WASHINGTON — Ahead of Belarus’ presidential election this weekend, a media advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the International Criminal Court accusing the country’s longtime leader of crimes against humanity against journalists.

The complaint, filed by Reporters Without Borders, known by French acronym RSF, accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a harsh crackdown on independent media that began after he claimed victory in the disputed 2020 election.

That election was widely seen as rigged, with opposition candidates jailed or forced to flee. Security forces violently suppressed the subsequent mass protests.

Paris-based RSF cited in its complaint the imprisoning and persecution of journalists and displacement of media workers as examples of crimes against humanity.

“RSF calls on the ICC Prosecutor to include these crimes against journalists in its preliminary investigation,” Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director of advocacy and assistance, said in a statement.

Since the crackdown on independent media began, Belarus has ranked among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Belarusian media experts say the dire environment has made it harder to access credible information.

“The Belarusian information space is tightly controlled by the government,” Natalia Belikova, the head of international cooperation at Press Club Belarus, told VOA from Warsaw.

Repression against journalists and activists has been increasing in the lead up to the election, she said. Press Club Belarus counts more than 40 journalists currently jailed in the country.

The European Parliament and exiled Belarusian leader Svetlana Tikhanovskayahave condemned the upcoming election in Belarus as a sham.

Since 2020, the Belarusian government has pressured independent media through raids on news outlets, blocking websites and designating media organizations as “extremist.”

The harsh environment forced some reporters to quit their jobs. Meanwhile, hundreds of other journalists fled into exile, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

“For five years, the Belarusian regime has systematically persecuted independent voices, starting with journalists,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement.

Belikova said she thinks the complaint to the ICC is significant.

“On the level of raising the profile of repression in Belarus, especially against journalists and free press, I think this is a very important move,” she said.

But Belikova added that she wasn’t sure whether the complaint will improve the crisis facing Belarusian journalists.

The office of the ICC prosecutor said it does not comment on complaints but confirmed it had received one from RSF.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment for this story.

The assault on independent media has created an environment where state-run propaganda can thrive, according to analysts.

Beginning last week, the Belarusian state-run television network ONT has aired a series of propaganda films that feature three jailed journalists. The journalists are seen in prison facilities, looking emaciated and exhausted as they are asked questions.

The journalists — Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk, who work for VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Ihar Karney, who previously contributed to RFE/RL — are jailed on charges that press freedom groups view as politically motivated.

The ONT propaganda series accused the journalists of trying to “set Belarus on fire.”

“It is a very bad and malicious practice. It is against all human rights,” Belikova said about the interviews.

Belikova said the interviews were likely intended to discredit RFE/RL in the eyes of Belarusians. RFE/RL’s Belarusian Service is one of the main independent outlets delivering independent news to people inside the country.

RFE/RL said it had no comment on the interview series.

Despite the proliferation of state-run propaganda, Belarusians still regularly access banned news sites.

The five biggest sites had over 17 million visits in December 2023, according to a 2024 JX Fund report. Belarus has a population of around 9 million people.
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LONDON — A London judge on Friday rejected a U.S. mother’s challenge to be extradited to Colorado to face murder charges in the deaths of two of her young children.

Judge John Zani said in Westminster Magistrates Court that it would now be up to the British Home Secretary to order Kimberlee Singler returned to the United States.

Singler, 36, is accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the December 2023 shooting and stabbings of her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, and one count of attempted murder in the knife slashing of her 11-year-old daughter. She also faces three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.

Singler’s attorney had argued that sending her back to the U.S. would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder. Such a sentence would be inhumane because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated, attorney Edward Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said that despite an option for a Colorado governor to commute her sentence at some point, it was “political suicide” to do so.

Experts for the defense had originally said that a life sentence had never been commuted in Colorado. But prosecutors later found that Governor John Hickenlooper in 2018 commuted life sentences of five men convicted of murder.

The defense countered that three of those sentences were not life without parole and two were for men who committed their crime between the ages of 18 and 21, which is sometimes considered a mitigating factor at sentencing because of their relative youth.

“This defendant, Kimberlee Singler, has no real prospect of release no matter what progress she makes” behind bars, Fitzgerald said.

Prosecutor Joel Smith said the judge only had to consider if there is a mechanism that could allow Singler to be freed someday.

