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The United States on Monday targeted Russian military’s supply chains, imposing sanctions on 14 individuals and 28 entities that it said were part of a transnational network that procures technology to support Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury also designated family members of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as individuals that it said worked as financial facilitators in Suleiman’s network.

“The United States will continue to disrupt Russia’s military supply chains and impose high costs on President Putin’s enablers, as well as all those who support Russia’s brutality against its neighbor,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The U.S. Treasury blacklisted Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that Washington says is part of Moscow’s military research and development structure. It has also designated three entities tied to the company, and several company executives.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned major military industrial firms in Russia and the Commerce Department has cut off exports of American-made components and U.S. technologies that have been used in some of Russia’s military hardware.

Russia has managed to procure drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and power infrastructure in Ukraine. Iranian military entities and industries are already under heavy U.S. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear development program.
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Turkey is claiming a breakthrough in Sunday’s fatal bombing with security forces detaining a woman suspected of planting the bomb that killed six people and injured over 50 others. Ankara is accusing Syrian Kurdish militants backed by the United States of ordering the attack.

In the early hours of Monday morning in Istanbul, Turkish security forces arrested the woman suspected of planting the bombing in Sunday’s attack. Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced what authorities touted as a breakthrough.

Soylu said, “A short while ago, the person who carried out the incident, who left the bomb, was detained by the Istanbul police; 21 other people had been detained.”

Arrests are continuing, with more than 50 being held as of early Monday.

Video footage of a woman appearing to leave a bag at the site of the bombing and then running away was released shortly after the attack.

Turkish security forces named the suspect as Syrian national Ahlam Albashir. They claim she has confessed to being trained by the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. The PKK in a statement Monday denied involvement in the bombing, saying it doesn’t target civilians.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The PKK has been fighting the Turkish state for greater Kurdish rights for more than 40 years. The militant group was linked to the bombing of an Istanbul football match in 2016, killing more than 40 people.

But Soylu, the Turkish interior minister, claims Sundays’ attack was organized in Kobani, a Syrian city controlled by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara says is affiliated with the PKK, a charge it denies. The United States backs the YPG in its war against the Islamic State. Soylu speaking at the site of the Istanbul bombing says that Turkey needs to reconsider its ties with its American ally following Sunday’s attack.

Soylu said Turkey rejects the condolences of the American Embassy. Turkey, he said, does not accept it. The Turkish official said an alliance with a state that sends money from its own Senate to these groups, feeding the terror zones in Kobani, which aims to disturb Turkey’s peace, is — in his words — in a controversial situation. This is open and clear, Soylu said.

Washington’s backing of the YPG and its political affiliate, the PYD, is poisoning relations with its Turkish ally, says international relations professor Senem Aydin-Duzgit of Istanbul’s Sabanci University.

You have the American alliance with the Kurds, with PYD, in particular in northern Syria. So, there is this perception that America is sort of is an alliance with the PKK and the Kurdish nationalist movement. And that sort of creates kind of hostility as well.

The escalating diplomatic dispute between Turkey and United States comes as shopkeepers clear the devastation of Sunday’s bombing and, like the rest of the city, try to come to terms with this latest attack, as shopkeeper Lokman Kalkan explains.

He said, “It has been a disaster, you see. This is all that happened. People were fighting for their lives. There is nothing we can do,” he said.

Details of those killed by Sunday’s attack are now being released. A mother and son, a father and daughter, and a married couple, the oldest victim was 40.

 
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U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is in Turkey to deliver a message to President Vladimir Putin’s foreign spy chief about the consequences of a potential Russian use of nuclear weapons, a White House spokesperson said.

In the first known high-level face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Burns was in Ankara on Monday to meet Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service.

“He is not conducting negotiations of any kind. He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine,” said the spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability,” the spokesperson said. “He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained US citizens.”

Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who was sent to Moscow in late 2021 by U.S. President Joe Biden to caution Putin about the troop buildup around Ukraine, is not discussing a potential settlement to the war in Ukraine, the spokesperson said.

“We briefed Ukraine in advance on his trip. We firmly stick to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Putin has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked. Putin says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia.

The remarks raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared in September that it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces control parts of.

The U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey was first reported by Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. The Kremlin, asked about the Kommersant report, said it could neither confirm nor deny it. The SVR did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the war, Russia and the United States have a host of outstanding issues to discuss, ranging from the extension of a key nuclear arms reduction treaty and a Black Sea grain deal to a possible U.S.-Russian prisoner swap and the Syrian civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, asked at a summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) leading economies in Indonesia about the U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey, said the United Nations was not involved.

“It’s very positive that the U.S. and Russia are having talks because that is an extremely relevant development in relation to the future, but we are not involved,” Guterres said.

Biden said this month he hoped Putin would be willing to discuss seriously a possible prisoner swap to secure the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drugs charges.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in a Russian jail after being convicted of spying. He denied the charge.

Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States, has been mentioned as a person who could be swapped for Griner and Whelan in any future prisoner exchange.

Kremlin says grain talks with U.N. last week were ‘constructive.’

Biden expects Russia to get more serious about prisoner swap for Griner.
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U.S. President Joe Biden joined world leaders at the island resort of Bali, Indonesia, for the G-20 Summit hosted by President Joko Widodo.

“I don’t think I’m going home,” Biden joked in a meeting with Widodo at the sidelines of the summit. “You had me staying on the beach.”

“It’s great to see you again, Jokowi,” Biden said using the Indonesian leader’s nickname. “This is a — you’ve been a good friend.”

The friendly banter belies months of intense diplomatic back and forth between Washington and Jakarta ahead of the gathering of the leaders of the world’s twenty largest economies that has been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and Western pressure to isolate Russia.

Seventeen G-20 members are represented by their heads of government, including leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized nations as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending in person, and it is unclear whether he will participate virtually. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will participate virtually despite Ukraine not being the group’s member.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sidestepped the question of whether Biden is happy with the final list of attendees. He said Biden sees the summit as an opportunity for leaders of the world’s major economies to deal with the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will focus on practical issues including food security, energy security and debt reform.

“And so, ‘happy/unhappy,’ I think, is not quite the right way to think about, you know, whether President Putin chose to show up or not,” Sullivan told VOA on board Air Force One Sunday, en route to Bali. “President Putin made his decision for his reasons under the pressures he’s facing.”

Sullivan declined to respond whether Biden is planning to walk out should Putin participate virtually.

“That’s a hypothetical that we have not yet engaged, in terms of what the President — how the President would react,” he said.

Optimal outcome

While Widodo had to navigate more geopolitical tensions than he had bargained for as summit host, from Jakarta’s perspective having Western leaders as well as leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India and others, without embarrassing Moscow is an optimal outcome.

“Discussion[s] also very, very good and I’m glad that America and China [can] also be here,” Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters Saturday.

Inviting Zelenskyy was a diplomatic middle-ground for Widodo who maintained that he had no flexibility to disinvite Moscow despite boycott threats from Western leaders

“And ultimately, the Western countries flinched. They blinked; Indonesia got its way,” Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies told VOA. “Indonesia is very comfortable in this space, being a nonaligned power, trying to convene great powers that are at odds with each other.”

Jakarta will try to keep its focus on three main pillars it has selected under its presidency — global health architecture, sustainable energy transition and digital transformation. It wants to ensure the agenda developed not just by governments but also business stakeholders and civil society are carried forward to the next G-20 meeting under India as next year’s chair, Dinna Prapto Raharja, founder of the Jakarta-based think tank Synergy Policies told VOA.

Additionally, with geopolitical fault lines sharpened by the war in Ukraine, Jakarta is aiming to not stir tensions further and keep its options open.

Indonesia is facing a new kind of equilibrium, she said. “We don’t know where it will end. But definitely it won’t be the era of unipolarism where the U.S. will be the only major power.”

