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British Troops Patrol Kosovo-Serbia Border as Tensions Remain High

British troops are patrolling the Kosovo-Serbia border as part of a NATO peacekeeping presence being bolstered amid concern that the former wartime foes could return to open conflict following a series of violent incidents in recent months.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization sent hundreds of additional forces to Kosovo from Britain and Romania after a battle between the authorities and armed Serbs holed up in a monastery turned a quiet village in northern Kosovo into a war zone on Sept. 24.

One police officer and three gunmen were killed in the village of Banjska in what was seen as the worst violence since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo accused Serbia of providing financial and practical support for the gunmen, which Belgrade denies.

NATO has sent 1,000 extra troops to the region, bringing its presence there to 4,500 peacekeepers from 27 countries. British soldiers are now being deployed in 18-hour shifts in freezing conditions to make sure no weapons or armed groups enter Kosovo.

“Currently we are here on a routine patrol, which consists of understanding patterns of life, gaining intelligence on any illegal or suspicious activity that then gets fed back to KFOR (NATO mission) and higher,” Lieutenant Joss Gaddie from the British Army told Reuters at the border with Serbia.

During a visit on Monday to the western Balkans, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the organization is reviewing whether a more permanent increase of forces was needed “to ensure that this doesn’t spiral out of control and creates a new violent conflict in Kosovo or in the wider region.”

Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla uprising and a 1999 NATO intervention.

Around 5% of the population in Kosovo are ethnic Serbs, of which half live in the north and refuse to recognize Kosovo independence and see Belgrade as their capital. They have often clashed with Kosovo police and international peacekeepers.

For more than two decades many ethnic Serbs have refused to register vehicles with Kosovo car plates, using their own system instead which is seen as illegal by Pristina.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s government has set a December 1 deadline for around 10,000 motorists to register their cars with Kosovo numbers or face heavy penalties. A similar request sparked violence last year.

Kyiv Suffers Largest Drone Attack Since Russian Invasion

Kyiv was rocked by a massive drone attack early Saturday, using Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

Five people, including a child, were wounded in the attack, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s Telegram post.

Ukraine’s air force said the attack was the largest drone attack since the beginning of Russia’s invasion.

The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily report on the invasion that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet’s ability to reload vessels with cruise missiles at its Novorossiysk base will likely be “a significant factor” in the effectiveness of the fleet.

The fleet has traditionally reloaded its cruise missiles at Sevastopol, but the Crimean facility is facing increasing risk of being hit by Ukrainian long-range strikes.

The British intelligence update said Novorossiysk would be a better alternative site, but that move would require relocating and reloading the missiles and would also require new delivery, storage, handling and loading processes.

Last month, Ukraine said Russia was having logistical problems with firing cruise missiles from Novorossiysk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country was looking for “three victories” from its Western allies, including the passage of two military aid packages — by the United States and the European Union — and the formal start of talks to join the European bloc.

“We need three victories. The first one is the victory with U.S. Congress. It’s a challenge, it’s not easy, but Ukraine is doing everything,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv.

President Joe Biden has proposed billions of dollars in new assistance for Ukraine, but the funding was not included in a stopgap measure Congress passed this month.

Some Republican lawmakers oppose approving more aid for Ukraine, but a majority of Republicans and Democrats in Congress still support the additional aid.

In a statement Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed to lawmakers to support Biden’s latest funding request for Ukraine military aid.

“Helping Ukraine defend itself … helps prevent larger conflict in the region and deters future aggression, which makes us all safer,” Blinken said.

Zelenskyy said the second “victory” needed abroad was that “we need the help from the EU on the 50 billion-euro package,” and “the third is to open a dialog about our future membership.”

The European Union recently announced a 50 billion-euro package for Ukraine, but it has not yet been approved and is facing opposition by Hungary. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also said he is opposed to launching EU membership talks with Kyiv.

Zelenskyy made the comments at a joint news conference in Kyiv with Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, who expressed optimism that the EU aid package for Ukraine would eventually pass.

Moldova sanctions

In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that it viewed Moldova’s decision to join EU sanctions against it as a hostile step.

“We regard this as yet another hostile step by the Moldovan leadership, which is fully integrated into the anti-Russian campaign of the ‘collective West,'” the ministry said in a statement.

“Its aim is the complete destruction of Russian-Moldovan relations,” it said.

Moldova’s parliament agreed to the sanctions against Russia on Friday, part of the country’s bid to eventually join the European Union.

Russian crackdown

Russia’s Justice Ministry said Friday that former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who later became a critic of the Kremlin, had been added to a registry of foreign agents.

Kasyanov served as prime minister for the first four years of Putin’s administration but was fired in 2004.

He later became a prominent opposition figure, and after leaving the country in 2022, he criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The foreign agent law has been used against opposition figures and independent news media. It requires those designated as foreign agents who publish information to prominently label that the material comes from a foreign agent.

Battlefield

The Russian Defense Ministry said its missile defenses downed 13 Ukrainian drones over Crimea and three more over the Volgograd region early Friday.

Ukrainian officials did not comment on the Russian report.

Also Friday, officials in Ukraine said Russian forces were escalating their attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.

Russia has been trying to capture the city since mid-October, in a brutal battle that has drawn parallels to the fight for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russia eventually captured after months of intense fighting.

The city sits on the front line five kilometers from Donetsk, the Russian-controlled capital of the region, one of four regions Moscow said it annexed from Ukraine.

The British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily intelligence update on the war that Russia continued to face “mass casualties from Ukrainian long-range precision strikes well behind the front line.”

The ministry said that on November 10, more than 70 Russian troops were probably killed in a strike on a truck convoy 23 kilometers behind the front line in Hladkivka, a village in Kherson oblast. Then, the ministry said, a November 19 strike on an award ceremony or concert in Kumachove, 60 kilometers behind the lines, probably caused “tens” of casualties.

Ukraine, though, has suffered similar casualties, the update said, adding that a Russian missile killed 19 members of a Ukrainian brigade at a medal ceremony November 3.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Pope Cancels Saturday Activities Because of Mild Flu

Pope Francis canceled his morning audiences on Saturday because of mild flu, the Vatican said in a statement.

The 86-year-old pontiff holds regular meetings with Vatican officials on Saturdays as well as private audiences.

Earlier this month, the pope skipped reading a prepared speech for a meeting with European rabbis as he was suffering from a cold, but he appeared to be in good health during a meeting with children just hours later.

In June, he had surgery on an abdominal hernia. He spent nine days in hospital and appears to have recovered fully from that operation.

The pope’s next public appearance is scheduled for Sunday, when he is expected to address crowds in his weekly Angelus message in St. Peter’s Square.

Francis is also scheduled to attend the COP28 climate conference in Dubai from Dec. 1-3, where he is expected to have nearly an entire day of bilateral meetings with world leaders attending the event. The conference runs from Nov. 30-Dec. 12. 

