Britain Monday raised its terror threat level from substantial to severe following an explosion Sunday in a taxi outside a hospital in the city of Liverpool,  Interior Minister Priti Patel announced.

A severe level means a terror attack is “highly likely.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also chaired an emergency meeting in response to the incident.

Authorities told reporters that the passenger in the taxi was carrying an improvised explosive device and asked to be taken to the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, but that a motive or what caused the device to explode was not clear.

The passenger died in the blast, and police said Monday they believe they know his identity.

Since the explosion, police have arrested four other men in connection with the investigation.

The explosion injured the taxi driver, who received medical treatment but has been released. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised an agreement by nearly 200 countries to boost efforts to combat climate change, while expressing disappointment the result of a U.N. climate conference was not stronger. 

“We can lobby, we can cajole, we can encourage, but we cannot force sovereign nations to do what they do not wish to do,” Johnson said at a Sunday news conference. “It’s ultimately their decision to make and they must stand by it.” 

Johnson told reporters the agreement reached at the conclusion of the two-week summit in Glasgow was “truly historic” and represented the “death knell for coal power” with pledges to phase down the use of coal.

He said that even with disagreement about the extent and speed of actions to try to limit global warming in the coming decades, “the world is undeniably heading in the right direction.” 

Patricia Espinosa, the U.N.’s climate secretary, told the Associated Press that solving a challenge such as climate change cannot be done in one conference, but that the Glasgow meeting achieved a “very positive result in the sense that it gives us very clear guidance on what we need to do in the coming years.” 

“I think that what we are seeing in the text is that for the first time we’re talking about coal and subsidies to fossil fuels in the context of our process on climate change. And I think that’s a good step forward,” Espinosa said. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and the Agence France-Presse.  
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Bulgaria’s new centrist political party was seen winning parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to four exit polls, increasing chances of an end to a political deadlock in the European Union’s poorest member state.

Political wrangling prevented opponents of former Premier Boyko Borissov from building a government after the previous two elections in April and July. Bulgarians have grown tired of the impasse, which was seen hampering the country’s economic prospects amid a rise in COVID-19 cases overwhelming hospitals.

The new centrist anti-graft party, We Continue The Change, was seen leading with about 26% of the vote, new exit polls by Alpha Research, Gallup International, Market Links and Trend showed. The pollsters saw Borissov’s center-right GERB party in second with about 23-24%.

Market Links said the new party got 26.5% support. Gallup International also sees the new party ahead with 26.3%.

“Bulgaria is headed onto a new path,” centrist party leader Kiril Petkov told reporters, saying the party understood the responsibility to forge a working government.

Analysts said the new party looked better positioned to seal a coalition with the support of two small anti-corruption groupings and the Socialists. But they said tough talks lie ahead.

Petkov promised to be open to dialog and compromises but said his party would not step back from plans to overhaul the judiciary and clamp down on corruption. He said replacing the chief prosecutor and bolstering the anti-corruption agency would be the key issues in coalition talks.

In the presidential vote also held on Sunday, incumbent Rumen Radev, a harsh critic of Borissov, was seen winning around 50% support in the first-round vote and looked poised to win a runoff for the largely ceremonial post on Nov. 21.  

The close poll results on Sunday underscore deep political divisions after a decade-long rule by Borissov, 62, a former bodyguard of late Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov. “The question remains if all GERB’s opponents would stick to their pledges to avoid supporting GERB for a government. If that is the case, we will be facing a four-party coalition,” political analyst Daniel Smilov said.

The election coincides with high energy costs and anger at widespread corruption in Bulgaria. While new COVID-19 cases are dropping from a record high, hospitals are still overwhelmed and the death rate remains one of the highest in the EU.

We Continue the Change was set up by Harvard-educated entrepreneurs Petkov and Assen Vassilev in September.

“We are promising zero corruption. This is what we are going after. No small tolerance, nothing, zero,” Petkov told Reuters.

The exit polls also showed an ultranationalist party, Revival, which strongly opposes COVID-19 restrictions, crossing the 4% threshold for entering parliament.

Voter turnout was at a record low, about 25.5%, three hours before polls closed, data from the electoral commission showed. Partial official results are due after midnight.
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British police arrested three men under terrorism laws Sunday after a car exploded outside a hospital in Liverpool, killing one man and injuring another.

Counter-terrorism police said the three men, whose ages ranged from 21 to 29, were detained in the Kensington area of the northwest England city under the Terrorism Act.

Police also cordoned off another residential street in the city. They did not disclose details of the operation.

Police were called to reports of a blast involving a taxi at Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday morning. Photos showed a vehicle in flames near the hospital’s main entrance.

Merseyside Police said in a statement that the vehicle, a taxi, “pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred. Work is still going on to establish what has happened and could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything.”

The male passenger of the car died and the driver was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The explosion occurred just before 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday, the time people across Britain pause in memory of those killed in wars.

Police said the explosion had not been declared a terrorist attack and they were keeping an open mind about the cause, but counterterrorism police were leading the investigation. 

Britain’s interior minister, Home Secretary Priti Patel, said she was “being kept regularly updated on the awful incident.”

The Liverpool Women’s Hospital said it immediately restricted visiting access until further notice and diverted patients to other hospitals “where possible.”

