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World Monthly Headline News April 2022 - Page 1
By Alasdair Pal and Mohamed Junayd | Reuters

MALE (Reuters) - A day after coal and fertilizer billionaire Andrey Melnichenko was placed on the European Union's sanctions list on March 9, his superyacht Motor Yacht A stopped broadcasting its location while in Maldives' waters, maritime data shows. In Italy, four days later, authorities seized another of Melnichenko's vessels – the world's largest sailing yacht, estimated by Italian financial police to be worth $578 million. Switching off devices that allow authorities to track a ship's whereabouts can help keep yachts out of their sight. But in Maldives, the chances of action against the property of sanctioned oligarchs are in any case slim, according to interviews with a dozen people familiar with internal discussions about how to respond to U.S. and European financial sanctions, including government ministers, diplomats and experts in the country's superyacht industry.
Russia is a bully nation, Russia tells countries to stay out Russian affairs and at the same time, Russia keeps telling other countries what they can and cannot do in their own county or they will destroy them.

Brendan Cole

ARussian lawmaker has warned that Moscow would retaliate if Finland joins NATO as Russian aggression in Ukraine spurs the Nordic country towards membership of the alliance. Vladimir Dzhabarov from Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, said that any move by Helsinki to join NATO would be a "strategic mistake." He said that Finland had developed close ties with Russia but NATO membership would mean "it would become a target." "I think it [would be] a terrible tragedy for the entire Finnish people," said Dzhabarov. However, he said that it was unlikely that "the Finns themselves will sign a card for the destruction of their country," in comments reported on Wednesday by Russian state-owned domestic news agency RIA Novosti.
By Martin Quin Pollard

BEIJING (Reuters) -China warned on Thursday it would take strong measures if U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and said such a visit would severely impact Chinese-U.S. relations, following media reports she would go next week. China considers democratically ruled Taiwan its own territory and the subject is a constant source of friction between Beijing and Washington, especially given strong U.S. military and political support for the island.
Peter Weber, Senior editor

Germany on Monday appointed a German trustee to oversee Gazprom Germania, the German subsidiary of Russian oil giant Gazprom, calling it a "transitory solution" to Gazprom's legally dubious attempt to dispose of its German shareholdings, Politico reports. The trusteeship will stay in place until Sept. 30, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said. "The government is doing what is necessary to ensure security of supply in Germany — this includes not exposing energy infrastructures in Germany to arbitrary decisions by the Kremlin," Habeck said. "It was not announced who will be the new economic and legal owner of these holdings. This is in itself a violation of the notification requirement under the foreign trade and payments ordinance."
Marianne Guenot

A video shared by the Ukrainian military purports to show proof that Russian troops dug trenches in the Red Forest, the most contaminated area of Chernobyl's exclusion zone. The video, which is not dated and of unknown origin, seems to show drone footage. It depicts land that looks dug up, in a continuous shot that pans to an image of the sarcophagus covering the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the distance.
Quartet targeted by clients – thought to be Jordanian government agencies – of Israeli company even after Apple sued in November
Stephanie Kirchgaessner

New evidence has revealed that an Apple iPhone was successfully hacked by a government user of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in December, weeks after the technology giant sued the Israeli company in a US court and called for it to be banned from “harming individuals” using Apple products. A report published on Tuesday by security researchers at Front Line Defenders (FLD) and Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found that phones belonging to four Jordanian human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists were hacked by government clients of NSO – which appear to be Jordanian government agencies – from August 2019 to December 2021.
Patti Domm

A fertilizer shortage has added to growing concerns about the Ukraine war’s impact on the price and scarcity of certain basic foods. Combined, Russia and Belarus had provided about 40% of the world’s exports of potash, according to Morgan Stanley. Russia’s exports were hit by sanctions. Further, in February, a major Belarus producer declared force majeure — a statement that it wouldn’t be able to uphold its contracts due to forces beyond its control. Russia also exported 11% of the world’s urea, and 48% of the ammonium nitrate. Russia and Ukraine together export 28% of fertilizers made from nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as potassium, according to Morgan Stanley.
Russia is trying to hide the bodies of people it has killed to hide the atrocities of what it has done.

Caitlin McFall

The Mariupol City Council on Wednesday accused Russian forces of relying on a mobile crematorium to cover up their alleged war crimes in the southeast port city of Ukraine. Mariupol, which has been partially occupied for weeks, has been the target of one of the most brutal Russian offensives in Ukraine since the invasion began in February. "The killers are covering their tracks," the city council said in several social media posts, adding that the Russians have set up "mobile crematoriums." "Russia’s top leadership ordered the destruction of any evidence of crimes committed by its army in Mariupol," the council added in a translated statement, accusing Moscow of reacting to widespread condemnation over mass civilian killings in Bucha. Humanitarian access to the city has been blocked for weeks, with an estimated 160,000 residents unable to evacuate and lacking access to electricity, heating, health care and water, reported the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense.
Two of three Lake Como homes belonging to Putin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov were attacked overnight.
Barbie Latza Nadeau

Italian firefighters extinguished a blaze set in a brazen dawn arson attack on a lavish villa owned by Vladimir Putin’s top propagandist Vladimir Solovyov early Wednesday. A fire official confirmed to The Daily Beast that the fire nearly engulfed the villa situated on the flanks of Lake Como, which has been confiscated by Italian officials due to sanctions but which still belongs to the Russian state TV presenter. The villa, with sweeping views over one of Italy’s most idyllic lakes, was undergoing full renovation when it was sequestered. It is Solovyov’s most recent property purchase in northern Italy, and he had been renovating it thanks to COVID-19 bonus payouts for construction projects.
Russia is threatening states over its actions and the actions of Russian soldiers.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Russia has warned countries at the United Nations that a yes vote or abstention on a U.S. push to suspend Moscow from the Human Rights Council will be viewed as an "unfriendly gesture" with consequences for bilateral ties, according to a note seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The United States said on Monday it would seek Russia's suspension after Ukraine accused Russian troops of killing hundreds of civilians in the town of Bucha. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly in New York is due to vote on the measure on Thursday.
By Nandita Bose, Matt Spetalnick and Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - The United States targeted Russian banks and elites with a new round of sanctions on Wednesday, including banning Americans from investing in Russia, in response to what President Joe Biden condemned as "major war crimes" by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Yes, Russia is to blame they started the war and they have committed civilian massacres in other places around the world.

