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Sweden’s prime minister has condemned as “deeply disrespectful” the weekend burning of a Quran in Stockholm, which has raised tensions with Turkey as the Nordic country courts Ankara over its NATO bid.

Far-right politician Rasmus Paludan set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book on Saturday in front of Turkey’s embassy in the Swedish capital.

Furious that Paludan had been permitted by Swedish police to carry out the protest, Ankara canceled a visit by Sweden’s defense minister and summoned Stockholm’s ambassador.

Late on Saturday, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tweeted: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But what is legal is not necessarily appropriate. Burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act.” 

“I want to express my sympathy for all Muslims who are offended by what has happened in Stockholm today.”

Paludan’s demonstration has further damaged relations as Stockholm tries to convince NATO member Turkey to approve Sweden and Finland joining the military alliance.

Sweden’s bid has been stalled amid Ankara’s demands that Stockholm hand over Kurdish activists and prevent rallies attacking Turkey’s leadership.

Many Muslim countries said they were outraged by the burning of the Quran on Saturday.

Morocco said it was “astonished” the authorities had allowed it to take place “in front of the Swedish forces of order.”

Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned it, as did the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Jakarta said, “the act of blasphemy against the holy book has hurt and tarnished religious tolerance,” adding that “freedom of expression must be exercised in a responsible manner.”

Dozens of protesters gathered late Saturday in front of the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, where they burned a Swedish flag and called on Turkey to sever diplomatic ties with Stockholm.

Paludan, a Swedish-Danish activist who has already been convicted for racist abuse, provoked rioting in Sweden last year when he went on a tour of the country and publicly burned copies of the Quran. 
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“I’ve always been able to understand how people feel and to see their perspective,” said Luisa Piette, who lives in Cool, California. “I feel their pain, whether it’s people going through a difficult divorce or an acquaintance who couldn’t pay their rent. I’ve been there to lend an ear and to empathize with them.”

Piette has a daughter and a granddaughter.

“I think women better understand what it feels like to put themselves in other people’s situations,” she told VOA.

Piette could be a textbook case on what studies on empathy have shown and what many people already suspect — women tend to be more empathetic than men.

A study released last month by researchers at the University of Cambridge surveyed tens of thousands of people worldwide. Like other studies, it indicated that women are much better than men at empathizing with others, regardless of any familial or cultural influences.

“Our findings provide some of the first evidence of the well-known phenomenon that women are, on average, more empathetic than men,” said David Greenberg, the study’s lead scientist.

Cognitive empathy

The scientists sought to measure cognitive empathy, which is when someone intellectually understands what another person may be thinking or feeling and then predicts how they will react.

For example, a friend tells you they are upset because they had an unpleasant disagreement with someone. If you have cognitive empathy, you will understand how your friend feels by putting yourself in their shoes.

The Cambridge study was the largest to date on the topic. Participants totaled about 306,000 men and women from 57 countries, including Egypt, India, Croatia and Saudi Arabia. On average, women showed much higher cognitive empathy in 36 countries and a similar amount to men in 21 others. In no country did men show greater empathy.

“This study clearly shows broadly consistent gender differences across countries, languages and age groups,” said Carrie Allison, director of research strategy at Cambridge University.

The authors of the report point out the results are just averages, with some men being better at empathizing than some women.

Sandra Murphy, a social scientist in Takoma Park, Maryland, said she doesn’t fit the stereotypical image.

“I’m more analytical, and my husband, who is a lawyer, is more empathetic,” she said.

Jack Murphy agreed.

“I tend to be more sensitive to people’s emotions and feelings,” he said.

Researchers found that empathetic capacities typically rise during adolescence and decrease during adulthood.

Olivia Mickelson, a high school student from Fairfax, Virginia, said, “I think my girlfriends are a lot more understanding and empathetic than my guy friends.”

Eyes test

To measure participants’ cognitive empathy, researchers used what they call the Eyes Test to measure a person’s ability to recognize someone else’s mental or emotional state.

Study participants examined photos of people’s various facial expressions and focused on what they thought a person may be thinking or feeling by looking at the area around their eyes. Participants were then given a limited list of words to describe what they saw.

“The results of the study prove what I’ve seen in my practice about women being more empathetic,” said therapist Cynthia Catchings, executive director of the Women’s Emotional Wellness Center in Alexandria, Virginia. “I think a lot of it has to be with upbringing, with women experiencing more socialization and many having close friends who are women.”

Sara Hodges, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Oregon, agrees.

“The reason why people think their mother or best friend is empathetic is because they seem to know what they are thinking and feeling and would act with their interests at heart,” said Hodges, who is also director of the University of Oregon’s Social Cognition Lab where research includes empathy.

Hodges said the lab’s research, as well as other studies, appear to indicate gender differences in cognitive empathy may stem from social as well as biological factors.

“Women are better at decoding nonverbal, emotional communication,” she said.

At the same time, she thinks Eyes Test studies have their limitations in measuring empathy, a complex psychological phenomenon.

“They may not necessarily reflect that people are seeing empathy,” Hodges said, adding that empathy can be used for altruistic reasons or to influence others.