Fire services said they extinguished the car fire rapidly, and a person had left the car before the fire “developed to the extent that it did.”
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ith the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, or COP 26, now over, countries are looking to begin funding a global counterattack on rising temperatures on Earth. Meanwhile, scientists in Denmark are searching for clues to our warming planet’s future by studying ice from the past. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more
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More than 600 migrants, many of them Egyptians, arrived in southern Italy over the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday, defying stormy winter seas in search of a better life in Europe. 

Italy has seen a sharp increase in boat migrants in recent weeks and the latest mass arrivals will put further pressure on Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government to secure an agreement with European Union partners over how to deal with the influx. 

Coastguards rescued some 300 men and boys overnight who were packed on a fishing boat off the southern toe of Italy. The group, almost all Egyptians, were brought ashore to the nearby port of Roccella Jonica. 

Hours later, some 212 mainly Egyptian and Syrian migrants were taken off a second boat and brought to Roccella Jonica. 

Further to the south, 113 migrants, including at least eight women, reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in two different landings. Local media said some of the newcomers were Tunisian. 

As of Nov. 12, 57,833 migrants have reached Italy so far this year against 31,213 in the same period of 2020 and just 9,944 in 2019. 

Right-wing parties have accused the Interior Ministry of not doing enough to stem the flow. 

Speaking after a conference on Libya on Friday, Draghi urged greater coordination with Europe to resolve the problem. 

“What is certain, however, is that these continuous landings in Italy are making the situation unsustainable,” he told reporters, standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 
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A Greek prosecutor has launched an urgent investigation into criminal organizations supplying fake vaccination certificates, both domestically and from neighboring states, mainly from Balkan countries. The probe comes as COVID-19 infections surge anew in Greece, mainly in the country’s northern areas bordering the Balkans, where fake vaccination certificates have become a hot commodity.

It is shocking testimony like this one from a Greek woman who refuses to get vaccinated, that have authorities scrambling to catch scammers operating across this European Union nation.

Keeping her back to the camera and her identity hidden, she told a local television broadcaster she is desperately seeking dodgy doctors or health care staff to get a fake vaccination certificate at whatever the cost.

She has been calling up doctors in Athens, she said, explaining her refusal to participate in the government’s vaccination program and need, as she called it, to resort to such steps because she has no other means of operating freely in the country.

All health care officials she has contacted so far, she said, have refused her bids. They are scared.

Greece’s center-right government only recently ordered all health care staff, public and private, nationwide, to be vaccinated or face steep fines and job loss.

An investigation launched by Greece’s Division of Internal Affairs, an anticorruption unit within the police, however, has so far found at least 10 areas across the country, providing a deluge of fake certifications through questionable health care providers.

That could explain, experts told VOA, why COVID-19 infections here have rocketed in recent weeks, placing Greece, once a near-COVID-19-free country, now among the most infected within the EU, along with Belgium, Poland, Holland, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

It is not just dodgy healthcare providers in Greece fanning the scam, though. Organized criminal networks, as authorities call them, are operating through the dark web, providing anti-vaccine Greeks with forged EU vaccine passes issued from Bulgaria for up to $350. 

The dubbed voice of this middleman as released on state media here explains.

He said his links in Bulgaria notify him and he leads those interested up to the capital of Sofia, where they go to specific doctors, give their details, pay and leave with the European certificate without having been jabbed, adding that he alone has sent more than 100 people there.

Most certificates, investigators say, show recipients receiving the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is not traceable in laboratory tests. 

The rise in fake vaccines certificates has dominated Greece’s north, areas that border Bulgaria, sending COVID-19 infection rates to record levels, straining the state health care system anew. 

Demand for fake certificates has surged as the government in Athens has imposed sweeping restrictions, allowing only the vaccinated to enter state buildings, banks, restaurants and shopping centers. 

Faced with what authorities call an epidemic of fake certificates, police have boosted inspections at the borders and imposed stiff fines of almost $6,000on those caught with them. 

Apart from Greece, several other EU countries have seen a surge in similar illegal activities. Earlier this month, in fact, EU authorities launched a massive investigation after detecting the COVID-19 Digital Certificates gateway had been hacked.
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Austria is placing millions of people not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in lockdown as of Monday to deal with a surge in infections to record levels, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Sunday.

Europe has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic again, prompting some governments to consider re-imposing unpopular lockdowns.

Roughly 65% of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which is one of the lowest rates in western Europe. Many Austrians are skeptical about vaccines, a view encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, the third biggest in parliament.

While the Netherlands is dealing with its surge in infections by imposing a partial lockdown that applies to all, Austria’s conservative-led government says it wants to avoid imposing further restrictions on those who are fully vaccinated.

“We must raise the vaccination rate. It is shamefully low,” Schallenberg told a news conference announcing the new measure after a video call with the governors of Austria’s nine provinces.

Those aged 12 and under will be exempt from the lockdown, under which the unvaccinated can only leave their homes for a limited number of reasons like going to work or shopping for essentials, Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein told the news conference, adding that it would initially last 10 days.

Many officials, including within Schallenberg’s conservative party and the police, have expressed doubts such a lockdown can be properly enforced since it applies to only part of the population. Schallenberg and Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said, however, that there will be thorough checks by the police. 
…

Nearly 200 countries signed the Glasgow Climate Pact at the end of the COP26 summit Saturday, pledging to speed up action on tackling climate change. However, last minute pressure from China and India saw key pledges on phasing out fossil fuels watered down. Henry Ridgwell reports from the summit.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Polish police said Saturday that the body of a young Syrian man was found in the woods near the border with Belarus, the latest victim in a political standoff at the European Union’s eastern border.

