The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday called on Moscow to immediately release American journalist Evan Gershkovich. 

Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s actions were “beyond cruel” and “a violation of international law.” 

Gershkovich has been detained in Russia since March 29 on espionage charges that he and his publication, The Wall Street Journal, deny. The Moscow-based reporter was arrested while on assignment in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg.

In her remarks, Thomas-Greenfield urged the international community and U.N. member states to “stand with us, to stand on the side of justice, and to condemn Russia’s flagrant violations of international law.” 

“No family should have to watch their loved one being used as a political pawn, and that’s exactly what [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is doing,” Thomas-Greenfield added.  

Russia’s embassy in Washington did not respond to an email from VOA requesting comment.

Gershkovich’s parents and his sister also joined Thomas-Greenfield at the U.N. on Wednesday. They spoke of the emotional toll of the more than five months’ imprisonment. 

“We are still in shock. Every day is a day too long. I miss him every day,” said Ella Milman, Gershkovich’s mother. “He cares deeply about people. His reporting has kept the world informed. And we all miss reading his stories.”   

On Tuesday, lawyers representing the Journal’s publisher Dow Jones requested that the U.N.’s working group on arbitrary detention declare Gershkovich arbitrarily detained and push Russia to release him immediately.

The U.S. government has already declared the journalist wrongfully detained.

If the U.N. determines that Gershkovich’s detention is arbitrary, it would publish an opinion on the matter and issue recommendations to the Kremlin, according to the Journal.   

With heads of state convening at the U.N. General Assembly this month, Mikhail Gershkovich, Evan’s father, said, “We urge all world leaders to stand with Evan and what he represents.”

“The basic right of free press and freedom of expression — these rights are bedrock principles of the United Nations,” he added at the press conference.

In response to a question about a potential prisoner swap, Thomas-Greenfield said she couldn’t share details.

“We are working around the clock. We’re working diligently to have Evan, as well as others who have been wrongfully detained, released,” she said.

She also called for the release of American businessman and former Marine Paul Whelan, whom Russia sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which Whelan and the U.S. government deny.

Gershkovich’s sister, Danielle, said that instead of advocating for her brother’s release, the family should be planning for his next visit home.

“Evan should be doing the important work of helping people understand matters in the world that affect us all,” she said.

“Instead, we are here to remind the world that Evan is innocent, and journalism is not a crime. We ask that world leaders help find a solution to secure Evan’s release,” she said. “If this can happen to my brother, it can happen to any journalist trying to report the news.”

Gershkovich’s arrest came as Russia imposed an even tougher crackdown on independent media after its invasion of Ukraine. 

Shortly after the war, Moscow introduced new laws defining how media could cover the conflict, which carry hefty prison sentences. 

Two weeks ago, it labeled the Nobel laureate and renowned Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov a foreign agent.

In early September, a court in Russia sentenced a journalist to five and a half years in prison for spreading what authorities said was fake news about the armed forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  

The country ranks 164 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, where 1 shows the best media environment, according to Reporters Without Borders.  
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A fishing vessel owned by Greenland’s government will attempt to use a high tide to pull free a Bahamas-flagged luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people that ran aground in the world’s northernmost national park, authorities said.

Capt. Flemming Madsen of the Danish Joint Arctic Command told The Associated Press that the passengers and crew on the ship stranded in northwestern Greenland were doing fine and “all I can say is that they got a lifetime experience.”

The scientific fishing vessel was scheduled to arrive later Wednesday and would attempt, when the conditions were right, to pull the 104.4-meter-long (343 feet) and 18-meter-wide (60 feet) MV Ocean Explorer free.

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park. The park covers 972,000 square kilometers (603,973 square miles), almost as much land as France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet, according to the Visit Greenland tourism board.

Alpefjord sits in a remote corner of Greenland, some 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Ocean Explorer’s crew made two failed attempts to get the ship to float free on its own during high tide.

In a statement, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, which operates the ship, said that the passengers and crew members were safe and well and that there was “no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel or the surrounding environment.”

“We are actively engaged in efforts to free the MV Ocean Explorer from its grounding. Our foremost commitment is to ensure the vessel’s recovery without compromising safety,” the statement said.

Dozens of cruise ships sail along Greenland’s coast every year so passengers can admire the picturesque mountainous landscape with fjords, musk oxen, waterways packed with icebergs of different sizes and glaciers jutting out into the sea.

Madsen, of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command, said the passengers on the Ocean Explorer were “a mix” of tourists from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and South Korea. Greenland is a semi-independent territory that is part of the Danish realm, as are the Faeroe Islands.

The people onboard “are in a difficult situation, but given the circumstances, the atmosphere on the ship is good, and everyone on board is doing well. There are no signs that the ship was seriously damaged by the grounding,” the Joint Arctic Command said Wednesday.

The weather in the region Wednesday featured sun, a clear blue sky and a temperature around 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.

The Ocean Explorer was built in 2021 and is owned by Copenhagen SunStone Ships, which is part of Denmark’s SunStone Group. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine. It has 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants, according to the Sunstone Group website.

The Joint Arctic Command said there were other ships in the vicinity of the stranded cruise liner and, “if the need arises, personnel from the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol can be at the accident site within an hour and a half.”

On Tuesday, members of the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, visited the passengers and explained the situation, “which calmed them down as some were anxious,” said Madsen, who was the on-duty officer for the Joint Arctic Command.

The command, which was coordinating the operation to free the cruise ship, said the nearest Danish navy ship was about 1,200 nautical miles (more than 2,000 kilometers or 1,380 miles) away. It was heading to the site and could be expected to reach the grounded ship as soon as Friday.

The primary mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to ensure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the area around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, including the Arctic Ocean in the north.
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A government watchdog agency in France has ordered Apple to withdraw the iPhone 12 from the French market, saying it emits levels of electromagnetic radiation that are too high.

The National Frequency Agency, which oversees radio-electric frequencies as well as public exposure to electromagnetic radiation, called on Apple in a statement Tuesday to “implement all available means to rapidly fix this malfunction” for phones already being used.

Corrective updates to the iPhone 12 will be monitored by the agency, and if they don’t work, “Apple will have to recall” phones that have already been sold, according to the French regulator’s statement.

Apple disputed the findings and said the device complies with all regulations governing radiation.

The agency, which is known by the French acronym ANFR, said it recently checked 141 cellphones, including the iPhone 12, for electromagnetic waves capable of being absorbed by the body.

It said it found a level of electromagnetic energy absorption of 5.74 watts per kilogram during tests of a phone in a hand or a pocket, higher than the European Union standard of 4 watts per kilogram.

