Sweden is poised to become Europe’s first smoke-free country largely thanks to the popularity of snus, a kind of moist snuff which is placed under the upper lip.   

But some are worried the tobacco industry is peddling a “fairytale” that is too good to be true.    

Used by one in seven Swedes, snus has, according to the government, helped slash the number of smokers from 15% of the population in 2005 to 5.2% last year, a record low in Europe.  

A country is considered smoke-free when less than 5% of its population are daily smokers.     

Snus has been banned in the European Union since 1992. But Sweden negotiated an exemption when it joined the bloc three years later.   

At the Swedish Match factory in the western city of Gothenburg, thousands of doses of snus wend their way through a complex web of machinery producing the sachets.   

The company sold 277 million boxes of snus in Sweden and Norway in 2021.   

“We have used it for 200 years in Sweden. [It’s] part of the Swedish culture, just like many other European countries have their wine culture,” Swedish Match spokesman Patrik Hildingsson told AFP.   

Clad in a white lab coat, he described the manufacturing process.   

“Tobacco comes from India or the United States. It goes through this silo and is then packed inside the pouches like tea bags and then into these boxes.”    

There are two types: traditional brown snus, which contains tobacco, and white snus, which is made of synthetic nicotine and often flavored.   

Conquering the young

Traditional snus is mostly sold in Sweden, Norway and the U.S.   

White snus, introduced about 15 years ago, falls into a legal void in the EU since it doesn’t contain tobacco. It was banned this year in both Belgium and the Netherlands.   

But it is hugely popular with young people in Sweden, with its use quadrupling among women aged 16 to 29 in four years.   

Fifteen percent of people in Sweden say they use some form of snus daily, a figure that has risen slightly in recent years.   

At the same time, the country has seen a sharp drop in smokers even though cigarettes are less than half the price they are in Ireland.   

Just 5% of Swedes say they smoke regularly, according to 2022 data from the Public Health Agency, putting Sweden 27 years ahead of the EU’s 2050 smoke-free target.   

“It’s very positive,” Swedish Health Minister Jakob Forssmed told AFP.   

“A very important decision was the smoking ban in restaurants from 2005, and then at outdoor restaurants and public places in 2019,” he said.   

“Many Swedes also say that switching to snus helped them stop smoking.”   

The government has also backed the snus industry, hiking taxes recently on cigarettes by nine percent while cutting those on traditional snus by 20%.  

“With all these regulations it’s almost impossible to smoke. Snus doesn’t smell, and the nicotine rush is much stronger than with a cigarette,” said Thorbjorn Thoors, a 67-year-old window repairman who has used snus since his teens and quit smoking decades ago.   

Linked to cancer?

But the decision to lower taxes on snus does not sit well with Ulrika Arehed Kagstrom, head of the Swedish Cancer Society.   

“It came as a complete surprise and I was really disappointed,” she said.   

“It shows that they really completely bought the fairytale from the tobacco industry, [which is] trying to find a new market for these products and saying that these are harm reduction products.

“We don’t have enough research yet,” she insisted.   

“We know that snus and these kinds of nicotine products cause changes in your blood pressure and there is a risk of long-term cardiovascular disease.”   

Arehed Kagstrom fears that just like with smoking it will take years to show “to what extent these products were harmful.”   

A June 2023 study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health showed that the risk of throat and pancreatic cancer was three and two times greater, respectively, among frequent snus users.  

However, in 2017, a study in the International Journal of Cancer concluded there was no link between cancer and snus. 

 
…

November 6 is the International Day for the Prevention of Environmental Exploitation in War and Armed Conflict. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, the environmental damage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine totals roughly $56 billion, with destruction of the Kakhovka Dam as one of the worst disasters. Lesia Bakalets reports on how Ukrainian eco-activists and law enforcement gather information on eco-crimes. Videographer: Daniil Batushchak
…

Two climate change protesters were arrested Monday after they smashed a protective glass panel covering a famous Diego Velazquez oil painting at London’s National Gallery, police said Monday.

The two activists from the group Just Stop Oil targeted Velazquez’s “The Toilet of Venus,” also known as “The Rokeby Venus,” with small hammers. Photos showed the protective glass panel punctured with several holes.

Just Stop Oil, which has previously led similar protests targeting famous artworks and public buildings, said Monday’s action was to demand Britain’s government immediately halt all licensing for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the U.K.

The group said Monday that the two activists chose to target Velazquez’s 17th-century oil painting, one of the Spanish artist’s most celebrated masterpieces, because it was previously slashed as part of the suffragette movement calling for women’s rights in 1914.

Just Stop Oil said the protesters hammered the glass panel, then told people at the gallery: “Women did not get the vote by voting. It is time for deeds, not words.”

“Politics is failing us. It failed women in 1914 and it is failing us now,” they added.

Police said the two were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. The National Gallery said the painting has been removed from display so conservators can examine it.

“The pair appeared to strike ‘The Toilet of Venus’ (‘The Rokeby Venus’) by Velazquez with what appeared to be emergency rescue hammers. The room was cleared of visitors and police were called,” the museum said in a statement.

The room was reopened shortly afterward with another painting replacing the Velazquez where it was hung, the museum added.

“The Toilet of Venus” depicts a naked Venus, the goddess of love, reclining on a bed with her back facing the viewer, as her son Cupid holds a mirror up to her face.

The painting was targeted in 1914 by the suffragette Mary Richardson to protest the imprisonment of fellow women’s rights activist Emmeline Pankhurst. The painting suffered several slashes at the time but was subsequently repaired.

