A former Russian detective who was convicted in connection with the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for organizing the deadly attack on Politkovskaya outside her apartment building. Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, unveiled abuses committed by Russian and allied forces against rebels in Chechnya for the independent magazine Novaya Gazeta.

Khadzhikurbanov, one of five men tried and convicted in Politkovskaya’s murder, was among thousands of prisoners who were sent to the front lines on the Ukrainian war front in exchange for a pardon.

Russia has probably recruited roughly 100,000 people from prisons to fight in Ukraine, Olga Romanova, the head of an independent prisoners’ rights group, has estimated.

Local Russian media outlets have reported several instances of released prisoners going on to commit serious offenses, including murders, after having left the army.

Some information is from Agence France-Presse.
…

A British convert to Islam who was convicted in Turkey of being part of the Islamic State group was sentenced to eight years in prison in Britain on Monday after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

Aine Leslie Davis, 39, was deported from Turkey in August 2022 and detained on arrival at London’s Luton Airport after serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in IS.

He pleaded guilty last month to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two charges of funding terrorism.

Prosecutors said Davis, who left his home in London and travelled to Syria in 2013 to join the armed conflict there, enlisted his wife to persuade a friend to bring him $21,400 to support his cause. The friend was stopped at Heathrow Airport in 2014, and Davis’s wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was convicted of funding terrorism.

Davis’ defense lawyer, Mark Summers, issued an apology to the Syrian people on his behalf, saying he and others like him “caused more harm than good.”

British authorities had long suspected that Davis was part of an IS cell known as “The Beatles” — so called because of the men’s British accents — that tortured and killed Western hostages in Syria a decade ago, when IS controlled a large swath of Syria and Iraq.

Davis has denied being connected to the cell.

Two members of the “Beatles” cell, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2018 and are serving life sentences in the U.S. A third, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Summers asserted during the trial that prosecutors in the U.S. decided last year they would not seek to put Davis on trial as a member of the cell due to insufficient evidence.

The judge said he was sentencing Davis for the offenses on the indictment and not for the reported allegations.
…

 European Union officials are finalizing the “last details” of a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia that will include a diamond ban, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Borrell said the European Commission, the EU executive, could approve the proposed package on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member countries, for discussion and approval.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 1,800 individuals and entities.

“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil — not to us but to others — [and] fighting against circumvention,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

EU diplomats told Reuters last week the 27-nation bloc had been waiting for a G7 green light to move ahead with the diamond ban. An EU official said the current timing for a European Commission proposal for the package, that would then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.

“We are finalizing the last details of this package,” Borrell said.
…

NATO member Romania inaugurated on Monday an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine. 

The training facility situated at an air base in Fetesti in southeast Romania will aim to increase interoperability between NATO allies, and better position the military alliance “to face the complex challenges” in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, Romania’s defense ministry said. 

It said the powerful U.S.-made warplanes will be supplied by the Royal Netherlands Air Force while the aircraft maker Lockheed Martin will provide instructors and maintenance at the training center.

Kathleen Kavalec, the U.S. ambassador to Romania who attended the opening, called the collaboration an “example of how the public and private sectors can cooperate to further our defense priorities.” 

“I am here with one simple message,” she said. “The United States government is here to support in any way we can.” 

Romania, which has been a NATO member since 2004, shares a long border with Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly asked its backers to send sophisticated fighter planes to give it a combat edge, and some NATO countries have.

In response to the war next door, Romania ramped up defense spending while NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to alliance members Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

The center’s opening comes after Romania said last week that it is pushing to buy 54 latest-model Abrams main battle tanks and related equipment from the United States in a deal worth at least a billion dollars to help the European Union country meet regional security challenges.

In April, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense also approved the acquisition of an unspecified number of latest generation American-made F-35 fighter jets, as Romania pushes to modernize its air force.

Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout the war, including hosting a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022. 
…

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a surprise return to government as the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, following a Cabinet reshuffle and a weekend of violent protests and political chaos in London.  

He succeeds James Cleverly, who now becomes Britain’s new home secretary after the incumbent Suella Braverman was fired Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  

The 57-year-old Cameron is no longer an elected lawmaker. Instead, Sunak nominated him as a peer who will sit in the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber.  

Cameron resigned as prime minister in June 2016 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum called Brexit for which he legislated. He campaigned to stay in the EU, but voters chose to leave by a margin of 52% to 48%.   

A recent poll taken in July found that 45% of Britons believed Cameron had changed Britain for the worse, versus 29% who thought he had changed it for the better.  

Cameron said in an interview after his appointment as foreign secretary that he felt a dedication to public office.  

‘Daunting challenges’ 

“The prime minister asked me to do this job, and it’s a time where we have some daunting challenges as a country: the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine,” Cameron said.  

“And of course, I hope that six years as prime minister — 11 years leading the Conservative Party — gives me some useful experience and contacts and relationships and knowledge that I can help the prime minister to make sure we build our alliances, we build partnerships with our friends, we deter our enemies, and we keep our country strong,” he said. 

Israel-Hamas    

The Israel-Hamas war rages on, after an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas militants. 

Palestinian health authorities said that more than 11,000 civilians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.  

As prime minister in 2010, Cameron called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and criticized Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, although he maintained Britain’s close alliance with Tel Aviv.  

“It’s going to be very hard for David Cameron to jump back in as foreign secretary,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the British policy institute Chatham House.  

