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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday called British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who is stepping down from office after just six weeks of her turbulent tenure, a “good partner” in supporting Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression.

Biden declined to weigh in on her resignation.

“That’s for her to decide,” he told reporters at the White House moments before he boarded presidential helicopter Marine One on his way to Pennsylvania. “But look, she was a good partner on Russia and Ukraine, and the British are going to solve their problem.”

Biden dismissed any potential spillover effects from the political turmoil of the United States’ oldest ally.

“I don’t think they’re that consequential,” he said.

Truss stepped down after her unfunded tax-cutting agenda crashed the British pound, raised borrowing costs and triggered financial market turmoil.

Strong allies

Biden, who had spoken by phone with Truss to discuss Ukraine and met with her in person on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September, had made clear he opposed Truss’s economic plans to cut taxes on the “super wealthy.”

“I disagreed with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain to make that judgment, not me,” he told reporters last week.

Earlier Thursday, the White House released a statement expressing Biden’s support for the British government and his appreciation for Truss.

“The United States and the United Kingdom are strong allies and enduring friends — and that fact will never change,” the statement said.

Observers agree. Of all the issues that divide the British Conservative Party, they all agree on the centrality of the U.K.’s relationship with the U.S., said David H. Dunn, chair of the department of political science and international studies at the University of Birmingham.

Following Brexit, the Conservative Party became more right wing, with more libertarian members among its ranks, Dunn told VOA.

“This, together with an antipathy towards the EU, makes them even more predisposed to look across the Atlantic for their natural ally rather than across the Channel to Europe,” Dunn said.

The Conservative Party holds a big majority in parliament and need not call a nationwide election for another two years. They are scheduled to elect a new leader by October 28; former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is set to compete for the post against ex-Defense Minister Penny Mordaunt.

Boris Johnson, who was ousted as prime minister in July following mass resignations by his ministers, is also reportedly weighing a comeback.

Whoever emerges as the next prime minister will carry the burden of Britain’s weakness at home, said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House.

“This inevitably means that the new PM will be far more inclined to align itself closely with the U.S., and I would guess, also to sort out a good relationship with Europe,” Vinjamuri told VOA.

Support for Ukraine

Despite the change in leadership, the U.K. will remain a steadfast supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Jason Moyer, program associate for the global Europe program at the Wilson Center.

“The U.K. is the third-largest provider of military and financial support to Ukraine, behind only the United States and the European Union, and is hosting a training program for up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers,” Moyer told VOA.

On Tuesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Ben Wallace, the U.K.’s secretary of state for defense. The two underscored their commitment to continue providing Ukraine with security assistance.

Observers say that Britain’s next leadership will likely adhere to a more mainstream conservative foreign policy — tough on Russia and China and recognizing that Europe is essential to Britain’s economic success.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to turn Turkey into a Russian natural gas hub.

Erdogan, addressing his parliamentary deputies Wednesday, said Turkey had secured a vital opportunity by agreeing to Putin’s plan.

“European countries are currently searching to find where to get natural gas supplies,” he said. “Thank God Turkey does not have such a problem. Hopefully, we will soon become a hub for natural gas.”

Last week, Putin said the gas would be redirected through Turkey from the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea, which were damaged by blasts last month.

Russia already supplies Turkey’s TurkStream pipeline gas under the Black Sea. But the Kremlin admitted the pipeline has limited extra capacity. By the time new capacity has been created, said international relations professor Senem Duzgit of Istanbul’s Sabanci University, Europe will likely have secured alternative supplies.

“I mean, who’s going to buy that energy?” he said, “I mean, realistically speaking, if the Europeans refuse to buy that gas, who’s going to buy it? So who will Turkey be a center for? Right? Who will be the destination of that gas? That’s what I’m just not convinced about.”

Putin’s hub proposal comes as Ankara is seeking to position itself as an alternative to Russian energy for Europe, as Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin underlined Wednesday.

Kalin said, “The offer by Putin is very important. But if Europe is looking for alternatives from Russian gas, there are two places it can find it: through a pipeline from Azerbaijan running through Turkey, and possible Iranian gas in the future, again, using Turkish pipelines.”

Putin appeared to take Ankara by surprise with his gas hub plan. The proposal came as Turkey has faced growing scrutiny from its Western allies over its refusal to enforce sanctions against Russia. Washington and the European Union have warned that Turkey could face secondary sanctions if it violated its measures against Russia.

Ankara denies any wrongdoing, but Putin’s gas proposals come as the West’s patience may be running out, warned Maria Shangina, a specialist on international sanctions at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“The more Turkey explodes this space between legal and illegal activities with Russia, I think there might be a snapping point from the West to impose sanctions,” she said.

But some analysts point out that Erdogan will try to accommodate Putin, given that he is trying to negotiate a cut in the price of Russian gas and a deferral of payments until after next year’s Turkish presidential elections. Erdogan is seeking to cut near triple-digit inflation, as most opinion polls indicate his electoral defeat.
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday after just 44 days in office, prompted by an economic plan that sent financial markets into a tailspin, led to shake-ups in her Cabinet and divided her ruling Conservative Party.

She is the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. 

In comments delivered at a podium in front of the prime minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street in London, Truss said that while she set out a vision for a “low tax, high growth economy,” she recognized she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected by the Conservative Party.

