Greece’s Supreme Court has barred a convicted neo-Nazi from competing in upcoming national elections. But despite that decision, the court has allowed another extreme-right, nationalist party to run, raising fears that it can soak up reactionary votes, and enter parliament.

The Greek Supreme Court assembly voted nine to one to disqualify Ilias Kasidiaris and his party, called The Greeks, from the May 21 polls.

It is the first time a party has been banned since the 1974 restoration of democracy, in the birthplace of democracy.

In its 400-page ruling, the Supreme Court called Kasidiaris “undemocratic,” citing his conviction and imprisonment in 2020 for targeting migrants, members of the LGBT community and left-wing politicians while at the helm of Golden Dawn, an ultranationalist neo-Nazi party that has also been designated a criminal organization.

Sixty other leading members and active supporters of that party, among the most violent neo-Nazi movements in Europe, were also jailed at the time, pushing Golden Dawn out of the parliament and out of operation.

“This ruling, he says, is historic and it strengthens but also shields democracy,” said government spokesman Akis Skertso.

From prison, appealing to a massive following, Kasidiaris blasted the ruling. He said it was a broad swipe against democracy and vowed to challenge it both at home and at the European Union Court of Justice.

Polls published this week show Kasidiaris’ public support at about 4%, just over the 3% threshold needed to win entry into the Greek parliament. And while his disqualification now makes it easier for incumbent conservatives to win the May 21 polls, another decision by the Supreme Court has allowed a far-right party called EAN to run.

That has observers and politicians concerned.

“The bigger issue is where Kasiadiris will drive his supporters to. They are not insignificant numbers,” explained Kostas Chrysogonas, a candidate with the socialist PASOK party.

The far-right EAN party is run by a former Supreme Court justice.

Last month, Kasidiaris named that retired justice the head of his party before he broke off to form his own political grouping or what some fear may open a back door for Kasidiari’s return to active politics.
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Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler will plead guilty over the “dieselgate” vehicle emissions-cheating scandal, a German court said Wednesday, which would make him the first auto CEO to be convicted in the resulting lawsuits.

Stadler will admit guilt in exchange for a suspended sentence after reaching an agreement with the Munich district court over the scandal that rocked Audi’s parent company Volkswagen.

German car giant VW — whose subsidiaries include Porsche, Audi, Skoda and Seat — admitted in September 2015 that it had installed software to rig emission levels in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

The so-called defeat devices made the vehicles appear less polluting in lab tests than they were on the road.

After a trial that started in late 2020, Stadler’s defense lawyers and prosecutors had finally accepted a “plea bargain proposal”, a court spokesman told AFP.

“According to the proposal, Mr. Stadler will receive a suspended sentence of 18 to 24 months if he confesses. In addition, he will have to pay $1.2 million,” he said.

The confession is expected to be read out in two weeks.

Stadler, 60, had previously denied the charges of fraud, falsifying certifications and false advertising against him.

Last month Wolfgang Hatz, another former Audi executive who was on trial alongside Stadler, pleaded guilty, confessing that he and two other colleagues had arranged the installation of emissions-cheating software.

His defense team and the court recommended a suspended sentence of 18 to 24 months, though prosecutors have objected.

Diesel trickery

Volkswagen had always insisted that the diesel trickery was the work of a handful of lower-level employees acting without the knowledge of their superiors, a claim challenged by prosecutors.

Stadler had been Audi’s chief executive for 11 years when he was arrested in June 2018.

He spent four months in pretrial detention owing to prosecution concerns that he would try to influence witnesses.

Prosecutors say Stadler knew about the scam by the end of September 2015 “at the latest” but he nevertheless allowed thousands more vehicles fitted with the illegal defeat devices to be sold.

He was originally put on trial alongside Hatz and two Audi engineers, one of whom has also entered a guilty plea in exchange for a suspended sentence.

The charges against them covered 434,420 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles sold in Europe and the United States as far back as 2009.

Volkswagen’s former CEO Martin Winterkorn was supposed to stand trial for fraud over the scandal, but the case has been indefinitely postponed due to his poor health.

The “dieselgate” saga shocked Germany and is seen as the country’s biggest post-war industrial scandal.

It has already cost VW tens of billions of dollars in fines, legal costs and compensation to car owners, mainly in the United States.

The fallout has also accelerated development of environmentally friendly electric vehicles, requiring huge investments in a tough economic climate.
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A Belarusian court convicted a dissident journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country and sentenced him Wednesday to eight years in prison.

Raman Pratasevich’s dramatic arrest in May 2021 elicited outrage in the West, with some leaders saying the plane’s diversion was tantamount to state-sponsored hijacking.

Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner traveling between Greece and Lithuania to land in Minsk, telling the crew that there was a bomb threat against the flight. No explosives were found on board, and Pratasevich, who lived in exile at the time, was detained once the plane was on the ground. His Russian girlfriend was also arrested.

In response, several Western countries imposed a raft of new sanctions and barred their planes from flying over Belarus.

Pratasevich ran a Telegram messaging app channel that was widely used by participants in mass protests against the disputed 2020 election that gave authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. He was charged with organizing unrest and plotting to seize power.