Police said officers also arrested dozens of other Just Stop Oil protesters Monday who were “slow marching” and obstructing traffic in central London’s Whitehall as part of their civil disobedience strategy.

Last year two activists threw two cans of tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” also at the National Gallery, to protest fossil fuel extraction. They did not damage the painting, which was covered with glass.

Part of a wave of youthful direct-action protest groups around the world, Just Stop Oil is backed by the U.S.-based Climate Emergency Fund, set up to support disruptive environmental protests.

Just Stop Oil activists have repeatedly staged multiple high-profile protests at the busiest highways and roads as well as sports tournaments.

In July, British authorities expanded police power allowing them to target activists who stop traffic and to move static protests. 
…

 The conflict in Gaza, rather than the war in Ukraine, dominated a fiery press conference in Pretoria following a meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor.

It was Kuleba’s first visit to South Africa, as he tries to shore up support for Kyiv on a continent where Moscow holds considerable influence. Pretoria has officially remained neutral on the Ukraine war, but critics, including U.S. officials, have accused the South African government of essentially siding with Moscow.

South African Foreign Minister Pandor expressed her desire to see a peaceful, negotiated end to the war in Europe.

“We’re deeply concerned, Minister, about the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine, the continuing loss of lives and the very, very worrying humanitarian situation,” she said.

While refraining from condemning Russia, Pandor repeatedly brought up Israel, saying at one point its response in Gaza was “one of collective punishment.”

The South African government position has always been pro-Palestinian, and on Monday an official in the presidency announced Pretoria was recalling its diplomats from Israel.

Pandor also said the government did not appreciate recent comments made by the Israeli ambassador to the country and took a swipe at U.S.

Ambassador Reuben Brigety – who earlier this year accused South Africa of providing arms to Russia, a claim that was never substantiated.

“The ambassador of Israel has been making a number of comments, almost akin to the statements that were made without proof by the United States ambassador a couple of months ago …” she said. “There seems to be a strange practice among some ambassadors in South Africa that they can just say what they like.”

She added that maybe that is because as an African country “they don’t respect us.”

For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba repeatedly used terms Pretoria avoids on the Russian-Ukraine war, referring to the “invasion” and “Russian aggression.”

He noted that as part of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine had supported South Africans’ struggle against apartheid, and stressed that Kyiv is trying to help African countries navigate food insecurity caused by the conflict in Europe.

Kuleba said discussions with Pandor had been positive and “opened a new chapter” in Ukrainian-South African relations.

He also expressed concern over the crisis in the Middle East.

Asked by reporters if the situation in Gaza was drawing the world’s attention away from Ukraine, he cautioned against comparing what is happening in Ukraine and what is happening in the Middle East, saying “people are people everywhere.”

Still, he said it was true that many daily tragedies in Ukraine have become “routine” for media.

“We in Ukraine find it extremely painful to see how the deaths of civilians, the deaths of children, and other mass destruction remains unnoticed,” Kuleba said, “but we understand that this is how the world acts.”

He said while the media’s attention may have shifted, he did not think that Ukraine was receiving less political attention.
…

Polish President Andrzej Duda will appoint a new prime minister in a national address on Monday, an aide said.

The announcement will trigger the process of forming a new government after general elections last month in which the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party lost its parliamentary majority to three allied opposition parties but emerged as the single biggest vote-getter. This has fed speculation over Duda’s choice.

“Following consultations and after deep consideration, President Andrzej Duda has taken his decision regarding the so-called first step” [in forming a government], presidential aide Marcin Mastalerek said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He said the decision is “final” and not subject to pleas from politicians, whom he advised to “calmly watch the evening address.”

An ally of the current government, Duda has said the two candidates for prime minister are the current conservative premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, and former prime minister and main opposition leader Donald Tusk, an ex-European Union top figure.

Under Poland’s constitution, the president “designates” the prime minister and tasks him with forming a Cabinet, which then needs approval from the parliament. Only then are the prime minister and government formally appointed. If not, the procedure is repeated with another prime minister.

Law and Justice will be far short of a majority in the new parliament and unable to pass its own laws. But its leaders insist it should be given a chance to continue to govern because it was the single biggest vote-getter. It will have 194 votes in the 460-member lower house but has no potential coalition partner.

Tusk represents the aggregated opposition majority that won 248 parliament seats, but he was the target of vicious government attacks in the electoral campaign.

Some commentators say that Duda may opt for a candidate who will offer the possibility of constructive cooperation in the nearly two years he still has left to serve.

Duda will convene the first session of the country’s newly elected parliament on Nov. 13.
…

Russia’s war on Ukraine is the driving force behind continued high inflation and a decline in social services in Russa, according to the latest intelligence report from Britain’s ministry of defense. 

Inflation rose to six percent in Russia in September, the ministry said Monday, driven by the rising cost of basic consumer items, like food and fuel. 

The report also found that inflation will likely impact government spending on social services, a move the ministry said “further illustrates the reorientation of Russia’s economy to fuel the war above all else.”

The high inflation rate will also likely influence borrowing costs for Russian consumers and “impact the Russian government’s debt service costs,” according to the ministry. 

On Sunday, the British Defense Ministry said that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are suffering from an “age-old battle against the elements.” 

The Sunday report said that soldiers at a military affairs conference in Moscow complained earlier this month about being “wet from head to toe” for weeks on the front lines and unable to light a fire for “a mug of tea” because that action risked alerting their positions to Ukrainian soldiers. The Russian soldiers also complained about eating monotonous food in pervasive mud. 

