Charles, who announced in early February he had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer, will continue treatment while resuming some public-facing engagements, though he will not undertake a full summer programme.

His first engagement will be to visit a cancer treatment centre on Tuesday accompanied by Queen Camilla, though it is not a centre directly involved in his medical care. There he will meet medical specialists and patients as patron of Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support.

He will also host a state visit by the emperor and empress of Japan in June.

A palace spokesperson said Charles was “greatly encouraged to be resuming some public-facing duties and very grateful to his medical team for their continued care and expertise”.

In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “His Majesty the King will shortly return to public-facing duties after a period of treatment and recuperation following his recent cancer diagnosis.

“To help mark this milestone, the king and queen will make a joint visit to a cancer treatment centre next Tuesday, where they will meet medical specialists and patients. This visit will be the first in a number of external engagements His Majesty will undertake in the weeks ahead.

“As the first anniversary of the coronation approaches, Their Majesties remain deeply grateful for the many kindnesses and good wishes they have received from around the world throughout the joys and challenges of the past year.”

The spokesperson said the king’s treatment programme would continue, “but doctors are sufficiently pleased with the progress so far that the king is now able to resume a number of public-facing duties”.

Engagements will be adapted to minimise any risks to his continued recovery. The spokesperson added it was too early to say how much longer Charles’s treatment would continue, but his medical team “are very encouraged by the progress made so far and remain positive about the king’s continued recovery”.

“Any public-facing engagements will be announced nearer the time in the usual way, and will remain subject to doctors’ advice, but it will not be a full summer programme. His Majesty will of course continue with all official state business and selected audiences, as he has done throughout his period of treatment.”

Though Charles will now be able to meet people indoor and outdoors, each engagement will be carefully reviewed and managed to reduce any risk to his continued recovery.

His engagements will also be paced to prevent him overdoing it while continuing treatment. The “pacing” will be “carefully calibrated as his recovery continues, in close consultation with his medical team”, the spokesperson said.

The king’s summer programme would, under normal circumstances, include the Birthday Parade, D-Day commemorations, the annual Buckingham Palace garden parties, Royal Ascot and an autumn tour overseas.

“Planning continues for ways in which Their Majesties may attend such summer and autumn engagements, though nothing can be confirmed or guaranteed at this stage,” the spokesperson said,

Charles’s cancer was diagnosed after treatment for a benign enlarged prostate, though it is not prostate cancer. Buckingham Palace has said it has no plans to share further details of his specific condition or treatment plan at this stage.

The Princess of Wales revealed on 22 March that she had also been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer, and is undergoing preventive chemotherapy.

The king has been dividing his time between his Sandringham estate in Norfolk and London, where he is receiving qutreatment.

A new picture of the king and queen has been released to mark the anniversary of their coronation on 6 May. It was taken in the Buckingham Palace garden on 10 April, the day after the couple’s 19th wedding anniversary.

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School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that “desperate” poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health.

The head of a primary school in a deprived area in north-west England, speaking anonymously to avoid identifying vulnerable children, said: “We have a child who we put in the shower a couple of times a week.” He described the family’s bathroom as “disgusting” and said they couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products.

His school routinely washed uniforms for children whose families didn’t have a washing machine.

The school recently stepped in to help after discovering a pupil begging outside a supermarket and its free breakfast club was “really needed”. But lack of sleep had become another big symptom of poverty – and a barrier to learning.

“We’ve got a lot of kids in homes with not enough beds or a mum sleeping with two or three children,” the head said. Support staff would often take children out of class who weren’t coping because of exhaustion to let them sleep for an hour or two. “Some children are falling asleep in lessons, and not just the little ones,” he said.

The school had many children living in “desperate neglect”. “Kids are sleeping on sofas, in homes with smashed windows, no curtains, or mice,” he said. “I come out of some of these properties and get really upset.”

A report published on Friday by the Child of the North campaign, led by eight leading northern universities, and the Centre for Young Lives thinktank, warned that after decades of cuts to public services, schools were now the “frontline of the battle against child poverty”, and at risk of being “overwhelmed”. It called on the government to increase funding to help schools support the more than 4 million children now living in poverty in the UK.

Anne Longfield, founder of the Centre for Young Lives and the government’s former children’s commissioner, said: “The government has dismantled public services over the past decade and schools are the last people standing. They need proper support to tackle child poverty.”