Russian Lawmaker Disputes Report He Adopted Child Taken from Ukraine

A Russian lawmaker and staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin has denied media allegations that he adopted a missing 2-year-old girl who was removed from a Ukrainian children’s home and changed her name in Russia.

Sergey Mironov, 70, the leader of political party A Just Russia, asserted on social media that the Ukrainian security services and their Western partners concocted a “fake” report to discredit true Russian patriots like himself.

His statement, posted on X, followed the BBC and independent Russian news outlet Important Stories publishing an investigation Thursday that said Mironov adopted a child named Margarita Prokopenko who was allegedly taken to Moscow at the age of 10 months by the woman to whom he is now married.

Mironov accused the two news organizations of having only “one goal — to discredit those who take an uncompromising patriotic position.”

“You are trying in vain,” he wrote, adding that Russia would win its war in Ukraine.

The office of the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner told The Associated Press it was looking into the news report.

In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights in Putin’s office, accusing them of committing war crimes through their involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.

Bill Van Esveld, associate director of the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said Friday that the agency could not independently confirm the BBC and Important Stories’ findings. But he thinks the deportation of the girl to Russia, her adoption and her name change would be “a black and white war crime.”

The investigation by the BBC and Important Stories said Margarita was collected in August 2022 from a home for children needing specialized medical care or missing parents in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which was occupied by Russian soldiers at the time.

The news organizations identified a woman who had visited the baby in Kherson before a group of Russian men removed the child from the home as Inna Varlamova, 55, who later married Mironov. The investigation also cited a birth record created several months later that listed Mironov and Varlamova as the parents of child named Marina who was born Oct. 31, 2021 — Margarita’s birthday.

Ukrainian authorities have estimated that around 20,000 children were sent out of the country without their parents’ knowledge or under false pretenses since Russia invaded in February 2022. A study by Yale University found more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been taken to Belarus from four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces.

The AP reported in Oct. 2022 that Russian officials deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, told them they weren’t wanted by their parents and gave them Russian families and citizenship.

Vira Yastrebova, director of Eastern Human Rights Group, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, said Russian authorities were increasingly placing children into Russian foster families for eventual adoption instead of temporary guardianship.

Because Russian law makes it very difficult to find information about adoptions, it is therefore easy “to hide any information” about the children, Yastrebova said.

The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, maintained in September that Russia does not “kidnap” Ukrainian children but is “saving” them.

Russia has said it will return children to their families once a parent or guardian requests it. But, because many Ukrainian families do not know where their children were taken, they are unable to make the requests.

Even when children are located, reuniting them with their families during the ongoing war often is a complicated process, involving a lot of paperwork and international border crossings. Pope Francis tasked his Ukraine peace envoy earlier this year with trying to get young Ukrainians returned to their country.

The transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia will affect them profoundly and have “a lifelong impact,” Van Esveld told the AP in a phone interview Friday.

“They have no opportunity to go back to their community or country and their development, right to education and right to form their own identity without coercion — is impacted,” he said.

Israel to Summon Spanish, Belgian Ambassadors Following Criticism During Rafah Visit 

The Israeli government said Friday that it would summon the Belgian and Spanish ambassadors following remarks by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo on the war between Israel and Hamas. 

The announcement came after the two leaders criticized Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians under Israeli military operations in Gaza. Sanchez also called for European Union recognition of a Palestinian state, saying Spain might do so on its own. 

Speaking at a joint news conference Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, Sanchez said the time had come for the international community and the European Union to once and for all recognize a Palestinian state. He said it would be better if the EU did it together, “but if this is not the case … Spain will take their own decisions.” 

Sanchez was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt with de Croo. Spain currently holds the EU’s rotational presidency and Belgium takes over in January. 

Sanchez reiterated comments made Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the killing of civilians. 

“I also reiterate Israel’s right to defend itself, but it must do so within the parameters and limits imposed by international humanitarian law, and this is not the case,” Sanchez said. “The indiscriminate killing of civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable.” 

‘First things first’

De Croo did not comment on recognition of a Palestinian state, but said, “First things first, let’s stop the violence. Let’s liberate the hostages. Let’s get the aid inside … the first priority is [to] help people who are suffering.” 

De Croo stressed the need and hope for a permanent cease-fire, adding that this “needs to be built together. And it can only be built together if both parties understand that the solution to this conflict is never going to be violence. A solution to this conflict is that people sit around the table.” 

“A military operation needs to respect international humanitarian law. The killing of civilians needs to stop now. Way too many people have died. The destruction of Gaza is unacceptable,” he said. 

“We cannot accept that a society is being destroyed the way it is being destroyed,” he added. 

Israel later lashed out at the two prime ministers “for not placing full responsibility for the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas, who massacred our citizens and used the Palestinians as human shields.” 

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen instructed the countries’ ambassadors to be summoned for a sharp reprimand. “We condemn the false claims of the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium who give support to terrorism,” Cohen said. 

“Israel is acting according to international law and fighting a murderous terrorist organization worse than [the Islamic State group] that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.” 

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares responded to the summoning of Spain’s ambassador late Friday. 

“The Israeli government’s accusations against the president of the government and the Belgian prime minister are totally false and unacceptable,” he said in a statement. “We categorically reject them.” 

Albares said the Spanish prime minister has publicly and repeatedly defended Israel’s right to self-defense and that his tour in the region this week was seeking “a path to peace.”

French Foreign Minister: China’s Cooperation Vital to Ending Russia-Ukraine War

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Friday that China’s cooperation is vital on an issue that has divided it and much of Europe: ending the war in Ukraine.

She encouraged China to continue working on its Ukrainian peace proposal while also ensuring that Chinese entities do not aid Russia in what she called “the ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine” — phrasing the Chinese side would disagree with.

“France underlines once again how its cooperation with China is essential to promote a just and lasting peace,” she said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “We are counting on the vigilance of the Chinese authorities so that no structure in China, particularly private, contributes directly or indirectly to Russia’s illegal war effort in Ukraine.”

Her meetings in Beijing underscored an effort by both sides to continue a dialogue despite their growing differences, whether on the Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war or Europe’s huge trade deficit with China. The talks in some ways foreshadowed an EU-China leaders meeting next month.

In a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang earlier in the day, Colonna said their countries should work together to address issues such as climate change and biodiversity. A major U.N. climate conference starts next week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“As big powers, we both share the responsibility to tackle global challenges … and we can make concerted efforts in alleviating tensions around the world,” she said.

China has been critical of U.S. efforts to seek the help of its allies, including in Europe, in its competition with China over trade, technology and security. It has accused the U.S. of building groupings to contain China’s development and rise.

