Irish Prime Minister Says He’s Quitting

LONDON — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who made history as his country’s first gay and first biracial leader, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down for reasons that he said were both personal and political.

Varadkar announced Wednesday he is quitting immediately as head of the center-right Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. He’ll be replaced as prime minister in April after a party leadership contest.

“My reasons for stepping down now are personal and political, but mainly political,” Varadkar said, without elaborating. He said he plans to remain in parliament as a backbench lawmaker and has “definite” future plans.

Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach, or prime minister — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.

He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.

He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.

“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” Varadkar said in a resignation statement in Dublin.

Varadkar was first elected to parliament in 2007 and once said he’d quit politics by the age of 50.

He led Ireland during the years after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. Brexit had huge implications for Ireland, an EU member that shares a border with the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. U.K.-Ireland relations were strained while hardcore Brexit-backer Boris Johnson was U.K. leader but have steadied since the arrival of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Varadkar recently returned from Washington, where he met President Joe Biden and other political leaders as part of the Irish prime minister’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day visit to the United States.

Varadkar also has expressed frustration at how polarized politics has become in Ireland, as in other countries.

There have been reports of discontent within Fine Gael, and 10 of the party’s lawmakers, almost a third of the total, have announced they will not run for reelection.

Earlier this month, voters rejected the government’s position in referendums on two constitutional amendments. Changes backed by Varadkar that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role in the home were resoundingly defeated. The result sparked criticism that the pro-change campaign had been lackluster and confusing.

Even so, his resignation was not widely expected. Martin, the current deputy prime minister, said he’d been “surprised, obviously, when I heard what he was going to do.”

“But I want to take the opportunity to thank him sincerely,” Martin said. “We got on very well.”

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said he didn’t think the referendum results were “the key factor” in Varadkar’s decision.

“I think there is a gap before the local and European elections (in June) and that timing probably influenced him more than the referendum,” Ryan said.

Martin said Varadkar’s resignation should not trigger an early election, and the three-party coalition government that also includes the Green Party would continue.

Varadkar said he knew his departure would “come as a surprise to many people and a disappointment to some.”

“I know that others will, how shall I put it, cope with the news just fine – that is the great thing about living in a democracy,” he said. “There’s never a right time to resign high office. However, this is as good a time as any.”

Russia Donates Fertilizer, Grain to Zimbabwe

Harare, Zimbabwe — Russia donated 25,000 tons of grain and 23,000 tons of fertilizer to Zimbabwe to help combat the effects of El Nino-induced drought, which has dwindled crop yields in most parts of Southern Africa. 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa accepted the donation Wednesday, saying it would help alleviate the drought Zimbabwe is coping with and the targeted sanctions which the government has long blamed for the country’s economic doldrums. 

“Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation continue to be subjected to the heinous and illegal sanctions imposed by the hegemonic powers of the West,” he said. “Throughout the 23 years of sanctions against Zimbabwe, the Russian Federation has been a true, trusted and dependable ally of the people of this country.” 

The president added that it should be no surprise that two countries who are the subject of sanctions talk to each other and try to work together. 

Western countries slapped travel and financial sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership and affiliated companies in the early 2000s for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses.  

The U.S. recently removed sanctions on most Zimbabweans, but a few prominent figures — including Mnangagwa — remain on the list. 

Meanwhile, Russia and its president Vladimir Putin were hit with sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago. 

On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador to Harare, Nikolai Krasilnikov, said the donated fertilizers would aid Zimbabwe’s agricultural production. 

“It is a commitment made by Russia to continue to support states and regions in need to do its utmost to prevent a global food crisis through participation in establishing a more equitable system for the distribution of resources,” Krasilnikov said. “And let us not forget that food security cannot [be achieved] without fertilizers, as they ensure growth, resilience and productivity of agricultural crops.”  

However, the fertilizers may not work in Zimbabwe’s current growing season, as most crops have been dried out by a lack of rain. 

In an interview, Alexander Rusero, an international relations professor at Africa University, said he was not surprised by Russia’s donations to Zimbabwe. 