“In the Middle East, some of the conflicts have not changed. David Cameron is remembered for intervention in Libya, which was not the greatest success. And in Europe, while he was a ‘remainer,’ he triggered the [Brexit] referendum — some think too casually — which led to Britain leaving the EU and changed all its relations not only with Europe but with many other countries as a consequence,” Maddox told Reuters.  

Domestic signaling  

Cameron’s appointment is unlikely to change Britain’s foreign policy, said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative.  

“British foreign policy has been relatively consistent over the last few years and benefits from broad cross-party consensus. So, I don’t think there’s a question of changing foreign policy,” Menon told VOA. “I think this is largely signaling to a domestic audience, and I think the shape of the rest of the reshuffle, as well, indicates a desire to appeal to the more liberal parts of the conservative electoral base than had been the case up till now.”  

China relations  

In 2015, Cameron signaled a “golden era” in relations between Britain and China when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a lavish state visit.  

But relations have soured dramatically amid rising security and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the West.  

“The golden era is well and truly over, is it not? And I think the mood, particularly inside the Conservative Party in parliament, has hardened considerably on China. And I think David Cameron is just going to have to get used to following a new approach when it comes to Beijing,” Menon said. ‘

Braverman sacked  

Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary since September 2022, now replaces Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary a week after the publication of an article she wrote in The Times newspaper accusing Britain’s police of showing “left-wing bias” toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which she described as “hate marches.” 

Sunak reportedly requested changes to the article prior to publication, but these were seemingly ignored.   

Braverman, a favorite figure of the right-wing of the Conservative Party for her hard-line approach to immigration, was asked to step down in a telephone call with Sunak Monday morning.  

London protests  

At least 300,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in London on Saturday calling for a cease-fire. Police had appealed to the demonstrators to postpone the march, as it coincided with Armistice Day commemorations, when the country marks the end of World War I and remembers those killed in past wars.   

There were violent far-right counterdemonstrations, and police made over 120 arrests. Opposition Labour Party lawmakers, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, accused Braverman of stoking community tensions and causing the violence, which she denied.  

Community tensions  

Reports of antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have risen sharply since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out. 

“Amongst those who have strong views on the issue, the pro-Israel people tend to break Conservative, and the more pro-Palestine people tend to break Labour. So, it reinforces existing party divisions, which I think makes it more likely that this kind of thing will explode along party political lines,” Menon said.   

“With Israel-Gaza, you see it in a particularly acute form, particularly as well, of course, given the high levels of violence from both sides that we’ve seen during this awful war,” he added.  

Political observers say the Cabinet reshuffle and the surprise restoration of Cameron to front-line politics is an effort by Sunak to broaden his Conservative Party’s appeal, as it lags far behind Labour in the polls.  

Britain is due to hold an election before the end of 2024.  
…

Russian shelling hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson Monday, killing three people and injuring at least 12, including a 2-month-old infant, according to local governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Since their liberation last year, Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River have been regularly bombarded by Russians from Dnipro’s eastern bank. There are usually rounds of air alerts during the day.

Two people were killed and 10 more injured in an afternoon combined attack in the central part of the city, Prokudin said.

“Eight vehicles, including one ambulance, an administrative building, a hospital, and at least fifteen houses were destroyed or damaged,” he added.

In a separate message, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, a car was shot at in a suburb of Kherson, killing one person and wounding a 2-month-old infant and his mother.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky has been formally notified that he is suspected of treason for allegedly spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership and cooperation with Russia’s military intelligence, officials said on Monday.

In his own post on Telegram, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials.”

The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the suspect was a member of a criminal organization, created in 2016 and financed by Russia’s military intelligence.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and hamper Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a separate statement published on its website.

In January 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Dubinsky, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by then-president Donald Trump’s allies to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son.

Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation into the case.

Separately, a Ukrainian military officer is accused of allegedly coordinating last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Post reported.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

The Kremlin called the report alarming.

“It says that President Zelenskyy may not have been aware of such actions by his subordinates from the security agencies. This is a very alarming signal not only for us, but also for the countries of the collective West,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, Monday.

In a statement to The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel, Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he claims the case against him is politically motivated.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base. Although he is accused of acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

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

An ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been transferred from house arrest to a detention center, where she will be held for the remainder of her trial on extremism charges.

Ksenia Fadeyeva, who formerly ran Navalny’s office in the Siberian City of Tomsk, is the latest in a string of Russian crackdowns on political activists, independent journalists and rights workers.

Fadeyeva was also a member of the local legislature in Tomsk.

The transfer to a detention center comes after she was placed under house arrest three weeks ago for violating her restrictions. A prosecutor demanded the ruling be switched and she be jailed.

Fadeyeva is facing charges of extremism and has been placed on Russia’s “terrorist” list — though allies of hers have said she is only promoting “legal and open political activity.”

“The state cannot and does not want to punish real extremists,” Fadeyeva ally, Andrei Fateyev said.

Fadeyeva was arrested in 2022 and has since been forbidden from using the internet, communicating with others without permission and attending public events.

Her trial began in August and was closed to the media after it began.

Fadeyeva is one of many Navalny associates who have faced criminal charges, after Russia outlawed his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices. Many other allies of Navalny have fled Russia.

Navalny is serving a total of 19 years in prison on extremism and other charges he claims are politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Moscow has denied any involvement in his poisoning.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron made an unexpected return to high office Monday, becoming foreign secretary in a major shakeup of the Conservative government that also saw the firing of divisive Home Secretary Suella Braverman. 

