President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered stronger border security to ensure fast Russian military and civilian movement into Ukrainian regions now under Moscow control.

Speaking in a congratulatory message to the border service, a branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service, on their Border Guard Day holiday, Putin said their task was to “reliably cover” the lines in the vicinity of the combat zone.

Attacks inside Russia have been growing in intensity in recent weeks, chiefly with drone strikes on regions along the border but increasingly also deep into the country, including on an oil pipeline northwest of Moscow on Saturday.  

“It is necessary to ensure the fast movement of both military and civilian vehicles and cargo, including food, humanitarian aid, building materials sent to the new subjects of the (Russian) Federation,” Putin said in a message posted on the Kremlin’s Telegram messaging channel.  

Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk are the four regions in Ukraine that Putin proclaimed annexed last September following what Kyiv said were sham referendums. Russian forces only partly control the four regions.

On Saturday, officials said three people were injured in Ukrainian shelling in Belgorod, a region that was the target of pro-Ukrainian fighters this week that sparked doubts about Russia’s defense and military capabilities.

The Kursk and Belgorod Russian regions bordering Ukraine have been the most frequent target of attacks that have damaged power, rail and military infrastructure, with local officials blaming Ukraine.  

Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine but said that destroying infrastructure is preparation for its planned ground assault.

Ukraine indicated on Saturday that it was ready to launch a long-promised counteroffensive to recapture territory taken by Russia in the 15-month war, a conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands and turned Ukrainian cities into rubble.
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Police in Berlin said Friday that they have opened an investigation of Roger Waters on suspicion of incitement over a costume the Pink Floyd co-founder wore when he performed in the German capital last week.

Images on social media showed Waters firing an imitation machine gun while dressed in a long black coat with a red armband. Police confirmed that an investigation was opened over suspicions that the context of the costume could constitute a glorification, justification or approval of Nazi rule and therefore a disturbance of the public peace.

Once the police investigation is concluded, the case will be handed to Berlin prosecutors, who would decide whether to pursue any charges.

Waters rejected the accusations in a statement early Saturday on Facebook and Instagram, saying that “the elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms.”

He claimed that “attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated.”

Waters has drawn ire for his support of the BDS movement, which calls for boycotts and sanctions against Israel. He has rejected accusations of antisemitism.

Authorities in Frankfurt tried to prevent a concert there scheduled for Sunday, but Waters challenged that move successfully in a local court. In Munich, the city council said it had explored possibilities of banning a concert but concluded that it wasn’t legally possible to cancel a contract with the organizer. His appearance there last Sunday was accompanied by a protest attended by the local Jewish community’s leader.

Last year, the Polish city of Krakow canceled gigs by Waters because of his sympathetic stance toward Russia in its war against Ukraine.
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Ahead of Turkey’s presidential runoff election on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main contender Kemal Kilicdaroglu are both eyeing voters who back the country’s various nationalist parties.

Nationalist parties like Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Good Party (IYIP), Victory Party (ZP) and Great Unity Party (BBP) received more than 23% of the votes in the parliamentary election on May 14, which made Turkish nationalists “the winner of the election,” according to some experts.

“Political parties and candidates that define themselves [as] nationalist achieved an outstanding number of votes that no one could foresee,” Ismet Akca, a political scientist formerly with Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University, told VOA.

Kemal Can, a veteran journalist and commentator at digital media outlet Medyascope, does not find the increase in the nationalist votes significant, but thinks that the nationalist parties gained bargaining power.

“As a result of these elections, we can say that both the visibility and bargaining ability of nationalism increased rather than the numerical increase,” Can told VOA.

Endorsements

On Monday, the nationalist ATA alliance’s presidential candidate Sinan Ogan, who placed third in the first round of the presidential election May 14, announced his endorsement of Erdogan, who got 49.52% of the votes in the first round.

Ogan also highlighted that his candidacy made Turkish nationalists the key players in the election and explained why he is backing Erdogan as his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the People’s Alliance hold the majority in the parliament.

Even though Ogan received 5.2% of the votes in the first round, Kemal Can thinks that Ogan will not be able to carry his support in its entirety to Erdogan.

“Ogan was presented as a candidate in front of a group of voters and [received] a reaction,” Can told VOA.

“He did not collect these votes; they are not his own votes. They are the votes of an alliance and reactionary votes,” Can added.

On Wednesday, Umit Ozdag, the head of the far-right Victory Party, the leading party in the ATA alliance, endorsed Erdogan’s rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who received 44.88% of votes in the first round.