“Some people may be better at reading people’s facial expressions and are not necessarily doing that for compassionate reasons. They may be trying to get someone to do something they may not want to do,” she said.
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Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain and other food exports have slowed to half their peak rate under a wartime agreement brokered by the United Nations, creating backlogs in vessels meant to carry supplies to developing nations where people are going hungry, United Nations and Ukrainian officials say.

Some officials from the United States and Ukraine accuse Russia of deliberately slowing inspections, which a Russian official denied.

As the grain initiative got rolling in August, 4.1 inspections of ships — both heading to and leaving Ukraine — took place each day on average, according to data the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul provided to The Associated Press. Inspection teams from Russia, Ukraine, the U.N. and Turkey ensure ships carry only food and other agricultural products and no weapons.

In September, inspections jumped to 10.4 per day, then a peak rate of 10.6 in October. Since then, it’s been downhill: 7.3 in November, 6.5 in December and 5.3 so far in January.

“The hope had been that going into 2023, you would see every month the daily rate of inspection going up, not that you would see it halved,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in an interview Thursday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The slowdown in inspections “has a material effect … in terms of the number of ships that can get out,” said the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “That, in turn, inevitably has a knock-on effect on global supply.”

More than 100 vessels waiting

More than 100 vessels are waiting in the waters off Turkey either for inspection or for their applications to participate to clear, with the waiting time of vessels between application and inspection averaging 21 days in the last two weeks, according to the U.N.

Despite fewer average daily inspections, U.N. figures showed that more grain got through last month, up 3.7 million metric tons from 2.6 million in November. The coordination center said that was because of the use of larger vessels in December.

The U.N.’s deputy spokesman in New York linked the slowdown in inspections to the backlogs in ships, saying the rate needs to pick up but did not pin blame on Russia.

“We, as the U.N., are urging all the parties to work to remove obstacles for the reduction of the backlog and improve our efficiencies,” Farhan Haq told journalists Wednesday.

The number of inspections of ships to and from Ukraine is a crucial measure of the throughput of Ukrainian grain to world markets, but not the only one: Other factors include port activity, harvest and agricultural supply, silo stockpiles, weather, ship availability and the capacity of vessels.

The initiative

The Black Sea Grain Initiative was designed to free up Ukrainian wheat, barley and other food critical to nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where shortages of affordable supplies sent food prices surging and helped throw more people into poverty.

Proponents hoped a November extension of the deal would spur an acceleration of inspections — and thus help ship millions of tons of food out of three Ukrainian ports disrupted by Russia’s invasion 11 months ago.

But Power of USAID said the U.S. was “very concerned” that Moscow might be deliberately dragging its heels on inspections.

“Costs of actually exporting and shipping are now up 20% because you have these crews that are just idling for the extra time it takes because the Russian Federation has cut down on the number of inspections it will participate in,” she said.

Asked whether Russia was deliberately slowing the inspections, Alexander Pchelyakov, a spokesman for the Russian diplomatic mission to U.N. institutions in Geneva, said: “That’s simply not true.”

“The Russian side adheres to the number of daily inspections in accordance to the reached agreements,” he said by text message.

In a Facebook post Thursday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure said ship backlogs began in November.

“The average waiting time is from 2 to 5 weeks, which also leads to millions of losses for cargo owners,” the ministry wrote, adding that Russia had “artificially reduced the number of inspection teams from 5 to 3 without any explanation.”

The time needed for inspections was “artificially increased by checking the performance of vessels,” it added, saying there were cases “when Russians refuse to work for fictitious reasons.”

Turkey’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately response to emails seeking comment about the inspection slowdowns.

Russia says sanctions create obstacles

The grain initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, came with a separate arrangement to help Russia export its food and fertilizer as farmers worldwide face soaring prices for the nutrients needed for their crops.

Russia has complained that Western sanctions have created obstacles to its agricultural exports. While sanctions don’t target Russian food or fertilizer, many shipping and insurance companies have been reluctant to deal with Moscow, either refusing to do so or greatly increasing the price.

Overall under the deal, 17.8 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products have been exported to 43 countries since August 1, the U.N. said. China — a key ally of Russia — has been a top recipient, followed by Spain and Turkey.

Low and lower-middle income countries received 44% of the wheat exported under the deal, with nearly two-thirds of that going to developing economies, the world body said. The U.N.’s World Food Program purchased 8% of the total.

The organization says nearly 350 million people worldwide are on the brink of starvation because of conflict, climate change and COVID-19, an increase in 200 million from before the pandemic.
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A former U.S. Navy SEAL who went AWOL in 2019 was killed this week in Ukraine, American officials said Friday. They said he was not fighting in an official capacity.

Daniel W. Swift, who was a 1st class petty officer, was injured in Dnipro and died of his wounds, said one of the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

No other details were available, including whether Swift’s body has been taken out of Ukraine.

The Navy said he deserted his post in San Diego, California, in March 2019. “We cannot speculate as to why the former Sailor was in Ukraine,” the Navy said.

At least five other Americans are known to have died fighting in Ukraine, according to U.S. State Department statements and reports from individual families.

Swift joined the Navy in 2005 and was assigned to a SEAL unit in 2007. He voluntarily left the service in January 2014, but rejoined in 2015, and was assigned to a SEAL unit a year later. After he deserted, Naval Special Warfare Command stripped him of his SEAL qualification — essentially revoking the trident worn by SEALs.