Wang warned against the politicizing of issues and protectionism. The European Union has been taking a tougher line on China, launching a trade investigation into subsidies given to Chinese electric vehicle makers.

“We believe that as long as China and Europe work together, there will be no confrontation between camps, no division of the world, and no new Cold War,” Wang said.

The Chinese government has refrained from criticizing Russia’s invasion or the Hamas attack that sparked its latest war with Israel, taking a different stance than many in Europe and the United States. It has accused the West of prolonging the European conflict by supplying arms to Ukraine and called for an end to the fighting in both wars.

Colonna said that dialogue with China on the Gaza situation, and even cooperation, would be useful. She called for the release of all the hostages, including eight French-Israeli citizens, three of whom are children.

“Every state has the right to defend itself, but we must cooperate so that terrorism is contained and so that what happened cannot happen again,” she said.

Her trip came shortly after a delegation of foreign ministers from Muslim-majority countries and territories visited China and France as part of a series of meetings with permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to push for a cease-fire in Gaza.

A four-day truce in the war started Friday.

Despite their differences, China has been trying to repair its relations with major trading partners including Europe, the U.S. and Australia. The lifting of China’s pandemic restrictions last December has helped, making it much easier to hold in-person meetings.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited China in April followed by Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in July.

“Relations between China and France are getting better and better in all aspects,” Premier Li, the country’s No. 2 leader, said. “In particular, our exchanges at all levels are now becoming more frequent because many of the mechanisms have been restored.”

Wang tried to reassure European companies that China remains a good and safe place to do business. New regulations have added uncertainty to the business environment and made foreign investors wary at a time when China is seeking investment to help revive a sluggish economy.

“We will listen to the voices of the European business community, earnestly solving the problems of investors in China,” he said.

Putin to Boost AI in Russia to Fight ‘Unacceptable and Dangerous’ Western Monopoly

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday announced a plan to endorse a national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence, emphasizing that it’s essential to prevent a Western monopoly.

Speaking at an AI conference in Moscow, Putin noted that “it’s imperative to use Russian solutions in the field of creating reliable and transparent artificial intelligence systems that are also safe for humans.”

“Monopolistic dominance of such foreign technology in Russia is unacceptable, dangerous and inadmissible,” Putin said.

He noted that “many modern systems, trained on Western data are intended for the Western market” and “reflect that part of Western ethics, norms of behavior, public policy to which we object.”

During his more than two decades in power, Putin has overseen a multi-pronged crackdown on the opposition and civil society groups, and promoted “traditional values” to counter purported Western influence — policies that have become even more oppressive after he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin warned that algorithms developed by Western platforms could lead to a digital “cancellation” of Russia and its culture.

“An artificial intelligence created in line with Western standards and patterns could be xenophobic,” Putin said.

“Western search engines and generative models often work in a very selective, biased manner, do not take into account, and sometimes simply ignore and cancel Russian culture,” he said. “Simply put, the machine is given some kind of creative task, and it solves it using only English-language data, which is convenient and beneficial to the system developers. And so an algorithm, for example, can indicate to a machine that Russia, our culture, science, music, literature simply do not exist.”

He pledged to pour additional resources into the development of supercomputers and other technologies to help intensify national AI research.

“We are talking about expanding fundamental and applied research in the field of generative artificial intelligence and large language models,” Putin said.

“In the era of technological revolution, it is the cultural and spiritual heritage that is the key factor in preserving national identity, and therefore the diversity of our world, and the stability of international relations,” Putin said. “Our traditional values, the richness and beauty of the Russian languages and languages of other peoples of Russia must form the basis of our developments,” helping create “reliable, transparent and secure AI systems.”

Putin emphasized that trying to ban AI development would be impossible, but noted the importance of ensuring necessary safeguards.

“I am convinced that the future does not lie in bans on the development of technology, it is simply impossible,” he said. “If we ban something, it will develop elsewhere, and we will only fall behind, that’s all.”

Putin added that the global community will be able to work out the security guidelines for AI once it fully realizes the risks.

“When they feel the threat of its uncontrolled spread, uncontrolled activities in this sphere, a desire to reach agreement will come immediately,” he said.

The Netherlands’ Longtime Ruling Party Says It Won’t Join New Government Following Far-Right’s Win

A senator from the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom was appointed Friday to investigate possible governing coalitions after the far-right party’s election victory, while the party of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it would support a center-right administration in parliament but not join the next government.

The Party for Freedom, or PVV, led by veteran anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house, indicating a seismic shift to the right for the Netherlands. Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy won 24 seats, 10 fewer than in the previous election, according to a near complete count of Wednesday’s votes.

After a meeting of party leaders at the parliament, PVV Senator Gom van Strien was appointed to investigate possible coalitions. Newly elected lawmakers will debate his findings on December 6.

Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, the new leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, tweeted that after losing 10 seats in the election, the longtime ruling party would “make possible and constructively support a center-right Cabinet with good policies,” but wouldn’t join a government.

Wilders called the decision, which was announced before formal coalition talks had begun, “extremely disappointing.”

The election result and appointment of Van Strien pave the way for Wilders to take the lead in forming a new coalition and potentially to succeed Rutte as prime minister. However, he will likely have to convince potential coalition partners that he would tone down some of his anti-Islam policies.

His party’s election platform states that the Netherlands “is not an Islamic country. No Islamic schools, Qurans and mosques.”

One potential coalition partner for Wilders is the recently formed New Social Contract party, or NSC, which won 20 seats. The party’s centrist leader, Pieter Omtzigt, said he couldn’t accept “unconstitutional” policies.

Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution outlaws discrimination “on grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or on any other grounds.”

In an election-night victory speech, Wilders pledged not to push any policies that would breach Dutch law or the constitution.

His foreign policy also has raised concern among the Netherlands’ allies, Dutch caretaker Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said Friday.

Wilders’ election program says, “We will not send our money and defense equipment such as F-16s to Ukraine.”

“I hope and expect that the support will remain,” Ollongren told reporters in The Hague. She said she had received concerned calls about the issue since the election.

The caretaker administration led by Rutte will remain in office until a new coalition is formed.

In August, Rutte said that the Netherlands and Denmark would send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help the fight against Russia’s invading forces. An international training hub for F-16 pilots including from Ukraine was opened earlier this month in Romania.

Rutte tweeted Friday that he had held one of his regular calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The Netherlands stands with the people of Ukraine and supports Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression,” Rutte said.

Irish Police Arrest 34 in Dublin Rioting Following Stabbings Outside School

Irish police arrested 34 people after suspected far-right protesters in central Dublin attacked police, damaged shops and set fire to vehicles Thursday night following the stabbing of three children by an unidentified man earlier in the day.

The head of the Irish police, Commissioner Drew Harris, said one officer was seriously injured in the violence that began after news spread that a 5-year-old girl was receiving emergency medical treatment at a Dublin hospital following the attack outside a school. At least 100 people took to the streets, some armed with metal bars and covering their faces.

