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Czech voters went to the polls Friday in the first round of voting to elect a new president, with billionaire populist and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis and retired army general Petr Pavel seen as the front-runners.

The two men lead eight candidates in the field. First-round voting continues Saturday, and if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote — which, polls indicate, is the likely outcome — there will be a second round of voting in two weeks.

Polls indicate a very close contest between the 68-year-Babis and the 61-year-old Pavel.

The top three

Babis is the leading opposition candidate. Czech political analyst and writer Jiri Pehe describes him as an “oligarch populist” who “flirts with the political orientation” of Hungarian President Viktor Orban.

Orban, an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, comes under frequent criticism from the European Union, which has accused him of stifling democratic institutions.

Pavel, a former chair of NATO’s military committee, has received the endorsement of the government. He and the third-ranked candidate, according to most polls, 44-year-old economics professor Danuse Nerudova, are seen as the most pro-Western, pro-democratic candidates.

Nerudova would also be the first woman to hold the office of president.

Issues affecting race

Political analyst Pehe, who leads New York University’s academic center in Prague, told VOA the war in Ukraine is likely to play a significant role in the elections, as it has raised security and foreign policy concerns to a higher level than they otherwise would be in the election.

This is likely to favor Pavel, Pehe believes, because of his extensive military and international experience. The political analyst said Pavel has been an enthusiastic supporter of Ukraine as the country defends itself from Russian attacks, while Babis has been more ambiguous.

Pehe said polls indicate the economy is a major issue for Czech voters, which could help Babis, as he has stressed domestic issues over aid to Ukraine. But Pehe added that the voters want to see the Czech Republic maintain strong ties with the West and NATO, which will once again help Pavel.

Recent Gallup polling shared with VOA shows that approval of EU leadership has risen to 49% in the country, the highest level recorded in 13 years. Approval of Russian leadership, meanwhile, is at a 13-year low of 5%.

Corruption is also a major concern of Czech voters, according to the 2022 Gallup polling. It showed that 74% of the public believe that corruption is widespread in the government, a belief that has been fairly consistent since 2006.

On the positive side, 65% of respondents told Gallup they are confident in the honesty of elections.

The winner of the election will take over from current President Milos Zeman, who is completing his second term. Pehe said Zeman became a divisive figure — who was quite pro-Russia and China — when he attempted to over-step his presidential powers as designated by the nation’s constitution.

In the Czech government, the president is elected by the popular vote and appoints the prime minister, but the job is otherwise a largely ceremonial post.

Myroslava Gongadze reported from Warsaw. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The fate of Soledar in Ukraine’s Donbas region was hanging in the balance Friday, with Russia claiming that its forces had seized the salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine and Ukraine saying the fighting continues.

If Moscow’s claims bear out, it would be Russia’s first big battlefield gain after multiple military setbacks.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern military command and a Ukrainian officer on the ground nearby both told Reuters that Soledar had not yet been captured.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation in the town, which has become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the entire war, now in its 11th month.

CNN was also reporting Friday that units of the Ukrainian military insisted the battle is ongoing.

“Local battles continue in the city,” the 46th Airmobile Brigade said Friday on Telegram. “Orcs [Russians] are pressing from the outskirts to the center. Apparently, they are trying to bring down to the center those of our units who did not have time to leave the city. You will not succeed, Russians.”

Ukrainian officials said Thursday more than 500 civilians were trapped inside Soledar, including 15 children.

If Soledar’s capture is achieved, military experts say it would allow Russian forces, and the Wagner mercenary group helming the operation, to more readily target nearby Bakhmut.

The fighting in the area also has spurred infighting between Russia’s defense establishment and the Wagner’s multimillionaire leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to Reuters, he has criticized the failings of the regular Russian army, and he issued a premature claim earlier this week that Soledar had already fallen.

The cracks within the Russian military command have widened after a reshuffle in military leadership earlier this week, when Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov was placed in direct charge of Russia’s forces in Ukraine. Some analysts said the move was a slapping down of Prigozhin, while also lining up Gerasimov as the fall guy if the war continues to go badly for Russia.

