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U.S. director Damien Chazelle, best known for the Oscar-winning La La Land, will lead the jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival, organizers announced Friday.

The 80th edition of the prestigious festival will take place from Aug. 30-Sept. 9 on the swanky, beach-lined Lido island.

“For 10 days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury,” said Chazelle, 38, whose most recent film is Babylon.

Chazelle’s musical about making it in Hollywood, La La Land, opened the Venice festival in 2016, and went on to win six Academy Awards, including for its director, the youngest ever to win the prize.

Heading the jury for Venice’s parallel competition, Orizzonti, will be Italy’s Jonas Carpignano, director of a trilogy (Mediterranea, A Ciambra, A Chiara) based in the Calabrian port city of Gioia Tauro.

Last year, the festival’s top Golden Lion prize went to U.S. director Laura Poitras for All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. The documentary traced the campaign by photographer and activist Nan Goldin to hold the rich Sackler family accountable for the U.S. opioid crisis.

U.S. actress Julianne Moore headed last year’s jury, with Spanish director Isabel Coixet at the helm of Orizzonti.
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Supporters of a Spanish journalist accused of spying for Moscow have condemned a Russian media outlet for publishing what it said were leaked allegations of espionage in the case against the reporter.

Pablo Gonzalez has been held in pre-trial custody in Poland since February last year when Russia invaded Ukraine, while authorities investigate allegations that he was spying for Moscow — accusations the journalist has denied.

Poland’s secret service says Gonzalez used his role as a journalist as a cover for espionage, but officials have not disclosed any supporting evidence.

Agentstvo, an independent Russian online media outlet, published a report Tuesday saying Gonzalez was a Russian military secret service agent who infiltrated dissident circles.

The website said it based its report on records from Gonzalez’s mobile phone and dissident contacts.

In response, the Free Pablo Gonzalez Association, which campaigns on behalf of the journalist, tweeted: “We are not going to go into these leaks [from the investigation] but we are surprised that this has happened when the lawyers have not had access to the telephone records of Pablo.

“In this way they have created accusations [against Gonzalez] without respecting the presumption of innocence, without proof of someone who has spent 14 months in prison and without respecting his rights as a European citizen.”

The association added: “If Pablo is guilty or not, the only ones who can decide that is the justice system. The only thing we would ask is a rapid and fair trial.”

Agentstvo said in its report that Gonzalez was an agent from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.

Nemtsov’s daughter

According to the report, Gonzalez came to know Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Boris Nemtsov, the Russian physicist and opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was assassinated in 2015.

The two met in Brussels in 2016, the report said, quoting a source from the Boris Nemtsov Foundation who is an acquaintance of Nemtsova.

Agentstvo reported that Gonzalez socialized with employees of the foundation.

“When Gonzalez was detained in Poland in February 2022, reports on the activities of Nemtsova and people from her circle were found on his digital media,” the website reported.

Gonzalez was allegedly interested in students of the Summer School of Journalism of the Nemtsov Foundation from Ukraine and the U.S.

Boris Nemtsov’s letters were allegedly found on the journalist’s digital media, which Agentstvo said could have come from Nemtsova’s laptop.

Zhanna Nemtsova declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement that she has signed with the Polish authorities.

Olga Shorina, co-founder of the foundation, told Agentstvo that Gonzalez had taken part in the organization’s events but did not have access to confidential information.

VOA has attempted to verify the Agentstvo report with the Polish judicial services, but they declined to comment. Lawyers for the Spanish journalist said Polish authorities have not released details of the case against him.

The journalist’s family has links to Russia because his father moved there as a child after the Spanish Civil War. But Gonzalez is not part of the Russian intelligence service, his Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boye has said.

Ukraine, Syria coverage

Gonzalez has covered conflicts in Ukraine and Syria for various outlets, including the left-wing Spanish newspaper Public, and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper. He also provided some camera work for VOA in 2020 and 2021.

He was arrested February 28, 2022, when crossing from Poland to Ukraine, where he had been reporting on the start of the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian secret service officials had earlier detained him and accused him of spying for Russia, which he denied.