“Zimbabwe does not have an ambivalent foreign policy with regards to Russia,” Rusero said. “Its position in terms of its interaction with Russia [is] very clear. Zimbabwe is on the side of Russia at whatever cost so it is not surprising. I wouldn’t know why it looks like a surprise that Zimbabwe has received some gift from Russia. And remember, these are fulfillments of pledges already made some time ago.” 

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission sent a mission to Moscow to observe the Russian elections this week in which Putin won another six-year term. At a press conference in Moscow, commission chair Priscilla Chigumba declared the elections to be credible. 

“We found the general atmosphere to be conducive for elections, the mood was relaxed and cheerful as people were exercising their right to vote,” Chigumba said. “It is our view that this is a clear sign of mature democracy in which elections are not perceived as life and death activity.”

The remarks drew wide criticism in Zimbabwe, given the way the electoral commission ran the country’s 2023 elections, which were plagued by irregularities and delays and were condemned by several observer missions, including from the Southern African Development Community.

Berlin Summons Iran Ambassador Over 2022 Synagogue Plot

BERLIN — Germany on Wednesday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin believes was planned with the help of Tehran. 

A German Iranian national was sentenced in December to two years and nine months in prison in the plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city of Bochum. 

The 36-year-old, identified only as Babak J., had planned to target the synagogue but ended up throwing an incendiary device at an adjacent school building. No one was injured. 

In handing down the verdict, the Duesseldorf court said the attack had been planned with the help of “Iranian state agencies.” 

The foreign ministry on Wednesday said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it had summoned the Iranian envoy after receiving a written justification of the judgment. 

“We will now immediately share the judgment with our European partners and the EU institutions and examine further steps,” the ministry said. 

Germany also summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in December over the plot. 

A summoning is a way for a nation to show high-level disapproval with another country. 

Germany has grown increasingly alarmed in recent years about rising anti-Jewish sentiment nearly eight decades after the end of the Holocaust. 

Anti-Semitic acts have increased sharply in the country amid the latest turmoil in the Middle East, according to the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Anti-Semitism. 

«Цілком конкретна розмова про спільні політичні результати, яких маємо досягти» – Зеленський про зустріч із радником Байдена

«Дуже змістовна, цілком конкретна розмова і про оборонну взаємодію, і про спільні політичні результати, яких маємо досягти» – Володимир Зеленський

«Вкотре почув безспірну тезу про двопартійну підтримку» – Єрмак після переговорів із Салліваном

Про це ж на спільному брифінгу в Києві сказав і радник президента США з національної безпеки Джейк Салліван

EU Looks to Increase Its Defense, Ukraine Support Against a Bellicose Russia

PARIS — European Union leaders meet Thursday in Brussels amid growing calls for Europe to drastically ramp up its defense spending and industry, as Russia gains ground in Ukraine and fears grow that Moscow will not stop there if it wins the war.  

The two-day summit will also address other contentious issues, including the war in Gaza, future EU members, and immigration. But Ukraine and boosting the bloc’s defense readiness top the agenda.  

Backdropping the meeting is a grim assessment from European Council President Charles Michel, urging EU member states to shift to a “war economy” mode, along with a growing sense that Europe must go it alone, at least for now, as billions of dollars in U.S. aid for Ukraine remains blocked in Congress.  

“If we do not get the EU’s response right, and do not give Ukraine enough support to stop Russia, we are next,” Michel warned in an opinion piece published in European media Monday. “If we want peace, we must prepare for war,” he added. 

“I think we are finally seeing that the EU is getting serious about defense,” Kristi Raik, deputy director for Estonia’s International Center for Defense and Security policy center, told BBC’s Newshour, reacting to Michel’s comments.

“There is a real risk that Ukraine might be defeated in this war,” she added. “And we all agree in Europe that this means that the threat of war coming to us is actually something real — and we need to prepare for that and prevent that from happening.”  

The wake-up call is being met with a flurry of proposals. At the summit, EU leaders will consider Michel’s suggestion to use billions of dollars in profits from frozen Russian assets to purchase more weapons for Ukraine. The measure, endorsed by many foreign ministers this week, will require unanimous consent to pass.  

