Author: Mirits

A group of activists hopes to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza with a flotilla of vessels carrying aid. It is set to sail from Istanbul in the coming days. In a similar mission 14 years ago, Israeli forces intercepted a Turkish flotilla in a deadly raid that resulted in the deaths of 10 people. There are warnings this attempt may trigger a new crisis. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

LONDON — The European Union on Monday demanded TikTok provide more information about a new app that pays users to watch videos and warned that it could order the video sharing platform to suspend addictive features that pose a risk to kids.  The 27-nation EU’s executive commission said it was opening formal proceedings to determine whether TikTok Lite breached the bloc’s new digital rules when the app was rolled out in France and Spain.  Brussels was ratcheting up the pressure on TikTok after the company failed to respond to a request last week for information on whether the new app complies with the Digital Services Act, a sweeping law that took effect last year intending to clean up social media platforms.  TikTok Lite is a slimmed-down version of the main TikTok app that lets users earn rewards. Points earned by watching videos, liking content and following content creators can then be exchanged for rewards including Amazon vouchers and gift cards on PayPal.  The commission wants to see the risk assessment that TikTok should have carried out before deploying the app in the European Union. It’s worried TikTok launched the app without assessing how to mitigate “potential systemic risks” such as addictive design features that could pose harm to children.  TikTok didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. The company said last week it would respond to the commission’s request and noted that rewards are restricted to users 18 years and older, who have to verify their age.  “With an endless stream of short and fast-paced videos, TikTok offers fun and a sense of connection beyond your immediate circle,” said European Commissioner Thierry Breton, one of the officials leading the bloc’s push to rein in big tech companies. “But it also comes with considerable risks, especially for our children: addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, low attention spans.”  The EU is giving TikTok 24 hours to turn over the risk assessment and until Wednesday to argue its case. Any order to suspend the TikTok Lite app’s reward features could come as early as Thursday.  It’s the first time that the EU has issued a legally binding order for such information since the Digital Services Act took effect. Officials stepped up the pressure after TikTok failed to respond to last week’s request for the information.  If TikTok still fails to respond, the commission warned the company also faces fines worth up to 1% … “EU may suspend TikTok’s new rewards app over risks to kids” →

Athens — Delegations from Greece and Turkey were meeting in Athens on Monday as part of long-standing efforts to improve often tense relations between the two neighbors, days after Turkey voiced objections over Greece’s plans to create marine nature reserves in the Ionian and Aegean seas. The two regional rivals are NATO allies but have been at odds for decades over a series of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean and drilling rights in the Mediterranean, and have come to the brink of war three times in the last 50 years. A dispute over energy exploration rights in 2020 led to the two countries’ warships facing off in the Mediterranean. Monday’s meeting in the Defense Ministry in Athens was to discuss confidence-building measures, following a similar meeting in Ankara last November. The two countries have engaged in the confidence-building process on and off for years, trying to seek common ground on a series of lower-key issues as a means of improving ties. The meeting comes ahead of planned talks in Ankara on May 13 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Tense ties have improved significantly over the past year, with Erdogan visiting Athens in December and signing a raft of trade, energy and education deals. But Mitsotakis’ announcement last week that Greece will create two marine parks for the protection of sea mammals and birds — one in the Ionian Sea in western Greece and one in the central Aegean — has angered Turkey. Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling party, said last week that Ankara considers the creation of the marine parks “a step that sabotages the normalization process” in relations, and said Turkey would “in no way allow actions toward the declaration of marine parks in the Aegean Sea.” Mitsotakis, speaking last week after a meeting of European leaders in Brussels, expressed surprise at what he described as “Turkey’s totally unjustified reaction to an initiative which at the end of the day is of an environmental nature.” The Greek prime minister said the recent improvement in relations between Greece and Turkey was “undeniable and measurable,” but that this did not mean Turkey had changed its positions on the delineation of maritime zones in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. “These positions remain positions which are deeply problematic for our country,” Mitsotakis said. “But this does not prevent us from being able to … “Greek, Turkish officials meet in Athens as part of efforts to improve often strained ties” →