He returned to Spain for a few days before leaving for Poland.

International rights organizations and press freedom commentators have criticized how Poland, a European Union nation, handled the case and demanded that Gonzalez be afforded due process and civil rights.

He is taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, seeking to secure his release on the ground that the terms of his imprisonment contravene his constitutional rights.

Jim Fry, a spokesman for VOA, said: “Because of the nature of the allegations against Mr. Gonzalez, the reports he contributed to VOA remain offline and under review. We continue to monitor the situation but have nothing to add at this time.”
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged more than $100 million Friday for Brazil’s fund to protect the Amazon rainforest, at a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of King Charles III’s coronation.

“Beyond football, there are so many interests we have in common … [including] combating climate change,” Sunak told Lula as they met at 10 Downing Street in London.

“I’m delighted to announce we will be investing in your Amazon Fund, and I pay tribute to your leadership on this issue,” Sunak added.

The British contribution to the fund will be £80 million ($102 million), aimed at stopping deforestation and saving the region’s rich biodiversity, said a Downing Street spokesperson.

The investment is the latest diplomatic win for Brazil as it seeks to get wealthy nations to help bankroll the fight to save the world’s biggest rainforest.

Launched in 2008 during Lula’s first presidency with a $1 billion commitment from Norway, the Amazon Fund was suspended under far-right climate-skeptic former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula, who beat Bolsonaro at the polls to return to power in January, revived the fund on his first day in office.

He has been lobbying fellow world leaders to contribute in the name of saving the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced $500 million for the fund last month — though the financing will have to be approved in Congress, a potentially tough battle.

And Germany pledged 200 million euros to protect the rainforest in January, including 35 million euros for the Amazon Fund.

Veteran leftist Lula has been hammering home the message that “Brazil is back” as a partner in the fight against climate change, after average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by more than 75% under Bolsonaro from the previous decade.

Lula is one of a string of world leaders and royals in town for Saturday’s coronation ceremony, Britain’s first in 70 years.
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New developments:

Russia “highly likely” unable to protect its vast rail system from sabotage uptick, according to British Defense Ministry.
Ukraine shoots down its own malfunctioning drone over Kyiv.
Kyiv, Odesa targeted by Russian missiles and drones.

The Wagner Group chief said Friday he is withdrawing his fighters from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on May 10 because they do not have enough ammunition.    

Yevgeny Prigozhin said that without ammunition his private military units are “doomed to a senseless death.”

Prigozhin has complained for some time that his mercenaries in Ukraine have not received enough support from Russia.

Meanwhile, video has emerged for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation assembly in Ankara of a Russian and a Ukrainian delegate scuffling, after the Ukrainian flag was grabbed from the Ukrainian delegate, to prevent the flag from being in the background while a Russian official was being interviewed.  

The British Defense Ministry attributed a “recent uptick” in Russian rail accidents in areas bordering Ukraine to “sabotage committed by unknown actors.”

In the report posted on Twitter on Friday, the ministry said the attacks have “almost certainly” resulted in “short-term localized disruption of Russia military rail movements.”

Russia’s Railway Troop Brigades can quickly restore the lines, the ministry said. However, Russia’s internal security forces will be subjected to increasing pressure and “will highly likely remain unable to fully protect Russia’s vast and vulnerable rail networks from attack.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine shot down one of its own drones that was malfunctioning over central Kyiv on Thursday evening.

Initial reports from government officials said the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicle was an enemy drone, but later the air force said that the vehicle was Ukrainian.

The air force said in a statement that the uncontrolled presence of the drone in the sky could have led to “undesirable consequences.”

There were no reports of any injuries when the drone was shot down.

Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin would eventually face an international war crimes trial for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a speech at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Zelenskyy said, “Only one Russian crime led to all of these crimes: this is the crime of aggression, the start of evil, the primary crime. There should be responsibility for this crime.”

The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Putin on a war crimes charge involving the alleged deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. Zelenskyy said Putin “deserves to be sentenced for these criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.”

