The Church of England will seek to bring disciplinary proceedings against 10 clerics including former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, it said on Tuesday, implementing recommendations from an abuse report last year. 

The CoE, central to 85 million Anglicans worldwide, has been in crisis over safeguarding the vulnerable since the November report, which said ex-leader Justin Welby had taken insufficient action to stop one of the church’s most prolific serial abusers. Welby eventually stepped down over the findings. 

Eight priests and a former bishop were also listed among those potentially facing disciplinary action in the CoE statement as the CoE concluded its own independent review into all clergy criticized in last year’s report. 

That report found that the late John Smyth, a British lawyer who volunteered at Christian summer camps, subjected more than 100 boys and young men to “brutal and horrific” physical and sexual abuse over a 40-year period. 

The potential outcomes of the CoE’s disciplinary process, which is at its first stage, could result in various penalties ranging from a permanent ban from ministry to resignation by consent. 

“We must not forget that at the heart of this case are the survivors and victims who have endured the lifelong effects of the appalling abuse by John Smyth. We are truly sorry,” Alexander Kubeyinje, the CoE’s National Director of Safeguarding, said in the statement. 

“The Church is committed to taking very seriously its response to the findings of the review as well as responding to its recommendations.” 

 
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Multiple regions of Ukraine came under aerial attack from Russian forces overnight, with officials in Kyiv and Sumy saying Tuesday there were injuries and damage to buildings.

Mykola Kalashnyk, governor of the Kyiv region, said a 44-year-old woman was hospitalized as a result of the attacks, which also damaged several houses.

Officials in Sumy said Ukrainian air defenses shot down seven drones, but that the attacks injured two people and damaged two apartment buildings.

Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said Tuesday on Telegram that the military destroyed 20 drones over his region. Taburets said there were no reports of injuries or damage.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said air defenses destroyed three Russian drones, while Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said the military shot down seven drones in his region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it shot down 20 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly over the Bryansk region that is located along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram there were no injuries from the Ukrainian attack.

Other intercepts took place over the Kursk and Kaluga regions, the Defense Ministry said.

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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President Donald Trump says he’s nearing a deal with Ukraine and Russia to end the war in Ukraine, after a packed day of meetings at the White House with France’s leader, Emmanuel Macron, where he urged Europe to take a bigger role, and Paris pushed for more assurances from Moscow. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — Three years into Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, China is closely monitoring U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the war, as Beijing calculates its moves to position itself as a strategic partner for Ukraine while maintaining a no‐limits partnership with Russia, according to experts and former officials. 

This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to hold in-person meetings in Washington, following the Feb. 18 direct talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. 

Macron met with Trump Monday morning at the White House for a meeting that lasted nearly two hours. Both leaders participated in a videoconference with other G7 leaders about Ukraine.  

Earlier on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who updated Xi on the Riyadh talks and reaffirmed the “comprehensive strategic partnership” between Russia and China. A Chinese readout said, “China welcomes the positive efforts made by Russia and relevant parties to resolve the crisis.” 

‘Crisis’ but not war 

For three years, Chinese officials have said Beijing will “play a constructive role” in the “political settlement of the crisis,” refraining from using the term “Ukraine war” to describe Russia’s aggression since Feb. 24, 2022. 

Beijing also commended the recent U.S.-Russia talks, during which Ukraine was not present. 

China and Ukraine “established a strategic partnership in 2011. … In recent years, China has been Ukraine’s largest trading partner,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Feb. 15 on the margins of the Munich Security Conference. 

“Regarding the Ukrainian crisis … China has always worked for peace and promoted talks,” Wang said. Notably, the Chinese readout of the meeting made no mention of Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity. 

On Feb. 20, two days after the U.S.-Russia talks, Wang held in-person discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 ministerial meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Lavrov briefed him on the Riyadh talks. Wang reaffirmed China’s “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia. 

Wang said China “supports” all efforts dedicated to peace, including “the recent consensus reached between the United States and Russia” in Riyadh. 

Talks, not negotiations 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Riyadh talks — the first between Washington and Moscow in years — were not negotiations aimed at striking any deal on Ukraine, despite concerns from Ukraine and European countries that they were being sidelined.  

He said the talks were intended to determine whether the Russians were serious about ending the war.  