Biden – Jokowi

Widodo’s government is aiming for $89 billion in investments for next year and aggressively seeking funds for the relocation of its capital to Borneo, estimated to be a $34 billion project.

In their meeting, Biden and Widodo discussed expansion of their partnership including through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, according to the White House. PGII is the West’s infrastructure funding scheme to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Washington and Jakarta are unveiling PGII initiatives on Indonesia’s energy transition during the summit. The countries are also launching a $698 million deal to develop climate-conscious transportation infrastructure in five Indonesian provinces and increase access to finance for Indonesia’s women-owned businesses and micro to medium sized enterprises.

Meanwhile trials of a nearly $8 billion high-speed railway project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, part of China’s BRI will be conducted during the G-20 summit and is scheduled to be launched next year.
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Art restorers in the Italian city of Florence have begun a six-month project to clean and virtually “unveil” a long-censored nude painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the most prominent women in the history of Italian art.

Swirling veils and drapery were added to the “Allegory of Inclination” some 70 years after Gentileschi painted the life-size female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616.

The work to reveal the image as originally painted comes as Gentileschi’s contribution to Italian Baroque art is getting renewed attention in the #MeToo era, both for her artistic achievements but also for breaking into the male-dominated art world after being raped by one of her art teachers.

Her work was featured in a 2020 exhibit at the National Gallery in London.

“Through her, we can talk about how important it is to restore artwork, how important it is to restore the stories of women to the forefront,” said Linda Falcone, coordinator of the Artemisia Up Close project.

“Allegory of Inclination” originally was commissioned for the family home of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, the great-nephew of the famed artist. The building later became the Casa Buonarotti museum, and the painting was displayed until recently on the ceiling in a gilded frame. When lead conservator Elizabeth Wick removed the painting in late September, a shower of 400-year-old dust was released.

Wick’s team of restorers is using ultraviolet light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to differentiate Gentileschi’s brush strokes from those of the artist that covered the nudity. The public can watch the project underway at the museum through April 23.

Restorers won’t be able to remove the veils because the cover-up was done too soon after the original, raising the risk that Gentileschi’s painting would be damaged in the process.

Instead, the restoration team plans to create a digital image of the original version that will be displayed in an exhibition on the project opening in September 2023.

Gentileschi arrived in Florence shortly after the trial in Rome of her rapist, during which the then-17-year-old was forced to testify with ropes tied around her fingers that were progressively tightened in a test of her honesty.

She also had to endure a physical examination in the courtroom behind a curtain to confirm that she was no longer a virgin. Eventually, her rapist was convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison.

“Somebody else would have been crushed by this experience,” Wick said. “But Artemisia bounces back. She comes up to Florence. She gets this wonderful commission to paint a full-length nude figure for the ceiling of Casa Buonarroti. So, I think she’s showing people, ‘This is what I can do.'”

While in Florence, Gentileschi also won commissions from the Medici family. Her distinctive, dramatic and energetic style emerged, taking inspiration from the most renowned Baroque painter of the time, Caravaggio. Many of her paintings featured female heroines, often in violent scenes and often nude.

She was 22 when she painted “Allegory of Inclination,” which was commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Another member of the family, Leonardo Buonarroti, decided to have it embellished to protect the sensibilities of his wife and children.

“This is one of her first paintings. In the Florentine context, it was her debut painting, the same year she was then accepted into the Academy of Drawing, which was the first drawing academy in Europe at the time,” Falcone said.

With the younger Michelangelo as her patron, Gentileschi gained entry to the cultural milieu of the time.

“She was able to hobnob with Galileo and with other great thinkers. So this almost illiterate woman was suddenly at the university level, producing works of art that were then, you know, appreciated by the Grand Duke,” Falcone said. “And she became a courtly painter from then on.”
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An explosion on one of Istanbul’s most popular pedestrian thoroughfares killed four people and injured 38 Sunday, authorities said. 

The cause of the blast on Istiklal Avenue was not immediately clear. Five prosecutors were assigned to investigate the explosion, state-run Anadolu news agency said. 

A video posted online showed flames erupting and a loud bang, as pedestrians turned and ran away. Other footage showed ambulances, fire trucks and police at the scene. Social media users said shops were shuttered and the avenue closed. 

Turkey’s media watchdog imposed a temporary ban on reporting on the explosion — a move that prevents broadcasters from showing videos of the moment of the blast or its aftermath. The Supreme Council of Radio and Television has imposed similar bans in the past, following attacks and accidents. 

Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya tweeted the death toll and said those injured were being treated. 

Turkey was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by the Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish groups. 
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed energy and trade ties with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh during a visit to Hanoi on Sunday, the first for a German leader in more than a decade.

Scholz’s stop in Vietnam on his way to the G20 leaders’ summit in Indonesia, highlights Vietnam’s growing role in global supply chains as many German firms consider diversifying their manufacturing operations by expanding their presence beyond China, their main hub in Asia.

At a joint news conference with Chinh, Scholz said Berlin wanted deeper trade relations with Vietnam and would support the country’s transition to a greener economy, including through the expansion of the metro system in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital.

The Hanoi visit follows Scholz’s trip to China last week, the first by a Western leader in three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He will next visit Singapore before heading to the G20 summit on Nov 15-16.

Vietnam and Singapore are the only countries in Southeast Asia that have a free trade agreement with the European Union. As a result, they are the EU’s biggest trading partners in the region.

Germany is Vietnam’s second-largest trading partner among EU states after the Netherlands, with exchanges worth $7.8 billion last year, according to law firm Dezan Shira — far less however than the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

About 500 German firms operate in Vietnam, of which around 80 have manufacturing plants in the country, according to the German chamber of commerce in Vietnam, AHK.

Among them are engineering giant Bosch BOSH.NS, energy firm Messer, and several smaller companies involved in the global automotive supply chain.

Many more are looking to diversify some of their activities away from China where about 5,000 German companies operate, AHK head in Vietnam, Marko Walde, told Reuters.

Over 90% of German firms planning such a move look at Southeast Asia as their preferred choice, Walde said, noting that Vietnam and Thailand were favorites in the region.

 
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Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence update on Ukraine that Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravstov has said that “military training will return to Russian schools, beginning in September 2023.”

This training included “contingencies for a chemical or nuclear attack, first aid and experience handling and firing Kalashnikov rifles.”

According to the report, “Russian officials attempted to revive this training in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Crimea. It was hoped that the initiative would improve the quality of conscripts. Eight years later, little has changed, and the quality of Russian conscripts remains poor, with low morale and limited training.”

Russia is now drafting the curriculum for the training program, the report said. The development of the curriculum is expected to be completed by the end of the year and will then undergo an approvals process.

“This training likely intends to prepare students with military skills as they approach conscription age and to increase the take-up for mobilization and conscription drives,” the report said. “This initiative is also likely to be part of a wider project to instill an ideology of patriotism and trust in public institutions in the Russian population.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the victory of Ukrainian troops in Kherson on Saturday.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that defense forces have won back control of more than 60 settlements in the Kherson region and promised that Ukrainian troops will “liberate our entire land from the invaders.”

But the Ukrainian president also cautioned vigilance. While people are celebrating in Kherson, further east in the Donetsk area, he said, brutal battles are being fought every day.

“It’s hell there,” he said.

As the Russian forces withdrew from Kherson, Zelenskyy said, they destroyed critical infrastructure there, including communications, the water supply, and plants supplying heat and electricity. He also cautioned Kherson residents that retreating Russian soldiers had mined the area.

“Almost 2,000 explosive items have already been removed from the areas but there is a lot more to be done,” he said.

Images by the Planet Lab, a data imaging service, show Russian troops digging trenches and building fortifications on the east bank of the Dnipro River, according to images published on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Images taken Nov. 10 show a new line of trenches almost 2 kilometers long along the riverbank north of the Kakhovskaya dam. Satellite photos also confirm that the Russian army blew up several spans of a bridge leading to the Kakhovskaya dam.