“And I’m sure we will see that happen when we win. And we will win,” he said.

The ICC cannot prosecute the crime of war aggression itself. But Zelenskyy appealed for a full-fledged tribunal to prosecute that overarching crime.

“If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and should not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law but make bold decisions that will correct … shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law,” he said.

Zelenskyy was welcomed outside the ICC building by the court’s president, Poland’s Piotr Hofmański. The court staff crowded at windows to watch Zelenskyy’s arrival and raised a Ukrainian flag next to the court’s own flag outside the building.

The ICC said in a March 18 statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of [children] and that of unlawful transfer of [children] from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

But the chances of Putin standing trial in The Hague are remote. The court does not have a police force to execute its warrants, and the Russian leader is unlikely to travel to any of the ICC’s 123 member states that are under an obligation to arrest him if they can. Neither the U.S. nor Russia recognizes the authority of the court.

Zelenskyy’s speech came a day after he denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for what the Russian government alleged was an attempt to assassinate Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin. Moscow promised retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday accused the United States of being behind the alleged attack. He said Russia was “well aware that the decision on such actions and terrorist attacks is not made in Kyiv, but in Washington.”

“And then Kyiv does what it’s told to do,” Peskov said, without offering evidence for his claim.

In Washington, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby rejected the Russian accusation, telling MSNBC, “I can assure you that there was no involvement by the United States. … We had nothing to do with this, so Peskov is just lying there, pure and simple.”

U.S. officials also have voiced skepticism about the attack itself, including whether it was possibly staged by Moscow. “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

On the battlefront, Ukraine’s military claimed three Russian drones that hit the southern city of Odesa early Thursday had “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin” written on them, seemingly signaling the drone attacks were specifically retaliatory. Also, Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was the target of an air attack for the third time in four days.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted 18 of the 24 Iranian-made drones launched by Russian forces in various regions. No casualties were reported.

Fuel depot fires

A product storage area at a refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a drone attack Thursday. However, the Russian Tass news agency said the fire at the Ilsky refinery, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in the Krasnodar region was put out after two hours and the facility was now working normally.

Wednesday, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, said on the messaging app Telegram that a fuel depot in the village of Volna was targeted by a drone. He said there were no reports of casualties from the fire.

Volna is near the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that separates mainland Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge, which is a vital link for Russia’s military to transport supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb last October that Moscow blamed on Kyiv.

Wednesday’s fuel depot fire comes after a suspected drone attack last Saturday on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

The British Defense ministry in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter said the attacks on Russian fuel depots in occupied Ukraine and the Russia Ukraine border area “will likely force adjustments to Russia’s military refueling operations to mitigate targeting.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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When King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, soldiers carrying flags from the Bahamas, South Africa, Tuvalu and beyond will march alongside British troops in a spectacular military procession in honor of the monarch.

For some, the scene will affirm the ties that bind Britain and its former colonies. But for many others in the Commonwealth, a group of nations mostly made up of places once claimed by the British Empire, Charles’ coronation is seen with apathy at best.

In those countries, the first crowning of a British monarch in 70 years is an occasion to reflect on oppression and colonialism’s bloody past. The displays of pageantry in London will jar especially with growing calls in the Caribbean to sever all ties with the monarchy.

“Interest in British royalty has waned since more Jamaicans are waking to the reality that the survivors of colonialism and the holocaust of slavery are yet to receive reparatory justice,” the Rev. Sean Major-Campbell, an Anglican priest in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, said.

The coronation is “only relevant in so far as it kicks us in the face with the reality that our head of state is simply so by virtue of biology,” Major-Campbell added.

As British sovereign, Charles is also head of state of 14 other countries, though the role is largely ceremonial. These realms, which include Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, represent a minority of the Commonwealth nations: most of the 56 members are republics, even if some still sport the Union Jack on their flags.

Barbados was the most recent Commonwealth country to remove the British monarch as its head of state, replacing Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, with an elected president in 2021. The decision spurred similar republican movements in neighboring Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize.