More than a dozen EU members also signed a letter calling on the European Investment Bank to change its policy on defense investment, to allow items like munitions and weapons. Earlier this week, Brussels approved an additional $5.4 billion to support Ukraine’s military. And more than a dozen European countries have signed up to a Czech initiative to buy artillery shells for Ukraine outside the bloc, as a stopgap to the bloc’s lagging production.  

“Europe is waking up,” analyst Raik said.  

Can’t be weak 

Calls for sharply ramping up Europe’s defense preparedness have long sounded from Raik’s Estonia and other EU member states with proximity to Russia — and bitter memories of the Soviet empire. Now, they are increasingly being echoed by Western ones as well.  

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron — who once warned against humiliating Russian President Vladimir Putin — sparked surprise and pushback by suggesting the EU might send Western forces to Ukraine. He stood by that suggestion last week, while noting it was not currently on the table. 

Russia’s war on Ukraine was “existential for our Europe and France,” Macron told French TV, warning a victory by Moscow would mean “we have no security.” To have peace in Ukraine, he added, “we must not be weak.”  

Respected French analyst Francois Heisbourg said the shift in Macron’s stance began months earlier, shaped by several factors. Among them: British and French cruise missiles, reportedly supplied to Kyiv, which helped to break Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports — Kyiv’s only big victory last year, he believes.  

Heisbourg also supports Macron’s ambivalence in not ruling out European boots on Ukraine’s soil.  

“We have to stop telling the Russians we’re not going to do this, and we’re not going to do that,” he said of the Europeans. “That is strategically unwise. You never give something for nothing in strategy.”  

While Germany has adopted a more cautious stance, it is still Ukraine’s second biggest military aid supplier, after the United States. On Tuesday, Berlin announced another $542 million in support for Ukraine, including shells, armored transport and vehicles — although it still balks at delivering long-demanded Taurus missiles.  

The two European heavyweights, along with many other EU NATO members, have also pledged to meet the alliance’s 2 percent GDP spending target this year, some for the first time.  

Europe must beef up its collective spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030, Heisbourg believes, to prepare for a potential Russian invasion of an EU member state — and for a more “transactional” relationship with Washington, regardless of who becomes the next American president. U.S. presidential elections are set for November 5. 

After three decades of “moving back from the Cold War,” Europe now faces “a world of great power military confrontation” including in Asia and the Middle East, Heisbourg said. “And we are simply not prepared for that kind of war.”

Turkey Cracks Down on Organized Crime to Clean Up Image

Istanbul police are now using some of the world’s most expensive sports cars as part of Turkey’s new bid to crack down on organized crime. Ankara hopes to escape international scrutiny over money laundering as it works to attract foreign investors. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Папа Франциск закликав до переговорів про мир в Україні. Про «білий прапор» не говорив

Це перша заява понтифіка щодо війни в Україні відтоді, як його попереднє висловлювання на цю тему викликало різку критику в багатьох країнах

Україна передала план для Ukraine Facility на розгляд Єврокомісії – уряд

«Очікуємо, що у квітні він буде схвалений комітетом країн-членів ЄС. Після цього новий інструмент фінансування остаточно набере чинності» – Шмигаль

West Eyes New Measures After Passage of Hong Kong Security Law

Taipei, Taiwan — Hong Kong’s adoption of a second national security law Tuesday is being criticized by foreign governments, while some business figures say the law will hasten foreign businesses’ departure from the city.

The United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union expressed concern about the ambiguous language in the law and its speedy adoption, which was completed in less than two weeks.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that the vague provisions in the bill, also known as Article 23, could lead to the criminalization of freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to receive and impart information, which are all rights protected under international human rights law.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said passage of Article 23 could accelerate the closing of a once-open society, adding that the U.S. is analyzing the potential impact of the law.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the law has failed to “provide certainty for international organizations, including diplomatic missions” operating in Hong Kong, and it will foster “the culture of self-censorship” that is now dominating the social and political landscape in the city.