Cameron, who led the U.K. government between 2010 and 2016 and triggered the country’s exit from the European Union, was appointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a Cabinet shuffle in which he sacked Braverman, a law-and-order hardliner who drew anger for accusing police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters. 

She was replaced by James Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary. Sunak was making further changes to the government throughout the day, with Environment Secretary Therese Coffey saying she would be leaving her job. 

The bold changes are an attempt by Sunak to reset his faltering government. The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years, but opinion polls for months have put them 15 to 20 points behind the opposition Labour Party amid a stagnating economy, persistently high inflation, an overstretched health care system and a wave of public sector strikes. 

Cameron’s appointment came as a surprise to seasoned politics-watchers. It’s rare for a non-lawmaker to take a senior government post, and it has been decades since a former prime minister held a Cabinet job. 

The government said Cameron had been appointed to Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords. The last foreign secretary to serve in the Lords, rather than the elected House of Commons, was Peter Carrington, who was part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s. 

Cameron, 57, said Britain was “facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.” 

“While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience — as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six — will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges,” he said in a statement. 

Cameron’s foreign policy legacy is mixed. As prime minister he backed NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011 that toppled Moammar Gadhafi and deepened that country’s chaos. In 2013, he tried and failed to gain Parliament’s backing for U.K. airstrikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria. He also announced a short-lived “golden era” in U.K.-China relations, shortly before that relationship soured. 

And he will be forever remembered as the unwitting author of Brexit, a rupture that roiled Britain’s politics, economy and place in the world. Cameron called a 2016 EU membership referendum, confident the country would vote to stay in the bloc. He resigned the day after voters opted to leave. 

Bronwen Maddox, director of international affairs think-tank Chatham House, said Cameron “will bring undoubted strengths into the top team and to the U.K.’s relationships abroad,” where many will welcome “a heavyweight and moderate foreign secretary.” 

“The concern must be, however, that these could be outweighed by the controversial legacy he brings too,” she said. 

Sunak was a strong backer of the winning “leave” side in the referendum. But his decision to appoint Cameron and sack Braverman is likely to infuriate the Conservative Party’s right wing and inflame tensions in the party that Sunak has sought to soothe. 

Prominent right-wing lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said sacking Braverman was “a mistake, because Suella understood what the British voter thought and was trying to do something about it.”

Sunak had been under growing pressure to fire Braverman — a hard-liner popular with the party’s authoritarian wing — from one of the most senior jobs in government, responsible for handling immigration and policing. 

In a highly unusual attack on the police last week, Braverman said London’s police force was ignoring lawbreaking by “pro-Palestinian mobs.” She described demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as “hate marchers.” 

On Saturday, far-right protesters scuffled with police and tried to confront a large pro-Palestinian march by hundreds of thousands through the streets of London. Critics accused Braverman of helping to inflame tensions. 

Last week, Braverman wrote an article for the Times of London in which she said police “play favorites when it comes to protesters” and acted more leniently toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than toward right-wing protesters or soccer hooligans. 

The article was not approved in advance by the prime minister’s office, as would usually be the case. 

Braverman said Monday that “it has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary,” adding that she would “have more to say in due course.” 

Braverman, a 43-year-old lawyer, has become a leader of the party’s populist wing by advocating ever-tougher curbs on migration and a war on human rights protections, liberal social values and what she has called the “tofu-eating wokerati.” Last month she called migration a “hurricane” that would bring “millions more immigrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable.” 

As home secretary, Braverman championed the government’s stalled plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain in boats on a one-way trip to Rwanda. A U.K. Supreme Court ruling on whether the policy is legal is due Wednesday. 

Critics say Braverman has been building her profile to position herself for a party leadership contest that could come if the Conservatives lose power in an election expected next year. 

Last month Sunak tried to paint his government as a force of change, saying he would break a “30-year status quo” that includes the governments of Cameron and other Conservative predecessors. 

“A few weeks ago, Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo. Now he’s bringing him back as his life raft,” said Labour lawmaker Pat McFadden. 
…

A Ukrainian military officer allegedly coordinated last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism. 

Germany, Denmark and Sweden have launched investigations into the Nord Stream explosions, which sent plumes of methane into the atmosphere in a leak that lasted several days.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Washington Post reported. 

On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he said the case against him is politically motivated.

“All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” Chervinsky said in a written statement to The Washington Post and Der Spiegel, which conducted a joint investigation of his role.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine, which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base.

Although he is accused on acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

During his nightly video address Sunday, President Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians to brace for new waves of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure as winter approaches.

“We are almost halfway through November and must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said, adding that troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern war front.

His warning comes a day after Russia renewed its missile attacks against Kyiv. 

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said late Saturday that the country has enough energy resources to get through the coming winter, but an expected surge in Russian attacks could disrupt the supply networks.

A military spokesperson said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day but were likely to intensify soon.

Ukrainian military intelligence said an explosion killed at least three Russian servicemen in the Russian-occupied southern town of Melitopol, which it described as an “act of revenge” by resistance groups.

Large elements of the mercenary Wagner Group have “likely” been absorbed into the command structure of Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardiya), the British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report on Ukraine.

This new faction is “likely” being led by Pavel Prigozhin, the son of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, who headed the group before his death in an airplane crash, weeks after staging a mutiny targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, the report says Wagner fighters and medical personnel have also joined Chechen special forces.