Within Russia, victory in Soledar could boost the power of ultra-nationalist Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group of fighters-for-hire, including convicts recruited from prison with promises of pardons, has focused on the fight in that region.

However, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday at the White House that “even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself, and that “it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”

In a phone conversation Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba centered upon continuing robust security and economic assistance before the February anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine and beyond.

The top U.S. diplomat emphasized the United States’ enduring and unflinching support for Ukraine, as underscored by recent provisions of advanced air defense equipment and armored vehicles from U.S. stocks.

Finland has joined Poland in saying it could send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of a Western coalition apparently being assembled to supply them.

France also is hoping to deliver AMX 10-RC light-combat tanks to Ukraine in two months’ time, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said.

A Russian foreign ministry official said Belarus may enter the conflict in Ukraine on the side of Russia. Russia used Belarus as a springboard to invade Ukraine in February 2022, but the border area is now heavily flooded making an imminent attack from there unlikely.

In an interview with the BBC, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine is a de facto NATO member.

“I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll become a member of NATO, de jure,” he said.

Reznikov said his country has received the weapons and the training it needs to fight the Russian invasion.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia’s defense manufacturing sector is likely resorting to convict labor to meet wartime production demands, in an intelligence update Friday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In November 2022,” the report posted on Twitter said, “Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), Russia’s largest tank manufacturer, told local media that it would employ 250 prisoners after meeting with the Federal Penal Service (FSIN).”

Russia has a long history of prison labor and in 2017 “forced labor as a specific criminal punishment was reintroduced,” the ministry said.

The British Defense Ministry said, “The prison population provides a unique human resource to Russian leaders to utilize in support of the ‘special military operation’ while willing volunteers remain in short supply.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.
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The foreign ministers of France and Germany have voiced support for Africa to receive two permanent seats on the powerful U.N. Security Council.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna added their support to an African push for permanent seats on the Security Council.

Baerbock spoke after she and Colonna met with African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

“As European partners and I, as a German foreign minister, we see that the world in 2023 is not the same than that after World War Two, and therefore we are supporting two permanent seats for the African continent,” Baerbock said. 

African leaders have for years called for a permanent seat on the powerful U.N. body.

Outgoing African Union Chairman Macky Sall, also the president of Senegal, reiterated that demand at the September U.N. General Assembly.

He said Africa should also have a seat in the G-20 group of the world’s largest economies.

U.S. President Joe Biden backed both efforts at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington last month.

Currently, the Security Council has five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States. Other countries are elected to the Council for two-year terms by the U.N. General Assembly.

Having permanent seats on the Security Council would for the first time give African countries veto power over U.N. resolutions.

Meanwhile, Baerbock said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the importance of relations between the European Union and the African Union.

“As Russia is attacking the European peace order this needs more support from our friends,” Baerbock said. “We need you and we need Africa in defending our European peace order.”

Baerbock on Thursday made a visit to a World Food Program warehouse storing donated Ukrainian grain and condemned Moscow for using food as a weapon of war.

She was referring to Russian forces blocking some Ukrainian grain exports as the Horn of Africa suffers through a record drought that has tens of millions struggling with hunger.

The two foreign ministers also met with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday and called for accountability for atrocities committed during the war in the northern Tigray region.

Rights groups accuse all sides of committing rapes, torture, and extra-judicial killings during the two-year war.

The EU suspended some support for Ethiopia over the abuses and says accountability in the war is a condition for normalizing relations.

French Foreign Minister Colonna’s visit will include a grant of about 30 million U.S. dollars to aid people affected by the war.

The foreign ministers are in Addis to support a November peace deal between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray authorities.

Since the agreement, Ethiopia has restored the flow of humanitarian aid and some basic services to Tigray, while Eritrea has withdrawn its forces from parts of the region.