Apart from reiterating concerns about the law’s potential impact on Hong Kong people’s basic rights and freedom, the EU said the bill’s increased penalties, extraterritorial reach and partial retroactive applicability are “also deeply worrying.”

Despite the international criticism, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee hailed the passage of Article 23 as “a historic moment for Hong Kong,” while the Chinese government expressed “full support” of the development.

Rights activists call for sanctions

While they welcome the concerns expressed by foreign governments, some human rights activists urged democratic countries to respond with more forceful measures.

“With the enactment of the Article 23 legislation, now is the time to impose sanctions on officials like Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee,” said Benedict Rogers, the CEO of U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Hong Kong Watch.

Since Hong Kong implemented the controversial national security law and detained dozens of pro-democracy activists and politicians in 2020, the U.S. is the only country that has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, 24 of them in all.

Rogers said since the U.K. doesn’t want to damage trade relations with China, the British government remains reluctant to impose sanctions on Chinese officials over the deteriorating conditions in Hong Kong.

“[While] they imposed sanctions on some Chinese officials over the human rights violations in Xinjiang, they haven’t done anything similar on Hong Kong,” he told VOA by phone.

While the U.S. has introduced some tools to counter China’s tightening control over Hong Kong — including sanctions, new legislation to ban the export of certain items to Hong Kong and the elimination of Hong Kong’s special status — some observers urged Washington to roll out more forceful measures following the passage of the Article 23.

“There’s a lot that Congress and the administration can do, including issuing additional sanctions against people responsible for the implementation of the two national security laws and advancing other existing legislations related to Hong Kong,” Samuel Bickett, a Washington-based human rights activist, told VOA by phone.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday, leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party urged him to consider imposing new sanctions against officials responsible for undermining freedom and rule of law in Hong Kong.

They also vowed to advance the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office Certification Act and the Transnational Repression Policy Act through Congress. Once passed, the two bills would require Hong Kong to shut down its trade offices in the U.S. and allow the U.S. government to impose sanctions against Chinese or Hong Kong officials responsible for launching transnational repression against dissidents in the U.S. 

Laws’ effect on immigration, business

Apart from adopting more forceful measures against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, Bickett and Rogers think democratic countries should introduce new immigration measures to accommodate the growing number of Hong Kong citizens leaving the city. According to statistics from Bloomberg, around 500,000 people have left Hong Kong since 2021.

While the U.K. has introduced an immigration program for holders of British Overseas Passports from Hong Kong, which was recently extended to more young people, Rogers hopes other countries, including the U.S. and those in Europe, can create similar programs tailored for Hong Kongers.

“I would like to see the EU and the U.S. offer some options so Hong Kongers who don’t qualify for the U.K.’s immigration scheme can have alternative options,” he said.

Since the Article 23 legislation uses vague language to define espionage and theft of state secrets, some analysts say foreign businesses may face serious challenges when conducting due diligence investigations or seeking information.

“This could be a big blow to banks and financial institutions, and it will further discourage investors from coming to Hong Kong since access to information is now further restricted,” Eric Lai, an expert on Hong Kong’s legal system at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, told VOA by phone.

Some analysts say the growing uncertainty in the business environment would lead more foreign businesses to consider leaving Hong Kong.

“Article 23 will hasten the departure of international businesses unless the Hong Kong government quickly establishes guard rails constricting the operational boundaries of the new law,” Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research, told VOA in a written response.

Єврокомісія виплатила Україні перші 4,5 млрд євро у рамках програми Ukraine Facility – Боррель

Голова зовнішньополітичного відомства Європейського союзу анонсував, що завтра Європейська рада обговорить, як прискорити вступ України до ЄС

Шмигаль у Брюсселі привітав попередню угоду в ЄС щодо митних пільг для українського експорту

Голова уряду очікує на схвалення Європарламентом погоджених домовленостей вже в квітні

Європарламент і Рада ЄС дійшли тимчасової угоди щодо подовження пільг для українського аграрного експорту

Водночас євродепутати «досягли жорстких зобов’язань від Комісії вжити заходів, якщо відбудеться сплеск українського імпорту пшениці»

China, Not Russia, Still Tops List of Threats to US

WASHINGTON — Russia’s war in Ukraine — portrayed by top U.S. officials as posing a danger to the United States itself — still trails China when it comes to long-term threats to America’s security, according to a top Pentagon official.