Truss said she will serve until a replacement is selected. Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s special parliamentary body, the 1922 Committee, told reporters that party leadership has indicated it could conduct a ballot and conclude an election as early as October 28, and possibly have a new prime minister in place by October 31.

The 1922 Committee is made up of Conservative Party members of parliament and has the power to force a prime minister from within the party to resign. 

Analysts suggest former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, who lost to Truss in the last leadership contest in August, is the leading candidate to replace her.

In an interview, opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer referred to the situation in the ruling Conservative — or Tory Party — as a “soap opera” and called for an urgent general election “so the public can make their minds up about this utter chaos.”

In a statement issued by the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Truss for her partnership “on a range of issues, including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine.” He later reiterated that point to reporters as he left the White House and expressed confidence “the British are going to solve their problem.”

Truss succeeded Boris Johnson in September after he resigned following a series of scandals, including holding gatherings in violation of his government’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Liz Truss said on Thursday she was resigning as British prime minister just six weeks after she was appointed. 

A leadership election will be completed within the next week to replace Truss, who is the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. George Canning previously held the record, serving 119 days in 1827 when he died. 

Given the divisions in the party there is no obvious candidate and any replacement would face a country likely heading into a recession. Leading names are below: 

Rishi Sunak 

Britain’s former finance minister was the most popular candidate among Conservative lawmakers at Westminster in a leadership contest earlier this year but, after getting through to a run-off against Truss, he lost out in a vote involving some 170,000 party members who made the final decision. 

Many members were angry when Sunak quit in July, helping to trigger a rebellion that eventually brought down former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. They also ignored his warning that markets could lose confidence in Britain if Truss delivered her unfunded tax cuts. 

Betting exchange Betfair puts Sunak as the favorite to replace Truss, but those lawmakers who remain loyal to Johnson would most probably oppose that move. 

Sunak is “certain to stand” for the leadership, according to the Telegraph. 

Penny Mordaunt 

A former defense secretary, Mordaunt was a passionate supporter of leaving the European Union who only just missed out on the final two-place run-off in the recent leadership challenge. 

Mordaunt won plaudits for her performance in parliament on Monday, when she defended the government even as it reversed most of its policies. 

One lawmaker has described Mordaunt as having “broad appeal,” referring to her ability to find friends in the various tribes of the party. 

Mordaunt is believed to be in the running to become the next prime minister, Sky News reported. 

Boris Johnson 

Former prime minister Johnson is expected to stand in the Conservative Party leadership contest, the Times reported. 

Johnson, once a journalist, has loomed large over British politics ever since he became London Mayor in 2008. After causing trouble for leaders such as David Cameron and Theresa May, he finally became prime minister in 2019 and went on to win a landslide election victory. 

Johnson was the face of the Brexit vote and won votes in parts of the country that had never voted Conservative before. But he was forced out by a string of scandals. 

Some closest to him say at the moment he is more interested in making money on the speech circuit than returning to frontline politics. 

Jeremy Hunt 

After Truss’s economic program collapsed and she fired her finance minister, she turned to Hunt, a former health and foreign minister, to put things right. 

A series of confident performances on television and in the House of Commons, as he ripped up Truss’s economic manifesto, have already led to some Conservative lawmakers referring to Hunt as the “real prime minister.” 

He has insisted he does not want the top job, despite entering two previous races to become prime minister, including in 2019 when he lost out in the final round to former prime minister Boris Johnson. Hunt does not have the obvious support of a large group of lawmakers in parliament. 

The BBC and other outlets said he was not considering running. 

Kemi Badenoch 

After losing out in the previous leadership contest, where she won support on the right wing of the Conservative party, Badenoch was appointed a cabinet minister by Truss. 

A source close to Badenoch said: “The Party must unite around a new leader who restores trust in politics and delivers good government for the British people. Kemi is in conversations with colleagues about how best to achieve this.” 

The trade secretary, born in London to Nigerian-origin parents, has said Britain has been falsely criticized as oppressive to minorities. She has also opposed gender-neutral toilets as causing a “significant disadvantage” to women. 

Suella Braverman 

Braverman, who resigned less than 24 hours ago as home secretary after criticizing Truss, is “widely expected to stand” to be the leader of the Conservatives, the Guardian reported, adding that an adviser to her declined to say if she plans to run. 

Braverman, born to parents of Indian origin, wants to reduce overall migration into Britain and has said the country has too many low-skilled migrant workers and very high numbers of international students. 

She previously served as a Brexit minister and has advocated for Britain pulling out of the European Court of Human Rights. She was also a leadership contender in the previous contest, winning the backing of prominent anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage. 

Braverman quit as interior minister on Wednesday, saying she had to go after she breached government rules but said in a critical resignation letter that she had concerns over the direction of Truss’s government.  

Ben Wallace 

Britain’s defense secretary is one of the few ministers to have emerged from recent political turmoil with his credibility enhanced. Wallace, a former soldier, was defense minister for both Johnson and Truss, leading Britain’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Popular with party members, he surprised many earlier this year when he said he wouldn’t run for the leadership, saying he wanted to focus on his current job. He told the Times newspaper this week that he still wanted to stay as defense secretary. 

 
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Liz Truss said on Thursday she was resigning as British prime minister just six weeks after she was appointed, brought down by an economic program that sent shockwaves through financial markets last month and divided her Conservative Party.

Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office, Truss accepted that she could not deliver the promises she made when she was running for Conservative leader, having lost the faith of her party.