The agency said the iPhone 12 met the threshold when radiation levels were assessed for a phone kept in a jacket or in a bag.

Apple said the iPhone 12, which was released in late 2020, has been certified by multiple international bodies and complies with all applicable regulations and standards for radiation around the world.

The U.S. tech company said it has provided the French agency with multiple lab results carried out both by the company and third-party labs proving the phone’s compliance.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s minister in charge of digital issues, told France Info radio that the National Frequency Agency “is in charge of controlling our phones which, as there are software updates, may emit a little more or a little less electromagnetic waves.”

He said that the iPhone 12 radiation levels are “slightly higher” than the standards but “significantly lower than levels where scientific studies consider there may be consequences for users. But the rule is the rule.”

Cellphones have been labeled as “possible” carcinogens by the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm, putting them in the same category as coffee, diesel fumes and the pesticide DDT. The radiation produced by cellphones cannot directly damage DNA and is different from stronger types of radiation like X-rays or ultraviolet light.

In 2018, two U.S. government studies that bombarded mice and rats with cellphone radiation found a weak link to some heart tumors, but federal regulators and scientists said it was still safe to use the devices. Scientists said those findings didn’t reflect how most people use their cellphones and that the animal findings didn’t translate into a similar concern for humans.

Among the largest studies on potential dangers of cellphone use, a 2010 analysis in 13 countries found little or no risk of brain tumors.

People’s mobile phone habits also have changed substantially since the first studies began and it’s unclear if the results of previous research would still apply today.

Since many tumors take years to develop, experts say it’s difficult to conclude that cellphones have no long-term health risks. Experts have recommended that people concerned about their cellphone radiation exposure use earphones or switch to texting.
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Two U.K.-based activists have described troubling interactions with a researcher in the British parliament who was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

The 28-year-old suspect, whose name has been withheld by British police because he has not been formally charged, worked in the China Research Group in Westminster as a researcher and had a parliamentary pass. He has insisted on his innocence and is currently free on bail.

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong human rights activist currently in the U.K. and wanted by the Hong Kong authorities, told VOA Mandarin he had an unusual coffee meeting with the suspect, who initially expressed support for Lau’s work.

But when Lau mentioned plans to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in British politics and raised objections to a sister-city partnership between cities in the two countries, the man suddenly said that he was busy and left in a hurry, Lau recounted.

Lau said he made repeated attempts to continue communication with the man but received no response to his emails. “I was very shocked when I saw his name in the newspaper,” Lau said.

The suspect also left a strongly negative impression on Luke de Pulford, the founder and executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international cross-party group of legislators that urges their governments to take a tougher approach to China.

Writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, de Pulford said the suspect “had an impact upon the China debate in the U.K. Parliament. He made my job harder. He hated @ipacglobal and worked to cleave people away from the IPAC network.”

De Pulford wrote in a series of posts that the suspect “briefed very strongly against some politicians in our network, and against me personally. … Privately, he was vicious – telling journalists that I was ‘dangerous’ and ‘not to be trusted on China.'”

De Pulford described the suspect as “an authoritative and knowledgeable voice” and incredibly clever.

“He hid behind a visage of ‘reasoned hawkishness,'” de Pulford wrote, describing the treatment of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province as “terrible” but then seeking to minimize the horror.

“Using this kind of argument he blunted the unity of the parliamentary campaign,” de Pulford wrote. “You could go as far as to say that he divided the China hawks. He was rhetorically very sophisticated. Never pushed it too far. Used his credentials deftly and reasonably.”

Reports of the researcher’s arrest have prompted questions about the level of security in the British Parliament and whether individuals are adequately vetted before being hired into sensitive positions.

David Moore, a policy researcher in the House of Commons, told VOA Mandarin the vetting process for obtaining a parliamentary pass is “relatively thorough. They ask for your previous addresses, charges and convictions. In theory, it’s quite a strong system. But the question is, how far do they delve into that? My concern is they might just be rubber-stamping applications without a genuine review.”

Moore pointed out potential security threats. “Anyone can walk into the Parliament and go to a committee room. One can easily sneak off, or even worse, personnel can let in visitors, posing national security risks. Anyone with a parliamentary pass has quite a bit of power.”

David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, called it “deeply disturbing” that parliamentary passes had been issued to an alleged Chinese Communist Party spy, enabling him to have full access to the parliamentary estate.

He told VOA Mandarin in an email, “This, in turn, gives them access to confidential information, provides an opportunity to influence Members and staff, and to subvert the workings of Parliament.”

He said, historically, the failure to detect the penetration of spies from hostile states resulted in a dilution of trust by Britain’s allies and deterred them from talking to senior members of Parliament.

However, Isabel Hilton, a Scottish journalist and founder of the China Dialogue Trust, told VOA Mandarin in an email: “We do not have much evidence about the alleged breach, but given that the suspect was arrested in March, then released on police bail, I conclude that he was not regarded either as a flight risk or a national security risk.”

“This researcher had no access to classified information,” Hilton continued. “If he was reporting to Beijing, it would have been information about how [members of Parliament] were thinking about China and what they were doing.

“At best, he could have reported on internal conversations. Clearly all pass-holders should be vetted, as I believe they are, and if these allegations are substantiated, there should perhaps be closer coordination between different branches of the security services.”
…

The British government has rejected calls to officially label China a threat to its interests. Several lawmakers have called for a tougher line from the government after it was revealed that a researcher in the British parliament was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

Spying suspects

British police detained two men in March on suspicion of breaking Britain’s Official Secrets Act. The arrests came to light this week, when the Sunday Times newspaper reported that one of the suspects was a researcher in the British parliament with connections to several prominent members of the ruling Conservative Party, including government ministers.

In a statement posted online Monday by his lawyers, the researcher — whom VOA is choosing not to name because he had not been charged — said he was innocent.

“I have spent my career to date trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party. To do what has been claimed against me in extravagant news reporting would be against everything I stand for,” the statement said.

Diplomatic response

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised the incident with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at last week’s G20 summit in India. Speaking to lawmakers Monday, Sunak said he would defend British democracy.

“The whole House is rightly appalled about reports of espionage in this building,” Sunak said. “The sanctity of this place must be protected and the right of members to speak their minds without fear or sanction must be maintained. We will defend our democracy and our security. So, I was emphatic with Premier Li that actions which seek to undermine British democracy are completely unacceptable and will never be tolerated,” Sunak added.

However, the prime minister did not say that Britain would officially recognize China as a threat to its interests.