Kilicdaroglu has toughened his tone before the second round of the election as he pledged to send Syrian refugees back and to end terrorism in his campaign posters. At the same time, Erdogan has repeatedly suggested links between him and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Kilicdaroglu has denied this allegation.

Kurdish support

Ozdag and Kilicdaroglu also signed a seven-point protocol Wednesday on the principles of their cooperation. The protocol promises to deport all the refugees, including 3.6 million Syrians in Turkey, within a year and to replace elected mayors with state-appointed trustees with court rulings in case of legal proof that shows their links with terrorism.

Akca thinks the protocol is a success for Ozdag, but it puts Kilicdaroglu at risk of not receiving the Kurdish votes as he got in the first round because of the trustees.

Since the 2019 local elections, at least 48 out of 65 municipalities won by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party have been run by government-appointed trustees over terrorism allegations.

Following Ogan and Ozdag’s endorsements, the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP) on Thursday reiterated its support for opposition against Erdogan in the runoff without naming Kilicdaroglu. YSP endorsed Kilicdaroglu by name in the first round.

“Even though the party has declared its support for Kilicdaroglu, it remains a question how far it can mobilize its voters to go to the ballot box amid this radical nationalist frenzy,” Akca told VOA.

Key party

Kemal Can said that during this year’s campaign, the opposition asked the public if they wanted to see a change from the country’s current direction. The government instead framed the question as who should decide if there will be change: the Kurds or the nationalists?

“We see that nationalists entered into a power play demanding the decision-making power in a reactionary way,” Can said.

According to political scientist Akca, nationalists in Turkey see refugees and the Kurds as their main problems.

“Existing nationalism [in Turkey] has two main problems, and one is refugees because the nationalist movement has caught a streak over the refugee problem among the public. We see a nationalism based on xenophobia,” Akca told VOA.

“The second is the Kurds. ‘Let’s not allow the Kurds and the political movement representing them to become the key party.’ Sinan Ogan and the Victory Party voiced this as they were saying, ‘Everyone will see who the key is,’” Akca added.

Akca views the two different endorsements by Ogan and Ozdag, the two main actors of the nationalist ATA alliance, as “a gamble on their political futures.”

“Here, I find Umit Ozdağ, who has an organization like the Victory Party behind him, more advantageous than lone-wolf Sinan Ogan,” Akca said.
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Tens of thousands of people converged on the Serbian capital on Friday for a major rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic, who is facing an unprecedented revolt against his autocratic rule amid the crisis triggered by two mass shootings that stunned the nation. 

The event was somewhat overshadowed by a new crisis in Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs clashed with Kosovo police on Friday and Vucic ordered Serbian troops to be put on a “higher state of alert.” Vucic also said he ordered an “urgent” movement of Serbian troops to the border with Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. 

Answering Vucic’s call for what he called “the largest rally in the history of Serbia,” his supporters, many wearing identical T-shirts with his portrait, were bused to Belgrade from all over the Balkan country as well as neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia. 

Those working in state firms and institutions were told to take a day off from work to attend the rally in front of the parliament building. Some said that they were warned that they could lose their jobs if they didn’t show up on the buses, which started arriving hours before the gathering was to start. 

Serbian officials said the rally promotes “unity and hope” for Serbia. 

At three large anti-government protests held earlier this month in the capital, demonstrators demanded Vucic’s ouster and the resignation of two senior security officials. They also demanded the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses for two pro-Vucic television stations that they say promote violence and often host convicted war criminals and other crime figures. 

Opposition protesters blame Vucic for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the May 3 and May 4 mass shootings that left 18 people dead and 20 wounded, many of them schoolchildren who were gunned down by a 13-year-old schoolmate. 

Vucic has vehemently denied any responsibility for the shootings, calling organizers of the opposition protests “vultures” and “hyenas” who want to use the tragedies to try to come to power by force and without an election. 

“They are not against violence, they want my head,” he said. 

Analysts believe that by staging the mass rally, Vucic, who has ruled the country for more than a decade with a firm grip on power, is trying to overshadow the opposition protests with the sheer number of participants. 

“For the first time, Vucic has a problem,” said political analyst Zoran Gavrilovic. “His problem is not so much the opposition, but Serbian society that has woken up.” 

During the rally, Vucic is expected to announce he is stepping down from the helm of his Serbian Progressive Party and forming “a movement” that will unite all “patriotic forces” in the country. He also could call for a new parliamentary election for September — something unlikely to be accepted by the opposition under the current conditions where he has full control over all pillars of power, including the mainstream media. 