The regime in Minsk has for months been encouraging illegal migration across its border into the EU nations of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. All three countries are reinforcing their frontiers, seeking to block the newly opened migration route, and the situation is growing more dangerous as winter approaches.

Polish police said the body of a Syrian man about 20 years old was found a day earlier near the village of Wólka Terechowska. They said the exact cause of death could not be determined and that an autopsy would be performed.

It brings the death toll to at least nine reported victims in the migration encouraged by Belarus’ longtime President Alexander Lukashenko.

Many of the migrants are from Syria, Iraq, or elsewhere in the Middle East, people seeking to flee conflict and hopelessness for the prospect of better lives in Europe.

The crisis is creating another point of tension between the West and Belarus, and by extension with its closest ally: Russia.

Though Russia this week sent nuclear-capable strategic bombers and paratroopers to patrol over Belarus in a show of support, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied allegations of being involved in creating the flow of migrants to Europe.

“I want everyone to know that we have nothing to do with it. Everyone is trying to impose any responsibility on us for any reason and for no reason at all,” Putin said in excerpts released Saturday of an interview with state television that is to be broadcast in full Sunday.

He said that no Russian aviation companies carry the migrants to Belarus, and also lashed out at the West as a root cause for the crisis, with military operations in Iraq and elsewhere that have led to continued conflict in the region.

A large number of migrants are in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of the border in frigid conditions. Polish authorities report daily attempts by the migrants to breach the border.

The situation shows no signs of ending soon. Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that Lukashenko on Saturday ordered the military to set up tents at the border where food and other humanitarian aid can be gathered and distributed to the migrants.

Poland’s Border Guards agency on Saturday morning said, Belarusian soldiers began destroying a temporary border barrier near the Polish village of Czeremcha and used laser beams to blind Polish security services.

Many of the reported incidents at the border are very hard to verify. Independent journalists face limits to their reporting in Belarus, and a state of emergency in Poland’s border zone prevents media from entering the area.

The state of emergency ends Nov. 30, and the Polish government said Saturday that it is working on a plan to let journalists again report from the border area with the permission of the Border Guards.

The Polish military reported that a soldier on duty at the border died Saturday in an accident. The soldier was not in direct contact with migrants, and a military statement said the accident involved the “firing of a service weapon.”

After the large migration into Europe in 2015, Europe has been reinforcing its borders to discourage the arrival of more migrants and refugees. Still, every year, tens of thousands try to get in, embarking on dangerous and sometimes deadly journeys by sea and land.

Since the summer, thousands have been lured by what appeared to be a new and easier way to slip into Europe, through Belarus.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of creating the artificial route in order to retaliate for sanctions against his regime imposed after an election in 2020 widely viewed as flawed and a harsh crackdown on internal dissent that followed.

The restrictions were toughened in May after a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich. The EU called it air piracy, barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country’s top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer.

A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants. Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus. 
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The husband of a British-Iranian woman who has been detained for more than five years in Iran said Saturday that he is ending his hunger strike outside Britain’s Foreign Office after 21 days. 

Richard Ratcliffe has been sleeping in a tent outside the Foreign Office’s main entrance to pressure the British government to secure the release of his wife and other detained British-Iranian nationals. He began his demonstration last month after his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, lost her latest appeal in Iran.

Ratcliffe, who was joined by the couple’s 7-year-old daughter, Gabriella, and several supporters as he announced the end of his hunger strike, thanked the many well-wishers who stopped to talk to him but said the failure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to drop by was “telling.” He added that his wife has requested a phone call from Johnson. 

While no breakthrough happened in the last three weeks, Ratcliffe said his hunger strike had shone a “greater spotlight” on his wife’s case and added pressure on the governments in London and Tehran. 

“I think we’ve stopped the backward movement,” he said.

‘Head held high’

Ratcliffe said he had started to get pains in his feet overnight, and a discussion with a doctor persuaded him to end the hunger strike. He said he planned to go to a hospital to get checked and hopes to be able to eat something after that. 

“I didn’t want to go out in an ambulance,” he said. “I want to walk out with my head held high.” 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe served five years in prison after being taken into custody at Tehran’s airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran’s government, a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups deny. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, and was arrested as she was returning home to Britain after visiting family. Rights groups accuse Iran of holding dual-nationals as bargaining chips for money or influence in negotiations with the West, something Tehran denies. 

In May, she was sentenced to an additional year in prison on charges of spreading “propaganda against the system” for having participated in a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009. An appeals court last month upheld the verdict, which includes a one-year travel ban, meaning she wouldn’t be able to leave Iran until 2023. 

Foreign Ministry meeting

Her husband appeared glum after he met Thursday with British foreign minister James Cleverly in the wake of discussions he had with Iranian officials in London. 

Ratcliffe has said his wife is being used as “leverage” by Tehran, specifically with regard to the U.K.’s failure to pay an outstanding 400 million-pound ($540 million) debt to Iran. 

Ratcliffe’s local lawmaker, Tulip Siddiq, said she had secured a parliamentary debate on Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case set for Tuesday with cross-party support. 

“Nazanin knows that so many people are doing what they can to bring her home,” Siddiq said in a tweet. 
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Russia is reporting a new daily record of COVID-19 deaths, while the total number of coronavirus infections during the pandemic in the country has topped 9 million. 

The surge in daily deaths and infections that began in mid-September appeared to plateau over the past week, but the national coronavirus task force said Saturday that a record 1,241 people died from the virus over the past day, two more than the previous record reported on Wednesday.