Beijing, meanwhile, said the allegations of spying were a fabrication. “We urge the U.K. to stop spreading false information and stop its anti-China political manipulation and malicious slander,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters Monday in Beijing.

Security threat

Critics say Britain must be more critical of China, following a series of allegations over security breaches, including the harassment of exiled pro-democracy activists in the U.K. and the establishment of overseas police stations on British soil. Beijing denies those allegations.

Finn Lau helped to organize pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019. After his arrest by Chinese police, the 29-year-old fled to Britain. He suffered serious injuries following an attack in a London street in 2020, which he blames on supporters of the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities issued a bounty of $128,000 for his arrest, along with several other exiled activists.

Lau told VOA he has repeatedly requested meetings with the British government to discuss the security threat but has so far been refused.

“I would say that there is some kind of lack of coherent approach, or even China policy at the moment — especially regarding national security or some kind of threat overseas,” Lau told VOA.

That view has been echoed by several British lawmakers. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss is among Conservative Party members calling on the government to officially recognize China as a threat to Britain.

“These are extremely worrying reports about the level of infiltration of Chinese-supported forces into our democracy. … What we need to do is to recognize that China is the largest threat, both to the world and to the United Kingdom, for freedom and democracy,” Truss told lawmakers Monday.

Economic ties

The British government describes China as a challenge to its interests, but not a threat.

Speaking to reporters Monday during a visit to the BMW Mini car factory in Oxford, Britain’s business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, said economic ties could be at risk.

“We cannot describe China as foes. They are our fourth-largest trading partner. There are many businesses, not least of all the very one I’m standing in, which are integrated with the Chinese economy. Many jobs are reliant on it,” Badenoch said.

Activist Finn Lau says that reliance is overstated. “China only accounts for 6.1% of total trade volume in the U.K. We should focus on diversifying our trading relationships, starting from today,” he told VOA.

Both of the suspects arrested in March were released on bail. The police investigation is continuing.
…

The British government has rejected calls to officially label China as a threat to its interests. Several lawmakers have called for a tougher line after it was revealed that a researcher in the British Parliament was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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From zero to 100 kph in less than a second: A racing car built by students has broken the world record for electric vehicle acceleration, a Swiss university said Tuesday. 

Students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences designed and built the “Mythen” vehicle that achieved the feat, ETHZ said in a statement. 

“Now, Guinness World Records has confirmed that Mythen broke the previous world acceleration record for electric vehicles,” it said. 

Covering a distance of 12.3 meters (40.4 feet) at the Switzerland Innovation Park in Dübendorf, opposite the students’ workshop, the car was powered from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (zero to 62.15 miles per hour) in 0.956 seconds. 

“This beats the previous world record of 1.461 seconds, set in September 2022 by a team from the University of Stuttgart by more than a third,” ETHZ said. 

According to the statement, around 30 student members of the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) had spent the better part of a year on the project. 

All the components, “from the printed circuit boards (PCBs) to chassis and the battery, were developed by the students themselves and optimized for their function,” it said. 

The vehicle weighs just 140 kilograms (309 pounds) and boasts 240 kilowatts of power, or around 326 horsepower.  

The vehicle’s driver was named as Kate Maggetti, a friend of students involved in the project, who was selected “due to her light body weight” and “willingness to take on the challenge,” Yann Bernard, head of motor at AMZ, told AFP. 

“Working on the project in addition to my studies was very intense,” Bernard added in the statement.  

“But even so, it was a lot of fun working with other students to continually produce new solutions and put into practice what we learned in class,” he said. 

“And, of course, it is an absolutely unique experience to be involved in a world record.” 
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For at least the second time this year, U.S. cyber forces have come to the aid of a Baltic ally, as concerns linger about potential cyberattacks from Russia and other Western adversaries.

U.S. Cyber Command Tuesday announced the completion of a two-month-long, so-called “defensive hunt” operation in Lithuania, alongside Lithuanian cyber teams.

The focus of the operation, according to a spokesperson with the U.S. Cyber National Mission Force, was to look for malicious cyber activity on networks belonging to Lithuania’s Interior Ministry.

Neither U.S. nor Lithuanian officials were willing to specify the exact nature of the threat, but just last year Vilnius was hit with a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), claimed by the Russian hacking group known as Killnet.

“We need to develop competences and be more resilient to cyberattacks,” Lithuanian Vice Minister of the Interior Arnoldas Abramavičius, said in the joint statement.

“The war in Ukraine has shown that cyberattacks are a powerful tool of modern warfare, so it is extremely important to be prepared and to ensure the security of our networks,” said Abramavičius. “I believe that the results of this mission [with the United States] will be mutually beneficial.”

The U.S. Cyber National Mission Force spokesperson, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss limited details of the operation, said the effort involved about 20 U.S. cyber troops, hunting for malicious activity and potential vulnerabilities under guidelines set by Vilnius.

This is at least the second time U.S. cyber forces have deployed to Lithuania. U.S. Cyber Command said its forces conducted similar operations in the country last May.

And both Vilnius and Washington have also been working on a continuous basis through Lithuania’s Regional Cyber Defense Center, set up in 2021, to further coordinate efforts with Ukraine, Georgia and Poland.

Word of the completion of the latest U.S-Latvian cyber operation comes just days after a top U.S. intelligence official warned the cyber threat from Moscow has not waned as Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on.

“The Russians are increasing their capability and their efforts in the cyber domain,” CIA Deputy Director David Cohen told a cybersecurity summit in Washington on Thursday.

“There are no laurels to be rested on here,” he said. “There is this is a pitched battle every day.”

Concerns about possible Russian cyber activity also prompted what U.S. officials described as a “hunt forward” operation in Latvia earlier this year that also involved Latvian and Canadian cyber forces.

Since 2018, U.S. cyber teams have deployed 50 times, conducting operations on more than 75 networks in more than 23 countries, according to information provided by the U.S. Cyber National Mission Force.

Some information from Reuters was used in this report.
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An American researcher was “doing well” at a Turkish hospital, officials said Tuesday, after rescuers pulled him out of a cave where he fell seriously ill and became trapped 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below its entrance for over a week.

Rescuers from Turkey and across Europe cheered and clapped as Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver, emerged from Morca Cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains strapped to a stretcher at 12:37 a.m. local time Tuesday. He was whisked to the hospital in the nearby city of Mersin in a helicopter.

Dickey fell ill on Sept. 2 with stomach bleeding. What caused his condition remained unclear.

Lying on the stretcher surrounded by reporters shortly after his rescue, he described his nine-day ordeal as a “crazy, crazy adventure.”

