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A Russian court on Thursday fined the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, two million rubles ($24,510) for not deleting what it said was “banned content” related to the Russian military, Interfax reported.

It said this was the seventh fine imposed on Wikimedia in 2023 for not removing prohibited information. The fines now total 8.4 million rubles.

The latest penalty was for not removing an article about a military unit that contained “classified military information” about its location, composition and equipment, including

information related to the progress of what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

Wikimedia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said information that Russian authorities complained about was well-sourced and in line with Wikipedia standards.

Wikipedia is one of the few surviving independent sources of information in Russian since a state crackdown on online content intensified after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.

“We are not blocking Wikipedia yet, there are no such plans for now,” Interfax quoted digital affairs minister Maksut Shadaev as saying last week.
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The humanitarian suffering created by Russia’s war on Ukraine has been accompanied by an economic shock that resonates globally, driving up food and energy prices on distant continents. With Russia’s shelling of energy infrastructure and industrial plants, its destruction of cities, mining and agricultural sites, Ukraine lost a third of its economic output in 2022 as 8 million people fell into poverty — a 15-year setback in poverty reduction goals, according to World Bank data.

Even so, Ukraine’s government continues to function, making social and compensation payments, conducting emergency repairs of heating and electrical grids struck by Russian missiles in winter, keeping trains running and repairing bridges and roads. This was made possible by deliveries of international aid that amounted to some $32 billion in 2022.

Ukraine’s government estimates another $40 billion will be needed this year, and the support appears to be in place. Earlier this month, dozens of finance ministers and central bankers gathered in Washington for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings, where donors pledged $115 billion over four years to help Ukraine maintain economic stability during the “exceptional and highly uncertain environment of a country fighting a war.”

Alfred Kammer, director of the IMF’s European Department, told VOA the program also aims to “galvanize donors,” which can provide Ukraine with the reliable “expectation that these funds will be coming.”

Kammer also hailed the new program for what he described as enhanced donor coordination — a promising improvement over last year’s disbursement efforts that, absent a formal program, resulted in chronic delays.

“Absence of an overarching framework made it difficult for donors in terms of disbursing [funds], that made it difficult for Ukrainian policymakers in terms of implementing policies, because there was always some uncertainty when money would be coming,” said Kammer.

Those delays in aid delivery forced Ukraine to print money in 2022, risking inflation and gambling with the independence of the central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine.

Ukrainian central bank chief Andriy Pyshnyi also praised the new donor program, calling it a “real life representation of [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden’s words that Ukraine will have the support that it needs.”

But because part of Russia’s war on Ukraine is a campaign of economic attrition, aid alone may not be enough.

During an Atlantic Council roundtable on Ukrainian reconstruction held earlier this year, University of Virginia historian Philip Zelikow said the West’s macroeconomic stabilization efforts are something akin to medical first aid.

“All we are doing with billions per month is keeping the patient alive in the ER,” said Zelikow, who called for a coordinated restructuring package to “give Ukrainians hope that they will come out of this.”

Post-war reconstruction

World Bank estimates for the cost of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction have reached a staggering $411 billion. Ukraine hopes to have Russia pay for the damage it has inflicted — a position shared by allies — in part via confiscation of some $300 billion in Russian central bank assets that were frozen by Western governments after the 2022 invasion.

The U.S. Treasury’s multinational REPO (Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs) Task Force, founded in March 2022, recently announced that it has blocked or frozen more than $58 billion in sanctioned assets held by Russian oligarchs.

Once audits of the REPO seizures are complete, Pishnyi said, he’s hopeful the proceeds can be sent to Ukraine in the form of reparations. The fact that the audits are underway, he said, has finally allowed officials to move from conceptual dialogue about reparations to discussion of specific numbers.

Also founded in March 2022, Task Force KleptoCapture, a U.S. Department of Justice unit set up to enforce sweeping U.S. sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia, has seized more than $500 million in assets owned by Russian oligarchs and others who support Moscow and dodge U.S. sanctions and export controls. On April 19, the U.S. law enforcement agency formally began pressing Congress for additional authority to funnel proceeds from those seizures to Ukraine.