On Tuesday, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front began turning over heavy weapons to the Ethiopian army.   
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Police in Hungary said Friday one police officer was killed and two others injured when they were stabbed while responding to a disturbance at a Budapest apartment complex.

A Budapest police department statement said the officers responded to a call late Thursday at the building in the city’s Ujbuda district and discovered a man trying to break down a door into an apartment.

Police said the suspect attacked the officers with a knife as they tried to detain him and ran into the street where a fourth officer fired at him, striking him in the leg.

The wounded officers and the suspect were all transported to a hospital. One of the officers, a 29-year-old police sergeant major, died from his injuries.

Budapest chief prosecutor Pal Furcht told a news briefing Friday the attack is not being investigated as a terrorist incident.

Speaking on state radio Friday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban said the government would provide assistance to the family of the slain officer.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The Czech presidential election is to kick off Friday with a billionaire, a general and an academic leading a likely two-round vote seen as too close to call.

The winner will replace Milos Zeman, an outspoken political veteran, following a period marked by the country’s 2022 EU presidency as the war in Ukraine raged.

The victor will face record inflation in the central European country of 10.5 million people, as well as bulging public finance deficits related to the war in Ukraine.

Unless a candidate wins more than 50%  outright, which is considered unlikely, the two top contenders will go head-to-head in a second round on Jan. 27-28.

“If you asked me to place a bet (on the result), I wouldn’t,” Metropolitan University Prague political scientist Petr Just told AFP.

Populist ex-prime minister Andrej Babis, retired general Petr Pavel and university professor Danuse Nerudova are vying to become only the fourth president since the Czech Republic was founded in 1993 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Business tycoon and former prime minister Babis, 68, is the fifth-wealthiest person in the Czech Republic, according to Forbes magazine.

Pavel, 61, is a former paratrooper who was decorated as a hero of the Serbo-Croatian war during which he helped to free French troops from a war zone.

He went on to be the chief of the Czech general staff and chair of NATO’s military committee.

Nerudova, the youngest frontrunner at 44, has a strong focus on social issues and is counting largely on the backing of younger voters.

Six wines, three shots

At the final campaign television debate late Thursday, Babis, Nerudova and Pavel vowed to forge a different path from the divisive Zeman if elected.

“Everybody knows me, I will be very active, and my advantage is I have the experience from all sectors in the government,” said Babis.

“That’s one of my priorities, to restore dignity to the presidential office,” Pavel told reporters.

Nerudova, wooing young voters as “the representative of the future,” said a woman would bring welcome change to the largely men’s world of Czech politics.

“There is a lot of aggression in our society, and I think that a woman would bring empathy and more political culture,” she added.

Polls suggest that both Pavel and Nerudova would beat Babis if they face him in the second round.

Five candidates — two senators, a far-right lawmaker, a former university rector and an entrepreneur — trail behind the top three favorites.

The Czech president’s role is largely ceremonial, but the head of state names the government, picks the governor of the central bank and constitutional judges, and serves as top commander of the armed forces.

But Zeman, a controversial politician who once confessed to a daily diet of six glasses of wine and three shots of spirits, repeatedly exploited loopholes in the constitution to increase his influence.

Polling stations open for the first round at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) and close at 10 p.m. They then reopen from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

The first-round results are expected Saturday evening.
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An American citizen who had been detained in Russia for nearly a year was released Thursday.  

Taylor Dudley, who is 35, was detained when he crossed from Poland into Kaliningrad, near Moscow, last year in April.  

CNN reports the Michigan resident’s detention was not widely reported because his family wanted the negotiations for his release to remain private.

He was attending a music festival in Poland, but it is not clear why he crossed the border into Russia.  

It appears that no exchange was made for Dudley on the U.S. side.  

Negotiations for Dudley’s release were headed up by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. 
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A senior U.S. envoy expressed strong concern Thursday about the activities of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group and its alleged attempts to recruit soldiers in Serbia and elsewhere in the world.