The founder of the Telegram channel, Stepan Putilo, and another editor of the channel, Yan Rudik, were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison respectfully. Both remain in exile.
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German police arrested dozens of people across the country on Wednesday in an investigation of the Italian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group, German public prosecutors and state police said. 

The ‘Ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, and has surpassed Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful mafia group in the country – and one of the largest crime networks in the world. 

The crackdown was part of a coordinated probe by investigators in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain as well as Europol and Eurojust, they said. 

The suspects are accused of money laundering, criminal tax evasion, fraud and smuggling of drugs, they added. 

State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed “Operation Eureka.” 

It said that Italian and Belgian investigators believe that the crime group smuggled close to 25 tons of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022 and funneled more than $24.24 million from Calabria to Belgium, the Netherlands and South America. 

Among those arrested were four people in Bavaria, 15 in North Rhine-Westphalia, and 10 in the southwestern German state of Rhineland Palatinate, and police seized potential evidence at dozens of locations including homes and offices. 

Two suspects who were under investigation in the western state of Saarland, were arrested in Italy. Police did not identify them, saying only that one was 47 years old and the other 25. 
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New developments:

An explosion has derailed a second train in the Bryansky region of Russia adjacent to Ukraine and Belarus.
The White House estimates 20,000 Russians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since December. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said almost half of them were part of the Wagner Group mercenary force.
The head of the Wagner Group says his fighters aren't getting the supplies they need due to the lack of support from Moscow.
Ukrainian troops are pushing back against Russian troops in the beleaguered city of Bakhmut, launching counterattacks that have forced Russian soldiers to abandon some positions.

The United States is sending Ukraine about $300 million in military aid, with the official announcement expected as early as Wednesday, U.S. officials said, as Ukraine gears up for a spring counteroffensive.

The package will include rounds for artillery, howitzers, along with rockets for HIMARS, mortars, missiles and anti-tank rifles.

For the first time, the U.S. is sending Hydra-70 rockets, which are launched from aircraft and could be used in air support for advancing Ukraine ground forces.

The weapons will come from Pentagon stocks and resemble earlier deliveries.

The 37th shipment of arms to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, February 2022, comes as Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukraine is in the “home stretch, when we can say: ‘Yes everything is ready.'”

Second attack in Russia

For the second day in a row, an explosion on Tuesday in a Russian region bordering Ukraine caused a freight train to derail, the local governor said in a social media post, but there were no casualties.

“An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties,” Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.

“As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several wagons of a freight train derailed,” he added, without saying who was responsible.

Russian authorities say the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.

An explosion went off Monday in the same region, also causing a train to derail.

Both sides have denied targeting civilians since the Russian invasion on Ukraine began in February 2022.

Leaked documents

In an interview Tuesday in The Washington Post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the White House did not inform him about a leak of secret U.S. documents last month.

“I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand,” Zelenskyy told The Post.

Of the leak, he said, “It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States.”

The materials posted online included a snapshot of the war in Ukraine. The New York Times first reported on the leaked documents on April 6.

On April 12, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the Pentagon document leaks contained a mixture of true and false information about his country’s military and downplayed its negative impact, Reuters reported.

In response to Zelenskyy’s comments, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told Reuters: “We are in constant communication with our Ukrainian counterparts about a range of issues, including over the unauthorized disclosures, but we aren’t going to get into the details of those private discussions.”

A Pentagon spokesperson said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken to a number of allies, including Reznikov, regarding the issue.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Afghan protesters took to Paris streets this week, demanding the international community refuse to recognize the Taliban. The demonstration comes as a U.N.-convened conference is underway in Doha on how to engage with the Taliban. Jalal Mirzad has the story, narrated by Mary Alice Salinas. Roshan Noorzai contributed to this report.
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The sowing season is in full swing in Ukraine despite a series of significant challenges that farmers face as Russia continues its war on the country. The agricultural industry faces mined fields, instability with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and a ban on the export of four key products to five European Union countries. Lesia Bakalets has more from Warsaw, Poland. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak.
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With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan facing a tough re-election challenge, opposition and non-government organizations are stepping up efforts to ensure a fair vote amid growing concerns over voter security. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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People squeezed by inflation and demanding economic justice took to streets across Asia, Europe and the Americas on Monday to mark May Day, in an outpouring of worker discontent not seen since before the worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns.

Celebrations were forced indoors in Pakistan, tinged with political tensions as in Turkey, as both countries face high-stakes elections. Russia’s war in Ukraine overshadowed scaled-back events in Moscow, where Communist-led May Day celebrations were once massive affairs.

Across France, some 800,000 people marched, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. They mobilized against President Emmanuel Macron’s recent move to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Organizers see pension reform as a threat to hard-fought worker rights, while Macron argues it’s economically necessary as the population ages.

While marchers were largely peaceful, violence by radicals, an ever-present reality at French marches, marred the message, notably in Paris. A Paris police officer was seriously injured by a Molotov cocktail, among 108 officers injured around France, Darmanin said.

“Violence is increasingly strong in a society that is radicalizing,” the interior minister said on BFM-TV news station, blaming the ultra-left. He said some 2,000 radicals were at the Paris march.