Although Ukraine has taken steps to jumpstart foreign direct investment, recently announcing plans to provide state guarantees to revitalize its export credit agency — 70% of Ukraine’s pre-war GDP drew from the private sector — some private companies are reluctant to invest amid the warfare.

But Rana Karadsheh, Central and Eastern Europe director of the World Bank-affiliated International Finance Corporation (IFC), told VOA that her organization, along with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has programs designed to alleviate some of the inherent risk.

“There is a lot of interest [and] a little bit of natural concern about the risky environment,” she told VOA, “but I’ve been quite impressed at the level of support that we’re seeing, as we talk to companies … across the region.”

The IFC recently announced a $2 billion support package for Ukraine’s private sector — a program designed to entice private investors — while the EBRD is looking at investing $1.3 billion for emergency repairs of electrical and rail networks.

“[EBRD’s priority] is to focus on making life as bearable as possible for people,” the European development bank’s chief economist, Beata Javorcik, told VOA. “So that when the time for reconstruction comes, people will be there, human capital will be there.”

Ukraine, says Javorcik, is well positioned for post-war recovery.

“Money is obviously needed, but Ukraine has many friends abroad, so funds will be flowing,” she told VOA. “The second thing that’s needed is improvement in institutions in the quality of governance. And here, again, I’m optimistic because the accession process to the European Union can provide an anchor for the reforms and give the direction of the reforms.

“The third component, stable peace, is the most challenging precondition to achieve,” she added.

EBRD research drawn from more 200 cases of post-war recovery says Ukraine’s could take up to 25 years, though Kyiv hopes its reconstruction, and the return to normalcy that comes with it, will come much sooner.

“This generation should not be lost,” says Pyshnyi of Ukraine’s central bank, adding that he’s eager to see Ukraine become the “largest building site in Europe, if not in the world.”

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Some information is from Reuters.
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Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny said Wednesday that he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for life, as authorities set the stage for a new trial against the Kremlin’s leading critic. 

Navalny said by video link from prison during the hearing that the extremism charges which he rejected as “absurd” could land him in prison for 30 years. He noted that an investigator had told him he also would face a separate military court trial on terrorism charges that could potentially carry a life sentence, adding on a sardonic note that the charges imply that “I’m conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison.” 

His top ally Ivan Zhdanov said investigators were trying to link the terrorism charges against Navalny to a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger earlier this month. 

Navalny, 46, who exposed official corruption and organized massive anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. 

He initially received a 2½-year prison sentence for a parole violation. Last year, he was sentenced to a nine-year term for fraud and contempt of court. He is currently serving time at a maximum-security prison 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow. 

The new charges against Navalny relate to the activities of his anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His ally Leonid Volkov said the accusations retroactively criminalize all the activities of Navalny’s foundation since its creation in 2011 and carry a potential punishment of up to 35 years in prison. 

Navalny’s associate, Zhdanov, said Wednesday that investigators were revising the charges to link them to a bombing that killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a St. Petersburg cafe earlier this month. The authorities described Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident who was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with a statuette moments before the blast, as an active supporter of Navalny. They also accused Zhdanov and Volkov of making repeated calls for subversive activities in Russia. 

An investigator told the court Wednesday that 11 other suspects facing extremism charges alongside Navalny have remained at large and have been put on an international wanted list. 

The new charges come as Russian authorities conduct an intensifying crackdown on dissent amid the fighting in Ukraine, which Navalny has harshly criticized. 

Wednesday’s hearing at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court was held to discuss preparations for Navalny’s trial on the extremism charges. Navalny asked for more time to study the 196 case files. 

The judge closed the session minutes after it opened, ruling that it should be held behind closed doors, because the case involved sensitive information. 

“It’s an attempt to unlawfully restrict my ability to study the materials of the case and prevent anyone from knowing about it,” Navalny said before public access to the hearing ended. 

The hearing ended with the judge giving Navalny 10 days to study his criminal case. No date for the trial has been set yet. 

Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent foe, has rejected the charges as a political vendetta and an attempt by Russian authorities to keep him out of politics for as long as possible. 

His associates and supporters have become increasingly worried about his failing health. Earlier this month, they said Navalny had fallen ill with acute stomach pains and suspected that he was being slowly poisoned. 

Navalny looked gaunt when he appeared via video link from prison, but he smiled and laughed as he warmly greeted journalists who were watching his appearance in court. 

While imprisoned, Navalny has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a “punishment cell,” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison robe, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time. 

His supporters have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance, using blindingly bright light in his cell and placing him next to a mentally unstable person. 

Navalny said Tuesday that he had completed a 15-day stay in the punishment cell and was immediately ordered to spend another 15 days there. 

The Russian authorities have ramped up their crackdown on dissent after Putin sent troops into Ukraine under new legislation that has effectively criminalized any public criticism of Moscow’s military action and independent reporting on the conflict. 

Earlier this month, a Russian court convicted a top opposition figure, Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., of treason for publicly denouncing Moscow’s war in Ukraine. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 

Another prominent opposition figure, Ilya Yashin, was sentenced to 8½ years in prison last year on charges of spreading false information about the military. 

On Wednesday, a court in Yekaterinburg opened a trial of the city’s former mayor, Yevgeny Roizman, on charges of discrediting the military that he rejected. 

Roizman, a sharp critic of the Kremlin, is one of the most visible and charismatic opposition figures in Russia who enjoyed broad popularity as mayor of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city of 1.5 million people in the Ural Mountains. 

Last month, Roizman, 60, was ordered to spend 14 days in custody on separate charges of reposting material containing a reference to Navalny’s organization. 

As part of a relentless clampdown, a Russian court last month convicted a father over social media posts critical of the war and sentenced him to two years in prison. His 13-year-old daughter, who drew an antiwar sketch at school, was sent to an orphanage. 

On March 29, Russia’s security service also arrested Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government have rejected. Gershkovich is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying charges, and his arrest rattled journalists in the country and drew outrage in the West. 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he was canceling a day of election campaigning Wednesday to rest at home, a day after he was forced to briefly interrupt a television interview over what he said was a stomach complaint.

Erdogan was being interviewed live by Turkey’s Ulke TV and Kanal 7 stations late Tuesday when the program was suddenly stopped. When the interview resumed around 20 minutes later, Erdogan, 69, explained that he had developed a serious “stomach flu” while campaigning and apologized for the interruption.

The president, who was scheduled to make a series of appearances in the cities of Kirikkale, Yozgat and Sivas on Wednesday, announced on Twitter that he would rest at home on the advice of his doctors and that Vice President Fuat Oktay would represent him at the events.

Later Wednesday, Erkan Kandemir, a deputy chairman of the ruling party announced that Erdogan had also canceled a rally planned in the southern city of Mersin for Thursday but would take part in a ceremony marking the rolling out of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant via video conference.

Turkish officials also denied online rumors claiming that Erdogan had suffered a serious illness and was hospitalized.

“We categorically reject such baseless claims regarding President (Erdogan’s) health,” his communications director, Fahrettin Altun, tweeted.

Omer Celik, another senior ruling party member wrote: “our president remains on top of his duties. After a short rest, he will continue with his program.”

Erdogan, who is seeking a third term in office as president, has been campaigning hard in the run-up to the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, sometimes attending three or more events per day.

He is facing his toughest electoral test of his 20 years in office as prime minister and president, with opinion surveys showing a slight lead for his main challenger, center-left opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

In 2011, Erdogan underwent what his doctors said was a successful surgery on his digestive system.
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In the first nine months of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Polish business group says, Ukrainians started 14,000 companies in neighboring Poland. Now, those Ukrainian entrepreneurs are succeeding and making contributions to their country’s war efforts. For VOA, Lesia Bakalets reports from Warsaw.
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The European Union’s environment agency on Wednesday urged member states to reduce pesticide use over concern that sales of harmful chemicals remain strong despite its effects on human health and biodiversity.

