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King Charles III's coronation Saturday will mix a thousand-year tradition with the streaming age. The pomp and ceremony will be unmissable for U.K. residents, but what about royal watchers across the Atlantic? There are plenty of options to watch the regalia-heavy event that serves as a formal confirmation of King Charles' dual role as head of state and titular leader of the Church of England — for those willing to wake up early enough. While it might seem odd that Americans might want to tune in, there have been large audiences for previous royal milestones, such as the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 and the weddings of their children, William and Harry. The longevity of the king's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, means that many people alive have never seen a coronation. Also read: King’s coronation draws apathy, criticism in former colonies WHAT TIME DOES THE CORONATION START? Well, first King Charles and his wife Camilla have to get to the ceremony. That begins with a procession to Westminster Abbey, which will get started at about 5 a.m. EDT, 2 a.m. for West Coasters. The Associated Press will livestream the procession beginning at 5 a.m. Eastern and provide ongoing coverage throughout the day on www.apnews.com. Broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC as well as cable channels CNN and Fox News all plan live coverage starting at 5 a.m. EDT. The outlets will also feature coverage on their digital platforms and streaming like Hulu+ Live TV. WHAT SHOULD I KNOW AHEAD OF TIME? The day will be filled with pageantry — the handing over of a rod, sceptre and orb, all medieval symbols of power — and loads of other traditions. Despite that, Charles has slimmed down the event, shortening the procession route and the Westminster Abbey ceremony. More than 100 heads of state will be in the audience, but President Joe Biden will keep with U.S. tradition and not attend. Instead, first lady Jill Biden will be there. The celebration continues on Sunday with the Coronation Concert, but U.S. audiences won't be able to watch headliners Lionel Richie and Katy Perry. That will be shown on BBC's iPlayer, which isn't available outside the U.K.  

South Sudan is facing violent clashes and increasing disillusionment and frustration as it struggles to implement the most challenging provisions of a fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, U.N. experts say in a new report. The world's newest nation is struggling to integrate rival military forces, draft a new constitution and prepare for its first election as an independent country in December 2024, the experts monitoring sanctions against the world’s newest nation said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The country's stability “will likely turn on the government’s ability to reward the patience of those who remain committed to peace, rather than those who have sought to reshape it through violence," the report says. There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement, bringing Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. Under the agreement, elections were supposed to be held in February 2023, but last August they were postponed until December 2024. Kiir said he wanted to avoid creating conditions for more bloodshed. He issued a statement outlining the government’s achievements and stressing that it would be “business as usual” before the elections. Also read: 675 Bangladeshis reach Port Sudan to leave crisis-hit Sudan: Shahriar Alam The U.N. experts said the message was aimed at allaying two concerns — that the extension would be used to undermine the fragile power-sharing structures and would mean further delays, “not the progress that peace once promised.” On the plus side, the panel said in the 37-page report that the unity government has survived, a series of laws have started to pave the way for the drafting of a new constitution, and a first batch of approximately 55,000 unified troops has graduated, even though most haven’t been deployed. On the negative side, the experts said, most troops that graduated remain around their training centers, “though poor conditions have led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of desertions.” Many graduates don’t receive regular salaries, and most work in local communities to make money, the experts said. Those that have been deployed appear to have joined pre-existing military units rather than becoming part of a new national force, they said. While the parties agreed last year to unify the top command structure, they have not been able to reach a similar agreement for the lower ranks. South Sudan is also facing its highest level of displacement since the peace agreement, and more than two-thirds of the population needs humanitarian assistance, the panel said. The experts said most South Sudanese have not seen “tangible progress” since the 2018 agreement was signed. The deteriorating humanitarian situation is partly the result of violence and serious clashes in most parts of the country between well-armed rival forces, leading to deaths, people fleeing their homes, serious human rights violations, including sexual attacks, and difficulties delivering aid, the panel said. Much of the violence results from efforts to weaken opponents, but increasingly “from growing dissatisfaction with the political process in Juba," the capital. Oil accounts for more than 90% of the government’s revenue and almost all its exports, and as a result of the high oil price the government is likely to exceed its budget target of $1.6 billion in gross oil revenues for the current fiscal year, the experts said, but the money has largely failed to reach institutions that could help stabilize the country. “The misappropriation and diversion of public resources not only continues to fuel political competition but also deprives the treasury of the resources needed to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis, fund the implementation of the peace agreement, and stabilize the country through regular salary payments and development,” the panel said.  