CBS News

Beijing — China on Wednesday said images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are "deeply disturbing" but that no blame should be apportioned until all facts are known. Emerging evidence of what appeared to be widespread civilian massacres in the wake of Russian withdrawals from the Kyiv areas may complicate Beijing's attempts to guide public opinion over the conflict, in which China has refused to criticize Moscow. China supports all initiatives and measures "conducive to alleviating the humanitarian crisis" in the country, and is "ready to continue to work together with the international community to prevent any harm to civilians," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing.
Human Rights Watch says deaths during anti-jihadist operation in Moura ‘the worst atrocity in Mali in a decade’
Emmanuel Akinwotu

Suspected Russian mercenaries participated in an operation with Mali’s army in March in which about 300 civilian men were allegedly killed over five days, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Witnesses and local community leaders said hundreds of men were rounded up and killed in small groups during the anti-jihadist operation on 23 March in the central town of Moura. The rural town of about 10,000 inhabitants is in the Mopti region, a hotspot of jihadist activity that has intensified and spread to neighbouring countries in the Sahel region. Local security sources told HRW that more than 100 Russian-speaking men were allegedly involved in the operation, which HRW described as the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decade-long armed conflict. Witnesses spoke of white soldiers talking in an unfamiliar foreign language they believed to be Russian.
By Krisztina Than, Gergely Szakacs and Nina Chestney

BUDAPEST/LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - Hungary said on Wednesday it was prepared to pay roubles for Russian gas, breaking ranks with the European Union which has sought a united front in opposing Moscow's demand for payment in the currency.
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 6 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned "the massacre of Bucha" and kissed a Ukrainian flag sent from the town where tied bodies shot at close range littered the streets after Russian troops withdrew and bodies poked out of a mass grave at a church.
By Brad Lendon, CNN

Australia will spend $2.6 billion (3.5 billion Australian dollars) to upgrade its defensive missiles as the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region becomes more challenging due to China's assertiveness, the country's defense minister said Tuesday. The plan -- which will significantly increase the range of missiles on Australia's warships and warplanes -- comes as Australia said it will participate in developing hypersonic missiles with the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the AUKUS deal the three countries signed last year to build nuclear-powered submarines for Canberra.
By Jennifer Deaton and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN

(CNN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian troops of indiscriminately killing civilians "just for their pleasure" in an emotionally-charged address to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, before questioning the very mandate of the Security Council itself. Zelensky's speech came a day after he visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where shocking images of bodies in the streets emerged over the weekend. On Tuesday, he related the aftermath of Russia's retreat from the town in horrifying detail, describing entire families killed, people with their throats slashed, and women raped and killed in front of their children. Zelensky said Russia's actions were no different from those of a terror group, except that Russia is a permanent member of the UNSC. The Ukrainian leader then criticized the body, asking representatives point blank: "Where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It is not there, though there is a Security Council."
Agence France-Presse

A key member of Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party has quit the Israeli coalition government after a row about unleavened bread during Passover, in a surprise move that leaves the prime minister without a parliamentary majority. Idit Silman’s announcement left Bennett’s coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats – the same as the opposition. “I tried the path of unity. I worked a lot for this coalition,” Silman, a religious conservative who served as coalition chairperson, said in a statement. “Sadly, I cannot take part in harming the Jewish identity of Israel.”
William Echols

After Ukrainian forces announced they had retaken the Kyiv region on April 2, scenes of horror were discovered in the city of Bucha. Russian forces have been accused of carrying out mass killings there. Journalists from multiple news agencies have documented mass graves, streets littered with corpses, and dead civilians with their hands bound behind their backs, bearing close-range bullet wounds.
Analysis by Simone McCarthy and Yong Xiong, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) Shocking images showing the bodies of civilians scattered across the streets of Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, have sparked global horror in recent days and raised the urgency of ongoing investigations into alleged Russian war crimes. But a starkly different narrative is playing out on China's state-run media. There, domestic media reports on the civilian casualties in Bucha have been quick to emphasize the Russian rebuttal, with two prominent televised reports from national broadcaster CCTV this week highlighting unsubstantiated claims from Moscow that the situation was staged after Russian forces withdrew from the area. In one report, a caption citing Russia with the words "Ukrainians directed a good show," flashes over heavily blurred footage from the Ukrainian town. There is no evidence to suggest this is the case. Satellite images suggest some bodies had been there since at least March 18, while eyewitnesses have said the carnage began weeks ago.
The plan by the three members of the security alliance known as AUKUS comes amid growing concern about China’s military assertiveness in the Pacific.
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced Tuesday they will work together via the recently created security alliance known as AUKUS to develop hypersonic missiles. The move comes amid rising concern by the U.S. and allies about China’s growing military assertiveness in the Pacific. U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the plan after holding a check-in on the progress of AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific alliance that was launched by the three countries in September. The leaders said in a joint statement they are “committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defense innovation.” The U.S., Russia and China have all looked to further develop hypersonic missiles — a system so fast that it cannot be intercepted by any current missile defense system.
htowey@insider.com (Hannah Towey)