The warning comes amid findings that one or more pesticides were detected above thresholds of concern at 22% of all monitoring sites in rivers and lakes across Europe in 2020, the European Environment Agency said.

“From 2011 to 2020, pesticide sales in the EU-27 remained relatively stable at around 350,000 tonnes (tons) per year,” the EEA said in a new report, citing data from Eurostat.

Pesticides are widely used in the agriculture sector but also in forestry, along roads and railways, and in urban areas such as public parks, playgrounds or gardens.

The insecticide imidacloprid and the herbicide metolachlor showed the highest absolute number of above-threshold levels across Europe, primarily in northern Italy and northeastern Spain.

In groundwater, the herbicide atrazine caused the most above-threshold levels, even though it has been banned since 2007.

Dangers of pesticides

Human exposure to chemical pesticides, primarily through food but also through the air in agriculture-intense regions, is linked to the development of cardiac, respiratory and neurological disease, as well as cancer, the report said.

“Worryingly, all of the pesticides monitored … were detected in higher concentrations in children than in adults,” the EEA said.

In a study conducted in Spain, Latvia, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Netherlands between 2014 and 2021, at least two pesticides were detected in the bodies of 84% of survey participants.

Pesticide pollution is also driving biodiversity loss across the continent, causing significant declines in insect populations and threatening the critical role they play in food production.

A German study cited in the report found a 76% decline in flying insects in protected zones over a period of 27 years.

It identified pesticides as one of the reasons for the decline.

Sales drop in some countries

In 11 EU member states, pesticide sales decreased between 2011 and 2020, with the biggest drops in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Denmark.

Latvia and Austria saw the strongest rates of increase in terms of sales, while the sharpest rises in volumes were registered in Germany and France.

These two latter countries, along with Spain and Italy, the EU’s four biggest agricultural producers, account for the highest volumes sold for most groups of active substances.

Modern food production systems rely on high volumes of chemical pesticides to ensure crop yield stability and quantity, and to maintain food security.

According to the EEA, 83% of agricultural soils tested in a 2019 study contained pesticide residues.

“We could reduce our dependency on chemical pesticides to maintain crop yields and our overall pesticide use volumes by shifting to alternative models of agriculture, such as agroecology,” it said.

A separate report published Wednesday by the European Food Safety Authority showed that in 2021, 96% percent of food samples analyzed were within legal limits for pesticide residue.

Grapefruit imported from outside the EU had the highest level of pesticide residues in 2021 and new controls were therefore introduced, the EFSA said.
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Although the European Union has boosted its press freedom record over the past few years, the organization still has room for improvement, according to a new report on the Brussels-based group.

“Much progress has been made, but combating entrenched pressure on and threats to journalists in Europe — and setting an effective example for governments around the world — still requires improved and sustained action from Brussels,” the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said in a report released Tuesday.

The most pressing issues facing journalists in Europe include killings, as well as pandemic-related media controls, disinformation, spyware and the ongoing war in Ukraine, said the report, titled, “Fragile Progress.”

Since 2015, multiple journalists have been killed in EU countries. At least two of them — Malta’s Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovakia’s Jan Kuciak — were murdered because of their work.

Meanwhile, Swedish reporter Kim Wall was killed on assignment, and the motives for the killings of Bulgarian reporter Viktoria Marinova, Dutch reporter Peter R. de Vries, and Greek reporter Giorgos Karaivaz, remain undetermined.

Threats include lawsuits, beatings

The EU has not commented on the latest CPJ report. In 2021, the European Commission said killings were “the most tragic” kind of threat facing reporters in Europe. But far more common than killings are other issues such as online harassment, disinformation, retaliatory lawsuits, and beatings at protests.

The war in Ukraine has posed an unprecedented test of Europe’s commitment to protecting journalists, the report said. Several member states have provided refuge or support to Russian and Ukrainian journalists affected by the war.

Still, the war on the battlefield has been accompanied by the information war playing out online, forcing reporters to face a wave of disinformation and harassment.