The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed at least 7 million people worldwide. WHO first declared COVID-19 to be an emergency more than three years ago. The U.N. health agency's officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn't come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. WHO says that thousands of people are dying from the virus every week, and millions of others report that they are still suffering from debilitating, long-term effects from the disease. “It’s with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat,” he said, adding he wouldn't hesitate to reconvene experts to reassess the situation should COVID-19 “put our world in peril.” Tedros said the pandemic had been on a downward trend for more than a year, acknowledging that most countries have already returned to life before COVID-19. He bemoaned the damage that COVID-19 had done to the global community, saying the pandemic had shattered businesses, exacerbated political divisions, led to the spread of misinformation and plunged millions into poverty. Tedros also noted that there were likely at least 20 million COVID-19 deaths, far more than the officially reported 7 million.“COVID has changed our world and it has changed us,” he said, warning that the risk of new variants still remained. Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said it was incumbent on heads of states and other leaders to decide on how future health threats should be faced, given the numerous problems that crippled the world's response to COVID-19. Countries are negotiating a pandemic treaty that some hope may spell out how future disease threats will be faced — but it's unlikely any such treaty would be legally binding. When the U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan. 30, 2020, it hadn't yet been named COVID-19 and there were no major outbreaks beyond China. More than three years later, the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine. In the U.S., the public health emergency declaration made regarding COVID-19 is set to expire on May 11, when wide-ranging measures to support the pandemic response, including vaccine mandates, will end. Many other countries, including Germany, France and Britain, dropped many of their provisions against the pandemic last year. When Tedros declared COVID-19 to be an emergency in 2020, he said his greatest fear was the virus’ potential to spread in countries with weak health systems. In fact, some of the countries that suffered the worst COVID-19 death tolls were previously judged to be the best-prepared for a pandemic, including the U.S. and Britain. According to WHO data, the number of deaths reported in Africa account for just 3% of the global total. WHO doesn't “declare” pandemics, but first used the term to describe the outbreak in March 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica, long after many other scientists had said a pandemic was already underway. WHO is the only agency mandated to coordinate the world’s response to acute health threats, but the organization faltered repeatedly as the coronavirus unfolded. In January 2020, WHO publicly applauded China for its supposed speedy and transparent response, even though recordings of private meetings obtained by The Associated Press showed top officials were frustrated at the country’s lack of cooperation. WHO also recommended against mask-wearing for the public for months, a mistake many health officials say cost lives. Numerous scientists also slammed WHO’s reluctance to acknowledge that COVID-19 was frequently spread in the air and by people without symptoms, criticizing the agency’s lack of strong guidance to prevent such exposure. Tedros was a vociferous critic of rich countries who hoarded the limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, warning that the world was on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” by failing to share shots with poor countries. Most recently, WHO has been struggling to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, a challenging scientific endeavour that has also become politically fraught. After a weeks-long visit to China, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most likely jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as “extremely unlikely.” But the U.N. agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing and that it was premature to rule out that COVID-19 might have ties to a lab. Tedros lamented that the catastrophic toll of COVID-19 could have been avoided. "We have the tools and the technologies to prepare for pandemics better, to detect them earlier, to respond to them faster,” Tedros said, without citing missteps by WHO specifically. “A lack of (global) solidarity meant that those tools were not used as effectively as they could have been,” he said. “Lives were lost that should not have been. We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never make those mistakes again.”