“It is amazing to be above ground again,” he said. A well-known cave researcher and a cave rescuer who had participated in many international expeditions, Dickey thanked the international caving community, Turkish cavers and Hungarian Cave Rescue, among others.

Dickey, who is from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, was part of an expedition to map the Morca Cave, Turkey’s third deepest, when he became sick. As he was too frail to climb out himself, cave rescue teams from Europe scrambled to help save him, mounting a challenging operation that involved pulling him up the cave’s steep vertical sections and navigating through mud and water at low temperatures in the horizontal sections.

Rescuers had to widen some of the cave’s narrow passages, install ropes to pull him up vertical shafts on a stretcher and set up temporary camps along the way before the operation could begin.

“It was great to see him finally get out because it was very dire in the early days of this rescue,” Carl Heitmeyer of the New Jersey Initial Response Team and a friend of Dickey’s told NBC’s “Today” show.

Asked whether he believes Dickey would return to caving, Heitmeyer said: “I hope his mom’s not watching, but I would bet on it.”

Among those who rushed to the Taurus Mountains was Dr. Zsofia Zador, a caving enthusiast and medical rescuer from the Hungarian rescue team, who was among the first to treat Dickey inside the cave.

Zador, an anesthesiologist and intensive care specialist from Budapest, was on her way to the hospital to start her early morning shift on Sept. 2, when she got news of Dickey’s condition.

The 34-year-old quickly arranged for a colleague to take her shift and rushed to gather her caving gear and medical equipment, before taking a plane to Turkey to join the rescue mission, she told The Associated Press by telephone from the camp near the entrance of the cave.

“He was relieved, and he was hopeful,” she said when asked to describe Dickey’s reaction when he saw her in the cave. “He was quite happy. We are good friends.”

Zador said Dickey was hypovolemic — or was suffering from loss of fluid and blood — but said he was in a “stable condition” by the time she reached him because paramedics had “treated him quite well.”

“It was a tricky situation because sometimes he was quite stable and it felt like he could get out on his own, but he could (deteriorate) once again,” she said. “Luckily he didn’t lose any consciousness and he saw the situation through.”

Around 190 experts from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey took part in the rescue, including doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers. Teams comprised of a doctor and three to four other rescuers took turns staying by his side at all times.

Zador said she had been involved in cave rescues before but Dickey’s rescue was the “longest” she experienced.

Dickey said after his rescue that he had started to throw up large quantities of blood inside the cave.

“My consciousness started to get harder to hold on to, and I reached the point where I thought ‘I’m not going to live,'” he told reporters.

A statement from the Mersin governor’s office said Dickey’s “general health” condition was “good”, without providing further details.

The Italian National Alpine and Speleological Corps said the rescue operation took more than 100 rescuers from around 10 counties a total of 60 hours. “Mark Dickey was in the cave for roughly 500 hours,” it said.
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Treating and rehabilitating patients who lost limbs on the battlefield is a harsh reality for Ukraine’s health care workers. An American occupational therapist has been in Ukraine for several months to help. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story from Lviv. Camera and video editing by Yuriy Dankevych.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Western deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict.

Speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, Putin also said 1,000 to 1,500 Russians are volunteering for the Russian military each day and that 270,000 had signed up during the past six months.

Putin also said Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched in June to try to reclaim territory from invading Russian forces, had failed.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured some villages in eastern and southern Ukraine as they try to break through Russian defensive lines and mine fields.

The United States announced its latest military aid package for Ukraine last week as Secretary of State Antony Blinken led a delegation to Kyiv to consult with Ukrainian leaders.  Blinken described the progress of the counteroffensive as “very encouraging.”

The United States continues to assess the progress Ukrainian forces are making on the ground, and Russia’s overall strategic goals have failed in Ukraine, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a news briefing Monday.

“Their goals were to take Kyiv, to take the majority, if not all of the country, to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine. In all of those things they have failed,” he said.

Miller noted that the Ukrainians have taken back around 50% of the territory that Russia occupied at the height of its full-scale invasion.

The State Department spokesman said that one indication of Russia’s difficulties in sustaining its military effort is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin “traveling across his own country, hat in hand, to beg [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un for military assistance.”

The Biden administration is reportedly considering supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles that are packed with cluster bombs and that could cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory, according to four U.S. officials.

After seeing the success of cluster munitions delivered in 155 mm artillery rounds in recent months, the U.S. is considering shipping Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that can fly up to 306 kilometers and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles that have a 72-kilometer range and are packed with cluster bombs, according to Reuters news agency. The GMLRS rocket system would be able to disperse up to 404 cluster munitions. Ukraine has had a version of the GMLRS system in its arsenal for months,

The Biden administration has for months been mulling over the supply of ATACMS, fearing their shipment to Ukraine would be perceived as an overly aggressive move against Russia.

Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Norwegian intelligence officials said Monday that the case of a 25-year-old unidentified foreign student, who was arrested in Norway on suspicion of illegally eavesdropping by using various technical devices, is “serious and complicated.”

The case was shrouded in secrecy.

The man, whose identity and nationality have not been disclosed, was arrested on Friday. A court in Oslo on Sunday ordered that he be held in pre-trial custody for four weeks, on suspicion of espionage and intelligence operations against the NATO-member Nordic country.

In an email to The Associated Press, a prosecutor for Norway’s domestic security agency, known by its acronym PST, said the investigation was in “a critical and initial phase” and would take time.

During the arrest, police seized from the man a number of data-carrying electronic devices. The suspect is a student — though not enrolled in an educational institution in Norway — and has been living in Norway for a relatively short time, Norwegian media said.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK said the suspect had allegedly been caught conducting illegal signal surveillance in a rental car near the Norwegian prime minister’s office and the defense ministry.

The suspect, who authorities say was not operating alone, was banned from receiving letters and visits. According to prosecutor Thomas Blom, the suspect “has not yet wanted to be questioned.”

Blom declined to comment further.

In previous assessments, the security agency has singled out Russia, China and North Korea as states that pose a significant intelligence threat to Norway, a nation of 5.4 million people.

In October, Norway detained a man who had entered the country as a Brazilian citizen but is suspected of being a Russian spy. He was detained in the Arctic city of Tromso, where he worked at the Arctic University of Norway.

Norwegian media have said the man called himself Jose Assis Giammaria. Norwegian authorities said he was 44, born in Russia in 1978 and was likely named Mikhail Mikushin.
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Rescuers pulled an American researcher out of a Turkish cave early Tuesday, more than a week after he became seriously ill 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below its entrance, the Speleological Federation of Turkey said.