An abnormally high number of ships ditched their Russian flags this March and re-registered to nations such as the Marshall Islands and St. Kitts, according to data provided by Windward AI, a maritime risk consultancy. A total of 18 ships changed their Russian flag to a different nationality during the month of March. That's more than three times the normal rate of 5.8, Windward's data showed. Five of the vessels are linked to Russian ownership. The tactic — while legal — could allow businesses to hide their connections to the Russian regime and "deceive authorities" in order to evade sanctions, Windward said in its monthly report. "Right now, tracking a Russian vessel with a Russian flag is very easy," Windward CEO Ami Daniel said in an interview with Insider. "If you build a shell company, you put a vessel in there with a new name … I think it's a different ball game."
By Stephanie Bodoni and Jorge Valero

The European Union is triggering its previously untested rule-of-law powers against Hungary, starting a process that could ultimately deny newly re-elected Prime Minister Viktor Orban more than 40 billion euros ($43.9 billion) in EU funding. The bloc’s executive decided to unleash the so-called conditionality mechanism for reining in nations that violate the EU’s core values after failing to secure necessary changes from Hungary, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Mersiha Gadzo

As Russia’s influence grows in the Western Balkans and war rages in Ukraine, the leaders of Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have said joining NATO would help preserve regional security. Since February 24, when President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine citing Russia’s opposition to Ukraine’s potential NATO membership as a leading concern, fears have simmered that the crisis may spread to the Western Balkans.
‘Nobody negotiated with Hitler. You would negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot afterwards?’
Shweta Sharma

Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has criticised French president Emmanuel Macron for negotiatiating with Vladimir Putin, who he likened to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot, as global condemnation poured over the mass killings in Ukraine’s Bucha. “Mr President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin, what have you achieved?” Mr Morawiecki asked the French leader at a press briefing on Monday.
The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia has accelerated plans to buy long-range strike missiles years ahead of schedule because of growing threats posed by Russia and China. Defense Minister Peter Dutton said Tuesday the accelerated rearming of fighter jets and warships would cost 3.5 billion Australian dollars ($2.6 billion) and increase Australia's deterrence to potential adversaries. "There was a working assumption that an act of aggression by China toward Taiwan might take place in the 2040s. I think that timeline now has been dramatically compressed," Dutton told Seven Network television.
Reuters

BERLIN, April 4 (Reuters) - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, long an advocate of Western rapprochement with Russia, expressed regret for his earlier stance, saying his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been a clear mistake.
By Anna Cooban, CNN Business

London (CNN Business) European leaders have planned to phase out Russian coal imports in response to harrowing scenes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed a phased ban of €4 billion ($4.3 billion) worth of Russian coal imports per year as part of a fifth package of sanctions designed to further diminish Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest. Other proposals target Russian technology and manufacturing imports, worth another €10 billion ($10.9 billion). Europe has imposed punishing sanctions on Russia's economy since Putin's tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, but stopped short of targeting Russia's energy sector — until now. Images of unarmed civilians, bound and shot, lying along Bucha's roads — which were until recently under Russian occupation — have convinced leaders to change tack.
BBC News

Harrowing accounts are emerging of Malian troops and suspected Russian mercenaries allegedly executing about 300 people in central Mali. Residents told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the killings took place during an operation against militant Islamists over four days in late March. Detained men were ordered to walk in groups of up to 10, before being summarily executed, HRW said. "I lived in terror, each minute, each second thinking it would be my turn to be taken away and executed. Even after being told to go, I feared it was a trap," one man who witnessed some executions was quoted as saying. "As I walked away, slowly, I held my hand on my chest, holding my breath, and waiting for a bullet to pass through my body," he added. Mali's military admitted on Saturday that it had killed more than 200 militants in a "large-scale" assault on the "terrorist fief" of Moura.
China’s Communist Party is mounting an ideological campaign aimed at officials and students. The message: The country will not turn its back on Russia.
By Chris Buckley

While Russian troops have battered Ukraine, officials in China have been meeting behind closed doors to study a Communist Party-produced documentary that extols President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a hero. The humiliating collapse of the Soviet Union, the video says, was the result of efforts by the United States to destroy its legitimacy. With swelling music and sunny scenes of present-day Moscow, the documentary praises Mr. Putin for restoring Stalin’s standing as a great wartime leader and for renewing patriotic pride in Russia’s past. To the world, China casts itself as a principled onlooker of the war in Ukraine, not picking sides, simply seeking peace. At home, though, the Chinese Communist Party is pushing a campaign that paints Russia as a long-suffering victim rather than an aggressor and defends China’s strong ties with Moscow as vital.
Tobita Chow and Jake Werner

By equating Putin and Xi, Western leaders risk casting aside possibilities for international cooperation and setting the world on a path to far wider geopolitical conflict. In the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s highly publicized meeting with Xi Jinping before the Beijing Winter Olympics seems to have crystallized opinion in the west. In the US and its allies, political leaders, commentators and journalists now portray a monolithic authoritarian bloc bent on extinguishing the rules-based order that has safeguarded peace and democracy for decades. According to the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, “a new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning to challenge and reset the world order in their own image.” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, characterized the joint communique coming out of the Putin-Xi meeting as aiming to establish “the rule of the strongest [over] the rule of law, intimidation instead of self-determination, coercion instead of cooperation”.
“Your adversary’s probably stronger than you think it is,” warned the assistant defense secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs.
Caitlin M. Kenney

Russia’s poorly executed invasion of Ukraine and the international community’s economic and diplomatic response are cautionary lessons for China and others who may want to attempt aggressive actions in the Pacific, the Pentagon’s policy chief for the region said Monday. “When we look at the types of acts of aggression that we worry about in the Indo-Pacific—and the Taiwan Strait being the top of that list—it's going to be very difficult, and I think that there are broad lessons there to be drawn from Ukraine,” Ely Ratner, assistant defense secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said at the Sea-Air-Space conference outside Washington, D.C. “Number one, military operations are probably going to be more difficult than you think for a whole bunch of reasons: because you're not tested in the way you think you are, because your adversary’s probably stronger than you think it is. And because the terrain might be more difficult than you’ve anticipated, et cetera.”
By Daniel Flatley and Giulia Morpurgo