Swift also worked briefly — just over three months in 2015 — as a police officer in Medford, Oregon. Medford Police Department Deputy Chief Trevor Arnold had no further information Friday.

He wrote a book in 2020 called The Fall of a Man. Its Amazon page says he became a father at age 20 and “by the time he was thirty he had deployed as a Navy SEAL five times to include Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.” It adds that he had four children.

The U.S. government has discouraged Americans from going to fight for Ukraine, citing concerns that they may be captured by Russian forces and held hostage. At least 6,000 people contacted the Ukrainian embassy in Washington during the opening weeks of the war seeking information about how to volunteer on behalf of Ukraine.

Half the potential volunteers were quickly rejected for lacking military experience, having a criminal record, or otherwise not being fit to serve, Ukraine’s military attache said last year.

An unknown number of Americans have joined units of foreign fighters supporting Kyiv, including former military members. Others are volunteering with aid groups and human-rights organizations. The Biden administration has made it clear that no current U.S. service members are in combat in Ukraine, although there are some assigned to the embassy in Kyiv, including for security and with the defense attache’s office.

The State Department declined to address Swift’s death specifically but said in a statement that it could confirm the recent death of a U.S. citizen in Ukraine.

“We are in touch with his family and providing all possible consular assistance,” the department said.
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Tons of waste dumped in poorly regulated riverside landfills or directly into the waterways that flow across three countries end up accumulating behind a trash barrier in the Drina River in eastern Bosnia during the wet weather of winter and early spring.

This week, the barrier once again became the outer edge of a massive floating waste dump crammed with plastic bottles, rusty barrels, used tires, household appliances, driftwood and other garbage picked up by the river from its tributaries.

The river fencing installed by a Bosnian hydroelectric plant, a few kilometers upstream from its dam near Visegrad, has turned the city into an unwilling regional waste site, local environmental activists complain.

Heavy rain and unseasonably warm weather over the past week have caused many rivers and streams in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro to overflow, flooding the surrounding areas and forcing scores of people from their homes. Temperatures dropped in many areas Friday as rain turned into snow.

“We had a lot of rainfall and torrential floods in recent days and a huge inflow of water from (the Drina’s tributaries in) Montenegro which is now, fortunately, subsiding,” said Dejan Furtula of the environmental group Eko Centar Visegrad.

“Unfortunately, the huge inflow of garbage has not ceased,” he added.

The Drina

The Drina River runs 346 kilometers (215 miles) from the mountains of northwestern Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. and some of its tributaries are known for their emerald color and breathtaking scenery. A section along the border between Bosnia and Serbia is popular with river rafters when it’s not “garbage season.”

Some 10,000 cubic meters (more than 353,000 cubic feet) of waste are estimated to have amassed behind the Drina River trash barrier in recent days, Furtula said. The same amount was pulled in recent years from that area of the river.

Removing the garbage takes up to six months, on average. It ends up at the municipal landfill in Visegrad, which Furtula said “does not even have sufficient capacity to handle (the city’s) municipal waste.”

“The fires on the (municipal) landfill site are always burning,” he said, calling the conditions there “not just a huge environmental and health hazard, but also a big embarrassment for all of us.”

Environmental woes

Decades after the devastating 1990s wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans lag behind the rest of Europe both economically and with regard to environmental protection.

The countries of the region have made little progress in building effective, environmentally sound trash disposal systems despite seeking membership in the European Union and adopting some of the EU’s laws and regulations.

Unauthorized waste dumps dot hills and valleys throughout the region, while trash litters roads and plastic bags hang from the trees.

In addition to river pollution, many countries in the western Balkans have other environmental woes. One of the most pressing is the extremely high level of air pollution affecting several cities in the region.

“People need to wake up to problems like this,” Visegrad resident Rados Brekalovic said.
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Thousands of people packed into central Madrid Saturday to protest the Socialist government and accuse it of undermining the constitution, in a rally backed by rightist parties.

Protesters massed in the Plaza de Cibeles in front of City Hall, waved Spanish flags, called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to resign and shouted out “traitor.”

More than 100 groups – including the conservative opposition Popular Party, center-right Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox – called the rally under the slogan “For Spain, for democracy and the constitution.”

Speakers attacked the government for a string of policies and decisions, ranging from the release of Catalan independence campaigners to its pacts with regional separatist parties. Around 30,000 people took part, according to local government estimates.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal, the only party leader to attend, told the crowd the government had “trampled the constitution by locking up Spaniards,” in reference to COVID lockdowns.

Around 200km (120 miles) away in the northwestern city of Valladolid, Sanchez told a Socialist rally that the protesters in Madrid were defending a “uniform” and therefore “discriminatory” Spain.

In June 2021, Sanchez’s government pardoned the nine jailed leaders of Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid “in the spirit of dialog.” Its recent decision to replace the crime of sedition with a lesser crime was opposed by the right. 
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RT France, the French arm of the Russian state broadcaster, will shut down after its French bank accounts were frozen over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the channel’s director said Saturday.  

“After five years of harassment, the authorities in power have achieved their goal: the closure of RT France,” Xenia Fedorova said in a Twitter statement.  

She said 123 employees were at risk of not being paid for January and could lose their jobs because of the account freeze — part of the latest European Union sanctions against Russia.   

