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The Kremlin vowed to further restrict Western media in Russia on Wednesday after the EU’s top court upheld European sanctions that took Moscow’s RT channel off-air around the continent.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg threw out an appeal from state-owned RT France against a broadcast ban which was introduced as part of EU sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Finding that the channel “actively supported” Moscow’s destabilisation of Ukraine and broadcast pro-war propaganda, the court concluded that the EU’s decision was legal and proportionate.

“In the light of those considerations, the general court dismisses the action in its entirety,” the judges ruled, referring to RT France’s bid to overturn the ban and restrictions on its website.

The channel immediately announced an appeal, while the Kremlin said it would take retaliatory measures.

“Of course, we will take similar measures of pressure on Western media that operate in our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. 

“We will also not let them work in our country,” he said, describing the Kremlin’s reaction to the ban as “extremely negative.”

“Essentially, RT has been blocked and cannot operate in Europe,” Peskov said. “Europeans are trampling on their own ideals.”

Most Western media outlets are off-air in Russia and have seen their websites banned, while many foreign journalists have left because of draconian new laws that muzzle independent reporters.

– ‘Supported destabilisation’ –

Launched in 2005 as Russia Today, RT has grown its reach through broadcasts and websites in several languages including English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.

The EU’s decision to ban RT as well as fellow Kremlin-funded news service Sputnik raised questions about freedom of expression in the 27-member bloc and formed part of RT France’s legal appeal.

France’s national journalists’ union, the SNJ, issued a statement at the end of February calling the targeting of Russian media “an act of censorship.”

But the ECJ judges noted that the sanction was temporary — until July 2022 — and found that it was “appropriate and necessary to the aims pursued” given the “extraordinary context”.

“RT France actively supported… the policy of destabilisation and aggression conducted by the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, which ultimately resulted in a large-scale military offensive,” the court’s statement said.

Secondly “RT France broadcast, in particular, information justifying the military aggression against Ukraine, capable of constituting a significant and direct threat to the Union’s public order and security,” it continued. 

Evidence presented to the court by RT France was “not capable of demonstrating an overall balanced treatment by the latter of information concerning the ongoing war,” the judges concluded.

The channel is seen by critics as parroting Russian state propaganda and has been blocked in most Western countries since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine.

– ‘Unfriendly’ –

Most Western broadcasters in Russia were dropped by their local Russian providers after the invasion and websites including the BBC, France’s RFI or Germany’s Deutsche Welle are blocked.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that gave the government powers to shut media organisations from countries that were considered “unfriendly.”

Western social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also banned.

The censors can be circumvented by using a VPN which hides the location of a computer as it accesses the internet. 

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Russian energy giant Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to about 20 percent of its capacity, German authorities said.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Ukraine moves closer to grain exports –

The Ukrainian navy says that work has resumed at three Black Sea ports designated under a deal with Russia to resume cereals’ exports that have been blocked by Russia’s invasion. 

At talks in Turkey last week, Kyiv and Moscow agreed a mechanism to allow blocked Ukrainian grain to be exported across the Black Sea from the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Pivdennyi.

Kyiv has said it hopes to begin sending out the first of millions of tonnes of grain “this week” despite a missile strike by Russia last week on the port in Odessa.

Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of agricultural products, but Moscow’s invasion has severely disrupted Ukrainian wheat exports as the fighting damaged harvests and left ports blocked and mined.

As part of the deal, a coordination centre involving Ukrainian and Russian representatives was opened Wednesday in Istanbul to monitor the safe passage of ships along the agreed routes.

– Ukraine hits Russian-held bridge –

Ukrainian forces hit a key Russian-held bridge overnight during a counter-offensive to retake the occupied southern city of Kherson, representatives from both sides say.

The Russian army has used the Antonivskiy bridge over the Dnipro River as a key resupply route into Kherson, which fell to Russian forces in the early days of the invasion.

Kyiv has vowed a major counter-offensive to retake the region next to the Crimea peninsula, with the help of advanced missile systems supplied by the West.

– New Ukraine prosecutor named –

Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Kostin is appointed the country’s new prosecutor general, a week after President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Kostin’s predecessor and the head of the country’s security agency, citing widespread collusion with Russia among their staff.

The prosecutor general’s office said that 299 lawmakers of Ukraine’s parliament — the Rada — backed Kostin’s nomination.

Zelensky says he hopes Kostin will help achieve “fair punishment for every Russian war criminal.”

– EU court confirms ban on Russian news channel –

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg upholds a broadcast ban imposed on Russian news channel RT France.

Consistently accused of churning out Russian state propaganda, RT has been blocked in most Western countries since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February.

The Kremlin has hit back by curtailing the work of some Western media outlets in Russia.

Russian lawmakers have also passed draconian laws restricting free speech, under which criticism of the war and occupation can lead to lengthy prison sentences.

– Gazprom carries out threatened cuts –

Russian energy giant Gazprom has carried out its promise to drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline to about 20 percent of its capacity from 40 percent, German authorities say.

The Russian state-run company announced Monday that it would slash supply to 33 million cubic metres a day — half the amount it has been delivering since service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.

EU states have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blames EU sanctions for the limited supply.

Pope Francis will travel to Quebec City Wednesday, where he will address Canada’s political leaders after dedicating the first part of his journey to apologizing for the abuse of Indigenous children at Catholic-run schools.