The U.S. Treasury halted dollar debt payments from Russian government accounts at U.S. banks, increasing pressure on Moscow to find alternative funding sources to pay bond investors and avoid a default. The decision adds another complication to Russia’s attempts to keep meeting debt obligations amid the sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine. While the government is so far making payments, some have been delayed by banks doing lengthy checks that they aren’t breaching any restrictions.
Megan Davies and Alexandra Alper

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States stopped the Russian government on Monday from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at U.S. banks, in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on Moscow and eat into its holdings of dollars. Under sanctions put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, foreign currency reserves held by the Russian central bank at U.S. financial institutions were frozen. But the Treasury Department had been allowing the Russian government to use those funds to make coupon payments on dollar-denominated sovereign debt on a case-by-case basis.
Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath

President Biden has called Vladimir Putin a "war criminal," and said Monday the Russian leader should face a trial over the alleged atrocities in Ukrainian city of Bucha. Yes, but: While similar calls have echoed worldwide, Putin is unlikely to be held criminally accountable, at least as long as he remains in power. The big picture: War crimes have been historically hard to investigate and often even more challenging to prosecute. This is especially true when prosecutors seek to hold leaders or former leaders accountable.
Jeong-Ho Lee

Kim Yo Jong said that if South Korea “opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday. It was the second warning issued by the younger Kim in about 48 hours, after she earlier denounced South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook as a “senseless and scum-like guy.” The comments were the first Kim Yo Jong has made in state media in about six months and indicate that she still serves as the face of Pyongyang’s policies toward Seoul. South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol is set to take power May 10, after pledging to align more closely with the U.S. and take tougher line toward North Korea and China.
Brutal environmental conditions and an economy hit hard with sanctions has left Afghanistan's people on the brink of famine.
Holly Rosenkrantz

Afghanistan has faced grave hunger crises before. Two decades ago, people in the country were so hungry they resorted to eating wild grass. But the situation in the country now is unprecedented. Exacerbated by an unusually cold winter and the worst drought in decades, the economic upheaval that came with the Taliban takeover has left 95% of Afghans without enough food. Nine million people are at risk of starvation. Hospitals are full of premature and dying babies, some weighing less than 2 pounds. A new class of urban people are hungry for the first time, as civil servants and teachers stand in line for food and cash assistance.
As observers worry about the increasing possibility, an invading force would still have huge challenges to overcome.
By Alex Gatopoulos

The invasion of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), has been considered by Chinese military planners for decades but only under President Xi Jinping have observers worried this might be increasingly likely. Taiwan, formerly the island of Formosa, was the last bastion that held out against Mao Zedong’s victorious Communist army after elements of the defeated nationalist Kuomintang military retreated to the eastern island in 1949. Threats of military action against the breakaway province have escalated during times when some Taiwanese political parties have debated whether to declare independence. The democratic, self-ruled island has no seat at the United Nations and has not had one for 50 years.
Ukrainian ambassador rebukes finance minister, says he’s welcome to ‘see for himself the bodies,’ Gantz calls killing of civilians in city near Kyiv a war crime
By Amy Spiro

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman refused to outright condemn alleged Russian atrocities in Bucha and other cities surrounding Kyiv, stating on Monday that Israel must uphold both its values and its own interests amid the ongoing war. Ukrainian officials said Sunday that the bodies of more than 400 civilians were found in towns around the capital, Kyiv, that were recaptured from Russian forces, calling the killings evidence of genocide. In Bucha, northwest of the capital, Associated Press journalists saw 21 bodies. One group of nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base. They appeared to have been shot at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs.
Jacob Knutson

The U.S. will seek Russia's suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council in response to allegations that Russian forces committed war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday.

The big picture: Ukraine's forces retook the Kyiv region and northern areas of the country over the weekend. Officials and independent photographers have reported bodies of civilians — some with their hands tied behind their backs — strewn in the streets of the city of Bucha.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday he had appointed the Federal Network Agency as a trustee for the German subsidiary of the Russia's Gazprom.
By Shane Croucher

Poland's deputy prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he is "open" to the idea of the U.S deploying tactical nuclear weapons in his country, and called for Washington to send tens of thousands more American troops to Europe to check the Russian threat. Kaczynski, who leads the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice Party, also urged NATO to "do more" in Ukraine—in particular, a peacekeeping mission and delivering President Volodymyr Zelensky the weapons he asks for—and said he is "very dissatisfied" with Germany. "The eastern flank must be much better protected in the future than before," Kaczynski told Germany's Welt Am Sonntag newspaper, asking America to station 50,000 more troops—a 50 percent increase—with most of the total in the Baltics and Poland, which are NATO allies.
Silvia Amaro

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions against Russia that is likely to restrict the leasing of airplanes and the import and export of products like jet fuel, steel products and luxury goods, two sources with knowledge of the discussions have told CNBC. However, the bloc remains divided over whether to extend those sanctions to energy imports — despite mounting evidence of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Ukraine’s top prosecutor has said 410 bodies had been found in towns recaptured from retreating Russian forces around Kyiv as part of an investigation into possible war crimes. Over the weekend, various international media organizations reported on the mass killings of civilians in the town of Bucha, a Ukrainian city close to the country’s capital of Kyiv, which had been under Russian occupation until recently.
Brian Schwartz

U.S. authorities accused Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg of conspiring to commit bank fraud and money laundering as his mega yacht was seized in Spain on Monday. Vekselberg, who was born in Ukraine but founded Russia-based conglomerate Renova Group, saw his yacht named Tango seized by Spanish investigators after the U.S. and Western allies hit him with sanctions. The most recent U.S. sanctions came after Russia invaded Ukraine. The sanctions targeted Vekselberg’s yacht and private jet.
Isabel van Brugen

Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Saturday that the country will make a decision on applying for NATO membership by the end of spring, because "Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was." Finland's relations with Russia have changed in an "irreversible" way, said Marin, reversing course on earlier remarks that it would be "very unlikely" that Finland would apply for membership with the military alliance during her current term of office. Russian officials have warned of potential retaliation, in the form of military and political consequences, should Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sergei Belyaev, director of the Second European Department of Russia's Foreign Ministry, told Russia's state-run news agency Interfax that Finland and Sweden not joining NATO is "an important factor in ensuring security and stability in northern Europe."
by Monique Beals

The Taliban on Sunday announced a ban on cultivating poppy flowers, which are used to make heroine, in a move seen as courting global approval while also putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk. The order also forbids the production, use and transit of other narcotics. “As per the decree of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all Afghans are informed that from now on, cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country,” the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada reportedly said at a news conference on Sunday. Akhundzada’s order warned that “if anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia law.”
Peter Weber

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said "his wish" is to see the European Union enact a total blockade on Russian oil and coal "this week" in response to Moscow's "war crimes" in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. There are "very clear signs of war crimes" in Bucha, and "it's pretty established that it's the Russian army" that was responsible for the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Macron told French broadcaster France Inter. "We can't let it slide." "It's notable that Macron didn't mention targeting Russian gas, which accounts for about 40 percent of the EU's natural gas imports," BBC News reports.
Huileng Tan

Germany is considering nationalizing Gazprom and Rosneft units in the country, the business newspaper Handelsblatt reported Thursday, citing government sources. The two Russian energy giants have a significant footprint in Europe's largest economy, with Gazprom Germania running gas-storage facilities and Rosneft Deutschland accounting for a quarter of Germany's refinery business, per Handelsblatt. Berlin is also considering expropriating Gazprom assets by forcing the giant to sell its gas-storage facilities across Germany, Politico reported Friday, citing a government official and two other people briefed on the plans. The business daily further reported on Sunday that the plans to nationalize Gazprom and Rosneft units in Germany were met with approval from the ruling coalition.
Matt Clinch

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban dubbed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one of his opponents on Sunday evening, following a landslide election victory for the nationalist leader. Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party won a comfortable majority over the opposition United for Hungary alliance on Sunday, despite expectations for a tight race. In a 10-minute speech to his supporters following the election, he claimed victory and then denounced what he described as an “overwhelming force” that had been against him and his campaign — which included Zelenskyy.
By CNN's Rob Picheta and Balint Bardi

(CNN) Hungary's authoritarian leader and longtime Russian ally, Viktor Orban, has declared victory in the country's parliamentary elections, clinching a fourth consecutive term in power. Orban's Fidesz party had a commanding lead with 71% of the votes counted, Hungary's national elections board said on Sunday evening. The election campaign was dominated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which put Orban's lengthy association with Russian President Vladimir Putin under scrutiny. In his victory speech, Orban called Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky one of the "opponents" he had to overcome during the campaign. Hungary is heavily reliant on Russian energy and Orban has dodged opportunities to condemn Putin's assault on its neighboring state, complicating the EU's efforts to present a united front against him.
(Reuters) - Russian lawmakers will propose measures seeking punishment for the implementation of sanctions on Russia's territory, a senior lawmaker said on Sunday. "My colleagues from the State Duma and I have finished the work and on Monday we will introduce amendments to the Criminal Code for the implementation of restrictive measures (sanctions) imposed by foreign states on the territory of the Russian Federation," Andrei Klishas wrote on his Telegram channel. "We look forward to prompt consideration of the amendments by the State Duma." Klishas did not specify how Russia would identify or punish those who implemented sanctions.
By Natalia Zinets

LVIV, Ukraine, April 3 (Reuters) - Germany said on Sunday that the West would agree to impose more sanctions on Russia in the coming days after Ukraine accused Russian forces of war crimes near Kyiv, ratcheting up the already vast economic pressure on Russia over its invasion.
AP

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — An outspoken half-brother of Jordan’s king relinquished his princely title Sunday in apparent protest over how the country is run. It was the latest chapter in an ongoing palace feud that saw the junior royal placed under house arrest a year ago. Prince Hamzah posted the announcement on his official Twitter account. He wrote that he was driven to the decision because his convictions cannot be reconciled with the “current approaches, policies and methods of our institutions.” He stopped short of directly criticizing King Abdullah II and the ruling elites, as he had done in the past, but his tone signaled that the rift has not been mended, as the Royal Court suggested in the past.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania stop importing Russian gas as part of European efforts to curb reliance on Russian energy.

Latvia says the Baltic states are no longer importing Russian natural gas, as European nations try to wean themselves off Russian energy sources in the wake of the Ukraine war. “If there were still any doubts about whether there may be any trust in deliveries from Russia, current events clearly show us that there is no more trust,” Uldis Bariss, CEO of Conexus Baltic Grid – Latvia’s natural gas storage operator, said on Saturday. “Since April 1st, Russian natural gas is no longer flowing to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania,” he told Latvian radio, adding that the Baltic market was currently being served by gas reserves stored underground in Latvia.
Yahoo

With the Ukraine crisis putting further strain on China's ties with the United States and the West as a whole, Beijing has set its eyes on mending fences with its neighbours. China's diplomatic frenzy in the past two weeks shows the importance of its neighbours in Beijing's hierarchy of relations, according to observers. On the heels of a whirlwind tour of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who travelled abroad for the first time since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Alberto Nardelli