“Prospect of release — that is not your concern,” Smith told the judge at a hearing in December.

Zani said in his ruling that there was an option in Colorado to release an inmate serving a life sentence.

“I am satisfied that the defendant has failed to vault the hurdle necessary in order to succeed in the challenges raised,” the judge said.

Fitzgerald said he planned to appeal.

Singler has denied that she harmed her children. She told police that her ex-husband had either carried out the killings or hired a hitman.

Singler had superficial knife wounds and was initially treated as a victim.

But that changed when her surviving daughter, who initially said she had been attacked by an intruder, told police her mother tried to kill her.

After her daughter changed her story, police sought to arrest Singler on Dec. 26, but she had fled. She was found four days later in London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood and arrested.

The girl told police that her mother gave the children milk with a powdery substance to drink and told them to close their eyes as she guided them into a sibling’s bedroom, prosecutors said.

Singler cut her neck and, as the girl begged her to stop, she slashed her again. The girl said her mother had a gun.

“The defendant told her that God was telling her to do it and that the children’s father would take them away,” Smith said at a previous hearing.

Police found Aden Wentz, 7, and Elianna “Ellie” Wentz, 9, dead when they entered the Colorado Springs apartment on Dec. 19. They had been shot and stabbed.

Although Singler blamed her husband, authorities said he had a solid alibi backed up by GPS records that showed he had been driving a truck at the time of the killings.
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Officials in Ukraine say Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack Friday killing at least two civilians, wounding several others and damaging commercial and residential buildings.

The interior ministry said two victims were killed by drone debris in the central Kyiv region. It said a multistory residential building and commercial buildings were among the infrastructure that sustained damage during the attack.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed some 120 drones over a dozen regions, including Moscow, overnight Friday, launched by Ukraine.

No casualties were reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would talk soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to push the Russian leader to end his nearly three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.

“Millions of young lives are being wasted. That war is horrible,” Trump, via video link from Washington, told global business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He said that “Ukraine is ready to make a deal,” although no peace negotiations have been announced. “This is a war that never should’ve started.”

Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut global oil prices, now about $77 a barrel, to curb Russia’s oil revenues, which it uses to fund the war.

“If the price comes down,” Trump said, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.”

“It’s so important to get that done,” he said. “It’s time to end it.”

Trump’s new remarks on the war came a day after he described the conflict as a “ridiculous war” and told Putin in a social media message that if he didn’t move to end it, the U.S. would impose new tariffs, taxes and sanctions on Russian exports to the West.

But the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s threat, saying Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with the United States as Trump starts a four-year term in the White House.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the slander conviction of American defendant Amanda Knox in a case related to the sensationalized 2007 murder of her British roommate.  

Knox was convicted of slandering her former boss, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba, by falsely accusing him of murdering Meredith Kercher.  

A 21-year-old exchange student, Kercher was found stabbed to death in 2007 in the Perugia apartment she shared with Knox.  

While being interrogated, Knox, who was 20 at the time, signed two statements prepared by police regarding her accusation against Lumumba. Knox later wrote a handwritten note questioning her false accusation. 

Last year, an appeals court in Florence handed Knox a three-year sentence for wrongly accusing Lumumba.  

Knox, now 37 years old, had already served nearly four years during the investigation, initial murder trial and first appeal. She was convicted twice before Italy’s highest court finally exonerated her of the crime in 2015. She is not at risk of any more jail time.  

Knox had appealed the slander conviction based on a European Court of Human Rights ruling that said her rights had been violated by police failure to provide a lawyer and adequate translator during a lengthy night of questioning just days after Kercher was killed.  

With the appeal, Knox was aiming to clear her name in Rome’s Court of Cassation in the last remaining legal case against her following a nearly two-decades-long legal saga.  

But on Thursday, Judge Monica Boni confirmed the slander conviction.  

Knox, who did not attend the court, maintained her innocence in a post on X.  

“It’s a surreal day,” Knox said. “I’ve just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn’t commit.” 

Knox’s lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said he was surprised by the conviction. 

“We cannot believe it. A totally unjust decision for Amanda and unexpected in our eyes,” he said. “We are incredulous.” 

But Lumumba said he was satisfied with the verdict.  

“Amanda was wrong. This verdict has to accompany her for the rest of her life,” he told The Associated Press.  

Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing Kercher. He was released in 2021 after serving most of his sentence. He denied killing Kercher.  

Knox’s lengthy legal saga was fodder for tabloids around the world and spawned books, movies and documentaries.  

Knox herself is currently producing a Hulu mini-series about her wrongful conviction and fight to clear her name. Social activist Monica Lewinsky is also producing the series.  

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.  
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President Donald Trump laid out his approach to foreign investment to the world’s largest gathering of global business leaders, offering investors a take-it-or-leave-it deal to build in the U.S. or face stiff tariffs. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports.
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Greenland’s mineral wealth is in the global spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to take control of the island from Denmark. But until now, Greenland’s mining industry has struggled to turn a profit. Could that be about to change? Henry Ridgwell reports from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invited global businesses to manufacture their products in the U.S. and promised them lower taxes but warned if they choose to produce their goods elsewhere, they would have to pay tariffs to export them to the United States. 

 

“America is back and open for business,” Trump, in a video linkup from Washington, told corporate leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

 

“My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.” 

 

Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he wants to cut the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21 to 15%, although that needs approval from his political allies in the Republican-controlled Congress. Lawmakers have begun debating how to extend and reshape personal and corporate tax cuts enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office. 

 

Trump promised the U.S. would supply Europe with the liquified natural gas it needs but contended that the European Union treats the United States “very, very unfairly” with the extent of regulations it imposes on American businesses operating in the 27-nation bloc. 

 

The president complained specifically about tariffs and environmental impact statements for new construction projects, calling them “things you shouldn’t have to do.”  

 

Trump promised that his administration would make the U.S., already the world’s biggest economy, “a manufacturing superpower” and said the government during his four-year term would eliminate 10 business regulations for every new one that is imposed. 

 

He said he plans to ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut the price of oil they produce to boost the global economy. 

 

He contended that if the current global oil price — about $77 a barrel — is cut, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.” Russia uses revenue from its own oil production to help fund its three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.  

 

Trump said that in the global economy, the U.S. “just wants to be treated fairly by other countries.” 

 

He said the U.S. wants to have a “fair relationship” with China, the world’s second-biggest economy. 

 

“We don’t want to take advantage,” he said of Washington-Beijing relations. “We just want to have a level playing field.” 
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With Belarus set to hold its presidential elections on Jan. 26, the European Parliament and many international experts have already condemned the vote, which they predict will be a sham. Lora Zaitsava has the story. Video editor: Anna Rice.
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Officials in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Thursday a Russian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person and injured 24 others.

Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that Russian drones also destroyed an energy facility and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people.

In the Mykolaiv region, Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nine Russian drones. Debris from the drones damaged several houses, Kim said.

Ukraine’s military also shot down several drones over the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region located along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Trump-Putin

The Kremlin said Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia under President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday threatened to impose sanctions on Russia if it does not end its war in Ukraine.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue.”

Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to end his “ridiculous war” against Ukraine or the United States would soon impose new “high levels” of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on any Russian exports to the West.

Trump, two days into his second term in the White House, told Putin in a social media post that he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and that the U.S. “must never forget” that Russia helped the U.S. win World War II, but that it was time to end Moscow’s nearly three-year invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

“All of that being said,” Trump noted on his Truth Social account, “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon,” Trump said he would “have no other choice” but to impose the taxes, tariffs and sanctions. Under President Joe Biden, who left office on Monday, the United States and its European allies frequently sanctioned key sectors of the Russian economy and oligarch friends of Putin, worsening the country’s economy but failing to stop the war.

Trump said, “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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London — Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are facing fresh scrutiny from Britain’s competition watchdog, which announced investigations Thursday targeting the two tech giants’ mobile phone ecosystems under new powers to crack down on digital market abuses. 

The Competition and Markets Authority said it launched separate investigations to determine whether the mobile ecosystems controlled by Apple and Google should be given “strategic market status” that would mandate changes in the companies’ practices. 

The watchdog is flexing its newly acquired regulatory muscles again after the new digital market rules took effect at the start of the year. The CMA has already used the new rules, designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies, to open an investigation into Google’s search ads business. 

The new investigations will examine whether Apple or Google’s mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers give either company a strategic position in the market. The watchdog said it’s interested in the level of competition and any barriers preventing rivals from offering competing products and services. 