Harris described the protesters as a “complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology.”

Police said over 400 officers, including many in riot gear, were deployed throughout the city center to contain the unrest, which they said was “caused by a small group of thugs.” A cordon was set up around the Irish Parliament building, Leinster House, and mounted officers were dispatched to nearby Grafton Street.

“These (riots) are scenes that we have not seen in decades, but what is clear is that people have been radicalized through social media and the internet,” Harris told reporters on Friday.

“But I don’t want to lose focus on the terrible event in terms of the dreadful assault on schoolchildren and their teacher. There’s a full investigation ongoing. There’s also a full investigation in respect on the disorder.”

Russian Consumers Feel Themselves in a Tight Spot as High Inflation Persists

The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat. But many of the shoppers look at the selection with dismay as inflation makes their wallets feel empty.

Russia’s Central Bank has raised its key lending rate four times this year to try to get inflation under control and stabilize the ruble’s exchange rate as the economy weathers the effects of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence.

The last time it raised the rate — to 15%, doubled that from the beginning of the year — the bank said it was concerned about prices that were increasing at an annualized pace of about 12%. The bank now forecasts inflation for the full year, as well as next year, to be about 7.5%.

Although that rate is high, it may be an understatement.

“If we talk in percentage terms, then, probably, (prices) increased by 25%. This is meat, staple products — dairy produce, fruits, vegetables, sausages. My husband can’t live without sausage! Sometimes I’m just amazed at price spikes,” said Roxana Gheltkova, a shopper in a Moscow supermarket.

Asked if her income as a pensioner was enough to keep food on the table, customer Lilya Tsarkova said: “No, of course not. I get help from my children.”

Without their assistance, “I don’t know how to pay rent and food,” the 70-year-old said.

Figures from the state statistical service Rosstat released on Nov. 1 show a huge spike in prices for some foods compared with 2022 — 74% for cabbage, 72% for oranges and 47% for cucumbers.

The Russian parliament has approved a 2024-26 budget that earmarks a record amount for defense spending. Maxim Blant, a Russian economy analyst based in Latvia, sees that as an indication that prices will continue to rise sharply.

“It is simply impossible to solve the issue of inflation in conditions … when the military-industrial complex receives unlimited funding, when everything they ask for is given to them, when the share of this military-industrial complex in the economy grows at a very rapid pace,” he told The Associated Press.

The central bank’s rate hikes have slightly cooled the ruble’s exchange rate slide — the rate is now about 88 to the U.S. dollar from over 100 earlier. But that’s still far higher than in the summer of 2022, when it was about 60 to the dollar.

That keeps the cost of imports high, even as import possibilities shrink due to Western sanctions.

Russia Launches Fierce, Costly Attacks on Ukraine City

Russia, which had bombarded the eastern city of Avdiivka for weeks, is now sending waves of troops toward the destroyed but strategically important spot in eastern Ukraine — and suffering terrible losses, Ukrainian senior officials and soldiers said Thursday.

“The fields are just littered with corpses,” Oleksandr, a deputy of a Ukrainian battalion in the 47th mechanized brigade, told Agence France-Presse.

“They are trying to exhaust our lines with constant waves of attacks,” he said. He declined to provide his full name for security reasons.

It is a strategy similar to the one Russia used against Bakhmut, a city it eventually captured.

Since mid-October, Russia has been trying to wrest the small city from Ukraine with no success, the Ukrainians say. The city sits on the front line 5 kilometers from Donetsk, the Russian-controlled capital of the region, one of four regions Moscow said it annexed from Ukraine.

Russia-backed separatists captured Avdiivka in 2014 and held it briefly before Ukrainian forces took it back and have been fortifying it ever since.

About 1,400 residents remain of the city’s prewar population of 32,000, said Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, who described the Russian onslaught as fierce.

“As regards the city, there is an average number of eight to 16 to 18 air attacks per day. Sometimes 30. We don’t have time to count them,” Barabash told Channel 24 television on Thursday. Russian reports on the war rarely mention Avdiivka.

Reuters could not independently verify battle reports from either side.

Earlier Thursday, four people were killed and five were wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said more than 60 residential and infrastructure buildings were damaged in the attack.

“It is preliminarily known that the shelling was carried out with cluster munitions,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram. VOA could not independently verify that report.

The Russian army abandoned Kherson late last year but still regularly targets the area from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

Meanwhile, Russian state television said Thursday one of its journalists died after being hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine.

The Russian network announced the death of Boris Maksudov a day after the Russian defense ministry said he was hit while working in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used part of his nightly address Wednesday to highlight new military aid packages from allies that he said include help for his country’s air defenses.

Zelenskyy said the aid would better protect Ukraine’s cities and towns from Russian attacks and that “Ukraine’s sky shield is getting more powerful literally every month.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Georgians Call for Ex-Leader’s Release on Revolution Anniversary

Hundreds of supporters from Georgia’s main opposition party gathered Thursday in the capital, Tbilisi, demanding their ex-leader’s release from prison on the 20th anniversary of the country’s pro-democracy revolution.

Mikheil Saakashvili spearheaded the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003 and led the Black Sea nation for nine years before going into exile. After his return, he was arrested on abuse-of-power charges that rights groups say were politically motivated.

“The idea of a united, strong, democratic, European, free Georgia was a driving force of the Rose Revolution and its leader, Saakashvili,” a leader from his United National Movement (UNM) party, Tina Bokuchava, told the gathering.

“The terrible injustice of Saakashvili’s imprisonment must end,” she said.

Saakashvili, 55, has accused prison guards of mistreatment, and doctors have raised serious concerns about his health since he staged a 50-day hunger strike.

“The Rose Revolution has changed Georgia’s history for good, put it on a world map,” Saakashvili wrote on Facebook. “Our revolution has laid the ground for dismantling the post-Soviet Russian system and made Georgia an example to follow for the whole world.”

The Rose Revolution, which saw tens of thousands take to the streets against rigged elections and rampant corruption, reshaped Georgia and enabled sweeping political and economic reforms that helped to bring a more than threefold increase of per capita GDP.

But opponents have criticized the rule of its leaders – which saw police crackdowns on anti-government protests and abuse of inmates in prisons – as authoritarian.

The revolution also had a wider impact on post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine, where corrupt elites were ousted in the Orange Revolution the following year.

But the so-called “color revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan have led to confrontation with the Kremlin, which has perceived the popular uprisings as a threat to its influence in what it sees as its backyard.

Turkey’s Central Bank Hikes Interest Rates Again as It Tries to Tame Eye-Watering Inflation

Turkey’s central bank delivered another huge interest rate hike on Thursday as it tries to curb double-digit inflation that has left households struggling to afford food and other basic goods.