Russia is now “exercising more direct control” over Wagner Group activities, the British defense ministry said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed in principle to double the country’s military aid for Ukraine next year to 8 billion euros (about $8.5 billion), a political source in Berlin said Sunday.

If approved by parliament, where Scholz’s parties hold a majority, the boost would lift Germany’s defense spending to 2.1% of its gross domestic product target, beyond the 2% pledged by all NATO members, the source added.

Germany’s proposal comes amid reservations by multiple European Union countries, including Germany, about committing long-term military aid of up to $5 billion annually over four years as part of broader Western security commitments to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

Additionally, the EU is facing challenges meeting a target of supplying Kyiv with 1 million artillery shells and missiles by next March.  

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, and Agence France-Presse.
…

It is a familiar sight in this remote rural town: a migrant in a headscarf and thick winter coat carrying her belongings to the overcrowded reception center as a storm brews over the flat landscape.

For many here and across this nation once known as a beacon of tolerance, it is too familiar.

“Immigration is spiraling out of control,” Henk Tapper said while visiting his daughter in Ter Apel two weeks before the Netherlands votes in parliamentary elections on Nov. 22.

Candidates across the political spectrum are campaigning on pledges to tackle migration problems that are crystallized in Ter Apel, just over 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Amsterdam. Once mostly known for its monastery, the town has now become synonymous with Dutch struggles to accommodate large numbers of asylum-seekers.

In the summer of 2022, hundreds of migrants were forced to sleep outside because the reception center was full. The Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders sent a team to help the migrants, the first time it was forced to deploy within the Netherlands.

The center still is overcrowded, and locals complain of crime and public order problems blamed on migrants who wander in small groups through the village.

It is not only asylum-seekers, though. Political parties also are pledging to crack down on labor migrants and foreign students, who now make up some 40% of university enrollments.

Tapper said he plans to vote for anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party which advocates a halt in asylum-seekers and opting out of EU and United Nations agreements and treaties on refugees and asylum.

The migration debate in the Netherlands echoes across Europe, where governments and the European Union are seeking ways to rein in migration. Italy recently announced plans to house asylum-seekers in Albania.

In Germany, the center-left government and 16 state governors have agreed on a raft of measures to curb the high number of migrants flowing into the country. They include speeding up asylum procedures and restricting benefits for asylum-seekers.

Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte was part of an EU delegation visiting Tunisia over the summer to hammer out a deal with the North African nation intended to combat the often-lethal smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

Meanwhile, many Dutch voters are calling for tougher domestic policies in this country once famed for its open-arm approach to refugees dating all the way back to the Pilgrim Fathers who lived in Leiden after fleeing religious persecution in England and before setting sail for what is now the United States.

One of the leading candidates to succeed Rutte is herself a former refugee. Now, Dilan Yeşilgöz, leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) advocates making her adopted country less welcoming.

“Our laws, our regulations are … way more attractive than the laws and regulations of the countries around us, which makes us more attractive for people to come here,” she told The Associated Press.

Yeşilgöz is the daughter of Turkish human rights activists who fled to the Netherlands when she was a child.

“Being a refugee myself, I think it’s very important that … we take the decisions to make sure that true refugees have a safe place,” she said. “And politicians who refuse to take those difficult decisions they are saying to the true refugees, but also to the Dutch public: ‘You’re on your own.'”

The vote is shaping up to be very close, with the VVD and the recently formed conservative populist party New Social Contract leading in polls against a center-left bloc of Labor and Green Left.

According to the official Dutch statistics agency, just over 400,000 migrants arrived in the Netherlands last year — that includes asylum-seekers, foreigners coming to work in the Netherlands and overseas students. The number was pushed higher by thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war sparked by Russia’s invasion.

Ekram Jalboutt, born to Palestinian parents in a Syrian camp, has been granted asylum in the Netherlands and doesn’t like what she sees in the debate about migration. “I hate the idea of playing with this card of migration in this political game,” she said at the headquarters of the Dutch Refugee Council, where she now works.

The recently formed New Social Contract party wants to set a “guideline” ceiling of 50,000 migrants a year allowed into the Netherlands — including asylum-seekers, labor migrants and students. Along with the VVD, it wants to introduce an asylum system that differentiates between people fleeing persecution and those fleeing war. The latter group would have fewer rights, including the right to family reunifications. Acrimonious discussions on such moves brought down the last ruling Dutch coalition in July.

The number of new arrivals blends into another major problem Tapper highlighted— a chronic shortage of housing in this crowded nation of about 18 million people.

“There are houses for foreigners, and Dutch people can hardly get a house … that is a bit strange here in the Netherlands,” he said.

Advocates for cracking down on migration argue that people granted refugee status are also fast-tracked into scarce social housing and can leapfrog Dutch people who can languish for years on waiting lists.

The Dutch Refugee Council argues that refugees make up only a small proportion of people whose applications for social housing are fast-tracked.

“The political debate about asylum and migration is very polarized,” said Anna Strolenberg, a spokesperson for the council. “We see most political parties proposing solutions that are too simplistic, that are not realistic, and they’re actually capitalizing on the gut feelings of people.”
…

Russia plans to block certain Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and protocols that are deemed by a commission of experts to pose a threat, state news agency RIA reported, citing correspondence from the digital ministry.

Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

A 2017 Russian law obliged providers of VPN technology to cooperate with the Russian authorities and to restrict access to content banned by Russia or be banned themselves.