The CMA will also look into whether Apple or Google are favoring their own apps and services, which it said “often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices.” Google’s YouTube and Apple’s Safari browser are two examples of apps that come bundled with Android and iOS, respectively. 

And it will investigate “exploitative conduct,” such as whether Apple or Google forces app makers to agree to “unfair terms and conditions” as condition for distributing apps on their app stores. 

The regulator has until October to wrap up the investigation. It said it could force either company to, for example, open up access to key functions other apps need to operate on mobile devices. Or it could force them to allow users to download apps outside of their own app stores. 

Both Google and Apple said the work “constructively” with the U.K. regulator on the investigation. 

Google said “Android’s openness has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps. It’s the only example of a successful and viable open source mobile operating system.” 

The company said it favors “a way forward that avoids stifling choice and opportunities for U.K. consumers and businesses alike, and without risk to U.K. growth prospects.” 

Apple said it “believes in thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish. We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users.”
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A record 47% of the European Union’s electricity now comes from solar and other renewables, a report Thursday said, in yet another sign of the growing gap between the bloc’s push for clean energy and the new U.S. administration’s pursuit of more fossil fuels.

Nearly three-quarters of the EU’s electricity doesn’t emit planet-warming gases into the air — with another 24% of electricity in the bloc coming from nuclear power, a report released by the climate energy think tank Ember found. This is far higher than in countries like the United States and China, where nearly two-thirds of their energy is still produced from carbon-polluting fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Experts say they’re encouraged by Europe’s fossil fuel reductions, particularly as the U.S. looks set to increase its emissions as its new president pledges cheaper gas prices, has halted leases for wind projects and pledged to revoke Biden-era incentives for electric vehicles.

“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said Chris Rosslowe, an energy expert at Ember. In 2024, solar power generated 11% of EU electricity, overtaking coal which fell below 10% for the first time. Clean wind power generated more electricity than gas for the second year in a row.

2024 data wasn’t available for all countries. Ember’s data for the world’s largest generators of electricity for 2023 show Brazil with the largest share of its electricity from renewables, almost 89%, with much of that coming from hydroelectric power. Canada had about 66.5%, China 30.6%, France 26.5%, the U.S. 22.7% and India 19.5%.

One reason for Europe’s clean power transition moving at pace is the European Green Deal, an ambitious policy passed in 2019 that paved the way for climate laws to be updated. As a result of the deal, the EU made their targets more ambitious, aiming to cut 55% of the region’s emissions by the end of the decade. The policy also aims to make Europe climate neutral — reducing the amount of additional emissions in the air to practically zero — by 2050.

Hundreds of regulations and directives in European countries to incentivize investment in clean energy and reduce carbon pollution have been passed or are in the process of being ratified across Europe.

“At the start of the Deal, renewables were a third and fossil fuels accounted for 39% of Europe’s electricity,” Rosslowe said. “Now fossils generate only 29% and wind and solar have been driving the clean energy transition.” The amount of electricity generated by nuclear energy has remained relatively stable in the bloc.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also spurred the move to clean energy in Europe. Gas prices skyrocketed — with much of Europe’s gas coming from Russia becoming unviable — forcing countries to look for cheaper, cleaner alternatives. Portugal, Netherlands and Estonia witnessed the highest increase in clean power in the last five years.

The transition to clean power helped Europe avoid more than $61 billion worth of fossil fuel imports for generating electricity since 2019.

“This is sending a clear message that their energy needs are going to be met through clean power, not gas imports,” said Pieter de Pous, a Brussels-based energy analyst at European think tank E3G. De Pous said the EU’s origins were “as a community of coal and steel because those industries were so important,” but it is now rapidly becoming a “community of solar and wind power, batteries and smart technologies.”

Nuclear growth in the bloc, meanwhile, has slowed. Across the European Union, retirements of nuclear plants have outpaced new construction since around the mid-2000s, according to Global Energy Monitor.

As President Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement aimed at curbing warming and is pursuing a “drill, baby, drill” energy policy, Rosslowe said the EU’s leadership in clean power becomes all the more important. “It’s about increasing European energy independence, and it’s about showing this climate leadership,” he said.

On Tuesday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said: “Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.”
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