In a measured tone, Rubio characterized the talks — which lasted for more than four hours — as steps toward establishing “lines of communication” on bilateral issues between the United States and Russia. Among these efforts is the goal of achieving “some normalcy in our missions and their ability to function.” 

Some analysts said Beijing is nervous over a reset of U.S.-Russia ties.   

“While a complete rapprochement might not be in the cards, they’re nervous because if Trump lifts sanctions on Russia, then Moscow’s dependency on China decreases,” Dennis Wilder, who was a top White House China adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, told RFE/RL.  

But others warned that the U.S. risked bolstering China’s global information campaign, which portrays Washington as an unreliable ally. 

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a defense analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said, “We immediately gave away what leverage we had” and “misattributed who the aggressor was” while rushing into talks with the Russians. 

China, “stumbling into this good news,” certainly gets the benefit, Montgomery said in a recent webinar hosted by FDD.  

“I have no doubt that diplomats from China are whispering in ears around the world about the unreliability of Americans, and unfortunately, this administration is giving them some talking points,” Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the FDD, said during the webinar. 

Experts skeptical 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on whether China would consider sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine after the conflict ends.

Xi and Putin are scheduled to exchange visits to Moscow and Beijing later this year. The two held a virtual meeting on Jan. 21. Additionally, Xi took a phone call from Putin on the afternoon of Feb. 24. 

Some former U.S. officials are skeptical about the extent to which the Chinese government is genuinely willing to act to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine. They believe China may use the issue as leverage in its dealings with Trump. 

“I think the Chinese will look at the Ukraine issue, and they will offer some help to Trump. They probably won’t do very much, and then they will claim success,” Evan Medeiros, director of Georgetown University’s Asian Studies program, said during a recent podcast with the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. Medeiros served on the White House National Security Council from 2009 to 2015. 

“Anything that is in their direct material interests, like helping to rebuild Ukraine, they will embrace. But of course, that doesn’t have to do with encouraging Russia to reach a peace deal. That’s about ensuring that Chinese infrastructure companies get lots of big fat contracts,” Medeiros added.   
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Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the republic since 2007, said he wants to remain in power for life.

VOA Russian spoke to regional experts who believe that despite this being illegal according to Russian laws, Kadyrov will resist stepping down in 2026 when his term ends.

Oleg Orlov from the Nobel Prize-winning Memorial group draws parallels between Kadyrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both relying on repression to continue their rule.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Russian spoke to independent analyst Jakub Janovsky who documents Russian military equipment losses in the war with Ukraine. He noted that Russia has lost 136 military planes and 151 helicopters in three years of the war, reducing its aviation fleet so Moscow now relies more on long-range missiles and drones.

Janovsky also said Russia has noticeably reduced the use of the heavy military equipment, such as tanks and armored fighting vehicles, on the frontline in Ukraine in the past several months, though the reasons for that are unknown.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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ROME — Pope Francis was resting Monday morning after a quiet night, on the 10th day of his hospitalization for a complex lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney failure, the Vatican said.

The one-line statement didn’t say if Francis, 88, had woken up. “The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting,” it said.

Late Sunday, doctors reported that blood tests showed early kidney failure that was nevertheless under control. They said Francis remained in critical condition but that he hadn’t experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

He was receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen and, on Sunday, was alert, responsive and attended Mass. They said his prognosis was guarded.

Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.

To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican, including on Sunday.

Monday marks Francis’ 10th day in the hospital, making this equal to the longest hospitalization of his papacy. He spent 10 days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 33 centimeters of his colon removed.

In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father.”

“As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back.”

Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. His condition has revived speculation about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and whether he might resign.
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MARSEILLE, France — Two projectiles were thrown at the perimeter wall of Russia’s consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille on Monday, one of which exploded, a French security source said.

It was not immediately clear if the projectiles cleared the wall. BFM TV said the projectiles were Molotov cocktails and that they landed in the consulate’s garden.

Russia demanded a full French investigation and said the incident looked like an act of terrorism, state news agency TASS reported.

No one was injured, the security source said. Consulate staff were kept indoors and police set up a security perimeter around the consulate.

