BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Thousands of Slovaks rallied in the capital on Thursday to protest – again – a controversial overhaul of the country’s public radio and television services, a move that critics say would result in the government taking full control of the media.

The coalition government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico approved the measure on April 24, and the Parliament, where Fico’s coalition government has a majority, is expected to approve it in June.

The plan has been widely criticized by President Zuzana Čaputová, local journalists, the opposition, international media organizations and the European Commission.

The proposed changes would mean the public broadcaster known as RTVS would cease to exist and be replaced by a new organization.

“The Slovak democracy needs a strong and independent RTVS and its employees need your support,” Michal Šimečka, the head of Progressive Slovakia, the major opposition party that organized the protest, told a crowd of several thousands at Bratislava Freedom Square.

“If Fico takes control of RTVS, it would mean a decisive step on the way towards Orbán and Putin,“ Šimečka said.

The takeover plan was drafted by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, who represents the Slovak National Party, an ultra-nationalist member of the coalition government. She has worked for an internet television outlet known for spreading disinformation.

Šimkovičová said the current broadcaster gives space only to mainstream views and censors the rest. The broadcaster has denied the claim.

“They don’t understand that the essence of public broadcasting is to protect democracy, the rule of law and freedom,” said Zora Jaurová, a lawmaker for the Progressive Slovakia party.

Under her plan, the new broadcaster — Slovak television and radio, or STVR — will have a director selected by a council whose nine members will be nominated by the Culture Ministry and Parliament. The current director has a parliamentary mandate until 2027.

Fico’s leftist Smer (Direction) party won the Sept. 30 parliamentary elections on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform.

Critics worry Slovakia under Fico will abandon the country’s pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico’s policies.

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO countries say they are deeply concerned by a campaign of hybrid activities on the military alliance’s soil they attribute to Russia, and which they say constitute a threat to their security.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday in a message posted on the social media platform X that actions including disinformation, sabotage, acts of violence and cyber and electronic interference “will not deter us from supporting Ukraine.”

There was no immediate reaction from Russian authorities on Stoltenberg’s statement.

Earlier this year, a U.K.-based think tank said Russia was rebuilding its capacity to destabilize European countries, posing a strategic threat to NATO as its members focus on the war in Ukraine.

“NATO Allies are deeply concerned about recent malign activities on Allied territory, including those resulting in the investigation and charging of multiple individuals in connection with hostile state activity affecting Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom,” the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO, said.

NATO allies condemned Russia’s behavior and called on the country “to uphold its international obligations.”

“These incidents are part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies,” the statement read.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will provide nearly $55 million to address a dire humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso, U.S. aid chief Samantha Power will announce on Thursday, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

The aid will address emergency food and nutrition needs as well as other support, Power said. The funds will bring the U.S. Agency for International Development’s total emergency aid to Burkina Faso to nearly $158 million since the beginning of fiscal-year 2023.

“Growing conflict and a dire humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso is unfolding in communities cut off from the world’s view,” Power said in the statement.

“Widespread violence and attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure have driven mass displacement and disrupted essential services, leaving approximately 6.3 million Burkinabe – nearly a third of the country’s population – in need of urgent aid this year.”

Burkina Faso is one of several nations in Africa’s Sahel region struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that have killed thousands and displaced millions.

Frustrations over authorities’ failure to protect civilians have contributed to two coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger since 2020. The current military rulers in Burkina Faso seized power at the end of 2022.

In February, Burkina Faso’s military summarily executed about 223 villagers, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with jihadist militants, Human Rights Watch said last week.

Power in her statement called on donors to increase their support for the humanitarian response she said was “overlooked and underfunded,” but warned that even with additional support, reaching vulnerable civilians remains challenging.

She said civilians were trapped by armed groups, cut off from aid by fighting and intentional impediments and suffering from severe hunger. At least 1 million people are reachable only by humanitarian helicopter airlifts or military convoys, Power said.

She warned that nearly 3 million people are projected to face levels of food insecurity requiring immediate humanitarian assistance in coming months.

“We call on all parties, including the Transition Authorities, Burkinabe military, and armed groups, to protect civilians and enable the free flow of humanitarian aid to prevent this devastating situation from getting worse,” she said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Additional reporting by Sofia Christensen in Dakar; Editing by Don Durfee and Matthew Lewis)

LONDON (Reuters) – British police arrested 45 people on Thursday after a violent protest in London against the transfer of asylum seekers staying in a hotel to a barge off southern England.