Teams from across Europe had rushed to Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to aid Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver who became seriously ill on Sept. 2 with stomach bleeding. He was on an expedition to map the cave, which is the country’s third deepest.

Dickey was too frail to climb out himself, so rescuers carried him with the help of a stretcher, making frequent stops at temporary camps set up along the way before he finally reached the surface early Tuesday.

“Mark Dickey is out of the Morca cave,” said a statement by the speleological federation. It said that Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave at 12:37 a.m. local time Tuesday, or 9:37 p.m. GMT Monday.

“He is fine and is being tended to by emergency medical workers in the encampment above,” the statement said.

Lying on a stretcher surrounded by reporters following his rescue, Dickey described the ordeal as a “crazy, crazy adventure.”

“It is amazing to be above ground again,” he said, thanking the Turkish government for saving his life with its rapid response. He also thanked the international caving community, Turkish cavers and Hungarian Cave Rescue, among others.

The American was first treated inside the cave by a Hungarian doctor who went down the cave on Sept. 3. Doctors and rescuers then took turns caring for him. The cause of Dickey’s illness was not clear.

On Tuesday, Dickey said that in the cave he had started to throw up large quantities of blood.

“My consciousness started to get harder to hold on to, and I reached the point where I thought ‘I’m not going to live,'” he told reporters.

The biggest challenges for the rescuers getting him out of the cave were the steep vertical sections and navigating through mud and water at low temperatures in the horizontal sections. There was also the psychological toll of staying inside a dark, damp cave for extended periods of time.

Around 190 experts from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey took part in the rescue, including doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers. Teams comprised of a doctor and three to four other rescuers took turns staying by his side at all times.

The rescue began on Saturday after doctors, who administered IV fluids and blood, determined that Dickey could make the arduous ascent.

Before the evacuation could begin, rescuers first had to widen some of the cave’s narrow passages, install ropes to pull him up vertical shafts on a stretcher and set up temporary camps along the way.

Dickey, who is from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, is a well-known cave researcher and a cave rescuer himself who had participated in many international expeditions.

He and several other people on the expedition were mapping the 1,276-meter (4,186-foot) deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association. Dickey became ill on Sept. 2, but it took until the next morning to notify people above ground.

Turkish authorities made a video message available that showed Dickey standing and moving around on Thursday. While alert and talking, he said he was not “healed on the inside” and needed a lot of help to get out of the cave.

After his rescue, the head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Okay Memis, told a news conference that the health of Dickey was “very good.”

The European Cave Rescue Association said many cave rescuers remained in the cave to remove rope and rescue equipment used during the operation.

The association expressed its “huge gratitude to the many cave rescuers from seven different countries who contributed to the success of this cave rescue operation.”

“The fact that our son, Mark Dickey, has been moved out of Morca Cave in stable condition is indescribably relieving and fills us with incredible joy,” Mark’s parents, Debbie and Andy Dickey, said in a statement.
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A researcher in Britain’s parliament denied he was a Chinese spy on Monday, saying he was “completely innocent” of media allegations of working for Beijing and had only ever tried to educate others about China.

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Sunday two men had been arrested in March under the Official Secrets Act. The Sunday Times reported one of them was a parliamentary researcher, and on Monday the Times published a picture of a man it said was him.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer told parliament: “The news of the arrest of a researcher here in parliament on suspicion of spying for China is a serious breach of security conducted by the Beijing security services.”

Lawyers for the man released a statement on his behalf without identifying him, denying the accusations.

“I feel forced to respond to the media accusations that I am a ‘Chinese spy’. It is wrong that I should be obliged to make any form of public comment on the misreporting that has taken place,” the man said in the statement.

“However, given what has been reported, it is vital that it is known that I am completely innocent. I have spent my career to date trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party.”

The two suspects have been released on police bail until early October, the police said. The second man has not commented publicly.

Following typical practice in Britain, police have not identified the suspects, who have not yet been charged.

The arrests are yet another blow to relations between Britain and China that ministers had hoped to revive after being strained by tensions over security, investment and human rights.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters he had raised “his very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy,” at a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 summit in India on Sunday.

But he faced further demands from lawmakers to toughen his stance on China.

The Chinese embassy in the U.K. said the allegations were made up.

“The so-called claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and malicious slander,” the embassy said on its website.

Britain had been hoping to improve ties with China, with Foreign Minister James Cleverly visiting Beijing last month to make the first tentative steps to repair relations.

But Britain’s security services have long warned politicians about the threat posed to parliament.

Last year, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum warned politicians that the Chinese authorities were playing “the long game” in cultivating contacts.

He said they were “seeking to co-opt and influence not just prominent parliamentarians from across the political landscape, but people much earlier in their careers in public life, gradually building a debt of obligation.”

But so far, government ministers suggested there would be no change in London’s approach, which Sunak sees as engaging with China while being able to raise points of disagreement.

“They do represent an epoch-defining challenge to the UK, (but) we do not think it is right to reduce the approach to just one word,” Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters when asked whether China should be seen as a threat to Britain.

“We need to take the opportunity to engage with China, not to just shout from the sidelines.”

Labour’s Starmer said the government should set a clear policy on China.

“The very big question now … is was this raised when these arrests took place back in March or has it only been raised now that it’s come into the public domain?” he told reporters.
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The arrival of 85  U.S. soldiers for a training mission in Armenia has sparked a strong negative reaction from the Russian government, which has long had a military alliance with that country through its Collective Security Treaty Organization.

The U.S. personnel are in Armenia for an exercise called Eagle Partner, during which they will train with 175 members of the Armenian 12th Peacekeeping Brigade. The objective is to prepare the Armenian soldiers for an assessment later this year of their ability to conform to NATO standards if deployed as peacekeepers.

The 10-day exercise will take place at training grounds near the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The American forces include members of both the 101st Airborne Division and the Kansas National Guard.

Tense moment

The arrival of U.S. troops in Armenia comes at a time when tensions are high in the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, its neighbor to the east, have fought two wars in the past several decades over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is within the current internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, but which has a large Armenian population.

The most recent conflict took place in 2020, and was ended by a peace brokered by Russia, which required Armenia to return land it had previously seized from Azerbaijan. Despite the turnover, a large portion of Nagorno-Karabakh remains under the control of a breakaway ethnic Armenian government.

The cease-fire included the installation of 2,000 Russian troops in an area known as the Lachin corridor, which connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The presence of Russian troops in the corridor was supposed to allow people in Nagorno-Karabakh access to Armenia, as well as keeping open a supply line to the outside world.