The incident in the southern French city took place on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseille have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” TASS quoted Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United States is urging the United Nations General Assembly to back its resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday, oppose any amendments and vote no on a rival text drafted by Ukraine and European allies.

In a diplomatic note sent on Sunday and reviewed by Reuters, the United States described its brief resolution as “a forward-looking resolution focused on one simple idea: ending the war.”

“Through this resolution, Member States can build real momentum towards international peace and security, the maintenance of which is the principal purpose of the United Nations,” it said, asking countries to “vote no on any other resolution or amendments presented” during Monday’s meeting.

The U.S. draft resolution, put forward on Friday, pits it against Ukraine and the European Union, which have for the past month been negotiating with U.N. member states on their own resolution on the war in Ukraine, which repeats the U.N. demand that Russia withdraw its troops and halt hostilities.

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly repeatedly backed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders since the war began. The U.S. draft makes no reference to that.

The U.S. text mourns the loss of life during the “Russia-Ukraine conflict,” reiterates that the U.N.’s main purpose is to maintain international peace and security and peacefully settle disputes. It “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”

Proposed amendments

The 15-member Security Council is also set to vote on the same U.S. text later on Monday, diplomats said. A council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain or France to be adopted.

The U.S. push for U.N. action comes after President Donald Trump launched a bid to broker an end to the war, sparking a rift with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and raising concerns among European allies that they could be cut out of peace talks. U.S. and Russian officials met on Tuesday.

The General Assembly is set to vote on several proposed amendments to the U.S. draft resolution.

Russia has proposed amending the U.S. draft to reference addressing the “root causes” of the war. Russia called its 2022 invasion a “special military operation” designed to “denazify” Ukraine and halt an expansion of NATO.

Britain and 24 European Union states have also proposed amendments to the U.S. draft in the General Assembly.

They want to describe the conflict as “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” back Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and implore “just, lasting and comprehensive peace” in line with the U.N. Charter and principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity.

General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry political weight, reflecting a global view on the war. No country holds a veto in the assembly.
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VATICAN CITY — While the Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, they do not apply if he is sick or even unconscious. And there are no specific norms outlining what happens to the leadership of the Catholic Church if a pope becomes totally incapacitated.

As a result, even though Pope Francis remains hospitalized in critical condition with a complex lung infection, he is still pope and very much in charge.

Still, Francis’ hospital stay is raising obvious questions about what happens if he loses consciousness for a prolonged period, or whether he might follow in Pope Benedict XVI’s footsteps and resign if he becomes unable to lead. On Monday, Francis’ hospital stay will hit the 10-day mark, equaling the length of his 2021 hospital stay for surgery to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon.

His age and prolonged illness have revived interest about how papal power is exercised in the Holy See, how it is transferred and under what circumstances. And it points to the legislative loophole that currently exists in what to do if a pope gets so sick that he can’t govern.

The Vatican Curia

Francis may be in charge, but he already delegates the day-to-day running of the Vatican and church to a team of officials who operate whether he is in the Apostolic Palace or not, and whether he is conscious or not.

Chief among them is the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Other Vatican functions are proceeding normally, including the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year celebrations.

What happens when a pope gets sick?

Canon law does have provisions for when a bishop gets sick and can’t run his diocese, but none for a pope. Canon 412 says a diocese can be declared “impeded” if its bishop — due to “captivity, banishment, exile, or incapacity” — cannot fulfil his pastoral functions. In such cases, the day-to-day running of the diocese shifts to an auxiliary bishop, a vicar general or someone else.

Even though Francis is the bishop of Rome, no explicit provision exists for the pope if he similarly becomes “impeded.” Canon 335 declares simply that when the Holy See is “vacant or entirely impeded,” nothing can be altered in the governance of the church. But it doesn’t say what it means for the Holy See to be “entirely impeded” or what provisions might come into play if it ever were.

In 2021, a team of canon lawyers set out to propose norms to fill that legislative gap. They created a canonical crowd-sourcing initiative to craft a new church law regulating the office of a retired pope as well as norms to apply when a pope is unable to govern, either temporarily or permanently.

The proposed norms explain that, with medical advancements, it’s entirely likely that at some point a pope will be alive but unable to govern. It argues that the church must provide for the declaration of a “totally impeded see” and the transfer of power for the sake of its own unity.