Katrina Morley, chief executive of Tees Valley Education trust, which runs four primary academies and one special school, all with exceptionally high numbers of children on free school meals, described sleep as “a real issue”. “We have children without beds or they might have to share with siblings,” she said. “Some don’t have enough bedding and no heating so they can’t sleep because they are cold.”

The trust works with local charities to provide families with support on issues like finding beds, and has also discreetly donated blankets over the winter.

A teacher at a primary school in the south-east who works with children at risk of exclusion, 90% of whom are from working families relying on food banks, said children were vaping and buying cheap energy drinks “to suppress their hunger”. Their behaviour was “erratic” as a result. “Every child I deal with is fighting issues that would keep us off work,” he added. “We can’t just teach in a bubble and ignore that.”

Jonny Uttley, chief executive of the the Education Alliance, which runs 11 schools in Hull and East Yorkshire, said hunger or an inability to replace or wash uniforms were the most overt signs of poverty they saw. Some of their schools now provided some children with PE kits and washed them between lessons.

“We’ve got families who can’t afford the electricity to run a washing machine, or it’s broken and they can’t replace it,” he said. “Or parents are simply struggling to cope.”

But in secondary school, where teachers didn’t see parents at the school gate and many young people felt ashamed to admit their family was suddenly on the edge, working out how to step in could be harder, he said. His trust relied on pastoral staff who keep in touch with families, but Uttley warned that although “poverty is in every school in the country now” many cash-strapped schools were being forced to cut pastoral staff just when they were needed most.

Ben Davis, head of St Ambrose Barlow RC high in Salford, said: “There is this simplistic, romantic idea that education lifts people out of poverty, but you have to do something to mitigate the impacts of poverty or children can’t learn.”

His school employs a full-time therapist, and she encounters many young people who feel ashamed of growing up in poverty. Davis said this made them vulnerable to criminal exploitation. “We feel if we don’t try to help, who else will?” he added.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We understand the pressures many households are under, which is why we have extended eligibility for free school meals more than any government in the past half a century – doubling the number of children receiving them sin

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But not all of Putin’s pre-election news coverage went as planned.

Ukraine scored drone attacks against Moscow and Russian oil facilities, and anti-Kremlin fighters made their presence felt on Russian soil.

Putin’s nuclear threat on Wednesday – the second in as many weeks – was measured. In a pre-recorded television interview he said Russia’s nuclear forces were ready “from a military-technical point of view” and touted them as the most advanced in the world.

(Al Jazeera)

His comments, made six days after Sweden officially joined NATO as its 32nd member, were mild compared with a warning two weeks ago after French President Emmanuel Macron left open the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.

“They must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?” Putin said on February 29.

Putin is running for a third consecutive six-year term.

He has passed constitutional amendments suspending a ban on more than two consecutive terms for himself personally. It allows him to rule until 2036 and has led both Russian and Western critics to label his continuing to hold office as illicit.

In October, the Council of Europe described his presidency as a “de facto dictatorship” and urged its member states to “recognize Putin as illegitimate”.

Russian crawl

Russian forces continued to make marginal advances on the eastern front for a fourth straight week after the fall of Avdiivka on February 17, but the pace of these advances has slowed considerably, suggesting Ukraine has managed to absorb Russian momentum.

On Friday, geolocated footage showed they entered the village of Tonenke and advanced towards Berdychi, both west of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. Russian forces had already been on the edges of both settlements a week earlier.

Ukraine’s Tavria Group of forces, which is fighting in the area, said this front had stabilised.

“The advance has actually stopped. The Russian military is making small movements in this direction,” spokesperson Dmytro Lykhovyi said.

There were other minor Russian advances in Donetsk. Russian forces have been trying to roll back Ukrainian gains west of Bakhmut, and on Sunday, geolocated footage showed they had entered the village of Ivanivske.

Russian forces captured the village of Shevchenko, southeast of the city of Donetsk, on March 10 and the following day advanced in several places along the front in the area.

Towards the northern end of the front, geolocated footage showed that Russian forces approached the village of Terny from the east and reached the outskirts of Synkivka, two settlements in Donetsk and Kharkiv, respectively.

On the whole, though, these advances were measured in hundreds of meters (hundreds of yards), and the overall shape of the front remained unchanged.