Moscow had already warned of retaliation for the move by the French finance ministry, first reported by the unions of RT France on Friday.  

“The blocking of RT France accounts will lead to retaliatory measures against the French media in Russia,” the TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted an anonymous foreign ministry source as saying, accusing Paris of “terrorizing Russian journalists.”   

The French finance ministry told AFP that the assets of the chain had been frozen in compliance with the most recent EU sanctions, and not on Paris’s initiative.   

A broadcast ban for Russian media was introduced by the European Union shortly after the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, and an appeal by RT France was thrown out by the European Court of Justice last July.  

France was the only member state in the bloc to have a registered RT subsidiary, which has continued to produce and distribute programs that are available via VPN internet access.  

Launched in 2005 as “Russia Today”, state-funded RT has expanded with channels and websites in languages including English, French, Spanish and Arabic.  

It has been accused by Western countries of distributing disinformation and Kremlin-friendly propaganda. 
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Britain’s prime minister has been fined for not wearing a seat belt while taping a social media clip in the back of a car in northwest England.

When Rishi Sunak uploaded the video to Instagram, his error was widely noticed.

Viewers complained to Lancashire police.

Lancashire police said Friday, “After looking into this matter, we have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty.”

A Sunak spokesperson said the prime minister has apologized for his “brief error of judgment” and he urges everyone to wear a seat belt.

This is not the prime minister’s first encounter with the law. In 2020, when he was the finance minister, Sundak, along with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were fined for breaking COVID-lockdown rules.

Failure to wear a seat belt in Britain carries a fine of up to $620.
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Turkey has canceled the Swedish defense minister’s planned visit to Ankara because the Nordic country has given permission to protesters to hold an anti-Turkey demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. 

Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said there was “no point” to Swedish Defense Minister’s Pål Jonson’s January 27 trip because Sweden has not taken any steps to block the “disgusting” anti-Turkey demonstrations in Sweden. 

Sweden is seeking to become a NATO member.  Turkey, a NATO member, has held off ratifying Sweden’s bid to join the alliance because Sweden continues to allow the demonstrations. “Measures should have been taken,” Akar said in a Turkish defense ministry statement. 

Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador Friday because of the planned protests in Sweden and the planned burning of the Quran during the demonstrations.  

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says Ukrainian forces will train to use Leopard 2 battle tanks, despite Western allies’ failure Friday to reach a decision on whether to supply Kyiv with the German-made tanks.

Reznikov told VOA’s Ukrainian Service on Friday that Ukraine’s troops will train on the tanks in Poland and described the development as a breakthrough.

“Countries that already have Leopard tanks can begin training missions for our tank crews. We will start with that, and we will go from there. I hope, Germany will follow their process, conduct their internal consultations, and will arrive at the decision to transfer tanks. I am optimistic regarding this because the first step has been made. We will start training programs for our tank crews on Leopards 2,” Reznikov said.

Earlier Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army General Mark Milley said no Leopard tanks would be given to Ukraine by Germany at this time. They made the remarks at a briefing at U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany following an international conference on Ukraine support.

The meeting was held amid Kyiv’s frustration with the dissent over sending tanks to Ukraine as the full-scale invasion reaches the 11-month mark. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made direct pleas for tanks at the meeting.

Reznikov said he was pleased with the results, “I consider that the key concepts of this meeting today were unity, timelines of delivering aid, and enhancement of the capabilities of the armed forces of Ukraine to continue counter-offensive operations in order to liberate temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. All the previously announced [military aid] packages have been confirmed. In addition, some new packages were discussed behind closed doors, but I am not at liberty to announce them just yet. This is inspiring. I am very satisfied.”

Austin denied there is a link between Germany not sending its Leopard tanks and the U.S. not committing its Abrams tanks. Downplaying the immediate importance of tanks, he emphasized that an extensive new U.S. military assistance package to Ukraine — which includes 59 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers — would give Ukraine new capabilities in the war.

“What we’re really focused on is making sure that Ukraine has a capability that it needs to be successful right now. So, we have a window of opportunity here — between now and in the spring … whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive,” he said.

The new U.S. aid package, worth $2.5 billion, brings American military assistance to Ukraine to almost $27 billion since Russia’s invasion nearly a year ago.

The military package also includes three types of missiles, tens of thousands of artillery and mortar rounds, and additional HIMARS ammunition, with eight Avenger air defense systems. The U.S. already announced it would send a Patriot missile system, while the Netherlands will supply two launching pads for them as well as missiles, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Austin reaffirmed the allies’ commitment to defending Ukraine.

“It is not only about Ukraine security, it is about European security and about global security,” he said. He expressed confidence the group will remain united and continue to build momentum.

Asked if Germany is a reliable ally, Austin responded, “They are a reliable ally, they’ve been that way for a very, very long time, and I truly believe that they’ll continue to be a reliable ally going forward.”

Milley echoed Austin’s comment and noted this is the most unified he has seen NATO in his 40 years in uniform. He said the U.S. assistance package, along with unified donations from other countries, signify their resolve to defend Ukraine.

“As much as it takes, as long as it takes in order to keep Ukraine free, independent and sovereign,” he said.

However, Milley pointed out that “synchronizing, sending all these armaments and training Ukrainian troops in a short window before spring is challenging; equipment getting married to the people and creating a coherent plan.”