Dozens of protesters outside the hotel in Peckham, southeast London, attempted to stop a bus carrying the asylum seekers from leaving, reportedly deflating its tyres and obstructing the vehicle by surrounding it, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

Tackling illegal migration is one of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities, and in order to bring down the high costs of accommodating migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed, the government has been trying to use barges and former military sites.

Critics, however, have called the Bibby Stockholm barge — which is docked at Portland Port in Dorset and can house up to 500 men — inhumane and compared it to a prison ship.

A number of police officers had been assaulted during the protest in Peckham but none were seriously hurt, police said.

“We will always respect the right to peaceful protest, but when officers are assaulted and obstructed from their duty then we can and will take decisive action,” Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said.

Arrests were made for offences including obstruction of the highway, obstructing police and assault on police.

“Housing migrants in hotels costs the British taxpayer millions of pounds every day,” Home Secretary James Cleverly said on social media platform X, alongside a video of the protest.

“We will not allow this small group of students, posing for social media, to deter us from doing what is right for the British public.”

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Sandra Maler)

By Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. on Thursday called on both Israel and Hamas to ensure that aid bound for civilians in Gaza is not disrupted, after a shipment from Jordan was attacked by Israeli settlers and subsequently diverted by Palestinian militants.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken viewed the aid on Tuesday just before it departed from the headquarters of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman bound for the newly opened crossing into Gaza at Erez.

The visit was part of a U.S. push to increase the aid getting to civilians in Gaza amid warnings of imminent famine after nearly seven months of war stemming from Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.

Before the shipment reached the crossing, however, Jordan said it was attacked by Israeli settlers.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Blinken raised the incident with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, and credited Israel for arresting three people involved in the attack.

“That’s the step that they ought to take whenever there are attacks on aid convoys,” Miller said. “Furthermore, they ought to prevent these attacks from happening in the first place.”

The same aid convoy was later transferred to a humanitarian aid group to be distributed inside Gaza but was “intercepted and diverted” by Hamas, Miller said, adding that he believed the United Nations either had or was in the process of recovering the aid.

“It was an unacceptable act by Hamas to divert this aid to begin with, to seize this aid,” Miller said.

“If there’s one thing that Hamas could do to jeopardize the shipment of aid, it would be diverting it for their own use, rather than allowing it to go to the innocent civilians that need it. So they certainly should refrain from doing that in the future,” Miller added.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis; additonal reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Chris Reese and Paul Simao)

Syrian Aid Group Accuses Russia of War Crimes in UN Complaint

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) – An Israeli private investigator wanted by the United States was arrested in London over allegations that he carried out a cyberespionage campaign on behalf of an unidentified American PR firm, a London court heard on Thursday.

An initial attempt to extradite Amit Forlit to the United Sates was thrown out by a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday on a legal technicality.

Amy Labram, a lawyer representing the United States, had told the court that Forlit “is accused of engaging in a hack for hire scheme”.

Labram said that the U.S. allegations include that an unnamed Washington-based PR and lobbying firm paid one of Forlit’s companies 16 million pounds ($20 million) “to gather intelligence relating to the Argentinian debt crisis”.

Forlit was arrested under an Interpol red notice at London’s Heathrow Airport as he was trying to board a flight to Israel, according to the U.S authorities.

Forlit is wanted in the U.S. on three charges: one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

A judge ruled that the attempt to extradite Forlit by the United States could not continue as he was not produced at court within the timeframe required under British extradition law.

“He was not produced at court as soon as practicable and the consequences of that … he must – I have no discretion – he must be discharged,” Judge Michael Snow ruled.

Forlit and his lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately return a message.

Forlit has separately been accused of computer hacking in New York by aviation executive Farhad Azima. Azima, whose emails were stolen and used against him in a 2020 trial in London, is suing Forlit and others in federal court in Manhattan.

Forlit has previously acknowledged retrieving Azima’s emails but has denied hacking, telling Reuters he innocently stumbled across the messages “on the web”.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin in London, additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation’s proclaimed bid to join the European Union.

Prime Minister Miloš Vučević’s government got backing in a 152-61 vote in the 250-member parliament. The remaining 37 lawmakers were absent.

The government includes former intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin, who has made several visits to Russia in recent months, as one of several vice-premiers, along with Nenad Popović, another Russia supporter who has faced U.S. sanctions.