A leadership election will be completed within the next week to replace Truss, who is the shortest serving prime minister in British history. George Canning previously held the record, serving 119 days in 1827 when he died.

“I recognize though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party,” she said.

Earlier, Conservative Party officials had gathered at Downing Street while a growing number of her own lawmakers called on her to quit.

Appointed on Sept. 6, Truss was forced to sack her finance minister and closest political ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, and abandon almost all her economic program after their plans for vast unfunded tax cuts crashed the pound and British bonds. Approval ratings for her and her Conservative Party collapsed.

On Wednesday she lost the second of the government’s four most senior ministers, faced laughter as she tried to defend her record to parliament and saw her lawmakers openly quarrel over policy, deepening the sense of chaos at Westminster.

New finance minister Jeremy Hunt is now racing to find tens of billions of pounds of spending cuts to try to reassure investors and rebuild Britain’s fiscal reputation as the economy heads into recession and with inflation at a 40-year high.
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The European Union agreed Thursday to impose new sanctions on entities supplying Iranian drones to Russia that were used to strike Ukraine.

The Czech presidency of the European Union announced the agreement in a tweet Thursday, saying it came after three days of talks with EU ambassadors and would go into effect Thursday afternoon.

It said the EU was freezing assets of three individuals and one entity “responsible for drone deliveries.”

It added that the EU was also prepared to extend sanctions against four Iranian entities that were previously sanctioned.

Russian forces have intensified their use of airstrikes during the past week that Ukrainian officials have identified as utilizing Iranian-made drones laden with explosives that are crashed into their targets.

Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia and Russia has denied using them in Ukraine. 
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Ukraine is restricting power use Thursday in response to Russian attacks that damaged parts of the country’s electrical infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged people to conserve energy in an address late Wednesday.

He said the government was working to create “mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure in cities and villages.”

Ukraine’s power grid operator said supply restrictions would be in place from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., and that as colder months approach, it may need to take such steps again in the future.

Drone controversy

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council met Wednesday in a private meeting at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the issue of Russia using Iranian-made drones in its war in Ukraine.

Washington, London and Paris say Tehran’s supplying of these unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia is a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which allows for transfers of restricted items to or from Iran only when approved on a case-by-case basis by the Security Council. No such approval has been sought.

“We had a very clear indication that the drones have been delivered from Iran to Russia and they have been used in Ukraine,” France’s ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told reporters as he left the meeting. “This is a violation of Resolution 2231.”

“We anticipate this will be the first of many conversations at the U.N. on how to hold Iran and Russia accountable for failing to comply with U.N. Security Council-imposed obligations,” said Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

“As was outlined during today’s meeting, there is ample evidence that Russia is using Iranian-made UAVs in cruel and deliberate attacks against the people of Ukraine, including against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure,” he added, “in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”

Ukrainian officials have said drones used in waves of attacks during the past week, including on the capital, Kyiv, were Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones that Russia used to carry explosives and crash into their targets.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador told reporters that his government categorically rejects the “unfounded and unsubstantiated claims,” which he said are part of a disinformation campaign against his government.

“It is disappointing to pursue their political agenda, these states are trying to launch a disinformation campaign against Iran and make misleading interpretation of the Security Council Resolution 2231 in order to wrongly establish a link between their baseless allegation against Iran with this resolution,” Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said.

Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy told reporters that the allegations are “baseless,” there have been no arms transfers in violation of the resolution and no Iranian drones were supplied to Russia for use in Ukraine.

“I would recommend that you do not underestimate the technological capabilities of the Russian drone industry,” Dmitry Polyanskiy said. “I can tell you we know what we do, and we know how to do it.”

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that in the past week alone, more than 100 Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas.

U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this article. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Cattle farmers in Botswana, one of Africa’s top beef exporters to the European Union, have welcomed renewed beef exports to Europe. The move follows a two-month ban that followed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the culling of thousands of cows.

Botswana officials on Monday said the August outbreak near the border with Zimbabwe has been brought under control, although a ban on cattle from the area remains in place.

Due to tough restrictions, beef exports to the European Union had been suspended because of the outbreak in August.

But farmers like Bathusi Letlhare said they are now relieved following Monday’s announcement of the partial lifting of the ban.

“It is a welcome development because the EU is one of the main markets for our beef,” Letlhare said. “They pay good prices, and this, in turn, benefits farmers a lot. It is always bad when we have an FMD outbreak and the market has to be closed.”

Letlhare added that the frequent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have had an adverse impact on the economy.

“I can say 80 percent of households have livestock, and when FMD breaks out and certain markets are closed, it becomes a big challenge to farmers,” Letlhare said. “Farmers cannot move cattle to markets, and there is no income to farmers, and the whole economy is affected.”

Letlhare felt the impact, too.

“I run a butchery, and for 10 days we were not selling beef,” Letlhare said. “And you can imagine the money we lost.”

Botswana’s acting director of veterinary services Kefentse Motshegwa said strict export requirements will be followed. This includes placing cattle in holdings approved for EU export for a period of 40 days before slaughter.

Beef exports will only be allowed from seven of the country’s 19 agricultural zones.

Andrew Seeletso of the Botswana National Beef Producers Union said although meat from other agricultural zones remained banned, the partial resumption of beef exports is welcome.