Vucic, a former pro-Russia ultranationalist who now says that he wants to take the country into the European Union, has alleged that “foreign intelligence services” are behind the opposition protests. He said that he received the tip from “sisterly” spy agencies “from the east” — thought to mean Russia. 

There are widespread fears that violence could erupt during the rally on Friday that could then be used as a pretext for a crackdown on future opposition protests, including one that is scheduled in Belgrade on Saturday. 

Similar big rallies were held in Serbia in the early 1990s when strongman Slobodan Milosevic delivered fiery speeches that heralded the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and rallied the masses for the wars that followed. 
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New developments:

Russia accused Ukrainian militia of using U.S.-made armored vehicles in a cross-border incursion on Monday
In response, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized Thursday that U.S. is not at war with Russia
JCS Chief Mark Milley said Washington asked Kyiv not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia

The British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that for at least 20 years, Russia has experienced a “proliferation of paramilitary groups” from Russia’s military.

The “paramilitarization” has increased dramatically, the ministry said, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially in the Crimean Peninsula, where many units have been given “some semi-official status as reserve units of the regular army.”

Sergei Aksyonov, the leader of Russian-occupied Crimea, is described as having been “instrumental” in creating these paramilitary groups in the region.

Now, however, Aksyonov is likely eager to distinguish himself by recruiting fighters, but the ministry said he is “likely concerned” about the military’s capacity to defend the peninsula.

“The main element of the Russian garrison, 22nd Army Corps,” the ministry said, “is currently mostly deployed outside the peninsula and has taken heavy casualties.”

‘This is Ukraine’s fight’

On Thursday, U.S. defense leaders were careful to draw the distinction that despite Washington’s continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the United States itself is not at war with Russia.

At a news conference following a virtual meeting of dozens of countries supporting Ukraine militarily, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded to concerns that U.S. military vehicles, reportedly used by a militia in its incursion into Russia on Monday, could be used as a pretext by Moscow to bring the United States directly into the war.

“We are not at war with Russia. This is Ukraine’s fight. Our goal is to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure Ukraine is successful,” Austin said.

The United States has long asked Ukraine not to use U.S. weaponry inside Russian territory, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, said Thursday.

“I can say that we have asked the Ukrainians not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia,” Milley said. “This is a Ukrainian war. It is not a war between the United States and Russia. It’s not a war between NATO and Russia.”

Earlier Thursday, Ukraine said its forces shot down 36 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia used to attack areas in western Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces “presumably aimed to attack critical infrastructure and military facilities.”

Russia has repeatedly used aerial attacks, including attacks involving crashing drones into targets to damage infrastructure sites in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that it had been an “uneasy night.”

“Continuing to terrorize Ukraine, the enemy used 36 Shaheds. None of them reached their target. Thanks to our air defense forces for the 100% result,” Zelenskyy said.

In Crimea, Aksyonov said Thursday that air defenses had shot down six drones overnight.

He said on Telegram no one had been killed or injured.

Bakhmut fight

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video published Thursday that his forces had begun withdrawing from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin said the Russian military was coming in to replace the Wagner forces and that his units would complete their withdrawal by June 1.

The announcement came a day after Prigozhin said the lengthy battle for Bakhmut left 20,000 of his fighters dead.

Prigozhin said about half of those killed were Russian convicts who were promised their freedom from sentences for criminal offenses if they fought in Ukraine for six months. But the mercenaries were often sent to the battle front with scant training and often were killed soon after in fierce combat with better-trained Ukrainian troops.

White House officials said Prigozhin’s casualty estimate was in line with their own and that Russian losses have accelerated. Russia claimed in recent days it has captured Bakhmut, while Ukrainian officials say they have not given up the fight for the city and are trying to surround it.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A prominent humanitarian group on Thursday blasted Greece over its treatment of asylum-seekers on the island of Lesbos, repeating allegations of illegal deportations back to Turkey and claiming authorities are using hunger as a weapon against some migrants. 

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement that the situation for asylum-seekers on the eastern Aegean Sea island is “continuously deteriorating.” 

“Many people there have been exposed to violence and have alleged abductions by unidentified masked people, pushbacks that forced them out of Greece, arbitrary detentions, and deprivation of food and shelter,” it said. 

The Greek government has ordered an investigation into claims that a group of migrants was illegally deported from Lesbos back to Turkey. Last week, a New York Times report claimed that the migrants were taken onto a Greek coast guard boat that left them in a raft at sea to be picked up by the Turkish coast guard, which returned them to Turkey. 