He also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russia’s invading forces from the country this year, and he stressed the importance of solidifying Ukraine’s defensive front.

Defense ministers from about 50 countries, including all NATO members, met at Ramstein. This was the eighth Ramstein summit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Regarding tanks, Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, suggested the issue was inching forward. Speaking to reporters outside the Ramstein conference hall at midday, Pistorius said, “We will make our decisions as soon as possible.”

In an interview with VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara on Friday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that it is up to Germany to decide the size, scale and scope of military assistance they are comfortable with providing to Ukraine. “We are not there, arm-twisting and pushing and cajoling,” he said.

Kirby said the NATO alliance remains “very, very solidly behind Ukraine.” However, he said NATO allies, as “sovereign nations, they get to decide because they have to have their own national security needs, they have to consider as well, just like we do.”

Earlier Friday, the head of NATO’s Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer of the Royal Netherlands Navy, also said Germany and other countries supporting Ukraine will have to decide individually on whether to supply it with tanks but warned that “giving away stuff now costs money but the cost for all of us will be much higher if Russia wins the war in Ukraine. … We need to seriously look at what Ukraine requires, and if possible, give them what they ask for.”

Zelenskyy said in his evening address Friday that Ukraine will have to fight to secure a supply of modern heavy armor.

“Every day we make it more obvious there is no alternative to making the decision on tanks,” he said.

Zelenskyy thanked the U.S., European allies and Canada for military weapons and stressed the significance of their speedy delivery. “The only thing worth emphasizing is the time, the delivery time,” he said. “Each agreement must be implemented as quickly as possible – for our defense.”

Moscow said Friday any additional tanks supplied to Ukraine will have no effect on the course of the conflict.

“We have repeatedly said that such supplies will not fundamentally change anything but will add problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

He said the West will “regret its delusion” that Ukraine can win on the battlefield.

In Kyiv on Friday, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse met with Zelenskyy and Ukrainian military officials. VOA’s Kyiv correspondent Anna Chernikova reported that during a news conference, the senators asserted the U.S. should provide tanks and long-range weapons to Ukraine to stop Russia’s invasion.

They expressed their conviction that Ukraine needs this help now, because time is not on the side of Ukraine and its allies. They also said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is not stopped now, NATO countries would be next.

The senators appealed to their voters, asserting that their money is necessary to restore the world order. The main message to Ukrainians was that the U.S. would stay with them for as long as it takes.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The White House on Friday announced it will designate the Wagner Group, the Russian private military company supporting Moscow’s war on Ukraine, as a Transnational Criminal Organization, hitting it with sanctions and limiting its ability to do business around the world.

Declaring Wagner a TCO freezes its assets in the U.S. and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods or services to the group.

“It will give us more flexibility,” John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in a Friday interview with VOA.

“We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of those sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner, but this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically,” he said of the sanctions that will be put in effect by the U.S. Treasury Department next week.

Kirby said the U.S. is urging other countries to target the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In recent years the group has significantly increased its footprint not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Mali and has been accused of human rights violations in countries where it operates.

The Biden administration also released newly declassified photos of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea in November for use by Wagner forces. The administration submitted the imagery to the U.N. Security Council panel charged with enforcing North Korea sanctions to push for action on what it says is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on arms transfers.

“The North Koreans had just been baldly lying about their support to Russia,” Kirby said, adding the U.S. wants to “lay out demonstrable evidence” of Pyongyang’s support.

40,000 Russian convict fighters

Last month the White House confirmed that Wagner deploys about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 40,000 of them recruited from Russian jails.

Olga Romanova, executive director of the civil rights movement Russia Behind Bars, told VOA that prisoners who agree to sign the contract with Wagner are paid about $3,000 a month.

“By the end of 2022, the desire to go serve in Wagner group in Ukraine has diminished significantly among the Russian convicts,” she told VOA, citing extrajudicial executions, unfulfilled promises and extremely high casualties.

Experts who study the group say up to 80% of Russian convicts used by Wagner die in Ukrainian battlefields. Out of thousands of Wagner-recruited convicts, only 106 were pardoned and allowed to go home after the fulfillment of their six-month contracts, Romanova said.

Prisoners are deployed without training, organizational capability, or command and control, Kirby said.

“They’re just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas, and they’re paying a heavy price for it,” he said, referencing two Ukrainian towns that are the focus of recent intense fighting.

Kirby spoke of mounting tensions between Prigozhin and the Kremlin, accusing the Wagner founder of making himself “seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military” while “trying to fill his own coffers.”

The Wagner group posted a picture of Prigozhin and his fighters in Soledar, which the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured last week without mention of Wagner’s role.

Foreign terrorist organization

Kirby would not confirm whether the U.S. is aiming next to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In December a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced the Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries (HARM) Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the Secretary of State to designate Wagner as an FTO. A similar measure has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

In November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the European Council to place Wagner on the EU terrorist list.

Designating the group as a terrorist organization would not only freeze its assets, ban recruitment, financing and travel of its members said Méryl Demuynck, research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

“It would send a very strong message and has a symbolic function, not only to Russia,” she told VOA. “But also to countries that are already resorting to the group or considering resorting to it.”
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The White House announced Friday new sanctions to be put in place by the U.S. Treasury Department next week on the Wagner Group, designating the Russian private military company as a transnational criminal organization.