Tear gas hung over the end point of the Paris march, Place de la Nation, where a huge black cloud lofted high above the trees after radicals set two fuel cans afire outside a building renovation site, police said.

French union members were joined by groups fighting for economic justice, or just expressing anger at what is seen as Macron’s out-of-touch, pro-business leadership.

In Northern Macedonia’s capital Skopje, thousands of trade union members protested a recent government decision granting ministers a 78% raise. The minimum monthly wage in one of Europe’s poorest countries is 320 euros ($350), while the hike will put ministers’ wages at around 2,300 euros ($2,530).

In Turkey, police prevented demonstrators from reaching Istanbul’s main square, Taksim, and detained around a dozen of them, independent television station Sozcu reported.

In Pakistan, authorities banned rallies in some cities because of a tense security and political atmosphere. In Peshawar, in the restive northwest, labor organizations and trade unions held indoor events to demand better workers’ rights amid high inflation.

Sri Lanka’s opposition political parties and trade unions held workers’ day rallies protesting austerity measures and economic reforms linked to a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Protesters demanded the government halt moves to privatize state-owned and semi-government businesses.

In South Korea, tens of thousands of people attended rallies in its biggest May Day gatherings since the pandemic began in early 2020.

“The price of everything has increased except for our wages. Increase our minimum wages!” an activist at a Seoul rally shouted at the podium.

In Tokyo, thousands of labor union members, opposition lawmakers and academics demanded wage increases to offset the impact of rising costs as they recover from damage from the pandemic. They criticized Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to double the defense budget, saying the money should be spent on welfare, social security and improving people’s daily lives.

In Indonesia, demonstrators demanded the government repeal a job creation law they argue would only benefit business.

In Taiwan, thousands of workers protested what they call the inadequacies of the self-ruled island’s labor policies, putting pressure on the ruling party before the 2024 presidential election.

Protests in Germany kicked off with a “Take Back the Night” rally organized by feminist and queer groups on the eve of May Day to protest violence directed at women and LGBTQ+ people. On Monday, thousands more turned out in marches organized by Germany labor unions in Berlin, Cologne and other cities, rejecting recent calls by conservative politicians for restrictions on the right to strike.

More than 70 marches were held across Spain, and powerful unions warned of “social conflict” if low salaries compared to the EU average don’t rise in line with inflation. The Illustrious College of Lawyers of Madrid urged reforms of historic laws that require them to be on call 365 days of the year, regardless of the death of family members or medical emergencies. In recent years, lawyers have tweeted images of themselves working from hospital beds on IV drips to illustrate their plight.

Italy’s far-right premier, Giorgia Meloni, made a point of working Monday — as her Cabinet passed measures on Labor Day that it contends demonstrates concern for workers. But opposition lawmakers and union leaders said the measures do nothing to increase salaries or combat the widespread practice of hiring workers on temporary contracts.

In war-ravaged Ukraine, May Day is associated with Soviet-era celebrations when the country was ruled from Moscow — an era that many want forgotten.

“It is good that we don’t celebrate this holiday like it was done during the Bolshevik times. It was something truly awful,” said Anatolii Borsiuk, a 77-year-old in Kyiv.

In Venezuela, which has suffered rampant inflation for years, thousands of workers demonstrated to demand a minimum wage increase at a time when the majority cannot meet basic needs despite their last increase 14 months ago. “Decent wages and pensions now!” protesters chanted in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

In Bolivia, leftist President Luis Arce led a Labor Day march in La Paz with a major union and announced a 5% increase in the minimum wage. Arce said his government “is strong because the unions are strong.”

In Brazil, the focus was not only on traditional labor unions but on part-time workers and those in the informal sector, with the government of new leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announcing a group on proposals to regulate that sector after the president recently described those workers as “almost like slaves.”
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Germany expelled Russian diplomats mid-April in order “to reduce the presence of intelligence services” in the country, the government said Monday, in justifying a decision that triggered retaliatory expulsions by the Kremlin.  

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the activity of these people was not in line with their diplomatic status,” adding it had been in contact with Russia in recent weeks about the matter.  

Berlin had previously not provided a justification for the departure of the diplomats, a move that triggered the expulsion of some 20 German embassy staff in Moscow. Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the embassy staff left Moscow on Monday. 

“Unlike the members representing Russia in Germany, our colleagues have always concerned themselves with behaving in accordance to their diplomatic status,” the ministry said.  

A close economic partner with Russia before the military offensive in Ukraine, Germany has since moved away from Moscow, supporting Kyiv in the conflict both financially and militarily. 

Since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, Russian espionage in Germany has grown at a rate rarely equaled in recent years, according to German security services.  

In spring 2022, Germany had already expelled some 40 Russian diplomats who Berlin believed to represent a threat to its security.  

Last October, the head of German’s cybersecurity agency, Arne Schoenbohm, was fired after news reports revealed his proximity to a cybersecurity consultancy believed to have contacts with Russian intelligence services.  

A month later, a German reserve officer received a suspended prison sentence of a year and nine months for spying for Russia. 
…

Ukraine is finalizing preparations for its anticipated spring counteroffensive against Russia, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country will fight with or without Western military jets.