The White House hailed as an “extraordinary victory” Ukraine’s liberation of the city of Kherson from Russia, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday.

“It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory in Kherson, where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag — and that is quite a remarkable thing,” he told reporters while accompanying President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

His comments came after Zelenskyy declared Kherson “ours” in a video message on Telegram.

Grain initiative

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saturday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Blinken discussed with Kuleba the United States’ unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine with accelerated humanitarian aid and winterization efforts to mitigate the damage from Russia’s continued attacks on critical infrastructure.

The two officials also talked about Ukraine’s continued effectiveness on the battlefield, and Blinken reiterated that “the timing and substance of any negotiation framework remains Ukraine’s decision.”

Blinken and Kuleba reaffirmed the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s renewal before it expires Nov. 19 and its role in supporting global food security.

Russia says it wants unhindered access to markets for its own food and fertilizer exports as part any renewal of the grain initiative that allows Ukraine to export grain from Black Sea ports. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of playing “hunger games” with the world.

Russian threat

No one should “underestimate the continuing threat posed by the Russian Federation,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement Saturday welcoming the Russian withdrawal from Kherson and proclaiming that Britain and the international community will continue to support Ukraine.

Addressing Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson, Wallace also posed the question, “Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves ‘What was it all for?’”
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Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938’s Kristallnacht pogrom against German and Austrian Jews have surfaced in a photograph collection donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial, the organization said Wednesday. 

One shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed middle-aged German men and women standing casually as a Nazi officer smashes a storefront window. In another, brownshirts carry heaps of Jewish books, presumably for burning. Another image shows a Nazi officer splashing gasoline on the pews of a synagogue before it’s set alight. 

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, released the photographs on the 84th anniversary of the November pogrom also known as Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass.” Mobs of Germans and Austrians attacked, looted and burned Jewish shops and homes, destroyed 1,400 synagogues, killed 92 Jews and sent another 30,000 to concentration camps. 

The violence is widely considered a starting point for the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews. 

Jonathan Matthews, head of Yad Vashem’s photo archive, said the photos dispel a Nazi myth that the attacks were “a spontaneous outburst of violence” rather than a pogrom orchestrated by the state. Firefighters, SS special police officers and members of the general public are all seen in the photos participating in the Kristallnacht. The photographers themselves were an integral part of the events. 

Matthews said these were the first photos he was aware of depicting actions taking place indoors, as “most of the images we have of Kristallnacht are images from outside.” Altogether, he said, the photos “give you a much more intimate image of what’s happening.” 

The photos were taken by Nazi photographers during the pogrom in the city of Nuremberg and the nearby town of Fuerth. They wound up in the possession of a Jewish American serviceman who served in Germany during World War II — how, precisely, is uncertain as he never talked about them to his family. 

His descendants, who declined to give his name, donated the album to Yad Vashem as part of the institution’s effort to collect Holocaust-era objects kept by survivors and their families. 

Yad Vashem said the photos help demonstrate how the German public was aware of what was going on, and that the violence was part of a meticulously coordinated pogrom carried out by Nazi authorities. They even brought in photographers to document the atrocities. 

Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan said the photos will “serve as everlasting witnesses long after the survivors are no longer here to bear testimony to their own experiences.” 

 
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FTX was engulfed in more chaos on Saturday when the crypto exchange said it had detected unauthorized access and analysts said hundreds of millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in “suspicious circumstances.”

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday, one of the highest profile crypto blowups, after traders rushed to withdraw $6 billion from the platform in just 72 hours and rival exchange Binance abandoned a proposed rescue deal.

FTX Chief Executive John J. Ray III said on Saturday that the company was working with law enforcement and regulators and was making “every effort to secure all assets, wherever located.”

“Among other things, we are in the process of removing trading and withdrawal functionality,” he said.

The exchange’s dramatic fall from grace has seen its 30-year-old founder Sam Bankman-Fried morph from being the poster child of crypto’s successes to the protagonist of the industry’s biggest crash.

Bankman-Fried, who lives in the Bahamas, has also been the subject of speculation about his whereabouts. On Saturday he told Reuters that he was in the Bahamas, denying speculation on Twitter that he had flown by private jet to South America.

The turmoil at FTX has seen at least $1 billion in customer funds vanish from the platform, sources told Reuters on Friday. Bankman-Fried had transferred $10 billion of customer funds to his trading company, Alameda Research, the sources said.

New problems emerged on Saturday when FTX’s U.S. general counsel Ryne Miller said in a Twitter post that the firm’s digital assets were being moved into so-called cold storage “to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions.”

Cold storage refers to crypto wallets that are not connected to the internet to guard against hackers.

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen said it saw $659 million in outflows from FTX International and FTX U.S. in the last 24 hours.

Elliptic, a separate blockchain analytics firm, said that about $473 million worth of crypto assets were “moved out of FTX wallets in suspicious circumstances early this morning,” but that it could not confirm that the tokens had been stolen.

Crypto exchange Kraken said: “We can confirm our team is aware of the identity of the account associated with the ongoing FTX hack, and we are committed to working with law enforcement to ensure they have everything they need to sufficiently investigate this matter.”

FTX was not immediately available for comment about the outflows or Kraken’s statement.

A document that Bankman-Fried shared with investors on Thursday and was reviewed by Reuters showed FTX had $13.86 billion in liabilities and $14.6 billion in assets. However, only $900 million of those assets were liquid, leading to the cash crunch that ended with the company filing for bankruptcy.

In its bankruptcy petition, FTX Trading said it has $10 billion to $50 billion in assets, $10 billion to $50 billion in liabilities, and more than 100,000 creditors. Ray, a restructuring expert, was appointed to take over as CEO.

The collapse shocked investors and prompted fresh calls to regulate the crypto asset sector, which has seen losses stack up this year as cryptocurrency prices collapsed.

Bitcoin fell below $16,000 for the first time since 2020 after Binance abandoned its rescue deal on Wednesday.

On Saturday it was trading around $16,831, down by more than 75% from the all-time high of $69,000 it reached in November last year BTC=BTSP.

“We believe cryptocurrency markets remain too small and too siloed to cause contagion in financial markets, with an $890 billion market cap in comparison to U.S. equity’s $41 trillion,” Citi analysts wrote.

“Over four years, FTX raised $1.8 billion from venture capital and pension funds. This is the primary way financial markets could suffer, as it may have further minor implications for portfolio shocks in a volatile macro regime.”

The U.S. securities regulator is investigating FTX.com’s handling of customer funds amid a liquidity crunch, as well its crypto-lending activities, a source with knowledge of the inquiry said.
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The United Nations refugee agency announced Friday it has launched a global funding campaign to help people forcibly displaced by war and persecution survive the bitterly cold winter ahead.

The UNHCR’s campaign aims to raise $700 million this year to help families who are living under perilous conditions in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and across the Middle East, so they can cope with freezing temperatures.

UNHCR spokeswoman Olga Sarrado said the many people who have been forced to flee their homes will be facing an extremely harsh winter. She said it will be difficult for them to provide for their daily needs given the steep rise in the cost of food, fuel, and other basic commodities. She added they also will struggle with the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and threats posed by the climate crisis.

“For many of the world’s forcibly displaced, this coming winter will be far more challenging than in recent years,” said Sarrado. “Many displaced families will have no option but to choose between food and warmth as they struggle to heat their shelters, source warm clothing, and cook hot meals.”

The UNHCR is suffering from a serious funding shortfall that has forced it to scale back some life-saving programs around the world. The agency cannot count on the usual international donors to provide for its needs. Therefore, the global winter funding campaign is reaching out to everyone for support.

Sarrado noted the campaign is appealing to governments, public and private corporations, and individuals to help keep refugees safe and warm this winter.