Athens has denied persistent allegations that it engages in such deportations, known as pushbacks. Lesbos is a major landing point for thousands of people seeking a better life in Europe, who cross illegally from Turkey in small boats provided by smuggling gangs. 

MSF said Thursday that fear of pushbacks was preventing many newly arrived migrants from accessing its health services, while others who could not be found may have been secretly deported. 

“When we are alerted of newly arrived people in urgent need of medical assistance, we spend hours — sometimes days — looking for them as they are often hiding in forests,” Nihal Osman, MSF’s Lesbos coordinator, said. Osman added that since June 2022, MSF had been unable to find 940 people at their reported locations. 

The group also claimed that Greek authorities stopped giving food on May 17 to people who had completed the registration process in a Lesbos center for asylum-seekers to stay pending examination of their bids. 

“The government is using food as leverage to force people to leave the facility,” Osman said. He also described as dire the conditions at another center where newly arrived asylum-seekers are sent for days, saying it’s overcrowded and too remotely located. 

There was no immediate comment from the Greek government. 

Nearly a million people reached Greece from Turkey in 2015, most landing on Lesbos. Numbers later dropped, and since 2019 Athens has stepped up patrols at sea to further reduce arrivals.
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Russia and Belarus signed a pact Thursday allowing Moscow to relocate an undisclosed number of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine enters its 16th month.

The Kremlin says it will maintain control of the shorter-range warheads to be transferred to its ally. It was not announced when the weapons would be sent there but Russian President Vladimir Putin has said storage facilities in Belarus would be completed by July 1.

The U.S. and Western allies have often warned Russia against the use of tactical nuclear warheads in the Ukraine conflict but also said at times they do not believe Moscow was on the verge of doing so.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use in killing enemy troops and destroying armaments on the battlefield. They can be deployed for relatively short-range attacks and have a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that can wipe out whole cities.

Both Belarusian and Russian officials characterized the transfer of the tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as a response to Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-controlled territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, in Minsk at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, said, “Deployment of nonstrategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us.”

Shoigu said, “In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere.”

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya blasted the new agreement.

“We must do everything to prevent Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, as this will ensure Russia’s control over Belarus for years to come,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press. “This will further jeopardize the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
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The world must rapidly ditch fossil fuels and end “the senseless war against creation”, Pope Francis said on Thursday, in a fresh plea over climate change that called on people to repent for their “ecological sins.”

Francis has made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate, noting in his landmark 2015 “Laudato Si” (Praised Be) encyclical that the planet was “beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, he said a U.N. climate summit meeting in Dubai on Nov. 30-Dec.12 “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”

“According to the commitments undertaken in the Paris Agreement to restrain global warming, it is absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he added.

“The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are pushing temperatures higher and leading to massive droughts,” Francis said, also criticizing oil and gas fracking and “unchecked mega-mining projects.”

Francis, an Argentine who is the first pope to hail from the so-called Global South, denounced global inequalities and said that “consumerist greed, fueled by selfish hearts, is disrupting the planet’s water cycle.”

Through the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Catholics are urged to offer special prayers for the planet. It is observed on Sept. 1, but it is customary for the papal message linked to it to be released months in advance.

As well as quoting from “Laudato Si”, the document cites previous popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, indicating that Francis’ pro-environment focus stands in continuity with his more conservative predecessors.
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As a Chinese envoy continues talks in Europe after meetings in Ukraine, a senior U.S. State Department official said there is not much indication that China is willing to use its influence in Moscow to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. A Czech lawmaker is also skeptical of China’s peacemaking efforts. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching has more.
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German police raided 15 properties linked to the Last Generation climate activist group Wednesday, seizing assets as part of an investigation into its finances in a sign of growing impatience with disruptive protest tactics also seen in other European countries.

Members of the group have repeatedly blocked roads across Germany in an effort to pressure the government to take more drastic action against climate change. In recent weeks, they have brought traffic to a halt on an almost daily basis in Berlin, gluing themselves to busy intersections and highways. Over the past year, they have also targeted various artworks and exhibits.

The raids, ordered by Munich prosecutors, come days after Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he thought it was “completely nutty to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the street.” Leading figures with the environmentalist Green party, part of his governing coalition, have also said the group’s actions are counterproductive.

A spokesperson for Last Generation said that the police searches had hit the group and its supporters hard, but that it wouldn’t let up its activities.