Ukraine’s battlefield progress depends heavily on military supplies from the West. Military experts say, without advanced jets from Kyiv’s NATO allies, the counteroffensive will likely consist of costly battles of attrition.

In recent days, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was among Western leaders who held meetings with Ukraine’s leadership and military command. He emphasized that through the Contact Group led by the United States, NATO allies and partners have provided more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine, including over 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and vast amounts of ammunition.

“In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armored brigades. This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” said the NATO secretary general last week during a press conference.

Ukraine says it needs more. Ukraine’s top military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, recently held a working meeting with U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli. According to VOA sources, the generals conferred on Ukraine’s military abilities and agreed on the need for a thorough assessment of Ukraine’s readiness for a counteroffensive.

Posting on Facebook after the meeting, Zaluzhnyi wrote that participants had “considered in greater depth the operational situation along the entire front line … the likely scenarios, threats and prerequisites for our future actions.”

Zaluzhnyi added, “We focused on the importance of timely supply of sufficient ammunition and materiel. I emphasized the need to provide Ukraine with a wide range of armament and air defense systems, which will significantly help us to solve the problematic issues in our resistance to Russian aggression.”

VOA sources in Ukraine’s military command confirmed that Ukraine has largely spent its supply of aged Soviet military hardware and munitions. Ukraine’s military has been fighting on the eastern and southern fronts in recent months, hoping to exhaust Russian forces without giving up territory.

Ukraine is having success in that regard, according to U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

“Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces and since December alone,” Kirby told reporters Monday. “[J]ust since December, we estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, nearly half of whom were Wagner [Group] soldiers.”

At the same time, Ukraine is transitioning to Western weapons systems, making the country even more reliant on Western military support.

Ukraine is having success in that regard, according to U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. “Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces and since December alone,” Kirby told reporters Monday. “[J]ust since December, we estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, nearly half of whom were Wagner [Group] soldiers.”

As it preps for a spring counteroffensive, one of Ukraine’s critical unmet needs is fighter jets, according to Gustav Gressel, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

In a recent article, Gressel wrote that “[e]xtensive fortifications in the Russian rear may slow Ukrainian advances long enough to allow Russian aircraft to strike the forces clearing obstacles. …To screen the ground forces from such attacks, the Ukrainian air force will have to come out, at least to disrupt Russian attacks.”

Addressing Ukraine’s need for jets, Gressel wrote: “The US should learn from last year’s delay over tank deliveries and approve their release as soon as possible.”

“The end of the war depends on Ukraine,” NATO’s assistant secretary-general for public diplomacy, Ambassador Baiba Braže, recently told VOA. “[T]he most important part is ensuring that Ukraine is supported in maximum ways. If it wants to continue fighting, it has the capability to continue fighting.”
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Ukrainian judokas will not take part in this month’s world championships in Qatar following the International Judo Federation’s  decision to readmit Russians and Belarusians as neutrals, the Ukrainian Judo Federation said on Monday.

The International Olympic Committee last month recommended that athletes from the two countries be allowed to return to international competition as neutrals.

The IJF last week announced that it would allow judoka from Russia and Belarus to participate in the May 7-14 championships, saying its decision would allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The IOC’s recommendations exclude athletes who support the war or are contracted to military or national security agencies. The IJF has said it has enlisted an independent company to perform background checks and identify any such athletes.

However, the Ukrainian federation alleged that a number of Russian judoka registered for the championships are “active servicemen.”

“We do not see here neutrality, equal conditions and a ‘bridge to peace,’ as stated in the IJF Resolution on the participation of Russian and Belarusian teams in the World Championships in Doha,” the UJF said.

“We see here a decision that contradicts the latest recommendations of the International Olympic Committee … We are disappointed with the decision of the International Judo Federation. Therefore, we have decided not to participate in the World Championships in Doha.”

Ukraine has barred its national sports teams from competing in events that include competitors from Russia and Belarus.

The IJF and the Judo Federation of Russia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus was a staging area for Russian troops, the IJF removed Russian President Vladimir Putin from his position as honorary president and cancelled a Grand Slam event in Kazan, Russia.
…

New Developments:

“A free press is a pillar, maybe the pillar of a free society,” said U.S. President Joe Biden, as he called for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, from Russian captivity.
A French artist dedicates a mural to executed Ukrainian POW.
Pope Francis says he will do anything to bring peace in Ukraine.

Russia launched 18 missiles at Ukraine’s capital Monday morning. Ukraine says it intercepted 15 of them. Preliminary reports from Kyiv indicate that there were no casualties, according to the Associated Press. 

Also overnight, Russia targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad with a missile strike. The AP reports seven missiles were aimed at the city, but some were intercepted. Reuters reports that 34 people, including five children, were hurt in the strike. 

The report, posted on Twitter, said there is imagery that shows that Russia “has made a particular effort” to strengthen the northern border of occupied Crimea, “including with a multi-layered defensive zone near the village of Medvedevka.”

In addition, according to the ministry, Russia has dug “hundreds of miles of trenches well inside internationally recognized Russian territory, including in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.”

The trenches show, the update said, that Russia is worried that Ukraine could achieve “a major breakthrough.” Some of the work, however, the ministry said, has “likely been ordered by local commanders and civil leaders in attempts to promote the official narrative that Russia is ‘threatened’ by Ukraine and NATO.” 