“It is better than nothing,” he said. “We are hoping that soon enough, the rest of the country will be allowed to sell beef for the EU market. But overall, we are very excited. It’s a good development, and we support it.”

In September, Botswana partially resumed the beef trade, including live cattle sales to neighboring countries, but there was no export to the EU.

The country enjoys duty- and quota-free access to the European market.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against growing concerns that Republican lawmakers would not keep aid flowing to Ukraine should they retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November midterm election.

“The United States has provided Ukraine with robust bipartisan support,” she told reporters Wednesday. “We will continue to work with Congress as we have these past several months on these efforts and support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

The United States has authorized more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, with more than $17 billion in security assistance disbursed since the war began in February.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, however, indicated that aid could slow down should the chamber be controlled by Republicans. 

On Tuesday, McCarthy told Punchbowl News that with a recession coming, Americans are not going to write “a blank check” to Ukraine. “They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check,” he said.

Ukrainians, still reeling from Russian drone and missile attacks on their capital, Kyiv, and other cities, leaving much of the country without power, are closely following the U.S. midterm election process, said Olena Shuliak, chairwoman of Ukraine’s ruling Servant of the People Party.

“Our people die every day. Every day, we stand defending democracy in the whole world,” she told VOA Ukrainian. “You can see what is happening daily with the shelling and destruction of our houses and killing of our people — you can’t decrease the support only to increase it.”       

Observers say that with rising isolationist tendencies in the Republican Party, some worry that aid to Ukraine would wane, particularly for humanitarian and economic needs. There is less concern for U.S. security assistance, however, considering Republicans generally support the military industrial complex, said Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

“What is the desperate need from Europeans right now in Ukraine and all across the [NATO] eastern flank? It is the need for weapons systems, everything from ammunition to very sophisticated weapon systems like HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems], drones,” Berzina told VOA. “The defense budgets are increasing so significantly in Europe that the increase in defense spending is outpacing what is available on the shelf.” 

In May, Congress voted for more than $40 billion in new military and humanitarian assistance, with 57 House Republicans voting against the package. 

Focus on China 

Looming recession aside, some Republican lawmakers have signaled that the U.S. should instead focus more on the threat of China’s military buildup. 

“There are a lot of members that want to see more accountability in the Department of Defense and more of a focus on the threats that are out there,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise told reporters last month. “China is moving very aggressively to build up a naval fleet, and right now our naval fleet is in decline.”

Berzina said the conflict in Ukraine is a testing ground not only of the West’s technological warfare capabilities but of its commitment to defend a partner against an aggressor. 

The competitive military environment in Ukraine is giving defense companies reason to innovate and invest in weapon technologies, many of which are being tested on the Ukrainian battlefields.

“That’s going to be important should there be a conflict with China in the future,” she said.

China, she added, is also learning from the West’s reaction to Moscow’s expansionist ambitions.

“Any kind of permissibility in Ukraine also has implications,” she said. “How tough is the U.S. going to be when it comes to Taiwan?” 

Some Republican lawmakers have also cited a need for greater oversight of the aid being sent to Ukraine and complained that the U.S. is shouldering more of the financial burden than other NATO members.

Observers say that stopping U.S. support for Ukraine would wipe out Kyiv’s gains on the battlefield and could alter the course of the war. 

“Is it better to have an investment in Ukraine defense right now before you have to defend half of the European continent?” Berzina asked. “So there’s a fiscally conservative argument to stopping it now before the problem becomes so big that the U.S. has to put more money into it in much bigger places.”

Tatiana Koprowicz contributed to this report.
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The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that it expects carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels to rise again this year, but by much less than in 2021 due to the growth in renewable power and electric cars.

Last year saw a strong rebound in carbon dioxide emissions — the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming — after the global economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The Paris-based IEA said CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are on course to rise by almost 1% in 2022 compared to the previous year. That’s nearly 300 million metric tons of CO2 more than in 2021, when the burning of gas, oil and coal released about 33.5 billion tons of CO2.

“This year’s increase is driven by power generation and by the aviation sector, as air travel rebounds from pandemic lows,” the agency said.

While coal emissions grew 2% as countries that previously imported natural gas from Russia scrambled for other energy sources, this didn’t outweigh the expansion of solar and wind power, which saw a record rise in 2022.

Oil use also increased as pandemic-related restrictions eased, resulting in more people commuting to work and a rise in air travel.

“The rise in global CO2 emissions this year would be much larger — more than tripling to reach close to 1 billion tons — were it not for the major deployments of renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles around the world,” it said.

Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases need to decline drastically in the coming decades to keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), the ambitious threshold agreed in the 2015 Paris climate pact. Scientists say there is little room left for maneuver because temperatures have already risen by about 1.2 Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times.

A report published Wednesday by the environmental think tank World Resources Institute found countries’ current plans for cutting emissions would see them decline just 7% by 2030 from 2019 levels. The group said emissions would need to drop by 43% over that period to meet the Paris goal.

Stepping up global efforts to reduce emissions will be one of the topics at next month’s United Nations climate meeting in Egypt.
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The European Parliament (EP) has awarded its 2022 Sakharov Prize to “the brave people of Ukraine” in their battle against Russia’s unprovoked invasion in late February.

The EP said in a statement Wednesday that the award went to “brave Ukrainians, represented by their President [Volodymyr Zelenskyy], elected leaders, and civil society.”