U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said he voiced these concerns during talks in Belgrade with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

“We have seen that the Wagner Group is seeking to recruit soldiers from Serbia and elsewhere, and that’s something we think cannot stand,” he told reporters after the meeting.

“I don’t know if there are concerns [in Serbia], we talked about our concerns and we are looking forward to working with the government here in Belgrade and elsewhere where Wagner is active to put an end to their activities,” he added.

Wagner Group, owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, reportedly has been active in dozens of mostly African states, working with governments on pro-Russian propaganda and other military and political projects.

The group has boasted about its presence in Serbia, the only European state besides Belarus that has not joined international sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine. The group has reportedly announced the opening of its offices in Belgrade, something that was later denied.

Moscow’s propaganda portal RT, which recently started its Serbian-language online news site in Serbia, has published Wagner’s recruitment advertisement seeking fighters in Ukraine, saying the group offers “more than attractive” incentives.

Chollet said Wagner Group is “in action in terrible ways throughout the world, whether it is in Libya, the Central African Republic or right now in Ukraine.”

The group, which reportedly includes a large contingent of convicts recruited in Russian prisons, has spearheaded the attacks in eastern Ukraine, including the fierce battles in Soledar and Bakhmut.

Prigozhin and his group have been under U.S. sanctions for years, and the U.S. has recently taken additional steps to try to control Wagner’s access to weapons.

Wagner Group mercenaries have also been accused by Western countries and United Nations experts of numerous human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali. Earlier this month U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he has designated the Wagner Group as an “entity of particular concern” for its activities in the Central African Republic.

Chollet also urged Serbia to introduce sanctions against its traditional Slavic ally Russia.

“We believe that countries should sign on to the sanctions, and the reason why we believe that is because Russia’s actions do not only have to be condemned, they have to be punished,” he said. “Russia every day is prosecuting a brutal, unjustified war against Ukraine. We need to stand together, to ensure that this behavior, it’s clear that this behavior is unacceptable.”

The U.S. envoy this week launched a tour of several Balkan nations in a visit focused on international efforts to help normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia after weeks of heightened tension. The former Serbian province declared independence in 2008, something Serbia and Russia don’t recognize.
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Iranian state media published a video on Thursday that they said showed British Iranian national Alireza Akbari, who is facing the death penalty for spying, played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

The video was aired a day after state media said a death sentence had been given to Akbari, who previously served as Iran’s deputy defense minister, on charges of spying for Britain, which has demanded he be released.

Iran has not said when Akbari’s sentence will be carried out. One hard-line news website said Akbari had been executed on Thursday, but there has been no official confirmation. A source told Reuters he had been transferred to a solitary cell typically used for those about to executed.

In the video of Akbari published by state media, he did not confess to involvement in the assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside Tehran, but said a British agent had asked for information about him.

In a separate recording broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, Akbari said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture.

Britain’s foreign office declined to comment on the videos. Speaking in parliament on Thursday afternoon about the Akbari case, British Foreign Office Minister Leo Docherty said: “We have no news today, and it would be wrong of me to speculate about any future activities.”

On Wednesday, British Foreign Minister James Cleverly said the planned execution was politically motivated and called for his immediate release. The foreign office also said Wednesday that its priority was securing his immediate release.

“Akbari was transferred to the isolation section of the prison on Tuesday night and his first-degree relatives had been asked yesterday to have the final visit with him,” the source in Tehran told Reuters.

Akbari’s wife also said authorities had told the family to make a last visit to see him in prison, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Spying charges

Fakhrizadeh was widely seen by Western intelligence as the mastermind of clandestine Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denied that.

In the video, Akbari did not say what information, if any, he shared or with whom.

“They wanted to know about high-ranking officials depending on the major developments. … For example, he [the British agent] asked me whether Fakhrizadeh could be involved in such and such projects, and I said, ‘Why not’” Akbari said in the video broadcast by Iran’s state news agency IRNA, one of several clips broadcast on Thursday.

In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, Akbari said he confessed to crimes he had not committed during months of torture in detention.