Foreign ministers from a group of nations led by China and Russia met Friday in the Indian coastal resort state of Goa, where they were expected to discuss regional security, combating terrorism and deepening economic and cultural ties. India's Foreign Minister Subhramanyam Jaishankar in opening remarks to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — a group that includes China, Russia and several other Asian countries — criticized global institutions' response to the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to resolve geopolitical upheaval, saying that alternative forums like the SCO have an opportunity to help address such challenges. He said the developments have disrupted global supply chains, especially in energy, food and fertilizer, and hit developing nations the hardest. “These crises have also exposed a credibility and trust deficit in the ability of global institutions to manage challenges in a timely and efficient manner,” he said. “With more than 40% of the world's population within the SCO, our collective decisions will surely have a global impact." Jaishankar did not mention Russia's war in Ukraine in his remarks, and analysts say Moscow is unlikely to face backlash over its invasion among the grouping and will instead use the meeting to flex its influence in the region. The SCO was founded in 2001 by China and Russia, and included the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was expanded in 2017 to include India and Pakistan. Iran is expected to join the organization later this year. Jaishankar on Friday also stressed the need to fight terrorism, noting the group is particularly concerned about the security situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban swept to power after America's chaotic departure last year. He said cross-border terrorism must be stopped, a veiled dig at archrival Pakistan, which sent its foreign minister to Goa in the first visit to India by a high-ranking official in nearly a decade. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgent groups fighting for the independence of Indian-controlled Kashmir or its integration into Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. “Let's not get caught up in weaponizing terrorism for diplomatic point scoring,” Pakistan's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in his opening remarks. A flurry of bilateral talks were held Thursday ahead of the meeting, as Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The meeting between the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers came amid a tense situation along their disputed border, where a three-year standoff has involved thousands of soldiers stationed in the eastern Ladakh region. Qin said the border situation was “stable overall” and that both sides should abide by existing agreements to “promote the further cooling and easing of the border situation and maintain sustainable peace and tranquility in the border area,” according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry. India did not release a statement after the meeting, but Jaishankar tweeted afterwards to say the focus remained on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace along the border. Qin also met with Lavrov on Thursday. China is the biggest buyer of Russian oil and gas exports, pumping billions of dollars into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s treasury and helping the Kremlin resist Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Beijing is also trying to assert itself as a global diplomatic force, and has said it would like to serve as a mediator in the war. Qin said China would continue to promote peace talks on Ukraine and maintain communication with Russia to make “tangible contributions to a political settlement of the crisis,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said. Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Beijing would send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible political settlement. China has blamed the U.S. and NATO for provoking Russia and refused to criticize Moscow’s actions. However, it has refrained from issuing a full-throated endorsement of the invasion and is not known to have provided arms or other material assistance to the Russian military effort.

Canada’s foreign minister said Thursday the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department was summoning China’s ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won’t tolerate such interference. She said the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record. “We’re assessing different options including the expulsion of diplomats,” Joly said before a Parliament committee. Canada’s spy agency has not released details publicly. Chong has said the report identifies a Toronto-based diplomat as being part of the plot. Chong has been critical of Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. “I cannot imagine the shock and concern of learning that your loved ones have been targeted in this way,” Joly said to Chong at the committee hearing. “There will be consequences.” Chong said the diplomat should be on the first plane out of Canada. “It is inexplicable that this diplomat hasn’t been told to leave the country already,” he said. “If we do not take this course of action we are basically putting up a giant billboard for all authoritarian states around world that says we are open to foreign interference targeting Canadian citizens. That’s why this individual needs to be sent packing.” Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu denied interference in a statement and warned against expelling its diplomats. “Once again, China strongly urges the Canadian side to immediately stop this self-directed political farce, and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path. Should the Canadian side continue to make provocations, China will play along every step of the way until the very end,” Cong said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that he did not learn of the spy agency report until a Globe and Mail article Monday, citing top-secret documents, said the spy agency had the intelligence. But Chong told Parliament that Canada's national security adviser informed him the 2021 report went to various points in government, including to the national-security adviser at the time. Trudeau has ordered Canada’s intelligence agencies to immediately inform lawmakers of any threats against them, regardless of whether those threats are considered credible. Canada’s spy agency didn't tell Chong about the targeting of his family until this week. Many governments, the United Nations, and human rights groups accuse China of sweeping a million or more people from its Uyghur community and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups into detention camps, where many have said they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion. China denies the accusations, which are based on evidence including interviews with survivors and photos and satellite images from Uyghur’s home province of Xinjiang, a major hub for factories and farms in far western China. Last month, Trudeau named a former governor general as a special investigator to look into allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s last two elections. David Johnston will decide if a public inquiry is needed and Trudeau has said he will abide by recommendations. The Globe and Mail, citing unidentified intelligence sources, has reported that China preferred to see Trudeau’s Liberals re-elected in the 2021 election and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

When King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, soldiers carrying flags from the Bahamas, South Africa, Tuvalu and beyond will march alongside British troops in a spectacular military procession in honor of the monarch. For some, the scene will affirm the ties that bind Britain and its former colonies. But for many others in the Commonwealth, a group of nations mostly made up of places once claimed by the British Empire, Charles’ coronation is seen with apathy at best. In those countries, the first crowning of a British monarch in 70 years is an occasion to reflect on oppression and colonialism’s bloody past. The displays of pageantry in London will jar especially with growing calls in the Caribbean to sever all ties with the monarchy. “Interest in British royalty has waned since more Jamaicans are waking to the reality that the survivors of colonialism and the holocaust of slavery are yet to receive reparatory justice,” the Rev. Sean Major-Campbell, an Anglican priest in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, said. Also Read: PM Hasina arrives in London to attend coronation of UK’s King Charles III The coronation is “only relevant in so far as it kicks us in the face with the reality that our head of state is simply so by virtue of biology,” Major-Campbell added. As British sovereign, Charles is also head of state of 14 other countries, though the role is largely ceremonial. These realms, which include Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, represent a minority of the Commonwealth nations: most of the 56 members are republics, even if some still sport the Union Jack on their flags. Barbados was the most recent Commonwealth country to remove the British monarch as its head of state, replacing Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, with an elected president in 2021. The decision spurred similar republican movements in neighboring Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize. Last year, when Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness welcomed Prince William and his wife, Kate, during a royal tour of the Caribbean, he announced that his country intends to become fully independent. It made for an awkward photo with the royal couple, who were also confronted with protests calling for Britain to pay slavery reparations. Also Read: UK’s diverse communities ambivalent about king’s coronation William, the heir to the throne, observed later in the same trip that the relationship between the monarchy and the Caribbean has evolved. The royal family will “support with pride and respect your decisions about your future,” he told a reception in the Bahamas. Rosalea Hamilton, an advocate for changing Jamaica’s Constitution to get rid of the royals, said she was organizing a coronation day forum to engage more Jamaicans in the process of political reform. The timing of the event is meant to “signal to the head of state that the priority is to move away from his leadership, rather than focus on his coronation,” Hamilton said. Two days ahead of Charles’ crowning, campaigners from 12 Commonwealth countries wrote to the monarch urging him to apologize for the legacies of British colonialism. Among the signatories was Lidia Thorpe, an Australian senator, who said Thursday that Charles should “begin a process of repairing the damage of colonization, including returning the stolen wealth that has been taken from our people.” Buckingham Palace said last month that Charles supported research into the historical links between Britain’s monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade. The king takes the issue “profoundly seriously,” and academics will be given access to the royal collection and archives, the palace said. In India, once the jewel of the British Empire, there’s scant media attention and very little interest in the coronation. Some people living in the country’s vast rural hinterlands may not have even