OSLO — Norway’s 87-year-old King Harald will permanently reduce the number of official activities in which he takes part out of consideration for his age, the royal household said on Monday following the monarch’s recent bout of illness. Europe’s oldest living monarch and Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991, Harald was hospitalized in February for an infection while on holiday in Malaysia and later received a pacemaker to help compensate for a low heart rate. Harald resumed his duties as head of state on Monday after almost two months of sick leave. He has ruled out abdication, however, insisting his oath as king is for life. “The king will make adjustments to his program in the future, out of consideration for his age. This will entail a permanent reduction in the number and scope of activities in which the king participates,” a palace statement said. A great great grandchild of Britain’s Queen Victoria, the king ascended the throne in 1991 and slowly introduced modern touches that brought a ceremonial post seen mainly as a symbol of independence into the 21st century. His marriage in 1968 to a commoner broke with tradition and followed a nine-year stand-off with his father that ended only after Harald threatened never to marry rather than give up the woman who became his wife, Sonja Haraldsen. Harald once said in an interview that Europe’s royal families should not be tempted to reverse moves towards openness and retreat to their palace towers. “If you’ve opened the gate it’s very difficult to close it again,” he told Reuters and a British newspaper. “I’m not sure I’d want to close it. So far so good, as far as I’m concerned.” Harald struggled in his early years to replace his father, the extrovert Olav, known as the “People’s King” for his down-to-earth style and frequent interaction with the people. But he has been successful in emulating his father’s approachable style, travelling to the scene of natural disasters, wearing rubber boots and a well-worn jacket, to meet those who had lost homes or loved ones in floods and storms. Health scare When right-wing anti-Islamic fanatic Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 people in 2011, the king consoled the nation with a powerful televised speech, saying in a voice trembling with emotion that “freedom is stronger than fear.” The royal household gradually modernized under Harald’s supervision, setting up an official website and publishing … “Norway’s reform-minded King Harald, 87, to cut back activity” →

Brussels, Belgium — With an energy crisis and record high inflation in the EU’s rearview mirror, Brussels believes the time has come for the bloc to focus on ensuring sound public finances. New spending rules will be voted on in the European Parliament on Tuesday. Once in place, each member state will be required to get national spending under control, but with built-in flexibility for investment. The old rules were suspended between 2020 and 2023 to shore up the European economy as it weathered the coronavirus pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent energy costs soaring. Faced with the specter of recession, the European Union believed it was necessary to let deficit targets slip so that businesses and households could be protected. Debt has since exploded in the most vulnerable countries, and the EU came to accept that for the rules to be brought back, changes were needed to make them workable. After protracted negotiations over two years, a final agreement on the reform was reached on February 10. Inapplicable rules The old rules, known as the Stability and Growth Pact, were born in 1997 ahead of the arrival in 1999 of the single currency, the euro.   Fiscal hawks — particularly Germany — feared some countries would pursue lax budgetary policies, so they wanted strict rules to ensure balanced government accounts. The pact enshrines two sacred objectives, which remain in the reformed rules: a country’s debt must not go higher than 60 percent of gross domestic product, with a public deficit of no more than three percent.  In theory, violators would have faced hefty fines. In practice, no sanctions were ever levied as that would have put those states in greater difficulty. For instance, after Greece plunged into a sovereign debt crisis in 2009, rather than fining it, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund stepped in with bailout loans, conditioned on painful reforms. Under the rules’ “excessive deficit procedure”, a debt-overloaded country has to negotiate a plan with the European Commission to get back on track. The guideline was that the country was meant to slash sovereign debt by 1/20 a year until it comes back down to the 60-percent target. But that rule was not respected and ended up being deemed inapplicable, as implementation would unleash excruciating austerity. Changes Both the hawks and the EU’s highly indebted southern states abhorred the old rules — … “New EU spending rules bring back debt discipline focus” →

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Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill on Saturday. The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to take up a vote early this week. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. …

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A Ukrainian version of the Minecraft game features Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, and other celebrities from around the globe. The new game, called Minesalt, is based on Ukraine’s famous Soledar salt mines. Anna Kosstutschenko reports. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy. …