“They make us afraid, but we must not be frozen by fear,” Aimee van Baalen told reporters in Berlin.

“The German government is right now driving us toward climate hell with its eyes wide open. It is even stepping on the gas pedal,” she said. “We must continue to resist now, because we need to loudly demand that lives be protected.”

She called for the public to support upcoming protest marches in Berlin and other German cities.

Last Generation has acknowledged in the past that its protests are provocative, but argues that by stirring friction it can encourage debate within society about climate change and the policies necessary to stop it.

Germany’s top court ruled two years ago that the previous government was placing too much of the burden from global warming on young people, prompting then Chancellor Angela Merkel to sharpen climate targets. Experts say that while Germany now has some of the most ambitious targets for cutting emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gas, the country isn’t on track to meet them.

The investigation by Munich prosecutors is focused on seven people, ranging in age from 22 to 38, who are suspected of forming or supporting a criminal organization. The investigation was launched following numerous criminal complaints from the public over the past year, prosecutors said.

The Bavarian inquiry adds to an investigation launched last year by prosecutors in Neuruppin, outside Berlin, over actions against an oil refinery in eastern Germany. That investigation is also considering suspicions that Last Generation activists formed a criminal organization, a label that some conservative-leaning regional officials have backed.

Munich prosecutors said that the people under investigation are accused of organizing and promoting a campaign to “finance further criminal offenses” by the group, and collecting at least 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million). Two of them also are suspected of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline that connects the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt with the Italian port of Trieste in April 2022.

Wednesday’s searches, accompanied by orders to seize two bank accounts and other assets, aimed to secure evidence on the membership structure of Last Generation and on its financing. There were no arrests.

Another climate activist group, Extinction Rebellion, voiced solidarity with Last Generation. It contended in a tweet that the main aim of conducting raids on suspicion of forming a criminal organization was “to distract attention from the true criminals.”

But Germany’s top security official insisted that the raids were necessary.

“Legitimate protest always ends where crimes are committed and the rights of others are infringed,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, noting that police registered 1,600 criminal complaints in connection with climate protests in 2022, many of them during road blockades conducted by Last Generation.

Climate activists have received support from various corners, including some Christian groups. A Jesuit priest was fined earlier this month for taking part in road blockades, and Wednesday’s news conference by Last Generation was hosted by the Protestant Reformation Church in Berlin.

A representative of the congregation, Steve Rauhut, praised Last Generation for keeping its protests peaceful.

“The climate disaster and environmental destruction not only justify civil disobedience, they make it an imperative,” he said.

Similar nonviolent climate protests elsewhere in Europe have also met with crackdowns recently.

In Britain, two protesters from the group Just Stop Oil who climbed a major bridge in London were sentenced to five years in prison for causing a public nuisance.

In Italy, three members of the group Ultima Generazione face up to three years’ imprisonment and fines for gluing their hands to the base of a sculpture in the Vatican Museums and ignoring gendarmes’ orders to leave last year. This week the group staged other protests, including in front of the Italian Senate where two topless women poured mud over themselves in reference to the devastating recent floods in the country.

The Italian group’s name also translates as Last Generation. It is part of the international A22 activist network that includes its namesake in Germany and which receives support from the U.S.-based Climate Emergency Fund.

The fund, which counts oil heiress Aileen Getty and ‘Don’t Look Up’ filmmaker Adam McKay on its board, says on its website that it gave more than $5.1 million to 44 organizations last year “that are leading the way, galvanizing progress on climate through disruptive nonviolent activism around the world.”

 
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Geneva’s airport was briefly closed to flights on Tuesday as climate activists stormed a private jet fair on a nearby tarmac by ripping down or scaling fences, handcuffing themselves to landing gear and other material, and scuffling with police and security before being hauled away. City police said about 80 people were detained. 

The protest involved about 100 activists from 17 countries and groups, including Greenpeace, Scientist Rebellion, Stay Grounded and Extinction Rebellion, who disrupted the annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition — one of the industry’s premier events, which is taking place in Geneva this week. 

Video images showed yellow-vested protesters pulling down a wire fence as police tried to tackle them or douse them with pepper spray while an alarm sounded. Others, arriving by bicycle and wielding ladders, scaled a fence in a separate area with less security to access the tarmac. 

Some demonstrators were spotted smiling as they took cellphone images of the incursion onto the static displays on the fringes of the Geneva airport. 

Once inside, demonstrators stuck warning labels on planes with messages such as “Private jets burn our future” or chanted “Climate justice!” 