Russian attacks across Ukraine have killed at least 477 children wounded nearly 1,000 since Russia invaded more than a year ago, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said Sunday in a report posted on the messaging app Telegram.

Most casualties were documented in the Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts, where 452 and 275 children were either killed or wounded, respectively. The casualty rate among children is expected to be higher, the report said, as the current count does not include data from Russian-occupied territories or where hostilities are ongoing.

On Sunday in Uman, two children who had died in an attack Friday were buried. In all, 23 people, including six children, died in the Russian attack on an apartment building in Uman.

Last month, Ukraine’s National Police said nearly 400 children are missing.

More than 19,000 children from Russian-occupied territories have been subjected to forced deportations to Russia. So far, Ukraine has retrieved only 364 of them, according to Children of War, a Ukrainian national database.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russia President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official overseeing the forced deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia.

At a recent Moscow news conference, Lvova-Belova rejected the ICC’s war crime charges as false, saying her commission acted on humanitarian grounds to protect the interests of children in an area where military action was taking place, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Kremlin has previously called the ICC’s actions “outrageous and unacceptable.”

But many Ukrainian children who were returned to families and guardians tell a different story.

In April, Vitaly, a child from the Kherson region, told Reuters: “We were treated like animals. We were closed in a separate building.” He said he and other children were told their parents no longer wanted them.

Sunday was the professional day of border guards in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Sunday. “They were the first to face the occupier in the east,” he said, “they are holding the border firmly.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Heather Howarth tugged at King Charles III’s ears and tittered with satisfaction. 

The other ladies who gather to knit and natter in her small English village thought the ears should be bigger. But when creating a crocheted likeness of the new king, she was determined not to cause offense. 

“He might not like this one,” she said reaching out to give the king a fond pat. “But he’ll love his Grenadier Guards!” 

Howarth and her friends in the village of Hurst, a stone’s throw from Reading, west of London, have fashioned a woolly coronation procession to rival the pomp and circumstance that will take place when Charles is crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. Sheathing the 29 posts that circle the community pond with their knitted and crocheted creations, the women have recreated the cast of characters set to attend the big event. 

There’s the king, of course, the queen consort and the Archbishop of Canterbury. And lots of Grenadier Guards. They even threw in Paddington Bear — a sort of honorary member of the royal family after he shared tea with the late Queen Elizabeth II in a film celebrating her 70 years on the throne. 

The Hurst Hookers are part of a phenomenon that has taken hold across Britain in recent years, with guerrilla knitters and crochet enthusiasts celebrating holidays and royal occasions by decorating the nation’s iconic red post boxes and other public spaces with their handiwork. There’s no money in it, and the creations are sometimes stolen. But they do it anyway because they have fun brightening their communities, even if no one asked them to. 

“Yarn bombers” around the country have been hard at work for months creating everything from golden coaches to crenelated castles and jewel-encrusted crowns that will add fuzzy bits of color to the coronation festivities. 

But how to explain the Hurst Hookers?

This is a group that got started during the coronavirus pandemic, meeting every couple of weeks at the local cricket club when Britain’s intermittent lockdowns would permit. It’s bring your own gin and tonic, but there’s tea for anyone who wants it. When the 18 women aren’t meeting up for crocheting and community, they keep in touch via WhatsApp. The pings are so incessant at least one member has had to turn off her alerts. 

They began planning and creating their coronation scene in early September, soon after the queen died and Charles became king. By April, it was finally time to install it. 

The “guerrilla” action began just after 5:30 p.m. on a recent Friday as the setting sun bathed the newly cleaned pond in a peaceful light. 

Clad in jackets and sweaters on a chilly spring night, the women arrived with their creations tucked inside huge shopping bags emblazoned with supermarket logos, then swooped down on the posts surrounding the pond. 

There was little stealth, but much determination. 

First they pulled out the crocheted likenesses of Charles, wearing a crown and a cape fashioned from an old Christmas stocking, and Camilla, with a flash of unruly blond hair.  

Then came the archbishop, whose spectacles rest on a bulbous woolen nose. And finally, the red-coated guardsmen. 

Quick as you like, the figures were pulled down over the posts and firmly stapled in place, with the precisely embroidered medals, moustaches, sergeant stripes and other embellishments getting an extra staple or three. 

“King Charles wants our support, doesn’t he?” Howarth said. “How else do I show that I am supporting him?” 

Valerie Thorn, who did the embroidery, carefully researched all the decorations, so that every medal was from a different campaign in which the guards participated. The insignia on Charles’ chest is so precise that from a few feet you mistake it for the real thing. The archbishop’s miter, modeled after the one he wore at his installation, is immediately recognizable. 

So far, the fat sergeant character seems to be the village favorite.

A Daily Mail newspaper columnist described crafters such as these as “unhinged … woolly delinquents.” Rather than taking offense, the ladies of the Hurst Hookers embraced the jibe. 

“I’m going to embroider that on a T-shirt,” said Thorn, 76, with pride. “If I am unhinged, what is wrong with that?”

And when the installation was almost complete, there was the moment to put the icing on the confection. 