WARSAW — Polish voters are casting ballots Sunday to choose mayors in hundreds of cities and towns where no candidate won outright in the first round of local election voting two weeks ago.  Mayors will be chosen in 748 places, including Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow and Wroclaw. Those are places where no single candidate won at least 50% of the vote during the first round on April 7.  The local and regional elections are being viewed as a test for the pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk four months after it took power at the national level.  Tusk’s party did well in big cities including Warsaw, where his party’s candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, easily won reelection as mayor two weeks ago.  However, Tusk failed to win a decisive victory overall. The main opposition party, Law and Justice, which held power at the national level from 2015-23, won a greater percentage of votes in the provincial assemblies.  Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition has strong support in cities while the Law and Justice party has a stronger base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.  In the election of the provincial assemblies, Law and Justice obtained 34.3% of the votes nationwide and Tusks’ Civic Coalition got 30.6%.  …

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PRISTINA, Kosovo — Residents of four Serb-majority municipalities are casting their votes Sunday on removing their ethnic Albanian mayors from office following last year’s mayoral elections, overwhelmingly boycotted by the Serb minority.  The referendum — supported by the West — is an attempt to diffuse tensions between Kosovo and its neighboring Serbia as both countries vie to join the European Union. However, Kosovo’s main ethnic Serb party, Srpska List which has close ties with Belgrade, has called to boycott Sunday’s poll.  Some 46,500 residents are expected to vote in 47 polling stations, and for the mayors to step down, a majority vote is needed.  In June, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti offered to hold new elections in North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok if 20% of the electorate in the municipalities supported a petition for the polls. Residents voted in favor of the petition in January.  When Albanian mayors took up the offices last May, Kosovo Serbs clashed with security forces, including NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers, injuring 93 troops, while protesting the results.  Serbia has backed calls for the mayors to step down.  Kosovo was a former Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left some 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s 2008 independence.  Tensions between the two countries remain high.  On Monday, Kosovo took another major step toward joining the Council of Europe — the continent’s foremost human rights body — amid Serbian opposition. The following day, Belgrade authorities stopped Kosovars trying to go home for nearly 20 hours at border checkpoints, saying it was for security reasons. Pristina accused Belgrade of “holding (Kosovars) hostage” for failing to block Kosovo’s Council of Europe membership. The U.S. and E.U denounced stalling free movement between the two countries.  Earlier this month, Kosovo announced its first nationwide census since 2011 which will include surveying the ethnic Serb minority in the north. The Srpska List party has denounced the census and called for a boycott, saying it was an attempt by Kurti’s government “to confirm his shameful success in expelling (some 250,000) Serbs,” in reference to the 1999 war.  Another point of contention was Pristina’s recent decision to ban ethnic Serbs from using the Serbian currency, the dinar, widely used in Kosovo’s Serbian-run institutions, including schools and hospitals.  The … “Residents of 4 Serb-majority municipalities vote on Albanian mayors’ fates “ →

London — Alexander Mutiso Munyao delivered another win for Kenya on a day the London Marathon remembered last year’s champion Kelvin Kiptum. A race that started with a period of applause for Kiptum, who was killed in a car crash in Kenya in February, ended with his countryman and friend running alone down the final straight in front of Buckinhgam Palace to earn an impressive victory in his first major marathon.   Mutiso Munyao said he spoke to Kiptum after his win in London last year and that the world-record holder is always on his mind when he’s competing.   “He’s in my thoughts every time, because he was my great friend,” Mutiso Munyao said. “It was a good day for me.” It was a Kenyan double on the day, with Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir pulling away late to win the women’s race and cement her status as the favorite to defend her gold in Paris. With around 400 meters (yards) to go to, Jepchirchir left world-record holder Tigst Assefa and two other rivals behind to sprint alone down the final stretch. She finished in 2 hours, 16 minutes, 16 seconds, with Assefa in second and Joyciline Jepkosgei in third. Her time was more than 4 minutes slower than Assefa’s world record set in Berlin last year, but it was the fastest time ever in a women-only marathon, beating the mark of 2:17:01 set by Mary Keitany in London in 2017. The elite women’s field in London started about 30 minutes ahead of the elite men. For Jepchirchir, though, the main goal was to show Kenya’s selectors for the Olympic team that she should be on the team again in Paris. “So I was trying to work extra hard to (be able to) defend my title in the Olympics,” she said. Mutiso Munyao denied 41-year-old Kenenisa Bekele a first London Marathon victory by pulling away from the Ethiopian great with about 3 kilometers to go Sunday for his biggest career win. Mutiso Munyao and Bekele were in a two-way fight for the win until the Kenyan made his move as they ran along the River Thames, quickly building a six-second gap that only grew as he ran toward the finish. “At 40 kilometers, when my friend Bekele was left (behind), I had confidence that I can win this race,” the 27-year-old Mutiso Munyao said. He finished in 2 hours, 4 minutes, … “Mutiso Munyao gives Kenya another London Marathon win after tribute to Kiptum” →