The foreign minister in the previous government, Ivica Dačić, also a pro-Russia politician, will be in charge of the Interior Ministry in the new Cabinet.

The vote followed a heated two-day debate. President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling nationalist conservative Serbian Progressive Party holds a comfortable majority after an election in December that fueled political tensions because of reports of widespread irregularities.

The increasingly authoritarian Vučić has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though Serbia has condemned the aggression.

Vučević, the new prime minister, reiterated that Belgrade doesn’t intend to impose sanctions on Russia and “cannot and will not give up” the friendship with Russia. Integration into the EU remains a ”strategic goal,” Vucevic said.

“Best possible” relations with the U.S. also are in Serbia’s interest, Vučević added. “I firmly believe that our relations can once again be on a high level.”

Security analyst and a Belgrade university professor Filip Ejdus described the new government’s composition as a “spin” designed to send a message both to the West and Russia, and to voters at home.

“It sends a message to the EU that they should not push Belgrade too much over democracy, rule of law, or Kosovo if they want to keep Serbia in its orbit,” Ejdus said. “At the same time, it signals to Moscow a readiness to strengthen the strategic partnership with Russia.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Vulin in July, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Vulin used his public authority to help a U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer move illegal arms shipments across Serbia’s borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug trafficking ring, according to U.S. authorities.

Vulin, who in the past had served as both the army and police chief, has recently received two medals of honor from Russia, one from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the other was awarded to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Popović, a businessman and a former government minister, has “used his Russia-based businesses to enrich himself and gain close connections with Kremlin senior leaders,” the U.S. Treasury said last November in a statement.

The U.S. sanctions against individuals and companies in the Balkans are designed to counter attempts to undermine peace and stability in the volatile region and Russia’s “malign” influence.

The West has stepped up efforts to lure the troubled region into its fold, fearing that Russia could stir unrest to avert attention from the war in Ukraine. The Balkans went through multiple wars in the 1990s, and tensions still persist.

Serbia’s falling democracy record has pushed the country away from EU integration, explained Ejdus. Reports of election fraud at the Dec. 17 vote triggered street protests and clashes.

“Vučić is still pretending to be on the EU path because it’s beneficial for Serbia’s economy, and the EU tolerates his authoritarian tendencies out of fear of instability that could be caused in its backyard if Belgrade was lost to Russia and China,” Ejdus said.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The Serbian parliament approved a coalition government on Thursday, which newly elected Prime Minister Milos Vucevic described as a “government of continuity” that will lead the Balkan country through geopolitical challenges and tensions with Kosovo.

Most of ministers in the 31-member government come from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) that won the most votes in a national election last December and five smaller parties that form a ruling coalition, with one third of them being newcomers.

The government, which was approved with 152 deputies in the 250-seat parliament, also include two pro-Russian politicians the U.S. imposed sanctions on for corrupt activities and a leader of a far-right party that did not get enough votes to enter the parliament.

“My government, for the most part, will be one of continuity,” said Vucevic, a close ally of President Aleksandar Vucic who took over leadership of the party after Vucic stepped down last year.

A lawyer by profession, Vucevic was deputy prime minister and defence minister in the government of his predecessor Ana Brnabic.

He said Serbia´s biggest challenge will be the fight for Kosovo, its former southern province which declared independence in 2008 but which Serbia considers to be part of its territory.

Opposition politicians, who voted against the government, criticised its size, saying it was a result of a “political trade”. They also accused Vucevic of putting the fight against corruption and crime at the bottom of the government priorities.

In a three-hour speech presenting his programme to lawmakers, Vucevic said the government would continue to lead the foreign policy based on political independence and military neutrality, meaning in reality Serbia must juggle its ties with Russia and China with its aspiration to join the European Union.

While saying that a full membership of the EU is Serbia’s strategic goal, Vucevic also underlined the importance of a partnership with China, whose president Xi Jinping will visit Serbia on May 7 to 8.

He also said Serbia, which has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, would not bow to pressures to join sanctions against Moscow.

Vucevic said his government would propose a compulsory four-month military service to increase the security of the country.

He also said that Serbia, which has more than doubled its gross domestic product over the past decade to 69.5 billion euros ($74.48 billion), aims to increase its GDP to 94.2 billion euros by 2027.

($1 = 0.9332 euros)

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Josie Kao)