“This award is for those Ukrainians fighting on the ground. For those who have been forced to flee. For those who have lost relatives and friends. For all those who stand up and fight for what they believe in. I know that the brave people of Ukraine will not give up and neither will we,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in the statement.

The annual prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988 by the European Parliament to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
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The United States, Britain and France have asked for the U.N. Security Council to discuss the issue of Russia using Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine.

Diplomats said Tuesday the request included asking for a U.N. official to brief the council during a closed-door meeting Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials have said drones used in waves of attacks during the past week, including on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, were Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones that Russia used to carry explosives and crash into their targets.

Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia, and Russian officials have denied using them.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters Tuesday he expects more drone attacks against “many cities in Ukraine.”

Pevkur said Ukraine has managed to shoot down about half of attacking drones, but that it still needs more help. Ukrainian officials have in recent days repeated their calls for allies to provide more air defense aid.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that in the past week alone, more than 100 self- Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas.

Russia’s new commander in Ukraine said Tuesday the situation in the southern Kherson region is “very difficult” as Kyiv forces wage an offensive to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow illegally annexed last month.

“The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson,” Russian air force General Sergei Surovikin told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel.

Surovikin said Russia plans to evacuate civilians ahead of Ukraine’s offensive to reclaim Kherson, one of four regions under Russian control.

He called Tuesday for an “organized, gradual displacement” of civilians from four towns on the Dnipro River, a 2,200-kilometer-long river that bisects Ukraine.

Regional head Vladimir Saldo told The Associated Press on Tuesday that residents of Berislav, Belozersky, Snigiryovsky and Alexandrovsky were to be moved across the Dnipro, away from Russian troops building “large-scale defensive fortifications.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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As the cold season starts in landlocked Afghanistan, concerns are mounting about widespread hunger, particularly in the rugged parts of the country where the first snowfall blocks the roads.

This year there is hope that 30,000 metric tons of wheat coming from another war-torn country, Ukraine, will mitigate the hunger for some Afghans. The U.N. says hunger is nearly universal in Afghanistan with 97% of its population now living below the poverty line.

“Despite its own suffering in the face of Russia’s brutal invasion, Ukraine has donated 30,000 metric tons of grain through the WFP to alleviate Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis,” U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, tweeted last month.

The World Food Program says the wheat is being milled into flour in Turkey and will be then shipped to Pakistan from where it will be delivered to Afghanistan by trucks.

A spokesperson for WFP told VOA the aid shipment is funded by the U.S. “It is not a donation from Ukraine,” said the spokesperson, Annabel Symington.

VOA asked the State Department whether the U.S. offered any financial incentive to Ukraine for the wheat. The answer: No.

“The U.S. did not play a role in Ukraine’s decision to donate this 30,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan and commends Ukraine for its generosity despite the trying circumstances imposed upon it by Russia’s unjust invasion,” the State Department spokesperson said.

Ukraine sells

In August, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced it was giving $68 million to the WFP to buy 150,000 metric tons of wheat from Ukraine to feed needy countries in Africa and Asia.

“Before Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was one of WFP’s top suppliers of grain and the fourth largest commercial exporter of wheat. Opening the Ukrainian market is a vital step forward in our emergency response,” USAID said in the statement.

Under a deal brokered by Turkey, Ukraine has exported more than 6.4 million metric tons of wheat and other food items in the past two months, according to the U.N.

The Ukrainian shipments have gone to different countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, where food prices have gone up markedly since Russia embarked on its war against Ukraine in February.

The U.S. has also provided aid to Ukrainian farmers to improve their agricultural products, such as spraying pesticides by drones.

“USAID is supporting the farmers of Ukraine in their efforts to continue feeding Ukrainians and feeding the world,” said Samantha Power, the USAID administrator, while visiting a farm in Ukraine on October 6.

In addition to humanitarian aid, the U.S. has given more than $17.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, according to figures from the State Department.

Why give credit to Ukraine?

While Ukraine has sold the wheat to WFP, why has the U.S. been praising Ukrainian “generosity” and “donation” rather than claiming credit for its own financial sponsorship of the wheat aid to Afghanistan?

“Ukraine is the source of this food,” James S. Gilmore, a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told VOA. “The goal here is to allow Ukraine to engage in international commerce. And, once that’s permitted, over top of this war, then I do think that the American people who are funding it and financing it ought to be given credit for that.”

Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, said the U.S. might have preferred to give credit to Ukraine in order to blunt Russia’s onslaught.

“At the moment, Russia is on the diplomatic offensive in among many developing nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, scoring points by saying that the U.S. has been imposing various conditionalities on aid and its double standards, etc. And the U.S. is very keen that Ukraine, with which it is allied, is seen in a more positive light among those developing countries,” de Waal told VOA.
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Viewers of Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV had an unexpected interruption to the evening news show last month, when journalists entered a studio during a live broadcast to show support for their colleagues.

The protest came after Uros Urbanija, the director of RTV’s TV Slovenia unit, ordered anchor Sasa Krajnc and news editor Vesna Pfeiffer to be reassigned, after Krajnc introduced a segment as being broadcast on the direct instruction of the chief news editor.

The response from RTV’s CEO was swift. In October, he issued letters to all 38 staffers involved, warning they face dismissal if contracts are breached again.

The actions come at a time when the public broadcaster is in the middle of claims of political pressure and editorial interference, with the former ruling center-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) gathering momentum to derail a law that the government says will protect RTV.