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said this past week, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year. “We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday. It still needs to clear the Senate and President Joe Biden’s signature. Once that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.” Ready to go The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has spent the funding Congress previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. By December, the Pentagon was $10 billion in the hole, because it is going to cost more now to replace the systems it sent to the battlefield in Ukraine. As a result, the Pentagon’s frequent aid packages for Ukraine dried up because there had been no guarantee that Congress would pass the additional funding needed to replenish the weapons the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine. The lag in weapons deliveries has forced Ukrainian troops to spend months rationing their dwindling supply of munitions. How US can quickly move weapons When an aid package for Ukraine is announced, the weapons are either provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to immediately pull from its stockpiles, or through security assistance, which funds longer-term contracts with the defense industry to obtain the systems. The presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, as it’s known, has allowed the military to send billions of dollars’ worth of ammunition, air defense missile launchers, tanks, vehicles and other equipment to Ukraine. “In the past, we’ve seen weapons transferred via presidential drawdown authority arrive within a matter of days,” said Brad … “Once foreign aid bill signed, this is how US can rush weapons to Ukraine” →

Washington — Republican Mike Johnson came out of nowhere six months ago to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, before emerging as an ardent defender of military aid to Ukraine, which the chamber approved Saturday.   The evolution of this 52-year-old Southerner with carefully coiffed hair has been stunning.   An arch-conservative Christian from Louisiana, he shot to the top leadership position in the House in October after the unprecedented ouster of then-speaker Kevin McCarthy in a rebellion by far-right lawmakers allied with Donald Trump.   After several candidates were proposed, then discarded, Johnson’s name came up — he was a virtual unknown to the American public — and with the blessing of Trump, Johnson become leader of the House and of a Republican congressional caucus at war with itself. Johnson had for months blocked a vote on the aid desperately needed by Ukraine’s army as it defends against Russian invasion forces. But recently his tone began to soften. And then, in a head-spinning shift, Johnson last week emerged as a passionate defender of a long-delayed aid package.   That culminated in the vote Saturday in which his chamber, by a strong bipartisan majority, passed more than $60 billion of additional military and financial support for Ukraine.   Metamorphosis What was behind Johnson’s metamorphosis?   “I believe Johnson has been convinced, gradually, that America must support Ukraine in our own interests, and that the far-right Republicans demanding otherwise were simply wrong,” Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told AFP.   In December, as previously approved U.S. funding for Kyiv was drying up, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine made a last-ditch visit to Washington to plead for a new aid package.   Zelenskyy made his way through the halls of Congress accompanied by the Senate’s top Democrat and Republican, both vocal supporters of President Joe Biden’s request for $60 billion.   But his meeting with Johnson was held behind closed doors.   Johnson afterward said Biden was asking for “billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win, and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed.” Since then, however, a series of U.S. and world figures — including British Foreign Secretary David Cameron — worked to persuade Johnson of the high stakes, with some warning that Ukraine could fall by year’s end unless the U.S. aid came … “US House speaker, who strongly opposed Ukraine aid, ushers it through” →