The bank pushed its policy rate up by 5 percentage points, to 40%, marking its sixth big interest rate hike in a row focused on beating down inflation that hit an eye-watering 61.36% last month.

However, the bank said its rate hikes would soon end.

“The current level of monetary tightness is significantly close to the level required to establish the disinflation course,” the bank said. “Accordingly, the pace of monetary tightening will slow down, and the tightening cycle will be completed in a short period of time.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long been a proponent of an unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to fight inflation and had fired central bank governors who resisted his rate-slashing policies.

That runs counter to traditional economic thinking, and many blamed Erdogan’s unusual methods for economic turmoil that has included a currency crisis and an increasingly high cost of living.

Other central banks around the world have raised interest rates rapidly to target spikes in consumer prices tied to the rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and then Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Following Erdogan’s reelection in May, he appointed a new economic team, which has quickly moved toward reversing his previous policy of keeping interest rates low.

The team includes former Merrill Lynch banker Mehmet Simsek, who returned as finance minister, a post he held until 2018, and Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former U.S.-based bank executive, who took over as central bank governor in June.

Under Erkan’s tenure, the central bank has hiked its main interest rate from 8.5% to 40%.

EU Lawmakers Slam Iran’s Treatment of Women

The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it said were Iran’s rights abuses against women, including “brutal murders,” and its detention of EU nationals.

A nonbinding resolution slammed the “deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, and the brutal murders of women by the Iranian authorities, including the 2023 Sakharov Prize laureate Jina Mahsa Amini,” a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died last year in police custody.

Parliament members also called for the immediate release from detention of human rights defenders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.

The motion was adopted 516-4, with 27 abstentions.

Parliament members urged Tehran “to end immediately all discrimination against women and girls, including mandatory veiling, and to withdraw all gender discriminatory laws.”

Amini’s death last year sparked widespread street demonstrations against the Iranian government that security forces put down brutally.  Hundreds of people have been killed or executed in the repression, and thousands have been arrested.

In October, the European Parliament awarded the EU’s top rights honor, the Sakharov Prize, to Amini and to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement that sprang up after her death.

European lawmakers reiterated a call for EU states to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “terrorist organization” and for sanctions against the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials for human rights violations.

They also condemned Iran’s “hostage diplomacy,” which European governments say Iran uses to extract concessions from the West or gain the release of Iranians imprisoned abroad.

Dutch ‘Trump’ Struggles to Form Government After Shock Election Win

Geert Wilders, the outspoken Dutch far-right leader who has frequently been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump, is set to begin negotiations on forming a government after his shock win in Wednesday’s election.

However, Wilders is still dozens of seats short of a working majority, and it remains unclear whether other parties are willing to work with him and enter into a coalition government. Negotiations are expected to take several months.

Political earthquake

Dutch voters sent political shockwaves across Europe late Wednesday as exit polls showed a clear lead for the Freedom Party, led by Wilders. His party won 37 of the 150 seats available, easily beating his closest rival, a joint Labor and Green party ticket, which secured 25 seats.

The center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte won 24 seats in a disappointing night.

Wilders has long been a provocative figure in Dutch politics but has never before enjoyed this level of success. Following the result, the 60-year-old doubled down on his anti-migrant rhetoric.

“The people have spoken. The people said, ‘We are sick and tired of this. We will make sure the Dutch people will be number one again,’” he said.

“The Dutchman also has hope. The hope is that people get their country back. That we make sure that the Netherlands is for the Dutch again. That we will limit the asylum tsunami and migration,” Wilders told cheering supporters in The Hague as the scale of his victory became clear Wednesday.

“Less Islam”

Wilders’ party manifesto promises “less Islam in the Netherlands.” In 2016 he was convicted of inciting hatred and discrimination after leading a crowd chanting for fewer Moroccans in the country.

Minority groups have voiced concern at the election result, in a country where Muslims make up around 5% of the population. “We have great concerns about the future of Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands,” Muhsin Koktas of the Dutch Muslim organization CMO told Reuters.

Following his victory Wednesday, Wilders appeared to tone down his anti-Islam rhetoric. “If I become prime minister, I will be that for all Dutch people, regardless of who they are, their gender or religion, where they come from. For everyone,” he said.

Softened tone

That civilized tone won him voters during the campaign, said Rachid Azrout, a political analyst at the University of Amsterdam.

“Basically, what he said is, ‘Of course, my hatred for Islam will still be a part of me, but I will put it aside and that doesn’t need to be part of the government. So that way, I can become a more viable coalition partner,’” Azrout told VOA.

The election was held after the former government collapsed in July in a disagreement over a cap on the number of family members permitted to join immigrants in the country.

“Because the government collapsed on the topic of immigration, that made the topic really important in the campaign. And so then actually, Geert Wilders was the one that actually profited from that,” said Azrout.

Trump comparisons

Wilders’ mane of dyed blonde hair and conservative political agenda have drawn comparisons with Trump — a figure the Dutch politician has frequently praised in the past. Wilders’ program pledges “Netherlands first,” echoing the slogans of populist parties in Europe, the United States and beyond.

“This is the international trend — a huge, anti-establishment populist revolt all over the place, all over the world,” Rene Cuperus of the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch policy analyst group in The Hague, told Reuters.

Wilders has campaigned for the Netherlands to leave the European Union. He opposes Ukraine’s proposed membership of the bloc and wants to stop Dutch military support for Kyiv.

However, any coalition agreement will likely force Wilders to soften his stance.

“A large majority of the Dutch population, but also most of the political parties, are very much in favor of the Netherlands being part of the European Union, and also that we should support Ukraine in the war against Russia,” said analyst Azrout.

“And so, yes, Geert Wilders and his party, they say we should have a ‘Nexit’ — so that the Netherlands should leave the European Union — that we should have the guilder [old currency] back instead of the euro and not support Ukraine. But he realized, of course, that he is alone in that sense,” Azrout said.

Coalition talks

Wilders’ path to power will likely depend on whether the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, under new leader Dilan Yesilgoz — the daughter of Turkish immigrants — is willing to form a coalition with the far-right party, along with the centrist New Social Contract party under Pieter Omtzigt.

Both Yesilgoz and Omtzigt said during the campaign that they did not want to work with Wilders, although his clear victory could pressure them into opening coalition talks.

The center-left has already ruled out any coalition with Wilders and said its job was now to defend democracy. Analysts say a broad coalition between left and right parties is seen as unlikely at this stage.

Party leaders are due to meet on Friday to choose an “explorer,” an independent go-between who will hear from each party on what possibilities they envisage in potential coalition talks.

Meanwhile, far-right leaders across Europe sent Wilders their congratulations.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the “winds of change” had arrived, while France’s Marine Le Pen said it was a “spectacular performance.”