Some European Union governments are pushing for the bloc to quickly impose new sanctions in response to multiple reports that Russian troops executed unarmed civilians in Ukrainian towns, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions. The European Commission was already honing measures that would mostly focus on closing loopholes, strengthening existing actions -- such as export controls on technology goods and fully sanctioning banks already cut off from the SWIFT global payments system -- and expanding the list of sanctioned individuals. Some EU nations argue there is now a trigger for even more penalties to be put in place with speed, with Ukrainian officials reporting evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in northern areas, according to a diplomat familiar with the discussions.
Imran Khan has survived a move to oust him as Pakistan’s prime minister, getting a reprieve when the deputy speaker of Parliament blocked a no-confidence motion as unconstitutional. Khan, whose fate was not immediately clear, later advised the country’s president to dissolve Parliament, leading to fresh political instability in the nuclear-armed country of 220 million people. The National Assembly deputy speaker, of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, dismissed the move against Khan on Sunday, saying it went against Article 5 of the Constitution.
During meeting with top security officials, premier warns Israel may face ‘many more’ terror attacks, after 3 gunmen killed while allegedly en route to Israel
By Emanuel Fabian

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday warned the country may face “many more” attempted terror attacks in the near future, after troops killed three Palestinian gunmen allegedly en route to committing an attack in Israel. “We are in the midst of a joint effort of all the security forces to stop the wave of recent attacks and restore security to Israeli citizens,” Bennett said in a video statement alongside Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and his military secretary Avi Gil, ahead of a meeting with top officials at the security agency’s headquarters. Referring to the overnight raid in which three Islamic Jihad operatives were killed, Bennett said security forces “thwarted a ticking time bomb.” Officials said the cell planned to cross into Israel from the West Bank and carry out a shooting attack.
The Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A diverse coalition of opposition parties made their final appeal to Hungarian voters on Saturday ahead of the country's fiercely fought election that will decide whether nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues his autocratic rule for a fourth consecutive term. Several hundred supporters of the six-party coalition, United For Hungary, gathered in the rain in central Budapest one day before the vote on Sunday. The movement's leader, Peter Marki-Zay, said this national election was about bringing an end to "the most corrupt government in our 1,000-year history," and ushering in a new era of inclusive democracy in the Central European and European Union nation. "We welcome everyone, right or left, Christian, Jewish or atheist, of any origin or sexual orientation. Because we believe that what's important is not what divides us, but what unites us," Marki-Zay said.
By Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's rouble payment scheme for natural gas is the prototype that the world's largest country will extend to other major exports because the West has sealed the decline of the U.S. dollar by freezing Russian assets, the Kremlin said. Russia's economy is facing the gravest crisis since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union after the United States and its allies imposed crippling sanctions due to Putin's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine war threatens to hold up billions of dollars worth of Chinese products bound for Europe on Silk Road rail corridor
By Costas Paris

Sanctions imposed on Russia are disrupting China’s ambitions to move more exports to Europe, a setback for the $4 trillion effort championed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cement his country as the world’s pre-eminent trading partner. Although the European Union has yet to officially ban imports passing through Russia, inbound rail-cargo shipments have all but frozen, according to freight forwarders. Moving shipping containers from China along a 7,500-mile corridor that runs through Russia and extends to the United Kingdom is a vital part of Belt and Road, a yearslong undertaking that includes investments to connect China to Europe by land and sea.
Chinese leaders tell EU counterparts they will push for peace in Ukraine in their ‘own way’, pushing back against calls for a tougher approach.
Aljazeera
 
China has offered the European Union assurances that it will seek peace in Ukraine as it resisted pressure from the grouping to adopt a tougher stance on Russia. In the first China-EU summit in two years, Premier Li Keqiang told EU leaders that Beijing would push for peace in “its own way”, while President Xi Jinping, who has developed a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he hoped the EU would take an “independent” approach, in a nod to Europe’s close ties with the United States.
Catherine Neilan
India welcomed Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for talks on Friday after rejecting the UK's plea to cut its use on the country's cheap oil. India's external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held lukewarm talks with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday, in which he shrugged off her request to buy discounted oil from Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Lavrov's delegation on Friday was granted an audience with India's Prime Minister, a high-level engagement which Truss did not receive. India was among a small number of nations that did not vote against Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the UN, opting to abstain. It has not joined Western efforts to sanction the Russian economy.
By Vrishti Beniwal and Debjit Chakraborty
India will continue buying cheap Russian oil in the nation’s interest, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, even as pressure mounts to isolate Kremlin. “We have started buying, we have received quite a number of barrels -- I would think three-four days supply and this will continue,” Sitharaman said at a CNBC-TV18 event on Friday. “India’s overall interest is what is kept in mind.” Indian state refiners have been doubling down on Russian barrels that are being shunned away by European buyers since the beginning of war in Ukraine. The country has contracted Russian crude oil for deliveries over the next three to four months, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said last week.
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

BERLIN (AP) — A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against COVID-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell forged vaccination cards with real vaccine batch numbers to people not wanting to get vaccinated themselves. The man from the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules, is said to have received up to 90 shots against COVID-19 at vaccination centers in the eastern state of Saxony for months until criminal police caught him earlier this month, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday. The suspect was not detained but is under investigation for unauthorized issuance of vaccination cards and document forgery, dpa reported.
Reuters

ANKARA, April 1 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he will tell his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call later that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy need to take a step to address issues over Ukraine's Donbas region and Crimea.
Though India has grown closer to the U.S. in recent years, it has long relied on Russia for defense equipment, fighter jets and support at international forums.
By Mithil Aggarwal and Anisha Kukreja

A flurry of visits by Russian and Western diplomats is unlikely to change India’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, experts say, particularly since the war has the support of a public being bombarded by media coverage that blames the U.S. for the conflict. While U.S. and British officials in New Delhi this week pressured India to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the government for not taking a “one-sided view.” “We appreciate that India is taking this situation in the entirety of facts,” Lavrov said Friday after meeting with his counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in the Indian capital.
Ellen Knickmeyer | Associated Press

