbols is certainly not a solution either. Instead, a concerted effort is needed that goes deeper and takes longer. An effort that unites us instead of divides us.”

Anti-racism activist and co-founder of The Black Archives in Amsterdam, Mitchell Esajas, called the king’s statement “a good sign,” but also the “bare minimum” the monarch could have said.

“He says the past should not be looked at from the perspective and values of the present … and I think that’s a fallacy because also in the historical context slavery can be seen as a crime against humanity and a violent system,” he said. “I think that argument is often used as an excuse to kind of polish away the violent history of it.”

The Netherlands, along with many other nations, has been revisiting its colonial history in a process spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the world after the death of George Floyd, a Black man in the United States.

Last year, the country’s national museum, the Rijksmuseum, staged a major exhibition that took an unflinching look at the country’s role in the slave trade, and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema apologized for the extensive involvement of the Dutch capital’s former governors in the trade.

Halsema said she wanted to “engrave the great injustice of colonial slavery into our city’s identity.” 

 
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Autocratic leaders are facing a democratic backlash from their people in several countries around the world, according to the organization Human Rights Watch in its annual global report, which was published Thursday.

The report said that in the past 12 months there have been a series of military coups and crackdowns on opposition figures. 

In Myanmar, the military seized power last February and ousted the democratically elected government, jailing President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

In Nicaragua, opposition members were jailed on treason charges ahead of the November election, as President Daniel Ortega consolidated power.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in January 2021 after security forces arrested and beat opposition supporters and journalists, killed protesters, and disrupted opposition rallies.  

Democratic Backlash

“The conventional wisdom these days is that autocrats are in the ascendancy and democratic leaders are in the decline, but when we looked back over the last year, we found that that view is actually too superficial, too simplistic,” said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, in an interview with VOA. 

In fact, there are encouraging signs of democratic uprisings, Roth said. “There’s an emergence of a series of popular demonstrations, popular protests for democracy against the autocrat. And we’ve seen this in a range of countries: in Thailand, Myanmar and Sudan, in Uganda, Nicaragua, Cuba, Poland, many parts of the world, these outpourings of support for human rights, for democracy, and against autocratic rule.”

Despite the optimistic tone, the report catalogues the suppression of democracy and human rights in more than 100 countries. Tens of thousands of opposition activists, human rights defenders and civilians have been jailed, beaten or killed. 

Russia

In Russia, opposition leader Alexey Navalny remains in prison on parole-related violations after surviving a nerve agent attack he blamed on the Kremlin. Russia denied involvement.

“The legislative crackdown that started in November 2020 intensified ahead of the September 2021 general elections,” the Human Rights Watch report says. “Numerous newly adopted laws broadened the authorities’ grounds to target a wide range of independent voices. Authorities used some of these laws and other measures, to smear, harass, and penalize human rights defenders, journalists, independent groups, political adversaries, and even academics. Many left Russia for their own safety or were expelled. Authorities took particular aim at independent journalism.”

Since December 2020, the report says, “the number of individuals and entities (that) authorities branded (as) ‘foreign media—foreign agent’ exploded, reaching 94 by early November. Most are prominent investigative journalists and independent outlets,” the report said.

Human Rights Watch says Moscow continues to suppress democracy at home and lend support to autocrats overseas, including President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, who has jailed hundreds of anti-government demonstrators and activists following the 2020 election that critics say was rigged. 

Russia earlier this month sent troops to Kazakhstan to help its autocratic president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, crush anti-government protests. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, continues to offer military support to his Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of crimes against humanity in his brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising and its aftermath.

China

The report says China has locked up thousands of pro-democracy activists and has intensified its crackdown on democratic freedoms in Hong Kong following the imposition of the National Security Law on the territory. 

“With President Xi Jinping at the helm, the Chinese government doubled down on repression inside and outside the country in 2021. Its ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards COVID-19 strengthened the authorities’ hand, as they imposed harsh policies in the name of public health,” the Human Rights Watch report says.

“Authorities (are) committing crimes against humanity as part of a widespread and systematic attack on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution. Tibetans continued to be subjected to grave abuses, including harsh and lengthy imprisonment for exercising their basic rights,” the report adds.  China has denied committing abuses in Xinjiang.

Rule by force

Roth says, despite the seemingly overwhelming force wielded by oppressive states, there is cause for hope.

“To maintain power by force is a very short-term strategy. If you look at Myanmar where the junta performed a coup almost a year ago, all they have is force. The entire population is against them. I think in Sudan, the military is facing something similar. They’ve just ousted the civilian prime minister, but they now face such a hostile population,” Roth told VOA.

Opposition coalitions

The report says that in countries that still permit reasonably fair elections, opposition politicians – and electorates – are getting more sophisticated.

“We’ve seen the emergence in a number of countries that still permit reasonably fair elections of broad political coalitions, alliances for democracy. And we saw these coalitions oust Prime Minister (Andrej) Babiš in the Czech Republic, they got rid of (Benjamin) Netanyahu in Israel, they were really behind the coalition that chose Joe Biden to contest (U.S. President) Donald Trump. And today in Hungary and in Turkey, Prime Minister (Viktor) Orbán and President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan are facing similar broad coalitions that are really putting their grasp on power in jeopardy,” Roth said.

Democratic duty

Human Rights Watch says the leaders of democratic countries must end their support for autocratic regimes, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt – and they must do a better job of delivering for their own people.

“Particularly today when there really are big global challenges, climate change, the pandemic, poverty and inequality, the threats from technology. These are huge problems that demand visionary leadership,” Roth told VOA. 

“But instead, typically we’re getting from democratic leaders minimalism, incremental change, really short-term steps, and that’s not enough. If that’s all that they can come up with, they’re going to generate despair and frustration, which are going to be a breeding ground for a second wind for the autocrats.”

The Human Rights Watch report strikes an optimistic tone – but cautions that the “outcome of the battle between autocracy and democracy remains uncertain.”
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