heard of King Charles III. Also Read: With coronation approaching, Charles and Buckingham Palace working at top speed to show new king at work “India has moved on,” and most Indians “have no emotional ties with the royal family,” Pavan K. Varma, a writer and former diplomat, said. Instead, the royals are seen more like amusing celebrities, he said. And while the country still values its economic and cultural ties with the European country, Varma pointed out that India’s economy has overtaken the U.K.’s. “Britain has shrunk globally into a medium-sized power,” he said. “This notion needs to be removed, that here is a former colony riveted to the television watching the coronation of Prince Charles. I don’t think this is happening in India.” Since gaining independence in 1947, India has moved to shed the vestiges of British imperialism. The statue of King George V that used to stand near the India Gate monument in New Delhi was moved in the 1960s to Coronation Park. Once the scene of celebrations honoring Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and George V, the park is now a repository for representations of former monarchs and officials of the British Raj in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led a renewed push to reclaim India’s past and erase “symbols of slavery” from the country’s time under the British crown. His government has scrubbed away colonial-era street names, some laws and even flag symbols. “I don’t think we should care much about (the royals),” Milind Akhade, a photographer in New Delhi, said. “They enslaved us for so many years.” In Nairobi, Kenya, motorcycle taxi driver Grahmat Luvisia was similarly dismissive of the idea of following the coronation on TV. “I will not be interested in watching the news or whatever is happening over there because we have been mistreated back then by those colonizers,” he said. Herman Manyora, a political analyst and journalism professor at the University of Nairobi, said memories of Britain’s harsh response to the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s are still raw. Many Kenyans will not watch the coronation “because of the torture during colonialism, because of the oppression, because of detentions, because of killings, because of the alienation of our land,” Manyora said. Not everyone is as critical. In Uganda, political analyst Asuman Bisiika says British culture continues to have a strong influence on young people in the East African country, especially those who follow English soccer. There is also a lot of goodwill for Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne. “It’s not about caring for the British monarchy,” Bisiika said. “It’s about relating.” In the South African city of Durban, expat British communities have planned a live screening of the coronation ceremony, complete with trumpeters to announce the moment the Archbishop of Canterbury crowns Charles. On Sunday, there will be a special church service followed by a picnic or a “braai,” a traditional South African barbecue. “I think people want to be part of an important moment in history,” Illa Thompson, one of the organizers of the festivities, said. Experts say that despite its flaws, historical baggage and fraying edges, the Commonwealth still holds appeal, especially for poorer nations. Gabon and Togo, which are former French colonies with no colonial links to Britain, became the association’s newest members last year. Most observers believe countries like Jamaica that want an elected head of state are likely to retain their memberships. “Countries, whether they benefit or not, feel like they need to have this closeness to Britain as an economic entity,” said Kehinde Andrews, a professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University. “As much as there will be still be some dissent — (Charles) is not as popular as his mother — it’s all about the economics.”   

Britain's free trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia will come into force by the end of this month, the leaders from the three nations said Friday. The announcement came while the prime ministers from the two Southern Hemisphere nations are in London for the coronation of King Charles III. The deals are part of Britain's efforts to expand its economic ties after it left the European Union. Both deals were first agreed to in 2021. New Zealand officials say its deal will help boost sales of products like wine, butter, beef and honey, and will increase the size of its economy by up to 1 billion New Zealand dollars ($629 million). New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it was a gold-standard agreement. "The market access outcomes are among the very best New Zealand has secured in any trade deal,” Hipkins said in a statement. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deal with New Zealand reflected the close relationship between the nations. “This deal will unlock new opportunities for businesses and investors across New Zealand and the United Kingdom, drive growth, boost jobs, and, most importantly, build a more prosperous future for the next generation,” Sunak said in a statement. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would mean more market access for its exporters. “So for beef, for our sheep products, for our seafood, for our other products it will mean much greater access to the British market,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview. Albanese said it would also mean greater access for younger Australians to work in Britain and vice versa after the terms of a working holiday arrangement were expanded. A similar scheme between New Zealand and Britain has also been expanded, increasing the length of working visas from two years to three years and the maximum eligible age from 30 to 35.