Media associations and trade unions say the warning letters are troubling.

One letter, viewed by VOA and signed by RTV’s chief executive Andrej Grah Whatmough, states that the employee entered the studio “without authorization.”

By doing so, the employee used the show “for expressing a personal opinion and thus inadmissibly intervened in the program.”

Any future breaches of contract in the next two years may result in termination, the letter said.

VOA has not identified the person addressed in the letter to avoid possible retaliation.

Journalists at RTV and their trade unions say the letters were issued illegally and should be annulled.

Pfeiffer told VOA she was demoted from being editor of a prominent evening show to working on a morning news program. Krajnc has so far not been reassigned.

Media associations, trade unions and academics view the developments as another worrying step for the public broadcaster.

“Nobody who would want to lead a group of journalists effectively could issue such warnings,” Slavko Splichal, a professor of communication at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Social Sciences, told VOA.

Public broadcaster targeted

The academic described the warning as “clear proof that the management of RTV wants to destroy” the public broadcaster, adding, “If they actually fired all those journalists, its TV news program would collapse.”

Splichal until September was a member of RTV’s Program Council, a body that names the broadcaster’s chief executive and endorses production plans.

Splichal told VOA he resigned last month to signal that he disagrees with developments at TV Slovenia.

International rights groups, including the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), are also troubled by the action.

“This situation seriously undermines RTV’s journalistic mission and poses threats to its independence,” IPI Europe advocacy officer Jamie Wiseman told VOA.

Wiseman said the letters “pose further concerns about the actions of management, who have already been accused by editorial staff of axing shows, removing editors, pressuring or reassigning individual journalists, and attempting to engineer a political shift of editorial content.”

Independent and professional reporting is increasingly difficult at TV Slovenia, and will not be possible in the long run, unless the situation is resolved, said senior TV Slovenia news anchor Igor Evgen Bergant.

Bergant was in the studio as an anchor on the day of the protest and has not received a warning.

“These warnings are scandalous, they are an absolute abuse of the … power of the management against people who are fighting for an independent and autonomous medium,” said Bergant.

Whatmough however, dismissed criticism over the letters.

He did not respond to VOA’s request for further comment but in remarks published on RTV, Whatmough said, “Those are not threats. There was simply a violation of our house rules regarding entering the studio.”

Whatmough said the warnings were issued on the initiative of Urbanija, who was appointed in July.

Urbanija was previously a director of the government communication office under former Prime Minister Janez Jansa. During that time his department alleged bias at RTV and temporarily stopped financing for the state press agency STA.

Whatmough himself was named chief executive in 2021 by the Program Council, which is predominantly made up of members nominated by the-then center-right parliament.

Since his arrival at RTV, a number of popular shows were shortened, moved to less prominent channels, or scrapped.

Urbanija and Whatmough both deny pressuring editors and journalists. They say the changes are necessary to improve ratings and the quality of reporting.

Protection plan stalls

Under a law prepared by Slovenia’s new center-left government, parliament would no longer nominate members of RTV’s Program Council.

Currently, parliament nominates 21 out of 29 members.

But former Prime Minister Jansa’s party is challenging that plan with a November referendum.

His SDS party has collected more than 40,000 signatures to force a referendum on the law passed by parliament in July. Demands for a referendum blocked the legislation from being enacted.

Most analysts say they do not believe the referendum — scheduled for next month — will be successful. But it does bring uncertainty.

“Passing the referendum and enacting the bill would help safeguard the broadcaster’s independence and represent a boost for the (ruling coalition’s) media freedom credentials,” said Wiseman.

“The changes enacted under the previous government have left RTV in the most challenging situation in decades,” he said, enabled by “the disproportionate influence of politics on RTV’s governance structure.”

The law is a move in a positive direction but does not necessarily ensure political independence of RTV’s leadership, said the academic Splichal.

The government for instance, will still control the subscription that most households pay for RTV, and which is a main revenue source, Splichal said.

Splichal welcomed the European Commission’s proposal last month of a European Media Freedom Act to safeguard media independence.

The proposal, in part triggered by increased political pressure on media in Slovenia, lays out rules to protect editorial independence and pluralism, including for public-funded outlets.
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Ukraine has invited U.N. experts to examine debris from what it says are Iranian-made drones sold to Russia in violation of international sanctions and used to attack Ukrainian towns and cities.    

In a letter sent to the president of the U.N. Security Council and seen by VOA, Ukraine’s ambassador says that according to public information, Russia has been receiving shipments of prohibited items from Iran since January 2016.    

“Specifically, in late August 2022, Mohajer- and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were transferred from Iran to Russia,” Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said in the letter. “Ukraine assesses that this is likely part of Iran’s plans to export hundreds of UAVs to Russia.”   

In recent weeks, Ukraine has repeatedly reported Russian attacks on its cities using Iran’s Shahed-136 drones. Iran denies equipping Russia with its drones.   

Kyslytsya noted that both the Mohajer and Shahed drones are manufactured by Qods Aviation, which is subject to an international asset freeze under Security Council Resolution 2231.   

The council adopted that resolution in 2015, codifying the international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but certain restrictions remain in place.   

Resolution 2231 allows for transfers of restricted items to or from Iran only when approved on a case-by-case basis by the Security Council. No such approval has been sought.   

“Therefore, the transfers from Iran to Russia should be considered as violations of UNSCR 2231,” Kyslytsya wrote.    