Sundsvall,  Sweden — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s short videos of his three-day trip to China this week proved popular in posts on Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, which the European Union, Canada, Taiwan and the United States banned on official devices more than a year ago, citing security concerns. By Friday, one video showing highlights of Scholz’s trip had garnered 1.5 million views while another of him speaking about it on the plane home had 1.4 million views.  Scholz opened his TikTok account April 8 to attract youth, promising he wouldn’t post videos of himself dancing.  His most popular post so far, about his 40-year-old briefcase, was watched 3.6 million times.  Many commented, “This briefcase is older than me.” Scholtz is one of several Western leaders to use TikTok, despite concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, could provide private user data to the Chinese government and could also be used to push a pro-Beijing agenda.   Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has 258,000 followers on TikTok, and Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has 99,000 followers.  U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign team opened a TikTok account in February, despite Biden himself vowing to sign legislation expected to be voted on as early as Saturday to force ByteDance to divest in the U.S. or face a ban.  Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok in 2020, in March reversed his position and now appears to oppose a ban.  ByteDance denies it would provide user data to the Chinese government, despite reports indicating it could be at risk, and China has firmly opposed any forced sale. Kevin Morgan, TikTok’s director of security and integrity in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says more than 134 million people in 27 EU countries visit TikTok every month, including a third of EU lawmakers.  As the European Union’s June elections approach, more European politicians are using the popular platform favored by young people to attract votes.  Ola Patrik Bertil Moeller, a Swedish legislator with the Social Democratic Party who has 124,000 followers on TikTok, told VOA, “We as politicians participate in the conversation and spread accurate images and answer the questions that people have. If we’re not there, other forces that don’t want good will definitely be there.” But other European politicians see TikTok as risky.   Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Monday expressed his uneasiness about social media platforms, including … “EU politicians embrace TikTok despite data security concerns” →

Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed with bipartisan support a four-part, $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, putting the legislation on track for enactment following a long, difficult path through Congress.   The legislation includes $61 billion for Kyiv’s ongoing war against Moscow’s invasion, as well as $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, structured the bills so that they can be combined into one after each bill is approved, to prevent opposition to any one piece from derailing the entire deal. “Today, members of both parties in the House voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage. At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday.  “I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law, and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” he noted.  The Democratic-majority Senate is to take up the legislation early next week and then send it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.   Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that the Senate would “finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.” “To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” he added. The bill imposing new limits on the social media platform TikTok was the first of the four measures to pass Saturday, with a vote of 360-58. That measure requires Bytedance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States. It would also allow the president to level new sanctions against Russia and Iran.   The second bill, which passed with a bipartisan majority of 385-34 votes, provided billions in aid to the Indo-Pacific region. The $8 billion bill is intended to counter China through investing in submarine infrastructure … “US House passes $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan” →

BEIJING — Russia remained China’s top oil supplier in March, data showed Saturday, as refiners snapped up stranded Sokol crude shipments.   China’s imports from Russia, including supplies via pipelines and sea-borne shipments, jumped 12.5% on the year to 10.81 million metric tons, or 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.   That was quite close to the previous monthly record of 2.56 million bpd in June 2023.   Seven Russian tankers under sanctions offloaded Sokol cargoes in Chinese ports in March, as Russia worked to clear a glut of stranded supply in the wake of tightened U.S. sanctions.   More than 10 million barrels of the oil supplied by Sakhalin-1, a unit of Rosneft, had been floating in storage over the past three months amid payment difficulties and sanctions on shipping firms and vessels carrying the crude. Stockpiling of Russian crude for storage in strategic reserves by state-owned CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) also boosted imports from Russia.   Data from consultancy Kpler, forecast sea-borne shipments from Russia hitting a record high of 1.82 million bpd, including 440,000 bpd of Sokol and 967,000 of ESPO (Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean) oil pipeline. Russia was China’s top supplier throughout 2023, shipping 2.14 million bpd despite Western sanctions and a price cap following the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.   In coordination with other OPEC+ members, Russia opted to roll forward a voluntary reduction in crude oil output of 300,000 bpd into the first quarter of the year to support energy prices. Imports from Saudi Arabia, previously China’s largest supplier, totaled 6.3 million tons in March, or 1.48 million bpd, down 29.3% on the same period last year.   Riyadh has said it would extend its voluntary cut of 1 million bpd through the end of June, leaving its output at around 9 million bpd.   The world’s top exporter kept the March official selling price of its flagship Arab Light to Asia at $1.50 over the Oman/Dubai average as the Kingdom sought to secure market share.   January-March imports from Malaysia, a trans-shipment point for sanctioned cargoes from Iran and Venezuela, soared 39.2% on the year to 13.7 million tons, or 3.23 million bpd. The data showed 375,296 tons of imports from Venezuela, following a rare shipment of 352,455 tons of Venezuelan crude in February amid a temporary relaxation of U.S. sanctions … “China’s imports of Russian oil near record high in March” →