The task force said 39,256 new infections were recorded, bringing the country’s case total to 9.03 million.

Russia imposed a non-working week in early November, closing many businesses, with the aim of stemming the virus’s surge.

Two bills outlining new restriction measures were introduced in parliament on Friday, with the aim of their taking effect next year. They would restrict access to many public places, as well as domestic and international trains and flights, to those who have been fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or are medically exempt from vaccination.

The surge in infections and deaths comes amid low vaccination rates, lax public attitudes toward taking precautions and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. Fewer than 40% of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine months before most of the world.

In total, the coronavirus task force has reported more than 254,000 deaths — by far the highest death toll in Europe. Some experts believe the true figure is even higher. Reports by Russia’s statistical service, Rosstat, that tally coronavirus-linked deaths retroactively reveal much higher mortality: 462,000 people with COVID-19 died between April 2020 and September of this year. 

Russian officials have said the task force only includes deaths for which COVID-19 was the main cause, and uses data from medical facilities. Rosstat uses wider criteria for counting virus-related deaths and takes its numbers from civil registry offices where registering a death is finalized. 
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A Greek newspaper is facing criminal prosecution in Turkey from Turkey’s president, who is said to be insulted by what he perceived to be a vulgar headline. The Greek newspaper is portraying the action as an unprecedented affront to free speech. But it is finding little support from the government in Athens.

It is not the first time that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acted to silence journalists and criticism against him.

But editors of the Greek Dimokratia daily newspaper say they are the first Greek media group in the West to be targeted by the Turkish leader outside his country. They also call the prosecution they face a parody they have no intention of honoring.

Dimitris Rizoulis, managing editor of the Greek daily, says the entire nation should be up in arms over this legal suit. 

With what right, Rizoulis asked, is Erdogan bullying the newspaper, not just the editors and journalists of Dimokratia, but the nation as a whole?  Authorities here should have never taken delivery of the suit, rather sent it back to Erdogan’s office. This is a parody, and Rizoulis says they have no intention of appearing before a Turkish court to give credence to Erdogan’s bid to defy free speech and, most importantly, the political claims he makes in the legal prosecution – claims that go against national interests.

Erdogan’s legal suit against Dimokratia stems from a blistering headline published last September, using a Turkish swearword to lash out at the Turkish leader at the height of a standoff with its NATO ally, Greece, over drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The Turkish prosecution order was relayed to editors of the newspaper this week, sparking public debate.

Greece’s foreign ministry and center-right government have so far chided the paper for its vulgar tone. But they have defended free speech, and officials contacted by VOA say the government would not extradite the paper’s editorial staff to Turkey for trial and potential imprisonment. 

Rizoulis and four others at Dimokratia face up to five years in a Turkish prison if convicted in absentia.

“Up against such a modern dictator,” Rizoulis said, “it is an honor to be considered an enemy and to be sued by Erdogan.”  The European Court of Human rights, he said, has vindicated several journalists, who have lashed out at public officials, calling them all sorts of names, on the grounds that their criticism adds to pluralism and democracy – even if offensive and provocative at times.

The only problem, said Rizoulis, is that any conviction of Dimokratia’s editorial staff will spell logistical issues. He said he already has been notified that Turkey will place an order with Interpol for the team’s arrest, making international travel difficult.

While NATO allies, Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads over sea and air rights for decades, coming to the brink of war last year over conflicting drilling rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

With tensions brewing anew, though, between the two age-old foes, Dimoktratia says it will not let up on its criticism of the Turkish leader, even if that spells more prosecution orders coming from Erdogan’s office.
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Several young African climate activists traveled thousands of miles to Glasgow, Scotland, to be part of the COP26 climate summit — and to convey their sense of urgency to world leaders. Henry Ridgwell spoke with some of them about their climate change experiences and what COP26 must deliver to help their communities back home.

Camera: Henry Ridgwell.
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World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that Europe remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting 2 million new cases last week, the region’s highest number since the pandemic began. 

At a briefing in Geneva, the WHO chief said the region also reported nearly 27,000 deaths last week, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths worldwide.

Tedros said COVID-19 is surging in countries with lower vaccination rates in Eastern Europe, but also in countries with some of the world’s highest vaccination rates in Western Europe. He said it is a reminder that while vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization, severe disease and death, they do not replace the need for other precautions.

Tedros said that while vaccines reduced transmission of the coronavirus, they do not fully prevent it.

On the subject of vaccines, the WHO chief once again spoke about the injustices of COVID-19 vaccine inequities and how wealthy nations are neglecting low-income nations in the distribution of the drugs. Tedros said every day, there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in low-income countries. 

He once again urged nations with stockpiled vaccine to donate it to the WHO-managed COVAX global vaccine cooperative to distribute to the developing world. He said that COVAX works when given the chance, having delivered almost 500 million doses to 144 countries and territories. 

Tedros said the majority of countries are prepared to distribute vaccines to their people, but they need the doses. He said there are only two countries that have not started vaccinating their populations — Eritrea and North Korea.

The WHO has set a goal of fully vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country in the world by the end of this year. 

 
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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. 