On Monday, Washington said Iran’s actions violate Resolution 2231.     

“Earlier today, our French and British allies publicly offered the assessment that Iran’s supply of these UAVs to Russia is a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, and this is something that we agree with,” deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.      

Diplomats said Tuesday that the United States, Britain and France have requested that the U.N. Security Council discuss the Iranian drone issue in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday.    

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters that the Iranians “have not been truthful about this and deny providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.”    

Jean-Pierre said the United States will enforce sanctions on Russian and Iranian arms trade and “make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia.”   

 
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An appeals court in Moscow has rejected jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s move to have his nine-year prison sentence on charges of financial fraud and contempt of court struck down. 

The second court of appeals of common jurisdiction in the Russian capital announced its decision on Tuesday. 

Navalny, who took part in the hearing via a video link from a penal colony, and his defense team insisted that the verdict and sentence handed to the outspoken Kremlin critic in March while he was already serving another prison term from a separate case, are illegal and should be annulled. 

The Lefortovo district court in Moscow handed down the nine-year prison sentence to Navalny on March 22 after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court, charges that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated. 

Navalny was arrested in January last year upon his arrival to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack with what European labs said was a Soviet-style nerve agent. 

He was then given a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole because of his convalescence abroad. The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case. 

Navalny has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning with a Novichok-style poisonous substance. The Kremlin has denied any role in the attack. 

International organizations consider Navalny to be a political prisoner. The European Union, U.S. President Joe Biden, and other international officials have demanded that Russian authorities release the 46-year-old Kremlin-critic. 

Navalny is currently serving his term in a penal colony in the town of Pokrov in the region of Vladimir, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow. 

 
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The death toll has risen to 14 after a Russian warplane crashed into a residential area in the Russian port city of Yeysk, causing a massive fire at an apartment building. 

Authorities released the updated death toll on Tuesday. 

The Russian Defense Ministry said the plane was on a training mission Monday when one of its engines caught fire. The plane’s crew safely ejected before the crash.  

Local authorities said the plane crash ignited a massive fire that engulfed several floors of a nine-story apartment building in Yeysk, on the Sea of Azov. 

Several hours after the crash, Regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said emergency services had contained the fire. 

Yeysk, with a population of 90,000, is in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine and is home to a large Russian air base.  

The Defense Ministry said the plane was a Su-34 bomber, a supersonic twin-engine plane that Russia has been using during its war in Ukraine.  

President Vladimir Putin was informed of the crash and ordered government officials to provide all necessary help, the Kremlin said.  

Reuters news agency reported that Russia’s state Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case and sent investigators to the scene of the crash.  

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters. 

 
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NATO on Monday began its long-planned annual nuclear exercises in northwestern Europe as tensions simmer over the war in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use any means to defend Russian territory. 

Fourteen of NATO’s 30 member countries were due to take part in the exercises, which the military alliance said would involve around 60 aircraft including fighter jets and surveillance and refueling planes. 

The bulk of the war games will be held at least 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from Russia’s borders. 

U.S. long-range B-52 bombers will also take part in the maneuvers, dubbed Steadfast Noon, which will run until Oct. 30. NATO is not permitting any media access. 

NATO said that training flights will take place over Belgium, which is hosting Steadfast Noon this year, as well as over the North Sea and the United Kingdom. The exercises involve fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but do not involve any live bombs. 

The exercises were planned before Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February. Russia usually holds its own annual maneuvers around the same time, and NATO is expecting Moscow to exercise its nuclear forces sometime this month. 
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Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, about a dead war photographer on a mission in the afterlife.

Karunatilaka received a trophy from Queen Consort Camilla at the English language literary award’s first in-person ceremony since 2019. He also gets a 50,000 pound ($56,810) prize.

Set in 1990 Sri Lanka during the country’s civil war, Karunatilaka’s story follows gay war photographer and gambler Maali Almeida, who wakes up dead.

Time is of essence for Maali, who has “seven moons” to reach out to loved ones and guide them to hidden photos he has taken depicting the brutality of his country’s conflict.

“My hope for Seven Moons is that in the not-too-distant future … it is read in a Sri Lanka that has understood that these ideas of corruption, race baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work,” Karunatilaka said in his acceptance speech.

“I hope it is read in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories and that ‘Seven Moons’ will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop and will … not be mistaken for realism or political satire.”

This year’s shortlist of Booker Prize contenders included British author Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker, Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory, Small Things Like These by Irish writer Claire Keegan, U.S. author Percival Everett’s The Trees and Oh William! by U.S. author Elizabeth Strout.

“This is a metaphysical thriller, an afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west,” judges chair Neil MacGregor said of Karunatilaka’s book.

“It is an entirely serious philosophical romp that takes the reader to ‘the world’s dark heart’ — the murderous horrors of civil war Sri Lanka,” MacGregor added. “And once there, the reader also discovers the tenderness and beauty, the love and loyalty, and the pursuit of an ideal that justify every human life.”

Past winners of the Booker Prize, which was first awarded in 1969, include Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Yann Martel.
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A photograph of migrants found exposed, without clothing, along the border of Greece and Turkey last week shocked the world and is raising international concerns that the migrants and refugees are becoming the latest victims of a growing dispute between Turkey and Greece. From Istanbul, Dorian Jones reports both nations blame each other for the incident.
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A Russian warplane has crashed into a residential area in the Russian port city of Yeysk, the military said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the plane was on a training mission Monday when one of its engines caught fire. The plane’s crew safely ejected before the crash.