The soldiers’ discomfort, according to the report, is likely due to Russia’s inability to enforce basic field administration among its troops. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the U.S. for more funding for to fight off Russian aggression and invited former U.S. President Donald Trump to Kyiv to gauge the scale of the conflict for himself.

Zelenskyy said American soldiers could eventually be pulled into a greater European conflict with Russia if Washington did not increase support.

“If Russia kills all of us, they will attack NATO countries and you will send your sons and daughters [to fight],” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press show.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a supplemental spending bill last week providing $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, but adding nothing in aid for Ukraine, a large contrast to President Joe Biden’s $106 billion funding request with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine’s defenses and the remainder split among Israel, the Indo-Pacific and U.S.-Mexico border enforcement. 

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader of the Democratic-controlled Senate, said he would not bring the House bill to a vote and Biden has vowed to veto it.

In the interview airing Sunday, Zelenskyy invited former U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, to visit Ukraine and experience firsthand the fallout of the conflict initiated by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

Trump, who is seeking reelection in 2024 and is the leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, has been sharply critical of U.S. support for Kyiv and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if he were reelected.

“If he can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” Zelenskyy said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.”

Warfront 

Fierce fighting is ravaging east Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where entrenched Ukrainian soldiers told Reuters how Russian artillery has intensified significantly in recent weeks. 

“I don’t know where these shells are coming from, but they are flying in,” the crew’s commander said, he asked to remain anonymous, gesturing in the direction of several recent craters near his position.

Russia’s new strategic nuclear submarine, the Imperator Alexander III, has successfully tested a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.

The missile, which the Federation of American Scientists says is designed to carry up to six nuclear warheads, was launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia’s northern coast and hit a target thousands of kilometers away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, the defense ministry said.

“Firing a ballistic missile is the final element of state tests, after which a decision will be made to accept the cruiser into the navy,” a ministry statement said.

The Imperator Alexander III is a Borei class submarine armed with 16 Bulava missiles. The 12-meter (40-foot) missile has a range of about 8,000 km (5,000 miles).  

Russia aims to build a total of 10 to 12 Borei-class submarines to be divided between the Northern and Pacific fleets, according to the current plans disclosed by Russian media. 

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

Ukraine said Sunday it had opened a criminal investigation after a Russian missile strike killed multiple soldiers during what media reports said was an “award ceremony” near the frontline this week.

At least 20 soldiers were reported to have been killed in the attack, which local media said took place on Friday as a brigade gathered to receive awards in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.

“This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening address Sunday.

“A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy,” he added.

AFP was not able to immediately verify the circumstances of the strike or the number of people killed.

The Ukrainian army confirmed on Saturday that a number of soldiers from its 128th Mountain Assault Brigade had been killed in a missile strike the day before but did not provide casualty figures.

“(Russia) fired an Iskander-M missile at the personnel of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, killing the soldiers and causing injuries of varying severity to local residents,” the army said.

One Ukrainian soldier said on social media that 22 people from the brigade had been killed, criticizing commanders for having held the ceremony.

“Everyone is writing that ‘Heroes died.’ Although it is more appropriate to write ‘Heroes became victims,’ ” soldier Ivan Savytskyy said.

“They became victims of military rudimentary traditionalism in its worst form,” he said.

Russia said in a defense ministry briefing Saturday that it had inflicted a “fire defeat” on a Ukrainian assault unit in Zaporizhzhia and that up to 30 people had been killed.

Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region, where the assault brigade is based, will observe a three-day mourning period starting Monday, local governor Victor Mykyta said.

“Our heroes are alive as long as the memory of them and their deeds lives on,” he said Sunday.
…

A German citizen abducted in Dubai and sentenced to death by Iran is almost unable to walk and talk because of health conditions that prison authorities have failed to properly treat, his daughter told AFP.

Jamshid Sharmahd, who is also a U.S. resident, suffers from Parkinson’s disease and could die because of his deteriorating health, Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP after her father last week made a rare phone call from prison to the family.

Sharmahd, 68, was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and forcibly transferred to Iran in the summer of 2020, according to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Iran has only said he was detained in a “complex operation.”

He was put on trial in Iran and convicted of “corruption on Earth” and sentenced to death.

In the United States, Sharmahd helped develop a website for an exiled Iranian opposition group and hosted radio broadcasts. The family has denied claims made in Iran against him over a blast in 2008 in the southern city of Shiraz.

According to human rights group Amnesty International, he had been subjected to “enforced disappearance, torture and other ill treatment.”

Gazelle Sharmahd said: “My dad has advanced-stage Parkinson’s and delaying his medication makes it nearly impossible for him to talk, walk, move or even breathe.”

Speaking after he unexpectedly called her mother last week, Gazelle Sharmahd added: “His teeth have been broken under torture or through malnourishment. He cannot enunciate words or chew or eat properly.

“He has been in complete solitary confinement for over 1,185 days. That alone can drive you to insanity and take the last drop of energy out of your body,” Gazelle Sharmahd said. “He has severe chest pains as soon as he tries to walk in his tiny torture chamber. He said his feet are constantly swollen.”

The family doesn’t know where in Iran he is being held.

Cardiac risk

Gazelle Sharmahd, a critical care nurse who specializes in coronary care, warned that her father was in danger of suffering a heart attack.