Last year, when Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness welcomed Prince William and his wife, Kate, during a royal tour of the Caribbean, he announced that his country intends to become fully independent. It made for an awkward photo with the royal couple, who were also confronted with protests calling for Britain to pay slavery reparations.

William, the heir to the throne, observed later on the same trip that the relationship between the monarchy and the Caribbean has evolved. The royal family will “support with pride and respect your decisions about your future,” he told a reception in the Bahamas.

Rosalea Hamilton, an advocate for changing Jamaica’s constitution to get rid of the royals, said she was organizing a coronation day forum to engage more Jamaicans in the process of political reform.

The timing of the event is meant to “signal to the head of state that the priority is to move away from his leadership, rather than focus on his coronation,” Hamilton said.

Two days ahead of Charles’ crowning, campaigners from 12 Commonwealth countries wrote to the monarch urging him to apologize for the legacies of British colonialism.

Among the signatories was Lidia Thorpe, an Australian senator, who said Thursday that Charles should “begin a process of repairing the damage of colonization, including returning the stolen wealth that has been taken from our people.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who will attend the coronation and join in an oath of allegiance to the king, favors ditching the monarchy, though he has ruled out holding a referendum during his current three-year term.

“I want to see an Australian as Australia’s head of state,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Buckingham Palace said last month that Charles supported research into the historical links between Britain’s monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade. The king takes the issue “profoundly seriously,” and academics will be given access to the royal collection and archives, the palace said.

In India, once the jewel of the British Empire, there’s scant media attention and very little interest in the coronation. Some people living in the country’s vast rural hinterlands may not have even heard of King Charles III.

“India has moved on,” and most Indians “have no emotional ties with the royal family,” Pavan K. Varma, a writer and former diplomat, said. Instead, the royals are seen more like amusing celebrities, he said.

And while the country still values its economic and cultural ties with the European country, Varma pointed out that India’s economy has overtaken the U.K.’s.

“Britain has shrunk globally into a medium-sized power,” he said. “This notion needs to be removed, that here is a former colony riveted to the television watching the coronation of Prince Charles. I don’t think this is happening in India.”

Since gaining independence in 1947, India has moved to shed the vestiges of British imperialism. The statue of King George V that used to stand near the India Gate monument in New Delhi was moved in the 1960s to Coronation Park. Once the scene of celebrations honoring Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and George V, the park is now a repository for representations of former monarchs and officials of the British Raj in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led a renewed push to reclaim India’s past and erase “symbols of slavery” from the country’s time under the British crown. His government has scrubbed away colonial-era street names, some laws and even flag symbols.

In Nairobi, Kenya, motorcycle taxi driver Grahmat Luvisia was similarly dismissive of the idea of following the coronation on TV.

“I will not be interested in watching the news or whatever is happening over there because we have been mistreated back then by those colonizers,” he said.

Herman Manyora, a political analyst and journalism professor at the University of Nairobi, said memories of Britain’s harsh response to the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s are still raw.

Many Kenyans will not watch the coronation “because of the torture during colonialism, because of the oppression, because of detentions, because of killings, because of the alienation of our land,” Manyora said.

Not everyone is as critical. In Uganda, political analyst Asuman Bisiika says British culture continues to have a strong influence on young people in the East African country, especially those who follow English soccer. There is also a lot of goodwill for Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne.

In the South African city of Durban, expat British communities have planned a live screening of the coronation ceremony, complete with trumpeters to announce the moment the archbishop of Canterbury crowns Charles. On Sunday, there will be a special church service followed by a picnic or a “braai,” a traditional South African barbecue.

Experts say that despite its flaws, historical baggage and fraying edges, the Commonwealth still holds appeal, especially for poorer nations. Gabon and Togo, which are former French colonies with no colonial links to Britain, became the association’s newest members last year. Most observers believe countries like Jamaica that want an elected head of state are likely to retain their memberships.

Myers Jr. reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Pathi reported from New Delhi. AP writers Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi, Kenya; and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

 
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A shooter killed at least eight people and wounded 13 in a drive-by attack near a town close to Belgrade late Thursday, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state television reported.