UN staffers detained in Ethiopia 

Ethiopia’s federal government detained nearly two dozen of its nationals who work for the United Nations in the capital, Addis Ababa, earlier this week. More than 70 truck drivers contracted to drive humanitarian assistance into the northern Tigray region for the U.N. and international NGOs were also rounded up in the country’s north. The move comes amid reports that the government is targeting ethnic Tigrayans as tensions rise between the government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

As Diplomatic Efforts Continue, Ethiopian Forces Detain UN Staffers, Truck Drivers 

Tensions simmer on Belarus-Poland border

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council discussed the situation of migrants who have legally traveled to Belarus from the Middle East and Afghanistan in order to migrate into the European Union. The migrants are now camped on the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which accuse Moscow and Minsk of weaponizing the migrants. Russia and Belarus deny they are manufacturing a migration crisis.

Western Nations Condemn Belarus at UN Security Council 

Climate negotiations near finish line

Negotiations at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, are slated to conclude Friday with a new deal among countries to stay on course to reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as stated in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. As we went online, the U.N. Secretary-General was in Glasgow meeting with negotiating groups, as talks continued and could go beyond the Friday evening deadline.

COP26: Draft Climate Deal Published as Negotiations Enter Crucial Final Hours 

News in brief 

— The United States and China, two of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to cooperate on climate action. This was welcome news at the United Nations.

— On Thursday, Sudan’s top military commander appeared to tighten his grip on power, appointing a new governing council that he will lead, two weeks after the military overthrew the joint civilian-military government. Nationwide demonstrations are expected Saturday against the move, prompting calls from the U.N. on Sudanese security forces to exercise restraint. More than a dozen protesters have been killed since the October 25 coup. 

Some good news 

On her 16th birthday in July 2013, Pakistani-born activist Malala Yousafzai made her U.N. debut. The survivor of a shooting attack on her school bus the year before by the Taliban, she gave a captivating speech on the importance of education for all saying, “Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons.” In 2014 she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2017 she was named a U.N. Messenger of Peace with a focus on girls’ education. Today she is a 24-year-old Oxford University graduate, and on Tuesday announced she had gotten married. The U.N. Secretary-General’s spokesman said, “We are so happy for her. We wish her and her husband a life of joy and happiness.” 

Quote of note

“Now we have over 22 million people marching toward starvation, of which 8.7 million of those are at famine’s door as we speak.”

— World Food Program chief David Beasley, speaking Thursday on Twitter from Kabul airport on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. 

What we are watching next week

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations embarks on a 5-day trip to the Middle East. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the first Cabinet-level official in the Biden administration to go to Israel since the new government was formed in June. She will also go to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian leaders, and then on to Jordan. 

Did you know? 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known by its acronym UNESCO, celebrates its 75th anniversary on Friday. The Paris-based agency was established following the end of World War II. The organization aims to build peace through cooperation in the fields of education, science and the preservation of cultural heritage. 

 
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Pope Francis said on Friday that the world had become deaf to the plight of the poor and condemned those who become disproportionately rich while blaming the needy for their own fate.

Francis traveled to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, to meet with about 500 poor people before the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor which will be marked on Sunday.

“Often the presence of the poor is seen as being annoying and something to be tolerated. Sometimes we hear it said that those responsible for poverty are the poor themselves,” he said in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels after poor people, including Afghan refugees, recounted their personal stories.

“The blame is dumped on the shoulders of the poor, adding insult to injury, so as not to make a serious examination of conscience about one’s own actions, about the injustice of some laws and economic measures, about the hypocrisy of those who want to enrich themselves disproportionately,” he said.

Francis, who in 2013 became the first Latin American pope, has made defense of the poor a cornerstone of his pontificate. The former Cardinal Mario Bergoglio is the first pope to take the name Francis, the saint who dedicated most of his life to the poor.

“It is time to give a voice back to the poor because their requests have fallen on deaf ears for too long. It is time for eyes to open to see the state of inequality in which so many families live,” Francis said.

“It is time to again be scandalized by the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed around by the waters as they risk drowning, innocent victims of all kinds of violence,” he said.

He called for the creation of more jobs and an end to violence against women “so they are respected and not treated as merchandise.”

Qadery Abdul Razaq, an elderly man who fled Afghanistan with his wife after the fall of Kabul because they had worked for the Italian military, broke down into tears as he told the pope how the Taliban had killed one of his sons.

He asked for help from the pope and the Italian government to get his four remaining children out of the country.
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Turkey’s Civil Aviation Authority said Friday that the country is halting airline ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which in recent months became a route for migrants and refugees trying to enter the European Union.

EU leaders have put increasing pressure on airlines to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, from where asylum-seekers seeking better lives have traveled by car to the EU’s doorstep.

Thousands have managed to cross illegally into EU member nations Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since the summer, though many others have also been kept from entering or pushed back.

Among them are Iraqi Kurds and Syrians fleeing conflict, persecution or poverty. Many aim to reach Germany or other western European countries, sometimes to reunite with relatives already settled there.

In a brief statement posted on Twitter, Turkey’s aviation authority said its decision to halt ticket sales was valid until further notice.

Citing the Turkish decision, Belarusian airline Belavia said it also would not transport citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen on its Istanbul-Minsk flights starting Friday. Belavia said in a statement that it planned to reimburse the cost of already purchased tickets.

The EU said it also has received confirmation that Iraqi Airlines will not resume flights to Minsk.

EU and Polish officials have accused the longtime leader of Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, of facilitating illegal border crossings in retaliation for sanctions the EU imposed on his government for its brutal crackdown on dissent following Lukashenko’s disputed reelection last year.

German federal police reported Wednesday that 1,246 unauthorized entries to Germany “with a connection to Belarus” had been recorded in the first nine days of November. In all, there have been 9,087 such entries so far this year, German police said.