“I was interrogated and tortured for over 3,500 hours in 10 months. All of that were recorded on camera. … By using the force of gun and making death threats, they made me confess to false and baseless claims,” Akbari said in the audio message.

Iran’s state media often airs purported confessions by suspects in politically charged cases.

Reuters could not immediately establish the authenticity of the video and audio or when or where they were recorded.

Ties between London and Tehran have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact, to which Britain is one of the parties.

Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September.

Akbari was sentenced on charges of “corruption on earth and extensive action against Iran’s internal and external security through the transmission of information to Britain,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.

It said the supreme court had rejected his appeal.

Ally of security official

Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who served as defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.

“I was accused of obtaining top secret information from Shamkhani in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt during [former President Hassan] Rouhani’s presidency,” Akbari said in the audio message.

In another video, aired by IRNA, a caption read, “Akbari moved to Britain after being briefly detained and released on bail in 2008.” Another video showed Akbari blindfolded in a car.

Reuters could not immediately verify if Akbari had moved to Britain in 2008 or when he returned to Iran.

In his audio message, Akbari said he had returned to Tehran following an invitation by a senior Iranian diplomat involved in Tehran’s nuclear talks with world powers.
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China criticized a defense pact signed Wednesday between Britain and Japan that could see troops deployed on each other’s territory. Both London and Tokyo have described China as a “challenge” in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The Asia-Pacific is a pacesetter for peace and development, not a wrestling ground for geopolitical games. China is a partner for cooperation for all countries instead of a challenge,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing.

“Defense cooperation between the relevant countries should be conducive to enhancing mutual understanding, trust and cooperation among countries and should not create imaginary enemies or introduce the outdated mindset of bloc confrontation into the Asia-Pacific region,” Wang said.

Reciprocal pact

The defense deal was signed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak in the Tower of London, a medieval fortress that houses the crown jewels. The two leaders were shown a set of Japanese samurai armor that was presented to Britain’s King James in 1613 by Shogun Tokugawa to mark the first trade agreement between England and Japan.

The pact is officially called the Reciprocal Access Agreement and was agreed to in principle last May. It is the first time that Japan has signed such a deal with a European ally. Thousands of American troops are stationed in Japan as part of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

In a statement, Sunak’s office said, “In this increasingly competitive world, it is more important than ever that democratic societies continue to stand shoulder to shoulder as we navigate the unprecedented global challenges of our time.”

Fighter jet

The two countries also agreed to work, alongside Italy, on the development of a new sixth-generation fighter jet. The British firm BAE Systems is already working on a prototype known as Tempest. It would be the biggest Japanese-European defense cooperation program ever undertaken.

Joint exercises

Japan is seeking to shore up defense ties in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s military expansion, analyst Jonathan Eyal of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute said.

“It’s an open secret that [British] special forces have been training on Japanese territory. The reality is that the militaries of the two countries have been training for a number of years now. This will be easier in to do in Japan because the legal framework will be in place,” Eyal told VOA.

“There is every intention of helping the Japanese in terms of training. And the key element is training for rapid response. The fear of Japan is that they may be confronted with a fait accompli with, let’s say, the Chinese seizure of some uninhabited Japanese island, to which the Japanese at the moment are unable to respond adequately,” Eyal added.

Asia-Pacific tilt

For Britain, the defense pact is part of a geopolitical tilt toward the Asia-Pacific region.

“The only influence that Britain can have — on what is becoming the center of gravity of world security concerns — is through a system of alliances. There is a view in London that the Europeans cannot continue to ask for U.S. protection in Europe without helping the U.S. with the security provision in Asia,” Eyal told VOA.

Sunak and Kishida also discussed Britain’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal signed by 11 countries. Britain is seeking new trade agreements following its exit from the European Union.

US-Japan security

The Japanese prime minister is visiting European and North American allies from the Group of Seven, including France, Italy, Canada and the United States. Japan currently holds the G-7 presidency.