Last December, though, the Azerbaijani government closed the roads, severing the supply route and creating what Armenia describes as a humanitarian crisis in the region. With many aid convoys effectively barred from entering the region, Russian peacekeepers have not intervened, angering the Armenian government.

Azerbaijan has denied it is purposefully cutting off supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, claiming that aid caravans have been carrying contraband and are meant as a “provocation.”

Fraying ties with Russia

Last week, with the arrival of American troops looming, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan criticized Russia in an interview with an Italian newspaper, saying Moscow had failed to assure Armenia’s security. He accused the Russian government of stepping away from its responsibilities in the South Caucasus region.

“Armenia’s security architecture was 99.999% linked to Russia, including when it came to the procurement of arms and ammunition,” Pashinyan told the newspaper La Repubblica. “But today, we see that Russia itself is in need of weapons, arms and ammunition. And in this situation, it’s understandable that even if it wishes so, the Russian Federation cannot meet Armenia’s security needs.”

Pashinyan added, “This example should demonstrate to us that dependence on just one partner in security matters is a strategic mistake.”

Moscow responds

Following Pashinyan’s comments, his government also took steps toward ratifying the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, a body that indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges over actions taken during his country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ICC was established in 2022, after being ratified by 60 countries. Since then, dozens of other countries have also ratified or acceded to the treaty on a rolling basis. If Armenia were to join, it would be the 124th country to join.

In addition, the prime minister’s wife visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as part of an aid mission.

The Russian government summoned Armenia’s ambassador to the Kremlin to “strongly protest” the prime minister’s comments and his government’s action.

In a statement Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “The Armenian leadership has taken a series of unfriendly steps in recent days, including the launch of the process of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the trip of the prime minister’s wife Anna Hakobyan to Kiev to deliver humanitarian aid to the Nazi regime, and the holding of military exercises on Armenian territory with the participation of the United States.”

In comments Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov followed up by saying that it looks “strange” for Armenia to be hosting U.S. troops when for the past two years, it has declined to participate in drills with the five other members of Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“I do not believe it will be any good for anyone, including Armenia itself,” Lavrov said during a news briefing on Sunday. “Wherever the Americans arrive, it always means trouble.”

On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin is in the process of trying to “make sense” of Armenia’s actions.

“Against the backdrop of Armenia’s reluctance to hold drills with the CSTO and its latest plan to host a joint exercise with the United States, for us, perhaps, these are decisions that will require our thorough analysis in order to understand why Armenia has decided to do this and what its goals are here,” Peskov said.

Concerns about conflict

Pashinyan’s government has also warned that Azerbaijani troops are massing on Armenia’s borders — which Azerbaijan denies — and has been seeking international assistance in an effort to reopen a dialogue between the two countries.

In recent days, Pashinyan has reached out to the leaders of multiple Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, seeking assistance in brokering an agreement with Azerbaijan.

On Monday, Pashinyan spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdigan, a close ally of Azerbaijan. Media reports suggested that the two had discussed ways of reducing tension in the region. The day before, Erdogan had denounced an election held by the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Routine training

The U.S. Army characterized the Eagle Partner operation as a normal training exercise — one that expanded on a longstanding relationship the Armenian military has had with the Kansas National Guard.

“Eagle Partner is a vital opportunity for our soldiers from our two nations to build new relationships at the tactical level and to increase interoperability for peacekeeping operations,” Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said in a statement. “It also builds upon the 20-year relationship that the Kansas National Guard has cultivated with Armenia.”
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British scientist Ian Wilmut, whose research was central to the creation of the cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep, has died at the age of 79, the University of Edinburgh said on Monday.  

His death on Sunday, years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was announced by the University of Edinburgh, where he worked. 

Wilmut, along with Keith Campbell from the Roslin animal sciences research institute in Scotland, generated news headlines and heated ethical debates in 1996 when they created Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. 

“He led efforts to develop cloning, or nuclear transfer, techniques that could be used to make genetically modified sheep. It was these efforts which led to the births of Megan and Morag in 1995 and Dolly in 1996,” the university said in a statement. 

Dolly, named after country singer Dolly Parton, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, using a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). 

This involved taking a sheep egg, removing its DNA and replacing it with DNA from a frozen udder cell of a sheep that died years before. The egg was then zapped with electricity to make it grow like a fertilized embryo. No sperm were involved. 

Dolly’s creation triggered fears of human reproductive cloning, or producing genetic copies of living or dead people, but mainstream scientists have ruled this out as far too dangerous. 

Wilmut, who was born near Stratford-upon-Avon, attended the University of Nottingham, initially to study agriculture, before switching to animal science.  

He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2005, received a knighthood in 2008 and retired from the university in 2012. 
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Several Western democracies, including the U.S., U.K., and Australia, have tried to restart diplomatic engagement with China in recent months, sending cabinet members to Beijing for talks with Chinese counterparts while upholding tough stances on areas where disagreements with China remain strong.

Analysts say these attempts are necessary to stop the downward spiral in these countries’ bilateral relations with China. However, they think it’s difficult to achieve any diplomatic breakthrough through these efforts.

“In principle, the efforts to [restart engagement with China] is sensible because some level of communication can avoid unintended misunderstanding and miscalculation,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told VOA in a phone interview.

In his view, the larger question for Western democracies is how to balance the efforts to restart engagement with China against the defense of their own interests. “These countries won’t return to the engagement phase that they had decades before. There is communication and contact because it’s necessary, but there is also a lot more wariness now,” Chong said.

Australia’s recalibration with China

Australia is one of the countries that has resumed bilateral engagement with China. In July, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with the top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and the two countries held their first high-level dialogue September 7 in Beijing, addressing topics such as trade, people-to-people links, and security.

These efforts have resulted in the lifting of Chinese tariffs on some Australian commodities including coal and barley, and the Australian government expressed optimism about the two sides making more progress in improving the overall trade ties.

“The progress we have made in resuming unimpeded trade is good for both countries and we want to see that progress continue,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after he met with Chinese Premier Li Qiangin Indonesia on September 7.

Bilateral diplomatic ties deteriorated after Beijing imposed tariffs on a dozen Australian products as a response to Canberra’s call for an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To further stabilize bilateral ties, Albanese confirmed that he would be visiting China later this year. He emphasized that while views between the two countries won’t always be aligned, Canberra and Beijing recognize that “dialogue is absolutely critical.”

While some praised Albanese’s decision to visit Beijing, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison cautioned against a “concessional approach” toward restoring ties with China, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Experts say Australia’s recent efforts are part of a cautious reengagement where Beijing and Canberra work toward a “gradual increase in contact.” It aims at letting both countries look at areas where they agree while continuing to have open channels to address their disagreements.