Polish authorities said a large number of people remain just across the border in neighboring Belarus and Polish border guards continue to rebuff attempts to enter Poland illegally each day.

There are now hundreds of people, among them families with children, staying in makeshift camps on the Belarusian side of the border. Attempts to cross have become increasingly dangerous as Poland fortifies its side of the border and pushes people back. Temperatures at the Poland-Belarus border drop to below freezing at night.

A Polish official said the country’s ongoing conflict with Belarus’ government is not expected to deescalate in the coming days. Paweł Soloch, the head of the National Security Bureau, said Poland was facing a “a psychological, hybrid war, waged consciously by centers that want to weaken or even ultimately destroy our country.”

Poland’s Border Guards said in the previous day they recorded 223 attempts to illegally cross the Polish border from Belarus, fewer than earlier in the week.

Poland’s Defense Ministry said one group crossed a fence at the village of Kuznica but were stopped by officials. The ministry posted a video which it said showed the incident.

The Border Guards agency posted another video on Twitter which it said shows Belarusian personnel using a green laser at the border.

“We assume that these were attempts to blind our officers and soldiers patrolling the border,” the post said.

The information was impossible to verify. Independent journalists face limits to their reporting in Belarus, and a state of emergency in Poland’s border zone prevents media from entering the area.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday people have a duty to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine as a way of protecting not only themselves, but others as well.

She made the comments in a virtual conversation with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

COVID-19 cases are soaring in Germany. A record high daily count of 50,000 new infections were reported Thursday. A week ago, the daily tally was 33,000 new cases.

“The virus is still among us and threatens the health of its citizens,” German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday.

German officials are meeting next week to discuss way to combat the COVID-19 surge.

 
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Fans of England’s Crystal Palace soccer club were in a taunting mood. They unfurled a banner in the stands at the team’s stadium in south London during a match against Newcastle United, mocking their rivals’ new owner — the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who was portrayed wielding a blood-stained scimitar.

The banner included a mock-up of the pseudo-categories the Palace fans suggested English football authorities require of owners of the country’s top soccer teams. The requirements included terrorism, beheadings, civil rights abuses and murder, and they were ticked off on a clipboard in the banner under the heading “Premier League Owners Test.”

Following complaints about racism, Britain’s Metropolitan Police launched an investigation, saying in a statement, “Any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously.” This month police announced they don’t intend to pursue any prosecutions. “Following an assessment, officers have concluded that no offenses have been committed. No further action will be taken,” the police said in a press statement.

But the $415 million purchase of Newcastle United in October by a Saudi Arabia-led consortium has drawn fire and is fueling a wider debate about England’s premier soccer league, which is not only the richest and most-watched league in the world of football but also seemingly a magnet for oligarchs, authoritarian regimes and autocrats, say critics.

Two of the Premier League’s 20 teams — Manchester City and now Newcastle — are owned by authoritarian regimes. Two others — Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanders — are owned by oligarchs with links to autocratic regimes. And another, Southampton, is owned by a Chinese businessman whose eventually successful bid for the team was held up as English football authorities probed bribery and corruption allegations lodged against him in China.

Some sponsorship tie-ups have also raised eyebrows. Earlier this year Arsenal signed an extension on a partnership deal with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) which will see the club earn $55 million between now and 2025 for a “Visit Rwanda” logo on the left sleeve of the players.

The country’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has come under mounting criticism from international rights campaigners for threatening those who criticize the party.  Human Rights Watch has documented from local sources “arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities.”

Amnesty International has criticized the Saudi buyout of Newcastle, saying the deal is “a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportswash their appalling human rights record with the glamour of top-flight football.”

In February, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Istanbul while visiting the Saudi consulate there and his body was cut up. In the report, the agencies alleged the prince approved a plan to either “capture or kill” Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia rejected the report, calling it “negative, false and unacceptable.

Premier League officials say that they received assurances that the Saudi authorities will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Newcastle.

But Amnesty UK’s chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, told reporters, “Instead of allowing those implicated in serious human rights violations to walk into English football simply because they have deep pockets, we’ve urged the Premier League to change their owners’ and directors’ test to address human rights issues.”

The rights group wants a new human rights-compliant test to be at the heart of approving bids for clubs.

England’s football supporters tend to be ambivalent about foreign owners buying their beloved clubs — often critical when a takeover deal is first announced but then delighted when the funding from deep pockets powers their team to success.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, bought Manchester City in 2008 and since then is estimated to have spent nearly $3 billion on buying top-flight players and coaching staff. Under his majority ownership the team has won the Premier League five times.

Newcastle fans, though, had no hesitation in celebrating the purchase of their team, which has had little success in recent years and is currently second from last in the league. Chelsea, owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, is on top of the league currently, with Manchester City second.  As with Manchester City, so with Chelsea — under Abramovich’s ownership the team has been turned into a football Goliath.

Fans at Newcastle’s St James’ Park Stadium, in northeast England, were jubilant when the Saudi deal was announced last month, saying they hoped it would mark a turnaround for the club. Fans waved Saudi flags and donned mock Saudi-style ghutras (headscarves).  