Under the proposed norms, the governance of the universal church would pass to the College of Cardinals. In the case of a temporary impediment, they would name a commission to govern, with periodical medical checks every six months to determine the status of the pope.

“At first, the promoting group was accused of imprudently choosing topics that were too sensitive and controversial,” said one of the coordinators, canon lawyer Geraldina Boni.

But then, “a widespread consensus formed,” she told The Associated Press. Even Francis’ own canon lawyer, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, acknowledged some sort of norms were necessary if the pope “incurably, then irreversibly, lost consciousness or otherwise the ability to perform human acts.”

“The problem is, who declares that the pope is in a situation where he cannot govern?” he told Italian daily Il Giornale in 2022.

Ghirlanda largely backed the crowd-sourcing initiative’s idea, proposing a committee of medical experts to determine if the pope’s condition is irreversible. If they confirm it is, the Rome-based cardinals would be summoned to declare the pope cannot govern, triggering a conclave.

What about the letters?

Francis confirmed in 2022 that shortly after he was elected pope, he wrote a letter of resignation, to be invoked if he became medically incapacitated. He said he gave it to the then-secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and said he assumed Bertone had delivered it to Parolin’s office when he retired.

The text is not public, and the conditions Francis contemplated for a resignation are unknown. It is also not known if such a letter would be canonically valid. Canon law requires a papal resignation to be “freely and properly manifested” — as was the case when Benedict announced his resignation in 2013.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI wrote letters to the dean of the College of Cardinals hypothesizing that if he were to become seriously ill, the dean and other cardinals should accept his resignation. The letter was never invoked, since Paul lived another 13 years and died on the job.

What happens when a pope dies or resigns?

The only time papal power changes hands is when a pope dies or resigns. At that time, a whole series of rites and rituals comes into play governing the “interregnum” — the period between the end of one pontificate and the election of a new pope.

During that period, known as the “sede vacante,” or “empty See,” the camerlengo, or chamberlain, runs the administration and finances of the Holy See. He certifies the pope’s death, seals the papal apartments and prepares for the pope’s burial before a conclave to elect a new pope. The position is currently held by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the head of the Vatican’s laity office.

The camerlengo has no role or duties if the pope is merely sick or otherwise incapacitated.

Likewise, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who would preside at a papal funeral and organize the conclave, has no additional role if the pope is merely sick. That position is currently held by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91.

Earlier this month, Francis decided to keep Re on the job even after his five-year term expired, rather than make way for someone new. He also extended the term of the vice-dean, Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81.
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Brussels — Estonia has launched a new push to get fellow EU members to agree to seize frozen Russian assets and use them to help Ukraine, dismissing a Russian idea on how the money could be used as part of a peace deal.

The Baltic country has sent a discussion paper on the issue to European Union partners and will raise it at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, officials said.

Some 210 billion euros ($219.62 billion) in Russian assets are immobilized in the EU by sanctions as part of an international crackdown on Moscow for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, the G7 group of nations – including the EU – agreed to use profits from frozen Russian assets to fund a $50 billion loan for Ukraine. But the assets themselves remain untouched.

“The decision to use the windfall profits was a step in the right direction. I see that the time is ripe now to take the next step,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Reuters.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Moscow could agree to allow Russian assets frozen in Europe to be used for reconstruction in Ukraine but would insist part of the money is spent on the part of the country controlled by its forces.

Tsahkna dismissed that idea.

“Giving Russia some of the assets to use in the occupied areas means accepting Russia’s occupation of some parts of Ukraine,” he said.

The EU has insisted Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be respected in any peace deal.

Several EU countries, including Baltic states and Poland, have said they are ready to consider seizing the assets. But Germany, France, Belgium and the European Central Bank have been wary, warning of legal challenges and undermining the euro as a reserve currency.

Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear holds most of the Russian assets frozen in Europe.

But the issue has resurfaced on the political agenda, particularly as the Trump administration has said it expects Europe to take on a larger share of support for Ukraine.

The Estonian paper, seen by Reuters, tries to address its partners’ concerns. It says asset seizure can be justified under international law, as a countermeasure to Moscow’s war and because “Russia refuses to engage in reparations.”

It also says joint action by the EU and international partners could mitigate any risk to the euro as a reserve currency.
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