The attacker shot randomly at people near the town of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers south of the capital, the RTS report said early Friday. Police were looking for a 21-year-old suspect who fled after the attack, the report said.

No other details were immediately available, and police had not issued any statements.

School shooting

On Wednesday in Belgrade, a 13-year-old boy allegedly used his father’s guns in a school shooting rampage that killed eight of his schoolmates and a school guard. The bloodshed sent shockwaves through the Balkan nation unused to such mass shootings.

Dozens of Serbian students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, paid silent homage Thursday to peers killed a day earlier.

The students filled the streets around the school in central Belgrade as they streamed in from all over the city. Earlier, thousands had lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave toys to commemorate the eight children and a school guard who were killed on Wednesday morning.

The Balkan nation is struggling to come to terms with the school shooting. Though awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, mass shootings still have been extremely rare — and this is the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history.

Authorities on Thursday moved to boost gun control, as police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them safe, away from children.

“The Ministry of Interior is appealing to all gun owners to store their guns with care, locked up in safes or closets so they are out of reach of others, particularly children,” police said in a statement that also announced tightened controls on gun owners in the future.

The shooting Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people hospitalized — six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday morning.

Serbians mourn, donate blood

To help people deal with the tragedy, authorities announced they were setting up a helpline. Hundreds answered a call to donate blood for the wounded victims. A three-day mourning period will begin Friday morning.

Serbian teachers’ unions announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn about a crisis in the school system. Authorities shrugged off responsibility, with some officials blaming Western influence rather than a deep social crisis in the country.

The alleged shooter, whom the police identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, has not given any motive for his actions.

Authorities have said that Kecmanovic is too young to be charged and tried. He has been placed in a mental institution while his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security because his son allegedly got hold of the guns.

‘Too much violence’

Gun culture is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: The region is among the top in Europe in the number of guns per capita. Guns are often fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is part of national identity. Still, the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the number of weapons in a highly divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups often goes unpunished. They also note that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.

“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin told N1 television. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”
…

The White House says the United States was not involved in Wednesday’s drone attack on the Kremlin, after Russia claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. ordered the strike and Ukraine carried it out. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Belgian police on Thursday arrested seven people suspected of supporting the Islamic State group and plotting a “terrorist attack,” prosecutors said. 

Almost all of the suspects are ethnic Chechens, and three of them possess Belgian nationality, prosecutors said in a statement.  

“The exact target of the planned attack has not yet been determined,” they said. 

Police, backed by elite units, raided nine addresses in several towns in western Belgium in an operation led by an investigating judge who specializes in terrorism cases. 

The judge will decide later if there is sufficient evidence to charge the suspects, the statement said. “Possible charges are attempted terrorist assassination, participation in the activities of a terrorist group and preparation of a terrorist attack,” it said. 

Prosecutors added that all seven arrested “are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Belgium.” They all “belong to a group of strong supporters of the IS.”  

A spokesman for the federal prosecutors office, Eric Van Duyse, told AFP that “they apparently intended to target an institution located in Belgium” and had been “actively searching for weapons.” 

The police raids took place in Ghent and the smaller towns of Roeselare, Menen, Ostend and Wevelgem. 

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Belgium on March 22, 2016, that targeted Brussels’ airport and the capital’s metro, killing 32 people and wounding hundreds. 

Those bombings occurred months after the November 2015 attacks in Paris that were planned by the same IS cell and that killed 130 people. 

Chechnya, a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region, has a predominantly Muslim population.  

It is ruled by pro-Kremlin strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and who has sent his militia there to fight. 
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The European Central Bank announced on Thursday the seventh-straight increase in its three key interest rates since July. At 0.25%, it was the smallest increase to date.

Speaking to reporters in Frankfurt, Germany, ECB President Christine Lagarde said that while inflation has dropped from its high of more than 10% in October, at 7%, it remains too high.

The bank said previous rate increases — all of which were one-half to three-quarters of percentage point — are being transmitted forcefully throughout the bloc’s financial industry. It is unclear, however, how they might be affecting the real economy.