The Biden administration urged other countries to join the U.S. in targeting the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has been playing a key role in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The administration also released newly declassified photos taken in November of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea for use by Wagner forces. It submitted the imagery to the U.N. Security Council panel charged with enforcing North Korea sanctions to push for action on what it believes is a violation of Security Council resolutions on arms transfers.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke Friday with John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, about the significance of the designation and possible further actions concerning the Wagner Group, which the administration says has recruited 40,000 convicts to fight in Ukraine.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: We’ll focus on the Wagner announcement, but briefly, can you clarify the U.S. position on this debate on tanks for Ukraine that’s going on in the donor conference in Germany? Does the U.S. want Germany to send Leopard tanks and allow the transfer of Leopard tanks from other countries? Would the U.S. send Abrams tanks if that’s the only way to get Germany to send their Leopard tanks?

John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman: We believe that it’s important that every nation that can support Ukraine and their defense needs, and right now, President Zelenskyy has talked about this, one of the critical needs for the Ukrainian armed forces this winter and probably into the spring is going to be armor, armor capability, because of the kinds of fighting they’re doing in the Donbas. That can include tanks, and the Ukrainians do have a real need for additional tanks. They’ve been using largely T-72s, which are old Soviet-made tanks and, you know, it’s been almost a year. So we certainly welcome the contributions of other nations, including the U.K., which just in the last week or so agreed to send Challenger tanks. And we know that Germany is working through their own process here with respect to the Leopards. The Leopards are great tanks, very capable, won’t require an exorbitant amount of training for the Ukrainians should Germany want to move in that direction.

It’s Germany’s decision to make. We are not out there arm twisting and pushing and cajoling. We want countries to give what they can, contribute what they can, when and where they can, and on the size and scale and scope that they’re comfortable with. And that’s for Germany to decide. I will add, though, that Germany has increased their contributions – they were already, even early on in the war, one of the world’s leading financial contributors to Ukraine, in terms of just financial aid and assistance, and they have over, certainly, the last several months really … [we’re] aware of their own willingness and ability to provide advanced capabilities. And that’s been deeply appreciated by everybody.

VOA: Is this standoff on tanks an example of the threat to NATO unity that President Biden spoke about in December?

Kirby: I would not describe this as a standoff. I mean, these are ongoing iterative discussions that we have with all our allies and partners about what they can provide and at what scale. And again, these are sovereign nations, they get to decide, because they have their own national security needs they have to consider as well, just like we do. But in just stepping broadly back, the alliance has been just incredibly, solidly behind and supportive of Ukraine, and we don’t see … we don’t see that fracturing at all.

VOA: The U.S. is designating [the Wagner Group] as a transnational criminal organization. As I understand, that primarily means freezing Wagner assets in the U.S. and also prohibiting Americans from providing support. How significant is this move? What size assets are we talking about?

Kirby: It will give us more flexibility. We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of those sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner. But this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically, and I’ll let Treasury talk to this in more detail. They’ll have more to put out on this next week, but you’re right about what that designation does. It blocks and prevents the transfer of monies to Wagner from any U.S. entity. And it might lead to additional measures by other countries now that we’re doing this, so we’ll see where that goes.

VOA: How immediate will the impact be? Will it impact Wagner operations not just in Ukraine but also other countries?

Kirby: Once the designation is in place, we’re executing it. So, there’ll be an immediate effect. And again, we encourage other nations as well to help us in cracking down on Wagner’s ability to literally commit atrocities around the world. It’s not about just cutting off their ability to commit atrocities in Ukraine. It’s about their ability to commit atrocities around the world.

VOA: Why is the U.S. designating the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization (TCO) and not as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO)?

Kirby: I think we believe that this move right now is the appropriate move, and it will have an impact on Wagner.

VOA: Is the goal FTO next?

Kirby: I’m not going to get ahead of where we are, but right now we’re deciding that we’re going to designate them as a TCO, and we’re going to continue to try to further squeeze their ability to operate and to fund themselves, and I’m not going to get ahead of where that is.

VOA: The other thing that you underscored today was the sharing of information about the transfer of weapons from North Korea to the Wagner Group that you will share with the Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee —

Kirby: We shared it today.

VOA: You did share it today. So, what is the goal here specifically for North Korea?

Kirby: We believe it’s two things. The most important thing is to try to stop this flow of support from North Korea to Russia. And that’s why what I also said was, “We urge them to stop this immediately.” They are violating existing U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the reason we brought it up today is because we want to see if there’s additional sanctioning flexibility here. We don’t know. That’s one of the reasons why we brought it up to the committee of experts. But we certainly want it to stop.

The second component here, and this isn’t unimportant either, is the North Koreans had just been baldly lying about their support to Russia. They’ve just said they’re not doing it. They’ve claimed they had nothing to do with it. And today, we felt it was important, in keeping in conjunction with our conversations at the U.N., to lay out demonstrable evidence that, in fact, they are supporting Russia with arms and ammunition, and we got the goods on them, and we put it out there.

VOA: You’ve said that they are using 40,000 Russian convicts to fight in Ukraine. Experts who study the group say that the casualty levels are quite massive – 80% to 90% die in battle during their standard contract. Is this something that you can confirm?