10 Years After ‘Euromaidan’ Protests, Ukraine’s EU Future Still Hangs in Balance

Ten years ago, thousands of Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv’s Independence Square to demand a European future for their country. Their actions set into motion a decade of revolution, turmoil and conflict, culminating in Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

A decade on from the protests, Ukraine’s path in the European Union is set to be decided at an upcoming summit in Brussels.

Euromaidan

In late November 2013, under intense pressure from Russia, Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych pulled out of signing an association agreement with the European Union, opting instead to sign a loan and energy deal with Moscow.

His decision triggered fury among Ukrainians who dreamed of a democratic future in the EU, outside the political orbit of Russia. Thousands of protesters filled Kyiv’s Maidan Square, waving the twin blue and gold colors of the Ukrainian and European Union flags.

“Living under Yanukovych in Ukraine was humiliating. Nobody cared about the people. The authorities didn’t hide their criminal, completely pro-Russian nature,” said Dmytro Riznychenko, who took part in the demonstrations. “We wanted to find human dignity. We wanted freedom.”

“Revolution of dignity”

After several days of peaceful protests, Ukrainian police converged to clear Independence Square in a brutal crackdown on the show of dissent. In response, thousands more Ukrainians joined the protests from across the country. In the grip of winter, central Kyiv was barricaded by the demonstrators, as riot police formed lines to protect government buildings.

Heavily armed riot police tried to take back control of the capital in February 2014. In the violence, 108 protesters were killed, with dozens shot by police snipers. A global outcry triggered the resignation of Yanukovych, who fled to Russia.

The events became known as Ukraine’s “revolution of dignity.” Its victims are commemorated via memorials in Independence Square.

Russian invasion

Olga Tokariuk, who now works for the British policy group Chatham House, took part in the Euromaidan demonstrations.

“We had no idea what was ahead,” she told VOA. “Of course, we could not have imagined that there would be Russia’s invasion and that there would be war that would last for nine years already, that there would be Russia’s full-scale invasion, that millions of Ukrainians would have to leave their homes. Thousands would be killed in this war. Many of the people who were on the square in Maidan would be killed in this war.”

Russia forcefully annexed Crimea in March 2014, and fomented a separatist war in eastern Ukraine, a prelude to its full-scale invasion eight years later.

“Buffer zone”

Ukraine elected a pro-Western government following the revolution and demanded EU membership. But Brussels said Ukraine wasn’t ready — and that proved fateful, says Tokariuk.

“Ukraine paid a huge price for its desire to be a part of the European family, where it rightfully belongs. And unfortunately for a very long time, Ukraine was denied this possibility. Ukraine was kept in this back room somehow in, in limbo. Ultimately, that’s what compelled Russia to invade Ukraine on a large scale. It was left as a buffer zone,” Tokariuk said.

Ukraine is now engaged in a full-scale war against Russia. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.

EU summit

At a summit in Brussels next month, European leaders will decide whether to begin formal negotiations on Ukraine’s EU accession. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it is his country’s destiny.

“Twenty years ago, it was a romantic dream. Ten years ago, it was an ambitious goal. And today it is a reality in which it is no longer possible to stop our progress,” he said in a televised address Tuesday, on the anniversary of the Euromaidan protests.

Visiting Kyiv to mark the anniversary, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, offered his support and urged the EU’s 27 member states to back Ukraine’s membership.

“Ukraine’s progress has been remarkable, especially during a full-blown war, and it continues to get closer to the EU,” Michel said. “Enlargement is a strategic investment for the EU — so it’s been for peace, prosperity and democratic values. I want to be clear I intend to do everything to convince my 27 colleagues that we need a positive decision in December.”

European hopes

It’s vital that the EU offers Ukraine hope for the future, said analyst Olga Tokariuk.

“It was a huge mistake to keep Ukraine in this waiting room for such a long time. So only with Ukraine fully integrated into the European Union — but also into NATO — peace is possible on the entire European continent. It will be blow to Russia, of course, because that would mean that Ukraine has once and for good departed from the so-called Russian sphere of influence,” Tokariuk said.

Ten years since the Euromaidan protests, Ukraine has suffered death and destruction on a scale few could have imagined.

“Because the sequence of events that followed was so dramatic and so tragic, I think myself — and many people who were there at Maidan — we ask ourselves occasionally, was it worth it? You know, if we knew what would follow, would we still go out to the square and protest? And the answer in most cases is ‘yes,’” Tokariuk told VOA.

Russian TV Says Ukrainian Drone Attack Killed Journalist 

Russian state television said Thursday one of its journalists died after being hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine.

The Russian network announced the death of Boris Maksudov a day after the Russian defense ministry said he was hit while working in Zaporizhzhia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russian shelling killed one person and injured another in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region.

The officials said the areas hit by the Russian shelling included a residential building.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used part of his nightly address Wednesday to highlight new military aid packages from allies that he said include help for his country’s air defenses.

Zelenskyy said the aid would better protect Ukraine’s cities and towns from Russian attacks and that “Ukraine’s sky shield is getting more powerful literally every month.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

German Authorities Raid Properties Linked to Hamas

German authorities carried out raids Thursday in connection with a ban on the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun.

Germany’s Interior Ministry said the raids took place at 15 properties in four states.

“With the bans on Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of the barbaric terror of Hamas against Israel,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.

The ministry says there are about 450 Hamas members in Germany and that they have engaged in propaganda and fundraising efforts.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

 

King Charles III Honors K-Pop Girl Group Blackpink

King Charles III honored the K-pop band Blackpink on Wednesday for their work in raising awareness about climate change, as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged closer cooperation between their two countries on technology and defense.

On the second day of Yoon’s three-day state visit to London, Charles made Blackpink members Jennie Kim, Jisoo Kim and Lalisa Manoban honorary Members of the Order of the British Empire.

Bandmate Roseanne (Rosé) Park also received an MBE, although hers came without the “honorary” qualifier because she has dual citizenship in New Zealand, one of the 14 countries where the U.K. monarch is head of state.

The honors were presented during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in recognition of Blackpink’s role in promoting the work of the COP26 summit on climate change two years ago in Glasgow, Scotland. The awards are part of Britain’s honors system, which recognizes outstanding service to the nation and the wider world.

Charles had lauded the K-pop girl group on Tuesday during a state banquet in honor of Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee “for their role in bringing the message of environmental sustainability to a global audience.

“I can only admire how they can prioritize these vital issues, as well as being global superstars,” Charles said at the banquet.

The Korean president is being treated to royal and diplomatic pomp on the visit, which the U.K. government hopes will help cement an “Indo-Pacific tilt” in its foreign and trade policy.

Yoon met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the British leader’s 10 Downing St. residence for talks focused on trade, technology and defense.