“His life is at grave risk in the inhumane conditions under which they try to break him and, on top of that, he is still condemned to death after lawless sham trials and can be pulled out of his cell at any minute to be hanged.”

The family had already expressed dismay that Sharmahd, a U.S. resident, was not included in a September deal that saw five American citizens released from prison in Iran.

Another U.S. resident, Shahab Dalili, arrested in 2016 in Iran, is in a similar situation and remains behind bars.

Sharmahd, while born in Tehran, does not hold an Iranian passport; he is a German citizen and a California resident, according to his family.

Their families say that U.S. residents detained abroad such as Dalili and Sharmahd should be considered U.S. nationals under the 2020 Levinson Act, named after former FBI Agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 and whom the United States believes died in Iranian custody.  

Activists believe that even after the U.S. deal, around a dozen foreign nationals are still being held by Iran and have accused the Islamic republic of a deliberate strategy of hostage taking to extract concessions from the West.

Among those held is Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to death on espionage charges — which his family vehemently rejects. 
…

Nearly 32,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Canary Islands on fragile boats from West Africa this year, passing a previous record posted in 2006, regional authorities said Sunday. 

So far this year, 31,933 people have reached the islands, compared with the 2006 small boats crisis when 31,678 people made it to the Canary Islands, regional authorities told Reuters. 

Since Friday, 739 people have been rescued in the Atlantic Ocean off El Hierro, the smallest and most westerly island in the archipelago, the Spanish coast guard said. 

Two people were found dead in four boats and two other people died later in a hospital, said the Spanish Civil Guard on Saturday, which also took part in the rescue in which women and children were among those saved. 

Fernando Clavijo, the Canary Islands regional chief, said the figures showed the scale of the humanitarian crisis faced by the islands and called for more help from the Spanish government and the European Union. 

“The 2006 data have been surpassed but the response of the state and EU is not the same. Migration management on the southern border must be a priority on the Spanish and European agenda,” he posted on the X social media site Saturday. 

The number of arrivals has recently jumped as milder weather and calmer seas since September have made it more feasible to attempt the still-perilous crossing from Africa. 

The archipelago lies around 100 km off Africa’s west coast. Its seven islands have become the main destination for migrants from Senegal and other African countries trying to reach Spain, fleeing conflict or seeking a better life. 

The Spanish government said it would create additional emergency accommodation for some 3,000 migrants in military barracks, hotels and hostels.
…

The Russian military reported Sunday a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear warheads from a new nuclear submarine. 

The report comes as tensions are soaring between Russia and the West over the fighting in Ukraine. Adding to those tensions, President Vladimir Putin last week signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban in a move that Moscow said was needed to establish parity with the United States. 

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Imperator Alexander III strategic missile cruiser fired the Bulava missile from an underwater position in Russia’s northern White Sea and hit a target in the far-eastern region of Kamchatka. It wasn’t immediately clear from the statement when the test launch occurred. 

The Imperator Alexander III is one of the new Borei-class nuclear submarines that carry 16 Bulava missiles each and are intended to serve as the core naval component of the nation’s nuclear forces in the coming decades. According to the Defense Ministry, launching a ballistic missile is the final test for the vessel, after which a decision should be made on its induction into the fleet. 

The Russian navy has three Borei-class submarines in service, one more is currently finishing tests and three others are under construction, the Defense Ministry said. 
…

Turkish police used tear gas and water cannon as hundreds of people at a pro-Palestinian rally Sunday tried to storm an air base that houses U.S. troops, hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due in Ankara for talks on Gaza.

Turkey, which has stepped up its criticism of Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened, supports a two-state solution while hosting members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Since the Israel-Hamas war started, protests have erupted across the country.

Earlier this week, the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, an Islamist Turkish aid agency, organized a convoy to travel to the Incirlik air base in the Adana province in southern Turkey to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and U.S. support for Israel.

Incirlik, which has been used to support the international coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, also houses U.S. troops. IHH’s protest called for Incirlik to be closed.

Footage from the protests showed police firing tear gas and using water cannons to disperse crowds waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting slogans. Protesters toppled barricades and clashed with police in riot gear.

Protesters were also seen hurling plastic chairs, rocks, and other items at police, who fired smoke bombs at crowds. Scuffles broke out between the crowds and security forces.

IHH President Bulent Yildirim addressed the crowds in Adana and urged them to refrain from attacking police.

“Friends, it is wrong to throw rocks or do similar things because both the police and soldiers would want to go to Gaza and fight and they will go when the time comes,” he said.

“Our rage is huge. We cannot hold it in. But Turkey is doing what it can,” he added. IHH ended its rally earlier than planned due to the clashes with police.

The rally comes hours before Blinken is expected to arrive in Ankara Monday for talks on Gaza with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, and after repeated criticism by Ankara toward the West over support for Israel.
…

The hostage situation at Hamburg Airport ended Sunday afternoon, around 18 hours after a man drove his vehicle through the gates of the airport with his 4-year-old daughter inside, authorities said. The man was arrested and the girl appears to be unharmed.

Hamburg police tweeted that “the hostage situation is over. The suspect has left the car with his daughter. … The child appears to be unharmed.” 

Police also said that “the man was arrested by the emergency services without resistance.” 

The airport in the northern German city had been closed to passengers and flights canceled since Saturday night when the man, who was armed, broke through an airport gate with his vehicle and fired twice into the air with a weapon, according to German news agency dpa. The man drove the vehicle just outside a terminal building and parked it under a plane. 

Authorities said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a child abduction. 