Kirby: We can confirm that they certainly are the bulk of their manpower, at least in the Donbas, are convicts. I said today some 50,000 Wagner employees are in Ukraine and 40,000, the vast majority, we believe, are convicts. I mean, they’re going into the jails and they’re opening up the cells and they’re just pulling people out, putting them right into the fight.

VOA: Do you know the casualty levels?

Kirby: The casualty rate, we believe, for the convicts is extraordinarily high. As a matter of fact, what we think is that 90% of their casualties are convicts themselves. They’re just throwing them into the flight. No training, no organizational capability, no command and control. They’re just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas, and they’re paying a heavy price for it.

VOA: But do we have an understanding of the exact number of how many Russian convicts have died in battle?

Kirby: I’m afraid I wouldn’t have that exact number for you.

VOA: At this point, does the U.S. believe that Vladimir Putin should be prosecuted for his use of Russian convicts in Ukraine?

Kirby: We believe that Russia needs to be held properly to account for the atrocities and war crimes that we know Russian soldiers and Wagner contract employees are conducting inside Ukraine, which is why we’re helping the international community document that. We’re going to help provide whatever support to international investigative efforts are ongoing and make sure that the Russian armed forces, and in this case Wagner as well, can be properly held to account.

VOA: Specifically on the use of Russian convicts, does the U.S. believe that this is a violation of human rights?

Kirby: I’ll leave that to the international lawyers to determine. Without a doubt, Wagner employees and Russian soldiers are committing atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine, and that’s as plain as the nose on your face. You can see what they’re doing. We just want to make sure it’s properly documented so proper accountability measures can be held.

VOA: Can you speak more about the tension between Prigozhin and the Russian leadership? What does it tell you about cohesion in the Russian top leadership at this point?

Kirby: We know that the tensions between Prigozhin individually, Wagner institutionally, and the Ministry of Defense are increasing because Mr. Prigozhin wants to take credit for all the work he’s doing in the Donbas region and the progress that he’s making in towns like Bakhmut and Soledar, and that is causing tensions. In addition to that, he has been a very open critic of Russian generals and the way that the Russian military has been prosecuting the war, not just in the Donbas but elsewhere as well. I mean, he’s been very open. And it appears to us that he’s trying to raise his profile with Mr. Putin and make himself seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military. When in fact, what he’s also doing is trying to fill his own coffers, and it appears he also has economic gains here at play for what he’s trying to do.

VOA: Is the tension between Prigozhin and the Russian leadership something that the U.S. can take advantage of?

Kirby: We think it’s important for the world to know what we’re seeing in respect to these tensions. We think what should be taken advantage of is the opportunity for Putin to end this war. He could do it today. He could pull the Wagner group out, he can pull all his troops out. That’s the opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of. But we do think it’s important to showcase for the world the utter brutality with which Mr. Putin is willing to keep fighting this war, this unprovoked war against the Ukrainian people. And now, in addition to everything else, the cruise missiles, the drones, hitting apartment buildings in the last couple of days, he has taken people out of jail.

Putin is allowing Prigozhin to just empty out the jails and throw convicts into the fight. No training, no skills, no leadership, to do nothing more than just kill Ukrainian soldiers and innocent Ukrainian civilians. And we believe it’s important for that to be out there publicly so that everybody can see exactly the depravity with which he and his forces are running this war.

VOA: Is there anything else you can share about the Wagner Group? For example, is the flow of convicts to fight in Ukraine lessening? Is there any indication that the Wagner Group is getting fighters from Syria, former ISIS fighters?

Kirby: We know Mr. Prigozhin has tried to recruit for Ukraine in places like Syria. I couldn’t give you the exact numbers of how many he got or whether they’re still in the fight. But it is certainly one of his plays, to go ahead and recruit fighters from outside Russia and other countries, and we know that he’s, as I said, clearing out prisons. Now how many he’s got on any given day, what the throughput is, I don’t believe we have, you know, that specific. But in general, as I said, today, we know that he has, you know, thrown about 50,000 people into Ukraine.

VOA: Do you believe they are a formidable force? How effective are they, the Wagner Group?

Kirby: Without question they have made some incremental progress in Bakhmut and Soledar that are in the Donbas, but at a heavy, heavy price in casualties, as we talked about. It’s a meat grinder. He is throwing — literally throwing — ill equipped, ill prepared, almost no training individuals into this fight with the Ukrainian armed forces, who, while they may not have the same numbers, in terms of advantage, have a huge advantage in skill, organizational alignment, command and control, weapons systems provided by so many countries including the U.S., and they’re just chewing these prisoners up.

Because manpower doesn’t seem to be a problem for Mr. Prigozhin, they have made some incremental progress. But as we’ve also said, and Ukrainians are still fighting over Bakhmut and Soledar, and so that’s not over, we still consider that contested territory. But even if they — the Prigozhin group — end up with Bakhmut and Soledar, there’s no guarantee they’re going to keep it for very long, because the Ukrainians have proven time and time again that even when they lose territory, they’ll go back and retake it. And even if that doesn’t happen, it’s not as if those two towns are going to change the strategic direction of the war. They’re not going to put the Ukrainians on their back feet to a degree that the whole war changes character. These are two mining towns in the Donbas, and the fact that they’re mining towns ought to give you some clues as to why Mr. Prigozhin is so interested in them.
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A new study has found that Germany could save almost three times more carbon dioxide emissions than previously thought by introducing a speed limit on its highways, increasing pressure on Berlin to reconsider the politically sensitive issue.

