Brussles — Thousands of Belgians took to the streets on Thursday in protest over the new government’s planned pension reforms in the first day of a multi-day strike that halted all air traffic in the country. 

Brussels airport canceled 430 flights on Thursday, a spokesperson said, adding that the disruption to the air traffic sector would last just one day. 

Protesters held signs with slogans such as “We’re not lemons,” and some displayed plaques featuring Latin phrases, a nod to new Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s tendency to include Latin quotes whenever possible. 

The strike was also expected to disrupt public transport and postal services, with firefighters and military personnel joining the protests as well. 

The planned pension reform rewards those who work past retirement age, with 35 years of service, while early retirees without 35 years, face a penalty. The new system is less favorable for lower-income earners compared to the previous one, which provided a lump sum based on career length. 

Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever’s government was sworn in on Feb. 3, after eight months of negotiations that resulted in a five-party coalition including right-wing, centrist, and socialist party, Vooruit.  

The socialist union had warned that a strike would be called if Vooruit joined the predominantly center-right government.
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BERLIN — A car was driven into a crowd in Munich, Germany on Thursday, injuring at least 28 people.

Police said authorities detained the driver, and during the arrest fired a shot at the vehicle.

They identified the suspect as a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker.

The incident took place as members of a service workers’ union held a demonstration.

Bavarian Governor Markus Soder told reporters that what happened appeared to be an attack.

Authorities said several of the people hurt had serious injuries.

The city is due to host the Munich Security Conference beginning Friday.

Conference organizers issued a statement saying they were “deeply saddened” by the incident.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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NATO defense ministers are set to meet Thursday in Brussels to discuss defense spending targets, boosting their industrial capacity and their support to Ukraine.

The ministerial meeting comes amid a U.S. push for NATO allies to commit more of their domestic budgets to defense.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte expressed support for the U.S. position ahead of the talks, saying if allies do not spend more, then they will not have the necessary deterrents against foes such as Russia in place.

Rutte also is urging allies to work on boosting defense production capacities in order to boost stockpiles and to be able to provide more for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion that began in early 2022.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group Wednesday that while the U.S. wants a “sovereign and prosperous Ukraine,” allies must recognize that going back to the Ukrainian borders that existed before Russia moved into Crimea in 2014 is an “unrealistic objective.”

Hegseth advocated for a negotiated end to the war with security guarantees backed by European and non-European troops that are deployed under a non-NATO mission. He ruled out deploying any U.S. troops to Ukraine.

Following Thursday’s NATO ministerial, Hegseth heads to Poland for what the Pentagon said will be talks with leaders about “bilateral defense cooperation, continued deterrence efforts along NATO’s eastern flank, and Poland’s leadership as a model ally in defense investment and burden-sharing in NATO.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press

 
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Following a successful prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a multifront diplomatic blitz Wednesday to end the Ukraine conflict, saying he would meet with Russia’s leader soon and dispatching a vice president-led team to meet with Ukraine’s leader on Friday. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell catches up on the latest, from Washington.
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. 

Moscow’s troops seized the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site. 

Staff from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety. 

Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on Wednesday, the second such delay in a week, both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident. 

Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries. 

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy accused Russia’s army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow’s goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” 

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones, at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station. 

“On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts … came under attack by drone and mortar strikes,” Zakharova said in a statement. 

The IAEA staff members were supposed to leave the station on Feb. 5 in a rotation that was also delayed. 

IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries.
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WASHINGTON — A journalist with VOA’s sister outlet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, after spending more than three years imprisoned in a case that was widely viewed as politically motivated.  

Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus service, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, the U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, said. Two other individuals were also released, including a U.S. citizen, but Boehler did not specify their identities.  

RFE/RL President Stephen Capus welcomed Kuznechyk’s release and thanked President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Lithuanian government for their help in securing the reporter’s release. 