The warning from Ely Ratner, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, comes in testimony prepared for a hearing Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee on security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to present the most comprehensive and serious challenge to our national security,” Ratner is set to tell lawmakers, according to a copy his opening statement obtained by VOA.

“The PRC remains the only country with the will and increasingly the capability to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and displace the United States,” Ratner warns, adding, “the PRC is pursuing its revisionist goals with increasingly coercive activities in the Taiwan Strait, the South and East China seas, along the Line of Actual Control with India, and beyond.”

This is not the first time Ratner has addressed the growing threat from Beijing.

In October he called out China’s military for what he described as a “sharp increase” in risky behavior in the East and South China seas.

Ratner also cautioned, separately, that China’s leaders were “increasingly turning to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] as an instrument of coercion.”

Additionally, the Pentagon’s annual China Military Power report said that China’s nuclear arsenal has been growing faster than expected, while Beijing is building out the infrastructure needed for a further expansion of its nuclear forces.

China has responded to such allegations by accusing the U.S. of “hyping up” the threat.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a warning of his own, emphasizing the threat from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The United States stands by Ukraine because it’s the right thing to do,” Austin told a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany. “But we also stand by Ukraine because it’s crucial to our own security.”

“The United States would face grave new perils in a world where aggression and autocracy are on the march and where tyrants are emboldened and where dictators think that they can wipe out democracy off the map,” he said.

U.S. intelligence officials argued recently that the threats from Russia and China are linked, and that Russia’s war has served to embolden China’s leadership.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers earlier this month that Beijing has managed to get long-sought concessions from Moscow in exchange for support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

And CIA Director William Burns said Russian success in Ukraine could “stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.”

Ratner is set to tell U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the Defense Department is working to strengthen key alliances in the Indo-Pacific and develop what he calls a “regional force posture” including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia.

He is also set to testify that the Pentagon’s proposed 2025 budget is placing a priority on investments in air, sea and undersea power, as well as in modernizing U.S. nuclear forces with an eye toward Beijing’s own military modernization efforts.

 

Armenian PM: ‘War Could Erupt’ Unless Border Demarcation Starts

Канада виділить понад 35 млн доларів на артилерійські снаряди і прилади нічного бачення для ЗСУ – міністр

Ці кошти дозволять доставити в Україну кілька тисяч артилерійських боєприпасів

Secretary of Defense: ‘United States Will Not Let Ukraine Fail’

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the United States remains determined to provide Ukraine with the resources to fight Russian aggression, even as the U.S. Congress has failed to pass supplemental aid for Ukraine. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb traveled to Ramstein Air Base in Germany with the secretary.

Ukrainian Drone Strikes Hit Russia’s Oil Revenues

London — A recent series of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes targeting Russian oil refineries has significantly hurt Moscow’s processing capacity, according to analysts.

The strikes, which come as Kyiv and its allies aim to deprive Russia of a main source of revenue for funding its invasion of Ukraine, have reduced Moscow’s overall oil processing capacity by 370,500 barrels per day, or 7% of its total output, according to calculations by Reuters.

The Ryazan oil refinery was set on fire after a drone attack March 13, forcing the shutdown of two damaged primary oil refining units. The plant, which is located south of Moscow, produces around 317,000 barrels per day, or 5.8% of Russia’s total refined crude oil.

Video footage posted online showed a Ukrainian drone flying through a smoke-filled sky above the refinery, before circling and crashing into the plant, causing a loud explosion.

Another drone attack on March 12 targeted the NORSI refinery near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 430 kilometers east of Moscow, knocking out half of the plant’s refining capacity, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

Kyiv claims to have targeted at least seven different refineries. Several are in the region bordering Ukraine. 