Pip Etheridge pulled out a resplendent copy of St. Edward’s Crown — the crown that will be placed on Charles’ head next weekend — and handed it to Janette Vorster because she didn’t want to be in the pictures. 

In a procession all their own, the group trooped to the village store for the piece de resistance, installing the crown atop the post box out front. 

As they chatted around the post box, the group debated whether their handiwork was more about the coronation or about themselves. They giggled, talked about posting the photos on social media and wondered what the neighbors might say. And they just kept laughing. 

“If you swapped that one with the real one,” Etheridge asked, nodding to her crown, “do you think he’d notice?” 
…

Pope Francis said Sunday that talks were underway to return colonial-era artifacts in the Vatican Museum that were acquired from Indigenous peoples in Canada and voiced a willingness to return other problematic objects in the Vatican’s collection on a case-by-case basis. 

“The Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something you have to give it back,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary. 

Recently, Francis returned to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures that had been in the Vatican Museums’ collection for two centuries. The pope said Sunday that the restitution was “the right gesture” and that when such returns were possible, museums should undertake them. 

“In the case where you can return things, where it’s necessary to make a gesture, better to do it,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t, if there are no possibilities — political, real or concrete possibilities. But in the cases where you can restitute, please do it. It’s good for everyone, so you don’t get used to putting your hands in someone else’s pockets.” 

His comments to The Associated Press were his first on a question that has forced many museums in Europe and North America to rethink their ethnographic and anthropological collections. The restitution debate has gathered steam amid a reckoning for the colonial conquests of Africa, the Americas and Asia and demands for restitution of war loot by the countries and communities of origin. 

The Vatican has an extensive collection of artifacts and art made by Indigenous peoples from around the world, much of it sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibition in the Vatican gardens. 

The Vatican insists the artifacts, including ceremonial masks, wampum belts and feathered headdresses, were gifts. But Indigenous scholars dispute whether Native peoples at the time could have freely offered their handicrafts given the power differentials at play in colonial periods. 

Francis, the first-ever Latin American pope, knows the history well. Last year, he travelled to Canada to personally apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses they endured at the hands of Catholic missionaries at residential schools. 

In the run-up to the visit, Indigenous groups visited the Vatican’s Anima Mundi museum, saw some of their ancestors’ handiwork, and expressed interest in having greater access to the collection, and the return of some items. 

“The restitution of the Indigenous things is underway with Canada — at least we agreed to do it,” Francis said, adding that the Holy See’s experience meeting with the Indigenous groups in Canada had been “very fruitful.” 

Indeed, just a few weeks ago in another follow-up to the Canada apology, the Vatican formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery.” This theory, backed by 15th-century “papal bulls,” was used to legitimize the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and forms the basis of some property laws today in the U.S. and Canada. 

Francis recalled that looting was a common feature during colonial-era wars and occupations. “They took these decisions to take the good things from the other,” he said. 

He said going forward, museums “have to make a discernment in each case,” but that where possible, restitution of objects should be made. 

“And if tomorrow the Egyptians come and ask for the obelisk, what will we do?” he said chuckling, referring to the great obelisk that stands at the center of St. Peter’s Square. The Roman Emperor Caligula brought the ancient obelisk to Rome more than 2,000 years ago, and it was moved to the square in the 16th century. 

The Vatican Museums are mentioned in the 2020 book “The Brutish Museums,” which recounts the sacking of the Royal Court of Benin City by British forces in 1897 and the subsequent dispersal in museums and collections around the globe of its famed Benin Bronzes. 

In the appendix, the Vatican is listed as one of the museums, galleries or collections that “may” have objects looted from Benin City, in today’s Nigeria, in 1897. 

The Vatican Museums hasn’t responded to requests for information. The Nigerian Embassy to the Holy See, asked recently about the claim, said its “contact in the Vatican is currently looking into the issue.” 
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Russian fashion designer Vyacheslav “Slava” Zaitsev, dubbed the “Soviet Christian Dior,” has died at the age of 85, his fashion house told AFP Sunday.   

Confirming Russian media reports, a spokeswoman added that when Zaitsev had celebrated his birthday in March with friends, “we could already see he was very, very, weak.” 

“The couturier Vyacheslav Zaitsev has died,” Russian state channel Perviy Kanal reported, paying tribute to a man who “dictated Soviet and Russian fashion for decades, an innovator who wasn’t afraid of bold experiments.”  

“It’s a great loss for the world of international fashion,” Ria Novosti news agency quoted Russian stylist Sergei Zverev as saying.    

Russia’s most famous fashion designer, Zaitsev achieved global success with bright dresses adorned with the flower patterns found on traditional Russian shawls.    

From a modest childhood in Ivanovo, a town of 400,000 people to the northeast of the capital, his career took him to the catwalks of Paris, New York and Tokyo.   

The French press in the 1960s dubbed him the “Soviet Christian Dior.”  

Watched closely by the KGB because of his contacts with Western designers and his flamboyant character, Zaitsev was initially refused permission to leave the Soviet Union and his first collections were shown abroad without him.    

In 1962, Zaitsev’s first collection of clothes — a uniform for female workers that featured skirts with the flower patterns of traditional Russian shawls and multicolored boots — was rejected by Soviet authorities.    