“We see already night temperatures dropping two to four degrees in all these regions, but this is just the beginning,” said Sarrado. “So support is needed to be able to start delivering cash assistance, thermal blankets, warm clothing, repairing the houses as soon as possible before the winter becomes even harsher.

The UNHCR reports some 7 million Ukrainians are displaced inside the country, and 7.6 million have fled as refugees across Europe. UNHCR teams are providing supplies to the displaced Ukrainians and helping reinforce homes and shelters to keep out the cold, said Sarrado.

In Afghanistan, she said the UNHCR plans to support 50,500 families, or about 400,000 people, with cash assistance. She said aid workers are delivering essential items such as blankets, solar panels and winter insulation for tents to help displaced families survive the harsh winter months.
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The White House hailed as an “extraordinary victory” Ukraine’s liberation of the city of Kherson from Russia forces.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday, “It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory in Kherson, where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag — and that is quite a remarkable thing.” Sullivan’s spoke with reporters while accompanying President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

His comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Kherson “ours” in a video message on Telegram.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saturday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Blinken discussed with Kuleba the United States’ unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine with accelerated humanitarian aid and winterization efforts to mitigate the damage from Russia’s continued attacks on critical infrastructure.

The two officials also talked about Ukraine’s continued effectiveness on the battlefield, and Blinken reiterated that “the timing and substance of any negotiation framework remains Ukraine’s decision.

Blinken and Kuleba reaffirmed the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s renewal before it expires November 19 and its role in supporting global food security.

Russia is refusing to renew the grain initiative and allow Ukraine to export grain from Black Sea ports unless Western sanctions are lifted on its own food and fertilizer exports. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of playing “hunger games” with the world.

No one should “underestimate the continuing threat posed by the Russian Federation,” said British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace in a statement welcoming the Russian withdrawal from Kherson and proclaiming that Britain and the international community will continue to support Ukraine.

Addressing Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson, Wallace also posed the question, “Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves ‘What was it all for?’” 

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson “is a public recognition of the difficulties faced by Russian forces on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

In the intelligence update posted on Twitter, the ministry said while the withdrawal came only two days after its announcement, “it is likely that the withdrawal process had already started as early as 22 October 2022 when Russian-installed figures in Kherson urged civilians to leave the city.”

Russia said Friday it had finished the withdrawal of its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River and no soldiers or equipment had been left behind.

Retreating Russian soldiers, though, painted a different picture. A Russian soldier described how he and his fellow soldiers were asked to hastily change into civilian clothing so they would not be detected. Also, some of the retreating soldiers reportedly drowned in the river while trying to escape.

For those Russian troops who did not make it out of the city, “the only chance to avoid death is to immediately surrender,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate said.

Ukrainian forces entered the city of Kherson, a strategic port city on the Dnipro River,  Friday, as Russian forces retreated in haste. People rejoiced in the streets of Kherson welcoming the Ukrainian troops. Many recounted horror stories of Russian soldiers killing civilians and looting homes.

According to Serhiy Khlan, deputy for the Kherson Regional Council, multiple videos circulating on social media show locals enthusiastically welcoming  Ukrainian soldiers with blue and yellow flags as they entered the city.

“Today is a historic day. We are getting the south of the country back, we are getting Kherson back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Friday evening video address.

Zelenskyy cautioned that Russian forces had placed a large number of landmines in the city, and he noted Ukrainian forces would start working as soon as possible to remove them.

Kherson has been a significant strategic region forming a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. Kherson is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move the United States and other countries have condemned as illegal.

War’s toll

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In mid-October, the U.N. refugee agency said there were more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, including 2.85 million in Russia. It said another 7 million people have been uprooted within Ukraine.

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

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson, announced this week, “is a public recognition of the difficulties faced by Russian forces on the west bank of the Dnipro river.”

In the intelligence update posted on Twitter, the ministry said that while the withdrawal came only two days after its announcement, “it is likely that the withdrawal process had already started as early as 22 October 2022 when Russian-installed figures in Kherson urged civilians to leave the city.”

The British report said it is a “realistic possibility” that “Russian military equipment and forces in civilian attire had been evacuating in conjunction with the 80,000 stated evacuated civilians in recent weeks.”

“It is likely that Ukraine has retaken large areas of Kherson oblast on the west bank of the Dnipro River, and that its forces are now largely in control of Kherson city itself,” the report said. “It is likely that Russia is still attempting to evacuate forces from other areas of the oblast across the river to defensible positions on the east bank.”

Ukrainian forces entered the city of Kherson on Friday as Russian forces retreated in haste. Villagers came out of hiding to welcome the Ukrainian troops and recounted horror stories of Russian soldiers killing civilians and looting homes.

According to Serhiy Khlan, deputy for the Kherson Regional Council, the city was almost fully under the control of Ukrainian forces. Multiple videos circulating on social media show Ukrainian soldiers planting yellow and blue flags in the city while local residents celebrated.

“Today is a historic day. We are getting the south of the country back, we are getting Kherson back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Friday evening video address.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had placed what he called a large number of landmines in the city and said Ukrainian forces would start working as soon as possible to remove them.

Russia said Friday that it had finished pulling out its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River and that no soldiers or equipment had been left behind.

Retreating Russian soldiers painted a different picture, however. A Russian soldier described how he and his fellow soldiers were asked to hastily change into civilian clothing so they would not be detected. Also, some of the retreating soldiers reportedly drowned in the river while trying to escape.

For those Russian troops who did not make it out of the city, “the only chance to avoid death is to immediately surrender,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate said.

Kherson, a strategic port city on the Dnipro River, was captured within days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. On Wednesday, Moscow announced it had made the “difficult decision” to withdraw from the west bank of the river that includes Kherson.

The reports of a swift Russian withdrawal from Kherson came sooner than Western officials had predicted. U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated earlier this week that the retreat would take “days and maybe even weeks.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov had also expressed skepticism that Russia could withdraw so quickly, fearing a potential trap by Russia to lure Ukrainian forces into brutal urban combat.

For Russia, Kherson has been a significant strategic region forming a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. Kherson is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move the United States and other countries have condemned as illegal.

Meanwhile, Reznikov told Reuters that Ukraine was planning on building up a powerful military and defense industry, and this week’s state takeovers of privately held stakes in strategic companies are part of that drive, he noted.

Ukraine is building an “army of drones” to resist Russia’s invasion, Reznikov said. In recent weeks, Moscow has aimed waves of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones at vital Ukrainian infrastructure.

“We are trying to be like Israel — more independent during the next years,” he said in an interview in Kyiv on Thursday. “I think the best answer [can be seen] in Israel … developing their national industry for their armed forces. It made them independent,” he said.

Black Sea grain initiative

Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, and Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, met with a Russian delegation Friday in Geneva to discuss Moscow’s grievances about the Black Sea grains export initiative and to address the need for unimpeded food and fertilizer exports, a U.N. spokesperson said.

The negotiations come eight days before the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July is due to be renewed. The accord has helped stave off a global food crisis, allowing the export of food and fertilizers from several of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

The first shipment of donated fertilizers is expected to head to Malawi in the coming week, U.N. officials said Friday, following a meeting with a Russian delegation in Geneva.

“The world cannot afford to let global fertilizer accessibility problems become a global food shortage; therefore the U.N. calls on all actors to expedite the removal of any remaining impediments to the export and transportation of fertilizers to countries most in need,” the U.N. said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters before the meeting that “work is underway” to resolve a number of issues related to the grain deal that concern Russia.

Moscow has indicated that it could pull out of the deal, set to expire on Nov. 19, if there is no progress addressing its concerns.

Russia suspended its participation for four days last month in response to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that it blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility and denies using the grain program’s security corridor for military purposes.