Sandy Bouchat, spokeswoman for the Geneva airport, said it was shut to both outbound and inbound flights for about an hour, for security reasons. Seven flights were diverted, and others were delayed. 

Airport operators said they planned to file criminal complaints, adding that four people, including activists and private security staff, were injured in the protest. 

The protest comes months after climate activists blocked private jets at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, arguing that the super-rich should be stopped from causing vastly more greenhouse gas emissions than the rest of the world’s population. 

“Whilst many can’t afford food and rent anymore, the super-rich wreck our planet, unless we put an end to it,” said Mira Kapfinger of the group Stay Grounded. “Apart from banning private jets, it’s also time to end air miles schemes which reward frequent flying, and instead tax frequent flyers. We need fair climate solutions.” 

Added Joel Perret, a spokesperson from Extinction Rebellion: “Geneva is home to one of the airports with the most private jet traffic in Europe. This is where change must begin: We need to drastically reduce aviation to halt climate catastrophe and the destruction of life.” 

The Brussels-based environmental think tank Transport & Environment said that emissions from private jets increased faster than those from other forms of aviation between 2005 and 2019. In a report published two years ago, it found that private jets generate between five and 14 times more pollution per passenger than regular passenger planes. 

Top officials of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) and Washington-based National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which jointly organized the expo, said the protesters missed a chance for “constructive dialogue” about sustainability in the sector. 

“This is a completely unacceptable form of protest,” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and EBAA Chairman Juergen Wiese said in a statement. They insisted business aviation was “deeply committed to climate action” and said the industry has cut its carbon emissions by 40% over the past 40 years and is working toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. 

Organizers of the show also suggested that visitors could support sustainability by using recycling bins and Geneva public transportation; bringing their favorite reusable water bottle or utensils; asking their hotel not to replace towels every day; and encouraging them to “opt for a vegetarian meal at least once during each day of the show.” 
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The U.N. Secretary-General said Tuesday that the world is failing to live up to its commitments to protect civilians, an obligation that is preserved in international humanitarian law.

“Peace is the best form of protection,” Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the topic. “We must intensify our efforts to prevent conflict, protect civilians, preserve peace and find political solutions to war.”

Guterres said where there is war, countries must comply with international humanitarian law.

“It is the difference between life and death. Between restraint and anarchy. Between losing ourselves in horror and retaining our humanity,” he said. “But law overlooked is law undermined.”

Guterres pointed to the newest conflict, the five-week-old fighting between rival generals in Sudan, that has already killed hundreds, displaced more than a million and sent 250,000 people fleeing to neighboring countries. Food, water and fuel are all in short supply, and the country’s health system is on the brink of collapse.

“Terrible as this picture is, it is far from being unique,” he said, noting that 100 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced last year due to war, violence, human rights abuses or persecution.

Guterres said the effects of war include rising food insecurity — more than 117 million people faced acute hunger in 2022 primarily because of war and instability.

“This is an outrage,” the U.N. chief said. “Damage to critical infrastructure hampers food production, blocks distribution and deprives people of safe water.”

He welcomed the recent extension for another 60 days of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has facilitated the export of more than 30 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain via Black Sea routes since early August, stabilizing world food prices since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Guterres said he hopes outstanding issues with the implementation of a corresponding deal for Russia’s export of food and fertilizer will be resolved.

Swiss President Alain Berset chaired the debate, the signature event of his government’s month-long presidency of the 15-nation Security Council. More than 80 countries were scheduled to speak.

“Respect for international humanitarian law is a priority for all of us here around this table,” Berset told council members. “And of course, as the depository of the Geneva Conventions and the seat of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], we feel in particular bound by this humanitarian imperative.”

Switzerland is the depository for the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, which are the basis for international humanitarian law. They set out the rules of armed conflict and seek to protect civilians, medical and aid workers, the wounded and prisoners of war.

Switzerland is also home to the ICRC, which has protection of civilians at the core of its mandate.

“ICRC’s figures show that the number of non-international armed conflicts has, over the past 20 years, more than tripled from less than 30 to over 90,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said. “Many of these are protracted conflicts, bringing ceaseless suffering — suffering that is compounded by climate shocks, food insecurity and economic hardship.”

She said civilians suffer attacks, threats and political stalemates that make peace less achievable.

“Compliance with the law protects civilians. It prevents violations and abuses,” she said. “It reduces the cost of war while maintaining a pathway to cease-fire agreements, and eventually to lasting peace, functioning economies, and a healthy natural environment.”
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