Ukraine and Russia pressed their wartime rhetoric Thursday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressing confidence that Vladimir Putin would be convicted of war crimes, and the Kremlin alleging that the U.S. was behind what it called an assassination attempt against the Russian president. The countries' leaders have personally attacked each other multiple times during the war that Russia started by invading Ukraine in February 2022. The latest flare-up came Wednesday, with Russia's claim that Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin in Moscow with drones meant to assassinate Putin. Zelenskyy denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the purported drone attack. The Kremlin promised unspecified retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act, and pro-Kremlin figures called for the assassinations of senior Ukraine leaders. Uncertainty still surrounds exactly what happened in the purported attack. Putin’s spokesman on Thursday accused the United States of involvement. To generate domestic support for the war, Moscow has often tried to blame Washington for trying to destroy Russia through its help for Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily conference call that the Kremlin was “well aware that the decision on such actions and terrorist attacks is not made in Kyiv, but in Washington.” “And then Kyiv does what it’s told to do,” Peskov said, without offering evidence for his claim. John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council at the White House, described the claim as “ludicrous.” Zelenskyy, in the Netherlands, said he was “not interested” in the Kremlin’s opinion. U.S intelligence officials are still trying to determine who was behind the drone incident and are exploring various possibilities, including a false flag operation by Russia or that a fringe group with sympathies for Ukraine could have been involved, according to a U.S. official. But the official, who spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said intelligence officials don’t yet have any definitive answers. The official added that the Biden administration “certainly would not support the strike against Mr. Putin." Zelenskyy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, claimed Thursday that Russia had “staged” the alleged drone attack. He cited the delay in Russian state media reporting it and “simultaneous video from different angles” that appeared to show the aftermath of the alleged 2:30 a.m. attack. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War also saw evidence of staging. “Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization,” the think tank said. Given recent Russian moves to bolster security, it’s “extremely unlikely that two drones could have penetrated multiple layers of air defense and detonated or been shot down just over the heart of the Kremlin in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera,” the ISW stated. In The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based, Zelenskyy urged the global community to hold Putin accountable and told the ICC judges that Russia's leader “deserves to be sentenced for (his) criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.” In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court circulated a warrant for a leader of one of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members. Zelenskyy’s visit to the Netherlands came a day after he went to Finland, which doubled the size of NATO’s border with Russia when it joined the military alliance last month, largely out of its concerns about Moscow’s long-term ambitions. The Ukrainian president also used his trip to press the prime ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands to send advanced warplanes so his country can achieve “justice on the battlefield.” Zelenskyy has successfully assembled significant Western military and political support for Ukraine's defense since the war began. Zelenskyy traveled in a Dutch-supplied plane and an armored car, with security kept tight at his appearances. Next week, he is expected to go to Berlin, the capital of European Union economic powerhouse Germany, in the latest display of the Western might marshaled against Putin. Zelenskyy's trips have paid dividends. After traveling to Washington last December and then London, Paris and Brussels in February, Ukraine received heavy artillery and tanks. But the chances of Putin standing trial in The Hague are remote. The court, which puts individuals on trial for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression, doesn't have a police force to execute its warrants. The Russian leader is unlikely to travel to any of the ICC’s 123 member nations, which are under obligation to arrest him, if they can. On the battlefield, Ukraine’s military said that three Russian drones that hit the southern city of Odesa early Thursday had “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin” written on them, seemingly implying they were sent in retaliation for the reported strike on the Kremlin. Ukraine's capital, Kyiv was the target of an air attack for the third time in four days — once Thursday morning, then a second time at night. Kyiv's air defense systems downed a drone in the central Pecherskyi district, sparking a fire in a four-story building, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. People sheltered in underground tunnels beneath Kyiv’s Maidan Square as air raid sirens wailed. Two defensive missiles streaked across the evening sky, and a loud explosion was heard. No casualties were immediately reported. In Russia, drones hit two oil facilities in southern regions of the country near Ukraine in what appeared to be a series of attacks on fuel depots behind enemy lines, Russian media reported Thursday. Four drones struck an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, which borders the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing law enforcement sources. Another facility was reportedly hit in the Rostov region. The Netherlands has been a strong supporter of the Ukrainian war effort. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government has promised 14 modern Leopard 2 tanks it is buying together with Denmark. They are expected to be delivered next year. The Netherlands also joined forces with Germany and Denmark to buy at least 100 older Leopard 1 tanks for Ukraine. In addition, the Dutch government sent two Patriot air defense missile systems, promised two naval minehunter ships and sent military forensic experts to Ukraine to assist with war crime investigations.