Many VPN services remain widely in use throughout Russia and there has been a public debate among lawmakers about how much further to go in blocking VPN services that still allow access to banned information but also a host of other information.

RIA quoted a reply from the digital ministry to an address by lawmaker Anton Tkachev who had raised concerns about what he said were plans to essentially block all VPNs, a step he said would increase pressure on Russians by cutting them off from using some simple household appliances.

“On the basis of a decision by the expert commission… the filtration of certain VPN services and VPN protocols can be carried out on the mobile communication network for foreign traffic which is identified as a threat,” RIA quoted the ministry as saying.

RIA said that the ministry said that circumvention of restrictions on certain information was considered a threat.
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Evacuations are underway in Iceland as civil defense authorities prepare for a possible volcanic eruption. The decision follows increased seismic activity indicating the flow of partially melted rock now underneath a fishing community. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Five U.S. service personnel were killed Friday when their aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a routine air refueling training mission, the U.S. Defense Department said Sunday.

The U.S. European Command gave no further details of the incident or where it occurred but said the crash did not involve hostile fire. It said the names of those killed would not be released until 24 hours after their relatives had been notified.

The U.S. military has deployed two aircraft carriers, their supporting ships and dozens of aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean since Hamas militants’ surprise October 7 attack on Israel, to act as a deterrent to a spread of the conflict.

Nearby U.S. military aircraft and ships began an immediate search for the wreckage, while authorities said they were opening an investigation into the cause of the crash.

In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid tribute to the five who were killed, saying the “daily bravery and selflessness” of the country’s service members “is an enduring testament to what is best in our nation. Jill and I are praying for the families and friends who have lost a precious loved one — a piece of their soul.”
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Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday calling for more action to tackle climate change, in a mass protest just 10 days before a national election. 

Organizers claimed that 70,000 people took part in the march and called it the biggest climate protest ever in the Netherlands. 

Activist Greta Thunberg was among those walking through the historic heart of the Dutch capital. She and former European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans, who now leads a center-left, two-party bloc in the election campaign, were among speakers due to address a crowd that gathered on a square behind the landmark Rijksmuseum. 

“We live in a time of crises, all of which are the result of the political choices that have been made. It has to be done and it can be done differently,” organizer the Climate Crisis Coalition said in a statement. 

While the coalition included the Fridays for Future youth movement, protesters were all ages and included a large contingent of medics in white coats carrying a banner emblazoned with the text: “Climate crisis = health crisis.” 

“I am a pediatrician. I’m here standing up for the rights of children,” said Laura Sonneveld. “Children are the first to be affected by climate change.” 

Tackling climate change is one of the key policy areas for political parties contesting the Nov. 22 general election. 

“It is time for us to protest about government decisions,” said Margje Weijs, a Spanish teacher and youth coach. “I hope this influences the election.” 

 
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A lion prowled the streets of an Italian seaside town for several hours Saturday after escaping from a local circus, before being sedated and captured.

Alessandro Grando, mayor of Ladispoli, near Rome, had warned residents to stay at home while police and circus staff sought to catch the animal.

Videos later published by Italian media, apparently taken by locals but not confirmed by AFP, showed the adult lion walking through dark and deserted streets.

In a Facebook post around 10:30pm (2130 GMT), more than five hours after his original message raising the alarm, Grando said the lion had been “sedated and captured.”

“Now he will be taken in hand by the circus staff,” he wrote, thanking emergency services and volunteers who helped during “these hours of great concern.”

“I hope that this episode can stir some consciences, and that we can finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses,” the mayor added.

Anticipating residents’ complaints, he earlier said he had not authorized the presence of a circus with lions in the town, but said he did not have the power to block it.
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Large elements of the Wagner mercenary Group have “likely” been absorbed into the command structure of Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardiya), the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report on Ukraine.

This new faction is “likely” being led by Pavel Prigozhin, the son of the late Yevgeny Prigozin, who headed the group before his death in an airplane crash, weeks after staging a mutiny targeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In addition, the report says Wagner fighters and medical personnel have also joined Chechen special forces.

Russia is now “exercising more direct control” over Wagner Group activities, the British Defense Ministry said.

Kherson residents in Eastern Ukraine are marking one year since the liberation of their city from occupying Russian forces. And though they experience constant shelling from the left bank of the Dnipro River, where Russian troops are positioned, they say they have become resilient against such attacks.

Municipal workers are accustomed to wearing bullet-proof vests and staying ready to sweep up the rubble from yet another strike.

Between lulls of artillery fire coming from the river, Ukrainians venture out to buy food, bicycle down grassy residential lanes, or gather in the few restaurants that remain open.

“When you have lived under occupation, you know what freedom means,” say residents marking the anniversary of their city’s liberation, on Nov. 11, 2022.

“It’s why we have a special attitude toward the continued shelling. We can withstand it because we know how it could be worse,” said Grigori Malov, who owns one of the three restaurants still operating in the city.

Russia launched a missile attack Saturday on Kyiv and the nearby region and pounded the east and south of the country with drones, Ukrainian officials said.

“After a long pause of 52 days, the enemy has resumed missile attacks on Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. “The missile failed to reach Kyiv, air defenders shot it down as it was approaching the capital,” he said.

Russian anti-aircraft units downed two Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region and Smolensk region to the west near the border with Belarus, the Russian Defense Ministry said early Saturday.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The British Defense Ministry reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry Medvedev have issued documents described by the British ministry as the “weaponization of history … aimed at inculcating anti-Westernism in the minds of the Russian population and intimidating its immediate Western neighbors.”