“This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President Trump. We are also grateful to Secretary Rubio and his team, and to the Lithuanian government for their support,” Capus said in a statement.  

Boehler said that the release was unilateral, meaning no one was swapped with Belarus in exchange for the prisoners. Boehler attributed the release to Trump’s commitment to securing the freedom of wrongfully detailed Americans abroad.  

“He has made bringing Americans home a top priority,” Boehler said. “The smartest thing you can do to curry favor with the president of the United States is bring Americans home.”  

Kuznechyk had been jailed since November 2021. He was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges, which he rejected. When Kuznechyk was due to be released, authorities kept him in prison and added an additional charge of creating an extremist group.

In a trial that lasted only one day, a regional court found Kuznechyk guilty in June 2022 and sentenced him to six years in prison.  

RFE/RL and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees RFE/RL and VOA, consistently rejected the charges against Kuznechyk and called for his release. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the prisoners’ release from Belarus “a remarkable victory.” 

Belarus ranks among the worst jailers of journalists in the world. As of early December, at least 31 journalists were jailed there over their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  

Another RFE/RL journalist — Ihar Losik — has been jailed in Belarus since 2020 on charges he and his employer reject.  

“We remain hopeful that our journalist Ihar Losik will also be released and look to the Trump administration for its continued leadership and guidance,” Capus said in a statement. 

Three other RFE/RL journalists are currently jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea, Russia and Azerbaijan, all on charges that are viewed as politically motivated. 

The Belarusian government has embarked on a severe crackdown on independent journalists and other critics ever since longtime President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a 2020 presidential election that was widely viewed as rigged.  

More than 1,200 political prisoners are currently detained in Belarus, according to the rights group Viasna.
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Pakistan rolls out the red carpet Wednesday for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader will jointly hold the 7th session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif during his brief visit ending Thursday. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports on key topics of discussion.
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Ukrainian forces are trying to slow down an ongoing Russian advance toward the city of Pokrovsk in Eastern Ukraine’s Dontesk region. The Ukrainian government has been evacuating civilians from the region, but constant shelling is making it dangerous. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. (Camera: Artyom Kokhan, Anna Rice)  
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U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed American teacher Marc Fogel to the White House late Tuesday after Fogel was freed from Russia where he had been detained since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country.

“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to Trump.

Fogel praised the president, U.S. diplomats and lawmakers for working to secure his release.

“I am in awe of what they all did,” Fogel said.

Trump said he appreciated what Russia did in letting Fogel go home but declined to specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond calling it “very fair” and very reasonable.”

Trump also said another hostage release would be announced Wednesday.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said earlier Tuesday the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange. 

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides. 

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April. 

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances. 

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained.
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Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country, was freed by Moscow on Tuesday and headed back to the United States, the White House announced.

The 63-year-old history teacher, who had been serving a 14-year sentence, was expected to be reunited with his family in the eastern state of Pennsylvania by the end of the day.

He left Russian airspace aboard the personal aircraft of Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign affairs envoy who helped negotiate his release.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained.

Witkoff is a billionaire New York real estate executive and close friend of Trump’s. He previously had helped negotiate the six-week Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza initiated by Biden in the last months of his presidency.

Witkoff also had been secretly negotiating the deal for Fogel’s release. Online flight trackers spotted his presence in Moscow when he flew there on his private jet.

With the U.S. leading the way in the West’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the first known trip to Moscow by a senior U.S. official since William Burns, then the Central Intelligence Agency director, flew to the Russian capital in November 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to keep Russia from invading Ukraine.
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The U.S. State Department has determined that dual U.S.-Russian national Ksenia Karelina, also known as Ksenia Khavana, was wrongfully detained in Russia.

Karelina was jailed by a Russian court for 12 years for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity. The new determination will enable U.S. authorities to operate more actively in securing her release. Karelina’s civil partner remains optimistic that efforts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will eventually get her out of the Russian prison in which she is being held.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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