“Australia wants to have a functioning, stable diplomatic relationship with China that doesn’t get derailed by differences,” Ryan Neelam, director of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at Lowy Institute, told VOA in a phone interview. “The Australian government frequently says it seeks to cooperate wherever it can, disagrees where it must, and manages its differences [with China] wisely.”

Despite efforts to stabilize relations with China, Albanese said he raised human rights cases, including those of two detained Australian citizens, Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun, during his conversation with Li, emphasizing that he said Australians want to see Cheng reunited with her children.

However, other analysts say there are signs that the Albanese government is trying to avoid displeasing Beijing by holding back on imposing sanctions against Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

“In recent months, Canberra has imposed sanctions on Syrian, Iranian, and Russian officials but has not done the same thing with Chinese officials,” Benjamin Herscovitch, a research fellow at Australian National University, told VOA in a phone interview.

Australian citizens largely support Albanese’s efforts to restart engagement with China, with some saying it’s essential for Canberra to have open communication with both “friends and enemies.”

“It’s important that the government has those lines of engagement and interaction and I think mistakes get made when parties aren’t talking,” Matt, a 41-year-old hostel manager in Melbourne, told VOA in an audio message.

Others say resuming diplomatic interaction is essential to resolve tough consular cases. “Without a better relationship with China, there will probably be little movement in the case of the detained Australians,” Tristan Upton, a 53-year-old engineer in Melbourne, told VOA in a written response.

Britain’s China policy

Britain has also restarted diplomatic engagement with China in recent weeks. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited China late last month, which is the first such trip by a British Foreign Secretary in nearly five years.

Despite criticism from some British MPs, Cleverly said London would pursue a pragmatic relationship with China while remaining “clear-eyed” about disagreements, adding that it would be a mistake to isolate Beijing.

“The UK was prompted to [restart diplomatic engagement with China] by the Americans, the Australians, and the Europeans who have all done high-level visits and improved relations with China,” Jonathan Sullivan, a China specialist at the University of Nottingham, told VOA in a written response.

Despite the diplomatic outreach to China, Sullivan thinks these efforts may only signal London’s desire to stop the negative spiral. And with the U.K. struggling to cope with a wide range of domestic challenges, including the quick turnovers of prime ministers over the last few years, some experts think London has failed to put forward a set of coherent policies toward China.

Observers think the arrest of a parliamentary researcher suspected of spying for China could further increase the pressure on the British government regarding how it handles its relationship with Beijing. Under these circumstances, Sullivan thinks the U.K. should be more consistent with its foreign policy and try to “communicate its position better.”
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Leaders of nine small island states turned to the U.N. maritime court on Monday to seek protection of the world’s oceans from catastrophic climate change that threatens the very existence of entire countries.

The island states are asking the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to determine if carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the oceans can be considered pollution, and if so, what obligations countries have to prevent it.

“This is the opening chapter in the struggle to change the conduct of the international community by clarifying the obligation of states to protect the marine environment,” said the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne.

“The time has come to speak in terms of legally binding obligations rather than empty promises that go unfulfilled,” he told the court based in Hamburg, Germany.

The joint counsel representing the islands, Catherine Amirfar, said the point was to force countries to implement substantive measures against climate change.

“We’re here to discuss what are the necessary, concrete, specific steps that they must take as a matter of law, not political discretion. That’s key and… a big part of the answer,” she told journalists.

Ocean ecosystems create half the oxygen humans breathe and limit global warming by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities.

But increasing emissions can warm and acidify seawaters, harming marine life.

At the heart of the case is the international treaty UNCLOS that binds countries to preventing pollution of the oceans.

The U.N. treaty defines pollution as the introduction by humans of “substances or energy into the marine environment” that harms marine life.

But it does not spell out carbon emissions as a specific pollutant, and the plaintiffs argue that these emissions should qualify.

Beyond ‘charity’

The push for climate justice won a big boost in March when the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to lay out nations’ obligations on protecting the Earth’s climate and the legal consequences they face for failing to do so.

The ICJ’s advice is still pending but the action has opened up a new front to bind countries to pledges on reducing emissions.

The move at the U.N. had been led by Vanuatu, one of the island nations that brought Monday’s case before the ITLOS.

Small islands like Vanuatu are particularly exposed to the impact of global warming, with seawater rises posing an existential threat.

“Just a few years — this is all we have before the ocean consumes everything my people built across centuries,” Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Kausea Natano told the court.

“If international law has nothing to say about an entire country going underwater… then what purpose does it serve?” he said, pleading for a clear direction from the court.

Browne also voiced frustration at the attitude of some major nations when it comes to funding climate change mitigation or prevention.

When “large polluters contribute towards various funds, they believe it’s an act of charity,” he said at a press conference, adding that a successful outcome would tell them that “they have legal obligations”.

Marine heatwave

Concrete measures, according to Vanuatu’s attorney-general Arnold Loughman, could include halting deep-sea drilling for oil.

“It’s time to come up with solutions and ways of stopping these countries from continuing to drill,” he said.

Across the two-thirds of the planet covered by seas, nearly 60% of surface waters experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022, according to the annual State of the Climate report led by scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This is 50% more than pre-industrial levels and “the highest in the modern atmospheric record and in paleoclimate records dating back as far as 800,000 years,” according to the report, published this month.

The world’s oceans set a new temperature record in August, with average sea surface temperatures reaching 21°C (69.8°F) for over a week, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The other island states joining the ITLOS case are the Bahamas, Niue, Palau, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while another 34 state parties will participate in the court hearing.
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The European Commission – the European Union’s executive branch – has downgraded its economic forecast for the Eurozone, saying inflation is still too high, consumer spending is down and Germany, the continent’s largest economy, is in recession.

At a news conference in Brussels Monday, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said they are now predicting the gross domestic product (GDP) of the 27-nation EU will expand at eight-tenths of one percent for 2023, and at 1.3 percent in 2024.

Those numbers are down from the May projections of 1.1 and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Gentiloni said Germany’s GDP was significantly weaker than expected in the first half of this year, with declining wages driving down consumer spending, and lower external demand leading to subdued exports.

He said the German economy is now projected to shrink by 0.4 percent in 2023, “a significant downward revision” from a May prediction of 0.2 percent growth.

He said they are forecasting that Italy’s and the Netherlands’ economies will also grow more slowly this year, with GDP expansion of 0.9 percent and 0.5 respectively, down from earlier projections of 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent.