In Saturday’s intelligence update on Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Putin’s publication is a collection of 242 documents entitled, “On the historical unity of the Russians and Ukrainians.” The documents, from the 11th century to the 20th century, are Putin’s attempt to justify the Kremlin’s current Ukraine policy and features “interpretative comments” from the president.

Medvedev’s publication is an article the British ministry says he “ostensibly wrote” about the history of Russian-Polish relations. He accuses Poland of engaging in “aggressive revisionist Russophobic policy,” according to the British ministry, and he threatens Poland with a military attack.

EU aid to Ukraine

Meanwhile, European Union countries are having reservations about committing a long-term fund of $21.4 billion in military aid for Ukraine as its grinding military campaign continues against Russia’s invasion.

EU defense ministers prepared to discuss the plan Tuesday in Brussels. It was proposed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last July. However, diplomats say multiple countries, including Germany, have voiced reservations about committing up to $5 billion annually over four years as part of broader Western security commitments to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

The EU has provided aid in the form of arms and equipment worth $26 billion, according to the bloc’s diplomatic service.

“Germany has had a lot of questions … and rightfully so. We’re talking about a lot of money,” said a senior diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

The debate over military aid comes as EU nations are also debating a proposal to give Ukraine almost $54 billion in economic assistance.

Some EU members have argued they will struggle to make a big long-term pledge as domestic budgets are squeezed.

“For some member states, there is the reality of the public finances,” said a second EU diplomat.

Additionally, the EU is also facing challenges meeting a target of supplying Kyiv with 1 million artillery shells and missiles by March next year.

Obstacles from Hungary

For months, Hungary has been holding up more than $500 million in payouts from the Peace Facility to EU members for Ukraine aid over Ukraine’s blacklisting of a Hungarian bank, OTP.

Since the bank was removed from the blacklist, Hungary has insisted on guarantees it will not return there.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday he does not support moving forward on negotiations about Ukraine’s accession in the European Union, signaling that his country could be an obstacle to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the bloc.

Unanimity among all member states is required to admit a new country into the bloc, giving Orban a powerful veto.

In an interview with state radio Friday, Orban said Ukraine is nowhere near gaining membership in the world’s largest trading bloc.

“The clear Hungarian position is that the negotiations must not begin,” he said.

Orban’s government has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons in the war against Russia. It also accuses Ukraine of violating the rights of an ethnic Hungarian minority in western Ukraine by restricting its use of the Hungarian language in schools.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Huseyin Buyukdag says he loves Turkey and his job as a teacher. But with the rampant economic crisis and growing repression in his country, he said he and his wife have decided to try and find a better life in Germany.

They are among a growing number of young and educated looking to leave Turkey, where rights and freedoms are being eroded and inflation is surging under increasingly authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After Erdogan secured a third term in office in May elections, things are unlikely to change, he says.

“Even if I don’t want this, even if I hate this, I will … leave this beautiful country,” the 27-year-old English teacher told The Associated Press.

Buyukdag and his wife, a nurse, live in the impoverished southeastern province of Sirnak. Their government-appointed jobs bring the two roughly up to $1,750 a month — over the official poverty line of $1,564.

It’s enough to make ends meet in their border province but far short of what is needed in big cities like Istanbul or the capital, Ankara, and nowhere enough for a young couple to save or start a family.

Turkey, a country of more than 84 million people hit by a series of crises in recent years, saw the official annual inflation rate hit 61% last month, though some economists believe the real figure is double that number.

For many, the way out is through education visas to study abroad or work permits. TurkStat, the government’s statistics bureau, said 139,531 Turkish citizens left the country in 2022, compared to 103,613 in 2021. Those age 25-29 formed the biggest group.

The numbers are a significant increase from 77,810 Turks who left in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak.

The brain drain is separate from the hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants and those escaping wars and troubles at home, like in Syria or Iraq, who use Turkey as a route to Europe, often setting off on dangerous voyages across the Mediterranean Sea with the help of people smugglers. 

Sociologist and author Besim Dellaloglu attributes some of the exodus of the “uppermost educated layers of society” to an erosion of democratic norms.

“I do not have the impression that this migration will be reversed without decreasing polarization in Turkey,” he said.

Most likely to emigrate are medical professionals and IT specialists, Dellaloglu said, but also highly trained individuals from all sectors.

Ahmet Akkoc, a 24-year-old IT engineer, left two years ago to study for a master’s degree in Denmark but then found a job in Copenhagen and decided to stay.

“I had an area that I wanted to specialize in and there was absolutely no demand for that specialization in Turkey,” he said.

In 2022, more than 2,600 doctors applied for the necessary documents from the Turkish Medical Association to be able to practice outside the country. Physicians mostly cited small salaries, grueling working conditions and an uptick in violence by disgruntled patients as reasons for their decision.

In one of his speeches last year, an angry Erdogan said all doctors who wanted to can “go ahead and leave.” He later softened his tone, saying those who left would soon return as Turkey holds the promise of a “bright future.”

Many other Turks prefer to stay, even with an increasingly polarized society.

“I can understand the people who are leaving, some things really need to change,” said Fatma Zehra Eksi, a 22-year-old student from Istanbul who says she is a reluctant supporter of Erdogan. “But if we … leave because we are not comfortable here, then there will be no one left here to change things.”