Police said that the 35-year-old man had his 4-year-old daughter inside the car whom he had reportedly taken by force from the mother in a possible custody battle. 

A psychologist has been negotiating with the man for 18 hours. Nobody was injured during the standoff since all passengers had evacuated the airport, police said. 

The mother of the abducted girl also arrived at the airport on Sunday morning and was getting psychological support, German news agency dpa reported. 

A pediatrician also arrived at the airport to look after the girl once the hostage-taking is over, dpa reported. 

More than 100 flights were canceled and several planes were rerouted. Thousands of travelers have been affected by the standoff and hundreds were put up at hotels close by.
…

Pope Francis made an urgent plea for a halt to the conflict in Gaza on Sunday, calling for humanitarian aid and help for those injured in order to ease the “very grave” situation. 

“I keep thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel where many people have lost their life. I pray you to stop in the name of god, cease the fire,” he said, speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square after his weekly Angelus prayer. 

“I hope that all will be done to avoid the conflict from widening, that the injured will be rescued and aid will arrive to the population of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very grave,” he said. 

The pontiff renewed his calls for a ceasefire and for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, focusing on the children, who he said “must return to their families.” 

“Let’s think about the children, all the children involved in this war, like in Ukraine and in other conflicts, their future is being killed,” he added. 

Francis, 86, has already called for the creation of humanitarian corridors and has said a two-state solution was needed to put an end to the Israel-Hamas war. 

A Gaza health official said on Sunday more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage. 

The pope said that his prayers we also addressed to the Nepal earthquake victims, Afghan refugees and the victims in Italy’s floods. 
…

German police advised travelers on Sunday not to use Hamburg airport due to a developing hostage situation.

The airport in the northern part of the city has been closed to passengers and flights canceled since Saturday night when an armed man broke through an airport gate with his vehicle and fired twice into the air with a weapon, according to German news agency dpa.

Authorities also said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a child abduction.

Police said that the 35-year-old man had his 4-year-old daughter inside the car whom he had reportedly taken by force from the mother in a possible custody battle.

A psychologist has been negotiating with the man for hours and there was no indication other people could be harmed since all passengers had evacuated the airport, police said.

“We must currently assume that he is in possession of a live firearm and possibly also explosive devices of an unknown type,” police wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Our top priority is to protect the child. According to our current knowledge, the child is physically well,” they added.

Hundreds of people whose flights couldn’t depart on Saturday night because of the situation were put up at hotels close by. Arriving planes were either rerouted to other German airports or canceled.
…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday visited Kyiv, where she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The European Union is expected to make an announcement this week about Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling the necessary steps to begin EU membership negotiations, set for December.

“I must say you have made excellent progress. This is impressive to see,” von der Leyen said after meeting with Zelenskyy. “We should never forget you are fighting an existential war and at the same time you are deeply reforming your country,” she said.

Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday, “Ukraine has passed an enormous path – from a point where many didn’t believe in the possibility of our alignment with the European Union during a full-scale war to achieving the status of a candidate country at record speed and fulfilling the necessary prerequisites for opening negotiations.”

Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.

During a press conference with von der Leyen, Zelenskyy denied that the war had reached a stalemate and said Ukraine needs more help from its allies to strengthen its air defenses as it enters the 21st month of war.
…

A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia’s coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins.

Italy’s culture ministry said Saturday that the diver alerted authorities, who sent divers assigned to an art protection squad along with others from the ministry’s undersea archaeology department.

The coins dating from the first half of the fourth century were found in sea grass, not far from the northeast shore of the Mediterranean island. The ministry didn’t say exactly when the first diver caught a glimpse of something metallic just off shore, not far from the town of Arzachena.

Exactly how many coins have been retrieved hasn’t been determined yet, as they are being sorted. A ministry statement estimated that there are at least about 30,000 and possibly as many as 50,000, given their collective weight.

“All the coins were in an excellent and rare state of preservation,” the ministry said. The few coins that were damaged still had legible inscriptions, it said.

“The treasure found in the waters off Arzachena represent one of the most important coin discoveries,” in recent years, said Luigi La Rocca, a Sardinian archaeology department official.

La Rocca added in a statement that the find is “further evidence of the richness and importance of the archaeological heritage that the seabed of our seas, crossed by men and goods from the most ancient of epochs, still keep and preserve.”

Firefighter divers and border police divers were also involved in locating and retrieving the coins.

The coins were mainly found in a wide area of sand between the underwater seagrass and the beach, the ministry said. Given the location and shape of the seabed, there could be remains of ship wreckage nearby, the ministry said.
…

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests Saturday in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and castigate Israel after its military intensified its assault against Hamas.

In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city center, before marching to Trafalgar Square.

Protesters held “Freedom for Palestine” placards and chanted “cease-fire now” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.”

Police said they had made 29 arrests. One person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation.

Britain has supported Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel. Britain, along with United States and others in the West, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

Echoing Washington’s stance, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid into Gaza.

In Washington

Thousands of protesters marched down the streets of Washington waving Palestinian flags, some chanting “Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide,” before congregating at Freedom Plaza, steps away from the White House.

Speakers denounced President Joe Biden’s support of Israel, declaring “you have blood on your hands.” Some vowed not to support Biden’s bid for a second term in the White House next year as well as campaigns by other Democrats seeking office, calling them “two-faced” liberals who were “not a refuge from right wingers.”

Others lashed out at civil rights leaders for not condemning the killing of women and children by Israeli bombings.