What seems to continue to be instrumental in Russia’s minor successes is the use of glide bombs. These are normally massive conventional inertial bombs carrying 675kg (nearly 1,500lb) of explosives, fitted with fins and tails to fly farther and strike with greater accuracy. The German tabloid Bild reported that Russia is now mass-producing the weapons.

Russian military reporters said Russia also produced an improved glide bomb design this year, including engines and satellite guidance systems that increased its range from 40-70km to 95km (25-45 miles to 60 miles).

These powered bombs enable Russian planes dropping them to fly farther away from the front, reducing their vulnerability to Ukrainian air defenses, which claimed 15 aircraft in February and early March.

Ukrainian leap

While holding the front more or less steady, Ukraine focused on striking deep inside Russia.

On Saturday, several explosions were recorded in Rostov, less than 100km (60 miles) from the Ukrainian border, with at least one geolocated to a Beriev plant repairing and refurbishing A-50 radar and reconnaissance planes.

Ukraine has targeted these planes, destroying two this year, because they spy on Ukrainian positions and give fighter-bombers their coordinates.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed on Saturday that it had shot down all 47 drones over four border regions, including Rostov.

On Tuesday, Ukraine again sent a large salvo of drones – this time targeting energy infrastructure. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down 58.

Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said one drone struck the Ryazan refinery, 180km (110 miles) southeast of Moscow and about 500km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, starting a fire.

Ukrainian news outlet Suspilne quoted Security Service sources as saying two further refineries had been targeted, in Rostov and St Petersburg, as well as two airfields. There was no evidence that those attacks had succeeded.

(Al Jazeera)

Ukraine’s military intelligence said pro-Ukrainian Russian forces had staged a border incursion on Tuesday, clashing with Russian forces in border villages in Belgorod and Kursk.

The Russian Volunteer Force and Freedom of Russia Legion are anti-Putin paramilitaries that first attacked Russia in March 2023. Russian sources first denied the incursion, then claimed to have repelled it.

Whether it succeeded in the past week, Ukraine has been following through on tactics that have succeeded in the past, striking oil refineries and sinking or disabling as much as half of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

But in interviews with Western media, Ukrainian fighters on the front lines are raising the alarm about shortages of ammunition as United States military aid remains frozen in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The latest such warning came in Germany’s Der Spiegel news magazine on Tuesday when Ukrainian servicemen warned they could not hold out forever under current conditions.

Even Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, warned on Wednesday that “there is a threat of enemy units advancing deep into our battle formations.”

“Ukrainian shortages of ammunition and other war materiel resulting from delays in the provision of US military assistance may be making the current Ukrainian front line more fragile than the relatively slow Russian advances in various sectors would indicate,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Ukraine’s European allies have been trying to make up for the US shortfall. Britain announced it would spend $160m buying 10,000 drones for Ukraine.

Czech officials said they had raised enough money from partners to buy 300,000 artillery shells from around the world for Ukraine.

(Al Jazeera)

The Czech Republic is leading an effort to locate 800,000 artillery shells outside Europe and deliver them to Ukraine. Germany, which refrains from sending its medium-range Taurus missile to Ukraine because Russia said it would consider it an escalation, was reportedly discussing a plan to send the missiles to Britain as replacements for Storm Shadow missiles Britain would send to Ukraine.

The administration of US President Joe Biden said it was sending $300m of urgently needed military aid cobbled together from savings in the US defense budget. But none of this makes up for the absence of $60.1bn in military aid the US was planning to send in 2024.

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The U.S. Treasury, State Department and Commerce Department plan Friday to impose roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. They come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen, including the head of Russia’s second-largest bank, and their middlemen in five separate federal cases.

The European Union announced Friday that it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc also said that it was targeting scores of Russian officials, including “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”

“The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions. “If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States — along with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world — will rise.”

While previous sanctions have increased costs for Russia’s ability to fight in Ukraine, they appear to have done little so far to deter Putin’s aggression or ambitions. The Biden administration is levying additional sanctions as House Republicans are blocking billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine.

The war is becoming entangled in U.S. election-year politics, with former President Donald Trump voicing skepticism about the benefits of the NATO alliance and saying that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries that, in his view, are not pulling their weight in the alliance.