Serap Ilgin, a 26-year-old copywriter in Istanbul said she grew up with the values of secular Turkey and its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“Leaving is not a solution, on the contrary, I think we need to stay here and fight,” she said.

The growing discontent comes as Turkey marks the 100th anniversary of Ataturk’s proclamation of a secular republic, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

For his part, Erdogan has heralded the next era as the “Century of Turkey,” promising to make Turkey a global power.

Some aspiring emigrants suggest that these days, even getting tourist visas — seen as a stepping-stone to emigration — has become a challenge for Turks.

Reports in Turkish media and many would-be emigrants interviewed by the AP say European countries have tightened visa restrictions for Turkish travelers. In particular, the rate of visa rejections has spiked, and the application process has become more complex, they say.

“All this treatment makes you feel like you are living in a Third World country,” said Ahmet Batuhan Turk, who recently applied to travel to Denmark. “I guess we are.”

He said the visa process now requires more documents amid stricter checks by European Union countries. However, the AP found no evidence of this, and EU officials have denied it.

Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, the EU envoy to Turkey, said rejections in Turkey were below the global average.

“The European Union has no policy of preventing visas from being issued to Turkish citizens,” he told the Hurriyet newspaper in June.

Often, where demand is high like in Turkey, diplomatic missions outsource the visa application process to third-party companies.

Kerem Cetinalp works as a consultant for Turks applying for visas through such processing centers, advising them on documents they need to put together and how to submit their applications.

The high demand has led to applicants having trouble finding visa appointments, Cetinalp told the AP outside VfSGlobal, a processing center that helps with visas for France and Poland.

Cetinalp said some people were applying for political asylum even though their reason for wanting to leave is economic. This creates confusion and wariness in the West toward Turkish applicants, he said.

Erdogan has accused the EU of “political blackmail” in restricting travel for Turkish nationals, without providing evidence of those alleged restrictions.

His government has vowed to reverse the brain drain and sees the alleged visa rejections as a move to undermine Erdogan’s popularity by making Turks feel they can’t travel freely to Europe. Erdogan has pressed a campaign for return, offering grants and positions to academics working abroad. He said 6,000 had returned under the plan.

But Buyukdag, the teacher, said he and his wife have stepped up their efforts to leave a country where he said he could lose his job for saying the “wrong things.”

“In Germany or in any Western country, you are a valuable person,” he said. “In Turkey, you are not a valuable person because you can be called a traitor any time.” 
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Latvia’s president says Russia is planning for a long war in Ukraine and he has a message for countries wavering on continuing military support to Kyiv: Keep supplying arms or the Ukrainians will lose and Russia will have a green light for threatening others in the future.

Edgars Rinkēvičs said in an interview with The Associated Press that “it is important to actually fight for international peace, and peace in Europe, because if we stop Russia in Ukraine, then Russia is not going to be able to challenge other countries.”

He pointed to the disruptive role that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is playing in Africa and to Russian meetings with officials from Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s ruling militants whose surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people.

In July, Rinkēvičs was sworn in as president of Latvia, which was part of the Soviet Union until its break-up in August 1991. The Baltic nation, population 1.9 million, in 2004 joined both the European Union and NATO, holding a key point on their eastern flank with its 214-kilometer border with Russia.

Rinkēvičs, who was Latvia’s foreign minister for 13 years before being elected president, said that despite some members of the 27-nation EU having “their opinions,” at the end of the day the alliance has agreed on sanctioning Russia and on providing more support to Ukraine over Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

“Interestingly enough, at this point, the EU is more divided when it comes to the Middle East, rather than to Ukraine,” he said in Thursday’s interview.

He said it is important for the West to support both Ukraine and Israel against attacks on “our values” and the international order. He also stressed the need to push for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza fighting to provide assistance to Palestinian civilians, whose death toll in Israel’s retaliation for the Hamas attack has topped 11,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Rinkēvičs said Iran is “very pleased to see this kind of development in the Middle East,” and pointed to Tehran’s supply of arms and other equipment to Russia for its fight in Ukraine.

It’s in NATO’s security interests “that both cases are viewed the same way,” he said. “I do believe also that it will be much easier for us to keep peace in Europe if Ukraine succeeds rather than we let Ukraine down, or for that matter, also to let the situation in the Middle East to get out of control.”

Rinkēvičs said Ukrainian soldiers are fighting “in a very brave way” and the West has the responsibility to respond to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal for more weapons, “because we have not provided as much as we should have.”

He said Russia is mobilizing its economy, resources and military machinery “for a very long war.” It tried to win the war quickly and realized it can’t, and now Moscow wants to “strangle” Ukraine, he said, predicting it will reprise attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the coming months, as it did last winter.

Rinkēvičs said the EU and NATO need to prepare for a long war in Ukraine.

“The EU has realized that we need more defense and military,” he said. “And at this point, I would love to see that this is going to be a bit faster process. But still, those things are now finally moving.”

But many European members of NATO still need to reach the target of spending 2% of GDP on defense, he said, adding that Latvia expects to spend 2.4% of GDP on defense next year and 3% in 2027. Europe’s defense industrial production needs to be increased, he added.

Many experts and officials have said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hope is to outlast Western support for Ukraine in a long war.

“I think this is very important that he fails,” Rinkēvičs said.

If the world sees that Europe and the United State are failing to provide support to Ukraine, he said, “then I think that is going to be increasing pressure on Israel.”