“Wars take huge amounts of diesel fuel for tanks, for trucks and so forth. And so that region is directly responsible for diesel for the war,” noted Thomas O’Donnell, an energy and geopolitics analyst with the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

The attacks on refineries further to the north of Russia are also aimed at reducing Moscow’s revenue from hydrocarbon exports.

“By hitting refineries up there, what happens is the diesel that they export — they were exporting almost as much diesel before as oil — that’s being destroyed, and they have to shift it to oil if they want to make money on that,” O’Donnell told VOA.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the military’s growing drone capabilities in the wake of last week’s attacks.

“In recent weeks, many have already seen that the Russian war machine has vulnerabilities and that we can exploit these vulnerabilities with our weapons,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on March 16. “What our own drones can do is truly a long-range Ukrainian capability. Ukraine will now always have its own striking force in the sky.”

The Ukrainian strikes combined with the Western price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil could add to the pressure the Kremlin is facing. Buyers who do not adhere to the cap are prevented from using Western services like insurance and shipping. Since November, Western nations have toughened their monitoring of compliance with the measures.

Russia has used a fleet of “shadow” tankers to move its oil around the world, with much of it travelling through the Baltic Sea or the Arctic. That presents an opportunity for Ukraine’s allies, says analyst O’Donnell.

“The tankers themselves are very old and rather sketchy. They could be stopped in the straits, in the territorial waters between Denmark and Sweden, and be inspected, legally,” he told VOA. “And the inspectors could say, ‘this isn’t good enough insurance,’ or ‘these ships aren’t of proper quality to be carrying this oil,’ and make them turn around. That would be a dramatic intervention.”

French President Launches Anti-Drug Trafficking Crackdown

Україна готова розглянути зі США всі пропозиції щодо військової допомоги – Умєров

Минулого тижня спікер Палати представників Конгресу США Майк Джонсон повідомив сенаторам-республіканцям, що очолювана ним палата підготує свій законопроєкт щодо допомоги Україні, який матиме «суттєві зміни»

Дуда: за два-три роки Росія може мати потенціал для нападу на НАТО

За його словами, Захід має два-три роки, щоб накопичити достатньо боєприпасів і виготовити зброю, щоб максимізувати європейську безпеку

IOC Excludes Russian and Belarusian Athletes From Taking Part in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to take part in the traditional parade at the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics, the IOC said Tuesday.

The opening ceremony on July 26 will see thousands of athletes travel on boats down the River Seine for several kilometers toward the Eiffel Tower, instead of the normal parade of teams inside a stadium.

The IOC said athletes from Russia and Belarus who are approved to compete at the Olympics as neutrals will have a chance only “to experience the event” — likely watching from near the river. The IOC has laid out a vetting procedure for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be granted neutral status, with requirements including that they must not have publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine, or be affiliated with military or state security agencies.

The IOC said it expects about 36 neutral athletes with Russian passports and 22 with Belarus passports to qualify for the Paris Games.

A decision on whether those athletes will be allowed to take part in the Aug. 11 closing ceremony will be taken “at a later stage,” the IOC said.

Turkey Looks to Russia, China for Nuclear Power Expansion

Turkey says it is preparing to bring its first nuclear power plant online this year. It’s a Russian-built reactor and there are already plans for construction of a second plant with the assistance of Russia. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, Turkey may also turn to China to build a third nuclear facility.

Україна та Естонія розпочали переговори щодо укладення безпекової угоди – ОП

«Важливо укласти сильні безпекові угоди з усіма країнами Балтії, які надають нам величезну – у співвідношенні до свого ВВП – допомогу» – Жовква

Фінляндія виділяє Україні 30 мільйонів євро на закупівлю боєприпасів – Міноборони

Фінляндія приєдналася до чеської ініціативи з постачання боєприпасів для України

НБУ вперше в історії встановив курс понад 39 гривень за долар

За даними Finance.ua, станом на 16:00 котирування на міжбанківському валютному ринку становили 39 гривень 15–17 копійок за долар