“The colors were too bright and contrasted with the greyness of Soviet everyday life, where an individual should not differ from the rest of society,” Zaitsev said in an interview with AFP in 2018.    

But the collection, nonetheless, attracted international attention. In 1963, French magazine Paris Match became the first Western media outlet to describe Zaitsev as a pioneer of Soviet fashion.   

Celebrity clients 

Born into a poor family with a mother who worked as a cleaner, he initially was barred from attending a top-flight university because his father, taken captive by the Nazis during World War II, had, like other former prisoners-of-war, been labeled an “enemy of the people” and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp.   

“When I was a child, my mother taught me embroidery so I wouldn’t roam the streets without purpose,” he told AFP. “In the evenings I would pick flowers with girls on Lenin Avenue to draw them and recreate them in embroidery. That’s how I began my adventure in art.”   

He studied at a vocational college until the age of 18 and then went on to the unglamorous Moscow Textile Institute.   

“During my studies, I lived with a family whose children I looked after. The apartment was tiny and I slept on the floor under the table,” he recalled.   

Later in life, between 2007 and 2009, he presented a popular television show called “The Verdict of Fashion,” in which stylists dressed participants in the latest street looks.   

He counted several Russian movie stars, singers and the ex-wife of President Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila, among his clients. 
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Relatives and friends cried next to coffins Sunday as they buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on this central Ukrainian city, while fighting claimed more lives elsewhere.

Almost all of the 23 victims of the attack Friday died when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in Uman. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said six children were among the dead.

Mykhayl Shulha, 6, cried and hugged relatives next to the coffin of his 11-year-old sister Sofia Shulha during Sunday’s funeral, while others paid respects to a 17-year-old boy.

As mourners held candles, crossed themselves and sang, the priest at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Quick to Hear” waved a vessel containing incense over the coffins. He said the deaths had hit the entire community hard.

“I live nearby,” said Father Fyodor Botsu. “I personally knew the children, the littlest, from when they were very young, and I personally baptized them in this church. I’m worried with everyone since I have children and I’m a citizen of this country and have been living in this city for 15 years.”

He said he prayed “that the war should end, and peace should come to our homes, city and country.”

At the damaged building in Uman, people brought flowers and photos of the victims.

Russia’s 14-month-long war brought more deaths elsewhere Sunday.

The governor of a Russian region bordering Ukraine said four people were killed in a Ukrainian rocket attack. The rockets hit homes in the village of Suzemka, nine kilometers from the Ukrainian border, said Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz. He said two other residents were injured and that defense systems had knocked down some of the incoming shells.

Bryansk and the neighboring Belgorod region have experienced sporadic cross-border shelling throughout the war. In March, two people were reported killed in what officials said was an incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs in the Bryansk region.

Also Sunday, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said his Kherson region in Ukraine came under Russian artillery fire 27 times in the past 24 hours, killing one civilian.

An expected spring counteroffensive by Ukraine could be concentrated in the Kherson region, a gateway to Crimea and other Russian-occupied territory in the southern Ukrainian mainland. Ukrainian forces drove Russian forces out of the regional capital Kherson last year, a significant defeat for Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy said the counteroffensive wouldn’t wait for the delivery of all promised military equipment.

“I would have really wanted to wait for everything that was promised,” Zelenskyy told Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian journalists. “But it happens that the terms (of weapons deliveries and counteroffensive), unfortunately, do not coincide a little bit. And, I will say frankly, we pay attention to the weather.”

Ukraine is particularly hopeful that it will receive Western fighter jets, but Zelenskyy said his forces wouldn’t delay the counteroffensive for that, so as not to “reassure Russia that we still have a few months to train on the planes, and only then will we start.”

Zelenskyy said he spoke Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron about the weapons supply and was pleased with its “speed and specificity.”

Macron’s office said he reiterated France’s commitment to provide Ukraine “all the aid necessary to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and discussed long-term European military aid.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group that is leading Russia’s battle in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut gave an even more precise timetable for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Ukrainian military will launch the counteroffensive by May 15 because by then strong rains will have stopped and the soil will be dry enough for tanks and artillery to move, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview with a Russian journalist posted Saturday.

In other battlefield developments, Ukraine’s northern command said the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, which border Bryansk and Belgorod, came under fire 11 times Sunday night.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a 48-year-old resident of Nikopol was killed, and two were injured, in Russian shelling, according to Gov. Serhii Lysak. He said six multi-story buildings and six private houses were damaged, as well as several other buildings, gas pipelines, and a power line.
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Pope Francis said Sunday the Vatican was willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war. He said, the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.

“All human gestures help. Gestures of cruelty don’t help,” Francis said during an airborne news conference en route home from Hungary.

Francis also revealed a secret peace “mission” was underway. However, he gave no details when asked whether he spoke about peace initiatives during his talks in Budapest this weekend with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary.

“I’m available to do anything,” Francis said. “There’s a mission that’s not public that’s underway; when it’s public I’ll talk about it.”

The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Russia President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner, accusing them of war crimes for abducting children from Ukraine.

Russia has denied any wrongdoing, contending the children were moved for their safety.

Last week Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met with Francis at the Vatican and asked him to help return Ukrainian children taken following the Russian invasion.