“Also, I think that Iran is going to be more assertive,” he said. “Let’s also not forget about the whole Asia region, and let’s not forget about Taiwan.”

The Latvian leader said Russia is turning from an autocracy to a totalitarian regime and resorting to propaganda worse than the Cold War.

They are showing “brutal pictures or video or animation videos about destroying cities in Europe, or the United States, using nuclear weapons, saying that the use of nuclear weapons is actually just a piece of cake,” he said.

They are calling Ukrainians “kind of a lower human race — it’s very much resembling what Nazi Germany was saying about the Jews,” he added.

Rinkēvičs, who is in New York to launch Latvia’s bid for a U.N. Security Council seat in 2026-27, announced in 2014 that he is gay and is one of Europe’s few LGBTQ+ heads of state.

If people can accept a gay head of state, Rinkēvičs said, “then I believe that very quickly also they are going to be more inclusive, more open to the whole community. That’s the message also I hope will be received everywhere else.”
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An American military aircraft crashed after suffering a “mishap” during training in the eastern Mediterranean, the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said Saturday. 

It did not specify the type of plane or where it was flying from, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the area as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a regional conflict. 

“On the evening of November 10, a U.S. military aircraft conducting training operations in the eastern Mediterranean suffered a mishap and went down,” EUCOM said in a statement that did not provide information on the fate of the crew. 

“We can definitively say that the aircraft sortie was purely related to training and there are no indications of hostile activity,” the statement said, adding, “the cause of the training incident is currently under investigation.” 

Washington rushed military support to Israel and bolstered its forces in the region — including with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and other warships — after the Hamas militant group carried out a cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people. 

Israel’s military has responded with an air, land and naval assault on Gaza that the territory’s health ministry said has left more than 11,000 people dead.  

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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Tens of thousands are expected to march Sunday in Paris against antisemitism amid bickering by political parties over who should take part and a surge in antisemitic incidents across France. 

More than 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed in the capital to maintain security at the “great civic march,” according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. 

On the eve of the march, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism” in the country.  

“A France where our Jewish citizens are afraid is not France. A France where French people are afraid because of their religion or their origin is not France,” he wrote in a letter published late Saturday in the daily Le Parisien.  

He said Sunday’s “great civic march” should show France as “united behind its values, its universalism.”  

Earlier Saturday, however, Macron said he would attend the march only “in my heart and in my thoughts.” 

Thousands of antisemitic acts 

Tensions have been rising in the French capital, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, in the wake of the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by a month of Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip. 

France has recorded nearly 12,250 antisemitic acts since the attack. 

National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet and Gerard Larcher, the Senate speaker, called Tuesday for a “general mobilization” at the march against the upsurge in antisemitism. 

They are to lead the march behind a banner stating, “For the Republic, against antisemitism.” 

LFI plans to boycott event

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party said it would boycott the event while the far-right National Rally (RN) plans to turn out. 

“The more people there are, the better,” said far-right leader Marine Le Pen. 

She added that she was ready to march “at the back” if her attendance was a problem.  

Government spokesperson Olivier Veran said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would attend. 

But the RN “does not have a place” in the march, Veran said. 

Communist leader Fabien Roussel said he would “not march alongside” the RN, accusing it of being descended from people who were “repeatedly condemned for antisemitic remarks” and who “collaborated” with Nazi Germany. 

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon dismissed the march, describing it as a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza. 

Prosecutors investigate incidents

Among the long list of recent antisemitic acts, Paris prosecutors are investigating an incident on October 31, when buildings in the city and suburbs were daubed with dozens of Stars of David.  

The graffiti, which brought back memories of the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II and deportation of Jews to death camps, was condemned across the political spectrum. 

The October 7 attack in Israel which saw about 1,200 killed, mainly civilians, and 240 people taken hostage, triggered the deadliest ever war in Gaza. 

According to the Hamas-run healthy ministry in the besieged territory, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 11,000 people, many of them children.  
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Residents of a fishing town in southwestern Iceland left their homes Saturday after increasing concern about a potential volcanic eruption caused civil defense authorities to declare a state of emergency in the region.

Police decided to evacuate Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved south toward the town and monitoring indicated that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, now extends under the community, Iceland’s Meteorological Office said. The town of 3,400 is on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik.

“At this stage, it is not possible to determine exactly whether and where magma might reach the surface,” the Meteorological Office said.

Authorities also raised their aviation alert to orange, indicating an increased risk of a volcanic eruption. Volcanic eruptions pose a serious hazard to aviation because they can spew highly abrasive ash high into the atmosphere, where it can cause jet engines to fail, damage flight control systems and reduce visibility.

A major eruption in Iceland in 2010 caused widespread disruption to air travel between Europe and North America, costing airlines an estimated $3 billion as they canceled more than 100,000 flights.

The evacuation comes after the region was shaken by hundreds of small earthquakes every day for more than two weeks as scientists monitor a buildup of magma some 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) underground.

Concern about a possible eruption increased in the early hours Thursday when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake hit the area, forcing the internationally known Blue Lagoon geothermal resort to close temporarily.

The seismic activity started in an area north of Grindavik where there is a network of 2,000-year-old craters, geology professor Pall Einarrson, told Iceland’s RUV. The magma corridor is about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long and spreading, he said.

“The biggest earthquakes originated there, under this old series of craters, but since then it [the magma corridor] has been getting longer, went under the urban area in Grindavík and is heading even further and towards the sea,” he said. 
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