Many of the new U.S. sanctions announced Friday target Russian firms that contribute to the Kremlin’s war effort — including drone and industrial chemical manufacturers and machine tool importers — as well as financial institutions, such as the state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir National Payment System.

In response to Navalny’s death, the State Department is designating three Russian officials the U.S. says are connected to his death. It also will impose visa restrictions on Russian authorities it says are involved in the kidnapping and confinement of Ukrainian children.

In addition, 26 third-country people and firms from across China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Liechtenstein are listed for sanctions, for assisting Russia in evading existing financial penalties.

The Russian foreign ministry said the EU sanctions are “illegal” and undermine “the international legal prerogatives of the UN Security Council.” In response, the ministry is banning some EU citizens from entering the country because they have provided military assistance to Ukraine. It did not immediately address the U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. specifically was to target individuals associated with Navalny’s imprisonment a day after Biden met with the opposition leader’s widow and daughter in California. It was also hitting “Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” Biden said. “They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

The EU asset freezes and travel bans constitute the 13th package of measures imposed by the bloc against people and organizations it suspects of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

“Today, we are further tightening the restrictive measures against Russia’s military and defense sector,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We remain united in our determination to dent Russia’s war machine and help Ukraine win its legitimate fight for self-defense.”

In all, 106 more officials and 88 “entities” — often companies, banks, government agencies or other organizations — have been added to the bloc’s sanctions list, bringing the tally of those targeted to more than 2,000 people and entities, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates.

Companies making electronic components, which the EU believes could have military as well as civilian uses, were among 27 entities accused of “directly supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” a statement said.

Those companies — some of them based in India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Turkey — face tougher export restrictions.

The bloc said the companies “have been involved in the circumvention of trade restrictions,” and it accuses others of “the development, production and supply of electronic components” destined to help Russia’s armed forces.

Some of the measures are aimed at depriving Russia of parts for pilotless drones, which are seen by military experts as key to the war.

Since the start of the war, U.S. Treasury and State departments have designated over 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others under Russia-related sanctions authorities. A $60 per barrel price cap has also been imposed on Russian oil by Group of Seven allies, intended to reduce Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels.

Critics of the sanctions, price cap and other measures meant to stop Russia’s invasion say they are not working fast enough.

Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that primarily sanctioning Russia’s defense industry and failing to cut meaningfully into Russia’s energy revenues will not be enough to halt the war.

“One way or another, they will have to eventually address Russia’s oil revenues and have to consider an oil embargo,” Snegovaya said. “The oil price cap has effectively stopped working.”

Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in previewing the new sanctions, told reporters that the U.S. and its allies will not lower the price cap; “rather what we’ll be doing is taking actions that will increase the cost” of Russia’s production of oil.

He added that “sanctions alone are not enough to carry Ukraine to victory.”

“We owe the Ukrainian people who have held on for so long the support and resources they desperately need to defend their homeland and prove Putin wrong once and for all time.”

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The farmers were protesting against low earnings, regulation and what they call unfair competition from abroad.

Arnaud Rousseau, chief of the biggest rural union FNSEA, and Young Farmers (JA) President Arnaud Gaillot held a news conference to announce the suspension of the action on Thursday.

The announcement followed promises of cash, eased regulations and protection against unfair competition by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, the government’s second wave of concessions in a week.

Gabriel Attal’s speech came as convoys with hundreds of farmers created chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters, demanding leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.

“The question is currently being asked throughout Europe: Is there a future for our agriculture? Of course, the answer is yes,” Attal said.

A farmer stands atop a tractor to take a picture during a protest called by local branches of major farmer unions [Frederick Florin/AFP]

Attal announced that France was banning, starting immediately, imports of fruits and vegetables coming from outside the EU that have been treated with Thiaclopride – an insecticide currently banned in the bloc.

He also said no pesticides would be banned in France that are authorised elsewhere in the EU. The statement was in response to a demand by French farmers who have denounced stricter regulations in France on pesticide products than in neighbouring countries.

‘Tangible progress’

France will propose the creation of a “European control force” to combat fraud, he said, particularly regarding health regulations, and fight against the import of food products that do follow European and French health standards.

Attal also reaffirmed that France would remain opposed to the EU signing a free-trade deal with the Mercosur trade group.

“There is no question of France accepting this treaty,” he said.