Brussels has recognized that disinformation poses an increasingly concerning threat toward democracy and has taken steps to combat the issue and build trust in journalism, the CPJ said.

But another problem is that some countries, such as Hungary, have used the fight against disinformation as a pretext to launch anti-fake news policies that are actually designed to curb independent media.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban’s policies, such as those addressing fake news, underscore how the EU is a mixed bag when it comes to press freedom. In a 2022 report, the European Commission urged 16 of the EU’s 27 members to take steps to better protect journalists.

Harassed for pandemic coverage

At its worst, the COVID-19 pandemic presented newfound issues as well, with journalists in countries such as Italy facing violent harassment in retaliation for their coverage of the outbreak and anti-vaccine movements, as well as restrictions imposed in the name of public health.

Although Brussels has taken some concrete steps to improve media freedoms, the EU appears to prefer supporting press freedom in theory, rather than in practice, the report said.

The report pointed to some contradictions in the EU’s approach to press freedom. The EU has taken steps to address threats posed by surveillance of journalists, but at the same time, the report says the bloc has threatened the end-to-end encryption policies put into place by secure messaging platforms such as Signal and WhatsApp. Many journalists use those platforms to safely communicate with sources.

Meanwhile, even as Brussels funds investigative reporters, it regularly blocks access to official documents, the report said.

“The scope and effectiveness of EU actions in support of press freedom often reflect the gap between the values-based narrative that the EU tells about itself and the reality of how it and its member states pursue their interests,” the report said.

If Brussels doesn’t improve its press freedom record at home, then what’s at stake, the CPJ said, is the EU’s capacity to advocate for press freedom in third countries without coming across as hypocritical.

“To be effective and credible, the EU must apply the same criteria to all actors, within the EU and internationally, and actively fight against the pitfall of double standards,” the report said.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of a Russian government-backed paramilitary group, has offered weapons to one of the warring parties in Sudan, according to several media reports.

Since the fighting began in April, there have been unconfirmed reports and diplomatic sources who spoke to news outlets saying that Wagner fighters are supporting the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces and supplying them with weapons.

Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. State Department official and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA that the Wagner Group is supplying portable air defense systems, shoulder-fired rockets, tank busters and heavy armor. 

The RSF denies receiving support from Russia.

As news emerges, however, that the Wagner Group could be taking sides, experts warn such external involvement can only worsen the conflict, citing the group’s negative track record and trail of atrocities in Africa.

In a rare admission to the group’s involvement in Sudan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that the decision to involve the Wagner Group is up to African leadership.  

“Central African Republic and Mali and Sudan, a number of other countries, whose governments, whose legitimate authorities turn for this kind of services [to Wagner Group], have the right to do so,” Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

High-level U.S. officials continue to express concern over the involvement of the Wagner Group in Sudan, where it is involved in mineral extraction.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the group’s involvement has the potential to further ignite the conflict. 

“Obviously, we don’t want to see this conflict expand or broaden, and we certainly wouldn’t want to see additional firepower brought to bear; that will just continue the violence and continue to escalate the tensions,” he said.

The fight to grab power is between two generals, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, head of the armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, the leader of the RSF paramilitary group.

Hemedti traveled to Russia shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has sought to win support from the Wagner Group.

“Through this visit, we hope to advance relations between Sudan and Russia to broader horizons, and strengthen the existing cooperation between us in various fields,” Dagalo said in a Twitter post at the time of his Moscow visit.

Jacqueline Burns is a senior policy analyst with RAND Corporation, a global policy research group. She said by supporting Hemedti, Russia is seeking to protect its own interests.

“Russia and the Wagner Group, they benefit from gold concessions in Sudan and the illicit smuggling of gold out of the country,” she told VOA. “The Wagner Group is siding with the party they think is most likely to be able to continue to secure these interests, particularly in opposition to any civilian-led government.” 

The Wagner Group’s history in Sudan dates to the previous government of Omar al-Bashir. Prigozhin had a close relationship with the autocratic leader, who allowed Wagner-affiliated companies access to gold mining. 