After two days in the western province of Alberta, during which he begged for forgiveness from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people of Canada for abuse suffered over the span of a century, the 85-year-old pontiff will fly to Quebec City from Edmonton on Wednesday morning.

He will go first to the Citadel of Quebec, where he will meet with Mary Simon, the first Indigenous person to become Canada’s governor general, and then with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He will then deliver a speech to officials, Indigenous representatives and the diplomatic corps. 

Francis has been welcomed in Canada and his apology for the Church’s role in the residential school system has been hailed as historic, though many Indigenous people who have spoken to AFP have warned there is more work to do. 

From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada’s government sent about 150,000 children into 139 residential schools run by the Church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.

Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect.

For some, the healing had already begun.

Cindy Dearhead, a First Nations woman who was a student in one of the infamous schools, said she felt the pope’s apology was “important.”

“It was a long time coming, but finally a pope himself is acknowledging ‘yes, I’m sorry,'” she told AFP at Lac Ste. Anne in Alberta, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in North America, as the pope visited the lake on Tuesday.

But for many others, that healing may well depend on what comes next. 

“I think the apology has always been one thing, part of a process of reconciliation. To me, the actions that need to come behind it are very important,” said Chief Peter Powder of the Mikisew Cree First Nations.

On Thursday, Francis will visit the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre, one of the main pilgrimage sites in North America, and preside over a mass. Later that day he will go to Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec City to give a homily.

On Friday, he will travel to the Arctic archipelago of Nunavut, where he will visit the town of Iqaluit for the last stop of his six-day visit.

Francis has been suffering from knee pain and often uses a wheelchair. On Tuesday, he appeared tired and frail as he visited the lake, where he called for healing and sprinkled water he had blessed on to the assembled faithful.

AIDS researchers announced on Wednesday that a fourth person has been “cured” of HIV, but the dangerous procedure for patients also battling cancer may be little comfort for the tens of millions living with the virus worldwide.

The 66-year-old man, named the “City of Hope” patient after the Californian centre where he was treated, was declared in remission in the lead up to the International AIDS Conference, which begins in Montreal, Canada on Friday.

He is the second person to be announced cured this year, after researchers said in February that a US woman dubbed the New York patient had also gone into remission.

The City of Hope patient, like the Berlin and London patients before him, achieved lasting remission from the virus after a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer.

Another man, the Duesseldorf patient, has also previously been said to have reached remission, potentially bringing the number cured to five.

Jana Dickter, an infectious disease specialist at the City of Hope, told AFP that because the latest patient was the oldest yet to achieve remission, his success could be promising for older HIV sufferers who also have cancer.

Dickter is the lead author of research on the patient which was announced at a pre-conference in Montreal but has not been peer reviewed.

– ‘I am beyond grateful’ –

“When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence,” said the patient, who does not want to be identified.

“I never thought I would live to see the day that I no longer have HIV,” he said in a City of Hope statement. “I am beyond grateful.”

Dickter said the patient had told her of the stigma he experienced during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

“He saw many of his friends and loved ones become very ill and ultimately succumb to the disease,” she said.

He had “full-blown AIDS” for a time, she said, but was part of early trials of antiretroviral therapy, which now allows many of the 38 million with HIV globally to live with the virus. 

He had HIV for 31 years, longer than any previous patient who went into remission. 

After being diagnosed with leukaemia, in 2019 he received a bone marrow transplant with stem cells from an unrelated donor with a rare mutation in which part of the CCR5 gene is missing, making people resistant to HIV.

He waited until getting vaccinated for Covid-19 in March 2021 to stop taking antiretrovirals, and has been in remission from both HIV and cancer since.

Reduced-intensity chemotherapy worked for the patient, potentially allowing older HIV patients with cancer to get the treatment, Dickter said.

But it is a complex procedure with serious side effects and “isn’t a suitable option for most people with HIV”, she added.

Steven Deeks, an HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the research, said the “first thing you do in a bone marrow transplant is you destroy your own immune system temporarily”.

“You would never do this if you didn’t have cancer,” he told AFP.

– ‘Holy Grail’ –

Also announced at the AIDS conference was research about a 59-year-old Spanish woman with HIV who has maintained an undetectable viral load for 15 years despite stopping antiretroviral therapy.

Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society which convenes the conference, said that it was not quite the same as the City of Hope patient, because the virus remained at a very low level.

“A cure remains the Holy Grail of HIV research,” Lewin said.

“We have seen a handful of individual cure cases before and the two presented today provide continued hope for people living with HIV and inspiration for the scientific community.”

She also pointed to a “truly exciting development” towards identifying HIV in an individual cell, which is “a bit like finding a needle in a haystack”.

Deeks, an author of the new research also presented at the conference, said it was an “unprecedented deep dive into the biology of the infected cell”.

The researchers identified that a cell with HIV has several particular characteristics.

It can proliferate better than most, is hard to kill, and is both resilient and hard to detect, Deeks said.

“This is why HIV is a lifelong infection.”

But he said that cases such as the City of Hope patient offered a potential roadmap towards a more broadly available cure, possibly using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

“I think that if you can get rid of HIV, and get rid of CCR5, the door by which HIV gets in, then you can cure someone,” Deeks said.

“It’s theoretically possible — we’re not there yet — to give someone a shot in the arm that will deliver an enzyme that will go into the cells and knock out CCR5, and knock out the virus.

“But that’s science fiction for now.”