The government’s goals with the newly announced measures are “to give food its value back” and “to boost farmers’ income, to protect them against unfair competition and to simplify their daily life”, he said.

Attal also announced 150 million euros ($162m) in aid to livestock farmers and a decrease in taxes on farms being transferred from older generations to younger ones.

Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, speaking after Attal, announced a two-billion-euro ($2.16bn) package to fund loans for those who are setting up as farmers.

The French government has said it will fine food industrial groups and supermarkets that do not comply with a 2018 law meant to pay a fair price to farmers. The fine can reach up to 2 percent of sales revenues to companies that do not comply.

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French farmers say that one of their biggest fears is that Chilean apples, Brazilian grains and Canadian beef will flood the European market, thereby undermining their livelihoods. France’s farmers continued to demonstrate on the country’s motorways on Wednesday, protesting against rising costs, over-regulation and free-trade agreements –partnerships between the EU and exporting nations that the farming unions say leads to unfair competition.

The EU has signed several free-trade agreements in recent years, all with the objective of facilitating the movement of goods and services. But farmers say the deals bring with them insurmountable challenges.

“These agreements aim to reduce customs duties, with maximum quotas for certain agricultural products and non-tariff barriers,” said Elvire Fabry, senior researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute, a French think-tank dedicated to European affairs. “They also have an increasingly broad regulatory scope to promote European standards for investment, protection of intellectual property, geographical indications and sustainable development standards.”

South American trade deal in the crosshairs

Some non-EU countries – such as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland- maintain comprehensive free-trade agreements with the EU because they are part of the European Economic Area. This allows them to benefit from the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

Other nations farther afield have signed more variable agreements with the EU, including Canada, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Ukraine. The EU also recently signed an accord with Kenya and a deal with New Zealand that will come into force this year; negotiations are also under way with India and Australia.

However, a draft agreement between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is creating the most concern. Under discussion since the 1990s, this trade partnership between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay would create the world’s largest free-trade area, a market encompassing 780 million people.

Read more‘French agriculture can’t be bartered away’: Farmers unite against EU rules and globalised markets

French farmers are particularly concerned about the deal’s possible effect on agriculture. The most recent version of the text introduces quotas for Mercosur countries to export 99,000 tonnes of beef, 100,000 tonnes of poultry and 180,000 tonnes of sugar per year, with little or no customs duties imposed. In exchange, duties would also be lowered on exports from the EU on many “protected designation of origin” (PDO) products.

At a time when the EU is urging farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices, French unions say these agreements would open the door to massive imports – at more competitive prices – of products that do not meet the same environmental standards as those originating in Europe. French farmers are calling out what they say is unfair competition from farmers in South America who can grow GMO crops and use growth-promoting antibiotics on livestock, which is banned in the EU.

Trade unions from various sectors went into action after the European Commission informed them on January 24 that negotiations with Mercosur could be concluded “before the end of this mandate”, i.e., before the European Parliament elections in June.

The FNSEA, France’s biggest farming union, immediately called for a “clear rejection of free-trade agreements” while the pro-environmental farming group Confédération Paysanne (Farmers’ Confederation) called for an “immediate end to negotiations” on this type of agreement.

A mixed record

“In reality, the impact of these free-trade agreements varies from sector to sector,” said Fabry. “Negotiations prior to agreements aim to calibrate the opening up of trade to limit the negative impact on the most exposed sectors. And, at the same time, these sectors can benefit from other agreements. In the end, it’s a question of finding an overall balance.”

This disparity is glaringly obvious in the agricultural sector. “The wine and spirits industry as well as the dairy industry stand to gain more than livestock farmers, for example,” said Fabry. These sectors are the main beneficiaries of free-trade agreements, according to a 2023 report by the French National Assembly.

“The existence of trade agreements that allow customs duty differentials to be eliminated is an ‘over-determining factor’ in the competitiveness of French wines,” wrote FranceAgriMer, a national establishment for agriculture and maritime products under the authority of the French ministry of agriculture in a 2021 report. The majority of free-trade agreements lower or abolish customs duties to allow the export of many PDO products, a category to which many wines belong.