Meanwhile, the Joint Coordination Center reports that four vessels left Ukrainian ports Friday carrying a total of 120,150 metric tons of grain and other food products under the Black Sea Grain Initiative while five inbound vessels transited the maritime humanitarian corridor toward Ukrainian ports.

War’s toll

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In mid-October, the U.N. refugee agency said there were more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, including 2.85 million in Russia. It said another 7 million people have been uprooted within Ukraine.

Since February, “aid workers have provided critical aid and protection services to some 13.5 million people across all regions of Ukraine,” Stephanie Tremblay, an associate U.N. spokesperson, told reporters Thursday in New York.

Late Wednesday, Milley estimated that about 200,000 soldiers — 100,000 Russian troops and 100,000 Ukrainian troops — had been killed in the fighting so far, Reuters reported. Milley said about 40,000 civilians caught up in the fighting have also been killed.

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

Britain’s House of Lords shares some characteristics with the Chinese National People’s Congress: their signature colors are red, and neither is elected by popular vote.

They are also the world’s two largest legislatures.

After the rapid-fire departures this year of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss from 10 Downing Street, the House of Lords is set to grow even bigger, despite demands for a reduction.

With around 800 members, the upper chamber of the U.K. parliament lags behind the nearly 3,000 delegates that make up China’s unicameral Congress.

But the House of Lords is comfortably larger than any other chamber in a democracy. India, with a population of 1.4 billion, caps the membership of its upper house at 250.

The House of Lords has long been subject to demands for reform to make it more representative and less “a chamber festering with grotesques and has beens,” in the words of a parliamentary writer in The Times newspaper.

However, by convention, departing prime ministers are entitled to nominate a “resignation honor’s list” -– typically allies, aides and associates who are elevated to peerages.

Johnson’s 20-strong resignation list is being reviewed by a vetting committee, and some of his picks are likely to prove controversial.

Truss has the same entitlement to reward her followers, despite serving only 49 days.

Her successor, Rishi Sunak, will respect the convention and not meddle in their selections, his official spokesperson told reporters Tuesday.

Baron of Siberia

Before resigning, Johnson had already elevated about 90 peers during his three years in office, including his brother Jo, flouting an official recommendation to scale back the chamber.

In 2020, Johnson installed his Moscow-born friend Evgeny Lebedev as “Baron Lebedev of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation,” despite the reported objections of U.K. intelligence chiefs to the newspaper tycoon.

Once dominated by hereditary peers, the chamber today is composed of lifetime political appointees along with people nominated after serving in prominent public or private-sector roles, and Church of England clerics.

Many have been donors to the ruling Conservatives, including Peter Cruddas, who was made a peer by Johnson against the advice of the Lords’ vetting body following a “cash for access” political scandal.

A reform commission including senior Tory Lords recommended in 2017 that the chamber be reduced to 600 members, only allowing one entrant for every two departures.

The report has languished since, with successive governments proving reluctant to dispense with their powers of patronage, especially when the House of Lords is busy frustrating their legislative agenda.

But all sides pay lip service to the idea of change. Only 29% of the Lords are women. And its membership is hardly national, with just under half coming from London and southeast England.

The opposition Labour Party has vowed to resurrect a reform drive begun by Tony Blair’s government in the late 1990s.

One idea would see the House of Lords replaced by an indirectly elected assembly of regions and U.K. nations, with the power to refer the government to the Supreme Court in the case of constitutional breaches.

‘Democratically unacceptable’

“The system is the problem — it’s not just the recent turmoil of changing prime ministers,” said Jess Garland, director of policy at the Electoral Reform Society.

“The blueprint for reform is there. There’s a real democratic need for the lords to be appointed by the people who are ultimately affected by their laws,” she told Agence France-Presse.

“We might see a list of lords from Liz Truss at some point. But to have no say in who sits there is democratically unacceptable.”

As it stands, the upper chamber cannot override legislation sent from the popularly elected House of Commons. But it can amend and delay bills.

The House of Lords enjoys far more influence than the ornamental National People’s Congress, which is set in March to rubber-stamp the Communist Party’s decision last month to grant a historic third term to President Xi Jinping.

Since Xi took control of China in 2012, Britain is on its fifth prime minister.

The latest, Sunak, believes the upper house plays a “vitally important role” in U.K. democracy, according to his spokeseperson.

But he said constitutional reform was not an “immediate priority,” as the new prime minister tackles an economic crisis inherited from Truss — some of whose authors could now be rewarded with titles.
…

The place goes dark at 6 p.m. as scheduled, but customers at this upscale Kyiv restaurant are unfazed, happy to continue their meal and conversations.

Guided by her phone’s flashlight, the waitress brings out dishes and distributes candles. She smiles as she waits for the generator to start.

The atmosphere in the central Supra restaurant, bathed in the gentle glow of candlelight, is cozy, not sinister.

As winter approaches darkness descends on Kyiv at 4 p.m. Places like Supra offer their customers access to some light and heat — as well as Wi-Fi.

Alina Germash, a 36-year-old IT expert, has compiled a list of cafes where she can sit down with her laptop.

“You need to migrate all over the city and find a place where you can start your work,” she said.

For much of the past month, Russian strikes have severely damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

To ease the strain on the grid, the national energy operator has imposed controlled power cuts across the war-torn country.

In Kyiv, power cuts have been imposed daily for the past two weeks.

At Supra, the menu has been reorganized to take the new constraints into account.

Patrons are now offered cold entrees that do not require the use of electricity, dishes that can be reheated with the help of the generator, and drinks.

Filter coffee, kept warm on the stove, is especially popular with clients while it is 3 degrees Celsius outside.

Manager Valeria Mamysheva said little luxuries like filtered coffee matter and can brighten up the day.

“We are constantly trying to find a way out of any situation and to make people happy because times are very tough,” Mamysheva told AFP.

Open, power cuts or not

Kyiv is under an 11 p.m. curfew, but most restaurants close at 9 p.m. to give employees the time to clean up and catch public transport home.

Many supermarkets have had to adapt to maintain the proper storage temperatures for foods during power disruptions.

Small street stalls, equipped with candles or headlamps, have popped up to help residents with emergency shopping.

But some restaurants find generators too noisy or cannot afford the high fuel prices.

Power cuts are especially bad for business at Kyiv’s 1708 pizzeria, which does not have a generator.

“A pizza oven runs on electricity, not on firewood, so we cannot work,” lamented the owner, Ilona, speaking under the light of an LED lamp as staff waited for power to be restored.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has warned of a “worst-case” scenario this winter with “no electricity, water or heating” if Russia keeps up its attacks on the country’s infrastructure.

Roman Khandys hopes to keep his cocktail bar open, power cuts or not.

“If a power cut coincides with the start of our work, we shift our opening hours,” Khandys said, whiskey bottles glinting in the candlelight behind him.

“If it’s in the middle of the day, then we prepare food and clean.”
…

Ukrainian forces entered the city of Kherson on Friday as Russian forces retreated in haste. Villagers came out of hiding to welcome the Ukrainian troops and recounted horror stories of Russian soldiers killing civilians and looting homes.

According to Serhiy Khlan, deputy for the Kherson Regional Council, the city was almost fully under the control of Ukrainian forces. Multiple videos circulating on social media showed Ukrainian soldiers planting yellow-and-blue flags in the city while local residents celebrated.

Russia said Friday that it had finished pulling out its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River and that no soldiers or equipment had been left behind.

Retreating Russian soldiers painted a different picture, however. A Russian soldier described how he and his fellow soldiers were asked to hastily change into civilian clothing so they would not be detected. Also, some of the retreating soldiers reportedly drowned in the river while trying to escape.

For those Russian troops who did not make it out of the city, “the only chance to avoid death is to immediately surrender,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate said.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 towns in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, as Russia announced it was pulling its troops from Kherson.