Gaza health officials said Saturday that more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.

In Paris

In central Paris, thousands marched to call for a cease-fire with placards reading “Stop the cycle of violence” and “To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit.”

It was one of the first, big gatherings in support of Palestinians to be legally allowed in Paris since the Hamas attack on October 7.

French authorities had banned some previous pro-Palestinian gatherings over concerns about public disorder.

France will host an international humanitarian conference on Gaza on Thursday as it looks to coordinate aid for the enclave.

“We came here today to show the people of France’s solidarity with the Palestinian people and our support for peace, for a peace solution with two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state,” said Antoine Guerreiro, a 30 year old civil servant.

Wahid Barek, a 66-year-old retiree, lamented the deaths of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

“I deplore civilian deaths on both sides. Civilians have nothing to do with these actions. It really is shameful,” he said.

In Berlin, elsewhere

In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a cease-fire. One woman marched with her arm in the air, her hand covered in fake blood.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul and Ankara, a day before a visit to Turkey by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks on Gaza.

Turkey, which has sharply criticized Israel and Western countries as the humanitarian crisis has intensified in Gaza, supports a two-state solution and hosts members of Hamas. Ankara does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, unlike the United States, the European Union, and some Gulf states.

In Istanbul’s Sarachane park, protesters held banners saying “Blinken, the accomplice of the massacre, go away from Turkey,” with a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blinken together with a red “X” mark on it.

“Children are dying, babies are dying there, being bombed,” said 45-year-old teacher Gulsum Alpay.

Footage from Ankara showed protesters gathered near the U.S. Embassy, chanting slogans and holding posters which read: “Israel bombs hospitals, Biden pays for it.”
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Countries moved a step closer Saturday to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations and the United States.  

The deal to create a “loss and damage” fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations.  

But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay and where the fund will be located.  

A special U.N. committee tasked with implementing the fund met for a fifth time in Abu Dhabi this week — following a deadlock in Egypt last month — to finalize recommendations that will be put to governments when they meet for the annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in less than four weeks. The goal is to get the fund up and running by 2024.  

The committee, representing a geographically diverse group of countries, resolved to recommend the World Bank serve as trustee and host of the fund — a tension point that has fueled divisions between developed and developing nations. 

Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the U.S., would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund and result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries have argued. 

To get all countries on board, it was agreed the World Bank would serve as interim trustee and host of the fund for a four-year period. 

Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special climate envoy, said in a post on X that Berlin “stands ready to fulfill its responsibility — we’re actively working towards contributing to the new fund and assessing options for more structural sources of financing.” 

Others were less optimistic. 

“It is a somber day for climate justice, as rich countries turn their backs on vulnerable communities,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International.  

“Rich countries … have not only coerced developing nations into accepting the World Bank as the host of the Loss and Damage Fund but have also evaded their duty to lead in providing financial assistance to those communities and countries.” 

The committee also recommended that developed countries be urged to continue to provide support to the fund, but failed to resolve whether wealthy nations would be under strict financial obligation to chip in. 

“We regret that the text does not reflect consensus concerning the need for clarity on the voluntary nature of contributions,” a U.S. State Department official told Reuters. 

The U.S. attempted to include a footnote clarifying that any contributions to the fund would be voluntary, but the committee chair did not allow it. The U.S. objected to that denial. 

Sultan al-Jaber, who will preside over the COP28 talks, said he welcomed the committee’s recommendations and that they would pave the way for an agreement at COP28.  
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The protest movement that erupted in Iran last year has transformed the country both outside and inside prison, a French-Iranian academic, who returned to Paris last month after being held in the country since 2019, told AFP.  

Fariba Adelkhah was finally allowed to leave Iran in October after a four-and-a-half-year ordeal that began with her sudden arrest in 2019 and saw her spend years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. 

But there she was also able to witness the courage of her fellow women inmates, who included this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, amid the “Woman. Life. Freedom.” protests.   

Female political prisoners have often sung together in a show of defiance, Adelkhah, who was released from prison in February but remained unable to leave Iran for months, told AFP in an interview in Paris. 

That movement “has changed Iranian society and also its prisons,” said Adelkhah. 

The movement — calling for the end of Iran’s imposition of a headscarf on all women and clerical rule — was sparked by the death in Iranian custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s dress rules for women.  

Iranian security forces have cracked down on protests in the country, killing hundreds, according to rights groups, and have executed seven men in cases connected to the protests. 

Adelkhah said that in Evin the resistance movement brought together people from all walks of life — including rights activists, environmentalists, political opponents, and representatives of religious minorities. 

“We became united by this cause,” said the 64-year-old researcher in Iranian Shiite religion and politics.  

She herself was arrested on June 5, 2019, at Tehran’s airport, where she was waiting for her companion Roland Marchal. Neatly-dressed security agents “very respectfully” asked her to follow them, she said.  

Several hours later she was questioned for the first time, her head “facing the wall.” 

Psychological humiliation 

Adelkhah would be subjected to many other interrogations in the future, but she was never hit, Adelkhah said. 

“This happens very often to men, but I never heard women mention it when I was detained,” she said. 

“But the absence of physical violence does not prevent constant psychological humiliation,” she quickly added. 

Others, including rights activist Mohammadi, have spoken of the sexual abuse of detainees in prisons. 

The researcher was eventually sentenced to six years in prison. A five-year term was handed down for “colluding with foreigners” and one for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” she said. 