Lawmaker John Nicolson, a member of the British parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, condemned the scenes during a panel hearing shortly after the deal was made public. During a committee hearing he said, “I’m trying to imagine what it must be like to be Jamal Khashoggi’s widow, when her husband has been chopped up and murdered. And she sees numpties (silly people) dancing around in cod-Arabic dresses outside Newcastle United.”
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The mix of parties now working to form the next Czech government spans the spectrum from conservative to liberal, but all appear to share a commitment to the democratic principles espoused by founding President Vaclav Havel. And that, says a former Havel aide, could be bad news for China and Russia.

Havel, the erudite playwright whose writings and dissident activities helped undermine communism in Europe, “would be quite pleased” with the state of his country following last month’s parliamentary election, said Jiri Pehe, who advised the former Czech president in the late 1990s. Havel died in 2011.

The election unseated populist billionaire Andrej Babis as prime minister and left his coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Communist Party, out of parliament altogether. Babis formally submitted his resignation to President Milos Zeman on Thursday, clearing the way for Petr Fiala, head of the Civic Democratic Party and a leading figure in the winning five-party coalition, to begin forming a new government. 

Pehe says he expects the incoming coalition, despite its philosophical differences, to adopt a foreign policy that aligns with the strongly pro-human rights, pro-democratic ideals of his former boss.

“At least for the next four years,” Beijing and Moscow will not have as easy a time as they did in recent years, he told VOA in an interview. 

A foretaste of what may lie ahead was provided last year in a high-profile visit to Taiwan led by Senate President Milos Vystrcil, a longtime member of Fiala’s center-right Civic Democratic Party, known by its Czech acronym of ODS.

“Prior to my trip, I was aware that my decision to visit Taiwan was not supported by the highest constitutional representatives of the Czech Republic,” Vystrcil told VOA in an interview. Among the critics of the visit was Zeman, whose warm relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has been lauded by the Chinese Embassy in Prague.

But, Vystrcil said through a translator, “In the end, as a politician, you are supposed to do what you think is best for your country. It is also about what is good for the countries around us. I reached the conclusion that it is in the interest of both the Czech Republic as well as Taiwan that I visit Taiwan.” 

Vystrcil was joined on the trip by Czech lawmakers and politicians, including Zdenek Hrib, the mayor of Prague and a member of the left-leaning Pirate Party, also part of the incoming coalition. He and Vystrcil were famously photographed together enjoying a beer at a Czech-styled pub in Taipei, foreshadowing the left-right coalition that would emerge from last month’s elections. 

Beijing also has reason to worry about Jan Lipavsky, another Pirates Party member, who is seen as a candidate to lead the Czech Foreign Ministry. In an essay published as the coronavirus was taking off in March 2020, Lipavsky warned of the “propaganda panda” and predicted that China would seek to deny any responsibility for the worldwide spread of COVID-19.

He also denounced “Chinese and Russian clientelism” as an attack on Czech democracy.

If the new Czech government does turn its back on China and Russia, it is likely to find support for its positions even among members of the defeated coalition. 

Among those sharing a skeptical view of the two authoritarian powers is Tomas Petricek, the former Czech foreign minister and an unsuccessful candidate in this year’s contest for the leadership of the Social Democrats.

Known to have opposed Zeman’s plan to have Russian companies bid for a key nuclear power project, Petricek also sees Beijing as being on a path irreconcilable with his own nation’s democratic ideals.

“You can say I’m against Beijing,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with VOA from Prague.

Democracy, Petricek pointed out, is an intrinsic part of the Social Democratic Party, and he saw no reason why the party would want to sit on the fence when it comes to which camp with which the country should align itself. The fact that the party was seen as ambiguous on this critical issue led to its defeat in the nationwide legislative elections, he said, a view shared by Pehe, Havel’s former aide.

Petricek said he has taken note of the nationalistic tone of the Chinese government’s recent rhetoric; he considers that — along with its aggressiveness abroad and repression at home — a contradiction of the principles of social democratic parties and the supposed ideals of communist parties.

Taiwan’s robust democracy, on the other hand, “negates” Beijing’s claim that Chinese people and society can only be governed by a single-party regime “somewhere between authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” Petricek said. 
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The United States and European members of the U.N. Security Council condemned Belarus on Thursday for what they called the “cynical instrumentalization of migrants,” as tensions simmered along the Polish-Belarusian border.

“We … condemn the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union’s external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,” Estonian Ambassador Sven Jürgenson said on behalf of seven Western nations.

The flow of migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan rose sharply after the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk for forcing a commercial airliner flying over its territory in May to land. The authorities arrested a Belarusian opposition blogger and his girlfriend, who were on board.

Now thousands of migrants who have traveled legally to Belarus face an uncertain fate and freezing temperatures along the border with Poland.

On Tuesday, Poland closed a border crossing with Belarus after migrants tried to break through.

European and Baltic nations accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of luring the migrants to his country and then facilitating their travel to the border in order to send them into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The migrants apply for asylum when they reach EU member states.

“This tactic is unacceptable and calls for a strong international reaction and cooperation in order to hold Belarus accountable,” Jürgenson said. “It demonstrates how the Lukashenko regime has become a threat to regional stability.”

“Of course, there is a game of shifting blame now by European Union,” Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told reporters. “They want to picture Belarus, and sometimes even Russia, as perpetrators of this crisis.”

Moscow is Minsk’s closest ally.

Polyanskiy said Minsk has neither economic nor political reasons to prevent the migrants from continuing onward.

“They have no reasons to send them back to the countries where they came from,” he said. “That would be a total violation of any international conventions.”

Fearing it could become a new front in the crisis, Ukraine, which is not an EU member, will send another 8,500 troops and police officers, plus 15 helicopters, to guard its border with Belarus, Reuters reported Thursday.