Following talks between foreign and defense ministers in Washington on Thursday, the United States and Japan agreed to further strengthen security cooperation. In a joint statement, the two countries said China presented an “unprecedented” threat to the international order.
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Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister said Thursday that Kyiv will pursue adoption of a resolution in the U.N. General Assembly that would enshrine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula.

“The Ukrainian leadership decided that the priority number one that will be considered in February is the resolution dedicated to the peace formula,” Emine Dzhaparova told reporters at the United Nations, where she attended a Security Council meeting on the rule of law.

February 24 marks one year since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the Group of 20 Summit in November, Zelenskyy addressed the meeting by video and presented his 10-point vision for ending Russia’s war against his country.

It includes the withdrawal of Russian troops and the cessation of hostilities, as well as nuclear safety, food and energy security, releasing prisoners of war and deported persons.

“[U.N.] Ambassador [Sergiy] Kyslytsya will now keep on pushing for the modality of consideration of this resolution because we might call for a special session to adopt this resolution,” Dzhaparova said.

She emphasized that the peace formula is the basis for a discussion, but it does not mean that Kyiv is ready to sign up to any agreement that goes against its interests.

“We are very much committed to any peace negotiation that comes and brings us to one result: territorial integrity, sovereignty, peace for our people,” she said. “But as my president has been constantly saying, we aren’t going to trade any inch of Ukrainian soil, and without having Russia’s army out of Ukraine, we will not discuss any peace negotiation.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, has said Kremlin officials would refuse to use Zelenskyy’s “peace formula” as a basis for negotiations, calling Kyiv’s intention to drive Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea “an illusion,” according to Russia’s state-run RIA news agency.

The Kremlin on January 5 said Putin had told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow was ready for peace talks only under the condition that Ukraine “take into account the new territorial realities,” a reference to Kyiv acknowledging annexed territories.

Dzhaparova said that Ukraine may also seek a second General Assembly resolution later in the year for setting up a special international tribunal to hold Russia’s leadership accountable for its invasion — the crime of aggression.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague is already investigating potential war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on Ukrainian territory since Russia’s invasion.
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The foreign ministers of Germany and France have arrived in Ethiopia to support a November peace deal between federal and Tigray authorities to end two years of brutal war.

Annalena Baerbock and Catherine Colonna met Thursday with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as part of their diplomatic outreach.

The November deal has seen steady progress with basic services restored to the Tigray region, increased aid, and a first handover of heavy weapons by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to Ethiopia’s federal forces.

Witnesses say Eritrean troops in December withdrew from at least two cities in Tigray but it’s not yet clear if they intend to leave the region entirely.

The European leaders will also meet with officials at the Addis Ababa-headquartered African Union.

The AU brokered the Tigray peace deal and its monitors arrived in the region this month to oversee its implementation.

Germany and France also want to help with food insecurity caused by a record drought in the Horn of Africa and a squeeze on grain supplies and increased food prices resulting from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The ministers’ two-day visit includes a trip to a World Food Program warehouse in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, where donated wheat from Ukraine to help address the hunger is being stored.

The German and French governments financed delivery of the much-needed grain and are expected to announce fresh aid to people in areas that have been most affected by Ethiopia’s civil war.

Baerbock said her visit was intended to support Ethiopia on its way to “lasting peace and accountability for human rights abuses.”

U.N. investigators say there is evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides in the conflict, including rapes, torture, and extra-judicial killings.

A U.N. report in September said the Ethiopian government and its allies also used starvation as a weapon of war, which it denies.

Researchers at Ghent University in Belgium estimate that between 385,000 and 600,000 civilians died in Ethiopia since war broke out in November 2020 from conflict, hunger, disease, and lack of medical care.

The U.N. says millions were displaced in the war and more than five million Tigrayans need humanitarian aid.
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A town in France has decided to hide from public view a sign noting its brief connection to the former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The sign, which includes a portrait of Khomeini, stands on private land in Neauphle-Le-Chateau, outside of Paris, but it is visible from the street.

Khomeini stayed there for several months in late 1978 and early 1979 before returning to Iran.