Washington – Russia’s assault on Ukraine and its veiled threats of using nuclear arms have policymakers, past and present, thinking the unthinkable: How should the West respond to a Russian battlefield explosion of a nuclear bomb? The default U.S. policy answer, say some architects of the post-Cold War nuclear order, is with discipline and restraint. That could entail stepping up sanctions and isolation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Rose Gottemoeller, deputy secretary-general of NATO from 2016 to 2019.
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Bloomberg News

Shanghai’s 25 million residents are almost all under some form of lockdown as the financial hub struggles to contain the coronavirus’s highly contagious omicron variant. The eastern half of the mega Chinese city remains under tight movement restrictions despite the end of a four-day sweeping lockdown Friday morning, according to a government statement Saturday. That means the entire population of the metropolis is currently under some form of quarantine as the two-part lockdown shifted to the western half of Shanghai on Friday.
By Rashad Milligan

Maud Murimwa, a fifth-year medical student at Sumy State University in Eastern Ukraine, only had four months left to complete her degree and return home to Africa before the war with Russia began. The medical student, who chose Sumy State because she had a cousin in Ukraine, made it out of the war-torn country and says she’s doing fine- for now. “I’m [doing] okay,” Murimwa told rolling out. “Much better now that I’m somewhere else.” While conditions have been tough for every Ukrainian resident, they are proving to be especially challenging for Black residents who have to deal with racism in a time of war.
Director of space agency Roscosmos says partnership will be restored only when ‘illegal sanctions’ are removed
Reuters

Russia says it will end cooperation with western countries over the International Space Station until sanctions are lifted. Russia’s space director said on Saturday that the restoration of normal ties between partners at the ISS and other joint space projects would be possible only once western sanctions against Moscow were lifted. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said in a social media post that the aim of the sanctions was to “kill Russian economy and plunge our people into despair and hunger, to get our country on its knees”. He added that they “won’t succeed in it, but the intentions are clear”. “That’s why I believe that the restoration of normal relations between the partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other projects is possible only with full and unconditional removal of illegal sanctions,” Rogozin said.
By Mostafa Salem and Lianne Kolirin, CNN

CNN — The Saudi-led military alliance and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, who have been at war in Yemen since 2015, agreed to a two-month truce Friday, marking a significant step toward ending the conflict in years. The last coordinated cessation of hostilities nationwide was during peace talks in 2016. UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the truce, which he said has “fueled one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.” The war has killed tens of thousands of people and has left millions on the brink of starvation. On Friday, Guterres commended “the Government of Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis for agreeing on a two-month truce in Yemen, including cross-border attacks.”
By NICOLE WINFIELD

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Pope Francis said Saturday he is studying a possible visit to Kyiv and he blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a “savage” war. Speaking after his arrival in Malta, he delivered his most pointed and personalized denunciation yet of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Francis didn’t cite Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, but the reference was clear when he said that “some potentate” had unleashed the threat of nuclear war on the world in an “infantile and destructive aggression” under the guise of “anachronist claims of nationalistic interests.” “We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past,” Francis told Maltese officials and diplomats on the Mediterranean island nation at the start of a weekend visit.
Russia is destroying Ukraine and Xi Jinping warns the EU.

Yahoo News

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the EU not to "tie the whole world" to the crisis in Ukraine and warned it could take decades to repair the economic damage. In a virtual summit with European Union leaders on Friday, Xi told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel that the crisis must be "properly handled". "Many people are very worried that the current situation may destroy the achievements of decades of international economic cooperation. If the situation continues to deteriorate, it is estimated that it may take years, or even decades, to recover afterwards," Xi said, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.
Putin is the one who invaded Ukraine nobody made Putin invade Ukraine.

By Matthew Impelli

China called the U.S. the "leading instigator" of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Friday. During a daily press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, "As the culprit and the leading instigator of the Ukraine crisis, the US has led NATO in pursuing five rounds of eastward expansions in the next two decades or so since 1999." "NATO's membership has increased from 16 to 30 countries and the organization moved over 1000 kilometers eastward to somewhere near Russia's borders, pushing the latter to the wall," Zhao added.
gkay@insider.com (Grace Kay)

The CEO of the Netherlands port, Allard Castelein, told Bloomberg that the inspection process for thousands of shipping containers linked to Russia has become a "nightmare." Amid sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, the Russian-linked containers are set aside for a careful inspection in order to certify that moving the containers won't breach any of the sanctions, he told the publication. "You need to isolate them, set them apart, and then do physical inspections of the containers before they can be released," he told Bloomberg. "That exercise delivers constraints on the value chain in terms of physical space, manpower and time," he added.
By Philip Blenkinsop and Yew Lun Tian

BRUSSELS/BEIJING, April 1 (Reuters) - China offered the European Union assurances on Friday that it would seek peace in Ukraine but said this would be on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance towards Russia.
By Michelle Toh, CNN Business

Hong Kong CNN Business — China and Europe’s top leaders are set to meet on Friday, as their vast and growing trade relationship threatens to be overshadowed by differences over Russia and other geopolitical tensions. At the virtual EU-China summit, Beijing is expected to face pressure from one of its top trading partners over the war in Ukraine, which will be the main focus of the talks, according to the European Union. Chinese President Xi Jingping and Premier Li Keqiang will also discuss business ties, human rights and climate change with European Council President Charles Michel and Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Europe trades more goods with China than anyone else. But in recent weeks, concerns in the West have spiked over Beijing’s refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Marianne Guenot

A radiation monitoring lab near the Chernobyl nuclear site was looted during the Russian invasion, Ukrainian scientists from the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) told news outlets over the past week. The consequences of the Russian invasion of the exclusion zone around the decommissioned nuclear power plant are still emerging after its forces withdrew and allowed Ukraine to recapture the area. Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear disaster in 1986. It is also not far from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and was an early target in the Russian invasion. Anatolii Nosovskyi, director of the ISPNPP in Kyiv, told Science that looters apparently took off with radioactive isotopes used to calibrate instruments, as well as nuclear waste left over from the 1986 nuclear accident.
By Jake Kwon, Masha Angelova and Uliana Pavlova, CNN