Marchal, a French sociologist specializing in sub-Saharan Africa, was arrested with Adelkhah. He was released in March 2020 as part of a prisoner exchange between Tehran and Paris. 

“I still don’t understand what I was accused of,” sighed Adelkhah, smiling. 

While in jail Adelkhah, along with another prisoner, Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, staged a hunger strike that lasted 50 days.  

They were among some two dozen Western passport holders held in Iran in what activists and some governments have termed a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking. 

Some have now been released, including all the American detainees, but around a dozen Europeans are still believed to be held, including four French nationals. 

Space of combat 

The “Woman. Life. Freedom.” protest movement has seen women prisoners defy prison authorities in Evin. 

In the jail, located in the hills of northern Tehran, female prisoners are bareheaded when they are among themselves, but required to cover themselves if a man enters or if they have to go to the hospital.  

After the start of the protests, “nearly no one wore the veil” when a man entered, said Adelkhah. 

On Wednesday, Iranian prison authorities blocked the jailed rights activist Mohammadi’s hospital transfer for urgently needed care over her refusal to wear the compulsory hijab, according to her family. 

Adelkhah praised the 51-year-old journalist and activist, seen as one of the women spearheading the uprising who has been repeatedly jailed and has been imprisoned again since 2021. 

She said Mohammadi has turned prison into “a space of combat, of protest par excellence,” adding that she was “more heard” in jail than when she outside. 

The researcher was still in Iran when Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in early October. She said she saw “smiles” in the streets. 

While the government quashed the daily protests with its repression, the slogan “Woman. Life. Freedom.” has become part of Iranian culture, she argued.  

“The Islamic Republic is forced to give ground over many things,” said Adelkhah. 

Today, like-minded Iranian women greet each other when they go out without their headscarves. Before it was “unthinkable,” said the researcher.  

Now they tell each other: “‘You are so beautiful!'” 
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv. Her Saturday visit takes place days before the European Union is set to announce Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling necessary steps to begin membership negotiations with the bloc.

Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

The membership process usually takes years, but Ukraine considers membership vital as it battles Russia’s invasion and wants to join as soon as possible.

The EU is set to announce Wednesday whether Ukraine can begin accession talks with the group, which would begin in December.

Grateful for U.S. sanctions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday he is grateful to the United States for “the new and very powerful sanctions” on more than 220 Russian “entities that work on aggression.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on more than 100 people and firms from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates who aid Russia in obtaining tools and equipment that are vital for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said every sanction “must work in full, so that there is no chance for Russia to circumvent sanctions.”

“The power of sanctions is the power of the world,” he said.

Two civilians killed in Russian shelling

Russian shelling killed two more civilians Thursday — an 81-year-old woman in her yard and a 60-year-old man — in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities, marking the latest deaths in Russia’s assault on the region.

Russian artillery that targeted Kherson-area villages killed the two civilians, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Four others were injured in the strikes, which also damaged buildings.

These two deaths come after one person died Wednesday in Russian shelling in the region’s capital, which is also called Kherson. Prokudin called it “an apocalyptic scene,” referring to damage caused by the assault.

Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly nine months of Russian occupation. The Kherson region is a strategic area in the war given its proximity to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is now where significant Russian war logistic operations are based.

Nuclear power plant

Meanwhile, Russia said Thursday Ukraine is “playing with fire” after Ukraine launched a drone attack near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station. The plant has been under Russian control since March 2022.

Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

“Kyiv is continuing to ‘play with fire’ and is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly warned about the risk of a nuclear accident at the plant.

Progress of the war

As Ukraine’s four-month counteroffensive slowly continues, Ukrainian commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhny said the two sides had reached a stalemate.

“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he told The Economist, adding, “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Moscow rejected that characterization of the war, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled.”

On the contrary, Ukraine claimed Friday that Russia’s latest assault in the Donbas town of Avdiivka was unsuccessful, saying of the fighting there that Russia’s “large-scale military assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defenses.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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A new, permanent addition to the sprawling National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a three-story complex with displays as daunting as a simulated Nazi concentration camp bunk room, and as inspiring as a violin pieced together from scrap wood by an American prisoner of war.

The Liberation Pavilion, which opened Friday, is ambitious in scope. Its exhibits filling 3,065.80 square meters commemorate the end of the war’s death and destruction, emphasize its human costs and capture the horror of those who discovered the aftermath of Nazi atrocities. Films, photos and recorded oral histories recount the joys and challenges awaiting those who returned from battle, the international effort to seek justice for those killed and tortured, and a worldwide effort to recover and rebuild.

Underlying it all is the idea that almost 80 years later, the war’s social and geopolitical legacies endure — from the acceleration of civil rights and women’s equality movements in the U.S. to the formation of international alliances to protect democracy.

“We live in a world created by World War II,” Rob Citino, the museum’s Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian. said when asked what he wants the pavilion’s visitors to remember.

It’s a grim tour at first. Visitors entering the complex pass a shimmering wall of military dog tags, each imprinted with the name of an American killed in action, a tribute to the more than 414,000 American war dead. The first centerpiece exhibit is a large crate used to ferry the coffin of an Army private home to his family in Ohio.

Steps away is a recreation of the secret rooms where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam. Then, a dimly lit room of wooden bunks and life-size projected images of the emaciated survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. Nearby is a simulated salt mine, its craggy walls lined with images of centuries-old paintings and crates of statuary — representing works of art plundered by the Germans and recovered after the war.