After the army ousted al-Bashir in 2019 amid a popular uprising, Wagner continued to have a close relationship with the Sudanese military, particularly the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces headed by Hemedti. This replicates its model of engagement in other African countries.

“Wagner Group does seem to engage with African countries on a pretty predictable sort of pattern,” said Ben Dalton, a program manager at New America’s Future Frontlines, a Washington-based research group.

“Normally it starts with a cultivation of elites, or at least a subset of elites, and then that is followed up with a formal military technical agreement between the states. And this could be something like, you know, Russia will supply arms in exchange for concessions that allow them to do mining or other kinds of resource extraction.”

Russia views Sudan as a strategic location with vast mineral wealth and is eager to help install a friendly leader, say analysts. 

“We’ve seen a lot in recent months about Russia’s efforts to gain a port on the Red Sea in Sudan through an official military relationship and they’ve signed other official military relationships with other countries in the region,” said Hudson.

Wagner’s involvement in other parts of the continent, however, has only brought strife to the population, Dalton said.

“Engaging with this group tends to go pretty badly for the population that has to deal with them. They’ve been associated with widespread atrocities everywhere they go; you see civilian deaths and various atrocities,” Dalton said. 

“Russia’s interests are in extracting the continent’s resources so that it can strengthen its own position and build a web to resist … international sanctions. They don’t really have the interests of Africans at heart.”

Patsy Widakuswara and Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa backtracked on remarks he made Tuesday that the country would withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The president’s office late Tuesday walked back comments Ramaphosa made earlier that day at a briefing, saying he misspoke when he said the governing African National Congress (ANC) party would “pull out” of the International Criminal Court.  

His remarks sparked controversy as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the ICC for war crimes in Ukraine, is invited to an August summit in South Africa. 

As a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, Pretoria is required to arrest Putin if he sets foot in the country.  

But just hours after Ramaphosa said the ANC party would quit the court in The Hague, his spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said the remarks were an error.

“South Africa remains a signatory to the ICC in line with a resolution of the 55th national conference of the ANC – held in December 2022 – to rescind an earlier decision to withdraw from the ICC,” he said.

Magwenya said the correction followed an error made at a media briefing by the ANC on South Africa and the ICC, which he said the president had “regrettably” and “erroneously” affirmed.  

Ramaphosa had said there had long been a feeling in the governing party that the court treats some countries unfairly. 

The ANC wanted to pull out of the ICC some years ago but was prevented from doing so by a South African court ruling that found it unconstitutional.  

It is not yet clear if Putin will attend a summit of the BRICS group of emerging nations– Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. 

Even if he does, it is far from guaranteed that South Africa would arrest the Russian president.  

Pretoria refused to act on an ICC arrest warrant in 2015, when former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited.

The African National Congress party is staunch friends with Moscow, which as leader of the Soviet Union supported its fight against Apartheid’s white minority rule.   

Kyiv also supported the ANC’s struggle for democracy, but Pretoria has so far refused to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an historic reform that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities and laypeople more say in the life of the Catholic Church.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote.

The Vatican on Wednesday published the modifications he approved, which emphasize his vision for the lay faithful taking on a greater role in church affairs that have long been left to clerics, bishops and cardinals.

Catholic women’s groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the history of the church.

“This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling, and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and the witness” of a campaign of Catholic women’s groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for women’s ordination.

Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church, popes have summoned the world’s bishops to Rome for a few weeks at a time to debate particular topics. At the end of the meetings, the bishops vote on specific proposals and put them to the pope, who then produces a document taking their views into account.

Until now, the only people who could vote were men.

But under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders.

In addition, Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the synod and has asked that half of them be women. They too will have a vote.

The aim is also to include young people among these 70 non-bishop members, who will be proposed to the pope by regional blocs, with Francis making a final decision.

“It’s an important change, it’s not a revolution,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a top organizer of the synod.

The next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 4-29, is focused on the very topic of making the church more reflective of, and responsive to, the laity, a process known as “synodality” that Francis has championed for years.