Amid the current protests in Iran sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a collection of 40 groups asked the town government to take several steps to distance itself from its links to Khomeini, including hiding the sign.

International Women’s Law League posted on Facebook that its representatives met Wednesday with the town’s mayor, Elisabeth Sandjivy, to discuss their requests.

Agence France-Presse reported that Sandjivy told the news agency the sign “will be hidden,” probably by way of a large panel installed on the sidewalk to block it.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Police in riot gear began evicting climate activists Wednesday from a condemned village in western Germany that is due to be demolished for the expansion of a coal mine.

Some stones and fireworks were thrown as officers entered the tiny hamlet of Luetzerath, which has become a flashpoint of debate over the country’s climate efforts, Wednesday morning.

Police spokesperson Andreas Mueller said the attacks on officers were “not nice” but noted that most of the protest so far had been peaceful.

He said police would stick to their tactic of trying to avoid any escalation by offering to let any activists who leave on their own accord to do so without facing further police measures or prosecution.

Still, some protesters complained of undue force by police and others said the scale of the police response — with officers brought in from across the country and water cannons on standby — was itself a form of escalation not justified by the peaceful protest. At least one woman screamed in apparent pain as officers used force to remove her from a roadblock outside the village.

By Wednesday afternoon dozens of activists remained camped out in Luetzerath, some in elaborate tree houses, as police slowly moved through the village clearing barricades and a communal soup kitchen.

Some activists read books or played the accordion while perched atop 3-meter tripods. A few sat or stood on the roofs of Luetzerath’s remaining buildings despite the chilly wind.

“I’m really afraid today,” Petra Schumann, a 53-year-old local who had been at the site for several days, said from a top-floor window of one of the few remaining houses. Schumann said she still held out hope of preserving what’s left of Luetzerath “until nothing is left standing; hope dies last.”

Environmentalists say bulldozing the village to expand the nearby Garzweiler coal mine would result in huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE argue the coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security.

However, a study by the German Institute for Economic Research calls into question the government’s stance. Its authors found other existing coal fields could be used instead, though the cost to RWE would be greater.

Another alternative would be for Germany to increase production of renewable power, cut demand through energy efficiency measures, or import more coal or gas from abroad, the study found.

Citing the study and the urgent need to curb global carbon emissions, protesters refused to heed a court ruling Monday that effectively banned them from the area.

Some activists expressed particular anger at the environmentalist Green party, which is part of both the regional and national governments that reached a deal with RWE last year allowing it to destroy the village in return for ending coal use by 2030, rather than 2038.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, a Green who is Germany’s economy and climate minister, defended the agreement as a “good decision for climate protection” that fulfills many of the environmentalists’ demands and saves five other villages from demolition.

“I think climate protection and protests need symbols but the empty hamlet of Luetzerath, where no one lives any more, is the wrong symbol from my point of view,” Habeck told reporters in Berlin.

Climate campaigners counter that expanding a massive open-cast coal mine goes against Germany’s international commitments to reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The country is expected to miss its ambitious targets for the second year in a row.

Luetzerath “is now the European place of crystallization for the climate movement,” said Lakshmi Thevasagayam, a spokesperson for the Luetzerath Lives activist group. “We know that the coal under Luetzerath isn’t needed for energy security — it must remain in the ground so that we can achieve climate justice.”

“Now we can do something against the climate catastrophe, but at some point we won’t be able to anymore,” Thevasagayam said. She accused police of engaging in “a complete escalation” by moving ahead with the eviction Wednesday.

RWE said in a statement that a 1.5-kilometer fence will be built around the site. It appealed to activists to peacefully “end the illegal occupation” of the site it legally owns.

Andreas Mueller, the police spokesperson, said authorities were prepared for the eviction operation to last weeks, if necessary.

The heads of several environmental organizations planned to visit Luetzerath on Thursday to express solidarity with the activists there. A large protest was also scheduled near the site Saturday, attended by prominent Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

 
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