“I asked His Holiness to help us return home Ukrainians, Ukrainian children who are detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia,” Shmyhal told the Foreign Press Association after the audience.

Francis recalled that the Holy See had facilitated some prisoner exchanges, working through embassies, and was open to Ukraine’s request to reunite Ukrainian children with their families.

The prisoner exchanges “went well. I think it could go well also for this. It’s important,” he said of the family reunifications. “The Holy See is available to do it because it’s the right thing,” he added. “We have to do all that is humanly possible.” 
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A large high-powered Russian delegation of 36 legal and human rights experts has failed to persuade a United Nations watchdog committee that the government has complied with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Russia was one of six state parties to the convention whose record came under review by the 18-member Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD, during its latest three-week session, which ended Friday.

The committee, which monitors member states’ implementation of the convention, expressed deep concern about “the grave human rights violations committed during the ongoing armed conflict by the Russian Federation’s military forces and private military companies against those protected under the convention, particularly ethnic Ukrainians.”

Committee member Mehrdad Payandeh said that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the committee has received reports of severe human rights violations and abuses including “instances and practices of excessive use of force, killings, extrajudicial and summary executions, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence” attributable to the state party.

The committee also has received information about the forcible transfer and deportation to the Russian Federation of inhabitants, particularly children from territories in Ukraine occupied under the effective control of the Russian Federation.

“We have addressed these concerns,” said Payandeh. “Again, the Russian Federation did not comment on those concerns or provide any more information.

“We raised our concerns in our concluding observations and recommended to the state party to investigate and to end these practices, so far as they are in violation of the convention,” he said.

The Ukrainian government in mid-April reported that more than 19,384 children have been deported to Russia and the fate of many thousands more remains unclear. The U.N. and human rights organizations say many children allegedly have been given for adoption to Russian families.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the war crimes of unlawful transfer and the deportation of children.

Earlier in April, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe opened an investigation into the forcible transfer and deportation of children to the Russian Federation from parts of Ukraine under Russian control.

The U.N. committee said it also has received disturbing reports of incitement to racial hatred and propagation of racist stereotypes against ethnic Ukrainians and of alleged forced mobilization and conscription into the army both within the Federation and on other territories under its effective control. Payandeh noted that these practices “disproportionately affect members of ethnic minorities, including Indigenous peoples.”

CERD’s review of Russia’s record, which began April 12, got off to a shaky start. The Russian delegation refused to discuss and respond to questions posed by the committee on issues related to the armed conflict and the convention rights of residents of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol.

The Russians argued that it was inappropriate to discuss the issue of Crimea due to a case pending at the International Court of Justice.

“We laid our position that we did not find anything in the ongoing procedures in front of the International Court of Justice [that] would hinder us from assessing the situation,” said Payandeh.

“The refusal of the Russian Federation to address these issues did not hinder us from addressing them in our concluding observations.” But, he added, “It made our work more difficult, and we would have liked to engage in a constructive dialogue.

“The purpose of this exercise with the Russian Federation is to raise our concerns, to hear their observations and then to come to our conclusions,” he said.

The committee accused the Russians of destroying and damaging Crimean Tatar cultural heritage, of imposing restrictions on Crimean Tatar’s political and civic rights, as well as harassing, threatening and instigating the assassinations of human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and journalists.

Committee members are calling on the Russian Federation to carry out impartial investigations into all reported cases of human rights abuse cited in its final observations. They are also seeking an end to the practice of forced mobilization and conscription of members of Crimean Tatars and Indigenous peoples in Crimea and in the ongoing armed conflict with Ukraine.

Russia has not yet commented on CERD’s report. The committee says it expects the Russian Federation to present a follow-up report within one year on questions raised regarding the armed conflict in Ukraine, on the rights of residents in Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as the situation of stateless persons, and undocumented and irregular migrants.
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China’s Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events.

Thirty-year-old Ding won the rapid chess playoff by 2.5 points to 1.5, capitalizing on Nepomniachtchi’s mistakes in time trouble in the last of the shorter-format games, following the pair’s 7-7 tie in a psychological battle across 14 longer “classical” games.

“One Ding to rule em all,” fellow grandmaster Anish Giri wrote on Twitter in honor of the new champion.

Ding’s triumph means China holds both the men’s and women’s world titles, with current women’s champion Ju Wenjun set to defend her title against compatriot Lei Tingjie in July.

“The moment Ian resigned the game was a very emotional moment, I cannot control my feelings,” the new world champion said in a press conference.

Ding had leveled the score in the regular portion of the match with a dramatic win in game 12, despite several critical moments – including a purported leak of his own preparation.

The Chinese grandmaster takes the crown from five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who defeated Nepomniachtchi in 2021 but announced in July he would not defend the title again this year.

Carlsen said he was not motivated to play shortly after Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates tournament, the prestigious qualifier to the match.

Ding, runner-up in the Candidates thanks to an incredible second half of the event, was next in line.

He had only been invited to the tournament at the last minute to replace Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, whom the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, banned for his vocal support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ding ranks third in the FIDE rating list behind Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi.

The new champion will attend from May 4 the first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest, Romania, after being almost inactive since 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
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