The October meeting has been preceded by an unprecedented two-year canvassing of the lay Catholic faithful about their vision for the church and how it can better respond to the needs of Catholics today.

So far only one women is known to be a voting member of that October meeting, Sister Nathalie Becquart, a French nun who is undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office and will participate in the meeting thanks to her position. When she was appointed to the position in 2021, she called Francis “brave” for having pushed the envelope on women’s participation.

By the end of next month, seven regional blocs will propose 20 names apiece of nonbishop members to Francis, who will select 10 names apiece to bring the total to 70.

Cardinal Mario Grech, who is in charge of the synod, stressed that with the changes, some 21% of the gathered representatives at the October meeting will be non-bishops, with half of that group women.

Acknowledging the unease within the hierarchy of Francis’ vision of inclusivity, he stressed that the synod itself would continue to have a majority of bishops calling the shots.

Hollerich declined to say how the female members of the meeting would be known, given that members have long been known as “synodal fathers.” Asked if they would be known as “synodal mothers,” he responded that it would be up to the women to decide.

Francis has upheld the Catholic Church’s ban on ordaining women as priests, but has done more than any pope in recent time to give women greater say in decision-making roles in the church.

He has appointed several women to high-ranking Vatican positions, though no women head any of the major Vatican offices or departments, known as dicasteries.
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In the largest penalty of its kind, tobacco giant British American Tobacco has agreed to pay U.S. authorities nearly $630 million to settle charges of violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea. 

The hefty penalty is part of a “deferred prosecution agreement” that the company has reached with the U.S. Justice Department, officials announced on Tuesday.   

At the same time, a Singapore-based subsidiary of BAT pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. 

The settlement caps a long-running U.S. investigation into BAT’s alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.   

In 2007, the company spun off its North Korea sales to a third-party company, announcing that it was no longer doing business in the country.  

But in reality, BAT continued to do business in North Korea through the third-party company that was controlled by its Singapore subsidiary, according to court documents.  

Over the 10-year period, BAT and its subsidiary sold nearly $428 million worth of tobacco products to North Korea. 

To pay BAT, North Korean purchasers allegedly used front companies to hide the transactions from U.S. financial institutions.  

A ‘warning to companies’

Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, said the nearly $630 million BAT has agreed to pay is the largest penalty ever imposed by the Justice Department in connection with U.S. sanctions on North Korea.  

“And the latest warning to companies everywhere about the cost and the consequences of violating U.S. sanctions,” he said.   

“Holding corporate wrongdoers who violate U.S. sanctions accountable is an important priority for the Justice Department,” Olsen said at a news conference.   

In a statement, BAT chief executive Jack Bowles expressed regret for the “misconduct,” adding that “we fell short of the highest standards rightly expected of us.” 

BAT said it had stopped all business activities related to North Korea in 2017. 

Three accused in tobacco scheme

Separately, the Justice Department unsealed charges against North Korean banker Sim Hyon-Sop, 39, and Chinese nationals Qin Guoming, 60, and Han Linlin, 41, in connection with an illegal effort to facilitate the sale of tobacco to North Korea. 

The three men are accused of engaging in a scheme, from 2009 to 2019, to buy $74 million worth of leaf tobacco for North Korean state-owned cigarette manufacturers and using front companies to hide North Korea’s involvement from the U.S. banks that processed the transactions.  

The banks would have frozen, blocked, investigated or declined to process the transactions had they known they were connected to trade with North Korea, the Justice Department said. 

The tobacco purchases resulted in nearly $700 million in revenue for the North Korean manufacturers, one of which was owned by the country’s military. 

U.S. prosecutors say cigarette trafficking is a significant source of revenue for the North Korean government and helps fund its nuclear weapons program.  

Every $1 North Korea spends on smuggled tobacco products generates revenue of up to $20, prosecutors say. 

The U.S. State Department announced a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Sim, and a reward of $500,000 for Qin and Han. 

The charges against the three men are unrelated to BAT’s violation of U.S. sanctions.  
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