Local officials said the plane crash ignited a massive fire engulfing several floors of a multistory residential building in Yeysk, on the Sea of Azov. It is not known if there are casualties on the ground.

Yeysk, with a population of 90,000, is in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine and is home to a large Russian air base.

The Defense Ministry said the plane was a Su-34 bomber, a supersonic twin-engine plane which Russia has been using during its war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the crash and has ordered government officials to provide all necessary help.

Reuters news agency reports that Russia’s state Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case and sent investigators to the scene of the crash.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The war in Ukraine has provoked an economic crisis in Germany, which was heavily dependent on Russian energy. Not only are small businesses concerned about their survival, economists also say the crisis will force a redirection of the entire German economy. Jacob Russell has this report from Berlin
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Multiple explosive-laden drones hit Ukraine’s capital during the Monday morning rush, a week after Russian missile strikes broke a period relative calm in Kyiv. 

Ukrainian officials said the drones were Iranian-made Shahed drones, which Russia has used to carry out so-called kamikaze attacks in which the drone are intentionally crashed into a target. 

“All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us.” 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klichko said among the areas hit was the central Shevchenko district, the same area where Russian missiles struck last week as part of widespread airstrikes across the country.    

Klichko said Monday’s attack killed at least one person, while damaging several apartment blocks and sparking a fire in a non-residential building. He said rescue workers pulled 18 people from the rubble of an apartment building and that two others remained trapped. 

Andrii Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said Ukraine needs more air defense systems as soon as possible. 

“More weapons to defend the sky and destroy the enemy,” Yermak tweeted. 

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv called Monday’s attacks against civilians “desperate and reprehensible.” 

“We admire the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people. We will stand with you for as long as it takes,” the embassy tweeted.    

Last week’s attacks interrupted a long stretch of relative quiet in Kyiv.    

Russian President Vladimir Putin said those strikes and the ones elsewhere were in retaliation for an attack on a key bridge linking Crimea to Russia.    

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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For their first trip to a celebrated robotics contest for high school students from scores of countries, a team of Ukrainian teens had a problem. 

With shipments of goods to Ukraine uncertain, and Ukrainian customs officers careful about incoming merchandise, the group only received a base kit of gadgetry on the day they were set to leave for the event in Geneva. 

That set off a mad scramble to assemble their robot for the latest edition of the “First Global” contest, a three-day affair that opened Friday, in-person for the first time since the pandemic. Nearly all the 180-odd teams from countries across the world had been preparing their robots for months.

“We couldn’t back down because we were really determined to compete here and to give our country a good result — because it really needs it right now,” said Danylo Gladkyi, a member of Ukraine’s team. He and his teammates are too young to be eligible for Ukraine’s national call-up of all men over 18 to take part in the war effort. 

Gladkyi said an international package delivery company wasn’t delivering into Ukraine, and reliance on a smaller private company to ship the kit from Poland into Ukraine got tangled up with customs officials. That logjam got cleared last Sunday, forcing the team to dash to get their robot ready with adaptations they had planned — only days before the contest began. 

The event, launched in 2017 with backing from American innovator Dean Kamen, encourages young people from all corners of the globe to put their technical smarts and mechanical know-how to challenges that represent symbolic solutions to global problems. 

This year’s theme is carbon capture, a nascent technology in which excess heat-trapping CO2 in the atmosphere is sucked out of the skies and sequestered, often underground, to help fight global warming. 

Teams use game controllers like those attached to consoles in millions of households worldwide to direct their self-designed robots to zip around pits, or “fields,” to scoop up hollow plastic balls with holes in them that symbolically represent carbon. Each round starts by emptying a clear rectangular box filled with the balls into the field, prompting a whirring, hissing scramble to pick them up. 

The initial goal is to fill a tower topped by a funnel in the center of the field with as many balls as possible. Teams can do that in one of two ways: either by directing the robots to feed the balls into corner pockets, where team members can pluck them out and toss them by hand into the funnel or by having the robots catapult the balls up into the funnels themselves. 

Every team has an interest in filling the funnel: the more collected, the more everyone benefits. 

But in the final 30 seconds of each session, after the frenetic quest to collect the balls, a second, cutthroat challenge awaits: Along the stem of each tower are short branches, or bars, at varying levels that the teams — choosing the mechanism of their choice such as hooks, winches or extendable arms — try to direct their robots to ascend. 

The higher the level reached, the greater the “multiplier” of the total point value of the balls they will receive. Success is getting as high as possible, and with six teams on the field, it’s a dash for the highest perch. 

By meshing competition with common interest, the “First Global” initiative aims to offer a tonic to a troubled world, where children look past politics to help solve problems that face everybody. 

The opening-day ceremony had an Olympic vibe, with teams parading in behind their national flags, and short bars of national anthems playing, but the young people made it clear this was about a new kind of global high school sport, in an industrial domain that promises to leave a large footprint in the 21st century. 

The competition takes many minds off troubles in the world, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fallout from Syria’s war, to famine in the Horn of Africa and the recent upheaval in Iran. 

While most of the world’s countries were taking part, some – like Russia – were not. 

Past winners of such robotics competitions include “Team Hope” — refugees and stateless others — and a team of Afghan girls.  
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