To coincide with the visit, U.K. and Korean officials launched talks on an “upgraded” free trade agreement to replace their current deal, which largely replicates the arrangements the U.K. had before it left the European Union.

The leaders also signed an agreement dubbed the “Downing Street Accord,” pledging closer cooperation on defense and technology, including artificial intelligence. Britain hosted the first international AI Safety Summit this month, and South Korea intends to hold a follow-up event next year.

The two countries also agreed to joint naval patrols to curb smuggling and enforce U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea to curb its nuclear weapons ambitions.

“Your state visit underlies the deep partnership and friendship between our two countries and the signing of the Downing Street Accord today strengthens that friendship,” Sunak told the South Korean leader.

Yoon has not commented directly on North Korea’s launch of a spy satellite on Tuesday or its suspected failed missile test on Wednesday, both of which took place while he was in London.

In a speech to both houses of Britain’s parliament on Tuesday, Yoon said Britain and South Korea would work together on “geopolitical risks like the war in Ukraine, the Israel and Hamas conflict, and the North Korean nuclear threats.”

“Korea stands united with the United Kingdom and the international community to fight against illegal aggression and provocations,” he said.

US, Germany Pledge More Support to Ukraine

The United States and Germany, the two top providers of military aid to Ukraine, pledged continued support this week as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared his core goal was securing international assistance for the year ahead. But experts caution that the US and Germany risk being perceived as too closely tied to Ukraine’s grinding war with Russia. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

US Envoy Focuses on Cyberscams During Cambodia Visit 

Cindy Dyer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for monitoring and combating trafficking, is planning to push Cambodia’s new government to ramp up its efforts to crack down on cyberscam operations that trap many trafficking victims in slavelike conditions.

A recently completed visit to Phnom Penh by Dyer “will serve as an opportunity for information sharing and coordination on anti-trafficking efforts,” the State Department said last week in a release.

Dyer met with a range of officials “with the objective of building a relationship with the new government for future coordination and advocating for progress in the most critical areas, including increased investigations and prosecutions of cyberscam operations,” said the November 15 release.

Cambodia’s role as host of cybercriminals has been in an international spotlight. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) released a report this summer estimating that the industry has victimized 100,000 people in Cambodia.

Lured by promise of jobs

Operators of these scamming networks recruit unwitting workers from across Asia, often with the promise of well-paying tech jobs, and then force them to attempt to scam victims online while living in slavelike conditions, according to the report.

Countries including Indonesia, Taiwan and China have urged countries like Cambodia and Laos to crack down on the industry, while warning their own citizens of the dangers in traveling to these countries, according to the UNHCHR report.

The U.S. State Department’s annual report on global human trafficking, released in June, placed Cambodia in Tier 3, meaning the government has made insufficient efforts to address human trafficking and does not meet the minimum standards.

During her two-day visit to Cambodia that began November 15, Dyer met with officials from the ministries of justice, labor and social affairs, as well as representatives of the National Police and the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) within the Ministry of Interior, according to an email from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. Dyer also held discussions with civil society groups working on combating human trafficking.

The discussions focused “on Cambodia’s efforts to protect trafficking victims, including providing protection assistance services for victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants, capacity building for service providers and government officials to improve victim identification and referral, and addressing emerging trends in forced criminality,” the State Department release said.

More training urged

Am Sam Ath, operations director at the Cambodian rights group Licadho, told VOA Khmer that Dyer’s visit highlighted the need for Cambodia to tackle human trafficking and online scams.

“We see that the United States … ranks Cambodia third in the blacklist of human trafficking. It also has a lot of impact on our country, and if Cambodia does not make an effort further in the prevention of human trafficking or online scams, the ranking cannot be improved,” he said by telephone from the group’s Phnom Penh office.

He called on the Cambodian government to strengthen the capacity of officials and authorities to crack down on online crime.

“This crime problem is technologically modern, so the authorities involved in it have to get more training to keep up with the situation, as well as the timing of the crime,” Am Sam Ath added.

National Police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun and Justice Ministry spokesperson Chin Malin declined to comment on Dyer’s visit, referring questions to Chou Bun Eng, permanent deputy chairman of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking. VOA Khmer called Chou Bun Eng, but she did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Embassy spokesperson Katherine Diop told VOA Khmer that Dyer’s visit to Cambodia was part of a U.S. effort across the world to encourage governments to take responsibility for preventing human trafficking and protecting victims.

“The United States stands with the Cambodian people to identify, support and seek justice for human trafficking victims,” she wrote in an email.

The UNHCHR report released in late August said the online scams were occurring in five countries in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.

“People who have been trafficked into online forced criminality face threats to their right to life, liberty and security of the person,” said the U.N. report. “They are subject to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, forced labor and other forms of labor exploitation as well as a range of other human rights violations and abuses.”

Cambodia first acknowledged the issue last year when Interior Minister Sar Kheng said in August that officials were being deployed across the country to check hotels, casinos and other establishments for potential trafficking victims.

The government has since announced sporadic operations to free victims and arrest traffickers. However, experts recently told VOA Khmer that these efforts have not noticeably curbed the illegal operations or caught ringleaders of the trafficking networks.

Russian Propaganda Presents Fringe Views in US as Mainstream

From headlines taken out of context to the framing of fringe figures as representative of wider American views, Russian state-run outlets are cherry-picking U.S. content to back up Kremlin narratives.

And it comes with results. Headlines such as “Biden accused of concealing extent of corruption in Ukraine” and “US highlights NATO inability to withstand Russia for extended period” regularly propel state-run stories into the top five spots on Russian search engines, with a potential reach of millions of views.

Americans regularly cited by Russian media include former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, Republican Representative James Comer, and members of “The Squad,” a group of Democrats who push more leftist ideals in Congress.

Extremes of the political spectrum are wrapped into Russian disinformation efforts to both amplify issues and lend an air of legitimacy to anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian narratives, said Nina Jankowicz, vice president of the Centre for Information Resilience and a former disinformation chief under the Biden administration.

“We see Russia identifying individuals on the left or right of the political spectrum who might already be critics of NATO, critics of Ukraine,” Jankowicz told VOA.

That strategy is employed by Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian TV presenter whose Telegram channel has more than a million subscribers. Soloviev gained notoriety by advocating for the invasion of Ukraine, actively supporting President Vladimir Putin and promoting the idea of nuclear warfare against the West.

To reinforce those views, he regularly references Carlson. A search by VOA for Carlson references on the Telegram account between June 2020 and November 2023 returned more than 230 instances. The number of references spiked following the full-scale invasion.

The key narratives of Carlson selected by Soloviev and Russian propaganda channels include the conservative pundit’s false claims that Christians in Ukraine are persecuted, that America’s white population is oppressed and Tucker’s characterization of some U.S. media coverage of Ukraine as lies.

Other outlets take fringe commentators most Americans are unlikely to have heard and present them as having a wider influence.