Rate hike follows US increase

The ECB, the central bank for the eurozone — the 20-nation group that uses the euro as currency — announced the rate hike the day after the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point and indicated it could be its last increase for a while.

Lagarde gave no such indication Thursday, saying, “This is a journey. We have not arrived yet.”

An ECB press statement said the bank’s “future decisions will ensure that the policy rates will be brought to levels sufficiently restrictive to achieve a timely return of inflation to our 2% medium-term target and will be kept at those levels for as long as necessary.”

Costs still high

Inflation in the eurozone began surging last year, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine significantly drove up fuel prices. Those prices have since moderated, but overall consumer costs remain high.

The interest rate hikes are having an expected effect on borrowing, Reuters reported, as eurozone banking data showed recent declines in loan demand from households and companies.

There are fears the interest rate hikes are affecting the eurozone’s economic growth, which, The Associated Press reports, was only 0.1% during the first three months of 2023.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Italian conductor Riccardo Muti plans to visit Syrian musicians living in the vast Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on the sidelines of his annual Roads of Friendship concert series that aims to use music to build bridges and help those affected by war.

Muti will conduct Italian and Jordanian musicians in concerts set in ancient Roman amphitheaters in Jerash, Jordan, on July 9 and the Pompeii archaeological site on July 11, for the 27th Roads of Friendship concert series.

The concerts will pay homage to the “generosity of the Jordanian people” for taking in millions of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war in the neighboring country, the Ravenna festival announced Thursday.

While in Jordan, Muti plans to visit the Zaatari camp, a symbol of the long-running Syrian refugee situation and home to about 80,000 refugees nearly 11 years after it was set up near the Syrian border.

He and a delegation from the Ravenna Festival will meet with musicians among the Syrian diaspora, bringing with them musical instruments as gifts.

This year’s Roads of Friendship concert series will launch on July 7 in Ravenna, and feature the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra founded by Muti, the Cremona Ancient Choir as well as Jordanian musicians.

The series was launched in 1997 in Sarajevo, just two years after the Bosnian civil war ended.

 
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Scores of Serbian students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, paid silent homage on Thursday to peers killed a day earlier when a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns in a school shooting rampage that sent shockwaves through the nation and triggered moves to boost gun control.

The students filled the streets around the school in central Belgrade as they streamed in from all over the city. Earlier, thousands had lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave toys to commemorate the eight children and a school guard who were killed on Wednesday morning.

People cried and hugged outside the school as they stood in front of heaps of flowers, small teddy bears, soccer balls. A gray and pink toy elephant was placed by the school fence along with messages of grief, and a girl’s ballet shoes hung from the fence.

The Balkan nation is struggling to come to terms with what has happened. Though awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, mass shootings still have been extremely rare — and this is the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history. 

The tragedy also sparked a debate about the general state of the nation following decades of crises and conflicts whose aftermath has created a state of permanent insecurity and instability, along with deep political divisions.

Authorities on Thursday moved to boost gun control, as police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them safe, away from children.

Police have said that the teen used his father’s guns to carry out the attack. He had planned it for a month, drew sketches of classrooms and made lists of the children he planned to kill, police said on Wednesday.

The boy, who had visited shooting ranges with his father and apparently had the code to his father’s safe, took two guns from the safe where they were stored together with the bullets, police said on Wednesday.

“The Ministry of Interior is appealing to all gun owners to store their guns with care, locked up in safes or closets so they are out of reach of others, particularly children,” police said in a statement that also announced tightened controls on gun owners in the future.

The shooting on Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people hospitalized — six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday morning.

To help people deal with the tragedy, authorities announced they were setting up a helpline. Hundreds answered a call to donate blood for the wounded victims. A three-day mourning period will begin Friday morning.

Serbian teachers’ unions announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn about a crisis in the school system. Authorities shrugged off responsibility, with some officials blaming Western influence rather than a deep social crisis in the country.

The shooter, whom the police identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, has not given any motive for his actions.

Upon entering his school, Kecmanovic first killed the guard and three students in the hallway. He then went to the history classroom where he shot the teacher before turning his gun on the students.