Data from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) published on Thursday show a speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour on motorways in Germany, where there are currently no speed restrictions, could cut total CO2 emissions from passenger cars and light commercial vehicles by about 6.7 million metric tons a year.

In an earlier study, with a different methodology, the agency expected such limits to result in 2.6 million CO2 cuts.

The transport ministry said the study also shows that a general speed limit would lead to a shift in traffic from the motorways to secondary roads, leading to more traffic jams and more accidents in cities and on rural roads with more noise and environmental pollutants for their residents.

“Traffic flow and road safety are proven to be greatest on motorways,” a spokesperson for the ministry told Reuters, adding that the government had agreed on effective measures to achieve its climate goals, where a general speed limit was not included.

As Germany aims to become carbon neutral by 2045, the new results add to mounting pressure on the transport ministry, led by the liberal FDP party, to ramp up its CO2 cutting program for the sector that has been the slowest to cut emissions.

To meet its 2022 greenhouse reduction target, the sector’s emissions should have not exceeded 138.7 million metric tons of CO2-equivalents. UBA will announce in March whether the sector met that target but cautioned in November that there were no indications it had managed to do so.

In 2021, transport in Germany emitted about 148 million metric tons of CO2, missing its target by around 3 million metric tons.

The transport ministry says its program will cut some 13 million metric tons in the coming years, compensating for the 2021 missed target.

But environmentalists say the program does not go far enough, urging the government to introduce speed limits on its motorways.

Germany’s ruling coalition has failed to agree on a speed limt because of opposition from the FDP.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos wrapped up Friday after a week that featured feverish discussion of the war in Ukraine, rifts over global trade, and Greta Thunberg crashing the party of the global elite.

Here’s a summary of the hottest topics and main events:

Tanks

Ukraine sent a huge delegation to Davos to lobby hard for new weapons and financial support to help it push Russian forces out of occupied territories, with the German-made Leopard tanks high on the wish list.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made an appearance on Wednesday, was pressured from all sides to greenlight the export of the tanks from Poland and Finland — to no avail.

When asked why he was hesitating by a Ukrainian in the audience for his speech, Scholz never mentioned the word tank, saying instead that “we are never doing something just by ourselves but together with others, especially the United States.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the first of two appearances by video link in Davos, said pointedly that “the time the free world uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill.”

Russian ministers and oligarchs, once welcomed with open arms, were absent again for the second year running.

Subsidies

International trade and globalization have been articles of faith for the Davos set since the WEF started 50 years ago, but worries that both are under threat were evident in this year’s official theme: “Cooperation in a fragmented world.”

One of the biggest concerns is that a race between the U.S., China and the European Union to subsidize “clean tech” — from renewable energy technology to electric cars and batteries — could put the international trading system under further strain.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that she saw “aggressive attempts to attract our industrial capacities away to China and elsewhere.”

She also referred to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $369 billion package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is causing alarm in Europe over its potential impact on European companies.

“Do it too,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry replied.

The IRA was a “valid concern” for Europeans, Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consultancy’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa region, told Agence France-Presse.

“We have to be careful not to escalate into a trade war. I don’t think anybody wants that. Nobody wants a war on subsidies,” she added.

‘Big Oil’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered one of the most noteworthy speeches this year, launching a frontal attack on oil and gas companies over their role in global warming.

Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and those of tobacco companies that covered up the adverse effects of cigarettes.

“Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie. And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account,” he said.

He was referring to a study published in the journal Science that said ExxonMobil had dismissed the findings of its own scientists on the role of fossil fuels in climate change.

“We knew nothing — we read the papers (but) I do not have climate scientists at TotalEnergies,” the boss of the French firm Patrick Pouyanne shot back.

Greta Thunberg

Three years after attending as a teenager and facing off with then U.S. President Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg returned, but this time without a visitor’s badge.

Speaking at an event with other climate activists, she said it was “absurd” to think that people in Davos were part of the solution to global warming and defended her decision to shun political and business leaders.

“Without massive public pressure from the outside, these people are going to go as far as they possibly can … They will continue to throw people under the bus for their own gain,” the 20-year-old said.

She held a small protest in the snow and cold on Friday, this time without getting detained by police — unlike in Germany earlier in the week where she was protesting against an expanding coal mine.

ChatGPT

There were a dozen public sessions devoted to artificial intelligence, and nothing was talked about more than ChatGPT, the chatbot capable of producing strikingly quick and cogent texts on almost any topic.

Made by OpenAI — the hottest startup in the Silicon Valley region of California — the chatbot is seen as proof of the power of artificial intelligence, but also a source of worry that a whole host of jobs will disappear.

“The applications are going to initially put some people out of jobs,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, while expressing confidence that affected people would find new positions. “That adjustment period can be difficult, can be scary, etc. But I think the end state is going to be good.”

The boss of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, likened it to the “knowledge-worker equivalent of the Industrial Revolution. It’s going to help everybody.”

The computer giant announced on Wednesday it was laying off 10,000 employees in the coming months.
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