These are often used to reinforce Russia’s narrative of a “declining” West, with state-run media citing figures such as Jackson Hinkle and Jack Posobiec, who are largely unknown in the United States but are favored among the far right and in conspiracy circles on X, formerly Twitter.

RIA Novosti, for instance, highlighted Posobiec’s mocking comment about Kyiv’s interest in Abrams tanks, presenting it as a view from a respected veteran and combining it with a quote from Putin emphasizing Moscow’s purported aim to end, not escalate, the conflict.

Similarly, Russian news outlet Lenta.Ru used a headline quoting Hinkle’s suggestion that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counteroffensive be labeled as a suicide mission.

And Soloviev frequently references both Americans in his Telegram channel, portraying them as influential bloggers, talk show hosts, or renowned U.S. journalists.

The approach helps Russia create the appearance of more significant support for opinions that — according to analysts who spoke with VOA — are better characterized as fringe views.

And it can lead regular Russians to believe the views are more representative of how most Americans think, Jankowicz said.

Outlets such as Breitbart and Fox News on the right and The Grayzone on the left are also used by Russian state media, with stories circulating between the Russian and U.S. organizations, she said.

Jankowicz said that while she was in her role on the U.S. Disinformation Governance Board, American right-wing media outlets falsely characterized the board’s role as being to censor Americans.

“This was absolutely not true, and within a couple of days after that, we saw [the same report] on Russian Channel One with the same quotes, the same pictures, the same narratives overarching,” Jankowicz said.

The disinformation governance board — formed by the U.S. Homeland Security Department to counter misinformation — was disbanded after only a few weeks.

Featuring statements from American figures and media outlets lends a sense of credibility, she said.

“Showing these extreme viewpoints also hammers home the ideas about Ukraine or about U.S. foreign policy that the Kremlin wants its audiences to believe,” Jankowicz said.

Dominik Stecula, an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University who focuses on political polarization, has seen similar trends. Stecula said the commentator Carlson has repeated Russian propaganda narratives on his TV show.

But Carlson’s departure from Fox in April, along with a shift in media attention to other news stories such as the Israeli-Hamas conflict, slightly changed the U.S. media landscape on the right, Stecula said. “Whoever is filling in his shoes hasn’t really spent as much time on this topic at all. The general focus on Ukraine dissipated.”

Another aspect that unites some far-left and far-right political actors is populism, Stecula said. “They were repeating some of the Russian propaganda about Ukraine, about politicians in Ukraine, like President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.”

The academic said that far-right actors in the U.S. root their narratives primarily in the idea of America-first nationalism, while those on the far left see it “through the lens of American imperialism wielded through the power of NATO.”

Overall, Carlson, Elon Musk and niche bloggers such as Hinkle and Posobiec have significant influence within their respective ideological echo chambers, Stecula said.

At the same time, members of “The Squad” — U.S. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib — have substantial influence within the Democratic Party, while not wholly representing the party’s mainstream, Stecula said.

“They’re not just your average social media influencer,” Stecula said. “These are people with significant platforms and actual positions of power. Which is why it was disappointing to see some of their behavior during the initial months of the Russian invasion and Ukraine, when they were taking stands aligned with some of right-wing Republicans.”

What the Russian invasion of Ukraine really highlighted, the academic noted, is that populism and a rejection of the mainstream have significantly united those on America’s far left and far right.

Jankowicz said that while a certain percentage of Americans may share the views of some of these people, the reality is that opinion is far more varied.

“And so, I think showing these extreme viewpoints also hammers home the ideas about Ukraine or about U.S. foreign policy that the Kremlin wants its audiences to believe,” she said.

This article originated in VOA’s Russian Service.

Mine Clearing in Ukraine Could Take Years, Even Decades

As Ukraine’s forces continue their counteroffensive, mines and explosives threaten its people in de-occupied regions. According to the Ukrainian government, since the start of the Russian invasion, mines have killed at least 264 civilians and injured more than 830. Demining efforts, led by various entitles, are actively underway. Myroslava Gongadze tells the story. (Camera: Eugene Shynkar; Produced by Daniil Batushchak)

Dutch Vote in Tight Election With Far Right Set for Gains

Dutch voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in a nail-biting election in which opinion polls show at least three parties — including the far right — could hope for the top spot.

A weighted poll published on the eve of the vote showed anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, or PVV, tied for the lead with the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

“I hope I don’t wake up tomorrow and we have Wilders as a prime minister. That’s a nightmare,” said Amsterdam resident Arie van der Neut, an architect, after he cast his ballot for the pro-European, center-left Volt party.

Only one thing is certain: The Netherlands will get its first new prime minister in over a decade. Rutte resigned in July as his fourth coalition government collapsed, ending a 13-year tenure.

No party is on track to take more than 20% of the vote, and with late polls showing Labour leader Frans Timmermans and Wilders making gains — and a large number of Dutch still undecided ahead of the vote — many scenarios are possible.

Although it is the tradition, there is also no guarantee that the party winning the most seats will end up delivering the prime minister. In a country where the vote is split among many parties, coalition talks can take months.

Restricting immigration — the issue that triggered the collapse of Rutte’s last cabinet — has been a key issue in the campaign, alongside climate change.

“It’s been enough now. The Netherlands can’t take it anymore. We have to think about our own people first now. Borders closed. Zero asylum seekers,” Wilders said in a television debate late on Tuesday.

Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz, a Turkish immigrant tough on immigration and Rutte’s successor at the helm of the VVD and who is hoping to become the country’s first woman prime minister, responded:

“I don’t think anyone believes Wilders would be a prime minister for all. He’s all about closing borders, excluding groups who he feels don’t belong in the Netherlands.”

Lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt, a centrist who founded his own party after breaking with the Christian Democrats, is trailing slightly behind the first three in the latest polls but will likely play an important role.

At stake in the election is also whether voters in one of Europe’s most prosperous countries are willing to continue funding climate policies, such as an expensive rollout of offshore wind farms, amid a cost-of-living shock across the continent.

With the Netherlands a founding member of the EU and Rutte a key operator in EU summits, fellow leaders will also be scrutinizing the outcome as parties on the right have suggested seeking exemptions from the bloc’s rules on agriculture and immigration.

Voting booths will close at 9 p.m., when national broadcaster NOS publishes its first exit poll.

A first-place finish for Wilders could lead the Netherlands to a hard-right coalition with a strong anti-immigration line, even though he has been seeking to soften his image in the hope of entering government.

A hard-right coalition could also soften plans to reduce livestock and fertilizer use, which are strongly opposed by farmers.

If Timmermans is better placed, this could swing the next government toward the center and more spending on climate policies and increase social spending, including raising the minimum wage.

Rutte will remain in a caretaker role until a new government is installed, likely in the first half of 2024.