“The number of Ukrainian flags returning to their rightful place in the framework of the ongoing defense operation is already dozens; 41 settlements were liberated,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Kherson, a strategic port city on the Dnipro River, was captured within days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24. On Wednesday, Moscow announced it had made the “difficult decision” to withdraw from the west bank of the river that includes Kherson. The reports of a swift Russian withdrawal from Kherson came sooner than Western officials had predicted. U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated earlier this week that the retreat would take “days and maybe even weeks.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov had also expressed skepticism that Russia could withdraw so quickly, fearing a potential trap by Russia to lure Ukrainian forces into brutal urban combat.

For Russia, Kherson has been a significant strategic region forming a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. Kherson is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move the United States and other countries condemned as illegal.

Meanwhile, Reznikov told Reuters that Ukraine was planning on building up a powerful military and defense industry, and this week’s state takeovers of privately held stakes in strategic companies are part of that drive, he noted.

Ukraine is building an “army of drones” to resist Russia’s invasion, Reznikov said. In recent weeks, Moscow has aimed waves of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones at vital Ukrainian infrastructure.

“We are trying to be like Israel — more independent during the next years,” he said Thursday in an interview in Kyiv. “I think the best answer [can be seen] in Israel … developing their national industry for their armed forces. It made them independent.”

Black Sea Grain Initiative

Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, and Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, met with a Russian delegation Friday in Geneva to discuss Moscow’s grievances about the Black Sea grains export initiative and to address the need for unimpeded food and fertilizer exports, a U.N. spokesperson said.

The negotiations came eight days before the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July is due to be renewed. The accord has helped stave off a global food crisis, allowing the export of food and fertilizers from several of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

The first shipment of donated fertilizers is expected to head to Malawi in the coming week, U.N. officials said Friday, following a meeting with a Russian delegation in Geneva.

“The world cannot afford to let global fertilizer accessibility problems become a global food shortage; therefore, the U.N. calls on all actors to expedite the removal of any remaining impediments to the export and transportation of fertilizers to countries most in need,” the U.N. said.

Moscow has indicated that it could pull out of the deal, set to expire on November 19, if there is no progress addressing its concerns.

Russia suspended its participation for four days last month in response to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that it blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility and denies using the grain program’s security corridor for military purposes.

Meanwhile, the Joint Coordination Centre reported that four vessels left Ukrainian ports Friday carrying a total of 120,150 metric tons of grain and other food products under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, while five inbound vessels transited the maritime humanitarian corridor toward Ukrainian ports.

War’s heavy toll

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In mid-October, the U.N. refugee agency said there were more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, including 2.85 million in Russia. It said another 7 million people have been uprooted within Ukraine.

Since February, “aid workers have provided critical aid and protection services to some 13.5 million people across all regions of Ukraine,” Stephanie Tremblay, an associate U.N. spokesperson, told reporters Thursday in New York.

Late Wednesday, Milley, the U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman, estimated that about 200,000 soldiers — 100,000 Russian troops and 100,000 Ukrainian troops — have been killed in the fighting so far, Reuters reported. Milley said about 40,000 civilians caught up in the fighting have also been killed.

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

“Mariupol. Unlost Hope” is a new documentary focusing on the war in Ukraine. It premiered in the U.S. in early November and shows the war through the eyes of ordinary people who managed to survive. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Max Avloshenko, Dmitrii Vershinin, Vladimir Badikov.
…

Officials in Brussels said Friday the suspect in a stabbing attack on two police officers Thursday — killing one, wounding the other — had been on a terrorism watch list.

Prosecutors’ spokesperson Eric van der Sypt told a news conference the two officers were attacked in their squad car as they sat at a red light on the northside of Brussels.  Van der Sypt said the suspect shouted “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great,” as he attacked.  

The officer driving the car was stabbed in the neck and died of his injuries after being taken the hospital. The officer in the passenger seat was stabbed in the arm but was able to call for help on the radio. Another police officer who responded to the call, shot and wounded the suspect, when he arrived.

Van der Sypt said the 23-year-old suspect was a Belgian national on the list of radicalized Muslims held by the national security agency OCAD/OCAM. The spokesperson said the suspect will be questioned once he has recovered.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the suspect had gone to a Brussels police station earlier Thursday and appeared to be in what they described as a “mentally disturbed” state and asked for help. They said he was taken to a psychiatric hospital for examination which he left a short time later.

Responding to the attack from his Twitter account, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo wrote, “Our police officers risk their lives every day to ensure the safety of our citizens. Today’s drama demonstrates this once again. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased officer.”

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

Leaving behind a better-than-expected Democratic performance in the November 8 Congressional elections, U.S. President Joe Biden heads to a whirlwind week of diplomacy with Southeast Asian and Indo-Pacific leaders amid an intensifying rivalry with China, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and increased provocations from North Korea.

Here are the key points he’ll be dealing with during his trip to Cambodia and Indonesia:

Summits, bilateral meetings

Biden is set to arrive in Phnom Penh Saturday morning after attending COP27, the United Nations Climate Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. 

In Cambodia, he will participate in the ASEAN–U.S. Summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in the East Asia Summit (EAS), a grouping of ASEAN and dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. 

He will meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, chair of the 10 Southeast Asian nations bloc this year, and the region’s longest-ruling dictator who has been in office in Cambodia since 1985.

Biden heads to Bali, Indonesia, Sunday for the G-20 summit with leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies. On Monday, he is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping – their first in-person engagement since Biden took office in 2021. 

He will meet summit host Indonesian President Joko Widodo, as well as the new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who also has recently taken office.

He’ll hold bilateral and trilateral meetings with the prime minister of Japan and the president of Korea to discuss the continuing threats posed by North Korea.

Security issues

Russia’s war on Ukraine, Chinese increased militarization in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and North Korean missile and nuclear threats will be areas of focus for Biden during his visit, along with finding areas of cooperation on transnational challenges such as climate change, preventing future pandemics, and global food and energy security.

It will be tricky diplomacy as Biden tries to compete against Beijing’s influence in Southeast Asia and broaden the coalition to isolate Moscow. Countries in the region rely on Beijing for economic growth but need Washington’s security umbrella to deter China’s increasingly muscular military posture. Some count on Russia’s role as balancer amid this U.S.-China rivalry.

The region’s biggest source of anxiety is escalation between Washington and Beijing, according to Evan Laksmana, senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

“What happens if there’s a Taiwan contingency scenario and the U.S. requests access to Singapore, to Indonesia, to the Philippines? Will they allow access, and therefore put us in the crosshairs of the Chinese? This is something that the region doesn’t have an answer to yet,” he told VOA. 

In addition, Biden will be in Asia amid increased military maneuvers from North Korea, including missile launches and military flights near its border with South Korea. In an interview with VOA, John Kirby, White House National Security Council’s director of strategic communications, said the U.S. is prepared for more provocations from Kim Jong Un while Biden is in the region — including Pyongyang’s first nuclear test since 2017.

Balancing act

In Phnom Penh, ASEAN will hold related summits with partners including China, Russia, and the United States. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the meetings in Phnom Penh, while Moscow is sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

These meetings provide a way for the bloc to manage regional fault lines on conflicts that include territorial disputes in the South China Sea among some of its members and Beijing, the military coup in Myanmar, and now Russia’s war in Ukraine.

ASEAN countries have varying degrees of trade and security ties with Washington, Beijing and Moscow. As with the U.S.-China competition, they are wary of their interests being damaged by competition between the West and Moscow. “These countries are going to be reluctant to do anything that upsets the balance,” Stacie Goddard, who teaches great power politics at Wellesley College told VOA.

Biden’s Phnom Penh visit will build on the May special summit he hosted in Washington, where he announced modest additional funding to increase engagement with Southeast Asian nations, including in the maritime domain. He is set to sign the ASEAN-U.S. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, a similar agreement to one the bloc entered with China in 2021.