The World Health Organization says it has fired the scientist who led a high-profile delegation from the U.N. health agency to China two years ago to jointly look into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, citing sexual misconduct. Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO side of a joint team with scientists in China, was dismissed last year, the health agency said. WHO says it has stepped up efforts to root out sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment in recent months after a string of cases and incidents were reported in the press. “Peter Ben Embarek was dismissed following findings of sexual misconduct against him and corresponding disciplinary process,” said spokeswoman Marcia Poole said in an email. “The findings concern allegations relating to 2015 and 2017 that were first received by the WHO investigations team in 2018.” She said other allegations could not be fully investigated as the “victim(s) did not wish to engage with the investigation process.” Ben Embarek did not immediately respond to a call or text message to his mobile phone on Thursday. The news was first reported by The Financial Times. Ben Embarek led an international team picked by WHO that traveled to China in early 2021, visited the Huanan market in Wuhan — the city where the first human cases appeared — and worked closely with Chinese scientists to try to identify how the virus first began sickening people. The team issued a report in March that year that said the most likely scenario was that COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans via another animal, dismissing a lab leak as “extremely unlikely.” WHO officials, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have since said that the origins remain unclear and the lab-leak theory cannot be ruled out. Ben Embarek, a Danish expert on disease transmission from animals to humans, told a TV program in Denmark later in 2021 that he had concerns about a Chinese lab near the market later in 2021. The impact of Ben Embarek’s dismissal on efforts to solve that lingering enigma remains unclear. The joint WHO-China team has since been disbanded, and a separate panel of experts drafted by WHO has taken up the role of trying to find the origins of the coronavirus. Word of the dismissal comes as WHO is convening an expert group this week to decide if COVID-19 remains an international health emergency, after sharp declines in case counts and deaths from the pandemic in recent months — even if pockets of cases continue. WHO says it has been working to root out sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment in its ranks after press reports first arose in 2020 about systemic abuse of dozens of women during the agency’s response to an Ebola outbreak in Congo. More than 80 staffers under the direction of WHO and partners were alleged to have raped women and young girls, demanded sex in return for jobs and forced some victims to have abortions, in the biggest known sex abuse scandal in the U.N. health agency’s history. Not a single senior manager connected to the Congo abuse has been dismissed, despite documents showing WHO leaders were aware as it was happening. An internal U.N. report submitted to WHO earlier this year found that despite senior managers being informed of the sexual abuse, no misconduct was committed.

Torrential rains caused flooding in western and northern Rwanda, killing at least 129 people, a public broadcaster said Wednesday. The death toll “continues to rise,” the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency said Wednesday. “This could be the highest disaster-induced death toll to be recorded in the country in the shortest period, according to available records from recent years,” the government-backed New Times newspaper reported. Also read: Turkey floods kill 10 in earthquake-affected provinces Francois Habitegeko, governor of Rwanda’s Western province, told reporters that a search for more victims was underway following heavy rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Strong rainstorms started last week, causing flooding and mudslides that swept away several houses across the country and left some roads inaccessible. The Rwanda Meteorology Agency has warned that more rain is coming. The government has in the past asked residents living in wetlands and other dangerous areas to relocate. The western and northern provinces and Kigali, the capital, are particularly hilly, making them vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season. The Ministry of Emergency Management reported last month that from January to April 20, weather-related disasters killed 60 people, destroyed more than 1,205 houses and damaged 2,000 hectares (around 5,000 acres) of land across Rwanda. Parts of East Africa, including Uganda’s southwest, also are seeing heavy rainfall. At least three people drowned in floods last week after a river burst its banks in the remote Ugandan district of Rukungiri.