Kecmanovic then unloaded the gun in the school yard and called the police himself, although they had already received an alert from a school official. When he called, Kecmanovic told duty officers he was a “psychopath who needs to calm down,” police said.

Those killed were seven girls, one boy and the school security guard. One of the girls was a French citizen, France’s foreign ministry said.

Authorities have said that Kecmanovic is too young to be charged and tried. He has been placed in a mental institution while his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security because his son got hold of the guns.

“I think we are all guilty. I think each one of us has some responsibility, that we allowed some things we should not allow [to happen],” said Zoran Sefik, a Belgrade resident, during Wednesday evening’s vigil near the school.

Jovan Lazovic, another Belgrade resident, said he was not surprised: “It was a matter of days when something like this could happen, having in mind what’s happening in the world and here,” he said.

Gun culture is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: The region is among the top in Europe in the number of guns per capita. Guns are often fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is part of the national identity. Still, the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the number of weapons in a highly divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups often goes unpunished. They also note that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.

“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin told N1 television. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”

 
…

Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Canadian journalist Christian Borys, who had worked in Ukraine between 2014 and 2019, started a social enterprise called Saint Javelin to raise $500 for Ukraine ahead of what he saw as a looming invasion. Since then, Saint Javelin has become a powerful fundraiser for the war effort. Misha Komadovsky has the story from Toronto.
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New developments:

The Kremlin claims Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and Putin wasn’t injured. The Russian claim couldn’t be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official denied any involvement. 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in The Hague to visit to the International Criminal Court.
Southern Russian refinery targeted by drone.
Kyiv, Odesa targeted by Russian missiles and drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Thursday for a special tribunal to hold Russia to account for its invasion of Ukraine in a speech at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.   

“Only one Russian crime led to all of these crimes: this is the crime of aggression, the start of evil, the primary crime. There should be responsibility for this crime,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader arrived late Wednesday in the Netherlands after making a surprise visit earlier in the day to Finland to participate in a summit with the leaders of five Nordic nations.    

The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on a war crimes charge involving the alleged deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Missile, drone attacks

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles and drones attacked Kyiv and Odesa in the early hours of Thursday.  

The Kyiv city government said, “The Russians have attacked Kyiv using Shahed loitering munitions and missiles, likely the ballistic type,” but added that all the missiles and drones had been destroyed.

The Ukrainian southern military command said that 12 of the 15 drones launched at Odesa had been destroyed. Three struck a university campus, but there were no casualties.   

The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and the Russian leader was not injured.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the United States decided on the attack and that Ukraine carried it out. 

The Russian claims could not be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official said the Kyiv government had nothing to do with any alleged drone attack on the Kremlin.  

The Kremlin said it “regards these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an attempt on the president,” and it reserved the right to retaliate. It said that “timely actions taken by the military and special services” had disabled the drones.  

Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the incident, according to his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not verify the Kremlin reports. “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt,” he said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to the Reuters news agency that the allegation that Kyiv was behind the attack, and Russia’s arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea, could signal that Moscow was planning a large-scale “terrorist” attack against Ukraine in the coming days.

“Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks,” Podolyak said. 

“In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both ‘reports about an attack on the Kremlin’ and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea … clearly indicates the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days,” Podolyak said.     

Fuel depot fires

A product storage area at a refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a drone attack Thursday. However, the Russian Tass news agency said the fire at the Ilsky refinery, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in the Krasnodar region was put out after two hours and the facility was now working normally.  

Wednesday, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, said on the messaging app Telegram that a fuel depot in the village of Volna was targeted by a drone. He said there were no reports of casualties from the fire.    

Volna is near the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that separates mainland Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge, which is a vital link for Russia’s military to transport supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb last October that Moscow blamed on Kyiv. 

Wednesday’s fuel depot fire comes after a suspected drone attack last Saturday on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.   

The British Defense ministry in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter said the attacks on Russian fuel depots in occupied Ukraine and the Russia Ukraine border area “will likely force adjustments to Russia’s military refueling operations to mitigate targeting.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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