Trade and investment 

Marc Mealy, senior vice president for policy with the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, told VOA the trade group is optimistic the meetings will increase cooperation, including on energy transition efforts, digital trade and creating more resilient supply chains.

Mealy noted that Washington’s top 20 trading partners include four ASEAN members – Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Chinese Premier Li is set to push for the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area “Version 3.0.” with the bloc’s 10 leaders. Biden will offer the U.S. alternative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, which Washington launched in May. IPEF does not include market access or tariff reduction provisions — trade incentives desired by countries in the region.
…

Ukraine’s prosecutor general says the country is not considering negotiations with Russia to bring an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In a BBC interview in Kyiv, Andriy Kostin said Moscow must be held responsible for its actions in Ukraine. 

Kostin, who wants to set up a special international tribunal, said he wants reparations that would be obtained through the seizure of Russian assets. 

He took exception to the notion that people around the world are suffering because of Ukraine.  “They don’t hear missiles. They don’t know what is bombing,” he said.  “They don’t know what is killing, rape, looting.”

While the prosecutor agreed that Europeans are paying more for food and fuel since the invasion, he said Ukrainians are “paying with their lives.”

Kostin said evidence of torture and indiscriminate killings is emerging “in practically every village and every town,” as well as evidence of sexual violence against women and children.
…

“Russian strikes on power generation and transmission are having a disproportionate effect upon civilians in Ukraine, indiscriminately impacting critical functions such as health care and heating,” according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily report on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The continued prioritization of critical national infrastructure over military targets strongly implies Russian intent to strike at civilian morale.”

“Since 10 October, Russia has attacked Ukraine with a campaign of strikes targeting electric power infrastructure. … The most recent intense strikes were on 31 October, which involved targeting hydroelectric dam facilities for the first time,” the report post on Twitter said. “The strikes have resulted in widespread damage to transmission stations and power plants. Scheduled and emergency blackouts have become routine in parts of Ukraine, with Kyiv notably impacted.”

Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 towns in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, as Russia announced it was pulling its troops from Kherson.

“The number of Ukrainian flags returning to their rightful place in the framework of the ongoing defense operation is already dozens, 41 settlements were liberated,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Kherson, a strategic port city on the Dnipro River, was captured within days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

On Wednesday, Moscow announced that it had made the “difficult decision” to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro, which includes Kherson.

By Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its units were leaving the area, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters that it would take a week for Russian troops to leave the city. He added that Moscow still has 40,000 troops in the region and its intelligence showed Russian forces remained in and around the city.

The rest of the Kherson region forms a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, Agence France-Presse reported. Kherson also is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move the United States and other countries have condemned as illegal.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Thursday the United States will provide air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine as part of a new $400 million security assistance package.

With “Russia’s unrelenting and brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilian and critical infrastructure, additional air defense capabilities are critical,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, according to The Associated Press.

The Pentagon said the package would include four short-range, highly mobile Avenger air defense systems — the first time they have been provided to Ukraine — as well as the Stinger missiles they fire.

Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden and the American people for the assistance, tweeting: “Together we’re building an air shield to protect (Ukrainian) civilians. We’re bringing victory over the aggressor closer!”

The package brings to more than $18.6 billion the total U.S. security assistance to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February.

Ukrainian forces are pushing toward Kherson.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Ukraine’s appointed governor for the region, said on Telegram that Russian troops had “taken away public equipment, damaged power lines and wanted to leave a trap behind them,” Reuters reported.

Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians.

However, since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In mid-October, the U.N. refugee agency said there were more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, including 2.85 million in Russia. It said another 7 million people have been uprooted within Ukraine.

Since February, “aid workers have provided critical aid and protection services to some 13.5 million people across all regions of Ukraine,” Stephanie Tremblay, an associate U.N. spokesperson, told reporters Thursday in New York.

Late Wednesday, U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated that about 200,000 soldiers – 100,000 each of Russian and Ukrainian troops – have been killed in the fighting so far, Reuters reported. He said about 40,000 civilians caught up in the fighting have also been killed.

On Friday, the United Nations said senior U.N. and Russian officials are to meet in Geneva for discussions to extend a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to return to world markets and was supposed to eliminate obstacles for Russian exports of grain and fertilizer.

The agreement expires Nov. 19, and Ukraine and Western nations are pressing for it to be extended, AP reported. However, Russia’s government has said it is undecided, expressing dissatisfaction with how the deal has worked for its side.

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

The U.S. Air Force chief of staff is warning that the U.S. military must “change” if it wants to stay ahead of China and Russia.

“Our adversaries have continued to advance their capabilities at the same time we’ve been using some of the same capabilities we’ve been using for the past 30 years,” Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr. told VOA in an exclusive interview this week.

“The threat we were up against is not the threat we’ll see in the future,” he said. “And that’s why we’ve got to, we’ve got to change.”

One Air Force change will be front and center next month, when the United States unveils its new B-21 stealth bomber on December 2. The B-21 is set to replace the Air Force’s B-1 and B-2 bombers, which have been around since the 1980s.

Due to classification concerns, Brown did not provide the availability rates for the Air Force’s aircraft, which give leaders a clearer picture of what aircraft would be at their disposal in the event of a crisis.

“One thing I will say is that this is why I’m going to modernize, because we have some aircraft that are, from a maintenance standpoint, are a little harder, more difficult to maintain [with] diminishing resources for parts,” Brown said. “And that’s the aspect of being able to modernize — so we increase the aircraft availability and ensure we have a ready force.”

Russia described as ‘acute threat’

The Biden administration released its national defense strategy this year that labels Russia, which started a war in February after invading its neighbor Ukraine, an “acute threat.”

China is the United States’ “pacing challenge” and greatest threat to national security, according to the unclassified document released last month.

China has more active duty military personnel than the United States and spent decades advancing its weapons. In the last few years, the Chinese military has built new aircraft carriers, new fighter jets and a massive missile arsenal.

Melanie Sisson, a defense analyst with the Brookings Institution, says it’s “fair” to acknowledge the progress of potential adversaries like China, “but that fact alone shouldn’t induce any panic in the United States.”

“We are still relatively very, very capable; the best military force in the world,” she told VOA.

‘I continue to see China sprinting’

China spent about $250 billion on its military in fiscal year 2022; the U.S. spent nearly eight times that amount.

Army veteran and defense analyst Bradley Bowman says overall military supremacy does not guarantee victory. He points out that China has “methodically and deliberately” chosen modernizations specifically designed to defeat the United States in East Asia, the most likely battlefield should war break out over Taiwan.

And that could make American ports and military bases in the region vulnerable to Chinese attacks.

“The Chinese have developed capabilities that are as good, in some cases better than ours,” Bowman told VOA. “America’s military edge in the Pacific has absolutely eroded, and I continue to see China sprinting, while it often seems like we in Washington are slumbering.”

U.S. officials say China wants the ability to invade and hold Taiwan by 2027, and China has said it aims to be a world-class military capable of “fighting and winning wars” by 2049. China views Taiwan as a wayward province.

Brown said he’s seen Russian and Chinese efforts to expand their influence outside of the European and Indo-Pacific theaters, as well, including in the Middle East and Africa.

“I was there when the Russians came into Syria, and they’re still there. You’ve also seen inroads of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) with their base in Djibouti,” said Brown, who was the commander of U.S. Air Force’s Central Command from 2015-2016.

Maintaining strong relationships vital

As the United States’ military has shifted resources out of the Middle East to focus on China and Russia, Brown told VOA maintaining a strong relationship with allies in the region and leveraging growing U.S. capabilities, such as space-based systems, will be key.

He plans to visit allies Jordan, Qatar and the UAE later this month to meet with partners and spend time with U.S. airmen.

Last month, Brown visited partners in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, where he discussed each country’s military modernization efforts.

In Colombia, he highlighted the U.S. delivery of additional C-130 transport aircraft.