CNN — A Russian official accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot inside Russian territory Friday, as footage surfaced of the facility engulfed in flames. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region claimed two Ukrainian military helicopters flew across the border at low altitude on Friday morning and struck the fuel storage facility, setting millions of gallons of fuel on fire. A spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry declined to comment on the Russian accusations. CNN could not verify the Russian claims. “I would like to emphasize that Ukraine is performing a defensive operation against Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine,” Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry, said in a televised statement Friday.
Victoria Kim

Unless you have been on the battlefield in Syria, Libya or the Central African Republic, you most likely have never heard of the Wagner Group, a private military force with close links to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Wagner forces have appeared in Ukraine, presumably to fight alongside Russian troops in Putin’s war. In the past month, the number of Wagner troops in the country has more than tripled to over 1,000. Their presence, in the eastern region known as Donbas that is home to Russia-backed separatist groups, raises concerns, given the group’s history. U.N. investigators and rights groups say Wagner troops have targeted civilians, conducted mass executions and looted private property in conflict zones. Here’s what to know about Wagner:
by Monique Beals

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in an address on Thursday that people in Afghanistan are “selling their children and their body parts” to provide for their families amid the country’s near economic collapse. “Without immediate action, we face a starvation and malnutrition crisis in Afghanistan,” Guterres said in remarks delivered in New York. “People are already selling their children and their body parts, in order to feed their families,” he said of the Afghan people struggling as their economy has “effectively collapsed,” with roughly 80 percent of the population in debt. “This spells catastrophe for both Afghans struggling to feed their families, and for our aid operations,” he added, citing spiking food prices across the world as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Pakistan’s embattled prime minister says he will not resign and accuses the US of conspiring with the opposition.
By Q Zaman

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he will not resign, striking a defiant tone ahead of a no-confidence vote expected to take place on Sunday. Khan, 69, lost his majority in parliament on Wednesday when a key ally quit his coalition, which could give the opposition the 172 votes in the 342-seat house needed to force him out. The opposition has accused him of corruption and economic mismanagement, amid high inflation and a weakening currency. “There is only one honourable exit for [Khan] and that is resignation,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), told reporters on Thursday.
Ravi Buddhavarapu

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was in Sri Lanka this week to offer help to the struggling Sri Lankan economy in an attempt to pry it away from a decades-long Chinese embrace. Sri Lanka’s two-year-old economic crisis comes after two decades of heavy Chinese investment, under what a geopolitical expert called “strategic trap diplomacy.″ Having a giant, increasingly assertive neighbor so closely intertwined with Sri Lanka has unsettled India, which is locked in a standoff with China at their disputed Himalayan border. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis affords India an opportunity to wean the country away from Beijing’s influence.
By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Amid a regional backlash, the Solomon Islands said it would not allow a Chinese military base in the Pacific islands nation despite its plans to sign a security pact with Beijing. A day after officials from the two countries initialled a draft agreement on security, the office of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said on Friday the agreement does not invite China to establish a military base. "Government is conscious of the security ramification of hosting a military base, and it will not be careless to allow such initiative to take place under its watch," a statement said. Sogavare has not released details of the security agreement with China, amid concern sparked by a leaked draft that allowed Chinese navy ships to replenish in the islands. Ministers have not yet signed it.
By Sergiy Karazy

IRPIN, Ukraine, April 1 (Reuters) - Russia allowed gas to keep flowing to Europe on Friday despite a deadline for buyers to pay in roubles or be cut off, and peace talks resumed, with Moscow saying it would respond to a Ukrainian offer. An order by President Vladimir Putin cutting off gas buyers unless they pay in roubles from Friday had caused alarm in Europe, where it was seen as Moscow's strongest card to play to retaliate for Western financial sanctions. Germany, the biggest buyer, rejected the demand as "blackmail". But pipelines were pumping as normal on Friday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the decree would not affect shipments which were already paid for, only becoming an issue when new payments were due in the second half of the month. "Does this mean that if there is no confirmation in roubles, then gas supplies will be cut off from April 1? No, it doesn't, and it doesn't follow from the decree," Peskov told reporters.
Niamh Cavanagh and Sam Matthews

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine grinds into its sixth week, experts and Western intelligence agencies are continuing to sketch out potential endgames for the conflict. It’s possible that a ceasefire could emerge, and the Russian military, facing surprisingly fierce Ukrainian resistance, would simply back off its initial war aim of regime change in Kyiv and control over the country’s future. But recent history suggests the solution won’t be that simple. Russia could also exploit its far larger military might and continue its advance into Ukraine, particularly in the east, where it now appears to be focused. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin may continue to face heavy losses, the sheer size of his army sets up the possibility of the Kremlin occupying swaths of Ukrainian territory and facing a protracted and bloody insurgence.
By Patricia McKnight

Mexican authorities found six severed heads on top of a parked vehicle with an intimidating message in the municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero. In a gruesome message, human remains found on a busy street are believed to be victims of drug gang-related violence, authorities said. At the scene, a large poster warning against kidnapping and drug selling was posted beside the car. "In Chilapa it's strictly prohibited to sell or use crystal, kidnap, extort and steal," the sign read, according to a Newsweek translation. "This is going to happen to anyone who's messing around. All these crimes have capital punishment and the rules must be followed. The square has an owner and is respected."
Reuters

BERLIN, March 31 (Reuters) - The German economy ministry is considering expropriation of Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and Rosneft (ROSN.MM) units in the country amid concerns about security of energy supply, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing government sources. The discussions between top ministry officials and Chancellor Olaf Scholz aim to prevent massive power cuts if either of these companies, which are systemically important for Germany, gets into difficulties, the newspaper reported.
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