De-escalation calls

The United Nations has called for de-escalation at the Belarus-Poland border.

“I am appalled that large numbers of migrants and refugees continue to be left in a desperate situation in near-freezing temperatures at the Belarus-Poland border,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday. “I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate and resolve this intolerable situation in line with their obligations under international human rights law and refugee law.”

The U.N. refugee and migration agencies have repeatedly said that using migrants and refugees as political tools is deplorable and must stop.

“With several tragic deaths recorded in the border area in recent weeks, UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) and IOM [International Organization for Migration] remind states of the imperative to prevent further loss of life and ensure the humane treatment of migrants and refugees as the highest priority,” the agencies said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The European Union, meanwhile, is considering imposing new sanctions on Belarus.​

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Witnesses, human rights lawyers, international prosecutors and academics gathered Thursday in London for the second day of the Iran Atrocities Tribunal to investigate how mostly peaceful protests turned violent two years ago.

Iranian security forces killed hundreds and arrested thousands of people who were demonstrating against a sudden spike in fuel prices in mid-November 2019. The Iranian government raised the subsidized price of gasoline by 50%, angering Iranians facing high unemployment, inflation and heavy U.S. sanctions.

Appearing virtually and in person at a conference hall in Westminster, the witnesses described in detail the deadly crackdown by authorities two years ago. Some spoke live, others via taped testimonies, with many wearing masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities for fear of reprisals by the Iranian government against family members.

Some showed photos of dead children. One woman, grasping a picture of her son with his own children, asked during the opening session Wednesday whom she could turn to without help from Iranian courts.

“I don’t know what to do and where to go,” she said. “In this world, isn’t there anyone who can hear my cries?”

Former police officer testifies

Thursday’s session featured a former Iranian police officer — identified only as “Witness 195” — who recalled intelligence agents “spraying the protesters with bullets.” Another person, “Witness 366,” showed X-rays of bullets lodged near his lungs.

The tribunal is organized by civil society groups Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty) and will hear evidence from more than 160 witnesses over four days but carries no legal standing.

As the tribunal proceeds, Amnesty International called Thursday for the international community to listen carefully.

“The hearings at the International People’s Tribunal on Iran’s Atrocities of November 2019 are crucial for ensuring that these atrocities do not fade into memory,” Heba Morayef, the human rights organization’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. “Crucially, the tribunal must spur U.N. member states into action.”

Raha Bahreini, an Amnesty International researcher and human rights lawyer, said during Thursday’s session that many protesters were sexually assaulted, tortured and executed by Iranian forces two years ago.

On its website, the Iran Atrocities Tribunal, also known as the Aban Tribunal, says its panelists will determine whether Iranian security forces violated international law and will identify perpetrators after proceedings wrap up November 14. Their findings will be released in early 2022.

24 more victims

Amnesty International also updated its list of people killed in the crackdown. It added 24 newly identified names to the database, which now lists 323 Iranians killed in protests across the country November 15-19, 2019.

One of these victims was Pejman Gholipour Malati, an 18-year-old shot in Tehran. His mother, Mahboubeh Ramazani, spoke at Wednesday’s tribunal via recorded video, surrounded by decorations to mark her son’s 20th birthday.

“We want justice. Hear our cries,” she said. “Tell us who killed our children. … We lost our loved ones in our own homeland.”

Ramazani’s camera panned to a neatly made bed: “My son’s empty bed that I see every day,” she said. Then black pants hanging from a door: “Clothes of Pejman I hanged here, in case he returns one day.” A red box crossed with white ribbon: “My son’s bloody clothes are in that box. They’d removed them in the hospital. There were holes in them.”
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Extreme poverty and extreme wealth are growing around the world, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told leaders Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum.

“By virtually every measure, the gaps have grown. We face a dramatic rise in inequality, and we must meet this moment,” she said, adding that no nation could fix these challenges alone.

“We must agree that these growing gaps are unacceptable, and we must agree to work together to address them,” she added, according to Agence France-Presse.

The forum, which opened Thursday in person and virtually, brought together about 30 heads of state, along with chief executives, nongovernmental organizations and others, to discuss global issues such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transition.

The leaders of France, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, Morocco and other nations joined with Amazon, Google and YouTube, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat and Twitter to call for better protection of children online. The U.S. is joining the call, made in 2018, to improve security and better regulate cyberspace, Harris announced.

Harris also will represent the United States at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that country’s elections next month.

Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris to commemorate Armistice Day, while Harris observed the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

The event marked the 1918 agreement between Allied powers and Germany to end their fighting in World War I. A White House official said the ceremony was an opportunity to honor the French and American soldiers who died in the conflict.

It followed a Wednesday visit by Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris, where they took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in observance of Armistice Day and Thursday’s Veterans Day holiday in the United States.  The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains of nearly 1,600 Americans.

Harris is visiting France as part of an effort to improve soured relations between the longtime allies.  Both she and Macron described the opportunities for cooperation and the start of a “new era” as they spoke to reporters before meeting Wednesday at Elysee Palace.

“I look forward to the next few days where we’ll continue to work together and renew the focus that we’ve always had on our partnership and the benefit to the people of France and the people of the United States and the people of the world,” Harris said.

Symone Sanders, senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, said in a statement that Macron and Harris discussed cooperation on transatlantic security, space exploration and preparing for future pandemics.

Relations between France and the United States plunged in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.

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