Even in the Western Hemisphere, China and Russia seek to gain influence in places ranging from Venezuela, which has no formal ties with the U.S., to major non-NATO ally Argentina, where Buenos Aires is currently looking to spend hundreds of millions for new fighter jets.

Argentinian officials told lawmakers they are considering China and Pakistan’s JF-17, the United States’ F-16s, India’s Tejas, and the Russian-made MiG-35.

A retired senior military official told VOA Argentina wants American-made fighter jets, but any deal could face problems should Britain seek to block it. Britain, which makes some components of the F-16, has effectively maintained an arms embargo on Argentina since the 1982 Falklands War.

The official expressed concern that the British embargo could prompt Argentina to go to China for its defense needs.

Asked about this concern, Brown told VOA the U.S. “was going to pay attention to it.”

“My real focus is to ensure that we remain interoperable to the best of our abilities with our partners and have them understand that the United States and the United States Air Force is committed to working very closely with him,” he said.
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The United States is working to ensure that U.S. sanctions are not impeding the flow of Russian food and fertilizer to developing countries during talks to renew a U.N.-brokered deal on food shipments from Ukraine that will expire Nov. 19.

In an interview this week, the U.S. State Department’s top official on economic affairs, Ramin Toloui, told VOA there would be daunting consequences on global food security if Russia does not renew the deal.

“When there was a period, just in the last couple of weeks, where Russia suspended its cooperation in the deal, and we saw that global food prices increased quite sharply.  And then when Russia rejoined that deal, which we were very pleased to see, global food prices came down,” Toloui said Wednesday.

“So the consequence of not renewing the deal is very significant. We unfortunately got a preview of that just during this brief period of time, where Russia suspended its cooperation,” he added.

The United Nations- and Turkish-negotiated Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed in July and created a corridor for food and fertilizer shipments, but Russia has been reluctant to renew it.

A Reuters report said Russia has asked the West to ease sanctions-hit Russian Agricultural Bank, also known as Rosselkhozbank.

“We are doing a number of things to try to make sure that we’re facilitating Russia’s ability to export food and fertilizer to those who need it in the developing world,” said Toloui when asked if the U.S. would consider such demand.

The following are excerpts from VOA’s interview with Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. They have been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: On November 19, the U.N.-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative will expire unless renewed. What is the U.S. message to Russia?

Toloui: The Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has been advanced by the U.N. secretary general and with the support of Turkey, has been incredibly important to the world, and particularly people in developing countries. Under the initiative, about 10 million metric tons of grain have been exported since it was launched in July. And to put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to about a billion loaves of bread per month. … Two-thirds of the grain has gone to developing countries, and it has helped bring down global food prices from their highs, following Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine.

VOA: Would the U.S. consider easing some of the restrictions on Rosselkhozbank?

Toloui: This is a very important point. When the U.S. imposed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, we specifically carved out food and fertilizer, agricultural products from those sanctions. We don’t want U.S. sanctions to impede the ability of developing countries to import the Russian food and fertilizer that they need. So there’s what’s called a general license authorizing transactions in food and fertilizer. And we’ve also been clear in communicating with governments and the private sector that those sanctions don’t apply to transactions related to food and fertilizer.

VOA: To clarify, are you ruling out U.S. support to ease restrictions on Rosselkhozbank?

Toloui: Well, what we’re working very hard is to make sure that our sanctions are not impeding the flow of Russian food and fertilizer. In fact, in addition to the efforts I mentioned, we have established a helpline at the State Department where countries, companies can bring any difficulties that they’re having in transacting Russian food and fertilizer, so we can help resolve them.

VOA: Is that fair to say that Russia’s proposal to ease sanctions on that bank is off the table?

Toloui: As I said, we are doing a number of things to try to make sure that we’re facilitating Russia’s ability to export food and fertilizer to those who need it in the developing world.

VOA: Can you give us an update on the U.S. effort to promote global food security?

Toloui: Yes. We have taken this issue of global food security very seriously, even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But since the invasion, Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken convened a meeting of more than 30 ministers of agriculture, foreign affairs and development in April to launch the “Roadmap for Global Food Security Call to Action,” which lays out the international community’s plan for confronting these global food security challenges. More than 100 countries have now signed up to that plan, and it includes actions like increasing contributions to humanitarian organizations that are providing essential support to those at risk of starvation.

It includes making investments in agricultural capacity in developing countries to increase their food production now but also improve their resilience going forward.  And the United States has done a number of things to implement that roadmap.  We’ve committed $10.5 billion this year in development assistance and humanitarian assistance, which is addressing some of these priorities that were laid out in the roadmap, which has been endorsed by more than 100 countries.

VOA: Since you are heading to Asia, some of those countries are hurt by inflation and soaring food prices but have refrained from condemning Russia outright. What is the U.S. message to these countries, such as India and China?

Toloui:  Well, I think one of the most important things is that everyone be aware of how important this Black Sea Grain Initiative is to global food security.

As I mentioned, 10 million metric tons of grains have come out of the Black Sea and gone to the global markets. Two-thirds of that has gone to developing countries, and that’s equivalent to a billion loaves of bread per month.

And so it’s incredibly important that those Black Sea Grain Initiative be extended. We want all parties, including Russia, to agree to extending that before it expires on November 19.

So we’re encouraging countries around the world to speak about how important this Black Sea Grain Initiative is to the global food security challenges and support the U.N. secretary general’s efforts to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
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Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 towns in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, as Russia announced it was pulling its troops from Kherson.

“The number of Ukrainian flags returning to their rightful place in the framework of the ongoing defense operation is already dozens, 41 settlements were liberated,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Kherson, a strategic port city on the Dnipro River, was captured within days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

On Wednesday, Moscow announced that it had made the “difficult decision” to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro, which includes Kherson.

By Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its units were leaving the area, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters that it would take a week for Russian troops to leave the city. He added that Moscow still has 40,000 troops in the region and its intelligence showed Russian forces remained in and around the city.

The rest of the Kherson region forms a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, Agence France-Presse reported. Kherson also is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move the United States and other countries have condemned as illegal.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced Thursday the United States will provide air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine as part of a new $400 million security assistance package.

With “Russia’s unrelenting and brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilian and critical infrastructure, additional air defense capabilities are critical,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, according to The Associated Press.

The Pentagon said the package would include four short-range, highly mobile Avenger air defense systems — the first time they have been provided to Ukraine — as well as the Stinger missiles they fire.

Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden and the American people for the assistance, tweeting: “Together we’re building an air shield to protect (Ukrainian) civilians. We’re bringing victory over the aggressor closer!”

The package brings to more than $18.6 billion the total U.S. security assistance to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February.

Ukrainian forces are pushing toward Kherson.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Ukraine’s appointed governor for the region, said on Telegram that Russian troops had “taken away public equipment, damaged power lines and wanted to leave a trap behind them,” Reuters reported.

Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians.

However, since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In mid-October, the U.N. refugee agency said there were more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, including 2.85 million in Russia. It said another 7 million people have been uprooted within Ukraine.

Since February, “aid workers have provided critical aid and protection services to some 13.5 million people across all regions of Ukraine,” Stephanie Tremblay, an associate U.N. spokesperson, told reporters Thursday in New York.

Late Wednesday, U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated that about 200,000 soldiers – 100,000 each of Russian and Ukrainian troops – have been killed in the fighting so far, Reuters reported. He said about 40,000 civilians caught up in the fighting have also been killed.

On Friday, the United Nations said senior U.N. and Russian officials are to meet in Geneva for discussions to extend a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to return to world markets and was supposed to eliminate obstacles for Russian exports of grain and fertilizer.

The agreement expires Nov. 19, and Ukraine and Western nations are pressing for it to be extended, AP reported. However, Russia’s government has said it is undecided, expressing dissatisfaction with how the deal has worked for its side.

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