But the commission said the economies of France and Spain will grow faster than previously expected this year, projecting 1.0 percent and 2.2 percent growth respectively, instead of the previously seen 0.7 percent and 1.9 percent.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

 
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More than 50 world sites hope for inclusion on the U.N.’s coveted heritage list at a meeting opening in Riyadh Sunday, while some incumbents, including Venice and Kyiv, face the risk of a downgrade.

UNESCO, the United Nation’s educational, scientific and cultural organization, keeps the world heritage list, which it says is a reflection of the planet’s cultural and natural diversity.

The agency meets once a year to update the list, the inclusion on which is seen by many countries as crucial for tourism and the ability to source funding for the preservation of sites.

Conversely, countries are eager to avoid being dropped from the list, including Australia which has recently made major efforts to avoid the exclusion of the Great Barrier Reef because of the government’s shortcomings in protecting the natural site from the impact of climate change and tourism.

At the meeting in Saudi Arabia some well-established sites, including Venice and Kyiv, will be in the spotlight for a possible “at risk” qualification, the first stop toward exclusion from the list that features 1,157 sites, of which 900 are cultural, 218 natural and 39 mixed.

Six sites could be declared “in danger” at the Riyadh meeting, joining the 55 already on that watchlist.

Venice is in danger from rising water levels, attributed to climate change, and excessive numbers of tourists, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, UNESCO’s Director of World Heritage, told AFP.

Ukrainian sites Kyiv and Lviv are “threatened by destruction” in the ongoing war with Russia. “We don’t know what will happen,” he said.

This year’s applicants for inclusion on the list — 53 including a backlog from last year when the meeting, scheduled in Russia, was canceled because of the war — features a large number of little-known venues, such as Koh Ker, a remote site in the northern Cambodian jungle with several archaeological sites dating back to the Khmer empire.

Turkey is hoping for recognition of its medieval mosques featuring wooden structures, while France has entered the Maison Carree (Square House) in the southwestern city of Nimes, a well-preserved ancient Roman temple.

Tunisia meanwhile hopes that the island of Djerba will get a listing, not for the mass tourism it is famous for, but for its “cultural landscape.”

Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan filed a joint application for the Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor, a 900-kilometer (600-mile) stretch along the ancient Silk Road.

Inclusion on the heritage list is a “recognition” that the countries concerned have sites that “are important and contribute to the development of our humanity,” Eloundou Assomo said.

This year’s applications reflect a trend towards more memorial sites, such as the application by Rwanda for four sites commemorating the genocide of the country’s Tutsi population.

Argentina is proposing a site commemorating the victims of the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, and France and Belgium are proposing sites of World War I remembrance.

The World Heritage Committee meeting ends on Sept. 25.
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A 25-year-old foreign student has been arrested in Norway on suspicion of espionage, including illegal eavesdropping through various technical devices.

Norway’s domestic security agency, known by its acronym PST, told Norwegian media that the man, who was arrested on Friday, was charged in court on Sunday with espionage and intelligence operations against the Nordic country.

The man, whose identity and nationality haven’t been disclosed, has pleaded not guilty in initial police questioning. Norwegian authorities haven’t said which country the man was allegedly spying for.

“We don’t quite know what we’re facing. We are in a critical, initial and vulnerable phase of the investigation,” PST lawyer Thomas Blom was quoted as saying by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. “He (the suspect) is charged with using technical installations for illegal signal intelligence.”

Police have seized from the man a number of data-carrying electronic devices, which the PST is now investigating. The suspect is a student, but he’s not enrolled at an educational institution in Norway, and he’s been living in Norway for a relatively short time, according to PST.

Citing the arrest order, NRK said the suspect had allegedly been caught conducting illegal signal surveillance in a rental car near the Norwegian prime minister’s office and the defense ministry.

According to a court decision, the man has been imprisoned in pretrial custody for four weeks with a ban on receiving letters and visits. Security officials said the suspect wasn’t operating alone.

In its previous assessments, PST has singled out neighboring Russia, China and North Korea as state actors that pose a significant intelligence threat to Norway, a nation of 5.4 million.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to reassure Ukraine on Sunday that it will have continued support from its Western allies. Russia, however, just had local elections in four Ukrainian areas it illegally annexed and Moscow appears determined to solidify its gains. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.
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Suspended Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales has resigned from his post after a kiss scandal tarnished Spain’s victory at the Women’s World Cup.

Rubiales announced his resignation Sunday in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“After my swift suspension by FIFA, and the rest of the cases building against me, it is clear that I cannot return to the post,” Rubiales said in his statement.

Rubiales kissed star player Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia.

Spanish state prosecutors accused Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion after the unwanted kiss, the country’s prosecutors’ office said Friday, two days after Hermoso formally accused him of sexual assault.

He had already been suspended from his job by FIFA for his conduct at the final.

Rubiales said he also resigned as UEFA vice president.

Rubiales said that he had told interim Spanish federation president Pedro Rocha — who replaced him when Rubiales was suspended on Aug. 26 — of his resignation late Sunday night.

Rubiales, 46, is a former player and head of Spain’s main players union. He had run the federation since 2018.

Also Sunday, Rubiales said, “I am going to (resign), I cannot continue my work,” in reply to a question from TV host Piers Morgan on Britain’s TalkTV. Clips from the show were released Sunday.
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The family of a Swedish European Union employee detained in Iran has urged the international community to help secure his release after more than 500 days of incarceration for alleged spying, his family said on Sunday.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Tuesday that Johan Floderus’ imprisonment had been raised repeatedly with authorities in the Islamic Republic.

“The family, friends, and supporters of Johan are calling for urgent international attention to secure his immediate release and safe return to Europe,” the family wrote on a website dedicated to his release, on his 33rd birthday.

They said Floderus was being held without formal charges at Tehran’s Evin prison, where political prisoners and many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality, are jailed.

His family said Floderus had traveled throughout the Middle East to study languages, explore historic sites and to support humanitarian cooperation projects in Iran on behalf of the EU, and was arrested in April 2022 before leaving the country.

“His needs for adequate food rations, outside walks, medical checkups and much more are not respected (in jail),” his family wrote, adding that he had been denied “communicating” with Sweden’s embassy in Tehran, except a few consular visits.

They said that starting in February 2023, Floderus was restricted to making short phone calls once a month.

“He had to go on hunger strike to be allowed to make several of these calls, which have to be in English and monitored.”

For years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.

Rights groups and Western governments have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to extract political concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran says such arrests are based on its criminal code and denies holding people for political reasons.

Relations between Stockholm and Tehran have been tense since 2019 when Sweden arrested a former Iranian official for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s. He was sentenced to life in prison last year, prompting Iran to recall its envoy to Sweden in protest.
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