However, the impact on meat is less clear-cut. While FranceAgriMer says the balance between imports and exports appears to be in the EU’s favour for pork, poultry exports seem to be declining as a result of the agreements. Hence the fears over the planned treaty with New Zealand, which provides for 36,000 tonnes of mutton to be imported into the EU, equivalent to 45% of French production in 2022. France,however, still has a large surplus of grains except for soya.

‘A bargaining chip’

Beyond the impact on agriculture, “this debate on free-trade agreements must take into account other issues”, said Fabry. “We are in a situation where the EU is seeking to secure its supplies and in particular its supplies of strategic minerals. Brazil’s lithium, cobalt, graphite and other resource reserves should not be overlooked.”

The agreement with Chile should enable strategic minerals to be exported in exchange for agricultural products. Germany strongly supports the agreement with Mercosur, as it sees it as an outlet for its industrial sectors, according to Fabry.

“In virtually all free-trade agreements, agriculture is always used as a bargaining chip in exchange for selling cars or Airbus planes,” Véronique Marchesseau, general-secretary of the Confédération Paysanne, told AFP.

Michèle Boudoin, president of the French National Sheep Federation, told AFP that the agreement with New Zealand will “destabilise the lamb market in France”.

“We know that Germany needs to export its cars, that France needs to sell its wheat, and we’re told that we need an ally in the Pacific tocounter China and Russia. But if that is the case, then we need help to be able to produce top-of-the-line lamb, for example,” she said.

Finally, “there is a question of influence”, said Fabry. “These agreements also remain a way for the EU to promote its environmental standards to lead its partners along the path of ecological transition, even if this has to be negotiated,” said Fabry.

Marc Fesneau, the French minister of agriculture, made the same argument. “In most cases, the agreements have been beneficial, including to French agriculture,” Fesneau wrote on X last week, adding: “They will be even more so if we ensure that our standards are respected.”

Mercosur negotiations suspended? 

As the farmers’ promised “siege” of Paris and other major locations across France continues, the French government has been trying to reassure agricultural workers about Mercosur, even though President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva relaunched negotiations in December. “France is clearly opposed to the signing of the Mercosur treaty,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal acknowledged last week.

The Élysée Palace even said on Monday evening that EU negotiations with the South American bloc had been suspended because of France’s opposition to the treaty. The conditions are “not ripe” for concluding the negotiations, said Eric Mamer, spokesman for the European Commission. “However, discussions are ongoing.”

Before being adopted, the agreement would have to be passed unanimously by the European Parliament, then ratified individually by the 27 EU member states.

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This is the doctrine France is implementing at an international level, through the Paris Pact for People and the Planet and the One Planet summits. The cornerstone of our strategy must be to speed up the ecological transition as well as the fight against poverty. After all, it is now crystal clear that no country will work to protect the planet if the price it must pay leads its citizens into a socioeconomic dead-end.

The world’s most advanced economies, which have also been the main CO₂ emitters since the Industrial Revolution, must move away from fossil fuels. If we want to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, this is non-negotiable. Science has set the trajectory: we must move away from coal by 2030, from oil by 2045, and from gas by 2050. While the G7 countries bear the greatest responsibility, China, which is now the second-largest emitter in history, must be fully committed, too.

The threat posed by coal must be addressed first. Today, the 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity emit enough CO₂ to take us above 1.5°C. While the International Energy Agency recommends withdrawing 92 GW per year, 500 GW of additional capacity is already planned. While it is the G7’s responsibility to move away from coal by 2030 (France will have done so in 2027), emerging economies are now the biggest coal consumers. In these countries, we need to speed up the financing of renewables, as well as nuclear power, which, as a manageable and decarbonized energy source, must play a key role.

We must also put private financing and trade at the service of the Paris Agreement. The cost of investment must be higher for players in the fossil-fuel sector. We need a green interest rate and a brown interest rate. Similarly, we need a climate clause in our trade agreements, because we cannot simultaneously demand that our industries become greener while supporting the liberalization of international trade in polluting products.

For the most vulnerable countries, we must create conditions that enable them to finance their climate-change mitigation and adaptation efforts and access the green technologies that are the new engines of growth. This implies going further than traditional “official development assistance” and doing for vulnerable countries what rich countries did for themselves during the COVID-19

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The Russia-Ukraine war appeared to top the agenda of the two-day summit which began on Tuesday, as NATO’s chief urged allies to continue supporting the war-wracked country amid funding hold-ups in Washington and Europe.