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Ukraine has appealed for its European allies to urgently step up weapons supplies as it struggles to hold ground against invading Russian forces. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Germany has called for allies to provide more air defense systems, as Russian drones and missiles rain down on Ukrainian cities. …

In Ukraine, more than 200 libraries have been destroyed and about 400 damaged since Russia launched its war, say Ukrainian officials. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv on how librarians are trying to ensure libraries survive the war. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets 
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Paris, France — French authorities Friday detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and falsely claiming to be armed with an explosive vest, police and prosecutors said.  No explosives or arms were found on the man or the premises after he surrendered to police following the incident.  The man, born in 1963 in Iran, had been convicted for setting fire to tires in front of the entrance of the Iranian embassy in Paris in 2023, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.  Police arrested the suspect, who has not been named, when he left the consulate of his own accord after appearing to have “threatened violent action” inside, it said.  According to a police source, who asked not to be named, he was wearing a vest with large pockets containing three fake grenades.  Police earlier told AFP that the consulate called in law enforcement after a witness saw “a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt.”  The neighborhood around the consulate in the capital’s 16th district was closed off and a heavy police presence was in place, an AFP journalist reported.  Traffic was temporarily suspended on two metro lines that pass through stops close to the consulate, Paris transport company RATP said.  Iran’s embassy and consulate share the same building but have different entrances on separate streets.  The incident came with tensions running high in the Middle East and Israel launching an apparent strike on central Iran overnight.  However, there was no suggestion of any link.  The office of the Paris prosecutor confirmed that the same man was to appear in court on Monday over a fire at the diplomatic mission in September 2023.  A lower court had handed him an eight-month suspended sentence and prohibited him from entering the area around the consulate for two years and carrying weapons.   But he is appealing the verdict.  At the time, the man had claimed the action as an act of opposition to Iran’s clerical authorities as they faced the “Woman. Life. Freedom.” nationwide protests.  Reports said that the man left Iran in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution and has expressed sympathy toward the former imperial regime.  France raised its national security alert to its maximum level following an attack on a concert venue in Moscow on March 22, for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.  The incident at the Iranian consulate prompted the Paris … “French police detain intruder at Iranian consulate in Paris” →

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london — European nations are struggling to agree on providing urgently needed weapons to Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces struggle to hold ground against invading Russian forces. Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure faced waves of drone and missile attacks from Russia again on Friday, with at least eight people killed, including two children, in an attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. An attack on the city of Chernihiv on Wednesday killed at least 13 people. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for NATO allies to provide more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine following this week’s two-day European Union Special Council meeting in Brussels. “NATO has made it very clear that of the systems that are available in the NATO states, several could make a decision like ours — to hand over another system so that better protection is possible against the many attacks currently happening against Ukraine,” Scholz told reporters Thursday. “I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize this appeal once again. We have heard that there should be seven more, one of which is ours. And we hope that six more will be found in the NATO context.” On the eastern frontlines, Ukraine’s forces say they are outgunned by Moscow’s troops and are slowly losing ground in several areas. Kyiv has made repeated urgent appeals to the West for more military aid, but the Western hesitancy has only encouraged Moscow, said security analyst Amanda Paul of the Brussels-based European Policy Center. “The Russians have taken advantage of the failure of the West to give Ukraine sufficient military assistance, including air defense systems, to strike their infrastructure,” she said. Individual European states have sent significant volumes of military aid to Ukraine. In March, the European Union boosted its bloc-wide fund to provide weapons for Kyiv by $5 billion. A Czech-led initiative aims to supply Kyiv with up to 1.5 million artillery shells over the coming year and is set to deliver the first batch of 180,000 in the coming months. However, Russian military production appears to be outpacing both Western military aid and Ukraine’s own ability to manufacture weapons. Meanwhile, several EU states have stopped short of providing the longer-range weapons that Ukraine says it needs to target Russian supply lines. Germany has ruled out supplying its Taurus long-range missiles. Analyst Paul said that while we’re now seeing some stronger statements from the German Chancellor or from French President … “Europe falters on boosting weapons supplies to Ukraine, as US military aid held up” →

“War up Close” is a 360-degree virtual reality exhibition in Los Angeles that takes visitors through the streets of Ukraine and lets them see the devastation inflicted by the war. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.  …

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