Amid the bleakness of the pavilion’s first floor are smaller and more hope-inspiring items, including a violin constructed by an American prisoner of war. Air Force 1st Lt. Clair Cline, a woodworker, used wood scavenged with the help of fellow prisoners to assemble the violin as a way of fighting the tedium of internment.

“He used bed slats and table legs. He scraped glue from the bottom of bits of furniture around the camp,” said Kimberly Guise, a senior curator at the museum.

The pavilion’s second floor focuses in part on what those who served faced upon returning home — “the responsibilities at home and abroad to defend freedom, advance human rights, protect democracy,” said Michael Bell, a retired Army colonel and the executive director of the museum’s Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Black veterans came back to a homeland still marred by segregation and even violence against people of color. Women had filled non-traditional roles at home and abroad. Pavilion exhibits make the case that their experiences energized efforts to achieve equality.

“Civil rights is the ’50s and women’s equality is more more like the ’60s,” Citino said. “But we think both of those seminal changes in American society can be traced back in a significant way to World War II.”

Other second-level exhibits include looks at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the post-war emergence of the United States as a world superpower and the formation of international alliances meant to sustain peace and guard against the emergence of other worldwide threats to freedom.

“We talk about NATO or the United Nations, but I don’t know that most people understand that these are creations, American-led creations, from the war,” said Bell. “What our goal is, at least I’d say my goal, is to give the visitor a frame of reference or a lens in which way they can look at things going on in the world.”

The third floor includes a multi-format theater with moving screens and a rotating audience platform featuring a production of images and oral histories that, in Bell’s words, “really lays out a theme about freedom under pressure and the triumph of the American-led freedom.”

Museum officials say the pavilion is the final permanent exhibit at the museum, which opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum — a project spearheaded by two University of New Orleans professors and historians, Gordon Mueller and the late author Stephen Ambrose.

It soon expanded to encompass all aspects of the Second World War — overseas and on the home front. It is now a major New Orleans tourist attraction and a downtown landmark near the Mississippi River, highlighted by its “Canopy of Peace,” a sleek, three-pointed expanse of steel and fiberglass held roughly 46 meters over the campus by towers of steel.

The Liberation Pavilion is the latest example of the museum’s work to maintain awareness of the war and its aftermath as the generation that lived through it dies off — and as the Baby Boom generation raised on its lore reaches old age.

“World War II is as close to the Civil War as it is to us. It’s a long time ago in human lives, and especially our media-drenched culture. A week seems like a year and 80 years seems like five centuries,” said Citino. “I think the museum realized a long time ago it has a responsibility to keep the memory of this war, the achievement of that generation alive. And that’s precisely what Liberation Pavilion’s going to be talking about.”
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Officials in Western Europe said Storm Ciaran killed at least 14 people over three days as it swept from the North Atlantic across Britain and northwestern France and into the North Sea, bringing with it record-breaking wind, heavy rain, high seas, hail and possibly a tornado.

The storm, named Ciaran by Britain’s meteorological agency, known as the Met Office, brought record-breaking wind to France, with 193-kph (120-mph) wind gusts reported in Brittany. The nation’s energy minister reported 1.2 million households lost power.

Officials in Italy’s Tuscany region declared a state of emergency with trees down and streets flooded. Nearly 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain was reported on the northwestern coast.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said six people had died in the storm, including an 85-year-old man who drowned on the ground floor of his house near Prato, north of Florence.

Media reports said falling trees, uprooted by strong winds, killed several people in France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

Britain’s Met Office reported the storm brought hailstones the size of tennis balls on the island of Jersey, where it also may have generated a tornado, rare for the region. The office said the storm set a record for the lowest barometric pressure recorded in the month of November. Meteorologists say, typically, that the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.

The storm receded in northern France and along the Atlantic coast Friday, with the main parts of Ciaran spinning over the North Sea.  But heavy rains continued in some regions.

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, Corsica faced unusually fierce winds Friday – up to 140 kph (87 mph) – and regions in the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, were under flood warnings.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
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The U.S. Department of Treasury on Friday sanctioned Ekaterina Zhdanova, an accused Russian money launderer who allegedly helped her country’s oligarchs move funds out of Moscow using cryptocurrency to evade Western sanctions.  

According to an official Treasury announcement, Zhdanova allegedly also helped ransomware groups and other “illicit actors” launder their gains.  

“We remain focused on safeguarding the U.S. and international financial system against those who seek to exploit this technology [cryptocurrency], among other illicit finance risks in the virtual assets ecosystem,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. 

Zhdanova has reportedly used cryptocurrency exchanges such as Garantex to shift large sums of money across borders. She also is accused of transporting cash physically, as well as using traditional businesses as fronts for her operation, including an international luxury watch business that was not identified by name in the Treasury’s announcement.  

Her main clientele are Russian elites living outside of the country. According to one allegation, a Russian oligarch based in the United Arab Emirates contacted Zhdanova to move more than $100 million; she did so by using physical cash and virtual currency.  

Once an account becomes based in a country that is not sanctioned, a Russian oligarch can transfer the money all over the world, undermining international restrictions that were imposed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The new sanctions placed on Zhdanova mean that she is now blocked from accessing any property of hers in the U.S., and banks and cryptocurrency exchanges that continue to do business with her will be exposed to sanctions themselves.  
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Ukrainian farmers say Russian drones have been targeting grain storehouses in central Ukraine in an attempt to harm the country’s infrastructure and economy. Anna Kosstutschenko has this story from Ukraine’s Odesa and Cherkasy Regions. VOA footage by Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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