“I’m confident that the United States will continue to provide support because it is in the security interest of the United States to do so and it’s also in line with what we have agreed,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“I urge allies, and allies are also committed to continue to deliver support,” he added.

Some $61bn in proposed US aid to Ukraine is being held up by the US Congress, while another $50bn package from the European Union is struggling to pass due to opposition from Hungary.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Brussels, said the funding delays show indications of “fatigue” from some NATO members 21 months into the war.

Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba will try to overcome such fatigue and lobby for continued NATO backing when he joins the summit on Wednesday.

Kuleba will also work with NATO ministers to outline a plan for reforms aimed at helping Ukraine gain eventual membership in the security alliance.

Russia has said NATO expansionism is at the core of its grudge against bordering Ukraine, which it has repeatedly warned not to join the alliance.

More than 500,000 troops from Russia and Ukraine are estimated to have been killed or wounded since Moscow marched troops across its neighbor’s border in February 2022.

At least 10,000 civilians have also been killed in the conflict, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has said.

Broader regional security

Apart from the Russia-Ukraine war, NATO ministers also planned to discuss Russia’s “destabilizing actions” throughout the region, including allegations it has been enabling undocumented migrants to reach neighboring Finland.

Finland last week closed nearly all its border crossings with Russia after it said an influx of migrants arrived at its border with Russia.

Another topic on the agenda will be unrest between Serbia and Kosovo, where NATO has in recent months deployed more troops to reinforce its peacekeeping force following an attack on Kosovo police.

The ministers are also likely to address the seven-week war between Israel and Hamas, though it is not officially on the agenda.

Al Jazeera’s Vaessen said the ministers would discuss “not only the extension of the ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas] but a future for Gaza after the war is finished”.

Sweden’s membership bid

Hanging in the background of the summit is the membership status of Sweden, which has been awaiting ratification from Turkey and Hungary for 18 months.

Stoltenberg on Tuesday told Hungarian media he expected the two countries to approve Sweden’s membership bid without further delay, but gave no precise timeline.

The Turkish parliament started this month to debate Sweden’s bid to join after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the process following a deal at a NATO summit in July.

Erdogan had delayed the ratification process over longstanding complaints Sweden is failing to act against Kurdish armed groups in its country that Turkey considers “terrorist” groups.

NATO’s other allies had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the alliance at its Brussels summit, but Turkey’s ratification process is still at the committee level in parliament.

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The total number is estimated by some experts and organizations to be far higher.

The findings by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, which receives US State Department funding, shared with Reuters are the most extensive to date about the alleged role of Belarus in the Russian relocation program for Ukrainian children.

Russia has said previously that it is offering humanitarian aid to those wishing to flee Ukraine voluntarily and rejects accusations of war crimes.

The press service of Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, who oversees the relocation of children from occupied Ukraine, and Belarus’ foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the research.

“These revelations of Belarusian involvement are part of a broader campaign directed by Russia,” the US State Department said in a statement.

“The United States will continue to pursue accountability for actors involved in abuses connected with Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

Among the key findings detailed in the 39-page report were that children had been transported from at least 17 cities in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions in what Yale researchers described as an ongoing practice.

More than 2,000 children Yale identified were transported to the Dubrava children’s center in Belarus’ Minsk region between September 2022 and May 2023, it said, while 392 children were taken to 12 other facilities.

“Russia’s systematic effort to identify, collect, transport, and re-educate Ukraine’s children has been facilitated by Belarus,” the report said.

“Russia’s federal government and Belarus’ regime have been working together to coordinate and fund the movement of children from Russia-occupied Ukraine through Russia to Belarus.”

Transports to Belarus through Russia were “ultimately coordinated” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, it added.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Putin in March. It accused him and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Taking children under the age of 18 across a border without the consent of a parent or guardian is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Ukraine’s war crimes prosecutors have said they are investigating the deportations as potential genocide.

The Genocide Convention specifies five acts that could each constitute the crime, if committed with genocidal intent, including forcibly transferring children out of their group.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry and the office of the prosecutor general, which oversees war crimes investigations, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lukashenko approved the use of state organizations to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus and finance their transportation, the Yale report said. Once in Belarus, children have been subjected to military training and re-education, it said.

It is unclear how many of the children identified by Yale’s research remain in Belarus.

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